Sermon Transcript — October 2, 2006
Probably most of us have an Atonement story or two, I remember when I was a senior in college that on the Day of Atonement it was announced that the offertory music that day would actually be a trumpet solo with a piano accompaniment. Of course all of us as students were really glad that we weren't giving special music because it's a special challenge I think anytime in public, but especially on the Day of Atonement. And our hats off to Mary for doing a lovely job! The pianist played the introduction and the trumpet player put the trumpet up to his lips but no sound came out, the pianist played the introduction a second time and although the trumpet was in position, there was nothing coming out. So the pianist, being as experienced as he was, he just continued playing, he played the whole song. By this time of course, the trumpeter was leaning against the piano and looking pretty pale by that point. The pianist actually played the entire song and the trumpet never made a sound. The song ended and both men sat down. What was scheduled to be a trumpet solo with piano accompaniment ended up being a piano solo, the trumpet player was just too weak to play the trumpet. I think all of us at this point of the day can empathize with that, I don't think, even on a full stomach, I'm not sure I could get a trumpet to sound very good but especially on the Day of Atonement, it would be particularly difficult I'm sure.
Typically on the Day of Atonement, of course, even our fellowship is a little more limited, it feels good to sit down to talk to people and from a purely physical standpoint, fasting is not our favorite activity. At the same time, especially from a spiritual standpoint, we look at today and we realize God tells us to fast and we understand why we do fast so it's something we're happy to do, we're thankful to be here, we're certainly willing to do that and especially understanding the purpose behind it, the symbolism, we're willingly, gladly going this, and hopefully there's nothing else we'd rather be doing today on a special holy day.
Over the years as I've counseled young adults for baptism, young adults especially who grew up in the Church, I've noticed an interesting pattern. As part of the pre-baptismal counseling, we would typically go through all seven of the festivals and explain their meaning so that they would begin to see the overall picture of God's plan, how He's producing a family. And typically the young people did extremely well, they remembered six out of seven - the one that there was some hesitation on, the one that more than ever they faltered and had to kind of regroup and think about, was the Day of Atonement. So here we are today, on the Day of Atonement – I would ask them for example, what does the Day of Atonement picture in God's plan? And there would be this long silence, so I would try to place some hints and drop some clues and suggest a few things to kind of get the ball rolling and before long, oh yes, they remembered, but it's perhaps not the one that's the clearest in our minds as far as understanding what the Day of Atonement really pictures. I think perhaps the name – perhaps when we think of Trumpets, we think, ah yes, Trumpets, last one, Christ returns, very clear. Atonement is perhaps not as clear in our minds as many of the others. I don't know if any of the other ministers have had that experience but I found that to be a most interesting experience.
Here we are on the Day of Atonement, we have the opportunity to once again review, review the priceless truths God has given us and hopefully to understand even more clearly and more deeply and to apply more personally the meaning of God's holy day, the Day of Atonement.
Several years ago at the Feast of Tabernacles, one of our pastors, Mr. Dave Myers was giving a sermon on youth day and was explaining the overall plan of God by going through the seven Festivals and trying to make it meaningful for teenagers and young adults and children, on their level so he used an analogy that I thought for the Day of Atonement was particularly meaningful and one that I've remembered and it's been helpful for me. When he went to the Day of Atonement he talked about the fact that the Day of Atonement is like, the meaning that is, is like, and he said he compared it to our spiritual lives and walking on a log. Now in my mind I pictured a big tree across a creek or a river that you'd have to balance yourself and very carefully walk across the log to get from one side of the creek to the other side and if you watch your step and you go slowly and you watch your balance, it can be done, it's not impossible. It's a challenge, but it can be done.
But he said, there's another factor involved. He explained, what if on that log there was an individual, a big guy he called him, who is 6'6" tall, champion weightlifter, 230 lbs., much bigger and stronger than any of us and the whole purpose for him being there was to prevent us from getting from one side to the other. His job was to push us off the log. The point of the analogy was that we all have an enemy, we have a spiritual enemy, Satan the devil, the big guy on the log as Mr. Myers called him, and his objective was to keep us from reaching our human potential, to keep us out of the family of God if at all possible, to prevent us from accomplishing the reason for which God created us and put us on this earth. His purpose is to kill, to destroy, to confuse, to deceive, to mislead and cause a lot of misery and suffering in the meantime.
The Day of Atonement pictures a time, still in the future, after Christ returns, when God will take out the big guy. The day when God will take out the big guy. That's how he was explaining it to the youth of the Church. I thought that was very memorable and very effective because God will knock the big guy off the log and that pictures as we understand, Satan being captured, being bound and confined after Christ returns.
