Fall Feasts Approaching!

What a glorious time of year!  The temperatures are dropping to the high 90’s/low 100’s in Phoenix/Scottsdale.  Yes, there is indeed a briskness in the air!  And, it’s time to wish our Jewish friends, “Good Yontiff” – good holiday.  We can also greet our Jewish friends with, “L’shanah tovah” – to a good/sweet year.  Apples and honey along with a lively medley of Jewish/Israeli music have been offered this fall season during Rosh Hashanah celebrations within the Jewish community.  The Fall Feasts of Israel, all pointing to Jesus as Messiah, focus on repentance, restoration, and rejoicing. What an amazing time to share Jesus with Jewish people!  

At sundown on September 13th, shofars blasted from synagogues around the globe, calling the Jewish community to assemble and reflect.  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement are known as Jewish High Holy Days.  Rabbis call upon their congregations to get right with their fellow man during Rosh Hashanah and then to get right with God during Yom Kippur.  I ask my Jewish friends how they can get right with their neighbors and friends without having first been placed into a right relationship with God.  The Feast of Tabernacles will begin at sundown on September 27th and end at sundown on October 4th.  These Jewish holy days always offer wonderful opportunities to share the Gospel with Jewish people.  By the way, the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is Biblically known as the Feast of Trumpets (Lev. 23:23-25).  The Feast of Trumpets was not celebrated in Biblical times as the “new year.”  In fact, the Feast of Trumpets falls in the 7th month on the Jewish religious calendar.  And, the traditional Jewish community does not offer a blood sacrifice for their sins on Yom Kippur.  In Lev. 17:11 we read that God requires blood for atonement.  Ask your Jewish friends how their sins can be forgiven without the shedding of blood.  Share with them that all the animal sacrifices in the tabernacle and then in the Temple in Jerusalem looked forward to the ultimate sacrifice – the pure and spotless Passover Lamb - Messiah Jesus.

In synagogues on Rosh Hashanah, Genesis 22 is read.  Genesis 22 is the account of God instructing Abraham to take his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved to the region called Moriah, and to offer him as a sacrifice, a burnt offering.  Sound familiar?  Sound significant?  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. . . .”  As Abraham and Isaac make the climb to the place where Isaac is to be offered, Isaac makes an observation. Papa, we have the wood and the fire,but where is the sacrifice?” We find Abraham’s response in Gen. 22:8.  In the Hebrew it reads, “My son, God will PROVIDE HIMSELF the lamb for a burnt offering.”   Genesis 22:13 tells us that there was a ram caught in the thicket.  The ram was the substitute for Isaac.  But why did God mention the lamb – that He would provide Himself the lamb?  A ram was the substitute for Isaac, not a lamb.  Here we have a prophetic verse.  We are to look forward in Scripture.  We see the lamb again at the first Passover in Egypt when, once again, God provides.  God’s mighty hand of deliverance and protection is lavished upon the Jewish people through the blood of the Passover lambs.  And, we see the Lamb identified in Isaiah 53 as the Suffering Servant, Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Lamb of God!

During a Rosh Hashanah celebration among Jewish people, while I was reading and explaining God’s provision for Isaac in Genesis 22, one of the Jewish men excitedly blurted out, “This is beautiful! Why haven’t we heard this?  Can I study with you?”  

May the love of Jesus compel us to share words of life and hope in JESUS to Jewish people this season – and always.  

Note the following Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayers:
Rosh Hashanah prayer from an Orthodox Jewish prayer book: “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 (i.e. Prince of God’s Presence) and the one who sits on God’s throne.  May You be filled with compassion toward us.  Deserving of praise are You, Lord of compassion.” (Birnbaum, Behind The Curtain, p. 282)

Ancient prayer during Yom Kippur:
Our righteous anointed is departed from us: horror hath seized us and we have none to justify us.  He hath borne the yoke of our iniquities and our transgression, and is wounded because of our transgression.  He beareth our sins on his shoulder, that He may find pardon for our iniquities.  We shall be healed by His wound, at the time that the Eternal will create Him (the Messiah) as a new creature.