Rosh HaShanah
‘And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you it is a day of blowing the trumpets. You shall offer a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the Lord: one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year, without blemish.’ - Numbers 29:1-2
Today is Rosh HaShanah the beginning of High Holy Days. The next ten days will be a time for repentance and will conclude with Yom Kippur. To mark the beginning of Rosh HaShanah, the Feast of Trumpets, the shofar will be blown to call the children of Israel to repentance.
From the beginning of the Feast of Trumpets until Yom Kippur, the people have the opportunity to repent and also do good deeds, to cover up or exceed the number of sinful things they have done through the year. The reason they are repenting and doing good deeds is because on Yom Kippur they want their names written in the Book of Life for one more year.
Think about it. They are trying to do enough good deeds to make up for their sinful actions, in order to get in the Lamb’s Book of Life one more year. Because they do not recognize the blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed so they could be in the Book of Life forever, they have to strive every year for salvation.
This day does not mark the beginning of a celebration but the start of works and sacrifices, with hope for temporal security. We need to celebrate the eternal security we have through Christ, as we abide in Him.
It is God alone who saves, and that in every element of the saving process.
~Benjamin B. Warfield~
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