The book of Revelation shows God’s wrath being harvested as blood and then being poured out on the earth seven times. When followed, the imagery shows that the wrath of God forms an atonement ceremony for the land, just as the Song of Moses ties God’s vengeance to the land’s atonement.
Atonement for God’s people was already accomplished with the blood of the lamb at Yeshua’s first coming — explicitly stated in Hebrews 13:11-14. However, according to Numbers 35:33-34, the land is polluted by murder which has been going on for millennia. This murder — especially the martyrdom of God’s people — will reach its apex during the Great Tribulation. Thus, the land itself will need to have an atonement before God may dwell there.
What we can also see from this passage in Numbers is that the source of the blood required for atonement of the land is that of the murderers: “no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.” Thus, the blood of the wicked, the armies of the Beast and the False Prophet, is the requirement — not the blood of bulls and goats.
Leviticus 16 gives us the details of God’s atonement ceremony, but there is a crucial distinction that needs to be made for application to this eschatological land atonement. Instead of specific application to the mercy seat, the tent of meeting, and the altar, there need only be one application of blood to the land itself.
We must also be careful to define “land” here — what is being atoned? In this setting, it is not just the land of Israel, but the whole earth that must be purified. When the two beasts are burned outside the camp or the scapegoat is sent to the wilderness, that must necessarily be outside the bounds of the earth itself — which is exactly what we see.
With all of that, we can now see that Revelation shows us a detailed atonement ceremony akin to the Day of Atonement, but with some very specific adjustments for cleansing the land itself:
| Atonement Ceremony (Lev 16) | Revelation’s Land Atonement |
|---|---|
| The high priest bathes and dons the ceremonial garb: linen undergarments, tunic, sash, and turban. | The donning of the garb is not shown, but later in the sequence we see the angels carrying the bowls of wrath specifically described wearing clean bright linen and golden sashes. Revelation 15:6 |
| The high priest selects a bull for himself and his household along with two goats. | As stated above, these animals are not needed. Rather, the blood of the murderers will be required. At the ascent back to heaven after the sealing of the 144,000, Jesus harvests the “vine of the earth” to fill the “winepress of the wrath of God.” The amount of blood gathered is massive. Revelation 14:14-20 |
| Lots are cast for selecting which goat is “for the Lord” (the one that will be slaughtered) and which is “for Azazel” (the scapegoat that will be sent into the wilderness carrying the sins of the people). | |
| The high priest slaughters the bull and collects its blood. | |
| The high priest takes incense and some coals from the “altar before the Lord” (the incense altar in the Holy Place) and uses them to fill a censer which he then places in the Holy of Holies — the place where God will dwell upon completion of the ceremony. | At the breaking of the 7th seal, an angel fills a golden censer with incense and fire from the altar in heaven and hurls it to earth — the place where God will dwell upon completion of the ceremony. Revelation 8:3-5 |
| The smoke from the censer fills the inner sanctuary covering the mercy seat. | The temple in heaven fills with smoke. Revelation 15:5-8 |
| No one is allowed to enter the tent of meeting until its atonement has been completed. | No one is allowed to enter the temple in heaven until the seven plagues (the seven bowls) have been completed. Revelation 15:8 |
| In the Inner Sanctuary, the high priest sprinkles the bull’s blood: once toward the east side of the mercy seat and seven times in front of it. | The seven bowls of God’s wrath are poured out on the earth — a seven-fold sprinkling on the land for cleansing and atonement. Revelation 16 |
| The high priest slaughters the goat “for the Lord” and collects its blood. | |
| In the Inner Sanctuary, he sprinkled the goat’s blood: once toward the east side of the mercy seat and seven times in front of it. | |
| In the Holy Place, he sprinkles the goat’s blood: seven times toward the veil to the inner sanctuary. | |
| In the Holy Place, he puts blood from both the bull and the goat on the four horns of the altar before the Lord (incense altar) and then sprinkles it seven times with the blood. | |
| When the high priest emerges from the tent of meeting — having performed the sprinkling ceremonies, he almost certainly would have blood-stained robes. Isaiah 63:1-6 is an exact prophecy of Christ treading the winepress of wrath. In it we see his robes “spattered” with blood — the exact same verb used for “sprinkling” in the atonement ceremony. | When Christ emerges from heaven to complete the atonement ceremony (the seventh bowl) he is seen in robes “dipped in blood.” Revelation 19:11-13 |
| The high priest prays over the scapegoat transferring the sins of the nation to it. The scapegoat “for Azazel” is then led off to the wilderness by a man “appointed for the task.” | After witnessing the destruction of the Beast and False Prophet (below), John is shown the fate of Satan, the father of lies, the one who deceives the whole world (no symbolic transfer of sins necessary): an angel with the key to the abyss and a great chain binds Satan in the abyss. Revelation 20:1-3. Note: In the book of Enoch — canonical in the Ethiopian Bible, and quoted in Jude 1:14-15 — we are told the Azazel was the leader of the rebellious spirits precipitating the flood of Noah. As a punishment, he was bound in the abyss awaiting the day of judgement. If true, then Satan here is literally being sent to Azazel outside the camp (earth). |
| The high priest returns to the Holy Place and removes the ceremonial garb, leaving it there. | No parallel mentioned in Revelation |
| Two rams are offered as burnt/sin offerings as well as the fat portions from the already slaughtered bull and goat. This serves as atonement for the high priest and for the people. | As stated above, this is unnecessary with Christ’s atonement. |
| The bull and goat carcasses are burned outside the camp. | The Beast and the False Prophet (the two beasts of Revelation 13) are thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 19:20-21 |
Ezekiel 39:4 speaks of the destruction of Gog’s armies: “You, all your troops, and the peoples who are with you will fall on the mountains of Israel. I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and to the wild animals.”
Revelation 19:17-18 shows us that this is the moment of Armageddon, when Christ emerges from the wedding in heaven to destroy the Beast, the False Prophet, and their armies: “Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, ‘Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.’”
Ezekiel 39:12 then directly ties this buriel to the cleansing of the land: “The house of Israel will spend seven months burying them in order to cleanse the land.” This is further evidence that the destruction of Satan’s armies is not just a judgement, but serves a land-cleansing purpose.
Much of the atonement imagery outlined above is nothing new. Here are some other works that explore the parallels: