Feast of Trumpets and That Day and Hour Part 11

Hello, this is William Bell. I want to welcome you back to another video on Matthew 24 and verse 36 where we talk about that day and hour. And the reason that I am including this video is because of a question that was asked from one of the videos on Matthew 24 and verse 36, and particularly about that day and hour and how it might reflect on Christ and his deity, etc. I have put a comment on that in the video, and I think it's video number one, where you can go back and read that on YouTube or whenever you pull that video up and watch it. But there is another historical and cultural background to Matthew 24 and verse 36 that I didn't cover, that I had thought about covering and I left it out, but I decided, okay, let's go ahead and put it in since the question came up. And I think this will alleviate the kind of questions that arise in terms of how does that affect Jesus's deity? Let me go ahead and say a little bit about that. We know that Jesus stated that he was equal with the father, according to Philippians 2, five through eight, where he says he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now, even at that, we still get an idea that the father is above the son, or as he says in John chapter 14 and verse 58, my father is greater than I. In first Corinthians chapter 11 and verse three, he says that God is the head of Christ. And even in Psalm 110, the Bible says the Lord said to my Lord. So there does seem to be some authority of the father over the son. It doesn't mean that the son is less divine or is not divine, but it does indicate that during his earthly ministry, even before rather, he was incarnated before he came into the world. And even after he came into the world, when he says he thought it not robbery to be equal with God or something to be grasped or held onto, he divested himself of some of his glory in some sense, because at the close of his ministry in John chapter seven, he says, father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was. Now, if he was asking to be glorified with that glory that he had before the world was, that means that in some sense or measure, he had divested himself of some of that glory to come and take on human flesh. And so that meant that there was a possibility. And of course, knowledge is a part of the glory of God because he's all knowing. And we can look at, even with ourselves, knowledge is a part of our glory. People who are wise and smart, intelligent, that's a part of their glory. Second Corinthians chapter four and verse six talks about the knowledge or the glory of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, of the gospel of Christ. So we can see how maybe not knowing that specific day and hour could be a part of what might've been involved in divesting Jesus of some of the glory that he had with the father before the world was. And yet there's still another background that we want to talk about. So here we want to look at the fact that the phrase that day and hour is part of the Hebrew idioms that was well known by their Jewish audiences. And of course, by the Lord himself. And I want to talk about that now in a book called blood moons by Mark Blitz. And by the way, Mark Blitz is a dispensationalist. I don't agree with his applications, but he did observe along with some other writers that I have, I didn't get their names, but I do have the information documented and it's all in the manuscript. So you can look at it. I've updated the manuscript, but the point is, this is what he had to say about that day and hour. And this is very, very important because it relates to the Jewish feast days. And there were seven of those feast days. The first one of course was Passover. And it had a specific day on which it was observed. It was on the 14th day of the month you had of Nissan, you have unleavened bread, which was the 15th day or the day after the Passover. And then you have the feast of weeks where you had the first fruits, which of course would have been the first day following the Sabbath. And then you had 50 days after the Passover, which was Pentecost. Following that, those were rather the spring festivals. And then you had what was called the fall festivals. And of course the fall festivals were all in the same month. The first of them was the feast of trumpets. And that feast was on the first day of the month. And then you have the day of atonement or Yom Kippur, which was on the 10th day of the seventh month. And then there was the feast of tabernacles, which is on the 15th day. And they all symbolize something. For example, the feast of trumpets was symbolized. The King is coming, the day of atonement, of course, atonement or salvation. And then the feast of tabernacles, which was dwelling with God. Even the Passover and the first fruits was also a time that was indicated. Those were time, the first fruits actually indicates the resurrection. And then you have unleavened bread, which was Jesus' burial. And then of course the Passover, which was the time of his death. So all of those had a meaning to them. Now, what does this feast of trumpets, which involves the King is coming, what's that all about as it relates to that day and hour? And I had already spoke to you in a video where we were talking about that day and hour related to the time of the blowing of the trumpet, the sounding of the trumpet. So let's talk about that a little bit. Now, here's what Blitz says. He says, when you properly understand God's calendar and the feast days, you will realize that the feast of unleavened bread, which falls on Nisan 15, is always during a full moon, as is the feast of tabernacles on Tishri 15. But the feast of trumpets, which falls on Tishri 1, meaning the first of the month, is always during a new moon because of the diaspora, the scattering of the Jews in other nations. It was celebrated for two days, but was known as one long day. Now, why was it two days long? It fell on the first, the new moon, and everyone needed to know when it would begin, especially those in other countries. And it took a while for their notification. They would light torches on the hilltops to pass the word on. It's easy to determine when a feast is when it falls in the middle of the month. You just start with the first day of the month and keep counting. But how do you know when the first is? Because it was based on the temple declaration in Jerusalem and on the sighting of the two witnesses. No one knew for sure the day or the hour that the feast of trumpets would begin. And you can find that in Blood Moons Decoding the Eminent Heavenly Signs by Mark Blitz, page 81. So what he's basically telling us is that they'd have all these runners on these hilltops, and then they'd have these two witnesses who would be out there looking for the first sign of the new