Published: April 17, 2025 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Leviticus - The Parable of Leviticus 2 - Part 9 | Scripture: Leviticus 16
Transcript
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Amen. So we come to uh Leviticus 16, Yam Kapor and um I put up on the board the center um several commentators point out and I
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I think this is something that that has been when you when you look at the scripture in a literary format you see first of
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pentatuk. Okay. So, Leviticus
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itself is in the center. We've already seen back when we started with the first section that Leviticus actually is indeed a 30-day
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period between Exodus and Numbers. The only time frame that's actually established in in the um uh the Exodus and the wilderness narratives is this
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this gap between the end of Exodus and the beginning of Numbers. uh and all that we've been studying happens in in this period this period and keeping in mind that the chapter
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divisions are are not original but looking at it even so more thematically the day of atonement is is really the center of Leviticus. Okay. So
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you um it it's not you know weighted I I didn't count up the words. That's what the rabbis do. Um, I don't know if it's exactly the center, but everything that
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we've looked at up to this point leads to Leviticus 16. And Leviticus 16 basically resets the clock for the holiness code that comes afterwards. So,
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it is really a center of gravity if if not the actual physical or or lexical center. Um it it is the um Leviticus
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16 is is truly you have 1-7 and then um well actually 1 through 10 no 1- 7 then you
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the priests 11 through 15 the purity codes and then it does kind of go on with the holiness code
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afterward, which is really the practical application of everything that's gone before. The holiness code gets into much more of how the community is to live within itself and among itself. It's the
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one and others of Moses as opposed to of Paul. And so this day of
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atonement was the this the center of of the calendar um but it was the center of the life of the community in the presence of God and of course God dwelling in the midst of his
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people. This is where every year the reset button was hit and and it's a it's an incredibly important day. Um, and it it is also if
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you've read the book of Hebrews lately, you know that it's very important to the writer of Hebrews, especially chap he he alludes to it in chapter five more than in chapter 7 and then chapters nine and
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10. You're you're right there in the Holy of Holies with the high priest. And Lord willing, we will be looking at that. Um, we're going to we're going to basically spend three weeks on the day
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of atonement. The first one talking about the day itself and what it means. The second one talking about the scapegoat, which scapegoat, which um is a much
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misunderstood word, much less concept. And then the third, Lord willing, we're going to be looking at Yam Kapore and the passion of Christ and how Jesus
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Christ fulfills the the day of atonement um ritual, the the very the very meaning which the writer of Hebrews assures us that he does. And so I I think that's
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also a very important passage. Afterward, I my my goal is to get to Leviticus 19, Leviticus 19, uh, which kind of summarizes where we've been thus far in Leviticus before you
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dig into the the holiness code. So, um, hopefully that's where we'll end this particular session is with Leviticus 19. So, we have a few weeks left to go. So,
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the first thing I want to talk about is is more um it's more along the lines of putting ourselves in the sandals of the
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Israelites in the wilderness. When you get to Solomon's temple, things change. They're now in the land. They're not in the wilderness.
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The wilderness becomes the brook Kidron which was known as Gehenna where all of the um refuge from the city but also from the temple was burned and the fires
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burned there continually which of course lent itself to the image of apocalypse. So, but you you didn't really have a wilderness to take the goat out to
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because you were now in Jerusalem, which is Mount Zion, and it's in kind of the center of the nation. So, where do you go to to get rid of the goat? So, that
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changes things. Okay. So, when the writer of Hebrews is wants to talk about Jesus as the high priest and the sanctuary, he goes back to the tabernacle. The tabernacle is really the
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heart and soul of temple theology or sanctuary theology in the whole Bible. Okay? The physical structure of the temple. And then the second temple, as
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we've talked many times, God's glory never returned to it. So, it's almost like, yeah, but no, in terms of that temple, it's there. Yeah, fine. you're
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doing the things over, you know, like you used to do them, but not really because nobody thinks the shikina has ever come back. And so the temples are not really where it's at. problem in
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commentaries these days is that because everybody's kind of embibed the history of religions and the evolution of religion, they really think that it's
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all about Solomon's temple and the priesthood that grew up in Solomon's temple. And then when they returned from the exile, that's what they wanted to recreate. Now, it was all about Moses's
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tabernacle, not Solomon's temple. That was the point at which Israel was truly living as a singular people in the presence of Yahweh and the visible
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presence of Yahweh. Everybody in the camp could see the pillar of fire. When it when it appeared, they could all see it. That didn't happen even in the
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Solomon's temple. That shikina did not last beyond the day of dedication. So we go back then. I think this this is really the most important concept is um
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is that tabernacle and um what it meant to the people. So what did it mean? What what did it mean for the
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average Israelite day after day watching the ironic priests in their regalia and the high priest who was certainly not dressed like a like anyone
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else with his turban and the breastplate and the ephod um you know he he looked a certain part and they saw all this blood
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being shed. What What was their impression of all of all of this? What try to put yourself in their
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again sandals? What must it have have it been like to witness this day after day after day in the wilderness?
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Yeah. Right. And Egypt certainly did have a very elaborate uh priesthood. I'm not sure how much the Israelites would have seen of that because they were
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slaves. Um so and they would have seen it if they were working in the cities. Yeah, they would have they would have seen some of it certainly. But there's a difference here because God's glory has
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appeared to them in the tabernacle,
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what and it's not the same. No, it No, it it What would their What would their emotion be? I mean, let's let's go to
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the day that all of this is taking place, as far as we can tell, because Leviticus 16, verse one rehearses the death of Nadab and Abihu. And
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Abihu. And so that was chapter 10. Chapter 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. This is all probably happening the same day that Naab and Abu
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died. Okay? So they saw that they saw the fire come out from the the holy of holies and consume uh Naab and
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Abihu. What must they have what must they have they have felt? What what were okay fear? Yeah. fear? Yeah. What I I know this is not where we go
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with things, you know, but we do have them. Yeah. I'm not trying to turn this into an emotional, you know, trying to teach the emotions of the tabernacle or anything like that, but I think fear
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would have been uh would have certainly I mean, we read that actually they fell on their on their faces. But what are some other things that just day by day as as these rituals
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go on just wonder?
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And it does and I think it will evidently it will um even in the wilderness. Uh but but I do think there is there is a time during Moses's and then then I
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think Joshua because we're um you know we're we're kind of reminded of that when Joshua has died and the elders have died and the people lose
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their way but that's not until the book of Judges. So we we have a period of time here that the people do seem to be uh united when when you know Joshua says
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you choose this day whom you will serve. They do respond we will serve Yahweh. And and so I think there is a time especially that the day that we are in
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right now in Leviticus the day when the purity Torah is given to the to the ironic priests and to the people. I think we are still in that period where
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the generation that uh that grumbled in the wilderness has died off and and I think we can assume that a large percentage of the people are are part of
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this. They they they get it. Um so what is it like? Because I think the apathy comes in to the church too, you know, not just
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we can't just point at Israel and say, "Look how they kind of turned away from the from the Lord." Um, churches do the same thing. So, I I I wonder whether we shouldn't be reminding ourselves that
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our God is is a consuming fire more
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right? Well, and may maybe if I don't know how to do it, but um we could try to recover the same type of of um of feeling with with communion that I don't think it's meant to be just a ritual that we do on a
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regular basis. I think that we have to remind ourselves from the word and through prayer and by the power of grace of the Holy Spirit that we dwell in the presence of a holy God who is an
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all-consuming fire. Um Lord
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Oh, I think um definitely the fall and the corruption that dwells within our flesh. I think that's very biblical. U the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Sometimes I think the flesh is a bit too strong. But uh the idea there is
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that that uh is like Paul in Romans 7. I I I know the right thing to do but I don't do it and I see a law at work in my members. So absolutely um and and
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maybe what we're talking about in more of a Christian history perspective is what is often called revival uh where where there are times when people seem to be again in a godly fear
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of the Lord. uh but what what are some other other emotions they might have had as they witnessed this whole uh this whole system being established
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and especially the I don't know when the you know in relation to this the first Yom Kapor was but that that first day when the when the high priest went beyond that second veil what what were
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the people outside all right confused Well, it is. Yes, it is.
