The following is part 2 of a series of screen shots shared from an anonymous friend on allstandtall.blogspot.com. I found it so incredibly insightful and filled with inspired connections that I decided to share and retype it here. I hope to learn who to thank and give credit to for their years of study.
Two Lonely Chambers
About 2,000 years ago, all through the night of The Day of Preparation on Aviv 14 (Tuesday night on a pagan calendar), Yeshua BenElohim had suffered through illegal court proceedings: a mock trial. Contrary to their own laws, the Jewish officials had held a trial in the night hours. The former Cohen Gadol (high priest) Annas, was complicit, as was his son-in-law, Caiaphas, the current Cohen Gadol. The latter was considered by the people to be Cohen Gadol in name only, given that Rome had forcibly stripped Annas of the office for imposing Jewish law without authorization. This night, the two leaders of the Sanhedrin even went so far as to entice men to be false witnesses in the trial, which was in direct violation of the Torah – “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor!” It was poetic justice then that no two of these bumbling witnesses could manage to give a similar testimony detailing Yeshua’s supposed crimes.
Later that morning in the second and more legitimate session of the trial, Caiaphas restrained himself from pulling his hair out in front of the entire council, attempting to wrap up the proceedings as quickly as possible – there was a rehearsal to see to! Already on shaky political ground with the people, he refused to be responsible for neglecting such an important duty! Although Yeshua the upstart Himself confessed, of sorts, to claiming to be the Son of Elohim, one could not be convicted of a capital offense based solely on his own testimony. Those blasted blundering “witnessess”!
Soon after the council hastily announced that His crimes were worthy of receiving the death penalty Yeshua was shunted over to the Roman procurator in charge: Pontius Pilate. Let Yeshua be HIS problem now.
That morning, still Aviv 14 (a pagan Wednesday) the Cohen Gadol crossed the bridge from Jerusalem, eastward over the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives. The Cohen kept his composure as the usual crowds followed him and his priests to witness the next rehearsal for the preparation of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The rabble gathered around the aviv (ripe) barley fields on the Mount of Olives.
This morning on Aviv 14 was the time to publicly prepare for the upcoming Bikkurim: The Feast of the Offering of the First-fruits. This feast would take place on the day immediately following the shabbat (sabbath) after Pesach – thus the date was never fixed. THIS year, the weekly shabbat (Friday night to Saturday night) would be on Aviv 17. That would mean the Bikkuim would begin after sundown on Aviv 18 (a pagan Saturday night).
The priests carefully prepared ten omer/shocks of the barley by wrapping them with the cordons. The future Bikkurim, the offering of the first -fruits to God, had now been marked out among the rest of the spring harvest. This year, that would mean these ten special shocks would wait 3 1/2 days for harvesting.
All the Hebrew inhabitants and visitors in Jerusalem now scrubbed themselves clean in the Mikva (baptism/cleansing) pools south of the city. They washed, stretched, and dried their garments in preparation for the seven day Hag Matzot – Feast of Unleavened Bread. The cohenim did the same on the Temple Mount after carefully inspecting themselves in the enormous Brazen Lavar sitting just outside the temple. A cohen was to scrutinize his image in the shining brass, then clean every speck of dust, animal blood, or grime he could find. one was to be completely cleansed of any impurities for the Passover – which would begin at sundown, the beginning of Aviv 15.
Satisfied that they were completely ritually cleansed, the temple priests scurried over to where Pilate sat in his judgement at the northern section of the Temple Mount. Unwilling to render themselves unclean by entering a pagan edifice, the eager accusers debated with Pilate outside on the patio. This Roman obviously had no stomach for doing what needed to be done. “I find no fault in him!” he shouted in frustration. At that same moment, Caiaphas, obligated by his duties as Cohen Gadol, stood a short distance away. Upon the final inspection of the special lamb from Bethlehem, the cohen shouted the usual proclamation, “I find no fault in him!”
In the end, the Sanhedrin had its way. Yeshua BenJesef was to be publicly executed in the pagan manner – hung on a giant “T” which stood for the pagan son-god Tammuz. A fitting end for the blasphemer.
On the day of Aviv 14, Yeshua BenElohim Mashiach, burdened with carring the very timber of His sacrifice on His own shoulders, walked the VERY PATH that Isaac BenAbraham had walked over 2,000 years before. Both men carried their own sacrificial wood to the site Abraham named “Yehovah Yehirah,” Jehovah provides. But unlike Isaac, this Ram whose symbolic horns of authority were entwined in thorns, would not be exonerated.
Up above in the opposite direction of Yeshua’s path outside the southern gate of the city. Caiaphas the Cohen Gadol stood at the brazen alter covered in innocent blood, slaughtering lamb after lamb after lamb in order to allow the thousands of families to get their Pascual lambs in the ovens before sundown. This was tiring work, despite the unusual dark skies for this time of year.
