What is the purpose of the hour?

in Hebrew hour is:

שָׁעָה

scha’a

A Hebrew Hour is defined as 1/12 of the time between sunset and sunrise,

or 1/12 of the time between sunrise and sunset. 

Hebrew Day Hours.

The midpoint of the 12 Hebrew Night Hours is called Mid-night. The moment of Mid-night occurs exactly halfway between sunset and sunrise separating the sixth and seventh Hebrew Night Hours. The midpoint of the 12 Hebrew Day Hours is called Mid-day. The moment of Mid-day occurs exactly halfway between sunrise and sunset separating the sixth and seventh Hebrew Day Hours. An easy way to measure Day Hours is by using an equiangular sundial marked with 12 divisions.

The only Scriptural reference to there being

12 Hebrew Hours in a Hebrew Day

is found in John 11:9 

where  יהושע the Messiah asked a famous question, 

“Are there not 12 hours in a day?” 

The diagram below is a working timepiece where the sun’s position indicates the current Hebrew Hour at Jerusalem. One Hebrew Hour ends and another begins when the center of the sun crosses an hour line.

Link to site for clock below:

https://torahcalendar.com/HOUR.asp

In the Creation Calendar, Hebrew Hours begin at sunrise and sunset.

Remembering Yeshua/Jesus was present at creation!

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:  Col 1:16

A Hebrew Hour occurring between sunset and sunrise is called a Hebrew Night Hour.

A Hebrew Hour occurring between sunrise and sunset is called a Hebrew Day Hour.

 Sunset occurs and the First Watch begins exactly at the beginning of the first Hebrew Night Hour.

The Second Watch begins exactly at the beginning of the fourth Hebrew Night Hour.

Mid-night occurs and the Third Watch begins exactly at the beginning of the seventh Hebrew Night Hour.

The Fourth Watch begins exactly at the beginning of the tenth Hebrew Night Hour, and ends at sunrise at the end of the twelfth Hebrew Night Hour.

Sunrise is always exactly at the beginning of the first Hebrew Day Hour.

Mid-day occurs exactly at the end of the sixth Hebrew Day Hour.

Sunset occurs exactly at the end of the twelfth Hebrew Day Hour.

The duration of a Hebrew Hour varies with the season. A Hebrew Day Hour is shorter in duration during winter when a Hebrew Night Hour is longer in duration. A Hebrew Day Hour is longer in duration during summer when a Hebrew Night Hour is shorter in duration.

In Acts 3:1 Peter and John went up together into the temple at

the hour of prayer,

being the ninth hour.

The hour of prayer: 

שעה   scha’a.  תְּפִלָּה tephillah

The verb to pray: le•hit•pa•lel

 prayer, to pray – תְּפִלָּה …

Strong’s Hebrew: 8605. תְּפִלָּה (tephillah) — prayer

 

John 12:23. Ἡ ὥρα, the hour.

Of this hour there is frequent subsequent mention:

John 12:27, “Father save Me from this hour,”

John 13:1, “When Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father,”

John 16:32, “Behold the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered,”

 John 17:1, “Father, the hour is come: glorify Thy Son.”—ἵνα δοξασθῇ, that—should be glorified) with the Father:

John 17:5, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was,” and in the sight of every creature.

 

A brief explanation of this reference helps us to understand and appreciate why these times of the HOURS were included.

Devout Jews, living in Jerusalem, went to the temple to pray.

(Luke 18:10 Acts 3:1).

The first hour of prayer:

9AM is the first hour of prayer referred to in Acts 2:15,

when the Temple gates opened.

The Hebrew word for this hour of prayer is

Shacharit meaning morning.

Morning prayer: Shacharit or Shaharit  שַחֲרִית‎,

meaning:of the dawn,

literally the dawning

Morning Prayers were from sunup to about 11a.m. any time between sunrise and the first half or third of the day; the earlier the better.

According to Jewish time this is the 3rd hour. Meaning it is the third hour from sunrise sometimes written as the third hour of the day; according to Roman time this is the 9th hour. Roman time for each day began at 12 midnight. This has continued into our western time today.

Next is Minchah – Afternoon prayer:

Mincha or Minha (מִנְחָה‎),

Phonetic Spelling: min-khaw’.

Meaning: a gift, offering.

From halfway through the daylight hours – around 1:00ish to about an hour before sunset. So named for the flour offering that accompanied sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem,

Evening prayers

מַעֲרִיב Maariv or arvit עַרְבִית

are recited after dark from sunset to before midnight.

