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What Does Ḥēn Mean For Yom Kippur & Israel/Hamas Peace?

What Does Ḥēn Mean For Yom Kippur & Israel/Hamas Peace?

Last updated on: October 5, 2025 at 8:07 pm by Martin Thomas Johnson

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What Does Ḥēn Mean For Yom Kippur & Israel/Hamas Peace? 2025-10-05T20:07:01-04:00 Martin Thomas Johnson

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This week has been an important week in the Jewish community for many reasons; first, many Jews celebrated the holy holiday of Yom Kippur. Many Jews value the holiday because it is when they are closest to G-d.

Image by Pixabay

The purpose of the holiday is for the Jewish people to attain atonement for their sins. The day is spent fasting and praying to purify oneself before G-D. Unfortunately, there was an attack this year at a Jewish synagogue in Manchester, England, as many Jews were celebrating the holiday.

The senseless attack on innocent people further shows this fallen world is not God’s people’s home, and it is only going to get worse for God’s people (Psalm 17:14, Hebrews 13):

Deceptive
Unloving
Unforgiving
Violent

For the last few weeks, I’ve intentionally looked at what scriptures say God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19), to show that we all have sinned and none of us has the right to judge others because of their sins (Matthew 7:1, Romans 3:23).

Because we all sinned and we live in a fallen kingdom, we all need forgiveness and atonement for our sins, regardless of our skin color, political party, or religious beliefs (Isaiah 1:18, Daniel 9:9).

Atonement is an action taken to right our sinful wrongs. Yom Kippur is an atonement process for God’s people to receive forgiveness through repentance, prayer, and charity.

Christianity teaches we receive forgiveness and atonement through the sacrifice of Jesus (Romans 5:11, 1 Peter 2:24). We believe our forgiveness and atonement are received through the grace of our Lord’s sacrifice (Ephesians 2:8-9).

What Is Grace

Grace is something we all need in our lives, because we are all broken sinners, regardless of our personal values, political beliefs, or the language we speak (Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:23). Grace is defined as “Unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification; approval or favor.”

Image created by Martin Thomas Johnson using Canva

Although we all need and can receive it from God, not everyone is willing to offer it as God does to us (Matthew 6:14-15, Ephesians 4:32). Just look at all of the division in America today.

Instead of throwing stones at other political enemies and neighbors like the Pharisees, Jesus rebuked; we need to show them the love of God through the same grace we have received (John 8:3-11).

It is unchristian and unloving not to forgive others as Jesus forgave (Matthew 18:21-22, Colossians 3:13). That is why the Bible has a lot to say about grace (John 1:16, Hebrews 4:16, James 4:6).

Pride and arrogance hinder us from giving grace to others because we think we are better than them and our sins aren’t as bad as theirs (Proverbs 11:2, 1 Corinthians 8:1). Showing grace is an act of selfless love.

We can never be more like God than when we are forgiving and giving grace to others (Romans 5:8; 12:20-21, 1 Corinthians 15:10, 2 Corinthians 2: 10-11, Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13, James 2:13).

The apostles remembered their Jewish education about grace and how it reflects God’s divine nature (2 Chronicles 30:9).

Ḥēn****

The Torah teaches us about God’s grace, why we need it, and why we show it to others (Genesis 6:8; 18:3, Exodus 33:12-13). The heart of every human is tainted by our evil and sinful nature (Genesis 6:5, Jeremiah 17:9)

There is nothing man can do to empty his heart of the evil or sinful inclinations of our heart (Proverbs 20:9, Ecclesiastes 9:3). That is why we all need the grace of God. The Hebrew word in the Old Testament for Grace is ḥēn, and it can also mean “Favor, gracious, pleasant, or precious,” depending on the context it is used in.

Throughout Scripture, we see God’s divine grace covering the sin of mankind (Genesis 3:7; 21; 6:18, Isaiah 61:10). After the fall, atonement became necessary to cover our sins; God’s people had to sacrifice and work to earn atonement and forgiveness of their sins.

As the Old Testament shows, God’s people continued in their sin and could never be cleansed by their works, God repeatedly showed grace to His holy people as He had promised (Exodus 20:5-6, Deuteronomy 7:9). The grace of God is one of God’s divine attributes of His nature (Exodus 33:19, Deuteronomy 4:31, 2 Chronicles 30:9, Psalm 86:15):

Gracious
Sovereign
Loving
Omniscient
Omnipresent
Omnipotent
Forgiving

Jesus consistently taught His followers about God’s grace and rebuked the religious leaders for not showing grace to others (Matthew 5:7; 44-45). He upped the ante by teaching His followers to not just love their neighbors, but to love their enemies (44-45).

Image by Pixabay

When the religious leaders wanted to stone the woman guilty of adultery, Jesus showed her grace, although she was clearly guilty of breaking Jewish laws (John 8:1-11). Instead of giving life like God and showing grace, they acted like Satan and wanted to judge and kill her (John 8:41).

Jesus warned His followers to be careful how they judge others and to show grace (Matthew 7:1-6). God will treat us how we treat others on judgment day (Matthew 6:14-15)

Israel

In other big news this week, President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu revealed their plan for ushering in peace between Israel and Hamas. It took less than 48 hours for Israel to resume bombing Gaza in their vengeful pursuit of revenge.

Image by Wikipedia Commons

Israel also intercepted and stopped a humanitarian aid flotilla carrying food and supplies to the war-stricken region. The Palestinians in Gaza themselves aren’t even involved in the senseless war between Hamas and Israel.

Israel refuses to forgive and show grace to both their neighbors and their enemies. God’s people aren’t interested in being gracious like the God they claim to serve; they want to be more like this fallen kingdom (Exodus 32:19, Numbers 6:22-27, Isaiah 30:18-19):

Unloving
Unforgiving
Vengeful
Hateful
Prideful

Showing grace to others is a basic teaching of both Christianity and Judaism; they both serve the same gracious God (Psalm 86:15, James 5:7-8, 2 Peter 3:9).

We must give grace and mercy to others, because we have been shown grace and mercy ourselves (Luke 6:36, Romans 11:6, 2 Timothy 2:1, James 4:6). The division in America isn’t because of the “Radical left”, it is because it is due to the haughty-eyed hypocritical right.

They support and follow an earthly king who told the entire world that he disagrees with the Christian teachings of Charlie Kirk, because he doesn’t want to show grace or forgive his enemies, as our faith teaches.

His followers claim,” illegal” immigrants have broken our laws and need to be removed. Yet they forget that if they go over our speed limits by 1 mile an hour, they too are guilty of breaking our laws, and somehow they think they are better than immigrants who break our laws.

They expect grace, but they don’t want to show grace to someone who is coming here for a better life and to pursue the American dream. I don’t care if you are a pastor, politician, Bible teacher, or Christian author, we’d all be damned if it wasn’t for God’s ḥēn!

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