Leviticus 16:4 - Exposition

His special garments for the occasion are the holy linen coat ,… the linen breeches ,… a linen girdle ,… and the linen mitre. In the original the definite article is not expressed. The reading should therefore be, He shall put on a holy linen coat, and he shall have linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with a linen mitre shall be attired. The clothing was white from head to foot, differing therein from the dress of the ordinary priest, inasmuch as the sash or girdle of the latter was of variegated materials, and differing also in the shape of the mitre. The white clothing was not intended to symbolize humility and penitence, as some have thought, for white is not the colour in which penitents are naturally dressed. Rather it was symbolical of the purity and holiness which the ceremonies of the day symbolically affected, and which was specially needed to be exhibited in the person of the high priest. In the visions of Ezekiel and Daniel, the angel of God is clothed in linen ( Ezekiel 9:2 , Ezekiel 9:3 , Ezekiel 9:11 ; Ezekiel 10:2 , Ezekiel 10:6 , Ezekiel 10:7 ; Daniel 10:5 ; Daniel 12:6 , Daniel 12:7 ). And the colour of the angelic raiment is described in the Gospels as white: "his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow" ( Matthew 28:3 ); "they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment" ( Mark 16:5 ); "two men stood by them in shining garments" ( Luke 24:4 ); she "seeth two angels in white sitting" ( John 20:12 ). So, too, the wife of the Lamb, in tile Book of the Revelation, has it "granted to her that she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints" ( Revelation 19:7 , Revelation 19:8 ). The white linen dress of the high priest, therefore (which must have given the appearance of the English surplice tied in at the waist), was intended to symbolize the purity and brightness which forms the characteristic of angels and saints, and, above all, of the King of saints. "The white material of the dress which Aaron wore when performing the highest act of expiation under the Old Testament was a symbolical shadowing forth of the holiness and glory of the one perfect Mediator between God and man, who, being the radiation of the glory of God and the image of his nature, effected by himself the perfect cleansing away of our sin, and who, as the true High Priest, being holy, innocent, unspotted, and separate from sinners, entered once by his own blood into the holy place not made with hands, namely, into heaven itself, to appear before the face of God for us and obtain everlasting redemption ( Hebrews 1:3 ; Hebrews 7:26 ; Hebrews 9:12 , Hebrews 9:24 )" (Keil). The symbolism of the holy garments as indicating holiness and purity, is strengthened by the command that Aaron is to wash his flesh in water, and so put them on.

The high priest's acts on this day, so far as they are recounted in this chapter, were the following.

1 . He bathed.

2 . He dressed himself in his white holy garments.

3 . He offered or presented at the door of the tabernacle a bullock for a sin offering for himself and his house.

4 . He presented at the same place two goats for a sin offering for the congregation.

5 . He cast lots on the two goats, one of which was to be sacrificed, the other to he let go into the wilderness.

6 . He sacrificed the bullock.

7 . He passed from the court through the holy place into the holy of holies with a censer and incense, and filled the space beyond the vail with a cloud of smoke from the incense.

8 . He returned to the court, and, taking some of the blood of the bullock, passed again within the vail, and there sprinkled the blood once on the front of the mercy-seat and seven times before it.

9 . He came out again into the court, and killed the goat on which the lot for sacrifice had fallen.

10. For the third time he entered the holy of holies, and went through the same process with the goat's blood as with the bullock's blood.

11. He purified the other part of the tabernacle, as he had purified the holy of holies, by sprinkling with the atoning blood, as before, and placing some of it on the horns of the altar of incense ( Exodus 30:10 ).

12. He returned to the court, and placed the blood of the bullock and goat upon the horns of the altar of burnt sacrifice, and sprinkled it seven times.

13. He offered to God the remaining goat, laying his hands upon it, confessing and laying the sins of the people upon its head.

14. He consigned the goat to a man, whose business it was to conduct it to the border of the wilderness, and there release it.

15. He bathed and changed his linen vestments for his commonly worn high priest's dress.

16. He sacrificed, one after the other, the two rams as burnt offerings for himself and for the people.

17. He burnt the fat of the sin offerings upon the altar.

18. He took measures that the remainder of the sin offerings should be burnt without the camp.

In Numbers 29:7-11 , twelve sacrifices are commanded to be offered by the high priest on this day, namely, the morning and evening sacrifice; a burnt offering for the people, consisting of one young bullock, one ram (as already stated), and seven lambs; and cue goat for a sin offering; so that in all there were fifteen sacrifices offered, besides the meat and drink offerings. The punctiliousness of the Jews in later times was not content that the ceremonies should begin on the day itself. Preparations commenced a full week previously. On the third day of the seventh month, the high priest moved from his house in the city into the temple, and he was twice sprinkled with the ashes of the red heifer, by way of precaution against defilement. He spent the week in practicing and rehearsing, under the eye of some of the elders of the Sanhedrim, the various acts that he would have to perform on the great day, and on the night immediately preceding it he was not allowed to sleep. In case of his sudden death or disqualification, a substitute was appointed to fulfill his function.