"AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE
SUN"
“And
God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the
heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and
for seasons, and for days, and years.” Gen
1:14
In Hebrew, the word “signs” is
Strong’s # 0226 ‘owth, which means: signal
In Hebrew, the word “seasons” is
Strong’s # 04150 mow’ed which means:
an
appointed place
an
appointed time
an
appointed meeting
an
appointed season
an
appointed feast
an
appointed sign/signal
from the root word Strong’s #03259 Ya’ad which means :
a fixed
appointment
to meet
by appointment
“For
there is not anything which is hidden, except it be in order that it might be
made known, nor has anything become hidden but in order that it might come into
full view. Assuming that a person has ears to be hearing, let him be
hearing. And He was saying to them, Keep ever a watchful eye on what you are hearing.”
Mark
4:22-24 The New Testament
An Expanded Translation by Kenneth S. Wuest
The Holy Spirit has clearly revealed in the Bible that
the Creator has designed “order” to the universe. This one fact
alone shouts out loudly for the necessity of the Creator Himself being behind all creation. No
random act nor happen-stance there! No chance circumstance nor unspecific pattern
here! God is a
God of order.
In the Bible, from the beginning to the end, there is an
order to progressive revelation on many levels, but the first level is: “to the Jew first...and
then…to the Greek.”
The Jewish Talmud, written by various rabbis, defines
and appoints a definite, express period of time for "the twinkling
of an eye."
Many
observances in Jewish law are performed at specific times during the day.
The calculation of these halakhic times, known
as zmanim (Hebrew for
"times"), depends on the various
astronomical phenomena of the day for the specific locale. Sunrise, sunset, the
amount of time between them, and the sun's angular position before rising are
all factors that determine the halakhic times and "hours" of the
day. "Halakhic" is the
collective corpus of Jewish religious law, including biblical law (the 613 mitzvot) and later Talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.
The
time-determined mitzvot (commandments) are listed in the table of Zmanim and include, for example, the earliest time to don tallit (the prayer shawl) and tzitzit, (the fringes
or tassels on the edge of the prayer shawl) the latest
time that one can say the Kriat Shema ( the focal
point of prayer: Deut 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Num 15:
37-41) and the morning prayer, and the interval of time within
which one must say the afternoon prayer, and other mitzvot.
One also needs to know the time of sunset
where one is regionally located in order to determine the times of the beginning
of Shabbat and holidays and the definition of "night" in order to determine the
time of Havdalah, the ceremony of "Separation" that always occurs at "the
end of the Sabbath."
Many of these times are dependent on the
"sha'ah
zmanit," the "proportional
hour," a special unit
of time that takes into account variations in the length of the
day—the "hour" has special
meaning in Jewish law.
"And he cometh unto
the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one
hour?" Matt
26:40
"Verily, verily, I
say unto you, The hour is
coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God: and they that hear shall live." John
5:25
"Remember therefore
how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not
watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon
thee." Rev
3:3
In the
Bible, the specific time of “the
going down of the sun” is a prophetic and an ominous time:
In Genesis
15:12, it was the time that “an horror of great
darkness fell” upon
Abram
In Deut 16:6, it is the time when
passover sacrifice is commanded to be offered
In 11 Chron
18:34, it was the time that
king Jehoshaphat of
Israel
, “stayed himself up in
his chariot against the Syrians”
In Daniel 6:14, it was the time, after making his decree, that king Darius was “sore displeased
with himself and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him” from the lion’s den after he refused to
comply with the degree and continued praying
In the Bible, our Jewish apostle Paul, a son of
Benjamin, who was well-versed in the Jewish Law, gave the Jewish
clue to the Bride about the EXACT "proportional" hour when Jesus would come for us in 1 Corinthians
15:51-52, when he said: "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed, In a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall
be changed."
From the Greek meanings, Romans 6:5 says: “For if
we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:”….in ALL
ways!
There
was an exact “proportional hour” when Jesus Christ raised from the
dead. There was a precise time when
“His change” came, a precise time when His
mortality put on immortality.
There
is an exact “proportional hour” when the Bride of Christ will be raised from the
dead. There is a precise time
when “our change” will come, when our mortality will put on immortality….that
time will be… “in His likeness.”
The
particular precise and exact “proportional hour” is referred to in Judaism as “the
going down of the sun.” This time is further refined as “twilight,” even refined to a finer degree as “in
a twinkling of an eye.” This is that little indeterminable time when “one
day changes into the next day.”
