TORAH: Leviticus 16:1–34
PROPHETS: Isaiah 57:14–58:14
GOSPEL: Matthew 12:38–45; Matthew 25:31–46
Yom Kippur: A Day About Removing Sin
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, takes us into the heart of the biblical story of sin, judgment, cleansing, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Leviticus 16 describes the one day each year when the high priest entered the Most Holy Place and made atonement for himself, the priesthood, the sanctuary, and the people of Israel. Isaiah later confronts a people who practice religious fasting while continuing injustice and oppression. Matthew presents Yeshua as the greater sign of Jonah and later shows Him sitting as King and separating the sheep from the goats. At first these passages may seem quite different, but together they ask a profound question: What does Yahweh ultimately intend to do about sin? When read through Yeshua’s words in Luke 24:44 and Peter’s proclamation in Acts 3:21, they point toward something greater than punishment alone. They point toward Yahweh’s purpose to remove sin, reconcile His creation, and ultimately restore what has been broken.
Yeshua Said Moses and the Prophets Wrote About Him
After His resurrection, Yeshua told His disciples, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). That statement gives Believers permission—indeed, an invitation—to search passages such as Leviticus 16 and Isaiah 57–58 for patterns that find their fulfillment in Yeshua. This does not mean that every detail is a secret code or that Moses consciously understood everything that would later be revealed in Messiah. It means that the great biblical themes of priesthood, sacrifice, cleansing, forgiveness, judgment, reconciliation, and restoration ultimately converge upon Yeshua.
Peter Gives Us the Destination: Restoration
Acts 3:21 gives us another lens through which to read these passages. Peter speaks of Yeshua “whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.” Notice Peter’s remarkable claim. Restoration was not something invented by later believers in Messiah. Yahweh had been speaking about restoration through His prophets “from ancient time.” If Peter is right, then when we read Moses and the Prophets, we should expect to discover not merely judgment but the purpose toward which Yahweh’s judgments ultimately move. Again and again the biblical story moves from uncleanness toward cleansing, exile toward homecoming, estrangement toward reconciliation, death toward life, and brokenness toward restoration.
The High Priest Enters Where No One Else Can Go
Leviticus 16 begins with a reminder of the deaths of Nadab and Abihu. Yahweh’s holiness is not something to be approached casually. Aaron cannot simply walk into the Most Holy Place whenever he wishes. He must come according to Yahweh’s instructions, with sacrifices and cleansing. Only the high priest enters behind the veil, and only on the appointed day. For Christians, this naturally anticipates Yeshua as the greater High Priest. What Aaron performed repeatedly in earthly symbols points toward what Messiah accomplishes in reality. The distance between sinful humanity and divine holiness must somehow be overcome, and the New Testament identifies Yeshua as the One through whom that reconciliation is accomplished.
Atonement Is About Cleansing, Not Preserving Defilement
One of the most important things to notice in Leviticus 16 is what atonement actually accomplishes. Yahweh tells Moses that atonement is made “because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins” (Leviticus 16:16). Later we read, “For it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before Yahweh” (Leviticus 16:30). The goal is not the eternal preservation of uncleanness. The goal is cleansing. Sin is the problem, and Yahweh provides a means by which the problem is dealt with. This becomes enormously important when we consider the larger biblical hope of restoration. Yahweh does not love sin, preserve sin, or make peace with sin. He cleanses His creation from it.
Two Goats Tell One Story
Central to Yom Kippur are two goats. One is sacrificed as a sin offering. Over the other, Aaron confesses “all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins” (Leviticus 16:21). That goat then carries those iniquities away into the wilderness. The two goats together provide a vivid picture: sin is both dealt with and carried away. Yahweh’s solution is not merely to announce that sin exists forever. Sin is removed from the camp. For Christ followers reading Leviticus through Luke 24:44, it is difficult not to see a trajectory toward Yeshua, who bears sin and removes the barrier it creates between humanity and Yahweh.
The Sin-Bearer Carries It Away
The second goat is especially striking because the sins of the people are symbolically placed upon it and carried “to a solitary land” (Leviticus 16:22). The goat “shall bear on itself all their iniquities.” This imagery prepares the biblical imagination for the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, of whom it is said that Yahweh caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him. Believers see that sin-bearing mission fulfilled in Yeshua. The point is not that Yahweh ignores evil. The point is that Yahweh acts to remove it. The disease is not declared harmless; it is treated. The pollution is not given an eternal home; it is cleansed. Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Yom Kippur Is Bigger Than Individual Forgiveness
Another important feature of Leviticus 16 is the scope of the cleansing. Atonement is made for the sanctuary, the tent of meeting, the altar, the priests, and the people. Sin has polluted more than individual consciences; the whole covenant environment requires cleansing. That gives Yom Kippur an almost creation-wide quality in miniature. Human sin contaminates relationships, communities, worship, and the world we inhabit. Yahweh’s answer is comprehensive cleansing. This provides an important background for Peter’s phrase “restoration of all things.” The biblical hope is larger than rescuing isolated individuals from a ruined creation. Yahweh intends to set right what sin has made wrong.
Isaiah Says, “Build Up the Highway”
The prophetic reading begins with restoration language: “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstacle out of the way of My people” (Isaiah 57:14). Something is preventing people from coming home, and Yahweh commands that the obstacle be removed. This is beautiful language to place beside Yom Kippur. Leviticus shows sin being carried away; Isaiah shows obstacles being removed from the road home. Both pictures move in the same direction. Yahweh is clearing away what separates His people from Himself.
The High and Holy One Dwells With the Crushed
Isaiah then gives us one of Scripture’s magnificent descriptions of Yahweh: “For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah 57:15). Yahweh’s holiness does not mean that He remains eternally distant from broken people. The Holy One comes near to them. And why does He come near? To revive them. His holiness is not merely separation from sinners; it is also the holy power by which broken sinners are restored to life.
“I Will Not Contend Forever”
Then comes an extraordinary statement: “For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before Me, and the breath of those whom I have made” (Isaiah 57:16). This verse deserves careful attention in discussions about divine judgment. Yahweh certainly becomes angry with sin. Isaiah does not deny judgment. But Yahweh Himself declares that His contention will not continue forever. Why? Because He remembers the frailty of the creatures He made. Divine anger is real, but here it is explicitly described as having a limit.
“I Have Seen His Ways, but I Will Heal Him”
Isaiah goes even further. Yahweh says of the wayward person, “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners” (Isaiah 57:18). Notice what Yahweh does after seeing his ways. He does not say, “I have seen his ways, therefore I will abandon him forever.” He says, “I will heal him.” This is one of the clearest restorative patterns in the prophetic reading. Yahweh sees the rebellion accurately. Judgment is not based on ignorance. Yet after seeing the sinner’s ways, Yahweh declares His intention to heal, lead, and restore.
Judgment That Leads Toward Healing
This pattern appears repeatedly in Scripture. Moses records Yahweh saying, “I have wounded and it is I who heal” (Deuteronomy 32:39). Hosea records, “I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely” (Hosea 14:4). Isaiah says, “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him.” Judgment and healing therefore need not be opposites. Yahweh may confront, discipline, humble, and expose precisely because He intends to remove what destroys His creatures. From the universalist perspective, this provides an important biblical foundation for understanding divine judgment as potentially remedial and restorative rather than assuming that every judgment must be endless.
Yom Kippur Without Mercy Is Empty Religion
Isaiah 58 then turns to fasting. The people appear religious. They seek Yahweh and delight in knowing His ways. They ask why Yahweh has not noticed their fasting. Yahweh responds by exposing the contradiction between religious ceremony and their treatment of other people. They fast while exploiting workers, quarreling, fighting, and striking with wicked fists. Yom Kippur observance without mercy toward others has missed the very character of the God being worshiped.
The Fast Yahweh Chooses
Yahweh asks, “Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6). Here again restoration becomes concrete. Yahweh’s holiness liberates. Chains are loosened. Yokes are broken. The oppressed are released. Bread is shared with the hungry. The homeless poor are brought into the house. The naked are clothed. Biblical restoration is not merely a theological idea about what happens someday. It begins wherever Yahweh’s people participate in setting right what has gone wrong.
Then Your Light Will Break Out Like the Dawn
Isaiah promises that when Yahweh’s people practice this kind of justice and mercy, “your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth” (Isaiah 58:8). Darkness gives way to light. Wounding gives way to recovery. Ruins are rebuilt. Ancient foundations are raised up. Yahweh’s people become known as “the repairer of the breach” and “the restorer of the streets in which to dwell” (Isaiah 58:12). Notice that word again: restorer. Long before Peter proclaimed the “restoration of all things,” the prophets were already speaking the language of restoration.
The Sign of Jonah
Matthew 12 brings us directly to Yeshua. Some scribes and Pharisees ask Him for a sign. Yeshua answers that no sign will be given except “the sign of Jonah the prophet.” Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea creature, so the Son of Man would be in the heart of the earth. For Christians, the sign points toward Yeshua’s death and resurrection. The One anticipated by the sacrificial imagery of Torah will Himself enter death—and emerge from it.