Also spelled Maariv,

plural Maaribim, or Maarivim,

Hebrew meaning: of the evening Maʿariv,

who brings on twilight/ bringing on night

Halachic midnight is the halfway point between sundown and sunrise. This can be before or after – especially during DST – 12 a.m.

The hours and times can be confusing when read in the scriptures unless we understand that our time has been changed from what was originally followed. Some charts below…

and this was also covered in detail in previous post.

https://www.minimannamoments.com/the-pesach-dalet-in-time-a-man-between-2-realms-yonah-and-the-watches-of-the-night/

But why do we need to know or understand this?

Because One of the hours of prayer was the

ninth hour, or three o’clock in the afternoon,

when the

evening sacrifice was offered.

This is the exact time

Yeshua/Jesus gave up His Spirit!

The timing was perfectly in synchronism with the

HOURs of prayer

and He fulfilled their deep meaning.

Messiah had been on the cross

from approximately 

9:00 A.M. until 3:00 P.M.,

a total of six hours.

Crucifixion was an execution designed by the Romans to kill, torture, and humiliate its victims. Some people suffered for days on a cross before dying. Messiah was on the cross for about six hours before He gave up HIs Spirit.

The Romans started each day’s hours at midnight. Using the Roman system of time, John tells us that Yeshua/Jesus’ trial began about the sixth hour, 6 a.m. (John 19:14).

Matthew, Mark, and Luke use the Jewish system of time, beginning each day at 6 a.m. Mark tells us Messiah was crucified at the third hour, 9 a.m. (Mark 15:24–25).

Matthew tells us the day turned to darkness from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, noon to 3 p.m. (Matthew 27:45).

Yeshua/Jesus died about the ninth hour (Matthew 27:46–50).

A Roman soldier confirmed His death by pushing a spear into His side, and He was taken off the cross (John 19:34–38).

The Torah, the Prophets and the Writings do not number specific Hebrew Hours. Only the Messianic Scriptures number specific Hebrew Hours in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts.

The third hour of the day is referred to in Matthew 20:3-4, Mark 15:25 and Acts 2:15. 

The third hour of the night is referred to in Acts 23:23-24. 

The sixth hour of the day is referred to in Matthew 20:5, 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44 and Acts 10:9. 

The ninth hour of the day is referred to in Matthew 20:5, 27:45, 27:46, Mark 15:33, 15:34, Luke 23:44, Acts 3:1, Acts 10:3 and Acts 10:30-31. 

The eleventh hour of the day is referred to in Matthew 20:6 and Matthew 20:9.

All the detailed prophetic fulfillment was so very significant to the children of Israel and unless we understand their WAYs we miss so much of His WAYs! We have taken our western Christianity at doctrinal face value without its true origins and think that is all we need to know.

Again, it is good to be reminded this Bible is originally a Hebrew book, with a Hebraic mindset, about a God of the Hebrews/children of Israel. We gentiles/heathen, are the ones grafted in to Messiah not the other way around. If we ignore that fact, it leads us to leave out the true foundations and depart from the heritage and of what we say we believe about a Jewish Messiah!

Devout Jews, living at Jerusalem, went to the temple to pray (Luke 18:10 Acts 3:1).

Sages tell us that the custom of praying three times a day was originally introduced by the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel.

Abraham introduced prayer in the morning,

Isaac—in the afternoon, and

Jacob/Israel added one at night.

The regular hours of prayer, as we may glean from Psalm 55:17 and Daniel 6:10, were three in number.

The first coincided with the morning sacrifice, at the 3rd hour of the morning, at 9 AM therefore (Acts 2:15).

The second was at the 6th hour, or at noon, and may have coincided with the thanksgiving for the chief meal of the day, a religious custom apparently universally observed (Matthew 15:36 Acts 27:35).

The 3rd hour of prayer coincided with the evening sacrifice, at the ninth hour (Acts 3:1; Acts 10:30).

The Hebrew verb for prayer— hitpallel התפלל—is in fact the reflexive form of palal פלל, to judge.

Thus, to pray, conveys the notion of judging oneself:

ultimately, the purpose of prayer—tefilah תפלה—

is to transform ourselves.

It is not God that changes through our prayer,

rather it is man himself who is changed.

