“On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets,
The seventh month of the year was a good month for the Jewish community. Not only is the number “seven” the number of perfection, the month is also, actually, the first month on the Jewish calendar. But, once in Egypt the Israelites adopted the Egyptian calendar and that meant their first month (New Year) was moved to the seventh month. Moses instructs them to have a “holy convocation” to the Lord. The assembly was supposed to meet to celebrate and worship the Lord. These ceremonial directives would, soon, become perfunctory obligations of the flesh, however, rather than from the heart. God would ask them to celebrate Him from their heart, but they would turn the worship into form religion vs seeking God in their heart. That is was the issue will all the commands God gave them about worship. It became form and not a heart-felt conviction to bring praise to God. This is why the priest had to come to God over and over. It was not until Jesus came and sacrificed once for all, to make the worship a part of the heart and not part of the structure of their lives (Hebrews 8-10). We should be careful, ourselves, to turn the worship into an exercise of flesh rather than spiritual worship from the heart. God commands us to bring out worship to Him from our hearts (Romans 12:1-2; Hebrews 12:26-27). That is what God wants from us. Not a form of worship with no heart for Him!
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