Yom Kippur: atonement for Yeshua’s disciples

"There are many reasons in our modern world not to take Yom Kippur seriously. The popular religious spirit urges us to believe forgiveness is easy and cheaply received so that penitence and uttering confessions with the lips are passé. But God says of this day, 'On this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Lord.'” (Lev 16:30).

Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, The Fast, begins this week.

How can we, disciples of Yeshua, keep Yom Kippur? God gives us these commands for Yom Kippur:

1. Don't work: "You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live." Lev 23:31
2. Deny yourself: "This is to be an eternal commandment: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves—whether native-born or an foreigner living among you."
3. Have a holy meeting: "The tenth day of this seventh month is Yom-Kippur; you are to have a holy convocation, you are to deny yourselves, and you are to bring an offering made by fire to Adonai."
4. Bring additional offerings: "Present as an aroma pleasing to the LORD a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. With the bull prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths; and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth. Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the sin offering for atonement and the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings."

What does "deny yourself" mean? Messianic scholar J.K. McKee explains,

"Surveying Jewish history, it is very easy to see that fasting—abstaining from food—was most definitely the traditional interpretation and application of what it means for one to afflict himself or herself on Yom Kippur by the time of Yeshua. A direct reference to Yom Kippur appears in Acts 27:9, which says that on Paul’s way to Rome “considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them.” Here “the fast” (Grk. tēn nēsteian, th .n nhstei,an) is undoubtedly Yom Kippur. Commentators are almost unanimously agreed that this is Yom Kippur. [Christian theologian and scholar] F.F. Bruce explains, “By the ‘Fast’ [Luke] means, of course, the Great Day of Atonement, which falls on Tishri 10.”

Perhaps a bigger question on the minds of many Christians is, do disciples of Yeshua have any business keeping Yom Kippur, fasting, and repenting? After all, Yeshua is our atonement, and in his name is the forgiveness of sins.

My conviction is this: Yeshua did not take away from God's commandments (Matthew 5:17-21), and we know from the gospels that Yeshua celebrated the feasts of the Lord. But what about Yom Kippur - does Messiah's sacrifice cancel God's day of atonement? Consider God's commandment: "This is to be an eternal commandment, wherever you live, whether native or foreigner: you must deny yourselves."

I believe that too much of Messiah faith today is focused on cheap, easy forgiveness. We flippantly approach God, we do not understand how grievous our sin is to Him, it's too easy to say, "Messiah took my sin, so I don't even have to be concerned about my sin; I am a friend of God."

But look at John the Baptist - his message?

"Repent! God's kingdom is coming."

And Messiah’s message?

"From that time on, Yeshua began proclaiming, ‘Turn from your sins to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!’”

The message of repentance, admission of wrongdoing, remorse for sin, humility, confession to God — this ain’t popular, folks. But it’s biblical.

Yom Kippur is a time for Yeshua’s disciples to come to God in humility, to cease from work, to fast, to meet with the believers, to return to God in repentance.

As the Psalmist said, "A broken spirit you will not despise, and a contrite, chastened heart you will not turn away." Let it be likewise for us on Yom Kippur.

God has chosen the foolish things

Paul, the brilliant Jewish intellectual who studied under one of the great rabbis and who also wrote much of the New Testament in the Christian Bible, wrote something quite profound in his letter to the Messiah-followers living in Corinth.

Here's what he said in modern language:

The statement about Messiah's sacrificial death is foolishness and silliness to the folks dying of ignorance or unbelief, those folks hellbent on doing it their own way. But to us, that statement makes perfect sense; it's the most powerful work God's ever done on our behalf.

You know the world thinks lowly of us. We're the dumb ones, the unintelligent ones who believe foolish rubbish, they'll tell you. It's ironic that this is exactly what God planned - remember when he spoke hundreds of years ago to Israel,

I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nothing.

