Rosh Hashanah 2021

Me

Shanah Tovah Mishpacha!!! How awesome is it to be gathered last night and today to hear the sounding of the Shofar? The sound is amazing, it is awe-inspiring, and it is soul-gripping. As we here the sound of the Shofar today may it be a beacon of hope of what awaits us with Messiah’s return and a calling to T’shuvah that our hearts be ready whenever that day and hour which no man knows arrives.

A couple of years ago Danielle and I decided to get her a new car. I had seen a post online a few monks ago with an article about Toyota Camries, in particular about this one on display at a dealership in Phoenix. One of their salesman took a dealer car out to the airport to pick up a client, on the way back to the dealership the Camry he was driving ended up in an accident where it was sandwich between two semi-trucks, one in front one in rear. The engine bay and the trunk were complete demolished, yet the cab of the car itself was pretty much fully in tact and the passengers came out virtually unscathed with exception of a few scratches.

So, when it came time to get Dani a new car she said she wanted to move down from a mini-van to a sedan and I told her I wanted to get a Toyota Camyr because of that article. Now, we’ve never owned a brand new vehicle. We both come from families that didn’t have a lot of money and neither of our families had brand new cars when we were growing up. So we were pretty excited about it, and we ended up getting a really good deal on it too.

Because it was brand new and Dani was absolutely in love with it we wanted to baby it, protect it, and take really good care of it. We maybe had the car for a month or two when, if memory serves, the car was in the parking lot of the synagogue one day. Natanel, as most kids at that time, was obsessed with bottle flipping—this absolutely annoying effort to take a half-full bottle of water (or whatever other beverage) and holding from the top flip it and try to get it to land upright on a surface. He had a 32oz gatorade bottle that was still pretty full and was in the parking lot near Dani’s new car trying to flip this stupid bottle...

Well, you can probably kind of guess where this is going… He tosses the bottle one time and it completely gets away from him and hits the rear passenger door of Dani’s new car like a sledge hammer (my perspective, not necessarily reality). It ends up putting a pretty good dent in the door that stands out like a sore thumb to both Dani and I, and in the moment made us pretty upset. Partially because I have asked him a thousand times not to flip bottles because it’s annoying, and partly because it was our brand new car we had been trying to baby.

To date we haven’t gotten the dent popped back out yet, although we want to, so it sits there as a periodic reminder of the incident. And even though we have forgiven Natanel the dent is still there and we can still see it. It’s been a couple of years now, but we are still sometimes reminded of the mistake, we will make a silent annoyed eye roll, and move on… But, the reminder is still there that we now own potentially one of the safest cars on the market that we absolutely love, but its now got a little bit of a flaw to it.

We

Do you know what this feels like? Not necessarily the new car getting dented for no good reason, but the reality that there’s a mistake that’s been made and no matter how much you try to forget it there’s always a reminder in front of you…

Maybe it is something you children did…

Or perhaps something you parents did…

Or something your spouse did…

Maybe it was some sort of crazy mistake you made that you’ve forgiven yourself for but have a constant reminder of…

God

One of my absolute favorite parts of the traditional Rosh Hashanah observance is the Tashlich ceremony. This something I grew up with as a kid in our synagogue… We’d all go out to the home of one of the families in the synagogue who lived on Dog River. We’d gather on the deck of their boat house over the river and we’d participate in a Tashlich service. It has always been such a beautiful picture of the grace and love of God for us. And it has been a part of our observance of Rosh Hashanah at Mayim Chayim for about as long as the congregation has been in existence, and we’ll be participating in it in a few hours.

Some of you may be new to Messianic Judaism and have no clue what in the world I am talking about when mentioning Tashlich. Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, which are Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur. This is a season of repentance, of deep introspection and self-evaluation in Judaism, a season where we are asking the Lord to draw to our hearts and minds anything we need to repent of, anything which may be hindering our spiritual lives and walks, and we go through the process of repentance.

Tashlich is a ceremony held at a natural body of water on Rosh Hashanah interacting with this very reality. We stand at the waters edge or on a pier or something over the water, there’s a bit of prayer and recitation, we spend a few moments in deep self-reflection, prayer, worship, and repentance, and then we cast off (which is the meaning of the word Tashlich) bread crumbs or small rocks in to the water and watch them be taken off by the water.

This is a means of interacting with the promise found in Micah 7:18-20.

And there’s a powerful principle I believe we are suppose to walk away from when reading this passage of Scripture...

