Exodus 19:1, 11, In the third month…the third day. 

In Exodus 19:1 we read that the Israelites arrived at Sinai in the third month, and according to Jewish tradition, a very significant event occurred on the third day of third month that was not only pivotal in the history of the Israelite people, but has profoundly influenced YHVH’s people, including you and me, to this very day. It was the giving of the ten commandments on Shavuot or the day of Pentecost. Now let’s connect some dots or put some pieces of the puzzle together to form a prophetic picture of an amazing biblical truth regarding the third day and explore the past, present and future implications of this.  

The biblical holy day of Shavuot, when YHVH gave the ten commandments to Israel and the world, was also when YHVH, for the first time in recorded biblical history, sounded the heavenly shofar—known as the first trumpet. Amazingly, this shofar event relates back to Abraham’s willingness to offer up Isaac as an offering to YHVH and to the ram that was caught in the thicket by his horns. 

While en route to the place where YHVH had instructed Abraham to offer up his only beloved son, he could see “the place” (Mount Moriah) afar off in three days (Gen 22:4). As we shall see later, this prophetically points to Messiah’s sacrificial death at the same location three millennia later. 

As we have just read, the Israelites were to be ready “on the third day” to receive the Written Torah thundered from the lips of the pre-incarnate Yeshua the Messiah (Acts 7:38; 1 Cor 10:4) at Mount Sinai. But the term the “third day” in Exodus chapter 19 also occurs in reference to Abraham and the akeidah or the binding of Isaac (Gen 22:1–18). What is the connection between these two events? Namely this. The near death of Isaac on Mount Moriah (Jerusalem) and YHVH providing Abraham a ram to sacrifice instead of his only beloved son prophetically pointed to the death of the Yeshua the Messiah the Redeemer at the same spot about 2,000 years later. Similarly, the Israelites, on the day of Pentecost when they received the ten commandments, were living out their own prophecy that also pointed to the same time when Messiah would come as the Living Torah culminating on the day of Pentecost or Shavuot, when he would write his Torah-laws on their hearts. Therefore, the “third day” reference for both Abraham and the Israelites had a similar relevance, for both were living in the second millennia B.C. or before the birth of Yeshua the Messiah, who was born near the beginning of the first century A.D. or in the third millennia, or on third day prophetically from both the time of Abraham and the Israelites.

Though a bit tangential to the subject of Shavuot, let’s look at another concept relating to the prophetic implications of the third day. As Yeshua, the Living Torah, came on the third day, so he will return on the third day after his first coming or in the third millennia after his first coming. That is, he came in the first millennium of our common era, and we have just passed into the third millennia of the same era and are now in the twenty-first century. According to biblical prophecy, Messiah will return in this third millennia, or third day as we read in Hosea.

Come, and let us return unto YHVH: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know YHVH: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. (Hos 6:1–3)

This is a prophecy about the restoration of his people Israel in a spiritual marriage covenant to him (referred in Scripture as the “renewed covenant, see Jer 31:31, 33; Heb 8:8–13). This prophecy is also referring to the resurrection of the saints or, the bride of Messiah, who will participate in the marriage supper of the Lamb of YHVH. The saints are Israelites who are part of the Romans 11 olive tree whose root goes back to Abraham and to YHVH.

Yeshua makes further reference to the third day when he says,

…Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. (Luke 13:32)

Yeshua was speaking of his ministry on earth at his first coming as well as his being resurrected on the third day. But, the “third day” is also a reference to his second coming in the third millennia or third day after his first coming. As he was “perfected” on the third day and raised from the dead, his saints will be “perfected” or resurrected at his second coming in the third millennia. 

The ten commandments were given at Mount Sinai on the third day after two days preparation. That is, the children of Israel had two days to prepare and on the third day YHVH would give them his law from Mount Sinai. Similarly, Yeshua has had his people prepare themselves for 2000 years and in the third thousand-year period (or the seventh thousand year since creation—i.e. the Sabbath millennia) Messiah will return to resurrect his people after which the 1000-year sabbatical millennia will commence. 

In reference to this, John records,

And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee… (John 2:1)

This is another prophetic statement referring to the marriage supper of Yeshua the Lamb of Elohim (Rev 19:7–9 cp. 2 Cor 11:2) to occur after the second coming of Yeshua Messiah in the third 1000-year period after his first coming.

