If you are still with us, lagging behind but still reading, or you have stopped reading and are simply checking the blog: Welcome to Week 8!
If you are lagging behind, I would encourage you to attempt catching up - perhaps add a chapter each day as you read. If you have stopped reading entirely, for whatever reason, I encourage you to jump back in and begin with today's schedule.
We'd be happy to have you back with us. You can catch those missed chapters at your own pace or even with next year's reading.
Again, I apologize for the late posting. We're only days from beginning week 9, and I'm just getting this one up. Between busy work schedules at both jobs, dealing with an advanced topic with this week's passages, and having a friend/coworker
suddenly hospitalized near death, it has been quite the week.
Topics of Interest
* God tells the Israelites in Leviticus 26:11-12 "I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not reject/loathe you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people." Is this a reference to Christ's becoming human; is this a reference to the New Jerusalem at the end of time; is this a reference to both or something else? Opinions?
* 66 people of Israel entered Egypt under Joseph's protection. 430 years later, more than 600,000 Israelites left under Moses' leadership. (The number of Israelite men 20 years and older who were physically able to serve in the army was 603,550. Levites 1 month and older were later numbered at 22,000. If one included the Levites, women, children, teens, and elderly, the number would exceed 1 million people).
Point to consider:
You will recall that we were introduced to three feasts that were ordained by God. These three times each year, all of the Israelite men were to assemble before God (Deuteronomy 16:16). Those feasts were The Feast of Unleavened Bread, The feast of Harvest (also called The Feast of Weeks), and the Feast of Ingathering (also called The Feast of Tabernacles or Booths).
This week we read where God commands the observance of seven feasts, including the original three. In chronological order, they are:
1) Passover
2) Feast of Unleavened Bread
3) Feast of First Fruits
4) Feast of Weeks
5) Feast of Trumpets
6) Feast of Atonement
7) Feast of Tabernacles
Each week so far, we have looked at various events in the bible that served as pictures, allusions, or foreshadowings of things to come which relate to the life of Christ and the plan of salvation. Let's now look closely at these feasts ordained by God Himself.
PASSOVER
You recall the account in Exodus of the 10th and final plague that God sent against Egypt: the Lord passed over Egypt to slay all of the first born of men and of animals except for those (the Israelites) who had the blood of the lamb above their
doors and on their door posts. As we discussed at that time, the Passover was a foreshadowing of Jesus' death for our sins. A lamb without blemish was slain and its blood saved those who trusted in God from physical death - Jesus, the perfect Lamb
of God, was slain and His blood saves those who trust in God from eternal, spiritual, death.
UNLEAVENED BREAD
Leaven, or yeast, was used in parables and stories almost exclusively to represent sin. Jesus, not conceived of a humanly father to receive the sin-nature inherent to all of Adam's descendents, lived a sinless life. Since Mary is obviously a descendent of Adam also, this would indicate that the sin-nature is passed spiritually to the children through the father, similar perhaps to the physical way that the child's gender is determined only by the 23rd chromosome of the father's sperm cell (another foreshadowing?).
Time and again, Jesus referred to Himself as "the Bread of life" and "the Bread sent down from heaven". This was a reference to the manna that was given to the Israelites in the wilderness when they cried out from hunger. It was a free gift so that they may live. God supplied them the manna which would be the picture of Christ yet to come. Hundreds of disciples, the multitudes that followed Him, left Him because it was too hard of a teaching for them to grasp (John 6). At the Passover meal that Jesus shared with the disciples in the upper room the evening prior to His crucifixion, Jesus took and broke the unleavened bread and stated "Take and eat. This is My body." He was once again telling the disciples that He was the Unleavened Bread of Life.
(Deuteronomy 8:3)
Man may not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.
(John 1:1)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
(Acts 4:12)
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
An interesting fact: In the process of making unleavened bread, it is pierced with holes (Jesus' body was pierced by the thorns and nails) and the baking process makes it appear striped (Jesus' body was striped from scourging whips).
FIRST FRUITS
This feast occurrs at the beginning of the harvest season. The Israelites were commanded to bring the first gleanings of their crops to God. This was to acknowledge God as their provider and His promise that He would provide.
In Jesus' parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30), Jesus explains that the good wheat and the weeds are growing together. The master tells his servants to let them grow together until the time of harvest, and then the weeds will be gathered up and thrown into the fire.
We see that today, Godly people and ungodly people are "growing" together in the world, while the Master who "planted" us watches. Paul explains in his letter to the church in Corinth that Jesus is the firstfruits raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). This is the acknowledgment of God's promise that those who accept Christ will also be raised to eternal life. (As Paul also said, if Christ is not raised from the dead, our faith is in vain!)
As He surely planted, He will surely harvest. (See Jesus' explanation of the parable to the disciples in Matthew 13:36-43)
FEAST OF WEEKS / PENTECOST
The Feast of Weeks is so named because it occurs 7 weeks + 1 day (being 50 days) after First Fruits. According to Jewish tradition, it was on this day that the Law was given by God to the Israelites. It is difficult to prove, but certain indications and parallels seem to lead to that conclusion.
In the New Testament, The Feast of Weeks is called Pentecost (Greek for 50th). In Acts 1, the resurrected Jesus spends 40 days teaching the disciples, and then tells them not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit is imparted to them in just a few more days. This the promise He made to them before His crucifixion regarding the Holy Spirit in John 16:7-15.
In Acts 2:1,5 we see "God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven" gathered in Jerusalem" for the Feast and the disciples are together when the Spirit descends on them. If the Law was given on this day as the Jews believe, it would be the foreshadowing of the Spirit coming and the Laws of God being written on the hearts of men rather than on tablets of stone (2 Corinthians 3:3). Just as the presence of God settled over the mountain and appeared as fire to the Jews, the Holy Spirit settled over the disciples like tongues of fire.
An interesting parallel: When Moses came down from God on Mt. Sinai and punished the Israelites for idolatry, about 3000 men were slain. When the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples on Pentecost and Peter preached to the multitude, about 3000 men were saved.
Pentecost ushers in what scholars refer to as the Church Age. It is also seen as the time of "harvest". In John 4:27-38, Christ likens ministering to the lost to win them Him with harvesting.
I mentioned earlier that The first three feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits) are all Spring feasts which occur in the month of Nissan – the first month of the Jewish religious calendar. The final three feasts (Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles) are all Fall feasts which occur in the month of Tishri - seventh month of the religious calendar, but the first month of the Jewish civil calendar. (3 feasts in two different "1st month"s) All three of the Spring feasts were fulfilled bodily by Christ during His first coming (or first advent). Pentecost, which represents the Church Age under the Holy Spirit, was the fulfillment of the promise Jesus made that the Holy Spirit would come while Jesus was apart from us.
If Jesus came specifically and intentionally to fulfill the first three feasts, we certainly should look forward to Him fulfilling the last three feasts as well!
In order to stir up some conversation, let's see what parallels there are in scripture for the last 3 feasts (Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles) in regards to prophecy regarding Jesus, and discuss those in the comments.
1 comment:
Maybe it is bad form to comment on your own post, but I'm doing it anyway.
This is in no way a definitive argument or case, but a beginning to show correlations between events and scriptures. There are more arguments of support I'm hoping someone posts.
Feast of Trumpets
Ok, to cover something I mentioned in the original post for clarification - just as we we are used to having a civil year that begins with January, and a fiscal year that begins with July, there is a Jewish religious year, and a Jewish civil year.
The month of Nissan begins the Jewish religious calendar as the 1st month. The month of Tishri is the 7th month on the religious calendar, but is the 1st month on the Jewish civil calendar. This is the Jewish new year (Rosh HoShanna). Also, it traditionally celebrates the creation of the world (1st day, 1st month).
Now consider the timing of the feasts. Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits all occur in the 1st month of the religious year. Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles all occur in the 1st month of the civil year.
Although the feast is called the Feast of Trumpets, the Hebrew word used is "teruah" which means a clamor, a shout, an alarm, or a blowing (of shofars - which is where we get "Feast of Trumpets"). In celebration of this feast, the the prior month of Elul, the shofar is blown daily, and then on the day of the Feast of Trumpets, the shofar is blown 100 times. It is the call for the end of harvest and to assemble before God.
This feast, we are told, is to be a memorial, but a memorial of what? Moses reveals very little about this feast in either Leviticus 23 or in Deuteronomy 29 (although Deuteronomy does elaborate on the sacrifices required for the feast). Unlike the other feasts, there's no clear reason as to why the feast exists. It's a mystery.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 - Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
Paul also writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 - For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, 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. After that, we who are still alive and are 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.
Jesus Himself says in Matthew 24:30-31 - "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. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other."
Revelation 14:14 mentions Jesus, "one like the Son of man", who holds a sickle which He uses to harvest the earth. To harvest is to take. What would Jesus harvest? His own people.
Verse 19 states that an angel uses another sickle upon the remainder of the earth, likened to grapes. He doesn't take them, but instead he casts them into the winepress where they are pressed, distressed, squeezed, crushed. This is a clear indication that God's people are taken out of the earth and those left behind go through very harsh events and conditions.
This "harvesting" where believers are caught up to be with Jesus is known as the rapture of the church.
People are familiar with Matthew 24:36 that says "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." They are familiar also with 1 Thessalonians 5:2 that says "for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." They use these verses to declare that rapture, or Jesus' second coming, will come upon everyone as a surprise. However, they are ignoring numberous passages where Jesus is telling us to be watchful for His coming. In fact, just 2 veres later in 1 Thessalonians 5:4, Paul tells that church "But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief." Does that mean they know the precise day of the precise year? No, but they know the signs to be watchful for.
How can someone be watchful if they don't know what to watch for - particularly if it is going to occur "in the twinkling of an eye"? They can't. Jesus, and other writers, gave signs of things that would come first.
Above, we read that Christ likens our preaching the Gospel to harvesting. When the trumpet sounds, it is time for us to end our harvesting and assemble before God - in the twinkling of an eye.
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