and he shall make atonement for the sanctuary, [to cleanse it] from the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and from their transgressions in all their sins; and so shall he do for the tent of meeting which dwelleth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
Once a year the high priest carried blood inside the veil, and the first thing it cleansed was not the people but the place. Leviticus 16:16 gives the reason: God had chosen to live among a people whose sin reached even the tent where He met them.
Why a Building Needed Cleansing
A building cannot sin. So why does the verse call it unclean?
Why "uncleanness"? All evil is unclean and defiling. Whatever deals with it is unclean by contact, as Leviticus 15:4-12 and Numbers 19:7-8, 10 show. And uncleanness needs both cleansing and atonement. The building could not be guilty, but it did get unclean, because of "their transgressions in all their sins." Unclean Israel came often to the tabernacle, and the very handling of their uncleanness defiled what was holy. Atonement was needed because uncleanness had been allowed.
Sin never stays private:
What a solemn thought! A man who commits sin may say, It is only myself I am injuring; nobody else has anything to do with it. And he is rightly told that no man is so cut off from his fellows. If someone came into a city with a contagious disease, he would not be allowed to stay. And the sinner can rightly be told, You are not only affected yourself, you influence humanity. You set an example, and you defile those you are associated with. You are lowering the moral level of the human race.
The Blood That Let God Stay
The blood was not only for the people. It was what let God stay among them:
The claims of the sanctuary must be provided for. The Lord's courts, as well as His throne, must bear witness to the value of the blood. God's provisions of atonement must fence in the tabernacle, which stood in the middle of Israel's uncleanness… Without the power of the blood, the Holy One could not have stayed among the congregation for a moment! The blood is what left Him free to dwell, act and rule among a straying people.
"In the Midst of Their Uncleanness"
Notice which thing surrounds which:
On the day of atonement it is said to be "for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses" (Leviticus 16:16). It is not that the uncleanness is in the midst of the tabernacle, but the tabernacle in the midst of it — quite a different thought.
That surrounding pressure was the problem God Himself had to solve, without lowering His own character:
Israel was, in fact, a people in the flesh, defiled by sin. So the tabernacle of God remained "with them in the midst of their uncleannesses." A holy and righteous God could not tolerate this. To tolerate it, He would have denied His own character. He would have announced that sin does not break every relationship between man and Him. So God had to find a way to receive Israel before Him and still maintain His character… He provided that way for Israel by the offerings of the day of atonement.
The Wording of the Verse
Commentators note that the Hebrew allows a slightly different shading of "for the holy place":
The "atonement for the holy place was because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of all their transgressions in all their sins"; or it might perhaps be rendered, "he shall make atonement upon the holy place, from the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and from their transgressions in respect to, or on account of, all their sins."
What It Points To
The same pattern reaches beyond the wilderness tent to heaven itself:
The blood of Christ purifies the heavenly places, just as the blood of bulls and goats purged the tabernacle. Leviticus 16 gives the reason for this rite for the tabernacle in the wilderness… God has set up His dwelling-place among His people. We are in contact with His tabernacle. Our transgressions and our sins are named there. What a thing for sin to be named in heaven!
What Aaron repeated every year is now finished:
On the great day of atonement Aaron carried the blood of the sin offering inside the veil, so that he might "make atonement for the Holy Place." This has now been done once and for ever. The atonement for the holy place lasts — it is as much purged once and for ever as the worshipper himself. No worshipper who enters there need fear bringing defilement. That blood cleanses all sin away, and it is there for ever before God.
Summary
- Contact defiles. The tent could not sin. But a sinful people came to it, and handling their uncleanness made it unclean.
- Contact spreads. No one sins alone. A person's sin lowers the moral level of everyone around him.
- Blood answers contact. Atonement for the holy place left God free to dwell, act and rule among a straying people, without denying His own character.
- Contact surrounds. The tent stood inside the uncleanness, not the uncleanness inside the tent. God placed His dwelling in the middle of the defilement.
- Contact now cleanses. The picture rises to heaven itself, where the blood stays for ever, so the worshipper enters without fear of defiling the place.