I write a weekly Bible study for two small groups; we have been reflecting on the NT book of Hebrews for about 16 weeks now. Below is our study for next week; I'm posting it because it might help us think about some things...maybe...
Our passage is Leviticus Chapter 16. Also please read Deuteronomy 16:1 - 17.
Leviticus Chapter 16 describes the Day of Atonement, which is also called Yom Kippur. The reason we are exploring this chapter is that Hebrews 8:7 - 10:25 cannot be fully appreciated (if I can use that term, how can the Trinity ever be fully appreciated?) without “seeing” Leviticus 16. I’ve asked us to read Deuteronomy 16:1 - 17 to help us see the cycle of Israel’s High Holy Days, and to see where the Day of Atonement fits in the cycle. So Deuteronomy is for background and context.
There is only one question to ponder as we consider Leviticus Chapter 16: Where and how do we see Christ in the Day of Atonement?
Below are some reflections:
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It is said that one out of every ten verses in the NT is either a direct quotation or reference or indirect allusion to what we call the OT. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were actually a lower ratio - for when we come to books like Hebrews and Revelation you really can’t get to first base without the OT; it’s the difference between a movie in 3D and one that isn’t, or it might be like having vision without depth perception and also being color blind. In any event, whatever it is like, it is significant. It isn’t that God can’t and doesn’t speak to us if we don’t have an OT background, of course He does; perhaps it is like having an employee who only wants to learn to do something as opposed to understanding why what he does is important, or how it fits into the big picture. Or like the joy of mentoring someone when the person really starts to “get it” and see things and learns how to “see” in new ways - and then really takes off in his or her personal and professional growth.
I suppose focusing only on the NT is like teaching American history and leaving out the 13 Colonies, the Revolution, and the founding documents. Honest teachers couldn’t do that because so much ties back to the Founding Fathers and their Documents - especially the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. How much more when we are approaching God’s Self-Disclosure?
A few weeks ago ____ used a fancy word in our group - “hermeneutics”. It has to do with how we interpret a text, any text. We practice hermeneutics all the time and we don’t know it for we all interpret what we read - you are doing it right now. Professors like to use the word, whether they are teaching Hemingway or Plato or the Bible; and students who like a good ego boost really like to use it. When I asked above, “Where and how do we see Christ in the Day of Atonement?” I’m asking you to use a particular “hermeneutic”, to interpret the text with a particular set of glasses on, to think about a special facet of the text, to turn the kaleidoscope and look for patterns of Christ.
In business I taught my managers to use a hermeneutic of Net Operating Income, Asset Value, and Cash Flow; as well as honesty and equity and doing the right thing and becoming servant-leaders who loved their people...even if it hurt. I tried to teach them to think and act in a way that integrated everything into this particular hermeneutic. I was asking them to read the “text” of their operations a particular way - and if they sent me a proposal for a capital expenditure or a policy change I wanted to know how it integrated into the hermeneutic.
When we approach a text, including the Biblical text, we can use more than one way of understanding the text. The Church Fathers, of which we are all descendants, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant, or Eastern Orthodox, pointed out that there is a moral sense of Scripture, an ethical sense, what we might call a “social/societal” sense, and a spiritual sense. We shouldn’t be surprised at this for we all probably do it to some degree - how many Scripture passages could really help our society and world - even though they may be primarily addressed to either ancient Israel or the Church?
Even when the Church Fathers disagreed on some of the finer points of Biblical interpretation, they agreed on the most important point, the foundational point, the cornerstone - the question to be asked in all instances of interpretation is, Do I see Christ in this passage? Where is Christ? How does this reveal Christ?
So this is what we are doing with Leviticus 16 and the Day of Atonement, we are asking, “Where is Christ?” We are not only doing what Christians have done since Peter and Paul - we are reading the OT the way Jesus read it. Consider this passage from Luke 24:
And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Jesus showed His disciples how He was revealed in the OT, He taught them to see Him in the OT (remember the NT didn’t yet exist). How much are we missing when we don’t learn to “see Christ” in the OT? The writer of Hebrews is using the OT again and again because in the OT he sees Christ.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians Chapter Ten, when “seeing Christ” in the Exodus story writes concerning the OT, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
Jesus wants to reveal Himself to us through both the OT and the NT - the Bible is really seamless.
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The Second Person of the Trinity has always existed - He was there at Creation and He was/is Creator with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Just as we can expect to see the Father revealed in the OT, as well as the Holy Spirit, so also with Christ. With the Incarnation (John 1:14 - 18) we come to see the Second Person of the Trinity in a new way as He invites us into an intimate relationship with God our Father (see John Chapter 17) and with the Spirit; in fact, He invites us to share the life and fellowship of God the Trinity (see John chapters 13 - 17). As we saw in Hebrews Chapter Two, we are Christ’s brothers and we have the same Father.
Well, as a Capital One commercial might ask, “What’s inside your heart?” He loves you and His heart beats for you - this is the Gospel. Do our hearts beat for Him?
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