Shalom, shalom; peace, in the name of Yeshua. This is your host Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program. Today is the first day of the week, Sunday September 16th.
This morning we are going to look at the Lord’s feast of Yom Teruah, which is called the day of concealment.
Let’s pray:
Father,
We thank You for being God, for being the King of the Universe, over heaven and earth. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein. The joy of the Lord is our strength.
Shema, O America, the Lord our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.
I ask You to cleanse me from all unrighteousness so my prayers will not be hindered. I desire my sacrifices to ascend before Your altar. I desire to come near to You. I forgive those who hate me. Please, receive my sacrifice today. I desire to seek out Your paths of righteousness, to love You and to love my neighbor.
We pray for the release of Your Spirit of repentance to saturate the nation, our schools, military, Congress, Senate, Supreme Court, agencies, and medical organizations. We ask You to remove those that hate You and Your purposes for this nation. We pray for the destruction of the plans of the enemy to destroy Your people and this nation. We pray Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Next month is the high holiday of Halloween. We pray that fear, confusion, and chaos will saturate those that love the darkness. We pray fear will pursue them until they repent. It is good for those that hate You to at least fear You. We pray against every hex, every vex, curse, tarot card, black magic, white magic, stirring cauldron, fortune telling, enchantment, spell, witch, warlock; their sending of disease, and demons on assignment. We pray You will expose the works of darkness, and not just expose it, but to bring justice also.
We pray that abortion will be overthrown in this nation. We pray against the advancement of pedophilia, human trafficking—these are nefarious works of darkness. The children in the Asian countries like Singapore, the children in the Dominque Republic are prostituted and sold as sex slaves to the rich American and Arab business men. I ask You to remember their wickedness and bring them to justice. There is a war in this nation against children, and not this nation; but the nations as well. The darkness hates Your creation.
We pray for president Trump, we pray Your wisdom, knowledge and understanding will saturate him, along with Your Spirit of discernment, might, counsel and the fear of the Lord. We pray Your will, Your purpose, to be done in his life.
We pray for Israel, that Israel will be saturated with Your Spirit of repentance. We pray against evil politicians that seek to divide Your land. We ask that the nation will receive Yeshua as their Messiah. Take the stony places out of their hearts and give them hearts of flesh. We pray for their protection as the nations conspire to destroy them.
We bless You, Father; Your name is above every name, above every situation. We praise Your name. In Yeshua’s name. Amen.
Last Sunday the 9th Yom Teruah, also known as Rosh HaShanah (we translate it to the feast of Trumpets) began and we are now on the 8th day of the Lord’s feast. In two more days, the evening of the 18th begins Yom Kippur also known as the Day of Atonement. This is a ten day feast from Yom Teruah to Yom Kippur, and these days are called the days of awe.
Yom Teruah is Hebrew for the Lord’s feast of the Day of Shout. Yom is Hebrew for Day and Teruah is Hebrew for shout, noise, trumpets; hence we say it is the feast of trumpets.
The Strong’s Concordance defines Teruah as: clamor, that is, acclamation of joy or a battle-cry; especially clangor of trumpets, as an alarm, blow (ing of the trumpets), joy jubilee, loud, noise, rejoicing, shout; high joyful sound.
Leviticus 23:23 This is the Artscroll translation from Hebrew by Jewish translators, and I will make comments here and there concerning the text
Hashem spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, saying: In the seventh month (the 7th month is now called Tishrei and before the Babylonian exile this 7th month was called Ethanim, before it was called Ethanim it was called the 7th month), on the first of the month, there shall be a rest day for you, a remembrance with shofar blasts (hence the Feast of Trumpets), a holy convocation (the Hebrew word for convocation is meqra and it means rehearsal, so these appointed times by God are prophetic rehearsals of what is forthcoming) . You shall not do any laborious work, and you shall offer a fire-offering to HaShem.
God had already established which day His feast would be recognized and it was on the first day, or the new moon. This feast is also called the “Day of Concealment, besides other appellations like “The Day of the Awakening Blast” which represents preparing for the coming judgment which is Yom Kippur and it is a signal for the resurrection as we read in the passage of I Corinthians 15:52
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.
Rabbi Herman Kieval states in his book The High Holy Days that many Jewish scholars, including Theodore Gaster, taught the festival of Rosh haShanah, (Yom Teruah) was called the festival of the Last Trumpet from ancient times.
And l Thessalonians 4:14 – 18 speaks of the resurrection and Revelation 20:4
So, I mentioned the sages call Yom Teruah the Day of Concealment and we read where Yeshua and His disciples are talking about this concealment in Matthew 24:36 and chapter 25:13 and Mark 13:32
Yeshua discusses with His disciples the timing of His coming, clarifying those things they already knew, and He says: But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, but my Father only.
The day and hour is not known, because it is established by the witnessing of the new moon.
In Matthew 25:13
Yeshua said: Watch (watch for the new moon cycle) therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Yeshua did not say they would not understand the season which is the appointed season for His return. He knows what season He will come, so did His audience. He will come at the appointed time of the feast of trumpets. He can only fulfill the Word, the feasts. He will not break what is written concerning Him and do whatever He wants when He wants. He cannot come any day. He can only come at the appointed time of His arrival, because He did not come to destroy, or abolish the law—He came to fulfill it, to fulfill all the feasts.
In the time of the Sanhedrin, witnesses watched for the new moon, and it had to be verified by two witnesses.The feast of yom Teruah lasted two days to make sure it was observed. They can calculate but there are situations that can arise, like no witnesses come forth, or it is very cloudy so the moon cannot be detected. So if there are these situations, they calculate the new moon and observe the feast. There is procedure that I am trying to recall before the new moon; when in its very last waning crescent, it is a thin sliver of light and the points are called the horns of the moon. So from there they would calculate the appearance.
The fall feasts follow repentance, judgment and then rejoicing (Tabernacles, the feast of booths), Zechariah 14 and Revelation The disciples understood perfectly this teaching of Yeshua, that He would return at the cycle of the new moon at the feast of Yom Teruah.
The feast of Yom Teruah is the only feast that is established on the sighting of the new moon. The season is known, but the day is hidden, because the moon is concealed at the time of the new moon. The witnesses have to watch for the new cycle. He did not tell them when he was addressing the disciples on His return they would be snatched away yet, but He did say for them, the disciples to watch for His coming. They were instructed to watch at the feast of concealment.
The feasts of Yom Teruah are preparations for the final judgment. They teach us that we need to go through repentance, judgment (the rehearsal of Yom Kippur) and Christ’s final cleansing before we can celebrate new beginnings of the world to come which is represented by the feast of Tabernacles. By reminding us of the consummation of redemption, the fall feasts can help us experience in the present a joyous anticipation of the future—that we are forgiven.
According to the teachings of the sages our thoughts, words, deeds, and attitudes count for eternity. The idea is to be cleansed from our own vile nature, the evil inclination that exists in us. So Yom Teruah, the trumpets sounding, remind us to get our hearts right before He executes judgment at Yom Kippur.
This feast of Yom Teruah foreshadows the conclusion, or the completion of God’s cycle, His plan for the final disposition of sin and the inauguration of a new world.
They have no desire for their sins and unrighteous acts to go into the new year. They purpose to repent of their sins, and to repent in Hebrew is teshuvah. In the month of Elul before the feast of Trumpets, Yom Teruah, the Jews begin the process of asking forgiveness from God and seeking out their neighbors to forgive them. One must ask for forgiveness and must forgive also. They must confess their sins before God, and reparations must be made before Yom Kippur when the books are closed. Last program I discussed Revelation 20:21
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books (plural).
This is the feast of Yom Kippur, the day of judgment. The book of life is opened, the book of death, and the book of judgment.
So, the Jews press to enter into a right relationship with God before being judged at Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, for the next year.
Let’s go over some passages that depict Yom Teruah.
Let’s go to the New Testament. I am going to read it from the NKJV. Luke 18:9-
This is a passage that is a parable but it gives us a picture of Yom Teruah concerning repentance:
And He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying: God be merciful to me a sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
This is a custom in Israel at Yom Teruah, to beat the breast and say: “God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
In the book of l Samuel 25 we see that Abigail is married to Nabal. Nabal is very wealthy. David sent 10 of his young men to Nabal to ask for provisions for the feast of Yom Teruah.
Verse 8 says: Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants to your son David.
It would not be an imposition because provisions would have to be prepared for Nabal’s household and his servants anyway for the feast. Nabal showed no hospitality toward David or his servants; instead he insulted David by saying the reason David was a fugitive was because he had rebelled against king Saul, and that the servants of David were rebellious servants as well. The story goes that Abigail heard what her wicked husband had done and quickly readied supplies for David and his servants.
Upon her return home Nabal is feasting like a king and very drunk. The next morning Abigail informs Nabal that she gave provisions to David and his attendants. The passage states that Nabal’s heart seemed to have died within him, and he was stunned. It happened after ten days that God struck Nabal and he died. He died on Yom Kippur.
In Revelation 2:10 Yeshua speaks to the church of Smyrna: Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested and you will have tribulation 10 days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
If it is God’s will I will be here next program. Remember to walk by faith and not by sight. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Ask God to cleanse you from all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from spots, wrinkles and blemishes. Love God and love your neighbor.