The Jewish Feast of Atonement (Updated)

David Bowen: Shalom!

Tim Moore: Shalom… A Messianic Christian pastor and teacher of God’s Word. And Richard, you have been a godsend to us in opening up understanding to the feasts as God presents them in His Word.

David Bowen: And Yom Kippur is the important feast for the Jewish people because they are trying to get their sins forgiven for the past year. And they have to do it in a number of different ways, so, and we’ll talk about that.

Tim Moore: Yes, they do. And in very specific…but we’re getting ahead of ourselves perhaps.

David Bowen: We are.

Tim Moore: Let’s dive into Yom Kippur. But even before we do that, let’s back up for just a moment, because in our previous episode on the Feasts, we talked about the Feast of Trumpets, a glorious and forward-looking celebration that many Christians, some would equate to the expectation that we have for the Rapture of the Church. And yet that feast that commemorates actually the Creation of the world also marks the beginning of Ten Days of Awe. What is that all about?

David Bowen: It’s also called Rosh Hashanah. I mean, in the Hebrew, we call it Yom Teruah, the blowing of the shofar. But Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the New Year for the Jewish people. And it begins Ten Days of Awe. So, on Rosh Hashanah, God opens up His book, The Book of Life. And now you’ve got 10 days to make sure your name is written in that book. And that’s the unfortunate thing for the Jewish people, because they’re doing it all in the wrong way.

David Bowen: So, you have be named in the Book of Life. We’ve got to understand how do we get there? Eternal life is at stake.

Tim Moore: It certainly is. So, let’s get to the root of where this particular feast came from and how, again, Rosh Hashanah transmits forward to Yom Kippur.

David Bowen: Well, we’ve got to go back to Leviticus 23. That’s our summary chapter of all the Scriptures over of all the feasts.

Tim Moore: You know, one time my pastor said, “Leviticus is a book only Tim Moore could love.” And I said, “I do, I love it! It’s great, because it has so much in it that’s relevant to us today.”

David Bowen: Amen. And we’re also going to go back to Leviticus 16 as well, which, really, that whole chapter is Yom Kippur, what happens on Yom Kippur in the temple, in the tabernacle. So, real exciting. “And the Lord spoke to Moses,” this is Leviticus 23:26, “‘On exactly the tenth day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble yourselves and present an offering by fire to the Lord.” So, it’s the Day of Atonement. That’s what Yom Kippur means in the Hebrew. Atonement is covering. That word means covering. It’s like putting a glove on top of your hand, you’re covering your hand. You don’t see your hand anymore, you see the glove. And that’s how a sinful people is able to worship a holy, righteous, just God.

Tim Moore: So, this whole time…

David Bowen: And then receive that worship though.

David Bowen: This whole time is about self-examination then, correct? It’s really taking a look at yourself and how you’ve been living and what you’ve been doing and getting right with God.

David Bowen: And the Jewish people are looking at the past year. And so what they’re doing is they are doing this with the scales of, these are my good deeds, these are my bad deeds, but now, which is heavier, which is worse?

Tim Moore: You know, I’ve had this thought even as you were…

David Bowen: Thank God.

Tim Moore: Sharing that perspective on covering your hand with a glove or the covering of our sins, I thought back to Jacob who came before his father covered with sheep’s wool to look like someone else. And literally, when we come before God the Father, we’re covered over with His Son. Not that God is a doddering old man who doesn’t know the difference, but He sees Christ on us, in us. And that’s how He then judges us with that covering, that atonement that Christ offers. But I’m getting ahead of myself again. So, back to the roots.

David Bowen: These Jewish people are balancing their sins and their good deeds because they’re told by the rabbis, “You’ve got to have lots of good deeds to outweigh your bad.” And the issue when you get to the Scripture is it’s not talking about good deeds. It’s talking about sin. It’s talking about sin.

David Bowen: Are they focused on their deeds, though, or are they focused on really their self-examination on who they are?

David Bowen: Well, it’s about deeds, because now you have to perform good deeds. But it’s also repentance and prayer.

David Bowen: That was the key.

David Bowen: Repentance. You have to repent on Yom Kippur, and then you’ve got pray as well.

Tim Moore: You know, I’m reminded…

David Bowen: Prayer, good deeds, and repentance.

Tim Moore: I’m reminded of the formula, if you will, that David spoke about in Psalm 51. He said, “What the Lord honors is a broken and contrite heart.” And you come to the Lord humbly with contrition and He honors that because it shows our right relationship with Him.

David Bowen: And that’s a perfect lead way right into the Scripture here.

Tim Moore: Okay. Go back to it.

David Bowen: Good job, Tim.

Tim Moore: That’s what I’m here for.

David Bowen: Verse 28, “Neither shall you do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord God.” Now, this is a Sabbath day, okay? This feast is a Sabbath day. You’re not to do any work, just like the Sabbath. Verse 29, “If there is any person who will not humbly,” right? “Will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people.”

So, now, humble means to bow down, to afflict yourself, to submit yourself unto God, right? And it’s obvious repentance involved here. But if someone doesn’t do that out of Israel, all of Israel, can you imagine? They’re going to be cut off. Cut off is karath in the Hebrew, and it means to exterminate, to die.

Tim Moore: Wow.

David Bowen: So, God’s going to take them out. Very, very serious. So, you need to humbly come before God. And we’ll see in the next verse, in the next couple of verses, humble also involves fasting. In the Hebrew, the word means fasting as well. It’s in verse 32, but we are not there yet. I’m jumping.

David Bowen: But it’s not just the action, it’s the heart too, right? You are saying that you have to humbly do it.

David Bowen: It’s the heart.

David Bowen: The heart has to be right with this.

David Bowen: Oh, it’s the heart first.

David Bowen: Right, okay.

David Bowen: It has to be the heart first. Humble yourself before God.

David Bowen: Right.

David Bowen: And then the actions follow.

David Bowen: I just think it’s important, it’s not the action, it’s the heart being…

Tim Moore: It’s the heart condition.

David Bowen: Definitely. Definitely. Verse 30, “As for any person who does any work on the same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.” So, if they didn’t get it in verse 29, now they got it, right? They’re going to get wiped out if they don’t, God’s going to take them. And that’s a very serious situation, isn’t it?

Tim Moore: It is. You know, people ask, why do I love Leviticus? I think you touched on this a few episodes ago, if I’m not mistaken, David, when you talked about coming before God and, you know, you coming into the presence of a Holy God as a profane person. It’s the close proximity of the holy and the profane. And boy, that was a dangerous thing.

Even in the day and age of Israel coming out of Egypt and coming into the Promised Land, if they were callous in their attitude toward God, boy, they paid a penalty for it. And sometimes I think we are too lighthearted.

David Bowen: Oh, yes.

Tim Moore: In coming before a Holy God. We don’t realize what a privilege and an honor this is. I’m coming before the throne of Heaven, the Almighty, every person in Scripture who did that said, “I’m undone because I’m a man of unclean lips,” as Isaiah said. And so coming into the presence of God, if I don’t have that broken-hearted contrition, especially just to humble myself, I’m missing it.

David Bowen: If the High Priest, even if the High Priest went before God and there was an issue in his life, then he could die.

David Bowen: But is there any doubt how much God loves us? It shows us that a sinful man can come before a holy God because He allows it to happen.

David Bowen: Yes.

David Bowen: And from the Gentile point of view, I believe, if correctly, Yom Kippur is symbolizing or remembering when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the second set of the Ten Commandments asking God’s forgiveness. Moses came down the first time and broke the first set and came back, but God still forgave. And that’s just the amazing love of God.

Tim Moore: It sure is. I talk about cheap grace, that too many, I’ll say Gentile Christians, but Christians in general don’t realize the incredible price, though, that was paid to bridge that gap so that they can come into the presence of a holy God. But I still think the attitude of my heart has to be humility and contrition. I don’t, you know, wear around my sin, but I think that is how we first come to God, with a broken heart.

