Yoma: The Day of Atonement

by James Jacob Prasch

 

Luke 4:14-26:  And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit; and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.  1And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. [He was an itinerate rabbi]. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.  And the Book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, [And he reads from Isaiah 61, actually it would been a scroll, a megillah, not a codex, not a book.] "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.  He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."  And He closed the book, [or as it were, rolled up the scroll] and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, "Is this not Joseph's son?" And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your home town as well.'" And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his home town.  "But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, [which has to do with the purification by fire in Hebrew] in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."  And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.  But passing through their midst, He went His way. 

 

Something we will be talking about at the conference this week is this:  Obviously, there is one Messiah, two comings, and this is how we understand in large part, the 69th and 70th week abridgment in the Book of Daniel, but we see it here.  He comes into the synagogue and notice certain things; it refers to him as the “Son of Joseph,” other places he is called “Son of David,” here he is called “Son of Joseph” in the town where he grew up.  Now, most of you know “HaMashiach ben Yosef,” HaMashiach ben David,” “the Messiah the Son of Joseph, the Messiah the Son of David.” 

 

Here he is called “Son of Joseph.”  Now remember, Joseph was accepted by Gentiles but rejected by his Jewish brothers.  He was rejected in his own land and they threw him out, they got rid of him and Gentiles accepted him.  So it is here when Jesus is identified as “Son of Joseph” where he begins telling two stories of Elijah and Elisha, whom the Gentiles accepted when the Hebrew people rejected them.  He is making that comparison of himself to them which has the people quite indignant.  Yet his words were gracious. But once he told them the truth about himself, they were not so gracious.  Once they found out where he was really coming from, they became indignant and became angry.  It is the same thing today.  You can preach a good sermon or present a good gospel message, teach an interesting Bible study and people will like it, but once you begin to deal with what is wrong with the church and what is wrong with them, those same people will very quickly turn on you like a rat with rabies, in an instant.  Now what happened here in Nazareth was a foreshadowing of what would happen to him in Jerusalem after the triumphal entry.  He compares himself to Elijah and Elisha and what took place with them. 

 

The three and a half years mentioned, the three years and 6 months, puts it into an eschatological framework.  It tells us that whatever is happening here in some way relates to the two times, time and a half time in Daniel and in Revelation.  It relates to the three and a half years, half of the final seven years at the end of the age or something related to that involving three a half years eschatologically.  Jesus has three and a half years of public ministry; Satan will demand the same equal time and he will get it through the Antichrist.  The Antichrist will seek to change the law and the times and it will be given into his hand a two times, a time and a half time.  Now it is more complicated than this, we will be dealing with it again at the conference, but understand when you see that three and a half years in a given pericope, in a given story, in a given narrative, it has some kind of future eschatological application.  It is not just what was happening then.  But then we have to deal with this question, of course, in case you don’t know why he rolled up the scroll.  Look with me please to the Book of Isaiah, chapter 61, that which he was reading from:

 

Isaiah 61:1: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me [now the word anointed there is where you get the word Mashiach, messiah] to bring good news [this word is “basar,” the Hebrew word for gospel.  In Greek, that is in the Septuagint, it would be euaggelion] to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God.

 

When he reads that passage in the synagogue in Nazareth, he only reads the first half of verse two:  To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.  He does not read the rest of the verse “The day of vengeance of our God.”  He rolls up the scroll, or as it were, he closes the book.  He reads half the verse, not the whole verse.  He is only going to fulfil the first half of that prophecy in his first coming as the ‘son of Joseph,’ the one who brings salvation.  He will fulfil the second half of that prophecy in his coming, “The Day of Vengeance.”  In his first coming, he comes with grace and truth; he comes to show mercy.  In his second coming, he comes to bring the judgment of God, the wrath of God.  Now we see other precedents for this, very briefly.  Look with me please to the Book of Zechariah, chapter 12: 

 

Zechariah 12:10:  "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born.

 

Look with me please to the Gospel of Saint John, John’s Nativity narrative:

 

John 19:37: And again another Scripture says, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced."

 

Notice again, it only gives the first half of the verse.  Why does it not say “They will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son?”  He fulfils that in his second coming.  Look with me please to Revelation 1, it tells us that directly:

 

Revelation 1:7:   Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen.

