“So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.” (Lev 16:16, 17)

“The blood of the bullock was caught in a basin (or censer) in which it was carried by the High Priest into the Tabernacle of the Congregation (the “Holy”) where the priest, before entering into the Most Holy, offered incense upon the Golden Altar (Lev 16:12, 13) to prepare, as it were, the way for him into the Holiest of all—into the very presence of Jehovah. The incense having preceded him, he then proceeded with the bullock’s blood into the Most Holy where he sprinkled of it upon and before the Mercy Seat. However, not all of the bullock’s blood was thus disposed of, some of it still remained in the basin to be subsequently used in connection with the reconciling of 1) the Most Holy, 2) the Tabernacle of the Congregation (the Holy), and 3) the Court. (Lev 16:16, 18)

Before he could do this however, the Lord’s goat would have to be slain. (Lev 16:15) Its “inwards” like those of the bullock were burned upon the Altar of Burnt Offering, and the carcass burned with fire “without the camp.” (Heb 13:11)

The blood of the goat was evidently caught in the same basin as had been the bullock’s, or at the least the two bloods were mixed, to make up that which is designated “the blood of atonement’s” (plural), i.e., the (commingled) blood of the bullock and the goat, which blood was then to accomplish the “reconciliation” of God’s Sanctuary and Court.

First the blood of the goat was carried through the Tabernacle of the Congregation (the Holy) where, however, no incense was offered this time since the priest continued right on through the Second Vail into the Most Holy where he now sprinkled it as he had previously with the bullock’s blood, upon and before the Mercy Seat. (Lev 16:15) As the bullock’s blood was accepted for the priest and his house (Lev 16:6), so the goat’s blood was accepted for the people (Lev 9:15; 16:5, 9). Let it be carefully noted that the blood now being used was in reality a commingled blood, as if to say, the goat’s blood is accepted only because of its being commingled with that of the bullock. The sin-offering of the goat had merit only because of its association with the bullock. Antitypically the merit of atonement represented in the Church’s sacrifice is merely that of Christ Jesus, since the Church had, to begin with, no merit of its own.”

“Connected with the Tabernacle there were three pieces of furniture which had much to do with the matter of reconciliation. These were the Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy, the incense altar in the Holy, and the brazen altar in the Court. Not only were these three used to bring about the atonement, they were also used to show that the blood of the sin-offerings completed the reconciliation. Accordingly, we read:

“And he shall make an atonement for the holy place [the Most Holy], because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins.” (Lev 16:16)

This, we believe, was accomplished by the High Priest when he sprinkled the blood of the bullock and the blood of the goat on and before the mercy seat, thus was the Most Holy reconciled. Surely no reconciliation could be accomplished unless it first took in God. If our conjecture be correct, this reconciliation was effected with the commingled blood of the bullock and the goat. But the account continues:

“And so shall he do for the tabernacle of meeting [the Holy] that remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness.” (Lev 16:16)

Undoubtedly, this reconciliation of the Tabernacle of the Congregation was accomplished by means of the Incense Altar and is that which is referred to in Exod 30:10

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