The Days of Teshuva, Part 3
So far, we’ve learned that the Days of Teshuva have begun and vaguely why they are at this time of year, and we’ve also learned what teshuva means. You may be able to see how Teshuva is similar to Lent. What I haven’t mentioned yet is that the days of teshuva are forty in number, just like Lent. One has to wonder, if the Days of Teshuva already exist, then why do most people celebrate Lent? I’ll get to that in a moment, but first I want to tell you about some observations and traditions about the 40 Days of Teshuva.
I know I’m starting to sound like the Oprah Winfrey show telling you to stick around, and then after the commercial, I’ll tell you the good stuff. My apologies, but that’s how my brain works. I have to get through some preliminaries to build up to the main topic in hopes of providing the information that will make this all make sense. So, here goes.
If you follow the days from the Exodus until the giving of the Law, it is said that the speaking of the Ten Commandments happened on the day of Pentecost, or Shavuot. At that time, the people feared the voice of YHWH and asked Moses to talk to God and then tell them what He said. So Moses spent forty days on the mountain receiving the Torah of YHWH and returned when YHWH told him that the people had made the golden calf. Afterward, Moses set up a tent of meeting where he would speak to YHWH face to face, until which time that YHWH told Moses to return to the mountain for another forty days where he would receive another set of tablets since Moses had broken the originals by throwing them at the people. This is where the 40 Days of Teshuva are believed to originate.
Let’s follow the timeline. Passover happens in the middle of the first month. Fifty days from First Fruits puts Shavuot in the second week of the third month. Sometime after this, Moses goes up the mountain for the first 40 day period, making his return around the end of the fourth month. Then he has to deal with the sin of the golden calf and sets up the Tent of Meeting. We don’t know for sure how long this period is, but it would put the timeline somewhere in the fifth month when Moses was called back up the mountain for the second forty-day stay. The Days of Teshuva begin on the first of the sixth month, so it is believed that Moses went back up the mountain at that time.
It’s important to note that at the end of the 40 Days of Teshuva, it’s the 10th of the seventh month, which is the Day of Atonement. Let me put this all in perspective, and give you a brief summary of the events in Exodus. The Israelites agreed to a covenant with YHWH and He begins to give them the Torah. They fear His voice and Moses goes up the mountain. They sin while Moses is away and now they need atonement for their sins. This is the point to catch in all of this. Moses returns to YHWH to receive the Torah again. Moses RETURNS to YHWH. Teshuva. And he received the paths of righteousness. Chapter 34 says that when Moses came down from the mountain, his face was shining brightly because he had been with God. Wouldn’t that be an awesome goal during the Days of Teshuva, to return to the Ways of the Father and have our faces shining so people could see the change in us. But that’s a sermon for another day.
There’s another tradition associated with these days, and that’s the temptation of the Messiah. It’s believed that the forty days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil coincided with the Days of Teshuva and that Yeshua returned on the Day of Atonement. Here’s an interesting connection with Moses’ time on the mountain. In the account of the first forty days, it doesn’t say anything about fasting, but in Exodus 34:28, it says that the second forty days were spent with YHWH and Moses ate no food nor drank any water. Matthew 4:2 says that Yeshua fasted for forty days and nights.
Now let’s look at how this compares to Lent. According to most sources, Lent is the forty days from Ash Wednesday to the day before Easter and is a time for repentance and fasting. Just like the Days of Teshuva, there are forty days, repentance, and there’s fasting similar to Moses and Yeshua. I’ve even heard it said that some believe the temptation of Christ took place at the same time as the days of Lent, leading up the Easter. It seems that Lent is a replacement for the Days of Teshuva. And it’s understandable why.
In both cases, the forty days of repentance and fasting lead up to the holiest day of the year. The holiest day of the year for the church is Easter, but the holiest day of the year on the Creator’s calendar is the Day of Atonement, also known as Yom Kippur. The question is, which calendar should we follow, the one created by man and the church or the one given to us by the Creator? The choice is yours.
Acts 4:19 “But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.” “