The Wide Path Dropout

Teshuvah

• Ginny • Episode 17

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Join me, Ginny, as we talk about this 40 day time period leading up to the Day of Atonement called Teshuva as a time that we get to evaluate our hearts and make preparation for our coming Bridegroom, King Jesus. 

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Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Jenny. I'm a wife, a mom, an entrepreneur and, most importantly, a disciple of Yeshua Jesus. I've been a Christian for almost two decades, having studied the Bible for at least that long or better. Until about five years ago, I thought I knew Jesus pretty well. Then my world was rocked. I started studying the Bible from its Middle Eastern context and culture, and what I found has completely changed my and my family's lives forever. Join me as I share all that I've learned about our Jewish Messiah, in hopes of edifying and encouraging the bride.

Speaker 1:

This is a conversation for the Christian who wants more. This is the Wide Path Dropout Podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Wide Path Dropout Podcast. I am your host, jenny, and today we are going to be talking about something exciting. It is about the time period that we find ourselves in right now.

Speaker 1:

So we are in a time period on God's set apart calendar called Teshuvah. It is the 40 days of repentance leading up to the Day of atonement, or Yom Kippur in Hebrew. Whether we are aware of it or not, our world, our lives, revolve around two main calendars that are running parallel to each other, so much like we have our regular Gregorian calendar, and then we also have a school calendar and we might even also operate under a fiscal calendar at times. The same is true for God's calendar and ours. We primarily live by the Gregorian calendar. However, god operates and moves and meets us on his own set apart timeline, his biblical calendar. In Exodus 12, verse two, as he's about to rescue his people out of Egypt, he establishes a set apart calendar completely different from the one that they lived under in Egypt. On this calendar, the new year is in the spring, when the earth is blossoming and coming back to life. So doesn't it make much more sense that our new year would align with God's creation coming back to life? Well, let's take a look at the very beginning of creation and see how God gave us clues about how we could expect to know what season we're in.

Speaker 1:

In Genesis, chapter 1, verse 14, it says In Genesis 1, verse 14, it says that word seasons in Hebrew is moedim and it means appointed times, appointed festivals or holy convocations. So he's telling us that he put the sun, moon and the stars up so that we could follow his set-apart timeline, so that we could know when these appointed times or holy convocations would be. In Leviticus 23, yahweh laid out all of the festivals that he wanted his people to observe, and guess what he called them? Holy Convocations, set Apart Appointed Times. There are eight appointed times or Moedim, and the first one is the weekly Sabbath, and then you have four spring feast days and three fall feast days. All of these appointed times are about Jesus. They are all foreshadows of Jesus's first and second comings.

Speaker 1:

To give you an example of how God moves on his calendar, let's take a look at some of the most important events that have taken place in the Bible and you'll see that they all fall on one of these appointed festivals. On Nisan 14, which is 14 days after the new biblical year, the very first ever Passover happened. Then the Israelites followed the pattern of the spring feast days as they moved through the desert up to Mount Sinai. When God gave Moses the Torah, it was the day of Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks on the Hebrew calendar. Well, over a thousand years later, jesus would die as our Passover lamb at the exact moment that the Passover lamb was being sacrificed. He would be in the tomb during the Feast of Unleavened Bread and he would rise at the exact moment that the priests were cutting the barley for the Feast of Firstfruits, and he gave his disciples the Holy Spirit 50 days later, on the Feast of Shavuot, or what we know today as Pentecost. You start learning more about these feast days and as you continue reading and studying the Bible throughout your life, you will begin to notice that so many major biblical events happen on or during the appointed times. Okay, so now we know about the first four spring feast days and how they all are directly related to the events that Jesus is first coming to earth. Right now, at this very moment in time, we are still waiting on the fulfillment of those remaining fall feast days, and I firmly believe that Jesus will return in the pattern of the fall feast days, just like he fulfilled the pattern of the spring feast days to a tee.

