Posted on 08/14/2014 1:09:24 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.(Leviticus 23:1-2)
God has laid out in many ways the future of Israel and of the world. Prophecy is one of them, the Song of Moses for example, Another way that the Lord has clearly told His people and whoever has ears to hear, what the future would be, is in the Festal Holidays of Israel.
The word ‘feasts’ in the above cited scripture, is literally,”Appointed times“. These are appointments on a schedule. God has pre-arranged special appointments with His people throughout History, and he has taught them ta prophetic schedule via the yearly holidays He has ordained for the chosen people.
The feasts of Israel are divided into three special sections. There are the three Spring Feasts, Passover,Unleavened Bread and First Fruits. Then there is a lone summer feast, Pentecost, and finally there are the three Fall Feasts of Israel, the feast of trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and finally the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Spring appointments with Israel have already been kept. Messiah has come and offered himself as the Passover Lamb. He was crucified on Passover, after a thorough inspection for flaws by the High Priest and the religious leaders of Israel. The feast of unleavened bread is the removal of sin (Leaven,corruption), out of the house, as a consequence of Passover. Three das after the feast of Passover, te High Priest would go to the barley field and gather the first sheave and offer it as the first fruit before God. On that same morning around thirty AD , Christ rose from the dead.
THose appointments have already been kept.
After fifty days, the feast of Pentecost occurs, in the summer. Around thirty AD again, there were a group of Jewish believers meeting in the temple on the day of the feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the ressurection.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.(Acts 2:1-4)
God has kept the first four of the ordained appointments in history with Israel his people, although for the most part they were unprepared or oblivious to what was happening.
But there are three feasts yet to come, The feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of tabernacles,
The Feast of trumpets has been partially obscured by the Rabbis, the emphasis of it being Rosh Hoshanah, or New Years day. What are trumpets sounded for? Warning, and Assembly. When the trumpets are sounded, and the congregation gathers together for assembly, worship or for war.
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;(Joel 2:1)
And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.(Numbers 10:3)
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?(Amos 3:6)
The Trumpet of God has certainly been sounding to the ends of the earth since May,1948, with the resurrection of Israel and the return after almost two thousand years of exile. The Jewish people are coming out of their exile in the Muslim world; Russia, Europe, India,China, and literally from the very ends of the earth.
The sound of the trumpet should provoke trembling though as both Joel and Amos attest.
The Feast of Trumpets actually commences something called the “days of awe” the time between this feast and the next, more solemn feast(Actually a fast), the day atonement. On tat day the people of ISrael are literally commanded to repentance, self examination, and humiliation of souls.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”(Leviticus 23:26-32)
This is the meaning of our current season of affliction, I believe the time has come for Israel to enter into her fall appointments with God. Passover, Unleavened bread , Firstfruits and Pentecost have already happened in history. Most of the nation missed out on the full significance of these events.As Jesus lamented, they did not know their time of visitation. But there remain three feasts.
The Trumpet has been sounding, and Israel is regathering, and the time has come for her to deeply soul search and repent. The “Days of Awe” correspond to the “time of Jacob’s trouble”, the prophetic “Night”, “Affliction” and as Daniel warned, “The time of tribulation, such as has never happened before nor shall ever happen again”.
The pressure will accomplish the goal, Israel will repent and be re-instated as Kings and Priests and the whole world will be resurrected!
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.(Hosea 3:4-5)
All of this is in preparation for the final appointment with Israel Feast of Tabernacles. God has an appointment with Israel, He will once again dwell in the midst of them and there will be a Messianic Banquet, a wedding feast that shall be the ground of all true Joy and happiness!
And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.(Isaiah 25:6-9)
The feast of tabernacles corresponds to the final, glorious future for the children of Israel, chastened and redeemed, but restored to their ordained glory as the Holy nation, dwelling with God forever.
As it is written of this people,
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.(Isaiah 60:1-2)
I’ve been studying the “end times; last days” type of scriptures, and I’ve discovered something interesting.
Isaiah 17:1 says, “Woe to Damascus, it’s been taken away from being a city it has become a ruinous heap.” What’s interesting is that ISIS (and other terrorist groups) have their headquarters in Damascus.
Thank you for this post. I always enjoy your lessons, and I continue to learn.
woah! Thanks for that-Pas bill
Pastor, most amazing thing about those appointed times that include the new moons and weekly Sabbaths and Feasts is that Our Messiah fulfilled them while He tabernacled with us.
Biggest obstacle to us seeing them is the way the world keeps time.
His calendar (prophectic Kingdom calendar in Ezekiel 46:1) is shown throughout Torah and can be found subtly and not so subtly in the New Testament.
But it incorporates the moon and stars which the world’s calendar ignores in timekeeping.
When His calendar of sun, moon and stars is followed, Messiah’s life unfolds amazingly with those new moons, Sabbaths and feasts.
The Bride can know His genuine birthday, day of His circumcision, His dedication at the temple, baptism, in addition to death, burial and resurrection.
But none of those are found on the gregorian calendar. The world’s calendar doesn’t point to the Son.
The world’s calendar points just to the sun.
And that worldly sun based calendar has birthed December 25,good friday and easter, and passes them off as genuine, when His calendar proves they are counterfeits.
I pray more believers study those new moons, sabbaths and feasts..and study His sun, moon and stars that the Words calls ‘signs’ He gives us to tell time with.
