A Journey through the Bible with Tiglath

21. Leviticus Chapter 16 Onwards

In The New English Bible Chapter 16 of Leviticus has as its title, The Day of

Atonement (at-own-ment). The Israelites celebrate this great feast on the 10th

day of the 7th month. Here we may digress to note the other great feasts.

There are seven of them. It is interesting to realize that God made the world in

s days and rested on the seventh. Therefore the Sabbath was a very special

day indeed.

Apart from the Day of Atonement the other set feasts were as follows

The seventh day every week — a day of rest for all.

The Passover followed by seven days of Unleavened Bread in March and April.

The Feast of First Fruits took place in April and seven weeks later…

…Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks — harvest festival connected with this — was in June.

During September and October time there were the Feast of Trumpets (New Year),

the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles which reminded the

Israelites that they had lived in tents in the desert after the exodus from Egypt.

On the Day of

Atonement, to be at

one with God the

nation had to clean

itself of sin. Aaron, the

chief priest, had to be

cleansed of his own sin

before he could

conduct ceremonies to

cleanse the people

from their sins. On

this one day Aaron was

allowed into the inner part of the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant

was kept. Read Chapter 16, it is full of fascinating details of how the

ceremony of Atonement was carried out. None is more interesting than that

of the scapegoat. This was one of two goats that were specially selected. One

was sacrificed, the other had the two hands of Aaron laid upon it. By this act

be laid all the sins of Israel onto the goat. A man then took the goat and let it

go into some barren waste, presumably to die.

In 1854 the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt painted a picture

entitled The Scapegoat. He placed the goat on the shore of the Dead Sea. It

has scarlet material wrapped round its horns as a symbol of sin. All around

the goat are signs of death — the bones of former scapegoats, the lifeless

water, the salty ground and the bare mountains.

We must now hurry along on our journey so please do read Chapters 17 —

27. In them you will find rules about conduct, penalties for disobedience, the

appointed seasons, various other penalties, especially for blasphemy. The one

who blasphemes is to be taken out of the camp and stoned to death. We also,

in Chapter 24, meet the concept of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

And so we come to the end of Leviticus. A fascinating book, quite serious

reading but it tells us so much about the religious and everyday life of the Israelites.

It is well worth the effort.

Next month we shall begin to travel through the Book of Numbers which

covers the 38 years of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. It ends with

Moses seeing the Promised Land which he was not destined to enter until he

appears in St Mark Chapter 9 verses 2—4 where we find him talking with

Jesus.