"This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live."  Leviticus 23:31

There are days when I close my eyes and try to imagine what it was like when God first commanded Israel to commemorate and keep the feasts and holy days.  I imagine the people who are suddenly reminded of the season by the blast of a trumpet, the ten days of awe, and the call to solemn assembly. 

There was a time when I thought all those scriptures were meaningless to us as believers in Christ.  These scriptures were never brought up in our church as I was growing up.  Neither were they referenced by our Sunday school teachers, and there were very few (if any) references to the holy days or festivals of the Lord in Bible studies I attended.  It was assumed, though not specifically articulated, that these were historical events with no meaning for us.

How wrong were my assumptions!  I repent …

Today, the trumpet still blows calling us to solemn assembly.  Although the High Priest has no temple in which to do service, there is no blood sacrifice to be offered on the altar, there is no atoning blood to sprinkle on the Mercy Seat, and there is no fire of God to consume the sacrifice, we can find profound revelation in the Atoning Sacrifice, Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah. 

There are set seasons in God's timeline; we see this referenced throughout the Word of God.  God's times and seasons are perpetual … they never ceased.  God's call to a season of repentance was not for a dispensation, but for all generations—"the generations to come".  They were not for His people Israel only living in Israel, but for all generations wherever they live—"wherever you live" (ref Leviticus 23:31).

There is more than enough reason for us, as Christians, to heed the call to repentance and fasting, to enter into a season of solemn assembly, to honor God's times and seasons.  We are truly living in the time of the harvest.  The fields are ripe and ready, but the hearts of so many of God's people are far from ready simply because we, the Body of Christ, lack the attention to repentance. 

True repentance includes Godly sorrow (ref 2 Corinthians 7:10).  How often does the Church gather together to grieve over her own sins, to mourn the fact that we all miss God and fall so short of His glory (ref Romans 3:23)?  Some way, down through history, we have forsaken God's call to seasonal and perpetual repentance (throughout all generations), somehow thinking we are blood-bought through Yeshua's  incredible sacrifice and no longer need to set ourselves apart unto God for a season of mourning our sin.

The ancient Jews who feared God listened for the blast of the trumpet signaling a time of true repentance and fasting and seeking to right the wrongs in their lives.  They feared God's judgment if they had unrepented sin in their lives.  They used the Law—the Torah—as their plumb line and repented for the many ways they had failed God and their fellow man.  It was a season of atoning for sins and wiping the slate clean for all sins committed against God in the past year, praying God would accept the sacrifice of the High Priest and the sprinkling of blood on the Mercy Seat and grant His people mercy rather than judgment.

We need the mercy of God now more than ever before.  This nation has been reeling in natural disasters with increasing intensity for the past few years.  Each time a disaster strikes we see a precursor to God's judgment being levied against all of mankind because humanity as a whole has strayed so far from Him.  We need God's mercy!

So, let the trumpet be blown in Zion.  Listen to the Spirit's call to solemn assembly, to join together with all the saints to repent on behalf of ourselves, our families, our communities, our churches, our States, our nation, and our world. 

These are the days of Elijah,
Declaring the Word of the Lord
And these are the days of Your servant Moses,
Righteousness being restored.
And though these are days of great trial,
Of famine and darkness and sword,
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
'Prepare ye the way of the Lord!'

Behold He comes riding on the clouds,
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call;
Lift your voice, it's the year of jubilee,
And out of Zion's hill salvation comes.

These are the days of Ezekiel,
The dry bones becoming as flesh;
And these are the days of Your servant David,
Rebuilding a temple of praise.
These are the days of the harvest,
The fields are as white in Your world,
And we are the laborers in Your vineyard,
Declaring the word of the Lord!

There's no God like Jehovah.
There's no God like Jehovah!*

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Copyright © 2008 Jan Ross
*Copyright © 1997 Daybreak Music Ltd.

This article was published in the October 2008 issue of JournEzine.