Author: Aaron Rich

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Rosh HaShana/Feast of Trumpets

Today we are entering into Rosh HaShanah or the Jewish New Year where the calendar will change from the year 5780 to 5781. This is one of four new years the Jewish people tend to observe, but so far as I understand this one is primary over all the others.

Biblically speaking, and more importantly, this is Yom Teruah or the Day of Trumpets and it’s on God’s Biblical calendar. After conversations with Christians of various denominational backgrounds I’ve come away understanding that the Day of Trumpets is the Appointed Time that is least understood – if they know it exists at all! Most know Passover and the Feast of First Fruits because of how our Master fulfilled these in such a literal way. With varying degrees of familiarity, they will usually at least recognize the names of the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. It really surprised me the first few times someone answered with a “what’s that?” when I said something about the Day of Trumpets. It’s actually a really important day when considering the prophetic foreshadowing and implications of this day.

This is a unique holiday within the Appointed Times of God for a couple of reasons.

It’s the only Appointed Time that seems to have an end date. I haven’t been able to find where God says “this is a statute forever, throughout your generations.” It’s as though this day is pointing to a singular event and it’s not meant to be an anniversary date after the event it’s looking forward to. I looked twice, but if I missed it please tell me. 

The other exceptional element of this day is that it is the only one that lands on the first day of the month. That is, of course, a Biblical month which is tracked by the moon. Why is that important?

In the second Temple era they required two witnesses to report to the Temple to proclaim that they saw the first sliver of the moon. Until they had those two witnesses, they couldn’t blow the trumpets from the Temple to announce the new month. Therefore, the Jewish people were unable to obediently observe this Appointed Time until that happened. During these times, the entire nation sat at the edge of their seats waiting to shout to God and celebrate the feast day. They knew the timing was within about a 48-hour period, but until they saw the moon, the Holy Day that was Appointed by God was not celebrated. For that reason, the Feast of Trumpets received a nickname within Judaism.

What did they call it? Just a little thing known as “the day and hour that no one knows.” 

When you follow the Trumpet through Scripture you come up with an interesting picture of Yeshua and the second coming. Try it sometime! In any case, due to the Day of Trumpets being an Appointed Time, we have a pretty good idea of the season in which Yeshua will return. It may not be a specific year, date or hour which we can nail down, but the hints that He dropped and the hints that the authors of Scripture shared with us give a pretty clear connection. Of course, be ready for any day all the time, but approach the special days that God appointed with a special awe. He didn’t just pick these days out of a hat. He has a purpose for them. Anyone that may study the events of Yeshua’s gift on the cross and its alignment with Passover should see that.

I hope and pray that this year is the year we receive our King, but there still seems to be a lot to accomplish in prophecy. After seeing the Land and watching Scripture lived out (I will share more on that in coming posts) I tend to take prophecy pretty literally. I know the allegorical understandings are the preferred method for much of the Body, but watching it all unfold in front of your eyes makes the case that God meant it literally – at least in most of the Bible.

I’m not adverse to watching for the metaphorical potential though. By keeping the mind open to the metaphors, I can say that this Yom Teruah makes for a unique event beyond its recurring characteristics.

Among many things we’re watching for in prophecy is the abomination of desolation that will put a stop to the sacrifices as spoken of in Daniel. In an allegorical fashion I can see that happening this year to some extent.

For the last 2,000 years the Jewish people have maintained the Temple service to the best of their abilities. Christianity tends to view their ways as nothing but traditions, but they actually do carry a lot of purpose. They pray three times a day to align with the appointed times in the Temple. They also have the weekly, monthly and annual celebrations and prayers that align with the Temple services. Through maintaining these prayer times, the Jewish people seek to continue the Temple service as best as possible through their hearts and prayers. How does it correlate? There seems to be a correlation to the sacrifices and prayers in Psalms 141:2, Hebrew 13:15, 1 Peter 2:5 and I believe several others.

