Monthly Archives: December 2022

SEEING JESUS IN THE FEASTS OF ISRAEL – LESSON 3

Christian Life, ,

LESSON 3

PASSOVER, UNLEAVENED BREAD AND FIRSTFRUITS

1.  PASSOVER

“These are the Lord’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times.

“The Lord’s Passover begins as twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month…” Leviticus 23:4, 5.

INTRODUCTION

These three feasts are grouped together because they took place over a period of eight days, beginning with Passover on 14th Nisan; Unleavened Bread which began on the day after Passover and continued for seven days; and First-fruits which was celebrated on the first Sabbath after Passover.

Below is a table of the dates of these three feasts in the year of Jesus’ death. Please note that Jesus died on the Thursday, not on the Friday as traditionally taught by the church.

THE MEANING OF PASSOVER

Before we examine the meaning of the Passover, there is something fundamental we must understand about the death of Jesus. The Bible presents His sacrifice from two perspectives: from the perspective of eternity and from the perspective of time (history).

From the perspective of eternity

“Christ being slain from the foundation of the world illustrates not only that He was foreordained to be slain, but also that the efficacy, or the beneficial effect of that death, is the same as if that sacrifice had been made before the creation of the world. Thus, Old Testament saints are washed clean in Christ’s blood the same as we are today. In other words, the efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice is not limited by time. God had already chosen who He would save before creation, and had thus already ordained the Saviour to shed His blood for them, to make this possible. Their salvation wasn’t something which could be thwarted, it was something which was as good as ‘done’ from the time that God ordained it.”

(http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/faq/slainfounda.html)

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from your empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” 1 Peter 1:18-20.

“All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast – all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” Revelation 13:8.

From the perspective of time

God set up the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant to teach His people about the price of sin. The blood of sacrificial animals was meant as a visual aid to prepare them to understand Messiah’s death as the payment for the debt of sin.

 “When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.” Hebrews 9:11, 12.

“But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for His enemies to be made His footstool, because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Hebrews 10:12-14.

Although Jesus’ death had eternal significance, it had to happen at a specific point in time; He would actually suffer and shed His blood for the human race on the day and at the time that the Passover lambs were sacrificed so that we could see what He had done. He was “revealed in these last times” for our sake.

Passover was the first step in this learning process.

“The first Passover came into holy history nearly 3500 years ago. The family of Israel were captives in Egypt at that time. They were about to embark on their first great adventure as a people. And under Moses a new nation was about to come into being. On the eve of that epic exodus out of the bondage of Egypt they were given their instructions for Passover. They were to sacrifice a lamb and place the blood upon their door posts.

“That night the angel of death passed over Egypt and over the Israelites dwelling at Goshen. Those households with the blood of the lamb upon the door were protected. Through the blood of the lamb they were saved from death. This was a salvation event of huge significance. And they would remember it forever. The Passover marked the national salvation and the deliverance of the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt.

“This was more than a national political salvation. At that time the blood of the Sacrifice Lamb was showcased before the whole nation of Israel. It was something personal to every household. It was also a portent of something far greater than they could imagine. Something that would happen on a future Passover. 

“The great salvation afforded those who were obedient to YHVH-God was demonstrated in the family of Israel. And later, at the time of the Exodus, the power of the blood of the lamb to save was demonstrated before all the families of Egypt, the gentile superpower of the day. Everyone with eyes to see stopped and to look and take note. The atoning blood of the lamb secured salvation for the firstborn of all the families who were obedient. Salvation came through the atoning blood sacrifice of a lamb.

“This was, and always will be, the essential meaning of Passover. All the previous blood sacrifices even going back to the Garden of Eden looked forward to a coming greater, ultimate, Sacrifice Lamb. In His atoning blood all the previous accounts based upon faith and a blood sacrifice would be taken note of and covered. If there was faith in the heart of the one making the sacrifice then their sins would be accounted for, and settled.

“Our father Abraham knew about that promised Sacrifice Lamb. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham’s willingness to do this believing God would bring life back from death was the essential faith of Abraham. And this faith was necessary on his side of the covenant. The lamb with his head caught in the thicket of thorns was of course provided by YHVH-God. The lamb provided for Abraham on this occasion was a substitute for the life of his son Isaac.

“We see the crucifixion drama foreshadowed in that awesome scene. Abraham’s only son Isaac was a little boy submissive and humble unto death. Isaac carried the wood necessary for his own sacrifice up a lonely hill. He allowed himself to be bound by his father.

“This was an awesome, even an awful place of slaughter. It was also the Holy Place that would bring atonement for sin. YHVH-God saw faith demonstrated in the obedient actions of His covenant partner Abraham. And so the God of Abraham then acted powerfully on His side of the covenant on behalf of His friend.

“The rest of the story of Abraham’s family is a matter of written record. Holy history is the story of the family of the faithful. The account of the ultimate Sacrifice Lamb is laid out in the pages of Holy Scripture. We see the promised New Covenant fulfillment recorded in the pages of the New Testament.

“So this event, the Passover sacrifice, was more than a celebration of the salvation of the Israelites from the death angel on their exodus out of Egypt. Four millenia ago our father Abraham had testified that

“God will provide Himself, a Lamb”. (Gen.22:8)”

http://endtimepilgrim.org/passover.htm

SEEING JESUS IN THE FEASTS OF ISRAEL – LESSON 2 Conclusion

Christian Life, ,

CONCLUSION

Although the Sabbath is not strictly part of the seven annual feasts, it sets the tone for our relationship with our bridegroom. It teaches us about the spiritual rest into which we enter through His completed work on the cross so that there is nothing for us to do to achieve acceptance with Him. He had done it all and all He requires is that we believe in Him and accept what He has done as a finished work.

The Sabbath as a creation ordinance of six days of work to one day of rest still stands and we must obey it for our own health and wellbeing. The Sabbath as part of the Law has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ and there is no longer any obligation to observe the Sabbath as a specific day of rest.

There is a stream of Christianity that insists that we observe the Jewish Sabbath as our day of rest. The Emperor Constantine in the 4th century AD, changed the day on which Christians were to rest from the Jewish Sabbath to the pagan Sunday and they regard this as the mark of the beast!

Those who still make Sabbath observance obligatory are part of a group of believers whom the Apostle Paul regards as immature and have weak consciences. He said to the Galatians who were listening to false teachers who taught that they needed to be circumcised, “You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.” Galatians 4:10, 11.

“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” Colossians 2:16, 17.

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:9-11.

Sabbath is to be a daily experience of resting in Christ’s finished work on the cross. We have been forgiven, cleansed, filled with God’s Spirit and accepted in Christ. We are no longer slaves but sons. We have the witness of the Holy Spirit in our spirits that we are children of God so that we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Jesus, our Messiah, is the perfect fulfilment of the Sabbath.

SUMMARY AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION

  1. The weekly Sabbath is a compulsory day of rest to celebrate His finished work of creation on the seventh day. We need to rest for one day in seven.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11.

  1. The spiritual Sabbath into which we have entered celebrates His finished work of salvation and the new creation which He accomplished on the cross.

“Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it…For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.” Hebrews 4:1; 8-10.

SEEING JESUS IN THE FEASTS OF ISRAEL – LESSON 2 cont

Christian Life, ,
  1. THE FULFILMENT OF THE SABBATH

Firstly, why don’t we, as Christians observe the seventh day as our day of rest, as God commanded in Genesis 2:2? How did Sunday observance originate?

In the 4th Century AD, during the reign of Constantine, he tried to eradicate the Jewish roots of Christianity including the Sabbath as the Christians’ day of rest.

“Sunday actually made very little headway as a Christian day of rest until the time of Constantine in the fourth century. Constantine was emperor of Rome from AD 306 to 337. He was a sun worshiper during the first years of his reign. Later, he professed conversion to Christianity, but at heart remained a devotee of the sun. Edward Gibbon says, “The Sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine.”

Constantine created the earliest Sunday law known to history in AD 321. It says this:

On the venerable Day of the sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits: because it often happens that another Day is not so suitable for grain sowing or for vine planting: lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.

Following this initial legislation, both emperors and Popes in succeeding centuries added other laws to strengthen Sunday observance. What began as a pagan ordinance ended as a Christian regulation. Close on the heels of the Edict of Constantine followed the Catholic Church Council of Laodicea (circa 364 AD):

Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday (Sabbath), but shall work on that Day: but the Lord’s Day, they shall especially honour; and as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.”

(http://amazingdiscoveries.org/S-deception-Sabbath_change_Constantine)

Did Jesus keep the Sabbath and why?

This is a very broad subject which we cannot deal with in detail here. The gospels make it clear that Jesus fulfilled every requirement of the Law, including the Sabbath, but not the requirements of the religious leaders who made the Law burdensome by their petty additions.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” Matthew 5:17. His intention was to show His people how to interpret and live by God’s teachings so that the world would see what God is really like.

He resisted their attempts to force their legalism on Him. He lived by His yoke – His way of interpreting the Torah, by practicing mercy, not judgment. And He could say:

“Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” John 8:46.

Then why did He keep the Law when believers are no longer under the Law?

“But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights as sons.” Galatians 4:4. Jesus did two things: He showed us how to interpret and live God’s best way according to His teachings (torah/law); and He obeyed the Law perfectly so that He could be a perfect sacrificial lamb to pay the price for our failure to keep the Law.

How does the Law apply to believers?

Jesus fulfilled the Law for us and gave us the free gift of His righteousness because we cannot obey the Law perfectly. The Law was given to expose our sinfulness and our inability to save ourselves.

“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Jesus cancelled the Law by His death on the cross. That means that we are no longer obliged to try to keep the Law because Jesus kept it perfectly for us and then tore it up so that it no longer becomes the standard by which we are to live.

“He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13b-15.

We no longer need the Law because the sin that the Law was intended to expose has been forgiven and removed.

“For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit to death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law, so that w

We serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.’” Romans 7:5-6.

We are motivated by another law, the law of love.

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8.

“The key to understanding this issue is knowing that the Old Testament law was given to the nation of Israel, not to Christians. Some of the laws were to reveal to the Israelites how to obey and please God (the Ten Commandments, for example). Some of the laws were to show the Israelites how to worship God and atone for sin (the sacrificial system). Some of the laws were intended to make the Israelites distinct from other nations (the food and clothing rules). None of the Old Testament law is binding on us today.

“When Jesus died on the cross He put an end to the Old Testament law (Ephesians 2:14, 15).

“In place of the Old Testament law, we are under the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2), which is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and to love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). If we obey those two commands, we will be fulfilling all that Christ requires of us: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40). Now, this does not mean the Old Testament law is irrelevant today. Many of the commands in the Old Testament law fall into the categories of “loving God” and “loving your neighbour.”

“The Old Testament law can be a good guidepost for knowing how to love God and knowing what goes into loving your neighbour. At the same time, to say that the Old Testament law applies to Christians today is incorrect. The Old Testament law is a unit (James 2:10). Either all of it applies, or none of it applies. If Christ fulfilled some of it, such as the sacrificial system, He fulfilled all of it.

“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

“The Ten Commandments were essentially a summary of the entire Old Testament law. Nine of the Ten Commandments are clearly repeated in the New Testament (all except the command to observe the Sabbath day). Obviously, if we are loving God, we will not be worshipping false gods or bowing down before idols. If we are loving our neighbours, we will not be murdering them, lying to them, committing adultery against them, or coveting what belongs to them.

“The purpose of the Old Testament law is to convict people of our inability to keep the law and point us to our need for Jesus Christ as Saviour (Romans 7:7-9; Galatians 3:24). The Old Testament law was never intended by God to be the universal law for all people for all of time. We are to love God and love our neighbours. If we obey those two commands faithfully, we will be upholding all that God requires of us.”

(http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-law.html#ixzz2wrzUdtAJ)

How did Jesus fulfil the Sabbath?

“Is there a Sabbath after Calvary? Yes! Hebrews 4:9-10 says, “There remains then a Sabbath-rest to the people of God. For anyone that enters God’s rest, he also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.” There are two words not found in those verses, “Sabbath” and “day.” It is because our rest is no longer a calendar day each week, but every day, which includes the seventh, and thus we keep the Sabbath by living a godly and blood-washed life every day. For we have ceased from our old works.

“Some people who haven’t come to an understanding of what covenant they are under will point out that Paul often went into the synagogues on the Sabbath. If we look at those incidents, however, we see that it was to bring those who hear out of the synagogue and that system of death. Here is what Paul the Apostle said about the seventh day as found in Romans 14:5-6: “One man considers one day more sacred than another, another considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does do to the Lord…”

“We know that the Sabbath law is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and He abides within us. The seventh day Sabbath was not eliminated but fulfilled, and our Saviour added six more days to that rest and gave us the timelessness of eternal life. Thus, the seventh day is kept holy with all the other days. We can worship our Lord any day and every day. We know that Sunday is not the Sabbath but rather one of seven days, any of which can be used for worship.

Acts 20:7 says, “On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.”

(http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract8.html)

SEEING JESUS IN THE FEASTS OF ISRAEL – LESSON 2

Christian Life, ,

LESSON 2

THE SABBATH

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

“There are six days when you may work, but the seventh is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord.” Leviticus 23:1-3.

  1. THE MEANING OF SABBATH

Although the Sabbath is not strictly part of the annual feasts which rehearse the work of the Messiah in His first and second comings, they are prophetic of the overall work He did to take His people out of slavery in Egypt into the rest of the Promised Land. The Sabbath is a sign of the Mosaic covenant, just like the rainbow was God’s sign of His covenant with Noah, and circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic covenant.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign me and you for the generations to come, that you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy.’” Exodus 31:12, 13.

“The origin of the Hebrew sabbat [t’B;v] is uncertain, but it seems to have derived from the verb sabat, meaning to stop, to cease, or to keep. Its theological meaning is rooted in God’s rest following the six days of creation (Gen 2:2-3). The Greek noun sabbat [savbbaton] translates the Hebrew noun sabbat [t’B;v]. The noun form is used primarily to denote the seventh day of the week, though it may occasionally refer to the Sabbath week (Lev 23:15-16) at the end of every seven Sabbaths or fifty days, or the Sabbath year (Lev 25:1-7) in which the land was to be at complete rest.”

(http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/sabbath/)

  1. THE PURPOSE OF THE SABBATH

 “In the Torah, the purpose of Sabbath observance is to remind the Hebrew people of two very important events in history: the creation of the world (Ex. 20:11) and the deliverance from slavery in Egypt (Deut. 5:15). Both highlight the central Jewish religious belief: that there is one, powerful creator God who cares for his people. Jews also believe that God commanded the Sabbath to ensure that his people stopped every once in a while to be a human being instead of a “human doing.”

(http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/holidays/shabbat.htm)

SEEING JESUS IN THE FEASTS OF ISRAEL – LESSON 1 Concl

Christian Life, ,

3. THE MARRIAGE SUPPER

After the consummation of the marriage, the bridal couple would be escorted by the wedding attendants to the marriage feast to celebrate their union.

Jesus told a parable about the ten virgins who were waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom so that the wedding banquet could begin. “But while they were on their way to buy oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.” Matthew 25:10. (More about this later).

Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he added, ‘These are the true words of God.’” Revelation 19:6-9.

THE DIVINE ROMANCE ACROSS TIME

  1. God loved and chose Israel to be His bride

God showed His love for Israel by choosing Abraham, growing a family and finally delivering them from slavery in Egypt. He wooed them by protecting, caring and providing for them in the wilderness and by leading them to the same place where He had appeared to Moses as He had promised.

  1. He proposed to them at Sinai

He declared His intention to “marry” them at Mount Sinai and gave them His “ketubah” to show them what kind of a husband He would be and what He expected of them. They refused to hear Him and to respond to His proposal. They showed their disdain for His covenant by demanding and worshipping a golden calf while Moses was on the mountain receiving the written ketubah.

  1. The betrothal period started at Sinai

Israel was to reciprocate by separating herself from all other gods, and by making herself ready for her marriage by her righteous acts. Although God continued to woo His bride, she persisted in being unfaithful to Him by her spiritual adultery with the gods of the surrounding nations.

She also failed to keep her side of the covenant by her injustice to the poor and oppressed.

  1. Divorce

God was forced to break off His engagement (tantamount to divorce) to Israel because of her unfaithfulness. She lost her land and her freedom and returned to the status of slaves in Babylon, just as she had been in Egypt.

  1. Jesus came in person to woo His bride

Jesus came in person to pay the bride price for His bride and to redeem her from slavery. Once again He wooed her by His love by showing her who He really was.

  1. He proposed to her again at Pentecost

On the anniversary of the day on which He proposed to Israel, the Day of Pentecost, once again He proposed marriage to His people with the same phenomena, a trumpet blast, fire and voices, and this time they responded by speaking back to Him. Jesus had found His bride.

  1. The betrothal period

The betrothal period began at Pentecost and will continue until Jesus comes to “catch up” His bride and carry her into the bridal chamber to consummate His spiritual union with her, after which they will celebrate the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he added, ‘These are the true words of God.’” Revelation 19:6-9.