God has His own calendar and it is very different from ours. I fully believe that to understand the Bible and End Times prophecy, you must understand His calendar and His feasts. In Leviticus 23 we can read: “The Lord Said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.”

I want you to think about what this says…. These are God’s appointed times, the Moedim, HIS  appointed Feasts or festivals. The Most High has set apart precious times to meet with His beloved Bride. I believe we should observe them in some way. Yeshua/Jesus came and gave us a full understanding and fulfillment of the springtime feasts with His 1^st coming.  Jesus fulfilled the 4 spring time feast with His sacrifice on (Pesach) Passover, death and burial on Unleavened bread, the resurrection on First fruits, and He sent the Holy Spirit to us on Pentecost.  He has promised to fulfill the fall feasts with Yeshua’s 2^nd Coming. We believe Rosh Hashanah is the Resurrection of the Bride, the Days of Awe will be the Millennial Reign, Yom Kippur will be the Day of Judgment, and Succoth will be the New Heaven and New Earth. God’s appointed times are always about remembering something, but they are also about looking forward on what is to come. 

Pastor Mark Biltz calls the feasts “dress rehearsals”. Rosh Hashanah is our dress rehearsal for the Bridal Feast with our Messiah, and His Coronation as the King. Being mindful of God’s calendar is important. Say your best friend was getting married and you were in the wedding, you would have that date written on the calendar, you wouldn’t miss it, you wouldn’t make excuses to not be there. You would want to go! You would never miss your best friends wedding! It is the same for God’s Moedim, these are days that God has set on the calendar to be with us. So don’t miss them! Don’t be like the guests in Matt 22:1-11 who were invited to the King’s son’s wedding. The guests had personal invitations to come to the wedding, but they wouldn’t come. Then the King sent his servants telling those invited that the food was ready and to come eat! Instead they made light of it and went on their way, more concerned with things of the world and with making $$$. Finally, the king invited those who weren’t worthy. The servants invited anyone they could find so that the wedding would be full of guests.

When God created the World he worked 6 days and then the 7 day was a Sabbath rest. God’s calendar is also set up in cycles of 7 years, called a Shmita cycle (Lev 25). We work the land for 6 years and then on the 7^th year (Shmita) there is a Sabbath rest for the land. No crops were planted or harvested. The crops could be taken by the poor, strangers passing by, or beasts of the field. A practice that should be observed by farmers today. Our lands are depleted of essential nutrients and minerals and they rely on chemicals to make their crops profitable. I personally have observed Shmita cycles with my own vegetable garden. My land was very happy, the year after the Shmita rest. I had tomato plants that were at least 9 feet tall, and mom and I harvested and canned 169 qts!  

Why is all this important? Because of the number 7, which means completion and perfection! God loves the #7, it’s used in the Bible 735 times. In Revelation it’s used 54 times: there are 7 churches, 7 seals, 7 bowls, etc. Nations rise and fall on Shmita years. Shmita cancels monetary loans at sunset on Rosh Hashanah, Stock markets fall or collapse and economies are shaken. Lands and houses are returned to the original owners. Then after 7 Shmita cycles there was the year of Jubilee which was observed on the 50 year. 

The 70 7’s or Daniel’s weeks are Shmita cycles. Every 7 years is a cycle on God’s calendar. The Jewish people were supposed to observe the Shmita year cycles. Daniel’s 490 years were how many years the people didn’t observe the Shmita years. The last Shmita cycle of Daniel’s 70th week will include the Great Tribulation. 

In the Book of Daniel, (chap 9) we read that Daniel, who was in exile in Babylon with the Jewish People, was studying the Book of Jeremiah looking for answers. As he read, he understood that Jeremiah foretold a 70-year period of Babylonian captivity before the restoration of Israel would come to pass (Jeremiah 29:10).  Daniel’s heartfelt, moving response was to pray, confessing his sin and the sin of the entire nation of Israel.

As he prayed, the angel Gabriel came to him, telling him of an additional time period, this time of Shevuim Shevim (seventy sevens) or 490 years.  This was the time that would elapse before sin would end and everlasting righteousness would be established: “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.”  (Daniel 9:24)

 Shevuim (sevens) is similar to the concept of a decade (10 years), but refers to a seven-year period. Seventy sevens (70 X 7), therefore, represents a period of 490 years before the prophecy would be fulfilled. 

Of these 490 years, 483 have been fulfilled with remarkable precision; they represent the time between the decree by the Persian king Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:1–8) and the cutting off of Yeshua HaMashiach:
“From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’  It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.  After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One [Mashiach / Messiah] will be put to death and will have nothing.”  (Daniel 9:25–26)
From Artaxerxes’ decree  to Yeshua’s death on the Roman execution stake was 69 7’s or 483 years. Many believe this leaves a seven-year span that has yet to be completed and will be fulfilled in the last days and include the Great Tribulation period. 

 Daniel describes that time in Daniel 9:27 “He [the ruler at that time] will confirm a covenant [peace treaty] with many for one ‘seven.’  In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.  And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation.”  

This has been fulfilled once by Antiochus Epiphanes. When Yeshua was asked about His coming and the end of the age (Matthew 24:3–15), He referred to Daniel 9:27. According to Yeshua’s end-time explanation, He confirms that there will be a third Jewish Temple in the last days, the abomination of desolation will take place for the 2^nd time, and a seven-year peace covenant, which likely will be brought about by the Anti-Messiah. It is commonly believed that the signing of this peace treaty will start Daniel’s 70th week time period including the Great Tribulation. The treaty will possibly include provisions for the 3^rd temple to be built.   

Because Daniel’s 70^th week is a Shmita cycle it can only begin after a Shmita year! God is very particular about following order with His calendar. So Daniels’s last week can’t start this year. It will either have to start in 2 years on Rosh Hashanah 2022 or we will have to wait another 7 years. The Next Shmita year starts on Rosh Hashanah the 7^th month of the Jewish calendar (Tishri), on the 7^th Day of year 5782, or (Sept 7^th, 2021). The 7^th month and the 7^th day… HMMMMM…I’m sure there will be some spiritual significance to that Day!   

Rosh Hashanah is also know as Yom Teruah, or Feast of Trumpets. It is also know as the “Day of Remembrance” of God’s creation of the Universe. Jewish Tradition states that Adam was created by the Lord on Rosh Hashanah. It is the first day of the Jewish Civil calendar or the New Year. Lev 23:^23 “The Lord said to Moses, ²⁴ “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. ²⁵ Do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord.’”

We are to blow the shofar (ram’s horn) to coronate the Messiah as King of the Universe. The blast of the shofar is meant to jolt us from our sleep. The shofar blast is also a call to repentance. There are 4 shofar blasts:

• Tekiah: A long Blast (the sound of the King’s coronation)
• Shevarim: Three short wail like blasts (signifying repentance)Teru’ah: Nine staccato blasts of alarm (to awaken the soul)
• Tekiah Ha—GaDol: a great long blast (resurrection)
• The shofar is blasted 100 times during a typical Rosh Hashanah service, thus satisfying the commandment to make noise on this day.
  

According to Jewish tradition, the righteous (tzaddikim) are written in the Book of Life and the wicked (Resha’im) are written in the Book of Death. The 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the Ten days of Repentance (Awe). On Yom Kippur everyone’s names are sealed in one of the books for the coming year. As believers in Yeshua/Jesus we have our names written in the Book of Life upon our coming to salvation. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take the Ten days of Repentance seriously, however. I think it would behoove us if we did observe it as believers.

As I said earlier we are waiting for Jesus/Yeshua to fulfill the fall feasts with His 2nd coming. 1 Cor 15: Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

Matt 24: But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: ³⁰ and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

1 Thess 4: According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Other Scripture references can be found in Zeph 1:14-16, & Joel 2:1-2. The Rapture, Resurrection of the Bride, or the Greek word “harpázō,” meaning to “openly, forcefully take up” or “openly and suddenly catch away”, will happen on Rosh Hashanah! It will happen at the Tekiah Ha—GaDol, the last of the 100 shofar blasts during the service. This is a judgment in itself, those that are written in the Book of Life will be a part of the Resurrection of the Bride, those that aren’t will be left to experience the 7 bowls of God’s wrath. 

I know some you readers might be thinking about the scripture in Matt 24 that says ³⁶ “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” I think this scripture is a clue from Yeshua about Rosh Hashanah. This is because the Feast of Trumpets has also been known since ancient times as the “Hidden Feast”. The reason it is called this is because in ancient times nobody even knew when it was going to begin. The feast of trumpets falls on the first day of the 7^th Month, Tishri. This is the only Moed or appointed time that starts on a New Moon. The new month and Rosh Hashanah can’t begin until the New Moon is spotted by 2 witnesses. Once the New Moon was spotted Rosh Hashanah could commence. This is why this feast is celebrated for 2 days, they want to make sure that they celebrated it on the day. The phrase “no man knows the day or the hour” was commonly used to refer to this festival in ancient Israel. So when Jesus used this phrase I believe He was pointing us to Rosh Hashanah. 

The Resurrection of the Bride happens on Rosh Hashanah immediately after the Great Tribulation period has ended, and it ushers in the 10 days of Awe/Repentance. During the Days of awe, those that were a part of the Resurrection of the Bride will be enjoying our time of the wedding feast with God. Meanwhile, those left behind will experience the 7 bowls of God’s wrath (Rev 16), the fall of Babylon (Rev 17-18), and the Beast and his armies are defeated (Rev 19). Then we will enjoy the millennial reign. I totally believe that those left behind, who haven’t received the Mark of the Beast, will have a chance to repent before the 2nd Judgment (Yom Kippur).   

1 Thess 5:1 “Now brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, ² for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.  ⁴ But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. ⁵ You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶ So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. ⁹ For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁰ He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. ¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”  

We are called to be awake and to be watching for signs of the End Times. Be Mindful and watching God’s calendar and His Moedim! Rosh Hashanah is an exciting time of the year when you understand that those who are believers will be Resurrected on this day in the future!

DISCLAIMER: Up until less than 2 months ago, I believed that Succoth or Festival of Booths was when we would be celebrating the Millennial Reign. God gave me this revelation that the millennial reign would take place during the Days of Awe. Because of this, so much of the book Revelation has made better sense. Could I be wrong? Of course! I do believe that God is going to keep giving us more revelations and understandings about the End Times as we progress. Somethings we may not understand until after they happen. I am not trying to set dates, but scripture has made it clear that we should know the times and the seasons. We may not know what year all these events will take place, but we do know that the Fall Feasts will be fulfilled with Yeshua’s 2^nd coming. 

References:
God’s Day Timer: Pastor Mark Biltz
The Rapture Verdict: Micheal Snyder
Messianic Bible Prophecy Project