The New Under Ground Church-THE TRUTH MUST BE TOLD: Palm Sunday

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Palm Sunday

This Week

Posted on March 29, 2015by nhiemstra

I realize that I have addressed this each year for about four years now, but since there are several new members to the mailing list, I wanted to send this out. Also, my hope is that we can end, at least in our own personal lives, some of the mistaken traditions, and more importantly, know and understand the Truth and allow it to expand and enrich our faith.

With that being said, today many Christians celebrate what we call, “Palm Sunday.” It marks the beginning of what mainline traditional churches call, “Holy Week,” or in Latin, “Hebdomas Sancta.” Now, as many of you know, I was raised in a traditional Calvinist church (much of which I have since, abandoned). I was taught the Heidelberg Catechism and was never introduced to any of the more liturgical traditions. However, when we moved to Ann Arbor and participated in an ecumenical community, I was introduced to the churches liturgical form of worship. For my wife, having been raised in the Catholic Church, it was nothing new, but it was completely alien territory for me.

As part of this Ecumenical Community, we were exposed to many of the Churches traditions and practices. That exposure, I learned that as we celebrated Palm Sunday, we were actually commemorating the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The gospels record the arrival of Jesus riding into the city on a donkey, while the crowds spread their cloaks and palm branches on the street and shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” to honor him as their long-awaited Messiah and King.

Some of my Messianic friends say this is a Pagan celebration, one that Jesus didn’t celebrate. Which, frankly, I find humorous. Jesus was the one being celebrated! So I guess he did indeed participate. Not only that, beforehand, he had instructed his disciples to get the donkey for him. So I don’t understand their argument. No, it is not one of the seven Hebraic Assigned Festivals, but certainly was celebrating the entry of Yahweh’s very own Son in the city of God!

In fact, the significance of Jesus riding a donkey and having his way paved with palm branches is a fulfillment of a prophecy spoken by the prophet Zechariah that says,

“Rejoice with all your heart, daughter of Tziyon!
Shout out loud, daughter of Yerushalayim!
Look! Your Melek is coming to you.
He is righteous, and he is victorious.
Yet he is humble — he’s riding on a donkey,
yes, on a lowly donkey’s colt (Zechariah 9:9)

The donkey was a symbol of peace; Anyone who rode on them proclaimed peaceful intentions, which in contrast, someone riding on a warhorse, was indeed bringing violence and death. By laying down the palm branches, they were indicating that the king or dignitary was arriving in victory or triumph. It was an act of celebration and yes, honor, and I don’t see anywhere in the text that Jesus chastised them for what they were doing.

So, without doubt, this prophecy was fulfilled, and it was indeed a time for rejoicing, as Jerusalem welcomed their King. Unfortunately, the celebration did not last very long. The crowds were looking for a Messiah who would rescue them politically and free themnationally, but Jesus had come to save them spiritually. First things first, and mankind’s primary need is spiritual, not political, cultural, or national salvation.

It is important to know that during Jesus’ time, it was indeed on a Sunday. It was also in the springtime. And we know this because the crowds had come to celebrate the annualPassover meal. Although I may not have fully embraced most of the traditional church observances, but about six years ago or more, I began my research into Hebrew history. I was hoping to gain understanding of the many Hebrew traditions and practices. In my mind, these are the true roots of my faith, so I became intrigued and fascinated with them. It was something the Lord had lead me into, and He was indeed expanding my knowledge and understanding!

Through my studies, and most often through the writings of Tom Bradford of the Torah Class, that I learned what I am about to share regarding the Passover events. In fact, it was Bradford who first introduced me to this and it might be helpful because if you haven’t been exposed to this aspect of our faith, you probably won’t immediately recognize them. This is certainly true for those of us who are gentiles. The significance is that virtually every great event in Christ‘s life was centered on one or another of these Pilgrimage feasts, so we should understand that the timing of these events was very specific.

In Deuteronomy 16, the very first feast that is discussed is Passover, or in Hebrew Pesach. Israel is told to observe the month of Aviv and to offer a Passover sacrifice to God because this was the night that Yehoveh freed Israel from the clutches of Egypt.

I will boldly say that if we were to point to one event that most physically identifies the people of Israel as set apart for God, and also stirs the soul of the Jewish people, it has to be Passover. It was that act of saving Israel from Egypt, and making them an identifiable group with Yehoveh as their God and King, is what established them as a set apart nation.

