The new moon as sighted from my backyard on the evening of September 8, 2021
The moon does not lie! Men’s calendars do, however, when it comes to the times and seasons of Elohim. They obscure divinely revealed Truth as they come and go from the scene.
Over the millennia, calendars get changed and reconfigured based the whims of human vicissitudes, but the heavenly bodies, which are in reality a giant timepiece that YHVH Elohim created, never change. They are as reliable now as they were in the time of the Yeshua and before and going all the way back to the beginning of time for determining the set-apart, kadosh (holy) times and seasons of YHVH.
For these reason, I get excited when I see the new moon of the seventh month on YHVH’s biblical calendar. It tells me that I’m meeting the Almighty on the exact day that he set in stone long ago to celebrate Yom Teruah, the Day of Shofar Blowing or Shouting.
But what’s the big to do all about? Why all the shouting and shofar horn blowing?
It will be on this day in the not too distant future that Yeshua the Messiah will be returning in power and glory, and when he will gather his righteous saints—both the living and the dead— together to meet him in the air. NOW THAT IS SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT!
To learn more about Yom Teruah and how to celebrate it, go to
Revelation 1:1, Must shortly take place/come to pass. John expected that the prophecies that followed were about to occur. This seems to be proof that the Book of Revelation (at least up to Rev 10:11) was written before A.D. 70. The second half of this book was John prophesying again (see Rev 10:11) and must have been written after the fall of Jerusalem at the hand of the Romans.
Revelation 1:2, Testimony. In the New Testament or Testimony (marturia) of Yeshua (as compared to the Old Testament, also known in the book of Revelation as the Word of Elohim), the word testimony (as found in many places) is either the Greek word marturia or marturion meaning “testimony, witness, or one who testifies.” Interestingly, our English word martyr comes from these Greek words. A martyr is one who testifies to their faith and is killed for it. These Greek words refer to both one who shares their testimony of the good news of Yeshua or the gospel message including their personal testimony. It can also refer to one who as a prophet testifies of future events, but the word is not confined to that meaning only. Consider this. One doesn’t have to be a prophet to testify to the future events that the Bible already tells us are coming such as the second coming, the establishment of Elohim’s kingdom on earth, punishment for the wicked and rewards for the righteous, the glorification of the saints as well as inclusion in the family of Elohim as his glorified and spiritual children. These are all future events and are part of the gospel message.
Marturia and marturian come from the root word martus which is “a witness in a legal or historical sense, a spectator to anything.” As born again believers in Yeshua, we are witnesses to the power of Yeshua in our lives and the validity of the gospel message. For example, Stephen was a martus or martyr (Acts 22:20) as he was preaching the gospel to those who stoned him (see also Rev 2:13 where Antipas was slain for his faith as well). In the Gospel of John, John the apostle writes (marturia) the record John the Baptist in John 1:19. In John 1:32, John the Baptist records or bears witness (martureo) of what he saw pertaining to Set-Apart Spirit coming down upon Yeshua. A little later, John the Gospel writer testifies (martureo) that Yeshua is the Son of Elohim (John 1:34). The word martureo is also used of those who viewed the miraculous resurrection of Lazaurs (John 12:17), and of John who was witness to or who bore record of (martureo) the death of Yeshua (John 19:35). Many more examples could be given, but you get the idea. Marturia and its cognates can have several meanings that include the gift of prophecy, but is not limited to that.
Revelation 1:7, Even they who pierced him. How will those who killed Yeshua see him at his second coming if they are dead? Only those alive on earth and the righteous dead will be resurrected at his second coming will see him. Perhaps, they will see him descending from the New Jerusalem in his power and glory at the end of the Millennium when he will resurrect all the unrighteous dead who then must appear before him on bent knew at the white throne judgment before being cast into the lake of fire. Or perhaps Yeshua is referring to the children of those who were responsible for his crucifixion, since their parents made the responsible for his death as well when they declared, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matt 27:25).
Revelation 1:10, The Lord’s Day. This verse is one of the cliche biblical passages that mainstream church scholars use to “prove” Sunday’s replacement of the Sabbath. The problem with this position is that there’s no clear scriptural proof that the apostles ever changed the Sabbath to Sunday. What’s more, to view this passage as referring to Sunday is to take a phrase the early church fathers used as a euphemism for Sunday when pushing for Sunday in place of Sabbath observance and to retroactively apply this meaning to John’s use of the phrase. Frankly, it is biased and dishonest scholarship to take the phrase “the Lord’s day” with its second century colloquial meaning and then to back-apply this meaning to John’s use of the phrase when there’s no reason to believe this was John’s intended meaning.
Alternatively, the phrase, “the Lord’s day, can be a reference to the biblical term “the day of the Lord’s wrath” when YHVH, in the end times, will judge the nations for their wickedness. This is a point that several biblical scholars have made (see From Sabbath to Sunday, by Samuele Bacchiochi, p. 111; E. W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible footnote on Rev 1:10; The Jewish New Testament Commentary on this verse, p. 791, by David Sterns).
There is actually more scriptural proof that the phrase “the day of the Lord” is a reference to the seventh day Sabbath than to the first the week. In Isaiah 58:13, the prophet YHVH refers to the Sabbath as “my holy day…the holy day of the Lord.” So conceivably, it could have been on the Sabbath day itself that John received his vision on the island of Patmos about that great and terrible day of YHVH’s wrath that is to come on the earth just prior to the Messiah’s second coming.
Revelation 2
Revelation 2:17, A white stone. The Romans of biblical times exchanged a token of friendship between friends that could be passed on down from one generation to another. The ritual consisted of two friends writing their names on a tile of wood or stone, which was then divided in half and each took the piece containing name of their friend. To produce the counterpart of the one of the pieces to the other friend (or his heirs) guaranteed friendship and hospitality. The white stone with a new name on it is likely a reference to this first century practice (Manners and Customs, p. 70).
Revelation 2:27, A rod of iron. Yeshua’s rod of iron is similar to the scepter of a king, which was taken from the shepherds rod, since a king was viewed as the shepherd of his people. The scepter was not only a symbol of protection, but of power and authority.
Revelation 2:28, The morning star. In the Latin Vulgate Bible (translated by Jerome in about A.D. 400 for the Roman Catholic Church) is the official Latin Bible of the Catholic Church the biblical term morning start is translated into Latin as lucifer. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, when morning star is translated as lucifer, it is not referring to the devil, but rather denotes the exalted state from which he fell. That exalted state refers to the glory of heaven or the morning star (Rev 2:28), and to Yeshua himself who Peter and John refer to as the Morning Star (2 Pet 1:19; Rev 22:16) (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09410a.htm). The name Lucifer appears in some Catholic liturgy. It would seem that this is not a reference to the devil, but to Elohim or to Yeshua.
Revelation 3
Revelation 3:9, Worship/bow down before your feet. This scripture has puzzled many. Who are these saints before which those who are of the synagogue of Satan will at some time in the future bow down in worship? Who are those who are of the synagogue of Satan? First, the saints are wearing crowns (verse 11) and they have the name of Elohim written upon them (verse 12). We know that a group of saints will be ruling with Yeshua in his millennial kingdom (Rev 1:6; 5:10). These same saints will be part of the first resurrection (Rev 20:6), which occurs at Yeshua’s second coming. Not all saints will be kings and priests. There are levels of rewards (and responsibilities) in YHVH’s kingdom depending on how obedient one has been to his Torah-commandments. This Yeshua teaches in Matthew 5:19. Some saints will be the least in his eternal kingdom, while some will be the greatest depending on their level of Torah-obedience. Similarly, Yeshua identifies two groups of saints in his Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt 25:1–13)—the wise saints and the foolish saints. The wise virgins will go into the wedding supper of Yeshua, and presumably will become his bride, while the foolish ones will be left outside. In Revelation chapter three, Yeshua further identifies two groups of believers: those who are spiritually lukewarm and those who are spiritually hot (Rev 3:14–22). It is not a stretch to connect those who are spiritually on fire in Laodicea with those in Philadelphia who have been faithful to his commands, who will be given a crown and who will be worshipped.
Can we further identify these faithful saints who will be worshipped (or before whom the knees of lower order saints will bend, which is the actual meaning in the Greek of the word worship) in Yeshua’s kingdom? They have crowns and are thus ruling as kings and have the name of Elohim written on them. Similarly, the 144 thousand have the seal of YHVH’s name on them (Rev 7:3–4 and 14:1), and they keep his Torah commandments and have the testimony or faith of Yeshua (Rev 14:12). These are the likely candidates for being those Yeshua describes in Matthew 5:19 who will be the greatest in the kingdom of Elohim, and who others will worship (Rev 3:9).
Why would people be worshipping (or bending the knee before) these glorified, resurrected and kingly saints? There are several possible explanations here for this. First, the bride of Yeshua will be ruling and reigning with Yeshua as a queen (in ancient Jewish thought) or like a king (under Yeshua, who is the King of kings, as presented in the book of Revelation). Second, Paul teaches us that those saints who will be resurrected will be literally adopted (Rom 8:15, 23; 9:4; Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5) into the family of Elohim as sons or children of YHVH Elohim.
In Galatians, Paul speaks of redeemed believers being both Abraham’s seed and being adopted as sons of Elohim (Gal 3:29; 4:5). Elsewhere where the term adoption is used in the Testimony of Yeshua, it is in reference to our relationship with our Heavenly Father, not with our earthly father, Abraham. The redeemed are therefore, sons or the seed of Abraham, yet adopted into the family of Elohim as spiritual sons (Rom 8:15, 23; Eph 1:5). In other words, the saints are literal sons or seed (physically) of Abraham, yet adopted sons (spiritually) of YHVH. This adoption will be finalized or completed at the resurrection when the saints receive their spiritual bodies (Rom 8:23), for then they will be like him for they shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).
Elohim is a plural word in Hebrew and can mean many things, and has many usages in the Scriptures. It is used to refer to the Creator, YHVH Elohim, as well as to angels, kings, judges and humans in authoritative capacities. When the saints are resurrected, they will be as Elohim and will be part of the family of Elohim, though they will not be Elohim, who has existed forever and is the Creator of all things. It appears that these saints will be worshipped, not as YHVH Elohim, but as his created sons who have been elevated through the process of redemption, sanctification, glorification and adoption into members of the family of Elohim.
Revelation 3:14, The church at Laodicea.
Laodicean Church: Awaken! Will you pass the test and make the grade?
Life is a series of tests. We either pass or fail them. YHVH is the school teacher who determines whether we will pass or fail, not us. His Word is our text book that tells us how to pass. If we learn the lessons and put to practice the things we have learned, we will pass. If not, we will fail.
The problem is that we’re not just in a regular school classroom where if we fail, it’s really not a big deal in the bigger scope of life. No. Our “classroom” is this life. Whether we pass or fail will determine not only whether we will obtain eternal life or eternal damnation, but if we pass, the grade we get will determine our level of rewards in YHVH’s eternal kingdom. As should be obvious, there are a couple of important things going on here: there is not only the issue of life after death, but if we pass the test of life and are granted eternal life, where will we be, what will we be doing and, most importantly, how close will we be to the Creator. Some people will be existing in close proximity to YHVH Elohim, while others will be living further away.
The Koine Greek name for the Book of Revelation is apokalupsis from which our English word apocalypse derives, is a word that in the minds of most people conjures up visions of horrific and cataclysmic events in which there is war, political and environmental upheaval involving mass death and destruction. This idea is a misnomer however. Though the Book of Revelation indeed foretells of a cataclysmic end times scenario, the Greek word apokalupsis literally means “laying bear, making naked; a disclosure of truth, instruction concerning things before unknown, manifestation, appearance,” and hence our English name for this book: Revelation. This meaning is made clear in the first verse of this same book.
The Revelation of Yeshua the Messiah, which Elohim gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.
The Book of Revelation is just that—a revelation of things to come to pass, which Yeshua is making known to his servants (plural). This includes you and me.
Although, I don’t claim to have all or even much understanding pertaining to this book, I here share with you what I enlightenment I have been given to this point on several key topic. This is simply my understanding to this point until YHVH by his Spirit gives us more understanding. Until then, may we remain as little children, pale in hand, on the seashore of the vast ocean of YHVH’s unfathomable wisdom and knowledge in faith waiting for him to fill our buckets with more of his divine revelation.
What Should Be Our Perspective on the Book of Revelation?
On another note, there are those who champion the view that events of the Book of Revelation are primarily in the past tense. That is to say, Revelation records the events leading up to and following the destruction of the Jewish temple and Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The view that the events of Revelation were mostly fulfilled in the first century is called the preterist view, and those who support this position draw our attention to verses which point to the immediacy of the prophecies of the book being fulfilled—to events which must “shortly take place” (i.e. Rev 1:1, 3; 22:6, 10).
The problems with this view are several. To make it work, most of the prophecies of the book have to be allegorized. As such, preterists believe that little if anything Revelation says can be taken literally. The purpose of Revelation, they say, was to comfort the churches in Asia Minor in light of the persecutions they were enduring (Rev 1:4). While much in Revelation is obviously allegorical, to say that it all is, is simply applying a broad brush approach and, in my opinion, denies some of the basic rules of biblical interpretation. My approach is to take what the book says to be literal, unless the context or passages elsewhere in the Scriptures give us reason to interpret it symbolically.
The second major objection I have to the preterist view is that since most scholars agree that John wrote this book in the last decade of the first century, this view would make John’s Book of Revelation a record of history, as opposed to a prophecy “of things which must shortly come to pass,” which is contrary to the book’s purpose as the first verse of the book clearly states. The preterist view cannot accommodate this reality unless scholars can prove that John wrote all of his book before A.D. 70, a date which is at odds with the records of the early church fathers, which place the date of the books writing in the 90s.
Why I’m Not a Preterist
Preterism is the Christian eschatological (understanding of end time events) concept that all Bible prophecy has already been fulfilled including Yeshua’s Matthew 24 Olivet Discourse and those prophecies in the book of Revelation.
I will say that it is my belief that preterism is an over simplistic concept that often fails to take into account several things:
a) The dual or even multiple fulfillments of certain biblical prophecies. Even the Jewish sages who’ve been studying the OT scriptures for millennia recognize the often cyclical nature of some prophecies in that many have multiple fulfillments. It seems that the preterist looks at prophecy in more a linear (timeline) Greco-Roman perspective rather from the Hebraic, more cyclical nature in which the Bible was written. This is to their detriment and causes them to have a skewed view of biblical prophecy.
b) That some prophecies have been indeed fulfilled, while others are yet to be fulfilled, and yet still others have been fulfilled and will be fulfilled in a greater sense in the future.
c) They often fail to fully understand historical events. The preterist view of Olivet Discourse Matt 24 is a prime example. While it appears that some of the things Yeshua predicted in Matthew 24 have an AD 70 fulfillment, other events listed in this chapter clearly don’t unless you “cram it to fit and paint it to match” as preterists like to do. This they do by applying some things in a given prophecy in a literal sense, and then when a prophecy can’t be interpreted literally to fit historical events, they simply allegorize it away by making the prophecy symbolic. In my opinion, this is a dangerous approach and is playing fast and loose with the Bible. You can make the Bible say virtually anything you want it to say when you do this. This is a hermeneutical problem where they make the Bible say what they want it to say (eisegesis) instead of letting the Bible speak for itself (exegesis).
d) The preterist usually fails to understand Israel in history, who the people of Israel are, the Torah, and the nature of covenants from a Hebraic, full biblical context. It seems to me that preterism works if you take a more Catholic view of the Bible and history, not a Hebraic view.
e) Preterists seems to not understand the nature of biblical prophecy in that some prophecies are short range, some are mid-range, and some are long range in that they haven’t been fulfilled yet. What’s more, they fail to understand that even as biblical prophecy was divinely revealed to the prophet in the first place, so understanding its fulfillment requires a divine revelation as well. The Holy Spirit revealed the prophecy in the first place, and will reveal its interpretation often after the event has occurred. For example, the greatest OT prophetic concept of all — those prophecies pointing to the coming of the Messiah — wasn’t fully understood by the disciples until after his death. The disciples still thought he was Messiah the Conquering king rather than the Suffering Servant. Little by little, they came to understand that he came to redeem men from sin, and not (at least at that time) to set up his earthly kingdom after having defeated his physical enemies.
In reality, the truth of the Bible falls between the two extremes of preterism and non-preterism. Some biblical prophecies in the context of history have already been fulfilled, while others have been partially fulfilled, and still others have yet to be fulfilled. This is what I believe. It’s an overly simplistic and quite frankly, to my mind at least, a naive and spiritually immature approach to say that all prophecy has been fulfilled or that all prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. Understanding biblical prophecy isn’t quite that simple. For example, in all my extensive readings of the writings of the ancient Jewish sages, I’ve never seen a preterist viewpoint with regard to the OT prophecies. This ought to tell us something.
My sense is that the notion preterism arose from the antisemetic attitudes and doctrines of the early church fathers who wanted to excise all understanding of the Scriptures from a Jewish perspective and replace the Jews with the church when it comes to prophecy. If this is the case, then preterism in some of its more virulent and strident permutations could even be considered to be an antisemtic philosophy! This almost makes it a doctrine of demons. How can we take all scriptural reference to the Jews and to greater Israel and be so subjective and ego-centric as to apply them to the exclusively to the Gentile church?
Overview of the Book of Revelation
This book is not the revelation of John, but the “revelation of Yeshua the Messiah” (Rev 1:1). As such, it reveals Yeshua in a variety of ways as indicated in the outline below.
Deuteronomy 31:3, YHVH your Elohim … will go over before, and he will destroy these nations. YHVH promised to destroy Israel’s enemies before them. Who or what are your enemies? Do you believe YHVH’s promises here? Some of the enemies we have are a result of our own sinning and our repentance will bring our deliverance from them. But what about attacks that come against us through no fault of our own? What do you do about them? Do you realize who you are in Yeshua, and are you aware of the spiritual power you have as a victorious overcomer by the name and through the blood of Yeshua? (Read Ps 91; Luke 9:1; 10:19; Rom 8:37; Eph 6:10-18; Jas 4:7–10; 1 Pet 5:6–10; 1 John 4:4; Rev 12:11.)
Deuteronomy 31:10–13,You shall read this Torah before all Israel. Verses like this tend to expose the theological confusion that occurs in the minds of many Christian Bible teachers. For example, about this verse, Christian commentator Matthew Henry writes about the need to read the Word of Elohim and that doing so will “help us to keep his commandments.” Yet elsewhere in the same commentary he says that the commandments or laws of YHVH “are done away with.”
Statements like these are representative of a split and incongruous, “double-speak” thinking on the part of many Christians when it comes to the commandments or laws of Elohim. Some laws, they say, we are to keep (e.g. thou shalt not murder, lie, commit adultery, which they refer to as “the moral law”—a non-biblical term), but other laws we can disobey (e.g. the Sabbath, dietary laws, and biblical feasts, which they refer to as “the ceremonial law”—another non-biblical term).
Is it possible to have it both ways: to believe that we need to keep the Creator’s commandments, yet, at the same time, teach they are done away with? If so, then what is the meaning of such biblical phrases pertaining to YHVH’s Torah or Word as “forever,” “for a thousand generations,” “the same yesterday today and forever,” “till heaven and earth pass away,” “I change not,” and “think not that I came to destroy the Torah-law?” Is YHVH’s Word inconsistent and contradictory, or is this, instead, the case with the thinking of men? Is YHVH’s immutable character flawed with regard to keeping his Word, promises and standards or is man the one at fault?
In reality, we need to ask ourselves an important question: Do we have a high enough view of YHVH Elohim and fear him and tremble at his Word (Isa 66:2), or have we, in reality, demoted the veracity of his Word by contorting YHVH and his Word to fit the mindset of changeable and inconsistent man (which the Scriptures define as idolatry)?
Moreover, have we, by denying the validity of some aspects of YHVH’s Word, bought into the lie that the serpent proffered at the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden when he told the man and the woman that YHVH really did not mean what he said and that humans can take the “have it your own way” and “pick and choose” approach when it comes to obeying the Word of YHVH (a philosophy that forms the basis for the religious movement called secularhumanism, which is at the heart of all the religions of the world—including much of Christianity—except the true religion of the Bible)?
In reality, how many aspects of Christian theology are no more than a thinly veiled version of the religion of humanism in disguise?
These are tough questions that the saints who are citizens of the nation of Israel (Eph 2:11–19) need to ponder seriously. At the same time, let’s not forget the words of Yeshua in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my [Torah] commandments” and the words of the apostle in 1 John 2:5–5, “He that says, ‘I know him,’ and does not keep his [Torah] commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whosoever keeps his Word in him truly is the love of Elohim perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.”
Let’s be honest with ourselves. The bottom line reason why man has a hard time submitting to all of YHVH’s commandments is nowhere stated more concisely in the Bible than in Romans 8:7,
[T]he carnal mind is enmity against Elohim: for it is not subject to the law of Elohim, neither indeed can be.
Deuteronomy 31:12, Gather together the people. … and the small children. A fundamental aspect of Hebrew culture is the teaching of the children. This is the primary responsibility of the parents as stated in the Shema (Deut 6:7) and secondarily that of the community of faith. Many parents have all but handed their YHVH-ordained charge in this area over to others: the church and the government educational system, day care, the baby sitter, etc. Additionally, often the children take the backseat in the education in many churches and Messianic congregations. Often pastors struggle to find volunteers to help in the children’s ministry. Is this right? Is this the heart of the Father? It certainly is not the heart of Yeshua who went out of his way to minister to the little children (Mark 10:13–16; see also Matt 18:1–5 and Mark 9:33–37).
Ecclesiastes 11:1–2, 6,Cast your bread. Go through life being a giver, for it will come back to you. Some people call it karma (a Hindu expression reflecting the pagan idea of reincarnation). In the Bible, on the other hand, it can be referred to as the law of reaping and sowing or the law of reciprocity: you reap what you sow.
Ecclesiastes 11:3,If…there it shall be. Many things that happen in life are what they are, and you cannot change them, so accept them and just deal with it.
Ecclesiastes 11:4,He who observes the wind. If one spends one’s life waiting around for ideal conditions before doing anything, then one will never accomplish anything.
Ecclesiastes 11:5,You do not know. If it is impossible for us to wrap our brains around aspects of Elohim’s physical creation and how he interacts with humans on a spiritual level, then how can we understand his ways and methods? (Why even try to understand things that are above our limited capacity to do so? It is futile. Just praise, worship and obey YHVH Elohim!) For example, modern science has discovered much about the world around us, but wherever scientists’ searches take them, they eventually hit up against a wall of impenetrable mystery beyond which lays the unexplainable and ultimately the spiritual realm or dimension and the divine. Why not be a wise person and skip the middle man and go there directly by seeking, praising, worshipping and obeying YHVH Elohim?
Ecclesiastes 11:7–10,O young man. This is a final call to young people, upon whose shoulders the future rests, to wake up from the often foolish youthful ways and to face reality and the light of truth while they are still young and before it is too late. The old and wise Preacher instructs the youth to enjoy life, but that while doing so, not forget that a day of reckoning is coming. Even though ultimately everything in life is vanity or empty, meaningless nothingness, there is nevertheless something else beyond it all that is there for those who are wise and will open their eyes to the reality of this truth.
Ecclesiastes 12
Ecclesiastes 12:1,Creator[s]. Heb. boreka, plural. (For more examples of the plurality of the Creator, see also Job 35:10; Isa 54:5; Ps 149:2 according to Bible commentators Keil and Delitzsch, Adam Clarke, Matthew Henry, Jamison Faucett and Brown, and John Gill.)
Ecclesiastes 12:1,Remember. Remember means “do not forget.” With youth comes the zest for life, idealism, much energy, many distractions and the notion that one will live forever, that is, that old age is so far down the road that who needs to think about end of life issues? The wise Preacher says, “No! Stop now while you are young and remember your Creator.” Remember is the Hebrew word zakar meaning “to think about, meditate upon, pay attention, recollect, commemorate, invoke and confess.” This word indicates deep thoughtfulness and critical thinking. How many young people (and even older folks) stop even for a moment from the busyness of life to deeply ponder the long term consequences of their actions before the difficult days of old age come? When one is young is the time to make the necessary adjustments in one’s life, so that one will end up in a good place at the end of life when it is too late to do so. And the missing ingredient to insuring this, according to the Preacher, is to “remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” This is such a simple instruction, yet so hard for most young people to implement. Very few heed this advice, and if so, only marginally. Sadly, most young people end up only giving their Creator the left over crumbs of their time, energy and attention.
Ecclesiastes 12:2–8,The rigors of old age. In this section, the Preacher describes in the most graphic and poetic terms the perils and difficulties of old age. He especially focuses on health issues and the deterioration of the body along with life’s desires and passions. All begins to die until there is little left to live for and mere existence becomes a painful and burdensome task.
Ecclesiastes 12:6,Remember your Creator. Even though this phrase is not in the original Hebrew text, it is implied, which is why the translators inserted it here. So once again, the wise Preacher, after describing the perils and plight of old age, challenges the youth to factor their Creator into the equation of life while they are young before it is too late—before death stops the time clock of life and the judges’s gavel falls and the final judgment on one’s life is rendered. As Scripture reveals elsewhere, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment…” (Heb 9:27), and “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor 5:10).
Ecclesiastes 12:7,The spirit will return to Elohim. Previously, the Preacher almost provokes if not taunts the reader into thinking about end of life issues by asking the question, “Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?” (Eccl 3:21). Now at the end of his dissertation, he affirmatively declares that the spirit of man returns to Elohim who gave it. This is an important fact to consider in that there is a part of each of us that returns to Elohim at the time of death. Even though each man possesses as an aspect of his makeup a immortal substance called spirit (along with his soul and body; see 1 Thess 5:23; see also Heb 4:12; Luke 23:46; Ps 90:10), this in no way implies that the spirit of man is conscious after the body’s death. Scripture is silent on this subject. Yet one thing is clear. Physical death is not the end of the human. There is more, yet the Preacher fails to elucidate on this point.
