Author Archives: prodigal101

” . . . all gave some, some gave all . . . “

To all who gave, to all who served, to their families and friends –

On this Memorial day may our thanks, our gratitude and appreciation, our support and respect,

be deep, sincere, public, unapologetic and ever-abiding.

May we be a grateful people . . . grateful to those – past and present – who guard and protect the most precious intangible given to us this side of Salvation and Glory  . . . the intangible gift of Freedom and choice.

may God extend His mercy and grace to this people one more year for the sake of and on behalf of the ‘the ten righteous in the city’. Shalom to you and yours –

1 Corinthians 15:20,21 – Adam’s sin brought death. Messiah came in the flesh and through death brought life. Adam was given dominion over everything on earth. He lost it and Messiah came in the flesh and took it back. When He finished all that He had come to accomplish and left (through His death,burial and resurrection) He gave that authority back to us (Luke 10:19) to exercise through Him and His Holy Spirit. We need to recognize just as Messiah walked in authority under the Father, so we have been given this authority to walk in just as Messiah did while He walked here in the flesh. We need to get our head around who we are in Messiah !  We are His representatives and have His power and His authority at work in us while here…. Shabbat Shalom, R&J

Question : What are your thoughts ?
We just recently posted an article concerning the concept of ‘A 2nd Exodus’. Our question to you ? Who are these that are spoken of here that will be brought into the wilderness of the nations, into the ‘bond of the covenant’ ? Who are the ones culled ? When will this take place ? Or has it already occurred ? We invite your input and insight. Play nice and be polite and give us your thoughts. Shalom –

A Second Exodus ?

Father God of the Bible speaks through the Prophet Isaiah these words – “I declare the end out of the beginning and from ancient times that which is not yet done . . .” He tells us in advance what is going to take place so that when it comes to pass we will see and recognize not only the event and the plan but the reality and sovereignty of the God from whence it came. God’s Word speaks of a ‘second exodus’ in the last days patterned after the first one ( Jer. 16, Jer 23). And if we are living in those ‘last days’ ( and we are ) and since God knows ‘our frame’ and our propensity to get into trouble, perhaps we should know and understand a little about these events – past and future – that we might learn and not make the same mistakes again ( 1 Cor 10:11). Let’s dig a little.
In Numbers 16:12 we see the unfolding scene between Moses and Korah and Korah’s associates. They are not just questioning the authority of Moses. They are questioning and rebelling against the very act and movement of their God that had brought them thus far, out of Egypt and onward toward the ‘Promised Land’. But they began to not only disregard the miracles and judgments they had witnessed first hand but literally refer to the land of Egypt from which they were delivered as the ‘land flowing with milk and honey’. Their rebellion was so obnoxious to God, He showed up on the scene personally and dealt with their sin immediately and decisively. The same pattern is laid out in Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning God’s people in the last days and what will be the outcome for those that obey in contrast to those that rebel.
Ezekiel 20 ( 1-29) explains how Father God looked upon their rebellion in the wilderness in the first exodus out of Egypt and verses 30-49 relate what will happen in the second exodus ‘out of the nations’ in the process of ‘going home’. It is an admonishment to be mindful not to make the same fatal mistakes outlined clearly in verses 1-29 that our forefathers made the first time around ( Number 16, and see 1 Cor. 10) Once again, God will make a personal appearance and deal with the disobedience and rebellion, according to Ezekiel. Malachi speaks of a time to come when God’s people must remember the Torah sent by His servant Moses ( which implies obedience) and allow the spirit of Elijah to begin the restoration of the relationship between the children ( us ) and the fathers ( Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ), for if this were not to take place, the land would be stricken with a curse.
Just as God, in the first exodus, delivered His people from Egypt ( Mitzrayim – bondage) and then dealt with their rebellion in the wilderness, so it will be in the last days – “As surely as I live, declares Sovereign Yahweh, I will rule over you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath.
34 I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered– with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath.
35 I will bring you into the desert of the nations and there, face to face, I will execute judgment upon you.
36 As I judged your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, declares Sovereign Yahweh.
37 I will take note of you as you pass under my rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.
38 I will purge you of those who revolt and rebel against me. Although I will bring them out of the land where they are living, yet they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am YAHWEH.” Eze. 20:33-38

Shalom – J & R

So Who’s Omer ?

