YEA Lesson Library
Proclaim Liberty!
About This Lesson
This lesson teaches the reasons why we observe the Day of Atonement, that it’s about liberty that is only found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Scriptures
Leviticus 23:26-28
Leviticus 25:8-10
Leviticus 25:20-22
Psalm 103:11-12
Jeremiah 34:8, 15-17
Matthew 11:29
Words to Know
ATONEMENT - cover
LIBERTY - the quality or state of being free; one being able to do as he pleases
The Lesson
The Day of Atonement is one of the most remarkable holy days with some of the deepest significance that God has given us. Ten days after we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets, we are to keep the Day of Atonement by resting and doing no work, afflicting ourselves from the evening of the ninth day to the evening of the tenth day. We are also to attend a sacred assembly on that day.
God commanded the High Priest to perform a special ceremony on the Day of Atonement in the Temple. The ceremony that the High Priest performed was like acting out a play on the stage of the Temple. The characters in this play were the High Priest, a bull, two goats and another man. This ceremony was so sacred that the High Priest had to do it exactly as God told him, or he would die. The High Priest was the only one who could go behind the curtain into the Holy of Holies, and he could only go on the Day of Atonement.
God instructed the High Priest to cast lots to determine which goat would represent Christ and which one would be the scapegoat that would be turned loose in the wilderness. He was to bathe himself and put on clean white linen garments from the skin out – including a cap. Then he was to sacrifice a bull, sprinkle some of its blood behind the curtain, and make an atonement for himself and his family.
The High Priest was to come back out and sacrifice the goat representing Christ and sprinkle some of its blood behind the curtain and on the altar of incense. Then he was to lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat, confess the sins of all of Israel over that goat, and have another man take it into the wilderness, and let it go. How is this day different from the Passover? And what significance does it have for you as a Christian today?
When we partake of the Passover we are accepting Christ’s sacrifice for our personal sins. Christ died for us individually. If you were the only person in the world who had sinned, Christ would have had to die for you to have forgiveness. The Day of Atonement is a day when our communal or national sins can be covered. God gave it is as communal or national day of forgiveness when liberty was proclaimed throughout the land. The scriptures below will show this.
As God led the Children of Israel towards the Promised Land with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, He continued to teach them such wonderful things to make their lives better. He told them, “Count off seven sabbaths of years – seven times seven years – so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields” (Leviticus 25:8).
Every seventh year God commanded that the land rest and the people were not to sow or reap. On the Day of Atonement every seventh year, all debts were forgiven. In the fiftieth year, the Jubilee, all the land reverted back to its original owner and slaves were to be set free. Liberty was proclaimed throughout the land. This is a community or national thing.
It took faith to obey these commands. God knew that the people would want to know what they would eat in the seventh year if they couldn’t plant or harvest crops. But God promised to give them such a blessing in the sixth year that they would have enough for three years. (Leviticus 25:20-22).
Jesus says in Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” One message in the Day of Atonement is to Proclaim Liberty! Slaves are set free. The land rests. It reverts back to its original owner. And God bountifully blesses those who have faith enough to obey Him.
Do you have the faith to do no work on the Day of Atonement? Do you have the faith to attend a sacred assembly and to afflict your soul from evening to evening? The same as the High Priest confessed the sins of all of Israel over the head of the goat, we should confess our sins to God and ask forgiveness. Then we can Proclaim Liberty – we have been liberated from the penalty of sin.
Why was this goat taken out into the wilder- ness and let go? When sins are forgiven, God doesn’t remember them again. “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who love him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:11-12).
Student Prayer
Awesome God,
Your ways are so much higher than my ways and so wonderful! You want us to be free from sin and its consequences. You have provided a way through Jesus Christ our High Priest that we can be. I have sinned against you. Please forgive me. Thank you for the Day of Atonement. Help us to celebrate it with deep humility and gratitude.
In Jesus’ name I ask these things.
Amen.
Daily Devotions
Sunday - Leviticus 23:26-27
Monday - Leviticus 25:8
Tuesday - Leviticus 25:20-22
Wednesday - Matthew 11:29
Thursday - Psalm 103:11-12
Friday - Leviticus 25:10
Saturday - Jeremiah 34:8, 15-17
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Explain the difference between the Passover and the Day of Atonement.
2. State when the Day of Atonement is to be kept.
3. Give three things a Christian is to do on the Day of Atonement.
4. Discuss how the ceremony performed by the High Priest in the Tabernacle or Temple on the Day of Atonement was like a play being acted out on the stage.
