There was once a woman called Sarah, none that any of you have probably ever heard of - not the beloved wife of Abraham - but worthy, perhaps, of her name anyway. She lived long ago, if legend is to be believed, at Ecbatana in the land of Media. She had been given in marriage seven times but each of her bridegrooms had been killed, one after the other, before ever they had slept with her as man with wife, by a malevolent creature from the dark world called Asmodeus. To compound her grief, the servant-girl of that household chided her mistress, saying: 'You are the one killing your bridegrooms. You have been given seven and have survived with none.' And terrified that she might be cursed, and that the curse might pass from her to them, the servant girl cruelly said to her mistress: 'Just because your bridegrooms have died, that is no reason for punishing us. Go and join them, and may we be spared the sight of any child of yours.'

The distraught woman grieved and sobbed and went up to her father's room intending to hang herself. But then she thought the better of so desperate a deed, and thought: 'Suppose they blame my father. They will say to him: You had an only daughter whom you loved, and now she has hanged herself for grief'. And she thought to herself: 'I cannot cause such grief to my father and ruin his old age. Instead, I will beg Yahweh to let me die and not live to hear any more insults. And so, standing by the window with outstrethed arms she recited this prayer:

'Blessed art Thou, O Elohim of mercy!
May Your Name (Yahweh) be blessed for ever,
and may all things You have made
bless You from one age to the next.

'And now, I lift up my face
and to You I turn my eyes.
Let Your word deliver me from earth;
I can hear myself accused no longer.

'O Yahweh, You know
that I have remained pure;
no man has touched me;
I have not dishonoured Your Name
or my father's name
in this land of exile.

'I am my father's only daughter,
he has no other child as heir;
he has no brother at his side,
nor has he any kinsmen left
for whom I ought to keep myself.

'Already I have lost seven husbands;
why should I live any longer?
If it does not please You to take my life,
then look on me with pity;
I can hear myself accused no longer.'

Now the circumstances may not be exactly the same, the losses different, but the despair is the same. Men or women, there are honourable sons and daughters of Elohim (God) out there in the world who have suffered much for no apparently good reason that they can think of; and have, in consequence, been driven to despair, to the point where they no longer wish to live. Job was one such man, was he not, who strugged to understand why Yahweh had apparently forsaken him, whose friends who were no friends, and falsely accused him of sins he had not committed. Instead of commiserating with, and consoling, him they sought, rather, to accuse him.

But perhaps this Sarah of Ecbatana reminds you of someone else? A certain Samaritan woman who centuries later would be asked by a very thirsty Yah'shua (Jesus) to draw water up for Him from a famous landmark well at Sychar. Sarah may be unknown to you but you surely know of the Samaritan woman who had had five husbands one after the other and was living unmarried with a sixth man. What happened to the first five we do not know but we can perhaps guess that some similar calamity had befallen them as had Sarah, and thought to herself, 'I have lost five husbands already, why even bother to marry the sixth?'

Alas we do not know the full story. But one thing I do know is that many people we know, both men and women, have been deserted or betrayed by multiple spouses in this promiscuous and faithless age and have, in consequence, lost all hope of ever settling down to a stable marriage with godly men or women. And if that is your experience, do not lose hope. The reasons for your calamity you may not understand in this life but of one thing you can be sure: Yahweh loves you and is preparing you for the one or the ones you are called to share eternity with who will neither abandon nor mistreat you, but love you truly for ever.

Sarah of Ecbatana found her man eventually, he himself having likewise gone through much suffering and misfortune , even though he, like Sarah, was a righteous man like Job. His name was Tobias and the story of this couple, whether true or fictitious I do not know, may be found in the Apocryphal Book of Tobit.

With this unusual and perhaps unexpected introduction to the first of the autumn (fall) festivals of Messianic Israel, may I greet you all by saying Chag Yom Teruah and Rosh Chodesh sameach and Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah. Welcome to the Day of Trumpets, also called the Day of Shouting, the fifth of the annual festivals of our Elohim (God). On this day we bring all of our tragedies to a conclusion and realise all of our hopes.

I related an account that many can identify with because the Gospel story of Messianic Israel is not dissimilar. We all of us desire justice. We crave it. We demand it. It is in our life blood. We want explanations, we cry for vindication for the wrongs done against us by our enemies, we expect false accusers to be forever silenced. Well, that is in part what today is all about. Today is the day the Annunciation of the Second Coming of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) - He returns TODAY in whichever year it is He finally returns. It is His Coronation Day! It is also Yom haZikkaron or the Day of Remembrance, the day we memorialise the Name of the Most High, Yahweh-Elohim, whose Name the Saviour bears in His own - YAH'shua! One day we shall hear great blasts of twin silver-trumpets resonating through heavenlies, a sound very different from the more familiar blasts of the shofarim or rams' horns which are blown every sabbath. The blowing of twin silver trumpets is reserved only for Rosh Chodesh, this being the start of the seventh month. And when we hear this sound - when the whole world hears this sound - it means He is on the way and will appear at any moment!

We expect to hear good news today, or to be alerted to the fact that such will come within days. Such is the hope of the patient and long-suffering. It's what the martyrs under the Altar of the Great Throne Room of our Heavenly Father have been waiting for, in some cases, for many thousands of years:

"When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Davar Elohim (word of God) and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, 'How long, Yahweh (Sovereign Lord), holy and true, until You judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?'" (Rev.6:9-10, NIV)

So there is always great expectation in the air on this day. The atmosphere is charged, alive, tangible, almost solid. At last we can begin to see and feel what before only lay in the recesses of our hearts. It may not be the Second Coming today but something like it - a prequel to it, if you like - is going to happen, and it scares the living daylights out of the demonic hosts! Today is a Day of Consolation every year until the Final Consolation comes. And today, as I have been leading up to now for many years, is the Consolation of the announcement of Penultimate Judgment due at Yom haKippurim! It's the nearest I, personally, will come to the Final Yom Teruah so this is important to me and to others like me who do not expect to be alive when the Second Coming happens.

Now every born-again believer has experienced the Day of Yom Teruah in part already. In a way we have already received our consolation, and we received it on the day we first met Christ. That is our individual, eternal Second Coming, in a way. I remember that day vividly when it happened to me in the very early hours of one spring morning, when all was still dark, in the English City of Spires (Oxford) where my own story of redemption began. Everyone - or nearly everyone - was asleep at that time. But I was fully awake. When Yahweh does a work in us, others for the most part are at rest. It is our day and no one else's for the first three annual festivals are about individual redemption - the collective part comes in the remaining four. And on the Final Yom Teruah this will not just be a day of the fulfilment of a Great Hope for individuals like you and me, but for an entire body of souls who were of one accord - one belief, one hope, and one singular expectation - that Messiah would be coming back for them. Millions await it on the other side of the veil of mortality.

This does not mean that each Yom Teruah, when Christ does not yet return, the festival is in someway rendered empty or void. We should none of us ever leave today's assembly sighing with disappointment because He didn't come back physically now. Today we greet one of the Seven Heavenly Mothers, whose day this is, the Ruach haChamashee, the Fifth Spirit who dwells in the Presence of our Elohim (God), who comforts as a Comforter should, and keeps hope simmering. She does not rest. Indeed, She does far more than simply kindle or rekindle the expectation of a returning Messiah come to judge the world and ussher in the Millennial Reign of Peace and Prosperity, but She actively inspires us make those right choices that will make our repentance from sin culminate with a season of simcha or joy that follows in the seventh annual moed called Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles. But first comes Judgment - the moed of Yom haKippurim (the Day of Atonements) at which we shall not all be celebrating as in the other six, but receiving our punishments if we have not made teshuvah ... if we have not repented of our violating the mitzvot (commandments) of El Elyon, God Most High.

The Ruach haChamashee - the Ruach or Spirit that presides over Yom Teruah - corresponds to David's fifth wife Haggith. It is to be greatly regretted that on account of the Western prejudice against the marriage practices of the ancient Friends of Elohim (God), much emet (truth) is missed in studying the wives of Israel's second King, a messianic figure or type. You should take a careful look at them sometime (see the Wells of Salvation, Part 2). Haggith, whose name means 'festal' or 'festive', clearly gave prophetic indication by her name that the fifth festival is one of tremendous celebration. Why? Because not only is our Saviour coming back but it means He will judge all His enemies and ours. And in this Penultimate Judgment it means that we can now celebrate the imminent defeat of those trying to enslave us ahead of Yahweh's timetable.

When a woman like Sarah loses seven husbands (Tobit 3:8), or the Samaritan woman loses five (Jn.4:18), or the Judean woman in the Sadducee illustrationm loses seven (Mk.12:18-27), there is a reason. Sometimes the reason, though tragic and painful, is to a good, if painful, end as happened to Elizabeth Elliot who lost two godly husband-missionaries who died in the line of duty. Servants of Christ accept that we must occasionally suffer loss, that we are co-sufferers with Christ in our witness to the world, and may be called to lay down our very lives. Eleven of the original twelve apostles were called to, John alone being permitted to ripen into old age to maintain the cohesion of the Messianic Community (Church) before general apostacy began to sweep it away. Great is the mystery as to why Yahweh sends wonderful people to be a part of our lives only to snatch them away. Many are the casualities of our probation in this world.

Many a time Yahweh has sent me a brother who has been a spiritual companion only to remove him from my life after a very short while. Like messengers whose purpose is not to tarry but to simply deliver a life-lesson and move on to the next assignment, people come and go in our lives. And were they to remain, we would be carried on a life trajectory not in the will of our Elohim (God). Sometimes they just move out of town to other assignments, the reasons for which even they themselves may not usually understand at first, and sometimes they die because their life's work is done, as was the case for Elizabeth Elliot's first two husbands.

We will always ask ourselves, 'Why?' when tragedy strikes and in most instances we will not be told but must simply trust that the reasons our Heavenly Father has are for the best - for a greater purpose that we will only understand fully in the next life. For instance, only one of Elizabeth Elliots three husbands is her eternal companion, the other must, per pro Torah definition, be two eternal brothers, but she likely did not know which one in this life. Indeed, most Protestants don't even believe marriage is eternal but I think most deep down know it is. They certainly want it to be when a beloved spouse dies. Life eventually teaches us to see the 'greater reasons' for tragedies, like deaths, or losses as when dear friends move on elsewhere. We are here to bless and be blessed. The 'final settlement' when, as it were, we can 'retire' and enjoy our Messiah and one another forever, does not take place in this life. This life is in any case a preparation for the one to come in the resurrection world of the Millennium and beyond.

Mistakes are definitely made in marriage choices - but Yahweh, who is omniscient (all knowing), weaves these mistakes into our life stories in order to creat purpose in them. Any marriage can be made to work if it is in Christ. I suspect, though I don't know for sure, that a great number of marriages we contract in this world were not with our eternal companions. Other wives and husbands were just never 'meant-to-be' but we pursued relationships with them impetuously anyway without properly discerning the will of Yahweh, attracted to them for all the wrong reasons because of various personal dysfunctions; and yet, as I said, every choice we have ever made - right or wrong - our Eternal Father has woven into the tapesty of our mortal existence and made each choice useful - to serve a short and/or long-term constructive purpose. Every marriage is an opportunity for something good and edifying.

Many are our instructors in life, both people and circumstances. We make many wrong turnings, large and small, but we learn from them, or are supposed to if we are wise. And if we choose the latter, we are in the end benefitted if, in the case of bad choices, we do not allow bitterness or resentment to devour us like a strong acid eating away at metal, and so long as we don't spit out those corrective lessons. Sarah, in the fictional story in Tobit, finally ended up with her true husband because she was a godly woman who sought to always do what was right. She had not been looking for a blind man, one must presume, but got one as part of one of her many tests in life, to not judge by external appearances (Jn.7:24). He recovered his sight thanks to the intervention of Elohim (God). Many are the good interventions, with many a wonderful surprise, when we yield to His instruction and correction in adverse circumstances as we are supposed to and when we give thanks in all things as we are commanded (1 Thess.5:8). Blessings are hidden in apparent calamities, in the designs of the Creator. He is so full of surprises. But none of those pleasant and good final outcomes happen if we do not first learn to surrender. Learning to surrender to Him and a number of human authorities (particularly wives to husbands - Eph.5:22-23) is part and parcel of maturing. Those who say they are perpetually 'free spirits' rarely learn even if occasionally they may be the instruments of doing much good in some circumstamces.

This interesting image of seven spouses is a recurring one in Scripture, is it not? Contrast Sarah's seven husbands with the seven women and the man with a good name in Isaiah 4:1. Sometimes 'many' lead to 'one', and sometimes 'one' leads to 'many'. But if we want to settle, we must first learn, and understand, what the acceptable and unacceptable are and be satisfied with Yahweh's choice. What we often regard as unacceptable turns out to be right. And what we often think is acceptable turns out to be wrong because our conscience, if it is to serve us well, must first be trained right, because consciences can be weak and defiled (1 Cor.8:7). As Paul testified:

"My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Master who judges me" (1 Cor.4:4, NIV).

In other words, our conscience isn't always right, especially when it doesn't line up with biblical moral precepts. It is always better, then, to let our Heavenly Father decide on truth matters and not quarrel with Him, or suppose that He has made a mistake because what He asks does not agree with what we want or what our conscience declares to be right. If conscience disagrees with the Scripture, we must default to the Scripture. If Scripture is unclear, we must default to conscience until we know better.

In this great mix which we call life there is always an element of uncertainty with which we must deal by faith alone. You never know what people are going to choose or do. Sometimes they introduce stability into our lives, sometimes they cause great turmoil. This is the risk we must face and grapple with because of human free will, that pesky truth that Calvinists and Moslems (amongst others) are in such denial over. We are not steered by fate but by choice, some of which stem from promises made long ago, even before we were born in the premortal world - promises we forget we have made sometimes, promises that are supernaturally embedded in our consciences that we bring with us into mortality. And is not our forgetfulness often the cause of so many of our calamities? That is why we must cultivate the art of remembrance. It's one of the reasons why Yahweh has given us sabbaths, new moons and annual festivals such as today's. Today we are supposed to remember important things. And it is the job of preachers like myself to remind you in case you observe a festival like this out of mere tradition or habit rather than with a spiritual goal in mind.

Today is wake-up time. For the righteous, it is: 'There is good news for you!' For the wicked, it is: 'Now you must pay dearly.' For the righteous, good things can happen to you if you will believe and receive. Many of these good things just drop, as it were, out of heaven unexpectedly. Others appear in our embrace only as we open our arms to receive them in faith. For if we fold our arms in defiance, we can never receive them. At every festival we are called to present ourselves to Yahweh to receive His good gifts, but if we don't, we shall receive nothing. The begging-bowl unpresented does not get filled. A refreshing drink is not given to the one who does not present an empty cup and, importantly, a clean one. What you present is indicative of what you will receive or will not. Those who prepare are rewarded. Those who do not prepare, are not rewarded, as many of Christ's parables teach us.

I have often been given either blank or sceptical looks from people when I tell them to 'present' themselves. Whether they genuinely don't understand (because they think I am talking in riddles) or do understand (but are defiant) it's always possible to tell. But one thing I do know is this: we have to ask to receive, and knock to have doors opened (Jn.16:24; Mt.7:7; Lk.11:9, etc.). If we just stand silently with pursed lips or with hands on hips, things won't happen the way we want. We are not entitled to anything even if this deluded generation thinks it is. Not that this generation is particularly different from any other in this respect - we just express entitlement in different ways. The rich expect the best seats, the experts automatic recogntion, and rulers unquestioning obedience, irrespective of whether their hearts are righteous or evil. But attitude makes a huge difference to outcomes. Yahweh does not reward pride, arrogance or conceit. Only humility and surrender open doors wide.

