The Psalms 8 - How Majestic Is Your Name

Ok, it’s been more than a week since the last blog, but it’s been a little while longer since our last look at the Psalms. Consider that remedied. Today we look at the Eighth Psalm, which is all about the majesty of our Great King!

Let’s get started…

For the music director, on the Gittith. A psalm of David.
1  Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who put your splendor above the heavens.

I don’t always choose a translation which chooses to use one of the transliterations of the tetragrammaton, but it seemed appropriate here since David mentions how majestic His name is in all the earth. In case anyone is wondering, here I used the LEB translation.

2  From the mouth of children and infants you have founded strength on account of your enemies, to silence the enemy and the avenger.

This brings to mind Matthew 11:25 where Jesus says that God has hidden things from the wise but revealed them to the little children. Or, likewise, where Jesus says that we have to have faith like children. It’s when we stop trying to argue with God over what’s possible that we’re truly starting to live in the faith that we’re supposed to walk out our lives. Faith isn’t some nebulous thing that is hard to pin down. Faith isn’t some mental concept that you can only understand in your brain. If a man is faithful to his wife, that doesn’t mean that he only walks out his love in his head; the man is faithful to her by his actions as well as his mental decisions. So let us have the faith of children and infants in our actions with God.

3  When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place— 4  what is a human being that you think of him? and a child of humankind that you care for him?

It really is amazing to think of all the things in creation and how we’re the created thing that God has chosen to interact with. God created everything, and then He closed creation by creating us in His image. And He created us to be his representatives throughout the earth to all of creation. But look at all the stars in the heavens, and look at the beauty of the leaves on the trees turning color in the autumn. And, we’re God’s ambassadors. He has chosen to be intimate with us, above all of creation. This is readily apparent in Psalm 115:16 where we read, “The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but He gave the earth to human beings.”

5  And you made him a little lower than heavenly beings, and with glory and with majesty you crowned him.

This almost sounds like we’re starting to talk about Messiah here. Frankly, when I first read this to start talking about the verse I read this as being about Messiah. In the second chapter of the book of Hebrews we get this description of Jesus, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of the death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” So while this verse is talking here about human kind, it was also taken by the author of Hebrews to be about Jesus. This is probably a good time to mention that God does this more than a few times. Sometimes, you may think you’re reading about one thing, but then you realize you’re reading about something else. Does that mean that it’s no longer about the first thing? Not at all. In my opinion (and that’s all this is…), God does this to show us that things are bigger than just our puny view of things.

6  You make him over the works of your hands; all things you have placed under his feet: 7  sheep and cattle, all of them, and also the wild animals of the field, 8  the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, everything that passes along the paths of seas.

Again, this is still, on the surface level, about mankind and his place in creation, but this is beautiful illustration of how the Messiah is not only the Son of God but is also the Son of Man.

9  Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all of the earth!

It’s a somewhat short verse but it’s huge in its scope. There are many different sides to the argument of how you pronounce “the Name”, but I think the point is that He is BIGGER than this argument. Whether you say “Yahweh”, or “Jehovah”, or “Yehovah”, or “Yahuah”, or “Adonai”, or just “the LORD”… He’s bigger than the argument. He knows who you are and everything about you. Historically, proclaiming the name of someone wasn’t necessarily just saying that person’s name; it was more along the lines of speaking with their authority, and it was declaring their very being. So in saying, “how majestic is your name in all of the earth,” what we’re actually seeing is the declaration that YHVH is the very essence of what majesty is on the earth. Majesty, a term used of kings; and He is our great King. The King of Kings. David wrote this while being the king of Israel, yet he had a great Suzerain King, who he gave his fealty to. So if the king of a nation can give fealty to our great King, how much more should we do the same?

The Forgotten Feasts: Sukkot

The Feast of Tabernacles (or the Feast of Booths) is a glorious time of rejoicing. In fact, traditionally this feast is referred to as “The Season Of Our Joy”. This feast is meant to be a reminder if when our God guided us through the wilderness after Egypt and we lived in temporary dwelling places. The Hebrew name for the feast is “Sukkot”. As part of the feast all members of the Commonwealth of Israel are supposed to build a ‘Sukkah’ (a tent, of sorts) so they can be reminded of the time when their God brought them through the wilderness. Let’s look at the primary Scriptures for this festival.

Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the Israelites, saying, 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, this shall be the Feast of Booths for seven days for Yahweh. On the first day there shall be a holy assembly; you must not do any regular work. For seven days you must present an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day it shall be a holy assembly for you, and you shall present an offering made by fire to Yahweh; it is a celebration; you must not do any regular work. "'These are Yahweh's festivals, which you must proclaim, holy assemblies to present an offering made by fire to Yahweh—burnt offering and grain offering, sacrifice and libations, each on its proper day—besides Yahweh's Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides your vows and besides all your freewill offerings that you give to Yahweh. "'Surely on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, at your gathering the land's produce, you shall hold Yahweh's festival for seven days; on the first day there shall be a rest period and on the eighth day a rest period. And on the first day you shall take for yourselves the first fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees and branches of a leafy tree and of a brook's poplar trees, and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God for seven days. And you must hold it as a festival for Yahweh for seven days in the year; it shall be a lasting statute throughout your generations; in the seventh month you must hold it. You must live in the booths for seven days; all the natives in Israel must live in the booths, so that your generations shall know that I made the Israelites live in booths when I brought them from the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.'"
(Leviticus 23:33-43 LEB)

This feast can kind of be seen as the second half of the bookend of feasts; closing what was opened during Passover. Passover opened with a High Sabbath where no work was to be done and it also closed with a High Sabbath, too. Likewise, Sukkot opens and closes with High Sabbaths also. One of the differences is that while it is said that, “this shall be a Feast of Booths for seven days,” it is also commanded that on the eighth day shouldn’t do any regular work. So there are seven days to the feast but there are also eight. Biblically, seven is the number of completion and eight is the number of new beginnings. Prophetically, the Feast of Tabernacles would seem to be the time when Jesus would come back for His millennial reign to rule over His people on the earth. We know that the millennial reign of Christ is meant to be the sabbath millennium and a time of rest, but at the end of that thousand years the devil will be let out of Sheol for one final battle against God before he is thrown into the lake of fire. After he has finally been defeated there will commence an eight day, a time of new beginnings. We don’t know much about what will happen after the millennium but this eight day (or, the Great Day, as it’s traditionally referred to) is the day to celebrate God’s final victory over the dragon.

There are more than a few ways we can look at this festival and see spiritual meanings we can apply to our lives. Let’s look through a few of them and then I’ll leave it to you to see if you can come up with any more.

  1.     The Eighth Day – We’ve already mentioned this not too long ago but this is a time where we can celebrate our Father’s victory over the devil. While we know that the LORD’s victory has been assured from the foundation of the earth, this is a time that marks the final victory.

  2.     The Millennium – We’ve kind of already touched on this one, too, so we’ll just hit this real quick. As this is the last of the yearly Feasts, this one is the commencement of the Millennial reign of our Messiah on the earth. If you want to read more about the Millennium then I’d suggest you read the last nine chapters of the book of Ezekiel and chapter 20 of the book of Revelation. There are other places where you can go to gather information on the Millennium, but these are two good starting points.

