Yom Kippur - The Day of Atonement
The LORD said to Moses, “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day. You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. It is a Sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your Sabbath.” Leviticus 23:26-32
Yom Kippur is the most Sacred Holy Day of the biblical holidays. I goes by many names: The Day of Atonement, Day of Judgment, the Sabbath of Sabbaths, the Day of Redemption, the Day of Fast, the Great Fast, and Face to Face. It is to this day that the preceding 10 days, the Days of Awe, have been leading. Rosh Hashanah speaks of Repentance. Yom Kippur speaks of Regeneration. This is the day when we ask God to forgive our sins and “cover” us for the next year.
This is the day that God tells us to “deny yourselves” and “do no work on that day.” We know this is very important to God because He says that anyone who does not obey this will be cut off from his people and will be destroyed. This is very serious stuff! God doesn’t just threaten without holding true to His word.
This is the one and only day out of the year that the High Priest (and he alone!) could enter the Holy of Holies and stand before the Throne of God. But before he could do that, he had to bathe himself no less then 5 times (in public-behind a privacy curtain), sacrifice a bull for the sins of himself and the priesthood, and don a very special linen robe only worn on this day. He would then take 2 goats, perfect in every way, and confess the sins of all of Israel onto these goats. He would then cast lots, and the one goat (”La Adonai” or “for the Lord”) would be sacrificed and the blood would be taken into the Holy of Holies to be sprinkled on the Mercy Seat. The other goat (”la Azazel” or “to the scapegoat”) would be taken out into the wilderness, symbolically “taking away the sins of Israel”, and released. Before the goat was taken out, the High Priest would tie a scarlet cord around its neck and another one on the pillar at the outer door of the Temple. Each year the “miracle of the scarlet cord” would tell them that the Lord had accepted the sacrifice. When the scapegoat was released, the cord tied to the Temple would miraculously turn white! This is what Isaiah was writing about back in Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
So, what exactly is “Atonement” anyway? It is a covering for sins. It is likened to the tar that Noah used to cover the boards of the Ark. This was put on both sides and between the boards to come between Noah and the judgment waters of the flood. For us this is obviously a foreshadowing of the atonement made for us by the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God. But there is a difference. The blood of the goats only covered the sins of all for one year. Each year they would have to do it again. Not so for us! Remember what John the Baptist said when he first spotted his Savior: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! Not covers them… TAKES THEM AWAY! Just like the scapegoat, He took our sins away!
Ok, now we get to the point once again where we say, that’s really interesting stuff, but what does it mean for me? Every thing!! When, just before His death, our Messiah said, “It is finished” this is what He was talking about. He wasn’t talking about the Law being finished; He was talking of the sacrificial system for “covering our sins” being finished. We now have more then the covering provided under the sacrificial system, we have removal of our sins! The Day of Atonement has not been done away with; it has been filled up with meaning. (That, by the way, is the definition of “fulfillment.”) How do I know this to be true? God provided for the witnesses.
One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Deuteronomy 19:15
The Jewish Historian Josephus tells us that the Glory of the Lord left the Temple about 40 years before it was destroyed. How do they know this? Well, there were a couple of strange things that happened at about that time. First the Western candle of the menorah would no longer burn continuously as it had before, second the Temple doors would open by themselves (these were heavy doors!) and third the “Miracle of the Scarlet cord” stopped happening! So, there is the witness of 2 or 3 stating that the Presence of the Lord had left the Temple. And when did this happen? It happened 40 years before the destruction of the Temple, which occurred in 70 AD, so that would make it about…. the time the Messiah was crucified! Here God Himself provides a witness to His people and they still don’t get it!!
Blow a trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride out of her bridal chamber. Let the priests, the LORD’S ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’” Joel 2:15-17
Yom Kippur points to the time when God will judge the nations according to their deeds. This is the day of the White Throne Judgment. Anyone who has any interest in bible prophesy needs to understand this day or they will never understand what to watch for as the “Great and Terrible Day of the Lord” draws near. In fact, in Revelation 1:13-20 we see our High Priest wearing these very special priestly robes.
So, how do we observe the day if there is no Temple for sacrifices and no need to continue the sacrifices for atoning of sins? James answers that question”
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. James 4:7-10
He is speaking here of this very same time of the year; this is when we are commanded to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. We have such a hard time with this. We don’t want to do it God’s way. We want to do it our way. We don’t want to fast when He tells us to, we want to fast when it’s convenient for us. We hate to deny ourselves of any good pleasure. Solomon felt the same way. He refused to deny himself any pleasure, and you know what he found?
All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun. Ecclesiastes 2:10-11
And remember what God Himself said about anyone who refused to deny himself on Yom Kippur: Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be cut off!!
On the other hand, I don’t want to be accused of being too legalistic. By the way, the word legalistic means strictly adhering to man’s laws. Strictly adhering to God’s laws is called obeying. The fast doesn’t apply to those who are not of age (13 or older) who are pregnant or nursing, and who are unable to for health reasons. I am not saying that one will “go to hell” for not observing this fast. What I am saying is that if we want to be true followers of our risen Lord, we must do as He did…. and He and his disciples did observe Yom Kippur…. even after He said, “It’s finished.”
There are so many texts in the New Testament that we don’t fully understand because we don’t follow the biblical holidays. In this study, we can now better understand what Paul said to the Romans:
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Messiah Yeshua for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Messiah Yeshua; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Yeshua.
Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. Romans 3:21-31
We are all justified by faith, both Jew and Christian alike. But we are also all sinners, as the Law (Torah) so plainly states. Without the Law (teachings of God found in the books of Moses) we would not know that we are in need of atonement. Without the atoning work of Yeshua, our sacrificial lamb, no one could be justified in Adonai’s sight. We must realize that this faith in Yeshua’s atoning work does not negate, or nullify, the Law of God (Torah, the Hebrew word for Law). In fact, our faith in Yeshua establishes the Law, for without the Law His sacrifice would mean nothing.
The First Trumpet blows the call to assemble and hear the words of the Lord (Pentecost.) The Last Trumpet blows to call us to repentance (Rosh Hashanah.) The Great Trumpet blows calling us to Judgment and Regeneration. Are we listening for the sound? Do we know what it means and what Adonai expects from us?
Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22
For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Psalms 51:16-17
Without Yom Kippur, we have no hope of understanding what it means to have Yeshua as our High Priest. Without understanding the Temple service, we have no hope of understanding the book to the Hebrews. Without understanding the sacrificial system, how can we understand the atoning work of Yeshua, our scapegoat?
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land;” Isaiah 1:16-19
Christians have been told that they don’t have to celebrate the biblical holidays. We have been told that they are just Jewish holidays that have no meaning for us. We have been lied to. The question is, do we continue to follow man, or do we turn and follow God? Do we want the blessings or the curses? With obedience comes the blessing.