The Day of Atonement: Part 2

Below is but a small measure of revelation that my father had received from the Lord. I hope this will be a blessing to you. All that is written below are the words of my father.

April 7, 2022

In loving memory of my father
Robert Louis (Bob) Padgett
July 28, 1931-May 22, 2023

In our previous message, we shared about all seven of the major Jewish feasts, with particular emphasis on the Day of Atonement and the significance for us today. In this message we want to complete our sharing about the Day of Atonement with particular emphasis on the two goats and what they mean for us today. This message, like the one last week, contains words partly by Marion Fretwell and partly from me. As an introduction, please bear in mind that there is a difference between acts of sin and the nature of sin. It is the nature of sin which causes the acts of sin.

It goes without saying that our relationship with God is of primary importance. Interpersonal relationships rank next in importance. We need always to be progressing by earnestly doing all the bidding of Jesus in order to incorporate His nature into our own. It requires quick repentance as soon as we find ourselves to have fallen short. This sounds easy, but it will require more spiritual "oomph" than some of us will muster. Our flesh assumes that we are OK because we are born-again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, and trying do all the things that a good Christian should do. Is that called "presumption?" David said, in 

Psalm 19:12-13, "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." 

That is why David was a man after God's own heart. Do we need more David's in the Church today? Our churches have programmed us to be entertained with a smooth program. Not much has been taught concerning how to hear the voice of the Lord or to do the will of God.

Adam woke up that tragic morning with no care, no shame, no fear, and no guilt. He and Eve were in complete harmony with God and with each other. There were no conflicts between them and nature, nor with the other creatures which God made. There were no creatures of prey nor any preyed upon. Then the serpent cast a shadow of doubt over the mind of Eve, and she became deceived. The rest is history. Shame, fear and guilt have been man's constant companions since that hour.

The human body was impregnated with the nature of sin when Adam disobeyed the commandment of God. Adam and Eve immediately became ashamed of their nakedness, and a sense of guilt overwhelmed them. They became fugitives from God, and all other creatures became fugitives from man. Suddenly, some of the beasts began to prey on others. Those which were preyed upon began to cry in fear. The death cries of every creature have been cries for the "manifestation of the Sons of God." Romans 8:19.

Adam mortgaged the human race to the nature of sin. Strive as we might, we cannot be all that we want to be because we are held captive in this bondage. 2 Peter 1:4 tells us that it operates through lust, or the desires of the flesh. These desires can take on all sorts of dimensions.

Paul, in Romans 7:24, refers to this condition as "the body of this death" and cries out for deliverance from it. Believers are still crying for freedom from the desires of the flesh. Some of the desires of the body drag us down and keep us in a state of bondage ... a bondage of corruption. Unbelievers revel in and freely give vent to them. From Ezekiel 16:49, Pride, fulness of bread, abundance of idleness, and haughtiness constituted the "iniquity of Sodom." Fulfilling the desires of the flesh is not liberty at all but deepens the bondage. 

Galatians 6:7-8 says, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ..." 

The root-principle of corruption is still resident within our flesh.

But! God's plan for full redemption continued in motion on the same day in which Adam disobeyed. The redemption of the purchased possession will restore what was lost in Adam - complete right-ness with God. We have it now only through the means of faith. To those who see the Great High Priest when He appears, it will become a reality. God's plan of redemption is designed to take His chosen people back to the state of Adam and Eve before they sinned. Anything short of this is not full redemption. Further, God is bringing many sons to glory. He is bringing many sons to a realm that goes far beyond the innocence of Adam before the fall because man was originally designed to partake of the Tree of Life every day ... something that Adam never experienced.

1 Corinthians 15:51-54. 

51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Under the Old Covenant, after the high priest first makes atonement for Himself and the other priests, two goats will be necessary for what the high priest is about to do next. The first goat is to be a sin offering for the people, and the shed blood must be sprinkled on the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. This first goat giving its life was typical of, and pointed to, Jesus Christ giving His life on the cross of Calvary for our sins.

