RUSSELL SANDERS

9-10-2025

THE FALL FEASTS PART 3

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT – LESSON 1

YOM KIPPUR

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At sundown October 2 starts The Day of Atonement called Yom Kippur by the Jews. It is the holiest of all the religious days observed as ordered in Exodus 30:10. It is Tishri 9 of the seventh month of the Jewish religious calendar.

In Leviticus 16:29-31 and Leviticus 23:27-33 the people are commanded to observe it as a sabbath of rest. It is a day of “affliction” which means they are to eat no food and drink no drink. It is a day of absolute fasting. Anyone who does not fast shall be cut off from among God’s people. Anyone who does any work will be destroyed by God. The entire chapter 16 of Leviticus spells out the procedures and offerings for this day.

The High Priest is to perform it. The procedure is done only once a year. It is the only time a human can enter the most holy place (Holy of Holies) where the ark of the covenant rested behind a veil.

Tomorrow we will look at the priestly rituals, but for now I will discuss the significance of the word “atonement.” It is the English word used in the Old Testament many times, but only once in the New Testament in Romans 5:11 where it says, “…we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement.” The Greek word used for “atonement” here is “katallagé” which means “reconciliation,” and is translated that way in Romans 5, I Corinthians 7, and II Corinthians 5.

To be reconciled (katallagé and katallassó) means to be thoroughly changed throughout. Present-day preachers take that “reconciliation” to illustrate the alternative translation “atonement” to point toward what the reconciliation “looks like,” namely AT-ONE-MENT with God.

Yes, reconciliation or “atonement” does mean that we have been entirely forgiven so as to become “at one” with God through the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus. We have been “thoroughly changed throughout” (katallagé) as spoken in II Corinthians 5:17 as a “new creature; old things are passed away; all things are become new.”

That did not happen in the Old Testament. The word translated “atonement” is not in the New Testament sense of reconciliation. It is the Hebrew verb “kaphar” which means “to cover” and the Hebrew noun “kapharim” (plural) meaning of “coverings.”

Therefore, the priestly rituals and sacrifices of The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) only provided a temporary “covering” of their sins for one year. It was not “forgiveness.” It meant that God would not “see” the sins because he covered them with the blood sacrifices of animals until the next year.

Jesus became the permanent “once for all time” sacrificial lamb whose blood forgives our sin and not just covers it. Thus, the Yom Kippur (day of Atonement) was a temporary foreshadowing of Messiah. We have the “better atonement” of reconciliation through Jesus Christ.

HELEN SANDERS

9-10-2025

YOU DO IT

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We had contact with a man that loves the Lord. His job brought him to our front door where we had a lengthy conversation. He shared his love of God and told us a story. 

When he was praying one day when he was younger, he asked God why the miracles in the bible were not happening today. God’s response was not what he expected. He told this young man that if he wanted to see people healed and miracles happen that he needed to be the one to do it. 

It is quite remarkable how many believers want to see miracles, signs and wonders happen in and out of church, yet those same people never step out in faith believing that God will do it through them.

I remember when I learned years ago that one could lay hands on the sick and they would recover. A friend was visiting and told me that she had just gotten a doctor’s report that she had a blood disease. He told her that if she had caught a virus or an infection she would die. In my simple faith I asked her, “Do you want to keep this?” She said, “No.” I then proceeded to pray for her believing that God touched her.

I hadn’t seen her for a few weeks but when I did, she told me that she got a new report from the doctor that she no longer had the blood disease. Praise God, she was healed, and I have been praying for people ever since and have seen many miraculous healings.

If you are a believer, then this should not be something that happens only once in a “blue moon.” In Mark 16 some of Jesus’ last words were in verses 17-18, “¹⁷And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; ¹⁸They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

The only qualification for these things to take place is to “believe.” Are you a believer? Do you have the faith to believe people will be healed when you pray? The early church in the book of Acts saw faith in action. Paul had a viper attach itself to his hand and he just shook it off, knowing that it would not hurt him because he knew who he was in Christ. The Church in the book of Acts saw the miracles being performed and they weren’t being done by the religious leaders in the synagogue or just pastors or leaders in a church. They were common folk that believed God and miracles followed.

So, if you want to see these things happen my suggestion to you is to “just do it.” Pray expecting to see these things happen! Perhaps if every believer did there would be the same fire burning in folks as it did in the early church.