Sunday, April 5, 2009

Leviticus 23 - Spring Festivals


Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Pesach [pronounced pay-sahk] and Hag HaMatzot).

Passover is on April 9 in 2009 (starting at sundown the night before) and the Festival of Unleavened Bread is on April 10 2009.


(5) “The Lord’s Passover begins at sundown on the fourteenth day of the first month.


(6) On the next day, the fifteenth day of the month, you must begin celebrating the Festival of Unleavened Bread. This festival to the Lord continues for seven days, and during that time the bread you eat must be made without yeast.


(7) On the first day of the festival, all the people must stop their ordinary work and observe an official day for holy assembly.


(8) For seven days you must present special gifts to the Lord. On the seventh day the people must again stop all their ordinary work to observe an official day for holy assembly.”


Exodus 12: While the Israelites were still in the land of Egypt, the Lord gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron: “From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you. Announce to the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice, one animal for each household. If a family is too small to eat a whole animal, let them share with another family in the neighborhood. Divide the animal according to the size of each family and how much they can eat. “These are your instructions for eating this meal: Be fully dressed, wear your sandals, and carry your walking stick in your hand. Eat the meal with urgency, for this is the Lord’s Passover. On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt. “This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival to the Lord. This is a law for all time. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast. On the first day of the festival, remove every trace of yeast from your homes. Anyone who eats bread made with yeast during the seven days of the festival will be cut off from the community of Israel. On the first day of the festival and again on the seventh day, all the people must observe an official day for holy assembly. No work of any kind may be done on these days except in the preparation of food. “Celebrate this Festival of Unleavened Bread, for it will remind you that I brought your forces out of the land of Egypt on this very day. This festival will be a permanent law for you; celebrate this day from generation to generation. The bread you eat must be made without yeast from the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day of that month. During those seven days, there must be no trace of yeast in your homes. Anyone who eats anything made with yeast during this week will be cut off from the community of Israel. These regulations apply both to the foreigners living among you and to the native-born Israelites. During those days you must not eat anything made with yeast. Wherever you live, eat only bread made without yeast.” Then Moses called all the elders of Israel together and said to them, “Go, pick out a lamb or young goat for each of your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. Drain the blood into a basin. Then take a bundle of hyssop branches and dip it into the blood. Brush the hyssop across the top and sides of the doorframes of your houses. And no one may go out through the door until morning. For the Lord will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptians. But when he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, the Lord will pass over your home. He will not permit his death angel to enter your house and strike you down. “Remember, these instructions are a permanent law that you and your descendants must observe forever. When you enter the land the Lord has promised to give you, you will continue to observe this ceremony. Then your children will ask, ‘What does this ceremony mean?’ And you will reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. And though he struck the Egyptians, he spared our families.’” When Moses had finished speaking, all the people bowed down to the ground and worshiped. So the people of Israel did just as the Lord had commanded through Moses and Aaron. And that night at midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died. Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron during the night. “Get out!” he ordered. “Leave my people—and take the rest of the Israelites with you! Go and worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you said, and be gone. Go, but bless me as you leave.” All the Egyptians urged the people of Israel to get out of the land as quickly as possible, for they thought, “We will all die!” The Israelites took their bread dough before yeast was added. They wrapped their kneading boards in their cloaks and carried them on their shoulders. And the people of Israel did as Moses had instructed; they asked the Egyptians for clothing and articles of silver and gold. The Lord caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So they stripped the Egyptians of their wealth! That night the people of Israel left Rameses and started for Succoth. There were about 600,000 men, plus all the women and children. A rabble of non-Israelites went with them, along with great flocks and herds of livestock. For bread they baked flat cakes from the dough without yeast they had brought from Egypt. It was made without yeast because the people were driven out of Egypt in such a hurry that they had no time to prepare the bread or other food. The people of Israel had lived in Egypt for 430 years. In fact, it was on the last day of the 430th year that all the Lord’s forces left the land. On this night the Lord kept his promise to bring his people out of the land of Egypt. So this night belongs to him, and it must be commemorated every year by all the Israelites, from generation to generation. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the instructions for the festival of Passover. No outsiders are allowed to eat the Passover meal. But any slave who has been purchased may eat it if he has been circumcised. Temporary residents and hired servants may not eat it. Each Passover lamb must be eaten in one house. Do not carry any of its meat outside, and do not break any of its bones. The whole community of Israel must celebrate this Passover festival. “If there are foreigners living among you who want to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, let all their males be circumcised. Only then may they celebrate the Passover with you like any native-born Israelite. But no uncircumcised male may ever eat the Passover meal. This instruction applies to everyone, whether a native-born Israelite or a foreigner living among you.” So all the people of Israel followed all the Lord’s commands to Moses and Aaron. On that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt like an army.


