Day of Atonement for Unintentional Sin

Day of Atonement, Only for Sin in Error

Exodus 34:5. And the LORD* descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the LORD*. 6. And the LORD* passed by before him and proclaimed, “The LORD*, the LORD* God, merciful and gra­cious, patient, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, 7. keep­ing loving kindness for thousands, forgiv­ing iniquity, transgression, and sin, and Who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the in­iquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children’s children, to the third and to the fourth generations.

The above verses give the Hebrew grading of Sin: Iniquity is intentional sin, the perpetrator knows it is sin, but does it anyway; Transgression is sin committed to anger God, and sin is committed in ignorance, unintentionally. In the One New Man Bible the Hebrew word for sin is always translated sin, whith the word for iniquity always translated iniquity, and the word for transgression always translated transgression.

Leviticus 4.1. And the LORD* spoke to Moses saying, 2. Speak to the children of Israel, saying,

“If someone sins through ig­norance against any of the commandments of the LORD*, things which ought not to be done and will do against any of them:

4:3. If the priest that is a­nointed sins, putting guilt for the sin on the people, then let him bring for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bull without blemish to the LORD* for a sin offering.

Matthew 12:33. You must make the tree good and its fruit good, or you must make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten: for the tree will be known by its fruit. 34. Children of vipers, how are you, since you are evil, able to speak good things? For the mouth speaks from the abundance of the heart. 35. The good man casts out good from his good treasure box and the evil man casts out evil from his evil treasure box. 36. And I say to you that every idle word which men will speak will be paid back with regard to his account on Judgment Day: 37. for you will be justified, declared righteous, because of your words, and you will be condemned because of your words.

Colossions 3:5. Therefore you must right now put to death the earthly parts, which are immorality, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, and covetousness, which is idol worship, 6. because of which the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of the disobedient. 7. Among whom you also once walked, when you were living in these things: 8. but now then you must immediately put everything off from yourself, anger, passion, wickedness, depravity, malice, blasphemy, slander, evil, obscene, abusive speech from your mouth: 9. you must not ever lie to one another, since you stripped off the old man with his deeds 10. and by putting on your new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the One Who created the universe, 11. where there is not one Greek or Jewish, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but then Messiah is all things to all those.

Ephesians 5.1. Therefore you must continually be imitators of God as beloved children 2. and you must walk constantly in love, just as also the Messiah loved us and gave Himself over on our behalf, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma. 3. But any immorality or impurity or covetousness must not be named among you, as is fitting for saints, 4. nor foul speaking or foolish talking or low jesting, which things do not belong, but rather thanksgiving. 5. For you know this very well, that anyone who practices immorality or uncleanness or covetousness, who is an idol worshipper, does not have any inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and God.

These passages point out some things we do every day, especially foolish talking, low jesting, and what about anger when someone cuts you off in traffic. Coveting your friend’s new car is sin. In both Colossians 3:5 and Ephesians 5:5 covetousness is specifically idol worship. All these and many other things are sin – things we do without thinking. These must be repented, which is why Y’shua said “You must continuously repent.” (Matt. 4:17) How many of us walk in repentance every day? This is why Christians need to honor Yom Kippur, which atones for unintentional sin. Iniquity and Transgression since they are intentional, known by the sinner immediately, require repentance immediately. Anyone living in sin knows it is sin, but makes excuses, those while those excuses may ease the conscience, they are not repentance. Repentance requires the sinner to immediately change behavior, so all the world can be made aware of the change.

Exodus 30:10. And Aaron will make atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year will he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy to the LORD*.

Numbers 29:7. And you will have on the tenth of this seventh month a holy convocation, and you will afflict your souls: you will not do any work. 8. You will offer a burnt offering to the LORD* for a sweet savor, one young bull, one ram, seven lambs of the first year; they will be to you without blemish, 9. and their grain offering will be of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah to a bull, two tenths to one ram, 10. one tenth for each lamb of the seven lambs, 11. one he goat for a sin offering besides the sin offering of atonement, the continual burnt offering, its grain offering, and their drink offerings.

The above two verses are the only ones that name sin in the passage with the word “atonement” and in both cases the use the word for unintentional sin. That ties the Day of Atonement to unintentional sin, strengthened by Hebrews 9:6, which specifically refers to sin committed in ignorance.

Hebrews 9.1. Now truly the first covenant had both regulations for service and the earthly Sanctuary. 2. Indeed a Tabernacle was prepared. The first room in it had the menorah and the table and the bread of the presence, which first room is called “Holy:” 3. but after the second veil in the tent, the one called “Holy of Holies,” 4. there was a golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered entirely in gold, and had in it the gold jar with the manna and the rod of Aaron that budded and the tablets of the covenant, 5. and above it two cherubim of glory that overshadowed the mercy seat: I shall not now speak in detail about this.

Hebrews 9:6. And such as these indeed were the furnishings in the first Tabernacle, and so the priests always entered, fulfilling the services, 7. but in the second room, the Holy of Holies, once a year, only the High Priest, not without blood, which he offered on behalf of both himself and the people for the sins committed in ignorance, 8. although the Holy Spirit made this clear, the way into the Holy of Holies had not yet been revealed while the first Tabernacle was still standing, 9. which was a symbol for the present time, according to which both gifts and sacrifices were brought which were not able to perfect the conscience of the worshipper, 10. they were only regulations of flesh on food and drink and different immersions, imposed until the time of the new order.

Leviticus 8:13. And Moses brought Aaron’s sons, put tunics on them, belts on them, turbans on them, as the LORD* commanded Moses. 14. And he brought the bull for the sin (Unintentional sin) offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bul­l for the sin offering. 15. And he slew it and Moses took the blood and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with his finger and purified the altar, and poured the blood at the bottom of the altar and sanctified it to make atonement upon it. 16. And he took all the fat on the innards, the lobe above the liver, the two kidneys and their fat and Moses burned it on the altar. 17. But the bul­l and its hide, its flesh, and its dung, he burned with fire ­outside the camp, as the LORD* commanded Moses.

If your congregation does not honor Yom Kippur, you now know that you are to honor that yourself, with the whole month Elul, the 29 or 30 days before the Day of Memorial (Rosh Hannah) to be spent in repentance, then during the Ten Days of Awe between the Day of Memorial and Yom Kippur focusing even more on repentance, all the sinful thoughts, words and deeds done without knowing would be erased from your record.

Sinning deliberately is not forgiven on Yom Kippur because that iniquity or transgression by its very nature is known. When a person commits iniquity or transgression, deliberately committing that deed, the perpetrator knows what was done, that it is an act against God and must be dealt with separately.