His Garment Immersed in Blood

 Guest post by Richard Gray. This is a sequel to the previous post on the Day of Trumpets.


Those who will be in the first resurrection on the Day of Trumpets will be priests of God. The priests were to be consecrated for seven days, “And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation…until the days of your consecration [4394, inauguration into the priestly office] be at an end: for seven days shall He consecrate you” (Lev. 8:33).

The consecration is the marriage ceremony where they will be instructed in their duties as the bride of the high priest Jesus Christ. The marriage ceremony ends, “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunder, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come [2064, come to pass], and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Rev. 19:6-8).

The next phase of the marriage is pictured by the Day of Atonement ceremony that is on the 10th day of the seventh month. We are going to use a diagram of the tabernacle complex to show the Day of Atonement ceremony. The tabernacle complex was laid out in the same pattern as the crucifixion site at Jerusalem.   

The Day of Atonement ceremony is a picture of events that take place at different times. The first is the sacrifice of the sin offering, which is a type of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the 14th of Abib. The blood of the sin offering was carried by the high priest from the altar into the Most Holy Place, where its blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat (Lev. 16:15).


Jesus was resurrected on Sabbath the 17th of Abib. He was first seen by His disciples on the 18th being seen of them “…forty days…” (Acts 1:3). Counting forty days beginning with the 18th brings us to the 27th of Iyar (the second month). Then, “…while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight….Then returned they to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives…” (Acts 1:3, 9, 12). Jesus ascended from the place of His crucifixion which corresponds to the altar.

On the 27th of Iyar, “…Christ being come a high priest of good things to come…neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once [2178, one time only, once for all] into the Most Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us….And for this cause He is the mediator of the new testament…” (Hebrews 9:11, 12, 15).

The 27th is not just a random date. There are 27 books in the New Testament. The only two whole numbers that can be evenly divided into 27 are 3 and 9, the hours of the crucifixion. Jesus, on the night of His betrayal took the cup and said, “Drink ye all of it; For this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. We see God’s perfect timing of Jesus ascending from the Mount of Olives on the 27th day and entering in to the Most Holy Place by His own blood.


  The next part of the ceremony will take place on the tenth day of the seventh month about two thousand years later. The high priest took the blood of the sin offering from the Most Holy Place to the altar, where the offering for sin had been made. “And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock [that was for his own sins], and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. (Leviticus 16:18, 19).

Jesus will fulfill this part of the ceremony when He returns on the Day of Atonement. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself” (Rev.19:11, 12).

Notice what the next verse says. “And He was clothed with a vesture [2440, garment] immersed in blood: and His name is called The Word of God” (v. 13). The blood on Jesus’ vesture is His blood of His sin offering, by which He entered into the Most Holy Place. Jesus will return with His blood to the altar from which He ascended, i.e. the Mount of Olives, where His sacrifice for sin was made.

“Behold, the day of the LORD comes…For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle…Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations…And His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east...” (Zechariah 14:1-4).

The bride will return with Him, “And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (Rev. 19:14). “And the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with You” (Zechariah 14:5).  

The next step in the Day of Atonement ceremony involves the Azazel goat.

“And when he has made an end of reconciling [3722, cover, forgive, pardon, atonement] the Most Holy Place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the live goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities to a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:20-22).

The live goat represents Satan. “And I saw an angel [the fit man] come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled…” (Revelation 20:1-3). Satan is going to be separated from the people. The confining of Satan in an uninhabited place is the fulfillment of Azazel being taken “to a land not inhabited.”

Is Atonement through Azazel? The instructions given for the Azazel goat are: “But the goat on which the lot fell to be the Azazel, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement [3722, cover, expiate, appease] with [5921, above, over, upon, against] him, and to let him go for an Azazel into the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:10). 

The atonement aspect has confused some into thinking that Azazel represents Jesus Christ removing our sins from us. Did the high priest, a type of Jesus Christ, place  the sins on his own head, and send himself off to the wilderness? Azazel was not to be killed as an offering for sin, but was to remain alive. The shedding of blood is required for the removal of sin. “And almost all things are by the law purged [2511, cleansed, purified] with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission [859, forgiveness, pardon]” (Hebrews 9:22). The Azazel goat was not a sacrifice for sin! The forgiveness of sins through Azazel was impossible unless he was a sacrifice for sin. 

The word atonement is Strong’s #3722, and it is usually, but not always, translated as “atonement.” When Jacob was returning from the land of Haran to the land of Canaan he feared his brother Esau. Therefore he sent gifts ahead of his entourage, “…For he said, I will appease [3722] him with the present that goes before me…” (Genesis 32:20). Jacob was not making atonement with, or for, Esau. He was attempting to create a peaceful meeting with his brother.

Appease means: to cause to subside, to bring to a state of peace or quiet.  Another example is found in Proverbs 16:14. “The wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify [3722] it.” To pacify means: 1. to make peaceful or calm; appease; tranquilize. 2. to establish or secure peace in (a nation, etc.).

The people are still responsible for the sins that they have committed, because they made a choice to follow the lies of Satan, just as Eve did in the garden. “The Devil made me do it”, is not an acceptable excuse. Each one is ultimately responsible for their sins.

For a thousand years Satan will be separated from the people to an uninhabited place where he will no longer be able to deceive the nations. This will be a time of appeasement and pacification. “…[T]hey shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).

Those who will be in the first resurrection on the Day of Trumpets shall rule with Christ on the earth for one thousand years. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them… and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison” (Rev. 20:4-7).

The binding of Satan for a thousand years and the reign of the saints with Christ for a thousand years run concurrently—not separately. The Day of Atonement represents the millennium. The Feast of Tabernacles does not represent the millennium, as many suppose. If that were the case, then there would be two separate appointed times representing the same one thousand year period, and that would not make any sense at all!

There is not a single scripture in the entire Bible that associates the Feast of Tabernacles with a thousand years, but as we have seen the Day of Atonement is associated with a thousand years. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8).

Jesus Christ will return on the Day of Atonement to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth. “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:14).

To be continued

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