       All Nations – There is another thing to look at concerning the Feast of Tabernacles when we’re looking at the millennial kingdom of Jesus, and that’s something that comes up in Zecheriah 14 (which is also about the Millennium, if you’re looking for more to read on this topic). We read, starting in verse 16:

And then every survivor from all those nations coming against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths. And then whoever of the clans of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, it will not rain on them. And if the clan of Egypt will not go up and come in, on them will be that plague Yahweh inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

(Zechariah 14:16-19)

From this we can tell that, once we are in the Kingdom, we will be celebrating this Feast. And if we are to follow the words of our Messiah and “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” (Matt 6:33) then we should really be trying to do the things that we’ll be doing in the kingdom. But, if nothing else, this is a good reason for us to treat this feast as a rehearsal for the joy that is to come.

  3.     Bemidbar – Another way that you can look at this Feast is just a straightforward reading of the Scripture. The Hebrew world Bemidbar ( בְּמִדְבַּר – H4057) means “in the wilderness” and, in fact, that’s what the name of the book of Numbers is, in the Hebrew Bible. The book of Numbers is the story of the wilderness wonderings of the people of Israel. Since the LORD wanted Israel to celebrate this feast to remind them of how He brought them through their wilderness, we can do the same. We all have times where we’re in the wilderness. Maybe it’s not the wilderness of Sinai, but there are times where it feels like we’re spiritually wondering through the wilderness. Whether you’re in one of those times right now, or if you have the opportunity to celebrate coming out of the wilderness, this is a good time to reflect on how God can get you through our toughest trials.

  4.     Tabernacled Among Us – In the beginning of the book of John we read about the origins of Jesus, but unlike the other gospels John puts more of a focus on Jesus’s divine origin. In the course of his telling of the origins of Jesus he says the following, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”. At first glance, while this is certainly an important, HUGE concept that is worthy of much study, it doesn’t really appear that this would have much to do with the Feast of Tabernacles. But let’s look a little closer at the Greek word that’s translated as “dwelt”. The Greek word is “skenoo” (σκηνόω) and its primary meaning is “to tent” or “encamp”. In fact, if we look at some other translations we see that other translators have made decisions that look a lot closer to this meaning. The ISV says, “The World became flesh and lived among us,” but the notation provided is “Lit. pitched his tent”. And then when you look at translations which have more of an eye toward the Hebrew nature of the faith you find things like what the Tree of Life translation does, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacle among us…”. Some scholars believe that this inclusion indicates that Jesus was actually born during the Feast of Tablernacles, since this reference is given during John’s description of Jesus’s origin. In any case, this is a great time to remember how our Messiah came to earth and tabernacled among us, so that He could show us how to walk out our lives.

  5.     We Are Tabernacles – This is actually a pretty cool concept that we don’t usually spend enough time exploring. As believers in Messiah, this world is not our home. So these skin suits that we currently reside in are really just our temporary dwelling places. When the end of the age comes we will be given resurrection bodies. In 2 Corinthians 5 we read the following, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 1 Corinthians 15:35-49 goes a little bit more in depth on what our future tabernacles will be made of and verse 44 let’s us know that there are two different bodies (tabernacles) that we’re talking about here when Paul says, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” 

  6.    River of Living Water – So one of the ceremonies which was performed every day during Sukkot was the water libation ceremony. Throughout the first seven days of the Feast priests got water from the Pool of Siloam and brought it to the temple where they poured it out at the base of the alter. Until, on the last day – the Great Day – when this ceremony was not performed, but there were several passages of scripture read. You can imagine, Jesus standing in the audience as the priests read Isaiah 55, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters…”, they would then read out of Ezekiel and the whole crowd would hear the priests saying, “and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east…” and then they would read Zecheriah 14 where it says, “And in that day it shall be – That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem.” And after all this is said, Jesus bellows out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believers in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Many of us have grown up with this verse but have never really thought of the context that Jesus said it in.

  7.    Ingathering – Finally, we’ll look at what this Feast meant agriculturally. While the first two feasts of the year dealt with different forms of firstfruits (the third part of Passover is the celebration of the first fruits of the barley, and Pentecost deals with the harvest of the wheat), this third Feast was for all of the rest of the harvest. So if you’re a Christian out there looking forward to the final harvest of the saints, this just might be the festival for you.

As is usually the case, there’s so much more to this than we’ve gone over here, but I wanted to give you a quick overview of this joyous festival. We’re in the middle of it right now. Actually, by the time I get this posted it will probably be about done. Right now I’m in the middle of the woods enjoying some camping relaxation and there’s no internet, so this is just gonna have to get posted when I find a signal. Until then, I hope that everyone has been having a great week, and that you’ve found some time to rejoice in the grace of our Father.

Shalom!

The Psalms 7: In You Do I Take Refuge

Last time I posted in this series on the psalms I made the unfortunate statement that I was posting at least once per week. Well, I’m almost a week overdue on this one if this is the case so why don’t we all just forget about that little misstep.

We’ve made it all the way up to the seventh psalm so there’s only 143 to go (you know, if you’re only counting Psalm 119 as one psalm…). This one is a little longer than the first few, coming in at 17 verses long, so I’m

A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.
1 O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, 2 lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.

I guess I should probably, first give a definition of the word ‘Shiggaion’. In some translations this word is translated as ‘meditation’. The concensus seems to be that the word means ‘wandering’. So it’s kind of like a meandering, leisurely walk through the woods. David’s gonna just go wherever his thoughts take him and he’s gonna be just fine with that.

You have to wonder if this is meant to symbolize how he managed to elude the pursuits of King Saul for so long; he wandered through the wilderness, listening to the nudging of the Holy Spirit. Going where the Spirit told him and finding safety in the shiggaion of the Spirit. The first even speaks to his reliance on Yahweh for his deliverance from those who pursue him.

3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, 4 if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, 5 let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah

How much better would our lives be if we everyone would live their life like this? Or, how much better would my life be if I chose to be this honest with my unrighteousness? Am I willing to let my life hang on every action that I take? No way! But I want to be!

6 Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment. 7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high. 8 The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.

OK, I need to take a minute and point out how crazy this sounds to me. I mean, I try to always walk out my life in a way which would be pleasing to the Father. I try to do my best to follow in the footsteps my Messiah has taken. But the key part of that last sentence is “try to do my best.” While I’d like to be able to say that I do my best, there are so many times that I slip up. There are so many times that my focus turns back onto myself. There are so many times that my eyes turn away from Jesus and back onto myself. And here we have David pleading with the God of the universe – the very definition of righteousness – to judge him according to his own righteousness. I am way too aware of my filthy unrighteousness to ever make a statement like this. I thank God every day for the grace I have been shown through Jesus that I might be considered justified, even though my steps turn to the side more often than they should. Actually, that’s a lie; I don’t thank God every day for the grace I’ve been shown, even though I should. That’s kind of what I’m talking about. My intent is to be righteous, but I know that I’m not. And David would’ve known the same thing, yet he still wanted to be judged according to his righteousness. And that is probably why David was a man after God’s own heart. And I pray that the Father leads me further down the path that leads to this heart.

It should also be noted that David was willing to subject himself to the same judgement as the judgement he was asking of the LORD for his enemies. How much would we seek retribution if we were willing to be judged by the same righteous standard?

9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous-- you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!

There is so much righteousness on the mind of David. How much do we think of what it means to be righteous and how ardently do we strive after that righteousness?

10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

Hidden in this is that in order for God to be your shield, you have to be upright in heart. Again David is calling upon God to save him because he’s sure of his uprightness. I don’t know how many times I can express how crazy I think this is. I hope to someday be able to be so sure of myself!

11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.