It is one thing to miss out on blessings because of blindness inflicted on us by others, but quite another to miss out on blessings because of self-inflicted blindness. Either way, you have to choose whether you want to see or not. Many regard blindness as bliss. It isn't. It is because of blindness that we keep falling into pits, and often the same ones again and again.

The purpose of the festivals is to open our eyes so that we can see to choose aright. What do you want to happen in a few days' time? You see, in a few days is Yahweh's annually mandated Day of Judgment. No one can skirt around it. No one can avoid it, even if they dull every sense the Maker has given them. Judgment is coming whether you like it or not, no matter how much you scream, 'Grace! Grace! and only Grace!' Accountability cannot be avoided. There is a Great Accounting to be made one day and we are being trained how to give an account every Yom haKippurim. Ignoring it is not to avoid it. It is simply to suffer blindly and to get more and more frustrated. You are responsible if you choose to remain blind.

I am sad for those whom I know choose to remain blind and unrepentant so that they can sin without feeling guilt. They will be punished anyway, however much in denial they remain. For the righteous, Yom haKippurim is a day Yahweh's people look forward to, as an innocent person who walks through a police checkpoint does unchallenged. Have you made everything right? Have you been postponing, delaying, or making excuses? Please don't. Just stop and ask yourself whether you want another year of the same unresolved issues or not. It amazes me that there are those who actually celebrate their reluctance or refusal to repent as though it were an heroic deed of some sort. 'Yea, I'm a rebel!' they proudly boast. Such are in a perpetual state or torpidity, like one hibernating in order to avoid the responsibility of dealing with reality and life.

What good is that? You'll be forced to end your self-imposed hibernation one day anyway and have to deal with the stupidity of your choice for inactivity. Do you want to remain spiritually numb, sluggish, inactive, dull and apathetic forever? Is this how you envisage your future paradise? Because that is the reward of the torpid - torpidity ad nauseam, ad infinitum. One day, like it or not, a very bright heavenly light will be shone on you and everything you have tried to conceal will be revealed, to your shame. Is that what you want to look forward to? If you're waiting for a Rescuer without being willing to take the necesary steps to enable rescue (like repenting, making resitition, and returning home the way the Prodigal Son did), you are living in a delusion. You won't be rescued. You won't be restored to favour. You won't experience that joyful welcome and acceptance. But you won't be left to hibernate either. You will be taken to task. And you will receive your 'reward' - your just desserts - the very last thing you really wanted deep-down in your heart.

The Good News is that none of this foolhardiness need be so. Even at this late hour, there is still opportunity to collect your 'get-out-of-jail' card. Remaining imprisoned is not inevitable, it's not your unstoppable 'fate' but your stubborn, self-destructive choice. There is no Arabic kismet, no fate, no inevitability to our circumstances. For as long as you have choice and exercise it, you can be set free to receive the Kingdom, your salvation. You can choose to be saved, to be rescued from your home-made prison. You can choose to be delivered. You can choose the better life...or not. Just try it and see. But it will cost you something. Good things always do.

What, you may ask, are the possibilities after a life of stupdity, failure or misery? Enormous. You have no idea until you make the effort to grasp them. Go to Yah'shua (Jesus), begging-bowl in hand, drop to your knees, and see. If you're a Prodigal Son or Daughter, remember the outcome described by Yah'shua (Jesus) in that famous parable, and of the glory of that boy's homecoming...the unbelievable generosity of his father who always loved him and still does (Lk.15:11ff.). You are loved in spite of your foolishness.

