Sunday, March 29, 2009

Leviticus 23 - The Lord’s Appointed Festivals - Intro

   Read Leviticus Chapter 23.


   Of the seven festivals in Leviticus 23, the first four feasts are linked together, and the last three feasts are also linked - and there is a separation of time between these two groups of feasts.


   The group of the first four feasts relate to the work of Jesus in His first coming, of His earthly ministry.



  1. Passover clearly presents Jesus as our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7), the Lamb of God who was sacrificed, and whose blood was received and applied, so the wrath of God would pass us over.

  2. Unleavened Bread relates time of Jesus' burial, after His perfect, sinless sacrifice on the cross, during which He was received by God the Father as holy and complete (the Holy One who would not see corruption, Acts 2:27), perfectly accomplishing our salvation.

  3. Firstfruits relates to the resurrection of Jesus, who was the first human to receive resurrection; He is the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18) and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep . . . Christ the firstfruits, afterwards those who are Christ's at His coming. (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23).

  4. Pentecost obviously is connected with the birth of the Church and the "harvest" resulting (Acts 2); significantly, in the ceremony at the feast of Pentecost, two unleavened loaves of bread are waved as a holy offering to God, speaking of the bringing of "unleavened" Gentiles into the church


   Between the first set of four feasts and the second set of three feasts, there is a significant time gap - almost four months, which, significantly, was a time of harvest in Israel; even as our current age is a time of harvest for the church, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. (Romans 11:25).


   The second group of the last three feasts relate to events connected with the second coming of Jesus.




  1. Trumpets speaks of the ultimate assembly of God's people at the sound of a trumpet - the rapture of the Church (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), and of the gathering of Israel for the special purpose God has for them in the last days.


  2. Atonement not only speaks of the ultimate, perfect atonement Jesus offered on our behalf, but also of the affliction - and salvation - Israel will see during the Great Tribulation. It will truly be a time when the soul of Israel is afflicted, but for their ultimate salvation; as Jeremiah 30:7 says regarding that period: Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it, and it is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.


  3. Tabernacles speaks of the millennial rest of comfort of God for Israel and all of God's people; it is all about peace and rest, from beginning to end. Tabernacles is specifically said to be celebrated during the millennium (Zechariah 14:16-19).


   Significantly, there is good evidence that each of the four feasts relevant to the first coming of Jesus saw their prophetic fulfillment on the exact day of the feast. Jesus was actually crucified on the Passover (John 19:14). His body would have been buried, and His sacrifice acknowledged by God the Father during the Feast of Unleavened Bread following, and He would have risen from the dead on Firstfruits, the day after Passover's Sabbath. Additionally, the church was founded on the actual day of Pentecost. For this reason, many speculate it would be consistent for God to gather His people to Himself at the rapture on the day of the feast of trumpets - on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.




Chart from The Seven Feasts of Israel by Gavin Finley: http://endtimepilgrim.org/7feasts.htm




Chart from The Seven Feasts of Israel: http://www.clarion-call.org/yeshua/feasts/intro.htm





Charts from Israelite Annual Festivals: www.wcg.org/lit/bible/law/festiv.htm



See also Larkin's charts and hand-outs which I can't reproduce here because they are trademarked:

www.blueletterbible.org/study/larkin/dt/30.cfm,

www.blueletterbible.org/study/larkin/dt/charts.cfm?c=83&w=670

www.blueletterbible.org/study/larkin/dt/31.cfm




  1. Passover: Redemption: 14th day

    The Passover speaks of redemption by blood from Egypt, a type of the world, and is a type of our redemption from sin by the blood of The Lamb of God, Christ being our "Passover".

    1 Corinthians 5:7b: ...Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.

  2. Feast of Unleavened Bread: Holy Walk: Sabbath: 15th day:

    Leaven in the scripture is a type of evil and was not to be used for holy purposes. Paul uses it as a figure of malice and wickedness and not befitting a Holy Walk, which should follow redemption.

    1 Corinthians 5:8:     Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. (NIV)

  3. Feast of First Fruits: Day after Sabbath: Resurrection: 16th day:

    Sheaves of barley waved. Jesus rose on the "First Day of the Week", and thus became the "First Fruits" of the resurrection of the dead, of which the resurrection of the "Dead in Christ" shall be the harvest.

    Matthew 27:52-53 : and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.

    Ephesians 4:8:     Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (KJV)

    1 Thessalonians 4:14-17:     For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.

  4. Feast of Weeks (Week of Sabbaths - 50 days):

    Counting of the Omer. 7 X 7 = Fullness.

    The Feast of Weeks began with the offering of the barley harvest and ended with the ingathering of the wheat harvest. The first day was the Feast of First-Fruits; the last day, The Feast of Pentecost. Only the first and last day were celebrated.

  5. Pentecost: Holy Spirit (49 days + 1 = 50):

    Waving of the two wheat loaves containing leaven.

    The wave loaves contained leaven because they typified the union of Jew and Gentile (in whom the leaven of sin still abides).

    The 3000 converts on the day of Pentecost were the First Fruits of the Harvest of the church.

    50 = the day of redemption. Israelite slaves and the land were freed.

  6. Feast of Trumpets: Regathering of Israel:

    Israel is to be gathered back to their own land Jeremiah 16:14-15, 38:10-11; Isaiah 11:11; Amos 9:14-15.

    We are told in Matthew that they are to be summoned by angelic trumpeters.

    It will be to observe the Feast of Trumpets at Jerusalem.

    Matthew 24:29-31: “Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world - from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.

  7. Feast of the Day of Atonement: Atonement for Israel:

    Historically, the fountain of Zechariah 13:1 was opened at Calvary, but rejected by Israel.

    After they are regathered, they shall look upon Him Whom they pierced (Zechariah 12:10) and accept the atonement nationally.

    Zechariah 12:10: “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.

    Zechariah 13:1: “On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and impurity.

  8. Feast of Tabernacle: Israel's millennial rest:

     Amos 9:13-15: “The time will come,” says the Lord, “when the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested. Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel will drip with sweet wine! I will bring my exiled people of Israel back from distant lands, and they will rebuild their ruined cities and live in them again. They will plant vineyards and gardens; they will eat their crops and drink their wine. I will firmly plant them there in their own land. They will never again be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

    Zechariah 14:16-21: In the end, the enemies of Jerusalem who survive the plague will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. Any nation in the world that refuses to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will have no rain. If the people of Egypt refuse to attend the festival, the Lord will punish them with the same plague that he sends on the other nations who refuse to go. Egypt and the other nations will all be punished if they don’t go to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. On that day even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with these words: Holy to the Lord. And the cooking pots in the Temple of the Lord will be as sacred as the basins used beside the altar. In fact, every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. All who come to worship will be free to use any of these pots to boil their sacrifices. And on that day there will no longer be traders in the Temple of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.



