Who Are Those Around The Throne?

שרפים

‘There are more things in heaven and Earth, …. Than are dreamt of in your philosophy..’

Please bear with the non-biblical quote for a moment – it’s there to make a relevant point.

Above is the well known phrase used by the title character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare; when Hamlet is speaking to Horatio, (Hamlet 1.5.167-8), He says, your philosophy (i.e., philosophy or learning in general). Hamlet suggests that human knowledge is limited: There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy [science].

The emphasis here should really be on “dreamt of”, as Hamlet is pointing out how little even the most educated people can explain.

The relevant point being, just how true this is, for in reality we know so very little about everything!! As the scripture says ‘Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.’

A fool is one who denies the reality of his creator. As usual, the Bible says it best in

Romans 1:22: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

In our humanity we often see things in a way that makes us feel comfortable, by adjusting our viewpoint. However, this can often means that our concept of those things is not as they really are.

It’s all a matter of perception.

We draw on personal experience and try to define an image from previously gathered information, which is not necessarily accurate, or relevant, to the new thing in front of us which is requiring definition.

A good example is what angels look like.

HUH?

In a previous post, we examined the descriptions of the seraphim on the mercy seat and the heavenly beings around Fathers’ throne; discovering they are not like the everyday creatures that we are familiar with. We have formed mental images of angels, gained mostly from paintings provided primarily by renaissance artists. Many of whom were under contract to the Vatican and religious authorities, who commissioned what they wanted for themselves and also what they chose the public should see.

The other beings mentioned along with the cherubim are the seraphim.

Seraphim

Hebrew: שָׂרָף śārāf, (sarap) this word seraph in the original

Plural שְׂרָפִים śərāfîm;

Latin: seraphim and seraphin (plural)

Greek: σεραφείμ serapheím

These are noted as the highest order or choir of angels according to christianity and the fifth rank of ten in the Jewish angelic hierarchy.

Remember the seasonal Carol?

They are the angelic beings who are attendants or guardians before God’s throne. They continually praise and glorify God, calling,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts”.

The only Bible reference is Isaiah 6:1-7.

Seraphim means Burners, the burning ones/glowing ones or Destroyers and as the closest Attendants at the Throne of God, they are represented as “standing” above the King as He sat upon His throne, ready at once to minister unto Him. This word, in the original, שָׂרַף, is used elsewhere only of the “fiery serpents” Numbers 21:6,8; Deut 8:15

The root-verb שרף (sarap) means to burn, and this is always in a literal sense. There are up to fifteen words in Hebrew that mean to burn, but sarap is used mostly in the sense of consuming or destructive burning.

The verb used to describe these Heavenly living creatures may hint that they glow brightly! Similar to how Moses’ face glowed brightly following his close proximity to God’s glory on Mount Sinai.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, and the people saw that the skin of his face was shining like a bright light, they were afraid to come near him.

Isaiah (6:2) saw the seraphim in a vision standing above the Father as He sat upon His throne. He described them as each having three pairs of wings,

with one pair they covered their faces (a token of humility);

with the second they covered their feet (a token of respect);

while with the third they flew.

They seem to have presented a general resemblance to the human figure as recorded in verse 6.

He saw their occupation as two fold:

First, to celebrate the praises of His holiness and power, verse 3; and

2. to act as the medium of communication between heaven and earth, verse 6.

Seraphim are so close to God that they are thought to be the angels of God’s unfathomable and endless love.

Scholars propose that in their true appearance they are so bright, that no mortal man could gaze upon them. However, they can apparently change their appearance when delivering messages to the human world. Isaiah was cleansed from sin by a seraph who touched a burning coal to his lips.

(Isaiah 6:6) Here one of them was the agent for burning the sin from the lips of the prophet with a coal off the altar.

The Hebrew word seraphim ser’-a-fim is not really a name as such, but rather what might be considered a category or group, a species or class of The First and Highest Order of created spiritual beings/entities.

The masculine noun שרף (sarap) denotes a fiery serpent and is used five times: Numbers 21:6 and 21:8, Deuteronomy 8:15, Isaiah 14:29 and 30:6. The exact same word is used in Isaiah 6:2 to describe the angelic beings known as Seraphim!

Sharrapu was a Babylonian name for the fire-god, Nergal. In Egypt there have been found eagle-lion-shaped figures guarding a grave, which have had the name seref applied. “Griffin” is the equivalent term in English.

First Mentioned: 3300-3100 BC

The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and sometimes an eagle’s talons as its front feet. 

In heraldry, the griffin’s combination of lion and eagle gains in courage and boldness. It is used to denote strength and military courage and leadership.

in Hebrew theology as the three highest orders of attendants to the Father, Seraphim are connected with Cherubim and Ophanim, and are superior to the angels who are messengers sent on various errands.

The word Angel means messenger.

The Archangels that we are familiar with are:

Michael meaning He who is like God;

Gabriel = God is my strength;

Raphael = healer of God;

Uriel = God is my light.

As the cherubim were often represented by the storm-clouds, so the seraphim were symbolized by the serpentine flashes of the lightning; but we read none of this in Isaiah’s vision.

In the New Testament/Brit Chadashah, in Rev 4:5, the only possible equivalent is, the living ones (mistranslated as beasts in the KJV) etc.

In the Greek ζῷον verse 6 Strongs 2226 zoon (zoology) – A Living Creature, animal, a living being; not therion – translated beast.

These then appear to be literal angelic beings and are clearly different from the:

Redeemed Elders of Rev. 4:9-11,

Ordinary angels in Rev.5:1-12,

Seraphim in Is. 6:1-8 and

Cherubim of Ezek. 1:4-28; 10:1-22

Here, as in Isaiah, they appear nearest the Father’s throne, supreme in praise of His holiness.

1 Peter 1:16 (Lev.)

Young’s Literal Translation because it hath been written, ‘Become ye holy, because I am holy;’.

 

(16) Be ye holy; for I am holy.—

The better reading here is, Ye shall he holy; it is still, however, a command, not a promise—except that all God’s commands are promises. The command comes some five or six times in the Book of Leviticus, addressed not only to the Levites, but to all the people. It would, therefore, apply twice over to the recipients of this letter by virtue of their twofold consecration, in the old and in the new Israel.

8270 holiness, as SET APART for God: Believers are holy, in that they are to BE SET APART from the world as God’s own people. Just as certain days and items are holy because they are set apart for God alone. 

8271 holiness, purpose of: God in His holiness desires a holy people amongst whom He can dwell, and who can effectively worship, witness to and serve Him as they prepare for a future with God and to be like God.

The cherubim as we saw in previous post, Ezek. 21:22 Each one had four faces and each had four wings, with the form of human hands under the wings

They all had 4 faces: calf, eagle, man and lion.

It appears that the Seraphim,

who are known in our culture as

handsome human-like angelic creatures,

were known to the Hebrews as

snake-like fireballs!

We like to designate creatures either according to what they look like, or else by some terminology that only covers their specific species.

e.g. A horse is a horse and we are not too concerned with what the word horse might actually mean.

A horsetail is a plant that looks like the tail of a horse, and a sea horse is a fish with a horse-like head.

In Hebrew, however, creatures are known mostly according to their behavior. Since creatures usually display multiple defining behaviors, many creatures are known by more than one name — one of the words for lion (ari) comes from the verb to gather— and it also means that one description often covers more than one creature.

e.g., the word סוס (sus), meaning to flash or dart, denotes both a horse and a swallow.

This is Hebrew thought, and in this thinking, to be, IS to do.

In the Bible, the word שרף (sarap) is used in two different scenes. In the most recognized one, it denotes the flying, supernatural six-winged creatures that surround God’s throne in the vision of Isaiah.

In Revelation 4 john also has a vision of God’s throne and sees what seems the same creatures. However, here they have only one face each. One has face like a lion the second face of a calf the third face of a man and the fourth an eagle.

(Revelation 4:8). 

Both Isaiah, in

Strong’s Number: 06918 Transliterated: Qadowsh

Phonetic: kaw-doshe’

Definition: sacred, holy,

Holy One, saint, set apart

 and John hear these creatures cry “Holy, holy, holy”.

Greek λέγω

legó: to say, command. 

These creatures became known as the Seraphim, and although artists have tried to depict them, we really don’t have a clue what they may look like. To begin with, we don’t know their size, so they may be very small; small enough even to appear on someone’s head?? (Acts 2:3). Since their name is derived from a verb meaning, to burn, they may look like flames. However if their name was designed to indicate that is what they looked like, they would have been known by a word that means flame or fire. This is not the case because they are known as Burners or Destroyers.

They have six wings (Isaiah 6:2),

There is Scripture that seems to record that God has wings too!! (Psalm 17:8, 36:7, 57:1, 61:4, 91:4). Since we are made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), do we have “wings” as well??  The Seraphim’s wings may not look at all like birds’ wings that we imagine and are familiar with.

Seraphim have faces but their wings cover them, so they may look like anything. They have feet, also covered by their wings, but not necessarily human feet; and the word for feet is so general, that we still really don’t know much about their appearance.

The point is, that they are not what we are used to seeing, as far as creatures go, and their appearance is secondary to their raison d’etre. Their prime mission is to guard the throne and serve the Lord.

The word CRIED, or SAID, here, is not meaning a whispered religious tone,

but it’s a declaration,

a command,

an actionable directive;

because holy = kadosh = set apart;.

Separate and set aside (for His purposes).

The word CRIED in this verse is Strong’s Number: 07121

Transliterated Qara’

Phonetic Spelling kaw-raw’

Definition: to call, call out,

utter a loud sound,

recite, read, cry out, proclaim

And the next few words record

The posts (‘ammah) of the door (caph = threshhold) moved

Strong’s Number: 05128  

Transliterated: Nuwa`

Phonetic: noo’-ah

Definition: to quiver, totter, shake, reel, stagger, wander, move, sift, make move, wave, waver, tremble, vibrate

It would appear that the voices of the seraphim were loud enough to cause vibration and shaking which changes the understanding of this scene entirely!

The question of whether or not Seraphim are ‘angels’, remains a question. Biblical angels usually either look like humans or sound like them, and we don’t know if there are separate species of angels, or even if they exist as autonomous individuals.

Angels, Seraphim, Cherubim and spirits were created beings that’s about all we know, apart from what the scriptures tell us.

What we do know is that the Bible clearly indicates that there is much, much, more to creation than just us, even if we cannot see it all because it exists in another dimension beyond the scope of our physical eyes. Sometimes God opens our eyes like He did for Elisha and the chariots 2 kings 6:17-20

The other famous scene in which the word seraphim is prominently featured deals with the attack of the “fiery serpents” on Israel in the wilderness (Numbers 21:6).

It literally reads, “And God sent among the people the fiery serpents נָחָשׁ שְׂרָפִים

[saraphim naphashim] seraphim serpents”.

The word for serpent, nahash, is related to the words for bronze and the verb to divine, and the serpent scene of Numbers 21 may be about more than just an animal attack.

It has been suggested by certain Bible scholars over the years that that the creature referenced here may be the flying serpents.

Matthew Henry, in his famous Commentary on the Whole Bible writes:

They had impudently flown in the face of God himself, and the poison of asps was under their lips, and now these fiery serpents (which, it should seem, were flying serpents, Isaiah 14:29) flew in their faces and poisoned them.

The Lord then instructs Moses to create a שרף (sarap) and set it on a standard. Moses interprets the making of a seraph by making a “bronze serpent” — a nahash, nachash, nahashet; twice the word nahash, a fiery, burning, majestic being — and anyone who looks upon it is saved from the real ones.

Was the bronze image a Seraphim? One of Gods’ fiery attendants?

Apparently, the image of the bronze serpent was so impressive that the Israelites gave it a name —Nehushtan — and burned incense to it until king Hezekiah destroyed it (2 Kings 18:4).

Later still, Yeshua/Jesus compares His imminent crucifixion to Moses’ raising of the bronze serpent (John 3:14, also see 8:28 and 12:32).

Verse 8: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.”

