No other nation in the history of the world can open an inspired book such as the Bible and see their history from beginning to end, their victories, their failures, sins and problems as can this one little nation, Israel, which today is the hotspot of the world. Israel’s history is recorded in the Word of God! Gentiles have often looked upon the Jewish race with great amazement wondering how it was possible they could have overlooked Christ’s first coming seeing there were so many signs pointing to that first event. never once taking into accountability that we gentiles are faced with the same situation in respect to Christ’s second coming.
ISRAEL’S BLINDNESS
Recall in Rom. 11:7-26 especially, Paul declares God permitted spiritual blindness in part to overtake Israel in order He might show His kindness, goodness and mercy to the gentiles. Seeing God will not work with both Jew and gentile on the same basis or at the same time systematically God had to permit this blindness in part to overtake the nation Israel as a whole wherein he might graft in the gentiles seeing Paul typified them as a wild olive tree, verse 24–wild by nature, grafted in contrary to all reasonable law as our nature was wild and so degenerate. A difficult statement for gentiles in the closing hour of the grace age to grasp seeing we have had access to this channel of grace for 1900 years while the Jew, through their un-belief and unconcern, was cut off at Christ’s first appearing on earth. However we must not forget ac-cording to Paul’s teaching, the gentiles’ access to grace will not remain forever! For just as the Jew was cut off for their in-difference and unbelief toward the revelation of the holy scriptures so shall the gentiles through that same kind of indifference and unbelief be cut out and the Jew grafted back in, as clearly shown in Romans 11:13-26 and also Rev. 3:15-22 having reference to the final or seventh church age which God spews out of his mouth because of their lukewarm attitude toward the fellowship he offered them through his word! Yes the gentile will definitely be cut out and the Jew grafted back in. The gentiles through their medieval doctrines and ideas concerning God, his.word and program lost the true picture of God thus creating unbelief and unconcern toward God’s revelation of truth as he visited them. Therefore through our unbelief and unconcern God will cut off the gentiles and graft back in the Jew as declared in Romans 11 and together with both :Jew and gentile the who are ‘redeemed will be brought together ‘into the kingdom wherein they together may worship, praise and !glorify God.
Part 1 – – The Fulfillment of Israel’s First Four Feasts
There is something most beautiful which has been laying in the Word of God through the centuries which man has completely overlooked, failing to recognize its real significance. I am referring to the seven ceremonial feasts given to Israel or yearly observance recorded in Leviticus 23, a part of the law given to Israel at Mt. Sinai. These seven feasts recorded by Moses are types and shadows pointing to the first and second coming of Christ. The first four feasts of the seven foreshadowed (and typed) Israel’s relation to Christ in his first coming while the last three shows the relation of Israel to Christ their Messiah in his second coming. First let us demonstrate how a type varies from a shadow in order to see more clearly how the two operate.
WHAT IS A TYPE OR SHADOW?
First a TYPE–A type may be a certain little portion of a picture God is attempting to portray (though not in completeness), yet in a type there is enough always seen whereby you may begin to collect in your mind the picture God is trying to present and to this picture as time progresses we, through our own spiritual revelation and understanding, may add still more to this picture. Thus through types you are able to fill in the complete picture. Later in our message of TYPES AND SHADOWS we shall relate more in actual detail what a type is.
WHAT IS A SHADOW
However when dealing with a SHADOW (it is nothing like a type). A shadow made by some person, object or thing is a profile of the very object which caused the shadow. For example, when someone stands in the sunlight and projects a shadow on a wall or ground you are able by looking at the shadowy form only to deter-mine if it is a profile of a person or some other creature, whereas a type will not run in that fashion. The shadow is always a picture or form In exact likeness or profile of whatever has cast the shadow and furthermore that which casts the shadow must be somewhere nearby. A shadow can only be cast when the real object is existing and that object stands between the light and a certain fixed point. Types and shadows are God’s way of illustrating to Israel something he will later do. These seven ceremonial feasts (Lev. 23) point unto something God is going to do in behalf of Israel somewhere in their future. The number seven, as you know, not only constitutes completeness but also is perfection. Examining these seven feasts we shall show how the first four pointed to and was fulfilled at the first coming of Christ, leaving the last three yet to be fulfilled as they point straight to the second coming of Christ. Thus all these feasts apply to Israel’s relationship to their Messiah. Her first four feasts fulfilled in reality which were held around their passover season illustrated the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the seven church ages which followed the resurrection of Christ well as the Holy Ghost coming on the day of Pentecost! And get this, these first four feasts held in their seasons displayed for over 1400 years, yearly, were all fulfilled in a matter of a few short weeks!
No. 1 – – The Passover Season
Let’s examine now these seven ceremonial feasts recorded in Israel’s law (Lev. 23:4-44) and watch the fulfillment of each feast. Verse 4, the Lord speaks unto Moses saying, “these are the feasts of the Lord even holy convocation which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.” Note, these feasts must be proclaimed in their seasons meaning they are held only certain times of the year. Holy con-vocation simply means this, these feasts will be a time when the people are called out and assembled somewhere together in a geographical spot. It is done for a special purpose of a ceremonial time for worship and jubilation, a time of praising and worshiping God in their proper order or seasons of time. No, you could not observe any one of these seven ceremonial feasts simply anytime of the year. To the Jew they were nothing more than natural feasts Jehovah had given them to be observed. Nevertheless in the mind of Jehovah he was casting shadows in the earth, even back in the beginning of the law age showing how one day those shadows, illustrated by these feasts, would be consummated in actual fulfillment.
IMPORTANCE OF ABIB 14
Note if you will please, according to verse 5 the first Jewish feast must fall on the 14th day of the Jews’ first sacred month called Abib on their Hebrew calendar. This important feast is called the Lord’s Passover. God had given Moses more instructions concerning the importance of the month Abib (Exo. 12) when he stated the time of the slaying of this male lamb without blemish for the Passover on their final night in Egypt would be the beginning of months. it shall be the first (sacred) month of the year to you (Exo. 12:2). Read also Exo. 12:14 where verse 14 plainly declared, this 14th day shall be a memorial and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generation. Why had God chosen the eve of Abib 14 as the hour for the passover and the deliverance of Israel from Egypt? Why not sometime in June, July or October? Why a month of time which is equivalent on the Roman calendar to have begun around March 21 carrying over into the first 20 days of April? Why would God call Abib the beginning of months for you, Exo. 12:2? Abib is a time of the spring season but what possible connection could it have with any of the feasts of Leviticus 23? Hebrew days, as you recall, began in We late evening around 6 o’clock going through the night time first, then through the daylight hours and ends in the late evening at six. Moreover it is important to know that Jewish months are strictly regulated by lunar or the change of the moon. The first day of the month begins with the new moon while the 15th DAY FALLS UNDER A BRIGHT FULL MOON. Hebrew months are not divided into solar days such as Roman Julian calendar time. Roman years are solar regulated by sun time requiring 365 1/2 days for the earth to travel one complete circle around the sun dividing our year into 12 months. (For further study on why earth, moon and sun are slightly out of relationship one to the other. consult Vol. 2. No. 2, Pg. 2.) The Hebrew calendar year which is regulated by the moon and records each month to contain 30 days is in two divisions, sacred and civil year. No. 1 Israel’s civil year or secular year begins in the fall season ending in summer season and dates back to creation (to Eden) recording roughly 5734 years from Eden. Israel’s sacred year on the Hebrew calendar (unlike the civil year) which begins her holy season during which time her first four feasts are dates back only to the time when God delivered Israel out of Egypt. Each month op the Hebrew calendar contains 30 days and from new moon to new moon is recognized as one month, with the moon becoming full as it possibly can get, shining in all its brilliance on the 15th or middle of the month. After the 15th it begins to subside going back through its other changes to prepare for another new moon or beginning of a new month. Why had God chosen the closing of the 14th day of Abib for passover briefly before the commencing of the 15th day which falls wider the full moon when he released Israel from Egyptian bondage and furthermore begins their first day (of 7 ) for the feast of unleavened bread? May we pause here to say, in order for Israel to take up that extra time seeing the earth is out of relationship with the moon and sun, the Levites do so by adding an extra month each 3 years allowing them to keep a full 30 days in each month to be in alignment with the moon, seeing it only requires 2812 days now for the moon to make its cycle.
THE MOON-WHAT DOES IT TYPIFY?
Why is the moon important in its relationship to what God has done in establishing his passover season beginning at the closing of the 14th day wherein as the 15th day approaches it comes under the full moon and begins Israel’s first day of the eating of unleavened bread for a period of seven days? Remember the moon which, according to Job shines not (of itself ). divided into four quarters ruling the Jewish month is none other than a planet in outer space reflecting back to earth at night the light of the sun. Therefore the law age-typified by the moon. Rev. 12:1, is a reflection of the brilliant shining spiritual gospel light of Christ the Son which is to be seen in the age of grace. divided into seven periods. The moon as illustrated in Rev. 12:1 is seen there under the woman’s feet. This woman is not the church as some have thought in the past, the church is always referred to as a virgin! However this woman is pregnant and she is pregnant with the prophecies of the Old Covenant (law age) concerning her Messiah. Israel begs to be delivered of this manchild who is none other than the Christ child to which her seven feasts points. The woman in Rev. 12:1 with the moon under her feet ( representing the law age) is clothed with the sun or is shining in all the brilliance of the sun speaks of her millennium glory or position in which she will walk with Christ for one thousand years–having on her head the crown of twelve stars again shows she is none other than Israel! Yes the moon under her feet typifies the law age! Remember the moon becomes as full as it can possibly get, throwing off its most brilliant fight in relationship to the sun,rot on the 12th or 19th day but at the closing of the 14th day beginning the 15th.
