Jews walk in circles
But it teaches us something about walking with God
As I’ve mentioned before, I am a Messianic Jew. Being Messianic means I see myself as a Jewish person, but I recognize Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus Christ in English) as my Lord and savior. As such, I try to maintain much of my Jewish heritage in my life. Jewish religious life revolves around a series of circular calendars that we attempt to follow.
The first circle is the weekly schedule of our lives. The week starts on Sunday and ends Friday night with the start of Shabbat. Shabbat is the weekly time God has ordained for us to rest in commemoration of his rest on the seventh day of the creation week. There are many traditions on how to rest, but the ultimate goal is to have time set aside to meditate on our relationship with God.
The next circle we walk is the yearly cycle. The Jewish calendar has 12 months and on a leap year 13 months. The calendar is called a lunar-solar calendar because it combines both lunar cycles and solar cycles. The lunar cycles define the monthly start and end dates, and the solar cycle defines when a leap year is needed to keep seasons aligned.
There are three main festival seasons. The spring festivals include Erev Pesach (Passover night), Pesach (unleavened bread), and Firstfruits. Fifty days later is the feast of Shavu’ot (Weeks or Pentecost). Finally, the fall feasts include Trumpets/Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur (Atonement), and Sukkot (booths).
Each of the festivals has traditions on what is done by the family. Our goal is to reinforce significant events in Israel’s history and reflect on how God saved His people.
In addition to the festivals, several other cyclical holidays fall on the calendar.
Rosh Chodesh, or the new moon, is a celebration of the new month. Purim, which commemorates Queen Esther and the saving of the Jewish people, is detailed in the book of Esther. Hannukah, which is described in the book of Maccabees and celebrates the cleansing of the Temple, plus many other days commemorate great and tragic dates in the nation of Israel. In addition to the festivals, many Jews follow a weekly reading schedule covering the Torah (first five books) in either a yearly or tri-annual cycle.
Finally, there is the seven-year cycle of Sabbaths (Leviticus 25:1-7) and a Jubilee year on the seventh seven-year cycle (50th year).
How does walking in circles help us in our walk with God? It sets aside specific times where we are to focus on God’s works in our lives. There are particular scripture references to read and meditate on, and we put aside our desires to spend time with God.
As a father of three young children (currently 9, 7, and 6), they constantly want to spend time with me. I’m sure there will come a time when friends and the general uncoolness of parents will diminish these requests for time, but having set times to commune with God (not just listen to a sermon). Still, studying, meditating on scripture, and thinking improves our time with God and gives us time to do the same with our family and pass on the joy of having a Heavenly Father who wants to spend time with us.