As I said, it was to be celebrated in the month, Aviv, which literally means, “new ears of grain.” The reference to grains indicates the agricultural connection of this celebration that coincides with their exodus from Egypt. Aviv also occurs during our modern months of March-April, so we are dealing with the spring season.

Aviv is also the first month of the Hebrew religious calendar year. Now don’t confuse the Hebrew religious calendar with the Hebrew civil calendar. There, Tishri is the first month. In the religious calendar year, Tishri marks the seventh month (which is the Fall season). I don’t want to confuse you, but while Aviv resets the religious calendar year, the first day of Aviv is not New Years Day; the first day of the month of Tishri is the Jewish New Year — Rosh Hashanna. So why does God ordain this separate religious calendar year with Aviv as its beginning? Well, simply because it was the month of Aviv that marks the official beginning of Israel as a nation and the Lord as the God of that nation. Aviv very literally marks the beginning of Israel!

Think back to the reason Passover is indeed called Passover. It is because on a single dreadful and yet wonderful night the Lord passed through the whole land of Egypt and killed the firstborn males — animals and humans — of every household in Egypt. In fact, the only exception was for those who sacrificed a yearling lamb and painted its blood on the doorposts of their homes! Whoever did this as an act of obedience to Yehoveh were not touched by death that night; and this divine judgment caused Pharaoh to finally understand that he could not maintain his grip on Yahweh‘s people.

Now, did you notice that I did not say that the people of Israel were excluded from this judgment? I said that the only people who were excluded from punishment were those who sacrificed a lamb and painted the doorposts with its blood. If any Israelite did notpaint the doorpost, they experienced the judgment. On the other hand, if an Egyptian, or someone visiting from another nation had painted their doorpost, the angel of death would have passed over their home.

This was possible, you know? While the Hebrews lived in Egypt, they did mingle some with the Egyptians, and some of the Egyptians admired the faith of the Hebrews and became their friends. So they would have heard about this command. But the only sign the Angel of the Lord looked for was the blood being painted on the doorpost. He did not check to see who was in the house. He did not verify whether or not they were good people. He did not verify their identification or ask them for their membership cards or where their allegiance lay. The angel did not stop at each house to see how nice the people were or how they voted in the last election. The only sign he looked for was blood painted on the doorpost!

We need to catch the significance of what this means. Today, if you refuse the offer Yehoveh has given you for Redemption, namely Yeshua — Jesus — you will face His judgment regardless of how you feel about it, how righteous you feel you are or how special you believe you are or even how unfair you think it is. You either accept the terms that are offered, or accept the responsibilities and consequences of your choice. I will show you how seriously He takes this. Turn over to the fifth chapter of Leviticus:

If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands,even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible (Leviticus 5:17)

Whoa! That ‘oughta’ sober you up some! Do you think that is unfair? Hmm, let’s consider that. Clearly, that verse says that it wasn’t a situation where they knew they were fouling up, and sort of hid it or refused to acknowledge it. No, they simply were unaware that what they did was sin! Scarey thought! So even if they had no intention of doing anything wrong, Yahweh pronounces them guilty!

Now, I admit that when you and I look at this we will say, “Man, that‘s pretty harsh — it doesn’t seem fair.” Well, think about the time you were driving in a 55 mph zone, and then suddenly cross into a 35 mph speed zone. Aah, but you didn’t know because the 35 mph speed sign is behind a bush that grew up and covered it.

Suddenly you hear a siren and see lights flashing in your rear-view mirror! Your heat starts beating faster because a police officer with a radar gun caught you and is about to give you a ticket. When you explain what happened, he explains that it doesn’t matter, the law is the law.

In our minds, that seems unfair. But, if you jump to the end of verse 20 in Leviticus, we see that if you follow the prescribed procedure of atonement, you will be forgiven. And,in reality, that isn’t fair either! Because the price to remove your guilt is paid for by an innocent animal, not by the people who are responsible.

We have to remember that our God’s justice system is not our justice system. He declares guilt and forgiveness. We are declared guilty according to His standards, not ours. And, we are declared forgiven according to His rules, not ours. That right there is the biggest stumbling block for most people when it comes to accepting Christ as Savior, which will bring us peace with God. We don’t want to surrender our sense of fairness and justice, to follow His sense of fairness and justice.

Now, to return to our story, the following morning, after the angel of death passed over, all of the people of Israel gathered together and with Moses leading the way, they marched away from two centuries of slavery and oppression. How exciting!

While I am sure that in English Passover will always be called Passover, in reality the wordPesach does not mean to “pass over.” It comes from the verb pasach, which means, “to protect.” Ooh, I just saw some eyebrows raise on that one. Where the Scriptures say that, “you shall slaughter the Passover sacrifice,” what it says in Hebrew is that they shall slaughter the Zevah Pesach. Literally it means the “protective sacrifice,” referring to the fact that Israel was protected from God‘s final and deadly plague on Egypt. It was only theresult of that protection that they could say they were passed over; and that name, Passover, has stuck ever since Jerome re-translated the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible in the 5th century AD and chose the term “Passover.” We will get back to this in a moment.

Now, before the celebration of Jesus riding a donkey, where everyone was throwing down their coats and leaves, Jesus had been traveling through the towns and villages of Palestine for several months. He preached about the Kingdom of God and healed the sick wherever He went. It was now time for Him to claim His title as the Messiah — the Savior that God had promised to the Jewish people.

The sad part of this event is that while they were waiving the palm branches and shouting all their praises, they were missing the true reason for Jesus being there. They had no way to understand the cross he would soon hang on. That’s why, “When he came closer and saw the city, he began to cry. He said, “If you had only known today what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden, so you cannot see it. The time will come when enemy armies . . . will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you” (Luke 19:41–47). I cannot imagine anything more tragic than to see the Savior but not recognize Him for who He is. While the crowds were proclaiming “Hosanna!” on Sunday, a few days later they are crying out “Crucify Him!” (Matthew 27:22–23).

But my friends, today we hear those who curse the Name of our Lord, but there a day is coming, possibly sooner than we know, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10–11). Those of us who know Him, shout it out joyfully. In that future day, they will say it with fear in their voice. For us, John records a scene in heaven that features the eternal celebration of the risen Lord: “There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were [look at this] holding palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9). Oh Glory to God! This time we will be carrying the palms and shouting, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:10).

Jesus knew His mission was almost finished and as they traveled to Jerusalem, Jesus warned His disciples that He would soon be put to death, and after three days He would rise again.

When they were close to Jerusalem, Jesus told two of His disciples to go into a village that was close by and bring a donkey that would be waiting there. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that donkey. Crowds of people spread their coats on the ground in front of Him. Some waved branches of palm trees, as a sign of victory. The people shouted,

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord –
the King of Israel!”

Only a king would be greeted this way (II Kings 9:13), and the people wanted Jesus to be their king. However, most of the people did not understand what kind of king Jesus would be. They expected their Messiah to be a great political and military leader who would free them from the tyranny of the Roman Empire. They envisioned someone like King David. But the Kingdom of God is not of this world. It is a spiritual kingdom that is now growing in the hearts of people who put their faith and trust in Yeshua — Jesus.

Later that day, Jesus went to the temple, and as most of you know, he did not like what He saw. This was supposed to be the most holy of places on earth, and it had been turned into a marketplace, a place of thieves and unholy activity. Merchants were selling animals for temple sacrifices. Money changers were exchanging the pilgrims’ money for special coins used in the temple. Many of these people were cheating the pilgrims who came to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem.

That angered Jesus, and as Micheal Card sang, “The Lamb became a Lion, who was roaring with rage” and made quite a ruckus by turning over the tables of the merchants and money changers, scattering their coins. He told all of them to leave. He made a whip of some cords and used it to drive out the animals, saying, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’ [that part has been forgotten], But you have made it a den of theives!”

We are not told, but we presume that for the next couple of days Jesus went to the temple, healed people and taught them. He probably continued to tell stories and parables to help people understand the Kingdom of God and all of the other things he had been doing.

But on Wednesday, things began to change. You see, growing up I was always confused why we were told that Jesus would be dead for three days and three nights, and would then arise. Yet, we were told that Jesus celebrated the “Last Supper,” on Thursday and then on “Good Friday” He was crucified, and then on Sunday, Easter — we celebrated His Resurrection. No matter how you look at that, even if you use Common Core mathematics, it does not equal three days and three nights. So what is the correct time line for Jesus’ last supper, arrest, crucifixion, burial and resurrection? Well that is a good question, so let’s go over it.

