“Where are you?” Morning & N’ilah Yom Kippur

0:01 Before I get into my message, I do want to just make a note. Today is the first Yom Kippur since October 7th, uh, since since the invasion of Israel in October last year, it, we've already passed the year anniversary. It's a, it is an odd thing, it's just the way the calendar fell this year. But this is the first Y Kippur, uh, without the 1200 Israelis who were, uh, Israelis and others who lost their lives that day. So even as we continue through this day, I would like to encourage you to continue to pray for those who are mourning in Israel

0:46 and mourning the loss of their loved ones. And now Israel is facing a multi-front war. Uh, it seems at least was at least five fronts. Maybe it's more. Um, so you can continue to be in prayer for Israel today. I would like to speak from the portion that actually, that Jonathan read from, from Leviticus chapter 16. And I'll read through it first and then we'll, we'll make some comments and then, uh, have a quick,

1:32 uh, application period and then, and then move on in our service. I know that all sounds really fast. It might not be really fast. Uh, it is 1152 and some of us, maybe most of us, I don't know, uh, are fasting. And so if I talk about food, that's not gonna help any one of us, even though it is now lunchtime. Anyways, Leviticus 16 and this way, Aaron shall come into the sanctuary with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He has to put on the holy linen garment, have the linen undergarments on his body,

2:18 put on the linen sash, and wear the linen tur turban. They are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and put them on. Then he is to take from the congregation of the children of Israel. Two he goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Then Aaron is to offer up the bull for the sin offering, which is for himself and make atonement for himself and his house. Then he is to take the two he goats and present them before OT nai at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Aaron will then cast lots for the two goats, one lot for ot, nai, and the other lot for the scapegoat. Aaron is to present the goat on which the lot for ot NAI fell and make it a sin offering,

3:05 but the goat upon which the lot for the scapegoat fell is to be presented alive before OT nai to make atonement upon it by sending it away as the scapegoat into the wilderness. Also, Aaron is to present the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself and so make atonement for himself in his house. He is to slaughter the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself. He is to take a fire pan full of the coals of fire from off the altar before ot, plus two handfuls of sweet powdered incense and bring it within the curtain. Then he is to put the incense on the fire before otai so that the cloud of the incense may cover the atonement cover that is on the ark, so that he would not die.

3:53 He is then to take some of the blood of the pool and sprinkle it with his finger on the atonement cover on the east side. Before the atonement cover, he is to sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he is to slaughter the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people bring its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkle it upon the atonement cover and before the atonement cover. So he is to make atonement for the holy place because of the uncles of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions and all their sins, he is to do the same for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their impurities.

4:38 No one is to be in the tent of meeting when he enters to make atonement in the holy place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he is to go out to the altar that is before Adonai and make atonement for it. He has to take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood, and dab it around the horns of the altar. He has to sprinkle some of the blood on it with his fingers seven times and cleanse it and consecrate it from the unclean of the children of Israel. When he has finished atoning for the holy place, the tent of meeting and the altar, then he is to present the live goat. Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the children

5:25 of Israel and all their transgressions and all their sins. He shall place them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat will carry all their iniquities by itself into a solitary land, and he's to leave the goat and the wilderness. I'm actually going to stop there. That's where I'll stop in the passages though. Jonathan read all the way through verse 34. I've entitled this message, where are you? Because it is the first question that the Lord asks mankind, Adam

6:14 and Eve, where are you? I know I've talked about this passage before, but do you really think God doesn't know where they are? Where are you? It's like when we play games with our children, where are you? Part of it is to help our children know where they are. Does that make sense? The question is asked so that the person then has to deal with the reality of understanding and knowing where they are. So go, when God asks us, where are you?

