ELUL 5786

ROSH CHODESH ELUL

Photo by Anh Khac on Pexels.com

Welcome to the season of Elul.  Tomorrow we will participate in Rosh Chodesh Elul. At the sight of the new moon our minds and hearts begin to ponder this amazing new month.

Actually though, Rosh Chodesh Elul brings us to more than a new month. We enter a new 40 DAY SEASON of meditations and self-examinations. Finally, our focus is leaving the Hebraic calendar’s month of Av. Now we are gladly moving into the Hebraic calendar’s month of Elul.  Elul means “Teshuvah” which means “repentance” or “returning.”

Just the feat of reaching Elul is an encouragement to us. Av was not an easy month to go through. How delightful to know that God is still with us. He still loves us very much. He has helped us to grow through all of our struggles. This is possible because we have a perfect intercessor in heaven. Yeshua Messiah working through the Ruach HaKodesh is even willing to walk us through this season by helping us develop better ways to live.

RESTORING THE BROKEN

Elul is about restoring the brokenness of the world.  Can you see anything in your daily world that God is beginning to repair?  Will He use you and your purpose to help accomplish these repairs during this season?  It will be interesting to find out.

Satan has done his best to heap chaos and destruction upon God’s people. He has been very busy this year. As we watch for the new moon, we begin to see how God is slowly repairing the world. Our Father takes these attempts to promote evil and turns them around for good. He works with one heart at a time.

ELUL IS RESTORATION FROM BROKENESS

The first day of Elul is when Moses descended Mt. Sinai for the second time.  He went up to plead with God for the broken people after the tragic incident of the Golden Calf. These people were as broken as the tablets that Moses had angrily smashed to the ground. It seemed that the pieces left could never be put back together again. Only God could accomplish such a miracle. Moses was their intercessor with God.

We too are as broken as those smashed tablets. Yeshua Messiah has become the intercessor to God for us. He is our miracle from Heaven.

In his anger at the people Moses broke those first tablets of the Law. On this second trip up the mountain, Moses was given a renewed set of the Laws of God. It was a second chance. Nothing about the law had changed. All of the words were the same as the first copy. God was simply renewing the same laws with the second set. Again, Moses is instructed to share with the people. Having the written law is very important. Knowing the law helps people to recognize the definition of sin.

LEARNING TO OVERCOME

In order to overcome something one must first recognize its existence. In order to be saved and sanctified before God we must see the sin in our lives. The law opens our eyes and helps us to see. God was renewing this covenant of the law with the people. He gave Moses the very same instructions again. Then YHVH told Moses to communicate with the people. So it was that Moses passed on this renewed covenant. It opened the eyes of the people to the sins they had committed.

So it is that Yeshua Messiah passed on this renewed covenant to us. He sealed it in His precious blood.

MOSES LEARNS TWICE

Moses had to be taught the law twice. So do we. It is written in the Torah, and renewed in the B’rit Hadasha. B’rit Hadasha is the Hebrew term for “New Covenant.” The last session of learning must have felt like a refresher course to Moses. This session of sitting under God’s instructions lasted for 40 days.

During this season called Elul we too are getting a refresher course on the law. It helps us to see where we have missed the mark during the year that has just passed before us. Perhaps we too have committed the sin of the golden calf. If so, it is time to clean house.

We want to end this year being in favor with Our Creator. There is only one month left on the Hebraic calendar. It is time to examine our lives before God. We go back and look at the true meanings of His law. Then we speak with God about where we have failed to keep these laws. Like the people who had sinned in the wilderness, we learn from Yeshua Messiah how we can change. We turn our hearts back to The One True God. It is a time of examinaiton and repentance and turning. We come out of this comforting and refreshing season with clean hearts and hands.

LOVE AND LAW WALK TOGETHER

God didn’t give us the law to bind us. He gave the law to help us. It wasn’t something God did to control us. The Law was something God did to love us. Love and law go together. They walk hand-in-hand and help us to overcome.

The last request from Yeshua Messiah before He ascended back into the heavens after His Resurrection was for us to be overcomers. This is why we participate in and grow from the observances of the season of Elul.

LOVE COMES FIRST

Knowing these facts about the season of Elul made me think back on lessons from a past trip. I remembered when we visited Ivy Green with our grandchildren. We saw the play called The Miracle Worker. The play portrayed the amazing story of Helen Keller.

Helen, being deaf and blind could not learn to talk. Her teacher spoke to her in sign language but Helen, not understanding, ignored this. It was a long time before she was able to truly comprehend what was being said. First, Helen had to realize and understand that the sign language was a process which held meaning for her life.

God’s law is our sign language.  Most of us can hear and speak without a problem.  However, we need to be able to comprehend and obey.  This is the process we still need to learn.

A LAW OF PROMISES

Speaking of keeping the law makes me think of the law concerning the keeping of the Sabbath.  This is only one portion of the law, but with just this one portion we are promised that this law is a sign between us and YHVH.

We can read more of this in Exodus 31:13 which states, “Surely you must keep My Sabbaths, for this will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.

This is only one of the laws which speaks of sanctification. Elul is all about sanctification.  By keeping the law because we desire to do so from our hearts, God knows we truly desire to love and follow Him forever. Have you learned how to communicate this part of the sign yet?

UNDERSTANDING RESTORATION

This discovery of the process of “sign language” for Helen Keller is similar to how the law of God manifests for a Christian. At first we walk through life paying no attention to the law. We know it is there. The evidence of its presence is all around us. We are aware of The Law and know that it exists.

However, before we know Messiah, we hardly notice God’s laws. We rarely slow down enough to ponder or think about them. Until we realize and understand the law’s concepts, they hold no meaning for us.

Perhaps you were like me, brought up in the church with no strong emphasis of Torah. Everything was about mercy and forgiveness. I did realize Yeshua Messiah was the way to obtain it. Yet, without a stronger emphasis on the law, sin was not nearly as visible, definable and obvious as it is to me now that I have begun to follow Torah.

THE PATH TO DISCOVERY

Thus, from season to season we continue to walk in sin. Basically we live in chaos similar to how Helen Keller lived before she comprehended the process of sign-language.

Like Helen discovering the magic of a new language, we come to the discovery that knowing and understanding the law helps us to communicate better with God.  It draws us closer to His side. This amazing discovery gives us a breakthrough to a much better life. The realization of this sense of moving ever closer toward the One we love makes all the difference in the way we do life.

This is the point where the usefulness of the law takes on new meaning.

That was the way sign language worked for Helen Keller. Yet, it was totally useless to her until she finally grasped that the sign language process carried useful meaning.  When Helen Keller grasped the usefulness of language, it changed every aspect of her life.

The Laws of God work the same way for Christians. Ann Sullivan sacrificed much of her own life to help Helen understand how to communicate with the world. Likewise, Yeshua sacrificed all of His life to help us understand how to communicate with God.

THE NEED FOR SALVATION

Thus, understanding and keeping God’s laws becomes the way Christians learn how to move into holiness by overcoming sin. This one process brings us order where we once lived in chaos.

Of course, humanity could not do this very well for very long. All through the ages, our humanity has continued to dictate the desires of the lowest part of our souls. We humans are champion sinners. The beastly nature of our souls always wants to rule. Typically we are not so great at overcoming sin. Thus, the need for Our Messiah’s gift of salvation.  

LEARNING TO EXPRESS THROUGH ACTION

Helen Keller wasn’t very good at overcoming either. That is to say, until she was saved from her chaotic world when Ann Sullivan entered her life, cared for her, and helped her to communicate. Ann Sullivan sacrificed her own life to love Helen.

Eventually Helen honored this sacred gift from her teacher. Finally, we see the growth of Helen’s soul. She moves from communicating to understanding, then to love and honor. She no longer needed to learn the words, she was even UNDERSTANDING the MEANING of the words and living out their concepts.

It was a long hard journey, but Helen Keller learned the true meaning and function of love. She grasped a way to live out the words she had come to know. She honored her teacher with her actions.

HONORING THE SACRED

Do we honor our teacher with our actions?

Elul is a practice that teaches this concept.

In the season of Elul we meditate on how we can better honor that sacred sacrifice of Jesus. We do so by learning the best ways to keep God’s laws. The main process of this learning method is to follow Jesus. Jesus kept every commandment. He is our best example for overcoming the world.

FOLLOWING YESHUA MESSIAH

We should lean on and follow Jesus just as Helen Keller followed Ann Sullivan. She often imitated what she knew from Ann’s examples and teachings. We should be following Jesus in the same way. The season of Elul helps us to concentrate on finding these concepts and putting them to use daily.

When we keep the law properly, it happens not out of duty, but straight from the heart. Ann Sullivan had to capture the heart of Helen first. It was necessary before she could communicate with her mind and intellect.

Jesus wins our hearts first. Then in time, from imitating Him, our higher spiritual nature takes control of our lower, animal-like nature. That is when we begin to truly follow the law. Not from the letter, but from the heart. This isn’t because we have to, it is because we want to.

TRUE WISDOM

The person who manages to keep physical laws for spiritual reasons has gained true wisdom.

True wisdom is life changing.

Wisdom gives you the ability to live life on a higher, spiritual level instead of by lower animal instincts. We learn how to stretch up instead of falling down. The law keeps our head over our heels.

Elul is the month for those who wish to live in God’s true wisdom. It is a time for growth, development and restoration. 

LIVING THE SEASON

Since Elul is a season as well as a month, we will be discussing this month a bit more than we have discussed many of the other months.  There is so much to learn.   Look forward to many Elul topics and lessons as the new moon turns through its stages this month.

If you wish to own some daily meditations written from a Christian perspective, here is a link for purchasing a great book: https://amzn.to/4qefEbZ.  This is the Amazon.com link to purchase CHRISTIAN MEDITATIONS FOR ELUL by Gail Landgraf.  It is a daily devotional book that provides daily meditations for this season of Elul. All of the writing is from a Christian perspective of the season.

This is an interesting and encouraging time to be a child of God. There is much to think about. The IN SEASON Lifestyle wants to meditate on each and every relevant subject of the unfolding days of fall.  Why not follow along with our almost daily posts to expand your thoughts of this beautiful season of growth.

A SONG FOR THE SEASON

This season is an annual journey. It is similar to the flight patterns that birds take on their annual migration from one place to another. We need to gather strength as we go. In Elul God shows us something new each day. He feeds us from the nectar of heaven and replinishes our souls.

My friend, Sandi Herron, has written a song about hummingbirds and their daily journey through her garden. I think if you listen carefully you will find that these lyrics are perfect as we travel the journey of Elul 5786. If you wish to use Sandi’s song in your own ministry, just contact her. This is a song for sharing. You will love Sandi’s devotional story related to the song also. https://sandiherron.com/blog/forthejourney/.

We know that joy waits at the end of this season of observance. Each year we go through the season of Elul, so by Sukkot we find our joy is full. This fullness of joy always happens when we pay attention to the details and the little things along the way.  As we progress through time, God encourages us to grow daily. One destination leads to the next.

So, Let the journey of Elul begin!