The Great Day of Atonement
The Bible is a book that stands above all others, yet it still has the characteristics of any other work. Its Author is none other than God Himself. The purpose of it is to give Him glory. Its scope is eternal. It was written to and for mankind, and is applicable to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Its subject is the redemption of fallen man, and its plot chronicles man's fall from innocence to his glorification or damnation for eternity future. Its main character is Christ.
Hence we may conclude that Christ's work for the redemption of man to the glory of God is the paramount emphasis of the Scriptures. The writer of Hebrews references Psalm 40, applying it to Christ, saying "Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7). W.A. Criswell well stated that there is a scarlet thread running throughout the Bible, and indeed it is the binding that holds the very pages of the Scripture together. What is it? Christ's blood shed to redeem fallen man. It has been also well stated that you can cut the Bible anywhere and it will bleed. Christians, we do indeed possess and claim a "bloody book" and that blood that flows in its veins is the blood shed on Cavalry some two thousand years ago.
With this in mind, we now focus our attention to the seemingly dark and mysterious realm of the Mosaic Law. Here we find the work of Christ in type and symbol. These regulations and rituals had no power of finality in their work, for we find in Hebrews 10:4 that "...it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." The Law is, as Paul penned in Colossians 2:17, nothing more than a shadow of that which is to come. When the Holy Spirit illuminates the Levitical Law to our mind, we cannot but see that it all is a shadow in the form of a cross.
So let us now focus our attention on one day of which scribal minds placed such a value upon that it was simply called it Yoma,1 or the day. W.B. Riley said that it could be called the Great Day.2 So it is, for no other day approached this day's significance. On this day the High Priest made a blood atonement for the congregation of Israel. On this day sins were both covered beneath the blood and carried away into oblivion.
But what is this ritual a shadow of? Is it some meaningless series of events? Is there a lesson to be learned form it? Where can we see Christ in this? Let us take a closer look at the Great Day of Atonement as shown in Leviticus chapter sixteen.
We find in the first verse that the occasion of this instruction is the death of Nadab and Abihu, which is told in Leviticus 10. These two sons of Aaron, who "offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not" (Lev. 10:1), were consumed by fire from the Lord for their error. This Day of Atonement was in a sense the "explanation for the sudden death of these two men", that being the "utter holiness of God" and the "utter sinfulness of man"3. It is God laying out exactly how man is to approach God for the atonement of sin.
Next our eye catches the one who may enter into the Holy of Holies, Aaron (Lev. 16:2). No other priest, no other Jew, no other person save the High Priest could perform this task. Tradition states that the High Priest did all of the services of the Great Day, performing not only the Atonement Service but also the usual morning and evening services solo.4 He laid aside the usual garments of the High Priest, which are described in Exodus 28, and donned the simple, white linen dress of a normal priest (Lev. 16:4), thus being "unadorned but pure"5.
Now let us take a quick look at the offerings of this Great Day, which are: a bullock and a ram for the priest (Lev. 16:3), and two goats and a ram for the people (Lev. 16:5). The bullock is offered to atone for the sins of the high priest and the priesthood, thus enabling him and his house to make atonement for the people as ceremonially sinless and pure. The two goats form one sacrifice, and we will discuss these shortly. The bullock and the rams were sin offerings (see Lev. 4). The rams were burnt offerings (see Lev. 1) to be offered at the conclusion of the Atonement Service (Lev. 16:24).
Let us now focus on the two-fold offering of the goats. These two goats were presented before the Lord and the people (Lev. 16:7) and two lots are cast. The goat upon which falls the one with the inscription "la-Jehovah"6 becomes the goat that is slain for its blood to be sprinkled upon mercy seat. The other goat receives the lot inscribed "la-Azazel"7 and becomes the scapegoat, which is released at its proper time by the hand of a "fit man" (Lev. 16:21).
