 Okay, so good evening. The title of tonight's lecture is Pei Saksheni and Second Chances, the Torah's response to Christian missionaries. So one of the cornerstones of Christian theology focuses on the issue of atonement. In other words, how we are to deal with sin and forgiveness from God. In fact, most often when a Christian missionary, and by that I mean any Christian who's motivated to share their beliefs with you and for the purpose of winning you over to his or her faith. So when they wish to engage with a Jew in conversation, they will almost invariably turn to the issue of sin in our life and how we deal with it. So a common question or challenge that a Christian might ask you is, if you were knocked over by a bus tomorrow, heaven forbid, would you be going to heaven or hell? Now the truth is, the average Jew, we don't think like that. We generally focus on the here and now and try to make the most of the life that we're living now to make a difference in the world that we're in. And so this can sometimes catch us off guard. And so when the Christian missionary senses that, you know, this has really caught you off guard, then they might proceed to try and teach you about what they claim is the Torah teaching about sin and righteousness and God's perfect righteousness. Okay? So the Christian might challenge you with what they call the good person test. They ask you, do you think you're a good person? And everybody usually says, I think I'm a good person. And they say, well, do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions and say, sure. And so they start asking you this list of questions. They ask you, have you ever told a lie? Okay. Yes. I've told a lie. Okay. So you agree that you're a liar? Yes. Okay. I agree that I'm a liar. Have you ever taken something that does not belong to you? And now we start going back to our childhood or at some point and we're like, yeah, probably I did take something. Okay. So you're admitting that you're a thief. Okay. And then they go on to say, well, have you ever looked at another person with lust or desire? Now here, they're capitalizing on the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says that the Torah says that anybody who sleeps with a married woman is a commiss adultery. But I say anybody who looks at another woman with lust is guilty of adultery. And so the person will say, well, perhaps I have. Okay. By your own admission, then you're an adulterer. Okay. And then we're not doing very well over here, are we? And then they go on to ask, have you ever been angry with another person? And again, they'll point out that according to the New Testament, anybody who gets angry with somebody is as if they've committed murder. So they say basically, look, have you ever taken God's name in vain? And you say, well, yes, perhaps I have. So you're a blasphemer as well. And basically they say, well, look, this is just five of the Ten Commandments. And by your own admission and the standard of God's law, the Ten Commandments, you are a lying, thieving, blasphemous, murderous adulter at heart. And so now the question is, do you think you'll be going to heaven or hell? And it's a setup, really. And it kind of puts you in a difficult position and it really opens you up to listening to what the missionary might have to say about what they believe is the way that you can deal with this sin and secure your place in heaven. And so if you're still engaging with the Christian at this point and you answer that based on this test, you'll probably be going to hell, then the Christian will take the opportunity to share the good news with you that although you deserve to be sent straight to hell, someone's already paid the price for you. And that by believing in Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross for your sins, that you can have eternal life. And that's basically the way the conversation goes. Now to help understand what's wrong with this presentation, we need to take a closer look at the Christian solution for the problem of sin and then look at the Jewish scriptures solution for how to deal with sin. So now since we're just coming from the Festival of Pesach, the Passover, and in just a few weeks we're going to be celebrating Pesach Shani, which is the second Passover on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of E.R., so what I'd like to do is I'd like to look at Pesach Shani to see what it can teach us about the Torah's teaching on dealing with the problem of sin. Now before we go any further, it's helpful at the outset to define what the word sin really means. What does it mean to sin? And so in the Jewish scriptures there are a number of Hebrew words that are used for transgression. You have Chet, you have Avon, you have Peshah, and all of them really in some sense mean sin, but for the purpose of our discussion we're going to look at the Hebrew word Chet. The sacrifice, the sin sacrifice was called the Chetat from the word Chet. So what does the word Chet mean? And so in Hebrew the Chet, the word Chet means to miss the mark. So for example, if somebody were to take a bow and shoot an arrow and miss the mark, the word is Chet, to miss, to miss the mark. And the same is true in the Greek, when the