The Last Day of the Feast

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This really is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" So there was a division among the people over him. (Joh 7:37-43)

What a gift.

Towards the Feast of Tabernacles

With the Day of Atonement come and gone, I hope you are all well prepared now for the final festival of the season - a week of celebrating and thanksgiving for the year's harvest. We are to remember that everything is given by Yahweh, and without His grace, there would be no harvest, no celebration, no life.

There is a connection between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Holy Spirit, too. Jesus visits Jerusalem on the Feast, and here is what John tells us about the last day of the Feast:

"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" (Joh 7:37-38)

Thanksgiving is not restricted to the bounty we are blessed with from our gardens, but should include the gifts of the Spirit, all the teaching and guidance we are granted.

Fear the Lord, celebrate, and be thankful, people of Yahweh !

Preparing for the Day of Atonement

The days that lead up to the Day of Atonement are days of reflection...

While we do not hold that the Feast of Trumpets marks the new year according to Yahweh's decrees (Exo 12:2 tells us otherwise, and the New Year tradition of the Jews is a postbiblical tradition rather than grounded in Scripture), the Scriptures do tell us that the Day of Atonement, the sabbatical rest and the "affliction" that goes with it are "a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places" (Lev 23:31).

What is this affliction about ? This question is easy to answer if you re-read Lev 16: Israel was to make atonement for its sins in a very particular manner, atonement that included propitiation for and expiation of sin. And while the sacrificial laws were ended with the Last Sacrifice of Christ on the cross, we are still afflicted by our shortcomings before Yahweh and should use the Day of Atonement to reflect on how the process of progressive sanctification has been going this past year.

Since this reflection should need some time if the following affliction it is to be sincere and honest, don't waste these days, but prepare well. September 28th will come quicker than you think. Maybe you start out by re-reading the Letter to the Hebrews along with Leviticus 16... just a suggestion.

The Feast of Trumpets

Tonight at sundown, the Feast of Trumpets will begin, and with it the seventh month, the month of Tishrei, and the Sabbath - there is a lot to celebrate indeed this weekend :D

The Feast of Trumpets marks the beginning of the most sacred month in the biblical festival calendar, and so we should be preparing ourselves for this. The harvest is coming to an end, and the time is here for reckoning, feasting, and particular thankfulness.

If you wish to read up on the biblical background for the Feast of Trumpets, let me refer you to Lev 23:23-25 and Num 29:1-6.

If you wish to read up on instances in the Old Testament where trumpets play an important role, try the passage about the theophany on Mount Sinai (Exo 19:16 and 19), the destruction of Jericho (Jos 6:16), and the prophet's references to trumpets as warnings of judgment to come (Jer 4:5 and 6:1, Ezek 33:3).
In the New Testament, it may be a good idea to re-read Revelation, chapters 8 and 9. And while you are reading this, remember that Christ will only return at the blast of the LAST trumpet (1Cor 15:52), and that with a trumpet call, He will send out His angels to gather the elect (Mat 24:31).

Happy Feast of Trumpets to you all !

The Time Is Near

For all of us who do not celebrate the pagan holidays of modern day Christianity (Easter and Christmas, mainly), the holiday season is already about to begin ! What Thanksgiving is to most Americans - the official start of the Christmas Season - the Feast of Trumpets used to be to ancient Israel, and it still is for bible believers today. How so ?

Well, the Feast of Trumpets, celebrated on the first day of the month of Tishrei, marks the beginning of the most festive month in the Hebrew festival calendar. During the month of Tishrei, we celebrate the last three of the biblical feasts or holy days, namely the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles as the "glorious finale", so to speak. After these feasts, which also mark the end of the harvest season, we will have no big feast until the new year begins with the month of Nisan and the Passover is upon us again on Nisan 15th.

I suppose that many out there, like our family, are struggling to a degree to find a suitable way to celebrate the biblical feasts. Since we are no Jews and do not follow Jewish traditions, we do not look to the Jews to see how they celebrate the biblical feasts and emulate what we see, but instead, we look to Scripture and the meaning of the biblical feast in question, and then do our best to give the feast the spirit of its original meaning. You can imagine that many of the things we do are family idiosyncrasies, but I guess every run-of-the-mill Christian family has its own idiosyncrasies that show when they celebrate Christmas or Easter, even if there are a lot of common traditions out there, so this is no great surprise.

Let this be enough for a short introduction though - I will talk a little more about the Feast of Trumpets and its meaning in another post. For now I hope that you will feel supported if you, esteemed reader, are amongst the few people out there who also follow Scripture instead of the traditions of man :)