The Day of Atonement http://www.tabernacles.info/id39.html Leviticus 23:26, “And the Eternal spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of the seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation unto you; and you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Eternal. And you shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from evening unto evening, shall you celebrate your Sabbath.”
This shall be a day of rest, a Sabbath of rest beginning at sunset in the ninth day of the seventh month and continuing on the tenth day on the sunset ending that day. It is to be a Sabbath of rest. A day of complete rest from all work and all labor. It is also to be a day upon which you shall afflict your souls. And this term refers to a complete fast; nothing by mouth, for the full 24 hours.
I myself would start 10 or 15 minutes early and go 10 or 15 minutes late, just to be sure that it is a complete day, a complete Sabbath of rest and a complete fast. Nothing is to be taken at all into the body, either food or water or liquids of any kind. This is a complete and total fast. It is an affliction of the body. It is to afflict our souls or to afflict our bodies.
And this fast has a purpose and a reason. And the purpose of the fast is always to allow us to single mindedly, wholeheartedly seek God and to repent with all our hearts and with all our minds and to seek God with all our hearts, to turn away from sin and to undo the heavy burden which sin brings; for sin is the transgression of the law of God, 1 John 3:4, “It is a transgression of God's law.” It is breaking God's commandments. And God's commandments are holy and just and good as Paul writes and they are there for the protection of the weak and the innocent, for the protection of everyone.
And when we sin, when we break God's commandments, we are hurting others. And to avoid hurting others, we must stop breaking those commandments; and that means undoing the heavy burden that we have placed upon others. We are to stop the hurting of others by stopping sin and by turning away from sin and turning toward the commandments of God. And keeping the commandments of God, what we are really doing is no longer hurting others and no longer hurting ourselves.
That is the heavy burden of sin: the pain, the suffering, the decay and death which sin brings. And to be saved from this suffering, the decay, the pain and the death, we must stop sinning. And we must seek God wholeheartedly. Isaiah writes in Isaiah 58:3, “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Why do we fast and you Father do not see us. Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?”
And here we see, Isaiah writing that afflicting the soul and fasting are the same thing. This is one of the proof texts; that Leviticus 23 referring to afflicting the soul is in fact referring to fasting. Now, Isaiah 58:3, “Thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors.”
You take pleasure in your fasting. You delight in it. In other words, you're self-righteous, you say, "Look at me, I'm fasting. Look how great I am, how special I am." This is wrong. We are not to be self-righteous.
Verse 4, “Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. You are not to fast to be seen of others and to cause others to be jealous of you, or envy you, or think you're such a great, righteous person. Your fast is to be a matter between you and God.
Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? Verse 6, “to loose the bands of wickedness,” that is to stop wickedness, to smash and crush and break the chains of sin and wickedness--to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free.
You are to fast, to repent of your abuse of others, to repent of bullying or dominating others, to repent of oppressing others and let the oppressed go free: And to break every yoke, to break every burden.
Leaders of churches and husbands or wives are not to oppress and burden and place under a heavy yoke those who are under them in authority. We are to serve our congregants, to serve our sheep, to give ourselves for the sheep and the husbands to give themselves for the wives. Marriage and church and religion are not supposed to be a burden and a yoke of burden on the people. They are supposed to be a means of leading the people to God and of reducing and eliminating the burden of sin by teaching people how to turn away from sin and teaching them to keep the commandments of God.
We are to fast in order to break the yoke of sin, in order to turn toward God with a whole heart. And if we have oppressed others, we should fast in repentance and turn away from oppressing others. Turn away from this horrid sin and repent and start doing what God expects us to do; which is first of all, to set a right and godly example, and second to teach all men to keep all things that God has commanded. And the main thing is to respect our Heavenly Father and obey Him and turn away from the sin of breaking His commandments.
Verse 7, “Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? When thou seest the naked, that you cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” You do not hide yourself away from people in need. You see them and you help them to the best of your ability, within the means that you have.
And in verse 8, “What will happen if you fast the fast of repentance and turn away from sin and from oppressing others. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be your rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the Eternal shall answer; you shall cry, and he shall say, here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke and the putting forth of the finger.” That is to say the false accusing of the brethren, to point fingers at people and constantly and falsely accusing them, because they are a little bit different than you. That is wrong.