6:59 It should cause our brains and our, our, our minds and our hearts to investigate ourselves so that we know where we are before him. And that exactly is what today is about, is where are you? As my mother read the read, read all of the, um, the confessions, uh, of aha. It was striking to me. I'm sure I've noted it before, but it's, it stuck out again to me this year. It was striking to me how much of it had to do with the lips, with the speech that we, that we utilize. I don't know, we probably could do a, a mathematic edition,

7:44 but it seemed about 40% to me, 40% of those things that we consider to be sins, at least the ones that we listed off were as a direct result of the mouth and the tongue. You know, it's for this reason that my father says two different things. Number one, we have two ears to listen twice as much as we speak. 'cause we only have one mouth. And also, you should utilize the teeth because the teeth hold the tongue in prison or in jail. And it, if you do that more often than not, it will keep you from getting into jail, literally,

8:32 or proverbially with your spouse. Here we come into this passage starting in verse in verse three. This is where I'll start in verse three. In this way, Aaron should come into the sanctuary with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He's to put on the, the holy linen garment, have the linen undergarments on his body, put on the linen sash, and wear a linen turban. They are holy garments. He should bathe his body and water and put them on. Aaron at this point, comes into the holiest place in the tabernacle as instructed.

9:18 Now, I want you to understand something that we may or may not recognize in the, in the verses, especially the two preceding this, Aaron had to prepare his mind and his heart before he went into the holiest place. And how do I know that? At least in the context of this passage, his two sons had just been in and offered sacrifices before the Lord, and they were consumed by fire, and Aaron was commanded to not mourn their death. Aaron was commanded to not mourn the death

10:05 of his own two sons. I don't know, as a parent, if you can imagine that being put into that reality, and then not only being put into that reality, not only are you not to mourn, now you have to enter the same place where your sons just entered and were consumed by fire because they were not prepared. And you have to now entreat the God of everything, the God of creation for mercy, for your own soul, and for the whole of the congregation. Aaron has to prepare his mind and heart. At this point before he enters into the holiest place,

10:51 he enters into the holiest place for the purpose of making atonement for the nation of Israel. In fact, this particular place was designed for that in mind. Not only does he enter into a specific place with a, a specific mental and, and, and heart attitude, he also has to enter wearing specific clothing. You can imagine if he wore the wrong clothing, he would've been consumed just like his sons. The tour is very specific about how he should enter, how the, the, uh, high priest should enter into the holiest place with a holy linen garment, with linen undergarments.

11:39 I don't know if you ever thought about this. He was commanded to wear underwear when he entered into the holiest place. We think it's a convenience item when in fact, it's a commandment of the Lord to enter into the holiest place. He's to wear a linen sash and a linen turban. And most importantly, he is commanded to bathe. Why should he bathe? Because if he doesn't, he stinks. And God forbid that he come before the Lord as a stench in his nostrils. And it's especially on this day that he's commanded to bathe.

12:29 You think that Torre is all about spiritual things. This is kind of like, you know, when I was young, my parents used to say, man, you, you need to bathe is you're a little ripe, little past overdue for one of those, uh, things that we call a bath. Why? Because you can tell when someone enters the room and they haven't bathed. Is that the way that the Lord wants to be treated in our eyes? We move on in verse five, then he is to take from the congregation of the children of Israel,

13:14 two hees for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Then Aaron is to offer up the bull for the sin offering, which is for himself and make atonement for himself in his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Aaron will then cast lots for the two goats, one lot for ot, nai, and the other lot for the scapegoat. Aaron is to present the goat on which the lot for ot NAI fell and make it a sin offering. But the goat upon which the lot for the scapegoat fell is to be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement upon it by sending it away as the scapegoat into the wilderness. Here we have the preparation of the offerings for the day. The congregation of the, of Israel is to provide

14:02 to the high priest. Two, hes for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron's not to provide it, it's to come from the children of Israel. Why? Because it represents their sins and their, their confession of their sins before the Lord Aaron is to take for him himself a bull as a sin offering and to make atonement for himself and his household. I I have, I I think I do this every Yom Kippur. What is larger? Let's play a quick game. What is larger? A goat or a bull? Bull? A bull. If we were to, and we're gonna get into this more in a few minutes, if we were to just have a, a simple conversation,

14:48 what is more the sin of one person or one household or the sin of a nation, if you were to compile it all together, it seems that the sin of the nation should be larger than the sin of an individual or the sin of a singular household. However, it's in this case that Aaron is to bring forth a bull, which means, which we can deduce means that whatever his sins are, by the way, I just wanna point out, this is the high priest of Israel. He is the one who is tasked with studying the Torah, with being a, a, a student of the Torah, with having a continuous relationship with the Lord,

15:33 with being, uh, in, involved in worship of God day in and day out. And still his sins require a bull. It seems to me that whatever it is, or perhaps maybe it's, it's how close one gets to the God of creation, that those sins, however minuscule they are, are magnified in his sight. So Aaron has to atone for his own sins through the offering of a bull. And it's not until after he offers the bull that now it comes to the two,

16:19 he goats the two goats that are presented on behalf of the sins of Israel. And those two goats are presented before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. And Aaron casts lots, one lot is for the Lord or for the sin offering. And the other lot is for azazel to be used as a scapegoat. In other words, one is to be sacrificed in the, in, in the temple or in the tabernacle. And the other is to be sent out into the wilderness alive, bearing the sins of the people away from the nation into the wilderness. We come here in verse 11. Also, Aaron is to present the bull of sin offering, which is for himself. And so make atonement for himself in his house.

17:05 He has to slaughter the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself. He has to take a fire pan full of coals of fire from off the altar before otai, plus two handfuls of sweet powdered incense and bring it within the curtain. Then he has to put the incense on the fire before otai so that the clo the, the cloud of the incense may cover the atonement cover that is on the arc so that he would not die. He is then to take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the atonement cover on the east side. Before the atonement cover, he has to sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.

17:51 Here we have the sin offering again that I just mentioned. The bull is making atonement for the high priest in his house. But then when he takes the bull or when he takes the blood of the bull in, I want you to notice what is, what is what is what high priest done. The high priest has clean clothes, has bathed himself so that he doesn't smell, but still it's not enough. And so the high priest is then to take two handfuls of incense and put it on fire so that there's a cloud of smoke and scent. I dunno if you've ever walked into one of those places that that burns incense, but like literally you walk in

18:37 and if it's, if, if they're burning a lot, perhaps your, your reaction is to like kind of cough. Like you can't really see. It is kind of like a cloud of smoke. And you, you c you're coming in and you're overwhelmed with a whatever the incense smell that they're, that they're burning. It's for the purpose that you can't, well, I don't know about in, in those places, but in this case, it's for the purpose that you cannot smell Aaron. God can't smell him. And well, I mean in, in, in theory, can't smell him and can't see 'em because we've clouded up the, the, the, the sky, the, the, the atmosphere with burning incense and have covered our own smell for the purpose of we don't want the Lord to see our sin

19:24 and to smell our sin and to, and to have then a reaction of judgment against us. It was all for the purpose. This is what the text is all for the purpose so that the high priest doesn't die. And then once he's in there and the room is all full of scent and, and smoke, he sprinkles blood on the, on the atonement cover, on the cover of the arc, on the mercy seat for the purpose of making atonement for himself. And he sprinkles it, uh, on, on the atonement cover. And then he sprinkles it on the, uh, the blood of the bull seven times. And then we now come to the next, next section in verse 15. He's to slaughter the goat of the sin offering, which is

20:11 for the people bring its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the blood of the pool, sprinkle it upon the atonement cover and before the atonement cover. So he is to make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanliness of the children of Israel, because of their transgressions and all their sins, he has to do the same for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in their midst. No one is to be in the tent of meeting when he enters to make atonement in the holy place until he comes out and he has made atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he has to go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it. He's to take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and dab it around the horns of the altar.

20:56 He has to sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanliness of the children of Israel. There are, there are a lot of instructions here first, now we're coming back to, um, Aaron or the high priest has made atonement for himself and for his household. Now we come back to the sin offering for the, for the people. So we have the slaughter of the goat of the sin offering. And then Aaron is to bring, or Aaron or the high priest, is to bring its blood behind the curtain and sprinkle it upon the atonement cover and before the atonement cover. And Aaron is to atone or make atonement for the holy place, the tent of meeting all of this, because it dwells in the midst of the impurities of the people of Israel.

21:45 It's interesting, we don't often talk about atoning for a place or an item. We often only talk about atoning for our own sins. But you can imagine when a, when you were in the midst or dwelling in the midst of impurity or sinfulness, what a place will take on. In fact, this is even goes back to just after the question, where are you? God. God comes out to Cain and says, where are you? Where's your brother? And he says, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? I mean keeper.

