Message No 7
The Feasts of Israel
The Day of Atonement
Aim: To show the prophetic significance of the Feast of Trumpets
Text: Leviticus 23:26-32
Introduction: We come now to the sixth and penultimate feast day of Israel, Yom Kippur: the Day of Atonement.
Historically, the Day of Atonement is the most solemn day on the Hebrew calendar, on this day Israel either lived or died. This is the day the whole nation fasts before God for 24 hours.
Prophetically, with the unfolding of the Day of Atonement all accounts between God and men will be settled. It is the last day of this age before the Day of the Lord opens up.
Now, what can we learn from this great feast day of the Lord’s? Well you will recall the Feast of Trumpets precedes this feast and historically Trumpets marked every occasion in which
• The people of Israel gathered and acted as a nation
• They gathered in Jerusalem in or near the Temple
• They renewed their covenant relationship with God
• They began sacrificing anew and celebrating the feasts.
Prophetically it pointed to that time when, just prior to the beginning of Great Tribulation the Jews are regathered to Israel, and with the temple in tact, they make a covenant with antichrist and renew their covenantal obligations under God including the sacrificial system of the Old Testament and the observing of the feasts in the land.
You may also remember how that following the Feast of Trumpets, which occurred on the first day of Tishri, the seventh month on the Jewish calendar, there then followed ten days of affliction, “Yamim Nora’im”, which leads up to the Day of Atonement, this sixth feast.
Now as we read in Leviticus 23 we see that the Day of Atonement is the only feast day that begins at sunset. (See Lev 23:32). The Day begins with darkness. Actually in Judaism every day begins with darkness, for a Jewish day begins as the sun falls below the horizon creating darkness, and this concept of a day’s beginning is drawn from the creation story where we read “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Coming back to our feast then, it is fitting that it begins with darkness, because this is a very solemn time in the Jewish calendar, it is a day which brings little joy or happiness as the people consider their sins before God.
What is it about? Well, first of all,
I. It Speaks of Completion
A. Look again at that 32nd verse of chapter 23 and notice that this is a day in which the Jewish people are to “afflict their souls”.
1. By way of highlighting this affliction, the people enter into a total fast – for 25 hours they eat and drink nothing.
2. How come? Because they are totally focused upon the nation’s sin.
B. Notice, according to verse 32, this day is a “Sabbath of rest”
1. In the Hebrew language this is a very intensive term, it literally reads “Shabat, shabbathon”, Sabbath, Sabbath.
2, And this term is to describe a Sabbath is used in only two books of our Bible, exodus and Leviticus, and it is applied to three significant events:
a. The weekly Sabbath – Exodus 31:15-17
(i) Notice in this context the Sabbath serves as a signpost for Judaism, it brings a message from God to Israel.
(ii) The signpost serves to remind Israel of a coming day when she shall cease from her labours and enjoy the blessings of God’s covenant.
(iii) BTW that’s why it is wrong to refer to Sunday as the Sabbath day. Sunday is a day for the church. The Sabbath is for the Jew. Sunday is the first day of the week, the Sabbath is the seventh. We are not under any obligation of law bar the assembling of ourselves together, whilst the Jew has very specific obligations to keep on the Sabbath day.
b. The Day of Atonement, as we have just seen, and
c. The Year of Jubilee, that is the seventh year land Sabbath – Leviticus 25:4
C. For the Jewish people the Sabbath conveys some very earnest overtones.
1. The word “shabat” is rooted in a term that means, “to sever, end or complete”.
2. So the seventh day, the Sabbath, completes or ends the week, as everyone lays down their tools and ceases work
3. The seventh year completes the production cycle of the land, and allows the soil a period of rest before sowing begins afresh.
4. So if the seventh day Sabbath signals the completion of the weekly cycle, and the seventh year Sabbath, the jubilee year, signals the completion of the land’s productivity cycle, then it stands to reason that the day of atonement, a Sabbath of rest, a shabat, shabbathon, must also signify the completion or end of a thing.
5. So that is the first thing we must bear in mind, secondly,
II. It Speaks of Cleansing
A. Lev 23:27 states that “the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement.”
1. The Hebrew phrase is “Yom Kippurim”, that is a day of atonements (plural)
2. Now this is important, because often when we think of the word atonement we think of the shedding of Christ’s blood and the covering of our sins.
3. Certainly that is entailed in the idea, but there is more to atonement than the covering of our sins.
4. You see atonement doesn’t just “cover” our sins, but actually cleanses them.
5. Look with me, at Leviticus 16 where the focus of Moses’ attention is on the mechanics of the day of Atonement(s).
a. Leviticus 16:29-34
b. Notice in this context that it is not only people – the High Priests, the priests and all the people, but also things that are atoned for – the sanctuary, the tabernacle and the altar.
c. Q: If atonement speaks, always and only, of a covering for sin – when and how can the altar or the tabernacle sin?
(i) Obviously they can’t – they’re inanimate.
(ii) But they can be cleansed – and they were, so our definition of atonement must include cleansing, and a cleansing that especially allows those people and things placed in God’s service to be meet for His use.
(iii) Without cleansing not only a person, but also an object was deemed unusable by God and in need of atonement.
