In Touch Quarter 4 - 2011

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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
A SCARLET THREAD OF REDEMPTION The late Dr Dwight Pryor explains the meta-narrative of scripture: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our LORD and of His Messiah...” (Revelation 11:15) Is it true, as is widely held in Christian circles, that the thematic unity of the Bible is to be found in its story of redemption? From the time of the Church Fathers to today’s televangelists a “Scarlet Thread of Redemption” has been touted as the main storyline of Biblical revelation, weaving itself through the tapestry of Scripture in diverse images and incidents. It proceeds from the blood shed to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve in the Garden, to the blood applied to the doorposts of Israelite homes in Egypt, to Rahab’s scarlet thread in Jericho signalling Joshua’s men, to the blood shed at Temple sacrifices for the sins of Israel. All these, it is said, are precursors to the real story of the Bible, namely, Jesus and His blood shed at Calvary for the redemption not alone of Israel but of the whole world. The Golden Thread As marvellous and indisputably central to God’s purposes in the earth as is the story of redemption, I would suggest nonetheless that another theme surpasses the “Scarlet Thread of Redemption” as the overarching metanarrative and unifying motif of the Biblical story. We might call it the “Golden Thread of the Kingdom.” God’s reign in and over the earth pervades the Biblical account from Genesis to Revelation. In the Garden the Almighty shared His dominion with Adam and Eve, commissioning them as agents of His rule over the earth and all its creatures great and small. In rebellion, however, they forsook covenant with their Creator and chose instead to serve another god, namely Self; they chose autonomy and independence—the power to declare for themselves what is good and what is evil—rather than humble service to the gracious King of the Universe. When the Last Adam appeared, He not only redeemed those enslaved to sin by the First Adam, He also restored His Father’s kingdom to its rightful place in human affairs. In His preaching, teaching, parables and deeds the Messiah continually and insistently emphasised the in-breaking reality of the Kingdom of God. And when His Messianic task will be fully accomplished at the Last Day and death is no more, then the Son will hand the Kingdom back to the Father, that God may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:24, 28). “In his preaching, teaching, parables and deeds the Messiah continually and insistently emphasised the in-breaking reality of the Kingdom of God” The LORD Reigns! The consummation of the Creation will occur when every rule, authority and power is subject to God. Then the seventh angel shall sound the great shofar and the heavens shall rejoice because: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our LORD and of His Messiah, and He shall reign forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshipped God…” (Revelation 11:15-16). Let us never forget that the consummation of the Kingdom of God will occur in Zion, not in heaven. Yes, there will be a “new heaven and earth,” but a renewed Jerusalem will still be at its centre and the Jewish nation still central to the purposes of the Creator. In that great day, the first proclamation of God’s Kingship by Israel at the Sea —“The LORD reigns forever and ever!” (Exodus 15:18)—will find its final fruition when the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob becomes King over all the earth: “The LORD shall be one and His Name one!” (Zechariah 14:9). So while the “Scarlet Thread of Redemption” is at the core of God’s story, it’s not its circumference. The “Golden Thread of the Kingdom” precedes, succeeds, and indeed surrounds it. Redemption is an integral for Jesus of Nazareth, why He prioritised it and personalized it throughout His life and ministry, and why it is so important—nay, urgent—for the Body of Messiah to lay hold of His teachings on this subject. We truly will become agents of redemption and restoration in our world when we are seized by the power of the Kingdom. Then we will live our lives in the name of the Son and to the praise of the Father’s glory. and essential sub-narrative to the even grander story of God’s reign in and over the earth. Only with such an overview can we begin to glimpse the gravitas of the Kingdom message This article is an extract from “A Continuing Quest” Available from CFI-UK for £11.50 incl UK p&p see p.11 CFI.ORG.UK // 7
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In Touch Quarter 4 - 2011

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