Leviticus 16

SECTION 2. PRIESTLY.

Ceremonial Purity. Chaps. 16-27.

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT.

This chapter contains the most solemn and significant ordinance found in the entire Levitical code, in the opinion not only of the modern Jews, but of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The great scheme of symbol worship culminated on the day of atonement. It was celebrated in the latter part of the month of September, and it seems to have been a sort of condensation of all the sacrifices of previous months, and to be an atoning or purifying of the tabernacle, the altar, the priests, and the people. Although the main part of the Mosaic ritual was sacrificial, as the guilt of sin was perpetually calling for new acts of purification, yet on this one day the idea of atonement rose to its highest expression in one grand comprehensive series of actions. This solemn service affords the most exact representation of the perfect atonement of Christ which can be found in all the Levitical ritual. See Hebrews 9:0. It also sets forth sanctification through the blood of sprinkling as the second grand element of salvation. How far the people understood and profited by the spiritual lessons of this day we know not. But ceremonially their sins were all pardoned. After stating the occasion of the institution, (Leviticus 16:1-2,) the chapter is divided into three parts: An outline of the whole ceremonial, (3-10,) a detailed description of certain rites, (11-28,) and general rules respecting the day of atonement. Leviticus 16:29-34.

CONCLUDING NOTES.

(1.) “Although the Pentateuch from Exodus 30:10 to Numbers 29:0 contains allusions or references to the ‘great day,’ it is remarkable that its observance is not recorded in any other part of the Old Testament. Professor Dillmann has, in his commentary on Leviticus 16:0, convincingly shown that no argument can be drawn from this silence, the historical narratives being chiefly of popular feasts, whereas this fast specially attached to the sanctuary. The same eminent critic has satisfactorily accounted for the omission from passages where we might, perhaps, have expected mention of it. Indeed, to be logically consistent, the argument would require to take into account that we find no express record of it till the first century of our era. Acts 27:9, and Epistle to the Hebrews. Yet the description of the high priest, Simon the Just, in the Book of Sirach (Eccl. l) is undeniably that of his appearance on the day of atonement, which brings us to more than two centuries before Christ. But, indeed, so to state the argument is almost to reduce to absurdity the contention of those who would deny its ancient, and, as we are fully convinced, Mosaic institution.” Dr. Edersheim.

(2.) The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews asserts (Hebrews 9:7) that the high priest went once every year into the most holy place, but an examination of Leviticus 16:12-15 of this chapter will prove that there were at least three entrances. He entered first with a censer in one hand and incense in the other, so that he could not have carried the blood. Secondly, he entered with the blood of the bullock, which, according to tradition, a priest meanwhile had stirred lest it should coagulate. Thirdly, with the goat’s blood. Some think that he entered the fourth time to bring away the censer and the plate of incense. The most obvious way of harmonizing the statements of Moses and of the Epistle is to interpret the latter as meaning on one day every year.

(3.) The fact that the high priest was not permitted to sit down within the vail intimates that his work was never perfect, but must be ever renewed with the rolling years. “Every priest standeth offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man,” Jesus Christ, “after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God,” having forever perfected, as to the consciousness, them that are sanctified.

The momentary stay of the high priest in the holy of holies clearly typifies that the time had not come when every perfect believer in Jesus Christ might have the constant communion of the Holy Ghost, the abiding Comforter, his body having become an habitation of God through the Spirit. Jesus, our high priest, has entered heaven, his sanctuary above; and his successor, the Holy Spirit, has entered his holy of holies below the believing heart.

(4.) The typology of the scapegoat is a subject beset with difficulties. No light is reflected upon it from the New Testament, for none of its writers allude to it. It becomes us to walk carefully on ground on which apostles have not ventured. The typical import of the scapegoat depends, first of all, upon its literal meaning. Professor Bush, interpreting the Azazel to signify an evil spirit, has an extended argument to prove that the sending of the goat into the wilderness, laden with sins, symbolizes the rejection of the apostate and reprobate race of Israel guilty of the crucifixion of the Messiah. But, since the live goat was part of the expiatory sin offering, this theory involves the contradiction that the Jews made propitiation for their sins by suffering the wrath of heaven, and, of course, that sinners will make propitiation for their sins while banished to hell! The ancient view, taken by Theodoret, Cyril, Augustine, and Procopius, is, that as the slain goat prefigures the crucifixion, so the living goat typifies the resurrection. But the dying, and not the risen, Christ bore the sins of men. Again, we find no similitude between heaven and the wilderness. Hence we cannot accept this theory, nor that which maintains that this ceremony was designed to ridicule the Egyptian superstition respecting Typhon, the spirit of evil, inhabiting the wilderness, by sending a cursed animal into his realm. It seems more reasonable to regard the scapegoat as symbolizing one aspect of the atonement made by Jesus Christ, since, in the fifth verse, both goats are “for a sin offering.” While the sprinkled blood sets forth the God-ward side of the atonement, the satisfaction of divine justice, the dismissed goat may represent the man-ward aspect of Christ’s expiatory work, the disburdening of the believer’s conscience through the forgiveness of his sins, and the assurance that they are separated from him as far as the east is from the west. The satisfaction of God, as a moral governor, having been made in secret by the high priest alone, it was important for the assurance of the people that there should be a visible transaction, embodying in a sensible form the results of the service, or the man-ward side. Professor Murphy sees in the returnless scapegoat an illustration of “the wider meaning of death in Scripture, which is not annihilation, but a state of ill-fare, in contrast with life, which is a state of well-fare, not terminated, but only fully entered upon, at the separation of the soul and body.

