Sin excludes the sinner from God’s presence. “From thy face,” said Cain, “shall I be hid.” “Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” will be the language of the Son of man, when sitting on the throne of His glory, to the goats placed on His left hand at the judgment of the living. (Matt. 25) Cain felt the consequences of his sin as regards earth, the goats will feel the consequence of theirs, as here expressed, for eternity. Perpetual exclusion from God’s face on earth,
Cain saw was his doom; everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord will be the portion of impenitent sinners, (2 Thess. 1:99Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (2 Thessalonians 1:9)) and who can lift up a finger in token of dissent from the justice of Cain’s sentence, or the final condition of the impenitent. God is righteous in taking vengeance, else how could He judge the world? But man can do nothing to earn His favor, or restore himself to the position forfeited by Adana for himself and his posterity. A terrible conclusion this is to come to for one, who has nothing to hope for, but what he thinks he can merit by his own conduct; but a blessed thing surely it is, when the sinner arrives at this, the right platform to stand on before. God, as he learns how God can open a door of entrance into His presence in righteousness, when man, because of his sin has been excluded in justice.
Redemption by blood had been taught as a type in Egypt; forgiveness of sins, and restoration to communion on the ground of sacrifice, have been illustrated in preceding chapters of this book of Leviticus. Now we learn how propitiation is made, that the sinner should righteously have a standing before God. He needs forgiveness, and he needs justification, and both are affected by blood. (Eph. 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7): Rom. 5:99Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (Romans 5:9).)
Holiness being the necessity of God’s nature no sinner unauthorized could be suffered to intrude into His presence, and no fire could be used when the priest drew nigh but that connected with the burnt sacrifice. Unauthorized, and with unhallowed fire, had Nadab and. Abihu drawn nigh, and paid the penalty of death for their presumption. But the consequences of their sin did not cease with their death, as the opening verse of this chapter shows: “And the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the. Lord, and died; 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.” How gracious of the Lord thus to speak. “That he come not,” would dispel all hope, but “at all times” immediately revives it. Unquestionably He has a right to say who should approach Him, and when.
What mercy is manifested in not shutting out a sinner forever. Aaron then could enter within the vail, which Moses; the mediator of the old covenant, could not, whilst both were equally sinners, and as such could have no right of entry, Aaron was God’s High Priest in. Israel, the type of Him who has entered into the holy place by His own blood.
God’s choice of the one who should enter the holiest (though only on that one day in the year) having been made known, we next read of the manner of his approach in the sacrifices: he must bring with him for himself and his house, his dress and his work. God prescribed everything. Aaron had no choice in the services of that day, nor was anything left to his discretion. He could suggest nothing, he could alter nothing, for who but God knew about the antitype or what was needful to prefigure Him and His work? To keep Aaron in mind of the only ground of approach, he hears of the sacrifice before he hears of his dress. His dress needed to be described, for he could not have entered the holiest in any other garments; he did not, however, find acceptance because of his garments, but because of the blood of the sin offering. Having washed himself in water, he put on the holy linen garments, for the garments of glory and beauty could not be worn on that day, nor could the high priest’s garments of daily attire be then in requisition. There was a work to be done which one who was pure only could do, so he wore holy garments expressive of purity. It was a work which when once really done, could never be repeated. So he wore garments kept for that particular service only. The garments of glory and beauty, told out by their colors the heavenly character of the great High Priest, as well as His death and royalty. The holy garments for the day of atonement spoke of His spotless holiness. Was Aaron the one who answered to all this? No; for by the washing of his flesh in water before he thus clothed himself, he showed he was only the type.
Arrayed aright, we next read of the sacrifices he was to take for the children of Israel, two kids of the goats for a sin-offering and one ram for a burnt-offering; for there is a distinction made between the offerings for himself and his house, and those for the congregation of Israel. The burnt-offering was the same for both, but the sin-offering was not. One bullock for himself and his house was God’s command, and two kids of the goats for the congregation of Israel. Aaron and his house are thus classed together, and throughout that day have precedence over the congregation of Israel. A distinction and order this was which probably they did not understand, but we learn the meaning of it, and how beautifully the characteristic feature of this dispensation was thus traced out. All the priests were classed together as one family with the High Priest. All believers now are a holy priesthood, in close association with the High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. For Aaron and his house one animal only was needed, for the congregation of Israel two were required; the one, the Lord’s lot, to be killed as the sin-offering, the other, the scape goat, to be sent away alive into the wilderness.
Another special feature of this day’s service should be noticed; the Lord was first thought of, then what the sinner needed was provided for. This was in character with the special truth brought out that day, propitiation, not redemption. By the blood of the paschal lamb God was righteous in sheltering Israel from his judgments, by the blood on the mercy-seat his holiness and justice were vindicated, and He could righteously have sinners in His presence. Redemption looks at the people, propitiation meets all that God is in Himself. How this speaks of what He desires for the sinner, when He provides the way of access for him into His immediate presence. For what was the holiest but the presence chamber of the divine majesty? “I will appear in the cloud on the mercy-seat,” God said to Moses. Behind that veil, concealed from all eyes, (for what sinner could behold it in its brightness and live?) was the Shechinah to be found, in connection with the throne. The cloud was the cloud of glory, the mercy-seat the place of His throne on earth, who dwelt between the cherubim. Into this place Aaron, a sinner and a typical character, was to enter, but not without blood. His entrance at all might show that sinners would be one day allowed access within, his entrance with blood spoke of the only ground on which such could ever enter, and his entrance in a typical character, that of High Priest, told of the need of One to represent the redeemed before God, and to open out the way for them.
Before the cloud on the mercy-seat Aaron was to stand, but how could he behold it and live? God provided for this in a manner as beautiful as perfect. “He shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord (i.e., the golden altar), and his bands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail; and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony that he die not.” The altar of incense thus came into requisition, and supplied him with what was wanted, but connected with the altar of burnt-offering, for no strange fire could be used on it, and all else was strange but that which descended from heaven on the altar of burnt-offering. With the cloud of incense, typical of the merits of Christ, rising up between him and the cloud of glory on the mercy-seat, Aaron could stay for the brief time he did his work without being consumed by the brightness of the divine majesty.
“We meet our God in Jesus Christ,
And fear and terror cease.”
But on what grounds could entrance into the holiest be based? Propitiation by blood must be made, which Aaron proceeded to do. Israel had sinned, so death had to come in, the death of the sin-offering, and the sprinkling of the blood, that God in righteousness should accept Israel in the person of Aaron their representative. Here also God is first thought of, as Aaron sprinkled of the blood on the mercy-seat, and afterward seven times before it. Both were needed, but the order must be observed. Unless the blood had been put on the mercy-seat, there had not been manifested an adequate ground on which God could accept sinners. Unless it had been sprinkled before it, there would have been no ground on which they could stand before Him. Nothing short of blood-besprinkled ground would meet the sinner’s need here. How this tells of man’s inability as a sinner to make good for himself his ground before God, as it tells likewise of. God’s desire that he should have before Him an unassailable standing. Did men read this sacrifice aright, what room could there be for hoping to make good a standing before the throne? and what need would there be for attempting to affect that which has been already perfectly and everlastingly settled.
A way then into the holiest for sinners, and an unimpeachable standing before God, are here shadowed out; but that way was not opened, nor that standing secured, by the sacrifices then offered up; for Aaron repeated them each year, and the vail unrent maintained inviolate the inner sanctuary of God. Then, one man entered, the High Priest, now, all enter who are priests. Then, he went behind the v ail; now, we enter through it, and discern the great change that has taken place by the sacrifice and the sprinkling of the blood of God’s own Son, as we read, “Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,” etc. (Heb. 10:1919Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, (Hebrews 10:19).) Unpeopled was that inner sanctuary when Aaron entered it and left it. Is the holiest unpeopled now? All who will have access to it may not yet have entered therein, but how many thousands and even millions are there whose place within the vail is a present possession. Thus God gathers round Himself sinners saved by grace, and, where man never before was, admits into His presence forever by virtue of the blood of His Son, souls who deserved everlasting banishment and destruction.
