The Holiest Day of the Year
I was recently reading an article about Yom Kippur[1] on an educational Jewish website. I found the comments at the end as interesting as the article itself.
Most of the commenters were Jewish people with specific questions about proper observance of the Day of Atonement. Others shared fond memories of past Yom Kippur celebrations. Some were Gentiles seeking to better understand Judaism.
One woman’s comment stuck out to me. As she prepared to observe the Day of Atonement, she was anxious to know how much forgiveness she could expect to receive. How would she know she had been forgiven? Would she be forgiven for each sin, or only some? What about personal faults she couldn’t seem to change?
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year. It is the time when the Jewish people seek to be “clean[sed] from all [their] sins before the Lord” (Leviticus 16:30). According to rabbinic tradition, after Yom Kippur, one continues the new year with the past 12 months’ sins hidden from God’s sight.
With so much riding on these 25 hours, it’s understandable that some are anxious to “get it right.”
The 10-day period between Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) and Yom Kippur, known as the Days of Awe, provides ample time for self-examination. Ten days of thinking through one’s sins of omission and commission, of reconciling strained relationships, of asking God to release us from ill-advised vows.
Are 10 days of repentance really necessary? Most of us consider ourselves good people.
But that’s not the issue, is it? It doesn’t matter if we’re good people compared to, say, a school shooter. What matters is if we’re good people in God’s eyes.
Which brings us to the reason why God decreed Yom Kippur in the first place. In the Old Testament, He repeatedly called Israel to be holy, as He is holy. Leviticus 20:26 is one instance of many: “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” Merriam-Webster defines holy[2] as “one perfect in goodness and righteousness; divine.”
Neither you nor I can claim to be perfect or divine. The Israelites couldn’t either. Anyone who cannot claim holiness needs atonement. It’s that simple.
Hence the yearly Day of Atonement, a time set aside for the Israelites to practice self-denial, to refrain from work and pleasure. God said that on this day,
Atonement will be made for you … to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. … [The High Priest] will make atonement … for the priests and all the people of the assembly. This is to be a permanent statute for you, to make atonement for the Israelites once a year because of all their sins. (Leviticus 16:29–34).
God knew His people would fail to live up to His standards, so He provided this way for their sins to be “covered over”[3] through the blood of sacrificed animals.
However, the sacrifices on Yom Kippur had limited efficacy. The author of Hebrews says, “…the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They [were] only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings – external regulations applying until the time of the new order” (Hebrews 9:9–10). Yom Kippur could only provide atonement for a limited time, but it was God’s sufficient (albeit temporary) provision.
There’s one big problem with Yom Kippur today: without the Temple, which was destroyed in 70 A.D., there is no God-authorized way to make a sacrifice. The author of Hebrews points out, “… The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22, emphasis mine).
In modern Judaism, prayer, repentance, and giving charity have taken the place of sacrifices. But without the ability to observe Yom Kippur in the exact manner decreed in Scripture, it’s no wonder some worry about the minutiae of Atonement Day.
The good news: before the Temple’s destruction, God provided a means of atonement even better than Yom Kippur – the “new order” that is explained in Hebrews 9:24–26:
For [Messiah] did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands…he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year [on Yom Kippur] with the blood that is not his own. Otherwise, [Messiah] would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Hebrews 9:13–14:
The blood [of animals]…sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of [Messiah], who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from the acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
How can we be confident all our sins are eternally atoned for? By placing our faith in Jesus the Messiah, the perfect High Priest.
Yom Kippur is an important time of self-examination and repentance. But believers in Jesus can rejoice that we repent as those who are already forgiven!
Written by Miriam, Life in Messiah’s Communications Assistant
For believers, Yom Kippur is an opportunity to focus specifically on self-examination and repentance. But the somberness of this day is tempered by the joy of knowing our sins are already forgiven in Messiah!
Even if you are not Jewish or don’t usually observe Yom Kippur, consider using this time to draw nearer to God. Pray in the spirit of Psalm 139: 23–24:
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Pray for the Jewish people who do not know their Messiah. Pray that as they observe Yom Kippur this year, their hearts will be open to Yeshua (Jesus) and the perfect atonement He offers.
Endnotes:
[1] To learn more about this Jewish holiday, click here.
[2] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/holy.
[3] The root meaning of kippur is “to cover over.”