Chapter 16
Instructions for the Day of Atonement. These were given to Moses after Aaron's son's were killed. One of the instructions is for Aaron not to try coming into the Holy of Holies unless these things are first performed. Implies that maybe his son's had taken their strange fire all the way into the Holy of Holies. Going through this veil required intense, accurate, prescribed preparation, and any error would result in death. No second chances for the High Priest, any more than for anyone else. First a bull for a sin offering, then a ram for a burnt offering. This seems to be the required order of operations before approaching God. First an offering to rid oneself of sin - a spiritual purification - and then a burnt offering as a positional sacrifice wherein the one approaching acknowledges that it is God who is in the higher position, and the offerer is therefore humbling himself before his God. So many of the sacrifices follow this order.
Aaron first had to wash himself (baptism?) and put on all the holy garments, then make a sacrifice for himself and his family. Then two goats were brought as a sacrifice for the people. Lots were cast to decide which goat would be sacrificed and which would be released into the wilderness. The MSB note - a long note - on 16:6-28, gives the step by step of how these sacrifices were to be carried out. It was long, involved, and required complete concentration to do correctly.
There are these verses:
8 And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel. ... 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. [Lev 16:8, 10 ESV]
I found a number of things relating to Azazel in the notes. MSB says the word literally means "escape goat". This is often interpreted as our word scapegoat. There were the two goats. One lot showed the goat that would be the Lord's, the one sacrificed, the one that died for the sins of Aaron and the people. The death of this goat, and its shed blood, were substituted for sin's penalty due from Aaron and the people. But instead of their deaths, there was the death of this goat. The other goat was the scapegoat - which was released into the "wilderness of Azazel". This represented the "removal of sin" from the people. However, note that the sin was still there, but was in another place. It was not among the people anymore, and a substitute had died for that sin, but the sin remains somewhere. God still knows where that sin is. The blood of bulls and goats is insufficient for the true removal of man's sin. This is specifically explained in Hebrews.
There are many interpretations of Azazel, depending on which version you look at.
This atonement for Aaron and all the people was all to take place once a year, in the seventh month, the 10th day of the month. It cleansed the Tent of Meeting from the uncleanness of the people who came there, it cleansed the altar, the mercy seat, and the furnishings of the Tabernacle. This was done once a year, and is a statute forever for the people of Israel.
2021 - So one of the goats is killed as a sin offering. The other goat is released in the wilderness to Azazel. Scapegoat. Don't know if this should really be capitalized or not. The sin offering for the people is carried outside the camp and burned. Once a year. So this is all for the people as a whole and for the contents of the tent of meeting. It is atonement. In this case, the atonement lasts just one year.
So many symbols here, and it is hard to really understand them. It seems like Aaron went into the Holy Place two different times, once with blood from the bull that was his sin offering, and then again with the blood of the goat that was the people's sin offering. The blood was sprinkled, but it seems also to have been applied. It was applied first then sprinkled. Blood from both of these was put on the horns of the altar outside, and was also sprinkled seven times on the altar. What is symbolized by this? Applied, then sprinkled?
His bull's blood is only sprinkled on the mercy seat. He does not touch the mercy seat. Same with the goat's blood for the people. Where the mercy seat is concerned, only sprinkling. On the altar, outside the tent, blood of both bull and goat applied to the horns, and then both sprinkled on the altar seven times. Only after all this blood work is done is the "live" goat brought in, and Aaron lays both hands on it and transfers the people's sins and confesses those sins - all the iniquities of the people - and then the goat is sent away into the wilderness. The goat bearing all the sins is not killed. It lives. It does not symbolize the coming Messiah. It is almost like this goat's purpose is to show that without death, there is no permanent cleansing of sin. Odd also that lots are cast to see which goat will live and which will die. I don't see any Messianic symbolism in this either.
2023 -The symbolism seems to be that all the sins of the people are concentrated though the various priests and ultimately reside upon Aaron, the high priest. It is he who transfers the sin of the people onto the scapegoat. He mediates for all Israel in transferring their sin onto this scapegoat, which is forever banished outside the camp. The sin is not still "within" the camp, but has been transferred outside. But it is not forgiven. It is not gone. It takes a perfect sacrifice to forgive sin, and to wholly purify those who committed that sin.
