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Rosh Hashanah or _ Feast of Trumpets _ NEW YEAR'S DAY for the Jews is not a holiday, it is
a holy day, often called, together with the Day of Atonement, the "days
of awe." It
is celebrated on the first and second days of Tishri. It is not a time of frivolity but of
introspection and prayer. It is a solemn day when Jews believe that
all people stand before the Creator. The Orthodox Jew does not come to this
season unprepared. He knows the
New Year is approaching. During
the preceding month, the month of Elul, which to the modern Jew is the last
month of the year according to the civil calendar, the approach of Rosh
Hashanah is heralded by the sounding of the shofar in the synagogue. All year long the shofar, which is
usually a ram's horn, lies hidden, probably in the holy ark in the synagogue.
It is not sounded on the Sabbath.
However, on the first day of
Elul, it is taken from its hiding place to play a prominent role as Israel's
days of awe approach. The sounding of the shofar reaches its
crescendo on Rosh Hashanah, when it is sounded after the reading of
the Law. The Sacrifice of Isaac The reading of the Law on the second
day's service is the
story of the sacrifice of Isaac. The rabbis believe that the sacrifice of
Isaac, when a ram was offered in his stead, took place
on New Year's Day. Because of this belief, this story,
together with that of Isaac's birth, is the basis of the liturgy
of the second day's service in the synagogue.
Because of this, there
is no Bible story more familiar to the Orthodox Jew than the story of Abraham offering up Isaac. It abounds in spiritual truth. This story is found
in Genesis, chapter 22. It is helpful
to study it together with Psalm 22 and Luke 22:42·44. It is the story of Abraham's faithfulness: Some time later God tested Abraham (Genesis
22:1). We should realize that God
did not tempt Abraham, as the
Authorized Version states; God tested Abraham. When Satan tempts, he tries
to defeat us. When God tests, He provides
victory. Nor However, it is well to see that God confers a signal
honor upon us when He thus tests our hearts. We never read that the
Lord did tempt Lot. No, Sodom tempted Lot. He never
reached a sufficiently high elevation
to warrant his being tried by the
hand of Jehovah. It was too plainly manifested that there was
plenty between his heart and the Lord, and it
did not, therefore, require
the furnace to bring that out. Sodom would
have held out no temptation
whatever to Abraham. This was made manifest in his interview with
Sodom's king, in chapter 14. God knew well
that Abraham loved Him far better than
Sodom; but He would make it manifest
that he loved Him better than anyone or anything, by laying
His hand upon the nearest and dearest object, "Take now thy
son, thine only son Isaac."! 'Mackintosh, C. H., Notes
on Genesis, pp. 225·226; Genesis to Deuteronomy,
pp. For many long years Abraham waited for
his promised seed. Finally, the Lord gave him a son by Sarah and then commanded
him to cast out Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman. That
in itself was enough to test any man. It
was a test of faith. But Abraham believed God and
obeyed Him. Isaac's
birth was in a very
real sense miraculous. He was the seed of Abraham, born after his
mother was past
the age of childbearing (Genesis 18:11). Perhaps Abraham even thought that Isaac
was the Messiah. (This is one of the reasons why Jewish couples earnestly
desire their firstborn to be a son. They hope he may be the Messiah.) But the promised Messiah was not only
to be the seed of Abraham, but also the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). Thus we see Jesus, born of a virgin,
Mary, who was herself of the seed of Abraham. Isaac grew into young manhood. Josephus
says that Isaac was twenty-seven years old when his father was told to
sacrifice him. The
Scriptures don't give his exact age, however, but he had grown strong enough
to carry the wood that covered the altar that was large enough to bear his
body. Thus, he was not a young weakling. Abraham Believed God It was when Abraham's only son, the
heir to the Abrahamic covenant, the son of promise whom he greatly loved,
blossomed into manhood that God ordered Abraham to offer him up as a
sacrifice on Mount Moriah. This command
did not come from within Abraham, it was not suggested by the human
sacrifices of the Canaanites, nor did it come from Satan. It came from the one true God, who was
proving Abraham's faith! The
final issue dearly showed that God wasn't interested in the death of Isaac. Rather, He wanted Abraham's complete
surrender. You and I know the outcome of Abraham's
deep trial. At the time, Abraham
did not. He drank the dregs of the bitterness of his sorrow. Imagine the pain these words must have
brought to Abraham: Take
your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love
(Genesis 22:2). He
laid the wood on
his son (verse 6). He
told Isaac, God
Himself will provide the lamb (verse 8). Then he "bound his son Isaac"
and "took the knife to slay his son" (verses 9-10). Luther remarked that it must have
seemed as if God's promise would fail, or that this command came from Satan, not
from God. How beautifully Paul
describes Abraham's faith in Romans 4:20-21. Yet he did not waver through unbelief, [he] was strengthened in his
faith, [he was] fully persuaded. But the letter to the Hebrews shows the
basic reasoning of Abraham, that
God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac
back from death. (Hebrews 11:19) Abraham's answer to his great trial was
he believed God. Four centuries before any of the
written Word came into existence, God spoke to him, and
Abraham implicitly put his trust in God's Word. God commanded Abraham to leave his kindred, Abraham
obeyed; God promised him a seed, Abraham believed. For long years Abraham waited for God
to fulfill His promise. Finally,
Isaac was born. God had fulfilled His promise. The same God who fulfilled His promise
now demanded that Abraham offer Isaac, his beloved son, as a sacrifice. Abraham
believed God and showed his faith by his works. He knew that God honored His Word. As previously mentioned, it is very
possible that he even thought that Isaac was the promised Seed of the woman
of Genesis 3:15, the Messiah. In any event, Abraham knew that Isaac was
his own promised seed. God had said that in his seed all peoples on earth will be blessed
(Genesis 12:3). Abraham believed and obeyed God. The key to Abraham's obedience was that
he actually believed in the resurrection. If Isaac was the Messiah and the
Messiah had to die, then it was necessary for God to raise Him from the dead! By faith Abraham, when God tested him,
offered Isaac as a sacrifice, He who had received the promises was about to
sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through
Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise
the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from
death" (Hebrews
11: 1 7-19). Abraham actually expected God to raise up Isaac from the dead! Enemies of the
gospel complain that the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone is
amoral. Even some well·
meaning friends of the gospel frequently teach a "faith-plus works"
salvation. They
complain that if righteousness is by faith alone, apart from works of the
Law, then a man who is saved by faith could still commit heinous crimes. This could not be if he has the faith
of Abraham. Abraham's
faith resulted in acts of obedience. Romans 4:20·24 says: Yet he did not waver through unbelief
regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave
glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.
