Leviticus 16 - Introduction

Chapter 16 The Great Day of Atonement.

We now come to a description of that great Day to which all that has gone before looked forward, Israel's great Day of Atonement. Once every year this Day was to take place in order to cancel out all of the past sins and uncleannesses of Israel that had occurred since the previous Day of Atonement that were not already seen as fully atoned for. All that remained unatoned for, whether secret or public, would be dealt with on this Day. Israel would, as it were, begin the coming year with a clean sheet.

This in itself spells out the failure of past offerings and sacrifices to deal fully with sin, and the fact that the Day of Atonement had to be kept every year demonstrated that its effect too was temporary. But it was on that Day, and only on that Day, that the High Priest was allowed to pass through the veil into the inner sanctuary of the Holy of Holies in order to present the blood of offerings in the actual earthly sanctum of Yahweh, His throne room.

The description of the Day fits aptly after the Chapter s on uncleanness. Five Chapter s on uncleannesses prepare us for the significance of this day. Patterned on Genesis they had spoken of what was clean and unclean, with regard to cattle, clean birds and fish, unclean animals, unclean birds and sea creatures, and creeping things with which men came in contact (Genesis 1-3); they had pointed to women in childbirth suffering through Eve's sin and producing children in uncleanness (Genesis 3:16); to man's sinfulness and uncleanness as portrayed in those with suspicious skin diseases which meant that they were cast out of the camp as Adam was cast out of the Garden (Genesis 3:17); to man's clothing which covered his nakedness (Genesis 3:21) and which could become defiled; to the resultant triumphal return to God of the unclean (Genesis 4:4; Genesis 4:26) made possible by God's mercy; to the establishing of houses in a city (Genesis 4:17) which too could become unclean; and to the fact that through death, resulting from the fact that man was now a sinner, springs up life (Genesis 5). There would have been many instances of uncleanness in the camp which had not been dealt with correctly and fully, and may even have been hidden or overlooked, but all these would now be covered by the Day of Atonement.

And after Genesis 5 was to come the great new beginning when the world was swept clean of sin in the flood and man began again (Genesis 6-9). This was also the yearly function of the Day of Atonement for Israel. Man in his uncleannesses could find purification and atonement before God. The uncleannesses resulting from Genesis 1-5 and from constant failure to apply the laws of uncleannesses could be swept away. And this along with all the sins of Israel that previous sacrifices had not been able to atone for. It was the day of purification when the very presence of God was itself approached.

The Day followed exactly six months after the setting aside of the lambs for the Feast of the Passover, and was followed five days later by the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths, but unlike the day of the setting aside of the Passover lambs and of the three great feasts it was a day of solemnity and mourning for sin. It was the supreme day of getting right with God. The acceptance of the offerings by God on that day was seen as a symbol of hope for the future.