This passage is a beautiful picture of how those bitten by the Satanic curse of sin cannot heal themselves from sure death; but they need only look in faith to Christ’s work on the cross to live. Indeed, Christ applied this passage to himself: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Yet it seems strange to employ the cursed snake (a symbol of Satan from Genesis 3:1 to Revelation 20:2) as the parallel of Christ.

While the Hebrew word naphash is clearly the word for common snakes, these commentators have concluded that the compound word saraphim – naphashim, should be translated “fiery flying serpents.”

It would appear that the saraph was a reptilian, snake-like creature, distinguished from common snakes predominantly by their ability to fly. the pterosaur identification is most reasonable. These flying snakes, or pterosaurs, could have attacked and overcome the Israelites from the air.

They would have formed an ideal picture of the Messiah, in that Christ was made like us, (made sin for us according to 2 Corinthians 5:21), but he was still fundamentally different (divine).

The winged serpent incorporates simultaneously the appearance of the snake and the lofty ability of flight in a unique animal. Moreover, the outstretched pterosaur on the pole would have formed a perfect cross!

It is likely that the New Testament author also referenced these fiery winged seraphim when writing to the Hebrews? “Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire” (Hebrews 1:7). The emphasis then, it would appear, is on the saraph’s bright, fiery nature.

The serpentine seraphim return in Isaiah 14:29, where the prophet foretells the destruction of Philistia, “from the root of the snake (nahash) comes a viper (tzepa, a word that indicates a snake producing venom), and his fruit (is) a flying seraph”. Actually, the word “flying” may also mean “dark”; see the name Ephah. The flying or dark seraph returns in Isaiah 30:6, where it is listed among the beasts of the Negev.

The other place where the term nacash is used is in connection with the garden of eden where the nachash conversed with eve. Well it was probably not a talking serpent but taking Ezek s description in 28:14 of the devil he was the covering cherub and Isaiah 14:12-14; the angel Lucifer as being one of the  created chief beings within the angelic class of creation of God.  

Ezek. 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

Eve was probably accustomed to seeing the cherubim, seraphim and angelic host, seeing as they walked with God in the cool of the day. Neither did they show surprise at Lucifers presence, nor of the cherubim that blocked their return to the garden. So his appearance was not a shock or unusual to them.

This individual has a covering of 9 precious stones. 

Here is a fascinating parallel of the earthly Israel’s High Priest’s breastplate that also was covered with precious stones.  These 9 stones that covered Satan are an exact match for 9 of the 12 stones found on the High Priest’s covering (Exodus 28:17). 

Does this verse in Ezekiel reveals that Satan was a High Priest for God in heaven before he came to the earth? Are these stones and coverings just a amazing coincidence or is there some mystery information that God is revealing here?  On the High Priest’s breast plate there were 4 rows of three stones each.  Each row consisted of a different set of stones and each stone was unique.  We are told that these 12 stones on the High Priest’s covering were engraved with the names of 12 tribes of Israel.  However by matching off the stones found on Satan’s covering from the stones found on the High Priest’s breastplate it appears that Row 3 is missing completely.  One would think this is not an accident, it’s mathematically impossible for this to be a coincidence.  What does it all mean?  We could conclude that Satan lost three things that Israel had, or maybe Israel was given three things that Satan didn’t have?   

Anointing? Covenant? Relationship?

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Darby Bible Translation Thou wast the anointed covering cherub, and I had set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou didst walk up and down in the midst of stones of fire.

Anointed comes from a Hebrew root word that means to smear with oil.  David was anointed king this way by Samuel.  

But this word here means to “spread like wings” and it is the only time this word occurs in the whole Bible. 

However, it is still important to see that Satan is said to be “anointed” of God.  This is a direct comparison to Jesus who was also said to be “anointed” of God with the Holy Ghost and power in Acts 10:38. God anoints people in the earth to perform specific tasks.  What this represents is a special divine ability to perform the duties being assigned to them.  From this verse we understand that angels can also be anointed by God to do specific jobs and assignments.  An anointing can involve supernatural ability and power, divine knowledge or wisdom to do what we do not fully understand how to do.  This reveals a lot about Satan and his abilities.

Then Satan is called a “cherub

Information is revealed about angels and God’s relationship with Satan before he sinned.  Is it possible that one of these two cherubs either side of God’s throne in heaven was originally Lucifer?  Now Yeshua/Jesus is at the right hand of the Father could that mean Yeshua/Jesus has taken Lucifer’s old place of authority and power?

Ezekiel 28:14 is how God describes Satan to us, that he was an anointed cherub and that his job or assignment was to “cover”. 

This Hebrew word means to cover as a protector or as a guard.  It can also mean a fenced in hedge of protection.  It can also mean to entwine as in join together. 

Amazing definitions for they imply a covenant relationship and that is very important to know.  was God in covenant with the angels of Heaven, including Satan? 

In Isaiah 6:2 there is a word describing what appears to be an angelic being. This is also a winged creature that clearly flies using their wings. It is not clear that this is describing Satan unless you look up the definition of the Hebrew Word “seraphim” in Strong’s. This word is many times translated as “fiery serpent” seems to describe Satan very well.  We clearly know from Genesis and Revelation that Satan is the “serpent” so we have a link to a new titled reference for this spiritual being.  A fiery serpent is a great symbolic representation for Satan.

  1. Was a created being (Eze 28:13)

  2. Not created with evil in him (Eze 28:15)

  3. Was found with iniquity in him (Eze 28:15)

  4. Was in covenant with God the Father? (Gen 2-3, Gal 4)

  5. Was anointed by God for specific purposes (Eze 28:14)

  6. Was in a class of angels called “Cherubs” (Eze 28:14)

  7. Was also described as a “Seraphim”; winged fiery serpent (Isa 6:2)

  8. Was a Priest unto God? (Eze 28:13).

  9. Was called Lucifer a son of the early light (Isa 14:12)

  10. Named Lucifer means “Bright Morning Star”  (Isa 14:12)

Over the years Biblical scholars have speculated about the nature of the creature described in the Authorized Version as “the fiery flying serpent.”

“The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent,” (Isaiah 30:6).

Creationists over the years have suggested that this flying reptilian creature was a living pterosaur, still known in the region of Palestine at the time of Isaiah’s prophecy.1 Bible commentators have differed in their interpretation of these passages.

For example, E. J. Young writes of Isaiah 14:29:

“From one snake will come a poisonous serpent, and that poisonous serpent will produce another that is burning and flying.”2 He holds that Isaiah 30:6 references a real winged serpent and cites Herodutus 11.75; iii.109; and Ammianus Marcellinus xxii.15.3 (Marcellinus wrote in the fourth century about the ibis being a sacred bird in Egypt because of their encountering flocks of winged snakes, coming laden with poison from the marshes of Arabia, and overcoming them in the air, and devouring them before they quit their own region.) Motyer seems to side with the minority NIV translation “darting venomous serpent” but mentions “fiery flying one” as an alternate translation.4 The NAS renders this creature “flying serpent.” The Septuagint translation of Isaiah 14:29 is ofei petamenoi, which are clearly words for a flying reptile with no variants. From a more liberal scholarship perspective, the authors of the Revised Standard Version translate it “fiery flying serpent.” The BDB lexicon authors also render the creature “a flying serpent or dragon ” but go on to suggest that it had its origin in the Egyptian Serref and was “mythically conceived with serpent’s bodies (serpent deities).”

Since they are called seraphim…a term elsewhere applied to serpents (Num. 21:16; Isa. 14:29, 30:6), some scholars believe that they were serpentine or dragon-like in appearance. (Job 21.)

However, the chief meaning of the term may be “fiery” (Num. 21:6), so that the name of the snake is merely derivative (referring to their bite), and the use of the term for the ministering beings would indicate they were “fiery ones.”

There is no reason to dismiss automatically either of these possibilities. Composite figures are known from all over the ancient Near East, and while none is so far attested in Israel, it is possible that use was made of them. Such mysterious, awesome beings would be quite appropriate in this sort of vision. On the other hand, fire is everywhere associated with God’s holiness…so that it would be entirely appropriate for those who declare that holiness (v.3) to be “fiery” in their appearance.

Although to us its seems mythical, there are some historical and archaeological evidence in support of a pterosaur interpretation of these Old Testament passages.

Note that the nation of Philistia referenced in Isaiah 30 is geographically intermediate between the land of Israel and Egypt. This is the same region from which the ancient reports of pterosaurs come. Various historians told of small flying reptiles in Arabia and Egypt, recounted the virility of their poisons and described their predator, the ibis bird.18 The ancient authors Aristotle, Philae, Aelianus, Ammianus, Mela, Solinus, anonymous 4’th century Coptic monks, the 13’th century Armenian historian Matthew of Edessa, Solinus, Cicero, Aristotle, and Philae all reference flying serpents.

The well-respected Greek researcher Herodotus wrote:

There is a place in Arabia, situated very near the city of Buto, to which I went, on hearing of some winged serpents; and when I arrived there, I saw bones and spines of serpents, in such quantities as it would be impossible to describe. The form of the serpent is like that of the water-snake; but he has wings without feathers, and as like as possible to the wings of a bat.

In his third volume Herodotus goes on to tell how these animals could sometimes be found in the Arabian spice groves. He describes their size, coloration, and reproduction. It seems flying serpents were infamous for hanging in frankincense trees. When workers wanted to gather the tree’s incense, they would employ putrid smoke to drive the flying reptiles away.

Josephus’ account is particularly lucid. He tells of Moses, while still living in Pharoah’s court, leading an Egyptian army against Nubia: …but Moses prevented the enemies, and took and led his army before those enemies were apprised of his attacking them; for he did not march by the river, but by land, where he gave a wonderful demonstration of his sagacity; for when the ground was difficult to be passed over, because of the multitude of serpents, (which it produces in vast numbers, and indeed, is singular in some of those productions, which other countries do not breed, and yet such as are worse than others in power and mischief, and an unusual fierceness of sight, some of which ascend out of the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come upon men at unawares, and do them a mischief,) Moses invented a wonderful stratagem to preserve the army safe, and without hurt; for he made baskets, like unto arks, of sedge, and filled them with ibes, and carried them along with them; which animal is the greatest enemy to serpents imaginable, for they fly from them when they come near them; and as they fly they are caught and devoured by them, as if it were done by the harts;

The Greek word used by Josephus for “snake” is the same one employed by Christ in John 3 (and also by Paul in I Corinthians 10:9) to describe the attacking serpents in the wilderness (ophis or ophesi in its the masculine, dative, plural form).

It is also the same as the Septuagint version of the wilderness account.

This is the common Greek word for snake, so perhaps there was no unique Greek word for pterosaur like the Hebrew “saraph.” Instead the Greek authors fell back on the phrase “flying serpent” as the way to distinguish the winged reptilian creature, just like the KJV translators did in English.

One thing is for certain there are more things in heaven and earth than we have any concept of even in our wildest dreams and imagination.

And just because it does not fit into our idea of what they should look like; the heavenly creatures that surround the throne, are there by Fathers’ choice, and His concepts and ways are not ours.

We may should get prepared to be truly wowed by the things that are prepared for us in our future, for as yet eye has not seen some of these magnificent and heavenly creatures

who serve Him day and night and while still on earth we can join them in their singing – LOUD VIBRATING COMMAND HOLY HOLY HOLY is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of His Glory.

Don’t leave this page without knowing that you are full of His Glory and saved by His Mercy

Remembering here, that mercy is also rachum racham, rachem.

Rachem/racham being the word for WOMB.

So the mercy seat could be said to be a kind of womb (prophetically), where the spiritual new birth was to be initiated/conceived and ratified in Jesus/Yeshua’s blood.

Out of the mercy/womb seat came new resurrected life FOR THE LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD and the reconciliation to the Father.

and Grace,

Mercy and Grace is the WAY

ADDED AS AN INTERESTING EXTRA..

