The Prophetic Picture of Yom Kippur
(the Day of Atonement)
Unlike the spring and summer Feasts, the Day of Atonement has yet to see its fulfillment in terms of it being a prophetic picture. It reflects the Great White Throne Judgment of Heaven:
‘Then I saw a great white Throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence Earth and Heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the Throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death, the Lake of Fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire’ (Rev. 20:11-15).
This is the fulfillment of Yom Kipor, the Day of Atonement, for it’s a Day of Judgment for one’s sins. One must have the Blood of the Lamb of God upon their soul to be written in the Book of Life.
Before Judgment Day Yahveh will save Israel ‘after the flesh.’ This should happen when Yeshua returns to reign for a thousand years. The Apostle Paul wrote:
‘For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery so that you will not be wise in your own estimation that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and so all Israel will be saved. Just as it is written,
‘The Deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My Covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’ (Rom. 11:25-27)
The Prophet Zechariah writes what will happen to the Jewish people on that day, and the nations that come against her:
And in that Day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the House of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced. And they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn’ (Zech. 12:9-10).
‘In that Day, a Fountain will be opened for the House of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity’ (Zech. 13:1).
When Israel looks upon Yeshua, the Pierced One, they will see both their blindness and their sinful hearts. They will be so overwhelmed by their new understanding of who Yeshua is, that they will weep bitterly over their past blindness. Yahveh will not leave them there. His Fountain of Life will cleanse them from their sins and bring them into His Kingdom. Their past sins will be atoned for. The ‘sign’ that Yeshua spoke of will be His return to rule:
‘And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the Heavens, and then all the tribes of the Earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the Heavens with power and great glory.’ (Mt. 24:30)
The traditional interpretation of ‘all the tribes of the Earth will mourn’ should give way to, ‘all the Tribes of the Land (of Israel), will mourn’.6 The Hebrew word for Earth and land (of Israel), is identical. In this context, Yeshua is speaking of Israel recognizing their Messiah.
The prophetic picture of the autumn Feasts looks like this:
1 First, the Tribulation. Israel, like much of the world will be devastated.
2 Yom Teruah (The Feast of Trumpets): The King Himself comes to establish His rule in Jerusalem at Ezekiel’s Temple for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4-6). This is the Day of Joy Unspeakable expressed by tremendous shouting and praise.
3 Yom Kipor: There are ten days between Yom Teruah and Yom Kipor. This would equate with the thousand year reign of the Lord before the Great Day of Judgment, right after judgment on Gog and Magog (Ezk. 38:2, 3, 14ff, Rev. 20:8).
Yom Kipor will be the Day of Judgment for the world, after the thousand year reign of Messiah Yeshua in earthly Jerusalem (Rev. 20:4-6).