Rabbi Schneider — Atonement
Shalom, Yedidim, and God bless you, beloved ones. My name's Rabbi Schneider. Welcome to this edition of Discovering the Jewish Jesus. We are in the midst of a series now entitled The Fall Holy Days. These are God's appointed days that take place in the fall. They're outlined in the 23rd chapter of the book of Leviticus.
Now, on last week's broadcast, I talked about the day known as Rosh Hashanah or Yom Truah. It has to do with the Lord commanding the children of Israel in Leviticus chapter 23, verse 24 and 25 to blow the shofar on the 1st of the seventh month of God's calendar, the month of Tishrei, as a reminder for them.
And what were they to be reminded of, beloved? They were to be reminded of how God blew the shofar at Mount Sinai and Israel met him. We said that it was a prophetic shadow of the Lord Jesus, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, of the Lord Jesus coming back, that the Lord will come back with the voice or the shout of an angel and the trump or the blowing of the shofar of God.
So even as the Lord blew the shofar at Mount Sinai, and when he blew the shofar, he descended upon the mountain, and all the Israelites that were at the base of the mountain, some estimate as many as three million, met him, so too, beloved Jesus is going to descend from heaven once again with the blowing of a shofar, and everybody on planet earth will meet, hallelujah, their Maker.
We talked about that on last week's broadcast. We talked about how we can participate in that holiday.
Now, according to traditional Judaism, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Truah, the day that we blow the shofar on the 1st of the seventh month in God's calendar, this begins what is known as the ten Days of Awe.
The ten Days of Awe are the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur takes place on the 10th of the seventh month on God's calendar. Once again, in Hebrew that month is called Tishrei. And Yom Truah takes place on the 1st of the month of Tishrei.
The days between them, beloved, are known as the Days of Awe. They're to be days of self-examination. They're to be days that we're examining ourself, because Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year, and according to the rabbinic mindset -- now, I'm not teaching this, I'm just simply helping you to understand the Jewish world.
According to rabbinic Judaism, God seals everybody's fate for the coming year on Yom Kippur. So on Rosh Hashanah, we blow the trumpet and we begin to examine ourselves during the days leading up to Yom Kippur so that if we discover anything in our lives that we need to repent of, we can repent of it during these days leading up to Yom Kippur.
Then on Yom Kippur when the Lord seals our fate, our fate will be different for having repented. Now, again, we as Christians don't believe this. However, there is some symbolic truth for us, and that is this, beloved. Now is the season of repentance.
Jesus is wanting us to celebrate, I believe, the Feast of Trumpets, to participate some way in that every year, even if you just mark your calendar and remind yourself that Jesus is coming back. Jesus, of course, wants us to be so ready for this.