This story begins with my sweet friend, Betty. Who would have thought a simple suggestion could bring about such a profound shift in my journey…
“Have you ever heard of the ‘Daily Audio Bible’?”, Betty asked at one of our coffees. She said it had made a huge difference in her marriage. Listening to it had brought her closer to her husband and closer to Jesus. I hadn’t heard of it, so she showed me the app and got me started listening to the Bible being read to me each day – Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. Initially, I simply listened, but I soon grew frustrated as I could never hang on to/remember what I had heard. I began listening and reading along, and then found that confusing and soon switched to simply reading the Bible reading plan used on the app. From there, I began to read and take notes on what I read every day. The reading plan was structured so that the entire OT, the entire NT, all of the Psalms and all of the Proverbs were read annually.
Sometime during 2013, I began to experience something a bit strange. It seemed like each day (it wasn’t every day; it just felt that way!) I would read, “You shall keep My Sabbath holy.”, and each time it seemed like that specific sentence was in bold, highlighted, and it felt like it was jumping off the page. This happened for a couple of years, and the conviction grew ever stronger that I needed to learn just what God meant for me to do about this.
We moved to Montana in 2016. We were attending a church in Kalispell and the conviction about the Sabbath became intolerable. I needed to know why we worshiped on Sunday, and was no closer to figuring that out in 2017 than I was in 2013! I set an appointment with our pastor and asked him to explain it to me. He couldn’t. He told me to read an enormous book with lots of “three-bit” words (most of which I had to look up in the dictionary). The book did not use the Bible as its prooftext… instead it cited lots of theologians from various times in history. I met with him once again, and unsatisfied, met twice with the chief elder. Neither one could show me in the Bible any proof for why Sunday was the day of worship.
In the fall of 2018, I researched Sabbath keeping churches locally. I interviewed one man from a “messianic” gathering, but did not really like him. There was a Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church in a small town north of us and Ben and I attended on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Each Saturday this church had a potluck, and we stayed and were seated next to a lovely elderly woman. I told her I had lots of questions about the Sabbath and various other biblical issues. She was wonderfully kind and patient with me. I would ask my question. She would answer, “this is what I think about that issue, but let’s look in the Bible and see what it says about it.” Then she would direct me to various Scriptures and we would read them and talk about how they answered the question I had had. Then she would say, “I have told you what I believe, and have shown you Scriptures that answer that question, but you need to pray and ask God to show you the truth for yourself.” Over and over we did this…. She spent over 1 ½ hours with me going through my questions. It was a lovely experience.
We began attending both the Sunday church and the SDA church in Kalispell each weekend. The pastor and the chief elder of the Sunday church came to know that we were attending the SDA, and they counseled those in the congregation that we had relationships with to distance themselves from us and to stop meeting with us. The people at the SDA welcomed us during that year, and welcomed our questions. They quickly integrated us into their community… we felt very loved. Eventually, it became evident that we were being ostracized at the Sunday church, and we stopped attending there and only attended the SDA.
My habit of daily reading and studying the OT, NT, Psalms and Proverbs has continued. Two or three years ago, I began to be curious about the Feast Days of the LORD, and my curiosity increased and increased. It was all so complicated! When I began studying them, none of them made any sense. They are celebrated in accordance with the Hebrew calendar, which is based on the lunar cycles and the agricultural seasons.
Even the biblical weeks and days are different from what we now do. The biblical days of the week begin at sunset and go to the next sunset (Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,22,31) (”So the evening and the morning were the first day.”). And again the Sabbath comes up…. Genesis 2:2-3 “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
Many years ago as a new Christian, I was invited to a Passover Seder (the evening meal that begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread – the first feast of the biblical feast cycle). Truthfully, at that point it didn’t mean very much to me. Here in Montana, we were invited to a Passover Seder about 4 years ago, and slowly it has dawned on me the significance and importance of this special day/meal. As I have studied the Feasts – three in the Spring, one in the summer and three in the fall – I have come to see Jesus and the greater story of redemption as laid out in the Bible in a different way. I am amazed at our God! He truly does know the end from the beginning, and His plan is unfolding specifically and precisely as He ordained before the creation of the world.
The Spring feasts – Passover/the Day of Preparation, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits – were all fulfilled precisely and completely by our Messiah Jesus (His given Name is Yeshua which translated means “God, YHWH, is Salvation”). In the book of Exodus, the Israelites are told to bring the Passover lamb into their homes for testing and making sure it was perfect for four days (Nisan 10) before its slaughter on Passover (Nisan 14) in the middle of the afternoon. (Exodus 12:3-6). Yeshua/Jesus came into God’s “home”, Jerusalem, on Nissan 10 on a donkey four days before his crucifixion. In the Gospels, it is shown that He was tested over and over by the Pharisees and the Sadducees and others in power in the religious community for those four days. He was found to be without flaw or error. And just as the lambs were to be slaughtered before sundown on Nisan 14, Jesus was slaughtered and died just as the Passover lambs were being slaughtered at the temple in Jerusalem.
The Feast of Firstfruits occurred on Sunday in that year’s Spring feast cycle. Jesus fulfilled that feast as He was the firstfruits (the firstfruit of the harvest of souls) of the dead… (1 Corinthians 15:20). He was the first to be resurrected from the dead – and praise God! – there will be many who will also be resurrected from death because of what He has done…. a great harvest, for sure!
The Feast of Pentecost (Shauvot) is celebrated 50 days after Firstfruits. It was fulfilled 10 days after Jesus’ ascension to heaven with the mighty “harvest” of over 3000 people coming to salvation and the giving of the Holy Spirit… just as Jesus had promised (John 14:16-20).
The three spring feasts, and the summer feast of Pentecost were fulfilled perfectly the year when Yeshua was killed, raised from the dead and ascended to the Father.
I look forward with great anticipation to the time when King Jesus/Yeshua will fulfill the fall feasts: the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles with the glory and precision with which He fulfilled the spring Feasts. He has said that He will return to take us to be with Him. I wait in expectation of His fulfillment of all He has promised – in the way that is uniquely and gloriously His.
So this journey which began with a sweet friendship with Betty has blossomed into the gift of a great love for my God (whose Name is YHWH), and a passionate love and friendship with His Son, Yeshua of Nazareth. What an amazing gift Betty gave me as she set me on this path… a simple path taken each day in many small steps. I am so grateful.