22:33 But the Lord says, the land cries out to me. His blood cries out from the land. Now the land itself has been tainted. This is the same sort of sin that we're talking about, that Aaron is making atonement for the, for the, for the tent and for the holy place because it's in the midst of the sins of Israel. And this all comes through the sprinkling of a goat's blood. We continue in verse 20, when he had finished a, uh, atoning for the holy place, the tent of meeting and the altar, then he is to present the live goat. Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat

23:19 and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions and all their sins. He should place them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat will carry all their iniquities by itself into a solitary land, and he is to leave the goat in the wilderness. You see what happens here is the high priest has the final goat, the one that the lot fell for. Some of your translations say Azazel or scapegoat. Uh, this is the other of the two goats. And on this goat, he confesses the sins of the people.

24:05 He puts his hands on their head, on its head and confesses their sins, their transgressions, and their iniquities. And that goat now carries those sins out into the wilderness. So what does this mean for you and me to today? Because you could easily say this was then, this was 3,500 years ago, or however, 4,000 years ago or however, however long you wanna say the, the, that's then, that's not now. So what does it mean for you and me? Well, let's talk about what it means for you and me, you. What have you done to prepare yourself to be before the presence of the Lord? Aaron, the high priest, had

24:51 to go in present atoning sacrifices during this period, during a, during a period of what would've been a, uh, a, a period of mourning for him. After the loss of his sons, he had to go into a specific place with specific clothes, and he had to bathe. So what does this mean for you when you come before the Lord? In fact, the real question is, do we take the time today to truly prepare ourselves and make ourselves presentable before the Lord? I know that we can't take away our sins. That's not our job. In fact, it's not our job, even in this passage. It's not the job of Aaron to take away is his sins,

25:37 but it is his job to make himself presentable. It is his job to bathe. It is his job to put on clean clothes and, and to make himself presentable before the Lord. It is his job to light up incense so that even if there is a trace scent remaining, that it's covered by the incense as he approaches before the Lord. Do we take time to make ourselves smell nice, to appear nice. Now, I know some of us do it for the purpose of impressing others, but that's not the purpose of smelling nice and looking nice. I would say actually it's not for the purpose

26:22 of impressing others. It's for the purpose of not oppressing others. You laugh, but it is something that we have to do. It was something at least my, I I had to be trained into as a young man. Boys, we tend to stink and we tend to spread the stink. I don't know if you know this, but, but like male deer. Let's, let's talk about male deer for a minute. What they do, they have these scent glands on their,

27:10 on their hind legs and male deer, when it's, when it's mating season, they'll, they'll, you know, rub their legs together and leave their scent. And they're often looking for the scent of others. My question is, is not are we leaving our scent? Do we know we have scent when we come and present ourselves before the Lord specific offerings were required for the atonement of both Aaron and his household and the people and the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar. There's specific sacrifices that are meant for atonement for all of this.

27:57 Again, I noted earlier the sins of the high priest seem to be larger because he has to offer a bull than the sins of the entire nation. Are the sins of the high priests truly larger than those of the entire nation? I would, I would assume not in our context today, do we view the sins of the nation of America as less or worse than our own sin? And if that's not convicting to you, do you view the, now that we're here in the final 25 days, do you view the sins of your opposing political party as worse than your own sin,

28:44 your own personal sin? Because that's exactly the case here with the high priest. You may have retorts, but the other party doesn't love people or the other party murders people. That's fine. As long as you consider yourself more holy than everyone else, you will always remain that way in your own eyes. But the reality is, when you come before the Lord and you submit yourself to him, your sins are what he takes account for, not the sins of the other political party,

29:35 enough politics. Yeshua prepared himself. I don't know if you ever really truly thought about this, but Yeshua prepared himself. He prepared himself both as an offering and as the priest to bring the offering. He offered up his own life as a covering for our sins. We see this in Hebrews nine. It says he in Hebrews nine, it says, he entered into the holy place through the sacrifice of his own blood.

