Learn Prophetically What God is Sayng in this
Day to the Church and to Israel

by Reuven and Mary Lou Doron
One New Man Call
October 3, 2005

The Fall Feasts -- Prophetic Picture of the End Times

Fall is in the air, and if you live in the northern hemisphere, you cannot help but sense nature's supernatural excitement as creation prepares to shift gears from summer to winter. The fields surrounding our home are heavy with crops, and the combines are bringing in the harvest across the plains. The end of one season accents the beginning of another, just like the death of one vision gives rise to the next.

The coming weeks will usher us into the time of the Fall Feasts of the Lord. Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles are stacked closely together in a span of 22 intense days, painting the prophetic drama of the end of the age. And since our God and Father has chosen to reveal His nature and administration through His creation, it would be well for His people to listen to what the Spirit is saying at the changing of the seasons, understand the agricultural cycle of the biblical year, and align our lives, cleanse our families, and prepare ourselves for His work.

In God's history of salvation, first came Passover in the spring of the year, announcing Christ's sacrificial death and resurrection redeeming His own people from slavery. Then came Pentecost, the summer Feast, signifying the outpouring of the Spirit and the beginning of the harvest as heaven kisses earth. Lastly, Tabernacles in the fall of the year points toward the grand finale of the age, with its trauma, shakings, and ultimate victory.

Of the seven feasts that God's children are commanded to keep, these last three --Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles -- are meant to prepare us for the end of the age. As their prophetic message weaves, from the blowing of the trumpets to the final celebration in the booths, the Holy Spirit indicates the recurring cycles of the end times.

Trumpets

"Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'in the seventh month on the first of the month, you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.'" -- Leviticus 23:24

The blowing of the trumpets is the sounding of an alarm. It's not unlike the eerie sound of a siren cutting through the still air with its startling and disturbing shriek. Whether a call to arms or to a solemn assembly, when the biblical Israelites heard the trumpet blast -- they came to immediate attention! In the same way, the Feast of Trumpets is not meant to comfort or console us. Rather, it is a wake-up call -- a strong elbow in our ribs designed to irritate us into motion and action.

As we move deeper into the times of the end, we will experience more disturbing trumpet blasts and troubling wake-up calls. What will seem like a disaster to some, will become a life-saving alarm for others who were awakened out of their spiritual stupor, having their ears opened to hear what the Spirit is saying.

Day of Atonement

"On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord." -- Leviticus 23:27

Ten days following the Trumpets' blast, the nation of Israel came to a complete and unnatural standstill. Of all of Israel's annual fasts and feasts, none is as dreadful and grave as the Day of Atonement. We know, in retrospect, that it was a good day, a day of sprinkling clean blood in the Holy of Holies to atone for the nation's sins for one more year, but the biblical Israelites couldn't afford to be as charismatically casual about that day as we often are.

For them, it was a day of dreadful expectation, fasting, humbling, and waiting, looking anxiously toward the tent of meeting with longing eyes. Has the high priest been successful in his annual atoning mission? Or has he been killed for somehow transgressing God's holiness in the Holy Place? The issue of sin and its fatal consequences was heavy upon everyone's heart, knowing that that day's ministry would determine their fate for one more year.

The Day of Atonement is about a terrible conviction of sin and about a humbling of one's soul, desperately longing for God's atoning sacrifice. All eyes are fixed upon the High Priest, who is working redemption behind the thick veils. Is His sacrifice acceptable? Are we redeemed? Such heart-felt contrition is the result of the Trumpets' wake-up call, shaking the superficial tranquility of our lives.

Tabernacles

"On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord. For seven days you shall present an offering by fire… On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord..." -- Leviticus 23:34-36

Tabernacles is the last, longest, and happiest of all of God's Feasts. Celebrating the end of summer, the fullness of the harvest, and the conclusion of the annual prophetic cycle, all of Israel is reclining and dining in festive booths for eight joyful days. It is the closing stage of their labors and the grand finale of their hopes and expectations, and the barns are full. Tabernacles is the final, joyful, and victorious harvest celebration.

The Cycles of the End

These three are the cycles of the end of the age: alarm, conviction, and harvest. The Fall Feasts warn us of these intensifying contractions, as creation travails in the birth pains of Messiah. These three cycles will continue to visit the earth in recurring and intensifying cycles. Whether it will be wars, economic meltdowns, natural disasters, or social upheaval, the trumpets will continue to call for our attention.

And as contrition and conviction mount in search of real rescue and atonement, a wonderful harvest shall be gathered, again and again, among those who hear the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the evening calling, "Adam, where are you?"

The testimony of the Fall Feasts is one of warning, endurance, repentance, valor and victory, not of denial or escape. The entire body of scripture and the Messiah's nature consistently point toward the path of endurance, sacrifice, and victory through suffering.

In a vision 26 years ago, we witnessed and experienced the promised "catching up of the saints to be with the Lord" as, we believe, it will occur (though we have no idea when this will be, certainly much endurance and suffering will take place in the body of Messiah between now and then). This fantastic event, as we understand and expect it to be, will take place dramatically and spectacularly at the very end of this present age as one dispensation gives way to the next at the coming of the Lord.

In other words, God's people would be wise to observe or learn from the Fall Feasts of the Lord in the Spirit, learn their prophetic implications, act in accordance with the lessons of the feasts, and prepare for the relentless cycles of the end. The Trumpets' alarms -- leading to Atonement's conviction of sin -- will produce Tabernacles' harvests again and again, as we draw near to the end.

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, 'Peace and safety!' then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober." -- I Thessalonians 4:16-5:6

Be blessed as you keep the Feasts.

Reuven and Mary Lou Doron
One New Man Call
OneNewManMail@aol.com
P O Box 164
Hayfield, MN 55940