The Feast of Trumpets to Yom Kippur 2021

Hello, friends. 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 a two-day festival. We'll also discover the ten Days of Awe that follow the Feast of Trumpets and culminate in the Feast of Yom Kippur, which begins Sunday, September 27th at sundown through September 28th at sundown. So we're going to be discovering 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.

But it all begins with God's calendar, so we have to set the foundation of the feast days with the calendar. In Genesis 1:14, God stated that his calendar begins with the sun and the moon — it is calculated by both. Today, that calendar is the Hebrew Jewish calendar. We go by the Gregorian calendar, but it is based upon the sun only. The prerequisites of God's calendar, as given in Genesis 1:14, are the sun and the moon together. When we read Genesis 1:14, it says 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 is going to mark Messiah's fixed times — his Son's fixed times to intersect with human history, which we'll look at as we go forward.

It is important to understand that God has two calendars. The first is the civil calendar. We can think of it as beginning when Adam opened his eyes and crowned God as king in Genesis 1 — that event began on the Feast of Trumpets, also called Rosh Hashanah, meaning the head of the civil year. It is the calendar that calculates time, which feeds into the biblical prophets and into the end of the age. That calendar starts on Tishri 1, in the September timeframe, in the fall. The second is the biblical, or spiritual, calendar established in Exodus. That is when the children of Israel — and it's worth noting that Gentiles were included among them. If you read 1 Chronicles 4, you find that Pharaoh's daughter was with them when they left Egypt, which makes sense after the God of Israel had destroyed the ten gods of Egypt. It was Jew and Gentile together, and in my personal opinion, that is when the nation of Israel was truly formed. It was then that the Lord told them that Nisan 1 was their spiritual calendar, which set the new moons, the Sabbaths, the feast days, and so on. On this video, we are going to speak primarily of the civil calendar, which is when the Feast of Trumpets starts as the civil new year. I wanted to give that explanation because the two calendars do coincide and correlate with each other.

If you haven't been with us on our other videos, we've been in the month of repentance called Elul — the month before Tishri, before the Feast of Trumpets and the three fall feast days. It is a time of repentance. This is when Messiah himself was tempted, beginning on Elul 1, and he came down on Tishri 10, which is Yom Kippur, and started his ministry. It is also when Moses went up for the last of three sets of forty days. He went up the first time to receive the Ten Commandments, came back down to find the people worshiping the golden calf, and broke the tablets. He went back up a second time, came back down, and there was no assurance that the Lord had forgiven them. Then he went up a third time, beginning on Elul 1, and came back down on Tishri 10 — the Day of Atonement. These are the prophetic foreshadows of Messiah, and also of Moses, pointing to how important this month of Elul is. After 29 days it culminates in Tishri 1, the Feast of Trumpets, followed by ten more days called the ten Days of Awe, and then the Feast of Yom Kippur, which completes the full forty days. Understanding God's calendar and the feast days, along with the prophetic foreshadows, is foundational to everything we're covering here.

Turning to Leviticus 23, we see how it correlates with God's biblical calendar in Genesis 1:14. Leviticus 23:1–2 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 a couple of paramount things to understand in this passage. First, these are the Lord's feast days. They were given to the children of Israel, but he says it twice to confirm: these are his feast days. This is important for both Jews and Gentiles to understand. They were given to the Jewish people because God's people would be the ones to understand that these are the times when Messiah would intersect with human history — at his first coming and at his second coming.

The Hebrew word translated as "feasts" is the same word *moed* we found in Genesis 1:14 — divine appointment, appointed time, fixed time. This tells us that God's calendar and the feast days are perfectly correlated and aligned. He is telling us that Messiah is going to intersect with human history on his biblical calendar, the sun and moon calendar. So *moed* does not literally mean "feast" — it means a divine appointment. Additionally, the phrase "holy convocations" comes from the Hebrew word *mikra*, 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.

I believe there are three things that our theology must get right 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 correct, and the biblical prophets will make far more sense. So reading Leviticus 23:1–2 with the Hebrew meanings inserted, it becomes: "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 at his divine appointments every single year. These are so important for both Jewish and Gentile believers to understand. He wants us to be at his divine appointments and to treat them as dress rehearsals — because one year, everything is going to come together beautifully. When the trumpets are blowing in heaven and we are blowing them on earth, Messiah is going to come and it will be a beautiful convergence.

Here is what Messiah said himself 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 assuredly 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 is going to fulfill the Torah to its exact detail — every jot and tittle, every *yud* in the Hebrew. So for those who say the Torah has been done away with, you are essentially doing away with his everlasting covenants, his calendar, and his second coming events. Everything in the Torah that was not fulfilled at his first coming, he is going to fulfill. And his feast days are in the Torah — Leviticus is in the first five books of the Bible, which is the Torah.

He also gives a strict warning in verse 19: "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 for all of us — especially for teachers, preachers, pastors, priests, and rabbis. He came against the Pharisees and the Sadducees, calling them serpents and vipers in Matthew 23. His point is clear: if you teach men to break the least of these commandments, you will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

He then clarifies further. The righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees was built on the traditions of men — the oral traditions. This is directly relevant to the Gentile church today, where much of what is being practiced follows the traditions of Constantine rather than the commandments of Yeshua. Christmas, Easter, Sunday worship — these are traditions of men, not the commands of God. He said to follow his commandments, and those commandments are not burdensome at all. He is reverting us back to Torah and the Prophets, and that is not legalism. 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 surely not burdensome. We have to understand that in context — the Ten Commandments, the feast days, and so on. And I do believe the feast days