Tag: atonement

The Significance of Passover for Modern Believers

As the Lamb of God, Yeshua demonstrated he was not only the one who reconciled Jacob’s people, but who would also become the light to the nations.

Core of the Bible podcast #130: The Biblical Calendar and Passover

At the time this essay is issued, we are in the season of Passover. Why is this significant, and why should believers today understand the biblical calendar and the feast days?

Most Christians today do not recognize or observe the biblical feast days. This is due primarily to the fact that Christianity teaches that the sacrificial aspect of the rites conveyed in the Torah have been fulfilled in Messiah Yeshua. I do not disagree. But “fulfilled” does not mean “done away with.” I believe the Bible teaches that in Messiah, that which was a physical requirement for ancient Israel has become a spiritual principle for all time; more on that later.

But what I want to focus on first is how the biblical calendar is filled with symbolism of the Kingdom and God’s relationship with his people. I believe it is as we maintain recognition of these days that we can be reminded of God’s, and our, purpose. These days become practical object lessons that point to the totality of God’s work among his people, and his presence in this world.

The annual biblical calendar contains seven appointed times known in Hebrew as moedim, meaning seasons or appointed times. I believe the annual biblical holidays are the true appointments with God, the seasonal moedim that he has established for all eternity. These moedim focus on seven appointed times which are described as memorials or re-enactments to be used to keep God’s people focused on his will and purpose.

I also find it fascinating that God has placed these appointed memorials on the annual calendar in a way that can still be recognized today, even though worldly calendars and methods of timekeeping have come and gone in the millennia since they have been established. I believe this is why they are described the way they are in the Bible, and why we are still able to observe these appointed memorials with him.

How are we to observe them? Certainly we are not to sacrifice animals; as mentioned earlier all sacrifice has been fulfilled in Messiah. However, on these special days we can still gather together as his people to review the symbolism of those sacrifices to bring greater awareness to our understanding of our relationship with God. Just as a memorial service causes us to reflect fondly on the life of an individual who is no longer physically present, a biblical memorial should also serve a similar purpose of reminding us of its purpose which is now fulfilled in Messiah. After all, it is the symbol and memorial of supreme sacrifice which undergirds the gospel message of Messiah to the nations.

Whether it is through deeper fellowship and community among his people, as well as renewing our total devotion to him and consummation in his service, we can become serious about our faith by living it out as object lessons that others can see and learn from, as well. After all, as you may know from previous episodes, I believe that God’s Torah or Word is eternal, and therefore has lasting influence on those who approach the God of the Bible as his people. These should be as much a part of our doctrinal understanding as any other major proposition such as the study of who God is or the Kingdom of God.

With these foundational statements as an underpinning to our discussion today, let’s review the biblical appointed memorial of Passover.

THE HISTORY

The night of the Passover is one of the pivotal events in the entire Bible. The story is told in the book of Exodus. God had been pronouncing judgment on the nation of ancient Egypt by manifesting various plagues related to their false gods. The final judgment was designed as a response to the horrific practice of the Egyptians killing Israel’s male infants as a way of keeping their slavery in check so they would not overrun the regular population of Egypt. As a result, the final plague from God was a sentence upon the firstborn throughout the land. However, he instructed his people, Israel, to protect their firstborn by remaining in their homes with friends and family and sharing a meal of lamb or goat, placing its blood on their doorway. In this way, any firstborn within the camp of Israel would be protected by the blood of the substitute animal. After the destruction, Pharaoh would be compelled to let the Israelites leave. On that night, God would conclude judgment upon the idolatry of ancient Egypt and at the very same time create a nation of his own people, bringing them out from slavery to become his representative people on the earth into the land he had promised their forefathers.

The story of the Exodus from Egypt has been re-told annually through the Jewish Seder, a story-telling meal on Passover evening as a remembrance of this event. This had been commanded by Moses:

Exodus 12:24-27 – “Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that Yahweh will give you as he promised, you are to observe this ceremony [that is, a re-enactment of the offering of the Passover lamb]. When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?'” Then you will say, ‘This is the offering of Yahweh’s Passover; for he went over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he sent death on the Egyptians, and kept our families safe.'”

This was to later become one of the annual memorials that Israel was instructed to keep throughout the year.

Leviticus 23:4-5 – “‘These are Yahweh’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: Yahweh’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month…”

The term itself, pesach, means “to skip over, to leap over, to exempt”, and is used only of this offering in the Bible. It describes how God’s judgment upon the land “skipped over” the Israelites who conducted this ceremony. The word Passover in English seemed to be the closest translation of the Hebrew pesach, and has become the English name of this annual memorial.

The Passover also begins the week of Unleavened Bread, which was to be a reminder of the Israelites’ hurried departure from Egypt, as their dough would not have time to rise before they left on their desert journey. We will focus on that feature of the biblical calendar next time.

In Christendom today, Passover has significance mostly as the background story leading to the death and resurrection of Messiah, and has been superseded by the holiday now known as Easter. Saving the ancient origins of Easter for another essay, the reason this biblical holiday of Passover has significance for us today has to do with the representation of Yeshua as the Lamb of God. This Lamb of God concept forms doctrines relating to atonement, a subject which I covered over several episodes several months ago. If you haven’t listened to those, you may want to catch up on the details presented there. However, because of its extreme relevance to the Passover narrative, I will be revisiting some of those aspects that I discussed regarding the atonement at that time.

YESHUA AS THE LAMB OF GOD

John 1:29 – The next day John saw Yeshua coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Christians today typically read this verse out of its prophetic context, as they have been taught to view this as John the baptizer proclaiming that Yeshua was destined to die as a literal human sacrifice for everyone who would ever live in the entire world, satisfying God’s bloodthirsty justice and wrath against the sin of all of mankind since the rebellion of Adam. What is implied in this type of interpretation of this verse is theology that wouldn’t even exist until hundreds of years after Messiah. That is a lot of medieval theology packed into a single verse!

We should always do our best to keep things in their contextual and cultural habitat where they belong and to seek to understand Scripture in the way that the original audience would most likely have understood it. From this perspective, we find that John was more likely to have been referencing an aspect of Yeshua’s role that had been conveyed through a prophecy of Isaiah which, at that time, had already been taught to Israel for hundreds of years. As the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” John appears to have been referring not to the fall of Adam, but to a prophecy from Isaiah; specifically, that very famous passage in Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:5, 7-8, 11-12 – But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds…He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. … For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion. … After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.  Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

This whole passage is an allegory, not of a lamb per se, but of someone named the Servant. Isaiah began this allegory back in chapter 41. By the time the allegory reaches its apex, Isaiah is describing the Servant  who submits to the will of God as being “like a lamb”. This allegorical  “lamb” of God, the Servant of Israel, willingly carries the iniquity and bears the sin of Israel (i.e., “our” iniquities; “my people’s rebellion”) and those “many”  who would be given to him as “a portion” (i.e., the “remnant”). By referencing this passage directly, John the baptizer squarely assigns the role of the Servant in this Isaiah passage to Yeshua as the  Servant of Yahweh to the very Israelite people who have rejected him.

All of this tells us that the Lamb of God imagery here is not literal, but symbolic, representative, and allegorical. Isaiah says the Servant is silent “like” a lamb being led to slaughter or “as” a sheep to the shearer. Yeshua accepted the complicated role of fulfilling these prophetic passages by being the symbolic or representative, voluntarily submissive, lamb-like Servant on behalf of Yahweh’s new covenant with Judah and Israel, and all those from among the nations who would ultimately be joined to God’s people.

Jeremiah 31:31, 33 – “Look, the days are coming” — this is Yahweh’s declaration — “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…

Luke 22:20 – In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Romans 15:8-12 – For I say that Messiah became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers, and so that nations may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the nations, and I will sing praise to your name. Again it says, Rejoice, you nations, with his people! And again, Praise the Lord, all you nations; let all the peoples praise him! And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will appear, the one who rises to rule the nations; the nations will hope in him.

Isaiah 49:5-6 – And now, says Yahweh, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be gathered to him; for I am honored in the sight of Yahweh, and my God is my strength — he says, “It is not enough for you to be my servant raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel. I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

The Servant “Lamb of God” spoken of by Isaiah was indeed the Messiah, as proclaimed by John the baptizer. This willing “Lamb” would regain not only his own people, but would also become a light to all nations.

—

PASCHAL LAMB

Since most of us are so familiar with the Lamb of God imagery conveyed by Isaiah, it is understandable how some of those same principles get pulled into our modern understanding of the Passover lamb. This is evident most notably because the Bible tells us that Yeshua was crucified at the exact same moment the Passover lambs would have been killed in preparation for the Passover memorial in Israel that year. Because our minds are primed to see these lamb sacrifices as being made for sin, we assume that Yeshua, as the symbolic Passover lamb, was sacrificed for sin.

However, we would do better to separate the Servant Lamb of God carrying the sin of his people that Isaiah spoke of as being distinct from the Passover lamb offering. The Bible teaches us that the real reason for the pesach or Passover lamb was not to be a sacrifice for sin, but to redeem the firstborn son in each family and protect them from judgment about to be poured out on the whole land.

Exodus 12:12-13 – “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

By killing the pesach, the ransom-lamb, and applying its blood to the doorway, the families gathered in each home were essentially protecting the firstborn male of each family; no one else was in danger of dying.

Remember what Yeshua said about himself:

Mark 10:45  – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

A ransom is not a “sin-payment,” but an exchange or substitution of one thing for another. In this case, the life of the lamb (symbolized by the blood) had been exchanged for the life of the firstborn. The rest of the family was not at risk of death; however, through being identified by the blood on the doorposts and sharing in the lamb-meal that was meant for the redemption of the firstborn, the entire community participated in the Passover deliverance and was set free from captivity.

In past episodes I have defined a ransom as “a price to be paid, a value to be given, for the changing of a foregone outcome.” In the case of the Passover lamb, the lamb was a ransom for the life of the firstborn male in each family. If the lamb’s blood (the evidence of its life, for the life is in the blood) was on the doorway, the household would be spared the tragedy of losing their firstborn son, the “foregone outcome” that the rest of Egypt suffered.

And here is the critical thing for us to understand: the Passover lamb has nothing to do with forgiveness of sin; it is all and only about ransoming the firstborn from death. The lamb served as a substitute, a “proxy-death” for the firstborn among the houses of Israel. The lambs were the price paid to save the firstborns’ lives. Hence, the life of each firstborn was ransomed from death by the price of the life of the lamb. It could be said that the firstborn of each family gained “life from the dead” by giving up the life of the lamb.