Brief yet fascinating report of a creature called a Ropen:

Although some superstition surrounds this remarkable creature, there are consistencies in the accounts from around the island regions (peoples that do not have any communication links) that lend credibility to the claims. The most remarkable part of the description is that the creature is reported to have a biolumiscent capability, like a firefly. Carl Baugh of the Creation Evidence Museum conducted two Ropen expeditions to PNG with Jim Blume, one to the island of Umboi and another further north to the Manus region. While exploring around the Manus islands, it became clear to Blume and Baugh that the pterosaur-like creature reported in that region were a different species from those observed further south. It was smaller (about 1 meter wingspan), tan in color (by native reports), and reddish in its glow. Coloration in the reports from Umboi, on the other hand, vary from glittering black to a very dark grey. The bioluminscence color is described as a white/bluish glow. Indeed, many who see the glowing creature fly past them describe it as a shimmering white light with a rainbow of colors being thrown off.

On one expedition to PNG, Blume and Baugh followed up on reports from a particular island in the Manus group that claimed these creatures were living in the caves dotting the island. While in a boat in the early evening they observed what appeared to be an oval shaped luminscent flying object gliding from the hillside down along the bay. After observing the pulsing light-greenish light and looking through a monocular night scope for about 20 minutes they lost contact with the object. The next morning, Baugh snapped a picture of a strange clawed print on the muddy beach.

Could it be that a living pterosuar still exists today in PNG? Is this strange luminescence the reason that the ancient prophet refers to the flying serpent as “fiery”?

It seems that the Ropen posseses the ability to turn its internal light on and off at will. Also, reports suggest the presence of a secretion that drips behind when the underbelly glows. Reports suggest that this secretion is alkaline and burns the skin of those who come in contact with the creature!

PNG IS PAPUA NEW GUINEA FOR MORE INFO AND PICTURES GO TO
http://www.livepterosaur.com/ropen-info/

There REALLY ARE more things in heaven and earth…….!!

Please, don’t leave this page until..

you are awakened to Messiah..

we all need to born again from above..His Mercy and Grace are all you need…for therein is His forgiveness.

Make certain Messiah Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.

Its all about Life and Relationship, NOT Religion.

You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.

NOT SURE? YOU CAN BE..

SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…

Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.

I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name. Amen.

THE REVEALING – a conclusion

What is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

The disciples asked the very same questions 2000+ years ago that we also ask today. His answers are the same today as they were to those disciples;  and given an option, it’s probably not what we would choose to hear either. According to Yeshua/Jesus own words, it is not going to be a pleasant time, as this is the time of Gods’ judgment on the rebellious world system.

These following verses which give Matthew and Luke’s account of the same event would seem to indicate that the words parousia and apokalupsis do refer to the SAME ONE COMING OF CHRIST.

In Matthew 24:37 it says …“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming [parousia] of the Son of man be.” … And the same account in Luke 17:26, 30 says … “As it was in the days of Noah … Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed [apokalupsis].” This is how we are to find out the TRUTH. We need to compare scripture with scripture.

So why are the two Greek words used?

Parousia means presence, a VISIBLE return. And Apokalupsis means to reveal, a REVEALING OF THE TRUTH.

So to turn these two words into two separate comings would appear to make no sense.

They both describe the ONE event, the physical, visible, loud, fiery second coming of Christ, in which the truth will be REVEALED!!

26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

29 “Immediately after the distress of those day the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

30 “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.

31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

Yeshua said,

“…when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the midst of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein.

For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

But when these things begin to happen, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.”

Luke 21:20-28

Here are 2 separate events,

the sign of your coming and of the end of the age,

that we may have not really read but have just believed what someone told us without taking the time to check it out for ourselves. People tell you the truth as they know it, especially when they have believed what they were told. We have no reason to doubt someone’s sincerity, however they can be sincerely wrong and what we choose to believe will never change truth.

Loving Caveat:

This post may challenge long held beliefs, as it has for mmm, however living in ignorance and deception due to exposure to false teaching/doctrines in the past does not serve us well for the future. Knowing TRUTH is the only WAY that leads to LIFE and makes us FREE in HIM.

This is not about proving or disproving doctrine, or being right or wrong, as always its about TRUTH and the fact remains, that the ‘rapture’ in and of itself, is not as important as the TRUTH that, Messiah IS coming back for His Bride.

The attempt to condense this post failed miserably!!! To divide again would cause loss of focus in the content….so grab some coffee, or whatever is your yen, get comfortable, an apocalypse is coming, so enjoy the ride! This is most assuredly a Megamannamoment! Much Shalom from 1gratefulheart!

Most important and critical to all studies and conclusions is…What does the scripture say?

What does Yeshua/Jesus say?

1 The sign of your coming

2 The end of the age

The end of the age has the signs of the days of Noe/Noah and Lot. This look into the days of Noah has its own apocalypse, revealing facts that have been obfuscated and lost in time..

The sign of His coming. vs. 27-31

Days of Noah, days of flesh– Natural pursuits of the consumer flesh body.

Verse 28, days of Lot

Eating

(Consuming resources, all of these things are fleshly desires and indulging the flesh)

Drinking

Buying

Selling

Planting

Building

Until the day Lot came out of Sodom and it rained down fire and brimstone/meteors and killed them all!

Days of Noah, verse 26.

Eating

Drinking

Marrying

Being given in marriage, (much perverse unrestrained

behavior and lasciviousness).

Sinned against the animals and plants.

This one above on closer examination, could include genetic modification and interbreeding because they ‘sinned against the animals and plants’. No different to todays scientific trends.

Often overlooked for one reason or another, giants, the offspring of intermingling/interbreeding between humans and fallen angels! (Yes apparently it did happen! Og, Goliath, his brothers and the ones the spies encountered, (The Fallen Ones, Rephaim, etc.) were very real. Gives new meaning to ‘we were as grasshoppers in their sight’ and would explain the oversize/genetically modified grapes?!

They came from somewhere and there were more than just one or two. It’s simply that no one talks about it much as it’s become too controversial! The past gets buried, (literally,) or secreted away in vaults which are generally inaccessible to the public and over centuries, the various cultures collective memories fade as generations pass away. What was once common knowledge becomes the stuff of legend and no 21st century person is going to believe such ‘nonsense’! This may be quite a shock to the senses, however it is no joke and yes, that is 36ft or 10.97 meters! Too many bones have been documented to dismiss this simply as a hoax.

As always we encourage personal research. The mere fact that Genesis 6 mentions them and in connection with the Days of Noah, the correlation to End Times is enough to spark our curiosity. (If that’s you, type Gensix Giants in your browser for a site with information and one that also believes in Jesus.)

Here are several pictures of artifacts that appear to be genuine however, we know not everything on the internet is to be believed. First one was from 1895 before photographs could be manipulated.

Further information can be found at http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6658-giants

Indulging the flesh.

Opposite of abstinence, until the day Noah entered the box/ark and the floods came and killed everybody.

His days were noted by increased fallen angel activity.

Production of Nephilim offspring.

Transhumanism, i.e. creation of hybrids/clones.

Advanced technology.

Rebellion and hostility toward God.

Corruption of Gods creation, human and animal and plant GMO foods and animals.

Inter-dimentional Portals, breaching the barriers between natural and spiritual realms.

Men thinking of themselves as gods.

Worship of other gods.

E.g. 17 August 2018

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/satanic-temple-sparks-uproar-unveiling-083816170.html?guccounter=1

Satanic temple sparks uproar by unveiling statue of goat-headed, winged creature called Baphomet in Arkansas state capitol of Little Rock. U.S.A.

The days of Noah included the building of the ark and of course the flood itself.

Noah was pure/righteous in his generations meaning his DNA was undefiled. His bloodline was directly from Adam. 100% human DNA.

Some of the signs are not immediately obvious and many of the writings mentioned in the scriptures that shed much light on the end times; were not included in the canon of the Bible. (As determined by a small group of men at the council of Nicea.)

One of these is the book of Enoch.

Enoch was a important person, he is mentioned in Genesis 5:24. Enoch was the 7th from Adam, the son of Jared (Gen. 5:18) and the father of Methuselah (5:21; Luke 3:37). ‘He walked with God and was not for God took him’. So he had a very close relationship with God.

 

A little information about Enochs’ book:

We first learn of Enoch in Genesis 5 but it leaves us with questions. Hebrews 11 has the answers and Jude quotes Enoch! How did Jude come to know the words of Enoch? They are not in the Bible. The answer is The Book of Enoch. A book which is actually quoted not only by Jude, but also James the natural brother of Yeshua/Jesus.  The Book of Enoch chapter 68:1 “And after that my grandfather Enoch gave me all the secrets in the book…

The Book of Enoch; (also 1 Enoch; Ge’ez: መጽሐፈ ሄኖክ mets’iḥāfe hēnoki), is an ancient Jewish religious work, ascribed by tradition to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. The older sections, (mainly in the Book of the Watchers,) of the text are estimated to date from about 300 BC, and the latest part (Book of Parables) probably to the first century BC.

The Book of Enoch is not accepted as part of the Canon of Scripture as used by Jews, apart from the Beta Israel canon; nor by any Christian group, apart from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Eritrean Orthodox Church canon.

It is mentioned in Jude 1: 12-15. quoting Enoch 1:9

The quote is as follows: “In the seventh (generation) from Adam Enoch also prophesied these things, saying: ‘Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners spoke against him’.”

James 4:5 Jesus quoted it and so did the apostles

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Mat 5:5) The elect shall possess light, joy and peace, and they shall inherit the earth. (Enoch 5:7 {6:9}) 

the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the son (John 5:22). the principal part of the judgment was assigned to him, the Son of man. (Enoch 69:27 {68:39}) 

shall inherit everlasting life (Mat. 19:29) those who will inherit eternal life (Enoch 40:9 {40:9}) 

“Wo unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. (Luke 6:24) Woe to you who are rich, for in your riches have you trusted; but from your riches you shall be removed. (Enoch 94:8 {93:7}). 

Ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Mat. 19:28) I will place each of them on a throne of glory (Enoch 108:12 {105:26}) 

Woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! It had been good for that man if he had not been born. (Mat. 26:24) Where will the habitation of sinners be . . . who have rejected the Lord of spirits. It would have been better for them, had they never been born. (Enoch 38:2 {38:2}) 

between us and you there is a great gulf fixed. (Luke 16:26) by a chasm . . . [are] their souls are separated (Enoch 22: 9,11{22:10,12}) 

In my Father’s house are many mansions (John 14:2) In that day shall the Elect One sit upon a throne of glory, and shall choose their conditions and countless habitations. (Enoch 45:3 {45:3}) 

that ye may be called the children of light (John 12:36) the good from the generation of light (Enoch 108:11 {105: 25}) 

the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14) all the thirsty drank, and were filled with wisdom, having their habitation with the righteous, the elect, and the holy. (Enoch 48:1 {48:1})

Sep 14, 2016 – In several of the Dead Sea Scrolls there is a complicated network of parallel … papyri showing portions of the Book of Enoch in Greek (P.Mich.inv. … Fragments of these books, Enoch and Jubilees, were also found at Qumran Cave 4: I Enoch in Aramaic,Sep 14, 2016 – In several of the Dead Sea Scrolls there is a complicated network of parallel … papyri showing portions of the Book of Enoch in Greek (P.Mich.inv. …

Doesn’t it seems strange that his book was not included? Reading his descriptions of the things God revealed to him may shed some light on why he was dismissed! Controvertial is a word often associated with Enoch. Makes one want to know why! What did they not want us to read?

For the curious a Free copy can be downloaded as a pdf at this link

The Book of Enoch – Scriptural-Truth.com
or paste the following in your browser
http://scriptural-truth.com/images/BookOfEnoch.pdf

Luke 17:30 it will be according to these things on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Lightning from east to west, clouds, power and great glory, (doxa or shekinah), angels with loud trumpet calls gathering the elect who apparently are still on earth.

It’s Not going to be hard to miss!

There is another option to Daniels 70 weeks suggesting that 69 have already passed and with 1 week left. The thought is that the last week which is indicative of a 7 year period began when Yeshua Messiah was born and further that the half of that ‘week’ was fulfilled by His 3 1/2 years of ministry. The conclusion being that the final 3 1/2 years is the time of Jacobs trouble/tribulation in the last days just prior to His return? An interesting interpretation!

