The feasts are seasons representing G-D's dealings with His people, both Jewish and non-Jewish. They symbolize the major encounters between G-D and his covenant people. By the long summer months, when there is no feast, G-D very graphically shows the Jewish people that there would be a long period of time in the future when He would not make Himself known to them on a national basis.
He would still be saving individual Jews, but His attention would be directed towards the non-Jews. G-D chose the Jews as a nation of people through which He would work out a portion of His divine plans and purposes. G-D would use them to write down and preserve the Scriptures, to bring the Messiah into the world, and proclaim the Gospel of Y'shua HaMoshiach to all nations. The Jews fulfilled these first two callings, but failed on the last, because they rejected Y'shua as their Messiah. When the Jews rejected Y'shua, G-D directed His attention towards the non-Jews. John said of Y'shua, He came to His own (Jews), and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them (non-Jews) he gave the right to become children of G-D, even to those who believe His Name {Yochanan (John) 1:11-12}. G-D amazingly revealed His plan for the non-Jews by placing a comment about non-Jews in Leviticus 23:22. This comment is between the last verse about Shavuot, and the first verse about the Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets) The poor and the alien are to glean of the Jews harvest.
The time of the fulfillment of Moshiach fills the time gap between the two comings of the Messiah. He came first as the Passover Lamb, then sent the Ruach HaKodesh (Spirit of G-D) to initiate the age of believers in Moshiach, or called out ones. When this age is over, He will return as the King of Kings, and L-RD of L-RDS. Sha’ul (Paul) summarizes all of this in Romans 9-11.
G-D gave these instructions: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it (Leviticus 23:23-25). The day was not marked by any special events other than the blowing of the trumpets and the offering of sacrifices. The Hebrews always blew trumpets on the first day of each month, so everyone knew the new month had arrived. BUT, on the Feast of Trumpets, they blew them extra long and extra loud, and they blew them all day. The type of trumpet blown was the rams horn; the Hebrew word is Shofar. The shofar was blown in remembrance of the ram that was sacrificed in place of Isaac.
To the Hebrews, the sound of the shofar represented both the voice of G-D, and the might of G-D in battle. They were blown to assemble the people to worship, to break camp, in order to move on, and as an alarm in preparation of war. There was an ancient belief that the loud sound from the shofar deterred demons.
As the Commander of the Army of G-D, and the Horn of our salvation, Y'shua has defeated the enemies of our soul. He overcame the adversary, and by His death and resurrection, He disarmed the evil powers of this world. The ULTIMATE fulfillment of the blowing of the shofar is the second coming of Y'shua HaMoshiach, which is described in Revelation 10. Yes, Y'shua the Messiah will crush all of His enemies, and rule His kingdom, which will never end.
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As we participate in our Rosh Hashanah service we will read the portion of Scripture about the akeidah or binding of Isaac. This episode gives us a picture of the faithfulness of Avraham Aveinu, our father Abraham, and his faith in G-D. As we read the text we find Abraham being asked to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to G-D. Abraham willingly prepares for this offering. The Scipture in Hebrews 11:17-19 we read:
“By trusting, Avraham, when he was put to the test, offered up Yitz'chak as a sacrifice. Yes, he offered up his only son, he who had received the promises, to whom it had been said, "What is called your 'seed' will be in Yitz'chak." For he had concluded that God could even raise people from the dead! And, figuratively speaking, he did so receive him.”
G-D had asked Avraham to offer the thing he loved most and held on to dearest. I was thinking about this verse and wondering to myself, would I willingly give to G-D anything he asked? I know many people have read these verses and used them to ask people for money or material things. However, I would like at this time of year to encourage every person reading this email to think about things in their lives that they know are not righteous, things we do or say that we know do not adhere to the teaching within the Word of G-D. Do we really love these sinful things more then we do G-D? G-D has asked us in His words to lay them down, to sacrifice our will for His. Sometimes this means bringing things to the altar of sacrifice that we have grown to love, things that have become the most important to us, things that we hold on to dearly. I am speaking now of things like jealousy, anger, bitterness, covetousness and other things we know we hold deep in our hearts. What things do we place in a spot of more importance then our love and service to G-D? Do we place our children’s desires above G-D’s word? How about our spouse’s desires? I would ask each of us to search our hearts. Remember this, just as Avraham knew in his heart that nothing G-D asked for as a sacrifice would really become a loss to him, nothing G-D asks from us will cost us anything in the end.
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