The Master has stated He will arrive "at a time you think not" when most are unprepared to meet Him. He has clearly warned His people, Jew and Gentile alike, not to be overwhelmed with "the cares of life" like drunkenness or dissipation or sleepiness when He arrives. What was His primary audience when he lived? House of Israel or pagan Gentiles? It was the House of Israel within Israel.
 
   The time of the Winter Solstice was sometimes the time of Hanukkah. Always, during his lifetime, was the time of the Roman pagan celebration called the Saturnalia. Members of the 12 tribes of Israel were never "to learn the ways of the heathen" and to avoid them. The Romans were part of "the heathen" of the pagan Gentiles of the times. A devout Jew and a sinless man, Messiah/Christ would think not nor participate in Saturnalia and its evil excesses of drunkenness, dissipation, wild revelry, or child sacrifice in fire. It was a time of general merrymaking, also called Childmass, the precursor to Christmas. The tradition of the yule log goes back to the dreadful practice of taking an infant, perhaps a newborn, and burning it to death in fire as a sacrifice to the sun god, in order to be granted the blessing of good crops the next year. What would the Master have to do with practices of the Saturnalia? Nothing. Would He warn against them?
 
   It is another time of which some are unaware. For some, it is the season of the fig tree, its green leaves, and fruit as "Summer is near, even at the gates." For Israel it would be approaching the Summer Solstice, around 6-20 to 21. But here is an irony, a fact, and a truth. This happens twice a year, not once. It happens for each hemisphere, above and beneath the equator. For those in countries like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the Summer Solstice when "Summer is near, even at the gates" will be from 12-21 to 25 when the heathen pagan Romans celebrated the excesses, the sins of Saturnalia. For some it is the eve of the season of new wine also.
 
   More clues about the days of Noah and Lot apply to this time of year. Cares of life include eating and drinking, buying and selling, and planting and building. Note especially the possible excesses with eating and drinking and spending money. All of the clues can be linked to this time of the year. We are in days of Tevet. The date of 12-31-2013 will be Tevet 28. Are there days of spiritual danger ahead of drunkenness, dissipation, carousing,  revelry, sleepiness, and gluttony ahead until 12-31? There are. Will the Bridegroom of the Ages be sent by Abba Father in a  day during Tevet in 2013? Will Psalm 113 come true for the set apart family on The Day of The Blessed Hope when we will be "lifted up from the dunghill" to then " reign with princes" as stated in Psalm 113:7-8? Israel has fresh new olive oil for lamps, and "Summer is near, even at the gates" with the sign of the fig tree. We have the cares of life like those of the days of Noah and Lot. The Master are cautioned about the perils, the sins of the excessive indulgences of the cares of life. In essence, The Redeemer has warned us about the themes, the values, and the practices of Saturnalia. For some, at the Chuppah of the Ages, the taste of the new wine is just ahead.
   Come soon, Beloved Groom, The Captain of Our Souls!
 
 
With Love and Shalom,
Jean