Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I'm Candace Long with Lessons in the Latter Days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times we're living in. Today's episode is Lessons from Exodus 12, Part 3. The other day, a longtime listener asked me an interesting question. She said, "How do you get all your episodes to be exactly 24 minutes and 50 seconds?"

I told her when you're on radio, your programs are contracted to be a set length and they cannot vary. That means that every episode is carefully scripted. I know exactly how many words it takes for my natural pacing. It takes hours and hours of editing to go through the piles of notes that I've accumulated, which ultimately become an episode. And the final step is particularly difficult: what to include and what to leave out.

Right now, I have 391 pages of material that never made it into an episode. I don't teach off the cuff. I have to know first: what is God showing me in this topic? And then, Lord, help me discern what to include so I can get it across to listeners.

I am deeply appreciative to see Latter Days reaching people in almost every state in the country. I want to thank you for listening. It means so much that you see the value in all this research and are referring episodes to others. I don't often ask for donations, but I must admit that what the Lord is asking me to do has become increasingly more costly because it's reaching so many more people.

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Before I begin, I thought you might be interested to know that in Judaism, there are five levels of interpreting the Torah. Five! The first level is called Pshat, the most basic literal meaning of the Torah text, based on the oral Torah known as the Mishna and the Talmud.

The second level is called Remez, which is the use of references that connect to something else. When Jesus speaks, for example, he's pulling from information and data that he's learned in the text. The third level is called Drash, which uses allegories and parables to illustrate the meaning of the text in a different way, and this is the way Jesus often spoke.

The fourth level, Sod, literally means secret. It is the hidden or mystical meaning. And the fifth level, Sod of Sod, is regarded as the innermost hidden meaning of the Torah. The bottom line is the Torah is deep and multilayered in wisdom, and in this episode, you'll see some of these interpretive methods.

What I want to do today are four things. First, we'll return to Exodus 12 and go over the four sacred charges that God gave his people. Second, I want to give you an overview of Israel's journey to the kingdom as seen through a Jewish lens. Third, I'll share some numerical insights which relate to us living in the end of days, and finally present what I think the Lord may be saying through these insights.

To learn God's four sacred charges, let's return to Exodus 12. The sages tell us that the first 27 verses interrupt the narrative leading to the final plague of the death of the firstborn to lay out for his people four sacred charges. These four things are what he entrusted to them and to us to safeguard and to do, because today, doing them consecrates us to be taken at the rapture. I believe they are that significant. So with each charge, we need to ask ourselves: am I doing this? If not, this is a wake-up call.

Sacred charge number one: God sanctified the new moon at Nissan and set the entire month of Nissan apart from all the other months because it's this new moon which determines the timetable on the Hebraic calendar, all of the festivals and appointed times when the Lord has set aside to meet with his people. We covered this charge in great detail in part two, so let's look closer at the remaining three charges.

Sacred charge number two is understanding all of the laws surrounding the original Pesach offering as it was described in detail in chapter 12. It's this charge that believers in Jesus as the Messiah understand, because we know that he fulfilled every one of these laws when he shed his own blood and gave his life for the sins of his people.

Eight verses in this passage concern what to do with this lamb, beginning on the 10th of Nissan: when to choose it, how to select it, how to inspect it, how to keep it during the inspection, how to kill it, how to apply its blood to the doorposts to protect those inside the homes from the angel of death, how to cook it, and how to eat it. God's people were to know these eight steps by heart.

Sacred charge number three was to observe the way the Passover occurred in Egypt in order to rehearse it every year during the Seder, which is always celebrated on the evening of Nissan 14, which becomes Nissan 15 at sundown. It's called the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and we are to act it out as it happened then as a rehearsal.

God has appointed the Seder to be observed on this evening, Nissan 15, throughout eternity. This charge should be a red flag to believers because very few Christians celebrate the Passover Seder today. To the Jews, Nissan 15 is critically important because this was the time when the Passover historically occurred and at daybreak they were taken out of Egypt. This was when God separated Jew from Jew. The ones who remained in Egypt died, while those who honored the Seder were delivered from the angel of death.

Now, according to my research, I believe we have one final Passover to celebrate before Jesus comes for us at the first resurrection. So I urge you to celebrate the next Passover somehow, not only to honor this sacred charge, but to rehearse your own exodus from this life.

Sacred charge number four: God entrusted the general laws of the Pesach festival in verses 15 through 20 on how to celebrate Pesach in future years. This is another of the sacred charges that most Christians do not honor, so please pay special attention.