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Yeah, they were confused. But what kept them hanging around?
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return the high priest. Yeah. When he went Yeah. Is he going to come back out? Oh my goodness. They when when Moses went up the mountain, this is kind of an annual
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rehearsal of that, right? So, um, maybe some doubt, but what are some other I the priests are all dressed differently
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than you and the high priest is dressed like a king or an emperor. He's he's he's wearing what you all don't wear. All the gold that's woven into his
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clothing and the purple, you don't wear that. That's not your that's not even your Sunday best or Saturday best. Sorry. You know that that's not your Sabbath clothing. So, you you don't wear any of So this guy, he's decked out and
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all the priests have their turbons and they're they're doing their thing and they're manipulating the blood and people are bringing the lambs and the goats and whatnot.
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Um what else would you feel just I mean yeah confusion because it's incredibly complex. I think it be very exciting. Yeah, I I think yeah I think so. I would have said
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excitement. Um there there is at least early on I think there's a dynamism going on
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here that that we tend to to not read as we're reading the text that God is in their presence. He's visibly in their
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presence and then he's in their presence I think by faith. However, when we read Leviticus 16, verse one,
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uh the first couple verses, I think it might be verse two that I'm I'm thinking of. But listen to what we read here in uh so now the Lord spoke to Moses after
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the death of the two sons of Aaron when they had approached the presence of Yahweh and Yahweh and died. And the Lord said to Moses, "Tell
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your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die." So
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the way it's phrased is it's not he's not saying tell Aaron that he will not just come at any time at any time he wants.
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That's not what it's saying. What it's saying is you won't come anytime but this day. It's a blanket prohibition right
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off the bat. You don't come into my presence except this one day. You see it's it's it's it's it's focusing again on what God said to
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Aaron when his sons died. by those who come before me, I shall be holy. And it does seem to indicate that Naab and Abhu actually went past that
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second veil. That that was their crime is that they took the altar, the sensors, and they took it upon themselves. They were, I guess, maybe
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really excited about what was going on and got a little bit too enthusiastic and opened that second veil, and that was it.
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between this mountain. Don't touch Yeah. Don't touch the mountain. Right. Yeah. Don't u And and again, I think that that all that we're reading needs to be filtered through
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that statement in Hebrews that our God is a consuming fire. That what we're talking about throughout this is how can a unholy people dwell in the presence of
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a holy God. And this is what God is saying. He says, "No, you don't don't come in at any time lest he die." Well, that's that ties back into what happened to Naab and Abihu. They died. But listen
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to what it says in verse two. And I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. See, the
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See, the cloud and the pillar don't seem to have continued the entire 40 years. We we don't know that for sure. Um certainly it stopped when
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they crossed over. U but God is saying that I'm going to appear above the cloud when the high priest comes into the holy of
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holies and I think we have to take him at his word. I think that when he went in Yahweh appeared there. Now I think one of the reasons
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why is it goes on to say that he was to take he was to take the sensor the the burning coals and he was to throw a very fine mixed flower to create a cloud of
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smoke. I think that was actually to protect himself that he would not see the glory of the Lord. Um, now that's that's that's something that that
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that many commentators feel and including rabbitic commentators feel the purpose of that of that cloud of smoke that he's he's supposed to present before the Lord was actually for his own
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protection as as anything. Um, but the high priest is going he's going back he's going before the Lord of the
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universe. The people had just seen what happens when you do that improperly. And so I think there there is an excitement. I I think that's an important um aspect of this. I think
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there was in addition to that excitement uh I'm going to divide this into two. I think there was an element of of awe in this and I don't think it's
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because the Jews were superstitious and primitive people. I think they were physically in the presence of the creator God. And frankly, I don't think anybody, as far
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as we can tell, comes into the presence of God without falling down on their face. I don't think we will. I mean, I've said this many times, but the the charismatic
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idea of calling God daddy and sermons I've heard about, you know, when you pray, it's like you're running and jumping on God's lap. that that's just about
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blasphemy, you know, to to to treat God in such a denigrating and familiar way is it only proves that you've spent very little time in scripture uh reading the
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self-revelation of God. Yes, we do come boldly into his throne room. Okay. We come boldly as before an almighty potentate. Now, if you remember was it's
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the story of Esther but also um Solomon. Yeah, I think I'm thinking of that one. When you know, Bath Sheba, his mother, says, "I I you know, you you don't just
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go into the king's presence. He either held out his scepter to you or you were in big trouble." And that that's just an earthly, you know, that and that's the
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same is true now with the president or the prime minister or the queen or king. You know, you don't just go into their presence. You don't just go into God's presence. And that's what God is saying.