30:21 He brought, he bought, and he brought eternal redemption, and he sprinkled his blood on the eternal mercy seat once and for all time. Now, perhaps you're unfamiliar with the con, with the passage. He didn't go into the holiest place in the temple. He went into the holiest place in the heavenlys. And, and you say, well, aria, I don't think there's a temple in the, in the heavenlys, or I don't think that there's, there's a tabernacle or, or, or whatever, whatever, whatever this is. Go back and read Exodus 25. Moses goes up on the mountain, he's covered with the cloud, and God says, let me show you what I have here in the heavenly so that you can make a copy

31:08 of it and put it in the midst of Israel, and therefore you'll then be able to approach me and to draw near to me. So what we have is only a copy, and in the copy, it requires atonement for the, for, for Aaron's household and for the nation of Israel every year. Why? Because what is here is and made in the copy version is subject to deterioration. It's subject to the, the forces of this world. But what is in the heavenlies is eternal. So here we do it over and over and over again. But when Yeshua does it in the heavenly,

31:55 in the holiest place, in the heavenlys, he does it once and it's for everyone, for all. It's not over and over and over again. His blood is not like that of bulls and calves and, and goats. He enters into the holiest place and offers his own blood as the sprinkling, atoning, uh, um, offering for our sins, our transgressions and our iniquities. His work has been completed in the eternal co uh, holy place, not in the copy, but what that does require us to do, just

32:42 as it required it in the, in the temple and in the tabernacle, it requires us to place our trust in his redemptive work. And you go, well, I don't know what you're talking about. Before we just had to offer sacrifices. You had to trust that that sacrifice was enough for your sin. In, in, in the context of is of ancient Israel. The high priest had to trust that a bull was enough for his own sin. In fact, it was, it was common practice that the high priest robe would be, would, would, would, would along the, uh, uh, um, around the bottom on the, on the fringes would, would have pomegranates and bells.

33:28 Okay, great. It looks super nice, makes some nice little ding d ding ding. As you're walking through the holy place, it, it has a practical purpose. If he wasn't prepared and died, they would pull him out. If they stopped hearing the bells ringing as he's walking through the holy place, then obviously his trust in the atoning sacrifice wasn't enough and they had to pull his body out. So yes, we had to always trust that the sacrifices were enough for our sins. But now we know because of the Messiah, Yeshua, that his sacrifice, that his atoning work is absolutely enough.

34:21 God has reconciled us, us to him. When we place our trust in Yeshua and his redemptive work, it's us putting on the life of the Messiah. As we talked about, I, I think I talked about this, uh, 10 days ago on a Vosh Hashanah from, uh, from, um, second Corinthians five, uh, also found in multiple other places, we are putting on the life of the Messiah when we place our trust in him and his redemptive work. And in that redemptive work, God has reconciled us to himself and has given us now the ministry of reconciliation. What does that mean? It means that in Messiah, God was reconciling the world to himself

35:07 and he's entrusted to us with the message of reconciliation. It means that we have to go out and tell others that they have the ability to be reconciled to God. It doesn't mean it comes through any of our actions or words or works that we, that we give salvation to them or that we get salvation ourselves. No, we've gotten it because of trust. But now because we've trusted, we now are tasked with letting others know that God wants them, them to be reconciled to him. That's our job. I dunno if you ever really considered that. This is our job as followers of Yeshua. It is really simple. You know, he's given us a job description and a job name,

35:55 and this is only one task. Present the message of reconciliation to the world. In other words, we have to tell others what we have ourselves. This is why it says that they shall overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. Because our testimony is the testimony of God reconciling us to himself. And all around the world today, there are Jews and synagogues, and I would presume almost every nation in the world that are coming today for the purpose of confessing sins

36:42 and hoping to have their name written in the book of life. I will tell you, I don't hope I know, because the work of Yeshua has given me that I know now. I hope for his return when all of the nations will then see. But just because all the nations will see when he returns doesn't stop me from having to share my testimony. In fact, it should invigorate us

37:28 because we want the world to turn to him when Yeshua returns. Okay? I'm a huge conspiracy theorist. I heard a conspiracy theory recently that blew my mind. Maybe you don't like watching movies, maybe whatever. But I love movies. I love, I love, uh, movies like, like the Marvel Universe. I love all of these kind of like universe type movies. I like, I like some weird stuff, y'all.

