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Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets) is not just about being raised from the dead or being changed but being with the Son of God and sharing in what the Son of God is going to do. We will be a part of it. All power and authority on the Earth will be in the Messiah’s hands, because we know what kind of person the Messiah is, because we trust Him. But as the book of Ezekiel tells us, we should always be diligent and prepared for His coming.
We are still in the season of the Feast of Trumpets, even though we celebrated the feast yesterday so I have another message for you that focuses on the Feast of Trumpets and what it represents.
On the Feast of Trumpets, there was no servile work and we blew a lot of trumpets. This was also a day for sacrificial offerings, just as there are on all holy days. We are all heading towards death but at the coming of Yeshua, that process will cease. There is also “bad news” before the Feast of Trumpets comes. When we hear the trumpets, we will be eager to go and will go to Yeshua with great joy.
The Messiah talked about how we are to judge and how we aren’t to do it based on our understanding. Ezekiel 33 tell us that the righteous can lose at the end. This encourages to be connected to the Creator at all times.
“Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus you have spoken, saying, “Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them; how then can we survive?”‘ “Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?'” (Ezek. 33:10–11)
God does not enjoy death at all, yet He has to address it. He also has to discuss the fact that no matter how righteous you live, that will not save you. That’s a serious matter. A righteous person can’t use his righteous life as an excuse to sin. As we approach the Day of the Lord, this is more important because the coming of the Son of Man will be as a thief in the night, it will not be announced. We have to be aware of our lives every day, and if we have seen that we have turned away from the right path, we need to get ourselves back on that path.
“And you, son of man, say to your fellow citizens, ‘The righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.’ “When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die. “But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness, if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. “None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.” (Ezek. 33:12–16)
The world says that this is not fair, but God is more than fair.
“Yet your fellow citizens say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right,’ when it is their own way that is not right. “When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, then he shall die in it. “But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them. “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.'” (Ezek. 33:17–20)
He wants all of us to reach the end of our journey in a state of repentance and righteousness. We are feeling the heart of God. It’s in all the TaNaKh (Torah, Prophets and Writings, i.e., the Hebrew Scriptures). It reveals his power and his love. It also reveals His righteousness. This is not “once saved, always saved.” If you turn away, rebel against and rebuke God, there is no more sacrifice for that. The message of Ezekiel is: Do I trust God? Will I rest my life in His hands? Will I trust God as Abraham did?
The Feast of Trumpets points towards the book of Revelation. I don’t discuss it very often because everyone has their own interpretation of what it means. We’ll just hit some highlights.
Revelation 6 goes through the seven seals. There are certain words and phrases that we need to pay close attention to that gives insight into the Feast of Trumpets. These are read out by the one of the living creatures. Each of the living creatures reads out one of the four seals. The lion spoke first.
First seal
The first horse is white and the rider carried a bow and wore a crown. This rider has authority.
Second seal
The second horse was introduced by the second living creature, which is the calf. The horse was red and its rider had authority to “take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.”
Third seal
The third horse was introduced by the third living creature, represented as a man. The third hose was black and its rider had authority and carried a pair of scales in his hand with authority over food and commerce.
Fourth seal
The fourth seal introduces the fourth horse. The fourth living creature, the eagle, introduces the fourth horseman. This is the only horse where the rider is known by name: Death. Hades followed Death. Death and Hades had authority, given to them by God, over a fourth of the earth, “to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.”
Fifth seal
The fifth seal is interesting. We are told there were souls under the altar who had been slain for the law of God and the testimony. They ask God, “When you are going to take action? When are you going to avenge us?” God hears the voice of those falsely killed, from the voice of Abel, who is still waiting for his full reward. No one has had to wait as long as Abel for the resurrection.
Sixth seal
Don’t wander into the fantasies of the “blood moons.” A lot of people are using the blood moons as their primary lens to interpret prophesy. Don’t do that. Just focus on what the Scriptures say. God tells us that there will be a time when the sun, moon and stars will all fail.
When the figs fall, when it’s shaken by a powerful wind, it doesn’t fall naturally. This is unnatural. Each seal is more powerful than the previous seal. The sixth seal is more powerful than all the seals before it. “for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev. 6:17)
There are seven angels speaking out in the sixth seal. There are four other angels who are carrying out what these seven angels speak.
How does the earth have corners when it is round? The phrase “four corners” has a meaning, not a single edge is missing. There are four angels with control over the 4 winds. There’s another angel, coming from the east, with a message:
“Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”” (Rev. 7:3)
Who are these 144,000? They are children of Israel. After them, there are multitudes.
Seventh seal
“Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.” (Rev. 8:5)
Is this new? Hasn’t it always been this way on Earth? No, this is more, much more.
“The first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.” (Rev. 8:7)
When have you ever seen hail and fire mingled and falling together? No, the seventh seal is the unmitigated wrath of God.
“The first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter. The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.” (Rev. 8:7–12)
Notice the number three and its focus on life and death. This is the supernatural wrath of God.
We can read the book of Revelation with a lot of fear unless we are marked with God’s mark during the sixth seal. We have to trust in God and His son. We can’t worry about man’s opinion.
This pattern of seven is not random. God is precise. God doesn’t live in chaos, but of order.
The book of Revelation, as the other book, is organized based on themes more than it is organized on chronology.
Later we read that when the fifth angel opened up the bottomless pit, aka “death” locusts and scorpions come out and the angel has an unusual command:
“They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them.” (Rev. 9:4-6)
At the end of this, we read about the goal and purpose of all these plagues and scourges.
“Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.'” (Rev. 11:15)
Remember the two witnesses mentioned in Revelations. They remained dead for three and a half days. Not three days, but into the fourth day. They were resurrected. The resurrection of the dead starts at the last trump. This should bring our attention to the Feast of Trumpets. Yeshua said He is the life, He is the resurrection. Yeshua will make sure these two witnesses are with him forever.
At this point, the 24 elders speak up. We know there are 12 tribes, 12 apostles. There are also 24 orders of Aaronic priests. What do they say at this point?
“And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” (Rev. 11:18)
The dead are judgement, the righteous are rewarded and those who destroy the earth will be destroyed.
The Apostle John then is shown a glimpse of God’s true temple:
“And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.” (Rev. 11:19)
The ark that Moses had built included a mercy seat and a covenant. The covenant in the ark Moses’s ark was the 10 commandments, which were a witness against Israel. The temple in heaven also has an ark, and it also has a covenant in it.
We see in Revelation 12 that the devil was after the Messiah. This woman wore a crown of 12 stars and the devil removed three of those stars, but since he didn’t get the Messiah and he didn’t get the woman either.
As a consequence, both earth and heaven were purged and cleansed. The devil cast down 4 of the stars in the woman’s crown down to the earth and God cast down the devil and his host down to the earth.
The woman was given eagles wings to flee and the serpent tried to drown the woman but the earth protected her by swallowing the water. The woman was not of the earth, but the water was of the earth and the earth swallowed up the water.
The Messiah rested in the earth but He didn’t remain in the earth, because the Messiah came from above, not from the earth.
Where does our hope rest? Some will die because they love God and their fellow man more than life. The seventh trumpet is the finishing touch, the completion of the mysteries of God. The world will have a full understanding of those mysteries, of how God really operates within each of us.
The Feast of Trumpets is not just about being raised from the dead or being changed but being with the Son of God and sharing in what the Son of God is going to do. We will be a part of it. All power and authority on the earth will be in the Messiah’s hands, because we know what kind of person the Messiah is, because we trust Him. Even if you don’t believe Him, believe in His work.
Speaker: Richard Agee. Summary: Tammy.