Speaker 1:

Now, growing up, most of us have been taught that no one knows when Jesus is coming back. In fact, it's almost blasphemy to say that you even think you might know, but I am going to submit to you that our God is so loving and so good that he wants us to be prepared. He does not want us to be caught off guard. He wants us to be ready, watching and waiting for Jesus's return. Now, before I go any further. Let me just say I am not saying that I know when Jesus is coming back. What I am saying is that there is a pattern that's been rehearsed for thousands of years as a commandment of Yahweh, and I believe that there's a very good reason for these rehearsals. No man knows the day or the hour, which, by the way, is a Jewish idiom for the Feast of Trumpets. No one knows the day or the hour, but we do know the season. And let's take a look and see what Scripture says about this.

Speaker 1:

In 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13-18, paul is talking about Jesus' return and how, at the second or, and how, at the sound of the trumpet, jesus will come down and the dead shall rise and will be caught up with him in the air. He goes on in chapter 5 to say some things that all first century Jewish believers would have understood. He says in verses 1 through 4 Now, brothers, about times and dates. We do not need to write you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come. Like a thief in the night, while people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape, but you brothers are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. They knew that Paul was talking about the feast days. They knew the trumpet sound was directly related to the Feast of Trumpets.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm not going to go deep into the fall feast days and their prophetic meanings, but I do need to give you some basic information about them and where they fall on God's calendar. So you have a point of reference for this time of Teshuvah that we're going to be talking about today. The first fall appointed time is the Feast of Trumpets, or Yom Teruah, which means Day of Blowing in Hebrew. This falls on the first of Tishri, which is the seventh month on the biblical calendar. It falls around September, october, on our Gregorian calendar. Ten days later, on Tishrei 10, you have the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur. Five days later, we have the final fall feast day, which is an eight-day celebration called the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot in Hebrew. This is on Tishrei 15. These three appointed times are a foreshadow of Jesus's second coming. You have Jesus's return on the Feast of Trumpets, riding it on the clouds as king. He judges the world on the Day of Atonement, and then we have the big wedding supper of the Lamb during the Feast of Tabernacles. Big wedding supper of the lamb during the Feast of Tabernacles. And Jesus establishes his reign as king on earth and he tabernacles among us once again and for all. So now that you have a basic understanding of the three fall feast days and their place on the timeline, let's get into Teshuvah.

Speaker 1:

So, like I said in the beginning, teshuvah is the 40 days leading up to the Day of Atonement. It's called the 40 Days of Repentance. It begins on the first day of the sixth month on the Hebrew or the biblical calendar, called Elul. So it starts on Elul 1 and it ends on Tishrei the 10th. During these 40 days of Teshuvah, in synagogues all around the world, starting on Elul 1, they blow the shofar every day as a wake-up call.

Speaker 1:

This time is also known as the king is in the field. So the king is in the field is this idea that our king has been away on a long journey, he's returning to his palace and he's in the field, in front of the palace. He's in great spirits because he's back in his land, around his people, and he's almost home. He's not in a formal position, his guard is down and he's approachable. So it's a time where his subjects can run up to him and greet him and they can ask of him any request and he's in the position and the mood to grant it, so long as it's within his will. Well, teshuvah is that time. We can come to the Lord and nuzzle up to him. We can confess all the things that we need to confess. We can ask him for help.

Speaker 1:

The most important and accurate way that I could describe this time period is like the final process of a Jewish wedding. If you aren't aware of the Jewish wedding process, please go research it. I have an episode called A Galilean Wedding that you can go listen to, and there's also a movie on Amazon Prime and it's called Before the Wrath. Please go watch it. It is so much of Jesus. What he did, right before he gave himself up to be sacrificed, was a Jewish wedding proposal. And in a Jewish wedding, right after the bridegroom proposed and the bride said yes, the bridegroom would go away to build a bridal chamber onto his father's house. This should sound very familiar. Then, only when the father says when the bridal chamber was ready, his father would say, ok, son, you can go get your bride, then the bridegroom would go, usually in the middle of the night, to go get his bride. He was referred to as a thief in the night going to steal away his bride. So the time of Teshuvah is the time when the bride is watching and waiting to see that procession in the streets and to hear that shofar being blown as an announcement that her bridegroom is coming for her.

