It seems to me that people try to understand the meaning by picking apart the word ATONEMENT rather than by examining what God says about the festival. At-ONE-MENT is picking apart the word. That practice ignores some essentials about the festival because primarily it is about causing possessions to return to the original owner. God gets back His creation and man gets back his life and Satan gets back his sins. At Atonement the potential subjects and territory of God's Kingdom are redeemed.
Further reading is provided in the main article on the last of the three feast Seasons where there are links to the other Autumn/Fall festivals.
Restoration of the king: we (human beings) do not know who the rightful king is. Satan appears as an angel of light (a lion dressed like a lamb). The true king is the lamb.
Restoration of mankind: mankind is cut off from the tree of life in the most Holy Place or Holy of Holies. At Atonement men are once again truly free to choose to live God's way and become His eternal subjects.
Restoration of God's system i.e. the family: removal of Satan. All of his ways are placed on him to take along with him.
It just seems that there is always a focus on what the word means in English and not what it means in Hebrew or the expansion of the meaning in the Bible. That means that we ignore things like kinsman redeemer, jubilee and so on. The answer to why one goat gets the sins becomes obvious as well. The cost of the restoration then comes out in the ritual, and the reason for taking both the blood and the prayers into the Most holy place becomes a no-brainer. Just focusing on AT-ONE-MENT just seems to me to miss so much in the true meaning of the word.
Understanding our part in Atonement
From my perspective, I am not so sure that most Christians understand our part in Atonement. What this article will present is the traditional view of atonement expanded by my observations.
There are two parts to Atonement
People tend to see the significance of Atonement in dissecting the word. That is not the Biblical approach. There are two parts to atonement with God: the part that He does and the part that we do. God makes the atonement but man is required to be in a certain condition - one of affliction. If we are not afflicted then we need no atoning for. If the things in this world have no adverse effect on us then we do not need to be saved from it. As a matter of fact if we are not being afflicted when seeking atonement then we will be destroyed.
Atonement is for people that are afflicted. Atonement means freedom because someone else atoned for our condition. Atonement is something that is done for us and that seems to be an afterthought in how it is typically presented. People talk about them being at one with God but do not focus on God atoning for, and freeing them. They show no sense of being appalled by the evil that is our world. To me it is a subtle and devious distortion. It seems to focus on the person having some sort of equality with God and that is not the case at all. It is about a strong deliverer coming to our aid and freeing us when we had no way of doing it for ourselves. The only part we actually play is to recognise that we are in bondage and afflicted and are willing to accept the gift of freedom.
Fasting
Fasting is an act of worship. Fasting is a demonstration of grief chiefly used in seeking a blessing from someone greater. Grief is a response to loss/sacrifice especially of people who have been important in our lives e.g. martyrs. Worship means that we recognise that there is someone superior by nature and that we are devoted to Them. It is when we seek to be associated with someone to be blessed, and the lesser is blessed by the greater (Hebrews 7:7). In the Atonement relationship the blessing is to be in the restored/redeemed kingdom which is free of the afflictions that grieve us. Fasting is part of dying-to-self and giving in to the God that we worship. It portrays that we depend on Them for life and is assured that They control it. It tells God that someone is being oppressed (afflicted) by this world and that the person wants to be considered as Their subject. All of the righteous people were afflicted by this world because this is a world of sin. God hates sin. If we are close to this world and not being afflicted then we and God are different, not at one. As a practical device fasting afflicts us and causes us to appreciate the suffering of all the others who endure for the sake of the kingdom. For more on fasting please see the article by that name. Fasting is a critical element to Atonement. In Isaiah 58:6-7 God shows what the Day of Atonement (the fast that He chose) represents. It will be a time of freedom from the most tragic events in history and He will end it.
the fast(Acts 27:9). It is the fast that God has chosen for us in the pattern of festivals that came from heaven. According to the arrangement of the feast days, Atonement comes after the return of Christ and before the establishment of the Kingdom of God. More details would require a study of the book of Revelation which is beyond the scope of this article. At Atonement God will once again own Israel as king since YHWH was rejected in the time of Samuel (1 Samuel 8:7).
In Atonement blood features highly in the ritual. The sin offering is set out in detail and shows that the bulk of the blood was poured out under the altar of sacrifice. Some of the blood has to be used to purify the Holy place again (particularly the incense altar which represents prayers and the veil which represents access to God).
