By Beth Ann Phifer on Tuesday, 11 October 2022
Category: Holy Days

Coming Home for the Holy Days

Coming Home for the Holy Days 
Coming Home to Him
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He is our Home
Most days my heart can barely take the news. How thankful I am that Yahweh, the Eternally-Existent, Majestic Creator, and Sovereign One is our only Home. Although He has allowed the waywardness of humankind to run its course, He is full of hesed (His indescribable, undeserved, vast love) to those who seek Him. Our faith in Him is true and high and distinct from every other so-called “religion” because:

Remembering His Provision
The holidays in Jewish life are numerous. However, Yahweh established only seven Appointed Times called permanent ordinances that call His people out of their routine to rest and remember Him. They occur in the Spring and Fall. (The list is found in Leviticus 23 and expounded upon throughout Scripture. I have included a brief list on the last page.) His people’s repeated observance of these Appointed Times would also make the Messiah’s coming obvious since He would be the final fulfillment of each one.

Today, He holds our faces in His hands and says, “Look up, my child!” In the Appointed Times, He invites us to rest, refocus, and remember His goodness. He knew we would keep working, working, working if He merely suggested these Times. Instead, He commands. Like a parent saying, “It’s time to come in out of the cold,” or “It’s time for supper,” His appointments are kind and inviting!

I have known about these Appointed Times for many years, but their significance did not register until 2016 when Rabbi and Cynthia Schneider of Discovering the Jewish Jesus commissioned me to create the art cards surrounding them. Although that intense year praying about the images and text for the cards was life-changing, each year since then has brought new and deepened warmth and joy in observing these Times. Their meaning seems to hold an inexhaustible and expanding treasure.

Sometime in the third and fourth century, church leaders separated us from our Jewish heritage by creating a new calendar and new holidays. I feel like I am coming home now every time an Appointed Time comes around. Like coming home for the holidays, Yahweh’s Appointed Times are a getaway in which we can saturate in the truth, beauty, and purity of Who He is and find rest for our souls.

Tabernacles
This past Sunday at sundown, we entered the last and happiest Appointed Time for the year – the week-long Feast of Tabernacles. During this week, we are commanded to rejoice! People around the world build sukkot or temporary shelters (also called booths or tabernacles) to remember how the Israelites learned to depend on God in the wilderness. Stripped of all but life’s necessities, His presence was all they needed… all we need.

My friend, Dorcas, gave me permission to share her family’s sukkat (the image for this post) that beautifully includes the full moon that appears during this special week. When I look at this picture, it causes me to worship my Savior, Messiah Yeshua, for coming to earth to tabernacle among us. It reminds me that He was here looking up to His Father.

The disciple John wrote, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) Stripped of His heavenly glory, Yeshua set up a temporary shelter with us to become the Perfect Sacrifice for all people for all time! (Hebrews 9:11-12) And He will come again to tabernacle with us in the New Heaven and the New Earth.

During this Appointed Time of Sukkot (ending at sundown on Sunday, October 16 this year), let us remember that His presence is all we need. Let us rejoice in the Lord, our Shepherd!

(Please continue reading to see the list of Appointed Times.)

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Yahweh’s Appointed Times including key Scripture references, key reasons for the observance, as well as the foreshadows of Yeshua. You may also read the synopses on the back of The Feasts of Israel Fulfilled Art Cards at FlowerGirlGreetings.com. (Shabbat is not currently included in this Collection.)

Spring

Fall

The Feast of Tabernacles Art Card is in The Feasts of Israel Fulfilled Art Card Collection at Flower Girl Greetings.

Dorcas' Sukkat

Shale Fragments™ - devotionals by Beth Ann Phifer is a division of Flower Girl Greetings, LLC. ©2020, All Rights Reserved.
Blessings and love in Him,
Beth Ann

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