Our Heavenly Father loves the reprobate...that's to say, those of His children who choose not to remain reprobate but who, with mingled resolve and remorse for their sinful past, turn around and return Home. A change of clothing awaits such - a change of circumstances...a radical, joyful change of circumstances! Abigail was the prisoner of a horrid marriage to a wicked man called Nabal (1 Sam.25). What was her solution? She chose to give her allegiance to righteousness and, after Yahweh had removed her bad husband, presented herself to the youngest son of Jesse on her knees and became one of the seven wives of a spiritual nobleman, David. That was the solution to her problem. A radical solution to her miserable circumstances was needed but it was the one-and-only solution given her by Yahweh nonetheless. So many miss this kind of solution because they do not understand the ways of spiritual nobility.

We don't know what the Samaritan woman did wrong in her life, and we don't need to know, but it's clear she made multiple poor choices because she expected a good outcome in the pursuit of reckless marriage relationships that were not in the divine will. The same is true with the story of the woman presented to Yah'shua (Jesus) by his Sadducee enemies to try and trip Him up - the woman who had had seven husbands each of whom had died in turn (Mt.22:23-32) - 'whose would she be in the resurrection?' was the trick question they posed to the Saviour. Answer: none of them because she, like Yah'shua's (Jesus') interrogators (who didn't believe in any resurrection), was not a true believer and sought worldly solutions doomed to failure [1]. You have to look in the right places for answers.

I share these radical stories to contrast for you the bizzare and often tragic choices that humans make to meet their real or imagined needs. They're radical because they all involve multiple partners, not at all unlike our modern world with its confused relationships, family-destroying serial polygamy and rampant immorality. Different motives are involved in each story. Undergirding them all is the very strong hint that we must follow Yahweh's divine ways and patterns and not those of the world because the latter not only don't work but bring so much grief. Tragedy hits the good and the evil alike, but for the good, tragedy leads ultimately to simcha (joy) whereas for the wicked, tragedy leads to misery and doom. Planet earth is not an easy place to navigate. It is filled with obstacles and hard choices to test our character and emunah (faith). The lesson that must be learned is, consistently, that Yahweh's will is always infinitely preferable to our own, because we, like careless, wandering sheep, so easily get lost. Take Solomon's excellent advice:

"Fear Elohim (God) and keep His mitzvot (commandments - not just the ones you like); for this is the whole duty of everyone. For Elohim (God) will bring every deed into judgement, including every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Eccl.12:13b-14, NRSV).

As we look at today's world it's obvious that in spite of the promises made by the evangelists of its secular philosophies and religions, in spite of its rapid technological development, it is not a happy place. Everything is fractured and crumbling. Indeed, arguably there is more character dysfunction and dysphoria today than at any other time in history. Worse, in some ways, this dysfunction is touted as 'liberation' and 'freedom'. It is anything but these because ignoring the mitzvot (commandments) of our Heavenly Father is not freedom but slavery. Yahweh's Torah mitzvot (commandments) were given for our protection and well-being - they are our life's hedge of protection; the Designer knows His creations better than we, the designed, do. So, why not trust Him? His knowledge is infinitely superior to our own.

Today is wonderful news for the righteous and terrible news for the wicked. Those who love King Yah'shua (Jesus) and the ways of His Messianic Israelite Kingdom - ways that are so radically different from the ways of the kingdom of the Beast and the Whore - have so much to look forward to. This does not mean that the Derech (Way) will be easy for them because it will not, but walking it faithfully will absolutely be worth it. Right now every one of you faces challenges and temptations - everyone of you has negative things to overcome and positive things to embrace. So don't be afraid to embrace Yahweh's change - the kind of change which may turn your life upside down initially; but know this - things will settle and you will come to love and cherish every facet the New Creation World which He promises to those who love Him. Be courageous and bold like Abigail, be hopeful like Sarah the wife of Tobias, and I say this as much to new believers as to old ones who have been raised in false traditions.