On researching this subject there was no specific reference found in the scriptures pertaining to a literal period called the 7 year tribulation! Like most having been taught and believed in a rapture, it is somewhat disturbing to find the Word of God doesn’t seem to support that belief!

 

Remember when you believed in things like Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy/Father Christmas.

We are ensnared by half truths and fables, (lies) and make believe, since we were little children. We were told stories that were pure fiction and when we find out they are not true we inevitably go through a process.

Shocksomeone we trusted told us something that’s not true

Disbelief don’t want to acknowledge the 1st and still want the ‘lie’ to be truth, so we may choose to continue to believe it until one day there is undeniable proof.

Angerwhy did they do that and now I have to get over the issues

Realitypeople don’t know everything and sometimes they lie! so can you trust what people say?

Sense of loss/sadness our bubble has been burst, our sense of reality has changed. Innocence is being diminished a little more.

Disappointment and disillusionment that we believed something that seemed wonderful only to have the illusion taken away.

There are similar feelings that accompany learning and realizing other ‘truths’. Especially spiritual ones!

Some are much more serious than a bunny and old men in red costumes.

However there is nothing worse than finding out something after the fact that is contrary to our strongly held opinions and doctrines and worse someone knew and could have told you.. Wouldn’t we rather know the truth however unpalatable and inconvenient at the time and have to deal with it now, and not when it’s too late? How many millions are going to cry out, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about salvation through Jesus/Yeshua’? Why didn’t you make me listen?

The Truth will make you free and it is the Way that leads to Life.

How can we be prepared if we don’t know what to be prepared for?

Charts showing various sequences of end time events

There is no debate of whether or not a type of rapture (as in Messiah/Jesus is coming for the saints) will occur; the Bible is clear on that question. There are 2 Comings He came the 1st time and He will return which is the second coming.

The catching away does not scripturally fit with a separate rapture, that is, apart from at the second coming!

What if there is not such a thing as the rapture as has been taught?

The Rapture is the belief that faithful Christians will be bodily caught up from the earth, suddenly taken out of the world, avoiding all the bad end time tribulation, to be united with the Lord in the air.  

However, not only did Yeshua/Jesus not mention a rapture, but the word “rapture” as such, does not occur in the Bible. 

What if we are looking for the wrong event?!

It’s all in the timing.

Reading the scriptures carefully gave pause for thought and after confirming some facts, the findings are presented here.

Yes, Messiah Yeshua/Jesus is coming

for the believers who are ready

and looking for His coming.

However, it clearly says in Thessalonians that those who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with Him in the clouds

BUT..it also says..

that our being taken up to be with the Lord will not precede the resurrection of the dead in Christ!

So when is the resurrection of the dead? Whenever that occurs….we are next!

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first. 

Then we who are alive, who are left, 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 encourage one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:13–18,

The Greek term meaning “caught up” is harpazo, which means to seize suddenly or snatch. In Latin the word is rapio, which means to seize and carry away; it is from this Latin word that the term “rapture” comes.

The word ‘rapture’ is in the Bible if you have the Latin Vulgate!

Seems like we should be looking for the resurrection of the saints instead!

1 Corinthians 15:50-52 tells us that we shall be changed at the last trump. The LAST, that means there is not another trump after that one!

While it is true, that the word rapture is found no place in our English Bibles, it comes from the Latin word rapturo, (Latin) which means the very same thing as the Greek word harpazo (Greek) in 1Thessalonians 4:17.

1 Thessalonians 4:14 For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Yeshua will Elohiym bring with Him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Father/YHWH, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Father/YHWH shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Father/YHWH himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of Elohiym: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up [harpazo, rapturo] together with them in the clouds, to meet the Father/YHWH in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Father/YHWH.

 

This Greek word harpazo in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 means the following: to seize, to catch away, to pluck, pull, take (by force), and it has the very same meaning as the Latin word rapturo.

It is also the same word in Hebrew for taken in 2 Kings 2:11 which is laqach when Elijah was taken in a chariot of fire:

#3947 laqach law-kakh’ a primitive root; to take (in the widest variety of application): —accept, bring, buy, carry away, drawn, fetch, get, infold, many, mingle, place, receive(-ing), reserve, seize, send for, take (away, up), use, win.

It is important to point all of this out because there are some that would try to argue that there is no such thing as a rapture/catch away but this is not the case. The issue is timing and that it has a different name. 

As already stated this word does not appear in our English Bibles, the word rapturo (Latin) or harpazo (Greek) or laqach (Hebrew), all mean the very same thing, as when the bridegroom comes and seizes his bride and carries her away into the marriage.

The five wise virgins will be taken into the marriage, while the five foolish virgins will be left out of the marriage, and then the door will be shut.

Interestingly, the Hebrew & Greek meaning for taken means to take into marriage while the Hebrew & Greek meaning for the word left means to divorce or forsake.

Some teach and believe, the ones who are taken is the bride of Messiah into a set-apart place, and then she returns with Him on white horses after a seven-day wedding.

The ones who are left behind are the ones who are going to be eaten by the birds of prey down here on earth on the Day of Wrath! (Revelation 19:21).

Matthew 24: 29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

There is no debate among Bible scholars as to whether there will be a catching away/rapture, but much discussion has occurred over when the catching away/rapture will occur.

We must guard against the ‘itchy ears’ and ‘superficially interested’ in doctrine, or the desire for knowledge; just because we are satisfying our curiosity and want to be ‘in the know’! For we are to be doers of the Word and put into practice what we learn or it is not worth anything.

There have been five main theories put forward as to the timing of the rapture and they all surround what is known in prophetic biblical teaching as the “tribulation” period, which is mentioned by Jesus/Yeshua in Matthew 24 and described in great detail in Revelation 4—19.

The five hypotheses are:

First: Post-tribulation – believers are raptured at the end of the tribulation period, when Messiah returns in judgment  (Revelation 19).
Second: Pre-wrath – believers are caught up somewhere between the sixth and seventh seals described in Revelation.
Third: Mid-tribulation – living believers are taken in the middle of the tribulation period.
Fourth: A Partial rapture – only faithful believers are taken to be with Messiah at the beginning of the tribulation, with unfaithful Christians being left to endure it.
Fifth: (and most favored) A Pre-tribulation – believers are caught up to be with Messiah before the tribulation begins.

 

Here are a few brief historical facts

Research reveals that the origin is in fact from an interpretation by John Nelson Darby, considered by many to be the father of dispensationalism, he first proposed and popularized the pre-Tribulation Rapture in 1827-31 and it was further used by Darby and Schofield and then enhanced by the intricate detailed charts by Larkin.

Preached and taught so may times, it became a doctrine and was adopted by various denominations and even inspired movies and books like the left behind series.

This view was accepted among many other Plymouth Brethren movements in England. Darby and other prominent Brethren were part of the Brethren Movement which impacted American Christianity, especially with movements and teachings associated with eschatology and fundamentalism, primarily through their writings.

Influences included the Bible Conference Movement, starting in 1878 with the Niagara Bible Conference. These conferences, which were initially inclusive of historicist and futurist premillennialism, led to an increasing acceptance of futurist premillennial views and the pre-Tribulation Rapture especially among Presbyterian, Baptist and Congregational members.

[32] Popular books also contributed to acceptance of the pre-Tribulation Rapture, including William Eugene Blackstone’s book Jesus is Coming published in 1878[33] and which sold more than 1.3 million copies, and the Scofield Reference Bible, published in 1909 and 1919 and revised in 1967.

The main scripture used is Thessalonians 4: 16-17 where The word rapture is a transliteration of the greek word used and translated as caught up.

The term “caught up” in the verse is where we get the term “rapture.” This is because the Latin Vulgate translated the Greek word “harpazo” into the Latin word “rapiemur.” Both of these words have the idea of a violent snatching away, or capture.

Source(s): Latin Vulgate

If the rapture theory is a true Biblical teaching. Why was it not well known and popularized until the early 20th century?

Amillennialists and premillennialists use First Thessalonians 4:17 to teach that, in the future, Jesus will materially appear in the sky in such a way as to be visible and physically “rapture” the saved from the planet to meet Him in the air, and then to be materially changed and taken to Heaven.

First Thessalonians 4:17: Then [after the dead in Christ rise, v. 16] we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

The phrase caught up comes from the Greek harpazo which means to seize (Strong’s, Thayer’s, Bauer’s, et. al.; cf. Septuagint of Lev. 6:4 & Jug. 21:21 & 23), and Vine’s and Bauer’s specifically says that a suddenness is involved in the term. (A twinkling of an eye [1 Cor. 15:52] kind of suddenness you think.) An examination of harpazo reveals some interesting information:

It’s derived from the Greek term from which we get our word “heresy“—the term hairesis, which Vine’s says refers to ‘a … choice’ (from [the verb] haireomai [meaning] to choose’). Strong’s says that haireomai means “to take for oneself, i.e. to prefer—choose” (cf. Bauer, Mat. 11:12); i.e., so it’s a choice based on one’s preference.

The Greek term harpazo also carries with it the idea of “oneness,” i.e. making those things or … people … which a person prefers and chooses one with himself, implying of course that they are or become one with each other in the process. An illustration of a biblical example from the Septuagint (the Greek version of the OT):

In Job 24:19 harpazo is used of assimilation of water and sinners: As drought and heat consume the snow water, so the grave consumes those who have sinned.

Two of the scriptures focused on are Matt:24:41: Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Again consider that it’s the wicked one that is removed and the believer left, as in days of Noah and Lot!

and

1Thessalonians 5:4: You [the Thessalonians], brethren, are NOT in darkness so that this day should overtake you [the Thessalonian brethren] as a thief.

Who didn’t have an excuse of being overtaken by the day of the Lord? The Thessalonian Christians. Why? Because they not only knew the signs of Matthew 24, they believed in the Lord who spoke them, meaning that they had no reason to let anything bother them.

This is meaning that believers will NOT be in darkness NOR will it come like a thief for us, however it will come as a thief in the night for those unsaved and not ready. If we are in the light and ready we will see Him coming. We will hear the trumpet.

The sequence through the year being an annual rehearsal of the actual events that will all take place fulfilling what each of the 7 festivals/feasts/appointed days represent. The spring feasts have been fulfilled the fall/autumn ones are said to be also when Messiah returns.

They give detail about the first coming including the date on which He would arrive, the manner of His death, on the birth of the ecclesia the called out ones /church/ecclesia.

The rituals/ feasts speak of a natzal (or rapture) and also of a terrible time called the Yamin Noraim. Days of Acharit ha-yamin, the latter days, is the time of the promise of restoration of Israel.

Only when they are in tribulation, b’tzar lekha, as declared in Deut. 4:30-31. This agrees with Yeshua’s words in Matt. 24:21, foretelling of Israel’s coming troubles in the latter days.

Only after they cry out calling for Him to come saying,

blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.

Baruch haba be’shem Adonai.

Maybe that’s what we as believers need to be calling out?

Maranatha come Messiah Yeshua/Jesus in reference to Yeshua. Then they will they be delivered during the 70 birthpangs of the Messiah, otherwise called,

Chevlei Mashiach   חֶבְלֵי מָשִׁיחַ

(חֶבְלֵי הַמָּשִׁיחַ) the “birth pangs of the Messiah” (Sanhedrin 98a; Ketubot, Bereshit Rabbah 42:4)

or the Time of Jacobs Trouble.

This is the time immediately before the coming of the Mashiach. The world will undergo various forms of tribulation and is called Ikvot Meshichecha the Footsteps of the Messiah. A phrase that comes from Psalm 89:51.

It is this great test of faith during the Chevlei Mashiach that frightened Rabbi Yochanan to the point that he said, Let the Messiah come, but may I not see it!?

The years which are viewed as the birth pangs of Mashiach, are said to last for seven years, during which Israel will be refined spiritually in preparation of His arrival.

The 7 years is a combination of 2 periods of time of 1,260 days each.

(Matthew) 24:21: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

We need to read that scripture again!

