Everlasting Kingdom: Unraveling the Bible’s Secrets

Israel’s 7 Apocalyptic Days

The Feast of Tabernacles

Back Next Chapter 1, Part 5 Preview: The envoys (apostles) never said that the seven Biblical Feast Days were dusty archives of events long forgotten! Rather, they are prophetic signs of “things to come”! The modern Israelite nations have almost entirely lost the knowledge of not only their Biblical heritage but also the truth that we were to have an “everlasting covenant” with our Yehovah. This series explains, via the Biblical Feast Days (both moed & chag), why it is that only the Israelite nations will suffer the prophesied “Great Tribulation”. The penalty for not keeping our covenant will be inflicted on Modern Israel by the hands “of the peoples” who we were supposed to set an example for (Deuteronomy 4:5-10)! The other nations suffer afterward:

The Year of Release

Mysteries of the Everlasting Kingdom
INDEX

The next amazing event during this end time saga will occur toward the end of the Great Tribulation. Yehovah (God) will offer the Israelite captives literal physical deliverance (salvation) from what would otherwise be genocide, were Satan’s days not being shortened by supernatural intervention on the next Jubilee year.

The Feast of Tabernacles is the twenty-first century equivalent of Israel approaching “Utopia”. On the upcoming Jubilee year they will enter the land, as should have been done shortly after Moses led Israel out of Egypt! The Second Exodus, a major part of the Jubilee year should be announced on the Day of Atonements in year 49 of the Jubilee cycle, and implemented on Passover (same day as the first exodus) as the ten horned beast is attacking the antichrist (Revelation 17:16). The lessons begin in earnest at the very first Feast of Tabernacles after yet another crossing of the Jordan River. Yehovah has not lost track of when these years occur:

Deuteronomy 31:10-13 Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the specified time in the year of debt cancellation, at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all the Israelites came to appear before Yehovah your Elohim in the place that He’ll choose, you’ll read this Torah aloud before all of Israel. 12 Gather the people, the men, women and children, and the aliens within your ‘towns’, so that they can hear and learn and fear Yehovah your Elohim and carefully obey everything written in this Torah. 13 Their children who don’t know [the Torah], will hear and learn to fear Yehovah your Elohim as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to possess.—The Gabriel Bible

According to Easton’s Revised Bible Dictionary a Tabernacle is:

“A hut made of the branches of a tree. In such tabernacles Jacob sojourned for a season at a place named from this circumstance Succoth #Ge 33:17. Booths were erected also at the feast of Tabernacles (q.v.), #Le 23:42,43, which commemorated the abode of the Israelites in the wilderness.

This very Feast, by virtue of the name Yehovah gave it, pictures residing in a very temporary structure. Hebrew synonyms for Tabernacle are: “booth”, “cottage” and “crude temporary shelter”. In other words this does not portray our real home or our destination! However, the seven day long Feast of Tabernacles does picture the seven year countdown toward that destination! This is that story.

The Feast of Tabernacles was originally only given to the nation of Israel. While only the first day is a mandatory 'special' [holy] convocation, the entire time is to be a celebration. This is not to imply that the other six days are for typical vacationing.

Leviticus 23:34 Tell the Israelites: “The fifteenth day of this seventh month begins the Feast of Tabernacles lasting for seven days to Yehovah.

Deuteronomy 16:13-15 You must celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days, after you’ve gathered the produce from your threshing floors and your wine presses. 14 Enjoy yourselves at the Feast with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, as well as the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows living in your 'towns'. 15 You must celebrate Yehovah your Elohim’s Feast for seven days in the place that Yehovah chooses, because Yehovah your Elohim will bless you, and you’ll prosper in all of the efforts that you ‘undertake’. There will be great joy for everyone.

To ancient Israel, the Feast of Tabernacles clearly commemorated only one thing—deliverance from Egypt. The significance of this particular Feast was explicitly spelled out when Yehovah first revealed His Feast Day plan to Israel, before they arrived in the Promised Land. Israel was to reflect back on the lessons learned during the Exodus! Note this Scriptural passage, because it tells you what the Feast of Tabernacles represents!

Leviticus 23:39-44 So on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you’ve gathered in the crops of the land, celebrate the Feast of Yehovah for seven days. On the first day there will be a Sabbath assembly and on the Eighth Day there will be a Sabbath assembly. 40 On the first day you will take fruit from the best trees, branches from palm trees, boughs from leafy trees and willows from the brooks; and celebrate before Yehovah your Elohim for seven days. 41 You must celebrate this Feast of Yehovah for seven days [not two] every year. It’s a permanent rule to be celebrated in the seventh month [it’s not the last month] from generation to generation. 42 You must live in booths for seven days. Every native born Israelite must live in booths 43 so that coming generations will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am Yehovah your Elohim. 44 So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed Festivals of Yehovah.

Note that the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles/Sukkot represented the period in history immediately after the Exodus from Egypt, in the wilderness, just before entering the Promised Land. This is very important to us because in the latter day fulfillment this will happen the same way—national captivity, followed by reoccupation of the New Promised Land! Fortunately, the transition to the new “normal” will only take 7 years, not 40! In the Festival season when Israel re-occupies their land, temporary accomodations will again be needed—booths (tents)! The land of Israel will be a horrible mess then; manna will be needed. I have many Biblical references to the coming holocaust that I compiled in the hopes of dissuading my Messianic acquaintances from moving to Israel now!

Notice in the second great description of this Feast that Israel is apparently fleeing danger as Yeshua is descending back to earth. But the enemies of Israel will be quickly defeated. There will be an immediate cessation of fighting. The terms of surrender for those enemy fighters will include their participating in the Jewish Yehovah’s Feast Tabernacles, beginning to be offered planet wide:

Zechariah 14:4-5,16-19 And in that day His [Yeshua’s (Jesus’)] feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. [This is not the Great Tribulation period, rather it is stated to be “The Day of Yehovah” this is after the wise have fled.] And the Mount of Olives will be split in two, from east to west, forming a very large valley, [Elohim is on Mt. Zion, Isaiah 10:12] so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. 5 You’ll flee by My mountain valley, because My mountain valley will reach to Azel. Yes, you’ll flee just like you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Yehovah my Elohim will come, and all of the 'cherished' ones with Him... 16 Then everyone who is left behind [survivors] from all the nations that come against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship Commander Yehovah and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 When that time comes, if any of the clans of the region won’t come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Commander Yehovah, they’ll get no rain. 18 If the people of Egypt don’t show up, they’ll get no rain. This is the plague that Yehovah will strike the nations with that don’t come up and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. [6] 19 That will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of any other nation that won’t come up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

[6] Some people are calling the Feast of Tabernacles “a dress rehearsal for Yeshua’s return.” But that is just a cleaver way of diminishing it’s annual importance! Will it still be some kind of a “rehearsal” for something in these years after He has returned, when He plagues the water supply of whole nations? PS, Yehovah does NOT need nuclear weapons as this link contends!

Stated plainly:

Hosea 12:9 I am Yehovah your Elohim who rescued you from the land of Egypt. I’ll force you to live in tents again, just like in the days of the appointed Feast [moed].

In the near future, the modern nations of Israel will look back on another Exodus! The conversations during the Feast of Tabernacles will no longer center on the First Exodus from Egypt. It will look back on the Second Exodus from the North Country!

Jeremiah 23:7-8 That’s why the days are coming,” says Yehovah, “When people will no longer say, ‘As Yehovah lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.’ 8 Instead, they’ll say, ‘As surely as Yehovah lives, who brought about the 'exodus' of the descendants of the House of Israel from the North Country, and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ They’ll live in their own land!

Jeremiah 16:14-15 uses almost the exact same words in reference to Israel returning “from the land of the north”. But the next verse describes the zealous effort that Yehovah will go on to purge out the wicked:

Jeremiah 16:16-18 But now I’ll send out many fishermen,” Yehovah says, “and they’ll catch them, and after that I’ll send out many hunters, and they’ll hunt for them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of fissures in the rocks! 17 I’ll watch everything they do, they won’t hide from Me. Their wickedness won’t avoid My notice. 18 First I’ll doubly compensate their wickedness and their sins, because they’ve polluted My land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and filled My heritage with their highly detestable things.