Ecclesiastes 12:8,Vanity of vanities. As we have noted before, this phrase is found only twice in Ecclesiastes: once at the beginning of the book (Eccl 1:2) and here again at the end. Also, as discussed previously vanity is the Hebrew word hebel meaning “vapor, breath, wind” or figuratively, as the author of this book often uses it, “worthless, senseless, empty, futile or vacuous.” The root of the word hebel is the verb “to act emptily.” Thus, as we have seen after examining Ecclesiastes, the vast majority of human activities can be summed up as nothing more than being emptiness, meaningless and senseless. As the Preacher starts the book, so he ends the book with this terse and seemingly hopeless summation of life…yet he does not actually leave the reader in this hopeless place.
Ecclesiastes 12:13–14,Hear the conclusion. “Look heavenward!” the Preacher seems to declare. Through the gloomy mist and fog of life’s conundrums, the author continually encourages his readers to look up toward the heavens for the answers to the nagging questions about the meaning and purpose of life. He then concludes by saying,
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear Elohim and keep His [Torah] commandments, for this is man’s all. For Elohim will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, Whether good or evil. (Eccl 12:13–14)
Couple these verses with the revelation that the human spirit returns to Elohim when we die (v. 7), and that each of us will be judged for what we have done while in our bodes and rewarded accordingly (2 Cor 5:10), and if a person heeds the advice of the Preacher, it will end up well for him eternally.
Therefore, the overall message Ecclesiastes may seem gloomy and hopeless, there is a silver lining, so to speak, in this dark cloud called life for those who remember their Creator and look up and fear him by obeying his Word.
Today, Shabbat, I have been busy studying and writing in preparation for Yom Teruah—the Day of Shouting or Shofar Blasts. In several days (Thursday, Sept. 9 on the biblical crescent new moon, abib barley calendar), my family and I will be celebrating this first of four fall biblical feasts, which our rabbinic Jewish brothers incorrectly refer to as Rosh Hashanah—an unbiblical name. Although Scripture gives us but scant information about this high holy day, its significance relative to the disciple of Yeshua’s cannot be overestimated.
In light of the current global chaos occurring on so many fronts and the tidal wave of evil that is systematically sweeping across the earth, Yom Teruah affords the faithful saint a great opportunity to celebrate in advance a glorious upcoming event. This is because Yom Teruah not only points prophetically to the second coming of Yeshua the Messiah but to the resurrection and glorification of his righteous saints as well. (See my in-depth study article on the subject at https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/yom_teruah.pdf)
In preparation for celebrating this biblical holiday, I have put together a study on Matthew 24, the famous Olivet Discourse, where Yeshua talks about end time events as they will occur in more or less chronological order. This is an excellent place to attempt to figure to where we are at in the progression of events that signify the end of the age or end times just before the second coming of Yeshua the Messiah.
What follows is my best analysis of the subject based on decades of Bible study. However, I reserve the right to be wrong on anything that I write below. Regardless of biblical understanding, we are still looking through a glass darkly, and we will not fully understand end time events until they are occurring or have already occurred. This is a biblical provable fact regardless of what the profit motive driven Christian prophecy pundits and prognosticators will tell you.
So here is my best analysis on the first part of Matthew 24.
Matthew 24
Matthew 24:1–51, The Olivet Prophecy and the Book of Revelation. See notes in Revelation entitled “Revelation and the Olivet Prophecy (i.e. Matt 24 and 25) Compared.”
Matthew 24:1,The buildings of the temple.The geographical context of Yeshua’s Olivet Discourse contained in Matthew chapters 24 and 25 is the Temple Mount containing Herod’s Temple (vv. 1–2), and from the vantage point of the Mount of Olives overlooking the same (v. 3ff).
Matthew 24:3,Do you see? Yeshua’s predicts the destruction of the temple—a prophecy that was clearly fulfilled in A.D. 70.
Matthew 24:3,Tell us. Yeshua’s statement as to the destruction of the temple elicits further questions from his disciples. Yeshua’s following discourse is in response to three questions that his disciples asked him, while on the Mount of Olives overlooking the Temple Mount. These three questions were:
When shall these thing be?
What shall be the sign of your coming…
And the [sign of] end of the age?
