Messiah’s Return in the Feasts of the Lord
The Feast of Atonement
The Feast of Atonement falls on the tenth day of the seventh month. Tradition declares this to be the day the Book of Life closes for the year. Any person whose name isn’t written there is subject to judgment and separated from the family of Israel. The first ten days of the seventh month are awash with fasting, repentance, and reparations. The separation from sin implied in the Feast of Unleavened Bread escalates in the fall to deep introspection. Though this celebration offers an annual opportunity to repent and return to the Lord, it’s strongly connected to prophecies of Messiah’s return.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the trumpets of the seventh month announced the end of harvest time. But those same trumpets were used for another fall event—the return of the king from battle. We know from 1 Chronicles 20:1 that spring was when kings went out to war. (It was when King David decided not to ride out that he got into trouble with Bathsheba.) As the season turned cold and rainy, battle-weary kings would come home to great fanfare. They laid down their swords, sat on their thrones, and ruled their land in person once more.
To welcome their coming king, the people made great preparations. They leveled and cleared the roads, cleaned the throne room, and purified the land that was so recently drenched in battle blood. The Feast of Atonement did more than prepare for the arrival of a human king. It made sure the temple, the land, and the people of Israel were thoroughly cleansed and ready to receive the King of kings to his holy habitation in their midst.
Messiah’s First Coming and the Feast of Atonement
As though practicing for Messiah’s return, the priests went through annual cleansing rituals. One such ceremony was the release of the scapegoat. The high priest approached a specially chosen, blemish-free male goat near the altar and pressed his hands on its head while confessing the nation’s sins. The goat was then led out of the temple, carrying the load of sin out to the wilderness, where he was released, never to be seen again.
Another important atonement ritual was the slaying of two special sin offerings—another goat, along with a bull. Though sin offerings were sacrificed regularly throughout the year, these two were different. Normally, after killing a sin offering, the priests would pour its blood at the base of the altar, then carry its carcass outside the temple to be burned.
On the Feast of Atonement, the slain goat and bull were burned outside the camp like any normal sin offering. But their blood shared a different fate. The high priest poured some of their blood at the base of the altar, but then he carried the rest of it all the way into the holy of holies. Splashing it against the ark, the veil, and the altar of incense, he cleansed everything in the holy place.
In a remarkably similar fashion, Jesus played the part of the scapegoat at his crucifixion, dying as the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. But then he went on to satisfy the purpose of the goat and the bull, not by taking his blood to the earthly holy place, but by bringing it into the heavenly holy of holies. (Hebrews 9:24)
Messiah’s Return and the Feast of Atonement
Revelation 16 takes us forward to a day when seven bowls of wrath are poured out and the earth is cleansed in a series of atonement-like actions. The world’s entire water supply, both salt and fresh, is purified as it turns to blood. Cleansing fire comes from the sun as it scorches much of mankind. God uses light, too, to decontaminate the earth. Those who refuse to let the Light of the World purge their sins suffer the pain of deep darkness.
The destruction is so complete as this world-wide atonement takes place, Ezekiel 39 says that the Valley of Decision will be filled with so many bodies, it will take seven months to bury them all.
At last, the seventh angel pours out his bowl and cries, “It is finished!” and the earth itself is ready for Messiah’s return. It shudders and quakes, leveling the mountains and raising the valleys until the way is made straight for the King of kings (Isaiah 49:11). And as he comes, he gathers his people to dwell with him forever.
So the trumpets have blown, the way is prepared, and the world is ready to receive her King. The Feast of Tabernacles is about to dawn with the joyful shout of celebration. Palm branches will rattle like a forest in a storm as the people of God greet Messiah’s return with new songs of deliverance.
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