The Place of Israel

The Place of Israel

Israel is God's time-piece.

Are you able to join with me and say let the God of Israel bless

His Chosen People and their dwelling place in His Land?

But Zion says, 'Adonai has abandoned me,

Adonai has forgotten me.'

"Can a woman forget her child at the breast

and not show pity on the child from her womb?

Even if these were to forget,

I would not forget you.

I have engraved you on the palms of my hands,

your walls are always before me." ISA 49:15

The story of the 69 weeks of Daniel and the place of Israel as the marker for End Times.

Key elements of the Israel story:

	Israel is God's Chosen Nation
	Israel is currently under a period of God's judgment,
	Israel's restoration will mark 'the Beginning of the End'

I have posted watchmen on your walls, Yerushalayim,

they will never fall silent, neither by day nor by night.

You who call on Adonai, give yourselves no rest,

and give Him no rest till He restores Yerushalayim

and makes it a praise on earth.

Sobre tus muros, O Jerusalén, he puesto guardas, todo el día y la noche no callaran jamás. Los que acordáis de Jehovah no ceséis.

ISA 62.6.

Feasts of Israel

For many years the timing and significance of the main 7 feasts has been diffused and forgotten.

God gave this yearly and longer cycle as markers, and awareness of the significance provides a 'heavenly portal' which allow you to 'synch-in' with the timing and outworking of the Almighty One of Israel. These are the appointed times, as signs and marking seasons for days and years mentioned in GEN 1:14.

Overview of the Feasts

The Jewish Feasts are divided into 3 Key Feasts, with two special groupings around ‘spring’ (MAR/APR) and ‘autumn’ (SEP/OCT), (i.e. in the northern hemisphere – which is the location of Israel/Mediterranean).

The Feasts which were decreed compulsory (ie. Jewish male attended the Temple as a minimum), were as listed in (DEUT 16:16):

1.) PEASACH (Passover) followed by Unleavened Bread and First Fruits (similar timing to our Easter) [MAR/APR]

2.) SHAVOUT (Feast of weeks) – 49 + 1 = 50 Days after Passover – our Pentecost

3.) SUKKOT (Tabernacles) preceded by Trumpets and Yom Kippur = Day of Atonement, solemn festival unto the Lord [SEPT/OCT]

According to some reckonings there are a total of 70 holy days in the Jewish Calendar:

52 Sabbaths, 7 days of Passover, 1 Shavout, 1 Trumpets, 1 Yom Kippur,

7 days of Sukkot and 1 Shimini Atzeret (8th Day of Solemn Assembly).

Autumn Feasts

Feast of Trumpets - New Year (Rosh Hashanah)

Timing: 1st day of 7th Month (Tishri)

Example Dates: 10/Sep/2010

Synthesis:

Head of the Year and Time of blowing the Shofar to prepare for 10 days of soul searching leading up to Yom Kippur.

Prophetic Significance:

Symbolic of the Revelation Trumpets, especially the 'Last Trump' the Rapture of the Redeemed and 'Declaration of the Coming King.

Scripture:

...this is to be for you a day of complete rest, for remembering a holy convocation announced with blasts on the Shofar. Do not do any kind of ordinary work and you are to bring an offering made by fire to Adonai. LEV 23: 24.

Customary Greeting:

Shanna Tovah - may you have a good year, on this day apple slices dipped in honey are eaten to signify the hope of sweetness in the coming times and seasons.

Yom Kippur - Day of Atonement

Timing: 10th day of 7th Month (Tishri)

Example Dates: 18/Sep/2010

Synthesis:

Day of National Repentance, Holiest Day, Closest to G-d, Reset the clock (Heavenly Portal)

Prophetic Significance:

Offering of Jesus in the 'heavenly tabernacle,' completion of dwelling with G-d

Scripture:

For on this day, atonement will be made for you to purify you; you will be clean before Adonai from all your sins. It is a Shabbat of complete rest for you, and you are to deny yourselves. LV 16: 30-31.

Other readings: LEV 16; also EX 30:10; LEV 23:27-31, 25:9; NUM 29:7-11; JONAH; ISA 55:6

Description: This is a time of humbling before Almighty G-d, sanctification, and re-dedication for the year (season) ahead.

Succot - Feast of Tabernacles

Timing: 18th day of 7th Month (Tishri) (7 days)

Example Dates: 22 to 29/Sep/2010

Synthesis:

Building and living in temporary accommodation (booths) as when you are on The Journey to the Land of Promise

Prophetic Significance:

Offering of Jesus in the 'heavenly tabernacle,' completion of dwelling with G-d

Tabernacles occurs in the fall in the Hebrew calendar and is a remembrance of the time of having dwelling places in the desert. This is when the Jewish people exodused from slavery in the land of Egypt and passed through the desert (originally for 40 nights and days but due to disobedience and lack of belief in the promise of God for 40 years).

Throughout the Land families build succahs (huts) with roof coverings of palm branches. Children make and hang decorations inside these temporary dwelling places. For seven days and nights, families and guests will eat their meals in the succah and otherwise regard it as their home. This is to commemorate the forty years traversed in the Sinai Desert prior to entering the Holy Land during which Moses and the children of Israel dwelled in tents (www.jnnnews.com - 19/Sep/2010).

“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.”

Ps 125: 2

Spring Feasts

Pesach - Passover

Timing: 14th day of 7th Month (NISSANi)

Example Dates: 19/April/2011

Synthesis:

Sacrifice of the Lamb - looked forward to Yeshua on the Cross and His Resurrection and consequent Salvation through belief in Him and G-d's finished work in the Messiah.

1) celebrate Exodus from Egypt

2) type of sacrificial death of the Messiah

3) promise of the cup of celebration and the marriage feast of the Bride and the Lamb

Mid-year Feast

Shavout - Pentecost

The Birth of the Church and the supposed anniversary marking His Return to take home His Own - The Rapture. Ref. BOOK OF RUTH

The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) is in the middle of the set of 3 feasts and one of the 7 key festivals in the Jewish Religious and Civil calendar. (Their calendar is their catechism – belief creed structure and mnemonic). The Passover set relate prophetically to the First Coming of the Messiah – sacrificial lamb etc and He fulfilled its meaning on exact dates with His Death and Resurrection. The last set appear to relate more to His second coming at the end of the age (SUKKOTH etc). Where does Pentecost fit in?

This is the festival where the Holy Spirit was poured out in ACT 2 and the early church was born. This indicates the beginning of the 'times of the Gentiles,' when God's favor was poured out on the Gentiles and they were grafted in to the vine. Romans speaks of a time when this will be completed and the original branches will be grafted back in (Israel in ROM 11: 23-25). Some believe this will also happen at the time of Pentecost, perhaps also on the Pentecostal 50th year, which is the Year of Jubilee similar to when the Messiah came to proclaim Freedom to the Captive (LK 4:16 and ISA 61:1-2).

Other Feasts

Hannukah

Feast of Lights (symbolizes the candle with 8 branches signifying the miraculous supply of oil in the Temple during the Macabbean period). This comes just before Christmas [approx. 8 thru 16th Dec 2010]..