The 24 Elders of Revelation, Part 6: The Ritual of Atonement Continued

Christ’s first offering of His blood for atonement – the offering “for Himself and for His [priestly] house” – was completed soon after His resurrection and ascension to heaven, so that His Divine priesthood could immediately be sanctified in heaven and in earth. Otherwise, His Apostles and other elders would have lost their Divine authority. Which they had lost at the time that the sins of the world were laid upon Jesus at the Cross, up until the fulfillment His first entry to receive the required atonement in the heavenly sanctuary for the sins of the priesthood. See John 20:17-19 and Luke 24:39.

Christ’s second entry to receive atonement in the heavenly sanctuary will bring about – when He “appears out of the heavenly sanctuary a second time” at the event of His Parousia – an expiation/atonement “for the people,” His flock, of all the sins of their carnal Adamic nature:

1 Corinthians 15:53 For this corruptible [flesh] must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 2 Corinthians 5:4 …in order that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

At this point, atonement will have been completed both for the High Priest Jesus and His priestly house and for the faithful of the people. However, the Divine Law of Atonement, as portrayed by its Aaronic archetype in Leviticus 16, still requires further acts to take place in order to complete the whole ritual. The primary remaining act involves something commonly called in English “the scapegoat.”

In Leviticus 16:8, 10, and 26, the Hebrew word translated as “the scapegoat” is Azazel [ăz-aw-zaleʹ]. But these passages in Hebrew literally mean “for Azazel,” not “for the Azazel”; the Hebrew has no “the”:

Leviticus 16:8 Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats [:5 for a sin offering]: one lot for YHWH, and one lot for Azazel. … 21 Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat [for Azazel], and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions concerning all their sins, and put them upon the head of the goat; and he shall cast it out by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness… 26 …for [or, unto] Azazel.

There is only one source from antiquity, the Book of Enoch, that reveals to us what this metaphorically means. That work describes the fall of “the angels who did not keep their principality, but left their own [heavenly] habitation…” Jude 6 The name of the very worst of these fallen angels was Azazel:

Enoch 10:12 “All the earth has been corrupted by the teaching of the work of Azazel. To him therefore ascribe the whole crime [or, all sin].”

Peter tells us that “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus [the Abyss of Hades], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment…” 2 Peter 2:4 Revelation 9:1-2 tells us that the ‘Abyss will be opened’ at the 5th Trumpet. Sometime after that, “the Beast…shall be ascending out of the Abyss, and shall be going away into perdition.” Rev. 9:1-2; 17:8; 11:7 That Beast will be Azazel.

Az/azel (Hebrew עזאזל) literally means Goat of Departure. But עז/goat is derived from a Hebrew root that means “harsh strength/ruthlessness,” such as seen in a billy goat. In the End Times, such earthly ruthlessness will reach its apex in the Kingdom of the Beast, up until Jesus returns to defeat “the Beast and the kings of the earth and their armies” at the Battle of Armageddon. Rev. 19:19; 16:16ff. The Beast will then be “cast alive into the lake of fire,” never to return. Rev. 19:20 That act will fulfill the archetypal Leviticus 16 Day of Atonement Azazel ritual: the carnal sins of the people will be laid upon the Goat of Departure, and cast out of the camp (i.e., the world) forever.

At the conclusion of these things, the Millennial reign of Christ, the Prince of Peace, will be established over all the earth:

Enoch 10:26 “Then shall all the children of men be righteous… 27 The earth shall be cleansed from all corruption… 28 In those days I will open the treasures of blessing which are in heaven, that I may cause them to descend upon earth, and upon all the works and labor of man.”