Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I’m Candace Long with Lessons in the Ladder Days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times that we're living in. Today's episode is called "God's EF3 Message to America."

This episode took me by surprise because I was planning to continue my series on the final week of the church age. However, the recent explosion of tornadoes throughout America's heartland caught my attention. The way God speaks through tavniyot is nothing short of magnificent because His pictures bypass the language barrier and communicate regardless of nationality or age.

This metaphorical language is found in scripture, in dreams and visions, and in nature. Today we're going to look to see if God is saying something through these tornadoes. Psalm 19 tells us, "The heavens are telling the glory of God. Day to day speech pours forth and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard, yet their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world."

Watching the news each night was like witnessing a display of God's glory. Now, you might ask how is God glorified through natural disaster? Exodus 14 takes us to the Red Sea when the entire Egyptian army was barreling down on the Jews from behind. And God told Moses, "Fear not. Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord. The Lord will fight for you today, for you shall never see the Egyptians again. Stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it that the people of Israel may go on dry ground through the sea, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh."

God was glorified as the Lord that day to Pharaoh, to the Egyptian army, and to all the gods that they served. Plus, the Lord wanted His children to witness His power on their behalf to encourage them on their journey. Tornadoes are often referred to as the finger of God. No man can redirect its path. Seeing one or being in one puts us into another realm when we are face to face with the majesty of Almighty God. Ein Od Milvado, there is none like Him.

What I want to show you today is how to biblically interpret a tavniyot when you see one. I use the same method whether I'm examining a tavniyot in scripture or something God has shown me in a dream or a natural event in this case. In the New Testament, we find out how to do this in 1 Corinthians 15, which explains that the spiritual meaning of something does not come first, but the physical or natural comes first, and then the spiritual understanding. So I want to look at the recent tornado streak that hit America's heartland.

Step one is to write down the facts. I simply did an internet search for recent tornado activity and these are five things that I took note of. Number one, a tornado streak hit the United States. It started in Utah with at least one reported every day since the morning of April 25th, 2024. Number two, April and May are typically busy tornado months in the United States, but since April, it has been exceptional.

Number three, 300 reported tornadoes were sighted since April 25th, making it the second most dangerous April on record. Number four, on April 26th, one-third of the streak happened on that day in the plains. 62 were confirmed, including EF3s carving paths through entire neighborhoods and businesses in Nebraska and decimating some entire towns. And number five, more than 100 hit the heartland.

Step two is to go deeper into what impresses you. In my experience, it's in this second step where revelation comes if there is a message from the Lord in the thing you're investigating. Your spiritual antennas should be on high alert to listen for it. You see, as the interpreter of something God could be showing you, your ultimate goal is to answer three important questions. Number one, is God saying something through what you're seeing? And if so, what is His message? Number two, who is the message for? And number three, what does He want you to do about it?

So after I reread what went on in the natural, there were two things that flagged my attention to look into deeper. Number one was the location. Why did these tornadoes take place there? What do the terms heartland and the plains mean? Here are three things I found on the internet. See if something jumps out at you. Again, what we're looking for is why God directed the tornadoes there and if that was part of the message.

Number one, America's heartland is the central landmass of rural areas, such as wheat fields in Kansas and Iowa. It is associated with traditional values, such as economic self-sufficiency, conservative politics, and religious ideals, and comprises 20 states. Number two, the geographical section referred to as the plains is the flatland west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains. It's described as semi-arid grassland that stretches from Canada to Mexico, mostly covered by grasses.

Agriculture is the primary economic activity in the region. The land is fertile and best suited for wheat. The winter wheat is produced mostly in Kansas, while spring wheat dominates the region around the Dakotas. Other big crops are barley, rye, and sorghum, which is a type of grain that supports the livestock in the area. So to sum up, the location was the heart of our country's grain fields, our agricultural strength. At first glance, then, God could be saying that judgment has fallen on our agricultural sector, warning us to stock up in the event of food shortage.

This could be a reasonable interpretation, but let's look a little bit deeper into the second thing that flagged my attention, which was the date. Was there something specific about April 25th, 2024, when the tornado streak began? I did a double take when I converted April 25th into the Hebrew calendar. The tornadoes exploded on America's heartland on the 17th of the month of Nisan. What God is saying through this date is huge. More to the point, He is speaking to two people groups He loves: to committed followers of Jesus as the Messiah and to His Jewish children who are forever in His heart.

