Monday, April 27, 2009

Leviticus 24-27

Leviticus 24 - Pure Oil and Holy Bread


(1-4) The Lord said to Moses “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. This is the lampstand that stands in the Tabernacle, in front of the inner curtain that shields the Ark of the Covenant. Aaron must keep the lamps burning in the Lord’s presence all night. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation. Aaron and the priests must tend the lamps on the pure gold lampstand continually in the Lord’s presence.



(5-9) “You must bake twelve loaves of bread from choice flour, using four quarts of flour for each loaf. Place the bread before the Lord on the pure gold table, and arrange the loaves in two rows, with six loaves in each row. Put some pure frankincense near each row to serve as a representative offering, a special gift presented to the Lord. Every Sabbath day this bread must be laid out before the Lord. The bread is to be received from the people of Israel as a requirement of the eternal covenant. The loaves of bread will belong to Aaron and his descendants, who must eat them in a sacred place, for they are most holy. It is the permanent right of the priests to claim this portion of the special gifts presented to the Lord.”



   The 12 loaves of baked bread symbolized the 12 tribes of Israel as they stand in the presence of God. In Exodus 25:30, they are called "the bread of the Presence."


An Example of Just Punishment


(10-23) One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father came out of his tent and got into a fight with one of the Israelite men. During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the Name of the Lord with a curse. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They kept the man in custody until the Lord’s will in the matter should become clear to them. Then the Lord said to Moses,“Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard the curse to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death. Say to the people of Israel: Those who curse their God will be punished for their sin. Anyone who blasphemes the Name of the Lord must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any native-born Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the Name of the Lord must be put to death. “Anyone who takes another person’s life must be put to death. “Anyone who kills another person’s animal must pay for it in full - a live animal for the animal that was killed. “Anyone who injures another person must be dealt with according to the injury inflicted a fracture for a fracture, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Whatever anyone does to injure another person must be paid back in kind. “Whoever kills an animal must pay for it in full, but whoever kills another person must be put to death. “This same standard applies both to native-born Israelites and to the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.” After Moses gave all these instructions to the Israelites, they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him to death. The Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.


Leviticus 25 - The Sabbath Year


(1-2) While Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Lord said to him “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you have entered the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath rest before the Lord every seventh year.


(3-7) For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year. And don’t store away the crops that grow on their own or gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own during its Sabbath. This applies to you, your male and female servants, your hired workers, and the temporary residents who live with you. Your livestock and the wild animals in your land will also be allowed to eat what the land produces.


   Today, many observant Jews find a way around the Sabbath year law; on the seventh year, they "sell" their land to a Gentile, work it, and then "buy" it back from the Gentile when the Sabbath year is over. The Gentile makes a little money, and the Jew can say, "It wasn't my land on the Sabbath year, so it was all right if I worked it."


The Year of Jubilee


   The Year of Jubilee was meant to be celebrated every 50 years. it included canceling all debts, freeing all slaves and returning to its original owners all land that had been sold. There is no indication in the Bible that the Year of Jubilee was ever carried out.


(8-9) “In addition, you must count off seven Sabbath years, seven sets of seven years, adding up to forty-nine years in all. Then *on the Day of Atonement in the fiftieth year, blow the ram’s horn loud and long throughout the land.


*on the Day of Atonement: Hebrew on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement.


(10-13) Set this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there. It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors and return to your own clan. This fiftieth year will be a jubilee for you. During that year you must not plant your fields or store away any of the crops that grow on their own, and don’t gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. It will be a jubilee year for you, and you must keep it holy. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own. In the Year of Jubilee each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors.


(14-16) “When you make an agreement with your neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not take advantage of each other. When you buy land from your neighbor, the price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last jubilee. The seller must set the price by taking into account the number of years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee. The more years until the next jubilee, the higher the price; the fewer years, the lower the price. After all, the person selling the land is actually selling you a certain number of harvests.


(17-22) Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other. I am the Lord your God. “If you want to live securely in the land, follow my decrees and obey my regulations. Then the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it. But you might ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year?’ Be assured that I will send my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land will produce a crop large enough for three years. When you plant your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the large crop of the sixth year. In fact, you will still be eating from that large crop when the new crop is harvested in the ninth year.