Jonah Is Also a Story About Mercy
There is another fascinating dimension to the sign of Jonah. Jonah is not merely a story about three days. It is a story about Yahweh showing mercy to people Jonah believed deserved destruction. Nineveh receives a warning of judgment, repents, and is spared. Jonah becomes angry because Yahweh is “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness” (Jonah 4:2). The prophet knew Yahweh’s character so well that he suspected judgment might give way to mercy. That makes Jonah an especially appropriate sign in a collection of readings centered upon repentance, judgment, forgiveness, and restoration.
Something Greater Than Jonah Is Here
Yeshua says, “Something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:41). Jonah reluctantly carried Yahweh’s warning to his enemies. Yeshua willingly gives Himself for sinners. Jonah became angry when enemies received mercy. Yeshua prays for His enemies even while being crucified. Jonah sat outside Nineveh hoping to see destruction. Yeshua weeps over Jerusalem. If Jonah’s reluctant ministry resulted in an entire pagan city receiving mercy, how much greater is the redemptive mission of Yeshua?
The Unclean Spirit Warns Us That Cleansing Must Be Completed
Matthew 12:43–45 describes an unclean spirit leaving a person and later returning to find the house “unoccupied, swept, and put in order.” It returns with seven spirits more wicked than itself, and the final condition becomes worse than the first. This warning fits surprisingly well with Yom Kippur. Merely removing something evil is not enough if nothing good takes its place. Cleansing must lead to transformation. Yahweh does not merely intend to empty the house of evil; He intends a restored creation filled with righteousness, love, mercy, and His presence.
The Son of Man Comes in Glory
Matthew 25:31 shifts the scene dramatically. Yeshua says, “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.” The One who comes as sacrifice and sin-bearer is also the One who judges. This prevents us from constructing a false opposition between Yeshua and judgment. Yeshua is merciful, but His mercy does not mean indifference toward evil. He confronts injustice and holds humanity accountable for how we treat one another.
Sheep and Goats: Judgment Based on How We Treated Others
The nations are gathered before the Son of Man, and He separates them as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. What is striking is the basis of the judgment. Yeshua speaks about feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting prisoners. This sounds remarkably like Isaiah 58. Isaiah condemned religious fasting that ignored the hungry and oppressed. Yeshua describes judgment in terms of whether people showed mercy to “the least of these.” The prophetic reading and Gospel reading therefore interpret one another.
Yeshua Identifies Himself With the Least
Perhaps the most astonishing part of Matthew 25 is Yeshua’s statement, “To the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” The King identifies Himself with hungry people, strangers, the poorly clothed, the sick, and prisoners. This gives Isaiah 58 even greater force. When we feed the hungry and care for the afflicted, we are not merely performing charitable acts. Yeshua says He receives such mercy as though it were shown directly to Him.
What Does “Eternal Punishment” Mean?
Matthew 25:46 is one of the principal texts in the debate over final judgment: “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” The Greek phrase translated “eternal punishment” is kolasin aiōnion. Christian interpreters disagree sharply about its precise implications. Traditionalists generally understand it as endless conscious punishment. Annihilationists understand the judgment as resulting in irreversible destruction or death. Christian universalists have often emphasized the older corrective associations of kolasis and the age-related background of aiōnios, arguing that the phrase can be understood as punishment or correction belonging to the coming age rather than necessarily punishment without end.
Whatever position one adopts, we should allow Matthew 25 to remain within the larger biblical story. The Judge speaking these words is the same Yeshua whom Luke says fulfills Moses and the Prophets, and the same Yeshua whom Peter associates with the prophetic “restoration of all things.” Matthew 25 must therefore be taken with complete seriousness as judgment while also being interpreted within the whole biblical testimony concerning Yahweh’s purposes.
Kolasis and the Pruning Picture
The noun kolasis had a history in Greek usage that could include punishment and, in some contexts, corrective discipline. Its verbal background has also been associated with checking or restraining excessive growth, like pruning. We should be cautious about deriving a word’s New Testament meaning solely from its distant etymology; context remains decisive. Nevertheless, this history helps explain why some early and later Christian interpreters have understood Matthew 25:46 in a corrective rather than purely retributive direction. That reading becomes especially interesting beside Leviticus 16, where sin is removed, Isaiah 57, where Yahweh heals the wayward, and Isaiah 58, where broken things are repaired.
