So now we get to that day which was one of the two most important days of the year under the Old Covenant. We are talking about the Day of Atonement, or as you may see on your calendar, Yom Kippur (יֹום הַכִּפֻּרִים, yom ha’kippuryim). This was the one day out of the year that anyone could go into the Holy of Holies. And not just anyone could go in, but only the high priest. And even he couldn’t go into this area of the tabernacle in just any old way. He had to bring blood with him. And all this has symbolism in regards to the new covenant—but we will see all that later on down the road. We are in Leviticus 16, so let’s start with Leviticus 16:1—Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the LORD, and died. Stop. Chronologically, this whole chapter comes immediately after chapter 10. Why does it come here, at this point? I don’t know—God knows. But in this little verse we have a very great theological lesson to be learned. And what is that lesson? This: we do not simply go barging into God’s presence any old way we feel like. The entire concept of a Day of Atonement (יֹום הַכִּפֻּרִים, yom ha’kippuryim) was established because two guys who said, “Yeah, we know God said that—but we've got a better idea.” And by our own foolish human reckoning, we say, “Well, that was pretty mean of God to do that. After all, Nadab and Abihu meant well, didn’t they? And they were sincere in their beliefs. I don’t think God should have been so mean to them.” But doesn't God have the right to say, “You will do it this way—case closed”? What did God say, through Moses to Aaron, after these two men were killed? Leviticus 10:3—And Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke, saying: 'By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified.'" Notice something: God did not say, “Well, sorry about that. But, um, I’d really appreciate it if, from now on, as long as it’s OK with you guys, if you would kinda think of Me in a more positive way. Pleeeease.” Which should draw us all to one inevitable, inescapable conclusion—It ain’t about you!! It ain't about how you want to do things, it ain't about how I want to do things—it’s all about God and what he considers to be holy, and how He wants to be glorified. Period, paragraph.
So then, right after God strikes down Nadab and Abihu for bringing profane fire before Him, in a way that offended Him, Leviticus 16:2—And the LORD said to Moses: “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.” Can't come in any time you want. You have to wait until God says it’s OK to come in. Another example of God saying “You do things My way—or you die.” It all belongs to Him. If He says you will die if you do things the wrong way—then He has that right. All the earth belongs to Him. And if He decides to cut your life short because you disobeyed His rules—He can do that. Psalm 24:1-2—1 The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. 2 For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters. The whole earth and everything in it belongs to God. Why? Because He created it. Psalm 104:5-9—5 You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be moved forever, 6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. 7 At Your rebuke they fled; at the voice of Your thunder they hastened away. 8 They went up over the mountains; they went down into the valleys, to the place which You founded for them. 9 You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth. Basically, God tells every single drop of water over the entire face of all the earth what to do.
You belong to Him also, whether you acknowledge it or not. Ezekiel 18:4—“Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die.” And in the context of that chapter, God is saying that the souls of not only the righteous, but also the unrighteous, belong to Him. And if He cuts one off and lets the other live, then He is completely just in doing so. Paul would pick up on this concept in Romans 9. And we could go a long way into the discussion of election using Ezekiel 18:4 and Romans 9—but we will save that for another day. Romans 9:19-21—19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? Taking these two passages, and applying them to the Holy of Holies, does not God have the right to say, “If you cross this line, when it is not time, and in an improper way, then I will strike you down and not feel one ounce of remorse”?
Leviticus 16:3-4—“3 Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering. 4 He shall put the holy linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water, and put them on. 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering. 6 Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house.” So before he does anything, the high priest is to wash his entire body, and then put on these garments. Now, these would not be the high priestly garments, nor the ordinary garments of the priest. This would be a completely separate set of garments, meant only for this one day out of the year.
Then he would take two animals to offer as offerings for himself—a bull for a Sin Offering; a ram for a Burnt Offering. Was the high priest a man? Yes. Are all men sinful? Do all sin? Yes. So then, before he can do anything for the people, the high priest must atone for his own sins, and make peace with God. If you recall, when we were back in Exodus, we saw that not only did the men who were called as priests need to be sanctified, holy to God, and make atonement for themselves, but all the furnishings and altars and tables and utensils had to be sanctified, holy to God, and they had to make atonement for those things as well. And there is a very good reason for this mandate: everything between the hands of the sinner and the hand of God had to be sanctified, holy to God, and made pure. So much more on the one day of the year when the high priest would intercede, not only for individuals, but for the entire people that God called His own.
How many have ever flown? When they're going through the instructions for what to do JUST IN CASE you need to use the oxygen masks, what do they tell you to do? Put yours on, and then assist others. It’s the same thing here. Aaron could not make atonement for others if he still had his sins with him. Matthew 7:3-5—“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ and a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” That’s right straight out of the Law! The high priest had to take care of his own sins before he could even begin to take care of the sins of an entire nation.