 

They will look upon him who they have pierced and mourn for him in his second coming, not his first coming; they yelled “Crucify him.”  It cuts the verses in half.  That is how we explain the Book of Daniel but that is only a foretaste of our conference that is coming.  I am only dealing with it in brief because it is in the text of Luke 4. 

 

So they take him to Nazareth.  Now you have to understand something about Nazareth if you have not been there.  If you go up above Nazareth, there is Nazareth “illit” where the original Nazareth was.  Nazareth is a rather depressing place.  It is largely an Arab community illit is a Jewish community where the brow of the hill is and you see it is directly opposite on the north side of the Valley of Armageddon, the plain of Jezreel opposite Megiddo.  On the south side is a mountain called Megiddo, “Har Megiddo,” Armageddon is not a valley, it is a mountain.  The valley is called Jezreel.  On the north side, opposite Megiddo is another mountain, Har Tabor, Mount Tabor where the song of Deborah took place.  Look with me please to the Book of Judges 5: 

 

We see in the Song of Deborah something that is recycled from the Septuagint text that is the Greek Old Testament into the Magnificat and in the Song of Deborah.  We are told about her “Blessed are you among women, you shall be called blessed by all.”  Now, Nazareth, of course, is where Mary, Miriam, would have lived as a little girl skipping rope or whatever little girls did in those days, she would have grown up looking from Nazareth across to Mount Tabor and she would have known, certainly as everyone would have known, that is where the story of Deborah took place.  That is where the story of Jael took place, where victory was given over Sisera and it says: 

 

Judges 5:7: until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel. 

 

And it goes on about riding on a donkey in verse 10 and it uses all kinds of language about being blessed, “Blessed are you among women, they shall call you blessed.”

 

Judges 5:24 "Most blessed of women is Jael…”

 

Little would Mary from Nazareth have thought that one day the angel Gabriel would say to her “Blessed are you among women.  She grows up in the shadow of Mount Tabor, overlooking Nazareth Illit, “Blessed are you among women.”  That is where it was said, but it would one day be said to her.  It is right in the same location.  This is Nazareth.  On the east side of Nazareth, perpendicular to the Valley of Jezreel is a steep embankment.  You would not want to go off it; it has several cliff faces on it, or escarpments on it.  It is more than a 45-degree angle, it is steeper than that but it has several cliff faces and escarpments on it.  Why do they want to throw Jesus off the cliff?  That is what we are going to look at tonight.  Why did they want to throw him off the cliff?  Why didn’t they try to stone him to death?  Why didn’t they kill him by some other means?  Normally they would have stoned someone to death.  Why did they try to throw him off the cliff instead of just stoning him to death since they were determined to kill him, and more importantly, why could they not do it?  Why was he protected?  Obviously, it was not yet his time to die but there is more to it than that.  That is what we are going to look at.  Why did they try to toss him off the cliff instead of killing him by stoning, which was the normal means, and why did he escape, other than the obvious factor, it was not yet his time to die for our sin.  With these things in view, turn with me please to Leviticus 16.

 

The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.  It relates to the Hebrew word “kapporah.”  Kapporah means a sacrifice, from the Hebrew word or the infinitive “lehakreem”.  Man would be at one with God.  The unity that was lost through sin would be restored when the Messiah came.  Under the Law the sin of the Jewish people was forgiven thusly:  If they had real faith and genuine repentance, the blood of the Yom Kippur scapegoat would make kapporah, it would temporarily cover the sin of the people until the Messiah came and removed it.  It was like a temporary cover note to drive a vehicle until you got the proper insurance certificate.  It made kapporah.  It was a temporary covering.  The Old Testament saints could not go to heaven until the Messiah came.  They went to the bosom of Abraham to wait for the Messiah.  The Old Testament saints could only be saved by the blood of Jesus, the same as we can.  There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved.  As it says in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the blood of these animals could not take away sin, they could simply make kapporah.  They were symbols of what the Messiah would do.  We all know about the blood of the lamb, but we have the blood of the goat on Yom Kippur.  It is all the blood of Jesus, but the blood of these animals is efficacious in different ways.  All of the animals sacrificed in the Temple, the blood is all pictures of the blood of Christ from different aspects.  The blood of the lamb—the lamb was without blemish.  The innocent would die for the guilty.  One man without sin is worth more than all the men with sin, thus one could die for all; that is the blood of the lamb.

