Leviticus 16:29 - Meaning and Application

Here we have some further instructions about this great solemn day, especially these points.

The first is the day itself. It was to be kept every year on the tenth day of the seventh month (Leviticus 16:29). The seventh month had once been counted as the first, until God ordered that the month of Israel’s escape from Egypt should be the first month from then on. Some have thought that this tenth day was the day when our first parents fell into sin, and that it was kept as a fast in memory of that fall. Dr. Lightfoot also suggests that this may have been the day when Moses came down from the mountain the last time, bringing the renewed tablets and the news that God had forgiven Israel. If so, that day would fit well as a day of atonement throughout their generations, because God’s mercy to them after the golden calf could give them hope that he would forgive them again when they repented.

The people also had duties on that day. They were to rest from all their work. It was to be a sabbath of rest (Leviticus 16:31). The holy work of the day was enough by itself, and if done well, it was already a full day’s labor. So they were to do no other work at all. The work of humbling ourselves for sin calls for such focused attention and such a full engagement of the whole person that we cannot turn aside to other tasks. This day of atonement seems to be the sabbath spoken of by the prophet (Isaiah 58:13), since it is the same as the fast described in the verses just before.

They were also to afflict their souls. That meant they were to deny themselves bodily comforts and pleasures as a sign of inward sorrow and repentance for sin. They all fasted on that day, except the sick and the children, and they put aside their ornaments and did not anoint themselves, as Daniel did (Daniel 10:3, Daniel 10:12). David also says that he humbled his soul with fasting (Psalm 35:13). This pointed to putting sin to death and turning away from it, and to loosening the bonds of wickedness (Isaiah 58:6, Isaiah 58:7). The Jewish teachers even advised that they should not read Scripture portions that would stir delight and joy on that day, because it was a time for mourning over sin.

This law was also meant to continue. It was to be a statute forever (Leviticus 16:29, Leviticus 16:34). It was not to be skipped from year to year, and it was to remain until that whole covenant system came to an end and the shadow gave way to the reality. As long as we keep sinning, we must keep repenting and receiving atonement. The command to humble ourselves over sin is a lasting rule, one that will remain until we come to the place where all tears, even tears of repentance, are wiped away. The apostle points to this yearly remembrance of sin as proof that the old sacrifices could not fully remove sin or cleanse the conscience from it (Hebrews 10:1-3). Their repeated offering showed that they were only a weak and temporary help. True, complete atonement came only through the once-for-all offering of the body of Christ, and that sacrifice never needs to be repeated.

There is also gospel truth in all of this. It pictures the two great blessings of the gospel, forgiveness of sin and access to God, both of which come through our Lord Jesus. In this, we see the payment for guilt that Christ made for us. He himself is both the one who makes the atonement and the one through whom it is made. He is the priest, the high priest, who makes peace for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17). He alone was fit for this work and worthy of its honor. The Father appointed him, set him apart, and sent him into the world for this purpose, so that God might reconcile the world to himself through him. Jesus also set himself apart for this work (John 17:19).

The high priest’s repeated washing on that day, and his wearing clean white linen, showed the holiness of the Lord Jesus, his complete freedom from sin, and his beauty in every grace. No one was to be with the high priest when he made atonement (Leviticus 16:17). This pictured how our Lord Jesus had to tread the winepress alone, with none of the people with him (Isaiah 63:3). So when he entered his suffering, all his disciples left him and fled. If any of them had died with him, it might have looked as if they were helping to make the atonement. Only criminals, about whom no such suspicion could arise, were to suffer with him.

Notice also the reach of the atonement the high priest made. It was for the holy place, the tent, the altar, the priests, and all the people (Leviticus 16:33). Christ’s satisfaction covers the sins of both ministers and people, including the wrongs that cling to our holy duties and even to our unholy ones. Our right to the privileges of worship, our comfort in them, and our benefit from them all depend on the atonement Christ made. Yet the high priest’s atonement applied only to Israel, while Christ is the propitiation, the one who turns away wrath, not for Jewish believers only, but for the sins of the whole Gentile world.

Christ also far surpassed Aaron in this: Aaron had to offer first for his own sin, which he confessed over the head of his sin offering. But our Lord Jesus had no sin of his own to answer for. Such a high priest truly suited us (Hebrews 7:26). That is why, when he was baptized in the Jordan, others stood in the water confessing their sins (Matthew 3:6), but he came up at once, having no sins to confess (Hebrews 7:16).

