Understanding Prophecy

It’s a strange circumstance we find ourselves where most of Christianity yearns to understand prophecy but simultaneously rejects the Torah, which provides the outline of prophecy. This message is about the Holy Days of Leviticus 23 and how they show us the pattern for interpreting prophecy. Please join me as I explain how many of the answers we seek about the future and the afterlife are hidden in plain sight if you just know where to look!

Video with slides above through Rumble. Audio only below through Spotify.

The Sabbath

Slide 2 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. For six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of YHVH your Elohim; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your cattle, or your resident who stays with you. For in six days YHVH made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; for that reason YHVH blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exo 20:8-11)

The Sabbath is one of the things that starts brining a person into this walk. It’s the chief sign of Yahweh’s people, resting every 7^th day and actually on the 7^th day. He did this on the 7^th day of Creation and it has been kept and known since. This is where the rubber meets the road – behavior. Our walk, our conversion, has to be accompanied by works. There is no other way to gauge a person than by works. Reciting creeds and academic study are fine, but you know a person by their deeds. When someone changes their lifestyle to obey this commandment, they undergo a change. They start to realize how far society is removed from what was intended.

The Sabbath starts the second cycle of the bible. The first is the cycle of a day. And evening and a morning is one day. The cycle is somewhere very near 24 hours but changes as the earth runs its elliptical orbit around the sun. The weekly sabbath shows us shaping our lives to conform to the example our Creator laid out at Creation. It’s the first “shall” commandment, meaning to do and remember. We do not work, make others work, do commerce, or work animals on this day so everyone gets the chance to rest.

Slide 3 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. (2Pe 3:8)

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he took hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. (Rev 20:1-3)

Many of us put these two verses together with the Sabbath (and the Sabbatical year) to come up with the Sabbath being a foreshadowing of the millennium where mankind gets a 1000 year rest from Satan. As you recall from previous messages, we use the different levels of scripture to say the Sabbath is literal, but it is also a metaphor, and hints at a deeper meaning. The deeper meaning being that this world has roughly 6000 years to fulfill its mission, whatever that mission may be, and then 1000 years for a respite.

Slide 4 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; (Rev 21:22-25)

At the end of the 1000 years, the universe is remade, and we no longer have night. That also bolsters our view because this would be the end of Sabbath keeping because there will be no more daily cycle for us to accumulate 6 days of work and a seventh of rest.

Passover

Slide 5 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Messiah our Passover also has been sacrificed. (1Co 5:7)

I have a message devoted to this topic in it’s entirety called The Four Cups of Passover. I recommend digging into that one because the spring holy days are our proof for applying prophecy to the holy days at all!

The holy days of Leviticus 23 are literal. Remember, as we dig deeper, we have to let the literal remain literal. The Sabbath is the first day mentioned in Leviticus 23 but then it goes on to the Passover. Exodus 12 outlines of the first Passover. On the 10^th day of the first month, Israel was to select a one year old lamb for each household. On the 14^th day of the first month, at sunset, they were to slay this lamb and then drain the blood and cover their doorposts with the blood. Then the household had to stay indoors overnight, and YHVH passed over the homes with blood on the doorposts, but slayed the firstborn son of all the homes that did not complete this ritual. This literally happened, then Israel did it again one year later at the base of Mount Sinai as a memorial. Then they did not observe Passover again until they crossed the Jordan, 39 years later. Once they entered the land, the observance was to be a pilgrimage observance where all the lambs had to be slain at the place YHVH placed His Name, meaning the tent of meaning or later the temple.

There is much meaning here. The part about Messiah being our Passover is the chief. It’s the chief doctrine for all mankind, that Yeshua became the Lamb of God. This was foreshadowed when Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac, his chosen son, and Abraham was faithful enough to do it. At the last second, YHVH swapped out a ram, which is equivalent to a lamb. The lambs slain in Exodus 12 were a call back to Abraham and Isaac, that YHVH was willing to even sacrifice His first born Son to redeem His people. Then Yeshua was sent to earth and voluntarily died, like a lamb led to the slaughter, to offer innocent blood to cover the sins of all who accept this truth.

Another meaning I want to touch on with Passover is that it is an observance that we know is coming. We get to plan it out. Even in Exodus 12, Moses told the people well in advance to prepare for the last plague. The holy days show us that Yahweh is giving everyone a chance to prepare for judgment day. There is a plan in plain sight, in every Bible on earth, showing that Yahweh has a 6000 year plan in motion. The Passover shows us that we can prepare and need to, lest we get left out with the weeping and gnashing of teeth. The meaning of Passover is known to almost all Messiahians, the Yeshua is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But the knowledge is not the end of the story. The rubber needs to meet the road and we need to observe these days as a memorial annually. This is how we prepare for the end of time, but showing Yahweh our faith in His Son through our deeds.

