198: The Day of Atonement

An Old Covenant mindset tells us that God is faraway, and we cannot approach Him until we have cleansed ourselves and made ourselves acceptable. An Old Covenant mindset says there is a priest (a mere man) between us and God. An Old covenant mindset tells us that God blesses or curses us based on our ability to perform well for Him.

A look at the Old Covenant system of the tabernacle, the priests, and the sacrifices will give us a picture of the better things to come in Jesus. Those better things include the one Sacrifice for sins that cleanses us and brought us into the Holy of Holies in the presence of God forever, and our eternal High Priest who mediates for us so that we are only blessed and never cursed.

In the Old Covenant system, God gave instructions to Moses to assign each of the tribes of Israel roles and duties to be carried out in the building, assembling, and offerings of the tabernacle. The tribe of Levi was given the role of the priesthood who would administer the offerings of animal sacrifices to cover the sins of the people. One Levite from the line of Aaron (Moses’ brother) would be the high priest over Israel.¹

In the outer court of the tabernacle, the priests would sacrifice various offerings to God for their own sins as well as for the sins of the people. There were five kinds of offerings: the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. There were daily sacrifices, weekly sacrifices on the Sabbath, sacrifices associated with each of the seven feasts of Israel, and the sacrifices on the Day of Atonement. Can you imagine the carnage and the bloodiness of tabernacle?

On the Day of Atonement once a year, the high priest would make the regular daily offerings, but he would also make additional sacrifices of a bull and two goats.

In the tabernacle was a tent which had two parts, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, also called the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was the “earthly sanctuary” where God’s presence would dwell.² Only the high priest could stand in the presence of God, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement did the high priest enter in order to sprinkle the blood of the bull and one of the goats on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant which containing the two stones on which were etched the Ten Commandments. This was so that the sins of entire nation of Israel would be covered, and the people would be blessed for another year. As long as the Old Covenant tabernacle system (or later on, the temple system) was in place, the Holy of Holies was closed to anyone but the high priest. In other words, God was INAPPROACHABLE. No one else in all of Israel could enter the Holy of Holies and live. Even the high priest himself would drop dead if he failed to perform every ritual perfectly.

If the sacrifice of the blood of the bull and the goat was acceptable, and the high priest came out alive with his hands raised pronouncing a blessing on the nation, everyone would cheer because they knew that this meant their harvests would be plentiful, and they would be victorious over their enemies. However, if the sacrifice was not acceptable or the high priest did not perform his duty perfectly, he would not come out of the Holy of Holies alive, and all of Israel would know that they would be under a curse that year.

Today, the blood of the perfect Lamb of God has been sprinkled on the Mercy Seat. Today, our High Priest, who lives after the power of an endless life, forever lives to intercede for us so that we all can approach the throne of grace for any and every reason. Today, we live under undeserved blessing because of His amazing grace.

(from pages 295-296 of Unveiling Jesus)

Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!

Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.

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¹Exodus 40:12-15
²Hebrews 9:1