(5.) The whole number of sacrificial animals for this day was fifteen; two daily sacrifices, one bull, two rams, and seven lambs, all burnt offerings; two goats as sin offerings, one of which was eaten in the evening, the blood being sprinkled without; the other, the blood of which was sprinkled within the vail, was burnt; lastly, the high priest’s bull, as a sin offering, which was burnt.

Seven days before this service the high priest was shut up in the sanctuary, and kept away from his wife. Lest he might become ceremonially defiled, a deputy was appointed to act in his stead, if necessary. Elders of the high court read to him and instructed him in the ritual of this important day, and addressed him: “My lord, high priest! Read thou with thy mouth; perhaps thou hast forgotten or never learnt this point. We are delegates of the high court, but thou art delegate both for us and the high court; we conjure thee to make no change in any thing that we have said to thee.” The whole night before the day of atonement he either expounds the law or some one expounds it to him. If he is disposed to sleep, he is suddenly touched and admonished to arise and walk about. During the day’s service he underwent five baths and ten washings of consecration of hands and feet. For the extended ritual of the day of atonement used by the ancient Jews, and in part by the modern, see Delitzsch on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. ii, first appendix.

(6.) The requirement that no man should be in the tabernacle when the high priest entered the holy of holies on the great day of atonement, prefigures the fact that Jesus entered within the vail with his own blood without human eye-witnesses. Hebrews 9:12. We are left to conjecture the exact time when this important event took place. Several considerations point to the resurrection morning, just after Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene. 1.) The prohibition, “touch me not,” and the reason assigned, “for I am not yet ascended.” The high priest could touch no one before entering within the second vail, lest he touch an unclean person and contract defilement, disqualifying him for his office. One week afterwards Jesus invited Thomas to touch him. 2.) The message given to Mary, “Go unto my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father.” It will be noticed that this is in the present tense, “I ascend,” and not in the future. If the message related to the public ascension from the Mount of Olives, we see no urgency in this announcement, which Jesus had several opportunities of giving in person to the assembled apostles during an interval of forty days. 3.) The fact that the Spirit, which could not be given till Jesus was glorified, was given on the evening of the day of the resurrection, as a precursor of the Pentecost, (John 20:22,) implies that his glorification had already begun, and that the work of his office, as the atoning Saviour, was now completed. But the priestly act was not shedding the blood of the sacrifice, which was done by laymen, (Leviticus 1:5,) but sprinkling the blood. This was the great function of the high priest.

This crowning act of the priesthood of Christ must have been accomplished before the Holy Spirit, the purchase of his blood, was bestowed. 4.) Since Jesus was both the sacrifice and the priest, he could not perform the great function of his office, the sprinkling of his own blood, until the resurrection had placed the great high priest’s diadem upon his brow. Hence the high probability that Jesus entered the holy of holies on the day of his resurrection, and presented his own blood at the earliest possible moment. See Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. i, p. 170.

(7.) “In the biblical text the account of that day follows immediately on the laws of purification. We might almost inscribe the various parts of that section as follows: 1.) Clean individually and personally. Leviticus 11:2.) Clean in the family. Leviticus 12:3.) Clean in the congregation. Leviticus 13:1 to Leviticus 15:4.) Above and beyond all, the great cleansing of Israel and its sanctuary. Leviticus 16:0. Thus the first part of the Book of Leviticus, (chaps. 1-16,) which tells how Israel as a people must enter into communion with God, leads up to the second part, (chaps. 17 to the end,) which indicates how this communion is to be manifested and preserved.” Dr. Edersheim.