It should also be noted that the blood under the altar is shown by Revelation 6:9-11 to be of all martyrs not just Christ. In the atonement ritual when the priest or the congregation sinned, the blood was sprinkled seven times before the veil to the Most Holy Place, and some of it was placed on the horns of the incense altar. The rest of the blood was poured out at the base of the brazen altar. With regard to blood before the veil, the veil represents access i.e. the way forward through Christ (Hebrews 10:19-21). With regard to blood on the horns of the altar that represents redeemed prayers from everywhere. The incense altar had to do with prayers and the 4 horns represent all points on the Earth so the cleansing blood redeems prayers from everywhere. With regard to blood before the mercy seat, the mercy seat represents judgement and hope of eternal life as opposed to instant death. Blood under the altar represents our communion with the martyrs (Romans 12:4-13, 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, 1 Corinthians 10:16-18). Notice how this compares with Revelation.
So to join in spirit with those who suffer through the ages, and particularly for the most severe but final suffering of saints, we are required to fast. They had the same access, had their prayers redeemed, and have the same hope of eternal life. The requirement is set out in Leviticus and Numbers.
God also shows in the book of Numbers why the blood of man is necessary even unto the horse bridles
.
The blood of man is not a part of the Atonement. Atonement is done by God alone. The blood of man is a required part of the cleansing of the earth. Fasting is about suffering not blood although that suffering has at times ended in martyrdom.
The Jubilee and Atonement
The Day of Atonement symbolizes God reconciling afflicted Israel, not all humanity. All humanity is never portrayed as at one with God. All humanity includes the defiant and intransigent. Both the Passover and the Day of Atonement teach us about the forgiveness of sin and our reconciliation with God through Christ's sacrifice, but with Atonement it has a twist. This twist is brought out in the requirement to fast. Fasting speaks of affliction which requires redemption. When people talk of a redeemer this is what they are referring to. The story of Ruth reveals the blessing of having a kinsman redeemer. Not all people were liberated in advance by the kinsman redeemer, but their deliverance was still guaranteed because of the jubilee. The Jubilee is a guarantee of deliverance from bondage and it began on the Day of Atonement. It is therefore interesting that the Kinsman Redeemer and the book of Ruth are the focus at Pentecost with firstfruits (Israel or Spiritual Israel, the Church the called out ones), but the focus at the Feast of Atonement is the Jubilee and this feast immediately precedes the great harvest season (millennium etc.).
The Fiftieth Year (Jubilee Year) Began on Atonement
From verses 11-12 you could not have a harvest. You could not cultivate the land nor reap a harvest but you could only eat what you needed to eat from the field. That was minimal work and is similar to what Christ and the disciples did in Luke 6. It was what was permitted on a Sabbath rest.
Israel was God's Kingdom. God was their king until they rejected Him in the time of Samuel and got Saul. God's law guarantees liberty from bondage for all in His Kingdom through His Jubilee.
Instructions concerning Atonement
Elements of the Day of Atonement
A general discussion on worship is given in my article called "Worship - framework and resources". It looks at the following elements of worship in greater detail:
- The Courtyard - the first place that we reach when we enter His rest
- The Holy Place - serving as a priest
- The Most Holy Place - accessing the tree of life
- The Priest - the role of the priest
- The Tithes and Offerings - Sacrifices
- The Afflicted - Fasting
The Tabernacle (Tent of Meeting)
The Tabernacle was the centre of worship for Israel. It was critical for the first five items mentioned in the list above. Moses was commanded to make the tabernacle after a pattern of things in heaven (Exodus 25:9; Exodus 26:30; Hebrews 8:5)
He made it from the free-will offerings of the people. (Exodus 25:1-8; Exodus 35:4-5, 21-29)
The Kingdom of God is about giving and freedom.
God did not leave anything of the construction up to chance (Exodus 31:2-7; Exodus 35:30-35; Exodus 36:1) but guided the hands of those that He specifically chose for building.
The Tabernacle represents the place where God lives.
Sacrifice
The concept of the blood sacrifice is spelled out in God's word as one dying in place of another. This is a covenant or legal agreement. The testament or will only comes into effect upon the death of the testator and the blood certifies the death. On the day of Atonement a sample of the blood is carried and sprinkled showing that the death has already taken place and the will is in effect.
The animal is a type for Christ. The person laid hands on the animal indicating that the animal is dying in His place by a higher authority. The person then killed the animal. The blood of the animal points to Christ's sacrifice and a sample of the blood demonstrates the activation of the will left by Christ. There are several types of sacrifice but the instructions for Atonement specify two: burnt offerings and sin offerings.
Burnt Offering
The general instructions for a burnt offering are addressed in the article on worship mentioned above. There was a sin offering for Aaron first before he could represent Christ (put on the priestly garments). After that he was allowed to perform burnt offerings. A burnt offering was also required for the congregation and that ceremony was performed after Aaron had performed both his sin offering and burnt offering (Leviticus 16:5-6).
Sin offering
Now going back to Leviticus 16 consider v3. For Aaron to go before God he had to be free of sin (with the sin offering). It is some long time after this that he could offer the burnt offering and the fat of the sin offering (v24-25). He emptied himself out (with the burnt offering being completely consumed) and gave what's left of himself to God (the empty hide) and offer the best of himself to God (the fat). Then came the coup de grâce as far as Atonement is concerned.
The two kids and one ram were accepted from the congregation. The two kids were key to Atonement but the ram was an ordinary burnt offering.
The adult ram has almost all of the characteristics that people want to get rid of completely. Lazy, stubborn, stupid, proud, sexually incontinent (in the biblical sense) etc. In this case a ram is specified as the burnt offering. This burnt offering was burnt until it was all ash. Only the hide remained and was given to the priests. In my opinion this suggests that we present ourselves empty (empty of all our ram-like characteristics) to God to be refilled. While all blood of sacrifices in some way represent the blood of Christ, all animals do not necessarily represent Him. In the sin offering the size of the animal was determined by the level of responsibility that the person had in serving God, not how well it represented Christ, because to whom much is given much is required
(Luke 12:48). That animal's size typifies responsibility. The animal for burnt offerings depended on access to resources (the more you have the more you can afford to give) and could be a young bull, lamb, goat, turtledove, or young pigeon; but it had to be perfect and complete. If we are offering ourselves to God then we are really worthless and deserve to be completely destroyed but God refills us. We give all of ourselves and it is costly. The sin offering is different. Christ was sacrificed for our sins and takes full responsibility for them. Christ's body is to be ingested so that we all become one, with Him in us, therefore the priests (us) could eat the flesh.
Everybody earns death for their sin; it is the wage. Christ's purchase wipes our debt clean. It provides a new start, a new life for us and He gives it to us so that we live again (a resurrection). To me these goats represent Christ and Satan primarily because one is sacrificed and used to atone for others (pays for the resurrection) while the other is removed from the lives of Israel. Outside of that they also represent Israel. God makes the final selection of who are righteous, and all of the righteous suffer with Christ. It is beyond the capacity of human beings to make this selection because the chaff must grow with the wheat. God has to reveal this to us and so the selection was made by lot. But why were two kids rather than lambs chosen for this? The goat, unlike the sheep, is associated with the very good and the very evil.
THE DAMNED
The young goat is an image of purity but it undergoes a shocking loss of innocence when it becomes sexually mature. At this time it begins to give off a repugnant odor said to be similar to that of the Devil, and to represent the baser instincts. According to folk belief, his blood then starts to boil with lust and becomes hot enough to melt diamonds. The adult male is the symbol of lust and the lecherous man whose craving for sex cannot be controlled or satisfied; 240 women are not enough for his needs! Early Christians were warned that they would undergo the same smelly physical metamorphosis as the goat if they gave into their sinful desires; their loss of innocence could not be hidden since even the pagan Greeks knew that lecherous people were "goatish" and smelled like goats. These animals were also fertility symbols in some cultures and ritual couplings between women and goats were reported in the ancient world.
It was so impactful that I copied it. I do not believe that the article still exists but the definition of goatish (lustful; lecherous) stands in support of it. I have never been able to identify the sources for its claims.
The traditional view Removing Satan and the demons
Leviticus 16: 29-31 shows us the purpose and intent of Atonement. The Day of Atonement pictures the removal of the primary cause of sin - Satan and his demons - and shows us the state of God's people while sin is present. Until God removes the original instigator of sin, mankind will continue to be disobedient and experience suffering. The Day of Atonement looks forward to the time during which Satan's influence will be removed (Revelation 20:1-3). Finally the Day of Atonement is a Sabbath rest and a fast.
The Order of Activities on the Day
So now that everyone is identified the scripture goes on to show, in Leviticus 16, the order of how things were performed.
The day started with the fast. Days in Israel began in the evening. In the morning the burnt sacrifices began around 9:00 a.m. and hence to do that the priests would probably have started the day's proceedings earlier. The burnt sacrifices could not take place until the sin offering was made to purify them all before God.
The special sin offering
Yom Kippur (commonly referred to as the Day of Atonement in English) starts with the sin offering, not the regular burnt offering of the morning and evening sacrifice.
