Next, we come to a still more solemn feast, the great Day of Atonement, from verse 27: “Also on the tenth day of the seventh month there shall be a day of atonement.” And it is well that we should observe how events are crowding on during this eventful month. God is finishing His work on the earth. He is going to put out the evil that had so long ravaged among men, and to bring His ancient people into fullness of blessing.
On this day Israel are to be brought under the atonement of Christ. For first let me remind you how impossible it is to think that this day can be for us in the chronological scheme of the Feasts. We have seen Christ as our sacrifice in the Passover long ago, and do not want it a second time here: to repeat the work for us would be to impeach its everlasting value. It is really here the work of Christ applied to Israel. They had the testimony to the Lamb; but they refused it. We meanwhile by grace have been brought into the blessing. Are they to be left out? Assuredly for a time only. The day of Atonement in the seventh month, so long following the Passover, indicates, not that the work is to be done over again, but that there is to be a second application of that work, and of course to a different people. Do you ask me for scripture proof of this? My answer is John 11:5151And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; (John 11:51): “And this spoke he not of himself; but, being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.” In this passage then we have most clearly put this double aspect of the work of Christ; but “that nation,” the Jews, refused it, for it was to the Jew first that the offer was made. Next, you notice, it is not only for this but to gather in one the children of God, who are both saved and also gathered into one. It is the church baptized by the Holy Spirit. But then there remains for Israel their blessing by and by. It is suspended for the present; but the precious blood, the death, of the Lord Jesus in all its efficacy cannot fail for them also—for the very people who of old refused it. How patient, yet powerful, the grace of God!
On the tenth of the seventh month, in God's time, the day will surely come; and you may find the most sensible difference in the language employed here from that which is used of us: “And ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah.” You do not find such words as these under the paschal lamb; and no wonder. God will make them specially feel their sins, as He could not be unobservant of their long unbelief; and when their day of blessing comes, do you think they will be insensible? Is it conceivable that Israel will regard themselves as other sinners? Certainly not. They will say, We are the guiltiest people on earth: the Messiah, the Christ of God, was sent to us, and we refused Him; He was not yours, yet you bowed to Him. It is the Messiah rejected by Israel Who is become the suffering yet exalted Son of man, and the Gentiles do hear Him, as Israel will another day.
Joseph rejected by his brethren was in another land exalted to the throne; and there too he had a bride unknown to his brethren, while next to the one who set him in the highest place. And when the true Joseph presents Himself to the sons of Israel, will they not afflict their souls as Joseph's brethren did when the house of Pharaoh heard? There never was so genuine a mourning as this for the seed of Jacob. And so yet more, yea incomparably, will it be in the day that is hastening. And it could not he otherwise, if God wrought real repentance as He will in Israel. The day of atonement bears the distinct mark of what will only, or at least most fully, apply to His people in that fixture day, when God's plans for the earth are being completed.
But this is not all. In verse 28 we read, “And ye shall do no work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement to make an atonement for you before Jehovah your God.” Could this be said so fittingly and emphatically to any other people? Were they not the people of all others who boasted of their works, and so, going about to establish their own righteousness, “stumbled at the stumbling-stone"? Acceptable works are found only in believers. We know that those who have the Spirit of God working in them really show forth the fruits of the Spirit and do not boast. Where all is felt to be of grace, how could they boast? Others who slight faith and consequently talk of the law do in fact nothing. The Jew boasted but stumbled over the lowly Nazarene, the crucified Savior; but it will not be so in that day, when. the reality of faith will not only work repentance but exclude pretension to work. Not that works will not follow, but the day of atonement will shut out everything, if I may so say, but Christ, their propitiation and substitute; so that their self-loathing will be as complete as their abandonment of their own works. The very fact of their now believing what God had done for them in Christ makes them ashamed of the least reference to any works of their own.
There are the two effects: on the one hand, affliction of soul in the confession of their sins; and, on the other hand, no mingling any work of their own with that which Christ suffered for them before God. In verse 28 you see the same sentiment repeated: “For whatsoever soul it shall be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.” Again, in verse 32, “It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls.” The two things, no work and affliction of soul, mark this day of atonement.
How blessed when Israel know and feel this! And here again I may appeal to other parts of Scripture. Let me refer you now to one of the prophets in connection with this day of atonement, Zech. 12:99And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (Zechariah 12:9): “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.” You see the nations are now jealous of and hostile to Israel. “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications.” Is not this the day of atonement “And they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him.” It is a day of afflicting their souls: “As one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.” “In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart, and their wives apart.” Conscience leads one to be alone with God, that confession may be true and deep. Such is the effect of real Spirit-wrought sorrow; for the conscience, when it is thus really reached by the Spirit of God, always isolates itself—it makes the soul desire to go alone to God. To whom alas! could I tell out honestly all I am? What good would it do any one else? It might do harm. It is to God then we must go, and to God we must confess. And it is good for the soul; for God wants sterling honesty; He wants guile to be taken away; and this is accomplished by His own grace. It is the day of atonement, when Israel hide not like Adam, but their sins are poured out into the bosom of God.
“Every family apart.” So close, so real, is the work that it is said, even “their wives apart:” the nearest and closest relationships are apart, that there may be now, for the first time, “truth in the inward parts.” And what are the families named? “The family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart.” Why David and why Nathan? Once there was a time when the king trembled as he stood thoroughly convicted, and the faithful prophet was strengthened of God to convict him: “Thou art the man.” Now what a change! It is no humbled king nor convicting prophet. All are convicted, and so profoundly filled with the sense each of his own sins, that they feel thoroughly the need to be alone with God. It is not only real but deep work; it is not the mere effect of feeling or sympathy fed by a weeping crowd. They go alone, each before God, that all may be out and clear And surely this should be a word of warning as to the danger in these days of multitudinous meetings, revivals, etc. I do not say it to weaken any one's confidence, but that all may see how momentous it is for souls to get alone with God as to their sins.
Nor is this the only picture; we have two others to complete the scene. “The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart.” The margin gives “Symeon” as the alternative, and so does the oldest version, the Septuagint. Of course there is a difference of opinion as to this as in all things; but it is a common thing in Scripture to find two names for the same person, as, for instance, Paul and Saul, Silas and Silvanus, Jude and Thaddeus. But if we accept the view of the Greek translators, they were two sons of Jacob painfully notorious in their earliest history. It was revenge then brought them together. No doubt the Gentile was guilty of gross wrong, and dishonored their sister; but their wrath was cruel, and their revenge as deceitful, as outrageous, and Jacob also full of shame at his unworthy sons, who had been united in deadly purpose under the guise of religion. But now they have found the Savior, or rather the Savior has found them, and they are confessing each his own sins. Thousands of years had passed over; but here are the descendants of these two fathers in Israel bowing down before the Lord who died for them.
This I do not doubt to be the true meaning of the Day of Atonement as applicable here to Israel; and let us rejoice that God will extend thus His grace, through our blessed Savior, even to guilty Israel, kept for this and other great ends of God.