[Note:  This is the prepared text for a sermon given to the brethren in the Dalles, Oregon congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, September 19, 2026.]

Introduction

Brethren, we meet today in one of the most unusual weeks of the biblical year. Several days ago we heard the trumpets sound on the first day of the seventh month. In a few days we will stand before God on the tenth day of that same month, the Day of Atonement, fasting from evening to evening. Today is the weekly Sabbath that falls between those two holy days.

That position deserves some attention. The Feast of Trumpets is a day of alarm and announcement. The Day of Atonement is a day of humbling and reconciliation. Between them are a handful of ordinary days: days of work, errands, family responsibilities, and, today, a Sabbath of rest. God did not command a festival for each of those intervening days. He gave no ritual for the fourth or seventh day of the month. Yet the arrangement itself says something. Once the trumpet sounds, it is hard to go back to life as if nothing happened. Once we know that a day of atonement is coming, it is hard not to begin preparing for it.

This morning I want to be careful and honest with the Scriptures. Over the centuries, Jewish tradition has come to call these ten days the “Days of Awe,” and it has built an elaborate set of customs around them. Some of those customs reflect sound biblical instincts, and some are human additions. Our task as people who hold to the Bible is not to adopt a tradition because it is old, and not to reject a wise practice merely because others also observe it. Our task is to ask what God actually said, what the people of God actually did in the seventh month according to the biblical record, and what the Holy Spirit would have us learn and do in this season.

So we will walk through the text in order. First we will look at the Feast of Trumpets itself. Then we will look at the Day of Atonement that follows it. Then we will ask what Scripture says about the space between them, and look at two historical examples from the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. From there we will hear the prophets’ call to return to God, consider what it means to examine ourselves, look forward to the prophetic fulfillment of these days, and finally consider how to prepare for a fast that God accepts. We will close with practical steps for the days remaining before Atonement.

Let us begin where the season begins, with the sound of the trumpet.

I. The Trumpet Has Sounded

Leviticus 23:23-25 reads:

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.”

The instruction for this day is brief. Compared with the long descriptions of Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Trumpets receives only a few sentences. It is a sabbath, a holy convocation, a memorial, and a day marked by the blowing of trumpets. God does not explain in this passage what the trumpets are meant to call to mind. To understand that, we need to look at how Scripture uses the trumpet elsewhere.

Numbers 10:9-10 gives us help:

“And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the LORD your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.”

Notice the two uses of the trumpet in this passage. The first is an alarm in war. When Israel faced an enemy that oppressed them, the trumpets were blown, and God promised that His people would be “remembered” before Him and saved. The second use is on days of gladness, at the appointed festivals, and at the beginnings of months. Here too the trumpet serves as a memorial before God.

The Feast of Trumpets falls on the first day of a month, so it carries that regular trumpet-blowing of the new moon. But this new moon is set apart from the other eleven. It is a sabbath and a holy convocation. It opens the seventh month, the month that contains the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day. In the pattern of the year, the seventh month is the harvest month, and the trumpet announces that the final great season of God’s appointed times has arrived.

The word “memorial” appears in both Leviticus 23 and Numbers 10. A memorial is a reminder. In Scripture, God does not forget, but He does condescend to speak of remembering His people when He acts on their behalf. When God “remembered” Noah in Genesis 8:1, the waters began to recede. When God “remembered” His covenant in Exodus 2:24, He began to deliver Israel from Egypt. When the trumpet sounds as a memorial, it is a call for God to act and a call for His people to wake up to the fact that He is about to act.

So the trumpet does two things at once. It calls upon God, and it calls upon us. It is an alarm, and alarms are not comfortable. A trumpet blast is meant to interrupt. A watchman on the wall did not blow his trumpet softly to avoid disturbing the sleepers; he blew it to wake them because danger was near.

Ezekiel 33:6 makes that clear when it describes the watchman who sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet. The blood of the people is required at his hand. The trumpet is a warning that must be heeded.

Brethren, the trumpet of this year has sounded. The question for this Sabbath is whether we heard it only as a pleasant sound at services, or whether we heard it as an alarm. Did it wake us up? Did it remind us that God is about to act, and that we need to be ready?

II. The Day That Follows

Ten days after the trumpet comes the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 23:26-32 reads:

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.”

