In the last chapter, we saw how the pilgrimage Feast of Tabernacles (Chag Sukkot) is symbolic of the third phase of the Ancient-Hebrew Wedding Ceremony (or in Hebrew, Nissuin). We also saw how the term nissuin means carried aloft. And it is called this because the groom would literally go for his bride, and then he would carry his bride aloft, one way or another, from the bride’s father’s house to his father’s house. Then in his father’s house, they would have the consummation of the marriage and then a week-long wedding feast together.

Historically, we saw an example of this back in the days of Avraham’s servant Eliezer. The father (Avraham) sent his servant Eliezer to take a bride for his son. Rivka (Rebecca) was chosen, and she literally rode on a camel and was carried aloft back to Eliezer’s master’s house (Avraham’s house) where she was united with her husband Yitzhak (Isaac). And then they consummated the marriage and presumably had a week-long wedding feast together to begin their new life. That is the tradition as it was back in those days.

But the question is, what does this mean for us today, and what does this Ancient-Hebrew Wedding Ceremony have to say about the prophetic significance of things coming up in these end times? Join us in this chapter as we talk about:

1. The significance of the wedding feast in the end times.

2. The special prophetic significance of the 8th Day Assembly, called in Hebrew, Shemini Atzeret.

If we are going to be Yeshua’s bride then we need to be there at the wedding at the same time He is there. We need to know what calendar He is on. We have to have enough oil in our lamps to communicate with His Spirit so that we know when He is going to be there. And not be a month or even two months late. If we want to know when the wedding is, do not ask the rabbis and do not ask the Karaites. Because, as we show in our other studies, they do not know. We explain this fully in our studies, The Torah Calendar and Establishing the Head of the Year. But the Head of the Year (Rosh Hashanah) is properly established when:

1. The very first sheath (not the main body) of the harvest is going to be in a condition called aviv.

2. The aviv condition happens within 15 to 21 days after The Head of the Year on a very special day called Yom Hanafat HaOmer (The Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering).

It needs to be the very first sheaf because this very first sheaf is symbolic of Yeshua. and there are other reasons the rabbis and the Karaites do not want to focus on the first sheaf but want to focus on the main body of the crop. We talk about that in those other studies.

But once we have established the Head of the Year based upon the very first sheaf of available aviv barley, we add six months to that and that brings us to the first day of the seventh month, called Yom Teruah. Or also known as The Day of Shouting, The Day of Shofar Blasts, or, of course, The Day of Trumpets.

We saw in the last chapter that 15 days after Yom Teruah brings us to the first day of the pilgrimage Feast of Tabernacles, or Chag Sukkot. And now in this presentation, we are going to continue the topic of Chag Sukkot and talk about the eighth day of that feast called Shemini Atzeret, or the Assembly of the 8th.

We are going to begin with a little bit of review and take a look at the commandments.

Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:33-35
33 Then Yahweh spoke to Moshe, saying,
34 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Chag Sukkot [Pilgrimage Feast of tabernacles] for seven days to Yahweh.
35 On the first day there shall be a set-apart rehearsal [holy convocation]. You shall do no customary work on it.”

The set-apart convocation pertains to the wedding feast (the consummation) of the wedding, we are going to see how that pertains to us prophetically towards the end of this chapter. But it is your wedding day and you do not want to do customary work on your wedding day.

Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:36
36 “For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day you shall have a set-apart rehearsal [holy convocation], and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a set-apart assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.”

In other words, we are supposed to live a living sacrifice during this time and do no customary work. There is something special about this day.

Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:37-38
37 “These are the feasts of Yahweh which you shall proclaim to be set-apart gatherings, to offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day,
38 besides the Sabbaths of Yahweh, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to Yahweh.”

We see that there is sacrifice involved. We are not going to be Yeshua’s helper and not help Him with sacrifices and offerings. There is not a bride in the world that does not do things to help her husband. That is our job if we want to be Yeshua’s.

Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:39-40
39 “Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of Yahweh for seven days; on the first day there shall be a Sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a Sabbath-rest.
40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim for seven days.”