It may take some explanation for you to understand this, so give me a chance to lay this out. The day before Passover, which in the year Jesus died would have been a Wednesday, the disciples had the special meal prepared that we call The Last Supper. However, what many of us have missed is that during the times that Jesus lived, Rome had divided the Holy Lands into several districts. The ones we are most familiar with are Judea (Judah) to the south where Jerusalem was located, Galilee up north, and Samaria was between the two. Now don’t start throwing stones at Rome. They weren’t the only culprit. Judaism was also fractured and the Judean Jews, Galilean Jews, and Samaritan Jews were just like modern churches where each of them had developed different traditions on a number of religious issues, including, by the way, how the feasts were supposed to be observed.

The Galilean Jews (remember, Jesus and His disciples were Galileans) had established an additional celebration in Hebrew called seudah maphsehket (or last supper), but the Judean Jews did not recognize this celebration (which is probably why we are so confused about the events. We only know about the traditions of mainline-Judaism). This is very similar to what protestants have done to many of the mainline church’s celebrations (the traditions that most evangelicals dismiss). Isn’t it interesting how human attitudes repeat themselves? I guess Solomon was right, there is nothing new under the sun.

This last supper I mentioned, that the Galilean Jews celebrated, was about remembering, as I explained earlier, that it was not all Hebrews who were in danger from death at God’s hand in Egypt, but only the firstborn sons. So they adopted a special nighttime meal they would eat and then, a 24-hour fast would follow (which is where the name “last supper” came from). It was not Jesus’ last supper, it was the seudah maphsehket (or last supper), before their time of fasting! The next meal they would eat was the Passover meal!

Now I admit there have been all kinds of essays and books explaining that there were two Passover Seders: one on Passover eve, Aviv 13th, (the day before Passover) and the official Passover night meal on Aviv 14. The problem is that it misses the point rather significantly. These so-called two Passover Seders were in fact the combination of the last supper (celebrated only by Galilean Jews), and then the next night the actual Passover meal (which Jesus and his disciples did not eat). This confusion over two Seder meals obscures what actually went on with Jesus and His disciples on those fateful few days.

So let’s look at this closely. On Aviv 13, Wednesday, the seudah maphsehket was prepared;however, and this is important, they did not eat it on Aviv 13! They ate it after sundown, at the end of the day of Aviv 13, possibly around 6:00 pm. What I mean is that yes, in our western minds, it was the last meal of Aviv 13. But in truth, it was eaten as the first meal of Thursday Aviv 14th. Where this confuses us is remembering that the beginning of a new day is just after sundown. This special meal honoring the firstborn (called last supper) was eaten on Passover, but as the beginning meal of the day. Are you with me so far? OK, now follow me closely.

The meal called “last supper” is eaten in the first hour of Passover. This is where Yeshua says to commemorate this day by drinking wine that symbolizes His blood that establishes the New Covenant, and by eating unleavened bread that symbolizes His body where we become united. Notice: this was not the traditional Passover Seder; that was yet to come because that meal was not eaten until the end of Passover day, late Thursday evening.

So at the start of the day of Aviv 14, Thursday, Passover day, the Galilean “last supper” commemorating firstborns is eaten. (In our minds, this was probably around 6:00 or so, on Wednesday, but it is actually the beginning of Thursday. I hope you can understand this part), Right after they ate, Jesus and His disciple went to the Garden and it is in the wee hours before daylight, when the disciples had a difficult time staying awake. As you can imagine, those disciples were pretty tuckered out. Jesus prays with drops of blood dripping from his face. Then Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss and shortly after midnight Wednesday night, early Thursday morning, our Lord is arrested.

It is still Passover day (late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning). He is tried and convicted of blasphemy. After his sentence is confirmed by Pontius Pilate, Jesus is abused, beaten, spat upon, scourged and in the late morning he is nailed to a Roman cross by Roman soldiers. It is still Passover Day, late morning of Thursday, Aviv 14.

At about the moment Jesus expires (3:00 PM in the afternoon on Passover Day — Thursday) the slaughter of the Passover Lambs begins in the Temple grounds. Somewhere around ¼ million sheep will be killed and their blood collected between the hours of 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm, stopping as the sun drops to the horizon. It is still Passover Day.

