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In the Torah reading מות Acharei Mot (“after the deaths,” Leviticus 16–18), God explicitly says that the worship and behavior of the people of Israel is to be elevated from that of the nations. One way to elevate worship was to centralize all offerings in the Tabernacle to be sacrificed by the priests. People were to no longer presume to offer animals to God themselves.
One thing you see in pagan religions is the proliferation of not only temples in every town and city but also home shrines, where people would pray to and even sacrifice to their gods on their own.
The pagan gods were so immoral that many pagan cultures eventually gave up on their gods because their gods behaved even worse than most people act. There was nothing to esteem in honoring the pagan false gods.
Bury the blood: Respect life
God also tells the people of Israel in Leviticus 17 to remember that He is their life source. Before the Fall, our first parents ate a vegan diet (Gen. 1:29). Only after the Flood, were the people permitted to consume animal products (Gen. 9:2–7).
The rules about dealing with the blood of slaughtered animals, covering their blood with dirt, is similar to what you are supposed to do when a person’s life ends. The blood of a murdered human is also to be buried.
We came from Eden, and we will return to Eden. But we are not in Eden now. Many have tried to recreate Eden, and that effort is derisively called “utopia,” which means “not a place.” It’s the unobtainable land, because Eden is not obtainable this side of the Messianic Era.
Now, people have tried to make Eden on Earth and have failed, because of the sin nature — spiritual inertia — which leans toward sloth, malice and wickedness. All these things that will fight against it.
That’s because if you want to create utopia but your neighbor doesn’t want to create utopia, what happens? The one who has the power to strive for utopia typically have to use increasing levels of force — nudge, push, shove, shoot — to enact their vision on the rest of the people.
There is also an overall theme of respecting boundaries, in this reading, not only between God and His people, but also between other people. We have the tragic story of Nadab and Abihu, who did not respect God’s boundaries and paid a heavy price for it. Disrespectful behavior is deadly to society, and the most egregious affronts may need deadly consequences.
Respecting the boundaries of our neighbors is a practical way to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Progressivism of today is regressivism from yesteryear (Leviticus 18)
It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes.
Theodor Reik, “The Unreachables,” essay, 19651This quote is often attributed to Mark Twain, but it has been found to come from psychoanalyst Theodor Reik (“History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes,” QuoteInvestigator.com, updated March 22, 2022).
By studying history, we notice the rhyme.
Leviticus 18 has a long list of behaviors that were forbidden for the people of Israel, but we live in a time and place where these kinds of relationships are encouraged and you are called a bigot, or archaic if you believe these relationships are wrong. Public school teachers are telling our children (behind our backs) that all sorts of behaviors that God considers sins are perfectly appropriate and that only bigots and prudes believe otherwise.
Memorial of the Lamb of God (Leviticus 16)
Leviticus 16 gives us the details of how the priests in particular were to celebrate Yom Kippur. Followers of the Messiah Yeshua have struggled to understand why it is an important practice after Yeshua’s death and resurrection. Many people believe the holiday is obsolete because of the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. It even took the Jewish sages a couple hundred years to sort out how to celebrate God’s festivals without a temple.
Maimonides stressed, as did the prophets, that the offerings were meaningless if one was not intentional about it. He stressed that if you don’t treat the animal’s death with respect, then that death is meaningless.
If anything, believers in Yeshua’s blood of the new covenant covering sins, transgressions and iniquities have even more reason to observe this memorial of the work of the One who was and is and is to come.
The point of Yom Kippur is the Creator of Heaven and Earth wants to dwell with us to be at one with us after the gulf of separation that started widening with the rebellion in Eden. Our sins need to be covered before we can be transformed.
God started to bridge the gulf with Abraham and others who would trust Him enough to learn His ways rather than being satisfied with the ways of the world without God.
When God established His sanctuary in Israel, the High Priest’s work on the Day of Atonement was an active representation of how Heaven bridges the chasm between Himself and His people.
You can be humbly confident in Heaven’s covering of your sins, transgressions and iniquities and in removing them from Heaven’s memory because of the work of the greatest offering and high priest, Yeshua the Anointed One. Because of this, you become a “new creation” in God’s eyes. Yom Kippur is an anniversary of Yeshua’s covering work.
4 reasons why Christians should care about Yom Kippur
There are four reasons why we should care about and celebrate Yom Kippur.
1. Yeshua said the words of God wouldn’t be abolished
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:17–19 NASB
None of us should aspire to be “least” in the Kingdom of Heaven. None should strive for a barely passing D-minus “grade” in living out our faith.
These verses are in introduction to what’s commonly called the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), one of Yeshua’s most important discourses. This sets the stage for the six “you have heard it said … but I tell you” teachings that follow.
Some Christians latch onto the word “fulfill” and presume it means “bring to an end,” that Yeshua’s death and resurrection did away with the need to follow the writings of the Law and the Prophet.
But the same Greek word πληρόω plēroō (G4137), translated “fulfill” in Matt. 5:17, is what Yeshua said was the reason for His baptism, “to plēroō all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). He was set an example of living a plēroō — filled full, maximized — life walking in God’s instructions.
There’s also a second witness of Yeshua’s warning that there would not be any abolishing of even seemingly small parts of the Law.
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.”
