Welcome to Pathway and to our fall series called Birthright.

We are looking at the official FESTIVALS the Bible outlines for the calendar of ancient Israel.

My talk today is part 6 in the series, on the Day of Atonement.
My title is: Salvation

I've been praying for you today. I've been praying that by the time this message is over, if you have never received salvation from Jesus, today will be your day.

This is your choice.

To get there, I'm taking you to a box. A gold-covered box in a desert tent, with a slab of gold on top and two angels staring down at it.

But first, two funerals.

Let's get right into the Bible. Leviticus 16 is the chapter on the Day of Atonement, the holiest day on Israel's calendar.

"Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the LORD, and died." (Leviticus 16:1)

Nadab and Abihu. Ordained priests. Sons of the high priest. They walked into the tabernacle carrying fire God never asked for, and fire from God consumed them where they stood. Their father buried them. And God's one-sentence commentary on the funeral was this:

"By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy." (Leviticus 10:3)

That's a scary sentence.

That sentence sets up the Day of Atonement. The whole chapter is God's answer to a question hanging over two fresh graves: how does anybody draw near to this God and live?

Because here is what the Bible says about Him. Moses, the man who spoke with God face to face as a friend, asked to see His glory. God said no.

"You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." (Exodus 33:20)

Isaiah, a prophet who had been preaching holiness to everybody else, caught one glimpse of the throne room, and this came out of his mouth:

"Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." (Isaiah 6:5)

And a town full of farmers in Beth Shemesh looked inside the Ark of the Covenant, and buried their neighbors the next day. Their question is the question of this entire sermon:

"Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God?" (1 Samuel 6:20)

Let me break down that word holy. In Hebrew it's qadosh. Set apart. Other. In a category by Himself. Holiness does not just mean God is better than you at being good.

So here is the dilemma. This holy God, the One who said no man shall see Me and live, turns around and says this to Moses:

"And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell AMONG them." (Exodus 25:8)

This holy, scary, dangerous God wants to move into the neighborhood. He wants His tent pitched in the dead center of the camp, with two million sinners sleeping in a circle around Him. And in the same book, He tells Moses exactly why that is a problem:

"I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people." (Exodus 33:3)

Two sentences. Same God. Same book. I want to dwell with you. But if I dwell with you, I will consume you.

Both are true, and both came out of His own mouth.

Do you see the dilemma here?

Something has to stand between His holiness and their sin, or the camp of Israel becomes the largest cemetery in the Sinai.

Here is what God did about it.

In Exodus 25. God is on Mount Sinai handing Moses the blueprints for the tabernacle. This is their place of worship, a giant, ornate, carefully planned tent, which will one day become a incredible temple.

The first item on the list is a box called the Ark of the Covenant.

Everything else gets built outward from this one object. If you understand this box, you'll understand the Day of Atonement. And if you understand the Day of Atonement, you'll understand the heart of the whole Bible.

Here's the construction.

A chest of acacia wood, about four feet long, overlaid with pure gold inside and out.

Gold rings on the corners, gold-covered poles through the rings, and the poles never come out, because no human hand is ever to touch the Ark.

Then God tells Moses what goes inside.
"And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you." (Exodus 25:16)

The Testimony. Two tablets of stone. The Ten Commandments, written by the finger of God. You could say that the law represents: God's Demands and Mankind's Failure.

Now the lid.
"You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold." (Exodus 25:17)

Let me break down that word. Mercy seat is the Hebrew kapporet. It comes from the root kaphar, to cover, to atone. It's the same root as Kippur, as in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The Mercy Seat is solid gold.

On that gold slab, hammered out of the same piece, stand two "cherubim." These are glorious angels. Wings stretched up and over, facing each other, and looking down, into the box.

"...the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat." (Exodus 25:20)

The last time Scripture showed you cherubim, they were standing at the gate of Eden with a flaming sword, keeping sinners away. Cherubim guard the holiness of God. And now they are bent over this box, staring down.

Then God tells Moses what the whole thing is for.
"And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony..." (Exodus 25:22)

From the beginning it was God's plan to dwell with and to fellowship with his people. Here's the only place on earth that can happen.

Now put the whole picture together, top to bottom.

At the top, the presence of the holy God, the One who said no man shall see Me and live.

Beneath Him, two angels, the guardians of His holiness and righteousness, eyes looking down.

And beneath their gaze, inside the box, the Law. God's Demands and Mankind's Failure.

So when holiness looks down and sees nothing but a broken Law, there is only one possible verdict.

The verdict of Eden.
The verdict of Nadab and Abihu.
The verdict of Beth Shemesh.
Guilty.

And the penalty is Death.

But God did not leave mankind's failures forever exposed.

Between the gaze of the angels and the broken Law, He put a slab of pure gold and named it the mercy seat.

And on one day each year, He told the high priest to put something on that mercy seat.

So God commands this:
"Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat." (Leviticus 16:2)

Not at just any time. Only the high priest could go behind that barrier, and he could only do that one day a year.

That veil was the perfect picture of the BARRIER between God and sinful people.

So watch the High Priest.

First, he strips off the glorious garments, the breastplate, the gold, the jewels, and puts on plain white linen, the clothing of a servant.

Second, before he can do anything for the people, a bull dies for him. This priest is a sinner. His own sin has to be covered before he can take care of anybody else's.

Third, two goats are brought to the door, and lots are cast. One goat is for the LORD. The other is called the scapegoat, a goat that will be sent away.

Fourth, he fills a container with red hot coals from the altar, takes two handfuls of incense, throws them onto the coal, and steps behind the veil.

The smoky incense fills the room until the mercy seat disappears in the cloud.

Then he does the thing the whole day is about.
"He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat." (Leviticus 16:14-15)

The bull's blood. On the mercy seat. Before the mercy seat. Seven times.

Then the goat's blood, the same way. On it. Before it. Seven times. God is not being repetitive by accident. He wants the picture burned into Israel's memory.

Remember the picture. God at the top. His holiness and righteousness looking down. Mankind's failures fully exposed.

But now, for the first time, there is something in the way.

There is blood inserted between our failures and God's holiness.

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul." (Leviticus 17:11)

The Law said the sinner must die. The Law was not lying. And on this day, somebody died, not the sinner, but a substitute.

When holiness looks down now, it does not see the broken Law by itself. It sees the blood of a substitute, lying between the throne and the record.