word sin appears in the New Testament in the Greek, it's the same meaning in Greek, to miss the mark. So that's what it means to sin. So when a person fails to fulfill one of the positive directives of God or commits an act that God has directed us not to commit, that's a sin. You're missing the mark. God told us to do something and you didn't. God said not to do something and you did. And so therefore you've missed the mark, you have sinned, okay. Now in Isaiah 59, we see that it says, that our sins actually serve as a separation between us and God. It separates us from God. So when we sin, that causes a separation. And so the question is, what are we to do with our sin? And how can we be reconciled with God? This is going to be the discussion for tonight. So now I need to make a disclaimer at this point. That when it comes to any discussion about sin and atonement, not all Christians believe exactly the same thing. And so therefore if I say tonight, Christians will say or Christians believe, what I mean to say is that this is typically what you're going to hear from a conservative born again evangelical Christian, if you ever have the fortune of running into them and having such a discussion with them. So here goes, let's start. The first reference you have on your sheet is from the book of Matthew. The book of Matthew is the first of the four gospels, the way it appears in the New Testament. And at the beginning in chapter one, it talks about the birth of Jesus, okay. And we're told that an angel comes and tells Joseph that his wife Mary is pregnant. And in verse 21 it says, and she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, why? For he will save his people from their sins, okay. So right at the beginning of the gospels, it already makes it very clear that the reason why Jesus came to the world was to save you for your sins. And that's why he was called Jesus, Jesus from the Hebrew word Yahshua, which means to save. And so therefore the teaching is that he came and was born to be able to save you from your sins. The next reference you have on your sheet is from first Corinthians, first Corinthians chapter 15 verse three, where Paul writes, for I delivered to you first of all that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. So again, this notion that Jesus came to die for your sins is central to the message of the New Testament. And so we see from the perspective of the Christian scriptures, Jesus was sent to the world to answer and to deal with the issue of sin. In Romans chapter five verse eight, Paul writes, but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And he continues in Romans chapter five verse 11, and not only that, but we also rejoiced in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the reconciliation. In other words, from a Christian perspective, it's pretty straightforward. Jesus paid the penalty for your transgressions, your sins, and through your faith in that, you are reconciled with God. And that's pretty much what a Christian missionary will tell you after you fail the good person test. That the answer to your problem is that God in his love and his kindness, instead of requiring you to pay the penalty of death, someone else took the bullet for you. Someone else died for your sins. Okay. Now, when trying to preach to the average person on the street, the Christian may have an easier time just quoting verses from the New Testament. However, when trying to engage with the Jew, the Christian will realize that the New Testament may not hold much weight for a Jew. And the Jew may turn around to the Christian and say, one second, all these verses that you're quoting to me, they're all from the New Testament. I'm a Jewish. I don't believe in the New Testament. At this point, what will often happen is the Christian will end up discussing the animal sacrifices that are described in the Mosaic Law in the book of Leviticus, that in the book of Leviticus, we read about the sacrificial system that God set up, and they will tell you that based on that sacrificial system set up in the Mosaic Law, there was a way to deal with sin, and they will assert that in Leviticus, chapter 17, verse 11, it says that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Now, many Jews will not know Leviticus 17 and 11 off the top of their head. And so when somebody's coming along and telling you that in Leviticus 17 and 11, it says without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness, you might just say, OK, if you say so. Right? However, in reality, Leviticus 17 and 11 says nothing of the sort, doesn't say anything like that. However, for the purpose of the presentation of the Christian, what they are asserting is that according to Leviticus 17 and 11, there's an absolute need for vicarious blood sacrifice. And so now you're back in to a predicament that you were before, where he's saying to you that I said to you before that the way to salvation is by accepting the sacrifice that Jesus made for your sins. Here you see in Leviticus 17 and 11 that blood had to be shed for your sins. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Now, since you don't have a temple today, and you cannot bring up sacrifices, or at least you don't. So what's your dispensation? What's your ticket out? Now as I mentioned, the truth is Leviticus 17 and 11 says nothing of the sort. It doesn't say without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Actually that phrase comes from the Christian scriptures. That comes from the book of Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22, where it says without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. However, the Christian assertion is that the source for Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22, is from Leviticus 17 and 11. In other words, the author of Hebrews didn't just make this out, right? He got it from Leviticus 17 and 11. So let's take a look at the actual verse in Leviticus 17 and 11. You have it on your source sheets. It says as follows, for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. Sounds impressive. It almost sounds like the Christian is actually quoting accurately. That's what it sounds like. The Christian argument here is that Leviticus 17 and 11 is clear that it is the blood that makes an atonement for your soul, then by implication without it you have no atonement and thus cannot be reconciled with God and you will die in your sins. That's the problem. However, as Proverbs chapter 18, verse 17 wisely states, the first one to plead his cause seems right until his neighbor comes and examines him. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to examine it. There are a number of problems with the Christian presentation as we shall see. Let's go through them. Firstly, there's some subtle manipulation happening when the Christian quotes Leviticus 17 and 11 in isolation to the unsuspected Jew. You see the way it's being presented over here is as if Leviticus 17 and 11 is part of a passage and a teaching in Scripture that addresses the question of how we are to deal with sin and reconciling with God. Again, if I just read Leviticus 17 and 11, the way we read it in isolation, I could assume that Leviticus chapter 17 is a big teaching about the problem of sin and how it separates us from God and how we need to deal with sin. And this Leviticus 17 and 11 is the answer to that problem of sin. That's what I could assume. And what the Christian missionary would be doing is just giving me the executive summary, the bottom line, so to speak. That's the impression I would get when I hear this verse in isolation. However, that's not the case because if we take a closer look at Leviticus 17 and 11 in context, we will see something quite different. We will see that in fact the discussion has nothing to do with the problem of sin and how we are to reconcile ourselves with God, but rather something very different. Let's read it together. And whatever man, this is starting from verse 10, and whatever man of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among you, who consumes any blood, I will set my face against that person who consumes blood and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. Therefore I say to the children of Israel, no one among you shall consume blood nor shall any stranger who sojourns among you consume blood. Oh, that's a different story. You see, what becomes immediately apparent is that the topic of this passage is not how to secure atonement from sins, but rather it is the prohibition against consuming blood. In verse 11, we are told parenthetically that the reason for this prohibition is that blood contains the vitality of the animal and consequently when we bring an animal sacrifice its blood serves as the atoning agent and not another part of its body. And it's for this reason why God says blood is not there for you to drink or to do anything else with. It's there for the purpose of affecting atonement when you bring a sacrifice and therefore there's a prohibition of consuming blood. Okay? Another issue to consider is what is being said and what is not being said in Leviticus 1711. What the passage does say is that since blood symbolizes the life of the animal God has given it, meaning the blood, to us as a means of atoning for our sins. But the verse does not say that it, meaning the blood, is the only exclusive means that God has provided to make atonement. Right? In other words, the argument of the Christian is that when the author of Hebrews says there is, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. They are taking it from Leviticus 1711. But Hebrews 922 is saying that this is the only way. Leviticus 1711 is not saying it's the only way. Leviticus 1711, even when you talk about what it does say, it says that it is a means of atonement, not the only means of atonement. One final point before moving on is that even if we were to accept the Christian assertion that Leviticus 1711 does somehow teach that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. The verse makes it clear that we are speaking about what? We're speaking about the blood of the animal that is sacrificed on the altar as required in the Torah. Leviticus 1711 says nothing about the blood of a human God incarnate being killed on a cross to pay the penalty for your sins and never mentions the need to believe in this human sacrifice in order to have your sins forgiven. That's not in the verse. And by any stretch of the