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tell Aaron that you don't come into my presence anytime. Now I'm going to tell you when you can and how you can. So I think there is a a great deal of awe, but I think this is an also an emotion
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that we don't really think about and that's joy. that's joy. When we read all of these rituals, I think we are so
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conditioned by Luther's interpretation of the Old Testament as a works religion and Luther's view of Paul as a
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frustrated Jew who could never seem to get it right. Luther actually superimposed himself onto Paul. Luther was a frustrated Catholic who could
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never get it right. And so he superimposed that onto Paul as a frustrated Jew who could never get it right. Paul wasn't frustrated at all. He reveled in the life that he led.
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He says that in Philippians 3. Not that he was he wasn't saying that I was proud. No, he was excelling. He was zealous. He he was the Phineas of second temple Israel.
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temple Israel. So there was an element of joy in I think in these people realizing that they had been delivered from slavery. They had seen the Lord defeat Pharaoh's
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army and provide for them in the wilderness. Now this is the second generation as we're going along. Um the first generation of course is dying off. But I I think that with the presence of
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the Lord there is there is fear, there is awe, there is confusion, there's also joy, there's joy in his presence. The psalmist speaks of
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that. Okay? In your in your presence, there is fullness of joy. Okay? So that that's an emotion I think we need
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to paint into the picture. Okay? Okay. Does that make sense?
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Yes, I think they did. Yeah, I think they did. I don't know uh fully how it manifested itself to the camp. Um except that um the Shikina they knew it was there and they
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knew that on this one day one man among them was going directly into the presence of God.
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I think perhaps here God gave the people something because he's not going to
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disrespected like he can bless the people. Yes. With knowledge.
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understanding because he isn't jealous for his own glory. I think that that's a good observation. Um because what we're talking about in
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general is is somewhat of a um dichotomy that he is an awesome God who's an all-consuming fire who will not share
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his glory with another. Nor will he be approached by any flippant observer. His eyes are too pure to look upon evil. And
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yet in his presence there is fullness of joy. Those are two concepts that we don't seem to handle. We don't seem to juxtapose them very well together. And most religion seems to go to the to the
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negative one. God, especially the god of the Old Testament, right? He's the retributive God with the he's the Zeus of the Jewish world with the lightning bolts ready to punish every infraction.
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That is the wrong way to read this, Tim.
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your love. You have like clearly understood for their whole life, right? Daniel carried on. Yep. Daniel is another um Yeah. Uh and
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and those are those are very important examples. And they and then we're told, of course, that they're they walk by faith. Hebrews 11 talks about them. And yet we look at them as individuals and we tend to look through the lens of our
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own moralizing Christianity. And and I do the same thing. Frankly, I've still I'm still at awe to find Samson in Hebrews 11. Like typo? That's a
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typo. Um said, but we're not looking at it the right way, are we? We're not looking at it the way the Holy Spirit in inspiring the word obviously is looking
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at it differently than than we do. We're we're looking at the fact that we are imperfect. And Samson was certainly imperfect. Um, and so was David. And yet he was a man after God's heart. But he's
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also the sweet psalmist of Israel. And the the joy of the Psalms along with the sorrow and the struggle and the confusion. My God, my God, why have you
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forsaken me? You know, why are my enemies triumphing? I'm surrounded as with bulls of Bashan. You know, there's confusion. I I walk with the Lord. The psalmist in 73, I see the wicked
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prosper. You, right? There's the confusion and yet in the midst of it there's the joy of knowing that that our that the God the true God is my God and
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he is you know he is in the midst and and I think what is developing more in the wilderness and is lost in the nation is
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the idea in a in a positive way that there is a distinction
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It becomes a very negative thing in the history of Judaism. The we they idea it becomes an ethnosentric religion that salvation is by being Jewish. That's what happens. Okay. But
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and but and this can also happen in the church. But if you if you look at the concept itself, it's it's all full of grace. Because God is in Deuteronomy 7:7, he
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says, "I chose you not because you were the largest or the most powerful nation. You weren't. You were the dinkiest, but because of my love that I set upon your fathers, you know, because
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of God's love, we are we. And because God has not by his eternal wisdom shed that love upon the
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unbelieving world, we could say yet in terms of individuals, they are they. It's it's not a oh we they no it's not that because all of we were once
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they and the only thing that made us to differ is the grace of God. And so I think the camp more than the temple in Jerusalem, the camp and then all of the
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outside the camp stuff that we were talking about for the last number of weeks, okay? All of that just like a reminder that God has called us out of the nations and he is our God and he is
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our protector. He is our shield, our buckler. He is our fortress. All the words the psalmist uses and there's a certain awe in that because it is entirely by his grace. But there's got
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to be a joy that goes with that all.
