Blog 107: Moses, the Tablets, and Atonements
On the day Adam and Eve sinned, they were expelled from the Garden Heights of Eden and banished from God’s holy Presence. Not listening to the voice of their Creator, God’s images became contaminated, crossing the boundary into the realm of death. Their choice of obeying the voice of evil severed them from the Source of Life. Alive yet dead, polluted Adam and Eve were no longer fit to dwell safely with a holy God. Was God’s purpose for them thwarted? In exile, they longed to return to the garden, and YHWH promised them that there would be One who would come to cleanse them and reconcile them to Him. Achieving His ultimate goal for His images to be one with Him required humanity’s purification from the stain of sin and becoming holy through divine judgment. What does the Day of Atonements have to do with judgment?
Because of human failure to fulfill the purpose God created them to be, express images of God, things had to be set right. The process of making things right, of setting things in order, is justice. God’s judgment is what makes justice happen. The Day of Atonement is a day of justice that re-orientates humans and all creation to worship YHWH, the Source of all life and abundance, by living the way He does. It stops creation and its people’s groaning, freeing them from the oppression of death through I AM Who I AM’s atoning work as High Priest.
In the holyday timeline, the shofar blasts announce the beginning of the seventh month (a month of rest) and a memorial of YHWH’s coming to dwell with Israel at Mount Sinai on the seventh Sabbath. At Mount Sinai, Israel heard the voice of God thunder out His commandments. Moses ascended the mountain to the very top, the Holy of Holies, and heard God’s voice giving him instructions to build a tabernacle sanctuary for Him to dwell in the midst of Israel, a place Israel could rest with Him on the Sabbaths, mimicking when God dedicated the adam to His Presence and rested (nuah) him in His garden abode (Gen. 2:15). While Moses was on the mountain with God, Israel prostrated themselves to a golden calf. The ten days from Yom Teruah to Atonements suggests a call to repentance, preparing Israel for judgment (See Blog 96: Ten Days from Trumpets to Atonements). Through the Day of Atonements, the tabernacle was cleansed and Israel purified, made fit to be joined together with her God and live forever in His wisdom of life and rest.
The Tabernacle represented God’s home, His garden sanctuary and Sabbath, heaven and earth united. Israel’s uncleanness prevented His people from meeting with Him in worship. When the tabernacle was cleansed and Israel’s sins were carried away on the Day of Atonements, it symbolized the earth, the cosmos, cleansed to Sabbath holiness and worship. Before marrying the land and His people, YHWH must provide atonement for His land and His people (Deu. 32:43).
Moses stayed on Mount Sinai for forty days, received YHWH’s laws, and came down with the tablets to the golden calf incident. He interceded for Israel forty days before God called him back up the mountain. After forty more days, Moses came down the mountain a second time with a second set of covenantal tablets. That day was the Day of Atonements, 187 days from Abib 1 in the year of the Exodus1. Moses’s face shone from meeting with God face to face. With his face emitting light, he became a living embodiment of the tabernacle, a forerunner of Yeshua and everyone in whom resides the Spirit of the Living God. Moses’s face radiated with the light of the Day of Atonement, God and man as one, and Yeshua’s face shone with the light of the Gospel. For Israel’s tribes, there is a second calling in the latter days, a second Passover in the second month, a second exodus, a second giving of the law on a second set of tablets, and a second (new) covenant in victory.
Edersheim claimed, “According to the Jewish view, it [the Day of Atonements] was also the day on which Adam had both sinned and repented; that on which Abraham was circumcised; and that on which Moses returned from the mount and made atonement for the sin of the golden calf”2. So important is the Day of Atonements that it is called in short form Yoma3, “the Day” by the Jews. It is this Day that the prophets Amos and Joel referred to as “the Day of YHWH”4 and “the Day” the Apostle John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10). It is “the Day” of removing, “the Day” death is taken away from God’s good creation.
Takeaway:
To make things right and be in a right relationship with God and others, chaos and uncleanness must be taken away. Then justice will roll down like a river, and by YHWH’s judgments, there will be peace because He has made atonement for His people and cleansed their land. Instead of shame, there will be double honor. Instead of confusion, there will be rejoicing and everlasting joy (Isa. 61:7).
Fun Factors:
In the year of the Exodus, from Abib 1 to the Day of Atonements, there were 187 days. 187 = 11 × 17. By squaring the light (11) and victory (17) numbers, 112 + 172 = 121 + 289 = 410, it yields the numeric signature of the mishkan, the tabernacle or dwelling place of YHWH in Israel. The mishkan becomes ohel mo’ed, tent of meeting at the appointed times, through the sacrificial system of Leviticus, the forerunner of Yeshua. The mishkan number 410 itself is also the sum of two squares, 72 + 192 = 410. Hebrew “the Holy One” (Isa. 48:17) is 410. Hebrew for hearing God’s voice and doing it is shema שֶׁמָע = 300 + 40 + 70 = 410 (used 35 times in Deu. 1-11).
Footnotes:
1 Wulf, Joyce L., 2023, Behold I AM, Christian Faith Publishers, Appendix 26, p. 527.
2 Edersheim, Alfred, The Temple, Its Ministry and Services, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, 1994, p. 242.
3 Ibid.
4 Morales, L. Michael. 2015, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, p.169.