Verses 39 and 40 pertain to the Chag Sukkot (The Feast of the Tabernacles). Here He is talking about celebrating the harvest and giving the tithe. We see the four species with which we are going to construct a sukkah (tabernacle). And we see that it is a time of great rejoicing and joy before Yahweh. That is why the rabbis call it ‘The Time of our Joy’, and that is a good title for it.

Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:41-43
41 “You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
42 You shall dwell in sukkot for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, [sukkot, tabernacles].
[We will talk about the difference between a tent and a tabernacle in a moment].
43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your Elohim.”

And again, anytime Yahweh says ‘it shall be a statute forever in all your generations’ He is talking about a principle or a precept. Meaning, this is something that is going to apply equally, whether we are under the Priesthood of the Firstborn, the Levitical Order, or whether today when we are under the Melchizedekian Order (Melchizedekian priesthood). In any one of those Priesthoods, we are still going to be keeping the symbolic feast that refers to the upcoming wedding ceremony. That is a principle, it is something we always want to do.

So we saw in Leviticus chapter 23, verse 40 that Yahweh tells us to take the four species on the first day of the feast and that is when we construct our sukkot.

Vayiqra (Leviticus) 23:40
40 “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim for seven days.”

Then, we dwell in the sukkah that night.

Now, the rabbis have a rabbinic tradition that is contrary to that. The rabbis tell us that we should construct our sukkot as soon after Yom Kippur as possible. That is incorrect because that is not what Yahweh says to do. Yahweh says to take the four species and to construct the sukkah on the first day of the feast, and then we dwell in the sukkah that night and then for six more days, for a total of seven days. And then, on the morning of the eighth day, we break camp. Then we assemble, the people are blessed, and there is usually instruction. And that is when we can go home. We are going to see the prophetic significance of that coming up, but we see that this is what brother Judah did when they came back from exile to Babylon.

Nehemiah 8:18
18 Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the Book of the Torah of Elohim. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day there was a set-apart assembly, according to the prescribed manner.

So there is a set-apart assembly on the first day, and a set-apart assembly on the eighth day, and those are days of no work. We do not work on those days because they are symbolic of the wedding.

Okay, in the last chapter we talked about a rabbinic tradition called Nisuch HaMayim (Drawing of the Water, or The Joy of the Drawing of the Water). It is a tradition; we do not believe it is commanded anywhere in Yahweh’s Torah. There is a big discussion and a big debate as to whether this took place on the seventh day of tabernacles or on the eighth day of tabernacles. We are not going to get into that discussion because we believe that this is a rabbinic tradition, that it is not commanded, and that we should not do it because that is adding to Yahweh’s Torah. But just to comment on it, let us look at John chapter 7.

Yochanan (John) 7:37-38
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Yeshua stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Water is symbolic of the Spirit. When we believe on Yeshua, the Spirit will flow from us. That is the witness, that is the testimony of Yeshua.

Yochanan (John) 7:39-41
39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Set-apart Spirit was not yet given, because Yeshua was not yet glorified.
40 Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.”

The people did not understand what He was talking about. Many of the rabbinic Messianic, the One-House rabbinic Messianic Jews, and others, take this as an endorsement that we should keep the ceremony of Nisuch HaMayim. We do not see it that way, we see this as similar to Yeshua being in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah. Yes, Yeshua was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah. But He is pointing to the candlestick saying:

“Do not follow that, I am the light of the world. Do not pay attention to the candlestick, pay attention to Me.”

The water drawing ceremony is something else that is added to the Torah. Yeshua is saying:

“Why are you paying so much attention to this rabbinic tradition, this addition to the Torah, pay attention to Me. Do not get focused on that, stay focused on Elohim.”

That is our understanding of what Yeshua is really teaching here.

Now, before we talk about the prophetic significance in these coming end times, we want to take a look at the prophetic significance of Shemini Atzeret (The 8th Day Assembly). First, let us look at the meaning of Atzeret.

H6116 `atsarah (ats-aw-raw’); Or `atsereth (ats-eh’-reth); from H6113; an assembly, especially on a festival or holiday:

H6113 `atsar (aw-tsar’); a primitive root; to enclose; by analogy, to hold back; also to maintain, rule, assemble:
KJV – be able, close up, detain, fast, keep (self close, still), prevail, recover, refrain, reign, restrain, retain, shut (up), slack, stay, stop, withhold (self).

