Grace in the Shadows
Dr. Marla and Dr. Jonathan Behler discuss marriage, family issues, mental health,narcissism, and biblical characters and studies.
Grace in the Shadows
Unraveling the Deep Mysteries of Old Testament Fall Festivals and God's Mercy - With Special Guest Rabbi Jeff Grillo
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Can you fathom the vast depth of the Old Testament Fall Festivals? Or the timeless wisdom they hold within their rituals and traditions? Rabbi Jeff Grillo accompanies us as we venture into the heart of these ancient customs, unraveling the myths and unveiling their true essence. Join us as we reveal the significance of Elul and Yom Teruah and how these fall feasts point to end times and events such as the church's rapture.
Ever wondered about the profound connection between the concept of mercy and being 'born again'? We shed light on this mystery, delving into the Hebrew root of mercy, rechum. Discover how it relates to the womb and profoundly interprets Yeshua's words about being 'born again'. We also discuss the symbolism of the shofar calling us to repentance and the intriguing link between the amniotic fluid of the womb and living water. Wrap up the episode by engaging in a heartwarming discussion about God's immense love for us and the joy of reciprocating that love through service and faith. Come, let's discover God's grand design together!
Check out Rabbi Jeff Grillo's church: https://myroic.org/about-roic/
You can contact Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Marla Behler:
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ACK. Welcome to Grace and the shadows. This is Dr Marla Bealer and Dr J. Dr Jonathan Bealer. Hello everybody, hope you are surviving in this hot, hot day, as we seem to always say. He index of 115 degrees here in Mobile today.
Speaker 2:That is just disgusting. Yes, we're going to melt.
Speaker 1:We'd like to do a quick shout out to Salem Oregon. Thank you, salem Oregon, for listening to us Beautiful place, another place to visit.
Speaker 1:Definitely. You can check us out at graceandtheshadowsorgorg. You can text or call 251-2444-645 or you can email us at Dr Jonathan at graceandtheshadowsorgorg. Check out our Etsy store. Shout is at graceetsycom. Pick you up for coffee mug or a t-shirt and we also have a link in our show notes If you would like to become a monthly supporter. All money goes towards missions. We just have $250 left for your trip. Yeah, Tanzania, All right, Tanzania is coming. All right, everybody, we have got a special guest here today. He was with us a couple months ago. Great guy, yes, wonderful person, Rabbi Jeff Grillo, and he is here. We talked about the book that he wrote last time, the excused assassin. Hopefully you picked that up and read it. He is pastor of the toast of Rock of Visual Congregation and we're just really yay, we're just really excited to have him here again with us today.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, you know we're moving in. We hear a lot about like fall festivals and things like that and, and you know, I think we as Gentiles speaking in the church, I think a lot of times we don't really understand what like those fall feasts and things in the Old Testament. Rabbi, I know you know a lot about this stuff.
Speaker 3:Yes, I might have heard a thing or two. All right, I was just excited. You know actually taught on this subject in our morning service today, saturday, and it's an exciting time of year Because we know, prophetically and eschatologically speaking, the fall festivals which, in case anyone's not familiar, would include the Feast of Trumpets, day of Atonement, and well, it's known as a bunch of different things Feast of Booths, feast of In Gathering, it's actually called Sikot. In the Hebrew, day of Atonement is Yom Kippur and Yom Teruah is the Feast of Trumpets. It's also kind of known commonly as Rosh Hashanah, which literally is just the head of the year or their new year's celebration kind of lumped in together. But publicly speaking it's Feast of Trumpets and we know it points to the end times because of Yeshua, jesus perfectly fulfilled all of the spring festivals at his first coming. He was executed on Passover, buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, he rose on the Feast of First Fruits and the Holy Spirit. He was poured out on Shavuot, which literally means weeks, feast of Weeks or Pentecost. We know it as in the church. So, with God being a God of patterns, it stands to reason that if he perfectly fulfilled with his first coming in the spring festivals.
Speaker 3:We really should pay attention to what's going on with the fall festivals as they pertain to end times events, and what is so amazing, and I shared with our congregation this morning, is that it's Was it John Now, 2 Peter 3, verse 9, I believe it is where it says that, you know, god is not willing that any should perish.
