Showing posts with label Prepare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prepare. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Trumpet Blasts and Wedding Garments: Are You Ready?

 
During the Feast of Trumpets, which is the first of the fall feasts of the LORD, there is a series of repeated blasts of the shofar (trumpet made from a ram's horn) that are specifically associated with this feast.
The first shofar blast of the repeated series is called "Tekiah". It is one long blast. Its sound represents both joy and warning. In our last post, we discussed the joy associated with this feast (Rev. 19:7-9, Ps. 81:1-3). The warning of the Tekiah blast, according to the rabbinical teachings, serves to call attention to something, to gather together to receive God's orders. Jesus issued this Tekiah-like warning:
"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting (dissipation, carousing), and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare it shall come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." 
                                                                                              Lk. 21:34-36
The Apostle Paul repeats a similar warning:
"For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief...Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober...For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."    1 Thess. 5:2-9 (excerpt)
Much of the Church is asleep, unaware, and unprepared. The Tekiah blast is to stir us up, and warn us to start paying attention. Tradition says that the Tekiah blast is shouting, "Awake you sleepers!".
The second series of blasts of the shofar is called "Shevarim". It is comprised of three short, broken notes. The word Shevarim means "breakings". Its sounding calls people to weep, repent, and seek God. The blasts are to lead God's people into examining themselves. They are reminded to turn away from the things that have been separating them from God, and to seek those things that are Godly:
"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil...But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear..."   1 Pet. 3:12, 15    and
"Quench not the Spirit...Prove all things;  hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."                                                               1 Thess. 5:19-23
We are expected to walk in a Godly manner, sanctified, having not even the appearance of evil in our lives. The Shevarim blasts warn us that we are to repent, and change our ways, when we fall short of these things. The pure, white, clean linen of the wedding garments worn by the Bride of Christ represent righteousness (Rev. 19:7-8), for she has prepared herself for her wedding to the Lamb of God. The cares and ways of this world, the things considered valuable and important to this world, are not part of the righteousness of the saints.
The third series of blasts of the shofar is called "Teruah". They are nine, short, staccato blasts of alarm. It is an urgent warning, meant to give advance notice of an immediately impending event. The word Teruah means "shout or cry". It is to bring the hearers into deep repentance, sorrow, and sobbing. To us, it should be our last warning, "The Bridegroom  cometh". At the sounding of these Teruah blasts, there is no time left to "prepare" if we have not already prepared ourselves for this event. The moment is about to come upon us. Jesus gave this serious warning to one of His churches:
"Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."  Rev. 3:2-3
To this same church, Jesus gave this promise if they listened to Him, and repented:
"...few...which have not defiled their garments;  and they shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels."   Rev. 3:2-5 (excerpt)
The last sounding of the shofar in this series is called "Teruah Gedolah", meaning "the last trump" or "the great trump". It is one long, continuing note to be held as long as the breath allows. It is the trumpet blast of the hope of redemption, and resurrection of the dead:
"For the Lord Himself, shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice (also includes the sound or tone of an instrument) of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.:   1 Thess. 4:16-17
The moment of resurrection is preceded with sounds. These sounds first speak to those who are "asleep", the dead in Christ, and then also to those living who belong to Him. 
Isaiah is just one prophet who prophesied this moment of resurrection:
"Thy dead men shall live, together with My dead body shall they arise. Awake (awaken abruptly, arise, watch. root- harvest) and sing (sing, shout, cry out, overcome), ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew (night mist. root- overshadow, covering) is as the dew of herbs (light, luminousness. root- "ore" light of Christ), and the earth shall cast out (lie prostrate, prostrate oneself, fall away from, be inferior to) the dead. Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast."  Isa. 26:19-20
The dead and the living in Christ are, in an abrupt moment, gathered to Him in resurrection and transformation, to enter into the bridal chamber with Him.
As the trumpets of this feast sound, they are the foreshadowing of the last call and warning for the Bride to make herself ready.

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Wednesday, March 2, 2016

"Prepare Ye the Way of the LORD"

 
 
The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
"Prepare ye the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth; The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
                                                                       and
"Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; Even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the LORD of hosts.      Isa. 40:3-5, Mal. 3:1
 
This above cry comes forth out of the wilderness. If you think of yourself as part of a church that seems to be in a wilderness, it is very likely that this cry is coming from you right now. It is a cry that is calling out to all to "get ready", to prepare. It is a cry that we feel compelled to shout out.
This year, during this season before Passover and Resurrection, it seems especially urgent.
In the days before Passover, a Jewish household is cleansed of leaven, and prepared for the Feast. Similarly, we need to prepare our spiritual houses, ourselves.
The term "prepare" used in the scriptures above refers to a "turning back, a turning toward something, and a turning away from something, an approach of evening, to clear from things in confusion, to put a house in order, to face, to approach, to behold."
The "way" that we are to prepare as used above, is a journey, a road, a manner, a conversation, a custom, a way of life. Most interestingly, it also means to express wine or oil by treading down with the feet. Wine and oil have great meaning in God's Kingdom, one of which is their use in comfort and healing. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan uses wine and oil to bring healing to the wounds of the man he finds beaten while the Samaritan is on his journey (way) in Lk. 10:33-34.
 
 
                                            Olive Oil | Beyond Health NewsClips

Oil is also used to represent the Holy Spirit, and the anointing and presence of the LORD. The oil is used to light lamps, including the Lamp of the LORD in the Temple.
Jesus pointed out that not only were we to be a light, but a light by which all can see through the darkness. That light is to be lifted up, placed on a lampstand, that those who enter may see it, in order to relieve that darkness, and bring glory to God:
"You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp, and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house...that those who enter may see the light... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven."      Mt. 5:14-16, Lk. 8:16
Jesus warns us about being unprepared, caught without oil in our lamps, when the bridegroom suddenly comes, with a shout, or a cry:

"And at midnight a cry was heard: "Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!" Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out"...And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut."                Mt. 25:6-10 (abridged)


                                                      


The wine produced by preparing the way of the LORD is a symbol of the blood, the atonement of Christ, the redemption, the reconciliation, the beautiful new covenant between God and man. It is also a symbol of the gladness of the LORD. It is the miracle done at the wedding in Cana. ("Cana" happens to have the root meaning of a measuring rod, the beam of a balancing scale, the shaft and branches of a lampstand)
In the treading down process, the way that belongs to the LORD presses the oil out of the olive, and the wine from the grapes. This is what is to be pressed from our lives also. We turn back to those things of God that allow the oil and the wine to come forth from us. Jesus called Himself The Way. He is the One who produces this oil and wine from each one of us, if we will submit to Him in this pressing process.
The cry is going out from the wilderness: Now is the time to prepare, now is the time to have our lamps filled with the oil which is produced from the way of the LORD. Now is the time to have that light in us shining for all to see the way out of the darkness, and into His marvelous light. Let our temple storehouses be filled with the oil and the wine of the Spirit. It is time to make our crooked places straight, to raise up the valleys in our lives, and pull down those mountains that have exalted themselves in us, to smooth out those rough places, to prepare His way. All of these "preparations" have a direct impact on the soon and sudden coming of the Lord, according to our scriptures above. 
As we prepare the way before Him, He will enter in.