Shabbat Shalom

Candace Long: I'm Candace Long, host and producer of Shabbat Shalom. Welcome to our final hour. Before Rabbi Michael Washer comes to teach us about Mishpatim, I want to remind you that he and I are creating a new programming segment that starts next week, and it will begin the second hour. It's called "Ask the Rabbi."

One of our listeners wrote asking for his advice, and she said, "I'm getting lots of questions from my family. They are concerned about my change in lifestyle by attending both my congregational church and a Messianic Jewish congregation to observe the feasts and learn the culture and worship practices."

Several things I want to comment on. First of all, it is the Lord who is leading her to reconnect with our Jewish forefathers. There are many reasons she may be feeling the pull to study the Torah. First, she may have Jewish DNA in her ancestry.

If so, then the Lord is obligated to fulfill the prophecy in Ezekiel 11:17, which says, and I abbreviate, "Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them," speaking of the Jewish exiles, "far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone. Therefore, I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them."

You see, his covenant has never ended with his people. The original bride of Messiah is the Jewish people, period. That has never changed. So, he knows where everyone is who belongs to him.

Another prophecy that comes to mind is at the end of Malachi, which says, "Remember the law, the Torah, of my servant Moses, and the statutes and ordinances, the Mishpatim, that I established for him at Mount Sinai. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers."

There is an awakening going on inside those whom Messiah is coming for at the first resurrection. Malachi is awakening a longing to study the Torah. It comes from deep inside your DNA, an inner awareness that something foundational is missing.

This awakening is the work of Holy Spirit. A third element to consider is what's going on in the Book of Exodus that we're studying. This is the season where the 20% are being separated from the 80% who think something's wrong with you for wanting to study the Torah.

The pull to be like everyone else will be great, and you may be faced with all kinds of questions and sarcasm and challenges that throw you on the defensive. This is exactly why Rabbi Washer and I are starting this "Ask the Rabbi" series.

I'm not inviting questions that come from a critical, accusatory spirit. We are looking for sincere questions, like Nicodemus had, to help you stand up to the possible ridicule that you're going to get as you grow deeper into alignment with the Commonwealth of Israel. It takes great courage to pull away from the masses to follow Moses. So, send us your questions of what you're dealing with. Go to our main page and look for the button that says "Email the Show" and ask the rabbi whatever is on your mind.

As we begin this hour of instruction, allow me to recite one of the prayers we say before studying the Torah: Baruch atah Adonai hamelamed torah leamo yisrael. Venatan lanu torah tovah bebasar Yeshua HaMashiach leamo yisrael. Blessed are you, Lord, teacher of Torah to his people Israel, and who gave the Torah in flesh, Yeshua the Messiah, to his people Israel. Join me in welcoming Rabbi Michael Washer.

Rabbi Michael Washer: Shabbat Shalom, chaverim. This is Rabbi Michael Washer. This teaching is dedicated to my mother of blessed memory, Shirley Washer. We used to spend hours talking about the world and what we were doing, what was happening in our lives, and current events and things happening in the world.

Many times, when our biblical Jewish worldview collided with the dominant worldview, she would say, "This world is upside down and backwards," and that settled everything. Well, this world is backwards from the Jewish world. We are kosher fish swimming upstream against a very strong current.

Our calendar is backwards. It goes counter-clockwise, not clockwise like the common culture. Even Hebrew is read from right to left, unlike Greek-based words that are read left to right. Well, the truth is that a biblical Jewish worldview is the direct opposite of this common Western Christian culture.

This is because God invented and gifted our culture to the Jewish people. It's a microcosm, a little picture of the culture of heaven. Greek-based life and culture is not, so we appear backwards. I'll show you that our covenant with God is also backwards.

Last week, we saw Israel arrive at the mountain of God, Mount Sinai. They saw and heard God give the ten words in the tongues of all seventy Gentile nations, but no one accepted the Torah except the Jewish people. God took Israel as his bride for all time at Mount Sinai, giving to us the Ketubah or marriage contract.

But there was no covenant made with his bride yet. That comes in this week's Torah portion, Mishpatim. Mishpatim means judgments. Why does this Torah portion have the title "Judgments"? Right after God gives the ten words to Israel, God goes on to give 53 individual laws to Israel through Moses.

