The Appointed Times of YHVH—the Eighth Day and the Messiah.
The baby of Yoseph and Miryam was born on the first day of the Festival of Sukkot, He was circumcised per the Torah and the name Yehoshua was given to Him on the eighth day, Yom HaShemini or Simchat Torah, the Rejoice of Torah. The Word of YHVH rejoiced as all prophecies of His coming were fulfilled in Chag Sukkot (the Festival of the Booths).
This is the last article of the series The Appointed Times of YHVH and the Messiah. Every appointed time of YHVH is a footstep of the Messiah towards the Creator. Every appointed time of YHVH is also a set-apart rehearsal for us. As we walk in the footsteps of the Messiah, beginning with the sacrifice of the Pesach lamb, we rehearse all events that will take place in their own time. And when there is a rehearsal, a real event is coming—the Messiah of YHVH is coming. The desire of the present author is to show that each of the appointed times of YHVH is a footstep of the Messiah. In all preceding articles the will of the present author was to find Yeshua the Messiah in the Torah and in the prophecy. And we see the Messiah in the appointed times of YHVH, we do them, as we walk in the footsteps of the Messiah rehearsal after rehearsal for the glory the Father in heaven.
As we will walk in the footsteps of the Messiah, Shabbat after Shabbat, festival after festival, we will return to find Yeshua the Messiah in them, because they are also called rehearsals. For more details on how to celebrate each appointed times of YHVH, the reader is encouraged to return to the corresponding articles.
The Shabbat and the Messiah
When the adversary deceived the woman, which caused the fall of mankind, there was a need for redemption. The Creator of the universe devised a plan for the redemption of His creation and this plan included the work of a special man, whom the Creator called the Seed of a woman. This man was anointed (Heb. mashiach) not only to crush the adversary’s head but to redeem the mankind and the entire creation by his work. We see this man in an encoded message in Genesis, as we read the first ten generations from Adam to Noach:
A human being [Adam] appointed/substituted [Sheth] for a mortal man [Enosh], a praise of Elohim [Mahalalel], shall descend [Yered] dedicated [Hanok] and His death shall send [Methushelah] a powerful [Lemek] rest [Noach].
Another powerful encrypted message we find this time in the last book of the Scripture: The Revelation. If we rearrange the names of Ya’akov’s sons, in the order they appear in Rev 7:4-8 and read them with the full description of their meanings given by their mothers, before us is revealed another prophetic picture of the Seed of the woman. This is what we read in the prophetic words of their mothers:
“Now I praise YHVH [Yehudah, Yehovah praised,]. For YHVH has looked on my affliction [Re’uvein, Behold a son].” “With Fortune [Gad, Fortune] I am blessed [Asher, Happy].” “With great wrestling I have wrestled and I have overcome [Naphtali, My Wrestling].” “For Elohim has made me forget [Menashsheh, Causing to overlook] all my toil, Because YHVH has heard [Shimon, Heard] that I am unloved, He gave me this son too.” “Now this time my husband will be joined [Leivi, Joined] to me,” “Elohim has given me my wage [Issaschar, He will bring a reward],” “Elohim has presented me with a good gift. Now my husband will dwell with me [Zevulun, Habitation].” “YHVH will add to me [Yoseph, YHVH has added] another son: Son of my sorrow (Ben-Oni) and Son of my right hand [Binyamin, Son of the right hand]”
With the last will of the dying Rachel a prophecy came true when she gave the name for her second and last son: “Son of my sorrow (Ben-Oni), thus she prophetically referred to “the suffering Messiah,” but his father called him Binyamin, (Son of the right hand) thus Ya’akov prophetically referred to “the conquering Messiah”, as “the right hand” is a metaphor for power and authority.
The Rabbinical tradition of “two messiahs”: “the suffering Messiah” and “the conquering Messiah” should not surprise us at all because we see it in the above prophecy coded in the names of Ya’akov’s sons in Rev 7:4-8. What is different from the tradition is that the Messiah came once as the suffering Messiah and will come again as the conquering Messiah at the allotted time.
But who could that son (called a praise of Elohim and Son of the right hand) be but Yeshua the Messiah, the Anointed One of YHVH?
The Sages express their faith in the redemption work of the Messiah that His coming will be after 6,000 years since the sin entered this world. And after the six-thousand years, on the eve of the seventh thousand the Messiah of YHVH will come to bring world peace and redeem man to YHVH. The long-waited Messiah of Israel will come on the eve of the Shabbat to bring rest to His brothers in the seventh [sabbatical] millennium. With this all scholars Jewish or Christian agree.
