Yom Kippur

Shalom...

Yom Kippur begins at sunset today. For those of you who may not be familiar with Judeo-Christian traditions, Yom Kippur is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. In Israel, literally the whole city shuts down for a whole 25 hours until the following Saturday. It is the sabbath of sabbath, a 25 hour period where the people have this one day to atone for all their sins before God and have their record wiped clean for this coming year. The holiday isn't so much about the judgment of God as it is about the mercy of God and his willingness to wipe our record clean if we come before him with repentance. I found an amazing article reflecting on Yom Kippur and I encourage you to read it. Those of you who are fans of my writing style are going to like this article very much. There are many things in the article that reflect my personal belief system and my perspective of God and I found it to be an excellent read.

The Fast Track to Love and Forgiveness by Rabbi David Aaron

But for Yom Kippur, I want to use another Bible story to illustrate a truth. The story is of a woman in the Bible named Hagar. And by the end of this blog, you'll see how I'm using this story as a tie in to the theme of love & forgiveness, which is what Yom Kippur is all about. Alot of people know about the story of Abraham & Isaac and how God promised a son to Abraham in his old age and that Abraham would be the father of many descendants, which are the Jewish people today. But Abraham is not just the father to one people group, he is actually the father of two.

You see, after God gave the promise to Abraham, Abraham really had no idea how all this would come to pass. So he tried to take things into his own hands. His wife Sarai, had a servant named Hagar and Sarai decided to see if they could make God's promise come to pass by getting Abraham to impregnant her servant. Abraham agrees to this and impregnates Hagar. Now when Hagar first gets pregnant, she uses her pregnancy as leverage to mock and disrespect Sarai. So there is a falling out between the two women and Sarai uses her position of power and authority mistreat Hagar. Hagar flees and soon finds herself out in the desert near a spring.

It is then that an angel comes to her and talks to her. Hagar explains that she is fleeing from her mistress The angel tells her that this child of hers is very special and to go back to her mistress and submit to her authority. Hagar does just that and in the Bible, there is no further account of Hagar ever disrespecting Sarai again. Later on Hagar then gives birth to a son and names him Ishmael and the prophecy that the angel said would that the child would have a great destiny and he would also be "wild" and be constantly be against everyone and everything. I think that words of the angel were proven right one day when Ishmael was fighting with Isaac. Sarai sees this and uses it as grounds to send Hagar and Ishmael away.

Abraham did not want to do this because Ishmael was also his son but Sarai was insistent that she wants nothing to do with them. So Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away with a few provisions. They end up in the desert and their provisions run out. Hagar then begins to cry out to God. Then a voice from heaven speaks to her and asks her what is the matter. She replies by saying that she does not want to see the boy die. They did nothing wrong to end up here in this place. God speaks to her and tells her that he has heard her cry and then God opens Hagar's eyes to see a well of water and they were able to refill the water skin. The Bible then says God was with the lad and he lived in the wilderness of Paran, became an expert in Archery and married an Egyptian woman.

And there are some points from this story that I want to reflect on . Hagar was an egyptian born slave woman. She could not help what she was born into, her background, class and status. None of her outcome was because of any wrong doing of hers. She couldn't change the fact that she was born an egyptian, or that she was a slave. She couldn't control the fact that Abraham and Sarai decided to use her to conceive a child. It wasn't her fault that she got sent out into the desert to die with her a child that really had been their idea to conceive through her. But God never forgot her and not only did God save the child, God made him into a great nation too.

This is a story that has been very close to my heart these last few days. My story is one that similar to Hagar's, I was born into things I couldn't help. And due to other people's choices, I was left very disadvantaged in life. There was a nite this week where I was feeling rather down and it was then that God came to me with this story and I realized that no matter what the outcome of our situations, God can create greatness out of our lives. There are some of you out there that may be like me, you couldn't help what you were born into. You couldn't help the choices people made of those who had power and authority. But this Yom Kippur, remember that God is just and he can birth greatness out of you. Hagar's son Ishmael became the father of the Arabic people and Hagar lived the rest of her life happy and free.....and you can too.

http://www.womeninthebible.net/1.2.Hagar.htm

G'mar Tov :)

(In Hebrew this literally means "A good finish". It is the proper greeting for Yom Kippur. It expresses a desire and wish for someone to be inscribed in the Book of Life for a good year)