Effectively, we are weaving together a fence, meaning that, by analogy, Yahweh is holding us in by the fence, or also, to assemble us. Because He is not letting us go, He wants to keep us there. He is holding us over by His demand, He is telling us to tarry, He is telling us to stay with Him.

So why is He doing this, why is He keeping us there? Well, we have just had the consummation and a week-long wedding feast. Are we eager to get back to work the day after our honeymoon? Are we eager to get back to work the day after our week-long wedding feast? No, of course not. That is not what anybody wants to do. You want to spend more time with your spouse. You are having a good time, you are on vacation, you are having your honeymoon. It is a wonderful time to spend with your spouse. But to understand the prophetic significance we take a look at Second Peter, Chapter 3.

Kepha Bet (2 Peter) 3:8
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing: that with Yahweh, one [prophetic] day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one [prophetic] day.

We apply this then to Genesis, chapter 2.

B’reisheet (Genesis) 2:2
2 And on the seventh day Elohim ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

A lot of people know about the interplay between Genesis chapter 2, verse 2, and Second Peter chapter, verse 8. There are many different sayings about this. They talk about how the six days of the Creation Week correspond to a six-thousand-year history for mankind. And then how the Sabbath rest on the seventh day corresponds to what is properly called The Millennium, or the thousand-year reign of the Messiah. What a lot of people do not know (as we explain in the Revelation & the End Times study) is that this is when Yeshua will receive the rod of iron from His Father, and then He will turn and hand this rod of iron to his Bride (His body). And His body (His bride) will be the ones doing the ruling and reigning for Him here on earth during that time.

Another thing a lot of people do not know is that there is a little bit more than just seven thousand years. Because that is the whole meaning of Shemini Atzeret (The 8th Day Assembly). We are held over by popular demand, Yahweh keeps us for a little while longer. We will talk about that in just a little bit.

There are all sorts of analogies we can use. We go into more detail about the Revelation timeline in the Revelation & the End Times study. There is a very detailed chart, you can see it at the start of the book, it is also in the very first section in the Revelation study on the Nazarene Israel website. We want to use what we call the parable of the pregnant bride to explain this.

This is what we call the revelation timeline. There are a lot of things that we should say, so we want to take a look at this with the analogy of a pregnant bride. We can talk about it from the standpoint of just a regular bride, we can also talk about it from the standpoint of a pregnant bride, there are other analogies that we can use. But what we see first is that there are seven seals that play out, and then there are seven trumpets, and then finally there are seven cups (bowls). But there are more events that take place after that.

We talk more about the seven seals in the Revelation & the End Times study and also in Revelation Simplified on our YouTube channel, which corresponds to the releasing of the four-horse forces. There is a whole bunch we could say about the releasing of the horse forces and why the change of order in-between Zechariah and Revelation. I have written a little bit about that in the Nazarene Scripture Studies series. We could do a whole book just on the change in the order of horses, Father willing I would like to do much more on that because those changes are very important. But hopefully, we will get into that. I would like to do Revelation and the End Times Part Two. Father willing, I will get time to do that at some point, please pray for that.

But the seals are not something that is opened and over and done, rather each seal is something that is released. So, first, the four horses are released, then there is the opening of the fifth seal and that is when the martyrs begin to be killed. Technically, this is an era that began in 1973 with the Iran Hostage Crisis (or the events in Iran). And then it intensified with 9-11, and then from there, we had the Arab Uprising (Arab Spring), Intifada, and these kinds of things. Again, this is ongoing, this is why we see the slaughter of Christians in all parts of the world today.

And then there is also an increasing rapidity, just as in the pregnant bride analogy. First, she begins to swell, then it takes her nine months (40 weeks) in order for her to be ready to give birth to the man-child. And then things begin to happen much more quickly after that.

Seal six is the first of the birth pangs. So, there comes a point in time when a bride is almost ready to deliver her child and she has the very first of her birth pangs. This is the symbolism behind seal six. I believe we entered into the time frame of seal six back in 2017, but again, it is not a singular event, but rather a time frame or an era.

