This is the sixth feast among seven feasts that the Lord ordained for the people of Israel to keep. The feasts were key milestones that they were to keep through the course of the year, from Passover [which marked their beginning as a nation] to Pentecost [which marked the firstfruits of their harvest] to Tabernacles [which marked their full harvest]. We have understood that these feasts are a type, representing spiritual milestones that we (the people of God under the New Covenant) are to experience, beginning from the feast where we have a new beginning in God till we arrive at the seventh feast where we experience the full harvest of the divine nature of God. We’ve understood that just as the Passover was the first feast they were to celebrate when they entered into the Promised Land, likewise the Passover, for us, represents our new beginning in Christ as new creatures that are created after God in righteousness and true holiness (2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 4:24). We’ve also understood that just as they did not yield the full harvest of the promised land immediately they entered, but progressed through the different feasts, yielding the firstfruits of the harvest at the feast of Firstfruits and Pentecost and yielding the fullness of the harvest at the feast of Tabernacles, so also, for us, we did not see the fullness of the harvest (of the divine nature that the new creation man is ordained to have) expressed in us immediately we became born-again, but are to progress through each feast so that the principles of each feast will work in us to enable us get to our Firstfruits and Pentecost (when we yield the firstfruits of the divine nature of the new creation man), and to also get to our Tabernacles (when we yield the full harvest of the divine nature of God that the new creation man is created in, Ephesians 4:24). It is with this in mind that we proceed to study on the Day of Atonement. To understand, by God’s grace, the principles in this feast and how they are to help us get to the full harvest of God’s divine nature in the feast of Tabernacles. May the Lord help us in Jesus name. Amen.
Pretexts: Leviticus 23:26-32, Leviticus 16, Leviticus 25:9
What is the Day of Atonement?
- Leviticus 23:28, 16:30. For the people of Israel, it was a day to make atonement, to cleanse the people from all their sins before the Lord.
- What is atonement? Atonement is from a Greek word which means to cover, to pacify, to purge, to make reconciliation, to cancel. Thus, the day of atonement was a day to cancel all the sins of the people before God, so that they will be pure in His sight, as a people without fault.
- What does Leviticus 25:9 tell us about the Day of Atonement? It is also the day on which the year of Jubilee begins.
- What is the Jubilee? Leviticus 25:1-55. Verse 13. It is a time when everyone returns untotheir possession. A time of restoration of all that is lost. A time of redemption.
- What is the relationship between the Day of Atonement and the Jubilee? They both speak of redemption. Jubilee is a time of returning to an estate that was lost. And atonement is what helps to bring back a people to the estate of being pure and blameless in the sight of God. By ordaining the Jubilee to begin on the day of atonement, God is showing us that the blessings of the Jubilee are actually provisions of the day of atonement. Obtaining this Jubilee should be our primary goal in the day of atonement. By instructing that the Jubilee should be declared on the day of atonement through the blowing of the trumpet (in Leviticus 25:9), God is showing us that we are to still apply the principles we learnt from the feast of trumpets as a key to open the blessings of the Jubilee in the day of atonement, so that we can be restored into the fullness in the feast of tabernacles (the initial estate God ordained for man in Genesis 1:26 – that we should be in His divine imageand likeness). Selah!
- What is the principle we learnt from the feast of trumpets?
- How do we apply this principle(s) to experience the Jubilee?
- How does the Jubilee (being restored to what was lost) relate to the fullness (in tabernacles)?
- What else did God say about the day of atonement? Leviticus 23:27-32, 16:29-31. It is aholy convocation. A sabbath of rest. A day to afflict (to deny, to humble) our soul. A day to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. These things (when we do them) create the necessary environment for us to obtain the full benefit of the day of atonement (to aid us, through the power of the provision of the Jubilee, to enter into God’s fullness). How?
- What does it mean to afflict your soul?
- How does afflicting your soul help you obtain the full benefit of the day of atonement?
- What is the relationship between denying yourself and being restored into God’s fullness?