While this is occurring, the women are rushing around trying to get the Roman soldiers to remove Jesus’ corpse from the cross; remember, they are required to get Him buriedimmediately because otherwise He would just lay exposed for at least 2-days. Why? I will show you in a minute. They achieve their goal and Yeshua is entombed before the sun sets and it is still Thursday, Passover Day, where our Protected Sacrifice died for our sins!

The butchered lambs are placed in the thousands of ovens located all around Jerusalem so the hundreds of thousands of visiting pilgrims can cook their Passover Lambs. It is still Passover Day. Shortly after the 3 stars become visible (when it is dark enough to appear in the night sky), Passover Day (Thursday) ends and Friday, the first day of Matza (the feast of unleavened bread), begins. (Ooh, hang on to your butts, because this is where it gets even better). It is now Aviv 15, Friday, the first day of Matza or Unleavened Bread (leaven symbolizing sin) and Jesus’ body was put in the tomb!

Ah, but where did the Passover meal go? Weren’t they supposed to eat it on Passover day? NO! Much to many peoples’ surprise, the Biblical injunction is that the Passover meal is to be eaten after dark. This means the day has changed. This means Aviv 14 has changed to Aviv 15 — the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That’s right: the Passover meal isn’t eaten on Passover Day; it is the first meal of the new day on Matza. Why? Because that is exactly as it was in Egypt. They were still eating the Passover meal at around midnight on Aviv 15 when Yehoveh killed all the unprotected firstborns throughout Egypt!

As I explained, it was Jerome in the 5th century AD who translated the Hebrew wordsZevah Pesach and made it “Pass-over.” So we always get this mental picture (along with millions of sermons to back it up) that on Pesach the Lord “passed-over” the Hebrew firstborns killing only the Egyptian firstborns. Wrong! It was the first born of any family! It could have been the first born (animal or human) Egyptian, Hebrew or visitor from another nation. Now if you think of it, if we were alive during this time, our oldest brother would have died (unless you are the first born. Oops sorry). But not only that, some of our dads were the first-born male in their family. I that is the case, they would have died. We only picture new born babies dying, but the warning was that the first-born would die. Read it again:

This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt.Every firstborn in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. (Exodus 11:4–6)

The death toll was overwhelming! Children, grown men, animals, every first-born in Egypt! This is why I refer to as a “dreadful and yet wonderful night.” Dreadful in the sense of the astounding death toll and tremendous wailing and suffering that was experienced. But wonderful in that Yahweh proved His sincerity in delivering His people and created a nation of His own.

We also need to understand that, Pesach (Passover) is only a one-day feast that occurs every year on Aviv 14th. The following day, Aviv 15th begins a seven-day biblical feast calledThe Feast of Unleavened Bread, or in Hebrew The Feast of Matza. Then, during the Feast of Matza, yet another festival occurs, Bikkurim — Firstfruits — which happens on the 17thof Aviv! So, in a rapid succession we have Passover on Aviv the 14th (Thursday), then the start of Matza on the 15th (Friday, which runs for seven days), and then Firstfruits on the 17th (Sunday). Oh, you can start dancing now . . .

So let me review what occurred on Aviv 14 in Egypt. The Pesach Lamb was slaughtered and its blood was brushed onto the doorways of homes. It was the day the “protective sacrifice” of the lamb, as ordered by God, took place. But, it was not until after dark, when the day changed to Aviv 15, that late at night (around midnight), the Lord passed through Egypt killing all unprotected firstborns, whether the first born was Egyptian or Hebrew or some other nationality that happened to be visiting Egypt at the time. If the door post was not covered in the blood of the protective sacrifice . . . death came on the house.

This was brought forward to the sacrifice of Jesus. The “protective sacrifice” in the Egyptian story is a sign regarding the final “protective sacrifice”: Yeshua, YHWH’s first born. If you are not covered by the blood of the protective sacrifice, you will experience the judgment.

