Sermonette: The Day of Atonement and Israel's Future
National Immorality and Cleansing
#1378s
David C. Grabbe
Given 13-May-17; 19 minutes
description: The preamble for the Day of Atonement instructions leans on the failure of the Aaronic priesthood. The sacrificial system—including the ceremony of the two goats—was added to the Abrahamic covenant because of transgressions. The Day of Atonement is 187 days into the Calendar year, possibly the same day Moses came back from Sinai the second time with a radiant countenance, giving the Law to the people a second time, making it clear that transgression of the law brings death. Israel's works had nearly condemned the nation to obliteration. The only work that could be performed was by the high priest and the man who led away the azazel, reminding us that only God can purge sins. The fasting reminds us of the three consecutive times Moses fasted. The effect of Christ's work is that we are reconciled, at one with God. The symbolism of the cleansing of Joshua's filthy robes in Zechariah 3 seems to replicate the symbolism of the cleansing in Leviticus 16. After the cleansing, the nation is absolved from iniquity. The Day of Atonement represents a bearing away of sin, removing it from the land. The Seventy Weeks prophecy is God's assurance to Daniel that God will intervene, lifting the nation of Israel out of its degenerate state to total reconciliation.
transcript:
Today we are going to give the two young goats of Leviticus a little bit of a rest, but we are still going to be studying the Day of Atonement, so please turn with me to Leviticus 16 anyway. And Leviticus 16. The emphasis of the events is national rather than individual. The chapter repeatedly uses terms like the congregation, the people, the children of Israel, and the assembly. Throughout the year, an individual could make sin offerings for unintentional sins, but on this holy day, the high priest made a sin offering for himself, and then one for the whole nation. These offerings only covered unintentional sins though, because there is no sacrifice to cover presumptuous sins under any of God's covenants.
Verses 1 through 3 provide an essential context for everything else that takes place. Leviticus 16:1, it says
Leviticus 16:1-3 Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the Lord and died. And the Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron, your brother not to come at just any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die, for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. Thus Aaron shall come into the holy place, and so forth.
And this preamble to the ceremony reflects back on the failure of the priesthood represented here by Aaron's sons. That event actually took place some 6 chapters before this, but God uses it as a reference point, a starting point for the annual cleansing and removal of sin. The instructions begin with a reminder of how the priests had incurred God's wrath because of their careless approach to His instructions. I remember that the sacrificial system was instituted because of Israel's failure in general.
Galatians 3:19 says that this law was added to the Abrahamic covenants because of transgressions. God says something similar in Jeremiah 7 if you would turn there with me. Jeremiah 7 beginning in verse 22. God says,
Jeremiah 7:22-23 For I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you.
So God's original marching orders for Israel are very simple. Obey His voice, walk in the ways that He commanded, just like Abraham did, and the Creator Himself would be their God. Now Israel messed that up. And so God then added the Levitical priesthood and the sacrifices as a tutor to give Israel a discipline and practical way of worship until the profit arrived. Now the holy days were not what was added because of sin. The holy days predated the covenant God made with Israel, just as the Sabbath did, and they still remain under the New Covenant as well. But the sacrifices that were made on the holy days were added, and nowhere is that more clearly seen than with the Day of Atonement. The whole focus is on symbolically dealing with the problem of sin through sacrificial animals.
And not only is there a remembrance here of the failure of the priests, but the Day of Atonement may also be linked to an infamous failure of the whole nation as well. I'm going to give you some dates and spans of time, so we can put together an interesting timeline. We know that Israel left Egypt on the 15th day of the first month. And we know that the Count to Pentecost began within the next week between the 16th and the 22nd days of the first month. The Count to Pentecost lasts for 50 days, and so there is a span of time. And we generally accept that Pentecost was the day when Israel received the law at Mount Sinai. There is not a verse that directly says this, but there are verses that definitely put Pentecost and Sinai in the same ballpark.
From Exodus 24:18 and Deuteronomy 9:9, we know that Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights, and he was fasting. So there is a second span of time. When Moses came down and saw Israel worshiping the golden calf, he broke the stone tablets, and then he spent a second period of 40 days and nights fasting and beseeching God not to destroy Aaron and the rest of the nation. That's found in Deuteronomy 9:15 through 20. And then Moses returned to the mountain to receive new stone tablets, and was there for a third span of 40 days and nights, fasting. That's found in Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 10 verse 10.
