Making Life Work

By: Ronald L. Dart

 

 

"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years" (Genesis 1:14-19).

    Nothing God gave to man has been used so consistently for the purpose He intended. Every civilization of man has used the sun, the moon, or both for the demarcation of time. They had no choice. Even a hunting society had to take notice of the passage of seasons. When would the animals migrate to the north and when would they return? How soon would the antlered animals make their move down from the high country? No people dependent upon the land could fail to notice that there was a time to plant and a time to harvest. Their problem was the prediction of that time, and that required the observation of the sun. It required a calendar, and some form of calendar has always been a mark of civilization.

By: Ronald L. Dart

 

    The holy days are, to me, an endless source of fascination. Every year I approach them with renewed anticipation. Long ago someone pointed out to me a simple, elegant pattern in the meaning of these days. The Passover, for example, portrays the sacrifice of Christ. The days of Unleavened Bread remind us to put sin out of our lives. Pentecost pictures the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Trumpets looks forward to the return of Christ and the resurrection. Atonement represents the binding of Satan and the whole world being "at one" with God. The Feast of Tabernacles look forward to the millennium, and the eighth day pictures the "Great White Throne" judgment.

By: Lenny Cacchio

    On September 28 most Jews and a small but growing number of Christians will be keeping one of the Holy Days mentioned in Leviticus 23 known as the Day of Atonement, or in Hebrew, Yom Kippur. The day is unlike any of the other High Days because, rather than being a feast day, it is instead a fast day, where the people of God are instructed to “afflict” their souls before God.

    Christians who keep this day focus on the atonement the Messiah makes for our sins. Those of the Jewish faith also view it as a day of atonement for sins, and in addition they view it as a day of judgement. But sometimes missed is a nuance revealed throughout the Biblical descriptions of this day that lead me to describe this year’s observance...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    In times of crisis, American political leaders from time to time have called for a day of prayer, and sometimes even a day of fasting and prayer.  The Pilgrims did it.  The Puritans did it.  In 1746 the settlements in New England did it when the French fleet threatened them.  Shortly thereafter a storm destroyed the fleet.  

    In Revolutionary times, Civil War times, and even as recently as 2003, political leaders called for such observances.  Various religious groups periodically call their congregations to days of prayer, and there is even a National Day of Prayer every May that Congress authorized in the 1950s.  

    God gave the nation of Israel a national day of prayer and fasting.  It is commonly known...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    You’ll probably recognize the title of this essay as a quotation from the Liberty Bell.  Proclaim liberty throughout the land!  That quotes part of a verse from the book of Leviticus and can be found in chapter 25. "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" is in part from verse 10 of that chapter, and it refers to the Jubilee year, which came around every 50 years.

    The Jubilee is based on the agrarian notion that wealth is in the land.  Families had inheritance in the land, but often because of poor management or bad fortune, the family would lose the land and hence its means of financial freedom.   In an agrarian society, to lose the land meant to lose your freedom, for you would...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    When Eve offered Adam that infamous piece of fruit, what should he have done?  The obvious answer, of course, would be to refuse it.  But what else?     What Adam should have done is found in part in an unusual High Day mentioned in Leviticus 23. "The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire.   Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. "  (Leviticus 23:27-28 NIV)     The Day of Atonement is more commonly known by its Hebrew name Yom Kippur.  In our English Bibles, the word kippur is translated "atonement", but a more precise translation would...