If you knew there was something you were supposed to do for God, would you do it?
Imagine being at the crucifixion. Imagine being one of the disciples and witnessing the greatest Teacher of all time, the One to restore Israel, being murdered innocently by the overwhelming Roman Empire. Imagine watching your own countrymen defy their own laws to get Him crucified. Imagine hearing the cheers and jeers while watching. How helpless would you feel?
Did you know there is an annual holiday for being helpless that is part of the prophecy for the Messiah? Did you know that we’re supposed to be keeping this holiday?
When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul started admonishing them, saying to them, “Men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” (Act 27:9-10)
The author of Acts, whom we believe to be Luke, referenced the change of seasons by using the Day of Atonement. The seas were changing because the planet was entering fall and that’s when seas got rough over there. Acts 27 is about Paul’s journey to Rome which occurred about 60 AD and was then recorded later. This casual reference three decades after Yeshua’s death and resurrection proves the Apostles continued to observe this day and intended for all who read Acts to be doing the same. This day starts at sunset, September 24th and ends Monday, September 25th at sunset this year. If you look outside here in the Kansas City Metro, you can see the seasons changing and the corn being harvested. Right on time.
One can fast for the faith pretty much whenever. But once a year, we are all supposed to fast. In reality, it’s deeper than that. It’s a day to humble our souls and fasting is part of that humbling. There are many ways to think about it, but it’s a day when we refuse food and water for 24 whole hours, from sunset to sunset, and effectively show how helpless we are. We need God to provide food and water for us to survive. We need Him to provide air to breathe as well. We are incapable of sustaining ourselves at all, let alone save ourselves from he wrath to come.
Many people, in fact almost all of Christianity, look at the faith of the Old Testament as a works based salvation. This day dispels that myth completely. This day shows that we literally must do nothing to be saved. Remember that helplessness I mentioned above? We are commanded to do exactly nothing so that someone else can atone for our sins. This, brothers and sisters, is from the Torah, the Old Testament, from long before Yeshua. Yeshua’s death shows us a fuller meaning of this day.
The Day of Atonement aka Yom Kippur aka the fast is also supremely impactful because everyone must do exactly the same nothing at the same time. This shows how we are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory. It’s a leveling of the playing field, showing that rich or poor, royalty or commoner, we all must fast and humble our souls or be removed from the Kingdom of God.
Everyone does the same humbling but the High Priest had work to do in temple days. The High Priest had to do extra purification work and then offer sacrifices for himself and then for the people. The book of Hebrews speaks of this in great detail and shows how Yeshua’s sacrifice fulfills Yom Kippur as well as Passover. We have a High Priest that willingly died sinless in order to mediate between us and Yahweh. Observing the fast shows our appreciation for that sacrifice.
Humbling ourselves also includes calling to mind our sins and shortcomings and repenting. The Day of Atonement was specifically to cleanse Israel of sins year by year. While Yeshua’s sacrifice accomplished this task once for all time, looking forward and looking backward, we still need to honor the day and call to mind our sins, as is evidenced by the verse on the screen. Judaism has a liturgy on Yom Kippur publicly confessing everything one can think of. Please do not wait for Yom Kippur to confess your sins. Prepare over these next few days. Reflect on your past year, or, if this is your first time, your entire life. Realize when you have wronged others and sinned against Yahweh. One sin we in the west don’t realize is idolatry, which is alive and well but masked behind a Christian veil. I will speak of this at length on Shabbat this week. Remember, the Torah tells us what sin is, so we study the Torah to live properly and understand where we have fallen short.
Yom Kippur is a day for the forgiveness of sins committed in ignorance as well. This is a remarkable blessing because as we learn the Bible, we continually learn sins we didn’t know of before. For teachers, we also sin when we teach incorrectly. Before we know things fully, we can often steer people wrong. This is very bad, but those are sins committed in ignorance.
On this note, we all must remember to be humble throughout the year and to be teachable. When Yeshua came the first time, the folks who had the hardest time accepting Him were those who thought they had their doctrine figured out completely. He told us specifically to come to the Kingdom like children, innocent and ready to learn from our Master the way a child looks to His parents. The knowledge of the fast is very powerful and impactful, please receive this information like a child. Investigate and understand that if Yeshua could die for us, then we can surely go 24 hours without food and water, abstain from all work, and get together in His Name one day a year. Remember, the disciples were told Yeshua was going to die, watched it, heard Him cry out scripture on the cross, and didn’t understand it until He was resurrected and then explained it to them. The author of Hebrews was obviously an educated Jew who had to be able to learn new information, like how Yeshua is now the High Priest sitting at the right hand of God. These examples of some of the most blessed people in history being teachable is an example for us all. Being able to accept new information is difficult, especially when one was raised to believe things a particular way. So our example from the disciples turned apostles is that we must be strong in our faith, but not so strong that the Messiah or His Father cannot show us a fuller understanding.
I will close with the question again. Can you do this one thing? Can you humble yourself for 24 hours to show your love of Yahweh and Yeshua? Can you?