Is it that He thinks less of sin than He did in the garden of Eden I His nature forbids that. He is, and must be holy, and Aaron and all Israel, as they read this chapter, could see how defiling and grievous a thing sin is in His presence. The presence of the blood proved the need of a substitute’s death, and the making “atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins,” as well as the making atonement for the golden altar, and the tabernacle of the congregation, demonstrated what it was in His sight. None but Aaron could enter within the holy place; (i.e. the holy of holies), and none but priests could enter within the tabernacle of the congregation, yet atonement must be made for these because of the uncleanness as well as the sins of the whole people of Israel. Where their standing really was before the throne, their atonement had to be made for their uncleanness and for their transgressions.
Does not this help us to understand these words in Heb. 9; “The heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” As these places into which Israel never personally entered had to be purged with blood, because of what they were, unclean, as well as what they had done, so the heavenlies, our place, though in person we have never entered them, must be purged likewise by blood—the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus carefully does God exclude the thought of man finding entrance into His presence by anything he can do, as He tells us that the uncleanness of His people, what they are, must be as well as what they have done. The sanctuary purged by blood, Aaron went out and confessed all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them on, the head of the live goat, and sending him. away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. The standing and communion of the people with God was made good and maintained by the blood on the mercy-seat, This they knew was secured when the High Priest cane put of the tabernacle, for his presence outside in safety told of acceptance within, His re-appearance was the proof of this, as the re-appearance of Him who is God’s High Priest will tell the believing remnant of Israel of the work of atonement long ago accomplished, “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn.” (Zech. 12:1010And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10).) Besides this, God would have them at rest about the remembrance of their sins, and read in the scape-goat’s dismissal, the complete and everlasting putting away of all their transgressions. All were confessed on the scape-goat, all that were confessed were carried away in type on its head. It bore them all away to a land not inhabited.
For Aaron and his sons there was no scape-goat provided. Why was this? Had there been, the peculiar feature of the present dispensation would have been wholly ignored. As typical of Christ and His people now, Aaron and his house stood on that day. Israel will know forgiveness when the Lord returns in person to them. We know it now, though He is yet within the sanctuary. The presence of the Holy Ghost on earth tells us what has gone on in the holiest of all. Israel of old only knew what had been done within when Aaron came out, as Israel of a future day will only know what has taken place in the heavenly sanctuary when the Lord is seen again on earth. We wait not till then, but know now that He has done all that was needful for propitiation, and we are accepted in Him.
Thus we understand why the scape-goat was for Israel, yet, like Aaron’s house, we can make use of it, as teaching in type the complete putting away out of sight and remembrance of all the transgressions and sins of God’s redeemed people. How plainly in this, as in other matters, we see that none could have delineated the work of the Lord as High Priest, hidden from mortal eyes, and the difference between the position of Israel at a future day and God’s saints now, but He who had pre-arranged it all. These sacrificial rites are evidences of the divine origin of the Word.
The scape-goat dismissed, Aaron re-entered the tabernacle and changed his dress, first washing himself with water in the holy place, and then offered the burnt-offerings, and burnt the fat of the sin-offerings. All connected with the sin-offerings that day had to wash themselves; all were defiled by them, whether the man who took away the live goats, or he who carried the carcasses outside the camp. It needed one undefinable really to make propitiation; and that one must, like Aaron, be High Priest according to God’s appointment, for that was priestly work, which be must do alone. For it, none could share, or be present even in the sanctuary whilst it was being done, for till done there was no right of entry for God’s people into His presence.
Helpless were the people in all this. They might see Aaron cast lots over the goats, they might catch the last glimpse of his skirt as he entered the tabernacle of the congregation, but nothing could they do to help him. Their part was to rest and to afflict their souls. The need of the work Aaron did they were to own, for it intimately concerned them; to share in it was impossible. Entire rest from all work, like the Sabbath day, characterized this tenth day of the seventh month. In this, in common with the Sabbath, it stood out in marked distinction from all other ° days of general observance. Both spoke of perfect rest: the Sabbath of God’s rest after creation, in which man and earth shared; this of man’s rest from all effort to repair the ruin caused by sin, that God might work to establish in righteousness everlasting blessing for man and the world, and unhindered communion between His people and Himself.