How to Observe the Fall Feast Days
09/09/17 (06/18) Video Broadcast
Those who are just joining
us glad to have you with
us as we get to talk
about one of my favorite
topics, The Feast Days.
Oh, wow!
What the church has missed
by rejecting the Feast
Days and instead of
embracing the sadly the
holidays that are not
based on scripture.
We are going to give you
the dates for this year.
Feast of Trumpets,
22nd of September.
So on the night of the
21st, that's when we are
going to be looking
because Yahweh's days
begin at evening.
So on the 21st of
September going into the
22nd, we are going to be
observing the Feast of
Trumpets.
We look toward the where
the sun is setting just
maybe to the left, the
good ways a little bit
where the sun is setting.
We are going to be able
to see the new moon that
night; it looks like a
little crescent up there.
You see the Feast days
2017 thereon above the
left and above the right
there on the top of the
video screen.
That's what the moon is
gonna look like, something
like that.
So on night of the 21st,
we will be observing Feast
of Trumpets and we gonna
talk here in a minute
about we could
keep these Feasts.
And then that's what the
world calls Thursday night
which means Friday and
Saturday as on the common
calendar today will
be a double Sabbath.
And 22nd will be a holiday,
a Sabbath, a day of rest
and from Thursday night to
Friday night and then it
meets and jumps right into
a weekly Sabbath, so
that's a double Sabbath.
And then the Day of
Atonement being on October
the 1st and that's gonna
start the previous night,
which will be
September 30th.
Right after Sabbath we are
going to go right into the
Day of Atonement that's a
day of fasting and prayer
and it's a day of rest.
So you need to have these
days off and then Feast of
Tabernacles starting on
the night of October the
5th going into October
6th, that will be a
Thursday night also
as the world calls it.
And then that will be the
beginning of Friday until
Friday sundown and then
they'll bump again right
into a Sabbath.
And the final night of the
Feast of Tabernacles is
technically different
observance but it's a last
great day and that's gonna
be 12th going into the
13th as the sun goes down
on the 12th going into the
13th that's when we will
end our final day of the
Feast of Tabernacles,
last great day.
And then that will because
it's on a Friday once
again bump into a Sabbath.
So we are going to have
four double Sabbaths in a
row, four double Sabbaths
in a row. That's gonna be
pretty grand.
So lots of days of resting
and by the end of this
whole event everyone ought
to be fully rested and
ready for whatever the
world is gonna throw at
you next, right?
So these are the official
Feast dates for this year.
They do change every year
based on the motion of the
heavenly bodies
Yahweh has created.
He created the sun and the
moon to be signs for us to
look and determine when his festivals are and that's one of the great things that we get to learn about it's his calendar. So that's part of what this is all about, So as far as how to observe the Feasts, we are ready to begin our study portion for today's broadcast entitled how to observe the fall feast days. How to observe the fall feast days and a lot of people think you know maybe this is highly complex and you know you got to do this that's one way and this the other way. And I do think sometimes the way mainstream Judaism has taken these festivals and either they made them more difficult or kind of missed the purpose in some ways of what this is really supposed to be about. It may have caused some confusion and so whenever I'm confused about something, what I try to do is make sure that I am going to go back to the scriptures to find the answer, gonna go back to scripture to find the answer. And I know the scriptures have the answer and it's usually far more simpler than what you know things are typically being portrayed as it actually is more simpler. And so our goal is to get back to scripture and let scripture tell us how to observe the fall Feast Days and it's really an awesome thing and we want to get not only the letter and whatever it actually tells to do but we also want to get the spirit behind it, not just a letter but also the spirit and the intent behind it. So how do we do that? We always go according to precepts and principles, not just precepts but also the principles. And this time of the year September, October is what we call the holiday season. Most of the world has a holiday season in December but the word holiday actually comes from two words holy and day. But what the world may call holiday really is not holidays at all, in fact, the only holidays are the Sabbath and the seven annual holidays on Yahweh's calendar, everything else you know a man can't make something holy Yahweh is the one who makes something holy, it's our job to keep it holy. So he decides he is the one who creates all things, this is the day he has made and we rejoice and we are glad in it and we are going to submit ourselves to what he says are holidays. So if you are interested in keeping his days, that's the point of this study. We are going to show you exactly how to observe the fall Feast Days and I'm delighted to be able to do that. They are an incredible blessing just indescribable blessing and it's amazing the depth that these festivals have for us and they glorify our Savior and that's the most wonderful thing of all. So we are going to go in a little bit about the spiritual implications, the things that are written in scriptures and try to unravel any complexities that are there. But really it's very easy it's not spooky or weird or bizarre. It's really, you don't walk ten steps backward and look in the sky and do this and do that. Now it's very relevant very much has to do with worship, has to do with remembering the things that Yahweh has done and he will do in the future. And I get excited this time of the year because of the spiritual applications, it's just as an on-going yearly reminder of so many things, you know, because the world was...okay? I appreciate at least the desire to remember our Savior's birthday. Okay, I can say the concept of trying to remember and be glad that he was born it's not all that bad, okay but it's what they mix in with that, the pagan rooted practices and things that are not true like he wasn't really born December 25th, things like that, that's where I have a problem he tells us not to do that. So what he does tell us to do, what he does tell us to remember are very important and if you've not learned how to observe the Feast Days then feel free to watch this video and we are going to get into it right now. So now this video I've designed so that you can watch this each year, I'm not gonna give it exact dates for this particular year in this video but we will if you want to know the exact dates you just go to eliyah.com/calendar and that will take you right there. But one of the reasons why the Feast days are commanded is because of the children. To pass on the wonderful works of Yahweh to our children, the things he has done, and I think in traditional Christianity there has been a lack of focus on the things that Yahweh wanted us to emphasize and here are some of the things he wanted us to emphasize. In Numbers chapter 29 verse 1 he says in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work, for you it is a day of blowing the trumpets. Interesting. Just go out and blow trumpets and also no customary work, blow trumpets and rest. Now if you look behind me here you'll see that I have a shofar and we've used it here on the broadcast and we use it during the Feast of trumpets broadcast. But these are things he tells us to do and we could actually go and do exactly what it says, we get the trumpets, the shofars out the Ram's horns and we blow them on that day. And another scripture it says Leviticus 23:24 Speak to children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. Now, what is this holy convocation thing, what is it all about? Well, it's a time to; it literally means holy calling or holy reading like a calling out. And so it's a time of reading the word aloud so others can hear and also this word translates Sabbath, rest what is this all about? Well, the Hebrew word translated servile as in servile work, we are supposed to be resting from, this kind of labor we are supposed to be resting from, is Abodah, and the word has to do with service, servile work and bondage this is the kind of rest we are supposed to be experiencing. We are supposed to experiencing a rest from the service kind of work. It's translated service 96 times servile, 12 times and has, it's a little bit different than the kind of work we are normally told to rest from in that this has to do with a providing some kind of a service, a business of some kind typically. To provide some kind of service for other people and so now when it comes to this word being used in other locations. Leviticus 23:6 on the fifteenth day the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to Yahweh; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day, you shall have a holy convocation, you shall do no Abodah work. On the first day, it should be a holy convocation, the seventh day that should be a holy convocation for you, no manner of work should be done on them but that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared by you. So that which everyone must eat, so we have a point here that on a day in which this kind of work is forbidden, there is a permission that we can prepare our necessary food. And for this reason, I believe that we are permitted to do our cooking on this particular day of rest, doing what we refrain from Abodah work or service work. And so if this day is a day of what they called you know this particular word, then on other days in which this is supposed to be refrained from and we are permitted to do what we call meal preparations and is a feast for this reason I personally believe that we are permitted to do cooking on this particular day which tells me that other days that are not this kind of Sabbath but on a regular Sabbath day we'd normally not be permitted to do our cooking on those days. So actually it's kind of nice you know to not have worry about cooking, you do all your things ahead of time, on a normal Sabbath but on these Sabbaths it's a Feast, we can get together, we can rejoice, we can cook our food, we can get together have a good time. Now another example of where holy convocation is mentioned it says in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. This is talking about Feast of Trumpets. Qodesh Micrah or Micrah Qodesh this is a day when
we are supposed to call out or do some reading of scripture, this word is translated reading Micrah, is translated reading here. Nehemiah 8 verse 8 so they read distinctly from the book in the law of Elohim, and they gave the sense and helped them understand the Micrah. Help them understand the Micrah, Micrah meaning the calling out, the reading and so this has to do with time of gathering being implied here for the purposes of hearing Yahweh's word, hear the reading. Alright, Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 8 says here so they read distinctly from the law in the law of Elohim and they gave the sense, helped them understand the Micrah. And Nehemiah, who was a Governor, Ezra the priest and the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all people, This day is holy to Yahweh your Elohim, do not mourn, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. And since it's a holiday not a day of mourning and weeping, it's a day of rejoicing. He made a point to people who were hearing the words of the law and they were very sad because they had violated the law. He told them don't weep this is a holy day and, in fact, he said in the following verse the joy of Yahweh is your strength. And you might think on a, it might be good for someone to weep over the fact that they have not been obedient to our father in heaven. But he told them rejoice because when we repent
when scripture say there is joy in the presence of the father and the angels over one sinner who repents and so because the people who are repenting they could be in agreement with the spirit of Yahweh and we can rejoice because the entire weight of everything is off their shoulders and they have forgiveness and that's the beautiful thing about that. So now, so we get the scriptures read we rejoice after we've run and we see something we shouldn't be doing or okay we repent but we need to remember the joy of Yahweh is our strength. And since the joy of Yahweh is our strength we don't have to be negative, we don't have to be sad anymore because we have Yahushua Ha Mashiach through whom we receive forgiveness of sins. Now, Leviticus 23 verse 2-3 Speak to children of Israel, say to them, the feasts of the Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. Thus he says these are the Jewish feasts, no he says these are my feasts and he did give them to all of Israel. Now, are we Israel? We are now reading Galatians 3:29. Is that we are now a city of Abraham and that we are grafted in according to Romans chapter 11 and so this is for us and he has given them to us. nd we can rejoice in it, but he says six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of soul and rest, a holy convocation. For this reason, a lot of us believe that Sabbath day, the weekly Sabbath day is also a feast, you shall do no work on it: it's a Sabbath of Yahweh in all your dwellings. So then we have this next feast here in Leviticus 23 verse 27, it says the tenth day of this seventh month shall be a day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. Now, some people would say well what's this offering made by fire? Do we not do any more sacrifices? We don't do those things and so why is this here and why do we even have to bother with this feast. This is all talking about sacrifices. Well, in everything that Yahweh tells us to do they're gonna be something in this case that we are not able to do. Now the offering made by fire to Yahweh was actually a commandment for the priests, they were not a commandment for a common man. And so he's talking about what the priests needed to do on that day, the common people didn't all rush up to the temple on the day of atonement and it will be crowded. And there is a time where the high priest is going to enter into the holy place and make atonement for the Tabernacle of the temple whatever was at the time and purify the holy place. And the children of Israel would confess their sins to high priest, who confess the sins of Israel over that animal that was being offered and so you know Paul the Apostle they wouldn't have been able to do these things fairly easily. By knowing Yahushua's final offering and in Israel the other thing is all parables. And so there is no priest said no temple but there are other things that you can do. And I can see Yahweh in heaven saying do your best and if I told my son, hey son will you please go to the barn and feed the chickens and the ducks. And we went to the barn he looked around and the ducks were gone and then he comes back down a little bit later I saw him, I said hey did you go feed the chickens and the ducks and he said, this is not a real story, by the way, he said sorry Day I could not fulfil your commandment because your commandment said feed the chickens and the ducks. I said were the chickens there? And he said yeah there are chickens there but there were no ducks and since I couldn't fulfill your whole commandment, I figured why would I bother. You get what I'm saying? Maybe you can't fulfil the whole commandment but you can feed the chickens, maybe there is no ducks there right now but you know you can have a holy convocation, you can afflict your souls that have to do with fasting and so there are things you can do, why would we you know express kind of this almost like a rebelliousness, that's how we would see it if we had a son doing this and since he can't do the whole thing, not do any of it. You know, we should always do what we are able to do in every respect. If Yahweh wants us to be baptized and suppose somebody is on their death bed they can't exactly get out of his deathbed and got baptized. And I don't believe Yahweh is in heaven going, oh, sorry, you have not been baptized you are not gonna enter in. Just because you are unable to do something does not mean you are guilty, it's when you are able to do something and then you just refuse to do it, you know that's when we guilty. And we are able to rest on this day; we are able to fast on this day. And so now going back to the Feast of Trumpets some people might say I don't have a trumpet, I don't have anything to blow well come to our Feast of Tabernacles in Missouri and we will give you one for free. We have a shofar class. You sand it down, you drill the mouthpiece, take one home. If you can't do that, well, the word Teruah not only means trumpet blast, it has all has to do also has to do with shouting. Teruah meaning Feast of Trumpets, its translated trumpets but also could