YHWH said to Moses: “Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts.” (Leviticus 23: 2)
The very special and most holy days lie ahead of us - Rosh Ha Shana (Jewish civil New Year, literally head of the year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). These biblical feasts and the time of the fast, called Moadim in Hebrew, are set times.
In Leviticus we find the exact way how and why we are to celebrate them. Many people, including Christians, view these holidays as "Jewish holidays," but these moadim are actually God's holy days and festivals. So these holidays are important to anyone who wants to meet YHWH and understand the New Covenant better.
Sounding the shofar in preparation for Rosh Ha Shana
We are now in the last days of the sixth month of the Hebrew and Enoch calendars *. When the new moon appears it is the seventh month and we celebrate the festival of trumpets (Rosh Ha Shana) with our God. The Schofarhorn is blown in preparation for the great Day of Atonement. We are called and reminded to repent. (A small note the number seven is called "septem" in Latin and this also explains the month name September, which has been deliberately ?! shifted to the ninth month through contemporary history. This is also what can be seen looking at the numbers eight, nine and ten: octo novem, decem.)
The Schofarhorn should wake us up. In the New Testament, we are called to wake up from our spiritual sleep and make the most of our time by loving and following God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, rather than following empty or frivolous aspirations.
“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”- Ephesians 5: 14-16
The sound of the Schofarhorn is a piercing, haunting sound that moves our hearts to seek God and repent of the sin in our lives.
The closer the new civil year approaches, the more urgent the call to conversion becomes. Why the civil year? The actual year begins in spring around Passover, but the new Jewish year with the change of the year begins on the evening of Rosh Ha Shana. In Israel the year 5781 begins on Rosh Ha Shana, while on the Enoch calendar we are already in the year 6109, and this calendar does not change until spring.
The new moon is on September 17th, 2020 and Rosh Ha Shana should begin on the evening of September 16th, but in Israel it will not begin until the evening of September 18th. This seems very confusing and one wonders where these time shifts come from.
Watchmen used to stand in Jerusalem and watch the moon change very closely. Two days were allowed for Rosh Hashanah, just in case the new moon fell on an earlier day. Today people tend to rely on the values from NASA, Wikipedia, etc. and yet there are still discrepancies.
We humans, Jews, Messianic Jews and also Christians, strive to lead a pure and holy life before God, but we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. So each of us must repent and ask for forgiveness for the many mistakes we have made ourselves or with which we have hurt others.
“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.” (Lamentations 3:40)
This is a time to ask for and give forgiveness. Forgiveness and apologies can change your life. Asking forgiveness is critical to repentance, a closer path with God, and successful relationships with our family, friends, and fellow human beings.
Yeshua (Jesus) identified implacability as a critical issue. He said it would keep us from receiving forgiveness from Heavenly Father.
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6: 14-15)
As fallen human nature leads to sin and unforgiveness, God has made this special time available to focus on repentance and forgiveness.
In the ten days between Rosh Ha Shana and Yom Kippur, we have time to examine ourselves critically. It offers everyone the opportunity to see the state of our life and heart and to deal with God correctly.
In the days to come, let us pray with David the following prayer from Psalm 139: 23-24:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Amen
* The Enoch calendar is an old calendar, which is described in the book of Enoch, from which Jesus quoted several times. It divided the year into four seasons of exactly 13 weeks each. Each of these seasons consists of two 30-day months followed by a 31-day month. The 31st day ends the season. A year consists of exactly 364 days. An extra week has been added at the end of every seventh year (or sabbatical year), making it as accurate as the Julian calendar. In the Old Testament, there is only a short paragraph about Enoch in Genesis 5: 18–24. He is the oldest son of Jered and thus a descendant of the Set. He himself became the father of Methuselah and was the grandfather of Noah. Noah took Enoch's writings on the ark. They were later kept by the Levites, and they were rediscovered when the Qumram scriptures were found. Enoch not only predicted the flood, but also explains what will happen in the end times.
(More about the process of the Rosh Ha Shana celebration follows in the next devotion)
(Source: http://www.4enoch.org/wiki4/images/b/b9/Enochic_Calendar.jpg)