Year 1, Day 105: Leviticus 16

The Day of Atonement

Here in Leviticus 16 we get a glimpse of the High Holy Day called the Day of Atonement.  This is perhaps the greatest of all High Holy days, for it was upon this day that the people commemorated the removal of all the sin that the rest of the sacrifices throughout the year could not remove.  It was a great day of ritual.

Let’s look at the steps of this process:

• First, notice that the high priest did all the work himself.  He could not receive any help.  He did the work by himself.
• Second, notice that the high priest cast aside his priestly garments and took up a much more humble appearance.
• Third, notice that the priest washed before participating in the Day of Atonement ritual.
• Fourth, a sacrifice was offered for the sin offering.
• Fifth, the priest was only then able to enter the Holy of Holies.

Christ

Why do I bring out this list?  Well, let’s compare this to Jesus Christ:

• First, Jesus Christ does all the work of redemption himself.  He could not receive any help.  None of us could help Jesus accomplish the work that the Father sent Him to do.
• Second, Jesus cast aside his divine/heavenly presence and took up a much more humble appearance as a human.  When he died, he even lost what human garments he had!
• Third, Jesus washed.  He washed ritually in His baptism, but even at the Lord’s Supper Jesus speaks of the need for washing with respect to the washing of the feet.
• Fourth, Jesus was the sacrifice was offered for the sin offering.
• Fifth, Jesus’ death tore open the Holy of Holies for all.

Sacrifices

I occasionally spend time wondering if God doesn’t occasionally still desire an offered sacrifice.  After all, there are places in the Bible which speak of God enjoying the aroma of the sacrifices.  In this chapter alone we hear about how much God desires for the incense offering to cover the whole of the mercy seat.  There certainly seems to be a sense of enjoyment about the sacrifices from the perspective of God.

However, I don’t think this way for too long.  There are two main reasons why I don’t fall too deeply into this query.  First, as the comparison above illustrates, Jesus was effective enough!  We don’t need the sacrifices, because Jesus is our sacrifice.  We don’t need to kill animals as a symbol of our atonement; Jesus Christ is the real evidence of our atonement.

Second, I am reminded of several Bible passages from the Old Testament.  Hosea 6:6 and Psalm 51:15-17 come to mind.  God does not desire our sacrifices as much as other things.  So what is it that God wants?  God wants a broken spirit.  God wants a contrite heart.  God wants us to yearn for an understanding of Him and His ways.

That means that we should remember Christ’s death and our atonement regularly.  We should not at all get “accustomed” to it or “take it for granted.”  Jesus Christ’s death should be the one most important event in our collective communal memory of what it means to be human.  Jesus Christ died for us so that we could be reunited to God our creator through His atonement of our sin.  There is nothing any more significant in what it means to be human than this.

Scapegoat

This is a very unique part of scripture.  Verses 8, 10, and 26 are the only verses in which this term occurs in the whole of the Old Testament.  To be honest, scholars don’t know what the term means.  There are four thoughts as to what the term might be:

1. The word could mean “scapegoat.”  This meaning would put emphasis on the goat that bears the sin of the Hebrew people away from them.
2. The term could be a proper name, Azazel.  If this is the case, then this name likely refers to a desert demon – perhaps even Satan himself.  This meaning would indicate an understanding of sending sin back to its original source.
3. The term could mean “a rocky precipice.”  If this is the case, then it could mean that the goat was taken away from the camp and pushed over a cliff to kill it.  This would imply an understanding of the sin being dealt with forever.  I find this to be the least likely of the possibilities.
4. Finally, the term could be an abstract way of saying, “complete destruction” or “complete removal.”  If this is the case, then the scapegoat is merely reinforcing that the sins of the Hebrew people were completely removed through this process.

Of the four possibilities, I believe the most fruit is produced by the first two understandings.  Certainly the goat played an important part of the atonement process.  I think it is fruitful to see the goat as evidence of the sins being removed from the community and cast away by God.  I also think that it is fruitful to see the goat as an analogy to sending the sins away from humanity and back to their original source.  Both of these understandings can help us contemplate God’s work in forgiving our sinful human nature.

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