Key Scriptures
16:3-10 “The Lord said to Moses…when Aaron the priest comes into my sanctuary [for the Day of Atonement] he is follow these instructions: A yearling bull is to be brought to offer for sin and a ram for a burnt offering. …Afterward he is to bring from among the Israelites two male goats to sacrifice as a sin offering and a single ram for a burnt offering. The bull Aaron will sacrifice as a sin offering is to atone for his own sin and that of his family. He will then bring both goats before the Lord at the entrance to the sanctuary tent. There Aaron will cast lots on behalf of the goats…offering one to the Lord as a as a sacrifice for sin. The other goat—the scapegoat—is to be sent into the desert wilderness…”
16:11-31 “After making atonement for himself with the bull’s blood….Aaron will sacrifice the goat for the people’s sins, and he is to carrying the blood of the goat behind the curtain of the tabernacle’s most holy place…sprinkling it upon the cover of the Ark of the Covenant. …Aaron is then to place both of his hands on the head of the second goat, the scapegoat, confessing out loud all the sin’s of the people of Israel…and thereby transferring their sins onto it. …Then his assistant will lead the goat away into the desert wilderness…carrying away all the sins of the people upon it. In the open country the goat will be freed unharmed. ...You are to follow this practice from this day forward… also declaring a solemn fast and a day to abstain from all forms of labor; for the Day of Atonement is God’s gift to Israel to cleanse all their sins…that they may dwell in his holy presence…in complete Sabbath rest.“
17:3-7 “If an Israelite or an immigrant who has come to live among them offers a sacrifice…any place other than before the Lord at the entrance to the sanctuary tent, that person must be exiled from the community. He is guilty of shedding sacred blood. In this way all sacrifices to the Lord, including those which are now offered privately outside the camp, will be properly offered before the Lord with the priest attending. …All offerings to the Canaanite goat idols must cease; they are ritually polluting to my people.”
17:10-14 “If an Israelite or an immigrant who has come to live among them consumes the blood of sacrificial animals, that person will be condemned to exile away from my people; for blood is a sacred symbol of the life I have put in all living things. Blood is to be used only for atonement on the altar for the sin of my people. The blood represents the life that is saved through atonement…and to eat it would be irreverent; no one is permitted to do so.”
Basic Message
Once a year on the Day of Atonement, God ordained sacrifices to cleanse the entire Israelite community of their sins. The day was central to the holy calendar and one on which all were to fast and refrain from labor. As High Priest, Aaron would first sacrifice a bull for his sins and those of his family. Then he would offer a goat as a sacrifice for the sins of the people. Afterward, he would lay his hands on the head of a second, live goat while confessing all the sins of the Israelites. The second goat would then be led away into the wilderness to be permanently released.
God gave Moses commands that no one was to make blood sacrifices away from the tabernacle, a custom among the people. The only allowable animal sacrifices were those prescribed in the laws given to Moses to be carried out by the priests. In addition, no one was allowed to eat blood lest they be thrown out of the community. God told Moses that the blood of animals was set apart to make atonement for the sins of the people and thus should not be used for anything common.
Comments
* The Day of Atonement was significant in that it marked the one time sacrifices were made and atonement given for the community as a whole. All other sacrifices were geared toward the individual and his or her family. But the Day of Atonement was a time of collective repentance and forgiveness. It offered individual forgiveness and reconciliation within the context of the entire community. It would have had a profound effect on community building and upon the individual’s sense of belonging to one people.
* There is rich symbolism in the sins of the people being placed on a goat that was then led into the wilderness and freed. The unblemished male goat was a precursor to the coming Messiah who would in his own body bear the sins of the world (I Peter 2:24). The priest, acting as God’s representative, laid the people’s sins on the goat just as God’s laid the sins of humanity on Jesus. The goat was then led into the wilderness, a place the Bible associates with God’s sacred presence—as it does with any place wild and untrammeled by man. As such, the wilderness was a kind of Holy of Holies outside of human society, where God dwelt and his rule was unrestricted. The freedom given to the condemned goat represented, of course, the freedom from sin and punishment God gave to all the people of Israel through a full and complete atonement. Thus, the Day of Atonement provided a new start and a new opportunity for recommitment to God and the covenant he had established between himself and the people of Israel. It was a somber day overall, but one that ended in a sense of joy and celebration.
* The blood of the goat sacrificed at the tabernacle was carried inside the Holy of Holies to be sprinkled upon the Ark wherein lay the tablets of the Law. In Hebrews 9 Paul says Jesus’ own blood sacrifice atones for our sins and frees us from the Law of sin and death—covering, as it were, the requirements of the Law that was kept in the Ark upon which the sacrificed goat blood was sprinkled. Jesus, as high priest, carried his own blood into the Holy of Holies—God’s presence—and satisfied the divine requirements represented in the Law. At Jesus’ crucifixion, as described in Luke 23:45, the curtain to the Holy of Holies was rent in two, top to bottom—symbolically opening the path to God who was otherwise unapproachable because of his absolute holiness. In Hebrews 10:19, Paul refers to Christ’s broken “body” as the curtain separating mankind from God. Through Jesus’ sacrifice of his own body and blood—the elements we symbolically partake of with every communion—humankind is reconciled with God. No other means of reconciliation is possible than the sacrifice of One who was holy on behalf of those who weren’t, given the nature of a holy God and fallen, sin-prone man.
* Animal sacrifices were common among cultures of the time. The people had adopted many local customs from other culture groups, such as performing their own sacrifices out in the open fields. They were forbidden to continue the practice because God’s holiness demanded that only a consecrated priesthood was in a position to perform sacred tasks before a pure and righteous God. The prohibition would have helped to reformulate the Israelites’ conception of God, shifting it away from the private and commonplace toward the reality of a sacred, omnipotent, universal King. It was an extension of the lesson of the miracles performed in Egypt in which God distinguished himself from the pretentious, powerless “god” of Pharaoh. All small-minded conceptions of the God of Israel had to be jettisoned in the wilderness—the transition zone between secular Egypt and the revered Promised Land.
* The same reasoning applied to blood, which the Israelites were forbidden to eat. Because blood was (and is) associated with God’s means for atonement, and God alone could facilitate the forgiveness of sins necessary to sanctify a sin-laden people, it was necessary to remove the use of blood from anything common. That prohibition is still considered necessary by some religious groups today who fail to grasp that the Lamb of God whose blood was shed on Calvary frees us from the strictures of the Law (Romans 6-8). The Law had a time and purpose, and prohibitions against individual sacrifices and the use of blood played an important part in shaping a people set apart for God—a people whose calling and purpose was to bring forth a blessing to the world. In Christ Jesus that blessing came to fruition. The fulfillment of the Law and the freedom from its constraints was permanently satisfied in him. That is why cattle-herding peoples of East Africa, such as the Maasai, are free to follow their traditional way of life and consume fresh blood while still being devout Christians. Every one of us, in fact, who consumes meat is also consuming some quantity of blood, whether we are aware of it or not. So unless we are vegetarians, we regularly break the Law of Moses and bring condemnation on ourselves—unless, of course, we live as those freed from the Law through our faith in the One who perfectly fulfilled it on our behalf.
Biblical Themes
3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15