2022 - Everything from here to the *** is 2022. The bull, which dies first, is a sin offering to make atonement for Aaron and his household. It is only for them. Note also that sin offerings are ABOUT atonement. They appease God for the sin(s) committed against Him. The bull is killed, and then some of the blood shed is brought within the veil, with coals from the altar and incense. This blood is first sprinkled ON the front of the Mercy Seat - which faces east - and then seven times Aaron was to sprinkle blood in FRONT of the Mercy Seat. Presumably on the ground there between the Mercy Seat and the veil. This is an atonement for Aaron and his family.
NEXT, the goat chosen by lot is killed as a sin offering for the people. So now atonement via sin offering is made for the people. The goat is killed and its blood collected, like the bull's blood. The goat's blood is taken inside the veil, and sprinkled first on the front/east side of the Mercy Seat, and then in front of it, just like the bull's blood. This step atones for the Holy Place, which is "polluted" by the sins of the people during the year. As I read it, he goes in a third time - second time with the goat's blood - and does the same as before, atoning for the tent of meeting itself.
NEXT, after atoning for himself, the Holy Place, and the Tent of Meeting, he comes out to the altar, which is out in front of the Holy Place. Atonement must also be made for the altar. Aaron was to put some blood from the bull AND the goat on the four horns of the altar. Seems like he was to actually use his hand to sort of "smear" the blood of each animal on the four horns of the altar. Not just the east, but all four. THEN, he was to sprinkle blood on it seven times. Looks to me like the blood of bull and goat were mingled for this, and sprinkled using a finger. This cleansed and consecrated the altar "from the uncleanness of the people of Israel". One must conclude that objects are contaminated by the presence of sinners. What is declared Holy must be constantly cleansed of contamination it acquires just by being near what is unholy.
All this so far has cleansed Aaron, his family, the Holy Place, and the tent of meeting so now it is time to deal with the live goat.
In this part, Aaron, now purified, lays his hands on the goat, and confesses all the sins of the people over that goat. He "transfers" all the sins of the people onto that goat. Once the goat has all the sin, it is led out alive to a place outside the camp by a person designated for that task. The sins of the people are taken outside the camp. That sin-covered goat is set free.
Once this happens, Aaron changes clothes, washes with water, and comes out to the altar. There, he burns the bull and the goat offered as sin offerings which atones for him and for all the people. So...the goat that has the sins on it is gone out of the camp and set free. But the sin offering must still take place, because taking those sins outside the camp did not ATONE for those sins. Only the burning of the sin offering will atone. But there is still more. When the sin offering is burned, it is done according to the procedure for sin offerings. That is, the fat is burned, certain parts are burned, but the rest of the sin offering is taken outside the camp and burned there. (The sin offering is discussed in Lev 4. It very specifically says that the sin offering is for unintentional sin. Perhaps we are to see from this that the goat sent out alive carries intentional sin? So...let's discuss the procedure of this sin offering. For a priest or for all the people the procedure is the same. A bull is killed and some of the blood is brought into the tent of meeting (I read that as the Holy Place) and using his finger/hand, he places blood on each of the four horns of the altar of incense that sits before the veil. Then he sprinkles blood seven times in front of the veil. So this atonement, this sin offering, is similar to the annual atonement, but no one goes inside the veil. After all this, the rest of the blood is poured out before the altar for burnt offerings, which is outside the tent of meeting. No sprinkling takes place out here. Then, the fat from this bull, the good fat, is burned on the altar of burnt offering. The rest - the head, the legs, the skin, the entrails, the dung - are carried outside the camp and burned on a wood fire in a clean place. I went through all this to show that no part of the sin offering - which is for atonement - is eaten by the priest officiating the sacrifice or the one who offers the sacrifice for his unintentional sin.
2023 - Hmm...am I right in the paragraph above that the priests eat no part at all of the sin offering? No...I have something wrong because of this verse, which helped me with the symbolic drinking of the blood....17 "Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary, since it is a thing most holy and has been given to you that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the LORD? [Lev 10:17 ESV]. So I am missing something somewhere. Are we supposed to just remember this part in the regular sin offerings, but it is not done at all during the annual atonement offerings?