Luke 16:16–17 NASB
This is very similar to what we just read in Matthew 5. John the Baptist and the message he brought, is a part of the Old Testament tradition. He said nothing that contradicted the Law and the Prophets. He was the herald of the Messiah. The Messiah and His herald, John the Baptist, both followed, taught and upheld the Law.
Messiah’s words take precedence over the words of the Apostles, even one as esteemed as Paul. After all, we follow Messiah, not Paul, as the apostle himself emphasized.
Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
1Corinthians 1:12–13 NASB
For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.
1Corinthians 3:4–6 NASB
2. Yeshua rebuffed the Adversary with the trustworthiness of God’s words
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:3–4 NASB
He was quoting from Deut. 8:3.
“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”
Deuteronomy 8:3 NASB
Yeshua was telling HaSatan that God’s word is completely dependable for all time. He didn’t put an asterisks on this quote, that some words of God would not be dependable.
Would Yeshua say the same thing to HaSatan today and in our future? Yes.
So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Revelation 12:17 NASB
If Yeshua contradicts the commandments of God, then how do we live? A Messiah who teaches lawlessness is not the Messiah.
“Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.”
Revelation 14:12 NASB
In the Day of the LORD, having a solid faith in Yeshua and obeying God’s commandments will both be important.
3. Yom Kippur is a memorial to the saving work of the Messiah
The moedim,2Moedim: Appointed times, i.e., the festivals like the Tabernacle, always have been shadows (zikkaron, “memorials”) of the realities in Heaven (Ex 25:9, 40; 26:30; Num 8:4; Acts 7:44; Heb 8:5; 10:1-4). They are reminders of the work of the God Who was, the God Who is and the God Who will be — what God has done, is doing and will do.
We have a great High Priest, one who is not detached from us but who intimately knows who we are (Heb. 4:14–5:4). This High Priest is the One Who suffered so much insult for us, Who took on our sins, transgression and iniquities, and our rejection (Isa. 52:13–53:12). He not only forgave our sins but promises to be our Advocate when we screw up (1John 1:9; 2:1–2).
4. Yom Kippur is a memorial of the new covenant
The “new covenant” prophecy (Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 36:25–26) promises a new heart and removal of iniquity. Regular sin offerings would cover sins (failing to achieve God’s instructions) and transgressions (willful disobedience), but iniquities (rebellion) were only covered on Yom Kippur.
The pattern of Yom Kippur teaches us that Messiah’s taking on the wrath of Heaven against rebellion does what we could never do. Those who stand and endure to the end are those who have been transformed and stick close to the Messiah (Heb. 10:19–22).
We are currently counting the 50 days to Shavuot.3Also called Pentecost, which is Greek for “fiftieth.” As we approach this great feast that celebrates the giving of the Testimony of God (the 10 Commandments and the Torah) to God’s people at Mt. Sinai, we’re reliving what was supposed to be the beginning of a beautiful relationship between God and His people.
But what happened while Moses was receiving all this wisdom from God? The Golden Calf and all the stuff related to it. This caused a breach in the relationship between God and His people.
We’ll see how this breach became wider and wider and wider to the point where just a few weeks later, when the 12 spies are going to enter the Promised Land that the vast majority of the leadership of the people lost their trust in the One who took them out of the house of bondage.
Yeshua said in the Gospel of John that although they ate the miracle manna bread in the desert, but they still died, because they did not combine gratitude for their “daily bread” with trust in the One who provided the daily bread (; Heb. 4:1–2).
The new covenant, with its promise of a new heart and removal of iniquity is part of the memorial of removal of iniquity — the Day of Atonement. Thus, Yom Kippur, like Passover, is a memorial of the new covenant.
Our iniquity is removed. Now what?
We have entered a time when it is more important than ever for the people of God to bind together tighter and tighter. The people of God have faced attacks from outside and inside since the beginning of the world. There have been wolves stalking the sheep from outside the flock and from inside.
What has sustained Israel is sticking together for support (putting up a defense against the kingdom of the Adversary) and expansion (going on offense against the Adversary’s strongholds).
Some insist: “But you don’t understand! They stole the election, putting into power someone who is diabolical. We can’t let this go on in a country ruled by the Constitution and dedicated to God.”
Well, the Messiah endured a stolen election in which the leaders of Israel chose a terrorist called Barabbas (whose movement later would result in the destruction of the Temple) over the Glory of Israel. And Yeshua later asked the Father to forgive those who were following orders to carry out that treason against Heaven.
If He would do that, so can we.
Some will say: “But you don’t understand! This person is spreading lies about me. We can’t let this go on in the Body of Messiah.”
Well, the Messiah covered over all the slights against Heaven (“What in Heaven’s name are you doing?”) by those who would shuv (repent).
If He would do that, so can we.
One of the lessons we need to take from Yom Kippur is to get over the insults and slights we face on a daily basis. Paul advised that it is better for us to endure being defrauded than to take a believer to court and defame the new-heart-making power of the Kingdom of God (1Cor. 6:1–8).
Some will say that the slights and grievances they’ve endured are so egregious that they will take them to their graves? Is this the instruction of Heaven? No.
Rather, we are to release — forgive — grudges, to get over it. We are to do our part in living at peace with other people. Let Heaven and the delegated “sword” of Heaven deal with those who won’t live at peace.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
Matthew 5:9 NASB
It’s the instruction of the Golden Rule, originally from the Torah:
“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.”
Leviticus 19:18 NASB