Category Archives: Feasts

The Significance of Yom Teruah (part 2)

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Yom Teruah Verses

There are only two verses in the Bible that command the keeping of Yom Teruah.

And YHVH spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto YHVH. (Lev 23:23–25)

And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you. And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet savour unto YHVH; one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year without blemish: And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals for a bullock, and two tenth deals for a ram, and one tenth deal for one lamb, throughout the seven lambs: And one kid of the goats for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you: Beside the burnt offering of the month, and his meat offering, and the daily burnt offering, and his meat offering, and their drink offerings, according unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto YHVH. (Num 29:1–6)

The Breath of Life and Yom Teruah

Without the life-giving breath of YHVH we are dead both physically and spiritually. As YHVH breathed the breath of life into Adam who then became a living being (Heb. nephesh), so when Yeshua breathed on his disciples (John 20:22), they came alive spiritually. Similarly, YHVH breathed on the first century redeemed believers through the wind of the Ruach HaKodesh (the Set-apart Spirit) on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:2, and the congregation of renewed covenant believers was birthed. Similarly, on the day of Messiah’s second return (Yom Teruah), the shofar (called the last trumpet in Hebraic thought, which comes just prior to the final or the great trumpet/shofar hagadol of Yom Kippur) will sound and the dead in Messiah will be resurrected (1 Cor 15:51–53; 1 Thes 4:16). It is the breath of YHVH that will revive the righteous dead. This is similar to the breath of YHVH blowing over the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37, which some see as a prophetic picture of the resurrection of the saints.

What can we learn from this? When YHVH breathes or blows on man, the power of the supernatural pierces the natural dimension and the supernatural breaks the status quo of the natural and supernaturally empowers one to do that which he could not do in his own power naturally. We need YHVH’s divine breath to blow on us to empower us with his power and his ability to be and act supernatural in a natural world for his glory and the advancement of his kingdom! 

When the shofar sounded in ancient Israel, it signaled that heaven and earth were about to meet, that divine power, the supernatural forces of heaven were about to break into the human realm. It signaled that Elohim was about to do great things! 

Are you ready for this to happen again?

When Was the Shofar Blown in Ancient Israel?

The shofar is an instrument unique to the ancient Hebrews and their descendants. In the Scriptures, we see that the shofar played a highly significant role in Hebraic culture. Below are some examples this instrument’s importance:

The History of the Shofar and the Three Trumpets

The ram’s horn shofar is first alluded to in the Scriptures in Genesis 22 at the binding of Isaac and known in Hebrew as the akeidah. 

The symbolism in this historical event is tremendously significant. The ram represents Yeshua the Lamb of Elohim who died to redeem man from sin. The thicket is a biblical poetic symbol of human sinfulness. Humanity is entangled in the thicket of sin from which it needs to be freed. Yeshua the Messiah is the Lamb (or ram) slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8), who, while hanging on the cross, wore a crown of thorns. Is this not a picture of the “ram caught in the thicket” (Gen 22:13) of the man’s sins? After all, the Scriptures say that the sins of man were laid upon Yeshua (Isa 53:6). The crown of thorns is a picture of this. Furthermore, in Matthew 13, in Continue reading →

 

The Significance of Yom Teruah (part 1)

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Very little is said in the Tanakh about Yom Teruah. In fact, the Torah only mentions it twice. 

Leviticus 23:24, “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.”

Numbers 29:1, “And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you.”

Nehemiah shows us how the Jews kept Yom Teruah (Neh 8:1ff).

Ezra (500 BC) restored the observance of Yom Teruah following the return of the Jews from their seventy-year exile in Babylon. Ezra the cohen (priest) brought the Torah before the assembly, both men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month’ (Nehemiah 8:2)

The day is recorded as one which included, worship, joyful fellowship, instruction from the Scriptures, sharing with the needy:  ‘…all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words, that were declared unto them (Neh 8-12)

The reading of the Torah was at the center of Nehemiah’s Yom Teruah celebration (Neh 8:1, 18).

