Lesson #17

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Leviticus

September 21, 2015

Introduction

May 13, 2010

Leviticus Lesson #02

May 13, 2010

RETURN TO THE LIST OF LESSONS

LEVITICUS 16
LESSON #17
THE ATONEMENT

• Memory Verse: Rom 5:11

 

• To this point in Leviticus we have dealt with all of the offerings, a holy priesthood, and God’s view of sin. We have climbed the difficult mountain of detail, sometimes unpleasant, as we have seen man as he really is.
• Now we come to the top of the mountain to examine a very important doctrine in the Old Testament and the New Testament. That doctrine is atonement.

• On the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur in the Hebrew calendar), sin was dealt with more completely than through any other ritual of the Old Testament. This event occurred once a year.
• As New Testament believers in Jesus Christ, we need to understand this doctrine more fully:
  • …to understand the relationship between God, the Father, and Jesus, the Son.
  • …because it is a perfect shadow of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. (Col 2:16-17)
• Background:

• The Day of Atonement has its roots in the rebellion of Nadab and Abihu.
  • Read Lev 10:1-2
  • These two sons of Aaron were not supposed to go into the Holy of Holies. Only the High Priest was permitted to go there. In their pride and rebellion, they appointed themselves a high position above Aaron, the High Priest.
  • Because of this incident of rebellion, God established the specific rules concerning the Holy of Holies and the Day of Atonement.
• The date of the Day of Atonement
  • This day was to occur every year on the 10th day of the 7th month.
    • The number seven means = God’s completion or perfection.
      • The seventh month was a Sabbath month.
      • In other words, it speaks to us of God’s complete blessings through Jesus Christ where man rests from his own works to trust in the work of Jesus Christ. (Heb 4:10)
    • The number ten means = God’s governmental standard by which He will test man against the will of God.
  • The Day of Atonement was a solemn day of mourning for sin. It was the only established day of fasting.
  • The Day of Atonement was the beginning of a new year on the religious calendar.
  • It was the only day the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle.
• The definition:

• The word “atonement” is often misinterpreted by false religions to mean something completely different than the Biblical definition.
  • The world’s definition = satisfaction, the process of making amends for a wrong done.
  • False doctrine definition = the state of a human that exemplifies the attributes of Christ.
  • The Hebrew definition = to cover.
    • Read Act 17:30-31
    • God overlooked (winked at) sin in the times of the Old Testament because the sacrifices of animals covered sin with animal blood until Christ came to remove it.
  • The Bible definition = expiation; repair or to make satisfaction achieved by giving an equivalent value for an injustice, an injury, or an offense.

 

• Read Lev 16:1-6
• The high priest fulfilled all the details of this day alone. Why?
  • On the Day of Atonement, the high priest is a shadow, a type, or a prefigure of Jesus Christ, our High Priest.
  • Jesus Christ fulfilled all the details of our redemption. He did not need any assistance from man.
    • God, the Father, did not help His Son bear the burden of sin and the pain of crucifixion.
    • Read Psa 22:1
• The high priest put aside his beautiful robes that designated his high office to put on the plain white linen robes of the other priests. (2)
  • Jesus Christ set aside the glory of His high position to identify himself with man and become one of us.
  • Read Phil 2:6-7 (Joh 17:19)
• The high priest made an offering for his own sins. (5-6)
  • This is the only part of the chapter that does not refer to Jesus Christ, but only to Aaron.
  • Because Jesus was without sin, he made no offering for his own sins.
  • Jesus carried our sins for us.
• Read Lev 16:7-14 The high priest’s preparation

• Preparation:
  • The high priest cast lots over two goats. Both goats represent one sin offering.
    • One goat was designated “to Jehovah” and represents the Messiah.
    • The other goat was designated “to the wilderness” and is commonly called the scapegoat. It represents Satan.
      • This goat in Hebrew was called “lo azazel” .
      • The Hebrew word means = to wholly go away.
  • The high priest killed the bull for a burnt offering at the bronze altar.
    • Remember we studied the burnt offering in Lev 1.
    • We learned that the burnt offering represents the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
  • The high priest went into the tabernacle with burning coals off of the bronze altar.
  • At the altar of incense he mixed the hot coals with incense.
  • The high priest took some of the smoking coals and incense into the Holy of Holies in a censor with a basin of the blood from the bull.
  • With his finger the high priest sprinkled the blood on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant seven times.
• The significance:
  • The priest received complete atonement for his own sins through the burnt offering of the bull.
  • If the priest did not do all the details correctly, he would die instantly in the Holy of Holies.
• Read Lev 16:15-19 The ritual of the goat “to Jehovah”:

• The high priest killed the goat designated “to Jehovah”.
• The high priest took the blood of this goat into the Holy of Holies.
• With his finger the high priest sprinkled the blood on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant seven times.
• Then the high priest threw blood all over the inside of the tabernacle. (16) Why?
  • The priests had ministered in the tabernacle for a year. They were sinful humans.
  • Sin contaminated the people and everything they touched.
  • One time a year the tabernacle must be cleansed by blood.
• The high priest sprinkled the bronze altar seven times with the blood of the bull and the blood of the goat to cleanse it of the sins of Israel committed during the past year. (19)
  • But didn’t the Israelites offer animal sacrifice to cover these sins during the year?
  • Yes. They brought animal sacrifice at least every morning and every night.
    • However, this ritual on the Day of Atonement shows us the inadequacy of the blood of animal sacrifice.
    • This ritual on the Day of Atonement shows us the inadequacy of man to even recognize his own sins that would prompt him to bring an animal to sacrifice.
    • Read Heb 9:23-24
      • When Jesus was raised from the dead on resurrection morning, He took his blood to heaven and presented it to God, the Father for the total remission of sin.
      • This is the reason Jesus did not permit Mary to touch him at the tomb (Joh 20:17), when later he allowed many people to touch his resurrected body.
• Read Lev 16:20-22 The ritual of the goat “to the wilderness” (the scapegoat)

• The high priest placed his bloody hands on the head of the scapegoat. This blood was to link the two goats as one sin offering.
• The high priest confessed all the sins of Israel during the past year over the scapegoat to transfer the sins of Israel to this goat.
• The goat was then taken to the wilderness by a “fit man” and then released.
  • The “fit man” represents Jesus Christ, the most perfect fit man that ever lived.
  • Jesus took our sins and separated them from us for eternity.
• This scripture in Leviticus does not give us the following details. They come from other Hebrew sources about their tradition (the Talmud and the apocryphal book of 1Enoch 54:1-6 and 55:3-4):
  • The high priest tied a cord of red wool to the horns of the scapegoat.
  • The goat was taken to a rocky cliff in the wilderness.
  • The red cord was removed from the horns of the goat and placed on a rock at the edge of the cliff.
  • The scapegoat was thrown over the edge of the cliff to his death.
  • If the red cord miraculously turned white, the ritual had purchased a perfect atonement for the sins of Israel.
  • If the red cord did not turn white, then Israel’s sins remained.
  • The cord was hung in the entrance to the tabernacle and later the temple for all to see the results of the atonement.
  • Read Isa 1:18
• The significance of the scapegoat:
  • We learned in Lev 4 that the sin offering referred to the offering that Jesus made for our sin nature. Therefore Jesus fulfills both the goat “to Jehovah” and the goat “to the wilderness”.
  • However, the scapegoat actually represents sin and Satan.
    • All the sins of Israel were put on the scapegoat.
    • Jesus became all man’s sin on the cross. (Isa 53:6) (2Cor 5:21) (1Joh 1:7)
    • All sin originally comes from Satan.
      • Therefore, when Jesus became all sin for us, there was no sin that Jesus did not take on himself.
      • In order to totally destroy sin for all eternity, Christ must totally destroy Satan, the source of all sin.
        • In this way the ritual of the scapegoat is the prophecy that all sin and Satan will be totally destroyed by Jesus Christ.
        • Read Rev 20:10
          • For this reason Christ’s sacrifice was the final sacrifice.
          • Read Heb 9:26
          • For this reason Jesus said from the cross, “it is finished.” (Joh 19:30)

• In Lev 16:23-24 the high priest washed himself and put on his colorful robes that designated his position as high priest.
  • Jesus Christ was not stained spiritually by taking our sin upon himself.
  • He became our High Priest through the power of God.
• In Lev 16:26-28 we see the cleansing of those involved in the ceremony:
  • The “fit person” that took the scapegoat to the wilderness had to wash himself because he had touched the bloody goat that bore the sins of the people.
  • The priests that had taken the carcass of the bull and the slain goat outside the camp for burning had to wash and be cleansed.

