The Hebrew "Yowm" and the Holy Days

Well, happy Sabbath again, brethren! Great to have all of you with us on this very beautiful summer Sabbath day.

Well, today I want to begin talking about God's fall festivals. God designated a spaced period of time between the spring holy days and the fall holy days. Have you ever noticed that? Spring holy days occur in the first month of the Hebrew calendar, and then many, many months later you have one holy day inserted in the middle, Pentecost, and then in the seventh month you have another grouping of holy days. So there are staged periods of time between God's holy days. And God doesn't do those things by accident. He does those things so that we can fully appreciate the unique perspective that the fall holy days have. That is, the Day of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Eighth Day, what we traditionally call the Last Great Day. And to appreciate this gap and what it means and the importance of it, we need to go back to the beginning. We need to go back to the very words of God and to see a time when God created the concept of time for humanity to use as a benchmark of understanding the past, the present, and the future. Now, God doesn't need time. God is eternal. His very name he revealed to Moses that we know of is the tetragrammaton, YHVH, basically means one who has always been, one who is, one who will always continue to be. God is eternal. So the concept of time is for our benefit. It's not something that God needs. They say that history is His story, meaning the story of God's plan for the human race, God's plan for humanity. So let's go back to the very beginning, the beginning of beginnings in Genesis chapter 1, and see what we can learn to prepare ourselves to observe the fall holy days this year. Genesis chapter 1, and we will begin in verse 1. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. Moses was inspired to write, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was, one of the ways this Hebrew word can be translated, is became, the earth became without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. So a lot could have happened, a huge period of time between when God originally created the earth and what we find, this condition of the earth and the heavens at the time that we look at the latter part of verse 1. God is not the author of confusion. God doesn't create things by Himself in chaos. God is light, and God creates things in order. He is an orderly God. That's one reason He gives so many instructions to His people. He is a God of order, and He is a God who does things in a certain way. But we find the earth at this time, in the heavens, in the Hebrew words here, are form and void. The Hebrew words are tohu and bohu. It says, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Darkness is contrary to who and what God is. God is not darkness. God is light. So we find the world here in a very sad state of affairs. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. Some commentators say, much like you might see a hummingbird, just hovering, almost moving up, moving forward or backward, just kind of like the Spirit of God was waiting for instruction. This power of God was waiting to be instructed on what to do. Then God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day. And this is the Hebrew word yom. You're going to hear this word a lot in the early part of this sermon. So think about this word. It says, God called the light day. That's the Hebrew word yom.

And the darkness he called night. That's another Hebrew word, lagyom. It means twisting or moving away from the light. So the evening and the morning were the first day. That's that Hebrew word ginyom. By the way, a better translation to the latter part of this in the original Hebrew is, there was evening and there was morning, day one. That's a better translation of it.

Now, if you look at these verses closely, at first you might think there is a contradiction here, because this Hebrew word yom is used in two different ways in the same verse. Two different ways altogether. Here's one way. It's referred to as the 12-hour portion of the day that has light in it. It's said here, God called the light yom. So that's one way that word is used. And in the same verse, it also says at the end of verse 5, evening and morning together are also called yom. So it says, so the evening and the morning were the first yom, or yom one. So why is yom used in two different ways? Well, it's very similar in English. Actually, it's a very similar concept in many languages. The challenge is that biblical Hebrew has a very limited vocabulary with fewer words compared to a lot of languages that are used on earth, including English. So Hebrew words often have more than one meaning, and it's the context that determines its meaning. I'll give you an example. You may or may not know that the Hebrew has no word for lust. So the same word for lust is the word for true, true, passionate love. The same Hebrew word is used. How can you tell the difference? The only way you can tell is the context, because there is no Hebrew word for lust. Though the root meaning of the word yom means to be as the warm hours of a day, the scriptures closely show that yom has a number of meanings. Let's take a look at some of them. I don't go over time today. This is going to be scripture turning on steroids for about the next couple of minutes. So exercise your fingers with me. The wrist, do this a couple of times, do that a couple of times, and get ready, because I'm not going to go into a deep explanation of these verses. I just want to prove a point. So let's begin by going to Genesis 4 and verse 3. And we're going to see that in context, yom is sometimes translated time, not 12 hours of light, not even a 24 hour solar day. It sometimes is translated as time. Genesis 4 and verse 3. It says, and in the process of time, yom, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. So how do you know what yom means? You have to look at the context. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 8. Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 8. I told you this would be fast. It says, now go, write it before them on a tablet, and note it on a scroll that it may be for yom to come, for time to come, forever and ever. In this case, yom doesn't mean 12 hours of daylight. It doesn't even mean 24 solar hours of daylight and darkness and what we call a 24 hour day. It means a length of time. In context, yom can mean a long time. Second Chronicles chapter 15 and verse 3. It says, for a long time, yom, the original King James version, says, for a season Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest and without law. So here the word yom doesn't mean just 12 hours. It doesn't even mean a 24 hour day. It means a long period of time. In context, it can also mean years. First Kings chapter 1 and verse 1. It says, now King David was old, advanced in yom, advanced in years, and they put covers on him, but he could not get warmth. Frankly, I think this was just an excuse for him to cozy up the Abishag, but that's another story.

I'll cover that another time. But the point here is that he was advanced in yom, not just 12 hours, not simply a 24 hour day. How do you know? By looking at the context in which it is written.

Second Chronicles chapter 21 and verse 19. Second Chronicles chapter 21 verse 9. Teen. Verse 19. It says, then it happened in the course of time, yom, after the end of two years, that King Jehoram's intestines came out because of his sickness. So he died in severe pain and his people made no burning for him like the burning for his fathers. Again, the same Hebrew word as we saw in Genesis 1. How do we know what it means? By the context. By context, the word yom can mean always. For example, Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 29. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 29. It says, oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me always. You know what that word always is? It's yom. That they would fear me always, keep my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. Doesn't mean just 24 hours. Doesn't mean the 12-hour portion of daylight. It means always. How do we know? Depending on the context.

Let's take a look at a few chapters beyond. Deuteronomy chapter 14 and verse 23. Deuteronomy chapter 14 and verse 23. It says, and you shall eat before the Lord your God, and the place where he chooses to make his name abide. The tithe of your grain, and of your new wine of your oil, of the first born of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. What Hebrew word is translated always? Yom. How do we know that it means forever? That it means always? By the context. You see, brethren, yom relates to the concept of time. Yom is not just used for daylight. It's not just used for 24-hour solar days, but for time in general. How yom was originally intended in any verse depends on the context of its use with other words in the verse and other verses around it. As we see, you can't apply the root meaning of any word, which in this case, the word yom means warm hours of a day, to fit everywhere that it's used. And that is one of the most common mistakes that religious people do. One of the most common mistakes religious people do is they get something like a strong concordance, and they look at the meaning of a word, and they begin applying that meaning to everywhere that word is used, not appreciating and understanding that you have to have context.

Rather, the word yom is used here the same way as we use it in the English language. I'm going to give you some examples. I'm glad you are all here on this day. What does that mean? It means that right now, on this very day, I'm glad that all of you are with us celebrating on the Sabbath. Here's another one. In my grandfather's day, they didn't have color TV. Now, in this same word, same English word, the same original root meaning as when I used a referring to right now on you being here. In my grandfather's day, they didn't have color TV. What am I referring to in context? In the 1940s and 1950s. Same word, same original root meaning in English, but the word is different because of its context. Let's take a look at another example here. In the day of the dinosaurs, there were not many large mammals. Now, that's certainly not right now. That's not, even at the time that my grandfather adjusted the rabbit ears on his black and white television, that's millions of years ago. The day of the dinosaurs. Same English word with the same root meaning, meaning something totally different. Depending on what? Depending on its context. So, if we want to know what the meaning of yom is regarding a day in Genesis 1, we need to go there. And we need to look at the context. So, we're going to jump down to verse 14 and take a look at what occurred on the fourth day of creation. The sun and the moon and stars had previously been created. It was on this day that the atmosphere was cleared so that from the observation point of Earth, one could see the sun and the moon and the stars, which already existed by this time, but were obscured due to either previous devastation, perhaps a spiritual warfare between Lucifer and God, or something, had caused the Earth not to be able to receive the rays of the sun and not to be able to have the atmosphere to be able to see the stars in the sky. So, let's take a look at what happens in the fourth day. Genesis 1 and verse 14. Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, that is another Hebrew word, la'il, which means twisting away or growing away from the light. So, in this case, the Hebrew word yom means the daylight portion, 12 hours of the daylight portion of a day. Let the verse continue. And let them, what's them? That's plural. That's the day and the night. Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days, yom, plural, and for years. I want you to notice what the verse says here. It says, Let them, that's plural, that's both day and night be used in a way to calculate historical events. That's what it means, the Hebrew word, from signs. When an earthquake would occur. When a king would rain. So, you can recognize and record historical events.

Festivals, the word seasons there, is from the Hebrew word mohed, which means appointed assemblies. We know them as God's holy days, when God would desire and ask people to worship Him. So, for signs, for seasons, and for 24-hour days, for yom, plural, and years. He put enough, happens to be, 365 yom together and what do you get? You get a year.

So, God is instructing how humanity would use and understand the concept of time. Verse 15, And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens, to give light to the earth. And it was so.

Then God made two great lights. This Hebrew word, great, is God-doll, and it means two noble, two proud lights. Something that would stand out on their own.

He made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. We know that the greater light is the sun.

And the lesser light is the moon. The moon of itself does not create energy and light. The moon literally reflects what is coming in from the sun back onto the dark side of the earth.

It just so happens that the surface of the moon has a lot of glass in it, and that's why it's such a strong, reflective body. Or maybe that's not coincidence. Maybe there was a plan behind that.

Anyway, it says that He made the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also so the atmosphere was cleared, and from the vantage point of being on earth, you could finally see those heavenly bodies.

God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the day from darkness. And God saw that it was good.

So the evening and the morning were the fourth yom. So that 24-hour, what we would call solar day, from evening all the way through darkness, from morning all the way through afternoon until the next evening, was the fourth yom.

I want you to notice that the evening is placed before morning. And this is an important metaphor that we're going to get into when we talk about the fall holy days.

God calls light out of darkness. This is a very powerful metaphor of God's plan of salvation that we'll touch upon in just a little bit.

I want you to think about this, and most people don't grasp this. There are two great divisions of a 24-hour yom. They are sunset and dawn. Sunset begins a new biblical day with darkness, and approximately 12 hours later, dawn establishes the second part of a biblical 24-hour day.

In context, that 12-hour period is called yom. But you have to understand the context that it's in.

Now, in the context of what happened on this fourth day of creation, here's what occurred. God created our earthly process of a 24-hour day, and He used two great lights to do it. Beginning with sunset, or the evening, a lesser light rules the night. We know that as the moon.

Even though we may live in a part of the world called Cleveland, Ohio, that has a high percentage of cloudy days, and even though we may not often see the moon, trust me, it is still there. It's just that the clouds block its ability to shine that reflect the sun's rays on this part of the earth.

So, again, beginning with sunset and evening, a lesser light rules the night. But remember, it was still considered great. It was still considered noble. It's still a light. However, in comparison to something else, it is just a lesser light. Approximately 12 hours later, at dawn, or morning, a greater light, the sun appears over the horizon to rule the day, and it continues to get brighter and brighter and brighter until it begins to diminish and sets over the western horizon, and the cycle of a new yom begins again. But please understand this fact, brethren.

Both day and night have a degree of light. Both types of light are called great, even the moon, the lesser light. And light exists during an entire 24-hour period. That's going to be important to our metaphor in a little bit. So let's see where a 24-hour solar day, a yom being 24 hours, is confirmed in Leviticus chapter 23.

Let's go to Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 27. And we'll see the instruction on a day that we're going to be observing very shortly, known as the yom of atonement, the day of atonement. Leviticus 23. It says, also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the yom, day, of atonement, which shall be a holy convocation for you, you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, and you shall do no work on that same day.

