Sept. 19

Galatians 5:7

You were running a great race! Who blocked you from following the truth?

I read this verse and had to stop, especially today, the Holiest Day of the Jewish Calendar, Yom Kippur.  Today, Jewish people around the world are fasting according the law given to them by God in Leviticus. Today is the day of Atonement. It is the final day in the 10 days of Awe which began on Rosh Hashanah.  According to the law given by God, the Jewish people are to "humble their souls" and fasting is presented to God as an offering of cleansing. According to Jewish tradition, on Rosh Hashanah, God inscribes each person's fate for the coming year into a book, the Book of life. Then, He waits until Yom Kippur to "seal" the verdict. During the Days of Awe, Jewish people try to amend his or her behavior and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other people. That was the belief I was taught and I grew up with. Prayers will be said in the Synagogues today which will negate any vows which were made and broken the year before, and they will recite several lines of confession of sins committed before God. However, unless they are part of a Messianic congregation, (which I never was),  they will not see the beauty and the fulfillment of their Messiah in the very scriptures they are reading. It wasn't until I came to know Jesus that the fragmented pieces of the story came together. Jesus told us in Matthew 5:17-19 that He didn't come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, in fact, He came to fulfill it. So as Jewish people are fasting on this day of Atonement, they are not seeing they have been made AT ONE with God through Jesus. So in light of this, when we think about the words of the Apostle Paul, he had it right.  The Jewish people started by running a great race!  They were chosen by God to usher the Messiah into the world, and they were given God breathed Scripture so that when He came into the world they would be the first to recognize Him. But, "He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem" (Isaiah 53:3).  I don't know why the very people He came to save first didn't recognize Him, but as Paul says, "the one who is confusing you will pay the penalty, whoever he is".  The enemy blocks us from seeing and following the truth. Just look around at the world today.  So my prayer today is not only for the Jewish people who are fasting, but anyone who is being blocked from following the truth and believes that their works is what makes them right with God. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He has fulfilled the law, and paid it all.

Randi