Take this in for a second. Because God is so righteous he sees our righteousness as indignation. We claim to be the Temple of the Holy Spirit but we have such a whimsical view of unrighteousness. We need to question why we don’t detest sin like God does.

12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; 13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.

Even in the face of words like these, we’re still complacent with our view on sin. I’m speaking to myself more than anyone else. Speaking candidly, I sometimes feel like I deserve the grace I’m given; like I’ve earned it for having acted in a way that He would appreciate, most of the time. But the truth is that even our righteousness is like filthy rags compared to Yahweh’s righteousness (Is 64:6). And if even my righteousness is filthy rags before Him, why should I think that I deserve God’s grace?

14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. 15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. 16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

This is the reward of the wicked, that the malice you dole out will be given back to you in the end. In verse 15 there’s imagery of the wicked digging a pit that he himself has dug out. I can’t help but think of the pit that Joseph was thrown into by his brothers. Now, that’s where the similarity ends. Joseph had nothing to do with digging out that pit, but I think of him being thrown in that pit and everything that occurred to him afterward. If all of that is what awaits the wicked, does any of us really want to deal with the pit, let alone the being the servant, or being the prisoner?

17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

Through all of this; through David hanging his future on his own righteousness (which I’m not prepared to do for my own righteousness) and through his being falsely accused by the wicked and unrighteous who are pursuing him, he still holds the righteousness of the LORD as the reason He should be praised.

My prayer is that the Father will give me this attitude. I wholeheartedly want to see the world this way. None of my good deeds are worth the grace and love that I’m given, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll stop doing them. We do these works because we’re not deserving of the grace and love we’re given. We do these good deeds because the Father first loved us. And what better way to show your love for someone than by doing the things they like.

I hope that this has been a blessing to you. We’ll be back again with our next look at the Psalms real soon.

Have a blessed day and Shalom!

The Forgotten Feasts: Yom Kippur Part 2: Shmitahs and Jubilees

Speaking of atonement and deliverance from the bondage of sin and death, Yom Kippur is also the day that Shmitah and Jubilee years are initiated. This has actually been one of my favorite topics as of late so I’m not really sure how long it’s gonna take to get to the other side.

There are two corporate things which are announced on Yom Kippur: Shmitahs and Jubilees. Shmitahs have kind of been in the Christian vernacular as of late because of Jonathan Cahn’s book The Harbinger which proposed that God was judging America in Shmitah cycles. Over that last few years that was then tied in with Blood Moon Tetrads and people started predicting the end of the world.

Let’s look at the verses that go into the details of the Sabbath year, Shmitah…

"Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food. (Lev 25:2-7 ESV)

God instituted a workweek for us (Days 1-6) and then we are to rest on the seventh day, and focus on Him. Likewise, God also instituted a workweek for the land. While the Israelites were in the land they were to only farm the land for six years at a time and then they were supposed to let the land have its rest in the seventh year. Actually, the fact that they didn’t do this is the reason that’s given for them being kicked out of the land and sent to Babylon (2 Chr 36:21). And if you really want to do the math on how long they hadn’t been keeping the land’s Sabbath then you’ll see that it goes the whole way back to the time of David, the man after God’s own heart. It’s possible that once they had an earthly king (because they no longer wanted to be ruled by only their heavenly King) they never actually gave the land its Sabbath rest. I’m still looking into all the dates but it’s pretty harrowing to see how quickly we can go astray, even if this was after the time of King David.

This is an ordinance which God gave the Israelites when they were crossing over the Jordan and coming into the land. It would seem to me that any attempt to dictate that this is a law to anyone outside of the Promised Land of Israel is going outside of the words written in the Bible. That doesn’t mean that people should be opposed to stepping out in faith and keeping the Sabbath for their land, if they feel that God is leading them to do that. Especially since giving a sabbath rest to the land has been proven to make good, sound agricultural sense. But, I don’t think you can make prove that this is something that should be done no matter where you live.

There’s another level to the Shmitah that we should look at as well. And that’s that this is a time that all captives go free. This is a time of release and reset. In Deuteronomy 15 we are told the following:

"At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the LORD's release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. But there will be no poor among you; for the LORD will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess-- if only you will strictly obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. For the LORD your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. (Deu 15:1-6 ESV)

Can you imagine how revolutionary it would be if we actually started living like this? Is anyone really prepared to personally release all of the debt that anyone owes us every seven years? Our entire societal structure is, seemingly, made up on the building blocks of never ending debt. And it should also be noted that this was supposed to be carried out without predatory lending practices like giving a higher interest rate as you get closer to the Sabbath year. Loans should be done at the same rate no matter if you were in year one or in year six. Actually, you weren’t even supposed to charge interest to other members of the Commonwealth of Israel (Deut 23:19). Are we honest enough to admit that this seems outrageous to us in today’s culture?

When we look at the Jubiliee year, it’s an even more extreme version of the Shmitah year. It’s a celebration of even greater liberty and deliverance than the normal seven year cycle provides. I guess I’ll first provide the Scriptural reference spelling out what a Jubilee year is:

"You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field. "In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. (Lev 25:8-13 ESV)

It's fairly evident that this time is all about liberty and deliverance, but should that be surprising? We have to remember that the Israelites were given these Holy Days after just having been delivered and given their liberty from Egypt. The concept of liberty from oppression is foundational to the very core of the nation of Israel. If we keep this in mind when we’re looking at the Shmitah and the Jubilee years then you see that these are not only remembrances of the deliverance which they were given, but they are also celebrations which allow the people who were once delivered to take part in the deliverance. If God is righteous (and He is), and we are supposed seek after His righteousness (and we are), then this is an opportunity which the Father has given his people to practice a part of His righteousness.

But there’s more…

Moses was the instrument God used to deliver His people out of bondage to Egypt, and he’s remembered as such. But the Israelites were told of another prophet who would come who would be like Moses (Deut 18:15), and in Acts 3:22-23 we are told (not that we needed too much arm-twisting) that this prophet was Jesus.

A prophet like Moses. What could that mean?

Throughout Scripture there are many prophets but one of the things which sets Moses apart is that not only did he speak for God, but he also brought deliverance for the entire nation (plus some)! So this prophet like Moses (who we’ve already established to be Jesus) would not only be known for speaking the very Word of God, but He would also be the instrument which would bring the people out of bondage and slavery. In John 8:34 Jesus shows his hand when he says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” Paul doubles down in Romans 6 when he wrote, “you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

It would appear that the deliverance that this prophet like unto Moses was going to provide was going to be something even greater than the deliverance which came at the time of Moses. In the book of Jeremiah (16:14-15) it is prophesied that there will be an exodus that will be so great that the exodus of Moses’ time would be overshadowed. In the time of Moses the Israelites were delivered out of the land of Egypt but in the time of the prophet who was to come after Moses the people would be delivered out of all lands. And if the locality from which the people came was to be greater, is it out of the question that the type of deliverance would be greater? At the time of Moses, the people were saved out of physical bondage to Egypt but at the time of Jesus the people were saved out of spiritual bondage to sin and death.

To drive the point home I’d like to look at one of the key Jubilee prophecies in the Old Testament. Isaiah 61 was long considered to be a prophecy of the Messiah bringing a restoration of the Kingdom of God to the people of Israel. Let’s look at the first couple verses of this chapter:

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,”

The first thing we should look at is the part where it says, “to proclaim liberty to the captives”. If we go back to where we were first told about the Jubilee year in Leviticus we see that one of the main functions of the Jubilee was to “proclaim liberty throughout the land to all of its inhabitants.” The same words for “proclaim liberty” are used in both instances. You may have already recognized that Jesus, in His first public act recorded in the Gospels, stood in front of the synagogue and read this very passage (minus the very end of the second verse…).

There’s a second thing to look at in that first verse of Isaiah 61. You know that part where it says, “the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor”? What word do you think was translated in order to get the words “good tidings”? Well, the Hebrew word is bâśar (בּשׂר), but that may not ring that many bells. So what word is used in the New Testament when Jesus quotes this passage from Isaiah? The word is euaggelizō (εὐαγγελίζω) which is used many times in the New Testament. And what is it translated as? You’re probably ahead of me on this one but it’s English translation is “gospel”. So we see in this Jubilee Scripture in Isaiah that Messiah was going to be coming to preach the gospel. In modern Christianity we sometimes get this idea that the gospel was something that was never mentioned before Jesus died on the cross, but the fact that He was going to preach the gospel was prophesied seven-hundred years before He was born into this world.

I want to close this post with a piece of Scripture which I believe is extremely relevant to this new exodus that Messiah has led us through.

And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. (Luk 9:30-31 NKJV)

At first glance, this verse doesn’t necessarily look like it has much to do with this predicted new exodus. But what if we look a little deeper at the Greek word for “decease”. The word used is the Greek word “̓́ξοδος”. It may be a little bit difficult to decipher from the Greek characters but the transliteration is “exodos”. You can probably figure out that word! That word is only used two other times in the Bible. In 2 Peter 2:15 it is used in reference to the death of Peter. In Hebrews 11:12 it is used for the in reference to the exodus of the children of Israel leaving Egypt. So, in light of the prophetic expectation of the Messiah leading the Commonwealth of Israel out of their bondage to sin and death, do you think that it’s possible that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were talking about this new exodus? And how important do you think this new exodus was that Moses and Elijah showed up to talk to Jesus about it?

In summation, I didn’t really even go over that much pertaining to the Shmitahs and Jubilees, and I didn’t really do justice to the parts that I did go over. In fact, now’s a good time to say that I probably got some stuff wrong. I’ve tried my best to present only the truth, but no one should view me as infallible. Search out the Scriptures and do research. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much you’ll enjoy what you find, regardless of whether I made a mistake or not…

Until next time…

Blessings and Shalom!

The Forgotten Feasts: Yom Kippur Part 1

This is actually a harder one to write than I expected. I’m writing this opening at a time that I’m trying to think of exactly what to write elsewhere in this post. This is just one day on the calendar but there is SO much to talk about, and it’s really more than just one day when all is said and done. Ok, I’m going to go back to trying to get this written. Whatever comes of it is what you’re about to read. I hope it does justice to what is the most amazing of days!

Recommended Scripture Reading: Leviticus 16; Leviticus 23:26-32; Leviticus 25:1-55; Numbers 29:7-11; Isaiah 58:1-11; Isaiah 61; Ezekiel 46:17; Jonah (this book is all about repentance, on both sides); Luke 4:17-19;Hebrews (when read in context the whole book is really about Yom Kippur but let’s try to stick to chapters 7-10)

Yom Kippur – First and foremost we should probably go over just what “Yom Kippur” means. Yom Kippur is the “Day of Atonement”, or the “Day of Covering”. To go even more in-depth, it’s actually plural so it’s the Day of Atonements, but we’ll just focus on the less in-depth today, since I’m pretty sure this is going to be a fairly huge topic, and I’m only barely going to go into each part of the topic. Suffice it to say, there’s going to be a lot of stuff for you to search out yourself! Before we get started, let’s just read over the primary Scripture for Yom Kippur.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. For any person who is not afflicted in should on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who des any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.

Is there any doubt that a day which is meant to be for the atonement of the people is going to be important? It’s been said before that Passover is meant to be about personal sin but Yom Kippur is about the sin of the nation. And, while it is most definitely about sin, it’s about something much more than that.  Not only is Yom Kippur about sin, it’s about the deliverance from that sin. It’s about God setting you free from the bondage you’ve unknowingly attached yourself to.

Passover, again similarly, is the celebration of the deliverance from the bondage of the oppression that you can see. The Israelites knew the Egyptians were their taskmasters. God supernaturally freed them from their bondage on Passover and, so long as they obeyed the Torah they would be able to live in the land in freedom.

But what about the sin that you don’t know you commit? What about when you disobey the Instructions unknowingly, or you cause someone else to do so? This is one of the things Yom Kippur is for. That is an extreme oversimplification of Yom Kippur but it gets across the general idea that we are dirty. We were born into sin. You’ll sometimes hear people say that it’s impossible to “keep the Law” and while this, too, is an oversimplification of some cherry picked verses, the truth is that not everyone will keep all of the Law. And if there was someone who was within the camp that had sinned, even unknowingly, it dirtied the entire camp of Israel. It’s because of this that Yom Kippur was put into place. But let’s look deeper. Beginning with the start of the sixth month of the Hebrew calendar (Elul) until Yom Kippur (40 days) it is customary to seek God’s face and repent (perform teshuvah) of any sin which is brought to your mind. Two things to keep in mind:

      

      1.       Repentance is not, nor will it every be, just saying that you’re sorry. Repentance is looking at what you’ve done and seeing how you’ve gone against what God wants from you and turning from it to not do that thing again. The turning away is more important than the words. Today we sometimes think that we can apologize for things done wrong and then everything is fine but if your words aren’t followed up by actions then did you really mean it. If you’re married and your partner does something which they know that you can’t stand. They then apologize but they go on to do the same thing that very same day, do you think that they really meant their apology, or were they just saying it because they didn’t like they way you were looking at them?

      2.       This whole thing starts 40 days earlier, at the beginning of Elul, but once Rosh HaShanah hits it really kicks into high gear. The last ten days are traditionally called the 10 Days of Awe. Every day we try to dig deeper. Every day we ask God to bring to our attention anything we need to turn away from.  By the time you get all the way up to that last day (and you’re fasting on that last day, too) you should be in a place of total obedience. No matter how passionate I’ve ever started out each year, over time I’ve always let that passion slip away without even knowing it. It’s good to have this time each year to reflect and to resubmit to the will of the Father.

As I mentioned in that second point on Yom Kippur we make it a practice to not eat, and to afflict our souls. Fasting is a long-held spiritual tradition. One of the cool things that I’ve learned in recent years is that there’s now science behind why fasting leads to spiritual insight. Growing up I was always just led to believe that fasting is done so that, by withholding physical sustenance from yourself, you were forced to rely on the sustenance from God. While this is certainly a good idea, and even true, there’s actually a chemical reaction which takes place in your body when you’re denying yourself sustenance. There’s a chemical that our bodies create naturally called DMT (although, recently there are those in the more new-agey parts of society who are taking this stuff artificially to get the spiritual high that comes along with it.) When taken artificially this chemical has been known to open your senses up to ‘other dimensions’. The way that this relates to fasting is that our bodies don’t normally store up that much DMT because there’s another chemical our bodies produce during the digestive process which nullifies DMT. So, if you’re not eating, and therefore not digesting, the DMT that your bodies naturally produce is free to build up and give you more intense spiritual insights. There’s a lot more to this whole thing and I would advise people to not enter into physical research of DMT unless through prayer and fasting, but that’s the science of it all.