While in Egypt, the people physically left Egypt on the 15th of Nissan, whereas in future years, they were to follow the laws of the Pesach festival a very specific way, such as putting all the leaven out of the house before the Seder and eating unleavened bread for seven days until the 21st. The Lord specified the strictness of this particular law, saying this in verse 19, "For seven days, no leaven shall be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel."

Here is numerical insight number one. What we see in this fourth sacred charge are two sevens back to back following Pesach. There's the seven days where nothing with leaven in it is allowed in your home or your personal boundary, followed by a seven-week period that is celebrated from the Firstfruits Festival on Nissan 17, during which we count the Omer for exactly seven perfect weeks while the grain is perfected and then presented as an offering to God on the 6th of Sivan, which happens at the festival of Shavuot.

Shavuot is the day that Israel received the Torah and the day believers in Yeshua received the Holy Spirit. The insight seen here of the two sevens back to back is what inspired the revelation in my recent series called The Final Week of the Church Age, which is where I believe we are now. In it, I present evidence showing that we are living toward the very end of these final seven years, when we are admonished to stay away from leaven and pretense in order to prepare us for the barley harvest, which comes right at the beginning of the seven weeks leading to Shavuot.

I see these seven weeks as a picture of the seven-year birth pangs or tribulation period during which the wheat, which is a picture of Israel, is violently threshed, winnowed, roasted, and sifted as the Lord cleanses his Jewish bride to present as a pure offering when he physically returns to earth. Now, before sharing more numerical insights, let me give you an overview of Israel's journey to the kingdom.

At Exodus 12, we're two weeks away from the Exodus. When we jump to the book of Numbers, we find that a little more than a year has passed since Israel left Egypt. And during that year, they received the Torah at Sinai, they worshipped the golden calf, they were forgiven, and they built the tabernacle. What I want you to see is that God led them to enter the kingdom then, one year after the Exodus.

But the people wanted to send out scouts to look over the land since they weren't sure they were ready. And this is when something dreadful happened. 10 out of the 12 leaders brought back a bad report after touring the land, and they bad-mouthed the kingdom that God prepared for them. He was furious, and he threatened to kill them all. Moses fell on his face and pleaded for their lives, and at last the Lord showed his mercy and spared them.

But he said, and I abbreviate: None of the men who have seen my glory and my signs shall see the land which I swore to give their fathers. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, 40 days, for every day a year you shall bear your iniquity, 40 years.

Now, here's my point, and this is very significant. What started out as a two-year trip to the kingdom became a 40-year journey. But this was not a mistake. God knew they would rebel, so the 38-year delay was always part of God's plan. And here's why.

Here's numerical insight number two: a 40-year journey. To see the hidden meaning, I need to remind you about the seven-day plan of God. This metaphorical picture is foundational to the Jewish understanding of the end of days. Here it is. Genesis teaches us that God created the world in six days and then came the seventh day, which was different. He called it the Sabbath, which means rest.

Scripture teaches that each day lasts a thousand years, which means that God has given mankind six days or 6,000 years to live in this world, which brings us to day seven, known as the day of the Lord or the kingdom, which lasts a thousand years. Now, let's look at this 40-year journey the way the sages do. They say that 40 years, as in Israel's 40-year journey, could refer to a journey that's four days long or 4,000 years long.

Listen closely; this is a little deep. In the seven-day plan of God picture, the Exodus happened during day two. The Talmud says that Israel's journey lasted four more days from day two, or 4,000 more years, which brings us to the year 6,000, which puts us right at the edge of day seven, which is the kingdom. Jesus died, as you may recall, at the end of day four. So these final 2,000 years since Messiah, this is what's called the church age, is where we are now right before the kingdom.

Now, what are we to learn from this? Namely, that there was no mistake about Israel screwing up and having to wait 40 years to get to the kingdom instead of two. It appears that God orchestrated this timetable shift to communicate this important numerical lesson to those of us who are living at the very end of day six, and that is us. He asked Israel to pay the price by living out the story for us to see so that we would know the season of our exodus.

I find this incredible. Our all-knowing, merciful Father wanted us to see when we are standing at the edge of the kingdom and has given us this revelation now because he is waiting for us. Numerical insight number two is the 10th of Nissan. This is a critical date that shows up many times in scripture, and I want to show you three of those times.

The first time we saw it was in Exodus 12 and we're told that on this day, the 10th of Nissan, God's people were to choose a lamb for Pesach. This date establishes the Pesach festival as a memorial for all eternity for his people, and this includes us if we choose to unite with the commonwealth of Israel. The second time we find this date is in Joshua 4. "When all the people were clean." Wait a minute, what people is God talking about? These are the remnant who were left, the children of those who died in the wilderness.

After watching all their families die, they too had to be purged and tested and purified in order to cross over into the kingdom. And that's why it reads, "When all the people were clean." This means that we have to be clean and purified in order to enter the kingdom. This is what's going on now. We are all being tested and purified.

We read in verse 19, "The people came up out of the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month." Wait a minute, the 10th day of the first month is the 10th of Nissan. The very day, 38 years later, when they crossed over into the promised land. Let's look at the third time that we find this date. It's in Numbers 20. Verse one reads, "And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month," that's Nissan, "and the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam died there."

I asked myself: when did Miriam die? What I discovered was that Miriam's death marked the starting point of Israel's 40th and final year of their journey, and was the first of three major events that happened before arriving at the kingdom. Miriam's death, event number one, happened on the 10th of Nissan. Coincidence? No.

The sages tell us that Miriam represented the well of water since it's recorded that after she died, the people had no water. Event number two happened five months later when Aaron died on the 1st of Av while he was in perfect health. He represented the cloud of glory, and when he died, the visible presence of God disappeared. And seven months later, event number three happened, when Moses was taken by God. And Moses represented the manna, the food that sustained them throughout the journey.

The final numerical insight, number three, is seen in this final year of the journey. And the pattern is this: numbers one, five, seven. I just want you to remember that pattern: one, five, and seven. The number one refers to month one, when Miriam died. Aaron died on the first day of month five. And the people were left with Moses for seven more months to finish out the final year.

So here's the pattern: major events occurred in month one, month five, and after seven months when the people arrived at the kingdom. I first took notice of this pattern in 2023 and didn't fully understand the significance until just recently. I stumbled upon example number two while outlining Exodus 12. On Nissan 10, day one, the lamb was chosen. On the 14th, five days later, the lamb was sacrificed, followed by seven days of abstaining from impurity by the people.

See the pattern? One, five, seven. And this was their exodus. Example number three is seen during Passover in Jesus' day. On Nissan 10, day one, he presented himself to Israel as the Messiah. Five days later, on Nissan 14, he was arrested and inspected by the authorities, killed and removed from the earth, followed immediately by the seven-day festival of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. One, five, seven. And this depicts Jesus' exodus.

Example number four is seen as Passover that's celebrated today. On Nissan 10, day one, we prepare for Pesach. Five days later on the 14th, we remove all the leaven from our homes and we celebrate the Seder, followed by the seven-day festival of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, eating only matzah. One, five, seven. Example number five, if you can believe it or not, I found looking at the days of Noah: the same pattern. On day one, Noah was told to build an ark.

Jasher the historian wrote that it took five years to build. And then the Lord told Noah to go into the ark, for in seven days I will send rain upon the earth. One, five, seven. Leading to their exodus from the flood, safe and sound. The Lord shows us repetitive patterns to connect the dots. Through it, the Lord is teaching us what is to come.

So in closing, let me try to wrap up my thoughts. At the appointed time of our exodus, I believe the Lord will use the 10th of Nissan to signal our final year leading to the kingdom. Because of the sheer repetition of this pattern, I believe we will experience the same three events that Israel experienced during their final year. One, five, seven. At month one, we will witness something like Miriam's death that could be described as the death of the prophetic movement, leaving people in a severe spiritual drought, not knowing what to do.

Five months later, we will experience what I refer to as the death of the body of Christ, which Aaron represents, whereby God somehow removes our traditional religious system, giving us time to prepare to enter a Jewish kingdom. Or this could be the time when the Gentile body of Christ is taken while still in good health, as Aaron was. And remember, after Aaron's death, the people had seven more months that final year with Moses alone leading his people all the way to the kingdom. One, five, seven. The pattern fits.

If you don't know how to return to the faith of our forefathers, please check out my 17-page monograph called Jewish Roots: God's Call to Reconnect. You'll find it in my online store at candacelong.com/store. It will teach you how to reconnect and how Jesus and Moses relate to one another. God entrusted Jesus to be the way to the Father, and he entrusted Moses to get us to the kingdom safely.

If you'd like to share this episode, you'll find it on my podcast page at candacelong.com/podcasts. Look for this episode: Lessons from Exodus 12, Part 3. I want to thank you for being with me today, and I hope you join me again next time for Lessons in the Latter Days. God bless.