Saturday, September 14, 2013
Yom Kippur
Yesterday beginning at sundown until sundown today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, considered the most holy of the High Holy Days. It is a day of mourning and repentance, turning our hearts toward God. It was first celebrated at God’s direction in the wilderness by Moses and the children of Israel. The story begins in Leviticus 9-10 when Aaron’s two sons were priests, and they made a fire in their censers and added incense, and offered them before God which He had not commanded them to do. Fire went out from the Lord and consumed them, and they died.
Often I have wondered why God would kill them for this act. If we read what happened just before this, God had been telling Moses the laws of of the different sacrifices. It was a time of God passing on to man great wisdom and understanding about how to live. Finally, it was a day or two before Yom Kippur, and Moses told Aaron to begin to cleanse himself, and to have Aaron’s sons the priests cleanse themselves and make sacrifices for themselves, and to say certain similar things to the children of Israel, that they might make offerings of atonement that the Glory of the Lord might appear to them. This process began and there would have been many animals to slay and prepare. All was set in place and ready for God to appear and bring the holy fire to consume the offerings (the priests never set the offerings on fire, God sent fire to consume them). All was in place. Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting(God) and came out to bless the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire went out from God and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. All the people fell on their faces, shouting. If you were there, if you saw God’s glory and fire miraculously come from the midst of His glory and burn up the sacrifices (think of how many there were), well I believe we all would be crying out to God and falling on our faces. All did than as well, all but two.
Nahab and Abihu, watching this, decided to do something more. They were not moved to fall on their face before God. Instead, they wanted to do something that they made up. They were not thinking about who God was and what He had commanded, nor the miracle they just saw, appreciating their atonement. No, instead they wanted to add something, to do their thing, to do what they thought was good, and did not consider their own sinful condition. This is what made their fire profane – it was their fire, not the miraculous fire from God. For this they perished. God goes on to give them more direction, and finally in Leviticus 16 we see God explaining what He first said in Leviticus 10:3, that those that approach Him directly (like us today) must consider themselves first and cleanse themselves. Yom Kippur is such a day when we consider the value that God is to us and that He calls us to live pure and holy lives. Details are recorded in chapter 16, and again in Leviticus 23 where all of the High Holy Days and their requirements are recorded.
The lesson that I take away is this. God has a way for us, His way, the way that He wants to do things. When we decide to do things a different way, we walk outside His protection and into the possibility of harm for us. When people tell me that these variations do not matter, that they can do whatever they want whenever they want, any way that they want, I move back a little. I think of the two sons of Aaron that thought and did these same things, and I don’t want to get caught in the back-draft of God’s Holy fire…
Prayer
Father, we praise and thank You for sending Your Son, Yeshua (Jesus), to atone for our sins, which are many. On this Day of Atonement, we reflect on who You are, what You do for us, and how You want us to be. Please help us to be the holy people You want us to be, the Bride of the Messiah Yeshua. And when we err, please see us through His blood. In Yeshua’s (Jesus’) name. Amen.