Why Was There A Day Of Atonement PLUS People Giving Personal Sacrifice's?

[Open7]

I’ve been reading Leviticus and wondered why is there a yearly day of atonement for the sins of the nation of Israel, plus on top of that families/individuals had to bring sacrifices for their sins regularly. Why not just one of these?

My best guess is that the day of atonement was more to cover the sins of Israel in an overall kind of way, while families bringing sacrifices was more specific. Not the best answer but maybe it’s something like this?

 

Thanks

[Deborah_]

If you read  Leviticus 16:33 you will find that the object of the Day of Atonement was to purify the sanctuary, the altar and the priesthood as well as the people.

It was an acknowledgement within the Law itself that the sacrificial system was ineffective. 

No matter how many offerings and sacrifices were made throughout the year, no matter how conscientious the people's efforts to keep Yahweh’s sanctuary ‘clean’, it would inevitably become defiled by their sins - and if that state of affairs were allowed to continue, He would have to withdraw His presence from His people.

And of course, the Day of Atonement ritual itself had to be repeated every year.... "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." (Hebrews 10:4)

[Tzephanyahu]

Hi @Open7

I hope you are doing well.

You raise a good question but consider this... You are assuming that everyone who sinned in the camp brought an offering before Yahweh. 

What if they didn't, due to negligence, an unwilling heart, hiding from their error or simply because they were unaware of their sin?  Wouldn't sin still be found in the camp and need to be atoned for?

Therefore, it seems that the Day of Atonement ensured that atonement was made for all Israel, once a year, as it would inevitably still spread as a mould in the camp - despite the system of personal offering being available to all.

There is of course other significant parallels which can be drawn around this Day but that's another subject.

I hope that helps.

Peace

[Justin Adams]

To make the space sacred and alter it from the 'normal' profane. That is why the sacrifices. It cleansed sacred space is all.

[Alive]

9 minutes ago, Josheb said:

Different kinds of sins begat different kinds of sacrifices and their structure or ritual. The scapegoat (Lev. 16), for example, was for communal sin, not that of just one individual. Every single one of us here in Worthy sins on a routine basis but as a species humans are also collectively sinful. God addressed that in their consciousness, or making them aware of that aspect of sin, by inaugurating the scapegoat sacrifices. Lev. 5 talks about the unknown sins, the "thoughtless" sins, and the handling of sinfor which we're made aware long after the fact. We'll all die with sins for which we're not aware still on our ledger. God has that base covered. 

However, all of that can be ditched in Christ. All those sacrifices were simply a foreshadowing of the true sacrifice that would take away the sins of the world, both individually and collectively, aware and unaware. We got washed clean by Jesus (2 Pet. 1:9) and a life of confession, repentance, restitution, forgiveness, and reconciliation maintain that sanctifying relationship via the Holy Spirit. A life of Spirit driven love, discipline, perseverance, endurance (Rom. 5, Jms. 1, 2 Pet. 1) maintains the vitality of the grant to our knowledge of God.  

It's a lot less bloody and smelly than dead animals and there's a lot less to clean up afterwards . One can imagine the cleanup itself prompted sins of thought and word for which more atonement was needed . Once humbled, we get to rejoice and rest!  

Amen! All of it. In fact the entire bible from start to finish is about Christ.

My wife and I (via Omegaman's Bible reading club) :-)--have been listening to the scriptures together and our focus is the adventure of seeing Christ everywhere and in everything.

I suggest this for any and all.

[Prycejosh1987]

On 2/1/2022 at 5:20 PM, Open7 said:

I’ve been reading Leviticus and wondered why is there a yearly day of atonement for the sins of the nation of Israel, plus on top of that families/individuals had to bring sacrifices for their sins regularly. Why not just one of these?

My best guess is that the day of atonement was more to cover the sins of Israel in an overall kind of way, while families bringing sacrifices was more specific. Not the best answer but maybe it’s something like this?

 

Thanks

We all sin and need purification. We all sin daily and need to get back to God and we all need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ t pay for our ongoing sins. Hope this helps. 

[MattLovesCoffee]

On 2/3/2022 at 12:01 PM, Josheb said:

However, all of that can be ditched in Christ. All those sacrifices were simply a foreshadowing of the true sacrifice that would take away the sins of the world, both individually and collectively, aware and unaware.

While it is true that they are a foreshadowing, Zechariah, Isaiah and Ezekiel (40-38) all describe a literal temple, sacrifices and all, during the Millennial Reign of Messiah. The Torah is the Word of God and must still be obeyed. The ritual and ceremonial laws will be kept as delineated in the Law of Moses, mainly by the Jews as the sign-bearers, but for their symbolic value, as a memorial, and not to earn salvation. Christ did not do away with the Law of Moses, rather He kept it perfectly to make atonement for us and as our example of what Torah obedience looks like. In Hebrew to fulfill means to uphold and to establish, to abolish means to uproot and to break.