be called Day of Shouting or Feast of Shouting, has to do with making a loud noise. For instance, when the children of Israel were surrounding the walls of Jericho 7 times, the 7th time they went around he told them to shout and they shouted and then word translated shout there is Teruah from which we get the translation trumpet. And so Teruah can be a shouting or a shofar blast, some people go out there and honk their horn on the car. I mean but make a noise you know, make sure you shout halleluYah at least once, maybe you should do it more than once Feast of Trumpets is a time of rejoicing and this feast is a picture, a celebration of something that actually hasn't even happened yet. A feast it's not even really been totally fulfilled and that's Messiah's return at the last trump. And so we meditate on that day the things that Yahushua is going to do, the promises of his return, the kingdom, go over those scriptures. And so this is a festival has not yet met its full completion, we have not yet seen Messiah coming in the clouds and the last trump where the light will shine from East to West right and so he's not yet come back and so this is an unfulfilled feast. Now the Spring Feast, Yahushua is pictured in the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the day of first fruits in the Pentecost and those are things pointing to what Messiah has done for us and I still believe we should observe them. But the fall festivals here a lot of this is futuristic or it's in the process of meeting its fulfillment because he's gonna come back after the last trump. First, you know we gave the Holy Spirit Pentecost there is a long period of time between what the world calls June and September, October and so Feast of Trumpets is a long time from Messiah giving the Holy Spirit and Messiah's return. And it's all correlated together so we meditate on these things, and we are told the Feast of Trumpets we wanna look for the signs, be watchful and here we have these signs in heaven and all these things going on and it's an important time to remember our Savior is gonna come. He's gonna rule and reign on this earth for a thousand years. And so we are gonna shout and we gonna do the things that we plan to do when we happen to see him and we are gonna be shouting hallelujah I guarantee you that so we gonna give him praise and we gonna If we have a trumpet we gonna blast the trumpet and you can just see the joy and it's actually says in Zephaniah 3:17 he's going to sing over us and he's going to quiet us with his love and so he's gonna rejoice over us in the same way we rejoice over him and so you get your children together you rejoice before him and you praise him with your family into it and just give him thanks for his promises at what he's going to do, the return of our Savior Yahushua and that's what it is, a remembrance and a memorial of something that one time took place in the past when the walls of Jericho fell. And that the kingdoms of that particular days became the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Yahweh and it's gonna happen again when the last trumpet sounds, the walls, the kingdom of this world will all come crumbling down and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of Yahweh and Messiah and it's going to happen it's just a matter of time and I can't wait until it does or I gonna have to but I'm looking forward to it, praise Yahweh. So this other festival the Day of Atonement he says do no work on that same day for it is a day of atonement to make atonement for you before Yahweh your Elohim, for any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day, it should be cut off from his people. Any person who does any work on that same day that person I will destroy from among his people. And now this, his responses to their disobedience, I think are note-worthy. Now we don't quite have the same situation now they had, you know, manna always coming down from heaven and feeding them every day, Red Sea parted, all these miracles where he showed himself so strongly to Israel and he so he expected more out of them and he says you choose to go out and work on this day, he says he will destroy you from among your people, that's because they heard his voice coming from the mountain there. There was no question as to who he was and so this is a day where we do not do any work at all. We see that's his will and some people might think well isn't this you know something that Yahushua did fulfill with, he entered the holy place with his own blood and all that. Well before we jump to conclusions let's study it, it's the day of Atonement on the tenth day and this is after the feast commemorating the Messiah's return, ten days afterward. The day of Atonements, as the word actually should be plural here, Day of Atonements. So it's Yom Kippurim or Day of Atonements and it's a holy convocation it says do not work on that day and it's a day of rest, it's a holiday. And so we need to yield ourselves to his command
and be willing to do that. Also verse 31 you should do no manner of work, it should be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a Sabbath of rest, you shall afflict your souls: on the ninth day of the month at evening, evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath. This is why we start at evening, from evening to evening, that's when we celebrate our Sabbath. So it's a ninth day of the month the sun goes down you sit in your house the sun goes down, that begins the tenth day the Day of Atonement I think he's being specific here because the people come in from the fields in the evening basically saying don't sit down to eat. This is the time to afflict your souls that means to fast and to rest. And so now where is this say afflicting your soul means fasting? We see here Isaiah 58 verse 6 is it a fast I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul. So he's seeing these things as being synonymous fasting and afflicting your soul. And he goes on to criticize the things that they are doing which are not; it's outside the scope of our study today. But it's basically criticizing them for fasting but not taking care of the poor. So he tells them these things, so but apparently people will not loosen the bonds of wickedness and things. So when we are looking at this day of rest make sure you take inventory of yourself, make sure that you are being about your father's business in heaven and that you are doing what he has called you to do and that involves self-sacrifice. Because what good is it really if you are fasting within your, not really caring about the needs of the people around you? So he's telling them he says Is this a fast I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? it to bow down his head like a bulrush, spread sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and acceptable day to Yahweh? Is this not the fast I have chosen? Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and that you bring into your house the poor who are cast out? When you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Yahweh shall be your rear guard. So, if we take care of the poor, the children of Israel as they exited the land of Egypt there were a lot of struggles they were in a very back kind of the weak in the feeble and Yahweh says you make sure you take care of them and he will be their rear guard. He'll watch out for you, watch your back, so you take care of people he'll take care of you and that's part of what's this day is all about is reflecting on your life and the areas that you need to change and ask corporately as the body of the Messiah together how we need to change and take care of those who are being afflicted because we sit there and you fast and yet you don't walk in righteousness while you fast, your sacrifice is no good it doesn't mean anything to him and same is true for those of us you know maybe you give, you take time and give praise Yahweh as a living sacrifice, sacrifice of the lips of praise to him and yet you are not walking in righteousness, you are not seeking the right way to live, all those other things are gonna mean anything. hat he wants is righteous conduct and then he will accept our fasting and our praise and our self-sacrificing kinds of things. So we wanna do both, we wanna fast and we also wanna make sure that we are taking care of those who are disadvantaged because when we do both then we are blessed and then he'll accept our fasting and our prayers before him. Because that says here then you shall call, and Yahweh will answer; you shall cry, he will say, here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness. If thou draw your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul; then your light shall shine dawn in your darkness, and your darkness shall be as a noonday. A lot of finger-pointing going on today. Need to be careful about that, don't we? So once the hungry and afflicted soul here is the afflicted soul and the hungry here, it's all synonymous and so we understand that when he's saying afflict your soul he's talking about fasting. Now there are some people say well you know I've got diabetes and I have to have my insulin, other people have medical conditions making it difficult for them to do a full fast, you know the only thing that I can tell you is you do the best you can. It's not a day for a trip to the hospital, it's a day to afflict your soul, and if you afflicted your soul then halleluYah but do the best you can and you know he understands the rest I trust in his grace and mercy for that but you know here we are, we are in America. We live in a leap of luxury and basically, you go to the supermarket and buy so many different things, so many texts and textures of food, so many things you could possibly imagine, now Yahweh is saying hey just take a day and fast. hen Yahushua say after the bridegroom is taken the disciples will fast often, you know and are we fasting often, are we doing this? This is an opportunity for us to fast and make sure you are doing it at least once a year. And hopefully you doing it more than that but that's part of what we are supposed to be doing in our walk with Yahweh and so this affliction in the soul has to do with fasting and repentance, changing our ways, considering our ways. And this Day of Atonement is a time when the high priest would enter the holy of holy he will confess the sins of the nation of Israel over this goat and then release that goat into the wilderness. And so likewise because I identify myself as an Israelite according to Galatians 3:29 that I have been grafted in if I'm not Israel in the flesh and grafted in. e are all part of Israel now, we are joint to him through the Messiah because it's no longer we who live it's he who lives in us and he's an Israelite and so we live through him, we live and move and have our being. So these are the things we consider, I try to think about during this time areas of corporate repentance that we as a body of Messiah are lacking and so we can gather, we can hear on the broadcast we do have a conference call we get together and we pray together seeking Yahweh's forgiveness from the areas that we lacking as his people then we go to different things that were. We see our sins in the body of Messiah that are very common. And we actually pray together over the conference call and then have a prayer meeting; it's usually often a very beautiful time. So we confess our sins corporately as a body of Messiah, as a people, now it's not like you are unforgiving sinners and you are going to hell until you do this but it's part of our repentance. Because we care, because we are repentance people we care when we are not doing right and we confess our sins ask how he would help us that we might be a greater light to him, to the world, and a better example of Yahushua the Messiah. Now we confess the sins of our people who by him say corporately it's not some idea fond to scripture. We see here in Daniel 9:20 it says while I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Yahweh my Elohim for the holy mountain. Daniel, he was praying not only forgiveness for his own sin but also the sin of Israel corporately. And so then he had this vision and he's not just confessing his own things, he cares about how his fellow countrymen are conducting themselves and we also need to care about how we are conducting ourselves as believers in Messiah and so we want to take this time and take an inventory of where we are spiritual as a body of Messiah, where we are lacking things and together make corporate repentance and draw more attention to the problems that we are having as his people. Now Psalms 110 verse 1 says Yahweh said to my Master, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Yahweh shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people shall be volunteers on the day of your power. In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, you have the dew of youth.
Yahweh has sworn and will not relent verse 4 you are a Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Yahweh is at your right hand; He shall execute kings at the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill the places with dead bodies, and execute the heads of many countries. So obviously here a future event when he judges among the nations and executes the leaders of various nations who were walking in wickedness. And this is all a part of it and so here it is one who is in the throne room we see verse one Yahweh is saying to David's Master this is Yahushua, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. And he's making him a Priest here after the order of Melchizedek; this is spoken of at length in the book of Hebrews. But he's ruling priest, he's a ruler and he's also a Priest and so he's saying rule in the midst of your enemies. And so he's part of Royalty but he's also a Priest at the same time and that's not the same as it was in the days of David. David was a king but then there were other people sons of Levi who were Priests and so now today Yahushua is in this throne room sitting at Yahweh's right hand and there he is, he's ruling and reigning and we are the instruments he's using to rule and reign. We are taking willingness, a willingness to put his ruler-ship over us. If you live in a nation, that nation's laws there are laws in that nation, there are leaders, there are civil authorities, and you are expected to be a law-abiding citizen. ell, Yahushua the Messiah he has, he's a king also and we have a greater kingdom with a greater law and we are called to be law-abiding citizens of this nation. And so Yahushua is in the throne room today waiting to come, one day he's gonna come, he's gonna put to end to all earthly authority and power and he's going to rule and reign over all things and we are called right now to be these people who are willing to abide by his laws now in his ruler-ship now that will qualify us as those who are going to be kings and Priests with him in the age to come. Now Hebrews chapter 9 verse 24 says Messiah has not entered the holy places made with hands (talking about the earthly temple), which are copies of the true (as the heavenly temple); but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of Elohim for us. ot that he should offer himself often (that's once a year), as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another. He then would have to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he's appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And now he has entered this holy place in the heavenly, he entered it with his own blood and for that reason, we as his people will be able to enter the holy place with him and not defile the place. Because our sins are forgiven. The high priest will sprinkle the blood on the different areas around the Tabernacle, around the temple, including the Ark of the Covenant itself. He emptied the holy of holy once a year, he sprinkles on the ark, he sprinkles the area in front of the ark and all these different things to cleanse the Tabernacle, cleanse the holy things and so we also we will enter the holy place. And we can enter the holy place in Messiah Yahushua and not defile it because of Messiah's blood. His life cleanses us of all sin enabling us to have access to the throne room without defiling it. Now Yahushua is going to enter one day the physical temple on the earth it says so in Ezekiel. He's going to enter that physical temple on the earth and in the future he's going to reign from Jerusalem and the place where he's going to reign, is from inside the temple, inside the temple of Yahweh. Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 3 says The word of Yahweh came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of Yahweh was upon him there. ay attention to verse 26 it says And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone: on the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man above it. I saw from the appearance of his waist upward I saw as it were the color of amber, with the appearance of fire within it, and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire; with the brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. The likeness of the glory of Yahweh. So when I heard, I fell on my face, and I heard of a voice speaking. Now, this is appearance of a likeness of the glory of Yahweh, yet this is a man remember. Appearance of his waist and upward I was this like appearance of a man and yet likeness of the glory of Yahweh. This reminds me a little bit of what John the revelator saw. But he's by the river Chebar and he sees this. Okay now later in Ezekiel chapter 43 it says afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. And, behold, the glory of the Elohim of Israel came from the way of the east: his voice was like the sound of many waters: and the earth shone with his glory. It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city, the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar. And I fell on my face. And the glory of Yahweh came into the temple by the way of the gate which faces toward the east. So the context of the scripture is to see an actual future temple on the earth in Jerusalem, he measures it, it's measurable, it's something he can physically see and he says he brought me to the gate that faces toward the east. The gate that faces towards the East is the Mount of Olives. Yahushua himself is going to come down; he's going to split that Mount of Olives in two. And then what's going to happen? What's going to happen is that he's gonna to enter that holy place and from there he's going to reign for a thousand years because he's a likeness of the glory of Yahweh, since the glory of Yahweh came into the temple by the way of the gate that faces toward the east and so this of Messiah coming and he's going to reign from this place. And so this Day of Atonement, the day is going to come when Yahushua himself will enter a physical temple. This is when he reigns for a thousand years he'll enter the holy of holies and that's where he will reign for a thousand years. This is not yet happened yet; this is an unfulfilled prophecy and so part of the Day of Atonement where he actually physically enters the physical temple has not yet met its fulfillment. Yes, he's entered the heavenly place but the Day of Atonement is also about commemorating that time he's going to enter the earthly temple according to what was seen there in Ezekiel and he will reign there for a thousand years. And so we have a day of Trumpets heralding the Messiah's return and the gathering of his people, that's what they use trumpets for was gathering people together, and advancing the people together. And so we have the Day of Atonement commemorating yes he is entering into this heavenly holy place, yes also the earthly holy place. He will enter as well. Prophecy says it will happen, I believe it will happen and that's why it says we will reign with him for one thousand years and that's all a part of it. And so, His rainbow-like appearance. We see this in Revelations 4:2 immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardine stone appearance: and there was a rainbow around the throne, an appearance like an emerald. So similar imagery here to what we saw there in the book of Ezekiel. So looking here Hebrews says seeing then that we have a great high priest, who is passed into the heavens, Yahushua the Son of Elohim, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses; but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let's, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. And so, we, on this day of atonement we can go boldly to the throne of grace as we repent and find not only mercy but also help. We need help; here we say amen that guy needs help. We all need help, we need mercy, we need grace and
this Day of Atonement is a remembrance of that and it's the time when Yahushua will enter a physical temple. We also will be spiritual bodies at that time and will probably have access to the heavenly place because Yahushua can be in more than one place at one time. He does say where two or three gather he is there in our midst, so he does have the ability to do that. And so he has this ability to be omnipresent. Because of that, he can dwell in the temple in heaven and also dwell on a temple on earth as well. And so this whole thing culminating together as the Day of Atonement he's going to be in the heavenly and the earthly, all likelihoods spiritually speaking will be able to have access to both heaven and earth I'm thinking. That's a beautiful thing, amazing and actually Revelation chapter 5 verse 8 says then we had taken a scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. Each having a harp and golden bowls with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And so when we pray, our prayers are going up and there are things going on in heaven. The prayers are like incense, one Psalm mentions that my prayer be set before you as incense, as evening sacrifices. So our prayers we know Yahushua is in the throne room, we know he is seated on the right hand of Yahweh he is the Lamb. We know that 24 elders were actually bowing down in this place and our prayers are right there, it's amazing it's a beautiful thing that we remember these things because it's because he's in this most holy place that we able to have our prayers answered and we are able to be accepted in the eyes of our heavenly father. Revelation 8:3 says and another angel, having a golden censer; came and stood at the altar, he was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne. And so these amazing things going on in heavenly places when we pray and wonderful things were happening. I wonder if we realize that you know we confess our sins before Yahweh, we lift our hands as an offering to him, we do these things as part of our expression of thanksgiving for him entering the holy place on the day of atonement and also looking to the future when he will enter the physical holy place on earth and that's our offering to him in our prayers, it's also a day of rest. And so let my prayer set before as incense lifting up my hands as the evening sacrifice. We can still do sacrifices. We can still offer incense through prayer and praise and so we confess our sins and we wanna confess the sins of each other as a body of Messiah as the high priest did in the days when he observed the Day of Atonement. And also I think we are to confess the sins of our parents because Leviticus 26:40 if they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to me, and they also walked contrary to me. And I also walk contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt. Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, my covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land. Did you this covenant with Abraham? It's coming with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that's what opens the door for the Messiah to come and die for our sins. If we see in the book of Galatians it's very clear, it's coming with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, this covenant involved through your seed, talking about Messiah I will cause all nations to be blessed. That was a promise that was a covenant he made. A covenant promise and so we confess our sins at time of repentance, we confess our sins of our fathers, we confess our own sins not because we are guilty necessarily of what our fathers did, it's more so acknowledging what our fathers did and saying I want nothing to do with that. And if I have repeated any of their sins then I wanna say I'm no longer considering myself tied into that sin I'm free of that through Yahushua the Messiah. And so it's a time of repentance and confessing our sins and the sins of our fathers and that's a beautiful thing Yahushua his blood cleanses us from all sin. So this day of atonement it is a day of fasting, it is a day to afflict our soul. Some recently I have noticed have taken exception to that but if you look here in Acts chapter 27 verse 9 it says Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship but also our lives. So what's this fast? You may not have noticed this reading through the book of Acts, but the fast here is the Day of Atonement. And so they knew in ancient times around the Mediterranean sea sailing was dangerous in the fall, in the Autumn in that part of the year because the rains would come and therefore the storms will be coming as the earth in northern hemisphere starts to cool off and the day of atonement there. And so Luke who's writing the book of Acts also he just kind of casually mentions all the other fast is already over and so he's talking to gentiles I think here who are on the ship with him and they know what he's talking about. He's talking about the day of atonement, the Jewish people observe the day of atonement and so it begins to be very dangerous to sail in the waters around that time of the year, the rains would be coming hard, stormy seasons is on the way. And so that was more dangerous to sail for that reason, so Luke is writing about this he expected whoever was reading it to understand what the fast actually was, when it was and the importance of it and so it's talking about the day of atonement and it's also telling us the day of atonement is actually a day of fasting. It's a day of fasting, and so the Day of Atonement is a day of fasting then this is the day when we are supposed to fast. Now on this Day of Atonement we fast, we don't eat bread, we don't drink water 24 hours, it's a time to consider our ways, recognize the atonement we receive through Yahushua and the promise of the future fulfilment of a prophecy, he will enter that temple and it's important we don't complain about the fasting. We don't seek the modern ways to try to make it easy on us. It's a day to afflict our souls and we wanna do just that I think it's best just to go about our normal business and that happens to be a day we are going to fast and you don't have to all your stuff yourself before the day begins and all that stuff we don't need to do that, my opinion. Just let the fast be what Yahweh intended the fast to be. Now, Yahushua being the high priest of the order of Melchizedek though Melchizedek means king of righteousness. Because it's through him, through Yahushua that we are able to be made righteous, I think that's why he's called Melchizedek or after the order of Melchizedek. But it's important for us to remember the things of the past we going the Day of Atonement but also things that have not yet met its fulfillment and Yahushua will come, Feast of Trumpets he will enter the holy place and will reign for a thousand years. Now I'm not trying to guarantee you here Yahushua is going to come back on the day of trumpets, I'm just saying that on this day we can commemorate that event. Whether he actually comes on Feast of Trumpets or not remains to be seen. So you know, very easy to keep the day of atonement just we don't eat, we rest, and we pray and nothing complicated about it. Now the feast of Tabernacles, speak to children of Israel saying 15th day of the 7th month shall be a feast of Tabernacles for 7 days to Yahweh. On the first day shall be holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it, for seven days you shall offer an offering made fire to Yahweh. Again that what the priest would do, on the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, you shall offer an offering by fire to Yahweh; it's sacred assembly. You shall do no customary work on it. So the offering by fire was something the priest would do, common people not necessary although they would bring something to Yahweh before the temple, each household would bring something to Yahweh before the temple. Since there is no priest to do that too or to do it for you there is no point in doing that. But we'll get to that in a minute. Here is that word customary work once again Malachi Abhudah, so we are permitted to cook on this day no problem and the first day of the feast will be a holy day with the exception of work being permitted on that day. And the eighth day will also be holy day as well and because you got the first and the eighth day they actually fall on the same day of the week. So if the first day of the feast is on you know the first day of the week then the eighth day of the feast will also be on the first day of the week. But actually the Feast of Trumpets is going to fall on the same day of the week that we have the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles and the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles, they all fall on the same day of the week, it's just how it all kind of lines up. So anyway back to Leviticus 23 here, these are the feasts of Yahweh which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations to offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, everything on its day, besides the Sabbaths of Yahweh, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to Yahweh.
lso on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast to Yahweh for seven days: on the first day, there shall be a Sabbath rest, on the eighth day a Sabbath rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the boughs the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim for seven days. Now the Jews call these the four species, you take the four species of trees and you make a Succo or temporary shelter with these four species of plants. I'm not against that but we don't have those species here in the United States, but we can do the best we can. But a temporary shelter is what Yahweh is wanting, that's why it's called the feast of Tabernacles or Festival of Booths. A Hebrew word translated boughs of Tabernacles, Succo or Sukkot which means the Booths of Tabernacles and the children of Israel will go and gather together in the area of Jerusalem set up these temporary structures and they can go out into the wilderness maybe to get some branches things to make a rudimentary shelter for them to stay in during the feast. What about us do we need to actually make it out branches and so on? I try to look at the spirit behind it here, it says you shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh for seven days in the year, it shall be a statute forever in your generations, you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your Elohim. And what about us? Do we need to make it out of these four species or we come sleep in tents. Well, my thinking is the children as said dwell in Booths when he brought them out of the Land of Egypt. The point of doing this is to imitate what they were doing at that time and in that light, we know they were staying in tents. Now not everybody, not every household can afford a tent, the tent was made out of goat hair which is very interesting material because goat hair when it's hot the fibers relax, and the heat of the surface of the tent can escape but then when it gets wet the fibers tighten up and it's actually waterproof. But they make these out of goat hair and they still do that actually the Bedouin shepherds do that today make these tents and they are very expensive to make. Not everyone can afford to log a big tent along with them down to Jerusalem and so I think the reason why he's saying these things is just going into the woods and get some raw materials and put a shelter together. And the point is to replicate what the children of Israel were doing, they were dwelling in temporary structures. And as long as you are in some kind of tent, temporary structure I think you know this is how we can fulfill this commandment. And the word translated Succot means thickit, or cover it, or a booth or temporary shelter, you know something rudimentary, something that says rood or temporary shelter a booth. But the point is a temporary dwelling place, a temporary shelter I think that's really the point of it. And some kind of booth or tent and actually the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness, trying to replicate that. We know that they did dwell in tents and so when Moshe heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and the anger of Yahweh was greatly aroused. So it seems to me tents are permissible, now I'm not so sure about campers and cabins. I don't know if that will be technically a replica of what they were living in the wilderness, especially conveniences and what not. But I understand some people are new to this, you are taking a step and even getting together and doing a feast and I can appreciate that and sometimes circumstances or health may detect our ability to do these things. But you know if you are staying somewhere temporarily, some say, well, that's a temporary structure, but I don't know. Just doesn't seem like they were, living in campers. But I think there is some need you know, spiritual applications here that we gonna get into but you know they did dwell in tents and those days whole pointed festival would dwell in booths seven days. And since we are doing that so generations may know Yahweh made the children of Israel dwell in booths when he brought them out of the land of Egypt that being the point behind it. ow if you come to our festival in Missouri we have cabins, we have our beautiful tent, high standard tent.
But I do have a camper there for kitchen support, otherwise, we do stay the night in a tent. But other than that we are dwelling in the booth and it's a temporary structure. Some people prefer 100% tent camping and that's good too we did that for a number of years. So the main point here is that we live today, when you think about this we live in a temporary structure. Our bodies are a Succoth, our bodies are a temporary structure and Yahushua is dwelling in us our temporary structure and there is a lesson here because I would think about this, the children of Israel they came out of the land of Egypt, the place of bondage, right? They came out of land of Egypt and they were in bondage and they were saved by the blood of lamb as we are saved by the blood of lamb. They went through the red sea and got baptized in the red sea in the cloud and delivered from their enemies. We also were baptized and delivered from our enemies. And on their journey toward the promised land, they dwelled in temporary structures. On our journey to the promised land, we are dwelling in this temporary structure our bodies. And we need to recognize that and this is a yearly reminder. All the stuff in the world it's all temporary, and so take stock of that don't be caught up into the safeness of riches. Don't be caught up in the cozy comforts and creature comforts of this world so much that you forget this world is all temporary. You don't want to be joined so tightly to this world, you'd forget there's a greater kingdom that we are supposed to be pursuit of. We are on a journey like them they were learning Yahweh's commandments his laws what his expectations were then, how to walk in love. e are also on this journey and as they had test trials and tribulations we have test trials and tribulations and so this gathering, this festival of tabernacle is a reminder Yahushua is gonna dwell seven thousand years is how I see it in a temporary structure and that's us for seven thousand years and then there will be a last great day when we will all be made free of these things and he'll put to end to all the temporary nature of our human body. So Messiah came to do that for us to deliver us from these things. Now some people say only native Israel had to do that, so why are you doing it? Because it says here all who are native Israelites will dwell in booths now if I'm not a native Israelite then why do I have to dwell in some kind of a tent. Well, you gotta remember you are a native Israelite because all things have become new. The word translated native here in this verse native Israelites shall dwell in booths has to do with a sense of springing up. It's springing up now. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things become new. Now that we are a new creation in Messiah Yahushua and that we, it says, in him you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Messiah. Buried with him in baptism, in which you also are raised with him through faith and the working of Elohim, who raised him from the dead. We sprung up we became Israel because its no longer we who live, Yahushua living in us and we died to self, self is gone it's dead and we reckon ourselves as dead but alive to Elohim through our Master Yahushua. We are now by his promises a new creation and we have sprung up an Israelite because it's he who lives in us now. And so I see this as applicable to me being an Israelite sprung up Israelite and we need to be looking at that we are a new creation, we are grafted in we were once strangers from the covenant and the promises given to Israel as foreigners and strangers but now through Messiah Yahushua we are brought near and I've been crucified with Messiah it's no longer I who live, Messiah lives in me the life in which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of Elohim who loves me and gave himself for me. And if I am Messiah's then I am Abraham's seed. Don't forget that. So, you are an Israelite and so these commandments are for you as Abraham's seed. And so the mentality which I want to embrace here when I see this command about native Israelites is that I am an Israelite. I identify with Israel. I sprung up as an Israelite after I became baptized in Messiah Yahushua and there's this promise that says this is covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, Jeremiah 31:33 I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their Elohim, they should be my people. Who's that covenant with? It's new covenant, who's it with? Israel, so unless we identify ourselves correctly as Israel then that covenant is not even mentioned to be of gentiles. But Yahushua makes us a son of Abraham and so, my identity, my heritage is with him as an Israelite. You know if you have adopted a child do treat them any differently, you see them any differently? You should not they are your child just as much as anything. So we are adopted sons and daughters and we are every bit accepted as one who is native and just someone who is naturally born that way. Now moving on here it says you should observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days when you have gathered from your threshing floor and your wine press. You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates. And it's a time of the harvest ingathering. Children of Israel would have this harvest and then would go and enjoy the festival and it's also a harvest festival. And they gather from the wine press, the threshing floor, the wine and vegetables and they will rejoice. And he tells them seven days you are going to rejoice, seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to Yahweh your Elohim in the place which Yahweh chooses because Yahweh your Elohim will bless you in all your produce and in all the works of your hands so that you shall surely rejoice. This is the day, a time to rejoice. That's what it's all about, the feast is all about rejoicing. And I wanna know something else here, invite a stranger that's the foreigner the one who's not an Israelite. He expects the non-Israelite to also keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and so if you still think you are not of Israel realize this, this feast is still for you even if you are a stranger, even if you are not Israelite. And so he says invite the fatherless and invites the widow and it's for this reason we actually invite those who are poor to join us for the Feast of Tabernacles as well. And if they can't afford to come then we have a fund set up to help those who otherwise would not be able to come because they do not have the money to come when we invite them to join us and thus we have our feast going fund and you can find that on our Feast of Tabernacles information page and you can contribute if you can't make it to our gathering you can always help somebody else come that will be a blessing for them. But you don't have to go to Steelville where we host the feast in order to keep the feast. You can go to other places, you can actually do it in your backyard, set yourself up a tent and enjoy yourself. But we want to invite everybody fatherless, widow, the poor, the foreigners, everybody, even had the slaves going in, bring a slave bring a male and female servant down here. And so it was for everyone and that's what it's all about. So if you are blessed financially and you wanna help somebody come and do that. But the world at large celebrates a harvest festival known as Thanksgiving but this is Yahweh's Thanksgiving feast and if it wasn't for the fact that people did not keep Yahweh's Thanksgiving feast they probably would never have had a Thanksgiving in the last week of what the world calls November. And so people say do I keep Thanksgiving, I say yeah, I keep seven days of it, the Feast of Tabernacle, that was amazing. But you know sometimes we don't really think about the harvest, but maybe farmers think about it but we don't, all come on nice pretty package there at the store but we don't think about the harvest Yahweh provided and this is the time where we need to think about the fact he provided for us this year. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. If he hadn't reaped he wouldn't be able to eat. But if there was no harvest there will be no food at our table, so lots of reasons to rejoice and not just go through life you know Yahweh doing these things for you and you are not acknowledging them and being and doing what he calls you to do in order to give appropriate thanks for the abundance of all things. And especially us we are very spoiled with the food we eat and so many different things that we can eat today, it's just absolutely amazing we are spoiled, rotten I would say. So for seven days offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, eighth day have a holy convocation. That's a day of rest also shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh secret assembly do no customary work on it. So it's a time of rejoicing and we can make offerings because Psalms 69 verse 30 says I will praise the name of Elohim with song And magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please Yahweh better than an ox or a bull which has horns and hoofs. So we can still do our offerings Hebrews 13:15 Therefore, by Him let's continually offer a sacrifice of praise to Elohim, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. 1 Peter 2:4 coming to Him as to a living stone rejected indeed by men, but chosen by Elohim and precious. You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Elohim through Yahushua Messiah. So we can do sacrifices during the feast in these ways. Deuteronomy 16:15 the seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to Yahweh your Elohim in the place which Yahweh chooses because Yahweh your Elohim will bless you and all your produce, all the work of your hands you shall surely rejoice. This is almost like a prophecy you are gonna rejoice, it's gonna happen. Three times a year all your males shall appear before Yahweh your Elohim in a place which he chooses at the Feast of Unleavened bread, Feast of Weeks and Feast of Tabernacles. You should not appear before Yahweh empty-handed. Every man shall give as he's able according to the blessing of Yahweh your Elohim which he has given you. So how do we do this? We know they were called to bring forth some kind of an offering up to the temple for the temple treasury and therefore the temple worship and so I do think we are supposed to bring something if you are not. You are not just supposed to come to the feast and receive, receive, receive you are supposed to give. And so if you wanna bring something financially great, if you can't you don't have anything financially to bring give up yourself, volunteer, do something to bless the people at the festival gathering where you might be. Even if you have a dollar in your hand give what you have, even as the widow had a might she dropped it into the offering and who do you give it to? You can give it to the poor, you can give it to others who are otherwise who are unable to come to the feast in Steelville or other places or you can give to a ministry. There is precedence for giving as Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek for there to be a Melchizedek ministry the tithe money is given to. But either way, scripture says he who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh and so if you give to the poor he will pay you back. Scripture says he will. Matthew 25:40, the King will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. And so it's really all for him. You know, whether it be proclaiming his word out through to all the nations or through giving to the poor it's really all for him. Corinthians 9:11 says If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Now Paul says we have not used this right, it was alright but I think Paul did not want to use it mainly because he didn't want people to think he came to Yahushua so he can get money, I think is the mentality. So he chose not to take it. That's fine. He just didn't want to handle the good news, he wanted someone accusing him falsely. But he also said verse 13 Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple? Those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings at the altar? Even so, Yahweh has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. That's a commandment, the expectation but I have used none of these things nor have I written these things so it should be done to me, it will be better for me to die, than anyone makes my boast in void. That was his preference. Doesn't mean everyone has to follow that same pattern but it is permissible and even commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel and that's fine because by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to the place which he would receive his inheritance when he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tent with Isaac and Jacob and with the heirs of him the same promise for he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is Elohim. And says these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And so we have a spiritual temple, a heavenly kingdom we are pursuing and that's where Abraham was focused. And that's where we are all supposed to be focused and so we are seeking to build up that spiritual house and so when you give to the people of Yahweh you are giving to the temple, you are giving for the temple service. Our bodies are the temple of the holy spirit and that's the way it's supposed to be. We are called to serve and some people don't know I'm full-time ministry, but I do take donations. I don't ask for donations, but I do take them when they are given. I have no problem doing that because I'm preaching the gospel and it's okay to live from the gospel but I don't ask I just let Yahweh move the hearts, he moves the hearts accordingly. My main point is that it's kind of being kind of a negative thing in the eyes of some people to give to one who ministers but it doesn't even have to be a preacher in a sense of he's behind a microphone or in front of the podium or behind a podium or whatever. It can be someone who's given to the poor, whose devoted their whole life to giving to the poor and they work some kind of soup kitchen ministry or whatever. And if so for you to give to them is not a bad thing either. It's all Melchizedek ministry and so look the world we have is temporary and we all in temporary structure and all these things they are temporary things. But the focus is on the spiritual things that's where our focus is, we're a temporary place for now as Abraham we're in temporary place, for now, this body is a temporary place. All the riches and the monies and all these things of the world it's all temporary. I don't care how beautiful, how strong, how big your house might be one day you will perish. We all gonna live in a temporary structure you know no matter what, whether you are at a house. Whether you are in this house, everything here on this planet is temporary, so don't get too attached to anything. Because temporary things are gonna perish or you perish with them because that's where your focus was, but we are in these tents during this time of year. We don't have conveniences and conference of everything or nice warm cozy climate controlled house. And sometimes it can get kind of cold outside at night, we told we are not supposed to complain. Don't be like Israel complained in their tents and murmured and grumbled, we are gonna rejoice in this and while the world focuses their holidays on material possessions oh let's give the gifts and the candies and we gonna focus on the spiritual things. The spiritual things we'll come together and rejoice seven days in a tent, in a succoth, a temporary structure. And so we come together and we rejoice, and we seek this coming homeland, it says they say such thing seek a home and we are looking for a home we are on a journey this is what this feast is teaching us. We are on a journey. It says, and truly if they had called to mind their country from which the had come out, they would have better opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country: therefore Elohim is not ashamed to be called their Elohim: for he has prepared a city for them. That homeland is, where we are on a journey towards that homeland. We are not gonna stop here in this life and set up shop, no we are going to move on, our eyes are on the promised land. When the Tabernacle of Yahweh is with men. Revelation 21 verse 3 I heard a loud voice coming from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of Elohim is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, Elohim himself will be with them, and be their Elohim. And so we long for that day and that is what we are looking to and that's the beauty of the Feast of Tabernacles I'm giving you an overall vision of these festivals and the purposes behind them. We come together and rejoice we give praise and this whole thing is a very very beautiful picture and object lesson. You think about this day of the week six days you shall work seventh day is the Sabbath right? Well, think about this, six thousand year of mankind on the earth the last thousand years will be a time when we have rest from our enemies because Satan will be bound for one thousand years during that time. And so we will reign with him that last seventh day, seventh day of mankind on the earth and we are closing in here on six thousand years biblical speaking since the time of Adam, putting out last one thousand year time period and the Feast of Unleavened bread and the Feast of Tabernacles they both have seven days. I think it represents seven thousand years on mankind on earth needing the unleavening of Messiah through the blood of Yahushua and seven thousand years of mankind on the earth dwelling in temporary structures the bodies we live in and the houses we live in. And so our body being a Succo and a Tabernacle since we are in this Tabernacle we need to realize the temporary structure that we are already every day don't get caught up in those things and so that's the blessing of the Feast of Tabernacles I dare say we will be more prepared in times of tribulation and difficulty and trial. If we are used to keeping the Feast of Tabernacle, we are used to camping out there's nothing new to us. It's something we are accustomed to. So how do we keep these festivals? I want to sum it up here this is how we do it.
Observing the Feast of Trumpets, here is what you do step by step I'm sure this is what you are waiting for: #1 On the night of the Feast of Trumpets look into the western sky for up to 45 minutes or so after sunset and watch for the new moon, it's gonna be weather permitting. You can also tune in the broadcast here we give you some reports of the new moon sightings. If you see the new moon you get this report blow the shofar and give a shout of praise. You can read Revelation 11:15 other verses related to Yahushua's return. Rest means that it's a Sabbath day and gather with other believers if you can for a holy convocation and focusing on the Feast of Trumpets scriptures and other scriptures related to Yahushua's return. Give praise and give worship often. And finally, give shouts of praise and blow the shofar if you have one if you have a ram's horn or any kind of a trumpet I guess you can even make one out of PVC from what I understand. But treat it as a day of rejoicing and you're I believe permitted to cook your meals and to feast. Now, what about the Day of Atonement? Day of Atonement, prior to this day prepare your heart for a time of corporate repentance and confession of sin. Also, remember the one who enters the heavenly holy of holy's focus on the scriptures and speaks of his work of intercession for us. Fast means no food or drink for 24 hours from sundown to sundown. Gather with others if possible for a holy convocation corporate repentance is the body of Messiah together for others if you can find others to pray with that's appropriate. And then we got the Feast of Tabernacles how do you do that: #1 prepare by attaining some kind of a tent or a temporary structure if you can. Make sure it's rain and wind worthy and if you can't just do your best, some people do hotel rooms or something else temporary. On the first evening of Feast of Tabernacles, this will be the first of the seven nights in a temporary shelter do just be like a normal Sabbath except you can cook your meals and prepare food as needed. Also, have a holy convocation with other believers if possible, focus on the scriptures speaking of the festival the Messiah's kingdom. The need to be thankful in a temporary nature of this age. Also do not appear before Yahweh empty handed, give some kind of monetary offering as you able to the poor or toward Yahweh's work. If you can't-do that then give up yourself in some other capacity, but he would want you have at least a penny to give. So during the time you are in a temporary shelter, you can work except on the Sabbath day, that's the first day and the eighth day of the feast. You can work on the other days unless it's a regular Sabbath. After the first day of the Festival, you can go to work and do other activities but continue to dwell in the temporary shelter. During the week and during the holidays focus on rejoicing giving thanks and praise spiritual sacrifices for the harvest, remembering Israel was in temporary booths and so are we. Our bodies and homes are temporary dwelling places. After seven nights you can rest on the last great day, that's not required to stay in temporary shelter on that night but you are required to rest on that and this last great day represents Revelation 21 and 21 that's after the seven thousand years are over, the millennium is completed the last great day the new heavens and the new earth will come down out of heaven so we focus on those scriptures. So we have a holy convocation on that day focusing on the scriptures speaking of Yahweh's promises regarding the new heavens and the new earth. Treat it as a Sabbath day except you can cook your meals and prepare food and then you rest until the next evening.