     God’s Biblical calendar cycle is outlined in the book of the Exodus and has it’s first memorial in the Passover. During the ensuing week there is a regular 7th day Sabbath and then ‘the day after the Sabbath’.
Leviticus 23:15 “And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new grain offering unto the LORD.”
      This is what christianity has come to call ‘Pentecost’, from the word for ‘fifty’. In the Hebrew it is known as ‘Shavuot’ or literally ‘weeks’, named so due to the counting down of seven weeks and seven Sabbaths. The process of counting down the fifty days is known as ‘the counting of (or from) the omer’(omair). I went to school with a guy named Omer . . . this is not about him.
We actually see the word ‘omer’ in the English text of the King James translation in Exodus 16:16-36 when God is giving instructions concerning the gathering of ‘manna’ for the daily portion. An omer is a relative unit of measure. It can refer to a sheaf of grain or to a quantity of the grain berries ( approximately a quart or so) and comes from the word ‘amar’ which is to ‘bind up sheaves’. Leviticus 23:10 speaks of a ‘day of the wave offering’. This is the day the church system celebrates as the day of the Resurrection. The wave offering referred to is the ‘Raysheet Omer’, the First of the Sheaves or the First of the Harvest. On that day we begin to count down fifty days to the ‘day after the 7th Sabbath’, or the 50th day (Pentecost). This is not only the day recognized in the Bible and the christian church as the day of a great outpouring of the Spirit of God ( Acts 2) but also the day of God’s giving of the Torah and His covenanting for the first time with a ‘nation’ – literally the birth of the new covenant and the birth of the ‘church’ . . . ( Exo. 19-20 , Acts 7:37-38) . . . and there’s two other cans of worms we’ve opened . . .
      So these two holy days or seasons are connected, the Passover season and Shavuot or Pentecost, for in the process of one we begin counting down to the next. Let’s take a quick glance at just one of the ways these two ‘Feasts of the Lord’ are linked.
If you recognize Passover as the forerunner of the coming of Yeshua the Messiah, the Lamb of God, then you should understand that this coming of a Messiah was a promise of the Father. ( Genesis 3:15, Deuteronomy 18:15) But Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4-11 and 2:14-21 also speak of a ‘Promise from the Father’, the promise given by the Prophet Joel and manifested on what we call the ‘Day of Pentecost’ and the Hebrew Scriptures refer to as Shavuot. These two ‘feasts’ are inexorably linked because they are two halves of one promise – the promise of the Heavenly Father. Did ya ever wonder how, if in Acts 2 it was the first Pentecost, how did they know what to call it ?  ‘Cause it wasn’t the first one. That’s why they were there, to celebrate this centuries old memorial – Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks.
      By the way, another quick side note. Shavuot or ‘weeks’ comes from the Hebrew word for ‘seven’ – shavua. Many understand the number ‘7’ to exhibit completion. But why ? Shavua or ‘7’ comes from the Hebrew root word ‘shava’ which means ‘to swear by’ or ‘take an oath’. Every time you see a ‘seven’ in the Bible it is not only a sign of completion but it is a picture of God’s seal on what He is doing – literally His promise to fulfill His promise . . . Isaiah 55:10 “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my Word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”          Shalom –

