Trinity Free Church Huntingdon

The Jewish calendar starts on the 1st of the month Abib, approximately April, but there is also another celebration called the Head of the Year on the 1st of Tishri, approximately late September/early October, and, while the April feast celebrates the beginning of the Jewish nation the later one celebrates its spiritual renewal by cleansing from sin.

On the afternoon of the feast people gathered near water to cast away their sins in a ceremony called Tashlikh which in Hebrew means “Thou wilt cast” and is part of a quotation from the Biblical book of the prophet Micah, in which he declared that if the people were truly repentant and obedient to God He would cast all their sins into the ocean where they would be lost for ever.

This is the beginning of the “Ten Awesome Days” of repentance which end at the next feast, Atonement.

Atonement

When William Tyndale was translating the Bible into English he came across the expression Yom Kippur for which there was no English equivalent so he made one up as a direct translation. It was at-one-ment and then the pronunciation got changed but the meaning is still that of the original, being ‘at one’ with God.

As usual cleansing from sin is associated with sacrifice and on this occasion this involved two goats. One was ceremonially killed at the Temple but the High Priest laid his hands on the other confessing the sins of the nation and, as it were, laying them onto the goat which was then driven away into the wilderness carrying the sin of the nation with it. It is this goat which gives us our word ‘scapegoat’ for someone who takes the blame for others.

Christianity recognises that Jesus Christ, the wholly innocent, sinless One died to take on Himself the responsibility for everything which separates us from God so that, accepting His sacrifice on our behalf, we may be reconciled to God and live in harmony with Him.

At the end of Yom Kippur the shofar, the ram’s horn trumpet, was blown to herald the coming of the Messiah, but the Bible makes clear that in Jesus He came and achieved victory over sin and death. Christians now look forward to His second coming when His Kingdom on earth will be established.
“This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way.” (Acts 1.11)
“The Lord Himself will come from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God.” (1.Thessalonians 4.16)
It is said that there are more references to the Second Coming in the New Testament than to any other event. It’s really that important!