Let's go to Leviticus 23:26 because we want to specifically look at and see in black and white with our own eyes, what God names this day. What does God name this day? Names are very important to God. We realize that God calls things what they are, that there's a meaning for everything that God does and when He calls this day a particular day, it's significant, it's something we should identify with, understand clearly.
Lev. 23:26-27 – And the Eternal spokes to Moses, saying: "Also the tenth day of the seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you...and here we are at services fulfilling those instructions...you shall afflict your souls...that means to fast and we're doing that as well...and make an offering made by fire to the Eternal."
We've taken up an offering, the atonement, I think as you realized, Day of Atonement is the only day that God requires a public fast, He tells us to privately fast, but this is a public one, where we all do it together.
verse 28 – "And you shall do no work on that same day...as we heard in the sermonette, for it's a day of atone-ment...to make atonement for you before the Eternal your God.
Interesting that God does not call this festival "The day of taking out the big guy!" He could, couldn't He? He doesn't call it "The day Satan goes to prison" does He? Instead He calls it the Day of Atonement. Satan and what happens to him is very important and we learn a lot about that from the meaning of this day, but that part, Satan's part, is only a part of the meaning of the Day of Atonement, only a piece of the puzzle. We're all familiar with cameras that have zoom lenses where you can zoom in on a particular, let's say a face of an individual in a crowd or you can see the entire crowd, you can see a person standing in front of the lake or you can see the lake and the trees and all the scenery beside it. If we were to zoom in and just focus on Satan today, the Day of Atonement, we would miss much of the big picture so it's important that we zoom back, the spectrum, the wider picture, the wide angle, as far as what today pictures, because Satan is only a piece of that puzzle, only part of the meaning, not all of it at all.
The word "atonement" is not one that we use often in our society so its meaning really may not be very clear to us. Atonement has to do with relationships. Over the years in the Church, we've used the tool to understand the meaning of the word, we've broken the word down into syllables, at-one-ment. That's helpful. Atonement has to do with the very opposite of being at odds with somebody. If we're at one with somebody, it's the opposite of being at odds with somebody. It means to be reconciled - Mr. Pinelli mentioned that in the sermonette, something has damaged or destroyed a relationship, but amends have been made. So there was a damage, destruction, harm, hurt, pain, suffering, but somehow that has been reconciled, it's been healed, there's been forgiveness and now there's a harmonious relationship, there's no strain in the relationship and the individuals are no longer at odds, now they are at-one, they're reconciled. The Day of Atonement is talking about being reconciled to God, being at-one with God. Let's go to I Timothy 2:4 because the question we want to ask is, who is God talking about here, about being reconciled on the Day of Atonement? Is He talking about the first fruits? The Church, us, the people of God being reconciled? We're already at-one with God if we've been baptized and repented and had our sins forgiven, we're already at-one with God. That whole process was pictured by the spring holy days, Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread. So the Day of Atonement is not primarily about us, we're not talking about atonement for us primarily. I Tim. 2:4 I think helps make that clear. It says:
I Tim. 2:4 – Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
God loves everyone and His plan that He has is to give everyone an opportunity to know Him and to become at-one with Him, in fact, even a part of His family. The Day of Atonement looks outward; it looks toward the future, a time when God prepares a way that He can establish a connection with every human being on the face of the earth. A relationship with them, not just the first fruits, like He's doing now, but eventually every human being. So the Day of Atonement is about the rest of the world, really, and then becoming at-one, having a chance to connect with, having a chance to be invited into the family of God. Now in order to create the best possible climate for this to happen, God's plan does involve taking out the big guy, He does remove the devil and puts him in prison, that's true. Let's go to Isaiah 59:1 and while we're going there, let's ask the question, what is it that separated us from God in the first place? Why do we need to be made at-one with God, what prevents us from being at-one with God? Isa. 59:1 clearly answers that question.
Isa. 59:1 – Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy that it cannot hear. It isn't that God isn't there; it's not that God doesn't care.
verse 2 – But your iniquities...it says...your sins...have separated between you and your God and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear.
