Are YOU ready for the third day?

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

The Third Day—End Times Prophetic Significance

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 the third month (Exod 19:15) 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.

The third day was when YHVH give the Israelites the ten commandments (Exod 19:15), and it occurred on Shavuot, the Feast of Weeksalso known as the day of Pentecost. Let us now 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 feast 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—in Jewish thought this is referred to 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. Let us now quickly review that historical event and relate it to Shavuot, Yeshua, the cross and his second coming.

While en route to the place where YHVH had instructed Abraham to offer up his only beloved son (Gen 22:2), he could see “the place” (or 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 in Exodus 19, the Israelites were to be ready “on the third day” (Exod 19:15) 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 the giving of the Torah on Shavuot and the akeidah on Mount Moriah? Namely this. The near death of Isaac on Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount in 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. At that time of in the future, YHVH promised to write his Torah-laws on their hearts (Jer 31:33; Heb 8:10; 10:16 cp. Acts 3:37). 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 from the time of Abraham and Israelites at Mount Sinai, so he will return on the third day or third millenia after his first coming. That is, he came in the first millennium A.D. or 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 “new” or “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 the end times “Israel of Elohim’ (Gal 6:16), and who are part of the Romans 11 olive tree whose spiritual genetic root goes back to Abraham and to YHVH (Rom 11:11–32 cp. Gal 3:29; Rom 4:16; 9:8–11).

Yeshua also makes reference this prophetic 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 prophetic day after his first coming. As he was “perfected” or raised from the dead on the third day, so his saints will be “perfected” or resurrected at his second coming in the third day or third millennia as we just read in Hosea. 

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 Torah-law from Mount Sinai. Similarly, Yeshua has had his people prepare themselves for two days or 2000 years since his first coming, 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), which will 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 19:8; 24:3, 7) when they made and began worshipping the golden calf—an act of spiritual adultery (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 die 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 this, the second generation of Israelites entered the Promised Land and “stayed the course” remaining faithful to YHVH until after the death of Joshua.

Similarly, the disciples of Yeshua or 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 Elohim’s Set-Apart Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Jer 31:33; Heb 8:10; 10:16 cp. Acts 3:37). 

Sadly, the early church’s 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 its Hebraic heritage and ended up rejecting many of YHVH’s Torah-commandments including the seventh-day Sabbath, the biblical holidays, and the biblical dietary laws. 

The sad history of the early proto-Catholic Church abandoning much of its Hebraic including YHVH’s Torah is well chronicled in the writings of the ante-Nicence church fathers, who led the way in mixing the truth of Elohim’s Torah-Word with various 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 divinely revealed 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)? The Bible refers to this act as coming out of spiritual Babylon (Rev 18:4). 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 also preparing or consecrating themselves (as did the Israelites in Exod 19:10–11) 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 consecrated ones, of YHVH (Rev 19:7–9)? Moreover, 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).

In conclusion, and by way of summary, we have seen that 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 started with Abraham, then moves on to the children of Israel, and encompasses the Torah, the biblical feasts and the death and resurrection of the Messiah. It then moves on to the book of Acts and beyond to 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 with its toxic, confused mixture of truth and error (Rev 18:4), into the Promised Land of their spiritual inheritance, which is the kingdom of Elohim. 

In the meantime, the disciples of Yeshua 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.

 

10 thoughts on “Are YOU ready for the third day?

  1. Speaking of Abraham, the book of Jasher 23 has a detailed take on the sacrifice of Isaac and the role of Satan in it. It is interesting how the third day is a repetitive theme in YHVH Word.

      • Hi Sonja. Its a non canonical book mentioned in Joshua and second Samuel. It reads more like a novel then the Pentateuch. You should be able to find it on line. Its a very interesting read!

      • To reiterate what you correctly stated in your previous comment, the Book of Jasher is non-canonical, therefore is not part of the Word of Elohim or Scripture. However, even non-canonical books like the Book of Enoch, the Apocrypha and other intertestimental and first century Jewish writings like the works of Josephus and the Mishnah, may have historical merit, and, therefore, are worth looking at from time to time.

  2. Thank you Nathan for these insights. I had not made all the connections you make in this article before. Great word! I will definitely share.

  3. Mark 15:25 ..it was the 3rd hour and they crucified Him. This may be a little off topic yet about thirds or 3s, there were 3 nails(in His Cross) which the letter “vav” can mean “nail” or “and” (something that connects) and it is the 6th letter-I see 3 sixes (666) Is Rome involved with the mark of the beast? 1Cor 2:18 ..had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,
    and yet above Yeshua’s head Pilate wrote (this is the latest interpretation I heard) Yeshua HaNazarene And (Vav) King of HaYehudim=YHVH!

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