God's family of true believers are:



  1. Ransomed at the Passover and liberated by the blood of His Son - the
    Passover Lamb    .

  2. Purged of sin, hypocrisy and false doctrine during the Days of Unleavened
    Bread     to become a holy Temple of God.


  3. Filled with the power of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost in order to bear fruit for all
    eternity.

  4. Victoriously gathered and defended at the Feast of Trumpets when the trumpets
    of God will sound throughout the earth    .

  5. And finally on the Great Day of Atonement, brought into the very presence
    of the Almighty     by his Son the High Priest to be at-one with Him for all
    eternity    .



Sabbaths and Feasts: This section concerns religious duties of the people of God as they worship by giving thanks to God for their blessings.


   Are we required to keep the feasts as laid down in this chapter? We do not keep the feasts because we are Gentiles and we do not possess the land. We owe no ‘rent’. We do not offer the sacrifices because they have been superseded in the one Sacrifice made for all for all time.


   "The spring holidays of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits are a portrait of the death and resurrection of Y'shua (Jesus). He sacrificed Himself on Passover, was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and was resurrected on Firstfruits. The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot or Pentecost) was the day the Holy Sprit fell on believers. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are held in immediate sequence. The lamb was slain on the fourteenth and the Feast of Unleavened bread began on the fifteenth day of the first month. And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the LORD. And in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten (Numbers 28:16-17). This passage might account for why Jesus began His Passover seder on the fourteenth. These are distinctly different holidays falling on different days; however, due to their closeness they are usually treated as one festival. (The scriptures seem to teach that these are two names for the same festival. See Exodus 13:3-8.) As you study the Spring Festivals, you will see the plan of God fulfilled in such dramatic detail that you cannot help but be stricken by the awesomeness of our Eternal King. The spring festivals clearly prophesy the first coming of Messiah and the fall festivals are prophetic of His second coming." - biblicalholidays.com/spring_holidays.htm


   Three agriculture-related pilgrimage festivals are mandated in Exodus 23:14-17:



  1. A seven-day springtime festival of Unleavened Bread, around the barley harvest;

  2. An early summer festival of Harvest, when the wheat ripens;

  3. An autumn festival of Ingathering, when olives, grapes, and other fruits are harvested.


   The book of Leviticus gives regulations for feast days that are to be celebrated "with a sacred assembly," including the weekly sabbath (Leviticus 23:1-4) and seven annual feast days: Passover (7 days, including unleavened bread), First fruits, Pentecost or Weeks, the New Year, the Day of Atonement, the first day of Booths, and the eighth day of Booths. These festivals are later transformed and combined with commemorations of historical/religious events; originally the people could bring their offerings to any major sanctuary, but later they are required to go to the Jerusalem temple, especially for three main pilgrimage festivals.


Exodus 23:14-17: “Each year you must celebrate three festivals in my honor. First, celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, just as I commanded you. Celebrate this festival annually at the appointed time in early spring, in the month of Abib, for that is the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. No one may appear before me without an offering. “Second, celebrate the Festival of Harvest when you bring me the first crops of your harvest. “Finally, celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the harvest season, when you have harvested all the crops from your fields. At these three times each year, every man in Israel must appear before the Sovereign, the Lord.


Exodus 34:18-23: “You must celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, just as I commanded you. Celebrate this festival annually at the appointed time in early spring, in the month of Abib, for that is the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. “The firstborn of every animal belongs to me, including the firstborn males from your herds of cattle and your flocks of sheep and goats. A firstborn donkey may be bought back from the Lord by presenting a lamb or young goat in its place. But if you do not buy it back, you must break its neck. However, you must buy back every firstborn son. “No one may appear before me without an offering. “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but on the seventh day you must stop working, even during the seasons of plowing and harvest. “You must celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the first crop of the wheat harvest, and celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the harvest season. Three times each year every man in Israel must appear before the Sovereign, the Lord, the God of Israel.


Deuteronomy 16:16: “Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. On each of these occasions, all men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he chooses, but they must not appear before the Lord without a gift for him.




(1) The Lord said to Moses,


(2) “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days for holy assembly.


(3) “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the Lord’s Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live.


(4) “In addition to the Sabbath, these are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the official days for holy assembly that are to be celebrated at their proper times each year.



   "The weekly sabbath had begun at Creation. God worked six days and then he rested on the seventh day. God did no work on the sabbath. This was reinstated and renewed in the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai when God reminded his people that the sabbath was at the heart of all his work.


   "I often hear Sunday referred to as "the sabbath." And perhaps you think that is just an old-fashioned word for Sunday. But that is completely wrong. Sunday is never the sabbath, and never was the sabbath! A transference is made of these ideas which is totally unbiblical. The seventh day was Saturday. The first day was Sunday. And Saturday was to be observed as the sabbath, as it still is in Israel today.


   "In the book of Colossians the Apostle Paul specifically tells us that the observance of a day is one of those shadows which, for the believer, ended at the coming of Christ {Colossians 2:16-17}. But then what is it that God is after? It does no good to do away with an observance if you don't find what it is pointing toward and begin to fulfill that. For the reality of the sabbath has always continued. It is given to us, among many other places in Scripture, in Hebrews Chapter 4, where the apostle reminds us that sabbath means "rest," and that this is a reference to the secret of life. Humans were made to operate out of rest, not out of tension, not out of anxiety, out of pressure, not in a rat race where we are always hounded and harassed and driven and hassled. These are exactly the opposite of what God intended when he made man. We were to operate in activity which proceeds out of rest.


   "What is that rest? Again Hebrews 4 tells us. In Verse 10 it says, "He who has entered into rest has ceased from his own labors, as God did from his," {KJV}. That is, on the seventh day of creation, God ceased from all work. He who enters into rest has stopped his own work and is resting on the work of another. So if you learn the principle of operating out of dependence upon God at work in you, and if you don't try to do it all yourself -- don't feel as if everything depends upon you, don't stew and fret and aren't anxious and troubled because you have got to get it done -- but instead learn to rest on what God is ready to do in you and through you and around you, and expect him to do it, then you are observing the sabbath as God intended it to be observed.


   "Rest is at the heart of everything that God does. All these feasts are a form of the sabbath and consist of one sabbath or of several. All this is to indicate that this is the greatest secret of humanity. The indispensable but largely unlearned secret of our humanity is to learn how to operate out of rest. That is what the sabbath is all about. Notice, by the way, how Jesus stresses this idea in the Sermon on the Mount."


Quoted from God's Calendar: www.pbc.org/library/files/html/0520.html



   On this day at the Central Sanctuary two lambs instead of one would be offered for the morning and evening sacrifices (Numbers 28:9), and twelve loaves of showbread were presented to God (Leviticus 24:5-9; 1 Chronicles 9:32). However far they may be from that Sanctuary they would be aware that ‘the Priest’ was offering these on their behalf.


