I am writing this on the presumption that we could still be around after this weekend, though my heart is definitely to be out of here.
Over the years of watching, with all of the disappointments, what my brain does automatically is think in terms of not only the closest/upcoming high watch date but also the very next high watch date after that in case my first speculation/guess/theory is not correct. After a couple hundred times of performing this little mental exercise, I cannot but do this. My brain is a bit broken. My daughters would agree with that statement. And I am currently in a competition with a Fivedoves watcher, a Mr. Hemi777 (you know who you are) to see which one of us has the most high watch dates come and go before we finally go home.
So, if we are still here this coming Monday morning, this is what I am looking at/wondering about/pleading and even whining for:
Per Exodus 19:1, it says:
1In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt , [a]on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai . 2When they set out from Rephidim , they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness ; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain .
I believe that date was the 15th day of the 3rd month when Israel arrived at the mountain of God. The 15th is when they left Egypt and so the 15th is when they arrived at Mt. Sinai. If the sun was setting/had set when that last mass/tribe of Israeli humanity started to pitch their tents back then, then you are looking at the 16th. This date/timing is actually echoed in the Book of the Jubilees that I will be quoting from in what follows.
Thinking in terms of this 15th/16th of the 1st month to the 15th/16th of the 3rd month would also mean that there were 60 days between when Israel left metropolitan Egypt to when they arrived at Mt Sinai. In my studies, this 60 day period matches, or echoes, the 60 day period between when Jesus ascended to heaven the second time, detailed in Acts, to about when the Holy Spirit came upon the 120 on the 1st of the 5th at Pentecost (7 weeks plus fifty days starting at the Feast of First Fruits). Both 60 day time periods point to a major transition. And so I am wondering if the 60 day time-period has meaning somehow for us (think here that 6=60=600=6000) since we also are at the end of this "age". For example, Pentecost on the 1st of the 5th is 60 days prior to the Feast of Trumpets on the 1st of the 7th. I am thinking we will be gone by the 1st of the 5th. If we are gone by the 10th/11th of the 5th (the anniversary of when God removed the first two temples and thinking in terms of us being yet a "third" temple), then that is 60 days before Yom Kippur. So, I am thinking that the number 60 is significant, pointing to the idea of possibly a transitory time period involving a striping away of man-centered flesh from those who will "have ears to ear the Spirit", those who will embrace the revelation of God for the beginning of the new-"age", i.e. the upcoming judgment years.
I am thinking we will be gone before that 60 day transition starts. I am convinced in my watching for Jesus that I am not only to think in terms of when we go but also to think in terms of how God does transitions between ages. I do not accept the idea that when we go the 70 week of Daniel immediately begins that very day, for example. That is not how God does transitions in my understanding.
Thinking in terms of the Children of Israel arriving at Mt Sinai on the 15th/16th day of the 3rd month, this is also the same timing/date as to when Jacob left the promised land and went down to see Joseph in Egypt. See the following from the Book of the Jubilees. Jacob was initially reluctant to leave the land of promise.
1. And Israel took his journey from Haran from his house on the new moon of the third month, and he went on the way of the Well of the Oath, and he offered a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac on the seventh of this month. 2. And Jacob remembered the dream that he had seen at Bethel, and he feared to go down into Egypt. 3. And while he was thinking of sending word to Joseph to come to him, and that he would not go down, he remained there seven days, if perchance he should see a vision as to whether he should remain or go down. 4. And he celebrated the harvest festival of the first-fruits with old grain, for in all the land of Canaan there was not a handful of seed (in the land), for the famine was over all the beasts and cattle and birds, and also over man. 5. And on the sixteenth the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, "Jacob, Jacob"; and he said, "Here am I." And He said unto him: "I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac; fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great nation. 6. I shall go down with thee, and I shall bring thee up (again), and in this land wilt thou be buried, and Joseph will put his hands upon thy eyes. Fear not; go down into Egypt." 7. And his sons rose up, and his sons' sons, and they placed their father and their possessions upon wagons. 8. And Israel rose up from the Well of the Oath on the sixteenth of this third month, and he went to the land of Egypt.
So, on the very date that Jacob left the promised land to go to Joseph is the same date that the Children of Israel arrived at Mt Sinai.
God is exact in His timing and that is why my quoting from the Book of the Jubilees resonates with me though I understand that some would question the source because it is not widely accepted as being part of the scriptures.
So, when might we go up to Jesus and enter the cloud to be with Him per I Thess 4:16-17? What "very date" might Jesus get us?
Per the Book of the Jubilees chapter one it expresses the following regarding when Moses went up to God:
1And it came to pass in the first year of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the third month, on the sixteenth day of the month, that God spoke to Moses, saying: “Come up to Me on the Mount, and I will give you two tables of stone of the law and of the commandment, which I have written, that you may teach them.” 2And Moses went up into the mount of God, and the glory of the Lord abode on Mount Sinai, and a cloud overshadowed it six days. 3And He called to Moses on the seventh day out of the midst of the cloud, and the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a flaming fire on the top of the Mount.
So, I am wondering/thinking, "When exactly did God call Moses to Himself from within the cloud?"
Per Jubilees, the 7th day after the 16th day of the 3rd month ends up being about the 23rd of the 3rd month, or per the popular Jewish calendar this year we are looking at June 28th/29th, next week end.
If we reference the account in Exodus 19 and the following chapters, it appears to me that Moses may have gone up to be on the Mt Sinai on or about the 20th day of the 3rd month (add 40 days to this and he would have come down from the Mount on the 1st of the 5th to cast down his two stones (tablets). The 7th day after the 20th of the 3rd would be about July 3rd this year. Understand that though the United States celebrates its birthday on July 4th, it was actually July 2nd for those who know history. Here, I am trying to think in terms of both when we go and judgement on the "end of the church age Babylon" commences, with all of this being prior to when the upcoming judgement years officially commence.
So, in my estimation, if we are not gone this upcoming weekend, we do not have long after this initial high watch date.
God bless you.