OTHER ROLES OF THE APPOINTED TIMES

                                                          CHAPTER SIX

                  Other Roles of the appointed times

DATING OF END-TIME PROPHETIC EVENTS.

The appointed times are God’s special moments which He has set apart to deal specifically with matters to do with our salvation. It must always be remembered that God has a lot of work overseeing the running and joy of the entire universe which includes the sinless world. The work of saving us is just one of Hs duties.

Just like any other good manager, God has subdivided His time in order to accommodate every function that He has to carry out. The appointed times discussed above are the ones He uses to fix the problem of sin for lost humanity.

The daily appointed times of the morning and evening sacrifices are the times when God and Jesus literary meets to agree on the schedule of the day in as far as the great controversy between good and evil is concerned. We are then called upon as the subjects and beneficiaries of those meetings to acknowledge and recognize them by praying to God at that time.

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYERS

During every 9 am and 3 pm meeting, Jesus reminds God of His ultimate sacrifice for us. He also reminds Him of all our pending petitions of the day. This is the time they both discuss other dimensions of the plan of salvation that we cannot be allowed to know at this point in time. The angels are allocated duties at 9am and the work plan for the day is made clear. They meet again at 3pm to review the work and brainstorm more.

As we go before God at the time of the morning and evening sacrifices, let us not lose sight and grip of the bigger picture of those daily heavenly meetings and their agendas. God expects that we attend those meetings by faith. Let us daily sit with God and Jesus as they strategize every morning and evening for us. Let them see you as a regular attendant of their daily meetings and it will not be in vain.

There are special blessings which God pours out during those important moments of the day which cannot be found at any other time. Angels are sent for special rescue missions for the saints in trouble at those times. They report back at those times.

The most important thing to note is that for everything that God does for us as sinners, He must do it during one of those appointed times. An appointed time as the name suggests constitutes the appointments that God gave to sinful humanity to be appearing before God and plead their cases for the purpose of salvation. These are the times that God uses to bless or to curse us. In other words after Jesus accepted to step in and save mankind, he booked several appointments with God during which He would be pleading the cases of lost humanity.

Jesus was given those appointments on our behalf and that is why we are called upon to take part in them in one way or the other. Since the plan of salvation come in various phases, each appointed time deals with a unique case. Everything that God has to do to save us can be associated with one of the appointed times. Our God is a God of order and He has set apart time for everything. Even the minutest details in life are allocated their times. According to God there is time for everything.   

Therefore every appointed time has a special theme which reflects the agenda of the day. Blessings that God pours out during every appointed times are related to the theme of the moment. For instance, in Egypt God told Israel that the Passover night would be the day of judgment for all the gods of Egypt. These words are still applicable today. It is during the time of the Passover night vigil that God destroys all the gods of your symbolic spiritual Egypt. This is the day for the demons in your life to be chased away totally.

THE SATURDAY SABBATH

Every Saturday God summons a special court session to review the work of the past six days. Weekly duty allocations are made for the angels and every inhabitant of heaven has to attend this important meeting. We are also called upon to join heaven by assembling for Sabbath fellowship in recognition of the heavenly court session. Every seventh day God has to sit back and ask Himself whether His six-day job has been done perfectly the same way he sat back on the seventh day of the week to audit, review, analyze and judge His own work. Saturday is a special day set apart for auditing, reviewing and judging from God’s perspective. No wonder no sin offering was allowed during the seventh day. The sixth day is a special day of preparations.

Many are the times we take those preparations to be physical but the real preparation is spiritual in nature. It was expected that by Friday evening, everybody would have repented of their sins since there was no provision for sin offering on Sabbath days because the assumption was that Friday was symbolic of probation day and sunset of Friday which ushers in the seventh day is considered as the dividing line. You had to offer sin offerings before sunset on Friday. You could not go to celebrate the Sabbath with un-repented sins since Saturday was judgment day and t would be dangerous for any one to be harboring any sins on Sabbath days. Sabbath days are symbolic of the post-sin era and that is why God insists that we cleanse ourselves by sunset of Friday. This symbolically reminds us of the final closure of the door of mercy. Every Sabbath day should be a small sinless heaven for each one of us.

When we start living according to God’s will, then the shape of our prayers every Sabbath day would radically change because it will be a thanks giving day for the forgiven sins as opposed to being a day when we go to ask for the forgiveness of our sins. Every saint should go out of their way to ensure that they get well prepared for the Sabbath. Every Sabbath day reminds us of the lofty position, status and standard that God would like us to reach. As all the inhabitants of heaven meets every Saturday, let us also assemble and review and audit our spiritual lives and plan ahead. This is a noble Christian duty.

During every other appointed time there is a meeting in heaven. Special blessings associated with each appointed time are poured out at those times and no other since our God is a God of order and has time for everything (Eccl 3). Therefore there is a special pool of blessings of Bethesda proportions which gets stirred every appointed time to release special blessings associated with the theme of the moment. Don’t miss to drink from every other pool. That is what it means to walk with God and to know the time of His visitation.

DATES OF ANTITYPES

Since God does all He does for us during the appointed times, those times should therefore be the ones to help us identify dates for all those things God did for us and will do for us. In fact whenever He gives future prophetic predictions, God never cares to provide the exact day and hour but He only gives the year when the event will be fulfilled. He expects that we will be guided by the appointed times to be able to identify the exact day and hour of every prophetic prediction that He gives us.

 For instance if he says He will send us the latter rain next year, then we should know that it is only during the feast of Pentecost that that can happen and no other time. If He tells us that next year I am coming to judge you the all we do is identify the day of the cleansing of the Sanctuary. The SDA pioneers used this formula in 1843 to come up with the date of 22^nd October 1844 as the exact day when the work of cleansing begun. The exact hour must have been the time of the morning sacrifice around 9 am. You see when you are given a prophetic prediction it is important to know the exact day and hour because the fulfillment may pass you since the year is long and the day as well. We should also expect that as the first fruits, the 144000 will be sent out on the day of the feast of first fruits.

In fact every end time prophetic event will have either its beginning point or ending point on an appointed time or feast day. What we are saying is that the dates appointed for the celebration or observance of various sanctuary events and services are the same dates when the anti-types which are represented by those symbolic services will take place. One of the greatest teachers of the Bible has this to say concerning this matter in GC page 399 “Events related to the second coming must be fulfilled during the times pointed out in the (Mosaic) symbolic services”.   

Jesus also confirmed the validity and the authenticity of this formula of reckoning dates for all the anti-types when he said “The Passover is coming and the Son of man will be handed over”. This clearly shows that there is a close connection between the appointed times and the fulfillment of the anti-types in prophecy.             

PAST EVENTS

History shows that God accomplished major Bible events during the appointed times even when the law was not given because that has been his character since the beginning.

RED SEA & FIRST FRUITS

Although the Law on the feast of first fruits had not been given, Israel crossed the red sea on the day of the feast of first fruits because Israel at that time was the first fruits in as far as God’s church was concerned. Israel did not know it but that was it because God follows a well defined salvation timetable.

MT. SINAI & PENTECOST

Immediately after crossing the red sea, Israel unknowingly found themselves at the foot of Mt Sinai receiving the Holy Covenant on the day of Pentecost. It is only God who knew that was the day of Pentecost since the law was not yet given. I f the Israelites had known from day one how God accomplishes His purposes during the appointed times, they would have settled back in the confidence that in God’s own time, everything will be fulfilled. The same case applies to God’s Church today. Can we use the appointed times to know when God will fulfill what for us? Yes we can. We should rise up to the challenge immediately. Unlike the Israelites, we know all the appointed times and we have been given the formula to reckon the dates. Let us wake up and open our eyes. It is high time we investigated the deep lessons which are hidden in the symbolism of the appointed times.

JERICHO WALLS & THE 7-DAY PASSOVER FEAST

The seven days of the fall of Jericho walls were the seven days of the Passover Festival. Most Bible prophets like Daniel saw their visions the times of the morning and evening sacrifices. Ezekiel bough time until it was time for the evening sacrifice when He knew God would be seated in a meeting in heaven to deal with our salvation agendas.

SETTING APART OF THE PASSOVER LAMB & THE TRIUMPHANT ENTRY

The Mosaic Law demanded that the Passover lamb be set apart on the 10^th day of the first month and be taken care of until the 14^th day when it is to be slaughtered at twilight. Jesus fulfilled the anti-type of this section of the Passover Festival by being set apart on Palm Sunday during the triumphant entry. Jesus rode on a donkey as prophesied. Palm Sunday fell on the 10^th day according to God’s calendar of salvation. We see here that Jesus fulfilled the law not only as to the event but as to the time as well.

THE ANTI-TYPE OF THE PASSOVER FEAST

Four days later on Thursday evening, Jesus fulfilled the anti-type of the Passover Feast when He celebrated His last Passover by introducing new rituals since animal sacrifices had been done away with. Again here we see that Jesus fulfilled another anti-type not only as to the event but as to the time as well. He fulfilled it at the times pointed out in the Mosaic law for the relevant symbolic services.

THE ANTI-TYPE OF THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD

Jesus did not stop there, He went ahead to fulfill the anti-type of the feast of Unleavened Bread by being crucified as our Unleavened Bread of life from heaven on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread on Friday following His Passover. Jesus was actually arrested when celebrating the mandatory Passover night vigil. Here again we see that Jesus is very passionate in fulfilling the anti-types not only as to the event but as to the time as well as indicated in the Mosaic Law.

THE ANTI-TYPE OF THE FEAST OF FIRST FRUITS

The Sunday that Jesus resurrected was the day of the feast of first fruits which is another important appointed time. Jesus resurrected on Sunday as the first fruits of the redeemed in fulfillment of the anti-type of the feast of the first fruits. Again He fulfills everything not only as to the event but as to the time as well.

THE ANTI-TYPE OF THE FEAST OF PENTECOST

Fifty days from the Sunday of resurrection, Jesus fulfilled the anti-type of the Festival of Pentecost when God anointed Him in Heaven as our official High priest. This is the day Jesus started his official duties as our High Priest in heaven. Jesus simultaneously anointed His earthily priests by sending them the Holy Spirit on that day. Again here we see Jesus fulfilling the anti-type of the Festival of Pentecost not only as to the event but as to the time as well. We see that the disciples had assembled for the Pentecost celebrations and Jesus acted in the fullness of time.

PLAN OF SALVATION SYMBOLIZED

The seven annual feasts symbolize the seven phases into which the plan of salvation has been divided. The seven month religious year on the other hand symbolizes the entire lifespan of the plan of salvation. It is the work of Jesus to fulfill the terms of each phase of salvation as symbolized by each feast in their given chronological order. The first coming of Jesus was for the purposes of laying the foundation for our eventual salvation by fulfilling the antitypes of the first four feasts namely Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and the Pentecost. He did this not only as to the event but as to the time as well.

THE UNFULFILLED ANTITYPES

The only three remaining feasts have to do with events around the second coming and are yet to be fulfilled. We expect that in like manner, events or the antitypes related to the second coming must also be fulfilled not only as to the event but as to the time pointed out in the Mosaic Law as well.

 Since Jesus s the same yesterday, today and tomorrow we expect Him to use the same method and formula. This knowledge is great, isn’t it? Like Israel we should not cross our red sea ignorant of the fact that it will happen during the appointed time which means we will know everything in advance because feast days can be reckoned and calculated. This is a serious breakthrough. It ushers in a new day if you ask me!