This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." The words "it was credited to him"
were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit
righteousness-for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Abraham's trial stands out in history
like a mountain peak whose height only one other Climber has been called upon
to scale: "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all"
(Romans 8:32). Abraham is a beautiful type of God the Father. Just
as Abraham had an only son, whom he loved, so did God and
He gave His only begotten Son to be slain for us. God stayed the hand of Abraham before
Isaac could be sacrificed. When the Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross upon
which He was to be sacrificed, God did not stay His hand! Isaiah 53:10-11
says: Yet
it was the LORD'S will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and
though the LORD makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the LORD
will prosper in His hand. After the suffering
of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge
My
righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Two thousand years
after Abraham, One stood in the Temple that crowned Mount Moriah and said, Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing
My day; he saw it and was glad. (John 8:56). We believe that it was when
Abraham received his son figuratively speaking ... back from death
(Hebrews 11:19) that this prophetic rejoicing
took place. It is no wonder that Abraham called
this place Jehovah-jireh, which
means the LORD will provide
(Genesis 22:14). Some erroneously
interpret this name to mean that God will provide for all our needs. This is a comforting truth, but it is
not the one taught in the name Jehovah-jireh.
The reason
for this name is given in Genesis 22:14: On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
What was it that Abraham
saw after he had received Isaac as if from the dead? Abraham looked up and there in a thicket
he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and
sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son (Genesis
22:13). Years later, John the Baptist exclaimed in joy
when he saw Jesus, the Messiah, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin
of the world! (John 1:29). Thus, we see another truth in the offering
up of Isaac. It is a type of God's provision of a
sacrifice. But
our Lord Jesus Christ did what Isaac could not do-He
became our Sacrifice for sin. Abraham was not the only one whose
faith was tested on Mount Moriah. Isaac was a grown man and could easily have
resisted his aged father, but he was obedient. We have mentioned that he was not an
infant. It takes strength to
climb mountains; it takes greater strength to climb mountains carrying wood. How much wood Isaac carried, we do not
know, but it was sufficient to bear his body. Think for a moment of the important effect
of this event upon Isaac. From the account in Genesis 22, it seems
as if Isaac was ignorant of the fact that he was to be offered up as a
sacrifice. Imagine then how he
felt when he was actually tied to the altar and watched as his father reached
for his knife! Two thousand years
later, One also bore the wood of sacrifice, but He knew what He was doing. He
had been born for this very purpose. The Scriptures do not tell us how Isaac acted
when he was bound to the altar. We have seen him as a robust youth who,
as previously mentioned, could have resisted Abraham if he so desired. But he didn't resist. When he allowed himself to be bound and
laid upon the altar, he fully entered into the spirit of
Abraham; he joined in Abraham's faith. In so doing, he showed himself to be
the heir to the promises. How
much was the behavior of Isaac like our Lord, who was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did
not open
His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is
silent, so He did not open His mouth (Isaiah 53:7). In both Psalm 22
and Luke 22:42-44 we see parallels between the story of Isaac in Genesis 22
and the sacrifice of our Lord. As
Isaac lay on the altar and saw the hand of Abraham upraised, certainly
he could have wondered, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" But the record is silent. The whole picture given of Isaac shows him
in the same attitude as our Lord in Gethsemane, Not as I will, but as You will. (Matthew 26:39). The timing of Isaac's sacrifice is also
symbolic. When God
commanded Abraham to offer up Isaac, he obeyed; and in Abraham's heart, Isaac
was dead from that moment on. We
should realize that Abraham did not know for sure that God would also provide a way out (1
Corinthians 10:13), although he had faith in God's
goodness. It was three days later
that Isaac was offered, and it was on this third day that Isaac was returned
to his father. To some this may
seem to be an unimportant detail, but as we saw in Hebrews, chapter 11,
Abraham, "figuratively speaking, did receive Isaac back from death." Isaac is clearly a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who rose on the third day, having yielded up His spirit to the
Father. Thus the Father also
received His Son on the third day. God not only "provided a way
out" for Abraham; He also provided the lamb for the sacrifice. Abraham looked up and there in a thicket
he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and
sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
(Genesis 22:13). And thus God the Father has provided us a way of escape from
the penalty of sin: For the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23). This is why the shofar is sounded on
Rosh Hashanah. How about you? Have you received your Redeemer, the
Stone whom the builders rejected? In Him is life, light and joy and in
His sacrifice is forgiveness of sin. He, the Messiah is the way to
Eternal Shabbath, Yom Shekulo Shabbat!
Eternal
Paradise/Heaven, of the world to come. Is that of one long extended,
unending eternal Sabbath Day. Reprinted
for educational purposes from: ISRAEL’S
Holy Days, In type and Prophecy, Daniel Fuchs, chapter 7 Chosen
People Ministries
www.chosenpeople.com
. And
other publication sources. For More Information:
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