A friend, who is Jewish, once said that
the typical Jewish philosophy of life could be summed up this way;
“our enemies tried to kill us, G-d saved us, lets eat.” and it is
true.
Consider the book of Esther; the feast
of Purim came from a mighty deliverance of the Jewish people from
their enemies because of the faithfulness to G-d of the queen and her
uncle. Today it's celebrated with costumes, lots of adult beverage,
games and food.
G-d Himself even ordered the people
that when they are celebrating on their feast days that they are to
do it with much rejoicing.
Deut.12:7 There,
in the presence of the Lord
your
God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice
in
everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord
your
God has blessed you. See
also verses 12 and 18 along with chapters 16:11, 26:11 and my
personal favorite 14:26 which says; “Use
the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other
fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household
shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice.”
In
the world I grew up in wine and fermented drink were taboo and the
idea of “celebrating” or even showing much emotion in a service
was frowned upon, so Imagine my first time gathering with a Jewish
congregation in Rhode Island and having Vodka and lemonade( after the
service) with the Rabbi. It was quite an experience, that's where I
started to learn about “rejoicing” and celebrating G-d.
G-d
is into celebrations.
Continuing
with the theme of the “in those days” and the time of the messiah
there is a celebration coming that all of us will participate in and
I can guarantee that all will be rejoicing as well.
Isaiah
25:6-9 NIV
6
On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food
for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the
finest of wines. 7
On
this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations; 8
he
will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the
tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all
the earth. The Lord has spoken. 9 In that
day they will say, “Surely
this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the
Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his
salvation.”
This
is a celebration of all celebrations, this is telling us that G-d is
going to remove the “shroud” from all of us. What is this
“shroud”? It is the end of death! All of man kind, since the
beginning of time has been cursed with death, but at this feast G-d
will destroy death for all time! It gets better though he will even
bring back those that have died and remove death from them as well.
Hosea
13:14 JPS
“From
Sheol itself I will save them, Redeem them from very Death, Where, O
Death, are your plagues?Your pestilence where O Sheol....
Those
that have died before us will be returned to life and all death will
be removed forever! The curse of death will be gone, all of the
children of G-d will have their disgrace removed and all of us will
rejoice in the salvation ,from death, by G-d!
G-d
likes a celebration!
Shalom.
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