I must confess that every year at this time, I feel sad in that the Body of Messiah has not yet grasped the full meaning of Yom Teruah. Also, I know that the Psalmist reveals that YHVH looked upon the distress of our forefathers "when He heard their cry." Then, He remembered His covenant
and treated them with His great lovingkindness (Psa 106:44-45).
In light of this understanding it is most interesting to note that Messiah Yeshua speaks of a certain tribulation that lasts for "ten days" (Rev 2:10).
While I do not claim to understand the end-times, but like everyone else, see as though we were looking in a dim mirror, with all my heart I do believe that when the restoration and reunion of all Israel, Judah and Ephraim, becomes our hearts cry, then the Holy One will begin to move in our behalf. That is why I think it is so important that we understand the "reason for the season."
And so, to further encourage us in our walk, in our journey home, I
present the letter from my friends, Ephraim and Rimona Frank.
Shalom Fellow Israelite, September 29, 2006
A couple of weeks ago I received this little test in an email. After reading it you may well ask, "why is this strange 'quiz' presented in relation to YHVH's Feast Days?" As odd as it may seem there is a method to this madness:
- How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
The correct answer: Open the refrigerator door then put in the giraffe and close the door.
- How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator? Did you say, "Open the refrigerator door and put in the elephant and then close the door"?
Wrong Answer. The correct answer: Open the refrigerator door, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door.
- The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. ALL the animals attend...except one. Which animal does not attend?
The correct answer: The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there.
- There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?
Correct answer: You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting!
As this little quiz shows, each of the scenes is in one way or another connected to the previous one, whether directly or indirectly. In a similar way YHVH's Feasts are not independent of one another, but each, like a scenes in a play, comes on the heels of another and it is only the full cycle that forms the entire picture or drama.
Yom Teruah is characterized by the "blowing" and/or "shouting" (ref. Num. 10:1-10 especially verse 10). As noted by Batya Wootten in her book Israel's Feast and Their Fullness, it is the only feast that is designated for a point in time in which the moon is covered, thus implying "darkness" and "judgment" as we see in the following scriptures, both of which also stress the "teruah":
Zephaniah 1:14-16 says:
The great day of YHVH is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of YHVH is bitter; there the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet [shofar] and alarm [teruah] against the fortified cities.
And in Joel 2:1,2 we read the following:
Blow the trumpet [shofar] in Zion, and sound an alarm [hari'oo, from the root teruah] in My holy
mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of YHVH is coming, for it is at hand: a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
Thus, even though it is a day of great darkness YHVH Himself is found in that darkness. Even during the dedication of the First Temple, Solomon says: "YHVH
said He would dwell in the dark cloud" (1 Kings 8:12). King David also recognized
this fact: "He...came down with darkness under His feet...He made darkness His secret place; His canopy around Him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies" (Psalm 18:9-11).
In the Brit Chadasha we read the following:
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Messiah will rise first... But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly, that the Day of YHVH comes as a thief in the night... But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:1-5).
Other prototype examples are found in Matt. 24:31-46; 1 Cor. 15:51-55; Dan. 12:2-3; Rev.
20:12-15.
Darkness, cloudiness, sounds of trumpets and shouts characterize the coming of the King as judge (about Yeshua as judge see John 5:19-28), yet, as we saw above, those who "know the day" dwell in the light and are not affected by the darkness. Psalm 89:15 stresses: "Blessed is the people who knows - [recognize, discern] - the [specific] sound of TERUAH! They walk in the light of Your countenance YHVH." Thus the darkness is not to impact YHVH's people. Likewise Isaiah 60:1-3 says about the season of darkness: "Arise shine for your light has come, and the glory of YHVH has risen upon you. For behold darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples; But YHVH will rise upon you. And nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your light."
Luke 11:35-36 narrows this down even more, this time to the individual:
Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.
If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light."
Like the wise virgins, we have an opportunity during the ten days preceding Yom Kippur to make sure that we have sufficient oil to keep us lit up, just as the Israelites' dwellings remained lit up during the plague (the 9th out of 10) of darkness (ref. Exodus 10:23). Those ten plagues were certainly days of awe, as the Almighty One of Israel executed His judgments. And so may these days that bring us to Yom Kippur reveal all that must be offered up in the purging fires of repentance. In Thessalonians 4:3 Paul says that the will of Elohim is our sanctification and that we have not been called for the purpose of impurity, but to be holy and clean. In another place he exhorts us to, "cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of Elohim" (2 Corinthians 7:1). Paul is saying this after reminding us of the promise, quoting from several places in the Tanach (O.T.), that YHVH "would dwell [tabernacle] in them, and walk among them and: will be their God, and they shell be [His] people" (chapter 6:16).
Zechariah 12:10-13:2, Matthew 24:29-31 and Joel 2:12-17 describe a type of repentance which results in the opening of a fountain for sin and uncleanness (Zech. 13:1), the ingathering of His elect (ref. Matt. 24:31), and in YHVH answering His people and saying to them:
Do not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad, for YHVH has done great things...the pastures of the wilderness have turned green, for the tree has borne its fruit, the fig tree and the vine have yielded in full. So rejoice, O sons of Zion...for He has given you the early rain [in the Fall] for righteousnes...And He has poured down for you the rain...and the threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil [the ingathering of Succot]... (Joel 2:19,20,22-24).
In another scripture we are told that the cloud (of former darkness) is turned into a cloud by day, and the smoke into a brightness of flaming fire by night "for over all the glory will be a canopy [hupah, such as in a wedding] and there will be a shelter [succah] to give shade..." but not before there is a purging by the
spirit of judgment and by the spirit of fire (Isaiah 4:2-6).
And back to Paul's words, which preceded the above quoted description of the coming of Yeshua (in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5):
Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation " (1 Thessalonians. 4: 16).
Could it be that, we who are "called, chosen, and faithful", are called at Teruah, chosen on Yom Kippur, and it is at Succot that we hear, "well done good and faithful servants"? And thus the sequence of "faith, hope and love" is being fully enacted and manifested in the succession of the YHVH's Fall Feasts.
Shabbat Shalom,
Ephraim and Rimona
