Old Testament Holidays

This week (Sep 22) was the OT Day of Atonement, also called Yom Kippur.  While we don’t keep the requirements of that day since Jesus accomplished our Atonement, reading about the requirements of that Day from Leviticus 16 and 23:26-32 are a good reminder of just how blessed we are in Christ (Hebrews 9:24-10:10)!  Also, if you have any Jewish friends or acquaintances who are not believers in Christ, encourage them to read Isaiah 53 this week.  Actually, if you have any unsaved friends or acquaintances (and who doesn’t), encourage them to read Isaiah 53 or better yet, take them down the “Jerusalem Road” yourself using these OT passages for salvation through Christ  (see below) .

 

September 27 is the OT Feast of Tabernacles; you can read about it in Leviticus 23:33-44 and Deuteronomy 16:13-15.  This was a 7-day festival, living in a tent and giving thanks to the Lord for His blessings.  Again, we don’t keep this OT feast, but we are told to remember what the Lord has done and give thanks always.  Living out in a tent for a day or two would be a powerful reminder of how good we have it!


"The Jerusalem Road"
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?

Isaiah 64:6-7 But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.  ⁷And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us because of our iniquities.

Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.  ²But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.

Isaiah 53:1-12 Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  ²For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground.  He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.  ³He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.  ⁴Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  ⁵But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.  ⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. ⁷He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.  ⁸He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation?  For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken.  ⁹And they made His grave with the wicked, but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.  ¹⁰Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.  When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.  ¹¹He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.  By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.  ¹²Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Psalm 51:1-4 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.  ²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  ³For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. ⁴Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight, that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.

Gen 15:6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

Psalm 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.  Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Daniel 12:2 And those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Witnesses for Christ

Last Sunday we were blessed to have a Gideon representative here with us.  I always enjoy when the Gideons visit because they greatly encourage us to continue and even increase our being witnesses for Christ. 

Over the past few weeks we have taken on the challenge to pass out pocket-sized New Testaments to people we meet.  Several of us have done so and it is great to hear testimonies of those interactions.  We have distributed on the streets of New Brighton, in restaurants, and other locations throughout Beaver County.  All the glory to God for this and may He continue to bless those efforts.  May He also speak through those Bibles to the people who read them, drawing them to Himself through the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays we’ve been studying Isaiah.  Here are the words of Isaiah 43:10-13  “You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He.  Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me.  I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there is no savior.  I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign god among you; therefore you are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “that I am God.  Indeed before the day was, I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?”

Amen.