Feast of Atonement: The Play’s the Thing

Feasts of Israel Series: Part 20

Well, it’s been a while, but when we last saw the people of Israel, they had just finished preparing for the Feast of Atonement by afflicting their souls.

It was the tenth day of the seventh month, Tishri. All eyes turned toward the bronze altar and the sanctuary tent behind it. The rituals they were about to watch would create a stage play of sorts, demonstrating the mind and heart of God—showing what He alone could and would do for them.

In the first act, a bullock would die for the sins of the priesthood and a goat would die for their own. The blood of the sin offerings would travel inside the tent, along with coal from the altar’s fire, to cleanse all the holy furniture. Then the blood would reappear outside to splash upon and around the brazen altar, cleansing it as well.

The next act would take place in the courtyard. The lead actor would turn a goat to face the audience as he laid hands on its head and transferred their sins to its back. Then he’d conduct the newly burdened animal out of the compound where a supporting character waited to lead it far away.

In the final act, the leading man, who’d been dressed in plain white linen up to this point in the play, would make a costume change and reappear in the resplendent garb of a bridegroom. The full cast and audience would reassemble at the altar as around a campfire, where the fire snapped and the smoke of burning flesh filled their nostrils. In a dramatic climax, the hero of the show would pick up the rest of the celebration’s fifteen offerings and cast them all onto the coals.

Sin was gone and all was now clean.

We’ll be looking at the substance of each of these acts soon. But first, let’s consider the reason for the elaborate production and the key cast member.

The Play’s the Thing

God has always wanted His people to know and understand Him. He made sure His Ten Commandments were written in stone, indicating the unchangeable nature of wisdom. Except for a few days of the year, however, those words were locked up inside the Ark of the Covenant. By the time Moses died, he had written the five books of the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy). But only a single copy of God’s Word existed to serve a million or more people until it could be accurately reproduced.

The Levites had a responsibility to teach the people what was in the great scroll (Deuteronomy 10:11). Though God would command future kings to read the Word daily (Deuteronomy 17:18–20), this privilege was not available to the common person. There were no dusty household shelves from which to grab Bible should a layman want personal guidance and understanding. The best they could do was ask the counsel of the priests and Levites who studied the Word.

What they couldn’t read, however, they could watch through Sabbath and feast day rituals. There was, in fact, plenty to “read” about God in the design of the tabernacle itself. (For more about that, see my book, A Place for Me in God’s Tent). Even early church architecture used visual teaching devices by means of icons, symbols, and artwork to serve the illiterate masses. The rituals of the feasts of Israel in particular gave God a way to act out what His people couldn’t read for themselves.

The Leading Man

Most of the cast was made up of priests acting as both stagehands and theatrical critics. They not only attended the main character but made sure he did not make the tiniest mistake in his performance. It may have looked like religious perfectionism at its worst. In fact, however, it assured God’s storyline would not be altered in any way.

You may have guessed by now that the leading man for the Great Day of Atonement was the high priest. He and he alone was allowed to fill this role. His supporting cast would come and go as they attended him, but the high priest would remain center stage all day.

For this reason, he played the part of the promised Messiah. Moses had told the people long ago that God would raise up another prophet or spokesman as singular and unusual as he had been (Deuteronomy 18:15). He would be their Great Deliverer, a Savior like no other.

Year after year during the Feast of Atonement, the high priest would demonstrate what Messiah would ultimately do once and for all. The blood of bulls and goats would act as stage prop—a substitute for the blood of a sinless, spotless man to come (Hebrews 10:4).

The real Leading Man would be the Great High Priest, the Messiah, whose lifeblood would not just pour out before at an earthly altar, but a heavenly one.

Preparing for the Role

Preparation for the holy day required a lot of the high priest. According to Alfred Edersheim, he would have been kept awake all night, spending the hours in prayer, in studying the rituals he’d be leading.

When we look at what happened to Jesus the final night before Passover, we see Him retire to the Mount of Olives after their meal together. He prayed and prepared so intensely for what was to come, His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:44). Surely, He would have been clinging desperately to Scripture throughout His ordeal, clinging to the Word He’d lived out so thoroughly all His life—repeating the words to His Father, speaking them to His soul, drawing strength from them to finish His race perfectly.

Like the stagehands in Atonement’s play, a cadre of priests from the Sanhedrin swooped in to make sure there would be no sleep for Jesus that night. Throughout the long night, He rehearsed His role as sacrificial lamb. Challenged by both priesthood and Pilate’s troops to disqualify himself, He prepared for the production due to play out the next morning.

The Stage is Set

This is where we leave our hero for now. The curtain is about to lift on the greatest event of history. The orchestra is tuning up. The lights are about to dim.

What is the God of the Universe about to show the world?