 

Then there is the blood of the bulls, the strong would die for the weak, just as the innocent would die for the guilty.  The birds, they would have to sacrifice the bird under running water.  It is a picture of washing with the blood.  All of these things reveal different aspects of the blood of Jesus, but the blood of the goat has its own unique properties.  What is that?  Well, for one thing in Greek you have two words for sin:  Hamartia” and “hamartano.”  They are almost the same but in Hebrew these words are quite different.  Het and pesha.”  Het means missing the mark, shooting an arrow at a target and failing to hit it.  Pesha means going too far.  Pesha is transgression; het is failure.  Pesha is sin of commission; het is sin of omission.  We sin both by doing things we should not, but we also sin by failing to do what we should.  Remember King Saul--his first sin was not doing things he should not; he became a murderer of the High Priest, Abithar, he became a practicer of necromancy and witchcraft later on.  He tried to murder David later on.  He began doing things he shouldn’t later on.  His first sin was failing to do things he should—getting rid of Amilech, handing over all of the booty for it to be destroyed; it was given to a pagan God.  When somebody backslides, when somebody falls away from the Lord, backsliding rarely begins, if ever, by failing to act, but by doing something we shouldn’t, that comes later.  It usually begins by failing to do what we should.  When someone’s prayer life, scripture reading, fellowshipping with other believers, witnessing, when people stop doing the things they should, it is only a matter of time before the old nature will take over and we will begin doing the things we should not, okay? 

 

The blood of the lamb is chiefly concerned with pesha.  The blood of the goat is more concerned with het.  The blood of the lamb is more concerned with things we did before we were a believer.  The blood of the goat is more concerned with things we did after.  The blood of Christ cleanses from all sin.  Additionally, pesha has to do with sin of which we are cognizant.  Het has to do with sins of what we call in Hebrew “barut,” ignorance.  Let us look, turn with me please, to the Epistle to the Hebrews:

 

Hebrews 9:7: “but into the second only the High Priest enters, once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. [Coming from the Hebrew, barut.”]    

 

It is all the blood of Jesus.  All of these animals are pictures of Christ but his blood is efficacious in different ways, okay?  The blood of Christ cleanses from all sin, past and present.  We have to understand it is efficacious in different ways.  It is efficacious for things we do that we should not, but it is also efficacious for the things we should have done and do not.  It is efficacious for the sins we cognizantly commit, but it is also efficacious for things we do in ignorance.  Christians can sin in ignorance.  I have seen Christians in ignorance do things that are a sin.  I will give you an example:  People will allow children who have not been baptized and who are not yet saved to take the Lord’s Supper.  That is completely wrong.  The Lord’s supper is for baptized believers only.  It says in Exodus you should let your children see you take the Passover so they will ask the question “Why do you do this.”  Not allowing a child to take the Lord’s Supper is a way to teach them about their need for salvation.  The Lord’s Table is perhaps innocently, not being shown the reverence it should be shown.  Now, I am not saying it is being defiled in the way an immoral person would take the Lord’s supper but it is wrong.  That kid does not know they are sinning and it is the parent’s responsibility, but the way the Church is now the parents probably don’t even know.  It is a sin anyway.  Somebody had to pay for the sin.  He pays for the sins even committed in ignorance, even for the sin committed in ignorance.  Every time a Roman Catholic prays to the dead they are committing the sin of necromancy.  They do not see it that way but they are calling on spirits of the dead.  That is necromancy, okay?  It is necromancy.  Now, there are true believers in the Roman Catholic Church, but of course if they are truly saved, the Holy Spirit will show them to get out of it.  Nobody would say you could not be a Roman Catholic and be saved, but it you are a Roman Catholic who is saved, you cannot remain in that church.  The Holy Spirit will show you to get out of it.  Still, the blood cleanses them from all sin, even sins committed in ignorance.  Every time a Catholic prays to the dead or genuflects before transubstantiated elements that is a sin of idolatry.  It is a sin committed in ignorance.  We have to understand, we all need the blood of the lamb.  “Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?”  That is true, but it is no less true we must be washed in the blood of the goat; it is no less true. 

