|
THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 7, NUMBER 38, SEPTEMBER 23, 2007 ATONEMENT Beginning at 6:00 on Friday evening, September 21, and ending yesterday, Saturday, September 22 at 6:00 pm , was the Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement. This is the most solemn day of the Jewish year and the only fast that was actually required under the Law of Moses. We read about the establishment of this day in Leviticus 16. On this day the sins of the priests and the sins of the people were called to mind and atonement made for them. Atonement essentially has two meanings. One is that of reconciliation between people or beings that are at variance with one another; and second, it is used with reference to that which produces the reconciliation – generally a sacrifice designed for that purpose. On the Day of Atonement the High Priest made atonement for “all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins” (Lev. 16:21). First, atonement would be made for the priests who served as mediators between God and the people, and the sanctuary itself was also cleansed because it had been ceremonially defiled by the fact that sinful men worked within it. The New Bible Dictionary (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing) gives the following account of the events of the day: “To prepare for the sacrifices of the day, the high priest put aside his official robes and dressed in a simple white garment. He then offered a bullock as a sin offering for himself and the priesthood. After filling his censer with live coals from the altar, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies, where he placed incense on the coals. The incense sent forth a cloud of smoke over the mercy seat, which served as a covering for the ark of the covenant. The high priest took some of the blood of the bullock and sprinkled it on the mercy seat and on the ground in front of the ark. In this way atonement was made for the priesthood. “The high priest next sacrificed a he-goat as a sin offering for the people. Some of the blood was taken into the Holy of Holies, and it was sprinkled there in the manner in which the sin offering for the priests had been sprinkled (Lev. 16:11-15). “After purifying the Holy Place and the altar of burnt offering with the mingled blood of the bullock and the goat (Lev. 16:18-19) the high priest took a second goat, laid his hands upon its head, and confessed over it the sins of Israel. This goat, commonly called the scape goat, was then driven into the desert, where it symbolically carried away the sins of the people. “The carcasses of the two burnt offerings, the bullock and the he-goat, were taken outside the city and burned. They day was concluded with additional sacrifices.” The Day of Atonement occurred each year with the high priest making those offerings for his own sins and the sins of all the people. This served to demonstrate the fact that the actual blood that would provide for the perfect atonement had not yet been shed. That perfect atonement would be provided through the sacrifice of the Lord, Jesus Christ. The Book of Hebrews, in chapters 9 & 10, shows us the true significance of the Day of Atonement as it looked forward to the coming of Christ. In Hebrews 9:7-12 we find, “But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Verses 24-28 complete the idea: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Today when a penitent believer is immersed in water for the forgiveness of his or her sins, he or she contacts the sacrificial blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In so doing, reconciliation between the sinner and God takes place, made possible through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus the Christ. Praise be to God!
Greg Litmer
|