Post by Mark on Sept 15, 2009 4:11:23 GMT -8
The image given to teach us about the circumstances of the Festival of Trumpets is that the Most High God opens three books. The first book He opens is called the Book of Deeds. In this book is a list of everything you’ve ever done, good or bad, the commitments you’ve made and kept (or not), the ideas that have come into your mind. The second book is the Book of Death. In this book is written all the names that have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven. Finally, there is the Book of Life, in whose name is everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Death. There are a number of ideas given that establish what determines whose name is where and why. Yet, that’s not the focus of our discussion, nor even necessarily the reason that these books are suggested for our learning the significance of this worship.
The point is that we all have a past and we all have a future. Our names are written somewhere and God knows all there is to know about everything we’ve ever done.
Knowing that our entire existence is a gift by and from the mercy of our God, the question for us to consider is, "What are we going to do with this life that God has given us?"
Few believe these books of lists are actual, physical volumes that Adonai has op on His bookshelf. Few would suggest that the Book of Life and the Book of Death are pages with names penciled in or scratched out. It’s worth thinking in these terms, though, as we try to understand what’s going on for us these special days.
I love lists. As the father of (right now) nine children, the leader of a Messianic congregation that I am hoping to see grow, a writer, a musician, a business person and an active member of my community, I have a lot going on in my head. It’s hard to keep track of things, and many times ideas balloon into what is wildly unmanageable because I haven’t simply taken a moment to write down all this stuff and segregate it all into its proper places.
For Rosh Hashanah, we want to do the same thing with our lives: recognizing the successes and failures we’ve had the previous year and looking forward to what we would like to see happen in the year to come.
It is worth taking the time to right these things out. What has improved in my relationship with God this year? What has gone well? Where have things gone really wrong? Spend some time with these questions, prayerfully considering what in your list is most important to God.
Now consider the year to come. What sort of things in life do you want to accomplish this year? It’s normal to overspiritualize our religious ideas and separate them away from the mundane; but this is a time for truly being honest. What do you really want to do wit your life this year? This list will be edited and abbreviated to, added to and subtracted from over the course of the year- and the first time you do this exercise it is more chaotic than later.
Now take a moment and visualize this list from God’s perspective. We don’t look into the Book of Deeds to consider whether or not we belong in the Book of Life or the Book of Death. We look at the Book of Deeds and consider how our conduct reflects where it is that our names are written. Are the things I have planned for this year representative of one who is a citizen of the Kingdom?
A much smaller list, but equally important for us to consider is our epitaph, when all has been written, what are the things in this life that we would like to have stand out? What would we wish to have finally accomplished when we finally rest before Him?
well, be fruitful and multiply.
