II. The Day of Atonement was observed on the tenth day of the seventh month, Tisri, as the great day of national humiliation, and for the expiation of the sins both of the priests and the people. This was the highest, the most perfect, the most comprehensive of all the acts of expiation, and not only took place but once in the entire year, but was performed by the High-priest alone, and that not in the Holy Place but the Holy of Holies.
Its celebration is prescribed in Lev. xvi.; xxiii. 26–32; Num. xxix. 7–11. The day was to be regarded as a high Sabbath, a day of holy Convocation, on which the Israelites, under pain of extirpation, were expected to afflict their souls with fasting and mourning. (Comp. Lev. xvi. 29, 31 with Acts xxvii. 9.) The ritual was as follows. The High-priest having bathed, arrayed himself not in his gorgeous robes, but in the white linen garments common to himself and the rest of the priesthood. As a sacrifice for himself and the priests he brought a bullock for a Sin-offering, and a ram for a Burnt-offering, which he had purchased at his own cost; as a sacrifice for the people two he-goats for a Sin-offering,and a ram for a Burnt-offering, which were purchased out of the public treasury. The two he-goats he then brought to the Door of the Tabernacle, i.e. to the Brazen Altar, and there having presented them before the Lord, cast two lots upon them, one inscribed for Jehovah, the other for Azazel[98]. This done, as the head of a priesthood itself compassed with infirmity (Heb. v. 2), he first proceeded to make atonement for his own order. Accordingly he slew the bullock, and taking a censer filled with live coals from the Altar of Burnt-offering and two handfuls of Incense, he passed with these through the Holy Place onwards behind the veil into the Holy of Holies, and there threw the incense upon the coals so that the fragrant cloud might envelope the Mercy-Seat. Then returning to the Brazen Altar and taking some of the blood of the bullock in a vessel he once more passed into the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled it seven times before the Mercy-Seat, the seat of the glory of Jehovah. Having thus made expiation for himself and his own order, he slew the goat upon which the lot for Jehovah had fallen as a Sin-offering for the people, and sprinkled its blood as he had done that of the bullock. Then on his return from the Holy of Holies he purified the Holy Place, now solitary and deserted, by sprinkling the blood of both victims seven times on the horns of the Golden Altar ofIncense, and, as some think, on those of the Altar of Burnt-offering.
The purification of the Tabernacle completed, he came forth and laid both his hands upon the goat, on which the lot for Azazel had fallen, solemnly confessed over it the sins of the people, and then gave it to a man chosen for the purpose to be led away into the wilderness, into a place not inhabited, and there let loose. This done, he once more entered the Tabernacle, bathed, and having arrayed himself in his gorgeous robes, offered the two rams as a burnt-offering, one for himself, the other for the people, and at the same time placed upon the altar the fat of the two sin-offerings[99]. While these were consuming, the remains of the victims were conveyed outside the camp, nor could they who were deputed for this office, or the man who had led away the scape-goat, return into the camp till they had purified themselves and their clothes with water.
The distinction between this solemnity and others is very striking. It took place but once a year, five days before the joyous Feast of Tabernacles, which testified to the nation’s gratitude for the preservation of the seasonable fruits of the earth. In it the High-priest alone officiated. Clad not in his gorgeous robes, but in the simple, pure white robes common to him and the rest of the priesthood, he made expiation for himself, his order, and the people,—an atonement for the sins of the whole year. On this day, and this day only, he entered within the Veil, and sprinkled the blood before the Mercy-Seat seven times. On this day, and this day only, the idea of the remission of sin found its highest expression in the sacrifice of one goat as a sin-offering to Jehovah, and the solemn confession of the sins of the whole people over another, and its dismissal laden withits awful typical burden into a far distant and separated land, a land not inhabited, lying, as it were, under the curse of Jehovah. This solemnity contained the exact antidote to the sombre and often cruel rites of heathenism. The lots were cast over both the goats, both were presented to Jehovah at the Door of the Tabernacle, at His command the Scape-Goat carried away the burden of the people’s sins into an unknown desert land, He sanctified the people, and accepted the atonement for the High-priest, the priestly order, and the entire nation, and the purification of the Place where He had condescended to meet the Israelites. In the Epistle to the Hebrews (ix., x.) we have the key to the expressive imagery of this Great Day in the Jewish year. The fact that once in the year the High-priest could enter within the Veil, intimated that under a system of provisional and typical ordinances the way into the Holiest of all was not as yet made manifest. But when the true High-priest, even Jesus Christ, offered Himself unto death on the Altar of His Cross for the sins of the whole world, the Veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom (Matt. xxvii. 51; Mark xv. 38). He died, He rose again, and, clad not in the resplendent robes of that Divine Nature He had before the world, but in the garb of our human nature, He ascended into the Heavenly Sanctuary, the antitype of the Jewish Sanctuary on earth, and there pleads, and will for ever plead, the merits of His blood before the throne of God.
CHAPTER V.
THE GREAT FESTIVALS.
Exod. xxiii. 14–17; Lev. xxiii. 1–22; Num. xxviii. 16–31; Deut. xvi. 1–16.
THE great Historical Festivals, at which all males amongst the Israelites were required to appear before the Lord, were, as has been said already, (i) The Passover; (ii) The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost; (iii) The Feast of Tabernacles.
(i) The Passover. The original institution of this Festival has been already noticed. The directions for its yearly celebration are given in Ex. xxiii. 14–17; Lev. xxiii. 5–8; Num. xxviii. 16–25; Deut. xvi. 1–8.
As in Egypt, so now, on the 10th day of Nisan or Abib, corresponding to the close of March or the beginning of April, each Paschal company, which might not exceed twenty or be less than ten, was to select a lamb or kid, a male of the first year, and keep it till the 14th day. If pronounced by the priests to be free from blemish, it was to be slain between the evenings, in the Court of the Tabernacle, and its blood poured round the Altar of Burnt-offering. It was then, after being flayed, to be taken to the house where the Paschal Company intended to assemble, to be roasted with fire, whole and entire without the breaking of a single bone, and to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
The Festival lasted from the 14th to the 21st of Nisan, and during this period nothing but unleavened bread might be eaten, and all leaven was to be carefully removed from the house before the 14th. The daily sacrifices for the nation consisted of (i) a Burnt-Offering of two bullocks, one ram, seven yearling lambs, accompanied by the usual meat-offering, and (ii) one goat for a Sin-Offering. Thank-offerings, called by the JewsChagigah, might also be offered by individuals during the Festival, especially on the 15th, the first day of Holy Convocation. (Comp. Lev. vii. 29–34; 2 Ch. xxx. 22–44; xxxv. 7.)