Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

Aaron’s sons died when they brought fire Gid didn’t kindle, (possibly) the wrong incense blend, and tried to get before the Lord in the Holiest Place. God responded by speaking this chapter (16) telling Moses the ONLY way to come before the Lord in the Holy of Holies (the Holiest Place behind the curtain in the Holy Place or tent of meeting). This was to be done on the Day of Atonement which was still MONTHS away, but God didn’t want anyone else to die. He was explicit. This was THE way to come to Him.

First off, the high priest couldn’t come any time he wanted. He could ONLY come when called (drawn – John 6:44) and that was the 10th day of the 7th month (Yom Kippur). There was to be a progression. First Aaron was to deal with himself and his family, then the people, and then the tabernacle. All were to be cleansed. He was to follow God’s instructions. If he did, then everything WOULD be atoned for. It was a promise from God Almighty and needed to be held with trust in God (faith).

The tent of meeting was to be empty except for the high priest. All usual traffic was to stop. This was one man atoning for all the people (Hebrews 10:10-18). Aaron’s first step was to remove the robes of office. He was to come wearing only the linen garment of the average priest, not the fancy robes. We come HUMBLE before God. Now, tradition says the High Priest would change his clothes every time he prepared to enter the Holy of Holies (not commanded by God here). The idea was to always come before God clean and not splattered with the blood of the last sacrifice. This putting on the robes God chose is reminiscent of believers in the New Covenant putting on the Armour of God (Ephesians 6:11-13) as we go about our duties as priests in the Kingdom (1 Peter 2:3-9).

Next step was bringing coals from the altar (fire ignited by God, Leviticus 9:24, 6:13) and incense (God’s blend, Exodus 30:34-38). This is the first time he enters the Most Holy Place. Now there was already a cloud veiling God’s glory which rested on the Mercy Seat of the Ark (Hebrews 9:5, Exodus 25:22). But it shone through so intently it was POSSIBLE Aaron might see it and die (Exodus 33:20). As soon as Aaron entered the Holy of Holies, he put incense to the coals and a cloud of incense came up creating a second cloud to veil the Glory. This was a merciful act so that God didn’t need to be a consuming fire (Leviticus 10:1-3) and could instead be near to the high priest who (like us) wasn’t fully perfected. The incense also represented the prayers of the people (which it does in the New Covenant as well – Revelation 8:4).

Next was the bull Aaron offered as a sin offering for himself and his family (under God’s blood covering as a priest). This was the second time Aaron entered the Holy of Holies. He was to sprinkle the blood on the east and then seven times on the seat. The Holy of Holies faced west, so the east was BEHIND Aaron. The first sprinkle of blood was thrown up over his head to the rear (east). The next seven were toward/on the Mercy Seat. Interestingly, pagans would face east to worship.

Next, he would get the goat. These goats were supposed to be as identical as could be. One was for sacrifice and one was for substitution. They were picked by lot – God chose the goat. Aaron took the goat’s blood for a sin offering for everyone (under God’s blood covering as a people/nation). This was Aaron’s third time into the Most Holy Place. He sprinkled one over his head to the east and seven to the mercy seat. Now, all throughout the year the priests would sprinkle blood on the veil separating the Holy of Holies (Leviticus 4:6). It got on there and dried and crusted and got thick. Jewish tradition says that when the high priest sprinkled the goat’s blood that the year’s accumulation of blood on the curtain disappeared – miraculously removed by God as visible proof that the people’s sins were cleansed.

Next he was to clean the tabernacle or Holy Place. Then he left the tent of meeting and put mixed blood of the bull and goat onto the horns of the altar and then sprinkled it seven times on the altar. He had now made atonement for the Holy of Holies, the Holy Place (tent of meeting), and the altar. Next was the living goat.