   With regard to the Sabbath being a day of complete cessation of all work, it is difficult for us in our day, when we have so much free time, to recognize what it must have been like to live in days when some had no free time at all, and when many could find themselves literally worked without respite until they died of exhaustion. The Sabbath ensured that this could not happen to anyone in Israel. No exceptions were allowed specifically for this reason. Men must not be allowed to find a way round it. All men, slave or free, must every seventh day have that one day of total rest.


Mark 2:23-28: One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”


Matthew 12:12: And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.”


Luke 13:14-16: But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.” But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don’t you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water? This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?”



Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation of the Bible.



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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Leviticus 21-22 Holiness for the Priests and the Offerings

Priests will be made unclean by:



  • touching a dead relative (except mother, father, son, daughter, brother, virgin unmarried sister).


Priests must not:



  • shave their heads.

    • Egyptian priests shaved the whole body every third day.



  • trim the edges of their beards.

    • 2 Samuel 10:5:
      When David heard what had happened, he sent messengers to tell the men, “Stay at Jericho until your beards grow out, and then come back.” For they felt deep shame because of their appearance.



  • cut their bodies.

    • 1 Kings 18:28:
      So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out.

    • Isaiah 15:2(about the Moabites):
      Your people will go to their temple in Dibon to mourn. They will go to their sacred shrines to weep. They will wail for the fate of Nebo and Medeba, shaving their heads in sorrow and cutting off their beards.

    • Jeremiah 16:6:
      Both the great and the lowly will die in this land. No one will bury them or mourn for them. Their friends will not cut themselves in sorrow or shave their heads in sadness.

    • Jeremiah 41:5:
      eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria to worship at the Temple of the Lord. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, and had brought along grain offerings and frankincense.

    • Jeremiah 48:37 (about the Moabites):
      The people shave their heads and beards in mourning. They slash their hands and put on clothes made of burlap.

    • Hosea 7:14:
      They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail. They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for grain and new wine, and they turn away from me.



  • dishonor God's name.

  • marry a prostitute.

    • Hosea 1:2: When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.



  • marry a divorced woman.


High Priest must not:



  • let his hair hang loose (uncombed).

  • tear his clothing.

    • Matthew 26:65:
      Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Blasphemy! Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy.

    • Mark 14:63:
      Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Why do we need other witnesses?



  • go near a dead person, even if it's his mother or father.

  • attend his parent's funeral.

  • marry a widow, a divorced woman or a woman defiled by prostitution.


Priests must:



  • be set apart to God as holy.


High Priest must:



  • marry a virgin from his own clan.


Priest's family:



  • If a priest's daughter becomes a prostitute, she must be burned to death.


Disqualifications for a descendant of Aaron being high priest:



  • Any defect, such as:


    • Blind.

    • Lame.

    • Stunted.

    • Deformed.

    • Humped back.

    • Has a broken foot or arm

    • Dwarfness.

    • Defective eye.

    • Oozing sores or scabs.

    • Damaged testicles.



Why all these rules?



  • They must be holy, for they are the ones who present the special gifts to the Lord.

  • The priests are set apart as holy to their God.

  • The high priest has been made holy by the anointing oil.

  • The Lord makes the high priest holy.

  • "Do not defile my holy places."

  • "I am the Lord who makes them holy".


CHAPTER 22: Proper handling of the offerings by Aaron's descendants



  • He must be very careful with offerings.

  • If he is ceremonially unclean when approaching the sacred offerings, he must be cut off from God's presence (he can't serve at the altar).

  • If he becomes unclean by any of the following, he may not eat from the offerings until he has been pronounced clean.


    • Has a skin disease or any kind of discharge.

    • Touched a corpse.

    • Had an emission of semen.

    • Touched a small unclean animal.

    • Touched someone who is ceremonially unclean.

    • Eaten an animal that has died a natural death or has been killed by wild animals.


  • The priest who is defiled in any of the above ways will remain unclean until evening. He must bathe himself in water and will be ceremonially clean again after sundown.

  • No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offerings.

    • 1 Samuel 21:6 (about David on the run from Saul): Since there was no other food available, the priest gave him the holy bread—the Bread of the Presence that was placed before the Lord in the Tabernacle. It had just been replaced that day with fresh bread.



  • A priest's slave and his children may eat from the offerings.

  • If a priest’s daughter marries someone outside the priestly family, she may no longer eat the sacred offerings.

  • Anyone who eats the offerings without realizing it must pay the priest for the amount eaten, plus an additional 20 percent.

  • Restrictions on the burnt and peace offerings:


    • It must be a male animal with no defects.

    • It may be a bull, a ram, or a male goat.

    • It may have no defect of any kind: not blind, crippled, or injured, or has a wart, a skin sore, or scabs, has damaged testicles or is castrated.

    • If a bull or lamb has a leg that is too long or too short, it may be offered as a voluntary offering, but it may not be offered to fulfill a vow.

    • When a calf or lamb or goat is born, it must be left with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as an offering.

    • Do not slaughter a mother animal and her offspring on the same day.

    • This practice was abused in the days of Jesus, where priests would disqualify an animal for an insignificant reason, and them require them to purchase an approved sacrificial animal at an exorbitant price (Matthew 21:12-13).


  • Offer a thanksgiving offering properly.

  • Eat the entire sacrificial animal on the day it is presented. Do not leave any of it until the next morning.


Why all these restrictions:



  • "I am the Lord."

  • "I am the Lord who makes you holy."

  • "I will display my holiness among the people of Israel."

  • "It was I who rescued you from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God."

  • These sacrifices / offerings had to be perfect because they prefigured Christ's perfect offering.


What is it, then, that God wanted to teach the priests in these two chapters? First, He wanted them to know that He is the One who makes men holy, who sets them apart. It was not that the sons of Aaron were better or more worthy than the other Israelites, or that they “tried harder.” It was simply that God sovereignly chose to set them apart from others, to perform a special task. Second, He wanted them to know that in order to perform their task they had to remain undefiled, and thus they had to avoid those defilements which others might have been free to contact. God did have a higher standard for His priests, because they had a sacred task—that of making offerings for the people, because they had a higher privilege, and with it came a higher responsibility.


The fundamental difference which quickly arose between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees was the definition of holiness. The scribes and Pharisees had a distorted perception of the Old Testament definition of holiness, which to them was attained by human effort, by avoiding external ceremonial defilement and by observing the prescribed rituals of the Law of Moses. Thus, they concluded that Jesus, who mingled with sinners, who touched lepers, and who challenged their interpretation of the Law, could only be a sinner, operating in the power of Satan. Ultimately, playing their version of holiness and their interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures to their ultimate conclusion, they found Him worthy of death.


