Bible in One Year Day 41(Exodus 23, Leviticus 16, Psalm 77)

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Day 41:  The Day of Atonement 

Exodus Chapter 23
Commentary
The Great Adventure
Session 7 Egypt and Exodus - Part 2 

Exodus chapter 23 emphasizes the importance of worshiping God alone, keeping the prescribed feasts (Feast of unleavened bread, Feast of First Fruits twice), and obeying and serving God.  The benefits to Israel of worshiping and obeying are many:  God will be an enemy to their enemies; He will send His angel to bring them into the Promised Land; they will proper, have long life, and enjoy good health.  God will establish the borders of their new nation.  In effect, He will carry out the promises He made long ago to Abraham.  

Commentary 
Agape Bible

1. Exodus 22:17/18-23:19: Encompasses a wide variety of topics but the main focus is on humanitarian considerations which are not enforced by the courts but are left to the disposition of the individual's conscience, assuming the individual is committed to a life of holiness dictated by divine law.
2. Exodus 23:20-33: Affirms Yahweh's divine promises to His covenant people and warnings of the dangers being seduced by paganism.

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Agape Commentary

Leviticus 16 

As Leviticus 15:31 states, the primary objective of both the priests and the people is to maintain a pure Sanctuary as a dwelling place for Yahweh.  A Sanctuary that becomes contamination by impure people cannot be a place where a pure and holy God dwells (Lev 16:16, 19).

Leviticus 16:1-4: The First Commands Concerning Yom Kippur-Day of Atonement

Leviticus 16:5-10: The Animals Offered in Sacrifice

Scholars have long debated what exactly is meant by Azazel. This Hebrew word is found nowhere else in the Bible except in Leviticus chapter 16 where it appears four times (Lev 16:8, 10 = twice and 26).   

There are at least four explanations: It is the name of the place to which the live goat will be taken. It is the designation/description of the live goat. It is an abstract noun signifying "complete removal." It is the name of a desert demon or for Satan. 

Leviticus 16:10 seems to undermine the first interpretation since it is "to be sent to Azazel in the desert."  The second interpretation suggests that the word describes the goat who is sent into exile "to a desolate place" (Lev 16:23).  This is similar to the third interpretation that suggests it is an abstract noun meaning "to go away", or "entirely gone away," or "complete removal," or "the entirely separated one," hence the designation "scapegoat" (escape-goat) in some English Bible translations (Kurst, page 399, 403).  This was the interpretation embraced by the Septuagint and by St. Jerome in the Latin Vulgate (Navarre Bible: Pentateuch, page 474).  The fourth interpretation, that Azazel is a demonic spirit who inhabits the wilderness, is probably the most popular view.  Those who embrace this view point out that the desert is its dwelling place (Lev 16:10), and the prophets (Is 13:21; Lev 17:7) and the Gospels represent the desert as the abode of demons (Mt 12:43; Lk 8:27; Rev 18:2).  Post exile non-canonical literature identified Azazel as the demon ruler of the wilderness (i.e., 1 Enoch). 

However, it is inconceivable that God would share a sacrifice with a demon.  The JPS Commentary offers that the second goat was not being offered to Azazel but in carrying all the sins of the people upon its life it was being dispatched to his realm, where all such sins and sinners belong (JSP Commentary: Leviticus, page 103).

Leviticus 16:11-14: The Sprinkling Rite Inside the Tabernacle with the Bull's Blood

The Day of Atonement was to be the one time during the year that the High Priest was permitted this degree of intimacy with God by entering the Holy of Holies and standing before God's presence above the Mercy-seat of the Ark of the Covenant.  In the ritual of blood for the sin of a high priest or the community as a whole, to re-consecrate the Sanctuary the High Priest was only permitted to go as far as the curtain that covered the opening to the Holy of Holies but no further (Lev 4:5-7, 16-18 ).

However, for this solemn occasion on the Day of Atonement, the high priest must risk death by entering into God's Divine Presence to make atonement for himself and the covenant community, just as Jesus, as the High Priest of the New Covenant people of God would one day risk death on the altar of the Cross in order to enter into God's Divine Presence with His sacrificial blood to atone for the sins of the world: But now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the more perfect tent, not made by human hands, that is, not of this created order; and he has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement, may restore their bodily purity.  How much more will the blood of Christ, who offered himself blameless as he was, to God through the eternal Spirit, purify our conscience from dead actions so that we can worship the living God (Heb 9:11-14).

Leviticus 16:15-17a: The Sprinkling Rite Inside the Tabernacle with the Goat's Blood

Leviticus 16:17b-19: The Ritual of Expiation for the Altar of Burnt Offerings

Leviticus 16:20-28: The Ritual for the Scapegoat and the Conclusion of the Liturgical Service

Tertullian (c. 155/160-225/250), the brilliant Roman lawyer who became a Christian priest and who laid the foundations of Christology and Trinitarian theology in the West, referred to the goat who was sent away and the goat that was sacrificed on the altar as a sin sacrifice as a "type" of Jesus Christ: May I offer, moreover, an interpretation of the two goats which were presented on "the great day of atonement"?  Do they not also prefigure the two natures of Christ?  They were of like size and very similar in appearance, owing to the Lord's identity of aspect.  He is not to come in any other form.  He had to be recognized by those by whom he was also wounded and pierced.  One of these goats was bond with scarlet and driven by the people out of the camp into the wilderness, amid cursing, spitting, and pulling and piercing, being thus marked with all the signs of the Lord's own passion.  The other by being offered up for sins... (Against Marcion, 3.7.7). Tertullian's point is that the two goats represent Christ's two natures in that the one goat was rejected, as Jesus in His humanity was rejected in His Passion, but the other goal was taken up in sacrifice, as Jesus was taken up in sacrifice into the order of grace in His divine nature.   

