Yom Kippur
In English, “Yom Kippur” means “Day of Atonement.” It’s a day where Israelis fast and repent for all the sins they’ve committed that year.
Historically, it started back in 1490 BC, in the days of Moses.
“When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place … 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 16:20-22 NIV)
Did you catch what was happening here? Once a year, a priest would lay his hands on the head of a goat, and symbolically, all the sins of all the people would flow off of the people and onto the goat.
So, the people would be free from their sins, but the poor goat would be covered with all their sins and led out into the desert to die.
That was the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur.
When my kids were young, they found a hole in the ground back in the stable yard, and they noticed lots of bees swarming in and out. I took some bug poison, poured it in the hole as quickly as I could, and took off running for the house before the bees figured out what I had done.
Fortunately for me, I made it. But as I looked out the window, I noticed one of the goats running around the stable yard, frantically kicking her hind legs up behind her. Poor goat- she had been at the wrong place at the wrong time! She didn’t poison the bees, but she took the blame. She was what you would call a “scapegoat.”
In the Leviticus passage that we just read, Aaron was to lay all the sins of all the people onto the head of the goat, which was then led out into the desert to die in the heat. This innocent one-year-old goat was the scapegoat. He hadn’t sinned, but he took the punishment.
This ceremony was the way that God had provided for the people so that they would be cleansed of their sins. God had said,
“on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins.” (Leviticus 16:30 NIV)
Now let’s go to the New Testament, to the book of Hebrews, where we are told that this ceremony had a serious problem:
… 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. (Hebrews 9:9-10 NIV)
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4 NIV)
In other words – the scapegoat ceremony didn’t work! If it had been able to work, then why did they have to do it over and over and over again every year?
The Israelites obeyed God, and kept this Day of Atonement every year.
That’s what God wanted them to do, so it was good that they did it. But God wanted them to feel that there was something missing so that they would look forward to a better way.
The way they realized something was missing was that year after year on the Day of Atonement, after they had killed the goat and gone back home, they still felt guilty for the sins they had committed last week, last month, 10 years ago.
The blood of the goats did not remove their guilt.
And no matter how many goats were killed or how good they tried to be, they lived with the burden of guilt on them, and it was killing them. That problem continued, year after year for the next 1500 years when the Day of Atonement was dramatically changed forever.
Praise God, can you guess who solved the guilt problem? The book of Hebrews says:
(Jesus) did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood… The blood of goats and bulls … sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ … cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death… (Hebrews 9:12-14 NIV)
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22 NIV)
Did you notice what the blood of Jesus does to our consciences? It cleanses us from a guilty conscience. Hallelujah!! The blood of Jesus did what the blood of goats and bulls could never do- it actually gets rid of the guilt so we don’t have to feel so guilty and condemned for our past anymore! His blood doesn't just wash away our sins – it washes away our guilt as well!!
Do you see the goodness and the kindness and the love of God?
Let's look at another passage now that explains this cleansing a little more:
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV)
Paul tells it like it is, doesn’t he? He doesn’t mince words - he was saying, some of you guys used to do bad things.... but, he adds, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God!!
I want to tell a story that kind of explains these 3 powerful little words.
Years ago, we picked up a little dog that we found on the side of the road. We put up signs in town, and knocked on doors on the road where we found him, but no one ever claimed him, so we kept him.
We named him Dunkin; he was a cute little dog, but he had a lot of fleas.
So I put him into the shower, lathered him up really well, rinsed him, dried him, and checked him for fleas. Well, I still saw some. Then I remembered that you have to leave the shampoo on for 10 minutes or so to kill the fleas. So I put him back in the shower, lathered him up, and left him in the shower. This time, I accidentally forgot about him. The poor dog was in there for half an hour! But this time, I checked him for fleas and they were all gone.
What’s this got to do with anything? Well, I washed him with the shampoo and rinsed away all his fleas. I could literally see the dead fleas falling off his body and going down the drain.
Those fleas are like our sins. That’s what Jesus does for us when we ask. He washes away all our sins with His blood.
When I couldn’t find another flea on him, I went a step further. I took a little tube of flea poison and I applied it to Dunkin's back. In this way, I was making sure that he wouldn’t get fleas again. I was making him acceptable to live in the house.
