Rosh Hashana – The Binding of Isaac
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Rosh Hashana and the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22)
As we come to the High Holy Days, beginning with Rosh Hashana leading us up to Yom Kippur, I find that these Festivals of the Lord contain a fresh message, year after year, to challenge my faith and my walk with God. These festivals are rich in their significance for our lives and their lessons are still relevant thousands of years after they were instituted.
One of the great themes of Rosh Hashana is that of God’s kingship and many of the prayers that Jewish people will say are a proclamation of God’s Kingship over creation; as we pray, we affirm that we accept His divine rule over our lives. They are our declaration that we are His people and are committed to walking in His ways and keeping His statutes.
According to Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashana is the anniversary of the creation and is also seen as the beginning of God’s rule as King. As such it is considered to be the anniversary of God’s reign over the earth. This is because until Adam was created there was nothing in creation that had the capacity to acknowledge who God is and worship Him. Adam, then, is said to be the first royal subject.
Often, as believers in Yeshua, who are committed to His teachings, we readily embrace His demonstration of love and rejoice that we are invited to call God ‘Abba’, a term of such warm endearment. We learn to feel safe in His love and acceptance; sure in the knowledge of His open arms and the ready forgiveness of our sins. Therefore, Rosh Hashana comes to challenge us.
It challenges our relationship with God and brings into focus who God is. We are reminded that our loving Heavenly Father is also King over all the earth, One who calls for our allegiance and obedience. Rosh Hashana is a reminder that this King is also the Judge before whom all creation will one day stand and before whom all will bow and confess Yeshua as Lord. It is a reminder that we serve this King of Kings; it is a time to consider not what He has done for us but to look at ourselves and ask are we serving Him as we should?
Rosh Hashana begins the 10 Days of Awe, sometimes called the 10 Days of Repentance, and I have often seen this as a good time for a spiritual MOT. Many Jewish people will perform Cheshbon, which is a kind of spiritual accounting. Its intent is to help people stand back and take an honest look at their lives because Jewish people believe that on Rosh Hashana they stand before God asking to be renewed.
When people think of Rosh Hashana one of the things that immediately comes to mind is the blowing of the Shofar. The shofar is blown both as a call to repentance and to inspire us to repent. Its sound proclaims God’s Kingship and this proclamation is considered to be part of the repentance process as we acknowledge Him.
In thinking about how we serve the King of Kings, I am reminded of an article I read recently by a friend of mine and the way it brought a fresh perspective to a story that is read every year on Rosh Hashana – the story of the Akeda – The Binding of Isaac. The focus is so often on Abraham, for whom his son Isaac was the fulfilment of his hopes and dreams and for Abraham the very promise of God:
I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. Genesis 17:6-7
So when God asks him to sacrifice Isaac, it is no small thing and God acknowledges in his request Abraham’s love for his son. And so we point to Abraham’s faith that God would provide a sacrifice or perhaps even restore Isaac to life, but there is more. For Abraham it was the laying down of all his hopes and dreams on that altar; it was the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate act of obedience. And, as we know so well, God did indeed provide the ram. But Abraham was tested in the deepest place of his heart and it touched what he considered to be most precious and dearest to him and now the question is asked of us: are we willing like Abraham to lay down our hopes and dreams, even our plans, to do the will of God?
But let’s look for a moment at an aspect of Isaac often overlooked in this story: that of the beloved son who accompanies his father to Mount Moriah, to make a sacrifice to the Lord. There is much debate about Isaac’s age at this point. Some say he is a youngster, others around thirteen approaching his manhood, and some Jewish sources like Josephus and the Targums have him anywhere from his mid-twenties to mid-thirties. What is clear though is that he is old enough and strong enough to carry the wood for the sacrifice, which his father Abraham lays on his back. He is also old enough to ask the question: where is the sacrifice? Yet here is where we so often miss the point that he too was obedient. He didn’t struggle, he willingly allowed Abraham to bind him and lay him on the altar. He too had faith, obedient faith.
His story so clearly points us to Yeshua who also carried the wood for his sacrifice, who willingly went as the Lamb of God to lay down His life for us. In the Akeda, we see in Isaac the story of an obedient son, a prophetic foreshadowing of the obedient Son of God, Yeshua.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:8
And so Isaac challenges us in the area of personal obedience. Obedience is an uncomfortable word; it conjures up for us ideas: such as the loss of freedom or of restrictions imposed on us. People rewrite their marriage vows to avoid the old fashioned promise of a wife to obey her husband. Yet obedience is a quality in us that God considers to be both valuable and prized. Samuel understood this when he spoke the following:
Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22
The Latin root of the word ‘obey’ carries the idea of listening or of hearing and, for us, too, obedience is the fruit of reading God’s Word and hearing His voice speak to us through it. Obedience is the true hallmark of serving God. It is when we choose to agree with God’s Word and live our life according to its requirements, when we choose to live God’s way not our way.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness.” Hebrews 3:7-8
Shana Tova, a Happy New year to you! May we all be people who know the joy of God’s presence in our lives as we seek to do His will and, in so doing, may we bring joy to the heart of our Father God, our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
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