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I’ve got good news and bad news for you. Which do you want first? Doesn’t matter, I’m giving you the bad news first; and this is it: Yom Kippur doesn’t work. Let me clarify. Yom Kippur, as it is constituted today, doesn’t work. It doesn’t even come close. It isn’t that anything is lacking in God’s provision and instructions for this day. According to Leviticus 23, we’re to hold a solemn assembly, to humble ourselves, and… (here’s the first problem) to “present an offering made by fire to Adonai.” We cannot possibly fulfill this obligation. Why?

I. No Temple = No Atonement

Moses wrote: “You shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God shall choose from all your tribes and there you shall come… You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing what is right in his own eyes… but in the place which the Lord chooses, there you shall offer your burnt offerings… (Deuteronomy 12).

Ultimately, that place was Jerusalem; specifically, the Temple in Jerusalem. God decreed both the location and procedure for those sacrifices. It wasn’t up for negotiation, and it wasn’t to be worked out in committee. The first principle of true worship is to recognize that Adonai is to be revered and obeyed. The Canaanites worshiped Ba’al wherever they felt like it; on whatever high hill or under whatever lovely tree “inspired” them. Theirs was religion tailor-made for a man’s base instincts and physical desires; designed to satisfy their appetites. But Israel was commanded to worship God in the place, manner and time He ordained.

The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed the first time in 586 BCE in the final wave of the Babylonian invasion; God’s punishment for Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Covenant and sin of rebellion. God in His mercy promised to return us to the Land once we would return to Him. And that was a comparatively brief exile: 70 years. The City and Sanctuary were eventually rebuilt and proper worship re-instated.

Sadly, that Temple was destroyed too – in 70 AD, following the failed first Jewish revolt. After what had been many years of infighting within the civil and religious leadership of Israel, the Temple was destroyed by the Roman army under the leadership of General Titus. In what turned out to be a prophecy fulfilled to the letter, not only was the Temple burned, but the entire structure was dismantled, stone by stone.

And why was the second Temple destroyed? Hadn’t Israel long since learned the painful consequences of idolatry? If we were no longer idolaters, why was the Temple destroyed? It’s a question the rabbis themselves asked. Listen to their words: ‘Why was the first Holy Temple destroyed? Because of three wicked things: idol worship, adultery, and murder. But in the second Temple in which time the Jewish people were occupied studying the Torah and doing good deeds and acts of charity why was it then destroyed? The answer is: It was because of hatred without a cause to teach you, that hate without a cause is equal to these sins and that it is as serious a crime as the three great transgressions of idol worship, adultery, and murder.’ [Yoma 9]

The expression ‘hatred without a cause’ is a reference to Psalm 35, written 1,000 years earlier by King David: “I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty crowd. Do not let those who are wrongfully my enemies rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without cause wink maliciously. For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful words…”

So then, the rabbis concluded that hatred without a cause led to the destruction of the Second Temple. But who did we hate without a cause – the Romans? No, for there was good cause; the Romans brutally mistreated and oppressed our people. So who did we hate without a cause? The rabbis declined to answer their own question, but Yeshua did, when He said, He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this in order that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ (John 15:23-25)

In that same discussion, the rabbis revealed something remarkable. They wrote: Forty years before the Holy Temple was destroyed the following things happened: The lot for the Yom Kippur goat ceased to be supernatural; the red cord of wool that used to change to white now remained red and did not change; and the western candle in the candlestick in the sanctuary refused to burn continually while the doors of the Holy Temple would open of themselves. [Yoma 39:b].

Clearly, God was displeased about something. The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Evidently something happened 40 years earlier to cause these bizarre occurrences. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that 40 years earlier was the very time that Yeshua of Nazareth was put through a bogus trial by our own religious leaders, and handed over to the Roman authorities to be crucified.

But whether you agree with Yeshua’s words and my assessment or not, the fact remains, we have no Temple, and therefore no legitimate way to offer the Yom Kippur sacrifices He commanded us. But again, that’s only one-third of the problem. The second reason Yom Kippur as it is presently constituted doesn’t work is because it operates by man-made rituals, which don’t make atonement.

II. Man-made Rules ≠  Atonement

The destruction of the Second Temple forced a re-definition of Judaism. No longer would the Temple, the Sacrifices, and the Priesthood be our focus. The rabbis stepped into that void and appointed themselves Judaism’s ‘gatekeepers’, and the synagogue replaced the Temple as the center of Jewish life. It was argued in the northern Israeli town of Yavneh by some of these same rabbis, that prayer (t’fillah), righteous deeds (tz’dakah) and acts of repentance (t’shuvah) would now take the place of animal sacrifices. But nowhere does Scripture, rightly interpreted, justify that view. Even Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, one of the framers of this re-constituted Judaism, knew such a system was inadequate. It is recorded that on his deathbed, Zakkai wept in despair, uncertain about his eternal destination. And if a revered rabbi had no assurance of atonement or of Heaven, how could anyone?

God demanded the sacrifice of animals, the shedding of blood and a burnt offering on Yom Kippur, not eloquent but interminably long prayers at the synagogue, or swinging a chicken over our heads (as is the practice among men in the Hasidic community). There can be no atonement where the commandment is not kept. Leviticus 17 states: The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood, by reason of the life, that makes atonement. The New Testament author of the letter to the Messianic Jews wrote: According to the Law one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. We have no Temple and no sacrifices. Consequently, Yom Kippur doesn’t work. That also means that all the rituals and prayers and fasting fail to accomplish the very purpose of this day.

Let me add that the futility of man-made religion has been with us from the beginning. When Adam and Eve violated God’s instruction in Eden, they were suddenly filled with shame at their nakedness. Genesis 3 says …they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Kippur is from the Hebrew word kaper, meaning covering. The humiliation Adam and Eve now felt at their nakedness caused them to take steps to alleviate it. They sewed fig leaves together. Was it the beginning of the shmattah business? No, but as that chapter continues, we see the inadequacy of their self-made coverings. We read:

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

Why hide? Why be afraid? Hadn’t they had sewn fig leaves together, and weren’t they now covered? Genesis presents us with an early demonstration of the futility of human effort to cover our shame or to solve, on our own terms, our alienation from God. Those fig leaves, that flimsy covering which proved useless in the presence of God, represent the best of our works, all our deeds of tz’dakah, all our acts of contrition summed up. They did not provide atonement.

After confronting Adam and Eve for their rebellion, God went on to show both His judgment and His mercy. In judgment, He declared the consequences for their sin; and in mercy He made coverings for them. In verse 21 we read: And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

God is concerned with our dignity. It is not His desire that we be perpetually ashamed with our heads hung low. But our own efforts failed, and so He made garments of skin for Adam and Eve. But by the use of the verb asah, we learn that God did not “create” those skins, as out of nothing, but “made” them. Where did God get the material from which to fashion those garments of skin? Simple. Adam and his wife had to watch two innocent animals die in order that they have kapporah – covering. They watched as the lifeblood flowed out and the light was extinguished in the eyes of those creatures. They learned, as we must also, that the wages of sin is death. God mercifully allowed for substitutes to take punishment for us, by means of the Mishkan, the Temple and its sacrificial rites. But ultimately it was God’s plan for Messiah Himself to bear the punishment for the iniquity of us all; as the prophet Isaiah declared,

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way, but Adonai has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him (Isaiah 53:4-6).

Messiah would be our ultimate sin-bearer, our ultimate atonement. Why, then, doesn’t Yom Kippur work? Why is it that most Jewish people will walk out of their synagogues after N’eilah this evening no better off than when they went in?

III. Rejection of Yeshua = Forfeiture of Atonement

It is because our persistent rejection of Messiah Yeshua has left us with no other possible means of atonement. Yeshua is God’s intended agent of salvation; therefore, we are left with no recourse if we refuse Him. God is not about to re-negotiate the terms of world redemption to suit our prejudices. It is left to us, therefore, to repent and believe the Gospel; and that is precisely the repentance that God desires for us this Yom Kippur. When asked “What shall we do that we may work the works of God?” Yeshua replied, “This is the work of God – that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6:28-29)

God is not impressed with long and eloquent prayers or large sums of money given to charity; not if it means telling Yeshua you’re “not interested”.

The Good News is that this Yom Kippur can accomplish its task. Yom Kippur will make atonement. We can be reconciled to God… IF… we will turn away from our pride, learn reverence for Adonai, stop worrying what other people think of us, and turn and embrace Yeshua, the true Messiah, and God’s Representative, who offers us full atonement, forgiveness of all our sins, life forever with God, illumination, joy and true Shalom. The terms have been set. Will you take the deal?