I’d
like to start by saying God is not an arbitrary God. He has a reason for all
everything He does and this order and planning that we see when we study His
Word is part of what blows our minds as we learn more about Him; we catch a
glimpse of the awesome mind that brought all of this into being. God has a
wonderful purpose for mankind.
Thousands
of years ago, he instituted some special holy times that outline and illustrate
his plan for us. There are many allusions to them in the Apostolic Scriptures.
The annual Feasts coincide with the early spring harvest, the late spring
harvest and the autumn harvest of Israel, which is important in that they point
us to God’s harvest, the one Jesus referred to when he said, “The
harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest,
therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:37-38),
and the very harvest prophesied in Revelation 14:15-20.
Although
they may appear ancient and outdated, they have undisputable relevance in
meaning to people of God today. Let us go through these Feasts in light of
their revealed messianic meanings and see the wonderful design that our Adonai
has put into place.
The Sabbath Day: The
Spiritual Rest
There
are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest, a
day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a
Sabbath to the LORD.
Leviticus 23:3
The Sabbath day is the only
weekly Appointed Time. Although most of the Sabbath falls on Saturday, the
Biblical day begins at sunset (Genesis 1:5),
in this case Friday at sunset. We see an example of
the application of this in Scripture: as evening fell and sunset approached,
Nehemiah took actions to prevent work being done on the coming Sabbath day
(Nehemiah 13:19).
The sanctity of the day dates back to the very creation of the world when God rested at the end of the Creation week:
Genesis 2:2 –
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the
seventh day he rested from all his work.
Genesis 2:3 – And God blessed the seventh day and
made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he
had done.
He chose the seventh day, the day after Creation, as a blessed and holy day, set apart for a sacred purpose, because it was the day on which He rested. This sanctification is what makes this day the Sabbath day; and it is this set-apartness of this specific day that makes it the only commanded day of rest in the week:
Exodus 20:11 – For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth,
the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day
and made it holy.
The word Sabbath (Hebrew shabbath) comes from the Hebrew word shabath that means, among other things, “to cease” or to “to rest”.1 The Apostolic Scriptures explains the Sabbath in light of its further spiritual context. Consider the following:
Hebrews 4:9 – There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;
This term “Sabbath-rest” is a rendering of a Greek word, sabbatismos. It is not used anywhere else in the Bible, even when “rest” is being referred to in the very same chapter. Thus, doesn’t logical to deduce that the use of this word is intended to convey a different meaning than what is intended by the other Greek words translated “rest”? Outside of the Bible, it is used to refer simply to keeping of the Sabbath. So, if we take the passage literally, it says, “There remains then, a keeping of the Sabbath for the people of God,” explaining eschatological meaning and context to Christian Sabbath-keeping. Could this be why sabbatismos is used here, but not elsewhere?
The Thayer’s Greek Definitions explains
the word it:
1) a keeping sabbath
2) the
blessed rest from toils and troubles looked for in the age to come by the true
worshippers of God and true Christians
While the word literally means keeping the Sabbath, what we clearly see here is that the seventh-day Sabbath symbolizes a Sabbath-like rest for mankind. The writer of Hebrews expounds:
Hebrews 4:1 – Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.
Hebrews 4:11 – Let
us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of
disobedience.
This rest, the ultimate rest, was something even the writer (widely believed to be the apostle Paul) had yet to partake of, something he still strove for and looked forward to as he wrote this epistle to the Hebrews. Is anyone who believes the Bible is the Word of God in doubt that the writer of this epistle was a Christian? And yet, he says that his Hebrew Christian brethren should strive towards entering the rest. Meaning, this rest is not only what we experience now by accepting Christ Jesus as Lord and Messiah, but the true, lasting rest we will receive from our earthly works when we are given immortality by our God; it is a type (foreshadowing) of this amazing future time. Verse 9 connects this future repose with the rest of the Lord on the last day of the Creation Week (Hebrews 4:10). This time period is a weekly reminder that there will be a wonderful time when we will be have rest from all our work in this world; an eternal spiritual rest at the end of this world, just as the Sabbath is the rest at the end of every week.
Too many people concern themselves with the idea of Sabbath-keeping as “worship” of the day; but, the simple fact is that through resting from our daily lives on this day, we give glory only to the One who made and sanctified this day. Through Sabbath-keeping, we proclaim not only that He is Creator, but that He keeps His promises, and will allow us to be a part of His rest.
Passover: Salvation by
the Blood of the Lamb
Observe
the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in
the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night.
Deuteronomy 16:1
The
very first Passover celebration in
Passover
is unique among the Appointed Times in that, while it constitutes only a single
day, it is not a rest day.
Our
Passover Lamb
The
Passover celebration as outlined in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23 pointed to
Jesus, our Lord Yeshua, who would die for us, His blood protecting us from
death. Jesus is referred to as the Passover Lamb a number of times in Scripture
(e.g.1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Peter 1:19). The fact that it is the firstborn that
was killed in Egypt might be significant; the firstborn of the livestock and
human alike belonged to Yahweh (Exodus 13:2, 13, 15) and Jesus Himself was
Mary’s firstborn (Matthew 1:25). Before His death, Jesus told His
disciples when He was to be killed:
Matthew 26:2 – “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the
Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
And later, when the Passover was upon them:
Mark 6:12 – On the first
day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice
the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want
us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
Jesus ate His last Passover on Earth with His disciples on
a day Mark called the first of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. However, one
thing about this verse gives us a clue to what he meant: the fact that this was
the day the lamb was to be killed. This was done on the day of the Passover.
Exodus 12 explains when the Passover was to be killed:
Exodus 12:6 – Take care of them until the fourteenth
day of the month, when all the people of the community of
A year later, Adonai spoke to Moses and said:
Numbers 9:2 – “Have the Israelites celebrate the Passover at the
appointed time.
Numbers 9:3 – Celebrate it at the appointed time,
at twilight on the fourteenth day of this month, in accordance with all
its rules and regulations.”
The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the 15th
of the first month (Leviticus 23:6), so the day the Passover lamb was to be
killed was on the day of the Passover. The fact that the lamb was to be eaten
with unleavened bread (Exodus 12:8) and the fact that the Feast of Unleavened
Bread starts the day after the Passover is perhaps part of the reason for them
to be grouped together (as they are in Deuteronomy 16:1-8 and Ezekiel 45:21). The
people of the time sometimes called the Feast of Unleavened Bread the Passover
(Luke 22:1) and vice versa. Jews today have generally dropped the use of the
term “Feast of Unleavened Bread” today and call the season
“Passover”.
As revealed in the Law, though, the Passover is when the
lamb was killed; and it is when the disciples ate the Lord’s Supper with
Jesus. On the night of Passover Jesus was arrested and tried (Matthew 26; Mark
14). The next morning, the verdict came in:
Matthew 27:1 – Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders
of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death.
Matthew 27:2 – They bound him, led him away and
handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
As stated before, the Biblical day begins at sunset, and so
it is perceived by even present-day Jews. On the 14th of Abib, the
same day that Jesus ate with the disciples, a string of activities took place
as seen in Matthew 27 and Mark 15; all culminating in this single event:.
Mark 15:34 – And at the
ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?”
Mark 15:35 – When
some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s
calling Elijah.”
Mark 15:36 – One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a
stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let's see
if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
Mark 15:37 – With
a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
Our
Lord was crucified on the afternoon of the 14th of the first month
of God’s calendar; an amazing chain of events that identify the true
Passover Lamb. What’s more, the Hebrew Scriptures has an interesting
command regarding the preparation of the Passover lamb. Among the list of
Passover regulations, the Lord said:
Exodus 12:46 – “It must
be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not
break any of the bones.
Numbers 9:12 – They must not leave any of it till morning or break any
of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the
regulations.
Scripture
says that Christ had no broken bones despite the horrific experience of
crucifixion and the fact that those who died next to Him did have their
legs broken (John 19:31-36). Another prophecy, although perhaps not directly a
Paschal analogy, points Him out as the Lamb, indeed, using this very creature
in its symbolism.
Isaiah
53:7 – He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not
open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
With
the above in mind, look at the following account of Jesus’ before Pontius
Pilate:
Matthew 27:12 – When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he
gave no answer.
Matthew 27:13 – Then Pilate asked him,
“Don't you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?”
Matthew 27:14 – But Jesus made no reply,
not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.
Silent as a lamb to the slaughter. He was truly our
Passover.
The Flesh and Blood of the Lamb
One day, while addressing a large crowd of people near the
John 6:51 – I am the living bread
that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live
forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world.”
John 6:54 – Whoever eats my flesh and
drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day.
John 6:58 – This is the bread that came
down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who
feeds on this bread will live forever.”
The writer of this
Gospel, John, made a point to mention earlier that this occurred near the time
of Passover (vs. 4). This seems significant. He compares Himself to the manna
that was given to the Israelites as they sojourned through the wilderness for
forty years. But, he says His food is more potent, having the power of eternal
life. He speaks of the “bread” as he and the others around him had
their minds on the coming season during which they would stop eating ordinary
bread and eat unleavened bread for seven days.
At another Passover,
Jesus sat down with his disciples and ate.
Luke 22:19 – And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and
gave it to them saying, “This is my body given for you, do this in
remembrance of me.”
Luke 22:20 – In the same way, after the supper he took
the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is
poured out for you.
Unleavened bread is a Biblical part of Passover (Exodus 12:8), and by
the time of Jesus, wine had become an integral part of the Passover rite. Jesus
took the symbols of the Passover and explained them in light of His sacrifice
and purpose. The eating of bread and wine most certainly is a Passover custom,
in commemoration of the very first redemptive Passover, yes; and applied to the
great Passover act of Jesus on that day so long ago.
When our Lord Jesus sat down with His disciples, He said, “I
have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I
suffer” (Luke 22:15). He called what He was eating with them, the Passover.
The only example of the eating of the Lord’s Supper is a
Passover meal. Jesus called it Passover, and so it is, as we see how much of it
remains in the “Lord’s Supper”.2 When we eat the
bread and drink the “fruit of the vine”, we remember what the
Passover Lamb did for us; His broken body and the blood He shed for us.
Washed by the Blood
With the death of Jesus, we have been shown that animal sacrifices
ultimately could not bring full recompense to God for sin; instead, we rely on His
blood to cleanse us, for forgiveness (Hebrews 9:12-14; 10:9-10, 18, 26).
Hebrews 9:22 – In fact, the law requires that nearly everything
be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is
no forgiveness.
The pristine life of our Messiah paid as ransom for us so we may not
suffer death as consequence of our sins. Life is in the blood (Genesis 9:4); it
is only by the shed blood of the unblemished Lamb that we could be justified.
His blood washes us of our sins (Revelation 1:5).
With all this said, Jesus left another Passover instruction:
John 13:3
– Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that
he had come from God and was returning to God;
John 13:4 – so he got up from the meal, took off his
outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
John 13:5 – After that, he poured water into a basin and
began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was
wrapped around him.
Later, He
says:
John 13:14 – Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed
your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
John 13:15 – I have set you an example that you should do
as I have done for you.
Foot-washing was not something that a Master would normally do, and
poor Peter was baffled by this gesture (verse 8). It was the job of the
lowest-ranking servant to wash the feet of guests to the household. And these
people wore sandals so you can imagine it wasn’t a very pleasant job.
Jesus instituted this as a sign of humility and service, a lesson we should
learn from our Lord and take into our everyday lives.
This is often seen as just a symbolic act, not to be copied and
incorporated into the Lord’s Supper. Well, it is symbolic.
However, there was definitely something special about this. Verse 4 says He got
up from the meal. The custom of the time was for the feet to be washed as one entered
the building. Were He intending that it be seen only as an example of the
humility we are all to have (and it is such an example) then, it seems strange
for Him to do it in the middle of the sacred Passover meal, doesn’t it?
And if we consider the words of Jesus, we get another piece of
understanding as to the meaning of this rite:
John 13:8 – “No,” said
Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered,
“Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
It becomes clear that this is more than a humility rite. Just as the
believer needs to eat of the body and drink of the blood, so he must also be
washed by the blood to be cleansed and have fellowship with the Father. If the
bread and wine are important in meaning to this service, then – with this
revealed meaning – we see that foot-washing is also important, as a sign
of our accepting the blood of the Lamb.
Nailed
Out of the Way
What
did the death of this Lamb accomplish? At the very beginning of His ministry,
our Lord was linked with the Passover:
John
1:29 – The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Jesus’
relative John the Baptist said the Lamb of God came to take away the
world’s sins; your sins, our sins. Paul said it this way:
Colossians 2:13 – When you were dead in your sins and in
the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with
Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
Colossians 2:14 – having canceled
the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood
opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
It may be gleaned from this passage that the Lamb’s death freed
us from some law, but I don’t believe this is what it’s saying.
When Jesus (and others) where killed in such a manner, something was nailed
along with the condemned:
Matthew 27:37 – Above his head they placed the written
charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
A written charge was nailed above the head of the person
executed, stating the crime the person had done. It seems to follow, then, that
Paul, knowing this as a Roman citizen (Acts 22:27-28), was alluding to this
very fact. Instead of a charge against Jesus, the charge against us was
figuratively nailed by Him above His own head. Other versions put it
this way:
Complete Jewish Bible Colossians 2:14 – He wiped away the bill
of charges against us. Because of the regulations, it stood as a testimony
against us; but he removed it by nailing it to the execution-stake.
JB Phillips New Testament Colossians 2:14 – Christ has utterly wiped out the damning evidence of
broken laws and commandments which always hung over our heads, and has
completely annulled it by nailing it over his own head on the cross.
He paid the price; nailing our sins out of the way; it’s what
it means when we call Him the Lamb of God. The Lamb who died in place of those
who accept the Blood, as the original Paschal lambs died in place of the
firstborn of
Telling of a Grand Future
Although, the Passover points to Jesus death, it also points way
beyond that. As Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 11:26 – For whenever you eat this bread and drink
this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
The apostle links the Passover (Lord’s Supper) with the return
of the One whose death is remembered through the Passover. But the Lord himself
did a similar thing:
Luke 22:15 – And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired
to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
Luke 22:16 – For I tell you,
I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the
Luke 22:18 – For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit
of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
When we eat the Passover, we should know and remember that there will
be a time when we will feast with Him in the
(It’s suggested that you also read Pesach: The Lord’s Supper,
the Lord’s Way for more on Passover.)
The Feast of
Unleavened Bread: The Sinless Body of Christ
On the fifteenth day of that month
the LORD’s Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat
bread made without yeast.
Leviticus 23:6
The Feast of
Unleavened Bread, an early-spring Feast, begins the day after the Passover.
This is a seven-day Feast in which no leaven (e.g. yeast) is to be eaten. Not
only that; all leaven is to actually be removed from the household (Exodus
12:19). The first and last days are “sacred assemblies” (Leviticus
23:7-8), annual Sabbaths during which no servile work was to be done.
Origins
After that first Passover around 3,300 years
ago a people prepared to be given freedom after centuries of slavery to a pagan
nation. That Passover had been eaten quickly (Exodus 12:11) and it is with that
same haste that they had to leave the nation of Egypt. By fear of these
peoples’ God, they urged them to leave quickly (Exodus 12:33).
The God of Israel knew what He was doing.
Before, He told them that these seven days were to be a sacred time in which no
leavened pastries should be eaten by His people (Exodus 12:15). He arranged it
so they and all those proselytes who went with them had no time to prepare
leavened bread, bread that would rise (Exodus 12:39).
Meaning
of Leaven
Apart from the
origins summarized above, the Hebrew Scriptures provide no explanation for the
reason that God desired for unleavened bread to be part of the Passover meal as
well as the subsequent seven-day Feast. Jesus, though, made a reference to this
Feast during His earthly ministry:
Matthew 16:6
– “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard
against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
It took his
disciples a while to understand what He was talking about, however:
Matthew 16:12
– Then they understood they he was not telling them to guard against the
yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
And Paul,
apostle of Jesus who wrote much of the Apostolic Scriptures, spoke more
directly of this Feast, tying in its meaning:
1 Corinthians
5:6 – Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast
works through the whole batch of dough?
1 Corinthians 5:7 – Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without
yeast – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been
sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:8 – Therefore, let us keep the Festival, not with
the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the bread
made without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
First, leaven
or yeast is likened to false teachings; Paul says it is “malice and wickedness”
and that unleavened bread or bread without yeast is sincerity and truth. Jesus
called Himself the “bread of life” (John 6:35) and the
“living bread” (John 6:51). And as mentioned in the previous
section, He said the bread eaten at Passover is symbolizing His body. His
people are called His body, this bread:
KJV 1
Corinthians 10:17 – For we being many
are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one
bread.
The Feast of
Unleavened Bread is a testimony to the fact that we need Jesus to help to us be
pure and without yeast. The unleavened bread eaten during these seven days has
the same symbolism as for the Passover, but the focus can be considered as
being a bit different. We eat the “daily bread” (Matthew 6:11),
enlisting the help of our Lord Yeshua to become unleavened as He is, in
response to our recognizing that He is our Passover lamb, sacrificed for us.
We affirm by
eating unleavened bread that we are all Christ’s body, all partakers of Him.
And that we are striving to be conformed to His character, seeing Him as
ultimate example of correct, lawful life.
Wave-Sheaf
After the
Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, an offering was to be made to
God:
Leviticus 23:10
– “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter
the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a
sheaf of the first grain you harvest.
Leviticus 23:11 – He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be
accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.
In the year 31
A.D., something amazing happened. On the Sunday of the sheaf-waving just before
dawn (Matthew 28:1), Mary Magdalene discovered the empty tomb of our Lord (John
20:1). After notifying Peter and John that Jesus was no longer in his
sepulchre, she stood outside and wept in sorrow (John 20:11). What happened
next, I’m sure, changed her life forever. Two angels appeared to her:
John 20:13
– They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have
taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they
have put him.”
John 20:14 – At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but
she did not realize that it was Jesus.
John 20:15 – “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who
is it you are looking for?” Thinking it was the gardener, she said,
“Sir, if you have carried away, tell me where you have put him, and I
will get him.”
John 20:16 – Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him
and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
John 20:17 – Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet
returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am
returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Mary did so.
Jesus returned to His Father, later returning and allowed others to hold onto
him:
Matthew 28:8
– So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy,
and ran to tell his disciples.
Matthew 28:9 – Suddenly, Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he
said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him.
Jesus’
ascension to His Father coincided with the sheaf-wave firstfruits offering.
While the priest made this offering, Jesus, our High Priest (Hebrews 3:1) was
presenting Himself to the Father as the “firstfruits of those who have
fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20); the King James Version of the Bible
uses the word “firstfruits” in Leviticus 23:10. The sheaf-wave
offering was pointing to Christ as the firstfruits of the Yahweh’s
harvest.
Passover and the
Feast of Unleavened Bread coincided with Israel’s early spring harvest;
the days are counted from the sheaf-waving to the mid-spring Feast.
The
Feast of Weeks: Firstfruits of the Harvest
Count off fifty days from the time you begin to put the sickle to
the standing grain. Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your
God…
Deuteronomy 16:9-10
From the
sheaf-wave offering, seven weeks were counted until the day after the seventh
Sabbath, forty-nine days plus one; fifty. This was called the Feast of Weeks,
or what is more well-known as the Day or Feast of Pentecost. It was also called
the Day of Firstfruits (Numbers 28:26); the firstfruits of the wheat harvest
was presented to God (Lev 23:17, 20). It was the only annual Holy Day without a
specified date (check Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16 and you won’t see a
date for it). It always fell on the day after the seventh Sabbath, its date
depending on the date of the wave-sheaf offering. It is the late-spring Feast.
Pentecost
and Firstfruits
Pentecost is what the Feast is called in the Apostolic Scriptures.2
The Holy Spirit was poured out on many and 3,000 people accepted the message of
Messiah that day. Acts 2 describes this wonderful occasion. But there is more
to this day that what is seen at the surface. Two offerings of firstfruits were
made to God in the year; the first during the Days of Unleavened Bread, the
second on the Feast of Weeks. As shown above, the first firstfruits
offering was pointing to Christ as firstfruits from the dead. But what about
this one?
James
1:18 – He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might
be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 – But we ought always
to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning
God chose you as his firstfruits to be saved through
the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
Revelation
14:2 – And I heard a sound from heaven like a roar of rushing waters and
like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists
playing their harps.
Revelation 14:3 – And they sand a new song before the throne and before
the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except
the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
Revelation 14:4 – These are those who kept themselves pure. They follow
the Lamb wherever he does. They were purchased from among men as firstfruits
to God and the Lamb.
James
put himself into a group called “a kind of firstfruits”. The words
in italics in 2 Thessalonians are found in a footnote that says this is found
in some manuscripts of this text; so, we find proof that Paul, too, saw the
firstfruits title as applying to believers (specifically, the assembly in Thessalonica).
And John applies this term specifically to the 144,000.
We
now have the “firstfruits of the Spirit” (Romans 8:23). Notice what
happened on Pentecost: the Spirit of God was poured out first on those who had
been gathered “together in one place” (Acts 2:1), but those who
accepted the message and were baptized (verse 41). The firstfruits harvest is
still happening now.
But
is this harvest a new phenomenon? We get a clue from the following verse:
Jeremiah 2:3 – Israel was holy to the
LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held
guilty, and disaster overtook them,’ ” declares the LORD.
The
firstfruits harvest, we can deduce, has been going on for a long time. The
harvest continues today, extending the identity of Israel to all who believe,
whether a physical descendant of Jacob or not (Romans 2:26-29; Romans 4:13, 16;
11:11-24)
The
Holy Spirit is an essential ingredient in this harvest; someone cannot be
harvested and made the firstfruits without the Spirit of the Yahweh our God.