So now you have an idea why fasting does what it does, but the bigger point is that we’re supposed to be trying to fast and get to that place of spiritual discernment because we want to better understand what God has for us. But the big question is why is this day so important, right?

Well, as was mentioned in the last post in this series (Rosh HaShanah) Yom Kippur is the day that judgements are released. Technically both Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah are considered to be a Day of Judgement (Yom HaDin). The rabbis believed that on Rosh HaShanah God opened up His books and those who were really good were inscribed on the Book of Life and those who were really bad were given over to the Book of Death. And then there was those in the middle; the people who weren’t super good or super bad. You know, most everyone. These people had the next ten days to repent and turn away from their sin so that they might be inscribed in the Book of Life. This belief may seem antiquated to our modern minds, and none of that is actually more than tradition so it shouldn’t be viewed as a reason to focus on repentance over the Ten Days of Awe, but I think that it’s reason enough to just want to get right with God. You can go as deep with the symbolism as you want but the true follower of Jesus really just wants to be following the way which our Messiah walked out for us.

Let’s look a little deeper at what was actually done on Yom Kippur when there was still a Temple around. This is, to my knowledge, the only time in the Bible that an entire chapter is given over to the specifics of how the priests should perform the Temple service for just one specific day. Like I said before, this is an important day! Leviticus 16 spells it all out.

We’ll just do a quick overview to highlight the importance and holiness of this day. I want to add, before we start into this, that this is by no means a thorough list of everything that needed to be done and there will probably be some who are offended by my attempt to “dumb down” the things that happen on this day. I’m by no means trying to belittle the events of the day; I’m just trying to express the significance of the day in a way which is easy to take in. I apologize to you if you’re offended by the quick overview of the description of the events of the day. First the High Priest would procure a young bull and a ram as a sin offering and a burnt offering. This is to cover the sins of the High Priest so he’s even able to enter into the Holy Place in the Temple. Then, even though he had to bathe thoroughly in the corridors below the temple to make himself clean earlier that morning he has to bathe again and put on different clothes which are only used this one time each year so that he has on the right vestments. Now he sacrifices the bull which was mentioned earlier to make himself ready to go into the presence of the Most High. He then brings two young goats to the entrance of the Temple so YHWH can see them and he casts lots for them. One of them would get the lot to be sacrificed to the LORD and the other would get the lot of the “scapegoat”. There’s a whole BIG teaching which could be looked at here concerning what the scapegoat is and what the word used for the scapegoat is, but I want to be able to have this posted before we actually get to the Day of Atonement, so I’m going to leave that to the reader to search out. The part of the goat sacrifice that we need to go over is this: The goat who’s lot fell to YHWH would be sacrificed for the sins of all of the people of Israel and the goat who’s lot it was to be the scapegoat would be presented alive to YHWH to make atonement for it by setting it free to go out into the wilderness. One would die so that the other might live. At this point there’s more to be done with the blood of the goat, and the blood of the bull that was sacrificed. This is also the point which the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies. This only happened this one day each year. It was in the Holy of Holies that God’s presence resided, and this was the only time throughout the year that anyone was allowed to enter it. The High Priest would perform specific functions laid out in Leviticus 16 – and those functions only! – and then he would come out and finish the rest of the priestly duties for the day, and then he had to change out of the Yom Kippur clothing, bathe, and then change back into the priestly clothing he started the day with. Then there’s going to be a burnt offering for the people so that the sins of the people will go up in smoke on the alter. Then the ‘scapegoat’ is given to a priest who will actually lead the goat out to the wild (there are later traditions attached to this but this is what was first prescribed).

As I said earlier, this is just a brief overview and there’s more to this all, but I wanted to give a quick rundown of the pomp that is attached to this day.

We’re next going to go into another function of Yom Kippur which may run a bit long so we’ll stop here for now. I’m really not sure how much I’m going to go into about Jubilee years so I want to get this Yom Kippur post out a couple days ahead of the day so you guys can look into it before it happens. I’ll probably have the Jubilee post up on the actual day. I think you’ll find that looking into the Jubilee is one of the most important studies you can enter into. But let’s leave that for the weekend…

I hope that everyone has been at least a little blessed by some of the information presented here.

Shalom, everyone!

The Forgotten Feasts: Rosh HaShanah

Relevant Scripture: Leviticus 23:23-25; Numbers 29:1-6; Psalms 47; Psalms 69:28; Psalms 81; Isaiah 4:3; Daniel 12:1; Matthew 25:31-46; Philippians 2:12; 1 Thes 4:17; 2 Thes 2:6-7; Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 20:15, 21:27, 22:19

Let’s get right into this one since this Feast actually happened a couple days ago!

Rosh HaShanah – First of all I guess we should say that this Feast isn’t really called Rosh HaShanah in the Bible. The first time we’re told about this Feast (Leviticus 23:23-25) it is referred to as a “memorial of blowing of trumpets”. For this reason it was traditionally referred to as Yom Teruah, or Feast of Trumpets. That word Teruah (H8643 – תּרוּעה) means “alarm, signal, sound of tempest, shout, shout or blast of war or alarm or joy” (from the BDB). It’s usually applied to a trumpet but, as you can see from the definition, it could just be a sound coming from your mouth. Think Jericho.  The reason it’s commonly called Rosh HaShanah (Head of the Year) is because the Israelite civil year starts on this day.

I guess now would be a good time to briefly explain that there are multiple ‘years’ in a Biblical mindset. At first this may seem a little confusing but if we allow ourselves to take a step back when we think it over it’s really not all that out of the ordinary. We have the year that we normally think of (January through December) but many of us work places which have a ‘fiscal year’ which differs from the normal year. We also have a ‘school year’. For most this begins in late August or early September and it doesn’t start again until the next August or September. The Hebrew calendar acts very similarly. The religious year starts in the spring. In the month called Nisan (this is the month that Passover takes place during). The civil year starts on Rosh HaShanah, and this is where they would reason the length of the reigns of kings, and this is also the beginning of the year for agriculture. It is during the fall that the “early rains” fall, and it is during the spring that the “latter rains” fall. You may have read in the Bible about the early rains and the latter rains. When I first read about them, and looked into them, it was weird to me that the latter rains were earlier in the year than the early rains. Understanding that there were different calendars really helped out with my overall understanding of that whole rain thing. I don’t want to take up too much space going over how the year works so I hope that this was helpful in understanding the basics of it.

I should mention that there are some out there who say that the Jews started keeping Rosh HaShanah as the beginning of the new year when they were in captivity in Babylon because that is when the Babylonians held their new year’s festival (Akitu) and they wanted to continue celebrating Akitu when they returned to Jerusalem. While I understand the want to be critical of traditions which aren’t specifically mentioned in the Bible, the Akitu claim doesn’t really hold much water. It turns out that in Babylon Akitu was actually celebrated in the spring. I’m certainly willing to listen to arguments on this one but, at this point, most historical documents would point to a spring Akitu celebration. I'll post a teaching at the bottom which does a good job of going into this (and is just an amazing overall teaching on Rosh Hashanah/Yom Teruah).

