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Sabbath Bible Lessons

Light for Today From the Sanctuary Service

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Lesson 10 Sabbath, June 4, 2011

Annual Assemblies: the Day of Atonement

“On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement” (Leviticus 23:27).

“Once a year, on the great Day of Atonement, the [high] priest entered the most holy place for the cleansing of the sanctuary.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 355.

Suggested Reading:   The Great Controversy, pp. 417-422

Sunday May 29

1. THE FEASTS OF TRUMPETS AND OF TABERNACLES

a. What feast heralded the coming of the Day of Atonement? Leviticus 23:24, 25; Numbers 29:1.

b. What feast was held after the Day of Atonement and after the harvest was reaped? Leviticus 23:34–36, 40–43; Deuteronomy 16:13–15.

“We sustain a loss when we neglect the privilege of associating together to strengthen and encourage one another in the service of God. The truths of His word lose their vividness and importance in our minds. Our hearts cease to be enlightened and aroused by the sanctifying influence, and we decline in spirituality…. We are all children of one Father, dependent upon one another for happiness. The claims of God and of humanity are upon us. It is the proper cultivation of the social elements of our nature that brings us into sympathy with our brethren and affords us happiness in our efforts to bless others.

“The Feast of Tabernacles was not only commemorative but typical. It not only pointed back to the wilderness sojourn, but, as the feast of harvest, it celebrated the ingathering of the fruits of the earth, and pointed forward to the great day of final ingathering, when the Lord of the harvest shall send forth His reapers to gather the tares together in bundles for the fire, and to gather the wheat into His garner.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 541.


Monday May 30

2. A NECESSARY DISTINCTION: SINS PARDONED VS. SINS BLOTTED OUT

a. What was accomplished through the daily atonement? Exodus 29:39; Leviticus 4:13–20.

“In the sin offerings presented during the year, a substitute had been accepted in the sinner’s stead; but the blood of the victim had not made full atonement for the sin. It had only provided a means by which the sin was transferred to the sanctuary. By the offering of blood, the sinner acknowledged the authority of the law, confessed the guilt of his transgression, and expressed his faith in Him who was to take away the sin of the world; but he was not entirely released from the condemnation of the law.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 355, 356.

“The blood, representing the forfeited life of the sinner, whose guilt the victim bore, was carried by the priest into the holy place and sprinkled before the veil, behind which was the ark containing the law that the sinner had transgressed. By this ceremony the sin was, through the blood, transferred in figure to the sanctuary.”—The Great Controversy, p. 418.

b. How do we know that pardon and blotting out of sins are two different things? Ezekiel 18:24; Matthew 18:32–35.

“In the type the blood of the sin offering removed the sin from the penitent, but it rested in the sanctuary until the Day of Atonement.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 357.

“Our true position, and the only one in which there is any safety, is that of repentance and confession of sins before God. Feeling that we are sinners, we shall have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is able to pardon transgression and impute unto us righteousness. When the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, then the sins of the repentant soul, who received the grace of Christ and has overcome through the blood of the Lamb will be removed from the records of heaven and will be placed upon Satan, the scapegoat, the originator of sin, and be remembered no more against him forever. The sins of the overcomers will be blotted out of the books of record, but their names will be retained on the book of life.”—The Signs of the Times, May 16, 1895.


Tuesday May 31

3. THE DAY OF ATONEMENT

a. When did the Day of Atonement for removing the sins from the sanctuary occur? Leviticus 23:27.

b. Although the sins of the people were forgiven in the daily atonement, their sins still existed—accumulated in the sanctuary. What ceremony was performed, once a year, to put their past sins, symbolically, out of existence? Leviticus 16:16.

c. On the Day of Atonement, what ritual was practiced with the two goats that were brought to the high priest for the removal of sin from the people and from the sanctuary? Leviticus 16:7–10.

d. What did the high priest have to do before making atonement for the people? Leviticus 16:11.

e. What was the procedure with the goat of the sin offering? Leviticus 16:15–19. Whom did that goat represent? John 19:13–15; 1 Corinthians 15:3.

“The goat upon which fell the lot for the Lord was to be slain as a sin offering for the people. And the priest was to bring his blood within the veil and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. The blood was also to be sprinkled upon the altar of incense that was before the veil.”—The Great Controversy, p. 419.

f. As soon as the sanctuary had been purified from the “uncleanness of the children of Israel,” what did the high priest do with the sins that had just been removed? Leviticus 16:20–22.


Wednesday June 1

4. THE CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY

a. To what forthcoming experience did the blowing of the trumpets, ten days in advance (Numbers 29:1), call the attention of the people? What were all expected to do on the Day of Atonement? Leviticus 16:29, 30; 23:27, 32.

b. What would happen to those who would not afflict their souls on that great day? Leviticus 23:29, 30. What will happen to those who sin willfully after having received the knowledge of the truth? Hebrews 10:26–31.

“To sin, wherever found, ‘our God is a consuming fire’ (Hebrews 12:29). In all who submit to His power the Spirit of God will consume sin. But if men cling to sin, they become identified with it. Then the glory of God, which destroys sin, must destroy them.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 107.

c. What did the ancient Day of Atonement symbolize? Proverbs 16:6; Hebrews 9:11–14, 25–28.

“The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin; it would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement; so in the type the blood of the sin offering removed the sin from the penitent, but it rested in the sanctuary until the Day of Atonement.

“In the great day of final award, the dead are to be ‘judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works’ (Revelation 20:12). Then by virtue of the atoning blood of Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted from the books of heaven. Thus the sanctuary will be freed, or cleansed, from the record of sin. In the type, this great work of atonement, or blotting out of sins, was represented by the services of the Day of Atonement—the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary, which was accomplished by the removal, by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, of the sins by which it had been polluted.

“As in the final atonement the sins of the truly penitent are to be blotted from the records of heaven, no more to be remembered or come into mind, so in the type they were borne away into the wilderness, forever separated from the congregation.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 357, 358.


Thursday June 2

5. LIFE OR DEATH IN THE BALANCE

a. What parallel can be seen between (i) The scapegoat of Leviticus 16:21, and (ii) Satan as described in Revelation 20:1–3.

“Since Satan is the originator of sin, the direct instigator of all the sins that caused the death of the Son of God, justice demands that Satan shall suffer the final punishment.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 358.

b. What warning can help us escape the destruction of sin and sinners? Proverbs 16:3; Acts 3:19. Give examples of false repentance. 2 Corinthians 7:10; 1 Samuel 15:24; Matthew 27:3, 4.

“God has erected the barriers of testimonies as a wall about you to guard you from falling under the specious wiles of the enemy, but you break all these down and press over everything to follow your inclination. Your sorrow for your sins is like that of those who anciently rent their garments to express their grief but did not afflict their souls. You have not a correct sense of what sin is. The aggravating character of unchastity of thought and actions you have not sensed. Your mind is carnal, and that almost continually. If you really were sorry for your sins, if you really had a true sense of your wrongs, you would exercise that repentance that needeth not to be repented of.”—Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce, p. 169.

c. In whom only is there hope for us? Romans 5:6–11.


Friday June 3

PERSONAL REVIEW QUESTIONS

a. What was the meaning of the Day of Atonement that occurred once a year? When did it take place?

b. What was the difference between the daily and yearly atonements?

c. What is the difference between pardon and blotting out of sin?

d. What was the symbolic meaning of the two goats brought to the sanctuary?

e. Explain the parallel between the fate of the scapegoat and of Satan.

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