Day of Atonement - Yom Kipper

[Lev. 16:2] And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.
1-2 the introduction. 1-34 is how the High Priest must enter into the Holy Place. Death of Aaron’s sons in chapter 10. It is thought by some that this chapter has been transposed out of its right place in the sacred record, which was immediately after the narrative of the deaths of Nabad and Abihu (Lev. 10:1-20). That appalling catastrophe must have filled Aaron with painful apprehensions lest the guilt of these two sons might be share the same fate by some irregularities of defects in the discharge of their sacred functions. And, therefore, this law was established, by the due observance of whose requirements the Aaronic order would be securely maintained and accepted in the priesthood.
The priests were forbidden to enter the Holy Place where the Menorah stood the entire year except at a time of service. In the some manner, the High Priest was forbidden to enter the Holy of Holies, even on Yom Kipper, except during times of service. The punishment for entering the Holy of Holies was death and the punishment for entering the Holy Pace was lashes. This arrangement was evidently designed to inspire a reverence for the most Holy Pace, and the precaution was necessary at a time when the presence of G-d was indicated by sensible symbols, the impression of which might have been diminished or lost by daily and familiar observation. I will appear in the cloud B and that is, the smoke of the incense that the High Priest burnt on his yearly entrance into the most Holy Place; and this was the cloud which at that time covered the Mercy seat. Even today, the most Orthodox Jew refuses to walk on the Temple Mount for fear they may step in the location of the holy chambers.
This had to do with the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. As the duties of the great Day of Atonement led to the nearest and most solemn approach to G-d, the directions as to the proper course to be followed were minute and special. Note some of the things he required to do that day. He entered the Holy of Holies only one day a year, but on that day he entered four times. He offered 15 sacrifices that day, not counting the he goat (scapegoat) sent to Azazel, which did not require slaughtering, but was cast over a cliff. The High Priest offered incense, 3 on Yom Kipper, twice on the inner golden altar, and a third time on the altar between the rods on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. The High Priest changed his garments five times during the day of Yom Kippur, he wore golden garments, 3 times and linen garments twice. Before each change, he would immerse himself in a mikvah. He washed his hands and feet 10 times, once before removing his earlier garments, and once after putting on his new ones. He said confession three times, and uttered a special prayer ten times. The High Priest sprinkled 43 sprinklings during the course of Yom Kippur service.
With a young bullock and a ram - these victims he brought alive, but they were not offered in sacrifice till he had gone through the ceremonies described between 3-11. He was not to attire himself on that occasion in the splendid roves that were proper to his sacred office, but in a plain dress of linen, like the common Levites, for, as he was then to make atonement for his own sins, as well as for those of the people, he was to appear in the humble character of a suppliant. That plain dress was more in harmony with a season of humiliation (as well as lighter and more convenient for the duties which on that occasion he had singly to perform) than the gorgeous robes of the pontificate. It showed that when all appeared as sinners, the highest and lowest were then on a level, and that there is no distinction of persons of G-d. (Acts 10:34). 3-5 is the animals and the priestly dress needed for ceremonies.
5-10 the sacrifices were to be offered by the High Priest, respectively for himself and the other priests, as well as for the people. The bullock (v. 3) and the goats were for sin offerings and the rams for burnt offerings. The goats, trough used in different ways, constituted only one offering. They were both presented before the L-rd, and the disposal of them determined by lot, which Jewish writers have thus described: the priest, placing one of the goats on his right hand and the other on his left, took his station by the altar, and cast into an urn two pieces of goal exactly similar, inscribed, the one with the words, for the L-rd and the other of Azazel (the scapegoat.) After having well shaken them together, he put both his hands into the box and took up a lot in each; that in his right hand he put on the head of the goat which stood on his right, and that in his left he dropped on the other. In this manner the fate of each was decided.
