The Jesus Institute Forum

Toward a Levitic-Covenantal Apocalyptic – Parts I-III:

Covenant foundations in Daniel, 11Q13, and Hebrews

A suggested Christocentric and exegetical clarification of prophetic interpretation

Lee F. Greer, III
Loma Linda, California
© 2001

(Last updated June 2005)

The materials in this lengthy paper have accumulated over several years, and for better access and clarity are intended for
 eventual reposting / expansion in a series of short papers with more extensive bibliography and references (April 2004).

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Introduction to all three parts of Toward a Levitic-Covenantal Apocalyptic. These three parts were first presented at the 1st Symposium of the Jesus Institute Forum in April of 2001, and again with revisions and updates at the 2nd Symposium of the Jesus Institute Forum in November of 2001. The Revised and Updated versions are linked from the schedules of both symposia (except the order of Parts II and III are inverted in the 2nd Symposium to follow a chronological format).

Toward a Levitic-Covenantal Apocalyptic:


Abstract. Bible prophecy has been for many centuries interpreted by the historicist method especially among Protestants. Of all the methods the historicist school has attempted to be the most consciously faithful to Scripture. (In recent centuries of course the preterist and futurist approaches have been added). However none of these post-Biblical methods have adequately taken into account the explicitly Levitic-Covenantal framework within which the prophets wrote. Hence none of these methods adequately include the Covenant-conditional nature of prophecy (Deut. 28-34, Lev. 25-26, Jer. 18) and none portray the intimate link between eschatology and soteriology – i.e., the centrality and NT eschatological nature of justification by faith. However by restoring the Levitic Covenant-conditional framework of the prophets, the organic relation between eschatology and soteriology, their Gospel root, is discovered, the true conditional nature of prophecy is incorporated, and the best insights of the three schools are honored and preserved (with none of their corresponding negatives)! In three parts, we develop this in outline in Daniel (Part I), Hebrews (Part III), and in the ascension and enthronement of Christ – i.e., the New Testament treatment of this in its 1st century setting as further exemplified in Dead Sea Scroll fragment 11Q13 (Part II). Revelation in its consummative summation of the prophecies of Daniel, Zechariah, Ezekiel, and Jesus' Olivet Discourse (Mark 13 = Matt. 24 = Luke 21) brings us down to the Second Advent and Final Judgment at Millenium's end.

In brief, all the post-biblical methods attempt to use history, speculation, or ideology to exegete prophecy, rather than first exegeting prophecy making use of its Levitic-Covenantal framework, and then allowing prophecy to illuminate history and theology.
 

Overall introduction to Covenant righteousness

What is God’s Covenant? All the covenants of Scripture, from the Edenic covenant, to the covenant with Noah and all living things, the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant with Isaac, the covenant with Israel, the Davidic covenant, and the new covenant or new testament are all based on God’s everlasting Covenant. The everlasting Covenant is God’s eternal unchanging righteousness. There are 45 texts that speak of the Ark of the Covenant or the Ark containing the Covenant. There are 16 texts that reference the Ark of the Testimony. Finally, there is one NT text which speaks of the Ark of His Covenant on the final judgment day of reward and wrath: “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there appeared the Ark of His Covenant, and [there] came lightnings and voices and thunders and an earthquake and a great hail” (Rev. 11:19).

What did the Ark contain? God’s eternal Law. God’s eternal Law of righteousness is the everlasting Covenant. “Clouds and darkness surround Him: Righteousness and judgment [are] the foundation of His throne” (Ps. 97:2). All the individual covenants He makes are based on the everlasting Covenant. The specific promises and conditions of the various covenants may change from time to time, from Semitic nomad to Israelite king, from typical sacrifice to antitypical Sacrifice, but God’s eternal Covenant remains unchanged. And there is one Mediator of the everlasting Covenant, Messiah or Christ.

The key characteristic of the Covenant promises is conditionality. Primary conditions, the divine righteous requirements of the Covenant must be met to their fullest extent, otherwise God’s Covenant capitulates to sin. Secondary conditions, the believing sinner to whom the Covenant promises are made must have faith in their restorative provisions (propitiation and atonement) and so live accordingly. In the first, God’s will is vindicated; in the second the believing sinner is vindicated or justified and free will is restored. So whether the Covenant promise is manifest in type or prophecy, the final fulfillment is certain and inevitable because God meets the primary conditions. The when, where, how, and by whom of the fulfillment depends largely on the secondary conditions being met – the free will acceptance or rejection of the Covenant promises by the professed Covenant people. So the conditionality of promise and prophecy is a fundamental hermeneutic principle (Jer. 18:1-7-10; Jonah 1:2; 3:2, 4-10; 4:2, 11).

The following paradigm of 'promise, fulfillment, and consummation' recurring throughout prophecy in Scripture has become widely known because of George Eldon Ladd. We wish to note that the same pattern recurs with the sacrificial types:

God’s Law-Covenant: Perfect Creation – The Fall into sin (broken Law-Covenant) – God’s Law-Covenant Promise: Perfect Redemption through Propitiation

The Covenant promises of redemption – Founded in righteousness
Messiah’s 1st Advent
Messiah’s 2nd Advent & the Final Judgment following the Millenium of Rev. 20
God’s Law-Covenant promises in Sacrificial-Sanctuary types Fulfillment Consummation
God’s Law-Covenant promises in Prophetic Oracles & Writings Inaugural fulfillment Consummated fulfillment

The Covenant forges the link between eschatology and justification. "The heart of primitive Christian apocalyptic. . . . is the accession to the throne of heaven by God and by His Christ as the eschatological Son of manan event which can be characterized as proof of the righteousness of God. . . . That is why the Pauline doctrine of the righteousness of God and our own justification must be derived from apocalyptic" (Koch, 1972 quoting Ernst Kasemann).

Our desire is to informally suggest a prophetic model of interpretation which we believe is implicit and often explicit in Scripture and which forges an organic link between eschatology and soteriology. It includes the incidental positives but excludes the inherent negatives of the various post-Biblical schools of prophetic interpretation: (a) historicist, (b) preterist, (c) futurist, or (d) idealist.


Toward a Levitic-Covenantal Apocalyptic – Part I:

Covenant foundations: Exegesis
of the vision of Daniel 8:1-14 in outline

Lee F. Greer III
Loma Linda, California

Abstract. By incorporating a Levitic-Covenental approach to the prophecies of Daniel, rather than the post-Biblical preterist, historicist, or futurist models, we immediately find a few vital results. (1) The Covenant-conditional nature of all prophecy is incorporated (Deut. 28-34, Lev. 25-26, Jer. 18). (2) All the prophetic sections of Daniel (chs. 2, 7, 8-9, 10-12) go from Daniel's time until the kingdom of God including Daniel 9, the Messianic section. (3) Daniel 9 provides the Levitic-Covenantal foundation, chronology, (Leviticus 25-26, II Chron. 36) and hence interpretive framework for all of the sections. (4) The central, pivotal vision of Daniel 8:1-14 is entirely explicated in chapters 8-12 within the 70 sabbatical 'weeks of years' framework. (5) Daniel 8:14 is the central symbolic text of Daniel followed by explanation (chs. 8-12). Also Daniel 8:14 is alluded to and explicated more than once in the NT.

When we exegete Daniel and all the prophets in their native Levitical-Covenantal framework, we are brought closer to the conclusion that the heart of the New Testament proclamation rests exegetically on the Hebrew Scriptures.

In this paper we will attempt to briefly show how the underlying principles of a Levitic-Covenantal Conditional model of prophetic interpretation allow us to deal exegetically rather than arbitrarily with the vision of Daniel 8:1-14. Such a model explains unifying features of the vision unaccounted for in any other approach. A fuller development of how a Levitic-Covenantal model would unify and Scripturally systematize Biblical prophetic interpretation is reserved for future papers.

A note on preterist or historicist interpretations. Our adherence to the text of Daniel in what follows is simply a recognition that exegesis (even if only in bare outline as below) is a requirement before any attempts to interpret from our standpoint 2,500 years later. Attempting to insert 'preterist or historicist interpretations' may not be legitimately attended to until after we have fulfilled our primary task to critically “hear the text” in its own historical context, apart from our own concerns and traditions.
 

Introduction

In order to understand the prophecies of Daniel in their biblical context, it is necessary to see them in their Covenant context (esp. Lev. 25-26). Daniel is set in a time of captivity that was the result of Israel’s abandonment of God’s Covenant and statutes – the Babylonian captivity (II Chronicles 36, Jeremiah, Lamentations). Their sins occasioned the destruction and desolation of their land, their city, and the temple of God built by Solomon. The heathen Babylonians actually did the desolating, but the sins of God’s people were largely responsible. They were not cast off however, since God's everlasting Covenant purposes were being worked out toward ultimate fulfillment and consummation.

Incarnational servanthood. It is noteworthy that the conflict between God and the forces of evil in Daniel was acted out on two different levels. The first is a horizontal level of servanthood: God’s servants versus the servants of evil. The second is a vertical, incarnational level: At crucial climaxes of the conflict, both the Incarnation of God and the incarnations of the evil one are manifested:
 

Servants of God (horizontal)
  • Daniel, Shadrach, Mesach, Abednego (ch. 1-2) 
  • Shadrach, Mesach, Abednego (ch. 3) 
  • Nebuchadnezzar, humble, forgiven (ch. 4) 
  • Daniel, faithful in rebuke (ch. 5) 
  • Daniel, faithful in prayer (ch. 6) 
  • Darius, repentant and forgiven (ch. 6)  
  • Those who are faithful to God & the Covenant even in martyrdom (ch. 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12)
Servants of the adversary (horizontal)
  • Compromising Israelite captives (ch. 1) 
  • 4 empires & divisions of the image (ch. 2) 
  • 4 empires – beasts (ch. 7) 
  • 2 empires – beasts (ch. 8) 
  • Self-exalting Nebuchadnezzar (ch. 4) 
  • Drunken, blasphemer Belshazzar (ch. 5) 
  • Plotting princes & 30-day decree (ch. 6) 
  • Darius consenting to 30-day decree (ch. 6) 
  • Those who compromise and forsake the Covenant (ch. 1, 2, 3, 11) 
  • King of the south
The Incarnation of God (vertical)
  • Stone [eben] cut out without hands (ch. 2) 
  • Son [ben] of God (ch. 3) 
  • Son [ben] of man (ch. 7) 
  • Prince of the host (ch. 8) 
  • Prince of princes (ch. 8) 
  • Messiah the prince (ch. 9) 
  • Michael the great prince standing on behalf of God’s people (ch. 12)
Incarnations of the adversary (vertical)
  • Nebuchadnezzar seized with demonic fury (ch. 4) 
  • Little horn with eyes like a man (ch. 7) 
  • Little horn – fierce-faced king (ch. 8) 
  • ‘… a coming prince’ (ch. 9) 
  • ‘the desolator’ (ch. 9) 
  • King of the north (ch. 11)

In Daniel we find a very distinctive motif where in the ephemeral ebb and flow of human kingdoms, the God of heaven ultimately intervenes within history to set up an everlasting kingdom (2:44-45; 7:13-14; 8:14=9:24-27; 12:1-3).

(i) Abomination, (ii) Judgment, (iii) Kingdom. It is significant that Daniel 1, 8-12 were written in Hebrew, while chapters 2-7 were written in Aramaic and are fraught with idols, images of heathen worship, and ceremonially unclean beasts. Correspondingly in ch. 2-7, the center of focus is the broad sweep of Gentile world empires and events, although the Covenant people are not forgotten. By contrast, Daniel 1, 8-12 were written in Hebrew and are replete with ritually clean, sacrificial, Day of Atonement beasts and allusions to Hebrew worship. The center of focus is more specifically the journey and ultimate vindication of the Covenant people. The recurring sequence motif in both the Aramaic and the Hebrew sections is (i) abomination, (ii) judgment-justification, and (iii) kingdom.
 

(i) Abomination which desolates (Self-exalting and desolating)
(ii) Judgment of justification (+) and condemnation (–)
(iii) Kingdom for the vindicated-justified
Dan. 1 – Babylonian captivity

1st test – king’s meat & drink

(+) Daniel & friends healthier & 10X wiser than all the wise of Babylon

(–) Compromised & heathen put to shame

(+) Daniel & three friends exalted to ‘stand before the king’ 
Dan. 2 – King dreams, forgets, & demands dream + interpretation: Magi & astrologers try guile to maintain their deceit: King sentences them all (incl. Daniel and friends) to death (+) Daniel with friends is vindicated by receiving the dream & interpretation

(–) Magi & astrologers unmasked in their deception, rendered dependent on Daniel & friends to spare their lives

(+) King acknowledges God of heaven as Revealer and Ruler: Daniel is appointed chief-prefect of Babylon & his friends were placed over the affairs of the province of Babylon
Dan. 2 – The image of 4 self-exalting world empires & its divisions (+) ‘Stone cut out without hand’ 

(–) strikes & destroys the image

(+) The ‘Stone’ becomes a great mountain & fills the whole earth – God’s eschatological kingdom
Dan. 3 – Great golden image to be worshipped on pain of death by fire. King stirred by satanic fury throws God’s faithful children in to the fiery furnace heated 7 times hotter  (+) ‘Son of God’ ‘intercedes’ in the fire before the heathen king & three faithful Hebrews delivered 

(–) Those who bound them died & compromising Israelites and heathen humiliated

(+) Decree in favor of the God of the Hebrews & three faithful Hebrews exalted in the kingdom of Babylon. King makes a decree honoring the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Dan. 4 – Nebuchadnezzar in haughty self-glorification as leading world ruler neglects righteousness & pitying the poor. He dreams, but consults magi and astrologers again; neglects to heed Daniel’s call to repentance based on the dream  (–) ‘Great tree’ (king) in the dream is cut down by divine decree - humiliation as a animal . . . 

(+) But a restoration covenant is confirmed with the striken king for 7 ‘times’– years until he acknowledges the rulership of the Most High God on earth

(+) A humble, forgiven king who now glorifies God and confesses his sin publicly is restored to his kingdom after the 7 ‘times’– years of Covenant confirmation (1 sabbatical week of years)
Dan. 5 – Belzhazzar & revelers desecrate the sacred vessels from the temple of God & honor the idol gods in a wild drunken feast in Babylon - all this despite knowing about grandfather Nebuchadnezzar (–) Divine hand passes judgment on the wall: Weighed in the balances and wanting, kingdom divided, and given to the Medes & Persians

(+) Daniel the faithful prophet vindicated in his interpretation & rebuke

(+) Daniel vindicated as Babylon falls that very night & Darius the Mede takes kingdom. Daniel highly exalted in the Medo-Persian empire also
Dan. 6 – King Darius urged by princes signs law requiring 30 day worship of the king on pain of death by lions  (+) Faithful Daniel is thrown to the lions but is vindicated & delivered by the God of heaven

(–) Conspiring princes are condemned & fed to the lions

(+) Vindicated & delivered, Daniel is restored to his kingdom position; his enemies are discredited & destroyed. King makes a decree honoring the God of Daniel
Dan. 7 – Unclean beasts symbolize 4 Gentile world empires & divisions: Winged lion, humped bear, 4-winged/4-headed leopard, nightmare beast with 10 then 7 horns & a ‘little horn’ with human eyous & mouth which blasphemes & wars on the covenant people for 3 ½ ‘times’ – 3 ½ years which is only half of the 7 ‘times’ – years of ch. 4 (+) Heavenly judgment convened & based on books of record is presided over by the ‘Ancient of days’; the ‘Son of man’ is brought with the ‘clouds of heaven’ before God to intercede & vindicate & receive His universal kingdom of all who will serve Him

