Yesterday, at sundown, began Yom Kippur. In the book of Leviticus, this was known as the Day of Atonement (Lv 16:& 23). This was the time that the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies to offer atonement for him and his family and then for the entire nation of Israel. This was discussed last year (see Fall Jewish Holidays: Yom Kippur). At that time, we also learned that this holiday is prophetic to the national repentance, cleansing and atonement for Israel as a nation when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, returns to earth (Zc 13).

What makes one to make this type of prophetic parallel? We mentioned last time that Rosh Hashanah, or Feast of Trumpets, was to ask God to remember His covenant with Israel. This was necessary because as sinful human beings, which we all are, they have no special element of their own to stand before a Holy God. Therefore, this feast was to make the people look toward God and prepare themselves for the coming Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, when God would pass judgment. Blood is needed to appease God’s wrath and provide atonement for sins. At that time, this had to be done yearly. We learned that these sacrifices pointed to the one Messiah to come who would be the future sacrifice that would once and for all become the payment for the sins of the entire world.

After the Rapture of the Church (or Receiving of the Bride), God’s attention will again turn to Israel. All the troubles that will come on the earth will drive all Jews and Israelites back to Israel and finally force God’s people to once again look to Him. Then when Christ returns, Israel will finally accept their Messiah and be forgiven nationally and individually and the entire land cleansed in preparation for their Messiah, who is now their Lord and Savior, to reign over them and the entire earth (Zc 12-14).

Therefore, both Jews and Christians have much to look forward to in our future. Although all Christians will be taken from the earth at the Rapture, both Jews/Israelites and Gentiles will accept the true Messiah Jesus Christ. Both groups will face many hardships during the Tribulation Period, but the main goal of this troublesome time is to bring God’s chosen people back to Himself. His people are scattered over the entire earth, so the consequences of disobedience of their covenant with God (Dt 28) will be a driving force to have them turn once again back to Him. God remembers His covenant, remembers His chosen people, and brings them to a new covenant as prophesied (Jr 33).

Man may forget God’s promises, but God always keeps his. Hallelujah!

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Probably the best way to understand atonement is to separate it into its parts: at•one•ment. It is the making for ourselves to be at one with God. Although Leviticus seems complicated, this is its main thrust. Let’s see if we can break it down into understandable chunks. There are four main elements of atonement. Let’s look at each of them

Propitiation: This sounds like a complicated word, but it simply means, “the appeasement of God’s wrath.” Mankind cannot appear before God in his current condition and live. God told Moses, “Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die” (Lv 16:2). He also told Moses, “No one may see me and live” (Ex 33:20). I know that sound kind of harsh, but God was really trying to protect them and keep them safe. Remember, God sets the standard, not ourselves.

This brings us to the function of the Mercy Seat, or Atonement Cover, which would appease this wrath of God because of the blood placed on the Mercy Seat. It allowed Aaron, the High Priest, to appear before God once a year. If you recall, the Ark of the Covenant was in a separate part of the Tabernacle by itself in a place called the Holy of Holies. This is where the Shekinah glory of God would meet with the High Priest once a year for national atonement. The Mercy Seat was set over the ark. It is really a symbol for Christ. Paul tells us Christ presented himself as a sacrifice of atonement (i.e., propitiation) (Ro 3:25), and John stated Christ is the atoning sacrifice (propitiation) for our sins (1Jn 2:2), and God sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice (propitiation) (1Jn 4:10).

Reconciliation: This is a word meaning the reestablishment of friendship between God and mankind. God stated that if the atonement before God and the Mercy Seat was made, “then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins” (Lv 16:30). This is a representation of what Christ’s death did for us. He reconciled us to God: “God reconciled us to Himself through Christ, does not count our sins against us, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2Co 5:18-19); “the death of Christ reconciles both Jews and Gentiles – there is no longer a barrier (balustrade) between the two” (Ep 2:16). Therefore, he has reconciled all of mankind to Himself.

Justification: This is a word that means, “Declared righteous by God.” We can never earn our right standing before God. As we have seen in a previous post, God’s standard is perfection—something we cannot attain ourselves. Because of Christ’s reconciliation, we are then justified, or declared righteous, by God. Because of the act of the high priest on the Day of Atonement, God said, “Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins” (Lv 16:30). The sacrifice made pointed to something much deeper: “God does not delight in sacrifice but in a broken and contrite heart” (Ps 51:16); “by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many” (Is 53:11); “the righteous will live by his faith” (Hk 2:4). What we could not do, God did for us. We only need to believe and put our faith in His actions. “We are justified by faith through Christ: since we have been justified (declared righteous) through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ro 5:1).

Cleansing: This is a term meaning to be made acceptable and useful in service to God. Cleansing was an important part in Old Testament worship: various requirements for becoming clean were required (Lv 11-15), and even the elements of worship needed to be cleansed: “make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the people of the community” (Lv 16:33).

This requirement of cleansing is likely one of the main reasons for why sacrifices will be required during Christ’s Millennium Kingdom. Sinful man will live in the presence of a holy God. Again, elements for worship must be cleansed, especially the altar for sacrifice (Ek 43). Even today, even if we accept Christ through faith, we do not lose our sin nature. John tells us, “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify (cleanse) us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn 1:9).

