A Revival of Holy Convocations and the Seventh

Month
Part Eight

Did you know that all of the working days belong to the Sabbath and not to
themselves?
I would like to share my latest findings with you on the glorious Sabbath truth as
we continue to see it more fully. I have recently found a chart called “The Chart of
the Week,” published in 1886 by a studious Seventh-day Baptist and linguist by
the name of William Mead Jones based on his intensive research done in Joppa,
Israel (near Jerusalem). You can view it at this link:
http://ecclesia.org/truth/languages1.html
What fascinates me the most in the research is the Semitic languages naming the
days of the week like as follows (I will use the Hebrew for example):
· One into the Sabbath
· Second into the Sabbath
· Third into the Sabbath
· Fourth into the Sabbath
· Fifth into the Sabbath
· Eve of Holy Sabbath
· Sabbath (Shabbat)
Here is what Dr. Jones stated on the chart about this wording: “Each day
proceeds on, and belongs to the Sabbath. This is the meaning in all the languages
where ‘into Sabbath’ or ‘into the Sabbath’, is employed.”

Now, let’s look at the Hebrew preposition that looks like an upside-down ‘L’: ‫ ד‬. It
is often translated to ‘unto’. Here is one way how the Brown-Driver-Briggs
concordance describes it: “often preg. with verbs of motion, when the movement
to a place results in rest in it, into.”
Doesn’t that perfectly fit with the Sabbath, which means ‘rest’? All of the
preceding days of the week are flowing into it and they are numbered in order
accordingly. But the Sabbath is still; there is a ceasing. The week comes to a
glorious halt. And this is typical of the six millennia of this sinful earth coming to
a glorious conclusion in the Sabbath millennium when this world shall rest—the
end of which sin will come to a permanent cessation.
I should here mention that the 6,000 years from when sin entered ended in 1844.
Under the Midnight Cry, William Miller taught the 6,000-year period ending in
1844. This is when the seventh trumpet began to sound. And it is written that “in
the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the
mystery of GOD should be finished, as he hath declared to His servants the
prophets” (Revelation 10:7). The mystery of GOD is the completion of the Gospel
—CHRIST restoring His moral image in humanity, with sin no longer defacing it
—and it is to finish at the beginning of the days of this seventh trumpet, with the
prophetic days standing for literal years.
Thus, we are in an interim of time extending from the sixth millennium that
ended in 1844, when “time should be no longer” (v. 6) and the sanctuary should
be cleansed. We are in a long overtime to finish the gospel work. The Sabbath
millennium should have only tarried for a few short years, but due to our not
heeding the Laodicean message, we have been here much longer. This interim
actually makes a chiasm, because between Creation and when Adam sinned,
there was also an interim of time. Thus, the 6,000 years from sin unto the end of
prophetic time is both preceded by and followed by a time period, and the
Sabbath millennium closes it all so that there can be a new beginning.
The seventh trumpet, and the third woe associated with it which includes all the
judgments upon the wicked, finishes when the Sabbath millennium has passed.
Thus, we are still in the beginning of its “days” (or years), but such a description
cannot exist much longer, for no beginning can last forever. We have yet to fully
put an end to sin so that the Sabbath millennium can come.
According to Hebrews 4, that is the rest that we are to “enter” into (a word that is
repeated seven times in that chapter). Sister White calls this the “rest of faith”—a
developing rest from our own works of sin, into the works of GOD. So, what we
have is not merely an end, but a process leading up to it, and this is what the
week is a shadow of. It is one complete system.
The days of the week should never be separated from the Sabbath which they are
entering into. There is no reason to use the Pagan names for the days of our week
in our personal lives, in our homes, or in our church. They cause us to violate the
Fourth Commandment by forgetting (or not remembering) the Sabbath to keep it
holy, and this is what Satan devised them.
We are to keep the Sabbath holy throughout the week by remembering what it is
set apart for. Just ceasing work on the seventh day is mere legalism. But we must
have a faith goes far beyond a legal formalism. The whole reason we are to rest is
because the Sabbath is not only a memorial but also a “shadow of coming things”
(Colossians 2:16). There is movement. There are coming things as we approach
the end of the millennial Sabbath and the end of the millennial week, because we
are moving in time. Sanctification is coming upon GOD's remnant people, which
the Sabbath is a shadowy “sign” of (Exodus 31:13).
