Day of Atonement

This holy day follows the end of Satan’s war when Jeshua has returned and taken control of the world. It is a day of repentance and reconnecting with Jehovah God. It will also be the time when Satan will be judged for his crimes and imprisoned.

The Day of Atonement was instituted by God as a day of convocation and affliction: (Leviticus 23:26-32)

And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying: “Also the tenth day of this seventh new moon will be the Day of Atonement. It will be a holy convocation for you; you will afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to Jehovah. And you will do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before Jehovah your God. For any soul who is not afflicted of soul on that same day, he will be cut off from his people.

“And any soul who does any work on that same day, that soul I will destroy from among his people. You will do no manner of work; it will be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

“It will be to you a Sabbath of Sabbath observance, and you will afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the new moon at evening, from evening to evening, you will celebrate your Sabbath.”1

A convocation is a meeting of the congregation of God with God. Afflicting your soul means to pray earnestly for forgiveness and to fast for the day as an indication that we recognize our sinfulness. This is clearly a special day on Jehovah’s calendar.

Then the disciples of John approached Him, and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees often fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

Jeshua said to them, “Why would the sons at the wedding feast fast as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

And indeed, our Bridegroom is not physically with us now, so it is reasonable that we fast. Fasting cannot force God to do something for us because we are doing something ‘righteous’, but it serves to remind us how fragile and sinful we are and how much we need God’s forgiveness, love and support. It is intended to help us draw closer to God. See the results of Israel’s attempt to force God to obey them: (1 Samuel 4:1-11)

And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek. Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel. And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field.

And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has Jehovah defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of Jehovah from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies.” So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant of Jehovah of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. And when the ark of the covenant of Jehovah came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook.

Now when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the sound of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” Then they understood that the ark of Jehovah had come into the camp. So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp!” And they said, “Woe to us! For such a thing has never happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.”

“Be strong and conduct yourselves like men, you Philistines, that you do not become servants of the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Conduct yourselves like men, and fight!” So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter, and thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell there. Also the ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

So we see that not even something as sacred to God as the ark containing the Ten Words was enough to make Jehovah obey men.

On this particular day, fasting reminds us especially of our personal sins, of everyone’s sins, and of our repentance of sin, as we see in these examples: (Jonah 3:3-10, Psalm 69:5-18 and Zec 12:10-13:2)

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. Now Nineveh was God’s great city, a three-day journey in extent.2 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown!”

So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?”

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. Jonah 3:3-10

O God, You know my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from You. Do not let those who wait for You, O Lord Jehovah of Hosts, be ashamed because of me. Do not let those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel. Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face.

I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children; because zeal for Your house has eaten me up,3 and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.4 When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that became my reproach. I also made sackcloth my garment; I became a proverb to them. Those who sit in the gate speak against me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Jehovah, in the acceptable time; O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, hear me in the truth of Your salvation. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Do not let the floodwater overflow me, nor let the deep swallow me up; and do not let the pit shut its mouth on me.

Hear me, O Jehovah, for Your loving-kindness is good; turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. And do not hide Your face from Your servant, for I am in trouble. Hear me speedily. Draw near to my soul, and redeem it; Psalm 69:5-18

“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for a unique son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

“In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. And the land will mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves. In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

“It will be in that day,” says Jehovah of Hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.” Zechariah 12:10-13:2

Now we shall read the Ceremony that God gave to Moses, which was to be performed only once each year, on the Day of Atonement. It was the only time that Aaron, the High Priest, was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. Carefully note the examples of Azazel’s goat and Jehovah’s Goat, which we will discuss after reading this passage from Leviticus 16:2 to 34:

And Jehovah said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron your brother and say he will not come at all times into the Holy inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, and he will not die; for I appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.5 With this Aaron will come into the Holy: with a young bull, a son of the herd for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.6 He will put the holy linen tunic on, and linen trousers on his body; and with a linen belt he will gird himself, and with the linen turban he will wrap himself. They are holy garments. And he will bathe his flesh in water, and will put them on.

“And from the congregation of the children of Israel he will take two males of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron will bring the young bull of the sin offering, which is his own, and will atone for himself and for his house. And he will take the two goats and stand them before Jehovah at the door of the tent of the appointed times.

“Then Aaron will cast lots over the two goats: one lot for Jehovah and the other lot for Azazel.7 And Aaron will bring the goat on which Jehovah’s lot fell, and will make it a sin offering. But the goat on which Azazel’s lot fell will be stood alive before Jehovah, to atone by it, and to send it away as Azazel into the wilderness.

“And Aaron will bring the young bull of the sin offering, which is his own, and will atone for himself and for his house, and will kill the young bull of the sin offering which is his own. Then he will take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before Jehovah, with his hands full of fragrant incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. And he will put the incense on the fire before Jehovah, and the cloud of the incense will cover the mercy seat which is on the Testimony, and he will not die. He will take some of the blood of the young bull and sprinkle it with his finger eastward on the front of the mercy seat; and at the front of the mercy seat he will sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.

“Then he will kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, and will bring its blood inside the veil, and will do with its blood as he has done with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. And he will atone for the Holy, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he will do for the tent of the appointed times which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness.8 There will be no man in the tent of the appointed times when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.

“And he will go out to the altar that is before Jehovah, and make atonement for it, and will take some of the blood of the young bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. Then he will sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and sanctify it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.

“And when he has finished atoning for the Holy, the tent of the appointed times, and the altar, he will bring the live goat; and Aaron will lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and will send it into the wilderness by the hand of a chosen man.

“The goat will bear on itself all their iniquities to an isolated region; and he will send the goat into the wilderness.

“Then Aaron will come into the tent of the appointed times, will take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy, and will leave them there. And he will bathe his body with water in a sacred place, put on his garments, come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. The fat of the sin offering he will burn as incense on the altar.

“And he who released the goat for Azazel will wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterwards he will come into the camp.

“The young bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy, will be carried outside the camp. And they will burn in the fire their skins, their flesh, and their offal.9 Then he who burns them will wash his clothes and will bathe his body in water, and afterwards he will come into the camp.

“This will be a statute for you forever: In the seventh new moon, on the tenth day of the new moon, you will afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day he will make atonement for you, to cleanse you. You will be clean from all your sins before Jehovah.

“It is a Sabbath of Sabbath observance for you, and you will afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.

“And the priest who he anoints, and whose hand he will consecrate to serve as priest instead of his father, will make atonement, and will put on the linen garments, the holy garments; then he will atone for the Holy Sanctuary, and for the tent of the appointed times and he will atone for the altar, and he will atone for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.

“This will be an everlasting statute for you, to atone for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.” And he did as Jehovah commanded Moses.10 Leviticus 16:2 to 34

The Day of Atonement is established as an Everlasting Statute, as stated in verse 31.

The goat for Jehovah must be slain and its blood sprinkled onto the altar to free the people from their sins. This goat represents Jeshua, God’s Son, who has now been slain and His blood sprinkled onto the true altar in heaven to free all of us from our sins: (Hebrews 9:7-15)

But the high priest would enter the inner tabernacle by himself once a year with blood, which he offered for his soul and for the offences of the people.11 Now in this the Holy Spirit taught that the way of Holiness was not yet revealed for as long as the first tabernacle was still standing.12 This was a symbol for that time in which offerings and sacrifices were offered which were not able to perfect the conscience of him who offered them; concerned only with food and drink, and various kinds of immersions, that are fleshly ordinances established until the time of reformation.

But the Messiah who came has become the High Priest of the good things that he did, and He entered the great and perfect tabernacle that was not made with hands, which is not of this creation.13 He did not enter with the blood of yearling goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Holy House that one time, and He achieved everlasting redemption.14 For if the blood of goats and calves and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on the unclean, sanctifies them for the purifying of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works, that we may serve the Living God?

