What the Bible says about Cleansing and Purification
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Leviticus 16:5 Each year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the high priest performed an elaborate ceremony consisting of four sacrificial animals (see Leviticus 16). He offered a ram as a burnt offering, a bullock as a sin offering for the high priest and his household, and two goats together as a sin offering. These two goats receive the most attention on this day. A vital detail in this ceremony is that the two goats together accomplish atonement for the nation. Notice Leviticus 16:5: "And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a [singular] sin offering" (emphasis ours throughout). This instruction is unusual, for the ordinary sin offering consisted of a single animal (see Leviticus 4:3, 14, 23, 28; 5:6-7). Why did God command two animals as the sin offering for the nation? To answer this question, we must first examine the typical sin offering, outlined in Leviticus 4. There, God commands four slightly different rituals, depending on who had committed the unintentional sin: a priest (verses 3-12), the whole congregation (verses 13-21), a leader of the people (verses 22-26), or an individual (verses 27-31). Regardless of the transgressor, though, the priest conducted the same basic procedure—one to take note of, for it helps to explain the Day of Atonement ceremony. In the standard sin offering, the guilty party first laid his hands on the sacrificial animal (Leviticus 4:4, 15, 24, 29). This action symbolized the innocent animal taking the place of the sinner, figuratively transferring the guilt of the person to the animal. Second, the animal was killed. Third, the priest sprinkled some of its blood in front of the veil, and he put some on the horns of either the golden altar (used for incense) or the brazen altar (used for burnt offerings), depending on who sinned. He poured the rest of the blood at the base of the brazen altar. Finally, select parts of the animal were burned on the brazen altar, while the rest of the animal was burned outside the camp. The procedure for the sin offering essentially ends there, but more needs to be considered. The offering has symbolically cleansed the guilty party, but is the sin truly gone? In this regard, the book of Hebrews teaches us that 1) animal blood is used for symbolic cleansing and purification (Hebrews 9:13, 22); but 2) the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). In the ritual of the sin offering, then, the transgressor is symbolically cleansed, yet his sin is not taken away—it cannot be removed simply through the shedding of animal blood. To further understand the symbolism of blood and sin, remember that God repeatedly prohibits the eating of blood (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 7:26-27; 17:10-14; 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:16). Even though the animal to be eaten is dead, God still considers the blood of the animal to contain the life of the animal! Deuteronomy 12:23 proclaims, "Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the [lifeless] meat." Blood is a symbol of life, even after the heart has stopped! It is a representation—even a record—of the life lived. Thus, the first usage of blood in Scripture is anthropomorphic: God considered Abel's blood to have a voice even after Cain had cut his life short by violence (Genesis 4:10). If the blood of an unblemished animal represents an innocent life, the blood of an animal upon whose head sins have been transferred represents a sinful life. Therefore, while the transgressor is symbolically cleansed of his sins after laying his hands on an innocent animal and shedding its blood, the substituted blood still bore witness—a record—of the transgression. In some scenarios, priests could eat the meat of a sin offering, but because of the symbolic defilement of the blood, if any of its blood got on the priests' garments, they had to be washed (Leviticus 6:27). There is no such proscription for the blood of burnt offerings or peace offerings, in which blood is shed yet which do not involve sin. Because of this symbolic, sin-carrying quality of blood, it is as if the horns of the golden or incense altar—covered with the blood of countless substitutionary animals—became a repository for all the nation's sins, sins that still had to be taken away (compare Jeremiah 17:1). This is shown by God's command that the incense altar—specifically the horns, where the defiled blood was placed—had to be cleansed once a year: And Aaron shall make atonement upon [the altar's] horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement; once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD." (Exodus 30:10) The incense altar was symbolically cleansed once a year through the high priest "mak[ing] atonement" upon it, meaning he would cover it with blood that did not represent sin. This verse gives the essence of what was to happen on the Day of Atonement, while Leviticus 16 provides all the specifics of how God's instructions were to be carried out. David C. Grabbe Why Two Goats on Atonement? (Part One) Related Topics: Altar of Incense | Atonement | Azazel -goat of "Complete Removal" | Azazel-Complete Removal | Burnt Offering | Burnt Sacrifices | Cleansing and Purification | Cleansing and Removal of Sin | Day of Atonement | Ritual with the Two Goats | Sin Offering | Substitutionary Sacrifice | Two Goats of Leviticus 16 | Two Kid Goats as a Sin Offering | Why Two Goats on Atonement? | Yom Kippur

Leviticus 16:5 While the two goats together were used for this annual cleansing of sin, some have difficulty seeing the azazel was not a sin offering since it was not slain. But before excluding the live goat from being a sin offering, we should note that it was sacrificed in the sense that its life was completely dedicated to a sacrificial purpose. Its purpose was to bear sins as a substitute rather than to give its blood. Jesus Christ was alive while He bore our sins, but He was still a Sacrifice while that took place. The Hebrew word for “sin offering,” chatta'ah (Strong's #2403), is also the word for “sin.” It has multiple meanings. It can indicate sin, a sin offering, guilt resulting from sin, purification from sin, or punishment because of sin. In general, chatta'ah has to do with sin, its effects, or its remediation. The Hebrew in Leviticus 16:5 literally says, “two kids of the goats as a sin [chatta'ah].” When we substitute some of the other ways chatta'ah is used, verse 5 could be rendered as: “. . . two kids of the goats as a purification from sin . . .” or “. . . two kids of the goats because of sin . . ..” In a sin offering, the animal symbolizes the guilt incurred by sin. It then suffers the judgment of sin and is thus purified from sin. This is why the same word is used for both sin and sin offering: The animal becomes synonymous with sin and its atoning. In the case of the two goats, both became offerings on account of sin, yet they had differing roles in making atonement. The second goat, though not killed by the priest, was still an offering. It was still a substitutionary representative of sin, as chatta'ah is defined. David C. Grabbe Azazel: Endings Related Topics: Azazel -goat of "Complete Removal" | Azazel Bearing Sins | Chatta-ah | Cleansing and Purification | Purification from Sin

 

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