The first question is in response to Yeshua’s statement that the temple would be destroyed. The temple was destroyed approximately forty years later in A.D. 70.
The second questions is more open-ended as to the timing of its fulfillment. The disciples knew that Yeshua would eventually return as the Conquering King, Son of David Messiah, even as so many Old Testaments prophets had predicted and of which the disciples were well aware. The disciples had no way of knowing whether Yeshua’s second coming was imminent or far away timewise.
The third question refers to the end of this present age age when Messiah will establish is kingdom on earth—a subject that many Old Testament prophets had written about. We now refer to this Messianic Age as the Millennium based on John’s book of Revelation. There we learn that at the end of this present age, Yeshua will return from heaven to destroy the world-ruling kingdom of Satan (called Mystery Babylon the Great) along with all of his demonic and human minions, and will then establish his kingdom on this earth for one thousand years.
So as we can see, the three questions that Yeshua’s disciples asked and that he subsequently answered cover a long time span including from the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 until the end of the age some two thousand years later.
Therefore, the Olivet Prophecy must be viewed as being fulfilled over a long, protracted time-frame. This view, however, has not been that of many classical Christian scholars, who, rather, have viewed Yeshua’s prophecy as having been fulfilled in A.D. 70 and subsequently thereafter with the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church as Yeshua’s supposed kingdom on the earth. It is total folly to view the largely apostate, paganized Roman Catholic Church with all of its offshoot denominations as representing Yeshua’s millennial kingdom on earth for several reasons.
First, the Roman Catholic Church and its spiritual daughters have, to one degree or another, failed to walk in Yeshua’s Torah-truths that he came to bring to its fullest expression (Matt 5:17) and not to destroy (Matt 5:18), and which he commanded his disciples to obey (Matt 5:20; John 14:15, 21) and teach (Matt 28:20). Rather, the Catholic Church and her spiritual daughters have spurned much of his Torah.
Second, all of these churches, in spite of the good works they may done on this earth in the name of Jesus, have not fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies that speak of the universal rule of King Messiah on this earth in specific detail. It certainly cannot be said that the Roman Catholic Church has fulfilled these millennial prophecies.
Third, the book of Revelation speaks of many events that have yet to transpire and that must happen before the Millennium. Most notable of these is Yeshua’s return on a white horse with his saints and the overthrow of all of men’s governments, and the defeat and banishment of Satan and his minions into the abyss for one thousand years.
Matthew 24:4,Deceive [Gr. planao] you/lead you astray. Planao means “to lead astray via fraudulence and seduction.” The fact that Yeshua mentions this warning first emphasizes the importance he places on this point. The fact that Satan comes as an angel of light seeking to devour spiritually whomever he can is the first and foremost tactic of the enemy of which the saints must be aware. The moment Elohim reveals his Truth to humans, whether it was in the Garden of Eden to the first humans, or in the form of his Son as the Word of Elohim incarnate, the enemy has been there to counterfeit it and to lead and to lure humans astray. His tactics have not changed from then until now and on to the end of the age.
Matthew 24:5, I am the Messiah. In Gospels of Mark and Luke, this phrase simply reads, “I am” (Mark 13:6; Luke 21:6). This can possibly be viewed as a Hebraic allusion to the I AM of Exodus 3:14, to which Yeshua likened himself in John 8:58. Matthew’s account adds the title the Messiah to I am. The word Messiah is from the Hebrew word mashiach meaning “an anointed or consecrated one.” Here Yeshua is plainly telling us that after him, many deceivers will come claiming to be the one that heaven has anointed or consecrated as its divine messenger to humans. The world is full of pseudo-messiahs and those claiming to be Elohim’s messenger and billions of people have been deceived to follow many false religions. Mohammed, the founder of Islam is a leading example of false prophet or anointed one. There have been plenty of such individuals in the Christian church as well.
Our current annual Scripture Reading Schedule for 2020-2021 with daily readings that began on 10/11/20 is available to download and print. The new annual Scripture Reading Schedule for 2021-2022 that begins on 9/26/21 is now available to download and can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links”. If you are using a mobile device or tablet, the link may be below, meaning you’ll need to scroll down instead.
Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link or the “share your thoughts” box below.
The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day: one each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle.
** A different Haftarah and/or Maftir is read when it is a special sabbath in Jewish tradition. This week it is Shabbat Shuva on the traditional calendar. Otherwise, Isaiah 55:6 – 56:8 would be read.
Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 9/5 through 9/11/2021.
