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 "The Season of Euroclydon," subtitled "When Disaster Hits."

We find the word Euroclydon at the end of the book of Acts. It is an unusual type of wind. It is a picture, but before explaining what this season is, let me tell you what inspired the episode. It was a scene on the nightly news showing the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires.

I wrote about the fire in an earlier episode and shared the biblical prognosis that we'll be seeing many such fires in the days ahead. They may not be literal fires like in California. They may be personal fires of family illness or financial devastation where you see no hope or solution on the horizon. You're wiped out.

I've been in this place following a business venture that fell apart after 9/11. It was so horrifying that it became the turning point of my life. Through it, I ended up humbled and broken before God. I wrote about it in the very first episode when I began Lessons in the Ladder Days. You'll find it at the bottom of my list of podcasts at candacelong.com/podcast. It's called "When Life Falls Apart."

The scene that grabbed me most recently and brought me back to that 9/11 memory was seeing the charred remains of Pacific Palisades. The reporter's voice was the dominant one in the audio, but what drew my attention more was a young man's voice in the background who was overwhelmed by what he saw. Like maybe he was looking at his own home, now nothing but ashes.

I could hear the pain in his voice. He cried out, "Jesus help us. Make the wind stop." He paused a minute as if to muster up whatever faith he had been taught and then said, "I command the wind in Jesus' name to stop." The reporter kept on talking, not hearing this prayer. But for me, that scene was a pause-the-tape moment.

I want to reflect on what this young man must have thought watching the wind not stop. In fact, it grew stronger as if his prayer was blown away by the wind, too. It's this experience we need to prepare for in this season when disaster hits.

After I produced the episode "God's Message in the California Fires," I heard from Israeli Rabbi Alon Anava, who was so disturbed by the fires that he made another trip to America to speak to Jews in New York and LA and plead with them again to return to Israel while they can. I want you to see that we are witnessing biblical prophecy being fulfilled.

Rabbi Anava has thousands of followers all over the world, and this Orthodox rabbi recognized these were no ordinary winds. He knows in his knower that the birth pangs are almost here. I am in total agreement. What I see is that we are living in the final two years before the birth pangs, which are the seven years of tribulation during which the Messianic kingdom is birthed.

In part three of my series "The Final Week of the Church Age," I introduced a concept to you that I refer to as "Follow the Body." In a nutshell, these final seven years for Christians seem to mirror the last seven days in Jesus' life. As you know, all through the New Testament, his followers are referred to as his body. Metaphorically, this means that whatever happened to him in his last seven days is what the body of Christ will experience in our last seven years. This is a picture to teach us what's coming. My findings show that the last seven years began in 2020 with the pandemic. We are now in 2025, which represents day six in Jesus' life.

Guest (Male): What was he doing on day six? This was his last working day, and he did three things. Number one, he pulled away from the masses. Number two, he purged Judas from his inner circle. And number three, he devoted the time he had left to preparing his disciples for his return to heaven. You see, this was no ordinary ministry day.

Candace Long: During day six, the season shifted from the masses to the few. It shifted from building the ministry to bringing it to a proper close by passing the mantle to those that he had poured his life into. The end of day six, which is not quite here yet, was the Passover Seder, the Last Supper. Let's revisit the conversation from Luke 22 and hear Jesus' last set of instructions. I want you to notice that he starts by giving them hope.

Guest (Male): He said, "As my father appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for you, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

Candace Long: Let me pause to remind you, he's speaking to Jews here. Everyone at this table were devout, Torah-observant Jews. They recognized Jesus as the Messiah, so he's telling them that in the kingdom, they will be with him to help govern it. He wanted his followers, and that includes us, to feel the honor and thrill of this kingdom assignment. Now, why did he do this? Because he knew how devastated they were going to be after this night.

Guest (Male): The very next thing he said to them was, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat."

Candace Long: Here are five takeaways we need to note. Number one, Satan is referred to by Jews as Ha-Satan, the Adversary. This is a legal term that Jesus uses with Peter because Satan is allowed to come before the Almighty in the courts of heaven and make accusations against anybody. This is standard operating procedure in God's kingdom in heaven. The Adversary is free to come in and present his case, and if we are being accused and if not dealt with that issue, God has no choice but to turn us over to the enemy to enact judgment.

Let me explain. God is a just and righteous God who is 100 percent true to his Mishpatim. That word refers to all of the judiciary record that God enacted and recorded throughout biblical history. The Mishpatim, which are translated judgments or ordinances, is one of the four foundational pillars of Judaism. All of the verdicts and judgments that God issued are based on the Torah, which is the foundational governing document that Messiah will use to establish his kingdom. So the leaders that Messiah will choose to help him govern his kingdom must know and follow the Torah. Now, the reality is that most Christians have Jesus but no Torah, and most Jews have the Torah but no Messiah. All of us need to grow, and God has graciously given us a little more time.

