Selichot-Living Waters-Faith

Joseph F. Dumond

Isa 6:9-12 And He said, Go, and tell this people, You hear indeed, but do not understand; and seeing you see, but do not know. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back, and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land laid waste, a desolation, and until Jehovah has moved men far away, and the desolation in the midst of the land is great.
Published: Jul 31, 2020

News Letter 5856-022
The 4th Year of the 4th Sabbatical Cycle
The 25th year of the 120th Jubilee Cycle
The 5th day of the 6th month 5856 years after the creation of Adam
The 4th Sabbatical Cycle after the 119th Jubilee Cycle
The Middle of the 70th Jubilee Since Yehovah told Moses To go Get His People
The Sabbatical Cycle of Sword, Famines, and Pestilence
July 25, 2020

Shabbat Shalom to the Royal Family of Yehovah,

 


 

The Fall Feast Days 2020

I am going to show you Torah Calendars sheet for the 6th month. They started the year one month behind us. So what they are saying is the sixth month is actually our 7th month.

The following are the expected fall Holy Day dates.

The Holy Days for the Seventh Month

Our 6th month is going to be a 30 day month by default. This means that it is going to be impossible to sight the moon on the 29th day. So these dates are guaranteed to be the Holy Day dates for us this year.

 

Feast of Trumpets – Yom Teruah
1st day of the Seventh Month
Friday, August 21, 2020
(Begins Sunset night before)
Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur
10th Day of the Seventh Month
Sunday, August 30, 2020
(Begins Sunset night before)
Feast of Sukkot – Feast of Tabernacles
15th day of the Seventh Month
Friday, September 4, 2020
(Begins Sunset night before)
8th Day Feast – Feast of Dedication
22nd Day of the Seventh Month
Friday, Sept 11, 2020
(Begins Sunset night before)

We have many new people to sightedmoon.com and I want to welcome you and I am pleased to get your questions about how to keep each of the Holy Days. Many of you are asking about where can we go to keep the Feast. With COVID 19 rising in North America and many other places around the world, I do not recommend you risk catching it and or passing it on to those who are mature in age by congregating. Unless each and everyone that does attend can 100% guarantee that they have been isolated for the last 14 days and show no signs of COVID 19. And that while in their travels to the site they did not stop anywhere along the way where they could catch it unknowingly, like a gas station or store or airport. If you cannot 100% guarantee this then stay home and celebrate at home with your family.

Many in North America and Australia have not and still do not take COVID 19 seriously and think it is some conspiracy by the Government to infringe on their freedom of rights.

We are dealing with the pestilence of Lev 26 right now. But far too many do not regard this as from Yehovah. But something men in back rooms plotting to take over the world have done. So they won’t wear a mask. They will not comply and others want to have large parties or large get together. And now the number of COVID 19 cases are rising at a record pace and the hospitals are now at 100% or more capacity.

Lev 26:24  then I will walk contrary to you and will punish you seven times more for your sins.

Lev 26:25  And I will bring a sword on you that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant. And when you are gathered inside your cities, I will send the plague among you. And you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

Lev 26:26  When I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight. And you shall eat and not be satisfied.

Yehovah says that He is going to make these plague cling to us. It is not going to go away. But I also want you to read what it says just before it talks about the plague section. You are going to be cursed. Just turn on the news and look at what is going on in the USA. And once you read the last section you can bank on a severe drought coming over the Israelite nations again.

Deu 28:19  You shall be cursed when you come in, and cursed when you go out.

Deu 28:20  Jehovah shall send on you cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings by which you have forsaken Me.

Deu 28:21  Jehovah shall make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from off the land where you go to possess it.

Deu 28:22  Jehovah shall strike you with lung disease and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew. And they shall pursue you until you perish.

Deu 28:23  And your heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth that is under you iron.

This Lev 26 curse, that is expanded in Deuteronomy 28 and in conjunction with the Daniel 9:24-27 prophecy is here now. The Daniel 8, 2300 Day prophecy began May 25 with the killing of George Floyd. We were off by 6 days with what we have been warning you was coming since 2005. It is now here. Now read some more in Lev 26. After the part about you eating your sons and your daughters, Yehovah says your sanctuaries will be empty.

Lev 26:31  And I will make your cities waste and cause your sanctuaries to be deserted. And I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.

We can all remember the South Korean group, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (Shincheonji), One woman infected 57 members of her church and then they spread it to many more in South Korea. Are you going to be that one person who infects your brethren and then watch some of them die?

2 Kings 15:5 The Lord struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death. And he lived in a separate house, while Jotham the king’s son was over the household, judging the people of the land.

Leviticus 13:4 But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and it does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and the hair on it has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate him who has the infection for seven days.

Leviticus 13:46 He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

Leviticus 14:8 The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean. Now afterward, he may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days.

Numbers 5:2 “Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person.

Numbers 31:19 And you, camp outside the camp seven days; whoever has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves, you and your captives, on the third day and on the seventh day.

Luke 17:12 As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him;

Leviticus 13:2-5 “When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or a scab or a bright spot, and it becomes an infection of leprosy on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests. The priest shall look at the mark on the skin of the body, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the infection appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is an infection of leprosy; when the priest has looked at him, he shall pronounce him unclean. But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and it does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and the hair on it has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate him who has the infection for seven days.read more.

Leviticus 13:31-33 But if the priest looks at the infection of the scale, and indeed, it appears to be no deeper than the skin and there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall isolate the person with the scaly infection for seven days. On the seventh day the priest shall look at the infection, and if the scale has not spread and no yellowish hair has grown in it, and the appearance of the scale is no deeper than the skin, then he shall shave himself, but he shall not shave the scale; and the priest shall isolate the person with the scale seven more days.

Leviticus 13:45-46 “As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

Leviticus 15:19 ‘When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening.

Numbers 5:2-3 “Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person. You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst.”

Numbers 31:11-20 They took all the spoil and all the prey, both of man and of beast. They brought the captives and the prey and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest and to the congregation of the sons of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan opposite Jericho. Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp.

Deuteronomy 23:10-11 “If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he may not reenter the camp. But it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may reenter the camp.

2 Kings 7:3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die?

2 Chronicles 26:21 King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death; and he lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king’s house judging the people of the land.

I know some of you are really smart and will say but we ain’t sick. These verses tell us that only the sick should be quarantined. These people are so smart they make the rest of us puke from their selfishness. “They have rights they claim to work and to not wear a mask and go and assemble. It is in our constitution.” I am saying this mockingly about them.

Your freedoms stop when you infringe on another person’s freedom to be safe from you if you’re carrying the disease. You could potentially kill someone in your fellowship or your family or yourself.. And because you do not know if you are carrying the disease until after 14 days, then you should be acting out of love and concern for your brethren and loved ones instead of thinking only of your own damn selves.

And still, some of you and many evangelical pastors are demanding their Constitutional Rights of freedom to assemble.

Here are a few more scriptures to think on.

Exo 17:2  And the people wrangled with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you wrangle with me? Why do you tempt Jehovah?

Exo 17:7  And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the wrangling of the sons of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us or not?

Num 14:22  Because all those men who have seen My glory and My miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not listened to My voice,

Deu 6:16  You shall not tempt Jehovah your God as you tempted in Massah.

Psa 78:17  And they sinned still more against Him, by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.

Psa 78:18  And they tempted God in their heart by asking food for their lust.

Psa 78:19  And they spoke against God; they said, Can God set a table in the wilderness?

Psa 78:40  How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert!

Psa 78:41  Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and pained the Holy One of Israel.

Psa 78:42  They did not remember His hand, the day when He delivered them from the enemy;

Psa 78:56  Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not His testimonies;

Psa 78:57  but they turned back, and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceiving bow.

Psa 95:7  For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today if you will hear His voice,

Psa 95:8  harden not your heart, as in the day of strife, as in the day of testing in the wilderness;

Psa 95:9  when your fathers tempted Me, tested Me, and saw My work.

Psa 106:14  but they lusted greedily in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert.

You refuse to think about others and you refuse to comply with the simple wearing of a mask to help stop and slow the spreading of this disease. You go out and believe your faith is strong and you will not get sick. If this disease is fake as some of you claim it is, if you feel we are being led astray by the boogie man sources in back rooms, then I urge you to go into any emergency room that is 100% full of COVID cases. Go in and take off your mask and help those that are sick. Go in and do not wash your hands before you eat your lunch. If it is fake then nothing will happen to you. If you are not willing to do that because you might get sick then shut up and wear a mask and help stop the spread. Stop spreading false information about this disease and become part of the solution, not the problem with disinformation.

Mat 4:5  Then the Devil took Him up into the holy city and set Him upon a pinnacle of the Temple.

Mat 4:6  And he said to Him, If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down. For it is written, “He shall give His angels charge concerning You, and in their hands they shall bear You up, lest at any time You dash Your foot against a stone.”

Mat 4:7  Jesus said to him, It is written again, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”

So unless you can 100% guarantee that you are not sick, nor carrying the disease, which means you must quarantine yourself for 14 days before you meet with the brethren, then I am telling you to stay home and worship Yehovah with us on zoom. So if you are going to attend with a group on the Feast of Trumpets then you need to begin your 14-day self-quarantine one week from now on August 6. And if you are not willing to do that for the love of your brethren, then stay home.

Seriously brethren. Act according to the world situation. Be smart and obey Yehovah and He will protect you, but if you’re going to flaunt the rules and temp Yehovah then you will get what you asked for. If He said your worship places will be empty, do not tempt Him and try to show otherwise.

 


 

For Sale

 

I just wanted to let you all know because some have been asking. DO I really believe in the things I am teaching here at sightedmoon.com? The answer is a categorical YES!

Yes, I believe the Sabbatical and Jubilee years and the chronology they reveal are correct. 100%. Not a doubt.

Yes, I believe the Daniel 9:24-27 prophecy is accurate and bone-chillingly coming to pass with the genocide of the Anglo Saxon people. The DNA descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Yes, this genocide will be all but complete by 2026.

Yes, I believe these events of Daniel 9 when they speak of starting in the middle of the 70th Jubilee Cycle since Moses, began with the George Floyd murder on May 25.

Yes, this is the start of the 2300 Day count of Daniel 8.

Yes, I do believe we are to flee to a place that is going to be safe for the next 10 years, but each one of you must prove this and decide for yourselves. I have no voices tell me to lead anyone anywhere. I am going by the things I have read in Isaiah about the coastland.

Yes, I have listed my house for sale. We signed the papers with an agent two weeks ago and have been busting our backs getting the place ready to sell. Throwing out many memories and shedding many tears as we do so. I have been wanting to sell now for about a year but my wife would not agree. She has agreed this last month with the following stipulation. That once we sell, we split what remains after paying the debts and agents and lawyer and I go my way and she is going to go her way. She is fed up with me studying and teaching and wants no more of it. She is not going to spend her retirement this way. So with salt in my eyes from all the tears being shed, with hatred coming towards me with each glance or word spoken in anger, I write these words to you. My beliefs’ have cost me everything I have worked for, for the past 42 years. My daughter no longer speaks to me, nor my sons.

The contents of my office, with my library of books and teaching aids, will be loaded up in a container and shipped to Manila for about $5000. Everything else is to be sold off.

Yes, we are working on plans for the Philippines. And we have a team of people assisting on various parts of this work to be done next.

If you are considering the Philippines then we ask you to fill out this survey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JR32D97 Not everyone is of the opinion they must go. Each one must search their own convictions.

Yes, I prayed I am wrong in all of this and that I would be shown to be the biggest of fools for having acted so irrationally. But try as I may, I cannot find fault with our findings. And many others too have tried to find fault and the best they can do is just not agree. But no one has been able to show it to be false. Like all of you, I waited to see what would happen on May 31st. Then Shavuot got changed to May 3rd. And then a rethink showed it could be July 5th. But on May 25, the world changed and not for the better. I believe the count of the 2300 Days began on May 25 just 6 days before May 31st which we have been proclaiming for 15 years.

