We are now in the last Holiday of the year where we are commanded to come before the Lord. We just finished the season of Teshuvah where we spent the past 40 days getting our heart right with God and man. We asked God to forgive us and we forgave God. We made things right with our fellow man. We asked those who we offended to forgive us and we forgave those who offended us. Next we celebrated Rosh Hashanah the Feast of Trumpets. Here we made the King of the Universe the King of our Universe. We heard the Shofar blast and we coordinated the King. We have celebrated the Days of Awe searching our hearts to make sure we were ready for the Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, we are celebrate the Holiest Day of the year. This is the only day the High Priest can go into the Holy of Holies. On this day the whole community is forgiven for all of their sins. This is the Day that ever 7th year the people would be set free from their debt and slavery. Every 50th year they would be set free and given back their family land. This is a RESET God ordained for every generation.
Every year during the Day of Atonement there would be a ceremony where the High Priest would sacrifice a Bull for his sin, his family and the Tabernacle / Temple. After the Priest cleaned himself and the Tabernacle / Temple he would take 2 identical goats and cast lots to see which Goat belonged to God and which goat belonged to Azazel. Many translation translate Azazel as scapegoat. However it is a proper name. It is the name of the 1st of the 2nd group of fallen angels. When Satan fell from Heaven he took 1/3 of all the Angels with him. Later God sent other Angels which the book of Enoch calls Watchers. These Angels were given the task of teaching man about God. Azazel became infatuated with women and took wives for himself. Azazel inspired 200 other Angels to fall and take wives for themselves. Their offspring became Giants. When the Giants died because they were neither man nor angel there was no place for their spirit to go. The Giants became what we call today Demons.
During the Day of Atonement ceremony the High Priest would lay his hands on the goat designated for Azazel and confess the sins of the nation. The goat would then be taken 12 miles away and thrown off of a cliff. When we read in the New Testament the story of the Demoniac we learnt that Jesus spoke to the Legion of Demons. They asked if their time for judgement had come and Jesus told them no, the time was not yet. They asked if they could enter the near by pigs. Afterwards the pigs ran off the cliff into the sea. I believe the story of the Demonic gives us the rest of the story. I believe that when the High Priest confessed the sins of the community the Demons responsible were placed into the Goat for Azazel the scapegoat and they were sent back to their Father Azazel into the wilderness. It was prisoners of war sent back to their county of origin.
Now 5 days later we celebrate for 7 days with the larges of all of the feasts. Everyone has been forgiven all of their sins. Their Demonic influences have been removed and everyone starts the New Year with a clean slate. It is time to celebrate with a massive feast. During the feast a total of 70 bulls are sacrificed along with 98 lambs, 14 rams, and 7 goats. This is a massive party. Everyone comes home to where God’s name is. It is home coming. There is room at the table for everyone. We have been set free from the mistakes of yesterday. We are prodigals coming home. Are you ready to come home?