So let's add this up. Three spans of 40 days is 120 days. When we add 50 days from Wavesheaf to Pentecost, we reach 170 days. Wavesheaf Day is somewhere between 16 and 22 days from the start of the year. And so when we add that span, it gives us between 186 days and 192 days from the start of the year to Moses' second return from Sinai. Now the Day of Atonement is 187 days into the calendar year. So what this means is that the Day of Atonement may have been when Moses returned with his face reflecting the glory of God. It may have been the day when he gave the law to Israel a second time after their blatant sin. Again, this is not definitive, but like with Pentecost, we are at least in the ballpark.
Now if this is the case, then the Day of Atonement contains a reminder of a colossal failure, such that the law had to be inscribed a second time by the finger of God. God does not waste effort. He does not repeat Himself or duplicate things unnecessarily. And so there is a reminder that the whole nation was on the brink of destruction, and it is through God's mercy and Moses' intercession that the people and high priest were not all blotted out. It is no wonder then that the Day of Atonement is such a solemn day. It is definitely tied to the failure of Aaron's sons, as we saw, as well as the general failure of the nation to live up to God's instructions. And there is a pretty good possibility that it was also when the Creator had to repeat His holy law. The law defines sin, and the breaking of the law requires death as atonement.
When Hebrews says that there is a remembrance of sins each year, there are some rather significant failures that were called to mind. In some of Richard's atonement sermons, he's brought out that this is a day when no work can be done. A fundamental reason is that human effort is completely useless in making the proper atonement needed to continue living. There was nothing the Israelites could do but observe what was happening at the Tabernacle and watch as the young Azazel was led away with all of their sins. And likewise, there is absolutely nothing that we can add to Christ's atoning work, and so it is a day without work for us as well.
In addition, there is a reminder that Israel's works nearly condemned the nation to obliteration. The golden calf was a work of Aaron's hands. No matter how Aaron tried to pass it off, he deliberately fashioned an idol out of gold, and he had to work at it. Likewise, the work of Nadab and Abihu's hands included offering profane fire. Later, God says through Haggai that every work of the hands of the people was unclean and especially what they were offering. The works of men always contain some defilement, and so on the day when the filth is to be removed, no work can be done lest more corruption be introduced. The only work that was allowed on the Day of Atonement was performed by the high priest and the man who led away the Azazel, and both of them had to have atonement made.
For us it is a day of solemn remembrance of the perfect work of our High Priest who gave us precious access to the Father and who took away our sins. It's also a day of afflicting one's soul for the sake of humility and contrition. It could be a reminder of the fasting that Moses went through during his interactions with God. There was overwhelming gravity of all that was involved when Moses fasted for 40 days and nights, 3 times. Two of those times involved meeting with God and receiving a pattern for life from His incomparable mind. The other period of fasting was because of how seriously God regarded the sins and the enormity of what was at stake because of transgressions.
We're going to turn our focus from ancient Israel. When we understand who fulfills the role of the Azazel, one of the questions that arises is if there is a future fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. In the past we have held that the day pictures the binding of Satan and the time when the whole world will be at one with God. Part of the confusion has arisen because the word atonement can be separated out into at-one-ment. And regrettably, this linguistic feature seems to receive more attention than what atonement actually is. The basic meaning of atonement is expiation. It means to provide legal satisfaction such that guilt is removed and the obligation of punishment is paid. It can include cleansing, forgiving, pardoning, purging, and covering. The effect of atonement is that two formerly estranged parties are brought back into agreement, because whatever controversy that was between them has been legally satisfied. The effect of Christ's work is that we are reconciled, we are at one with God. That Satan's binding, as truly relieving as that will be, cannot legally achieve this. Satan's binding does not cause mankind's guilt to be removed or cause the curse of the law to be lifted. In terms of the separation between man and God, that gulf can only be bridged through the atonement that God provides, which is accomplished by Jesus Christ.