David Bowen: This is what the Old Testament sacrifices did for the Jewish people, okay? Their sins were forgiven up to a certain point where they could worship God and Him receive it. But their sins were not completely forgiven. That’s why you have a covering, to cover the sin.

Tim Moore: And it was a temporary cover.

David Bowen: God didn’t see it. Temporary, until Messiah would come and take away all the sin.

David Bowen: But if the heart’s not right, we still don’t have that forgiveness of sin.

Tim Moore: Okay. So, take us back to Leviticus.

David Bowen: All right. Verse 31, “You shall do no work on it. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.” And so the Jewish people were to celebrate Yom Kippur for how long? Until, right, Messiah comes. And then even in the Kingdom, we’ll celebrate those as well.

But perpetual statute means continuous, right? Throughout your generations. Well, we still have generations of Jewish people, so we are still celebrating. But today we celebrate differently, because I’m a believer of Yeshua, all my sins are forgiven, past, present, and future.

Tim Moore: Amen.

David Bowen: I don’t have to be looking back for my sins to be forgiven the last year.

David Bowen: That was my next question, yeah.

David Bowen: Because every day, I’m confessing my sin that day, you know? But this repentance is more on the sanctification level than it is for salvation level.

David Bowen: Thank you for sharing that, because that was my question. The lasting ordinance, and how do you do it now because things have changed?

David Bowen: Yeah, so we still celebrate Yom Kippur, but we change the prayers around.

David Bowen: Okay.

Tim Moore: Okay. So, how should a Christian, the Gentile, perhaps, who doesn’t have the tradition of Yom Kippur, how should we come before the Lord? Should we do it with just carefreeness regarding our past sin that is forgiven? It is. Or should there be a degree of penitence or of sorrow for sin that I had to be forgiven of, and yet just total joy? How do you balance that in the heart of a Christian?

David Bowen: Well, I think when we come before the Lord and we’ve got to humble ourselves in our heart, of course, but I don’t see a problem with remembering what I was in the past and what I’ve done even in the past year, but not grieving over it. I don’t think Messiah wants us to grieve over our past sins. He wants us to keep moving forward, just like Paul says, keep moving forward. But remember, because that’s where I was, but look at me now, I’m much different. Hopefully I’m a better believer today than I was back then.

David Bowen: So, when we sin, we should feel sorrow for our sin, but we can rejoice in the forgiveness.

Tim Moore: Perhaps the best way to think about it is almost like amazing grace. I don’t focus on me. I don’t even focus on my sin. I focus on Christ. And I focus on the great gift that He represents. And so my praise, my worship goes to Him, and I kind of fade, even as, in my heart, I have regret over my sin. But now all my attention is on Christ and doesn’t turn back inward on myself.

David Bowen: Amen. So, verse 32 though is what I wanted to get to, “It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls,” and that word involves the fasting aspect that Jewish people perform on Yom Kippur, so it’s fasting all day long, “on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.” Meaning, of course, Yom Kippur. So, what happened in the temple, though? We’ve got to go back to Leviticus 16.

Tim Moore: Okay.

David Bowen: Temple and tabernacle times. Of course, this is more tabernacle times now. But in 16, and we’re not going to be able to get all the whole chapter here, but we’re going to be talking about Aaron and what he’s going to do with the two goats. There’s a two-goat sacrifice that occurs on this feast for the sins of the Jewish people. But remember, it’s covering those sins. Doesn’t take it away completely, only the Messiah can do that, and for them it was in the future.

Tim Moore: And really it has to be done every year, every year, every year, just for the covering.

David Bowen: This is every single year. Yeah.

Tim Moore: Yeah.

David Bowen: And when you go through the Book of Hebrews, as you guys know, it talks about that.

Tim Moore: Yes. It only lasts for the year.

David Bowen: It’s not forgiveness, it’s not total forgiveness, but it’s enough where they can worship God and…

David Bowen: Looking forward to the day.

