THE GREAT DAY OF ATONEMENT

THE GREAT DAY OF ATONEMENT A great day in Israel was the tenth of the seventh month (our September). The people, who were early astir, might have been seen in multitudes crowding to the sanctuary, in obedience to the divine command, “Ye shall have on this day an holy convocation” (Numbers 29:7). All secular work was suspended: “It shall be a Sabbath of rest” (lit. Sabbath of Sabbaths) “unto you” (Leviticus 16:31). It was also a day of humiliation on account of the sins of the past year: “Ye shall afflict your souls” (Leviticus 16:29). National sin not only polluted the people, but also the beautiful sanctuary, and so defiled them and it as to render it necessary, in addition to all the sacrifices offered during the preceding twelve months, that they and it should this day be purged with atoning blood.

OFFERINGS PECULIAR TO THIS DAY

Besides the usual stated daily burnt offering, there was an additional one this day, consisting of one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs, with the accompanying meat and drink offerings (Numbers 29:7-8). The special offerings, however (Leviticus 16), were:—

First, A young bullock for a sin offering for Aaron and his house.

Second, Two goats for a sin offering for the people.

Third, A ram for a burnt offering for Aaron and his house.

Fourth, A ram for a burnt offering for the people.

Much is said about the sin offerings in Leviticus 16; little, however, about the other forms of sacrifice, and this is quite in keeping with the character of the day of atonement, for the former in a much higher degree than the latter had an expiatory character.

High Priest Officiating in White Robes Aaron having washed his whole body in water, and dressed (Leviticus 16:4), not in the high priest’s colored robes, but simply in the white linen garments, began the services peculiar to the day of annual atonement by presenting at the door of the tabernacle the bullock for himself and his house, and then the two goats for the people, upon which he cast lots—one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat. The goat upon which the lot fell for the Lord he again presented before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle. The first time it, along with the other, formed one united offering; the second time it was for a sin offering to be sacrificed in the usual way. This, however, was not to be the destiny of its fellow, for when again presented, it was as a live goat to be sent away alive as the scapegoat into the wilderness.

HIGH PRIEST IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES

Aaron, after slaying the bullock for himself and his house, entered the tabernacle, carrying in one hand a censer filled with burning coals of fire from off the brazen altar, and in the other sweet incense. The golden candlestick on the left, the shewbread table on the right, and the golden altar before him, were sacred yet familiar objects; but on this peculiarly solemn occasion, he was on his way to the holy of holies, where God in visible symbol was enthroned on the ark of the covenant. For the last twelve months no one, not even the high priest, had visited this innermost chamber of the Holy One of Israel. With the deepest reverence, Aaron lifted the veil, and immediately on entering placed the censer on the ground, dropping at the same time the incense on the fire, so that clouds of sweet odors at once arose and practically hid the shekinah; had this not occurred he might not have dared to look upon the symbol of the Divine presence. Leaving the incense burning, he retraced his steps to the court, and there receiving the blood of the slain bullock, returned to the throne room, and sprinkled it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward, and before the mercy seat with his finger seven times. The blood he sprinkled was an acknowledgment that, on account of the sins of the past year, he and his house were unclean and deserved death; but on the ground of that blood, cried for and obtained forgiveness and cleansing. The goat upon which the lot fell for the Lord, being the people’s sin offering, was now slain by Aaron, who, carrying its blood into the holy of holies, sprinkled it in the same manner as he had done that of the bullock; and as for himself in his previous entry, so now for them he asks and obtains forgiveness of the sins they had been guilty of during the past year. His reappearance in the court is the signal that all Israel is pardoned. THE TABERNACLE CLEANSED The tabernacle as well as the people required cleansing, for it was polluted by reason of the sins of those in whose midst it stood. The sprinkling of the blood upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat has sufficed for the cleansing of the most holy place, as well as for Aaron and the people. The holy place must likewise be cleansed. With the mingled blood of both sin- offerings, Aaron, approaching the golden altar (Leviticus 16:18; Exodus 30:10), rubbed the blood seven times; by this rite both the altar and the holy place were cleansed. The remainder of the blood was poured out at the foot of the brazen altar, constituting its cleansing and that of the court in which it stood, for almost all things are by the law purged with blood. For Aaron, ms house, the people, me holy of holies, the incense-altar, and the holy place, the altar of burnt offerings and the court, atonement has now been made—all these have been cleansed with blood. The people did not fear now that, on account of the sins of the past year, flashes of fire from the cloudy pillar would consume them, nor the plague destroy them, nor their Divine King depart from their midst. He will continue to dwell in the beautiful tabernacle as His palace temple, and suffer the people to approach and hold communion with Him through the medium of the high priest. THE SCAPEGOAT

