[Darris McNeely] Of all God's festivals, the Day of Atonement has a very special meaning and I've always kind of been attached to it. It's the hardest because it is a day of fasting, and fasting is not a natural human condition. But on the Day of Atonement, we see some of the most beautiful teaching and meaning of the word of God regarding the hope that we can look...have in this life. In Leviticus 16, there's an entire chapter that talks about what happened on the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament when the high priest would go in several times into the temple sanctuary, into the Holy of Holies with the blood of sacrifice. He only did that once a year, and he was the only one who could do that. Now, we don't have a temple, we don't do animal sacrifices, but God does command the Day of Atonement like all of His other festivals and His weekly Sabbath to be something that He would...His people would keep throughout their generations forever. And those two words throughout the generations and forever, they do mean what they say.

So how do we apply this today? Well, let's turn over to the book of Hebrews 9 and there's a couple of verses here, six and seven, that we should read that tell us exactly why the Day of Atonement has an ongoing meaning, application and observance for the people of God, for the saints of God, for the church of God. "Now, when these sayings had been thus prepared," the writer says, "the priests have always went into the first part of the tabernacle performing the services, but into the second part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, that once a year was on the Day of Atonement. With that blood he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance."

It was an offering to remove the penalty of sin from off of the nation in the Old Testament, but with Christ's sacrifice today, it removes the penalty of sin off of all mankind, and we have the opportunity to take advantage of that today in our life when we accept Christ as our savior and are baptized and receive God's spirit. Verse eight, "The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the tabernacle was still standing."

Christ is our high priest today and He is in God's throne. He is in God's presence making sacrifice or applying that sacrifice for us today. It was one sacrifice for all time. When we keep the Day of Atonement, when we fast, when we worship God on His appointed times, we remember that we have that pointed out in our attention, and we have ourselves pointed to one of the most important lessons for us in the world today. A time when the evil of this world will finally be removed and when sin will be removed from mankind's presence and true atonement with God will be realized.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.