THE FESTIVALS AND OTHER SET TIMES OF GOD

CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE FESTIVALS AND OTHER SET TIMES OF GOD  

The appointed set times of God include the following terms: On the Third Day and On the Seventh Day, After 400 years, and After 430 years, After 70 years, and After 490 years. Understanding these set times are critical to understanding the appointed times of the 7 Festivals: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Tabernacles. These set times will be laid out here, where Truth may be discerned in the light of the New Covenant. There’s a great saying about this Truth which has been attributed to Augustine…. “The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.” 

The very first of His appointed set times and patterns which God has revealed in Scripture is that of the time frame and pattern to restore a fallen/chaotic creation. That having been established as “7 days” in the RE-CREATION, as described in the first 34 verses of Genesis. Two things we can always rely on in Scripture are: 1) that any pattern or set time God has established is perfect. 2) that it will be the pattern or set time always repeated throughout Scripture concerning that matter. This 7 Day pattern or set time then represents restoration and creation, and as such, it is a sign/set time given to Israel. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” [Exodus 31:14-17] It is a sign of their sanctifying by the Lord.  

So the set time for the restoration from the previous fallen creation (pre-Adamic) was “7 days”.  And so shall then the restoration of this current fallen creation be also 7 days. It shall be seven 1000 year periods, as Scripture reveals that a Day can be 1000 years unto the Lord. (2nd Peter 3:8) This perfect pattern or set time for completion (7) is set forth first in the first 34 verses of Genesis. It will not change; we can trust that this pattern is a constant throughout Scripture. All other set or appointed times have this pattern in view. We are moving through time in that we are in the 6th Day looking unto the 7th Day of the Lord.  

God restored the heavens and the earth with the creation of man in view. Man was created in the 6th day, and so God’s set times designate the 6th day as the day of Man, whereas the 7th day is the Lord’s. Almost all the verses in the Bible that refer to “the Day of the Lord” or “in that Day” are a reference to the 7th Millennial Day. The septenary structure (pattern of 7’s) is found throughout Scripture, and all those places point towards that original 6 days leading up to the Day of The Lord. It should be here noted that on the 3rd Day of Re-Creation, in Genesis 1:9, resurrection is the principal set forth, in that the life–giving Earth appeared out of the waters. With the future resurrections being in view on the “3rd “ Day. Additionally, Scripture sanctifies the 3rd day in conjunction with the 7th day. (From some points of view, this association symbolizes/points to the same “day”.) Here’s an example of that association in this type/shadow found in the Old Covenant. “He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with it (water of separation) on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.” [Numbers 19:11–12] 

What that points to is that Israel is in defilement and She must first be sprinkled in the Third Day, having been defiled by the Body and death of Christ. This sprinkling must come before she can be declared purified in the 7th Day and enter into the Sanctuary Presence of God again. But how can this be so, since we are at the end of the 6th Day and at the threshold of the 7th Day? Surely She shall be cleansed in the 3rd Day from when She was defiled, for she was defiled by the Body and death of Christ in the 4th 1000 year Day where She was suspended in time in the 70th week of Daniel, leaving Her from a spiritual point in that necessary position of the 3rd Day sprinkling. So then at the end of that 70th suspended week, She repents and receives the sprinkling on the 3rd Day (in a spiritual timeframe). She then shortly (75 days?) enters into real time; which is the 7th Day Millennial Rest. This Baptism of the Holy Spirit is typed in the “separation waters” of the 7th day seen in Numbers 19, and is the realization then of the latter rain of Joel.  

So again, what is mysteriously hidden here then is a cleansing that comes at the end of the 6th 1000–year Day, the real time period before the 7th 1000 year Day, the Day of the Lord. Wherein Israel would have been unable to be cleansed, typed in the Red Heifer sprinkling, but the Lord suspended the third day cleansing within the 70th week of Daniel, to be taken up again at the end of the 6000 year Day. That being also the fulfilling of Hosea 6:1-3. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 

After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know — the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”  

The former rain being the sprinkling of the 3rd day, which was received by the Messianic (Jew who accepted Christ). This 3rd day sprinkling then is associated with the real set time for the 7th day Baptism, that Baptism being in the Resurrection of another people for His Name. Whereas the remaining of the Nation (those of Israel who rejected their Messiah as of the 3rd day) became *Lo-ami/ “not my people”.  But this was only a suspension, to be taken in the sense that Israel was no longer His house and won’t be until they repent and He occupies that house yet again.  That is, God suspended time at the end of that first 3rd Day, in which 7 years yet remained. This being Daniel’s 70th week prophesied before the restoration of Israel. It is then that He had determined to call out another people for His Name. (Acts 15:14) Now according to God’s set times, the 2nd 3–day period then began, at the end of which will be the end of the 6th day from re-creation, matching the set time pattern of the first restoration 6–day period culminating in the creation of Man. Now the end of the 2nd 3–day period represents again the pattern of… “ on the 3rd day he will raise us up”. This signifies the resurrection. (Daniel 12:1–2, Revelation 20:4-6) Christ followed the same set time pattern; to be raised up in the 3rd day resurrection set first in Genesis 1, that in the 3rd day, God called forth the earth from the seas.  

So it is that the end of Jacob’s Trouble (the last 7 year “week” of Daniel) is the suspended 3rd Day for the Nation of Israel. And then after receiving Christ Jesus, (the Red Heifer sprinkling) they immediately find themselves, in time, at the 7th day fullness of Cleansing from defilement, which was the “touching” of the dead Body of Jesus Christ. And now fulfilling finally the prophetic word of Hosea, and the requirement of Numbers 19 when Joel’s latter rain falls upon them as typical of the 7th Day immersion/Baptism in water.  

They are raised up in their respective “Third Day” as it was with Christ, the only Begotten Son of God who rose up in newness of Life on the 3rd day. So joined by them, the adopted sons, Israel and the New Man, being then in the Tomb of Hades as Christ was for 2 Days, in the 3rd Day are raised up from among the dead in the newness of life. Now in the marvelous mind of God who conceived these set times from before the beginning of time itself, He designed the forming of a new Man in resurrection to correspond perfectly with His set times, that in the climax of the 6th day of re-creation, He brought forth Adam. So it is, that in the 6th day of the restoration of this current fallen creation, He forms and brings forth the New Man out of the Earth. But this time he is  formed in the image of the 2nd Adam; Jesus Christ. That is to say, in the one adopted son, the terrestrial glory and in the other first–born son, celestial glory, both in the “New Man” creation. Adding to Man’s original dominion over the earth, there will be dominion with Christ over the heavenly realm as well. (1st Corinthians 15:35-41) All His worthies will be raised up on the Third Day into the 7th Day Rest. 

 * “Lo-ami” periods of time are omitted and not reckoned with the years of the secular world, as God dealt/deals with Israel on a different principle of recording their time.  

 GOD’S SET TIMES; 70 YEARS AND 490 YEARS  

Now in accordance with the set times of God, we understand that completion and restoration are represented in sevens. Now we move on to 70 weeks of years. This is a set time introduced by Jeremiah the prophet who declared that because of Israel’s sin, God would bring the Gentile Nation Babylon and its King Nebuchadnezzar against Judah, and that they would be cast out of the Land and exiled into Babylon for 70 years. And this being in accordance with His principle of 7’s in judgment, “And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” [Leviticus 26:18] God further determined a period of 70 x 7, or 490 years that Israel would remain under Gentile authority before they would be then finally established in the everlasting Kingdom of the Messiah. (Daniel 7:14, 2:44) 

The first of the set times of the Festivals of the Lord (being Passover) has been only partially fulfilled, in that the Lamb’s Blood has been shed but Israel/the Jews have never applied the Blood to the doorposts of their hearts. So it is, that before any of the remaining 6 set times represented in the festivals can be fulfilled, the Blood of the Passover must be received and applied by Israel. It should be understood that the 1948 reestablishing of Israel and its current repopulation of the Land is not that Scriptural End Time Restoration promised of God by the Old Covenant Prophets. For this will occur only after their having received the Lamb’s Blood as there Atonement.  