For Aaron to go before God he had to be free of sin (with the sin offering) and to empty himself out (with the burnt offering) and give what's left of himself to God (the empty hide was kept by the priest).
Instructions are laid out in Leviticus 16. I will use Leviticus Chapter 16 King James Version (KJV). An unfortunate feature of the KJV is that it uses the word scapegoat
instead of azazel
in Leviticus 16. Oxford Dictionary gives one definition of scapegoat as a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency
. This is the most common use of the word and it always carries the connotation of someone who may even be innocent but is thrown to the wolves
in order to save the rest. That is not the meaning of the Hebrew azazel
and it is not the situation with Satan. Satan is definitely guilty and not saving anyone.
Now to begin we go though the events of Leviticus 16 step by step.
Purify Aaron. Aaron must satisfy standards of righteousness. He must be ritually purified. He must wear all white.
Collect the offerings for the congregation.
Offer the sin offering for Aaron's family.
Select the sin offering for the congregation.
Kill the sin offering for the congregation.
Perform the purification part of the ritual for the sin offering for the priests. Aaron goes in to present the evidence of the will. Notice that this is an expansion of what is being done at verse 6. It is the same sin offering (the bullock not the goat) so look out for this jump in the table below.
Perform the purification part of the ritual for the sin offering for the congregation i.e. the goat. He redeemed the Tabernacle which would include the Church to assist with rebuilding Israel.
Perform the atonement ritual for everything but the bronze altar. This way there is already a framework in place to relate to God.
Perform the atonement for the Altar. This is the gateway within the framework.
Transfer the sins to the Azazel goat by authority.
Aaron can now represent the glorified Christ. He can put on the glorious garments.
Offer the burnt offerings for the people.
I am not so confident of my understanding here except that it could relate to Revelation 20.
Complete the ritual for the sin offering.
Freed of encumbrance before the Lord.
God's Summary
Atonement does not represent a point in time but a process that occurs over the existence of the Earth. It shows that through suffering and pouring ourselves out to God we will inherit the Kingdom and be free, and that the authority given us by God will depend on us being cleansed from sin.
The objective of the Atonement is to free Israel of encumbrance before the Lord
By laying it out in a table it is easier to show that all Israel had a part to play, and indeed the final part is what Israel did and what we therefore do as sons of God. Verses 26 to 28 indicate that it is the sons of God that complete the story.
Very little blood is used specifically for the ceremony. The blood for sacrifices in general is dashed at the base of the altar but that is not specific to this ceremony.
| Ref | By the congregation (sons of God) | By Aaron’s successor (the High Priest -Christ) |
|---|---|---|
| v1-4 | Aaron must satisfy standards of righteousness. He must be ritually purified. He must bathe and wear all white. | |
| v5 | Bring the goats to the priest | |
| v6 | kill the sin offering (the bull) for Aaron’s family | |
| v11-14 | Perform the purification ritual for Aaron’s family:
| |
| v7-8 | Cast lots for the sin offering of the congregation | |
| v9 | Kill the sin offering of the congregation | |
| v15 | Perform the purification ritual for the congregation the same way he did for Aaron’s household | |
| v16-17 | Purify all things in the Holy Place (presumably by touching the horns of the golden altar with blood and sprinkling the other items with blood from his finger) | |
| v18-19 | Purify the bronze altar by touching the horns with blood from both the bull (for Aaron) and the goat (for the congregation) and sprinkling with blood with his finger seven times. | |
| v 10, 20-22 | Lay hands on (pass judgement from higher authority 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6, Revelation 20:1-10) on the Azazel goat. | |
| Remove the Azazel goat | ||
| v23 | Aaron can now represent the glorified Christ. He can put on the glorious garments. | |
| v24-25 | Offer the burnt offerings | |
| v26 | Bathe, wash clothes and return to camp | |
| v27-28 | Complete the ritual cleansing of the sin offering in a ritually clean place |
Additional Sacrifices Offered on Day of Atonement
The sin offering for Atonement was not the only offering made on Yom Kippur but it was necessary before any other offerings could be made. Once that was finished the other requirements for the day were undertaken. To get details on those look at the article on sacrifices. There was to be another sin offering (v11) and burnt offerings of a bullock, a ram and seven lambs along with their meal (grain) offerings.
Recommendation
To better appreciate what we should be thinking of during the Day of Atonement it would be beneficial to go through the points on why fasting is important. The Day of Atonement is a global fast for God's people and if we did those things in unison then there would be undoubted change because some things do not get corrected except by prayer and fasting
.