The second of the Fall Appointed Times (Moedim) commanded by YHWH is starting on October 1st at sundown to October 2nd sundown is the Holiest (Kodesh) Day of the year, Yom ha’kippurim (Yom Kippur) The Day of Atonement. Make sure you do NO WORK on this day.
Does this day apply to Christians? Yes! Just as all YAHWEH’s Holy Days do:
Isaiah 56:6
“Also the sons of the foreigner (gentile/Christian) who JOIN themselves to YHWH, to serve Him, and to love the name of YHWH, to be His servants, ALL WHO GUARD MY SABBATHS, and not profane it, and hold fast to My Covenant.” (Brenton Septuagint 1800’s)
So in order for the gentile to join Himself to YHWH and be grafted in; they must keep the commandments just as the Native-born. YHWH has the weekly 7th Day Sabbath and all of His Holy Days/Feast Days are called Sabbaths too, which means they all apply for native-born and gentile.
YHWH commands us in Leviticus 23:26-32 saying:
"The tenth day of this seventh month is Yom ha'Kippurim (ha-kee-pur-eem) the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to YHWH by fire. DO NO WORK ON THAT DAY, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before YHWH your ELOHIM. Anyone who does NOT deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. I will destroy (karat) (pronounced ka-rot) from among his people anyone who does any work on that day. You shall DO NO WORK AT ALL. This is to be a LAW for the generations to come, wherever you live. It is a SABBATH (Shabbat Shabbaton) complete rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your SABBATH."
Leviticus 16:29-34
“And this shall be for you a Law FOREVER: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you afflict your beings, and do no work, the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (gentiles/Christians). For on that day he makes atonement for you, to cleanse you, to be clean from all your sins before YHWH. It is a SABBATH OF REST (Shabbat Shabbaton) for you, and you shall afflict your beings-a LAW FOREVER. Verse 34 And this shall be for you a LAW FOREVER, to make atonement for the children of Yisra’el, for all their sins, once a year.”
Numbers 29:7-11
“And on the tenth of this seventh month you have a holy gathering, and you shall afflict your beings, YOU DO NOT WORK. And you shall bring near a burnt offering to YHWH, a SWEET FRAGRANCE: one young bull, one ram, seven lambs a year old, perfect ones they are for you, and their grain offering: fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenth parts for the bull, two-tenth parts for the one ram, one-tenth part for each of the seven lambs, one male goat as a sin offering, besides the sin offering for atonement, the continual burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings.”
YESHUA is the Lamb of YHWH who takes away the sins of the world and offered Himself with His blood and not the blood of bulls and goats. It is important to see what YESHUA’s blood did for us that we do not have to do for atonement today. YESHUA fulfills the animal offerings for us with His blood and the IS sweet fragrance that YHWH mentions that comes from the burnt offering:
Ephesians 5:2
“And walk in love, as Mashiach (Messiah) also has loved us, and gave Himself for us, a gift and an offering to YHWH for a SWEET-SMELLING FRAGRANCE.”
As mentioned in the last blog/broadcast there are two Shabbat Shabbaton’s which means a complete rest, complete stopping, no working, cooking, cleaning, buying or selling; which are the weekly 7th Day Sabbath and The Day of Atonement.
Anah (ah-nah) - means to bow down or afflict
Nefesh (neh-fesh)-soul or yourself
Example in Psalms 35:13
"I humbled my being (soul) with fasting" I anah my nefesh with fasting.
The same applies for Isaiah 58:3
"Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our beings (anah our nefesh), and You took no note?"
2 Chronicles 20:3-4
“And Yahoshapat was afraid, and turned his face to seek YHWH, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered to inquire of YHWH, even from all the cities of Judah they came to seek YHWH.”
What is involved in a fast?
On Yom Kippur we are commanded not to work and to completely afflict our souls and deny ourselves, which means at least a 24 hour fast of no food or water. We can deny ourselves through fasting because we need food and water to live and in doing so we are denying our being for the day. Some examples include weeping, mourning, and fasting: I also would recommend fasting and laying in sackcloth as they did in ancient Yisra’el and even putting dust on our heads to completely humble ourselves. What is sackcloth? A very coarse, rough fabric woven from flax, hemp, or jute vegetable fibers.