On this day, sorrow and joy kissed each other; sorrow because the Jews realized they had  failed to keep Torah—the very thing that sent them into exile and caused the destruction of Jerusalem; joy because it was a Yom Tov or a good day and a festival of YHVH when his people are to rejoice in him and draw close to him and he to them, since it is a divine appointment or moed.

But why rejoice on this day? The Torah and the account in Nehemiah leave us guessing? What specifically were the Jews rejoicing about on Yom Teruah?

We are told so little about this day that we have to draw out every clue possible from the scantiest details Scripture affords us about this day. 

The Jews of Nehemiah’s day were obviously rejoicing at rediscovering the Torah and learning its truths that would guide them through life and keep them as a set-apart people. Knowing the Torah would bring them closer to YHVH—to his heart and mind. Therefore, we can infer that on this day, we are to rejoice over the Torah—our instructions in righteousness give to us by YHVH our Creator.

Additionally, perhaps the name of the day itself, Yom Teruah, gives us a clue as to why we the ancient Jews were joyful and we too should be joyful. On this day, why did the people shout and blow shofars?  We can answer this question by reviewing the places in the Scripture where YHVH’s people shouted and blew shofars. Perhaps this will give us a clue as to what this day is commemorating, and therefore why we should be rejoicing as Neh 8:10 tells us to do.

The Shofar Can Be Blown for the Following Reasons

  • The giving of the Tor ah (their ketubah  or marriage covenant ) at Sinai to Israel on Pentecost (Exod 19:13, 16; 20:18 Hebrews 12:19)
  • The gathering of Israel (Num 10:4)
  • The fall of Jericho (Josh 6:5)
  • The beginning of the jubilee year (Leviticus 25:9),
  • The coronation of kings (1 Kngs 1:34, 39)
  • As a battle weapon (Judg 6:34; 7:16, 18)
  • When the ark was brought into Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:15)
  • At the building of the temple (Ezra 3:10)
  • At the new moons, at the full moon appointed times and on festivals (Ps 81:3; Joel 2:15)
  • Used by watchmen on the city walls to warn of danger (Ezek 33:3–6; Amos 3:6)
  • Used to call Israel to repentance and to return to Torah (Isa 58:1; Hos 8:1)
  • Many of these occasions when the shofar was sounded point prophetically to end time events associated with the fall feasts. They give us an idea of what our demeanor at these events. Rather than fear or apprehension, we should be joyful, victorious and expectant. 

In the End Times the Shofar Blast Will Signal Major Events

  • The shofar will herald the resurrection of the saints from the dead at Yeshua’s coming/return: ‘…And He shall send his angels with a great sound of a Shofar, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other’ (Matt 24:31).
  • Paul speaks of this same event by calling it the last shofar blast (1 Cor 15:52).
  • Paul speaks about Yeshua’s descent from heaven with a shout of an archangel and the shofar of Elohim will sound followed by the resurrection of the righteous dead and the transformation of the righteous living (I Thess 4:16).
  • John relates this same event to the seventh of seven trumpet judgements (Rev 10:7; 11:15–18).
  • As part of the end time judgments to fall upon this earth, seven shofars blasts will occur with significant events to follow each one. Each trumpet introduces a phase of the culmination of end-time events (Rev 8:2).
  • A shout was made at the midnight hour of announce the coming of the bridegroom in Yeshuas Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt 25:6). This is prophetic of Yeshua’s second coming.
  • YHVH shall blow the shofar after he has filled the  bow of Judah with the arrow of Ephraim and together they shall go like a whirlwind from the south to save his people from their adversaries (Zec 9:14). This occurs after the military weakening of Ephraim and Judah (v. 10), before the return of Yeshua (Zech 9:1).
  • To announce the coming of the Day of YHVH (Joel 2:1; Zeph 1:16); the Day of the Lord is characterized by the sound of a great voice like a trumpet/shofar (Rev 1:10)
  • The gathering of the exiles to the land of Israel (Isa 27:13)
 

Yom Teruah/the Day of Trumpets is almost here! Get ready…

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Here are some Hoshana Rabbah resources that will help you to understand the significance of Yom Teruah or the Day of Trumpets which is almost here.