That's a problem, isn't it? Because sin, the fact that all people sin creates a big problem in regard to human beings having a relationship with God. God is a holy God, He's perfectly righteous, He does not sin, in fact He tells us He hates sin. Sin is a huge barrier between God and people. We see another crucial piece of the puzzle in John 8:44, we'll go there next. Sin, this barrier doesn't just happen without a cause – what is the cause of sin? We have our part for sure, our own human nature, but Satan and what he does is primarily the cause of sin. God wants to be at-one with people, all people of the world, but Satan is a great separator. He started with Adam and Eve shortly after they were created and was able to separate them from God. In fact he has caused and been involved with causing everyone to sin on the face of the earth – everyone who has ever lived except Jesus Christ, who has always been at-one with God. How is it then, how do we know that Satan is the primary cause of sin? It's a convenient out for us, isn't it, but how do we know that's true, how can we say that he's the one that's responsible for human sin? Who better to confirm this fact than Jesus Christ Himself in John 8:44 ? Jesus here is talking to the religious, the envious religious leaders of His day and He said:
John 8:44 – "You are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he's a liar and the father of it."
This verse gives us a lot of insight into the devil's mind and character. We'll focus on those last few words in particular because they really give us a key to understanding here – "the devil is a liar and the father of it." Satan is not only the father of lies; we could also say Satan is a father of sin. To be the father of sin means this – he's the source and the root cause of sin, every sin originates in a dark spiritual world of Satan. Jesus Christ traced sin back to its source, the devil.
Henry David Thoreau once said, "There are 1,000 people hacking at the branches of evil, to one who is striking at the root." God is the one who will strike at the true root of evil and dispose of Satan the devil. In regard to these 1,000 people hacking at the branches of evil, there's an interesting publication called "The Encyclopedia of World Problems" – it's been around and updated since 1972, describes some 12,000 world problems and evils, it's about 1200 pages long. The problems aren't just listed as isolated evils in the world; the author tries to identify cycles or complex networks and cycles of problems. Here's an example – an example of the cycle would be that if you start out with the evil of alienation, a person having no sense of belonging, no connection with other people, that alienation would lead to youth gangs, that would lead to neighborhoods being controlled by criminals, that would lead to psychological stress in urban environments, that would lead to substance abuse and that would lead to family breakdown and that would lead back to more alienation, a vicious cycle.
Other related volumes of the encyclopedia try to offer solutions to these 12,000 evils in our world and it's a commendable effort but the interesting thing is that it does not deal with, does not even get close to striking the root of evil which is Satan the devil. Let's go to Revelation 12:9 because there is quite an amazing statement there, I don't think it comes as a surprise to any of us, but it's very hard for human beings, even those who know and believe that Satan is a real being, it's hard for many people to fully grasp the power and the influence that this devil has. Now when I refer to Satan as the big guy on the log, please don't misunderstand, I don't mean in any sense to make light of the situation or to demean his power or influence. Rev. 12:9 says:
Rev. 12:9 – So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world...
This year, 2006, it's estimated there are 6.5 billion people on the face of the earth and Satan has successfully deceived them all. 6.5 billion. Only those few first fruits, people God is working with right now have their eyes opened to his deception. Let's finish that verse though, Rev. 12:9:
verse 9 – So that great dragon was cast out, that great serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him.
We understand and believe that Satan is real, he's an invisible spirit being, he has with him a whole army of evil beings that are called demons in the bible. Let's go next to II Corinthians 4:4 because here another key scripture gives us additional insight into Satan's ability to influence people and cause them to disbelieve and disobey God. II Cor. 4:4, again, a scripture we're familiar with but in piecing the pieces together we begin to see what we're working against, why God has us be reminded of these key points every year on the Day of Atonement. II Cor. 4:4 – referring to all human beings it says:
II Cor. 4:4 - ...whose minds the god of this age...referring to Satan...has blinded...not with a physical blindness but with a spiritual blindness...who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
For now Satan is the god of this world, whether the people of the world know it or not, they serve a god and that god is Satan. Satan is responsible for the spiritual ignorance and the spiritual blindness in this world. Now again, people have a certain responsibility, we each individually do, because human nature is willingly blinded and in some cases, willingly deceived. It's been said that people can't find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman, simple human nature doesn't want to find God. But the primary cause of the spiritual blindness and deception is Satan. He's the original source, he's the instigator, and he's the father of it.
As an illustration of Satan's power, isn't it amazing that although he's invisible and people don't see him or perceive him with any of the five senses, that he has the power and the ability to deceive 6.5 billion people. He does it without making physical contact with them, he doesn't appear to them individually and talk to them the way he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden, Satan did make some sort of physical appearance, we understand that, to Eve in the Garden of Eden, he was quick on the scene after God had created them, Adam and Eve that is, and Satan wanted to confuse and deceive them, to separate them from God, which he successfully did. Some of Eve's five senses were involved in her deception – she actually heard Satan speak, she saw an image, she saw this serpent, which apparently did not frighten her and it may have had a certain amount of fascination or beauty, we don't know. But since the time of Adam and Eve, Satan has deceived every human being except Jesus and led them all into sin. He didn't appear to each one individually, didn't speak to each one individually, he didn't appear to all of us or any of us when we were two year olds and trick us into a life of sin, you know he didn't appear or give us this speech individually, he didn't say, As you grow up, whatever you did, by all means, don't live by every word of God in the bible. Do what feels good and seems good to you, do what's easy and convenient. Put together your own belief system, get some ideas from television and movies, some from society, some from your friends, some from books and some from your own reasoning, just don't live by every word of God.
Now Satan doesn't do that – none of us heard that speech when we were two years old. Satan does not have to appear to us individually or give us a speech in order for us to be influenced by him. But then how does he accomplish this, how does he successfully deceive people into turning from God and turning to sin and separating us from God? Let's go to Ephesians 2:1, the apostle Peter, as he worked with the New Testament Church, told one individual whose name was Ananias, you might remember him in Acts 5, Peter told Ananias that Satan had filled his heart to sin. Filled his heart. Other translations say, "Why did you let Satan fill you with the idea?" "Why did you let Satan rule your thoughts?" But Peter described Ananias as "having his heart filled to sin." We begin to understand this more clearly when we understand Eph. 2:1, we see how Satan is able to do that.
Eph. 2:1 – And you He...referring to God...made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world...
In other words, other translations talk about the ways of this world and we see an important piece of information right here before we go any further because we realize we're now responsible once we're undeceived, once our minds are opened, we're responsible to examine everything that the world does, knowing that it's Satan's world, that we should examine everything, we should ask ourselves, am I going about this God's way or the world's way? Am I doing it God's way or Satan's way – because we should be able to recognize Satan's way. I'll re-read the verse and we'll go on:
verse 1 – And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.
Satan is a prince, that's his title, the current ruler of this world. The Day of Atonement pictures a time when Satan's rule will come to the end, when the King of Kings will replace the prince. This verse calls him "the prince of the power of the air" and that answers part of our question as to how we can influence every person without appearing to each one individually and talking to each one individually because Satan broadcasts, he broadcasts moods and attitudes, he sparks thoughts in people's minds. Human minds are finely tuned antennas or receivers, picking up the negative, rebellious, discouraged, selfish, disobedient thoughts and attitudes and moods that Satan projects, that he broadcasts.
The Week Magazine recently had an article about Ramadan, an article taken from Oman Daily Observer. Ramadan is a Muslim holy month that began a week ago. Ramadan involves fasting from sun up to sundown for a month; of course they can eat during the night, just not during the daylight portion. The article says this: "During the holy month, Satan and his devils...we would understand those to be demons...are locked away in hell so any sin a person commits is his own fault and can't be blamed on demonic influence. Ramadan is a chance to prove how strong we can be for Allah." That's the end of the article. Now the bible and certainly the Day of Atonement certainly both clearly teach us that Satan is not yet locked up. He's very much on the job, very active; in fact his influence is gaining momentum. Satan manipulates human minds, causes us to think, to feel and react in certain ways. We can be on his wavelength, being influenced by his thoughts and his attitudes and sometimes not even realize it. Human beings on this wavelength can create their own religions and their own philosophies, their own standards of right and wrong. They're influenced to act and to think the way Satan does.
This brings us to an issue and a question that we as God's people should consider. God's festivals teach us the outline of God's plan, the seven major steps of God's plan, of building a family. But in addition, each festival also gives us something to do, an assignment, something to do with the knowledge we have gained. It provides a focused message about how and where we need to grow spiritually. By the time we come home from the Feast of Tabernacles this fall, if we've changed and grown as a result of each of the seven festivals, we should be different people. Our character should be different than we were last spring.
For example, here's one message from the Feast of Trumpets which we observed nine days ago, a day that taught about Christ's return. One message that we could learn from the Feast of Trumpets would be, "Be ready, for the Son of man comes in an hour that you do not expect." That would be application for us. What's the message for the Day of Atonement, what's our application? We read that Satan broadcasts and deceives the whole world and we can believe that. But becoming undeceived is a process, it doesn't happen the first day that you read a Good News magazine or the first day that you come to church services, not even for us does it leave us all at once. Deception occurs as a process and being undeceived is also a process. We may not be deceived about major doctrinal areas – we don't believe we're going to heaven when we die, we don't worship on Sunday believing that's the Sabbath. We're not deceived in doctrinal areas, but is it possible, is it possible for us to still be subtly deceived or influenced in our behavior and our thinking in areas that we may not yet be aware of? Do we still carry a certain amount of deception around with us and part of our assignment on the Day of Atonement is to recognize more of those and to deal with them.