nd you can join us and hundreds of other believers keeping Feast of Tabernacles just go to eliyah.com/fot as in Feast of Tabernacles (fot), love to have you join us and that's how we observe Yahweh's amazing festivals that's all about rejoicing for the harvest, it's all about coming before him humbly, prior to that time on the day of atonement rejoicing Yahushua is going to come back establish his reign on that last trump and so there are lots of things I can into even deeper on this but we are trying to conserve time here, we can commemorate remember and just know that these festivals have something to teach you. They have some way to bless you and Yahweh created these things for your benefit for my benefit as a memorial to his great and awesome deeds. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Yahweh, thank you for your great and your awesome deeds. Thank you for your love, thank you for your grace, for your forgiveness, thank you for all that you have done and continue to do through Yahushua HaMashiach. We praise you, we look forward to this festive season that you have established help us to keep these things the way you want us to keep them to gain the things we need to gain from them it might be a blessing to us and we might bless your great and awesome name. For truly yours is the kingdom and power and glory majesty, all praise, honor, and worship belongs to you. Yahweh Elohim forever and ever in Yahushua's name we pray. Amein.
look and determine when his festivals are and that's one of the great things that we get to learn about it's his calendar. So that's part of what this is all about, So as far as how to observe the Feasts, we are ready to begin our study portion for today's broadcast entitled how to observe the fall feast days. How to observe the fall feast days and a lot of people think you know maybe this is highly complex and you know you got to do this that's one way and this the other way. And I do think sometimes the way mainstream Judaism has taken these festivals and either they made them more difficult or kind of missed the purpose in some ways of what this is really supposed to be about. It may have caused some confusion and so whenever I'm confused about something, what I try to do is make sure that I am going to go back to the scriptures to find the answer, gonna go back to scripture to find the answer. And I know the scriptures have the answer and it's usually far more simpler than what you know things are typically being portrayed as it actually is more simpler. And so our goal is to get back to scripture and let scripture tell us how to observe the fall Feast Days and it's really an awesome thing and we want to get not only the letter and whatever it actually tells to do but we also want to get the spirit behind it, not just a letter but also the spirit and the intent behind it. So how do we do that? We always go according to precepts and principles, not just precepts but also the principles. And this time of the year September, October is what we call the holiday season. Most of the world has a holiday season in December but the word holiday actually comes from two words holy and day. But what the world may call holiday really is not holidays at all, in fact, the only holidays are the Sabbath and the seven annual holidays on Yahweh's calendar, everything else you know a man can't make something holy Yahweh is the one who makes something holy, it's our job to keep it holy. So he decides he is the one who creates all things, this is the day he has made and we rejoice and we are glad in it and we are going to submit ourselves to what he says are holidays. So if you are interested in keeping his days, that's the point of this study. We are going to show you exactly how to observe the fall Feast Days and I'm delighted to be able to do that. They are an incredible blessing just indescribable blessing and it's amazing the depth that these festivals have for us and they glorify our Savior and that's the most wonderful thing of all. So we are going to go in a little bit about the spiritual implications, the things that are written in scriptures and try to unravel any complexities that are there. But really it's very easy it's not spooky or weird or bizarre. It's really, you don't walk ten steps backward and look in the sky and do this and do that. Now it's very relevant very much has to do with worship, has to do with remembering the things that Yahweh has done and he will do in the future. And I get excited this time of the year because of the spiritual applications, it's just as an on-going yearly reminder of so many things, you know, because the world was...okay? I appreciate at least the desire to remember our Savior's birthday. Okay, I can say the concept of trying to remember and be glad that he was born it's not all that bad, okay but it's what they mix in with that, the pagan rooted practices and things that are not true like he wasn't really born December 25th, things like that, that's where I have a problem he tells us not to do that. So what he does tell us to do, what he does tell us to remember are very important and if you've not learned how to observe the Feast Days then feel free to watch this video and we are going to get into it right now. So now this video I've designed so that you can watch this each year, I'm not gonna give it exact dates for this particular year in this video but we will if you want to know the exact dates you just go to eliyah.com/calendar and that will take you right there. But one of the reasons why the Feast days are commanded is because of the children. To pass on the wonderful works of Yahweh to our children, the things he has done, and I think in traditional Christianity there has been a lack of focus on the things that Yahweh wanted us to emphasize and here are some of the things he wanted us to emphasize. In Numbers chapter 29 verse 1 he says in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work, for you it is a day of blowing the trumpets. Interesting. Just go out and blow trumpets and also no customary work, blow trumpets and rest. Now if you look behind me here you'll see that I have a shofar and we've used it here on the broadcast and we use it during the Feast of trumpets broadcast. But these are things he tells us to do and we could actually go and do exactly what it says, we get the trumpets, the shofars out the Ram's horns and we blow them on that day. And another scripture it says Leviticus 23:24 Speak to children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. Now, what is this holy convocation thing, what is it all about? Well, it's a time to; it literally means holy calling or holy reading like a calling out. And so it's a time of reading the word aloud so others can hear and also this word translates Sabbath, rest what is this all about? Well, the Hebrew word translated servile as in servile work, we are supposed to be resting from, this kind of labor we are supposed to be resting from, is Abodah, and the word has to do with service, servile work and bondage this is the kind of rest we are supposed to be experiencing. We are supposed to experiencing a rest from the service kind of work. It's translated service 96 times servile, 12 times and has, it's a little bit different than the kind of work we are normally told to rest from in that this has to do with a providing some kind of a service, a business of some kind typically. To provide some kind of service for other people and so now when it comes to this word being used in other locations. Leviticus 23:6 on the fifteenth day the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to Yahweh; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day, you shall have a holy convocation, you shall do no Abodah work. On the first day, it should be a holy convocation, the seventh day that should be a holy convocation for you, no manner of work should be done on them but that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared by you. So that which everyone must eat, so we have a point here that on a day in which this kind of work is forbidden, there is a permission that we can prepare our necessary food. And for this reason, I believe that we are permitted to do our cooking on this particular day of rest, doing what we refrain from Abodah work or service work. And so if this day is a day of what they called you know this particular word, then on other days in which this is supposed to be refrained from and we are permitted to do what we call meal preparations and is a feast for this reason I personally believe that we are permitted to do cooking on this particular day which tells me that other days that are not this kind of Sabbath but on a regular Sabbath day we'd normally not be permitted to do our cooking on those days. So actually it's kind of nice you know to not have worry about cooking, you do all your things ahead of time, on a normal Sabbath but on these Sabbaths it's a Feast, we can get together, we can rejoice, we can cook our food, we can get together have a good time. Now another example of where holy convocation is mentioned it says in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. This is talking about Feast of Trumpets. Qodesh Micrah or Micrah Qodesh this is a day when
we are supposed to call out or do some reading of scripture, this word is translated reading Micrah, is translated reading here. Nehemiah 8 verse 8 so they read distinctly from the book in the law of Elohim, and they gave the sense and helped them understand the Micrah. Help them understand the Micrah, Micrah meaning the calling out, the reading and so this has to do with time of gathering being implied here for the purposes of hearing Yahweh's word, hear the reading. Alright, Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 8 says here so they read distinctly from the law in the law of Elohim and they gave the sense, helped them understand the Micrah. And Nehemiah, who was a Governor, Ezra the priest and the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all people, This day is holy to Yahweh your Elohim, do not mourn, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. And since it's a holiday not a day of mourning and weeping, it's a day of rejoicing. He made a point to people who were hearing the words of the law and they were very sad because they had violated the law. He told them don't weep this is a holy day and, in fact, he said in the following verse the joy of Yahweh is your strength. And you might think on a, it might be good for someone to weep over the fact that they have not been obedient to our father in heaven. But he told them rejoice because when we repent
when scripture say there is joy in the presence of the father and the angels over one sinner who repents and so because the people who are repenting they could be in agreement with the spirit of Yahweh and we can rejoice because the entire weight of everything is off their shoulders and they have forgiveness and that's the beautiful thing about that. So now, so we get the scriptures read we rejoice after we've run and we see something we shouldn't be doing or okay we repent but we need to remember the joy of Yahweh is our strength. And since the joy of Yahweh is our strength we don't have to be negative, we don't have to be sad anymore because we have Yahushua Ha Mashiach through whom we receive forgiveness of sins. Now, Leviticus 23 verse 2-3 Speak to children of Israel, say to them, the feasts of the Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. Thus he says these are the Jewish feasts, no he says these are my feasts and he did give them to all of Israel. Now, are we Israel? We are now reading Galatians 3:29. Is that we are now a city of Abraham and that we are grafted in according to Romans chapter 11 and so this is for us and he has given them to us. nd we can rejoice in it, but he says six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of soul and rest, a holy convocation. For this reason, a lot of us believe that Sabbath day, the weekly Sabbath day is also a feast, you shall do no work on it: it's a Sabbath of Yahweh in all your dwellings. So then we have this next feast here in Leviticus 23 verse 27, it says the tenth day of this seventh month shall be a day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. Now, some people would say well what's this offering made by fire? Do we not do any more sacrifices? We don't do those things and so why is this here and why do we even have to bother with this feast. This is all talking about sacrifices. Well, in everything that Yahweh tells us to do they're gonna be something in this case that we are not able to do. Now the offering made by fire to Yahweh was actually a commandment for the priests, they were not a commandment for a common man. And so he's talking about what the priests needed to do on that day, the common people didn't all rush up to the temple on the day of atonement and it will be crowded. And there is a time where the high priest is going to enter into the holy place and make atonement for the Tabernacle of the temple whatever was at the time and purify the holy place. And the children of Israel would confess their sins to high priest, who confess the sins of Israel over that animal that was being offered and so you know Paul the Apostle they wouldn't have been able to do these things fairly easily. By knowing Yahushua's final offering and in Israel the other thing is all parables. And so there is no priest said no temple but there are other things that you can do. And I can see Yahweh in heaven saying do your best and if I told my son, hey son will you please go to the barn and feed the chickens and the ducks. And we went to the barn he looked around and the ducks were gone and then he comes back down a little bit later I saw him, I said hey did you go feed the chickens and the ducks and he said, this is not a real story, by the way, he said sorry Day I could not fulfil your commandment because your commandment said feed the chickens and the ducks. I said were the chickens there? And he said yeah there are chickens there but there were no ducks and since I couldn't fulfill your whole commandment, I figured why would I bother. You get what I'm saying? Maybe you can't fulfil the whole commandment but you can feed the chickens, maybe there is no ducks there right now but you know you can have a holy convocation, you can afflict your souls that have to do with fasting and so there are things you can do, why would we you know express kind of this almost like a rebelliousness, that's how we would see it if we had a son doing this and since he can't do the whole thing, not do any of it. You know, we should always do what we are able to do in every respect. If Yahweh wants us to be baptized and suppose somebody is on their death bed they can't exactly get out of his deathbed and got baptized. And I don't believe Yahweh is in heaven going, oh, sorry, you have not been baptized you are not gonna enter in. Just because you are unable to do something does not mean you are guilty, it's when you are able to do something and then you just refuse to do it, you know that's when we guilty. And we are able to rest on this day; we are able to fast on this day. And so now going back to the Feast of Trumpets some people might say I don't have a trumpet, I don't have anything to blow well come to our Feast of Tabernacles in Missouri and we will give you one for free. We have a shofar class. You sand it down, you drill the mouthpiece, take one home. If you can't do that, well, the word Teruah not only means trumpet blast, it has all has to do also has to do with shouting. Teruah meaning Feast of Trumpets, its translated trumpets but also could be called Day of Shouting or Feast of Shouting, has to do with making a loud noise. For instance, when the children of Israel were surrounding the walls of Jericho 7 times, the 7th time they went around he told them to shout and they shouted and then word translated shout there is Teruah from which we get the translation trumpet. And so Teruah can be a shouting or a shofar blast, some people go out there and honk their horn on the car. I mean but make a noise you know, make sure you shout halleluYah at least once, maybe you should do it more than once Feast of Trumpets is a time of rejoicing and this feast is a picture, a celebration of something that actually hasn't even happened yet. A feast it's not even really been totally fulfilled and that's Messiah's return at the last trump. And so we meditate on that day the things that Yahushua is going to do, the promises of his return, the kingdom, go over those scriptures. And so this