God has indeed chosen the foolish things of this world in order to confound and confuse those who think so highly of themselves. It's no wonder it's always the lowly and the broken-hearted folks who turn to God! Rarely do we see those who think themselves intelligent and higher than others turn to God. No, only after God breaks something in the core of their being and brings them to a humble place do we ever see them turn back to God.

In this masterful plan, God's made the wisdom and intelligence of the world into true foolishness, and folded man's supposed foolishness into his plan.

In this so-called enlightened day and age, is there really wisdom? Where is it? Is there really anyone truly intelligent? I considered myself such a man once, having studied under the great Rabbi Gamaliel and learned man's latest doctrines; an intellectual by all means.

Yet God exposed man's intelligence -- even my own! -- as pretentious nonsense. The world in all its wisdom and knowledge remains clueless when it comes to knowing God. God's delighted in choosing what the world considers foolish -- preaching, of all things! -- in order that the high and mighty be laid low, and the low and humble be made righteous and upstanding before God. Thus, the world does not understand God.

The world will call you weak, unintelligent, and foolish for following God. Don't worry about them. God's picked the foolish things in order to put the world's wisdom to shame.

We often think that this age is the most enlightened, the most scientific, reason-based society, ever. And we think this is a new phenomenon. But we see from Paul's letters, society has often thought so highly of itself! Even 2000 years ago, then-modern society called itself wise and enlightened, looking down on anyone who chose the "foolishness" of God. So it remains today.

Hallel l'Yah - Hebrew for "Praise to Yahweh" - His wisdom blows away the intelligence of this downward-spiraling, backwards culture.

The Long Silence

At the end of time, billions of people were seated on a great plain before God's throne. Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly, not cringing with cringing shame - but with belligerence.

"Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?", snapped a pert young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. "We endured terror ... beatings ... torture ... death!"

In another group a Negro boy lowered his collar. "What about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. "Lynched, for no crime but being black!"

In another crowd there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes: "Why should I suffer?" she murmured. "It wasn't my fault." Far out across the plain were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering He had permitted in His world.

How lucky God was to live in Heaven, where all was sweetness and light. Where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.

So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. A Jew, a negro, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the vast plain, they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever.

Before God could be qualified to be their judge, He must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth as a man.

Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind.

Let him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured.

At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly alone. Then let him die so there can be no doubt he died. Let there be a great host of witnesses to verify it.

As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of people assembled. When the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered a word. No one moved.

For suddenly, all knew that God had already served His sentence.

-Anonymous

What the world needs... (part 2)

...is for men to be servants.

Last week I wrote of Art Katz' testimony; how God showed this adamant Jewish atheist that what the world needs is for men to wash one another's feet.

I had a similar experience -- not as exciting or extraordinary as Art's -- but nonetheless a real revelation from the heart of God, how He showed me that what the world needs is for men to be servants.

Several years ago, I was enjoying life -- I had great ambitions, I had big plans and some were already in motion, I was living life to fullest pleasure via diving head first into sin. I started spending less time with the Lord and more time doing my own thing. Eventually, God's place in my life became smaller and smaller; taking a distant 3rd place behind sin and my ambitions.

But one night, the Lord gave me a dream and followed up with a revelation that will remain with me the rest of my life. It changed my outlook on life to this day and I hope it changes yours as well.

In the dream, my dad, Bob, my older brother, Jesse, and myself were all walking in a place filled with grassy hills and fields. It was sunny and warm outside, a breeze was blowing around. The grassy hills spread out as far as I could see, it was a beautiful day.



The 3 of us walked up on a small hill with a large oak atop it. Under the shade of the tree, we saw several opened, empty graves. We all walked up to them and stared at them, as if there was something we needed to do.

My dad walked up to the first empty grave. I looked to see what he was doing with this grave, and as I watched in great horror, he lied down in the grave and passed away -- he was dead! I started weeping bitterly, my dad was very close to me and to see him go to his death right before my eyes was horrifying; it brought on a sadness only death could bring.

As I stood there horrified, my older brother Jesse walked up to another grave. I could barely see him through my tears. He lied down in one end of the grave, and lied there motionless. I screamed and wailed, crying to see both dad and brother die before my eyes, one after another.

Suddenly, this feeling came on me that my time was up. I didn't want to go, but I knew I had to -- it was my time to die. I had so much left to live for, I thought to myself. I hadn't completed my ambitions, I still needed to accomplish things, I still had to make a name for myself. Nonetheless, I was forced to lie down in the grave, God was telling me it was time.

I sat down in the grave and looked around. I knew as soon as I set my head down in the grave, I would pass away. I was still crying over the death of my brother and my dad, but I was trying to gain some composure and dignity for what I knew would be my last moments here on earth.

A new feeling came over me: a sense of finality. I thought back and reflected on my life. My sin came to mind...how could I be so foolish?! Why did I waste my life with that junk? "What a waste of a life!," I thought to myself. The tears kept flowing. I thought back on my ambitions that were so important to me. What a shame I wasted so much of my little time here preoccupied with ambition. I can tell you from experience, folks, your ambitions and the great human things you accomplish on earth -- your job, how much money you made, the name you made for yourself, how well esteemed you were by your peers, how intelligent you became -- are all worthless when you're on your deathbed. This revelation became clear as I held on for my last few moments.

My last thought was this: if I could do things over again, I'd do it differently! I wasted so much time with my own desires and ambitions. I lived a self-centered life, living for myself. Nobody likes a man who lives only for himself. I thought, if God could just let me live life on earth one more time, I'd live for God and live to serve others. That would make for a better, more fulfilling life compared to this wreck I lived! Instead of trying to make my own life pleasurable and great in the eyes of men, I'd go for the humble route: serving God and serving others.

And with that final thought, through my tears, I laid back and rested my head on the grave and passed away.

Immediately, I woke up from the dream; my pillow soaked from tears. I prayed immediately - "Master, what do you want me to do?" I didn't get an answer.

I stumbled downstairs, still tears in my eyes from this moving experience. As I made my way down, I heard a song playing on my computer. Either somebody was on my computer or I must have left music playing the night before, I thought to myself. The song was an old, 1970's circa Messianic song by the music group LAMB, called The Night is Far Spent -- I had heard the song before and, being too soft and old-fashioned for my tastes, I went to turn it off.

As I reached to turned off the song, God stopped me. He told me to wait and listen. As the song played, the words struck me and I began to crumble,

"The night is far spent
The day is close at hand
When Jesus comes
As the Son of Man

He will come quickly
No man knows the time
To take his children home
To mansions in the sky

So let us walk honestly in His sight
Shedding the old ways, the ones we did in the night
Let's put on new clothes, the armor of his light
And let's do his Word, before the end of time"

As I heard those words, God broke me at the foundations of my spirit. God revealed to me, through the dream and through this song, what's important here. Our Shepherd who loves his sheep wants us to do his Word and shed those old ways of darkness that our flesh desires. We don't have a lot of time here on earth -- why waste it on things of the world? Those things bring neither happiness or fulfillment, when all is said and done.

This was a revelation no man could speak to me; only God himself could craft such a thing to break my self-centered life at its core and turn me for the better. Once those barriers were down, God flooded into my life.

To this day, I live for the Lord and serve him best I can. I love others and serve them before myself -- God has put in me a servant's heart. It is no wonder Messiah said that the greatest commandments in Torah are to love God and love others -- now that I have lived the servant's life, I have come to know that real joy and actual happiness is gained NOT through pleasure or human accomplishments, but through living for God and loving others. There is a hidden joy in the servant's life, and this little secret God revealed to me is one I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

When my time on earth is up, I know that I will rest my head on that deathbed, not in sadness or bitterness, but this time in comfort and joy, knowing this life was lived serving God and others -- what better way to spend a lifetime!

-Judah the servant