Our house is now online with more details to be added. You can view it at this link,  Thank you for your prayers about this and all that we are striving to do at Sightedmoon.com.

 


 

Shabbat Zoom Meeting

 

Last week I allowed Zach to teach what he believes about the USA being Babylon. By the time he got done, there was not enough time for me to present a counter teaching to his, which I had warned him I would bring. So this week I am going to present the counter teaching about who is Babylon and why it is not the USA. I hope you will join us for the discussion and learn some things along the way.
From now on we are going to use this same meeting room id below for all our meetings each Shabbat. Keep it and save it. Should I forget to announce the meeting then the information will remain the same from week to week. The room will be open at 12:30 PM for chatting and socializing. The meeting will begin at 1:15 and then the room will remain open for chatting and discussions after the teaching.

Joseph Dumond is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Joseph Dumond’s Personal Meeting Room

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 350 585 5877

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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kctjNqPYv0

 


 

Selichot Prayers

A number of years ago we taught on the Selichot prayers that are done by some 40 days before Atonement. Other groups do them the Sabbath before the Feast of Trumpets. We are now three weeks away from the Fast of Trumpets. Although these are traditions and are not found in the commandments of Lev 26, they are something to consider and to add them to your prayers if you are so led.

 


 

The Feast of Tabernacles

We have recently explained the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. The Next Feast that comes after Atonement is The Feast of Sukkot, The Feast of tabernacles.

Why do we keep Sukkot?

Throughout the bible, we are shown that the relationship between Yehovah and Israel is one of a man betrothed to a woman. The whole bible is speaking of this relationship. Yehovah is jealous because Israel has gone after other gods, others she is idolizing.

Yehovah’s plan for mankind involves restoration. The Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes the restoration process and the marriage Supper and the week of celebration.

In his first inspired sermon after receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the apostle Peter summed up Yehovah’s instruction for mankind:

Act 3:19  Therefore repent and convert so that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

Act 3:20  And He shall send Jesus Christ, who before was proclaimed to you,

Act 3:21  whom Heaven truly needs to receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began.

But what are these “times of refreshing” and “times of restoration” of which Peter spoke?

Yehovah’s plan for mankind involves restoration. The Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes the restoration process, which will start with the return of Yehshua, pictured by the Feast of Trumpets, and the banishment of Satan, depicted by the Day of Atonement. Once these events have taken place, as represented by the previous Holy Days, the foundation is in place for the restoration of the creation to peace and harmony with Yehovah.

We have now restored the Sabbath and the Holy Days. We have restored the sighting of the moon to begin the month and the sighting of the barley to begin the year. We have restored the Sabbatical and Jubilee Cycles to their proper order. We have restored the name of Yehovah the creator of all things. So this process of restoration is already well underway and many of the brethren are being restored to the original faith. And they can learn the entire plan of salvation from understanding the Holy Days and what they mean and what they represent.

The seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, which begins with an annual Holy Day as told to us in Lev 23.

Lev 23:34  Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to Jehovah.

Lev 23:35  On the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no work of labor.

Lev 23:36  Seven days you shall offer a fire offering to Jehovah. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you. And you shall offer a fire offering to Jehovah. It is a solemn assembly. And you shall do no work of labor.

The Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Sukkot pictures the 7,000-year span of time with since the creation of Adam until the end of the 7th Millennium when Yehovah then comes to dwell on the earth.

During the Last Day of the Feast of Sukkot Yehshua spoke some remarkable things.

Joh 7:37  And in the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

Joh 7:38  He who believes on Me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

Joh 7:39  (But He spoke this about the Spirit, which they who believed on Him should receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)

During the Feast of Sukkot which is also called the Feast of Booths, Israel remembered Yehovah’s miraculous intervention during their time in the wilderness. Part of the celebration that took place during Sukkot, involved a ceremony in which the priests would carry water to the altar in the temple. This ceremony remembered Yehovah’s provision of water from the rock.

Exo 17:1  And all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the command of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim. And there was no water for the people to drink.

Exo 17:2  And the people wrangled with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you wrangle with me? Why do you tempt Jehovah?

Exo 17:3  And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured against Moses and said, Why is this, thatYou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our sons and our cattle with thirst?

Exo 17:4  And Moses cried to Jehovah, saying, What shall I do to this people? They are almost ready to stone me.

Exo 17:5  And Jehovah said to Moses, Go on in front of the people, and take with you the elders of Israel. And take your rod with which you struck the river, in your hand, and go.

Exo 17:6  Behold, I will stand before you there upon the rock in Horeb. And you shall smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, so that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Exo 17:7  And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the wrangling of the sons of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us or not?

On the last most important day of the festival, The Last Great Day, the 7th Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, priests would circle the altar seven times with a container of water. This is the moment Yehshua speaks those words which began in John 7:37. Yehshua had spoken of this similarly with the Samaritan woman in Samaria.

Joh 4:9  Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, How do you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, who am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

Joh 4:10  Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give Me to drink, you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water.

Joh 4:11  The woman said to Him, Sir, you have no vessel, and the well is deep. From where then do you have that living water?

Joh 4:12  Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, and his children and his cattle?

Joh 4:13  Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again,

Joh 4:14  but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Joh 4:15  The woman said to Him, Sir, give me this water, so that I may not thirst nor come here to draw.

Yehshua again hinted about this same living waters in;

Joh 6:35  And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes on Me shall never thirst.

Here are some more scriptures besides Exodus to which Yehshua was referring in John 7.

Hab 2:14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.

Isa 11:5  And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His heart.

Isa 11:6  Also the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the cub lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

Isa 11:7  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

Isa 11:8  And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

Isa 11:9  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.

Isa 11:10  And in that day there shall be the Root of Jesse standing for a banner of the people; to Him the nations shall seek; and His resting place shall be glorious.

Isa 11:11  And it shall be in that day, the Lord shall again set His hand, the second time, to recover the remnant of His people that remains, from Assyria and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Ethiopia, and from Persia, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the coasts of the sea.

Isa 11:12  And He shall lift up a banner for the nations, and shall gather the outcasts of Israel and gather together the scattered ones of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

(I want you to notice that this millennial kingdom in which the Knowledge of Yehovah is like the waters that cover the sea comes after He has recovered the House of Israel from the captivity of those places that we have been speaking about for some time.)

We have a similar teaching in Zechariah but this one applies to the start of the 8th Millennium.

Zec 14:7  And it will be one day which shall be known to Jehovah, neither day nor night; but it will happen that at evening time it shall be light.

Zec 14:8  And it shall be in that day, living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them shall go toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea. In summer and in winter it shall be.

Zec 14:9  And Jehovah shall be King over all the earth; in that day there shall be one Jehovah, and His name shall be one.

Pro 18:4  The words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is like a flowing stream.

Isa 12:3  And with joy you shall draw water out of the wells of salvation.

Again the Word translated salvation in Hebrew is Yeshua.

H3444   (Brown-Driver-Briggs)
ישׁוּעה

yeshû‛âh

BDB Definition:

1) salvation, deliverance

1a) welfare, prosperity

1b) deliverance

1c) salvation (by God)

1d) victory

Part of Speech: noun feminine

Isa 44:3  For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground. I will pour My spirit on your seed, and My blessing on your offspring;

Isa 58:11  And Jehovah shall always guide you and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones fat; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

Isa 59:21  As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says Jehovah; My Spirit that is on you, and My Words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed, says Jehovah, from now on and forever.

We also must look at what Ezekiel saw in the future

Water Flowing from the Temple

Eze 47:1  And he led me again to the door of the house. And behold, water came out from under the threshold of the house eastward. For the front of the house is east, and the water came down from under the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.

Eze 47:2  And he led me out by the way of the north gate, and led me around the way outside to the outer gate, by the way facing the east. And behold, water was trickling out of the right side.

Eze 47:3  When the man went out eastward, and a line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits. And he passed me through the water. The water was to the ankles.

Eze 47:4  And he measured a thousand cubits, and passed me through the water, water to the knees. And he measured a thousand, and passed me through water to the loins.

Eze 47:5  And he measured a thousand; and there was a torrent which I was not able to pass; for the water had risen, water to swim in, a torrent that could not be passed.

Eze 47:6  And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen? And he led me, and caused me to return to the bank of the torrent.

Eze 47:7  When I returned, then behold, on the edge of the torrent were very many trees, from here and from there.

Eze 47:8  And he said to me, These waters go out toward the eastern circuit, and go down into the Arabah, and go into the sea. They are brought out into the sea, and the waters shall be healed.

Eze 47:9  And it shall be that every living soul which swarms in every place, there where the two torrents go, that soul shall live. And there shall be very many fish, because these waters shall come there. And they shall be healed. And all shall live where the torrent goes.

Eze 47:10  And it will be, the fishermen shall stand on it from En-gedi even to En-eglaim, a spreading place for nets shall be there. Their fish shall be according to their kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea, very many.

Eze 47:11  Its swamps and its marshes shall not even be healed; they shall be given to salt.

Eze 47:12  And all trees for food shall go up by the torrent, on its bank on this side, and on that side. Its leaf shall not fade, nor its fruit fail. It will bear by its months, because its waters come out from the sanctuary. And its fruit shall be for food, and its leaf for healing.

We are, in this teaching, speaking about the Feast of Sukkot but I want to show you how this theme of Living Waters carries through into the 8th Day Feast which represents the 8th Millennium.

Rev 22:1  And he showed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Rev 22:2  In the midst of its street, and of the river, from here and from there, was the Tree of Life, which bore twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit according to one month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Rev 22:3  And every curse will no longer be; but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will serve Him.

This now seems to come full circle and should remind you what you were told back in Genesis.

Gen 2:9  And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The tree of life also was in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Gen 2:10  And a river went out of Eden to water the garden. And from there it was divided and became four heads.

This river of Life, this river of Living Waters, what is it?

Amo 5:24  But let judgment roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

These Living Waters represent the Spirit of Yehovah.

Gal 5:18  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness,

Gal 5:20  idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies,

Gal 5:21  envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith,

Gal 5:23  meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Gal 5:24  But those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Gal 5:26  Let us not become glory-seeking, provoking one another, envying one another.

Eph 5:7  Therefore do not be partakers with them.

Eph 5:8  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

Eph 5:9  (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth),

Eph 5:10  proving what is acceptable to the Lord.

Eph 5:11  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

This 7th and Last Great Day is very important to understand. It represents a period of time. We understand from doing the Sabbatical and Jubilee Cycles that we are living at the very end of the 6th Millennial Day of Mankind and the 7th Millennium is about to begin.

The New Covenant

Jer 31:31  Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah,

Jer 31:32  not according to the covenant that I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of Mine they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Jehovah;

Jer 31:33  but this shall be the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel: After those days, says Jehovah, I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Jer 31:34  And they shall no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Jehovah. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.

Jer 31:35  So says Jehovah, who gives the sun for a light by day and the laws of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divides the sea when its waves roar; Jehovah of Hosts is His name;

You will recall from our book “It Was A Riddle Not A Command” that those who do not keep the commandments and do not do them are the ones who do not KNOW Yehovah and are the ones He says to leave I never knew you. Here in Jeremiah, EVERYONE knows Yehovah. There will no longer be a need for teachers to teach the Torah for Everyone will know Him during this time. When is this time?

The book of Hebrews quotes this same passage from Jeremiah in Hebrew 8:11. But the whole book is speaking about the time when these things would take place. The time of His Rest.

Heb 3:11  So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.”

Yehovah said in Numbers how they would not enter in.

Num14:20  And Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to your word.

Num14:21  But truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah.

Num14:22  Because all those men who have seen My glory and My miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not listened to My voice,

Num14:23  surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it.

Yehovah said over and over how they would not enter into His land. Num 14:27-30, Num 14:35, Num 32:10-13; Deu 1:34-35, Deu 2:14

Israel crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised land of Israel in a Jubilee year. This is very significant. It was a clue towards the time we are now in and this time now when we are about to enter into that 7th Millennium of rest.

The author of Hebrews tells you the answer to the questions about what rest he is speaking about.

Heb 4:1  Therefore, a promise being left to enter into His rest, let us fear lest any of you should seem to come short of it.

Heb 4:2  For also we have had the gospel preached, as well as them. But the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

Heb 4:3  For we who have believed do enter into the rest, as He said, “I have sworn in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest;” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Heb 4:4  For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested the seventh day from all His works.”

Heb 4:5  And in this place again, “They shall not enter into My rest.”

Heb 4:6  Since then it remains that some must enter into it, and since they to whom it was first preached did not enter in because of unbelief,

Heb 4:7  He again marks out a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” (after so long a time). Even as it is said, “Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”

Heb 4:8  For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.

Heb 4:9  So then there remains a rest to the people of God.

Heb 4:10  For he who has entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His.

Heb 4:11  Therefore let us labor to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of unbelief.

Heb 4:12  For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to thedividing apart of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The author of Hebrews is connecting the weekly Sabbath to that time of future rest. We are now living at the end of the 6th Millennium of mankind. This 7th Millennium is going to be the one of rest as the weekly Sabbath points to.

Here is our chart showing the 49 year Sabbatical Cycles since the creation of Adam The next 49th year for us is the year 2044. The Jubilee year is 2045 and is the start of the seventh Millennium. This is how close we are to this time spoken of in Hebrews and hinted at each week you keep the 7th Day Sabbath. This is how close we are to the time when all Flesh will know Yehovah. This is how close we are to the time when rivers of Living Waters will cover the whole earth.

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast nor his image, nor had received his mark on their foreheads, nor in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

At the start of this coming Millennium, all those who have died since Yehshua came out of the grave will be raised back to life and then they will live here on earth during this very special time. We explain this in detail in our teaching on Shavuot, the second of the wave offerings.

That age to come, a wonderful “rest” following the hardships of the present age, is symbolized every seven days by the weekly Sabbath. It celebrates the great harvest of humanity when all people who ever lived on earth will be raised up and learn Yehovah’s ways. Humanity will, at last, be restored to a right relationship with Yehovah because as we have already shown you the entire earth will be full of the knowledge of Yehovah.

In the beginning, Yehovah created mankind to cooperate with Him in a beautiful relationship characterized by love, peace and obedience to His laws. At the completion of His creation,

Gen 1:31 And Elohim saw all that He had made, and see, it was very good. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, the sixth day.

This time of peace and harmony abruptly ended because of Satan’s deception and man’s disobedience

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said to the woman, Is it so that God has said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Gen 3:2  And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.

Gen 3:3  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

Gen 3:4  And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die,

Gen 3:5  for God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.

Gen 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make wise, she took of its fruit, and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

Disobedience cut mankind off from Yehovah’s way

Gen 3:22  And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man has become as one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever,

Gen 3:23  therefore Jehovah God sent him out from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he had been taken.

Gen 3:24  And He drove out the man. And He placed cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

The Bible describes the tragic result:

Gen 6:5  And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

This broken relationship between Yehovah and man has continued through history to our time. Paul reflected on this state:

Rom 5:12 For this reason, even as through one man sin did enter into the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned –

Paul knew that the breach created by man’s disobedience is healed through Yehshua:

1Co 15:21 For since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a Man.

1Co 15:22 For as all die in Adam, so also all shall be made alive in Messiah .

Paul also wrote in Roman about how the whole earth groans and waits for the revealing of the Sons of Yehovah.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us.

Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Rom 8:20  For the creation was not willingly subjected to vanity, but because of Him who subjected it on hope

Rom 8:21  that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Rom 8:22  And we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

Rom 8:23  And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our body.

That revealing is going to take place on the Last Great Day of Sukkot. The seventh Millennium.

Isaiah prophesied the restoration of the world

Yehovah used the prophet Isaiah to reveal parts of His magnificent plan for restoring the world. Written at a time during which Israel faced punishment for continued disobedience, the book of Isaiah was inspired by Yehovah to give the nation encouragement through the promise of a better world to come.

Yehshua, after reading in the synagogue one of Isaiah’s prophecies, acknowledged the special understanding given to the prophet:

Joh 12:36  While you have the Light, believe in the Light so that you may become sons of Light. Jesus spoke these things and departed and was hidden from them.

Joh 12:37  But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they did not believe on Him,

Joh 12:38  so that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Joh 12:39  Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again,

Joh 12:40  “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

Joh 12:41  Isaiah said these things when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.

Isaiah prophesied not only of Yehshua’s earthly ministry, but also wrote of Yehshua’s return in power and glory

Isa 66:15  For, behold, Jehovah will come with fire, and with His chariots like a tempest, to refresh His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.

Isa 66:16  For by fire and by His sword Jehovah will execute judgment with all flesh; and the slain of Jehovah will be many.

The basis for the messianic rule will be Yehovah’s law. Again, as Isaiah foretold,

Isa 2:2  And it shall be, in the last days the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it.

Isa 2:3  And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go out the Law, and the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.

After Messiah’s return, He will bring the creation in its entirety into harmony with Yehovah, and peace will no longer be the exception. King David said,

Psa 119:165  Great peace is to those who love Your Law, and there is no stumbling block for them.

Imagine what the world will be like when everyone knows Yehovah’s law and lives by it!

Of course, more than just knowledge is needed to bring about this amazing transformation. A spiritual change will take place among people. Yehovah, speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, describes how it will happen:

Eze 36:26  And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

Eze 36:27  And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments and do them.

