Tishrei 5787: More Than a Month of Reflection

There is something weighty about entering Tishrei.

It is not just the beginning of another month or another turn of the calendar. Tishrei carries a significance that reaches far beyond the turning of a page. It is a month filled with appointed times, remembrance, repentance, holiness, judgement, gathering and the hope of the coming King.

Three of the final moedim sit within this one month. Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

These are not only appointed times that we look back upon as part of the biblical story. These times and seasons are put in place by our Father, to cause us to look forward. The spring moedim have pointed us towards what Yeshua accomplished in His first coming. The autumn moedim point us towards the completion of the story, towards the return of Mashiach ben David and the establishment of His Kingdom.

Throughout Elul we have been invited to search, to listen, to repent and to prepare our hearts. We have had the opportunity to look honestly at ourselves and at the places where we have drifted away from His ways into our own without relaising it. If we have been reflecting on his ways, the question now stand - "What will I do with what Father has shown me?"

What action we take is the key, because preparation that never becomes action is not preparation at all, and Tishrei is all about action. 

We begin with Yom Teruah - where we are called to rest and to hear the sound of the shofar. The call is not sound the shoafr but to kisten for it! Are our ears open to hear what the Spirit is saying? Will we be intentionally listening to hear the call of the shoafr?

We are now in the Ten Days of Awe, moving towards Yom Kippur. These days call us to be deliberate in making teshuvah, of returning, of allowing Father to search us and of making right what needs to be made right.

The Day of Atonement was the day when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies. It was a day of affliction, repentance, confession and atonement, a day set apart. A day we are still called to set apart, as we wlak out our salvatino with fear and trembling.

The truth is that we can become so familiar with the language of atonement that we forget the costliness of it.

We can become so familiar with grace that we forget the seriousness of sin.

We can know that Yeshua is our atonement and still fail to allow that reality to search the places in us that need to change.

This is where the story of Tzom Gedaliah has been resonating deeply with me.

We have just come through the fast of Tzom Gedaliah, remembering what happened after the destruction of Jerusalem,and there was a remnant left in the land. Gedaliah had been appointed to govern them, the people began returning and there was an opportunity for restoration. There was an opportunity to rebuild, and yet what had begun to be restored was destroyed from within.

This is a sobering thought to carry into Tishrei.

Not everything that destroys what Father is building comes from outside. Sometimes it comes from within us.

Lamentations 3:40 says "Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the LORD."

During our prayer time as we stepped into Fast Of Dedaliah, we asked Father to show us where pride, ambition, jealousy, offence, suspicion or the desire for control had taken hold of us. We repented for the times when the desire to be first had become more important than the desire to serve.

This heart stance felt deeply appropriate for this season, because there is a difference between looking inward and allowing Father to search us.

Looking inward can become an endless introspection, but allowing Father to search us often leads us somewhere far more meaningful.

It leads to repentance, and repentance should always lead us to change.

This is one of the most important things I want to carry through Tishrei this year.

I don't want to spend another month just identifying what needs to change, I want to begin changing it.

If I need to apologise, then I need to apologise.

If I need to release something, then I need to release it.

If I have been protecting my position instead of serving Father's purposes, I need to acknowledge it.

If I have allowed offence to become a place from which I judge others, I need to deal with it.

If I have been trying to control something that belongs in Father's hands, I need to surrender it.

This is where Tzom Gedaliah brought another uncomfortable reminder to me.

After Gedaliah was killed, fear took hold of the people. They became afraid of what would happen next and began looking towards Mitzrayim for safety.

How easily fear can make us return to what we already know.

When the future feels uncertain, we reach for familiar things. When obedience becomes difficult, we often begin negotiating with Father.

When we can't see what He is doing, we can decide that we need to create our own safety.

We all have our own Mitzrayim.

The question is whether we recognise it or not.

Jeremiah records the warning not to return to Mitzrayim, and Proverbs reminds us, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding."

That is not an easy word when we cannot see what lies ahead, but Tishrei is not ultimately about getting ourselves into a place where we understand everything.

It is about returning to the King.

Not the Messiah we have constructed. Not the Messiah shaped by our own culture, traditions or assumptions, but Yeshua as He is revealed in Scripture.

If we are looking towards Mashiach ben David, then we also need to ask whether we are allowing the King to shape us now.

How beuatiful is this month of Tishrei, this 7th month of the year, that speaks to rest and completion.

Yom Teruah calls us to attention, with the sound of the shofar announcing something and it awakens us.

The Ten Days of Awe give us the space to respond.

Yom Kippur brings us into the seriousness of repentance, atonement and reconciliation.

And then, only a few days later, Sukkot arrives.

Joy. Gathering. Dwelling. Fruitfulness.

Our choice for teshuva brings the fullness of joy! We repent so that we can return, we return so that we can rebuild and we rebuild so that we can become fruitful. We become fruitful so that what Father is doing through us can become a blessing beyond ourselves.

Tishrei then becomes so much more than introspection. It becomes a space of building on the preparation we have already done.

Just five days after Yom Kippur is  Sukkot. 

There is work to do. There is a sukkah to build, there is a harvest to gather,  a King to honour, and a Kingdom coming.

The invitation of Tishrei 5787 is an invitation not just to look back over the year and decide whether we have done well enough, or to identify what needs to change. This is a time to ask what kind of people we are becoming as we prepare for the coming King.

Our calendars give us the framework and journals give us a place to stop, think, pray and write, but eventually the journal has to close, and the calendar page has to turn.

Tishrei is the space to pause - it begins with rest and it speaks to us of slowing down, a time to recalibrate, to allow the searching of Elul, the repentance of these Days of Awe and the weight of Yom Kippur to settle deeply within us. A time to recognise what needs to be left behind, what needs to be restored and what needs to be rebuilt.

There is something powerful about standing at the beginning of a new cycle with that kind of awareness.

We are not starting again as though the previous season didn't happen. We are carrying what we have learnt with us, taking the lessons, the correction, the repentance, the deeper understanding and the places where Father has met us, and allowing them to shape how we step forward.

Tishrei gives us a moment to set our feet into a new space, and perhaps that space will reflect the rest of our season.

A space of greater surrender, a deeper trust, clearer understanding of who our King is, and a willingness to recognise where we have been building according to our own understanding and to come back under His authority.

The story of Gedaliah reminds us that restoration can be fragile when what is happening within us is left unattended. It also reminds us that our Heavenly Father is still a Father who gathers, restores and rebuilds. Our prayer during the fast was not simply that Father would expose deceptio or error. We asked Father to take what has been broken and restore it, what has been distorted and bring it back into truth, what has been scattered and gather it, and what has been divided and bring reconciliation.

Tishrei is not the end of our preparation. It is the threshold into something new.

The cycle turns again, but we do not have to enter it as the same people who began the last one. We can enter with a deeper awareness of the holiness of our Father, with a deeper appreciation of what Yeshua has accomplished, and a deeper longing for the day when Mashiach ben David will return and every promise will find its fullness.

The key to our journey is to pause long enough to recognise where we are at, to recalibrate our hearts, to put our feet firmly into the next space Father is leading us, and then, when the season begins to unfold, to walk into it with greater faith, greater belief and a deeper commitment to our King.

The calendar turns.

The moedim unfold.

The story continues.

We step into another cycle, not just waiting for what Father will do, but allowing Him to continue forming us into the people who will be ready to receive it.

May this Tishrei be more than a month we observe for each us, may it become a place where we return, rebuild, realign and prepare our hearts for the King.

Baruch HaShem and may your new season be sweet and precious!