Yom Kippur

If you were to enter a synagogue today, Chabad.org has a guide to what to expect. It includes: “You may also notice that many people are wearing white clothing, and some are even wearing a white robe called a kittel. This is because on Yom Kippur we are likened to angels. The angels do not eat, and neither do we. The angels devote themselves to praising G‑d, and so do we. The shroud-like kittel also reminds us that all life on earth comes to an end.”

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement. It’s history and significance is as follows (also from chabad.org):

“Forty days after they received the Torah at Mount Sinai and committed to be G‑d’s chosen people, the Children of Israel worshipped a Golden Calf. Moses pleaded with G‑d not to destroy His errant nation, and on the tenth of Tishrei G‑d said, “I have forgiven.” Ever since, we observe this date as the “Day of Atonement”—a celebration of our indestructible relationship with G‑d. It is the holiest day of the year, when we reconnect with our very essence, which remains faithful to G‑d regardless of our behavior.

“Yom Kippur is a fast day: from sundown on the eve of Yom Kippur until the following nightfall, we do not eat or drink. We also abstain from certain physical pleasures: wearing leather footwear, bathing or washing, applying lotions or creams, and marital relations. It is also a “day of rest,” on which all work is forbidden (as on Shabbat).

“The greater part of the day in the synagogue we engage in repentance and prayer. There are five prayer services: 1) The evening prayers, which begin with the solemn Kol Nidrei. 2) Morning prayer. 3) Musaf, which includes a description of the Yom Kippur Holy Temple service. 4) Afternoon prayer, during which the Book of Jonah is read. 5) Ne’ilah, recited as the day wanes and the verdict for the new year is sealed. The first four prayers include a (private) confession of sins to G‑d. Ne’ilah concludes with the congregation calling out the Shema in unison, and then a blast of the shofar signals the end of the day.

“Yom Kippur is followed by a festive meal. We rejoice, confident that G‑d has forgiven our sins.”

The author of the “New Testament” letter to the Hebrews wrote about the yearly sacrifice offered at the Temple to atone for the sins of the People of G-d.

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'” When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Hebrews 10:1-22

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Self-Loathing

Perhaps he sat in a fire pit, which during the night provided heat and now was cool as the sun began to bake the desert around him. He says to G-d, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” I am reminded of a phrase from the Anglican burial service, referring to total finality of life, “Ashes to ashes; dust to dust,” which is based upon scriptures “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:19), and “I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee” (Ezekiel 28:18). Perhaps Job felt he was so totally wrong in his actions that it was time to die. At one point Job’s wife had told him to just end his own physical suffering by cursing G-d and dying. He did not do so. In his self-righteousness, he continued on. Now Job is ready to accept his fate, understanding his sin of presuming to know G-d, of presuming to be righteous on his own accord.

Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Job 42:1-6 (emphasis added)

Repent. This the Jewish season for repentance. If we follow Job’s example we loath ourselves and repent. If we truly loath ourselves, we will see ourselves as unworthy of saving. In the view of the world, we will have low self-esteem. However, as Job came to understand, we must see ourselves as G-d sees and loath the un-naturalness that is within us. Calvary Chapel’s statement of belief (point number eight) puts it this way: “We believe that all people are sinners by nature and, therefore, are under condemnation; that God regenerates based upon faith by the Holy Spirit, those who repent of their sins and confess Jesus Christ as Lord. (Acts 8:15-17; Titus 3:5)” So it isn’t that we loath the self that G-d created, but the sin nature that is within it. We loath and repent of what we have done, the things we’ve left undone. Sins of commission. Sins of omission.

G-d loves the person that He created us to be. If we want to be that person, we must turn from the person our sin nature wants us to be. We cannot have salvation without repentance. We must acknowledge that we have a nature, we often refer to as the flesh, that is against G-d. We must turn away from this nature. But that isn’t enough. On a television show recently, a man sits across from a police detective after confessing to murdering three people. The murderer says, “I’m really sorry. I really am!” Another man in the room says, “Your sorry. Okay, that makes it all right then. You can go now,” then turns away, shaking his head and walks out of the room.

We can come to know our sin, that we have a sin nature that is capable of all sorts of horrid things. We must understand this fact. And there is no payment we can make, except to forfeit our lives. We must die for our sins, those we committed and those we are capable of committing. Unless there is someone willing to take upon himself the penalty we owe.

That’s what Y’shuaJesus, Son of G-d, Son of Man, did for us. For it is through Y’shuaJesus that the penalty for our sin is paid in full. Thank You, Lord! G-d then seals us with His mark, and sees us as pure through His own Son’s action of dying for us.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine upon you today and each day as we await the coming of the King to His reign. AMEN.

Rosh Hashahah

Shofar (by Alphonse Lévy) Caption says: "... — Shofar (by Alphonse Lévy) Caption says: “To a good year” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today is Rosh Hashanah. It is the “Head of the Year,” the first day of the Jewish year.

From Chabad.org:
“The festival of Rosh Hashanah—the name means “Head of the Year”—is observed for two days beginning on 1 Tishrei, the first day of the Jewish year. It is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, and their first actions toward the realization of mankind’s role in G‑d’s world.

Rosh Hashanah thus emphasizes the special relationship between G‑d and humanity: our dependence upon G‑d as our creator and sustainer, and G‑d’s dependence upon us as the ones who make His presence known and felt in His world. Each year on Rosh Hashanah, “all inhabitants of the world pass before G‑d like a flock of sheep,” and it is decreed in the heavenly court “who shall live, and who shall die . . . who shall be impoverished, and who shall be enriched; who shall fall and who shall rise.” But this is also the day we proclaim G‑d King of the Universe. The Kabbalists teach that the continued existence of the universe is dependent upon the renewal of the divine desire for a world when we accept G‑d’s kingship each year on Rosh Hashanah.

“The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the shofar, the ram’s horn, which also represents the trumpet blast of a people’s coronation of their king. The cry of the shofar is also a call to repentance, for Rosh Hashanah is also the anniversary of man’s first sin and his repentance thereof, and serves as the first of the “Ten Days of Repentance” which culminate in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. ”

While on a ministry assignment in Israel, I learned that during these days of repentance, people would seek out those they’d offended and ask forgiveness. It is a way to begin a new year with a clean slate, so to speak. It is also a time of introspection. In ten days these days of repentance culminate with Yom Kippur when sins are set aside, set on a scapegoat, and sent away. This is repeated annually.

And when he has made an end of atoning for The Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat; and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities upon him to a solitary land; and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness.

Leviticus 16:20-22 RSV

For those of us who have accepted Y’shuaJesus as Messiah, our sins have been set aside once and forevermore. Y’shuaJesus is the scapegoat that took our sins away. Wayne Blank, of Keyway.ca wrote: “The blood of the sacrificed goat was taken by the high priest Aaron and sprinkled on the atonement cover, or mercy seat, of The Ark Of The Covenant inside The Most Holy Place of The Tabernacle In The Wilderness once per year on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:15-17). This depicts the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our “High Priest” (Hebrews 8:1) entering The Throne Room of God to make atonement for humanity once for all time (Hebrews 9:23-28).”

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .