Leviticus (14) Day of Cleansing

One of the important annual celebrations that God commanded Israel to fulfil is usually called the Day of Atonement. The Hebrew expression is “yom kippur”. Translating the Hebrew word “kippur” as “atonement” smuggles too much religious baggage into the word. Words like “propitiation” and “expiation” have the same problem. The word means “covering/cleansing”, so we will understand what is happening on this day better, if we think of it as the Day of Cleansing.

Leviticus 23:26-32 gives the date on which this occasion is to be celebrated. It was to be a holy day, a day of total rest from work (Sabbath), when the people were to humble themselves. The celebration is to be held once a year (Ex 30:10; Lev 16:34).

When the High Priest went into the holy of holies once a year on the Day of Cleansing, he offered a cloud of incense to God. That kept him safe in the presence of God. The incense was all God needed from him to be acceptable. He did not need to appease God with blood or some other sacrifice to be acceptable.

The High Priest put blood on the cover of the covenant box and the golden altar. This was not done to appease God, but to cleanse them from the effects of the people's impurities. Many English translations use the word “atonement”, but the Hebrew word is “kipper”. As noted, it means to cleanse or cover. The covenant box and the golden altar are physical things, so they could not commit sins, so they didn’t need their sins to be atoned for.

Leviticus 16:16 refers to the “impurities” of the people needing to be cleansed because the tabernacle dwelt in the midst of the people’s impurities. The Hebrew word is “toomah”, which means impurity or uncleanness. Because the people were often impure, it seems that the tabernacle also picked up some spiritual impurities during the year, despite frequent Decontamination and Reparation Offerings. (I presume this uncleanness gave the spiritual powers of evil a right to come closer).

The tabernacle did not need to be atoned for, because it does not sin, but it did need to be cleansed of the impurity that had affected it. The blood of the bull and the goat offered as a Decontamination Offering spiritually cleansed the tabernacle. Like the blood of the Passover, the blood on the covenant box and the golden altar was a warning to the spiritual powers of evil to stay away from the tabernacle and its furniture.

Blood cleanses and purifies when sprinkled on physical objects that may have been subject to spiritual contamination (Lev 16:19). The Hebrew word translated “cleanse” is “taher”, which literally means to be made bright, and by implication, to make pure or make clean. Hebrews 9:22 confirms that “almost all things are cleansed/purified with blood”.