September 8th, 2021: PREPARING FOR ROSH HASHANA; The LAST SHOFAR Will Soon SOUND!!
How do we prepare for Rosh Hashana, Yom Teruah & Yom Kippur?
The Biblical year starts in the spring, with the month of Nissan. This is the beginning of the harvest season.
The new year is called Rosh Hashana, where "Rosh" means head, in Hebrew. It is the head of a new year.
A second name is also given for Rosh Hashana, called Yom Teruah (The Feast of Trumpets). This is the first Fall Feast/Moadim (Appointed time/Holiday) of the spiritual new year: The first day of Tishrei, which this year falls on September 7th, 2021.
23Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24“Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord."
(Leviticus 23:23-25)
Rosh Hashana is a time set apart to take stock of our spiritual condition, and make the necessary changes for the up coming year.
The Jewish people take this time to do a spiritual preparation for Yom Kippur, where they believe the Book of Life is opened and ADONAI will make important decisions on their behalf, for the year to come. And the decisions are influenced by their obedience to His commandments.
Why do we celebrate the Feasts?
It's a prophetic vision of the Father's heart and His plan of provision for us.
He wants us to celebrate it with Him, just as YESHUA celebrated it, while He was here on the earth.
What's the purpose of Yom Teruah?
1) To bring us closer to ADONAI because He chose it this way. It's His appointed feast, His appointed time.
2) It's a time of regathering, bringing unity in the body of Messiah; Together with a pure heart and faith in ADONAI.
3) We sound the shofar for the opening of the gates of heaven, for a special fellowship with the King, High Priest and Judge to come!
For us as Messianic Believers, YESHUA is also honored at this time, for being our atonement for sins. Reverencing Him even more, because He is our Advocate and Redeemer. Most importantly, we are to praise Him for His mercy towards us.
In Micah 7:19, the prophet spoke of the promise that ADONAI will hurl all our iniquities into the depth of the sea. To illustrate this beautiful truth, in the afternoon of Rosh Hashana, there's an ancient service called "Tashlich", where we stand in front of a body of water and cast bread crumbs or pebbles into the water, rejoicing in ADONAI's mercy and promises of forgiving and forgetting our sins, and hurling them into the depths of the sea.
The Shofar is then blown in 4 different notes. And so prophetically too, in Rosh Hashana all Israel is to appear before the King of Kings, with the sounding of the shofar, which is like a "wake up" call.
4) To remember the Voice of ADONAI, we blow the shofar to declare His faithfulness in forgiving us of all our iniquities. His Voice will continue declaring the same message that YESHUA declared, immediately after His 40 days of fasting:
"Turn from your sins, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near."
(Matt. 3:13-17)
16"Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. 17And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain." (Exodus 19:16-18)
Moses ascended on Mount Sinai, on the first day of Elul, in order to receive the first Tablet of the Law. And here, this passage records for us the very first time the people of Israel heard the great sounding blast of the great shofar!
On Yom Teruah, there are two shofars that are sounded:
The first one is the Ram's Horn.
It's a short shofar, that resembles the mooing/crying of a bull or cow being sacrificed.
In the Torah, when the animal is sacrificed, the sin was spoken over the head of the animal, representing our sins.
Just as the ram represents the atonement for sin, in the same way the binding of Isaac is the Torah portion that is read during this feast. The faith of Abraham was tested and it was accounted to him as righteousness (James 2:23).
Just as our father Abraham believed in the provision of the ram, at Mount Moriah, we have assurance of the provision of YESHUA!
The second shofar is the Kudo shofar, which has the sound of a loud piercing blast, just like in the passage of Exodus, where the people gathered at Mount Sinai.
And it's also a praise and honor to the LORD! A shout of victory over the enemy!
The "accuser of the brethren", is working very hard to accuse us, right now.
Because of this, every synagogue in the world reads Psalm 47 and the book of Job on Yom Teruah. The accuser of Job was confronted and defeated because Job always praised ADONAI through his trials.
We too are tested in different ways, but it's in these trying times that the character of our hearts are revealed and it awakens us to the fact that we can't live life without ADONAI. This then opens up the opportunity for us to come before Him with praises, demonstrating that our trust is in His love and mercy, even though we may not understand the circumstances.
Therefore the shofar blast is an unconditional praise to ADONAI. It doesn't matter what the situation may look like. It may seem like you're loosing the battle, but we know that through HIM we can do ALL THINGS, and NONE of His plans can be frustrated! Just like Job! And through the blast of the shofar we declare praises to our King and Judge! AMEN!
We encourage you to let the sound of the shofar be heard in your home, on Yom Teruah, even if you don't have a shofar! Why? Because the SOUND of the shofar, brings VICTORY into our homes and into our lives!
Below is a video of the shofar being played. You can play it on any device.
Let the resounding sound of the shofar be heard in your home this Rosh Hashana, bringing VICTORIES and BREAKTHROUGHS into every situation of your life!
All prophets, apostles and feasts point to YESHUA. And He calls us to celebrate His plan for mankind, the grafted-in believers in the olive tree together as ONE NEW MAN, with Israel, according to Ephesians 2:11-17.
The feasts teach the nature of ADONAI. He loves celebrations! And He is the One Who is inviting us. Therefore we should celebrate it with newness of heart, not with gloomy legalism.
16"So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival [Feasts of the LORD] or a new moon [Rosh Chodesh] or Shabbats, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Messiah."
(Colossians 2:16-17)
It was thought by replacement theology that you shouldn't celebrate the feasts, because they belong to the Jewish people only. But these are the Feasts of ADONAI, and are a shadow of things to come! It's the reality of YESHUA'S sacrifice and return to the earth. So enjoy it and rejoice in His Presence!
Shana Tova Umetukah & Gamar Hatima Tova!
Which means "Happy Sweet New Year" and "May you be inscribed in the Book of Life" (Of the Righteous).
Hatima means signature. We are so grateful that YESHUA has signed our name with His blood, in the Book of Life!
Make sure to SIGN UP to receive our NEWSLETTERS on our website:
Restore Israel & Nations, and receive the latest updates directly in your inbox!
Comments