“This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny [anah] yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or a foreigner residing among you—because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins” (
Leviticus 16:29–30, also 23:27).
God set aside one day of the year to keep us ever-mindful of the great cost of our sin, the significance of His coming Day of Judgment and our part in His great plan of salvation.
The 10th day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei is Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), the holiest day of all appointed days of the Lord, and the one day of the year when Israel was allowed to make atonement (receive forgiveness) for their collective sins as a nation, as well as for their individual sins.
While it may seem like God gave this holy day only to Jewish People, Believers in Yeshua (Jesus) as final atoning sacrifice observe it for significant spiritual reasons. Let us count the ways:
Yom Kippur reminds us of the personal cost of our sin.
Receiving forgiveness from sin comes with great personal costs, and God’s sacrificial system is a dramatic illustration of that cost.
Throughout the year, the men of Israel bought their own pure and unblemished animals—lambs, birds, goats, and bulls—and brought them to the Temple court. There, they laid their hands on the animal and confessed their sins, thereby transferring their transgressions onto the blameless animal before personally killing it. Imagine killing an animal that you paid for every time you take tell a fib or even break a law that you weren’t aware of.
Yet, it is blood that gives life. And since the wages of sin is death, something living has to die. So, in God’s system of reconciliation, blood makes atonement for sin
(Leviticus 17:11).
Blood poured all day every day in the Temple of Jerusalem. Yet that blood only atoned for unintentional, accidental sins and only for a time, not for eternity.
On Yom Kippur, however, even intentional, willful sins were atoned for, but still only for a time, not for eternity. On this day, the High Priest killed a blameless goat as the sacrifice. But also on this day, he laid his hands on another unblemished goat and transferred the sins of the nation to it.
Bearing the weight of the sins of the people, this “scapegoat” was set free in the wilderness, taking the sins of the nation with it (
Leviticus 16:21–22).
Yom Kippur reminds us of the indescribable cost of Yeshua’s sacrifice as payment for our sins.
Today, there is no Temple to perform these atoning sacrifices, and so no scapegoat is sent forth to free the people of Israel of their sins either. But there is God’s Suffering Servant, Messiah—the blameless, spotless, unblemished “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” as Yochanan (John the Baptist) said.
As our Lamb of God, Yeshua “poured out Himself to death” and became “an offering for sin,” bearing the iniquities of the people, and “by His stripes (wounds)” we are healed from the eternal suffering that our sin requires (Isaiah 53).
The people of Israel understood that this Suffering Servant described in Isaiah 53 is Messiah.
“He, Messiah, shall intercede for man’s sins, and the rebellious, for his sake, shall be forgiven” (quoted in the Jerusalem Targum on
Isaiah 53:12, an Aramaic translation of the Scriptures read in synagogues to the people).
And in the Midrash (a collection of Jewish commentaries) also states that this Suffering Servant is the long-awaited Messiah:
“And when Israel is sinful, the Messiah seeks for mercy upon them as it is written, ‘By his stripes we were healed,’ and ‘he carried the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.’” (Genesis Rabbah on
Isaiah 53:5,
12).
The apostles understood that this Suffering Servant is Yeshua. Rabbi Shaul (Paul) said,
“God presented Yeshua as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Yeshua sacrificed his life, shedding his blood” (
Romans 3:25).