The Two Goats of Atonement Day

Outline

• Leviticus 16: The Day of Atonement (0:01)
• Discussion on Azazel and Its Meaning (12:58)
• Separation of Guilt and Innocence (13:15)
• The Role of Jesus as the High Priest (23:10)
• The Parable of the Weeds and the Tares (31:22)
• The Jubilee Proclamation (41:47)
• The Vindication of God’s Martyrs (49:44)
• The Role of Jesus in the Final Judgment (57:10)
• The Final Harvest and Judgment (55:43)
• The Symbolism of the Two Goats (56:27)

Edited Transcript

[This is an AI transcription of the interactive “sermon” portion of our service on October 12, 2024. Edited for clarity. I try to give a sense of the flow of the conversation but edit out some distractions. Members of our little congregation who commented did not wish to have their names published so are identified as “members.” Bible readings are from the New International Version as transcribed from my voice.]

JOHN: We are starting at Leviticus 16, verse six,

Aaron is to offer the male bull for his own sin. This offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he’s to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He’s to cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat.” Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot false to the Lord, and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat, chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making Atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.

The word translated “scapegoat” is Azazel.

MEMBER: “It’s an expression in Hebrew to tell somebody to go to hell.”

JOHN: So this is what the Strong’s concordance, although not apparently the exhaustive concordance, shows [on screen]. Notice the definition of Azazel is “entire removal,” which is what that word means. So you can see where it gets the meaning of going to hell in Modern Hebrew. So this is the goat for entire removal.

Now a lot of ink has been spilled trying to connect it to a different word, having to do with A goat-headed demon or the devil. But this is just the goat that’s for removal right now. The first goat is a goat for for sacrifice, but it’s for the Lord. So the thought is, this goat is for the Lord, that goat is for removal.

MEMBER: Yes, if one’s for the Lord, then the other is getting out. You don’t want to give it to anybody, so it is removed, entirely. So it’s not killed, then?

JOHN: Let’s, let’s put it this way, in practical terms, you don’t want this goat to be able to come back. So the guy who takes it away makes sure it doesn’t come back, so he basically pushes it off a cliff, at least breaking its legs so it can’t go anywhere.

In fact, most commentaries are wrong about the meaning. Most commentaries actually claim this some sort of a goat God or the devil, but the azazel actually means entire removal. So this is there’s a goat for God and a goat for removal. We used to translate it as scapegoat in English, but this is a goat that’s to be removed.

MEMBER: I still think that represents Satan, because he’s removed totally and never to come back. That’s all. That’s just my first look. Yeah, and it’s also metaphor. We remove the corruption from pureness. If you look at it at the very end, right? We’re not talking about the Feast of Trumpets. I know we’re talking about something later. And in a sense, Satan was responsible for the sin of humans, as he deceives.

JOHN: Okay, so the word itself doesn’t specify a being. I’ll put it that way. A lot of people think that the word is a name. It’s not. So there’s a goat for the Lord and there’s a goat that’s for removing. That’s what that actually says there.

There are other concordances that agree with that, even the Brown Driver Briggs, which goes through this whole Jewish angelology thing. But it then goes on to state that actually it’s the entire removal of sin and guilt from the sacred places into the desert on the back of the goat, or, in other words, a symbol of entire forgiveness.

For the moment let’s go to Leviticus 16 and verse nine,

Aaron, shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat, chosen by lot as azazel [as the goat for removal] shall be presented live before the Lord to be used for making Atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.

We tend to think of a scapegoat as an innocent person who takes the blame for someone else’s crime. “For removal” doesn’t mean that.

There’s a separation that takes place between goats that, for all intents and purposes, look the same. Yet, one is chosen for the Lord, the other is chosen for removal. What does that kind of sound like in the New Testament? Perhaps separation of the wheat and tares, or a separation of the sheep and the goats.

So I think that’s more what’s going on here than this idea of Jesus and the devil.

MEMBER: It’s interesting too, that like at the Passover, it’s lambs and Jesus a lamb, and here we’ve got a goat.

JOHN: Exactly.

MEMBER: And makes me think of the story of Cain and Abel during their sacrifice, and one was killed and the other one was set to wander in the wilderness.

JOHN: Exile, right.

MEMBER: Yeah, exile so seems kind of similar to kicking somebody out of the church for willful sin and hoping that they’ll repent.

JOHN: We will get to that picture of exile in a moment.

Let’s get back to the goat “for the LORD.” The high priest will put its blood on the on the atonement seat. He’ll put the blood on the altar, first the of bull for himself, and then of the goat for the Lord, and use that blood to ceremonially cleanse all of the utensils and basically make the holy place clean by these sacrifices, first for the priesthood and then for the actual tabernacle.

MEMBER TWO: Interestingly, just a point about the blood of mercy seat. It always went to one half of the Mercy Seat.

JOHN: So everything gets cleaned by this blood, and so we’ll eventually go to the book of Hebrews to see how his take on that goes, whoever the writer was. (I think I figured out who wrote Ecclesiastes, but Hebrews is a little tougher to find the author of.) So in verse 20,

When Aaron has finished making atonement for the most holy place to enter the meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He’s to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion Israelites, all their sins, and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place, and the man shall release it in the wilderness.

So whatever’s going on here, it’s not Satan being cast into the abyss for 1000 years. No, this represents something that is released into the wilderness, never to return.

MEMBER TWO: Yeah, that’s just why I mention it, because Satan is cast into outer darkness as described.

JOHN: And then so are all of the people that Jesus describes as not getting into the wedding feast or into outer darkness. So there are all kinds of other parallels there. So the common understanding is that Jesus is the goat sacrificed.

On the other hand, what does John the Baptist, when he’s announcing Jesus, call him? He calls him the Lamb of God, who has come to take away the sin of the world. He’s not described as a goat. He’s not the goat of God.

A lot of people who keep the Feast of Trumpets think of Jesus as the goat. They think of the devil being thrown into the abyss for 1000 years, right? But shouldn’t it be more permanent than that?

Several elements have helped me see this differently. First of all, Jesus is the Lamb of God, not the goat of God, right? And he’s also referred to as the Lamb as in Revelation Five, Verse six, in Revelation 15, verse three, and also in Revelation 22 verses one to three. He’s always the lamb. He’s never the goat.

Okay, so it is like in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Sherlock Holmes refers to the “curious incident of the barking dog.” Watson, dumbfounded, responds that there’s no barking dog. Precisely! The dog did not bark!

MEMBER: Which means the person knew the dog, right?

JOHN: Right. But in this case, I think of that because the goat is not the lamb. So he’s not the goat of God who takes away the sin of the world. He’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So once I realized that I had to explore the meaning of these goats. Because if that goat isn’t Jesus, why do we assume that the other goat is the devil?

MEMBER: Right? So I’ll throw a monkey wrench into this. It does describe Jesus as a lion. In another place, Satan is also described as a lion ready to pounce. Yeah. So if Jesus was going to be described as a goat, it would happen somewhere else in the Bible, and it doesn’t.

JOHN: Yeah, there’s going to be some other goat story if that is the case, and there isn’t.

One clue about their identity is: how are these goats selected? They are selected by lot.

What was the priestly use for lots? They were used to determine God’s will in certain circumstances. What kind of circumstance would cause a priest to use a lot to see who’s right and who’s wrong, and what kind of cases?

One would be in disputes between members of the congregation. Another would be to see if they couldn’t figure out who was lying or telling the truth about an unsolved murder. Who’s guilty, or who’s innocent?

So these goats are chosen by God for some purpose that doesn’t seem to involve specifically who those goats represent, not specifically any personality. So perhaps guilt versus innocence is what is being determined. So that’s a thought that I had. Anyways, lots can be used to determine guilt or innocence, in cases that are too difficult for Israel’s judges to conclude.

