Millions around the world recognize that Yom Kippur is “The Day of Atonement.” It is the most solemn of Jewish religious holidays, and it is observed every year on the 10th day of the lunar month of Tishrei.
The purpose of Yom Kippur is to effect individual and collective purification by the practice of forgiveness of the sins of others and by sincere repentance for one’s own sins against God.
Yom Kippur is the day that the high priest of Israel went into a chamber called the holy of holies, which Rabbi Kirt Schneider says first existed in the Tabernacle, or the Mishkan. Inside the chamber called the holy of holies, the ark of the covenant dwelt and inside the ark of the covenant were the Ten Commandments. There, placed near the ark, was something the New Testament refers to as the mercy seat.
On Yom Kippur, the high priest of Israel would bring with him the blood of a bull and the blood of a goat, and he would pour that blood on top of the ark of the covenant at the mercy seat.
“When he poured forth the blood and the Lord saw the blood, He covered over—it’s called Yom Kippur—the sins of Israel for the year because of the blood,” Schneider says. “The Torah tells us that the book of Leviticus 17:11, that ‘the life of the flesh is in the blood,’ saith the Lord, ‘and I’ve given it to you on the altar to make an atonement for your soul, for it is the blood by reason of life that makes atonement.'”
But many may not recognize that when Yeshua (Jesus) was crucified on the cross, it was no longer necessary for the high priest to perform such a ceremony, Schneider says.
“Understanding this helps us to grasp why Yeshua is the only way to heaven,” Schneider says. “The Lord, in the Hebrew Scriptures told us point blank that the only way to have our sins covered is through a blood atonement. The children of Israel had to make an atonement with the blood of bulls and goats year after year. But when Yeshua was crucified, we read in the New Testament (Matt. 27:51) that the veil that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple tore in half mystically and that signified that God had now made a way once and for all for sinful humanity to have a relationship with Him. The blood of the spotless Lamb of God, Yeshua, has been shed.
“And Because Yeshua is perfect and He’s God in the flesh, there is never a blood atonement needed again. This is the point of the author of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament that it is no longer necessary to offer up the blood of bulls and goats. They were only shadows of what King Yeshua would ultimately do, shedding His blood so our sins can be atoned for once and for all.” {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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