Jason Sobel. Aligning with God’s Appointed Times. RJS Publishing, 2020.
Aligning with God’s Appointed Times presents an overview of the main Jewish festivals from the perspective of a rabbi who believes in Jesus. It is different from and complementary to A Prophetic Calendar, a book we reviewed on the same subject. A Prophetic Calendar, as its title suggests, looks at the feasts more in terms of Bible prophecy. As we noted, it takes a somewhat controversial historical perspective.
Aligning with God’s Appointed Times covers the same holidays: Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost (Shavuot), Rosh Hashanah (Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Atonement), Sukkoth (Tabernacles), Chanukah, and Purim. Since Jewish holidays are based on lunar calendars, Sobel includes an appendix with the dates of each holiday for the years 2020 to 2030. The book also avoids most controversy.
Sobel’s main thesis is simple. The book is written for a Christian audience, Jew and Gentile, to explain each holiday and to encourage Christians to celebrate the holidays and, when appropriate, connect them to the corresponding Christian holiday (Passover with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter; Shavuot with Pentecost). A key argument or approach he makes is that most of the holidays are fun. Even the two more reflective and serious holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, are worth observing for both serious introspection and for a better appreciation of the atoning sacrifice of Yeshua (Jesus in English). My own experience with a Passover Seder was a great blessing as noted in my review of A Prophetic Calendar.
Another Jewish friend used to put up a shelter in his yard for Sukkoth. That was fun in a different sort of way. He would decorate his “tent” with things that reflected his personality. He explained that Sukkoth was idiosyncratic that way.
Each chapter on each individual holiday discusses the origin and commandments, if any, concerning the holiday. It explains why it is still significant to observe the festival. When relevant, it explains how Jesus celebrated the holiday. Each chapter ends with an outline of things the reader can do to celebrate the holiday. Most of those things come from the Bible and Jewish tradition and include physical objects (e.g. candles or noisemakers), songs, Scripture readings, and food.
Rabbi Sobel’s observations are profound in many cases but clear and uncomplicated. His observations on Purim were particularly interesting. Purim is not mentioned in the New Testament, and it comes from Esther, the one book in the entire Bible that never mentions God. He notes that even the casting of lots in this story was ultimately set up by God. People today will sometimes maintain that the universe came about through random events. Sobel notes:
Chance is the ultimate insult to purposeful design and intentionality. (184)
God has a plan. Though not as prophetically oriented as A Prophetic Calendar, Aligning with God’s Appointed Times still notes that God presides over His creation. He gave mankind free will (e.g., see Genesis 2:16 NIV or Psalm 115:16), but He has a plan. As Hamlet noted, “There is a divinity that shapes our ends/ Rough hew them how we will” (Hamlet 5.2.10-11).
Even though God is not mentioned in connection with either Esther or how Purim came to be celebrated, He is acting even if we cannot sense His hand.
When you cannot see the hand of God, you have to trust the heart of God. (190)
Haman descended from the king of the Amalekites, next to the Philistines the most strident enemy of Israel. He wanted to do away with all the Jews. That came from both a personal grudge and an inherited animus. But God has always promised to preserve at least a remnant of Jews because the Messiah of the whole world would come from them and because He honored Abraham.
Clearly there is a lot more, but each holiday has similar observations. Sobel’s main thesis about Gentile believers trying out the holidays is worth looking into. It’s not a requirement (see, for example, Acts 15:23-30 or Colossians 2:16) but it could be fun.