Take the day off. What God says, on the same yom, for it is the yom of atonement, day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God, for any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day, and afflicted was by fasting, and the same yom shall be cut off from his people, and any person who does any work, and that same yom, that person I will destroy from among his people, you shall do no manner of work, it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwellings, it shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day.

I'm just going to stop right there. It has used the word yom how many times in this verse. I count one, two, three, at least five times, and now allow the Scriptures to define in context what it says a yom is here. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath. I want you to notice the definition of yom, day, here for the day of atonement. It begins the evening of the ninth day and continues into the following evening.

It lasts 24 solar hours, including beginning in the evening, followed by nighttime, followed by morning and daybreak, followed by an afternoon until sunset. That's what it says here in the latter part of verse 32. Now, why does God get so specific here and not in other places? Why doesn't he repeat this after each holy day? Well, the answer is actually pretty logical when you think about it. What do we like to do as human beings?

We like to cut corners. We like feast days in which you get to eat a lot. We like feast days in which you get to drink a lot. We like feast days in which you feel pretty good. But there's one feast day in which people, if there's any loophole they can find, if there's any way to cut a corner on reducing the amount of fasting, what feast day might that be? I'll bet it would be the day of atonement.

And I have to tell you that on the day of atonement, some of us look pretty bad. I've been in congregations where people come in and it looks like outtakes from the movie Night of the Living Dead. Because the day of atonement takes its toll on us, doesn't it? So God, in His wisdom, knowing human nature's proclivity to look for loopholes and look for ways to get around things, wanted to make sure of all the holy days that there is no trap door. There is no out to try to find a way to cut corners and to reduce what He wants us to do on that day.

God wanted to make sure the people know how long His festivals were intended to be observed. I don't have time today, but if we went to Leviticus, Chapter 11, what you would find are dozens of circumstances shown which would cause ancient Israelites who touched many of those things, like a dead body, dead animal carcass, to be unclean. In each case, the person was considered to be unclean until evening. That is, until the sun went down. They would be unclean until sunset. Why? Because evening was the beginning of a brand new yom. That's why. Each new day began at sunset, with darkness of approximately 12 hours. And it ended 12 hours after that, after daybreak, following a period of bright light.

Let's go to Numbers, Chapter 9 and Verse 15. If you'll turn there with me, Numbers, Chapter 9 and Verse 15. When Israel was on its journeys, it says now, on the day, that's the Hebrew word yom, that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, from evening until morning. It was above the tabernacle, like the appearance of fire. I want you to notice, in context, it's the dark portion of the day, evening until morning, that is considered an integral part of yom. Because it says, on the yom, the tabernacle was raised up.

So, as we begin to think about these things, I want us to begin thinking about the metaphor of how God established time for our benefit and how they relate to God's holy days. As we begin to think about and prepare for the fall holy days, what does God's original beginning, a day ending in the evening or darkness, followed by a period of time of brightness and light, what could that possibly tell us about God's plan? Well, let's think about those three periods of time that I mentioned earlier. First, we have the spring holy days. Have you ever considered the spring holy days are deeply personal and they're individual?

It's about repentance. Only you can repent for yourself. It's about grace. Only you can believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and accept God's grace only for yourself. You can't do it for anyone else. Forgiveness. Only you can accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You can't do that for your spouse, for your children, for your parents. You can't do that for anyone else. It's personal. It's individual. Personal salvation. You can't be saved for anyone else.

You can't be baptized for anyone else. Sanctification, pictured by removing leaven out of our homes during the days of Unleavened Bread, growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord, overcoming our sins, growing through the fruit of the Holy Spirit. That's personal. That's individual. You can't do that for anyone else. That's the meaning of the Spring Holy Days. And then there's a period of time before we get to Pentecost. Pentecost is like a transitional message in God's plan. It says you need fellow helpers. You need brothers and sisters. You need people who are there for you.

You need a fellowship. You need to learn to love. And so, he began a church. An assembly of believers, he gave his Holy Spirit to the firstfruits and throughout every generation those firstfruits strive with all of their being to proclaim the complete gospel of who and what Jesus Christ is.

