Rosh Hashanah and Something Real.
"L'shanna Tovah Tikkitevu!" "Say what?" We are right in the middle of Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year. The Shofar (horn) is blasted up to a hundred times to awake the soul into repentance. Todays traditions include singing songs of repentance , some tasty Challah bread in the shape of a crown, and apples dipped in honey. The Torah does not strictly say that this is the New Year but was a tradition later adopted. Leviticus 23:24 emphasizes the trumpet being blasted. The trumpet is the essential part of the holiday (Holy day) to give 10 days of repentance before Yom Kippur-The Day of Atonement.
In the ancient sacrificial system, the Day of Atonement was the one time of year that the High Priest would risk his life by entering the Holy of Holies. He would offer a prescribed sacrifice and risk making a mistake that would kill him in the presence of God. More than that the whole nation depended upon him for their atonement. And if the high priest was not killed the whole nation could breath a sigh of relief but only because their payment was deferred. But it was never paid. Like a massive student loan that only gave extensions but no acquittals. So what did that guy say again? "L'shanna tovah Tikkitevu!" Literally, "For a good year, may you be inscribed." This is referring to the book of life. Basically saying, if the year is good I hope you'll be in the book of life. This is a terrifying and shaky proposition. But the sacrificial system was designed to be shaky and temporary like scaffolding. In order to show us our need for forgiveness but never fulfill it. We need to repent, we need to be forgiven, we must shutter if we are written in the book of the dead, we must long to be written in the book of life. But what assurance do we have? Under the old system their is none, the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin, not even for a year or a day. The trumpets of Rosh Hashanah are designed to awaken us for the need to repent and God's imminent judgement. And today they don't even offer sacrifices, there is nothing but empty prayers and instead of shedding blood we light a candle. A candle? Really? I've sinned against Almighty God and lighting a candle is going to fix all that? God hates rituals with no reality. So He gave us something real to really fix our sin. "The power of an indestructible life." The eternal hero who stooped from Heaven's throne to rescue us in darkness. The old system was designed to help us see the eternal merit and awesome redemptive value in the sacrifice that Jesus made. "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God," (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus is better, Jesus is secure, Jesus is eternal, Jesus is everlasting, Jesus gave us the one thing that we need more than anything - access to God! "When He comes with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found,
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!"
Now that's something real.
