The Day of Atonement — Yom Kippur — was, in the Old Testament era, a solemn sabbath but, otherwise, more a day of activity for the High Priest than for the people.  So how is the Day of Atonement relevant to us today?

Day of Atonement in the Bible – As One of God’s Feasts

As is the case with most of the feasts we’ve looked at, the Day of Atonement is described in Leviticus 23 (vv. 26-32):

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a Holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”

“Afflicting your souls” is generally considered to be fasting.  So this day was a holy convocation, a “sabbath of solemn rest,” and a day of solemn fasting.  It occurred ten days after the Feast of Trumpets.  This is the summary we get of the day as part of the series of the Lord’s feasts.

But there was much more to this somber day, as described elsewhere.

The Day of Atonement: Sin Offering

The Day of Atonement was the one day a year when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies.  He wore special linen garments, he washed himself, and he offered up a sin offering for himself before proceeding to offer this once-a-year sin offering for the people.

Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull [the sin offering for himself], and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. And he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord, and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. (Leviticus 16:15-19)

The blood from this special sin offering was placed on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies (“the Holy Place”), the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar.

Then Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of meeting, shall take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy Place, and shall leave them there. And he shall wash his body with water in a holy place, put on his garments, come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. The fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. And they shall burn in the fire their skins, their flesh, and their offal. Then he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. (Leviticus 16:23-25, 27-28)

After using their blood to consecrate all these portions of the tabernacle, the priest purifies himself again before offering up burnt offerings.  Finally, those animals whose blood made atonement were taken outside the camp and burned…and the one who carried them out cleanses himself yet again before re-entering the camp.

Day of Atonement: Scapegoat

There’s another element of the Day of Atonement sandwiched in there, though: the scapegoat.  The High Priest actually brought two rams before the Lord, and cast lots between them.  One was used for the blood that consecrated the tabernacle.  The other was the scapegoat.

He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness…And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness…And he who released the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. (Leviticus 16:7-10, 20-22, 26)

The scapegoat served as a representative of the people.  All the sins of the people were symbolically placed on its head, and then it carried their sins away into the wilderness.

So the Day of Atonement, in the Bible, had three key elements: the priest making atonement for the people, the scapegoat carrying the sins of the people away, and the somber observation of the people as all these things took place.

It was the only day of the year when the priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies.  And it was also the day on which the Jubilee was to be announced in a Jubilee year.

Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard…

And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field.  In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession… (Leviticus 25:3-4, 8-13, emphasis added)

And this Day was to be observed perpetually, by all those dwelling in the land.

This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you. For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever. And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments; then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.” And he did as the Lord commanded Moses. (Leviticus 16:29-34)

Jesus the High Priest

All that is Old Testament, though.  What about the Day of Atonement in the New Testament?  We’re looking for how the Day of Atonement is relevant for us today.  And interestingly, Jesus fulfills all the priestly elements of Yom Kippur.  He’s the priest, and the atoning sacrifice, and the scapegoat.

“Therefore, in all things He [Jesus] had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people…Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin…For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins…

For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those [former] high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself…But into the second part [the Holy of Holies] the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance…But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 2:17; 4:14-15; 5:1-3; 7:26-27; 9:7, 11-14)

That’s a bit of a crash course.  You can read through Hebrews and gain more context.  But the key message here is that Jesus is the perfect High Priest.  Being without sin, He didn’t need to make atonement for Himself first; He could simply atone for us, safely able to enter the Holy of Holies (the Most Holy Place) without fear of death.

He was the High Priest who entered in to make the sacrifice…and He Himself was the sacrifice.

Jesus the Atoning Sacrifice

We see this in the verses quoted in the previous section.  Not only did He enter in to make the sacrifice; He was the sacrifice.

For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.  (Hebrews 9:24-28)

He put away sin “by the sacrifice of Himself.” And this tore the veil of separation that barred us from the presence of God.  “Then” (at His death) “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”  (Mark 15:38)  So that now we may boldly approach the throne of grace and find mercy. (Hebrews 4:16).

Jesus the Scapegoat

That last verse from the Hebrews passage alludes to both goats from the Day of Atonement: “He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And…Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.”  Jesus was the atoning sacrifice…and He was also the scapegoat (Hebrew: azazel), bearing our sins.

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Our sins were placed on Him, and He carried them far away from us.  “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12)

So…Now What?

We no longer have earthly priests to carry out the high priestly duties or sanctify an earthly temple.  And Jesus has, once for all, carried out the role of the Great High Priest making atonement, carrying away sin, and sanctifying us.

But what about the role of the people? There may be value in observing a day of solemn rest to remember and appreciate what Christ has done — and to mark the date, as part of the trio of autumn feasts.

Hebrews 9 is an especially relevant passage to read, along with Leviticus 16 (and Psalm 103:12).

Because the day traditionally involves fasting, there is also traditionally a special meal prepared just beforehand.  Kreplach (meat-filled dumplings) are commonly part of a Jewish pre-Yom Kippur meal.

As the Day of Atonement wraps up, some families also begin building their sukkahs for the upcoming Sukkot.