FULL MOON AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES
What does this 14th and 15th day speak of in the mind of God seeing it is under the full moon? Get this! God had permitted Israel to walk under the law age for a full 1400. years and after a complete 1400 years the law, typified by the moon, was full and therefore had nothing more to offer seeing on the 15th day the moon offers its brightest light. Therefore the law had nothing more to offer after 1400 years to the believer. God closed the age of law after 1400 years before 1500 years could come into observation! The passover lamb slain on the eve of the 14th in Egypt and memorially observed yearly throughout 1400 full years of the law age (closing out before 1500 years were observed) signifies that through the death of Christ in 33 A. D. God had allowed Israel 1400 full years to be guided by the law dispensation. Remember after the 15th day of the month the moon can become no fuller, having reached its brightest moment will then decrease making her preparation to return into a new moon and begin a new month. Israel had walked after 1400 years in all the light this law age could possibly provide. Nothing else could possibly be produced through ceremonial aspects of the law and their feasts. Seeing after 1400 years the law age was full of all it could possibly foreshadow, thus the shadow hack now brought Israel into the presence of reality, the Lord Jesus Christ who was none other than the Lord God himself manifested in human flesh. Therefore I trust you better understand why God deliberately chose the 14th day. The 14th illustrates the closing of the law age while the 15th day arriving under the full moon, at a time when the moon gives forth its brightest light illustrates the beginning of the new age of grace, illustrated by that first day of unleavened bread, going for seven consecutive days. Recall, the grace age began after the slaying of God’s Lamb at Calvary, the same as did the Jewish feast of unleavened bread begin immediately following the slaying of the passover lamb. This is covered more fully under the second feast. The moon on the 15th day is so bright in the night season one may read a letter by its brilliance! Every observance of sacrifice and feast foreshadowed within that 1400 year law period was reflecting upon this earth unto a certain chosen people what was ahead for them. Delivering Israel out of Egypt, closing out that 14th day with the slaying of a lamb was God’s way of saying to mankind through the shedding of blood, the eating of the Lamb’s flesh, along with the bitter herbs and the eating of the unleavened bread, closing out the day of the 14th and ob-served yearly as a memorial for 1400 years was all a shadow pointing to that true passover lamb of God who one day would be manifested on earth and take away the sins of mankind through the shedding of his own sinless blood and in doing so would lead mankind from Satan’s bondage into the glorious liberty of eternal life of peace and joy with God in the Holy Ghost.
CALVARY FULFILLS PASSOVER
Therefore we note, according to scripture, after our Lord had eaten his passover supper. with his disciples in the upper room (Lk. 22:1-13) he immediately went to Gethsemane (under the full moon) where he was arrested and slain on the 15th of Abib under the brightest period the moon could ever shine! The point is, since the moon represents the law age there should have been so much light given off from that age by this time they would have known who Jesus of Nazareth was and naturally speaking they never would have crucified him! However note, it was in the passover season he was crucified.
FULLNESS OF TIME
These types and shadows ob-served in their season running in true continuity with the fulness of the moon. means Christ our true Passover Lamb would not come until, as Paul said, after the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4), when the law with all its casting of types and shadows had reached its fullness in time, after a period of over 1400 years but not 1500. Anything already full, such as the moon or law age, can become no fuller! The law age through its allotted time had fulfilled everything it could and was simply unable to offer any more, therefore in the fullness of time when these shadows could produce no more shadow, the son stepped forth. Beloved, are you aware on earth at high noon when the sun is the closest to you it can get, you will have very little shadow that can possibly appear! high noon places the light directly overhead resulting in very little shadow. Calculating Jewish time from six o’clock in the evening, the Jewish day begins with their 12 hours of night time coming first under the guidance of the moon, as the 15th appeared the brilliancy of the full moon was already on its way out in full profile. This lets me know after 1450 years of the law age continually casting its shadow upon the earth for mankind to see, that as far as righteousness is concerned there would come a day when the law, being full could cast no more shadows on earth. Just as when the 14th day fades out with the appearing of that full moon when a person could read a letter by its brilliant light. in reality there should have been so much spiritual light within the Jewish race coming through these types and shadows after 1400 years. especially in these first four feasts in Leviticus 23, the Jewish people as a whole should have known the fullness of time had arrived! Therefore they should have definitely known they were living in an hour which forecast the coining of their Messiah and in their hearts they should have said, he is around here somewhere!
SPIRITUALLY AWAKE
Praise God, all Jews were not caught napping, there were some living in that very day who were looking and expecting the Messiah! Remember the promise God had made to Simeon, how he would not see death until he had first seen the Lord’s anointed one (Luke 2:26)? And there was Anna the prophetess (Luke 2:36-38) who prophesied over the baby Jesus when he was only eight days old having been brought to the temple for circumcision. Yes, there were a few Jews in that hour who were concerned and knew the law age had cast its shadow and was ready to show its profile, showing the law age had now served its purpose of all God had intended for it to do in reflecting (like the moon) things upon the earth. Therefore by revealed faith a few in Israel knew time had arrived whereby all the law age had reflected for hundreds of years through its shadows, that now the reality of that shadow was around somewhere! As the sun sets in the western horizon, closing out that 14th day, at six o’clock beginning that new 15th day (Jewish time) you see the profile of the full moon slowly rising on the horizon–not a new, not a quarter nor a half moon but there she is in all the bright fullness. throwing off more light than ever! After 1400 years the law age had fulfilled and delivered all it had been assigned to do.
DELIVERANCE FROM BONDAGE
This yearly ceremonial passover for 1400 years had taught the Jew to look or reflect back saying, thank God he brought us out of Egypt. That passover lamb they killed and ate along with the unleavened bread and bitter herbs at evening time closing that 14th day of Abib all pointed them back to a deliverance from bondage. Yet that Jew should have realized something–by just looking at the shadow-it had to be pointing to something greater! As I said before when you look at a shadow it’s not necessary to look at the object itself standing near the shadow to determine what the form or shape is being manifested by the shadow itself seeing it always casts a perfect profile. Moreover beloved, I hope you are aware the first advent of Christ could not have come while the Jews were scattered throughout Babylon or some other part of the world. While it is true, I grant you, when Christ did come Jews were scattered, especially the ten northern tribes, yet there had to be enough of that Jewish race regathered in the land and have in their possession their own priesthood as well as their temple, sacrificial altar etc., whereby these ceremonial feasts. these shadows, could be fulfilled and carried out in every detail! Therefore the first advent of Christ could not appear-fulfilling those first four feasts until Israel was back in her land. May I say, neither can the last three feasts be observed by Israel until she is first back in her land and second, has in her possession all that was required to make the first four ceremonial feasts possible in order to carry out their natural observance of the shadow which is to be fulfilled in reality only with the crucified. When Christ was offered in order to fulfill his passover shadow whereby a slain lamb had foreshadowed the crucifixion for over 1400 years, his crucifixion had to be exactly in the spring season of the Jewish passover. No, Christ could not have been crucified in the middle of summer or winter! Christ had to be crucified exactly in the time of year of the Jewish passover season, for it was this passover ceremony foreshadowed and brought into fulfillment his crucifixion. Imagine the moon being full closing out the 14th day and Christ being crucified 300 years after Israel entered the promised land! It would have simply been foolish for Jews during that hour to have said, just around the corner is the Messiah. -.Probably that may have been his longing, yearning and expectation, nevertheless Christ the passover “lamb’s crucifixion had to coincide :in every minute detail to this passover feast shortly before Israel left Egypt’s bondage. (For further details see Vol. 2, No. 2, Passover and True Resurrection.) No. 2 – -Feast of Unleavened Bread Lev. 23:5-11. Within this same ceremonial pass over season pointing to the Lamb of God crucified for the sins of the world according to Lev. 23:6-7, we see Israel is required to observe another feast lasting for seven days at which time she will be required to eat strictly unleavened bread.
FOLLOWS PASSOVER
Beginning on the 15th day under the brilliant full moon the first day of the feast of unleavened bread begins and continues for seven days. Recall the late evening around 6 o’clock finished the 14th day as the Jewish passover lamb was slain. What we are about to witness in type through this ceremonial feast of unleavened bread held for seven consecutive days immediately following the slaying of the passover lamb, points us to a period of allotted time divided into seven periods within the grace age following also the slaying of our Passover Lam b– -this period is better known as the seven church ages in the grace dispensation where throughout all those seven days God would require the believers of that hour tc eat the spiritual unleavened bread of the gospel of Christ while reflecting back on what that Passover Lamb at Calvary had accomplished for them.
HOLY CONVOCATION
Scripture declares the 15th day. which is the first day of unleavened bread, is to be a holy convocation day where in no work is done. THIS IS IMPORTANT! For on that first day everyone must come together, praising and glorifying God while reflecting back to when they were . still in Egypt and how a lamb had I been slain when God delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage. No, they will not be required to kill another lamb for each of these seven days. They are simply required to reflect back upon what the slain lamb on the 14th had already accomplished for them.
WHY UNLEAVENED BREAD 7 DAYS
However their eating for these seven days must consist primarily of unleavened bread! During this seven day feast of unleavened bread if leavened bread of any description was found in their home they would be cut off! This shows the importance of how through the seven church ages following Christ’s death man should also eat nothing other than the unleavened bread of the gospel of Christ as typified by this feast of unleavened bread. Moreover, as this eating of unleavened bread of the gospel is accomplished the believer also reflects back upon what the slain Lamb (Christ) accomplished for his deliverance. Note two important factors relating to this seven day period of unleavened bread–both the first and seventh or last day were considered by the Lord as holy convocation days! This meant on both these days the believers would be requested to come together! Let us hurriedly examine the seven periods or days of the church ages in the light of this seven day feast. On each of the seven days the Jews are required to eat unleavened bread which pointed the Jew back unto that memorial evening of the 14th in Egypt. Following Calvary where our Passover Lamb was slain would come seven consecutive church ages wherein man would also be pointed backward as far as salvation is concerned through the hearing and eating of the unleavened bread of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did not Christ himself teach he was the (unleavened) Bread of Life sent down from heaven? Therefore by the representation of these seven days when only unleavened bread could be eaten it showed during these seven church ages the true church is expected to eat nothing other than this pure unleavened bread of God’s Word! Furthermore, we hear Christ declare to Satan (Matt. 4:4), Man shall not live by (natural) bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God! For seven consecutive church ages, just as the Jew had reflected for seven consecutive days upon what the passover lamb had accomplished for Israel so must the true believer reflect backward also to the benefits of Calvary wherein God’s Passover Lamb was crucified— now after more than 1400 years from the beginning of the law to its end, the law through its types and shadows had given off all the reflection to the age it possibly could. Time had arrived for God to open a new era. Just as the moon could become no fuller after the 14th day. the law age itself after 1400 years could do no more! As Christ the Son came upon earth to be crucified, fulfilling all types and shadows which for 1400 years had pointed to him through his magnificent death we are able to draw peace and mercy from God. The works of the Son (of God) in the fulness of time far exceeds the benefits of the law. As we draw from the benefits of Calvary we are feasting and eating on the unleavened bread of the gospel of Christ.
