Shabbat Shalom

Candace Long: Good morning and welcome to Shabbat Shalom. I'm Candace Long, your host and producer. In just a few minutes, Pastor Matt McKeown will give us an overview of today's Torah portion, which is called Bo, covering Exodus 10 through 13. First, I want to prepare us for today's somber mood as the final three plagues unfold prior to the Exodus.

The very first word in the book of Exodus is the conjunction "and." "And these are the names of the children of Israel who were coming to Egypt." There is no space in the Torah scroll between Genesis and Exodus because God wanted it understood that this was a continuing story. We are following the 70 descendants of Jacob.

The real story takes this somber turn when Joseph sent word to his father in Genesis 45:9, saying, "God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me." The phrase "come down" is the Hebrew word yarad, which means to descend or to go to a lower region. The sages say this has a metaphorical meaning. Israel is about to descend into a spiritual abyss.

Jacob was a prophet. He knew what this meant. Israel would go into exile for 400 years, as the Lord revealed to Abraham, his grandfather, in Genesis 15. Jacob was troubled and worried about his family and what would become of them. In the next chapter, he was on his way to Egypt and offered a sacrifice that night. God spoke to him in a vision and said, "Don't be afraid. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again."

This is a powerful prophetic word. The Lord is saying, "I will yarad with you. I will descend into that scary place with you and your descendants, and I will bring you up again. I will cause you to arise and ascend."

The other night, I woke up in the middle of a very disturbing dream. I fought against breaking it out because it was so disturbing. I had been in a peaceful state with the Lord before going to bed, although earlier in the evening, I had dinner with a ministry colleague and we had both expressed astonishment at how degraded our culture had become. It was like we were in the middle of a scary movie with a bad ending.

This was a slimy, dark dream where I found myself in a situation where there was no option to get out, around people who were all shady and dark. There was no light. It was as if we were in a prearranged narrative with no end in sight. The dream ended. I was shaken by it and finally, the Lord began to speak to my spirit. He said, "This is Egypt. You and this generation are going to experience everything that Israel felt."

"I'm showing you the cloud of darkness that has been cast over your land. Your only hope is the Lord's return. You must cling to me and cry out for mercy and for deliverance. You have descended into Egypt and will have to experience suffering before the Deliverer comes. The promise I gave to Jacob I give to your generation. I will go down, yarad, with you, and I will bring you up."

"Messiah can only come when my people cry out. Your deliverance out of this world depends on how desperate you are to hang on to the words that I gave to Moses. Tell my people they are not abandoning Jesus, for Paul taught them in 1 Corinthians 10 that they will drink from the supernatural Rock which follows them, and that Rock is Messiah." This dream took place only days after we began the book of Exodus.

Let's recite the Shema together. Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Baruch shem kavod malchuto l'olam va'ed. Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom for all eternity. And the last section: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

And these words which I set up for you this day shall be upon your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the way, when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm and as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and in your gates.

Pastor Matt McKeown: Good morning, dear friends, and welcome once again to Shabbat Shalom, where we walk through the Torah and uncover the Jewish roots of our Christian faith. I'm Pastor Matt McKeown, and today we enter Parashat Bo, one of the most dramatic, intense, and theologically rich portions in all of the Torah.

The name Bo means "go." It's a simple word, but it carries an immense weight. God tells Moses, "Go to Pharaoh," not because Pharaoh is ready, not because Pharaoh is repentant, but because God is about to complete what He began. Parashat Bo is where the confrontation turns final, where mercy meets urgency, and where redemption begins to move from promise into history. This portion contains the last three plagues, the institution of the Passover, and the night that forever reshaped Israel's identity.

Exodus 10 opens with a startling statement from God: "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them." This verse can trouble modern readers if we read it too quickly. Why would God harden hearts? Why prolong suffering? We addressed this some last week, but let's continue with this investigation of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.

Jewish interpretation helps us slow down and read carefully. As we said last week, Pharaoh has already hardened his own heart repeatedly. He has rejected warnings, ignored mercy, and resisted truth. At this point, God is not creating rebellion; He's confirming it. Pharaoh's resistance has become the stage on which God's redemptive power will be unmistakably revealed. Why? Because redemption is not only about freeing Israel; it's about revealing who God is to Egypt, to Israel, and to the future generations of the world.

God tells Moses that these signs will be told to children and grandchildren so that Israel will know the Lord. Exodus is not only history; it's testimony. The eighth plague arrives with terrifying force. Locusts descend on Egypt, consuming what little remains after the hail. Nothing green is left. Egypt's economy collapses, and food security vanishes. Pharaoh's servants finally speak up. They say, "Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?"

This is significant. Pharaoh's own advisors now recognize what Pharaoh refuses to accept. Resistance has consequences, not just for leaders, but for entire nations. Pharaoh summons Moses and Aaron again, but this time the offer is not surrender; it's compromise. He asks, "Who will go?" Moses answers clearly, "We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters."

Pharaoh responds with anger. He offers a partial release: the men may go, but the families must stay. This moment reveals Pharaoh's true strategy. He's willing to allow worship as long as it doesn't disrupt control. He wants hostages. Partial obedience is still bondage. God doesn't negotiate freedom. Rabbinic tradition emphasizes that Pharaoh's compromise is more dangerous than outright refusal.

Compromise disguises slavery as cooperation. God's response is firm because God desires complete redemption, not limited spiritual expression under oppressive systems. Israel's worship cannot be separated from their families, their future, or their identity. True worship requires freedom.

The ninth plague is unlike the others. Darkness falls, thick, tangible darkness, a darkness that can be felt. For three days, Egypt cannot see. People do not move; life halts. But in the dwellings of Israel, there is light. This is not just physical darkness; it is spiritual. Egypt's greatest god, the sun, is silenced. Ra cannot shine. What Egypt worships cannot save.

Jewish commentators describe this darkness as oppressive, paralyzing, and isolating. It reveals the consequence of rejecting truth: separation from light. And yet, Pharaoh still resists. Even in darkness, pride clings on. For Christians, this plague echoes powerfully. The Gospel of John tells us that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it. Israel has light because God is present. Freedom always begins with illumination. When God is near, darkness cannot dominate.

Parashat Bo challenges us to examine where compromise may be hiding in our lives. Do we accept partial obedience instead of full surrender? Do we worship God privately but remain enslaved publicly? Pharaoh is willing to allow worship as long as control remains. God calls us to something deeper. He calls us to freedom.

As Parashat Bo continues, the Torah moves us toward the most sobering moment in all of Exodus. The darkness has lifted, but Pharaoh's heart remains hardened. Moses stands before him one final time, and this time there's no room for compromise, no negotiation, no delay. Moses delivers God's final warning: at midnight, the firstborn in Egypt will die.

This is not spoken lightly. Moses doesn't gloat; he doesn't relish judgment. Scripture presents this warning as heavy, solemn, and decisive. God has given Pharaoh repeated opportunities to repent. Mercy has been offered again and again, but Pharaoh has chosen control over obedience, pride over humility. The coming plague isn't random cruelty; it is the unraveling of a system built on death. Pharaoh decreed the death of the Hebrew firstborn sons. Now the consequence returns to Egypt. Judgment mirrors injustice.

And yet, even here, God provides a way of protection. Before the final plague, God gives Israel detailed instructions. Redemption will not come through protest, rebellion, or escape; it will come through obedience, faith, and trust. Each household is to take a lamb, unblemished, without defect. The lamb is to be slaughtered, its blood placed on the doorposts and lintel of the house. Inside, the family is to eat the lamb together, roasted over fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

This moment is deeply personal. Redemption is not applied nationally; it's applied household by household. The blood on the doorposts is not a symbol of some kind of magic; it's a sign of trust. God says, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." The Destroyer does not discriminate between Egyptian and Israelite homes. Protection doesn't come through ethnicity but through obedience to God's word. And this is one of the most important theological truths in all the Torah.

God's salvation always requires a response. In Jewish tradition, the blood of the lamb represents covenant faithfulness. It marks the home as aligned with God's instruction. Redemption requires participation. The lamb must be eaten. The blood must be applied. Faith must move into action. Passover becomes the foundational act of Israel's identity. Israel isn't born at Mount Sinai; Israel is born in redemption. Before the giving of the law comes freedom. Before commandments come deliverance.

