Hello, John and Doves,
Q: When might the Rapture be, and what is the Day of the LORD?
A: The Rapture will come in the fullness of time, just as Yeshua came the first time.
It is written,
1Think
of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his
young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until
they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father
had. 2They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. 3And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world.
4But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.6And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”7Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.
Galatians 4:1-7 NLT
Notice the mention of slaves in this passage. The Holy Spirit did not have Rabbi Shaul write that for no good reason.
It is written,
Redemption of the Poor and Enslaved
35“If
one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and cannot support
himself, support him as you would a foreigner or a temporary resident
and allow him to live with you. 36Do
not charge interest or make a profit at his expense. Instead, show your
fear of God by letting him live with you as your relative. 37Remember, do not charge interest on money you lend him or make a profit on food you sell him. 38I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39“If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell himself to you, do not treat him as a slave. 40Treat him instead as a hired worker or as a temporary resident who lives with you, and he will serve you only until the Year of Jubilee. 41At
that time he and his children will no longer be obligated to you, and
they will return to their clans and go back to the land originally
allotted to their ancestors. 42The people of Israel are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, so they must never be sold as slaves. 43Show your fear of God by not treating them harshly.
44“However, you may purchase male and female slaves from among the nations around you. 45You
may also purchase the children of temporary residents who live among
you, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them
as your property, 46passing
them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat them
as slaves, but you must never treat your fellow Israelites this way.
47“Suppose
a foreigner or temporary resident becomes rich while living among you.
If any of your fellow Israelites fall into poverty and are forced to
sell themselves to such a foreigner or to a member of his family, 48they still retain the right to be bought back, even after they have been purchased. They may be bought back by a brother, 49an
uncle, or a cousin. In fact, anyone from the extended family may buy
them back. They may also redeem themselves if they have prospered. 50They will negotiate the price of their freedom with the person who bought them. The price will be based on the number of years from the time they were sold until the next Year of Jubilee—whatever it would cost to hire a worker for that period of time. 51If
many years still remain until the jubilee, they will repay the proper
proportion of what they received when they sold themselves. 52If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, they will repay a small amount for their redemption. 53The
foreigner must treat them as workers hired on a yearly basis. You must
not allow a foreigner to treat any of your fellow Israelites harshly. 54If
any Israelites have not been bought back by the time the Year of
Jubilee arrives, they and their children must be set free at that time. 55For the people of Israel belong to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 25:35-55 NLT
You
see, the idea of Christ’s return is tied intimately to the concept of
the Jubilee, and to Egypt—again, not by chance. Since Israel is
approaching the year of Jubilee, and Jesus promised the time will be
shortened, you can see the comfort of Isaiah 40.
Let’s see how that works.
It is written,
God Promises Judgment
20Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word.21But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,22none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice,23shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.24But
my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me
fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his
descendants shall possess it.25Now,
since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn
tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
Numbers 14:20-25 NLT
Here, we see that God will visit upon Israel the penalty for their sins, according to how they have treated Him.
He keeps account of all things [Isaiah 40:10, Galatians 6:7]
Again, it is written,
26And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,27“How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me.28Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you:29your
dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number,
listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled
against me,30not
one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell,
except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.31But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected.32But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.33And
your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and
shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies
lies in the wilderness.34According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’35I, the Lord,
have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who
are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a
full end, and there they shall die.”
36And
the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all
the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about
the land—37the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the Lord.38Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.
Numbers 14:26-37 NLT
Overall, what does God’s calendar look like?
It is written concerning sins and lack of repentance,
Punishments for Disobedience
14“However, if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, 15and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, 16I
will punish you. I will bring sudden terrors upon you—wasting diseases
and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to
ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will
eat them. 17I
will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies. Those
who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is
chasing you!
18“And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins. 19I will break your proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze. 20All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit.
21“If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey me, I will inflict disaster on you seven times over for your sins. 22I will send wild animals that will rob you of your children and destroy your livestock. Your numbers will dwindle, and your roads will be deserted.
23“And if you fail to learn the lesson and continue your hostility toward me, 24then I myself will be hostile toward you. I will personally strike you with calamity seven times over for your sins. 25I
will send armies against you to carry out the curse of the covenant you
have broken. When you run to your towns for safety, I will send a
plague to destroy you there, and you will be handed over to your
enemies. 26I
will destroy your food supply, so that ten women will need only one
oven to bake bread for their families. They will ration your food by
weight, and though you have food to eat, you will not be satisfied.
27“If in spite of all this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me, 28then I will give full vent to my hostility. I myself will punish you seven times over for your sins. 29Then you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters. 30I
will destroy your pagan shrines and knock down your places of worship. I
will leave your lifeless corpses piled on top of your lifeless idols, and I will despise you. 31I
will make your cities desolate and destroy your places of pagan
worship. I will take no pleasure in your offerings that should be a
pleasing aroma to me. 32Yes, I myself will devastate your land, and your enemies who come to occupy it will be appalled at what they see. 33I will scatter you among the nations and bring out my sword against you. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins. 34Then at last the land will enjoy its neglected Sabbath years
as it lies desolate while you are in exile in the land of your enemies.
Then the land will finally rest and enjoy the Sabbaths it missed. 35As long as the land lies in ruins, it will enjoy the rest you never allowed it to take every seventh year while you lived in it.