Exodus 4:22-23 – “And you will say to Pharaoh: This is what Yahweh says: Israel is my firstborn son. I told you: Let my son go so that he may worship me, but you refused to let him go. Look, I am about to kill your firstborn son! “

In the New Testament writings, Yeshua was identified with the paschal lamb, not only in the perfect timing of his crucifixion, but even in his followers’ teaching as explained by Paul:

1 Corinthians 5:7 – …For Messiah our Passover lamb has been slaughtered.

In this passage, Paul is using the Passover imagery here as he carries over the statement that Messiah was the ultimate Passover lamb for his people. Since the pesach, the Passover lamb, was known to have redeemed the firstborn from death, and Israel is clearly referenced in the Bible as God’s firstborn, then Paul is communicating here how Messiah ransomed or redeemed his people, just as he had said he would.

Matthew 15:24 – Yeshua replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Redemption has to do with being set free from a captive situation: an individual’s fate has been altered from one path (death/ongoing captivity) to another (life/freedom) through the redemption process. Through redemption, one can claim to have been rescued or saved from a particular fate.

During the original Exodus Passover, the redemption lamb had saved the lives of the firstborn who were protected within their homes by the token (sign) of the lamb’s life-blood on the doorways. As a result, all of the participants in the meal gained freedom from slavery in Egypt to become the nation of God, and representatives of his Kingdom on the earth.

SUMMARY

So we can see how the imagery of the Lamb of God language has multiple layers of meaning. In one sense, Messiah was the submissively lamb-like Servant who (representatively) took on (carried, bore) the iniquities of Israel and the remnant, and was therefore “cut off from the land of the living” on their behalf. That’s the Lamb of God aspect that John refers to in his gospel, harking back to the prophecy of Isaiah.

In another sense, Yeshua represented a different lamb, the Passover Lamb, which was to give its life, through its identifying blood, to ransom the firstborn (Israel) from judgment upon the land and to provide them freedom from slavery to sin.

These are two separate lamb analogies that tend to get run together in our theology of biblical concepts. The sin-bearing Servant of Isaiah who willingly dies “like a lamb” gets conflated with the Passover ransom-lamb. They are both lamb analogies, but they are different; they are both true symbolic representations of the work of Messiah, but with different emphases. The Servant was willing to die as a representative of sinful Israel before God. The Passover Lamb was a representative substitution, ransoming the firstborn (i.e., Israel) from judgment upon the land. These analogies are so closely aligned that it seems natural to blend them together.

Yeshua himself seems to identify directly with both analogies. As the Servant-lamb, he explained how he was giving his life to representatively bear their sin before God:

Matthew 26:28 – “For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

But Yeshua also identified his mission as the Passover-lamb, as we have just seen:

Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Additionally, the apostles can be seen using both allegories throughout their writings. In fact, Paul pulls both of these together in his epistles to the Romans and the Ephesians:

Romans 5:8-9 – But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Messiah died for us [as the Servant-lamb]. How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath [the Passover lamb].

Ephesians 1:7 – In him we have redemption through his blood [i.e., the ransom-lamb of Passover], the forgiveness of our trespasses [the Servant-lamb], according to the riches of his grace.

Both serve to illustrate deliverance from God’s judgment: one from judgment upon their own sinful disobedience and the other from God’s righteous judgment upon the land as a whole. They both point to Messiah’s specific ministry to Israel, showing how he was delivering them not only from direct sins committed under the first covenant and their ongoing slavery to sin, but he was also ransoming them from the destruction about to come upon the whole land.

And this is where Yeshua and his disciples got into political hot water with their detractors among the leadership of Israel. By speaking about a coming judgment of God, just like the one that had come upon Egypt long ago, they were using those examples of judgment and applying them to the nation of Israel in that day. They were essentially preaching that Israel in that generation had become as corrupt as ancient Egypt, and was about to be judged in a similar destructive way.

That’s what all of these warnings from John the baptizer, Yeshua and his disciples were about!

Matthew 3:7 – When he [John the baptizer] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Matthew 24:1-2, 34 – As Yeshua left and was going out of the temple, his disciples came up and called his attention to its buildings. He replied to them, “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down.” … “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place.

Acts 2:40 – With many other words he [Peter] testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation! “

So we see how the Messiah had come not only to offer deliverance to Israel from their sinful state before God, but also from the wrath of God over the whole land which was only decades away. Through Messiah, God was focused on teaching Israel that he was redeeming them, his firstborn son, as it were, and providing a way out from death and the coming wrath on their nation. Just like the Hebrew people of old in Egypt, by placing their faith in the true pesach, Yeshua Messiah, they (the firstborn) would be spared the wrath of God to be poured out on Jerusalem and their nation in their day. That was the message to them of Passover and the fulfillment of Yeshua as the paschal lamb.

But at the same time God was also teaching them that Messiah was the fulfillment of that faithful Servant prophesied in Isaiah, and that he would represent them in their sinfulness and willingly die on their behalf. Both of these lamb analogies came to pass, were fulfilled, in the person and work of Messiah.

And because this had become a matter of faith in the Messiah as the sent one of God, the way was opened to anyone who placed their faith in Messiah, and the redemption of Israel became the door through which God’s Kingdom could then spread throughout the world.

APPLICATION FOR TODAY

So, how does all of this lamb-imagery apply to non-Jewish believers today? Why should we have an annual memorial of something that seems to have applied only to ancient Israel? Since I believe God’s Torah or instruction is eternal, it follows that I believe these examples are still valid. I believe it is because of these ancient themes that we are able to grasp the significance of our faith in Messiah today. He came as a fulfillment of these things to demonstrate the reality of who he was to them. The historical fact that his predictions of the judgment of God upon Jerusalem came to pass within that generation legitimize his claims, and those of his followers, that he was also the Servant-lamb predicted by Isaiah hundreds of years earlier. He demonstrated he was not only the one who reconciled Jacob’s people, but who would also become the light to the nations. How could we disregard the very things which help us to understand his role within the history of God’s people, and his influence over all nations as God’s representative king?

As the Servant-lamb, Yeshua symbolically carried the sins of his people and willingly died on their behalf as their representative. As the representative Ransom-lamb, he voluntarily offered himself in order to give them life from the coming judgment and also set them free from their slavery to sin. Because this freedom and life was only available to them through faith in himself fulfilling these symbolic roles, this allowed anyone who placed their faith in Yeshua as the Messiah of God to likewise participate in the reconciliation story of Israel for all time. When he redeemed those who believed in him, they also became an eternal example of God’s faithfulness with his own people, the prophetic City of Zion within God’s Kingdom. Their light now shines upon each generation, inviting all who desire to partake of the river of life and the healing leaves of the tree of life to freely do so.

Revelation 22:1-2, 14, 17 – Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, … “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. … Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come! ” Let anyone who hears, say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life freely.

This is the good news of the Kingdom: anyone can come! All with circumcised (repentant) hearts can join in the annual memorial of the Passover meal and participate in the great liberation of God’s firstborn people! Because Messiah has redeemed Israel as an eternal symbol of God’s faithfulness with his people, we, too can have confidence in Messiah that we may, in like fashion, take the water of life freely and join with the redeemed in the Kingdom of God.

Well, as we wrap up for today, I hope there are at least a couple of concepts and ideas to encourage you to meditate on and to study out further on your own. Next time, we will investigate the week of Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits to see what we can learn from these calendar appointments within the Biblical year. I hope you will be able to come back and visit as we further review these concepts. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The Biblical Calendar and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

Atonement is the method God chose to symbolize his forgiveness of past offenses; he no longer sees them once they are covered over.

Core of the Bible podcast #118 – The Biblical Calendar and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

Over the past several months we have been reviewing some of the bigger key doctrines in the Bible. However, as I mentioned last time, for the next several weeks we will be returning to the biblical calendar as we are, at the recording of these podcasts, entering the fall season of the biblical year.

Having looked at Yom Teruah or the Day of Trumpets in our last episode, we come to the second of the fall holidays in the biblical calendar: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. We read about this day in the narrative of Leviticus, and it is also touched on in Numbers, as well. The Leviticus passage explains the basic outline of the expectations God had for the people on this day:

Leviticus 23:26-32 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement [ha’kippurim]; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to Yahweh. You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before Yahweh your God. If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.”

Now, recently on this podcast we have looked at the concept of atonement from a theological perspective over two episodes, so if you haven’t listened to both of those yet, they may also be helpful in understanding the meaning of this day. In the discussion today, I would like to cover the different aspects of the actual biblical Day of Atonement activities and the significance of meaning as object lessons for believers today.

So let’s begin with understanding the emphasis of the passage as Yahweh relates the information to Moses and the Israelites. First of all, he says because it is the Day of Atonement, they should:

  • humble themselves
  • present an offering by fire to Yahweh
  • do no work

In the description of this appointed time, Yahweh emphasizes how seriously he wants the Israelites to view this day by saying, “If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all.” Clearly God wants them to ensure that they approach the day with humility and complete rest, or they would potentially forfeit their place in the community. With this kind of fierce emphasis on these specific things, I think we should review these concepts of humility, rest, and an offering of fire before we even discuss the ritual of atonement.

Humble Yourselves

Leviticus 23:29, 32 – “If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people…you shall humble your souls…”

The word here rendered as humbling of souls is actually a Hebrew word with several meanings. Teh’uneh comes from a root word anaw, which carries the idea of bowing down or stooping low; it is a representation of humility and affliction, here listed as humbling of soul, sometimes rendered as self-denial. Most of the time it is used in the context of describing the brutality of forced humiliation and mistreatment of others; however, in one famously referenced passage, we find it is used in the context of fasting.

Isaiah 58:5 – “Will the fast I choose be like this: A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to Yahweh?

While God in this passage is mocking the Israelites’ hypocritical attitude on their special fast days, when fasting is done for a sincere reason, it represents a denial of self, a self-humiliation of sorts, and is the primary method of demonstrating a true, inner repentance. This humility before God, when sincerely offered, demonstrates one who has recognized the errors of their ways against God’s revealed instruction.

  • Psalm 69:10 – When I wept in my soul with fasting, It became my reproach.
  • Daniel 9:3 – So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
  • Joel 2:12  – “Yet even now,” declares Yahweh, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning…”

By fasting on this day, God’s people were to symbolically demonstrate their true repentance from disobedience to God’s instruction, and recognition of the sacrifice that was to be provided for their forgiveness. It is also a rejection of worldly sustenance to demonstrate a complete yielding to the provision of God.

Yeshua also encouraged having the right heart attitude when fasting which also emphasizes the point of doing so:

Matthew 6:16-18 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Offering by fire

Each of the biblical holidays has its own set of specific sacrifices. In the episode on the biblical holiday of Shavuot or Weeks, we looked at what each of these different types of sacrifices means from a symbolic perspective, so I will review that briefly here.

  • A burnt offering represents total consummation in God’s service.
  • A sin offering represents that which is a substitute for us due to our disobedience to God’s torah.
  • The trespass offering was offered for unintentional or unknown sin.
  • A fellowship or peace offering represents thankfulness for God’s mercy and enjoyment of his relationship.
  • The grain and drink offerings represent our gratitude for God’s provision as firstfruits of all he has provided us.

While we may no longer be required to present physical sacrifices to Yahweh since Messiah fulfilled all of the Temple imagery, I believe we still honor Yahweh when we memorialize these sacrificial aspects in the spirit of these attributes.

Leviticus 23:27 – “…offer an offering made by fire unto Yahweh.”

Where the Day of Atonement is mentioned in the book of Numbers, it also mentions offerings of grain and oil:

Numbers 29:9 – “Their grain offering is to be of fine flour mixed with oil…”

Based on these aspects, we can see that the Day of Atonement encompasses an offering made by fire (or a burnt offering), an offering of grain and oil, and sin offerings within the atonement ritual itself.  We learned that grain offerings represent gratitude for God’s provision. We will look at the sin offerings of this day when we review the ritual in a little bit, but for now let’s focus on the offering of fire.

The burnt offering represents a total consummation in God’s service. While other sacrifices provided food for the priests and sometimes participatory meals for the offerer (such as the peace offerings), by contrast the animal that was presented for the burnt offering was completely consumed until nothing was left. This imagery becomes self-evident as to its application for the believer: every part of those who come before Yahweh should be completely committed to him.

A Sabbath Rest

Leviticus 23:28, 30-32 – You shall not do any work on this same day… As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all…. It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you… on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.”

The command to rest on the Day of Atonement represents the ideal of cessation from worldly toil, an intermission, to focus on the importance of this day, much like the weekly Sabbath. Rest from work to observe the appointment days demonstrates placing God as a priority over worldly concerns.  

Leviticus 19:1-3, 30 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I Yahweh your God am holy. ‘Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am Yahweh your God. … ‘You shall keep My sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am Yahweh.

When God speaks of keeping his Sabbaths,  plural, I believe he is speaking not only about the weekly Sabbath but the annual ones, as well. Besides honoring Yahweh, I believe the annual Sabbaths contained within the biblical calendar all carry the same idea of being intermissions within the annual routine, especially the agricultural cycles, so that God’s people would remain focused on the object lessons within each season. 

Here, especially on the Day of Atonement as a day of rest, a Sabbath rest additionally signifies that there is nothing for the individual to do on their own behalf; all of the work for atonement will be completed by the intermediary priest.

Yeshua also famously related that those who would come to him would find rest:

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

From these examples we can see how significantly God focuses on the heart of the believer in approaching this day. We should be sincerely humble, thanking God for his provision, delivering our whole selves to him, and understanding we are recognizing this day as an intermission, a hold or pause button in our busy schedules. If we lived in ancient Israel and we were to approach this day in this mindset and with these actions, we would be better prepared to understand the significance of what was about to take place in the courts of the Mishkan, or Tabernacle.

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Now that we have looked at the heart attitude that was expected on this day, we can now turn to the atonement ritual itself. As we have seen in our study on the Atonement, the root of the word atonement is the Hebrew word kaphar which means to cover over. Depending on the context, it could describe covering over an object with some type of coating, such as Noah’s ark:

Genesis 6:14 – “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover [kaphar] it inside and out with pitch.”

It can also have the meaning of looking past an offense, as something that is covered, similar to Jacob trying to amend for past behavior with his brother Esau:

Genesis 32:20 – and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.'” For he said, “I will appease [kaphar] him [Esau] with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”

Kaphar is used most regularly in the narrative surrounding the Mishkan or the Tabernacle, and has to do with offerings and sacrifices which provide a covering over of transgression and guilt in the people’s relationship to God:

  • Leviticus 6:7 “…and the priest shall make atonement [kaphar] for him before Yahweh, and he will be forgiven for any one of the things which he may have done to incur guilt.”
  • Leviticus 10:17 “Why did you not eat the sin offering at the holy place? For it is most holy, and He gave it to you to bear away the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement [kaphar] for them before Yahweh.”
  • Leviticus 16:16 “He shall make atonement [kaphar] for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities.”

Illustrated in this way, atonement is the method God chose to symbolize his forgiveness of past offenses. In a manner of speaking, he no longer sees them once they are covered over.

  • Psalm 32:1-2 – How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom Yahweh does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
  • Psalm 51:9-10 – Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

This concept of overlooking transgression is also a characteristic of God that he encourages us to practice with one another as we seek to conform to his image.

  • Proverbs 17:9 – He who conceals a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.
  • Proverbs 19:11 – A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, And it is his glory to overlook a transgression.

So, generally speaking, atonement has to do with a process of covering over offenses so that a vital relationship can be restored. An exchange takes place in which something of value (typically the life of an animal) has been provided as a substitute for the life of the one who offers it sincerely and with repentance. This demonstration of sincere repentance allows the opportunity for a change in the foregone outcome of disobedience to God’s torah or instruction. This act symbolically “covers over” the offense,  and the relationship with Yahweh can be restored. The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, was that process for the whole nation of Israel at once.

In Leviticus 16, an elaborate ritual is outlined in which the High Priest is to offer sacrificial animals for various types of atonement for the temple, the priests, and the people. These offerings are all about entering into God’s presence in the Holy of Holies, the center-most compartment of the Mishkan or Tabernacle, where God chose to dwell among the camp of Israel in the wilderness. This is to illustrate to the Israelites that they could not just enter his presence carelessly, as Aaron’s sons had done and were killed for it. Through these offerings, God is allowing for substitutionary sacrifices for the sins of Aaron and for the people, their sins would be covered, and the national relationship with Yahweh would be restored.

At the center of this ritual is the double-goat offering: one of the goats was to be slaughtered and one was to be released into the wilderness. The goat that was killed was to have some of its blood poured out on the lid of the ark of the covenant which was in the holiest place of the Mishkan. By contrast, the live goat was not sacrificed; it was to have the High Priest lay his hands on its head, confessing the sins of the people. This goat was then led into the wilderness, never to return.

This day was considered the most sacred of all of the appointment days throughout the year, and, as we have seen, was to be marked as a day of rest from regular work, fasting in repentance and humility.

The Symbolism

This appointment day is rich with symbols, as it is central to the overall outworking of God’s will with his people. Let’s take some time to review these different aspects in detail.

The High Priest was the representative of the people to God. Since the people’s disobedience was keeping them separate from God, only he, as their sole representative, could bear their offering of the goat’s life-blood into God’s presence within the Mishkan. But he himself also had to be sinless, which is why he had to offer a bull for himself before representing the people.

The High Priest was also the representation of God to the people. It was his faithful actions which enacted the atonement and forgiveness which God was to provide for the nation.

The two goats represent a dichotomy illustrating the enduring nature of God’s forgiveness. One goat was killed; it had given itself in totality by giving up its life as a symbolic substitute for the people and its blood was poured out on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. The ark contained the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. So what this represented was that the pouring out of the life-blood of the sacrifice on the ark was symbolic of a renewal of life-commitment to follow the covenant made at Sinai. This life-blood of the goat was the substitution for all of the people of Israel.

The second live goat (the ez azal, or goat of departure) symbolically carried the sins of the nation that were confessed over it into the wilderness, away from the people, never to return.

This dual aspect of the ceremony is actually revealed in the Hebrew name for this annual ritual: ha’kippuRim, or “the atonements”, plural. This duality is critical for understanding the work of Messiah in relation to this day, as we shall see in just a little bit.

Since the live goat left the congregation alive, it was considered to remain a sin-bearer for the rest of its existence (or at least until the following year’s Day of Atonement), far from the assembly of the people. This live goat was to be led out to the eretz gezerah; the land of separation, never to return. This brings to mind the famous Psalm that is used of God’s grace in providing forgiveness for those repentant souls who have sinned against him.

Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

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Fulfillment in Messiah

Now let’s pull all of this rich symbolism into a representation of how Yeshua fulfilled these many symbolic aspects of this day simultaneously.

As the sinless High Priest representing the people, he was the only one authorized to provide the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of his people, Israel. He alone could enter the true holiest place in heaven based on the ultimate offering; his own life. 

Hebrews 8:1-2 – Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, Messiah, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a servant in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle [Mishkan], which Yahweh pitched, not man.

As the High Priest also representing the interests of God toward men, he became the sole authorized intermediary between God and man.

1 Timothy 2:5 – For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Messiah Yeshua…

The goat that gave its life and the goat that bore the sin of Israel are both combined in the person of Yeshua. Messiah was crucified and died, just like the one goat that was killed. However, Messiah also rose to life and continues to live, just like the living goat that was sent into the wilderness to keep sin away from the congregation. 

As the sacrificial goat that was killed, his blood, representing his life, can be likened in a symbolic way to the blood that was carried into the heavenly holiest place as the offering for the people.

Hebrews 9:11-12, 24 But when Messiah appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle [Mishkan], not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. … For Messiah did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us…

As the living ez azal, the departing goat sent off into the wilderness, through his resurrection he continues to live.

Now, as an interesting linguistic note here, when Tyndale first translated the Bible into English, since there was no English equivalent for the goat of departure, he coined the term “scapegoat” which is short for the “goat which escapes”. In modern usage, the meaning of this term has become synonymous with the purpose of that goat on the Day of Atonement: “one who is blamed or punished for the mistakes or sins of others”. Now a person who is identified as a scapegoat is typically forced into that role unwillingly, as blame is assigned to them, usually unjustly, by others. However, Messiah willingly accepted the duty of bearing the sin of others when he submitted to the will of his Father.

There is hardly a better description of the work of Messiah than this. While his sacrifice was once for all time, whenever someone places their faith in him, their sin is borne away. In this sense, he is eternally capable of being the sin-bearer, one who voluntarily chose to be identified with the sins of an entire nation, and any others who place their faith in him. 

  • 1 Peter 2:24 and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by his wounds you were healed.
  • 1 John 3:5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins; and in him there is no sin.
  • Galatians 4:4-5- But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
  • Romans 5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Messiah died for the ungodly.