imagination, you could not derive that from this verse. And so ultimately, to summarize up to this point, Christians believe that we're all going to hell because of our sins. They believe that because God loved the world, He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross so that we can be reconciled with God and have eternal life. And when speaking with the Jew, the Christian will assert that this teaching is in line with the Jewish scriptures based on their reading of Leviticus 1711. And what we've seen over here is that, number one, Leviticus 1711 is not a teaching about the problem of sin and reconciliation between man and God. Number two, we've seen that Leviticus 1711 does not say that the shedding of blood is the only exclusive way to be forgiven for your sins. And finally, number three, Leviticus 1711 speaks only about the blood of an animal sacrifice upon the altar and not about a human sacrifice that one must believe in. So what we have is the realization that there isn't a single verse in the Jewish scriptures that teaches that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Now I think from a Christian perspective, this is very embarrassing. Again, from a Christian perspective, this is the most central teaching and the most central issue in the Torah. And yet there isn't a single verse in the Jewish scriptures to support this claim. That's very embarrassing. You know, if we wanted to say that Shabbos is a very important pillar within Jewish life, however, it never features in the Torah, ever. That'd be very embarrassing. But Shabbos appears countless times in the Torah. And the same thing goes for many other things that are central to Judaism. And here, the most central thing to Christianity never appears even once in the Jewish scriptures. That's very embarrassing. At this point, I'd like to introduce a story of Pesachsheini and see what it can teach us about the Torah's attitude towards the problem of sin and how we ought to go about reconciling with God. So in Exodus chapter 12, God instructs Moses to tell the people of Israel to take a lamb that would be used for the carbon Pesach. This is in the first year when they were about to leave Egypt. So we read in verse 6, you have this on your sheets, and you shall keep it for inspection. That's the lamb that they had taken and kept for four days until the 14th day of this month. And the entire congregation of the community of Israel shall slaughter it in the afternoon. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they will eat it. And on this night, they shall eat the flesh, roasted over the fire and unleavened cakes. That's the matzah. With bitter herbs, they shall eat it. God then tells Moses that this day shall be for you as a memorial and you shall celebrate it as a festival for the Lord throughout your generations. You shall celebrate it as an everlasting statue. In other words, Pesach would be a Passover would be observed not just then, but for all future generations, which is why we still practice it today. That's why we still have a Pesach said it today. And when the temple is standing, we would bring a Corban Pesach offering. Now, although Moses was told that this would be practiced throughout future generations, in reality, however, the past offering was only offered once more in the desert, and it was never offered again until they came to the land of Israel. And there's a reason for this. Twice the verse in the Torah associates the Corban Pesach with the Jewish people coming to the land of Israel. And that's understood to mean that God was telling Moses that when would you need to continue bringing up the Corban Pesach once you enter into the land? And remember, this is before the sin of the spies. So it was supposed to happen any day, right? But since it was tied up, so therefore it was not continued, it was tied up with entering the land of Israel, it wasn't continued for the other years that they were sojourning in the desert. So what happened? They were traveling in the desert. So what happened? What happened was that there was one time that they did bring up the Corban Pesach. And that was something we read about in Numbers chapter nine. We got instructed Moses on the first day of Nisan in the second year to instruct the Jewish people to bring the Pesach offering again. Now Moses does so and the Israelites do as they were commanded. However, we read in Numbers chapter nine, verse six, there were men who were richly unclean because of contact with a dead person and therefore could not make the Passover sacrifice on that day. So they approached Moses and Aaron on that day. Those men said to him, we are richly unclean because of contact with a dead person, but why should we be excluded or why should we lose out so as not to bring the offering of the Lord in its appointed time with all the children of Israel? So Moses says to them, wait and I will hear what the Lord instructs concerning you. Verse nine, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel saying, any person who becomes unclean from contact with dead or is on a distant journey, whether among you, meaning right now, or in future generations, or if this happens in future generations, he shall make a Passover sacrifice