For nearly an hour and a half we scanned the skies last night, looking for the new moon. Together with visiting friends from Montana we stood at the edge of a local onion field, shofars in our hands, a great expectancy filling our hearts. We had been told it might be visible for a very brief window in time. We must have looked foolish - to the world! We waited and watched, waited and watched. "Was that it?" No, it was a plane! "How about that little spot of light?" No, it's not a crescent.Though we never did spot it last night, several friends in our congregation did. And in my heart I felt that what pleased God last night was not whether or not we found the new moon, but that we joyfully, expectantly went to search for it. I imagined Him looking down on the four of us at the edge of the onion field, scanning the skies, and saying (with a broad grin on His Face), "Look there! Look at those little ones, searching for the signs I place in the sky! Those are my children!" It is obedience that brings the blessing!
Because the new moon was observed in the sky last night by some, we know that it ushered in the first day of the month Tishrei, and the Feast of Yom Teruah (the day of blowing). Our group will gather tonight at a lake in Loveland to celebrate, and to again search for the tiny crescent of moon and sound the shofar. It is an important feast, which will one day be fulfilled by the sound of the Seventh Trumpet, announcing the Return of our Messiah King! But in the meantime, we will observe and meditate upon the deeper meaning of these "days of awe" which precede Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. These are the ten days in which we are to examine our hearts and ask God to reveal to us the bitterness, unforgiveness, and sin that is contaminating our hearts and our lives. We are to spend these days in a deep repentance, and search out those whom we have offended, asking forgiveness. Tonight we will write these offenses on stones, and cast them into the lake - which our Father calls the "sea of forgetfulness." He promises that once we have repented, He will remember them no more! What a merciful, compassionate God we serve! In these ten days we offer ourselves - our souls and bodies - as living sacrifices unto Him (Romans 12:1) and the Scripture says "this is our act of worship."
As we walk through (rehearse) these prophetic Feasts of the LORD this fall, we proclaim ourselves to be in Covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - a remnant of His inheritance! We are His children and He is our God (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
As we blow the shofar, joyfully anticipating His return and throwing our stones into the water, let us pray:
"Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea!" (Micah 7:18-19)
Thank You, Father. What an indescribable blessing to know that we are part of the remnant of your inheritance, grafted in by the atoning Blood of Messiah Yeshua!