Because the ancient Day of Atonement was a national event, the disobedience of the nation was completely resolved through dual atonements of the goat of sacrifice and the goat of departure. In Yeshua’s day, this same result was effected through his simple and profound faithfulness in submitting to the will of the Father. As Israel’s representative king, he willingly took on the sins of the entire nation at once, allowing the covenant of Sinai to be fulfilled before Yahweh, and releasing those who placed their faith in him from the effects of sin and death. All that has been required for his people is faith in the substitutionary gift of himself, just as faith in the substitutionary goats was required in the original institution.

The Balance of the Spring and Fall Holiday Cycles

As mentioned in the previous discussion surrounding Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets), this period of the fall cycle of biblical holidays is the corroborating balance of the spring cycle.  In the spring pattern, God raised up Moses as a deliverer for Israel from slavery and the worldliness of Egypt. In the fall pattern, God raised up Messiah to deliver his people from slavery to sin and the worldliness of corrupted religion. Just as the lamb at Passover provided physical deliverance from death for the firstborn of each family, the Yom Kippur ritual provided spiritual deliverance from sin for the firstborn nation of God: Israel. As Yom Kippur is six months removed from Passover, it is the counter-balance of the annual cycle, harking back to the same redemptive themes of that event. They are both about God redeeming and delivering his people from both sin and death; two witnesses to the faithful work of God.

As Israel was to be a light for the rest of the nations, the patterns established in their history still teach us in the nations about God’s faithfulness today. Since the spiritual Kingdom was established at the time of Yeshua, and it is eternally growing until it fills the earth, we can apply principles learned by their example. The principles set down in their narrative allow us to draw conclusions about how God desires to interact with all of humanity for all time. 

Application for today

Yeshua’s death was primarily the culmination of Israel’s redemption under the first covenant in their narrative that was completed in the first century AD.

Hebrews 9:15 – For this reason He [Messiah] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

However, the truth is that Yeshua’s example of giving himself for others paved the way not only for Israel, but for our deliverance from our own disobedient actions when we place our faith in him, as well.

1 Peter 2:24 – He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

The apostle Paul carries the imagery of sacrifice forward into the personal life of every believer:

Romans 6:3-7, 11 – Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Messiah Yeshua were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. … So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Messiah Yeshua.

We no longer bring sacrifices of representative animals before Yahweh to demonstrate repentance before him. As believers in Messiah, we must now demonstrate our sincere and ongoing repentance through the sacrifice of our “old self” as Paul says, the self that has acted in disobedience to God’s torah, his instruction. Only then can we live the new life in Messiah that God expects of us.

The Day of Atonement captures all of this symbolism within its elaborate ritual. When we approach Yahweh on this day in a true spirit of humility, represented by fasting, and when we offer ourselves as burnt offerings (that is, wholly committed to him), and when we honor him by putting a pause on our busy lives and resting, we can then be in the right frame of mind to appreciate the forgiveness he has provided to his people. Because Yahweh forgave his people by covering over their offenses through the representative sacrifices offered on that day, we, too, can be forgiven of our sin when we place our faith in his representative Messiah, the King of his people. This High Priest is the eternal intermediary between God and man. Through faith in his symbolically sacrificial death, our sin is carried away “as far as the east is from the west.” And as we follow Yeshua’s selfless example, we can lay down the lives of our old selves before God as we are now freed to live for him in the new and everlasting covenant in Messiah Yeshua.

Well, I hope these studies on the fall festivals of the biblical calendar are bringing you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Atonement, part 2

The atonement word-pictures in the Bible are best understood as Israel-centric, then flowing out to the nations.

Core of the Bible podcast #116 – Atonement, part 2

Lately we have been reviewing some of the bigger key doctrines in the Bible, and today we are continuing a study on the topic of the atonement. This is a very complex and involved concept to present, not because it is so extremely difficult to understand, but because we have had a certain view over the centuries that may not reflect what the Bible actually teaches about this critical aspect of the biblical faith.

In order to view atonement from an authoritative biblical stance, it made sense to me to consider it by identifying the following categories:

  • How was atonement represented in Israel’s past (the Old Testament, or Tanakh)
  • How did Yeshua view his role in that worldview
  • How were atonement themes viewed by Yeshua’s disciples and the NT writers
  • What does all of this mean for believers today

To quickly review, last time we examined the first two premises: how atonement was represented in the past through the biblical calendar and the Day of Atonement and also the significance of blood sacrifices in general. We also reviewed how Yeshua conveyed his role as the Good Shepherd, the Ransom, and the founder of the new covenant sealed with his own life.

Today, we are now moving into the New Testament writings and how Yeshua’s disciples interpreted his life and death. I am hoping by the end of this to be able to pull all of this information together so that we can draw some practical understanding and application for our lives today.

What atonement themes were conveyed by Yeshua’s disciples in the New Testament writings?

While there are many references to prophetic fulfillment throughout the New Testament writings, I find that there are three main ideas related to atonement that were primary understandings of those early believers, and how they interpreted the life and death of the Messiah.

  • Lamb of God
  • Paschal lamb (lamb sacrificed at Passover)
  • Mediator/High Priest (Day of Atonement)

Yeshua as the Lamb of God

John 1:29 – The next day John saw Yeshua coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

This verse comes to us as a standard understanding within Christianity. When we typically read this, we have been taught to view this as John the baptizer proclaiming that Yeshua was destined to die as a blood sacrifice for everyone who ever lived in the entire world, satisfying God’s righteous justice and wrath against the sin of all of mankind since the rebellion of Adam.  That is a lot of theology packed into a single verse!

And yet, if we are to do our best to keep things in their contextual and cultural habitat where they belong, we find that John was more likely to have been referencing an aspect of Yeshua’s role that had been conveyed through a prophecy that at that time was already hundreds of years old. As the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”, John appears to be referring not to Adam, but to a prophecy from Isaiah; specifically, that very famous passage in Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:7, 11-12 – He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth.  … After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.  Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

This is the allegorical Lamb of God willingly carrying iniquity and bearing sin. By referencing this passage directly, John squarely assigns the role of the servant in this Isaiah passage to Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel who has rejected him.

We need to briefly discuss these “suffering servant” passages in Isaiah, because they comprise a larger section of Isaiah’s prophecies as a whole. Surprisingly, the Wikipedia entry on these Servant Songs has a decent summary of these passages for us to get our contextual bearings:

“The servant songs (also called the servant poems or the Songs of the Suffering Servant) are four songs in the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible, which include Isaiah 42:1–4; Isaiah 49:1–6; Isaiah 50:4–11; and Isaiah 52:13–53:12. The songs are four poems written about a certain “servant of YHWH” (Hebrew: עבד יהוה, ‘eḇeḏ Yahweh). Yahweh calls the servant to lead the nations, but the servant is horribly abused by them. In the end, he is rewarded.“

Most Christians likely don’t recognize this, but these servant passages have had a different meaning among the Semitic community, even into modern Judaism. Although Christians readily attribute these passages to a prophetic foreshadowing of Messiah Yeshua, the Semitic view is that the servant of Yahweh is not an individual, but is the nation of Israel as whole, suffering throughout the nations on behalf of the rest of the world.

“Rabbinic Judaism sees this passage, especially “God’s Suffering Servant” as a reference to the Jewish nation, not to the king Mashiach. Jewish teaching also takes note of the historical context in which God’s Suffering Servant appears, particularly because it speaks in the past tense. The Jewish nation has borne unspeakable injustices, under Assyria, Babylonia, Ancient Greece, ancient Rome, which are all gone, and bears persecution to this day.

“Christians traditionally see the servant as Jesus Christ. The songs are quoted to and applied to Jesus multiple times in the New Testament…

“Another Christian interpretation combines aspects of the traditional Christian and the Jewish interpretation. This position sees the servant as an example of ‘corporate personality’, where an individual can represent a group, and vice versa. Thus, in this case, the servant corresponds to Israel, yet at the same time corresponds to an individual (that is, the Messiah) who represents Israel.”

Looked at in the context of the Bible as a whole, my personal belief is that these “servant” passages do refer to both corporate Israel and the Messiah as Israel’s representative. How can both be true at once? This is because this is the pattern that emerges from the depths of the Bible narrative.  For example, the Levites were the “chosen tribe” out of the twelve tribes of Israel for service of the tabernacle, and yet the High Priest alone is the one who represented the whole nation in intercession before God. In this sense, the Levites were both corporately (as a tribe) and in a single representative individual (the High Priest) the “servant” of the rest of the twelve tribes. From this perspective, this dual identity of the servant in the Isaiah passages solidifies Israel’s role in the world as the chosen people of God who were selected and tried by God on behalf of the rest of the nations, and it also substantiates the Son of God as God’s chosen representative from among that group to intercede for the whole.

To illustrate this further, the famous passage in Isaiah 53 can be viewed from both of these perspectives depending on the emphasis on the pronouns in the passage. So I’d like to read an excerpt of the passage and then substitute the object and subject emphasis of the pronouns used to show you how the passages can be viewed either way.

First, I’ll read it the way it’s generally written.

Isaiah 53:4-6 – Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.  But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.  We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and Yahweh has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

Okay, now I’ll read it substituting the pronouns as the Jews might interpret this passage today:

Isaiah 53:4-6 – Yet Israel himself bore the world’s sicknesses, and Israel carried the world’s pains; but the world in turn regarded Israel stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.  But Israel was pierced because of the world’s rebellion, crushed because of the world’s iniquities; punishment for the world’s peace was on Israel, and we are healed by Israel’s wounds.  We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and Yahweh has punished Israel for the iniquity of the world.

I know this type of interpretation may sound weird to Christian ears, but this is the way the servant concept is identified in Semitic thinking today. To be honest, there is a strong measure of truth to this, as Israel was indeed chosen by God to be the light to the rest of the nations, and in a very real sense, they did go through their trials and rebellion on behalf of providing that light of the Messiah to the rest of the nations.

But now let me read it in the context I believe it was originally intended for that ancient audience.

Isaiah 53:4-6 – Yet Messiah himself bore Israel’s sicknesses, and Messiah carried Israel’s pains; but Israel in turn regarded Messiah stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.  But Messiah was pierced because of Israel’s rebellion, crushed because of Israel’s iniquities; punishment for Israel’s peace was on Messiah, and Israel is healed by Messiah’s wounds.  All Israel went astray like sheep; all Israel have turned to their way; and Yahweh has punished Messiah for the iniquity of all Israel.

