The people should have taken sin very seriously.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Leviticus 16
In this highpoint of the book of Leviticus, we learn about the Day of Atonement, the day the high priest was to perform the rituals to cleanse the Tabernacle from the defilement of the camp, to ransom the people's sin, and to symbolically send their sin away on a scapegoat. But the real point was to emphasize their humble repentance, something they missed.
Atonement will be made for you on this day to cleanse you (16:30)
When We Studied This Passage in 2017
Here are the things I pointed out in that post:
Strict entrance procedures
The Most Holy Place
Incense offerings
Azazel
A Christian equivalent to the Day of Atonement?
If I don't cover something below, or if you think one of those bullet points sounds interesting, skim through that post!
Poop Everywhere
I know this is a clickbait title, but if you've got young kids, or if you've got pet animals, you've got poop in your life. Ergo, discussion topic!
You would reframe this whether the poop is in a diaper or on the yard. You can't completely avoid touching it, no matter how hard you try. (Here in our church nursery, they use gloves and careful procedures; most parents I know eschew that.)
What do you do when you come into contact with poop? I try to immediately clean off my shows (and then clean up whatever I tracked through the house). We have wipes and chemicals handy (and even gloves for when we just can't even). Clean that mess up ASAP!
The point of this idea is to set it against the "cleansing" rituals we read about this week. Sin is so much uglier and more infectious than even poop. We clean ourselves up pretty quick after poop-contamination; how do we react to sin-contamination?
[Here's a learning exercise that might not go over well -- bring something gross into class and touch someone with it. See what kind of reaction you get. Like I said, this might not be a good idea, but it might get the point across.]
The Most Desperate You've Been for a Shower
For you, this might be related to the topic above. What's a time when you just couldn't wait to take a long shower? What caused that feeling?
Two things that really mess with me are working with fiberglass insulation, and roaches. Moreso the roaches. I think of them as disease incarnate. When one has crawled on me, I very calmly think of the quickest way I can completely sanitize that entire part of my body.
How about you?
The point of this topic is the same as the first -- are we as desperate to "clean off" sin when we get involved in it?
[Clarification: just in case your group takes things a little too literally. Christians don't have rituals to purify ourselves from sin like the priests in the Old Testament. We go directly to God in confession and repentance. Got it? Don't let your group miss the forest for the trees.]
What Are the Things that Damage Friendships?
It can be hard to understand what's going on with these ancient Jewish sacrifices and this "Day of Atonement" that Christians no longer celebrate. So here's an illustration that might help: what are things that tend to damage your relationships? And then two follow-ups:
what damage tends to happen?
what does it take to repair that damage?
These are the points I think you would be driving toward:
it is easy to damage a relationship;
it is hard to repair a relationship;
if the relationship matters to you, you will go the hard road.
In the Old Testament, God had to teach His people the pain caused by sin and the damage it does; it breaks the peoples' relationship with each other and with Him. All of these rituals and sacrifices made a very hard point: we must take sin seriously and care about repairing the damage.
When the people didn't care about the damage (or didn't take the rules/rituals seriously, like Nadab and Abihu) that's when the real pain began.
Wouldn't you agree that the worst pain comes when you no longer care enough about a relationship to care to maintain it?
The Scapegoat
Who do you think of when I say "scapegoat"? (Or maybe "fall guy".) For me, it's probably Bill Buckner or Steve Bartman. For music-lovers, Yoko Ono? For history-lovers, Bruce Ismay or Marie Antionette? And how about Jews in general, throughout history, for just about anything? (Aside: I kinda think that Nico Harrison, GM of the Dallas Mavericks, is already on this list for a lot of Texans ...)
Did you ever have a scapegoat for your schemes as a kid? How did that work out? Have you ever been a part of something as an adult where there was a scapegoat?
Scapegoats bear an unfair amount of the blame, even if they were complicit, while someone else who is probably more responsible goes free. That is actually the point of the biblical scapegoat -- an innocent goat bears the guilt of the people away into the wilderness while they get to live their normal lives for another year.
But before we get high and mighty about the unfairness for the goat, let's remember that the only reason we have salvation is because Jesus made it possible. We certainly aren't innocent bystanders.
Does Your "Perfect Day Off" Include Worship?
This question comes from a reference in Leviticus 16:29 -- God describes the Day of Atonement by telling the people that they must "take the day off". That sounds pretty nice. We've talked about this with the Sabbath -- God knows that people need regular "breaks", so He baked that into our cycles of life.