“Take away the yoke and the putting forth of the finger, and the speaking of vanity or empty things. And if you draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul.” And this is referring to the spiritual sense as well as the physical. If you feed the hungry, that's wonderful. And if you give spiritual meat to God's people, that's even better.
And that is what the ministry are supposed to do. Give meat, in a spiritual sense, to the people, to God's people, to the congregants. We are to point them toward God; always, always, always; and we are to always be feeding them with the truth of God and with the commandments of God and focusing them on God and teaching them to keep God's commandments. And if we do this, if we feed the hungry spirit, with the meat of God's Word, then shall our light rise in obscurity and are darkness shall be as a bright noonday. Even our darkness shall be like the brightness of the day.
For “the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered or irrigated garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. And if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your own pleasure on my holy day; and shall call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and remember the day of Atonement is a Sabbath day and shall honor him, not doing your own pleasure, nor your own ways nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words: Then thou shalt delight thyself in the Eternal; and I will cause you to ride up on the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
How many ministers spoon feed the church some lukewarm pabulum, lest the people become wiser than they, lest they rise up above him. No, that is wrong. That is a great evil. It is a great sin and it is oppressing the people. His job is to teach them and hope and pray and work for them to rise up above him. That is his goal, to make them better than he is. Even as it is the goal of every parent to help their children to become better than they were.
And to do that, he must teach the people to keep all the commandments of God. He must focus them on Almighty God at all times and keep the commandments and he must repent with all his heart of oppressing the people and start doing right and doing righteousness and leading them toward God. And all the people need to do the same thing and repent of oppressing their neighbor and oppressing each other and of sinning against God and sinning against each other. And start keeping all of God's commandments, beginning with the golden rule of doing good to others and treating others with the same respect and the same goodwill that they want others to treat them with.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:9, “Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye repented or were sorrow to repentance. For ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world works death.”
The sorrow of this world means, "I'm sorry I got caught and I didn't get away with it." True godly sorrow means, "I'm sorry I did it. I'm sorry enough that I'm going to stop doing it." That is godly repentance: to stop doing the thing that hurts others or hurts ourselves, to stop breaking the commandments of God. That is godly repentance, godly sorrow, and that is what fasting is all about.
It is the seeking of God, with a whole heart to the exclusion of all else. We do not even think about food or drink. We think only of somehow, someway, anyway we can; establishing, or reestablishing a proper relationship with God because of our deep sorrow and shame that we have broken His commandments, that we have offended Him, that we have offended our beloved Father, whom we love and would rather do anything to avoid offending. We are expressing our sorrow by our fasting and our wholehearted seeking of God.
Now, John has very much to say about the subject of sin and repentance. Going to 1 John and chapter 1, starting about verse 5; “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. And if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We must admit and confess our sins and be sorrowful enough, and ashamed enough to stop doing it.
Verse 10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Because he has said, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And if we say; ‘no. I have not sinned.’ We are calling God a liar and we are self-righteous.”
Chapter 2, “My little children, these things write unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is our advocate. He is our intercessor. He is our high priest. He is the propitiation for our sins,” verse 2, “and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that says, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abides in Christ ought himself also so to walk, even as Christ walked.”
We are to do the things He did and what did He do? He kept the Father's commandments. And when we go astray, when we break one of those commandments, when we sin, we need to be sorrowful. We need to have that sorrow which brings about a change in our behavior and a deep- seated, heartfelt repentance, turning toward God fully, thoroughly with a whole heart.
Chapter 3, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and yet it doth not yet appear what we shall be like: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.”
So, we fast to make ourselves pure, pure from the wickedness of commandment breaking from sin. For verse 4, “Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
Turn with me to Jonah 3, “And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So, Jonah arose, and went unto, Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey, or it took about three days to go across the city. And Jonah began to enter into the city about a day's journeys distance, and he cried, and said: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown and destroyed.
“So, the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from off him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed or eat, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
That is what we fast for. We fast to turn our hearts toward God so that his heart will be turned toward us. We fast to reconcile our selves to God by putting away sin. Fasting physically is not eating food and it has a spiritual connotation of putting away sin. We fast to remove the sin which separates us from God.
We find that in Isaiah 59, “Behold, the Eternal's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Our sins come between us and God. They are the only thing in the universe that can come between us and God. There is only one thing that can separate us from God and that is our sin, which is our rebelliousness and our refusal to keep his commandments, our refusal to obey him.
And we must repent of that in order to reconcile to God. We must turn from commandment breaking. We must turn from law breaking. We must turn from offending our righteous Father in heaven and seek him with all our hearts and seek to have that sin removed. We cannot just say, "Okay, I'm sorry," and continue doing it.
We fast and sorrow enough so that we are willing to STOP sinning; and we indicate our willingness to stop doing the offensive thing. And when we stop doing the offensive thing, then we can be forgiven through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. As it is written, Jesus Christ our Passover Lamb was sacrificed for us. And again in Revelation, it's written that the Lamb was sacrificed from the foundations of the world. That is; the plan was set in motion from the very foundation of the world, God knew that a sacrifice would be necessary and the sacrificial system was set in law, set in play so that the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ could be sacrificed for the sins of the world.
And when we turn away from sin, when we stop sinning and we start turning to God and we start keeping his commandments, then we may be forgiven and the sacrifice applied. And when that happens, atonement has been made and we are reconciled to God.
If you were to go through, say a stop sign and appear before the judge and the fine is paid. Then you go through another and another and get caught again and you stand before the judge and he says, "Well, explain yourself," and you say, "Well, I paid the fine. That gives me the right to break that law whenever I want to." He is going to laugh so hard, as he orders you to pay a huge penalty for what you've done. He's going to say, "You fool, because the previous crime was paid for, does not entitle you to commit more crimes."
And the same thing is true in the Kingdom of God. To have one crime forgiven, one penalty paid for; does not justify you committing other crimes. For the next crime, another penalty will be required. And if you don't sorrow enough, if you are not ashamed enough and sorrowful enough to turn away from breaking the law and to stop doing that law breaking, then there is no forgiveness. Because the penalty is continually being re-earned.
You must stop earning that penalty in order to come into a right relationship with God, in order to have your sin atoned for, in order to have the sacrifice of Jesus Christ applied to you. Fasting is about turning away from sin, turning away from commandment breaking and reconciling yourself to God.
All have sinned. All have come short of the glory of God. All of us need to repent. All of us need to seek God with all of our hearts. All of us need to turn away from our commandment breaking and whenever we find that we have broken a commandment, we need to repent. And when we learn and progress through life, we will be constantly learning more and more and constantly growing more and more. And we should be searching and studying the Word of God and continually growing.
I once heard a minister say, "If in doubt, don't." That's good advice as far as it goes. There is a little better advice however. I would personally say, "When in doubt, find out." Don't stay ignorant. Study, search, find the answer. Get to the truth and learn and grow and overcome continually. "When in doubt, don't." But while you are in the process of don’t-ing; find out. Get the facts.
Now, the Day of Atonement is about repentance and about our personal relationship with God. There is however another application to this lesson and to what the Day of Atonement stands for. The Day of Atonement or the fast of atonement is a fall holy day and it comes right after the fall holy day (the Feast of trumpets) representing the resurrection of the main harvest.
So, we turn to Leviticus 16:1, “And the Eternal spoke unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Eternal, and died; And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.”
The mercy seat is typical or a representation of the throne of God in heaven. And we are not to come and cannot come into the presence of God in heaven, without an atonement being made for our sins. And when that atonement is made, we can enter into the presence of our Eternal Father. And that atonement is made through our repentance and the application of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ which then cleanses us from sin, forgives us of our sin, pays the penalty for our sin, atones us and reconciles us to the Father and allows us to come into His presence. And that is what is being acted out here.
Verse 3, “Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.” So, Aaron's sins have to be covered by a sin offering. And a burnt offering must also be made, showing his willingness to wholeheartedly serve God. And the burnt offering, itself being a picture of Jesus Christ, wholeheartedly serving God.
Verse 4, “Aaron shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water before he puts them on. And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.”
Verse 6, “And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself, and for his house, his household, his family. And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, presenting them before the Lord. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.”
It is Jesus Christ who pays the penalty for our sins. Jesus Christ is our sin offering. And since this goat is a sin offering, verse 9, last part, “offer him for a sin offering.” So, this is a sin offering, therefore it represents Jesus Christ, being offered for our sins as a sin offering.
Verse 10, “But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and so let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself: And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.
“Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goes in to make atonement until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel.”