5. Tell what part both goats played in the Day of Atonement ceremony.
6. Explain why the scapegoat was taken into the wilderness and let go.
Topics & Themes
Day of Atonement
Faith
Fasting
Forgiveness
Freedom
High Priest
Holy Days
Holy Days, Atonement
Holy of Holies
Jubilee
Obedience
Repentance
Sin
Slaves
Materials Needed
Bible, YEA students’ and teacher’s books, songbook, CD or cassette tape, music player, butchers’ paper, marker, paper, pencils, timer
How to Teach This Lesson
After opening the class with prayer, begin with the Activity in the students’ book. Allow each student and ask each student to give one of our national sins. Write them on the butcher’s paper. Divide into sections with lines so the information can be listed under it. The sins the students give you may include such things as abortion, greed, murder, idolatry, stealing, Sabbath breaking, dishonoring parents, and adultery. Explain that we don’t have enough time to adequately discuss all of our national sins today, some overlap, and some break the same commandment. For today’s discussion we will limit it to greed/stealing, and abortion/murder.
Before class have these two sins written on separate pieces of paper and turned upside down on a table. Divide the class into two groups. Have a person from each group draw one of the pieces of paper with national sins on it. Explain to the class that each group is to brainstorm and determine the following things about the national sin they drew. 1) Give examples of how this national sin affects the population. 2) What adverse affect does it have on the economy? 3) What adverse affect does it have on safety and security? 4) What adverse affect does it, or can, it have on science and/or research? 5) How can committing this sin effect the emotional health, well being, and/or the character of the individual. Give them about 8 to 10 minutes to finish this project. Start the timer. When it goes off, call the class back together.
Debrief - Start with “greed/stealing.” Ask: What example can you give of how greed/stealing have affected our population? Allow the group assigned to the national sin to give their answer, then encourage students from the other group to add to it. Write these on the butcher’s paper as the students give their answers. How could greed lead to murder? (In burglaries and embezzling cases, to keep it from being known?) Ask: Who can give a specific example of national greed/stealing? Can you think of any wars that have been started because of greed? (Japan in World War II is one example.) Have one of the students read Ezekiel 22:12 aloud.
What impact has greed had on our economy? Draw the students out to see that greed and steeling had a powerful impact on the stock market when information about corporations such as Enron became public. It dropped to 40 to 50% of the market’s high?.
What impact does greed play in your safety and security? (Locks on doors, lockers, lost credit cards, or credit card fraud, etc.) What affect could greed have on science and research? (Research papers are skewed to given an inaccurate result.)
How can greed affect a person’s health and character? Have one of the students read Proverbs 1:15-19.
Abortion and Murder - Have this group give the answers to all of the same questions. Allow others to add to them. Write the answers on the butcher’s paper as they give them. Ask: What comparison would you make with abortion and murder? What about partial birth abortion? How many know what partial birth abortion is? Explain that the head of the baby is already out of the birth canal when a doctor uses scissor to puncture the back of the skull, then sucks out his brain. Why do some people not consider this baby a real human being when it is fully formed, alive, the head is out of the birth canal and the feet are still in? What difference does it make to God if the feet haven’t yet come out? Over 65 million babies were killed while Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. (Look up current statistics prior to class.) What kind of talents or gifts have we destroyed through abortions? Could the person who could have discovered the cure for cancer been killed through abortion? By reducing the population of the United States by over 65 million people in about 50 years, what impact will this have on Social Security benefits? Explain that what today’s work force is paying into Social Security makes it possible for their grandparents to receive Social Security. Clarify that their grandparents paid their dues, it is because the Social Security fund doesn’t have enough money without receiving it from today’s employed people. Having reduced the population more than 65 million from what it would have been will drastically reduce the amount going into Social Security and may even bankrupt the system.
Fasting - What is the purpose of fasting? Why do you think God wants us to fast on the Day of Atonement? Which of the things on the chalk board are so wrong in God’s sight that we as a nation should fast and ask forgiveness? Ask one of the students to read Habakkuk 1:13. Have another student read Psalm 103:12 and another read Jeremiah 31:34.
Teacher-Directed Activity
The activity is included at the beginning of How to Teach this Lesson.
Song
“Create in Me a Clean Heart” is on page 36 of The Group Songbook.
Closing Prayer
Have the students form a circle and join hands. Lead the students in prayer thanking God for the deep significance the Day of Atonement has on our lives. Ask that He will forgive each student’s sins and remove them as far as the east is from the west.
Printable Pages