Joel (Yo’el) 2:12
“Yet even now,” declares YHWH, “turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
2 Chronicles 34:27
“Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before ELOHIM when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your garments and wept before Me, I also have heard,” declares YHWH.”
Esther 4:15-16
“And Esther commanded to reply to Mordekai, “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and DO NOT EAT OR DRINK for three days, night or day. I too, and my young women shall fast in the same way, then I shall go to the king, which is against the law. And if I shall perish, I shall perish!”
As we know their prayers were answered because they did not perish and Esther was able to enter the presence of the king with him sticking out his scepter for her to touch. They humbled and afflicted their souls for 3 days with no food or drink.
Additions to Esther 14:1 (Apocrypha, 1611 King James)
“Queen Esther also, being in fear of death, came to YHWH, and laid aside her splendid apparel, and put on garments of anguish and mourning (Sackcloth). And instead of precious ointments, she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she humbled her body greatly, and all the places of her joy she filled with her torn hair.”
Job 16:15
“I sewed SACKCLOTH over my skin, and laid my horn in the dust.”
Job 42:6
“Therefore I recant and repent in dust and ashes.”
Lamentations 2:10
“The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, are silent. They have thrown dust on their heads, they have girded themselves with SACKCLOTH.”
1 Kings 21:27
“And it came to be, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his garments and put SACKLOTH on his body, and fasted and lay in SACKCLOTH, and went softly.”
1 Chronicles 21:16
“And David lifted his eyes and saw the messenger of YHWH standing between earth and the heavens, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, wrapped in SACKCLOTH, fell on their faces.”
Nehemiah 9:1
“And on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Yisra’el were assembled with FASTING, AND IN SACKCLOTH, and with earth (dust) on them.”
Mathew 11:21
“Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Beyth Tsaida! Because if the miracles which were done in you had been done in Tsor and Tsidon, they would have REPENTED long ago in SACKCLOTH AND ASHES.”
Jonah 3:4-5
“And Jonah began to go in to the city on the first day’s walk. And he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! And the men of Nineveh believed in ELOHIM, and proclaimed A FAST, AND PUT ON SACKCLOTH, from the greatest to the least of them.”
YESHUA is now our High Priest
Most importantly surrounding Yom ha’kippurim is our Messiah YESHUA and how everything points to Him. In ancient times the high priest (kohen ha’gadol) would enter into the Tent of Meeting once a year, behind the veil, into the holy of holies and make atonement for himself, his household, and for the assembly of Yisra’el. He would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat that sat above the Ark of the Covenant (Leviticus 16:14-17). Then the high priest would confess the sins, transgressions, and wickedness of Yisra’el onto the forehead of Azazel (scapegoat) and a fit man would send him into the wilderness with the sins and that goat himself would bear the wickedness of the people. I thought it was interesting to note a connection with the scapegoat bearing the sins himself as YESHUA did for us:
Exodus 12:5
“Let the LAMB be a perfect one, a year old male. Take it from the sheep or from the goats.”
Leviticus 16:22
“And the goat shall bear on ITSELF ALL THEIR WICKEDNESS, to a land cut off. Thus he shall send the goat away into the wilderness.”
Isaiah 53:6
“Truly, He has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains. Yet we reckoned Him stricken, smitten by ELOHIM, and afflicted. But He was pierced for transgressions, He was crushed for our WICKEDNESSES. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We all, like sheep, went astray; each one of us has turned to his own way. And YHWH has laid on HIM THE WICKEDNESS OF US ALL.” The Lamb of YHWH that can be taken from the sheep or the goats.
It is just a constant reminder of how everything was a foreshadow of YESHUA being the perfect sacrificial lamb; just like the blood of the perfect lamb spared the children of Yisra’el in Egypt and YHWH “Passed Over them” is the same way the perfect blood of the Lamb of YESHUA saves us and sin and death “Pass Over us”.
YESHUA The High Priest
While atonement was being made; the high priest did all the work and the community of Yisra’el did not need to do anything.
This was a shadow of what was to come with YESHUA who would be the final atonement for us all because He has already done all the work for atonement! We don’t have a human high priest sacrificing animals anymore, plus there is not a Temple in Jerusalem even if anyone wanted to do sacrifices. YESHUA is our High Priest and unlike the human priests He does not have to make a sacrifice for His own sins because He is sinless and He makes continual intercessions for us because unlike humans He does not die, which makes Him a permanent High Priest forever.
Hebrews 7:26-27
“For it was fitting that we should have such a Kohen ha’Gadol (High Priest)-kind, innocent, undefiled, having been separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who does not need, as those high priests, to offer up slaughter offerings day by day, first for His own sins and then for those of the people, for this HE did ONCE FOR ALL when He offered up Himself.”
Why is YESHUA from Judah and not tribe of Levi?
Many are confused when it comes to the Book of Hebrews and they feel like the entire law changed. All that changed was the Levitical priesthood from the Levites who were humans that died and sinned to YESHUA from the Tribe of Judah who is sinless and does not die. Aaron and his sons were born into the priesthood by bodily descent, but that had to change in order for YESHUA to fulfill that role for us. In no way is the Torah done away with.
Micah 5:2
“But you, Beyth Lehem Ephrathah, you who are little among the clans of JUDAH,, out of you shall come forth to Me the One to become Ruler in Yisra’el. And His comings forth are old, from ETERNITY.
1 Chronicles 28:4
“Yet YHWH Elohim of Yisra’el chose me above all the house of my father to be sovereign over Yisra’el forever, for He has chosen JUDAH TO BE THE RULER.”
People when then point to Hebrews 8:7 and verse 13 to say the law is done away with:
“For if that first had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.” Verse 13 “By saying ‘renewed,’ He has made the first old. Now what becomes old and growing aged is near disappearing.”
YHWH has chosen Judah to be The Ruler out of all the 12 Tribes which is why YESHUA came from Judah and not the Tribe of Levi a tribe that Moses never spoke of concerning the altar. Remember YESHUA was born a Jew (Yahudi) and died King of The Jews (Yahudim). Which is also why there was the change of The Levitical Priesthood, because YESHUA became our High Priest (Kohen ha’Gadol) in the order of Malkitsedeq the only other king priest of Salem which I explained above. So the law was never done away with it was just a change in Priesthood. YESHUA is the Mediator of the Renewed Covenant, He doesn’t have to make continual sacrifices for His sin because He was sinless, and unlike human high priest YESHUA doesn’t die that’s why the first became old and was renewed, not done away with. (Hebrews 7:27).
Hebrews 7:13-15
“For He of whom this is said belongs to another tribe, from which no one had attended at the altar. For it is perfectly clear that our Adon (Master) arose from Judah, a tribe about which Moses never spoke of concerning the priesthood, and this is clearer still, if another Priest arises in the likeness of Malkitsedeq.”
As we see the Priests from the tribe of Levi are the ones who attended at the altar, but YESHUA rose from another tribe which was Judah, which makes His atonement so crucial because the Levites served many functions in the House of YHWH.
YESHUA can relate with humanity
He is ELOHIM The Son yet completely human having come in the flesh and was tempted in every way just as we are, but yet was without sin.
Hebrews 4:15-16
“For we do not have a Kohen ha’Gadol (High Priest) unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who was tried in all respects as we are, apart from sin. Therefore, let us come boldly to the throne of favor, in order to receive compassion, and find favor for timely help.”
1 John 2:1-2 says:
"My little children, I write this to you, so that you do not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Intercessor with the Father, YESHUA ha'Mashiach, a righteous One. And He Himself is an atoning offering for our sins, and not for ours only but also for all the world.”
YESHUA being ELOHIM the Son gave up His authority as King and humbled Himself to die for us. That is love and we need to follow that example by giving up ourselves and denying our existence and follow our Master YESHUA's example. Yom Kippur teaches us to die to self, deny ourselves, afflict our souls, weep, mourn and live for Him.
As we remember to deny, humble, and afflict ourselves during Yom ha’Kippurim let us use YESHUA our Messiah as the perfect example of how He completely denied His own existence for our sake when He said in
Mathew 26:39
"My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
YESHUA died so that we may live and freed us from the law of sin and death, by breaking the chains of Satan so that we do not have to suffer eternal torment! YHWH poured out His wrath upon His Son so that we do not have to face what we are deserving of. We have been redeemed by His blood, so let us put our lives and fleshy desires to the side and do our Father YHWH's will and be obedient in our walk with YESHUA, HalleluYAH!
1 John 4:9-10:
"By this the love of YHWH was manifested in us, that YHWH has sent His only brought-forth Son into the world, in order that we might live through Him. In this love, not that we loved YHWH, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning offering for our sins."