Presently, at the time of this study in 2021, we are waiting for the ‘sky to recede like a scroll’. Many people believe that refers to a nuclear war. Many also believe that this nuclear war will be used to justify that it is an engineered nuclear war. We give a whole scenario on this in the Revelation & the End Times study and also in Revelation Simplified, there is a whole chapter on it. We give a scenario for that and, effectively, we are still right on track with the scenario that we outlined in the Revelation studies.

But many people believe that this engineered nuclear war (likely to be called World War III) is going to be a global war that ends up going nuclear but in a limited sense. A limited nuclear war, so to speak. That may sound ironic, but the whole purpose of this is to get the people to clamor and to cry out for a New World Order so that there can be a global peace (in reality, a false peace). But their purpose is to establish a Global New World Order.

And then there will be the half-an-hour of silence in the heavens. And if we use the same principle of a day being as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one prophetic day, when we do the math and run the numbers, we come up with 20 years and 10 months. So after the time frame of seal six, then there is going to be a half-hour of silence in heaven and this is probably the time frame during which the 144 000 are also sealed. And we tie that to the ‘rising of the dry bones of the house of Ephraim’ of Ezekiel chapter 37. We talk about all that in the Revelation and the End Times study.

Now with seal seven things start to pick up even more speed. So, once the bride begins having her contractions, she then has her cries of pain. That is the symbolism behind the seven trumpets, or the seven shofars. These are symbolic of the bride’s cries of pain. There are seven years of tribulation, the last half of which is called The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, and that is also when we see the two witnesses arise. This is going to be an incredibly difficult time.

So, effectively, what will happen is that they will have their limited nuclear war at seal six to get their New World Order Government. And then they will institute all these policies that are increasingly difficult and increasingly noxious for Elohim’s people. And things are going to look great for them, and they are going to look like they are indoctrinating a whole new generation of soldiers and a whole new generation of children into the New World Order Doctrine, then it is going to start to fall apart. And seal seven is going to open the trumpets and, as we explain in the Revelation & the End Times study, that is when fighting is going to break out within the New World Order, and their whole plan is going to start to fall to pieces. So it will get increasingly worse and worse, not only for themselves, but also for Yahweh’s people Judah and Ephraim, both for the Orthodox Jews and for the Christians, and also of course for Nazarene Israel.

Okay, spoiler alert! At the seventh trumpet, or the seventh shofar, that is when the Babylonian system falls. That is when the judgments (cups or vials) are poured out. That is very quick and that pertains to the bride’s final pangs of labor when the man-child is brought forth. Dilation is over, now the man-child is being brought forth, that is a relatively quick process, approximately 30 to 45 days. But that is when the man-child is brought forth, this probably in future generations will be called World War IV. That will be an unlimited nuclear war and a very good time to be away from all nuclear targets. That would be a good time to be in a rural location with your own sources of food and your own supply. As self-sustainable as you can be and, especially important, being in Elohim’s favor by doing as much as we can for His Son. Because we have to look at things not just in the natural. It is far more important, much, much, much, far more important, to look at things in the spiritual. And Yahweh promises to protect the Assembly of Philadelphia, that is, the assembly of true brotherly love. Father willing, we hope to talk a lot more about that. There is no way to be part of the assembly of true brotherly love without doing our part. We cannot love people in truth without doing our part, and that means getting involved. We will talk about that a lot more in other studies, Father willing.

But then, after the birth, comes the arrival of the man-child. That is Armageddon, also called Gog 1 of Ezekiel chapter 39. Remember, these are in reverse order, Gog 2 is Ezekiel chapter 38. That is how those books are sealed up until the times of the end.

But then we have the ingathering that is also called the second exodus, and that is when we will come together into the land. So the promise is then given of the bride being carried back to the Father’s house. This is what will happen after Armageddon, that is when the bride is then brought back to the Father’s house, in this aspect brought back to the land of Israel. And then Yeshua receives the rod of iron from His Father and hands it to His bride (His body) Nazarene Israel to rule and reign over the nations for a thousand years. And then at the end of the thousand years, Satan is loosed for a little while.