Ok, let’s look at the some of the prophetic implications of this Feast. This Feast is historically known as the Feast that no man knows the day or the hour when it will occur. That probably deserves some explaining. Yom Teruah is the one Feast which is on the first day of a month. The Hebrew calendar was a lunar calendar which begin when the first sliver of the moon was sighted. Admittedly, there are those who would argue when the month begins (whether it’s the siting of the first sliver of the moon, or when the moon is in full conjunction and you can’t see it), but Yom Teruah begins when the first sliver of the moon is spotted. When a person would spot that first sliver they would run to the Temple and tell a priest. But this wasn’t good enough. There needed to be Two Witnesses in order for the moon to be officially sighted. So when the second person reported the sighting of the moon, the High Priest would officially declare the Feast was at hand. One of the problems here is that it could be a cloudy night, or the moon could come out from behind the shadow of the earth after it had already set. Because of this, there was no way that anyone could accurately predict which day the moon would be sighted. For this reason it is traditionally known as the Feast that “no man knows the day or the hour”. So when Jesus says of His return in Matthew 24:36, “of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only,” those who he was speaking to would’ve known exactly what He was talking about. Since most of us don’t really pay much attention to the Feasts of the LORD we miss the context of this verse and we build up ‘doctrines’ saying that Jesus could return at any moment. Jesus fulfilled the Spring Feasts, in order during His first coming; what are the chances He’s not going follow this pattern during His second coming for the Fall Feasts? And then, if we have a little bit of understanding about the Feasts, He called out that Feast as the specific time that He would return.

Talk about prophetic implications! Want more evidence? Read 1 Thessalonians 4:16, “For the Lord Himself will descend with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and wit the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” This is one of the most key “rapture passages”. The Hebrew word for ‘shout’ is “teruah” (you know, like ‘Yom Teruah’) and we’re told that shout will be the trumpet of God.

I guess I should make a qualification that I don’t think that we need to start date setting. I just think that, when it does happen, it’s going to be on a Feast of Trumpets. Date setting is ridiculous and dangerous. It not only confuses what prophecy is supposed to be for (a sign for us to be able to look back and see that God is in control) but it also humiliates the Body of Christ at large by making Him look foolish.

Now that I have that out of the way, let’s get back to talking about Yom Teruah!

This Feast is probably given the least amount guidance on what you’re supposed to do to celebrate it. The only things really said is that you’re supposed to hear the blast of the shofar (or trumpet), you’re not supposed to work, and there are some sacrifices listed in the book of Numbers (interesting sidenote: these sacrifices are not for sin and it should be reasoned that not every animal sacrifice was meant to atone for sins). Traditionally in Jewish synagogue services the shofar is sounded 100 times as congregants dress all in white waiting for the last trumpet blast. In the Jewish prayer book (Machzor) for Rosh Hashanah you will sometimes find the following sentence, “May it be Your will that the sounding of the shofar, which we have done, will be embroidered in the veil by the appointed angel, as You accepted it by Elijah, of blessed memory and by Yeshua, the Prince of the Face (Face of Hashem) (Prince of God’s Presence) and the one who sits on God’s throne.” For those of you who don’t know, the name ‘Yeshua’ is the Hebrew name that Jesus would’ve actually been called when He walked the earth. Now, the more recent Machzor’s which are being printed no longer have this sentence in the prayers to the Father, but the older the version that you’re looking at is, the more likely it is to have this reference. Yeshua is considered to be the High Priest in the heavenly temple. I assure you, the Jewish leaders didn’t put that in there just to make the Christians happy.

Another thing that Rosh HaShanah is is a call to repentance. We’ll go into this more in depth for the next Holy Day, but Rosh HaShanah is the first day of what is traditionally considered the Ten Days of Awe. The Days of Awe lead up to our next Feast (Yom Kippur) and the whole time is spent reflecting on our sin and discovering any sin which we may have hidden away. This is the culmination of a bigger time of repentance which starts an entire month earlier. During the month of Elul (the month which comes directly before this seventh month (Tishri)) the tradition is to start the repenting of unconfessed sin. As stated previously, this all culminates in the final ten days leading up to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). In the next post we’ll go more into this but, as Rosh HaShanah is a part of this overall time of repentance, I wanted to at least mention it here. It’s really difficult to separate these two Festivals but to try to not confuse too much I’m doing my best to give the basics here.

So why is Rosh HaShanah (and the 39 days surrounding it) considered a time of repentance? Because the tradition is that this is the time of Judgement. As this is the beginning of the civil year, this is the time that God looks upon His people and judges whether, or not, they should be put into the Book of Life. The Book of Life isn’t a concept which began with Christianity. The book of Revelation has many elusions to the Book of Life but there are quite a few references in the Old Testament as well. Let’s look at just a few.

-          Exodus 32:31-33: Moses acknowledges the grave sin the people have made against God but Moses asks God to forgive their sin or to blot out Moses from His book as well. The LORD responded by saying, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blog him out of My book.” So God definitely has a book that has in it the names of those who are not sinning against Him.

-          Another way that this concept is referenced in the Bible is to mention those who are found among the living. In Isaiah 4:3 we read, “And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy – everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem.” If we read the verse before (Isaiah 4:2) we see that “the Branch of the LORD” is in view. This is reference to when the Messiah comes and rules on this earth. If you read Is 4:3 with your eyes toward the New Testament you might notice the similarity in a phrase here to what is considered one of the most clear ‘rapture’ passages (also referenced earlier in conjunction with this Holy Day). We have to remember that Paul was schooled in the Old Testament. In order to learn from the teacher he was learning under he would’ve had to memorize the entire Old Testament. So, when he says in 1 Thes 4:17, “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together…” we should be able to see that he was referencing what is written in Isaiah when it says, “he who is left in Zion and remains…”.

-          In Psalm 69:28 we read, “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living.” It should be noted not only that this is a reference to the Book of Life, but that this is something that you can be blotted out of. I’ll leave it to you to decide what this means but I will call back to something Paul wrote in Philippians 2:12 when he encouraged the Philippians to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

-          In Daniel 12:1 we read about the angel Michael, who is the restraining force keeping at bay the evil forces which would come against, standing up and ceasing his restraining (2 Thes 2:6-7). We read that though there will be trouble like there has never been, “Every one who is found written in the book” will be delivered.

There are more references but I think we’ve shown that this isn’t really a New Testament concept, but a concept which the New Testament is calling back to. Rosh HaShanah is the day we celebrate the coronation of our King and Judge and we know that He will judge us righteously based on what we’ve done to the least of those on this earth. In fact, one of the other names Rosh HaShanah is known by is Yom HaDin (the Day of Judgement) because it is on that day that it will be judged whether you should be inscribed on the Book of Life. As Christians we know that the Judge of the Earth is Jesus our Messiah (Matt 25:31-46).

Rosh HaShanah is a very ‘Christian’ festival and I would argue that it should be celebrated by every follow of Jesus. I did my best to keep it holy this year and hopefully, if you didn’t, you’ll consider it next year. It really is all about our Messiah and King!

Next time we’ll be looking at what is considered the most holy day of the year, Yom Kippur. Hopefully I’ll have that one out before the actual day so you’ll have some information before we enter into that day. Remember, over the coming week to reflect each day on what sin might be in your life, and look for ways to turn away from that sin. These are part of the Days of Awe (we’ll go over that next time…) 😉

Shalom! And, blessings to all!

Posted below is a great teaching on all of this that I had referenced earlier:

The Forgotten Feasts: The Introduction

Many times Christianity has no real sense of itself. We’re so scared to be like the Sadducees and Pharisees our Lord and Savior clashed with that we’ve disowned our very heritage. We’ve thrown the proverbial baby out with the bath water. The only problem is that we are the baby in this scenario. We’re throwing ourselves out because we don’t understand what we are.

