Rosh Hashanah, What Makes for a Great Future

What Makes for a Great Future? 

Biblical Holy Days:

The Biblical Calendar is set up as a giant pointer toward Jesus. In each of the days, God was pointing to Jesus.

Spring Holy Days point to Jesus’ first coming:

• Passover. (Leviticus. 23:5)
• Unleavened Bread. (Leviticus 23:6)
• First Fruits. (Leviticus 23:10) This relatively minor Holy Day Prophesied the Resurrection.)
• Pentecost. (Leviticus 23:16)

Fall Holy days point to Jesus’ Second Coming.

• Feast of Trumpets. (Leviticus 23:24)
• Day of Atonement. (Leviticus 23:27)
• Feast of Tabernacles. (Leviticus 23:34)

Notice Hanukkah is not a “commanded” Holy Day. It is the only winter celebration. It developed between the Testaments. However, Jesus did some amazing miracles on that day. John 10 centers on a Hanukkah celebration.

What Is Rosh Hashanah?

1. It’s the Biblical New Year. It is the first fall feast. Rosh in Hebrew means “Chief” or “head” and Shanah means “year.” It’s the first feast of the year. So, the Hebrew Calendar starts with this Day. (We start in January. The Bible Calendar starts in the Fall.)

2. The theme of this Holy Day is repentance and spiritual reevaluation.

This feast day set the stage for the next two feast and started “Ten Days of Awe.” A time of repentance. This day has been called, “God’s original revival.” Every year God called His people to pause and evaluate their relationship with him.

3. Eat a feast. No sour or bitter foods. Apples dipped in honey. (Psalm 81) Dip apple in honey, ask God for a sweet year. Symbolic: God bring them in to a land of milk and honey. Honey plays an important role in the Bible because it so deeply symbolizes sweetness. You can’t taste a promise, but you can taste the sticky sweet of Honey.

4. Some traditions include throwing breadcrumbs in water. (Malachi 7:18)

5. The trumpet is blown to usher in a new year. (Leviticus 23:23-25)

My Notes on The Shofar:

1. The Torah was given to Israel with the sound of the shofar. Ex. 19:19

2. Israel conquered Jericho with blast of Shofar.

3. It was blown to assemble Israelites for war. (Judges: Gideon/Ehud)

4. The shofar was blown at start of Jubilee year.

5. Shofar reminder God is sovereign. (Psalm 47:5)

6. Rams horn reminder of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac.

7. Shofar blown to announce beginning festivals.

8. Shofar blown to herald new moon on rosh hashanah.

9. The shofar was blown when a new king ascended the throne. (1 Kings 1:34)

10. There are 7 Shofar’s blown in Revelation as judgment on earth.

11. The trumpet (shofar) is sounded at the Second Coming of Jesus.

What makes for a great Future?

1. When I (Micah 7:18-19)

• God forgives quickly. (Micah 7:18)
• God’s forgiveness is sweet. He “delights” in mercy. (Micah 7:18)
• His forgiveness is permanent. (Micah 7:19) From this Scripture that the tradition of throwing breadcrumbs into water comes form.

2. When I . (Psalm 81)

• Psalm 81:1-5, they are in captivity in Babylon. However, they are celebrating the Feast of Trumpets. So they are singing, dancing, going through the motions of remembering that God had set them free during the Exodus and hoping for better things to come. But that’s hard to do, because they are in captivity!
• Psalm 81:5, tradition is that Joseph was released from prison on the feast of trumpets.
• The Second half of Psalm 81:5, something amazing happens. The Psalmist says they hear a “strange” or “unknown” language. It is not a human voice speaking – as your read you realize this is God Himself speaking. HOLD ON… get this. They are at the celebration, going through the motions, when God Himself shows up at their Feast of Trumpets celebration! And God starts talking.
• The first thing God does is reminds them that he rescued them from slavery in the past. (Psalm 81:6-7)
• Psalm 81:7, God says he answered him in the “place of thunder.” I think this is Mount Sinai. (Ex 19:13-16)
• Psalm 81:7, the “waters of Meribah” refers to Exodus 17. They had no water, so God provided water from the rock. But because they grumbled against the Lord, the place is called “Meribah” (Grumbling.)
• Then, after showing them what he did in the past, God shows them the future if they will listen to him. (Psalm 81:8-16) Notice the great importance of listening. God will change their circumstances if they will listen to Him. Psalm 81:11-13 he talks about listening to Him instead of their own hearts. The reason they are in the mess they are in is because they did not listen to him.
• Psalm 81:16, they are in captivity eating scraps. God offers them “finest wheat.” The future looks great if they will obey God.
• Psalm 81:16, the promise of “honey from the Rock” echoes Moses’ statement in Deuteronomy 32:13. I think it all harkens back to water from the rock. As he gave water in abundance, he can give sweetness in abundance. We are used to see lots of water. But lots of honey?
• The big sweep of this passage is that they are looking back at an event where God set them free. But they are at that moment slaves again! But God shows up and invites them walk with Him as they did in the past. To renew their relationship with him.