 

The question becomes, why is, as it were, there are two feasts of blood atonement, Passover in the Spring and Yom Kippur in the autumn? Why are there two?  That is an important question.  Let us understand why there are two.  Remember, Jesus fulfils the Spring holy days in his first coming.  He fulfils the autumn holy days in His second coming.  The autumn holy days are only partially fulfilled in his first coming.  He fulfils Passover, First Fruits when He raised from the dead, and Weeks, which is Pentecost, in His first coming, and you’ve got the summer, which corresponds to the Time of the Gentiles, the period between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel’s vision.  But then you have Trumpets, you have Yom Kippur, Atonement, and you have Tabernacles, or Booths.  Now you have a partial fulfilment of these holy days in his first coming.  When he dies he partially fulfils Yom Kippur.  He is our High Priest who makes the perfect atonement.  The Temple veil was torn.  Sinful man is no longer separated from a Holy God.  He partially fulfils it.  We will see how he has not fulfilled it in a moment, except partially.  Tabernacles is partially fulfilled in John 7, but the full fulfilment of Ezekiel 47 takes place in the Millennium.  Zechariah 14 tells us in the Millennium Jesus will be worshiped in Jerusalem.  He fulfils the Spring holidays in His first coming but the autumn holidays are only partially fulfilled in His first coming; these are to be fulfilled in his second coming.  Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, has a future meaning. 

 

There were two goats.  Turn with me please to Leviticus 16:

 

Leviticus 16:1-10: Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had approached the presence of the LORD and died. And the LORD said to Moses, "Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. "Aaron shall enter the holy place with this: with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. "He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash, and attired with the linen turban (these are holy garments). Then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on. "And he shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.  "Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household. "And he shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the doorway of the tent of meeting.  "And Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.  "Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the LORD fell, and make it a sin offering.  "But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. 

 

This obviously brings to mind the picture of one dying so one could live and also being released to take away the sin.  At some point in Israel’s history this other goat, the scapegoat, returned.  So by the time of Jesus they had a practice. They would take it into the wilderness and push it off a cliff.  This other goat is called the “Azazel,” “Sier Azazel,” the scapegoat.  They would be chosen by lot.  If it came in the right hand, that would be seen as a favorable sign.  If the lot came in the right hand, the one for the Lord, that would be seen as a favorable sign for the people being forgiven; that is having kaporah for their sin.  The High Priest would wear special garments, special garments that he only wore that time of year.  These garments were a white tunic with a red sash or a scarlet colored sash, only worn once a year.  He would go through an elaborate ritual called Mekudesh, being made holy or being sanctified or set apart, from the Hebrew word “kodesh.”  It is the same word for being married.  When you marry somebody you say “mekudesh and these special garments he put on, on Yom Kippur resembled a wedding garment.  Understand the thinking, only the person who is mekudesh is allowed to go in.  After Aaron’s son’s die, the Lord warns Moses “Don’t let anybody else go in.”  With his white tunic and red sash that had bells on it.  You can know objectively “la daat, but when you know subjectively it is different.  In Greek, the term is “ginosko,” “to know a woman.”  Joseph “knew not” Mary until Jesus was born.  You can know something objectively but that is not the same as knowing it subjectively.  Right from the beginning, Adam and Eve were put in the garden and told to subdue it.  They were to know what sin was objectively.  They were to know there was a devil.  They were to know what it is objectively but they were not to know what it is subjectively.  They were not to know what it was by experience.  They were not to know it within themselves.  They were to know what it was, but they were not to know what it was like to do it.  So too, holy matrimony.  The way I explain it, to consummate a marriage in Hebrew, you have heard me explain it--the term is “miknas bah”—“and he went into her,” one person goes inside of another and a third is procreated.  It teaches about the Trinity.  We have separate teachings explaining that in depth including the High Priestly prayer of Jesus.  Nonetheless, let us understand this. 

 

Anybody can look at a copy of Grey’s Text Book of Medical Anatomy and look at fallopian tubes and ovarian tissue all day long.  Anybody could know what was in there.  But only the person who was mekudesh, set apart by God, sanctified for the purpose, was to know what it was like to go in there, to know a woman.  Or a Jew could read the Torah, they could know about the Holy Ark, they could know about the Shewbread, they could know about the Decalogue, they could know what was in there, but only the High Priest was to know what it was like to go in there.  If someone other than the bride’s husband sleeps with her it is an abomination.  If someone other than, because he is the one who is mekudesh, he is the one who God has set apart.   Well this is the same thing.  If somebody other than the High Priest, the one who is mekudesh goes in there, it is an abomination.  It was to be a mystery, you were not to know.  You were to know objectively, but you were not to know experientially.  It would be an abomination if you knew, okay?  Now there is more to it than this but this is the essence of what it was.  The High Priest was to know what it was like.  Remember, the Hebrew term for the sanctification of the High Priest on Yom Kippur is the same as the Hebrew term for the sanctification of a husband to a bride,  mekudesh.  With this ring I wed thee according to the laws of Moses and Israel, and that is it!  Well, then you step on a wine glass and that is it, then you are married.  I often tell people it is the last time you ever put your foot down!  And then you have had it brother!