Because of this, He is the Mediator of the New Covenant, for by His death, He became salvation for those who transgressed against the first covenant, that we who are called may receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance. Hebrews 9:7-15

Never forget that, as verse 12 says, Jeshua entered the true Holy of Holies in Heaven with His own blood to redeem us. Nothing else can redeem us.

But now, let us return to the Leviticus passage: Azazel essentially translates as “goat of departure” and is a symbol for Satan, who finally has all the sins he is responsible for placed back onto his own head. He is then removed from any further contact with people until the end of the Millennium of Peace, as we will see below.

Atonement is a day of very serious judgement, where sin must be acknowledged and dealt with.

Atonement includes the concept of “At One Ment”—bringing us back from our separation from God and into an intimate relationship with him. But who has been separated from God?

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of Jehovah, given through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would fulfil seventy years in the ruins of Jerusalem.15

Then I set my face toward Jehovah God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to Jehovah my God, and made confession, and said, “O Jehovah, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments; we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done evil and rebelled, and turned from Your commandments and Your judgements. Nor have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your Name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.

“O Jehovah, righteousness belongs to You, but shame of face to us, as it is this day; to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You. O Jehovah, shame of face belongs to us, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To Jehovah our God belongs mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. We have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God, to walk in His Instructions, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.

“Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your Instructions, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Instructions of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.16 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such never has been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the Instructions of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before Jehovah our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. Therefore Jehovah has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for Jehovah our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.

“And now, O Jehovah our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a Name, as it is this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly! O Jehovah, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all who are around us. Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate, for Your Name, Jehovah.

“O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your Name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. O Jehovah, hear! O Jehovah, forgive! O Jehovah, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your Name.” Daniel 9:1-19

He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Blessed is the man who always trembles, but he who hardens his heart will fall into evil.

This is the Good News which we have heard from Him and we declare to you, that God is light and there is not any darkness in Him at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not understand the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of His Son Jeshua cleanses us from all of our sins.

If we say that we have no sin in us, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and He will cleanse us from all our evil. And if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

Children, I write these things to you, that you will not sin. And if anyone sins, we have the Redeemer of the cursed with the Father, Jeshua the righteous Messiah. For He is in Himself the Atonement17 because of our sins, and not in our place only but also in place of the whole world.

Now by this we can tell that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. For he who says, “I know Him.” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is completed in them. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says “I am in Him.”, it is necessary for him to walk just like He walks. First John 1:5 to 2:6

Like Daniel and John, we also must pray for forgiveness for our sins and keep God’s commandments. And we need to be clear about this: When Jeshua regathers the Israelites scattered throughout the world after His return, ONLY those willing to repent, follow Him and obey His Father’s Instructions will be brought to Israel. The rebels will be destroyed. All this is detailed in Ezekiel 20:33 to 44 and Jeshua expands it to include all nations in Matthew 25:31 to 46.

We must also pray for patience with each other (Book of Jacob, aka James, 5:7-20):

But you, my brethren, be patient in your spirit18 until the coming of Lord Jah.19 Be like the farmer who waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently in his spirit for it until he receives the early and spring rain. You also be patient in your spirit and strengthen your hearts, for the coming of our Lord draws near. Do not grumble against one another, my brethren, lest you be judged. For behold, the Judge is standing before the gate!

My brethren, take the example of the prophets for patience in spirit in your afflictions, who spoke in the Name of Jehovah.20 For behold, we give our blessings to those who endure. You have heard of the endurance of Job and you have seen the end that Lord Jah made for him; because Jehovah21 is very compassionate and merciful.

But above all else, my brethren, do not swear vows, neither by heaven nor by earth nor with any other oath, but let your word “Yes,” be “Yes,” and “No,” “No,” lest you be condemned in judgement.

And if anyone among you is suffering, let him pray. And if anyone is rejoicing, let him sing psalms. And if anyone among you is ill, let him call for the elders of the congregation, and let them pray over him and anoint him with oil in the Name of Jehovah.22 And the prayer of faith will heal the one who was ill, and Jehovah will raise him up.23 And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven for them.