I have one last task to perform this afternoon and that is to make an announcement on behalf of my Master to the wicked of my generation who refuse to repent and who insist on continuing to pursue the evil ways of their deadly satanic agenda. In particular this word is for the leaders who wield power and are bent on destroying millions of people's lives. Your punishment awaits you in a few days' time, the same punishment that was meeted out to Nabal, the wicked first husband of Abigail, the third wife of King David:

"When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until daybreak. Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. About ten days later, Yahweh struck Nabal and he died" (1 Sam 25:36-38, NIV).

This is the hour of Penultimate Judgment and your time has run out. It has been on-going for nearly 10 years (since 2014) as the Heavenly Courts have been in session. The last hour of Penultimate Judgment has been delayed many times to give opportunity for all to repent but the grace that was extended for that purpose is now exhausted. Now is the hour of that judgment and the end of select, unrepentant 'Nabals' in high places who are fully ripened in iniquity. How Yahweh will do this I neither know nor particularly care - I only know that He will do it and that I am weary from warning people for so long. As you have sought to do, and have done, to the world, so shall it be done to you, and more - seven times times more for your evil. Beginning in 8 day's time, from sunset to sunset of the 9th and 10th days of the current biblical month, it shall begin around the world until the divine cull is complete. You have done much harm to me and my family, and to millions of others, but no more. You have done much harm to Father's world which He has reserved for His children in the Æon (Age) that is to come. You will not get it. Your day of grace - of unmerited favour - is OVER and the wrath of His terrible revenge is now fully upon you in its fullness. Now the sword of the wrath of Yahweh-sebaoth, El Elyon (God Most High) falls on you...and hard, without pity or mercy, for you showed none to the innocent.

In just over a week we shall re-assemble, fasting, for Yom haKippurim. There will be no sermon, no proclamation, no words, as the Destroying Malak (Angel) commences his deadly task. No one will mourn the loss of these evil ones, not even their own families, for theirs is a fellowship of cruelty. But they will be sorely afraid, not knowing when the sword shall fall upon them.

As for Yahweh's people, and those who have been oppressed by them, a spirit of simcha (joy) will be given to them at Sukkot (Tabernacles). Abigail, whose name means 'My father is rejoicing', will be given a new master in a Royal Wedding, Sarah will be joined to her Tobias, and Tobias to his Sarah, the Samaritan woman will find her Saviour, the One with a shem tov or good name will receive his Seven, all Seven Ruachot or Spirits will be present and great will be the rejoicing in Messianic Israel.

And they shall shout, as we shout today, only in words, and their words will ascend to the heavens, declaring:

Blessed are You, O Yahweh-Elohim, with every pure blessing;
let all Your chosen ones bless You.
Let them bless You from the æons (ages) to the æons (ages),
for ever and ever, le-olam-va-ed.


Blessed are You because you have made us glad.
It has not turned out as we expected, but You have dealt with us
according to Your great mercy.

Blessed are You because You had compassion
on our loneliness and sorrow;
Blessed are You because you kept our children safe.
Be merciful unto them, O Father, and keep them safe;
bring their lives to fulfilment
in happiness and mercy.

Therefore we rise up and bless you on this your set-apart day,
and declare it to both heaven and earth.
You are faithful, good and kind.
You have not left us alone but given us companions,
the ones You have chosen for us. Blessed be Your Name in all generations!
Let heaven and the whole creation bless You.

There for I take, and am taken, and join to, and am joined to;
I have been given, and have received, with sincerity.
Love has been my mantle, truth my jewels;
we were afllicted but now we have been justified.
Blessed be the Name of Yahweh throughout the æons (ages),
In the Name of His well beloved Son, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). Amen.

May the dragonflies have their feast of mosquitoes until they are gorged; may the earth be rid of their scourge for a season so that we might gather and instruct the elect. Until Yom haKippurim, then. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] See Parts B & D, Main Objections to Eternal Marriage Examined Parts 1 & 2 in the leader article to the Eternal Echad Marriage website