Now how does this year allegorically align to the abomination of desolation? Israel is going into a nationwide lockdown. It began at 2:00 P.M. local time yesterday in Israel and it will go through the entire Fall Feast schedule to the end of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) and the 8th and Greatest Day. During this time prayer services will be minimized. They attempted to put a complete stop to them, but then they gave a little bit. I think everyone is still confused on how it will work. 

Those imposing the lockdown claim that it is necessary to reduce the number of virus infections, but if you dig just a little more the details become pretty sketchy. They could have shut the country weeks ago because they knew where the numbers were projected to go. The virus may be spreading, but it’s got a death rate of 0.68% in Israel which is among the lowest in the world. The timing of it all, going after God’s appointed times, just seems too coincidental. They shut down during Passover previously and they couldn’t manage to find three weeks anywhere else in the year except this three weeks. Is it coincidence? The “red zones” within Israel are all areas of faithful communities. The more secular communities are supposedly not affected in the same way. Just as we see in Daniel, we see a pretense to force the worshipers of God Most High to stop their worship.

So, you see, in an allegorical sense, I can see the signs of the times. Personally, I suspect there will be something much more literal that we’re watching for, but it hasn’t escaped my attention that at least one family I know of felt the urgent need to depart Judea before the Holy Days in response to all this nonsense. That, again, harkens to the words of Yeshua urging those in Judea to flee to the mountains. Food for thought anyway!

All this to say, Yom Teruah is a special day that looks forward to the trumpet blast of Yeshua. We are entering the Bridal season. The season where the days all point toward a wedding. The season that all points toward Yeshua’s words “repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

We experience it in unique fashion this year, but nonetheless, we celebrate the days our Master has commanded. The Appointed Times are here. Are you participating?

One last thought – if you are Gentile (not Jewish) it is your calling according to Paul to make the Jewish people jealous in order for them to discover their Messiah. There is a growing movement in the Body to observe these days and the Orthodox Jewish community is beginning to take notice. In this article you can see in the last paragraphs where the Orthodox authors are questioning their calling in response to the Christians celebrating the days God has Appointed. Are you taking part in making the Jewish people jealous?

Shana Tova! Happy New Year!

Chag Sameach! May you have a joyous holiday season!

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“Sukkot 2020”

I told you in our “Quarantine” post about the timing of how we will be coming out of quarantine around the High Holidays. It’s a fantastic timing that God has been working on for much longer than we realize.

We were told by Millie about the word for transition in 2020, and about our journey to Israel being part of that, sometime back in October or November. Earlene and I were specifically told to “test” the word that was given to us, but we weren’t sure how. One of the most challenging things in a life of faith is figuring out how to test something. All of Scripture holds a convicting message for each of us, but sometimes it doesn’t seem to help when trying to test someone’s word. Especially when it’s spoken directly to us and it’s personally for us.

How do you test a word like that?

If you have suggestions on how to do that, I would love to hear your thoughts.

We have been working on this plan for most of a year now and even now we need to continually test what we’re doing against the Father’s will and His desire for us. Our desires creep in there to override His all too easy so that is a challenge in itself!

Now that we’re in Israel it seems appropriate to share one of the strongest confirmations that we received – once we remembered it. Even though we received the initial word from Millie in 2019, one of our confirmations happened straight from my own mouth back in 2017.

After several months of planning, one of our dear friends Larry* reminded me of the words I spoke after our first trip to Israel. When we got back from that trip, I walked into our congregation on Saturday morning smiling from ear to ear after the experience and I said “Sukkot 2020.” Those were among the first words I spoke that Sabbath after we returned in 2017. I had a goal to make pilgrimage to Israel for the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) during 2020.

As time passed those words faded in memory and that goal became a faint dream. For a short time, we were trying to plan that trip in 2019, but it didn’t work out for various reasons. God, it seems, was holding me to my word – Sukkot 2020.