Some teach that the Feast of Tabernacles represents the Millennial Sabbath—the seventh one thousand year period of time, but the thousand years is only mentioned in Revelation 20, and there is no mention of the Feast of Tabernacles within hundreds of pages! Little is actually stated to occur during this time except that the 'special' ones (saints) have become “priests” who “reign”. Only one other thing is specifically emphasized in the Bible in reference to the Millennial Sabbath. It is the period of time sandwiched between two Satanic rebellions! Not that it is not wonderful and a great blessing, it just doesn’t have the significance of the most importand outcome in human experience!

Revelation 20:4-8 I saw thrones, and those who were seated on them, and judicial authority was given to them, and I saw the bodies of those who were beheaded for THE TESTIMONY OF YESHUA [the ‘NT’] [3] and for THE WORD OF ALOHA [the ‘OT’]. These are the ones who hadn’t worshiped the predatory beast or his icon, nor had they accepted his mark on their forehead or on their hand. They lived and reigned with their Messiah during those thousand years. 5 This is the first resurrection. [4] 6 Blessed and 'chosen' is anyone who has part in this first [or best] [5] resurrection, over them the second death has no influence, but they’ll be priests of Yehovah and of His Messiah, and they’ll reign with Them during the thousand years.

The Last World War

7 When the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and go out to seduce the nations in the four corners of the world, Gog and Magog, and gather them for battle. Their number is like grains of sand in the sea.

[3] After a long search, I found a link that comes close to my views, other than for Moses, Elijah and John time traveling and the final eight years. [4] Some teach that Yehovah, ‘the LORD” will take His Year out Satan’s seven year long fling (2X 1,260 days), not understanding that the Jubilee year (2031/2032 AD?) always follows a seven year period, (the Shemitah). The Tribulation period accounts for the remaining part of the 70 weeks prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-2. [5] This is a reference to Zechariah 4, verse 11 in particular, equating the seven branched Hebrew “menorah” with the Greek “luchnia.” Both are usually translated as “candle sticks” or “lamp stands.”

So while the end of the coming millennium will close out the first millennial week—the only Biblical peculiarity about the “thousand years” in Revelation has to do with Satan being out of the picture! Yet the Kingdom will last at least a thousand generations.

Deuteronomy 7:9-10 So remember that Yehovah your Elohim is the only Elohim, the faithful Elohim. He keeps His covenant with enduring love for a THOUSAND GENERATIONS [1] of those who love Him and obey His Commandments. 10 But He repays those who hate Him in person, destroying them. He won’t be slack with anyone who hates Him. He’ll personally repay them.

[1] Surely if Yehovah had provided more details about the Covenant He had sworn (Hebrews 6:13-16) to a THOUSAND GENERATIONS, rather than just repeating that the Covenant was a sure thing (Psalm 105:8-11 & 1 Chronicles 16:15-18) people would believe He wasn’t kidding about the duration, right?

The Feast of Tabernacles of the next Jubilee year will be a profound learning experience for the surviving Israelite people of all 12 tribes. They will learn the significance of the seventh day Sabbath—about why they lost their national sovereignty due to breaking Sabbaths, as did their ancestors (Jeremiah 17:21-25). They will also come to understand that the entire seven year journey that they just endured was mentioned in Daniel 9, and described in countless Bible prophecies. Israel will also begin to understand that there is a seventh millennial “day” left in the first millennial week. It has been a trail of tears, yet this rocky trail leads to the Promised Land!

Humanity is about to enter into what Yeshua referred to as the “world to come”. However that momentous event will not be realized until there is a New Heaven and a New Earth.

Luke 18:29-30 Yeshua replied, “I tell you with absolute certainty that there is no one who has given up a house, or parents, or brothers, or a wife, or children for Yehovah’s Kingdom 30 who won’t receive many times more in the present time, and in the coming world, eternal life.

The Feast of Tabernacles Pictures the Birth of a New Nation:

Micah 4:10-12 Writhe and groan, maiden Zion, like a woman in labor, because you must leave the city and live in the open country. You’ll be exiled to Babylon. But you’ll be rescued from there. That is where Yehovah will redeem you from the grasp of your enemies. 11 Now many nations have banded against you. They say, “Let’s defile her, we want to see Zion destroyed.” 12 But they don’t know what Yehovah has in mind. They don’t understand His plan to gather them like sheaves to be thrashed on the threshing floor.

