As I was reading and studying to the previous post, something caught my attention.

The Lord said to Moses, “Indeed, I am going to come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and always believe in you.” Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

Exodus 19:9

In discussing the rapture, it is not overtly apparent that the meeting of the people of God with Him at Mount Sinai is the first occurrence of that type of event. God coming in the clouds and meeting His people. Them being called out as a people to meet with God.

There are some things one is going to be required to understand when I say that. The people of God here are not just Israelis. They are a mixed multitude of people. Most of them are Israeli having lineage from Abraham. God is coming to them in a thick cloud to meet them… Not as their Judge nor is it in judgment. This kind of spoils the usual narrative employed about the ancient idea that coming in the clouds an indicative of judgment. This idea of first mention of God coming in the clouds indicates much.

In the text, Moses serves as a type playing the role of Jesus. These types and shadows are almost always incomplete. Those things can and do get blurry, because Moses also plays a type of the body of Christ. I will leave that for another time.

Anyway, Moses is instructed by God to do many things to prepare the people for Him. They are to set themselves aside, wait, and be ready. What do you think is going to be the signal for them to leave camp and go meet God?

When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.

Exodus 19:13b

It’s a fascinating thing that the call to assembly for the people of God is by trumpet. This is a reality played out many times in the law that Moses gave. Trumpet calls were also used to transmit commands on a battlefield. They also proclaimed the presence of God.

The conspicuous thing is something called the law of first mention. What it entails is that the first time an idea or word is used in the Bible, it has significant foundational meaning to the latter occurrences.

Here, the English word for trumpet is first used. Yet the Bible was not written in English. The Hebrew word for trumpet as used here is yobel. That is the first time that that Hebrew word is used in the Bible.

It seems to me there are many firsts occurring in this particular account. God is assembling His people to meet with them, and the sign is the blast from a trumpet.

So on the third day, in the morning, there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet. All the people who were in the camp trembled.

Exodus 19:16

The third day seems to be significant. There is nothing in the Bible that is insignificant. We know Jesus rose on the third day, so the reference seems to loosely reference resurrection. I think there’s more here, and I have previously hinted about it. In the close of Hosea 5, the last verse God is speaking of His withdrawal from His own people. Eventually the people respond with a call to repentance. There are some significant numbers mentioned.

Come, let us return to the Lord, for He has torn, and He will heal us. He has struck, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us. On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him.

Hosea 6:1–2

After two days and on the third day revival comes. What if these were not the typical 24-hour day?

Could it be a precise indicator of something else that may be significant?

Could it be that a day is like a thousand years as Peter states in his second epistle?

Some may object to that as it is a New Testament reference. I think there’s evidence that the people of that time could understand the concept.

For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a night watch in the night time.

Psalm 90:4

It seems as if this may have some significance. Especially considering some other things like the seventieth Jubilee coming quickly. There is a convergence of ideas from the Bible coalescing to a point of time that is just near future to now. If the two days is as two thousand years, as I write today puts the two-thousandth anniversary of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem just a bit over seven years away in AD 2032. Perhaps that would be the third day when all Israel is restored under a rightful King from David’s lineage. It sounds like a Millennial Kingdom to me.

But nah! That couldn’t be.

Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was received as King on the traditional day for the beginning of the electoral year. Israeli kings were crowned on Passover just as Jesus was. 10 Nisan would be the presentation of the King on a donkey, that first time remembered as Palm Sunday. The patter would hold that Jesus comes into Jerusalem the next time on a horse. Kings rode donkeys in peace, and horses to war. As there is a seeming pattern, wouldn’t that coming prince counterfeit such a thing?

That means the antichrist would ride into Jerusalem on a horse. This would need to be at least seven years prior to Jesus’ return as King. This points at the next 10 Nisan.

Let that sit. Back to Exodus, and that really loud trumpet and the gathering clouds on Mount Sinai. God comes on those clouds and settles on the mountain, the people are called by the sound of a trumpet.

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely covered in smoke because the Lord had descended upon it in fire, and the smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice.

Exodus 19:17–19

This is one of my favorite passages in the Scriptures.

Now, what is obscured by the English word translated as trumpet is another Hebrew word sopar. This, too, is the first occurrence of the word sopar, and it appears twice in the passage. Sopar usually references the ram’s horn or shofar it English. It is also used to convey the sound the trumpet makes. The meanings of the word sopar and yobel can overlap. Sopar is rather commonly used throughout the Tanakh. Yobel is significantly more rare.

Yobel is translated elsewhere as either ram’s horn or jubilee. But is is translated as trumpet for the first time it is used in the Tanakh, and only once at that in Exodus 19. It is apparent that this connects to the Jubilee.

Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord.  (Leviticus 25:2, MEV)

On entering the Promised Land, the Israelis were given specific instructions. One of the involved the establishment of a sabbath year of rest for the land. They were to count six years, and the seventh was a year of rest. The other inextricably linked to the sabbath year is the Jubilee.

You shall count seven sabbath weeks of years, seven times seven years, and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the horn blasts on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall make the sound of the horn throughout all your land. You shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee to you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and every person shall return to his family. That fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you. You shall neither sow nor reap that which grows by itself, nor gather the grapes of your unpruned vines. For it is the Jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You shall eat the produce of the field.

Leviticus 25:8–12

Israel was to make the sound of the shofar to proclaim the Jubilee. It seems that these ideas of rest, Jubilee (setting captives free,) and a call to assembly are intertwined.

The Hebrew word yobel translated for its first usage in the Bible as to be the sign of assembly. It is also translated elsewhere as jubilee. The English word jubilee has its roots in the Hebrew word yobel. As it is used in Leviticus , it is referencing the 50th year when the land returned to rightful owners and indentured servants were released.

When Israel entered the Land, they were to keep a Sabbath for it to the Lord. It followed that would also be the first Jubilee as the start of the 49-year count until the next 50th year. It is a very similar count to the one that establishes the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost.) That also causes my mind to pay attention to this.

In a not-so-roundabout way, Pentecost hints of the body of Christ, the universal church.

As has previously been explored, the next Jubilee for Israel will most likely be the 70th. The number seventy conveys the meaning of a complete set or all of them. If that holds true, this coming Jubilee is the last one. If it is the last one, the trumpet announcing it would be the last trump.

As a teacher says, if 1446 BC, then 14406 BC. If 1406 BC, then 2025 AD. But always 10 Nisan. It is the intertwining Biblical themes introduced with the gathering at Mount Sinai. There are patterns that can be dually applied to the return of Jesus to Israel, and the return of Jesus for His bride the church. As Moses draws near to God at Sinai the people remained at a distance. Moses and some of the elders go up to the mountain and sup with God.

That trumpet-Jubilee proclaims liberty and restoration. It signified the year the Israelis entered the Promised Land and eating of the food some forty years later. That being the first Jubilee and the fulfilling of the promise God made for rest.

Some 3,430 years after Israel entered the Promised Land 10 Nisan in 1406 BC, the seventieth Jubilee comes on 10 Nisan (AD 2025.) Are we to soon expect that last trump call to gather and meet God?