Redemption of Property


(23-24) “The land must never be sold on a permanent basis, for the land belongs to me. You are only foreigners and tenant farmers working for me. “With every purchase of land you must grant the seller the right to buy it back.


Read Ruth chapters 3 & 4.


(25) If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell some family land, then a close relative should buy it back for him. If there is no close relative to buy the land, but the person who sold it gets enough money to buy it back, he then has the right to redeem it from the one who bought it. The price of the land will be discounted according to the number of years until the next Year of Jubilee. In this way the original owner can then return to the land. But if the original owner cannot afford to buy back the land, it will remain with the new owner until the next Year of Jubilee. In the jubilee year, the land must be returned to the original owners so they can return to their family land.


(29-30) “Anyone who sells a house inside a walled town has the right to buy it back for a full year after its sale. During that year, the seller retains the right to buy it back. But if it is not bought back within a year, the sale of the house within the walled town cannot be reversed. It will become the permanent property of the buyer. It will not be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee.


(31-34) But a house in a village—a settlement without fortified walls—will be treated like property in the countryside. Such a house may be bought back at any time, and it must be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee. “The Levites always have the right to buy back a house they have sold within the towns allotted to them. And any property that is sold by the Levites—all houses within the Levitical towns—must be returned in the Year of Jubilee. After all, the houses in the towns reserved for the Levites are the only property they own in all Israel. The open pastureland around the Levitical towns may never be sold. It is their permanent possession.


Redemption of the Poor and Enslaved


(35-37) “If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and cannot support himself, support him as you would a foreigner or a temporary resident and allow him to live with you. Do not charge interest or make a profit at his expense. Instead, show your fear of God by letting him live with you as your relative. Remember, do not charge interest on money you lend him or make a profit on food you sell him.


(38) I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.


(39-41) “If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell himself to you, do not treat him as a slave. Treat him instead as a hired worker or as a temporary resident who lives with you, and he will serve you only until the Year of Jubilee. At that time he and his children will no longer be obligated to you, and they will return to their clans and go back to the land originally allotted to their ancestors.


(42-54) The people of Israel are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, so they must never be sold as slaves. Show your fear of God by not treating them harshly. However, you may purchase male and female slaves from among the nations around you.
You may also purchase the children of temporary residents who live among you, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat them as slaves, but you must never treat your fellow Israelites this way. “Suppose a foreigner or temporary resident becomes rich while living among you. If any of your fellow Israelites fall into poverty and are forced to sell themselves to such a foreigner or to a member of his family, they still retain the right to be bought back, even after they have been purchased. They may be bought back by a brother, an uncle, or a cousin. In fact, anyone from the extended family may buy them back. They may also redeem themselves if they have prospered. They will negotiate the price of their freedom with the person who bought them. The price will be based on the number of years from the time they were sold until the next Year of Jubilee—whatever it would cost to hire a worker for that period of time. If many years still remain until the jubilee, they will repay the proper proportion of what they received when they sold themselves If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, they will repay a small amount for their redemption. The foreigner must treat them as workers hired on a yearly basis. You must not allow a foreigner to treat any of your fellow Israelites harshly. If any Israelites have not been bought back by the time the Year of Jubilee arrives, they and their children must be set free at that time.


(55) For the people of Israel belong to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.


Leviticus 26 - Blessings for Obedience (See also Deuteronomy 28)


(1-2) “Do not make idols or set up carved images, or sacred pillars, or sculptured stones in your land so you may worship them. I am the Lord your God. You must keep my Sabbath days of rest and show reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord.


(3) “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands,


(4-13) I will send you the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. Your threshing season will overlap with the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will overlap with the season of planting grain. You will eat your fill and live securely in your own land. “I will give you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear. I will rid the land of wild animals and keep your enemies out of your land. In fact, you will chase down your enemies and slaughter them with your swords. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand! All your enemies will fall beneath your sword. “I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And I will fulfill my covenant with you. You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new harvest! I will live among you, and I will not despise you. I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high.


