From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture tells the story of God reclaiming what belongs to Him.
And at the center of that story stands something most believers have never been taught to see clearly:
God’s calendar.
But Teshuva does not permit us to stand across the street and critique the house.
If we belong to Yeshua, this is our house.
We began with our own location on the road of return. Last week we searched the inner rooms—the desires, defenses, words, idols, and explanations that can hide what is actually happening in the heart.
Now we cross the threshold.
Teshuva comes home.
Before examining our households, our congregations, Israel, or the nations, we stood where Adam stood and allowed God's question to become personal. Teshuva begins by telling the truth about where we are and then turning toward where God intended us to be.
Elul is the signal to turn our attention Godward, because His appointed times, His moedim (Lev 23:1-4), are close now. One practical expression of that focus: …
From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture tells the story of God reclaiming what belongs to Him.
And at the center of that story stands something most believers have never been taught to see clearly:
God’s calendar.
Around A.D. 160, a bishop in Sardis preached the oldest surviving sermon on the resurrection feast. No eggs. No bunnies. No seasonal sentimentality. Just this:
"I am your freedom. I am the Passover of your salvation. I am the lamb slaughtered for you. I am your ransom. I am your life. I am your light. I am your resurrection. I am your king."
From the beginning, God created humanity to bear His Name and fill the earth with His glory. Rebellion profaned it—from Eden to Babel to Israel’s failure.
Through Yeshua, the perfect Image, that Name is restored and exalted above all. The Gospel announces: God’s original purpose is fulfilled—His dwelling with us forever (Rev 21:3).
This is not merely the conclusion of a counting of the omer (Lev 23:15-16) ; it is the culmination of covenant. The Torah was given at Sinai on this same day, fifty days after Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. And now, the Spirit is given on the same day, fifty days after our Passover Lamb, Yeshua the Messiah, was raised from the dead.
The Genesis account is often read as an origins story. And that it is. As an origins story, it retells the ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian myths couched in the god stories of the ancients. It corrects those accounts and reveals the One God who has always been the primal cause but whose priority has been let to drift in the memory of His creation. His creation had written its own counterfeit stories. Even yet, these myth stories had echoes of truth that God would now re-reveal to His Israelite prodigies on their way to inherit a promise He had set for them from the beginning.