There’s an entire heritage which we’re only vaguely aware of. There’s a history of traditions which glorify our Creator and His Son. Today we’re going to go over one of these pieces of our history: The Feasts of the LORD.

We’ve just entered into the season of the Fall Feasts so now’s a good time to start looking at them. Actually, it probably would’ve been better to start looking at them a month ago so we could’ve drummed up more interest among ourselves but… I didn’t think of it then…

The truth is that most Christians have a vague idea about the Feasts, and they would tell you that they were important at the time of Jesus, but they have next to no concept of what these Feasts really are. Most Christians know that Jesus died on Passover, and they could tell you that Jesus’s death on Passover was a fulfillment of prophecy. And they could tell you that Passover was originally instituted because when Israel was in Egypt the LORD saved the Israelites by passing them over when the firstborn in Egypt were killed. Some Christians may even point out to you that while the firstborn of Egypt were killed it was the firstborn of God who was sacrificed in order to save the rest of us. But that’s really where the understanding of most would end.

And then there’s the other Feast that most Christians would’ve at least heard of, even if they’re not entirely certain what it is: Pentecost.

The average Christian would probably be able to tell you that Pentecost is the day that the Holy Spirit was given to the Church. Some would even say that Pentecost is the day that the Church was born, and that before that day it was a mystery never before revealed. When you look into what Pentecost is (and was from the time it was first instituted by the LORD) that description shows a poor understanding of who God is and what the Church is. But, for right now, that’s beside the point. Pentecost is one of the Feasts of the LORD, even if it’s called something different (Shavuot).

Then there are those Christians who would be able to tell you that the life and ministry of our Messiah was a fulfillment of the Spring Feasts. Some of them may even be able to tell you that these Spring Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost) each were fulfilled by Jesus. Jesus died as our Passover; He was placed into the grave on Unleavened Bread; He was resurrected on First Fruits as the first fruit of the coming harvest; And He gave us His Holy Spirit which would bring to remembrance the Torah of the LORD on the celebration of the day that God gave His Torah all those years ago on Mount Sinai.

And these things said about the Spring Feasts are all true, even if there’s SOOO much more to them than that. If you have that understanding of the Spring Feasts, you’re in a good place to move forward. But how many of us know that much about the Fall Feasts? If the Spring Feasts were all significant in the first coming of our Messiah, should we not also assume that the Fall Feasts might be important as well? And, since these are the ones that we’re actually supposed to be looking forward to the fulfillment of, shouldn’t we want to know as much as possible about them? Shouldn’t we have a passion in our bellies to know what they are? If every little thing about the Spring Feasts is symbolic about something that Jesus did for us, what is it that the Fall Feasts are going to tell us about Him?

Quick, name the three Fall Feasts…

I want to give most Christians the benefit of the doubt on this one so I’m going to say that you probably got two out of three. I’m sure that there are some of you that got all three and if I had the ability to give you a cookie, I would definitely do that. Actually, since you’re reading this on the internet, you’ve already gotten a cookie from visiting this website. Well done! Until I started looking more into all of this stuff, I could’ve told you that Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur were two of the feasts (not because I really knew it but because I remember seeing them on the calendar…) and I probably would’ve said that the third was Hanukah. If you actually look into the origins of Hanukah then you realize that this guess isn’t too far off, but it’s still not an actual Feast of the LORD. The funny thing about the missing Feast is that it’s the only one which the common name (Passover instead of Pesach, Pentecost instead of Shavuot…) for actually has the word ‘feast’ in it. Sukkot is this final Feast but it’s better known as the Feast of Tabernacles.

Over the next few days we’re going to take a look at these Fall Feasts and see what we can glean about what are Messiah will be doing next. We’ll check out some of the fun traditions that we could all try to add into our lives to get a better understanding of our Father in Heaven.

The Psalms 6: O LORD, Deliver My Life

We started out with gusto but we’ve kind of settled into at least one post per week. In keeping with that tradition, let’s get into the sixth of the psalms.

O Yahweh, do not rebuke me in your anger, and do not discipline me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Yahweh, because I am feeble. Heal me, O Yahweh, for my bones are terrified. My soul is also very terrified. But you, O Yahweh, how long? Turn, O Yahweh; deliver my life. Save me for the sake of your steadfast love. For there is no remembrance of you in death. In Sheol, who will give thanks to you? I am weary with my groaning; I flood my bed every night. With my tears I drench my couch. My eye wastes away because of vexation; it grows old because of all my oppressors. Depart from me, all workers of evil, for Yahweh has heard the sound of my weeping. Yahweh has heard my plea; Yahweh has accepted my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and shall be very terrified. They shall turn back; they shall suddenly be ashamed. (LEB)

Now let’s take a closer look…

To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. On an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.
1 O Yahweh, do not rebuke me in your anger, and do not discipline me in your wrath.

I’m not perfect. Not even close. I don’t revel in my sin, but I know that it’s there, waiting to break free if/when I slip out of walking in the Spirit. I’m not proud of my sin but to deny its existence would be to accept it. And the last thing we want to do is accept sin in our lives. When we accept the gracious gift our Father has given us, through His Son’s sacrifice, the natural response should be one of love and obedience. This verse shows the mind of a man that who loves the righteousness of his Father in heaven and seeks to please Him with all of his actions. We all know that David messed up from time to time, and some of the time it was some real doozies. But his heart was bent on getting back to the righteousness of the Father.

David is calling out for mercy. Mercy that he knows that he doesn’t deserve, but his God is a loving God who doesn’t need to discipline if He knows that the lesson is already learned.

2 Be gracious to me, O Yahweh, because I am feeble. Heal me, O Yahweh, for my bones are terrified.

In modern Christianity we have this belief that God didn’t really show grace until Jesus died on the cross. David, here, is asking for God to show that grace. God has been a God of grace since the beginning. In fact, as early as Genesis 6:8 we’re told that Noah found grace with God. Many of the more recent translations have chosen to translate the word here translated as ‘grace’ as ‘favor’, but its meaning remains the same. We’re often told that God didn’t reveal His grace until Jesus, but grace is all through the Old Testament. The word which the KJV translated as ‘grace’ is the Hebrew word ‘chen’ (H2580) and that word shows up 69 times in the OT, and 14 of those times are in Genesis, the book which deals with the earliest subject matter! This topic is a lot bigger than the scope of this writing and if people want to go into this topic then maybe we’ll do something more later, but for now, the point is that God has been gracious from the beginning as part of His nature and David was calling on this part of His nature.

3 My soul is also very terrified. But you, O Yahweh, how long?
4 Turn, O Yahweh; deliver my life. Save me for the sake of your steadfast love.

We all have times that we feel like the world is closing in on us. Where it feels like there’s no hope in going on. In those times it can sometimes feel like God is taking forever to turn the tide. Sometimes the tide will turn, and sometimes we will turn, but Yahweh will eventually bring us through and deliver us. But don’t be ashamed of asking “how long?”. You’re not the first and you won’t be the last. David, here, is questioning how long. Just know that there’s a reason for the restraint. Be thankful for that restraint because sometimes there’s someone else crying out “how long?” and you’re on the other end of that one, even if you don’t see it.

5 For there is no remembrance of you in death. In Sheol, who will give thanks to you?

Many have said that hell is the absence of God, but maybe death in general is the absence of God. We were made at creation to exist with God. His presence, and don’t ask me the specifics of it all, feeds our existence. In death, before the resurrection, there is no ability to give thanks to God because there is no remembrance of Him. This topic stretches my head when I sit down and really try to think about it. What is death? What happens when we die? It’s not really as simple as I was brought up thinking. Do we go to heaven when we die? Do we go to Sheol and wait for the resurrection? What does the Bible say about it all? There’s a fun study for you!

6 I am weary with my groaning; I flood my bed every night. With my tears I drench my couch.
7 My eye wastes away because of vexation; it grows old because of all my oppressors.

Most of us have been here. Most of us have cried ourselves to sleep. Have you ever been so worn out by all that’s going on around you that you have felt like this? You’re not alone.

8 Depart from me, all workers of evil, for Yahweh has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 Yahweh has heard my plea; Yahweh has accepted my prayer.

But here’s the turn; the place that many of us (at least myself) don’t usually get to. Oftentimes when I get so depressed that I cry myself to sleep I don’t get to the place that where I find assurance that everyone who’s struggling against me better flee because my Heavenly Father has my back. I mean, He does, but it’s sometimes hard to break out of the spiraling depression. This is where David has me beat. He can call upon his depression and still take his next step into the hands of the Father.

10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and shall be very terrified. They shall turn back; they shall suddenly be ashamed.

And just like that, the depression is gone! We’ve now done a complete 180. How many of us have faith like this? How many of us are willing to not focus on the negative? It seems ridiculous, if you look at it from afar, to focus on the negative and not want to think about the positive, but how many of us don’t allow ourselves the opportunity to focus on the positive? I know that I can have trouble with this. We say that we give it all to God, but do we really? Do I really? This is something that I know that I need to work on. I talk a big game sometimes, but do I back it up? I like to think that I do most of the time but I’m not always there. It’s hard to give up control. It’s hard to – dare I say it – place your faith in someone that’s not yourself.

There it is. This is all about the actual faith we have in the LORD. We talk about “our faith” but how much faith do we actually have? How much do we let our faith grow? I’ll leave you with that thought. As you go about your day, let yourself question how your faith is really working in your life.

Shalom!

The Psalms 5b: Lead Me In Your Righteousness

We’ve already done the first half of this psalm but I think it’s important for us to read through the whole thing again and get the flavor of the whole thing again.

O LORD; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield. (ESV)

This is a psalm of urgent prayer; a psalm reaching out for help; but also a psalm grasping at the holiness of God as a means of finding vindication and victory.

7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.

The last part of the first half of this psalm was spent considering the holiness of God, and the sanctity which the people gave the Temple. But how much do we know about the Temple? Try to place yourself back in the time when the House of God stood like skyscraper, rising above everything else in Jerusalem. It rose 150 feet into the air. The complex was so huge that it could’ve fit almost 6 football fields inside of it. And this is good, because during festival times there would’ve been millions of Jews in Jerusalem, with 300,000 to 400,000 on the Temple complex at the same time. This thing was huge. It was one of the most impressive things man has ever built. And that wasn’t even the most impressive part of it!

Deep in the heart of the Temple was the Kadesh HaKadashim. The Holy of Holies. This truly is the heart of the entire Temple. This was the entire reason the Temple was even built. While the Temple is considered the house of the Most High, this is where He actually dwells. The Temple was built so that God could have a place on the earth to put His feet up. The Temple is the actual dwelling place of God! So all of the beauty and splendor of the Temple complex (and it was beautiful) was like filthy rags (Is 64:6) compared the intense beauty of our God and our King.

8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.

When we think about how holy our God is, how could we not want to be led into His righteousness? It could be so tempting to just skirt by and glory in the grace which we are freely given. To be sure, there’s nothing we can do to earn the salvation which we have been given. We are a chosen people. He chose us. Out of all the people in the world, you were a chosen by the King of the Universe. Elected.

Sometimes we as Christians view this as a wholly Christian concept but, historically, the Israelites always viewed God and their election the same way. They had their salvation because God chose them among all peoples. Though it’s easy to think that they followed the Torah in order to attain salvation this concept wasn’t introduced until around the time of Martin Luther. The Israelites followed the Torah because they loved their God – even if they sometimes forgot this – and it was what He asked them to do. Obedience is the sincerest form of love. So when Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments, (John 14:15)” this wasn’t an unheard of concept. John echoes these sentiments when he writes, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (1 John 5:3)”. For those who are married or in a functioning relationship, would it be showing love to know what your significant other likes and then to just do whatever you want without caring about their likes because you know that they already love you and that they’re already yours? The obvious answer is ‘no’. If you truly love them, you go out of your way to do the things they like. Should we expect it to be any different when we talk about our love for our God who brought us in to His family?

So David, in this verse, is asking the Father to lead him into His righteousness because he knows that God has only his best interest in mind. But it’s important to note that when he bows down before the Temple, before he does anything else, he seeks after the righteousness of God. Hmm… where else have I heard something like that? Oh yeah, Jesus told us the first thing we should always do when He said, “…seek first thing kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matt 6:33).” So before we go to God, asking for Him to help us out, we should first seek righteousness. This isn’t a magic formula but it is being obedient.

If the last part of this verse sounds familiar it’s probably because it too is speaking of the repentance which brings righteousness. David crying out “make your way straight before me” is same thing John the Baptist was doing when he was making straight in the wilderness the paths of the LORD (John 1:23, Matt 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, Is 40:3). John was calling for the repentance of the people. Calling for them to turn from what they were doing and seek after the righteousness of the LORD. Then, when they were truly ready to seek the kingdom, they would be ready for the words of Messiah, which are living and breathing. In Colossians 3:16 we are urged to let the Word of Messiah dwell in us so that we can build one another up in His wisdom.

So let this be a reminder that the first thing we should do when we’re presented with a new situation is to seek the righteousness of God. Search out how this new thing is guided by the Kingdom of God and how God’s righteousness would react to it. That would be the advice of not only David, but also our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

9 For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.

This is a good reminder of what we find when we step outside of the righteousness of God. It’s wise to remember that we have a description elsewhere in the Bible which gives us a description of what satan is here to do in the world (steal, kill and destroy – John 10:10) so why would we think that those who serve his ends would be any different?

10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.

How many of you can feel this one? A cry for justice in the midst of injustice. We’ve all had times where we felt that we were unfairly facing slander. When we look at this verse, though, we need to recognize that David is first seeking righteousness and he’s not asking for justice because his enemies have done anything to him, specifically. He’s crying out for justice because his enemies have rebelled against God.

11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.
12 For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield.

Still, at the end, we come back to the positive. We come back to the recollection of strength and protection. Notice that protection comes to those who celebrate the Name of the LORD. I’m not saying that God doesn’t protect those who don’t enjoy singing praise and worship songs, but it would appear that, if you truly enter into praise with the right heart, the LORD will extend His wings over you.

The key here is our pursuit of righteousness. We don’t attain any kind of eternal salvation by our pursuit of righteousness. If that’s why you’re pursuing righteousness you’re going about it for the wrong reasons. We pursue righteousness because we love our Father and it’s what He wants of us. We pursue righteousness because He gave His son for those who believe in Him. We pursue righteousness because love doesn’t care about puffing itself up; on the contrary, love shows obedience because an action may be sacrificing (1 Cor 13).

So seek the righteousness of the LORD because He has done so much for us, and His protection will follow. Even if that protection comes in a form you may not have expected.

This was a fun one. There’s a lot to look at here and to dig in deeper. I barely grazed the surface and it took two posts to get through 12 verses. The true fun is in finding out what else might be there. Seek it out yourself and see what treasures you can uncover!

Shalom!