Yom Kippur . . . and Satisfaction Fulfilled

Friday begins Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement. I’ll never forget a conversation I had in Jerusalem at the Western Wall.

A Jewish woman approached me. She somehow knew my affiliation with a radio ministry and told me we needed to broadcast God’s way to be saved to the nations. I told her that was, in fact, our passion.

She smiled and shook her head, and then she shared with me a list of what all Gentiles need to do to be saved. I recognized some of the standards as being from the Ten Commandments, and I told her so.

Again, she smiled and shook her head.

“Those commandments are for the Jews,” she said.

“Do you keep them?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Perfectly?”

“No, but when I don’t, I pray and promise not to break them again.”

“And when you break them again, what do you do?”

“On Yom Kippur, all sins are forgiven.” (She was referring to the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16, when God annually forgave Israel’s sins through the death of a sacrificial substitute.)

“But Yom Kippur required the death of a sacrifice on your behalf,” I replied.

“We have no Temple where we can sacrifice, so we just pray.”

“That’s not enough,” I said kindly. “God is holy, and Yom Kippur required a sacrifice for your sins, not just prayers.”

“When the Messiah comes,” she told me, “he will explain all things and make them right.” I thought of Jesus’ compassion for the woman at the well who had said almost the same words to Him (John 4:25).

So I told this daughter of Abraham standing before me that I believed her Messiah had already come, that His name is Yeshua, and that He paid the final sacrifice for her sins with His own life just a few hundred yards behind her. And He said would come once more to Israel.

She shook her head again, but now she wasn’t smiling.

We lobbed the volleyball back and forth a few more times before she began to back away, talking so that I couldn’t interrupt her and again telling me to announce a salvation by works. As she turned to leave, I felt a great sadness. I remembered the words of a Jew who had found the Messiah:

For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Rom. 10:2-4).

I don’t remember this woman’s name, but God does. Please pray for her and for many others who want the Messiah—that their longing may truly be satisfied.

Adapted from Wayne Stiles, Going Places with God: A Devotional Journey Through the Lands of the Bible (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2006), 156-157. Used by permission.