To illustrate this point, how Satan works to influence and deceive Church members, people with God's holy spirit, think about all the scriptures in the New Testament, where God, through Paul and other writers, warn not the world but warned the Church – don't be deceived. If you take a concordance and look up the list of scriptures, the number of times God tells the Church, don't be deceived about this, don't be deceived about that, don't be deceived about the other – it is amazing the things God is telling the Church don't be deceived about, indicating clearly that Church members can be deceived on other points.
Let me give you an example. One scripture says "Don't be deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves nor drunkards will inherit the kingdom of God." The "don't be deceived" scriptures give us something to do as far as application on the Day of Atonement, a chance to examine our own lives, to see if there are areas where I'm still thinking the way Satan thinks, I'm still responding the way Satan responds. As we fast on the Day of Atonement we should maintain a repentant attitude, we talk about that in the spring holy days but it also has application for the Day of Atonement. Asking God to show us where our behavior and our attitudes and thoughts are still on Satan's wavelength, where we're off the track in certain areas of our lives and we need to change. Fasting on the Day of Atonement should help us to examine our self, there's personal application this day. To see if there are still areas where we're off the track, we're deceived, we're still thinking like Satan does. Let's go to II Corinthians 11:14 next, because we see another demonstration of Satan's power.
When I was a kid I didn't have much time to read comic books, I grew up on a farm and virtually all of my time was taken doing farm work and school work but there was one comic book, a Superman comic book that made quite an impression. It was called something like- and I don't recall the exact title but it was something like "Bizarro World." Bizarre as in bizarre and strange. Everything in Bizarro World was just the opposite of our world. Things that we would think would be beautiful, they thought were ugly. Things they thought were ugly we would think were beautiful – just the opposite. I don't remember all the things that were opposite in this comic book, perhaps something along the lines of when it was 90 degrees outside they put on wool coats and when it was freezing they took them off! But you get the point, everything was backward, everything was opposite of the world that we live in, everything was just the exact reverse of what we grew up understanding and believing. The comic book made an impression because it introduced the idea of a world that was exactly the opposite of the world in which we grew up, the world we were familiar with.
In a very real sense, Satan, the god and ruler of this world, has created a Bizarro World! A society exactly the opposite of God's values and this society in which we grew up is our world, that's where we grew up, those are the things we learned growing up and therefore we absorb so much of Satan's thinking simply by living in his world. So much of life as we know it is the opposite of the way God says life ought to be. In our Bizarro World, that Satan has created, people are at odds with their Creator instead of being at-one. People hated to kill one another, they destroy the environment, they get their egos hurt over insignificant issues. And why is it that if there are two people and two pieces of chocolate cake, why is it that each person wants the larger piece? Boy, wouldn't a piece of chocolate cake be tempting?! Back to the point. The answer is that Satan has created a Bizarro World, a bizarre world, a world in opposition to God and His way of life, exactly opposite. In II Cor. 11:14 where we're coming to ultimately, Paul was writing about false apostles, individuals who appear to be true apostles of Jesus Christ, but they were false. And notice what it says about Satan:
II Cor. 11:14 – And no wonder, for Satan himself transformed himself into an angel of light.
Satan who is evil can deceive people into believing that what comes from him is good and it's right. He deceives human beings into thinking good is evil and evil is good. In fact the book of Isaiah warns us, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." If God didn't have a plan that included taking the big guy off the log, binding the devil, there would not be a wonderful world tomorrow that we celebrate every year at the Feast. If Satan were around during the millennium, he would continue to stir the pot, he would continue to cause confusion and misery, he would continue to replace evil with good and good with evil and all we have to do is think back a few short twelve years ago to remember the confusion Satan caused the people of God by calling evil doctrine, good and good doctrine, evil. Romans 5:10. Because Satan has manipulated human beings into sinning, notice the result. Right here in the book of Romans 5:10 we're given a very blunt and direct description of our status. Paul was writing to Christians, the first fruits and this is what he said:
Rom. 5:10 – For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
We'll focus on the first half of that verse primarily today, notice that before our baptism Satan, who is God's enemy, had influenced all of us to become God's enemies as well. Humanly we would never see ourselves as being the enemies of God, that's not something that would come into our minds but God lays out the truth very clearly to us. When God says we were enemies, that's exactly what He means, that as we lived a life of sin, going the exact opposite direction from God, we were literal enemies of God. That's not to say that God was our enemy, it doesn't say that we and God were both each other's enemies, the scriptures just say that we were God's enemies. Then after repentance and baptism we were reconciled to God, our sins were forgiven and we became at-one with God. That relationship was repaired and now we're considered and called God's friends and His children.
