FEAST OF WEEKS
Part 3
No man knows the day or hour, that’s what Yeshua taught in Matthew 24:40-43, “Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Master is coming.” Yeshua spoke these words in the context of his second coming in relation to our days being like the days of Noah. Notice also that is was in the context of the agricultural terms of harvest season. Most prophecy scholars and end times watchers have related this unknown day and hour to the new moon at the Feast of Trumpets. But actually, the new moons can be calculated quite precisely, so much so that farmers’ almanacs can be published. So what day and hour is Yeshua speaking about that no man knows, only His Father knows? Let’s repeat Deuteronomy 16:9-10, “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the (standing) grain. 10Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to Yahweh your Mighty One with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as Yahweh your Mighty One blesses you.” Moses spoke these words to the Israelites in the context of the first month of the Hebrew year and the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread. Sometime around those Feasts, the Israelite farmer’s wheat crop will be ready to harvest. It’s just that NO ISRAELITE FARMER KNOWS THE EXACT DAY OR HOUR when his wheat crop will be ready for harvest. I propose that this day and hour is the day and hour Yeshua had in mind when He made those statements in Matthew 24. Only our Heavenly Father knows exactly when the physical and spiritual wheat crop will be harvestable.
Now relate this agricultural allegory to Yeshua’s second coming. Only the Father knows when the last human that will accept Yeshua as Savior has done so, when the human wheat crop will be ready for harvesting by Yahweh’s angels. We are the last human generation before Yeshua’s return to reign on earth. The last man saved event will happen soon. Only the Father knows who that will be and when that person will commit his life to Yeshua. Once that last salvation event occurs, Yahweh will release Yeshua and His angels for the final harvesting of souls into His Kingdom barn. Are you that last individual to get saved, or is it one of your friends, relatives, or neighbors? Pray that person gets saved today!! Revelation 14:14-16, “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.” Read all of Revelation 14 to get the second coming context, but notice that an angel must come from the presence of Yahweh, right out of the Temple in Heaven, to tell Yeshua when it is time to thrust in His sickle to reap humans from the earth. Notice again that it is only the Father Who knows when it is time for the final harvest of souls, and in the agricultural metaphor at that. And friends, notice how this second coming scenario easily and naturally aligns itself with the seven-week festival of the Feast of Weeks, the spring wheat harvest!
Acts 1:1-11, “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Yeshua began both to do and teach, 2until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of Yahweh. 4And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Master, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men (possibly Moses and Elijah, because they had to witness his death, burial, resurrection and ascension in order to be the two witnesses during the Great Tribulation) stood by them in white apparel, 11who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Yeshua, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.””
Volumes could be, and have been, written about these wonderful words from Luke. Acts 1 is teaching about Yeshua’s ascension, forty days after His resurrection. Notice verse 7, only the Father knows the day or hour of the final end times events and harvest. Yahweh has events marked out on His divine calendar; we can trust Him to bring about His Kingdom on earth. Notice verse 11, Yeshua is supposed to return to earth in the same manner in which He ascended to heaven. He rose physically, bodily, from the Mount of Olives. He will return physically, bodily, to the Mount of Olives. See Zecharia 14:4. But what about the timing? Could Yahweh have given us a clue to Yeshua’s return, by having Yeshua ascend during the seven weeks of the Feast of Shavuot? Yes, I believe Yahweh gave us a solid clue to both the nature, physical return, and to the timing, during the Feast of Weeks. We’re the nutty end time religious people of Yahweh. We may be crazy, but Yahweh is not. He is always orderly and on time. His Feasts are all about timing on His divine calendar. The 10 days between Yeshua’s ascension on the 40th day (of the Omer count), and the 50th day, which is Shavuot, directly parallel the 10 days of awe between the Feast of Trumpets on the first of the seventh month and Yom Kippur on the 10th of the seventh month. Yom Kippur represents Judgment Day. Yeshua may return on the 40th day for His saints, during harvest season, as Revelation 14 teaches, and then judge the nations on the 50th day, Judgment Day, as Revelation 14 teaches. One man’s resurrection day into Yahweh’s wheat barn is another man’s judgment day into Yahweh’s winepress of His wrath. Revelation 14:17-20, “Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 18And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire (lightning), and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” 19So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of Yahweh. 20And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.” It won’t be man celebrating blood sports on that day, but it will be Yahweh causing blood spurts on Judgment Day. Yahweh gave me that phrase in a dream this morning. A gory Judgment Day reality is soon coming to earth.
What is really exciting about this growing understanding that Yeshua may return during the Feast of Weeks, or on Shavuot exactly, is that Yahweh actually has several calendars in play. He has a 354-day biblical strictly lunar calendar with no intercalations. He has a 360-day redemption calendar. He has a calendar just for the Messiah’s life. He has the luni-solar calendar he taught to Moses in Exodus 12:1, which does require intercalations. He may even be using a straight solar calendar. So, what does this mean to us? Well, it is possible, in the real world of Yahweh, the 40th day of the Omer count on one of Yahweh’s calendars could also be the first of the seventh month, Feast of Trumpets, on one of His other calendars, which would mean that the Feast of Shavuot, on the 50th day of the Omer count, on one of Yahweh’s calendars, would occur on Yom Kippur on one of Yahweh’s other calendars. Pretty amazing, but it is the reality of time from Yahweh’s realm of authority. Yahweh’s Kingdom is using at least five different calendars. He is the only One Who has the power and authority to cause events to happen on any given calendar date to fulfill Scripture prophecy. This is why not even Yeshua knows the day or the hour of His return. If Yeshua’s earthly life Messianic calendar was suspended upon His ascension to heaven, would it not be logical for Yahweh to send Him back to earth on the 40th day of the Omer count on Yeshua’s Messianic calendar? But will that occur in the spring or the fall? Hmm, only Yahweh knows, and He’s not telling us . . . yet.
For more on the multiple calendars of Yahweh, study the works of Arthur E. Ware and Franklin Paine. That will keep you occupied for a couple minutes.
Blessings on Shavuot,
Gene Benjamin II
June 8, 2011 CE
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