And then, again, you have a period of time until you get to the seventh month, the Fall Holy Days. The Fall Holy Days are universal. They're not just about us. They're about everyone who is living today and who has ever lived and who will yet live. It's kingdom-oriented. Looking forward to a time in earth when that original garden that God had in Eden that was lost is once again restored on all of the earth. And God's presence, his light radiates throughout all of humanity. It's a time of the return of Jesus Christ, of Satan's influence, abolished by removing the darkness from the earth, from this world. It's about the Great White Throne Judgment. It's about the resurrection. These things are universal in their theme. They're not about us simply as individuals. So what the Holy Days tell us, what they portray, is a world that's slowly going from darkness into the growing light of God.

The history of mankind is a spiritual yom. You see, it's an example. It's a reflection of what God originally did for the days of creation.

Humanity's existence is a reflection of darkness and deep darkness and then a dawn and then a growing light and then a greater light that brightens everything and drives away all of the darkness. This understanding is a common thread of God's plan and it'll be a common thread through my sermons through the Holy Days this year. Let's go to Matthew 4, verse 12. You'll turn there with me. Matthew 4, verse 12. I want you to notice what Jesus said. Did Jesus understand this spiritual yom that I'm talking about?

Matthew 4, verse 12. He's going to quote from the prophet Isaiah.

So this was important for him to do and even say, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, So the return of Jesus Christ, the first time he came to this earth as a human being, was a new morning. It was the dawning of a new yom. The dawning of that period of time that God had as part of his plan from a period beginning with deep darkness and growing to greater light towards daybreak the first time Jesus Christ came to that light growing and expanding. Because in Jesus Christ there was only one point of light. It was him. But since him there are thousands and thousands of points of life. Those are his children whom he has called and given his spirit to, to the time when Jesus Christ himself will return to this world. You see, brethren, from the time of Adam and Eve, the time they sinned by communicating and believing Satan the devil, who was in the form of a serpent, great spiritual darkness came over the earth. Even God himself, who had walked and talked with Adam and Eve, withdrew his presence from humanity. A spiritual evening began for all of us. A spiritual evening, a yom, that part for all humanity. It was a time of lesser lights. Yes, there was Abraham. Yes, there was Moses. Yes, there was David. Yes, there were prophets. Yes, there were a few. But except for a very few individuals whom God worked with, the earth was in deep spiritual darkness.

This was represented by the first half of the day in Genesis 1, in which began as sunset and continued throughout the night. And then, something remarkable happened about 2,000 years ago. Jesus Christ came to earth, and the evening and nighttime had ended, and the new dawn was about to begin. Let's go to Luke 1. Luke 1, verse 67, if you'll turn there with me. And we'll see what John's father, Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied and said about the coming of Jesus Christ himself. Luke 1, verse 67. Luke 1, verse 67.

To perform the mercy promise to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

And to you, child, he's speaking to his own son John, and you, child, will be called the prophet of the highest. You will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way, to give knowledge of salvation to his people, by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, which the day-spring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet to the way of peace. The Believer's Study Bible says this, about the phrase day-spring.

It ended in era, and a new time, a new part of God's spiritual yom dawned like the rising of sun in the morning. And for the past two thousand years, the Church, who has been composed of those who have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, have been an ever-increasing light to the world.

Jesus Christ was a single point of light. His chosen brothers and sisters, all of whom have God's Spirit within them, are many points of light, reflecting the fact that Jesus Christ lives his life through them, radiating God's light to this world.

You know, Paul got it. Paul understood. John understood. Let's take a look at what kind of time I have here. I think I have time for this scripture. Let's go to John 12, verse 44. John 12, verse 44, statement that Jesus makes.

The Apostle John writes here in the 12th chapter, verse 44, Then Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. Meaning he believes in the Father, because the Father is the one who does the calling. And he who sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness.

Not only is the history of humanity a spiritual yom, your life has been a spiritual yom. There was a time when you didn't understand God's way of life. You were in darkness. And yes, even if you grew up in the church, you may have heard occasional sermons. Maybe you read an article. Maybe you overheard your parents talking about God. There were some lesser lights influencing you in your life. You were. Your life was in darkness. You were ignorant of God's way of life. Then there came a time when something happened in your mind, and you began to get an interest in God. And then you began to ask questions, and you began to read more deeply, and you began to attend Sabbath services, perhaps. And eventually, you were baptized. And after that, over the years, the light within you should grow brighter and brighter and stronger and stronger until the time of the first resurrection, when we literally, at the blink of an eye, will be transformed from this mere physical flesh into the brightness of His coming, and our lives will be filled with light, with no more darkness. So Jesus said here in verse 46, I as come as a light into the world that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. Jesus Himself acknowledges that He was the light coming into a world of darkness. His life and His ministry was like the dramatic rising of the sun and the horizon after a period of darkness.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 8. Because we'll see here that Paul got it. Paul understood this metaphor. Paul understood what our life is all about. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 8. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 8. Paul writes, For you were once darkness, but now you were the light of the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord and have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness. So the choice is either God's Spirit and the fruits that are generated by that Spirit being within us, and that's light, or the works of the flesh. Those are unfruitful works of darkness.

He says, But rather expose them. Verse 12, For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light.

Therefore, he says, Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

Verses 13 and 14, in my opinion, are cryptic in the New King James Version, so I'm going to read you a different translation. The translation of God's work for today. It says, Light exposes the true character of everything, because light makes everything easy to see. It can't hide anymore. It can't stay just down in the corner of the darkness.

If you take a bright flashlight into a room, you can see the details of everything that that light is pointing towards.

It says, That is why it says, Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

Again, that is the translation of God's work for today.

The spiritual light has been increasing for two thousand years, as many believers from generation to generation reflect the light of God. Think about what Jesus did in his lifetime, in his ministry. He never left the confines of those small villages in Judea.

Those many points of light who responded to his message are shining the good news of the Gospel in many different languages and in many different ways throughout the entire world.

The fullness of God's spiritual light to all humanity is represented by what the fall festivals teach us.

It begins with the return of Jesus Christ on trumpets and the battle of Armageddon.

And it continues as he abolishes the influence of Satan, that author of darkness, from this world and puts him in chains and removes his presence from all the earth.

And it continues through the glorious kingdom of God and God's plan on the eighth day.

Let's go to Malachi, my final scripture today. Malachi chapter 4 beginning in verse 1.

And I'd like to look at a scripture here that many people read and confuses them. As a matter of fact, some scholars have even said, this phrase is a remnant of Judah's pagan belief, and that's why this phrase is in this scripture.

It's a carryover from their worship of the sun. Is that true? That's not even worth commenting on.

But we'll see what the scripture says, and with the background we have now, we will understand exactly why this phrase, the son of righteousness, that's capital S-U-N, is used in this scripture.

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud guests, all who do wickedly, will be stubble.

Again, this is talking about the literal second return of Jesus Christ and the terrible battle of Armageddon, those nations that are gathered against Him in the valley of Megiddo to do war against the returning Jesus Christ and His saints.

The day and the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of Hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch, but to you who fear My name, the son of righteousness, that's capital S-U-N, the full light in all of His radiance and brilliance and righteousness, shall arise with healing in His wings. And you shall go out now and grow fat like stall-fed calves, you shall trample the wicked, and they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet. On that day that I do this, says the Lord of Hosts.

So as we continue to look into the Fall Holy Days this year, we will see that indeed will come a time when the full intense brightness of Jesus Christ will shine over the earth.

Brethren, right now we're still in a world of darkness. Partially, hopefully we're a little brighter than we were a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago, but we still are in a physical world, a world that's filled with darkness. If you don't believe me, just look at the front page of the newspaper.

But the encouraging thing is that the Fall Holy Days point to a new Jerusalem, when we will all be with God forever.

There shall be a yom at that time that has no evening, but it will be one sacred, high, eternal noon forever, and we'll be there, and we'll be part of it. May God speed that day. Have a wonderful Sabbath.