Have An Easy Fast

Yom Kippur has ended.
If you aren't familiar with the holiday, it is the most solemn of the Jewish holy days and marks the end of the 40 days of repentance; the day of atonement. This is the day where one fasts and doesn't work, spends time with God in 5 daily prayers, seeking forgiveness and absolution from God and your fellow man for the wrongs done. On Yom Kippur the Book of Life is signed and sealed - those that have repented of their sins have a good new year.
It also is a few scant days before the Festival of Booths, Sukkot (where everyone basically lives in a tent for a week in remembrance of the time during the Exodus that God's people ... you guessed it, lived in tents.) But even Jews who aren't usually practicing tend to celebrate Yom Kippur.

Now, first, if you know someone Jewish, please do not wish them a "Happy Yom Kippur." Its not happy. "Have an easy fast" is a good way to greet someone during Yom Kippur.

Secondly, I don't see a reason why Christians as well as Jews shouldn't observe Yom Kippur. We seem to have forgotten most Jewish holidays even though God said that they should be observed throughout the entirety of days. As far as I can tell, the days are still counting.
Now, for the most part, many of those that are commanded to be kept are only applicable to the Jews, Sukkot for instance is particularly Jewish as it was Israel whom He rescued out of Egypt*. Yom Kippur on the other hand, is more universal. We must all atone for our sins. The only question is, how can anyone atone for a debt that is worth more than one can pay? A day of fasting - even on top of 40 days of repentence - is no where near going to pay that debt. I literally cannot pay that. There is only One who can. God.

So here it is, Yom Kippur, the most sacred of holidays in Judism, and should be, aside from Easter, perhaps the most observed holiday in Christianity as well, thanking God continually, forever singing His praise that He paid a debt we could not pay, that He, in doing so brought all reality to His feet, made all things new and reconciled the incomprehensible God to depraved Man. Yom Kippur, to me, should be one of the most joyful days to remember the absolute perfect grace of God - still a day of repentence mind you, but that should be a continual activity for us anyway.

Let us keep as many of the holidays as we can. Not because we are "under the Law" but because the more 'excuses' I have to glorify and enjoy my God, the more my life is worth every second of breath! Enjoy God in everything we do! Don't assume that you must keep them or you're going to be struck by lightning, but remember, "love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, your mind and your soul." That makes me want to celebrate everyday!


*Though I would say that the celebration should be extended to teach a few things to Christians; ie That we are all just foreigners in this world, even our bodies are temporary. That we were all in captivity from sin before God and we still have this "tent" to bear until we get to the "Promised Land;" that a week long party is a good thing, even to God, and that it was only after a week of feasting that Y'eshua stood up in the Temple and asked if anyone was still hungry or thirsting to come to Him to be satisfied.