Today is the Biblical day of the Feast of Trumpets.  “Set the trumpet to your mouth. He shall come as an eagle over the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.” (Hosea 8:1 KJ2000)

And here is the Word of the LORD for today as we enter the twilight time of evening, at the beginning of the Day of the LORD.  As you read this remember that, prophetically, Israel in the following passage represents the Church today.  Today’s Church parades itself in its corruption as Israel did 2800 years ago. But she is about to go the same way as Israel. First, she shall bear her son, the manchild, who shall rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Then she shall fall and rise no more as she hides herself in the wilderness as the wrath of God unfolds in the earth. The carnal Church will never again rise in glory when Christ’s righteousness covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Amos 5:1-27 (ESV) 
    Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:
    [2] “Fallen, no more to rise,
        is the virgin Israel;
    forsaken on her land,
        with none to raise her up.”
 [3] For thus says the Lord God:
    “The city that went out a thousand
        shall have a hundred left,
    and that which went out a hundred
        shall have ten left
        to the house of Israel.”
 [4] For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
    “Seek me and live;
        [5] but do not seek Bethel,
    and do not enter into Gilgal
        or cross over to Beersheba;
    for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
        and Bethel shall come to nothing.”
    [6] Seek the Lord and live,
        lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
        and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
    [7] O you who turn justice to wormwood
        and cast down righteousness to the earth!
    [8] He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
        and turns deep darkness into the morning
        and darkens the day into night,
    who calls for the waters of the sea
        and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
    the Lord is his name;
    [9] who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,
        so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
    [10] They hate him who reproves in the gate,
        and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
    [11] Therefore because you trample on the poor
        and you exact taxes of grain from him,
    you have built houses of hewn stone,
        but you shall not dwell in them;
    you have planted pleasant vineyards,
        but you shall not drink their wine.
    [12] For I know how many are your transgressions
        and how great are your sins—
    you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
        and turn aside the needy in the gate.
    [13] Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,
        for it is an evil time.
    [14] Seek good, and not evil,
        that you may live;
    and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
        as you have said.
    [15] Hate evil, and love good,
        and establish justice in the gate;
    it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
        will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
 [16] Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:
    “In all the squares there shall be wailing,
        and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’
    They shall call the farmers to mourning
        and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
    [17] and in all vineyards there shall be wailing,
        for I will pass through your midst,”
says the Lord.
    [18] Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
        Why would you have the day of the Lord?
    It is darkness, and not light,
        [19] as if a man fled from a lion,
        and a bear met him,
    or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
        and a serpent bit him.
    [20] Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,
        and gloom with no brightness in it?
    [21] “I hate, I despise your feasts,
        and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
    [22] Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
        I will not accept them;
    and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
        I will not look upon them.
    [23] Take away from me the noise of your songs;
        to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
    [24] But let justice roll down like waters,
        and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
 [25] “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?  [26] You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves,  [27] and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

The Second Passover celebrated by King Hezekiah, Judah, and Israel in about 727 BC represents a time of rare spiritual revival among God’s people.  Hezekiah’s father and previous kings had led Israel on a long precipitious path to idolatry and destruction.  The situation in the northern kingdom of Israel was even worse.  Let’s look at the brief history of this important event.

And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel. For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation. So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it for a long time in the way in which it was written. So the runners went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, You children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. And be not like your fathers, and like your brethren, who trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as you see. Now be you not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. For if you turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return unto him. So the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. (2 Chronicles 30:1-10 KJ2000)

Remember from previous posts that the birthright name of Israel passed to Ephraim and that Ephraim and Manasseh prophetically point to, i.e. are types of, the Church.  We must understand that today’s Church stands spiritually as did Ephraim and Manasseh in those days just before Assyria destroyed Israel, killing many and deporting the rest to foreign lands around the world.*  Notice Hezekiah appealed to these people to repent of the many sins which had led to their destructions at the hands of the Assyrians.  He pleaded with them to bend their necks to God’s yoke and come back to his sanctuary in Jerusalem.  If they would but serve the LORD, he said, then God’s wrath would turn from them.

But the countryside of Ephraim, Manasseh, and all Israel laughed Hezekiah’s messengers “to scorn.”  Nevertheless, we do see in verses 11 and 18 that some of the people from the northern kingdom did respond to the invitation.  The vast majority of Israel, however, stayed at home, stayed at home to be utterly destroyed and deported by Assyria a mere six years later.  What do these things mean for us today?  I will simply make a suggestion for I cannot say, “thus says the LORD.”

Second Passover represents the final “revival” of God’s people prior to Armageddon, the great battle on the Day of the LORD.  This day, I believe, is when the harlot Mystery Babylon, suffers the fate we see in Revelation 17-18.  As we saw earlier in this series and elsewhere, I believe Mystery Babylon to be the apostate church throughout the ages and especially today.  The overcomers, God’s faithful believers, have always been called out of the established church.  They have always dwelt “outside the camp” as did Moses.  The church, represented by the Northern Kingdom of Israel, by and large refuses to come out of their false religious clubs, but some do.  Those who do come out consecrate themselves to God and begin to obey him by practicing righteousness.  Even those who come out late, just before the end, become consecrated by the prayers of the faithful.

Second Passover is a feast for those who know they have touched a dead body, their own, who know that the flesh counts for nothing, who know that they cannot perfect in the flesh what they began in the Spirit.  These practice righteousness by confessing and repenting of their sins.  Second Passover remains for these who await the man who went on a far journey, Jesus, who will return to claim his own.  (Remember, this is the reason Second Passover must be observed according to Number 9:6-12)

Today begins the eight day feast of Second Passover this year 2010.  Today I am baking my lamb (for dinner because I like it!) and remembering my God.

Click here to read “Second Passover: The Hidden Feast” written on April 29, 2012.

* Note: Most of them went into lands north and eventually traveled over the Caucasus Mountains into Russia, Europe, and beyond.  These people became the primary ones who later received the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Most Christian people still belong to these nations which were formed from the northern Israelite tribes.  Today must people simpy refer to them as the “lost tribes of Israel.”  But, they are the Celts, English, Irish, Scottish, German, French, Italians and others who established Europe and North America.