Always seeking to be pleasing in my
Daddy’s eyes, never wanting to offend Him no matter however
unknowingly in the flesh, I set out to ask Him directly, apart from
the input from man and his many studies, some good and others not,
the meaning of His set-apart Day of Atonement and how it is that He
desires me to spend His day with Him. In the past, I had heard
about the traditions that require refraining from food, and in some
cases drink also, on this day, even having seen some advice on what
to eat and drink prior to this day to prepare for the fast that is
prescribed by many. This did not set well in my spirit, and
desiring to ensure that I celebrate His Moadim and not risk turning
these special days He appointed for me, and all who love Him, into
my moadim as spoken of in Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 1, I have kept
searching and reasoning together with Him and what follows is the
understanding He has brought in answer to my questions.
In ancient
Israel, the Day of Atonement was
the one day in the year when the Cohen Gadol, the high priest, would
enter alone into the Most Set-Apart Place where the Ark of the
Covenant was located, Abba
YHVH’s dwelling place here on
earth, and make atonement for the mistaken sins, the sins of
ignorance, of the people of Israel.
Mistaken sins being the sins of the flesh where they enemy has lead
us astray, for the spirit of the man being present when
YHVH spoke the end from the
beginning for all to hear is without excuse, capable only of the
rebellious sin, the sin that is rubbed directly in His Face, and has
as its only reward death.
We see from the detailed instructions
that YHVH gave to Moshe in
Vayyiqra (Leviticus) 16 that the Cohen Gadol was to bring two male
goats to the door of the Tent of Meeting, lots were to be cast, one
for YHVH and the other for Azazel.
The goat on which the lot for YHVH
fell would serve as the sin offering, while the goat on which the
lot for Azazel fell would be sent off into the wilderness bearing
the crookedness of Israel on
itself.
Once prepared according to His
instructions, the Cohn Gadol would take the blood of the goat on
which the lot of YHVH fell and
enter alone into the Most Set-Apart Place to make atonement for the
mistaken sins of Israel by
sprinkling this blood on the left-hand side of the Mercy Seat.
This would serve to cleanse the people of
Israel from their mistaken sins
of the past year, while serving as a reminder of these same sins.
Given by
Abba YHVH as a law for all
generations, Israel was, and is,
to celebrate this Moadim in the seventh month on the tenth day of
this month, as part of the Feasts of
YHVH that serve as a shadow picture of both His First Coming
some 2,000 years ago and His Second Coming at the end of this
Seventh Day, some 996.5 years from now. In celebration of this
day, all of Israel is to afflict
their being and refrain from working, lest those who choose
otherwise will be cut off.
We see in the First Coming of
Messiah
Yahoshua the fulfillment of the
prophecies associated with the Day of Atonement as described above.
In Yohanan (John) 18:29-40
Pilate, therefore, came out to them
(Yehudim) and said, “What
accusation do you bring against this Man?” They answered and
said to him, “If He were not an evil-doer, we would not have
delivered Him up to you.” Then Pilate said to them, “ You take
Him and judge Him according to your law.” The Yehudim said to
him, “It is not right for us to put anyone to death,“ in order that
the word of Yahoshua
might be filled which He spoke, signifying by what death He was
about to die. Then Pilate went back to the palace and called
Yahoshua,
and said to Him, “Are You the Sovereign of the Yehudim?”
Yahoshua
answered him, “Did you say this from
yourself, or did others talk to you about Me?”
Pilate answered, “Am I a Yehudite? Your own nation and the
chief priests have delivered You to me. What did You do?”
Yahoshua
answered, “My reign is not of this
world. If My reign were of this world, My servants would
fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Yehudim. But
now My reign is not from here.”
Then Pilate said to Him, “You are a sovereign then?”
Yahoshua,
“You say it, because I am a
sovereign. For this I was born and for this I have come into
this world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone
who is of the truth hears My voice.”
Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this
he went out to the Yehudim, and said to them, “I find no guilt in
Him. But you have a habit that I shall release someone to you
at the Passover. Do you wish then, that I release to you the
Sovereign of the Yehudim?” Then they all shouted again,
saying, “Not this One, but Barabba!” And Barabba was a robber.
Lots were cast, and the lot of
YHVH fell on
Yahoshua, who would soon serve as
our Perfect Sin Offering.
Taken away to Golgotha where He was
impaled on the stake, after having given up His Spirit, the earth
was shaken and the Veil of the Dwelling Place was torn in two, His
side was pierced and out flowed both water and blood, and the blood
of our Precious Messiah ran down the crack in the earth to anoint
the Right-Hand Side of the Mercy Seat which had been reserved for
this moment, on which His Blood now sits as prophesied in Tehillim
(Psalms) 110:1, Matt. 22:44 and Ibrim (Hebrews) 1:13.
‘This is the
One that came by water and blood:
Yahoshua
Messiah,
not only by
water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears
witness, because the Spirit is the Truth. Because there are
three who bear witness: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood.
And the three are in agreement.’