Tim Moore: Yes.

David Bowen: Looking forward. That’s right. And it’s interesting how all the feasts are looking forward, you know?

David Bowen: Jesus is completely in the Old Testament. Everything in the Old Testament points to Christ.

Tim Moore: It sure does.

David Bowen: It’s amazing, huh? Verse 6, now, chapter 16, “Then Aaron shall offer the bull for his sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household.” So, he has to come before the Lord and be righteous before God first. “And he shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord,” or Yahweh, “and the other lot for the scapegoat.

And then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell, and make it a sin offering.” So, you had two goats. And actually, what they would do is they had a golden pitcher, it was called coupe, where they would pull out golden strips and they would put that on the head of one animal, on one of the goats, and then one on the other. And one would say, it would say Yahweh, la Yahweh on it, sorry about that, la Yahweh on it, and then la Azazel. And so Yahweh’s goat was sacrificed, slit the throat, animal, the blood would be put into the tabernacle and make everything right, right? Then the Azazel goat, though, it didn’t die. They didn’t slit the throat and then take the blood. It was taken outside of Israel. It was taken out.

Tim Moore: It was the scapegoat.

David Bowen: Into the wilderness. That’s what Azazel means. It is the scapegoat. And so that was the second part of the sacrifice. So, you have part A and part B. Both needed to be done so that the forgiveness of the sin would occur. And so they take by a man, it just says by a man later on in this Scriptures, by a man, a Gentile man, it was the idea that the rabbis would have a Gentile man carry it because now you’re doing work.

Tim Moore: Right.

David Bowen: Leading this animal outside of Israel into a wilderness. And then the Talmud tells us that they would actually walk it over to a cliff. So, they would fall over the cliff and die into a sedentary land, a different land, and then the sins would then be forgiven.

Tim Moore: Wow. That’s a lot of work.

David Bowen: A lot work.

Tim Moore: Just to follow the religious ordination, and God ordained this, but a lot of work just for a temporary covering, and yet showing, I think, really the extent to which God would go not with two goats, but with one perfect sacrifice. But also taken outside the city, so to speak, at a point in His own crucifixion.

David Bowen: So, you’re saying the sin was covered and then cast away? I mean, it’s a two-step process.

David Bowen: Right, it’s a two-step process.

David Bowen: So, we still repent and cast the sin away. We still kind of do that without the goat.

Tim Moore: So, today, as Jews will celebrate Yom Kippur and there’s a time of great mourning, personal introspection, national, I mean, shutdown of the entire economy and nation, how is this being recollected today, even by nonreligious Jews?

David Bowen: Oh, they’re all celebrating. This is a very important feast. So, all the Jewish people are going to celebrate on Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, those are the two feasts that they get together, and of course, Passover. Yeah, but this is more of a communal situation within synagogues than it is in a family situation. Like on Passover, you’re celebrating in your home with your family and friends. You can, of course, make it a congregational Passover as well. But Yom Kippur, and then you go to services, you see.

David Bowen: If they don’t attend synagogue, are they still celebrating Yom Kippur?

David Bowen: Oh, yes.

Tim Moore: Just in a home setting?

David Bowen: In a home setting, yeah.

Tim Moore: I think most Westerners will remember Yom Kippur primarily for the war that was fought in 1973, because Egypt waited till the Yom Kippur day of celebration when the Jewish economy was shut down, when the radios, the televisions were off, there were no buses or cars in the streets, and they attacked. And it was a tremendous threat to the existence of Israel for a while.

But on that special holy high day is when Egypt attacked. And so this many years later, Egypt is not the same threat, but Jews still celebrate in the land of Israel and around the world. Of course, in the year 2023, where we are today, this feast will be celebrated on September 25th, a Monday, but it will be, again, a high Sabbath, correct?

David Bowen: Yes.

Tim Moore: All right.