Hitgalut (Revelation) 20:7
7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

Once again, we see that there is a little bit more time. That is the significance of Shemini Atzeret, the 8th Day Assembly. The earth continues for a little while and then Yeshua returns, and everything is destroyed at the brightness of His coming. That is when we are all caught up to be with Him in the air is at the end of the 8th Day Assembly. That is when we go to the White Throne Judgment and the new earth, and again, that is when the bride is taken back to the Father’s house, this time in a spiritual sense.

It is very important; we need to understand. There is a lot of difficulties in that we only covered the end time timeline relatively quickly and I would encourage everyone to watch Revelation Simplified or to read the Revelation and the End Times study. There is a lot of important information in there. The most important thing is that we truly seek to be the Assembly of Philadelphia, those who love Him and also love our brothers in truth. And again, there is no way to do that without getting involved in doing our parts. We will talk about how to do that, what we can all do, and how we can help establish Yeshua’s kingdom in a lot more detail in future studies. Because this is what Yeshua wants for His bride. For her to use her mina to help gain by trading for His kingdom.

So there are things that we can all do about that, it is very, very important. Whether we are harvested tomorrow, or we make it all the way through the tribulation, it does not matter. The most important thing is that we are found using our minas. So that when our husband comes, He finds us with enough oil in our lamps and with enough love for Him. With enough of His Spirit that we are now found manifesting the fruits of His Spirit and helping Him build His Kingdom. So that He wants to take us back to His Father’s house. Because there will be five virgins that do not have this oil, so to speak, and we want to make sure that we are of the five virgins who have this oil.

Now, in the Nazarene Israel  study and also in The Torah Calendar we talk about how the apostle Shaul (Paul) explains in Colossians chapter 2 that the feasts are prophetic shadow pictures of events still to come. But what a lot of people do not understand yet, and what we explain in the Torah Calendar study, is that there is mirror imaging in these prophetic shadow pictures. There is a mirror imaging between the feasts of the first month and the feast of the seventh month.

For example, in the feast of the first month, there is the Pesach (Passover) and that is a half a day feast in the afternoon, followed by seven days of Chag HaMatzot (The Feast of Unleavened Bread). So we have a half-day feast in the afternoon followed by seven full days, symbolic of how Israel had a sudden Exodus from Egypt followed by 40 years in the wilderness. Where the bones of the unfaithful fell through attrition and only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter the land. Because they had a different spirit in them. Therefore they manifested the fruits of that different spirit, that is why they were allowed to enter the land of Israel.

Then we have in the seventh month. We have the Feast of Sukkot (the pilgrimage Feast of Tabernacles). And that is seven days of dwelling in sukkot, symbolic of the consummation and the wedding week. Plus, we then have an additional half-day in the morning for Shemini Atzeret. Because we are held over by popular demand, we do not want to go back to work yet. No, we want to stay with our spouse. But we will have to go back to work. But what we have here is seven full days and then an extra half-day in the morning. And this I believe is symbolic of how we are going to effectively suffer 40 years of attrition in the wilderness, while we are being refined in the wilderness, and while He separates those who do not manifest the true fruits of His true spirit. And then we are going to have a sudden gathering.

So, again, we see prophetic imaging in the prophetic shadow pictures. And if we will think about that, just for a moment, what that should say to us all is how important is it for us to manifest the true fruits of His true Spirit! How important is it to be a Joshua or a Caleb, and to have a different spirit within us, and to manifest the fruits of that different spirit! So that He will take delight in us on the day of His return! So that we can be found to be one of the five wise virgins who has enough oil in her lamp. Who has enough of Yeshua’s Spirit, who knows when the feast is going to be and who understands the times and the seasons enough to prepare herself to be found the way Yeshua wants to find His bride. And that we are not left out when the door is shut. Yahweh forbid that Yeshua says “I never knew you”!

This is the time we need to be preparing in these next 40 years. And even if we are harvested in the next 40 years, it does not really matter. No matter what happens to us, we need to be found being the bride that He wants to come for in that day. When He comes in the consummation and the wedding feast. We want to be that kind of bride that He wants to hold over, to retain, to hold back for just a little while longer before going back to work. That is who we need to be, and that is the significance of Shemini Atzeret (The 8th Day Assembly).

Father Yahweh, please help us to be this kind of bride for your Son Yeshua, our Messiah, and King.

Amein.