After slaughtering the last of the publics’ lambs, Caiaphas took hold of the Pascual lamb and performed the sacrifice just before sunset. Directly afterward, he uttered the words of the rehearsal/shadow-picture, “I thirst!” As he wiped his sweaty brow, he was given a sip of water. Down below at the same time, The Lamb said, “I thirst,” and was given a sip of vinegar.
Immediately after, Caiaphas proclaimed the next part of the rehearsal, “IT IS FINISHED!” as Yeshua filled his aching lungs and proclaimed, “IT IS FINISHED!” Yeshua immediately sank down, having voluntarily given up the ghost. The sacrifice had been made, Jehovah had provided. Yehovah yehira.
The skies already menacing, suddenly crackled with thunder and lightening. A massive earthquake rent the ground, splitting the rocks and soil all throughout the land, leaving huge cracks thereafter. Even many graves of the righteous dead had been opened in the tumult. These deceased saints in the ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives were marked as a special selection as they still slept within. The ten specially selected omer of barley waved in the breeze on this mount, patiently waiting for the harvest soon to come.
Shaken, literally and figuratively, the Romans in charge went about their next duty. It takes about a week for death to find its victim on the dreaded “T” for Tammuz. Respecting Jewish laws, the Romans went to break the legs of the three convicts in order to allow their loved ones enough time to handle the bodies before the sun went down (this time, Aviv 15 would occur at sundown on the pagan Wednesday night) for executions were strictly prohibited during the Holy Convocations/Feasts: the Miqra of Yehovah.
After breaking the legs of the criminals on either side of Yeshua with a 65 lb. steal bar, the battle-hardened soldiers were aghast to find Yeshua to already be dead! Not really able to believe it, one took a spear and thrust it into Yeshua’s side, hitting His spleen. The damage caused by the crucifixion caused both blood and water to gush from the organ. These fluids spilled out and went down a fresh crack in the earth next to the cross. Yeshua’s bones remained unbroken – fulfilling yet another prophesy.
Yeshua’s body was hastily yet lovingly wrapped and placed in a beautiful borrowed tomb just outside Gethsemane. This heartbreaking task was completed just in time to allow those handing Him to be able to Mikva afresh for the Pesach seder (feast/meal). A thorough preparation for burial would have to wait until the spices could be prepared and a sabbath (either weekly or special) would not be violated.
Just as the massive stone covering Yeshua’s lonely tomb rolled shut, Caiaphas the Cohen Gadol finished up his meticulous Mikva and sequestered himself alone in a room on the Temple Mount for this year’s require 3 days of confinement. NO one was to see or speak to him, for he was to remain 100% ritualistically pure until the Wave Offering. At least this year it was only to be 3 days. It could be up to double that!
Caiaphas sat in solitude, unsure of whether he was relieved or uneasy about the fate of that troublesome Yeshua BenYosef…
The Bikkurim Rise with the Son
…On sundown Aviv 16 (Thursday evening for pagans) Yeshua had been dead for just over 24 hours. The next morning (Friday) of Aviv 16 as the shops opened the women closest to the Master, having left His body unprepared for burial by necessity a day and a half before, busily procured the necessary spices. The distraught women spent the entire rest of the day preparing these spices, for their Master deserved a proper burial.
The process took many hours, so the women sighed resignedly as the sun went down, beginning the weekly Shabbat (Sabbath) during the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread. The resting body of the Messiah would have to wait one more day.
The weekly shabbat on Aviv 17 would be over at sundown (Saturday evening). The priests watched expectantly for the last sliver of the sun to disappear beyond the horizon, some holding implements for the harvest. Caiaphas the Cohen Gadol (high priest) had only one more night to pass in solitude before he could emerge to perform the Wave Offering in the temple.
The signal given that the sun had gone (beginning Aviv 18), the cohenim, followed by many Israelites, crossed the bridge from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives to the east. They easily found the 10 marked omer (shocks of barley) in the dark, which had been bound ahead of time: 3 1/2 days before on the morning of Aviv 14.
The crowd looked on as a priest began the rehearsal script, “Has the sun set?”
The other cohenim replied, “Yes, the sun has set!”
“Will you harvest the barley?” shouted the first priest.
“Yes, we will harvest the barley!”
“With a sickle?”
“Yes, with a sickle!”
As the sickles were raised, the first priest would then ask, “Will you put it in this basket?”
“Yes, in this basket!”
The public then watched as the priests went about harvesting the special 10 omer of ripened barley, white and ready for the harvest.
It was late as the reapers and witnesses crossed back over to the Temple Mount with their baskets of ripened barley. The people separated from the priests and went home to bed. One of Yeshua’s closests friends, Mary, could hardly sleep during those few night hours before she could finally get to the tomb to care for her Master’s body!
Back on the Temple Mount, the priests began a long night of processing the grain. As they waved it around up on Mount Moriah, the wind blew the useless bits (chaff) clean off the stalks. The cohenim would gather the chaff in the morning and burn it. Exhausted, the cohenim finally put the prepared harvest safely aside to be inspected by the High Priests in the morning.
In the dark of the early morning hours, still on Aviv 18 (Sunday morning for the pagans), the day of Bikkurim or Feast of the First-fruits, the first person in the history of man to be resurrected awaited His friends arrival. Unbeknownst to Mary, her Lord had no more need of the burial preparations. Their greeting, though joyous, was a bit restrained, given the Master’s inability to have His purification tarnished by human hands before He presented His Father with the first-fruits of Their labors. But He knew He would soon return to embrace His cherished loved ones.
Soon, the city of Jerusalem was awestruck by the arrival of many righteous dead who had crossed the bridge from the Mount of Olives! Only – these were no longer dead! These resurrected beings spoke to many – they said wondrous things! It was a public witnessing of the reaping of the first-fruits. All too soon, the specially chosen saints were called by the Master to gather unto Him.
Over on the Temple Mount, the Cohen Gadol finally emerged from his sequestration to perform the Wave Offering of the First-fruits. He gathered the stalks of ripened barley and waved them in the temple’s Holy Place (where the menorah and other sacred implements resided), proving to The Almighty that these were pure and free from chaff. As he did so, the Bikkurim of flesh and blood gathered to the true Cohen Gadol and were taken up to Heaven by Him. He then presented them to His Father, in the heavenly throne-room: the Bikkurim – the offering of the first-fruits was now complete.
The Final Countdown
About 3,500 years ago, the children of Israel were gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai. Quaking in fear from the voice booming down at them, no one could mistake the law which was being pronounced. It was the first Shavout – the fiftieth day from Pesach (passover) in Egypt. Fiftieth – “PENTacost,” in the Greek language. Fiftieth – a jubilee. A day of putting things right, a day of liberation – since the days of Noah. Shavout was now a day of proclamation: the Torah, or law/instructions, had officially been given from the top of a sacred mount by Yehovah himself. The holy convocations, the Miqra, of the spring feasts were now officially instituted, their initiatory phase complete.
About 2,000 years ago, Caiaphas the Cohen Gadol stepped out of the temple on the day of Yom HaBikkurim: Feast of the First-fruits. The Wave Offering now completed, it was time to begin the official counting of the omer. As commanded to Moses over a thousand years prior, Shavout would occur in EXACTLY 7 shabbats (sabbaths) and one day. 7 WEEKS times seven days per week = 49. That extra day makes 50, a jubilee. The day of Shavout was literally “The Feast of Weeks,” taking place in the third month: Sivan.
On each of the first 50 days of the spring barley harvest, the cohenim would offer the grain from a single sheaf/omer of barley to Jehovah at the temple. This processed grain would then be carefully stored with its fellow baskets of grain, to be added up until the number 50 had been reached: 7 weeks and a day. Shavout was a day of gratitude and giving back to Yehovah. None of the grain harvested for these 50 days either the omer at the temple or those of the masses could not be baked or eaten until Shavout: the day of the SECOND offering of the first fruits.
Caiaphas and his compatriots finally rested easy. Unlike the earlier feasts that spring, this Shavout would pass undisturbed by that master disturber, Yeshua BenYosef! Peace and the ability to go back to the usual order of things had required a high price, but it was one that the temple officials had been willing to make…with no regrets. Yes, there were wild whispers that Yeshua had risen, even talked with some, but those fantastical blasphemies would soon die out and decay, right along with their Master’s body.
Caiaphas the Cohen Gadol faithfully presented the ripened barley to Yehovah on each of the 50 days between Yom HaBikkurim and Shavout. When finally Shavout the Feast of Weeks arrived, the cohen/priests used the grain of the second offering of first-fruits to make LEAVEN loaves. The cohenim mindlessly presented the requisite TWO loaves on the alter at the temple. Leavening in the spiritual sense was a symbol for sin, so why was it allowed to touch the sacred alter on this one day out of the year? So many centuries of watching and waiting had eventually hardened into an automatic go-through-the-motions attitude that stifled all curiosity of what these rehearsals actually meant. Yehovah had commanded, thus unquestioning obedience was required. The thirst for the “why” had spilled out of Israel’s soul and been greedily consumed by the desert sands long before.
