About a week ago, a single mother under lockdown almost burst into tears of joy as she received rice and vegetables from the High Sabbath Adventist Society.

Every crisis is an opportunity to magnify the Lord. It is in the utter extremity of our predicament that God displays His power in the most amazing of ways. It is His nature to love, heal, and forgive, and even where we make mistakes, those mistakes are the canvas on which the Master paints the beautiful picture of His love toward us. The Gospels are full stories showing how Jesus took the broken pieces of the lives of ordinary people and gave them a new hope, founded on faith in Him as the Savior of mankind.

Even the world knows to “never waste a good crisis.”^[1] Should not God’s people take advantage of the crisis too? Jesus was a man who was often moved with compassion by the plight of suffering souls, and he labored to minister to them. If we would be like Him, then we must also learn to turn the crisis to our advantage—to His advantage—by putting altruism into practice. His aims were higher than His own needs because He had a commission from God:

In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. (John 4:31–34)

He lived the principle that He taught: that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and as the Great Giver, His promise to His people is that bread and water will be sure for His children,^[2] like the one mentioned above—even in these times of the coronavirus lockdown and the resulting financial crisis.

The brother who went on this mission of mercy reported the following:

The very first thing she asked when I explained that my church is the one giving out the food was, “Where is your church?” I told her we worship at home.

It does not take a large house of worship or a community center building to anchor the work of outreach. It can be done anywhere by anyone who is willing to be used as a vessel to transport the bread and water of life to others, like how the lifeblood transports nutrients throughout the human body. We are the body of Christ, and His Life is to flow in and through us as vessels—blood vessels of His body—to nourish and supply every part of the body around the world.

A faithful servant of the Lord who labored her whole adult life for the cause of God once wrote:

God has a church. It is not the great cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various denominations; it is the people who love God and keep His commandments. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Where Christ is, even among the humble few, this is Christ’s church, for the presence of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church. {17MR 81.4}

Those words are deep. The church consists of those who love God and take care of their neighbors:

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (Galatians 5:14)

Look around you. Neighbors are not always next door; they could also be a phone call or a few clicks away on the Internet. Do you have such neighbors who are locked down and running out of food and money? Are there people near you who need help? Perhaps as you read this, you are even one of them… Then know that God’s provisions are available for you! Your mission field can be grafted into the High Sabbath Adventist Society, and as you reach out with selfless love, it will elicit a response like that above: “Where is your church?” “Where may I go to get this water of life?”

Our highest privilege as Christians is to love our neighbors with the love of Christ, and meeting their essential physical needs is the first step in wooing them to Him as the One who can supply not only their physical needs but also the needs of the soul. For this reason, God has provided a handsome sum of money to the High Sabbath Adventist Society, which enables the Society to do missions even in troublous times. This is how God has fulfilled His promise to provide the needs of His people through the time of trouble. This was seen by the same servant of the Lord quoted earlier:

The Lord has shown me in vision, repeatedly, that it is contrary to the Bible to make any provision for our temporal wants in the time of trouble. I saw that if the saints have food laid up by them, or in the fields, in the time of trouble when sword, famine, and pestilence are in the land, it will be taken from them by violent hands, and strangers would reap their fields. Then will be the time for us to trust wholly in God, and He will sustain us. I saw that our bread and water would be sure at that time, and we should not lack, or suffer hunger. The Lord has shown me that some of His children would fear when they see the price of food rising, and they would buy food and lay it by for the time of trouble. Then in a time of need, I saw them go to their food and look at it, and it had bred worms, and was full of living creatures, and not fit for use. {Mar 181.2}

Through the process of bestowing financial resources through the High Sabbath Adventist Society, God taught the Society the purpose of the endowment and how it should be used to reach the people to whom it was given. Note that in the quote above, the prophetess said, it is “God” who would sustain His children, and we see that He is now doing so through financial means that must flow through human instruments. What a trust, and what an honor to be a vessel of God!

It is very humbling to be entrusted with the holy office of distributing God’s provisions to His children in time of need. One realizes how small one is, in comparison to the Great Provider, and it places a high responsibility on those who handle the holy money to help God’s children. Discernment must be used, but not according to human judgment.