The two goats were a single sin sacrifice (Lev 16:5), representing both death and life to the people, a foreshadowing of Jesus' self-sacrifice on the Cross which became death transformed into life in the Resurrection.  The Israelites rejected the live goat bearing the sins of the people, not just sending it away but actually assigning someone to execute it outside the camp-an instruction not given by God (Mishnah: Yoma 6:6), just as Jesus was rejected by His people and was executed by another party (the Romans) outside "the camp" of Jerusalem (Jn 19:20).

The day Jesus Christ was crucified was the New Covenant "Day of Atonement" as he took upon Himself not only the sins of the Old Covenant people but the sins of all mankind.  His sacrificial death encompassed what all the animal sacrifices could only point to-atonement, redemption, and salvation.  The blood of sacrificial animals could not completely remove the sins of the people (Heb 10:1-4), but the rites of animal sacrifice could give the Israelites subjective efficacy for their sins even though they had to wait for the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the objective efficacy.  The blood sacrifices of the Old Covenant were only the models or patterns of what was promised (Ex 25:9, 40; Col 2:16-18). 

Christ's death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men, through "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," and the sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the "blood of the covenant, which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (CCC 613).

Review of the ritual of sacrifice for the Day of Atonement:

Animal Sacrifice on the Feast of Atonement-Yom Kippur (10th of Tishri) Ex 30:10; Lev 16:1-34; 23:26-32; Num 29:7-11; Heb 9:6-14, Mishna:Yoma
Sacrifice	Purpose	Sacrifice and Blood Ritual to Expiate the Sanctuary
1. bull calf	After the morning Tamid service: the bull was offered as the High priest's sin sacrifice for himself and his family (Lev 16:6).	Expiation for the Tabernacle: -Sprinkled on the east side of the Mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies (Lev 16:14). -Sprinkled 7 times in front of the Mercy-seat (Lev 16:14). -Fat burned on the Altar and the animal's body entirely burned outside the camp (Ex 29:14; Lev 4:11-12; 16:27).
2. he-goat #1	Confession of the people's sin and sacrifice for the sins of the people (Lev 16:15). Goat #1 and #2 were considered to be a single sacrifice representing both life and death (Lev 16:5)	Expiation for the Tabernacle: -Sprinkled on the east side of the Mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies (Lev 16:15). -Sprinkled in front of the Mercy-seat 7 times (Lev 16:15). -Smeared on the horns of the Altar of Incense and sprinkled 7 times with the bull's blood also (Ex 30:10). Expiation for the Courtyard Altar: -Remaining blood of the bull and goat poured out at the base of the Altar (Lev 4:18). -Fat burned on the Altar and the animal's body entirely burned outside the camp (Lev 16:25, 27).
3. he-goat #2	-Confession of the people's sin and laying the sins of the people upon the life of the goat (Lev 16:20-22). -The live goat bears away the sins of the people into the wilderness (Lev 16:23).
4. ram #1	Whole burnt offering for the High priest (Lev 16:24).	According to the ritual in Lev 1:10-13: the animal's blood splashed around the courtyard Altar and the entire animal burned on the Altar.
5. ram #2 also a young bull and seven yearling sheep with grain offerings	Whole burnt offerings for the community (Lev 16:24; Num 29:8-9).	According to the ritual in Lev 1:10-13: the animal's blood splashed around the courtyard Altar and the entire animal burned on the Altar. The whole burnt offerings were sacrificed at the same time as the afternoon Tamid.
M. Hunt © copyright 2010

Adoration of the Lamb (detail Jan van Eyck 1432)

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A Daily Defense 
Day 41 Absent from the Body

CHALLENGE: “Paul said that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Therefore, there is no room for purgatory.” 

DEFENSE: This challenge is based on a misquotation and several problematic assumptions. Here is the passage on which the argument is based: So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body (2 Cor. 5:6–10). 

Paul doesn’t say that being absent from the body is being present with Christ. That’s a misquotation. He says that while we are in the body we are away from the Lord and that we would rather be away from the body and with the Lord, but he doesn’t say that one condition is the other.

Consider: When we are at work we are away from home, and we might wish to be away from work and at home instead. But this does not mean that being away from work is the same thing as being at home. There are many other places one can be. Even going straight home from work doesn’t mean you will be there instantly. 

This challenge also has two problematic assumptions: (1) that purgatory takes time (we don’t know that it does; it may happen in a flash), and (2) that it is not something that happens when we encounter Christ.

Benedict XVI challenged these ideas in his encyclical Spe Salvi (sections 47 48) and proposed the possibility that purgatory simply is a transforming encounter with Christ that can’t be reckoned in earthly time.

Finally, Paul says we strive to please Jesus “for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” Elsewhere he links the judgment of Christ to purgatory (1 Cor. 3:11–15).

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist