The Feast of Trumpets to Yom Kippur 2020

Hello, I'm Chadwick Harvey, and this is Faithful Performance, where we explore the testimony of the biblical prophets and how they perfectly correlate with the current events of today. In this episode, we're going to discover the Feast of Trumpets, which this year begins September 18th at sundown for our two-day festival. We'll also discover the ten Days of Awe following the Feast of Trumpets, which culminate in the Feast of Yom Kippur, beginning Sunday, September 27th at sundown through September 28th at sundown. We're going to explore all three of these events — the Feast of Trumpets, the ten Days of Awe, and the Feast of Yom Kippur — and how they correlate together with Messiah's second coming events.

It all begins with God's calendar, so we must first lay the foundation. In Genesis 1:14, God stated that His calendar is based on both the sun and the moon. Today that calendar is the Hebrew Jewish calendar. We go by the Gregorian calendar, which is based on the sun only. The passage in Genesis 1:14 also tells us that His calendar is for "signs and seasons." That Hebrew word for "seasons" is *moed*, which means a divine appointment — an appointed time, a fixed time set by the Almighty. What the Lord is telling us is that His calendar marks Messiah's fixed times, His Son's appointed times to intersect with human history.

It is important to understand that God operates by two calendars. The first is the civil calendar. We can think of this as beginning when Adam opened his eyes and crowned God as King in Genesis 1 — that began on the Feast of Trumpets, also called Rosh Hashanah, meaning "the head of the year." This is the civil calendar that calculates time, which runs through the biblical prophets and into the end of the age. We can think of this calendar starting on Tishri 1, in the September timeframe, in the fall.

The second is the biblical, or spiritual, calendar, which we encounter in Exodus. That is when the children of Israel — which included Gentiles as well; we read in 1 Chronicles 4 that Pharaoh's daughter was among those who left Egypt, and after the God of Israel had destroyed the ten gods of Egypt, one can understand why many would have joined the Israelites — that is when the Lord told them that Nisan 1 was their spiritual calendar, governing the new moons, the Sabbaths, the feast days, and so forth. That is, in my personal opinion, when the nation of Israel was formed. Both calendars coincide and correlate together, which is important to keep in mind.

If you haven't been with us in our previous videos, we have been covering the month of repentance called Elul — the month before Tishri and before the three fall feast days. It is a time of repentance. As we will discover through the scriptures, this is when Messiah Himself was tempted. He came down on Elul 1 to begin the forty-day period, and He came down on Tishri 10 — Yom Kippur — and started His ministry. We also see this pattern with Moses. He went up for the first set of forty days to receive the Ten Commandments, came back down to find the people worshiping the golden calf, and broke the tablets. He went back up for a second set of forty days, and when he came back down there was still no assurance that the Lord God had forgiven the people. He then went up for a third set of forty days, which began on Elul 1, and he came back down on Tishri 10 — the Day of Atonement. We have these prophetic foreshadows in both Messiah and Moses that reveal how important this month of Elul is. It culminates after twenty-nine days of Elul in Tishri 1, the Feast of Trumpets, then continues through ten more days called the ten Days of Awe, and concludes with the Feast of Yom Kippur, completing the full forty days.

Turning to Leviticus 23, we see how this passage correlates with God's biblical calendar from Genesis 1:14. In Leviticus 23:1–2 it says: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations — these are My feasts.'" There are two paramount things to understand here. First, these are the Lord's feast days. They were given to the children of Israel, but they are God's feast days — He says so twice, to confirm it. Most people call them the Jewish feast days or the Jewish calendar, but really it is God's calendar as defined in Genesis 1:14, given to the Jewish people so they would understand when Messiah would intersect with human history at His first coming and His second coming.

Second, the Hebrew word translated "feasts" in this passage is *moed* — the same word found for "seasons" in Genesis 1:14. This tells us that God's calendar and the feast days are perfectly aligned. The word *moed* means a divine appointment, a fixed point in time — again confirming that Messiah will intersect with human history on His biblical calendar, governed by the sun and the moon. The phrase translated "holy convocations" is *mikra* in Hebrew, which really means a dress rehearsal. The Father wants His children to understand His divine appointments so that we can understand the seasons we are living in — for the children of Israel, the first coming events, and for Jew and Gentile together, the second coming events.

Reading Leviticus 23:1–2 again with the Hebrew meanings: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the divine appointments of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be dress rehearsals — these are My divine appointments.'" We all want to be where the Lord is, and the Lord is on His divine appointments every single year. These are so important for all believers — Jew and Gentile — to understand. We should be rehearsing these, because one year, as we will see in the scriptures, it will all come together in a beautiful convergence. When the trumpets are being blown in heaven, we will be blowing them on earth, and Messiah will come.

I believe there are three things our theology must have correct in order to understand the book of Revelation and the biblical prophets: God's calendar, the feast days of the Lord, and the everlasting covenants. When you put all three of those together, your theology will be sound and the biblical prophets will make far more sense.

Messiah Himself spoke to this in Matthew 5:17–20: "Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass away from the Torah till all is fulfilled." He is saying He will fulfill the Torah to the exact detail — every jot and tittle, every letter in the Hebrew. For those who say the Torah is done away with, they are essentially setting aside His everlasting covenants, His calendar, and His second coming events. Everything in the Torah that was not fulfilled at His first coming He will fulfill.

He also gives a strict warning in verses 19–20: "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men to do so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." This is a stern warning to all of us, especially to teachers, preachers, pastors, priests, and rabbis. He came against the Pharisees and the Sadducees — He called them serpents and vipers in Matthew 23. He clarifies by referencing the scribes and Pharisees, who taught the traditions of men rather than the commandments of God. Much of the Gentile church today is likewise celebrating man-made observances — Christmas, Easter, Sunday worship — which are traditions of men, not the commandments of Messiah. We are saved by grace through faith, and because we are saved by grace through faith, we want to follow His commandments. He said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments," and they are not burdensome. He is pointing us back to the Torah and the Prophets, and that is not legalism. We must understand what applies to us: the Ten Commandments, the feast days, and so forth.

Now there is a warning in Luke 19:41–44 that I believe applies again to both Jewish and Gentile believers today. Yeshua was weeping over Jerusalem because they had missed the time of their visitation. He prophesied —