CHAPTER 16

(1490 B.C.)

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT

¹And the LORD spoke unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died (mention is made here again of the two sons of Aaron who were stricken dead by the Lord because of their offering up of strange fire, and done so in order that Aaron might understand the total and complete seriousness of these rituals. If it is to be noticed, there is a voluminous amount of repetition in all of these instructions given to Moses by the Lord. Regarding this, Seiss says: The success of the pulpit, and the benefit of our weekly attentions upon the Sanctuary, depend much more upon the continuous reiteration of the same great Truths of the Gospel, than upon any power of invention in the Preacher. It is not so much the presentation of new thoughts and brilliant originalities that converts men and builds them up in Holiness, as the clear and constant exhibition of the plain doctrines of Grace);

²And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron your brother, that he come not at all times into the Holy Place within the Veil before the Mercy Seat, which is upon the Ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the Mercy Seat. (This is one of the most important Chapters in the Bible. It deals with the Great Day of Atonement. The Lord is saying here to Aaron that even though he is the Great High Priest, still, he is not to come into the Holy of Holies any other time, except on the one day each year of Atonement. To do so meant that he would die. All of this foreshadows the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world [Jn. 1:29].)

³Thus shall Aaron come into the Holy Place (the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was): with a young bullock for a Sin Offering, and a ram for a Burnt Offering. (The phrase, Come into the Holy Place, would have been better translated, within the Veil. These two Offerings were not for Israel, but rather for Aaron himself. He was ever reminded that even though he was the Great High Priest chosen of God, and chosen to stand between God and Israel, still, he was but a sinner and, thereby, had to offer up Sacrifice the same as the most ungodly in Israel.)

⁴He shall put on the holy linen coat (representing the Righteousness of Christ; he was to divest himself of his garments of glory and beauty, meaning that Jesus did not redeem us by His Glory, but rather by His Righteousness; he was the Perfect, Righteous Sacrifice; therefore, He was accepted by God), and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments (linen in the Old Testament represented Righteousness [Rev. 19:14]); therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on (he must be personally and characteristically pure and spotless).

⁵And he shall take of the congregation of the Children of Israel two kids of the goats for a Sin Offering, and one ram for a Burnt Offering (these Offerings were for Israel).

⁶And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the Sin Offering, which is for himself, and make an Atonement for himself, and for his house (he had to offer these Sacrifices for himself, before he could offer Sacrifices for Israel).

⁷And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation (according to tradition, the two goats were to be the same in size, color, and value, and as nearly alike as possible).

⁸And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat (one goat would be offered in Sacrifice, and the other would be sent alive into the wilderness, and called the goat of departure).

⁹And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORDs lot fell, and offer him for a Sin Offering (the two goats represented and completed one Atonement for sin; the goat that died typified the Death of Christ, which addressed the root cause of sin; the scapegoat represented all acts of sin removed and taken away).

¹⁰But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an Atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness (when the goat was led into the wilderness, Atonement was complete; the sins transferred figuratively on the goat were already atoned for, and blood was sprinkled before the Lord; both animals represented one Sin Offering).

THE SIN OFFERING FOR THE HIGH PRIEST AND HIS FAMILY

¹¹And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the Sin Offering, which is for himself, and shall make an Atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the Sin Offering which is for himself:

¹²And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the Altar (the Brazen Altar) before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the Veil (fire from the Brazen Altar, typifying Christ and the Cross, was the only fire acceptable; any other fire was strange fire, and would bring death):

¹³And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the Mercy Seat that is upon the Testimony, that he die not (the incense was made of the particular spices of Stacte, Onycha, Galbanum, with pure Frankincense [Ex. 30:34]. Holding the censer containing the coals of fire from the Brazen Altar in one hand, and the container with the Incense in the other hand, the High Priest went through the Veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, and advanced to the Ark of the Covenant, where he deposited the censer between its two staves.