God introduces them by calling them judgments, Mishpatim. Exodus 21:1: "V'eleh hamishpatim asher tasim lifnehem. And these are the judgments that you shall set or put before them." So, what judgments are given right after the heavenly high of experiencing and seeing the God of the universe, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the builder of the elements and fashioner of the eternal spirit of mankind?

How to deal with slaves and slave families and indentured servants, and what to do if you sell your daughter into servitude and she is then rejected by her master. There are details about thefts, injuries, murder, kidnapping, manslaughter.

All of the judgments made in the Jewish people's world are to be, and I quote, "Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise." All of this is, of course, monetary valuation, not to be taken at face value.

For instance, if you take three-quarters of someone's vision from your violent act, how do you pay them back eye for eye? Do you put out three-quarters of your own vision? What if you don't hit hard enough and take only half of your vision? What if you go too far and you blind yourself completely? It's all monetary valuations, which means we need to be able to put a value on everything. What is everything worth in our life? And how do we pay back others for our sins?

This is called in Hebrew Mida Keneged Mida, which means measure for measure. In other words, you get back what you put out. God repays to every man exactly what measure we give. Yeshua quoted this and other verses about Mishpatim making judgments in Matthew 7:1-2: "Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you." See? Mida Keneged Mida, measure for measure.

I don't believe "do not judge" is the best translation, but rather "do not judge badly or wrong or amiss or unfairly," just as Leviticus 19:15 says, "Do not do injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly." We have to judge. We have to make judgments in this life constantly.

Everything functions in our life by Mida Keneged Mida, measure for measure, because God is involved in our lives. Every test that comes to us, every problem, every seemingly negative thing is of our own doing and is many times, though not always, a repayment for sin. As the sages say, there is no suffering without sin.

Because God functions in a Mida Keneged Mida world, he then teaches Israel, immediately after revealing himself to them, how to be like him, how to live and act and function like God. That is, how to love. The Jewish world is backwards from this world. Here is how we can begin seeing this.

Consider this seemingly insignificant Mishpat among the 53. "If a fire breaks out and spreads to thornbushes so that stacked grain or the standing grain or the field itself is consumed, he who started the fire shall surely make restitution." Well, to do this Mishpat, you must know many details.

Who owns the field? Where is the field? How long have they owned it? Why are there thornbushes there in the first place? What kind of grain was it? How much grain was it? How much grain was damaged or destroyed? Who lit the fire? How and why was it done? And so, how much should restitution be? Many other facts of the case must be established.

Well, this exhaustive list of considerations is found in much of the Talmud, considering every facet of possible cases to be judged properly and with love, like God would judge. But there's something more in this Mishpat. Aside from the facts and the measures and the valuations that need to be known to make a judgment in such a case, it is also a picture of spiritual things.

We have to ask a whole different set of questions. This ratchets up the backwards nature of the Jewish world even more. What is a fire in the Bible? What's a thornbush? What does grain and standing grain represent in the Bible? What's a field? What does it mean to start a fire?

These are all pictures of spiritual things because every detail of the Torah is spiritual. As it says in Romans 7:14, "For we know that the Torah is spiritual." Remember from last week's teaching, I showed you that the Torah and the Spirit are one; they're synonymous.

So, in addition to the details of the laws seen in the Talmud, many of the pictures or metaphors or allegories are also presented there. Both the physical is dealt with and the spiritual is dealt with. All of that is a lot, isn't it? It's an enormous amount of stuff compared to Hellenistic Christianity, for sure.

But this is how Torah-believing Jews read the Torah. This is the covenant with the Jews. The Jewish covenant is backwards from the supposed covenant that most people think they have with God in our culture. The Jewish world and our covenant with God is a lot more work than perhaps you knew.

The truth is, viewing it through Jewish lenses, that normative Christianity is, in many ways, institutionalized laziness. There's no scripture that tells us that God swept away the covenant he made with his beloved Israel and established a new covenant for Gentiles, an easy covenant, a chill covenant where we just let Christ do all the heavy lifting. That is not how it works. That is replacement theology.

I have heard all my adult life that no one can keep the law, that if you break one law, you're guilty of all of it, and other badly misquoted verses from Paul or Shaul. These are feeble excuses made by people who don't want to do the Torah.

Those who misquote his words and the words of Yeshua have an agenda. They want to live how they want to live and do what they want to do, how they want to do it, and when they want to do it. But Deuteronomy 30 says it's not too hard to do the Torah. It's not distant or unreachable or too hard for us. But it's not easy, but nothing worth anything is easy.

