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 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.
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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