Is there room for Yom Kippur in Christianity?

The Sacrifices, Atonement and Its Purpose

Leviticus 16:11-34

The rest of Leviticus 16 describes:

First, the identification of the sacrifices – one bull and two goats. The bull was to offer as a sacrifice making an atonement for himself and his household. And there was a ritual or ceremony that went with that sacrifice. (verses 11-14)

Second, was the sacrifice of the goat selected by lot as an offering for the people, with its accompanying ceremonial ritual. (verses 15-18)

Third, it describes the releasing of the other goat into the wilderness, confessing over it “all he iniquities f he sons of Israel, and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by a man who stands in readiness.” (verses 20-21)

Verse 22a reads as follows: “And the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land.”

Verses 23-28 deal with the cleansing of both Aaron and those that helped him in the sacrifices, as well as the disposal of the remains of the animals, after they were finished.

We pick up the rest of the text below, verses 29-34:

²⁹ “This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; ³⁰ for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. ³¹ It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute. ³² So the priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement: he shall thus put on the linen garments, the holy garments, ³³ and make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. He shall also make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. ³⁴ Now you shall have this as a permanent statute, to make atonement for the sons of Israel for all their sins once every year.” And just as the Lord had commanded Moses, so he did.

Thoughts on the Passage

This is day six of our 14-day self-quarantine period due to the Coronavirus situation that has hit the world. All is well inside the house, but clearly the world is in a state of anxiety, physically, socially, and economically. The pressure is on to weigh the first two concerns (stay home and social distancing) against the third (shutting down all commerce) and make a choice. It remains to be seen what is chosen by the powers that be. Either way one goes has great consequences for not going the other way. May God give our leaders the wisdom to do what is best and in accordance with His plan for mankind at this time. Our job is to pray for that.

We keep washing our hands but that is nothing compared to the instructions God gave Moses for the priests to follow when going about their priestly work.

The most interesting aspects of this passage for me were the “scapegoat” and the purpose of the Day of Atonement.

About the scapegoat, David Guzik gives us some great insights. He writes:

This was a perfect demonstration of atonement under the Old Covenant, before the completed work of Jesus on the cross. Sin could be put away, but never really eliminated. The sin-bearing goat, bearing the sin of Israel, was alive somewhere but put away. [you can read all of his comments here: BlueLetterBible]

He continues:

It seems that later the Jewish people altered the ceremony so the goat would be killed and have no chance of contacting Israel again. "The Jews write, that this goat was carried to the mountain called Azazel, whence the goat is so called; and that there he was cast headlong; and that the red string by which he was led turned white when God was pleased with the Israelites, otherwise it remained red; and they mourned all that year." (Poole)

Robert Jamieson is also worth looking up here BlueLetterBible. We can rejoice that our sins are indeed gone forever because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. We no longer need a scapegoat. But still some of us operate as if we still have one, and often we go looking for it, or even feel that the scapegoat is hanging around preventing us from being free in Christ.

The chapter ends with a section on the purpose of the Day of Atonement which still is big in the Jewish faith (Yom Kippur).

God intended this to be a permanent statute (verse 29) each year. He wanted us to “humble our souls” and not to do any work that day. It is a day intended for our cleansing, so that we “shall be clean from all [our] sins before the Lord.” (verse 30) Perhaps it should be as big in our Christian faith, not so much to remember the scapegoat in the wilderness but to intentionally humble ourselves before God and thank Him for His gift of His Son on the cross which took away all our sins.

Matthew Henry’s commentary on this is fantastic and he relates it to the gospel. Check it out here BlueLetterBible.

These resources I’ve referred us to are very helpful in getting the historical aspects to these portions of Scripture and their applications for us today. 

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.