The Two Years

THE TWO YEARS

There are two years on the Jewish calendar. This is also true of the American calendar. We have the calendar year that begins on January 1st. Then we have a business year that begins on July 1st. We celebrate January 1st as New Year’s Day.

The Jewish religious year begins on Abib (Nisan) 1st. This is in April of the American Calendar. The Jewish business year begins on Tishri 1st, about our September. The Jews celebrate Tishri 1st as New Year’s Day (Rosh Hashanah).

There are seven major celebrations on the Jewish calendar. The first, second, and third take place in one week, during Abib: Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits.

Pentecost, the fourth of the seven feasts of the Lord, is celebrated fifty days from the feast of Firstfruits. The celebration of Pentecost occurs during our month of May.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh also take place in one week, during Tishri: the Blowing of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the feast of Tabernacles.

Let us think now about Tishri, the seventh month in the religious year but the first month in the business year.

The fifth feast of the Lord, the Blowing of Trumpets, is celebrated on the first day of Tishri, New Year’s Day.
The sixth feast of the Lord, the Day of Atonement, is celebrated on the tenth day of Tishri.
The seventh feast of the Lord, the feast of Tabernacles, is celebrated on the fifteenth through the twenty-first days of Tishri.

During the month of Tishri, we celebrate: the Blowing of Trumpets on the first; the Day of Atonement on the tenth; and the feast of Tabernacles on the fifteenth through the twenty-first.

Now, what does all this mean to Christians?

We have been enjoying the spiritual fulfillment of the first three feasts, Passover, Unleavened, Bread, and then the fourth feast, Pentecost, throughout the two thousand years of the Church Era.

Now we have come to the spiritual fulfillments of the last three feasts: the Blowing of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of Tabernacles. These are new to most of us. They mark as radical a change in the program of redemption as was true of the change from Moses to Joshua.

The twentieth century witnessed the spiritual fulfillment of the fourth of the feasts of the Lord, the feast of Pentecost. There are numerous Pentecostal and Charismatic churches that practice speaking in tongues and other manifestations of the Spirit of God.

Now God is ready to bring to us the spiritual fulfillments of the Blowing of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of Tabernacles.

The Blowing of Trumpets, the fifth of the seven feasts, signals the beginning of the Kingdom of God. The King, the Lord Jesus Christ, will enter each willing heart, and seek to establish His throne there.

Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. (Psalm 24:9)

Now notice below:

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Revelation 3:20,21)

The “throne” on which the Lord sits with His Father is our heart. When we learn to live by the Life of the Lord Jesus, we are permitted to sit on the throne of our own heart with Jesus and the Father.

The Blowing of Trumpets heralds the entrance of Jesus, the King of Glory, into our personality. If we permit Him to enter, He feeds on our obedience and worship; we feed on His body and blood.

This act of redemption is taking place today for everyone who has ears to hear and will be obedient by opening the door. It is the beginning of the Kingdom in us. I believe this what our Lord meant by being born again.

The Day of Atonement, the sixth of the seven feasts of the Lord, indeed is awesome. I like to substitute the word “reconciliation” in place of the term “atonement.” It is the spiritual operation that reconciles us to God and God to us.

In order to perceive properly what is taking place in these last three feasts, in fact in all seven feasts, we must understand God’s goal. God’s goal is to have a house, a place of rest.

“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me?” says the Lord. “Or where will my resting place be?” (Acts 7:49)

All of God’s work, since the rebellion of the angels, and maybe before, is to build a house for Himself. In God’s house, as the Lord said, there are many rooms. Jesus is the Beginning of God’s house, being the chief Cornerstone. We also are living stones in the eternal house, the Tabernacle of God, which is the new Jerusalem, the Wife of the Lamb.

God is not content to sit on His Throne in Heaven. Heaven has been defiled by the rebellion of the angels. God has created man to be His eternal dwelling place, His house, His Throne from which He will guide His creation. For this reason, the Day of Atonement is central to God’s plan to build a house for Himself. During the Day of Atonement, each living stone in the house of God, each room, must be cleansed from all sin and all self-will. If there is any trace of sin or self-will in us, God cannot find rest in us.

The Day of Reconciliation of man to God and God to man has begun with the Blowing of Trumpets in our heart. The Holy Spirit is beginning to reveal to us the areas of uncleanness in our life. We must confess our sins and self-will as soon as they are shown to us. Then, with the help of Christ, we are to turn away from them with all the strength we have so never again, from now to eternity, will we practice this uncleanness again.

The spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, of Reconciliation, will continue from now until the final resurrection. Every human being, including the members of the royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9) as well as the saved people from the nations, will have an opportunity to be cleansed entirely from everything that is not in God’s image. The Lord Jesus is the Omega as well as the Alpha. He will finish what He began on the cross of Calvary.

The feast of Tabernacles is the goal, the completion of the operation of redemption. At that time, all worldliness, sin, and self-will have been driven from us. Christ has been formed in us. Now the Father and the Son are ready to enter what has been formed in us and occupy Their new dwelling place for eternity.

Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)

(“The Two Years”, 3291-1, proofed 20211017)