It is recalled that to God's ancient people there were appointed five great festivals, all of a pictorial or illustrative character:
1) The Feast of Trumpets -- welcoming the new civil year on the first of Tizri (September, October), one day only. The feast was of special significance every fiftieth year, when the blowing of the silver trumpets announced the jubilee - typical of the "times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began." -- Acts 3:21.
2) The Passover on the 15th of Nisan or Abib (April)-the first month of the sacred year. It lasted seven days.
3) The Feast of Pentecost (in Sivan, end of May) -- the first-fruits of the harvest.
4) The Feast of Tabernacles, in Tizri (Beginning the 15th) -- the Feast of Ingathering or thanksgiving.
5) The Great Day of Atonement (the 10th of Tizri) lasted one day only.
While the Great Day of Atonement is named as one of the enjoined festivals it was not a joyous one, but was observed with fasting, mourning (for sin) and prayer, and was esteemed a time for reformation and good resolutions, and a desire for Divine favor for the year in advance. Its sacrifices and offerings were not in respect to the sins of the preceding year, as some have suggested. Each Atonement Day made reconciliation for the sins of the people for the ensuing year, and under its arrangement they were God's people and treated as though they were free from original sin, the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement being reckoned as covering the Adamic Condemnation. At the close of each year, therefore, the people were reckoned back again under Adamic condemnation, and fresh offerings, sacrifices, were made to bring them again into God's favor for another year.
The Apostle points out that these remembrances of sin every year "year by year continually" (Heb. 10:1), evidenced the fact that the Adamic guilt was not actually cancelled, but merely temporarily covered. But he also points out that the better sacrifices (plural), the real sin-offering which God has ordained and which will be affected through the Christ, will need no repetition, because its cancellation of sins will be forever -- "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified"-set apart as members of His Body. -- Heb. 10:14.
The sin-offerings of this Day of Atonement were two -- a bullock and a goat -- the "Lord's goat" as in contrast with the "scape-goat." The bullock of the sin-offering was by far the more important of the two offerings. Not only did it take precedence, but it was a larger and better sacrifice. The bullock, as many have come to see, typified our Lord Jesus in His person, the great sacrifice for sins. The application of the atonement made by the sacrifice of the bullock -- the sprinkling of its blood upon the Mercy Seat was specially stated to be for the Priest and his house.
The "Mystery" the Church Pictured
The Apostle frequently refers to the "mystery" hidden from past ages and dispensations, but now made known unto the saints, namely "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27.) Only those who discern this "hidden mystery" can truly appreciate the meaning of the statement that the atonement made by the blood of the bullock was for the Priest and his house.
The majority of readers would get the thought that it was made for the High Priest's own sinfulness, and constituted his cleansing and the Lord's blessing upon his home.
But those who understand the "hidden mystery" perceive that the High Priest himself represented Jesus, the Head, and the Church, His Body -- in another figure Jesus the High Priest and the Church the under-priesthood – the "little flock." And these understand that his "house" refers not to his abode, but to his family or household, which in Aaron's case was the tribe of Levi, and antitypically represents the household of faith, related to Christ, the Head of the Church, His Body.
From this standpoint of appreciation, of the "hidden mystery" we perceive that the killing of the bullock represented the sacrifice of our Lord as the man Christ Jesus, and that the benefit, the result of that sacrifice, applied to the entire household of faith, especially the Church, which is the Body of Christ -- the Head not needing the atonement, as indicated by the fact that the head of the High Priest was uncovered.
Had God so pleased He might have had only the one sacrifice on the Day of Atonement -- the sacrifice of the bullock, representing the death of our Lord Jesus. But it pleased God to arrange otherwise in the ceremonies of this Atonement Day. God purposed, as the Apostle declares, not only to accept the consecrated believers as members of the Body of Christ, but to give them a share with the Lord in His suffering as His members, and ultimately to give them also a share as His members in the glory that should follow -- the glory, honor and immortality of the Kingdom.
The New Testament abounds with exhortations to the Lord's disciples to make a full consecration of themselves, even unto death, to be baptized with Christ's baptism unto death, to suffer with Him that they might also reign with Him, to be dead with Him that they might also live with Him. The Apostle also declares that we fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ-suffering for the sake of being members of His Body, the Church.
It should not surprise us to find that this sacrificing on the part of the Body of Christ, which has been in progress for a little over twenty centuries now, and which is so prominently marked throughout all the exhortations of the New Testament, is also marked with prominence in the type. Many have treated lightly and as meaningless language the words of the Apostle; "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies living sacrifices unto God, holy, acceptable, your reasonable service." (Rom 12:1)
But as we look into the typical picture of this Gospel Age -- the Day of Atonement -- we find the sufferings of the Body of Christ clearly set forth, represented in the sacrifice of the Lord's goat. The leanness of the goat as compared with the young bullock fitly represents the inferiority of the Church and anything she has to offer unto the Lord in sacrifice, as compared with the riches of grace which reside in her Lord, who gave the important sacrifice, the basis of our offerings, without which nothing that we could offer would have any value or be at all acceptable before the Father. (The Herald of Christ Kingdom September 1927, Page 39)
We hope to explain this all in more detail in our study of the Great Day of Atonement.