 

He looked different on that day.  He did not look like the same person.  He went through this elaborate ritual the mekudesh and he said a prayer of sanctification, a prayer of mekudesh before he went in, but he put on a costume, as it were, that made him look like a different person than he was.  You would not have recognized him at first; he looked like somebody who was different.  Then it continues:

 

Leviticus 16:11-16:  Then Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his household, and he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. "And he shall take a firepan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense, and bring it inside the veil. "And he shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, lest he die. "Moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. "Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. "And he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel, and because of their transgressions, in regard to all their sins; and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities. [This, of course by the time of Jesus would have been the second Temple.]

 

It begins with the idea that it is perpetual, a perpetual commandment to have this blood.  There is a convocation but not a pilgrim convocation; people did not have to come to Jerusalem the way they did for Passover.  It could be celebrated locally; it could be observed locally, it could be observed in Nazareth, it did not have to be observed in Jerusalem.  Passover, Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles had to be observed in Jerusalem.  Hanukkah would be observed in Jerusalem, Yom Kippur did not have to be observed in Jerusalem except by the Levitical priests.

 

He goes through this.  There would be no work and the Hebrew says in preparation for it, la anot na shotem, literally torment or “torture your souls over your sin.”  He would go through the ritual washing and then it would be three kinds of sacrifices, the regular Temple sacrifices that took place every day, a separate sacrifice for the priest that we read about in Hebrews, the High Priest had to first make atonement for his own sin.  That is why Jesus had to be a priest of a different order, of Melchizedek, he had no sin and then the goat, which was for the sin of the people, three offerings.  These goats were chosen again by lot.  Let us look at verses 21 and 22:

 

Leviticus 16:21-22: "Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the 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 the hand of a man who stands in readiness.” And the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. [Which by Jesus’ time they pushed it backward off a cliff.]

 

The High Priest would put the sins of the people onto the goats.  The goats would be paraded through the streets of Jerusalem.  The people would spit on them, kick them, throw stones at them, beat them with sticks and curse them for their sin.  One would be released, one would be sacrificed in the Temple and the High Priest would go in back of the veil once a year.  We see this when Jesus was born.  The father of John the Baptist, that was Yom Kippur, that is what John the Baptist was doing.  That is one of the ways that people try to calculate the birth of Jesus, if John was six months older than Jesus and if the pregnancy of Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah was revealed at that time, that is one of the ways that people try to count out the actual month that Jesus was born but this is a very different subject.  I only mention it is passing, that is what John the Baptist’s father would have been doing. 

 

