Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) I. atonement: spec. in Theol. Reconciliation or restoration of friendly relations between God and sinners. II. Details of this annual high day are found in EXO 30:10; LEV 16; 23:27-32; 25:9; NUM 29:7-11. A. On the tenth day of the seventh month each year, Israel’s high priest alone was to enter the most holy place in the tabernacle/temple to make atonement for its elements, himself and the nation. LEV 16 gives the most detail. B. The best understanding of the Day of Atonement is given by Paul in HEB 9:1-14, 23-28. C. None of the O.T. sacrifices actually took away sin, including this one. HEB 10:1-4, 11. D. It is only by Christ we have received the atonement. ROM 5:11. E. This service required the ark of the covenant to be in the most holy place of the tabernacle but for many years the ark was entirely separated from the tabernacle. III. On the day of atonement, Aaron was to be attired very specifically. LEV 16:4. A. The high priest had a special, distinguishing apparel that he was otherwise to wear before the Lord. EXO 28:1-39. B. But on this day, Aaron was to don the common linen garment of the subordinate priests. c/w EXO 28:40-43. 1. Christ our High Priest condescended to identify with His fellows for the purpose of atonement. PHIL 2:6-8; HEB 2:17. 2. Linen was an integral fabric of the vail that then separated man from the presence of God (EXO 26:31-33). For this atonement Aaron must don the very material of separation. a. Our sinful flesh separated us from God. ROM 7:18; 8:8. b. But God was made flesh (JOH 1:14; 1TI 3:16) and suffered in the flesh. c. Through the disturbing of the material of separation, we have access to God's presence. HEB 10:19-20. D. In preparation for identifying with his fellow priests, Aaron had to wash his flesh in water (LEV 16:4) so that his approach unto God would be by blood and water. c/w 1JO 5:6. 1. Christ was washed in water to fulfil all righteousness. MAT 3:13-15. 2. Christ's baptism in water to identify with us spoke of His eventual baptism in sufferings and in the heart of the earth for atonement. MAT 20:22; 12:40. IV. The ram of burnt offering and the sin offerings for the people were taken FROM the people. LEV 16:5-10. A. So Christ was taken from Israel. ROM 9:4-5. B. But, whereas the O.T. high priest took the sin offering FROM the church, our High Priest offered up Himself FOR the church. HEB 9:14, 25-26. C. A bullock for Aaron's sin offering was appointed and two goats for the people, one of which was a chosen sin offering and the other a chosen scapegoat. 1. The role of each goat was determined by lot, for which results God takes credit. PRO 16:33. 2. dispose: To make arrangements; to determine or control the course of affairs or events; to ordain, appoint. 3. Christ went to His death “...as it was determined...” (LUK 22:22), “...being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God...” (ACT 2:23). Yom Kippur 9-24-23 Page 1 V. Aaron provided his own bullock for the sin offering for himself and his house. v. 11 c/w LEV 4:3. A. The cost therefore was to Aaron a personal one. B. Christ did not need to offer for His own sins like Aaron but the cost of His offering was certainly a personal one! C. Aaron was to burn incense when he entered within the vail to prevent judgment (LEV 16:12-13). But Christ's sacrifice was itself the perfect incense. EPH 5:2. 1. Note that there were burning coals before the Lord. LEV 16:12. 2. There are “burning coals” before the Lord in the Heavenly place. EZE 28:14. 3. The mighty angelic cabinet on high are described as having this appearance. EZE 1:13-14; PSA 104:4. 4. Christ's blood has brought us into the presence of the most High God and the mighty angels. HEB 12:22. 5. NOTE: It was NOT the “burning coals” that appeased God and worked atonement in Aaron's offering. It was the blood (EXO 30:10)! Therefore let none be led to adore angels for salvation. COL 2:18. 