(We gloss over it and do not fully understand the ramifications it implies, especially if we have believed we are to be ‘raptured out’ of here before any of that happens!)

Now we can see that the word time in the phrase times, time and a half times can actually mean several things. If we take the word, time, (mowed/moed), to mean a literal year, then the phrase means the following:

time = mowed in Hebrew = 1 year

times = two years

half times = six months

hence, times, times, half times = 3.5 years

We see that during this time the two witnesses will have a ministry of 1,260 days (3.5 years)

It makes it hard to continue to believe that we will be taken up to meet Messiah in the air before the Great Tribulation, when Matthew 24:29 makes it abundantly clear that Messiah will gather His elect, (we the believers), immediately AFTER the tribulation?

In order to ascribe to a pre-tribulation catching away of the bride, we would have to believe in two raptures for the righteous, but the Bible says in Revelation 20 that there are only two resurrections for two groups of people:

1.) One for the righteous and this is called the first resurrection.

2.) One for the wicked after the 1,000 years are finished.

In 1Thessalonians 4:16-17 the Apostle Paul/Sha’uwl says: ‘the dead in Messiah shall rise first, then we which remain shall meet them in the air.’

So as soon as we see the Abomination of Desolation, then shall be great tribulation (Matthew 24:15-21). The 2 witnesses will prophesy 1,260 days (3.5 years) and the false Messiah will speak blasphemies for 42 months (3.5 years).

The last half of Daniel’s 70th Week (3.5 years), picks up with the Anti-Messiah setting up ‘The Abomination of Desolation’, in the 3rd Jewish Temple, and this it appears is when the Tribulation period actually begins. (Matthew 24:15-21).

Concurrently, the two witnesses in Revelation 11 will also have a ministry that lasts for 1,260 days (3.5 years).

Jacobs’s Time of Trouble is for a time, times and a half, according to Daniel 12 & Revelation 12. As previously noted, the word time in Hebrew and Greek means one year and so time = 1 year; times = 2 years; half times = 6 months, hence 3.5 years. There is no place in scripture that specifically says that the Tribulation is ‘7’ consecutive years; although 1,260 days x 2 = 3.5 years x 2 = 2,520 days = 7 years!

The word tribulation both in Greek & Hebrew literally means persecution.

When they build the 3rd Jewish Temple, the man of sin, will sit in the temple and demand to be worshiped as God (2Thess. 2:4). Then he will probably become possessed, supposedly by the Messiah Jesus, but it will actually be Satan.

(There is already a strange rumor that they have cloned Jesus from the DNA found in the Shroud of Turin. Which it was thought was the burial cloth of Messiah and has recently been disproven).

Messiah Yeshua is said to make his appearance during the eighth ‘year’.

On the eight day, at the beginning of the eight day [also meaning “year”] the baby is to have its foreskin removed – i.e. the concept of a foreskin which acts as a barrier between man and God. We read in Zachariah(13:2) that God will destroy the spirit of impurity form the earth. This is believed that it will occur during the eighth year.

Some scholars say Yom Kippur is also the same day when Jesus/Yeshua Mashiyach, was circumcised as a baby boy, eight days after Hs birth; and some say it may have been on (our calendar) September 11th in 3 B.C.; which happened to fall on the Feast of Trumpets that year or Yom Teruw’ah. 

Why would the Messiah be circumcised on Yom Kippur? His Blood was sprinkled as an infant because His Blood would later on be the Blood of the Lamb that would be sprinkled on the Mercy Seat for Israel/Yisra’el. Hence, the blood released when His foreskin was removed is like the veil to our hearts that is removed when our hearts are circumcised. (Deuteronomy 10:16, Jeremiah 4:4, Romans 2:28). Interestingly in these aspects, it could be said that He fulfilled all three of the Fall Feasts at His birth, for He was born on Yom Teruw’ah (Feast of Trumpets), circumcised on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and He also dwelled in a sukkah (manger) with His parents during Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)!

(Ps. 19:5, Joel 2:16) the children of wrath who are caught off guard by, the thief in the night, are having bowls of wrath being poured out upon them and they still won’t repent. (Dan. 12:10, 1Thess. 5:2, Rev.16:15).

And then after 1000 years, we will go into the 8th day or the 8th millennium, which parallels to the last day of The Feast of Tabernacles. At the end of the Millennium, this present earth that we know of will pass away. This temporary earth, or shelter, that we dwell on, will be replaced by a New Heaven & a New Earth (Rev. 21:1).

At the end of the Millennium on the Last Great Day will be the white throne judgment seat of Messiah. (Rev. 20:11-15)

In a Hebrew Wedding custom, the bride is given a three-day notice that the groom is on the way. She hears the shouts from a three day’s journey in the distance and she knows that sometime within those three days, he will be there to catch her away. It is said that this could very well be the same period of 3 ½ days where the Two Witnesses will have their dead bodies lying in the streets and then at the sound of the 7th angel (7th trumpet), they are resurrected. (Rev. 11:11-15).

Here is why this feast is prophetically called, The day that no man knows. Not only does the bride not know the precise timing of when the bridegroom will arrive; (although she knows the approximate timing), but the enemy is not made privy to this timing, so that he cannot come and kidnap the bride away!

Another reason why Yom Teruw’ah is called, The day that no man knows, is because it cannot be determined by a fixed time on the calendar. It can only be determined by the first sighting of the new moon by the Two Witnesses. 

Also, in a Hebrew Wedding custom, the bridegroom (not wanting to make known the exact timing of his arrival to the enemy), tells the nosey people who inquire about the wedding date, no man knows the day nor the hour – only my father knows! (Matthew 24:36). This is a Hebrew Idiom for the Feast of Trumpets.

Only the wise will understand that all these trials and pains of the Chevlei Mashiach are part of a consecutive series of events orchestrated by God in which each new birth pang unfolds a notable occurence and is absolutely crucial and brings us that much closer to our desired goal of future redemption. But many will not understand and will not pass the test.

Zion will be comforted when Messiah Yeshua is received by Israel as the rightful king and He will set up His Kingdom for 1000 year reign of true Shalom. For those non Yeshua believing Israelites, it is the first coming of their Messiah.

We need to get the timeline in correct order. The 7 (messianic) festivals, are the biblical appointed times, God commanded the ancient Israelites to observe.

This is the reason why He commands His covenant people to celebrate and observe His seven annual feast days; ‘as a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.’ (Lev. 23:21). He wants His bride to be ready when He returns, therefore, He has given her these seven feasts as “holy convocations” (Lev. 23:8).
The Hebrew word for convocation, literally means a rehearsal. What is the bride rehearsing for?

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb, as described in Revelation 19:7.  Without these seven feasts, the bride will not be ready to meet the bridegroom!
This is the reason why the traditional Christian Church does not fully understand prophecy. It is because some are keeping the counterfeit holidays of the Anti-Messiah, such as Christmas, New Years Day in January, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday, Easter Sunday, etc. These counterfeit holidays are patterned after the false Messiahs of the Roman Empire with their Julian & Gregorian calendars and are designed to keep us off course and in the dark concerning the times and seasons of Messiah.

This is why Rev. 18:4 commands followers of Messiah to ‘Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.’

The true bride will not mistake the timing of her bridegroom’s return, because she knows The Times & Seasons (1Thes. 5:1), which are The Appointed Times, Moedim/Mowediym, the seven annual feast days or rehearsals. There are those in the Christian Church who believe that our Messiah’s return is imminent, meaning that it can happen at any time. The justification for believing in His imminent return is a mis-understanding/mis-interpretation of

1Thess. 5:

2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of YHWH so comes as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

From Paul’s warning, it says that only those who are in darkness are expecting His return to be like a thief in the night, but the children of light know when to expect His return, because they are already rehearsing His seven annual feast days!
The idea that the ‘Church’ will be taken by surprise without warning into what is commonly called The Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Once we realize that the bride is given clear instructions to observe the seven annual feasts from year-to-year it really has no scriptural foundation. These are the times and the seasons spoken of by Paul in 1Thess. 5:1 which are to help the bride to make herself ready, and to light her path into the marriage supper.

Rev.20:6 …’Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.’

There is no mistaking that there is a time period that is going to be a 1000 years, but when does it start? The popular mainstream teaching is that after the church is raptured, the saints spend 7 years in heaven with Messiah Jesus, while the great tribulation happens on earth. Then after the 7 years, they believe the church comes back to earth with Jesus where He will reign from Israel for a 1000 years.

From the following verse it indicates that the first resurrection may startsthe thousand year millennium.

Matt. 24:30-31 …’And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.’

1 Thess. 4:16-17 …’For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’

So we have the second coming of Messiah in the above scripture, where He sends out His angels to gather the saved. The ‘dead in Christ’ rise first and then those who are Messiah’s and still alive at His coming, they are caught up with those who have been resurrected and they meet Messiah in the air.

A vital point to remember about the second coming of Christ, is that He does not touch the ground when He returns, we meet Him in the air. So this is the first resurrection above, and is it the starting point of the 1000 year millennium?

In Rev. 20:5 it says that ‘the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished’. The rest of the dead are those who are lost (the wicked), that were either killed at the second coming, or were already dead at Christ’s coming.  To support with scripture that the lost living at the second coming, ARE killed, look at the following verses:

Lk. 17:26-30 …’And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all … Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.’

When Messiah returns, the lost will be destroyed. Just like in the flood and the fire judgment of Sodom, ALL the lost were destroyed and only the righteous were left alive. And when does Revelation say the lost are resurrected? AFTER the 1000yrs.

The following verses describing what the earth will be like after the second coming of Christ …

Isa. 13:13 …’Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.’

Isa. 24:1 …‘Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste,

and turneth it upside down,

and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.’

To put it back to where it once was

Jeremiah 4:23-26 …’I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.’

Verse 27 of Jeremiah 4 says that the whole land is desolate, but God will not make a complete end. This matches with the truth that the earth will be ‘made new’, and we will inhabit this ‘earth made new’ after the 1000 years. So God is not going to totally destroy this world. He is going to ‘burn up’ all things in it (2 Peter 3:10) and then renew it (2 Peter 3:13).

Jer. 25:33 …’And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.

The wicked are destroyed at Messiah’s second coming. The saints go to heaven with Him.

One interpretation gained from the scripture above, is that the earth will lay desolate for the 1000 years! Is it telling us this is what the earth will be like during the thousand year millennium? If so, it won’t be a happy, peaceful place where Messiah reigns over the nations, it will be desolate, laid waste and empty! Could it imply that to Satan it will be as a “bottomless pit” to which he is bound for the thousand years? Time will show us if that scenario is accurate or not.

However by all accounts it seems l that we should be looking for the resurrection of the saints!

Jesus/Yeshua, was the first fruit resurrection from the dead. Then many people came out of their graves and walked into the city! Was this also a resurrection? If we are still alive at His coming, we will not be ‘resurrected’ but changed/transformed in the twinkling of an eye, at the speed of light!

Paul teaches that Christ will come at some future point in time for those who belong to Him. Those who are the “dead in Christ” will experience their resurrection first and be gifted with glorified bodies when He comes. Those believers in Christ who are alive at that time will then be instantly transformed from their earthly state to their eternal state, and will not experience death. Instead, they will be caught up, to be with all those who have previously gone on, to be with the Lord and be transferred to heaven. Paul speaks about this generation of believers who will not taste death when he says, “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, (die) but we shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51).

This is a resurrection, a transforming. We will have to have new bodies because Corruptible cannot go into the presence of a Holy God and must put on immortality/incorruption.

The idea of just living our lives with a, ‘someday being raptured away before anything gets bad,’ may not be the reality, for the years of tribulation include all the events which are listed in Revelation.

Are we spiritually and physically prepared to endure to the end, however long that may be? Partway into the last years? Halfway in? or longer? There is nothing that tells us an absolute, except the resurrection of those who have died in Him. However it does point to His second coming at the end of the tribulation period.

Mathew 24:13 But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.

To endure means “to remain firm in a commitment to be true to the commandments of God despite temptation, opposition, and adversity.”

It would be easy on the flesh and soul to believe we get ‘scooped up’, before any of the events described actually begin. Many 1000’s of our brothers and sisters are however going through horrendous persecution for their testimony of salvation in Yeshua all around the world. Being wrong about the ‘Rapture’, would be fine in this instance, however better to believe the worst and hope for the best and be spiritually prepared for whatever unfolds as time moves forward.

However The Day and Hour is Unknown

36 No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

As to when the so called rapture will take place, no one knows the exact timing of the event. Messiah confirms this in Luke when He says, “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:40).

Again being prepared and not needing it, is preferable to the shock that we were not ready and be one of those who hearts fail them for fear of what is coming!

That sounds pretty serious!

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

Fill those lamps with oil!

We must guard against the ichy ears and being superficially interested in doctrine or the desire for knowledge just because we are satisfying our curiosity and want to ‘be in the know’! For we are to be doers of the Word and put into practice what we learn, or it is not worth anything.

If our doctrine and beliefs are sound and on the firm foundation of the Rock of His Word and we maintain a deep relationship with Him, they will stand the storm of scrutiny.

This is simply to determine if we have some hard times ahead and what to expect and to give us an opportumity to be more prepared than we are today.

Just remember for believers, its NOT the end, it’s a transition into the next part of Fathers plan.

John 14:1-3 …’Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.’

 Jesus said “I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I AM there ye may be”. 

Whatever is used to try and deceive prior to Messiah’s return, whether its pseudo aliens who supposedly created us, (which are in reality demons, evil spirits and fallen angels,) we know the devil is behind it.

Looking at the above verses, there will be no mistaking it when He does appear.

So for all believers, the apocalypse the revealing is NOT a one time incident, or some event to fear, but something to look at, as a way of being shown things we did not know before. Information that we can better understand concerning what The Ruach of the Father is trying to tell us. When we receive knowledge, then we are accountable for what we have been told.

It’s often a way of waking up a sleepy group of people and encouraging them to go forward, to grow and mature; and we can in fact live in the intimacy and safety of His Shalom presence, even while we remain here. Just as His chosen ones in the days of Noah and Lot, if we are in Him, we will be taken through the things to come.

We need to be about our father’s business, busy doing His commands and not focused on being scooped out of here avoiding any hard times. Let’s look to the author and finisher of our faith and trust His plan. Nothing is going to take Him by surprise and with Him nothing is impossible.

In a nutshell what we are being told is that,

If you seek to keep your life you will lose it, if you lose it you will preserve it alive.

Loving not our lives unto death but focused on Him just as Stephen did.

Flesh always wants the soft option and inevitably chooses the easy road. We are not of those who shrink back but are those who are to be very courageous.

The righteous are bold as lions (of Judah)

There are multiplied 1000’s of our brothers and sisters around the world who are tortured suffering and dying for their faith every day. If we cannot physically change their situation we can pray for them and in turn God will raise up intercessors for our needs.

Chazown (Revelation) 22:17 

And the Ruwach ha’Qodesh (Holy Spirit) and the bride say, ComeAnd let him that hears say, Come…”

Be encouraged family we are awaiting the return of our King and He will NOT disappoint us. You are greatly loved!

May His Shalom surround, guard and keep you in Name of Yeshua, the author and finisher of our faith.

PLEASE Don’t leave this page before you make certain Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him because…

the sands of your TIME on earth are running out!

You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.

Its all about Life and Relationship, not Religion.

NOT SURE? YOU CAN BE..

SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…

Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.

I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name. Amen.

Shavuot 2 x 3000 = A Marriage Made in Heaven – Conclusion

According to the scriptures, at the Beginning when God’s relationship with His creation was broken through disobedience/sin, He had to send them out of His presence. However He was already working on the plan of redemption and restoration, which was declared in Genesis, the book of Beginnings.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Berashit bara Elohim ET את Ha Shamayim V’ET ואת Ha Aretz.

When Jesus/Yeshua said “I am the Alpha and the Omega” Greek (Alef Tav את in Hebrew/Aramaic) (Rev.22:13), He was possibly meaning much more than just that.

Was He saying He was there in the beginning?

(This can be said to be true, if we believe that He said, If you have seen Me you have seen the Father and I and My Father are One.)

to see more on this click link below

NAIL I AM

Continued from Part 1:

Before The Lord/Adonai could fulfill the promise of a Redeemer, He made various covenants with people of faith including Noah, Abraham and Moses. Each time His people chose to worship/serve other gods and betrayed their relationship with Him.

Often described in scripture terms as equal to adultery committed in a marriage covenant relationship.

Each time it did not end well and their enemies conquered them, exile and captivity ensued. After the years of bondage and slavery in Egypt He answered their cry and prepared Moses to lead them to freedom where He wanted to bring them into a stronger covenant relationship; which was the equivalent, in mutual commitment, to a covenant of marriage.

This was completed at Sinai.

This legal agreement enabled Adonai to instruct the building of the Ark for His presence to dwell with them and fulfill His part of the covenant in many ways.

After generations of living in the promised land, Israel was again unfaithful to their commitment and again enemies conquered and led them captive. Adonai was waiting to fulfill the promise of a re-new-ed covenant; a better one that would not require continual animal sacrifices of blood to atone for sin. It could be said in other words that He wanted a fresh start and to re-marry Israel.

However from the original decrees, the only way for an individual to remarry was if a spouse died. So to betroth Himself once again to His people, the redemptive plan was that He came and died and then made the new covenant in His own blood, so that once and for all time it would pay the required price for sin. According to scripture, we are part of His espoused bride-to-be; we are in covenant with Him and engaged to Him, waiting on the return of our bridegroom, to complete His purpose and reunite us with Him.

Shavuot 2 x 3000 = A Marriage made in Heaven – Our God is a consuming fire. Conclusion and connections:

We too have been set free and received salvation to serve Him, to follow Him to embrace His Word, His Will, His Way and in our submission to His will, we become part of His purposes and plans. To receive His salvation and then continue to live our own lives, our way, is tantamount to a child receiving a gift in return for the promise of doing a task; who then takes the gift but never fulfills the promise of the commitment they made in agreeing to do their part.

The Hebrew understanding of Believe is that of change. Although repentance basically means to change your mind; it means to turn around and head the opposite direction. We are to be not only hearers but doers also.

The fire of God brings cleansing. Malachi tells us it’s a spirit of burning. Why do we need it? Because in Jeremiah 17:9 the word says

I the LORD search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

This fire of judgment in the re-new-ed covenant is to burn away all that will stand between us and His continuing Presence.

 

Those who have walked through the fire leave sparks of light everywhere they go.

The Holy Spirit creates the passion of God in our hearts. After the two traveling disciples talk with the resurrected Jesus, they describe their hearts as “burning within us” (Luke 24:32).

After the disciples receive the Ruach/Spirit at Shavuot/Pentecost, they have a passion that lasts a lifetime and compels them to speak the word of God boldly (Acts 4:31). Even unto death, as all except John were killed.

As we invite Him, to sit with us, (spiritually speaking), and open the scriptures to us. As we read His word, our hearts will burn within us. 

The prophet Malachi 3:1-6 wrote that the Lord would send His messenger of the covenant, and asks who will be able to stand, to endure in that day, … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

For He is like a refiner’s fire and … by the ministry of His Word and the convictions of His Spirit/Ruach..

For He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. … It says in Malachi 4:5, … “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.”

Like a refiner’s fire, which separates the precious metal from the refuse.

So according to Malachi, God will begin refining us with fire, … the Spirit of God is in us, refining us, this is what the fire of Pentecost is and does for us. Many refer to it as baptism in the Holy Spirit.

There are several main parallels between the 2 events:

One parallel is fire. At both Shavuots, fire was present. At Mt. Sinai, we are told that God Himself descended as fire. He was the fire that engulfed the mountain. In the Upper Room, He was in ‘tongues of fire’ descending upon the disciples.

We can deduce from the texts that if He descended on the mountain as fire, it’s a safe conclusion that He was also the fire that descended on the disciples in the Upper Room.

A common misconception is that until that day, the Holy Spirit was not present in the world. Yet we read at various places in the Bible where it is clearly stated that the Spirit of God was present before the outpouring at Shavuot.

Some of these instances, include the creation of the world (and specifically the creation of man), the Psalms consistently declaring the praises and wonders of His Spirit, and references in Haggai, Nehemiah, Zechariah, and Isaiah that the Spirit of God taught and directed Israel.

In addition, the Spirit of the Lord filled the people with the knowledge of how to build the Temple and its furnishings. The Spirit instructed Moses how and whom to appoint as the 70 elders. Joseph, Joshua, Saul, David, the Judges of Israel, and the prophets of Adonai are all said to have had the Spirit of God upon them. These are just a few, of the many examples, to show how extensively the Holy Spirit of God was present in the world before the Upper Room.

Fire is also a commonality because it is typically related to cleansing and judgment.

Think of all the times we see fire used as a tool of God.

Is it possible these times were also instances of the Holy Spirit of God? What does it tell us about the connection between judgment, His Spirit, and cleansing/purification?

Another parallel is that, in both cases, after the Spirit of God appeared, He then presents His people with the Torah/Teaching/Instruction/Scripture. Holy Spirit was present at Sinai and Shavuot filling the people with knowledge.

At Mt. Sinai the Torah was given twice on stone tablets through Moses. In the Upper Room, the Torah was written on the hearts of believers directly through His Spirit.

Deuteronomy 31:16-21 

Here these verses indicate that God knew the covenant written on stone tablets would be broken. He knew before they ever sinned against Him that their necks would be stiff and their hearts would be hard.

However, God also foretold of a time when He would renew this covenant with His people and would write His Torah on their hearts.

“See, the days are coming,” declares The Lord, “when I shall make a renewed covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, … I shall put My Torah in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts. And I shall be their Elohim, and they shall be My people. Jeremiah 31:31-34

Adonai says that He is going to make a new – or renewed – covenant with the House of Israel. Notice, however, that the Lord’s new covenant still involves Torah. The new covenant that we as believers are part of still requires us to guard and observe God’s Word/ Torah/Teaching/Instruction/Scripture.

It is common doctrine in today’s churches that Christians no longer have to keep ‘Torah’ as part of the new covenant under grace. But clearly, it seems The Lord never actually said that. He tells us that He intends to release His people from their captivity (of sin) and that He would then write His Torah in our inward parts and on our hearts. Why would He do that if it was no longer pertinent to salvation and relationship with Him?

He is essentially saying that He will make Torah a part of us; that it will be so precious to us and so inseparable from our lives that it actually becomes part of our makeup; and that we can never be separated from His Torah/Teaching/Instruction/Scripture.

Hence the Word was made flesh and lived among us. He is the Living Word the Bread from the Heavens, The Bread of Life. In the beginning was the Word….. John 1:1

Messiah Jesus/Yeshua told us to ‘Eat My Flesh’ meaning to take Him into ourselves. He is our daily Manna. We are to chew, ponder/think on and digest/absorb Him/His Words.

Tradition has it that when the Torah was given on Mt. Sinai, it was given in 70 different languages.

Perhaps this is also a foreshadowing of the division at Tower of Babel into 70 languages and of the captivity in many nations which Israel would find herself in generations later? Is it because of this captivity foretold by The Lord that it became necessary for the disciples to speak in many languages? Jesus/Yeshua had to send the disciples out to the nations because that is where the captives of Israel were! This is why it so important to believe that we are part of Israel…just as Ruth did.

Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures… just as He did in Emmaus. Saying that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these matters. And see, I am sending the Promise of My Father upon you, but you are to remain in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high. Luke 24:44-49

See post https://www.minimannamoments.com/seeing-jesus-on-the-way/

Malachi called prophetically for the WAY to be Prepared

One more connection that now makes sense, is with John who in his call to repentance, makes us aware of our need for a Savior. Scripture refers to this again when it states that Mark says that “John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Mark goes on to say that “this was his message: ‘After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’” (Mark 1:4,7,8)

Usually when we think of the call for us to repent, we think that it means that we are to be sorry for our sins. But this is not repentance. It is choosing to turn away from our sinful ways and head in a different direction. And this is precisely what John the Baptist called for the people of his day, and also calls for us, to do.