1) The Feast of Trumpets -- welcoming the new civil year on the first of Tizri (September, October), one day only. The feast was of special significance every fiftieth year, when the blowing of the silver trumpets announced the jubilee - typical of the "times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began." -- Acts 3:21.
2) The Passover on the 15th of Nisan or Abib (April)-the first month of the sacred year. It lasted seven days.
3) The Feast of Pentecost (in Sivan, end of May) -- the first-fruits of the harvest.
4) The Feast of Tabernacles, in Tizri (Beginning the 15th) -- the Feast of Ingathering or thanksgiving.
5) The Great Day of Atonement (the 10th of Tizri) lasted one day only.
While the Great Day of Atonement is named as one of the enjoined festivals it was not a joyous one, but was observed with fasting, mourning (for sin) and prayer, and was esteemed a time for reformation and good resolutions, and a desire for Divine favor for the year in advance. Its sacrifices and offerings were not in respect to the sins of the preceding year, as some have suggested. Each Atonement Day made reconciliation for the sins of the people for the ensuing year, and under its arrangement they were God's people and treated as though they were free from original sin, the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement being reckoned as covering the Adamic Condemnation. At the close of each year, therefore, the people were reckoned back again under Adamic condemnation, and fresh offerings, sacrifices, were made to bring them again into God's favor for another year.
The Apostle points out that these remembrances of sin every year "year by year continually" (Heb. 10:1), evidenced the fact that the Adamic guilt was not actually cancelled, but merely temporarily covered. But he also points out that the better sacrifices (plural), the real sin-offering which God has ordained and which will be affected through the Christ, will need no repetition, because its cancellation of sins will be forever -- "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified"-set apart as members of His Body. -- Heb. 10:14.
The sin-offerings of this Day of Atonement were two -- a bullock and a goat -- the "Lord's goat" as in contrast with the "scape-goat." The bullock of the sin-offering was by far the more important of the two offerings. Not only did it take precedence, but it was a larger and better sacrifice. The bullock, as many have come to see, typified our Lord Jesus in His person, the great sacrifice for sins. The application of the atonement made by the sacrifice of the bullock -- the sprinkling of its blood upon the Mercy Seat was specially stated to be for the Priest and his house.
The "Mystery" the Church Pictured
The Apostle frequently refers to the "mystery" hidden from past ages and dispensations, but now made known unto the saints, namely "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27.) Only those who discern this "hidden mystery" can truly appreciate the meaning of the statement that the atonement made by the blood of the bullock was for the Priest and his house.
The majority of readers would get the thought that it was made for the High Priest's own sinfulness, and constituted his cleansing and the Lord's blessing upon his home.
But those who understand the "hidden mystery" perceive that the High Priest himself represented Jesus, the Head, and the Church, His Body -- in another figure Jesus the High Priest and the Church the under-priesthood – the "little flock." And these understand that his "house" refers not to his abode, but to his family or household, which in Aaron's case was the tribe of Levi, and antitypically represents the household of faith, related to Christ, the Head of the Church, His Body.
From this standpoint of appreciation, of the "hidden mystery" we perceive that the killing of the bullock represented the sacrifice of our Lord as the man Christ Jesus, and that the benefit, the result of that sacrifice, applied to the entire household of faith, especially the Church, which is the Body of Christ -- the Head not needing the atonement, as indicated by the fact that the head of the High Priest was uncovered.
Had God so pleased He might have had only the one sacrifice on the Day of Atonement -- the sacrifice of the bullock, representing the death of our Lord Jesus. But it pleased God to arrange otherwise in the ceremonies of this Atonement Day. God purposed, as the Apostle declares, not only to accept the consecrated believers as members of the Body of Christ, but to give them a share with the Lord in His suffering as His members, and ultimately to give them also a share as His members in the glory that should follow -- the glory, honor and immortality of the Kingdom.
The New Testament abounds with exhortations to the Lord's disciples to make a full consecration of themselves, even unto death, to be baptized with Christ's baptism unto death, to suffer with Him that they might also reign with Him, to be dead with Him that they might also live with Him. The Apostle also declares that we fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ-suffering for the sake of being members of His Body, the Church.
It should not surprise us to find that this sacrificing on the part of the Body of Christ, which has been in progress for a little over twenty centuries now, and which is so prominently marked throughout all the exhortations of the New Testament, is also marked with prominence in the type. Many have treated lightly and as meaningless language the words of the Apostle; "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies living sacrifices unto God, holy, acceptable, your reasonable service." (Rom 12:1)
But as we look into the typical picture of this Gospel Age -- the Day of Atonement -- we find the sufferings of the Body of Christ clearly set forth, represented in the sacrifice of the Lord's goat. The leanness of the goat as compared with the young bullock fitly represents the inferiority of the Church and anything she has to offer unto the Lord in sacrifice, as compared with the riches of grace which reside in her Lord, who gave the important sacrifice, the basis of our offerings, without which nothing that we could offer would have any value or be at all acceptable before the Father. (The Herald of Christ Kingdom September 1927, Page 39)
We hope to explain this all in more detail in our study of the Great Day of Atonement.
