The purpose of atonement

A common theme in Leviticus is that God is holy and requires His people to be holy too, for example:

I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves... -- Leviticus 11:44, 20:7 (NKJV)

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” -- Leviticus 11:45 (NKJV)

However, sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). God will never lower His standard. Instead we need to repent from our sin.

Therefore, God command Israel to set aside a special day to atone for their sins so that they may be reconciled with God:

This shall be a statute forever for you:

"In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all**, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you.

For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.

It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever. And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments; then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.

This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year."

And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.

-- Leviticus 16:29-34 (NKJV)

Moses continue to explain that blood is required for atonement:

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. -- Leviticus 17:11 (NKJV)

How to keep the ceremony

On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation.

• You shall afflict your souls.
• You shall not do any work.
• You shall present a burnt offering to the LORD as a sweet aroma: one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year. Be sure they are without blemish. Their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the one ram, and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs; also one kid of the goats as a sin offering, besides the sin offering for atonement, the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings.

-- Numbers 29:7-11 (NKJV)

Afflict your soul

The Hebrew word translated “afflict” is “anah”, which means to afflict, humble, bow down. The Hebrew word translated “souls” is “nephesh”, which means a living creature.

Are there any other Scriptures which help us understand what it means to “afflict your soul”? The answer is yes. There are several verses which associate fasting with affliction (anah).

Then I proclaimed a fast [tsom] there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble [anah] ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. -- Ezra 8:21

But as for me, when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth; I humbled [anah] myself with fasting [tsom]; And my prayer would return to my own heart. -- Psalm 35:13

‘Why have we fasted [tsum],’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted [anah] our souls [nephesh], and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast [tsom] you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast [tsom] for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast [tsom] as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast [tsom] that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict [anah] his soul [nephesh]? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast [tsom], And an acceptable day to the LORD -- Isaiah 58:3-5

The Hebrew word translated “fast” is “tsom”. It comes from the Hebrew “tsum” meaning to “cover the mouth”. So it means to not eat or drink anything.

There is also another verse which associates affliction of the soul to hunger.

If you extend your soul [nephesh] to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted [anah] soul [nephesh], Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday. -- Isaiah 58:10

-- The Bible Made Plain

Do no work

For example:

• Do not gather firewood which could have been done prior to the Sabbath (Exodus 35:3; Numbers 15:32-36).
• Do not harvest on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:25-26).
• Do not trade on the Sabbath (Nehemiah 13:15-22; Amos 8:4-6).
• Do not transport goods on the Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:21).

The pattern I identified in scripture of what "do not work" means is:

Do not do ordinary business, trade, or job-related activities for another, for yourself, nor enforce it on any of your workers. "Work" excludes activities that are necessary to sustain life, such as plucking grain for yourself to eat (Mark 2:23-28), healing (Luke 13:10-17, John 5:1-18) or saving a life (Matthew 12:11-12, Luke 14:5).

Present a burnt offering

Today, there is no longer any temple (Deuteronomy 12:5-6, 13-14) nor priests (Numbers 3:10, 18:7) that can present burnt offerings. In addition, the majority of people no longer own farms with animals that could be sacrificed. This makes the ceremony practically impossible to keep to the letter as Moses described it.

However, the ceremony is not about the burnt offering, but about the atonement of sins which is the reason why Jesus sacrificed himself:

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said,

“Take, eat; this is my body.”

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,

“Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

-- Matthew 26:26-28 (NKJV)

and this is also how John understood it:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. -- 1 John 2:1-2 (NKJV)

Reasons why Christians ignore the ceremony

Moses made it clear that this ceremony was a very serious matter and should be kept forever:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

“Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God.

For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”

-- Leviticus 23:26-32 (NKJV)

Yet, modern Christians no longer keep the Day of Atonement for the following reasons:

Gentiles were not Israelites

Christians believe that Moses commands only applied to the nation of Israel.

Yet, Moses stated that God's laws also applied to "strangers" (Exodus 12:49; Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 15:15-16) and presented the law when "mixed multitude" were present (Exodus 12:38).

Paul also taught that new gentile believers should be considered fellow citizens of Israel (Romans 11:17-24; Ephesians 2:11-19; Galatians 3:28-29).

Christian tradition

For almost two thousand years, Christians deliberately avoided "Jewish" traditions and customs, including the Day of Atonement, to distance themselves from Judaism.

Hebrews 9

Hebrews 9:11-28 states that Jesus fulfilled this ceremony such that it is no longer necessary to keep it.

However, no prophet nor Jesus himself declared this ceremony deprecated.

What authority does the author of Hebrews have to override God's laws?

Many people believe that Paul, the most quoted author by Christians, wrote Hebrews. However, there is no evidence that Paul is the author of Hebrews. Instead, the author of the book of Hebrews is unknown, but Moses, on the other hand, was a well known leader and prophet of Israel who wrote the Torah which are still studied today by both Christians and Jews.

The crucifixion

Some Christians believe that all Old Testament ceremonial laws, including the Day of Atonement, were abolished when Jesus died on the cross:

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. -- Colossians 2:13-14 (NKJV)

However, this passage does not specifically mention the Day of Atonement or any specific feast. The "handwriting of requirements" could refer to the record of our sins rather than God's laws themselves. Compare it for example with other bible translations like:

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. -- Colossians 2:13-14 (ESV)

No judgement

Some Christians interpret Paul's writing that the modern believer has the freedom to serve God any way he or she wants.

Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths. -- Colossians 2:16 (NKJV)

One interpretation is that you should live in such obedience to the law that no one can judge the way you live.

Another interpretation is that you can live whichever way you want, therefore you should ignore the judgment of others. These people often also quote:

One person esteems one day above another; Another esteems every day alike.

Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.

-- Romans 14:5-6 (NKJV)

However, in the context of Romans 14, Paul was addressing the harsh judgment on new converts (Romans 14:1-4). If you ignore the chapter division between Romans 14 and 15 (which was not added by Paul), it becomes clear that the point Paul was making is:

Therefore receive one another just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. -- Romans 15:7 (NKJV)

This means that strong believers should not judge new converts, but rather receive them as they are like Christ's example.