Study
The Day of Atonement
Typology · Doctrinal study

The Day of Atonement: Once for All

How one day in Israel's year pictured the High Priest who offered Himself, entered heaven for us, and will appear the second time.

Theologica Editorial13 min read
The Account

After the Death of Two Priests

Leviticus 16 begins with a funeral. The LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died (Leviticus 16:1). To understand the Day of Atonement, we have to go back six chapters.

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu had just been consecrated as priests (Leviticus 9:1). They took their censers and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not, and fire went out from the LORD and devoured them (Leviticus 10:1–2). They had defiled the sanctuary at the very door of God's presence. Moses gave Aaron the LORD's own explanation:

“Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.”LEVITICUS 10:3 · KJV

God then charged the priests to put difference between holy and unholy (Leviticus 10:10). And He told Aaron that he must not come at all times into the holy place within the vail, that he die not (Leviticus 16:2). There would be one day a year, and one way, to come in.

“And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.”LEVITICUS 16:29–30 · KJV

The Day of Atonement was a cleansing, purging, and purifying day of sacrifice for the sanctuary and for the people of Israel. It fell on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the autumn. No one worked, and everyone was to afflict your souls, humbling themselves before God with fasting (Psalm 35:13). When Luke notes on Paul's voyage that the fast was now already past, most understand him to mean this day (Acts 27:9). Leviticus calls it a day of atonement (Leviticus 23:27–28), in Hebrew yom hakkippurim; Jewish people today call it Yom Kippur.

The tabernacle itself needed cleansing, because it stood among the people in the midst of their uncleanness (Leviticus 16:16). The priests needed atonement, and so did the nation. Once a year, God provided it for them all (Leviticus 16:33–34).

How firm is each one?

The New Testament itself names the Day of Atonement as a type. Hebrews describes the high priest entering the holiest once every year, not without blood (Hebrews 9:7), then says Christ entered once into the holy place by His own blood (Hebrews 9:12). It calls the yearly sacrifices a shadow of good things to come (Hebrews 10:1), and it sets the sin offerings burned outside the camp beside Jesus, who suffered without the gate (Hebrews 13:11–12). We state those plainly. The New Testament does not mention the scapegoat by name, though it plainly teaches what the goat pictured: Christ bore our sins (1 Peter 2:24). Nor does it name the high priest's change of garments. We present them as pictures that point to Christ, and we build no doctrine on them.

Loading the rest of this article

Further reading

For Deeper Study

As an Amazon Associate, Theologica earns from qualifying purchases.

Continue exploring

The Tabernacle

God dwelling among His people in the tabernacle points to the Word made flesh who dwelt among us, and to the way He opened into God's presence.

Open Doctrine