Satan can’t counterfeit them. But he can have man use 1/3 of the signs and call it genuine.
It does make one consider a crossroads, though... conform to the world and its systems, or follow our Heavenly Father’s timekeeping and calendar found in the Word and in His sky.
The world calls today Thor’s Day.. on His calendar, it is the third day of the week.
One can commemorate thor without knowing it, or one can commemorate what our Heavenly Father did on the third day in Scripture.
One of those calendars has Creative and Redemptive significance that spans eternity.
The other, well.it can only counterfeit..
The term "the feasts of Israel" suggests that you Any clear unbiased reading of YHvH's WORD
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
will yield YHvH's appointed times for the learning
and understanding of His followers.
belong to some religion other than as a follower fo YHvH.
I am a follower of the LORD through Yeshua. Could you tell me why you object to the expression “Feasts of Israel” to the point that you suemise that I don’t even follow YHwh??
You might want to reflect on the useshalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
of the term"feasts of Israel"
as it smacks of REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY.Seek the face of YHvH in His WORD
The Feasts are commanded by YHvH
for all his followers including those
who have been grafted in
Feasts of the LORD would be an improvement I agree, although they are all “appointments” for Israel, but they affect the whole world
IMHO, soon..
Pastor Randles, I am sure you are a great guy. I commend you on your work condemning heresies in the Pentecostal movement. I think however, you might be better sticking with that area of scripture. Your twelve part series on Israel is rife with core biblical problems, misunderstandings, and errors regarding prophecy. It would take a whole book to thoroughly destroy some of the many wrong notions presented so rather than write a book, I will point out some high level problems so you or other readers can investigate for themselves.
1. You use Jew and Israel in unbiblical ways. I worked with a “Jew” who often identified himself as such in political or ideological discussions. Until one day I challenged it and said, You call yourself a Jew, what are you claiming? What is a Jew. Is a Jew a race? Is it someone who is racially descended from Judah the son of Jacob? But we have people of many races claiming to be Jews. If descent is implied at all when used, it is usually used to imply the descent from any of the twelve tribes which would be totally biblically erroneous. Or do you mean you are a Jew culturally? You have adopted certain practices associated with a particular culture. Or do you mean you are a Jew because you follow the teaching of the [antichrist] Talmud. You even use the ridiculous term “anti semitism” in the title of one post. You realize that means “anti descendant-of-Shem”, Noah’s son, and has nothing to do with anti followers-of-the-Talmud, as you seem to use it.
The New Testament is very clear who God’s people are. They are followers of Christ. Those that deny Christ are not of God, period.
2. You seem to show no understanding of the difference between the Southern Kingdom of Judah in scriptural history or prophecy, and that of the northern Kingdom of the House of Israel, rightfully called Israel in scripture. More on that follows.
3. To make the statements you do, you must completely reject many plain teachings about the kingdom of Judah and its inhabitants, Jews. Compare Jeremiah 18 and 19 where the House of Israel will be remade, but the Kingdom of Judah will be destroyed and “NEVER” put back together. Matthew 21-24 are almost exclusively devoted to the rejection of the Kingdom of Judah. It is stated over and over in many ways. The fig tree, will NEVER produce fruit again. The kingdom of God is taken from them and given to a NATION (note the rare singular in Greek) bringing forth fruits. Perhaps you should consider who this nation is? Or at least acknowledge that Christ and God did not lie when he said they will NEVER be His kingdom again. There are other places to. Look to how Jerusalem was promised to be made like Shiloh which was never used again as the place of worship or abode of God. On and on scripture goes about the kingdom of Judah, but if you don’t understand the difference between the two kingdoms, then when you see a reference to Israel all is confused.
4. Then there is what you do directly with Revelation. Wow. You should spend a couple of years studying the Historicist view of prophecy which was widely taught in the reformation. The worst thing that could happen is that you might be able to convince yourself it is wrong, but at least you could speak from a more educated standpoint. Hopefully though you could see that the reformers were correct and the current trend in prophecy is dangerous to Christianity because it is error and it obscures the wonderful work of God in history. The 42 months to which you refer, and is equivalent to the times, time and dividing of times, is already fulfilled, as is Nebuchadnezzar’s seven times.
5. Your ideas on heaven are common, though mistaken. Your tagline “the choice isn’t heaven or Hell. Its heaven or the world” exemplifies this. I suggest you go through scripture and rightly divide the passages that refer to heaven(in Greek) in the New Testament from those that refer to the Kingdom of Heaven. They are entirely different things. Write down the Characteristics of heaven, as used in each of the verses. Then compare that to those of the kingdom. God, Christ, angels, clouds, lightning, birds, they are all in heaven. People are in the kingdom. In the process of considering all the above, realize also that THE church is NOT the kingdom. The parables plainly teach there are tares in the kingdom. THE church is the body of Christ and has no tares.
Thanks for the kind words and the gentle spirit, brother, and for giving me the benefit of he doubt that I am a sincere christian(As I am sure you are). I take it you are a preterist. I myself am a historicist and a futurist. I believe much of prophecy has several layers of fulfilment. For example, Jesus warned of the “Abomination that makes desolate” spoken of by Daniel the prophet. By the time JEsus has said that, it had already been partialy fulfilled by antiochus Epiphanes, of whom Daniel’s prophecies certainly foretold.
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