In Part One, I explained that the ‘Feasts of the Lord’ in Leviticus 23 are seven key appointed times fixed by God. Whilst each of these seven holidays is in many ways a memorial of God’s faithfulness to the children of Israel in the time of Moses, these seven special occasions are also full dress-rehearsals for the seven most important predetermined events in God’s great plan of salvation.

The four appointed times that occur in the Spring all relate to the first coming of Jesus. In Part One, I summarised how these four dress-rehearsals were all fulfilled in every detail roughly two thousand years ago. The three appointed times that occur in the autumn all relate to the second coming of Jesus – and clearly we are still waiting for these divine appointments to be fulfilled.

The Feast of Trumpets

In Leviticus 23:24, God says to Moses: “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.”

Nowadays the Jews refer to the Feast of Trumpets as ‘Rosh HaShanah’, the beginning of the civil year, but this is not its Biblical name.

There are many idioms for the Feast of Trumpets. One of these idioms is “the feast when no one knows the day or the hour”. The Feast of Trumpets is the only appointed time that occurs on the first day of a month, which was determined by the sighting of the thin sliver of a new moon. The lunar cycle is 29.5 days, so in practice a month will have either 29 or 30 days. On the 29th of Elul, the Jews did not know if the next day would be the 30th of Elul or the first of Tishri (the Feast of Trumpets) until the new moon had been officially confirmed. A cloudy night caused problems – and thus the Feast of Trumpets often started late. Due to this uncertainty (and also because it took time to notify the Jews in the Diaspora), the Feast of Trumpets was (and still is) celebrated over two days, which are known as ‘one long day’. When Jesus referred to the time of his return as a time when ‘no one knows the day or the hour’, it seems highly likely that this was a double entendre. Thus Messianic Jews teach that the Feast of Trumpets is the appointed time for Jesus to return to fetch his Bride – the time of the ‘rapture’.

Two more idioms for the Feast of Trumpets are ‘HaKiddushin’ and ‘HaNisu’in’, the words for the two stages of a Jewish wedding. Thus the Feast of Trumpets is associated with the heavenly wedding of Messiah and his Bride.

Thus the Feast of Trumpets is associated with the heavenly wedding of Messiah and his Bride.

Another idiom for the Feast of Trumpets is ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble’, a reference to Jeremiah 30:6-7. Jesus said that the various problems besetting the world prior to his return, including famines, pestilences and ‘shakings’ (earthquakes, storms, etc.), would be like labour pains (Matt 24:7-8), getting more intense and more frequent up to the moment of his return. Jeremiah 30:6-7 describes the children of Israel experiencing these labour pains, which culminate in the time of Jacob’s trouble. Daniel 12:1 puts it this way: “There shall be a time of trouble such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; but at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book [of life].” So the time of the rapture is linked with a time of great tribulation.

Jesus appears (although this is much contested) to promise the faithful church that they will be spared from the worst of this tribulation. “Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” (Rev 3:10). We must note that this only applies to the faithful church, the ‘wise virgins’, since the ‘foolish virgins’ will have the door of heaven slammed in their face (Matt 25:1-12).

Another idiom for the Feast of Trumpets is “the day of the awakening blast”. The rapture is linked with the waking of many of the dead. The apostle Paul wrote: “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangeland with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then 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.” (1 Thess 4:16-17). [Daniel 12:2 also links the time of Jacob’s trouble with the resurrection of many of the dead]. Shofar, by Matt Ray

The apostle Paul gives a little more detail about the rapture in his first letter to the Corinthians. “We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Cor 15:51-52). Paul does not explain the expression ‘the last trump’ because he expected his readers to understand it. Paul was a Jew, writing to a Jewish-led church, and the expression ‘the last trump’ is a Jewish idiom for the final ‘tekiah gedolah’ (a long, sustained blast of the shofar) that is sounded at the end of the Feast of Trumpets. It seems that the Holy Spirit had enlightened Paul with more detail than Jesus had given to his disciples in his Olivet discourse.