Aaron was to put his hands on the head of the goat and confessed on the head of the goat the sins of the people (1 John 1:9). The sins of himself, his family, and all the people of the nation were transferred to the goat. A man was appointed to take that goat out of the camp, into the wilderness, and release it to go free. Now they lost faith in this over time and instead of just letting it go, they took it to a specific mountain and pushed it off so that it died – not proscribed by God, but they needed more visible proof the sins were gone. But this scapegoat was the shadow of a substitutionary sacrifice by an innocent party (Romans 3:25, Isaiah 53).

Then Aaron went into the tent of meeting again (fourth time in the tent), washed his body with water, put on new garments, and came out to offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering for the people. The fat of the sin offering was to be burnt on the altar. He couldn’t offer the sacrifice until everything had been cleansed. The man who released the goat also needed to wash his clothes and bathe in water to get back into the camp. The bull, the goat, and all their remains were to be taken out and burnt completely outside the camp. He who did it needed to wash their clothes and bathe their body or they couldn’t get back in.

This was a PERPETUAL statute. This was to be done on the one day a year. The people were to consider it a Sabbath and to humble themselves – the people and the foreigner in the nation (Romans 1:16, 2:10-11). They were to devote themselves with all their hearts and minds to their relationship with God. God told them to humble themselves (deny themselves) but didn’t specify how other than no work at all. Most fasted because it is the easiest/fastest way to humble yourself. They abstained from sex – separating the physical from the spiritual. If they did this and the priest did it properly they would be atoned for. Cleansed in spite of previous sin. Total Grace. No question that it wouldn’t happen. God said they WOULD be cleansed.

“because on this day he shall make atonement for you to cleanse you; you must be clean from all your sins before Yahweh.” (Leviticus 16:30)

God spoke next about blood, because the atonement was in the blood and they needed to understand.

If you killed an ox, a lamb, or a goat outside the tent of meeting, you would be held responsible. They were to use the blood of these animals to understand the plan of salvation, but NOT to frivolously kill animals – this is different from killing for food. If these animals are being killed and not being used for worshipful sacrifice the person responsible was HELD responsible (they were killed blood for blood). The rule was the same for citizens and foreigners. No one was to do worship killing anywhere except where God said it was appropriate. It MUST be done God’s way and God’s way ALONE.

Just as serious: do NOT eat blood. This went back to the Noahide covenant (Genesis 9:4-6). Even the New Covenant church held to this statute (Acts 15:19-20) and they knew they were freed from following the Law. This is how serious this is. Anything else? Yes.

Don’t eat animals that die of themselves or are torn by wild animals. They make you unclean. Which means washing clothes, bathing, and being unclean until evening. If you’re in contact with death, you NEED to be cleansed. Death brings us DOWN. God wants us to come UP. If you ignore the statute, you WILL bear your iniquity. He is NOT joking. These things were related to pagan practices and God was being VERY clear: do it God’s way and NO OTHER WAY. He was trying to keep them safe and in harmony with Him.

What else is here? Sex. Sex was meant for marriage – not talking about the legal contract but the Holy Covenant with God (expressed legally in Western countries and other ways in other places and throughout history). From a spiritual point of view, it was a reflection of God. The Word is the masculine expression of God. Ruach (the breath) is a feminine expression of God. Adam was made male and female in one – image of God. Just as God has a relationship with His Word from within, we too as males have relationship with females who came from within us (Genesis 2:21-24). To reject this dichotomy is to reject the image of God as He meant it to be, because when we become one flesh (sex in the marriage covenant) we are more fully showing God’s image. If we just have sex to have sex, we become spiritually unclean and develop a perverted (not in harmony with God) mindset full of such guilt and self-condemnation that you want to avoid the Throne of God which hinders your spiritual growth.

The Israelites had been in Egypt for about 210 years surrounded in every way by a culture of people who revelled in being separate from Yahweh. Now Yah is through these statutes leading them the other way. Why a whole chapter (18) on immoral relations? It is the only sin against your own body (1 Corinthians 6:18). We are to FLEE from it (2 Timothy 2:22). It is as serious as murder and it is first committed in our hearts (Matthew 5:27-30). It hinders our walk with God. These are practices that separate us from harmony with God. We might not think of them ourselves, but we might see it somewhere and start considering it – if we don’t know they’re objectively wrong. Here God helps us by showing us His objective morality and saying NO. When we follow His morals, they bring us LIFE.

So: no close relations. Not your parents, or their siblings, or their children, or your siblings, or your siblings’ spouses (or unmarried partners of any degree), or a mother and her daughter (separately or together), not daughters/sons-in-law, not a step-sibling whether raised in your home or in another home, or the son of a son or daughter of a daughter – and by extension of other things on this list, their partners (cousins are NOT on this list, but these days not recommended by humanity). They are ALL depravity. This is also a great argument against casual sex or sex during a dating relationship. Because people change up partners and suddenly you’re involved with people who were involved with people on this list or people on this list (like a boy who had slept with a sister or aunt; or a woman who your brother or father or nephew had bedded). Mixed up relations. How much easier if marriage was for life and sex didn’t start until marriage. Suddenly? NO danger of depravity or living out of harmony with God. So simple. But we don’t KEEP things simple and that’s why we have the list to make it clear.

The Word says that in His Mercy, God didn’t impute sin if people didn’t know it was wrong (before the Law – Romans 5:12-21). If you don’t believe that, if you’re image of God is a smiter, then re-read that list of depraved relations. Then consider Abram and Sarai (Genesis 12:13, 20:11-13), what Ham did to Noah (Genesis 9:21-23), what was done to Lot by his daughters (Genesis 19:30-38), what Judah and Reuben did (Genesis 38 & 35:22), and what Moses’ father did (Exodus 6:20). God is serious about purity, but He is also Merciful and Gracious.

You also weren’t to have rival wives – remember Jacob, Rachel, and Leah (Genesis 29:16-30)? There was to be no sex during menstruation – blood was sacred and not to be profane by our acts (making physically normal what was to be remembered as  spiritually important). No sex with animals. No sex with a neighbour’s wife (do not covet, remember? Exodus 20:17). Don’t sacrifice your kids (pagans would sacrifice to the male deity and then dip eggs in the child’s blood to honour the female deity). Don’t perform the act of sexual intercourse with a male if you are a male. Note that you’re not required to be attracted to women, but the act of sex (mental or physical) was not to be indulged between men and men – not even in your heart (Matthew 5:28). These are ALL abominations and perversions. Examples of the deterioration of the natural order. Deterioration of objective morality. Out of harmony with God. Broken thinking and broken ways. These things ALL separate us from God’s objective truth. His morality. His righteousness. They hurt us. They are the physical manifestations of a fallen spiritual state. Don’t be in harmony with sin. Not even if other people think they’re right (Proverbs 14:12).

If you think this isn’t important, remember this. One reason God was warning His people about this is because these practices were common among the pagan nations in the Land of Promise. These practices are what defiled the land to the point the land itself was spewing then out of the borders of the land. THAT’S how bad they were. The GROUND couldn’t stand them being there anymore (and these were people God had originally brought there – Amos 9:7). God warned the Israelites that if they did these practices the land would vomit them out as well.

Anyone who violated ANY of these statutes was defiled. Anyone that participated in them was to be killed – cut out from the people like a cancer before the practises spread and defiled them all (a necessity before Messiah came to make the Way open). These aren’t whims. They aren’t meant to deprive us or keep good things from us. They are guidance from a LOVING Father who is DESPERATE to keep His kids safe.

[Under the New Covenant of Jesus’ blood we have a better promise: we can be cleansed in Jesus of sin (Acts 13:39). We can be forgiven. Death no longer needs to be the penalty. These acts are still sin, but we can be redeemed, repent, and live a better life in Jesus.]

Summary

Key Players: God, Aaron

Key Themes: Atonement, Blood (covering), Immorality

Key Verse(s): Leviticus 16:2, 29-33; 17:8-9, 14; 18:1-6, 24-28