The Festival of the Unleavened Breads and the Messiah
Israelites defiled themselves with the abominations and the idols of Egypt. They rebelled against the Almighty and He resolved to pour out His wrath on them to complete His displeasure against them in the midst of the land of Egypt, as we read in Eze 20:5-8. The question we need to ask ourselves is this: If we, the children of Israel, remain any longer in our “Egypts”, would YHVH find children of Israel to redeem? Are we any better today than the forefathers then in Egypt? That is why the work of the Seed of the woman is needed—to redeem us from the idolatry in “Egypt”. For more insight on the real reason of the Exodus, the reader may refer to the article Israel’s Whoring in Egypt.
Just like the first Pesach slaughtered in Egypt for the redemption of the Israelites, Yehoshua the Pesach of YHVH, being a sinless man, was the perfect substitute for the redemption of sins. He would suffer exceedingly and die to pay the penalty that otherwise would have been on us.
Yeshua was crucified and died on the Preparation Day, when the Pesach (Passover) lambs were slaughtered in Jerusalem. His body was placed in a tomb before the beginning of the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Breads at sunset. Yeshua was three days and three nights in the tomb, according to His own prophecy in Mat 12:40 and Luk 11:29-30, and resurrected on the seventeenth day, on the Festival of the First-fruits thus becoming the First-fruit of the resurrection.
YHVH’s Pesach Yeshua the Messiah is the central point in the Festival of the Unleavened Breads. And as we are told to have this festival as a sign between our eyes, as we read in Exo 13:6-9, and to remember it in all our generations, Yeshua the Messiah is also to be remembered as the Pesach of YHVH, because we have also been delivered from our “Egypt” by the blood of the Lamb, Yeshua the Messiah. Therefore, we see that the ultimate Passover Lamb of YHVH, Yeshua the Messiah, paid the penalty for those who with faith put His blood on the doorposts of their souls, their hearts, and left their personal “Egypt”.
The Festival of the First-fruits and the Messiah
The Messiah had to die on the day of the slaughtering of the Pesach lambs. He had to be three full days and three full nights in the heart of the earth, and resurrected on the Festival of the First-Fruits, in order to fulfill His own words and His Father’s appointed time that the Pesach Lamb had to die for forgiveness of sins, as the Pesach lambs died for the forgiveness of the sins of the children of Israel in Egypt. A sinless righteous man had to suffer and die to pay the penalty which otherwise would be on us. But also the Messiah had to be risen from the dead to win victory over the death, so that whoever believes in His sacrifice and the work of His Father, will have an everlasting life.
When Yeshua presented himself as the First-fruit before the Father, He (being the High Priest according to the order of Malkitsedek, Righteous King) brought before the altar of YHVH and waved the first-fruits of His resurrection. Those first-fruits He brought before the Father were the righteous ones who were resurrected with Him. He brought them as a wave offering in order to fulfill the requirements in Lev 23:5-11 concerning this festival. Thus, Yeshua became not only the Unleavened Bread to YHVH, but also ultimately the First-fruit of the resurrection. And by His obedience to His Father’s will to take our punishment on the execution stake, Yeshua made the day of the First-fruits the greatest of all appointed times of YHVH. Without the fulfillment of the First-fruits as a day of the resurrection of the Lamb of YHVH who died for the transgression of His people, all other appointed times make little sense, and our faith has no purpose. We recall the words of the apostle, But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the first-fruit of those having fallen asleep. (1Co 15:16-23)
The Festival of the Weeks and the Messiah
The Festival of the Weeks (Chag Shavuot) is traditionally linked with the giving of the Torah to Israel at Mount Sinai. The identical Hebrew words for “festival of oaths” and “festival of weeks” reflects the covenantal aspect of this appointed time of YHVH, when He set it also as the Festival of Oaths after the manner of the seven oaths He made before the exodus from Egypt. And as we count for ourselves seven complete weeks from Yom Bikkurim (the First-fruits) until Shavuot (the Weeks), we do not just count seven weeks and forty-nine days, but we also count the seven oaths of promises which YHVH gave to the fathers in Egypt. Therefore, we see that for the sake of this inward connection between YHVH’s appointed times, the laws concerning the wave-sheaf on the Day of the First-fruits and wave-loaves on Shavuot, both days of presenting the First-fruits, are bound together into one whole concept of an internal unity of the resurrection of the Messiah and the Revelation of the Covenant—the blood of the Covenant.