During the first 1000 years approx., since the time of Moses, there was no set order of prayer. Each individual was duty-bound to pray to God every day, but the form of prayer and how many times a day to pray was left to the individual; by Yeshua/Jesus’ time it had become more clearly defined and more of an institution.

In the HOUR we can find our life or lose it.

This is why He came…

For This I Have Come Into the World

John 18:37

For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. John 14:13-15 

Like our Messiah, who told us to follow Him, not only are we to take up our cross; which is the means of our execution – our means/method of crucifying the fleshly carnal life.…..

and not only are we to die to self through the process…

we are to be willing to drink the cup that He drank.

Are you willing  …yes…. then you will …He told His disciples.

If they had known what it would mean would they still have been so quick to accept the cup? 

Matt 20:22 Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?” “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!” ESV Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking.

Christianity is not for wimps.

We too are called to walk with Him to Calvary’s hill, to

take up our crosses, 

to drink the cup of suffering, 

to be conformed to His image. 

As disciples, our attitude should not be to ask that times of sorrow and difficulty be prevented or even stopped but that our Heavenly Father protect us and strengthen us in order that we remain true to Him; and to that which He has created and afore determined we should become.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath beforehand ordained, that we should walk in them. & Ephesians 1:11

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.Romans 15:4 & Romans 8:30.

Our prayers should be that, in spite of all the refining fires and sorrowful challenges we experience; that our faith does not fail us, that we accept our position and realize our purpose in the midst of it all.

This one thing we should look at carefully and not misread the statement He made in these verses; knowing that

He knew

He  understood and

He accepted His purpose.

He willingly faced and received Himself by this acceptance, and because of it, in the midst of this incomparable fire of sorrow and ordained purpose….

He was saved NOT

FROM the HOUR but

OUT of the HOUR

and His Father glorified His Name.

This question was rather rhetorical as He says

what shall I say save Me from this HOUR?

And follows it immediately, answering Himself…

But for this purpose I came to this HOUR

When the HOUR has come for us He will not save us

from it

but

OUT of it.

As with

Noah and his family

as in the days of …

He did not save them

from

the flood but

OUT of it

the flood still came but

in the ark they were saved

and lifted out and above it.

Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark to escape the flood waters. Gen. 7:7

and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

2Peter 2:5

Genesis 6:18
But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark–you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.

Messiah Yeshua/Jesus – the ark of our covenant

lifts us up

OUT of our HOURS

of trouble and testing; just as He was lifted up out of the world both by resurrection spiritually and lifted physically – ascension.

This is the promise for us.

He faced His HOUR and in doing so received/faced Himself in the fires of sorrow in that HOUR.

Many question, and many preach and teach that there ought to be no sorrow – that trials and difficulties are not from a loving Heavenly Father God.

However…He chastens those He loves ..

and there is sorrow, and like the one we say we follow; we are to accept and receive ourselves in these fiery trials.

1 Pet 4:12-14 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13

It is foolish to try and evade and refuse to deal with sorrow because it’s one of the bigger facts of life, so it’s a waste of breath to say it should not be part of our experiences.

Sin, sorrow and suffering are very real and they exist; and we are not in a position to say our Heavenly Father makes mistakes in allowing these things to happen to us.

The work of sorrow in our lives removes a great deal of an individuals shallowness, however it does not always make that individual better. Times of suffering will either help us to face ourselves, or it will destroy us. It is a yielding and a letting go; a total submission and laying down of ones life, in favor of the offered cup and the HOUR of death.

An individual cannot find or receive self through perceived success, that which is calculated by worldly standards.

Why?

So that one will lose their head in pride and self achievement/ aggrandizement by the worlds terms. We cannot receive/face ourselves through the monotonous drudgery of day to day living. Why?

Because that un-dead/un-crucified flesh will give in to griping, complaining, and murmuring.

In the fires of sorrow is the only place we will find ourselves. Wondering why it is this way is immaterial because His ways are past finding out.

We should rather accept in faith and trust in His Word and His Way, which has been written for us historically in all the human experiences recorded. We can always recognize these believers, those who have been through the fires of sorrow and received themselves… we too must receive unto ourselves the HOUR of our laying down our life, to take it up again in Him, just as Yeshua/Jesus did.

Because of this, the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take  it up again. John 10:17.

When our Heavenly Father has us on our knees, it is there that He can change us.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” James 1:2-3.

God must test our faith in order to reveal our faith.

We may look knocked down to men yet be exactly where our Father can use us. 