Deuteronomy 16:1-8: “In honor of the Lord your God, celebrate the Passover each year in the early spring, in the month of Abib, for that was the month in which the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. Your Passover sacrifice may be from either the flock or the herd, and it must be sacrificed to the Lord your God at the designated place of worship—the place he chooses for his name to be honored. Eat it with bread made without yeast. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, as when you escaped from Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread—the bread of suffering—so that as long as you live you will remember the day you departed from Egypt. Let no yeast be found in any house throughout your land for those seven days. And when you sacrifice the Passover lamb on the evening of the first day, do not let any of the meat remain until the next morning. “You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of the towns that the Lord your God is giving you. You must offer it only at the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored. Sacrifice it there in the evening as the sun goes down on the anniversary of your exodus from Egypt. Roast the lamb and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses. Then you may go back to your tents the next morning. For the next six days you may not eat any bread made with yeast. On the seventh day proclaim another holy day in honor of the Lord your God, and no work may be done on that day.


Luke 22:7-16: Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread arrived, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, “Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together.” “Where do you want us to prepare it?” they asked him. He replied, “As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.” They went off to the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there. When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table. Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”


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!


John 2:13-16: It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”


John 11:55: It was now almost time for the Jewish Passover celebration, and many people from all over the country arrived in Jerusalem several days early so they could go through the purification ceremony before Passover began.


1 Corinthians 5:7-8: Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.




   The first feast was the Passover. It came in the spring of the year. This was the beginning of the year as far as God's program for his people was concerned. It comes first because it speaks of that which comes first in redemption - the slain Lamb, and the appropriating of the shed blood as a covering from judgment. The slaying of the lamb speaks of salvation; the feasting speaks of fellowship.


   The details of this feast are given in other parts of Scripture. It was a reminder of that dramatic moment in Egypt when, because of Pharaoh's intransigence, the angel of death was commanded to pass throughout the land of Egypt and kill the first-born son in every household. But God had made provision for his own people. If they would kill a lamb and put its blood over the doorposts the angel would see the blood and would pass over that house. So it was called the passover. It was God's graphic way of teaching humanity, through Israel, that the basis of his work with human beings always must rest upon the death of another on our behalf. The basis of salvation is rest in the labor of someone else to solve the problem of our inherent evil. That is what the New Testament calls justification. It occurs when you trust that the work of Jesus Christ, our passover, is sufficient for you.


   You remember how this was historically fulfilled. On the very evening of the Passover, Jesus ate the last Passover feast with his disciples. And, on the day when the rest of Israel was offering a lamb on the doorposts, the Lamb of God died upon a cross. He was crucified there in obedience to the command of the Roman governor and at the request of the Jewish officials who had cried out on behalf of the people, "Crucify him, crucify him!" {Luke 23:21, John 19:6 KJV}. And that is the fundamental teaching of the gospel -- that we are safe from the wrath of God under the blood of Christ.


   Linked with the passover was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It followed immediately.


   Two Sabbaths were always involved, plus the weekly sabbath. It didn't make any difference which days of the week they fell on; it was the day of the month which counted. It began on the fifteenth day, lasted seven days, then ended. This feast again looked back to Egypt, to the command God gave then that the Israelites clear all leaven from their houses. To this day, orthodox Jews meticulously do this in preparation for the passover season. (In fact, this is the origin of the custom of Spring cleaning.)