The Mishpatim are backwards from the laws and customs of the rest of the world, and the Mishpatim are just the prelude to what comes next, which is even more backward. Because what comes directly afterwards, and it is also in this Torah portion, is our actual covenant with God.

Exodus 24:3: "Then Moshe came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the Mishpatim; and all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do.' Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he arose early in the morning and he built an altar at the foot of the mountain; he sent young men and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord."

"Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the scroll of the covenant, read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, 'All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will hear.'" And here, we can see the backwards nature of the covenant multiply.

What Israel answers back to God as the covenant is being made are some of the strangest and most profound words ever spoken. They said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will hear." In Hebrew, this is Na'aseh V'Nishmah. Na'aseh means we will do. V'Nishmah means and we will hear or listen.

I will return to this in a moment, but first consider this. Just before the covenant was cut, the text says in Exodus 24:3: "Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the Mishpatim; and all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do.'"

When Israel heard the words that Moses recorded on the scroll, Israel answered with a normal and sensible response. They said that they would do all the words which God has spoken. Okay, that's fine; it makes sense. God spoke, we will do. You could almost squeeze the idea of obedience out of this.

But a while later, when the blood begins to be sprinkled and the covenant with the Creator is made, they magically change their tune and say, "We will do and then we will listen." We will listen after the doing. Well, this is backwards. This statement makes absolutely no sense.

How can one hear or obey the words of the one speaking after doing what the speaker is saying to do? It would have made a lot more sense if Israel had answered back, "We will listen and then we will do." This is the normal way of the religious, to obey or listen to their God and to dutifully do what they have been commanded.

It's probably the most cherished and primal belief in all of Christianity as well as all of Judaism, that one should obey God's commands. But here's the problem, and it is a big one. I'm quite sure no one has ever told you this, but there's no such word as obey in the Bible. And there's no such word as command in the Bible.

Yes, they are certainly translated this way, but that is because the idea of obeying a commandment filtered into the world's consciousness when Hellenism spread throughout the earth by the Roman Empire and then by the Holy Roman Empire and then by Roman Christianity.

That's on the Christian side. And on the Jewish side, the Jewish people's focus on the curse of the law instead of the pictures in the law accomplished this same sad end. So, we all made the same mistake with these words and beliefs. This is a huge subject that I could spend hours on.

Now, just like last week, I have to say that I've also written a book about this very difficult concept. The book is called Obedience or Understanding, and it's available on Amazon. It's also available on my website, michaelwasherart.wixsite.com/michaelwasherart, and it's on the page called "My Writings."

The word consistently mistranslated as obey is Shama, which simply means hear or listen. Very identifiable to Jewish people because the watchword of Judaism said twice a day is Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." So, should it really be "Obey, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one"?

The word consistently mistranslated as command is Tsavah, which means to set up or establish, and it carries no force of coercion or command. Mitzvah means a set up or established thing and is the word mistranslated as a commandment. A related word is Matsevah, which is a set up or standing stone or monument or pillar. Another related word is Nitzavim, which means standing ones, as in Deuteronomy 29:10: "You are all standing here today." Should it be, "You are all commanded ones here today"?

So, back to Na'aseh V'Nishmah, the enigmatic phrase that Israel spoke to God at our eternal covenant with him. "All that he has spoken we will do and then listen." Again, if God is looking for obedience, the normal response would have been, "We will obey and then do all these words from God."

But it is such an amazing and backwards response to say the opposite. "We will do the thing and then listen to what?" To God? This makes no sense. "We will do the Jewish act and then we will listen to the thing that we just did." This is exactly what is being said in this passage.

And don't think that this is an isolated incident or statement in scripture. There are twelve passages in which the Hebrew text makes clear that Israel was told to do or observe or guard the Mitzvah or law and then afterwards to listen to that Mitzvah or law.

Here's a very clear scripture that shows this: Deuteronomy 11:27-28: "See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing that you listen to the establishments of the Lord your God, which I am setting up for you today. And the curse if you do not listen to the establishments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the Derech, the way."

In Hebrew, "that you listen to the establishments" or, if you prefer, the commandments, is Asher Tishma'u el-mitzvot. "And if you do not listen to the commandments" is Im-lo Tishma'u el-mitzvot. Can you hear the difference in how these phrases begin? The blessing comes that or because you listen to the mitzvot. The curse comes if you don't listen to the mitzvot.

Even if we do the mitzvot, that curse comes if we don't let it talk to us. The mitzvot have a mouth. The mitzvot speak to our hearts. The mitzvot speak God's voice to us. But this amazing process of the mitzvot speaking to us only works if we do the mitzvot. If we don't do Judaism, that part of Judaism cannot speak to us.

If that is the case, we cannot hear the voice of God as Abraham and all those in covenant with God did. Israel making the covenant with God at Mount Sinai set them on a path that is totally backwards. We are backwards in our persnickety attention to detail and our intensity and focus and hard work in the doing and understanding of scripture.

In addition to this, we are backwards in our doing the act and then listening to what it can teach us. The rest of the world tries to simply obey commands. Our covenant is backwards from the rest of the world because the rest of the world has no covenant with God.

Those are big words, aren't they? Scary words. And you might ask, am I including Christians in this equation? Of course I am, but there's a strange and mysterious caveat to that. We are told in Romans 11 that Gentiles who have come to the Messiah Yeshua, not to the Hellenized invention of the god-man, are wild olive branches grafted in against nature.

Did you hear that? Grafted in against nature to the natural Jewish olive tree, Israel. So, whether they appreciate it or not, Gentiles who have come to the Jewish Messiah Yeshua do get to suck from the sap of the Jewish covenant of God flowing through the Jewish olive tree.

They are in the camp, in the community, in the covenant of Israel by the skin of their teeth, and it is, as Shaul says in Romans 11, very easy for God to snap the Gentile right off that tree. So, he says, "Don't be arrogant against the Jewish people because you don't support the Jews; the Jews support you."

So, how much more magnificent would it be for Gentile believers to act like they're part of that Jewish tree? How much more wonderful would it be for both Jews and Gentiles who know Messiah to do Judaism and then listen to its speaking the words of God to us?

All of us learning together from the Torah, the mitzvot, the Mishpatim that God gave us to learn from. This covenant changed everything for Israel, and God makes it clear in later passages that this covenant never changed, never varied, would never be broken or dissolved.

In fact, the entire purpose of Yeshua's coming as the Messiah was to enable Israel to re-up themselves into this covenant. It had absolutely nothing to do with Gentiles at all except for those who, just like the Gentiles that left Egypt with the Jews, stood at Mount Sinai and were part of the covenant made with Israel.

Yeshua became a life-giving spirit, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15, and once someone's spirit comes to life from death brought by Adam, it is possible to have the words of the Torah engraved on our heart, as it says in Jeremiah 31: "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; I will put my Torah within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God and they shall be my people."

It does not say I will make a new covenant with the world or with the Gentiles. It says it is for the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It does not say I will take away that nasty law and replace it with the words of Christ on the heart. It says that the new covenant will be identical to the original covenant in that both are Torah.

The original covenant, by the way, is not the old covenant referred to several times in the book of Hebrews. The old covenant was the curse of the law. So, nothing changed when Yeshua came. He simply gave us, as Jews and anyone who joins the Jewish world, the capacity to understand the words of the covenant; that is, the Torah.

So, this covenant made in Exodus 24 changed everything because everything about it was backwards. But at the same time, it was a continuation of the covenant that God made with Abraham. And remember, Abraham did the mitzvot too, and he listened to God's voice.

God promised the land to Isaac, and the rationale given by God was this: "Because Abraham heard me," this is the word Shama, "and kept my watches," this is the word mishmar, which is the cycles of the priest, the Levites, and the festivals, "my establishments," this is the word mitzvot, mistranslated as commandments, "my statutes," this is the word chok, and my instructions, this is the word Torot, mistranslated as laws.

These four words perfectly define and are synonyms for Judaism. Here is what I'm saying. When we do the mitzvot, and yes, I do mean do Judaism, all of the Jewish acts that we can do, those acts will speak to us. We will learn about spiritual things by doing the Jewish acts.

There's an amazing promise in this. When you, as a Christian or Gentile believer in Yeshua or a Messianic Jew, do the Jewish acts, you will hear God's voice and come to know him as he truly is. There's also a sad and unfortunate promise in this. If you will not do or refuse to do the Jewish acts, you'll never hear God's voice and come to know him as he truly is.

