Part 3 of 7 · Without Shedding of Blood: The Old Testament Foundation
In Part 2 we saw that every sin offering in Leviticus 4 rested on shed blood, and that its washings never made atonement.
Leviticus 16 brings the whole system to its highest point. Once a year, on the day of atonement, the high priest alone went into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat. He could not come in at all times, or he would die (Leviticus 16:2). He first offered a bullock as a sin offering for himself and for his house (Leviticus 16:6, 16:11). He carried its blood within the vail and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat seven times (Leviticus 16:14). Then he killed the goat of the sin offering for the people and did the same with its blood (Leviticus 16:15). Over a second goat, the scapegoat, he confessed all the iniquities of the children of Israel and sent it away into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:21-22).
“For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.” (Leviticus 16:30, KJV)
God made this an everlasting statute, an atonement for all the sins of Israel once a year (Leviticus 16:34).
The Water on the Day of Atonement
Water was present on the day of atonement too, and God gave it a real role. The high priest washed his flesh in water before he put on the holy linen garments (Leviticus 16:4). He washed again before he came out to offer the burnt offerings (Leviticus 16:24). The man who led away the scapegoat and the man who burned the remains of the sin offerings both bathed in water before returning to the camp (Leviticus 16:26, 16:28). The water cleansed the men who served, while the blood carried within the vail made the atonement. Not once in Leviticus 16 does water go within the vail or touch the mercy seat.
The writer of Hebrews reads Leviticus 16 in exactly this way.
“But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:” (Hebrews 9:7, KJV)
What Animal Blood Could Not Do
The writer of Hebrews also shows the limits of those animal offerings. He says “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). The yearly day of atonement was itself a remembrance of sins (Hebrews 10:3). God truly forgave under the sin offering, as Leviticus 4 promised, yet those animals pointed beyond themselves to a greater sacrifice. Part 4 shows who that sacrifice is.
Search these Scriptures for yourself: Leviticus 16:1-34; Hebrews 9:6-7; Hebrews 10:1-4.
Next in this series: Part 4, Types and Shadows Fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Go Deeper
- The Way In: Access to the Father Through the Blood of Jesus
- Jesus Christ, the Fulfillment of the Old Testament Sacrificial System (Study Outline)
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“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)
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