Some years ago, there was a shift from the usual greetings of Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to a generic phrase of “Happy Holidays”. For some it was a move to be politically correct. It only angered others for various reason which we won’t get into here. Many Christians hold very tightly to the holidays of Christmas and Easter. And yet as tightly as we hold to them, I think we have forgotten holidays of even greater significance.
The Old Testament lays out for the nation of Israel several “holidays” if you will that they were to observe. These were specific times through the year in which God instituted for observance with specific and special purposes in mind. Over the last month or so, three of those have been observed or are in observance presently by the Jewish community:
Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)* – Sept 29 – Oct 1, 2019 – “People gathered to hear the sound of the shofar (ram’s horn) to reflect on God’s judgment and their spiritual condition. Rosh Hashanah begins a ten-day period known as the Days of Awe, during which God’s people were to turn to Him and away from sin.” (see Lev 23:23-25; Num 29:1)
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)* – Oct 8-9, 2019 – “One day of the year, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies to put the blood of the sacrificed animal on the altar as a sin offering. Through faith, obedience to God’s precise instructions resulted in atonement, or covering, for sin.” (see Lev 16, 23)
Sukkot (Feast of Booths/Tabernacles)* – Oct 13-20, 2019 – “This is both a harvest festival and a reminder of how God sustained the children of Israel during their wilderness wanderings. The people were to dwell in temporary booths, and to rejoice over God’s provision as well as His presence. Many Jewish people still build booths in their yards or synagogues for this holiday.” (see Lev 23:33)
I think often that Christians skip over these holidays because they are from the Old Testament which we see as archaic for our time and being from Jewish culture are not relevant to us. That kind of thinking though is completely wrong. We can learn so much from studying these and they are a perfect time for cordial greetings to the Jewish community. Consider the following notes on how these Jewish holidays relate to us and how we might speak about them with the Jewish community near us concerning the Messiah, Jesus our Lord & SaviorHAPPY.
Rosh Hashanah for the Believer** – “As Messianic Jews, we know that our names have been forever inscribed in the Book of Life, for we have found atonement through the death of Yeshua.[5] Nevertheless, we join the Jewish community in choosing to look back on and commemorate the closing of another year and the beginning of the next. Whereas some Jews believe in an annual day of accounting for one’s actions, we believe that Yeshua’s death has atoned for our sins forever. Nevertheless, we hear the blast of the shofar at Rosh Hashanah as an ongoing call to spiritual vigilance, and it expresses our yearning for the Lord. Not only that, for us the shofar serves as a reminder of Yeshua’s coming return. “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Messiah will shine on you,” the Apostle Paul writes in (Ephesians 5:14). “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Messiah will rise first.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).”
Yom Kippur for the Believer** – “For believers in Yeshua, the scapegoat is a picture of the Messiah, who was sent “as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Like the scapegoat, Yeshua receives our iniquities and transgressions and takes them from us; unlike the scapegoat, his sacrifice is good for all time, rather than needing to be repeated from year to year.
Yom Kippur can be a conundrum to Jewish believers in Yeshua. Do we fast and confess our sins like the rest of the Jewish community, or do we rejoice in the knowledge that we have been granted lasting forgiveness in Messiah? Many Jewish believers view Yom Kippur as a time for identification with our Jewish people, introspection for ourselves and intercession for loved ones, knowing all the while that Jesus is the One that makes us at one with God. Believers in Yeshua who observe Yom Kippur recognize that, although we particularly focus on our need for repentance and forgiveness on this day, we have received ultimate, lasting atonement through Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of God.”
Sukkot for the Believer** – “There is a connection between the practice of “tabernacling” and the life of Yeshua:
In Yeshua (Jesus), God tabernacled among us. He chose to be born into a less-than-glorious space, where certainly the stars might have peeked through cracks in the roof, the elements might well have invaded. Nevertheless, in that lowly place dwelt the glorious presence of God, the transient and the eternal beautifully coming together in God’s provision and God’s presence.
Not only that, Yeshua deliberately took the festival of Sukkot as an opportunity to speak about himself. The Gospel of John recounts his preaching in the outer Court of the Women on Hoshanah Rabbah:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37–39)
In speaking of the “living water,” Yeshua drew a connection between the spiritual gift he would give and the spring of Siloam where water was drawn for the water-drawing ceremony, as well as with the “wells of salvation” mentioned in the book of Isaiah. Later he calls himself the Light of the World, again referring to the symbols of the holiday (in this case, the illuminated Temple) as harbingers of his arrival: “The Light of the World statement, like the Living Water statement, had a rich theological backdrop. Jesus was once again referring to a wealth of messianic prophecy that many would recognize.”
When Jesus stood in the Temple claiming to be the Light of the World, He was making a radical statement. Those who say that Jesus never claimed to be God have not dealt with this statement. To stand in the middle of the Temple in conjunction with the Feast of Tabernacles and say, “I am the Light” was like saying, “I am the Shekinah, I am the pillar of fire.” It’s hard to imagine a more graphic claim to deity.
For this reason, “many Christians regard the Feast of Booths as the consummate messianic holiday. Citing Bible verses that in the last days Gentiles will celebrate the festival and go up to Jerusalem to dance and sing with the Jewish people, many travel to Israel at this season to worship and to celebrate.”
Take some time to read up on these holidays and see how Jesus our Messiah has become the fulfillment of these things and what we have yet to look forward to. As you take the time, you will be able to better connect the Old & New Testaments and understand even further the ministry of Jesus. And as you gain that understanding, you will have all the more reason to celebrate and praise God for his mighty works (Psalm 150).
*The above descriptions are taken from the Jews for Jesus website. Visit https://m.jewsforjesus.org/publications/newsletter/newsletter-sep-2004/a-quick-guide-to-the-jewish-holidays/ for more information.
**The excepts provided for each holiday relating to believers can be found at the following web addresses where you can also find additional information and background on each holiday: ROSH HASHANAH – https://m.jewsforjesus.org/jewish-resources/community/jewish-holidays/rosh-hashanah/; YOM KIPPUR – https://m.jewsforjesus.org/jewish-resources/community/jewish-holidays/yom-kippur/; SUKKOT – https://m.jewsforjesus.org/jewish-resources/community/jewish-holidays/sukkot-the-feast-of-tabernacles/.