is a festival has not yet met its full completion, we have not yet seen Messiah coming in the clouds and the last trump where the light will shine from East to West right and so he's not yet come back and so this is an unfulfilled feast. Now the Spring Feast, Yahushua is pictured in the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the day of first fruits in the Pentecost and those are things pointing to what Messiah has done for us and I still believe we should observe them. But the fall festivals here a lot of this is futuristic or it's in the process of meeting its fulfillment because he's gonna come back after the last trump. First, you know we gave the Holy Spirit Pentecost there is a long period of time between what the world calls June and September, October and so Feast of Trumpets is a long time from Messiah giving the Holy Spirit and Messiah's return. And it's all correlated together so we meditate on these things, and we are told the Feast of Trumpets we wanna look for the signs, be watchful and here we have these signs in heaven and all these things going on and it's an important time to remember our Savior is gonna come. He's gonna rule and reign on this earth for a thousand years. And so we are gonna shout and we gonna do the things that we plan to do when we happen to see him and we are gonna be shouting hallelujah I guarantee you that so we gonna give him praise and we gonna If we have a trumpet we gonna blast the trumpet and you can just see the joy and it's actually says in Zephaniah 3:17 he's going to sing over us and he's going to quiet us with his love and so he's gonna rejoice over us in the same way we rejoice over him and so you get your children together you rejoice before him and you praise him with your family into it and just give him thanks for his promises at what he's going to do, the return of our Savior Yahushua and that's what it is, a remembrance and a memorial of something that one time took place in the past when the walls of Jericho fell. And that the kingdoms of that particular days became the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Yahweh and it's gonna happen again when the last trumpet sounds, the walls, the kingdom of this world will all come crumbling down and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of Yahweh and Messiah and it's going to happen it's just a matter of time and I can't wait until it does or I gonna have to but I'm looking forward to it, praise Yahweh. So this other festival the Day of Atonement he says do no work on that same day for it is a day of atonement to make atonement for you before Yahweh your Elohim, for any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day, it should be cut off from his people. Any person who does any work on that same day that person I will destroy from among his people. And now this, his responses to their disobedience, I think are note-worthy. Now we don't quite have the same situation now they had, you know, manna always coming down from heaven and feeding them every day, Red Sea parted, all these miracles where he showed himself so strongly to Israel and he so he expected more out of them and he says you choose to go out and work on this day, he says he will destroy you from among your people, that's because they heard his voice coming from the mountain there. There was no question as to who he was and so this is a day where we do not do any work at all. We see that's his will and some people might think well isn't this you know something that Yahushua did fulfill with, he entered the holy place with his own blood and all that. Well before we jump to conclusions let's study it, it's the day of Atonement on the tenth day and this is after the feast commemorating the Messiah's return, ten days afterward. The day of Atonements, as the word actually should be plural here, Day of Atonements. So it's Yom Kippurim or Day of Atonements and it's a holy convocation it says do not work on that day and it's a day of rest, it's a holiday. And so we need to yield ourselves to his command
and be willing to do that. Also verse 31 you should do no manner of work, it should be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a Sabbath of rest, you shall afflict your souls: on the ninth day of the month at evening, evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath. This is why we start at evening, from evening to evening, that's when we celebrate our Sabbath. So it's a ninth day of the month the sun goes down you sit in your house the sun goes down, that begins the tenth day the Day of Atonement I think he's being specific here because the people come in from the fields in the evening basically saying don't sit down to eat. This is the time to afflict your souls that means to fast and to rest. And so now where is this say afflicting your soul means fasting? We see here Isaiah 58 verse 6 is it a fast I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul. So he's seeing these things as being synonymous fasting and afflicting your soul. And he goes on to criticize the things that they are doing which are not; it's outside the scope of our study today. But it's basically criticizing them for fasting but not taking care of the poor. So he tells them these things, so but apparently people will not loosen the bonds of wickedness and things. So when we are looking at this day of rest make sure you take inventory of yourself, make sure that you are being about your father's business in heaven and that you are doing what he has called you to do and that involves self-sacrifice. Because what good is it really if you are fasting within your, not really caring about the needs of the people around you? So he's telling them he says Is this a fast I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? it to bow down his head like a bulrush, spread sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and acceptable day to Yahweh? Is this not the fast I have chosen? Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and that you bring into your house the poor who are cast out? When you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Yahweh shall be your rear guard. So, if we take care of the poor, the children of Israel as they exited the land of Egypt there were a lot of struggles they were in a very back kind of the weak in the feeble and Yahweh says you make sure you take care of them and he will be their rear guard. He'll watch out for you, watch your back, so you take care of people he'll take care of you and that's part of what's this day is all about is reflecting on your life and the areas that you need to change and ask corporately as the body of the Messiah together how we need to change and take care of those who are being afflicted because we sit there and you fast and yet you don't walk in righteousness while you fast, your sacrifice is no good it doesn't mean anything to him and same is true for those of us you know maybe you give, you take time and give praise Yahweh as a living sacrifice, sacrifice of the lips of praise to him and yet you are not walking in righteousness, you are not seeking the right way to live, all those other things are gonna mean anything. hat he wants is righteous conduct and then he will accept our fasting and our praise and our self-sacrificing kinds of things. So we wanna do both, we wanna fast and we also wanna make sure that we are taking care of those who are disadvantaged because when we do both then we are blessed and then he'll accept our fasting and our prayers before him. Because that says here then you shall call, and Yahweh will answer; you shall cry, he will say, here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness. If thou draw your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul; then your light shall shine dawn in your darkness, and your darkness shall be as a noonday. A lot of finger-pointing going on today. Need to be careful about that, don't we? So once the hungry and afflicted soul here is the afflicted soul and the hungry here, it's all synonymous and so we understand that when he's saying afflict your soul he's talking about fasting. Now there are some people say well you know I've got diabetes and I have to have my insulin, other people have medical conditions making it difficult for them to do a full fast, you know the only thing that I can tell you is you do the best you can. It's not a day for a trip to the hospital, it's a day to afflict your soul, and if you afflicted your soul then halleluYah but do the best you can and you know he understands the rest I trust in his grace and mercy for that but you know here we are, we are in America. We live in a leap of luxury and basically, you go to the supermarket and buy so many different things, so many texts and textures of food, so many things you could possibly imagine, now Yahweh is saying hey just take a day and fast. hen Yahushua say after the bridegroom is taken the disciples will fast often, you know and are we fasting often, are we doing this? This is an opportunity for us to fast and make sure you are doing it at least once a year. And hopefully you doing it more than that but that's part of what we are supposed to be doing in our walk with Yahweh and so this affliction in the soul has to do with fasting and repentance, changing our ways, considering our ways. And this Day of Atonement is a time when the high priest would enter the holy of holy he will confess the sins of the nation of Israel over this goat and then release that goat into the wilderness. And so likewise because I identify myself as an Israelite according to Galatians 3:29 that I have been grafted in if I'm not Israel in the flesh and grafted in. e are all part of Israel now, we are joint to him through the Messiah because it's no longer we who live it's he who lives in us and he's an Israelite and so we live through him, we live and move and have our being. So these are the things we consider, I try to think about during this time areas of corporate repentance that we as a body of Messiah are lacking and so we can gather, we can hear on the broadcast we do have a conference call we get together and we pray together seeking Yahweh's forgiveness from the areas that we lacking as his people then we go to different things that were. We see our sins in the body of Messiah that are very common. And we actually pray together over the conference call and then have a prayer meeting; it's usually often a very beautiful time. So we confess our sins corporately as a body of Messiah, as a people, now it's not like you are unforgiving sinners and you are going to hell until you do this but it's part of our repentance. Because we care, because we are repentance people we care when we are not doing right and we confess our sins ask how he would help us that we might be a greater light to him, to the world, and a better example of Yahushua the Messiah. Now we confess the sins of our people who by him say corporately it's not some idea fond to scripture. We see here in Daniel 9:20 it says while I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Yahweh my Elohim for the holy mountain. Daniel, he was praying not only forgiveness for his own sin but also the sin of Israel corporately. And so then he had this vision and he's not just confessing his own things, he cares about how his fellow countrymen are conducting themselves and we also need to care about how we are conducting ourselves as believers in Messiah and so we want to take this time and take an inventory of where we are spiritual as a body of Messiah, where we are lacking things and together make corporate repentance and draw more attention to the problems that we are having as his people. Now Psalms 110 verse 1 says Yahweh said to my Master, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Yahweh shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people shall be volunteers on the day of your power. In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, you have the dew of youth.
Yahweh has sworn and will not relent verse 4 you are a Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Yahweh is at your right hand; He shall execute kings at the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill the places with dead bodies, and execute the heads of many countries. So obviously here a future event when he judges among the nations and executes the leaders of various nations who were walking in wickedness. And this is all a part of it and so here it is one who is in the throne room we see verse one Yahweh is saying to David's Master this is Yahushua, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. And he's making him a Priest here after the order of Melchizedek; this is spoken of at length in the book of Hebrews. But he's ruling priest, he's a ruler and he's also a Priest and so he's saying rule in the midst of your enemies. And so he's part of Royalty but he's also a Priest at the same time and that's not the same as it was in the days of David. David was a king but then there were other people sons of Levi who were Priests and so now today Yahushua is in this throne room sitting at Yahweh's right hand and there he is, he's ruling and reigning and we are the instruments he's using to rule and reign. We are taking willingness, a willingness to put his ruler-ship over us. If you live in a nation, that nation's laws there are laws in that nation, there are leaders, there are civil authorities, and you are expected to be a law-abiding citizen. ell, Yahushua the Messiah he has, he's a king also and we have a greater kingdom with a greater law and we are called to be law-abiding citizens of this nation. And so Yahushua is in the throne room today waiting to come, one day he's gonna come, he's gonna put to end to all earthly authority and power and he's going to rule and reign over all things and we are called right now to be these people who are willing to abide by his laws now in his ruler-ship now that will qualify us as those who are going to be kings and Priests with him in the age to come. Now Hebrews chapter 9 verse 24 says Messiah has not entered the holy places made with hands (talking about the earthly temple), which are copies of the true (as the heavenly temple); but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of Elohim for us. ot that he should offer himself often (that's once a year), as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another. He then would have to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he's appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And now he has entered this holy place in the heavenly, he entered it with his own blood and for that reason, we as his people will be able to enter the holy place with him and not defile the place. Because our sins are forgiven. The high priest will sprinkle the blood on the different areas around the Tabernacle, around the temple, including the Ark of the Covenant itself. He emptied the holy of holy once a year, he sprinkles on the ark, he sprinkles the area in front of the ark and all these different things to cleanse the Tabernacle, cleanse the holy things and so we also we will enter the holy place. And we can enter the holy place in Messiah Yahushua and not defile it because of Messiah's blood. His life cleanses us of all sin enabling us to have access to the throne room without defiling it. Now Yahushua is going to enter one day the physical temple on the earth it says so in Ezekiel. He's going to enter that physical temple on the earth and in the future he's going to reign from Jerusalem and the place where he's going to reign, is from inside the temple, inside the temple of Yahweh. Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 3 says The word of Yahweh came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of Yahweh was upon him there. ay attention to verse 26 it says And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone: on the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man above it. I saw from the appearance of his waist upward I saw as it were the color of amber, with the appearance of fire within it, and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire; with the brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. The likeness of the glory of Yahweh. So when I heard, I fell on my face, and I heard of a voice speaking. Now, this is appearance of a likeness of the glory of Yahweh, yet this is a man remember. Appearance of his waist and upward I was this like appearance of a man and yet likeness of the glory of Yahweh. This reminds me a little bit of what John the revelator saw. But he's by the river Chebar and he sees this. Okay now later in Ezekiel chapter 43 it says afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. And, behold, the glory of the Elohim of Israel came from the way of the east: his voice was like the sound of many waters: and the earth shone with his glory. It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city, the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar. And I fell on my face. And the glory of Yahweh came into the temple by the way of the gate which faces toward the east. So the context of the scripture is to see an actual future temple on the earth in Jerusalem, he measures it, it's measurable, it's something he can physically see and he says he brought me to the gate that faces toward the east. The gate that faces towards the East is the Mount of Olives. Yahushua himself is going to come down; he's going to split that Mount of Olives in two. And then what's going to happen? What's going to happen is that he's gonna to enter that holy place and from there he's going to reign for a thousand years because he's a likeness of the glory of Yahweh, since the glory of Yahweh came into the temple by the way of the gate that faces toward the east and so this of Messiah coming and he's going to reign from this place. And so this Day of Atonement, the day is going to come when Yahushua himself will enter a physical temple. This is when he reigns for a thousand years he'll enter the holy of holies and that's where he will reign for a thousand years. This is not yet happened yet; this is an unfulfilled prophecy and so part of the Day of Atonement where he actually physically enters the physical temple has not yet met its fulfillment. Yes, he's entered the heavenly place but the Day of Atonement is also about commemorating that time he's going to enter the earthly temple according to what was seen there in Ezekiel and he will reign there for a thousand years. And so we have a day of Trumpets heralding the Messiah's return and the gathering of his people, that's what they use trumpets for was gathering people together, and advancing the people together. And so we have the Day of Atonement commemorating yes he is entering into this heavenly holy place, yes also the earthly holy place. He will enter as well. Prophecy says it will happen, I believe it will happen and that's why it says we will reign with him for one thousand years and that's all a part of it. And so, His rainbow-like appearance. We see this in Revelations 4:2 immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardine stone appearance: and there was a rainbow around the throne, an appearance like an emerald. So similar imagery here to what we saw there in the book of Ezekiel. So looking here Hebrews says seeing then that we have a great high priest, who is passed into the heavens, Yahushua the Son of Elohim, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses; but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let's, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. And so, we, on this day of atonement we can go boldly to the throne of grace as we repent and find not only mercy but also help. We need help; here we say amen that guy needs help. We all need help, we need mercy, we need grace and
this Day of Atonement is a remembrance of that and it's the time when Yahushua will enter a physical temple. We also will be spiritual bodies at that time and will probably have access to the heavenly place because Yahushua can be in more than one place at one time. He does say where two or three gather he is there in our midst, so he does have the ability to do that. And so he has this ability to be omnipresent. Because of that, he can dwell in the temple in heaven and also dwell on a temple on earth as well. And so this whole thing culminating together as the Day of Atonement he's going to be in the heavenly and the earthly, all likelihoods spiritually speaking will be able to have access to both heaven and earth I'm thinking. That's a beautiful thing, amazing and actually Revelation chapter 5 verse 8 says then we had taken a scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. Each having a harp and golden bowls with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And so when we pray, our prayers are going up and there are things going on in heaven. The prayers are like incense, one Psalm mentions that my prayer be set before you as incense, as evening sacrifices. So our prayers we know Yahushua is in the throne room, we know he is seated on the right hand of Yahweh he is the Lamb. We know that 24 elders were actually bowing down in this place and our prayers are right there, it's amazing it's a beautiful thing that we remember these things because it's because he's in this most holy place that we able to have our prayers answered and we are able to be accepted in the eyes of our heavenly father. Revelation 8:3 says and another angel, having a golden censer; came and stood at the altar, he was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne. And so these amazing things going on in heavenly places when we pray and wonderful things were happening. I wonder if we realize that you know we confess our sins before Yahweh, we lift our hands as an offering to him, we do these things as part of our expression of thanksgiving for him entering the holy place on the day of atonement and also looking to the future when he will enter the physical holy place on earth and that's our offering to him in our prayers, it's also a day of rest. And so let my prayer set before as incense lifting up my hands as the evening sacrifice. We can still do sacrifices. We can still offer incense through prayer and praise and so we confess our sins and we wanna confess the sins of each other as a body of Messiah as the high priest did in the days when he observed the Day of Atonement. And also I think we are to confess the sins of our parents because Leviticus 26:40 if they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to me, and they also walked contrary to me. And I also walk contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt. Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, my covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land. Did you this covenant with Abraham? It's coming with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that's what opens the door for the Messiah to come and die for our sins. If we see in the book of Galatians it's very clear, it's coming with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, this covenant involved through your seed, talking about Messiah I will cause all nations to be blessed. That was a promise that was a covenant he made. A covenant promise and so we confess our sins at time of repentance, we confess our sins of our fathers, we confess our own sins not because we are guilty necessarily of what our fathers did, it's more so acknowledging what our fathers did and saying I want nothing to do with that. And if I have repeated any of their sins then I wanna say I'm no longer considering myself tied into that sin I'm free of that through Yahushua the Messiah. And so it's a time of repentance and confessing our sins and the sins of our fathers and that's a beautiful thing Yahushua his blood cleanses us from all sin. So this day of atonement it is a day of fasting, it is a day to afflict our soul. Some recently I have noticed have taken exception to that but if you look here in Acts chapter 27 verse 9 it says Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship but also our lives. So what's this fast? You may not have noticed this reading through the book of Acts, but the fast here is the Day of Atonement. And so they knew in ancient times around the Mediterranean sea sailing was dangerous in the fall, in the Autumn in that part of the year because the rains would come and therefore the storms will be coming as the earth in northern hemisphere starts to cool off and the day of atonement there. And so Luke who's writing the book of Acts also he just kind of casually mentions all the other fast is already over and so he's talking to gentiles I think here who are on the ship with him and they know what he's talking about. He's talking about the day of atonement, the Jewish people observe the day of atonement and so it begins to be very dangerous to sail in the waters around that time of the year, the rains would be coming hard, stormy seasons is on the way. And so that was more dangerous to sail for that reason, so Luke is writing about this he expected whoever was reading it to understand what the fast actually was, when it was and the importance of it and so it's talking about the day of atonement and it's also telling us the day of atonement is actually a day of fasting. It's a day of fasting, and so the Day of Atonement is a day of fasting then this is the day when we are supposed to fast. Now on this Day of Atonement we fast, we don't eat bread, we don't drink water 24 hours, it's a time to consider our ways, recognize the atonement we receive through Yahushua and the promise of the future fulfilment of a prophecy, he will enter that temple and it's important we don't complain about the fasting. We don't seek the modern ways to try to make it easy on us. It's a day to afflict our souls and we wanna do just that I think it's best just to go about our normal business and that happens to be a day we are going to fast and you don't have to all your stuff yourself before the day begins and all that stuff we don't need to do that, my opinion. Just let the fast be what Yahweh intended the fast to be. Now, Yahushua being the high priest of the order of Melchizedek though Melchizedek means king of righteousness. Because it's through him, through Yahushua that we are able to be made righteous, I think that's why he's called Melchizedek or after the order of Melchizedek. But it's important for us to remember the things of the past we going the Day of Atonement but also things that have not yet met its fulfillment and Yahushua will come, Feast of Trumpets he will enter the holy place and will reign for a thousand years. Now I'm not trying to guarantee you here Yahushua is going to come back on the day of trumpets, I'm just saying that on this day we can commemorate that event. Whether he actually comes on Feast of Trumpets or not remains to be seen. So you know, very easy to keep the day of atonement just we don't eat, we rest, and we pray and nothing complicated about it. Now the feast of Tabernacles, speak to children of Israel saying 15th day of the 7th month shall be a feast of Tabernacles for 7 days to Yahweh. On the first day shall be holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it, for seven days you shall offer an offering made fire to Yahweh. Again that what the priest would do, on the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, you shall offer an offering by fire to Yahweh; it's sacred assembly. You shall do no customary work on it. So the offering by fire was something the priest would do, common people not necessary although they would bring something to Yahweh before the temple, each household would bring something to Yahweh before the temple. Since there is no priest to do that too or to do it for you there is no point in doing that. But we'll get to that in a minute. Here is that word customary work once again Malachi Abhudah, so we are permitted to cook on this day no problem and the first day of the feast will be a holy day with the exception of work being permitted on that day. And the eighth day will also be holy day as well and because you got the first and the eighth day they actually fall on the same day of the week. So if the first day of the feast is on you know the first day of the week then the eighth day of the feast will also be on the first day of the week. But actually the Feast of Trumpets is going to fall on the same day of the week that we have the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles and the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles, they all fall on the same day of the week, it's just how it all kind of lines up. So anyway back to Leviticus 23 here, these are the feasts of Yahweh which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations to offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, everything on its day, besides the Sabbaths of Yahweh, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to Yahweh.
lso on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast to Yahweh for seven days: on the first day, there shall be a Sabbath rest, on the eighth day a Sabbath rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the boughs the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim for seven days. Now the Jews call these the four species, you take the four species of trees and you make a Succo or temporary shelter with these four species of plants. I'm not against that but we don't have those species here in the United States, but we can do the best we can. But a temporary shelter is what Yahweh is wanting, that's why it's called the feast of Tabernacles or Festival of Booths. A Hebrew word translated boughs of Tabernacles, Succo or Sukkot which means the Booths of Tabernacles and the children of Israel will go and gather together in the area of Jerusalem set up these temporary structures and they can go out into the wilderness maybe to get some branches things to make a rudimentary shelter for them to stay in during the feast. What about us do we need to actually make it out branches and so on? I try to look at the spirit behind it here, it says you shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh for seven days in the year, it shall be a statute forever in your generations, you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your Elohim. And what about us? Do we need to make it out of these four species or we come sleep in tents. Well, my thinking is the children as said dwell in Booths when he brought them out of the Land of Egypt. The point of doing this is to imitate what they were doing at that time and in that light, we know they were staying in tents. Now not everybody, not every household can afford a tent, the tent was made out of goat hair which is very interesting material because goat hair when it's hot the fibers relax, and the heat of the surface of the tent can escape but then when it gets wet the fibers tighten up and it's actually waterproof. But they make these out of goat hair and they still do that actually the Bedouin shepherds do that today make these tents and they are very expensive to make. Not everyone can afford to log a big tent along with them down to Jerusalem and so I think the reason why he's saying these things is just going into the woods and get some raw materials and put a shelter together. And the point is to replicate what the children of Israel were doing, they were dwelling in temporary structures. And as long as you are in some kind of tent, temporary structure I think you know this is how we can fulfill this commandment. And the word translated Succot means thickit, or cover it, or a booth or temporary shelter, you know something rudimentary, something that says rood or temporary shelter a booth. But the point is a temporary dwelling place, a temporary shelter I think that's really the point of it. And some kind of booth or tent and actually the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness, trying to replicate that. We know that they did dwell in tents and so when Moshe heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and the anger of Yahweh was greatly aroused. So it seems to me tents are permissible, now I'm not so sure about campers and cabins. I don't know if that will be technically a replica of what they were living in the wilderness, especially conveniences and what not. But I understand some people are new to this, you are taking a step and even getting together and doing a feast and I can appreciate that and sometimes circumstances or health may detect our ability to do these things. But you know if you are staying somewhere temporarily, some say, well, that's a temporary structure, but I don't know. Just doesn't seem like they were, living in campers. But I think there is some need you know, spiritual applications here that we gonna get into but you know they did dwell in tents and those days whole pointed festival would dwell in booths seven days. And since we are doing that so generations may know Yahweh made the children of Israel dwell in booths when he brought them out of the land of Egypt that being the point behind it. ow if you come to our festival in Missouri we have cabins, we have our beautiful tent, high standard tent.
