Sound the Shofar

I decided to write a reflection about Rosh Hashanah today, since today is the end of the second day of the celebration. Also known as the "Feast of Trumpets" (Yom Teruah), Rosh Hashanah literally means "head of the year", and is commonly known as the Jewish New Year celebration. The celebration began Wednesday evening (Sept. 28, 2011) at sundown and lasts until sundown tonight. According to Jewish culture and the Biblical record, a day starts at sundown. This can be seen in the creation story in Genesis 1, "So there was evening, and there was morning..."

Rosh Hashanah is referred to in the Torah as "Yom Teruah", which translates to "the Day of the Sounding of the shofar" or "the day of the awakening blast". It is important that everyone hear the sound of the shofar. Teruah means "an awakening blast" and can also be translated as a "shout". The overarching theme of Rosh Hashanah is that of awakening.

The LORD said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites: 'On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire.'" (Leviticus 23:23-25)

Rosh Hashanah is celebrated ten days before the next Jewish festival called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (which will be on October 7 this year). These ten days are used as a time of repentance, reflection, and rededication to God. The Day of Atonement, is the day when the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place in the Tabernacle, and sprinkle blood on the Arc of the Covenant for the forgiveness of sins for the people of Israel. It is also prophetic of a final day of Atonement, when God will judge the world.

A typical greeting during Rosh Hashanah is "L'Shanah Tovah Tikatevu", which means "May you be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for a good year." The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are given for repentance, in order that no one would be left out of the Book of Life. It is a time of grace, remembrance, and renewal.

There are two major points surrounding the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, creation and judgment. It is a celebration of the creation of the world, a remembrance of what God did in the beginning, but it is also a reflection on the future judgment and atonement of creation. So, this is a celebration of both the beginning and the end of creation. It celebrates how God spoke everything into existence, and how God will write the names of the saved into the Book of Life.

"The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies." (Leviticus 23:1-2)

It is important to understand that this is NOT a "Jewish Holiday", it was given as a command from God as a "sacred assembly". There are seven such assemblies that God instructed Moses about. These sacred celebrations include Sabbath (Lev. 23:3), Passover (Lev. 23:5), Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:6), Firstfruits (Lev. 23:9-14), Feast of Weeks (Lev. 23:15-22), Feast of Trumpets (Lev. 23:24), Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27), and the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:34).

Realizing that these festivals, feasts, and Holy days are given as special event markers to remind us of what God has done, but they also serve as prophetic signs of what God will do. We have already seen the Messianic fulfillment of the spring festivals (Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfriuts) with the first coming of Christ.

Jesus was our Passover lamb, offered up as a pure sacrifice, without any leven, for the forgiveness of sins. When Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples, he instructed them to do it in remembrance of him (Luke 22:19). Passover, being the celebration of salvation from the bondage and slavery in Egypt, has now become for us the celebration of salvation from the bondage of sin.

Fifty days later, on the celebration of Firstfruits (Pentecost), Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to his followers. Pentecost, originally a celebration of the giving of the Law, has become for us a celebration of the giving of the Holy Spirit.

Likewise, just as the spring festivals celebrate the first advent of Christ, the fall festivals are to be a celebration of the return of Christ. Yom Teruah (the feast of Tabernacles) is a celebration of the return of Christ at the sound of the trumpet (Matt. 24:30-31, 1Cor. 15:52, 1Thess. 4:16, Rev. 11:15). The Shofar (ram's horn) is blown 100 times in the synagogue, and is considered the most common symbol of Yom Teruah (or Rosh Hashanah) . The trumpet sound is also a common symbol connected to the return of the Messiah and the judgment of the world.

So, I want to encourage you to celebrate and look forward to Christ's return on Tom Teruah, the festival of Trumpets, for no one knows the day or the hour of His return, but we can be assured that He will return. Also, use this as a time of reflection, repentance, and renewal, seeking to have your name written in the Book of Life.