TYPIFIED CHURCH AGES
Watch how perfectly these seven consecutive days which followed the slaying of the passover when unleavened bread is eaten does set forth such a perfect type of the seven church ages which followed Calvary. The poor Jew because of his blindness never realized his c rehearsals for 1400 years of this feast season pointed him to Calvary and the opening of a new age consisting of seven consecutive church ages wherein the believer should eat the unleavened bread of the gospel. The Jew was never aware that following the death of his Messiah (Christ our Lord), his death would automatically unlock an era of grace which would be characterized by these seven consecutive days of feasting on unleavened bread following the Jewish passover. The 15th day under the full moon actually began that first day of the feast of unleavened bread and furthermore was a holy convocation and rest day. All Jewish believers on that first day assembled together geographically on one common ground of faith eating the same kind of unleavened bread and reflect on the work of the sacrificial lamb!
1ST DAY TYPIFIES 1ST AGE
Therefore their first day is a beautiful type of that first church age which also came together, having all things common or met on this one common ground—the gospel of Christ–whereby the believer might eat nothing but his unleavened bread and reflect back on hig Passover Lamb, Christ the Lord! In the first age they rested in the Holy Ghost and in the finished work of Calvary. In the heart of the believer of that first age he truly praised God as they all feasted together on their unleavened bread of truth and sincerity. Each time he heard this glorious message it pointed him back to the benefits of Calvary. No, by no means were the gen-tiles or Jews of that first church age required to meet on any one geographical spot yet that first age definitely did have a most common ground upon which they could all meet—THEY ALL ACCEPTED THE SAME REVELATED GOSPEL TRUTH OF CHRIST, THE REVELATED WORD alike, therefore in Christ they could all meet and there eat their unleavened bread and reflect on the Passover of Calvary. The early church of that first age could easily fellowship with either Greek or Jew seeing they all met on this one same common ground of truth and faith! Truly that first day ( AGE) was a spiritual holy convocation day! Their fellowship was based on the same spiritual ground–the true unadulterated bread of life. the Lord Jesus! Their doctrines, their manner of Christian living and fellowship around the TRUTH were all the same!
SECOND DAY
Completing the first day of unleavened bread if the Jew so desired they might leave this one geographical spot and return home and begin doing their labor and chores. However still throughout those seven days they must continually eat unleavened bread! Note, on the seventh or last day, the closing day of the feast period all these true believers of that hour are compelled to once again come back together on that same common ground of fellowship (eating their unleavened bread and once again worship and praise God together, reflecting on the accomplishments of the passover lamb and repeat the first day’s activities. The same is true in the seven church ages! On the second day the Jews left their common ground and went their own separate ways until the last day. Beginning with that second church age we gentiles also began to leave our one common ground of doctrinal faith. fellowship and practice held by the first age and began going in separate directions, embracing their own separate ideas and opinions concerning the gospel of Christ. No, the second age did not have that oneness of unity and oneness of faith which the first age professed. New teachings were now arising as it was true they were definitely going their own way being led into some most unscriptural positions of doctrine. New unscriptural teachings now began to take the believers far from the apostolic truths of the Word as they entered into every quarter and circle. As stated, the natural Jew could return home on the second day although he must continue eating the unleavened bread else he would be cut off. This shows the Lord through the seven church ages still demanded perfection and perfect obedience in the eating of this true unleavened bread of life! And remember this Jew for seven consecutive days ate his unleavened bread and reflected upon the time the lamb was slain in his behalf which was a memorial unto him of how Jehovah brought them out of Egyptian bondage. Recall whatever church age that individual would hear the gospel, it made him also reflect back (PAST TENSE) to that memorial hour when a Lamb had been slain at Calvary for his deliverance. His salvation began with the understanding of this crucified Lamb of God and here he would eat his unleavened bread with truth and sincerity.
FOURTH DAY. LEAVENED BREAD
Now watch something, if there ever was a time the natural Jew’s mind would drift away from the reality of that memorial event and the passover lamb would become nothing more than strictly a ceremonial aspect to that Jew, no doubt it would be a few days atter he had been home, would it not? Let us examine scripturally what happened in the church ages around the 4th day. The fourth church age was drawn aside to only the mere ceremonial side of Calvary, therefore t ha t age, guided by Roman Catholicism, produced more ceremony, rituals, etc., than any other hour in history! According to Christ’s fourth parable in Matthew 13, which corresponds beautifully with the fourth church age. Rev. 2:18-20, the woman in Matt. 13:33 took leaven and hid her leaven in three measures of meal. Remember, meal makes bread–this is the 1 bread of life! This beloved is where that beautiful feast of unleavened bread of the gospel of sincerity and truth became defiled beyond recognition within the gentile church age! No doubt the natural Jew on the fifth day would begin to realize he had only two more days left before he must regather on that same local ground for that final or seventh day which, like the first day. was a convocation day wherein they must all repeat once again their first day’s activities.
REFORMATION PERIOD
Watch that believer of the fifth church age as he now is entering into the Reformation period which will eventually lead him back to his (first day ) position in the gospel of truth held in that first age. No doubt the natural Jew on the sixth day informs his wife to prepare for their return to those natural grounds for their last day of gathering together whereby they may repeat their first day’s activity. This shows us man would begin preparing to leave his old religious environment he had embraced in the church ages from the second through the sixth day. departing now from those carnal ideas of teachings and begin getting ready to return on the seventh day to embrace that same common ground of faith in the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ on his holy convocation day (7th day) as was shared by the (early) believers on the first day–leaving all that is not necessary or basic and coming back, conversing and emerging onto that same common ground of spiritual faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! Somewhere on that seventh day would begin their holy convocation or rest rejoicing and praising God when, not only would they continue to eat their unleavened bread together but would also once again be back on the same common grounds seeing every believer in that hour would have obeyed the scripture which ordered their return.
SEVENTH DAY. REGATHERING
This verifies that after seven consecutive church ages God would do something affecting the protestant movement which had already been slowly returning man back to the original scriptural position he once held on the first day. To the true believer God would send his prophet and seventh church age messenger with the true unleavened bread just in time for the regathering of the seventh or final day of the feast. Remember the woman in the fourth church age baked the wrong kind of bread and fed it to the world! God takes the true believer completely away from all that and restores him to the spiritual position he walked in on the first day as he ate his unleavened bread. Throughout the Refor-mation period, at the turn of the 16th century, Luther had restored the revelation, the just shall live by faith. His followers had endorsed that. John Calvin restored the truth of the security of the believer yet Luther’s followers would not. embrace (eat) that, although the Calvinists accepted the doctrine of Luther. John Knox restored the revelated truth of Predestination yet the followers of Calvin and Luther would not accept (eat) it. John Wesley restored the sanc-tification doctrine–his followers would accept Luther’s teaching but would not (eat) ) receive Calvin or Knox’s teaching. Later the Pen-tecostals, divided into Oneness and Trinity, would not (eat) accept Calvin or Knox’s teaching although they accepted (or eat) Luther’s and Wesley’s. Therefore it took a prophet sent from God in that seventh day at the end of the age to gather up each reformation leader’s teaching, placing it in one message saying. this is what the apostles taught–WALK YE IN IT!-Eat ye all of it!
A PROPHET SENT
William Marrion Branham is the only church age messenger who ever stood on this side of the Dark Ages to ever do such a thing! Beloved, he reached back, under the divine inspiration of God, and took these old revelated truths of bread preached by such men as Luther (just shall live by faith) combined it with the restored revelation of Calvin (security of the believer), along with Knox’s revelation (predestination), along with John Wesley’s message (sanctification through holy living)–combined all that with what Pentecost taught concerning the Holy Ghost (discount-ing extreme doctrines such as tongues being initial evidence of receiving Holy Ghost etc.), coupled that with the Oneness revelation of the one God and Baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus—taking all these great truths which were already restored, only divided up in various segments of believers, placed all these great revelational truths of unleavened bread back in the one ‘- message of the Bible in their proper settings and declared to the church, HERE IS WHAT YOU ARE TO BELIEVE AND EAT, THIS IS THE UNLEAVENED BREAD OF GOD’S WORD: IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO GET BACK TO THE CORRECT EATING OF II THE REVELATED WORD OF TRUTH, THE UNLEAVENED BREAD SENT DOWN FROM HEAVEN BECAUSE CHRIST IS COMING SOON! Recall the woman in the fourth church age (4th day) by adding leaven to the three measures of meal baked the wrong kind of bread (the bread of death) and fed it to the world! The first age had been ushered in with the crucifixion of Christ who fulfilled the law and all the types and shadows which it projected. Therefore after seven consecutive church ages the true believer of that seventh age would be returned unto the same spiritual common ground of fellowship, doctrine etc.. as found in the Word of God that the church started out on in that first day! I trust you see how beautifully the type fits. From the Old Testament period of 1400 years, the Jews, through types and shadows, in these seven great ceremonial feast days were actually portraying the gentile church which would be divided into seven periods following the slaying of the Passover Lamb. the Lord Jesus Christ!
No. 3 – – Waving Sheaf Offering
We are now ready to examine Israel’s third feast to see exactly what it points to. I might add right here, this sheaf offering foreshadows not only the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ but it also shows the exact day the resurrection took place! Moreover we might add there is no way the Jew could possibly have ever correctly celebrated this feast other than when they were in their own land seeing this feast of the Lord must be held within their own land because it deals strictly with the Jew’s barley harvest crop raised in Israel. Further it illustrates how it would have been totally impossible for Christ to have come the first time and there have been no Jewish farmers in the land, seeing this third feast could not even be observed in its ceremonial setting until first the Jew had come back into the land and raised a crop of barley. Watch this beautiful feast as it foreshadows the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. To celebrate this feast of the wave offering in the passover season, the feast of unleavened bread, the Jewish farmer would (first) have already had to have planted his crop of barley in an entirely different , climate or season of the year, . being the fall season say around the first of September or October, at the beginning of the Jewish civil year in order to have harvested his crop in the spring at passover season. I might add, the next two feasts deal with this barley crop harvest. What is God trying to teach Israel through the observance of this feast yearly? Before the entire barley crop was harvested a strange thing is required of the Jewish farmer by the Lord himself–they are instructed to take a sickle, go into the field, cut out one sheaf before the barley harvest has begun. The farmer brings that sheaf to the high priest declaring this to be the , first fruits of the harvest. The priest then stacks the bundle along with all the other bundles delivered by the other farmers and the farmer returns home. The passover season is soon to begin and as you already know it will last for a number of days as it enters into the seven day period of unleavened bread. During that seven day period naturally there will be a sabbath to occur, therefore watch something beautiful. The day following the sabbath which is the first day of the week, better known to the gentile world as Sunday, a strange thing is going to happen on the temple grounds. The passover lamb having already been slain and the feast of unleavened bread already in progress, the day following the sabbath the high priest is certainly . going to be a busy man seeing each year he is required by the ritual of the law to wave all those bundles which are the first fruits of the Jewish farmers barley crops before the Lord and then toss them into the fire. Remember they are all the first fruits of a barley harvest, planted in the fall to be reaped in the spring. What does the meaning of this is first sheaf or first fruits of the harvest speak of? Any one studying the New Testament, especially in Paul’s writings, will note where Paul makes reference in I Cor. 15:20-23 to Christ being the first fruits (of the resurrection from among the dead. What scripture did Paul establish his revelation on that Christ was the first fruits of the resurrection? Lev. 23:10-11 of course! In reality Christ’s resurrection is what that sheaf offering pointed unto which is being offered unto the Lord the first day following the passover! When was the wave offering! ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK–THE MORROW AFTER THE SABBATH! The high priest took the first fruits of the barley harvest and waved it before the Lord! It spoke of nothing other than the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ! Watch this—Christ the Lamb of God was slain at the opening of the passover season, being resurrected exactly on the day after the sabbath! Christ was none other than the first fruits of the spiritual barley crop harvest!
CHRIST AROSE FIRST DAY
Therefore I can not understand why any one would desire to make it appear our Lord was crucified on Wednesday and resurrected on Saturday (the sabbath) when the high priest could not wave that first bundle of barley which was the first fruits of the barley crop foreshadowing Christ’s resurrection until t he day following the sabbath which is no other day than the first day of the week! The scripture plainly teaches it was on the first day of the week Christ was resurrected from the dead, Matt. 28:1, Mark 16:2, and Luke 24:1. The first day of the week following the sabbath, somewhere in the dawning of the early hours Christ rose from the dead. May I say, when Christ was crucified in 33 A. D., not only did he have to be crucified in the spring passover season corresponding with the time the lamb in Egypt was slain some 1450 years earlier but also he had to be crucified as the exact cycle of the full moon appeared back there in Egypt that night! Everything in 33 A. D. had to be in perfect relationship with the moon back there in that memorial hour some 1400 years before! Moreover, it would have to be this setting whereby the passover season could fall near the end of the week in order for him to be crucified Friday morning, hanging on the cross by nine o’clock, dead and buried by late evening before the sabbath began, though some will argue Christ had to be in the heart of the earth three full days and three full nights. He was only dead for the representation of three days and three nights for remember in 72 hours corruption sets up in a dead body! If you do not believe me run over a dog and permit its body to be exposed for three days. It won’t be long until flies swarm around the body which has already blown up tight. Remember they did not embalm the body of Jesus. Hundreds of years before, David had declares by the Spirit that God would not leave his soul in hell nor suffer his Holy one to see corruption (Psm. 16:10)—both references refer to Christ according to the Apostle Peter in Acts2: 25-28. And because of that fact David’s soul could rest in hope!
DAY AFTER SABBATH
Suppose for just a moment because of the fluctuation of the moon. etc. that this particular passover season of 33 A. D. during ? which Christ was crucified had appeared on Wednesday or ‘ Thursday. That still would by no means change or affect the work laid out-yearly (the first day of the week following the passover season) for the high priest to do upon the temple ground there in Jerusalem! He was required to take the sheaf offering and wave it before the Lord (the first day of the week ; the day following the regular Jewish sabbath! TO further illustrate this was a regular Jewish sabbath. in the passover season of unleavened bread, watch how the fourth feast which we will not discuss at the moment only to show how the feast of pentecost was counted or determined.! Get this–The Jew would count from the morrow after the regular sabbath (from the day you brought the sheaf or wave offering) seven Jewish sabbaths, then unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall you number 50 days etc. This speaks of Pentecost feast day. Lev. 23:15-16 count 50 days or sejen sabbaths and the following day would always be pentecost! Meaning the Holy Ghost came on Sunday. the day of pentecost, 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead!
VOLU
VOLUNTARILY WORSHIPPING
That passover season of 33 A. D. wherein Christ is the Passover Lamb shows Christ had to be crucified in the latter part of the week whereby on the day following the sabbath he could raise from the dead fulfilling that waving of the sheaf offering. That beloved is exactly what scripture states, that is exactly when he arose from the dead. That is exactly why the early church voluntarily chose the first day of the week to worship the Lord on–in order to celebrate the resurrection of that passover lamb! When the women visited the tomb, according to Luke, bringing spices to anoint the body of Jesus, it was early in the morning (prior to the rising of the sun on that first day of the week). What do they discover? The tomb is already open! Jewish days began at six in the evening. The Levitical priest could not wave the sheaf offering unto the Lord until the next day after the sabbath had fully passed, the sabbath or seventh day ends at sundown before the first day of the week begins. Thus according to both Old and New Testament scriptures we see exactly when Christ, the first fruits of the Harvest, rose from the dead!
JEW OBSERVED SABBATH
Why did the early Christians gather to worship on the first day of the week instead of worshipping on the sabbath or seventh day? Remember they were all mainly Jews who knew the penalty of, breaking the sabbath day. Truly they must have had some revelation as to what this was all about seeing for 1400 years the Jew had been taught strictly to observe the law and the sabbath! Yet notice, without any fear of the law they voluntarily changed their day of worship from the seventh day to the first day! Every one of those Jews was brought up strictly under Judaistic teachings which taught them to observe the seventh day for worship. However watch, once they saw the revelation of Christ their Messiah and knowing him who was the fulfillment of the passover and sheaf offering waved by the priest the day after the sabbath actually rose from the dead on that first day of the week—get this. they voluntarily and I REPEAT, they voluntarily changed the day of worship themselves from the seventh day which was the Jewish sabbath unto the first day of the week. the day in which Christ rose from the dead! To them this first day meant something, it was no mere coincidence they changed the day. They understood perfectly ac-cording to Lev. 23:10-11 that Christ was the beginning of a new creation. that he was the first (nails from the dead! Beloved, is it not strange that no where before Christ’s crucifixion did he ever once tell his disciples to worship him on the first day of the week and completely ignore the seventh day? In no parable or teaching did Jesus ever state–you observe the day of my resurrection as making it a mandatory t hing— ABSOLUTELY NOT! The only thing Jesus ever said was, the Son of man is the Lord of the sabbath, Matt. 12:8. But knowing Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, with revelation in their hearts and love for him, their saviour, the one they had forsaken all to follow–him rising the first day of the week from the dead, the day following the sabbath automatically placed something within their hearts whereby they, not because they were made or ordered to do so but VOLUNTARILY said, we are going to worship our Lord on the very day he conquered death, hell and the grave! To them there just could not be any day more important than the first day of the week! This is the day we choose to worship him. FIRST DAY OF WEEK It was the first day of the week Paul gathered gentiles together, Acts 20:7. The first day of the week represented the beginning of a new creation. Note I Cor. 16:2 how on the first day of the week the disciples were gathered together. Not only through the scriptures does it show the early church worshipped on the first day of the week but such writings as the Anti-Nicene Fathers (taking you into the period of the 4th Century) show the early church the 2nd and even into the 3rd century worshipped voluntarily on the first day of the week!
Early church fathers who refer to the writings of Barnabas, Irenius, Polycarp, show each of these men’s writings bear testimonies that the early church voluntarily observed and wor-shipped on the first day of the week! WILY? To commemorate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead! Vol. 1, Anti-Nicene Fathers, Pg. 147. The Epistle of Barnabas. Speaking of the day of worship, Barnabas says, we keep the 8th day ( first ) with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead!
MANDATORY LAW
Certain teachers in their ignorance attempting to show the early Christians worshiped on Saturday and not the first day of the week will always refer you to a law made in 325 A. D. when at that time Constantine made a mandatory law that the entire Roman Empire observe Sunday as the universal rest day. That statement is absolutely true, Constantine did make a mandatory law however the thing these poor teachers fail to point out to you is this, FOR 300 YEARS BEFORE THAT MANDATORY LAW WAS EVER MADE, THE EARLY CHRISTIANS WHO WERE JEW AND GENTILE HAD ALREADY LONG AGO ACCEPTED THAT
DAY IN THEIR HEART AS THE DAY THEY WOULD VOLUNTARILY WORSHIP THE RESURRECTED LORD THEIR PASSOVER LAMB!
THE NEW DAY
No doubt on that morning of the first day of the week following the sabbath in 33 A. D. the high priest really had his hands full between the offering of all those barley wave offerings unto the Lord. the first fruits of the harvest and listening as well as trying to put an end to all these strange stories circulating throughout Jerusalem concerning how Christ had risen from the dead, the one these barley sheaves he was waving all pointed to! I hope beloved you can see through this shadow of Christ’s resurrection there was simply. no way possible Christ could have ever risen on Tuesday, Friday or Saturday morning–ONLY ON SUNDAY, THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK FOLLOWING THE SABBATH. AND THAT THE TRUE SAINTS WORSHIPPED VOLUNTARILY ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK because this is the new day for them–the day Christ rose from the earth, conquering death, hell and the grave–and that no mandatory law to worship on Sunday ever came until 325 A. D. forcing all the Roman world to observe Sunday as a rest day! No. 4 – – Feast of Pentecost (Lev. 23:15-22) It will be 49 days or seven sabbaths and then the morrow would be the 50th day, Lev. 23:16. In every year that followed since the time the Jews entered the promised land the natural Jew had observed all in one season that passover the feast of unleavened bread, the waving of the bundle of barley which came on the first day following the regular Jewish sabbath in the passover season. From the day of the wave offering God had instructed Israel to count seven more sabbaths or seven weeks (49 days) and then on the morrow after the sabbath which is the first day of the week, being the 50th day from the waving of the bundle of barley now comes Israel’s fourth ceremonial feast called pentecost. This feast could take place once their entire barley harvest has been harvested therefore following the harvesting of their barley crop in the spring of the year (the crop planted in the fall) they now had to gather together for a day of festivities celebrating and praising God that he has given unto then another great barley season. And remember when pentecost comes the barley harvest is already over. It is a feast celebrating the completion of the harvest and now a new and different crop will be ready for planting.
