Yom Kippur: Alignment

Give Now!

In the three seventh month feasts of the Lord that announce the return of the King, the most misunderstood is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, or the Day of Covering. For most of the world this day is only seen through the eyes of Judaism. It is the most solemn and the most important day of the modern Jewish calendar. On this day, Jewish people fast with the intention of being granted another year to try to attain their place in the Book of Life.

Yeshua said to His disciples when they returned to Him after spreading the gospel:

“Now the seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!” And He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning. “Behold, I have given you authority to walk on snakes and scorpions, and authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”” (Luk 10:17-20, NASB)

By this statement He was pointing out 2 things, first that He personally watched the fall of Satan from heaven. This revealed a change in authority from the Satanic realm to the realm of the followers of Yeshua. This is why it is so important not to engage in the mumbo jumbo that parades itself as spiritual warfare. Satan has already fallen from heaven. The disciples of Yeshua have all authority to tread on the serpents and scorpions of this world, which He clarifies as the power of the enemy. Secondly, however, and more importantly according to Him, is that we are already written into the Book of Life in Heaven.

We see this echoed by the Apostle Paul who says:

“Indeed, true companion, I ask you also, help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement as well as the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.” (Php 4:3, NASB)

Clearly the co-workers of Paul who would be all who are born-again have their names written in the Book of Life. 

In Revelation Yeshua tells the church in Sardis, who He says are mostly dead in religion:

“‘The one who overcomes will be clothed the same way, in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” (Rev 3:5, NASB)

The white garments are those purified by His blood and alive based on that and not on religion which is the kiss of death.

In the upcoming battle with the antichrist, aka the beast, we overcome because we have been already written in the lamb’s book of life which was written when He was slain at the foundation of the world.

“All who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slaughtered.” (Rev 13:8, NASB)

You see our true strength comes from our position in Him, not our vain attempt to fight in our own strength. He is slain, which is the foundation of the world. 

“Saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing.”” (Rev 5:12, NASB)

This is the foundation of the recreated world. Once we receive Him as savior, we are translated from a world that is broken by sin into another dimension with a new foundation. Even though we continue in this world we are not of it. This transforms our worship and every aspect of our destiny. We are in the book of life.

This becomes truly clear in Revelation, chapter 20:

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Rev 20:11-15, NASB)

This is the reality of the book of life. It is based on the blood of the slain Lamb of God, not on fasting or anything else we can do. So, if that is the case then what is the purpose of Yom Kippur? Let us look at Leviticus 23 and see if we can uncover this a bit:

“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble yourselves and present an offering by fire to the LORD. “You shall not do any work on this very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the LORD your God. “If there is any person who does not humble himself on this very day, he shall be cut off from his people. “As for any person who does any work on this very day, that person I will eliminate from among his people. “You shall not do any work. It is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. “It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening, you shall keep your Sabbath.”” (Lev 23:26-32, NASB)

First, it is a Shabbat. This is a huge key. A Shabbat is a time of oneness with the Lord. Sabbaths are holy to the Lord. One way to think of that is for non-Sabbath days, work is the measure of time. On the Sabbaths there is to be no work. That makes the Sabbath day, a day of non-work or grace. 

Grace, Chen, in Hebrew means the wall or fence that protects or encircles the seed of God’s Word or instruction, Torah.  Knowing the ancient Hebrew letters are pictures we can also reverse the 2 letters for grace, Chet and Nun and we get the word Nach, where Noah gets his name which means rest. The Shabbat then reveals grace and rest. This is the finished work of the cross. It brings us into grace and through grace we experience true rest.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. (Heb 4:9-10 NIV)

Yom Kippur, at its core, is a celebration of the finished work of the cross bringing us from works into rest. 

Secondly, the Day of Atonement is a holy convocation. The Hebrew word for this is a “miqra”. The root is the root “Qar”. 

The first letter is the “quf” where we get our letter q. It originally was a picture of the eye of the needle. You the round top and the straight bottom. The second letter is the picture of the head or authority, the “reysh”. Together this reminds us of Yeshua’s warning that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for those who trust in mammon to get into heaven.

"Again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."(Mat 19:24 NASB)

We get even more clarity when we see that this is a day for humility. Humility comes from the Hebrew root “anah” which means to intently focus. It is the picture of coming into oneness with someone. It has less to do with lessening oneself which is an exercise in futility to losing oneself in another. 

Finally, Yom Kippur is about bringing a fire offering. Fire is Esh. It is what occurs when we remove God from man and woman. Man is the Hebrew word “Ish”. This is Aleph, Yod, Shin. Woman is “ishah” which is aleph, shin, hey”. Man contains the “yod” of God and woman contains the “hey” of God. Together these spell “Yah”. When you take God out of man and woman you are left with esh, fire. Fire is destructive and destroys both man and woman.

The fire offering of Yom Kippur is to proactively engage fire by sacrificing with fire. In other words, we recognize how volatile we are apart from God, and we offer Him a fire offering to allow Him to be in our relationships. Be bringing Him a sacrifice, we honor Him and put Him back into the equation.

Bringing these 3 aspects of Yom Kippur together, eye of the needle, yielding our mammon to Him, humbling ourselves, returning our focus to Him and the fire offering, inviting Him to make us One, we honor and activate the Feast Day.

Activation: The fire offering. What passion do you need to bring to Him and invite Him to be in it?