The two goats typify the two-fold work of Jesus Christ in the life of every believer. Two goats are necessary, because when one has given its life, it is all over for him. He has had it. He has done all he can do in the prophecy, pointing to the coming Savior.

If giving His life was all Jesus had done, we would be left with something lacking in our relationship with God. But thank God, Jesus rose from the grave, triumphant over both physical death and the kingdom of death. From 1 Corinthians 15:26, the kingdom of death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed. We die physically because our bodies were "sold" to the king of death when Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden.

We see, in the first goat, the work of Jesus in providing a way for us to be forgiven for the acts of sin. We are told to come boldly, without fear, unto the throne of grace, which will be freely given. All of the requirements of God for our forgiveness were fully met by Jesus Christ when He entered into "the true Tabernacle, which God pitched, and not man."

If the intercession of the high priest, when He appears in the Holy of Holies with the blood of the goat, is rejected for some reason, he will immediately be smitten of God, and will die in the Holy of Holies. We have no record of any high priest being thus smitten of God.

There were several solemn warnings to the priests to do everything as prescribed in the Law - "lest he die." We do have the record, in Leviticus 10:1-2, of two of the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, being struck by a fire from the Lord, so that they died, because they offered strange fire instead of fire from off the altar.

Jesus, our High Priest, did everything exactly as it was purposed to be done. He was assured success in His mission into the Holy of Holies in the Heavens because of His obedience to God's will. We can rest assured that Jesus, our High Priest, will continue to do everything perfectly and on time. He did everything perfectly at Calvary. He did everything perfectly at the resurrection. He did everything perfectly on the Day of Pentecost. When it is time for the blowing of trumpets, Jesus will do what He is supposed to do. When the Day of Atonement arrives, Jesus will not fail His people. What is pre-ordained to take place will take place exactly as it was typified in the ceremonies of the Tabernacle. The same will be true of the Feast of Ingathering.

Leviticus 16:15: Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil ... and sprinkle it upon the Mercy Seat, and before the Mercy Seat.

The high priest of the Old Testament offered up a goat for the sins of the people. The pattern has always been that an innocent creature suffer for the guilty one. The ceremony of the High Priest taking the blood of the goat into the Holy of Holies once each year always pointed ahead to a day in the future when Jesus Christ would fulfill the type and appear in the presence of God, with His own blood, to make intercession for us.

Hebrews 8:1: We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens.

Hebrews 8:3: Jesus, our Great High Priest, "Must have somewhat also to offer." He offered Himself. Hebrews 9:12: He took His own blood into the holy place.

Hebrews 9:14: For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins, But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever — for by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Hebrews 9:21-22: Moreover, He sprinkled with blood both the Tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the Law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

Almost all things are by the Law purged with blood. What is not purged with blood? The answer is found with the second goat ... the live goat, as we will see shortly.

Hebrews 7:25-27: Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them ... Who needeth not daily, as those High Priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people's: for this He did once, when He offered up Himself.

Hebrews 10:12-14: But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Hebrews 9:24: For Christ is not entered into the Holy Places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Acts 10:37-38: That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.

Jesus is the only "begotten" Son of God, "that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). "But ye have received the spirit of adoption (literally - placing as sons), whereby we cry Abba Father" (Romans 8:15). "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Romans 8:23). Paul makes a definite distinction between what we have and what we will receive if we are eagerly looking for His appearing.

When something is redeemed, it is fully bought back, or restored to its original status. Our body was mortgaged to Satan in the Garden. God is in the process of redeeming and restoring that which was lost.

God has never been thwarted in His plan. He has never had to "revise" it because it became unworkable. He has never been unable to develop the portions of the plan at their proper times.

He has never been frustrated in anything. Part of the plan consists of restoring the mortal bodies of His faithful followers to the original state. There is a purpose for these "redeemed bodies" in the future economy of God.