We have now seen the participants in this Day, so let us now quickly show and briefly comment on the chronological order of the events of the Atonement Service. First the priest washes and dons the linens clothes for this service and then presents the animals for the sacrifices. He offers the bullock at the brazen altar, and catches its blood in a basin, which he takes inside the Tabernacle. He then takes a censer full of coals from the altar of incense, places this inside the veil of the Holy of Holies, and casts a handful of incense thereon. (Lev. 16:12) He now takes the basin with the bullock's blood and sprinkles it upon and before the mercy seat. (Lev. 16:14) Thus atonement is made for himself and the priesthood.
He now exits the Tabernacle and slays the goat and sprinkles its blood in like manner as the bullock. Then mixing the remaining blood of these two beasts, he sprinkles the mixture of the two bloods upon the Altar of Incense to "cleanse it, and hallow it" (Lev. 16:19). His attention now comes upon the second of the goats. Upon this goat he confesses all the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of the nation of Israel. He now turns the goat over to the "fit man" who takes the goat and releases him into a "land not inhabited" (Lev. 16:22).
Now that the service is completed, the High Priest returns into the tabernacle and changes from the linen garments into his usual golden garb (Lev. 16:24). He now offers the rams as a burnt offering, and then burns the fat of the sin offerings upon the brazen altar (Lev. 16:25). The carcasses of the goat and the bullock are then carried outside the camp and burned completely (Lev. 16:27).
The chapter concludes with the Lord commanding that this Day should be "statute forever" (Lev. 16:29), to be ever observed on the tenth day of the seventh month, Tisri. It was not to be just a day of ritual, but also a day of personal affliction of one's own soul, of which is the "only day of mourning and fasting which God gave His people"8. So was this day to be ever kept by Israel.
We have now taken an all too short look at the day in the Old Testament, but now let us focus our attention some time farther into the future than then. Let us see our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:1), and His redemptive labor in this passage.
Fist we note that God Himself must make this atonement. No human initiative can create this atonement, as seen in the example of Nadab and Abihu. God is the party wronged and it is He that sets the method of appeasement. He has set the wage and payment: the shedding of blood through death.
We will take note that in the circle of the seasons that the Great Day of Atonement occurred once. We see that this single day was enough for the year, and not addition or repetition was needed. Since we know that "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4), this inadequate atonement merely "rolled" the sin over each year until full payment was made upon Cavalry.
Let us look now upon the High Priest of this Day. We first observe that it must be the High Priest that performed the service. No other priest may aid, assist, or take it upon himself to do this duty. So we see that none other could fulfill our need of Atonement than our Great High Priest, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (Hebrews 5:1-10). It is He and He only that could labor and save us. Spurgeon points out that Matthew Henry observed that had the disciples not fled upon His arrest and had died alongside their Lord instead of the two malefactors, then we may assume that through their work somehow is salvation also wrought. But He died between two thieves, hardly anyone we would remotely think possible or redemptive work.9
Second, He was a Holy, that is spotless and pure, High Priest. Aaron and his sons could only be ceremonially pure, for they themselves could never be perfect and sinless. So they must wash themselves and atone for their own sins through the sacrifice of the bullock. Our High Priest had no need of sacrifice (Hebrews 7:26-27). In fact, nowhere do we see any sacrifice made for him. The sacrifice of Luke 2:22-24 was for Mary, not for the Christ Child.
Next we note that He was a humbled priest. On the Day of Atonement, the High priest set aside his beautiful golden vesture for that simple white linen dress of a common priest. So it is with our High Priest. He laid aside His Glory to clothe Himself in common human flesh. In the magnificent Messianic chapter of Isaiah 53, verse three states that "he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." He left all the glory of the Angels, the praise of the Cherubim, and the honor of His throne to be born a babe in Bethlehem to redeem mankind.
But not only the High Priest on that Great Day pictures Christ, for Christ was both High Priest and Sacrifice for our sins. We have seen prior, though no explicitly stated, that the bullock holds no parallel in Christ's redemptive work. So let us now look upon the two-fold sacrifice of the goats, of which both picture the work of our Lord.
First let us look upon the goat that was slain. It was a spotless animal, free from any defect. "Completely innocent" is the verdict placed upon our Lord by Pilate. Though many tried to convince him of the contrary, Pilate could see no fault in the One before him. At last he presented the Lord to the people, which in the minds eye we see the presentation of the sacrifices before the congregation on the Great Day (Lev. 16:7). Hear his verdict: "I find no fault in him" (John 9:4,6). Pilate would yet yield to the frenzied mob instead of obeying his own judgment.