(–) Verdict of condemnation on beasts: Dominion taken, killed, burnt up completely

(+) The Covenant people, the saints are vindicated & possess the kingdom under the whole heaven
Dan.8 – Clean beasts, sacrificial and Day of Atonement beasts: Focus on the Covenant people, Israel 
  • Ram from E  
  • One-horned he-goat  
  • Division of he-goat: 4 horns toward 4 directions & self-exalting ‘little horn’  
  • (i) Desecrates heaven, casts down some of host of heaven and of the stars to ground & tramples them  
  • (ii) Self-magnifies to the Prince of the host / Prince of princes 
  • (iii) Takes away the ‘daily’ & places ‘desolating abomination’ 
  • (iv) Desecrates Sanctuary, Host, and Truth to the ground 
Great question: "Until when [ad ma’atiy] is [the duration of] the vision [of] 
  • the ‘daily’ and the desolating abomination 
  • to give both sanctuary & host to be trampled? [=process during duration]
(+) Heaven’s verdict: Until 2300 evenings-mornings, then the sanctuary will be justified [nitzedaq] – vindicated [along with the truth and the trampled host] 

(–) The ‘little horn’ will be ‘broken without hand’ in the end-time, the ‘last end of the indignation’

(+) With the vindication of the sanctuary, the ‘host’ [God’s people] will also be vindicated
Dan. 9 – ‘a coming prince’ or ‘desolator’ destroys the city and sanctuary, takes away the ‘daily’, cuts off Messiah, sets up his abominations on the outskirts  (+) Within decreed 70 weeks of years (10 Jubilees): Messiah cut off but not for Himself, i.e., the transgression [pesha] finished, an end of sins, atonement [kaphar] for iniquity, righteousness [tzedeq] everlasting ushered in, the vision [chazon] and prophecy sealed up, the Most Holy anointed (Lev. 16, 25-26; Isa. 53)

(–) That which is decreed pours out back on ‘the desolator’ (Lev. 16: 20-22)

(+) The eternal righteous kingdom of God through the propitiation of Messiah which ends evil and the evildoer 
Dan. 10-12 – ‘king of the north’ attacks the Covenant, flatters/corrupts the forsakers of the Covenant, takes away the ‘daily’, pollutes the sanctuary, and places the abomination of desolation, puts to fire, sword, captivity, and spoil those loyal to the Covenant some days [1260, 3 ½ ‘times’, ch. 12:7], and even ‘plants his tabernacles’ in the ‘glorious holy mount’ Zion (+) Michael the great Prince on behalf of God’s people stands up: All those found written in the book [justified] are delivered or resurrected to everlasting life

(–) The ‘king of the north’ comes to his end and none will help him; the wicked dead are raised to ‘shame and everlasting contempt’

(–) Kingdom: The vindicated wise ones shine like the brightness of the skies; those who turned many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

This recurring motif of abomination, judgment-justification, and kingdom is based squarely on the typical Levitical-Covenantal provisions of the Pentateuch, particularly as systematized in Leviticus.

Broad sketch: The internal coherence of Daniel. Daniel has an internally coherent world-view stretching from Daniel’s day till ‘the kingdom of God’ not only in Daniel 2, 7, 8, and 10-12, but also in 9. Chapter 9 furthermore provides the only anchored time framework in the whole book. The other prophetic chapters only provide a relative order of events – hard to realize unless we allow the text to speak for itself, instead of imposing our own historical perspective on it. Daniel gives many historical anchor points to guide us in interpreting it, but only within the Covenant framework that he also provides. Daniel describes a sequence of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia and its breakup / [Rome] and its breakup, the ‘incarnation’ of antichrist, and the kingdom of God. (Remember that the first manifestation of the antichrist power of Rome on Palestine was through a king whose father had been conquered by Rome, and who was prevented by Rome from attacking Egypt and therefore attacked Israel – Antiochus IV Epiphanes, after 168 BCE). Again, what is hard to see from our perspective is that the fourfold sequence constitutes a relative order not a chronology. The events connected with the final overthrow of the 4th kingdom under which Jesus lived could have happened a lot faster than they did. So Daniel 9 provides the Covenant time framework for what could have been had Israel and next the early church been faithful to the Covenant.
 

The Covenant

(For more the Near Eastern historical setting of the Covenant see
Atonement and the Revelation: Levitic Covenant underpinnings)

In Exodus, after the deliverance of Israel, God led them to Mt. Sinai where He spoke His moral law, the Ten Commandments prefaced by His identification as the God who delivered them from Egypt and the ‘house of bondage’ (Ex. 20; Deut. 5). The Ten Commandments are called the Covenant. Upon tables of stone, "the words of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments" are written down by God (Ex. 34:28). Also in Deuteronomy, Israel is reminded that God "declared to you His Covenant, which He commanded you to perform, [even] Ten Commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone" (Deut. 4:13). This obedience to God’s moral law is commanded of every man with a judgment to follow (Eccl. 12:13-14). What’s more, Jesus gave the ‘fine print’ on the Ten Commandments in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (Matt. 5-7): He pointed out that their jurisdiction extended to thoughts and intents of heart. To the Ten Commandments were added ‘statutes and judgments’ for them as they went to the Promised Land. The Angel or Messenger of the Covenant was promised to lead them into the Promised Land, but they were counseled to "beware of Him, and obey His voice, provoke Him not; for He will not pardon your transgressions for My name is in Him" (Ex. 23:20-21). Despite this the people of Israel immediately agreed to obey the Covenant (Ex. 24:1-7; Deut. 5:27). YAHWEH their Suzerain replied with longing, "I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you: they have said well all that they have spoken. O that they had such a heart as this, to fear Me, and keep all My commandments all the days, that it might be well with them, and with their sons for ever!" (Deut. 5:28-29).

Dedication & Covenant. Just as immediately in Ex. 24, God gave them hope of His favor and peace with Him through a dedication of the people to Himself through substitutionary sacrifices. Upon an altar on a hill, burnt offerings and peace offerings were sacrificed to YAHWEH (Ex. 24:5-7). The blood was sprinkled on all that had to be made acceptable to God: The altar, the people, and even the book of the Covenant which Moses had written (Ex. 24:5-8). Moses said, "This is the blood of the Covenant, which YAHWEH has made with you concerning all these words." Only after this dedication, was Moses called up into the Mount to receive the actual Covenant itself, written by God on tables of stone (Ex. 24:12) where he remained 40 days and nights with God. Consecration and dedication were also described in Lev. 8-9 and Numbers 7.

Sanctuary & Covenant. During this time when He received the Covenant or "the two tables of Testimony written by the finger of God" (Ex. 31:18), Moses received directions and the pattern (Ex. 25-31) for the building of a sanctuary: "And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8). All of the sanctuary was a concentric arrangement to house God’s Covenant and provide the only way a righteous God could dwell among a sinful people.

On this basis alone (in type) God Himself could look down from the cloud of Shekinah glory through the blood of the substitutionary sacrifice onto His Covenant, and see justice satisfied. This way (in type) He could pardon, forgive, and be merciful to His sinful though repentant, believing and obedient Covenant people. Only through the continual ‘daily’ service and the ‘yearly’ Atonement could God make the legal determination / judgment that His people had ‘fulfilled’ the infinite Covenant commands and were thus legally entitled to His Covenant blessings. All their loyalty and obedience and worship and praise fell far short of the Covenant and could be accepted of God only through a substitutionary atonement. Only this way could the God of the Covenant live among His people on their earthly pilgrimage.

