ALPHABETICAL REPENTANCE

Jews praying in the artist's own synagogue on Yom Kippur, by Maurycy Gottlieb, 1878.

I attended a large Messianic Yom Kippur service last night. About 800 people attended. As we came into the large sanctuary people everywhere were greeting one another before the service began, many who hadn’t seen each other for a while. A woman I see only periodically came up to me with a certain look in her eyes of what seemed like anger. She seemed intent on speaking with me, so that I asked her why she was looking like she was.  She glanced over my shoulder and then said, “You see that man over there,” indicating a particular man.  “I’ve seen him at other services but you should know that he has been seen with prostitutes down at the beach.”  Her eyes told me that she was horrified that he would be there, this hypocrite of a man. I glanced over to see who she was nodding toward. I don’t recall ever seeing the man before and I didn’t give it much more thought as the service was beginning at that moment. 

A woman I know fairly well was sitting next to me. At the “greet one another” time, she also nodded toward the same man who was two rows back and said, “Do you know that man there?” What was I about to hear now? Before I could say I didn’t really want to hear it, she continued without waiting for my reply. “He’s a pastor of a very successful ministry to the homeless down at the beach. He’s gotten so many people saved!”  

Well, how about that! What was in one person’s eyes sinful, was really reaching out to save people. How quickly we can sometimes judge others without knowing the facts.  I wrote a short note to the first woman saying, “The man you told me about is a pastor to the homeless at the beach, so that was why he was seen with what appeared to be unholy people. Thought you would like to know.”  As she was sitting near enough, I was able to have the note passed to her.  She read it, then read it again and tucked it into her purse but didn’t look over at me. 

I thought it quite interesting that the first woman told me what she perceived about the man, while the second woman who really knew who he is, had come to sit next to me. There were 800 people there but she was next to me at that moment to tell me who this man really was.  Sounds like God was in on that, don’t you think?  He obviously had planned the whole thing. He vindicated the man’s reputation, and I expect he corrected the woman who was so quick to spread gossip about someone she entirely misread.  

I don't know what went on in the first woman's mind and heart but I saw it as  an excellent Yom Kippur opportunity to repent for gossip - or listening to it, for judging others without true knowledge, for dishonoring someone’s reputation on suppositions, for exposing someone’s sin, and for polluting someone else’s mind (mine) with unclean tales of something they can’t do anything about. 


Paul Wilbur was leading the service and he led us in worship and in a group repentance, a portion of which is akin to that which is said in synagogues all over the world. Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year on God's calendar, the Day of Atonement. It is a day to ask God for forgiveness and the day the high priest applied blood to the altar in the Holy of Holies in the temple to atone for the sins of the nation.  It's the one and only day the high priest alone was permitted to enter there. It was the veil to that chamber in the temple that was torn when Yeshua's blood paid the ultimate price for the sins not just for the nation of Israel but for the entire world, for whosoever receives His atonement.  HalleluYah!

In the synagogues confession of sin is done corporately, as in “forgive us” rather than "forgive me" because we rarely sin so that it only affects just ourselves. One way or another, our sins very often affect other people so we are all corporately victimized by sin. When we sin we are not the people we would be if we had not  sinned. Even small sins have an effect on our personalities or realities. They separate us from God and from others, though we may not be aware of it.  I remember reading once that from a psychological standpoint, guilt is the most destructive thing to someone’s personality and character.  Sin affects us spiritually first; then our psyches are affected by our spiritual condition.  Peace and joy, for instance, are spiritual matter primarily, not just a matter of circumstances. They are God's doing in our lives when He is lord in our lives.

Yom Kippur is also when God decides whose name will be written in His book of life for the next year - or not. As believers in Yeshua we rejoice that our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, not just yearly but forever as we remain His faithful disciples. "But there shall by no means enter in anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life" (Rev.21:27). The way out of what defiles, etc. is true repentance, from the heart, not just a verbal confession.  For us as believers, repentance is a way of life, isn't it? Pretty much a daily occurrence, as we go through our lives in this fallen world.  But on this day, we have an opportunity to repent for sins that we may not have realized if we take the opportunity to examine ourselves – Yom Kippur style.  

This would include a list of sins that a person confesses in alphabetical order, one sin per letter. (Many of the Psalms are also written line by line following the Hebrew alphabet, one line per letter.)  The pronouns are not “I” but “we” in the confessions because God’s ideal is that His people, be it Israel or the church, relate as a community, caring about one another, respecting one another, honoring one another. The ‘love chapter” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a) is all about relationships, and how we are toward one another, not about feelings. 

Out of the 44 statements that make up the confessions, only four statements relate to transgressions committed by man against God in the strictest sense.  Most are sins having to do with our relationships with other people.  

Each line begins with a statement "For the sin we committed before You through or by means of..." and then continues in Hebrew alphabetical order (as noted by the bold letter -->) ... בּאנם (compulsion), בּבלי (ignorance), בּגלױ (publicly), or בדעת וּבמרמה (knowingly and deceitfully), etc.  Not all sin is 'driven' in the same way, as these words indicate.

The confessions of repentance continue:   "We have incurred guilt, we have betrayed, we have stolen, we have spoken falsely, we went astray, we led others astray, we have scoffed, we have mocked, we tricked or we misled others…" to name a few. 

Not having to wait for the high priest to perform his duty of atonement, we can be free of guilt immediately upon realizing it and confessing it as sin since we have a greater High Priest, Yeshua! The blood of our Atoning Messiah washed away every sin and all the guilt that went with the sin. We have been freed from guilt and shame, by His blood. 

Repentance is the way to God's great mercy.  We have been set free to live a life of immediate repentance and total forgiveness any time we become aware of a transgression, not only for ourselves, but to offer it to others. Those of us who are Yeshua's fully realize what a wonderful gift repentance actually is. We thank you, Lord, for the power in the gift of repentance, not just on Yom Kippur but always.