God wants His people that they are to elevate their worship and behavior well above the worship and moral behavior above the worship and behavior of the people among the nations. That’s the message of the dual Torah reading dual readings of אחרי מות Acharei Mot (“after the deaths,” Leviticus 16–18) and קדושים Kedoshim (“holies/holy,” Leviticus 19–20).
Part of that elevation of worship is that God tells them to present the qorbanot (offerings) only from the Mishkhan (Tabernacle) going forward (Leviticus 17).
They are also taught to remember that life comes from the Life-Giver and that the life “is in the blood,” but life doesn’t come from the blood of lifeforms (Leviticus 17).
“(T)his is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”
Matthew 26:28 NASB
God also expects the people to respect the LORD’s boundaries and those of others. Part of this less is that there is a very specific way in which mankind can come into His presence.
Only one representative can approach Him and that is only once a year (Leviticus 16).
We will also see that Yeshua’s command of Love your neighbor as you do yourself is not exclusive to the New Testament. It is also taught in Leviticus 19.
Part of loving others and ourselves is that we are to keep the boundaries of your relationships outside of others’ boundaries (Leviticus 18).
Disrespectful behavior is deadly to society and the most egregious affronts may need deadly consequences (Leviticus 20).
There are behaviors that we think are not a big deal but if wen can look over the horizon into the age to come, they end up being a big deal.
We are still in the section of laws and instructions on how to live holy lives. We are to be the “other” and set apart from the world, not strange or odd. We aren’t to be strange or odd just for the sake of being strange or odd but as living examples that people are to be holy as God is holy.
This section was revealed after the death of Aaron’s sons. After death, then comes judgement. Here, after the death of Aaron’s sons, we read about the Day of Atonement, which is a judgement day.
Key lessons of Yom haKippurim
The Creator of the heavens and Earth wants to dwell with us — to be “at one” with us again after the gulf of separation started widening with rebellion in Eden.
The LORD started bridging the gulf with Abraham and others who would trust God enough to learn and live His ways, rather than the ways of the world without God.
The children of Israel would have to trust that the work of the High Priest, that they were not allowed to see, would remove their sins from the community.
Israel’s Sanctuary and the work of the high priest on the Day of Atonement show how Heaven bridges the chasm.
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.
This day is an anniversary of Yeshua’s covering work. Most Christians consider Passover the anniversary of Yeshua’s covering work, but John the Baptist, the greatest of all the prophets, according to Yeshua Himself, said something peculiar that ties the Day of Atonement and Passover together.
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'”
John 1:29 MKJV
The section of the lamb for Passover occurred on the 10th day of the first month just as the Day of Atonement occurred on the 10th day of the seventh month. They parallel each other.
The lamb that blocks the lamb of God and the goat cleansed and removed the sins of the people. At that point, the people are ready for God to live with them.
The original meaning of Yom Kippur is an annual ceremony for covering and removing sins, transgressions and iniquities from the congregation of Israel.
On Yom Kippur, the High priest enters the LORD’s presence on His terms.
Aharon’s sons offered “foreign fire” on the altar (Lev. 10:1–2; cp. Num 3:4; 26:61).
God told Aharon not come at just any time into the Most Holy Place — inside the veil between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, where the Ark of the Testimony is (Lev. 16:1).
The curious part is that on Yom Kippur, the High Priest enters HaShem’s presence only once a year and he enters by himself. During the other feasts, the High Priest is accompanied by other priests in conducting the sacrifices and ceremonies of the feasts, but not on Yom Kippur.
Also on Yom Kippur, he wears a special garment that he puts on when he enters towards God’s presence and when he is done, removes it when he leaves God’s presence. There’s a sense of finality in removing that special garment after the High Priest leaves God’s presence at the end of the Yom Kippur ceremony.
It’s a really good illustration for us. When we’re cleansed, we leave what it is we’re cleansed of behind. Just as Israel were to leave Egypt and the practices of Egypt behind, we are to leave behind our old lives when Yeshua has cleansed us of that life.