Both are living side by side in this current seven-year period I call the final week of the church age, which I believe began in 2020 and will end with the rapture at Rosh Hashanah in 2026. This puts us now in 2024 with less than three years to go. So where is the 17th of Nisan in scripture? This date falls in Holy Week on the Hebrew calendar. As you may recall, God tells us in Exodus 12 that this week is to be observed throughout our generations forever. That means Holy Week falls on very specific dates in the month of Nisan that do not vary. They are eternal and binding.

You should be seeing a red flag about now if you consider yourself one of God's people, hoping to be in His kingdom one day. What were you doing during the middle of Nisan? Were you figuratively standing before God rehearsing the end of days? If you are a Jew and were not, then God is speaking to you about this. It means you have left His ways and He is calling you back to your covenant with Him as a Jew. If you are a Christian living in America and have no clue what Nisan is, let alone when the middle of it is, this is your wake-up call. God is urging you to reconnect with His ways instead of church traditions not found in the Torah.

The sheer number of tornadoes surrounding this date tells us His message is urgent. Let's look deeper into the original Holy Week described in Exodus 12. On Nisan 14th, the Passover lamb was killed and its blood put on each family's doorpost. That evening turned into Nisan 15th, which began the Feast of Unleavened Bread. After the Passover Seder, the angel of death passed over their homes and killed all the firstborn in Egypt. Pharaoh ordered the Jews to leave, so the Exodus began on Nisan 15th.

Nisan 17th was three days later. Please make a note of this. Three days later, they came to the Red Sea. This was their true Exodus when God delivered them from death by parting the sea so they could cross over into freedom. It took them seven weeks, or 49 days exactly, to get from Egypt to Mount Sinai. And this was a significant journey whose purpose was to purify them to meet with God and receive His Torah.

Now, here's what Holy Week was like in Jesus' day. On Nisan 14th, Jesus became the Passover sacrifice at the exact time the lamb was sacrificed for the nation. And then He was put in the ground for three days and three nights. On Nisan 15th, the traditional Passover Seder in Jewish homes took place at the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On Nisan 16th, the ritual was done to prepare the season's barley sheaves for the first fruits offering.

The elders and leaders harvested the barley and gave the stalks to the priests, who would transform that rough grain into pure flour so it could be offered to God. The grain had to go through five processes to become purified. It had to be reaped, threshed, parched, winnowed, and sifted. And this was done every day for seven weeks to produce the required amount referred to as a measure. In Hebrew, it's called an Omer, which is about two quarts. Now I hope you're seeing some parallels here.

During the Exodus, God designed a seven-week period to purify the people before meeting with Him. This festival is called counting the Omer, and it lasted for seven weeks so the priests could purify the grain as an offering. Nisan 17th has a special name. It's called Bikkurim, which means first fruits. It is an appointed festival where this first perfect Omer of pure flour is presented before the Lord. Now something else was presented to the Lord on Nisan 17th. This is the very day when Jesus was resurrected from the dead and became what 1 Corinthians 15 calls the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Now to make this parallel even more amazing, on Nisan 17th, Jesus burst through the grave, conquering death itself during the morning watch. That's between 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning, which was the exact time that Israel crossed the Red Sea during the morning watch. This is not coincidence. This is a tavniyot, a picture that is rehearsed for our benefit. The Jews were delivered from death on Nisan 17th, and Jesus was delivered from death on the same day. The tornadoes on that day is God's way of showing us that He is preparing the path for our deliverance from this world into the world to come. Our Exodus is at hand.

During the three days that Jesus was buried, it is recorded by historians that He descended into Sheol, which is called hell, and brought out all of the righteous Jews who had been waiting for Messiah. They were immediately resurrected to new life, and He led them into the kingdom, fulfilling His promise to our forefathers. He told His disciples in John 5, "I say to you that the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live."

Now counting the Omer ends exactly seven weeks later on the 6th of the month of Sivan, which is another festival called Shavuot. It's known to Christians as Pentecost. I have a whole episode on this if you want to learn more. It's called "Torah 101: Counting the Omer." You'll find it on my podcast page at candacelong.com/podcasts. As you can see, Nisan 17th is a very significant day, the day the tornadoes began. Now what comes next is the challenging part. That's step number three. What is God saying by all this and to whom?