38:14 But do you know, I, I can't think of an exception now that I'm thinking about it. Maybe one of y'all will tell me an exception. In almost all of these movies, there is an entity that comes from beyond our planet in the Marvel universe. It's Thanos. Thanos is coming. Why to he coming to wipe out half of the Earth's population with just a snap actually snapped. This must be y ki four. Y'all. Miracles do happen. Everyone in the earth is being taught

39:00 to resist the all power for one who's coming. Now, I recognize in the Marvel universe, Thanos is a bad guy and he should be resisted. But if we're being trained to resist someone who comes down from the heavenlies with an, with an army of hosts that we can see, why do you think the nations would, would absolutely turn in rebellion against Yeshua when he comes? Because they've been trained to do that. Again, I'm telling you, I'm a big conspiracy person. But all of a sudden when I heard this, I was like, wait a second. All my favorite movies are teaching the world

39:46 to resist Yeshua. When he comes, they're programming us to resist. No, listen, Yeshua is not Thanos. Okay? Y'all don't take my example too far. I I just all of a sudden realize I need to give that caution. Yeshua is not Thanos. He's not coming to wipe out half the world with one snap, but he is coming to judge every one of us in all of the nations

40:31 Yeshua. It's, it's amazing. It's amazing to look at Yeshua. In light of Leviticus 16. Not only does Yeshua as presents himself as the high priest in the heavenly holiest place, he also brings his own blood as the sin offering. But not only that, Yeshua is the one who is sent out into the wilderness, and all of us have confessed our sins upon him, and he's been sent out

41:16 to bear our sins and our iniquities as far as the east is from the West. And you think, well, I don't know about that. I, I don't who confesses the sins of Israel? This, this is, this is what I wanna say. It's so fascinating. The high priest himself, Caiaphas in John chapter 11, who is the Kohe gal, the high priest that year, said to them, you know, nothing, you don't take into account that is better for you. That one man die for the people rather than for the whole nation to be destroyed.

42:01 Now, he did not say this by himself, but as the kohen that year, he prophesied that Yeshua would die for the sake of the nation. Do you see what he did? He confessed onto Yeshua the sins of us all in one singular action that he had no idea that he was doing. He did it. And Yeshua was both offered up and sent out and rejected for our sins. So again, my question is, where are you? Are you coming to Yo Kippur service hoping to be written in the book of life?

42:47 Or are you coming trusting that Yeshua, trusting Yeshua, that he has already written your name in the lamb's book of life? By coming trusting that God has reconciled you to him through Messiah Yeshua, he has now given you the responsibility to share the message of reconciliation. My final two questions are, what are you doing about it? And where are you in your walk with the Lord? That's what today is about. Today is about knowing where you are and being confident in what the Lord has provided.

43:34 Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace

44:28 In the name of our Messiah. Yes, Shabbat Shalom. Welcome to our Ne Iah service. This service is, uh, represents the closing of the gates, what are known as the gates of judgment, and it finds its origin in the closing of the physical gates to Jerusalem in the temple during the temp, uh, during the temple period. I was reminded in our prayer time today of this passage in Isaiah 62 on your walls, Jerusalem. I have set watchmen all day and all night. They will never hold their peace. You who remind OT and I take no rest for yourselves

45:14 and give him no rest until he establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. This is a charge for us. It's a charge for us to continue to intercede on behalf of the Jewish people, that the Jewish people, and really that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob might become a praise among all of the nations. So let us continue to intercede. I know that I, I say continue because I know that you already have even throughout today. Let us continue to intercede on behalf of those being held physically captive, those who are being held in Gaza. Let's pray. Continue to pray for their release and let us also continue to pray for those who have not

46:01 yet recognized that they need to be spiritually released as well. Our Father in heaven. Lord, we thank you for this day. Lord, we thank you for this yearly reminder for us to come to you and to humble ourselves before you and to seek your face. Lord, I thank you for this opportunity to give praise and to give you honor and glory. Lord, we bless your name. Lord, I thank you for the food that has been prepared for us and ask that you would bless our bodies, that you would nourish our bodies with it, that you would awaken us to serving you in this new year. We bless you in Yeshua's name. Amen.