The Law requires the necessary definition and
organization of the “proportional hours” of the day between sunrise and sunset
so as to structure a precise pattern of
order, when the nation of
Israel
’s
various religious commandments and rituals must be carried out and
observed. It always has been most
necessary to know as exactly as possible when Shabbat begins and ends in a
region, therefore making it possible to know when “one day
changed into the next day.” The Holy God required
precise observance of His precise Law, (while at the same time, that very
Law became that “which gendereth to
bondage” in Galatians
4:24
). Even so, from the very beginning, God has used His Law to
fashion a perfectly precise and ordered structure by which He has commanded His
people
Israel
to practice and
rehearse for the times and the seasons, the years, the months, the days and the
hours when the fulfillment of all His future, appointed, prophetic events will take
place.
After much
study and observation of astronomy, the rising of the sun, the disappearance of
the last star, the setting of the sun and the appearance of the first stars in
the sky, the ancient rabbis themselves set up a schedule for the precise
“proportional hours” about which we are concerned for this writing: “the going down
of the sun.” It is as
follows:
The
times below are based on Daylight Savings Time, in
Jerusalem
,
Israel
, as of April 26/27,
2008, and show the progressive minus degrees of the setting sun’s altitude below
the horizon.
p.m.
7:16
0° -Shekiah/Sunset= the sun's altitude is 0 degrees to the
horizon
_________________________________________________________________________
7:17
-1°
-period known as "bein hashmashot/twilight"
7:21
-2°
7:26
-3°
7:31
-4°
7:35
-5°
7:40
-6°
7:45
-7° (The number 7 signifies spiritual perfection- the root means
“to be full or satisfied, have enough of” )
______________________________________________________________
7:47
-7.5° (Starshine) of Twilight
7:50
-8° (The number
8 is the number of resurrection and regeneration and the beginning of a new era or order. It is the number of His name,
Jesus.)
7:54
The Sabbath
Ends. Sabbath
candles extinguished. The “little indeterminable
time" between -8
° and -9° when “the twinkling of an eye” occurs -the Day
changes, Jesus’ “change and our change takes place,” First Fruits
opens, the beginning of “the first day/the eighth day,” the “morrow after the
sabbath” begins, the “Day of the
Lord” begins, the “Lord’s day” begins- (John the Revelator said, “I was in the spirit on
the Lord’s day and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet ” in Rev
1:10.) In 2008, the
7th and final day of Passover begins, on April 26/27, about which Lev 23: 8 says: “in
the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work
therein.” (In
2008, the ‘7th’ day, last day of Passover falls on the Feast of
Firstfruits, “the morrow after the sabbath.”)
7:55 -9° (The
number 9 is the number of judgment, especially divine judgment,
and the conclusion of the whole
matter so far as man is concerned.) “Alas
for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as
a destruction from the
Almighty shall it come. Joel
1:15
8:13
-12° Deep
twilight
8:42
-18°
8:45
-18° Twilight ends, sky
enters into gross
darkness.
How remarkable that from the very beginning, during the
precise location of the sun between -8° and -9° below the horizon, the Creator Jesus always planned for “THE
CHANGE” during “the
twinkling of an eye” for both Himself, and His Bride.
Following is a listing of some symbols of the number ‘8’ in Bible
and in Judaism:
1. The Jewish letter for ‘8’ is Het t The Het is the ‘8th’ letter in the Jewish alpha-bet. The
numerical value of Het is ‘8’. Going beyond seven, the number eight
symbolizes man’s ability to transcend the limits of physical
existence, i.e. Eternity.” As ‘8’ goes
beyond ‘7’, the number ‘8’ becomes a
symbol of the Jubilee year, the ‘50th ‘ year which is really year ‘1’
of the next ’49,’ just as in Judaism, Sunday, is called both the ‘8th’ day and the “1st’ day. Every Sunday is a type of “the Jubilee
year.”
2. ‘Eight’ stands for ‘new beginnings,’ a ‘new
order’
3. It is on the 8th day from birth that God commanded all males that belong to
Him “to remove the
flesh of their
foreskin” by circumcision. Circumcision is an act of
“consecration,” an act of “dedication” and an act of being “set apart” unto
God, just as the ‘8th’ Feast is called in John 10, the “feast of
dedication.”