Speaker 3:I cautioned our people and our visitors to understand that that doesn't just mean those of us in the body of Messiah, regardless of what denomination, although he certainly is not willing that we should perish either but John 3, 16, he so loved the world, all eight billion plus of us that exist here, the ones that deny him, the ones that blaspheme him, the ones that don't believe he exists, the ones that serve other gods various types and names. He loves them all, he loves us all and he's not willing that any should perish. So he built in and this is such an overlooked, little understood part of the fall festivals that are built in because he so loves us, and it's called the month of Elul, which is the last month on the Hebrew calendar. It's the 30 days leading up to the Yom Teruah, which literally means the day of trumpets. We call it the feast of trumpets, and we know again, eschatologically speaking, that that is a picture of the sounding of the shofar. The trumpet blast the dead in Christ's rice. First the rapture of the church.
Speaker 2:It's just going to make that point, yeah.
Speaker 3:And so well, rabbi Jeff, we don't believe in setting dates, and neither do I. It's not a date setting. And here's why, if I come on the show and say, hey, the rapture is going to happen tomorrow at three o'clock, yeah, okay, you know what?
Speaker 2:just ignore everything I say.
Speaker 3:Pray for me.
Speaker 2:Hang on, love you, evan. Exactly, nice talking with you, pastor. I'll just go ahead, right.
Speaker 3:But number one, it's not me saying it, it's in the word that we're. You know, no one knows the date of time, but we're supposed to know the seasons, the Moedim, which is the appointed times. These are the appointed times, the seven biblical feasts. So we're supposed to pay attention. Plus, we may know the appointed time, but we don't know the year, right? Right, it could be this year, it could be 10 years from now, it could be who knows? Right?
Speaker 2:And I'm sure someone could guess accidentally someday, but that doesn't mean they really know?
Speaker 3:They say a broken clock is right, twice a day right.
Speaker 2:Right, right right.
Speaker 3:So, just so, essentially, this is also the only feast that isn't mentioned by a day.
Speaker 3:For example, on the 14th day of the first month shall be a a twilight, should be the Passover, or shall be the Passover. So we know, okay, well, we're in the first month, on the 14th day, this is when it starts. Twilight is very specific. This is the only day where it says at the first sighting, or at the sighting of the first sliver of the new moon, okay, well, it's not the first sighting, you know, in Boston or in Beijing or Johannesburg, it's in Jerusalem. And well, we're not by. But we've got all these computer software and we know exactly when the new moon will be sighted. Well, yeah, but the Bible doesn't say thus say is Google or or it's, it's, it's the sighting. It has to be cited by two or three witnesses in Jerusalem. Okay, well, what if, when that day occurs, it's cloudy out and it can't be seen, it can't start Until that day. So so, therefore, nobody knows the day of the hour, but we do know the season. So it points to that.
Speaker 3:So this 30 days, oh God is calling us to repentance. In Judaism they explain that this is the month, it's a time of the great harvest. It's a time when the king is in the field and, spiritually speaking, the teaching goes like this anytime a Repentance sinner calls into the Lord, anytime of your God hears them, right. But but they say there's something so special about this time because the king comes off the throne, he's in the field and he is so attentive, listening for the slightest whisper of Repentance. Why? Because he's not willing that any of us be lost. Not that God could could miss it, not that he wouldn't notice, but again, there's just something so intense and amazing and impressive and humbling about the creators love, passionate love for all of us that he is amongst us in a special way. We have access like no other time of year and, by the way, it starts on our calendar, if it's correct, it's sundown. This coming Wednesday, august 16th is when it begins. It's a, it's a. It's a 30-day period of repentance.
Speaker 2:This is a good timing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is perfect timing. Yeah, yeah, this is. God is in this. I was praying for opportunities. I'm Gonna be a little bit late, but it will be before Feast of trumpets I got an invite to go speak at a Another church and teach on these things, but the point is we're getting the word out. So now this, this 30-day period of time is part of really a 40-day Period of repentance, because, again, a lul is the 30 days leading up to feast of trumpets and then, immediately Following feast of trumpets, there is what's known as the 10 days of awe, that that lead up to yum Kapoor, or they have at home judgment things.
Speaker 2:So it's a 10 days of awe? That isn't. Is that? Is it just like being an? Ah, who God is what? What is?
Speaker 3:wow.
Speaker 2:I'm more prayer at that time, or is it just?
Speaker 3:it is in a very, very intense time of prayer and fasting, because now, remember, amongst the Jews who don't recognize Yeshua as the Messiah, and it's all works based right. So they know that, okay. So here's what's happening On feast of trumpets is when heaven's court convenes, and we have a picture of this in the book of Job. He says there was a. On the appointed day, hasatan, satan and the angels Presented themselves before God, before the throne, and he made the accusations against Job. Well, it's not just Job, it's against every man, every woman, every child, every nation on earth. The accusations are brought every year on this day.