Number two, the phrase "Satan has desired to have you" means that the Adversary has demanded that Peter be turned over to the heavenly courts for trial. He was telling Peter that he was being subpoenaed.

Number three, he continued saying "that he may sift you as wheat." Now, the word "you" in the Greek is plural: "that he may sift you all as wheat." Now, the passage says that Jesus was speaking to all of his followers, not just the ones around the table. So this means that there is coming a time during the latter days before the birth pangs when the courts of heaven will be packed with legal accusations against everyone of us. Now, remember, everything that happened to Jesus during his final days is a picture of what his body, we, will go through at the very end.

Takeaway number four is we're going to be sifted. There are 13 sieves that every grain must go through to be refined and worthy to be offered to God. Nothing impure is allowed to pass through. So this season will be turbulent. Remember from the last episode "Prepare for the Rapture Part Two," there are two harvests. The barley harvest is first. That's us. Followed by the wheat harvest seven years later at the end of the birth pangs, and that is Israel.

The final takeaway took place later that evening right before his arrest. Jesus was approached by Judas, who was by this time fully possessed by Satan. Jesus said something profound both to Judas and to those who came to arrest him. These were the chief priests, the captains of the temple, and the elders. All of them came to Gethsemane to arrest Jesus and take him away. But here's the last thing that Jesus said to them.

Guest (Male): "But this is your hour and the power of darkness."

Candace Long: The meaning of the word "hour" is a short season of time when God turns his people over to what he calls the power of darkness. This is a dark, demonic veil of darkness that God puts on these leaders, and they are no longer able to perceive truth. No matter how much we pray, God's people will not be able to free ourselves from them. It is a demonic force that is given authority over us for a short season.

So what does this have to do with the man who was innocently praying in Jesus' name to stop the Santa Ana winds? Now, most people take God out of the scenario altogether and say the disaster was due to climate change, or they blame the political situation. But the real reason is that on year six of the seven-year period preceding the birth pangs, God appoints a dark season known as Euroclydon. California was a preview of coming attractions. Believers will find ourselves overtaken by fires or floods or earthquakes or mudslides or tsunamis where all we can do is bow our heads and let this thing pass. We need to understand at those times that we are in the presence of a supernatural power that God has allowed to sift us.

I want to turn now to Acts 27, when the Apostle Paul was face to face with Euroclydon and he lived to write about it. There is incredible wisdom here that teaches us how to survive it. Paul writes that as soon as the voyage began, it was already dangerous, saying that "the fast had already gone by." What fast? This is a significant detail. If you know the Torah, you know the season that Paul was in. That fast was Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, when the enemy rules.

This fast is a time to meet with God every year, acknowledging his majesty, even when the enemy seems to have the upper hand. That's why we fast on the Ninth of Av, to hide ourselves under the shadow of the Almighty. In a nutshell, the period surrounding the Ninth of Av has historically been the most dangerous period for God's people for some 4,000 years. I will put a link in the description notes to an episode I wrote about this period called "Ben Ha-Metzarim." It's a season that every believer needs to understand.

Paul knew how dangerous this season was. The ship's captain and crew did not. Paul told them:

Guest (Male): "Sirs, I perceive this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only the cargo but also our lives."

Candace Long: A few verses later we read, "but not long after there arose against the ship a tempestuous wind called Euroclydon." So Paul is identifying a season that he knew well. It is a wind unlike other winds. Euroclydon is made up of two words: Euro, which means the East wind, and Clydon, which refers to a storm from the southeast which causes the seas to roar, and it destroys everything in its path. Paul knew the ship would crash, but an angel appeared to him and assured him that he and his companions would be safe because God was bringing him to testify before Caesar. As we read, God miraculously delivered them, but everything else was obliterated.

Here are five takeaways to leave you with before we close. Number one, in studying for this episode, I was prompted to reread parts of the lost book of Enoch, because when our seventh patriarch was taken to heaven, God taught him about the winds. The Lord's ways are magnificently complex and filled with wisdom. God showed Enoch how the winds come out of various gates or doors at certain times and blow over the earth. And he instructed him to pass this knowledge down to the wise. Three winds come from the north, three from the south, three from the east, and three from the west. He wrote:

Guest (Male): "Through four of those twelve gates come winds of blessing and peace. And from eight of them come hurtful winds that bring destruction. The first wind is called the East wind, which comes out through the first door, which is in the east and it blows toward the south. From it come desolation, drought, heat, and destruction."

Candace Long: Next, I did a word study, and I looked up every verse that mentioned the East wind since that's what Euroclydon is. I read all the passages in Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Jonah, and Habakkuk, and in every case, the East wind refers to the time of the birth pangs. So Euroclydon plays a key role in the latter days right before and during the birth pangs. Euroclydon is what helps us identify that we're in this season.

Number three, Unger's Bible Handbook tells us that the storm Paul encountered took place in 60 AD. He made it to Rome in 61 AD and was killed seven years later in 68 AD. What I took from that is that like Jesus, once Paul was captured by Rome, which is a picture of the final kingdom, he was never free after that. Also, just as Jesus was in the grip of Rome the last seven days of his life, Paul was under the power of Rome the last seven years of his life. This too is a picture for us, since we're in the final seven years of the church age. We need to anticipate a time of tossing and sifting by whatever manner of wind God sends our way.

The fourth takeaway is the Torah passage that is read by devout Jews during the season when Paul was hit by Euroclydon. We know the date. It was after the Ninth of Av. The Torah portion on that date is called "Eikev," which covers Deuteronomy 7 through 11. Eikev is named for the second Hebrew word in the passage, which is translated "if you follow."

Now, this is wisdom from God if you can hear it, so bear with me a minute. In Eikev, which means "if you follow," Moses teaches the blessings that will come if you follow the Torah. Moses told the Israelites that if they did the mitzvah, if they followed what God said to do, he would bless them with complete safety, with fertility and agricultural abundance, and he would keep every disease away from them.

Now, if you read Acts 27, you'll see that Paul walked out this promise. He lived it. As you may recall, a poisonous snake bit him and he shook it off his hand without a moment of fear. The ship crashed on a strange island where people were dying of all kinds of diseases. Paul not only did not get sick, but God used him to heal everybody else. The ship may have sunk, but Paul sailed through the devastation without a scratch. How? Eikev. Because Paul followed the ways of the Lord. He worshiped on the Sabbath, he celebrated the festivals, he studied the Torah every week, he kept the kosher laws, and because he followed it, God kept his promise and delivered him safely through the disaster. This is our promise. This is practically how we survive what's coming.

Let's sum this up. What this episode teaches us is that there is coming soon a trial unlike other trials. It is a tempest sent through the first gate in the heavens, directed by God himself toward every follower of Jesus who must endure this level of sifting during the final part of the church age in order to be ready to enter the kingdom. This sifting will shake us to our core and be unlike anything we've ever experienced. And though it will only last a short season, everything you trusted in deep down inside will crumble to pieces that cannot be put back together. All you can do at this time is bow your head in humble reverence and let it pass. And the master of the universe will be glorified in your spirit, proving himself as your deliverer. Do not fear the season of Euroclydon.

In this final takeaway, what this episode teaches is that we can stand strong in the midst of it. Paul showed us how: to be spirit-filled and Torah-observant. And that's what all the early disciples were. As Rabbi Anava is crying out now to devout Jews to make Aliyah and come home to Israel, so I am crying out to you to make spiritual Aliyah and return to the faith of our fathers. Come home. When you do, you can claim the promises of Deuteronomy 7 for yourself, and the Lord will carry you through Euroclydon with your life and your health and use you for his glory. You will experience what Job did.

Guest (Male): "When he has tried you, you will come forth as gold."

Candace Long: How? Eikev. Learning to follow his ways. In closing, you might be asking, how do I begin to learn God's ways and incorporate the Torah in my life? What the Father is looking for is a willingness to learn. He's waiting to hear you say, "Lord, I want to learn your ways, but I don't know where to begin." I'm going to put some links in the description notes to this episode, and I especially want you to take a look at two resources.

One is a monograph called "Jewish Roots: God's Call to Reconnect." This is a 17-page report with graphs and charts. I explain the basics of Judaism as I was learning it. I added things to my spiritual walk a little at a time, and the Lord has blessed me with the wisdom that has come from Torah study that became the foundation for Lessons in the Ladder Days.

The other resource is my book "The Levitical Calling," which explains the primary concepts that Christians need to know about Judaism and God's times and seasons. Most importantly, how to find what he has given you to be busy doing so that you can see your place in the kingdom.

I am praying for you that you will know the next step to take. To share this episode with others, go to my website at candacelong.com/podcasts and click on this episode, "The Season of Euroclydon." In the description notes, you'll find links to everything that I've talked about. I want to thank you for being with me today. I hope you learned as much as I did. I'm Candace Long. Join me again next time for Lessons in the Ladder Days. God bless.