Even after two days of preparation to receive the ten commandments, the children of Israel were still not ready (spiritually) to receive the Torah from YHVH.True, on Shavuot, at Mount Sinai, YHVH entered into a marriage covenant with the children of Israel, but they were not ready to live up to the terms of that covenant. Those terms, simply stated, involved Israel being faithful and obedient only to YHVH, Israel’s spiritual marriage partner, and to his instructions in righteousness—the Torah. This Israel quickly demonstrated they were not willing to do, for they had barely said “I do” to their marriage vows (Exod 1919:8; 24:3, 7) when they made and began worshipping the golden calf calling their act of spiritual adultery “a feast to YHVH” (Exod 32:5). Because of the hardness of their hearts, lack of faith in YHVH and their inability to live up to the terms of their “marriage” covenant with YHVH, he sentenced the older generation to death in the wilderness just short of the Promised Land (Heb 4:1–11).

Between the time of the feasts of Shavuot and Yom Teruah (the Day of Trumpets), when Moses received the second tablets of stone from YHVH containing the ten commandments, the children of Israel, the bride of YHVH, prepared herself not only to receive YHVH’s Torah-instructions the second time (on Yom Teruah), and this time she was faithful to her marriage vows for approximately 38 years while she wandered in the wilderness after which the second generation of Israelites entered the Promised Land and “stayed the course” remaining faithful to YHVH until after the death of Joshua.

Similarly, Messianic Israel of the first century a.d. (or “the Israel of Elohim,” Gal 6:16) received the Torah on the fleshly tablets of their hearts written by the finger of the Ruach HaKodesh (Elohim’s Set-Apart Spirit) on the day of Pentecost. But this faithfulness to YHVH and his Torah-Word only lasted for a short season. Starting in about a.d. 70 with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and continuing up through the Second Jewish Revolt of a.d. 135 until the time of Emperor Constantine (in the fourth century), the second century bride of Messiah had, for the most part, abandoned it’s Hebraic heritage and ended up rejecting man of YHVH’s Torah-commandments including the seventh-day Sabbath, the biblical holidays, and the biblical dietary laws. This sad history of the early proto-Catholic Church is well chronicled in the writings of the ante-Nicence church fathers, who led YHVH’s people, the Christians, in mixing the truth of Elohim with pagan practices (e.g. Sunday worship, Christmas and Easter celebrations and many other pagan beliefs and traditions that exist in the Christo-pagan church to this day). The mixing or amalgamation of YHVH’s truth with pagan practices is amazingly analogous to the Israelites mixing their worship of Elohim with golden calf worship and calling it a feast to YHVH (Exod 32:5).

In our day, is not YHVH calling out a remnant of people who are leaving behind the traditions of golden calf worship, where the church has mixed the truth of YHVH’s Word with the pagan traditions of this world, and returning to the ancient blessed paths of YHVH’s Torah-instructions in righteousness (Jer 6:16, 19)? In fact, the book of Revelation speaks of a group of end-time saints who will say “I do” to YHVH, and whose identifying mark is their faith in Yeshua the Messiah (i.e. the gospel message), and yet who faithfully keep YHVH’s Torah-commandments (Rev 12:17 and 14:12). Are these remnant redeemed believers not preparing themselves for the second coming of Messiah on the Yom Teruah (the Day of Trumpets) when Yeshua, the Living Torah, will return to marry his spiritual bride—the saints, or sanctified ones, of YHVH (Rev 19:7–9)? As the children of Israel entered into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, so YHVH’s spiritual bride will return to the spiritual Promised Land of Israel at the beginning of the Millennium under the leadership of King Yeshua the Messiah (Heb 4:1–11).

As we have seen, the phrase, the third day, has many spiritual and prophetic implications which like the threads in a rich tapestry weave their way through the whole Bible to form a picture of Israel’s long history. This prophetic pictorial timeline starts with Abraham, then moves on to the children of Israel, and encompasses the Torah, the biblical feasts and the death of the Messiah. It then moves on to the post book of Acts church’s lack of faithfulness to its Hebraic heritage and to YHVH’s Torah-covenants. Eventually we arrive at the second coming of Yeshua the Messiah, who will lead his faithful, redeemed Torah-obedient people who have exited religious Babylon, into the Promised Land of their spiritual inheritance. In the meantime, believers need to be preparing themselves for King Yeshua’s second coming, so that they will be ready to be the his faithful bride ready to rule and reign with him in his millennial kingdom.

Exodus 19:2, Before the mountain.Through Moses, a prophetic picture of Yeshua, YHVH led the Israelites to the foot of the mountain representing the presence of Elohim or heaven on earth. To experience the presence of Elohim, humans must not only consecrate themselves before hand, but then one must climb upward spiritually to meet YHVH. This is done through a process of spiritual consecration or sanctification and involves getting cleansed from the defilements or rudiments of the world, flesh and devil (Jas 3:15; Col 2:8, 20). A spiritual relationship with Yeshua is the only cleansing process which is acceptable to YHVH Elohim by which this can happen. Yeshua is literally the way to the Father in heaven (John 14:6) or the Spiritual Ladder each person must climb (John 1:51) to get to the top of Mount Sinai representing the exalted presence of Elohim.