Blessings

Worship in Vain

This video would be funny if it weren't so close to the truth. Sometimes When we worship, we don't really mean it. This is what it would look like if we were to sing what we really meant. This was a piece during the sermon on, "Taking the Lord's name in vain" from FirstOrlando.com

[tentblogger-youtube ZJp98hoqy5I]

The Man in the Mirror

The Torah reveals our sin to us in the same way looking into a mirror shows us our outer imperfections. When you get up in the morning, and go look in the mirror, you quickly realize that your hair needs to be brushed and your face washed. When a woman sees herself in a mirror, she decides to put on her makeup.  If you were to look into a mirror and notice food stuck in your teeth, you would immediately start trying to clean it out. Mirrors are wonderful tools, because they help us see ourselves. They help us see what we look like to other people.

"Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah." (Romans 5:13)
"Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the Torah." (Romans 7:7)

"For whoever hears the Word but doesn't do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror, who looks at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But if a person looks closely into the perfect Torah, which gives freedom, and continues, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work it requires, then he will be blessed in what he does." (James 1:23-25)

That is exactly what the Torah does for us. It reveals our spiritual flaws and weaknesses. It shows us our need for change. It shows us how sinful we are, and helps us to see what needs to be done in our lives so that we will be more Holy. It shows us what we look like to God. When we read the righteous requirements of the Torah, we see how truly ugly our sinful lives are.

"For those who identify with their old nature set their minds on the things of the old nature, but those who identify with the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Having one's mind controlled by the old nature is death, but having one's mind controlled by the Spirit is life and shalom. For the mind controlled by the old nature is hostile to God, because it does not submit itself to God's Torah - indeed, it cannot. Thus, those who identify with their old nature cannot please God." (Romans 8:5-8)

We are to live our lives according to the Holy Spirit, and set our minds on what the Spirit desires. The Spirit of God does not contradict the Torah of God. In fact, the Torah was given through the Spirit. "For we know that the Torah is of the Spirit; but as for me, I am bound to the old nature, sold to sin as a slave" (Romans 7:14) That is why we need the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so that we can be spiritual, not carnal.

Look into the mirror of God, see yourself the way God sees you, then become the person God wants you to be through obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Broken Telephone

Have you ever played a game called “telephone”? It is also known as “grapevine”, “broken telephone”, “gossip”, “secret message”, “chinese whispers”, and “pass the message”. In the United States, “telephone” is the most common name for the game.

To play the game, you must line up as many players as possible in such a way that they can whisper into their immediate neighbors ear, but not allow any other players to hear what is being said. The game begins with the first player whispering a phrase to the second player in line. Each player successively whispers what that player believes he or she heard to the next. The last player announces the statement to the entire group. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly, and often amusingly, from the one uttered by the first.

In this game there is no winner, but it is quite entertaining to compare the original message with the final result. It is also interesting to note that some messages will be completely altered and unrecognizable after only a few steps. The game is usually played as a party game or crowd breaker and is often used as a metaphor for cumulative error, especially the inaccuracies of rumors, gossip, and the unreliability of human memory. It can also provide educational value by demonstrating how easy it is for information to become corrupted by indirect communication.

To some degree, this is what has happened in the church. The first century disciples and apostles heard the message directly from Yeshua and started doing and teaching what they received from him, but over time those teachings and practices have been altered from their origins, and now, 2,000 years later, we have a very different version of the church than what was originally authored by Yeshua.

Tradition has had a tremendous influence on church history, and people often feel more strongly about their traditions than they do many other things, including the authority of scripture. Yeshua rebuked the Pharisees for this very thing saying, “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” (Mark 7:8)

I suggest that we take a step back and re-evaluate what it means to be a follower of Yeshua, and what it means to be the community of God. As we do this, I believe, we will grow closer to the Messiah, and start to resemble the people he desires us to be.

“The great Christian revolutions came not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when someone takes radically something that was always there.” - H. Richard Niebuhr