Trumpets: The Calling of God's People PT-2 (Lev. 23:23-25)

10/29/2008 8:51 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                    Focus:  Trumpets:  The calling of God’s people

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Leviticus 23:23-25

            Message of the verses:  “23 ¶  Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

24  "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

25  ‘You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD.’”

            I think that I wrote in a previous SD that there were two calendars that the nation of Israel used, one was the religious calendar, which is what is being looked at now, and one is the civil calendar.  During this feast, the feast of Trumpets, the two come together, for the feast of Trumpets comes in the seventh month of the religious calendar, but it also marks the beginning of the “New Year” of the civil calendar that is known as “Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year,” and all of this happens in September or October on the calendar used by most of the world. 

            Seven is an important number for Israel, as the “word comes from a root word that means ‘to be full, to be satisfied.’  It is also related to the word meaning ‘to swear, to make an oath.’”  In the book of Daniel, chapter nine, and verses 20-27 there is what many people call the greatest prophecy in all of the Scriptures and it has the word seven and seventy in it as a main point to understanding the prophecy. 

            The blowing of the trumpets was a reminder of gathering the people of Israel together, and this can be seen in Numbers 10:1-10.  The sacrifices that are offered on this day are described in Numbers 29:1-6.

            In many of Dr. Wiersbe’s books he gives a quote from a Scottish Pastor and it is as follows, “the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings,” and it fits in this section of Scripture.  He goes on to say, “God gives His people opportunities for new beginnings, and we’re foolish if we waste them.”

            God’s people, the nation of Israel, would one day disobey God and be scattered around the entire world, and so this feast does have a prophetic meaning to it that is scattered throughout some of the OT books, and that meaning is that God will gather His people back to their land.  Now this was accomplished on a minor scale on the 14^th of May in 1948 when the nation of Israel was reborn, but there are still many, many Jews who have not returned to their land.  There are more Jews living in New York city than in Israel at this time, but God may even be working it out that they will return to Israel at the time I am living now.  Some of the Scriptures that say that the nation of Israel would disobey God and be scattered are Leviticus 26:27-33, and Deut. 28:58-67.  Some of the verses that speak of Israel return are Isa. 11:1-2; 27:12-13; Matt. 24:29-31, and I believe that Ezekiel also speaks of Israel’s return in chapters 37-39.

            Dr. Wiersbe goes on to point out that even though this feast is for the nation of Israel it also has application to the Church too.  This feast took place four months after the feast of Pentecost, which was the birth of the Church as seen in Acts 2. This four-month gap could represent the age we are now living in, the Church age, and this is the time when the Church is scattered throughout the whole world doing the business of which the church should be doing, gathering the harvest and waiting for the trumpet to sound which will gather the Church together in the air where Christ will be to take His Bride to heaven to be with Him forever, (1 Cor. 15:51-58; 1Thes. 4:13-18).

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  This SD has taken two days to complete but the spiritual message to me is that I am to be about the business of what it is that God has called me to do, to use the gift or gifts that He has given me to advance the cause of Christ in my generation.  Rick Warren the author of “The Purpose Given Life,” tells in that book how he was reading in the book of Acts a passage, “Ac 13:36  ‘For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay,’” said that he wanted to serve his generation with the purpose that God had for him.  I also want to serve the purpose of God in my generation with the gifts that He has given to me to advance the cause of Christ. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Trust in the Lord and in His Word not to worry about what is in store for our nation but to use the gift of gifts that He has given me to advance the cause of Christ.

Memory verses for the week:                                  Exodus 20:17—Romans 6:1-2

17.    You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin continue to live in it?

10/30/2008 10:49 AM