Paul, perhaps, was alluding to this harvest theme when he spoke of the
“fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23). There is something
different about this firstfruits offering, though:
Leviticus 23:17 – From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of
two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave
offering of firstfruits to the LORD.
This
offering was an offering of leavened bread and we know from the words of
Jesus and Paul that yeast symbolized sin. Although we do try to de-leaven, we
do have sin (1 John 1:8). This firstfruits offering may to be referring to the
Christian who remains sin-stained (although forgiven) until his Lord comes and
changes his sinful nature to a spiritual one.
The Day
of Trumpets: Proclaiming Who Is Coming
…On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day
of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.
Leviticus 23:24
In the ancient
time recorded in Scripture, trumpets were used for many reasons. They called
people to assembly (Numbers 10:3-4), announced impending battle (Numbers 10:9),
and was also used as a sound of festivities (Numbers 10:10). The Feast of
Trumpets falls on the first day of the seventh month (called Ethanim or Tishri)
and is the first of the autumn Festivals. It is “a sacred assembly”
on which trumpets are to be sounded (Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 29:1). This
Festival became known as the start of the civil new year in Judaism and so is
known among Jews as Rosh Hashanah
(Hebrew for “Head of the Year”). However, this name and meaning is
not associated with it in Scripture. Thus, I think a better Hebrew name for it
is Yom Teruah, the name used in Karaite Judaism, meaning “Day of
Trumpets” and which is found in Torah (Numbers 29:1).
Seven
Trumpets
In
the book known as Revelation, John recorded seven curses that would befall the
Earth, each announced by a trumpet blast. These are:
1. Destruction
of vegetation (Revelation 8:7),
2. Destruction
of oceans and sea life (Revelation 8:8-9),
3. Destruction
of rivers and fresh water (Revelation 8:10-11),
4. Heavenly
bodies darkened (Revelation 8:12),
5. Horrible
afflictions (Revelation 9:1-12),
6. Military
destruction (Revelation 9:13-19),
7. The
seven last plagues (Revelation 15:1; 16:1-21).
These
are all judgements on the earth, proclaiming the wrath of the Almighty with the
world’s sins. The seven trumpets culminates in the very last: the seventh
plague of the seventh trumpet is associated with the battle at Armageddon and
the words of Jesus:
Revelation 16:15 – “Behold, I
come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his
clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
[c.f. 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 1 Peter 3:10]
The
Last
From
long ago, the coming of the Lord was associated with a trumpet call. The
prophet Zechariah wrote these words by the inspiration of the Spirit before
Jesus ever walked the Earth as Man:
Zechariah 9:14 – Then the LORD will appear
over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will
sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south,
The
context of this seems to be the coming of God to defend Jerusalem in the battle
against the nations (c.f. Zechariah 14:1-4), which as believers in Jesus we see
as the return of Jesus, this time taking the throne as King of Earth (Zechariah
14:9). Even in Judaism today, Rosh Hashanah is associated with the coming of
God; so one of the day’s themes is the coming of the God, the King of
Earth.
Speaking about
Himself, Jesus said:
Matthew 24:30
– At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all
the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the
clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.
Matthew 24:31
– And he will send his angels will a loud trumpet call, and they
will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the
other.
And later, Paul
added:
1 Corinthians
15:51 – Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will
all be changed –
1 Corinthians 15:52 – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet.
This
is a good time, I think、 to mention something
interesting about the word teruah. Instead of only referring to the
sounding of the trumpet, it also means: “acclamation of joy or a battle
cry” (from Strong’s). With this in mind, let’s take a
look at this:
1 Thessalonians
4:16 – For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout,
with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet
call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Thessalonians 4:17 – After that, we who are still alive and left will
be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And
so we will be with the Lord forever.
The coming of
the Lord is accompanied by a trumpet and a shout; both definitions of teruah.
This is further affirmation in my mind of the connection of the Feast of
Trumpets with the seven trumpets, specifically the last.
Call to
Battle and Immortality
The very last
trumpet call is when we will be changed to immortal (1 Corinthians 15:50,
53-54), and be like the “man from heaven”, who is Jesus. This
trumpet is a call to gather together with our Saviour. The dead will wise first
and then the living will join them with Yeshua our Saviour, in the air. But do
we go up to heaven and never look back? No; at this coming, Jesus’ feet
come down to earth and touch the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4), taking his
caught-up people with Him. And we see, too, that the trumpet is also a call to
battle:
Isaiah 66:15
– See, the LORD is coming with fire and his chariots are like a
whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames
of fire.
Isaiah 66:16 – For with fire and his sword the LORD will execute
judgement on all men, and many will be those slain by the LORD.
This prophecy
is a direct link to Revelation in which the coming of our Lord is described
with him carrying a sword:
Revelation
19:11 – I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a while horse,
whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war.
Revelation 19:12 – His eyes are like blazing
fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no
one knows but himself.
Revelation 19:13 – He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name
is the Word of God.
Revelation 19:14 – The armies
of heaven were following him riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen,
white and clean.
Revelation 19:15 – Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will
rule them with an iron scepter.” [A quote from Psalm 2:9] He treads the
winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.
Revelation
19:19 – Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies
gather together to make war against
the rider on the horse and his army.
Revelation 19:20 – But the beast was captured, and with him the false
prophet who had performed miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he
had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshipped his
image. The two of them were thrown alive
into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
Revelation 19:21 – The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on
the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
The incident
spoken of in Revelation is the same as spoken of by Isaiah, Paul and Jesus
Himself. He, the Son of Man, is the very LORD (Yahweh or YHWH in the
original Hebrew) and the rider on the horse who is the Word of God (John 1:1).
He will rule with His sceptre as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (1 Timothy
6:15; Revelation 19:16). With his angels and his saints, his holy ones that
rose to meet him in the air (1 Thessalonians 3:13, Jude 14), He will slay those
who had succumbed to the beast and the false prophet, tossing these two into
the lake of fire. The “lawless one” himself, commonly known as
antichrist, will be destroyed at this time as well (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
Something else
that John wrote brings us back to Jesus’ own words. Revelation 19:21 says
that “all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.” When
referring to the time of His coming, Jesus spoke of those who would die at the
edge of His blade. He said, “Where there is a dead body, there the
vultures would gather together” (Luke 17:37). For those who are enemies
of the Lord, this last trumpet is a dire warning indeed; but for those who love
and serve Him, it is a call to rejoice in the triumphant return of Messiah the
King!
The Day of
Atonement: The High Priest Cleanses
The tenth day of this seventh
month the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves…
Leviticus 23:27
The
Day of Atonement held utmost important to Israel. So solemn is this day that no
food is to be eaten; to deny oneself or afflict one’s soul (as the KJV
renders it in Leviticus 16:29) simply means to fast. Temple sacrifices were
important to Israel (and would be now, I’m sure, if the Temple was still
in existence). There was one done every day, but on the 10th of
Tishri, something special was allowed by the Almighty.
There
was a special section of the Temple that was called the Most Holy Place,
separated from the Holy Place by a veil. Only the High Priest could enter this
place and only on this day. The presence of the Lord Himself was in this
chamber over what is called the atonement cover or mercy seat. After
sacrificing a young bull for his own sin offering, and a ram for his burnt
offering, he was to sacrifice one of two goats for the sins of Israel. He was
to use the smoke of incense to protect him from seeing the Lord so he would not
die. Then, he would sprinkle the blood of the slaughtered goat onto and in
front of the atonement cover to cleanse it from Israel’s sins. The other
goat, chosen by lots, the descendant of Aaron was to confess the sins of the
nation over, putting them on this goat’s head. Then, an appointed man
would take the goat into the desert. (Descriptions of the temple and the
procession of the Day of Atonement can be found in Exodus 25-26 [also Hebrews
9:1-10] and Leviticus 16 respectively.)
The
Fast
In the
Apostolic Scriptures, the Day of Atonement is called “the Fast” by
Luke (Acts 27:9). Isaiah 58 discusses the true way to fast; it appears to me
referring to this selfsame Day of Atonement. Isaiah refers to a “day of
your fasting” (v. 3) and asks if fasting is “only a day for a man
to humble himself?” (v.5). Here the true spirit of fasting (on the Day of
Atonement and otherwise) is revealed.
Isaiah
53:5 – Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to
humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on
sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the
LORD?
Isaiah 53:6 – “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to
loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the
oppressed free and break every yoke?
Isaiah 53:7 – Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide
the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Isaiah 53:8 – Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your
healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and
the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
The kind of fasting that our God wants us to
take part in is the kind that not only humbles, but is conducive to charity and
generosity. Our fasting should not be, as Jesus showed, an opportunity to show
people how holy we are; we should fast with humility, as a devotion to God our
Father (Matthew 6:16-18).
Our High Priest
Paul makes it
known to us that the tabernacle or sanctuary that was used by the Israelites is
“a copy and shadow of what is in heaven”, which is “the true
tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man” (Hebrews 8:5, 2) and is known
by many as the Heavenly Sanctuary. Thus what was commanded to these people was
pointing to what would happen in the future, when the true High Priest had
come. And He has:
Hebrews 9:11
– When Christ came as high priest
of the good things that are already here, he
went though the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made,
that is to say, not a part of this creation.
Hebrews 9:12 – He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves
but he entered the Most Holy Place once
and for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
Christ, our
High Priest, has entered the sanctuary. He did not need first to sacrifice a
bull, for He was perfectly sinless (1 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22). And,
being the pure Passover, it was His blood used to cleanse the sanctuary of our
sins. Indeed, the symbolism goes further: Christ is the High Priest and the slaughtered sacrifice that is
killed by the Priest.
John 10:17
– “The reason my Father loves me is that I law down my life –
only to take it up again.
John 10:18 – No one take it from me, but I lay down of my own accord. I have to authority to lay it down and
the authority to take it up again. This command I received from my
Father.”
The Torn Curtain
At our
Lord’s death, something interesting happened:
Mark 15:37 – With a loud cry, Jesus
breathed his last.
Mark 15:38 – The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to
bottom.
The curtain
separating the Holy and Most Holy was torn completely; revealing what was
inside. Paul expounds:
Hebrews 10:19 – Therefore,
brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of
Jesus,
Hebrews 10:20 – by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain,
that is, his body,
Our Messiah is the way to the His Father (John 16:4) and
this reconciliation was brought upon by His death (Romans 5:10).
No longer is the Presence of the Lord Yahweh inside a man-made temple,
behind a curtain that is impassable to most; we are the temples of the Lord and
His Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16). No longer do we need an
earthly, sinful mediator between man and God: we have the one who became Jesus:
Hebrews 8:6 But
the ministry Jesus has received is superior to theirs as the covenant of which
he is mediator is better than the old one, and is founded on better promises.
1 Timothy 2:5
– For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Jesus Christ,
Now, we can
enter the Most Holy Place with the hope we have received:
Hebrews 6:19
– We have this hope as an anchor for the souls, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the
curtain,
Hebrews 6:20 – where Jesus, who
went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become high priest
forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
What a glorious hope it is!3
The Other Goat
There is some controversy over what the second goat could mean. One
possible view is that this goat (called the scapegoat or azazel4 goat) represents Satan. Look at
the following prophecy:
Revelation 20:1
– And I saw and angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the
Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.
Revelation 20:2 – He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the
devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:3 – He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it
over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand
years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.
This seems
similar to the appointed man who carries the goat to the desert, away from
civilization. The goat did not deserve to bear the sins of the world; it did
nothing wrong. Satan, the adversary, the “god of this age” has
“blinded the minds of unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4). He is
“a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44), and so it should be of
no surprise that he “leads the whole world astray” with his lies
(Revelation 12:9). He is the primary cause of sin that is removed at the start
of the Millennium. If the return of our Lord is on the Feast of Trumpets, it
could be that the Millennium starts on the Day of Atonement with the sealing of
Satan.
The Feast of
Tabernacles: Millennial Reign
…On
the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Feast of Tabernacles
begins, and it lasts for seven days.
Leviticus 23:34
The Feast of
Tabernacles is a seven-day festival, the first being a convocation day. A time
of great feasting and rejoicing, the people of God live in “booths”,
not in their homes. It coincided with and celebrated the completion of the
harvest season. Israelites typically built tabernacles or booths to live in, a
practice still common among Jews today. It was a time when they would think
back to their liberation from the Egyptians and their living in booths after
their exodus. (Leviticus 23:33-43; Deuteronomy 16:13-15). It is sometimes
called by Jews Zeman Simkhateinu, which means “Season of our
Rejoicing”.
Years in the Wilderness
The
command for Israelites to live in tabernacles or booths for these seven days
was given a particular context:
Leviticus 23:42 Live in booths for seven days: All native-born
Israelites are to live in booths
Leviticus 23:43
so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’ ”This Festival serves as a reminder every year of the time for forty
years when the children of Israel were protected during their time in the
wilderness. This was one of Israel’s most humble times in history, before
the people arrived in the promised land and grew powerful over time, peaking
under the rule of King Solomon.
I personally find the fact that the memory of a time of one of
Israel’s most humble existence is associated with the season of harvest
and plenty (Deuteronomy 16:15). This is important in understanding what I
believe this Feast means.
A
Thousand Years
We have already
seen that Jesus comes as King of Kings and High Priest of the Earth. But what
happens after the war against rebellious groups and the sealing of Satan?
Revelation 20:4
– I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority
to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their
testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not received the
mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with
Christ for a thousand years.
Those who
overcome what life has in store for them and remain faithful to Christ will
reign with Christ as not only kings but priests:
Revelation 1:6
– and [Jesus] has made us to be a
kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father – to him be the glory
and power for ever and ever! Amen.
Revelation 5:10
– You have made them to be a
kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on earth.
Revelation does
not give much detail about what happens during the thousand years, known to
many as the Millennium. It is merely filling in details omitted from prophecies
in the Hebrew Scriptures. Let us go back to such a prophecy.
Zechariah 14:3
– Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights
in the day of battle.
Zechariah 14:4 – On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,
east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to
west, forming a great valley with half of the mountain moving north and half
moving south.
Zechariah 14:5 – You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend
to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah
king of Judah. Then the LORD by God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
Zechariah 14:9
– The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be
one LORD and his name the only name.
Zechariah 14:16
– The survivors of the nations from all the nations that have attacked
Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
Zechariah 14:17 – If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to
Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain.
The Time of Plenty
The fact that
the Feast of Tabernacles is mentioned in this prophecy is significant. Notice
that this Feast will be kept in the time of the Millennium, which the
transformed believers will spend on the planet Earth based on this prophecy.
There is actually punishment if people do go to Jerusalem to keep this Feast,
worshipping God properly. Sinners still live on Earth in this time, ruled over
by Jesus and his priests. More is learned of the Millennium elsewhere:
Isaiah 11:7
– The cow will feed the bear, their young will lie down together, and the
lion will eat straw like an ox.
Isaiah 11:8 – The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the
young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.
Isaiah 11:9 – They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the
sea.
Isaiah 65:20
– Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or
an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be
thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered
accursed.
Here, four
things are made known: 1) the Edenic nature of animals is restored; 2) the
human life span will increase (perhaps to pre-flood longevity); 3) there will
be children in the Millennium; 4) there will worldwide knowledge of God. The
second point is significant; Jesus said that his resurrected saints neither
marry nor are given in marriage (Matthew 22:30), meaning they have no children.
The Millennium
is a time of great peace (Zechariah 9:10) in which the people that are on the
Earth will be ruled over by Christ and the saints. It is also a time of
prosperity (Jeremiah 33:9). The Millennium will be the time when the Earth will
get the chance to learn the true Way of Salvation, and be corrected in their
mistakes (as we see in the example of the nations punished for not keeping the
Feast).
It is my belief
that these seven days point to the glory of the Millennium, the long-awaited
Kingdom that is the restored and expanded Kingdom of Israel; in as much as it
points to the most humble beginnings of this Kingdom.
The
Eighth Day: The Beginning of Eternity
…celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the
first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day is also the day of rest.
Leviticus 23:39
The day that
follows the Feast of Tabernacles known to many as the eighth day of
Tabernacles, but the Hebrew Scriptures makes it clear that this was a
convocation day that was not included in Feast, although it is immediately
after (Leviticus 23:39; Nehemiah 8:18). They were to dwell in shelters for
seven days (Lev 23:42) and they went back to their homes on the eighth. This one
is merely called “the eighth day” while it is being introduced in
Leviticus. To Jews, it is known as Shemini
Atzeret (the Eighth [day] of Assembly), while based on John 7:37, a
tradition within Feast-keeping Christianity exists to call it the Last Great
Day. With Tabernacles representing the Millennium, the eighth day signifies
what happens next. And something does happen next.
The
Millennium Ends
Revelation 20:7
– When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his
prison
Revelation 20:8 – and will go out and deceive the nations in the four
corners of the earth – Gog and Magog – to gather them for battle.
These nations
are the ones spoken of in Zechariah 14. These mortals, who throughout the
Millennium have no devil to tempt them, now are deceived by Satan and turn away
from what they were taught throughout their lives.
Revelation 20:9
– They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of
God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and
devoured them.
This city is
the Jerusalem that is spoken of in Zechariah 14.
Revelation
20:10 – And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of
burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They
will be tormented day and night forever.
The next few
verses explain that the dead are raised; those who died during the Millennium
and before who had not accepted Christ. Those who had, during and after the
Millennium, accepted Christ as Saviour and Lord, will be given eternal life and
those who rejected Him will be thrown into the lake of burning sulphur.
(Revelation 20:11-15). Then, the New Jerusalem then descends from heaven.
God’s people will be rewarded the new earth as home base:
Matthew 5:5
– Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
The New
Jerusalem
The New Jerusalem is the ultimate hope of all Christianity; the
beginning of eternity. All of sinful mankind, the fallen angels, this sinful
earth will be gone for good. The “dwelling of God” will be on Earth
with us. Everything will be made new and this world would be like it never was
(Revelation 20:1-6). This is time that Jesus will turn over his kingship to the
Father (1 Corinthians 15:24). This is the end of all the transience pictured in
the Feast of Tabernacles; all that will pass away would have done so by this
time and we will have finally found the city that God had in store for us
(Hebrews 11:16). Finally, we will reach the fullness of the Sabbath rest
promised by our heavenly Father. This is what is pictured not only by the
seventh-day Sabbath, but the seventh annual
holy day, which takes place in the seventh
month of the sacred calendar.5 At this moment in time,
the plan of salvation finally comes to fruition. John had a vision of
this Holy City, the New Jerusalem:
Revelation 21:22 – I did not see a temple in the
city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
Revelation 21:23 – The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on
it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
Revelation 21:24 – The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of
the earth will bring their splendor into it.
Revelation 21:25 – On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will
be no night there.
Revelation 21:26 – The glory and honor of the nations will be brought
into it.
Revelation 21:27 – Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who
does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in
the Lamb's book of life.
What a glorious hope the Christian has in Jesus Christ our
Lord! Our Lord Yahweh will finally come to Earth to dwell with us; He will rule
a new world, a perfect world, with us as His sons and daughters (John 1:12).
Conclusion
The message
hidden within God’s Festivals is truly mind-boggling. Even the order is
amazingly orchestrated. The spring Feasts have some event related to them in
the year of Christ’s death and resurrection, while the fall Festivals
have meanings more relevant to the end-times. Such order and amazing truth we
can only expect from our God, and we cannot
find in the world’s holidays, regardless of how “holy” they
seem.
It is with the
understanding of their meaning and purpose that we should keep God’s
Festivals; knowing that they outline the wonderful life God has planned for us.
And it is with great joy and hope that we should pray as John did:
Revelation 22:20 – He who testifies to these things
says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. ש
1. While these words
may seem identical in pronunciation, shabbath
is pronounced as “shab-bawth” and shabath is pronounced “shaw-bath”. Go back.
2. The Apostolic
Scriptures (more commonly known as the ‘New Testament’) were
written in Greek. The Greek word translated Pentecost is pentekostos,
which means “fiftieth” or “count fifty”. Go back.
3. There
are many who believe that Jesus did not enter the Most Holy Place until later;
the date is often prescribed as being 1844. This situation is compounded by the
fact that Hebrews 9:12 refers to the “Holy Place” in the King James
Version and not the “Most Holy Place.” The fact that Paul, in
Hebrews 9:3, speaks of more than one curtain perhaps compounds the problem;
Hebrews 6:19 can therefore mean the Holy Place (within or interior to the first
curtain) or the Most Holy Place (the second curtain). To me, it makes no sense
for Paul to speak of the high priests entering the Most Holy Place once per
year (Hebrews 9:7) and then speak of a High Priest who hadn’t even
entered the Most Holy yet. Note also that that goats and calves are mentioned
in verve 12 and that these are precisely the creatures whose blood was used on
the Day of Atonement and taken into the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 16:14-15). Go
back.
4. Hebrew; literally “goat of departure”. Azazel is identified by numerous
scholars as the name of a demon that inhabits the wilderness (Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible,
Vol 1, p. 326). Go back.
5. The number seven is often linked with completion in the Bible.
For example, God rested on the seventh day at the end of the creation week and
so the Sabbath is at the end of every week (Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:11). Also,
Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and on the last (seventh) day,
they marched seven times (Joshua 6:3-4). Other examples exist in the Bible and
can be uncovered through further study. Go back.
© Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008
Keneil Thomas
·
Anthony Coore’s Should Christians Keep the Sabbath?
·
Take Off Your
Sandals: A Look at the Sabbath
·
Colossians 2:
Paul’s True Message
·
The Lamb’s
Tabernacle: The Christmas Story?
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