So, for instance, you remember the story of Jonathan breaking Saul’s command not to eat anything. The lot actually identified Saul’s own son, Jonathan as the guilty party in that case, right?

Lots were also used to determine inheritance, such as who gets what piece of land. So if you remember the story in Joshua, lots were used to determine where the tribes were going to go.

So the third clue is that first lot is not Yahweh. It’s for Yahweh. And the other lot is for entire removal. So again, it’s that God is choosing a goat for himself, and choosing the other goat for removal, if that makes any sense, through the lot. The only place in the whole Bible where the word Azazel appears is in this chapter. Four times in this chapter, and nowhere else in the entire Bible.

I referred to Hebrews a while back…

MEMBER: So they had to pick two goats ahead of time.

JOHN: That’s right, they had to bring two goats. Yeah. Actually, the standard was that the goats had to look pretty much the same, so God would choose which one he wanted for himself, and which one was to be removed.

Okay, so let’s go to Hebrews chapter nine. What I find interesting is that he doesn’t talk about Jesus as a goat anywhere in the book of Hebrews. He does talk about Jesus in a different way. So let’s start at the beginning. This will be a long reading, but stay with me.

Now, the first covenant had regulations for worship and also went from the sanctuary. The tabernacle was set up in its first room, where the lamp stand at the table with its consecrated red plates. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the wolf covered Ark of the Covenant. The Ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tape tablets of the covenant.

I find it really amazing, because this this staff. How long did the flowers stay on the staff?

MEMBER: Never mind that, what about the shew bread? Why didn’t it rot in stink and get moldy and everything else? But then in the wilderness for four years, everything, all their clothes were fine.

Above the ark were the cherubim with the glory overshadowing the atonement cover. We cannot discuss these things in detail. Now, when everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry, but only the high priest entered the inner room, and that never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins of the people, the sins the people had committed.

Notice that this wasn’t for the sins committed on purpose, just the ones done inadvertently.

The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the most holy place had not yet been disclosed, as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings, external regulations applying until the time of the new order. But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, (or the good things were to come, depending on the translation) he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, not part of this creation. He did not bring the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

So, if you were thinking back to the Tabernacle, what role is Jesus portraying here? He’s the high priest.

MEMBER: But instead of animal blood. It’s his blood.

JOHN: So he’s not the goat. He’s the high priest. In this picture,

the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so they are outwardly clean. How much more then will the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts leading to death, so that we may serve the living God. For this reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance now ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Okay, so he’s talking about the the difference between Moses proclaiming the covenant and the people agreeing to the Covenant, the sprinkling of the blood on the people. In verse 19 and verse 20, he says,

this is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you to keep in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both tabernacle and everything used in ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood. There’s no forgiveness. It was necessary then for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified by these with these sacrifices, the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands. There was only a copy of the one truth. He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter and again, the way the high priest enters the most holy place every year with blood into his own otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world, but he has appeared once for all, the culmination of ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once and after that to face judgment. So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many, and will appear a second time not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

So in all of this, Jesus is portrayed as the high priest, not as the sacrificial goat. You see the difference here. Now turn to revelation six and verse nine.

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, how long Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood, that each of them was given a white robe, and we’re told to wait a little longer until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed, just as they had been.

There’s a full number of people who were going to be martyred.  Think of it!  There’s a specified number of people who have to be killed for their testimony about Jesus before that vengeance takes place. Isn’t that shocking?  Who knows, maybe we end up as part of that number.

If we go to chapter 20, verse 11,

Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it, The earth and the heaven split from his presence, and I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hades gave up the death that were them. And each person was judged according to what they had done.

So this is a judgment time. Now I’ll ask again, what were lots used for?

It is a time of judgment to determine who did right and who did wrong.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

You see a separation taking place here. Some go to life, some go to death. Who were the ones going to life? The ones who go to life are those who are “for the Lord.” The Lord has chosen them. Again. It’s the lamb making these choices.

