No. 52 - ATONEMENT: A DAY OF EXPIATION By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, September 25, 2004 Today is the day of Atonement. It is a somber and a sobering day on God’s calendar. In the Hebrew it is called Yom Kippur. You will see in newspapers and in the news that the orthodox Jews are keeping Yom Kippur. This means the “day of expiation.” If you were to look up expiation in the dictionary, you would find that expiation means to atone or make amends for. The meaning of this day is very similar actually to Passover but with one huge difference that we will look at in a few moments. First I would like to review the Passover just a little bit. Let us turn, if you would, to Exodus 12. We will read verses 1-7. If you would, please, drop down to verse 21 where we will pick up the story again. Read Exodus 12:21-30. That is the story of the first Passover. CHOSEN PEOPLE What did Israel do to deserve to be passed over? Nothing, other than put the blood on their posts and lintels. But what did they do to deserve this protection? Nothing! God had chosen them as His people, and He set this before them. He said if you obey Me and do this, I will pass over you. They did nothing of themselves to deserve this. Indeed, they were just a lineage that came from a man called Abraham. Let’s turn back to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. We will see in Genesis 12 where Abraham himself was called. Genesis 12, verse 1: “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” This was a tremendous promise given to Abraham. What did he do to deserve it? Nothing! God called him. God chose him. I am sure he was a decent man, but there was no way that Abram was worthy of such a promise. The same with Moses. Turn back to Exodus chapter 3. Once again we will see that God gave a job to Moses. God talked to Moses first and called him. Read Exodus 3:1-8. God heard the cry of His people and their oppressions, and He called out to a man called Moses from a burning bush. He said I have a job for you to do. I want to deliver My people and I want to use you to do it. What did Moses do to deserve this job? Nothing! God did go on to use him mightily to deliver His people. What was that deliverance? It was the Passover. That Passover is what allowed God to bring His people out and lay the Egyptians low so they would let His people go. CHRIST OUR PASSOVER Turn, if you would now, to I Corinthians chapter 5. We are going to see here in I Corinthians 5 that in the New Testament the Church looks to Jesus Christ as their Passover. I Corinthians 5, verse 7: “Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” We can look back in history at what occurred on the first Passover in which God “passed over” the houses of Israel that had put the blood of the lamb on their door posts and on their lintel. This was done in such a way that God is saying to the New Testament era of His people that Christ has become our Passover. Once again God called us to that Passover. We did not make the first move ourselves. Turn please to John chapter 6. We will read a scripture we are all quite familiar with. John 6, verse 44: “‘No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.’” It is the Father who calls us to our Passover Jesus Christ. What did we do to deserve it? Nothing! God chose us. The Father drew us to our Passover, Jesus Christ; and once we accepted the terms and conditions of our calling and were baptized and received the Holy Spirit, we had the protecting blood of Christ put on us. The first thing it did was wash away all of our sins. By His blood we were cleaned up. We are covered, in a sense, by His blood. It is a beautiful and an awful thing at the same time because, of course, it is our sins that Jesus Christ took on Himself so that we would no longer be held guilty. There is tremendous power in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ because without that blood we would not be passed over. We would be doomed as the world is doomed without Christ. There is tremendous power in this sacrifice. In a sense, what we need to do (and why we need to talk about this today) has something to do with atonement. Once we are called, we are launched in the direction of salvation that is irrevocable unless we revoke it. We all continue to sin. We have to conclude that there is something that started at Passover with our calling and us choosing to accept that calling. We got started in a relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ that They want to keep going. The only thing that really gets in the way of it can be ourselves. That is why if you were to turn back to I Corinthians chapter 11 when we renew that vow every year at the Passover time, we are told to do something. EXAMINE OURSELVES Turn to I Corinthians 11. We are told to examine ourselves to make sure we are in a position to accept that sacrifice and renew it once again. Read I Corinthians 11:27-32. So the blood has been put on us so that we can be passed over, but we have a condition to meet here. We must continually examine ourselves, because when we accepted the blood of Christ it wiped away all of our sins up to that point. But we continue to sin. We continue to make mistakes. Each Passover we examine ourselves and judge ourselves, so hopefully we will not be judged too harshly. In I Corinthians 11:28 we found out that we are to examine ourselves. Examine comes from the Greek word dokimazo which