3. When I

• At the Second Coming our King comes at the Trumpet. (Rev. 11:15)
• At the trumpet, God gathers his people. (1 Thessalonians 4:15, 1 Corinthians 15:50, Matthew 24:30-31)

…………………………………..…………………………………..…………………………………..…………………………………..

Extra Stuff:

Why did God give Holy Days?

Holy Days were given to help the Hebrews understand God’s salvation and his prophetic calendar. God used them to prepare the world for the coming (and Second Coming) of Jesus.

1. Holy Days help us understand the Bible. Purpose Holidays is to focus us on Biblical truths. Just as our nation has Holidays so we don’t forget certain events. (The Fourth of July to remind us of the signing of the declaration of independence.)

2. Holy days give structure in teaching certain themes throughout the year. By setting aside a day to observe something, God was requiring every year certain things about his salvation, nature and his character be remembered.

3. Holy Days give us insights into who God is.

Spring:

–At Passover we remember that God is redemptive.

–At Pentecost we remember that God gave the Scriptures on Mount Sinai. And that the Holy Spirit came down to us. (It’s kind of cool. The Scriptures came down, the Spirit came down.)

Fall:

–At Feast of Trumpets, we are reminded that God is merciful. God starts the year with his mercy. We look forward to his return with the Trumpet Call.

–At Yom Kippur, we are reminded that God is Holy. Interestingly, this is the only commanded “fast” day in the Bible. Christians are urged to fast as a personal discipline between them and God.

–At Tabernacles, we are taught that God saves and provides.

4. Holy Days ultimately show us Jesus with greater clarity. He is the true fulfillment of all Scripture. Jesus is our Passover lamb. He is our new year. He is our Sabbath Rest and He is our Coming Savior.

Extra: Jewish Tradition.

This isn’t in the Bible. It’s things the Jews practiced or developed as tradition. It is worth looking at their understanding of a Holy Day, since they have handled and worked through some of these issues much longer than we have. We should also be careful because we know they added tradition to the Word of God. So, I’m passing these notes along not as teaching but just information.

1. Theology:

–Jews teach it is the birthday of the world. That on the feast of trumpets God created the world.

–Flood waters dried up on this day.

–Enoch taken by God.

–On this day Sarah, Rachel and Samuel are remembered.

–On this day Joseph is said to have been freed from prison.

–On this day Ezra restored sacrifices on the new altar. (Ezra 3:1-4)

2. In the home:

In a traditional Jewish home, a dinner is served. It is observed as a Sabbath day, so there is no normal work in the fields or workplace. The family will attend synagogue where there will be a service.

3. In synagogue:

–The shofar is sounded.

–Many Orthodox men take a special water immersion to symbolize repentance and a new commitment to the Lord. (Hebrew, tevilah mikveh) to symbolize cleansing their ways.

–The service itself is somber. There is ag reat theme of repentance with the hint of forgiveness.

–The congregation must go home joyfully. “The joy of the Lord is our strength, Neh. 8:10

Our Family:

There is not a requirement Gentile Christians observe Holy Days. We are also not forbidden to. I have found Holy Days as a good way as a parent to give my kids hands on lessons in how God works. I mean, if the Bible says eat good food, blow the trumpet and remember his salvation… that is a helpful discipleship tool for me as I lead my family. The danger with anything regarding Law is that someone think it could save them or make them better in God’s eyes. We are only saved by Christ blood and his grace. These things are visuals God, the great Teacher, gave us to help us disciple kids.

–Some years our family has chosen to observe this Holy Day, holding fast to the Biblical images. We eat a meal together of sweet foods, cake and fruits.

–We let every member of the family that wants to blow a trumpet. We did not require it be a shofar! We let them make trumpets out of cardboard paper towel rolls.

–We throw rocks in water to remind us visually that sins are cast into the sea and forgotten. (Traditionally this is breadcrumbs.)