 |
| Dr. Steve Coyle, of Sar Shalom congregation, Woodstock, GA |
I am starting this post a couple of hours before sundown on Tishri 9. Tonight, I will attend my first Messianic Yom Kippur service, in a neighboring town. I'm very thrilled for the opportunity to deepen my worship through the Messianic believers' observance of this holy day.
Yes, in fact, Yom Kippur was (and still is to most Jews) considered to be the holiest of all the seven "holy convocations" instituted by God in Leviticus 23.
26And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 27“Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselvesd and present a food offering to the LORD. 28And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. 29For whoever is not afflictede on that very day shall be cut off from his people. 30And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. 32It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”
Leviticus 23:26-32 (ESV)
The first instance of this phrase is found in Genesis 32:31, where Jacob wrestled with God all night and the next morning built an altar which he named Peni'el (meaning "I have seen God face-to-face, and survived.") Interestingly, no one else in the Torah could make such a claim. Yes, Moses and Abraham spoke with God, and Moses saw God's retreating figure from the back. There was only one other Old Testament character who saw God "panim el panim"; do you know who it was? (I didn't...) Later, in the book of Judges, Gideon got that amazing privilege (Judges 6:22). Ezekiel and Hosea referred to this special gift from God.2 This sentiment is also expressed with longing in Numbers 6:24-26, the Aaronic blessing. My pastor blesses his people with it at the end of every Sunday service.....amen!
24The LORD bless you and keep you;
25the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
27“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
The apostle Paul echoed this longing to see God face-to-face in 1 Corinthians 13:12 - -
12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Amen for that day! https://youtu.be/23rNa6yoIHg
“When we all see Jesus
No more sickness, no more madness, no more pain.....
When we all see Jesus, face to face.”
Still, it is a fearsome thing to contemplate the holiness and righteousness of God, character traits we tend to minimize in much of modern Christendom. It behooves us on Yom Kippur to remember that God hates sin and that He will judge it wherever it is found.
Fortunately, for the believer in Jesus Christ, our sin has been forgiven, removed as far from God "as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12). Through the shedding of His blood, Jesus is our atonement. The apostle Paul spoke of this extensively in Romans 5, especially verses 7-11.
That does not mean, however, we should ever ignore our responsibility to confess, to repent frequently of our sins. (I heard someone say yesterday that confession means to speak it; repentance means to leave it behind.) Nor does the centrality of grace mean that we should lose our reverence for the holiness of our loving and merciful God, a God who loved us so much He gave His heart's greatest treasure to redeem us.
Yom Kippur, in the days of the Temple, was the only day in which the High Priest would enter the most holy room of the Temple complex, the Holy of Holies. Here, at this time, that man, who represented all of the Jewish people, was "face to face" with God.
In Leviticus 16 God describes for Moses what Aaron and Aaron's descendants should do on this holiest of days. The vestments were described; the types of animals to be offered and also the incense burning were described.
And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil 13 and put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die.
Leviticus 16:12-13 ESV
The word "incense" means to "come near". Incense speaks of prayers. In the Temple the place of incense was right in front of the Holy of Holies, on the "outside" of that room.3 All the other days of the year, the priests would burn the incense and offer prayers there in front of the Holy of Holies. The "sweet-smelling savor" would fill that place. The smoke of the burning incense represented the prayers of the faithful, prayers ascending to God.
But on Yom Kippur, the high priest would approach God, as He had commanded, "face-to-face" in the Holy of Holies. He would go "behind the veil" (Hebrews 6:19). The high priest would "draw near" additionally through the burning of the incense on the fire, so that the cloud of fragrant smoke covered the mercy seat.
Most Jews and Christians who keep this most holy day fast and pray, while doing no work. Last night, as the day began at sundown, we gathered together to meditate on the holiness of our God, celebrate how our Savior made His once-for-all sacrifice for us, to confess our sins and become restored in our hearts. At the end of the service, the Dr. Steve Coyle led us in the burning of incense.
Ephesians 5:2 tells us that Jesus Christ, our High Priest, "gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor". We also were reminded that our High Priest, Jesus, has made us priests after His own order, the order of Melchizedek. The apostle Peter told us this:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9 (BSB)
So, at the end of the service last night, any of the royal priesthood who wanted to walked to the altar and put a pinch of dried frankincense and dried myrrh into the burning censer. As we did, we prayed. Soon, the room was filled with the glorious aroma of ... our prayers. (Revelation 8:3)
Dear God, thank you for Jesus, my Savior, the One and Only who, as our High Priest in Heaven, intercedes on our behalf.
24But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore He is able to save completelyc those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.
Hebrews 7:24-25 (BSB)
28Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. 29“For our God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 12:28-29 (ESV)
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10 (ESV)
G'Mar Chatima Tova!
Sources:
1 Good, J. (1998). Rosh HaShanah and the Messianic Kingdom to come: an interpretation of the Feast of Trumpets based upon ancient sources. Nederland, TX: Hatikva
No comments:
Post a Comment