Speaker 1:

The time of Teshuvah is our opportunity to make ourselves ready for Jesus. It's a time that we can examine our hearts, our behaviors, look at our relationships, to scrutinize our lives in an effort to make ourselves a pure bride. We should be like David, begging to create a clean heart in us. Oh God, you might notice that it's naturally happening in your own life because, whether we realize it or not, god is working on his timeline. So it only makes sense that, even if you don't notice it, he's working in your life and he's probably naturally giving you that inclination right now to start kind of looking and examining your own heart. I want to give you some practical ways that you can observe this time of Teshuvah.

Speaker 1:

Number one acknowledge the sin in your life. Ask God to search your heart and reveal anything that he wants to deal with and maybe even heal. Number two Examine your relationship with him. Are you close with him right now? Do you go to him for everything? Do you talk to him often? Do you have an affection for him? Really, look at your relationship with him and how you feel about him right now. Number three are your relationships healthy? Do you need to forgive anyone or do you need to ask someone for forgiveness? Right now is a really good time to make things right with anybody that you feel is not quite there or not quite where you think the Lord would want it. Number four confess and repent. The Bible says in 1 John 1, 9, that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us. So that leads me to number five receive his forgiveness and move on in faith and intimacy with him. Don't spend time in regret, don't spend time in shame. Move forward in his forgiveness and in his love. And I want to leave you with this final thought.

Speaker 1:

This month of Elul is an acronym and in Hebrew it says All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves. I looked for him but did not find him. I will get up now and go about the city through its streets and squares, I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him. The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. Have you seen the one my heart loves? Scarcely had I passed him. When I found the one my heart loves, I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me. So if I could leave you with one idea of what this time of Teshuvah could look like in your life, it would be this Are people going to find you in the streets looking and searching for the one that your heart loves, or are they going to find you passively, just biding time, not really paying attention?

Speaker 1:

I want for us to have a heart that we are, that we are eagerly waiting his return. We are constantly asking him Jesus, when are you coming back? I can't wait for you to come back. That's how we should feel. I remember when I was younger not even when I was younger when I was younger as a Christian, I remember always telling the Lord like I love you so much, lord, but I'm not ready for you to come back. And, man, let me just tell you I have reached a point in my relationship with him. I want him to come back. I'm like, lord, this is, this is getting old. This is not my home. You are my home. I want to be with you, and my heart, for each and every one of us, is that we come to that point, is that we don't want to be in this world anymore. We want to be with our beloved, and so I'm going to leave you with that. I pray that the Lord will set your heart ablaze for wanting intimacy with him, not just relationship, but true intimacy and just desire for him to come back. I pray that he fills that in your heart, fills that desire in your heart, and with that I pray that he blesses you and that he keeps you in his perfect peace until the next time we meet on the Wide Path Dropout podcast.

Speaker 1:

Really quick before I go if you are interested in learning more about these feast days, and specifically the Feast of Trumpets, which is coming up next week on Monday, monday evening, please go look at, go listen to some of my previous episodes. I've got one that's all about the seven feast days of Yahweh. There's one that's specifically about the Feast of Trumpets. Again, there are these books that I talked about in the beginning of my podcast by Christy Eisner, called Finding the Afikomen and Watching and Waiting. Those books literally changed my relationship with the Lord in regards to these feast days and they ignited passion in me for Jesus, and I highly recommend that you get those books as well. But educate yourself on these feast days, because they really unlock so much of the pattern of Jesus and his love story with us and they'll give you some insight into what's going on in our world today. So check those out and find out more about those feast days, because they really are game changers. Thank you so much again for listening and God bless.