Yom Kippur - The Day Of Atonement Series

The Feast of Israel

Yom Kippur

The Day of Atonement

** Watch at: https://youtu.be/QKYBhu5XFy8

The song we just listened to, Kol Nidre, is sung around the world in synagogues during the Yom Kippur services. Yom Kippur is the Jewish High Holy Day where the Jewish people will fast and pray, afflicting their souls in order to receive God’s forgiveness for another year.

But I wonder how many of them feel as if God truly has forgiven their sins?

I’d like to approach our time together as we look at the biblical feast of Yom Kippur with what Jesus said to His disciples when He explained the purpose of His coming.

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17-18 NKJV)

The reason why I am starting here is that amongst most of Christianity these feasts, like Rosh Hashanah that we looked at last week, and the feast Yom Kippur that we are looking at this week, they are considered irrelevant, like they are some sort of ancient ritual and have nothing to say to us today. But the Apostle Paul squashes this notion.

“One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.” (Romans 14:5-6a NKJV)

What then are the purposes of the feasts as brought out in God’s word?

The feasts were God’s way of reminding His people, first not to forget the special covenant relationship they have with Him, but also that within these feast there’s something special they were to remember.

Take for instance, in the feast of Passover. Jesus understood the significance of the afikoman, that is the bread that was broken, and the third cup of the Passover, the Cup of Redemption, and therefore He used them to give the church what is known as Communion, for the purpose of remembering what He did upon the cross bringing in the New Covenant.

I believe that the purpose of the feasts is to reveal something greater. So, what is the purpose of Yom Kippur that God desires to teach us?

Yom Kippur is translated from the Hebrew and means, “A Day of Covering.” Today, the feast is more commonly referred to as the “Day of Atonement.”

The word “Kippur” is taken from the Hebrew word meaning to cover up. It is first mentioned describing the pitch Noah used to cover the Ark both inside and out. The pitch not only covered, it also concealed and protected it.

And so, through the sacrifices offered as atonement, the individual as well as Israel’s sins were covered, that is, hidden from God’s sight by the blood, and thus protected from sin’s consequences, which the Bible tells us is death (Romans 6:23).

Now, in the Book of Leviticus, the 16th chapter, the Lord lays out how the people were to conduct themselves on this day. First the High Priest would sacrifice a bull to cleanse himself and the temple. Then He would bring two goats; one would be sacrificed for the sins of the nation and the people, and then he took its blood and sprinkled it upon the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies.

Through this the people would see the cost of their sins, and that is the death of an innocent, as God in His grace and mercy provided a substitute to die in their place.

The High Priest would then lay his hands upon the head of the second goat, known as the scapegoat, and confess over it the sins of Israel, thus transferring all their sins upon the goat. He then had the goat taken out into the wilderness symbolizing God removal of the people’s sins far from them. But the goat was conveniently led off a cliff, because the last thing the people wanted to see was for the goat to wander back bringing with it all their sins.

Yom Kippur, however, has changed drastically from the commandments set forth by God. Today, Yom Kippur is considered the most holy and terrible day of the year. It is called terrible because it is claimed by the Rabbis that on this day God seals the Book of Remembrance.

Remember from our teaching last week how over the ten days between the feast of Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur the people were to search their souls and confess their sins, and hope that their good deeds outweighed their bad deeds in order to make it into the Book.