Psalm 2 - A Royal Messianic Psalm - Why do the Nations Rage?

Happy Sabbath, everyone. As we enter sundown tonight, we enter into Shavuot — the Feast of Weeks, or as it is called in Greek, Pentecost. We have a great deal of information to cover tonight as we tie together the remembrance of the giving of the Torah on this day and the remembrance of the Holy Spirit poured out in Acts 2. These two events occurred on the same day, which is phenomenal. It gives us great revelation — not only for the past and present, but also as we look forward to Messiah's second coming. At the end of this teaching, I have something special to share: information I find absolutely remarkable, connecting Mount Sinai and Mount Zion, the Torah and the Holy Spirit, and the events of Messiah's return. But first and foremost, it all begins in the present moment, as we come together as one new body — one new man, Jew and Gentile — worshiping according to the divine appointments of the Lord, not the appointments of mankind.

For those who have been with us over the last fifty days, it has been a remarkable journey from Passover to now. This season is called the season of liberation, the season of freedom, the season of liberty. The word "Pentecost" comes from the Greek word for fifty — that is why it is called Pentecost — and it encompasses the fifty days from Passover to Shavuot. It is a season of spiritual purification. The Lord has dealt with me personally during this time, bringing things to the surface that needed to be refined and repented of. When He corrects us, it is a beautiful thing; He wants us to mature in our faith. Every year He calls us on this journey so that we examine ourselves and offer our hearts to Him, asking what remnant of Egypt is still within us that needs to be removed.

What is particularly remarkable about Shavuot is that it is the only feast day without a fixed calendar date. We must count to it. That counting — the fifty-day count — is itself the divine appointment. Every day for fifty days He wants us to walk with Him. Shavuot is the culmination of the four spring feast days. Passover marks the crucifixion of Messiah. Unleavened Bread marks the days He lay in the tomb. The Feast of First Fruits marks His resurrection — which is why Paul calls Him the First Fruits of mankind, the first fruits of all humanity raised from the dead. And then there is this fifty-day journey to Shavuot, when the Holy Spirit was poured out. We can understand Passover as our physical redemption and Shavuot as the confirmation of our spiritual redemption — through the giving of the Holy Torah at Mount Sinai and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Everything in the Holy Bible, my friends, begins with God's calendar. If we have the foundation of His calendar, His divine appointments, and the everlasting covenants — the Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the New Covenant — the Holy Bible reads with remarkable consistency and clarity. This is why Messiah warned us not to be caught as a thief in the night; the people at His first coming did not understand the times or the seasons. We do not want to make the same mistake. As Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5, we are not in darkness — we are of the light — and so we are to understand the times and the seasons, the moedim. The faithful church understands His calendar, His divine appointments, and His covenants, and through that understanding we can understand eschatology, the prophets, and what time it is according to the Lord. I will tell you plainly: the Lord will return on His divine appointments. That is already ordained. He will return on the Feast of Trumpets in the fall.

God's calendar is established in Genesis 1:14. When He created the sun and the moon — the two great witnesses — He created the prerequisites for His calendar. Most of us today operate by the Roman calendar, which is based on the sun alone. That is a fine scientific calendar and we all use it for work and daily life, but God's calendar is based upon both the sun and the moon. The moon ordains the months: each month begins when the sliver of the new moon appears in the sky, grows to the full moon, then wanes and is renewed again. The sun ordains the days, rising and setting. Together they function as His faithful witnesses, as Psalm 89 says in relation to the Davidic covenant.

The critical point is what God says in Genesis 1:14: the sun and moon calendar is "for signs and seasons." The Hebrew word translated "seasons" in Genesis 1:14 is moed, which in English means a divine appointment, a fixed time, an appointed time. God is telling us that this calendar — the Hebrew calendar, which follows the sun and the moon — exists for divine appointments. It exists for fixed times at which Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, would intersect with human history at His first coming and will do so again at His second coming. This is absolutely incredible.

With that in mind, let us turn to Leviticus 23, where we will spend most of our time today. Leviticus 23:1–2 reads: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations — these are My feasts.'" Two things stand out immediately. First, these are given to the people of Israel — but remember, Paul writes in Ephesians 2:11–13 that through the blood of the Lamb we are no longer aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, no longer strangers from the covenants. That means we are in the commonwealth of Israel; we are no longer Gentiles in the estranged sense. Jew and Gentile together are the people of Israel before God. Also remember: the Torah was not given inside the land of Israel — it was given at Mount Sinai, in the wilderness. That means it is borderless. It goes to all nations, and as Isaiah 2 and Micah 4 tell us, it will go out to all nations at the millennial kingdom.

Second — and this is critical — He says "these are My feasts" twice. These are not Israel's feasts. These are not the Jewish people's feasts exclusively, though of course they were entrusted to the Jewish people to be a light to all of us. These are the feasts of the Lord. We must understand that as Jew and Gentile who love Yeshua the Messiah. He said in John 14 through 17: "If you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will abide in you and you in Me." I encourage everyone to read those chapters carefully.

Now notice: the Hebrew word translated "feast" in Leviticus 23 is the same word translated "seasons" in Genesis 1:14. Both are moed — divine appointments. The Lord is directly correlating His calendar in Genesis 1:14 with His feast days in Leviticus 23. The sun-and-moon calendar, the Hebrew calendar as we know it today, exists specifically for these divine appointments — these fixed times at which Messiah intersects with human history. This is absolutely remarkable, and it requires a paradigm shift for most of us who grew up in the Gentile church, where God's feast days and calendar are not honored. But these are forever ordinances. We will observe them in the millennial kingdom. They are the purest form of worship — worshiping in spirit and in truth on His appointed times.