Now there is still a future fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, and it is spoken of repeatedly. Please turn with me to Zechariah chapter 3. Zechariah was written after the return from Babylon. But even after that national chastening, the people were still carnal, just as Israel is today. In Zechariah 3, the prophet receives a vision of the high priest, Joshua. If you study out this chapter, you might notice that it contains the same elements and the same sequence as Leviticus 16. It starts with the cleansing of the high priest, and it ends with the cleansing of the nation. What is missing is the animals, and that's because God is providing the atonement directly in this case. Remember that the function of the high priest was to represent the nation before God. And this is part of why the golden calf incident was so appalling, because the nation's representative was directly involved. And similarly here in verse 3, we see the high priest in filthy garments. But in verse 4, the filth is taken away. The high priest is given rich robes symbolic of righteousness from God Himself. Verse 5 mentions the turban that Mark Schindler spoke of recently. In Exodus 28:38, it says that the purpose of the turban was to bear iniquity, and so the high priest symbolically carried iniquity throughout the year. And then on the Day of Atonement, the iniquity was transferred to the goat of departure and sent away. In Zechariah's vision here, the priestly garments are filthy, and a clean turban is needed. So this defiled representative shows that the nation is completely unclean. But after God restores the high priest, notice verse 9.
Zechariah 3:9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua. Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription, says the Lord of hosts. This is the important part, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
Remember that no animal sacrifices are shown here. This removal of iniquity can only come through the Messiah, who is referred to in the verse before. The blessings and cursings speak of the land itself becoming defiled and vomiting out its inhabitants. The Day of Atonement, of an annual bearing away of sin, taking that sin out of the land, so that the land and the people are clean before God. And yet this did not happen at Christ's first coming. There is still a cleansing of the land and the people in the future. Before moving on, look back at verse 2. God rebukes Satan before He cleanses the nation. It's possible that there is a connection here with the binding of Satan, because when you look at other instances of God rebuking someone, it typically goes beyond divine words and involves divine action. It may be that the rebuking here finds its fulfillment in Satan being bound. But the critical point for us to understand is that atonement can only come through Christ's removal of guilt, rather than through anything that happens to Satan. The nation is cleansed through God removing the iniquity, not through His rebuking the accuser.
We can see the same national cleansing in the 70 weeks prophecy in Daniel 9, if you turn there with me. Daniel 9, very well-known verse, verse 24. It says
Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy or most holy place.
The 70 weeks prophecy is God's assurance to Daniel that God will intervene and lift Israel out of her degenerate spiritual state. The word translated reconciliation in the fifth line of this is the same word translated as atonement throughout Leviticus 16. Nearly everything mentioned in this prophecy relates to the Day of Atonement and what is typified with the cleansing and removal of sin in Leviticus 16. Even the most holy place is attended to. In other words, the fulfillment of the 70 weeks prophecy and the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement are very closely intertwined, and it is for removing Israel's guilt so that she can be at one with God.
The Feast of Trumpets looks forward to the return of Christ, and it is also tied to Israel's regathering. Perhaps the second exodus begins on Trumpets, and Atonement symbolizes the completion with Israel back in the lands with atonement having been made for her. This future restoration is a major theme in the prophets, and I will give you just a sampling.
In Isaiah 44:22, God will say to Israel in the future,
Isaiah 44:22 I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions and like a cloud your sins.
Jeremiah 33:8. God says
Jeremiah 33:8 I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities.
Jeremiah 50:20, God says,
Jeremiah 50:20 The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found, for I will pardon those whom I preserve.
And in Ezekiel 16:63, God says
Ezekiel 16:63 That Israel will be so ashamed that she will never again open her mouth after God provides atonement for all that she has done.
There are many more, but it is clear just from these that there remains a great national cleansing, pardon, and purging of sins, transgressions, and iniquities of Israel. This atonement will be provided by God, for that Israel can be reconciled to Him, and it will set the stage for the peaceful paradise of the millennium. In the millennium, the people who are at one with God will be those for whom God has made atonement. That is the foundational point, and there is only one way such oneness is possible.
Certainly Satan's power and influence should never be underestimated, as we heard from Clyde last week. Yet even as great a factor as Satan is in the world today, it takes something far greater than his binding or his rebuke for a sinful man to be at one with the Most High God. God's rebuke of the adversary does not resolve God's controversy with His wayward children. It requires the death of man's Creator and His willingness to remove the guilt and remember the sins no more. But to make Satan's binding the focus of atonement minimizes our personal responsibility for sin and the absolute need for what only God can provide. And having the wrong focus also grossly and shamefully devalues the overwhelming price that was paid and all that it accomplishes.
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