Some of those who are now in need have been among our harshest critics. One such example was a church elder who now finds himself in need because of the coronavirus. He kept saying “nobody knows the day and hour”—to those who learned to read God’s clock and work according to His time. By helping such people today with the money He gave us because we followed His clock, this is exactly the example given in Scripture where it says the following:

If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee. (Proverbs 25:21–22)

This same counsel is repeated in the New Testament:

Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17–21)

We are instructed not to “avenge” ourselves on those who made themselves our enemies when we tried to share the message from heaven in the past. We are to be impartial while discerning who the Spirit touches.

The verses quoted above speak of heaping “coals of fire” on the heads of such enemies. Could this fire on their heads be the end-time counterpart to the “tongues of fire” of the first Pentecost? Is there yet a Saul, a persecutor of Christ, who will belatedly become a Paul, to ardently labor for the cause he once despised?

There is a great work to be done in the final harvest, but the laborers are few.

To Be a Channel of Blessing

It is upon us to provide bread and water from the sure supply that the Bible promised. However, just as we are the branches grafted into the living Vine, we must understand that God has an order and a hierarchy of His appointed vessels. This principle is prevalent in nature as well. For example, the distribution of blood vessels in the body have a hierarchy, with larger vessels near the heart, splitting off into smaller vessels toward the extremities. In the same way, the channels for God’s bread and water begin at the “heart” and move outward.

The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. (Isaiah 33:14–16)

Please read that Scripture carefully: it promises that bread and water will be sure for those who dwell with the consuming fire! Our God is the consuming fire, and food and water are promised to those who dwell in His presence! Oh, reader— How often has the promise of this verse been claimed without recognizing to whom it is addressed! The promise is to those who stand in the presence of God without being consumed—to the spotless, pure, and holy ones—not to the surprised hypocrites, not to the fearful sinners in Zion, but to those who walk and speak uprightly and despise gain gotten by oppression!^[3]

The angels who stand in the presence of God are described as four living creatures with four different faces in the prophetic symbolism of the visions of Ezekiel and of John in the Revelation. These four creatures are in turn symbolized by the four corners of the constellation of Orion,^[4] situated “around” the three belt stars that represent the throne of God where the all-consuming fire of His presence dwells. Thus, in the symbolic heavenly language of the Revelation, this means our spiritual bread and water comes from Orion, first from the throne, then to the four angels, and out to the 24 elders and beyond. This is how the Orion clock works, and isn’t that appropriate, since this constellation represents where the original Bread of Life came down from, and where we will go when He comes to take us home? He is the Center, represented by the star “Alnitak,” meaning “the Wounded One,” that is, the Lamb.

Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep…. by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:7, 9)

Jesus Christ is at the center and heart of the message from Orion, and from Him flows the crimson streams that water the life of His Kingdom. Thus, the sure provisions of God must come through His designated channels; it is His message given through His messengers. It was so in Jesus’ time, and it is so in our time.

This was illustrated beautifully by the feeding of the five thousand.

And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. (John 6:11)

After having fed them with the physical food, they sought Him again the next day, when Jesus clarified the purpose of His benevolence:

Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. (John 6:26–27)

Our goals are higher than mere humanitarianism. Jesus asks us to work for the eternal salvation of others. How helpful is it to prolong the physical life without also securing that soul for eternity? To address the physical needs alone is to worship the creation, but we worship the Creator, and God’s Kingdom is to be made up of souls who honor Him with actions that expand His realm. Those who remain ungrateful for His provisions by despising the spiritual food—His body and blood—are not worthy to continually receive of the physical bread and water that has been provided especially for the work of building the spiritual temple of His body.

It is God’s desire that His people draw near to Him through the present crisis (and therefore He has allowed it to come); being locked in and limited to a small gathering size puts people in exactly the circumstances that God knows are optimal for the development of a relationship with Him through His word and the spreading of the truth He has for today. He designed that people should seek Him in small study groups. That is why our missionaries distribute a brochure with a link to pertinent on-line study material—including a gift coupon equal in value to the subscription cost—delivering spiritual food from the Lord to help people understand Bible prophecy in light of what is happening in the world today.

People need to understand that Jesus is coming! The crises that are shocking the world one after another are evidence that His return is near, just as the birth pangs of a woman in labor mean that the time has come for the delivery. It is time to herald His return, and the Lord has given the circumstances and the provisions to accomplish it.

