Day of Atonement

Context - Yom Kippur

• Yom haKippurim literally translates to “Day of coverings [of ones mouth],” which a day to be reminded and cleansed of sin
• One of God’s feasts (appointments)
• This is the day when the High Priest would pour the blood of a goat over the Kaporet (the Hebrew for the Mercy Seat, same root) to atone (cover) for the many sins and transgressions (plural again) of the nation of Israel
• This is the same day you’ll often hear people talk about “the one day a year the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies”
• The ten days between the last feast (trumpets) and this one (atonement) are to serve as a reminder of our entire lives - a period of grace between God’s coming into this world as a servant and God’s second coming into this world as a righteous king, to judge
• Yom Kippur marks the end of God’s wrath and judgement; the day heaven and earth are considered to be closest together

In the Bible

• Lev 23:26-32

  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
  “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the LORD.
  And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God.
  For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people.
  And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people.
  You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
  It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”

• Num 29:7-11

  “On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation and afflict yourselves. You shall do no work,
  but you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old: see that they are without blemish.
  And their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the one ram,
  a tenth for each of the seven lambs:
  also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings.

What is it to “Afflict yourself”?

• This is not any form of self-harm

• The word is translated “afflict” or “fast” most commonly

• The word (וְעִנִּיתֶם v’innit-eem) translates to “and to afflict” and has a root of עָנָה (ana), meaning “to depress”, “chasten,” “ravish,” or “humble”

  • The ancient Hebrew images were eye-seed-window — so the word could be understood, at its root, to be “see the heir, as if through a window” or “see the Son, behold Him!”

• This is one word that seems to have morphed a bit over time. The word initially was rather ambiguous but shifted over time

• The same word is used in several places with the idea of fasting tightly tied to it:

  • Ezra 8:21 Then I proclaimed a ==fast== there at the river of Ahava, that we might ==humble ourselves== before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.
  • Psalm 35:13 But as for me, when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth; I ==humbled== myself with ==fasting==; And my prayer would return to my own heart.
  • Isaiah 58:3,5 “Why have we ==fasted==,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we ==afflicted our souls==, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers.

• Traditionally this was feast was also called “The Fast” as a result

• We see Luke (the author of Acts) refer to it in this way:

  We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone. Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea. Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even ==the Fast== was already over, Paul advised them, saying, “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said. And because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.

Where is Jesus in All This?

• While we don’t see a ton of direct fulfillment in Jesus’s first coming, he hits on the same concepts

  • James 4:9-10 - Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
  • 1 Peter 5:6-10 - Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you … And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

• Jesus even prepares for and responds to temptation by fasting (Matt 4:1-4)

  Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

• In the future, I believe that we see Jesus’s wrath abated, the dragon and anti-christ already tossed into the lake of fire, we’ll emerge victorious, ready for the marriage supper of the lamb

What Do We Do?

• In preparation for this study, I found this to be both challenging and inspiring. We read one verse from this chapter earlier

• Isa 58

  “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

• What I take from that is this:

  • Fasting is an important part of the feast, it both cleanses your body and mind
  • Humbleness, too, is important
  • However, these things mean nothing to God if we do not walk in His ways
  • What is more important is the fast that Isaiah chooses:
    • To loose the bonds of wickedness and undo yoke that is the oppression of slavery to sin
    • To welcome in those that society rejects and pour yourself out to them
    • Offer them food and a joy, laughter, and fun — they’ve had their fast
  • When we fast in THIS way, God sees you, guides you, and feeds your soul

Important

Question: what do you think?