It’s hard to express how baffling it was to remember that, and how encouraging it is to know that I had spoken those words in 2017 and they “coincidentally” seem to be falling in place for 2020. We were not purposely planning to meet that goal, but God seems to be orchestrating events and playing His galactic chessboard so our goal may come to fruition.

For us, this was one of the many major confirmations we received when planning this trip.

As with everything, there’s an important lesson in this. A long-forgotten word we speak, may not be so forgotten by the Creator of the Universe. Who else could orchestrate such a perfect timeline? 

It is interesting, however, to see how it’s still coming together. Just today as I’m writing this Earlene ran across an article that makes it appear that Israel will go into lockdown for the High Holidays. I have no idea what this means and how it will affect what we perceive as the plan, but I’m confident HaShem isn’t surprised in the least at how things are playing out.

I hope this testimony shows you that God hears your heart. Speak to Him of your desires and share those desires with the Body of Messiah. It may not happen as you expect, but He seems to completely faithful to follow through. That said, I would recommend that you write these things down. Maybe keep a prayer journal or some other record. This was almost forgotten and that would have been a great loss to our own testimony of God’s faithfulness.

What are your long-term desires? Can we join you in presenting those before our King?

As a bit of a side note, know that Israel is hurting. She is yearning for the Believer to brighten Her doorways again and for the joyous sounds of the multitudes worshiping our King. For those of you that don’t know this is a season of the greatest tourism spike each year. Millions and millions of Jews and Gentiles make the trip each year to come up to the Holy Mountain of God to celebrate the feast of Sukkot. For the Jew this is mandated in the Torah (the books of Moses). For the Gentile Believers this is in response to verses such as Zechariah 14:16 that clearly says we will all make the pilgrimage to Zion for Sukkot. Pray for the Land of Israel and pray that Her borders may be opened so that the worshippers of God Most High may come in and draw near according to His Word.

In this strange year of COVID-19, no one has any idea what the next day will bring. Except our great King and Bridge Groom. I’m praying that we will be welcome to travel to Jerusalem in the coming weeks, but only God will make that possible. Regardless, we are in Israel for “Sukkot 2020” – who else but God Himself could orchestrate such perfect timing?

*I wanted to put a note that I *think* it was Larry. Sorry if I’m assigning credit for that to the wrong person. It may have been any of 4 people I shared this word with.

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Our First Shabbat

As many of you know Earlene and I observe the Saturday Sabbath. I grew up that way as an Adventist and wandered away for a long time and then we found our way back to the Sabbath together toward the beginning of our marriage.

Being in the Land is a unique experience because this country is built around Scripture. They observe God’s teachings to the greatest extent possible, yes, even the believers in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). Most of them prepare special meals for Shabbat before sundown on Friday and they go out of their way to celebrate the arrival of this island in time that God has blessed us with. The Sabbath is truly a special time that one can only fully understand by partaking in it. We’ve heard a story from a friend a couple of times about a gentleman that he knew who attended his congregation 7 times before having that breakthrough moment and telling our friend “I finally understand the Sabbath.”

On our first Shabbat we are very limited on what we have in our quarantine space. It’s secluded and we can’t go to the store or prepare for this special day. As with everything, God has us covered and taken care of.

The friends that have allowed us to use their home delivered to our door a Shabbat meal, Challah bread, and wine. It was absolutely perfect. Earlene and I opened our meal in prayer, blessed God for the wine and bread and enjoyed the flavorful meal that our friends provided. The blessing cannot be overstated.

As I write this on Shabbat afternoon, we can hear the joyous singing of some of those friends as they celebrate their God and the blessing of Shabbat. It brightens my heart! It encourages me to hear the singing and celebration of our God. There is indeed something special about this day that cannot be experienced on any other day regardless of how we may try – and through my wanderings, I certainly have tried.

Shabbat shalom!

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Quarantine

The view outside our window. The Galilee, where Yeshua spent most of His ministry.

