Bible Reading:
Leviticus 16:1-34
Sermon Outline:
Leviticus 16:1–5 (NKJV)
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; 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. 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.
I The annual cleansing of the tabernacle.
II Humility and confession of sins.
III The priest, the blood and the atonement.
IV The taking away of sin and the scapegoat.
V The one-for-all sacrifice of Christ Jesus our Lord.
But the great type on which the ninth and tenth chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews draw is the Day of Atonement and the high priestly rituals of that day. Leviticus 16 with its detailed instructions for the observance of Yom Hakippurim is, as Christopher J. H. Wright observes in the New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition, ‘like a hinge for the whole book of Leviticus. It brings to a climax all the preceding chapters about priestly duties in relation to sacrifice and to the diagnosis and treatment of uncleanness.’
‘Fixed in the annual calendar after the spring Passover, which celebrated the unique historical event of Israel’s redemption,’ says Wright, Yom Kippur ‘provided the ongoing means of cleansing God’s redeemed people so that he could continue to dwell among them.’
Mike Moore, Christian Witness to Israel, CWI.