The Fast of Isaiah 58... Yom Kippur 2012

Shalom brothers and sisters in Messiah! I pray that you all have had a blessed Moedim(Feast Days)

and that YHVH can use you to share His good news with others.

We have been busy lately but I do want to update you on what we have been doing. 

10 days ago was Yom Kippur, and as you know, it is called the Day of Atonement/Repentance.

 In Leviticus 23 it says:

Leviticus 23:26-32

.  And YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying, 

27 “On the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a set-apart 

gathering for you. And you shall afflict your beings, and shall bring an offering made by fire to YHVH. 

28 “And you do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, 

to make atonement for you before YHVH your Elohim. 

29 “For any being who is not afflicted on that same day, he shall be cut off from his people. 

30 “And any being who does any work on that same day, 

that being I shall destroy from the midst of his people. 

31 “You do no work – a law forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 

32 ‘It is a Sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your beings. On the ninth day

 of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you observe your Sabbath.”

This is the only day of the year that the high priest was able to go

 into the Most Holy Place and make an offering for the sins of all of Yisra'el

 as it says in Leviticus 16:

Leviticus 16:29-34

  “And this shall be for you a law forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, 

you afflict your beings, and do no work, the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. 

30 “For on that day he makes atonement for you, to cleanse you, 

to be clean from all your sins before YHVH.. 

31 “It is a Sabbath of rest for you, and you shall afflict your beings – a law forever. 

32 “And the priest, who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest in his father’s place, 

shall make atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, the set-apart garments,
33 And he shall make atonement for the Most Set-apart Place, and make atonement for the Tent of Meeting and for the altar, and make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 

34 “And this shall be for you a law forever, to make atonement for the children of Yisra'el, 

for all their sins, once a year.” And he did as YHVH commanded Moshe.

Now, on this day He tells us to afflict our beings and fast. Now most people think of fasting as praying all day and not eating. But a couple of years ago we found a passage in Isaiah that talks about the true fast that YHVH really wants, and since we should be doers of the Word and not just hearers, we paid special attention:

Isaiah 58:1-5

“Cry aloud, do not spare. Lift up your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to 

My people their transgression, and the house of Yaʽaqob their sins. 

2 “Yet they seek Me day by day, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness,

and did not forsake the right-ruling of their Elohim. They ask of Me rulings

 of righteousness, they delight in drawing near to Elohim. 

3 They say, ‘Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our beings, 

and You took no note?’ “Look, in the day of your fasting you find pleasure, and drive on all your laborers. 

4 “Look, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wrongness. 

You do not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. 

5 “Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his being? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to YHVH?

So if the real fast isn't to not eat and put sackcloth on, then what is it that we are supposed to do...?

James 1:27

Clean and undefiled religion before the Elohim and Father is this: to visit orphans

 and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Isaiah 58:6-7

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loosen the tight cords of wrongness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to exempt the oppressed, and to break off every yoke? 

7 “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, and cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?

Yahshua promises us in Matthew 25 that those who will inherit the kingdom of Elohim will be the ones who give food and water to the hungry and thirsty brings in the strangers clothes the naked, and goes to the prisons, because He says:

Matthew 25:40

“And the Sovereign(Yahshua) shall answer and say to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, in so far

 as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.’

So basically in essence, what is the real fast?

Matthew 22:37-40

And Yahshua said to him, "You shall love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart,

 and with all your being, and with all your mind."

38 “This is the first and great command. 

39 “And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

40 “On these two commands hang all the Torah and the Prophets.”

That is what it truly is, to love, and Yahshua was the perfect example of that. 1st Peter says:

1 Peter 2:21-25 

For to this you were called, because Messiah also suffered for us,

 leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps, “

22 who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth,” 

23 who, being reviled, did not revile in return; suffering, did not threaten,

 but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 

24 who Himself bore our sins in His body on the timber, so that we, 

having died to sins, might live unto righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed.  

25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now 

 returned(Teshuvah) to the Shepherd and Overseer of your lives.

May we all learn to LOVE YHVH and show our LOVE by LOVING our neighbor, whether it be your best friend, some kid down the block, a homeless man, or a poor widow. 

May YHVH bless you!

Until next time...

Shalom!

The Montanez Family

Servants and Emissaries of Yahshua, Children of YHVH

HalleluYAH!