Now don't get me wrong, everyone around you will tell you that you're hearing God's voice and getting to know him as he truly is. But that is called peer pressure and tradition. The choice is ours; it always has been. The blessing comes that we listen to the mitzvot. The curse comes if we will not listen to the mitzvot, even if we're doing the mitzvot.

So, if you want to be part, or if you are already a part but you want to feel a part of the backwards Jewish covenant, turn around and be backwards from the rest of the world. Say along with Israel, Na'aseh V'Nishmah. We will do Judaism and then we will hear Judaism speak.

I can guarantee you from forty years of experience that when you do Judaism, any part of Judaism, some of Judaism, all of Judaism—it doesn't matter, it's irrelevant—and you open your ears to let the Jewish acts teach and preach and speak to your heart, you will hear God's voice. And you will hear many pictures of Messiah in those words. This is Rabbi Michael Washer, and I'd like to help you get turned backwards so you can walk God's Derech, his path, along with us, the Jewish people. So, join me again next week to learn more pictures of Messiah next. Shabbat Shalom.

Candace Long: You can hear Rabbi Michael teach more pictures to prepare us for the kingdom every Saturday morning from 8:00 to 8:30. And next week, starting the second hour from 7:00 to 7:30, I will interview him and ask him the questions that you send in. "Ask the Rabbi" starts next week at the second hour of Shabbat Shalom.

I'm Candace Long, your host and producer of Shabbat Shalom. I'm ending today's program with an important episode called "Signs of a Pan-Millennialist Awakening," which is a popular belief system among Christians that says, "Don't worry about all this end-time stuff; it'll all just pan out in the end."

This episode is in response to an email that I received from a lawyer in one of America's leading cities. He is a Sunday school teacher and was very perplexed by my three-part series on Exodus 12.

Now, what I saw in his letter is that God is at work, stirring the hearts of sincere followers of Jesus who find themselves unprepared to answer the questions of what is going on in the world, usually brought on by the dark cloud that whispers, "You're not supposed to know the day and the hour of his coming."

So, what happens is that no one is ready, and the bridegroom is right around the corner. I'm going to share what this lawyer wrote, which made me drop what I was doing to write him as well as this episode, and how it relates completely to today's Torah portion, Mishpatim. We're also going to look at the Parable of the Ten Virgins as seen through a Jewish lens and why 50% of them were not taken into the wedding feast. Be instructed.

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 in response to an email I got last week from a man named Nathan, who is a lawyer working in one of America's leading cities.

He gave me permission to share his letter. Now, you have to understand I'm busy as a writer and producer and don't have a lot of time to spend on each email and question that I receive, but I have just sent him a five-page personal response and am now writing an entire episode.

Why? Because in his letter, I saw signs of a pan-millennialist awakening, which is the title of this episode. Now, if this term is new to you, a pan-millennialist is someone who doesn't concern themselves with how the end of days is going to unfold because they believe everything will pan out in the end.

But let me just say, an awakening has begun. I want to cover six things today. Number one, I want to read parts of Nathan's letter. Number two, tell you the signs I see of an awakening, especially in God's men of faith. Number three, how I responded to him. Number four, the three timeline clues that place this awakening at a significant time on God's calendar. Number five, how close this puts us to the Day of the Lord, and number six, what the Lord is saying to Nathan and those who resonate with his letter.

Nathan's letter was well-written, thoughtful, and genuine. He wrote, and I'm going to summarize a bit, "First, I enjoy the detail you present in your podcasts and appreciate your dedication to the research. As a Protestant Sunday school teacher, I have not studied the Old Testament enough to correlate God's Old Testament dates and deadlines to the end times. Perhaps I am failing as a teacher not to study these areas."

"Your three-part podcast series about Exodus 12 has opened my eyes and intrigued me. I believe in the rapture, but I have felt my role was to equip God's people to show his love, apply what we're learning in daily life, and how to lead others to Christ. Usually, discussions about end times are irrelevant to a person who does not know Jesus."

"But I feel the Holy Spirit is leading me to dig deeper into the timelines you have presented. I too feel the earthquake shaking and a quickening in my spirit and that something is on the horizon. It feels like we are close to the end times, but folks have been saying this for some time."

Nathan went on to write that Jesus started a new dispensation of grace, implying that the Jewish festivals and Levitical guidelines are no longer necessary to follow, and ended by saying, "I believe I am sealed unto the day of salvation and nothing can separate me from the love of God. But your comments using the example in Exodus that only 20% of the Jews left Egypt seems to imply that my belief and relationship with Christ is not enough for the rapture. Am I misunderstanding this?"

Again, I appreciated that his letter was genuine; it was not hostile. He was sincerely inquiring and worthy of response. And you may feel just like Nathan. But I see signs of an awakening.

Here we have a genuine, committed follower of Jesus, a Sunday school teacher, but he is sensing something new stirring inside, "feeling the earthquake shaking and a quickening in my spirit," he said. But he's also realizing he has no real answers as to what this means in light of the end times, just an overwhelming sense that "something is on the horizon."

The other thing to notice is that he has been riveted by a three-part series I produced on Exodus 12. The common denominator in each of these episodes is trying to come to grips with a divine interruption that God made in the Torah by suddenly changing the calendar. He made the month of Nissan the first month of the year instead of the seventh month, which is where it had been for 2,000 years.

What I subsequently learned researching this resulted in a paradigm shift inside of me, which inspired the three-part Exodus 12 series. I'll put links to the series in the description notes to this episode. But the bottom line here is that God basically put up a billboard announcing this timeline shift.

And only those who saw the billboard and followed the instructions were safely extracted from this world into the presence of God who protected them all the way to the kingdom. Now, that sentence alone is incredibly deep. Let me say this another way.

The Exodus, which can be defined as a mass departure of people from one location to another through miraculous signs and wonders, was only experienced by those 20% who heard and followed this news bulletin. Now, the reality that Nathan is having trouble with is that 80% of the rest of the Jews did not hear the instruction.

They did not want to follow Moses, and they were not taken at the Exodus. Now, this is a very real tavneet or a biblical picture that should be taken seriously. They dismissed Moses as irrelevant and they were not taken.

Does it not seem significant to you that Nathan wrote admitting his lack of attention to the matter of the rapture because to him and millions like him, it really doesn't matter because everything will pan out in the end? No, God wanted Nathan to stop and ponder at Exodus 12. He wanted him to be perplexed and transfixed there. This is a sign of awakening that Nathan has stopped to pause and ponder deeply.

Thankfully, after admitting he had been intrigued by this series for quite some time, he approached me with his questions. Now, this is another significant sign of awakening. He is a Sunday school teacher, and he was staring at a hole in his theology. He was not able to connect the dots.

How could I be so certain about a future event that was not part of his teaching? My friends, that is humility, an aptitude that precedes an awakening. It's an admission that many people have few answers for this part of the journey. Praise God.

Here is some of what I wrote him. First of all, I did some research and took the time to learn as much about him as I could. I wrote, "Dear Nathan, by what I'm reading in your letter, the Lord is getting your attention and saying some wonderful things to you. I pray you have ears to hear them."

"First of all, I see two important clues concerning the timeline of your quest. Clue number one was the parashah or Torah portion assigned to the specific week you reached out to me. The name of the Torah portion is Shoftim, which means judges."

"Shoftim is all about God's sacred charge of appointing judges and executive officers or scribes in the gates of every city when we go into the kingdom. These Shoftim are legislators, specifically appointed to legislate and interpret the Torah in all cases that come up."

"It is not a coincidence that you were drawn to my teachings that led you to reach out to me then. Looking into your background, you seem particularly gifted in writing legal interpretations and opinions based on worldly law. It seems a no-brainer to me that God would want to stir up in you a desire to learn about his legal system."

"This is a very personal call to you. He's telling you there's something missing. I believe you were moved by my legislative proposition in the Exodus 12 series, my investigative findings, and the application to these end times, all of which was made possible because I chose 20 years ago to begin honoring the Sabbath and study the Torah."

"This is the foundation most Christians are missing. Jesus honored the Sabbath, he attended the festivals, he sacrificed. He was the physical embodiment of living out the Torah. He did not dismiss or put aside one thing; he came to fulfill it perfectly."

"Now, what I see is that the Lord is impressed with how you have stewarded your abilities, ones that he put inside of you before you were born. Here are some of the gifts I see: he has given you the ability to see a case clearly, to break out all the pieces properly and identify what parts you need to investigate further, how to pinpoint where wrong has been committed, how to lay out all the threads on your desk and in your mind and discover what fits where, what's missing, what's the truth, and your impeccable desire for justice and desire to walk before him."

