Atonement - Part 5

References: (1) The OT translation for atonement is taken from the Hebrew word kaphar. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words says: “Most uses of the word [kaphar], involve the THEOLOGICAL MEANING of “COVERING OVER,” often with the BLOOD of a sacrifice in order to ATONE for some sin.” (2) Atonement is frequently identified with the juxtaposition of 3 words: “at,“one,” and “ment” to convey the idea of reconciliation. (3) However, this idea of “at-one-ment” is not a completely satisfactory explanation of atonement. While the idea does convey reconciliation to God, it does not remind us of the slave market where there is an auction and a cacophony of voices vying to make us their property and keeping us in bondage. We are the slaves who need freedom. It does not remind us of the blood sacrifice, neither the payment of a ransom price, nor the idea of giving the former slave freedom. (4) The word atonement is perhaps best known from the term Yom Kippur, “Day of Atonement” — Yom is “day” and Kippur is “atonement.” That day was the MOST SOLEMN HOLY DAY of all Israelite feasts. (5) Nisan is significant for a number of reasons, but most importantly because of the Feast of Passover, which commemorates the Israelites’ EXODUS from slavery in Egypt. (6) Exodus 12 gives the details of the PASSOVER RITUAL. (7) Leviticus 23 lists 7 feasts and the Day of Atonement. The feasts are: the Sabbath, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First-fruits, Weeks, Trumpets, and Tabernacles. All feasts and the Day of Atonement except the Feast of First-fruits have a day that is identified as a holy CONVOCATION on which no work is done. (8) Someone has compared the OT to a room RICHLY FURNISHED but DIMLY LIGHTED. The introduction of light does not add anything to what is there, but it shows it more CLEARLY. The light of the NT adequately illumines these 2 chapters: Exodus chapter 12 and Leviticus chapter 23. (9) The ancient ritual DID NOT REALLY SAVE — no ritual does — it depicts merely a STAY OF EXECUTION until Jesus Christ would come who was Himself the First-born over all creation and the head of the body, the church, the One who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead (Col.1:15, 18). (10) The tabernacle was a PORTABLE DWELLING PLACE for God that the Israelites used as a place of worship and sacrifice in the wilderness while traveling from Egypt to the land of Canaan. (11) The grounds inside the tabernacle were divided into 3 main APARTMENTS. (12) The LID of the sacred chest called the MERCY SEAT, UPON WHICH the presence of God was revealed, and FROM WHICH, by virtue of atonement, pardon was granted to the repentant sinner. (13) The only light in this last apartment is the holy Shekinah, the the SUPERNATURAL MANIFESTATION of the presence of Almighty God, a reflection of the glories of the temple of God in HEAVEN, the center of the work for man’s REDEMPTION. This is Episode 200. This is Episode 200.