But you, confess your offences to one another, and you must pray for one another to be healed, for the power of prayer of a righteous man is great. For Elijah was a man subject to suffering like us, and he prayed that rain would not fall on the land, and it did not come down for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth yielded its fruits.24

My brethren, if any one of you wanders from the Way of Truth, and someone restores him from his error, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way saves his soul from death and blots out the multitude of his sins. Jacob 5:7-20

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You will love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’25 But I say to you, love your enemies and bless those who curse you. Do what is good to those who hate you, and pray for those who take you by force and persecute you, so that you may be descendants of your Father in heaven. He makes His sun rise on the good and on the evil, and causes His rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do this? And if you only greet your brethren in peace, what more are you doing? Do not even the tax collectors do this? Therefore you should be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Think on this. Jeshua does not merely want us to become good, we are to become perfect. Pray for God to remove our sins and fix our sinful nature, as King David did: (Psalm 51:1-19)

Have mercy upon me, O God! According to Your loving-kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me.

Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight; that You may be found righteous when You speak and pure when You judge.26 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and my mother conceived me in sin. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways and sinners will be converted to You.

Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Jehovah, open my lips, and my mouth will show forth Your praise. For You do not delight that I should give sacrifices, You take no pleasure from burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, You will not despise.

Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You will be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then they will offer bulls on Your altar. Psalm 51:1-19

Jeshua is the sacrifice for our sins, as we read earlier in Hebrews. Indeed, what Jeshua has done for us was prophesied, in great detail, in Isaiah 53:1 to 12:

Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of Jehovah been revealed?27 For He will grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.28

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. All of us have gone astray like sheep; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.29 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open his mouth.30

He was taken from prison and from judgement, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living;31 for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked; but with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.32

Yet Jehovah was pleased to crush Him; He has made Him grieve. If He makes His soul an offering for sin, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah will prosper in His hand. He will see the travail of His soul, and He will be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, for He will bear their iniquities.33

Therefore I will divide to Him with the great, and He will divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.34 Isaiah 53:1 to 12

Never, ever, underestimate the value of our Messiah’s sacrifice: (Hebrews 10:12-25)

But He offered one sacrifice for sins forever, then He sat at the right side of God, and He remains there until His enemies are placed as a footstool under His feet.35 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, saying, “This is the covenant that I will give them after those days, says Jehovah: I will place My Instructions into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts, and their evils and their sins; I will not remember them.”36 Now where there is forgiveness of sins, an offering for sins is not required.

Therefore, brethren, we are given boldness to enter the Holy House by the blood of Jeshua and the Way of Life, who renewed us within the veil, which is His flesh. And there is, for us, a High Priest over the House of God.

Therefore, let us approach with a true heart and confident faith, having our hearts sprinkled and purified from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly to the confession of our hope and let us not waver, for He who promised us is faithful.

And let us look after one another by encouraging love and good works, and we should not forsake our assemblies, as is the manner of some persons, but look after one another, and all the more as you see that Day approaching. Hebrews 10:12-25

For if a person chooses to sin after receiving the knowledge of the Truth, after that there is not a sacrifice that can be offered in place of the sins, but that terrifying judgement is ready, and fiery zeal which devours the adversaries. For if anyone violates Moses’ Instructions, he dies without mercy on the words37 of two or three witnesses.38 How much more will his punishment be, do you think, when he has trampled upon the Son of God, and regarded the blood of His covenant by which he was sanctified as a common thing,39 and he has despised the Spirit of Grace?

We know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.” And again, “Jehovah will judge His people.”40 It is a very fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.41

Therefore remember those first days when you received immersion,42 and you endured a great struggle with suffering and shameful affliction; and you became a spectacle and you also became companions with people who endured these things; and you were grieved concerning those who were imprisoned. You endured the theft of your possessions with joy, because you knew that you have a greater possession in Heaven which will not pass away.