The scribes and Pharisees did not interpret and apply the Scriptures properly. They did not carry them far enough. They stopped at the apparent, but did not press on to the intended meaning and practice. They interpreted the Scriptures in terms of what they wanted to believe and in terms of the way they wished to live. They did not conform their lives to the Word of God, but conformed the Word of God to their lives. They interpreted the Scriptures in such a way as to always “fulfill” them, to live by their demands, rather than to be persistently reminded of their own sinfulness, and their need for a sacrifice. Rather than seeing holiness as God’s work, they saw it as man’s work, and thus they became proud and independent, rather than humble and dependent upon God. They did not feel that they needed, nor did they seek, mercy, but they felt they deserved God’s blessings. Rather than viewing their position as a privilege, they saw it as a right. Rather than seeing their ministry as a service, they saw it as a right to have status.


These errors are not confined to ancient Israel, or to the first century, they are just as prevalent and popular today. We, like the scribes and Pharisees, are not inclined to take the Scriptures as far as God intended us to. We wish to stop at the point of studying them for information, for the formulation or proof-texting of theological systems. We want to feel holy, without acknowledging that holiness comes only from God. We want to avoid those defilements which we find distasteful anyway. We want to keep the Scriptures carefully compartmentalized, rather than to allow them to convict us in every corner of our lives. We want to use the Scriptures to elevate ourselves above our peers.




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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Leviticus 17-20 Laws of Holiness

CHAPTER 17: The Sacredness of Life and The Shedding of Blood.


Sacrificial Blood: Living with a holy God requires that the blood of sacrifice be for the altar representing the life given for atonement.


The blood is the life of the flesh (17:11) and it is through the atoning blood of Christ that the believer receives redemption (I Peter 1:18-19), forgiveness (Ephesians 1:7), justification (Romans 5:9), spiritual peace (Colossians 1:20), and sanctification (Hebrews 13:12).



  • 1 Peter 1:18-19: For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

  • Ephesians 1:7: He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

  • Romans 5:9: And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

  • Colossians 1:20: and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

  • Hebrews 13:12: So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood.


Do not sacrifice anywhere inside or outside the camp without bringing it to the entrance of the Tabernacle to present it as an offering to the Lord. The penalty is death! Why? So the priest can sprinkle the blood and burn the fat on the altar. Also, so the people would be less likely to slip into idol worship. Do not offer sacrifices to evil spirits in the fields. There is only one place where God meets with the sinners - at the altar at the door of the Tabernacle and later at the Cross.


In the pagan world at that time, it was customary to offer sacrifice wherever one pleased. Altars were customarily built on high hills, in forested areas, or at other special places.


1 Corinthians 10:19-20: What am I trying to say? Am I saying that food offered to idols has some significance, or that idols are real gods? No, not at all. I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to participate with demons.


Do not eat or drink blood because the life is in the blood. Genesis 9:4 (to Noah): But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it.

If you kill an animal or blood when hunting, you must pour the blood on the ground and cover it with dirt.


CHAPTER 18: Forbidden Pagan Sexual Practices


Morality in Life and Ritual: Living with a holy God requires an established cultural pattern of morality in life and ritual for one to continue in the community and for Israel to continue in the land.


All through the Scriptures we are taught that sex is to be a total union of a man and his wife, expressing physical, emotional, and spiritual oneness. That is what sex is supposed to be about. Therefore, marriage is its only possible expression.


(1-5) Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the Lord your God. So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the Lord your God. If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.


No sex with:



  • Your mother.

  • Any of your father's wives.

  • Your sister or half sister (Abraham married his half-sister).

  • Your granddaughter.

  • Your aunt.

  • Your daughter-in-law.

  • Your sister-in-law.

  • Both a woman and her daughter.

  • A woman and her granddaughter.

  • A woman and her sister (Jacob married Rachel and Leah).

  • While the woman is having her menstrual period. You are not even to touch her or you'll be ceremonially unclean. Note how the woman with an issue of blood touched the hem of Jesus' robe and was healed, which would have made Jesus ceremonially unclean.

  • Your neighbor's wife.

  • No homosexuality. God calls homosexual sex an abomination, even as He does in Romans 1:24-32.

  • No bestiality.

  • Also, do not sacrifice your child to Molech as practiced by the Canaanites.


(27-30) “All these detestable activities are practiced by the people of the land where I am taking you, and this is how the land has become defiled. So do not defile the land and give it a reason to vomit you out, as it will vomit out the people who live there now. Whoever commits any of these detestable sins will be cut off from the community of Israel. So obey my instructions, and do not defile yourselves by committing any of these detestable practices that were committed by the people who lived in the land before you. I am the Lord your God.”


The phrase "I am the Lord" is sprinkled throughout this chapter for emphasis. This is the focal point of Leviticus.


CHAPTER 19: Holiness in Personal Conduct


Leviticus chapter 19 outlines how an Israelite is to live a holy life. The Mosaic Covenant is established so that Israel would be a holy nation (Exodus 19:6). While there are hints at how holiness is to be practiced by the people of God earlier in the Pentateuch, it is in the 19th chapter of the Book of Leviticus that holiness is defined in great detail. Exodus 19:6: And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.”


Holiness involved sacrifice, in that it is costly. Holiness was more than a matter of observing religious rituals - it involved a wide variety of actions as a part of one’s everyday life. Holiness is the imitation of God. Holiness was here to be revealed positively, rather than negatively. Finally, holiness is practiced by loving one’s neighbor as one’s self (verse 18).


DO NOT:



  • Do not put your trust in idols or make metal images of gods for yourselves.

    The word for idols literally means "nothings". Idols represent gods that are not real and do not really exist. Israel had a major problem idol worship until the Babylonian captivity (some 800 years from the time of Leviticus). After the Babylonian captivity, Israel was cured of gross idolatry of molded gods and began a more insidious form of idolatry - idolatry of the nation itself, idolatry of the temple and its ceremonies, and an idolatry of tradition - much as with some religions today - Catholicism and Islam for example.

    Molech was a fertility god, represented by a great iron or stone statue which was heated until white-hot by a fire built within it. People would take their infants and lay them in the outstretched arms of this idol and stand by as the children screamed in agony, cremated alive as an offering to Molech. Why would parents do a thing like that? -- because they believed that this would increase the yield of their crops, and therefore their own prosperity. God was not only intent upon ending this cruel practice, with its insane sacrifice of human life in this horrendous manner, but what he really wants to convey is the evil of the principle involved: parents sacrificing their children for their own benefit.

  • When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop.

  • Same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. See Ruth chapter 2.

  • Do not steal.

  • Do not deceive or cheat one another.


  • Do not bring shame on the name of your God by using it to swear falsely.

  • Do not defraud or rob your neighbor.

  • Do not insult the deaf or cause the blind to stumble.

  • Do not twist justice in legal matters by favoring the poor or being partial to the rich and powerful.

  • Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people.

  • Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is threatened.

  • Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives.

  • Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite.

  • Do not mate two different kinds of animals.

  • Do not plant your field with two different kinds of seed.

  • Do not wear clothing woven from two different kinds of thread.

  • Do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood.

  • Do not practice fortune-telling or witchcraft. 1 Chronicles 10:13: So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He failed to obey the Lord’s command, and he even consulted a medium.

  • Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards. To do this was to imitate pagan customs of that day. Jewish orthodox men are conspicuous by their untrimmed beards and long, curly locks on the sides of their heads. The phrase "round the corners of your heads" refers to a practice in ancient idolatry where priests shaved around their head leaving a tuft of hair on top. "Mar the corners of thy beard" refers to an Egyptian custom forbidding beards. Read Genesis 41:14 that documents Joseph being imprisoned and called before Pharaoh, and before they met he hastily "shaved himself and changed his rainment" to avoid criticism due to their custom.

  • Do not cut your bodies for the dead.

  • Do not mark your skin with tattoos.

  • Do not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be filled with prostitution and wickedness.

  • Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land. Treat them like native-born Israelites, and love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners living in the land of Egypt.


  • Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight, or volume. Your scales and weights must be accurate.


DO:



  • You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. The idea behind the word holy is "separate." As it is applied to God, it describes God's "apartness". It means that God is different than man in the greatness and majesty of His attributes. He has a righteousness unlike any other; a justice unlike any other; a purity unlike any other - and love, grace, and mercy unlike any other. Being holy means being like God, separating ourselves unto Him and His truth - and naturally, separating ourselves from those things that are not like Him and not according to His truth.

  • Respect your mother and father.

  • Observe my Sabbath days of rest.

  • Offer your peace offering to the Lord properly so you will be accepted by God.

  • The sacrifice must be eaten on the same day you offer it or on the next day.

  • Pay your hired workers the same day they work.

  • Always judge people fairly.

  • Confront people directly so you will not be held guilty for their sin.

  • Love your neighbor as yourself. Unfortunately, many ancient Jews had a narrow definition of who their neighbor was and only considered their friends and countrymen their neighbors. Jesus commanded us to love your enemies (Luke 6:27), and showed our neighbor was the one in need, even if a traditional enemy (Luke 10:25-37).

    Mark 12:30-31: And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

  • Obey all my decrees.

  • If a man has sex with a slave girl whose freedom has never been purchased but who is committed to become another man’s wife, he must pay full compensation to her master. But since she is not a free woman, neither the man nor the woman will be put to death. The man, however, must bring a ram as a guilt offering and present it to the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle. The priest will then purify him before the Lord with the ram of the guilt offering, and the man’s sin will be forgiven.

  • When you enter the land and plant fruit trees, leave the fruit unharvested for the first three years and consider it forbidden. Do not eat it. In the fourth year the entire crop must be consecrated to the Lord as a celebration of praise. Finally, in the fifth year you may eat the fruit. If you follow this pattern, your harvest will increase.

  • Keep my Sabbath days of rest, and show reverence toward my sanctuary.

  • Do not defile yourselves by turning to mediums or to those who consult the spirits of the dead

  • Stand up in the presence of the elderly, and show respect for the aged.

  • Keep all of my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice.

    • Constantly repeated in this chapter: I am the Lord. 15 times in this chapter, God declared that He is the Lord - and the one with the right to tell us what to do. This is something that God expected ancient Israel to respect, and expects His modern day followers to also respect.



CHAPTER 20: Punishments for Disobedience (both to native Israelites and to the foreigners living in Israel):


The structure of the chapter can be seen as outlined below:



  • Prohibition: Molech and Mediums (vv. 1-6)


  • Exhortation to be holy: Obey God’s Statutes (vv. 7-8)

  • Prohibition: Sins against the Family (vv. 9-21)

  • Exhortation to holiness: Keep God’s Ordinances (vv. 22-26)

  • Prohibition of Mediums: Must be executed (v. 27)



The Bible portrays every sin as worthy of death. The wages of sin, we are told, is death (Romans 6:23). There is no such thing as a small sin in God’s sight. God looks upon sin not only in terms of the action and its consequences, but also in terms of the attitude which is evidenced. At the bottom line, sin is an act of rebellion against God. It matters little what form our rebellion takes, for any act of rebellion against the sovereign God is worthy of death. Since all sins are capital sins, worthy of death, all men desperately need to experience God’s provision for sinners - forgiveness through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, bearing the punishment which we deserve. The sins listed in Leviticus 20 are those sins which the Canaanites would not have considered sins at all.



  • If any of them offer their children as a sacrifice to Molech, they must be put to death. The people of the community must stone them to death.

    The Ammonites made child sacrifice to Molech (their national god). Molech was worshipped by heating a metal statue representing the god until it was red hot, then by placing a living infant on the outstretched hands of the statue, while beating drums drowned out the screams of the child until it burned to death. The penalty for Molech worship was death and if the sentence was not carried out by Israel, God declared He would set My face against that man and against his family. Even Solomon at least sanctioned the worship of Molech and built a temple to this idol (1 Kings 11:7). King Ahaz of Judah dedicated his own son to Molech (2 Kings 16:3). One of the great crimes of the northern tribes of Israel was their worship of Molech, leading to the Assyrian captivity (2 Kings 17:17). King Manasseh of Judah dedicated his son to Molech (2 Kings 21:6). Up to the days of King Josiah of Judah, Molech worship continued, because he destroyed a place of worship to that idol (2 Kings 23:10).

  • Commit spiritual prostitution by putting their trust in mediums or in those who consult the spirits of the dead. I will cut them off from the community.

  • Anyone who dishonors father or mother must be put to death. Virtually all commentators agree this is not the outburst of a small child - or even an adolescent - against their parent, but the settled heart of an adult child against their parent. According to Deuteronomy 21:18-21, the parent did not have the right to carry out this punishment, but they had to bring the accused child before the elders and judges of the city. As a practical matter, the judges of Israel rarely if ever administered the death penalty in such cases, yet the child was held accountable.

  • If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the man and the woman who have committed adultery must be put to death. This also helps us to understand what Jesus was doing when confronting the crowd who brought to Him the woman taken in adultery. By their presence and words, they claimed to have caught the woman in the act - but why then did they not bring the guilty man as well? And who was willing to cast the first stone - that is, initiate the execution? (John 8:1-12)

  • If a man violates his father by having sex with one of his father’s wives, both the man and the woman must be put to death.

  • If a man has sex with his daughter-in-law, both must be put to death.

  • If a man practices homosexuality. They must both be put to death.

  • If a man marries both a woman and her mother, he has committed a wicked act. The man and both women must be burned to death.

  • If a man has sex with an animal, he must be put to death, and the animal must be killed.

  • If a woman has sex with an animal, she and the animal must both be put to death.

  • If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a shameful disgrace. They must be publicly cut off from the community.

  • If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her menstrual period, both of them must be cut off from the community.

  • Do not have sexual relations with your aunt. Both parties are guilty and will be punished for their sin.

  • If a man has sex with his uncle’s wife - they will die childless.

  • If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity. The guilty couple will remain childless.

