The Bridegroom and Bride - Two Years and Counting

The pagan holiday known to most as Easter has past. If you've been following this blog you may have given thought to and received some insight about just what the popular chocolate rabbit is really all about, who is placed in a grass lined basket with eggs. Has he emerged from the rabbit hole covered in chocolate? Is there a reproductive scheme involved? Whose savior is that, then? Those practices make as much sense in connection with Y'shua's resurrection as celebrating his rising on Sunday, who had obviously been raised the day before the women came to the tomb and mistook their risen Lord for a gardener. He was put in the ground just before sunset, exiting 72 hours later, right? The seventh day Shabbat is appointed for resurrection, as the biblical patterns testify, and the 7th day prophetic signal was just as important as the one about the three days and nights in the heart of the earth. But the pagan imprinting of lies over the truth isn't the subject of this post, because I've already written about all that and I'm not going to repeat it here.

The Pesah or Hag haMatzot is nearly over. Tomorrow, April 2-3, will mark 2 years remaining until the firstfruits harvest I call the Bride Theft, as the 21st day of the 1st month. Although two years at the recent rate of passing might seem really short to you I don't consider it so. I'm assured that the next two years will not be like the last two. (Genesis 45:6) The sign I look for every year on the 13th day wasn't seen, as expected. It won't be seen in 2014 either, although if I'm able I'll watch for it anyway. Come 2015, the world will never be the same after what's coming on the 13th day of the 1st month!

When Pesah was instituted 2448 years from Adam, it was a very dramatic time for Yahweh's people. It was given as a memorial of that miraculous season of the exodus from Egypt. Looking back from our historical vantage point today, it's obvious how the Pesah was also prophetic. When my Lord was crucified and buried and then rose from the dead, some of what the Pesah prophesied was fulfilled, but not yet everything.

26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” ~ Matthew 26:26-29

He wasn't speaking about drinking it new with them on some random day on the calendar but primarily of some future Pesah when they would be rejoined. He was not instituting a religious ceremony but rather by his actions and words fulfilling and enacting prophecy. What was done during what is traditionally known as the last supper was all very profound. It was in 2008 during a deep study of the account given in the 13th chapter of John that I received some key insight from the Lord about how or when, really, that prophecy would be fulfilled. I had several pieces of the puzzle already but couldn't solve it without the connecting piece.

36) Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later." 37) Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You." 38) Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times. ~ John 13:36-38

The Lord was cryptically instructing Peter about when he would follow him. What of it Peter was ever given to understood I cannot say. In 2008, I came to understand just that, when the secret about the timing was finally revealed to me. Peter had to first deny the Lord three times, then a rooster would crow. Peter was a type of the church, variously of one or another of all three divisions appointed to the three harvests. I understood the symbol language of the coded message. When the Lord highlighted to me verse 38 as the answer to the pressing question on my heart, it came as a crushing blow because I had so hoped to be joined with Him shortly. I had been seeking to know whether what I had been watching happen with the Pope and Bill Clinton might finally be the sign for which I hoped. When He spoke to me with verse 38 it was confirmed to me that it was not, and what was left ringing in my ears was how there remained seven more years, seven more years. Finally coming to know the time was bittersweet. I can vividly recall the intense burden I felt in that realization. I was just sick. I felt a profound sense of disappointment and perceived that there was in this something intimate shared with my Lord. I can't write about this today without getting very emotional.

With yet two years remaining, I have a deep sense of how vital this season has been, and how different this world is from that world of 2008. We needed this season for preparation, with trials more and more severe.

When I write occasionally about 3 things and then a 4th, I don't often give much of an explanation but it pertains to examples of the pattern expressed in John 13:38, confirmations of what the Lord revealed to me. The crowing of the rooster announces a resurrection.

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

33 “Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come. 34 It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. 35 Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’” ~ Mark 13:33-37

There would be no rooster crowing, no heralding of the harvest of the church until that church had failed as prophesied in the appointed seasons of accounting. Three denials means three Shemittah, counted off from the celestial sign of 1991. The third denial was officially marked on that day in 2008, during the third Shemittah when a pattern sign had been observed. With the failures now behind us, the rooster may crow, the crop in the Lord's harvest field will be ready for harvest! This has been awaited for a very long time!

During this fourth Shemittah, which spans 2012-2019, the three appointed harvests will occur in their sequence. You will want to be accounted worthy of participating in the first one. It's worth every effort!