And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you. In the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, the home-born, and the stranger that sojourneth among you;
Leviticus 16:29 turns from the high priest's work inside the sanctuary to the people outside it. Once a year, on a fixed date, everyone in Israel — native or foreigner — had to stop all work and afflict their souls.
One writer asks what an outsider would have seen on that day, and what the stillness itself was saying.
Imagine a foreigner in the camp on the Day of Atonement. What a sight must have met his eye! The whole camp was at rest. The noise of daily work had all died away. No work of any kind went on anywhere in that vast encampment. Yet it was not the weekly sabbath. On the sabbath day they rested, and gave rest to their servants and cattle as well. On this day they were afflicting their souls, while the high priest was making atonement for their sins. This resting was full of meaning. It spoke of their helplessness in the matter that concerned them so closely. The afflicting of their souls showed how much they cared about all that was happening.
The phrase describes something visible, and the danger of leaving it out was severe.
They kept the day on the tenth day of the seventh month. It was a Sabbath of rest, and on it they were to afflict their souls. What is called "afflict" was fasting, the outward sign of inward sorrow over sin. When they left this out, the atonement did not benefit them at all — "For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people." Only true faith, shown by repentance, gives the sinner a share in the great work of atonement.
One writer names two marks in everyone whose heart truly rests on the atonement.
A certain state of heart goes with knowing that infinite work of the Lord Jesus. The man whose heart is not moved to match it is not a true believer. First, he was to afflict his soul on that day, not to be merry. Wherever there is genuine faith, there is genuine repentance; where souls do not feel their sins, it is pointless to look for the forgiveness of them. There is no light talk about receiving the word with joy. Instead there is deep self-judgment, resting on that most solemn, humbling scene where the Lord Jesus died for us. Second, there was no pretence of working on that day; it was to be a sabbath day, the work was Another's. There was no thought of their doing anything towards atonement, but real brokenness of spirit.
One writer weighs the words "a statute forever," then asks what happens when someone is brought to God today.
"And it shall be a statute to you forever." We do not hear that said about any minor matter. The Day of Atonement stands on its own, separate in dignity from every other. The first point pressed, and most plainly, is the affliction of the soul. Atonement was not to be a matter of mere joy, in case it slipped into lightness. Where is there an act set up by God so searching? ... What is a soul being brought to God by the gospel, but the present application of that great Day to that person?
The same date came round every year, and that repetition carried its own message.
"In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves," they had been told. But on that day, Israel knew that atonement had been made for just one year. For the remnant this affliction of soul will happen once for all, when it knows true atonement. During the thousand-year reign of Christ there will no longer be room for the Day of Atonement. There will be room only for the Passover, as a memorial of the sacrifice of the Lamb.
Set among the yearly feasts, the day looks ahead to a national change of heart.
Here the emphasis falls on the removal of all work on that day. It falls even more strongly on the affliction of heart and soul that was to mark the people. Seen in its setting among the other feasts, it foretells a great spiritual awakening in Israel. That awakening will produce repentance of unusual depth and reality, as predicted in Zechariah 12:10-14. This inward work of grace will create a nation morally fit to enter the blessing of Christ's thousand-year reign.
- Rest — Stopping all work confessed helplessness. Atonement was Another's work, and nobody could add to it.
- Sorrow — "Afflict your souls" meant fasting, the outward sign of inward grief over sin. Without it, the atonement brought no benefit.
- Repentance — Where faith is real, repentance is real. Where people do not feel their sins, they should not expect forgiveness.
- Reach — The same statute covered the native-born and the foreigner living among them, on one date fixed by God.
- Result — The day returned each year because it covered only one year. It points to a repentance felt once for all, and to a nation made fit for blessing.
for on that day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you from all your sins shall ye be clean before Jehovah.
One sentence sums up the whole day of atonement. The priest acts, the people rest, and God calls a nation clean. Three phrases carry the weight: "cleanse you," "from all your sins," and "before the LORD."
The word itself carries a picture. One writer links its meaning to God living among a sinful people:
The LORD set apart the tenth day of the seventh month each year as the Day of Atonement. On that day the sins of the nation were atoned for — that is, covered. "Atonement" means "covering." Only in this way could the LORD dwell among Israel.
The words "for you" put the work in someone else's hands. The chapter shows how little the people had to do with it:
Look at the chapter and you find two things. The people did nothing. And the priest, who did everything for the people, did nothing to the people. He did not even sprinkle the blood on them. Yet he made atonement for them, and cleansed them, and they were clean from ALL their sins before the Lord. Ah, there is the point; they were clean before the Lord, not in themselves. That is just what John's words mean — "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." It is before the Lord, before a holy God. It cannot mean that we are clean in ourselves; for in the very same chapter it says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
Israel had to rest and to afflict themselves. Being shut out of the work taught two lessons at once:
Resting from all work, they were not to sit at home listless and unconcerned while the High Priest was inside the sanctuary. They were to afflict their souls. Atonement was God's gracious provision for His people who had sinned... Two things they were to learn — and not only they. First, another made atonement for their sins on their behalf, yet they were not to think lightly of sins. Those sins called for the death of the holy Lamb of God and the shedding of His blood, as we now know. Second, God will have the sinner own that he cannot have a hand in that work.
Another writer draws out why no one was allowed to work that day:
Suppose our works were as good as we have to admit they are bad. Even then, how fitting to rest before the infinite work of the Saviour in atoning for sinners!... His people, and even the stranger living among them, were forbidden all manner of work on that day. No lightness of heart on the one hand, and on the other no presuming to add their works to that great work.
The cleansing was real, but it stopped short of the conscience:
The great act that made Israel a worshipping people was the sacrifice of the great day of atonement. This was a yearly solemnity... Israel then stood on that day as the worshipping people of the Lord. But they did not stand with a purged conscience. Their sacrifices could never give that. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. It needed other blood — the blood of the One whom the letter to the Hebrews presents as the Son.
What the yearly ritual could not reach, one sacrifice has now reached:
The blood of bulls and goats could only satisfy for a time. The blood of Christ purges the conscience completely and for ever. So the worshippers, once purged (no repetition, remember), have "no more conscience of sins." Note, it does not say "no more consciousness of indwelling sin," but "no more conscience of sins." The conscience no longer charges us with guilt, because all the guilt was charged to the One who died in my place.
The phrase "no more conscience of sins" follows an older translation of Hebrews 10:2.
One writer reads the day's mourning as a picture of something still ahead for Israel:
Here the stress falls on the removal of all work on that day. It falls even harder on the affliction of heart and soul that was to mark the people. Seen in its setting among the other feasts, the day points forward to a great spiritual awakening in Israel. That awakening will produce repentance of unusual depth and reality, as Zechariah 12:10-14 predicts. This inward work of grace will create a nation morally fit to enter millennial blessedness.
- Covered. "Atonement" means covering. Covering Israel's sins is what let God live among them.
- Cleansed by another. The priest did everything for the people and nothing to them; they added no work of their own to his.
- Clean before the LORD. The cleansing is a standing in God's sight, not a claim to be sinless in oneself.
- Conscience cleared. Repeating the day each year proved animal blood could not purge the conscience. Christ's one offering does, and for ever.
- Coming. Israel has yet to keep this day in heart. Deep repentance will then produce a nation ready for blessing.