Isaiah 66:6-9 The sound of an uproar from the city, and noise from the 'Temple'. It’s the sound of Yehovah paying back His enemies. 7 “Before she has any labor pains, before any pain, she will give birth to a son! 8 Who has heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such a thing? Can a country be born in one day? Can a nation be born instantly? Yet as soon as Zion has labor pains, she’ll give birth to her children! 9 Would I bring to the moment of birth and not bring about the delivery?” Asks Yehovah, “Would I, the One who brings about births shut the womb?” Asks your Elohim.

Below is a specific association between “seven years” and the Feast of Tabernacles. Furthermore, the “year of release” associates it with the seven distinct years within the Jubilee cycle. There are actually two end-time years of release—year 49 and year 50 of the Jubilee cycle. I expect that the year 2030 AD will be the final year of the Great Tribulation—that will immediately precede the Day of Yehovah: Jubilee 2031 AD.

Deuteronomy 31:10-11 Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the specified time in the year of debt cancellation, at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all the Israelites came to appear before Yehovah your Elohim in the place that He’ll choose, you’ll read this Torah aloud before all of Israel.

All of Yehovah’s people live in temporary shelters—tabernacles. We await our permanent home in New Jerusalem. The Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes the ultimate showdown between good and evil prior to the Kingdom of Elohim being established—to the amazement of a bewildered and conquered world. During this Feast we should reflect strongly on the Satanic mindset that precedes the Everlasting Kingdom. This will be a far more significant event than the original exodus from Egypt. In fact, the very nations that “caused” the Second Exodus will ultimately be forced to commemorate it!

A Seven Year Plan

Look again at Deuteronomy 31:10, just quoted, and notice: “At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the Feast of Tabernacles”. Israel is commanded to read “all the words of the Torah” (Genesis thru Deuteronomy) on the “year of release” (Sabbatical Years) “at the appointed time” “at the Feast of Tabernacles” (as in 2009, 2016, 2023, 2030 etc—based on the Jubilee (being) 2031 AD.). It would seem quite logical that toward the end of the notorious seven year long period, that also ends the 3½ year long Great Tribulation, that as soon as modern Israel is released from captivity, they will be quite receptive of any proposal from Yehovah concerning obedience to the Torah. Isaiah 51 perfectly illustrates the fact that the coming Exodus will have similarities to the first one. It unquestionably compares the coming Exodus to the “ancient times”, to the “days of old”! The greatest point that modern Christianity has conveniently overlooked is the value of Yehovah’s Torah (Law)—the very Torah that will go out from Zion!

Isaiah 51:3-16 Yehovah will comfort Zion. He’ll have compassion on all her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like Yehovah’s garden. Joy and happiness will be found there, thanksgiving and the sound of music.

4 “Pay attention to Me, My people. Hear Me, My nation, because My Torah will go out from Me, and I’ll establish My justice as a light to the nations. 5 My righteousness is near, My deliverance is coming. My arms will judge the nations, the 'distant lands beyond the oceans' will wait for Me, and wait in hope for My Arm. 6 'Look' up to the skies, and look at the earth below, because the skies will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like clothing. Those who live there will die like a swarm of gnats [1], but My deliverance will be forever, and My righteousness will never be shattered.

7 “Listen to Me, you who understand righteousness, you people who have 'internalized' My Torah. Don’t be afraid of people’s scorn or fear their insults. 8 Moths will eat them up like clothing, and worms will eat them like they do wool, but My righteousness will last forever, and My deliverance [from sin] thru all generations.”

9 Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, arm of Yehovah awaken as in the days of old, as in generations of long ago. Didn’t You cut Rahab in pieces. Who pierced the dragon? 10 Didn’t You dry up the sea, the water of the great depths, making the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed to cross over? 11 Those ransomed by Yehovah will return and return singing into Zion. Everlasting joy will 'crown' their heads. They’ll be overwhelmed with gladness and joy as sorrow and sighing flee.

12 “I, yes I am the One who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mortals, humans made like grass. 13 You’ve forgotten Yehovah your Creator who stretched out the skies, and laid the foundations of the earth. You live in constant fear all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, as he prepares for your destruction. But where is the fury of the oppressor? 14 The captive exiles will soon be set free. They won’t die in dungeons or go without food. 15 I am Yehovah your Elohim who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar, Commander Yehovah is My name. 16 I’ve put My words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of My hand, so that I can plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are My people.