Here are six big lessons that I see. Number one, through the tornadoes on Nisan 17th, the total focus was the heart of America where grain undergoes a pretty violent process. If you want to come closer to God and become a pure offering, you have to come to the threshing floor. You'll find that place in God's heartland. God's heart is on the grain. That's you and me and all the others He is calling to Himself through whatever upheavals we may be going through. Did you know that the United States has more Christians and Jews than any other country? So through this tornado explosion, the Father is reaching two groups of people He loves the most and is shouting from the heavens that the time of the harvest and purification of the grain is at hand.

Number two, God is also sifting the heart of America while the world is watching. His judgment is unmistakable because as a nation we have sinned horribly and turned from His ways. This is an important message to the thousands and thousands pouring into our country looking to America to save them. God will not share His glory with us. He will continue to tear us apart in order to lead His chosen ones to the only place of refuge, which is the Lord.

Number three, in God's agricultural season, there are two harvests. At the beginning of counting the Omer, barley is harvested first because it grows quicker than wheat, which is harvested at the end of the seven weeks. Now I hope you can see this. This is a picture that God is showing us. There are two harvests we're to get ready for. The first one is at the rapture, which I believe will happen at the end of 2026. That's when Jesus comes for the barley. And the barley are the Gentiles and Jews who have received Jesus as the Messiah and are waiting for Him. The Apostle Paul describes the event in 1 Corinthians 4:15, "For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall always be with the Lord."

This is the event that Christians call the rapture. If you are a Jew listening to me now, I encourage you to study deeper how Jesus fulfilled every part of the holiest of weeks. Many devout Jews have come to accept Jesus as the Messiah, and I have put a list of well-respected Messianic rabbis in the description notes to this episode. Listen to their stories. In 1969, I knew nothing of Jesus and nothing of the Torah. And God took me at my word when I prayed a very simple prayer. I said, "Jesus, if you are the Messiah, then come into my life and teach me about you." That's it. I didn't feel any different at first, but within days, I noticed a heavy darkness that I had felt most of my life was gone. He totally transformed my life over 50 years. All He needs from you is an invitation.

Number four, if you have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah when He comes for His barley, then you will have to live through the 70th week, the seven years of tribulation the prophet Daniel writes about in the very beginning of the Day of the Lord. According to Rabbi Michael Washer, "In the day of God's wrath, which is those seven years, the fulfillment of counting the Omer will come. It will no longer be a rehearsal. Seven weeks of beating, burning, sifting, removing, destroying. This is a perfect picture of the birth pangs. And by the end of the seventh year, there should be no more filth and God's people, those who are left, will be perfect." Just as God proved Himself faithful to care for your forefathers during the Exodus, so He will protect you in supernatural ways when you come to Messiah during that time.

Number five, for Christians, the message is this: Jesus celebrated three Passover Seders with His disciples during the three years of His ministry on earth. In fact, the Passover Seder was the last group of pictures that Jesus chose to leave His disciples with before He left the earth. They rehearsed every step of the Exodus together. This is how important attending a Seder is. I urge you to attend the next Passover with either Torah-observant Christians, a Messianic fellowship, or with Jewish friends. It is critical that you get the proper instruction the Lord designed by rehearsing the Exodus. He is preparing us for our departure and getting us ready to enter a Jewish kingdom.

Number six, the final takeaway for me is confirming the timing of the rapture. The tornadoes happened during harvest in 2024. That's only two and a half years away from the month of Tishrei in 2026. And that's when I believe He will call us up. Glory to God. In closing, we need to realize that the times will get worse the closer we get, but they will be as nothing compared to the joy that He has set before us.

I want to thank you for taking the time to be with me today. I hope you share this important episode with others, especially with your Jewish friends. It's called "God's Incredible EF3 Message to America." You will find it on my podcast page at candacelong.com. I'll put in the description notes a list of resources to help you better connect with your Jewish roots. Our Exodus is not far away, and I want you to be prepared to spot these incredible signs and messages along the way. His word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. I'm Candace Long, and I hope you join me next time for Lessons in the Ladder Days. God bless.