Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.
Leviticus 23:24
Today is The Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah)! Halleluyah! This is a day of celebration and blowing of the trumpet. It is a reminder of the voice of the trumpet that blew at Mt. Sinai. It is the prophetic announcement of the coronation of the King of kings!
In addition to these things, it is a call to awaken the people of Israel. We have entered what are called the Awesome Days. In ten days it will be Yom Kippur, the most solemn day on the biblical calendar. Therefore, the call to awaken spiritually is a call to repentance. We have been seeking God through repentance for several weeks as a congregation, both personally and on behalf of our nation and world. However, we are not to relax this effort but to intensify it.
In light of this, please look over the following information put together by Andrew Eades as it will help us to understand what it means to repent.
Repentance in the Month of Elul Notes
Various types of sin defined:
- Sin/cheit/חָט means to ‘go astray’ or ‘miss the mark.’ The idea is that G-d’s Law and the teachings of Messiah are ‘the Way,’ so going astray or off path is, in fact, sin/cheit. Cheit can be unintentional, a crime, stumbling.
- Iniquity/peisha/פֶשַׁע is a sin done out of rebelliousness. A sin that is deliberate, a sin done on purpose, an action committed in deliberate defiance to G-d.
- Trespass/avon/עָוֹן is a sin done out of moral failing. Lust or an uncontrollable emotion is an avon. It is done knowingly, but not to defy G-d.
- Transgression/aveira/עבירה is the generic word for any kind of sin. It comes from the same root word as the Hebrew word for Hebrew, meaning to pass or cross over, with the implied meaning of transgressing from a moral boundary. An aveira sin can be a trivial or serious sin.
5 Steps of Repentance
- Recognition of your sins.
- Remorse for your sins.
- Abstaining from your sins.
- Restitution for damaged or stolen objects.
- Confession of your sins. “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance!” -Matt 3:8 (NKJV)
- True repentance is refraining from committing the same sin if the opportunity presents itself again.
“5 Steps of Repentance” is based on an article by R’ David Blumenthal “Spiraling Towards Repentance.”
