To CAPS:

According to Deuteronomy 2:14, Israel wandered in the wilderness 38 years for refusing to enter the Promised Land. The forty years mentioned in Deut. 1:3 date from the time they left Egypt. Those who were 19 and under at the time the punishment was imposed were the ones who inherited the Promised Land 38 years later.

In John 5:5, another 38 year punishment is mentioned. This text seems to picture latter day Israel. The man healed had been ill for 38 years because of a sin or sins he had committed earlier in his life (John 5:14). After suffering with his infirmity for 38 years, the man was cleansed and his health was restored. Arthur Pink comments in his Gospel of John that "thirty-eight years was exactly the length of time that Israel spent in the wilderness after they came under law at Sinai. There it was , in the Wilderness of Sin, that old Israel manifested their 'impotency'-blind,halt, withered-under law." Pink also points out that the man was healed on a feast day and says "that the view of almost all the older writers is the correct one, and that it was the feast of Pentecost that is here in view."

It is interesting that after 19 years of reborn Israel's existence, on June 14, 1967, another feast of Pentecost was celebrated in Israel. An estimated 200,000 Israelis gathered at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount to celebrate their victory in the Six Day War. Part of their victory was the liberation of the Temple mount on June 8,1967. From that day in June when the Israelis conquered the Temple Mount, they allowed the Muslim Waqf to remain in autonomous control over the mosques on the Mount. Then in August of 1967, Moshe Dayan returned jurisdiction of the entire Temple Mount to the Islamic Waqf. Dayan indicated that if Israel kept control of the Temple Mount, it would raise the ire of the entire Moslem world and result in yet another war. Once again, as in the days of Joshua, Israel feared their enemies far more than they trusted their God.

Could it be that another punishment clock started ticking for  Israel on June 14, 1967 (Pentecost). Like the one in the wilderness journey and the one for the diseased man in John 5:5, could it be that this punishment will also be for 38 years? If so, it would run its course on June 13, 2005. Pentecost starts this year at sunset on June 12 and ends at sunset on June 13. That would be 38 years to the day of the June 14,1967 Pentecost. If the Lord begins to cleanse, purify, and restore Israel on June 12/13, 2005, it would tell me that the Church is gone and that the 70th week of Daniel has begun.

Pentecost is a harvest feast. Two loaves of LEAVENED bread (leaven represents sin) are waived before the Lord (Leviticus 23:17). The loaves, I believe, represent two distinct categories of redeemed sinners: the resurrected dead in Christ and those who will be raptured while physically alive (1Corinthians 15:52). The previous feast on the calendar, the feast of Firstfruits, is also a harvest feast. That feast has an offering which does not contain any leaven and pictures the sinless resurrected Christ appearing before the father in heaven. Firstfruits and Pentecost are 50 days apart and are like two bookends enclosing the same theme-namely resurrection. The church was born on Pentecost, but that did not fulfill the feast of Pentecost. Again, like Firstfruits, Pentecost is about resurrection harvest.

Could it be that on Pentecost this year the 38 years of Israel's latest punishment will end and the feast picturing the resurrection and rapture of the Church will be fulfilled? It does seem ironic that both these events could happen on the same day. With the Church gone, Israel would once again be central in God's dealings with the peoples of the earth.

We do not have long to wait for the answer.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!