Reflections

Leviticus 23:26-33: Sabbath rest (from evening to evening), a holy day gathering, humbling oneself, fasting, a statute forever throughout your generations, to make atonement for you before the Lord

My friend described this day as one of looking in a mirror. Of truly seeing ourselves...

On this Day of Atonement, I was trying to figure out humility...

Humility:
        * 'a grace of the soul that allows one to think of himself no more highly than he ought to think' (from the New Unger's Bible Dictionary)
        * it comes by God's grace and involves all of a person and not just the feelings
        * characterized by obedience to God (Zephaniah 2:1-3), submission to authority (1 Peter 5:5), lack of pride in oneself (Proverbs 18:12), acceptance of God's providence (Phil 4:12), esteeming others as more important than oneself (Ro 12:3, Phil 2:3)

How do I know and practice humility?

Psalm 40, 51 and 63: I have been meditating on those.

Atonement:
       * to cover, to wipe out, to cleanse, to appease, and to purge
       * to make one

2 Corinthians 5:21: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.


Galatians 3:13: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

James 4: 8-10: Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.\


I am humbled, amazed and so very grateful of God's atonement of me through Yeshua on this day and forever. I can now come before God with confidence. I know that when He sees me, he sees the blood of his son (the perfect sacrifice and scapegoat covering my sins- the animal is a symbol/typology only). He transferred my sins onto his beloved son so that I could be made clean. Praise be to God!
But I must continue to examine myself, since there is still sin within me. To really see myself and my need for the messiah, redeemer. That is God's gift to me. I can examine myself and then He can do something about it. Praise be to God.
 
I pray that God's truth would touch myself and others deep in our hearts today.