Eze 36:28  And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. And you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

The Spirit of Yehovah will influence people to willingly and enthusiastically obey Yehovah from their hearts. People will begin to place the interests of others before their own. They will start thinking of others as “better than themselves”

Php 2:3  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves.

Php 2:4  Do not let each man look upon his own things, but each man also on the things of others.

Instead of exclusive self-concern, their goal will be to help their fellow human beings. Theft will cease. Disregard for others’ property and feelings will be eliminated. Because the world will finally be at peace, countries will stop preparing for war.

Isa 2:4  And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Isa 2:5  O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

Micah says the same thing.

Mic 4:3  And He shall judge between many peoples, and will decide for strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, And they shall not still learn war.

During this 1,000-year period, Yehovah will change even the nature of wild animals, reflecting the peace that will descend upon society. Describing this idyllic time.

Isa 11:6  Also the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the cub lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

Isa 11:7  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

Isa 11:8  And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

Yehovah will heal physical infirmities.

Isa 35:4  Say to those of a hasty heart, Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the full dealing of God. He will come and save you.

Isa 35:5  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Isa 35:6  Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in the wilderness waters shall break out, and streams in the desert.

Isa 35:7  And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land shall become springs of water in the home of jackals, in its lair, and a place for the reed and rush.

Of even greater importance will be the spiritual healing that will take place. Isaiah prophesied that Yehovah will complete the healing He began during His ministry on earth:

Isa 61:1  The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is on Me; because Jehovah has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

Isa 61:2  to preach the acceptable year of Jehovah and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

Isa 61:3  to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the mantle of praise for the spirit of heaviness; so that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that He might be glorified.

Isa 61:4  And they will build the old wastes, they will raise up the ruins of former times. And they will repair the waste cities, the ruins of many generations.

The accumulated results of generations of people following Satan’s sinful ways will begin to be reversed.

The significance of tabernacles

  • According to Jewish wedding customs at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the bridegroom came at a day and hour that his bride did not know. As he came, the friend of the bridegroom went before him and shouted, “Behold, the bridegroom comes.”
  • This shout would be accompanied by the blowing of a shofar—a trumpet made from a ram’s horn. As the shout was heard, the bridegroom would get his bride and take her back to his father’s house, where the ceremony and celebration would take place.
  • These customs sound a lot like Jesus’ description of His second coming from the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13). • To really understand the Lord’s second coming and our calling as the bride of Christ, let’s look back in history to see the Jewish wedding customs during the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
  • Five customs comprise the traditional Jewish wedding system. These are:
  • 1. The arrangement of marriage
  • 2. The betrothal ceremony
  • 3. The preparation period between the betrothal and the wedding
  • 4. The wedding ceremony
  • 5. The wedding feast
  •   The arrangement, called the Shiddukhin, was the first step in the process and refers to the arrangements that were made prior to the legal betrothal.
  • The arrangement was the time of matchmaking, often decided upon between the father of the groom and the father of the bride. Often, the couple did not know each other before the arrangement. In some cases, they would not have even seen each other before the betrothal ceremony.
  •  Though this was the case, the bride-to-be was normally required to approve the marriage before the families agreed to a betrothal ceremony.
  • Once the selection had been made, the parents prepared the ketubah. The ketubah was normally a written contract that depicted the terms and conditions of the marriage arrangement, the price to be paid by the groom, the responsibilities and obligations of both parties, and the dowry to be offered by the bride.
  • Once the arrangement was made and the ketubah agreed to by both parties, the couple would move on to the betrothal (eyrusin) ceremony.
  • To prepare for this, the bride and groom would take part separately in a ritual immersion in water, which symbolized a spiritual cleansing. The ceremony would include vows promising to be married, the exchange of rings or something else of value, and the sealing of the agreement by sharing a cup of wine.
  • After this ceremony, the couple was legally married even though they did not live in the same house or have sexual relations.
  • Instead, the groom and bride maintained separate dwelling places, both remaining under their fathers’ roofs.
  • Because a betrothed couple was legally married, a separation or parting of ways for any reason would require a legal divorce.
  • The Jews used to refer to the act of betrothal as “taking a wife” by using a form of a Hebrew word that meant “purchase.” The betrothal ceremony was considered an act of purchasing or acquiring a wife for the purpose of marriage.
  • The betrothal ceremony would end with a feast to celebrate the occasion, and following the feast, each party would return to his or her parent’s house.
  • During the betrothal period, the groom remained at his father’s home and prepared a place for the two to live. This was normally done by adding a room to his father’s house.
  • While the groom was busy building, the bride was preparing herself for the upcoming wedding. This usually involved three things.
  • First, the bride was observed for her purity. This custom required at least a full nine months to pass in order to ensure that the bride was not pregnant and to attempt to assure that she was a virgin.10
  • Second, the bride consecrated herself. She examined everything in her life and changed whatever was necessary in order to be ready for the holy covenant of marriage. In fact, Jewish leaders began to use the term mekadesh (consecrated) for the act of betrothal. During the betrothal ceremony, the groom would often say to his bride that you are mekudeshet (consecrated) unto me. Therefore, the bride made sure that she was totally set apart from all other relationships and activities and that she was completely separated for her groom.
  • Third, the bride made her own wedding garments. Ancient Jewish women did not have the luxury of going to the nearest bridal shop and purchasing a premade dress. They had to spend hours and hours making their wedding garments and adorning them with the special touches to make them beautiful.
  • Toward the end of the yearlong betrothal period, the bride waited with great expectancy for the groom to come and for the ceremony to take place. Even late in the evening, the bride and her wedding party would keep their oil lamps burning in case it was time for the wedding to take place.
  • The day of the ceremony was a surprise to both the groom and the bride.14 When the bridegroom was asked the date of the wedding, he could only say something like, “No man knows except my father.”
  • When the time was right, the groom’s father would issue the approval for the ceremony to begin. The groom and his wedding party would leave the groom’s house to go get his bride. The friends of the bridegroom would shout, “Behold, the bridegroom comes!” and then they would blow the shofar. The groomsmen would lead the wedding party through the streets and bring the bride back to the groom’s home where the wedding canopy or huppah awaited.
  • The wedding ceremony, or the nissuin, was performed under the huppah. The vows made during the betrothal ceremony were completed in the marriage ceremony. The ceremony was once again sealed with a cup of wine to indicate the great joy that would accompany the festive celebration. After the ceremony, the couple consummated the marriage with sexual relations and lived together as husband and wife from that point forward.
  • The wedding feast was the highlight of the wedding ceremony. It was much more extensive than what Westerners are accustomed to today. It consisted of seven full days of food, music, dance, and celebration.17 • The primary purpose of the wedding feast was to honor the groom. All of the guests were expected to compose poems or sing songs to the groom.
  • Now that the blessed bridegroom had received a wife, he was supposed to display her beauty and grace to all who were present.
  • To honor the groom, the bride would put on her beautiful wedding garments that she made during her year of preparation and would display her beauty to the bridegroom’s friends, and the attendees, in return, would show her respect and admiration.
  • Following the wedding feast, the bridegroom and the bride would live together as husband and wife for the remainder of their lives.

These 7 days of the Feast represent the 7 millennia living here on this earth in temporary buildings. You may call them your homes, but the Groom, Yehovah has gone to build you a mansion.

In the book of Revelation this spiritual marriage union is described in terms of a “marriage supper”

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

Rev 19:6  And I heard as the sound of a great multitude, and as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of strong thunders, saying, Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns!

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice and we will give glory to Him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself.

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.

Rev 19:9  And he said to me, Write, Blessed are those who have been called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God.

This wedding takes place at the end of the 7th Day of the Wedding Feast. It then goes without saying that the wedding super we are going to will take place at the end of the 7th Millennium and just before the 8th Millennium begins.

Because many do not know who it is that they will be marrying we must look again to Isaiah.

Isa 54:5  For your Maker is your husband; Jehovah of Hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called.

Isa 54:6  For Jehovah has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were rejected, says your God.

Isa 54:7  For a little moment I have left you; but with great mercies I will gather you.

Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says Jehovah your Redeemer.

Isa 54:9  For this is as the waters of Noah to Me; for as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn from being angry with you and from rebuking you.

Isa 54:10  For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall the covenant of My peace be removed, says Jehovah who has mercy on you.

Finally one last point for you all to consider. We were talking about the rivers of living waters being the spirt of Yehovah to begin this article.

Knowing that that is true, then when Yehshua turned the water in wine at the end of the wedding festivities, what did that signify in relation to His spirit at the end of the 7th Millennium?

The Wedding at Cana

Joh 2:1  And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. And the mother of Jesus was there.

Joh 2:2  And Jesus and His disciples were both invited to the marriage.

Joh 2:3  And when they lacked wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, They have no wine.

Joh 2:4  Jesus said to her, Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come.

Joh 2:5  His mother said to the servants, Whatever He says to you, do it.

Joh 2:6  And there were six stone waterpots there, according to the purification of the Jews, each containing two or three measures.

Joh 2:7  Jesus said to them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.

Joh 2:8  And He said to them, Now draw out and carry it to the master of the feast. And they carried it.

Joh 2:9  When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water which was made wine (and did not know where it was from, but the servants who drew the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.

Joh 2:10  And he said to him, Every man at the beginning sets forth good wine, and when men have drunk well, then that which is worse. You have kept the good wine until now.

Joh 2:11  This beginning of miracles Jesus did in Cana of Galilee. And it revealed His glory. And His disciples believed on Him.

 


Parshat Devarim

What Is Emunah?

In this week’s parsha, Moses accuses the nation of Israel of not having faith. What? The people know firsthand about all the miracles God has done for them, how could they struggle with their faith?

Drawing on the Maharal’s pillars of faith, Rabbi Fohrman gives us a novel approach to understanding the basis of faith, and …
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Hi, this is Rabbi David Fohrman and you are watching Aleph Beta. Welcome to Parshat Devarim.

One of the great challenges of any religion is faith.

 

What Is the Meaning of Emunah?

Often we think of the central challenge of faith as belief in God, believing that God exists, that He is around – and yet the Torah uses the word Emunah in a way which almost certainly does not mean that. After the splitting of the sea, vaya’aminu baHashem – the people had faith in God. Was that the first time they believed that God existed?

In this week’s parsha, Moshe castigates the people for lack of faith, in the sin of the spies. Does Moshe seriously mean to say that the Jews did not believe in God? They doubted His existence? They got Manna from heaven, experienced revelation at Sinai, saw the ten plagues, saw the sea split; these guys didn’t believe that God was around?

We might consider faith as the last thing that the Jews of the desert would have struggled with and yet, according to Moshe, this is the people’s crime in the wake of the report of the spies.

The Torah isn’t talking about faith in terms of belief that God exists. The Israelites in the desert knew God existed, and what the Torah is really telling you is that the real journey of faith begins then. Believing that God exists, that’s the little leagues. What happens after you believe that, there is the real journey of faith, that’s the big leagues.

Today, I want to talk to you about that journey, that journey towards something else, after we believe that God exists. What is that something else and whatever it is what are the milestones that we pass in getting there? How do we achieve this thing called faith? Let’s try to define the terms.

What Is the Definition of Emunah in the Bible?

It turns out that the word Emunah is used not just to describe human feelings, it is actually used to describe something that seems to have very little to do with faith at all. Moshe’s arms in the battle against Amalek. The Jews prevailed in that battle only so long as Moshe’s arms were raised. His arms were tired, so Aharon and Chur held his arms up; vayehi yadav emunah ad boh hashemesh – and his arms were Emunah, they were steadfast until the sunset.

Faith over Emunah, I think, is identified with that idea of steadfastness. When you take it out of the realm of inanimate objects like arms and you take it into the realm of human relationships, it’s a kind of steadfast quality in my relationship with you, a kind of unflinching willingness to trust you even as I confront my deepest fears. That’s the sense in which Moshe uses in this week’s parsha.