"Not only do you see things clearly, but you are gifted to make sense of what you're seeing and then present a clear, concise, persuasive argument so others can understand the issue and arrive at a just conclusion. These are gifts, Nathan, important leadership, legislative gifts I believe Jesus wants to use in his kingdom."

"Now, the question for you is this: if the rapture were next month, would you be ready to step into the place he has for you? No, you are not ready, which is why I believe he is stirring these things in your heart and why you were prompted to reach out to me during the very week he was teaching these things to those of his children who honor the Sabbath."

"You see, this generation has lost its ability to contemplate, to reason deeply and deliberate in the study of God's ways. And they have tossed aside the spiritual mooring upon which his kingdom is based. Do you know how long it took me to write the Exodus 12 episodes?"

"I spent months and months making sense of his promptings. I knew there was a powerful message he wanted to communicate because he kept giving me clues to dig deeper. He always waits to see what we do with these promptings. And whenever I say yes to him and start digging for answers as if searching for gold, as Proverbs 2 tells us, he never fails to reward with tremendous insight. This is his way; this is what builds wisdom and discernment of the times."

"I searched out the meaning of Hebrew words, applied them to what I have learned over 20 years as to his timetable and his season, and how part A related to part B and then scribble out various scenarios on what it all means after 35 years of studying the biblical end of days. And by the time these episodes were uploaded, I was absolutely drained. But I knew I was doing the work he assigned me to do as a chronicler. And nothing is more rewarding than that. Your letter was fruit from my labor. Glory to God."

You are conflicted about the rapture, whereas I am anxiously waiting to be taken because I know the training I will receive to prepare me to return with Messiah after the seven-year birth pangs and help him establish his kingdom in some small way. He has been preparing me for this for many years and is using every gift and ability I've been given. This is an incredible journey.

Now, if you decide to say yes to what's stirring in your heart, will it require everything of you? Yes. The reward you receive, though, will be eternal.

Timeline clue number two is the month we are in on the Hebrew calendar. It's the month of Elul. This month is the 30 days prior to Rosh Hashanah, which begins Holy Week on God's timetable. This is when we rehearse the day that Messiah returns at the rapture, which triggers the Day of the Lord.

God designed the month of Elul to prepare us for the day of judgment, which falls on Yom Kippur, the 10th of Tishri. Elul is a time we repent and return to study God's ways. It is not a coincidence that your heart began to stir now. When you learn his times and seasons, you will see things like this more clearly.

When I first read your letter, the Lord led me to the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25. I'll let you read that passage for yourself, but allow me to pass on eight takeaways which I believe speak to the disconnect between where I am, Torah observant, and where you are, a believer that the dispensation of grace releases us from the ways of our Jewish forefathers.

Takeaway number one: the ten virgins were all clean. Now, the term "virgins" is not just talking about women here; all of them, men and women collectively called the bride, were waiting for the bridegroom, who is Messiah. They were all qualified to be taken, and they were clean.

Takeaway number two: 50% of them were able to monitor the supply of oil and what they might need to wait through the lingering season. These 50% were called wise. The other 50% were referred to as foolish. That word means dull or stuck in a mental stupor. There was no illumination in their thinking.

Takeaway number three is the metaphorical meaning of lamp and oil. King David wrote in Psalm 119: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." The Hebrew for God's word is Davar, referring to the actual words that came out of the mouth of the Almighty at Mount Sinai. It is those words, the Torah, that light the path.

Exodus 27 tells us the children of Israel were to bring pure olive oil beaten for the light to cause the lamp to burn always. Everything the Jews were given to do in those days gives us light for our path today. They were beaten and crushed for us to know God's ways.

The light and lamp, of course, refer to the menorah, and it was to be lit continuously to pour out the seven spirits of God before his throne.

Takeaway number four is the dedication that 50% of them gave to their lamp. But their attention was on more than just a lamp. You see, as Levitical priests, they knew their charge was to keep the lamps burning continuously.

To do so, they had oversight of three things, not one: their lamp, the oil for that lamp, and the vessel or receptacle that kept the oil reserve. That's why they were referred to as wise. They knew what they were to do before the bridegroom came.

This is why they refused to share their oil with the other five. They took their priestly charge seriously, each guarding their lamp, oil, and vessel, knowing their lives depended on it.

Takeaway number five: the bridegroom tarried. The Hebrew word means a delay in time or a lingering. The five virgins who were not taken did not embrace the calling of the priests and had no understanding of the need to look after the receptacle of extra oil.

Takeaway number six: the parable says the cry came at midnight. Let's break this out a minute. The word "cry" means clamor and tumult. Midnight is the darkest part when there is no light to make your way.

This was not a peaceful time; it was tumultuous. Matthew 25 tells us their lamps went out. What this means is that at the time of clamor and tumult all around them, their lamps were suddenly extinguished.

Now, this is an alarming pronouncement. Listen to this: 50% of these virgins who were clean realized they were in the dark and had no way to go forward. And it was midnight, and no shops were open to buy more.

Now, there is a deep truth here if you can hear it. A person cannot give away priestly oil. You have to pay the price to buy it. And I'm not talking about money. This oil is not a commodity; it is a rich understanding of the times and seasons of God known only to those who were beaten and crushed and paid the price to hold on to what they had sacrificed to purchase.

Takeaway number seven: the bridegroom called them to come forth at that time of awful realization of being in the dark. The shofar sounded and a thundering voice shouted, "Come forth!" This is the rapture, a call to come forth, to come out of where they were to meet him. Where did they go? Up.

Takeaway number eight: when the virgins tried to go into the wedding after the door closed, the bridegroom answered, "I don't know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." Now, I could be wrong in my interpretation of this, but I'm seeing it through a Jewish lens. And I do not see this as a closed door forever.

By the terminology he's using here, he's referring to the time when he will physically return to earth at what's called the second coming, and that takes place after the seven years of birth pangs. So, he's telling them this next part you're going to have to go through is harder. You have to watch differently, for if you did not know the time of my coming now, you will not know the day or the hour of my coming then.

Now, this brings us back to Exodus 12, which is where Nathan was transfixed. You see, most Christians have bought into the belief that we are not supposed to know the day or the hour of his coming. This is why Exodus 12 is so important.

Our Exodus into the heavenly kingdom is just like theirs; it will be a mass departure of people from one location to another by miraculous signs and wonders. But consider this: God did not keep them in the dark. He told his people exactly when he was coming to take them at the Exodus, the day and the hour and how it would all unfold.

He could not have been more clear when he would come to take them to himself. So, why would God be so clear and specific with them and leave us in the dark?

Now, the good news in all this, though, Nathan, is you are showing signs an awakening is happening before he comes. This gives you time to consider what it would be like to be trained as one of the Shoftim in the Messianic kingdom. This is the invitation the Lord has given you.

My prayer for you is that you will take the month of Elul before Rosh Hashanah to make a decision to reconnect with the ways of our Jewish forefathers. They are shining the light for this part of the journey while our Savior tarries.

In the description notes to this episode, I'm going to put links to several resources on how to return. It doesn't have to be overwhelming—just one step at a time. To forward this episode or listen to it again, go to candacelong.com/podcasts and look for the title "Signs of a Pan-Millennialist Awakening."

In the description notes, you'll also find a link to my new program, Shabbat Shalom, that airs every Saturday morning from 6:00 to 9:00 Eastern time at weeeradio.com. Come study the Torah with us. You've been listening to Lessons in the Latter Days.

Thank you for being with us today. I want to close our time together the way our Jewish forefathers close every service: with the Aaronic Benediction that has been chanted the same way for thousands of years. To get the most out of this blessing, if you're listening with family or friends, pull them close to you and spread a shawl or a scarf over your heads, all together. Rabbi Michael will close our time today, first in Hebrew followed by the English translation.

Rabbi Michael Washer: Yevarechecha Adonai veyishmerecha. Yaer Adonai panav eleicha vichuneka. Yissa Adonai panav eleicha veyasem lecha shalom.

The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his face to you and give you peace.

Candace Long: Thank you so much for being with us today. It means so much to the Father that you have set aside time to study his Torah. We are all part of a spiritual awakening that is going on where people all over the world are feeling led to return to Torah study and prepare ourselves to enter the Messianic kingdom.

On behalf of our team of teachers, I invite you to study the Torah with us next Saturday morning from 6:00 to 9:00 on WEEE Radio 590, our media partner for shabbatshalomradio.com.