First Fruits

Slide 6 For as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Messiah the first fruits, after that those who are Messiah’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to our God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. (1Co 15:22-24)

The next holy day to cover for meaning is First Fruits. In the Torah, this is the day when all Israel has to bring in the first of their spring grain to be offered by the Kohen Gadol. Annually, we purge all the leaven from our homes prior to Passover and then start a new lump after ULB. The nation was forbidden from using any of the new year’s harvest until it was offered by the priest. On our reckoning, this offering was made on the first day of the week during ULB. This is confirmed by Yeshua’s resurrection on that same day. Our bibles tell us He was resurrected by Yahweh before sunup after Shabbat. We use Passover to know that He was crucified on Abib 14 at sunset, then resurrected on Abib 17 sometime around sunset, thus being 3 days and 3 nights in the tomb. The significance is that Abib 17 at sundown would be the first day during ULB which means the Messiah was resurrected on first fruits, as Yahweh planned from before time, thus fulfilling the hinted prophecy of this day as well. Paul is communicating all this to us in these few sentences. Remember, he was one of the most gifted Rabbis of all time and communicated as such. Paul told us here in 1 Cor that first fruits prophesied the resurrection of Yeshua, and that prophecies the resurrection of the rest of mankind. As we dig deeper into this topic, it becomes irrefutable that these days are meant to be used for understanding prophecy.

There is nothing for us to do to observe first fruits today. This day is not a sabbath, but a workday. We do not have a priesthood to bring offerings, we don’t live in the land, and this is just something we know. You can observe first fruits by bringing in the first of your garden to the assembly or any other number of ways, even monetarily, but those are on the individual. We can’t observe this day literally today.

Pentecost aka Shavuot

Slide 7 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. (Act 2:1-2)

Many of us thought this was the first time Pentecost was observed when we first read the bible. This is a trap we fall into when just focusing on the New Testament. What this shows is that the apostles, fifty days after Yeshua was resurrected, were still observing Torah as the observant Jews they continued to be for the rest of their lives. This day is our proof that Yeshua did not come to abolish Torah, but to fulfill it. To show us the deeper meanings and the hints at future prophecy, but that we need to keep Torah to see those things. Those of us who grew up not observing Torah need to learn it, just as the first converts did in the first century.

Shavuot is a day in Leviticus 23 that means “count 50”. From the day of the first fruit offering, we count 7 weeks and a day. This is also a bolster to first fruits being on the first day, Sunday in common parlance, because weeks start on the first day and end on the 7^th. 49 days is seven weeks, then on the 50^th day there is a Sabbath and an offering of leavened bread. This is also proof that leaven does not represent sin. The bible doesn’t say that anywhere. It’s an analogy brought in to make illustrations, but if there’s an offering with leaven, we can take it to the bank that is not a sinful offering.

Leavened bread represents peace. In order to have a harvest, you need peace and security to plant, nobody to invade and destroy your crops, rain in due season, and the freedom to go harvest. You can’t do this very well if the men are off in battle. It’s possible, but not optimal. Once the leaven is purged, you need time to make new starter lumps and for the lumps to mature. Shavuot expects the nation to be obedient and at peace. Pentecost in Acts 2 shows that Yahweh is in control. He kept the apostles safe after Yeshua’s death, resurrection, and ascension. They were together obeying the commandment when Yeshua sent the Ruach ha Kodesh, as He promised He would. Trusting Yeshua and His Father, the apostles stayed faithful those ten days after Yeshua ascended, and when the 50 days were completed, they were rewarded handsomely. This day shows that Yahweh’s plan was completed at that stage. That the days, the people, the Messiah, and everything came together in the perfect recipe that was allowed to leaven over 4000-ish years for that moment in time to be fulfilled and the apostles to go forth with the power and confidence of the Holy Spirit. Their faith in Yeshua and obedience to Yahweh was so strong, that it lasts to this day, being illustrated in our common faith.

Yom Teruah

Slide 8 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope. For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose from the dead, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Yeshua. For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. (1Th 4:13-18)

The day of Trumpets is the first day of the 7^th month on the Hebrew calendar. This is the beginning of the Fall Holy Days. Up to this point, I’ve been talking about the Spring Holy Days, which have had fulfillments. They may have more fulfillments to come, so we have to be careful not the close the door on learning and be open to the Spirit showing us new things. The fall Holy Days have not yet been fulfilled, or at least that’s how we who observe these things in a NT context generally believe. This also works with the theme of former times and latter times. Christians look at the phrase “latter times” as being the end of the age. That’s not how we look at that. The end of the age is the end of the latter times, but we can generally divide time as former or latter with Yeshua’s earthly ministry being the center point. All time leading up to His sacrifice and ascension being the former times, all time after being the latter times. There can be a whole lot of latter times. I understand ancient Israel marked two seasons vice four like we do today, with the former being somewhat equivalent to spring and summer and the latter being somewhat equivalent to fall and winter. Which makes the scripture make a bit more sense.

When talking about days that have yet to be fulfilled, I have to be careful to make sure you know these are interpretations and speculations. Some of the material is a slam dunk when it comes straight from scripture, but some of what we believe about the future days are extrapolations, thus subject to biases and such. We know for a fact, though, that Yom Teruah, the day of trumpets, is the day that prophecies the return of Yeshua and the first resurrection, which is the scripture on the board. One of the biggest doctrinal disputes of the first century was the resurrection of the dead – is there an afterlife? Yeshua proved this. It is strange to me that this was in doubt because Yahweh used Elijah to resurrect a boy in days of old.