Then, once he made atonement for himself and his house, the high priest had to make atonement for the people. For this, he took two kids of the goats—one for a Sin Offering, the other for a Burnt Offering. And it was these two goats that served as a shadow for the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you were to ask 100 people on the street—even 100 people who thought that Jesus might have been a “good man” or who would even give some faint praise to Him—if you were to ask them why Christ came, they would say something along the lines of “He came to heal people” or “He came to be an example for us of loving our neighbor” or some other man-centered platitude. And they would only be partially correct. Because, you see, those things were only incidental. They were not part and parcel of the real reason Jesus came to dwell among us filthy humans and submit Himself to the limitations of this stuff we call flesh. The real reason Jesus came and dwelt among us is found in John 17:4—“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” The work Jesus came to do was to glorify the Father. He did this by the life He lived, and by giving His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). Luke 19:10—“The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.” 1st Timothy 1:15—This is a faithful saying and worthy of acceptance, that Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am chief. He saved those who were lost; He saved sinners of whom I am chief, by fulfilling the prophecy painted by the two goats offered on Yom Kippur (יֹום הַכִּפֻּרִים, yom ha’kippuryim).
Leviticus 16:7-8—“7 He shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 8 Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.” Let’s talk a little about casting lots first. This was not similar to throwing dice. I found a good description of it from Adam Clarke—“…there were two lots made either of wood, stone, or any kind of metal. On one was written לֵשֵׁם (La’shem), for the Name, i.e., יְהֹוָה (YHVH), which the Jews will neither write nor pronounce: on the other was written לֵשִאזלֵ (La’azazel), for the Scape-Goat: then they put the two lots into a vessel קלפּי (kalpey), the goats standing with their faces towards the west. Then the priest came, and the goats stood before him, one on the right hand and the other on the left; the קלפּי (kalpey) was then shaken, and the priest put in both his hands and brought out a lot in each: that which was in his right hand he laid on the goat that was on his right, and that in his left hand he laid on the goat that was on his left; and according to what was written on the lots, the scape-goat and the goat for sacrifice were ascertained.”
Now, lest you think this was just some arbitrary way of doing things, let’s also understand something about casting lots. Who was in control of which goat the lot fell upon? Why, God, of course. Every time a lot was cast—no matter what the circumstances, no matter where, no matter when—it was God who determined how the lot fell. Proverbs 16:33—The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. That is, no matter how much you shake them; no matter how much you just want the lot to fall your way; no matter what kind of trickery you engage in to make things fall your way—every decision of those lots are from God. OK, I see you don’t believe me. Then allow me to show you from Scripture. We all know the story of Jonah. Of course, in all the little Sunday School pictures for children, all they show is Jonah being swallowed by the whale. And they always make it look like some happy little guy, right? And yet when you read the story of Jonah, it is far from a happy little story. The reason that whale is swallowing Jonah is because Jonah was willingly disobeying God. Instead of going to Nineveh, he goes to Joppa, gets on a ship; he’s down in the lowest part of the ship. And when the storm comes up, and all the pagans on the top deck are trying to figure out whose fault is this storm, what do they do? Jonah 1:7a—And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us." On the deck of a ship, being thrown around and nearly torn apart by a storm that came from God Himself, these guys are casting lots. And wouldn’t you know it—wow, what a coincidence!!—where does the lot fall? Jonah 1:7b—So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Oh my! God got so lucky on that!! Uh, yeah, right. No, God did not get lucky, it was not a coincidence—it was the sovereign decree of God that the lot fall on Jonah, that Jonah may go and do what God commanded of him.
Let’s talk a little about Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist (and uncle of John the Methodist). It just so happened that one day, his number came up, and he was given the duty of ministering in the temple before the veil. Luke 1:5-9—5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. 8 So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. Really, what a coincidence! Ok, let me wipe the sarcasm off my lips. Do you really think it was just dumb luck that Zechariah’s name was chosen? If you do, then you do not know God. Because God does no operate by chance. He works according to His own will and decree. And if He wants Zechariah to serve before the veil one day, then he will serve before the veil that day.
Finally, we have the case of Judas Iscariot’s replacement. Acts 1:21-26—“21 Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection." 23 And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, "You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen 25 to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place." 26 And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles. Did Jesus just go around the villages in Galilee, just hoping that someone would follow Him? Was it just pure chance that brought together the twelve men who served as His first apostles? Was the risen Christ waiting along the Damascus road, hoping somebody might happen by? And did He shrug and say, “Oh, it’s that Saul of Tarsus guy. Well, I guess he’ll have to do.” No. Christ chose His apostles for the first twelve; He chose Saul of Tarsus (who would one day write that Christ separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, Galatians 1:15). And it was by His divine decree that He caused the lot to fall on Matthias.
Next week, we will continue with the principle of casting lots.
Jesus Christ is Lord
Amen
