The sacrificial offering does not originate in Leviticus, but is found early in the Book of Genesis. We know that God himself sought to illustrate the way back to Him by providing object lessons involving altars, fire, and the blood of animals. Adam and Eve slew an animal for their sins, and God provided a covering for them from the skins, and he foretold of the Messiah that was to come (Genesis 3:14-15). The next encounter is found in the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4). God accepted Abel’s offering because it fulfilled the requirement to shed blood which represents the eternal sacrifice which He made for all the world (Heb. 9:22). There are other accounts of altars, fire and offerings found in scripture prior to the instructions given by God for the sanctuary* system such as: Noah, Abraham, Jethro, Moses request of Pharoah to make sacrifice, and upon arrival at Mount Sinai. The plan of redemption has been formulated ‘from the foundation of the world’ (Rev.13:8).
There is nothing new, the sanctuary (plan of salvation) points to Christ and has spiritual application. We no longer slay animals for sacrifice nor have need for a priesthood, for Christ is the fulfillment of those shadows (Isa. 53:7; Jn. 1:29 l; Rev. 13:8 and Ps. 110:4; Zech. 6:13; Heb. 2:17, 4:14-15, 5:6, 6:20, 7:11,15,26-27).
It is important to note that the sinner was dependent upon the priest to bring in the blood to apply it to his account which pointed to Jesus’ work to come. We now have a High Priest who is our faithful mediator who will cleanse us (John 1:29). Jesus is the antitypical Lamb (Hebrews 8:1-5).
The Daily Services (reference Leviticus 4).
The daily services were administered in the first compartment (Holy Place) of the Sanctuary. These services pointed the sinner to the Sacrifice of the promised Redeemer at Calvary. (The same as the altar and sacrifices of Adam’s day.)
- The common priest performed the daily services (Hebrews 9:6).
- The sinner was required to bring a sin offering of an innocent, young, unblemished animal (Leviticus 4:3, 22, 28).
- The sinner laid his hands on the head of the animal confessing his sin showing the transferring of his sin to the innocent sin-bearer.
- The sinner personally killed the animal in the courtyard. The priest took the blood, and then, depending on the situation either:
- sprinkled some blood on the horns of the altar of the burnt offering in the courtyard and poured the remaining blood at the base of the altar (Leviticus 4:7); or
- sprinkled the blood in the first compartment (Leviticus 6:30); or
- the priest ate a portion of the offering then entered the first compartment (Leviticus 10:17, 18).
Each application symbolized the transferal of the sins from the sinner to the sacrifice, the sacrifice to the priest, and then the priest transferred the sin to the sanctuary, as a record if you will. Thus, the sinner was pardoned by the blood sacrificed in his behalf.
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11.
However, the lessons from these services were the same. Although “the wages of sin is death” (second death) God has provided a lamb to take away the sins of the world. This is similar to the prophetic words of Abraham, spoken when Isaac noticed they had no lamb for the burnt offering. He answered “. . . God will provide himself a lamb. . . ” Genesis 22:8.
From the inauguration of the services, Israel knew that the sanctuary symbols pointed forward to the fulfilment of God’s promise. But the Jewish nation through self-security and pride, lost the significance of the beautiful ceremonies and gradually the ceremonies became a mere form. How sad, for when the temple curtain was “rent in twain” (Matthew 27:50, 51) from top to bottom, the Jewish nation did not comprehend that “the law of ceremonies was done away with,” and that the prophesied reality of Christ’s crucifixion had fulfilled the symbols.
Rejecting the true Passover lamb, Israel was unaware that the services of the earthly sanctuary (ceremonial sacrifices, priesthood) were now at an end and were to be continued by Jesus, not only as a perfect sacrifice, but as our high Priest in the heavenly temple. The “Shadow” had met the True, the “Type” met the Antitype.