36“And
for those of you who survive, I will demoralize you in the land of your
enemies. You will live in such fear that the sound of a leaf driven by
the wind will send you fleeing. You will run as though fleeing from a
sword, and you will fall even when no one pursues you. 37Though
no one is chasing you, you will stumble over each other as though
fleeing from a sword. You will have no power to stand up against your
enemies. 38You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies. 39Those of you who survive will waste away in your enemies’ lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.
Leviticus 26:14-39 NLT
There
are serious consequences to disregarding the light of the Holy Spirit!
I count the phrase, “seven times,” appearing four times in this
passage.
The number four connects to the Lamb of God this way:
And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
2 Samuel 12:6 KJV
This was spoken by King David in response to Nathan. The lamb referred to here is Yeshua HaMashiach, the Son of David, [John 1:29-34, Luke 3:23-38], who takes away the sin of the world for all those who trust in Him.
Okay, so we have linked Yeshua HaMashiach’s first coming to Leviticus by way of 2 Samuel.
What does all this mean?
Again, let’s look at Leviticus 26:14-39 NLT, above. The first two sevens, combined with ten [Numbers 14:20-25 NLT], yields 7 X 7 X 10. We stopped at verse 22 because of the phrase, your roads will be deserted. This reminds us of Jeremiah 29:10 and Daniel 9:2.
Daniel 9 links into Leviticus 26 by way of Jeremiah 29.
[And 29 is the number for departure.]
7 X 7 X 10 = 490.
http://www.bethlehemstar.net/day/day.htm
So, 14 Nisan fell on a Friday on April 3, 33 AD.
The
483 year count (sixty-nine weeks, after which Messiah was cut off) fell
to 10 Nisan, on Monday of Holy Week, having begun at nightfall on
Sunday.
Now, whatever in the world happened (will happen) to the 70th week????
We go to the same passage in which we found the Seventy Weeks:
Gabriel’s Message about the Anointed One
20I went on praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, pleading with the Lord my God for Jerusalem, his holy mountain. 21As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22He explained to me, “Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. 23The
moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to
tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God. Listen carefully
so that you can understand the meaning of your vision.
24“A period of seventy sets of seven
has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their
rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to
bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and
to anoint the Most Holy Place.25Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times.
26“After this period of sixty-two sets of seven,
the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished
nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and
the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. 27The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven, but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.”
Daniel 9:20-27 NLT
The phrase, “praying and confessing,” ties nicely into Leviticus 26:14-39 NLT, above.
Thinking on those four sets of “seven times,” let’s try one more factor of 7 to get 10 X 7 X 7 X 7 = 3,430.
If these are years, then we are talking 490 shmita [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmita] counts.
The sabbath year subject ties into Leviticus 25:35-55 NLT, above. We also notice that, according to Leviticus 25:8
[God is no dummy: you can’t hope to keep the Sabbath years if you
count by fifty!!!!], the Jubilee occurs every 49 years, the fiftieth
year being after the forty-ninth year—as it is in any calendar worth a
hill of beans. The truly beautiful thing is that every single fiftieth
year is also the first year in the 49 year run up to the next Jubilee!!!
In this fashion, we see fit to hinge our thoughts on Leviticus 26:18, such that we have two sets of “seven times” overlapping three sets of “seven times,” to make a total of four sets.
Okay, so the 3,430 years start when the Sabbath year counts start.
What do the Scriptures say?
It is written,
The Sabbath Year
1While Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Lord said to him, 2“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you have entered the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath rest before the Lord every seventh year.
Leviticus 25:1-2 NLT
So, then, according to Numbers 14:26-37 NLT, the clock started ticking when Joshua and Caleb entered the Promised Land the first time, in 1415 BC
1415 + 2015 [There is no year “zero.”] = 3,430.
So, on Yom Kippur, 2015 we hope to see Jesus declare the 70th Jubilee!
However, the Year of Release is the year before, beginning the evening of 24 September 2014.
Why is that date significant for the Rapture?
It is written,
But you aren't in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters,
and you won't be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief.
1 Thessalonians 5:4 NLT
Again, it is written,
8But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. 9The
Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think.
No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be
destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 10But
the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the
heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements
themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it
will be found to deserve judgment.
11Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, 12looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. 13But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
2 Peter 3:8-13 NLT
Combining
the scripture above with Numbers 14:34, we understand that the Day of
the Lord, being the Seventh Day, starts on Rosh Hashanah 5775, which
inaugurates the Sabbath year begining the evening of 24 September 2014.
We note that the evening of 22 September 2015 begins Yom Kippur 5776, on which the Jubilee year is announced [Leviticus 25:9].
So then:
From and including: Wednesday, September 24, 2014
To, but not including Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Result: 363 days
It is 363 days from the start date to the end date, but not including the end date
http://www.timeanddate.com/date/durationresult.html?m1=9&d1=24&y1=2014&m2=9&d2=22&y2=2015
If
we add one day, 22 September 2015, we still get 364 days, so the day
lacking suggests the entire 1,000 year period of Christ’s reign. The
beginning and end of that day is described in one verse: 2 Peter 3:10. So the Day of the Lord begins with the Rapture at the appointed time.
Q:
Okay, Mikey, what was so doggone special about 2008 that I should
believe that the good LORD punctuated it to inaugurate Daniel’s 70th week?
A: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/09/14/chicago.rainfall/
‘Nuff said.
~Blessings,
Mike