But what about the rest of the world? How do they get to the point where they're no longer God's enemies? How and when do they become at-one with God? Imagine being God, the earth is filled with billions of human beings, His desire is to be at-one and connect with each one of them and invite them into His family, but they're all God's enemies. What's the solution? God has a solution, He's very merciful, He's very forgiving but He has a marvelous plan. How many of us would want to reconcile with people who set themselves out to be our enemies? I think most of us would walk away and say forget it, but God wants to be at-one with every human being and we'll see how God is able to accomplish that through reconciliation.
You've probably been waiting for the time we turn to Leviticus 16, let's do that – that's the great Day of Atonement chapter of the bible and we're going to pick out just a few highlights from this chapter, we're not going to read it all. Lev. 16 describes an unusual ceremony, a ceremony that's a mystery to the world around us, even though its meaning is how God is going to be bringing the world at-one to Him. We're all familiar with the theater, with stage plays and dramas. The ceremony of Lev. 16 is a drama of sorts with the players acting out a very important part of God's plan. God created this drama and watched it each year as its enacted. I've often thought that it would be, I think, exciting for us on the Day of Atonement if we could somehow see a drama, this drama play out, maybe a video and see exactly what this drama was like. I think seeing it live would probably be very meaningful, but unfortunately we're going to have to just stick with the fact of seeing it in our minds eye, that's as close as we're going to get.
But this drama, the way it's laid out, the way it's enacted has a very important and stimulating and exciting meaning to it. Lev. 16 is like taking that camera with the zoom lens and zooming it back so we see the big picture, we're not zooming it in on one goat and what he does, what impact it has, we're zooming it on both goats, we want to see what's happening with both goats because they're both very important. Once a year on the Day of Atonement, this special ceremony or drama took place. We don't have time to cover all the details, all the gems of what was involved; we'll just take a few minutes to focus on the two goats because that in itself gives us tremendous insight. Aaron the high priest conducted this ritual that took place once a year on the Day of Atonement. We'll pick it up in verse 5 because here's where we read about the two goats.
Lev. 16:5 – "And he...Aaron...shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering and one ram as burnt offering. Verse 7 tells us what he did with the two goats:
verse 7 – "He shall take two goats and present them before the Eternal at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Eternal, the other for the scapegoat."
One goat was to represent and symbolize Jesus Christ; the other goat was to represent the scapegoat or Satan. The term "scapegoat" is an unfortunate translation because we think of a scapegoat as being someone who's wrongly blamed for something. In Hebrew the word scapegoat came from Azazel and most scholars identify Azazel as the name of the demon living in the wilderness. Now if our camera with the zoom lens focused on just one of those goats we would not have the complete picture of what this day teaches us. We wouldn't see the fullness of exactly what's doing through this drama. Because we can zoom back and see both goats and what takes place with them, we're able to see the details play out as far as how God will bring meaning to the final completion to this Day of Atonement. We need to have our camera lens zoom back so we can see both goats.
verse 9 – "Aaron shall take the goat on which the Lord's lot fell and offer it as a sin offering."
So the one that is picturing Christ, he killed, he killed this goat and that symbolized the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which paid the price for human sin. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was made possible because He voluntarily gave up His life but it allows us to be reconciled back to God the Father, to be forgiven, to be cleaned up spiritually. We can finally be at-one with God.
The symbolism this first goat teaches us is that it took blood, it took the life of an individual in order to reconcile us to God, but that individual happened to be the Son of God, so God the Father and Jesus Christ paid a tremendous price in order to bring atonement to human beings. We focus on that at the Passover, the atonement relates to the sacrifice of Christ, it will apply to others in the future as they become at-one with God, we realize that it applies directly to us now but it will apply to the world later on, so we see that what God has done and what He will do through Jesus Christ is an important part, a very important part of the meaning of this day. But verse 10 we read about the second goat, the one that symbolizes Satan.
verse 10 – "But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Eternal to make atonement upon it, to let it go as a scapegoat into the wilderness."
Notice especially the words in verse 10, "...to make an atonement upon it..." – Atonement involves more than just killing the goat that pictures Jesus Christ. The second goat also had to bear his own guilt because Satan is guilty. God sees to it that justice is finally accomplished, that Satan is held responsible for all the human sin he brought about. A complete Atonement will involve getting rid of the source of sin, getting rid of Satan before Atonement can finally be complete.
Much of the religious world around us would have us believe that both goats pictured Jesus Christ. There are a number of arguments put forth to that regard, but if that were true, why would it be necessary to cast lots? Lots were used to decide a matter that people could not decide without God's help. The ceremony reminds us that people are deceived, that they cannot distinguish between the god of this world and the true God, the Creator. The casting of lots was to identify Azazel the goat, by God, as it were, taking the mask off of Satan so it can become obvious who Satan is. God will deal directly with Satan. See they will fool people for thousands of years but the day will come when God will remove that mask and allow him to appear exactly as his character would have him be. But if both goats represented Jesus Christ, why would it say one lot for the Lord and one lot for Azazel, why would it not say one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the Lord? It's clear the goats represent two different individuals.
Why should we care about the identity of these two goats that were used in this ceremony, why would something so insignificant, so out of touch with us have such meaning for us? Tremendous meaning. Because prophecy show that in the years ahead, Satan's influence will increase in the world and the danger will be that the world might be, could be, if God did not intervene, completely destroyed. The fate of the second goat teaches us that in spite of how horrible world events get, it's a certainty that Satan will be removed and replaced by Jesus Christ. It's a certainty that God and human beings one day will be at-one without any interference, that the wonderful world tomorrow will be possible, that it really will come. I think it's safe to say that Satan hates this day and wants to hide its meaning and wants to confuse people. Lev. 16:21 shows us again what was done with this goat who represented Satan.
Lev. 16:21 – "Aaron shall lay both is hands on the head of that live goat, confessing over it all...notice... all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man."
verse 22 – "The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities, to an uninhabited land and he shall release the goat in the wilderness."
The goat was not killed, the first goat was killed which pictured Christ, the second goat was left alive, was not killed but it was designated as being responsible for the human sin, responsible for agitating and aggravating and influencing all human sin and in essence what God did was to disfellowship Satan – He took him to the wilderness and we'll see that He's going to remove Satan from people, remove him completely. That ties right in with Revelation 20:1, we'll go there next, which gives us the prophetic fulfillment; it gives us a timetable and shows us how this is going to be completed, how the symbolism of Lev. 16 is going to play out yet in the future. Rev. 20:1 – here God's taking out the big guy and restraining him by putting him in prison of sorts.
Rev. 20:1-3 – Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold on the dragon, that serpent of old who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and they cast him to the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him so that he could not deceive the nations anymore till the thousand years were finished but after those things he must be released for a little while.
We see here that Satan's power is no match for God's power, God doesn't have to come down and do this job Himself, He simply sends an angel to do it, delegates the responsibility and Satan and his demons are powerless to resist the order God gives. God has always been in control, still is, Satan has never been able to do anymore than God ever allows. God's plan involves leaving Satan around for six thousand years so that human beings would learn the lesson that Satan's way does not work, that only God's way works, that Satan's way only causes misery and suffering. Even in the millennium, people will be able to look back historically and see a time when Satan did rule the world and contrast it with the world where Christ is ruling, the wonderful world tomorrow and they can be forewarned that at the end of that thousand years, Satan will be set free for a short period before he and the demons are permanently then, removed and separated from God's family permanently.
This day pictures a time when Satan will be removed and the rest of the world will be invited, finally, into God's family, the door will be opened, they will be brought to repentance, their sins will be forgiven, people will be given God's holy spirit, their minds will begin to think like God thinks as opposed to the way Satan thinks and eventually, every human being will have the chance to be at-one with God. God guarantees that will occur, that time will come in the future that they'll be no longer any barriers that come between human beings and God, that God will remove that.
One last thing we'd like to accomplish before we close today is we ought to remind ourselves and be reminded of why is it that we fast on the Day of Atonement? Fasting is what makes this holy day unique, different than all the rest. We put out leaven in the spring but we still eat, the Day of Atonement we fast. Fasting is what makes this day utterly unique. Why does God have us fast? God has a good reason for everything, what's His reason?
Well for one thing, our relatively minor discomfort is a reminder of the suffering in the world today, the world is suffering, sin causes misery, causes suffering. As we go without food and water, we focus on the fact that the world is starving; the world is starving for the truth of God's way, although they don't realize they are! We're not starving today, we hungry, we're weak, but it's just a little reminder that spiritually the world is starving for the information, the knowledge, the understanding that God has given us. The majority of the people in the world are still slaves, still serving the god of this world. The result of the tremendous amount of sin and pain and suffering comes from the sin which has been primarily sponsored by and provoked by the devil, he's broken lives, misguided people, people are miserable as a result of his influence.