If they were to forsake the Covenant and their loyalty to Him, this whole typical service would become nothing but a mockery and a curse to condemn them. To follow it loyally was an act of faith in the antitypical Substitute to come, Messiah. After the antitype was fulfilled in Christ, then to continue following it was no longer an act of faith looking forward, but a denial based either on ignorance or unbelief of what had already been fulfilled. There is some evidence however in the book of Acts that Christians may have continued to offer sacrifices at the temple at times, perhaps as a commemorative of Christ's sacrifice.

The Covenant provisions of Leviticus (1-)16: The Day of Atonement

We return to the Day of Atonement, the crowning conclusion to the sacrificial year: "For on that day [the high priest] shall make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, [that] you may be clean from all your sins before YAHWEH" (Lev. 16:31). This day was however a culmination of many prescribed offerings and sacrifices throughout the year. All sacrifices and offerings were the only way in which a sinful, but believing Covenant people could approach and be accepted by faith before the God of the Covenant.

The sacrifices were to be without blemish. There were free will offerings for atonement, offerings by fire for an acceptable savor before the Lord, food offerings, burnings of frankincense, and sacrifices of peace offerings (Lev. 1). Then there were the sin offerings: The bullock of the sin offering for the priests and the whole congregation, the goat kid for rulers, the goat kid or a lamb for a common person (Lev. 2-4). There were also the trespass offerings of a lamb or a goat kid, or two doves or young pigeons. In every case the blood was applied in some way, usually on the altar of burnt sacrifice, but occasionally on the horns of the golden altar in the holy place or ‘before the veil’ in front of the Holiest. This way, a substitutionary atonement [kaphar] or ‘covering’ was imputed to the sinner to spare him or her from God’s justice. This way God could accept and forgive them. All of this culminated in the Day of Atonement when atonement was made for the whole congregation and for the sanctuary. The significance of the substitutionary animal sacrifice was explained in the prohibition of eating blood: "For the life of he flesh is in the blood: And I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood [that] makes an atonement [kaphar, covering] for the soul" (Lev. 17:11).

The daily or continual service (hatamid) involved a morning and evening burnt sacrifice (between the evenings) which were to be kept continually smoldering (tamid) on the bronze altar of sacrifice in the court. There was a burning of incense perpetually (tamid) on the golden altar of incense before the veil. A table of 12 loaves of bread was changed and daily displayed (tamid) before the Lord before the veil. Finally the arranging and dressing of the lamps always was ordered from evening to morning (Ex. 27:20; Lev. 24:3) every day continually (tamid) by Aaron and his sons. The daily (hatamid) services were like a mini-Day of Atonement, because repeatedly when a person was ceremonially defiled, he would remain 'unclean until the evening' (Ex. 27: 20-21; 30:7-8; Lev. 24:3; cf. manna Ex. 16:6-7; daily prayer Ps. 55:17). Uncleanness was atoned for at evening (Lev. 11; 14; 15; 17; 22; Num. 19). The daily (hatamid) was furthermore like a mini-Day of Atonement judgment. Judicial satisfaction, retribution, judgment were exacted and completed at evening (Josh. 7:6; 8:29; 10:26; Judg. 20:26, 28; 21:2…). As a mini-Day of Atonement, the evening sacrifice was more prominent that the morning sacrifice. All this was accomplished in the tabernacle court and the Holy Place before the veil. Within the veil was the Most Holy Place where was the Ark containing the Covenant covered by the Mercy Seat (Propitiatory) over the Covenant where a work was to go on once a year. To this we now turn.

Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement had specific provisions (Leviticus 16). This day came once a year in the autumn on the 10th day of the 7th month. The sacrifices of this day were unique to the high priest, who alone was to enter the Holy of holies on this day. The high priest entered:

What actually defiled the sanctuary in the Old Testament type?

The Day of Atonement justification and cleansing of the people and the sanctuary raises this question. How exactly in Scripture was the sanctuary defiled? Was it sins of omission and commission? Was it the confession of sin? The weight of evidence suggests that it was always the commission and existence of sin and evil especially open rebellion that defiled the sanctuary, not in the strictest sense the blood atonement made for sin. That blood atonement always signified cleansing and purifying. However, there is one sense in which the typical service of confession of sin transferred sins to the sanctuary and thus defiled it. That was because the blood of bulls and goats were typical and thus could never really take away sin. Hence the ‘yearly remembrance’ or Day of Atonement and the Holiest ‘within the veil’ were an explicit means by which the Holy Spirit foretold how God would deal with sin in the antitypical fulfillment in Christ (Heb. 9:7-11). Of course of central interest to us is exactly what 'defiled' or 'profaned' the sanctuary in Daniel 8.

The two words used in Hebrew to describe the desecration of the sanctuary are tameh = to be defiled, contaminated, unclean, impure (morally or ceremonially), and chalal = to pierce or wound; figuratively, to profane. Below, tameh is translated ‘defiled’ and chalal is translated ‘profaned’:
 

Text
What (1) and how (2) defiled / profaned?
Comment
  • Lev. 16:16, 19-20
  • 1. Sanctuary, tent of meeting, altar defiled:  
  • 2. By the pollutions of Israel, all their transgressions and all their sins
All confessed & unconfessed sins, because tent dwells in the midst of their pollutions…. Anyone not humbling him/herself and repenting on DA cut off (with scapegoat, i.e., their sins also removed in purifying the sanctuary on their own heads)
  • Lev. 15:31
  • 1. My tabernacle in their midst defiled:  
  • 2. By any untimely discharge or hemorrhage
Any imperfection of the flesh was unacceptable to God requiring atonement; all sacrifices to be without blemish.... Note the defiling of the tabernacle 'in their midst'
  • Lev. 20:3
  • 1. My sanctuary and My holy name defiled:  
  • 2. By offering one’s children to Molech
A deliberate sin of rebellion and idolatry; cf. Lev. 18:26 - defiling the land through detestable things
  • Lev. 21:12
  • 1. The sanctuary of God is profaned 
  • 2. By the high priest having his head uncovered, his garment torn, coming near a dead body, defiling himself, or going out of the sanctuary because the anointing oil is upon him
Compare what happened with the counterparts: Caiaphas & Jesus at his arraignment, trial, crucifixion, and burial (Mark = Matthew = Luke)
  • Num. 5:1-3
  • 1. Their camps in the midst of which I dwell defiled 
  • 2. By the leper, one with discharge, one polluted by a dead body
Note again the emphasis on the defiling of 'their camps in the midst of which I dwell' (i.e., the LORD's tent also pitched in their camp, also a sojourner) 
  • Num. 19:13
  • 1. The tabernacle of the LORD has been defiled: 
  • 2. By anyone touching a dead body and not purifying himself (via red heifer water of purification)
Required cleansing by the water of purification made with ashes of the slain red heifer 
  • Num. 19:20
  • 1. The sanctuary of the LORD has been defiled: 
  • 2. By anyone touching a bone, the slain, the dead, or the grave and not purifying himself (via red heifer water of purification)
Required cleansing by the water of purification made with ashes of the slain red heifer
  • II Chron. 36:14
  • 1. The house of the LORD which He had sanctified in Jerusalem the heads of the priests and the children [of Israel] defiled 
  • 2. By persistently acting treacherously according to all the abominations [-able idols] of the nations
 