(1 Yohanan 5:6-8)
Confirming that which is spoken in
Scripture as to these events is the discovery made by Ron Wyatt in
1982 of the location of the Mercy Seat some 20 feet below the
surface at Golgotha, in Yirmeyahu’s (Jeremiah’s) Grotto, and with
modern technology, the testing of the Blood of
Yahoshua that was found to have
run down the crack in the earth and found to be sitting on the
Right-Hand Side of the Mercy Seat. Ron provided scrapings of
this blood to a team of top medical professionals in Israel for
testing. Human blood normally contains 46 chromosomes, 23 from
the mother and 23 from the father. The Blood of Yahoshua
contains only 24 chromosomes, 23 from His mother and only 1 Y
chromosome from His Father. In addition, His Blood was found
to still be alive after almost 2,000 years, bringing a deeper level
of understanding to all those who believe in Him of the Words found
in Vayyiqra (Leviticus) 17:11
“For the
life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon
the alter to make atonement for your lives, for it is the blood that
makes atonement for the life.”
Accomplishing with His Blood what the blood of
bulls and goats was never able to do, take away our mistaken sins,
our sins of the flesh, meaning to remove all desire to engage in the
former dead works that we knew not, in our flesh, were offensive to
Him, and establish within us a singular desire to serve and to
please Him, setting our minds not on the matters of the flesh, but
on the matters of the Spirit, we may now, in the Words of
Yahoshua,
“go and sin no more”, fearlessly crying out
“Abba, Father”.
Contrary to popular opinion born of
the traditions of men, our Precious Messiah did not bear our sins,
for this was reserved for the one who the lot of
YHVH did not fall on. For
to have borne our sins would mean that uncleanliness would have
entered the Most Set-Apart Place and anointed the Right-Hand Side of
the Mercy Seat. Having put on the flesh for us, walking amongst us
as a Man and being found perfect and without rebellion, it is only
the blood of Yahoshua,
apart from the sins of man, that
could properly anoint the Right-Hand Side of the Mercy Seat, thereby
taking away the mistaken sins of the world.
Serving not only as our Perfect Sin
Offering that covers the mistaken sins of our flesh and cleanses our
conscience from dead works, Yahoshua
also serves as our High-Priest forever according to the order of
Malkitsedeq, having entered into the Most Set-Part Place not made by
hands, on behalf of our spirit once for all time, where He now
ministers to us from His Throne of Grace and Mercy that He alone
occupies in its entirety. Having entered once for all time,
unlike the high priests taken from among men that would enter year
after year, He has perfected for all time those who are being set
apart and He will not come again in the flesh to be impaled a second
time so that those who have put their hand to the plough and looked
back might be found worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Though we no longer bring a set-apart
offering made by fire to YHVH, as our High Priest has fulfilled these requirements
thereby setting aside the former priesthood and its requirements, we
still need to afflict our souls on this day and refrain from
working, lest we be cut off from our people.
With the understanding shared above,
we do not celebrate this day as a solemn occasion, clothed in
sackcloth and ashes, a day when our Loving Daddy
Abba
YHVH invites us to climb up in His lap so that He may
chastise us for our mistakes of the past, but as a JOYOUS occasion,
a day when He invites us to climb up in His lap to look us in the
eyes and let us know that He understands the pressure we undergo
while in the flesh, for He is not asking us to endure anything that
He has not already endured, yet He at an incredibly higher
temperature than us while in this furnace of affliction. He
understands the mistakes we make in the flesh are not indicative of
the desires that lie within our heart, and He so willingly and
lovingly offers correction to those who are His, so as to help us
avoid making these same mistakes going forward, allowing us to “walk
before Him and be perfect” – meaning to simply try our best while
seeking and accepting His loving correction. In this then we are
found pleasing in our Daddy’s eyes, a desire shared and sought after
by all of His children. We use this understanding of the
forgiveness of mistaken sin not to remain ignorant of that which is
expected of us so as to not sin purposefully, but to seek boldly all
truth while led by Ruach HaKodesh, thereby serving as a witness to the desires of
our heart.
Afflicting our souls then becomes not
a matter of a “planned” fast, for we worship in spirit and in truth,
not according to the flesh that others follow after. Does a
loving father plan a special day for his children and begin by
commanding them not to eat or drink so as to be found pleasing in
his presence? We afflict our souls by humbling ourselves, by
giving ourselves TOTALLY over to Him on this day, apart from all the
cares that we tend to on most other days of the year. How can
a man humble himself to any greater degree than to place himself
TOTALLY in the hands of his Creator? We need look no further
than our Precious Messiah for the answer to this question. In
so doing, we may find ourselves gathering with others to feast on
the Bread of Life while also dining on that which He has provided
from the land. Or perhaps we may find ourselves in prayer with
Him all day. Not a sackcloth and ashes type of prayer with
head bowed as is the custom of many, but in a Father–son, One-on-one
time, walking through Scripture together, that can last all day,
just as when a child gets involved in an activity that takes them to
“another time and place” and before they know it, the street lights
are coming on and it is time to get home. Having left our
flesh and its cares behind, we spend a timeless day in our spirit
with the One we love, dining on His Bread of Life and drinking of
His Living Waters, we reach the end of our day and realize that we
have yet to even feed our flesh. Not a “planned” or
“commanded” fast, but one that just “unconsciously” comes into
being. Whatever He has planned for us on this day will be
PERFECT, we just have need to allow Him to show us what that is.
Remember that the Day of Atonement is a Shabbat, and it is good to
do good on Shabbat!
Having allowed Him to break off the yokes that
bind us, we are now free to enjoy this day in a manner acceptable to
Abba
YHVH.
Shalom v’Baruch,
Peace and Blessings,
Dale
September 27, 2009