One New Man Asia

Yom Kippur or The Day of Atonement is the most holy day in the Jewish calendar. Most Jewish people including the most nominal of them would at least go to synagogue that day. Similar to Easter or Christmas for many nominal Christians. This day was appointed by God in the Bible (Leviticus 23:26-31), it is one of the seven feasts of the Lord which God gave in Leviticus 23. Those are divided into two seasons of the year.

In Spring time there are:

• Passover
• Feast of Firstfruits
• Feast of Unleavened Bread
• Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)

Then in Autumn

• Feast of Trumpets
• Day of Atonement
• Feast of Booths (Tabernacles)

If we do a careful study of these feasts, we will find that they are actually God’s plan for the salvation of the world laid out in the Old Testament. In the book of Colossians, Apostle Paul said they are all about Messiah. (Colossians 2:16-17)

Origin

The Day of Atonement has its origins in the incident where Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, offered incense before the Lord, which they had not been authorized to do (Leviticus 10). Later in chapter 16, we read that because of this incident God no longer permitted Aaron to enter His presence at any time as he used to, now he was restricted to entering God’s presence only once a year. (Leviticus 16:1,2).

God also commanded the people that this day was to be a day of national repentance, they were to afflict their souls in preparation, today it is marked with fasting (Leviticus 16:29, 23:26-28)

Procedures

In Leviticus 16 God also gave instructions on the procedures for the High Priest to enter His presence.

Jewish tradition tells us that the night before Yom Kippur, a group of priests would stay up with the High Priest and read the Torah to him all night long, this was so that he would not have any impure thoughts when he entered the Holy of Holies. Ephesians 5:26 says that Christ loves the church and washes her with His Word.

On the day he would not dress with the ephod etc., instead he would only wear a white linen robe, with a sash and turban.

He would first take a bull and sacrifice it, this would be a sacrifice for his family and himself, he would take the blood of the bull and enter the Holy of Holies passing through the Holy Place and sprinkle the blood in every direction. After exiting, he would change into a new set of garments. The other priests would bring two goats to him, and He would cast lots over them; one goat would be for the sacrifice, the other would be the Azazel or scapegoat. The priest would lay hands on the scapegoat, confess the sins of the nation over it and then it would be sent out into the wilderness. The priest would then sacrifice the other goat and carry its blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it again to cleanse all the items therein (Hebrews 9:22).

Once the High Priest exited the Holy of Holies the second time, the nation knew that God had accepted the sacrifice for their sin, and they had a fresh start. The connection with God had been reset.

Today it is considered by Jewish people as "Judgment Day" or the day when they would find out if their names were in God's book of life. In fact the greeting used for this day is G'mar Chatima Tova (a good final sealing). 

The scapegoat

It is written in the Talmud that during the time of the second temple, i.e., Yeshua’s day, the priests would take a scarlet rope or cloth, cut it in two, tie half on the goat’s horn and the other half on the Temple door. The scapegoat would then be chased to a high place and chased off it so it fell an died. It is said that once the scapegoat died the rope on the Temple door would turn from scarlet to white (Isaiah 1:18).

However Jewish writings also say that around forty years prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., the scarlet rope no longer turned white. If we count back from 70 A.D. we come to 30 A.D. about the time that Yeshua died as the atoning sacrifice.

A National Reset

During the days before Israel lost the Temple, Yom Kippur was considered a day when the nation would have their sin forgiven. It was about whether or not God would forgive the sin of the nation and not individuals.

This all changed after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans and the people of Israel were scattered to the nations. The character of Judaism changed, and the day became a time of personal repentance and forgiveness of sin was based upon good works.

The World’s Reset

This last year and a half or so, with the advent of COVID-19, one of the things we have heard about is the theory of a “Great Reset” being organized by globalists leaders. The theory is that certain world leaders, both in government and business have a plan to depopulate the earth because they feel that the world cannot sustain the current rate of population growth. Along with this, comes all the theories about the vaccine and the debates about whether as Christians we should be vaccinated or not.

I will not share my opinion here because that’s what it is, just my opinion. What I do know however, is that all of this has brought fear and division in the church. With these fruits being evident we can clearly tell that the evil one is using this situation to harm the church. Ephesians 6:10-13 tells us that we are not battling against people but against spiritual forces that operate at high levels of humanity. Their purpose is to bring the world into subjugation of their master, Lucifer. We must have this understanding so that we don’t succumb to fear and begin to discriminate people, particularly our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ because they choose either to be vaccinated or not. The heart of our Lord is for his people to be united (John 17:20-21). In those two verses our Lord said that when we are one, the world would believe in Him, so if we can be divided, the world will not believe in Yeshua.

Where the vaccine is concerned firstly, I believe that each person should seek the Lord as to whether you should receive it or not. It is a personal choice, and we should not try to influence others either way, and we should not avoid each other because of this issue. (Romans 14:1-4)

Secondly, we should not walk in fear that the vaccine has substances in it that will harm us, that may be true but, remember that our God is a miracle working God who protected His people during the plagues in Egypt and has He not also said that if we drink any poison it will by no means harm us (Mark 16:16-18), so if we take the vaccine to comply with the requirements of the authorities in the land, God can and will cover us. Walk by faith not by sight!

The Final Reset

Yom Kippur, like all the other feasts of the Lord, has very strong prophetic implications. The book of Hebrews tells us that Messiah did not enter the Holy of Holies on earth, but He entered the Holy of Holies in heaven, the throne room of God, not with the blood of bulls and goats but with His own blood (Hebrews 9). Like the High Priest who did not remain in the Holy of Holies on earth likewise, Yeshua will not remain forever in heaven.

This is our great hope, and we must keep our eyes fixed on it and not be distracted other things. As the days get darker let us focus our eyes on the Light of the world, our Lord, Master and Saviour, only He can save us.