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The Day of Atonement

The tenth day of the seventh month of Israel’s calendar marked a day unlike any other (see Leviticus 16).  To the spiritually minded in Israel it was a day to be prepared for and longed for.It was a day of approach to God; indeed more closely than any other day of the year.  It was the day the high priest and his family, the tabernacle itself, and the congregation were cleansed.  It was the day that the high priest made atonement for the people of Israel.  It was a day of great danger for the high priest, entering, as he did, into the holy of holies.  It was a rite full of meaning for the children of Israel.  It spoke of God’s desire to commune with His people. It spoke of God’s mercy and grace in making a way for Israel to approach God.  It has great meaning for Christians as we consider that which is equivalent to the Day of Atonement in the New Covenant.

To approach God the high priest had to be clean, both physically and ceremonially.  He works alone on this day, so he brings what he needs with him.  He enters tabernacle court with a bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.  I imagine that he secures them in some way and then proceeds to dress for the proceedings.  He doesn’t wear his usual beautiful clothing but wears clothes that are similar to the priests garments in plainness but prepared for that special occasion.  He washes his body and then dresses.  Then he receives of the congregation two kids of the goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.  With those secure he proceeds to make an atonement for himself and for his house, that is, the priesthood.  He kills and offers the sin offering for himself and his house. He takes a bowl of the blood and censer with coals from the altar and the incense that God had formulated and brings it within the veil. He is now within the holy of holies.  The cloud from the incense must cover the mercy seat while he is in there, otherwise he will die.  Then he sprinkles the blood in the bowl on the east side of the mercy seat seven times.  Atonement has been made for the priest and his house.  Only now is he qualified to make atonement for the people.

At this point he takes the first kid and offers it for a sin offering for the people.  He brings a bowl of the blood into the holy of holies as he did before.  The text doesn’t say but we can infer that he took the censer back in as well because the danger was still there.  He sprinkles the blood on the mercy seat as he did before.  This is to make atonement for the holy place, “because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins.”  He then makes atonement for the altar by putting the blood of both the bullock and the kid on the horns of the altar and by sprinkling the blood upon it seven times.

At this point the high priest has made atonement for himself and the priesthood, for the tabernacle and for the altar.  These are sanctified once more so that the people can approach God.

The second goat is then employed.  The high priest then lays both hands upon it and confesses over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel.  I would imagine this took awhile.  The laying on of hands indicated association.  So the sins of the people were now associated with the live goat.  That goat was then lead by a man into the wilderness and let go.  Since this was a kid it is presumed that it was left to die by starvation or by predation.  The sins of the people were then taken away.

The high priest is not yet finished.  He washes and changes his clothes; he now puts on his regular, beautiful high priestly garments.  He now offers his burnt offering and the burnt offering for the people.

Then comes the cleanup.  The man who led the scapegoat must wash his clothes and his flesh before he comes into the camp and the corpses of the sin offerings must be burned outside the camp.  Then the man who cleans up the sin offering corpses must wash his clothes and flesh before he returns to the camp.

Now the people can come and offer their offerings to God.  All has been purified.  We should ask, “Why don’t we have to do this now to approach God?”  The answer is in the cross of Christ where He died and shed His blood (John 19:34).  He was the “lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

The priesthood no longer needs cleansing.  There is a new priesthood; after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:6; 5:10; 6:20, etc.). The high priest has never committed sin and so needs no sacrifice (Hebrews 4:15).  The tabernacle has been cleansed by the blood of a perfect sacrifice (Acts 20:28); one that is finally adequate for the job of cleansing once for all (Hebrews 10:10).  When Jesus died His blood was carried into the most holy place (Hebrews 9:12) and access was granted for all who are associated with the sacrifice (Matthew 26:28; Acts 2:38).