4. In Exodus
22:29-30, it says: “Thou
shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the
firstborn of
thy sons shalt thou give unto me. Likewise shalt thou do with
thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be
with his dam; on the eighth day
thou shalt give it me.”
5. Exodus 29:35 commands that the sons of Aaron, the priests,
“…seven days shalt thou
consecrate them…” which
allows them to be prepared to enter their priestly ministry “on the eighth
day.”
6. David, the shepherd boy, was the ‘8th’ son of Jesse, who represented the Triune ‘888th Son of David, the Messiah.
7. Methuselah, the righteous, delivered out before the world-side judgment
of the Flood, whose name means: “his death shall bring…” is the ‘8th’ generation from Adam.
8. Zacharias, the father of John, the Baptist, the heralder and “preparer of
the way” for Y’shua, the Messiah-Redeemer of Israel, was appointed to the ‘8th’ priestly course of the 24 courses of Temple priests, the course of
Abijah.
If the Lord chooses this Sabbatical cycle to begin all this, these awesome events
will take place in the Jewish sabbatical year, 5768 and in
Gregorian year 2008.
On the website Chabad.org
http://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?tDate=4/19/2008
there is a yearly month-month calendar program set up
which is coordinated with the Jewish calendar days. On it, according to
Judaism, one is able to view what Biblical events occurred on what
days each Gregorian year (which fall on the Biblical Jewish
calendar).
Examples
of Biblical dates for April, 2008: in different
years
April 6, Nisan
1:
Opening
of the Sacred calendar year
Tabernacle inaugurated
Death of Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, upon presenting
“strange fire” before the Lord
April 10, Nisan
5:
Spies sent to
Jericho
April 12, Nisan
7:
Israel
prepares to cross into
Canaan
April 15, Nisan
10:
Miriam’s Passing
Israelites cross
Jordan
[Y’shua, the Messiah, rides into
Jerusalem
to present
Himself as the ‘perfect Lamb’]
April 16, Nisan
11:
Israel
circumcise upon entering
Canaan
April 18, Nisan
13:
Haman’s decree
April 19, Nisan
14: Sabbath
Fast of the First-born
[
Israel
departs from
Egypt
]
[Crucifixion of Y’shua, the Messiah-Redeemer
]
[God visits Abraham and Sarah- at
noon
]
[Isaac born]
April 20, Nisan
15:
Feast of Unleavened Bread
[The two Angels arrive in
Sodom
in the
evening]
Abram and the “covenant between the
parts”
Abraham battles Four Kings
[Jacob wrestles with Y’shua]
Moses at the Burning Bush
April 26, Nisan
21: Sabbath
[End of the Sabbath/beginning of the Feast of
Firstfruits- on “the morrow after the Sabbath” ]
Moses departs from Midian
April 27, Nisan
22:
Isaac
circumcised
Encirclement of
Jericho
began
Truly, before time, Y’shua, the Creator appointed a place, appointed a moment in
time, appointed a season,
appointed a feast,
appointed a year,
appointed a month,
appointed a day, appointed an hour, and appointed an astronomical time-at
the going down of the sun-at twilight-at the twinkling of an eye, when He, Himself would
complete His work as Israel’s and the world’s, Savior and Redeemer…the time when
His “change” came, when His “mortal” changed into “immortal.” As the Bride is fashioned “in His
likeness” of His Body, before time, we, also were scheduled to fulfill those same appointments at the exact same
times when “our flesh will change,” our physical redemption will be completed,
and our “mortal will be changed into “immortal” at the appointed “signal” of a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of
God, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye!
As we patiently wait
with all of you who so long to see our Savior and Lord, we watch in full
expectation that THIS year of 5768,
2008, is indeed the Sabbatical year when the Lord will keep His fixed
appointment to meet us and complete the DAY of Christ Jesus, the
resurrection/rapture of the Bride of Christ, in order to begin the
physical Redemption of the nation of Israel with the inauguration of the DAY of
the Lord. We feel privileged to be appointed to live at this strategic time in
history in order to join with you, the resolute watchers all over the world, who
continue to faithfully look for His coming.
Lisa Lewallen
Miriam Howard
"Give glory to HaShem your
G-d, before it grow dark, and before your feet stumble upon the mountains of twilight, and, while ye look for
light, He turn it into the shadow of
death, and make it gross
darkness."
Jeremiah
13:16
The
Tanakh
January 3,
2008/5768