Intimations

I had a dream a few years ago about Yom Teruah, though I didn’t realize it was about Yom Teruah at the time. The day has special significance to me, and the past year has been bookended on this date, with a study of Hebrews kicking it off last year and a video earlier today that corroborated many things the Lord has taught me in the interim. My heart is filled with a quiet gratitude to Him this evening as Yom Teruah begins.

I am especially grateful for all of the things that the Lord has “quietly” taught me over the course of my life—intimations, which are a fascinating juxtaposition to the events one would typically associate with this day. I would write more about them here on my blog, but I think it wiser just to organize them and save them for a later date. For now, I will share just a few important verses, given the season, along with some questions and commentary that might provide some food for thought to anyone interested.

11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9, emphasis mine)

I think that what is being communicated through verses 13 and 14 goes overlooked more often than not. The words, “How much more,” in verse 14 imply an efficacy in the things listed in verse 13. Consequently, we should ask some follow-up questions: How does “the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh?” Do they, literally? You could argue that they do, but what if verse 13 is speaking symbolically? If it is, what do these things (bulls, goats, heifer, blood, ashes) symbolize? How would what they symbolize purify the flesh? What level of importance and efficacy must those things symbolized have to underscore the even more important and efficacious blood of Christ?

I think that these are important questions to ask. No doubt there are many more, and they can be asked at any time of year, but perhaps the upcoming days will help us draw our thoughts more particularly to the Fall Feasts and other sacrifices in the law of Moses to better understand God and his righteous ways.