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Well, I I think we we see that in Leviticus 9 that when Moses and Aaron go into the tent, they come out with a benediction. Okay. So So that's what you were they God is giving a blessing. His
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very presence is a blessing and and his willingness to continue to live with the people and to make provision so that the people can can continue to live with
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him. See, all the purity Torah is is that it's making provision, including the dietary law. I'm simply making provision whereby you can live in my presence. And now we're getting to the
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point on in Leviticus 16 where now he's made provision that he continues to live in their presence. Does that make sense? Like 11 through 14 or 15 is all about
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you continuing to live in my presence. Now this is what you have to do for me to continue to live in your presence. And we know from the prophets, especially Ezekiel, that after they
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entered the land, they didn't keep that
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Yes, it because it it it is that it's the birth of it's the rebirth of their existence as the people of God for another year. another year. And and I think initially they understood it that way and I think the
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deaths of Naab and Abihu were providentially used to remind the people of this. So um so I think that that even
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in the midst of this we have to be careful not to go the route that Luther went and to turn Judaism into a works religion a somber burdensome works
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religion. No, these these people were dwelling in the presence of almighty God. And his blessings were he has already promised if you will obey me, I will bless everything you
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touch. And there were times when he did just that act visibly materially. Of course, they didn't really always uphold their side of the bargain. Um and then
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the the um the I the idea that we have in the tabernacle again I think more more so
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than the temple and I don't want to denigrate the temple too much but but keep in mind what John says in his prologue of his gospel. He says, "The
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word became flesh and literally tabernacled among us." Okay? So, and temple is a different word. A
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temple is a structure, a hehon. The tabernacle is a tent. And that is a it's a it's a mobile sanctuary. So when John coins that word,
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he he's he's again taking our mind like he did with the opening in the beginning. You know, he took our mind immediately back to Genesis 1. Well, now he's taking us back to the tabernacle.
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Um and I think when we look at that, um I want to read a little bit from Psalm 91.
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Um, how many how many verses? I could read the whole thing, but I'm just going to read the first two verses. And and I want you when you when you hear this, you know, I think I want you to think of two things. One, the
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camp, and then two, the church. The the psalmist says, "He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the almighty. I will
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say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust." I don't I think those two verses certainly capture the attitude of
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faithful Israel all through the Old Testament. But I think they are the those verses are the paradigm for every
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believer. We dwell under the shadow of the Almighty and he is our fortress and he is our God and who we trust. So I I guess I wanted to say that because when
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we get that get that down because we finished all of the uh the purity Torah all all we're out of the weeds. We got down into the weeds, but I think we needed to get into the weeds so that we
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could really understand what was going on here. Okay? Because this day, the day of atonement, is not like any other festival. It's not like any other day.
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It's not like a new moon, not the Passover. It's not tabernacles, Pentecost. It's none of those. It stands alone because it is the only day of the
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year that Yahweh can be approached directly. Every other one is all still mediated entirely even for the high
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priest by the blood and the sacrifices. Now those days were themselves glorious and often often resulted in feasts which goes back to that awe and then the joy.
