Information Related to "The Binding of Satan Pictured on the Day of Atonement"
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Jesus Christ's second coming (Revelation 19:11-16) will be followed almost immediately by the devil being bound by one of God's angels: "He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished" (Revelation 20:2-3).
Every year in ancient Israel one segment of the solemn ceremonies held on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) pictured the time when Satan's deception of "the whole world" (Revelation 12:9) would be stopped. The people were instructed: "Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement [as a sacrificial cleansing] is made for you before the Lord your God. Anyone who does not deny himself [by fasting] on that day must be cut off from his people" (Leviticus 23:28-29, NIV).
The events of that day were rich in symbolism. The main feature of that day's ceremonies was the selection of two goats, the first to serve as a type of Christ's atoning sacrifice for cleansing Israel of her sins committed in ignorance and the second to represent the removal of Satan.
"The Lord said to Moses: Tell your brother Aaron not to come just at any time into the sanctuary inside the curtain before the mercy seat that is upon the ark . . . Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place . . . He shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering . . . He shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting; and Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel [to represent Satan's role in promoting sin]" (Leviticus 16:2-8, NRSV).
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