Placed in between Trumpets (the coming to us of our King in judgment) and Tabernacles (our rest in Christ in God) is the solemn Day of Atonement (of Reconciliation).

The Day of Atonement, which is described in Leviticus, Chapter 16, speaks to us of reconciliation to God, of perfect marriage to Christ. Being the sixth in a series of seven observances (Leviticus, Chapter 23), the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement results in people in Christ's image and in union with Christ. The result of image and union is eternal fruitfulness and dominion. Image, union, fruitfulness, and dominion, these four aspects of man's inheritance, were proclaimed on the sixth day of creation (Genesis 1:26-28).

The Day of Atonement was the only time of the year during which the veil protecting the Most Holy Place was drawn aside. The High Priest of Israel entered the Most Holy Place and sprinkled blood on the Mercy Seat and in front of the Mercy Seat.

Jesus informed us, as recorded in the fourteenth chapter of John, that He was leaving in order to prepare a place for us in the Father's house. Christ made a place for us in the Father's house by sprinkling His own blood on and before the Mercy Seat in Heaven. This was the first step in reconciling man to God.

As we press forward in the Holy Spirit we are to be confessing our sins to God, obtaining forgiveness and cleansing, the washing of the blood, so the work of reconciliation may enter ever more deeply into our personality. Through the Spirit, the blood of the Lamb, and the Word of God, we drive out of ourselves the lusts of our flesh, worldly thinking, self-seeking, and all the other effects of the bondages Satan has placed on mankind.

Through the authority and power of the grace of God in Christ we are overcoming the damage that the enemy has done to our personalities. In addition, Christ is being formed in us as the ministries and gifts of the Spirit bring to us the Substance, Life, and abilities of the resurrected and ascended Christ.

As the enemy and his works are driven out of our life, and Christ is formed in us, the image of Christ can be seen in us with increasing clarity. The absence of sin and rebellion and the Presence of the moral Nature of Christ enable us to come into an ever more complete union with Christ in God. We are being reconciled to God as Christ provides the Way, teaches us the Truth concerning Himself, and fills us with His own Life.

The work of reconciliation to God, of perfect, total union with God, is the part of the program of restoration accomplished by the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. All of God's redemptive efforts are moving us toward the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, which is the dwelling of the Father and the Son through the Spirit in the spirit, soul, and body of the saint.

To be continued.