THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS – PART SEVEN
Tuesday – February 13, 2018
This study of the Book of Hebrews is really something, our God is beyond good, beyond our abilities to fully describe. Over the last several days I have been talking about one aspect of things we find in the Old Covenant that were a shadow of the “good things to come”. We have been studying that this Old Covenant involving the sacrifice of innocent animals provided a stopgap for the much better sacrifice to come but it did not take away sin. People under the Old Covenant were continually aware (conscious) of all their sin at the Annual Sacrifice on the Day of Atonement and any intervening sin sacrifices that were required of the law. Praise God that with the sacrifice of Christ our sins were expunged and we have no need to have a consciousness of sin. If following salvation, we sin, that too will be expunged by our confession and repentance before our High Priest, the man Christ Jesus (1 John 1:9). Now, let’s review our primary text and then move into a discussion of the Day of Atonement.
Hebrews 10:1-4 (KJV)
1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
As you may recall it was the reality that our text (Hebrews 10:4) was talking about the Day of Atonement without direct reference that led to this diversion, discussion of the feasts of the Lord and their significance to them to whom it was first commanded and to us. The Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur is the sixth feast of the Lord and the second of the three fall feasts.
Leviticus 23:26-28 (KJV)
26 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
28 And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.
Six is the number of man so we suspect that this feast is going to be good for man or even spell out some consequence for a group of men (people). As you likely have noticed this feast starts on the tenth day of the seventh month, so ten days after Rosh HaShanah (the catching away of the Church). The Day of Atonement is the one day each year that the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place to offer the blood of innocent animals on his own behalf and that of the people. Leviticus sixteen offers a lot of details about this feast. You will find the details about the bulls and goats spoken of in our primary text starting with Leviticus 16:5 and following. On the Day of Atonement two goats and one bullock was brought before the High Priest and before the Lord. The bullock was sacrificed for the sins of Aaron and his house. One of the goats was sacrificed for the sins of the people. The blood of these innocent animals was sprinkled in the Most Holy Place at the Mercy Seat in the presence of the Lord and the Covenant contained in the Ark of the Covenant. The second goat was called the scapegoat, the sins of the people were laid upon that goat and he was released into the wilderness to die. Jesus is our scapegoat taking the penalty of our sin in our place and He went into Hell (wilderness) in our place. Now Jesus is entered once for all into the Most Holy Place in Heaven with His own Blood once for all having been our sacrifice, our scapegoat. What a wonderful picture of the coming Savior, the Redeemer, the One who would pay the penalty of sin for all peoples for all time that receive Him in this feast Day of Atonement.
This Day of Atonement which is prophetic of the Second Coming of the Lord at the end of the Tribulation period of seven years and marks the beginning of the Millennial of Reign of Christ or Feast of Tabernacles. Many will turn to Christ between the time the Church is caught away and the Second coming and so this marks the completion of the Church. Importantly for the Jewish remnant that remain after the Tribulation, their last Holocaust, the blindness given them for our benefit (Gentiles) will be lifted and they also will receive the Messiah.
Romans 11:25-27 (KJV)
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Zechariah 14:4 (KJV)
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
Zechariah 12:10 (KJV)
10 And 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.
What a wonderful Day of Atonement that shall be for the Hebrews, the Jews, the remnant from the last Holocaust, the ones through whom we received Christ Jesus and the Holy Word of God. This is a day of remembrance for us, the Church, as well. Meditate (ponder) upon this: The Tribulation is seven years in length yet there are ten days or years between the Catching Away and the Day of Atonement.
Until our next publication, I speak blessing into your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
Numbers 6:24-26 (KJV)
24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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