Special holiday reading for Shemini Atzeret on 22 Tisrei, 5764 - October 18, 2003 Shemini Atzeret: Holiday Torah reading Deuteronomy 14:22 to 16:17; Haftarah: 1 Kings 8:54 to 9:1; Brit Chadashah: Matthew 11:1-30


The Bagel: Rest and Rejoicing. Shemini Atzeret closes out the Sukkot season. Shouldn't there be a sense of rest and rejoicing? Shouldn't it be evident? Rejoicing follows true rest. Only when the rest that comes from G-d in the life does divine rejoicing follow. Sukkot is a harvest festival. Picture the journey to Jerusalem for the last pilgrimage for the year in the days of Solomon, Israel's wisest king. With great fanfare, the praises were offered to G-d. Why? Because the harvest was gathered in, there is celebration and thanks for another year of divine provision. You'd think after the intense labor to bring in the harvest, that the men folk would've been too tired to make the journey and to be engaged in such rapturous praise. Somehow G-d energized them and the great occasion of the completion of the First Temple was a moving force.

Solomon's benediction in the Haftarah reading indicates that the tradition of thanks continued in Israel: "After the festival was over, Solomon sent the people home. They blessed the king as they went, and they were all joyful and happy because the LORD had been good to his servant David and to his people Israel" (1 Kings 8:66 NLT). Not all were idolatrous and rebellious. But it was the largeness of the occasion that moved the nation into its G-d ordained role of bringing honor to G-d's name. This was Israel's finest hour. G-d was in her midst in the Temple and Solomon had rest from enemies that surrounded Israel.

The Greater Solomon, the Greater Temple, and the greater occasion is found in the person of Yeshua. The Brit Chadashah speaks of Him in the role of the provider of divine rest: "Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light'" (Matthew 11:28-30 NLT). It naturally follows that when we unload the heavy weight of sin and guilt upon Jesus that the labor of it is gone. It is replaced by easy weight of His new life in us,so that we rejoice with a profound joy, indeed, a divine joy.

Cream Cheese: Those who trust in Jesus rest assured!


Special holiday reading for Shemini Atzeret on 22 Tisrei, 5764 - October 18, 2003 Shemini Atzeret: Holiday Torah reading Deuteronomy 14:22 to 16:17; Haftarah: 1 Kings 8:54 to 9:1; Brit Chadashah: Matthew 11:1-30