• Exodus 4:3-5
• Isaiah 6:5
• Psalm 51:7-10 – “purge”
• Job 4:17 – “pure”
• Jeremiah 13:27
(iv) For anything, animate or inanimate, to stand in God’s presence it has to be clean – and that is what the Day of Atonement spoke of – see Lev 16:30.
B. All of this serves to remind us of God’s holiness.
1. You see for God to manifest Himself upon the earth, be that in the holy of holies within the tabernacle, or in Jerusalem, there has to be a cleansing in preparation.
2. You see what most people miss, and I am including even Christian people in this, is that God’s holiness is at the extremity of the pole that parts Him from man’s sinfulness.
a. In other words God is as holy as holy can be, and man is as sinful as sinful can be.
b. You say, well, how holy is God?
(i) So holy that as a consequence of our first parents sin, just one sin mind you, He banished Adam 7 Even from the Garden.
(ii) So holy, that for the sake of just one sin, He barred Moses (Moses of all people) from the Promised Land.
(iii) So holy, that because of just one sin, he struck Gehazi, the servant of Elisha with leprosy.
(vi) So holy, that for just one sin touching the Ark, he killed Uzzah on the spot.
(vii) So holy that for the sin of David, just one sin, 70000 men died.
(viii) So holy, that when Ananias and Sapphira sought to deceive the church – one little sin, they both lost their lives.
(ix) That’s how holy God is.
c. Which raises the issue of our approach unto God – how can we, who are also guilty of sin, not just one, but many sins make an approach unto a holy God?
(i) You say, “Well, I am saved.” So were Moses, David, and Ananias & Sapphira!
(ii) No you need to be more than “saved”, you need to be cleansed – which explains why 1 John 1:9 is in our Bible. Look it up – 1 John 1:7-9
a. Our cleansing is accounted for in Christ’s atonement, it is applied to you and I as individuals.
• Atonement covers our redemption, reconciliation to God and cleansing for service.
b. But the feasts are not about individuals they are about a nation – which raises the issue of Israel’s cleansing, bringing us to our third and final thought on the Day of Atonement.
III. It Speaks of Conversion
A. Now I want you to follow along with me through a chain of texts whih each teach the same thing pertaining to the nation of Israel.
1. Psalm 102:13; 130:7-8
2. Isaiah 45:17 & 25; 46:13
3. Jeremiah 23:6
4. Romans 11:25-28.
5. Do you get the idea that Israel, as a nation, is going to be saved?
B. Turn with me now to Ezekiel 36:25-38
1. Now the last time we studied together on this subject the point was made that the Book of Ezekiel contains a number of prophecies that indicate that Israel would be regathered in a state of unbelief. And that the regathering is first physical – to the land – vs. 24. Then it is spiritual – vs. 25 ff
2. Notice, that as this spiritual restoration taking place there is a cleansing (vs. 25-27), not only that there is a completion (vs. 28, vs. 35 – completion of earth’s cycle), and there is an affliction (vs. 31)
3. In other words the Day of Atonement is the Day when Israel as a nation are redeemed, reconciled unto God and cleansed for His use throughout His coming kingdom
a. See Revelation 1:7, Jeremiah 50:20 and Zech 12:9-11
d. In this Day, when Christ appears the Jewish people, by an act of God’s grace (that’ what Zechariah says), will find forgiveness and cleansing from sin, not just as individuals, but as an entire nation.
Conclusion; There remains now just one more feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, but before we leave the day of atonement behind allow me to challenge each and every one of us concerning our own holiness before the Lord.
God cannot and will not use a dirty vessel. Nor will the worldly church have much power with God. Holiness is not an optional extra in God’s service; it is a pre-requisite to God’s service. I wonder are you, as a Christian, keeping short accounts with God? Is the confession and cleansing of sin part of your daily experience and walk with the Lord.
The great evangelist D.L. Moody told a story of a lady in the north of England who said that every time she got down before God to pray, five bottles of wine came up before her mind. She had taken them wrongfully one time when she was a housekeeper, and had not been able to pray since. She was advised to make restitution.
“But the person is dead,” she said.
“Are not some of the heirs living?”
“Yes, a son.”
“Then go to that son and pay him back.”
“Well,” she said, “I want to see the face of God, but I could not think of doing a thing like that. My reputation is at stake.”
She went away, and came back the next day to ask if it would not do just as well to put that money in the treasury of the Lord.
“No,” she was told, “God doesn’t want any stolen money. The only thing is to make restitution.”
She carried that burden for several days, but finally went into the country, saw that son, made a full confession and offered him a five-pound note. He said he didn’t want the money, but she finally persuaded him to take it, and came back with a joy and peace that made her face radiant. She became a magnificent worker for souls, and led many into the light.
“My dear friends”, Moody concluded, “get these stumbling stones out of the way. God does not want a man to shout “Hallelujah” who doesn’t pay his debts or confess his sins. Many of our prayer meetings are killed by men trying to pray who cannot pray because their lives are not right. Sin builds up a great wall between us and God. A man may stand high in the community and may be a member of some church “in good standing,” but the question is, how does he stand in the sight of God?
If there is anything wrong in you life, make it right.”
