Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)

We know that much of the Mosaic Law cannot be kept in the absence of a Jewish Temple.  But 40 years before the Second Temple was demolished, it appears that the Mosaic Law had ceased to be effective. While the Temple was still standing, the High Priest would cast lots for two goats on the Day of Atonement. One--the scapegoat--would not be sacrificed.  The other goat would be sacrificed “for the LORD” as a sin offering: “Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the LORD, and offer him for a sin offering.” (Lev. 16:8-9 WMB)

According to Charles John Ellicott in Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers:

The lots consisted of two small tablets which at an earlier time were of box or ebony wood, but which during the later part of the second Temple were made of gold, and were kept in a wooden chest. On the one was engraved the words “For Jehovah,” and on the other “For Azazel,” the expression in the original, which is translated scapegoat in the Authorised Version. The high priest, after shaking the chest, put both his hands into the urn and simultaneously took out the two tablets, one in each hand.

When the priest drew the lot “for Jehovah” with his right hand, it was considered to be a sign that the people’s sins had been forgiven.  But according to the Babylonian Talmud, “The Sages taught: During the tenure of Shimon HaTzaddik the lot for God always arose in the High Priest’s right hand; after his death, it occurred only occasionally; but during the forty years prior to the destruction of the Second Temple, the lot for God did not arise in the High Priest’s right hand at all. So too, the strip of crimson wool that was tied to the head of the goat that was sent to Azazel did not turn white, and the westernmost lamp of the candelabrum did not burn continually. (Yoma 39b) In other words, during those 40 years, the two signs that the goat “For Jehovah” had been accepted failed to appear.

When Jesus died on the Feast of Passover the Bible says “Yeshua cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit. Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split” (Matthew 27:50-51 WMB). “For indeed Messiah, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.” (1 Corinthians 5:7b) Fast forward to the Day of Atonement of that same year. Most scholars believe Jesus was crucified in the spring of AD 30 or AD 33. If the year was AD 30, it would have been the first year of forty years in a row that when the lot “for Jehovah” was drawn, the lot “for Jehovah” didn’t come up in the High Priest’s right hand.

Yom Kippur Scriptures

Leviticus 16 (WMB)
1 The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they came near before the LORD, and died; 2 and the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Most Holy Place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark; lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.

3 “Aaron shall come into the sanctuary with a young bull for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen tunic. He shall have the linen trousers on his body, and shall put on the linen sash, and he shall be clothed with the linen turban. They are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water, and put them on. 5 He shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.

6 “Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. 7 He shall take the two goats, and set them before the LORD at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 8 Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. [Note: instead of “for the scapegoat,” the Hebrew here says “for Azazel.] 9 Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the LORD, and offer him for a sin offering. 10 But the goat on which the lot fell for the scapegoat [Azazel] shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement for him, to send him away as the scapegoat into the wilderness [into the wilderness to Azazel].

11 “Aaron shall present the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. 12 He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil. 13 He shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the covenant, so that he will not die. 14 He shall take some of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.

15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with his blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. 16 He shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins; and so he shall do for the Tent of Meeting that dwells with them in the middle of their uncleanness. 17 No one shall be in the Tent of Meeting when he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, and has made atonement for himself and for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.

18 “He shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the bull’s blood, and some of the goat’s blood, and put it around on the horns of the altar. 19 He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and make it holy from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.

20 “When he has finished atoning for the Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is ready. 22 The goat shall carry all their iniquities on himself to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

23 “Aaron shall come into the Tent of Meeting, and shall take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy Place, and p 96 shall leave them there. 24 Then he shall bathe himself in water in a holy place, put on his garments, and come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. 25 The fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar.

26 “He who lets the goat go as the scapegoat [goat for Azazel] shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. 27 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 their skins, their flesh, and their dung with fire. 28 He who burns them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp.

29 “It shall be a statute to you forever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no kind of work, whether native-born or a stranger who lives as a foreigner among you; 30 for on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you. You shall be clean from all your sins before the LORD. 31 It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever. 32 The priest, who is anointed and who is consecrated to be priest in his father’s place, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, even the holy garments. 33 Then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary; and he shall make atonement for the Tent of Meeting and for the altar; and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.

34 “This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.”
It was done as the LORD commanded Moses.

Numbers 29:7-11 (WMB)
7 “ ‘On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall afflict your souls. You shall do no kind of work; 8 but you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD for a pleasant aroma: one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old, all without defect; 9 and their meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three tenths for the bull, two tenths for the one ram, 10 one tenth for every lamb of the seven lambs; 11 one male goat for a sin offering, in addition to the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and its meal offering, and their drink offerings.

Isaiah 58:3 (WMB)
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and oppress all your laborers.

Acts 27:9 (WMB)
When much time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous because the Fast had now already gone by, Paul admonished them

Hebrews 9:6-14 (WMB)
6 Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services, 7 but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people. 8 The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 This is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect, 10 being only (with foods and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.

11 But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, 12 nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?