The High Priest now poured the crushed spices upon the coals in the censer, and stayed there until the whole place was filled with a cloud of smoke, taking special care that the Mercy Seat and the Cherubim should be enveloped in the cloud. If this wasnt done properly, he could be stricken dead. The Incense typified the Intercession of Christ, which He has offered on behalf of all Saints, from the time of the Cross):

¹⁴And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the Mercy Seat eastward (the solemn ritual of the Great Day of Atonement declared that entrance into the Presence of God was barred to the sinner, and that the blood of bulls and goats could not rend the Veil that shut men out from God.

It further declared that atoning blood was the basis for entrance to Gods Throne; hence, the nearer the worshipper approached to that Throne, the greater was the value attached to the Blood shed at the Brazen Altar. In fact, the entire way from the Brazen Altar by the Brazen Laver, the Golden Altar, and the Veil, and up to the Throne, represented by the Ark of the Covenant, was a blood-sprinkled way.

Standing before the Ark of the Covenant, in the midst of the cloud furnished by the Incense upon the coals of fire, he would dip his finger in the blood of the slain bullock, and sprinkle it upon the Mercy Seat); and before the Mercy Seat shall he sprinkle of the Blood with his finger seven times (sprinkled seven times on the Mercy Seat signified that the Redemption afforded by Christ would be a perfect Redemption).

THE SIN OFFERING FOR THE PEOPLE

¹⁵Then shall he kill the goat of the Sin Offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the Veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the Mercy Seat, and before the Mercy Seat (Aaron will now enter the Holy of Holies for the third time; the first time he offered Incense, and the second time he offered the blood of the bullock for himself and his family; this time he will enter in regard to Israel as a whole; we learn from this, by the entrance of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies, that Atonement could only be effected before the Throne of Jehovah; as well, only the Blood of Christ, typified by these particular Sacrifices, could make that Atonement):

¹⁶And he shall make an Atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the Children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the Tabernacle of the congregation, that remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness (even though these were Gods chosen people, they still needed Atonement; as well, only the Blood of Christ, typified by these particular Sacrifices, could make that Atonement; so this means, as ought to be obvious, that any other proposed way of Salvation, any other proposed means of Salvation, in fact, anything instituted by man, will instantly be unacceptable to God; only the Blood of Jesus Christ, Gods Son, can cleanse from all sin [I Jn. 1:7]).

¹⁷And there shall be no man in the Tabernacle of the congregation when he goes in to make an Atonement in the Holy Place, until he come out, and have made an Atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel. (When the High Priest atoned for the Holy Place, no man was to be present other than himself. This nullifies all the arguments and practices of pretentious Priesthoods that make claims of direct representation as mediators between God and the people, while Christ is in the Heavenly Tabernacle, as now, carrying on His Priestly Work [Heb. 4:14-16; 5:1-14]. Christ is the only Mediator between God and men [I Tim. 2:4-6; Heb. 9:24].)

¹⁸And he shall go out unto the Altar that is before the LORD (the Altar of Incense, which sat immediately in front of the Veil in the Holy Place), and make an Atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the Altar round about (horns in the Bible signify dominion or rulership; the idea is, by the blood being applied to these horns, which spoke of what Christ would do for us at the Cross, the fact that the horns pointed in all four directions of the compass signifies that we can have, and, in fact, are meant to have, total and complete dominion over all works of the flesh; we are told how to do this in the Sixth Chapter of Romans).

¹⁹And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the Children of Israel (the blood sprinkled seven times signifies a total dominion; in other words, what Christ did for us at the Cross, if we follow Gods Prescribed Order, no sin will have dominion over us, but only if we follow His Order [Rom. 6:14]).