Next we see that the goat must die. We know that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), and indeed for blood to be shed death must come. Death must come, and blood must be shed to atone and to propitiate God (Hebrews 9:22). So it has been since the first Atonement, or the more literal "covering", made in Genesis 3:22. So Christ died in fulfillment of the law created from the Fall that through death life may come.
See our Saviour upon the cross. Mark well the agony open His face. Hear his shallow and panting breath. Focus upon those divine, miracle-working hands as they cringe in anguish. Watch as sweat from the exertion forms as His very lifeblood flows out upon the wood and ground. Is it vain? No! No! A thousand times NO! Is it meaningless? No! No! A thousand times NO! Friend, do not fail to catch a glimpse of the tear in His caring eye and the quiver of His lips. It appears as if He about to speak. Let us strain to catch his words: "IT IS FOR YOU THAT I DIE!"
But it is not just the death and suffering of our Lord. It is the blood. Aaron was not simply to kill the goat, but to catch the blood and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and altar. The blood of the sacrifice was the means of the atonement. Nowhere was the sacrifice simply killed, but the blood was always of great importance.
It was not in His death did our sins get atoned, but it was through the blood (Revelation 1:5). Our sins keep us from fellowship with God (Isaiah 64:6). And so through Christ's blood we have our sins are forgiven (Ephesians 1:7) and we are sanctified (Hebrews 13:12). Through His blood there is pardon for all who will receive the gift (Romans 6:23). Our works are not good enough (Isaiah 64:6), but Christ's work is finished and accepted by God (Hebrews 9), thus allowing us to be able to have an eternal relationship with God.
But what of the mysterious scapegoat? Can there be a picture of the work of Christ in this oft debated animal? It is confessed that many people hold differing views, and the author here is simply and humbly stating his opinion.
The main purpose of the scapegoat was the removal of sin. W. B. Riley stated that the slain goat was for the remittal of sin, while the scapegoat was for the removal of sins10. J. Vernon McGee defines the Hebrew term "Azazel" as "entire and complete removal" 11, MacLaren stated, the slain goat is the essence, while the scapegoat is the effect of the atonement.12
All blood sacrifices were in essence made to atone for sin (Leviticus 17:11). But as its definition states, atonement simply covers the sin. It does not remove sin, only "sweeps it under the rug" permanently. Christ bore our sins (Isaiah 53:11) so that they no longer remain. To whence did He bear them – not simply to a "land not inhabited" – but into the complete forgiveness of forgetfulness of God (Psalm 103:12).
Here we have seen the resolution to the dilemma of the Redemption of Mankind. Christ came and through His shed blood we are as good as perfect in the sight of God the Father. We see that the entire ritual upon that Great Day of Atonement simply looked forward to the Great Day of Atonement on Cavalry's Hill when sin would finally be totally defeated and its power and penalty made of none affect to those who put their faith in Christ.
In conclusion, the author wishes to express his longing for more time to further delve into the subjects here covered. A treasure cache has been discovered on this subject, and a supply of which we have merely taken a glimpse into. So much information has been sacrificed for lack of time and space to properly expound upon it. Perhaps, if the Lord permits and enables, a larger work on this subject may one day be available.
1 W.B. Riley, The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist. (Cleveland: Union Gospel Press, 1926), 3:51.
2 Ibid. 51.
3 J. Vernon McGee, Thru The Bible. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1981), 1:397.
4 Alfred Edersheim, The Temple. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963), 308.
5 McGee, Thru the Bible, 399.
6 Edersheim, The Temple, 311.
7 Ibid. 311.
8 McGee, Thru the Bible, 402.
9 Charles H. Spurgeon, "The Day of Atonement," sermon preached at New Park Street Chapel, 10 August 1856, Southwark, England.
10 Riley, Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist, 63.
11 McGee, Thru the Bible, 399.
12 Alexander MacLaren, Exposition of holy Scripture. (New York: George H. Doran Co., n.d.), 2:251.
