3.8

I am the Lord who sanctifies you (continued)

While the High Priest was busy mediating for Israel, what was she doing in the meantime? What did God require of Israel on this holiest of days? Rest, not only as on the Sabbath but as on the Sabbath of Sabbaths, as on Shabbat Shabbaton (Leviticus 16:31), the rest of rests. To settle any possible doubt or confusion, God made it doubly clear that rest in its most complete form was the order of this day. What position was she to assume in this rest? God said she must humble her soul (16:31). The Hebrew word for humble is anah, and is most often translated humble or afflict. God said Israel must humble her soul without explaining what He wanted her to do, say, think or feel for her soul’s humbling and affliction. He seemed to think there is enough in the Torah that explains what He meant by this kind of humbling

Something of this humility is shown in the Passover’s matzah. One name for matzah is from the same word for humble: lechem oni, the bread of affliction (Deuteronomy 16:3). Matzah is the thinnest of breads and so dry, it is barely a bread at all. It has no leaven or chametz which the rabbis identified with human pride that puffs itself up beyond one’s true worth. The humility God wants is like Israel’s position when she fled Egypt. She was a freed slave, with barely any time to escape and no hope outside of God to bring her out and through the desert. Matzah introduces humility as God means it. His rest is the ground in which humility can take root. Humility is a soul’s perfect position before God. It is the only position that can abide in God’s holy order as He intends. As a seed breaks open and grows when in the earth and not on a kitchen counter top; as gasoline fuels a car when inside its tank and not poured over the passenger seat; as our eyes see what is before and not behind them; so living before God in humility is our true position that bears the fruit of a holy life. Humility orients life perfectly to God

God’s humility is very different from the kinds we typically conceive. Humility is often portrayed as being self-effacing and submissive to others, trying to make self less than others. To become humble is often interpreted as changing one’s status by sinking lower in relation to others and to self. But with God, humility has nothing to do with selfchange. God doesn’t require that we strip off all self worth so we can feel better about Him and others by feeling worse about ourself. He doesn’t dismantle our pride by attacking and shaming us. As holiness is God’s true position before us, so is humility our true position before God. We all live wholly dependent on His giving and mercies whether or not we acknowledge Him. All our life and abilities reflect His presence and provisions for us, whether or not we perceive Him. A soul humbled before God sees and accepts the truth that nothing one is or has can be credited to self and proudly claimed as one’s own doing. Whatever is real and true always refers to God who continually gives and whose mercies are able to forgive, even our blindness to Him. In humility, God opens our eyes to Him and to the humility of His ways by which He gives us all things, even Himself. By it, we are able to confidently stand before God and walk with Him. Humility is God’s simple and profound way of loving and being loved by Him, of teaching us His goodness and His only way of learning His grace. We learn God and His holiness only by His simple humility, His deep path that travels so low, it is within everyone’s reach

Moses was called the most humble man (anav) on the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3). His life with God and others demonstrates something of humility’s adequacy and beauty. When Moses was with God for forty days and nights on Mount Sinai, he neither ate nor drank, but there is no mention of his suffering for this lack. Instead, Israel saw the face of Moses brilliant with God’s light when he finally came down the mountain. In his humility, Moses was certain of His absolute need of God and that neither Israel or he could survive without Him. When he feared God would replace Himself with an angel as Israel’s leader, Moses boldly stood in his humility and insisted God alone would be her Leader (Exodus 32:34 - 33:17). He was so bold with God in his humility, Moses dared to ask the Creator of the universe to show him His glory (33:18). What chutzpah! It is the chutzpah of a man whose humility established him securely before God. God expressed His glory to Moses with the intimacy and passion of a lover whose tender embraces and rapturous words overwhelm the deepest and most personal places of the beloved’s being

On Sinai God told Moses how Israel was to live holy before Him and how to construct HIs holy sanctuary. He explained in detail how His Priests were to sanctify themselves to minister to Him and to Israel. As He concluded this lengthy instruction, God established all these laws in His holy rest.

You shall surely observe My Sabbath; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you (Exodus 31:13)

What sanctifies Israel is not God’s elaborate laws for cleansing. What sanctifies is His Sabbath, where He can be and do for her

The relationship between the Sabbath and Yom Kippur reaches its climax on the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25). God called every seven years a sabbatical year when the land was also required to rest. But on the sabbatical year of sabbatical years - the fiftieth year called Jubilee - God pronounced a great release and freedom for all His people. On the day of Yom Kippur on the year of Jubilee, those who had acquired debt or had to sell themselves as slaves were set free of all debt and master. Israel was free to resume the order and boundaries God first set for her, free to return to the land He first gave her. On the Sabbath of Sabbaths of Yom Kippur, on the sabbatical of sabbatical year of Jubilee, God commanded all slaves be freed and all debt forgiven so that His will would be expressed on earth, in the holiness of His Sabbath

Today, Jews observe Yom Kippur according to rabbinic teachings that replace blood sacrifice with repenting and praying, and humility with fasting from food. These teachings may be the best of human options but they are a completely different order of worship. God in His Sabbath commands His way to Himself. We can never approach Him with our plans or efforts. We can never climb high enough to reach Him in His heavens. Fasting and repenting and praying can never achieve the blood atoning and humbling of soul that His Torah commands. His ways are not our ways. They are as far apart as the heavens are from the earth