October 09, 2022
Greetings and blessings to all of you. This past Tuesday Yom Kippur was celebrated in the Jewish communities. “It is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come” (Lev. 23:31) For them it is one of the holiest of days along with Rosh Hashanah. During those holidays but especially on Yom Kippur the Jews come together to fast, reflect, and repent; to take stock of their actions in the past year, to seek forgiveness and commit to doing better in the year to come. Only on this special day it has been noted in the OT the high priest would enter the inner sanctum of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. There he would perform a series of rituals and sprinkle blood from the sacrificed animals in the Ark of the Covenant which contained the Ten Commandments. Through this complex ceremony he made atonement and asked for God’s forgiveness on behalf of all the people of Israel. For the believers under the New Covenant, we know Yeshua has fulfilled Yom Kippur since He was THE once- for- all- time sacrifice for sin (Heb. 9:26-28). So, I ask how should we deal with these Holy Day? Should we ignore it because we are not Jewish? Should we just celebrate with the Jews and wonder how it might apply to us? I believe that we should commemorate Yeshua’s work of salvation just the Jewish community does. Maybe we should fast as an expression of thanks for sacrificing Himself and paying the penalty for our sin. Fasting is an expression of humility. We could also do intercessory prayers for the unbelievers. What happened for the Jews happened for us Gentiles also. Jesus came and died for us all. God loves us just like the Jewish people. In Hebrews 11 in the LB it explains that His purpose was to make his salvation available to the Gentiles and then the Jews would be jealous and begin to want God’s salvation for themselves. We are grafted in. Do we as Gentiles have HOLY days like the Jewish community? I submit we do. We have Thanksgiving and Christmas and Resurrection Day. Those Holy Days for us causes us to stop and reflect on the What/Why for me and you? If our Lord is everything to us as we believe then surely, we must celebrate the gift of the life that he has given to us. Our brokenness and sorrow are grounded in joy for the One who delivered us from the terrors of hell by absorbing our shame and setting us free. Because of what Yeshua did we can reaffirm our faith telling Him on these “special days” we love Him.
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC