🌅 Erev Yom Kippur – a reflection ✡️🙏 As the sun sets on Erev Yom Kippur, we enter the most solemn and awe-filled day of the biblical calendar. In the days of the Temple 🕍, the high priest would step into the Holy of Holies only once a year, carrying the blood of sacrifice for the atonement of Israel (Leviticus 16). It was a day of national humbling, repentance, and renewal of covenant relationship with the God of Israel. Today, without the Temple and its sacrifices, the Jewish people still gather for fasting, prayer, and seeking forgiveness from one another and from God. 🤲 Messianic Jews understand Yom Kippur in the light of Yeshua the Messiah ✝️, who is both our High Priest and the perfect atoning sacrifice. The book of Hebrews reminds us that He entered not into an earthly sanctuary, but into the heavenly one 🌌, offering His own blood once and for all for eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11–12). On this night, we humble ourselves before ADONAI. We confess our sins 💔, we seek reconciliation with others 🤝, and we acknowledge the weight of human brokenness. But we also rest in the assurance that atonement has been secured for us — not by our fasting or prayers, but by the once-for-all sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua. 🕊️✨ Erev Yom Kippur is therefore both solemn and hopeful: solemn, because sin is real and costly ⚖️; hopeful, because forgiveness has been accomplished. ✅ The “kavod” (glory, weight) of God that once dwelled in the Holy of Holies is now revealed in Messiah, and through Him we have access to the very presence of the Father. 👑🌟 May this night remind us that our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life 📖🐑, and may we walk humbly and gratefully in the forgiveness that has been given to us. 🙌❤️ Be blessed, Samuel