What’s being covered by the sin offering on Yom Kippur?
- חַטָּאת chatta’t (H2403b): sin (“missing the mark” or unintentional mistakes).
- פֶּשַׁע pesha’ (H6588): transgression (willful disobedience).
- עָווֹן ’awon (H5771): iniquity (rebellion against God).
What the congregation is doing during this ceremony?
- It is a שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן shabbat shabbaton (H7676 + H7677): complete rest, special rest.
- “humble your souls”(Lev. 16:29; 23:27; Num. 29:7)
- humble = עָנָה anah (H6031a): to be crouched, hunched up, wretched, suffering
- A root verb with the same spelling (ענה) also means to reply, answer.
So it’s a really nice picture that you have of someone who’s hunched over because of their distress. And they’re looking looking for a reply. They’re making a request, they see the relief from their suffering coming from somewhere outside themselves, because in modern societies, we become so disconnected from each other.
Here we are today, really disconnected from each other, having to meet with each other via Zoom, with no physical contact. But when we’ve become so disconnected from each other that we become hunched over with the things that we carry. And we don’t seek any help. Many of us don’t know our neighbors and we don’t even know our co-workers very well so we don’t have a large community to seek comfort and help from when danger comes.
It’s like people around a fire. If you’re just sitting there shivering by yourself, how do you keep warm? If you have other people to keep warm with, especially when things get really bad, and you near hypothermia, then you need someone else to help you.Otherwise you just continue to get colder and what’s in your core temperature just going down and down and down and down.
Someone might say that you can jump into a sleeping bag but a sleeping bag or a blanket only traps what’s already there, it does not provide warmth in and of itself.
So you may be able to keep the heat that you’re producing from further loss, but if your core temperature has gone way down, you need a source of warmth to raise your temperature and you need someone else to supply that. And that is a part of what seeking help and seeking answers is for within the community of believers.
It’s become common that we can just go to YouTube and get a new teaching and you can fill out your holiness cup that way, but that is not how God intended us to seek Him. We are expected to learn how to walk in His ways within a community to which we are accountable.
What does it mean to ‘humble yourselves’?
- “Afflicting the soul” has long been understood to mean fasting (cf. Ezra 8:21; Isa. 58:3, 5; Dan. 10:12).
- While Jews in the first century A.D. already had customary annual and weekly fast days, there was one particular day known as “the Fast” — Yom haKippurim.
- Apostle Paul referred to “the Fast” as being just before the winter storm season (Acts 27:9). Yom Kippur comes in September/October.
The fast of Yom haKippurim is more than just denying one’s “natural” urges, it’s about the natural urges God wants to purge out of His people (Isa. 58:5–7).
The Fast is not a test of endurance to check off your to-do list. It’s a spiritual check up a reminder where we have been, where we don’t want to go again and where we should be going.
Yeshua is the ‘Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world’
- Prophet Yochanan described Yeshua in blended language of Pesach and Yom haKippurim (John 1:28–29).
- “Lamb of God” = Pesakh (Passover) lamb.
- The blood of the Pesakh blocked the wrath of God upon Mitsraim (Egypt) from harming those inside a home with the blood at the door.
- “Takes away the sins of the world” = Goat for Azazel, the scapegoat.
- The goat was banished from the congregation with all the sins, transgressions and iniquities of the assembly.
- Yeshua was crucified outside of the walls of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem).
- “Lamb of God” = Pesakh (Passover) lamb.
So that’s you’ve got the goat whose blood that covers, and that picture there related to the tabernacle, then the goat for Azazel is the Adversary and then as it comes down into the description of the Mashiach, some folk have said that the goat for the Lord is the Masiach and the goat for Azazel is the adversary and that is come down into the traditions from the Talmud about the turning of the cloth from crimson to white, because that was now taken off and, and put away.
But one of the key things that we run into though is the work of the cleansing, purging, is that the work of the adversary, the one who’s described as the enemy of the people? or is that the work of heaven, is that the work of the Lord?
So that’s where we see a bit of a challenge from we see from the prospect that the goat for Azazel is the adversary, because thus the adversary is essential to the purging of the sins, transgressions, and inequities from the world.
And that is almost almost an exact parallel to what you have in Eastern religions where you must have the good and you must have the bad, because if you don’t have the good and the bad, together, they will not bring harmony and unity.
So thus you’re talking about mixing things together that starts headed in that direction with that sort of philosophy. So, just a bit of a note there as we go along. And you see these descriptions, both and the Tanakh and in the Apostolic writings, they see that the Adversary remains an adversary, a challenger of the people, not a helper or purger of the people.
Yeshua is our High Priest (Heb. 4:14–10:18)
A big hint about reading the letter of Hebrews is that the entire book is about the High Priest and what it would mean to be without a Temple and the High Priest.
In Hebrews 1–2, Yeshua is Heaven’s ultimate prophet and “ministering spirit.”
“because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”
Hebrews 2:9 NASB
“… since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
Hebrews 2:14–15 NASB
We should be thankful and grateful that the Mashiach is the one who tasted death for us. Just as the testimony of the true prophets and spirit messengers was trustworthy, so too, the testimony of Yeshua, the Son of God.
Is the Advesary the one who cleanses us from sin and purges it? Absolutely not. He does the opposite. He leads people back into slavery rather than towards freedom.
Hebrews 3:1–4:13 describes Yeshua as Heaven’s ultimate deliverer to ultimate “rest”
“consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession”
Hebrews 3:1 NASB
Some read about the “Sabbath-rest” in Hebrews 4 and conclude that the teaching is that the remembrance of the seventh-day rest, the Sabbath, has been transferred to the Messiah, Yeshua.
Yet the context of the passage and the quotations in it relating to a pivotal event in the Torah point to the fuller meaning of personal peace and real “rest” that God provides.
Massah and Meribah: Reflected upon in Psalm 95:7-11
- History: Ex. 17:1-7.
- Meribah means “place of strife.”
- Massah means “place of testing.”
- The key part of the account is the question on the minds of the contentious, “Is God with us or not?” (Ex. 17:7).
- What happens without a physical temple, a high priest, daily sacrifices, etc.? That question, “Is the Lord with us or not?” pops up over and over again. The question is, how will we respond?
One of the key questions and that comes up with the traditions that have developed over Yom Kippurim is what do you do when there is no temple and no sacrifice?
That was mentioned earlier the tradition about the cloth that was mounted on the Temple door when the goat for Azazel was sent away. When the people saw that sometimes it didn’t change from red to white, especially in the 40 years after the death and resurrection of the Messiah until at 70 when the Temple was finally destroyedIt got to the point that the people were catching onto the fact that God’s glory was departing.
So, they had to face the fact that there would be a time when there was no Temple, no Tabernacle, no High Priest. Does that mean that the people of God are left without any sort of cleansing, healing and purging. That did take some soul searching.
So when you see into some of the tractates of the Mishna where they discuss how to deal with walking in Torah without a Temple and without a High Priest.
Thus, you see the traditions that have come up about the Day of Atonement services where you have the Confessions on it, and then you trust that the sins, transgressions, and iniquities are actually discharged.
It’s no longer looking to see if a cloth has turn one color or another to say, oh, did they get discharged or not? They actually are discharged. That’s something that we see later on, especially in Hebrews 9 and 10.
It says that have this confidence to go through the veil because of the blood of Yeshua. We don’t have to guess anymore as to whether these sins, transgressions, and iniquities have actually been purged and removed from the community. We can go with confidence but not with arrogance.
The practice of afflicting ourselves through fasting is to remind us of where we came from and where we are going. We are reminded that our sins, transgressions and iniquities are a part of us are not to be a part of us in the world to come.
Summary: Tammy