The Feast
of Atonement is celebrated on the 10th day of the 7th month - this day is called Yom Kippur ("Day of Covering")
and is the most sacred day of the year in the Jewish calendar, because on this day - atonement was made for the
sins of the whole nation in the past year (Leviticus 16:29-30; Leviticus 23:27-28)
The Law
served as a "witness against Israel" and was thus placed inside the ark (Deuteronomy 31:26), which is why Paul
refers to the Law as the "ministration of condemnation" (II Corinthians 3:9)
The Hebrew word for "ark" ("arown")
is the same word rendered as "coffin" to record Joseph's entombment in Egypt (Genesis 50:26), which is why Paul refers to the Law as the "ministration of death" (II Corinthians 3:7)
God told Moses that He would meet Israel at the "mercy
seat" (Hebrew, "kapporeth"), which was literally the "covering" of the ark (Exodus 25:21-22)
This Divine meeting with Israel took place on Yom Kippur
(the "Day of Covering") when the High Priest sprinkled the blood of the sin offering on the "mercy
seat", i.e. the "ark covering" (Leviticus 16:15)
The very substance (blood) which sustains the "life
of the flesh" in its fallen state is what God requires for the atonement of the soul (Leviticus 17:11),
which is why there is NO blood in the perfected resurrection body (I Corinthians 15:50 cf. Ephesians 5:30)
The Feast of Atonement was a national atonement (Leviticus 16:15-17)
- unlike the Feast of Passover in which the sacrifice was for each house or family (Exodus 12:3-4,21-22)
The annual Day of Atonement was the one day in the whole
year when the High Priest was allowed to be in the "presence of the Lord", i.e. the "Holy of Holies"
(Leviticus 16:1-2) and it was for the purpose of making atonement for himself and the
nation (Leviticus 16:24)
The Atonement ceremony involved the "blood of bulls
and goats (Hebrews 10:4):
First, a bull was sacrificed as a sin offering for the
High Priest and his house (Leviticus 16:6)
Next, two goats were selected by lot for the congregation
- one for the Lord (Hebrew, "La Adonai" and the other as the scapegoat,
which was viewed as a type of Satan (Hebrew, "La Azazel" - Leviticus 16:7-8
Next, the goat which was "the Lord's lot" was
slain as the sin offering (Leviticus 16:9)
Last, the scapegoat was "presented alive before the
Lord" and let go "into the wilderness" (Leviticus 16:10) after having the sins of the people transferred to it by the High
Priest holding the "head of the goat" and confessing over it the sins of the people and then having it
sent away to a "land NOT inhabited" (Leviticus 16:21-22)
The sin offering on the Day of Atonement only "covered
over" the sins of the people for the past year (Leviticus 16:34) and so there was a conscious remembrance of sins each year (Hebrews 10:1-3)
The final Yom Kippur for Israel will be when the Lord
pours out His Spirit of Grace upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem at His return and they will be "in bitterness
for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn" when they will see His "nail pierced hands"
(Zechariah 12:10) and be ashamed as Thomas was for his unbelief (John 20:26-29)
At that time there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem
such as was not witnessed since Israel's great mourning for King Josiah when he was slain at Megiddo (Zechariah 12:11-14 cf.
II Chronicles 35:22-25)
King Josiah was Israel's prophesied great deliverer from
the idolatry introduced by Jeroboam (I Kings 13:1-2 cf. II Chronicles 34:1-7) and was a type of Messiah Who will permanently cleanse Israel and
"cut off the names of the idols out of the land" (Zechariah 13:1-2) such as the names of the two Syrian deities (Hadad and Rimmon) in
the "valley of Megiddo" (Zechariah 12:11 cf. Joel 3:14; Revelation 16:12,16)
Under the Old Covenant the Lord admonished Israel to "circumcise
the foreskins of their hearts" (Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4) for a true Jew is defined as one who has the inward "circumcision
of the heart" and NOT one who merely has the outward "circumcision of the flesh" (Romans 2:28-29)
The Lord promised that one day He would do for Israel
what Israel could NOT do for itself - He will "circumcise the foreskins of their hearts" (Deuteronomy 30:6)
The Lord will fulfill this promise when He makes a New
Covenant with Israel on their final Yom Kippur (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:22-28)
In that day, israel's sins will be truly forgiven, i.e.
"sent away" (Psalms 103:12) by Messiah (John 1:29) and their conscience will be "purged from dead works" thru
the "blood of Christ" (Hebrews 9:14)
Messiah is known as the "New and Living Way"
(Hebrews 10:20) and the "True and Living Way" (John 14:6) for the true redemptive grace came thru Christ, which was typified
by the annual Feast of Atonement in the Law of Moses (John 1:16-17)
SpiritualApplication
Paul calls the Gentile believers "able ministers
of the New Covenant" (II Corinthians 3:6)
Gentile believers today HAVE received His Spirit and His
Life (Romans 8:9-10) and His Righteousness (II Corinthians 5:20-21) and ONLY in this sense are ministers of what the Spirit (according
to the New Covenant) imparts - "life in Christ" and "freedom from the law of sin and death"
(Romans 8:2), which is liberty indeed (II Corinthians 3:17)