But I do have a camper there for kitchen support, otherwise, we do stay the night in a tent. But other than that we are dwelling in the booth and it's a temporary structure. Some people prefer 100% tent camping and that's good too we did that for a number of years. So the main point here is that we live today, when you think about this we live in a temporary structure. Our bodies are a Succoth, our bodies are a temporary structure and Yahushua is dwelling in us our temporary structure and there is a lesson here because I would think about this, the children of Israel they came out of the land of Egypt, the place of bondage, right? They came out of land of Egypt and they were in bondage and they were saved by the blood of lamb as we are saved by the blood of lamb. They went through the red sea and got baptized in the red sea in the cloud and delivered from their enemies. We also were baptized and delivered from our enemies. And on their journey toward the promised land, they dwelled in temporary structures. On our journey to the promised land, we are dwelling in this temporary structure our bodies. And we need to recognize that and this is a yearly reminder. All the stuff in the world it's all temporary, and so take stock of that don't be caught up into the safeness of riches. Don't be caught up in the cozy comforts and creature comforts of this world so much that you forget this world is all temporary. You don't want to be joined so tightly to this world, you'd forget there's a greater kingdom that we are supposed to be pursuit of. We are on a journey like them they were learning Yahweh's commandments his laws what his expectations were then, how to walk in love. e are also on this journey and as they had test trials and tribulations we have test trials and tribulations and so this gathering, this festival of tabernacle is a reminder Yahushua is gonna dwell seven thousand years is how I see it in a temporary structure and that's us for seven thousand years and then there will be a last great day when we will all be made free of these things and he'll put to end to all the temporary nature of our human body. So Messiah came to do that for us to deliver us from these things. Now some people say only native Israel had to do that, so why are you doing it? Because it says here all who are native Israelites will dwell in booths now if I'm not a native Israelite then why do I have to dwell in some kind of a tent. Well, you gotta remember you are a native Israelite because all things have become new. The word translated native here in this verse native Israelites shall dwell in booths has to do with a sense of springing up. It's springing up now. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things become new. Now that we are a new creation in Messiah Yahushua and that we, it says, in him you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Messiah. Buried with him in baptism, in which you also are raised with him through faith and the working of Elohim, who raised him from the dead. We sprung up we became Israel because its no longer we who live, Yahushua living in us and we died to self, self is gone it's dead and we reckon ourselves as dead but alive to Elohim through our Master Yahushua. We are now by his promises a new creation and we have sprung up an Israelite because it's he who lives in us now. And so I see this as applicable to me being an Israelite sprung up Israelite and we need to be looking at that we are a new creation, we are grafted in we were once strangers from the covenant and the promises given to Israel as foreigners and strangers but now through Messiah Yahushua we are brought near and I've been crucified with Messiah it's no longer I who live, Messiah lives in me the life in which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of Elohim who loves me and gave himself for me. And if I am Messiah's then I am Abraham's seed. Don't forget that. So, you are an Israelite and so these commandments are for you as Abraham's seed. And so the mentality which I want to embrace here when I see this command about native Israelites is that I am an Israelite. I identify with Israel. I sprung up as an Israelite after I became baptized in Messiah Yahushua and there's this promise that says this is covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, Jeremiah 31:33 I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their Elohim, they should be my people. Who's that covenant with? It's new covenant, who's it with? Israel, so unless we identify ourselves correctly as Israel then that covenant is not even mentioned to be of gentiles. But Yahushua makes us a son of Abraham and so, my identity, my heritage is with him as an Israelite. You know if you have adopted a child do treat them any differently, you see them any differently? You should not they are your child just as much as anything. So we are adopted sons and daughters and we are every bit accepted as one who is native and just someone who is naturally born that way. Now moving on here it says you should observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days when you have gathered from your threshing floor and your wine press. You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates. And it's a time of the harvest ingathering. Children of Israel would have this harvest and then would go and enjoy the festival and it's also a harvest festival. And they gather from the wine press, the threshing floor, the wine and vegetables and they will rejoice. And he tells them seven days you are going to rejoice, seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to Yahweh your Elohim in the place which Yahweh chooses because Yahweh your Elohim will bless you in all your produce and in all the works of your hands so that you shall surely rejoice. This is the day, a time to rejoice. That's what it's all about, the feast is all about rejoicing. And I wanna know something else here, invite a stranger that's the foreigner the one who's not an Israelite. He expects the non-Israelite to also keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and so if you still think you are not of Israel realize this, this feast is still for you even if you are a stranger, even if you are not Israelite. And so he says invite the fatherless and invites the widow and it's for this reason we actually invite those who are poor to join us for the Feast of Tabernacles as well. And if they can't afford to come then we have a fund set up to help those who otherwise would not be able to come because they do not have the money to come when we invite them to join us and thus we have our feast going fund and you can find that on our Feast of Tabernacles information page and you can contribute if you can't make it to our gathering you can always help somebody else come that will be a blessing for them. But you don't have to go to Steelville where we host the feast in order to keep the feast. You can go to other places, you can actually do it in your backyard, set yourself up a tent and enjoy yourself. But we want to invite everybody fatherless, widow, the poor, the foreigners, everybody, even had the slaves going in, bring a slave bring a male and female servant down here. And so it was for everyone and that's what it's all about. So if you are blessed financially and you wanna help somebody come and do that. But the world at large celebrates a harvest festival known as Thanksgiving but this is Yahweh's Thanksgiving feast and if it wasn't for the fact that people did not keep Yahweh's Thanksgiving feast they probably would never have had a Thanksgiving in the last week of what the world calls November. And so people say do I keep Thanksgiving, I say yeah, I keep seven days of it, the Feast of Tabernacle, that was amazing. But you know sometimes we don't really think about the harvest, but maybe farmers think about it but we don't, all come on nice pretty package there at the store but we don't think about the harvest Yahweh provided and this is the time where we need to think about the fact he provided for us this year. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. If he hadn't reaped he wouldn't be able to eat. But if there was no harvest there will be no food at our table, so lots of reasons to rejoice and not just go through life you know Yahweh doing these things for you and you are not acknowledging them and being and doing what he calls you to do in order to give appropriate thanks for the abundance of all things. And especially us we are very spoiled with the food we eat and so many different things that we can eat today, it's just absolutely amazing we are spoiled, rotten I would say. So for seven days offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, eighth day have a holy convocation. That's a day of rest also shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh secret assembly do no customary work on it. So it's a time of rejoicing and we can make offerings because Psalms 69 verse 30 says I will praise the name of Elohim with song And magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please Yahweh better than an ox or a bull which has horns and hoofs. So we can still do our offerings Hebrews 13:15 Therefore, by Him let's continually offer a sacrifice of praise to Elohim, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. 1 Peter 2:4 coming to Him as to a living stone rejected indeed by men, but chosen by Elohim and precious. You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Elohim through Yahushua Messiah. So we can do sacrifices during the feast in these ways. Deuteronomy 16:15 the seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to Yahweh your Elohim in the place which Yahweh chooses because Yahweh your Elohim will bless you and all your produce, all the work of your hands you shall surely rejoice. This is almost like a prophecy you are gonna rejoice, it's gonna happen. Three times a year all your males shall appear before Yahweh your Elohim in a place which he chooses at the Feast of Unleavened bread, Feast of Weeks and Feast of Tabernacles. You should not appear before Yahweh empty-handed. Every man shall give as he's able according to the blessing of Yahweh your Elohim which he has given you. So how do we do this? We know they were called to bring forth some kind of an offering up to the temple for the temple treasury and therefore the temple worship and so I do think we are supposed to bring something if you are not. You are not just supposed to come to the feast and receive, receive, receive you are supposed to give. And so if you wanna bring something financially great, if you can't you don't have anything financially to bring give up yourself, volunteer, do something to bless the people at the festival gathering where you might be. Even if you have a dollar in your hand give what you have, even as the widow had a might she dropped it into the offering and who do you give it to? You can give it to the poor, you can give it to others who are otherwise who are unable to come to the feast in Steelville or other places or you can give to a ministry. There is precedence for giving as Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek for there to be a Melchizedek ministry the tithe money is given to. But either way, scripture says he who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh and so if you give to the poor he will pay you back. Scripture says he will. Matthew 25:40, the King will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. And so it's really all for him. You know, whether it be proclaiming his word out through to all the nations or through giving to the poor it's really all for him. Corinthians 9:11 says If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Now Paul says we have not used this right, it was alright but I think Paul did not want to use it mainly because he didn't want people to think he came to Yahushua so he can get money, I think is the mentality. So he chose not to take it. That's fine. He just didn't want to handle the good news, he wanted someone accusing him falsely. But he also said verse 13 Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple? Those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings at the altar? Even so, Yahweh has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. That's a commandment, the expectation but I have used none of these things nor have I written these things so it should be done to me, it will be better for me to die, than anyone makes my boast in void. That was his preference. Doesn't mean everyone has to follow that same pattern but it is permissible and even commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel and that's fine because by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to the place which he would receive his inheritance when he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tent with Isaac and Jacob and with the heirs of him the same promise for he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is Elohim. And says these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And so we have a spiritual temple, a heavenly kingdom we are pursuing and that's where Abraham was focused. And that's where we are all supposed to be focused and so we are seeking to build up that spiritual house and so when you give to the people of Yahweh you are giving to the temple, you are giving for the temple service. Our bodies are the temple of the holy spirit and that's the way it's supposed to be. We are called to serve and some people don't know I'm full-time ministry, but I do take donations. I don't ask for donations, but I do take them when they are given. I have no problem doing that because I'm preaching the gospel and it's okay to live from the gospel but I don't ask I just let Yahweh move the hearts, he moves the hearts accordingly. My main point is that it's kind of being kind of a negative thing in the eyes of some people to give to one who ministers but it doesn't even have to be a preacher in a sense of he's behind a microphone or in front of the podium or behind a podium or whatever. It can be someone who's given to the poor, whose devoted their whole life to giving to the poor and they work some kind of soup kitchen ministry or whatever. And if so for you to give to them is not a bad thing either. It's all Melchizedek ministry and so look the world we have is temporary and we all in temporary structure and all these things they are temporary things. But the focus is on the spiritual things that's where our focus is, we're a temporary place for now as Abraham we're in temporary place, for now, this body is a temporary place. All the riches and the monies and all these things of the world it's all temporary. I don't care how beautiful, how strong, how big your house might be one day you will perish. We all gonna live in a temporary structure you know no matter what, whether you are at a house. Whether you are in this house, everything here on this planet is temporary, so don't get too attached to anything. Because temporary things are gonna perish or you perish with them because that's where your focus was, but we are in these tents during this time of year. We don't have conveniences and conference of everything or nice warm cozy climate controlled house. And sometimes it can get kind of cold outside at night, we told we are not supposed to complain. Don't be like Israel complained in their tents and murmured and grumbled, we are gonna rejoice in this and while the world focuses their holidays on material possessions oh let's give the gifts and the candies and we gonna focus on the spiritual things. The spiritual things we'll come together and rejoice seven days in a tent, in a succoth, a temporary structure. And so we come together and we rejoice, and we seek this coming homeland, it says they say such thing seek a home and we are looking for a home we are on a journey this is what this feast is teaching us. We are on a journey. It says, and truly if they had called to mind their country from which the had come out, they would have better opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country: therefore Elohim is not ashamed to be called their Elohim: for he has prepared a city for them. That homeland is, where we are on a journey towards that homeland. We are not gonna stop here in this life and set up shop, no we are going to move on, our eyes are on the promised land. When the Tabernacle of Yahweh is with men. Revelation 21 verse 3 I heard a loud voice coming from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of Elohim is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, Elohim himself will be with them, and be their Elohim. And so we long for that day and that is what we are looking to and that's the beauty of the Feast of Tabernacles I'm giving you an overall vision of these festivals and the purposes behind them. We come together and rejoice we give praise and this whole thing is a very very beautiful picture and object lesson. You think about this day of the week six days you shall work seventh day is the Sabbath right? Well, think about this, six thousand year of mankind on the earth the last thousand years will be a time when we have rest from our enemies because Satan will be bound for one thousand years during that time. And so we will reign with him that last seventh day, seventh day of mankind on the earth and we are closing in here on six thousand years biblical speaking since the time of Adam, putting out last one thousand year time period and the Feast of Unleavened bread and the Feast of Tabernacles they both have seven days. I think it represents seven thousand years on mankind on earth needing the unleavening of Messiah through the blood of Yahushua and seven thousand years of mankind on the earth dwelling in temporary structures the bodies we live in and the houses we live in. And so our body being a Succo and a Tabernacle since we are in this Tabernacle we need to realize the temporary structure that we are already every day don't get caught up in those things and so that's the blessing of the Feast of Tabernacles I dare say we will be more prepared in times of tribulation and difficulty and trial. If we are used to keeping the Feast of Tabernacle, we are used to camping out there's nothing new to us. It's something we are accustomed to. So how do we keep these festivals? I want to sum it up here this is how we do it.
Observing the Feast of Trumpets, here is what you do step by step I'm sure this is what you are waiting for: #1 On the night of the Feast of Trumpets look into the western sky for up to 45 minutes or so after sunset and watch for the new moon, it's gonna be weather permitting. You can also tune in the broadcast here we give you some reports of the new moon sightings. If you see the new moon you get this report blow the shofar and give a shout of praise. You can read Revelation 11:15 other verses related to Yahushua's return. Rest means that it's a Sabbath day and gather with other believers if you can for a holy convocation and focusing on the Feast of Trumpets scriptures and other scriptures related to Yahushua's return. Give praise and give worship often. And finally, give shouts of praise and blow the shofar if you have one if you have a ram's horn or any kind of a trumpet I guess you can even make one out of PVC from what I understand. But treat it as a day of rejoicing and you're I believe permitted to cook your meals and to feast. Now, what about the Day of Atonement? Day of Atonement, prior to this day prepare your heart for a time of corporate repentance and confession of sin. Also, remember the one who enters the heavenly holy of holy's focus on the scriptures and speaks of his work of intercession for us. Fast means no food or drink for 24 hours from sundown to sundown. Gather with others if possible for a holy convocation corporate repentance is the body of Messiah together for others if you can find others to pray with that's appropriate. And then we got the Feast of Tabernacles how do you do that: #1 prepare by attaining some kind of a tent or a temporary structure if you can. Make sure it's rain and wind worthy and if you can't just do your best, some people do hotel rooms or something else temporary. On the first evening of Feast of Tabernacles, this will be the first of the seven nights in a temporary shelter do just be like a normal Sabbath except you can cook your meals and prepare food as needed. Also, have a holy convocation with other believers if possible, focus on the scriptures speaking of the festival the Messiah's kingdom. The need to be thankful in a temporary nature of this age. Also do not appear before Yahweh empty handed, give some kind of monetary offering as you able to the poor or toward Yahweh's work. If you can't-do that then give up yourself in some other capacity, but he would want you have at least a penny to give. So during the time you are in a temporary shelter, you can work except on the Sabbath day, that's the first day and the eighth day of the feast. You can work on the other days unless it's a regular Sabbath. After the first day of the Festival, you can go to work and do other activities but continue to dwell in the temporary shelter. During the week and during the holidays focus on rejoicing giving thanks and praise spiritual sacrifices for the harvest, remembering Israel was in temporary booths and so are we. Our bodies and homes are temporary dwelling places. After seven nights you can rest on the last great day, that's not required to stay in temporary shelter on that night but you are required to rest on that and this last great day represents Revelation 21 and 21 that's after the seven thousand years are over, the millennium is completed the last great day the new heavens and the new earth will come down out of heaven so we focus on those scriptures. So we have a holy convocation on that day focusing on the scriptures speaking of Yahweh's promises regarding the new heavens and the new earth. Treat it as a Sabbath day except you can cook your meals and prepare food and then you rest until the next evening.
nd you can join us and hundreds of other believers keeping Feast of Tabernacles just go to eliyah.com/fot as in Feast of Tabernacles (fot), love to have you join us and that's how we observe Yahweh's amazing festivals that's all about rejoicing for the harvest, it's all about coming before him humbly, prior to that time on the day of atonement rejoicing Yahushua is going to come back establish his reign on that last trump and so there are lots of things I can into even deeper on this but we are trying to conserve time here, we can commemorate remember and just know that these festivals have something to teach you. They have some way to bless you and Yahweh created these things for your benefit for my benefit as a memorial to his great and awesome deeds. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Yahweh, thank you for your great and your awesome deeds. Thank you for your love, thank you for your grace, for your forgiveness, thank you for all that you have done and continue to do through Yahushua HaMashiach. We praise you, we look forward to this festive season that you have established help us to keep these things the way you want us to keep them to gain the things we need to gain from them it might be a blessing to us and we might bless your great and awesome name. For truly yours is the kingdom and power and glory majesty, all praise, honor, and worship belongs to you. Yahweh Elohim forever and ever in Yahushua's name we pray. Amein.