“On the tenth day of this seventh month you are to have a holy convocation. You are to deny yourselves, and you are not to do any kind of work.”-Numbers 29: 7
While reading through Numbers 29, I was thinking this chapter is giving us quite a nice little review of all the Biblical Feasts.
So let’s get started.
Verse 7 speaks of a festival to take place on the 10th day of the 7th month.
This festival is perhaps one of the most sobering yet still joyous of all the feasts.
Of course I’m talking about Yom Kippur, the big Day of Atonement.
Recall this is that one day of the year when the High Priest was allowed to go inside the HOLY OF HOLIES to sprinkle the sacrificial blood on the Mercy Seat.
He would also sprinkle blood on the other areas of the temple to purify it from a year’s worth of defilement that had accumulated due to human contact.
This is a celebration performed ONLY BY THE HIGH PRIEST!
Your average Israelite did NOT go to the Temple on this day.
However, during the several days leading up to Yom Kippur, the people fasted, prayed and spent a good deal of time meditating in remorse on all of the sins they may have committed throughout the past year.
It is all of these sins the people hoped to be forgiven of when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur.
On the day of Yom Kippur, there are five specific areas of pleasure the people were to abstain from.
They are…
Eating or drinking
Wearing leather footwear.
Bathing or washing.
Applying ointment, lotions, or creams.
Engaging in any form of spousal intimacy.
The 10-day period from the 1st of the 7th Month which is Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) up until the 10th day of the 7th month which is Yom Kippur are known as the HIGH HOLY DAYS.
The next time we meet, we’ll have a look at the granddaddy of all the feasts: SUKKOT.
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