Day of Atonement

[Sam]

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is celebrated the first and second days of Tishri. It is a time of family gatherings, special meals and sweet tasting foods. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn day of the Jewish year and is observed on the tenth day of Tishri. It is a day of fasting, reflection and prayers. It's now that time of the year when Jewish folks will be celebrating Rosh Hashana (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

Following is an article that I copied almost 50 years ago from the Pentecostal Evangel. It is a teaching by Myer Pearlman who was a Jew who had come to faith in Jesus as his Messiah.

The Day of Atonement
Myer Pearlman
From The Pentecostal Evangel, March 23, 1958 edition

On the Day of Atonement the Israelite high priest, for the first and only time in the year, passed beyond the outer court and holy place and went into the Holy of Holies. There, in the presence of God, he offered a sacrifice that would cleanse the entire nation. The gladdest moment of the Jewish year was when the high priest once more appeared, signifying that once again the work of atonement was completed and they were purged and cleansed.

Even today Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn day in the Jewish year. A Jew will go to the synagogue on this day, even if he has not done so all the rest of the year. Orthodox Jews will go for the entire twenty-four hours without touching food or water, and some stand erect the entire time, in order to find forgiveness from God. But there is no answer from heaven.

The sacrifices offered on the Day of Atonement were the climax of the sacrifices offered during the entire year. It was a spiritual house cleaning time in Israel –when the nation and the Tabernacle were cleansed. On the Day of Atonement blood was sprinkled everywhere to cleanse the high priest himself, to cleanse the priesthood, and to cleanse the entire nation.

Now, on what was this day based, and what was the need for it? The answer is found in the word “holy.” Israel was a “holy” nation, separated from the defilements of heathendom and dedicated to the worship of God.

Everything in the life of an Israelite pointed to holiness. The purpose of the Book of Leviticus was to keep out heathenism and to keep in holiness.

The Israelite couldn’t eat the same food as other nations, for he belonged to God and must be very careful how he lived. He had to wear special garments, and to observe special days. Everywhere and in everything holiness was stamped upon his life –holy garments, holy food, a holy Tabernacle. God would stamp upon the character of His people the thought that they could not be like other nations –they must be separated, dedicated, set apart. To maintain that holiness the nation had an annual reconciliation on the Day of Atonement.

Now let us follow the high priest in his ritual on the Day of Atonement, and then see how the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled these typical ceremonies when He offered Himself as the one great Sacrifice which was the climax of all sacrifices.

The high priest, clad in garments of glory and beauty offers the morning sacrifice on behalf of the nation. Then he goes to the laver carrying a simple white garment. He takes water from the laver, enters into the holy place, doffs his beautiful garments, and washes himself in preparation for entering the presence of God. He dons a white penitential garment, signifying that the work he is about to do is concerned with the people’s purification.

Next is the preparation of the special sacrifices. The first is a bullock offered for the high priest’s sins. There are also two goats –one to be offered as a sacrifice for the nation, the other to serve as a scapegoat.

First, he must offer the sacrifice for his own sin. He goes to the bullock and lays his hand very heavily upon the animal, confessing his own sins. He kills the animal and catches its blood in a basin. With this blood he sprinkles the horns of the altar pleading that God will forgive his sins.

The priest then lifts the veil and enters the presence of God standing before His throne to make atonement. Before the Mercy Seat there is incense arising, covering the Skekinah glory so that the high priest does not look upon God. He sprinkles the blood before the mercy Seat, and upon it. Jehovah accepts him; atonement is made for his sins.

Cleansed himself, he can now offer the sacrifice to cleanse others. He leaves the Holy of Holies and comes to the gate. He approaches the goat which is to be offered as a sacrifice to bring Israel again into a condition of grace. After killing it he catches its blood in a basin. Once again he lifts the veil and stands before the Ark of the Covenant.

As the priest sprinkles the blood on the Mercy Seat the sins of the entire nation are cleansed, pardoned, cancelled. Coming out of the Holy of Holies, he mixes the blood of the bullock with that of the goat, and sprinkles the four horns of the golden altar of incense where the priests have ministered. This cleanses the priesthood so they can minister once again.

To show the people what has been done in secret, the high priest lays his hands heavily upon the scapegoat and confesses over it all the sins of the people: “O God, Thy people, the house of Israel have sinned; they have committed iniquity and transgressed against Thee. Pardon now their sins and lay the sin of the people upon this goat.”