The contrast with the Feast of Trumpets is striking. Where the instruction for Trumpets was brief, the instruction for Atonement is detailed and serious. Twice God says that we must afflict our souls. Twice He warns of what happens to the person who refuses to be afflicted or who works on that day. The phrase “no manner of work” is stronger than the “no servile work” of most other holy days. The Day of Atonement is treated with the same strictness as the weekly Sabbath.

What does it mean to “afflict your souls”? The Bible itself answers the question. In Psalm 35:13 David writes, “I humbled my soul with fasting.” Isaiah 58:3 places fasting and afflicting the soul side by side. The people of God have understood from ancient times that this command means going without food and drink for the length of the day, from evening to evening. Acts 27:9 refers to the Day of Atonement simply as “the fast,” showing that by the first century, this understanding was so settled that Luke could name the day that way without explanation.

Leviticus 16 gives the full ceremony of the day, and verse 30 summarizes its purpose:

“For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.”

That is the goal of the Day of Atonement: to be made clean from all sins before the LORD. It is the only day in the year when the high priest entered the Most Holy Place, carrying blood to sprinkle on the mercy seat. It is the day when the whole nation, not just individuals, stood in need of cleansing, and received it.

Now consider what this means for the ten days between Trumpets and Atonement. The trumpet has announced that God is about to act. The Day of Atonement will be a day of reckoning with sin and a day of cleansing from it. A thoughtful Israelite, knowing that the tenth day was coming, would not wait until the evening of the ninth day to begin thinking about his sins. The structure of the calendar invites preparation.

One more passage connects these two days in a way many people miss. Leviticus 25:9 describes the year of jubilee:

“Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.”

The trumpet that began the seventh month sounds again on the Day of Atonement in the jubilee year. That second trumpet proclaimed liberty throughout the land. Debts were released, land returned to its families, and servants went free. So the trumpet that begins the season with an alarm ends the season, in the jubilee year, with a proclamation of freedom. The path from the first trumpet to the second passes through humbling and atonement. There is no jubilee without the fast, and there is no liberty without the cleansing from sin.

Jesus Christ stood up in the synagogue of Nazareth in Luke 4 and read from Isaiah 61 about preaching deliverance to the captives and proclaiming “the acceptable year of the Lord.” That is jubilee language. The freedom He came to bring is the same freedom foreshadowed by the jubilee trumpet on the Day of Atonement.

III. The Space Between: What Scripture Says and What It Does Not

Now we must ask an honest question. What does the Bible actually command for the days between the first and the tenth of the seventh month?

Numbers 29 gives the offerings for the holy days of this month. Verse 1 says:

“And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you.”

Then, after listing the offerings for that day, verse 7 says:

“And ye shall have on the tenth day of this seventh month an holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls: ye shall not do any work therein.”

Between verse 6 and verse 7 there is nothing about the second through ninth days, apart from the daily offerings that were made every day of the year. The Law does not prescribe special services, special prayers, or special readings for these days.

This matters because over time, tradition has filled that silence. The Jewish practice of the “Days of Awe” includes particular prayers, customs of asking forgiveness from neighbors, and ideas about God writing names in books that are opened on Trumpets and sealed on Atonement. Some of these customs contain good instincts, and some go beyond anything the Bible says. As people who hold to Scripture, we do not bind on anyone a practice God did not command. We are not obligated to perform any particular ritual on these days.

At the same time, silence in the Law does not mean silence in the whole Bible. Scripture gives us examples of what God’s people actually did in the seventh month when they were seeking to obey Him, and those examples are instructive.

Consider Ezra 3:1 and 3:6:

“And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.”

“From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.”

These were the exiles who had returned from Babylon. They had come back to a ruined city with no temple. Yet when the seventh month came, they gathered “as one man” at Jerusalem, rebuilt the altar, and began offering sacrifices on the first day of the month. They did not wait for the temple to be finished before they began obeying God. They started with what they could do.

That is a lesson in itself. Many of us look at our lives and see foundations not yet laid. We see work unfinished, habits not yet overcome, relationships not yet mended. The returned exiles could have said, “We will begin worshipping properly once the temple is rebuilt.” Instead they began at the altar, on the first day of the seventh month, and let the rest follow. The season between Trumpets and Atonement is a good time to rebuild the altar in our own lives, even if much of the building is still in ruins.

The most detailed example, however, comes nearly a century later, in the days of Nehemiah. That account deserves its own section.

