Yom Kippur is just around the corner. Are you ready?

Yes, it’s that time of year again – Halleluyah!  Celebrated on Tishri 10 (this year Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement falls on our Gregorian calendar on October 6),) this mo'ed always falls in the September/October time frame. 

Are you ready?

Leviticus 16:29 tells us: "It is to be a permanent regulation for you that on the tenth day of the seventh month you are to deny yourselves and not to do any kind of work, both the citizen and the foreigner living with you. For on this day, atonement will be made for you to purify you; you will be clean before ADONAI from all your sins. It is a Shabbat of complete rest for you, and you are to deny yourselves. This is a permanent regulation."  (CJB)

NOTE:  This COMMANDED High Holy Day is not just for the Jews; it is for ALL who have accepted YHWH as their God Most High, and His Divine Son, Messiah Yeshua.  (See Exodus 12:49, Numbers 15:13-16, Isaiah 56:6, Galatians 3:28 and Romans 10:12-13.)

On this solemn day  we are to "deny ourselves" (i.e., fast, refrain from work of any kind, and repent and bare our souls to YHWH, asking Him to forgive us anything we may have done throughout the year that was not pleasing to Him).

Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his sins will not succeed; he who confesses and abandons them will gain mercy. (CJB)

1 John 1:7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Y’shua his Son cleanses us from all our sins.  8. And if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  9. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our iniquity.  10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not with us. (AENT)

This mo'ed (Appointed Time) also represents the need for the sacrifice/sin offering that must be made for the sins of the nation. As the Bible tells us, Messiah shall descend to put to an end the sins of Israel (Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:21) .

At that time the Jews will mourn for the "One who was pierced" and FINALLY recognize that Yeshua was the Messiah, all along! This day will be fulfilled upon the Second Coming of Messiah to the Earth (Matt. 23:37-39, Hos. 5:15 thru 6:1-3, Zech. 13:8,9 Zech. 12:10, Zech. 13:1, Ezek. 16:61-63).

(NOTE: "Israel" includes not just the Jewish people; but ALL who believe in and follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!  And yes CHURCH, this includes you, as well.  Jesus did not put an end to YHWH's Torah; he offered himself on the cross to remove our "certificate of sin and debt" so that we could enter into the Presence of YHWH.)

This mo'ed signals the call for repentance, for the time is short and Judgment is coming upon the Earth - whether people are ready, or not! (See the Books of Daniel and Revelation.)

So, I ask again:  ARE YOU READY?

An important mini-teaching on 1 John 2

1 John 2:1. My children, these things I write to you that you do not sin. But if anyone should sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Y’shua the Mashiyach, the righteous. 2. For he is himself the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only but also for all the world. 3. And by this we will be sensible that we know him, if we keep his Commandments.

4. For he that says I know him, and does not keep his Commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. 5. But he that keeps his Word, in him is the Love of Elohim truly completed: for by this we know that we are in him.

6. He that says I am in him, is bound to walk according to his halacha ("the way to behave" or "the way of walking" according to YHWH’s Torah). 7. My beloved, I write no new commandment to you, but the old Commandment which you had from the beginning; and the old Commandment is the Word which you have heard.* (AENT)

*“Elohim is light”, (1 John 1:5); therefore, it can be argued that at Creation when YHWH said, “Let there be light”, Genesis 1:3, that He in effect brought a part of Himself out to accomplish the creative act. The “Word” does this same feat, Psalm 33:6; John 1:1; a few lines earlier we read the “Word of Life.”

Direct linguistic relationship between the Hebrew and Aramaic roots for “Light” and “Torah” can also be seen in places such as the following:

Psalm 119:105 “Your word (davar) is a lamp to my feet, a light (aur) to my path.”

Proverbs 6:23 “For the commandment is a lamp. The teaching is a light (aur), and the way to life is the rebuke that disciplines.”

What makes this citation in Proverbs most profound is the word mitzvah (commandment), since tradition commonly calls the revelation at Sinai the Ten Commandments when in fact the Tanakh uses davarim (words)!

Keep this in mind while considering 1 John 2:4. “He who says I know Him and does not keep His Commandments (poqadona) is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word (miltha) in him, verily is the love of Elohim perfected; hereby we know that we are in Him.” 1 John 2:4 (Lamsa).

Aramaic could not make a more forceful point. The fact is, poqadona and miltha are exceedingly close matches for their Hebrew counterparts mitzvah in Proverbs, and davar in Psalms. However, it is in this next passage that the full measure of John’s brilliance is shown: “My beloved, I do not write a new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word that you have heard from the beginning.” 1 John 2:7 (Lamsa)

The Commandment is the Word, which comes from the beginning! We must now realize that to translate this as “his Commandments” is wrong, but “His Commandments” is correct. “His Commandments” is the WORD which came from the very beginning of time.

Many fail to understand this truth: It is impossible for Torah to have passed away during the lifetime of the Shlichim if John himself writes about the Word they have heard from the beginning. What else could this WORD be, except the living Torah!

John was a native Aramaic speaker and follower of Y’shua who knows that the WORD (or the Torah of YHWH) comes from the “Light”; he stated that Elohim is Light and that we abide in that Light when we do His Mitzvot/Poqadona/Commandments.

Furthermore, the interchanging of “Word” and “Commandment” simply does not happen in any other language except Hebrew and Aramaic, the “word that you have heard” is the Shema!