Yom Kippur (The Day of At onement)
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year. It's the day of atonement after the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. On this day, Jews ask God for forgiveness for their sins to secure their fate. It's also known as the Sabbath of Sabbaths.
It begins Wednesday evening and ends Thursday evening. (Yom Kippur usually falls in September or October each year). More than half of Jews will observe the holiday by fasting, according to a Pew Research Center survey. Some will avoid working, wearing leather shoes, applying makeup or lotion, washing or bathing and having marital relations.
During this time, Jews attend worship services where the machzor, a prayer book used during holy days, is read and specific prayers are recited. At the end of the services, a shofar or ram's horn is blown to signal the end of Yom Kippur. Then, Jews are able to feast, breaking the fast.
Jews believe the first Yom Kippur occurred after God gave Moses the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. When Moses came down from the mountain, he found the Israelites worshiping a gold idol calf. After they atoned for their sin, God forgave them and offered Moses a second set of tablets.
God's own Word described the One who would come, die, bear the sins of humanity, and be rejected. Jesus is the answer to many prayers and the bearer of our sins. Isaiah tells us in chapter 53 “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:2-7 KJV) In this verse we clearly see that God intended for Jesus to be our “atonement.” But just like it was in His time and the Jewish people did not believe that he was the Messiah, the Christians of today do not believe or want to understand why we should celebrate Yom Kippur. In the book of Acts, chapter 13 we read “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:36-39 KJV)
Lastly in 1 John 4:10 it expressly states that Jesus atoned for our sins. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10 NIV)
Next time you wonder if you should celebrate Yom Kippur by fasting, then feasting, ask yourself, am I a Christian? Because if the answer is yes then as followers of Jesus Christ you should do what he would do since he was Jewish and a descendant of David.
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God Bless,
Bishop Adam Blackstock