Day of Atonement

There's so much to talk about since my last blog: The Gulf Coast Writers Conference, my housesitting trip to Birmingham which was rained out, helping my mom prepare for her trip to Mississippi. But since today is the Day of Atonement I would like to share some thoughts:

What does the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) have to do with Believers in Messiah Yeshua/Jesus Christ? It is one of the Feasts of the Lord mentioned in Leviticus 23. In Hebrew, Feasts is moedim, or “appointed times.” The seventh month is called Tishrei (Tish-RAY). Yom Kippur literally means Day of Covering. It is a day of atoning for sins, to cover them, to put them in the past, and to remember what our Savior did for us.

Three things that are commanded on Yom Kippur:
1. “Afflict your souls”
2. “Do no manner of work”
3. “Offer an offering of fire”

1. What does it mean to “afflict your souls?”:
According to Jewish tradition the phrase “afflict your souls” means to fast. How do we get “fast” from “afflict your souls”? From the Bible, of course! See Isaiah 58: 3-7.
2. “Do no manner of work”: This day is a day of rest, to focus on God and his redeeming work, to purge the sin from our lives and begin the next year focused on Him.
3. “Offer an offering of fire”: This part was designed for the tabernacle and temple worship when the people would bring a fire offering. Since there’s no temple, and we have a better sacrifice, we cannot bring an offering of fire.

A better sacrifice?

"Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year [only on Yom Kippur] with blood of another— He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."--Hebrews 9: 23-26

Jesus is our High Priest AND our sin offering.

"And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool." -- Hebrews 10: 11-13

Happy Yom Kippur!!