Springtime and Harvest

For those who would like to start at the very beginning of this series on the book of Revelation, click here.

Before I write about the New Heavens and the New Earth, I want to write briefly about the relationship between some biblical holidays and the first and second coming of Jesus Christ. You can find a much fuller treatment in a paper of mine called The Lord's Appointed Times.

The purposes of Jesus first coming to this earth all centered around certain biblical holidays that come in the spring. The New Testament makes direct associations to Jesus "our Passover lamb" and Jesus being the "first fruits." How all this relates to the spring holidays is in this table:

Passover and the Passover Lamb (Lev. 23:4-8)	The Last Supper and Jesus' Death
First Fruits (Lev. 23:9-14)	Jesus' Resurrection
Pentecost (Lev. 23:15-20)	The Coming of the Holy Spirit

What is interesting to see is that Jesus' second coming centers around the fall holidays, as this table shows:

Trumpets (Lev. 23:23-25)	Warnings on the Earth
Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:26-32)	The Return of the King, the Salvation of Israel, Wrath
Tabernacles (Lev. 23:33-36)	The Messianic Kingdom
Simcha Torah	The New Creation

The last row in the table is not a biblical holiday, but it is a Jewish holiday that is celebrated soon after Tabernacles. Simcha Torah means the Joy of Torah. It celebrates the start of a new annual cycle that reads through the Torah in the synagogue services. Of course, the new cycle begins, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." 

Historically, Jesus came and provided salvation. Then came the summer of this current period of church history. When the time is ready, the trumpets will sound and this age will move towards its close in the Messianic Kingdom before the final end and a new beginning.

Wednesday: All Things Made New

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