We can never keep the seventh-day holy just one day a week. The claims of the
Fourth Commandment are always binding, bidding us to enter into GOD’s rest,
which is in His righteousness that is in His SON JESUS CHRIST. Every day
belongs to the Sabbath, thus every day in which we live we belong to CHRIST,
who has both created and redeemed us, and the eternal rest of His Kingdom is in
Him. Whenever we are planning our weekly activities, every time we confess the
Sabbath, if not in vain, we are confessing this reality and are thus keeping—
guarding, retaining—the Sabbath in our hearts.
The ceasing of our secular activity on the seventh day is only the shadow of the
reality; take away the substance and the shadow has lost all its meaning.
Unfortunately, that has largely been our experience. But now as new light shines
from the Sabbath truth—the seal—we are to walk in it and gain new experience,
so that that seal may finally be placed in us.
The New Moon and the month are similar in relationship, though unlike the
Sabbath, both the holy day and its cycle share the same Hebrew word, which is
‘chodesh’. Each day of the month belongs not just to the Sabbath but also the
New Moon, which provides for each new month. The days of the month flow out
of, rather into, the New Moon, which is a shadow of the new covenant. The
Sabbath represents cessation, whereas the New Moon denotes beginning. When
GOD delivers the new covenant to His people, that will just be the beginning of
eternity, for it is an everlasting covenant, in that it promises everlasting life in a
never-ending Canaan of bliss. And both the Sabbath and the New Moon will be
observed there as memorials of the ending of sin and the beginning of eternity.
New fruits will be produced every New Moon in commemoration of the ever-new
and sweetness of that eternity.
It should be noted that there is a Hebrew word distinct from ‘chodesh’ that means
‘month’, and that is ‘yerach’, also the word for moon. Why two different words? It
appears that ‘chodesh’ is used more narrowly in identifying individual days,
especially the New Moon, while ‘yerach’ is used to describe the cycle of the month
as a whole, its root Hebrew meaning having to do with a prescribed path.
Throughout the course of each day and each month, the moon follows a
prescribed path, so ‘yerach’ seems to just be referring to the moon and its course
or cycle, called a month.
‘Chodesh’ is very rich in meaning, including the concepts of newness and
marriage. The New Moon appears where the sun is, and thus could be said to be
married to it at that time. And a month is a period of a woman’s cycle, which
revolves around her being able to have a son or a daughter—traditionally a key
purpose of marriage. Each month she produces a new ovum, which when
fertilized, can divide and become an embryo—a brand new human being.
Revelation 12 describes the church, the bride of CHRIST. In Verse 1, she is
described as being clothed with the sun and standing on the moon. Genesis 1:14
tells us that these luminary bodies are for GOD’s calendar, which her adversary
thought to change (Dan. 7:25).
There is a special day on that calendar that specially pertains to the woman and is
why I believe she is standing on the moon. It is the day of the New Moon. This is
when the trees of Paradise, including the Tree of Life, bear new fruit (see Ezek.
47:12; Rev. 22:2), and we know that this is a day, in addition to Sabbath, that the
redeemed will especially gather together in the New Jerusalem (see Isa. 66:23). It
must be for a special meal: The Marriage Supper of the LAMB. For what other
occasion than that would all the abundant fruit be for?
But before I go any farther on that meal, I want to connect this back to the
Sabbath. The marriage is associated with the seventh month. This is the month of
Sabbath rest, for it contains the only annual Sabbath and all of its holy days are
called days of ‘shabbaton’—meaning, spiritual rest and perfection. The Sabbath
and the New Moon couple marry this month. The Sabbath is governed by the sun,
which represents the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and the New Moon is of course
governed by the moon, which represents the woman that is the bride of CHRSIT.
Seven is the Sabbath number of perfection and it is also the number of the
commandment protecting marriage. This marriage will be perfect, unlike the one
that GOD made with the typical nation of Israel at Mount Sinai.
