Page 46 - Advanced OT Survey Revised

cut-off from God’s presence. God’s holy presence was both good and bad lest they die in uncleanness by
defiling the Tabernacle.

Chapter 16 is significant because of the Day of the Atonement, also known as the Yom Kippur. It was
celebrated once a year and God gave clear instructions to Aaron’s steps to atone for national sin.

These are the steps for atoning.
1. The priest should bathe and wear simple linen garments
2. The priest should offer sin offering- bull for himself.
3. The priest should offer incense inside the veil and carry blood for atonement.
4. The priest should offer sin offering-goat for the nation, blood inside veil for atonement for place
and people.
5. The priest should lay hands on the scapegoat, confessing the sins of the people and send it off in
the wilderness. (The scapegoat symbolized the complete removal of sins.)
6. The priest should bathe and undress the linen clothes and dress again.
7. The priest should offer burnt offerings for himself and people. The animal’s lifeblood was offered
as a substitute for the nation’s sin. It is important to note that Yom Kippur was only but a
shadow, a rehearsal, depicting Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

God illustrates what He plans to Do
We have an amazing God! And we, as fallen mankind, have simple minds. God understands our
condition, so He has decided to give us PICTORIAL illustrations of what He plans to do. He does this
repeatedly in the Bible. For example, the tabernacle is a picture of how Christ would become the
sacrificial lamb. The Passover dinner illustrates in great detail the life and death of the Messiah. The
story of Abraham taking Isaac to Moriah to offer Him up is a picture-type of a future Son who would be
crucified on the exact same mountain. God has given us hundreds of illustrations that help us
understand what He has done or plans to do in the future.

Such is the seven feasts given to Israel. They are an illustration or rehearsal of what God has done or
plans to do in the future.

In Leviticus 23 God gives Israel a list of feasts that they are to celebrate and when and how long they are
to be honored. Each feast has specific regulations of what they could and could not do. God carefully
designed these feasts for a purpose.

Weekly Feast
The Sabbath Day (Shabbat, a weekly feast) – it started in the evening when the first three stars were
visible in the sky (around 6 PM) and lasted all night, then through the next day until around 6 PM. So,
the day in the Jewish mind always started in the evening at sundown. Sabbath was on our calendar
Friday evening and night, then all through Saturday until sundown on Saturday.

The Jewish calendars also had a sabbath called the High Sabbath. These sabbaths did not necessarily fall
on Friday night to Saturday but could be held anytime during the week. They were always associated
with the annual feasts that God prescribed in Leviticus 23. So, if a feast day occurred in the middle of a
week, the Jews could have two sabbaths in one week, one associated with the feast and the normal
weekly sabbath. Such is the case when Jesus was crucified just before Passover. The Passover occurred
midweek and then the weekly sabbath occurred on Friday-Saturday. Jesus was crucified just before a
High Sabbath day (John 19:31) before Passover would begin in Nisan 14, 33 AD. On that day, Passover

44