Keep From Doing As You Please

Posted on 10/05/2011 by Messyanic

As I was studying out the Day of Atonement in Scripture, I came across a familiar passage, Isaiah 58:13-14:

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

I always thought this was referring to the weekly Sabbath, but when I read the whole chapter, it appeared to me, this is specifically speaking of the Day of Atonement. This is what I found. Leviticus 23:27-28 says,

“Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. “

I decided to do a word study on the Hebrew word translated as “afflict” in this passage. The word is “Ahnah”. According to the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon it means:

Afflict: To oppress another causing depression. (A furrow depression is formed between the eyes when watching intensely. The furrow may also be formed by concentration or depression.)

When searching the Scripture to find every place this word appears I came across Isaiah 58, specifically verses 3, 5 and 10. I went ahead and read the whole chapter and that is when I came across the familiar passage cited above. I thought, “Aha, this passage is not speaking of just any Sabbath, but this specific Sabbath, the holy day of atonement.”

So I looked a little more intently. In reading the first few verses of this chapter I noticed a a key phrase. Verses 3-4 say:

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves [afflicted our souls], and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.”

In looking at the familiar passage again, I noticed how this underlined phrase is specifically addressed here:

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

So, could the command to not do as we please on the LORD’s holy day, the Sabbath, specifically pertain to the holy day, Day of Atonement?

Is the LORD telling us here that we should be calling the Day of Atonement a “delight” and “honorable”?

Posted in Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur, Sabbath Day - Shabbath | 7 Comments

God Called the Light “Day”

Posted on 10/05/2011 by Messyanic

I’ve been challenging the notion that a Biblical day is reckoned from evening to evening for a few months now. And tonight I had an “aha” moment. Genesis 1:5 simply states,

“God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night”. And there was evening and there was morning — the first day.”

What if the Biblical day is simply “light”, whether it be full light or mixed light as we see in both evening and morning? And the Biblical night is simply darkness, the absence of light. What if it’s not reckoned evening-to-evening or morning-to-morning but rather morning-to-evening.

I wonder if the references to a literal “day” in the Bible are typically only speaking of daylight portions as opposed to full 24-hour cycles? Hmm. I’m going to have to do some reading with this new thought in mind to see how it pans out. I’ll let you know what I find out.

As for now, Good Night. (Layelah Tov.)

Posted in 1-Day and Night | 2 Comments

This day’s date

Posted on 10/04/2011 by Ish
What the moon looks like on the 8th day

Moon over Virginia 10-4-11

While working on our Sukkah, I took a picture of the moon just before night set in.  Isha and I are still working on setting up our calendar.  We are leaning toward calling this day the 8th day of the 7th month.  That is a long conversation in and of itself.  For the time being, consider this the official kick-off of our new blog.  I am Ish and my wife is Isha.  We are not quite gentile Christians and not quite Jewish either.  We are in that strange outer boundary between two worlds.  That too is a long conversation.

I would like to share my little project with you.  We are preparing for the Feast of Tabernacles by building our own on our Virginia farm.  I have decided to use naturally occurring materials for the structure.  It is to be Eastern Cedar branches from our own land.  I chose the cedar as it is abundant, aromatic and has the decided advantage of rot and pest resistance.  I will be storing the various components and hope to enjoy many years of use.

Stay tuned for the details in the construction of my very first Sukkah on my second Feast of Booths.

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