• Read Lev 16:29-31, 34
  • This Day of Atonement was a special Sabbath where no one was permitted to do any work.
    • The only work done was by those involved in the ceremony: the high priest, the fit person, the few priests.
    • God did all the work for our atonement.
  • This Day of Atonement was to have an eternal significance specified by the fact that they were to keep this day forever.
    • We have not finished talking about this very important Day of Atonement.
    • We will see more conclusively how Jesus fulfilled this day when we discuss all the feast days of Israel and the agricultural calendar later in Leviticus.
• Summary:
  • The Israelites waited all year for this Day of Atonement. They did their animal sacrifices hoping that they were sufficient to cover their sins, but not ever being quite sure that the value of their sacrifices was equal to the value of their sins.
  • On the Day of Atonement they were finally assured that, yes, their sins were successfully covered for the year when the High Priest showed them the white cord from the scapegoat.
    • The believer in Jesus Christ can immediately know that his sins are not just covered but totally removed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
    • How can he know for sure? The Word of God tells us in the memory verse that we have received the atonement.
    • The doctrine of atonement includes the following concepts:

The Day of Atonement	Through the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ	The New Testament Doctrinal Concept
The scapegoat was substituted for the sinful people	Jesus Christ was the substitute for all sinful humans	Substitution (Gal 1:4 1Tim 2:6)
The Law of God was honored by the perfect justice in the punishment for sin.	Jesus Christ satisfied the perfect justice of God by His death for our sins.	Justice (Rom 5:18)
The sacrificed animal must be without blemish to give honor to God.	Jesus Christ honored His Father because He was without sin.	Holy Perfection (Heb 4:15)
The animal blood represented life and was given freely to God to pay for sin.	The blood of Jesus Christ represented His life freely given to God to pay for our sin.	Redemption (Eph 1:7)
The goat’s blood on the mercy seat was God’s way of giving man a merciful gift but still maintaining God’s justice.	Jesus Christ became our mercy seat (propitiation), our free gift given by God for us.	Propitiation (a merciful free gift) Rom 3:24-25 1Joh 2:2 1Joh 4:10

• Application:
  • The word, “scapegoat” in our common language originated with this passage in Leviticus.
    • The dictionary definition of the word, “scapegoat” is = a person made to take the blame for others or to suffer in their place.
    • Even the secular dictionary carries the original Biblical meaning of this word.
    • Just as the scapegoat removed the sins of Israel from the people, Christ removes our sins from us.
      • Our faith transfers our sins to Christ and God removes our sins from us never to remember them again.
      • Christ paid the price. His blood was the equivalent value to purchase our freedom from sin.
      • He is our atonement.
  • Read Mat 27:51 The Holy of Holies in heaven was opened to us at the crucifixion of Christ.
  • Read Heb 10:19-22
    • Through Jesus Christ we can now enter into the throne room of God in heaven.
    • We do not need to go through a priest of any position or a priest of any man-made religion to take our prayers to God.
    • Jesus Christ is now our High Priest in heaven. (Heb 3:1 Heb 4:14)

HOMEWORK
Leviticus 17
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Lev 16
  • How does this chapter make a difference in your prayer life and relationship with God when you consider how much access to God that Jesus bought for you on the cross?

 

• How does this chapter help you to answer Satan’s lies that remind you of your past sins?

 

• Preparation for Lev 17
• Read Lev 17:1-16
  • Where must the Israelites kill animals?

 

• Why do you think God talks so much about the blood?

Memory Verse: Gen 9:6