Isaiah 53:11-12, "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

Jesus is the "sin-bearer" in the two ways which were typified by the two goats. First, He took our sins with Him to the Cross, or, rather we should say, our sins were laid upon Him while He was on the Cross. Every sin of commission was laid on Him as He hung between heaven and earth. As it was done, He felt the guilt of sin for the first time in His life. At the same instant, God stripped Him of His righteousness, for it is not possible to be guilty and innocent at the same time. In that condition He cried out in anguish, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

He took His own blood and sprinkled it on the Mercy Seat in the Heavenly Tabernacle, which God pitched, and not man. He made a complete atonement for acts of sin. His Atonement at the Mercy Seat in the heavens makes it possible, and prepares the way for the remission of sins.

Paul, in writing to the Romans, focused on the fact that there is remaining a portion of our salvation which has not yet been given to the believers. Peter refers to the same truth, in 1 Peter 1:5, "Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." In 1:13 he says, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation (appearing) of Jesus Christ." Peter, whose shadow had been the means of many being delivered from pain and sickness, whose prayers had been the means of at least one person being raised from the dead, is telling us to hope to the end for something more at the end of the dispensation. He knew that Jesus paid for more than has been delivered to us mortals yet.

Jesus is now in the presence of God, making intercession for us. But the ceremony of the second goat has not yet been fulfilled while Jesus remains in the Holy of Holies!

Leviticus 16:17: "and there shall be no man in the Tabernacle of the Congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the Holy Place," 

No one dared venture near while the High Priest was performing his work of intercession before the Mercy Seat, in the presence of God. The only way the people could know that their high priest was alive and accomplishing his mission in the Holy of Holies was to hear the bells on the hem of his garment.

Exodus 28:34-35: A golden bell and a pomegranate a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the hem of the robe round about. And it shall be upon Aaron to minister; and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the Holy Place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not.

Today, we can "hear the bells," and know that our High Priest is still alive. When men are brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, we hear a bell. Any and all of the nine gifts of the Spirit are the bells sounding out from the Holy of Holies. Healings, deliverances, miracles are all bells. This is marvelous in our eyes, and we rejoice in them, but a few people are waiting for something even greater. Those folks who are really interested in the things of God have worked their way just as close to the gate of the Tabernacle as they can possibly get - listening for the tinkling of the bells on the hem of the garment of the High Priest - watching for his appearing as he returns from the Holy of Holies to conclude the ceremonies of the day. There is more to be done. It is not completed yet. The second goat is waiting for its turn to portray another aspect of the provisions of Jesus Christ for His church. The ministry of Jesus Christ is not complete until He has fulfilled what the second goat is a type of.

Those people by the Tabernacle gate are the ones who are trying earnestly to do all the bidding of Jesus, and to incorporate His nature into their own. They are the ones who are taking their Christianity seriously. The Bible says that there are certain activities which will make Him turn His face against or away from us. Trying to do everything that is pleasing to God is the essence of "seeking His Face." "When thou saidst, 'Seek ye my face,' my heart said unto Thee, 'Thy Face, Lord, will I seek'" Psalm 27:8. We seek His face by being obedient to His Word.

Do the bells seem to be getting louder? Can it be that our Great High Priest is getting closer to the time of His appearing? Is He nearly finished with the "intercession aspect" of His ministry on behalf of His Church? We believe so. His mighty Hand is drawing souls into a closer relationship with Himself. He is awakening souls to Himself all over the world. His Spirit is moving in almost every direction we choose to fix our gaze on Him. Most importantly, He is preparing the priests, the ministers of the Lord, who will weep between the porch and the altar on behalf of the Church.

As we feel the nearness of the appearing of our Great High Priest, we cannot help but think of the second goat, and wonder about the meaning of what is yet to be done with it. What part does it play in our experience of salvation?

