Beginning of the End: Truths Taught by the Day of Atonement

 

This yearly service taught important truths concerning the atonement. In the sin offerings presented during the year, a substitute had been accepted in the sinner’s place,  but the blood of the victim had not made full atonement for the sin. It had only provided a means of transferring the sin to the sanctuary. By offering the blood, the sinner confessed the guilt of his transgression and expressed faith in Him who was to take away the sin of the world. But the sinner was not entirely released from the condemnation of the law. On the Day of Atonement the high priest, having offered a sacrifice for the congregation, went into the most holy place with the blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat, above the tablets of the law.

In this way the claims of the law, which demanded the sinner’s life, were satisfied. Then in his role of mediator the priest took the sins upon himself and, leaving the sanctuary, bore with him the burden of Israel’s guilt. He laid his hands on the head of the scapegoat and confessed over it “all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat.” When the goat was sent away, these sins were regarded as forever separated from the people. This service was performed as a “copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5).