The question is, who will be a vessel of His temple to distribute these provisions?

To Touch the Apple of God’s Eye

The archenemy, however, is constantly working against God’s plan, and in times of battle, we must sacrifice as needed to obtain the victory. In Brother Robert’s closing article, he touched on how the Babylonian banking system stalled the funds that were destined to be used for the work of God to feed His children. During that time, extensive efforts were underway to prepare an on-line sanctuary, called The Refuge, as a place where God’s people could gather to continue their work of teaching and reaching out in a world where the big service providers like YouTube and Facebook have been increasingly restricting the content and reach of the messages of God. Thousands of dollars and several weeks of intense programming effort as a sacrificial offering from our two developers, who had double stress in that time because they are also authors, went into the Refuge project while Babylon held the money that should have been available to fund it. The purpose of building the facilities of the spiritual temple of God would have been hindered, were it not for the dedication and sacrifice of a few others in our movement who esteemed the needs of others above their own and were able to help financially.

This is the kind of sacrifice that has driven the movement from its inception, when Brother John first dedicated his measured resources to build the humble physical country dwelling place called the White Cloud Farm, where the writing work is done to provide the meat in due season that you are eating from as you read this. That, too, was done under privation and difficult circumstances.

There is a great conflict raging between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God, but if we are steadfast in trusting the Lord’s promises, He will not let us down. The Christian world has had its years of Babylonian captivity, but the time of deliverance has come as it came for the Jews in the time of Daniel. We just need to obey His command to leave Babylon before its destruction:

Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. (Zechariah 2:7–8)

The Lord is jealous for His people; it is no small thing that Babylon has done! To crown all her acts of defiance against God throughout the centuries, she even goes so far as to interfere with His work by detaining and restricting the resources that should feed the people who are the living stones of His house. God loves you dearly; He paid a high price for you, and when you who make up His spiritual temple are suffering from hunger or thirst because the channels of blessing have been blocked by the enemy, it arouses His holy jealousy!

Where are the temple vessels? Where are the ones who should be instruments to God’s honor by providing meat to His children? Where are the messengers of righteousness who should labor to bring in the final harvest of souls? There is but one answer: they are in the palace of Babylon, under lockdown and in circumstances of abuse as Belshazzar mocks their God, streaming himself live on television around the world on Easter^[5]—in the same manner that many have expected to see Satan appearing as Christ.

There are limits to the forbearance of God. Just like the night when Belshazzar called for the holy vessels to mock the God of Israel, so Babylon has done today. The holy temple vessels of gold and silver were to be used for the service of God, not the indulgence of the Babylonian princes! In today’s context, those valuables represent the financial means and the laborers who bear it to feed and nourish the body of Christ as they build the spiritual temple of God. It is consecrated and holy—for a holy purpose and a holy people—and the princes of the corrupt banking and financial institutions of blasphemous Babylon overreached when they held the holy money, each one taking his sip one after the other from the cup of God’s wealth that was set apart for the very ones they oppress.

The seriousness of the offense of the modern princes of Belshazzar today can be measured by the fact that there were only three things ever recorded in all of Scripture that were written by the finger of the Divine:

• His holy law in the time of Moses, written in stone,

• the sins of Mary’s accusers, written in sand, and

• the sentence of Babylon, written on the palace wall.

Together, these three writings represent the plan of salvation. The Father’s law is the law of life and the immutable standard of conduct to be upheld now and for all eternity, written in stone because it never changes, including the fourth and seventh commandments. This is the holy law that is kept by the saints who “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth”^[6]—the ones who are able to stand before the consuming fire of God’s presence.

Secondly, the Son of God came to the earth, where He wrote the sins of humanity in the dust of the ground because His own gracious sacrifice would erase them. His self-sacrificing Spirit must pulse through the vessels of His temple, distributing His grace to the whole body.

And finally, the sentence of those who rejected His salvation was written on the wall:

And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. (Daniel 5:25)

Each word is a different unit of weight in the Babylonian system of measurement. This implies the use of a scale, which involves the Orion constellation in its role of justice—especially the belt stars, also called the “Accurate Scale-beam.”^[7] This signifies the absolute and righteous judgment of God who sits on the throne. We are dealing with a matter of the highest authority—coming from the bench of the Great Judge of the universe!

