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| (picture from: http://yourjerusalem.org/2010/09/let-the-sound-be-heard/ ) |
It is easy to over look significant meanings in the symbolic
teachings and language of the Old Testament. In Exodus 23:14 Three feasts are
to be kept each year. This verse
is short like a title page of a really large in-depth book. Luckily Lenet
Hadley Read wrote an article in the Ensign of what she studied about these
feasts and their significance to the Latter-day-saints today. Moses instituted
the laws and symbolic teachings in his day from the Lord. I’ll bet we don’t
have even a small portion of what he actually taught, just the highlights.
In my communications class we learn that language is symbols
that we use to express meanings. Words and phrases that mean a lot to me would
not mean a lot to another person. Eskimo’s have many words for snow, France has
many words for love, and Arabic nations have 6,000 terms for what American’s
call a camel. Of course in the United States we have many, many words for types
of cars. In my class we learned that what is important to that culture is given
more symbols or words to convey meanings.
As latter-day-saints there is much to learn about the
symbolic teachings from God. The very fact that we raise a statue of the angel
Moroni on all the temples is a very symbolic teaching and one that has it’s
roots in the things Moses taught the children of Israel from God. The same God
who talked to Moses has talked to Joseph Smith and of course many others.
These three feasts instituted by God were to teach the
Israelites about Jesus Christ’s mortal ministry and his latter-day ministries. Tenet Hadely Read is a much more knowledgeable teacher so here is the link to her article:
The Golden Plates and the Feast of Trumpets You don’t want to miss it.
Quotes from Read's article:
"The Hebrew name used today for the Feast of Trumpets is Rosh Hashanah, which is the Jewish New Year. But this was not its original name, though the day does signify a new beginning. One of its original names was the Day of Remembrance. This name arose because the Lord commanded Israel to blow trumpets on this day for remembrance.
According to tradition, it was on this day that the Israelites were remembered and freed from slavery in Egypt, prior to the completed Exodus. 10 Also, it was on this day that the Lord remembered Israel and granted them spiritual renewal after their return from captivity in Babylon. For it was on the first day of the seventh month that Ezra read from the book of the law, and the people rejoiced because he “gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (see Neh. 8:1–12).""
"This article will focus on the Feast of Trumpets. It is important to note that on 22 September 1827, the very day Israel celebrated the Feast of Trumpets, 5 Moroni gave the golden plates to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Since this feast was ripe with meaning for the theme of the regathering of Israel, it is unlikely this timing was accidental. Indeed, young Joseph was asked to meet Moroni for four years in preparation for that significant day in 1827."
