(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)
I want to imitate Him and do the same things that He did when He walked the earth.
I also believe all Christians are called to keep the calendar that God chose to set in motion from the beginning of time, and I know His chosen people have been diligent to keep these days He has faithfully set aside for generations and generations! A new season is approaching; one of my favorite times. It is the Hebraic month of Elul. What a special time it is!
If God created it, I’m all for it. No more decisions for me to make here. This decision was not based on MY intelligence, but the Mind of God, which puts my little feeble brain to shame. I can rest in the fact that His ways are higher than my ways and His decisions for my life and the seasons of my life are so much better than mine. I accept what I know is from the mind of God and try to be “mindful” of these things in my daily life, not out of a sense of duty or dread, but out of a sense of love and obedience and honor. I do not observe for the sake of keep rules; but for the sake of loving God.
I do not judge those who do not believe this. I hope that they do not judge me. The bible tells us that we must all work out our salvation. Everyone must answer to God for the truth that He has revealed to them.
As for me and my house, I love all the things that My Father teaches me throughout the year with His special occasions called feasts and festivals. Since I've loved keeping these days for many years now, I can’t imagine life otherwise! There is a richness in following the scriptures through these days; a deep richness that cannot be described in words; something that cannot be found anywhere else in life's journey through the years.
I do not judge those who do not believe this. I hope that they do not judge me. The bible tells us that we must all work out our salvation. Everyone must answer to God for the truth that He has revealed to them.
As for me and my house, I love all the things that My Father teaches me throughout the year with His special occasions called feasts and festivals. Since I've loved keeping these days for many years now, I can’t imagine life otherwise! There is a richness in following the scriptures through these days; a deep richness that cannot be described in words; something that cannot be found anywhere else in life's journey through the years.
Happily, at the end of August, I will be paying attention to the turning of the pages of the calendar. I actually went for many years without observing Elul, and I never want to miss another time period.
The month of Elul on the Jewish calendar is at the end of the Jewish year. It usually falls sometime around America’s August and September months. This year (2016) Elul starts on September 4th. Elul lasts for 40 days. It has jokingly been called "Jewish Lent" in that many of the customs are similar in nature.
If you pay attention you quickly note that these are very specials days. I always try to enjoy a special meditation for each day durin Elul. This season highlights God's grace so beautifully. I take comfort and peace in hearing the truth of the ancient teachings in relation to His grace. The truth comes out and paints such a beautiful canvas of amazing theology during this season. It is a theology of a loving, merciful and forgiving God.
You can trace Elul all the way back to the time of Moses, to the first year that the Jewish people left Egypt. It was only seven weeks after they had crossed the Red Sea and made a covenant with God to be His people forever that they violated this covenant, and sinned by worshiping a golden calf in the desert. Moses saw this terrible sin taking place when he returned with the 10 Commandments that God had personally inscribed on stone with His Own finger. In frustration Moses smashed these first stone tablets when he saw what was going on in the camp. After he had corrected the ways of the people, Moses went back up on the Mountain to plead with God and to ask for mercy. It took another 40 days until He received another set of the commandments. This time God made Moses write them down. I always wondered if this was God’s way of making Moses memorize them. Have you ever had your child write down things on paper that they could not seem to remember? Well, this time God dictated the law to Moses, and Moses inscribed them himself on the stone. It must have taken a lot of time and a lot of hard work. What comes easy to us is sometimes easy to forget. When we have to work hard for something, we are usually more diligent to maintain what we've worked for.
While Moses was on the mountain with God during these
40 days, he was allowed to glimpse at God’s back. God also taught Moses the 13 attributes of mercy while he was there. It occurs to me that mercy and forgiveness take more effort than simply doing things right in the first place. God only gave 10 summarized commandments, yet he gave 13 summarized ways to forgive and have mercy. Interesting set of numbers.