David Bowen: And Egypt knew that the Jewish people were all performing what is written right in here. They were all humbling themselves. You’re not to do work. So, you can’t perform war. You can’t fight back in that sense.

Tim Moore: Well, I’ll tell you what. I’m going to share with our viewers just a couple of things that we have as resources if you’re not as familiar with what happens in Israel regarding not just the feast but some of the traditions, two great resources we have is “Aliyah,” going up to Israel, but both for Jews and Gentiles, a tremendous DVD by Dr. Reagan, and “Jesus: The Lamb and the Lion.”

So, Jesus combines not only the sacrificial lamb that is represented in this case by two goats, but obviously in Passover, we talked about by the sacrifice, but also the soon returning Lion of Judah. So, He is the fulfillment of all these feasts. But even in this one, it is a day of atonement.

I’m sure you fellows have heard that you can pronounce atonement in a different way. It’s also a day of at-one-ment. So, how do we become at one with God if He is so holy and we in and of ourselves are so profane, how do we become united with Him?

David Bowen: There’s only one way. There’s only one way, and that’s Jesus the Messiah and His at-one-ment causing us to become one with God in a spiritual sense. So, it’s His sacrifice. And He was the Passover lamb sacrifice, He’s the two-goat sacrifice where we have to believe and receive Jesus as our sin sacrifice and our guilt sacrifice as well.

David Bowen: As a pastor, sometimes I say, how could God have done that to animals and used animals in sacrifice? Well, the key was the animal was innocent, and the key is Jesus’ innocent blood pays for our guilt.

Tim Moore: Amen. So, I want to turn this into a very much prophetic expectation. How is this day going to be fulfilled in the life of the Jewish nation in a period of time that is yet to come? Because that’s where we get to the prophetic.

David Bowen: That’s the key. It’s now a national feast. So, we have to look at these feasts nationally, and then now you’ve got individuals. So, Pentecost, remember we talked about Pentecost? That was more individual, Jew and Gentile individuals now can enter into the New Covenant, why? Because the nation refused to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. So, they did not enter into the New Covenant, but individuals could. Now we’re going back to a national feast, and what’s going to happen nationally with Israel. Let’s go to Zechariah 13.

Tim Moore: This gets good.

David Bowen: Oh, let’s go to Zechariah 12.

Tim Moore: Chapter 12. And as you do that, the setup is, as we talked about the Feast of Trumpets, that signifies the Rapture, so then for the Jewish nation that looks around and these Christians have gone, both Christian and Jew, or Gentile and Jew, that brings them to something that’s going to follow. And what is that?

David Bowen: And this is 12:10. We’ll see the Jewish people finally, at the end of the Tribulation period, getting saved.

Tim Moore: Amen.

David Bowen: So, they have to go through the Tribulation period first, unfortunately, and that’s a part of the other feasts that we talked about. Verse 10, and God’s speaking, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced.” So, God is speaking here and He says, “They will look at Me God, whom they have pierced.” Well, who is God being pierced? That’s Jesus.

Tim Moore: That’s Christ. That’s the Messiah. It’s Yeshua.

David Bowen: It’s the Son of God. Yeshua Hamashiach. God says He’s going to pour out on the house of David, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplication. So, they will receive the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit. And this, of course, they have to believe on Jesus to be able to receive the Holy Spirit. And so, but this is the 1/3 of the Jewish people that will make it through the Tribulation period, Jacob’s trouble.

Tim Moore: And when they are willing to look upon Him and mourn, back to the Yom Kippur contrition of heart, as one mourns over an only son and weep bitterly over him as weeping over a firstborn, they will cry out what beautiful prayer of rejoicing?

David Bowen: Baruch haba b’shem Adonai.

Tim Moore: Baruch haba b’shem Adonai. Blessed is He who comes…

David Bowen: In the name of the Lord.

Tim Moore: And for us who know Him, He who already came once in the name of the Lord.

David Bowen: But that’s going to be their prayer so that Jesus will then come back in the Second Coming, and save them, not spiritually, because they already got saved spiritually, physically.