At midnight, the plague strikes. From Pharaoh's palace to the lowest dungeon, the firstborn die. Even the livestock are affected. A great cry of distress rises through Egypt, a sound unlike any before or after. This isn't triumphal language; it's tragedy. Scripture does not celebrate Egyptian suffering; it records it. God's judgment is real, but it's never casual. God takes no pleasure in death, but Pharaoh's refusal has led here.

And then, Pharaoh finally breaks. He summons Moses and Aaron in the night. He tells them to go, not later, not partially, now. Egypt urges Israel to leave quickly, fearing further death. What Pharaoh resisted for generations collapses in one night. Israel leaves in haste. Dough has no time to rise. Unleavened bread becomes part of the story. This isn't merely historical detail; it becomes ritual memory.

God instructs Israel to remember this night forever. Passover is not just an event; it's an identity marker. Every year, Israel will eat unleavened bread and remember what it feels like to leave slavery quickly, decisively, without looking back. Freedom doesn't linger; it moves. For Christians, Passover finds its ultimate fulfillment in Messiah. Paul writes, "Messiah our Passover lamb has been sacrificed." The lamb is unblemished. The blood protects. Deliverance comes not by merit, but by trust in God's provision.

Yeshua's death takes place during Passover. This is not coincidence; it's culmination. Just as Israel was saved through obedient trust in God's word, believers are saved through faith in God's provision of redemption. God then establishes laws concerning the firstborn. Every firstborn belongs to Him. Redemption is followed by dedication. This is crucial. Freedom is not autonomy. Freedom is belonging.

God redeems Israel so that Israel might belong to Him. The same is true for believers today. Salvation is not escape from authority; it's entry into a covenant. Bo brings us to the night that changed history. Judgment fell, mercy prevailed, slavery ended, identity was formed. And God proved once and for all He is a Redeemer. When dawn breaks after the night of Passover, the impossible has happened. Israel is no longer a slave people. For generations, they labored under whips, quotas, and fear. Now, they stand free.

But freedom is not yet familiar. Redemption has occurred, but transformation has only begun. Exodus tells us that Israel leaves Egypt in haste, yet not in chaos. God does not deliver them disorganized and afraid. They depart in orderly groups, carrying provisions, carrying the remains of unleavened dough, and carrying the weight of memory. Scripture emphasizes that Israel leaves Egypt with great possessions, fulfilling the promise that God made to Abraham centuries earlier. God's faithfulness does not expire.

God commands Israel to remember this night forever. Passover is not meant to fade into history; it's to be rehearsed, retold, and relived. Every generation must know that freedom came by God's hand. As Israel journeys out of Egypt, Scripture introduces one of the most powerful images: the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. God does not send Israel into the wilderness alone. He goes before them. The pillar provides guidance, protection, and assurance.

God doesn't merely point the way; He accompanies His people. This matters deeply. Redemption is not just release from slavery; it's the beginning of a relationship. God doesn't save Israel and then withdraw. He stays near. For a people who lived under constant surveillance and control, God's presence isn't oppressive; it's comforting.

Exodus tells us that God did not lead Israel by the shortest route to the promised land. He deliberately avoids the Philistine road, knowing the people are not ready for war. This reveals God's pastoral care. God doesn't test Israel beyond their capacity. He knows their trauma. He understands their fragility. He chooses a longer path that allows them to grow.

This teaches us something crucial about God's guidance. The shortest path is not always the best path. God's routes are shaped by readiness, not efficiency. Rabbinic tradition highlights that God's decision to avoid conflict early is an act of mercy. Israel needs time to learn trust. Freedom requires healing.

One of the most striking commands in Parashat Bo is God's insistence that Israel leave fully, no lingering, no delay, no return. Freedom requires separation. You cannot remain in Egypt and be free. This applies spiritually as much as physically. Redemption requires letting go of what enslaved us: habits, identities, systems, mindsets. God doesn't redeem Israel so they can live halfway free. He redeems them to walk forward.

God then reiterates that every firstborn belongs to Him. This isn't a demand for control; it's a declaration of ownership rooted in redemption. God is saying, "I redeemed you, therefore you belong to me." This isn't tyranny; this is covenant. Belonging to God is not a loss of freedom; it's the purpose of freedom. Many believers struggle after redemption. We are saved, but we still think like slaves. We're free, but we fear scarcity. We're delivered, but we hesitate to trust.

Parashat Bo reminds us that freedom requires retraining. Bo reminds us that the night of redemption is followed by a journey of trust. Freedom isn't the end of the story; it's the beginning of a new walk with God. As Parashat Bo moves toward its conclusion, the Torah slows down again, not because the drama has faded, but because God wants Israel to understand what has just happened.

Redemption has occurred, but identity must now be shaped. God is not interested in rescuing Israel only to leave them undefined. Freedom must be remembered, explained, and lived. Remember, God is forming a people, not a club. Foreigners are not excluded permanently; they're invited into the covenant.

Passover teaches Israel that redemption creates responsibility. Salvation is free, but covenant shapes how the redeemed live. God commands Israel to mark their bodies and their time with reminders of redemption. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is to be observed annually. The story of the Exodus is to be told repeatedly, not as abstract theology, but as a lived memory. God says, "It shall be for you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder between your eyes."

In Jewish tradition, this language is associated with something called Tefillin or phylacteries, boxes made of leather that are worn by Jewish men during the morning prayers every day except Shabbat and certain holy days. Faith is not only to remain in the mind; it's meant to shape action, perception, and behavior. God understands human forgetfulness. He knows that comfort erodes memory, so He commands remembrance, not because He fears being forgotten, but because forgetting redemption leads back to bondage.

For Christians, this principle resonates deeply. The New Testament repeatedly calls for believers to remember what God has done through communion, through testimony, through confession. Just as Israel remembers Passover, believers remember the Cross. Just as Israel was redeemed by the blood of the lamb, believers are redeemed through the blood of Messiah. Just as Israel was called to live differently because they were free, believers are called to live transformed lives because they've been redeemed.

Salvation is not an end point; it is the beginning. One of the most important truths in Parashat Bo is this: God does not redeem Israel simply to remove them from Egypt. He redeems them to bring them somewhere else. Escape is not the goal; transformation is. God is forming a people who will reflect His character in the world. Egypt taught Israel how to survive under oppression. God will teach them how to live in freedom. And that will take time. Freedom requires trust. Trust requires relationship. Relationship requires presence. And God will provide all three.

Parashat Bo challenges us to ask how redemption shapes our lives today. We must ask ourselves: Do we live as a people who remember what God has done? Do we teach the next generation the story of deliverance? Do we allow freedom to reshape our habits, priorities, and identities? God doesn't want Israel to romanticize Egypt. He wants them to remember why they left.

The night of Passover is not confined to history. It echoes into every generation. It reminds us that God hears cries, God sees suffering, God acts decisively, and God invites response. Redemption always calls for trust. Israel trusted God enough to stay inside while judgment passed outside. Faith often looks like obedience before evidence. Parashat Bo brings us to the threshold of redemption. Egypt is behind in the rearview mirror. The wilderness lies ahead. Identity is forming, memory is being planted. God has once again proven Himself faithful. Now, Israel must learn to walk with Him.

As we conclude Parashat Bo, let me leave you, as I always do, with a blessing. May the God who brought Israel out of Egypt bring freedom to your life. Let me remind you that the Hebrew word for Egypt, Mitzrayim, means a tight place, a place of constriction, but salvation means wide open spaces. May you come out of the constriction, the claustrophobia of Egypt. May the God who passed over in mercy cover you with His grace. May the God who redeems His people shape your identity through remembrance, and may you walk forward in trust, knowing that the same God who saved you will lead you every step of the way. My dear friends, the Lord is a Redeemer and freedom has a future. Shabbat Shalom.

Candace Long: You can hear Pastor Matt teach the Torah every Saturday morning at 6:00. For the next couple of weeks, I will complete my seven-part series, "The Final Week of the Church Age," because a lot of it follows the Exodus narrative. Coming up next is Part 3, called "Follow the Body," which gives you an important template to help you navigate these seven years by knowing what's coming and what we should be focused on doing.