See this YouTube video for more information of Kolasis and Matthew 25:46
The Fire Is Directed Against What Destroys Creation
Matthew 25 also speaks of “the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). Fire throughout Scripture can destroy, judge, test, and purify depending upon context. We should therefore avoid assuming that every biblical image of fire performs precisely the same function. Yet the larger biblical hope is clear that evil does not share Yahweh’s universe forever as an equal kingdom. Sin, death, injustice, oppression, and everything hostile to Yahweh’s purposes must finally be overcome.
From a restoration perspective, that is good news. Universal restoration does not mean the eternal preservation of evil so that everybody can simply coexist with it. It means Yahweh ultimately triumphs over evil.
Yom Kippur Gives Us the Pattern
When these readings are placed together, a remarkable pattern appears. Leviticus says sin must be atoned for and carried away. Isaiah says the wayward must be healed and the oppressed set free. Jonah demonstrates that threatened judgment can result in repentance and mercy. Matthew 25 tells us that the Son of Man judges the nations and takes seriously how human beings treat one another. Acts 3:21 tells us where the prophetic story is ultimately headed: the restoration of all things.
Judgment therefore matters because restoration matters. Yahweh cannot restore creation while leaving everything that destroys creation untouched. Sin must be confronted. Oppression must end. Pride must fall. Unforgiveness must be exposed. The hungry must be fed. The oppressed must be released. The unclean must be cleansed. What has been broken must be repaired.
From Atonement to Restoration
The movement through these passages can be stated simply. Leviticus: sin is cleansed and carried away. Isaiah: the wayward are healed and ruined places are rebuilt. Jonah: judgment produces repentance and mercy. Matthew: Yeshua judges according to righteousness and mercy. Luke: Moses and the Prophets were writing toward Yeshua. Acts: the prophetic story is moving toward the restoration of all things.
These are not disconnected themes. They belong to one unfolding biblical drama.
The Day of Atonement Points Beyond Itself
Yom Kippur occurred year after year. The high priest entered. Sacrifices were offered. Blood was presented. Sin was confessed. The scapegoat carried the people’s iniquities away. The sanctuary was cleansed. Then another year came, and the ceremony had to be performed again.
For followers of Messiah, that repetition creates expectation. Surely Yahweh’s purpose is greater than an endless cycle of contamination followed by temporary cleansing. The biblical story waits for something greater—a High Priest who does not merely symbolize reconciliation but accomplishes it.
Luke 24:44 tells us where to look.
Yeshua.
Yeshua Is the Greater High Priest and Sin-Bearer
In Yeshua the themes of Yom Kippur converge. He enters the human wilderness. He bears sin. He gives Himself. He passes through death. He rises again. He brings sinners near to the Father. What Leviticus pictured in priest, sacrifice, blood, cleansing, and removal finds its Christian fulfillment in Him.
But if Acts 3:21 is allowed to tell us where the story is going, the work of Yeshua is not merely about saving a few individuals from creation. It belongs to Yahweh’s larger purpose of restoring what sin has broken.
The Day of Atonement therefore points not merely backward toward human guilt but forward toward divine restoration.
“I Will Heal Him”
Perhaps Isaiah 57:18 gives us one of the simplest summaries of the whole portion: “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him.”
Yahweh sees.
Yahweh judges.
Yahweh confronts.
But Yahweh also heals.
He does not heal because He failed to notice the sinner’s ways. He says explicitly, “I have seen his ways.” He knows exactly what has gone wrong, yet He declares, “I will heal him.”
That is not weak mercy. That is victorious mercy.
The Restoration of All Things
Acts 3:21 tells us that the prophets had been speaking about the “restoration of all things” from ancient time. Yom Kippur gives us one of the great pictures of how that restoration works. What is unclean must be cleansed. What is sinful must be confronted. What oppresses must be broken. What has wandered must be brought home. What has been wounded must be healed. What has been ruined must be rebuilt. What has been lost must be restored.
And Luke 24:44 tells us that the Law of Moses and the Prophets ultimately lead us toward Yeshua. So when the high priest disappears behind the veil, look toward Yeshua. When the goat carries Israel’s sins into the wilderness, look toward Yeshua. When Isaiah says Yahweh will heal the wayward, look toward Yeshua. When chains are broken and the oppressed go free, look toward Yeshua. When Jonah emerges after three days, look toward Yeshua. When the Son of Man sits upon His throne and judges the nations, look toward Yeshua.
The Yom Kippur story does not tell us that sin does not matter. It tells us something far better: Yahweh intends to do something about it. He cleanses. He removes. He judges. He heals. He liberates. He repairs. He reconciles.
And through Yeshua, the One of whom Moses and the Prophets wrote, the biblical story continues toward the destination Peter proclaimed:
the restoration of all things.
Brother Roger
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