6. The blood of the sin offering and a censer full of burning coals were to be taken into the holiest of all. a. Once within the vail, the high priest put incense upon the fire, causing a cloud of incense to cover the mercy seat. b. Incense speaks of prayer. PSA 141:2; REV 5:8. c. The incense cloud points to the intercession of Christ Who prayed His way into God's presence and now pleads on our behalf. JOH 17; LUK 22:46; ROM 8:34; HEB 7:25; 9:24. D. Aaron's approach unto God with his own offering was subsequently duplicated in his offering for the people (v. 15), thus showing that blood brings both our High Priest and us into God's presence. HEB 9:12. VI. The blood was sprinkled upon the mercy seat EASTWARD. LEV 16:14. A. The door of the tabernacle faced east. NUM 3:38. B. Thus, when man approached God's throne he moved westward. C. When man moved eastward he was moving away from God with his back to God's throne. GEN 3:24 c/w EZE 8:16. D. Cain went east away from the presence of God. GEN 4:16. E. Thus, the blood of atonement covered the eastward path away from God. c/w ISA 53:6. F. The blood was sprinkled BEFORE the mercy seat SEVEN TIMES. 1. The blood was thus between the throne of God and the worshipper. 2. We approach God ONLY by Jesus' blood. HEB 10:19. 3. That the blood was sprinkled seven times signifies fullness, pointing to the complete redemption for all our sins by Christ's blood. HEB 10:12-18. VII. On this day of atonement, Aaron had to make two trips into the holiest. A. First he slew the sin offering for himself without and took its blood inside. LEV 16:11-14. B. Then he had to come back out and sacrifice the goat of the sin offering for the people and take its blood inside. vs. 15-16. C. This may typify what happened after Christ arose from the dead. JOH 20:17 c/w MAT 28:9-10. VIII. Having completed the atonement, Aaron was to lay his hands on the scapegoat and confess Israel's Yom Kippur 9-24-23 Page 2  sins, transferring them symbolically to it. LEV 16:20-22 c/w ISA 53:6, 12; 1PE 2:24. A. In the two goats we have tokens of judgment and remission. B. The one goat was (as it were) made sin, the other (as it were) was made sanctification and redemption! 2CO 5:21; 1CO 1:30; ROM 4:25. C. The loosing of the scapegoat spoke of sins that were sought for and not found, for they had been carried away for good. JER 31:34; ISA 53:4, 12. D. Christ, however, is both the fit (well adapted or suited to the conditions or circumstances of the case, answering the purpose, proper or appropriate) man and the scapegoat Who took away our sins. 1. He was ordained to bear our iniquities. ISA 53:6, 11. 2. He was manifested to take away our sins. 1JO 3:5. 3. He is the Lamb of God that took away our sins. JOH 1:29. 4. Christ took away our sins and they can’t be found against us. ROM 8:33-34. 5. That the scapegoat was not released until AFTER the other sin offering had been slain shows that removal of sin is an EFFECT of Christ's death. HEB 9:26. 6. For God's Israel, the scapegoat was only used once for the task and there was no chance of it showing back up with its load. Praise God! HEB 9:28. IX. Added to all the high priest’s atonement service on that day were other required offerings. NUM 29:7-11. A. Indeed, the law made nothing perfect (HEB 7:19), even the law of Yom Kippur. B. “It likewise intimated the imperfection of the legal sacrifices, and their insufficiency to take away sin, that on the very day the sin-offering of atonement was offered, yet there must be another sin-offering. But what the law could not do, in that it was weak, that Christ has done. (Matthew Henry on Num. 29:7-11) See ROM 8:3. X. This ceremony was to be performed on the tenth day of the seventh month. v. 29. A. This was the same day in the year of jubilee that the trumpet of liberty was to sound. LEV 25:9. B. Of Christ's saving work's complete sufficiency, Paul said to churches that were forgetting their jubilee of release, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (GAL 5:1). XI. The ultimate Day of Atonement was prophesied of Messiah in ZEC 3:8-9. Christ has thus forever rendered the Levitical Yom Kippur a dispelled shadow. Yom Kippur 9-24-23 Page 3