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Adonai Tov ve'Salach |
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The Lord is good and forgiving |
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For You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, |
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ith all of the evil in the world, how can we be sure that God is good? The skeptical mind reasons that if God were entirely good and all-powerful, then He would surely |
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make all of His creatures happy. However, since we all experience pain and suffering, His goodness may be rightly questioned. |
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Of course this way of thinking is too simplistic, since it assumes that human happiness (usually understood as pleasure) is the goal of life, whereas the Scriptures make clear that a relationship with a holy God is its true end. God's role is not therefore to make us all "happy," but rather to make us fit for relationship with Him, and He often allows suffering in our lives to teach us the truth about our condition. The goodness of God does not in any way imply that He must create well-pleased creatures who are oblivious of their relationship with the truth. |
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The guilty person would come before the Lord (at the mishkan or Tabernacle), lean his hands upon the head of the sacrificial animal (semichah), and then say viduy (confession): "I deserve to die instead of this blameless animal, but You mercifully accept the death of this innocent one in my stead." When God saw the shed blood or ascending smoke of the sacrifice, he would forgive the sinner based on his faith and teshuvah (repentance). |
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Of course the Levitical system of animal sacrifices, including the elaborate Yom Kippur ritual, was only temporarily efficacious, being subject to the frailty of human flesh. But God, in His infinite love and grace, bypassed the weakness of human flesh by taking its place as the perfect sacrificial victim for our sins (Rom. 8:3-4). The death of Jesus is the means of securing our eternal reconciliation with God by providing an infinitely worthy restitution to an infinitely just and holy God. The good news is that justice and mercy have kissed, and because of Jesus' sacrifice we can now call upon the Lord who is rav chesed (abounding in steadfast love) toward us. |
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Chesed-ve'emet nifgashu, tzedek veshalom nashaku. |
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Steadfast love and truth meet; righteousness and peace |
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Have you personally made semichah by leaning your hands on Jesus as your perfect sacrifice for sin? Have you made viduy (confession) of your sin and expressed your need for deliverance through Him? God is indeed good and ready to forgive, and His love abounds toward all those who call upon His Name for salvation.
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Hebrew for Christians |
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