And that reminds me of a Serendipity Bible question, which is something like "Does your perfect day off include worship?" What a profound, cut-to-the-heart question!
If none of the other ideas above seem too exciting to you, this one is completely different. It might take a little explaining how it connects, but it's a totally different tenor of discussion. Long story short is this: every "day off" given in the Bible is meant to include a time for worship.
Why might you think that is?
This Week's Big Idea: Atonement
I don't know how many hundreds (thousands?) of books have been written solely about the biblical concept of atonement. I do know that any attempt to summarize it in a few paragraphs will be a bit of an oversimplification.
So if I'm going to oversimplify, I may as well go all-in.
Think of "atonement" as "at-one-ment" -- atonement is the process of restoring a relationship that has been broken, bringing two persons back together again.
There are two major aspects to biblical atonement:
atonement as ransom, and
atonement as cleansing.
"Ransom" means the opposite in the Bible of what you probably think it means. Today, we think of a "ransom payment" as something an innocent party pays to a guilty party (like to a kidnapper). But in the Bible, a ransom payment is something the guilty party pays to the innocent party -- more like "reparations" in our modern sense. The innocent party has to be willing to accept the ransom payment; that is an act of grace (the guilty party deserves to be punished for whatever transgression).
You might know the name "Yom Kippur" ("the Day of Atonement"), which is still celebrated as a High Holy Day in Judaism (more about this below). In ancient Hebrew, there were no written vowels, so both kippur ("to make atonement") and koper ("to ransom") appear the same.
"Cleansing" is the easier one for us to understand. Sin is a stain on our souls; as we sing in the old hymn, "What can avail to wash it away?" Well, we cannot cleanse ourselves -- we have to be cleansed by something. Sacrifice of atonement provides that cleansing; it washes away the stain of our sin.
Consider these verses from Leviticus:
16:30 Atonement will be made for you on this day to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord.
17:11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement.
In the Bible, "atonement" has an aspect of ransom and of cleansing.
Jesus = A Unique Atonement
The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus Christ presented Himself as the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice of atonement. But the authors of the New Testament also realized that what Jesus did went far beyond "just" a ransom or a cleansing. There is a distinction between "plain-jane atonement" and "Jesus' Sacrifice of Atonement". That's why we have so many books on atonement, because people keep trying to capture in words everything Jesus accomplished on the cross.
In addition to ransom and cleansing, here are other common theories of the atonement. (Note: you will find strong debates about each of these theories. For my part, I think that there are elements of each that can help us grasp the bigger picture.)
Atonement as Victory ("Christus Victor"). This one is simple -- on the cross, Jesus conquered sin, death, and hell (on our behalf), and He rose victorious from the grave.
Col 2:14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
Atonement as Penal Substitution ("Propitiation"). God's perfect holiness demands that sins against Him must be punished, and our sin demands death. Jesus paid our sin-debt.
Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.
Atonement as Divine Satisfaction. God's divine kingdom has been sullied by our sin, bringing Him disgrace. Jesus offered perfect satisfaction for this wrong, restoring us.
[Note: there's no good prooftext for this theory.]
Atonement as Cosmic Restoration. All of creation has been under a curse because of sin, and Jesus declared an end to that curse which would be consummated at His return.
Col 1:20 and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Atonement as Moral Influence. This is a favorite among liberal Christians -- the cross is the ultimate example of love, demanding a response of love from us. Note that "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" is basically this theory put to verse, so it's not entirely wrong.
John 3:16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
And don't forget that we've already covered Atonement as Ransom and Atonement as Cleansing.
Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So here's our still-oversimplified-definition:
Atonement is the biblical doctrine describing how Jesus' sacrifice on the cross reconciled sinful humans to God
by Jesus paying the price for our sin through self-sacrifice,
by Jesus absorbing the punishment that our sins rightly deserve,
resulting in
our restored relationship with God,
our purified state to enter God's presence,
victory over sin, death, and hell,
the restoration of the entire created order.
Note that atonement has been made for all sins --
1 John 2:2 He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
But it is only effective (efficient) if you put your faith in Jesus -- if you believe that Jesus died for your sins and there is no other way for you to be made right with God but by Him --
1 Tim 4:10 For this reason we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially (particularly) of those who believe.