   Leaven is yeast. It is a very apt symbol of that which in human lives tends to puff us up. That is what yeast does in bread -- it makes it swell. And there is something at work in us, God says, which makes us swell up, puff up. A doctor once told me, "The strangest thing about the human anatomy is that when you pat it on the back, the head swells up."


   Why is that? Well, there is a principle at work in us which drives us to be self-sufficient. You know how universal that tendency is. "Please, mother, I'd rather do it myself!" We don't want any help. We don't even want to tell people our problems, to let them know that we are not sufficient in ourselves. We all have this tendency within us to want to protect our images and to look as if we've got it made and don't need help. And if someone makes us mad by offering aid we tell them so: "Get lost!" "Drop dead!" "I don't need you!" That is leaven. It can take all kinds of forms:


   Jesus often spoke of leaven. He said, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy" {cf, Luke 12:1}, i.e., pretending. We Christians do so much of that, don't we? Pretending we don't have any problems when we do. Pretending we're spiritual when we're not. Pretending we're joyful when we're unhappy and filled with misery inside. Pretending we tell the truth when we don't. That is hypocrisy, leaven which comes from this aversion to admitting that we need some help.


   Jesus spoke of the leaven of the Sadducees, which was rationalism, the denial of the supernatural, the feeling that everything can be explained in terms of what you can see, taste, touch, smell, and feel; that there is no power beyond man and that man is sufficient to himself {Matthew 16:5-12}.


   Our Lord spoke of the leaven of the Herodians {Mark 8:14-21}, who were materialists. They lived for pleasure, for comfort and luxury, and for status and prestige and the favor of people. They had their ear to the ground so as to be able to manipulate and maneuver politically and thus to advance themselves.


   Paul speaks of the leaven of sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8: Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.


   That is what this feast is all about. And preceding it, that is the purpose of the Passover, God begins his work with the blood of the Lamb to protect us from his just wrath in order that we might learn to be freed from leaven.


Quoted from God's Calendar: www.pbc.org/library/files/html/0520.html.



   One interesting practice during the Passover celebration is the breaking of one of three pieces of unleavened bread. The first half is used immediately, but the second is wrapped in a cloth and hidden until after the meal. This is the bread that Jesus broke during the Last Supper. It speaks of His sinless perfection. The second piece wrapped, hidden, and resurrected speaks of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection.




Feast of First Fruits (Yom HaBikkurim pronounced Yome Hah-Bee-koo-REEM). Celebrated 16th of Abib (Nisan).

April 11 in 2009 (starting at sundown the night before).


(9) Then the Lord said to Moses,


(10) “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you enter the land I am giving you and you harvest its first crops, bring the priest a bundle of grain from the first cutting of your grain harvest.


(11) On the day after the Sabbath, the priest will lift it up before the Lord so it may be accepted on your behalf.


(12) On that same day you must sacrifice a one-year-old male lamb with no defects as a burnt offering to the Lord.


(13) With it you must present a grain offering consisting of four quarts of choice flour moistened with olive oil. It will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. You must also offer one quart of wine as a liquid offering.


(14) Do not eat any bread or roasted grain or fresh kernels on that day until you bring this offering to your God. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.


      When the Priest on the day of Christ's resurrection waved the sheaf of "First-Fruits" in the Temple, it was before a torn veil, and was but an empty form, for the Substance had come and the shadow had passed away, and the empty tomb proclaimed that the "Great First-Fruits' Sheaf" had been reaped and waved in the Heavenly Temple. There will be no Feast of First Fruits in the Millennium because it has been fulfilled in Christ.



      The firstfruits at Passover would be barley, which ripens in the warmer areas as early as March.


      The Feast of the Firstfruits begins with the waving of the sheaves before the Lord. Then comes a series of sacrifices that include a whole burnt offering, a grain offering and a drink offering (reflecting the grape harvest). These two acts are to dedicate and celebrate the entire harvest as a blessing from God given to his people.


   People offered the first ripe sheaf (firstfruits) of barley to the Lord as an act of dedicating the harvest to him. On Passover, a marked sheaf of grain was bundled and left standing in the field. On the next day, the first day of Unleavened Bread, the sheaf was cut and prepared for the offering on the third day. On the third day (Yom HaBikkurim), the priest waved the barley sheaf before the Lord. Counting the days (omer) then begins and continues until the day after the seventh Sabbath, the 50th day, which is called Shavuot or Pentecost. Jewish people rarely celebrate Yom haBikkurim today, but it has great significance for Christians as the day of Jesus' resurrection.


   The Feast of the Firstfruits is a picture of Jesus' resurrection. There is a triple significance here. The nation Israel itself was a kind of firstfruits or first-born to the Lord in His redemptive plan for the nations. Then, also, Christian believers are spoken of as a kind of firstfruits (James 1:18). But, supremely, the reference is to the Lord Jesus, who, on the first day of the week ("the day after the Sabbath) rose from the dead. Jesus rose on the third day of Passover season, Nisan 16, the day of Firstfruits: 1 Corinthians 15:20-23: But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.


   At the Feast of Pentecost a New Meat Offering was to be offered before the Lord. It was called "new" because it must be of grain from the "new" harvest. At the Feast of First-Fruits "stalks of grain" were to be offered and waved, but at the Feast of Pentecost the grain was to be ground and made into flour, from which two loaves were to be baked with leaven. The "two loaves" represent the two classes of people that were to form the Church, the Jews and Gentiles, and as believers are not perfect, even though saved, that imperfection is represented by the leaven.


   The Feast of Pentecost had its fulfillment on the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples of the Lord were baptized into one body by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:13: Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.



   "In the land of Israel, which climatically is very much like this part of California, the barley was planted in the fall and came to harvest in the springtime. You can read about that in the book of Ruth. The harvest was preceded by the Feast of First Fruits in which they took a sheaf of grain, cut it, and waved it before the LORD, offering the harvest to the LORD. With it came certain sacrifices, speaking again of rest in the blood and the work of Another. They were specifically warned not to eat of this grain in any form whatsoever until they had made this offering.


   "What was this a picture of? We don't have to guess. In First Corinthians 15, Paul tells us that, on the third day, when our Lord rose from the dead, he was the first fruits of God's harvest {cf, 1 Corinthians 15:20-23}. In other words, when God begins his work with men he does it with the death of another on our behalf, announces that the purpose of it is that he might free us from all kinds of leaven in our lives, and then declares that the outcome of it will be life out of death, a risen life. And our Lord was the first one to rise from the dead when he came out of the grave on that beautiful Easter morning.


   "You notice that the first fruits were to be offered on the day after the sabbath. The sabbath is Saturday. That makes the day after it Sunday. So this is the Lord's day -- the day of resurrection. On the day of resurrection the Feast of First Fruits, the reminder of a new creation, a new life with new kinds of food, was given to us. And, historically, you recall, the Gospels say, "As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, the disciples came to the tomb and found it empty," {cf, Matthew 28:1}. Christ was risen from the dead, a risen Lord, imparting to us a new kind of life, a new creation. That is the Feast of First Fruits and that is the day for believers to celebrate."


Quoted from God's Calendar: www.pbc.org/library/files/html/0520.html.




The Festival of Harvest (Shavuot pronounced Shavuot). Celebrated the 6th of Siva (May or June).

May 29 in 2009 (starting at sundown the night before).


This celebration, called the Festival of Harvest or the Festival of Weeks, was later called the Festival of Pentecost (see Acts 2:1).


Exodus 23:16: “Second, celebrate the Festival of Harvest, when you bring me the first crops of your harvest. “Finally, celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the harvest season, when you have harvested all the crops from your fields.


(15) “From the day after the Sabbath—the day you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special offering—count off seven full weeks.


(16) Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.


(17) From wherever you live, bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up before the Lord as a special offering. Make these loaves from four quarts of choice flour, and bake them with yeast. They will be an offering to the Lord from the first of your crops.


(18) Along with the bread, present seven one-year-old male lambs with no defects, one young bull, and two rams as burnt offerings to the Lord. These burnt offerings, together with the grain offerings and liquid offerings, will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.


(19) Then you must offer one male goat as a sin offering and two one-year-old male lambs as a peace offering.


(20) “The priest will lift up the two lambs as a special offering to the Lord, together with the loaves representing the first of your crops. These offerings, which are holy to the Lord, belong to the priests.


(21) That same day will be proclaimed an official day for holy assembly, a day on which you do no ordinary work. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.


(22) “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.”


Deuteronomy 16: 9-12: “Count off seven weeks from when you first begin to cut the grain at the time of harvest. Then celebrate the Festival of Harvest to honor the Lord your God. Bring him a voluntary offering in proportion to the blessings you have received from him. This is a time to celebrate before the Lord your God at the designated place of worship he will choose for his name to be honored. Celebrate with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites from your towns, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live among you. Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, so be careful to obey all these decrees.



  "Counting of the Omer is a verbal counting of each of the forty-nine days between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot. The Counting of the Omer begins on the second day of Passover and ends the day before the holiday of Shavuot, the 'fiftieth day.' The idea of counting each day represents spiritual preparation and anticipation for the giving of the Torah, which was given by God on Mount Sinai at the beginning of the month of Siva, around the same time as the holiday of Shavuot.


   "The omer is a Biblical measure of volume of grain. On the second day of Passover, an omer of barley was offered in the Temple. On the 50th day after the beginning of the count, corresponding to the holiday of Shavuot, two loaves made of wheat were offered in the Temple to signal the start of the wheat harvest.


from Counting of the Omer - From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_of_the_Omer



   This feast, because it came fifty days after the Feast of First Fruits, was called Pentecost. Pentecost means fiftieth. Notice that this too fell on the day after a sabbath, Sunday, further evidence that God has shifted the day of celebration for believers to the first day of the week.


   How was this fulfilled historically in the carrying out of God's work with his people? You remember what happened on Pentecost. On that day as the disciples were gathered in the upper room the Holy Spirit suddenly came upon them in a new way. A new body was formed, the body of the church, made up no longer simply of Jews alone but, as Peter announced, of Jews and Gentiles -- two loaves baked with leaven.


   The Feast of Pentecost occurred around the middle of May. From mid-May until the first of the seventh month, which would be about mid-September, there were no more feasts in Israel. A long period of time would go by before another feast -- a long hot summer. During that time only one provision was made and that is given to us in Verse 22:


   "And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God." {Leviticus 23:22 RSV}


   The "stranger" is the non-Jew, the non-Israelite -- in other words, the Gentile. That is, after the day of Pentecost there was to be for a long, indeterminate period of time an open door for the Gentiles to come in and feed in the richness of the fields of Israel. This is what has been happening in human history up to this point.


- from God's Calendar: www.pbc.org/library/files/html/0520.html


   In modern times it is customary for observant Jews to stay up the entire night of Shavuot studying and discussing the Torah. The tradition that the Israelites had fallen asleep the night before God gave them the Torah and Moses had to awaken them is the basis of this custom.




The Interval.


   Between the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Trumpets there was an interval of four months during which the Harvest and Vintage were gathered in. There was no convocation of the people during those busy months. This long "Interval" typifies the "Present Dispensation" in which the Holy Spirit is gathering out the elect of the Church, and during which Israel is scattered among the Nations. When the Present Dispensation has run its course, and the "Fullness of the Gentiles" has been gathered in (Romans 11:25) along with the "remnant according to the election of grace" of Israel (Romans 11:5), then this "Dispensation of Grace" will end, and the elect of Israel will be gathered back from the four quarters of the earth to keep the Feast of Trumpets at Jerusalem. Matthew 24:31.


John 4:35 – You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. (Read the context!) See also Judges 19:2.


Romans 11:25: I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ.


Romans 11:5: It is the same today, for a few of the people of Israel have remained faithful because of God’s grace - his undeserved kindness in choosing them.


Matthew 24:31: And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world - from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.




Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation of the Bible.



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