Then the scapegoat is led out into the wilderness, and thrown over a precipice. The goat is led by a Gentile, for any Jew would be defiled and would have to be cleansed again.

Between the wilderness and the Temple are ten stations, each occupied by a man with a flag. As soon as the Gentile has pushed the goat over the precipice, the first man flashes the signal, then the next, and so on till finally the news reaches the Temple and the waiting people, that the goat has arrived in the wilderness and their sins are taken away.

The high priest now goes again into the holy place, takes off the white garments of humiliation, and puts on the others, while the people on the outside wait for the sound of the bells. As soon as the high priest puts on the robe of the ephod the bells begin to tinkle, thus indicating to those waiting that he is alive. Finally, they see him coming forth in his glorious garments to minister again for the entire year. He raises his hands and says, “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make His face to shine upon thee: …and give thee peace.” It is finished. They have received the blessing, and everyone rejoices.

to be continued

[Sam]

continued

These ceremonies were but types. The New Testament in six scenes shows how they were fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Scene I. There is a council meeting in one of the great council chambers of the Temple. (John 11:47-53). One priest says, “Brethren, this Man performs many miracles. There is a renewal of His popularity. If He continues doing miracles, people will gather around Him and we shall have a revolution. The Romans will take away our independence and position. What shall be done?” Then stood Caiaphas, the high priest, who once a year made atonement for the sins of the people. Caiaphas was a shrewd politician, a wicked man. He said in effect, “Why are you so excited? You are afraid this Man will get us in bad with the Romans! Don’t be foolish. Use your heads. We will use Him to show the Romans that we are loyal citizens after all. We will have Him arrested and say to Pilate, ‘Sir, we have found this Man stirring up the people and forbidding them to pay tribute to Caesar. We are loyal citizens, and for our own protection are delivering Him up.’ Which is better –that one Man should suffer or a whole nation perish?”

John gives us his commentary on this: “This spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation.” Though he knew it not, in that council chamber the high priest was laying his hand upon the scapegoat.

Scene II Jesus is on His way to the Garden bearing on His heart the names of the tribes. He prays His high priestly prayer of John 17.

Scene III. Gethsemane. In Leviticus 16:17 we read: “And there shall be no man in the Tabernacle of the Congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself.” There was no man who could share the sufferings of the Son of Man as He knelt and cried, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt.” What was happening there? In Gethsemane, priest and sacrifice were blended and became one; and as the high priest put the pressure of his hand upon the sacrifice, so the pressure of our sins was laid upon Him It was in the Garden that the Lord Jesus Christ robed Himself for that great sacrifice.

Scene IV. Calvary “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” What does it mean? The bodies of the animals, whose blood was taken into the Holy Place on the Day of Atonement, were carried outside; and so Jesus, “that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” He was rejected and He was cast out of the city.

Scene V. The Resurrection and the Ascension. The animal was killed at the altar, but the atonement was made in the presence of God. The high priest took the animal, took its blood, stood before the presence of God, and sprinkled the Mercy Seat. Jesus died on the earth, on Mount Calvary, but in Heaven the atonement was actually made. There the Son of God stood before God, not in His penitential garments, but in His beautiful robes; and because God accepted Him, He accepts us. Calvary was the place of killing, but Heaven was the place of sprinkling (Heb 9:22-24). Jesus died, but that was not enough. He arose from the dead, but that was not sufficient. Jesus had to ascend to present His sacrifice before God. You will remember that when the high priest went into the holy place the people were waiting outside. They had to know that he was alive, and were waiting for the sound of the bells and for the blessing. And this leads us to

Scene VI. The Upper Room. There were 120 gathered together. They knew their Master had died, and that He had risen from the dead and now had ascended. But had God accepted His sacrifice? Was He alive? Was the work really accomplished? They said, “He told us to tarry in Jerusalem and wait for the blessing,” and every day they prayed. Everything remained silent: not a sound.

But “when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place,” waiting for the sound of the bells, “and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house… and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Like the tongues of the tiny bells on the high priest’s garment, their tongues rang out their message of praise. They knew then that He had arrived in Heaven, that He had been accepted. The work was done.