If you want to read more, skim these posts:
The Finished Work of Christ on the Cross -- a study of John 19:17-30 (which focuses on the crucifixion itself)
Sacrificed - What Jesus Accomplished on the Cross (Also, What Happens When You Die - Luke 23:33-46)
This Week's Bonus Big Idea: The Scapegoat and "Azazel"
Christians tend to focus on the goat that was slaughtered on the Day of Atonement, because that's the role we generally see Jesus playing (the perfect sacrifice). But there are two goats in the Day of Atonement rituals:
the sin offering (16:15-19) and
the scapegoat (16:20-22).
I have always been fascinated by and horrified for that scapegoat.
A theory that I like is that God appointed these two rituals to serve two purposes. The sacrifice of the sin offering was entirely private -- the action could only be observed by the High Priest because it took place in the Most Holy Place where no one else was allowed to enter or see.
So, God also instituted a public ceremony that would make what happened in secret something the people could safely observe and understand, hence the scapegoat.
Aaron "ritually transferred" the sins of the people onto the head of this goat and then sent him away from the camp, never to return, bearing the people's sins away.
Symbol or not, how awful for that goat.
Here's where I don't think it's a coincidence that Jesus was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem. He bore His cross to Calvary on a march that began at the Temple.
In this, we should actually think of Jesus as "both goats" -- both the sacrifice for sin and the scapegoat.
1 Pet 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness.
This is why we should find it hard to put into simple words what Christ accomplished on the cross.
[Interestingly, the term "scapegoat" was introduced into English by William Tyndale, who was made the scapegoat for Henry VIII's split with the Roman Catholic Church.]
About "Azazel"
Everyone points out that "Azazel" is a confusing word. This is a wooden translation of 16:8:
8 After Aaron casts lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other for Azazel.
Who or what is Azazel? It's not used anywhere else in the Bible to help us.
(1) The word "Azazel" might be related to "ez" (goat) + "azal" (go away), which is why a number of translations go with something like
one lot for the Lord and the other for the goat to be driven away.
(2) The word "Azazel" might be related to the Arabic word "azazu" (wilderness), hence
one lot for the Lord and the other for the wilderness.
(3) And some people think this is the name of a desert demon, hence a proper name. Now, this doesn't necessarily make the scapegoat an offering to the demon, but the demon symbolizes the goat being banished from the Lord's presence.
one lot for the Lord and the other for Azazel.
I don't know of too many reputable Christians who hold that view today.
I think the CSV strikes a nice balance:
one lot for the Lord and the other for an uninhabitable place.
Where We Are in Leviticus
Last week, we introduced all of the sacrifices and covered the "first day" of Tabernacle worship. This week, we skip ahead a few chapters to the high point of Leviticus -- instructions for The Day of Atonement. Remember this diagram from last week:
We have learned from Aaron's failures and Aaron's sons' failures that even the holy priests bring defilement into God's house, not to mention that the Tabernacle is surrounded by sinful Israelites (which is why there is a daily ritual of sacrifice).
Therefore, once a year, the High Priest is instructed to "cleanse God's house" by making a special sin offering and sprinkling the blood around the Most Holy Place. And the same time, the High Priest takes a second animal and ritually "transfers" the sins of the people onto it, then sending it away from the camp. On this day,
the camp is cleansed, and
the sins are removed.
For a year, at least.
After chapter 16, Leviticus shifts gears to focus on laws that were intended to shape Jewish society.
Part 1: Sin Separates us from God (Leviticus 16:1-2)
16 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron’s sons when they approached the presence of the Lord and died. 2 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place behind the curtain in front of the mercy seat on the ark or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.
After the terrible deaths of Aaron's two sons (see last week), God spells out something that everybody should have known: it is not safe for a sinful person to come into the presence of God.
The Most Holy Place isn't like your dad's office.
[Aside on familiarity. Remember that a church building is not like the Tabernacle. If a kid has grown up at church and is just really comfortable with everything, that's okay. He isn't going to be zapped by divine lightning if he comes up on the platform after service or whatever. We want to have and to teach appropriate respect for places and things, but that's very different than God saying "or else he will die".]
Remember that every artist takes a slightly different license with what the Tabernacle and the Most Holy Place looked like, and that's okay. What we know for sure is that the only thing in the Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant. You remember reading about the "cloud" that appeared over the Tabernacle; apparently, it extended all the way into the Most Holy Place, through the roof, so to speak.
The Most Holy Place was isolated by a very heavy curtain (some scholars have suggested it could have been multiple feet thick). No one could just accidentally stumble in there.
The cloud represented the presence of God.