IV. When the People Heard the Law

Nehemiah 8:1-3 reads:

“And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.”

The date is the first day of the seventh month, the Feast of Trumpets. The wall of Jerusalem had just been completed, and the people gathered. Notice that the people asked for the law to be read. Ezra did not have to persuade them. They wanted to hear what God had said. They stood from morning until midday, roughly six hours, and they were attentive the whole time.

Brethren, how attentive are we when God’s word is read? This congregation of returned exiles had spent generations without regular teaching. When the word was finally opened to them, they did not look at the time. They listened. The hunger for God’s word is one of the best signs of a heart that is ready for the Day of Atonement.

Now read verses 8-10:

“So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

Here we see what happened when the law was clearly explained. The people wept. They understood, perhaps for the first time, how far they and their fathers had fallen from what God required. Their reaction was the reaction of conviction. That is exactly the response the trumpet is meant to provoke: an awakening to our own condition.

But notice what Nehemiah and Ezra told them. “This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep.” The day of Trumpets was a holy day, a day of feasting, not a day of fasting. The leaders did not say that the people’s sorrow was wrong. They said it was not the right time for it. They told the people to eat, drink, share with those who had nothing prepared, and rejoice, because “the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

This is a vital lesson for this Sabbath. Today is a Sabbath, and the Sabbath is holy to the Lord. Isaiah 58:13-14 tells us how God wants us to regard it:

“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”

The Sabbath is to be a delight. Even in the week between Trumpets and Atonement, even while we are examining ourselves and preparing to fast, the Sabbath is not a day of gloom. The self-examination this season calls for does not require that we walk around in despair. It requires honesty with God, and honesty with God is always paired with confidence in His mercy. The joy of the Lord is our strength, and we will need that strength to face our sins honestly.

Some people approach this season as though the more miserable they feel, the more righteous they are. Scripture does not support that. Conviction of sin is necessary, but conviction is meant to lead to repentance, and repentance is meant to lead to restoration and joy. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:10 that “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” Godly sorrow moves forward. Worldly sorrow sinks into itself. The people in Nehemiah’s day were told to stop weeping on the holy day, not so that they would forget their sins, but so that they would be strengthened by God’s joy for the work of turning from them.

It is worth noting what happened next in the account. On the second day of the month, the leaders gathered again to study the law, and they found the instruction about dwelling in booths during the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:13-15). They immediately made plans to obey it, and verse 17 says there had not been such a keeping of that feast since the days of Joshua. The study of God’s word in the days after Trumpets led directly to fuller obedience. Then, in Nehemiah 9:1, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, after the feast was over, the people assembled “with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them,” confessed their sins, and renewed their covenant with God.

This sequence gives us a biblical model for the days after Trumpets. The people heard the word. They were convicted. They rejoiced on the holy day as commanded. They kept studying. They found places where they had not been obeying, and they corrected them. They humbled themselves and confessed their sins. The Bible does not tell us every detail of how they spent the intervening days, but it shows us a people whose hearts had been turned by the reading of the law. That is exactly the spirit this season calls for.

V. The Call to Return

The prophets repeatedly called Israel to return to God, and two of those calls fit this season especially well. The first comes from Hosea 14:1-2 and 4:

“O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.”

“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.”

For generations, this passage has been read in synagogues on the Sabbath between Trumpets and Atonement, which is why that Sabbath has been called the “Sabbath of Return.” Whatever we think of the tradition, the choice of passage is fitting, and the message is thoroughly biblical.

Notice three things in this text. First, God names the problem plainly: “thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” Israel’s troubles were not primarily the fault of foreign nations or bad circumstances. They had fallen because of their own sin. Returning to God begins with that kind of honesty. As long as we blame our spiritual condition on other people, on our upbringing, on our church, or on our circumstances, we will not return.

Second, God tells Israel to “take with you words.” Repentance involves speaking. It is not enough to feel vaguely sorry. God wants us to say to Him what we have done and to ask Him to take it away. The phrase “the calves of our lips” means that the words of confession and praise would take the place of the bulls offered on the altar. Hebrews 13:15 picks up this idea when it speaks of “the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” Our prayers of confession are an offering to God.

Third, notice God’s response. “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely.” God is not reluctant to forgive. He is waiting for His people to turn. The word “freely” is important. God’s love is not bought by our misery. It is given freely to those who return.

