Peace to you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In the Bible you find the nation of Israel was in a constant cycle of rebellion and repentance. At one particular point their rebellion was so great God allowed Babylon to conquer them. The Jewish people spent 70 years in captivity and slavery.

Following the Babylonian captivity the Jewish religion changed a bit. It turned away from God’s promise of salvation through Himself and became a faith built on good works. As such many of the traditions and festivals of the Jewish faith became good works to earn God favor, rather than remembrances of His love, promises and salvation.

In their tradition The Days of Awe were recently observed this year. Ten days set aside to remember their sin and to repent. It is meant to be a time to emulate Abraham, because Abraham performed the best mitzvah, the best good deed: That of trusting in God completely. The record of the binding of Isaac, or the Akedah, is read on the First Day of Awe. The Shofar, or trumpet, is blown. The sound is a reminder to the community of this historical event.

Abraham had been called out of his home. God said, “Go!” so he went. He took his wife, his nephew Lot, and all his possessions, following God’s promise that he would become a great nation.¹

Imagine if you will, traveling back to the land of Moriah² during Abraham’s time. We are at the base of the mountain. Three days earlier Abraham had been asked to take his son, his son of God’s promise, and sacrifice him on that mountain. Abraham has now come to Mount Moriah with: Isaac, two servants, a donkey and supplies for the sacrifice.³

He must have been in deep anguished. Not only was this his son but also the evidence, the proof, of God’s promise for His people. A promise nearly as old as Creation.⁴ The promise of One who would come to make all things new.⁵

Was God already breaking the covenant He had established with Abraham? Certainly not. Abraham knew God’s character was perfect, His integrity unquestionable. God does not break His Word.⁶ Still Abraham must have asked himself, “Why am I climbing this mountain to sacrifice my son?” Abraham’s faith in God’s character and Word gave him strength. He believed this would be an opportunity for God to show His magnificence.⁷ Abraham shows his faith when he tells his servants:

Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and we will come again to you.⁸

Abraham places the wood for the offering on Isaac’s back while he carries the fire and the knife. Isaac asks the question that begs to be asked:

We have the fire and the wood,
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?⁹

How can a father tell his son he is the sacrifice? Abraham however, in faith, gives him the answer:

God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.¹⁰

An altar is built, Isaac is bound, and the knife blade flashes in the sun, raised above the child of the promise. Then suddenly God stops Abraham and leads him to a ram caught in the thorn-bush by his horns, a ram provided by God.¹¹ Again God promises His covenant with Abraham will be fulfilled, and all nations will be blessed through him.¹²

So in the reading, as Abraham return’s from Mount Moriah, the Shofar sounds again as a reminder of Abraham’s faithfulness and of God’s sure promise. So begins the Ten Days of Awe which are meant to be a time to prepare for what we are looking at today, the final day of awe: Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement or Day of Forgiveness. For this festival, another of God’s “permanent laws for generations to come wherever you live,¹³” the faithful assemble at the place of worship¹⁴ and fast.

Now I want you to travel with me, now forward in time. We travel for about 2,000 years and we arrive at the time of Jesus. We now stand at the city gates of Jerusalem. Ahead of us are the high and mighty walls. We pass through the great gates toward the Temple and the Temple courts. On this day in Jerusalem there will be a very special sacrifice.

God has decreed there will be a sacrifice unlike any other throughout the year. On this the Day of Atonement or Forgiveness the high priest intercedes for the people and the sacrifice he offers make atonement or payment for their sins. He begins with a young bull as a sin offering, and then a ram for a burnt offering. The young bull is sacrificed for the sins of the high priest and his household. Then the priest will take two goats and present them before the Lord. He casts lots for the goats with one goat chosen for the Lord and one goat chosen as the scapegoat.

The lot is cast, the Lord’s goat is sacrificed as an offering for the sins of the people.¹⁵ The blood, from the sacrificed bull and goat, is taken and sprinkled on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant [the Atonement Cover] and also applied to the horns of the altar to make atonement even for: the Most Holy Place, the Temple and the altar, because of the uncleanness and rebellion of God’s people.

The other goat is taken out to the people. The high priest places his hands on the goat and confesses the sins of all the people, transferring them to the scapegoat, which then is led out into wilderness desert and abandoned to die. Finally the burnt offering is made before the people. A ram is sacrificed as atonement or payment for the priest and all the people. Then the ram is burned with the fat from the slain bull and the goat. The bodies of the bull and the goat are taken outside the city gates and burned.¹⁶

The sacrifices have been made. The blood has been shed and has covered the sins of the people for another year. The scapegoat is alone, with no food or water, out in the desert. Back in Jerusalem the people are rejoicing because they once again have been affirmed in their covenant with God. He has once again turned away His wrath and granted forgiveness.

As we stand with them 2000 years ago we see all are joyful except for One. As we stand in the Temple court at the time of Jesus, the sunset now brings a new day,¹⁷ and we anticipate the festival meal that is to come. All are happy except One who is quiet. Imagine Jesus coming to the Temple year after year, witnessing the people of God carrying out this command of God, this Day of Atonement. Witnessing this foreshadowing of His own sacrifice. Knowing He soon will be both the sacrifice and the scapegoat.

Our sins were transferred to Him. He was led out of the city to a small mount called Galgatha. A mount previously known as Moriah. There God the Father sacrificed His Son in that place where so many years earlier He had stopped Abraham from doing the same thing. It was on this mount God did provide. He provided for us a way home, a way of forgiveness, a way of peace.