The first day of the 7^th month is referred to as “the day no man knows” sometimes in Judaism. This is because we do not have time to prepare for this Sabbath. Unlike Pesach, which happens in the middle of the first month, Yom Teruah happens as the first day of a month. We can still see signs of the times, leaves beginning to change, temperatures lessening, fall crops being ripened, and such, but we still have to watch and be ready. This theme should sound very familiar because it’s how Yeshua spoke about His return. We understand this day to represent the abrupt return of Yeshua, like it says on the screen, and a dramatic change in the world. Mainstream Christianity is obsessed with the end times, always coming up with schemes to predict it, but they are really missing the boat. This day means we need to live our lives in a way that we are not unprepared when the Messiah returns. Granted, it will be shocking and amazing, so we will be surprised, but we know it’s going to happen, just not exactly when. And we’re not supposed to know when, so be prepared.

Yom Kippur

Slide 9 Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. (Heb 9:6-7)

The book of Hebrews tells us an enormous amount about Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This day is steeped in Torah, so the more Torah you know, the more you will appreciate this day. Yeshua has fulfilled this day a little. One of His dying words was to forgive those who knew not what they did. His special death attire is also a hint that He was fulfilling Yom Kippur because it was similar to what the Kohen Gadol wears on this day. The other significance is that this happens on the tenth day of the 7^th month and the lambs are chosen on the tenth day of the first month. This is a pretty big clue that this day is associated to Pesach.

What I like to focus on here is the inclusion of the “sins committed in ignorance” part. Most of Christianity condemns those who have never heard the gospel, and some even those who don’t accept the gospel in their way, to hell. It’s an awful teaching. They don’t even believe like us, that it’s eternal death (meaning non-existence) but teach eternal torment for those who never heard the WORD. This is an appalling understanding. It’s much better to say “I don’t know” than to condemn billions to eternal torment, as if they were created for such an end. Yeshua’s dying words about forgiving those who actually murdered Him because they did so in ignorance, even thinking they were doing a good thing, is much more hopeful for mankind and more representative of a loving God and His Son.

I also like to focus on the aspect of doing nothing in order to fulfill this day. The commanded observance of Yom Kippur is to fast and do nothing for 24 hours. In the Torah, it was so the Kohen Gadol could make atonement for the sins annually. The people could not do that themselves, they had to have a mediator. Our New Covenant understanding of this day is that Yeshua is our Mediator and we also cannot save ourselves. We have to do nothing, imagining Him on the cross, covering our sins. He’s the only way to the Father, and our only hope of salvation, hence His Name is Yeshua, which means salvation.

Sukkot the Feast of Tabernacles

Slide 10 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Joh 1:14)

The KJV renders this “tabernacled” among us. To be frank, that’s probably better than dwelt but dwelt is the same connotation in Hebrew. It means to encamp or live temporarily.

The fifteenth day of the seventh month starts an 8 day festival called Sukkot. It has two Sabbaths, one on the fifteenth and the other on the 22^nd. This gets complicated but this day is a remembrance of living in Sukkot for 40 years. A sukkah is NOT a tent. It’s a ramshackle structure made from whatever is around. A made tent is a different word, which is an ohel. The meaning here is that our time in this world is temporary and a mess. We have to trust Yahweh to sustain us, as He did the Israelites in the wilderness. Our entire lives are temporary and temporal, but if we trust He is guiding us, we will make it to the promised land.

Yeshua came here to dwell among us temporarily. He knew it was temporary the first time. The significance here is immense, that He knew how it would end but He did it anyhow.

Some liken Sukkot to the millennium because Nehemiah 14 says it will be kept in the future, and the context seems like the 1000 years. I agree with that assessment, but don’t equate Sukkot itself with the 1000 years. That’s more like Shabbat, where we started today’s journey. Now it’s time to come to the end of the journey.

The Eighth Day

Slide 11 When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:7-15)

The 8^th day is the end of Sukkot. It’s the last Sabbath in Leviticus 23 and unique because it is outside of normal time, hayom ha shamini also called Shimini Atzaret. The Jews even equate this day to the end of the age. Being an 8^th day, it is a gateway between things. Boys are circumcised on the 8^th day, so they are both gentile and Jew on that same day. This day is understood as the gateway between this work and the one to come, the olam haze versus the olam haba. This is the day that most of Christianity reckons as the day Yeshua comes back. They are wrong. That’s not going to be a pleasant day for most of humanity, but it is not the end. It’s 1000 years before the end of the age, which is on the screen now. We reckon the 8^th day as the day Yahweh and Yeshua wrap up all the mess of this age and bring those who are saved into eternity, where they were no longer be any darkness or sadness. This is the day that culminates the Holy Days, and we also believe it to be the day that culminates the end of this age and the beginning of the one that will never end.