There’s another issue that needs to be addressed. As we saw in Mitzvot #130 and #131 (Leviticus 23:24-25), and again in our present text, the Feast of Trumpets is to be celebrated as a Sabbath. No one’s customary work is to be performed on this day. The bottom-line spiritual principle, of course, is that in the end, we can’t earn or work for what God is proposing to do for us on this day—transform us from frail mortals to incorruptible eternal beings capable of standing in His very presence. Rather, we must accept it as Yahweh’s gift to us, resting in His finished work, if we are to receive it at all. But there is a literal side to this as well. It appears (though it’s by no means certain) that the definitive Yom Teruah should take place in a year in which the first day of Tishri falls on a natural Sabbath. In the next few decades, there are only a handful of such dates left: 2009, 2020, 2023, and 2026 (this last one about two months before the Tribulation is scheduled to begin, if my observations are correct—see Future History for my thoughts on prophetic chronology).

Why am I not certain? The word used to describe the Sabbath-ness of this miqra (in Leviticus 23:24) is sabbaton, meaning “Sabbath observance.” There is a far more commonly used term for Sabbath—Sabbat, but it is never used in scripture to describe the Feast of Trumpets. Both words are based on the verb sabat, meaning to cease, desist, or rest. The –on suffix of sabbaton and other Hebrew nouns indicates their abstract or conceptual nature—the observance of Sabbath rest as opposed to the Sabbath day itself (i.e., Saturday). Sabbaton is used only eleven times in scripture, four times referring to the weekly Sabbath, twice to the Sabbatical year, once to Yom Teruah, twice referring to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and twice to Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). Two things about this list give me pause, so I’ll just lay my cards on the table. First, the word Sabbaton was not used of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the actual instructions concerning it, though Chag Matzah did fall on a natural Sabbath in the year of its definitive fulfillment, 33 A.D. (It was only described: “You shall do no work.”) It was, however, referred to as the Sabbat in the Feast of Weeks instructions: “Count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath….” This is the linguistic converse of what we see with Yom Teruah—which is called Sabbaton but not Sabbat.

Second, the Day of Atonement is twice called a Sabbaton, but my research for Future History led me to the firm conviction that the definitive Yom Kippur and the definitive Sukkot will occur in the same year, which, according to the rules of the Torah, means they can’t both fall on natural Sabbaths, because they’re five days apart (see Precept #861). If the Day of Atonement (called a Sabbaton) is a Sabbath observance that will not fall on a natural Sabbath (since the evidence tells me that the Feast of Tabernacles will), could the same thing be true of the Feast of Trumpets? You can see why I’m reluctant to positively predict a Sabbath (Saturday) fulfillment for Yom Teruah.

The bottom line is that for us who are called out of the world by Yahshua (i.e., the ekklesia—the “church”), the transformation of our mortal bodies into immortal, incorruptible, spiritual beings will occur on Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets. All the evidence I’ve seen points toward a fulfillment of this miqra (in an event popularly known as “the rapture”) on the first day of Tishri some year between now and 2026. And whether or not it will fall on a natural Sabbath, no one can achieve what the day portends through his own efforts.

That's wonderful. Being completely new to all of this, I have no idea how to celebrate any of the migra. Can anyone point me to clear modern english instruction as to how I can properly celebrate with my family in a manner pleasing to Yahweh? All I'm managing now is a huge guilt trip,

Paul

10. And Uriel showed me another law: when light is transferred to the moon, and on which side it is transferred to her by the sun.
11. During all the period during which the moon is growing in her light, she is transferring it to herself when opposite to the sun during fourteen days [her light is accomplished in the heaven], and when she is illumined throughout, her light is accomplished full in the heaven. 12. And on the first day she is called the new moon, for on that day the light rises upon her.
13. She becomes full moon exactly on the day when the sun sets in the west, and from the east she rises at night, and the moon shines the whole night through till the sun rises over against her and the moon is seen over against the sun.
14. On the side whence the light of the moon comes forth, there again she wanes till all the light vanishes and all the days of the month are at an end, and her circumference is empty, void of light.
15. And three months she makes of thirty days, and at her time she makes three months of twenty-nine days each, in which she accomplishes her waning in the first period of time, and in the first portal for one hundred and seventy-seven days.
16. And in the time of her going out she appears for three months (of) thirty days each, and for three months she appears (of) twenty-nine each.
17. At night she appears like a man for twenty days each time, and by day she appears like the heaven, and there is nothing else in her save her light.

6. And when the moon rises one-fourteenth part appears in the heaven: ⌈the light becomes full in her⌉: on the fourteenth day she accomplishes her light.

Yom Teruah, or the Feast of Trumpets, falls on the first day of Tishri. This makes it unique among the seven miqrym, for it falls during a period of lunar darkness, when the moon is reflecting practically none of the sun’s light to earth. (Every lunar month begins and ends this way.) By contrast, the spring miqrym all hover around the middle of the month, the brightest part (the full moon), as does the final one, the Feast of Tabernacles. The two remaining days both occur when the moon is “waxing,” i.e., when its reflection is in the process of increasing in brightness. I don’t know how significant that is, but it strikes me that none of this is accidental: Yahweh has planned every detail. He seems to be telling us that the ekklesia will be raptured from the earth during a period of maximum spiritual darkness. The days in which we live certainly seem to moving in that direction. I mean, how much darker can the world get?

Set up the tabernacle on “New Year’s Day.” “Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying: ‘On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. You shall put in it the ark of the Testimony, and partition off the ark with the veil. You shall bring in the table and arrange the things that are to be set in order on it; and you shall bring in the lampstand and light its lamps. You shall also set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the Testimony, and put up the screen for the door of the tabernacle. Then you shall set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. And you shall set the laver between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. You shall set up the court all around, and hang up the screen at the court gate.’” (Exodus 40:1-8) A couple of things bear notice here. First, Yahweh has a schedule. He does things in order, on time, and according to His own plan. The first day of the first month (Abib/Nisan) wasn’t one of the seven mow’ed miqrym, or “appointed convocations” that defined and prophesied the seven most significant milestones in His plan of redemption. Rather, it was about two weeks prior to the first of them. The lesson: Yahweh’s plan of salvation was in place before He commenced the process of saving us. He’s not making this stuff up as He goes along, reacting to unexpected emergencies and putting out fires, but is methodically pursuing a strategy and timeline He established and unveiled long before we—its beneficiaries—even realized what was going on.

And notice something else about the date: the first day of the month (when the Tabernacle was to be erected) coincided with the new moon. It was dark at night. But the first three miqrym—Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Firstfruits—were scheduled for the 14th, 15th and 16th, when the moon was full and everybody could plainly see what was going on, even after the sun had set. His plan, in other words, is designed to be obvious to anybody willing to look. If Yahweh is so obviously on a schedule, and if He’s told us so much about that schedule, we would be idiots to disregard it, to take half a verse (“But of that day and hour no one perceives”—Matthew 24:36) out of context and conclude that we can’t know anything about God’s timing, and even that it’s somehow a heresy against God’s Word to pay attention to what He did say on the subject. He said a lot. We in this last generation ignore it at our peril.

Second, this “New Year’s Day” came less than one year after the exodus—which got underway about two weeks before this date the previous year. Considering how much had to be done in the construction of the Tabernacle and its appurtenances, I envision this project to be the primary occupation of the entire nation of Israel during that first year. To get the job done, hundreds of thousands of Israelites had to be involved in one way or another. They were starting from scratch, and it was an immense undertaking. It required focus, unity of purpose, and cooperation from every sector of society. What could we achieve if all humanity came together under the banner of King Yahshua? Or perhaps I should ask, what will we achieve...?

Third, although it’s not stated here, there were specific people assigned to setting up the Tabernacle. As we read on in Exodus 40 we get the vague impression that Moses himself set everything up (making him one spry and overworked 81-year old), but we get the particulars in Numbers 3: of the Levite clans, Gershon was to handle the Tabernacle’s “soft” components, curtains, veils, etc.; Kohath handled all the furnishings and utensils; and Merari was to take care of the “hard” structural elements like boards, pillars, socket-bases, and so forth. As in the previous precept, we see that our tasks are assigned by Yahweh. We are not to shirk our own duties, nor are we to covet or usurp the roles He has given to others to perform.
When viewed this way, it seems the Tabernacle was like a traveling circus: a thousand disparate pieces, from large swaths of linen and leather, to immense hunks of silver or bronze with mysterious holes in them, to small, solid gold spoons and wick trimmers. Separately, the parts suggest nothing. It is only when they come together under God’s direction that their significance unfolds—beautiful, even stunning, to those of us who dare to look beyond the material entity to discover the Plan of God implied in every detail—put together on the first day of the year to tell us what its Designer would accomplish during the time of mankind upon the earth. Like the circus, everybody has a job to do. But this, my friends, really is the Greatest Show on Earth.