  • Ps. 74:3
  • 1. The sanctuary [has] perpetual [tamid] desolations:  
  • 2. Because the enemy has done all evil in the sanctuary
Psalm 74 is alluded in Daniel 8-12: Heathen enemy pollutes the sanctuary, roars in the ‘set time’ or Levitical festival [mo'ed], sets up their own signs for signs, break down and destroyed, scorned and blasphemed God’s name, afflicted and ill-treated God’s people. The question is asked "Until when?" God is petitioned to arise (stand up) and contend for Your cause (Dan. 12:1).
  • Ps. 74:4
  • 1. God’s holy ‘appointed meeting time’ [mo'edek] is [profaned] 
  • 2. By the roar of Your tormenters in the midst of it 
  • 3. Look to Your Covenant because of the evil done in the world
Mo'edek is used to refer to the solemn Levitical assemblies such as Passover, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, or Tabernacles. The very next Psalm 75 says that God will judge uprightly when He takes the ‘appointed time’ [mo'ed] which must be the Day of Atonement when He judges
  • Ps. 74:7
  • 1. Your sanctuary and the place where Your name dwells on earth profaned 
  • 2. By the enemy casting fire into the sanctuary
Chalal also used to describe the profaning of the sanctuary in Dan. 11:31.
  • Ps. 79:1
  • 1. God’s holy temple defiled: 
  • 2. By the heathen nations entering God’s inheritance, laying Jerusalem in heaps, and Israel fallen in bloodshed
This psalm appeals for redress, freedom for prisoners and thus has Jubilee Day of Atonement allusions (Lev. 25:...8-13...): "Deliver us and atone for our sins for Your name’s sake" (v. 9, 11)
  • Jer. 7:30
  • 1. The house on which My Name has been called, is consequently defiled 
  • 2. Because they set their abominable idols in it
The word for ‘abominable idols’ is derived from the masculine shikkutz as also is the ‘abomination which desolates’ in Daniel.
  • Jer. 32:34
  • 1. The house on which My Name has been called, is defiled 
  • 2. Because they set their idols in it
 
  • Ezek. 5:11
  • 1. My sanctuary you have defiled 
  • 2. By all your idolatries and abominations
Ezek. 6:5-7: Because of idolatry, the cities laid waste, high places deserted, & altars may become guilty and be broken
  • Ezek. 9:6-7
  • 1. My sanctuary, the house and the courts are defiled 
  • 2. By the judgments of the One whom the Lord sent to slay the wicked among His people, who are at His sanctuary, house and courts
One instance where the judgment activity of the Lord’s instrument of punishment defiles His own temple; cf. Isa. 47:6 where the LORD in His righteous anger profanes His inheritance
  • Ezek. 23:37-38
  • 1. Done to the Lord: My sanctuary they defiled and profaned My Sabbaths; and entered My sanctuary to profane it, profaning My house 
  • 2. By idolatry, adultery with idols, sacrificing their children and then entering God’s house
Cf. defiling neighbor’s wife, daughter-in-law, etc. (Ezek. 18:6, 11, 15; 33:26)
  • Ezek. 28:18
  • 1. The sanctuaries [holy places] of you, O covering cherub, prince/king of Tyre (wiser than Daniel) have profaned 
  • 2. By the host of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your traffic
Note the reference to Daniel and his reputation. Cf. self-exalting of Isa. 14 and Dan. 8:10-13.
  • Ezek. 43:6-8, 10-11
  • 1. Place of My throne and the place of the souls of My feet, where I dwell among the children of Israel forever, My threshold and My door post, even My holy name, they defile 
  • 2. By their fornication, the corpses of their kings in their high places, setting their thresholds by My threshold, their door post by My door post, their abominations they have done (respectively)
Cf. Ezek. 36:17-18: Defiled the land by their ways and doings, like a woman’s impurity because of the blood they shed on it, and their idols; cf. Jer. 2:7
  • Dan. 8:9-14
  • 1. The glorious [sanctuary], some of the host of heavens and stars made to fall and trampled by Little Horn (Isa. 14), even the Prince of the host (attacked), the daily taken away, the place of His sanctuary cast down, the host & daily surrendered to him, the truth cast down, the sanctuary and host trampled 
  • 2. Because of Little Horn’s self-exalting against the S, E, and Glorious [land, sanctuary, W], against the host of the heavens, the Prince of the host, the sanctuary, against the host & daily because of transgression, casting down the truth, and thus trampling the sanctuary & host
Remedy (Dan. 8:13-14): 
  • "Until when [ad'ma'atiy] is the vision [of] the daily and the desolating transgression to give both Sanctuary and Host to be trampled?" 
  • "Until [ereb-boqer] evening-mornings two thousand and three hundred, then shall be vindicated [nitzedaq] [the] Sanctuary [and by implication Host]."
  • Dan. 11:31
  • 1. The sanctuary [miqodash] and the fortress profaned 
  • 2. By the [king of the north’s] military arms standing, taking away the ‘daily,’ and placing the abomination that desolates
From the taking away of the ‘daily’ & the placing of the abomination that desolates: Breaking the power of the holy people for 3 ½ times until the ‘set time’ / [mo'ed] ’appointed time’ of the end, then all will be finished (1290 days, 1335 days, 2300 evening-mornings; (Dan. 12:5-13; 8:14, 19)

In conclusion, it was always the commission and existence of sin and evil especially open rebellion that defiled the sanctuary, not in the strictest sense the blood atonement made for sin. That blood atonement was always cleansing and purifying. In Daniel 8 it was explicitly the open rebellion of the 'little horn' (and by implication all sin) that defiled the sanctuary. However, because all these sacrifices were only types or pre-figures (Heb. 10) they could not actually cleanse the sanctuary and so therefore there remained a repetitive yearly 'remembrance of sins' (Heb. 10:1-4), i.e., a culminating blood atonement on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16), a 49th year Jubilee Day of Atonement (Lev. 25), and a multi-Jubilee Day of Atonement restoration after a time of Diaspora (Lev. 26). These types find their antitype in Christ (Daniel 8:1-14 = 9:24-27). Only the antitypical blood of Christ was in reality effectual in cleansing the sanctuary (Heb. 1:3; 9:1-28; 10:1-22).

To the typical Jubilee Day of Atonement we turn in outline.
 

The Jubilee Day of Atonement – Covenant provisions of Leviticus 25-26

The Day of Atonement was also the focal point for another typical service – the Jubilee which came every seven "Sabbaths of years" or seven "weeks of years" on the 49th year on the 10th day of the 7th month. The Jubilee shofar horn would then be blown: All indebtedness was to be forgiven, all those in debt bondage were to be freed, and all who had lost houses, lands, and possessions through debt were to be restored to their patriarchal inheritance. The Covenant people were to forgive each other of their debts and wrongs were to be righted. The Jubilee "year of release," the 50th year, was all inaugurated on the same day: On the 10th day of the 7th month of the 49th year, i.e., the Day of Atonement when the high priest as ‘mediator of the Covenant’ made the blood atonement for redemption on the Mercy Seat above the Covenant in the Most Holy Place. In effect, on this Jubilee Day of Atonement YAHWEH God of Israel became Surety and Kinsman-Redeemer for all indebtedness and sin through the Substitutionary blood aspersions on the Mercy Seat above the Covenant. There was no default in payment! The justice of the Covenant was satisfied – Yahweh paid the debt.

Of course the reader will immediately recognize that this is none other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

As we shall see, all these elements – the captivity because of transgression, the Sabbath rest of the land from defilement during the captivity, the desolation of God’s heritage, the kinsman-redeemer, the sabbatical ‘weeks of years,’ the Jubilee Day of Atonement – all form the Levitical-Covenant context framework of Daniel. Only in this Covenant context-framework can Daniel be exegetically understood.

The provisions and curses of Leviticus 25-26 in detail in type and antitype:

The Jubilee Day of Atonement in type – Leviticus 25-26
The antitypical Jubilee Day of Atonement
25: 1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,

2 ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the LORD.

3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

4 But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the LORD: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.

5 That which grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, neither gather the grapes of your vine undressed: [for] it is a year of rest unto the land.

6 And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for your servant, and for your maid, and for your hired servant, and for your stranger that sojourneth with thee, 

7 And for your cattle, and for the beast that [are] in your land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

8 And you shall number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

9 Then shall you cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth [day] of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout [all] the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family

11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: you

shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather [the grapes] in it of your vine undressed.

12 For it [is] the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

13 In the year of this jubilee you shall return every man unto his possession.

. . . .

