According to Leviticus 16:29, the 10th day of the seventh month is a holiday. On our calendar that would have been yesterday. The holiday was the Day of Atonement. “For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you…” (16:30-31)
The opening scene in John Bunyon’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” pictures the rest we experience at our day of atonement. The day we accept Jesus’ death on the cross as the sacrifice for all our sin. When pilgrim realized his guilt and lostness. Saddled to his back was a heavy burden of sin and shame. “I fear that this burden upon my back will sink me lower than the grave,” he said, staggering under its weight. But then he approached a hill called Calvary. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.
He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulcher. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.”
For the believer, everyday is the Day of Atonement and therefore, a day of solemn rest.