We are going to pick up here with the Yom Kippur ceremony in the Mishnah tractate Yoma 4.1.
4.1…He took the casket (the Kalphi was a small box) and took up the two lots. On one was written “For the Lord ” (or “L’YHVH”) and on the other was written “For Azazel” (Azazel means “to the wilderness” and Gesenius in his Hebrew lexicon links this name to a demon. See Gesenius Lexicon, p 616-617. Azazel stood for a demon god and in this ceremony Azazel is taken out of the Temple and killed. The Book of Enoch mentions Azazel and this goat is a picture of the false messiah. See 1 Enoch 54.1-6; 55.34. The Yom Kippur ceremony teaches the second coming of Yeshua on Yom Kippur. Our emphasis in this study is the ceremony, for more information on the prophetic side of this see the article “The Coming of the Messiah and Yom Kippur” in the magazine “The Gates” by Hatikva Ministries, p 4-12, 1992). The Prefect (Sagan) was on his right and the chief of the father’ house on his left. If the lot bearing the Name came up in his right hand the Prefect would say to him, “My lord High Priest, raise thy right hand” (so everyone can see it) and if it came up in his left hand the chief of the father’s house would say to him, “My lord High Priest, raise they left hand.” He put them on the two he-goats and said “A Sin offering to the Lord!” R. Ishmael says: he needed not to say “Sin offering” but only “To the Lord.” And they answered after him, “Blessed be the name of the glory of his kingdom for ever and ever (they just pronounced the Name of God so they prostrated)!”
4.2…He bound a thread of crimson wool (Tolat Shanni) on the head of the scapegoat (Azazel) and he turned it towards they way by which it was to be sent out (to the east, turning its back to the Sanctuary) and on the he-goat that was to be slaughtered he bound a thread about its throat. He came to his bullock the second time, laid his two hands upon it (Semicha), and made confession (Vidui). And thus used he to say, “O God (pronounced YHVH), I have committed iniquity (intentional sin due to a moral weakness) and transgressed (rebellion, willful) and sinned (unintentional) before thee, I and my house and the children of Aaron, they holy people, as it is written in the Law of they servant Moses, ‘For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you: from all your sins shall you be clean before the Lord.'” And they answered after him, “Blessed be the Name of the glory of his kingdom for ever and ever (and they prostrated again because the Name was pronounced)!”
4.3…He slaughtered the bullock and received its blood in a basin (this Mizrak that was much bigger than the ones used for smaller animals because there was more blood) and he gave it to the one that would stir it up on the fourth terrace (fourth step of the twelve steps) of the Sanctuary so that it would not congeal. He took the fire-pan and went up to the top of the Altar; and he cleared the coals to this side and to that, and scooped out glowing cinders from below, and came down and set the fire-pan on the fourth terrace (fourth step) in the Temple Court (Azarah).
4.4…Other days (this is going to be said to distinguish Yom Kippur from other days because Yom Kippur is set apart) he used to scoop out the cinders with a fire-pan of silver and empty it into one of gold, but this day (Yom Kippur) he scoops them out with the one of gold in which also he brings in the cinders. Other days he used to scoop them out with one holding four kabs (about 4.8 litres) and empty it into one holding three kabs (3.6 litres); but this day he scoops them out with one holding three kabs (3.6 litres) in which he also brings in the cinders. R. Jose says: Other days he used to scoop them out with one holding a seah (about 5 quarts) and empty it into one holding three kabs (3.6 litres); but this day he scoops them out with one holding three kabs in which also he brings in the cinders. Other days it was a heavy one, but this day a light one. Other days its handle was short, but this day long. Other days it was of yellow gold, but this day of red gold. So R. Menahem. Other days he used to offer half a mina (.6 lbs) of incense in the morning and a half a mina in the afternoon; but this day it is he adds also his two hands full. Other days it was of fine quality, but this day it is the finest of the fine.
4.5… Other days the priests went up on the east side of the Altar ramp (kevesh was 62 feet long) and came down on the west side, but this day the High Priest goes up in the middle and comes down in the middle. R. Judah says: “The High Priest always goes up in the middle and comes down in the middle.” Other days the High Priest sanctified his hands and his feet in water from the laver (the Kior in Beit Avtinas); but this day from a golden jug R. Judah says: “The High Priest always sanctified his hands and feet from a golden jug.”
4.6…Other days there were four wood stacks there (on the Altar), but this day five. So R. Meir. R. Jose says: “Other days three, but this day four (this is correct).” R. Judah says: “Other days two, but this day three.”
We will pick here in Yoma 5.1 in Part 29 as we work through the ceremony of Yom Kippur. As we have briefly mentioned before, the Yom Kippur ceremonies clearly teach the work of Messiah and the redemption, but it also teaches the second coming of Yeshua on that day. We know from Matt 24.31 that Yeshua returns with the sound of the great trumpet. This is an idiom for Yom Kippur called the “Shofar ha Gadol.” If you go back 2,520 days you come to the beginning of the Birth-pains, and the first day is Yom Kippur. The exact half-way point of the Birth-pains is Nisan 10, the day Yeshua rode into Jerusalem in what is called the “Triumphant Entry” into the city, four days before Passover. This was the day the lamb for the High Priest was separated from the flock and examined for blemishes in order to be used on Passover. Yeshua also was examined for blemishes and they found no fault in him. This will be the day, Nisan 10 and the exact half-way point of the Birth-pains, that the false messiah will declare himself “Jesus” and “God” in the Temple, right alongside of the Abomination of Desolation that had already been set up by the false prophet. Israel has received Yeshua as a result of God’s intervention in the war with Gog and Magog (Ezek 39.22) and they will flee into the wilderness (Rev 12.14) for the last half of the Birth-pains. Yom Kippur will be the day that Yeshua returns to Jerusalem and takes the false messiah, like Azazel, and will cast him in to the wilderness and the Lake of Fire. Keep these concepts in mind as we move through the ceremony of Yom Kippur.
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