Christians for the most part have Scriptural misunderstandings of the current conditions in Israel today, that generally God is presently restoring Israel in accordance with His promises to do so. Some believe God is progressively restoring His people to Israel, and progressively occupying and healing the land, until finally His promises will thereby realized. Others believe that God is partially restoring Israel according to some select Old Covenant Scripture promises, until He deals with them further during the Tribulation at which time they shall flee and find shelter in surrounding places like Petra, Jordan. But according to Scripture, God is opposed to the current “re-gathering” (although He is most certainly allowing it.) The past 70 years and present repopulation of Israel by the Jews is a secular approach to a spiritual problem. For the Jews rose up to emancipate themselves from exile apart from repentance or their Messiah, which is contrary to the Word and Will of God. It is but a doomed attempt to reenter the house Christ left desolate. (See Luke 13:34-35) It should also be understood that the current repopulation is outside of the 70th week of Daniel prophesy, that is to say before the 490 years are complete. Therefore it is not yet God’s set time to restore Israel. It was entirely in the energy of natural Jewish desire for the Land of their inheritance from Abraham, to seize upon the circumstances brought about by World War 2 to reestablish their Nation.  

The New Covenant Scripture that speaks to this repopulation (some 6,000,000 Jews back into the Land) can be viewed in the light of what the Lord declared to the Jews opposing Him in Matthew 12:43-45 and Luke 13:35. “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”  

“Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  

Here Christ ties that generation of Jews with all generations of Jews, down unto His Second Coming. That “house” left desolate, then was subject to the following dispersions (AD 70 & AD 136). That is to say, the Nation and then the Land had been swept “clean”. But then in the circumstances of World War 2, there was presented the opportunity to the Zionist for the repopulating of the Land, which has been occurring over the last 70 years to about 6,000,000 Jews. And since their “house”/Nation was left desolate, which is to say without the hedge of the Lord, (Isaiah 5:5) the door was open to the demonic forces to exponentially re-gather again within that Nation (which can also be seen in modern Israel’s secularism and worldliness.) So it is that Leviticus 26:18 additionally comes into view here, that being the punishment of 7 times for their sin. And that is because Israel’s current condition of being “restored” was done by secular energy. This restoration was not initiated by God, so their hope of “never again” is based on false security. For their regathering in their own strength is what creates the very circumstances of God bringing the final “…determined consumption…” judgments upon Her, that through the enmity, she herself is alone, being separate from God, and is exposed (without protection) to Her neighboring enemies. (Although it must be pointed out that His protective hand can be seen in a limited state over current Israel, but that being only for the sake of the elect/Messianic believers and God-fearing Jews who are salt and light inside it.)  

But as was often patterned in the past throughout the Old Testament, God will necessarily bring the End Time horrific exponential Judgments to bear upon Israel by the Gentile Nations that She, without the blessing of God, so incites. He will use those Gentile Nations to finally and severely punish her in the furnace 7 times hotter. So while the re-gathering in Her own energies incites the neighboring Nations on the one hand, on the other hand, God will thereby fulfill His determined consumption on Israel, a complete destruction. (Isaiah 10:22–23 with Daniel 9:27)  That is destruction in terms of completion; the perfect consumption of 7 times more in the exact completed time of 7×70, fulfilling the 490 years. And when the consumption which had been decreed is complete, then Israel shall receive the Messiah Jesus. She finally is brought to repentance and grateful application of the Messiah’s Blood in fulfillment of the first feast, Passover. And then God will judge those enemies of Israel, Babylon the Great, and its leaders in the pouring out of the horrific vials seen in Revelation 16. Then Israel’s 490 years in captivity under the Gentile Nations shall be finally fulfilled. (Daniel 9:24-27) The sign given to Israel of the 7th Day Sabbath is now manifest in that Millennial Day of the Lord. Then shall God gather the scattered Jews from all over the Earth and HE will restore them in the Land. And through Abraham’s seed, finally will come the fulfillment the promises of God to Abram that “….in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” [Genesis 12:1-3] Now Authority is removed from the Gentiles and given back to that peculiar people Israel who will be the mediators to bring the Gentile Nations into repentance and the fullness of the knowledge of God, even those who sought her destruction.  

To recap, Christians have been led to believe that the current aliyah to the Land of Israel is that of God dealing with them on that restorative level as prophesied, but this cannot be the case for the reasons stated above. A beautiful picture can be seen in the following type of the death of Sarah. Sarah, having died (Genesis 23) is a type for Israel currently being set aside, and now Abraham seeks a bride for his son, Isaac, through his servant Eliezer. And upon finding her and securing her, he removes her from her country unto Issac (Genesis 24), and Abraham takes again a wife (Genesis 25). This signifies God setting Israel aside while He (through the Holy Spirit) searches for a worthy Bride to rule with His Son, and the taking of Keturah as Abraham’s wife foreshadows Israel being restored back unto God.