TWO LEAVENED LOAVES
Notice what the people must bring with them on this particular day of the feast called pentecost. Each family brings two wave loaves of bread made from the fine flour taken from the barley harvest. These two barley loaves must be baked with leaven! It is a meal offering to be offered unto the Lord—two loaves of bread must be eaten out of this same barley flour from which they make their bread, only this bread must be baked with leaven! In other words they must put a little yeast or baking powder in these two loaves of bread and bring them to the priest. This bread brought to the high priest is baked in leaven yet remember these two loaves are made from the very same grain of which the first fruits was taken from which had already been waved before the Lord the day following the sabbath! Fifty days from that day will be a day all Jews must gather for this celebration of the gathered harvest. Each family will be required to bring two loaves of leavened bread, along with a number of other things recorded in Lev. 23:18-19.
WAVING LOAVES
Recall in the seven day feast of unleavened bread they could have no leavened bread in their possession for those seven days. Here they bring two loaves—what does it signify? Note according to verse 20 on that day of pentecost the priest shall wave these two loaves of bread with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before the Lord. Yes, this is a great day, a feast time, a time of celebration. This was also a burnt offering unto the Lord. Think, beloved, of all this multitude of loaves of bread containing leaven brought for the day of pentecost which the high priest must handle, brought by all these Jewish families in celebration that the barley crop is harvested and in the barn. In the streets will be fellowshipping, dancing and rejoicing, the barley grain which has been growing through the long winter months. planted in the fall has not only come to fruition in the spring ( Abib) but is also gathered into the barn. I want you to get this–it is important! Remember this act ion was repeated continually for over 1400 years seeing it could never be observed until after the Jew came into the land and had raised his first barley crop and harvested it.
COMING OF HOLY GHOST
Beloved, the fulfillment of the feast of pentecost is the coming of the Holy Ghost, fifty days after the waving of the first fruits of the barley harvest by the high priest the day following the sabbath! Christ rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, at a time when this year’s barley harvest first fruits of this crop was waved by the high priest on the day following the sabbath! For 40 days he has walked among his disciples, proving with many infallible proofs his resurrection from the dead. On that 40th day he led his disciples out on the Mt. of Olives and before being taken away in clouds of glory informed them to tarry in Jerusalem until they be endued with power from on high. In order to fulfill the waving of two leavened loaves of bread , before the Lord by the high priest, see what all this is pointing to in 33 A. D. on the day of pentecost. Let us examine Acts 2. Note the setting is entirely Jewish. Jews are in the upper room and Jews from Israel as well as many nations around the Mediterranean Sea have gathered at Jerusalem for the feast of ‘ Pentecost. Remember their barley crop planted back in the fall of the year has now been gathered.
SPIRIT FULFILLS PENTECOST
The disciples in the upper room had no idea what this pentecostal hour of a feast day would mean to them. although God knew. And what the 120 are about to witness and receive on that tenth day for waiting patiently is to be a perfect fulfillment of the shadow which has been portrayed yearly by every Pentecost feast for over 1400 years. Fifty days has now passed since his resurrection, it is again early the first day of the week and the Jewish sabbath has again just passed. 120 people sat in an upper room having not the slightest idea what to look for nor how they would react once the promise of the Father had been fulfilled unto them. They have simply been told to wait until they have received something before becoming wit-nesses in Jerusalem, Judaea, I Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. However out in the streets of Jerusalem the scene is entirely different. Tens of thousands of Jews have gathered that early morning hour for this special pentecost feast day. On the temple grounds are huge stacks of leavened barley bread waiting to be offered as a holy offering unto the Lord- It is a holy convocation day. today and there will be no work, therefore through the night and into the early morning hours they have been bringing bread into the temple area. Today they will set a table and feast with all kind of good things prepared to eat. As usual having repeated this yearly over the past 1400 years they will eat, sing, dance and worship Jehovah. It is a day of great ex-citement in the streets of Jerusalem yet in an upper room 120 Jews patiently wait for something to happen. When? They don’t have the slightest idea, however notice these 120 Jews who had attended the ceremonial passover are seemingly not one bit concerned in observing the ceremonial feast of pentecost which is almost ready to begin down in the streets below and no doubt this is the first year they have missed. But since they are waiting for something to happen they will not leave the room! No doubt the priests below are building huge bonfires to burn the leavened bread unto the Lord when just as the fires prepared by the priests are ready to consume those first loaves of leavened bread, there comes into this room where these 120 disciples are sitting a sound as of a rushing mighty wind! They had not been told to listen for a wind nevertheless they heard it. God had made his introduction into that room loud enough that those disciples knew something was happening. Thus the spirit entered the upper room and filled the house where they were sitting. No win-dows or doors were open but something had entered that room. No doubt one said to the other, what is that sound, did you hear it? Perhaps had they been a group of denominational people right there they would have fled the room saying this is too spooky for me, it is the devil come in our midst! The situation changes–now they suddenly begin to see tongues of fire appearing over each head—it symbolized the fire of God ready to receive their offerings of obedience unto what the Lord Jesus had said. Down on the temple grounds is a huge fire blazing, preparing to consume those leavened loaves of bread while in the upper room there was a Holy Ghost fire con-suming the spiritual leavened loaves of bread. As the fire began to build in the temple area con-suming ceremonial leavened loaves of barley bread there was a mighty Holy Ghost fire building up in the upper room. Just as out in the streets the Jews are preparing for a big feast, there in the upper room God was also preparing to build up something great. By now as the tongues or licks of fire are standing over each head they suddenly began to feel strange and peculiar under this great anointing of the Spirit and began swaying like drunk men. No doubt they began trying to express to one another this miraculous ex-perience and feeling which they are now experiencing when sud-denly they noticed they could not understand each other because each person was speaking in a language he had never learned. No, this language was not the old mother Hebrew tongue all Galilean Jews could speak as well as all Jews but God was fulfilling ha. 28:11 according to I Cor. 14:21-22, for with stammering lips and men of other tongues will I speak unto this (Jewish) people and yet they will not hear me! When had God intended to bring Isaiah 28:11 into focus, ON THE JEWISH DAY OF PENTECOST!
PENTECOSTAL TONGUES
When the day of Pentecost was fully come wherein the natural Jew would begin offering those leavened loaves of bread as a sacrifice to the priest to be burned and consumed, it must be remembered these two leavened loaves, were beaten out of the same grain crop as had been the first bundle brought to the high priest and offered as a wave offering The fact the two leavened barley loaves representing Pentecost were to be burned by natural fire shows these disciples in the upper room were also the very fruits or products of that same word grain of which Jesus himself was. The fact leaven is mingled into the bread shows the old hereditary nature which still lay within those disciples must still
be dealt with by fire and as the fire down on the temple grounds was preparing to consume those natural leavened loaves of bread, the fire of the Holy Ghost was already lit in the midst of the 120, consuming their faith, their-devotion and their consecration unto God. It was God’s way of accepting their human sacrifice. As that Holy Ghost fire began to burn in each of them the Bible declares they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And after they were filled with the Holy Ghost they began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave utterance. Many people today who have received the Holy Ghost and have spoken with the gift of tongues feel they have received tongues exactly as the disciples did on the day of pentecost, although a close study of Acts 2 reveals they did not! But you say the disciples spoke in tongues and I have also spoke in tongues, doesn’t that make it the same—ABSOLUTELY NOT! There was definitely a reason the disciples spoke in the languages in which they did. The reason is clearly shown in Acts 2:5-8. The 120 disciples who had believed by divine revelation all Jesus had told them had been filled with the Holy Ghost and given known languages (although unknown to them) which they shall use to witness to the multitude in the streets below as they invite the Jews to accept the spiritual benefits of the feast of Pentecost. May I show you the difference as to what these 120 disciples did from what you and I do many times when speaking in tongues. Below the upper room in the streets were orthodox Jews gathered from every nation in around the Mediterranean Sea, at least 16 different nations were present according to verse 8-12. Devout Jews of the dispersion who had been born and reared and were still living in various countries around the Mediterranean Sea but had returned to Jerusalem to keep the feast of Pentecost. Undoub-tedly these Jews from the other nations had not been present when John the Baptist baptized in Jordan or when Jesus the Christ had been on the scene in Jerusalem. Many of these had come from every nation for only one purpose TO CELEBRATE THE FEAST OF PENTECOST. While they were in preparation in offering their leavened loaves of bread the Holy Ghost had visited the upper room and showed himself by fire. filled the disciples and they began to speak out in various languages which they had never learned. Not one of them had any idea they would do any such thing although the Holy Ghost simply took control of their vocal cords and began to speak through them in other (known) languages. Unable to control themselves any longer as their God was overwhelming them through this anointing and enthusiasm of a mighty thrilling experience, they were literally driven from the upper room into the streets below. Into the streets they come, no doubt staggering and acting like drunk men yet speaking a very distinct and understandable language understood by certain of these Jews, verse 8. Now in the streets below are two elements of Jews—one is the old Galilean Jew, born and raised in this area. He no doubt speaks and understands nothing but Hebrew. Mingled among this crowd is an element of orthodox Jews from nations all around the Mediterranean Sea who knows nothing of what has transpired up to this hour, but they soon shall–because God is going to speak to them personally through these languages coming from the vocal cords of these disciples. In other words God is going to witness to
them personally concerning the fulfillment of the spiritual aspect of the feast of Pentecost and invite them to share in the experience of the 120. Now coming into the streets is 120 people and the Holy Ghost is already causing them to speak in dialects which they as Hebrew speaking Galilean Jews know nothing about. Nevertheless these Jews visiting Jerusalem began to hear their own dialect being spoken by some of these Galilean Jews and they astonishingly ask, what is this all about. verse 6-8! God is speaking directly to me through these Galilean Jews! The 120, having no idea what they are saying, is only aware they are under some kind of spell from the power received in the upper room and it is that something which is definitely speaking through their vocal cords. Always remember, what they were saying in the streets of Jerusalem did not need any interpretation, God was doing it all. He was doing the speaking and he was talking to Jews about the grace of God who had never been preached to before.