   Gideon's 300 defeated 135,000 Midianites; Jonathan and his armor bearer alone defeated a Philistine army.


Punishments for Disobedience


(14-15) “However, if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands,


(16-26) I will punish you. I will bring sudden terrors upon you—wasting diseases and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them. I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you! “And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins. I will break your proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze. All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit. “If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey me, I will inflict disaster on you seven times over for your sins. I will send wild animals that will rob you of your children and destroy your livestock. Your numbers will dwindle, and your roads will be deserted. “And if you fail to learn the lesson and continue your hostility toward me, then I myself will be hostile toward you. I will personally strike you with calamity seven times over for your sins. I will send armies against you to carry out the curse of the covenant you have broken. When you run to your towns for safety, I will send a plague to destroy you there, and you will be handed over to your enemies. I will destroy your food supply, so that ten women will need only one oven to bake bread for their families. They will ration your food by weight, and though you have food to eat, you will not be satisfied.


(27) “If in spite of all this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me,


(28-30) then I will give full vent to my hostility. I myself will punish you seven times over for your sins. Then you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters. I will destroy your pagan shrines and knock down your places of worship. I will leave your lifeless corpses piled on top of your *lifeless idols, and I will despise you.


*lifeless idols: The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung.


   Even the horrific cannibalism described in Leviticus 26:29 was fulfilled in 2 Kings 6:26-29; Josephus also describes cannibalism in Jerusalem when under siege by the Romans; a woman killed and ate her own baby son


(31-35) I will make your cities desolate and destroy your places of pagan worship. I will take no pleasure in your offerings that should be a pleasing aroma to me. Yes, I myself will devastate your land, and your enemies who come to occupy it will be appalled at what they see. I will scatter you among the nations and bring out my sword against you. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then at last the land will enjoy its neglected Sabbath years as it lies desolate while you are in exile in the land of your enemies. Then the land will finally rest and enjoy the Sabbaths it missed. As long as the land lies in ruins, it will enjoy the rest you never allowed it to take every seventh year while you lived in it.


Fulfilled in 2 Kings 17 and 25. The people were conquered and carried off to the lands of Assyria and Babylonia. The nation was held in captivity for 70 years, making up for all of the years that the Israelites did not observe the law of the Sabbath year (2 Chronicles 36:21).


Jeremiah 25:8-18: And now the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Because you have not listened to me, I will gather together all the armies of the north under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whom I have appointed as my deputy. I will bring them all against this land and its people and against the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy you and make you an object of horror and contempt and a ruin forever. I will take away your happy singing and laughter. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard. Your millstones will fall silent, and the lights in your homes will go out. This entire land will become a desolate wasteland. Israel and her neighboring lands will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. Then, after the seventy years of captivity are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his people for their sins,” says the Lord. “I will make the country of the Babylonians a wasteland forever. I will bring upon them all the terrors I have promised in this book—all the penalties announced by Jeremiah against the nations. Many nations and great kings will enslave the Babylonians, just as they enslaved my people. I will punish them in proportion to the suffering they cause my people.” This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled to the brim with my anger, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. When they drink from it, they will stagger, crazed by the warfare I will send against them.” So I took the cup of anger from the Lord and made all the nations drink from it—every nation to which the Lord sent me. I went to Jerusalem and the other towns of Judah, and their kings and officials drank from the cup. From that day until this, they have been a desolate ruin, an object of horror, contempt, and cursing.


Daniel 9:1-2: It was the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede, the son of Ahasuerus, who became king of the Babylonians. During the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, learned from reading the word of the Lord, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years.


(36-39) “And for those of you who survive, I will demoralize you in the land of your enemies. You will live in such fear that the sound of a leaf driven by the wind will send you fleeing. You will run as though fleeing from a sword, and you will fall even when no one pursues you. Though no one is chasing you, you will stumble over each other as though fleeing from a sword. You will have no power to stand up against your enemies. You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies. Those of you who survive will waste away in your enemies’ lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.


(40) “But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me.


(41-43) When I have turned their hostility back on them and brought them to the land of their enemies, then at last their stubborn hearts will be humbled, and they will pay for their sins. Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. For the land must be abandoned to enjoy its years of Sabbath rest as it lies deserted. At last the people will pay for their sins, for they have continually rejected my regulations and despised my decrees.


(44-45) “But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out, for I am the Lord their God. For their sakes I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of all the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.”


(46) These are the decrees, regulations, and instructions that the Lord gave through Moses on Mount Sinai as evidence of the relationship between himself and the Israelites.


Leviticus 27 - Redemption of Gifts Offered to the Lord


(1) The Lord said to Moses,


(2) “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate someone to the Lord by paying the value of that person,


(3-8) here is the scale of values to be used.

A man between the ages of twenty and sixty is valued at fifty shekels of silver, as measured by the sanctuary shekel.

A woman of that age is valued at thirty shekels of silver.

A boy between the ages of five and twenty is valued at twenty shekels of silver;

a girl of that age is valued at ten shekels of silver.

A boy between the ages of one month and five years is valued at five shekels of silver;

a girl of that age is valued at three shekels of silver.

A man older than sixty is valued at fifteen shekels of silver;

a woman of that age is valued at ten shekels of silver.

If you desire to make such a vow but cannot afford to pay the required amount, take the person to the priest. He will determine the amount for you to pay based on what you can afford.


(9-13) “If your vow involves giving an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the Lord, any gift to the Lord will be considered holy. You may not exchange or substitute it for another animal—neither a good animal for a bad one nor a bad animal for a good one. But if you do exchange one animal for another, then both the original animal and its substitute will be considered holy.

If your vow involves an unclean animal—one that is not acceptable as an offering to the Lord—then you must bring the animal to the priest. He will assess its value, and his assessment will be final, whether high or low. If you want to buy back the animal, you must pay the value set by the priest, plus 20 percent.


(14-15) “If someone dedicates a house to the Lord, the priest will come to assess its value. The priest’s assessment will be final, whether high or low. If the person who dedicated the house wants to buy it back, he must pay the value set by the priest, plus 20 percent. Then the house will again be his.


(16-21) “If someone dedicates to the Lord a piece of his family property, its value will be assessed according to the amount of seed required to plant it—fifty shekels of silver for a field planted with five bushels of barley seed. If the field is dedicated to the Lord in the Year of Jubilee, then the entire assessment will apply. But if the field is dedicated after the Year of Jubilee, the priest will assess the land’s value in proportion to the number of years left until the next Year of Jubilee. Its assessed value is reduced each year. If the person who dedicated the field wants to buy it back, he must pay the value set by the priest, plus 20 percent. Then the field will again be legally his. But if he does not want to buy it back, and it is sold to someone else, the field can no longer be bought back. When the field is released in the Year of Jubilee, it will be holy, a field *specially set apart for the Lord. It will become the property of the priests.


*specially set apart: The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; also in verses 28 & 29.


(22-25) “If someone dedicates to the Lord a field he has purchased but which is not part of his family property, the priest will assess its value based on the number of years left until the next Year of Jubilee. On that day he must give the assessed value of the land as a sacred donation to the Lord. In the Year of Jubilee the field must be returned to the person from whom he purchased it, the one who inherited it as family property. (All the payments must be measured by the weight of the sanctuary shekel, which equals twenty gerahs.)


(26-27) “You may not dedicate a firstborn animal to the Lord, for the firstborn of your cattle, sheep, and goats already belong to him. However, you may buy back the firstborn of a ceremonially unclean animal by paying the priest’s assessment of its worth, plus 20 percent. If you do not buy it back, the priest will sell it at its assessed value.


(28) “However, anything specially set apart for the Lord—whether a person, an animal, or family property—must never be sold or bought back. Anything devoted in this way has been set apart as holy, and it belongs to the Lord.


(29) No person specially set apart for destruction may be bought back. Such a person must be put to death.


