On March 31, 2023, President Biden declared April 2023 to be Second Chances month to provide prisoners, who have committed crimes but repented of them, to be given a second chance of clemency. Clemency is defined as mercy, leniency, gentleness, mildness.
Pardon Attorney Elizabeth Oyer’s opening remarks at the Second Chance ceremony held on Friday, April 21, 2023, at the United States Department of Justice, were as follows:
“…President Biden has declared April, Second Chance Month. The president reminded us that America has always been a land of second chances founded on fresh starts, new possibilities, and the belief that every person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. In that spirit, President Biden directed that during Second Chance month, we recommit to helping people forge new beginnings and building a safer and more just society. That shared commitment is why we are all here today.
If President Biden can extend such mercy, how much more will, and has, our Father in Heaven extended mercy, leniency, gentleness, and mildness in calling His People back to repentance?
This is not a blog about the repentance of the general public. This is about the repentance of His Called-Out ones and their need to run prodigal feet back to Him now. We are all too familiar with 2 Chronicles 7:14 that Our Father stated that if My People who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.
Jeff Daly recently issued an international Call to Repentance for God’s people to return over a 40-day period that wrapped up on April 30, 2023. IFA issued a call to repentance the same day.
We know according to His word that mercy is listed as the first characteristic of His Great Name in Exodus 34:6. The Hebrew word utilized there is rachum.
Rachum by its very nature extends second chances.
In Numbers 9, Yahweh tells Moses to hold the feast commemorating the Passover and Exodus from Egypt again in the wilderness. In Exodus 12:14 Yahweh tells Moses that celebrating the Passover will be a Memorial and a permanent statute (of His) for the generations to come. While Yeshua fulfilled the Passover, He also told us to follow Him, and we are to likewise keep this statue and observe God’s appointed times.
His Passover this year took place in April.
Did you and your family participate in it?
If you did, did you hold the Passover following His instructions found in Exodus 12 and in His timing?
If you answered no to either of these questions, you have a second chance!
In Numbers 9, as the feast was being prepared a group of individuals whose souls were unclean approached Moses and stated that they had come into contact with a dead body. This disqualified them from participating in the feast and they were concerned – since it was a permanent statute. So Moses inquired of the Lord to find out what He would say to do.
Yahweh – the Living God of Second Chances – extended a second opportunity. He stated that if someone cannot participate in the first Passover because they have come in contact with a dead body or were on a long journey, they can celebrate the Passover in the second month on the evening of the 14th day, 30 days later.
We know that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). That is a second chance to remove yourself from contact with your own sinfully, dead body.
The second issue is that someone was on a long journey – far from home. Yeshua told us a prodigal who had left His Father’s House and was not in the right place and the right time. He couldn’t even remember what they were probably doing at His Father’s House, but he knew the meal set before him in the pig slop was not right. When he came to his senses and realized what he was doing was out of step with His Father’s house, he ran home – and His Father ran out to meet him, embraced him and prepared a feast for him to celebrate his teshuvah, a return of repentance. The Father extended a second chance to His prodigal son who had sinned and been out from under His covering, far away living a different life than his father had hoped.
In 2 Chronicles 30, King Hezekiah invited all of the Northern Kingdom – 10 tribes – to return for the Passover. The Levites had missed the first Passover, because the temple had become unclean. Hezekiah sent out a call across the land for unity – asking for the whole country, both Kingdoms North and South, to unite and celebrate together.
“So, couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the LORD God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see. Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were but yield yourselves to the LORD and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you if you return to him” (2 Chronicles 30:6-9).
Hezekiah prayed a special prayer asking Our Father to please accept this attempt to keep His important feast, even though the Northern Kingdom was out of practice…and maybe they weren’t sure exactly how to do it.
But Hezekiah interceded for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, provide atonement for everyone who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not cleansed according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.”
And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people (2 Chronicles 30:18-20).
Members from five of the 10 tribes responded: Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Issachar. Five tribes. They entered for the Feast and the doors were shut behind them.
Consider Yeshua’s parable about the 10 Virgins. Five were wise, their lamps were trimmed, and they ran out to meet Him. Five had to go off and find more oil – they had not been pressing in in repentance and developing the oil that comes from humbling themselves to return to Him, praying before Him, seeking His face, and following His instructions to turn from their wicked ways.
There is an opportunity this week to return to Him to participate in this Second Chance for clemency and mercy and to me, and others, it is clear that He has been shouting with His Spirit to herald a return.
Yeshua says that His Return to His people will be like the days of Noah and Lot. We know from scripture when the days of Noah were for sure:
- On the Second Month/10th day, Noah was instructed to enter the Ark.
- On the Second Month/17th day, Noah his family and the animals were sealed in just prior to the flood.
To see how this applies more closely to this week, using the Ancient Hebrew Calendar (at least the one our family is following and testing currently) this is how these events – and modern-day events all overlay:
- Second Month/10th Day – Sunday, April 30, 2023 – 40th Day of Jeff Day’s Call to Repentance with an International Focus. Pastor Daly began this call on March 22, 2023, which is when we believe the year began – on the Fourth Day of the week when the light producing bodies were created to set time and space. IFA also issued a call to repentance for this day.
- Second Month/14th Day – Thursday, May 4, 2023 – National Day of Prayer followed by the evening of the Second Passover and Feast. The instructions are simple for the feast – eat some unleavened bread (flat bread), eat your veggies and in our case since Christ served as our lamb just simply thank Him for second chances. Eat it quick and be ready to run. This is an opportunity for us to give allegiance to our King first before our country and return to His order.
- Second Month/15th Day – Friday, May 5, 2023 – Second Passover Day and also considered the 14th of the month on the current Modern Hebraic Calendar.
- Second Month/16th Day – Saturday, May 6, 2023 – His Sabbath on the 7th This is the Fourth of the Ten Commandments. It begins with the word Remember, and we have all forgotten it. The simple instructions to follow it are to stay in your place, don’t make any purchases, don’t fight with anyone, and don’t do any of your regular work/vocation. Enjoy the day with your family and mostly enjoy your day with Him. The Sabbath is also considered a seal for His people forever (Exodus 31:13 & Ezekiel 20:20)
- Second Month/17th Day – Sunday, May 7th, 2023 – The door on the ark was sealed and the flood began. Seeing this day approaching, a large number of people interceded for both the rachum and chemlah forms of mercy that were extended to Noah and Lot and they praised the Lord with the bulls of their lips (Hosea 14:2) on the 7th day of the first month following instructions found in Ezekiel 43 on March 28, 2023 – 40 days in preparation. We prayed that He would hear from Heaven and extend a special clemency.
Does that mean a flood is coming?
No one knows for sure.
But repentance is always in season and what could it hurt for His People here in America to humble themselves and present ourselves just as we are to Him?
If our country’s leaders can discern the importance of clemency and extend it, how much more will our Father in Heaven?
Surely, we have a Great Defender.
What is your response? Please share in the comments.
Author Shelley McLaughlin is a passionate IFA intercessor who loves meditating on His Word. Photo credit: Canva Pro.