Rabbi Schneider - The Feast of Trumpets and Jesus
The proof that these holy days that are contained in the Hebrew Scriptures are important to you, if you're a Gentile Christian today, is the fact that Jesus timed His earthly ministry to God's holy days. That should tell us... If Jesus was crucified on Passover, buried on the next holy day called Unleavened Bread, rose on the next holy day called the Feast of Firstfruits, then gave us His spirit on Pentecost, which is called in Hebrew Shavuot, that should tell us there's something about these holy days that everything that God is doing, He's timing to them. That's why they're called God's appointed days in Leviticus 23. They're not called the Jewish holidays. They're your holy days. Most importantly, they're God's holy days.
So don't let this revelation pass you by. Don't take it lightly. You see, the disconnection of Judaism or the revelation that we have in the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible, the disconnection of the church to that revelation has really hurt us. It's weakened us. It's softened us. It's caused us to not have a moral compass and to have moral boundaries. So many of the contemporary issues that the church is struggling with today, they wouldn't struggle with if they knew what the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible had to say about these boundaries. For example, transgenderism today. And I'm not putting anybody down. But God had very specific boundaries in the Hebrew Bible about this subject, that men couldn't dress in women's clothes. It was forbidden. Women couldn't dress in men's clothes. It was forbidden. God has boundaries and distinctions. He separates the holy from the common and from the profane.
We need to get disciplined in our faith, beloved. We hear so much teaching on grace today. And grace is foundational. Grace is the foundation of our relationship with God. Without grace, God would have not sent Jesus. I'm all about grace. But beloved, we also need the fear of the Lord. We need to walk in holiness. We need to understand boundaries. We need to have discipline in our life. All this is in the Hebrew Bible, and it's ingrained in the Hebrew Bible. And this is why Jesus said, as I talked about on the last episode on this subject, "Every scribe, every teacher of the Torah," He said, "that becomes a disciple of mine and teaches others the Torah will be called greatest in the kingdom of God".
Why did Jesus say people that know the Torah, that follow Him, that teach others the Torah, would be called greatest in the kingdom of God? Because Jesus wants His disciples to know the Torah. He knows that if His disciples don't know the Torah, they're not going to be standing on stable ground. They're not going to be walking the straight and narrow path. So, beloved, it's with that introduction that we're just laying the premise of why we need to incorporate God's holy days into our life.
Now, if you're Jewish today... I'm just taking a bit of a side note here. If you're Jewish today and you're watching and you're saying, who is this guy? Who is this Jewish guy that claims to be a Christian, a follower of what the book of Acts calls the Way? And by the way, whenever I say this next point, I always get feedback from it. I'm a Jewish follower of the Way. I'm a Jewish disciple of Jesus. I'm a Jewish follower of the prophesied Jewish Messiah. In the New Testament, the Scriptures called those that were following Jesus, those that were following the Way. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. In fact, the word... here's where I always get kickback from.
In fact, the word Christianity is nowhere in the Bible, not even once. Now, the word Christian is in the Bible three times. A Christian is simply a term that defines someone that was following the Christ. So just as the followers of Yeshua in the New Testament were called those that belonged to the sect of the way, Jesus being the Way, also those that were following Jesus were called Christians. But nowhere in the New Testament is there a religion called Christianity. Christianity is just the term that was developed by the early church fathers to designate a set of doctrine that they got from the teachings of Jesus. But the problem is, is that Jesus didn't come to start a new religion called Christianity. He came to fulfill Judaism.
This is why Yeshua said, "Do not think I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. I've not come to abolish but fulfill". And anybody that teaches that I didn't come to start... you know, Jesus said, "Anybody that does away with the law and the prophets will be called least in the kingdom of God". And so I'm teaching the Jewish way to Christians. If you're a Christian today and you're a Gentile, you've been grafted into the olive tree that began with the revelation that God brought to Israel. And part of that revelation are these Jewish holy days. So once again, kind of getting back on track here, if you're a Jewish person watching today, maybe you were channel surfing, or maybe somehow it popped up on YouTube, and you're wondering, what is this? How is this Jewish guy telling me that it's a Jewish thing to believe in Jesus?
Well, let me ask you a question for a second if you're Jewish. Why is it not Jewish to believe in Jesus? Jesus was a Jew. He came as a Jew, had Jewish parents, was circumcised, died on the cross with the sign above His head: "Jesus of Nazareth. King of the Jews". He's coming back, according to the book of Revelation, as the Lion of Judah. His disciples were all Jewish. Jesus and the writers of the New Testament all claim that He came to fulfill Judaism. So if you're a Jewish person today, why is it so anathema to believe in Jesus? Well, there's a number of reasons. Number one, when you research the Scriptures, you find that the reason that the Pharisees, which were the leading... the Pharisees and Sadducees, which were the leading Jewish parties that were alive when Jesus walked the earth, just like today we have Orthodox Jews and Conservative Jews and Reformed Jews.
In Jesus' day, we had the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and a few other smaller sects. But the Pharisees and Sadducees, I want you to know, this is really important, why did they reject Jesus? They rejected Him, beloved, and the Scripture says specifically, because of envy. They rejected Him because of envy, and also because they were threatened by Him. Because the masses of people were turning and following Yeshua and the Pharisees and Sadducees were concerned that because the people were listening to Jesus and following Him, the Pharisees and Sadducees said, "We're going to lose our place as religious leaders". And from that point on, the Scripture says after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, they got together and decided to put Him to death.
So you have to understand that the reason if you're Jewish watching today, the primary reason that the Jewish religion rejects Jesus today stems back to the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' day that rejected Him because of pride and envy. And that spirit of pride and envy was passed on even to this day by osmosis to Jewish people. The other reason if you're Jewish today, or if you just are a Gentile and just being educated, that Jewish people reject Yeshua, falls on theological lines, and it has to do with the fact that it seemed blasphemous to the religious leaders of Jesus' day that Yeshua claimed to be God's Son, that Yeshua claimed to be God in the flesh. They just couldn't fathom how a man... they just looked at Jesus, they saw flesh and blood, they knew He was Joseph and Miriam's son. They said, "How can man claim to be God"?
But of course, Yeshua came through Miriam's womb through a virgin birth, okay? He wasn't conceived from the natural, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. So Yeshua is God that clothed Himself in humanity, just as God clothed Himself in humanity when he met Avraham (Abraham) at the Oaks of Mamre. So you can research that for yourself if you're Jewish and watching today. But the Lord appeared to Abraham (Avraham) at the Oaks of Mamre physically clothed in humanity, yet this person that appeared to be just a man, because Abraham offered to feed him a meal, was actually God Himself. So if you're Jewish today, understand that you don't want to get trapped in a man-made religion. You want to receive the revelation that can set you free. Yeshua said, if the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed.
And so open up to the revelation. This is for you. And if you're a Gentile believer today and you're rejecting this, conversely, an opposite problem, you think that's a Jewish thing and I'm a Gentile, what does this have to do with me? It's like I just said to you. Jesus said that those that would be called greatest in the kingdom of God were Jews that knew the Torah and were disciples of His and taught other people how to follow Him and included in that revelation, the revelation that comes from the Torah. So don't be stuck by your limited thinking. Don't be stuck by the con... Don't be stuck with where you've been. Don't have religious pride, whether you're a Gentile Christian or you're Jewish. Don't let your religious pride keep you from God.
Why are there so many young men today that are atheist? Because there is a pride in atheism and it appeals to their pride. They feel like they're intellectual, that they're sophisticated, that they're too advanced to believe that there is a God. You see, their religious construct, their pride, that stronghold is keeping them from receiving the revelation that will set them free. And so open up, my friend and let's dig right into now and jump right in to God's holy days, because these are for you. They're for you if you're a Gentile Christian, because God wants to do something for you by bringing you to a higher realm as you receive them. And if you're Jewish today and don't know Jesus, Jesus wants to reveal these Holy days of the Lord from Leviticus 23, Vayikra 23, to you in light of who Yeshua is in light of Messiah.
So let's begin looking at the first of the Fall Holy Days. We're going to be looking at what's called in Hebrew Yom Teruah. Hear the word of the Lord. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abides forever. I'm looking at Leviticus 23:23. "Again the Lord, again Yod hei vav hei, spoke to Moshe, or Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month..." and this seventh month in Hebrew is called the month of Tishrei. It's a holy month. Think about this: seven is a holy number. "Once again, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month...'"
So these Fall Holy Days all take place in the seventh month. And I want to just point out that there are certain numbers in the Bible that are holy to the Lord. The number three, for example, is a holy number in Scripture. We have Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right, the three patriarchs. We have the outer court, the inner court, and the Holy of holies in the temple. We have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. So three is a holy number, seven is a holy number. We have the seven-branched menorah that is the symbol of Israel today and was in the Tabernacle and in the temple. And here we find that on the seventh month in God's calendar, called the month of Tishrei, we have the Fall Holy Day. So the Lord said, "In the seventh month on the first of the month, you shall have a rest..." So it's a time to stop.
So the first thing that we need to do if we want to take this seriously is we want to stop. And we want to take in what God is wanting to give us here, because if we're busy, and if we're running around, we're being irresponsible because we're not stopping and doing what God said, because God has a gift to give us. So in order to receive the gift, we first have to stop. In fact, even as Shabbat, I'm talking about the normal Sabbath, this day of stopping and resting, all the holy days are also Sabbaths. All the holy days are, first of all, a day to stop. So we have to stop the normal cycle, we have to stop our ordinary activity, we have to stop our ordinary focus, we have to "selah." We have to pause.
Why do we have to pause? To create a window for God to speak to us, to create a window for God to impart something to us. So stop. Listen. You shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets. This is the key. The key to the feast of Yom Teruah, the feast of blowing or the feast of trumpets, this is what Teruah means, trumpets or blowing, the key is that it's a reminder. So we're to stop and rest and remember as the shofar is blown. Let me read it all in context. 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. We stop, we remember by the blowing of the trumpets.
What does the blowing of the trumpet do? What does the blowing of the trumpets remind us of? What does Rosh Hashanah, which is the Jewish way that they talk about this day, because in addition to it being the feast of the blowing of the trumpets, it's also known in Judaism as the head of the year, they call it Rosh Hashanah. It's the same feast. We blow the trumpet on Rosh Hashanah at the synagogues. We blow the trumpet on Yom Teruah. What does this remind us of? Because the Lord said blow the trumpet as a reminder. It reminds us, beloved ones, it elevates us to remember that God broke into the world, get this now, that the Creator broke into the world and revealed Himself to Israel at Mount Sinai as a cosmic shofar, as the divine shofar blew from heaven.
We read in the book of Exodus that the Lord called Israel to consecrate themselves and prepare themselves. For three days, Israel washed themselves, consecrated themselves, prepared themselves, because on the third day they were going to meet God. Can you imagine this? The Lord told Moses, say to Israel, I want you to consecrate yourself for three days, because on the third day you're going to meet me. Now this might sound like a fairy tale to some of you, but my friends, you can't explain the existence of the Jewish people today apart from what happened at Mount Sinai really happened, apart from the fact that when God said I want you to consecrate yourself and prepare yourself, because on the third day you're going to meet me, and then they all came to Mount Sinai on the third day, and as they were gathered at the base of the mountain, suddenly the mountain began to quake, flashes of fire and glory and the mountain trembled, and the people began to tremble.
A shofar, a trumpet began to sound from heaven. The people were so terrified they couldn't handle it, and then when that trumpet reached a crescendo, the Lord spoke with thunder. And my friend, you cannot explain the existence of the Jewish people today other than the fact that what I just declared actually happened. The Jewish people have been separated by oceans, they were dispersed to all portions of the earth, yet they retained their identity, they retained their memory, they celebrated Passover every year, wherever they were in the world. Why? Because it really happened and God marked them.
And even today, they're the most unique people on the planet. Even today, little Israel, a country that's no bigger than the size of New Jersey, is talked about more than any other country in the world. Why? Because the God of Israel is real. The trumpet sounded, and the trumpet, beloved, has sounded again as we've entered into the Feast of Trumpets, and God wants you to know that the Creator is alive. He's watching over you and I. We're going to give an account to Him. And Yeshua's going to come back with the sounding of the trumpet, and He's going to reward every man according to what he has done. So let's prepare our hearts and get ready to meet the Creator.