Now, I know I am sticking my neck out here, and I am used to doing that, but this all suggests to me that Jesus will return to fetch his Bride at the end of the final act of worship on the second day of the Feast of Trumpets – Jerusalem time. In the time of Jesus, the final act of worship would have been the evening sacrifice at the ninth hour – 3 p.m. in Jerusalem or midday in the UK.

(The Book of Revelation also appears to me to describe the rapture – in Rev 11:12 and Rev 14:14-16.)

The Day of Atonement

In Leviticus 23:27-28, God says to Moses: “The tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement [Yom Kippur]. It shall be a holy convocation for you. You shall afflict [or torment] your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.”

This is the holiest day of the Biblical year, and even secular Jews would be careful to observe it. Yom Kippur is a day of serious fasting, which even includes abstinence from normal marital relations. The whole of Israel shuts down on Yom Kippur – no working, no shops open, no trains, no buses, no taxis, no radio and no television. Total shutdown. People often wear special white clothing and go to the synagogue. And it was for this reason that Egyptian and Syrian forces chose this particular day in 1973 to launch a coordinated attack on Israel.

The Yom Kippur War of 1973 was a foreshadowing of what will happen at the end of the age, when hostile armies will again invade Israel and Jerusalem, which will be the climax of the time of Jacob’s trouble. And like the cavalry in the traditional Western films, Jesus will ride to the rescue at the last moment, and all the Saints with him – as is foretold in Zechariah 14:1-15. Because Yom Kippur is a day when the whole nation of Israel unites in prayer anyway, how much more will they cry out to God on the final Yom Kippur at the end of the age, when Jerusalem is attacked. This is the day which Scripture often calls ‘the Day of the Lord’, and which we also sometimes call ‘Judgment Day’. We call it ‘Judgment Day’, because Yom Kippur is the day when the ‘Books’ are closed at the end of the ten ‘Days of Awe’ ¹. The time for any last-minute acts of repentance expires on the Day of Atonement, and God’s judgment is finalised. Technically this refers to God’s judgment upon Israel, and the nations are judged later. Yom Kippur is a day of ‘face-to-face’. Historically, it was the one day in the year when the High Priest went in to the Holy of Holies to meet God face-to-face. At the end of the age, the people of Israel will see their Messiah face-to-face, and they will look upon Jesus “whom they pierced” – and “they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). And God will deliver a favourable verdict upon the faithful remnant of Israel, just as the Lord forgave their sins in the time of Moses – for it was on Yom Kippur that Moses descended from the mountain at Sinai with the glory of God shining from his face. In that same day, when Israel acknowledges her Messiah, God will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. “Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west” – most likely along the natural fault line that lies there between two tectonic plates. (Zech 14: 3-4).

The Feast of Tabernacles

In Leviticus 23:34, God says to Moses: “The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles [Sukkot] for seven days to the Lord.” Verse 42 adds: “You shall dwell in booths [tabernacles or temporary shelters] for seven days.”

The Feast of Tabernacles really is a proper feast. This is a time of great rejoicing. Lots of joy. It is the appointed time to celebrate the ‘wedding feast’ on earth and the coming of Messiah to rule as king (for a thousand years – as I understand it). It is also called the ‘Feast of Nations’, because Jesus will then quite literally live among all the nations of the world, not just the Jews. Isaiah 12 is always sung, and Isa 12:6 says: “Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!” The Feast of Tabernacles celebrates the coming of the Holy One of Israel to ‘tabernacle’ amongst all the people of the world. Zechariah 14:16 also instructs all the nations to worship the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem at Sukkot every year during the (millennial) rule of Messiah.

The Feast of Tabernacles ... is also called the ‘Feast of Nations’, because Jesus will then quite literally live among all the nations of the world, not just the Jews.

Sukkot recalls the time when God provided for the children of Israel as they dwelt in booths in the wilderness. Psalm 105:39 says that God “spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light in the night.” Isaiah 4:4-6 states that at the end of the age, “When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, then the Lord will create above every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering. And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.”

With the first four feasts fulfilled 2,000 years ago, it may not be long until the final three. Let us watch and be ready.

Endnotes

1 See further notes in ‘The Significance of Dates in Haggai – Part 1’.