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18:5)

The limit has been reached; the case of Babylon’s sins has come before the Supreme Court of Heaven, and judgment has been issued in those four definitive words—words that speak of money and its value.

The Handwriting on the Wall

Daniel’s interpretation of the writing is still valid today, marking the five timepoints of the heavenly scale:

This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom [December 19, 2019], and finished it [January 20, 2020]. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances [February 22, 2020], and art found wanting [March 3, 2020]. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided [April 27, 2020], and given to the Medes and Persians. (Daniel 5:26–28)

The construction of the Refuge and the withholding of the funds for outreach all happened exactly in the “weighing” timeframe from the left throne line (the left side of the weighing beam) to the right throne line. In that timeframe—beginning precisely with a signature on financial documents on December 19, 2019—came all the waiting and struggling with banks and searching for avenues to make the holy money available to the workers of God’s house.

Meanwhile, in the same timeframe, the world was celebrating the Babylonian feast of wine, which is nowadays reflected in a special “fifth season” of public festivity each year known as Carnival Season, traditionally officially beginning on November 11 at 11:11 and continuing until the culminating parades and “crazy days” of the end of February in the week just before Lent. The drunken revelry characteristic of that season overlaps with the desecration of the holy vessels.

What a contrast between the noble and tireless work of God’s few with the revelry of the world! However, like Belshazzar, the bankers were also suddenly quaking in their boots as they began to see the fast-approaching ruin of their fortunes.

At the point of the needle of the divine balance, exactly half way between December 19, 2019 and April 27, 2020, all major indices crashed and every G7 nation and most G20 nations entered bear market territory—from which they are not expected to recover anytime soon.^[8] The balance needle indicates February 22, 2020.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the global MSCI World Index are representative examples showing that all-time highs were reached and held until the end of trading on Friday, February 21, 2020. Then came the balance point on that Saturday, after the peaking indices, but when the markets opened the following Monday (after the balance needle), the crash of 2020 had definitely begun to threaten with major global losses and increased volatility due to all the coronavirus fears.

The tipping point had come, and the global economy fell into peril. Babylon had indeed been weighed in the balance and found wanting—but this was only the sign for what shall yet come.

Shortly thereafter, on March 3, 2020 (the Rigel point on the clock), the “G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors” convened and issued a statement regarding the coronavirus crisis and the global economy, pledging to support “price stability and economic growth while maintaining the resilience of the financial system.” They acknowledged that great financial trouble was coming, and indeed a serious downward turn followed shortly thereafter when OPEC met^[9] to decide on how much oil production to cut. Demand had fallen dramatically, and within days the great panic began with the oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia:

On 8 March 2020, Saudi Arabia initiated a price war with Russia, triggering a major fall in the price of oil, with US oil prices falling by 34%, crude oil falling by 26%, and brent oil falling by 24%.^[10]

The oil surplus in comparison to demand ultimately led to oil trading at negative prices for the first time in history! It is well recognized that the coronavirus crisis is turning into another economic crisis, and this goes hand-in-hand with the fact that money is exactly what the cryptic message on the palace wall of Babylon was about.

The words MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN are denominations of money. There was the mena, or mene, which amounted to 50 shekels. This basic gold shekel, here tekel, was further divided in half as the upharsin (from “peres” meaning to divide). It was all about money—and in shrinking measure! This corroborates the judgment of Babylon described in Revelation 18 as a financial collapse.

When counted in terms of the smaller gerah (20 gerahs per shekel^[11]), the value of mene, mene, tekel, upharsin literally adds up to 2520 gerahs,^[12] a number with great prophetic significance. It is the “seven times” of the curses recorded in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, which would apply to backslidden Israel, resulting in their captivity again. God had brought them out of bondage, but it was prophesied that if they would turn away from Him, then they would return to bondage again and become slaves that no one would even want to buy.