That’s what the Holy Spirit does for us. He sanctifies us, makes us holy, fit to be in God’s presence. Dunkin could never do this step for himself, and neither could we. But as we stay in His presence, He promises to do it for us. (see 2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV)
Then, when Dunkin had his bath and his flea treatment, I no longer worried about those fleas he’d had before. Because of the bath, those fleas were gone. I saw them go down the drain. When I looked at Dunkin after his shower, I could truly say, “He’s flea-less. He’s fit to be in the house.”
When God the Father sees you, washed and covered by the blood of Jesus, He says, "you’re clean, innocent, holy, just as if you had never sinned." God has justified us – declared us sinless.
Christians don’t kill goats anymore to pay for their sins, but many people do live with a lot of guilt for their past.
And they do things to try to cover their guilt.
Maybe they try to do lots of good deeds, and they rationalize that if they do enough good deeds it will make up for all the bad things they used to do.
The problem is that the guilt never really goes away.
Just like the blood of goats, all of their rationalizing and all of their good deeds can never cleanse their conscience of guilt.
They’re looking good on the outside; they’re living good lives now, but they’re still feeling guilty for the sins of their past.
Christians who live like this are no different than the Israelites back in the days of Moses. They kill the goat and they come back home and they still carry the heavy weight of guilt with them.
But here’s the good news: the blood of Jesus works.
The blood of Jesus not only washes away our sins, it also washes away our guilt.
So what should we do with our sin? All we have to do is turn to Him and confess it. When we confess it, what does He do?
He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9 NIV)
He will remove our sins as far as the east is from the west (see Psalm 103:11-12 NIV)
He will forgive our sin, have compassion on us, tread our sins under His feet and hurl our sins into the depths of the sea (see Micah 7:18-19 NIV)
He justifies us – declares us to be sinless, just as if we had never sinned
I think that people feel guilty because deep down, we feel that our sins deserve punishment.
When I was in third grade, we had a record player in the classroom. One day, the teacher gave the class some free time while she went down the hall for a few minutes. My friend and I turned on the record player and were dancing around to the music.
Being naturally nonathletic, I accidentally tripped and fell into the record player, knocking it to the floor. When we set it back up on its stand again, it didn’t work. The classroom got quiet and everyone wanted to know “who did it.” My friend turned on me. “Awwwww,” she pointed at me, “Andi did it. She broke the record player.”
I was in a state of shock. I couldn’t say anything. Then I heard the teacher coming back down the hallway. I could hear the legs of her polyester pants swishing together as she slowly made her way. Swish swish swish. I could hear the other kids whispering, “she’s going to be in trouble.” I was so scared, so guilt ridden, that I ran to the door to meet her. I wanted to get it over with quickly.
My friend was right beside me. When we saw the teacher, my friend pointed at me and burst out – “Andi broke the record player!” At the same time, I was yelling, “I broke the record player!” The teacher, bless her heart, just calmly replied, “it’s okay, it’s okay.”
For those 2 or 3 minutes, I had this tremendous guilt and fear, and I couldn’t live with it. Well, I was alive and all my organs were functioning, but you know what I mean. I wasn’t functioning well. But once I told the teacher, I was fine.
A lot of Christians have tremendous guilt because of a sin they’ve committed in their past. They don’t know what to do with it; it’s a real problem for them. They function enough to get by, but they don’t function well.
They don’t have peace with God; they don’t feel close to God anymore. They know that they’ve hurt somebody, or worse, they’ve let God down.
Deep down, sometimes we want to be punished because we feel like we deserve punishment. But here’s the amazing news – Jesus was already punished for our sins!!
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53: 5,6 NIV)
Our sins, every one of them, have been punished already. Jesus was punished for them. So we don’t need to feel guilty anymore.
We just need to come to Him and confess.
Pour out all your ugly, dark, secret sins to Jesus. Then, believe that at the cross, your heart was cleansed of all guilt, all need for punishment.
Your sins and mine were laid on Jesus. When Jesus was on the cross, He was like the scapegoat; covered with all our sins.
Once you confess it to Jesus, your sin and your need for guilt is forever removed. He throws it in the ocean. Corrie ten Boom said that when He throws it in the Ocean, He puts up a “no fishin’ allowed” sign. You might remember it, other people remember it, the devil might remember it, but not God.
If you are still burdened with guilt over the sins of your past, just turn to Jesus. Tell Him you’re sorry, and ask for His blood to wash away your sins off your heart and the guilt off your conscience! God says,
"Come now, let us reason together,” … “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18 NIV)
References
Strong, James. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words. Baker Book House, 1983.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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