You may be thinking, “Well, that’s closer to the right way to view it, but what are all of these references to Israel; where is the rest of the world in this passage?” That’s just it; the rest of the world isn’t in this passage, at least in the context in which it was originally intended. All of the “we” and “our” pronouns actually belong to them, the nation of Israel, not the rest of the world. Isaiah was Israel’s prophet speaking to Israel, not the rest of the world, at least, not at first. Israel was the one whose iniquities (under the first covenant) were needing to be atoned for. Israel was the people who had all gone astray like sheep from God’s torah, which had been given to them and to no other nation. This is why Messiah could say he came “only for the lost sheep of Israel.” And Messiah was the one who bore the iniquity of all Israel as their representative. Yeshua, rightly assuming his role as Israel’s king, accepted the burden of iniquity for his own people. This was the picture that John describes of the “lamb who takes away the sin of the world”: the Messiah who came to represent the collective “world” of all of the tribes of Israel.

We’ll talk more about the rest of the world in a little bit. But for now, consider how this Israel-centric view also makes sense if you simply keep reading the context into Isaiah 54:

Isaiah 54:6-7, 11-12 – “For Yahweh has called you, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” says your God.  “I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with abundant compassion.  … “Poor Jerusalem, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I will set your stones in black mortar, and lay your foundations in lapis lazuli.  I will make your fortifications out of rubies, your gates out of sparkling stones, and all your walls out of precious stones.”

This is the theme of restoration and renewal like in the book of Revelation, where Jerusalem is transformed into the heavenly Zion with allegorical pearly gates and streets of gold. This is Kingdom language that pervades the imagery of the servant’s representative sacrifice for others. The Lamb who takes away their sin would be a leader figure like King David, the one reigning in this restored Kingdom.

Isaiah 55:3-4 – “Pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live. I will make a permanent covenant with you on the basis of the faithful kindnesses of David.  Since I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples…”

And here is where the rest of the world comes into the picture in this telling of the good news of the Kingdom:

Isaiah 55:5-7 – “so you will summon a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you will run to you. For Yahweh your God, even the Holy One of Israel, has glorified you [Israel].”  Seek Yahweh while he may be found; call to him while he is near.  Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him [Israel] return to Yahweh, so he may have compassion on him, and [rest of the nations] to our God, for he will freely forgive.”

All of this tells us that the Lamb of God imagery is symbolic, representative, and allegorical, not literal. Yeshua accepted the role of fulfilling these prophetic passages by being the voluntarily obedient, symbolic or representative covenant-victim for Yahweh’s new covenant with Judah and Israel (Jer. 31:31; Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25), and all those from among the nations who would ultimately be joined to God’s people.

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Paschal lamb

Tied up with all of this lamb imagery in our modern minds is now the concept of the Passover lamb. This is evident most notably because Yeshua was crucified at the exact same moment the Passover lambs would have been being sacrificed for the people in that year. The New Testament writings all convey that Yeshua’s crucifixion was at the start of the week of Unleavened Bread. Because our minds are primed to see sacrifices as being made for sin, we assume that Yeshua, as the symbolic Lamb, was sacrificed for the sin of the world, just as we think the Passover lamb was sacrificed for the sins of Israel.

However, the Bible teaches us that the real reason for the pesach or Passover lamb was not to be sacrificed for sin, but to redeem the firstborn son in each family and protect them from death.

Exodus 12:12-13 – “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

By killing the pesach, the lamb-offering, and applying its blood to the doorway, the families gathered in each home were essentially protecting the firstborn male of each family; no one else was in danger of dying. This is why we reviewed the biblical concept of ransom and redemption last time, and I mentioned we would revisit it as we studied the paschal lamb.

Remember what Yeshua said about himself:

Mark 10:45  – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Last time I defined a ransom as “a price to be paid, a value to be given, for the changing of a foregone outcome.” In the case of the Passover lamb, the lamb was a ransom for the life of the firstborn male in each family. If the lamb’s blood (the evidence of its sacrifice) was on the doorway, the household would be spared the tragedy of losing their firstborn son, the “foregone outcome” that the rest of Egypt suffered.

And here is the critical thing for us to understand: the Passover lamb has nothing to do with forgiveness of sin; it is all and only about ransoming the firstborn from death.

Exodus 4:22-23 – “And you will say to Pharaoh: This is what Yahweh says: Israel is my firstborn son. I told you: Let my son go so that he may worship me, but you refused to let him go. Look, I am about to kill your firstborn son! “

I believe it is clear in the New Testament writings that Yeshua was identified with the paschal lamb, not only in the perfect timing of his crucifixion, but even in his followers’ teaching as explained by Paul:

1 Corinthians 5:7 – …For Messiah our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.

In this passage, Paul is using the Passover imagery here as he carries over the statement that Messiah was the ultimate Passover lamb. Since the pesach, the Passover lamb, was known to have redeemed the firstborn from death, and Israel is clearly referenced in the Bible as God’s firstborn, then the imagery has gone full circle back to the Israel-centric view we discussed earlier.

It’s been said that if God was to synchronize his Messiah’s death with the biblical holidays, it would have made way more sense to have him be crucified on the Day of Atonement rather than on Passover. This would have better corroborated his death for the sins of the people in a much more understandable way. But the reason this is not the way God actually worked it out was because he was more focused on teaching Israel that he was redeeming them, his firstborn son, as it were, and providing a way out from death and the coming wrath on their nation. Just like the Hebrew people of old in Egypt, by placing their faith in the true pesach, Yeshua Messiah, they (the firstborn) would be spared. That is the message of Passover and Yeshua as the paschal lamb.

So now we have seen Yeshua represented as the lamb who takes away Israel’s sin as the obedient servant in Isaiah’s prophecy, to his coming to redeem Israel as the paschal lamb. Now let’s see another picture that is presented by the early believers in the book of Hebrews: Yeshua as the High Priest of Israel.

Mediator/High Priest

Yeshua’s role of redemptive mediator is expressed in symbolic fashion in the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 9:15 – Therefore, he [Yeshua] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that the primary purpose of this mediation concerns sins that were committed under the first covenant. Who was the first covenant made with? Israel, of course; this reinforces Yeshua’s claim that he was sent to Israel.

Once again, this imagery of Yeshua as the High Priest is not literal, but figurative. In fact, the writer of Hebrews goes out of his way to explain how Yeshua could NOT be a literal priest in this world, because he was not from the priestly tribe of Levi, but he was from Judah.

Hebrews 7:14-17 – Now it is evident that our Lord [Yeshua] came from Judah, and Moses said nothing about that tribe concerning priests. And this becomes clearer if another priest like Melchizedek appears, who did not become a priest based on a legal regulation about physical descent but based on the power of an indestructible life. For it has been testified: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

The idea being conveyed here is that Yeshua functions as a priest, not as a physical descendant of Levi, but as a spiritual descendant of Melchizedek because he lives forever.

Who is this Melchizedek? He is a character related to us in only three spare verses in the book of Genesis as having met Abraham after Abraham won a private war with five kings in the region of the Dead Sea.

Genesis 14:18-20 – Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was a priest to God Most High. He blessed him and said: Abram is blessed by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,  and blessed be God Most High who has handed over your enemies to you. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

The mystery surrounding Melchizedek has spawned many theories, but what we do know from the text is that this individual was a king reigning in Salem (before it became Jerusalem) who was also a priest of the Most High God (before there were any Levites to be priests). This is why he becomes such an important figure for those early believers who were looking for a way to explain the relevance of Messiah in their day. Melchizedek was a Messiah-like figure, a foreshadowing of the roles that Messiah would be fulfilling: that of both king and priest. Messiah was to rule over God’s kingdom and be the one who mediates between God and men in the role of priest.

This is why the Levitical priesthood is no longer needed: it was fulfilled and ended when Messiah arrived, and the only priesthood that now exists is the spiritual High Priesthood of Melchizedek. It is a spiritual priesthood needing no successors on earth because the Messiah lives forever and does not need to be replaced. In a grand spiritual allegory, he alone is the eternal representative before Yahweh interceding, as it were, between Yahweh and believers. This is what the role of the priesthood was designed to do: provide atonement (mercy and reconciliation) between Yahweh God, the one whose instruction had been violated (that is, the offended party) and the offender (the person who had sinned). This is the atonement process which the priesthood of Levi taught us about, but was ended forever with the arrival of the Messiah and is no longer needed.

This is why a true understanding of biblical atonement is so needed today. When we see how Messiah fulfilled that spiritual priestly role of eternal mediator providing eternal reconciliation, we realize we no longer need any priests here on earth; there is no point. This is not to denigrate those who have committed their lives to God by serving as priests among the various denominations, whether Catholics, Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox and such. I’m sure those commitments are by and large sincere and made with the best intentions of helping others. But a priest’s primary function, his one job as it were, is to serve as a mediator, a go-between between God and people, and according to the Bible, that role is currently and eternally filled by Messiah Yeshua because he lives forever.

Messiah is also to serve as a king, reigning over the heavenly Jerusalem as God’s faithful representative. This is why he is recognized as “Lord” throughout the New Testament writings, because that is what he is: the authoritative ruler, like David of old, whom God has chosen to reign within his Kingdom. And if we consider ourselves to be participators in that Kingdom, then he is our authoritative ruler, as well; he is our King.

Summary

The scope of Yeshua’s impact on the world of the ancient nation of Israel and on the rest of the world now begins to come into view. The early believers recognized this and explained all of this two thousand years ago; we have just been too distracted with our own theories over the centuries, many of which became traditions, to recognize this.

Last time, we looked at the Old Testament example of the Day of Atonement as the baseline for understanding the process of reconciliation through representative sacrifice, which is what atonement is. We then looked at how Yeshua viewed himself as the Good Shepherd for Israel’s lost sheep, the representative ransom for that nation, and the institutor of the new covenant for Israel and Judah with the extreme commitment of his life, his own blood. Today we viewed how his followers connected him with the allegorical lamb of Isaiah’s servant passages, how they saw the redemption of their own people in his role as the paschal or Passover lamb, and how he fulfilled and superseded the Levitical priesthood as an eternal mediator after the pattern of Melchizedek for all who place their trust in him as Messiah. Each one of these topics could be its own study to flesh out the full ramifications of each; however, I believe we can still draw some overall conclusions to help us maintain a biblical perspective of these ancient patterns and ideas.

