Hebrews 9:24-28 For Christ has not entered the holy places
made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now
to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself
often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood
of another-- He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of
the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die
once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the
sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second
time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Yom Kippur, which literally means Day of Coverings, can be a day of
deep reflection on what the Lord has done for us. As Yeshua (Jesus) died on
the cross 2000 years ago, the Gospel describes how the veil in the Temple
was torn in two. This profound spiritual event reveals that the Lord gave
all whose sins are covered by His blood access to the Holy of Holies, as He
had become our High Priest in addition to being, Himself, the perfect
sacrifice for sin.
Although the Temple was not finally destroyed until 70 AD, Orthodox
Judiasm recounts in the Talmud that, beginning in 30 AD, God no longer
accepted the animal sacrifices commanded in the Torah for the Day of
Atonement, [Tract Yoma 39b]. Throughout the ages, while the Temple stood,
the High Priest would cast lots for the two goats which were to be offered
as sacrifices on Yom Kippur. One lot was for the goat to be sacrificed on
the altar, for YHVH -- and the other, called "Azazel", the goat cast out
into the wilderness for the removal of sins [Leviticus 16:7-10].
Traditionally, as the Priest cast the lot, finding it in his right
hand was a good omen, indicating that God had accepted the sacrifice.
However, if the High Priest drew it in his left hand, this indicated the
Lord's displeasure and even rejection of the sacrifice. For the 40 years
after the sacrifice of Yeshua, the Talmud records that the lot was taken in
the left hand of the High Priest. The same result for 40 years, a lot cast
into the left hand, carries a statistical probability of 1 in
1,099,511,627,776 -- or one in a trillion chance! There were also other
significant miraculous signs described in this tract, that something of
major significance had taken place related to the most critical sacrifice
in the Temple order. It is clear to both Jews and Messianic believers that
God was saying something important to the Jewish people in 30AD; something
important enough to be recorded in the Talmud and something which demanded
an explanation.
We believe that the destruction of the
Temple in 70 AD, 40 years after the sacrifice of Yeshua, followed a period
of testimony and testing for the Jewish people concerning the fact that the
sacrificial system had been consummated by Yeshua's death on the cross. 40
is a typical number of testing throughout the Bible. While animal
sacrifices continued to be offered in the Temple while it stood, and many
believing Jews continued to participate in them, it was clear that
something new and definitive had opened the way for all people to enter the
Holiest place and to know the Lord intimately and personally. Without
intending to, the Talmud offers historical support for the significance and
reality of the events in 30 AD which consummated the sacrificial system
given in the Torah; i.e. the death and resurrection of the Jewish Messiah,
Yeshua of Nazareth, who died for the sins of the whole world. (George, Baht Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah)
No comments:
Post a Comment