Jesus warned that those in Israel must run for their lives into the mountains because "great tribulation" is at the door.

13. Revelation 11 explains that upon the resurrection of Elijah and his witnessing partner that the Seventh Angel will sound saying that the kingdom of this world be turned over to who (v. 15)?

14. Once the kingdom is given to Christ, then God's wrath will be unleashed upon whom (vs. 16-18)?

The Biblical Holy Days

From the beginning of creation God instituted the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cycles that separate the four seasons of the earth (Genesis 1:14-16).  This was accomplished through the continual movement of the moon around the planet and the movement of planet around the sun.

This cycle of time that divides spring, summer, autumn and winter also unites the seasons in a beautiful orchestrated production of God's creative marvel.  From the new life of spring's budding plants and the beautiful blooms of summer to the palette of fall colors that paint the landscape and the chill of winter with her glistening blanket, all these periods reveal a Divine epoch blueprint.  The four repetitive seasons no doubt build within mankind a sense of stability as the globe rotates in precision and each season gives way to the next right on schedule. 

Our Maker has united the earth and sea with atoms and organisms into one well-balanced cycle of life that sustains countless living creatures in an incredibly complex arrangement--all dependent upon one another.  For this reason, the unseen God can be clearly witnessed in the marvelous revelation of nature's evidence so that each of us are without excuse for having ignored and sinned against Him (Romans 1:20).  Added to this evidence, the same Designer has fashioned spiritual and prophetic mysteries which predict future events that are tied to the cycles of time, that when discovered in His written Word, also prove that He is indeed the Supreme God whose knowledge surpasses all human intellect. 

Egyptian Slaves Free To Rest

When the Holy One of Israel delivered the Israelites from their Egyptian slavery at the great Exodus nearly 3,500 years ago, God guided them to the foot of Mount Sinai.  There the Messenger of the Covenant (Angel of the Lord--Acts 7:30-38; Deuteronomy 33:2) revealed to Moses and the people of Israel the Everlasting Covenant that He had promised to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:7).  Deuteronomy 4:13 says, "He [the Angel] declared to you His Covenant, the Ten Commandments, which He commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets" as found in Exodus 20:1-17.

Leviticus 23 introduces God's people, their descendants and Gentile converts to the annual feasts of the Lord.  In verse 3 the Israelites were reminded of the seventh-day Sabbath which Christ had given to all of mankind as a day of rest the first week of creation (Genesis 2:2-3); for it was Jesus Himself who created all things (John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:2; Col. 1:15-16) and why He clarified His intent and claimed for Himself ownership of the Sabbath during His earthly ministry (Mark 2:27-28).  Now that they were freed from slavery, the re-introduction of a rest day was freely offered the great multitude.  No longer would they be forced to work seven days a week. 

The reason our earth's population cycles on a seven-day week is that Christ instituted the seventh day at creation.  A seven-day week does not correlate to the movements of the planets or a Biblical month of 30 days.  Five weeks of six work days (30 days) would have better fit the original monthly cycle; nonetheless, God saw man's need of rest and therefore freely offered one additional day per week--the seventh day--as a gift to anyone who would take Him up on this arrangement.  

The extra day comes every week when all unnecessary work can be set aside, without reservation, for rest and worship of our Creator who has granted us this privilege.  The fact that every single person on Planet Earth lives, breathes and works by the seven-day weekly cycle is an acknowledgement that we exist not by accident, but by a Creator and designer.  Time and segments of time are a gift enacted by Almighty God through His Son, and with the purpose that His Son would be glorified at the end of time.  Today, when we work on the seventh day or take these holy hours for granted as time we could set apart in worship of God, we neglect the opportunity for physical and spiritual rest.  Paul eloquently wrote, "There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His," Hebrews 4:9-10.  If mankind had always kept the Sabbath from the first week of creation, there would not be the great falling away from our Creator--the Word, Jesus Christ.

The children of Israel agreed to follow God's divine precepts and, in return, Yahweh promised His blessings.  Even today, Judaism holds the Decalogue (Ten Commandments) to be the centerpiece of their Covenantal relationship with the Holy One of Israel.  Their encounter with God at Mount Sinai was a conversion from a pagan way of life, taught them during centuries of bondage, to a whole new way of living.  Hence, in addition to the seventh-day Sabbath each week, Almighty began to weave a thread through the fabric of time that would connect Israel's inception to her completion as a holy nation, and would preserve His people and plan through the centuries until the Messianic Age to Come.

The Appointed Feasts of the Lord

Leviticus 23:4 begins the introduction to the "appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times"; or as the King James Version reads, "ye shall proclaim in their [spring and autumn] seasons."  Today, calendars establish uniform segments of time to help mankind know when to work, play, worship and to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays and national holidays.  Nevertheless, before the invention of printed calendars, the world's population used the rotation of earth and moon in relation to the sun to mark off time; and the first sliver of the new moon heralded the new month.  According to God's design, each day begins with the evening at sunset and ends the following day at sunset (Genesis 1:5); therefore, to this day many who observe the seventh-day Sabbath and/or Biblical holy days do so from "evening… until the following evening," Leviticus 23:32.