Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement

Yom Kippur is the Jewish holiday which celebrates the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 16 talks about the rituals of this day and the purpose. Jewish tradition holds that the Day of Atonement was the same day that Moses received the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments after the Golden Calf debacle. On this day, the Israelites were granted atonement for their sins and were restored to God.[1] Yom Kippur begins tonight, the evening of September 25^th, and ends tomorrow evening, September 26^th. Sundown to sundown.  

In Leviticus, the first Day of Atonement occurs after Aaron’s two sons had died because they offered “strange fire” before the Lord, in the Tent of Meeting, or Tabernacle (Leviticus 10). God then gave Moses instructions for Aaron to perform a ritual to atone for Aaron and his household (Leviticus 16:1-6, 11-14). After Aaron had done this, he was to take two goats to complete the ritual of atonement for the people. One goat was a sin offering and is to be slaughtered, the other was to be a scapegoat.

To atone for something, means to make reparations for a wrong or an injury. So what Aaron is doing, is making repairs for himself and his household for the sins of his sons against God. Then he is to make repairs for the nation of Israel for their sins in the past year. In order to atone for a sin, there must first be repentance: acknowledgment and confession of the sin, regret for the sin, and the resolve to not commit the sin in the future. Only then can the sin be repaired. Like my mom always told me, “Sorry means you’ll try not to do it again.”

So Aaron is tasked with offering a sin offering for himself and his household, as well as a sin offering for the Israelites. The blood of these offerings is brought into the holy place and before the mercy seat, which is the Ark of the Covenant, and was sprinkled with their fingers in front of, and on the east side of the Ark. Thereby, the guilt of the person or nation was transferred from their hands, to the mercy seat, and their sins were forgiven and absolved. The blood of the animals slaughtered for the sin offering was also sprinkled on the altar to cleanse it. The blood no longer held the guilt of the people, but was now purified, and would thereby purify everything that it touched.

Finally, the second goat, the scapegoat was to be brought before Aaron. Now remember, the first goat was slaughtered and its blood was offered before God, and God alone was witness to this. The second goat became a representation of what happened in secret. Aaron would lay both of his hands on the goat’s head, symbolizing the transfer of the sins of the people to the innocent goat. Then, this goat was sent away into the wilderness, never to return. The “wilderness” symbolized a place that was outside of God’s presence. The entire act of sending away the goat of atonement was to show the people that their sins had been removed from the presence of God, would not return, and were remembered no more.

“The nation of Israel was cleansed of their sins by this act. One goat was put to death representing that the sins of the people had been paid for and were removed, another goat was made into the scapegoat and sent away representing that the sins of the people had been removed from the presence of the Lord…The day of atonement speaks of the Lord’s gracious concern both to deal fully with his people’s sins and to make them fully aware that they stand before him, accepted and covered in respect of all iniquity, transgression and sin.”[2]

The Day of Atonement finds its fulfillment in Christ’s death on the cross. He took on the sins of the world, and died for them. Not only is Christ the Passover lamb that keeps the people of God secure from death and separation from God, but he is the Goat of Atonement, which buys purity and holiness for the people of God for time eternal.

For the Jews, the Day of Atonement is a day of fasting, and repentance. On this Day of Atonement, I would like to challenge you to repent of your sins, and forgive yourself and others for any sin committed in thought, word, or deed. Fast if you feel led to, but beyond all, remember that Christ has born away our sins, and we no longer stand condemned before God, but are covered with Christ’s righteousness, and are therefore welcomed into His presence. Our sin, our guilt, and our eternal punishment, have been borne away to the wilderness, and will never return. We are purified and cleansed. Today is a new day to serve God, and represent him to everyone around us.

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[1] Rabbi Ken Spiro, Crash Course in Jewish History; Part 12 – The Golden Calf, www.aish.com

[2] Walter A. Elwell, ed. “Atonement” in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 114.

Sin makes you Stupid.

Sin makes you stupid.

Grace makes you smart.

Guest preacher, Doug Groothius, said this when he preached at my church a few months ago, and it has stuck with me. I could think of no better way to illustrate this than to talk about Nehemiah 13:23-31.

Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the King of Persia when we received word about the state of the city of Jerusalem. The walls and city gates were torn down (Nehemiah 1:3) making the city and all those within it vulnerable to attack from anyone. Furthermore, the people were in great distress due to the high taxes imposed on them by the local leaders, causing them to become in debt to their richer countrymen (Nehemiah 1:3, 5:1-19). Nehemiah then receives permission from his King to return to Jerusalem to oversee the reconstruction of the walls (Nehemiah 2:2-8). While there he not only rebuilds the walls and gates of the city, but brings about religious and moral reform by abolishing the unfair interest rates the rich were demanding of the poor (Nehemiah 5), having the people repent and confess their sins (Nehemiah 8, 9), and by cleaning out the temple (Nehemiah 12) Then, Nehemiah returned to Susa, the capital of the Persian Empire. When he returns he sees that every reform he had made, had fallen apart.

Nehemiah was a man of action. He wasn’t afraid to speak the truth, no matter how harsh, and to step on people’s toes when they were out of line. Chapter 13 begins be telling about the scene Nehemiah came back to in Jerusalem, and what he did about it. Then we come to verse 23. The Jews had married foreign women. This is something that has plagued the Jews living in the land since the time of Solomon. Ezra, who returned to Jerusalem before Nehemiah, also dealt with this issue, but apparently the people are not taking it to heart. In Ezra 9-10, Ezra deals with the people’s sins of not keeping themselves pure by taking foreign wives. Ezra, together with the elders and heads of households begin the process of having the people put away their foreign wives (What they meant by “put away” I will deal with in another blog post sometime). Now here, in Nehemiah’s time, probably less than thirty years later, the people are still sinning in the same way.

A deliberate sin opens you up to other sins. When you say that you are knowingly sinning against God you are in the worst kind of rebellion against Him. This specific sin, marrying foreigners and not keeping themselves pure, started with the great king Solomon. Recall that in 1 Kings 11:1-3, we are told that Solomon had 700 wives, 300 concubines, and most of them were foreigners. Nehemiah tells the people that just because Solomon did it, and God still loved him, it doesn’t make it ok to sin against God (Nehemiah 13:26). The lack of apparent consequences means that the people don’t feel moved to change or repent.

So Nehemiah gives them a reason to. Read what he did in 13:25, “So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair.” Today, if you rebel against specific rules and regulations of a country, kingdom, or organization, there are physical consequences. You may lose your membership or citizenship, be imprisoned, or, depending on the country, be tortured. Why do we think it is any different with the kingdom of God? Nehemiah inflicts physical pain upon the people as a reminder of the consequences of disobedience to God. The Exile had just ended for crying out loud, and there were already falling back into old habits. Nehemiah didn’t want to just give them a pill to numb the pain, he wanted to dig it out whole, so that they would remember and never want to endure that sort of thing again.

Today, in western countries and first world countries, we don’t really think about the physical harm of our sin; that is, until our doctors are stumped and tell us they can only help us manage the disease or the pain. We have separated the physical and the spiritual. Our hearts desire God, but we open up our bodies to all kinds of evil because we feel justified by our once a week faith. Sin makes us stupid. As we sin, we get pulled further and further away from God so we don’t remember to look to Him for our strength and sustenance.

The root of many of our problems is rebellion against God. We are unhappy with our lifestyles and always want more, so we whine about it, work harder, and pray that God would give us more money so we could have more. But God says, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you…pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness (1 Timothy 6:10-11).” We watch movies that glorify immoral and unrighteous lifestyles and behavior, play video games that glorify death, and idolize celebrities for their hair, fashion style, and fit bodies. But we wonder why it is hard to make Godly decisions, why we are not content with what we have, and why we don’t sleep well and are plagued with fears. God says, “If then, you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is…Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth…Put to death, therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (Colossians 3:1, 2, 5).” We hate our bodies, our minds, and woe our lack of glamor. Then we wonder why our bodies turn against us and we get sick. God says, “I formed your inward parts, I knit you together in your mother’s womb…I made you fearfully and wonderfully (Psalm 139:13-14 emphasis and pronoun change mine).”

We have learned to love and hate the wrong things. Is it any wonder then that God doesn’t heal us of our problems? Please believe that I have said all those things and more. I do not stand here to accuse anyone, but to tell the truth I have seen. Sin makes you stupid. It makes you run from the very One that can and will heal you. God says, “If my people who are called by my name (Christians) humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Nehemiah isn’t going to come out and smack us around every time we sin. God has given us grace which empowers us to chose righteousness, and act upon it. As we turn towards Him, and seek Him out, he heals us, and we find many of our so called problems melting away because we have the right perspective. As we learn to love God, and the things of God (including yourself!), we find that the grace we are given is sufficient, and makes us lovers of truth and God. Grace makes us smart.

This Time in History: 750 - 600 BC.

Please note that the dates that some of the Kings of Israel and Judah ruled are approximate, and somewhat difficult to reconcile because Scripture often states that these kings came to power while after the king of the opposite kingdom had been ruling for so many years.

APPROX

DATES           EVENT

758 – 725 BC: Hosea prophesying to Northern Kingdom of Israel, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame.”

753 BC:           According to Tradition, Rome was founded by Romulus.

740 BC:           Ahaz (Hezekiah’s father) begins to reign in the Southern Kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 16).

732 BC:           Hoshea becomes the last king of Israel (2 Kings 17: 1-6)

729 BC:           Hezekiah becomes king of Judah (2 Kings 18:1-6).

726 BC:           Shalmaneser V becomes king of Assyria.

725 BC:           Shalmaneser V and coregent Sargon II march on the Northern Kingdom of Israel and besieges it for three years.