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Um but there was no feast on the day of atonement. It was a solemn Sabbath. It was a day of fasting. And and as we look into the mechanics of it, it borrows from the
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earlier sacrifices, particularly Leviticus chapter Leviticus chapter 4, but they're not done the way they are in Leviticus 4. It's it's a completely
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it's it's the same but different. Okay. So it and then I think this is the same spirit literally the Holy Spirit but it's the same spirit that the writer of
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Hebrews approaches this in chapters 9 and 10 which I think are kind of the climax of his whole letter okay because of what what he's dealing with. So let's
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look now at the day. Does anybody have any comments or
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very I think the further we go I mean
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Yes. And and I think the word you use, you use several, but you use the word the dark kind of a dark and terrifying place. Um, keep that in mind because that's at the heart of the scapegoat
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prep? You have to do this. You have to his not as careful about how this coming I think there was a lot of anticipation I imagine um I wonder if we shouldn't have the same attitude as I said earlier
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about the Lord's supper you know that we we should see it again I don't want to become a a sacramentalist any of that but on the
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other hand I I do think we I think what what Lauren what you were alluding to um there there is a notion especially within the charismatic
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movement that you can keep that emotion going all the time. I don't think so. I really don't. And my experience in the charismatic
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movement and I know this is very cynical and maybe others have had different experience. I think frankly most of the people are faking it. I really don't think they really uh I
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don't think they have nearly the power they think they have. I I think it's just something they keep saying and they talk about positive confession and claiming it and don't don't speak a negative confession and well all you're
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trying to do is dehumanize yourself. We don't maintain that high level. Nor did Israel. I mean we and maybe it is. I
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think that when we're in the new earth, when we're in the marriage feast of the lamb, when we're will I be we'll be able to handle that high level of excitement, but I don't think we can actually hand I
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couldn't handle it. I I couldn't I'm not genetically capable of being a charismatic long term. Just flatwear me out. Okay. So, but I also don't think
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that it was really real around me, honestly. Okay. So I I don't think we can maintain but I do think that there are times and I think this was one of
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them where there was a sense of excitement. I think all of the festivals were supposed to be that which is why some of the songs are called the songs of ascent that the people of Israel would sing them as they went up to
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Jerusalem for the annual feasts. So there there's there's a lot of singing in Judaism. How can it be such a bad religion? There's s the one of the
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largest books of the Old Testament is a song book, right?
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Oh, I don't I don't I do agree. I think there was an exuberance. I think Moses broke into song. Miriam broke into song. I think song, we'll we'll talk about this, Lord willing, when we talk about prayer in
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Sunday school at someday, um that that song is an expression of exuberance back to God and and we are created to sing.
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We're we're in a sense we're kind of song birds. Um, and so, but if you if you just look at how much song there is in the Old Testament and in the
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Pentatuk, you really can't come away thinking that it was a burdensome works religion and God was a was a harsh task master. I I don't think that's fair.
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It's interesting that song,
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right? Yes. Song as a song as a Levitical function within the temple liturgy did wait until the time of
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Yes. You know, it's important enough to wait on it, anticipate it. And I but I also Yeah. I also think the arrival of David in the Davidic covenant is also significant to that because once the promise starts to home in on the
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identity and tribe of the Messiah, hope starts to hope is is the is the fountain of song. Um I want to read a quote from
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uh Michael Morales and his commentary on Leviticus. He asked, "What impression was conveyed to the Israelite community as day by day they saw their priests
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dressed in their finery enter God's house to attend upon him and to enjoin his company in the surroundings of an ideal world taken together the
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tabernacle and priesthood constituted something of a celestial globe as it were within Israel's midst a renewed humanity dwelling with God in a
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cosmos. Now, I think this this is a concept that has had it has its place within rabbitic within rabbitic writings, but it never really gained uh a footing within Christian
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theology. And that is the tabernacle and Israel as a microcosm of the universe. and the tabernacle
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sanctuary as a reproduction of the Garden of Garden of Eden. Now, we've talked about this before. The if you read through
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Exodus and the um uh the tapestries of the tabernacle and the weavingings of the tabernacle were all reminiscent of
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the garden. the garden. Even the pomegranates were were again replicas of the fruit trees of the garden. But I think the most significant
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one is the weavingings on the center veil which were of a cherubim with a
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sword. Where do we find that? Stationed at the entrance to the garden. Okay, is this making sense? And and I think the right this is not this is not
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fanciful because the writer of Hebrews tells us that all of this is simply a type of the heavenly sanctuary, right?
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And he makes the the distinction that we'll talk about, Lord willing, uh, in two weeks, that the high priest went into the tabernacle made with human hands. But the true high priest went
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into the into the heavenly. Okay? So, we already know that what we're dealing with here is a pattern patterned off of what exists in
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heaven. Okay? So I think the commentators that speak of the center of this holiness realm that we've talked about before, this place right here in
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the middle is not only the presence of God, but because it's the presence of God, it's the center of the universe. And in a manner of speaking in
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Old Testament terms, it's a return to Eden. So man, one man in the form and the
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person of the high priest who himself foreshadows a high priest, right? The high priest plays Adam one
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day a day a year and he goes back to Eden. Now he doesn't just waltz in, right? But all of the visuals support I
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think that conclusion that what we're dealing with here this is why it's such a central concept to the whole sotiology because it's not just about you and me being forgiven of our sins.
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Actually there's no mention of forgiven forgiveness of sins on the day of atonement. It is all about cleansing. If it were took place in the
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spring it would be spring cleaning. Okay. So, what we're dealing with here is not um being forgiven of sins. That's that's the view that that is is so
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powerful within Protestant Christianity is that it's all about our sins being forgiven. Yes. But it's about more than that. It's about cleansing. That we're not only forgiven
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of sin, but washed. Okay. Um what does John say in his first letter? That if we confess our confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive us and
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do what? Cleanse us from all unrighteous. Whenever you're reading the New Testament and you read cleanse or purify, you're reading Levitical
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tabernacle words. And it's it's deeper and and much more significant than the the moralistic being forgiven of your sins. it's being washed from
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washed from them. And then there's there's the added second goat that we're going to touch upon this evening, but Lord willing speak at length next week about that that what we call the
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scapegoat, which is probably not the best term for it. Certainly not with what that word means now. Okay. The the the evolution of that word has long
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since departed from Leviticus 16. But we see that that goat is taken out into the wilderness. Well, what Aaron was saying, the terms you used,
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darkness, terrifying. Okay. And I've said this before, as far as we can tell, in terms of the instructions
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that Israel that Moses was given for the layout of the camp, there was no
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wall. God was the wall. But we read that as a prophecy, you know, that the the city has no walls because God is the wall. That's in what? Zechariah. Yeah, I
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think. Um, but there that God and his fire is what protects his people from the rest of the world. They don't need a wall. Okay? And this wall was to protect
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the people from the glory of God. But there was no wall around the camp. And yet they were they dwelt in security. Okay? So there was a somehow
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there was a limit that was known. Maybe they had a sign that said camp wilderness, you know, um and so when you were unclean, you knew you had to go past that line. Uh but there was no wall there. There was no tent there. They
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didn't stretch fabric around the whole thing to designate it.
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Yeah, I think that's and that is to me a a foreshadowing of the church in the world that Israel itself actually had two stages. Not only did it have a tabernacle and then it have a temple,
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but it also had a time when the boundaries were boundaries were clearly indicated because the the the tribes camped in a particular place
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around the around the tabernacle, right? And wherever they went, they lined up that way. And when they got up to leave, they got up in order and they marched as um as a church
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militant. Then they went into the land and they had their cities and some of them even stayed on the other side of the Jordan. And I think that that whole
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idea they were not able to maintain they in a sense they became in the world and then of the world. Is that also showing
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how they were supposed to be more I think so. Yes. Um
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time and now what we have now is even more than that. Yeah. But I think if we keep our mind I think if you read this is where that biblical theology came in and and Lord willing in the next session we're going to look at biblical theology
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through the people of Israel that whole that whole body of the Old Testament that is Israel. If we keep our eyes on the tabernacle and know that Jesus has
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tabernacled among us then we realize this is in reality our situation. So you know when Mark says from from you know we are resident aliens. This is the paradigm. This is
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the metaphor that is closest to what we are in the world today. the Israel in the land is is is like okay you it's it's adolescence and young adulthood but
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they didn't manage it well and sadly the church hasn't either okay so I I think those are all a a very apt applications of what we're talking about here um and
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so the idea of returning to Egypt though I'm sorry Eden sorry about that um that is a very bad fauxpaw
53:34
Yes. Yeah. Right. Let me off the camel. Um returned to returned to Eden. All right. So, here are some of
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the components. Let's just go over them quickly. Um if you have chance to read the notes, get into more detail. Uh but it really the whole thing looks like
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Leviticus 4, which is normally in our English Bibles called the law of the sin offering. But we have talked many times about that word hatat which is translated sin
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4 that the sins that are being atoned in that chapter are by no means willful violation of the law. They are ignorant sins. sins of which you were unaware. Um and and even
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the writer of Hebrews talks about the sins done in ignorance. He points out that that willful sin did not fall under the paradigm of Leviticus 1-7. Okay. But the
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framework of the offering is is the same on the day of atonement as it is for the the daily sin offerings. You have a bull
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and you have a goat. a bull for the priest and a goat for the people. Okay, so the framework is the same. However, I think Leviticus
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16 reinforces the somewhat newer uh scholarly interpretation of the wordat, not sin offering, but actually purification offering, the day of atonement. And the
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word is kapore, so it is atonement. I'm not going to change that. But when we think of atonement, we've been really trained to think of forgiveness for my sins. And yes, that's part of it. But
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actually, what we see in the day of atonement is not the forgiveness of sins, but the removal of them. And that's the
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scapegoat. Not the goat that killed, not the goat that sheds its blood. The goat that sheds its blood is for purification, cleansing. That's the term
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that's used throughout. He will cleanse the mercy seat. He will cleanse the holy place. He will cleanse the altar. You know, he's cleansing the tent of meeting. So, it's really not a sin
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offering. It is a purification offering.
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Jacob Mgrim coined a phrase that is very often reused uh used by other scholars now. Jacob Mgrim is probably one of the premier Old Testament scholars of the modern age. Um I don't know if he's
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still I think he may still be alive Jewish. He's he's a rabbi. Um but his work on Levitic Exodus and Leviticus are kind of the gold standard. Not that everything he says is right, but he
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speaks of speaks of blood as
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detergent. You think of match, it's more than mild. You're soaking in it, too. Blood. Um, the word atonement. No, no, no. A atonement is atonement. But as we've talked about before, our understanding of what atonement means
57:15
has been narrowed and I'm trying to expand it that for example, we talked about the the house that has the leprosy in the wall and yet it's atoned for by
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the by the sacrifice, okay? By the ritual. Um, so obviously it didn't have anything to do with sin because the house doesn't sin. Same with the clothing. It's atoned. So all I'm trying
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to say is again, don't misunderstand me. Atonement does mean the forgiveness of sins, but I think we've missed the depth and the breadth of atonement when we limit it to the
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forgiveness of individual sins. That there's not just the forgiveness of the sin, there's also the removal of the guilt. That's another important fact factor. But most important on the day of
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atonement is atonement is cleansing. Does that make sense, Abe? It's cleansing from impurities and iniquities
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and sins. It's really just you could you can kind of lump them under the category of corruption due to sin. Hebrews,
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right? Yes. And so does Leviticus 16. But it the sins actually come into play when you read about the scapegoat, not the bull and the first
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uncleanness. Thank you. That's where we're headed. Just this general and I've tried to I've tried to get in this when I got into the weeds with the the purity is just to show that every aspect of
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life in a fallen world as a fallen people is impure and there's a sense of uncleanness even our our righteousness
59:15
is as filthy rags. Would it be too far to say that sin is actually a result of I I would say that sin is a source of uncleanness. It's a source. Yeah. The
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fall of man, the rebellion of man, it it is the fountain of uncleanness is sin. So you can never remove sin from the picture. But sin is all not always front
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and center. You you can always resolve things back to Adam in Genesis 3. So in a sense the ultimate cause of all
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uncleanness, iniquity, transgression, corruption, whatever the words may be, is sin.