Elul and the Coming Fall Feasts*

      We are currently in the month of Elul on the Hebrew calendar. This month is dedicated to repentance and our return to the LORD in preparation for the fall Feasts of the LORD that will begin soon.  This period of repentance is called teshuvah, or "Return", when we repent for our sins and return to the Lord, and to His commandments. Jesus told a young man who questioned Him that the two great commandments of the Law were to love God with all our heart, mind and strength, and also to love our neighbor as ourselves. These two commandments are those which the whole Law and the prophets fulfill.

     The month of Elul is mentioned in scripture. Nehemiah and the workers, with permission from the foreign ruling king, were re-building the wall of Jerusalem after the people's return from exile. During the course of building the wall, Nehemiah was falsely accused of planning rebellion against the foreign king by some of the inhabitants of the land. These enemies also prophesied falsely over the re-building work. Nehemiah confronted the lies being told, but he had to turn to God for strength because the lies had weakened those who were completing the work. Finally, in the month of Elul, the wall was successfully completed. (Neh. 6:5-9, 14-15). "Fake news" is generated today for the same reason - to cause fear and division.

     There is a warning nature to this month of Elul and the coming Feasts. The LORD gave this instruction to the prophet, Isaiah: "For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth." (Isa. 21:6). This watchman was a prophetic watchman who watched all day and all night. The watchman saw chariots and riders approaching and warned of a lion (a symbol in history of the king of Babylon). The watchman prophetically saw the chariots coming, but answered them saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen (see also Rev. 18:1-2); and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken into the ground." (v. 9). This was the response that he heard from the LORD of hosts. Then the burden of Dumah (oracle of "silence, hidden") cried to the watchman out of Seir saying, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come." (v. 11-12).

     The call is to return, come back to the LORD. During these forty days, the shofar trumpet is blown daily, calling the people to repent and return. America, the trumpet is being blown. We need a 2 Chron. 7:14 return to the LORD in order to heal our land.

     The prophet, Ezekiel, wrote of the serious responsibility of the watchman to warn the people to return to God. The LORD said concerning the watchman: "...If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." (Ezek. 33:1-6). In the same manner, the prophet was commanded to bring the word of the LORD and "warn them from me." If the wicked man is not warned that his death is coming at the hands of the LORD, "...that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul." (v. 7-9). 

     We must warn the wicked to turn from their ways, or their blood is on our hands. Repentance is required of all believers.

     There is another characteristic to the month of Elul, this current month before the fall Feasts begin. There was a young man who was born blind. Jesus' disciples asked him who had sinned that this man was born blind: "Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (Jn. 9:3-5). Then Jesus spat on the ground and made clay with which He then anointed the eyes of the blind man. When the man washed his eyes according to Jesus' instructions, he "came seeing." The month of Elul represents the mercy of God to those who seek and return to Him. As Jesus said, there is a time coming when no man can work.

     The Israelites had created an idol of a golden calf and worshipped it. When Moses returned from the mountain of God with the Ten Commandments written on the tablets of stone, and saw what the people had done, he became so angry that he threw the tablets to the ground. The LORD later told Moses that he was to make two new tablets of stone like the first ones, and the LORD would write the same words on the new tablets. When Moses went up the mountain again with the two new tablets: "...the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with Him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." (Ex. 34:1-7).

     Hearing this, Moses bowed to the ground and worshipped. He then prayed to the LORD: "...O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go amongst us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance." (v. 9). The LORD answered Moses in mercy: "Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the (**aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) work of the LORD: for it is a terrible (yare - fearful, inspire reverence, be awed) thing that I will do with thee." (v. 10).

     The LORD shows mercy and pardons our iniquities. He honors His Word, which is followed by signs, wonders, and miracles. When we "play church", we are no better than the Sadducees and the Pharisees, who knew the Word of God, but missed the time of their visitation by the Son of God, their Savior. We don't want to miss this special time of God's mercy and grace towards those who return to Him.

     Isaiah wrote of the compassion and mercy of the LORD as the LORD urged His people to stop relying on things that don't satisfy their needs: "...hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David...Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." (Isa. 55:1-7).

     The LORD said that His thoughts and ways are higher than ours, and His Word is like the rain that waters the earth: "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (v. 8-11). Our return to Him creates joy and peace in us, but not in us only, but in all of creation! (v. 12-13). These are the results of the month of mercy and repentance, Elul, also.

     Teshuvah - Return - brings God's mercy and pardon towards us when we seek Him and call upon Him. It is the promise found in His Word towards us that accomplishes His desires for us, rather than our own thoughts, plans and flesh.

     David wrote of the mercy of the LORD found when David sought his face: "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?...One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock....therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD. Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me...leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation....I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD." (Ps. 27:1-14, excerpt).

     Fear is on the rise in our world, but the LORD is saying "Come aside" as He said to the wise virgins and to Noah and his family. He is safety in the time of trouble, and we are facing the time of the Great Tribulation. The trumpets are sounding the time of repentance and mercy in Elul, the Feast of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, the place of safety mentioned by David above. The Marriage Supper of the LORD is prophesied within these fall Feasts. Will you be ready? 

     Israel and Jerusalem are God's prophetic timetable, and we cannot ignore that timetable. That timetable is written in the Word of God. The LORD prophesied: "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) Jerusalem. And in that day will I make (**aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." (Zech. 12:1-3). We see this taking place now with the nations and peoples around Israel attacking it. The United Nations has supported the condemnation of Israel and at the same time is trying to establish a one-world government. All of this is leading to that time prophesied when a false peace treaty will be broken. It is time to reflect and repent especially as we see these things happening.

     In the middle of the LORD's defense of Judah and Jerusalem against the prophesied attacks above, the LORD also makes this promise of mercy: "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look upon me (**aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn...In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness." (Zech. 12:10, Zech. 13:1).

     This fountain that will be opened is nothing less than the blood of Jesus that pours out the mercy and cleansing of God. Jesus is the first-born Son of God with many sons and daughters following Him into the Kingdom, and He is the first born of the resurrection of the dead with many following Him from death unto life.

     We are told to seek His face, and to call upon Him. This month of Elul is calling God's people to return to Him and receive His mercy. What if this is the last time that this Elul season of teshuvah return is offered to us? We don't know the day nor the hour of Christ's return, but we can see the signs. Jesus said, "I stand at the door and knock...". Will we be ready and prepared, or will we ignore the opportunity given to us through this open door of Elul?

     *Based upon Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson, Jr.'s 9/22/24 message to the church. If you would like to hear the complete message, you can find it on Dr. Stevenson's Facebook page. To contact or support this ministry, or to request prayer, you can write to PO Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705. To find out more about the Shroud of Turin, and to receive a free e-book now available in several languages, go to http://www.theshroudofturin.org/freebook.

**NOTE: aleph-tav written in Hebrew as אֶת, are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The meaning of the two pictographic Hebrew letters can also be interpreted "Adonai (Lord) of the Cross/Covenant". In the New Testament, these letters are translated as Alpha and Omega written as Α Ω , the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These letters are those by which Jesus Christ identifies Himself in the Book of Revelation: see Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13.