Separation

Introduction

We are here today to express our praise, thanks, and love to God. As we join together we come with different views and cares but loving the same God. We’ll begin with a time of praise and thanksgiving expressing our love.

The Day of Atonement

Imagine the scene. The dawn breaks clear and bright. There are just a few clouds in the sky. These will quickly burn off as the sun fully rises. We are in the middle of 2 million people. They are camped around a large tent. It is the tabernacle. It is a beautiful structure. With bright colors and carefully crafted metal work, the building stands as a testimony to the presence of God. There is continual sacrifice going on at the altar. There are days that the people are lined up waiting their turn to sacrifice their animals.

Some come with a sin offering. They have unintentionally sinned. They are aware of their sin and want to be forgiven. Depending upon their wealth and status among the people makes a difference what animal is being brought. But the point is to find forgiveness. Some come with an animal to celebrate their relationship with God. This peace or fellowship offering is a time of great joy. After the sacrifice the entire family will eat the remainder of the animal in the presence of God. It will be a celebration. Still others come with their grain to thank God for his provision. And still others come with a ram to sacrifice for violation of property rights. The ram will be only part of the sacrifice. Restitution to the offended party must be made.

Day after day the tabernacle is a busy place. We may not have an appreciation for such events. In fact, such events may seem to be insignificant. But the sacrificing of an animal meant that the family’s sin, celebration, or guilt was costly. The bleating of sheep could be heard constantly. And blood was constantly being sprinkled and applied to the altar. The tabernacle was an active place each day. After a time, we can understand why the events surrounding the tabernacle became ritualistic. The sacrificing of numerous animals in a day can lead to routine for the priest. Even the participants in the sacrifice could become casual about what was happening.

But there was one day each year when everything stopped. On the 10th day of the 7th month of each year, the high priest offered a sin offering for the entire nation. All the Israelites were to gather at the tabernacle and a very special ceremony was to take place. The high priest who normally wore very ornate garments was to bathe and wear simple linen garments. One young bull, two rams and two goats were brought for sacrifice on this day. The high priest would take two large handfuls of incense into the most holy place and burn them in a censer filled with burning coals from the main altar. Such a burning would create a large cloud of smoke which would hide the top of the ark of the covenant and in essence keep the high priest from seeing God and being killed.

The bull would be killed and its blood would also be taken into the Most Holy Place. The high priest would sprinkle some of the blood on the front of the ark. This symbolized cleaning from sin for the high priest and his family. Then seven times the high priest sprinkled blood on the floor of the Most Holy Place. This was to cleanse the Most Holy Place. Then the high priest killed one of the two goats and returned to the Most Holy Place to again sprinkle blood. This was to symbolize the cleansing of sin for all the people. Then the high priest would sprinkle blood of the bull and goat on the altar. This cleansed the altar. The remaining goat became the scapegoat for the people. The high priest placed his hands on the head of the live goat and publicly confessed all the sins of the people. Then a man appointed for the task took the goat out into the desert and abandoned it. This symbolized that the sins of the people were taken away.

The two rams were then slaughtered and sacrificed as burnt offerings. These would have been offerings of forgiveness and dedication. Then another man would take all that remained of the bull and goat outside the camp and would burn them up completely. The people were to assemble before the Tabernacle once a year to observe and participate in this solemn assembly. The people were to deny and afflict themselves probably meaning to fast, mourn for their sin, and confess their sin. Through all of this, the people were assured that their sins had been forgiven. In this manner the removal of sin was vividly portrayed. This assured the people that God was among them; that he loved them; that he was in relationship with them. This ceremony brought confidence to the people.

Confidence

Just as God wanted Israel to be forgiven of their sins, so he wants his people today to have their sins forgiven as well. Some have wrongly suggested that the Day of Atonement really didn’t forgive sins. Of course it did. This was God’s intent. What it couldn’t do was to take away sins once and for all. This sacrifice had to be repeated each year. The sacrificing of the bull, goats, and rams had to be done each year. Forgiveness was granted. The people and the tabernacle were cleansed but the such cleansing was temporary.

Jesus then became God’s answer once and for all with the sin problem. In Romans 8:3, Paul says “for what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature (flesh), God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.” In Romans 4:25, Paul says that Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins.” And in 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul says “God made Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus took the place of the bull, goats, and rams. In his death, sin was dealt with once and for all. In a clear reference to the sacrificing of animals, Paul says in Romans 3:25, “God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement.” And in Romans 5:9-10, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life.” Jesus is the answer to sin. He, once for all has taken our place. Just as the blood of the bull, goats, and rams brought cleansing, so it is through the blood of Jesus that we are cleansed.

The Hebrew writer knew the importance of Jesus’ sacrifice when he wrote in 9:12, that Jesus entered into God’s presence not by the blood of bulls and goats but with his own blood. How was that possible? Because Jesus was the sinless sacrifice. He was God’s son. He was God in the flesh. He was the ultimate payment for the sin of all. Again the Hebrew writer realizes the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice in 9:24-25 when he reminds his readers that Jesus didn’t enter the earthly tabernacle but instead entered heaven itself fully in God’s presence. He did this by his sacrifice which was offered once and for all and does not have to be repeated.

Jesus’ sacrifice takes away the sins of the world. In his body, Jesus bore our sins (1 Peter 2:24). When Jesus died the veil in the Temple which separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was torn in two signifying that once and for all sin was being dealt with and now with his death, access to God, previously reserved for the high priest only, is now available to all. As the Hebrew writer says in 10:19-22, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

Jesus has provided access to God. With this confidence let us draw near to God. Would you draw near to him now? Would you have your body washed with water? Would you be cleansed from a guilty conscience?

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