Today is the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.  It is the highest Sabbath during the Hebraic year.  Today also is the final day of the 40-day season of Teshuvah, a major period of repentance, asking God for forgiveness and returning to a meaningful relationship with Him.

       
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God ordained this day in ancient Israel for the high priest to enter the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle, and later the temple.  He was to make atonement for his sins and for the sins of the people (Leviticus 16:1-34).

Later, God also told Moses that this Day of Atonement was to be a special day of commemoration.  It was to be a day of sacred assembly, a day to deny oneself (for example, to abstain from eating), and a day to refrain from work (Leviticus 23:26-32).

On Yom Kippur each year in ancient Israel, the high priest selected two goats that would be the slain goat and the “scapegoat”.  It is because these goats made atonement for the sins and guilt of the people that the day was referred to as the Day of Atonement.

There are direct connections between Yom Kippur and Jesus, atonement sacrifice and Redeemer.  Firstly, He was our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7b) whose blood was shed for the atonement of our sins, and there are other parallels between Jesus and the Passover lamb.  Secondly, He will return to earth, to begin to rule and reign, on a future Yom Kippur, at the end of the 70th Week.

Here are two email responses I have written in the past having to do with Yom Kippur:

• How does the blood atonement of Passover differ from the blood atonement of Yom Kippur?
• Why do you think that Jesus will return to earth on a Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement and in conjunction with the blowing of the Seventh Trumpet?