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YOM KIPPUR

In Hebrew, Yom Kippur literally means Day of Covering. Today we call it the Day of Atonement. This holiday, above any other, illustrates that Jesus is the “propitiation” of our sins.

To the casual reader, the laws of Leviticus can daunt even the most persevering. Are these details relevant you may ask? But to the one who thoughtfully digs into the foundation of Yom Kippur, the fruit promised is a new appreciation for the Jewish-ness of the Gospel message.

As a child, I heard “scapegoat” frequently, but I didn’t understand until much later in my life the origination of its meaning. Yom Kippur helped me understand God’s method of salvation, which is the transference of sin onto a sinless substitute. What I learned as a Jewish child about the Old Testament sacrifices, allowed me to see when I became an adult, the wonder of Jesus Christ’s ultimate gift of carrying all my sin upon the cross.

LEV 23:26-32 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."

As we learn from the Old Testament, people throughout the year brought various sacrifices to make atonement for themselves. But the focus of Yom Kippur was upon the CORPORATE sins of the house of Israel. One day of the year, people were to stand as a community in self-affliction, repentance, and confession. As seen above, Leviticus records God’s general instructions for the observance. Numbers 29:7-11 gives us the details of the sacrifices to be presented.

But it is through Leviticus 16 that we get the clearest picture of this day. With extreme precision, God detailed the procedure to be followed by the High Priest. Since the High Priest was the mediator between the people and their God, it was his responsibility toprepare himself, the sanctuary and the sacrifice to bridge the gap between the sinful people and their holy God.

These are perhaps the most noteworthy issues for this cursory study:

This was the one day of the year that the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies.

• There had to be preparation before he could enter:
• He had to make atonement for himself and for the altar. He had to dress in special garments after a final ritual cleansing.
• Uniquely two goats were selected for the sin offering, one for Yahweh, the other one for the people.
• The blood of the first goat was brought into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the Mercy Seat.
• Onto the second goat, the Priest symbolically transferred the sins of the people, confessing their sins, both intentional and unintentional. Then the goat was led away into the wilderness, thereby “removing” their sins from the camp. The goat, referred to as the “scapegoat” was the substitution for the sins of the people.

• After the removal of the scapegoat, the Priest bathed again, changed his clothes and offered burnt sacrifices, rejoicing in God’s forgiveness.

Unlike the teaching of non-biblical Judaism, the priests were cognizant of God’s requirement for the shedding of blood for atonement. In the Torah, God explained, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.” (Leviticus 17:11)

Significance for Israel

As the day for national atonement and cleansing of its corporate sins, Yom Kippur remains crucial to the relationship between Israel and her God. Through the Law of Moses, God had instructed that any sin in the camp would render it unfit for His presence. Although He desired to live among the people, God’s holiness could not then -- and will not now, tolerate even the slightest sin. No infraction was too small for God. Public stoning was the preferred punishment to warn and to instill fear. God said, “{I} will not be mocked. Whatever you sow, you will reap.”

Despite the cultural interpretation that Yom Kippur revolves around personal sins, God’s message has not changed – corporate fasting and prayer benefit His children. He continues to expect that we, as individuals will repent and atone for our own sins on a daily basis. But corporate repentance brings other blessings and a deeper presence of God that He wants us to have.

There is a suggestion – if not a belief- that the nation of Israel will recognize Jesus as their Redeemer (in fulfillment of Zechariah 12:10) on the Day of Atonement. One view is that on the Feast of Trumpets the Jewish people will acknowledge their sinful condition and on Atonement they will confess and embrace Jesus as their propitiation. Another is that the national confession and turning to Jesus will happen in conjunction with the battle and miraculous victory described in Ezekiel, chapters 38-39.

Still another perspective is that the Great Tribulation will be the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. The suggestion is that as the people had to humble themselves before the Lord, they will likewise be humbled through Jacob’s trouble.

As I ponder these things, I am encouraged that I serve a God who keeps His promises. My hope is that the significance of Yom Kippur will continue to shine forth the glory of the One whom they pierced—as all of Israel stands corporately to confess her sin of rejecting Messiah.

What a day when every nation (Gentiles) will then know that God has not forsaken His promises and will bow down and worship Him!

Prophetic significance

As we anticipate worshipping the Lord upon His Return, we can also see how Yom Kippur gives an incredibly accurate picture of God’s method of salvation through the shed blood of Jesus. In fact, the writer of the Book of Hebrews used the Day of Atonement as one of the foundations of his argument that in all ways Christ is:

• The better and eternal High Priest
• The end of the Levitical priesthood
• Mediator of the better covenant
• The better atonement, --our eternal and sufficient scapegoat and sin offering.*
• The fulfillment of the entire sacrificial system, since His sacrifice is ever effective
• Our redemption, the singular provision for a better rest and peace with God
• Seated in the better sanctuary
• *There is a continual line of prophesy from Genesis to Revelation proving that Jesus is the only acceptable expiation, that is atonement, for our sins. There is no foundation for salvation, being justified by God, except by His grace through faith, “through the redemption that is in Messiah Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” (Romans 3:24-25 NKJ)

Significance to me and to followers of Jesus

• “O I get it…Jesus is my Yom Kippur!” The realization began to dawn on me one spring day many years ago as I flipped through the channels and stopped at a well-known Christian one. A startling visual grabbed me and I sat down to watch. A sculptor labored, meticulously molding into shape a bust of Jesus. While he worked, words of Isaiah 53 poured from his mouth. I was mesmerized.

Suddenly, he smashed the clay, beating it down to a pulp, destroying the beautiful shape as he shouted out verse 5. . .

• … he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

• Waves of understanding poured over me as I visualized Jesus on the cross with blood pouring out of His broken body as the words of Isaiah were pouring out of the sculptor’s mouth. Something reached down to my soul, and deep to my spirit.

I came away from that program with two conscious thoughts. First that Jesus knew what it was to be abused, misunderstood, rejected and abandoned. He suffered the worst insults and injuries I could imagine. The second thought turned me inside out. Jesus had done this for me .

As the rest of the gospel story flowed through my mind and heart and spirit, I understood. Jesus was both the scape goat of Yom Kippur and the lamb of Passover. His blood provided for my salvation.

God had so clearly laid out the method of atonement, and through this sculptor’s story, I grasped what I hadn’t been able to grasp before. I remembered that each Sabbath a portion of Torah is read in the synagogue. The portion for Rosh HaShanah included Genesis 22, the binding of Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham’s faith is prophetic as he says to the probably frightened Isaac, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." (Genesis 22:8).

I saw that several times through the Tenach (Hebrew Bible) God declares that He Himself would be our atonement; providing His blood for the atonement for our sins. It was God Himself who was nailed to that cross.

As my new understanding flowed, I yearned to do something in return for Jesus. Psalm 116:13 had new meaning for me, “I lift up the cup of salvation(s)¹ and call upon the name of the Lord.”

My desire to pour my own love onto Jesus grew. Seventeen months later I prepared for Yom Kippur with fresh questions. Determined to get some answers, I asked my pastor, “What can I do for Jesus for the holidays?”

His reply startled me, “You don’t do anything. You don’t understand -- Jesus did it all!”

Another wave of my own insight prompted me to say boldly, “No pastor -- You don’t understand. It’s because Jesus did it all that I want to celebrate!”

I felt exhilarated because I knew to the depths of my heart that my sins were totally forgiven, and that my name was indelibly and eternally written in God’s Book of Life. Celebration, yes! Rejoicing in the love, grace, and mercy of God. The tension of the many years of trying to afflict my own soul during Yom Kippur melted away as I surrendered into the new awareness that Jesus did for me what I could not do for myself.

I am reminded that we have a compassionate high priest who understands. While He carried my sins to the cross, He also carried my pain, my griefs and my sorrows. There is nothing too big or too small that He cannot compassionately understand. There is never a question about receiving forgiveness, when sought with a broken and contrite heart.

Astoundingly in today’s busy world, Jesus is always available. There is no need for special religious services. He is as close as a whisper or a groan.

For me, there is another dimension to the spiritual significance of Yom Kippur, which continues to grip me. Although I rejoice that my sins have been forgiven, I grieve that as a nation, Israel stands separated from her God. I believe that it is entirely appropriate that all believers in Christ , Jew and Gentile, spend this day corporately aware of Israel’s “affliction of soul.” May we ever intercede for her!

There are more valuable spiritual principles for the Body of Messiah within Yom Kippur. We know that as we continue personal identification with Christ as our sacrifice, we can know that we, too, have been crucified with Christ (see Galatians 2:20). Yom Kippur reminds us of the need for our atonement. The procedure outlined in Leviticus 16 reminds us of our personal identification with the sacrifice. As in all sacrifices the petitioner had to place his hands upon the sacrifice, thereby confessing his sins and symbolically transferring them onto the sacrifice. As the sinner would watch the priest kill the sacrifice, could he own more personally his sin? Certainly Yom Kippur provides this insight. Then we must ever look only to Him for our righteousness.

Romans 6:5 tells us, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. . .”

And finally, as God created Israel to be a nation before Him, so has He done with believers in Jesus. Paul tells us that we are all members of Christ’s Body; when one member hurts, we are all affected. Coming from a very close cultural community, I understood this sense of oneness. There was an expression that if a Jewish brother or sister would be hit in one part of the world, he or she would bleed in another part. How well I know! I can be in a crowded room and know every Jewish brother and sister before I leave!

How much more should the Body of Christ be. Not separated, but unified by the love of Jesus; no longer in bondage, but free to walk in His spirit and His righteousness, Jew and Gentile alike.

May our hearts and mouths be filled with worship as we adore our God and His Messiah, embracing more of Him as we understand, as the sculptor did, what He gave to us.

I will mention the loving kindness 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 according to the multitude of His loving kindnesses.

For he said, “Surely they are My people, children will not lie.”
So He became their Savior.
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 bore them and carried them all the days of old.

(Isaiah 63:7-9)

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