EVERY YEAR!!! - Leviticus 16-18

EVERY YEAR!!!

Leviticus 16:34 (ESV)
And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.” And Aaron did as the LORD commanded Moses.

To understand the significance of the above verse we have to remember the reason these instructions were given to the nation of Israel through the words of Moses.   The Levitical sacrifices were a picture of what Christ would eventually do for them.  The sacrifice of blood for the atonement of the nation’s sin was the picture of what Christ would do.   The issue with these sacrifices was that they had to be done on a repeated basis.  The above verse is referring to the Day of Atonement.  That was the day that the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies and made a sacrifice for him, his family and the nation of Israel.  This was to be done, once per year.  It was to be done every year.  This is the struggle with the Levitical sacrifices.  The once-a-year model and picture indicated that their was a sacrifice of blood needed to take away sins.  But, it also meant that the once-a-year requirement meant that the sins of the priest, his family and the nation were NEVER really taken away.  This is the significance of Christ’s sacrifice, stated over and over in the book of Hebrews.  Note:

Hebrews 10:11-12 (ESV)
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

Hebrews 10:1-2 (ESV)
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

Christians can rejoice that God has given us His Son to take away sin forever, by His ONE sacrifice on the cross.  We are set free from sin by His one time offering of His body.   Christ died as a fulfillment of the Levitical offerings and to end the Levitical offering system.   It was not adequate to fully take away sin.   The nation’s faith in that system would save them only as they understood it was a picture of what Christ would do.  They, by faith, look forward to what Christ would do permanently for them.  We look back, by faith, on what Christ did permanently for us.