He is not only the high priest, he is also the sacrifice by which atonement is made, for he is all in all in our reconciliation to God. This was pictured by the two goats, which together made one offering. The goat that was slain pointed to Christ dying for our sins, and the scapegoat pointed to Christ rising again for our justification, that is, for our being counted righteous before God. The choice of which goat would be slain was decided by lot, showing that this was ordered by the Lord. In the same way, Christ was handed over by God’s fixed plan and foreknowledge.

First, the atonement is shown by the sins of Israel being placed on the goat’s head. They deserved to be cast off and sent into a land of forgetfulness, but that punishment was laid on the goat that carried their sins. In this, God laid on our Lord Jesus, the true fulfillment of these shadows, the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). He is said to have borne our sins, meaning the punishment for them, in his own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). In this way he was made sin for us, that is, a sin offering for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).

He suffered and died not only for our benefit, but in our place. He was forsaken and seemed to be forgotten for a time, so that we might never be forsaken or forgotten forever. Some learned men have calculated that our Lord Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan on the tenth day of the seventh month, the very day of atonement. Then he entered his office as Mediator, one who stands between God and people, and was immediately led by the Spirit into the wilderness, a land where no one lived.

The result was that all Israel’s sin was carried away into a place of forgetfulness. In this way Christ, the Lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world by taking it on himself (John 1:29). When God forgives sin, he is said to remember it no more (Hebrews 8:12), to cast it behind his back (Isaiah 38:17), into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19), and to separate it as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).

The high priest’s entrance into the most holy place also pictured Christ’s entrance into heaven for us. The apostle explains this in Hebrews 9:7 and following. He shows, first, that heaven is the true most holy place, though not part of that earthly tabernacle, and that the way into it by faith, hope, and prayer, through a Mediator, was not then shown as clearly as it is to us now through the gospel. He also shows that Christ our high priest entered heaven at his ascension once for all, as a public person, in the name of all his spiritual Israel, and through the veil of his flesh, which was torn for that purpose (Hebrews 10:20).

He entered by his own blood (Hebrews 9:12), taking to heaven the power of the sacrifice he offered on earth. So to speak, he sprinkled his blood before the mercy seat, where it speaks better things than the blood of bulls and goats. That is why he is said to appear in the middle of the throne as a Lamb that had been slain (Revelation 5:6). Even though he had no sin of his own to remove, he gained, by his own merit, a return to his ancient glory (John 17:4, John 17:5), as well as eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12).

The incense burned by the high priest in the holy place pointed to Christ’s intercession, his living prayer for us within the veil, based on his satisfaction, that is, his full payment for sin. We could not expect to live, not even before the mercy seat, if it were not covered with the cloud of that incense. Mere mercy alone will not save us without a Mediator standing between us and God. Christ’s intercession is presented before God like incense, just as this incense was.

The high priest first interceded for himself, then for his household, and then for all Israel. In the same way, our Lord Jesus in John 17:1, which gave a picture of his heavenly intercession, first committed himself to his Father, then his disciples, who were his household, and then all who would believe in him through their word, as all Israel. After he had pointed to the meaning and purpose of his offering, he was immediately seized and crucified, just as those purposes required.

Christ’s entrance was far greater than Aaron’s, because Aaron could not get in, not even for his own sons, into the most holy place. But our Lord Jesus has opened for us a new and living way into the holiest place, so that we also may enter with confidence (Hebrews 10:19, Hebrews 10:20). The high priest was to come out again, but our Lord Jesus lives forever, always interceding, and always appears in God’s presence for us. He has gone in before us as our forerunner, and he remains there to serve on our behalf.

This also pictured the two great gospel duties, faith and repentance, by which we are prepared for the atonement and come to share in its benefit. By faith we must lay our hands on the head of the offering, trusting Christ as the Lord our Righteousness, and pleading his satisfaction as the only thing able to remove our guilt and win our pardon. We may say, “Lord, answer for me. This is all I have to say for myself, Christ has died, yes, rather, he has risen again. I give myself fully to his grace and rule, and in him I receive the atonement” (Romans 5:11).

By repentance we must afflict our souls. That means more than fasting for a time from bodily comforts, it means inward sorrow for sin, and a life of self-denial and putting sin to death. We must also make a humble confession of sin, looking to Christ whom we have pierced, and mourning because of him. At the same time, we must lay hold of the atonement by faith, assuring ourselves that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In the year of jubilee, the trumpet announcing liberty was to be sounded at the close of the day of atonement (Leviticus 25:9). This teaches that the forgiveness of our debt, our release from bondage, and our return to our inheritance all depend on the mediation and intercession of Jesus Christ. Through the atonement we find rest for our souls, and all the glorious freedoms of the children of God.