And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you. (Deuteronomy 28:68)

God had pronounced a blessing and a curse for Israel, and the answer to the question of which one would come true depended on their fidelity to God. Unfortunately, as for Israel of old, the curse has also come upon the children of God today who have been unfaithful to God. Through debt, the economic “ships” of commerce have enslaved nations that once trusted in Him and were free, but no longer. No longer can God’s children roam from coast to coast. No longer can they convene tent meetings or spiritual revivals—or even meet in their own church buildings. The powers of Babylon do what they want with the people, even fomenting rebellion to later quash the rebels with an iron fist, thus doing away with the “troublemakers.” Even if the coronavirus would suddenly disappear, the lost freedoms and the economic prosperity would never be regained. Life in bondage will never be like the life of liberty.

Yet, even in their extremity, God did not leave the people He covenanted with utterly without hope.

If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. (Leviticus 26:40–42)

For the High Sabbath Adventist Society, God heard the cry of the few who called themselves by His name and accepted their chastisement and returned to Him. The confessions of their iniquity and that of their fathers is recorded in the many pages they have written.^[13] Christ’s sacrifice did not lose its efficacy for them, and He remembered the new covenant made with His own blood.

Has that been your cry, too? Have you recognized your own bondage, and confessed your iniquities and those of your fathers? If so, then the handwriting on the wall is good news for you, too, as it was for Daniel when Belshazzar called him to interpret it. He understood that the curse for Israel’s transgressions had been rolled back upon Babylon for her sins, and that the children of Israel would once again return to their home. Thus, the judgment upon Babylon is at the same time the message of the liberation of God’s children.

The timeframe of the balance beam, from December 19, 2019 to April 27, 2020 was not only the timeframe that began with the development of the Refuge for the 144,000 remnant, and the timeframe of the handwriting on the wall for Babylon, but also the timeframe of the coronavirus itself, from its first known incubation to the declaration that it is human-to-human transferrable on January 20, 2020, to all the greatest havoc wreaked in its wake since then. The battle over the coronavirus is a battle for the crown. It’s a spiritual battle and a race. Who will be the victor? Will it be Jesus Christ and His redeemed, or the prince of Babylon and his captives?

The Gathering of the Elect

It is the tender mercies of God that we are not consumed^[14] and that despite all the judgments that have befallen the church, He still reaches out with hope and forgiveness for the repentant.

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. (Deuteronomy 30:1-3)

What a beautiful promise for a scattered people! This is the promise of the great gathering for the rapture, when the angels of God will gather His elect:

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:31)

This is a gathering that begins on the earth—not a literal gathering since that would be impossible in coronavirus times, but a spiritual gathering of the beleaguered saints who have made the Lord their refuge and their fortress. God is making a way for His children in captivity to yet again obey the biblical command not to forsake the assembling together of fellow believers.^[15]

The people of God—some in prison cells, some hidden in solitary retreats in the forests and the mountains—still plead for divine protection, while in every quarter companies of armed men, urged on by hosts of evil angels, are preparing for the work of death. It is now, in the hour of utmost extremity, that the God of Israel will interpose for the deliverance of His chosen…. {GC 635.2}

God is love and God is time, and He sends love notes written with the ink of time—precious omens, precious signs—to His people. This time it was of Venus passing through the Pleiades, an open star cluster also known as the “Seven Sisters.” Venus usually passes by the Pleiades at a distance; there is only one evening every eight years that it passes directly through the cluster!

This cluster represents a small Bible study group, such a group where Jesus (the Bright and Morning Star) walks in the midst. In His letter to the church of Ephesus, Jesus introduces Himself in terms that could be applied to this sign:

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; (Revelation 2:1)

It is the presence of Jesus (represented by the morning star, Venus) that sanctifies a Bible study group and defines it as His church. But this sign touched our study group personally, because without knowing it, we had scheduled and held the Lord’s Supper on this very date. On the bulletin board of the Refuge, one can read:

In recognition of the fact that Sabbath, April 3/4, 2020 is the tenth day of the seventh Hebrew month, when counting according to the Paraguayan seasons, and is therefore a High Sabbath for the Day of Atonement, it is a fitting time for us as High Sabbath Adventists to hold this sacred service. As we wash the dust off each other’s feet in a symbolic gesture of humility and forgiveness, and partake of the symbols of the Lord’s broken body and spilled blood, which were given freely for our redemption, we are reminded of His infinite sacrifice, and we recommit to give whatever sacrifice may be required of us, be it even our eternal lives.

