Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) (Leviticus 23:26-32) Fall Festivals of Israel Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)

Introduction

Introduction Today, we are on The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) Yom Kippur is 10 days after the Jewish New Year (10 days after 20 Sept is 30 Sept, Sat)

Introduction Atonement: reparation, payment, restitution for wrong that is done.

Introduction Atonement: reparation, payment, restitution for wrong that is done. The reconciliation of sinful man to a holy God is possible only when there is an atonement for our sins.

Introduction Atonement: reparation, payment, restitution for wrong that is done. The reconciliation of sinful man to a holy God is possible only when there is an atonement for our sins. Man’s part is confession/repentance from sin.

Introduction Atonement: reparation, payment, restitution for wrong that is done. The reconciliation of sinful man to a holy God is possible only when there is an atonement for our sins. Man’s part is confession/repentance from sin. God himself provides the means of reconciliation even though he is the aggrieved party.

26 The Lord said to Moses, 27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord. 28 Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God. 29 Those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut off from their people. 30 I will destroy from among their people anyone who does any work on that day. 31 You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. 32 It is a day of sabbath 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.”

Introduction #1. Hold a sacred assembly #2. Deny yourselves (fasting) #3. Do no work (Shabbat rest)

Introduction Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement Holiest day of the year Look at Outline of Leviticus

A. The Appointed Sacrifices/Offerings (1-7) B A. The Appointed Sacrifices/Offerings (1-7) B. Concerning the High Priest (8-10) C. Concerning purity outside personal conduct (11-15) D. Day of Atonement (16) C1. Concerning purity within personal conduct (17-20) B1. Concerning Priests (21-22) A1. The Appointed Festivals (23-25)

1. The Day Is For A Sacred Assembly For Atonement (Lev 16)

1. The Day Is For A Sacred Assembly For Atonement (Lev 16)

1. The Day Is For A Sacred Assembly For Atonement (Lev 16)

1. The Day Is For A Sacred Assembly For Atonement (Lev 16) Leviticus 16 2 The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is 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. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.

1. The Day Is For A Sacred Assembly For Atonement (Lev 16) The high priest will offer a young bull as a sin offering for himself before he can enter. This is followed by two goats for the Most Holy Place and for the sins of the people.

1. The Day Is For A Sacred Assembly For Atonement (Lev 16) Significance in Jesus our High Priest. The priority of the holiness of the High Priest. The actual atonement sacrifices two goats: (1) for the LORD and (2) Scapegoat.

Goat “for the LORD” Leviticus 16 15 “He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. 16 In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. 20 “When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. 

Goat “for the LORD” The Most Holy Place / Holy of Holies a cube of 10 cubits in the tabernacle (5m3) expanded to 20 cubits in the temple (10m3)

Goat “for the LORD” Revelation 21 1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, …

Goat “for the LORD” 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long.

Goat “for the LORD” City: 12,000 stadia = 1,400 miles = 2,200 km Walls: 144 cubits thick = 65 meters Figurative, not literal. The fulfillment of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Goat “for the LORD” Revelation 16 22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 

Goat “for the LORD” The goat “for the LORD” is to atone of the Most Holy Place and the Tabernacle/ Temple The Most Holy Place  The Holy City / New Jerusalem The Tabernacle/Temple  The whole of redeemed earth

The “Scapegoat” Leviticus 16 10 But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat. 21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. 22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.

The “Scapegoat” Actual removal of the sins of the people is by the Scapegoat. Outside the camp. Jesus outside the city In the wilderness (the place of jin). Jesus handed over to the evil one.

The “Scapegoat” Revelation 7 9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

1. The Day Is For A Sacred Assembly For Atonement (Lev 16) The High Priest must be acceptable. Jesus is the perfect High Priest who sacrificed himself. The Most Holy Place must be atoned by the goat “for the LORD”. Jesus’s death will redeem all creation. The sins of the people must be atoned by “the scapegoat.” Jesus redeems his people so they are fit for the new heaven and the new earth.

Additional Point Jesus crucified AD 30. Temple destroyed AD 70. Interval of exactly 40 years – one generation of waiting for the people to repent.

Additional Point The Jerusalem Talmud: "Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the western light went out, the crimson thread remained crimson, and the lot for the Lord always came up in the left hand. They would close the gates of the Temple by night and get up in the morning and find them wide open" (Jacob Neusner, The Yerushalmi, p.156-157). [the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE]

Additional Point The Babylonian Talmud states: "Our rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot ['For the Lord'] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white; nor did the western most light shine; and the doors of the Hekel [Temple] would open by themselves" (Soncino version, Yoma 39b).

Additional Point After the death and resurrection of Jesus (AD 30) to the destruction of the temple (AD 70), for 40 years, God rejected the temple sacrifice for atonement. The chance of this happening is: 1:5,479,548,800.

2. The Day Is For Self-Denial (Lev 23) The What, When, and How How we will do it

2. The Day Is For Self-Denial (Lev 23) In keeping with other parts of Scripture, Jewish custom, and good sense, we prohibit the following from the food fast: the elderly, children under 13, the ill, pregnant, post-partum and nursing women, and those on medication requiring food.

2. The Day Is For Self-Denial (Lev 23) Note the spirit of self-denial that Jesus expects from his disciples. Luke 9 23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. The forcing to focus. The misery of hunger/ sin and the eager anticipation for food/holiness. Excite in us our need for atonement for our sins Share in the groaning of all creation awaiting the deliverance that is to come.

3. The Day Is For Rest From Work (Lev 23) For Jews For Christians

Conclusion 2 Corinthians 4 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.