Purim Penumbral Lunar Eclipse on March 23rd, 2016
As a follow-up to our initial March blog post regarding “The Blood Moon Bombshell of 2016?“, we have noted that since the Barley Harvest in Israel was NOT found to be Aviv Barley, or ripe, that the extra 13th Month of Second Adar was added to the Hebrew Calendar. This puts the Passover on April 22nd of 2016, instead of aligning with the Penumbral Lunar Eclipse on March 23rd, but this eclipse now lines up with the Feast of Purim in 2016.
The key heavenly signs in March of 2016 began with a Total Solar Eclipse on March 9th. However, had the Barley harvest been ripe, the March 9th New Moon/Total Solar Eclipse, would have made March 9th-align with Nisan 1, followed only 2 weeks later by a Nisan 14 Passover Lunar Eclipse on March 23rd! Even though we won’t have a Blood Moon Sextet 2014-2016, we will still have a fifth Lunar Eclipse falling on the key Hebrew Feast Day of Purim. This is no small matter because it follows the Blood Moon Tetrad of 2014-2015, giving us the first ever Blood Moon Quintet of 2014-2016! Purim on the Hebrew calendar also occurs before the Transit of Mercury, May 9th 2016.
What is unique about this Jubilee Year of 2016 is that Purim is on March 23, the exact time a Lunar Eclipse occurs, although its a Penumbral eclipse, so not all the lunar surface will be eclipsed. It falls 120 days after the Super Blood Moon of September 28, 2015. Specifically, Purim begins on the Hebrew Calendar on Wednesday evening, March 23, 2016 continuing through Thursday night, March 24th. It will also be the first full Moon after the Spring Equinox. There is some confusion about the numerics and operation of the Jubilee Cycle. Jubilee Years are based on the Shemitah Years occurring every 7th year. Seven Shemitahs (7×7=49 years is Shemitah of Shemitah’s). The year following the 7th Shemitah is a Jubilee. The Jubilee Year follows the 7th Shemitah becoming the 50th year. However, if the Shemitah cycle continues every 7 years, then the next Jubilee year becomes the first of the next Shemitah cycle, where the next Jubilee follows 49 years after the first. However, if you start the next Shemitah cycle after the Jubilee then you have Jubilee years occurring every 50 years, but, this breaks the 7 year cycle. Bible scholars remain in disagreement as to which version is right. There is a method based on a 49 year cycle that keeps the 7 year cycle intact, which makes the most sense.
It is this method that we are using to calculate the current Jubilee cycle which is being witnessed this year 5776 on the Hebrew Calendar.
As a result of the lack of Aviv Barley this month in Israel, the Nisan 14 Passover did not fall on March 23rd aligning with the Penumbral Lunar eclipse, [Levi. 23:5]. However, this potential correlation with Nisan 14, still holds in the Christian world linked with the commemoration of Easter celebrations this weekend!
The great majority of traditional Christendom celebrates Easter weekend from “Good Friday” to Easter Sunday morning, yet [Matt. 12:40] tells us:
40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
This refers to 3/24 hour periods which does not match the time period from Good Friday to Easter Sunday! Also, Sunday was not the Sabbath on the Hebrew Calendar, only on pagan calendars. Saturday was however the Sabbath in Israel and when we back-track 3 days from Nisan 17, the weekly Sabbath will link with Jesus’ resurrection. Nisan 14 ties to the Crucifixion of Jesus, on Passover “Good Wednesday” in 28 AD. This gives us the proper date and timing that lines up with the Biblical record of three days and nights in the heart of the earth. As a result, we have a dual correlation of both Hebrew/Christian Holy days of Purim and Christ’s Crucifixion marked on Nisan 14, with a fifth Lunar Eclipse event in 2014-2016! Can we find significance for this in God’s Word? The Epistle of Ephesians is enlightening on this subject;
Ephesians 2:10-17
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Jesus as the Prince of Peace has provided peace to both the Jews and Gentles in His spiritual body of the Church. He has removed the obstacles of the Law and the Temple ordinances between Israel and Christian believers, unifying us in one new spiritual man, his spiritual body, nailing those obstacles in the Law, to the Cross.
Ephesians 3:3-6
3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote before in few words, 4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ). 5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6 That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
This revolutionary accomplishment of Jesus Christ resulting from his crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, taking the sins of mankind upon him and unifying the Jews and Gentiles in one spiritual Body in Christ, is called a “mystery” or a secret of the Heavenly Father which was not revealed until the writings of the Church epistles by the Apostle Paul. Clearly, Christ is the unifying force for all humanity at every level of life, Body, Soul, and Spirit. [I Thess. 5:23] This monumental work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is emphasized by the Penumbral Lunar Eclipse aligning with both Purim for Israel and the Crucifixion of Christ leading to Easter and Resurrection weekend in Christianity! Is the Heavenly Father working to get our attention, to prepare us for our soon coming reality where Christians and Jews will be united in one spiritual body in Christ, at the right Hand of God? This will certainly be the result of the victorious Return of the our Lord Jesus Christ.
Purim is a story of both deliverance and a sudden destruction. Purim is a Hebrew holiday and has been incorporated much like Hanukkah into the list of Feasts that have been added to the 7 major Feasts of Jehovah. Can we find elements of Christ’s work foreshadowed in the Feast of Purim?
The meaningof the Feast of Purim is disclosed only in the Bible’s book of Esther. The beginning of the Book of Esther starts off with a 6-month feast of the King. As Purim amazingly aligns with a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, when we consider the context of Hebrew Calendar and the Blood Moon Tetrad of 2014-2015 what is the message we can glean from a fifth lunar eclipse, 2 days following the Spring Equinox? The record of the history and origin of the Feast of Purim in the Book of Esther, is significant today for a number of reasons. Even as the evil Haman was bent on his genocidal plan against the Jews in the ancient Persian World Empire, so today there is a group of Islamic and other Nations conspiring to “wipe Israel off the map.” Purim is prophetic as it relates to the deliverance of God’s People from those enemies that seek to destroy the heritage of the Almighty, and Redeemer’s bl0od-line. The Biblical record of Esther not only shows the history and inception of the Feast of Purim, but also shares the elements of how the Heavenly Father saved His people, exhibiting His undying Love for Israel. God Saved His people not only so they could enjoy their lives, but also so He could bring them back to the Promised Land of Israel and the Holy city of Jerusalem. We can see this long-standing purpose of God because after nearly 2000 years of being dispersed among the Gentile Nations, in 1948-50 Israel was reformed as a nation-state, also marked by a Blood Moon Tetrad, and the Jews have been returning to their homeland ever since. But there is another over-riding purpose found in Esther, and that is the preservation of the Christ-line. Numerous times in history the enemy attempted to wipe the Hebrew Race from the face of the Earth because he knew it would bear man’s Redeemer. During the birth of Moses, the Egyptians killed the male Hebrew infants for this purpose. During the time of the Christ’s birth, Herod also had the male infants murdered around Bethlehem, for the same reason.
So we see the efforts of Haman to exterminate the nation of Israel along these lines. The setting for Esther was ancient Persia-modern-day Iran. Even as Daniel who also served under this 2nd world Empire following Babylon from their capital city of Susa, Queen Esther, decided to stand up for the nation of Israel against Haman’s evil plot, she received favor from her King and Husband Xerxes I. Esther enjoyed the favor of the King’s Sceptre when she risked her life by entering the conference of the King. It is Interesting to note that; Biblically “a Sceptre can also be symbolic of a person!” In Numbers, we read;
(Numbers 24:17)”I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Seth.”
That Sceptre embodied the prophesied return of the Promised Seed, who came first over 1,900 years ago and by his sacrifice, provided redemption for all mankind. All who believe in Him, and follow Him, have a pathway back to God, who alone is able to deliver them from bloodthirsty hatred of the modern Haman’s. Our website study on the General Sign of the Celestial Prelude covers the significance of this Numbers 24 record regarding the Sceptre, in the context of the heavenly signs surrounding the birth of Christ. The heavenly birth signs for Christ are set to rewind in 2017, with a prominent role for Jupiter, the King Planet and Royal Sceptre of the King of Kings.
The following dates, show Jupiter-Venus conjunctions in Virgo in 2016-2017:
July 27th, 2016
Aug. 26-27th, 2016 [Jupiter enters Virgo]
Feb. 26th, 2017
Sept. 23rd, 2017 [Virgo clothed with the Sun/Moon @ feet]-Rev. 12:1-2
Nov. 13th, 2017
The two brightest planets – Venus and Jupiter – teamed up to provide the closest planetary conjunction of 2014, and it has been the closest Venus- Jupiter conjunction during the Blood Moon Quintet of 2014-2016, until August 27, 2016, when Jupiter enters Virgo to be “birthed” in 2017.
God is teaching us through His Hebrew Calendar providing focused attention on His final plan of redemption with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. God first instituted the Biblical Calendar of annual Festivals through Moses (Levi. 23), which included the yearly counting of days and weeks, so that His people might rehearse the 50 days between His Passover, death and resurrection, and Pentecost with the power of the Holy Spirit. Finally these end-time events leading up to the Jubilee and Day of the LORD. He also gave us the signs of the Sun, Moon and Stars in Biblical Astronomy, relating to His Feasts and Holy days so that we would be ready and forewarned of the times wherein we reside.
As Iran, at that time was the world superpower, so too does Iran now seek to recapture their previous position over Israel once again. Amalek was one preventing the Jews from passing through his land on their Exodus to the Promised Land under Moses. Haman’s bloodline came from Amalek’s, the traditional enemies of the Israel. This parallel bloodline has and continues to contest God’s people for the inheritance of the Promised Land-the city of Jerusalem and coming Temple on the Mount. The conspiracy in the time of Esther was that a descendant of Amalek-Haman plotted to trick the King, Xerxes I or Ahasuerus to murder all the Jews and rid the empire of them as Amalek desried.
This conspiracy is alive and well in modern Iran who is already a major partner with Russia comprising a confederacy of Muslim nations that will attack Israel during the first Gog-Magog invasion. This plot was revealed to Mordecai, a relative of Esther who raised her. At the Queen’s own peril, Esther interceded on behalf of God’s People. Because of their sacrificial and selfless acts, God worked in Esther and Mordecai to overt a genocide. The Christian genocide currently being waged by the modern Haman’s in the Muslim world primarily, will one day see a sudden destruction come upon them. Even as the effect of Haman’s plot was exercised upon his own head and all his family, the modern nations plotting against Israel, and the Church body of Christ will experience a similar more awesome destruction.
With this week’s Penumbral Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse on the Feast of Purim, taking place during a Hebrew Jubilee Year, it should get our attention for the following reasons.
One can not help, but be struck by the unique and very rare occurrence of the Tetrad of four Blood Moons during the Shemitah of Shemitah’s, and now the Jubilee comes with yet another Lunar eclipse on Purim, forming a Quintet of Blood Moons on Hebrew Holidays from 2014-2016. This is not the first Lunar Eclipse to fall on Purim. According to our Biblical Blood Moon Calendar, back on March 4th of 71 AD, soon after the Romans had destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, prophesied by Jesus Christ, a Partial Lunar Eclipse took place. This marked the removal of God from His Temple in stages, and the dispersion of the Jews among the Gentile Nations. With this fifth Blood Moon on Purim, we may be witnessing an indicator of God’s gradual return in stages to a New Temple on the Mount, the natural outcome of forming of the State of Israel, and the Restoration of Jerusalem to Israel’s control, both marked by Blood Moon Tetrads in 1949-50 and 1967-68.
Let’s stay vigilant as we continue to watch the skies for the heavenly signs that align with Scripture to tell us what time it is…
Footnotes
1. “Blood Moon Bombshell of 2016?” [blog.try-god.org] March 2016
2. Ephesians 2:10-17 KJV
3. Ephesians 3:3-6 KJV
4. Numbers 24:17 KJV
5. “The General Sign of the Celestial Prelude” [www.try-god.com]
6. Biblical Blood Moon Calendar [blog.try-god.org] Aug. 2014
