Happy New Year! Rise and Shine! {Shanah Tovah}
Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD. Psalm 89:15 NIV
Rise & Shine
When my children were young, I gently woke them up in the mornings with the same words my mom said to me, “Rise and shine! It’s a new day!”
After a night of rest, there is a newness in the morning that brings a sense of restart, and then we remember and we go!
Rosh Hashanah
While I gently woke up my children, centuries ago in the Old Testament, God gave the Israelites a louder and much greater “wake up” call with the horn of the ram, otherwise known as the shofar!
The Jewish Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah “Head of the Year” began last evening. As the new year begins, Jewish people around the world wish each other “Shanah Tovah. “Shanah” means year and “tov” means good. The greeting for this day is “Shanah Tovah” or “Have a good year!”
Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.’ Leviticus 23:24 (NASB)
I remember going to the temple as a child and hearing the sound of the shofar for the first time. The burst of sound scared me! My ears rang. I couldn’t sleep even if I tried! It wasn’t blown once, but several times, as if the person blowing the shofar was saying, “Wake up sleepy head! Wake up!”
Listening to the shofar, eating apple slices dipped in honey to symbolize the hope of a sweet new year, and spending the day in temple instead of school are just a few of my childhood Rosh Hashanah memories.
Rosh Hashanah, otherwise known as The Feast of Trumpets, is 10 days of repentance before the reconciliation occurs on Yom Kippur. When the shofar is blown everyone returns from the fields of the harvest to gather at the temple with the hope that their names would be written in the “Book of Life.”
“May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life,” is one of the most common greetings during Rosh Hashanah.
Remember
For the Jew and the Christian, Rosh Hashanah is a time to humble ourselves. It is a moment to remember what God has done and pray for a sweet year to come. Rosh Hashanah is a time to lay worldliness aside. It is a time of repentence.
During Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish people will make peace with God, pray, and listen for His voice. The sound of the shofar calls their hearts back to Him.
…things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Colossians 2:17 (NASB)
God is doing a new thing and this is just the beginning. For Christians, this is a time of anticipation of what is to come.
What does this mean for you and me today?
Rosh Hashanah used to be about what I needed to do in order to have a sweet new year with the hope that my name would be inscribed in the Book of Life. But God sent His Son to the cross so that those who believe in Him (both Jew and Gentile) will have their name written in the Book of Life forever!
All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine. Revelation 3:5 (NLT)
Yom Kippur
The cross is the symbol which represents what has been done for each one who calls God “Father.” On the cross, blood was shed, once and for all as the final atonement.
Sweet friends, this is the moment in time where we need to wake up, rise & shine, remember, and GO! God sent His Son Jesus Christ to the world to become the final sacrifice. He died for our sins yesterday, today, and tomorrow and one day the Messiah will return!
And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven. Matthew 24:31 (NLT)
Are you awake, my friend?
It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 1 Corinthians 15:52 (NLT)
Have you come out of your Spiritual slumber? As fasting takes place in preparation for the celebration of Yom Kippur, we remember. Before Jesus, the Jewish Priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year. He entered behind the veil with a blood sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people. But God gave the final blood sacrifice on the cross over 2,000 years ago to atone for the sins of the people, once and for all. The veil, torn from the top down, gives everyone who believes access to God once again! It is finished.
We can remember what God has done for us in the past.
We can remember how He sent His Son for each one of us.
We can place our trust in Jesus for both today and tomorrow.
We can go share the Good News so those people whom God has put in your spaces and places will be with us in eternity.
For the Lord, Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (NASB)
Go!
If you believe God sent His Son for you, then you have received Him and become His child. Each day is a gift in which we live with great anticipation until He returns and we live forever with Him! Just as the first church in Acts believed in Jesus and then shared the Good News with boldness, we are to do the same to bring more believers into the fold.
And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31 (NASB)
Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. Isaiah 60:1 (NASB)
Heavenly Father, Shanah Tovah! We praise You for the trumpet call to wake up and remember! We praise You for the Good News! Thank You for sending Your Son to die on the cross. Thank You for this time of renewal – a time when I may humble myself and turn back to You. May my ears ring with the sounds of joy and gladness, as I wait with hopeful anticipation for the trumpet to sound again which will announce the second coming of Jesus. Lord, today, I want to live awake and alive in You so that I may be bold about sharing the Good News and live with You forever. Thank You for the great harvest You are planting. Help us all to respond to the call. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen
Basking in His Light
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