The second call comes from Joel 2:12-16:

“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.”

This passage could almost serve as a summary of the season from Trumpets to Atonement. “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.” The trumpet and the fast appear side by side. The trumpet calls the assembly, and the assembly humbles itself before God.

Joel’s words were given in a time of national disaster, a devastating locust plague that Joel saw as a forerunner of the Day of the Lord. His call was urgent. “Turn ye even to me with all your heart.” Not half the heart. Not the part of the heart that is left over after work, entertainment, and worry have taken their share. All of it.

“Rend your heart, and not your garments.” In the ancient world, tearing one’s clothing was an outward sign of grief. It was possible to tear the garment while the heart remained whole and hard. God is not interested in outward displays that leave the inner person untouched. The Day of Atonement can be kept in the same empty way. A person can go without food and water for twenty-four hours and never once humble his heart before God. That is tearing the garment and not the heart.

Notice also who was to be gathered. Elders, children, nursing infants, and even the bridegroom and bride, who under the law were exempt from certain duties in their first year of marriage (Deuteronomy 24:5). No one was excused from this assembly. Everyone in the congregation needed to turn to God. No one was so old, so young, or so happily occupied that they had no need to return.

And look again at the reason Joel gives for returning: “for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.” This description comes from Exodus 34:6, where God proclaimed His own name to Moses after the sin of the golden calf. Israel had committed a terrible sin, and God revealed Himself as merciful. The same God who gave the Day of Atonement is the God who is slow to anger and great in kindness. We do not return to a harsh master who wants to punish us. We return to a Father who wants to restore us.

VI. Examining Ourselves

If this season calls us to return, then we must know where we have strayed. That requires examination. Lamentations 3:40 says:

“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.”

Jeremiah wrote these words while sitting among the ruins of Jerusalem. The disaster had already happened. Yet even there, his counsel was not despair. It was to search our ways, test them, and turn back to God. Searching comes before turning. We cannot turn from sins we refuse to see.

But self-examination has a problem. The human heart is skilled at hiding things from itself. Jeremiah 17:9 warns that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” If we examine ourselves only by our own light, we will usually find ourselves better than we are. That is why David prayed as he did in Psalm 139:23-24:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

David did not rely on his own inspection. He asked God to search him. He asked God to show him any wicked way he had missed. This is a prayer that fits these days well. It is not a comfortable prayer, because God may answer it. He may bring to mind a harsh word we spoke, a debt we have not paid, a grudge we have kept, a habit we have excused, or a duty we have neglected. But the purpose of the searching is stated at the end: “lead me in the way everlasting.” God shows us our wicked ways in order to lead us out of them.

The apostle Paul gives the same instruction to the church. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 he writes:

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”

Paul wrote this to a congregation that had been questioning his authority. Instead of spending all his energy defending himself, he turned the question back on them. Rather than examining Paul, they needed to examine themselves. That is a useful correction for us. In seasons of self-examination, it is always tempting to examine everyone else. We can see clearly the faults of our neighbors, our ministers, our family members, and the congregation down the road. But the command is “examine yourselves.” Our own heart is the only one we are responsible to bring before God on the Day of Atonement.

There is one more aspect of self-examination that deserves special attention: our relationships with others. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5:23-24:

“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”

God places a high priority on reconciliation between people. He does not want us to come before Him with offerings while ignoring broken relationships that we have the power to mend. Notice that the situation Jesus describes is when “thy brother hath ought against thee.” It is not only when we have something against someone else, but when someone else has something against us. If we know we have wronged someone, the time to address it is before we come to the altar.

The Day of Atonement concerns our reconciliation with God. But Scripture does not allow us to separate our relationship with God from our relationships with one another. In 1 John 4:20, John asks how anyone can claim to love God, whom he has not seen, while hating his brother, whom he has seen. The days before Atonement are a good time to make the phone call we have been putting off, to write the letter of apology, to repay the debt, or to ask forgiveness from someone we have hurt.

This is not always possible. Some people refuse to be reconciled. Some are no longer living. Some situations would be made worse, or would be unsafe, by attempting contact. Romans 12:18 recognizes this limit: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” Our responsibility is to do what lies within our power. What lies beyond it we leave with God.

VII. Looking Forward: The Prophetic Meaning of These Days

The holy days of Leviticus 23 are not only memorials of the past. They also point forward to God’s plan. The spring holy days pointed to the first coming of Jesus Christ, His sacrifice as our Passover, and the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The fall holy days point to events still ahead of us.

The trumpet appears repeatedly in the New Testament in connection with the return of Jesus Christ. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

And in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52:

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

And in Revelation 11:15:

“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”

The last trumpet announces the return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the faithful dead, the change of the living saints, and the transfer of the kingdoms of this world to the rule of Christ. The Feast of Trumpets pictures that moment. Every year when we hear the trumpet, we are reminded that the final trumpet is coming, and that it will come suddenly, “in the twinkling of an eye.” There will be no time to prepare once it sounds.

Just a week ago we heard a great deal about the Trumpet call that announces the return of Jesus Christ and that announces the judgment of God upon a wicked and rebellious world whose time of rebellion has nearly come to an end.  That is one of the reasons the days between Trumpets and Atonement matter so much. They remind us that preparation must happen before the trumpet, not after. The parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 makes this point. When the cry went out at midnight that the bridegroom was coming, the foolish virgins discovered that their lamps were going out, and there was no time to buy more oil. The wise virgins had prepared in advance.

The Day of Atonement also has a forward-looking meaning. Its central purpose is the cleansing of God’s people from sin. Hebrews 9 explains that the ceremonies of that day pointed to the work of Jesus Christ. Verse 24 says:

“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

And verse 28:

“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

The high priest entered the Most Holy Place once a year. Jesus Christ entered heaven itself, once for all, with His own blood. He now appears before God on our behalf. The Day of Atonement reminds us that our cleansing depends entirely on His sacrifice and His work as our High Priest. We do not fast in order to earn forgiveness. We fast to humble ourselves before the One who has already provided it.

The ceremony of the two goats in Leviticus 16 adds another layer. One goat was sacrificed for the LORD. The other, the goat for Azazel, was treated differently. Leviticus 16:21-22 says:

“And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.”

Many who hold to the biblical holy days have understood this second goat to picture the removal of Satan, the instigator of sin, who will bear responsibility for the sins he has provoked and be sent away from the people of God. Revelation 20:1-3 describes that removal:

“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”

After the trumpet announces Christ’s return, the deceiver is bound, and the nations are no longer deceived. The world is then prepared for the thousand-year reign pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles. The order of the fall holy days follows the order of God’s plan: the announcement of the King, the removal of the deceiver and the cleansing of sin, and then the harvest of humanity under the rule of Christ.

For us, living between the first and the tenth of the seventh month, this pattern carries a personal lesson. The same deceiver who will one day be bound is active now. First Peter 5:8 warns that he walks about “as a roaring lion, … seeking whom he may devour.” The world has not yet been freed from his influence, and neither have our own habits of thought been fully freed from the patterns he encourages. The season before Atonement is a good time to identify where his influence has taken root in our own lives, whether in resentment, pride, fear, lust, greed, or discouragement, and to ask God to remove it.

VIII. Preparing for a Fast That God Accepts

We have a few days left before the Day of Atonement. How should we prepare for the fast? Isaiah 58:3-8 gives God’s own answer:

“Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.”

The people in Isaiah’s day were frustrated. They had fasted, and God did not seem to notice. God’s answer exposed the problem. On the very day of their fast, they were pursuing their own business, driving their workers hard, and quarreling with one another. Their fasting was an outward observance with no change in how they treated people.

God’s description of the fast He has chosen is striking. It is not less than going without food, but it is far more. It includes loosing the bands of wickedness, lifting heavy burdens from others, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, and not hiding from our own relatives who are in need.

In other words, a fast that pleases God changes how we live toward other people. Going hungry for a day is meant to humble us, and a humbled person should become more compassionate toward those who go hungry every day. A person who has felt, even briefly, what it means to be weak and dependent should be quicker to help the weak and dependent.

This passage is especially fitting for the days before Atonement because it gives us something to do. We cannot atone for our own sins; only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ does that. But we can prepare our hearts, and one of the surest ways to prepare our hearts is to look around us and ask where we can loose a burden, feed someone who is hungry, or help someone who has been cast out.

Notice the promised result. “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning.” The one who fasts in this way is not left in darkness. God’s answer comes, and His glory guards the rear. The same chapter goes on in verses 9 through 12 to promise that God will answer when we call, guide us continually, and make us “like a watered garden.” A fast that God chooses leads not to emptiness but to fullness.

Practical Takeaways

We have covered a great deal of Scripture. Now let us consider what to do with it in the few days remaining before the Day of Atonement.

First, let the trumpet do its work. The Feast of Trumpets was meant to wake us up. If we heard the trumpet only as a pleasant part of the service, it is not too late to let it wake us now. Take time this Sabbath afternoon, and in the days that follow, to ask directly: “What in my life needs to change before the return of Jesus Christ?” Write down the answer if that helps. Do not be vague. Name specific habits, attitudes, and actions.

Second, keep this Sabbath a delight. Do not turn today into a day of gloom. Follow the example of Nehemiah’s generation: rejoice, eat, share with those who have nothing prepared, and draw strength from the joy of the Lord. Self-examination done from a place of confidence in God’s mercy is far more fruitful than self-examination done in despair. If you know someone in the congregation who is alone this week, invite them to share a meal or call them this afternoon.

Third, spend time in God’s word each day before Atonement. The people in Nehemiah’s day kept studying after the Feast of Trumpets, and their study led them to fuller obedience. Choose passages that fit this season: Leviticus 16 and 23, Psalm 51, Psalm 139, Isaiah 58, Joel 2, Hosea 14, and Hebrews 9 and 10. Read slowly. Ask what God is showing you about yourself.

Fourth, pray David’s prayer. Each day between now and the fast, pray Psalm 139:23-24 in your own words. Ask God to search you and show you any wicked way in you. Then be willing to listen to what He shows you. When something comes to mind, do not argue with it. Confess it, as Hosea said, taking words with you.

Fifth, seek reconciliation where it is possible. Think about whether anyone has something against you. Think also about whether you are holding something against anyone else. If there is a relationship you can mend, take the first step before the Day of Atonement. An apology, a repaid debt, or a forgiven offense is one of the best preparations for coming before God. Where reconciliation is not possible or not safe, bring the matter to God in prayer and release it to Him.

Sixth, prepare for the fast practically. If you are able to fast, plan your meals on the ninth day so that you are not caught unprepared. Arrange your schedule so that the Day of Atonement is free from work, as God commands. If you have health limitations, seek counsel now rather than on the day itself. Plan how you will spend the hours of the fast: in prayer, in study, and in the assembly of God’s people.

Seventh, make your fast a fast that God chooses. Following Isaiah 58, look for one concrete act of mercy you can perform before or after Atonement. Perhaps it is giving to someone in need, helping a neighbor with a heavy burden, visiting someone who is shut in, or providing a meal for a struggling family. Let the humility of the fast turn into compassion for others.

Eighth, look forward with hope. Remember that the trumpet points to the return of Jesus Christ, and the Day of Atonement points to His work as our High Priest and to the day when the deceiver will be removed. These are not days of fear for those who are turning to God. They are days of hope. The same God who calls us to humble ourselves has promised to heal our backsliding and love us freely.

Conclusion

Brethren, we are standing today in the space between the trumpet and the fast. The trumpet has sounded. The Day of Atonement is coming. God did not fill these intervening days with ceremonies, but He gave us His word, the examples of His people, and the voices of His prophets to show us how to use them.

The returned exiles in Ezra’s day rebuilt the altar before the temple was finished. The people in Nehemiah’s day listened to the law for hours, wept at what they heard, rejoiced on the holy day as they were told, and kept studying until they found more ways to obey. Hosea called Israel to return with words. Joel called the whole congregation, young and old, to rend their hearts and not their garments. David asked God to search him. Paul told the church to examine themselves. Jesus Christ told us to be reconciled before bringing our gift to the altar. Isaiah showed us a fast that loosens burdens and feeds the hungry.

All of these point in the same direction. They call us to return. Not partially, not outwardly, but with all our heart, to a God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.

So let us use these days well. Let us delight in this Sabbath and draw strength from the joy of the Lord. Let us search our ways and turn again to the LORD. And when the tenth day comes, let us come before Him humbled, reconciled, and ready, trusting in the work of Jesus Christ our High Priest, who first came as the lamb to take away the sin of the world, who appears in the presence of God for us as our Advocate, and who will appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation for all who look for Him, to take command and rule over the world in His Millennial kingdom.