Let's remember some terms from last week. A thing can be holy or common; it is made holy through specific sanctifying rituals that set it apart for its holy purpose. Separately, a thing can be clean or unclean. It is made unclean either by being defined that way by God (like a dead body or a pig) or by coming into contact with something that is unclean. It can be made clean again through specific cleansing rituals.
The point: on earth, uncleanness "wins" over cleanness. A clean thing always becomes unclean when it touches an unclean thing. But when it comes to God, cleanness always "wins" over uncleanness. Remember that Jesus touched lepers and dead bodies and people with discharges, and it did not make Him unclean. Instead, Jesus removed the uncleanness from that person simply by His presence or His touch.
In the Most Holy Place, that effect gets ramped up to infinity. God's holiness "cleans" the unclean thing out of existence. If a person brings any uncleanness into God's presence, it will certainly mean his death.
Aside: Food Allergies
Shelly and I are still grappling with her recent gluten allergy. Just two nights ago, we ate something that we had no idea had gluten in it, and she was ill for the next day. If you have a food allergy or are related to someone with a food allergy, you understand how serious it can be. You are willing to go to great lengths to make sure no traces of that food type are in your meal. It is dangerous to consume even a small amount of it.
That's basically what God is saying here, except in reverse. The "allergen" is not the danger here; the allergen is in danger. God does not "get sick" in the presence of sin; He simply annihilates it. He wants to be in the presence of His people, but their sin will result in their death. So, their sin must be dealt with -- every speck of it -- for their own good.
Part 2: Sin Demands a Sacrifice (Leviticus 16:3-6)
3 “Aaron is to enter the most holy place in this way: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He is to wear a holy linen tunic, and linen undergarments are to be on his body. He is to tie a linen sash around him and wrap his head with a linen turban. These are holy garments; he must bathe his body with water before he wears them. 5 He is to take from the Israelite community two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. 6 “Aaron will present the bull for his sin offering and make atonement for himself and his household.
These rituals are simply so that Aaron (the High Priest) can safely enter into the Most Holy Place. These are where all of my strange illustrations are going --
if you have a food allergy, you go to extreme lengths to remove that allergen;
if you come into contact with something disgusting, you go to extreme lengths to wash it from your body.
For Aaron's good, he had to go to these lengths simply to be able to do his job. Two goats for the sins of the entire nation, but an entire bull and ram just for his own family.
[Note: I'm associating verse 5 with the next section.]
In my 2017 post on this passage, I mentioned the extreme lengths workers must go through to enter/leave a workplace like an infectious disease ward or a biochemical research lab -- for their own good and for the good of the work they are doing. Those might be helpful illustrations for your group.
The point you want to make is not to get caught up on the rituals themselves but rather what they represent:
atonement as ransom (reparation) and
atonement as cleansing.
This would be a logical place to discuss the biblical doctrine of atonement if you haven't already (see above).
Aside: The Place of Repentance
This is made clear later in chapter 16 --
31 It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must practice self-denial; it is a permanent statute.
More about "self-denial" later in the post. Unfortunately, many people decided that the ritual itself was what God wanted, not the heart-introspection the ritual was supposed to inspire. To be certain, some Jews got it --
Ps 51:17 The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.
But the eventual role of the prophets was to confront the people with their failure to understand why God instituted the sacrificial system in the first place.
Isa 1:11 “What are all your sacrifices to me?” asks the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I have no desire for the blood of bulls, lambs, or male goats. 12 When you come to appear before me, who requires this from you—this trampling of my courts? 13 Stop bringing useless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons and Sabbaths, and the calling of solemn assemblies—I cannot stand iniquity with a festival.
So just to be clear -- the rituals on the Day of Atonement were never intended to work on their own (ex opere operato, if you want to go down a rabbit hole). They were always intended to push the people to realize their need for God's help to run away from the sin that so easily entangled them.
Part 3: Atonement as Ransom (Leviticus 16:7-10)
7 Next he will take the two goats and place them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 8 After Aaron casts lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other for an uninhabitable place, 9 he is to present the goat chosen by lot for the Lord and sacrifice it as a sin offering. 10 But the goat chosen by lot for an uninhabitable place is to be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement with it by sending it into the wilderness for an uninhabitable place.
[Note: I talked about the scapegoat/Azazel above.]
The two goats are part of the same atonement ritual. One goat's sacrifice is private, a ceremony that only the High Priest participates in. The other goat's "sacrifice" is public -- so public that every Israelite can watch the goat wander away from the camp, symbolically bearing the sins of the people away.
The goat that is sacrificed as a sin offering is a "ransom payment" to God for the people's sin-debt. But to be technical, note that the blood of that goat also is used to "cleanse" the Tabernacle from the people's defilement.
15 “When he slaughters the male goat for the people’s sin offering and brings its blood inside the curtain, he will do the same with its blood as he did with the bull’s blood: He is to sprinkle it against the mercy seat and in front of it. 16 He will make atonement for the most holy place in this way for all their sins because of the Israelites’ impurities and rebellious acts. He will do the same for the tent of meeting that remains among them, because it is surrounded by their impurities.
Our lesson doesn't cover what happens to the scapegoat, but it is important:
20 “When he has finished making atonement for the most holy place, the tent of meeting, and the altar, he is to present the live male goat. 21 Aaron will lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the Israelites’ iniquities and rebellious acts—all their sins. He is to put them on the goat’s head and send it away into the wilderness by the man appointed for the task. 22 The goat will carry all their iniquities into a desolate land, and the man will release it there.
This is the final step of "cleansing" -- all of the defilement of the people's sin is gathered and placed on the goat which then leaves the camp. The proverbial trash truck taking the trash to the dump. This goat (I don't believe) is not a ransom payment to a demon of the wilderness, so please don't let my chosen section title confuse you.
Aside: Yom Kippur / The Day of Atonement
This post is already pretty long, so I'm going to lean on some outside resources to satiate your appetite for answers well outside by expertise.
The big question for me is this: how do Jews celebrate Yom Kippur today if they do not have access to the Temple Mount to make their sacrifices?
Essentially, it sounds like they have redefined the day to focus on prayer and repentance. The day is marked by fasting, prayer, confession, and rest -- focusing on the "self-denial" part of the instruction. So, it is definitely not the same as what is described in Leviticus 16, but it seems to be properly emphasizing the heart side of things.
Part 4: Atonement as Cleansing (Leviticus 16:29-30)
29 “This is to be a permanent statute for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month you are to practice self-denial and do no work, both the native and the alien who resides among you. 30 Atonement will be made for you on this day to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord.
Every year, the people performed this ritual, and this would push everything ahead for another year.
The verb for "self-denial" literally means "you shall humble your souls". As I tried to say above, any Jew who emphasized the ritual over the humble repentance completely missed the point of this day. A ritual, designed well, simply acts out a deeper truth that is being taught. The Day of Atonement should be about the people's humble sorrow for their sin, their recognition of the terrible cost of sin, and their desire to remove that sin from their lives and community. All of these rituals brilliantly turn that truth into action.
You might astutely wonder, "But wait! If this happens once a year, why did they need to do all of those other sacrifices?" You've made the same observation that the author of Hebrews tried to make -- none of these sacrifices actually solved anything; they only "kicked the can down the road".
That, in and of itself, is actually extremely important -- remember what Paul said:
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
Remember that the "mercy seat" is what they called the lid of the Ark. All of these Days of Atonement? They were compiling the sins committed into one "giant payment" that Jesus would make, many centuries in the future.
No, the Day of Atonement didn't "solve" anything, but it set things aside until Jesus did.
This would be a great time to camp out on "the one who has faith in Jesus"! Jesus' sacrifice was beyond priceless enough to pay for every sin ever committed. BUT -- only the person who has faith in Jesus has that payment "applied to his account" (so to speak). Trust in Jesus, and you will be saved. Else, you will pay your own infinite price for your sin.
Aside: When Your Child Is Injured
The pastor of our first church used this wonderful illustration that has always stuck with me. When your child is riding his bike and falls on the gravel, it's a mess. He's got skin and blood and dirt. And he's probably crying, so he's got snot and tears and drool. What do you do as a parent? Do you say, "Go and wash up, and I'll give you a hug." No! You get right in there with your messy, disgusting child. (And afterward, you take a long shower.)
People have misconstrued the Day of Atonement (and all sacrifices) as God saying, "Clean yourselves up and you can come to me." No! Remember what I said about sin and God's presence. That "cleaning up" was for our own protection. Ultimately, God did "hug us" in our terrible uncleanness and grossness -- in Jesus Christ. He is the Father of us, the prodigal child, running to take us in His arms. And Jesus Christ satisfied all of the "requirements" necessary to make it safe for us, a sinful people, to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Closing Thoughts: The Jewish Ritual Calendar
I haven't shared this chart in a while. I like how it puts all of God's prescribed festivals in an annual calendar -- a yearly cycle of remembering, of repenting, and of teaching.
