Thursday, September 14, 2017

Time to Work on Repentance

Celebrate the Festival of Trumpets each year on the first day of the appointed month in early autumn. You must call an official day for holy assembly, and you may do no ordinary work. Numbers 29:1  

A lot of people would love to celebrate with doing no ordinary work. Imagine if everyone followed this ordinance…life would just shut down for two days. Remember the Feast of the Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah the beginning of the New Year, is a two day holiday because it won’t start until there is a new moon at sunset, Jerusalem time…and that couldn’t always be predicted. Now we have more accurate prediction of new moons—but the tradition of two days continues. The important thing about this holiday is that it is a call to repentance.

Time—lots of time—is spent in the Jewish synagogue reading the Torah and praying. The focus on this Festival is meeting with God in the synagogue, not family time at home. The Saturday before Rosh Hashanah Jews meet in small groups to study, pray and reflect on their relationships with each other and with God. Introspection is important to reveal flaws in one’s personality and to commit to change. In the synagogue services include prayers asking for forgiveness and scripture is repeatedly read about God’s merciful qualities as the Lord Himself proclaimed to Moses when He gave him the second set of stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. 
Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." Exodus 34:6-7 NASB

It blesses us to remember these attributes of God. 
Oregon Coast
One enduring custom that the Jews perform on is to throw bread crumbs into a nearby body of flowing water to symbolically cast off their sins on afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah. They even empty their pockets of lint—as though those were the sins that they carried with them.   

Repentance is the key. Jesus called people to repent—and we are still responsible for that in each of our own lives today.
Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." Mark 1:14-15 NASB 
Some of the Jews followed Jesus…and some did not. Everyone has a choice…then and now. How will you choose to respond? What will you do with the sin in your life?… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….Romans 3:23 NASB. The key is repent. Jesus also taught that whatever we ask for in His name we will receive. It makes sense to ask for forgiveness. Here’s my sin…I’m sorry…forgive me. Can you do that—with God and with others? 

Prayer ~ Holy Spirit, bring to my remembrance any way in which I have offended others or God. I cast all these sins away…into the depth of the deepest ocean…and ask for forgiveness. Thank you for hearing my prayer.
Daily Bible Reading: Daniel 4-6
© 2017 Text and photos by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.
All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted.
Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm.

No comments: