The Bridegroom is Coming!!!
The King is Coming by the Newsboys
Matthew 24:27, 36, 42-51; Matthew 25:13
I Corinthians 11:1-2; 15:51-52
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With written permission and our deepest gratitude!
Prepare for the Bridegroom
Rosh Hashanah 2022, Sept 25th-27th, “The Head of the Year,” The Feast of the Year, or the Jewish New Year 5782. It begins with the sounding of the shofar (trumpet blast) and is represented in the Jewish wedding ceremony as the return of the Bridegroom! It is also considered the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve (earth’s first married couple). The actual beginning of this fall feast is not known because it depends on the first sighting of the new crescent moon. Only “the Father knows the day and the hour” that He would tell His Son to “go get Your Bride.”
The Day of Blowing the Trumpet
This is one of the two highest holy days on the Jewish calendar. It begins on the first day of the seventh month, Tishri, or the Day of Blowing the Trumpet, also called the Feast of Trumpets or Yom Teruah. It is a celebration! The wedding feast is about to begin! The long-awaited (from one to two years without the Bridegroom’s physical presence) return has FINALLY come! “The fall feasts change the rhythm of life….there is nothing like it.” Doesn’t a wedding do just that? Marriage changes the rhythm of our life and it is a day like no other! A day-long planned for and the waiting is over!
The Sound of a Shofar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJwfsYxDgJ4
The Wake-Up Call
The trumpet is a reminder to “turn around-repent, and seek forgiveness” and it also announces the arrival of someone special. I personally like Pachabel’s Canon in D better than a shofar, but the choice of processional music was not my decision! The time the Bride and Bridegroom have been apart was for spiritual renewal, repentance, and restoration. This is why the Bride wears white.
It is a preparation for Yom Kippur, a personal day of atonement. It has been a long hard wait! The time was not feel-good music but a period of serious introspection and realization of all the expectations that are part of being a true Bride represented by a woeful wail. “Thou shalt have no one else (gods) before the Bridegroom (GOD).” (Exodus 20:2-3 paraphrase mine) And this is the real kicker: But I tell you that anyone who looks at another with lust has committed adultery in their heart. Matthew 5:28 How ya doin with this? It is a rhetorical question between you and the Lord! Jesus said “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Mark 12:30)
Midnight Cry
The Bridegroom usually goes to get His Bride at midnight (SURPRISE!!!!). The Bride must be dressed and ready to go! No time to warn the bridesmaids! The Bridegroom expects the Bride to expectantly be watching for Him every day! She cannot sleep through the trumpet blasting and the commotion it causes throughout the community. This is the day she has waited for, for so long! The “Best Man” goes ahead of the Bridegroom announcing His coming! Is she ready??? Is she watching and waiting? (Matthew 25:1-41)
Picture of the Rapture
The Bride is placed on a litter and LIFTED UP like a queen being paraded through her new kingdom, and carried to the Bridegroom’s Father’s house!!! A picture of what we call the Rapture! Her attendants must be prepared: lamps full of oil. A picture of the Bride having light (Holy Spirit fruits and gifts) and being prepared for all it means to become the Bride of her Beloved. The Bride will leave behind her possessions, security as she knows it, her own self-will, and start a new life attentive and dedicated to only One.
Legal Agreement
When the Bride signed her Ketuba she became legally bound! She must go through with this. Only the Bridegroom can back out of this union for only the Bridegroom has the right to divorce. When He returns she knows: She is fully accepted, fully loved, fully chosen! Never again will they be separated. Fully forgiven!
These Jewish feasts are not just Jewish, they are Biblical. The command of Scripture was to observe God’s Feasts.
So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. Exodus 12:14
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are MY feasts.” Leviticus 23:1-2
As Christians, I have come to believe we are missing a vital part of our heritage by not observing these feasts. After all, we were adopted into the family of God! (Romans 8:14-17, Galatians 3:29; 4:7; Ephesians 3:6; II Corinthians 6:16-18)
Adoption of the Heart
Fall Feast September 25-26
I do not know the day or the hour of Jesus’ return, but I know the SEASON! Jesus has fulfilled all the Spring Feasts. These feasts were given to help God’s people be able to know when Messiah came and recognize Him. I believe the same is true for His return. Keep your eyes on the Eastern sky! The time of the Fall Feasts is quickly approaching. Are you dressed, ready, waiting expectantly? Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Not to deliver me from this crazy world, but because Heaven is my home! I want to go HOME! Jesus, You are my home!
The King Is Coming, by Gaither Vocal Band
More geeky information
http://returntogod.com/feasts/fall.htm
http://pray4zion.org/Thelast3FallFeastsoftheLord2022.html