According to my 35-year research into the biblical end of days, 2020 signaled the start of the final seven years of the 2,000-year Church Age ending at the Resurrection. Now, as I understand these findings, we have less than a year for this earth-shaking event, which will change our lives as the Exodus changed the lives of the children of Israel. My mandate is to prepare you for this imminent appointed time. It has taken me a year and a half to memorialize my findings so that others can see how the prophecies are aligning.

I want to pass down this understanding before I'm gone, and I have added the graphs and charts that I'll discuss today to the handout, which you'll find on our main page. Look for the link that says "Candace Long Handout." You can either download it or simply refer to it as I'm teaching. Last week I taught Parts 1 and 2, and today I will teach Parts 3, 4, and 5. I see what we're reading in Exodus as a rehearsal of what our generation is now experiencing, leading to our Exodus.

Remember, the word "exodus" is metaphorical language. It means a mass departure of people from one location to another by supernatural means. That's what the rapture is. It is my theory that everything Israel experienced leading to their exodus is what we will experience prior to being taken up, even the plagues. Now, I must be a stickler about regarding other people's intellectual property. The graphs that I share today are for your understanding only, and I ask that you not share them with others or start teaching using them. Biblically, this is a form of stealing, and I don't want you to fall into the sin known as gezel. Gezel is taking what someone else created and using it as if it were your own. So please be instructed.

I'm Candace Long with "Lessons in the Latter Days," offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times that we're living in. Today is Part 3 of the mini-series I'm calling "The Final Week of the Church Age." I want to return to the Latter Days graph to show you the multiple layers that comprise these end of days. Individually, each layer may not mean a whole lot, but together they offer incredible wisdom.

The layer that I want to introduce today is a paradigm shift that birthed inside of me in 2010. That's 14 years ago, and it's taken all these years to see how it fits in. This paradigm shift is a phrase that you can use as a key to unlock how to get from Point A, which is what we're going through now, to Point B, which is the kingdom.

Now, before I get ahead of myself, let's review the first layer that I introduced in Part 2, consisting of two seven-year periods back-to-back, one in front of the other rather than the two periods happening simultaneously. Each is a biblical week of years, such as the 70th week in Daniel 9 that is seven years long, one year for each day.

This week is divided into two halves of three and a half years each. The first half is relatively mild compared to the last half, which is more oppressive. Case in point is the seven-year period that Christians call the Tribulation. That is the 70th week, and these seven years come at the very beginning of the 1,000-year kingdom when God pours out His wrath to cleanse the earth before Messiah comes to rule as King for the remaining 993 years.

Now, as we know from the book of Revelation, Matthew 24, and Daniel 9, the first half of the 70th week will be relatively peaceful for Israel, who welcomes a charismatic leader as their long-awaited Messiah who will lead the rebuilding efforts of the temple. But midweek, a shift will occur and this false Messiah will show his true colors and turn against Israel with a vengeance. Christians call this last half the Great Tribulation.

Now, compared to the 70th week, which we know so much about, the final week of the Church Age is not well-defined. Scripture doesn't give us a play-by-play of what happens as the Church Age comes to a close. This is the period that I'm focused on here. Now, after sharing the conclusions of years of research over the last 10 episodes, the picture I see playing out is that this final week of the Church Age started during Hanukkah in 2020 when the vaccine rollout began and the bodily temples of billions of people, many of whom love God, became defiled and DNA-altered through genetic engineering.

Now, we have all witnessed unbelievable increase in evil, violence, deception, and perversion since 2020. This week will end at Rosh Hashanah in 2026, which is when I believe the rapture of the church will take place. Now, I use the biblical word "church" or ekklesia to refer to the Gentiles and Jews who have accepted Jesus as the Messiah and are waiting for His coming. This is the first resurrection.

So what's happening in 2024? The last episode on the tornadoes showed us the Almighty is violently threshing the grain, that's us, to shake us free from every impure thing that's clinging to us. He's preparing His bride, and that bride has to be pure. Once the grain has been threshed, winnowed, parched, and sifted, Messiah will call up His bride at the rapture and present her to the Father as His firstfruits.

Remember, there are two harvests within this 49-day-long Jewish ritual known as counting the Omer, separated by seven weeks, which equates to seven years. So let's review. The first harvest is the barley harvest, and that's a picture of the rapture that ends the Church Age some two and a half years from now. Those who refuse to be refined and want to stay connected to this world will not be taken at the rapture. Instead, they will live through the 70th week, which will be far worse than what we are living through now.

And then the wheat harvest comes exactly seven years later at Yom Kippur in the year 6008 after creation, when Messiah comes to earth with His heavenly army to destroy the nations coming against Israel at the Battle of Armageddon. Interestingly, it was Jesus who gave us the outline for the 70th week when He appeared in a vision to the Apostle John, who wrote what he saw in the book of Revelation. And this is where we find how the redemption story ends for Israel and the Gentiles who align with her.

But what about the final week of the Church Age? Where do we find an outline for that? I am proposing that in the same way that Jesus outlined the 70th week for the Jews, Jesus also outlined the final week for Christians. That outline is found in the last seven days of His life, which ended with His body suddenly removed from planet Earth.

What I want to teach you now is the phrase that I mentioned at the beginning, and that phrase is something we do. The phrase is "follow the body." That's the phrase, follow the body. Scripture teaches us that we are the body, the body of Christ or the body of Messiah. So at any given point when you're trying to understand what's happening, what you do is go to your mental graph and follow the body. What did Jesus do when and why? That's our outline.

Now, for the rest of our time, we're going to zoom in on what the physical body of Messiah did during His last seven days and apply that to His collective body. First, let's draw a horizontal line and divide it into seven parts or seven years. And we're going to label each section. We know our end date, Day 7, because that was the day that Jesus physically died and His body was removed from Earth. That date is historically verified as Nisan 14, which is Day 7 on our graph, which fell on a Thursday that year.

Above the horizontal line, we'll label each section by days, such as Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc., all the way to Day 7. And below the horizontal line, we'll label them by year: 2020, 2021, 2022, and so on, until the seventh year, which is 2026. So we've got a basic graph. And next, we're going to draw a vertical dotted line down the middle of Day 4, which corresponds to the year 2023. This separates the seven years into the two three-and-a-half-year periods.

Now, the final label we need to add are the dates on the Hebrew calendar, because these dates are found throughout Scripture and are loaded with biblical insight. The last thing we're going to add is to write down a header for each section that describes what went on in Jesus' life then. Now, my goal here is to give you an overview of His final week on Earth. So let me read the headers from my graph, left to right, to give you the gist of where we are.

Jesus' Day 1 was Nisan 8, representing our year 2020. He was in Bethany visiting his closest friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Jesus' Day 2 was Nisan 9, representing 2021. He was still in Bethany, enjoying his final Sabbath rest. Jesus' Day 3 was Nisan 10, representing 2022. He entered Jerusalem and presented Himself as Israel's Messiah and was rejected by the nation at large. Jesus' Day 4 was Nisan 11, 2023, when Jesus confronted the culture, calling out the religious leaders for their sin and hypocrisy.

Jesus' Day 5 was Nisan 12, 2024, during which Jesus taught exclusively about the kingdom. Jesus' Day 6 was Nisan 13, representing 2025. Jesus withdrew from the crowds totally and spent time only with His disciples. And Jesus' Day 7 was Nisan 14, representing 2026. That day He was arrested, imprisoned, tried and convicted, tortured and crucified, and His body was removed from the earth.

That's the overview, the raw outline without observation and application. So what I want to do now is to share a little of what I observed about the first two days only, just to let you see how cool this paradigm can be. During Day 1, Jesus was in Bethany, visiting Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Everyone in Israel was preparing themselves for Holy Week.

The Lord felt totally comfortable having intimate conversations about the kingdom. But there were murmurings of murder and deceit and betrayal in the political atmosphere around Jerusalem. Lovers of God were waiting for Messiah to enter the city. They would receive Him joyously, following His procession on the donkey all the way to the temple. Others were off in corners discussing ways to get rid of Him.

So this day was a mixture of light and dark, of good and evil, of joy and murderous plots. On Day 1 for us in 2020, everything seemed to be going along as normal, and then we were all hit with a pandemic and people stayed close to home surrounded by family. Those preparing themselves for Holy Week did so despite the fears and media hype to mask and lay low. Now, what I want you to notice here is that most people were unprepared for anything bad.