Mining the Truth – Signs and Patterns

     In the passage of Scripture Exodus 18:1 through 19:25, there are two quick observations of which we would like to make mention. First, the ‘signs’. There were signs for the ‘believers’ – the people of Israel –and there were signs for the ‘unbelievers’ – those of the nations. And the ultimate sign – everything happened just as it was spoken by Father God. He ‘declared the end out of the beginning’ . . . Isa 46:10
     The concept of different ‘signs’ for different groups is an original concept founded in the Torah and the Prophets. And the trend continues. In Paul’s first letter to the congregation at Corinth he describes two types of signs – one for the believer and one for the unbeliever. God is consistent. He establishes patterns and then works within them, and it is for our benefit. We are supposed to pick up on the ‘pattern’ and then, hopefully, know what to look for.
      Well let’s take another quick glance at the ‘blood moons’ and ‘the signs in the heavens’. Jewish sages actually tell us the God of the Bible uses the moon for a sign for Israel and the sun as a sign for ‘the nations’. That is a very interesting theory. We find it compelling, to say the least, that these full lunar eclipses – blood moons – are falling precisely on two of the most significant high holy days of the Bible’s annual cycle of celebrations. The fact that this cycle repeats itself again in 2015 should not be underestimated. We have also mentioned the fact, based on the NASA website, these lunar eclipses are visible to some degree to the entire world over the two year period . . . except Israel proper and portions of the middle east. They only see the last blood moon of this four eclipse series.
      But the prophecies say there will be signs in the sun as well. Joel 2:30 and Revelation 6:12 speak of a darkening of the sun, becoming as sackcloth – a solar eclipse. Well guess what ? There will be two solar eclipses in 2015 that just happen to fall on two very interesting dates from the Scriptures. In Exodus 12:1-2 God begins to lay out the ‘Biblical’ calendar. And, lo and behold, a solar eclipse just happens to fall on the first day of the first month of that Biblical/Hebrew calendar in 2015, and two weeks later will be Passover 2015 and the third blood moon of this Tetrad series. And last but not least, there is projected a solar eclipse on September 13, 2015. What is significant about that day ? It is Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets. Leviticus 23:24 reads this way – “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.” ( literally – a reminder, a warning or signal by blast or shout) It is the same day projected by NASA for another solar eclipse – a darkening of the sun like unto sackcloth, and two weeks prior to the fourth and final blood moon of this Tetrad series. Coincidence ? No, rehearsals. That’s one reason for the Feasts of the Lord of the Bible. They are the rehearsals for the ‘final act’. And what is that final act of this play, according to the Bible ?
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God:
Luke 21:25 ” And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;
26 “men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.
27 “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
28 “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
      Interesting how all this just seems to neatly fit together . . . almost like it was planned. Shalom –

. . . So Now What ?

Well, here we are. Passover is past, the first ‘blood moon’ episode of the much publicized 2014-2015 Tetrad series has come and gone and here we still are. The ‘rapture’ didn’t ‘rapt’, the middle east didn’t explode into an inferno of war, Damascus didn’t cease to exist, nor did the global economy implode into chaos. So what’s up ? Were we all wrong in thinking there was anything substantive in all this ‘blood moon’ mania? Are these ‘moon signs’ just normal natural occurrences that carry no prophetic significance ? Or do they actually bear watching? If in these columns we are attempting to ‘Mine the Truth’, then let’s take a closer look at what the Bible says concerning the validity and timing of these ‘signs in the heavens’.
      Genesis 1:14 “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, to mark seasons and days and years . . .””
The word for ‘sign’ is the Hebrew word ‘ot’ which defined is ‘signal, distinguishing mark, warning’. The word translated ‘seasons’ is the word ‘moedim’, a term for ‘appointed time or place, meeting, set feast, appointed signal’. This pertains to much more than just Spring or Fall. They are the times set by the God of the Bible, times such as the advent of Messiah Yeshua, His death and resurrection, and His ultimate return. So the moon and the sun are, in fact, where they are to mark specific prophetic appointments.  Yeah, but nothing happened. How long is all this prophetic stuff gonna take anyway ? How do we know it’s actually gonna happen ?
      2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”
      And those ‘prophetic appointments’ will come to pass in God’s timing, not ours.
So, can we know anything more about that timing ? 1 Thessalonians 5:4  “ . . . You, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief . . .”
Matthew 16:2 “He (Yeshua) answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say,‘fair weather, for the sky is red’;
3 and in the morning, ‘foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but not the signs of the times.’”
      So, what does all this mean ? This current progression of blood moons and solar eclipses are, in fact, markers on God’s calendar. Our job is to, based on the Word of God, watch and discern and discover what they mark, for they are for a purpose.
Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
Revelation 1:4 Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Thanks to our good friends Rosemary and Lewis for forwarding this on to us. This ‘blood moon’ as well as the next three will all be visible to some degree from the americas and most of the rest of the world. Israel proper and the middle east in general will only see the last.  hmmmm . . . . Shabbat shalom