For a written teaching, go to https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/yom_teruah.pdf

For video teachings, go to https://www.youtube.com/user/HoshanaRabbah?feature=mhee and check out the playlist on the Sabbath and Biblical Feasts. There you will find several video teachings on Yom Teruah.

More insights on Yom Teruah to follow, so stay tuned…

May YHVH Elohim bless you mightily as you connect the message of the gospel with its pro-Torah Hebraic roots!

 

Natan’s 2018 Shavuot Talking Points—The Deeper Meaning of Shavuot

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What is the purpose of religion?

What’s should be the higher purpose of religion? It should answer the deeper questions of life.

  • What’s the meaning and purpose of life?
  • Who am I?
  • Where did I come from?
  • Who made me?
  • Why am I here?
  • Whoever made me, what do they expect of me?
  • Where am I going? What’s my ultimate destiny? Is there life after death?

Let’s narrow the picture down.

Why are we here today?

So why are we here celebrating Shavuot today?

  • To fulfill the requirements of religious ritualism?
  • To get your religious fix?
  • Out of human pride—to do your religious thing so that you feel better than the poor religious slobs still celebrate Christmas and Easter who don’t keep YHVH’s biblical feasts?
  • To hear some exciting exotic, arcane, ear tickling message that leaves your head bursting with something new and exciting? Not! That does nothing to bring you to repentance, change your life and bring you closer to Yeshua.
  • Out of obedience to and worship of Yeshua you Lord and Master?
  • Or because you love Yeshua with all your heart and want to obey him by keeping his commandments not because you’re expecting anything out of it personally but because he is worthy of worship and obedience? Period?!
  • Or to be spiritually transformed, so that you can be about your Father’s business to help transform society around you for the kingdom of Elohim?

Some of these reasons are good, and some of them are not so good.

For those keeping Shavuot out of obedience, which is a good thing, remember that obeying Elohim’s Torah laws is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. 

Romans 10:4,

For Christ is the end [end result, goal or aim] of the Torah-law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Torah obedience is merely a vehicle to bring you something higher. Too many people make obedience including keeping the feasts the goal and not the process to achieve the goal. 

When you get in a car to go somewhere, you believe that you’ve arrived at your destination just because you’re sitting in your car. Same with Torah Continue reading →

 

When Is the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot or Pentecost?

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When is the Feast of Weeks (Heb. Chag Shavuot) or Pentecost? This has been a subject of debate among the Jews going back for two thousand years to the first century, and still is today among well meaning people who love Elohim and desire to follow his word. This is the question I will address in this study.

Since Shavuot is the only biblical holiday that involves counting days and weeks (hence its name, the Feast of Weeks), there are different opinions about when to start the count leading up to Shavuot. The Torah tells us to count from the Sabbath associated with the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD. (Lev 23:15–16, NKJV)

This sounds simple enough. Or is it?

The question and the subject of the debate is which Sabbath do you start counting from? The day after the weekly Sabbath occurring during the Feast of Unleavened Bread or the day after the high holy day Sabbath of the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which occurs on the fifteenth day of the first month of the biblical year?

In the first century in the time of Yeshua and the apostles, there were two main opinions among the leading Jews on when to start counting the weeks (called “the counting of the omer”) leading up to Shavuot. The religious sect of the Pharisees whose spiritual descendants are the modern rabbinic Jews started the counting of the omer from the day after first high holy day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is a high holy day Sabbath (John 19:31). On the other hand, the Sadducees, the other main Jewish sects of the first century (along with the Boethusians, which was likely a sub-sect of the Sadducees; see A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, second division, vol 2, p. 37, by Emil Schurer; Commentary on the NT from the Talmud and Hebraica, vol. 4, p. 23 [commentary on Acts 2:1], by John Lightfoot) counted the omer from the day after the weekly Sabbath that falls within the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Some modern Messianics follow the rabbinic method, while others follow the Sadducean method.

