Document: Cornelis Vonk, Opening the Scriptures: Leviticus II, trans. by Nelson D. Kloosterman (Jordan Station, ON.: Reformational Digital Library, 2019).

Excerpt: Leviticus 16 is an unfamiliar chapter about a familiar subject: the great Day of Atonement. You can hear that phrase used in popular lingo. For example, whenever people talk about someone who gets the blame for everything, they call him the “scapegoat.” And when someone is fired from his job or excluded as a member of some group, people will be heard saying something along the lines of: “They sent him away to the wilderness.” Familiar expressions. But not used entirely correctly, as we will see in a moment. We will see that Leviticus 16, from which such expressions are drawn, is nonetheless really not so familiar as we may have supposed. The subject of Leviticus 16 is familiar: the great Day of Atonement. Ever since we were young, we have heard people talk about this in connection with the tabernacle. Especially when the story got to the holy of holies. The teacher would be sure to tell us that the great Day of Atonement was the only day in the year when this most holy place was entered by a person. Only by the high priest. With incense and blood. And the teacher would immediately point to what the epistle to the Hebrews said, against the background of these shadows, about the work of our king-high priest, Jesus Christ. Correctly so. But it is our task now first of all, and most importantly of all, to discuss Leviticus 16 and focus on the preaching of this chapter, in view of its content and in view of the place in the book where this material meets us today.

Download the Document:
Opening the Scriptures: Leviticus (II) – C. Vonk.pdf