Nonetheless, the sin would be put on the goat.  In the Apocrypha, in the Book of Enoch, we read that the Azazel corresponds to Satan and it has the root of “zaz”in it, that is to move or to take away.  There are two goats, the same as there were two birds in Leviticus 14; one dies, one would initially go free.  But the Jews considered the two goats to be one offering.  In the time of Christ, the distance in the wilderness was broken down into districts known as deputations, until they finally got to the cliff.  The High Priest would put on these clean garments with the bells, a purple robe and make a personal confession.  Now, remember, when they crucified Jesus, what did they put on him?  A purple robe.  He was our High Priest going to make a perfect sacrifice.  He would have a silver sensor in his hand. Remember incense, we are told in Revelation 8 and in Ezekiel, incense is a picture of the prayers of the saints.  The Lord would sniff the odors or the fragrances of the people.  God says in Isaiah “I will not sniff your fragrances if you do not repent.”  He would not accept the prayers or worship of the wicked.  Wicked people can go to church and play at religion but God will not sniff the incense.  More than that, he only sniffs the incense if the High Priest brings it in.  Only prayer in the name of Jesus God will recognize.  The only prayer God recognizes is the prayer in the name of Jesus.  People can say the rosary all they want, God does not recognize that.  Moslems can pray to Allah all day but first of all, Allah is not even our God, and even if he was God would not recognize it.  It has to be in the sensor of the High Priest.  It is only prayer in the name of Jesus that God will recognize.  There is no other name.  No, God does not hear the prayers of unsaved people unless they are praying for salvation, unless they are seeking God.  In His grace he will draw them to the way of salvation but they will have to pray in the name of Jesus to get the salvation.  It is only the sensor in the hand of the priest is the only fragrance that God will sniff and take pleasure in.  But it goes on.  The High Priest waited in the Temple, when they took this other goat out, a distance of what is known as 90 “ris” which is 12 miles, but before that he took off the scarlet sash and cut it in half.  One half would be hung before the Holy of Holies, the other half would be tied between the horns of the scapegoat before it was paraded for 90 “ris.”  Now the Catholics say there are 14 stations of the cross, no there are 90 and it is not inside the city, it is outside, he was crucified outside.  Then it goes on; that is why Jesus had to be crucified outside the city.  He waited in the Temple.  The lot was cast, the goats were selected, he put his hands on them for the sin of the people, the parade took place, the scapegoat was taken to the wilderness and the one that was for the Lord was sacrificed. 

 

A number of things happened though, from the time of Jesus onward.  We know this from Jewish history, from the Mishnah.  It was not written by people with any Christian prejudice.  If the people’s sins were forgiven, based on Isaiah 1:18, the scarlet sash would turn white, hung before the Holy of Holies. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.”  Judaism teaches in the Mishnah for 40 years before the Temple was destroyed, from 70 AD counting backwards, from the time of Jesus onward it never turned white.  The sins of the Jesus people were never forgiven again.  The laws of probability said if you took a lot or a coin, head or tails and you threw it up 40 times, you kept throwing it up eventually you are going to get an equal amount of heads and tails.  It is mathematically demonstrable with probability theories.  The odds of throwing a lot 40 times and it not coming to the right hand 40 times in a row are statistically very, very remote, just like throwing a coin up and not coming down tails or not coming down heads after 40 tosses—that is very, very remote, but it did not.  The sins of the people were no longer forgiven.  The western-most light of the candelabra in the Temple kept going out and the doors of the Temple, which took 24 men to open and close, opened by themselves.  That also happened according to Josephus before the events of 70 AD when the Temple was destroyed.  There was a following ceremony called the “Mosoph.”  The High Priest would them put on his normal clothes and take of his other ones and he would look the way he always did.  He would attempt to go home into what was known as the upper city from the Temple and the people would flock to him, who lived in Jerusalem and they would hold onto him and try to stop him from going home.  They would physically try to prevent him or persuade him from going home, once they saw who he was when he took off those garments.  So it was with Jesus.  When he entered the Holy of Holies, he did so as God.  When he came back as the one they were able to finally recognize, they did not want him to leave, remember?  “Don’t leave, don’t go away.”  They tried to persuade him to stay.  The entire ceremony was a picture of the Lord Jesus.

 

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We will come back to this in a moment, but the way it is celebrated now is you go to the synagogue and you eat these ritual foods, called “Kreplach” and chicken soup and “sinis, which is like a sweet kind of meat dish.  Ultra-Orthodox Jews up until not very many years ago practiced something called the “macoat”.  They put on a heavy “macheel” or several, overcoats and they would beat the guy 39 times with a belt.  Not having a proper priest, a proper Temple or a proper goat, they began swinging chickens by the neck.  Today in the synagogue they will begin with a prayer called the Kol Nidre, an Aramaic prayer that must be ancient because it is Aramaic.  It is properly attributed to the Spanish Inquisition when Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism but because it is Aramaic it had to be older than that.  Kol Nidre means “All Vows” the broken promises made to God.  Why? Because the blood of the goat has to do with sins of omission. 

