And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment. 1 Chronicles 12:32
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1
There have been times in my life as a believer that one statement from God literally changed everything for me. Other times I have read a book, that was divinely ordained for me to read at that specific time, and it opened up revelatory knowledge to me that changed the way I read the Bible.
I was walking my dog one day, thinking about the gnawing feeling I had inside that something wasn't right about the so called end time doctrine I had accepted as true for a number of years. So I asked the Lord to give me understanding and teach me concerning future events, and how they would play out on the timeline of history.
Sometime later I read a book entitled, The Feast of Tabernacles by George H. Warnock, written in 1951, the year I was born. As I read this book, I became aware that Warnock was a forerunner, seeing decades ahead of his time. I wondered if anyone was able to read his book when it was first published and have any understanding of what he was saying.
An Open Door
After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. Revelation 4:1
It seems to me that reading Warnock's book was much like the experience John had that day on Patmos, when he saw a door open in Heaven and heard a voice talking with him that sounded like a trumpet, if you can imagine that.
When this verse is read in light of a prophetic understanding of the Feast of Tabernacles, which is a three-part feast, the trumpet talking with John begins to make sense. The first part of the Feast of Tabernacles is the Feast of Trumpets.
Trumpets were blown in ancient Israel when an important announcement was about to be made, perhaps calling an assembly or preparing to go to war. This trumpet voice that was talking with John was announcing to him that he was about to be shown future events.
After reading The Feast of Tabernacles, I read a book by Joseph Good, a Messianic Rabbi, entitled Rosh HaShanah and the Messianic Kingdom To Come. Rosh HaShanah is the Hebrew name for the Feast of Trumpets.
In the author's foreword, he makes this statement:
It is hoped that this material will aid students of the scripture as they read the Gospels and the Epistles, which were written in the language of the festivals (feasts).
Then on page seventeen, Good writes this:
If one can obtain a good working knowledge of the festivals, then he will have in his possession God's blueprint for mankind.
I am convinced that without a working knowledge and understanding of the prophetic significance of the Feasts of God, it is impossible to understand the New Testament. Much has been believed and taught concerning the New Testament that is in error, simply because those reading and studying it did so without an understanding of the importance of the feasts as rehearsals for future events.
Interestingly, Jews who did not accept Jesus as Messiah, continued to rehearse His coming every year as they kept the Feast of Passover right on up until the present time, when in reality, the first prophetic fulfillment of that event had already occurred with the coming of Jesus as the Son of Man.
Likewise, many today who are expecting so called end time events to play out in a certain way, are missing the reality that what they perceive to be future is happening right now, in a different way than they anticipate.
Two Prophetic Fulfillments of the Feasts
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us° John 1:14
When Jesus came to Earth as the Son of Man, He was the first prophetic fulfillment of the Feasts of God, which the Hebrew people had kept yearly since Moses led them out of Egypt into the wilderness and on to Canaan.
Jesus was born on Tabernacles, crucified on Passover, and the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost. But there is a second prophetic fulfillment of the feasts that must be understood in order to understand the times (history past, present and future). It is only in understanding the times that we know how to proceed as we walk out our destiny as believers.
The Church has, at least to some degree, experienced Passover (salvation) and Pentecost (power and church government)
The Feast of Passover did not allow leaven. Before the Israelites left Egypt, they were ordered to bake bread without leaven.
Leaven in scripture is representative of a mixture. Passover is about the salvation that Jesus' crucifixion paved the way for. Jesus crucifixion is the only way to salvation, so there can be no leaven in Passover.
However, Pentecost did allow leaven. The Church was birthed on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in the second chapter of Acts. The continual prophetic fulfillment of Pentecost has been the Church Age, as we have seen the powerful Church of the first century digress into a dead religious organization by the fourth century.
This happened because of leaven. We found in the Church a mixture of God's ways and man's ways. A mixture of scriptural truth and religious tradition. A mixture of sin and righteousness, of right and wrong, of truth and lies, causing much division in the Church, splintering it into many denominations and various sects.
And yet, God continued to work in this broken system, gradually restoring what had been lost, line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little (see Isaiah 28:9-10), which has brought us to the present time.
Not only has He allowed leaven in the Church, He seems to have blessed it at times. We've watched great ministries accomplish much for the Kingdom, only to end in disarray and defeat. We've seen mega-ministries and mega-churches teach doctrine that eventually proved out to be wrong and in some cases, destructive.
So we have seen the second prophetic fulfillment of Passover and Pentecost, at least to some degree. But we have not yet seen the second prophetic fulfillment of Tabernacles, which is about God fully indwelling a people.
We know that when we were born again (born from above), Jesus took up residence in us. But His being fully developed in us is a process that takes time. The apostle Paul prayed for the Church at Galatia that Christ would be fully formed in them (see Galatians 4:19 AMP). This comes about through the process of sanctification, as we become like God in character.
Throughout Church history we see imperfect men being used by God to move the Church on toward perfection. Martin Luther, who is credited with starting the Protestant Reformation, received revelation that righted some of the wrongs of the Catholic Church. But later in life, Luther wrote that it was an honor to kill a Jew. It seems Luther's view of grace was greatly flawed.
Luther is but one example, but I dare say that no one has yet reached the full indwelling of Christ (the Godhead).
The Second Prophetic Fulfillment of Tabernacles
And these all [those mentioned in this chapter], having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Hebrews 11:39-40
Hebrews 11:39-40 is a prophetic scripture revealing to us that God will have a people that reach perfection, while in physical bodies on the Earth, which has to happen for all that have gone before to be perfected.
Saints of God, I submit to you, that this will be the second fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Currently we are in the prophetic fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets, the first part of the Feast of Tabernacles. There is a remnant of the Body of Christ today, who has glimpsed and tasted of the coming fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, which will take place sometime during this seventh millennium since creation, which is the ultimate Sabbath of all Sabbaths; the day of the Lord and that day spoken of throughout the Bible.
This remnant is a Trumpet People, actually the last trump of 1 Corinthians 15:52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16. They are also an Issachar Company, understanding the times in which we live, like the sons of Issachar did as recorded in 1 Chronicles.
The sons of Issachar were only two hundred men, a small remnant of the entire nation of Israel, with special ability and anointing to discern the times and to communicate that knowledge to the entire nation.
So it is with the Sons of Issachar Company today, a remnant of the Body of Christ, proclaiming the coming second prophetic fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, for any and all who are able to hear.
It seems that down through history prophetic voices have spoken and in some cases demonstrated the Word of the Lord, which often and probably usually went against the status quo. Often these voices were shunned and persecuted by those who refused to hear anything that challenge their traditional thinking.
But those of us who are getting a clearer understanding of the time in which we live and of the future, in concert with greater revelation of the Kingdom of God, have done so in such a way, orchestrated by God, that we cannot doubt what we have come to know.
And we cannot shrink back simply because of opposition. Like the prophets of old, we must speak what we know to be true. And not only speak it, but become the example of it.
Surely we were born for such a time as this.
Lanny Swaim
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