It is generally understood by historical scholars that the Jewish sect of the Continue reading →

 

Getting Ready for Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost

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Next Sunday (May 27, 2018) is Shavuot or the biblical Feast of Weeks (also known as Pentecost). This is according to the visible new moon, aviv barley calendar, which I prove and explain in my three calendar articles on the subject (https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/teaching.html#feast) was the calendar in use at the time of Yeshua and the apostles. Those who follow the rabbinic calendar (invented in the middle of the fourth century A.D. and approved by the Roman emperor, Constantine) celebrated Pentecost a week earlier. Those who follow the any of the other non-biblical calendars (e.g. the astronomical new moon conjunction calendar, the vernal equinox calendar, the Enoch calendar, etc., etc.) would have celebrated or will be celebrating Shavuot on some other day.

The following are links to resources that I produced (with the help of my wife) to help you to understand the importance of this day and why we need to celebrate it with full understanding of its significance in YHVH’s plan of redemption for sinful humans.

 

 

The Biblical Feasts: The Seven Steps in YHVH’s Plan of Salvation

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YHVH’s seven biblical feasts are the seven steps in the Creator’s plan of salvation to redeem sinful and fallen man to him and by which man can be adopted into the family of Elohim and receive eternal life.

Overview of the Biblical Feasts

If you had to sum up the entire message of the Bible in one word what would it be? Probably words such as love, hope, salvation, eternal life or heaven are coming to your mind. But I challenge you to find a better word than the following: r-e-c-o-n-c-i-l-i-a-t-i-o-n. The dictionary defines reconciliation as “to restore to friendship or harmony, to settle or resolve a quarrel, to make consistent or congruous.” When man chose to rebel against YHVH and to give in to sin at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil at the very beginning he chose the path of separation from his Heavenly Father. Sin causes man to be separated from a totally holy, righteous and sinless Creator. Since that time YHVH has been endeavoring to reconcile man to himself. He has laid out criteria for man to follow for this to occur—for man to once again have a friendly, loving and intimate relationship with his Heavenly Father as did Adam before he sinned.

The set-apart appointed times (moedim) or divine rehearsals/gatherings (miqra kodesh) of YHVH are prophetic shadow-pictures or symbols of the steps man must take to be reconciled to his Heavenly Father. They are the complete plan of salvation or redemption rolled up into seven easy-to-understand steps. Though a child can understand these steps, the truths contained therein can at the same time be expanded and unfolded until one literally has rolled out before oneself the entire message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation—a message that to the human comprehension is staggering, deep and rich beyond understanding. These feast days are literally the skeletal structure upon which the truths of the entire Bible hang. The message of redemption, sanctification, salvation, the atonement, glorification, eschatology, the history of Israel, the entire Gospel message, the covenants, the marriage of the Lamb, the bride of Messiah and Yeshua the Messiah are all prefigured within the glorious spiritual container of YHVH’s set apart feasts contained in seven steps—seven being the biblical number of divine perfection and completion.

Quite assuredly, without a deep, walking-it-out comprehension of the feast days of YHVH, no matter how learned one is in biblical understanding, or how academically astute and mentally acute in biblical erudition one may be, one will not have a deep understanding of those scriptural subjects listed above. How can one understand end-time events such as the second coming, the great tribulation and the rapture unless one understands the feast days from a deep Hebraic perspective? One simply cannot have just a knowledge of Greek, the Gospels, the Apostolic Scriptures along with a surface understanding (i.e. traditional Christian perspective) of the prophecies of the “Old Testament” and expect to understand eschatology (the study of end-time events) unless one immerses themselves in understanding and keeping the feast days of YHVH. One cannot throw out the foundation or the skeletal structure and expect to have a body of understanding that amounts to anything at all. Simple logic and common sense and the very truth and character of YHVH Elohim demands and dictates this so.

At Mount Sinai, YHVH gave to his people Israel what is commonly called the “Ten Commandments.” These words from the mouth of YHVH himself were and are literally the foundation and cornerstone to the rest of the 613 commandments from YHVH given to Continue reading →