What will it mean when our High Priest lays His hands on this goat and names all the sins of the people, and puts them upon the head of the goat before sending it away into the wilderness, never to return again? Does it mean that He sends our sin completely away from us? Is it banished forever? Can the nature of sin never return to bother us? Will we be set at liberty? A sending away of sin? What can it mean?

Leviticus 16:20-22: And when he hath made an end of reconciling the 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 goat, and he shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land uninhabited.

His shed blood makes it possible for Him to become the means of our nature of sin to be completely taken away - Azazel. Let me repeat that ... His shed blood makes it possible for Him to become the means of our nature of sin to be completely taken away. Azazel is translated "scapegoat." It means "a complete taking away." This is what Jesus intends to do for those who "look for Him."

Leviticus 16:8, "And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one for the Lord, and the other for the scapegoat." 

The scapegoat was for a complete removal of the nature of sin. I wonder if we have the capacity to fully grasp what is being said to us in this scripture? God chose the word "Azazel" for a specific purpose. He could have chosen many lesser words, no doubt, but He deliberately chose the word which means a complete removal of sin. As long as there is a shred of sin present, it has not been completely removed. As long as the fountain head of sin is still resident within us, we are not free. As long as we want our own way, as long as there is strife in our midst, as long as we carry ill feelings in our heart toward other people, we are still in bondage to the corruption within us. Our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We take this corruption with us everywhere we go - on the job, in the home, at Church, and even in our dreams at night. We are never free from the bondage of corruption.

Can it be that God has been trying to tell us, in this second goat, that there will be a day when mortals will be set free from the bondage of corruption and walk the corridors of human life free from the Adamic nature of sin? Precisely that! When our God set out to redeem fallen humanity, He decreed that in no point should the redemption fall short of its goal.

The second goat is a separate aspect of the unfolding plan of salvation. It goes beyond the aspect of making an atonement for sins. Atonement deals with sinful activity. Azazel indicates a complete removal of the nature of sin or the Adamic nature.

Neither does God plan to "short-circuit" the program by giving immortality before the plan of redemption is completed. Immortality is typified by the "eighth day." The last enemy to be conquered is death. Sin, in its entirety, will be fully dealt with before we are given immortality.

Freedom from sin! This is what our hearts have been groaning for all the time. This is worth the effort to get down to the Tabernacle Gate, so we will be able to see our High Priest when He returns from the Holy of Holies to complete His work of Atonement. The toils and sorrows of the way will pale into insignificance compared to the reward for having pressed into God.

Think about it! The nature of sin will be removed from our bodies, and we will be free indeed. Our bodies were never intended to be hosts to sin. We see in the Day of Atonement the promise of greater things to come, namely the start of full redemption or the manifestation (or unveiling or revelation) of the sons of God as recorded in Romans 8.

Hebrews, chapter 9, contains much information about the Day of Atonement, and how the ceremonies pointed to Jesus. In that chapter, there are three appearings of Jesus as He fulfills the types of that great day.

One appearing is "in the presence of God for us." This is a fulfillment of Aaron going into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the first goat. Hebrews 9:24.

A second appearing refers to Him putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. This was His first appearing to man (Jordan or Calvary). Hebrews 9:26. Now let us read verse 28. 

"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin, unto salvation."

The Weymouth translation reads: "... will appear a second time, separated from sin, to those who are eagerly expecting Him, to make their salvation complete."

The writer of Hebrews was not referring to immortality in this passage. It is the same type of language which Paul used when he referred to the Holy Spirit's seal being the "earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Ephesians 1:14. The "earnest" has to be exactly like the remainder, only on a smaller scale. The "sealing" by the Spirit did not partially immortalize us. It dealt with the human spirit only, but man consists of spirit, soul, and body.

Note that He will only appear to those who look for Him. The term "look for Him" denotes a strenuous effort to do what the Bible says we should do. It does not mean "keep your eyes peeled."

Leviticus 25:9-10: Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all the land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a Jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possessions, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

The year of Jubilee was when all land was restored to its first-owner family. It was a time of starting all over again. The land could not be sold permanently - just until the year of Jubilee.

The whole theme of the event was restoration to the original status. It was a time when those who, through poverty or other causes had sold themselves in to servitude, but then were set at liberty to return to their families and possessions. They could start all over again, free from debt or mortgage.

Such a liberty and freedom is what Jesus has provided for His dedicated followers to enjoy at the time appointed. 

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach good tidings to the meek: He hath sent Me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Isaiah 61:1.

Jesus read this scripture in His home town of Nazareth in the early days of His ministry. There are different types of liberty. Jesus was not referring to the liberty from the Law of Moses, which is the theme of several of the Pauline epistles. That, indeed, is a liberty of sorts, but surely not as great a liberty as Jesus purchased for us on the cross. Jesus will give us the liberty of the sons of God.

Romans 8:21: Because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

The "glorious liberty" Paul writes about is undoubtedly humanity set free from the nature of sin. It is liberty to do all the good we were intended to do. It is freedom from a mixture of God and flesh. The ministry of Jesus, from baptism to the cross, had no mixture. His ministry was without the frailties and imperfections of the flesh being mixed in with it.

His anointing for His ministry came upon Him at the river Jordan when He was baptized, and the Spirit descended upon Him. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because He hath anointed me." Isaiah 61:1. Jesus was completely mortal while He ministered on earth, but His ministry was flawless and powerful because of the anointing.

The time of the Harvest (Ingathering) is at hand. We can depend on God to have the reapers ready for the event, just as He had Moses ready when it was time to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses was 80 years in preparation, but God had him ready on time.

The period of reaping will be short and intense, like the ministry of Jesus. Perhaps it will be about the same length of time. Joel, Chapter 2 gives us a fair description, in symbolic language, of what it will be like. It will be a harvest of souls which begs description. God intends to let it be known who is King of kings and Lord of lords. The harvest will be on a world-wide scale - out of every nation, kindred, and tongue. Almost an entire generation of human beings will be "reaped" for the Master.

There are many scriptures which indicate that there will be a smashing blow dealt to Satan and his cohorts by the people who do know their God. The world has never seen yet what God can do through a people who are free to do His complete will, unhampered by their own fleshly desires and inclinations. But the world shall see it, and be amazed at what they see, just as the world which saw Jesus was amazed at what He did in the midst of them. Liberty was proclaimed on the Day of Atonement in the year of Jubilee. It was a type, and fore-shadowing of the glorious liberty of the Sons of God, which will become a reality to those who have met God's requirements for their own lives, and thus stand before Him blameless in the day of His appearing.

The last spiritual Day of Atonement shall dawn, in the timing of God, some September, and those who "look for Him" shall receive the fulness of their inheritance. The earnest or firstfruits is good. The fulness shall be super-abundantly good.

With great anticipation, we look forward to the day when those who are earnestly preparing for it will walk this earth in freedom ... freedom to be what we should be, do what we should do, without the hindrances presented by the presence in our lives of the root-principle of sin. Our ministry will then take on a new dimension - a full, complete ministry free of error and tendencies for self-gain and self-exaltation.

When Jesus returns from the Holy of Holies, it will be for the purpose of sending away or setting aside the sin nature of those who are looking for Him. We are now to be baptized as a sign of this hope we have within our hearts. As circumcision of the flesh was a sign which pointed to the future cutting away of flesh, so now baptism is our sign which also points to the same cutting away of the flesh nature.

We must set our gaze on a plane higher than the traditional teachings of the Church for which they have been able to do. Too long, Christians have held an "any-minute-rapture" theory to give us victory by saving us from annihilation. God is bigger than this, and Jesus gave His life for more than this. It is time to throw off the grave-clothes of tradition, and begin to equip ourselves with the freedom-giving truth of the Word of God. That Truth will lead us to an over-whelming victory over the forces of evil, both individually and corporately.