Tim Moore: Can you hardly wait?

David Bowen: That’s the good part, this is the exciting part. No, I cannot wait.

Tim Moore: I can’t wait.

David Bowen: Maranatha Lord.

Tim Moore: Maranatha.

David Bowen: Maranatha.

Tim Moore: Come quickly, Lord Jesus. The feast of Yom Kippur represents a particularly Jewish experience. Other nations lack the day of Thanksgiving that is celebrated in the United States and Canada, but to my knowledge, no other people has a day set aside for reflection on personal sin. I’ve asked my dear friend and a beloved guide of Israel pilgrimages Erez Bar David to share what Yom Kippur means to him.

Erez Bar-David Video Clip

David Bowen: Well, Yom Kippur is a big day, especially in Israel. I’m sure it is very central and memorable feast in every Jewish home, but especially in Israel, given the fact that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people.

One of my memorable things, of course, especially as a child, was the fact that everything shut down. And initially, of course, you know, the younger you are, the lack of knowledge you have about the actual meaning of the holiday, but practically what it means is that everything shuts down.

I think especially from a Jewish prospect, and especially biblical perspective, during the time while the Temple was still in place, I think the main purpose and point was to have people understand, the Jewish people understand, the seriousness of sin and the atonement of sin.

I think that this is somehow something that we, especially in the West, are kind of, sort of lost it along the way. But I think that especially biblically speaking, everybody in the nation knew how big sin was and how important it was to essentially obtain whether forgiveness of sin, but especially atonement of sin, which is essentially postponement of the judgments that you deserve for your sins.

And so today I think it’s more of a day of reflection. It basically forces people, whether they’re religious or less religious, to sort of like go out of their comfort zone, whether they fast or not, whether they go to the synagogue or not, it is definitely a day where they’re forced to sort of like confront with their own selves.
And I think this is the most important aspect of that day, that it kind of forces you to sort of struggle with your own self, to examine your own self in the light of sin and what sin really means for you.

Conclusion

Tim Moore: Erez’s uncle, Arye Bar David, fought in Israel’s Yom Kippur War and has testified that he was miraculously protected even as he boldly shared his faith in Yeshua with his fellow soldiers. But for now, Richard, what final word would you like to share with our viewers?

David Bowen: Well, I would just encourage our viewers to celebrate Yom Kippur in your own way, but get out there and make sure you’re repenting and confessing your sin, not just for the last year, but every single day, because God wants our hearts of repentance.

David Bowen: Amen. Amen. I’m just so grateful for the example the Jewish people have set for us. I mean, before the Lord, we all sin so desperately and so wickedly, but yet God forgives us. And my own namesake, King David, as badly as he sinned, God still didn’t hold that against him and forgave him.

Tim Moore: No, but he also proved, King David did, that God does not despise a broken and contrite heart, as he testified in Psalm 51:17. You know, I’m strongly inclined to never lose sight of my own utter depravity. Save for the grace of God, left to my own devices, I would wander away from Him. As the song says, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the Lord I love.”

But I will ever rejoice in the blood of Christ and in the forgiveness that God grants to all who put their trust in Jesus Christ. I’m reminded of the great song by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend that says it this way, “In Christ alone, no guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me.”

David Bowen: Forgiven and forgotten.

Tim Moore: Right. Exactly right.

David Bowen: And with this whole show and just whole discussion, it’s humbling. It humbles me before the Lord, but also gives me a great heart of gratitude and thanksgiving at the same time.

Tim Moore: Amen. Well, we hope today’s discussion has touched your heart. If you don’t already know the peace that passes understanding that comes from the amazing grace of God, call on Him today. Jesus saves, wayward kings, pompous Pharisees, even sinners like me. Do not delay. Come to God with a broken and contrite heart, and He will welcome you with open arms.

I hope you’ll join us next week for another episode of Christ in Prophecy. Until then, look up and be watchful, for the Lord who secured our atonement is coming soon!

End of Program