Sabbath & Appointed Times

This Teaching begins a study of the biblical calendar by asking believers to work from Scripture rather than adopt a named calendar system as the final authority. The speaker openly states that he does not claim to have every calendar question completely resolved and calls for patience, love, and respectful reasoning where believers disagree. Genesis 1:14-16 is foundational: the heavenly lights are presented as serving signs, appointed times, days, and years. Leviticus 23 then identifies Yahovah’s appointed feasts and holy convocations, which the Teaching describes as scheduled gatherings or rehearsals with prophetic significance. The Teaching explains its understanding of a biblical day, week, month, and year: a day beginning at sundown, a seven-day week ending in Shabbat, lunar months associated with the new moon, and a lunisolar year whose beginning is connected with Aviv barley in the land of Israel. When necessary, an additional month is understood to keep the festivals in their proper agricultural seasons. The latter portion connects Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost with Israel’s Exodus and with Yeshua. Several prophetic connections – including the two Pentecost loaves representing Judah and the house of Israel/grafted-in nations – are explicitly presented as the speaker’s interpretation. The Teaching ends by preserving unresolved questions for continued study and a later part.

This Teaching approaches Sukkot as both a memorial of Israel’s wilderness experience and a forward-looking picture of gathering, dependence on Yahovah, the reign of Yeshua, and the ultimate dwelling of Yah with His people. It begins with the biblical commands for the Feast of Tabernacles and emphasizes harvest, ingathering, rejoicing, and temporary dwellings. The Teaching then connects those themes to a proposed future wilderness experience or Greater Exodus, while repeatedly distinguishing the speaker’s interpretation from what Scripture states explicitly. The discussion closes with practical and theological questions from the fellowship about observing Sukkot, Jerusalem, temporary dwellings, the temple, sacrifices, the abomination of desolation, and tradition.

This Teaching approaches the Day of Atonement as a study of access to Yehovah’s presence. It begins by stating that observing the appointed day does not repeat or supplement Yeshua’s sacrifice; rather, Leviticus 16 provides a pattern through which sin, atonement, cleansing, mediation, priesthood, and access to the holy presence can be understood. The account of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10 becomes an important starting point. Their unauthorized approach is used to emphasize the words, ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy,’ and the Teaching develops the theme that fallen humanity cannot approach Yehovah on its own terms. The boundaries, washing, clothing, blood, incense, and mediation surrounding the high priest are presented as purposeful provisions for approaching the holy presence and living. The Teaching then turns to Yeshua. Hebrews 9 is used to show that Messiah entered the greater sanctuary with His own blood and obtained eternal redemption. The speaker emphasizes that the Day of Atonement pattern did not end with the high priest entering the Most Holy Place: the people waited for him to reappear. This becomes the Teaching’s central connection to Hebrews 9:28, where Messiah appears a second time, apart from sin, for salvation to those eagerly waiting for Him. Hebrews 10 is then used to connect Yeshua’s priestly work with believers drawing near with confidence. The Teaching also asks what the Day of Atonement means after Yeshua’s return. It is careful to state that Scripture does not explicitly assign a particular prophetic event to a future Yom Kippur. Several possibilities and participant observations are discussed – including cleansing, the removal of evil influence, Israel, the millennial period, and the memorial character of the appointed time – but these are presented as matters for continued study rather than as explicit statements of Scripture. The closing discussion also considers afflicting oneself, fasting, Isaiah 58, serving others, and approaching unresolved prophetic questions with humility, faith, and trust.

This Teaching examines the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) by beginning with the written commands and then tracing the biblical use of trumpets, shouts, remembrance, gathering, and the return of Yeshua. It opens with Ezra’s example of seeking, doing, and teaching the Law of Yehovah and Matthew 5’s emphasis on doing and teaching the commandments. The Teaching distinguishes the biblical Feast of Trumpets from later traditions associated with Rosh Hashanah and emphasizes Leviticus 23’s wording that the appointed times are the feasts of Yehovah. Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29 identify the day as the first day of the seventh month, a Sabbath rest, a holy convocation, and a day or memorial of teruah. The Teaching explains that teruah can describe a trumpet blast, alarm, loud shout, joyful cry, or triumphant proclamation. It then follows trumpet imagery through Leviticus 25, Joshua 6, Numbers 10, Nehemiah 8, Nehemiah 4, and Exodus 19, highlighting uses connected with remembrance, salvation, gathering, movement, and response. The Teaching next compares these patterns with New Testament passages concerning Yeshua’s return and the sound of a trumpet. It explicitly notes that the Bible connects Yeshua’s return with trumpet imagery but does not explicitly state that His return will occur on the Feast of Trumpets. A later section considers the call-and-response pattern in which a trumpet sounds and the people gather, move, shout, or respond. The discussion also addresses uncertainty surrounding calendar calculations and includes comments from participants about obedience, continued study, and keeping the focus on Yehovah and Yeshua.

This teaching examines Pentecost (Shavuot) through Leviticus 23 and develops the relationship between the giving of Torah at Mount Sinai and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. The counting of the Omer connects Passover redemption with Shavuot covenant and instruction. The teaching explores the two leavened wave loaves, Shavuot as a firstfruits festival, the offerings, holy convocation, generosity toward the poor and stranger, and Ruth’s connection to Israel’s redemptive history. It then compares Sinai and Acts 2: preparation, timing, assembly, divine sound and fire, instruction, covenant, multilingual proclamation, and the contrasting 3,000 who died after the golden calf with the roughly 3,000 added in Acts 2. A central emphasis is that believers are ministers of the new covenant: the law remains holy and instructive, while the Spirit gives life and enables faithful obedience. The final section explores, whether Shavuot could also mark a future covenantal empowering, sealing, or commissioning of the remnant during a proposed second-exodus/tribulation framework, possibly involving the 144,000 as First Fruits.