Leviticus 16, describing Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement), is a beautiful picture of God’s making us clean and the multifaceted role of the Messiah in that cleansing.
Category: Atonement
Day of Atonement, or Yom haKippurim in Hebrew for “Day of Coverings”
Leviticus 10-16, which includes the teaching on Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement), teach God’s view of “holiness” and “cleanliness” before Him and how God makes us holy and clean.
Lev. 15:1-15 discusses what to do if a person has a discharge, such a bout of diarrhea, this text tells us what to do to take care of the one with the discharge as well as how the caretaker(s) take care of themselves that they do not catch the uncleanness.
Apostle Peter wrote that we are “living stones” in the house of God (1Peter 2:5). As we study Leviticus 14, think of yourself as you read about how a “leprous” house is cleaned.
Much of the imagery in this chapter matches the Day of Atonement. The theme of clean and unclean is repeated from Leviticus 13. Only the priest can decide what is clean or unclean, not a king, a governor or a individual person.
Yom haKippurim (literally, Day of Coverings) is a day that wears many people out, because we’re focused on, When are we going to eat? Yet, we are to supposed to focus upon what the Son of God — the ultimate High Priest and fulfillment of the two goats of the day — did for us. He went through a tremendous affliction for us. The Day of Atonement is not about us and what we do but about the High Priest and what He does. It’s all about how God brings us to Himself. We are only drawn to God if He draws us to Himself.
Many grow pale when reading Heb. 10:26 because they think their struggles with sin leave them in a place where not even Yeshua (Jesus) can atone for them. A closer look at the context of this passage and the letter to the Hebrews itself will help us get a better picture of the annual memorial of Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement), Yeshua’s continuing role in it and the danger of acting as if His role as High Priest isn’t God’s intent.
God looks at us through His Son. That is how we will be reconciled and have atonement — at-one-ment, reconciled, brought back together — with God. The High Priest does all the heavy lifting on Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonement). We can not take away our own sins. We need Someone more powerful, more capable than ourselves to remove our sin. Yeshua is the true High Priest — and the truth behind the two goats of the Day of Atonement.
This is a 50,000-foot-high view of the fall “feasts to the LORD” (Lev. 23:2) — Yom Teruah (Trumpets, aka Rosh Hashanah), Yom haKippurim (Atonement) and Sukkot (Tabernacles). We’ll look at what they are and what meanings are stacked on top of each other as memorials of the actions of the Messiah past, present and future.