Week 6 Leviticus 14-Numbers 2
Leviticus 16 talks about the ceremony called the Day of Atonement – a big, annual, public event that involved everyone.
Atone isn’t a trendy word. Not a Top 1000 word in the Hat. The dictionary says it means the same as reconciliation.
At one. If two people are not at one, then it’s not until they reconcile that they become at one.
Atonement – at-one-ment – is an OT word.
Atone, atoned, atonement, atoning – that group of words is found about 93 times in the OT; about 66 times in Leviticus-Numbers. About 0 times in the NT.
When I bring it home, personalize it, I think of atonement this way. There are two players. There’s the Lord and there’s me. And the two of us are at-two-ment (being at loggerheads with the Lord is the sorry foundation of the relationship, it’s the key thing).
And there’s only one thing that can make me at one. That, unfortunately, is that something has to die.
Something has to die for me. That’s what I’m seeing as I read about animal sacrifices. An animal, something subbing in for me, can stand in my place. It can die for me. It’s either that or else I die, all alone and at two.
At-one-ment necessitates blood.
Note: the word counts are mine, so don’t take them to the bank.