Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20120610.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XLII: Heeding The Day Of Atonement Lesson For Blessing
(Numbers 29:7-11 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Unhappiness afflicts many parts of our world today:

    (1) On Monday, I heard a radio talk show host lament over the financial and political state of the nation. He claimed things were so bad, he was going to take up the ukulele, dress in an Hawaiian shirt, take his pet poodle and a surfboard in an old VW bus, drive off to the beach and strum on his ukulele while the world passed him by! As he made each point, he would plunk a discordant string on his ukulele.

    A man called the show, urging the host to cheer up as he felt the nation was on the verge of great renewal. The talk show host burst into an expressive complaint about one of his pet peeves, "illegal aliens," and asked the caller, "How do you solve that problem?!"

    The caller paused, trying to respond optimistically, but the talk show host didn't let him off the hook, voicing more complaints!

    The show's host summed that he felt the American people were about to turn very religious, for religion at least provided a sense of order amid the chaos that has been created by the political and financial conglomerates that he claimed are ruining the country!

    (2) However, even in the realm of religion there often exists a great lack of blessing! Oliver Thomas' article, "Limits to religious freedoms" in the June 4, 2012 nationwide paper, USA TODAY , p. 9A observed how in the past, the "9/11" attacks by Muslim terrorists, "the Inquisition" by the Catholic Church and "the Salem witch trials" by American colonial Protestants have brought "out the worst" in people!

    Even today, the religious realm sees a lot of unhappiness: Thomas explained how "legislative bodies" work to "pass laws that say no one can drink wine in a particular county and suddenly Catholics have a problem celebrating the Mass. Or they say everyone has to wear a hard hat, and Sikhs -- who must wear a turban instead -- can no longer get a construction job." (Ibid.) "In New York, ultra-Orthodox Jews are criticizing the Brooklyn district attorney for prosecuting Jewish child sex-abuse cases, according to The New York Times." (Ibid.) After an ultra-Orthodox Jewish father reported a child abuse crime that was committed against his son "in a Jewish ritual bathhouse in Brooklyn," the father "was shunned, cursed and kicked out of his apartment by ultra-Orthodox Jews for trying to protect his son." (Ibid.)

    Need: "Much of our world, including even much of the religious realm, lacks happiness, so, can I as be blessed by God? If so, how?!"

  1. As we before learned, the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement are connected and typologically occur after a great unhappiness:
    1. We learned the Feast of Trumpets is linked to the Day of Atonement, and both occur in the seventh month (Sept.-Oct.; Num. 29:1, 7; Ryrie St. Bib., KJV, 1978, ftn. to Ex. 12:2) after Pentecost and the summer harvests, or typologically, after the ministry and rapture of the Church.
    2. Then comes the Great Tribulation when Israel and the world face the vile antichrist in judgment for rejecting Christ, 2 Thessalonians 1-2.
    3. We then learned the Feast of Trumpets depicts Israel's regathering in the Holy Land at Christ's return in a spirit of contrition, Num. 29:1-6.
  2. This lack of happiness will be the result of grievous sin that must be removed by the cleansing typified in the Day of Atonement:
    1. At Christ's return, Israel will see Him with His crucifixion scars and learn to her great grief that she crucified the Messiah, Zec. 12:10-13:1.
    2. This woeful sin is hinted at in the founding of the Day of Atonement:
      1. God had instituted the Day of Atonement after Nadab and Abihu offered an errant sacrifice likely while drunk, Lev. 16:1-4; 10:1-11.
      2. He slew them, for they had been privileged to fellowship with and to serve Him (Ex. 24:9-11), but they had abused such privileges.
      3. Similarly, Israel would later be privileged to have Messiah Jesus come, but she would wickedly crucify Him (Matthew 27:24-26), leading to great judgment in facing the antichrist in the Tribulation.
    3. Zechariah 12:10-13:1 claims God will thus graciously give a grieving Israel a fountain of cleansing for sin. This event is typified in the Day of Atonement Sabbath rest (grace) where the high priest atoned for himself and the priests before atoning for Israel and the tabernacle (Leviticus 16:5-34), all in a spirit of self-affliction, Leviticus 16:31.
  3. Yet, because of this cleansing, Israel is greatly assured of happiness by God as typified in the Day of Atonement "scapegoat" ritual:
    1. Unique to the Day of Atonement is the "scapegoat" ritual occurring in union with the sin offering, Leviticus 16:7-10: one goat was chosen by lot as a sin offering to appease God's wrath against sin while the other one was selected [literally] "for azazel," Leviticus 16:8 NIV ftn.
    2. Ancient secular sources reveal this referred to a common pagan ritual God altered to teach His grace in assuring the Kingdom to Israel:
      1. In ancient Syria, like God directed for Israel, a "scapegoat" ritual accompanied a sacrifice to appease a deity, Billie Jean Collins, "Hittitology, Importance for Biblical Interp.," p. 13; academia.edu.
      2. Also, two 2,400-2,300 B. C. texts at Ebla (Syria) report a female goat with a silver bracelet hung from its neck was driven by all the people of a realm into a wasteland to remove evils on their queen's wedding and their king's enthronement day. [Ida Zatelli (April 1998) "The Origin of the Biblical Scapegoat Ritual: The Evidence of Two Eblaite Text," Vetus Testamentum, 48(2):254-263 cited in Beate Pongratz-Leisten, "Ritual Killing and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East" in Human Sacrifice in Jewish and Christian Tradition, Finsterbusch, Lange & Romheld, eds., 2007, p. 23-24]
      3. Such rituals were then common throughout the Middle East as we know from finds at Ugarit in Syria and Bogazkoy in Turkey, Ibid.
      4. Thus, God altered this common pagan ritual to illustrate His great grace in assuring the Messianic Kingdom to a forgiven Israel:
        1. "Azazel" referred to the pagan scapegoat ritual, for it translates "female goat (of) departure" (az (of) azel, Kittel, Bib. Heb. , p. 169; B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 777, 23).
        2. However, God required a male goat (sa'ir, Ibid., Kittel) for this ritual, for the man Jesus purges our sins, Lev. 16:8; 1 Pet. 2:24!
        3. The priest was to put both hands on the goat's head to confess Israel's sins, shifting sins to the goat (Lev. 16:21) as Jesus bore our sins on the cross (1 Peter 2:24), not as in paganism where evils were thought linked to a bracelet hung under a goat's neck.
        4. Instead of all the people driving off the goat, God had one man take it away (Lev. 16:21), for there is One Mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2:5.
        5. The man led the goat into a wilderness, typifying the departure of sins via the sin offering, so Israel was to be ASSURED of FORGIVENESS in CHRIST and thus FULL BLESSING to come in the "bride's wedding" and "King's enthronement."
        6. These celebratory terms depict Christ's marriage, supper and enthronement, the Messianic Kingdom, Rev. 19:7, 9; 20:4!
Application: For personal happiness, (1) may we trust in Christ for salvation and forgiveness, John 3:16; Col. 1:14. (2) Then, may we confess to God the sins we do as Christians (1 John 1:9) and (3) forsake them (1 Peter 1:15) to (4) enjoy God's great happiness.

Thus, we ask, "With the great lack of happiness in all sorts of realms in our world, what can the individual do to be joyful?!" Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

Last Monday while having performed a preliminary study for this sermon, I was sitting in my living room at home while my wife was cooking supper. I was expecting to have a nice, fulfilling dinner at the end of a good day.

Suddenly, however, I smelled what seemed to be a rather strong ground turkey odor, but I didn't want to say anything! I didn't know if my wife was trying a new recipe, and I didn't want to critique her cooking! Besides, we often eat ground turkey as I have a physical condition that prohibits our eating beef, so I thought that perhaps the reason why the odor was bothering me was that I was getting tired of ground turkey, so I decided just to keep quiet about it.

However, I eventually got to feeling ill over the odor, and even reclined on the living room couch for relief, wondering how I was ever going to force myself eat that entree once it reached the supper table!

Then, both my daughter and wife started to complain about the odor, so I knew it wasn't just me that was bothered. When it came time for us to sit down at the table, my wife made another negative remark about the odor, so I finally felt free to chime in for the first time with my opinion, saying, "It is rather strong!"

At that point, she said, "Maybe we'd better not eat it!" and got up, removed its serving dish from the table and cooked something else.

However, the house was still affected by the sour turkey odor. Even hours later, I told my wife, "That turkey smell still makes me ill!"

I suddenly realized I had my closing illustration for this Day of Atonement sermon! Just like that sour ground turkey smell not only bothered us then, but "polluted" the house hours later, so does our sin bother God. When we "cook up" sin, its odor sours everything we do in every part of our lives in God's viewpoint!

The only way to be pleasing to God so that He blesses us is to have our sin thoroughly purged, and the only way that can happen is to "come clean" in our relationship with Christ.

May we trust in Jesus Christ to be saved and forgiven of even heinous sins, and may we as believers confess what sins we commit unto the Lord for His complete cleansing. Then, may we live separate from sin in "holiness" by the power of God's Spirit.

Then, we can enjoy God's blessings of true happiness even amid great sin and a lack of blessing in our world.