First of all, it becomes apparent that not one of these word pictures conveying atonement is meant to be taken literally. Yeshua is not really a lamb, he is not really a shepherd of sheep, he is not literally a priest standing at an altar, which also means he was not literally a sacrifice for sin. Yeshua could not have been a literal sacrifice for sin, because that would mean Yahweh condones human sacrifice, along with punishing the innocent for the guilty and justifying the wicked, which is all against his own Torah, or instruction.

Jeremiah 32:35 – “They [Judah] have built the high places of Baal in Ben Hinnom Valley to sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire to Molech ​– ​something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!

Exodus 23:7 – “… Do not kill the innocent and the just, because I will not justify the wicked.

No, in all of these examples, God was teaching his people through object lessons, patterns, and foreshadowing that they would have understood from their own writings of how the fulfillment of these preparatory examples were completed and fulfilled in his Anointed One, his Messiah. We see Yeshua as coming for his people, Israel, as their Messiah; their redeemer, their priest and mediator.

So, if that’s the case, how does all of this good news for Israel mean anything to the rest of us who are not descended by flesh from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? How does the atonement provided by their Messiah have any relevance for us?

The apostle John sadly relates to us how their Messiah was rejected by them.

John 1:11 – He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But in the very next breath, John also shares the good news of the Kingdom with all who will listen:

John 1:12-13 – But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

To receive Yeshua, to accept that he truly is the Anointed One of God who came to reveal the Kingdom of God, is to become born from above as a true child of Yahweh God. This is a status that is not bound by blood heritage from Israel; it is based on the heartfelt faith that Abraham expressed when he simply believed what God said was true.

Paul writes:

Romans 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the good news of Messiah, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

All of this imagery that we have been looking at is for the Jew first, which is why it is all stated in word pictures and allegories that they would have understood and been familiar with. But Paul says it is also for the Greek, that is, the Hellenists. The Hellenists were those Jews who had been scattered throughout the empire and had succumbed to the Greek culture and lifestyle. But Hellenists were also descriptive of those non-Jews among them who became “God-fearers” through their interest in, and learning the ways of, this Jewish God. We who are non-Jews are always at a disadvantage until we can begin to understand how these Semitic word pictures and allegories are to be understood. This is why our Bibles contain both the Old Testament writings or Tanakh, and the New Testament writings of the apostles: We need to fully grasp the concepts presented in the Old Testament and not just continue to re-hash New Testament principles taken out of their cultural and historical context.

Once we rise above the limiting horizon of scholarly theories, tradition, and orthodoxy, we can then begin to see the biblical picture of atonement for what it truly is. The atonement that Messiah provided was not one of literal blood sacrifice to calm the wrath of an angry deity, but a representative and allegorical atonement providing mercy and reconciliation that reaches into the very depths of each soul who trusts in him, Jew and non-Jew alike. The mercy and reconciliation of this atonement provides true freedom from sin and causes us to walk in the righteous ways of Yahweh as he always intended: from the heart, not through the traditions and rituals of men. Anyone, therefore, who exhibits faith in Messiah is therefore accepted into the Kingdom, and this is how it was always designed by God to be from the very beginning: to start like a seed from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then at the fulfillment of all things in Messiah, to spread and grow like a blossoming tree until it fills the earth.

Well, I hope this two-part study on the atonement brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Atonement, part 1

In atonement, blood is substituted in a representative way for the life of the one presenting the sacrifice.

Core of the Bible podcast #115 – Atonement, part 1

Lately we have been reviewing some of the bigger key doctrines in the Bible, and today we are beginning a study on the topic of the atonement. This is a very complex and involved concept to present, not because it is so extremely difficult to understand, but because we have had a certain view over the centuries that may not reflect what the Bible actually teaches about this critical aspect of the biblical faith.

So let’s begin with a basic description of the common understanding of the atonement, taken from Wikipedia’s entry on the topic:

Atonement in Christianity, in western Christian theology, describes beliefs that human beings can be reconciled to God through Christ’s sacrificial suffering and death. Atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin in general and original sin in particular through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. Throughout the centuries, Christians have used different metaphors and given differing explanations of atonement to express how atonement might work. Churches and denominations may vary in which metaphor or explanation they consider most accurately fits into their theological perspective; however all Christians emphasize that Jesus is the Saviour of the world and through his death the sins of humanity have been forgiven, enabling the reconciliation between God and his creation.

As the article says, many Christians may not be aware of this, but like every other great piece of doctrine, there are widely different scholarly views of the specifics of how the atonement should be interpreted, such as:

  • Ransom theory: Yeshua paid a ransom to the devil to free humanity from sin and death.
  • Christus Victor theory: Yeshua defeated the powers of evil and liberated humanity from their bondage.
  • Recapitulation theory: Yeshua recapitulated or summed up the stages of human life and reversed the effects of Adam’s disobedience.
  • Satisfaction theory: Yeshua satisfied the honor and justice of God by offering himself as a sacrifice for human sin.
  • Penal substitution theory: Yeshua bore the penalty and wrath of God for human sin in their place.
  • Moral Influence theory: Yeshua Messiah came and died in order to bring about a positive change to humanity. This moral change comes through the teachings of Yeshua alongside His example and actions.

Depending on which church or denomination you may belong to, one of these views is likely favored. Most of these theories are ways of dealing philosophically with the concept of how Yeshua overcame original sin. However, in the previous episode 111 of Humans and Sin, we have already explored how the philosophical concept of original sin is itself a theory and is not actually biblical. This obviously takes away the importance of establishing how these theories of atonement justify a different theory of original sin.

While I would personally love to geek out and explore each of those theories in detail (something I may do in a subsequent episode if there is interest in it), I would rather spend this initial run-through of atonement by looking at the actual biblical themes that discuss what is represented by the concept of atonement. If we can start the journey on a biblical basis, then I believe the theories will sort themselves out as to how useful they may or may not be.

In order to view atonement from an authoritative biblical stance, it made sense to me to consider it by identifying the following categories:

  • How was atonement represented in Israel’s past (the Old Testament, or Tanakh)
  • How did Yeshua view his role in that worldview
  • How were atonement themes viewed by Yeshua’s disciples and the NT writers
  • What does all of this mean for believers today

And, because this is such a convoluted topic that intertwines with so many other biblical themes, I think it’s important to spend some time developing some of these pictures more fully for a better overall view. This will require more than one episode, so today I would like to cover atonement as represented in the Tanakh, and also how Yeshua viewed himself and his role in relation to that. Next time, we will look at atonement themes in the New Testament and then see how all of this information comes together for believers today, so I hope you will make the time to listen to both episodes for the full review of this topic.

Atonement in the Tanakh

The term itself is a theological word based on the Hebrew concept of covering, mercy, and reconciliation. As defined by Strong’s, the word kaphar is: “A primitive root; to cover (specifically with bitumen); figuratively, to expiate or condone, to placate or cancel — appease, make (an atonement, cleanse, disannul, forgive, be merciful, pacify, pardon, purge (away), put off, (make) reconcile(-liation).”

The most prominent example of this type of transaction in the Old Testament is captured in the ceremony of the scapegoat ritual which was to take place once a year on the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur.

Leviticus 16:9-10  – “[Aaron] is to present the goat chosen by lot for Yahweh and sacrifice it as a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot for an uninhabitable place is to be presented alive before Yahweh to make atonement with it by sending it into the wilderness for an uninhabitable place.”

Without going into extreme detail, once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest would present two goats to Yahweh. One was sacrificed as a national representative substitution for the sin of the community, and the other was symbolically imbued with the sins of the nation and sent off into the wilderness never to return. The entire process is fascinating symbology and can be reviewed in total in Leviticus 16. We will spend some more time reviewing this as we draw near to the actual Day of Atonement at the beginning of the fall season in a few months.

A key portion of the ritual was that the high priest would take the blood of the sacrificed goat and pour it out on the cover of the ark of the covenant, covering the lid. Since the Bible teaches that the life of the creature is in the blood, the life of the goat was substituted for the collective life of the congregation. This “life” was then poured out upon the ark of the covenant containing the ten commandments, covering the covenantal agreement. In so doing, the community was essentially committing their collective “life” before Yahweh to follow the law that he himself  pronounced from Sinai to the entire assembled community that had been ransomed from Egypt. Because of the atonement offering, God extends his mercy to the community and forgives their offenses against his covenant, resulting in reconciliation. This whole ritual is a vivid illustration of themes that would have been commonly understood within that culture and that are continually built on in later biblical stories.

The life is in the blood

Leviticus 17:11  – “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement.

This principle is one of practical understanding and symbolic representation. When an animal (or human for that matter) has the blood drained from their body, they die. All other medical considerations aside, this dying due to loss of blood demonstrates practically that blood carries the life of the creature. However, God has ordained that the the symbolic aspect of animal sacrifice in the process of atonement is that its blood is substituted in a representative way for the life of the one presenting the sacrifice. The one offering the sacrifice is essentially saying to God, “My life is now intertwined with the life of this creature which is provided completely to you.” While the offerer continues to live, they have had to provide something of great value to them as a substitute for their own life. This then would become the deterrent to future sin because of the high cost of sacrificing a perfectly good animal which would have had great value to an agrarian family, especially one that was perfectly healthy as it had to be provided without blemish.

The net result of the sacrifice would be that the offerer would have had their sinful behavior “covered” by the life of the animal so that they could be reconciled and continue to live in their relationship with God. And as mentioned, the value of the sacrificial animal would provide a deterrent against future sin.

What this whole sacrificial ritual demonstrates in a practical way is that when wrongs are committed, there are consequences, and also a God-provided mode of overcoming those consequences. Atonement as a biblical concept is a symbolic principle of substitution value, not a token of having to give God something he desires for himself.  It is a principle which says, “God, I recognize I have done something you didn’t want me to do. I’m sorry and won’t do it again. Please accept this thing of value in place of my own life to demonstrate my sincerity.”  God then views the value of this thing (sincerely offered) as a token of sincerity and he subsequently responds with mercy and forgiveness, resulting in reconciliation between him as the offended party, and the offerer, as the offender.

This is why atonement was able to be provided by money, as well, because money has value and requires sacrifice to offer it to God. We’ll take a look more closely at that concept as we explore how Yeshua viewed his role in atonement.

Yeshua’s view of his role

We have to always remember that Yeshua did not just arrive on the scene at the start of his ministry drawing on a blank piece of paper. To the contrary, everything he did was as a culmination of all the revelation that had come previously, to fulfill all of those things the ancients had been looking forward to. He did not come to start a new religion, but to bring the one faith in Yahweh into its fullest prophetic expression. As such, everything in his life and ministry has deep roots in his Hebraic culture and the life of the nation of Israel up to that point. The New Testament writers were constantly quoting from Old Testament passages to demonstrate how Yeshua validated the Messianic role by fulfilling all of these Old Testament types and symbols.  As we spend some time on these concepts, we can gain the most wisdom as to what the meaning of his life, and his death, was all about.

As the primary indicator of atonement, I think it’s most important to see how Yeshua himself viewed his role and mission as it applies to this concept. These include the themes of the Good Shepherd, the Ransom, and as the institution of a new blood covenant.

Good Shepherd

John 10:11  – “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

This idea of a shepherd is not just a cool metaphor that Yeshua came up with for himself. The Shepherd was a reference to several prophecies in the Tanakh or Old Testament, most notably Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 50:6  – “My people [that is, Israel] were lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, guiding them the wrong way in the mountains. They wandered from mountain to hill; they forgot their resting place.”

The redemptive work of Israel’s Messiah was to be their Good Shepherd; to provide a path of redemption for Israel from their sins that they and their ancestors had committed under the first covenant. Now as a good shepherd who lays down his life, it’s important to note that a shepherd can’t do anything for his sheep when he is dead, but he does have to demonstrate his commitment to his flock by being willing to die, if needed, in order to protect the sheep. This is what Yeshua was conveying; Yeshua knew that he would be killed for his teachings and taught it plainly to his disciples and also in parables to those who gathered to hear him. But he was adamant that he was going to shepherd them for as long as possible so that they could grasp how all things were being fulfilled. Now, besides this quote from Luke, there are at least four other parallel references in Matthew and Mark (Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23; Mark 9:31, 10:33-34).

Luke 18:31-33  – Then he took the Twelve aside and told them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For he will be handed over to the Gentiles, and he will be mocked, insulted, spit on; and after they flog him, they will kill him, and he will rise on the third day.”

Even though he mentions resurrection in each of these passages, a concept that the disciples didn’t yet fully grasp (and one that we will pursue more deeply in a future episode), Yeshua knew that he was going to be killed and tried to prepare them as best he could ahead of time. He even taught the Jewish leaders they would do this to him, and he conveyed this by using the parable of the tenant farmers. I am quoting here from Luke but the parable is also in Matthew and Mark:

Luke 20:14, 19  – “But when the tenant farmers saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.’ … Then the scribes and the chief priests looked for a way to get their hands on him that very hour, because they knew he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.

Yeshua even confronted the Jewish leaders openly on several occasions about their plans to murder him:

John 7:19  – “Didn’t Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me? “

John 8:37, 40  – “I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you. … “But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.”

Regardless of this known fact, Yeshua was adamant that he was the fulfillment of the role of that Good Shepherd, the one who would be willing to lay down his life for the sake of the flock.

Ransom/redemption

Mark 10:45  – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Yeshua also defined his own purpose as being a ransom for many. What does this mean? We know that a ransom in modern vernacular is typically an amount of money paid to a kidnapper to gain the release of a hostage. But is this what is meant in the Bible? If this is the case, and we are the kidnapped hostages, then what is the ransom and who is it being paid to? Some have suggested that this ransom, Yeshua’s life, was paid to the devil to secure our freedom from his clutches. If that is the case, then the devil won. Well, that can’t be right because the Bible teaches that Yeshua defeated the works of the devil, not cooperated with him.

Instead of going down these rabbit holes of conjecture with our wrong-headed modern cultural perspective, let’s just see what the Bible actually means by a ransom.

Exodus 21:28-30  – “When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox must be stoned, and its meat may not be eaten, but the ox’s owner is innocent. However, if the ox was in the habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned, and its owner must also be put to death. If instead a ransom is demanded of him, he can pay a redemption price for his life in the full amount demanded from him.

Exodus 30:11-12, 16  – The Yahweh spoke to Moses: “When you take a census of the Israelites to register them, each of the men must pay a ransom for his life to Yahweh as they are registered. Then no plague will come on them as they are registered. … “Take the atonement price from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will serve as a reminder for the Israelites before Yahweh to atone for your lives.”

In these instances, we can see the concepts of ransom, redemption and atonement are becoming equivocated. In these passages, a price of money, a ransom, is paid to Yahweh (or his representative leaders) as a means of avoiding death. In the first instance, the ox owner was sentenced to death, but the leaders could provide him a price to be paid to avoid execution, sort of like bail is today when someone is to be released from custody. In the second instance, Yahweh institutes a ransom, or life-price, for the members of the life of the community to avoid any potential plague that might come upon them for taking a census. Why would this be the case? Censuses were usually taken as a measure of the pride of the nation, showing how numerous its fighting force could be. To avoid this connection with trusting in one’s army over trusting in Yahweh, the Israelites could demonstrate their honoring of God during a census by providing an atonement price to be used for his service. This money was to be used to maintain the tabernacle and its implements. Later on, this would be corrupted by the Jewish authorities to become the justification for the temple-tax in New Testament times.

As touched on earlier, we see how the principle of redemption is closely allied with the ransom, as the ransom is equated with the redemption money. Biblical redemption is essentially the process of intervening in an established process, statute, or condition to provide something of value which then allows for a different outcome. A redemption price could be paid for a person’s life (Exodus 30-11-12); it could be paid for land or a residence in a city prior to Jubilee (Leviticus 25:24, 29); or it could be paid to provide for a ministry representative for the firstborn males (Numbers 3:44-48). These examples are all using money or land value as an acceptable substitute for some other process, statute, or condition which God had ordained. Since Yeshua considered himself a ransom, instead of money as a value, he would provide his life.

Mark 10:45  – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Clearly, this is an allegorical ransom on behalf of the lives of others (those who would believe in him), not a literal ransom that was demanded to be paid to either God or the devil. While he did literally gave his life, the ransom/redemption he provided is a representative one based on the biblical pattern that the Israelites would have understood, not some cosmic balancing of the scales of justice. Once again, we have to keep things in their proper perspective as much as possible within the bounds of the cultural understanding of the time. Yeshua saying that he was giving his life as a ransom would be a word picture that the Israelites would have immediately picked up on as being represented physically in these other biblical motifs, or types and foreshadows. It is only in our modern era (the last 500 years or so) that these ideas have been solidified into philosophical and legal, cosmic absolutes which were never intended by God in the first place.

We will explore this concept of the ransom and redemption a little further next time when we look at Yeshua represented as the Paschal Lamb in New Testament writings. However, for now, it is important to note that the ransom was essentially a price to be paid, a value to be given, for the changing of a foregone outcome. In the sense that Yeshua is using it, the foregone outcome is that Israel was about to be judged in that generation for their sins under the first covenant and he was offering his own life as a representative ransom on the behalf of all who would believe in him. Those who placed their faith in him would have their sins forgiven, and they would not come under God’s judgment which was about to be poured out.

Covenant in blood

Now we come to one of the most prominent themes that Yeshua considered about his own life: that he was giving it up voluntarily to seal the new covenant.

Matthew 26:28  – “For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Mark 14:24  – “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

Luke 22:20  – “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Hopefully, after reviewing the Day of Atonement and how blood represented the life of the sacrificial victim, I’m hoping we can now come to these passages with a little more Hebraic perspective. Remember, we saw how on the Day of Atonement the blood of the sacrificial animal was poured out on the ark of the covenant. This was the vessel that contained the actual Ten Commandments, the original covenant between God and believers. This “life” blood being poured out symbolically represented the life of the community committing to follow the covenant in stone upon which it was based, and for them to be reconciled with God whom they had offended by disobeying that covenant agreement.

This is the way the blood of the new covenant is intended to be viewed, as well. Yeshua is capitalizing on that imagery, which would have been readily understood by his disciples, as a way of saying his blood (that represents his life) would be poured out on their behalf (that is, for any who believed in him as the Messiah) for the sake of the new covenant. The new covenant was not about a new set of instructions; it was about a new location for the existing instructions: on the heart instead of on pieces of stone in a box.

Jeremiah 31:31-33  – “Look, the days are coming” ​– ​this is Yahweh’s declaration ​– ​”when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt ​– ​my covenant that they broke even though I am their master” ​– ​Yahweh’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” ​– ​Yahweh’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Interestingly, we see that in all of these views that Yeshua held about himself, they were all in relation to the nation of Israel. That new covenant was for Israel and Judah. The ransom was for Israel’s forgiveness of sin under the first covenant. The Good Shepherd was a shepherd to lead Israel faithfully.

Matthew 15:24  – He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Yes, all of these concepts are Israel-centric, but not exclusively so. It’s important for us to keep all of these things in their original perspective as much as possible. We have to remember, if these concepts seem difficult for us to grasp today, it is because all of this was originally intended for an ancient audience halfway around the world in other languages and another culture. Yet, because the new covenant is based on the simple faith of Abraham believing God, and on the heart application of God’s eternal instruction, we, too, in this day and age can participate in the fulfillment of these things, because that was also prophesied to that ancient audience:

Romans 15:8-13  – For I say that Messiah became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers, and so that nations may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the nations, and I will sing praise to your name.  Again it says, Rejoice, you nations, with his people! And again, Praise Yahweh, all you nations; let all the peoples praise him!  And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will appear, the one who rises to rule the nations; the nations will hope in him.  Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Okay, so far we have reviewed the atonement as represented in the Tanakh or Old Testament and we have looked at how Yeshua represented himself within that ideology and culture as fulfilling those types and foreshadows that were present in Old Testament prophecy. Next time, we will continue into the writings of the New Testament to see how this concept of atonement was viewed in relation to the work of Yeshua, and I will hopefully be able to provide some measure of summarizing all of this information in order to make it more applicable for us today.

Well, I hope this first part of our study on the atonement brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Trusting God for ransom and atonement

The ancient practice of Israel regarding the Day of Atonement is rooted in the depths of the Torah.

The ancient practice of Israel regarding the Day of Atonement (Yom haKippurim) is rooted in the depths of the Torah.

Leviticus 16:29-31 – “This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before Yahweh. It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute.”

Yom Kippur differs from Passover (Pesach) in that Pesach represents God redeeming his first born people from out of slavery, while Yom Kippur was meant to cleanse and purify sin from the nation. The redemption accomplished at Pesach set the people free from their forced obligation to unwillingly serve the harsh taskmasters of Egypt. God “paid the price” as it were so their indebtedness to slavery was removed and those who sought to drag them back to slavery were wiped out in the Red Sea. But at Yom Kippur, any collective sin that may have been unaccounted for throughout the year was removed from them through the symbolic act of a representative goat that was sacrificed and of a second live goat bearing their sin into the wilderness. As these acts were concluded, the people were to consider themselves cleansed and pure for service to God once again.

