Today is Yom Kippur. It is the Day of Atonement for Old Testament Israel. It is the one day out of the whole year that Israel’s high priest would go into Israel’s “holy of holies” in Israel’s temple with the blood of bulls and goats in order to provide atonement as provisional forgiveness in the nation of Israel from year to year.

Amazingly, it’s been 1955 years since Israel’s temple was destroyed in AD 70, and there has been no sacrificing and sprinkling of blood on Yom Kippur ever since AD 70.

Soooooooo, this means that Israel’s sins (if these were actually counted in “Israel”) have been accruing and accumulating in Israel for 1955 years! Ouch! Imagine that! Almost 2000 years of sins building up in your nation based on your nation’s religious practices! Eeeeek!

But, who’s counting? Certainly not Jesus! The perfect, holy, spotless, and sufficient blood and body sacrifice of Jesus took place on the cross in AD 31!

Even in AD 32, the blood of bulls and goats in Israel’s holy of holies in their temple was ineffectual and useless for the yearly provisional forgiveness and atonement on their Yom Kippur. They blew it by crucifying their messiah. Their temple was destroyed 40 years later in AD 70. The 40 years of sacrificing animals in the temple rituals in Israel after the cross was pure rebellion against God.

If Israelite leadership would have recognized their messiah in the few years after the cross, they would have quit the animal sacrifices, disbanded their priesthood, and submitted to the leadership of Jesus’ apostles, the very men they called unlearned and vulgar (common, lowly). But, as we can easily see, they remained in their rebellion until AD 70.