Moses remained on the Mountain learning from God from the 1st of Elul until the 10th of Tishri on the Jewish calendar. Today we are still benefiting from the blessings that God bestowed on Moses on that mountain! One of those blessings was that we are now taught to love and forgive one another. We have the 10 ways to show love written down in writing, and when we mess up and forget them, we have 13 ways to show mercy, compassion and forgiveness. This not only reconciles us to one another, it also reconciles us to God.
So it is that the time of Elul has become known for beginning the time of the year for remembering to meditate on obtaining God’s whole-hearted mercy and forgiveness. Sometimes this also involves obtaining the whole-hearted mercy and forgiveness of those around us. Of course, it goes without saying that we should be doing these acts all through the year, not just during the season of Elul. It is just that if we get too busy and forget, Elul was designed to give us a deliberate focus on the subject, least we forget. It was and still is a time of people being reconciled with God as well as one another.
I find it interesting to note that this was put on the Jewish calendar right before their year ended. It was sort of like saying, “I know you’ve made mistakes this year, so let’s work them out before we close the year.” How wonderful it is to know that God has set aside a special time for showing divine mercy and forgiveness. I can see some similarities that tie in with the Catholic Feast of Divine Mercy on this day. The Roman Catholics however, celebrate this day sometime in April, a totally different season, but a very similar subject. I prefer ending the year with divine mercy and starting the new year with a clean fresh slate, but in a perfect world we would have need of neither because we would all be mindful of what we do EVERY day, and be constantly seeking God’s mercy immediately after we made mistakes or sinned. At least this is a reminder for those things that we have forgotten to stop and meditate and pray about all year long.
It is said that this is a time to pause. When I put my DVD player on pause, I find myself stopping to think about the part of the movie that just played out. That is how Elul is, we are pausing to think of the part of the year that has just played out in our lives. When I hit that button again, the movie moves forward. When we pause for Elul, we are better able to move forward into the new year before us. We all need to be forced to pause and reflect often. Life is too important to be just another random accident in time. We must value the time we have and treasure the gift of life and not treat it lightly.
It is said that this is a time to pause. When I put my DVD player on pause, I find myself stopping to think about the part of the movie that just played out. That is how Elul is, we are pausing to think of the part of the year that has just played out in our lives. When I hit that button again, the movie moves forward. When we pause for Elul, we are better able to move forward into the new year before us. We all need to be forced to pause and reflect often. Life is too important to be just another random accident in time. We must value the time we have and treasure the gift of life and not treat it lightly.
To get the full meaning of the period of time called Elul, you must look at both the beginning and the end of this interesting season and see the whole picture. As mentioned above, the beginning is symbolic of Moses on the mountain for 40 days receiving God’s forgiveness and mercy for the people’s sins and reconciling the nation back to God. At the end of the period of time called Elul there are 10 very important days. The first day of those 10 is called Rosh Hashanah, which lasts for 2 days actually (although counted as one long day.) Among many other things, Rosh Hashanah is known as a time for renewing, for waking up, for paying attention, for getting prepared and ready for new things. The next 7 days after take us past Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, the day that is so symbolic of Jesus’ precious blood bringing atonement for our sins. The Jewish people know and understand the need for and the significance of atonement. They spend time at the end of each year praying for mercy and forgiveness during these 10 days leading up to Yom Kippur, also called The Day of Atonement. The purpose is to be reconciled with God, or At-one-ment, or being at-one with God, joining ourselves to Him through His loving kindness of mercy and forgiveness of our sins.
What could be more beautiful? I never want to miss these days. There are so many lessons to grasp here in this wonderful season.
So please join me in being mindful of the fact that the last days of summer and the first days of fall are taking us into the season of Elul, a time of careful examination, and a time to prepare for the High Holy Day of Yom Kippur, which I do as a Christian keeping the commandments from the Christian Bible and The One Holy God. There are some wonderful meditations ahead. I hope you enjoy them this year in the season as we leave summer and journey toward fall together.