No sin we can ever commit is too big or too small for our God to forgive and to wash clean…

(Repeat)

So let’s dig into this passage a little together today…

Micah 7:18–20 TLV

Who is a God like You pardoning iniquity, overlooking transgression, for the remnant of His heritage? He will not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities, and You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will extend truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, that You swore to our ancestors from the days of old.

So a little background context for you on the book of Micah. Micah was a prophet to the Southern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah. His was a contemporary of guys like Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea and he was in ministry during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. If you remember, Jotham and Ahaz were not even remotely able to be considered righteous kings, they led Judah astray in some pretty terrible ways. They were both very much wrapped up in Idolatry, even to the point of walking their sons through the fires of Molech.

But, as is the case with the kings of Israel and Judah, there would be a series of kings who would be evil in the eyes of the Lord, then we’d have a king who was righteous who would rule for a while and sort of recalibrate the nation’s walk with the Lord. Hezekiah was that guy…

But, Micah’s prophecy as a whole was one of condemnation for Israel and Judah’s many failures and for their idolatry. He speaks of judgement and destruction, he is prophesying of what would become the Babylonian destruction at a time when the minds of Judah would be on the fact that the Northern Kingdom had already been invaded and carted off by the Assyrians.

But, as is the case with pretty much every biblical prophet that speaks judgement and condemnation over Israel, Micah also has a powerful promise of redemption and restoration for Judah as well. He is warning that judgement and destruction will be coming, but that the Lord will not forget His people, He will not forsake them. He will one day bring them back to Himself, reestablish them and forgive their iniquities.

In fact, if you go back and read Micah 7 in its entirety you’ll notice there are a few key pieces in the flow:

Verses 1-7 are a lament over the sins and destruction of Judah;

Then verses 8-20 is a series of prophetic liturgy with four components. 8-10 is a psalm of trust and repentance. 11-13 is a promise of restoration. 14-17 is a prayer to and response from the Lord. And 18-20 is a hymn of praise to God, a recognition of the redemption and salvation He has promised.

Remember, as these words are being spoken to Judah by Micah the nation has had many years of being led astray, followed by a patch of righteousness, which gave way to even worse sinfulness, and the cycle had just continued like that since Solomon died. The northern kingdom being destroyed should have been a wake-up call of Judah, but Judah continued to slide down the slippery slope like it was carnival ride...

But here’s the beauty of it all, even in the darkest times when Israel and Judah were at their worst and God was ready to wipe us out of the Land there was always a promise of redemption, restoration, renewal, and forgiveness. And in Micah 7 we see one of the most powerful promises of forgiveness in all of Scripture. But it is also a powerful example of what T’shuvah should look like.

Micah 7:18–20 TLV

Who is a God like You pardoning iniquity, overlooking transgression, for the remnant of His heritage? He will not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities, and You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will extend truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, that You swore to our ancestors from the days of old.

At the point in time that these word were written down the last think that the Kingdom of Judah deserved was for God to forgive their iniquities and pardon their sins. But listen to the heart felt worship and recognition of these words, the hope of forgiveness even when it was not deserved...

Micah 7:18 TLV

Who is a God like You pardoning iniquity, overlooking transgression, for the remnant of His heritage? He will not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.

I love my son… I love him more than I could ever put into words… But, I was angry when he put a dent in our brand new car with a flipping Gatorade bottle (pun intended)… I was angry that no matter how many times I tell him not to flip bottles he still did it… (In fact, I had to get onto him last night for flipping a water bottle in the synagogue…) And it wasn’t just that he did what I asked him not to do, it was that his doing what I asked him not to do caused damage to the car. And yes, the car is inanimate, the car is just an object, the car is just a practical means of transportation… I get it all, but I was still upset.

But, after I got on to him, after we had an uncomfortable conversation (and if I’m honest I definitely lost my cool with him and yelled at him when I shouldn’t have) I did forgive him, we gave him a big hug and told him how much we loved him, we had a level-headed conversation about why what he did was wrong and the damage it left behind, and then we moved on. Unfortunately the dent is still there as a reminder…

But, in the same way, when we repent, when we make T’shuvah and return back to our Heavenly Father through the Blood Atonement of Yeshua, despite what we may deserve for our sins, He does in fact pardon our iniquities and overlooks our transgressions, and He will not retain His anger with us forever because He delights in mercy.

But the promise doesn’t end there...

Micah 7:19 TLV

He will again have compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities, and You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

No sin we can ever commit is too big or too small for our God to forgive and to wash clean…

When we participate in Tashlich we get the opportunity to interact personally with this spiritual promise in a tangible way. We have perfect faith that as believers in Messiah our sins are forgiven and washed away, but when we get to cast the bread or pebbles into the water and watch them vanish before our eyes, it’s a powerful object lesson of the love and forgiveness HaShem has for us. And it is for this very reason that He gave us Messiah Yeshua to cleanse us of all our sins.

This promise of forgiveness of sin is a promise of a complete removal, a washing clean, or as the KJV words it—the remission of sin—is fulfilled in the Blood Atonement found in Yeshua. At His final Seder with His talmidim as He was preparing to offer His life for ours, Yeshua declares:

Matthew 26:27–28 TLV

And He took a cup; and after giving thanks, He gave to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the removal of sins.

On Shavuot in Acts 2 when the crowds witnessed the Ruach HaKodesh poured out upon the Talmidim and saw the manifest Presence of God at work in His people Peter preached and the crowds cried out:

Acts 2:37–39 TLV

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the emissaries, “Fellow brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be immersed in the name of Messiah Yeshua for the removal of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Ruach ha-Kodesh. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away—as many as Adonai our God calls to Himself.”

And again in Acts 10 when Peter is preaching to Cornelius’ household he boldly proclaims

Acts 10:43 TLV

All the prophets testify about Him—that everyone who puts his trust in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”

And John proclaims in 1 John:

1 John 1:8–2:2 TLV

If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. My children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Intercessor with the Father—the righteous Messiah Yeshua. He is the atonement for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.

The Blood Atonement of Yeshua is the key to forgiveness of sin… It is the key to the fulfillment of the promise in Micah 7… Repentance is the beginning of the process, but the removal of the sins is vital.

I often describe it like this… We have this brand new building we are worshipping in today, and in it we have this new carpet on the Bimah. The carpet is nice, the color works well with the paint on the walls and kind of ties everything together. If while doing Kiddush I were to spill my cup of wine on this new carpet on accident doing something stupid Lynn would be pretty ticked off at me for staining the new carpet. If I then went to Lynn and apologized for staining the carpet and asked for his forgiveness (repentance), he would forgive me. But, every time he’d walk on the Bimah for worship he’d see that stain and be reminded of the incident. But, if I paid to have the carpet cleaned and that stain removed completely, now there is no longer any reminder of my mistake, there is no longer any stain to step over. So I would not only have Lynn’s forgiveness, but there would also no longer be any reminder of my mistake.

And take it from me, I see that dent in the car door pretty regularly… The reminders can be annoying and when I get annoyed about it I have to forgive all over again, whether Natanel realizes it or not…

But, when Yeshua offered His life on that cross He paid the price to have the carpets of our hearts cleaned. Not only was I responsible for my sins and errors, not only did I make T’shuvah, but my sins are washed clean by Yeshua and I didn’t have to pay for the carpet to be cleaned!!!

Yeshua paid the price so that we could experience not only forgiveness but also the complete removal of our sins. It is a gift freely given to all who would call upon His Name.

As the lyrics we sang earlier during worship in the song “Greater Than” said—

No guilt, no shame, no sin, no stain Is greater than the great I AM No fear, no grave, no other name Is greater than the great I AM

No sin we can ever commit is too big or too small for our God to forgive and to wash clean…

You

Are there areas of sin in your life that you need not just forgiveness but complete removal?

Are there places in your life where you feel like the carpet is stained too much for cleansing?

Trust that in the Blood of Messiah no stain is too much, no sin is too terrible, no mistake is so horrendous that the Blood of Messiah cannot cleanse it and wash your heart and life white as snow.

He loves you, you are created in His image and likeness, and He has already paid the price for all of your sins, it is now time to make T’shuvah and trust in His forgiveness and removal of sins.

We

If our worship team will make their way back up to the stage.

As we continue to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and as a congregation as we are preparing for Tashlich, I want to encourage us all to take a deep look into our hearts and ask the Lord to reveal any issues we need to submit to Him. But, even more important, let us as followers of Messiah Yeshua trust in the fact that He has and will forgive and remove our sins. The cost of cleansing has already been paid on our behalf and the balance to cover all future sins will never run dry.

Let us cling to the power of these words from Micah 7…

Micah 7:18–19 TLV

Who is a God like You pardoning iniquity, overlooking transgression, for the remnant of His heritage? He will not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities, and You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

And also hold to the power of the imagery Paul uses in Romans 8…

Romans 8:38–39 TLV

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

No sin we can ever commit is too big or too small for our God to forgive and to wash clean…

Let’s spend a few moments in worship and let’s seek Adonai’s Face together, as we worship let us search out our own hearts and lives and find freedom from sin in Messiah Yeshua.