THE SCAPEGOAT

²⁰And when he has made an end of reconciling the Holy Place, and the Tabernacle of the congregation, and the Altar, he shall bring the live goat:

²¹And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat (inasmuch as the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins [Heb. 10:4], the conscience of the people of Israel was not eased; there was still a nagging knowledge, so to speak, that the sins remained [Heb. 9:9]; this being the case, something else was needed, something visible, which could portray their sins being removed; that which filled this void was the scapegoat), and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness (this fit man was one who had been appointed for the occasion):

²²And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. (As stated, this goat was actually labeled the goat of departure, which referred to the sins of the people departing from them, which, in a sense, gave them a visible sign that their sins were now atoned. Concerning this, Keil says: The reason for making use of two animals is to be found purely in the physical impossibility of combining all features that had to be set forth in the Sin Offering in one animal.)

²³And Aaron shall come into the Tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the Holy Place, and shall leave them there (the work of Atonement now finished, Aaron could once again put on his garments of glory and beauty):

²⁴And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his Burnt Offering, and the Burnt Offering of the people, and make an Atonement for himself, and for the people. (The Sin Offerings now presented, which means that sin is atoned, the Burnt Offerings can now be offered, which will be two rams, one for himself, and one for the people. The Sin Offering proclaimed the sins of Israel being taken by Christ, so now the Burnt Offerings can be engaged, which means that the Perfection of Christ can be given to Aaron and the people.)

²⁵And the fat of the Sin Offering shall he burn upon the Altar (the fat was always burned on the Altar, regardless of the type of Offering, typifying the prosperity of Christ given to those who would accept Him as Lord and Redeemer; a sickly animal had very little, if any, fat, while a healthy animal, as would be obvious, would have fat surrounding the various internal organs).

²⁶And he who let go the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp (we derive from this the fact of the defilement of sin; any contact with the scapegoat, because it was bearing the sins of Israel, defiled the one making the contact).

²⁷And the bullock for the Sin Offering, and the goat for the Sin Offering, whose blood was brought in to make Atonement in the Holy Place, shall one carry forth without the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung (the majority of the Sin Offering was eaten by the Priests [10:17-18], signifying the taking of Christ in totality, which is done by expressing faith in Him and what He did at the Cross [Jn. 6:53-56]; while the fat was burned on the Altar, the residue, such as the skin, etc., was taken outside the camp and burned, signifying that Christ, as the Sin Offering, died outside the camp [Heb. 13:11-12]; as well, the residue reduced to ashes signified that our sins are no more).

²⁸And he who burns them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp (the one who burned the skins of the animals, etc.).

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT

²⁹And this shall be a Statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger who sojourns among you (the Great Day of Atonement was the only fast day a year for Israel; the purpose of the abstinence from food and labor was to bring the soul of each individual into harmony with the solemn rites of purification publicly performed, not by themselves, but by the High Priest):

³⁰For on that day shall the Priest make an Atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.

³¹It shall be a Sabbath day of rest unto you, and you shall afflict your souls, by a Statute for ever (the Great Day of Atonement was observed more or less until the Babylonian captivity, and afterward in their restoration until the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70).

³²And the Priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the Priests office in his fathers stead, shall make the Atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments (the idea of this Verse pertains to the succession of High Priests who would follow down through the centuries):

³³And he shall make an Atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make an Atonement for the Tabernacle of the congregation, and for the Altar, and he shall make an Atonement for the Priests, and for all the people of the congregation. (All the High Priests who would follow Aaron were to perform the service of expiation of sin, as detailed in this Chapter.)

³⁴And this shall be an everlasting Statute unto you, to make an Atonement for the Children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he (Aaron) did as the LORD commanded Moses. (The Everlasting Statute lasted as long as the Earthly Jerusalem lasted, and until the Heavenly Jerusalem, so to speak, was instituted, when it had a spiritual fulfillment once for all. In other words, Jesus Christ, by His Life and living, and, above all, by the Sacrificial, Atoning Sacrifice of Himself, fulfilled all of the Law of Moses. In fact, Christ was, one might say, The Great Day of Atonement, referring to an enlightened day that will never end, and a darkness which has been dispelled forever.)