Dress Rehearsal...

Dress Rehearsal 
Prophecy - Signs 
Tuesday, June 03, 2014 
Wendy Wippel 



Jews worldwide this evening begin celebrating of Shavuot (feast of "weeks"). A festival marking the giving of the Torah to the infant nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai. God commanded the Jews to observe this feast from then on.  But not, actually, as (as you might think) as a memorial. Nope. As a preview


The Law given at Mt. Sinai actually contained very detailed instructions for the proper way to celebrate a total of seven festivals that the nation was required to celebrate.    And God himself set very specific times for each of the festivals.   
For Shavuot, the instructions are in Exodus 34:22:

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"And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest"

Deuteronomy 16:9-10:

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"You shall count seven weeks for yourself…. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you.

The festival of Shavuot, then, served as a dual celebration.  It remembered the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai, but it was also a celebration of God's provision, a festival that coincided exactly with the harvest of the spring crops (primarily barley). That's what scripture tells us about Shavuot, and how God's people at the time were expected to celebrate it. 


Modern orthodox Jews stay up all night studying God's word, a custom meant to give evidence to God that they are not like their brethren at Mt. Sinai, who decided to make the golden calf while Moses was receiving God's word.  That they are not heavy-lidded like their ancestors, but, on the contrary, wide awake and eager to receive the Torah. The custom is to stay up all night studying Scripture accompanied by sustenance like cheese and symbols of milk and honey, like cheesecake.


(All night with My Bible and a cheesecake? That's my kind of religious obligation.  But I digress.)


Funny. The scriptures go on to say some rather peculiar things about the feasts.  Which, remember, were part of the law:

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 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. (Matthew 5:17-18 NKJV)

Follow this logic: if the festivals are part of the Law, then Jesus is going to fulfill the festivals in some sense.  And we actually have the "testimony of two witnesses" to make sure we don't miss it.


Witness #1:

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So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.. (Colossians 2:16-17)

Witness # 2 (who's not quite as straightforward):

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These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. (Leviticus 23:1)  

The interesting thing about this isn't obvious from just a simple reading of the text. When it says that these feasts are “holy convocations”," to be observed at appointed times: (times appointed by Yahweh himself, remember) the word translated as "holy convocations” is a word that also means "rehearsals"!  Jesus fulfilled these “rehearsals". 


So what were they rehearsals of?  


Obviously, that's the million-dollar question.  But God always gives us clues. And this one's no exception.


Clue # 1 is that infamous incident at Mt. Sinai with the golden calf:

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Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”. (Exodus 32: 1-5)

“Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’”  So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. (Exodus 32:25-28)

Clue # 2 is one a little nearer and dearer to our own hearts. Pentecost:

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When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:1-2)

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Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” …Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. (Acts 2:38-42)

Did you catch that? 3000 people died at Mt. Sinai. And 3000 people gained eternal life on the day of Pentecost.


The rabbis say that "coincidence" isn't a kosher word. And they say that coincidences like this are a "remez", a hint of something deeper. 


And, if you remember, the Jews were to celebrate Shavuot after counting 49 days from Passover, and then celebrate Shavuot on the next day, the fiftieth day. 


 Pentecost (a Greek word) means “50", named so because it is the 50th day from Passover.


Shavuot, the birthday of the nation of Israel (a day on which 3000 people died at the giving of the law), and Pentecost, the birthday of the church (a day on which 3000 people were saved at the giving of the Spirit) are the same day.


No wonder the Scripture state categorically that;

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"the letter (of the law) kills, but the spirit gives life". (II Corinthians 3:6)

But wait, there's more. We haven't yet found what the Remez hinted at. The something deeper.


Shavuot served as the birth of both the nation of Israel and the church. Do you remember what Exodus commanded the Israelites to do on Shavuot?


Loaves of unleavened bread (the bread of the presence, or shewbread), were required to be kept on a special table in the temple, and the loaves of unleavened bread were waved in the Temple as an offering to God, which He accepted.


  Leviticus commanded that on Shavuot, those loaves should be joined by loaves of leavened bread. Both leavened and unleavened bread offered together to God.


With unmistakable symbolism. Jews and Gentiles, both acceptable to God and made one body in Christ. And the feast of Shavuot, 50 days after Passover, sits squarely between the first three (spring) festivals, which are clearly rehearsals of Messiah's first coming, and the last three (fall) festivals, which are clearly rehearsals of His second.


An extension of grace to us Gentiles.


But only a momentary in Messiah's relentless redemption of His chosen, as poignantly pre-recorded in Isaiah 49:

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"I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, And my work with my God." “And now the Lord says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him…Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:4-6)

And by the way, I know well that many think that the church will go home on Rosh Hashanah, because that's the Feast of Trumpets.  But Numbers 10:10 commands that trumpets also be blown as the loaves are offered together to the Lord…


In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet? 


  Watch the sky!




http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=7822

YES!

rosh hashana is also considered a dress rehearsal 4 a wedding in the which we shall b at...

rev7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

this will take place just before gog/magog, that starts the judgment on an ungodly world, but does not start till... 

joel2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.

which is happening NOW...

Better practice my lines.