True Repentance and Prayer
2.
Another way to obtain atonement for sins is through true repentance and prayer. We get an early look at that process in the Torah,
Deuteronomy 4:27-31
(27) And YHWH shall scatter you among the nations, and you shall be left few in
number among the nations, where YHWH shall lead you.
(28) And there you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
(29) But if from there you shall seek YHWH, your Elohim, you shall find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
(30) When you are in distress, and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days, if you turn to YHWH, your Elohim, and shall be obedient to His voice;
(31) For YHWH, your Elohim is a merciful Elohim; He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers, which He swore to them.
We see from vs. 29-31, there is no mention of the shedding of blood in order to regain Elohim’s favor.
There are several places in the Tanakh where this message is repeated. For example, King Solomon reaffirms this concept in his inaugural prayer during the consecration of the First Temple in Jerusalem.
I Kings 8:46-52
(46) If they sin against You, for there is no man who does not sin, and You are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far or near;
(47) Yet if they take thought in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to you in the land of them that carried them captive, saying, "We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness";
(48) And so return to You with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, who led them away captive, and pray to You toward their land, which You gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your Name;
(49) Then hear You their prayer and their supplication in heaven Your dwelling
place, and maintain their cause,
(50) And forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their
transgressions where they have transgressed against You, and give them
compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion
on them;
(51) For they are Your people, and Your inheritance, whom You brought forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron;
(52) That Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant, and to the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them in all that they call for to You.
In this prophetic message, King Solomon warns that one day the Jewish people will be driven out of the Holy Land and be banished to the lands of their enemies.
They are told that if during their exile, they would deeply desire to repent of their sins, face Jerusalem from their exile, and confess their sins, then Elohim will hear their prayers in heaven, and forgive them for all their transgressions.
Note that there is no mention of blood or any other offering in King Solomon's message.
He also never mentions a human messiah who would die for mans sin. Not a word is spoken of a cross.
The notable message we receive here is that the contrite and repentant prayer of the sinner can bring about complete forgiveness. This was Judaism's atonement process throughout the long and bitter times of the exile.
This is also the message that the prophets continued to convey to the Yahudiym the fact that the contrite prayer of the repentant sinner is an alternative, or substitute, for the sacrificial system.
This was the situation during the 70-year exile in Babylon following the destruction of the First Temple by Babylonians.
It is still the situation today, brought about by the Roman destruction of the Second Temple.
The Prophet Hosea foretold of days such as the 70-year exile and also of today would exist,
Hosea 3:4-5
(4) For the people of Israel shall remain many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without a pillar, and without an ephod, and without teraphim;
(5) Afterwards shall the people of Israel return, and seek YHWH, their Elohim, and David their king; and shall fear YHWH and His goodness in the latter days.
Hosea foretold of the coming times when the people of Israel would not have a king, a sacrificial system, a Temple, and a High Priest. In another chapter, Hosea gives information on what will replace the animal sacrifices that atoned for unintentional sins while the Temple was still standing.
Hosea 14:2-3
(2) O Israel, return to YHWH, your Elohim; for you have stumbled in your iniquity.
(3) Take with you words, and turn to YHWH; say to Him: "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; for we will render the offering of our lips in place of bullocks.
Prayer is to replace the animal offerings during the times spoken of in Hosea 3:4-5.
Our prophets never instructed people to worship a crucified messiah or man-god; neither does the Tanakh ever tell us that an innocent man can die and provide atonement for the sins of the wicked by his death.
In fact, the contrary is true, and any message supporting such a death/atonement is in opposition to the teachings of the Tanakh.
This may be can be seen in passages like Ex. 32:31-33, Num. 35:33, De. 24:16, II Kings 14:6, Jer. 31:29, Ezek. 18:4,20 and Ps 49:7,8.
Instead, the prayers of the contrite sinner served the same function as did the bulls of the sin offerings.