Our fast in one sense is for the world, an acknowledgment that we see the need for the events of this day to finally be completed, for Satan to be removed so the world can have peace and be at-one with God.
Secondly we also fast to draw close to God and to remove ourselves as far away from Satan as we possibly can. Let's turn to Romans 16:20. A sobering part of today's fast, a sobering part of the reality of the meaning of today is that Satan is not yet bound, not for a month, not for a day, he's still around, the big guy is still on the log. Until Jesus Christ returns, God will work toward completing His plan step by step but until Satan is finally out of the way, the world cannot even begin to become at-one with God and we need to be sure that our relationship with God stays strong, that we stay close to God so that He can continue to build His character in us and so we will not be influenced by Satan's spirit.
Rom. 16:20 – And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Wonderful promise, that God will deal with Satan. When the time is right, when the day is come in the future, God will deal with Satan. I would imagine and hope that each year as God's people observe this Day of Atonement, that we'd be even more fervent, that it would mean more to us, more desirous of this day finally coming and being accomplished. When the events of the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord do occur, God's people, we can anchor ourselves in the reality of knowing that the end of that suffering will come, that God will intervene, the world will not be destroyed, Satan will be the one who will be removed, Satan will finally be dealt with. But for now the big guy is still on the log, he's on our log. God is willing and able to do special things for us to help us, He can help us disarm Satan's influence, He can protect us, but only if we do our part. Let's go to James 4:7 because here we see our part. We've seen throughout today God has a very important part in dealing with this, the first fruits also have a very important part to do because Satan is still out there, he's still functioning, he's still looking for ways to deceive us, to influence us.
James 4:7-8 – Therefore submit to God...it's an attitude, that's an attitude followed by actions of yielding and submitting to God...resist the devil...meaning that the influence is going to be there, we have to recognize it and resist it when that wrong attitude, that wrong mood, those wrong thoughts, recognize them, put them out...resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God...and that's one of the principle benefits of fasting as we do draw close to God when we spend that time praying and studying as opposed to just eating physical food...draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
You know in the bible Satan is referred to spiritually as a roaring lion and we are referred to as, spiritually, sheep and lambs. In a physical world can you imagine a ferocious and hungry lion coming to attack sheep and the lion being the one who flees? That doesn't happen in real life, in physical life. What would cause a lion to turn and run away from a sheep or a lamb? Only reason I can think of is if the lamb is close to the shepherd and the shepherd is able to deflect and defer and chase away the lion. Fasting reminds us that Satan won't flee from us because of any spiritual strength we have on our own, it's not something inherent, we have to fast in a humble and repentant attitude to stay close to the Shepherd, Jesus Christ. And if we're all close to the Shepherd, an additional benefit for us is that it causes us to be close to each other as well, unified and protected from Satan's attempt to divide us and confuse us.
We've seen today that God has a predetermined timetable, that God has a specific precise timetable for giving the people of God this gift of finally becoming at-one with Him, He'll deal with the devil, remove the blindness, begin to work in peoples lives, there's a plan, there's a schedule, a predetermined timetable that ultimately every human being will have a chance to be at-one with God. These are things we read about in the bible, these are things that are very meaningful to us; these are things that give us hope. There are a number of events in the past that have occurred that we have not seen, we did not see the Garden of Eden, although I would love to sometime! We did not see the parting of the Red Sea, we saw the movie Ten Commandments, we did not see the real parting of the Red Sea, but someday we're going to be on hand to firsthand see the devil being removed, him being bound. We have, as it were, tickets to that event; we're going to have a chance to see it first hand, a tremendous even that we will never forget. It will be a time when Satan's influence and deception and evil will finally come to an end, a significant and important end, a time when the rest of the world will finally be able to be at rest, at peace, finally able to be at-one. That brethren, is what the Day of Atonement teaches us, that's why we come, hungry as we are, sit and listen, be reminded of what God is doing, God has a fabulous plan, one that makes perfect sense, one that gives us tremendous hope and encouragement, that brethren, is what we learn and are reminded of on the Day of Atonement.
Well I hope the rest of your day is meaningful and profitable and we certainly do wish you a wonderful Feast of Tabernacles and we look forward to seeing you again when the Feast is over and we've all returned home.