Let’s go to Matthew 13, to see what Jesus himself says about this kind of stuff. Matthew chapter 13, we’ll start in verse 24.

Jesus told them another parable about the kingdom. ‘A farmer planted some seed in his field. But while everyone is sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’

There’s a there’s a separation going on here. In verse 36,

Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to Him, ‘explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.’ He answered, ‘the one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.’ The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one. And the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.  As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will cast them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, whoever his ears let them hear.

Okay, so, so we have a parable of the wheat and the tares. And verse starting in verse 47 the parable of the net.

Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up to the then they sat down and collected the good fishing baskets, but through the bad away.

This is probably at the end of the age the angels would come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing further furnace where they’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Okay? And we also are familiar with the parable of the sheep and the goats, right? There’s always a separation. And I think what happens between the two goats is about separating the wheat from the tares. It’s about separating the sheep from the goats, which includes but is not limited to Satan, the Beast and the False Prophet.

Does that make sense, because the goat for the Lord isn’t identified as Jesus. In a sense, those who are willing to be Jesus’s people are chosen. There’s a there’s an element of predestination there.

MEMBER: I just thought of something the prophets who spoke for God were killed. God kicked Israel out, and had them wandering in the wilderness of Babylon. They were kicked out after His servants were killed. That’s my take on the exile.

JOHN: That works to a degree, and that’s something I would not have thought of. On the other hand, think of Daniel. When you think of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, some faithful people were exiled as well. So I don’t know that it works to apply the wheat and the tares argument to that exile.

MEMBER: Just because you kick a nation out because of the sins, it doesn’t mean everyone that was taken into captivity by the evil empire were necessarily bad people. They just were stuck in a system that was corrupt.

THIRD MEMBER: Yeah, that far like these guys with their goat heads on people to make them look like they’re evil. I mean, you do things like that people begin to believe.

SECOND MEMBER: So you’re going to this stage of saying that the two goats probably represent the people of God, versus the people of the devil.

JOHN: That’s where I’ve landed with that. Now, of course, the people of the devil will end up exiled permanently.

THIRD MEMBER: When you look at it, the second death is a permanent exile, exactly. Yeah.

JOHN: So that’s, that’s where I’ve come down with that. You have to take the sin out for the kingdom of God to work right. There are two ways to do that.

 1. Convert everybody that you can.

2. Those you can’t convert, you have to remove.

MEMBER: Okay, so the removal part I buy into, but I don’t buy into that you have to somehow figure out a way to go. God will judge everyone. But I don’t believe because he says, with the church, if somebody’s sinning, remove them from the church and hope that they might repent. And I think people were removed from certain societies because of various factors, including disease and various other things. So I think there’s more to the story.

SECOND MEMBER: I think you’re saying, this is a portrayal of the ultimate meaning of this ceremony, and really, it’s appropriate. That’s because this is the day that the sins of Israel are removed right? Sooner or later, it has to be completed. Sooner or later you have to be either forgiven or removed.

MEMBER: Yeah, I understand what you are getting at now. So, it’s symbolic of complete removal of Israel’s sin. In the case of somebody removed from the nation of Israel or the church, they might repent and come back, and then others might stay in their sin, and this would eventually be trouble.

THIRD MEMBER: And that’s, that’s what the great judgment is for. The gracious way through Judgment is a final harvest, which shows God’s mercy. Just think of those now being deceived. Yeah, pretty much the whole world deceives everyone to their view. Some of the good people were scattered too in the case of Daniel and the others. There are also things such as human trafficking. So it’s not a case where they’re in their sin and God’s going to punish them. He’s going to judge them. It will be fair, because the situation they’re in may not of their own making. And that’s why Daniel and his friends end up promoted, right?

JOHN: So the first sermon by Jesus was in the synagogue. We’ll start in Luke, chapter four, verse 16,

He went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue, as was his custom, he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, I’m going to get to the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, the recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Now, I don’t know if anybody else’s Bible has this, but there’s a biblical reference to Leviticus 25 and verse 10. See, maybe it has something to tell us. Leviticus 25, I probably should start in verse eight.

