October 27, 2011
Has God Now Given Us The Last Piece?
by Robert Fitzpatrick
You may have heard the analogy that the Bible is like a jigsaw puzzle. Whenever we think we may be learning a truth from a particular verse, we have to make sure that it “fits” with everything else the Bible is teaching about that subject.
In thinking that the Rapture would occur on October 21 (based on the timeline), we assumed that we had the complete puzzle; but this is a puzzle unlike any other. We can’t really get a good look at it, as we read in 1 Corinthians 13:12:
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
With this puzzle, we might not even realize that we’re missing a piece!
It May Not Be Over Yet
All the information we had pointed to October 21 because we understood that to be the last day of the feast of tabernacles; and we knew that this feast had to be fulfilled this year as part of God’s salvation plan. (There are many important proofs pointing to 2011 as the final year.)
We learned that the feast of tabernacles was an eight-day feast, and that God had shown us that the eighth day was linked to the day that followed it. This conclusion was based on a comparison of 1 Kings 8:66 with 2 Chronicles 7:10. Those verses led us to conclude that the eighth day, which was the 22nd of the Hebrew calendar’s seventh month, was identified with the 23rd day of that month – our October 21.
A website showing the Hebrew calendar side by side with our Gregorian calendar is:
There, you will see that the Eighth Day of the Feast of Tabernacles (called Shmini Atzeret) occurred on Tishri 22, 5772 (the present time of our year 2011 is in the year 5772 according to the Hebrew calendar).
You will also see at this website that the Jews observe the feast of tabernacles for eight days. This is to be expected, based on a reading of Leviticus 23. However, when we take a close look at the verses instructing ancient Israel how to keep the feast, we see that the instructions are not completely clear. In fact, there is Biblical support for the idea that the feast of tabernacles extends several days beyond the date we have understood to be the last day!
Lost in History
How could it possibly be that today’s Jews are not correctly observing the feast of tabernacles? Hasn’t there always been a faithful group of Jews somewhere, keeping the feasts as they were instructed ever since the Exodus?
The idea that today’s Jews are not correctly observing the feast is not so incredible when you think about it. From 70 A.D. until 1948, the Jews had no homeland. They were scattered among different nations. For many years after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., Jews weren’t even allowed to live in Jerusalem. As the years went by, certain faithful traditions could easily have been lost if they weren’t clearly understood from the scriptures.
For example, today there are differences among Jews regarding dietary laws governing the observance of Passover. The Sephardi Jews go by different laws than the Ashkenazi Jews, yet both groups are trying to faithfully obey God. It is thought that these differences go back 800 years or more.
A different type of example has to do with the method used by the ancient Israelites to create blue dye. Certain items for the tabernacle constructed in the wilderness had to be dyed blue, as in Exodus 26:31:
And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made:
The source of this blue dye (a mollusk or crustacean found around the Mediterranean coast) was not rediscovered until recently.
We actually don’t have to go so far into the future beyond the time of the Exodus to see how ancient Israel could have forgotten proper observance of God’s law. In 2 Kings 22:8, we read:
And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
Incredibly, there was a time during the reign of Judah’s king Josiah when the scriptures were misplaced.
A Double Feast
There are actually two separate feasts mentioned in Leviticus 23:34-44. In Leviticus 23:34, we read about the feast of tabernacles:
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
Then, in Leviticus 23:39, we read about another feast:
Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.
This second feast has been called the feast of ingathering. Our understanding was that this feast was observed concurrently with the feast of tabernacles. There is now reason to believe that this understanding is not correct.
Notice what we read 1 Kings 8:65:
And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.
This chapter of 1 Kings tells us about the dedication of the new temple during the time of the feast of tabernacles (see 1 Kings 8:2). When we read about one of the two sets of seven days in verse 65, we can easily assume that it was a special one–time only event: that it was a feast to dedicate the temple. However, it seems very likely that Solomon chose that time to dedicate the temple because the people had come to observe the annual feast – a double feast consisting of the feast of ingathering and the feast of tabernacles!
We know that both feasts must be observed in the seventh month (see Leviticus 23:34 and Leviticus 23:39). They cannot extend into the eighth month. The seventh month will end when the new moon is sighted over Jerusalem.
In Leviticus 23, in giving the instructions for each feast, God tells the people to keep the feast for seven days; but also for each feast, there is a requirement for an eighth day! We know that the feasts began on the 15th day of the month and they must conclude on the last day of the month. That day is Tishri 30, being our October 28. May it be that the Lord will gather His elect by that day!
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