We commonly think of the Jewish contemporaries of Paul as men who observed the law meticulously, and so missed much of what it was intended to teach. The idea seems to be almost the philosophy of a Ledger Keeper — with two sides of an account—debit or credit.
For anyone who observed the requirements of the law with an active mind there were quite a few pointers to something else outside the framework of the religious observances centred around the Tabernacle. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews contrasts the ceaseless repetition of the Mosaic sacrifices with the single sacrifice of Christ (Heb. 10 :11- 14). There he speaks of priests offering the same sacrifices, not only day after day, but several times a day. In so doing, they were not gradually cleansing the nation but merely keeping it wholesome.
This lack of lasting effect was made obvious on the day of Atonement. There the High Priest recited the sins of the people, and in so doing there was “a remembrance made of sins year by year” (Heb. 10:3), and as Paul recognised, to bring up sins a second time implies that forgiveness has not been complete — the offender is still conscious of his offence.
The same lack of completeness was also evident in the other details of the same day of Atonement. The High Priest entered the Holy Place but once a year, and that only after the appointed sacrifices had been made.
For the individual Israelite, standing in the crowd in front of the Tabernacle on that day listening to the High Priest reciting over the head of the scapegoat all the sins of the people, there must have come many reminders of his own attendance during the year that had past, with his sin offerings, when he had recited his sin to the priest and had had atonement made for him (Lev. 16:21, 5:10). He must have asked himself why it was necessary to go through this more elaborate ritual to the same end, especially when his memory went back to the same service in the previous years.
Then he would notice that on this day of days the High Priest was dressed in the simple linen garments usually worn by an ordinary priest engaged in menial tasks about the altar (Lev. 16:4, 6:10). Gone was the Glory and Beauty of the High Priest’s garments; he stood like one of his fellow priests. Then as the High Priest entered the Tabernacle, all the other priests were outside (Lev. 16:17). It was such an unusual spectacle that the inquiring spectator must have asked himself, “Why is all this so different.” Perhaps then the crowd would be parted by the priests bearing the bodies of the animals whose blood had been taken into the most Holy Place. Right outside the camp they carried the bodies and burnt them there.
The consummation of the most important sacrifice of the year was accomplished outside the camp ; for the Israelite was familiar with the various ways the other offerings were consummated. The Priest ate such of the Sin and Trespass offerings as was not consumed on the altar. (Lev. 6:26 and 7:7), and in so doing made atonement (Lev. 10:17). Even the burnt offerings had a portion for the priest who offered it (Lev. 7:8). Paul pointed out to the Corinthians that the priests shared the offerings with the altar.
How striking must have been this departure from the common routine. On the one hand the blood went into the innermost Sanctuary, into the symbolic presence of God, and on the other, the remainder of the sacrifice was consumed not only away from the Tabernacle but away from the Camp in the world outside.
And, as the Israelite pondered the strangeness of this, he would call to mind the other occasions when his religious duty took him outside the Camp. Those who were defiled by contact with death had to go outside the Camp and be cleansed by the waters of separation (Numbers 19:11-13).
The provision of the water of separation was a very singular arrangement. The heifer was slain outside the camp and her blood was dealt with by the son of the High Priest and the whole of the animal was burnt. (Numbers 19:3 and 5). Apart from the sprinkling of the blood toward the Tabernacle there was no acknowledgement of the Sanctuary at all. Probably the stream that provided the running water (Numbers 19: 17) was the limit of the eastern boundary of the camp.
In this outside world were the lepers and all who were unclean (Numbers 5:1-2), a strange place for such an important sacrifice to take place. Here, surely, was an indication that the cleansing of the defilement of death was outside the scope of the operations of the Tabernacle service.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One