So, we see Aaron bringing the sin offering in before the throne, the mercy seat. This pictures Jesus Christ bringing his sin offering, his own sacrifice into the presence of God, for us, to make atonement for us. We fast to turn away from sin and then the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is brought before the Father to make atonement for us.
Now, this is a fall holy day and this is picturing this atonement being made for all humanity, all of the main harvest of humanity.
The first fruits are called and they are repentant and Jesus Christ makes atonement for them; which is what Passover is about; and later he makes atonement for all humanity. As a goat is different from a sheep, the Lamb of God pictures the sacrifice for the first fruits. The Passover Lamb pictures atonement for the first fruits and the goat pictures atonement for the rest of humanity. The sacrifice of the Lamb pictures atonement for Israel that is the first fruits of spiritual Israel. And the sacrifice of the goat pictures atonement for the rest of mankind.
I've heard some people say, "Oh such and such a year is the jubilee. Maybe Christ is going to come on the jubilee and the millennium will start and so on." In actual fact, the Feast of Pentecost is the jubilee of days. It is the 50th day. Whereas the Day of Atonement is the jubilee of years. It is the 50th year.
As we can turn now to Leviticus 25:8, “And thou shall number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty nine years. Then shall thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound in the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of Atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall the fiftieth year be unto you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in that year, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee you shall return every man to his possession.”
So, we see that a jubilee of years is to be proclaimed on the Day of Atonement and this is to result in every man returning to his own possession and all things to be restored. This pictures the Kingdom of God being restored amongst all humanity or being started amongst all humanity with all humanity being reconciled to God because of their repentance and because of the atonement of Jesus Christ and therefore entering into the kingdom of God.
The Feast of Pentecost is a jubilee of days or of the spring harvest and pictures the same thing. It pictures the restoration of all things for the first fruits, the early harvest, the spring harvest. And it pictures the establishment of the millennial Kingdom of God on the earth. This is the Feast of Pentecost or first fruits and the jubilee of days The jubilee of years on the Day of Atonement pictures the restoration of all things for the main harvest.
It pictures humanity being allowed to come into a relationship with God because of the resurrection on the Feast of Trumpets and their repentance on the fast of Atonement and they're being reconciled to God through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness being provided by God; because of their repentance and because of that atoning sacrifice.
They are then ready to enter the Kingdom of God. They are then ready to enter into life as it was meant to be, as God intended it to be. And the scapegoat representing sin itself and the source of sin, which is Satan the devil is to be taken away and removed way off, away from the people so as to not be able to influence the people or be among the people anymore.
The Day of Atonement pictures the repentance of the main harvest of humanity. It pictures them diligently seeking God with all their hearts. It pictures the atonement, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ being applied to them as a result of their repentance. It pictures the acceptance of their repentance and it pictures forgiveness for these people. Thus allowing them access to God, access to the Holy of Holies, access to the Father, access to the Holy Spirit of God which will be given to them.
That is what the Day of Atonement is all about. It is very much a counterpart of Passover and the Feast of Pentecost. The Feast of Pentecost is for a smaller number at an earlier time. The Day of Atonement is for the vast majority of mankind at a later time. It is the jubilee of years. Nevertheless, we amongst the first fruit need to fast and need to repent just as much as the main harvest because we are not without sin. And in fact, we have, perhaps one of the greatest sins among us, which is the sin of pride and self-satisfaction and self-righteousness and the attitude that nobody can tell me anything, I know it all.
And that is the attitude of the leadership in the ministry and most of the members in almost every Church of God group today. It is an attitude that needs to be repented of, that needs to be thrown out and it needs to be done away with. And we need to turn to God with a whole heart and humble ourselves before Him and realize that He is the source of all truth, not anybody else.
We need to start putting Him first and putting his word first at all times, in all things. And if we turn away from our sins and our errors, including the sin of idolatry which is allowing people or things to come between us and God and if we seek with all our hearts, fasting and repenting and seeking to be reconciled to God and seeking to establish a close, personal relationship with our Father, He will forgive us and He will accept us because Jesus Christ has atoned for our sin and we need only repent honestly, sincerely; and seek Him wholeheartedly and He will be there to accept us. Just like on the Day of Atonement on some future time during the main harvest, He will accept the rest of mankind into the family of God. Copyright 2009
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