Date: April 3, 2020

Time: After sunset in your location

In the morning—after our service that night between 7:30 and 9:30 PYT—it was brought to our attention that there was a beautiful heavenly sign taking place precisely as our seven plus One were gathered in the temple for this holy occasion!

Jesus was with us—the home church in Paraguay and the cluster of star-children scattered around them in their remote locations—during our humble service. Oh, how He loves His gathered ones! Oh, how He loves you! Will you look up and hear Him, who speaks from heaven as He walks among us in the Spirit? The last time Venus passed through the Seven Sisters was exactly 8 years ago on April 3, 2012. In that year, we also held a Lord’s Supper just three days later on Passover, April 6, 2012. Venus had just passed through and was still lingering close by at that pivotal time in the work of the Lord, although we were still years away from understanding anything in the Mazzaroth or how it functions as the Father’s clock!

There is more to this sign, however, because Venus continues to get brighter as it goes from the Pleiades until it reaches the point of its brightest illumination in the evening sky on April 28—exactly in the middle of the throne lines! Jesus, who walks among the seven, presents Himself brightly as with a great voice, He says, “It is done!” as Brother John explained in Time No Longer. This corresponds to how Jesus went from His last supper with His disciples to go to Gethsemane before ultimately proclaiming “It is finished!” at the cross.

That fateful night when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, He made an important distinction:

Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. (John 13:10)

The disciples had been washed in baptism and Jesus said they were clean; only Judas was not clean. The washing of the feet represented the cleansing of those sins (unrighteousness) that do not lead to death. These also need to be cleaned, but when Jesus writes His law in your heart, you are clean. The daily walk of life on this earth stirs up a little dust, and this dust—offenses or strife between brethren, for example, who love each other despite those conflicts—must also be washed away in forgiveness, but such are not sins leading to death. Nevertheless, Jesus is able to keep you, both from falling into sin that leads to death, and to present you faultless ^[16] from sin that does not lead to death.

At the last supper, Jesus instructed His disciples to do with each other as He did to them: to wash one another’s feet in an act of humility (normally being the task of the lowly servant), showing the forgiveness that the Christian has for any offense from his brother. It was not just about cleaning dusty feet from the road, but Jesus wanted them to humbly forgive those daily offenses without allowing them to spread and contaminate the heart. He did not want one to feel superior to another, because they all had dust on their feet.

If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. (John 13:14-15)

As we consider their own little gathering that night, it reminds us that God starts small and with some of the weakest people. Nevertheless, from those eleven people who remained with Jesus that night, who can estimate the blessing bestowed on humanity as they, along with their company of fellow believers, received the early rain and distributed it to others!? Likewise today, the Lord has poured out the latter rain on a similarly small group of people, through whom the Lord intends to lighten the whole earth. Lest one be inclined to “despise the day of small things,”^[17] the Lord gave this sign to point to the small study group that He chose for sharing His light with the world, to strengthen the faith of those who believe, and as an example of the small study groups that have to form now in the gathering time.

It is about giving the bread and wine of Christ’s sacrifice to others. The body that was broken for you and the blood that was spilled for you needs to reach others who are dying from the virus of sin. Such a person needs a vaccine—not a coronavirus vaccine, but the power of the Crown of Christ to overcome sin. It is His sacrifice that is to be the bread and water of the soul.

These symbols also represent His last message from heaven in Orion (the bread) where you can see the stars as the light shining from His pierced hands and feet and the nebula as the water and blood—a sea of glass mingled with fire—that drips from His pierced side.

This is the spiritual bread and water that should be given to all who are looking for the salvation of the Lord.

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. (1 Corinthians 11:26)

Keep eating and drinking the Word, till He come.

How Long, O Lord?

When Jesus declares “It is done” and His Spirit ceases to strive with the wicked, He still dwells in His people who have not rejected Him. However, that doesn’t mean that He has yet brought them into all truth. Many of God’s children will be searching with all their heart, because they will be forced to conclude, upon witnessing the great trouble on the earth, that they had not understood everything correctly. They believed that they would be raptured and would escape the hard times, but instead they will find themselves in a time of trouble such as never was.

How will you respond, if you realize that the rapture has not come before the tribulation? Are you prepared? Do you have a faith that can endure disappointment and hardship? Your whole world might be turned upside down, and perhaps it already has been by the time you are reading this.