Both of these holidays on the biblical calendar balance each other out. One must be delivered from oppression in order to act freely. Yet, with that freedom comes the ability to act rebelliously, wherein a secondary cleansing process is provided to remove that potential sin from the community. In this way, there is no excuse before God as to why an individual might act in defiance to God’s word. He has provided the redemption price from unwilling servitude to sin (represented by Egypt/Pharaoh) and he has also provided the means of ongoing cleansing from inadvertent rebellious acts (due to freedom) through the dual goats at Yom Kippur. Both of these days represent the symbolic work of Messiah Yeshua for the nation of Israel and any who would also place their faith in him. Yeshua became the symbolic ransom of Pesach and also the ongoing cleansing of sin symbolized in the goat ceremony at Yom Kippur.

  • Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
  • 1 Timothy 2:5-6 – For there is one God, [and] one mediator also between God and men, [the] man Messiah Yeshua, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony [given] at the proper time.
  • Hebrews 9:24-26 – For Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us. He did not do this to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.
  • Hebrews 7:25 – Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

On the day of atonement, one goat was sacrificed, while another had the sins of the nation pronounced upon it and was sent alive out into the wilderness to remove sin from the community. This duality was fulfilled in the imagery provided by not only the death of Messiah as the King of Israel, but also his resurrection to the right hand of the Father as the first-born son of God.

To the common believer in ancient Israel, it required trust in God to know that they were not only ransomed from involuntary solitude at Pesach, but also that their sins were removed from them at Yom Kippur. The work of God among his people has always been by faith.

Romans 1:16-17 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed–a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Messiah’s sacrificial obedience to the Father not only fulfilled these foreshadowing biblical types, but also demonstrated a life that was yielded 100% by faith to the purpose of God and his kingdom coming to this earth. Our faith in observing these days represents our commitment to God and our faith in him. Setting these days aside to reflect on the marvelous provision of God for his people is representative of our love for him.

Of course, there are no longer any actual animal sacrifices that can be (or should be performed). However, what remains is the potential for our own sacrificial obedience to his word. Observing biblical sabbaths revealed in God’s word is an act of faith, just as it was for the ancient Israelites. It should not be a matter of obligation or duty, but a desire from the heart to recount his faithfulness in these past events and to memorialize these events for our families and future generations within the ever-growing kingdom of God.

If you enjoy these daily articles, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com

Set apart for obedience to God’s will

The culmination of the biblical imagery is fulfilled in Messiah.

Hebrews 10:4-10 – For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, ‘You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’ Previously saying, ‘Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them’ (those which are offered according to the law), then he has said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will.’ He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

While most believers look to the book of Romans as the most theologically dense writing of the New Testament, in actuality, I believe the book of Hebrews provides the most depth of theology, and also provides us the perspective of how the early believers, who were all Jewish, viewed the work and ministry of Yeshua.

The book never names its author; many think it is Paul, some think it may have been Timothy. The individual carries many of the same long phrases and characteristic nuances of Paul. Regardless, throughout the book, a well-planned and graduated argument is laid out for the meaning and purpose of what Messiah came to do.

By chapter ten, the book is reaching a crescendo of thought and focuses on the work of Messiah contrasted with the sacrifices of the priests according to the law of Moses. Almost all commentators focus on Yeshua’s blood sacrifice against the animal sacrifices of the priests. But is that the true comparison or contrast being laid out here? I don’t believe so, and here is why.

First, it is established that animal sacrifices don’t take away sin. This was not a new concept to biblical thought, since Psalm 40 is then quoted to demonstrate this. The problem begins with the representation of Psalm 40 in this passage of Hebrews and it being mis-quoted (in our modern Bibles) in this passage where it says “you prepared a body for me.” If we actually go back to the text in the Psalms, we see that it reads:

Psalm 40:6-8 “Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll. I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.’”

So the original text does not include a body being prepared for Messiah, but that his ears were opened. Opened to what? “Your law is within my heart.” Yes, the Messiah exemplified receptiveness to the law which is equated with the obedience of “delighting to do God’s will.”

The writer of Hebrews then states the crux of his argument: “He takes away the first (i.e., the animal sacrifices) that he may establish the second (the doing of God’s will in obedience from the heart). That is the contrast of thought in this passage, NOT the animal sacrifices vs. the sacrifice of Yeshua. The thought is concluded by saying “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Yeshua once for all.”

You see, Yeshua offered his body in obedience to God’s will, and THAT is the characteristic that sets believers apart: when we, in like fashion as our Lord and Messiah, are obedient to God’s will from the heart. THAT is the “second” (the doing of God’s will from the heart) that is being contrasted with the “first” (animal sacrifices).

This is what sanctifies or sets believers apart from the rest of the world. We have received God’s eternal torah or instruction written in our heart, and we are willing to obey it to the death, if needed. That is how Yeshua’s death “sanctifies” believers; he provided the ultimate example for us to follow.

The blood of the new covenant is not the physical sacrifice of a man in Judea two thousand years ago for some spiritual “blood debt,” because the writer tells us plainly that physical blood cannot take away any sins, and this was known throughout biblical history. But what the blood represents is what is important: this blood is the life of an individual who was willing to pay the ultimate price in obedience to his God. The “first” has been fulfilled with the “second.”

The Bible plainly teaches that the blood carries the life of the individual, which is why it is forbidden to eat or drink blood.

Leviticus 17:11 – ” For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.”

The blood makes atonement by reason of the life not the death. This was the symbolic significance that God was attempting to teach his people to understand with every animal sacrifice. It was not the death of the animal that was the point, but the representative life that was being forfeited on behalf of another.

This passage in Hebrews is the culmination of all of those spiritual lessons that had led up this point; the law is the “schoolmaster that leads to Messiah,” (Galatians 3:24). This is the contrast that illustrates what the whole New Testament points to. This man Yeshua is who believers are called to follow; this is who we are called to imitate. This is the new covenant of having our “ears opened” to the instruction of God, and being willing to follow him wherever he leads, even to the ultimate act of giving our life on behalf of others, if needed.

If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Covering over offenses is required

We act like our Father when we forgive others.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the primary word used for acts of forgiveness involves the word kephar. This word is typically translated as “atonement,” and generally conveys the idea of “a covering over.”

Yeshua encourages us to forgive so that we may be forgiven.

“”For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

Matthew 6:14

When we truly and sincerely forgive others, we are in fact covering over whatever the offense against us was so that it can no longer be seen or recalled to mind. This canceling of the offense is what allows relationships to continue.

By contrast, when we do not forgive, whatever the offense was remains a visible obstacle between two individuals and impedes any fruitful relationship.

According to Yeshua, if we desire to have our offenses against God covered over and no longer remembered, then it is a requirement for us to do the same with those who have offended us. If we choose not to do so, then God is in no way obligated to forgive us our sins.

“But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Matthew 6:15

This is the type of personal accountability that is built into the message of the kingdom. Yeshua  explains that God is indeed a God of forgiveness, but only if we exhibit that same characteristic in our lives.

The children should act like the parents. In the same way, if we consider ourselves to be children of God, we should act like it.

If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive here. Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Forgiveness always comes at a cost to someone

Forgiveness always positively changes a relationship, but it always comes at a cost.

The book of Leviticus is the heart of the “law of Moses,” the torah, or instruction that Moses provided to Israel. In it is outlined much of the ritual that defined the ancient Israelite worship of God. To our modern Western mind, some of the practices appear to make no practical sense, such as specific types of offerings that God expected his people to provide.

However, if one looks more closely at chapters 4-6, a pattern emerges that has significance even for us today. Amidst all of the rules and regulations, we can see that God desires to forgive his people when they have strayed from right paths.

Leviticus 4:26, 31 Through this process, the priest will purify the leader from his sin, making him right with the LORD, and he will be forgiven. … Through this process, the priest will purify the people, making them right with the LORD, and they will be forgiven.

Leviticus 5:6, 10 This is a sin offering with which the priest will purify you from your sin, making you right with the LORD. … Through this process the priest will purify you from your sin, making you right with the LORD, and you will be forgiven.

Leviticus 6:7 Through this process, the priest will purify you before the LORD, making you right with him, and you will be forgiven for any of these sins you have committed.”

All of these instructions point to one thing: God desired for the people to be reconciled with him, otherwise, why would he spend so much time describing how they were to go about making that happen?

An often-overlooked aspect of this process of forgiveness is the cost that the individual had to incur when bringing a sacrifice. Bulls, goats, rams, sheep, birds; all of these were costly offerings for sin that had to be brought to the priest in order for God’s forgiveness to be granted.

This highlights an important principle: when forgiveness is granted, it always costs somebody something; it is never free.

There was nothing inherent in the animal itself that somehow provided this forgiveness. This is even brought out in the New Testament writings.

For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Hebrews 10:4

No, it was the value of the sacrifice that demonstrated the sincerity of the giver. The offerer had to demonstrate true intent (that is, repentance). Among other things (like the identity substitution), the giving of a perfectly good animal that could provide much personal benefit to the offerer was a way of showing they were sincere in asking for forgiveness.

The bringing of the animals to the priest was not for blood debts to be repaid, and God certainly didn’t need the animals for himself. But through this process, he was teaching the Israelites that there is a value to be exchanged for a renewed relationship with God.

Forgiveness always positively changes a relationship, but it always comes at a cost. This is why it is even still a custom today to bring a gift to someone when apologizing for some sort of relationship transgression. The thoughtfulness or value of the gift demonstrates the sincerity of the giver.

We are commanded by Yeshua to forgive others and to love our enemies when they don’t deserve it or when they are not demonstrating sacrificial repentance. Even if we are approached multiple times a day by the same individual, we are to forgive them. When these types of passages are discussed today, what is rarely mentioned is the cost that this forgiveness exacts from us. If the individual asking for forgiveness is not providing some sort of sacrificial benefit on their behalf, then the one who is absorbing or carrying the cost of the forgiveness is you.

This is why the act of forgiveness is so unique among God’s people today. Forgiveness that is freely offered is not cheap, it still comes at a great expense. It is a sacrificial lifestyle with real cost to the believer in every relationship. But the sacrificial obedience that God demands of us provides for positive relationships in all areas of life and honors him by demonstrating we have learned the true value of forgiveness.

If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive here. Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com.