September 23, 2025

What does it mean to repent? [= to turn away from sin and turn back to Yahweh] Why does traditional Hebrew thinking emphasize repentance… just prior to the Day of Atonement” [Yom Kippur]?The Biblical record, as revealed in the Law of Moses [Torah], first five books of the Bible, especially as given in chapter 23 of Leviticus, give specific “everlasting” instruction for keeping seven “moedim” [appointed times], plus the seventh day sabbath. Yahweh [GOD of Israel] clearly says these “feasts” [moedim] are HIS feast. He gave these eternal instructions to His People… called the Children of Israel [no “Jews” were defined until much later]… and there were at that time of the Mt. Sinai record, many persons of “mixed multitude” among them, who Yahweh clearly said if they were to be considered [included] they too were to keep His instructions… one Law for all people. Now clearly, most of these people [above 20 years of age] failed to keep Yahweh’s ways… except Joshua and Caleb. All that is a discussion for another time. Let us look more closely to what Yeshua said just prior to His comments about repentance above in chapter 13 of Luke.

When you read the twelfth chapter of Luke you will find Yeshua speaking/teaching of these things:
▪ Beware of Hypocrisy
▪ the Fear of God
▪ Confess Christ Before Men
▪ The Parable of the Rich Fool
▪ Do Not Worry
▪ The Faithful Servant and the Evil Servant
▪ Christ Brings Division
▪ Discern the Time
▪ Make Peace with Your Adversary

Then we come to chapter 13… “Repent or Perish.” I try to look at things in simple terms; for example, Yeshua understood people of His day… He knew that they had been spiritually abused by corrupt priests and false teachers [and so it is today]. He always spoke to their needs [such as listed above] in ways they could understand; in fact, some said, how does this man [unlearned] speak these things, not as the Scribes teach, yet they knew His truth and instruction was from divine source. His evil enemies hated His truth; in fact they killed Him for it. What is it about being challenged with ones ugly identity, and being admonished to repent that stirs up resentment and anger in sinners, and even in some self centered believers. It is the purpose and power of Yahweh’s Word to expose our dirty secretes and unacceptable ways. The Bible tells us it is the goodness of Yahweh that draws men to repentance. Rom 2:4

For some twenty plus years now, I have been trying to learn the meaning and teachings of the Biblical “moedim” or Festivals of the LORD,” which it seems to me that more and more people, in our day, are trying to understand in greater depth… I pray all believers will join in this practice. In fact these Biblical festivals are considered to be dressed rehearsals for the return of Yeshua! What can that mean? In a short answer, it is considered that Yahweh will do in the remaining three fall feasts as He did in the four Spring feast… He will show up on those dates as predetermined divine time events, determined from long ago, to be His way of leading us to prepare ourselves for His end of the age interventions that He has set in place.

So then, as we now stand at the door of Yom Teruah for 2025, how should we deal with it, and what about the ten days thereafter that brings us to Yom Kippur… the day of Atonement? In other words, the time has then ended for entering the door of repentance… it is now become the day of judgment… this would be a good time to consider seriously what these things really mean, I think. If then, they are a symbolic dressed rehearsal lesson, what could and should we learn from it?

For many years I have read teachings and articles written by Tim Hegg, a Messianic believer, who has a ministry called Torah Resources. In one of his articles of many years ago, he writes this:

”What is the incentive, then, for repentance… for returning to the righteous path of God’s design? The first and greatest incentive is that of God’s love for us. We love Him, because He first loved us. We have come to understand that entirely apart from any merit on our own part. God has forgiven us and called us His friend. To know the reality of His love and then to turn away from Him causes untold grief in our souls. The constant call to return is therefore scented with the aroma of His love, and lays claim to the memory of our hearts in which we rehearse the joy of His companionship. Something within us tugs upon our consciousness unrelentingly until we come back. And when we return to Him, our bitterness against others wilts in the light of his love.”

Tim goes on to write: “On this Yom Teruah we are therefore urged once again, as we hear the moaning, ancient song of the shofar, to consider those paths in our lives which are leading us away from communion with the Almighty… taking us away from the delights of His presence, and to turn from them and return to walking with Him. Perhaps its something well established in our lives we must turn from, or something we have neglected. Maybe it’s a long entrenched habit that we know is destructive to our soul and thus to those we touch. Perhaps it is apathy or coldness toward the Lord and others. Perhaps it is our unwillingness to forgive others who have genuinely sought our forgiveness. “...forgive us our transgressions even as we forgive those who have sinned against us.” Whatever it may be, God continues to call us back to Himself… to a life of worship in which His Name is set apart through our lives and words.”

I think all of us need to alert ourselves to the words of divine utterance… “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” luk 13:3 nkjv

Can you hear the sound of the shofar in your heart… It always resonates with me during this “rehearsal time” of the first of the three Fall festivals… Trumpets, then Atonement, and thirdly Tabernacles.

Shalom, John