Count off seven Sabbath years, seven times seven years, so that the seventh Sabbath year, so the seven Sabbath years amount to a period of 49 years. Just good arithmetic there then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the 10th day of the seventh month.

What day is that Day of Atonement this year? Today. So somewhere in the world, a trumpet is sounding for the Day of Atonement.

Sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land flow its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, it should used to return to your family property of your own clan. The 50th 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 it’s to be holy to you eat only when it’s taken directly from the field. In this year, everyone is to return to their own property.

And that goes on with some other rules about selling the land a on a prorated basis until the next until the next Jubilee. Here in verse 17,

Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God.

And then, of course, there is a group of rules to make sure that the poor are taken care of in that year as well.

So what is Jesus doing here in Luke four when he’s talking about how he has been anointed to proclaim good news to the poor and been sent to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind and you oppressed free, especially proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor. This is a Jubilee proclamation that Jesus is making, and it’s related, of course, to the Day of Atonement.

It is interesting that the Day of Atonement, the day of getting sin out of Israel, the day of atoning for the sin of Israel, is also the day that’s chosen to make the proclamation of liberty to go back to your ancestral land and restart the whole economy. Give your family back its inheritance. This time, you can manage it the right way. Let’s turn to Isaiah 61:1-4.

The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has included me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Jesus stops at that point. He doesn’t go on to proclaim the rest of the passage.

… and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn, and to provide for those who grieve in Zion To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, but a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called the oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor, rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated…

So it’s interesting that Jesus stopped at exactly the point he did and doesn’t go on with the rest, because the other stuff won’t happen till he returns. That will be when he finishes the proclamation.

So atonement in that sense, is also a vindication. It’s also about vindicating those who were murdered for Jesus and all of those prophets who were murdered through all the generations – all of the people who were “for the Lord” who ended up sacrificed.

That’s the other place I am with this. All of the people who were sacrificed for proclaiming the name of the Lord, for proclaiming Jesus, for proclaiming that he is the Lord, the one and only Lord. And that’s why I turn to the passages of the book that speak of martyrdom. Remember that when the priest goes into the Holiest Place, the first thing he does is bring incense and burning coals to light the incense. All right, let’s jump to Revelation again. So in chapter 11, verse 15, we’ve got the seventh trumpet, halfway through verse 15,

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever and the 24 elders who were seated on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give thanks to You, Lord, God Almighty, who was, and the one who he is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun to reign, the nations were angry, and your wrath has come.’

That kind of sounds like the end of the passage in Isaiah 61, doesn’t it?

The time has come for judging the dead and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small – and for destroying those who destroy the earth.’ then God’s temple was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. There came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and earthquake and a severe hailstorm. So notice, that proclamation happens, and all of a sudden, everybody can see God’s temple in heaven. Isn’t that cool?

There is a moment of pause.

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour, I saw the seven angels who stood before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer with prayers, with the prayers of all God’s people on the golden altar in front of the throne, the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up from the angel’s hand, then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth. There came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

So symbolically here are the prayers of the people under the altar and those who join them later in martyrdom are brought before God. Before judgment begins, he hears the prayers offered with his incense. It’s a pleasing smoke in his ears, and then the angel takes fire from the incense bowl and throws it to the earth. That’s when judgment begins. So the Day of Atonement has, within its own symbolism, the vindication of God’s martyrs, and that’s pretty cool.

MEMBER: just imagine somebody’s really evil, and then find out the punchline is, all the people you’re killing are brought back to life, and you get to look at them and apologize to them.

JOHN: Yeah, so when Jesus makes that proclamation in the synagogue he’s fulfilled the first part of that. He’s going to fulfill the rest of it.

But there’s a problem, of course, Rome, right? The idea of the jubilee is to gather people back into their land, but Rome is in the way. And more important than that, sin is in the way.

So you have to deal with the sin first before you can resettle the people.

And that’s what the Day of Atonement is all about.