Nearby, the disciples of Yeshua BenElohim were gathered for the feast in a house of prayer. Suddenly, a pillar of fire and understanding as it were burst through their consciousness and poured into their souls: a flaming sound of The Holy Spirit! The day promised by The Messiah had come; the Gift of the Holy Ghost had been unleashed! With that, the apostles – special witnesses of the Messiah – now had access to the gifts, or manifestations of the spirit.
As the news of this joyous tumult spread through the city to residence and visitors alike, this being one of three required feasts for Israelite men to attend, a vast multitude of the curious surrounded the disciples of the Messiah.
These disciples expounded the gospel to the multitude in each language represented, for many gathered there had journeyed a serious distance to obediently attend Shavout. The Israelites, suffering conquests and despots, had spread quite a distance: Iran, Greece, Elam, Babylon Turkey, Asia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Arabia, and even the dreaded Island of Crete. EACH person heard the good news of Yeshua in HIS/HER OWN language.
As a result of this momentous fulfillment of the Day of Shavout 3,000 Israelites became believers in the resurrected Messiah, Yeshua BenElohim. As they heard of His ministry and deeds expounded in their own tongue, how could they but believe, recognizing the fulfillment of the deeply familiar spring feasts/rehearsals to the exact detail?! These 3,000 new disciples of Yeshua became the second offering of the first-fruits on the day of the second offering of the first-fruits: Shavout. These Jewish converts, in turn, were to share the message with the gentile nations. Now a force of perfectly-placed missionaries among their gentile brethren; each heathen or pagan nation could now hear the good news of the Messiah in its own language.
The prophesied Time of the Gentiles had begun at last. The curse of Babel had finally begun to be lifted: the family of Abraham now took their rightful place as the teachers of the True God – as a blessing to all nations of the world. Though the Word hadn’t been disseminated as intended, Israel HAD faithfully kept and preserved the rehearsals vital to future understanding. But THIS time, they wouldn’t fail. THIS time, the believers in The Messiah would be sure to share with all those who would hear, and not jealously keep His message to themselves as a proud people set apart, only to remain separated from the rest of the family of Adam.
Up above on the temple mount, 2 loaves of leavened bread sat in their place on the sacred alter. One represented Israel, the other the gentiles. These sinful nations were now to be accepted, upon repentance, through the blood of the Pascual lamb; thus the Pesach sacrifice began the spring rehearsal feasts, and Shavout wrapped them up.
A Final Word from the author
I’ve had several close friends ask me, “why share your crazy research now?” It’s an excellent question. This is a subject I’ve researched extensively for years. And years. And years. So….why make my neurosis public now? I’ve purposely waited until finishing the last installment to tell you why.
I see A LOT of fear out there right now. Uncertainty. Panic. Theories. I sense a collective unease, a holding of breath, bracing ourselves for…something intangible. Religious or no. Doesn’t matter. Just about everyone feels it.
I see a desperation for answers….especially one answer to ONE particular question: “What can I expect in the furture?!” Some whisper, “Are the tribulations upon us?!”
The whole point of my Easter week posts on the spring feasts is to show that we have been told what to expect from the very beginning. All things shall be fulfilled. Let’s seek the answers! There is NOTHING that has happened in the scriptures in the past that won’t happen again. Hopefully, those few determined awesome people who made it through all 9 installments have learned how to train your mind in seeing the true meaning behind the spring feasts. What does that have to do with the future?
THE FALL FEASTS!!!!
Those are SHADOW-PICTURES of what is to come. STUDY THEM! Let’s learn them by heart, learn the dates on the Lord’s calendar, learn these rehearsals/ordinances. Then plug in The Revelation as the key code. Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel also tell us – even give us EXACT time duration for many phases of the good, bad, and ugly to come.
We don’t know the exact day or hour, but we’ve been told to STUDY the times and SEASONS.
Now! Where to being? I’ll give you a list of the fall feasts. You should already recognize a couple of them – I’ve given you a head start on those:
- Tishri 1 (usually in September): Yom Teruah “Feast of Trumpets” Day of announcements (remember – this feast was changed to Rosh HaShana over time. Be careful to avoid learning the CURRENT rabbinical Jew reckoning of time. Stick to Karaite or Messianic Judaism for the accurate calendar).
- Tishri 10: Yom Kippur “Day of Atonemnet” day of atonement for Israel as a nation.
- Tishri 15: Sukkoth “Feast of Tabernacle” Marriage supper of the Lamb.
- Tishri 22: “The Last Great Day” Feast of Conclusion/Feast of Leviathan
- Kislev 25: Hanukkah “Feast of Dedication or Lights” A day of cleansing.
- And learn about the feast of Purim, held on Adar 14-15. Get to know the story of Esther like we know the story of Harry Potter. Trust me.
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