The Israelites passing through the Reed/Red sea was the prophetic shadow of being immersed by water baptism.

John is telling us of the need we have. He is reminding us that we like to head off in wicked, (out of harmony with God’s), directions and down other trails, like Emmaus roads and the one back to Egypt. He is sharing with us our need to repent. He is preparing us and our hearts for Messiah Jesus by reminding us of our spiritual situation.

John isn’t giving us the answer to the problem, he is just reminding us of the problem. He is reminding us that we are sinful beings, in need of a Savior. John’s message prepares us for Messiah Jesus’ message, then He enters the scene and meets the needs that John has reminded us we have.

Messiah Jesus/Yeshua, through His incarnation, through His life and teaching, through His death and resurrection, offers us the path to true repentance. Messiah’s death and resurrection doesn’t make sense if you don’t understand our need for it as John shares it. John’s call to repentance is impossible to truly follow if we don’t have Messiah Jesus to live that out for us and sacrifice Himself for us.

Acts 2: 1-8, 12-21, 37-41

And when the Day of the Festival or Feast of Weeks, [Shavuot], Pentecost had come, they were all with one mind in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from the heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared to them divided*tongues, as of fire, and settled on each one of them.

And they were all filled with the Set-apart Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them to speak.

Now in Jerusalem there were dwelling Jews, dedicated men from every nation under the heaven. And when this sound came to be, the crowd came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying to each other, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how do we hear, each one in our own language in which we were born?”

*(Divided tongues was with reference to clean /unclean animals so more than likely this was a sign to confirm to them that it was a kosher spirit of holiness.)

And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each one of you be immersed in the Name of Yeshua Messiah for the forgiveness of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Set-apart Spirit. (The Ecclesia the called out ones the congregation of believers in Jesus, Messiah Yeshua.) For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as The Lord God our Elohim shall call.” And with many other words he earnestly witnessed and urged them, saying, “Be saved from this crooked generation.” Then those, indeed, who gladly received his word, were immersed. And on that day about 3000 beings were added to them.

Back to Malachi 3 again.  It begins by talking about a messenger who will prepare the way but then it tells us that, “suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come.” This is a different messenger.

This messenger of the covenant is Messiah Himself. And His coming isn’t necessarily going to be the wonderful thing that we all look forward to. Let us continue in Malachi, “who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”

It doesn’t sound like the most comfortable process! And yet this is what we are told that Jesus is and does for us. Again, this only becomes the good thing that it is when we accept John the Baptist’s message that tells us of our need to repent. Moreover when we do repent, when we do turn ourselves over to Jesus, we discover that He is a launderer’s soap, that He is a refiner’s fire. And for a brief time this whole Discipleship life doesn’t seem like the most wonderful thing we imagine. However without our enduring some heat how could there be refining fires? Many do not make it…

Some people are lost in the flames of the fire and some are built from it.

This refiner’s fire: Not only is Jesus the refiner’s fire, He went through it Himself. The refiner’s fire that Jesus puts us through; He went through it and suffered and died for our sake so that we would not have to deal with the flames. In becoming the type of the sacrificial red heifer that was burned, Jesus took that fire upon Himself, though He did not have to, and Jesus offers us salvation from our sins because of what He did.

He then tells us that if we truly want to follow Him, we are going to have to go where He leads? Jesus doesn’t promise us complete prosperity and ease of life. What Jesus does promise, is a life that will have suffering in it, a life that will have difficulty, a life of pain and trouble, but a life that is good. He offers us a chance to follow Him, but He tells us that this will be like sending us through a refining fire, like brushing us with a hard soap.

We need to realize that the difficulty, the fire, the soap will not be there to destroy us or to hurt us. It will be there to make us stronger, to help us grow closer to Him. If we pay attention to the message of John the Baptist, we realize our need for Jesus. If we accept John’s words we acknowledge our need for refining. And when Jesus comes and offers us a life of following Him we discover that though this life may be hard, it is the most wonderful thing we can do to follow Him.

By the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.–The word for “spirit” Ruach, is better understood in its more literal meaning, as breath or blast, as in Isaiah 30:27-28; Isaiah 40:7.

The word for wind, breath or blast (same as, breath of life God breathed into Adam.)

(Psalm 18:15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the … by the breath of his nostrils. Exodus 15:8,10 And with the blast of your nostrils the waters were gathered together. Ex 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

God opens the sea with a blast of His nostrils!

‘There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out of His mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.’

2 Sam 22:14-16 The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice. 15 He sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning confused and troubled them. 16 The channels of the sea were visible, the foundations of the world were uncovered at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

Fire and Wind together.

Ruach has another meaning it also means the Spirit. In Hebrew Holy Spirit is the Holy Wind/Holy Breath. And just like trying to press against the wind, it gets harder, for it creates drag and we get tired when we walk against the spirit. He creates a drag on our lives.

Because the Spirit of God is Holy, it blows in the direction of the Holy and against the direction of the unholy. Consequently, when you turn around and walk back the same way you came, you are walking in the direction the wind is blowing, so the wind actually helped you walk. Similarly, if we turn around, change our course, if we repent, the drag will disappear. Then the spirit will empower us and we will move forward much easier, as the Holy Spirit of God will always be at our backs. The wind is always at our back. He is our rearguard.

A big measure of Holy fire comes in the baptism.

Matthew 3:11-12  …He [Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire … gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

 Matthew 3:11 also indicates that the baptism with the Spirit will have the effect of burning out the chaff. So again, this Holy Spirit fire also has a beneficial cleansing effect in our lives.

The more the wind of the spirit blows, the hotter the fire burns.

The Holy Ghost baptism is an impartation of Spirit-fire! When the 120 were baptized in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the tongues of fire that appeared upon them was further evidence of this being an impartation of Holy Ghost fire.

The purpose of this Holy fire, of this Godly passion, is expression.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8

It must not, it “cannot”, be held in.

The prophet experienced an inner pressure to speak, to declare, to express the name of God and the word of God.  The bottled-up word of God was “like a fire”inside him, and he could not hold it in.

Jeremiah 20:8-9  …if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”

If you bottle up fire, pretty soon it dies out, no oxygen, no breath of life. So open up!  Speak out His word from within you. Two things will happen: (1) the fire will touch others; and (2) God will feed and increase the fire within you.

Live a life of spiritual readiness.

Tend your inner fire, keep it burning.

Otherwise, it will fade out and end up being only faintly glowing embers.

Treasure the Holy Spirits anointing… stir it up.

Fix your eyes on Jesus. Let Him talk to you and open His Word to you.

Share the fire, express it, give it out, speak up.

Do these things, and God will keep His holy fire burning within you. And you will find yourself continually bearing fruit for Him, both in your own life and in the lives of others.

In the waiting in Jerusalem their strength was to sit still they had to be patient. Patience undergirds faith, for it is the basic building block of faith, an absolute necessity in the foundation and life of every believer in order to really and fully know God.

Here is a reason for the days of the Omer. The disciples were not sitting around doing nothing, they were spending their days immersed in the Word of God/Torah.

Following God’s directions, according to the annual Appointed Times. To be at the right place at the right time at the conclusion of the Omer. The 50 days the time of preparation making ready to receive Holy spirit.

After meeting with Jesus, the two on the Road to Emmaus were turned back to where they had been told to wait. He had said, wait here in Jerusalem, they chose to leave and go another road.

Temptations of the flesh (‘carnal christianity’) Do we do it OUR WAY, when faced with:

Despair – do we just give up?

Precipitancy – Do we do something to stir ourselves – ‘we’ must be doing, ‘we’ must do it?

Presumption – Expect a miracle march into the sea asking God to bless ‘our’ going?

Or Cowardice – the world’s WAY – Retreat – go back to the worlds WAY of action and what we were familiar with.

Or THE WAY/HIS WAY – Wait on the Lord, which is the posture of an upright man/of righteousness. Ex 14:13 Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

The fire of God came to them in person and opened their eyes, when He opens your eyes, no man come close them. In which direction are we traveling on the Emmaus Road?

Are we on the Emmaus Road A-WAY from Jerusalem or on THE-WAY to meet with Him and be empowered?

Let’s make sure we are headed for the place He told us to be. The place where He will meet with us and impart to us all that we need, to be His disciple and to fulfill our call.

Another parallel is that, in both cases, after the Spirit of Adonai appeared, there was redemption and restoration; which we learned from the story of Ruth and Boaz. 

And in a final parallel:

it can be seen in both of these examples of Shavuot, that we are the first-fruits being offered to The Lord/Adonai. It is a time of the giving of the harvest. We are the harvest that is being offered. But we cannot bear fruit if we are not first connected to the Vine.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. Every branch in Me that bears no fruit He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit He prunes, so that it bears more fruit. You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you. Stay in Me, and I stay in you. As the branch is unable to bear fruit of itself, unless it stays in the vine, so neither you, unless you stay in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who stays in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit. Because without Me you are able to do naught! If you guard My commands, you shall stay in My love, even as I have guarded My Father’s commands and stay in His love.” John 15:1-5, 10

The Holy Spirit /Ruach haKodesh, has always played an important role in Shavuot and, as seen from these examples, Holy Spirit /Ruach haKodesh is an integral part of the covenant between Most High God/El Elyon and Israel.

Once we allow the fire of Adonai to cleanse, judge, and declare us purified, only then are we able to receive the Torah of Adonai that keeps us from sin and allows us to draw near to El Elyon. It is El Elyon’s desire that we love and guard His Torah to such a degree that it becomes inextricable from our very being. 

Torah becomes who we are; it becomes the very essence of our being.

 Once we hear and receive this message of Torah and redemption in our own language, then we become the ‘redeemed of Israel’ and are restored to our rightful place under the covering of the Most High God –El Elyon! It is only then that we can offer ourselves as first-fruits to Adonai to serve in His Kingdom and to declare the Good News: that the captives of Israel have been freed by the power and blood of Yeshua haMashiach – Yeshua the Messiah!

Offering ourselves to the Lord/Adonai is the ultimate gift of love we can offer Him. “No one has greater love than this: that he would lay down his life for his friends.” By giving Him our lives, our hopes, our fears, and everything that we will ever become, we are saying “I choose you. I choose all that You are and all that You have for me. You will never cease to be more than enough for me; You are all I will ever need or desire. I choose to love You and obey You. I choose to lay down my life for You.”

This “sacrifice” becomes our wedding vow to our King. And that is the real love story of Shavuot.

At the beginning of His ministry He met with John the Baptist and He was baptized even though He had nothing to repent for.

And at the end of His ministry He died the death of a criminal though He had done no criminal act.

This is the real message of Shavuot:

No one has greater love than this — that he should lay down his life for his friend.

It is the love story between The Lord/Adonai and Israel.

In examining the parallels between the first Shavuot that occurred at Mt. Sinai and the Shavuot that took place in Jerusalem in the Upper Room.

Both of these events have to do with a marriage.

The law has to do with Israel being married to the Lord (the Torah functions as a ketubah, a marriage contract between Jehovah and Israel, just as the New Covenant does for the Church, the bride of Christ). 

For this reason,  it is traditional for the book of Ruth to be read in the synagogue every year during this festival. Wouldn’t it be just like the Lord to call His bride home on such a special day as this? If not this year, maybe next…. One thing is certain.. He will fulfill His Word and Keep His Promises.

3000 died and 3000 lived… both were ‘marriage covenants’.

The fulfillment of ours with Him will be in the Heavens/Ha Shamayim.Revelation 19:7,  “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.

For the spirit and the bride say come! Rev. 22:7

2 x 3000 = a marriage made in the Heavens!

Ruth, Boaz, Moses, Israelites in wilderness, Torah, Spring Feasts, Pentecost, Shavuot, Ketubah, 10 Commandments, Power, Fire, Wind, Reed Sea, Sinai, Malachi, John the Baptist, Cleansing & Purification, Baptisms, Yeshua, Emmaus Road, Disciples, Preaching the Gospel, Covenants, Ruach HaKodesh, Hearts, and Weddings…Genesis to Revelation.. Everything is connected!

Other references…

First Fruits

50 Days Later-An Earthly and Spiritual Harvest: Pentecost-Shavuot

See post https://www.minimannamoments.com/seeing-jesus-on-the-way/

Please don’t leave this page before making certain Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.

You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.

It’s all about Life and Relationship, not Religion.

NOT SURE? YOU CAN BE..

SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…

Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.

I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’ name. Amen.

2 X 3000 = A Marriage Made In Heaven?

2 X 3000 = A Marriage Made In Heaven?

In the Hebrew Spiritual Calendar, we have just come from 1st Spring Appointed Time of Passover/Pesach to the 4th Spring Appointed Time, Pentecost/Shavuot.

Pronounced sha-voo-ote.

We may have met Messiah along the Emmaus road and been compelled to return to Jerusalem and WAIT for the Promise while Counting the Omer.

These 50 days between the Feasts, are designated as a time of introspection, repentance and preparation; making ourselves ready for His coming, the outpouring of Holy Spirit/Ruach HaKodesh.

The infilling of His power for us to become His witnesses. The Appointed Times/Feasts of the Lord, were part of the annual cycle of Adonai’s Plan of redemption and kept by the Israelites as part of their normal lifestyle.

So why are these Appointed Times important to us?

Here are some things to consider.

If we are the grafted in believers that we say we are; then, as part of the Olive Tree/ spiritual Israel, what affects Israel and what is important to them should also be important to us. We cannot be joined to them in one way and not in others and it’s not for us to pick and choose which bits we want or not.

An understanding of the meaning behind their observances gives a clear picture of Messiah and how it all fits together.

In Deut.16:10-11 and Leviticus 23:15-21, God commands the Israelites to count 50 days from Passover/Pesach to Pentecost/Shavuot. (Another name for Shavuot is Feast of Weeks). This 50 day count is known as “the counting of the Omer.”  An omer is a biblical measure of grain. 

On the second day of Passover, an omer of barley was offered in the temple signaling the start of the harvest and the beginning of the 50 day count to Shavuot. This is because it’s a commandment of the Lord/Adonai, to always remember the appointed times that He set into the calendar at the time He made His first covenant with the children of Israel.And because this was an annual rehearsal for them, which they would pass down through the generations until the time that it was fulfilled in the person of Messiah.

Exodus 32:20; Leviticus 23:15– 21. You shall count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.The Omer was parched in fire –

Fire represents Judgment – Gen 19:24; Ex 9:23 Jer 52:13, Rev 20:10

Fire represents Refinement and Purification Ps 12:6; Zech 13:9,M 3:3

Fire represents the Trials of our Faith – 1 Pet 1:7, James 1:2,3,12

The Omer was tossed in the wind – Omer tossed to the wind represents Every Kind of Doctrine – Eph 4:8-14;

A time of counting the days for (50) PENTE the COST of being His disciple. Luke 14:25. Prepares us to receive all He will release preparation through fire, repentance and cleansing leads to deliverance and freedom.

I set you free to serve Me.

(Actually meaning to return to the WAY that He had intended for humanity to walk before Him, was now given in Torah/Instructions)

This is in reference to the prophecy in Malachi and will be mentioned later.

https://www.minimannamoments.com/counting-our-blessings-with-omer/

This was the observance for the feast of Shavuot.It takes place seven weeks, or 50 days after the Passover/Pesach. The rabbis realized that this was the same time Moses had gone up on Mount Sinai to receive the guidelines for their new lifestyle having come out of the bondage of Egypt.(We know it as the 10 Commandments).

 So Shavuot became a day to remember the giving of the Torah directions.

It is one of and the 3 annual appointed times of the Lord when all men were required to go to Jerusalem.

then

and now. (Passover, Pentecost and Yom Kippur)So on the 50th day, the barley harvest ends and the wheat harvest begins, the change in harvest symbolized by the waving of two wheat loaves by the High Priest in the temple before the Lord.The waving of the two leavened loaves, also, representing those who would be harvested;

 both Jew and Gentile – which is why the Torah and the ‘Church’/Ecclesia/Congregation/Called out ones, share the same birthday.

On Shavuot, the holiday celebrating the harvest, the holiday of the first fruits.

Israel marks not just the giving of the Torah by God, (also known as ‘Zman Mattan Torah’, ‘the time of the giving of the Torah’.) but their acceptance of the Torah.

The integration between celebrating the giving of the Torah and our gratitude for the land, between a holiday that is solely connected to “heaven” and one connected to the earth, to the land of Israel. On the one hand, we aspire to reach the highest place, to receive the Torah, and on the other hand, we are connecting to what is under our feet, to the land and its crops to understand that building the Israelite homeland is a process that starts with the earth and continues on up to heaven. Nothing in scripture stands alone everything is interconnected and when we see how, it becomes clear and all begins to make sense.

One way the holiday is observed is through the reading of the Book of Ruth, the story of a woman who converts to Judaism and accepts the Torah.It is appropriate to read the Book of Ruth on Shavuot for several reasons:

First, because it gives us a picture of how the poor were treated in the harvest season with sympathy and love.

Secondly, because in the Book of Ruth we are shown the origin of the House of David — King David was the great-grandson of Ruth and Boaz. And it recounts the story of the Gentile woman (Ruth) who becomes the bride of the Hebrew Boaz, the kinsman redeemer.

Their union produced the most famous of all Israel’s kings, King David. Who incidentally, was born on this very same date (Shavuot) and amazingly Shavuot is also the yahrzeit (anniversary of the death) of King David.

In the Book of Ruth, it is written that when Ruth wanted to stay with Naomi she said, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.Your people will be my people and your God my God.”  Ruth first committed herself to another human being, to Naomi, and afterwards to her people and then to her God.It is well accepted that Ruth, the foreigner represents the largely gentile church redeemed by Messiah Yeshua/Jesus, the Lord of the harvest, as represented by Boaz, who functioned as her kinsman redeemer. It’s interesting that Boaz instructs her to stay through out the barley and the wheat harvest.  For as we have noted in Jewish tradition, the counting of the Omer is said to be a time of preparation for receiving the Torah.The Exodus was looked on as a gift, while the giving of the Torah required some spiritual preparation or readiness. This presents an interesting picture.  Do the fifty days between the First fruits resurrection of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus and the receiving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost constitute a period of ‘readiness’ for the congregation of believers, Body of Yesuhua, (church), as well? The book of Ruth is replete with symbolism regarding the gentile bride and her kinsmen redeemer.

“So Boaz, said to Ruth, “My daughter listen to me.  Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here …So, Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and the wheat harvest were finished.” Ruth 2:8,23

 If Messiah Yeshua/Jesus returns for His bride before the 50th day, she would qualify as a first fruits bride (barley); a bride who has made her self ready.  While those who are not ready would still be here after the 50th day and become part of the wheat harvest – foreshadowed, possibly by Ruth who gleaned throughout the barley and the wheat harvests? A connection to the parable of the 10 virgins and the condition of their spiritual preparedness?

Also indicated in the instructions Messiah Yeshua/Jesus gave His disciples before He ascended into heaven –

 “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father has promised ” Acts 1:4

Is this why He met them on the Emmaus Road? To make sure they were where they were supposed to be?And meeting with them, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “But you shall receive power when the Set-apart Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judah and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:4,8Messiah Yeshua/Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the promise of receiving the power of the Set-apart Spirit came upon them; because, ONLY when this happened could they begin to spread the message of the Good News!

Why did they have to wait in Jerusalem?First, we are instructed by YHVH that Shavuot is a feast celebrated in Jerusalem – Messiah Yeshua/Jesus was instructing His disciples to keep Torah.Second, judgment – and blessing – are first for the house of Israel and then for the surrounding nations. Likewise, the Good News began in Jerusalem and was sent out from there.This is also one of the reasons that Messiah’s disciples and so many other crowds of people, were still together in Jerusalem.For most the trip back home, only to return it again 50 days later, would have been too arduous, (most walked), so they stayed their through the counting of the Omer.  Briefly noted above,

the love story between Boaz and Ruth

that took place during Shavuot.But there is another love story

that takes place during the

season of Shavuot.

A love story 5,000 years in the making.

The story of a King who is scorned by His beloved bride and vows to redeem her to Himself. The story of a King’s waiting that transcends time…a price He willingly pays in order to reclaim His precious bride.

Over a thousand years after the giving of the law, when the first covenant was given on Mount Sinai,

the renewed covenantobtained through Messiah Yeshua’s /Jesus’ death and resurrection…was energized and quickened by the Spirit of God on the Hebrew feast of Shavuot.It became known as the feast of the 50th day or pentecoste because the rabbis of the Greek world had to give a Greek name to the Hebrew holy day. One of the major elements of the Good News is redemption and restoration, another parallel.

We learned from the story of Ruth and Boaz that the season of Shavuot is a season of redemption and restoration. To further this point, we learn that in Jerusalem 3,000 people were added to the assembly of believers.

Why is this 3,000 number important?

At Mt. Sinai, there were 3,000 missing from the House of Israel who should have received the Torah and didn’t because of the sin of the golden calf.And Moses saw that the people were let loose, for Aaron had let them loose, to their shame among their enemies. And Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said,

“Who is for YHVH? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves to him. And he said to them, “Thus said YHVH Elohim of Israel: ‘Each one put his sword on his side, pass over to and fro from gate to gate in the camp, and each one slay his brother, and each one his friend, and each one his relative.’ ” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day.” Exodus 32:25-

Once the people of Israel were redeemed, they could then offer their first-fruits to YHVH. At Mt. Sinai we see this redemption take place by the marriage covenant that was established.

In comparing the exchange to a marriage or other sacred covenant. Hebrew scholars have shown that it’s Not simply the giving of Torah and giving of the Holy Spirit,but a covenant of marriage between Adonai and His beloved Israel.

The form of marriage covenant agreement is called a Ketubah;the Torah (10 commandments) were part of the ketubah/written agreement,hence the scripture

In Jerusalem thousands of years later, we see this by the ingathering of the lost sheep of Israel; the ingathering of exiled Israel from the nations.

The Spirit of God was given to the believers on the same day that the law of God was given to Israel. The old or first covenant and the re-newed covenant are joined together both being initiated on the same day.

The correlation here is that when the Law was given to Moses, judgment followed, people perished and according to the Scriptures it was about 3000.

However the amazing thing is that on the second sealing of the covenant with His people, when His spirit was given, there was salvation and eternal life for the number of those who came to new life was about 3000. Acts 2:41;

(Israel, His Beloved became His ‘wife’ אִשָּׁה Ishah, pronounced Ee-sha)

Then there’s the more complimentary, dignified word – רַעְיָה Rayayah.

3000 died

and centuries later

3000 came to life

on the exact same Holy Appointed Day of the Lord.

In 2 Corinthians 3:4 -6. Paul wrote, the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. The spirit was given on the same day as the commandments were given.

This was because the Law (\commandments\ directions for living Life before the Lord;) can tell us the will of God.

However only the Spirit can give us the power to live it.

If we live by the Spirit of God we will fulfill the will of God for our lives in the same precise way that the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost fulfilled the Law of the Covenant. The outpouring of the fire of the Holy Spirit was to empower and enable His disciples then and now. Effectively, to fulfill the plan and purpose of His will in the Earth.

The manifestation of the fire was in direct correlation to the pillar of fire that was with them in the wilderness.It was His manifest presence with them along with the pillar of cloud during the day.

Elohay Ha Elohim Our God is a consuming fire.

Conclusion to follow soon = marriage made in heaven…

Haverim/Chaverim, Mishpachah

Kha-ve-ri, mish-paw-khaw’

To all Friends and Family!

https://www.minimannamoments.com/50-days-later-an-earthly-and-spiritual-harvest-pentecost-shavuot/

Please don’t leave this page before making certain Jesus is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.

You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.

Its all about Life and Relationship, not Religion.

NOT SURE? YOU CAN BE..

SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…

Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.

I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’ name. Amen.