After such significant rites, all pointing to the remission of sin and to the complete cleansing of the people, was anything further done on this great day in order to set forth the complete blotting out of sin? Yes, behold the scapegoat! On the great day of atonement, two goats formed one combined offering for the people. One was slain, and as we have already seen, its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat, in virtue of which the national sins of the past year were forgiven. The sins already atoned for were now put (symbolically) upon the head of the live or scapegoat, in order to give the Israelites a more vivid sense of how graciously and completely God had forgiven their sins. So laden, the goat was led by a fit man into the wilderness. This man led the goat down the court, out at the gate, through the streets formed by the tents of the thousands of Israel, and when beyond the encampment, into the wilderness, where it was lost. There it may have been torn to pieces by wild beasts, or may have died a slow agonizing death from hunger and thirst, or from some other cause. We are not told how or when it died, and it is not necessary we should be, for it was not its final doom that was intended to be portrayed in vivid color to the Israelites, but the great and comforting truth, that God this day had so completely forgiven His people, as to look upon them in their relation to Him as King of Israel as if they had never sinned at all. The sins that the goat bore away into the wilderness were for ever lost, so that they should never be remembered against the congregation. Their sins were removed to such a distance from Him that when “sought for they shall not be found.” The people did not see the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat; in the scapegoat, however, burdened with the nation’s sins, being sent away into the wilderness, they had a visible and striking symbol set before their wondering eyes of the complete forgiveness of their sins as a nation, by God. Their sins were for ever removed out of His sight.

Thus God for Christ’s sake completely forgives the sins of believers. He acts as if He both forgave and forgot. When the believer looks up into the smiling face of his Heavenly Father, he will never see there the slightest trace of the remembrance of past and forgiven sins flitting across the divine countenance; “as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” THE TWO GOATS—TWO FEATURES OF THE SAME PICTURE The goat that was sacrificed and the one that was sent into the wilderness are two features of the same picture. The blood of the slain goat sprinkled on the mercy seat, signified that pardon and cleansing were obtained through the shed blood of the innocent victim. The sins put upon the head of the live goat would have had no significance whatever, had the blood of the slain goat not already been sprinkled upon and before the mercy seat, for “without shedding of blood is no remission.” The two goats, in a sense, were one sacrifice, two halves of a whole. If life could have been restored to the dead goat, it would have been dispensed with.

While Aaron was engaged in the solemn work of annual atonement, he was dressed, as we have seen, in white garments only; having slain the sin offerings, and sprinkled their blood, as already described, he entered the holy place, and again washed his body in water (Leviticus 16:24), and arrayed himself in the golden robes (Leviticus 16:24), so that when he reappeared in the court he was resplendent in his shining and colored vestments. By the atonement made this day for Israel, the barriers standing in the way of their approach to God were removed, so that they might now approach Him through the medium of the high priest. The way of access being open, Aaron now offered the burnt offerings; the ram for himself, and the ram for the people. After this he burned the fat of his own and the people’s sin offering on the altar. THE ALTAR BEYOND THE ENCAMPMENT On the fire without the camp (see illustration, p. 138), the bodies of the animals slain as sin offerings for the high priest and the congregation were consumed, and not in the court altar fire, it being deemed too good or not sufficiently significant for the purpose. A high priest’s sins and a nation’s sins were considered more heinous in the sight of God than those of private individuals, and consequently a kind of reproach was associated with the bodies of the victims sacrificed for the high priest and for the people. And to emphasize this in a significant manner they were removed out of the court to the fire beyond the camp and burned on it (see illustration, p. 138).

SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE

Some aspects of Christ’s atoning death were thereby prefigured. Christ died for sins of deepest dye, and He died not for an individual, or for a few persons, not even for a nation. He died for the sins of the world; and hence in keeping with the type, He died not in Jerusalem, but without the walls. “Let us therefore,” as we read in Hebrews, “go unto Him without the gate, bearing His reproach.” “Without the gate” is equivalent to “without the camp,” so that type and antitype agree. A LAVER BEYOND THE ENCAMPMENT To impress the people that God was a holy God, and that sin was hateful in His sight, the man who led the goat into the wilderness, as well as the priests and the Levites who carried the bodies of the slain bullock and the goat to the fire without the camp, having thereby become ceremonially unclean, had to wash their hands at a vessel of water beyond the camp ere they returned to the court (see illustration, p. 138). THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE of this for us in now apparent. Who may now approach God acceptably and thereby enjoy the light of His countenance? “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, for ever.”

There was, as we have seen, an altar and a laver beyond the camp in order to emphasize the solemn truths taught on the great day of annual atonement (see illustration, p. 138).

CHRIST AND THE GREAT DAY OF ATONEMENT The whole of the rites of this day were typical of the atoning work of our Great High Priest. Aaron’s washing himself and putting on white raiment, and making atonement for his own sins before doing so for the people, shadowed forth the necessity of the perfect holiness of our Great High Priest. He “offered Himself without spot to God.” No one was in the tabernacle when Aaron officiated on the great day of annual atonement, and this circumstance points to Christ’s having the sole merit of atonement. He shares it with no one. He trod the wine-press alone. The high priest, as we have seen, after slaying the sin offerings, carried their blood into the most holy place, and there, amidst clouds of incense covering the golden throne, sprinkled it on the mercy seat, and interceded with God for Israel; the clouds of incense being his embodied prayer, and the sprinkled blood the ground on which forgiveness and all needed blessings were sought. So Christ, our great high priest, after dying for sinners on the cross, ascended up on high, and, parting the blue veil of the skies, entered the true holy of holies, carrying with Him, not the blood of bulls and goats, but His own; and there, where the incense of His all- prevailing intercession not only covers the mercy seat, but fills all heaven with its grateful odors, He ever liveth to plead its merits on behalf of His believing people.

Once in the circuit of a year,
With blood, but not his own,
Aaron within the veil appears
Before the golden throne. But Christ, by His own powerful blood,
Ascends above the skies,
And in the presence of our God
Shows His own sacrifice.

We have seen what the atonement made on this day effected for the Israelites. As far as pertaineth to the flesh they were cleansed; and their sins, as far at least as they deserved temporal punishment, were forgiven. Spiritual and eternal blessings, however, could only be obtained through the medium of a greater high priest and a greater sin offering—even through Christ. His blood—His alone—can sanctify to the cleansing of a guilty conscience, save from everlasting punishment, and bring sinners near to the Holy One of Israel. Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain. But Christ, the Lamb of God,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of richer blood
And nobler name then they.

Believing, we rejoice
To see the curse remove;
We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,
And sing His dying love.

Pious Hebrews, having faith in God and in the appointed means of grace, were partakers, not only of temporal benefits, but also of those spiritual and eternal blessings which Christ, by His atoning death—so vividly prefigured on the day of annual atonement—has secured for the whole household of faith. And we believe that many, if not all, of those who were Israelites indeed, had glimpses, more or less distinct, through the typical services of the great day of atonement of the coming Messiah. At the conclusion of the services Aaron blessed the congregation: our Great High Priest ever liveth to shower down blessings, great and without number, upon His people. The day of annual atonement was the greatest day in the Jewish year; great, however, as it was, it was but the shadow of greater days. The day on which Christ was born in Bethlehem and laid in the manger; the day on which He hung upon Calvary’s cross, and which heard His dying accents proclaiming to the ends of the earth, and to the end of time, redemption’s completed work, “it is finished;” the day on which He arose triumphant from the grave; and the day on which He ascended from Mount Olivet: these are the greatest days in the world’s history, perhaps in that of the universe. They stand out by themselves from all the days of the past, and, with the day of judgment, will do so from all the days of the future. The grand lesson to be learned from the subject we have been considering is that “without shedding of blood is no remission.” May we ever be seeking to have our consciences sprinkled with the precious blood of Christ, and we shall “Have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins,” access at all times to a throne of grace, enjoy the light of God’s countenance now, and hereafter dwell for ever in heaven His holy habitation.