So Pesach, which is only the protective sacrifice of the lambs, happened on Aviv 14, but the Lord did not pass over the protected Hebrew firstborn until the first hours of the next day, Aviv 15. Then when night turned into daytime (still the same day) the Hebrews left Egypt and that is the day celebrated as the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

So how does this tie into the story of Jesus’ death? Well, the first day of Matza was a festival Sabbath day! Friday Aviv 15th was a Sabbath day, a festival Sabbath day. It had some of the same requirements as the 7th Day Sabbath in that handling a dead human corpse was prohibited on any kind of Sabbath. That is why the Gospels tell us that there was a frenzy to get Jesus buried before dark, when the day changed from Pesach (a regular day) to the 1st day of Matza, which was a festival Sabbath day, and they could not handle a dead body.

Aviv 15th was an uneventful day; it was Friday, the festival Sabbath that began Matza. The day ends at sundown and now it is Saturday, Aviv 16th; which was a regular weekly 7th daySabbath. And I want you to catch the significance of this . . . Jesus, the True High Priest, was sacrificed and resurrected, so the office of a Priest, let alone a High Priest, had ended. How, you ask? By allowing the enemies of Israel to destroy the Temple. Since the Temple was gone, and the only purpose of the priests was to minister in the temple, there was no need for the High Priest on earth. Jesus was now The High Priest!

But let me say again: in Jesus’ day, First Fruits was the day after the 7th day Sabbath no matter what the calendar date. So in Jesus’ era, First Fruits was always the first day of the week (Sunday in our modern terminology).

Notice that according to this time-line, Jesus has been in the tomb for 3-days and 3-nights just as the prophecy of Jonah in the belly of the great fish explained. I hope that you can see this is not at all straightforward and that if a scholar is not familiar the Torah and to a degree Jewish Tradition, there is no way he can understand how the passion week of Jesus’ death played out. After all, the New Testament was written by Jews who assumed that anyone reading these documents would be familiar with the Jewish customs and their nuances and the political circumstances of that day, so they didn’t see any need to explain all this.

Just remember the significance of all the festivals: The entire sequence of his death, burial and resurrection occurred precisely and exactly on the appropriate Biblical Feast days! So, on Thursday, they celebrated Pesach, or The Feast of Passover, which speaks of redemption. Our Messiah, our Passover Lamb, was slain for us and his blood atones for our sins occurred precisely on Pesach! Then, on Friday, or Matza, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, is about sanctification. The ordinance against the use of leavening is Biblically symbolic of the absence of sin, and the absence of decay and corruption. As we know, Christ’s sinless body was put into the tomb and it did not decay. Then on Sunday,Bikkurim, the Feast of Firstfruits, was celebrated, and it speaks of firstlings, the first of things which always belongs to God. In the work of Messiah, it is about resurrection; our Messiah is called the firstfruits of the resurrection from the dead; Yeshua was the first man to be resurrected from the dead, but far into the future, other men — you and me — will also be resurrected.

But it does not end there! 50-days later, on the Feast of Shavuot (what we know asPentecost), the Lord sent His Holy Spirit to dwell within men. The Lord harvested His Believers. They were his, they were put away for safekeeping, where no one and nothing could ever forcefully take them, us, away from Him. But, there is more harvesting to come!

The High Holy Days of the Feast of Trumpets and Yom Kippur represent Yeshua HaMashiach coming for the second time — this time in great power and glory, bringing the world to it’s knees, cutting down the evil and laying low the rebels.

The Feast of Tabernacles, or more appropriately as it is also known, the Feast of Ingathering, is the entry into the 1000-Year Reign of Christ — the Millennium. One of the most amazing parallels between the focal point and grand finale of the Feast of Sukkot is the Water Libation ceremony at the Altar of Burnt Offering.

The earthly purpose for this event was to ask God to bring rain to the land to water the crops. In the final moments of the final Biblical Feast of each year, the closing event is that seven trumpets are blown 3 times for a total of 21 blasts of the trumpet, as a Golden Pitcher of water from the spring of Siloam is brought by the High Priest through the Water Gate of the Temple Mount. Then the water is poured out from that Golden Pitcher while the people of Jerusalem say in unison, “God save us now!” These 21 trumpet blasts represent the 3 series of 7 final judgments that will be rained down on the world in man’s final hours. After these 21 judgments, it is finished. The history of man as we know it . . . is over. Yeshua HaMashiach is now in total control of a world without even one single rebel; not one single person is alive who doesn’t know the Lord and bow down to Him. And that is the way it will remain for 1000 years.