By Himself
Several key features of the Day of Atonement can be summarized as follows.
1. The title the Day of Atonement occurs only in Leviticus 23:27-28, as part of a section which stresses the responsibilities of the people in general. The detailed regulations which the high priest were to follow on the Day of Atonement are set out in chapter 16.
2. Although the Day of Atonement ranks as probably the most important and holy of Israel’s festivals, it is far from being a feast in the normal sense of the word. On this day, the people were to afflict their souls (Lev. 16:29, 31; 23:27, 32), an expression indicating that they were to humble themselves by fasting and other penitential exercises. For this reason, the Day of Atonement is described in the New Testament as “the Fast” (Acts 27:9). It was the only day of national humiliation commanded by God in the Law of Moses.
3. The many offerings on the Day of Atonement1 achieved a double purpose. First, they served to make atonement for God’s physical dwelling-place among His people, thereby cleansing it from the people’s “uncleanness,” “transgressions,” and “all their sins” (vv. 16, 19), which had contaminated it. The offerings made atonement for the following:
• the holiest of all (the holy place inside the veil, Lev. 16:2; Heb. 9:3)
• the tabernacle of meeting (the holy place outside the veil)
• the brazen altar in the outer court (Lev. 16:16-20, 33).
These offerings were necessary if the Holy One Himself were to continue to dwell among His people as He desired to do (Ex. 25:8).
Second, the offerings served to make atonement for both the sins of the priesthood (Lev. 16:6, 11) and the sins of the people (v. 30). By them, all of the people’s sins were covered for another year (v. 34).
These two aspects of the Day of Atonement are distinguished partly in that, as far as God’s dwelling was concerned, the various ceremonies of the Day of Atonement had in view dealing with the people’s uncleanness, transgressions, and sins (vv. 16, 19); and, as far as the people themselves were concerned, the ceremonies had in view removing their iniquities, transgressions, and all their sins (vv. 20-21).
4. The Day of Atonement is listed chronologically as sixth among the seven great Jewish festivals (Lev. 23:4-43, where the Day of Atonement lies sandwiched between the other two festivals kept during the seventh month: the Blowing of Trumpets2 and the Feast of Tabernacles). This suggests strongly that, in terms of God’s prophetic program, it looks to that time when, following our Lord’s second advent, the nation of Israel will mourn in repentance and self-affliction (Zech. 12:10-13:1; cf. Isa. 53:3-6).
A better day
The Day of Atonement has been termed the Good Friday of the Old Testament. But, in fact, there is more of contrast than of comparison between the work performed by Israel’s high priest that day and the work performed by our Lord Jesus at Golgotha. Let us trace just a few of the contrasts drawn between the picture and the reality—between the shadow and the substance, between the type and the antitype—in the epistle to the Hebrews, the divinely inspired commentary on Leviticus 16.
1. Where? Having sacrificed sin offerings and burnt offerings at the brazen altar, Aaron passed through the court of the tabernacle, through the first veil, through the holy place, through the second veil, into the holiest of all (Heb. 9:3) to sprinkle blood both on and before the mercy seat. Whereas Jesus, our great high priest, has “passed through the heavens” (Heb. 4:14) to enter that “greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation” (Heb. 9:11). “Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands…but into heaven itself…in the presence of God” (Heb. 9:24).
2. When? Aaron made “atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year” (Lev. 16:34; cf. Heb. 9:7, 25). But our Lord Jesus “entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12), for He “was offered once to bear the sins of many” (v. 28).
3. Who? Aaron entered the most holy place “with blood not his own” (Heb. 9:25, jnd) but with “the blood of bulls and goats” (Heb. 10:4). How different it was with our Lord Jesus: “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the most holy place” (v. 12). Aaron shed the blood of unsuspecting animals, but our Lord Jesus was a willing victim (Heb. 9:14; 10:5-10). Aaron was, like us, a sinner and so needed to offer a sin offering for himself as well as for others (Heb. 9:7). But our Lord Jesus was utterly without sin (Heb. 4:15) and “did not need…to offer up sacrifices…for His own sins” (Heb. 7:27).
4. Who? Aaron brought with him into God’s presence. In a word, nobody! “Into the second part the high priest went alone once a year” (Heb. 9:7). He dared not lead others there. But our Lord Jesus has opened up for us “a new and living way” so that we may enter “the holiest by [i.e. through] the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19-20). What a joy to think that we enter the same place and by the same route as our Lord Jesus Himself!
5. What was accomplished? The animal blood shed by Aaron sufficed to make the worshipper externally and ceremonially clean, but the blood of Jesus cleanses the conscience of the worshipper (Heb. 9:13-14). The repeated sacrifices of the annual Day of Atonement proved that, in the sight of God, it was not possible for the blood of the sacrificial victims to take away sins (Heb 10:4). They could never do that (v. 11), and never is a long time. There was no triumphant cry of “It is finished!” on the Day of Atonement!
But, if in the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement there was “a remembrance again made of sins every year” (Heb. 10:3), our Lord’s death dealt with sins finally and conclusively. As a result, under the terms of the New Covenant, God now says, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:17).
endnotes
1 In Leviticus 16, mention is made of two sin offerings, one for the priests (Lev. 16:3, 6, 11) and one for the people (v. 5), where it seems that the two kids of the goats were regarded as forming only one sin offering; and two burnt offerings, again one for the priests and one for the people. All four offerings are said to make atonement (vv. 6, 11, 24, 27). But it seems that at least sixteen beasts were slaughtered at different times during the day. Two lambs were slain, one in the morning, and the other in the evening. These were a perpetual ordinance (Ex. 29:38-42; Num. 28:3-6). And then, besides the offerings referred to in Leviticus 16, the book of Numbers lists an additional ten offerings (Num. 29:7-11).
2 The festival of Blowing of Trumpets points ahead to the coming again of the Son of Man and to the future awakening and regathering of Israel (see Isa. 27:12-13; Mt. 24:30-31).