We are now in Israel and we have the opportunity to cease from what we’re doing and simply rest for the next two weeks. By government standards this is a “quarantine” to isolate us from others for 14 days to ensure we didn’t contract COVID-19 during our travels. By God’s standards though, I have absolutely no doubt that it has been designed by Him to give us this time to cease from our labors for a time.

For the next two weeks Earlene and I are blessed to be with secluded with each other, but also secluded with God. We’re not sure what the two weeks will look like yet. We will definitely be seeking God’s face and seeking to hear His voice in preparation for the coming weeks and months. No words are sufficient to communicate the mountains He moved to bring us here. No less than a dozen people tried to convince us that we weren’t coming and the entire world went nuts to prove them right. We made it only 1 week later than our initial plans.

What is His purpose in all of this? Why us? This is prayerfully what we will be seeking to understand more over the next 14 days.

One thing is certain. God’s timing is phenomenal and awe inspiring!

During our plane trip I studied this weeks Torah portion which is Nitzavim/Vayelech and reads from Deuteronomy 29:9 through the end of chapter 31. We are growing so near to the end of this year’s Torah cycle and we will emerge from our seclusion during the last standard weekly reading of Ha’azinu. We will be secluded for the Day of Trumpets and Rosh Hoshanah, but we will emerge in time to observe Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) the holiest day on the Biblical calendar and we will be in the Holy Land to do so. There is no coincidence in this and it’s elicits tears in my eyes to see how HaShem has orchestrating things.

If you don’t read the Torah portions and follow that annual journey, I encourage you to take that step. God will fill your cup in a new way and you will no doubt learn a great deal about our Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). If you follow along the cycle, never overlook the events in your life as you walk along the path of Torah. It will reveal both world events and personal life testimonies. It’s *so* fascinating to see how God knits it together.

This week we are blessed to enter Israel during a double portion. It’s a week of double blessing as we wade through the words of God and explore His heart for His people. The Torah can be seen as a condensed version of the rest of Scripture. Everything you see in Scripture has its roots in the first five books of the Bible. In another sense you can even lay the first five books out as a timeline of history in the making. Right now, you are venturing through Deuteronomy 30 on the pages of history.

Two weeks ago we read Earlene’s birth portion (the Torah portion that was read the week of her birth) Ki Tetze or “when you go out.” She shared on that already. Last week we studied through the portion Ki Tavo or “when you come in” which spoke about when the people enter the Land of Israel. That was the week we received our visas and official clearance to enter Israel during the COVID lockdowns.

This week we get to study “Standing” where Moses is saying “Today you are standing, all of you, before Adonai your God…” where He lists out that various societal subgroups that were standing in equality before HaShem to accept the covenantal appointment to stand before God and carry out His teachings. Those that stand with Israel are mentioned too as Moses said “your foreigners here with you in your camp.” This is who we are. We are gentile believers who choose to stand with Israel and support her in the call to serve God.

I know a lot of the believing community has been taught a theology that the Jewish people were replaced with the Christian church. That’s not what Scripture actually says though. In Deuteronomy chapter 30 we are told that the Jewish people would be reestablished in their land after “all these things have come upon [them].” This is where you are in history. The ingathering is taking place and the Jewish people are returning home and the rate of ingathering has significantly increased with COVID. The Jewish people are still close to God’s heart and right now is our time to stand with them. It doesn’t end there! In verse 6 we see God promising to circumcise their hearts after the ingathering. That’s New Covenant language – it didn’t start at Matthew! It’s something to take note of.

We are at such a fascinating time in history and Earlene and I get to experience a piece of that while dwelling in the Land for a time. It’s far more exciting than anything I’ve ever experienced. We see only a small amount of the picture, but in that dim view we see that God is softening the hearts of the Jewish people to accept His son Yeshua. The people that welcomed us into the land are part of that remnant that has already accepted their Messiah and for a time we get to be with them working for the Kingdom.

