Building on the Foundation

  A day of great wrath and fierce battle, a day of celebration and a day of mourning, a day that is a thousand years. The day of Atonement has so many layers to it that one study or explanation would be offensive if it were to suggest that’s all there is to the meaning of the day. It’s the same for all of the feast days; as soon as we settle on what they picture and wrap it up all neat with a bow, we prevent further learning about those days. We like to have things all neat and decided and finished, but there are so many more deeper layers to these days. We shouldn’t be surprised by this; after all, God created the Holy Days, and anything He creates is wonderfully complex in its makeup. The thing we have to remember is that different Holy Days can picture and point to things that do not actually happen on that day.  As with all the Holy Days, Atonement is not so easily or neatly tied up with a bow. There is a lot of discussion about what different things mean or represent, an...

  “[God] has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psa. 103:10-12). The Day of Atonement includes just such a picture of sin being removed far away. Under the Old Covenant, there were two goats: one to die for the sins of the people, and one to carry those sins far away. Here’s Lev. 16:8: “Then Aaron [the high priest] shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.” “Scapegoat” is a poor translation. The Hebrew word used here is azazel (Strong’s # H5799), which derives from two other Hebrew words: az (# H5795), or goat, and azal (# H235), “to go away.” So the azazel is the “goat to go away,” or, as some Bible translations render it, the “goat of departure.” The goat on which the lot of the LORD, or YHWH, fel...

  Guest post by Richard Gray. This is a sequel to the previous post on the Day of Trumpets . Those who will be in the first resurrection on the Day of Trumpets will be priests of God. The priests were to be consecrated for seven days, “And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation…until the days of your consecration [4394, inauguration into the priestly office ] be at an end: for seven days shall He consecrate you” (Lev. 8:33). The consecration is the marriage ceremony where they will be instructed in their duties as the bride of the high priest Jesus Christ. The marriage ceremony ends, “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunder, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come [2064, come to pass ], and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be ...