FULFILLMENT OF FEAST
Those who could not understand any of the words of the disciples, were mainly the old home bunch of Jews around Jerusalem, gave this simple explanation, verse 13—these men are full of new wine! True, it was a new wine but it wasn’t the kind found in a bottle. Their remarks set Peter aflame and now Peter ceases speaking in the language he has been speaking to some of the Jews in and begins to rebuke the unbelieving Jews in the old Hebrew dialect which all Jews understand. Peter was lashing out only at those who did not have a revelation, but these 3000 had received the revelation of Christ as God had prepared their hearts. 3000 devout, orthodox Jews, convicted and pricked in their hearts received, along with the 120 disciples, the spiritual aspect of the feast of Pentecost. Undoubtedly that day Peter and the other disciples, along with the 3000 had probably destroyed any hope of the remaining part of the Jews spending a happy, successful day in the feast of Pentecost! Because like whipped, sheepish dogs the old home bunch of Jews departed leaving Peter and his disciples with their 3000 devout Jews weeping over the truth. They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of their sins, Acts 2:38 and were told they would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. It does not say if these 3000 spoke with tongues or not although it does show they were baptized correctly and I am sure God gave them the Holy Ghost as they had obeyed him. Some no doubt did speak in tongues, others may have prophesied while still others may have seen visions or dreamed dreams for recall Peter had quoted Joel’s prophecy saying that it shall come to pass in the last days saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy (which according to the Apostle Paul in I Cor. 14:5 is a greater gift than tongues except the tongues be interpreted) and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and on my servants and my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit and they shall prophesy.
CELEBRATING SPIRITUAL FEAST
That memorial feast day of Pentecost in 33 A. D.. celebrated by the Jew from Israel and all nations around the Mediterranean Sea, was God’s fulfillment of all the Jewish ceremonial pentecostal feast, observed through centuries had foreshadowed and pointed unto—the coming of the Holy Ghost in the grace age. True. this particular pentecost feast day in 33 A. D., a signal that the total completion of the barley grain crop season was finally over–turned out to be only the beginning of the spiritual fulfillments of what pentecost was all about because in an upper room 120 were receiving or reaping the spiritual benefits of all that these yearly pentecost feasts had foreshadowed and pointed to. How pathetic to think out of the tens of thousands of orthodox Jews who always, through great sacrifice, observed the yearly feast of pentecost that only 120 would be the first to ac-tually receive the full spiritual benefits of the yearly feast! Moreover as the 120 Galilean Jews came from the upper room, filled with the ecstasy of this experience of the Holy Ghost, into the streets of Jerusalem among home Jews as well as Jews from abroad 3,000 orthodox Jews that day were lifted up along with the 120 to sit and feast together in heavenly places in Jesus Christ through the working of the Holy Ghost. Spiritually speaking, this 3000, lifted up with the 120, now sitting together in heavenly places was observing and enjoying at the spiritual table, all the true spiritual benefits of the pentecostal feast! God was pouring it all out in the offering of the Holy Ghost. The natural minded Jew only reaped the benefits of the shadow and never the spiritual aspect of what the shadow was pointing to. However, after 33 A. D., irregardless to what day or hour a Jew or gentile confessed and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth as Lord, embracing the revelation of truth, God always granted to that repenting sinner the spiritual benefits of all the natural ceremonial pentecostal feast had pointed to. And may I say, is still giving the Holy Ghost unto all those who obey him. Thus the spiritual aspect of the feast of Pentecost, which is the receiving of the Holy Ghost into the believers life is something God is continually sharing with every repentant sinner, not simply one day each year as illustrated by the ceremonial feast but seven days a week, 365 days a year!
Part 2 – – The Fulfillment of Israel’s Last Three Feasts
PENTECOST COMPLETES CYCLE
Bear in mind these first three ceremonial feasts received their original beginning in the first Jewish sacred month of the year called Abib, followed 50 days later after the waving of the sheaf offering with the feast of pentecost which I must impress upon you completed the cycle of last season’s grain crop planted back in the fall season and get this. Israel shall have no more feast days now until the seventh month of the year when she will once again begin another cycle of three feasts! Bear in mind, the first coming of Christ completed all that the first four feasts has foreshadowed and pointed to and the spiritual fulfillment of these feasts will be represented in the new grace age as salvation of both Jew and gentile alike.
NEW AGE REPRESENTED
With this feast now behind them. the Jewish farmer concentrated on the preparation of the spring planting for a new grain crop to be harvested in the fall where three more feasts are then ob served. Therefore seeing that natural Jew returning home following his Pentecost feast to plant a new grain crop in the spring of the year needs to be examined in the light of this scriptural revelated Holy Ghost gospel message where in God received his spiritual ingredients for salvation for, the grace age through the spiritual fulfillment of the first four feasts he presented to Israel the day she celebrated her fourth (pentecostal) feast! Get this, it was all offered to Israel in an hour she had just completed the cycle of her previous grain crop! What is the spiritual significance of the farmer’s new grain crop being planted in a different season as well as the long hot mer months wherein the Jew must labor and toil observing no religious festivity whatsoever? In all this we see a new age represented!
SPRING CROP—REPRESENTS GENTILES
What is God portraying to Israel in using this long hot summer What does it typify? It is something pertaining to Israel—while this new grain crop (or different people) is being brought in–namely the gentiles in the grace age! Remember, pentecost completed the previous grain cycle. setting in motion a new grain crop to be raised in an altogether different season and under a different climate and atmosphere, going through a season of hot summer when this new crop reaps all the benefits offered by the sunshine and warmth upon the grain crop. Israel, who will have no happy occasion for gatherings or celebrations during the long hot summer will only work. toil and sweat. The last season’s grain crop wherein all those first four feasts were completed is shown to have primarily benefited no one but Israel. who at that hour was walking under the law age. Yet as a nation of people Israel rejected all these spiritual benefits which was salvation for the new age) produced by these first four feasts, therefore the spiritual benefits of these four feasts were taken from Israel and offered to another people, mainly the gentiles who gained spiritual access to all that God had first offered the Jew in these first four feasts.
Through all this setting God is typifying and showing Israel that just as he presented unto her during the first advent of Christ her glorious opportunity and privilege to a nation as a whole to enter into all these spiritual benefits of these first four feasts, spiritual benefits which are none other than the plan of salvation for the grace age. yet being fully aware that as Israel as a total nation would go to great lengths and sacrifice to accept her ceremonial feasts year after year, she would by no means accept the spiritual aspects of what these first four feasts for centuries had foreshadowed. All four feasts were fulfilled in Christ and furthermore is none other than the plan of salvation of the saving grace of God for the new age opened up through the death of Christ.
OLD CROP REPRESENTS ISRAEL
With this cycle of the previous grain season already completed at pentecost (a grain crop which represented Israel) Israel as a nation, though offered these spiritual benefits would not take advantage of them, therefore God removed from Israel all the spiritual benefits of the first four feasts and present them unto a new people illustrated by their new spring grain crop who shall now become his new people namely the gentiles, because these gentiles would accept these spiritual benefits–as the means of their salvation! And notice, he removed all these spiritual benefits from Israel within the period of time that the first church age had already been set in motion.
SPIRITUAL BENEFITS REMOVED
Taking away from Israel all these spiritual benefits of these first four feasts which deal strictly with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. the grace age divided into seven church periods and the coming of the Holy Ghost. God presents all this unto the gentiles who gladly accept all these spiritual benefits as their personal salvation or the route back into complete fellowship with God. Not until this is accomplished do we see the scriptures being brought perfectly into alignment. These first four feasts now completely fulfilled in all their spiritual aspects having already been projected over into the grace age. only here do we see the full benefits of what all these first four feasts were suppose to scripturally accomplish being set in motion and accomplishing their ordained purpose! WHERE? At the very beginning of the apostolic grace age when lost mankind began to accept all this as his salvation and route back into fellowship with God! No wonder at Ephesus the Apostle Paul instructed the gen-tiles in the grace age, that age opened up through the death on the cross, that it is by your faith or revelation in these three ingredients ( Calvary, the resurrection and Holy Ghost ) and not by your own works–you are saved! It is their willful acceptance of the spiritual fulfillment of these feasts which is your salvation in the grace age. God, having now placed within the reach of all those within that first church age these precious spiritual benefits and fulfillments of all these first four feasts, reaches outl now and cuts Israel (as a nation)’ completely off, removing her far, from his program while this new grain crop representing the gen-i tiles will receive all of his attention! THE LONG HOT SUMMER JEWS DISPERSED 70 A. D. brought, not only the fall and total destruction of the city of Jerusalem which included the destruction of the Jews’ beautiful temple but also brought to a halt all the animal sacrifices conducted on the sacrificial rock of Moriah, causing individuals now to wonder how the final three feasts could ever be brought into spiritual fulfillment. However do not forget, as Paul stated God has by no means forgotten Israel, he is not finished with Israel, although for a season she will wander aimlessly through the gentiles, through that period of grace dispensation illustrated by that new crop of grain growing through the summer and being brought to maturity for harvest in the fall. Therefore, as the Jews face captivity by the Romans and scattered throughout the Roman Empire, being sold off mostly as slaves what is to be the fate of Israel’s final three feasts? No, not one of these final three feasts saw any spiritual fulfillment during the first advent of Christ as did the first four which God is now using for the gentiles’ salvation yet somewhere in history the spiritual fulfillment of the last three feasts will definitely have to be presented to Israel! Why? Because the fulfillment of the last three feasts can only follow after the gathering in of the new fall grain crop planted in the new and different season, reaping the benefits of the sun which shines the brightest during the summer upon this new crop—that new crop you recall is the gentile saints! The final three feasts link to the surroundings of the second coming of Christ once Israel has been returned into her homeland following her long summer dispersion among the gentiles. The fact the Jew returned to his home following his celebration of a
pentecost feast completing his cycle of last season’s harvest crop followed by the fact that during the hot summer Israel would have no joyous occasion of festivity while that new crop was wowing shows. in type. that Israel would be in a long dispersion where he would stand many long days. toiling and sweating, waiting until the hour for his call to be religiously awakened to regather himself in Jerusalem for his remaining feasts held in the seventh month! In all their spiritual aspect these last 3 feasts apply to the time shortly before the Lord Jesus appears for the one thousand years millennium reign on earth. For a few moments let us watch and see if we can recognize through these remaining three feasts yet left for Israel to celebrate if there are any shadows being cast upon the earth today and if so let us see what these shadows point to!
No. 5 – – Feast of Trumpet
Lev. 23:23 shows after the long summer season has passed in Israel, God now tells Moses to regather the children of Israel in the seventh month or fall of the, year. Why I ask you would not the Lord require Moses to regather them in the fourth, fifth or even the sixth month–why the seventh? What does their regathering in the seventh month speak of? nothing ceremonial is to transpire until the seventh month–not anything in the 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th month, it is the 7th! In the seventh month after this long hot summer season has passed and this new crop of grain planted in the spring, receiving all the benefits of that warm sun throughout the summer season, is now standing ready for harvest, watch what happens! What are these three remaining Jewish ceremonial feasts to transpire only in Israel’s seventh month pointing to. Listen to God as he informs Moses what he wants done in the seventh month on the first day!
AWAKING ISRAEL
That first day of the month you shall have a sabbath, a rest day and notice on that day what they shall all be doing! All Israel would blow trumpets! Why? TO AWAKEN THE PEOPLE UNTO SOMETHING! The long hot summer season had passed. In the seventh month on the first day they are all to blow trumpets. This day is important and are you aware how Israel will recognize when that first day of the seventh month arrives? Just as she recognizes all her sacred months of the year–by the rising of a new moon, of course! According to Jewish history, moon watchers as they were called were positioned upon very high mountains. Once that new moon appeared, bringing in the first day of the month, spotted from that high position, those priests would sound the message of the sighting of the new moon down through the countryside. Recall the first day of this month begins with a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets—a holy convocation. Let us examine this natural setting for a moment to see what it is pointing to. Imagine if you. will, on the first day of that seventh month in the fall of the year following that long hot summer season of labor and watch what everyone does. Of all things they take out their trumpets and begin blowing them throughout Israel. What is this for? Remember no Jew is suppose to work, they rest and blow trumpets. I am sure to us gentiles that would appear quite silly nevertheless with God it has a profound meaning. It signaled to the Jew several things. No. 1, it signified the long summer was over and the new crop is ready for harvest. No. 2. seeing the Jew had not conducted any religious gathering since the early spring it served as a means of awakening him to the religious events soon to transpire that seventh month. Remember in that hour it could only carry yearly a ceremonial significance foreshadowing something in the future yet to happen.
SOUNDING ISRAEL’S REGATHERING
The yearly blowing of these trumpets the first day of the seventh month was foreshadowing the awakening and regathering of Israel out of all the gentile nations. calling them or awakening them to regather for an assembly of the Jews as well as to return back to the land for national rest seeing they for so long have been scattered among the gentile nations as illustrated by the long hot summer while the new crop had been growing in the field. Watch something closely, when did all this special awakening or trumpet blowing begin in its actual spiritual fulfillment? It began, beloved, as the seventh gentile church age was in progress! While in gentile territory throughout his more than 1800 years of being scattered, the Jew was totally unable to ever fulfill even the mere ceremonial aspect of the feast of the trumpets or blowing of the trumpets seeing he is out of his land. therefore there was actually nothing for him to awaken his people unto. Because only in Israel could any of these ceremonial feasts actually (in their proper perspective) ever be performed unto Jehovah.
PURPOSE OF TRUMPETS
Reading from Joel, Amos and many others we quickly recognize the purpose of trumpets blowing in Israel. It is an instrument used for calling the people of Israel to attention. It carries a message therefore the sounding or blowing of these trumpets which is also called the feast of trumpets shows the sounding of trumpets throughout Israel was always for the sole purpose of introduction or a knock upon the heart’s door of Israel to awaken them to the reality. not only that the long summer season is over and time has arrived to gather in the summer fruit but also he is to go to Jerusalem upon t he temple grounds for a celebration or a time when Israel shall be offering a national sacrifice which, back in those days, could only be accomplished through the officework of a high priest who, after slaying the lamb, would take its blood into the Holy of Holies of the temple and there fulfill his officework as High Priest for all Israel. That tenth day was a day of national atonement. BEGINNING SEVENTH AGE Looking back upon our seventh gentile church age we are actually aware this church age began around the dawn of the 20th Century, approximately 1906. No sooner had the 20th Century dawned on the horizon (opening of the seventh gentile church age) which you realize is the last church age for the gentiles when God had already spiritually begun to fulfill the feast of trumpets or the sounding of the trumpets. True, he was already in the process which would bringing something about would awaken the Jewish race unto a reality it was time to gather back in the land. The long summer season was over! With the closing of the 19th Century, old Jewish rabbis across this earth began to feel in their spirits a call of God that it was time to return home to Israel. the land they had been away from for over 1800 years. Out of that call from around the world by these rabbis was formed a movement better known as t he great Zionist movement or Zionism. It was a move to begin to encourage the Jew to return to his native land. Around the world these old Jewish rabbis would declare in European synagogues as well as in other lands where they were foreigners and strangers. brethren, time has conic that we must go home! What was happening? After some 1800 years of absence from the land God was stirring the souls of these rabbis and sounding his spiritual trumpet to awaken the people for regathering back in the land to be ready to meet the Messiah! Now understand it is one thing to sound a trumpet telling the people to get ready to depart for home while it is quite another thing to see how God must go about impressing the Jew to pay attention to that trumpet call seeing he must first bring about certain conditions whereby the Jew would desire to go home.
A CRY OF RETURN
God had to prepare certain conditions even within the land of Palestine itself to make it possible for the Jew to be able to go home to this land from which he had been away for so long. Therefore as the old rabbis began traveling over the earth sounding the trumpet’s spiritual warning and awakening—it is time to go home—I want you to know this trumpet sound was not met with rejoicing. instead in most cases it was met with stiff op-position and rebuttal. Go home to what, they would say. To a wilderness, to a swamp–seeing that is about all much of the land amounted to then. Give up all this we have acquired while among these gentiles; give up our wealth, our property, stocks and bonds to go to a swamp or wilderness land filled with our enemies!! Although these rabbis were met with much humiliation nevertheless God’s trumpet was sounding. Time had definitely arrived for the Jew who had been scattered through the long hot summer while a new crop was in the making–to now consider leaving all this and going home! When did the trumpet blow to awaken Israel? At the beginning of that seventh gentile age. God had caused .his spiritual trumpet to sound. Even though many Jews were awakened and did begin making their way back into that land which was filled with hostility against them by the Arabs and Turks-not many were allowed entry! Nevertheless those Jews knew there was only one place for them to ever be able to meet Jehovah and it would have to be in THAT LAND! Within that same seventh church age Zionism materialized and although it had many extremes God used it to sow a seed among his Jewish people.
EFFECTS OF TWO WARS
For a moment let’s notice how the effects of two Gentile world wars served God’s pitrpose in returning the Jew to his land. (I) World War I mysteriously ended with the British taking from the Turks the land of Palestine and capturing the Holy City of Jerusalem without a single shot being fired. Through World War I God was reshaping the la nd for the return of his people, Israel. No, it has not been an easy entry for the Jew to return however, no sooner had World War 2 reached its bloody, devastating climax and six million Jews had been brutally tortured, slaughtered and put to death in gas chambers leaving within Europe only a remnant or segment of bedraggled, frightened Jews mainly staggering out of German concentration camps over their property and wealth which in earlier days had kept them from obeying the cries of the rabbis to go home. had now been confiscated and they actually had nothing to remain in Europe for. Their pathetic, bedraggled existence reminds me much of the condition their ancient ancestors found themselves in while in Egypt shortly before Moses appeared to lead them home.
STAMPEDE TO ISRAEL
Through 1945-1948 Jews seemed to be in a stampede to return into the land of Palestine where tens of thousands were regathering. Why? Because God already had sounded the trumpet for their return and regathering. It was the spiritual application being fulfilled of what the feast of the trumpets yearly had foreshadowed while Israel was still in her land thousands of years earlier. The feast of the trumpets had blown for the awakening and regathering. however, since Israel had ignored the fisherman (rabbis) God sent forth hunters (German Army) and when it had finished they were more than ready to return. Therefore in 1948 Israel became a state in the land of Palestine and the U.N. recognized Israel as a new Jewish state! The feast of the trumpets had sounded! Sounding those trumpets in their ceremonial setting awakened the nation to the activity of the seventh month itself. It proclaimed a message to Israel seeing that from early spring until the fall season they had not had any gathering for religious festivity, the feast of the trumpets reminded Israel this was the seventh month when they must once again be gathering together!
No. 6 – – Day of Atonement
Watch closely what all this awakening with these trumpets has been concerned with. Verse 26-27 declares that something is going to happen ten days later. “And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of (national) atonement. It shall be a holy convocation”. Note: it took the effects of the natural feast of trumpets sounding throughout Israel back on the first day of the month to announce, first, summer is over and secondly, awaken and prepare Israel to complete all their labor whereby on the tenth day she would regather herself unto one central location, namely the temple grounds at Jerusalem whereby the entire nation would present themselves in confession of sins before the high priest who would kill a sacrificial lamb as an atonement for the sins of the entire nation, yet recall Israel is blinded to the true spiritual significance of this tenth day and seventh month which in the ceremonial setting was once the high priest had slain the lamb, he would then enter into the Holy of Holies and there before the mercy seat make intercession for the sins of the nation. It was a day of great mourning and repentance, a day of confession and affliction of soul!
ONLY A SHADOW
Unbeknownst to the Jew because of his blindness, this was only a Shadow pointing to something that would later come. Nothing on this tenth day of national atonement or what is called Yom Kippur will be done other than repent afflict their soul and offer national confession for sin: This was only a ceremonial feast conducted yearly but what did it foreshadow! Basically, it foreshadowed and pointed to the hour Israel would recognize her mistake in rejecting her messiah and there repent in bitter tears with wailing and groanings over the fact their national ancestors crucified him on a Roman cross! Israel’s spiritual national repentance in some future hour will consist of what you as a revelated gentile already knows concerning who the Lord Jesus Christ is. It will be consumated in the fact of great national repentance over the fact they failed to recognize who Jesus was, that he was none other than the Jewish Messiah or their God robed in flesh to fulfill the prophecy of lsa. 9:6! Because through Israel’s spiritual blindness she did not recognize this fact during his first advent when Christ was here, therefore the nation as a whole rejected him as their messiah.