 

They say the right stuff but they do not know why.  They then read the Book of Jonah.  The Gentiles repent when the Jews do not.  Unbelievable!  Then they go through an acrostic poem, which is actually sung, which is called Yaaleh Tachanuneinu “May we in treaty, rise and selachti, forgive us, “anu ammecha” we are your people.  Then they have something called the “Yizkor the memory for the dead, and finally something called the “nega”. They are fasting now, they are doing all this other stuff but they do not have the scapegoat.  The Judaism of today is not the Judaism of Moses.  They do things instead.  So you’ve got these two goats.  One is the one that is for the Lord and is sacrificed in the Temple; the other one is the Seir Azazel thrown off the cliff.  You don’t get this stuff in Bible colleges or seminaries, pay attention!  He fulfils Pesach, Passover.  He fulfils first fruits.  He fulfills Weeks, that is Pentecost in his first coming.  The autumn holy days, Trumpets, which today the Rabbis foolishly call Rosh Hashanah, they are saying “Happy New Year,” that is not the real meaning in the scriptures of Rosh Hashanah, it is “Set the trumpet to thy mouth; when the people hear the trumpet will they not tremble?”, the impending convocation of Israel for the great tribulation.  You’ve got a 10-day period known as the “Days of Awe” “Yomim HaNoraim” corresponding to that period when the Antichrist will be on the rampage, followed by Yom Kippur and lastly, Booths or Tabernacles, corresponding to the Millennium.  This was only partially fulfilled in his first coming.  He was indeed our High Priest and he was the goat that was for the Lord.  The other goat was not killed, yet.  The other goat had to die later.  Remember, the Azazel is the picture of Satan.  The Son of Man came that the works of Satan will be destroyed.  Why could they not throw Jesus off the cliff?  He was the other goat!  They had the wrong goat.  They didn’t want to stone him, they wanted to throw him off the cliff, but they had the wrong goat.  He was the one who was for the Lord.  When he comes back, that other goat is going off the cliff.  Satan will eventually be destroyed.  Yom Kippur will be fulfilled in the return of Jesus.  The Antichrist will have his rampage, Yomim HaNoraim, the days of awe.  Notice the number is ten, like in the Church of Symrna, remember?  “Satan will put you in prison 10 days.”  Daniel 1 there is 10 days.  Yomim HaNoraim is 10, it does not necessarily mean ten literal days but well it does for here, ten, that he will fulfil Yom Kippur.  That other goat has to die.  Satan is doomed.  He has been cast out but he is not yet destroyed.  Jesus took our sin, it is true, but that goat was for the Lord, the other goat is the Azazel.  That goat is going to be destroyed.  It is going to die.  That is why they could not throw Jesus off the cliff.  They had the wrong goat and they do not even know it. 

 

It is very sad that Jewish people have all of these precious truths.  They were called by God to be custodians of these precious truths.  “To them belongs the oracles of God” Paul said.  They have got all this stuff and they do not know what it even means.  But Christians should know what it means, but even most Christians don’t understand this stuff.  And Jews who do not believe in Jesus are even more blind.  They are even more blind than the non Jews.  It is terrible.  We are not supposed to be blind.  Paul said “I would not have you be ignorant brethren.”  As Arnold Fruchtenbaum says, “You can be Gratham Brethren, you can be Grace Brethren, you can be Plymouth Brethren, but just don’t be Ignorant Brethren!  We have got a lot of ignorant brethren!  That is why they could not throw Jesus off the cliff; they had the wrong goat.  He is the other goat.  When he comes back, Satan will be destroyed.  He will totally fulfil Yom Kippur in His return. 

 

The fact that you see the Jews regathered to Israel; the trumpet has blown, it is the convocation of Israel.  Antichrist is coming.  Satan will have his final fling but he is going off the cliff.  The works of Satan will be destroyed.  That is what is going to happen.  Just think about it.  Those Jews in Nazareth had no clue what they were doing.  Jews in the synagogue to this day do not have a clue, they do not have a clue!  They are blind!  The word for blind ones in Hebrew is “Evrim, the word in Hebrew for Hebrews is Ivrim it is almost the same word.  Paul says “When the Torah is read they are blind, hell is before them and they do not see it.  It is all there, it is their religion, it is their heritage, it is their culture but they just do not see it.  They had the wrong goat!  Now they have got the wrong everything!  This is frightening.  Because if the Azazel can bamboozle the Jews, I assure you he can bamboozle the Christians.  If the Azazel was able to deceive Israel, I assure you he will have no problem deceiving the Church, at least most of the Church.  This was their book, this was their faith and they did not get it.  If he can con them who can’t he con?  Well he has conned them and he has conned most of the Church.  Do not let him con you.  God Bless!