YOM KIPPUR
Leviticus 16:29-34 NET.
29 “This is to be a perpetual statute for you. In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you must humble yourselves and do no work of any kind, both the native citizen and the foreigner who resides in your midst, 30 for on this day atonement is to be made for you to cleanse you from all your sins; you must be clean before the LORD. 31 It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves. It is a perpetual statute. 32 “The priest who is anointed and ordained to act as high priest in place of his father is to make atonement. He is to put on the linen garments, the holy garments, 33 and he is to purify the Most Holy Place, he is to purify the Meeting Tent and the altar, and he is to make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 34 This is to be a perpetual statute for you to make atonement for the Israelites for all their sins once a year.” So he did just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
The Bible does not begin with the Gospel of Matthew. In fact, Matthew’s Gospel is the 40th book of the Bible. I have encountered Christians who are afraid of the first 39 books. I have encountered those who choose to ignore them because they appear hard to understand. They are harder to understand than most New Testament books because they go back deeper into the past and reflect a more ancient world. But I encourage those who feel this way to face their fears and choose not to neglect the Old Testament. The back side of the mine is deeper and darker and harder to get to, but if we dare to face our fears and put in the hard work of digging into the recesses of that dark place, we might find precious treasure.
Many never get to the backside of the mine because they are too lazy to do the work that it takes to get there. Such people will remain poor when they could be rich. They will settle for a meager existence in this life because they refuse the challenge of seeking a deeper life. They would rather stay behind in obscurity where it is relatively safe than pack up all their belongings and head out west to find the mother lode. It is safer to stay behind. All our things are here. Everything that we value and cherish is on this side of the world. We hear tell of those who have gotten lost on the trail and never even got out west. Others were attacked, died of starvation, or succumbed to disease. The treasure may be there, but it’s too hard to get to.
There are some, of course, who never dare touch the Old Testament because they are not just afraid of the first 39 but against them. Like Marcion, they see the Old Testament as the work of a different god – a God of anger and evil. They think the Old Testament is all law and the New Testament is all gospel. If you’re tempted to believe that, I want to remind you that for all of the authors of the New Testament, their only Bible was the Old Testament. The Old Testament was the Bible that Jesus read. It was the Bible that Jesus quoted when he was tempted. It was the Bible that the Gospel authors quoted when they saw the fulfillment of prophecies in the life of Christ and the early church.
But the influence of the Old Testament is not only seen in the Gospel, it permeates the rest of the New Testament as well. When Paul or Peter of James or John wanted to prove a point or verify teaching, they quoted from that good Old Testament to do so. Mr. Google tells me that there are 283 direct quotations from the Hebrew Bible in the Greek New Testament. The two New Testament books that contain the most direct quotes and indirect allusions are Romans and Hebrews. Those two epistles are precious descriptions of the gospel of grace and the life of faith. Yet they would not make any sense at all without their Old Testament background.
So, we cannot avoid the Old Testament. It is there, and it is not going away. We can ignore it, but choosing to do so is choosing not to receive the blessing that God intends us to have. The gold is on the backside of the mine. There is gold in those hills. God wants us to have it. Yes, getting there is hard work. But getting there and receiving God’s blessing is our destiny.
Today, I want us to examine these six verses in Leviticus 16. They review the commands God gave Moses regarding the Day of Atonement. The whole chapter serves as the context, and it covers more than we will be able to cover in one sermon. So, we will limit our examination to what is being taught in these six verses.
The Hebrew phrase “Yom Kippur” means “day of atonement” or “day of reconciliation” in English. It refers to a specific day in the Hebrew calendar when the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place and offered sacrifices to reconcile the whole nation to God. Let’s look at what this text says about that day.
First, this text highlights one day (29-31).
There was only one day of atonement. It was set for the seventh month of the secular year, which was the first month of the religious year. Starting on the first day of that month, which is the first day of the religious year, the Israelites were to fast for ten days. The first day is Rosh Hashana, and the last day of the fast is Yom Kippur. The Jews are still celebrating these days. If you look at your 2024 calendar, you will find Rosh Hashana on October 3rd and Yom Kippur on October 12th.
It was a day for all the inhabitants of Israel to humble themselves before God and “do no work of any kind.” Remember that the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt. They had been born and raised in an environment where their value was judged on the basis of the work they could do. Yet, God rescued them out of Egypt. He intended for them to forsake that old life where they worked to live. He wanted them to be free from that bondage. He wanted them to know that their identity was not based on what they could do. It was based on who they were. It was based on their relationship with him.
