A Guide to the Christian Observance of the Biblical Sabbath, Feasts, and Holy Days
For a general introduction to the biblical Feasts and Holy Days, see the article Theme Times elsewhere on this Times of Refreshing website. This webpage builds on concepts explained in that article. If you are not familiar with the cycle of these Feasts and Holy Days, you may find t helpful to read that article first.
The Day of Atonement
Together Again
Back to Eden
The first chapter of the Book of Genesis tells about a time when the first people, created by God in His image, lived in a beautiful Garden. Adam and Eve not only enjoyed each other’s company, they related directly with God. He had made a beautiful environment for them, and provided for their every need. They needed only to tend the garden and watch over it, and to obey the few simple rules God made to order their lives. Genesis speaks of Him even “walking in the Garden,” where they could encounter Him in their daily lives.
We really don’t know what would have happened to them if they had stayed in harmony with God’s plans for them ... for Genesis goes on to tell us very quickly that they turned from obedience and found themselves cast out of that Garden and away from the intimacy with God that they had enjoyed.
From that day to this, mankind in general is born separated from the kind of intimate, direct, daily relationship with God that Adam and Eve had originally enjoyed. Each person hasn’t committed the same sin that put a gulf between God and themselves that Adam and Eve did. But very early in every human life, human nature ensures that sin does indeed enter the picture, and makes reconciliation with God impossible ... unless God Himself intervenes to “fix” the problem.
The rest of the Bible tells of the plan that God has had from the very beginning of time to restore that relationship with the humans that He created in His image, and to make available to them permanent membership in His Family.
The Day of Atonement—the Day of “Reconciliation”—is that part of the Times of Refreshing, the cycle of the appointments with God that He established from Creation, that reminds us of how this reconciliation is now a reality in the life of Christians, and will eventually be offered to all mankind through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
(See What Is “Atonement”? for a definition and commentary on the meaning of the word.)
Atonement in the Old Testament
When God brought the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt, He originally asked of them only what He asked of Adam and Eve in the beginning—that they obey His commandments and look to Him as the source of all of their needs. He offered them something very close to what Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden ... a Promised Land that was “flowing with milk and honey.” They would only have needed to tend it and watch over it, and they would have had lives of unending prosperity and peace. But they failed in holding up their end of the bargain perhaps even more quickly than Adam and Eve did. While Moses was up on Mt. Sinai getting the stones of the Ten Commandments and further instructions from God for the new nation, the Israelites had already turned to worship of false gods and a wild orgy of flouting God’s standards for their behavior.
At this point it is obvious to us as we read the account that, just as we are all still sinners today, those ancient Israelites were going to continually have problems with obedience to God’s ways. And thus we read of the system of priesthood and sacrifices that God instituted to deal symbolically with the sins of the people. The death of a valuable animal would regularly remind them that their sins deserved the death penalty, but God was merciful and accepted the sacrifice in their place. In Leviticus we read of numerous sacrifices that the people were to bring as part of dealing with their sins. But the most significant sacrificial ritual of all is introduced in Leviticus 16, as part of the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement.
“This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month
you must deny yourselves and not do any work-
In other words, once a year from then on, there was to be an annual appointment with God. On that day, at the central place of worship for the nation, the High Priest was to preside over an elaborate ceremony that was to remind the people that they were sinners, and to provide a “legal” method whereby they could be “cleansed” from the guilt of the sinfulness that they all were guilty of. While they were wandering in the wilderness for forty years, and even for 400 years after they entered the Promised Land, before Solomon became king, this would have been wherever the Tabernacle was. After Solomon’s Temple was built, this annual ceremony was always performed in Jerusalem. It was still being performed there at the time that Jesus lived on the Earth.
Earlier in Leviticus, all of the minute details of this elaborate ceremony are outlined.
The LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. …
From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and
a ram for a burnt offering. “Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering
to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats
and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to
cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat.
Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin
offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before
the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.
(Leviticus 16: 1-
The goats would have been virtually identical, both of them without blemish.
Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the fire before the LORD, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the Testimony, so that he will not die. He is to take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover. He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been.
He is to do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness. No one is to be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel. “Then he shall come out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it on all the horns of the altar. He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites.
When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting
and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the
head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the
Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat
away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry
on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the
desert. (Leviticus 16: 1-
The “Most Holy Place” of the Tabernacle, sometimes called the “Holy of Holies,” contained the Ark of the Covenant. This chest held the Ten Commandments tablets. When the Temple was built in Jerusalem in Solomon’s time, this Ark was placed in the new Most Holy Place, deep inside that Temple. About 400 years later, when Jerusalem was attacked, the Temple destroyed, and most of the people taken to captivity in exile in Babylon, the Ark disappeared from history. When the Jews came back from Babylon, they rebuilt a Temple, but the Holy of Holies was then empty.
The greatly expanded Temple that Herod built, still standing when Jesus and His disciples visited Jerusalem, also had an empty Most Holy Place. But once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would still enter that compartment and sprinkle the blood of the atonement goat toward the spot that the Ark would have occupied in the ancient Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple. After this he would emerge from the Temple for the rest of the rituals for the Day of Atonement. He would place his hands on the head of the second goat, and “confess” over it all of the sins of the whole Israelite nation, symbolically placing them on its head. The goat would then be led out from the Temple area, out from Jerusalem, to a point far outside the city environs, and released, to roam in the wilderness.