for the Lord. In the second month on the 14th day, in the afternoon, they shall make it, they shall eat it with unleavened cakes and bitter herbs. And he goes on to talk about a couple of other requirements similar to the Pesach offering that was brought in the first month. So what we have over here is a story about people who wanted to follow God's commandments, but due to circumstances, they were prevented from being able to observe the Passover in accordance with the Torah law. They were impure, they were richly impure, they couldn't bring it and they couldn't partake in it. Now they could have just assumed too bad. Tough luck, right? You miss the train, you miss the train. It might not be a fault. Okay, you're a human being too bad, but they don't assume that it's just too bad. They don't just resign themselves to the fact that they won't be able to partake. They come to Moses fully expecting and in a sense demanding a way to fix and rectify the matter, which is quite strange. God is the one that comes along and sets down the law. You can't come along and arbitrarily start demanding an alternative and yet they do. Moses also doesn't just say, sorry, too bad. I mean, he could have done that. He could have just said, I haven't heard anything about this. God never gave me any special instructions about an alternative. Sorry, too bad, but he doesn't do that. He says, I'll take the question to God. In other words, it's a good question. It's a reasonable thing to ask. I'm gonna take it back to God. I don't know. And they go to God and God answers that in the event that someone missed out on the first Passover due to impurity or being in a far off place, there's a second chance. God says, you're right. And I'm gonna give you a second chance on the 14th day of the second month. Now, what we see over here is that there's no need to bring a sin sacrifice for not bringing it up the first time. There's no punishment involved. There's no penalty to pay. It's just instructions from God on how to take advantage of this second chance that God in his infinite kindness is providing. God says, I'm giving you a second chance and this is the way you need to do it. He gives you clear instructions how to go about rectifying what you missed out on. And that is by bringing the sacrifice, the Passover sacrifice in the second month in accordance with God's law. Okay, now it's for this reason, Pesach Shani has become known as the Festival of Second Chances. This is the festival that teaches us that it's never too late and you can always have another go, have a second chance. Pesach Shani is a case in point where we see God factoring our humanity and our fallibility into the mosaic law and giving us explicit directions on how to approach our fallibility and our humanity and our proneness to mess up. This is one case in point where he gives us instructions of how to look at it and how to react to it. But Pesach Shani is not an anomaly. This is not just a one-off. That is the notion that God in his kindness and compassion offers us a second chance. It is not limited to the story of Pesach Shani. Right after the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden, once they were kicked out from the garden, meaning after their original sin, we read about what God tells Cain after messing up. What do I mean he messed up? He brings an inferior offering to God and God doesn't turn to that offering. He, so to speak, snubs him, turns a cold shoulder, not interested in that inferior offering. So in Genesis chapter four, verse six, we read that God says to Cain, why are you annoyed and why has your countenance fallen? Verse seven, is it not so that if you improve yourself, it will be forgiven you? If you do not improve, however, at the entrance sin is lying and to you is it slunging, but you can rule over it. So what we have over here is a couple of things which are important, but the point for tonight is God tells him that if you improve, you'll be forgiven. He doesn't say if you shed blood, you'll be forgiven. You just need to improve and the implication is you can improve. In fact, he explicitly says that sin is lying, is crouching, waiting for you, but you can rule over it. He's saying that you actually can overcome sin. In Deuteronomy chapter four, Moses gives over the same message to the Israelites before they cross over into the land of Israel. He tells them that even if or when they are scattered because of their idolatry, nevertheless, when they seek the Lord, they will find him. If they seek him with all their heart and with all their soul. That's in Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 29. Moses goes on to tell them in the same chapter that this also holds true for what will happen at the end of days with the Jewish people, that they will return to the Lord and we will obey him. But the question we are often asked, it's just normal to ask this question and Christians really make a big deal about this is how can our puny little human efforts to return to God in obedience ever suffice? How could it ever be enough? Again, you need to understand that when you sin, what you are doing is you are rebelling against God. Think about for a moment a king who issues a decree and tells you, I want