Speaker 2:Cuser of the brethren.
Speaker 3:He is the accuser exactly now, fortunately for you and for me and those who place their trust in Jesus. You know when he gets to us, you know our Messiah stands up and says I object. You know this. They're bought by the blood, they're covered, and you know sentences commuted, whatever so. So the accusations are made on feast of trumpets. Then the, the sages, teach that God then Goes into his chambers, so to speak, and deliberates For these ten days the fate, the judgment for everybody that is declared on young Kapoor. That's the day that everything is sealed for the coming year the fate of every man, every woman, every child, every nation is Decreed on young Kapoor. Who is gonna be, who's gonna live, who's gonna die, who's gonna be blessed, who's gonna be cursed, who's gonna be sick, who's gonna what nations go to war, where the hurricanes will impact and tornadoes? Every Judgment is declared on young Kapoor for the following year. So here's where it gets really interesting, as though that's not interesting.
Speaker 3:So in Exodus, chapter 34, verses 5 through 7, what are known as the midod harachimim? These are the attributes of mercy, the 13 attributes, and it's an answer To Moses on Sinai asking God to show him his glory. I want to see your face. And you know, he puts him in a cluster of rock covers, I mean, as he's passing by. God gives the answer to what is glorious. You know, we think, we know what it is, we have all kinds of ideas, but God gives us the answer. It says the Lord, the Lord merciful and gracious, gracious, slow to anger, etc. Etc. It goes on and on, but the two things I want to focus on the most today are the first two things merciful, he's, full of mercy and full of grace. Now let's look at the mercy, because it fits in to oh and, by the way, this is incredibly important. I can't believe I almost missed it.
Speaker 3:John, chapter 3, verses 1 through 10, is the discourse between Yeshua and Nicodemus, and you know the whole thing about. You know how you must be born again and what are you talking about? Can a man enter his mother's womb for a second time? And what really stands out to me, and I don't want to, you know, read anything into the scripture, but to me I can't read it without hearing Yeshua say almost like, really, you're a teacher of the law and you don't know what this means, because it is all built into these fall festivals and included in that is the month of the Lul, the picture of salvation we all think. We all think we know what it means to be born again. And it's not that we're not right, it's just I contend it's just not the full picture.
Speaker 2:I think most believers and it's not putting anyone down and included myself up until about 10 years ago- no, I think most, most Gentile believers or the church, including myself, is kind of ignorant of about a lot of the festivals and feast and how they really get deeper into passages that we know but we don't know as well as we think we know.
Speaker 3:It's all about the context and the problem is the church in general has kind of kicked the Jews out. You know, was it the council in Icy and was it onesimist onesias, I think?
Speaker 3:I'd say his name said, and I quote and we want nothing more to do with these stinking Jews or their festivals. That's more or less the quote. And since then, 324 AD, we've had a problem because without the Jews we lose that core understanding. We got a lot of great stories, we got a lot of information and we have some understanding. It's not that we don't know, but to me, I like in it to having you probably not old enough. When I was a kid we had black and white TVs with the bunny ears.
Speaker 2:I do remember them, you remember that in the big clunky clunk-clunk-clunk and then you had to do the fine tuning.
Speaker 3:And it was a little snowy.
Speaker 2:That's the kind of hit you've in, but it's all around the Arabid ears.
Speaker 3:Exactly exactly. So you have that sort of snowy picture, but it was great and you loved it because it was what you had and it was exciting, right. But now you know, now you start getting the Hebrew understanding, it's all of a sudden you're 4K 3D. That's what that is that I'm supposed to be looking at. It all comes together. So here's what it is. So mercy, the Midot, harachumim, rahumim is a Mercedes, right, it's plural. Rahum is the word mercy In Judaism. In Hebrew, the root of a word always carries through the actual word. It's the root of the word, is kind of at the core of the meaning. So at the core is rechum. It's spelled exactly the same way as rechum, it's just with one less letter, it doesn't have a yod, but it literally. Rechum is the Hebrew word for womb. W-o-m-b.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, mother's womb, okay. So what is a womb? It's a place, what's supposed to be a place of safety and protection and nurturing and insulation from the outside world. Right and all through the month of the rule, we sound the shofar every day. It's part of it, and on the Feast of Trumpets it's at least 100 times you'll sound the shofar. And the shofar is known as the Koy Israel. It's the call of Israel or the cry of Israel. It's a call. It's a call to war, it's a call to battle, it's a call to worship. It's used for many things in Biblical terms.
Speaker 2:For victory too right.