means to test or to assay in order to approve. And dokime which means to test our trustworthiness. So we are to examine ourselves and see if we are trustworthy to God. And it also comes from the word dokeo to think on how we are accounted and reputed to be. So we are to examine ourselves to see what God sees in us. How would He account our character? In what way are we reputed to be in His eyes? Examine ourselves to see if we are trustworthy to Him, and we can do this by our relations with other people. Are we trustworthy to other people? Are we treating people the way we should? If we are growing in holy righteous character we are growing in love, and we show that love toward our fellow man who is made in the image and likeness of God. That is what the word examine means in I Corinthians 11:28. If you turn to II Corinthians, you will see that word is used once again with a slightly different meaning. II Corinthians chapter 13 where Paul is talking to the Corinthians and he is rather forceful here. Verse 1: “This will be the third time I am coming to you. ‘By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.’” Paul is saying I am coming to you about a problem that I have talked to you about a couple of times already. This is the third time, and I am bringing witnesses with me so that we can discuss this together. Verse 2: “I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare…” He says if I have to do this, and letters are not good enough, and I have to come to you and talk to you, I am not going to spare my words. I am going to tell you straight what it is you need to do. II Corinthians 13, verse 3: “…since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you are disqualified.” Paul is very forceful here. He says Jesus Christ is living in you. Test yourselves to see if you are holding fast to the covenant that you made with Him at baptism, which is why He is dwelling in you. If you had not agreed to that covenant and not taken His blood upon yourselves in an agreement with Jesus Christ at baptism, you would be guiltless in a sense because you would not know any better. But now you have to determine if you made that covenant and keep it in good faith, or are you in the process of disqualifying yourself? Paul is very forceful here. Examine yourselves, he says. He says, I keep telling you that. The definition here is from a little different Greek word peirazo which means to test. It is very similar to the last definition, but also to endeavor and to scrutinize through the idea of a piercing test. It is like testing yourself even when it hurts. Look at every angle and every possible corner of our lives, and shine the light of God’s truth. Take an examination of yourself, and see where you truly stand. Do it in a scrutinizing manner. Tell yourself the truth about yourself. That is what we need to do when we examine ourselves going into Passover. It is like a physical examination. If you were to take a test at college or in high school, it is a tough test because you have to know the answers before you walk in there. Therefore, you have to study the issues before you go and take that test. When I look into my own character and examine myself, I am judging myself before my teacher has to, who is Jesus Christ. This is what all this means, putting it all together. We have to know the answers and not pretend that we know or gloss over them. We cannot fake it. In a spiritual test such as this, we must be accurate and not deceive ourselves. We need to tell the truth to ourselves, and we judge ourselves. We need to find what we need to change, repent and change it. What does this all have to do with the Day of Atonement? A TIME OF JUDGMENT The Day of Atonement also has to do with scrutinizing ourselves, examining ourselves and seeing what we need to change. Atonement comes after the Feast of Trumpets. There is a ten-day period from the Feast of Trumpets until we arrive at this day. We know the Feast of Trumpets pictures Jesus Christ’s return. We studied that issue on the Feast of Trumpets just recently. So ten days after Christ’s return, we look at ourselves now and picture ourselves in the future, saying this is a period of time that is actually taking place ten days after Jesus Christ has returned. Let’s turn to Matthew chapter 24. We do not know if that ten days is a literal ten 24-hour days, or if it is a day-for-a year principle like ten years. But it is a period of time. I am inclined to believe it is ten years after Christ’s return, but no one knows for sure. Let’s turn, if you would, to Matthew 24 and read verses 36-44, where Christ is speaking about His return. Ten days after that hour that no one can expect and no one knows the exact time of is today, the Day of Atonement. Turn, if you would, to Revelation 20. Not only do we see that it is after the resurrection, but if you turn to Revelation 20 it is specifically stated that way. Revelation 20, verse 4: “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” We see a couple of interesting things here. First of all, we can see that the mark of the beast is something the brethren could have taken on themselves two thousand years ago! This applies to all those who would be resurrected in the faith. The beast is not just a power that rises three and a half years at the end of time. That is just the first thing, and that is an aside. The second thing we notice is that this is a resurrection in which if you are part of it, the second death has no power over you. Combine that with the idea of one being taken and one being left, and you find that those who are left are still under a judgment. Now think about what we were told at Passover, to examine ourselves, judge ourselves so we do not have to be judged. Then it all starts to make a certain amount of sense there that if we take upon ourselves the job of harshly judging ourselves, we have a greater likelihood of being in this first resurrection. Then we would not have to face Jesus Christ on the Day of Atonement and be judged. It is ten days after this resurrection. It is ten days after the rewards are given to these people in the first resurrection who will be reigning with Jesus Christ. Now if you would, turn back to I Corinthians chapter 3 where we see a set of scriptures that we have often read. Starting in I Corinthians 3:9. “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.” Now you picture the two women working in the field and the two men working together. One is taken and one is left. I Corinthians 3:10: “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.” That testing is the testing of our character which we ourselves are supposed to be testing first. Continuing in I Corinthians 3, verse14: “If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.” We saw that reward in Revelation 20. Verse 15: “If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” Therefore, Atonement today represents a period of time that actually takes place in the future but is a reminder in advance to examine ourselves and judge ourselves just as we are told at the Passover, so that we can hopefully be part of the first resurrection. We do not want to have to worry about the second death. We do not want to have to worry about being judged by Jesus Christ on the Day of Atonement. Orthodox Jews call this ten-day period the ten days of repentance. It is a time when they feel one must examine themselves very closely, very harshly every day. Some of them rise early in the day and some rise every night, and examine their character and look for the flaws that they must change. During this ten-day period, they go out of their way to do good things for their neighbors. We understand the principle that love (charity) covers a multitude of sins. So if we treat our fellow man better and judge ourselves harshly and change those characteristics that God would find offensive, we would find a blessing. The Jews understand this in a physical sense, and they do these physical things. We must do those same physical things because it is through our physical life that we exhibit God’s holy righteous character, the gift of the Holy Spirit. This ten-day period is a time when Christ’s sacrifice would still apply. If a person found themselves left, they would know. If I see all of you go and I am left here, I will no longer be fooling myself. I will know exactly what happened. I would be alive in a ten-day period (or a ten-year period) to get my act together. I would have to repent wholeheartedly and beg God for mercy. I still have the second death hanging over my head. But I will have the advantage of seeing what God has done and seeing how real everything is in God’s Bible and His plan. I will know that I better get my act together while I still have time. When you compare that to I Corinthians chapter 3, we are told that God measures our character. If one is found short, they will lose their reward, but they can still be saved. Now it begins to make sense. So this ten-day period that we have just come through up until today is a very important time, as those days leading up to Passover. We need to examine ourselves and correct the flaws that we have. We are on the verge of a huge harvest! This ten-day period after Christ’s return is actually when we are moving into the huge harvest that would be pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles that we will all be keeping later next week. The Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Ingathering, has to be preceded by a great sowing of the seed. This is why I think we are talking about a ten-year period. When Christ resurrects the saints a lot of people on the earth are going to know that they had it wrong. A lot of them are going to line up their doctrines with the truth and understand God’s word. They will seek the seed of the Holy Spirit and be blessed with seed to grow in character in their lives, which is necessary as the Millennium approaches. What I am getting at is, you are looking at a period of time between two harvests. We are going to keep the great harvest feast, the Feast of Tabernacles next week. Pentecost was the Feast of the Firstfruits, and when He returns, Christ takes His firstfruits with Him. He takes them up! So we are in this period of time between two harvests. I want to show you how this ten-day period makes some sense. This ten-day period between Trumpets and Atonement is this transition that God has for getting ready for the huge harvest which is pictured by the Millennium. The sad part is, we know that some who should have been part of the first harvest are left behind. That is what Christ told us when He said one will be taken and one will be left. There are some firstfruits who should have been part of the firstfruit harvest, but are still here when Christ will be working at that time with the innumerable multitude that is on the way. Unfortunately, while the innumerable multitude is being prepared and learning God’s ways, we also have some of God’s people still repenting and trying to internalize God’s ways. This is the period of time we have just come through up to today. Let us turn to Isaiah 28 and get some scriptural backing for what we just said. Isaiah chapter 28, verse 23: “Give ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my speech. Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods? When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow the black cummin and scatter the cummin, plant the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?” I am a farmer. When I plow my field or when you plow your garden, do I plow all summer long and never stop plowing and leveling the ground? No, you plow and level the ground to put the seed in. We want to sow the seed. That is what God did when He plowed our hearts and He made us soft enough to receive His seed (that is, the teaching of Jesus Christ). The Father drew us, softened us up, and drew us to God the Son. Then God the Son put His seed in us and we are to bear fruit, crops. That is the first crop, the first harvest, the firstfruits pictured by Pentecost. It is all in a timely and an orderly sequence of events with God’s holy days. BETWEEN TWO HARVESTS Turn, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 8:20 where there is an interesting set of scriptures that pertains to this time. “‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved! For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.’” This is Christ talking. He is the word. “‘I am mourning…’” He is sad. “‘…astonishment has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?’” Christ is talking about His Church, saying the harvest is past! Why haven’t My people been healed? Why haven’t they turned back to Me? If you read the whole chapter, you will find out that is what it is about. He wants them to turn back to Him. This is very sobering which I think is why today is a sobering day. But it is a very interesting thing to understand because it gives us the chance to learn this and make some changes in our lives. Turn to Amos 9:11. “‘On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,’ says the Lord who does this thing.” God says He is going to fix His Church, His tabernacle and His temple and He is going to get ready to bring all of these Gentiles to it. Amos 9, verse 13: “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,’ says the Lord your God. God says here very clearly that the plowman eventually is going to overtake the reaper because there are two harvests. The plowman had to keep plowing with his first field because they wouldn’t get ready. They should have taken the seed in and produced a crop that he could take up with him when he was ready to take the whole crop. But the plowman will continue to work with that field when he is overtaking the reaper. If you read in Revelation, you will see the reaper is when God reaps the huge harvest, starting with the Feast of Tabernacles (the innumerable multitude). He has a situation on his hands where he has two crops that are being intermingled here. So the plowman of one is running into the reaper of the other one. God in this ten-day period is going to be sowing seed quickly to have an innumerable multitude. That is what He is picturing as we approach the Feast of Tabernacles. I think it becomes very plain to see now that God is distressed when He has passed His harvest, the harvest of the firstfruits, the body of Christ and He is still having to work with some. In one sense, I think He has passed that harvest for all of us because He could have come quite a while back. But the Church would not get ready. God had to keep plowing the field, keep pulling out the weeds and keep working with us far beyond what He was supposed to have to do. Once He comes and the Father is determined to send Jesus Christ to take the firstfruits (for enough have responded for the temple to be done to get on with the plan), some will be left behind. They will be caught in the period for the next harvest! This is what we are being told here. If you would, turn to Psalm 32. This is what makes this day very sobering for us, brethren, because we have all been called in the era of the firstfruits. Every year God shows us in advance with His holy day season starting with Passover to examine ourselves. He tells us to bear a crop for Him during the year. This would be a spiritual crop, as we heard in the offering. Then we should prepare for what will be the innumerable multitude to follow. Every year we see this plan enacted. We follow through it mechanically, and now it is time to really start paying attention and get with the program. We need to give ourselves the test and examine ourselves, so we will have the answer when Christ comes. Do not wait for Christ to say, here are the ten things you got wrong. It is too bad they were so serious that you are left behind! That would be sad. We still have time to work on these things. That is what these holy days are for. They give us time to prepare. Turn to Psalm chapter 32 and we will start reading in verse 1. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” In other words, we have to check ourselves for our trustworthiness. Can God trust us? God says blessed is the man who has no deceit within him. Verse 3: “When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” In other words, David is saying, I judged myself harshly. I looked in every nook and cranny, and I saw the filth that existed. I hated it! I begged You to forgive me. You did not have to come and point it out to me item by item. But David knew when he made a mistake and would deceive himself, that God’s hand was heavy on him. It was heavy on him until he would look at his faults and change. Sometimes each of us feels God’s heavy hand saying look at this and fix it. He wants us to judge ourselves. Continuing in verse 6 of Psalm 32. “For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.” God says, do this willingly. Do not be like a stubborn horse or mule that I have to drag over to the corral, show you what you have to be doing, and force you to fix it. This is essentially what is going to happen with those who are left! They will be there when the flood goes out to the world, the world is being converted in huge masses, and some of God’s people are forced to examine themselves out of season when the plowman has overtaken the reaper. Do it when the Lord can be found. To be a firstfruit, do it when the Lord is there for the firstfruits. We are not saying that God’s blood would not cover you in that ten-day period. Christ’s blood will still cover you, but the reward is gone. It is too late for that. Now we are looking at strictly making it, strictly salvation. That is what makes today so sobering. Seek God while He can be found. Get covered, as we were told in the first two verses. Get covered by Christ’s blood now. ATONEMENT Atonement, as a matter of fact, comes from the Hebrew word kaphar which means to cover. To cover, specifically with bitumen to expiate, placate or cancel. Christ covers us with His blood and takes our sin on Him. The black sin goes on Him, the red blood goes on us. It is a covering. It is also related to the word kophur: a village as covered. A village is God’s city. A village is covered the same way, specifically with bitumen as a coating and henna as a plant. Henna is like showing the blood of Christ making us clean. It is used for dyeing. It is a redemption price and a ransom. So God is redeeming us, He is paying a price with His blood to cover us with His blood, so we will have the protection of being covered just like the first Passover! The only thing different is that it is a spiritual sense now. We need to let Christ do it for us, for you and me, in the correct season, our season. Atonement each year is a reminder that we better get the job done, because in essence, in God’s calendar He has been here for ten days. He did not come back, fortunately, for all of us this last Feast of Trumpets. We will have another set of holy days to look forward to in order to get this right; but if this had been the year, right now on this very day we would have known that half of our brethren, or more or whatever, are gone with Christ fighting Satan. We are still here facing the judgment today to see which division we are going to be a part of. With those words, let us go back and look at our traditional verses for the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 23, verse 26 speaking of the Day of Atonement: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall celebrate your sabbath.’” So we will commemorate this Sabbath year by year by afflicting our souls with a fast and soberly looking at our lives, as really we should have been doing since Trumpets in serious earnest. We should have started all the way back at the Passover we celebrated this past spring. We should have examined ourselves through the whole year and then really intensifying in that period between Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. Now, if you would, turn back to Leviticus 16:29. “‘This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you. For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever. And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments; then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the a tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.’ And he did as the Lord commanded Moses.” We do not deserve what we have been blessed with, brethren! We do not deserve the Holy Spirit. We do not deserve what Jesus Christ did for us. It is up to us now by observing these days and examining ourselves. Show God how diligently we work on our character to show Him whether we want to keep it. Do we want what He has offered us, or do we not care? That essentially is going to be the dividing answer. For one taken and one left, who cared enough and gave all for the pearl of great price? Who examined their character seriously and then did something about it, so that Jesus Christ did not have to judge them? Who is going to be among the firstfruits to help make an atonement for the whole world! When the temple is ready, the whole world can go on to their hope to get released into the liberty of the sons of God, as it says in Romans 8. The world is waiting for that. It would be sad to be part of the Church when the world is being called, and realize we have not cared enough for the pearl of great price to be in the proper harvest. It would be sad to instead be looking to be harvested with the innumerable multitude. With those words, I say have a good focus on this Day of Atonement. Use the rest of this day to your advantage by looking forward to God’s soon-coming kingdom. We have more time yet, brethren, that is the good part. Let us take advantage of it!