The Yearly Service (Reference: Leviticus 6)
As the days and weeks passed, the end of the year found the Earthly Sanctuary symbolically filled by the transferal of sin and defilement. It makes me think of the record of sin that yet needed to be removed, even though the repentant sinner was forgiven. This is a type that will meet its fulfillment when Jesus eradicates all sin from existence.
God’s plan was not only to forgive sin, as demonstrated in the daily services, but to separate His people from sin and to finally destroy it and its originator. This is seen in the yearly services. By faith the people were to see this work of judgment going on in heaven through both the daily and the yearly services. Christ’s life and death fulfilled the first part of this plan as carried out in the daily services, but the final part of the plan is to be fulfilled in during the final stretch of earth’s history—the Day of Atonement. The yearly cleansing of the sanctuary on the 10th day of the 7th month of the Jewish calendar (Leviticus 16:29, 30), has its prophetic fulfillment in the prophecy of Daniel 8:14. The most striking points of this yearly service are:
- On this high day only the High Priest (Hebrews 9:7) performed the service of cleansing in the second compartment, but only after he had made an atonement for himself and his family. The high priest symbolized the work and ministry of Jesus to take place in the Heavenly Sanctuary (Hebrews 8:1, 2).
- All Israel were to be prepared for the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:29). All sins were to be confessed and transferred to the sanctuary in preparation for the final destruction of their sins.
- After the high priest made an atonement for himself and his household, two goats were brought to the tabernacle and lots were cast. The first goat was the Lord’s, and the second was the scapegoat (Leviticus 16:5-8).
- The Lord’s goat was slain. The blood was then taken by the high priest and sprinkled in the Most Holy Place before the Mercy Seat (Leviticus 16:15). Once a year, the blood, symbolizing the accumulated sins of the congregation (Hebrews 10:3), was carried in by the High Priest (as the sin bearer), and placed before the Mercy Seat of God, thus to cleanse the sanctuary of its defilement and sin.
After reconciling or cleansing the sanctuary of sin, the sin was destroyed.
b) The scapegoat: the high priest, symbolically bearing the sins from the inner apartment, stepped to the second goat at the door of the sanctuary. Laying his hands upon the scapegoat’s head, the high priest confesses all the sins of the people (Leviticus 16:10, 20, 21), thus transferring all registered sins onto the scapegoat. This occurred after the judgment was completed and every person’s case had been settled.
The scapegoat (also called “Azazel”) was then led off by a fit man into the wilderness, to wander and die, thus separating the sins from the sanctuary and from God’s people forever (Leviticus 16:21, 22).
This yearly day of judgment was symbolic, referring to the final judgment and destruction of sin.
As the priest, in removing the sins from the sanctuary, confessed them upon the head of the scapegoat, so Christ will place all confessed sins upon Satan, the originator and instigator of sin. The scapegoat, bearing the sins of Israel, was sent away “into a land not inhabited” Leviticus 16:22; so Satan, bearing the guilt of all the sins which he has caused God’s people to commit, will be for a thousand years confined to the earth, which will at that time be desolate, without inhabitant (Revelation 20:1-3).
In Israel the Day of Atonement was regarded as a yearly Day of Judgment. If anyone chose to be absent or refused to participate, that person was cut off from God’s people (Leviticus 23:27-29). Just like those who refused Jesus’ offer of salvation, they will be cut-off forever.
“But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. . . . Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.” Hebrews 7:24, 27.
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us . . . but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Hebrews 9:24, 26, 27.
In the ministration of the wilderness tabernacle, and of the temple that afterwards took its place, the people were taught every day of the year the great truths relative to Christ’s death. Then once each year their minds were carried forward to Christ’s ministration and the closing events of the great controversy between Christ and Satan and then the final purification of the universe from sin and sinners.
“Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?” Psalm 77:13.
Now that we have learned what God’s people did before the cross, which pointed to Jesus. In the next post, we will take this same sanctuary system and will look at it after the cross as to how it works for us today.