At the last supper before His death, Yeshua broke the bread and taking the cup He said,
Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood, that of the renewed covenant, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Mat 26:26-29)
These words of Yeshua the Messiah are the reminiscence of the words of Mosheh, when he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people: See, the blood of the covenant which Yehovah has made with you concerning all these Words. (Exo 24:6-8) The meaning of the blood in this ritual is never truly explained in the Torah. Nahum M. Sarna writes in The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus, Jewish Publication Society, Pg. 152, that … the blood functions mysteriously to cement the bond between the involved parties.
The answer to this enigma is found in the mouth of Yeshua the Messiah. He is telling us that the “cup of redemption” which represents the blood of the Pesach (the Passover lamb), represents His own blood which is the ratifying blood of the Covenant YHVH made with the fathers at Mount Sinai. And indeed, it is so. The innocent Lamb of YHVH, the Pesach, suffered and died on His day to cement the bond between the involved parties in the Covenant by paying the penalty (see Isa 53:4-8 JPS).
The Day of Trumpets and the Messiah
We continue to walk in the footsteps of the Messiah in the autumnal appointed times of YHVH. We studied that since the whole seventh month has been set apart in the first day, the Day of Trumpets, Yom Teruah, as the beginning of the month, the whole month is raised to the status of being Shabbat to YHVH after the manner of the weekly Shabbat. For this reason, the present author believes that the Creator has set apart the seventh month as a peculiar month, namely, to secure to Israel the complete atonement for all her sins and rebellions which separated her from YHVH. Yeshua alludes to Yom Teruah (the Day of Trumpets), when He said in Mat 24:31 that His Father would send His messengers with a great sound of a trumpet. And His heavenly Father speaks of the same day and event that will take place when the counting of the 6,000 years will come to end with the blowing of a great horn in Isa 27:13.
The present author has dedicated Part III Time of Reckoning or The Last 1,260 Days Of This World of his book to the soundings of the seven trumpets in the Book of Revelation, but it suffices now to say that there is a strong evidence that the sound of the seventh trumpet is the great sound of the trumpet in Mat 24:31 and the great horn that shall blow in Isa 27:13 are one the same. For more insight of this prophecy, the reader is encouraged to refer to the series of articles The Revelation from YHVH.
But what did the Rabbis say about the sounding of the great trumpet and the Messiah?
According to the Ultra-Orthodox Haredi Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter, the Rabbis are very well aware of Yeshua being the Minister of the Face of YHVH (Heb. Sar HaPanim). There is a Jewish prayer book called Machzor Rabbah for Rosh HaShanah which contains a remarkable prayer read on Yom Teruah (Rosh HaShanah in the Rabbinical tradition) when the shofars are sounded. In this ancient Jewish prayer, the name of this Minister of the Face of YHVH is hidden: Yeshua. For more insight of the faith the ancient Rabbis had in Yeshua the Messiah, the articles Revealing Yeshua secretly guarded by the Rabbis and Did Israel reject the Messiah, Part 1 and Part 2, would be a good beginning.
The Day of Atonement and the Messiah
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippurim) was the day of the reconciliation for the golden calf sin which the children of Israel committed against YHVH. On that day Mosheh returned to the people with the tablets of the Renewed Covenant, after he was with YHVH a hundred and twenty days. When he returned, he announced that YHVH had forgiven Israel the sin of the golden calf.
A peculiar sacrifice was performed on the Day of Atonement. A red heifer, perfect and without any blemish, was sacrificed on that day for cleansing from sin. We should remember that another sacrifice was performed on the day of the Passover which sacrifice was for a personal redemption for those who have put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts in Egypt, while the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippurim) was the day of the collective reconciliation of all Israel for the golden calf sin.
When the Messiah comes, teach the Sages, He will bring atonement for His people, the Final Redemption. They also teach that nine red heifers had been sacrifice so far in the human history and that the Messiah will prepare the last, the tenth sacrifice of red heifer (Mishneh Torah). The slaying of the red heifer is a sin-offering to remind Israel that death was the wage of sin, but also to point to the remedy for the defilement of death, the legal means to recover a right or obtain redress for a wrongdoing. Yeshua the Messiah fulfills the laws of both appointed times, namely being the Pesach and red heifer of YHVH.
The Festival of the Booths and the Messiah
On the first day of the seventh month, Yom Teruah, year 3962, a harbinger, a sign of the sky was given of the coming birth of the Messiah. Fifteen days later, on the first day of Sukkot, Yeshua the Light of the world was born in Bethlehem. The following seven days were for celebration of Sukkot, as His mother Miryam was in her seven-day separation, according to the Torah.
On the eighth day after Sukkot, Yom HaShemini, a day of rest known today as “Simchat Torah” (Rejoice of the Torah), baby Yeshua, the living Torah, was circumcised according to Torah. Sometime after Yom HaShemini, Yoseph and Miryam paid their taxes to Rome, and they return to Nazareth where Miryam remained in the blood of her cleansing thirty-three days. After the cleansing according to Torah was completed, Miryam brought two turtledoves as a sin offering to the Temple.