Therefore do not throw away your boldness, for there is a great reward coming to you because of it. For it is necessary for you to have endurance to do the will of God and receive the promise: “For there is very little time, and He who is coming will come and will not delay.43 But the righteous one will live by My faith; and if he gives up on it, My soul has no pleasure in him.”44

And we are not despondent, which leads to destruction, but are those of the faith which gives our souls to us. Hebrews 10:26-39

Satan will be judged and bound when Jeshua returns, as was indicated by Azazel’s goat: (Revelation 20:1-3)

And I saw another envoy from Heaven, who had with him the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan,45 and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the abyss, and shut and sealed the top of it, that he would not seduce all the nations again. After these years it is allowed to release him for a little time.

Jubilee, which begins on the Day of Atonement, marks the beginning of freedom, and also the day that the Thousand Years of Peace will truly begin: (Leviticus 25:8-13)

‘And you will count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven Sabbaths of years will be forty-nine years to you. Then you will cause the shophar’s shout to pass through on the tenth day of the seventh new moon; on the Day of Atonement you will make the shophar to pass throughout all your land.

“And you will consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee for you; and each of you will return to his possession, and each of you will return to his family. That fiftieth year will be a Jubilee to you; in it you will neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. For it is the Jubilee; it will be holy to you; you will eat its produce from the field.

The Jubilee fits well here, as it is a foretaste of what will happen when Jeshua returns and sets up the Millennium of Peace, as Isaiah 35:1-10, Ezekiel 37:21-28 and Jeremiah 30:3-10 show.

“Behold, the days are coming,” says Jehovah, “when I will cut a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I cut with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them.” says Jehovah.

“But this is the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel: After those days, says Jehovah, I will put My Instructions in their inner parts, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. No more will each man teach his neighbour, and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know Jehovah.’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.” says Jehovah. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will not remember their sins again.”46

The saints will be blessed in helping rule during the Millennium under Jeshua: (Revelation 20:4)

And I saw seats, and they sat on them, and judgement was given to them and the souls of those who were cut off47 for the testimony of Jeshua and for the word of God, and because they had not worshipped the beast nor its image, nor received the mark between their eyes or on their hands.48 They lived and reigned with Messiah for one thousand years.

The Millennium of Peace, ushered in on the Day of Atonement, will be a joyous time. The wonder of the Millennium is the focus of the week-long Feast of Booths.

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Scripture quotes are from the CHCoG translation, based on the Aramaic Peshitta New Covenant.

2 This likely means that it would take three days to walk through every street in the city.

5 Meaning that if Aaron entered the Holy of Holies in any other time or way than that permitted on the Day of Atonement, as described down to vs 34, he would die.

6 Meaning to bring in their blood, not the live animals themselves, as confirmed in 16:27.

7 From the Hebrew עֲזָאזֵל aza’zel. It does not mean scapegoat, as it is often translated, but instead “goat of departure”. It represents Satan, who will at last have the sins he has inspired placed back upon him (Rev 20:1-10). Jehovah’s Goat represents Jeshua, His Son (John 1:29, 1Jo 2:2, Heb 9:11-15).

12 First refers to the physical tabernacles. The second physical tabernacle, (aka Booth, Temple or Palace), built at Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Since then, the only way to Holiness is through Jeshua the Messiah.

25 This must have been a common saying then, but is not an Instruction from Jehovah. However, David expresses the hatred in Psa 139:21-22.

39 Literally ‘like that of every person’ – that is, ordinary, common blood, not the blood of God’s only true Son.

40 As in Deu 32:35-36, rendered as MarJah (Lord Jah) in the Peshitta. Also Rom 12:19 & 1Th 4:6

42 The Greek manuscripts have ‘enlightenment’. Bauscher believes this to be a mistranslation of similar Aramaic words.

47 The Peshitta is dethpseq דֵּאתֿפּסֵק, which means that all who were killed (cut off) for their faithfulness to God are included. The Greek instead (and incorrectly) has “beheaded”, restricting this group to only those who are executed in this way.

48 Literally ‘on between their eyes’, suggesting the mark might be visible as well as internal.

DAY OF ATONEMENT