For the next 14 days we will be fervently seeking the face of our Father in Heaven to ask why He moved mountains for us to come here. The world said “no” but God Himself opened that door. For those of you inclined to do so we would ask that you would pray with us to understand His purposes. We also will continue praying for you as well as we’re building our prayer list day by day. Share your hearts with us so we may petition God on your behalf.

There’s something stirring in the realm of faith. Something significant. There’s been prophetic words shared and dozens of people have expressed in our presence that they sense it too. Is it our generation to see the return of Messiah Yeshua or just a time to revive the wayward Bride with repentance? Time will tell. One thing is certain regardless of timing or circumstance returning back to the King of Kings will never be a bad choice. It’s time to return to His words and speak them diligently – “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

We’ve heard a lot about paths. There’s a path right outside our window.
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Stops and Stations

There’s a tidbit in Scripture that has become exceptionally relevant in my heart over the past few weeks and months. Only in hindsight have I realized that this section has been relevant over the last few years. Most of us who have read this section just skip over it thinking it’s no longer relevant to our daily lives, similar to the genealogies. However, when we slow down enough to read and consider it, there are some great life lessons in these passages we have ignored.

In this instance I’m referencing Numbers 33 when Moses recounts the stops and stations of Israel while they wandered through the desert. Believe it or not, this chapter is important to you personally.

One of the things we are too often taught in Christianity is that the “Old Testament” is just historical background to the more important and relevant “New Testament.” In my own journey, I’ve discovered that these older writings are still applicable to our daily life and are expected to be influential in the way we live.

In Numbers 33 it is possible to review your life journey by understanding these different stops along the way. It takes brutal honesty with yourself along with an understanding that the waypoints in your mind may be different than what God sees, but the similarities are there. Reviewing Numbers 33 alongside the route of your own path will inform you of your walk with God in a different way. You will see when you were carried through difficult times and when you were rebellious and whiny over ridiculous circumstances. Perhaps, God will even give you a glimpse of where you are now.

Recently, Earlene and I have been in a season of temporary stops and stations along our journey. We’ve been learning and relearning many things about our faith over the last several years and it has been a challenging road. We recognize now that HaShem blessed us to travel this road side-by-side; many couples we know had to start alone until they found their spouse at some cross road.

It’s fascinating to line up life’s path with the stops and stations already mentioned. In Numbers 9:22 it references “whether for two days or a month or a year, while the cloud remained over the Tabernacle, Israel remained camped and would not set out.” In many respects, this has been our life. 

After the first few years of our marriage we sold our home with a certain goal in mind and we had expectations that it would only be a year or two until we bought another house in south Denver. It is obvious God had different plans.

After selling our home we’ve now been in two consecutive two year stops in different homes that we’re renting. This year we have managed to live in three places so far with what I perceive as four stations! And we pray that we are not done yet – begging for at least two more stations before the year is out.

We’ve been living in a townhouse in Southwest Denver for two years and we likely would have stayed there if not for His sign that it was time to move. Over the July 4th weekend we packed up most of our belongings and moved them to Missouri and then we continued living in our Denver townhouse for another 6 weeks. While that was the same home, it was apparent to me that it was a new station. We were living in very different conditions as we were sleeping on an air mattress and had almost no furniture to speak of. It was a challenging time of transition, but also a time of blessing and review.

Our other stops this year have revealed some repetition of history for each of us. I often say “history repeats.” For me, we got to live in my father’s house for two weeks before leaving Colorado. For Earlene, we are currently living with her parents for a time before leaving for Israel. In the process, one lives through a repetition of history while the other is experiencing something new. Only now as I type this, I can recall some of the repetitive history my father experienced – how deep does that rabbit hole go? It’s weird to say the least, but it’s also an absolute blessing.

HaShem (God) has a great many ways to attract our attention to His plans. If we will but slow down and appreciate the stops, He shows His desire to teach us every step of the way. However, when we hear the trumpet’s blast, we need to be ready to uproot and move to the next station. As we are currently learning, another lesson along with this is that the next stop may not quite be what you expect.