Shalom and greetings once again from Arkansas. My family and I have had a very busy summer and have spent a lot of time on the road and now that we are settled I thought I might try my hand at the writing once again.
Tonight at sunset marks the beginning of the Day of Atonement or as it is called in Hebrew: Yom Kippur. It is by far the most Holy of days on the Jewish calendar and a day that we should all consider.
This is the day when the High priest would go into the Most Holy Place in the temple to offer sacrifices for not only himself but for all the people of Israel.I won't go in to detail here of all that was involved but it was not a short process, when they called it a day they were not kidding, there were many offerings to be made and much sacrificing and it all boiled down to one thing; Would G-D accept their offerings and forgive their sins?
The other part of this day was that it was, and still is, a day of fasting and prayer.
This is a day when the people of Israel believe that G-D opens up His books and determines the fate of everyone for the next year. Who lives, who dies, how they live or die. Who gets blessed who is cursed....the list goes on. This is also the time where it is believed that the nations are judged as well, which ones will rise and fall,which ones will prosper and which ones will suffer.
I don't know if that is true or not but I humbly submit for your consideration that this day is so solemn that fasting and prayer for this day still go on even if there is no temple for the sacrifices. I can also tell you that come sunset tomorrow there will be a lot of people breathing a sigh of relief and celebrating as they head towards the Feast of Tabernacles, but I have to wonder to myself if that might not be a bit to premature,especially for those of us who live in the USA. Our President very point blankly attacked Israel in front of the whole world body at the UN telling Israel what the USA will accept and not accept.We are having the nerve to tell G-D's chosen people where they are to build and live in the land that G-D Himself gave them? This is not meant to be political, but I would remind everyone to go and read what G-D said to Abram in Gen.12:3 and then ask yourself these questions; What happened to Egypt? Where is the Babylonian empire? What happened to the Medes and the Persians, how about the Assyrians? All these empires tried to rule over Israel and in some cases made slaves of them and now they are all gone or relegated to insignificance. In our own time it was Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Where are they now?
I don't know what G-D has in store for us, I can only point out to you what has happened in the past and leave that as a warning for the time to come,. If we continue down this path of tossing aside G-D and then attacking His people, we will quickly either find our selves destroyed or rendered insignificant and quite possibly both.
So as you read this consider the Day of Atonement and all that it means and remember to pray for our nation and our leaders that G-D will forgive us and them for our many sins.
Shalom,
Ignacio
