03/29/2025 – “The End of the Scroll” / Shemini Atzeret, the Gathering of the Eighth day / “The scroll is finished, the story is ended, and the day, after the end, Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth Day, the day of forever, begins.”
Learn more after reading day 283, the fellowship between the teacher and the student..:
https://www.oneforisrael.org/holidays/shemini-atzeret-the-last-and-greatest-day-of-the-feast/
Let’s get started:
“He took me into the Chambers of Scrolls. There on the table was the scroll of the Torah rolled out to its end.
“Do you remember,” said the teacher, “what I told you about the mysterious day of the Hebrew year, Shemini Atzeret, the Gathering of the Eighth Day?”
“The last day of the sacred year, the day after the end… the day that represents the beginning of eternity.”
“Yes. And do you know what is done on that day? The Torah scroll, which has been continually unrolled and read on every Sabbath of the year, comes to its end. Then begins the sacred rolling back of all that has been unrolled the prophecies concerning the end of ages, you find the image of the scroll and the act of rolling it up. In Isaiah hit is written, ‘The heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll.’ And in the Book of Revelation, the same imagery reappears, ‘And the sky departed as a scroll when it is rolled up.’ And then at the end of Revelation concerning the end of the present order, it is written that before eternity, ‘earth and the heaven fled away.’ Heaven and earth depart; the old creation is gone. The scroll is finished, the story is ended, and the day, after the end, Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth Day, the day of forever, begins.”
The teacher paused to look down at the scroll.
“And do you know what is read at the end of the scroll before it is rolled up?”
“No”
“The last words written on this scroll are about the journey’s end. Moses goes up the mountain to catch his first glimpse of the Promised Land, to leave his earthly existence, and to be with God. And the Israelites finish their journey through the wilderness. So Shemini Atzeret speaks of the day when our journeying through the wilderness will end, the completion of our earthly existence, before we can enter into the new. And it reminds us that this life is not the destination, but the journey to the destination. So live your life and every moment of your life in light of that, in light of the end, in light of the day when the old will flee away, and of your first glimpse of that of which you had only dreamed…as the scroll is rolled up together.”
The Mission: What is it in your life that you must bring to an end in order to enter the new that God has for you? Roll up the scroll today.
Deuteronomy 34; Isaiah 34:4; Revelation 6:14; 20: 11; 22
The Alpha and the Omega Scroll
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Comment:
It would be hard to pick a single favorite in the category of “daily devotions”, but the “Book of Mysteries” would be right up there at the top for me. Check out the Amazon summary; I encourage y’all to order a copy. For me, I keep it by my bedside for the entire year.