The Day of Atonement

On the Biblical calendar one of the feasts of the Lord called the Day of Atonement and commonly known today as Yom Kippur falls on our Gregorian calendar on October 8th (sunset) until October 9th (sunset).

I was just meditating today on this Feast of the Lord and what the Bible says about it (read Leviticus 16, Leviticus 23, and Numbers 29 to learn more about this particular Feast of the Lord).

As a summary essentially this Feast Day was marked on the Lord’s calendar as a day when the High Priest would go into the Most Holy Place and make the sacrificial offering for his sins and the sins of Israel. There were very specific commands by God on how the High Priest would prepare himself to enter the Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place is where the presence of God would rest and because God is Holy anything that was not cleansed and consecrated would ultimately die in His presence.

“The LORD said to 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, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area….” – Leviticus 16:1-3

"This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or an alien living among you because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance…This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites."
– Leviticus 16:29-31, 34

What we read here in the Torah is only a shadow of the reality which is Jesus Christ. Praise God that He sent Jesus Christ into the world to be our great High Priest and Sacrifice for sin once and for all!

My dear friends let us keep this lasting ordinance in remembering the finished work of Jesus. Let us meditate this day on how His blood has cleansed us from all sin and we not only are sanctified but we can now also enter the Most Holy Place by ourselves and experience the presence of the living God!

Have you experienced God’s presence in your life? If your spiritual life feels dry at the moment which can happen to all of us; I encourage you to step in by faith into the presence of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Take your sabbath rest in Him and deny yourself and experience His life-giving presence today.

I encourage you to meditate on the following excerpts of verses from the book of Hebrews chapters 9 and 10. May the Lord Bless you!

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Blessings,
Emmanuel