(30-33) “One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy. If you want to buy back the Lord’s tenth of the grain or fruit, you must pay its value, plus 20 percent. Count off every tenth animal from your herds and flocks and set them apart for the Lord as holy. You may not pick and choose between good and bad animals, and you may not substitute one for another. But if you do exchange one animal for another, then both the original animal and its substitute will be considered holy and cannot be bought back.”


(34) These are the commands that the Lord gave through Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.



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



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Sunday, April 5, 2009

Leviticus 23 - The Fall Festivals


The Festival of Trumpets or New Year (Rosh Hashanah). Observed the 1st of Tishri (September or October).

September 19 in 2009 (starting at sundown the night before).


(23) The Lord said to Moses,


(24) “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. On the first day of the appointed month in early autumn, you are to observe a day of complete rest. It will be an official day for holy assembly, a day commemorated with loud blasts of a trumpet.


(25) You must do no ordinary work on that day. Instead, you are to present special gifts to the Lord.”



Exodus 19:16-19: On the morning of the third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed, and a dense cloud came down on the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram’s horn, and all the people trembled. Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply.


Numbers 29:1-6: “Celebrate the Festival of Trumpets each year on the first day of the appointed month in early autumn. You must call an official day for holy assembly, and you may do no ordinary work. On that day you must present a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It will consist of one young bull, one ram, and seven one-year-old male lambs, all with no defects. These must be accompanied by grain offerings of choice flour moistened with olive oil—six quarts with the bull, four quarts with the ram, and two quarts with each of the seven lambs. In addition, you must sacrifice a male goat as a sin offering to purify yourselves and make yourselves right with the Lord. These special sacrifices are in addition to your regular monthly and daily burnt offerings, and they must be given with their prescribed grain offerings and liquid offerings. These offerings are given as a special gift to the Lord, a pleasing aroma to him.


   The Ten Days of Repentance that follow it and Yom Kippur make up the High Holy Days. Jewish tradition says that God writes every person's words, deeds and thoughts in the Book of Life, which he opens and examines on this day. if good deeds outnumber sinful ones for the year, that person's name will be inscribed in the book for another year on Yom Kippur. So, during Rosh HaShanah and the Ten Days of Repent ace, people can repent of their sins and do good deeds to increase their chances of being inscribed in the Book of Life. God does have a book of life; Revelation 21:27 calls it the "Lamb's book of life." The only way to have one's name inscribed in it is through faith in Jesus as Savior from sin, and then it is permanent (John 10:27-30). Prior to Rosh HaShanah, the shofar (ram's horn) is blown to call people to repent and remind them that the holy days are arriving. During the Rosh Hashanah synagogue services, the shofar is blown 100 times. Rosh HaShanah is sometimes referred to as the Day of Judgment.


   Some people believe the four spring holidays (Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Feast of Weeks) were fulfilled in Messiah's first coming and that the three autumn holidays (Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Feast of Booths) will be fulfilled at His second coming.


   The next feast is the Feast of Trumpets which, as we will see, is yet to be fulfilled.


   The central manifestation of this feast was blasts of trumpets. What does that mean? Once again we are not left to guess.


   If you turn to Matthew 24, Jesus is describing how this age will end. There will be the rise of the antichrist, the division of the nations into warring camps, and great tribulation will spread abroad on earth, a time of terrible trouble. In Verses 29-31 he says,


   "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth [the tribes of Israel] will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." {Matt 24:29-31 RSV}


   That is the next event in God's program with his people Israel. The Son of man will come, and the trumpet of God will herald the final gathering of Israel to the land. Much as we are interested in what is happening in Palestine now, the return of the Jews to their land, nevertheless this is not the final gathering. There is going to be another Dispersion, strangely enough. It will not last long, but Zechariah describes in detail how the city of Jerusalem shall again be taken captive and the people driven from it. It is only after they see returning the One whom they once rejected that they will be called back by the angels of God in the Feast of Trumpets, never to leave again, and God will take up his work with Israel once again.


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



   The Feast of Trumpets, which was observed on the first day of the Seventh month, ushered in the second series of the "set feasts." It fell on a Sabbath day, at the time of the New Moon, and ushered in the Jewish New Year. It was followed by the "Day of Atonement" on the 10th day of the month, and by the "Feast of Tabernacles" which began on the 15th day of the month, a Sabbath day, and ended on the 22d day of the month, which was also a Sabbath day. It was ushered in with the blowing of Trumpets. During the Wilderness Wandering two silver Trumpets, made of the atonement money of the people, were blown for the "calling of the Assembly," and for the "journeyings of the Camps." Numbers 10:1-10.


   The fact that the Feast of Trumpets comes immediately at the close of the "Interval" between the two series of "set feasts" is not without significance. As we have seen the "Interval" represents this "Dispensation of Grace," and we know that two things are to happen at the close of this Dispensation. First the Church is to be caught out, and secondly Israel is to be gathered back to their own land. When the Church is caught out - "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God." (1 Thessalonians 4:16), and "But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).


   This "last trump" is not the last of the "Seven Trumpets" that sound in the Book of Revelation, for it does not sound until the "Middle of the Week," while the Church is caught out "before" the beginning of the "Week." We probably are to understand by the "last trump" the last of the Two Trumpets used by Israel, the first, for the "calling of the Assembly," will call out the dead in Christ from their graves, and the second or "last," for the "journeying of the camps," will be the signal for the upward journey of the risen and transformed saints to meet the Lord in the air.


   Then we read in Matthew 24:31, that the Son of Man, when He comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory at His Revelation of Himself, shall send His angels with a great sound of a Trumpet, and they shall gather together His "elect" (not of the Church but of Israel) from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." From this we see that the "Feast of Trumpets" has a typical relation to the "catching out" of the Church, and the regathering of Israel at the Second Coming of Christ. This has led some to believe that as Jesus was crucified at the time of the Passover, and the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, that when He comes back the "Rapture" will take place at the Feast of Tabernacles, and the "Revelation" seven years later at the time of the same Feast. Time alone will reveal the correctness of this view.




The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur pronounced Yome Ki-POOR). Celebrated the 10th of Tishri (September or October).

September 28 in 2009 (starting at sundown the night before).


(26) Then the Lord said to Moses,


(27) “Be careful to celebrate the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of that same month—nine days after the Festival of Trumpets. You must observe it as an official day for holy assembly, a day to deny yourselves and present special gifts to the Lord.


Hebrew on the tenth day of the seventh month.


(28) Do no work during that entire day because it is the Day of Atonement, when offerings of purification are made for you, making you right with the Lord your God.


(29) All who do not deny themselves that day will be cut off from God’s people.


(30) And I will destroy anyone among you who does any work on that day.


(31) You must not do any work at all! This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.


(32) This will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and on that day you must deny yourselves. This day of rest will begin at sundown on the ninth day of the month and extend until sundown on the tenth day.”



   We already did a study on Yom Kippur, which can be found at http://leviticus-the-law.blogspot.com/2009/03/leviticus-16-yom-kippur.html.


   Certain offerings were to be given in connection with this which are described in detail in Chapter 16. But the distinctive thing about this day is that it is to be a time of self judgment, of affliction of spirit, a time of looking at yourself and seeing the wasted years of your life, and of mourning, regretting those wasted opportunities. For Israel this is described in detail in Zechariah 12:


Zechariah 12:10-11: Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died. The sorrow and mourning in Jerusalem on that day will be like the great mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.


   That is when Israel shall regret their long centuries of unbelief. For the Christian this time of mourning, this review of the wasted eras of life, comes at the judgment seat of Christ, when we "receive the things done in the body, whether they be good or bad" {cf, 2 Corinthians 5:10}, and we learn how much of our life was spent in the flesh, following after the leaven, and how much of it was spent in the Spirit, rejoicing in the work of Another on our behalf, depending upon him to produce gold, silver, and precious stones in our life.


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


   The Jubilee (Hebrew Yobel) year, is the year at the end of seven cycles of Sabbatical years and had a special impact on the ownership and management of land. The Hebrew term yobel derives from yobhel, meaning ram. The Jubilee year was announced by a blast on an instrument made from a ram's horn, during that year's Yom Kippur. The biblical requirement is that the Jubilee year was to be treated like a Sabbatical year, with the land lying fallow, but also required the compulsory return of all property to its original owners or their heirs, except the houses of laymen within walled cities, in addition to the freedom of all Israelite indentured servants.




The Festival of Shelters or Booths (Sukkot or Succoth pronounced Soo-kote).

This was earlier called the Festival of the Final Harvest or Festival of Ingathering (see Exodus 23:16b).

October 3 in 2009 (starting at sundown the night before).


(33) And the Lord said to Moses,


(34) “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. Begin celebrating the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the appointed month—five days after the Day of Atonement. This festival to the Lord will last for seven days.


Hebrew on the fifteenth day of the seventh month


(35) On the first day of the festival you must proclaim an official day for holy assembly, when you do no ordinary work.


(36) For seven days you must present special gifts to the Lord. The eighth day is another holy day on which you present your special gifts to the Lord. This will be a solemn occasion, and no ordinary work may be done that day.


(37) (“These are the Lord’s appointed festivals. Celebrate them each year as official days for holy assembly by presenting special gifts to the Lord—burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices, and liquid offerings—each on its proper day.


(38) These festivals must be observed in addition to the Lord’s regular Sabbath days, and the offerings are in addition to your personal gifts, the offerings you give to fulfill your vows, and the voluntary offerings you present to the Lord.)


(39) “Remember that this seven-day festival to the Lord—the Festival of Shelters—begins on the fifteenth day of the appointed month, after you have harvested all the produce of the land. The first day and the eighth day of the festival will be days of complete rest.


(40) On the first day gather branches from magnificent trees—palm fronds, boughs from leafy trees, and willows that grow by the streams. Then celebrate with joy before the Lord your God for seven days.


WAVING OF THE LULAV


These are the four species that form the lulav and etrog. The four species are waved in the synagogue as part of the service during the holiday of Sukkot. The four are lumped together under the inclusive term lulav, since the lulav is the largest and most prominent. The branches and fruit are waved each day Sukkot, except on Shabbat. When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the Jewish people used lulav and etrog on the first day. Only the Kohanim who served in the Temple used the lulav and etrog for the rest of the holiday. Once the Temple was destroyed, the rabbis decreed that all Jews should wave the lulav and etrog all seven days as a remembrance of Temple days.


(41) You must observe this festival to the Lord for seven days every year. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed in the appointed month from generation to generation.


(42) For seven days you must live outside in little shelters. All native-born Israelites must live in shelters.


(43) This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I rescued them from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”


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.


Deuteronomy 16:13-17: “You must observe the Festival of Shelters for seven days at the end of the harvest season, after the grain has been threshed and the grapes have been pressed. This festival will be a happy time of celebrating with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows from your towns. For seven days you must celebrate this festival to honor the Lord your God at the place he chooses, for it is he who blesses you with bountiful harvests and gives you success in all your work. This festival will be a time of great joy for all. “Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. On each of these occasions, all men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he chooses, but they must not appear before the Lord without a gift for him. All must give as they are able, according to the blessings given to them by the Lord your God.


Zechariah 14: Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you! I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city. Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west. Half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south. You will flee through this valley, for it will reach across to Azal. Yes, you will flee as you did from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones with him. On that day the sources of light will no longer shine, yet there will be continuous day! Only the Lord knows how this could happen. There will be no normal day and night, for at evening time it will still be light. On that day life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half toward the Dead Sea and half toward the Mediterranean, flowing continuously in both summer and winter. And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped. All the land from Geba, north of Judah, to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become one vast plain. But Jerusalem will be raised up in its original place and will be inhabited all the way from the Benjamin Gate over to the site of the old gate, then to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. And Jerusalem will be filled, safe at last, never again to be cursed and destroyed. And the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. On that day they will be terrified, stricken by the Lord with great panic. They will fight their neighbors hand to hand. Judah, too, will be fighting at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the neighboring nations will be captured—great quantities of gold and silver and fine clothing. This same plague will strike the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in the enemy camps. In the end, the enemies of Jerusalem who survive the plague will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. Any nation in the world that refuses to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will have no rain. If the people of Egypt refuse to attend the festival, the Lord will punish them with the same plague that he sends on the other nations who refuse to go. Egypt and the other nations will all be punished if they don’t go to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. On that day even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with these words: Holy to the Lord. And the cooking pots in the Temple of the Lord will be as sacred as the basins used beside the altar. In fact, every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. All who come to worship will be free to use any of these pots to boil their sacrifices. And on that day there will no longer be traders in the Temple of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.



   And then, finally, comes the last of the feasts, the Feast of Tabernacles, or booths.


   That is a beautiful picture of what is frequently called the millennium, the time which follows Israel's restoration to their LORD and God, when they return to a relationship to nature with the curse removed and God beautifully blesses the earth and the desert shall blossom like the rose. The secret of peace will be found and nations shall not make war any more, and rejoicing will be the whole experience of men on the earth. The secret of all that, as Paul tells us in Romans 11, is the nation Israel. They are still in the long hot summer right now, before the Feast of Trumpets restores them.


   But, as we have seen all along in this book of Leviticus, all of this is now being fulfilled in the spiritual program of each believer in Jesus Christ. God is at work in your life to bring you along this pathway, just as he outlines it here, so that you shall discover and come at last to the place of joy. C.S. Lewis says, "The ultimate purpose of God in all his work is to increase joy." And this Feast of Tabernacles is a beautiful picture of the radiant joy which is always the final product of God at work in a human life.


   God's process with each of us leads from wrath and judgment and fear to the place where we rest at last in the blood of the passover lamb, Jesus Christ, shed on our behalf. It goes on through gradual separation from evil, with much tears and fainting, and yet in the power of a new life imparted by the Holy Spirit. It progresses to the healing of broken relationships and the gathering of believers together into one body, the breaking down of middle walls of partition between us. It moves on through the restoration of the wasted years of our life unto, finally, the experience of radiant, unrestrained joy in what God himself is. That is God's program.


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


Revelation 21:3: And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (KJV)


(44) So Moses gave the Israelites these instructions regarding the annual festivals of the Lord.


   While the Feast of Tabernacles began on the Sabbath and continued seven days, it was to be followed by a Sabbath. Leviticus 23:39. This Sabbath on the "Eighth Day" points to the New Heaven and Earth that follow the Millennium, and to the "Eighth Dispensation," the Dispensation of the "Fullness of Times"."



   Eventually, these festivals just became meaningless rituals to the Jews. Jesus called them the "Feasts of the Jews" instead of the "Feasts of the Lord." Here's how God felt about it:


Isaiah 1:13-14: Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts; the incense of your offerings disgusts me! As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath and your special days for fasting - they are all sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings. I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals. They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them!



   The NIV Study Bible has a chart summarizing the Old Testament Festivals and Other Sacred Days, which is paraphrased below with just Name & Purpose (From Zondervan's "NIV Study Bible” pp. 176-177):



  1. Sabbath - Rest for people and animals.


  2. Sabbath Year - Rest for land.

  3. Year of Jubilee - Help for poor; stabilize society.

  4. Passover - Remember Israel's deliverance from Egypt.

  5. Unleavened Bread - Remember how the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt in haste.

  6. Firstfruits - Recognize the Lord's bounty in the land.

  7. Weeks (Pentecost or Harvest) - Show joy and thankfulness for the Lord's blessing of harvest.

  8. Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah-New Year's Day) - Present Israel before the Lord for his favor

  9. Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) - Atone for the sins of priests and people and purify the Holy Place.

  10. Tabernacles (Booths or Ingathering) - Memorialize the journey from Egypt to Canaan; give thanks for the productivity of Canaan.

  11. Sacred Assembly - Commemorate the closing of the cycle of feasts.

  12. Purim - Remind the Israelites of their national deliverance in the time of Esther.

  13. Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication or Festival of Lights) - Commemorated the purification of the temple and altar in the Maccabean period

  14. New moons were also often special feast days.



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



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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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