Tanak Foundations-Concepts on The Natzal (Rapture)-Part 17

Now we are going to look at Isa 27.1-13, “On that day (Day of the Lord) the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent with his fierce and great and mighty sword (the Word of God-Rev 19.15), even Leviathan the twisted serpent (Nachash-Gen 3.1 and a picture of the False Messiah) and he will kill the dragon (Tannin) who lives in the sea. In that day (Day of the Lord) a vineyard of wine will sing of it. I, the Lord, keep it, I water it every moment. Lest any hurt it, I guard it night and day, I have no wrath. Should someone give me briars and thorns in battle (false teachers and enemies in the vineyard) then I will go through them, I would burn them completely. Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me. Those who come he shall cause to take take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. Has he struck Israel as he struck those who struck him? Or has he been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by him? In measure, by sending them away you contended with them. He removes them by his rough wind in the day of the east wind (Day of the Lord).”

“Therefore, by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered; and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar like chalk stones that are beaten to dust; Asherim and incense altars will not stand. For the fortified city (Jerusalem) is isolated, a homestead forlorn and forsaken like a desert; there the calf will graze, and there it will lie down and feed on it’s branches. When its limbs are dry, they are broken off (Rom 11.12-24); women come and make a fire with them. For they are a people of no understanding, therefore, their maker will not have compassion on them. And their creator will not be gracious to them. And it will come about in that day (Day of the Lord) that the Lord will start his threshing from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, O sons of Israel (survivors and exiles gathered in the Birth-pains). It will come about in that day (Day of the Lord) that a great trumpet (Shofar Ha Gadol on Yom Kippur/Yovel) will be blown; and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria (where the ten tribes were exiled) and who were scattered in the land of Egypt (where others went to flee from Babylon/Kings of the East) will come and worship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.”

As we can see from these two chapters we have the Day of the Lord, the opening of the gates and the righteous entering in on Rosh Ha Shanah, a time of judgment, Birth-pains, the resurrection, the False Messiah and the great trumpet on Yom Kippur and the regathering of the people of Israel.

Remember, Yom Ha Din is a name given to Tishri 1, which is Rosh Ha Shanah (Lev 23.24). Dan 7.9-10 and Dan 7.22 describes the divine judgment where the Ancient of Days is sitting upon a throne where the books are opened. There is a specific day in the year when God holds judgment over the world. For more information, go to the Jewish Encyclopedia and look up Day of Judgment, Day of the Lord and Eschatology. Dan 7.9-10 will be the Yom Ha Din of Rosh Ha Shanah and Dan 7.22 will be the Yom Ha Din of Yom Kippur.

The Tanak is full of references that are understood as a Yom Ha Din (Ezek 20.37; Dan 9.11; Joel 3.12-14; Isa 57.1-2, etc). We know that there are two days designated as a Yom Ha Din so how do we know which one is being referred to? One way is by the context of the passage. If only the righteous are resurrected it is Rosh Ha Shanah. If both the righteous and wicked are resurrected, or the righteous are given authority to judge, it is Yom Kippur. The context will determine whether it is at the beginning of the Day of the Lord (Rosh Ha Shanah) or at the end (Yom Kippur). In other words, we will have two points in time where there will be a resurrection. One will be at the beginning of the Day of the Lord, and the other will be at the end of the Day of the Lord (Atid Lavo; Millennium; Lord’s Day, etc) when the righteous and the wicked will be resurrected. Who are the righteous in the Second Resurrection? These are those who become righteous during the Day of the Lord (one thousand years) and they passed away.

Now, Dan 7.9-10 talks about “books” being opened at Rosh Ha Shanah and this judgment. The question is, what books? Lev 23.24 says, “Speak to the children of Israel saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy (has a kedusha) convocation (proclamation).'” A memorial or remembrance is a Zikaron” in Hebrew. But what does “Zikaron” have to do with books?

Mal 3.16 says, “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name.” A “book of remembrance” is called a “Sefer Ha Zikaron.” Lev 23.24 tells us that Rosh Ha Shanah has another name, Yom Ha Zikaron (Day of Remembrance).

God has a “muster roll” in which all the righteous are recorded for life, and to be blotted out of it meant death (Exo 32.32-33). It is with reference to the Book of Life that the remnant are spoken of as being written unto life (“among the living”) in Jerusalem (Isa 4.3; Ezek 9.4) where one of the angels who had the “scribes ink horn upon his loins” is told to mark the righteous for life, while the remainder of the inhabitants of Jerusalem are doomed (see “Book of Life” in the Jewish Encyclopedia).

Moses says in Exo 32.32-33, “Yet now if you will forgive their sin-but if not, I pray, blot me out of your book which you have written. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book.'” Look at Isa 4.3 and Ezek 9.4 side by side and you will see a similar theme. Notice in the Ezek 9.4 passage that the righteous are being marked on their foreheads. In Rev 13.18 the unrighteous are being marked on their foreheads. What are these marks?

The forehead is seen in biblical thought as the seat of the intellect/mind. The Jewish people have a letter called a “Shin” and it is the “sh” or “s” sound depending on what side the dagesh (a dot) is placed. The letter “shin” with the dagesh on the right side above the letter is used to symbolize some names of God (Shaddai, Shalom). The letter is also on the Tefillin and the Mezuzah. The unrighteous are marked by a false shin (with the dagesh on the left above the letter making the “s” sound as in “Satan”). How are they marked? The righteous are marked by their actions (the hand) and their intellect/mind (foreheads). They follow the Torah and their actions and how they think marks them (Matt 5.16). In the same way the unrighteous are marked by what they do (the hand) and how they think (the forehead).

In the Jewish Encyclopedia in the article on the “Book of Life” it says, “The Psalmist likewise speaks of the book of life in which only the names of the righteous are written and from which even the unrighteous are blotted out (Psa 69.28, 139.16). Even the tears of men are recorded in this book of God (Psa 56.8). Dan 12.1-6 says, ‘Everyone that shall be found written in the book…shall awake to everlasting life.’ This book is probably identical with the “book of remembrance” in which are the recorded deeds of those that fear the Lord (Mal 3.16).”

We have mentioned earlier in Isa 26.19 that the word “awake” has a significance to Rosh Ha Shanah. Another word is “arise” and we will see this in Dan 12.2, so keep these two words in mind.

So, let’s take a brief moment to talk about “belief” or faith in God. We are not talking about someone who says they believe in God or the Messiah. Most people say they believe that. We are talking about someone who believes with the faith of God that there is a Messiah and God moved through him for the redemption of mankind. We enter into that redemption by “emunah” (faith, confidence, action). The message of the Basar (gospel/good news) is that Yeshua has come to initiate that redemption.

Now, remember this rule of thumb. If there is a resurrection of the righteous, it is Rosh Ha Shanah. If there is a resurrection of the righteous and the wicked, like in Dan 12.1-2, then it is Yom Kippur. One is at the beginning of the Day of the Lord (Yom Ha Din Rosh Ha Shanah) and the other is at the end of the Day of the Lord (Yom Ha Din Yom Kippur), the final judgment.

In Part 18 we will pick up here and continue to discuss what books are opened on Yom Ha Din.

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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