Christ in the Old Testament

Leviticus 16:33

He is to put on the sacred linen garments and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the tent of meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the members of the community. (NIV)

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 16:1-34 and Hebrews 9:6-28

I love the way God begins Leviticus 16, “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die” (Lev 16:2). In other words, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.” When our kids were little, this was said a little differently. It was more like, “I’ll let you know when you can come out of your room so stop asking!” We didn’t usually finish that sentence off like God did with “or else you will die” but I can’t say it never happened!

In Leviticus 16, God gives Moses more detailed instructions of all the things Aaron was to do on the Day of Atonement, also known as Yom Kippur. This was the only day Aaron was to enter the Most Holy Place. This was the day that the entire operating system was rebooted. The Israelites would go all year accumulating sins and corrupting themselves and everything around them. The Day of Atonement would deep clean and reset the entire system back to zero. This was the one day a year when everything would be right again.

We covered the scapegoat in detail in our devotion on January 13. It’s one of my favorite pictures of what Christ did for us on the cross because the scapegoat runs off into the wilderness to show us how far God has removed our sins from us by the blood of Jesus. David tells us, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). But let’s tackle the deeper meaning of the Day of Atonement to what Jesus did through his death today.

The priest would do the following in this order (I think) on the Day of Atonement:

• Take a bath
• Put on the priestly garments
• Sacrifice a young bull as a sin offering for himself
• Bring male two goats as a sin offering for the Israelite community
  • Sacrifice one goat for their sin offering
  • Keep one goat alive as their scapegoat
• Enter the Holy of Holies with burning coals and incense and sprinkle the blood of the bull on the Atonement Cover. Then do it again with the blood from the goat. This would make “atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel” (Lev 16:17).
• Sprinkle the Altar with the blood of the bull and goat. This would make “atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar” (Lev 16:20).
• Release the scapegoat into the wilderness.
• Take off the priestly garments in the Tent of Meeting and leave them there. Then take another bath and put on regular clothes.
• Sacrifice a ram as a burnt offering for himself
• Sacrifice another ram as a burnt offering for the Israelite community
• Have someone take the remnants of the bull and goat sin offerings outside the camp and burn them.

So to summarize, “He is to put on the sacred linen garments and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the tent of meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the members of the community” (Lev 16:33). So why do we need to review all those details? Because Jesus did the exact same thing! Check out this passage in Hebrews:

“It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence” (Heb 9:23-24).

The rituals performed by Aaron on the Day of Atonement were simply a copy of what Jesus actually did through his death and resurrection:

• Jesus offered himself by his sacrifice on the cross as both the sin offering and the burnt offering (Heb 9:28).
• He was crucified outside the city just as the sin offerings were burned outside the camp (Heb 13:11-12)
• Upon Jesus’ resurrection, he was “designated by God to be High Priest in the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 5:10).
• The Jesus ascended into heaven and offered his body and his blood to God in the real Most Holy Place in heaven (Heb 9:12).

Jesus presented himself alive to God in heaven. He presented himself “once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb 9:26). And just like Aaron made “atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the tent of meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the members of the community” (Lev 16:33), Jesus made atonement for all of us and even heaven itself when he presented himself to God. That was the real Day of Atonement!

Today’s Prayer: Thank you Jesus! I praise your name because only you are worthy of my praise!