“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been
sought for the second. For finding fault with them, He saith, ‘Behold, the days
come’, saith the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel
and with the House of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land
of Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not,
saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write
them in their hearts: and I will be to them a GOD, and they shall be to Me a
people” (Hebrews 8:7-10).
The sealing of the Law will be completed on the Day of Atonement (the 10th day
of the seventh month), with probation closing that day. The SON OF GOD will be
‘at one’ with His bride that day as His blood, no longer bearing sin, will make a
final atonement to cleanse the sanctuary. Thus, the marriage will be
consummated. CHRIST becomes the KING OF GLORY, married to the New
Jerusalem, which stands for all of His holy people that will inhabit it.
The benefits of the marriage covenant will be delivered to the beneficiaries that
same prophetic day, for it is written that Babylon’s “plagues come in one day”
(Revelation 18:8); hence, a literal year. The next fall, on the New Moon of the
seventh month, the Day of Shouting, when the saints will be glorified and shout
with a shout of victory over Babylon, the counterfeit woman, the covenant will be
delivered. To testify of the Law that was sealed in the hearts of the 144,000, the
its Tables will be unearthed from where it is now hidden at Mount Nebo where
that company will stand, and the ones of heaven will be displayed in the sky as
the restored Israel formally receive and agree to the conditions of the covenant,
now sealed in their hearts.
The root word of ‘chodesh’, which is ‘chadash’, means to make new, or restore.
So, this is when Israel is officially gathered and restored. Again, it is the seventh
New Moon, denoting a perfect marriage and its covenant. This is the perfection
that we are to enter into by faith every day of the week and every day of the
month. “For therein is the righteousness of GOD revealed from faith to faith”
(Romans 1:17). Faith must be all built up until its perfection of seven can come.
But there is even something beyond this. I have covered earlier in this series how
the rest of this seventh month passes. There is a prophetic hour (15 literal days,
or half month) where GOD’s people are triumphing over Babylon, then there is
the prophetic half hour of silence in heaven (Rev. 8:1; 7 ½ literal days, or quarter
month) when all the saints travel to the Holy City and temporarily dwell (or
tabernacle) at different worlds along the way. Then we arrive in the Holy City on
the Last Great Day and drink of the water of life freely.
But what happens beyond that? After further study, I believe that the next big
event is to happen on the next New Moon—the eighth of the year. The marriage
has been all taken care of during the seventh month.
Then it is the eighth month. Eight is the number of new beginnings. The old is cut
off. It is the day when the sons of Abraham were circumcised—a cutting of the
flesh, symbolizing sin that is in the flesh, or fallen nature of men. And it is the
eighth period, after the seven millennial days, that sin has been permanently cut
off from the planet. And the Last Great Day is also the eighth day from when the
week of Tabernacles begins. Again, eight is the number of new beginnings, and it
is that great day that the saints arrive in the New Jerusalem—the capitol of their
new and eternal home.
Thus, it is very fitting for the marriage supper to take place on the eighth New
Moon, which is the time of month when all of the fruit trees, with the Tree of Life,
bear new fruit. The supper celebrates the fruit, or results, of the marriage
covenant—a sweet eternity of peaceful bliss. While seven denotes a perfection,
eight represents an overflowing! The Sabbath is the portal into a new realm
beyond, even an overflowing eternity—the product of the ceasing, of sin. And I
believe that the marriage supper will, in a way, be repeated every New Moon
thereafter in a ceremony that forever celebrates the produce, or product, of the
marriage of the LAMB and His bride.
The earth in its state of sin will exist for about seven millennia, but then the
eighth prophetic day will come, again, on a New Moon—the one exactly 1,000
years after the Lake of Fire is kindled on that victorious Day of Shouting over
Babylon. I believe that the old creation also happened on the same New Moon, so
that all the months and years go back to the fourth day of creation when the
heavenly bodies were made for GOD’s calendar—this being the conception of the
spring-to-spring year of months to be born six months later in the spring, just as
a day is conceived in the evening and born in the morning.