In Jesus' day, however, the true disciples knew this week was different. How do we know this? He had been telling them nonstop since the Transfiguration that He would face death when they got to Jerusalem. They may not have known all the details of how things were going to come about step-by-step, but they knew their Master was not going to continue leading the group as He had done for over three years. Everything they knew as to day-to-day interaction with Him was coming to an end.

Now, I want you to consider that the same was true for His followers in 2020. From my perspective, I had countless conversations with ministry friends on how I sensed this was the time of the end. They felt it too. We all knew something horrible was coming. Now remember, in John 14 through 16, Jesus tells us that Holy Spirit, who lives within us, would prepare us for the things to come. His disciples, those who spent time with Him day in and day out, were prepared then.

And His close disciples were prepared likewise in 2020. Now, this is a word of caution to those whose lives were totally upended by the pandemic. Were you caught off guard by how the year unfolded? If so, this is a wake-up call to examine how closely you are walking with the Lord.

During Day 2, Jesus, as always, honored the Sabbath wherever He was, reading the Torah and spending time with the Father. Regardless of knowing that this was His final day of rest before the worst week of His life, He honored the Sabbath to gain the strength for what lay ahead. Now, this would equate to our year 2021, when the vaccine mandates were upon us.

Most people were pretty much locked in at home, mandated and socially distanced, and easily bought into the narrative that the vaccine was the only hope to stay alive. Now, I cannot and will not judge others, but my focus was on God's promise in Deuteronomy 7, saying that none of the world's diseases would fall upon those who walk with the Lord and follow His ways. I truly believed that and I still do.

Because I have walked closely with the Lord for over 50 years, I know that He is not a God who mandates anything. So when the mandates began, we knew immediately this was not God and began to pray Psalms 91 every day. I was fully prepared to die if this were the way God planned to take me out, but I was not about to put anything foreign into my bloodstream.

Interestingly, it was that year, while celebrating Hanukkah in 2021, that the Lord gave me the revelation that has become core to my teaching, warning about the vaccine and its dangers. I sensed with everything within me that death and tyranny against godly people that was in the atmosphere. All of my close friends felt the same thing, so we were able to encourage one another. But we were shamed by many who said that our faith was reckless and misinformed. So clearly 2021 was a year of separation and division within religious circles.

Now, before closing, I want to apply this paradigm to three real-life observations to show you how to follow the body and find wisdom and apply it to what's going on. Observation number one has to do with the concept of transition. In 2010, I watched as my father was approaching death. He had always been a dyed-in-the-wool Georgia Bulldog fan and never missed a game. But staying with him during his final days, it surprised me to see that he had lost all interest in the games. He didn't want to talk. He preferred to sleep.

The nurses explained that he was in the first stage of dying, called transitioning, when a patient has days or even weeks to live. It's when what we thought mattered in this life no longer does, and we begin to transfer allegiance and internal energy to the world to come. A similar thing happened to Jesus. As he approached Jerusalem for His final Passover, something shifted inside of Him too. He knew His time of active ministry was over. His sole focus was to prepare His disciples for His death and give them a hope in the world to come.

Basically, our Lord became dead to this world and transitioned emotionally and spiritually to another realm. I can identify with that because I find myself in a similar state. A lot of things no longer matter. My priority is not this life any longer. On the contrary, I'm bringing closure to ministry projects to leave behind after I'm gone. Now, I'm in full health, mind you, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually I know I have shifted to the kingdom. I'm in transition. I'm ready for the rapture.

Observation number two crossed the newswire the other day. The headline read, "King and Queen of the Netherlands visit the United States." Now, more specifically, this royal couple came first to Georgia where I live. They met with our governor to lay the groundwork for more investments in Georgia by Dutch companies, and they visited Savannah, which has become a powerhouse in global trade, ranked number four after New York, L.A., and Long Beach.

Now, the reason this article flagged my attention is that the King and Queen of the Netherlands are part of the elite that I've written so much about. They're descended from Nephilim, who relocated over 2,000 years ago from the Middle East into Europe, intermarrying with royal families to keep the Nephilim bloodline strong. I did a deep dive on the royal ancestry of King Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand. He is a descendant of King George II, with European royalty on all sides of his family.