The Israelites’ Struggle with Faith

The Jews were afraid, they were afraid of conquering the land. They looked at the inhabitants of the land and they seemed like giants. Moshe accuses them of a lack of faith at that moment:

U’ba’davar hazeh einechem ma’aminim baHashem – and in this you didn’t have faith, you didn’t have trust, you weren’t steadfast with God. You shrunk away from God even as God lovingly was telling you to trust Him.

It is very interesting I think, that when Moshe makes his accusation he doesn’t say that you failed to blindly have faith in God, he actually appeals to a kind of rational basis for that faith, to their experience. He says, look at your experience:

Hashem Elokeichem haholech lifneichem – the God, your God, who walks before you;

Hu yilachem lachem – He is the one going to fight for you;

K’chol asher asah itchem b’Mitzrayim l’eineichem – He is going to do for you just as He did against Egypt before your very eyes.

U’bamidbar asher ra’ita – and in this desert you have seen;

Asher nesa’acha Hashem – how God has carried you;

Ka’asher yisah ish et beno – like a man will carry his child.

He is appealing to their experience. You have grounds for faith – u’ba’davar hazeh einechem ma’aminim baHashem – but you in this thing have failed, you haven’t had faith in God.

 

The Basis of Faith: The Maharal’s Three Pillars of Emunah

In Moshe’s worldview, faith doesn’t come from nothing, it comes from observing things about your beloved that makes them trustworthy. The Maharal, the famous Rabbi [Judah 4:06] Loew of Prague, identifies three milestones and correlates them with the three times the word Emunah first appears in the Torah in the story of the exodus.

The Maharal suggests that the people experienced three things that gave them rational grounds for faith:

  1. The first thing they experienced, the first time the word faith is used in the story of the Exodus. When Moshe came to the elders of Israel and said God came to me and here are the signs that God gave to me; vaya’amein ha’am (vayishme’u) ki pakad Hashem et Bnei Yisrael v’ki ra’ah et – the Israelites understood that God saw their suffering. The first thing, the Maharal says, is I need to know that you care for me, that you have empathy for me, that you see my suffering. But if all I know is that it is still not rational for me to place my faith in you, I need to know more.
  2. The next time the word faith appears in the exodus story is at the splitting of the sea. Vaya’aminu baHashem u’b’Moshe avdo – the people believed in God and Moshe His servant, what did they see then? They saw an incredible display of the power of the Master of the Universe. In order to really have faith in you, it’s not enough for you to have empathy, you also have to have the power to help me.
  3. But even if I know that you have the power to help me and even if I know that you care and you have empathy, I still need to know one more thing and that brings us to the third instance of faith recorded in the Torah. It happens at Sinai. God said, I will come to you Moshe and I will speak to you in a way that the people would be able to hear Me speaking to you. V’gam becha ya’aminu l’olam – so that they should have faith in you and in the communication between Me and you forever. If I know that you have power and I know that you care for me but I do not know that you understand me. If I suspect that perhaps that you are so wrapped up in your own world that you cannot really get what it is that I need, I still cannot place myself in your hands. When the Jewish people saw God who was so different from them – a being that you cannot touch, that you cannot feel, that you cannot see – actually successfully communicate with Moshe, they became convinced that God understood Moshe and Moshe understood God. Then the final ingredient for faith existed.

If I know that you love me, that you feel empathy towards me, if I know that you have the power to help and I know that you really get what it is that I need, then I can trust you. There are grounds for me to place my faith in you and then, the real challenge occurs. My faith at that moment is still a product of an act of will, of sheer power on my part, to confront my fears and to take that leap.

What Is Struggling to Maintain Faith in God?

Trust is always hard, to steadfastly place yourself in the arms of your beloved, even as your beloved reassures you that they will take care of you through the darkest night, through the greatest terrors, it is a tough thing.

When you steadfastly place your fate in the hands of someone who loves you, when you abandon yourself to them, you achieve a dizzying kind of intimacy with them. That intimacy as rewarding as it is, is also scary. It is a kind of leaving yourself behind, a kind of merging unabashedly with another. There is no more hiding, what of my sense of self, am I losing it all to you?

Loss of control involves a loss of self and loss of self is always scary and if you are the entire Israelite people, it is scary with God. It is easier to just shrink back and say, ‘God, I am just not going to do this. I’d rather go back to Egypt’ and it is here that you get to the great consequences of failing to have faith.

Because listen carefully to the bone chilling words that the people say when they shrink away from God in the sin of the spies. They don’t just say we couldn’t do this, they say: B’sin’at Hashem otanu hotzi’anu m’eretz Mitzrayim – it was in God’s hatred of us that He took us out of Egypt. It sounds like insanity, how could you say that? That is what lack of faith will do to you.

Breaking the Pillars of Faith in God

If I have grounds to place my faith in you, if I know that you love me, I know that you have the power to help me, I know you understand me and I balk at my willingness to cede control to you, I have to explain that failure to myself. What will I tell myself? Will I be honest if I just didn’t have the courage to place myself in your hands? Or will I lie to myself and to you and compromise one of those three pillars?

In the case of the Jews, the pillar they compromised was love. They found a way to look back on their experience and say, our experience teaches us that God doesn’t love us, He hates us. As crazy as it is, it is the only way that they could come to rationalize their unwillingness to place their faith in God.

This is why the challenge of faith is such a challenge because when faith is warranted, when our experience gives us reasons to extend ourselves and trust, but we fail to take that leap – that leap which has an element of blindness, the willingness to just let go and let our beloved lead us through our darkest fears – once we reach that point our relationship will never be the same.

Building a Basis of Faith and Intimacy

If we do it successfully, we will have achieved the most dizzying kind of intimacy with our beloved but if we fail, everything can come crumbling down – when we tell ourselves that really there was never any love there at all and we are not to blame.

May we rise to this challenge when it is asked of us in all of our relationships; with God, with our wives, with our husbands, with our children, with our parents. It is a supreme test, one we dare not fail.


 

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