  • Men and women among you who act as mediums or who consult the spirits of the dead must be put to death by stoning.


(7-8,22-26) So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep all my decrees by putting them into practice, for I am the Lord who makes you holy. “You must keep all my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice; otherwise the land to which I am bringing you as your new home will vomit you out. Do not live according to the customs of the people I am driving out before you. It is because they do these shameful things that I detest them. But I have promised you, ‘You will possess their land because I will give it to you as your possession—a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from all other people. “You must therefore make a distinction between ceremonially clean and unclean animals, and between clean and unclean birds. You must not defile yourselves by eating any unclean animal or bird or creature that scurries along the ground. I have identified them as being unclean for you. You must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own.


These verses are another reminder that God's laws to the Israelites were given to set them apart from the pagans surrounding them and in Canaan. God's laws were given to differentiate what is right and wrong, in comparison to the pagan immoral customs. If someone examined your life, would they see that you are set apart from the customs of our modern world?



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Saturday, March 7, 2009

Leviticus 16 - Yom Kippur

The first reference to the Day of Atonement comes in the Book of Exodus,
chapter 30. The first nine verses detail the plans for the Altar of Incense.
There is then a special word of warning, followed by a brief reference
to the Day of Atonement:

Exodus 30:9-10: Do not offer any unholy incense on this altar, or any burnt offerings, grain offerings, or liquid offerings. “Once a year Aaron must purify the altar by smearing its horns with blood from the offering made to purify the people from their sin. This will be a regular, annual event from generation to generation, for this is the Lord’s most holy altar.”


Unlike the other Jewish holidays, the Day of Atonement was no festive
event. It was a day of national mourning and repentance. This was a Sabbath
day celebration, which meant that no work could be done.
Anyone who did not observe this Sabbath was to be cut off from his people, which is a euphemism for being put to death. Beyond this,
this was a day when the people were to “humble their souls”. This would thus be the only religious holiday which was characterized
by mourning, fasting, and repentance. No other sacrifice in Leviticus
more clearly anticipates the future, greater, atonement of Israel’s
Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. And no other sacrifice provides a better
backdrop against which to see the vast superiority of our Lord’s
atonement over that of Aaron.


Leviticus 23:26-32: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Be careful to celebrate the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of that same month—nine days after the Festival of Trumpets. You must observe it as an official day for holy assembly, a day to deny yourselves and present special gifts to the Lord. Do no work during that entire day because it is the Day of Atonement, when offerings of purification are made for you, making you right with the Lord your God. All who do not deny themselves that day will be cut off from God’s people. And I will destroy anyone among you who does any work on that day. You must not do any work at all! This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live. This will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and on that day you must deny yourselves. This day of rest will begin at sundown on the ninth day of the month and extend until sundown on the tenth day.”


Numbers 29:7-11: “Ten days later, on the tenth day of the same month, you must call another holy assembly. On that day, the Day of Atonement, the people must go without food and must do no ordinary work. “You must present a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It will consist of one young bull, one ram, and seven one-year-old male lambs, all with no defects. These offerings must be accompanied by the prescribed grain offerings of choice flour moistened with olive oil—six quarts of choice flour with the bull, four quarts of choice flour with the ram, and two quarts of choice flour with each of the seven lambs. You must also sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering. This is in addition to the sin offering of atonement and the regular daily burnt offering with its grain offering, and their accompanying liquid offerings.


The day would begin as usual with the offering
of the morning sacrifice, the burnt offering of a one year old lamb. After these duties were performed, the High
Priest would commence the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement is observed on the 10th day of the seventh month
of Tishri. It is the only commanded fast in the year and is, doubtless,
the most solemn day in the sacred calendar.
On this day the high priest laid aside his official ornaments and dressed
in a white linen garment entered the Most Holy place to make atonement
for himself, the priesthood and the congregation of Israel. The Epistle
to the Hebrews (chapter 9) explains that this annual entry by the High
Priest in the Holy of Holies foreshadowed the entrance of the Messiah
the High Priest of the Melchizedek Order into Yahweh's
presence to secure salvation for His people.


To the ancient Jews, the Day of Atonement was called “the great day” or sometimes even just “the day.” Modern Jews still regard Yom Kippur an important day of fasting, soul searching, and righting wrongs - yet they offer no sacrifice for sin.


The Day followed exactly six months after the setting aside of the lambs for the Feast of the Passover, and was followed five days later by the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths.


The Hebrew word kipper for atone means "to cover".
On the day of Atonement, the people of Israel confessed their sins as
a nation and the high priest went into the Holy of Holies to make atonement
for them. Sacrifices were made and blood was shed so that the people's
sins could be "covered" until Christ's sacrifice on the cross
would give people the opportunity to have their sin removed forever. The English word "atonement" means to make amends for, to reconcile,
to restore, to repair, to make at-one again. And that is exactly what
the Day of Atonement prefigures. It points to a specific time in the future
when the great High Priest of the Melchizedek Order (Yeshua the Messiah)
will literally bring the redeemed host of mankind right into the very
presence of His Father, in order that we may be AT-ONE with YAHWEH. That indeed will by a reconciliation beyond compare, when the Almighty's
estranged human family - alienated from Him by sin - will actually be
brought into His presence to be AT ONE with Him. This captures the thought behind the Hebrew word for atonement: Kipper, which means, “to cover.” Sin was not removed, but covered over by sacrificial blood. The New Testament idea of atonement is that our sin is not merely covered, but removed - taken away, so there is no barrier between God and man any longer.


Yahweh's family of true believers:



  • Ransomed at the Passover and liberated by the blood of His Son - the
    Passover Lamb.


  • Purged of sin, hypocrisy and false doctrine during the Days of Unleavened
    Bread     to become a holy Temple of God.


  • Filled with the power of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost in order to bear fruit for all
    eternity.

  • Victoriously gathered and defended at the Feast of Trumpets when the trumpets
    of Yahweh will sound throughout the earth.

  • And finally on the Great Day of Atonement, brought into the very presence
    of the Almighty by his Son the High Priest to be at-one with Him for all
    eternity.


  • Luke 15:22-24: “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.


(1) The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died after they entered the Lord’s presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before him.


(2) The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the *Most Holy Place behind the inner **curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the ***Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover.


*Most Holy Place: This is the Holy of Holies; that place within the veil where the ark of the covenant ,etc., were laid up; and where God manifested his presence between the cherubim.


**curtain: The Hebrew term parokhet is usually translated “veil” or “curtain,” but it seems to have stretched not only in front of but also over the top of the ark of the covenant which stood behind and under it inside the most holy place, and thus formed more of a canopy than simply a curtain. There is a veil between the ark, and the two other pieces of furniture representing the persons and altar of incense which is very close to the veil. This veil, sown with cherubim represent the time when the angel with a flaming sword that turned every direction prevented Adam and Eve from entering the Garden from the east entrance. Therefore, whenever the High Priest enters the Holy of Holies, it is symbolic of a re-entrance to where God had resided (since the garden was also called the “garden of God”, implying that the garden AND heaven were united in a way we cannot perceive except spiritually and theologically today). Jesus’ work on the cross and his entrance to the third heaven is exactly what the High Priest’s entrance into and work in the Holy of Holies preaches.


