Douglas Henney (10 Jun 2024)
"Random thoughts, part 1"


The following parts are not necessarily in a logical order:

(As I present this stuff in the following posts, I am wondering if we might see Jesus on or about June 20th - 23rd, fyi.)

When Paul was first confronted by the Resurrected Jesus, he was decimated by the fact that his entire way of relating to God was wrong.  The Great I AM revealed to Paul that in all of his self-righteous obedience to the law, he had set himself up against God.  Even though Paul soon thereafter had his sight restored by Ananias, he, who had been destroying peoples' lives and destroying families, had a lot to sort through.   That is why I believe he first took off to Arabia (Galatians 1:15-17) and where the real Mt. Sinai is located (Galatians 4:25).  Why?  Basically Paul did an "Elijah".  Paul went to the same place Elijah did when he took off from Jezebel.  Paul had been stripped to his core much like Elijah and went to sort things out before God at Mt. Horeb/Sinai, the Mountain of God (I Kings 19:8).  Keep in mind that this Mountain of God was where the burning bush was located.  I will go into more detail on this in another post.

Jesus initially told Paul in Acts 9:5,6 and told Ananias in vss. 15,16 that more revelation was to come to Paul.  You see Paul, in his writings, mentioning this dynamic.  See, for example, I Corinthians 11:23 where Paul says, "I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you . . .", and in I Thessalonians 4:15, "For this we say by the word of the Lord . . ."

Paul does not overtly described what was revealed to him at Mt. Sinai while he was initially there.  However, I believe we get a clue from one of his earliest letters and from a particular subject he discusses with the readers in those letters, namely 1 and 2 Thessalonians, where Paul brings up the subject of the harpatzo.   Note that Jesus revealed this to Paul and not to the twelve disciples.  It is my estimation that folks who quote from the Gospels, thinking those sections of scripture are discussing our harpatzo event, are not rightly dividing the scriptures and are basically taking verses out of context.

Paul describes this harpatzo revelation in I Thessalonians 4:16-18 as: "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words."

What event does that sound like, thinking in terms of where Paul initially went after Jesus was revealed to him, at Mt. Sinai?

Exodus 19:16-20, "So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.  And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.  Now, Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.  When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.  The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain; and the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain , and Moses went up.

What day was that in Exodus 19?  The children of Israel came to the base of the mountain on the self same day as when they left metro Egypt.  The 15th day of the 3rd month.  So when did God come down during a long lasting trumpet blast that echoes what Paul described in I Thessalonians 4?  Exodus 19:11 expresses "the third day" or the day after tomorrow.  

What day did God come down?  The 17th day of the 3rd month.

When is that day this year per the popular Jewish calendar?

June 22nd-June 23rd.