17 You shall not therefore oppress one another; but you shall fear your God: for I [am] the LORD your God.

:18 Wherefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my

judgments, and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.

. . . .

23 The land shall not be sold for ever:for the land [is] mine; for you [are] strangers and sojourners with me.

24 And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.

25 If your brother be waxen poor, and has sold away [some] of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.

26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;

27 Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.

28 But if he be not able to restore [it] to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that has bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go free, and he shall return unto his possession.

29 And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; [within] a full year may he redeem it.

30 And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that [is] in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee.

31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.

. . . .

35 And if your brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then you shall relieve him: [yea, though he be] a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.

36 Take you no usury of him, or increase: but fear your God; that your brother may live with thee.

37 You shall not give him your money upon usury, nor lend him your victuals for increase.

. . . .

38 I [am] the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, [and] to be your God.

39 And if your brother [that dwelleth] by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; you shall not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

40 [But] as an hired servant, [and] as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, [and] shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee:

41 And [then] shall he depart from thee, [both] he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.

42 For they [are] my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.

. . . .

47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and your brother [that dwells] by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger [or] sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family:

48 After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:

49 Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or [any] that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.

50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.

51 If [there be] yet many years [behind], according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for

. . . .

54 And if he be not redeemed in these [years], then he shall go free in the year of jubilee, [both] he, and his children with him.

55 For unto me the children of Israel [are] servants; they [are] my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I [am] the LORD your God.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

26:1 You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up [any] image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I [am] the LORD your God.

2 You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I [am] the LORD.

3-13 All the blessings of keeping the Covenant . . . .

14-39 All the curses for rejecting the Covenant . . . .

31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.

32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

34 Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and you [be] in your enemies' land; [even] then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths.

35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your Sabbaths, when you dwelt upon it. . . . 

38 And you shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
 
 

40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;

41 And [that] I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:

42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.

44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I [am] the LORD their God

45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I [am] the LORD.

46 These [are] the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

God’s people Israel were reminded (Ex. 20:8-11) to keep the Sabbath holy every 7th day of every ‘week of days.’ Israel was instructed to allow the promised land was to keep Sabbath every 7th year of every ‘week of years’: This way, God’s called out people, Israel, were reminded that by creation and redemption from bondage, they were His people & He was the real Owner of the promised land

‘Weeks of years’: 6 years + 7th year = Sabbath year: Ex. 23:10-11; Deut. 15:1; 31:10

The land was left without ploughing, sowing, or reaping to produce whatever it would on its own – God promised enough to feed everyone
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Seven ‘weeks of years’ (49 years) were to be marked out followed by a 50th year of release

On the 49th year, on the 10th day of the 7th month, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet of the Jubilee was sounded, inaugurating the year of release:

  • Liberty was proclaimed throughout the land 
  • All captives were free to return to their families 
  • Land and possessions which were lost through debt bondage and default were restored to their patriarchal inheritance 
  • The law of Redemption: If a person and his family, and/or his possessions were sold into debt bondage, they could be redeemed by the person himself or someone ‘near of kin’ if they were able. If none were able to purchase redemption for them, the Lord God Himself became Surety and Redeemer on the Jubilee Day of Atonement: The debt-bonded people were restored to freedom and to their patriarchal inheritance 
  • Thus justice was done, unpayable debts were canceled, and the redemption of bonded people and possessions was accomplished only through the Lord as Surety on the Jubilee Day of Atonement: Only because a substitutionary Atonement (covering) had been made in the Most Holy Place upon the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant containing God’s Holy Law (Lev. 16) 
  • Thus the children of Israel were to see that they as God’s servants and their land as God’s possession by creation and redemption was established and made sure only by a substitutionary Atonement on the Mercy Seat in the Holiest on the Jubilee Day of Atonement

 
 
 
 

Provision of the kinsman-redeemer
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The debt was always reckoned up in terms of the amount of time remaining as a hired servant until the Jubilee Day of Atonement
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A provision was made for a kinsman-redeemer who as a substitute and surety could pay the debt in the bonded debtor’s stead to deliver him/her from debt bondage
 
 

If no redeemer could be found able to pay the debt and thus to intercede with the creditor on behalf of the bonded slave (‘no intercessor’ and ‘none to help,’ Isa. 59:14-21; 63:5; cf. 34:1-17) then on the Jubilee Day of Atonement through the substitutionary atonement on the mercy seat in the Holiest, the Lord God of Israel agreed to be the Kinsman-Redeemer who as Substitute and Surety would assume the indebtedness and pay in the bonded debtor’s stead to deliver him/her from debt bondage and restore him/her to their inheritance

In antitype, the above is none other than the Gospel! The Gospel links these very elements together, the Jubilee Day of Atonement is a day of reckoning and judgment, a day for the blood atonement on the mercy seat: Romans 3 arraigns the world in judgment to God’s law. They have nothing to pay and so ‘a righteousness of God apart from the law’ is manifested, i.e., the righteousness of Christ, by which God freely justifies those believing through the redemption in Jesus Christ whom God has set forth as a propitiation (mercy seat) through faith in His blood, & there is to follow a restoration through ‘a new heavens and new earth wherein dwells righteousness’ (II Pet. 3:13; Isa. 65:17; 66:22; Rev. 21-22).

The Covenant was based on these terms:

  • The Lord is your only God: No idols should defile His people or His land 
  • All the Sabbaths of the Lord were to be kept - the ‘week of days’ Sabbath for the people and the ‘week of years’ Sabbath for the land (and also the ceremonial Sabbaths) 
  • The sanctuary was to be reverenced because (1) it contained the manifestation of His presence and was the repository of the His Holy Law and (2) it was the location where substitutionary Atonement (covering) was made in the daily and yearly services for God’s people - all symbolizing Christ our Substitute 
  • Substitutionary Atonement was the only basis upon which a holy God could accept penitent sinners (the Covenant people, Israel) & bestow the Covenant blessings upon them. The believers’ contrite obedience to the Covenant was the outward fruit and evidence of their faith in the Atonement 
  • Rejection of the Covenant meant rejection of both the substitutionary Atonement and the Law of God which is the Covenant: The result were the curses in the Covenant
The Covenant Curses:
  • Diaspora, death, and darkness for the people 
  • Desolation for the land and the sanctuary, during which the land would enjoy her ‘weeks of years’ Sabbaths 
  • The Promise of hope: From the darkness and despair of the Diaspora, there was hope that they would be again brought to repentance and faith in the substitutionary Atonement of a Covenant-keeping God
This began to be fulfilled in the Babylonian Captivity: Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10-14; Dan. 9:2 (cf. Zech. 7:5); II Chron. 36:20-21: The land kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years which is 1/7th of 490 years, i.e., 70 ‘weeks of years’ or 490 years when Sabbath years had not been kept

Daniel 9:1-21: Daniel the righteous prince prays in repentance for himself and His people. He prays a covenant, Jubilee Day of Atonement prayer for a redemption of God’s people and a restoration of the sanctuary

At the time of the evening oblation (daily), God’s messenger Gabriel announced the allotment of another 70 ‘weeks of years’ (490 years) to Israel and Jerusalem till the great antitypical Jubilee Day of Atonement: "Seventy weeks are decreed upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy" (Daniel 9:24).

The whole Levitical sanctuary system was designed to teach that all the blessings which a Covenant-keeping God could ever bestow on poor lost sinners are entirely and exclusively based on an objective Righteousness and Atonement outside of themselves, without and apart from any works of our own, which can be apprehended by faith alone, i.e., faith alone in the imputed righteousness of Christ our Substitute and Surety.

Other prophetic writings cite the Jubilee Day of Atonement imagery. Two passages in Isaiah are cited in detail to show their prophetic use of this motif. Both of these parallel elements in the Christ event in the New Testament. The first one is from Isaiah 63.
 