11-28 the detailed description of ceremonies. The first part of the service was designed to solemnize his own mind, as well as the minds of the people, by offering the sacrifices for their sins. The sin offering being slain had the sins of the offerer judicially transferred to them by the imputation of his hands on their head (4:4, 15, 24, 29, 33); and thus the young bullock, which was to make atonement for himself and the other priests (called his house, Psalms 125:19), was killed by the hands of the High Priest. While the blood of the victim was being received into a vessel taking a censer of live coals in his right hand and a platter of sweet incense in his left, he amid the solemn attention and the anxious prayers of the assembled multitude, crossed the porch and the holy place, opened the outer veil which led into the Holy of Holies and then the inner veil. Standing before the ark, he deposited the censer of coals on the floor, emptied the plate of incense into his hand, poured it n the burning coals and the apartment was filled with fragrant smoke, intended, according to Jewish writers, to prevent any presumptuous gazer prying too curiously into the form of the Mercy Seat, which was the L-rd’s throne. The High Priest having done this, perfumed the sanctuary, returned to the door, took the blood of the slain bullock, and carrying it into the Holy of Holies, sprinkled it with his finger once upon the Mercy Seat Eastward-- that is, n the front of the Ark. Leaving the coals and the incense burning, he went out a second time, to sacrifice at the altar of burnt offering the goat that had been assigned as a sin offering for the people; and carrying its blood into the Holy of Holies, he made similar sprinklings as he had done before with the blood of the bullock. While the High Priest was thus engaged in the most Holy Place, none of the ordinary priest was allowed to remain within the precincts of the Tabernacle. The Sanctuary or Holy Place and the Altar of Burnt offering were in like manner sprinkled seven times with the blood of the Israelites with the conviction that the whole Tabernacle was stained by the sins of the guilty people, that by their sins they had forfeited the privileges of the divine presence and worship, and that an atonement had to be made as the condition of G-d’s remaining with them. The sins and shortcomings of the past year having polluted the sacred edifice, the expiation required to be annually renewed. The exclusion of the priests indicated their unworthiness and the impurities of their service. The mingled blood o the two victims being sprinkled on the horns of the altar indicated that the priests and the people equally needed atonement for their sins. But the Sanctuary being thus ceremonially purified, and the people of Israel reconciled by the blood of the consecrated victim, the
L-rd continued to dwell in the midst of them, and to honor them with His gracious presence. The cloud was so he would not look on G-d’s glory, for if you did you would die.
The blood from both offerings used to cleans the Holy Place 7 times: Special offerings:
1. Young bullock (sin offering) for the priest and his house.
2. Two goats (sin offering) for the people.
3. A ram (burnt offering) for priest and his family.
4. A ram (burnt offering) for the people.
Ex. 30:10) seven times the remainder of blood was poured out at the foot of the Blazing Altar, cleansing the court.
20-22 the scape goat. Having already been presented before the L-rd (v. 10), it was now brought forward to the High Priest, who, placing his hands upon its head, and having confessed over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, transferred them by this act to the goat as their substitute. It was then delivered into the hands of a person, who was appointed to lead him away into a distant, solitary, and desert place, where in early times he was let go, to escape for his life; but in the time of Y’Shua, he was carried to a high rock twelve miles from Jerusalem, and there, being thrust over the precipice, he was killed. Commentators have differed widely in their opinions about the character and purpose of this part of the ceremonial; some considering the word Azazel, with the Septuagint and our translators, to mean, the scapegoat; others, a lofty, precipitous rock; others, a thing separated to G-d; while others think it designates Satan. This last view is grounded on the idea of both goats forming one and the same sacrifice of atonement, and it is supported by Zech. 3:1-10, which presents a striking commentary on this passage. Whether there was in this peculiar ceremony and reference to an Egyptian superstition about Typhon, the spirit of evil, inhabiting the wilderness, and the design was to ridicule it by sending a cursed animal into his gloomy dominions, it is impossible to say. The subject is involved in much obscurity. But in any view there seems to be a typical reference to Y’Shua who bore away our sins.
23-28 cleansing of the participants. Linen garments - white. On the dismissal of the dismissal of the scapegoat, the High Priest prepared for the important parts of the important parts of the service which still remained; and for the performance of these he laid aside his plain linen clothes, and having bathed himself in water, he assumed his pontifical dress. Thus gorgeously attired, he went to present the burnt offerings which were prescribed for himself and the people, consisting of the two rams which had been brought with the sin offerings, but reserved till now. The fat was ordered to be burnt upon the altar; the rest of the carcasses to be cut down and given to some priestly attendants to burn without the camp, in conformity with the general law for the sin offerings. (4:8-12, 8:14-17) scapegoat, were obliged to wash their clothes and bathe their flesh in water before they were allowed to return into the camp.
v. 27, Altar beyond camp for a High Priest’s sin and a nation’s sins were considered more heinous in the sight of G-d than those of individuals. A kind of reproach (the Messiah died out of the camp. Heb.