you to do something and you just send them back a message and say, I don't think it's that important off with your head. What do you think you're doing? You can't just rebel. So it's quite serious. And so if you want to reconcile with this king, right, there has to be some kind of major change that happens. And because God is infinite and God is perfect, the assumption is that our puny little efforts to try to be a little bit better and to be more obedient can never suffice, can never be enough. But thankfully Moses addresses this in that very same chapter in chapter four, he explains how our puny little effort to try and be more obedient and return to God suffices. And he explains in verse 31, that it's because the Lord your God is a merciful God. In other words, God is the one who says that it's enough. God is the one that says, it's up to me. It's my choice to decide what is enough and what isn't enough. What I will accept, what I won't accept. I'm telling you that if you make the effort with your puny little human limited effort, that's going to be enough. Why? Because I'm merciful. That's why. And that is the basis of how and why Chuva works. Why repentance actually is able to affect forgiveness because it's predicated and based upon God's kindness and God's mercy. And so the point here is that the basis of our reconciliation is not our efforts to reach perfection on our own. That's never what the basis of it is. The basis is that in God's kindness and mercy, he accepts our puny little effort to humbly return to him in obedience. However, what's important to note over here is that God does not tell us that he will pay the penalty for us in order to be able to reconcile with us. That he never tells us. There's nowhere in scripture where he says, oh, you know what? You puny little human, you can't do anything. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take care of the penalty by substituting you with myself, which is essentially what the Christians believe. They don't believe that just a human being died. They believe that God himself died. That God himself was crucified because Jesus, according to Christians, was God incarnate. And so God took upon himself your sin. God sets out the path of reconciliation that requires a turning away from disobedience and returning to him in obedience. The notion that God absolutely requires a penalty to be played in blood in order to reconcile humanity with God is not taught or supported in the Jewish scriptures. Now, there's another story about Pesach that we read in the second book of Chronicles, chapter 30. You have it in your source sheets. And we read about something that took place during the reign of King Hezekiah. It says as follows, and Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and he also wrote, led us to Ephraim and Manasseh to come to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem to perform the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, the God of Israel. And the King and his officers and the entire congregation to counsel in Jerusalem to perform the Passover sacrifice in the second month, for they could not perform it at that time, for the priests had not consecrated themselves sufficiently and the people had not gathered to Jerusalem. So what happened over here? Basically, King Hezekiah was one of the true righteous kings of Israel. And he completely transformed the land of Israel by setting up education for children. And by first and foremost, being an example of righteousness, and ultimately pleading. And what's the word I'm looking for? Trying to impose on the people to return to God. And so when it came to this Passover, what he really wanted is that everybody from all over should come to the temple and should come and offer up the sacrifice. Now, there's an interesting discussion in the Talmud about what this actually means in chapter 30 about the second Passover. And really what they say is, it's not that it was in the second month, meaning in the month of Eir, but rather we know that the Hebrew calendar can sometimes have 12 months or 13 months. And because they saw that they won't be ready in time for the Passover, what they decided to do was to have the month of Nisan to just become the second Adar, like the 13 month of the Hebrew calendar year. And so when they say they had the Passover in the second month, what they mean is they pushed off the month of Nisan to the next month. Be that as it may. We continue in verse 13, and a huge crowd assembled in Jerusalem to observe the festival of matzahs in the second month, an exceedingly large assembly. And they arose and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem and all the altars for incense they removed and cast them into the Kidron Valley. And they slaughtered the Passover sacrifices on the 14th day of the second month and the priests and the Levites were embarrassed and they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the Lord. Why were they embarrassed? They were embarrassed because many of them didn't believe that Hezekiah would really be able to influence the Jewish people as a whole to come down to Jerusalem. But we read that God had a hand in this. God actually helped this, that his efforts should be successful and that people should turn to his calling. And so that's why they were embarrassed because they didn't properly consecrate themselves until they saw everybody starting to come. That all of a sudden they're like, oh, we better purify ourselves. And they stood in their station as was their custom, according to the Torah of Moses, the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood from the hands of the Levites. For there were many among the congregation who had not consecrated themselves and the Levites were in charge of the slaughter of the Passover sacrifices for everyone who was unclean to make it holy for the Lord. Verse 18, for a multitude of people, many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Isaac and Zebulun had not purified themselves for they ate the Passover sacrifice, not as it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, may the good Lord atone for anyone who has set his whole heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his forefathers, though he be not cleaned, according to the purity that pertains to the Holy things. And in verse 20, and the Lord herkored to Hezekiah and healed the people. So what we see over here is that although the people did not adhere perfectly to the laws of the Passover, in other words, they partook of the Pesach offering, the Passover sacrifice, even though they weren't pure, nevertheless, they had set their whole heart to seek God and God accepted King Hezekiah's prayer. You see, the Jewish approach to dealing with sin and reconciliation is based on the recognition that God knows that we are imperfect and that we will often fail. And in His mercy, He forgives us time and time again when we turn to Him in obedience. This is very beautifully described in the Psalms, in Psalm 103, verse 10, where it says you have it on your sheets, He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor has He repaid us according to our iniquities, for as the heights of the heavens over the earth, so great is His kindness to those who fear Him. As the distance of the distance of East from West, He distanced our transgressions from us. As a father has mercy on his sons, the Lord had mercy on those who fear Him, for He knows our creation, He remembers that we are dust. God recognizes that we are human. He knows that we are prone to sin and God repeatedly encourages us that when we fail, which will inevitably happen, then the path we need to take is to return to Him in obedience and rely on His mercy. We see in Isaiah 55, verse seven. God says through the prophet Isaiah, the wicked shall abandon his way, the man of iniquity his thoughts, and he shall return to the Lord, who shall have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, says the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. In other words, don't try to figure out how your puny little effort is going to make a difference. You'll never understand it, but God in His abundant mercy and kindness says, that's what I've told you, and if you do it, I'll forgive you. In the book of Micah chapter six, the prophet actually explicitly talks about the question of substitution. Over there, the question is asked, shall I give my firstborn for the sin of my soul? That's the question that's asked in chapter six of Isaiah. And God's answer is no. In verse eight, Isaiah says, he has told you, O man, what is good and what the Lord demands of you. Only the Hebrew there is key im, only to do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with your God. Now, does that mean that sacrifice is not necessary? Should we just abolish God's sacrificial system? Obviously not. That's not what we're trying to say. Included in walking humbly with God is the acceptance of all of commandments, which include the laws about sacrifices. So when there is a temple standing and you fit the criteria that requires you to bring a sacrifice as it is delineated in the Torah, we have to bring a sacrifice. The fact that there is no temple, we need to follow the laws of God that tells us in Leviticus, chapter 17, verses eight through nine, that we're not allowed to bring a sacrifice outside of the tent of meeting. However, what's important to note is that here in Micah and so too in Isaiah and so too in the other prophets, what they're clearly telling us is that the key to our reconciliation is not substitution. That's not the key to our reconciliation. The key to our reconciliation with God is obedience. Time and time again, the answer is obedience. The prophet Jonah was told by God to go and make a proclamation against the city of Nineveh. Now who were the city of Nineveh? The city of Nineveh were a people that was so depraved. We read about them in the book of Nahum. In the book of Nahum, in chapter three, verse one, it says, woe to the bloody city. It is full of lies and robbery. Its victim never departs. In fact, there's a whole long prophecy cited against them about their utter destruction in the book of Nahum. But when we read the book of Jonah, we read that Jonah did not want to go. He didn't want to go to Nineveh. But when he finally did go, the people of Nineveh took heed to his words. And what did they do? They repented. They changed their ways. They came back humbly