Sabbath During the Days of Awe

As we read on the Day of Trumpets, Trumpets marks the day that Jeshua returns to earth and God declares that He is now the Ruler of Earth, as the head of His Kingdom on Earth. We also saw that Jews observe the Days of Awe as the eight days between the Day of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. It is during these days that the great Battle at Megiddo, also called Armageddon, will take place. The Battle is between all the armies of earth’s anti-God governments and Jeshua, who will be accompanied by His followers, both envoys and transformed humans. We will look at some of the Scriptures relating to this Battle today. The conclusion of this battle leads to the next Holy Day, the Day of Atonement, which marks the imprisonment of Satan and the judging of the world’s survivors of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord, leading into the Millennium of Peace.

First, Jehovah God announced on the Day of Trumpets that He is taking direct control of the Earth, through His Son Jeshua: (Revelation 11:15-18)

Then the seventh envoy sounded, and there were great voices in heaven that said, “The kingdom of the world has become our God’s and His Messiah’s, and He will reign for ages of ages!” And the twenty-four elders who sit before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying: “We praise You, O Lord Jah, Almighty God,1 Who is and Who was,2 because You have taken Your great power and You have reigned. And the nations were wrathful, and Your wrath has come, and the time to judge the dead, and You will give the reward to Your slaves, the prophets and to the saints, and to those who fear Your Name, to the small with the great, and You will destroy those who have corrupted the earth.”

Satan and his appointed rulers respond by assembling a massive army against Jeshua and His followers:

“And the ten horns of the beast are ten kings who have not received a kingdom yet, but they receive authority as kings for one hour with the beast. These all have one will, and give their power and authority to the beast. They will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them because He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings; and because His people are called, chosen, and faithful.” Revelation 17:12-14

Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them.4 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fire, and chalcedony, and brimstone;5 and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, brimstone, and smoke. By these three plagues a third of the children of men were killed; by the fire and the brimstone and the smoke which came out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and also in their tails. Revelation 9:16-19

Do not underestimate the destruction that this war will cause: fully one-third of all the people living on earth will die. It is far worse than any war we have had so far. And it does not require much imagination to see that these ‘horses’ are modern military weaponry with engines rated at hundreds of horsepower and firing very destructive munitions. The prophecy given to Zechariah makes this clear: (Zechariah 12:1-11)

The burden of the word of Jehovah against Israel. Thus says Jehovah, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it will happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.

“In that day,” says Jehovah, “I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. And the governors of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in Jehovah of Hosts, their God.’ In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they will devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem will be inhabited again in her own place; Jerusalem. Jehovah will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not become greater than that of Judah. In that day Jehovah will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the envoy of Jehovah before them. It will be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.6

“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.7 In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. Zechariah 12:1-11

Zechariah 14:1-13 – Behold, the day of Jehovah is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city will be taken, the houses robbed, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into captivity, but the remnant of the people will not be cut off from the city.

Then Jehovah will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem towards sunrise. And the Mount of Olives will split in two, from sunrise to the west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain will move toward the north and half of it toward the south. Then you will flee through My mountain valley, for the mountain valley will reach to Azal. Yes, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus Jehovah my God will come, and all the sacred ones with You.

And in that day it will be that living waters will flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; in both summer and winter it will occur.

And Jehovah will be King over all the earth. In that day it will be; “Jehovah is One,” and His Name One. All the land will be turned into a desert plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananeel to the king’s winepresses. The people will dwell in it; and no longer will there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem will be safely inhabited.

And this will be the plague with which Jehovah will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes will dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues will dissolve in their mouths. It will come to pass in that day that a great panic from Jehovah will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbour, and raise his hand against his neighbour’s hand; Zechariah 14:1-13

Jehovah God may use the armies’ own weapons to destroy the soldiers who have come against Jerusalem, as this sounds very much like the effects of tactical nuclear weapons detonated above the battlefield.

“And when you see the sign of uncleanness and desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (let he who reads this understand),9 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.…

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, nor will ever be again.10 And if those days had not been limited, none in the flesh would live; but because of the chosen those days will be limited.”11

So we see that it will be only because of God’s mercy that anyone will survive. Left to our own depravity, the entire earth would become a lifeless battlefield.

Ezekiel is given some other details about this battle, and about cleaning up the battlefield after the war: (Ezekiel 37:15 to 39:29)

Again the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, “As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for his companions from the children of Israel.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all of his companions from the house of Israel.’ Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

“And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’; say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Jehovah: “Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and his companions from the tribes of Israel, and I will join them with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’ And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.

“Then say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Jehovah: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king over them all; they will no longer be two nations, nor will they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. They will not make themselves unclean with their idols anymore, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.12

“David My servant will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; they will also walk in My judgements and observe My statutes, and do them. Then they will dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they will dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children forever; and My servant David will be their prince forever.13 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it will be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore.14 My booth also will be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they will be My people.15 The nations also will know that I, Jehovah, sanctify Israel,16 when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”’”17

Now the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog,18 the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal,19 and prophesy against him, and say, ‘Thus says Lord Jehovah: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. Persia, Cush, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops; many peoples are with you.

“Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them. After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been wastelands; they were brought out of the nations, and now they all dwell safely. You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”

‘Thus says Lord Jehovah: “On that day it will come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely: they are all dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’; to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the inhabited wastelands, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.

“Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’”’

“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, ‘Thus says Lord Jehovah: “On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it? Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”

‘Thus says Lord Jehovah: “Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring you against them?20 And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” says Lord Jehovah, “that My fury will show in My face. For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: ‘Surely in that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, so that the fish of the sea, the flying creatures of the heavens, the wild animals, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence. The mountains will be thrown down, the steep places will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground.’

“I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,” says Lord Jehovah. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. And I will bring him to judgement with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding heavy rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.21 Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am Jehovah.”’

“And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘Thus says Lord Jehovah: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel. Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand. You will fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to many winged birds of prey and to the wild animals to be devoured. You will fall on the open field; for I have spoken,” says Lord Jehovah. “And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they will know that I am Jehovah.”

“So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them defile My holy name anymore. Then the nations will know that I am Jehovah, the Sacred One in Israel. Surely it is coming, and it will be done,” says Lord Jehovah. “This is the day of which I have spoken.22 Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years. They will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons; and they will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says Lord Jehovah.

“It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by the east of the sea; and it will obstruct travellers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog.23 For seven new moons the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. Indeed all the people of the land will be burying them, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says Lord Jehovah. They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven new moons they will make a search. The search party will pass through the land; and whenever anyone sees a man’s bone, he will set up a marker by it, until the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. The name of the city will also be Hamonah.24 Thus they will cleanse the land.”’

“And as for you, son of man, thus says Lord Jehovah, ‘Speak to every winged bird and to every wild animal: “Assemble yourselves and come; gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal which I am sacrificing for you, a great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat the flesh of the mighty, drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams and lambs, of goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. You will eat fat until you are full, and drink blood until you are drunk, at My sacrificial meal which I am sacrificing for you. You will be filled at My table with horses and riders, with mighty men and with all the men of war,” says Lord Jehovah.

“I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations will see My judgement which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them.25 So the house of Israel will know that I am Jehovah their God from that day forward.26 The gentiles will know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them.”’

Therefore thus says Lord Jehovah: “Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy Name; after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid.

When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, then they will know that I am Jehovah their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their own land, and left none of them captive any longer. And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says Lord Jehovah.” Ezekiel 37:15 to 39:29

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jeshua the Anointed.

We must give thanks to God for you always, my brethren, which becomes all the more necessary as your faith grows, and the love of every one of you increases towards his neighbour, so that we boast of you in the congregations of God for your faith and endurance in all your persecutions and sufferings that you endure, which is a demonstration of God’s righteous judgement, that you may be worthy of His kingdom, for whose sake you suffer; and if it is righteous, for God to reward those who trouble you with suffering, and He will save you who are tormented with us when our Anointed Lord Jeshua is revealed, who will come from heaven with armies of His envoys, when He takes vengeance with blazing fire on those who do not know God, and on those who do not acknowledge the Good News of our Anointed Lord Jeshua.27

These will be paid with the judgement of everlasting destruction from the face of our Lord and from the glory of His power,28 when He comes to be glorified in His saints and will show His wonders in His believers in that Day, because you believed our witness to you.

Therefore we always pray for you that God would make you worthy of your calling, and would completely fill you with the pleasure of goodness and works of faith in power, that the Name of our Anointed Lord Jeshua may be glorified by you, and you also by Him, according to the grace of our God and our Lord Jeshua the Messiah.

Yes, there are a lot of horrible things that will happen during the Great Tribulation and the war when Jeshua returns. But they are necessary so God can prove who is willing to obey Him and destroy the rest. And the Tribulation will be followed by the most wonderful time the earth has seen since Adam and Chavvah fell. Let us all remain worthy of the Calling that Jehovah has given to us, that we may live in that glorious time.

The Days of Awe are also called the Ten Days of Penitence, marking the last days that people can get themselves right with God before the judgement on the Day of Atonement begins. We will next explore the meaning of Atonement on that Day.

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Scripture quotes are from the CHCoG translation, based on the Aramaic Peshitta New Covenant.

3 Meaning a ‘rendezvous or gathering place’. Rendered as Armageddon in the Greek. Megiddo is in the Jezreel Valley, west of the Jordan River.

4 It is only in very recent times that mankind has become able to assemble such a vast army of ‘mounted’ soldiers, whether their ‘horses’ be flesh or mechanical.

5 Probably meaning red for fire, chalcedony comes in a broad range of colours, including white, red, blue, green, brown, etc, while brimstone is sulphur, so it is yellow.

14 Isa 35:1-10, Jer 30:3-10. This return at the start of the Millennium is foreshadowed in the Jubilee (Lev 25:8-13).

16 Jehovah M’Kaddesh יְהׂוָ֨ה מְקַדֵּשׁ , meaning Jehovah Sanctifies.

17 Jehovah says that He sanctifies Israel; having His sanctuary there will remind people of this fact.

18 Gog גּוֹג means ‘mountain’ and Ha Magog הַ:מָּגוֹג means ‘the land of Gog’.

19 Meschech מֶשֶׁךְ means ‘drawing out’, and Tubal תֻבָל means ‘you will be brought’. These people are the descendants of the brothers Magog, Meshech and Tubal, from Noah’s son Japheth (Gen 10:2).