That was why this holy day was to be a Sabbath Day. Whether or not it occurred on a Saturday, it was a sacred Sabbath – a day of rest. The Pharaoh demanded work, but God demanded rest. The Pharaoh valued his slaves based on what they could do for him. God valued his people based on what he could do for them. When the slaves failed their Pharaoh, he demanded their destruction. When the Israelites failed their God, he provided for their reconciliation. Yom Kippur was a demonstration of grace.
But it was not just the Israelites who would benefit from God’s grace on that day. The instructions for the celebration were to apply to “both the native citizen and the foreigner who resides in (their) midst.” This is a picture of the universal nature of God’s atonement and the universal scope of the gospel of grace. The whole camp was to celebrate, even those resident aliens who were not part of the children of Jacob. It doesn’t mean that everyone will be saved, but it does mean that everyone can be saved. The blood of the sacrifices of the day of atonement is sufficient to cover all the sins of the camp. No one is to be left out. The Yom Kippur celebration is not optional. Everyone in the camp was expected to participate.
The purpose for the day of atonement is described in verse 30. It says, “On this day, atonement is to be made for you to cleanse you from all your sins; you must be clean before the LORD.” That statement is full of New Testament theology. It says atonement is to be made for the Israelites, not by the Israelites. This is not a doctrine of works but a doctrine of grace. The whole nation was to undergo a cleansing not at the end of their shift (if you will) but at the beginning before any work was to be done. There would be work done throughout the year, but here, at the start of the year, God provides a cleansing.
The Christian life is like that, too. We begin with a cleansing we receive from God, symbolized by our baptism. It represents not the end of our life of achievements for God but the beginning of a new life received from God by his grace alone. Before any work is to be done for God, we must accept his forgiveness and cleansing. The one who does the forgiving is God. The one who does the cleansing is God. We are the passive recipients of his cleansing grace.
Notice also that on the day of atonement the reconciliation is made for all the camp for all their sins. This is before any personal sacrifices are offered. This is before any personal offerings are given. The atonement is God’s work and it is intended to reconcile all the people and cleanse them from all their sins. God wants the nation to start out the year completely forgiven and completely free. He does not wait until the end of the year to get a list of who has been naughty and who has been nice. The reconciliation God offers his people is up-front and is offered by God free of charge.
The holiness that God supplies for his people is not a holiness that is gradually earned. It is a holiness that God gives. It is a reflection of his grace, not our merit. It is inherited. It is not compensation for work done. It is an unmerited favor. The New Testament tells us to pursue holiness because without it no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). But the good news from the Old Testament is that we do not have to exert our own energy to pursue holiness. We merely have to open our hands and receive it as a gift from our loving God. He is the source of all holiness, and we can receive it in the same way we receive everything else from him. We need only ask and we shall receive.
What we can do by ourselves is what Paul calls the works of the flesh. But what God wants to do through us by empowering us with his Holy Spirit is called the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5). Yom Kippur was God’s way of telling his people that they have a choice: they can live the year their way or his way. They can work by their own strength and produce the works of the flesh, or they can receive his grace and, by that grace, produce the fruit of the Spirit.
Next, this text highlights one man (32-34).
All the actions of the day centered around the work of one man, the descendant of Aaron who was High Priest. The text says that this one man had to be anointed and ordained and that he would be doing the work “in the place of his father.” All the High Priests in the Levitical priesthood represented Aaron, their ancestor. On that day, the High Priest would purify himself, put on holy garments, and purify the sanctuary itself, including the Most Holy Place, which only he was allowed to enter, and only on that one day of the year.
All the rituals and ceremonies of the Day of Atonement were prophetic of God’s work for us. The actions of the High Priest were prophetic of God’s work through Jesus Christ. The text says that the High Priest would act “in the place of his father.” Jesus is the High Priest, not of the Levitical priesthood but of the order of Melchizedek, as described in the Book of Hebrews. Aaron was not his father; God is his Father.
Hebrews says that Jesus “had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). He was made like us so that he could intercede for us in the place of his Father, who is God.
On Israel’s Day of Atonement, the High Priest reconciled the whole camp to God so that the whole camp could live for God free from sin for the year. On the world’s Day of Atonement, Jesus, as our High Priest, entered the heavenly Holy of Holies and presented his own blood to reconcile us to God, enabling everyone who is in Christ to live free from sin for eternity.
Paul told the Colossian Christians, “Do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days — these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ!” (Colossians 2:17). The Israelite Day of Atonement was a shadow of the things to come. The reality is Christ.
The author of Hebrews said, “The law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship” (Hebrews 10:1).
Let me tell you something about shadows. Shadows are not reality, but they do prove that the reality is there. As we keep digging in the Old Testament, we will encounter a number of shadows. We must look at those shadows closely because they are shaped like Christ and the cross!
jeffersonvann 