before God by changing their ways. And in Jonah chapter three, verse 10, we read, and God saw their deeds, that they had repented of their evil way, and the Lord relented concerning the evil that he had spoken to do to them, and he did not do it. No one paid any penalty. They just humbled themselves and repented, and God and his mercy forgave them. Now, what's really interesting and important to note about this story is the reaction of Jonah. The fact that God forgave the people of Nineveh after they repented did not surprise Jonah in the least. In fact, this is exactly what Jonah expected. In chapter four of Jonah, we read how Jonah, upon witnessing God's mercy, when God forgives the Ninevines on account of their repentance, Jonah exclaimed to God, I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and relenting from doing harm. You see, Jonah here is quoting from where? Not Leviticus 1711, he's quoting from Exodus chapter 34, verse six, which describes God as God, compassionate, and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness. Why? Because this is the passage from the five books of Moses that Jonah the prophet saw as central to the process of achieving forgiveness from sin. Not Leviticus 1711, as the Christian missionary would have us believe. And so I'd like to just conclude tonight with a passage from Ezekiel chapter 33, which deals clearly and directly with the issue and the problem of sin. Let's read it together. Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 10. Now you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, so have you spoken, saying, meaning this is what the Israelites were saying, and it's come before God, and God is going to respond to what they have been saying. What have they been saying? They've been saying our sins and transgressions are upon us, and because of them we are wasting away, how then can we live? And by this introductory verse, we know that the issue and the verses that follow are speaking directly and explicitly about the problem of sin. What does he say? Verse 11, say to them, as I live, says the Lord God, I do not wish for the death of the wicked, but for the wicked to repent of his ways so that he may live. Repent, repent of your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel? Verse 12, and you, son of man, speaking to Ezekiel over here, say to the members of your people, this is important, the righteousness of the righteous will not save him on the day of his transgression. In other words, if you've done good deeds before, don't think that that's going to protect you on the day that you rebel against God. It's not gonna protect you. And likewise, in the same way, and the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble upon it on the day of his repentance of his wickedness. In other words, the wicked man shouldn't think, what am I gonna repent? What am I gonna change my ways? It's always gonna be held against me what I did when I was in high school or what I did when I was 30. God says, no, that's not the case. And a righteous man cannot live with it on the day of his sinning. Verse 13, when I say of the righteous that he will surely live and he relied on his righteousness and committed injustice, none of his righteousness will be remembered. And for the injustice which he committed, he shall die. And when I say of the wicked man, you shall surely die. And he repents of his sin and performs justice and righteousness. The wicked man will return the pledge. He will repay the theft in the statutes of life he walked, not to commit injustice. And so what happens? He will surely live, he will not die. Verse 16, which is the key over here. All his sins that he sinned will not be remembered for him. He performed justice and righteousness. He will surely live. God imputes righteousness upon the one who turns from the evil way and turns to God in humility and with repentance. This is the message of Pesach Shani. It's never too late to try again. So long as we are alive, we have the merciful gift from God called repentance that allows you a second chance. And it is this that is the path to reconciliation with God. Thank you. Any questions? Absolutely. But you know what? Every night is a minimum keeper. And so we don't know what's gonna be tomorrow. And so the rabbis say that a person should always repent one day before they die. And since you never know when that's gonna be, we should always be repenting. We should always be returning to God. And we can return to God. And that's what's important. The notion that you need to have somebody else pay the price is something that is not Jewish at all. However, there is a concept of the suffering of the righteous and giving charity and all these other wonderful things which assist us in our return to God. But what it ultimately boils down to is our return to God and putting our trust in Him. Anybody who puts their trust in someone else will ultimately have to rely on that other person because they're not relying on God. And we rely on God. And when God tells us that this is the way, as ridiculous as it may sound to us, that us as puny little human beings, that it can actually make a difference, it does make a difference. Because God said so and that's what matters.