722 BC:           Israel is conquered by the Assyrians and all her people are deported (2 Kings 17:6-23).

719 BC:           King Huan of Zhou of the Zhou Dynasty becomes ruler of China.

705 BC:           Sennacherib succeeds Sargon II and moves the capital of Assyria back to Ninevah.

704 BC:           King Hezekiah shows off his Treasure House to Babylonian ambassadors (Isaiah 39, 2 Kings 20:12-19).

701 BC:           Homer dies.

700 BC:           Pythagorean Theorem is copied into the Baudhayana Sulbasutra text on altar construction.

697 BC:           Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, becomes King of Judah at 12 years old (2 Kings 21:1-18).

689 BC:           King Sennacherib of Assyria sacks Babylon.

675 BC:           King Esarhaddon of Assyria begins to rebuild Babylon.

668 BC:           Nineveh, capital of Assyria, becomes the largest city in the world, surpassing Thebes, Egypt.

664 BC:           Corinth and Coicyra engage in the first recorded Greek naval battle in history.

660 BC:           Traditional founding date of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.

655 BC:           The Spartan Creed is written by Ancient Greek Poet, Tyrtaeus.

655 BC:           Mayans begin to occupy Piedras Negras, Guatemala.

650 BC:           Assyrian King, Ashurbanipal, founds a library which includes one of the earliest complete copies of the Gilgamesh Epic; a tale which describes the Babylonian Account of the great Flood (a.k.a. Noah’s flood, see Genesis 6-9).

643 BC:           Amon, son of Manasseh, becomes King of Judah (2 Kings 21:19-26).

641 BC:           Josiah, son of Amon, becomes King of Judah (2 Kings 22:1 – 23:30).

626 BC:           Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar’s father, rebels against Assyrian rule and founds the Neo-Babylonian empire. Beginning of the Assyrian Empire’s demise.

623 BC:           Book of the Law found in the Temple. Josiah commands large reforms to the religious system in Jerusalem and reinstitutes the Passover celebration. (2 Kings 22:8 – 23:25).

614 BC:           Medes and Babylonians sack Asshur, a large city of Assyria, quite close to Nineveh.

612 BC:           Babylonians, Medes, and Susianians (from the city of Susa), form an alliance to conquer Nineveh.

612 BC:           City of Babylon becomes the largest in the world, taking the lead from Nineveh.

609 BC:           Josiah, King of Judah, is killed by Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt in the Battle of Megiddo. Jehoahaz becomes King of Judah, and reigns for 3 months before being captured by Pharaoh Necco II and taken to Egypt. Necco II then installed Eliakim (also called Johioakim), one of Josiah’s other sons, on the throne of Judah (2 Kings 23:28-36).

605 BC:           Nebuchadnezzar succeeds his father, Nabopolassar, as King of Babylon.

605 BC:           First deportation of the Jews to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (2 Kings 24:1)

600 BC:           Nebuchadnezzar builds the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

 

Hallelujah

We say this word all the time in church, in songs, in hymns, and as a reaction. It is a term of praise, but do we really understand its meaning?

The word is originally Hebrew and made up of two words: hallelu and yah (Correct pronunciation is hal-le-lu-yah). The first part, hallelu comes from the verb root hallal, which can mean: to be boastful; to praise; to celebrate; to boast confidently of oneself; to make a fool of; and to denote something as mad or crazy. And so we see that there is a fine line between bragging, boasting, praising something or someone in worship, and being crazy. But hallelu means to praise; specifically, it means you all praise. This word is a command in the third person plural as noted by the “u” at the end of the word.

The second part, yah, is a shortening of the name of God: Yahweh. Thus yah is the object of the praise. The word, hallelujah, is spelt with a “j” rather than a “y” due to German pronunciation and translation. This is the same reason we say “Jerusalem” rather than the literal, “Yerusalem,” and “Jews” rather than “Yews.” Furthermore, the spelling, “alleluia” comes from the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word.

Thus, Hallelujah, means, “You all Praise God!” The word is used by prophets, kings, and even ordinary people, to remind those around them that God is to be praised. At the end of my church service (I attend an Anglican Church), the Leader says, “Let us go forth in the name of Christ” and the congregation responds, “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!” So what are we saying here? The word becomes a sort of affirmative of the previous statement. Thus, “Praise God! We will go forth!” Next time you hear a song, or are worshipping in church or elsewhere and you come across this word, watch how it is used. Are we just saying it as we now say, “awesome” or “great”? Or are you truly using it to praise God because of what he has done? The point of this is not to over analyze every song and prayer that uses the word, but to infuse it with meaning to enhance your worship. Don’t get overly critical about it!

Now, let us continue in obedience to God’s will. Hallelujah!