Then out they went, and throughout the city of Jerusalem the word was spread: “Jesus, whom ye crucified, has risen; and He has ascended, and is now in the presence of God.”

“How do you know He is there?” the Jews would ask; and Peter would reply, “He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.” And all the city of Jerusalem heard that dominant message of the primitive church –“Jesus whom ye crucified now lives.”

[Sam]

I have a mimeographed set of the old Oneness Pentecostal Correspondence Course (250 lessons with questions and index) that was made available by the UPC Publishing House years ago. If I remember correctly, I received mine back in either late 1955 or early 1956 before I went to ABI in September 1956. These lessons were given at the Northwest Bible Training School in Caldwell, Idaho under Pastor E. Rohn.

Volume 1 includes
(1) teaching on the books of Genesis, Exodus, Esther, Ruth, and Hosea, by Mrs. E. Rohn,
(2) twenty-six lessons on the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, by Mrs. E. Rohn,
and (3) thirty-seven lessons on Church History by Myrl Nutting.

Volume 2 is titled Rightly Dividing the Word by John H. Dearing and includes 100 Bible Subjects plus several complete NT books.

I haven’t gone through all of these lessons but I did read a lot of them years ago. They were very helpful to me as a young man who wanted to learn more about the Bible. Of course, they represent a different day and time in our Pentecostal history which some of us older folks can relate to better than some of the younger ones.

This is lesson 89 from Volume 1.

The Day of Atonement

In addition to the five offerings, there was also a special Day of Atonement described in Lev 16-17. God is here teaching in a pictorial way the doctrine of the Atonement which is the fundamental doctrine of the Bible. It is the Gospel, the good news, which runs right through the books of the Old and new Testaments. From the first chapter of Genesis it is taught; but here in Lev. 16 it is set forth with much fullness, as though God would show us by one great object lesson every detail of this sublime truth.

First we must keep in mind exactly what was done on the Day of Atonement. We can best do this by imagining that we see the priest going through the ceremony. We observe that his dress is different from that on ordinary days. He has laid aside the robes of glory and beauty and is now clothed only in white linen. Lev 16:4. Of course, in presenting the sin offering for himself (which was necessary because he was but a man –see Heb 5:1-3). Aaron is not a type; but in all his work for the congregation on the Day of Atonement he is seen as a type of Christ accomplishing the work of atonement.

Two goats are taken from the people for this particular sin-offering, because there are two sides of atonement to be represented –the Godward and the manward side. At the door of the Tabernacle, Aaron casts lots upon them, determining which goat was to be slain to show forth one side of atonement and which was to be the scape goat to show forth the other side of atonement. But before making the sin offering for the people, or presenting the blood of the sin offering for himself, we see Aaron with the censer of coals from the altar, and handfuls of incense, causing a fragrant smoke in the Holy of Holies to cover the mercy seat, that he might not look directly upon the Shekinah fire and die. See Lev 16:2-13.

Now he is ready to begin the real work of the day. One goat is slain, and its blood brought in and presented to God. Then Aaron takes the live goat, lays his hands on its head, and confesses over it all the sins of the people; and this goat, bearing the sins of the people, is led away into the wilderness, a land not inhabited. Lev 16:20-22.

What does this mean? One goat killed and its blood presented to God; the other goat bearing away the sins of the people where they can never be found. We see here pictured before us two sides of atonement, one showing what atonement did for God, and the other what it did for man. Christ’s atonement met all the claims of God and all the needs of man. The claims of God were met by the death of Christ in place of the sinner; and the needs of man were met in taking away his sins, removing them “as far as the east is from the west.” As we look at the goat which was slain, we see Christ dying in our place, paying the penalty of sin, and thus satisfying the claims of God’s holy law –bringing to our mind such passages as Isa 53:5, Rom 4:25, Heb 9:28 1 Pet 2:24. But when we look at the scapegoat, laden down with the sins of Israel and bearing them away into a land not inhabited, we think only of what Christ’s atonement did for us. Jn 1; 29, Ps 103:12, Rom 8:1, Isa 43:5.

This Day of Atonement was also the one day out of the whole year in which the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies with blood. It was once in a year, while Christ’s offering was once in time; it was for the whole nation of Israel while Christ’s was for the whole human race.

(The above is taken from a pamphlet by Grace Saxe)