[1] This is not an end of the world/universe reference, the time frame of this chapter clearly concerns the catastrophic Day of Yehovah and the imminent establishment of the Everlasting Kingdom. This topic is further addressed in 2 Peter 3.

Simply looking into a complete concordance and reading every prophetic Scripture that mentions “law”, “covenant” and “Sabbath”, from Isaiah thru Malachi can be an excellent Bible study. Virtually every mention of these words—dozens of them—are in the context of Israel not obeying Yehovah’s Torah, breaking the everlasting covenant with Him—especially in regard to the Sabbath. The Feast of Tabernacles pictures the seven year long birth pangs in the future when Yehovah will intervene in world affairs in favor of His captive [locked down?] people. Yehovah will re-establish a marriage like relationship with His people after this! We can be part of the Bridegroom, the one new man (Ephesians 2:15)! The Torah of Elohim—the Torah that “everyone” says is “nailed to the cross”—will again be taught and enforced from Yehovah’s throne in Jerusalem. The entire reason for Bible prophecy—the Good News of the re-institution of the twelve tribes of Israel into their ancestral lands and the painful circumstances that precede this time is being entirely overlooked. The watchmen are asleep!

“On the first day there will be a Sabbath assembly (Leviticus 23:39)

I believe that the Feast of Tabernacles parallels the final year of Daniels Seventy Weeks Prophecy. To this I would apply the commonly understood day-for-a-year principle.

Why is it that only the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles is specified as a mandatory Assembly? Daniel 9:24-27 is one of the most controversial passages in the Bible. Many people teach that it refers to a seven year Tribulation, yet the Great Tribulation only lasts for the latter half of this period. Many of these same people also assume that the Third Temple will be the Beast’s Temple. Actually the Two Witnesses will be involved with it:

Revelation 11:1-4 Then I, John, was given a measuring reed like a staff, and a messenger standing by and said, “Get up and measure the Temple [1] of Yehovah and the altar and those who worship there [2]. 2 But leave out the courtyard outside of the Temple, don’t measure it, because it has been given to the heathens, and they’ll trample the 'cherished' city underfoot for forty-two months. 3 I will give power to MyThe Two Witnesses [3]. They’ll prophesy for 1,260 days [4], wearing sackcloth. 4 They are the two olive trees and the two menorahs [5] standing in the presence of the Aloha of the world.

[1] Here John is actually told to measure the end time third Temple just prior to the Two Witnesses commission (v.3). The terms “measure”, “measured” and “measuring” combined are found dozens of times in reference to the temple in Ezekiel 40-42. This would explain the previous verse (10:11): “John, you must prophesy AGAIN before many nations and peoples and princes and kings.” Is he one of the two witnesses or one of their companions? Same goes for Elijah (Malachi 4:5-6). Does God Travel in Time? [2] In the architectural planning, the outer court is excluded/ruled out! That space on the Temple Mount “has been given to the heathens”. And while the Temple is to be literally measured, the people are spiritually measured! [3] After a long search, I found a link that comes close to my views, other than for Moses, Elijah and John time traveling and the final eight years. [4] Some teach that Yehovah, ‘the LORD” will take His Year out Satan’s seven year long fling (2X 1,260 days), not understanding that the Jubilee year (2031/2032 AD?) always follows a seven year period, (the Shemitah). The Tribulation period accounts for the remaining part of the 70 weeks prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-2. [5] This is a reference to Zechariah 4, verse 11 in particular, equating the seven branched Hebrew “menorah” with the Greek “luchnia.” Both are usually translated as “candle sticks” or “lamp stands.”

The Temple is an integral part of Yehovah’s future plans. The nine chapters of Ezekiel (40-48) that deal with it are quite detailed. The restoration of temple services on the first day of this seven year long period, after having ceased to exist for nearly 2000 years is quite significant in Yehovah’s eyes. If for no other reason, we should anxiously anticipate this event because we will be able to determine without any doubt when Yehovah’s Kingdom will arrive by the dates He gave us in the book of Daniel.

Now for Part 6: The Seventh Day of the Feast!

Part 6 Chapters Articles

Feast Days

The End
Lonnie Martin, zech14@proton.me (free email encryption!)
May 2003
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