Hosea 3:4-5 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.
On the Hebrew calendar, we're at the end of the month of Elul. This particular month the shofar is sounded once a day as a call for the people to repent as we approach the Hebrew month of Tishri.
Interestingly enough, Yom Teruah [Hebrew for "Day of the (shofar) blast"] known in modern times as Rosh HaShanah (Hebrew for "Head of the Year") falls on the 1st day of Tishri (beginning this Monday night) which is also the seventh month of the year -- yet it has been designated as the New Year. This season is also known as the season of "teshuva". In Hebrew, "teshuva" means "repentance", and yet it also means "return".
So, ironically, the beginning of the year is connected to the end of the harvest year. The beginning is connected to the end. And the end is connected to the beginning. Thus, a cyclical pattern emerges: the gospel message was delivered by the Jewish people whose Messiah Yeshua appeared at the beginning of this age. This message has gone to the nations for nearly 2000 years and is now returning to its source, Israel and the Jewish people, whose return to their homeland signals the completion of the cycle culminating in the spiritual resurrection of the nation. We are certainly witnessing the beginning of this fulfillment at the end of the age with Messianic believers multiplying and proclaiming faith in the true Messiah to their own Jewish people.
In this season of repentance ("teshuva"), as we ourselves turn to the Lord, please remember to be praying for the Jewish people -- not only for their return to their homeland, the physical restoration -- but for their repentance and faith in the only Name given under heaven by which we must be saved -- the spiritual restoration which signals the coming of King Messiah Yeshua.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]This weekend, the Jewish people will celebrate the festival of Purim. This holiday commemorates Israel’s amazing reversal in Persia during the reign of King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) when Queen Esther and her uncle Mordecai gained victory for the Jews and protected them from annihilation at the hands of the evil Haman.
Over two decades ago, when I moved to Israel, I had the opportunity to spend considerable time with a pastor and his wife. This pastor imparted significant wisdom to me during that period, counseling me to “be like the children of Issachar,” he directed me to this specific passage in 1 Chronicles 12.
Over the past few days, I’ve been discussing the will of God and how to walk out His will daily in our lives. The Lord’s general will involves the development of our character and the ways in which we relate to Him and to our fellow man. Much of this is the same for every believer. But each of us is unique, and each has a potential life vision unlike any other. God has an individual will for every soul that belongs to Him, an individually shaped destiny which varies according to our gifting and calling and purpose in His Body.
As God worked on creation for six days and rested on the seventh day, so our seven day week is established on that pattern. If, as the scripture declares, with the Lord one day is as 1,000 years and 1,000 years as a day, then the seven-day cycle also finds expression in a great historical “week”. As we approach the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah, this “millennium” as it is called, (described in some detail in Revelation chapter 20), is clearly understood as a time of global rest, peace, and righteousness throughout the Earth.
The word for “restitution” in this passage is the Greek word – “apokatastasis”. This is the one and only place it is found in the New Testament. The word literally means to “restore again” or “to repair”. The plan of God in sending His Son Yeshua (Jesus) was to restore that which had been broken and ruined. The Lord’s saving work is a global repair job. Each one of us has come to Him already ruined by sin. But God’s will and His promise is to restore and renew us through His Son.
These past few days, writing about the will of God, has reminded me of the prophet Jeremiah, and how the Lord knew him – even before he was in his mother’s womb, and he was sanctified by God as a prophet to the nations. A similar foreknowledge and ordination of God belongs to us who are under the New Covenant. God’s foreknowledge of His people is clearly stated in scripture. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless, and created in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) unto good works which He foreordained that we walk in them.
Writing daily devotions throughout the years I’ve often been asked the question, “How do I find the will of God?” There are probably many good scriptural approaches to answering this question; but I want to offer something very basic as you think about understanding the will of God. That is, simply, that you’ll know His will when you come to know the heart of God.