Atonement in the New Testament
For Christians, Jesus is referred to in the New Testament as “our Passover Lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7), the one whose blood “covers us” so that the penalty of eternal death passes over us. In a similar way, the New Testament also makes it clear that the symbolism of the ancient Day of Atonement ceremony was ultimately pointing to Jesus. First the book of Hebrews clarifies that Jesus is the ultimate High Priest, who is the one that makes atonement.
For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)
Then Hebrews reviews what occurred on the Day of Atonement beginning in the time of Moses, and clarifies that all of these things were ultimately fulfilled through the sacrifice of Christ. Below are excerpts of this material.
Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary.
A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand, the table and the
consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was
a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the
gold-
When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.
When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went
through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
.Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ
was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second
time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews
9:1-
In the description of the Day of Atonement in Old Testament times, there is mention that the goat was to be let go outside the environs of Jerusalem. That is what was supposed to be done, according to the original biblical command. But evidently, custom had added to this commandment by the time of the first century:
But on the way out, the people in the city and the surrounding countryside, considering the scapegoat as an object of desecration and horror, heaped upon it every conceivable form of verbal abuse and sought to hurry it on its way. They genuinely believed that it was truly burdened with their sins and was now an object of shame and repulsion.
The goat had been identified by having a piece of scarlet cloth fastened to one horn.
There is no doubt that if it had attempted to come back again, it would have been
driven away in horror. ... According to tradition, this did happen once, and the
goat returned from the wilderness. Because of the horror with which the poor creature
was viewed by the people, one can imagine their consternation. That it should have
returned did not, it seems, suggest to them that the sacrifice was not acceptable
to God-
Compare the description above where all “heaped upon it every conceivable form of verbal abuse and sought to hurry it on its way,” to the description of Jesus at the time of His crucifixion. Here was the ultimate One who was taking upon Himself not just the sins of one nation, but of the whole world:
The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
...It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!”
In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves.
“He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Christ, this King
of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified
with him also heaped insults on him. (Mark 15:16-
What separates US from God?
…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23)
How can WE be “reconciled”?
… and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ
Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.
(Romans 3:24-
Why TWO goats?
One for sacrificial blood:
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)
This is my [Jesus’] blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:28)
One for showing God’s view of our sins after the blood of Jesus atones for them:
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their
insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead,
he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.He himself bore our sins in his body
on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds
you have been healed. (2Peter 2:22-
Together Again
For the Christian, the time has already come when we are no longer separated from God. The reconciliation, the true Atonement has come, and we are Together Again with our Father.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from
God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to
him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we
be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans
5:9-
The Jews in the time of Jesus had no conception of the deeper meaning behind the yearly ritual of the Day of Atonement. And after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, they were no longer able to even have that ritual to deal with their sins. Over the ensuing centuries, without any biblical law to guide them, the rabbis attempted to create substitute rituals and customs to somehow take the place of the Levitical practices. Without the priesthood, the Temple ceremony, and the blood of the animals, the people had no assurance of forgiveness. Substitutes have been invented, but they have never really filled the void, and many Jews look forward earnestly to the rebuilding of another Temple in Jerusalem some day so that the ancient ceremonies may be revived. Thus the regular cry at the end of many annual observances, a hope for “Next year in Jerusalem!”
While waiting, though, they do the best they can with substitutes.
One such substitute, among certain branches of Orthodox Jews, is the custom of Kapparot. This is a personal ceremony done in the home, not one conducted in a synagogue. To perform the rite, a male takes a live rooster, while sometimes a woman takes a live hen. Certain prayers are recited which refer to the symbolism of the ceremony being related to atonement, and then the fowl is “waved” over the head, followed by slaughtering it and giving the meat to the poor.
Page from a child’s book around 1900,
showing a family Kapparot ceremony
Some “redeem” the dead fowl with money, and give the money to the poor instead. Others skip the fowl entirely and sling a bag of money around their head and then donate it to the poor. (For a more detailed description of this ritual, see the article on this website, Jewish Feast & Holy Day Customs: :Yom Kippur/The Day of Atonement. )
Obviously this tradition has no roots in the Bible at all, and is merely a human attempt to find some way out of the problem of having “no remission of sins without the shedding of blood.”
If they only understood what the ancient ceremony of the two goats was pointing toward, they would know that they have no more need of such physical ceremonies because the ultimate reality toward which the ceremony was pointing has come:
For Christ did not enter a man-
But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by
the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to
face judgment, 28so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people;
and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those
who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:24-
For those who have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and recognize Him as Lord and Savior, their “Scapegoat” is coming back! But they do not need to fear.
He isn’t bringing their sins back with Him.
He is bringing their reward!
Now that you have an overview of the Biblical background, symbolism, and Christian significance of the Day of Atonement, you may wish to explore some of the ways in which Christians observe this Holy Day. The 3Rs:Day of Atonement article provides a variety of descriptions and suggestions for such observance.
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