The Tabernacle Offerings
In answer to Moses' plea that God show His way after the
golden calf incident, the tabernacle was initiated. In fact,
the tabernacle with its ritual services may well be said to
embody God's provisional answer respecting His way. God had
revealed Himself to Moses as "merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth; forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin." In the ritual
ceremonies of the tabernacle something of these attributes
or redeeming qualities of God come to expression.
Its Origin And Structure
From the making and worshipping of the golden calf it
would seem that the people had sensed the desirability for
some tangible evidence of God's presence. However, the idea
of the tabernacle with its services was not devised by the
people. Chapters 25 through 31 of Exodus tell us how the
concept originated. The pattern of the tabernacle and its
furnishings, the competence for executing the workmanship
involved in structuring it, and the order of its ritual
services were communicated by God. In this connection we
note that Moses was specifically told to see to it that all
be made according to the pattern that was shown him on the
mountain (Exodus 25:8,9,40).
In its entirety the tabernacle comprised two sections: the
forecourt which consisted of a roofless enclosure, and the
tabernacle proper comprising the "Holy Place" and the "Holy
of Holies".
Its Purpose
In Exodus 29:43 the tabernacle is designated as the place
where God would meet with the children of Israel. Concerning
it God said, "And there I will meet with the children of
Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory."
The place of meeting is further identified in Exodus 25:22,
which reads, "And there I will meet with thee and I will
commune with thee from above the expiatory cover from
between the two cherubim's which are upon the ark of the
testimony ..."
So the tabernacle afforded the people a place for meeting
God, but, because of their sinfulness this could not be
effected directly. The people had become keenly aware of
this fact at the giving of the law from Mt. Sinai. Exodus
20:18,19 tells us that when the people saw something of
God's majesty and power, and heard Him speaking to them from
the mountain, they stood back and pleaded that Moses
henceforth be God's spokesman to them, lest they die. And
lest this be forgotten, Moses, in recounting the giving of
the law some forty years later, also recounted this incident
and the deep concern the people had expressed at that time.
"And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; And ye said, Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire:...if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die...Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it. (Deuteronomy 5:23-27).
What the people had spoken at Mt. Sinai at the giving of
the law was indeed "well said". And, to what they said, God
had given answer in no uncertain terms. As for their plea
that Moses be God's spokesman, the Lord promised to raise up
unto them a prophet like unto Moses — a promise which
bespoke the coming of Messiah. (Deuteronomy 5:29).
Since there was not such a heart in them — as there is not
such a heart in sinful man — God showed the way in which an
acceptable relationship with Him could be maintained; this
by way of the tabernacle with its ritual services, special
emphasis on mediatorship, and its sin and trespass
offerings.
Offerings and sacrifices were known to find acceptance with
God before the tabernacle ever came into use, but of
expiatory offerings or offerings for atonement no mention is
made before the giving of the Law. Note here that wherever
mention is made of a "sin offering" or "trespass offering,"
it relates to an infraction of a commandment (See Leviticus
4:2,13,27, and 5:15,18). Furthermore, these offerings
availed if one sinned "... through ignorance against any of
the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought
not to be done ..." (Leviticus 4:2). the latter applied
whether this was committed by a priest (Leviticus 4:3), the
whole congregation (Leviticus 4:13), or any of the common
people (Leviticus 4:27). Now the expression, "sin through
ignorance" generally does not relate to ignorance of the
commandments, but rather to unmindfulness and
unpremeditatedness regarding them. Included, however, are
errors of infirmity, rashness and levity. For all such sins
and trespasses the offender could bring an offering to the
altar wherewith to obtain forgiveness.
Not A Self-Serve Matter
The offerer could do no more however than bring his
offering to the tabernacle and present it at the altar. From
there on an officiating priest had to take over in his
behalf. Leviticus 5:13 gives the common formula in these
words: "And the priest shall make an atonement for him ..."
This brings the priestly office into the picture, the office
concerning which God said, "And I will sanctify the
tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will
sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in
the priest's office" (Exodus 29:44). Because, in respect to
the sin offerings and the trespass offerings, the
officiating priest took over in behalf of the offerer, his,
unquestionably, was a mediative office, and his was a
service that could in no way be bypassed nor dispensed with.
Here we should note, and note well, that the foregoing
offerings did not constitute a blanket covering for the
sinfulness of the people. The "sin offerings" and the
"trespass offerings," which were processed by the
officiating priests from day to day, related to guilt
incurred by reason of sins of omission and sins of
commission, but they did not relate to guilt inherent by
reason of condition. In other words, these offerings availed
for current infractions of God's commandments — where one
missed the mark, chatah, or one transgressed,
peshah, Hebrew terms we discussed in the previous
lesson, but they did not directly relate to one's inherent
sinfulness, avon. In spite of a whole ritual of
acceptable offerings throughout the year, the inherent
sinfulness of the people was yet ever present.