***Ark:

1 Chronicles 28:2: David rose to his feet and said: “My brothers and my people! It was my desire to build a temple where the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant, God’s footstool, could rest permanently. I made the necessary preparations for building it,

Psalm 132:7-8: Let us go to the sanctuary of the Lord; let us worship at the footstool of his throne. Arise, O Lord, and enter your resting place,
along with the Ark, the symbol of your power.


The mercy-seat was the covering on the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh, where atonement could be made and man become reconciled to God. It was the ‘kapporeth’, the place where reconciliation and atonement was finally performed. This was a solid gold slab on which were the two cherubim at either end looking inward. It was the same size as the chest which it covered. It comes from the root ‘kpr’ (to cover) and the conjugation used signifies the place where sins are ‘fully covered’ so that they are no longer seen by God and held against the sinner (Jeremiah 18:23). It is the place where the punishment for sin was met by the shedding of blood, the place of atonement, of reconciliation, where He and His people were made at one. There is also a suggestion behind it that it is the earthly throne of Yahweh between the cherubim.


Hebrews 4:16: So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.


Hebrews 9:7-12, 24-26: But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long as the Tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use. This is an illustration pointing to the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. For that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established. So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever...For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.


(3) “When Aaron enters the sanctuary area, he must follow these instructions fully. He must bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.


On this day, after the morning whole burnt offering (a lamb of the first year) had been offered with its accompanying grain offering, Aaron’s approach to Yahweh had to commence with offerings for himself because the true high priest was to be SPOTLESS! The Jewish writers say that for seven days before the day of expiation the high priest was to retire from his own house, and to dwell in a chamber of the temple, that he might prepare himself for the service of this great day. During those seven days he himself did the work of the inferior priests about the sacrifices, incense, etc., that he might have his hand in for this day: he must have the institution read to him again and again, that he might be fully apprised of the whole method.


(4) He must put on his linen tunic and the linen undergarments worn next to his body. He must tie the linen sash around his waist and put the linen turban on his head. These are sacred garments, so he must bathe himself in water before he puts them on.


He was not to dress in his high priest's garments, but in the simple garments of the Levites, because it was a day of humiliation;
and as he was to offer sacrifices for his own sins, it was necessary that
he should appear in clothing suited to the occasion. Hence he has neither
the robe, the ephod, the breastplate, the mitre, etc. Now, he appears, before God as a
sinner, offering an atonement for his transgressions, and his garments
are those of humiliation. Beautiful colored materials, intricate embroidery, gold and jewelry made
him look like a king. On the day of atonement he looked more like a slave.
His outfit consisted of four simple garments in white linen. On
this one day, the high priest enters the ‘other world,’ into
the very presence of God. He must therefore dress as befits the occasion.
Among his fellow men his dignity as the great mediator between man and
God is unsurpassed, and his splendid clothes draw attention to the glory
of his office. But in the presence of God even the high priest is stripped
of all honor: he becomes simply the servant of the King of kings, whose
true status is portrayed in the simplicity of his dress. Ezekiel (9:2-3,
11; 10:2, 6-7) and Daniel (10:5; 12:6-7) describe angels as dressed in
linen, while Revelation 19:8 portrays the saints in heaven as wearing similar
clothes.


The breastplate and the tunic and the gold and the blue and the scarlet would all be put aside. It was a picture of the Messiah who would lay aside His glory (Philippians 2:7).


(5) Aaron must take from the community of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.


(6) “Aaron will present his own bull as a sin offering to purify himself and his family, making them right with the Lord.


(7) Then he must take the two male goats and present them to the Lord at the entrance of the *Tabernacle.


*Tabernacle: Hebrew Tent of Meeting


(8) He is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the Lord and which will carry the sins of the people to the wilderness of Azazel.


(9) Aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the Lord.


(10) The other goat, the scapegoat chosen by lot to be sent away, will be kept alive, standing before the Lord. When it is sent away to *Azazel in the wilderness, the people will be purified and made right with the Lord.


The two goats represented the two ways God was dealing with the Israelites' sin:

1) He was forgiving their sin through the first goat, which was sacrificed, and

2) He was removing their guilt through the second goat, the scapegoat, that was sent into the wilderness.


*Azazel is a name many scholars have debated about its meaning.


(11) “Aaron will present his own bull as a sin offering to purify himself and his family, making them right with the Lord. After he has slaughtered the bull as a sin offering,


(12) he will fill an incense burner with burning coals from the altar that stands before the Lord. Then he will take two handfuls of fragrant powdered incense and will carry the burner and the incense behind the inner curtain.


Only fire from the brazen altar of burnt offering, where atonement had been made, could be used for kindling the incense on the golden altar in the holy place. All other fire was "strange fire".


The Jews say that he was to go in side-ways, that he might not look directly upon the ark where the divine glory was, till it was covered with smoke; then he must come out backwards, out of reverence to the divine majesty; and, after a short prayer, he was to hasten out of the sanctuary, to show himself to the people, that they might not suspect that he had misbehaved himself and died before the Lord.


(13) There in the Lord’s presence he will put the incense on the burning coals so that a cloud of incense will rise over the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—that rests on the Ark of the Covenant. If he follows these instructions, he will not die.


The smoke shielded him from the Ark of the Covenant and the presence of God so that he would not die.


(14) Then he must take some of the blood of the bull, dip his finger in it, and sprinkle it on the east side of the atonement cover. He must sprinkle blood seven times with his finger in front of the atonement cover.


Note that he sprinkles on the nearest side only, not on all four sides. He is only a temporary visitor here with restricted rights, and even now must not come too close. The ‘seven times’ indicates completeness.


The Holy of Holies would be in complete darkness lit only by the coals from the censer and a very faint light coming through from the golden lampstand through the gap in the veil through which the High Priest comes. And there in the dark shadow would be the famed and revered Ark of the covenant of Yahweh. (After the Exile all that would be there was a large stone put there to serve as a substitute until the Ark could be returned. Or at least the latter was what many believed).


(15) “Then Aaron must slaughter the first goat as a sin offering for the people and carry its blood behind the inner curtain. There he will sprinkle the goat’s blood over the atonement cover and in front of it, just as he did with the bull’s blood.


2 Corinthians 5:21: For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.


(16) Through this process, he will purify the Most Holy
Place, and he will do the same for the entire Tabernacle, because of the
defiling sin and rebellion of the Israelites.


(17) No one else is allowed inside the Tabernacle when Aaron enters it for the purification ceremony in the Most Holy Place. No one may enter until he comes out again after purifying himself, his family, and all the congregation of Israel, making them right with the Lord.