I found the timing of this trip significant because the Illuminati regards the United States as the capital of the New World Order that we know as Daniel's final kingdom. King Willem-Alexander has been preparing for leadership within the highest echelons all of his life. His interests are in international sports, such as the Olympics, and international water management. He was once chairman of the Secretary General of the United Nations Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation and is now Europe's third youngest monarch.

Let me read you a quote from Dr. John Coleman from the latest edition of the Committee of 300, which was written in 2006. "The Committee of 300 is the ultimate secret society made up of an untouchable ruling class, which includes the Queen of England, the Queen of the Netherlands, the Queen of Denmark, and the royal families of Europe. These aristocrats decided at the death of Queen Victoria that in order to gain worldwide control, it would be necessary for its members to go into business with the non-aristocratic but powerful leaders of corporate business on a global scale."

This is what arrived on our shores and photos showed our leaders falling all over themselves to negotiate a piece of the global pie. The royals sense the time for global occupation is coming soon, and they're paving the way for it in royal style.

Observation number three is the rise of Christian nationalism. Now, for a large percentage of believers, their focus is not on the kingdom. They are looking to a man to lead a revolution to take back America. I don't fault them for those feelings; I simply don't share them. My assignment is to chronicle what I see in these end of days as they unfold. And what I see so clearly is that we have less than three years before Jesus calls us up.

And what I also see is a similarity with the revolutionary movement that was happening in Jesus' day. The people were not looking for Him to leave the earth; they wanted Him to lead a revolution against the oppression they were suffering under Rome. The fighting spirit of the masses was diametrically opposed to the mindset of Jesus and His disciples who were preparing for His departure.

I see a different trajectory because I'm following the outline the Lord gave us. And what I see is that we have arrived at Day 5 in 2024, which tells us to teach each other about the kingdom. And that's what I'm doing. Nothing can change things if we are truly at the end of the road. Yes, the election will likely take place and what you choose to do about all that is up to you. I do know the Lord wants to find us doing what He put us on earth to do.

So whether you are focused on preparing for the rapture or fighting to take back America or investing in companies doing business with European royalty, the Lord has an appointed season to welcome His bride. Whatever you are led to do, I bless you in your journey. We'll continue to follow the body next time as we transition to the kingdom. I want to thank you so much for being with me today.

If you'd like to share this episode with others, it's called "The Final Week of the Church Age, Part 3: Follow the Body." You'll find it on my podcast page at candacelong.com. I'm Candace Long and I hope you join me again next time for "Lessons in the Latter Days." Thank you so much for listening. I hope you found the graphics helpful.

As I said in the handouts, these graphics are still a work in progress. Some listeners have expressed concern that I'm putting a certain date out there for the rapture. They're right in that the sages have always held very strong opinions about setting hard and fast dates, as well as the New Testament telling us to avoid what they call foolish speculations. But as I dug deeper, I found that as Torah scholars began to see prophecies unfold in earlier centuries, they couldn't contain their excitement either. So they began to relax in their views, and they generally recommend that we don't come across as authoritative with a date.

I have felt called to be a chronicler and write down what we are seeing and experiencing in this sixth generation. And I have freely admitted that if I am off some, then hopefully my work will help the next one who is drawn to the end of days and sees new insights the Father reveals. Coming up in the next hour, Andrew Gabriel Roth shows us the many different sides of John, from the exuberant teenager following Yeshua and outracing Peter to the tomb, to the nearly century-old elderly man on Patmos transmitting the book of Revelation.

Andrew shows us that John resembles a latter-day Solomon, who writes Song of Songs as a young man, Proverbs in middle age, and Ecclesiastes as an older man. You'll learn how John evolves and what never changes after eight decades of service to the Messiah. Following him, I'll teach the final week of the Church Age, Part 4, in which I pass on an insightful template that shows us what we should be busy doing until the Lord comes.

Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. At the bottom of the page, you'll find all of our programs archived by date, teacher, and topic. If you missed an episode or you want to listen to something again, stay tuned for the second hour on WEZE 590, our media partner for shabbatshalomradio.com.