The Day Of Atonement
That a special Day of Atonement should follow upon a
whole course of acceptable sin offerings and trespass
offerings is a telling phenomenon. The 16th chapter of
Leviticus gives a rather full account of the ritual
ceremonies of the Day of Atonement, and the role this day
played in making atonement for all the sins of the people.
When reading this chapter note carefully the status of the
officiating priest, and the vicariousness of the sin
offering.
A Mediative Service Per Se
While the daily sin offerings and trespass offerings
could be processed by any one of the officiating priests,
the sin offering for the day of atonement could be processed
only by him who was especially anointed and robed to serve
as high priest (Leviticus 16:2,17). The English term "high
priest" is derived from Leviticus 21:10, where in the Hebrew
text the term is, ha-cohen ha-ga-dol, that is, "the
high priest." Leviticus 4:3 also gives a descriptive term,
ha-cohen ha-me-shi-ach, which means, "the anointed
priest." For those who use the Hebrew text it should
immediately be apparent that the name "messiah" is a
derivative of the Hebrew term meshiach. Messiah is
said to be the Lord's Anointed. In this connection note that
in the 9th chapter of Daniel the term me-shi-ach is
twice translated "messiah" (Daniel 9:25-27). In turning to
this chapter note also that the prophet, when speaking of
Messiah's coming, relates His ministry to both the
"sanctuary" and the "sacrifices," a fact that identifies
Messiah as the anti-type of the high priest and his
mediative ministry.
That the service which the high priest rendered on the Day
of Atonement was a mediative service per se should be very
clear. In this connection note especially the closing verses
of Leviticus 16. "And he (the priest)...shall make an
atonement (for) the holy sanctuary ... (for) the
tabernacle...(for) the altar ... (for) the priests ... (for)
all the people ... (for) the children of Israel "for" all
their sins once a year ... " (Leviticus 16:33-34).
Vicariousness Of The Sin Offering
The sin offering for the Day of Atonement was unique in
that it comprised a two-phase ritual, the first relating to
the goat which was to be sacrificed as the sin offering
proper, the second relating to the so-call scapegoat
(Leviticus 16:5,7-10,15,16,20-22).
The sin offering for the Day of atonement differed from the
day to day sin offerings in that the blood was taken into
the Holy of Holies and was there sprinkled upon and before
the expiatory covering that was upon the ark. This then
constituted a supreme act of expiation, and atonement which,
respecting their sinfulness, symbolically served as a
covering for all the people of the congregation.
The ritual respecting the second phase of the sin offering
on the Day of Atonement, as given in the common
translations, is the following: "and Aaron shall lay both
his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess their
transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head
of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit
man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him
all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited ...
(Leviticus 16:21). However, when taken out of its context
this Scripture passage lends itself to one holding that this
afforded a complete act of atonement, and, as such, is
sometimes referred to as an example of a bloodless sin
offering.
But now review its context and specially note its beginning
and its conclusion. Note that Aaron was to take "two kids of
the goats for a sin offering" (Leviticus 16:5), not two but
one offering. Note, moreover, that the whole ritual of the
Day of Atonement sin offering, in conclusion, is spoken of
as, "an atonement for the children of Israel for all their
sins once a year" (Leviticus 16:34).
This atonement began at the altar with the presentation of
the two goats before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle,
(verse 7) was effected before the Lord in the Holy of Holies
by the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrificed goat before
and on the expiatory cover that was upon the ark, (verse 15)
and was concluded before the people in the forecourt by the
sending away of the live goat, which carried with it, as it
were, all the iniquities and transgressions and sins of the
people (verse 22).
We began this lesson by citing the Scripture reference where
God revealed Himself as being, " ... merciful and gracious,
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth ...
forgiving iniquity (avon) and transgression (peshah)
and sin (chatah) ..." (Exodus 34:6,7), and with two
additional comments on this passage we shall end it.
Our first additional comment is that only the sin offering
on the Day of Atonement availed for the sinfulness of the
people, the sinfulness that was yet ever present
notwithstanding all the acceptable sin offerings that were
offered throughout the year — that sinful condition of the
people signified by the Hebrew term avon. Our second
additional comment is that although all the sin offerings
and trespass offerings offered in the tabernacle were
without a doubt vicarious offerings, the Day of Atonement
ritual regarding the live goat stands out boldly as an
object lesson on their vicariousness - the goat being sent
away with all the iniquity, transgression, and sin, as it
were, heaped upon it.
Summation
The tabernacle, with its daily offerings and sacrifices
and its once a year Day of Atonement, marks the beginning of
God's way in direct dealing with the sin question. Not
withstanding good intentions, there is not such a heart in
man as to keep God's commandments. At the root there lies a
sinfulness for which only the gracious provisions He has
made can avail - provisions reflected in the tabernacle and
its service and especially in the mediative ministry of the
high priest on the Day of Atonement.