moon. And then when they found it, they would notify these runners who would eventually go back to the priests and let them know. And then they would sound the trumpet, and thus the feast would begin. So here's another quote from another person who has written on the same topic. And of course, as I say, the links will be found in the actual article that you can go and check these out. He says, Many of us have read the famous quote of our Messiah in the four Gospels when he declared that his coming would come at a time that no man knows. But how many of us knew that he was actually making a reference to the Feast of Trumpets? The Feast of Trumpets is known by the Jews as the day no man knows. And why is it called this? Because it is the feast that can only be determined by the sighting of the new moon. And so no man can calculate the exact day or hour when this feast day will begin. Now, it's important to understand that they knew that the feast day was going to come every year. And they also knew that it was going to come within that month. But they didn't know the exact day and hour that it was going to come. And that's why they needed the two witnesses who would then notify them before they could sound that last blast. He also goes on to say, I learned that the phrase, no one knows the day or the hour is a Hebrew idiom referring to the appearing of the new moon when the old moon wanes until nothing is left. The new moon appears anywhere from a day and a half to three and a half days afterwards. Often it appears three days afterwards because the new moon celebration is a reminder of the death, burial, and the resurrection of the Messiah. But the moon is not always buried for three days before its rebirth. So no one knows. You just have to watch and wait for its appearing. Sounds just like the context of Matthew 24, particularly the time after Jesus makes that statement, but that day and hour no man knows. The only annual feast day of the Lord, which is celebrated at the new moon is the feast of trumpets. And we can see in the above passage, Jesus refers to the appearing of the new moon by the common Hebrew idiom. No one knows the day or hour. He also refers to his coming in the same context. Now he asked, was he teaching his disciples that his coming was associated with the feast of trumpets? Many believe he was, he fulfilled all the spring feasts at his first coming. And if the pattern holds, he will fulfill all the fall feasts at his second coming. Now, obviously this is a person who believes the coming is yet future, but our position is that it has already occurred. And our point is that he fulfilled the, the fall festivals at his second coming, because they are all these dress rehearsals that relate to the eschatological coming of the Lord. And Jesus's first coming was an eschatological coming because it was in the last days. Now here's the last quote. Since they did not know the day and the hour of the new moon, the high priest had two witnesses to literally observe the first sighting of the new moon, then confirm with them at which time they blew the trumpet to begin that festival. It was a common Jewish idiom and forms the basis of Jesus's not knowing the day or hour for that final trumpet sounding his Jewish audience would have readily known what he was speaking about. And this is why we say that it's so important for us to understand the connection between the old Testament and the new Testament. I remember as a young preacher, uh, we had these, these, uh, preachers who would go around and they would almost be, uh, bragging that they didn't have to use the old Testament or, you know, call themselves the new Testament church. And they would walk around with new Testament, you know, thin, just like this one. As a matter of fact, I bought this one, you know, sitting there as, you know, this naive little young preacher. And when I saw the older preachers get up and they just had these new Testaments and they just quoted and claimed they were the new Testament church and not, you know, the old Testament, you know, they would use these. So I bought one and I learned later that was one of the biggest mistakes to disregard this. And this stems from this idea that some have that the old Testament, uh, ended at the cross, which we deal with quite extensively in showing that it does. It did not, but that it continued on the 70 AD. And so as a result of that, you lose all this rich historical culture and a historical context of these events that the Lord was talking about. You've got to go to the old Testament to get that information and therefore to apply it in these new Testament passages to understand them. And so a person, once again, who was a Jewish background, uh, in that audience that Jesus was talking to, they would have known exactly what he was talking about. And that's why verse 31 talks about the sounding of the trumpet. It's the feast of trumpets. It's the coming of the King. That was the time of the resurrection, which we established in the previous verses, but that's the, uh, historical and the cultural meaning behind this concept of that day and hour, it was a Jewish idiom and, uh, they all knew what it meant. So, uh, the idea is the same, just as we said before, it just simply meant, uh, they didn't know at the time, but later on when they got the witnesses, they got that information. It's no different with what Jesus was saying, because that's what he was referring to. So I hope this video has contributed a little bit more to your understanding of this phrase, that day and hour in showing how it relates to the entire context of the destruction of Jerusalem, of the feast of trumpets of the coming of the Lord. And, uh, that, uh, that chapter Matthew 24 cannot be divided at verse 34, verse 35 or verse 36. Thanks a lot. And, uh, that concludes our videos, unless we get another question that I deem is important to bring up in this conversation. Lastly, I would like to encourage you to leave us a comment. If you are so disposed regarding the information we've presented. Secondly, be sure to subscribe to our page. And then thirdly, we would encourage you to visit our website at www.allthingsfulfilled.com. And I'm going to add one more on this one. Uh, if you're on any social networking site, be sure and socially bookmark the videos. And, you know, usually you have these little buttons down that have, um, uh, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, et cetera. Go ahead and just click on that button. If you have one of those accounts and bookmark the video, because it just helps other people to see it. And that's what we want to do. So with that, once again, thank you for watching and I'll see you maybe after the next question. And if not, I hope you've enjoyed this series of videos on Matthew 24 verse 36 and a discussion of the word, but God bless.