Atonement of the holy place is done alone, without anyone present to
help or to watch. This was a picture of Jesus who was forsaken by all when He became the covering for our sins.


(18) “Then Aaron will come out to purify the *altar that stands before the Lord. He will do this by taking some of the blood from the bull and the goat and putting it on each of the horns of the altar.


*altar: The altar of burnt offering.


The type given is of Jesus entering the Holy of Holies, which has been fulfilled. But, He has not yet come back out of or returned from the Holy of Holies (in type).


(19) Then he must sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times over the altar. In this way, he will cleanse it from Israel’s defilement and make it holy.


(20) “When Aaron has finished purifying the Most Holy Place and the Tabernacle and the altar, he must present the live goat.


(21) He will lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people of Israel. In this way, he will transfer the people’s sins to the head of the goat. Then a man specially chosen for the task will drive the goat into the wilderness.


(22) As the goat goes into the wilderness, it will carry all the people’s sins upon itself into a desolate land.


Now as the years went on there was a highly developed ritual that went with this as the temple was finally established in Jerusalem. There was a certain area (10 miles out) where the scapegoat was generally released. There were men that would stand at vantage points all the way out to the Judean wilderness. The priest would be going out and the people would all be waiting back in the great area of the temple mount. The priest would come to the wilderness area where he turned it loose. As it ran and when it disappeared, he would give a signal to the fellow back on the mountain peak, who would give the signal to the next guy, who would send to the next, to the next, to the next. And in just a few moments the signal would come from the Mount of Olives to those down in the temple mount that the scapegoat has gone, the sins are gone. There would be this great rejoicing of the people and singing of praises to God as the news would come back that the goat carrying the sin was gone - just as are sins are gone, never to return, when we've accepted Jesus' atoning sacrifice on the cross for us.


(23) “When Aaron goes back into the Tabernacle, he must take off the linen garments he was wearing when he entered the Most Holy Place, and he must leave the garments there.


(24) Then he must bathe himself with water in a sacred place, put on his regular garments, and go out to sacrifice a burnt offering for himself and a burnt offering for the people. Through this process, he will purify himself and the people, making them right with the Lord.


(25) He must then burn all the fat of the sin offering on the altar.


(26) “The man chosen to drive the scapegoat into the wilderness of Azazel must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water. Then he may return to the camp.


(27) “The bull and the goat presented as sin offerings, whose blood Aaron takes into the Most Holy Place for the purification ceremony, will be carried outside the camp. The animals’ hides, internal organs, and dung are all to be burned.


(28) The man who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water before returning to the camp.


(29) “On the tenth day of the appointed *month in early autumn, you must **deny yourselves. Neither native-born Israelites nor foreigners living among you may do any kind of work. This is a permanent law for you.


*month: This would be the seventh month (Tishri). Yom Kippur is one of the three fall festivals and here are their dates in 2009:




  1. Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah which means "Head of the Year" or "First of the Year") - 9/19/09.

  2. Day of Atonement
    (Yom Kippur) - Sunset September 27, 2009 - nightfall September 28, 2009.

  3. Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) - starts 10/3/09.


The 7 feasts correspond to the Menorah:



  1. Passover (Pesach) - FULFILLED

  2. Feast of Unleavened Bread - (Hag Ha Matzah) - FULFILLED

  3. Feast of First Fruits - Yom HaBikkurim - FULFILLED

  4. Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) - Shavuoth - FULFILLED

  5. Feast of Trumpets (The Jewish New Year) - Rosh Hashanah - YET TO BE FULFILLED

  6. Day of Atonement - (Yom Kippur) - YET TO BE FULFILLED

  7. Feast of Tabernacles - (Succot) - YET TO BE FULFILLED



**deny: afflict or humble your souls.


Modern Jews who do observe the Day of Atonement typically fast for that day. Yet they have no sacrifice for sins. Some Jews consider charity a suitable substitute for sacrifice; the word “charity” in modern Hebrew is the same as the word for “righteousness.” Some Jews consider sufferings a suitable substitute for sacrifice; among the Jews of Eastern Europe there used to be custom to inflict 39 lashes upon themselves on the Day of Atonement. Some Jews consider good works or the study of the law as suitable substitutes for sacrifice.


(30) On that day offerings of purification will be made for you, and you will be purified in the Lord’s presence from all your sins.


(31) It will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. This is a permanent law for you.


Yom Kippur ends with the blowing of the Shofar, the trumpet that heralds the coming of the Messiah.


(32) In future generations, the purification ceremony will be performed by the priest who has been anointed and ordained to serve as high priest in place of his ancestor Aaron. He will put on the holy linen garments


(33) and purify the Most Holy Place, the Tabernacle, the altar, the priests, and the entire congregation.


(34) This is a permanent law for you, to purify the people of Israel from their sins, making them right with the Lord once each year.” Moses followed all these instructions exactly as the Lord had commanded him.


Numbers 29:7-11: “Ten days later, (after the Festival of Trumpets) on the tenth day of the same month, you must call another holy assembly. On that day, the Day of Atonement, the people must go without food and must do no ordinary work. You must present a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It will consist of one young bull, one ram, and seven one-year-old male lambs, all with no defects. These offerings must be accompanied by the prescribed grain offerings of choice flour moistened with olive oil—six quarts of choice flour with the bull, four quarts of choice flour with the ram, and two quarts of choice flour with each of the seven lambs. You must also sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering. This is in addition to the sin offering of atonement and the regular daily burnt offering with its grain offering, and their accompanying liquid offerings.


The rituals of the Day of Atonement were to be repeated each year. For over a thousand years, this drama was acted out, first within the Tabernacle, and later within the Temple. The ritual found its fulfillment on a spring day in the first century A.D. The Romans had set aside three crosses. Three thieves were destined to hang upon those crosses. They had been apprehended, judged, and found to be guilty. They were placed under the sentence of death. But one of those thieves missed his appointment. He never went to the cross. His name was BARABAS. Another man went to the cross in his place. Jesus died upon the cross of Barabas and Barabas was set free. We have been set free, too. And it was not because we were any more deserving. It was a gift of GRACE.


The Feast of Trumpets is followed by ten days called by modern Jews, "the days of awe." This is a time of national repentance for Israel. The 10th day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement. On this day the priest entered the Holy of Holies into the presence of God to sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. The Passover clearly represents personal salvation, [each family had their own lamb, and celebrated Passover at home]. But the Day of Atonement represents national salvation for Israel. Only one sacrifice was offered for the whole nation. The Bible makes it clear that at the second coming of Christ, the surviving Jews will look upon Christ and be saved in a day. [cf. Zechariah 12:9,10 & 13:1, Romans 11:25-27, Revelation 1:7] If there is any day on the Jewish calendar which is a prophecy of the second coming of Christ to overthrow the world kingdoms and deliver His people Israel, this is it.



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