Yom Kippur - the Sixth Feast

     Okay, we're still here! The Rapture did not happen on September 5th, the Feast of Trumpets, but I still will be expecting it to happen every time the Feast of Trumpets rolls around.

     So, now we come to the sixth feast, Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement.
     "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 your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord." Leviticus 23:27

      I should explain that the word translated "feast," does not necessarily always indicate chowing down on a bunch of food. The Strong's Concordance tells us that the Hebrew word "chag" means a festival gathering, feast, pilgrim feast, or festival sacrifice. The Day of Atonement is actually a very solemn day of prayer, fasting, confession, affliction of soul, and sacrifice for the sins of the people of Israel, individual as well as national. Before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, this was the one day of the year when the High Priest actually went into the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the sins of the people. Today the sacrifices are impossible due to the lack of a temple. They are also no longer necessary as Jesus has already made the ultimate sacrifice for sin, but most Jews do not realize or accept this. That is the reason they must rebuild their temple, but that is another topic for another day.

     It was very important that the Israelites follow God's instructions for this feast. There were severe consequences for anyone who did not. "Neither shall you do any work on this same 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 will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people." Leviticus 23:28-30

     The fulfillment of this feast will not have anything to do with the church, since we are looking to Jesus as the atonement for our sins. The fulfillment will come at the end of the Tribulation Period when Christ returns to Earth to save Israel. Zechariah prophesies of this momentous occasion. "And it will come about in that day that I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 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. In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem..." Zechariah 12:10-11

     The affliction of souls on the Day of Atonement is a foreshadowing of the mourning that will occur when Jesus returns to save the Jewish people who have survived the Great Tribulation, and they realize that Jesus truly is their Messiah. I believe this will happen on the actual Day of Atonement, just as the first four feasts have already been fulfilled on the actual days of those feasts.