God’s promise through the prophet Jeremiah was, He would make a new covenant with His people, not like this ceremony that must be completed every year. The new covenant, the New Testament, would forever change people’s hearts. God would forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.¹⁸ There would be a “once-and-for-all” sacrifice whose Blood would pay the full penalty for the sins of all people forever. For those over whom this blood flows, it heals their heart, it heals their soul, recreating them in the images and likeness of God,¹⁹ an image of righteousness in which God is pleased.²⁰

As Jesus must have thought about these things each year on Yom Kippur. He must have wept for those in the crowd who would reject Him as God’s final perfect sacrifice. Those who knew the record of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah, witnessed the picture God painted in the blood of animals before them, and yet refused to see the real deliverance, His deliverance paid for in His blood. It is a great price Jesus will pay to redeem so few… too few.²¹

Yom Kippur today, among the Jewish people, is only a shadow of what God intended it to be. The ram’s horn sounds and it is said God closes the Book of Life and the Book of Death, having inscribed names in each. The Days of Awe are over.

Jews have done what they believe they can do to try to satisfy God. If He accepts the offering of mitzvot [good works] then a name will be written in the Book of Life for another year. If He rejects the mitzvot as insufficient, a name will be written in the Book of Death. While the end of this day brings rejoicing and a festive meal of celebration it is an empty joy, and a meal not much different than any other. Those who come together on Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement] must ask themselves a question: How do I know which book holds my name?

Jews have brought the sacrifice to God, but they are sacrifices of good works and good deeds. There has been no blood so no real forgiveness,²² no death, because the Temple is no more. Remember in 70 A.D.²³ the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, just like Jesus said they would.²⁴

Its destruction was so complete not one stone was left standing on another and it has not been rebuilt to this day. So how can God expect such a sacrifice? The rabbis say, “Surely, people can reason with God. Changes must be accepted following the destruction of the Temple.”

With that the modern Jewish faith was born. It was reasoned that by prayer, repentance, fasting and good works, forgiveness could be negotiated with God. Today in synagogues and homes throughout the world their High Holy Days are observed with traditional prayers. The Al Chet,²⁵ a prayer that outlines sins and asks for forgiveness. In the Kol Nidre,²⁶ a prayer dating back to the 800’s, the people give up all oaths, obligations, and commitments made during the year that have hindered their relationship with God. The people fast on this day, denying themselves in an effort to please God. Good deeds are done. “Surely” they think, “God is pleased by what I do.”

The Shofar sounds. The books are closed. It is done for another year. …or is it? Can we truly please God? Scripture says:

O Lord, who shall stay in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?²⁷

The Lord looks down from heaven
on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.

They have all turned aside;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.²⁸

So then how can God be pleased? The Bible is so clear::

Preserve me, O God,
for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”²⁹

The question remains unanswered: “How do you know which book holds your name?” While most simply wonder, the more adventurous might say, “If I live to hear the Shofar blown again next year,³⁰ then my name was written in the Book of Life. If I live another year my work was sufficient.” Only to start the endless uncertain cycle again.

God does not want us to live on the treadmill of good works trying to shed our sins in the comfort of a controlled environment of our own making. He has shown us the path.³¹ It is uncontrolled by us, exposed to the wind and the elements,³² and sprinkled with Blood. The blood sacrifice has been made once and for all. Jesus became that scapegoat. He was led into the wilderness, tempted, attacked by Lucifer, and He survived unblemished.

He was brought to the Temple, consecrated by His Father, and then sacrificed. We witness and remember that death every Good Friday. This is the One whose death can do more than cover our sins. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.³³ He is the unblemished Lamb, an unblemished man.

It is because of His sacrifice we can say:

You have tried my heart,
You have visited me by night,
You have tested me,
and You will find nothing wrong.
I have purposed that my mouth
will not transgress.³⁴

Once this final perfect sacrifice was made God had no use for a Temple and its sacrifices so He allowed it to be destroyed. A new temple³⁵ was built, within the hearts of those cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb.³⁶ Then we are sent to walk that path in the footprints of Yeshua Ha-Mashiach [Jesus the Messiah]. It was said in days of old, “May the dust of your Rabbi cover you.” That you would follow so closely the dust from his feet would cover your face. I pray you follow Jesus that close.

God did not leave His Son in the bowels of the tomb. He brought Him out to walk the path ahead of us, leaving His footprints for us to follow. It is not a path of our making, and there are times of discomfort and disquiet, but the path goes somewhere. The Bible says:

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.³⁷

The way can be hot and hard but there is a Holy Wind³⁸ that blows and comforts.³⁹ It is the Breath of God, the Spirit of God giving us life,⁴⁰ leading us home.

This why we praise God saying:

I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock
and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord,
who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.⁴¹

For we Christians, Yom Kippur is not a solemn day of wondering how to please a God, or if we can please God. It is for us a day of repentance and then real joy, true joy knowing God is pleased with us because of Jesus. It is a day for praising God for the payment He has already made for us who believe and walk in the way of Yeshua Ha-Mashiach [Jesus the Messiah].

A new covenant, a new promise, a New Testament has been given to us. God has forgiven our sins and remembers our wickedness no more.⁴² The treadmill has stopped and we are on the narrow road home.⁴³ We can answer the question. We know in which book our name is written,⁴⁴ because we have God’s promise. Our names are in the Lamb’s Book of Life.⁴⁵

The Law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple.⁴⁶

To God alone be praise. In Jesus’ name.

Amen.

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NOTES

1Genesis 12:1-3