In the corresponding article, we studied that there is a strong connection between the coming of the Messiah into the world and the Temple of YHVH. His body was dedicated (born) on the first day of Sukkot, that was also the day when the first Temple was dedicated; His foundation (His miraculous conception) was laid during the Festival of Chanukah, when the second Temple was rededicated.
When Yeshua the Messiah walked in His Father’s Set-apart place with the thought of what He said a few months earlier, He knew that His body was conceived by the Set-apart Spirit in the Festival of Chanukah. And what He said earlier was,
And on the last day, the great day of the festival, Yeshua stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, and let him who believes in Me drink.” (Joh 7:37)
“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but possess the light of life.” (Joh 8:12)
That festival was His Father’s appointed time: Chag Sukkot (the Festival of the Booths) and the last, the great day of the festival was Yom HaShemini, when all Jerusalem was rejoicing in the Torah. The Festival of Sukkot is a prophetic shadow picture of the birth of Yeshua the Messiah, the Living Word of Yehovah, the Light of the world, who came to dwell (to tabernacle) among His brothers. Not surprisingly, both festivals—Sukkot and Chanukah—are called festival of lights for this reason. With all that being said, which cannot possibly exhaust all that can be said about Yeshua the Messiah of YHVH, we are coming to the last festival and its connection to the Messiah—Yom HaShemini.
The Eighth Day and the Messiah
Speak to the children of Israel, saying, “When a woman has conceived, and has given birth to a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days, as in the days of her monthly separation she is unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin is circumcised.” (Lev 12:2-3)
The Lubavitcher Rebbe teaches that,
When the Jew is circumcised on the eighth day of life, he is completely unaware of the significance of what has occurred. But this “non-experience” is precisely what circumcision means. With circumcision the Jew says: I define my relationship with G-d not by what I think, feel or do, but by the fact of my Jewishness—a fact which equally applies to an infant of eight days and a sage of eighty years. (The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
And indeed, Yeshua did not define His relationship with His Father by what He thought, felt, or did. He did not come to do His own will. He defined His relationship with the Father by the fact of what He actually did to do the will of His Father in heaven. He defined His relationship with the Father by the fact of His ancestry which can be traced back to the forefathers Ya’akov, Yitschak, and Avraham, and even to the first Adam as He was prophesied to become the praise of Elohim and Son of the right hand—all thanks to the accurate accounts of the Apostolic Writings and the Tanak.
Eight days after the baby of Yoseph and Miryam was born on the first day of the Festival of Sukkot, He was circumcised according to the Torah and the name Yehoshua was given to Him. They went to the Temple in Jerusalem on the eighth day of His birth, which happened to be Yom HaShemini, the Eighth Day, aka Shemini Atzaret, and per the Rabbinical tradition—Simchat Torah, Rejoice of Torah. Thus, the written Word of YHVH rejoiced figuratively as all prophecies of His coming were fulfilled in Yom HaShemini, the Eighth Day, the closing festival of all festivals. And indeed, what would be the greatest rejoice in Torah, but the fulfilment of the prophecy in the Torah about the coming of the Prophet like Mosheh; the glory of YHVH Avraham and Mosheh had been made to foresee in the future. This day is a closing festival of all appointed times of YHVH, from Rosh HaShanah and the Unleavened Bread to the Festival of the Booths, as this will be the most natural way to celebrate the Living Word of YHVH becoming flesh.
In conclusion of this study, we went through the footsteps of the Messiah, Yeshua, as He fulfilled with His personal life His Father’s appointed times: His coming in the world was heralded in the heaven on Yom Teruah, was born on the first day of Sukkot, circumcised on Yom HaShemini, lived a sinless and righteous life according to the Torah, crucified as the Lamb of YHVH on the eve of the first day of the Matzot to became the Unleavened Bread, the bread of affliction of YHVH; He was raised from the dead on the day of HaBikkurim to become the First-fruit of the resurrection, and with His innocent blood He ratified His Father’s Covenant given on Shavuot. But He will come again on Yom Teruah to bring world peace, and to establish His Father’s Tabernacle and dwell with us in the Millennium Kingdom—the Shabbat of YHVH. So be it! Amein!
This article is a part of series of articles dedicated to the Appointed Times of YHVH and how His Messiah Yeshua has fulfilled them. For the rest of the set-apart days of the Creator, please, visit The Appointed Times of YHVH.
Navah
May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days.