Lesson 86 - Junior

Memory Verse

"The LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).

Notes

Saved Through the Blood

There is only one way that man can be saved from his sins: through the Blood of Jesus. Jesus said: "For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28). When our Lord was on earth He lived a beautiful life and taught the people how they should live if they wanted to go to Heaven. But no one can obey His teachings unless he has had his sins forgiven and taken away through the Blood of the Saviour. And we will have to obey those teachings or we will never get into Heaven. "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17).

Before Jesus went into Heaven He told His disciples, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2). Just imagine some of the beautiful places you have seen here on earth, and then remember that Jesus has said that Heaven is more beautiful than we can even picture it in our minds. We all want to go to Heaven to live in that glorious place forever.

Holy People for a Holy Place

But if Heaven is so wonderful, God will not let sinful people live there. Everyone who goes to Heaven will have to be holy, cleansed through the Blood of Jesus. When John the Beloved was on the Isle of Patmos, sent away from his home because wicked men did not like it that he preached about Jesus, he saw in a vision. He saw many people in white robes, with palms in their hands, singing around the Throne of God. John wondered who they were. One of the holy men of Heaven told John, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). They had been saved through the Blood of Jesus; that was why their robes were white and they could sing praises to God in Heaven.

Spiritual Freedom

Jesus' shedding His Blood for the sins of the people is called the Atonement. Through the Atonement our sins are forgiven and taken away forever. When we have to stand before God to be judged for the way we lived on earth, we shall not have to answer for the sins we have committed in the past if we have asked Jesus to forgive them and take them away.

Some people do not seem to realise that Jesus had to die to atone for our sins. They think that His work here was a failure because He did not set up His kingdom on earth, as the people of that time thought He would do. The Israelites (or Jews) were in bondage to the Romans when Jesus lived on earth, and they were looking for a Messiah who would come and be their King and would overthrow the Roman government. But that was not what Jesus came for. He came to shed His Blood to wash away man's sins. To be free from sin and be ready to go to Heaven is much more important than to live in a land of freedom on earth.

Great Cost of Redemption

Think of the price that Jesus paid to redeem us from our sins! He had never done anything wrong; He was with God when the worlds were made, "and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3). And yet He was willing to leave His beautiful home in Heaven and come to earth in the form of a man, and live and suffer as we do (only without sin), and pay the price of our redemption by giving His life in the cruel death on the cross. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). We see from that verse that we also have the promise of healing in the Atonement. Peter repeated that promise when he said: "Who his own self bares our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed" (I Peter 2:24).

The Israelites' Day of Atonement

God wanted to show the Children of Israel how much the Atonement would mean, so He appointed a day in each year upon which offerings were made which pictured the work that Jesus would do by giving His life as a living sacrifice. The people were shedding the blood of animals in their daily sacrifices, all a type in one way or another of what Jesus would do through His shed Blood. But on the Day of Atonement there were special offerings that showed in a greater way the effect Jesus' Blood would have. These offerings were for the entire nation, showing that "whosoever will" may be saved. But for their individual sins, the people still had to bring their trespass offerings. Even so, we cannot be saved through Christ's promise that, all the world may be saved, unless we each come in repentance and ask Jesus to forgive our sins. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

The Day of Atonement was a solemn day in which the Children of Israel were to remember their sins. They were to realise that there was no true happiness until their sins were taken away. We cannot be truly happy until our sins are washed away through the Blood of Jesus.

High Priest Alone

We learned that Aaron and his sons were all priests, but Aaron was the high priest. He alone served on the Day of Atonement, just as Jesus, our High Priest, alone made our Atonement. "When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3). Aaron was very careful to do everything exactly as God had commanded. He wore special clothes on this day, and he washed himself often to be sure that he was clean, a type of purity.

Entrance into the Holy of Holies

No one could go into the Holy of Holies except the high priest, and he could go in only on the Day of Atonement. Think how much it meant for him to lift the curtain and stand before the Presence of God, which rested over the Mercy Seat. Aaron took with him coals of fire in his golden censer, and incense to burn which would make a cloud of smoke between him and God, "that he die not." He must approach God carefully and with reverence. God wants us to come before Him thoughtfully, realising His holiness. We must respect the House of God, and conduct ourselves as though we are aware every minute that Jesus is watching us. When we pray we must realise that we are talking with our Master, the One who also made the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them. Just think what it means to be able to pray to such a holy and wonderful God, and have Him answer our prayers!

A special offering of two goats was made on the Day of Atonement. Aaron killed one and took the blood into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle upon the Mercy Seat for the people. The Israelites could not go in themselves, but Aaron made the offering for them.

How anxiously they awaited Aaron's return! They stood outside and prayed while he was sprinkling the blood in the Holy of Holies. Not even the other priests could come into the Holy Place where the golden altar and the golden candlestick were, while Aaron was in the Holy of Holies. Golden bells around the bottom of Aaron's robes tinkled as he moved about, and assured the people listening outside that he was still alive and was making atonement for them.

Veil Rent

When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the Temple was rent, so that everyone could go into the Holy of Holies. That means that we can now all go before the Mercy Seat for ourselves and do not need an earthly priest to talk with God for us. When Jesus finished the work of redemption and went into Heaven to be our High Priest in the Most Holy Place of Heaven, there was no more need for a priest or the tabernacle worship.

Our High Priest

Jesus did not enter Heaven with the blood of bulls and goats, as Aaron went into the Holy of Holies, but He took His own Blood. His hands and His feet and His side were pierced when He was crucified, and His Blood was shed to atone for our sins. After He paid such a tremendous price for us, do you think we can get to Heaven any other way than by the way He planned?

Jesus will come again for those who look for Him. As the Israelites waited for Aaron to come out of the Tabernacle, so we wait for Jesus to come down from Heaven to take His people back with Him. He said He would come back for those who look for Him.

What does it mean to look for Jesus? We must be justified through the Blood that He shed. We must be sanctified, our inherited sinful nature removed, also through the Blood of Jesus. Then we must have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. When Jesus went into Heaven He promised His disciples that He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be our Guide "into all truth." Jesus commanded His disciples to tarry until they were "endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). That command is for us today, also. We must walk in all the light of God's Word that is shed upon our pathway, to be ready to meet Jesus when He comes.

The Scapegoat

There were two goats offered on the Day of Atonement. We read that one was killed and his blood taken into the Holy of Holies. The other one was called the scapegoat. We sometimes call a person a scapegoat when he takes the blame for someone else. That is what the original scapegoat did. He stood very still while Aaron placed his hands on the goat's head and confessed all the sins of Israel upon him. Then he willingly went with a man who took him into the wilderness where he was lost. Nobody ever saw the goat again. That was a picture of Jesus, willingly coming to earth, taking our sins upon Himself, and dying to take sin away for all who will come to Him in repentance, and believe.

So we see that in the Day of Atonement we have an over-all picture of what Jesus did by willingly coming to this earth to shed His Blood that our sins might be forgiven and taken away, to be remembered against us no more.

Questions

1. What did the Day of Atonement picture?

2. Who made the sacrifices and served in the Tabernacle this day?

3. What could he do that day that he could do at no other time?

4. How did he prepares himself to go into the Holy of Holies?

5. What was the scapegoat?

6. What happened to the other goat?

7. How did the goats represent Jesus?

8. How can we have our sins forgiven and taken away?