The season of distress and anguish before us [after the throne lines of April 27-29] will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger—a faith that will not faint though severely tried [through disappointment]. The period of probation is granted to all to prepare for that time [and when the time comes, that probationary time is over]. Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined. His victory is an evidence of the power of importunate prayer. All who will lay hold of God’s promises, as he did, and be as earnest and persevering as he was, will succeed as he succeeded. Those who are unwilling to deny self, to agonize before God, to pray long and earnestly for His blessing [the invitation to the wedding supper], will not obtain it. Wrestling with God—how few know what it is! How few have ever had their souls drawn out after God with intensity of desire until every power is on the stretch. When waves of despair which no language can express sweep over the suppliant, how few cling with unyielding faith to the promises of God. {GC 621.2}

Are you wrestling with God and will not let Him go before He gives you the blessing of understanding that you seek? To those who are in this situation, may the words of Jesus to His disciple give you comfort.

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. (Luke 22:31-32)

We also pray for you, that your faith fail not, though it be severely tried, for God has a work for you. Satan’s desire to sift one from God’s good wheat was not ultimately successful with Peter, and he was able to feed the Lord’s lambs.^[18] The harvest of God and the work that His people will do—a work of strengthening their brethren—is the theme of Sister Yormary’s upcoming article, which will conclude this series.

The entire period of the bottom half of the clock (from the left throne lines beginning on December 19, 2019 and running until the right throne lines at April 27, 2020) was an example for what is to come in the top half (from April 27 to September 3, 2020). The effort involved in bringing the holy vessels back from Babylon and into practical use must be an example for the 144,000 living vessels who must work in the great harvest.

A little time of trouble has already started in the bottom half of the clock, as can be seen from the visible progression of change in our world as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. A timeline of the coronavirus shows that the virus appeared right after the throne lines of December 19, 2019, then the headlines announced the human-to-human transmission of the virus at the Saiph point on January 20, 2020, which then spread to Europe and the Old World—with Italy, the seat of the beast, as a hotspot—in the timeframe leading up to Rigel (March 3), after which the crisis quickly expanded, reaching pandemic status as cases mounted in the US and the New World. This progression forms the beginning of the picture of the mighty angel of Revelation 10, who set his right foot on the sea (Old World) and his left foot on the earth (New World):

And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. (Revelation 10:2–3)

What comes next, however, beginning at the right throne lines of April 27, 2020 is the time of the great harvest. Like the endowment that had to be gathered out of Babylonian institutions and put to service, the 144,000 undefiled saints must learn to sing their song and go to work again as vessels of the house of the Lord. This is when the beleaguered saints must “prophesy again” against all odds:

And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. (Revelation 10:10–11)

Message after sweet message about the Rapture is given by many of God’s people today, and this is all in God’s order. But if it becomes evident that the great time of tribulation has begun, it would indeed be a bitter experience when it sinks in that the rapture didn’t precede the tribulation as expected. Indeed, a great work still remains to be done in even worse circumstances and under greater censorship and mocking than before, with fears on every side. Be strong, therefore, and take courage, knowing that God is with you.

A spiritual battle is taking place, and Michael—who is none other than Jesus Christ, victorious in battle—is already standing for His people. We have already talked about how God has interposed by providing resources to sustain His people with physical and spiritual bread and water, and how He provided the Refuge as a home for the saints during their remaining days in this world. This interposition means that we are already entering the time of which Daniel spoke, when he said:

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. (Daniel 12:1)

Although we can see evidences from the things happening in the world around us that this time of trouble is drawing on, one can know of a certainty that it has arrived because it is marked on the last round of the clock of God, which Brother John explained in his closing article. The language of the prophet Daniel can be seen pictorially in the clock, which has its “zero point”—the beginning and end—indicated by Saiph. As the great hand struck “that time” (January 20, 2020) and thus marked the beginning of the last round of the clock, it also pointed to Michael’s feet as He stood up for the deliverance of His people.

Moving counterclockwise, after the two feet begins the time of trouble “such as never was,” (indicated by the entire span of the red arrow). When the time comes full circle to “that time” (Saiph) again, time will end and the saints will be delivered to be with the Lord—but before we come to the rejoicing, the harvest must first be brought in.

Will you be a laborer in the final harvest?