In Touch Quarter 4 - 2011

NETANYAHU, ABBAS AND
THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
As Israel enters turblulent times, Chuck Missler considers the significance of Yom Kippur
This year, Jews in Israel celebrate
the High Holy days of Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur during
a time of uncertainty. On September
23 rd , Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas asked the United
Nations to recognise a Palestinian State
without having made even the most
basic of concessions toward peace with
Israel – like recognising Israel’s right to
exist or denouncing terrorism. Yasser
Arafat may be gone, and Mahmoud Abbas may want to
settle things peaceably, but the true heart of the Palestinian
Authority has not changed over the decades. At the bottom of
their hearts, the Arab world considers Israel an infected sliver
that wants a good pinch.
“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech leaves
little hope for the future,” said Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin
(Likud) on Monday while meeting with Japanese Ambassador
to Israel Haruhisa Takeuchi. Rivlin said, “(Abbas) cries over
the loss of his home in Safed in ‘48, and not the establishment
of the settlements in ‘67. Abbas’s speech illustrates in the best
way why today, 63 years later, there isn’t peace between the
sides.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu followed Abbas
with his own speech, describing the dangers Israel faced to its
security and calling for a return to negotiations. The United
States has promised to veto the Palestinian statehood bid,
but the whole charade demonstrates how futile attempts at
negotiating have become. Everybody senses it. There are
certain items on which neither Israel nor the Arabs are willing
to budge.
East Jerusalem appears to be one of those items. Since 1967,
the Jews have had control over all of Jerusalem, including the
Old City with the Western Wall and Temple Mount. Although
the Islamic Waqf controls the actual Temple Mount, the site
remains Judaism’s holiest as the location of the ancient Temple
that once housed the Ark of the Covenant. No Hebrew prayer
is permitted on the Temple Mount, but many Jews don’t mind;
they do not want to accidentally tread across the spot that
once held the Temple’s Holy of Holies. The Palestinians may
want East Jerusalem back as part of a peace agreement, but
nobody should ask the Jews to give up the part of Jerusalem
that holds the Western Wall or the ancient site of the Temple.
For Netanyahu, it’s not a remote option.
Yom Kippur is the most holy day of the Jewish year. The
Day of Atonement is observed on the 10 th of Tishri, which
this year starts at sunset on Friday, October 7 th and ends at
sunset on October 8 th . All day on the 10 th of Tishri, Jews will
take off work and fast for this holy and most solemn day of
repentance and reconciliation.
When the Temple still stood, it was on this day - the only
day - that the High Priest was able to enter the Holy of
Holies, and then only after elaborate ceremonial washings,
offerings, and associated rituals. This was also the day that
two goats were selected. One goat was killed as an offering to
atone for sins, and one, the “scapegoat,” had the nation’s sins
ceremonially placed on it and was sent into the wilderness
in order to remove those sins far away from the people. The
ceremonial acts that were to be carried out by the High Priest
on Yom Kippur are described in Leviticus 16 (see also Exodus
30:10; Leviticus 23:27-31, 25:9; Numbers 29:7-11).
Yom Kippur traditionally ends with one long note of
the Shofar, a musical instrument made from a ram’s horn.
The significance of the ram’s horn is traditionally rooted in
Genesis 22. Here God commands Abraham “Take now thy
son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into
the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of,” (Genesis
22:2). Abraham is called upon by God to sacrifice his only
son, Isaac, as a test of his faith. After God halts the sacrifice at
the last minute, Abraham spies a ram trapped by his horns in
a nearby thicket and offers the animal instead of his son.
It is interesting to note that this is the first instance in
which the word “love” appears in Scripture. God commands
Abraham to sacrifice “thine only son Isaac, whom thou
lovest.” In this passage Isaac is identified as Abraham’s
only son, without mention of Ishmael. Isaac was the son of
promise, and Abraham was acting out prophecy.
When Isaac asked his father where was the lamb to sacrifice
for the burnt offering, Abraham said, “My son, God will
provide himself a lamb…” That day, God provided a ram to
take the place of Isaac, but He ultimately had another Lamb
to take the place of Isaac and Abraham and the rest of us as
well. It is suspected that the particular mountain Abraham
took Isaac in the land of Moriah is the same mount on the
eastern edge of what is now Jerusalem where Solomon built
the Temple (2 Chronicles 3:1), and the uppermost part of that
mountain is believed to be the very spot where the “only
Son” of God was later crucified.
Woven throughout the Old Testament feasts is the
foreshadowing of God’s plan for the redemption of mankind.
Those of us who have placed our trust in Jesus Christ are
able to enter behind the veil and stand in the Holy of Holies.
We have forgiveness because of the sacrificial death of Jesus
Christ on the cross. He is our scapegoat. Our sins are placed
on him and sent far far away. His blood was sprinkled for our
atonement, and because of him we are cleansed and made
holy before God.
May Israel continue to trust in the LORD as did Abraham,
and may the Messiah soon come and reign in torn and weary
Jerusalem. The heathen may rage and plot, but God is in
charge. He says, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of
Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me,
Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” (Psalm 2:6-7)
Taken from khouse.org used with permission
6 // IN TOUCH