As you can see, although God sets a high standard, he knows our shortcomings and loves us enough to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Isn’t that like a Good Father. Are you expressing your thanks to Him?

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Let's first address the somewhat provocative statement I made at the end of my post last time. How do these Jewish feasts relate to salvation? The answer is 'faith.' Just as our salvation relies on our faith in what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, so it was for the Israelites. How it that? Well, we look back on what Christ, the Messiah, did for us whereas the Israelites looked forward to what their coming Messiah would do for them.

Let's see how the logic went for them and see if this is the same logic for us today. To be in a right relationship with God, each individual Israelite knew that they had no real merit on their own to stand before a holy God. After all, these Israelites who were alive when God first presented these feasts to them, saw God on Mt. Sinai. They saw the smoke and fire and felt the violent earthquake of the mountain that tried to accommodate God's presence—and they were terrified (Ex 19:16). No one present that day had the slightest inkling that they were able to stand before this holy God. So, here comes the seventh month in which is the Day of Atonement. Will God accept them? By what means could they be sinless before him? They had no chance. But wait, before the Day of Atonement was the Feast of Trumpets! Yes, that is their only hope: they would ask God to remember his covenant with them and to keep his promise of love and protection. If God remembered his covenant before he proclaims his judgment, then they stood a chance. On the Day of Atonement, a blood sacrifice was made on their behalf and was accepted by God. They were then at peace with God for another year. They could then truly celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles because God had accepted them and desires fellowship with them. Although the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement were solemn occasions, the Feast of Tabernacles was truly a joyous one. They had been accepted by God! They now had fellowship with God! They had good reason to celebrate. As we saw earlier, the Israelites looked forward to the One who would come to be the ultimate sacrifice for their sin—the One to whom the blood of atonement pointed. This they accepted by faith. It was their faith, not the actual ritual, that saved them. The ritual pointed to the One to come and their part in the ritual pointed to the sincerity of their heart. That is what God was looking for within each and every individual.

Does that not sound similar to what we experience today? We must realize we cannot stand before God in our present condition. We have no hope in our present state and cannot earn God's favor no matter how good we think we are or try to be. It is just not possible. Why? Because God is perfection and anything that does not meet this minimum standard (i.e., perfection) is unacceptable. Well that is a high bar, isn’t it? Yes, it is very high because God is the ultimate and expects no less. So what is our only hope? Our only hope is to put our faith in God's new covenant which Jesus Christ has established through his death on the cross for us. By faith, we accept the price Jesus Christ paid on the cross for our sins, and trust in that, and that alone, for our salvation. That is the only price God can accept, and does accept, to allow anyone into his presence. Again, it our faith, and not any ritual, that saves us. That is what God is still looking for within each and every individual.

Doesn't that point to a God who is consistent and does not change (Ml 3:6)? Many think the Old and New Testaments are not connected, but they are intricately connected and flow quite well together. Would we expect any less from a God who does not change? Salvation has always been and will always be consistent: faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Messiah of us all.

I will save the next piece for next time. We saw that the Feast of Tabernacles was a very joyous feast and why. That is very consistent with the prophetic nature of this feast—the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Who could deny that it will be a most joyous time? However, there is something that comes after the Millennium and there is a connection to what God originally instituted with the Israelites. It is this that we will discover at our next time together. Until then, God bless!

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Let's now move on to Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur. This holiday is 9 days after Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets) on 10th day of Tishri (the 7th month of Jewish calendar - usually around September of our calendar). It is a very solemn holiday because it is the day atonement is sought (Lv 16). From the days of the Tabernacle until the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, this was the day that the high priest went into the Holy of Holies to make atonement before God with blood. Before Judah was taken captive by Babylon in 586 BC, the Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant on top of which was the Mercy Seat (also called Atonement cover). There were two cherubim on the mercy seat, one on each side, and the Shekinah glory of God would appear to the high priest on this day of the year. This was the only day of the year that the high priest, or anyone, would enter the Holy of Holies. The high priest would make atonement (cleansing) with blood for his household, all the elements of the tabernacle/temple used for the ceremony, and for all the people. After the exiles returned from Babylon to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple, the high priest would enter an empty Holy of Holies where the blood was still offered. Yet, God stated that He was still with them despite this (Hg 2:4-5). After all, God was after the heart of His people and not necessarily just the rituals. Many times God stated he desired their devotion not their sacrifice (Ho 6:6; Jl 2:13; Mi 6:8).

We said previously that these holidays, or feasts, were also prophetic, so what would the Day of Atonement be prophetic toward? The death of Christ on the cross is where he made atonement (cleansing) for all our sins (1Jn 2:2, 4:10). While all these elements of the Day of Atonement point to Christ and his act of atonement on the cross, there is more to the story. As we saw previously, these feasts are memorials for the nation of Israel as well as for individuals. So what would the Day of Atonement mean for the nation of Israel? It occurs after the Feast of Trumpets and we previously saw that feast is prophetic of the beginning of the Tribulation period. So, what event that comes after this event would correspond to the meaning of the Day of Atonement? It would be the second coming of Christ. Zechariah speaks of this (Zc 12:10-13:9). The nation will finally accept Christ as their Messiah and he will forgive their sin. This then sets the stage for the next holiday which we will discuss next time.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens