Rabbi Schneider - A Shadow of Jesus' Return
Shalom, beloved ones. We are in the midst of a very special season as we enter in now to first of all Rosh Hashanah, also called the Feast of Trumpets or Yom Teruah, followed by Yom Kippur, the Days of Awe, and then culminating with Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles. Now the Feast of Rosh Hashanah, or the Feast of Trumpets, it really is a prophetic shadow of Yeshua's return. Because even as Father God appeared to His people at Mount Sinai that His manifest presence was preceded by the blowing of a cosmic shofar from Heaven, so too, when He appears to the world again through His son, Messiah Jesus, the appearing of Messiah will be preceded by the blowing of a cosmic shofar from Heaven.
Rosh Hashanah begins what is known as the Ten Days of Awe. The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are once again called the Ten Days of Awe. They're days of self-examination. And during this period we look at ourselves, and we ask Father, "Is there any soul correction that needs to take place in my life? Is there anything, Father, by Your Spirit, that You need to bring to my attention that I need to repent of, that I need to change". We get ourself ready, beloved, knowing that one day we're all gonna stand before the judgment seat of Messiah.
Following Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we now enter into a feast of thanksgiving, the Feast of Tabernacles. It was an agricultural feast. It was a time when people from all over came to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel, and they brought their offerings with them. This is a time of year to truly take stock of all the good things that we have in our life, and it's only because of the blessing of Father God. Unfortunately, most of you are like me; we tend to not appreciate what we have until we don't have it anymore.
As we age, for example, we begin to become much more thankful for our health. Because often times as we age, we begin to experience that our body wears down. We never thought about giving thanks to God for our health, some of us, when we were fifteen years old, twenty years old, we just took it for granted. But when we realize that we can't take Father's blessings for granted, we then give him thanks. I want to encourage you, don't wait for something to go wrong. Don't wait for something to be taken away from you to realize what a blessing it was. Stop right now and consider all the ways Father has blessed you. The fact that we have houses to live in, food to eat, the relationships in our life, if we have a job, the fact that we can even experience pleasure when we eat food, enjoy listening to music. These are all gifts of the Creator! The gift to experience pleasure is the gift of the Creator. It's a time of thanksgiving.