“We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out”. 2 Cor. 4:9.

We must empty out our own desires, that we would be filled with His. When we stay right with the Lord and allow Him to change us through our circumstances, then He can bring us forth as the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

The closer you get to God, the more you realize how He uses your suffering for His purposes. It is a demonic notion born out of the flesh of man, carnal and worldly to think and believe that God will only make us rich and comfortable in this life.

We must get the fleshly thoughts cast out of our mind, thinking that we could serve God better in our comfort than in our suffering. Let Him use our circumstances to teach us how to serve His children. The more we want to serve Him, the harder His lessons are going to be. So we must be willing to count the cost.

1 Pet 4:12-14 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13

First we must be broken, so that He can reshape us into something new. In the midst of God shaping us, we usually pray that our difficulties would be removed or we be saved from them instead of praying that they would change us; and as we are changed, then He saves us out of them.

That which appears to be destroying us, is actually where God is recreating us into the very thing that He can use. We must forget the notion that our Father will make our lives easy and remember that He knows what He is doing.

By allowing Him to break us, He reforms us into bread worth eating. By allowing Him to place us in that winepress; the process of crushing us into wine is never easy.

However we can’t have the bread until it has been broken and we can’t have the wine without first crushing the grape.

If you want to reach the broken, be the broken. “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite [crushed] spirit” (Psalm 34:18). It is when we are broken that the Lord can form us into something new.

Consider that the reason He has broken your heart, is that He then might flow through it onto others. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart — These, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

Until we are broken and have yielded ourselves to our Father, are we not just another zealous soul working opposite to the Kingdom of God. Remember Paul …persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. …being more exceedingly zealous… (Galatians 1:13-14). Then his Messiah Yeshua/Jesus broke him.

 

Sometimes we have to have our feet knocked out from under us and to hit rock bottom in order to get our footing.

Those who have died to self, allow the fire to burn away the carnal shallowness … those who have truly laid down their life.

Losing it during the hour of fire and testing, to find it in Him; taking it up again and yoking that life to His, in permanent submission to the perfect will of our Father.

These are those we recognize as ones we can go to in our moments of trial and trouble and find they have plenty of time for us. A listening ear and an encouraging word from our Heavenly Fathers storehouse of treasures. Ones who make you feel you are the most important person of that HOUR.

This gift of time is often overlooked as we are so busy and we never seem to have enough of it to do all we want to do. By submitting to the life He has for us, in laying down our own, we will find we have all the time we need for Him to accomplish through us His perfect will plan and purpose. One who has not been through the fires of sorrow is more often than not prone to be dismissive, contemptuous of others and their trials; having no respect for and no time for others, turning away with many excuses and reasons for their actions.

If we are willing, and if we will receive/recognize/accept ourselves in the hour of sorrow: accepting our position and realizing our true purpose in light of His calling in the midst of this HOUR of fire…

He will save us

out of it…

NOT from it;

and through it, He will make us instruments /vessels of nourishment for other people – sheep feeders and lambs fodder and then like Peter, He can feed His flock through us,

Yeshua/Jesus states Peter’s task in three words, 

“Feed my sheep” (John 21:17)

We should not try to avoid this HOUR

or be saved FROM it

because for this purpose

we also came to this HOUR

and He is faithful and will save us OUT of it.

This is how we become as our Lord and Savior was…

broken bread and poured wine,

that His life be shared and given out

for whosoever will receive Him.

God calls us today..

be broken bread and poured out wine.

Bread must be broken to be consumed and shared,

and grapes must be crushed and poured out to make wine.

If we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us…

then He can never make us into wine!

It is He who chooses the people

and the circumstances to crush us,

and it is up to us to allow Him.

How long will it be before we finally get it into our understanding, that we are here to willingly submit to His will, so that He may work through us what He wants?

Just as our savior did and then said follow me…

“Although he was a son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect,

he became the source of eternal salvation

to all who obey him,

being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.”

Hebrew 5:8

We are to do likewise and once we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured-out wine with which to feed and nourish others.

Is our glass still empty?

Meanwhile let’s continue

to stay alert and ready,

be in prayer and in His Word

for in an hour we think not

He is coming.

Shalom shalom mishpachah/family

and cheverim/friends!

You are loved and appreciated and prayed for daily.

… and…

it’s all about Life and Relationship, NOT Religion.

You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.

NOT SURE?

YOU CAN BE..

SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…

Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.

I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name. Amen.