After the Tribulation the Gentile humans that were not destroyed at Christ's return will go yearly to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles and will even offer literal animal sacrifices:

"Finally, everyone remaining from all the nations that came to attack Yerushalayim will go up every year to worship the king, Adonai-Tzva’ot, and to keep the festival of Sukkot. If any of the families of the earth does not go up to Yerushalayim to worship the king, Adonai-Tzva’ot, no rain will fall on them. If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up, if they refuse to come, they will have no [annual] overflow [from the Nile]; moreover, there will be the plague with which Adonai will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the festival of Sukkot. This will be Egypt’s punishment and the punishment of all the nations that don’t go up to keep the festival of Sukkot. When that day comes, this will be written on the bells worn by the horses: “Consecrated to Adonai”; and the cooking pots in the house of Adonai will be [as holy] as the sprinkling bowls before the altar. Yes, every cooking pot in Yerushalayim and Y’hudah will be consecrated to Adonai-Tzva’ot. Everyone who offers sacrifices will come, take them and use them to stew the meat. When that day comes, there will no longer be merchants in the house of Adonai-Tzva’ot."
Z'kharyah (Zec) 14:16‭-‬21 CJB

God will even take some Gentiles to serve as priests and Levites during the Millennial Reign of Messiah, and the passage says how everyone living will keep the new moon calendar and the weekly Sabbath Rest days:

"“[The time] is coming when I will gather together all nations and languages. They will come and see my glory, and I will give them a sign. I will send some of their survivors to the nations of Tarshish, Pul, Lud (these are archers), Tuval, Greece and more distant coasts, where they have neither heard of my fame nor seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory in these nations; and they will bring all your kinsmen out of all the nations as an offering to Adonai — on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules, on camels — to my holy mountain Yerushalayim,” says Adonai, “just as the people of Isra’el themselves bring their offerings in clean vessels to the house of Adonai. I will also take cohanim and L’vi’im from them,” says Adonai. “For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making will continue in my presence,” says Adonai, “so will your descendants and your name continue. Every month on Rosh-Hodesh and every week on Shabbat, everyone living will come to worship in my presence,” says Adonai."
Yesha 'yahu (Isa) 66:18‭-‬23 CJB

[Anne2]

On 2/3/2022 at 7:01 AM, Josheb said:

Different kinds of sins begat different kinds of sacrifices and their structure or ritual. The scapegoat (Lev. 16), for example, was for communal sin, not that of just one individual. Every single one of us here in Worthy sins on a routine basis but as a species humans are also collectively sinful. God addressed that in their consciousness, or making them aware of that aspect of sin, by inaugurating the scapegoat sacrifices. Lev. 5 talks about the unknown sins, the "thoughtless" sins, and the handling of sinfor which we're made aware long after the fact. We'll all die with sins for which we're not aware still on our ledger. God has that base covered. 

However, all of that can be ditched in Christ. All those sacrifices were simply a foreshadowing of the true sacrifice that would take away the sins of the world, both individually and collectively, aware and unaware. We got washed clean by Jesus (2 Pet. 1:9) and a life of confession, repentance, restitution, forgiveness, and reconciliation maintain that sanctifying relationship via the Holy Spirit. A life of Spirit driven love, discipline, perseverance, endurance (Rom. 5, Jms. 1, 2 Pet. 1) maintains the vitality of the grant to our knowledge of God. 

Edited March 10, 2022 by Anne2

[Anne2]

1 hour ago, Josheb said:

Hi @Anne2,

 

Still getting the hang of the html tags?  

Was there something I was supposed to read in response to my post? When you hit the "Quote" button and then and the browser takes you to the bottom of the page, make sure your cursor is below and outside of the quote box. 

 

lol, Terrible. Yes I texted in the wrong box. But I caught it before I posted. Tried to copy and paste below. Then it all disappeared and I could not get anything back.

It was a good post too.

It concerned the collective nature of sin found in Joshua. He sends men to battle, 30 ish die

Joshua falls before God asking why? Gods response

Jos 7:1  But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.

Jos 22:18  But that ye must turn away this day from following the LORD? and it will be, seeing ye rebel to day against the LORD, that to morrow he will be wroth with the whole congregation of Israel.
Jos 22:20  Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity.

 

[Anne2]

44 minutes ago, Josheb said:

Amen! Preaching to the choir! I see people bearing the sin of others often. Unawares. Those are usually the active kinds of sin but neglect of rightness or righteousness is just as sinful and we all communally collaborate with that at one time or another. It's amazing God doesn't incinerate the lot of us (no pun intended ). 

Grace. 

The sacrifices of the OT weren't a contingency plan. They were foreshadowing something foreknown: the perfect foreknown sacrifice. Jesus was not a contingency plan, either. He was always the only way to God, always the resurrection, and always the sacrifice by which humanity would be raised incorruptible and immortal, whether a human ever sinned or not. It was apportioned for humans to die once and then face judgment but as a consequence of one man's sin many will die twice never having the promise of an incorrupt immortal resurrection never realized in their life. 

Anyone here ever consider for what sin this death occurred: 

Exodus 12:1-15, 26-27
Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, "This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.  Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household. 'Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.  You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the LORD'S Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD..... And when your children say to you, 'What does this rite mean to you?'  you shall say, 'It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.'" And the people bowed low and worshiped. 

 

For what sin was that sacrifice? 

I have never seen the passover lamb as a sacrifice for sin. But I have seen it as the blood of the covenant established, WITH AN OATH with their father Abraham, in his offering of Isaac.

Ex 2:24  And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Ex 6:5  And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.

Lu 22:20  Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
Ex 24:8  And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.
Heb 9:18  Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. {dedicated: or, purified }
Heb 9:19  For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, {scarlet: or, purple }
Heb 9:20  Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.