The Day of Shouting is also when the Jews believe Creation was, and it makes the
most sense; thus, it would also make sense for the new creation to be on this day
as well, when sin comes to an end and there is rest. Thus, the seventh month is
tied to creation, carrying yet another key attribute of the Sabbath—the weekly
memorial of creation and shadowy sign of GOD’s creative, sanctifying power to
put an end to sin.
Therefore, the earth is circumcised as the eighth prophetic period commences
after the seven millennia of sin. It is a prophetic day of new beginnings, with sin
and all suffering having been forever cut off. Perhaps this is what is secondarily
represented by the week of Tabernacles followed by the Last Great Day, the
eighth. The old earth in which we now live is only our temporary dwelling place,
and on the Last Great Day—the eighth of new beginnings—we will no longer
dwell in temporary dwellings, but we will have permanent country homes on this
earth made new.
Just as there is a prophetic day of a year and a prophetic day of 1,000 years, there
is also a prophetic day of eternity, and that is what I believe the Last Great Day
represents—first, when we arrive in the Holy City after traveling for a literal week
and temporarily dwelling in worlds while en route, and second, when the rest of
the earth is made a Paradise after the week of millennia of sin, having been put to
rest in the Sabbath. The Day of Eternity begins for the saints when they reach the
City of Peace—their eternal headquarters. But the earth will not reach eternity
until the Sabbath millennium has passed. Then...
“JEHOVAH my GOD shall come, and all the saints with Thee. And it shall come
to pass in that day, that the light shall not be with brightness and with gloom: But
it shall be one day which shall be known to JEHOVAH, not day, nor night: but it
shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that
day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the
former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter
shall it be. And JEHOVAH shall be KING over all the earth: in that day shall
there be one JEHOVAH, and His Name one” (Zechariah 14:5-9).
There is a new beginning. This is the eighth day, following the entrance of sin—a
day that never ends. And every week is a shadow of it, for the first day into each
new Sabbath is also the eighth day to the previous one. And outside of the
Sabbath, it is the only day of the week that the Bible gives significance. It is the
day of the week that begins the count to Pentecost—the day that CHRIST was
resurrected on in His new beginning as a glorified human without any taint of sin
other than His eternal wounds. And as a result, in Him, there is a new beginning
for the entire human race. And Pentecost itself is always on this day, which was a
new beginning for GOD’s church, now having the power and gifts of the Holy
Spirit. The Jubilee—representing a new beginning of freedom—follows the same
Pentecost principle of the morrow of seven Sabbaths.
The first day of the Sabbath is mentioned multiple times in the New Testament,
thus it has significance, though no sacredness. Many, in trying to uphold the
Sabbath, have ignored its significance, but it is all through the Bible. And it only
has its significance as its relation to the previous Sabbath, whereas most of
Christendom has forgotten the Sabbath. Likewise, the eighth month only has
significance because of the seventh month that comes before it. Our spiritual life
will be greatly enhanced as we remember the significance of all the various parts
of GOD’s calendar.
So, that covers the spiritual meaning of ‘chodesh’. We have learned that GOD will
officially make the renewed covenant with His renewed Israel on the seventh New
Moon, then celebrate the marriage and its covenant the next New Moon, and
finally, after the 1,000 years from the former one, renew the earth. Hence, it is all
about renewal and marriage. Marriage itself has a sense of newness. As happily
married couples know, marriage is always a novelty—a continual reliving of the
wedding and honeymoon, for the bride and bridegroom have come together from
two separate lives, and their coming together in their regular holy ritual of
pleasure since their marriage was consummated is a confirmation of the fact. So
it will be with the marriage of the Lamb and the Bride and their monthly
marriage supper ritual when they come together for holy communion.
And every day belongs to the New Moon, so rich of meaning. Every day is to
remind us of the meaning as we look at the calendar, but this can only be as we
use GOD’s calendar and abandon the Papal (Gregorian) calendar, which months
are named after Pagan gods and Caesars, having nothing whatsoever to do with
the things pertaining to JEHOVAH our GOD.
So, let us deeper and deeper enter into the Sabbath experience, that we may enter
into the great eternal beyond.