Speaker 3:For victory too right. So shofar is the root word of another Hebrew word called mishofim. Mishafim is going to start to get the hairs on the back of your neck standing up, because they're already doing it on me. Mishafim is the Hebrew word for amniotic fluid.
Speaker 3:Wow so they get the picture in your head. Now God is calling us through the shofar, through this month. He's calling us to repentance. He's calling us to where. He's calling us to His mercy, to the root. At the root is where whom it's mercy? It's the womb. So we're being called back into the womb, so to speak, for a period of initially 30 days, and actually it's a total of 40 days where we're repenting, we're being broken before the Lord, we're crying out, we're humbling ourselves, we're turning from our sin, we're returning to the way, we're returning to walking in all of His statutes and ordinances, as best we can, with Messiah's help, right, right, and, by the way, that amniotic fluid is what is known as living water.
Speaker 3:It's John 737-39, I believe it is where Yeshua talks about. You know, out of you will flow rivers of living water and that's indicative of the Rwakadash, the Holy Spirit. So this call is coming out. It's calling you into the womb to be nourished by the Holy Spirit. Right, it's this communion where we're becoming a fad. We're becoming one with God. I and the Father are one and I would be in you and you and me, that whole conversation that he had with His disciples.
Speaker 2:That is really cool. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:Well, that's fine, that's fine, it is really cool. It blows me away every time I think about it. So we're being called into this 40 days of repentance, and then remember what happens on Yom Kippur the decree is made, the judgment is issued and for believers who are washed by the blood, who are in Messiah, are declared righteous, were declared justified once again anew, and it's as though we are born again for another new year. So we've got. How long are women in a healthy pregnancy? Nine months, nine months or 40 weeks right.
Speaker 1:Right, wow.
Speaker 3:Moses was up on the mountain with God. How long? 40 days, 40 days. We got this. It's the same 40 days carrying of time that Moses was on the mountain up to Yom Kippur when the tablets were given and judgment was made. It's these 40 days that we are just stating again in the Holy Spirit, in Messiah, in with the Father. All of us have had this closeness culminating on this rebirth every year.
Speaker 2:It's that intimate and that close.
Speaker 3:It's that intimate, it's that close, it's that amazing. And this is why Jesus said almost, you know, because I'm adding a little bit to it just for dramatic effect, it's like I can't believe you're a teacher of the law, you teach this every year and you don't know this. It's right there, hidden in plain sight. It's just amazing.
Speaker 2:So we look at this and we just see Jesus rebuking him or chastising him, but lightly, in a nice way. But at the same time, he had a reason to.
Speaker 3:He had a reason to, because here again, as a teacher of the law, this wasn't a guy just rank and file in the pew, he wasn't just a first time visitor, he wasn't a curious bystander inquiring as to what is the meaning of this. He taught it every year and again, I love these kind of things because again, they're hidden in plain sight, and I don't remember if I shared this in one of the other podcast interviews with you. You'll have to forgive me, but it's so. Fits in with this as well is the second thing that in Exodus 34, the Lord, the Lord merciful and gracious, the word for grace is him. It's spelled het noon, and it means exactly what we assume it to mean. But what's interesting is that same two letter word spelled backwards noon. Het is how you spell Noah. It's Noah right.
Speaker 3:Wow which his name literally means comfort, right, wow, and I think it's. I didn't look it up, but I want to say it's Genesis, chapter 8, verse 2, maybe it's definitely in chapter 8, where it says you know, at the end of the flood, the ark came to rest on Ararat's mountains on the 17th day of the seventh month. And we think to ourselves okay, well, that's interesting, but why the detail? Why does God give us so much detail? Well, here's why God is pointing to something, too, that he wants us to know, because nothing, according to my mind, or to use one of the great sages, is that nothing in the Torah, nothing in the Word of God is superfluous. Every little thing has meaning, great meaning, deep meaning.
Speaker 2:Now, Rabbi, you don't think God just decides to do one of these feasts or festivals and he does the time and the number of days and all that. It's just by just throwing it out there, not by any real reason.
Speaker 3:Oh no, uh-uh, no, and I'm going to.
Speaker 2:He's in the details. He's in the details.
Speaker 3:Everything is details. You look at a strand of DNA and tell me it's not into the details.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 3:So the 17th day of the seventh month. Why is that significant and what does it mean? Well, at the, it's the Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah, their Jewish New Year. That's the first day of the first month, the month of Tishri. Seven months later, we're in the month of Nisan, which God changed to Moses. He said now, this shall be to you the first month. Okay, and on that twilight, on the 14th day, you shall execute or sacrifice a lamb. Excuse me.
Speaker 3:So Passover is on the 14th day of the first month, which is also the 14th day of the seventh month by God's reckoning. When did Yeshua get executed? On Passover, on the 14th month, when did he raise him?
Speaker 3:again Three days later. What day is that? The 17th day of the first month, which is also the 17th day of the seventh month. It's the same day that the ark came to rest on Ararat's mountains. And why is that significant? Because Ararat, in the Hebrew, literally means, and there's two definitions One is the precipitation of a curse. The second is the reversing of a curse. And what happened? When Yeshua took the stripes, when he was nailed to the cross, when he died, buried and was resurrected, our curse was fully reversed. Wow, and this is his mercy, this is his grace, this is what all comes together. He's calling us through this time of repentance. That is just blows my mind.
Speaker 2:So if he was detailed about his first coming, it stands to reason. Probably detailed about his second, right or no, sure or maybe.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, so again, so the picture is, and that we don't know when the year will be, but we know, and it is well, hit the season. Yeah, Let me just preface something. Go ahead. So, in our particular denomination, in my personal conviction and I'll give you the reasons why, is I firmly believe in the law of eminent return or the doctrine of eminent return. So, in other words, it's nothing holding him back. The sky can crack, the lightning can go from the east to the west, and he'll call us up with a shout of the trumpet, of the shofar, at any time. He doesn't have to wait.
Speaker 1:He's scotched sobbed. You can do whatever he wants.
Speaker 3:Plus, I'm almost 54 years old and when I was 21, I had two forms of malignant cancer, one of which had a 90% kill rate. So I understand for a very long time how fragile life is, and I understand that any of us, at any time, for any reason, could find ourselves in the presence of the Almighty God, shofar or not. So therefore, we must always be ready. So that's my little extra feelings towards the eminent return. Now, that being said, what I said I think I said it at the beginning is God of God of pattern. So I'm also quite persuaded that if he sticks to the pattern, then the rapture will happen in conjunction with the Feast of Trumpets. That's what the pattern is.
Speaker 3:Makes sense, I agree yeah and it's one of those things we're not going to know until we know, sure, sure, and if I'm right, okay, well, wow, that's cool. It's not that I'm right, it's that the understanding and the interpretation was clear and correct, and if it's not, then it's not, you know we'll still be high-fiving each other and bowing before the King of Kings and it's all good.
Speaker 2:That's good stuff. Yeah, I tell people. You know, we see the seasons Every year. I mean, christmas comes early, people are getting ready around Halloween or the fall and putting Christmas stuff up and selling it in stores and you know, even though it's not the day, we see that the season's getting close. And I think that's the same thing with the coming of Christ, the rapture. I believe it's eminent, it has to be eminent. Paul thought it was eminent, jesus said it was eminent, early church thought it was eminent. And I think it's eminent, I think it's just fact and I think we really we're seeing the signs, we're seeing things, whether it's the digital, the nanotechnology, the transhumanism movement, the one-world government, cashless I'm going to go on to immorality.
Speaker 3:AI.
Speaker 2:And I think AI, we're seeing it. We're seeing it and I think we're close. I don't know the date not going to predict the date but it wouldn't surprise me if it's on the day of Trump's yeah.
Speaker 3:It's again. It's all about the pattern, the pattern in the picture. It's a picture of what is to come and fill in the blanks when that may be. It's a picture of his love, of his mercy, and it just blows my mind every time I think about it, like here you have the God of all creation, all of heaven and earth and everything in it, and you think of how immense he must be in terms of size, if he has a size, and power and knowledge, wisdom, and how small and insignificant we really are in comparison. And yet, and yet, he loves us. He loves us so much that he himself is willing to step out of heaven, shake on flesh and redeem us, instead of just scrapping the whole idea and starting over what you could have done so many times.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, absolutely. And to me it's just humbling. To me, the only response is returned love and on and service. How can I not dedicate?
Speaker 2:my life to this Exactly right, right, right, when.
Speaker 3:I hear that one time before. Some guy said that somewhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Paul, Peter and Paul yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, at this point we are reaching about 30 minutes and we definitely want to continue this discussion, so we're going to turn this over to another episode. We're going to roll this over to a part two, so we just want to remind everybody that.
Speaker 2:Because God's in the details, he's sovereign and he loves us very much. He can take our mess turn to a message for his glory, for your good.
Speaker 1:All right, everybody, make sure you come back for our next episode with Rabbi Jeff Rillio. Yeah, you.