2023 - Perhaps this is the exception. I remember that if the blood was taken into the Holy place/Holy of Holies - not sure if it is either one or both - then the animal that shed this blood was NOT to be eaten. A regular offering would be eaten, but not an animal who's blood was carried inside the holy place. I remember that specifically. Look what Moses says after chastising Aaron's sons for burning the whole sacrifice and not eating any of it: 18 Behold, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. You certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded." [Lev 10:18 ESV]. Those two verse in Lev 10 seem to be giving us a LOT of important information!
2023 - The sin offering had to go first, and atone for the offerant, because the burnt offering would not be accepted from one corrupted by sin. This is consistent with Ezekiel 18, where the good deeds of a corrupt man are not credited to him by God.
2023 - Look at this verse:
30 For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins. [Lev 16:30 ESV]. This applied to all Israel. This one day a year they were clean before the Lord. The accumulated sin was expelled in the scapegoat. But immediately, sin began to accumulate again, via the sinners, through the sin offering to the priests, accumulating all year until the next Day of Atonement. Jesus, as perfect sacrifice, atoned once and for all for our sins. His life was perfect, his life was in his blood, shed for us. In eating his body in the Lord's supper, we take on the sins of ours that he bore for us, and when we drink his blood, we "put on" the perfect life that he lived and stand clean before the Lord. Salvation does this once for all, and the Lord's supper reminds us in symbolism of what He did for us.
What I am trying to understand is the connection - the symbolism - between Jesus death on the cross outside the camp and these required sacrifices under the law. All I have figured out is that maybe the scapegoat has the intentional sins, and that goat is gone. Jesus took on the sins of the whole world. Jesus was led outside the city of Jerusalem. But Jesus was not set free there to carry those sins forever. Else he would never have been able to re-enter God's presence. So...what is going on? Jesus carried the sins of the whole world outside the camp. And I think there is somehow a connection with the Lord's supper, where not only was flesh eaten, but blood was also consumed. And this was done INSIDE the camp. So...how to understand all this?
2023 - Man! This was bothering me from WAY back there. To see current thinking, look at "Drinking Blood" in the Bible Study notebook.
What about the Burnt Offering? Lev 1:4 says the burnt offering is to make atonement also, not just the sin offering. So why are there two? There must be a difference in what they are for? The procedure is familiar. The offerer lays his hand on the sacrifice, kills it, and the priests collect the blood. The priests then "throw", not sprinkle, the blood against the sides of the altar. (Might want to look at the actual Hebrew word. Both translations may be from a single Hebrew word.) It is clear that this is the altar outside the tent of meeting. Next, the offering is flayed and cut into pieces. The priests lay a wood fire, and most of the offering is placed directly on the fire. The entrails and legs must first be washed with water. Then the entire animal is burned on the altar. No part of this animal is consumed. You can't get the Lord's supper out of this.
So that leaves the peace offering. This starts just as the burnt offering. The animal is killed and the priests throw the blood on the sides of the altar. The instructions seem to say that only certain parts of the peace offering are burned. Mostly the fat, and then we see that the blood is all poured on the altar - none of it is consumed. Here is that verse: "17 It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood."" [Lev 3:17 ESV]. There is also nothing in the Lord's supper about fat. Except that it is about bread and wine, not meat at all.
In Lev 7 we get the guilt offering. It says it is just like the sin offering. All the fat is burned, the blood thrown on the sides. BUT, it says here that the rest of the animal may be eaten by the priests in a holy place. Here is one of the verses about it: "7 The guilt offering is just like the sin offering; there is one law for them. The priest who makes atonement with it shall have it." [Lev 7:7 ESV]
So I cannot pull out what I'm trying to pull out. I do not yet understand the symbolic connection between Christ's sacrifice on the cross and these offerings. Perhaps the biggest clue would be to go and see what exact sacrifices will still be required in Ezekiel's Temple. I think the only one(s) that go(es) away is/are the one(s) that Christ makes unnecessary. That would make perfect sense, and is possibly the key to understanding all this. But I am out of time for today.
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2023 - These chapters keep taking far longer than I expect them to take. I hope that means I am learning.