Isaiah 63:1 - 64:1
Jubilee Day of Atonement / NT parallels
63:1 Who [is] this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this [that is] glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? [It is] I speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.

2 Who knows why Your clothing is red

3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people [there were] none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.

4 For the day of vengeance [is] in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come.

5 And I looked, and [there was] none to help; and I wondered that [there was] none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.

6 And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.

7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, [and] the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.

8 For he said, Surely they [are] my people, children [that] will not lie: so he was their Saviour.

9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, [and] he fought against them. 

11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, [and] his people, [saying], Where [is] he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where [is] he that put his holy Spirit within him?

12 That led [them] by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?

13 That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, [that] they should not stumble?

14 As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so did You lead Your people, to make Yourself a glorious name.

15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where [is] your zeal and your strength, the sounding of your bowels and of your mercies toward me? are they restrained?

16 Doubtless You [are] our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: You, O LORD, [are] our father, our redeemer; Your name [is] from everlasting.

17 O LORD, why have You made us to err from Your ways, [and] hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your inheritance.

18 The people of your holiness have possessed [it] but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.

19 We are [Yours]: You never bare rule over them; they were not called by Your name.

64:1 Oh that You would tear the heavens, that You would come down, that the mountains might flow down at Your presence.

‘Declaring His righteousness for the remission of sins’ (Rom. 3:21-31)
 
 
 

‘Sprinkling’ of dedication & atonement (Lev. 8-9, 16)

‘Day of vengeance’ = Day of Atonement (Lev. 16)

‘Year of My redeemed’ = the "year of release" inaugurated by the Jubilee Day of Atonement (Lev. 25-26)

Isa. 59:1-18: There was no intercessor or redeemer . . . except the Anointed [Christ]: If there were no kinsman-redeemer, then the Lord God of Israel undertook to be Kinsman-Redeemer on the Jubilee Day of Atonement (Lev. 25)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

God will remember His Covenant for the sake of His righteousness (Lev. 26; Dan. 9).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jubilee Day of Atonement prayer of intercession (cf. Dan. 9:1-23 at end of 1st 70 ‘weeks of years’ (II Chron. 36:21) and the Intercession of Messiah your Prince, Jesus Christ, at the Jubilee Day of Atonement at the end of the 2nd 70 ‘weeks of years,’ Dan. 9:24-27, Hebrews), i.e., a prayer for the ‘vindication of the sanctuary’ (Dan. 8:14) and the restoration of all things (cf. Matt. 17:11)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ps. 74; Daniel 8-12
 
 
 
 
 

Ultimately, a prayer for the Second Advent of Christ (Rev. 22:20)

Furthermore, the following prophetic passage from Isaiah 61 was cited by Jesus in Nazareth (Luke 4). This opens an explanatory door on the Gospels in seeing Jesus’ activity and life in a Danielic Jubilee Day of Atonement context. This we believe to be an indispensable interpretive key to Daniel and the New Testament. This must be developed further elsewhere.
 

Isaiah 61
Jubilee Day of Atonement / NT parallels
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound

2 To proclaim the year of the acceptance of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all mourners

3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified

4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations

5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien [shall be] your plowmen and your vinedressers.

6 But you shall be named the Priests of the LORD: [men] shall call you the Ministers of our God: you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves. 

7 For your shame [you shall have] double; and [for] confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 

9 And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they [are] the seed [which] the LORD has blessed. 

10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks [himself] with ornaments, and as a bride adorns [herself] with her jewels. 

11 For as the earth brings out her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

‘year of acceptance’ = the 50th year of release inaugurated by the Jubilee Day of Atonement

Cf. Isa. 63, 53

The blessings described above are the antitypical fulfillment of the Jubilee Day of Atonement proclamation: Cancellation of debts, atonement for sins, liberation from debt bondage, restoration of patrimony, bringing in everlasting righteousness, cutting off of rebellious with Azazel. (Lev. 16; 25-26 = Dan. 9:24-27)

(Lev. 26)

Vindication of the sanctuary (Dan. 8:14 = 9:24-27)
 
 
 
 
 
 

Priesthood of all believers through our great High Priest & a royal ministry of the King:

  • Free access to the ‘throne of grace,’ the mercy seat, in the Holiest through our High Priest who has ‘passed through the heavens’ (Heb. 4:16-18) ‘through the veil’ (Heb. 19:10-22; Mk. 15:38 = Matt. 27:51 = Lu. 23:45) - Jesus, our true Anchor of hope ‘within the veil’ (Heb. 6:19-20) 
  • Made kings and priest to God (Rev. 1:6; 5:10), a chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, and peculiar people showing forth His praises . . . (I Pet. 2:9) 
Justification by faith alone in the perfect righteousness of Christ mercifully reckoned to my account (Rom. 3-4) & its resultant fruit in the ‘ornaments’ and ‘jewels’ of sanctification (Rom. 6) – all in preparation for the Marriage (Rev. 20).

Rom. 3:24-55 – God openly displayed Christ a propitiation (‘ilastyrion or Mercy Seat) through faith in His blood to manifest God’s (Covenant) righteousness

The Covenant context of both Daniel and the redemption realized in the New Testament is based on the Jubilee Day of Atonement and its cycle.

70 weeks of years
Jubilee Day of Atonement
Year of Release
10 jubilees or ‘grand’ jubilee = 70 sabbatical ‘weeks of years’ = 70X7 times Middle of the 70th week when Messiah cut off and ‘the daily taken away’ until the end = 3½ times Opened on a Day of Atonement (Calvary and ascent, pre-Advent adjudicative judgment of the world), recapitulation of daily & Day of Atonement to be consummated at a Day of Atonement (final executive judgment)

Daniel in its Jubilee Day of Atonement context

In every case so far, in the Gentile section of Daniel (ch. 2, 4, 5, 7) each vision, dream, or sign in Daniel was fully explained within the corresponding interpretive addendum. This holds true for the enigmatic Covenant vision of Daniel 8:1-14 and its unfolding development in the rest of Daniel 8-12. This pivotal vision (vs. 1-14) receives its full interpretation in the two explanations of Gabriel in chapters 8-9, and is enlarged with further details in chapters 10-12. As has been pointed out, Gabriel indeed fulfilled his commission to explain the vision (Dan. 8:15-16).

Every feature of the vision of Daniel 8 was explained in either or both Gabriel’s first and second explanations (chs. 8-9) in the context of the 70 ‘weeks of years’ and expanded in Gabriel's third explanation in chs. 11-12. We shall see this develop as we go. Daniel 8-12 form a Levitic-Covenant unit of vision and interpretation – The vision of Daniel 8:1-14 is explained three times.

A summary of parallels between Leviticus 16 and Daniel 8-12. As has been long recognized, we note that there is no explicit linguistic connection between nitzedaq in Daniel 8:14 and taher in Leviticus 16. However, we do summarize some rather surprising but not coincidental parallels in Covenant imagery between Leviticus 16 (25-26) and Daniel 8-12:

Parallels between Leviticus 16, 25-26 and Daniel 8-12

Leviticus 16 (25-26) & other texts
Daniel 8-12
  • ' 7 sabbaths of years' 
  • Jubilee Day of Atonement = the climaxing mo'ed [solemn assembly] at the end of the 'sabbaths of years'; a judgment & vindication of sanctuary & Covenant people & ceremonial end of evil (upon the scapegoat)
  • Vindication & atonement for sanctuary & people for pollutions [chalal], transgressions, sins, and iniquities 
  • Covenant people justified & righteousness established through Day of Atonement climax of the sacrificial year
  • Ram for burnt offering enters from E toward W [sanctuary] & is completely burnt up 
  • Two he-goats ['ez, ha'ezim] chosen by lot for the LORD & for 'Azaz'el; a judgment choice 
  • LORD's goat = cut off violently at 4 horns of altar & later used to atone in the Holiest 
  • 'Azaz'el he-goat = perishes non-violently alone in the wilderness bearing the transgressions, sins, & iniquities of Israel 
  • Hatamid continued on & consummated on the Day of Atonement (Num. 29:7-11) when Covenant was confirmed 
  • Part of hatamid unique to high priest = arranging the 7-menorah lamps & holy oil was reckoned from evening to morning [me'ereb ad boqer] (Ex. 27:20-21; Lev. 24:2-4; cf. Ex. 30:7-8)
  • In the Most Holy Place, on the Ark of the Covenant, there were two golden angels, cherubim (God dwells between the cherubim, cf. Ps. 99)
  • In the context of the Jubilee Day of Atonement, Lev. 25-26 present a Covenant litigation framework for restoration from a Sabbatical desolation of the Covenant 'promised land' and a diaspora of the Covenant people
  • Implied judgment: Goat for the Lord and goat for 'Azaz'el determined and separated by lot [goral] (Lev. 16:7-10)
  • Leviticus 16 is one of only two passages in the OT where are gathered together the following Hebrew elements and concepts: 
    • "Atonement," 
    • "righteousness" in atoning for the sanctuary 
    • "righteousness" in that all the people "shall be clean before YAHWEH"
    • atonement for and removal of "transgression," 
    • atonement for and removal of "iniquity," 
    • atonement for and removal of "sins," 
    • "Most Holy," 
    • "anointing [of a person, the high priest]," 
    • "a Sabbath of rest" (10th day of 7th month), 
    • implied yearly confirmation of Covenant
  • ' 70 weeks [of years]' (cf. 'weeks of days' in 10:3) 
  • End of the vision = to climax in a mo'ed at end of 'weeks of years'; a judgment / vindication of sanctuary and host / holy people of the Covenant and final end of evil(upon the desolator) = finish the transgression, seal an end to sins, atone for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal an end to vision and prophecy, and anoint a Most Holy
  • Vindication / atonement for sanctuary & people for transgression, sins, iniquity, & pollution [chalal] of the 'little horn' / 'king of the N' 
  • Covenant confirmed & everlasting righteousness ushered in or established final atonement putting a 'Sabbath end to sacrifice and offering'
  • Ram enters from E toward Glorious [sanctuary, W] & is completely destroyed 
  • He-goat ['ez, ha'ezim] with great horn broken followed by 4 horns to 4 directions 
  • Prince of host / Prince of princes / Messiah a Prince / Prince of a Covenant attacked, broken, & cut off violently 
  • 'Little horn' / 'king of the N' / fierce-faced ['az-faced] king broken without hand, coming to his end with none to help him, with the desolations decreed being poured out upon him 
  • Hatamid taken away & caused to cease in a broken week (3 ½ times), i.e., the last week of years (7 times) of the 70 when Covenant was to be confirmed
  • Duration from the 'taking away' of hatamid & 'ending sacrifice & offering' until the 'vindication of the sanctuary' reckoned in high priestly hatamid reckoning = 2300 ereb-boqer, evening-morning[s]
  • In Daniel 8:13-14, there is dialogue, a Q&A between two holy ones (cf. two cherubim on Ark of the Covenant?)
  • In the intercessory prayer of Daniel 9:1-22, Daniel appeals in Covenant litigation to Jeremiah's prophecy (Jer. 25:9, 11, 12; 29:10) which is the framework of Lev. 26:34-35, 43 (cf. II Chron. 36:17-21) bringing a Covenant judgment suggestive of a final Jubilee Day of Atonement in Daniel 9:23-27 (cf. 1st century 11Q13 or 11QMelchizedeq fragment from Qumran). 
  • Implied judgment: Daniel must 'rest [in death] and stand in your lot [goral] at the end of the days' (Daniel 12:13)
  • Daniel 8-9 (especially vs. 24-27) is the one other passage in the OT where are gathered together the following Hebrew elements and concepts: 
    • "Atonement," 
    • "vindicating" the sanctuary 
    • [bringing in] "everlasting righteousness," 
    • [finishing] "transgression," 
    • [atoning for] "iniquity," 
    • [ending] "sins," 
    • "anointing of the Most Holy" [may apply in context to both a Person and/or a Place],
    • "an anointed One [Meshiach] a Prince" 
    • "Sabbath end to sacrifice and offering" 
    • eschatological confirmation of Covenant
Extra-biblical evidence on the meaning of the 'scapegoat' or the he-goat for 'Azaz'el as understood by Jews of ca. the 1st century BCE-CE, as suggested by manuscript evidence from Qumran Cave 4: 4Q181, Frag. 2 [4Q Ages of Creation]: ‘[to Abraham until he sire]d Isaac; [the ten generations. 'Azaz'el and the angels who penetrated] the daughters of] man and sired gian[ts] by them […] to Israel in the seventieth week to […]

The vision of Daniel 8:1-14

With brief comments and references we turn to the text of Daniel 8-9.

The text of the vision of Daniel 8

Daniel 8
References / Comments
1 In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision [chazon] appeared [nere’ah] to me, to me Daniel, after that which appeared [hanere’ah] to me at the beginning.
2 And I looked in the vision [chazon], and so it was when I looked [vere’ahtiy], I (was) at Shushan the citadel, which is in Elam the province. And I looked [va’r’ah] in the vision and I was by the Canal of Ulai.
3 Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram was standing before the canal, and it had two horns. And the two horns (were) high, but one (was) higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.
4 I saw the ram butting westward and northward and southward, so that all beasts might not stand before him, and none could deliver from his hand. And he did according to his will, and became great [gediysh, heap up]. 
5 And I was considering, and look, a male of the goats [tzephir-ha-etzim] came from the west, over the face of all the earth [ha’eretz], and did not touch the earth [ha’eretz]. And the he-goat (had) a conspicuous [i.e., striking in appearance] horn between his eyes.
6 And he came to the ram with two horns, which I had seen standing before the canal, and he ran to it in the fury of his power.
7 And I saw him touched beside the ram. And he became furious against him, and struck the ram and shattered its two horns. And there was no power in the ram to stand before him. But he threw him to the earth [‘eretzah] and trampled him, and none could deliver the ram from his hand.
8 Then the male of the goats [tzephir-ha-etzim] became very great [gediyl-‘ad-me’od = ‘great till vehemence’ i.e. beyond all]. And when he was mighty, the great [gediysh] horn was broken. And in its place came up four conspicuous ones toward the four winds of the heavens.
9 And out of one of them came a little horn [mitstseriyah, diminutive], and became excessively magnified [gedash yeter = magnified beyond all bounds] toward the south and toward the east and toward the glorious [land]. 
10 And it became magnified till the host of the heavens [gedash ad tzebah hashemayim]. And it made fall to the ground/earth [some] of the host and of the stars, and trampled them.
11 And [even] until the Prince of the host [ve ad sar-hatzaba’] he self-magnified [higedeysh], and from Him was taken away the daily [hatamid], and was cast down the place of His sanctuary [miqdash].
12 And a host was given over with the daily through transgression [pesha’], and it cast down truth to the ground/earth; and it worked and prospered. 
13 The I heard a certain holy one [edar qadosh] speaking, and another holy one [echad qadosh] said to the one who spoke, “Until when [ad ma’atiy] (is) the vision [chazon] [of] the daily [hatamid] and the desolating transgression [hapesha‘ shemem] to give both sanctuary and host to be trampled?”
14 And he said to me, “Until [ad] evenings-mornings [ereb-boqer] two thousand and three hundred, then will be vindicated [nitzedaq] (the) sanctuary.”
v1 – Chazon is here (and in 8:15) applied to the ‘whole vision’ and mareh is utilized in 8:16 also to describe the ‘whole vision.’ Chazon is also used to delimit the eschatological ‘little horn / trampling / evening-