29-34 the people’s duty. Month - Tishri (July 10th). Afflict your souls - humble yourself.
This day of annual expiation for all the sins, irreverence, and impurities of all classes in Israel during the previous year, was to be observed as a solemn fast, in which they were to afflict their souls@ it was reckoned a Sabbath, kept as a season of holy convocation, or, assembling for religious purposes. All persons who performed any labor were subject to the penalty of death. 31:14-15, our third of October, and this chapter, together with 23:27-32, as containing special allusion to the observances of the day, was publicly read. The rehearsal of these passages appointing the solemn ceremonial was very appropriate, and the details of the successive parts of it (above all the spectacle of the public departure of the scapegoat under the care of its leader) must have produced salutary impressions both of sin and of duty that would not be soon effaced.
Day of Atonement Yom Kippur. Only on this day did the priest enter into the Holy of Holies. He entered three times and the blood of the sin offering was sprinkled seven times before the Mercy seat.
Summery
[High Priest commence the ceremonies:]
1. Aaron was to take of his normal priestly garments, wash, and then put on the special garments which were prescribed for the sacrifices which took him into the Holy of Holies, 28:39.
2. Aaron secured the necessary sacrificial animal 3, 4
3. Aaron slaughtered the bull for his own sin offering 6, 11
4. Before entering the Holy of Holies with the blood of the bull, Aaron had to create a cloud of incense in the Holy of Holies, to veil the glory of G-d. 12-13
5. Aaron took some of the blood of the bull and sprinkled it on the Mercy seat 7xs 14
6. Lots were then cast for the 2 goats, to determine which would be slaughtered and which would be driven away. 7-8
7. The goat for slaughter, the goat of the people’s sin offering, was sacrificed, and its blood was taken into the Holy of Holies and applied to the Mercy Seat, as the bull’s blood had been. 15
8. Cleansing was then made for the Holy Place 16-17

9. Outside the tent, Aaron was to make atonement for the altar of burnt offering, using, it would seem, the blood of both the bull and the goat.
10. The second goat, the one which was kept alive, had the sins of the nation symbolically laid on its head, and was driven from the camp to a desolate place, from which never to return. 20-22
11. Aaron then came out of the tent of meeting, removed his linen garments, washed, and put on his normal priest garments 23-24
12. The burnt offerings of rams, one for Aaron and his family, the other for the people was offered 24
13. The earlier sacrifices of the bull and the goat were completed 25-27
14. Those who had been rendered unclean by handling the animals on which the sin Aaron or the people were laid to wash themselves and then return to camp. 26-28
The Day of Atonement is the cleansing of a place and of a people.]
Messiah and the Great Day of Atonement - Heb. 9:11-12
Once in the circuit of a year with blood, but not his own, Aaron within the veil appears before the golden throne. But the Messiah, by His own powerful blood, ascends above the skies, and in the presence of our G-d shows His own sacrifice. Not all the blood of beast, on Jewish altars slain, could give the guilty conscience peace, or wash away the stain. But Messiah, the Lamb of G-d, takes all our sins away; a sacrifice of riches blood and nobler name then they.
Believing, we rejoice to see the curse remove; we bless the Lamb with cheerful voice, and sing His dying love.]
[The day of annual Atonement is the greatest day in the Jewish year - a shadow of greater days to come. Without the shedding of blood is no remission. May I ever be seeking to have my conscience sprinkled with the precious blood of Messiah, and I shall have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, access at all time to a throne of grace, enjoy the light of G-d’s countenance now, and hereafter dwell forever in heaven His holy habitation. Then let the way appear steps unto Heaven; all that you sent me in mercy given; Angels to beckon me. Nearer, my G-d, to Thee, nearer to Thee!