REJECTION OF CHRIST SHOWN
Little did the Jew realize as far back as 3000 years ago as he conducted this yearly feast, the day would come he would have to repent over the fact he rejected his messiah! Yet once each year through this shadow or ceremonial feast he was demonstrating that was exactly what would happen! Imagine him illustrating long before the first advent of Christ. through this ceremonial feast yearly, this pathetic fact–that the messiah would come and Israel would reject him. spending a long exile out of the land and because of it. one day as a nation would realize their terrible error and sorrowfully repent with affliction of souls in a way you can not imagine as they cry unto Jehovah for forgiveness! The very fact they celebrated this yearly feast through this shadow, indicated God was showing how they would reject Christ in his first coming and fail to recognize he fulfilled the first four feasts thus rejecting the spiritual fulfillment of the first four feasts presented unto them at the feast of pentecost through the Holy Ghost and because of their rejection to these first four feasts gave the spiritual truths unto the gentiles for their salvation! The predestinated mind of God was illustrating yearly as far back as 1400 years before Christ, how that when the messiah did come Israel as a nation would reject him thus later requiring the spiritual fulfillment of this sixth feast (day of national atonement ) to be applied and fulfilled! Moreover had the Jew accepted Christ at his first advent there would never have even been a spiritual fulfillment to any of the last three feasts, especially this day of national atonement because when this day of national atonement is spiritually fulfilled the human mind cannot grasp the sight of sorrow and anguish this nation of people will pow- out through weeping before the Lord. Individually the Jew would have no more to repent over than would a gentile however once that nation as a whole repents and wails before God for the actions of their ancestors who stood before Pilate, hearing him cry out–whom shall I release unto you, Jesus or Barrabas (the insurrectionist and murderer)? And the multitude in violent excitement screaming back said, release unto us Barrabas, crucify this Jesus and let his blood be upon us and our children as well as our children’s children forever. What a sight that will be when a nation of people weeps over their national sin of unbelief.
TRUE SCRIPTURAL SHADOW
This is a most solemn, sober day in Israel even when the feast was only being carried out in its true scriptural ceremonial shadow from up until 70 A.D. Here we must see something very important–in order for this ceremonial feast to be conducted or carried out in its true scriptural shadow or ceremonial form in order to project the true objective as to what it is pointing unto, certain natural things had to be required! (I ) A lamb. (2) A sacrificial altar, (3) A high priest (4) A temple with a little room in the back section called the Holy of Holies! Because at no other time of year would the high priest ever dare enter into that Holy of Holies but only on that day of atonement! ( Heb. 9.7) True the Levite priest continually went in and out of the temple performing their daily duties yet it was only the high priest who once each year (on the day of atonement( would dare enter into that Holy of Holies and stand before the Ark of the Covenant (the mercy seat ) with a container of blood to be offered unto the Lord for his own sins as well as for the errors of his people. And recall, not even the high priest would dare enter the Holy of Holies where stood only the Ark of the Covenant overshadowing the mercy seat by two golden cherubims without first an offering of blood as a sacrifice, because entering this room without blood he would be slain by God! The high priest wore small bells f attached to the hem of his garment t with also a rope around his ankle, ) because first no one but the high priest could ever enter this room. Were God displeased in his life and killed him before the altar, the priests could drag him out by the rope, yet as long as the bells tingled on his garment they knew he was alive and moving about. That shows how holy and sacred this one spot of the temple was in connection with only the ceremonial aspect of the feast, the day of atonement. Outside the Israelite stood in the courtyards on this day each year pouring out their souls before God in repentance, a day which I remind you was only a shadow being portrayed yearly of an hour when Israel t would repent over their rejection of Christ, not recognizing him as the Messiah. If that frightful sight, beloved, was a true shadow seen in the earth before 70 A.D. pointing t unto the real thing, then what must the real day, which the shadow 5 only pointed unto, going to be like fulfilled shortly before the second I coming of Christ to earth! You know beloved, if it required a sacrificial altar, a high priest and a Holy of Holies in order for the high priest to enter into only once each year and then certainly not enter without blood–if it required all this to make the ceremonial feast day of atonement fit the scriptures in order to project a him shadow in the earth in its true ceremonial setting–what must that be like since 70 A.D. when they lost all three, the sacrifice rock, high priest and Holy of Holies! What a pathetic picture it must be with Israel trying to conduct the ceremonial day of national atonement as she has had to do while out of her true setting these last 1800 years! Although today while it is true she is back in her land, nevertheless poor Israel cannot even as much as perform the true scriptural ceremonial day of atonement, which I remind you in its true setting is only a shadow of something far greater to come.
FORCED TO USE SUBSTITUTE
Beloved, Israel cannot even as much as produce the true shadow which points to the real event. Instead they are still forced to use a poor substitute in place of the true Biblical shadow. The very fact Israel has been forced to rely upon a substitute offering on the day of atonement seeing she is unable to use her sacrificial rock to slay their sacrificial lamb upon, unable to have a high priest to offer sacrificial blood for the sins of the nation on this one day within that Holy of Holies within a temple proves Israel herself realizes by the unscriptural substitute she is forced to use, she is no where near a scriptural position and here is why! Instead of using a bird which meets Bible qualifications and is a true shadow of what is to come, they used an unscriptural fowl, either hen or rooster! I hope this in itself shows us what Israel is actually admitting unto themselves! In reality they are saying, how can we possibly scripturally observe our day of national atonement unless we are on our temple grounds in Jerusalem, having our high priest kill the lamb upon the sacrificial rock of Morriah and there carrying its blood into the Holy of Holies before God! No beloved, since 70 A.D. up until now Israel cannot even as much as conduct the scriptural ceremonial day which unbeknownst to them is only a shadow pointing to Christ and Israel’s day of national repentance! Christ follows his true shadow but not a substitute! What I am saying is this, before Christ will come to fulfill this day Israel is going to have to have the true shadow in the earth forshadowing or pointing to this hour.
WHAT RABBI DOES
Throughout Israel’s dark age among the gentiles, since 70 A. D. on this day of atonement while in gentile territory on the 10th day of the seventh month, a woman comes before the rabbi in the synagogue confessing her sins and as she does the rabbi takes a hen, slings it over his head until the fowl is dead and repeats these words—thy sins be forgiven thee, next year you will be in Jerusalem! How pathetic! In reality the rabbi is declaring there is no place this can be carried out correctly and acceptable unto God except in Jerusalem on the temple mount. In other words what he is saying is this will serve as a substitute until we get back to Jerusalem. However I want you to know they are back at Jerusalem (about 3 million of them) nevertheless they cannot perform their scriptural ceremony in its correct scriptural setting which we know to be a true shadow of the real thing, therefore. how can the real event take place until they get the shadow in line with the Word and they can’t do that until they get back their temple area!
Therefore the man who comes before the rabbi confessing his sins on the day of atonement and the rabbi slings a rooster over his head until dead, saying unto the man, thy sins be forgiven thee, next year you will be in Jerusalem. I repeat, today they are in Jerusalem but still only a substitute of the real scriptural ceremonial shadow can be used!
ISRAEL STILL SUBSTITUTING
There is around 3 million Jews back in the land and it is true on the first day of the seventh month they are able to blow trumpets to signal Israel that this is the seventh month because they are back in the land, in a sense they are resting in the land; they grow crops in the land. The trumpet can remind them the summer harvest is over, the spring planting has reached maturity–all of this yet those trumpets cannot bring them to he correct scriptural setting on the 10th still when they gather on that 10th day of Yom Kippur and ob-serve the national atonement, it is done with a substitute of an unscriptural fowl! No beloved, not even their national ceremonial ritual in Jerusalem can be with a ceremonial lamb sacrifice, instead it is that mere substitute. Why? Because they do not have the rock of sacrifice, they do not have a high priest nor a Holy of Holies to enter into to offer the blood! But 014, one of these days, according to the authority of this Bible as we draw nearer to the coming of Christ in order that there be a true scriptural shadow in the earth pointing or projecting toward that day of national repentance, even in order for Israel to carry out her true ceremonial form correctly, something is going to happen in the land of Israel to make all of that possible. Something will happen in the city of Jerusalem on that temple grounds that will make it possible for the orthodox Jew to begin to carry out his ceremonial or true shadow of the real event in order that God have in this earth that true shadow or ceremonial feast in operation pointing straight to the coming of Christ and Israel’s day of national repentance over their sin of unbelief!
NO SUBSTITUTE WHEN CHRIST ARRIVES
I must impress upon you Christ will not come to this earth until they get that true shadow back in operation pointing to that day. Only a true shadow of Christ can actually be portrayed in its true setting to point to that day, not a substitute or unscriptural fowl. You say, NOT SO! I remind you in the first four feasts fulfilled with Christ’s first coming, Israel was not using substitutes as a shadow in what it was pointed to, nor will they be using any substitute as a shadow when Christ reappears! For instance, can you imagine Christ coming, who is the fulfillment of the shadow of the day of atonement and the people be repenting over their sins in Jerusalem with the rabbi slinging a fowl over his head! No beloved. the true scriptural shadow which is only a ceremonial day must be in the earth pointing toward the real thing even before Christ comes! I know what some of you are thinking, there is not time for any such to happen. Beloved that does not require as much time as some of you may be thinking. Did not Israel in only a matter of hours take from the Jordanians in the six day war the Old City of Jerusalem and all the property of the Old City fell in Israel’s hands, including the Wailing Wall, in a matter of hours! It most certainly did! The Star of David had not flown alone over the Old City in over 2500 years! Yes. at God’s due time this ritual of a fowl being offers on the day of. atonement could be transferred back to the true scriptural shadow needed to bring on the real event, once God permits this aged sacrificial rock whereupon Israel has always slain her sacrifices to fall back into her hands and once that happened their national sacrifice of a lamb (the shadow) could be offered and a high priest appointed to carry out his officework with its blood. Therefore on that day of atonement then a man or woman could stand before the high priest saying I confess my sins and the high priest will take blood of that true scriptural sacrifice and carry it into the Holy of Holies. It must be done at least once in order for there to be a true shadow cast upon the earth pointing to the real thing before Christ comes and the day of national repentance be brought in. I repeat Christ followed only his true ceremonial scriptural shadows of a feast that the Lord himself set in operation at his first coming!
BLESSINGS ON LAND
Recall beloved, the beginning of the seventh church age at the dawning of the 20th Century, the voice of Zionism began shouting forth–JEW GO HOME! This trumpet sounding sowed the seed, giving the Jew the desire to return home. Some three million Jews are back there today, having come from 88 different Gentile countries and seemingly their appearance back on the land has even made the land itself happy! For many centuries during their absence the early rains had entirely disappeared but as they returned some parts of Palestine yields two or three crops per year by irrigation, drainage etc., hundreds of thousands of acres have been transformed from swampy, and malaria conditions into fertile land, namely the valley of Esdraelon (Jezreel), one vast malarial swamp has been turned into an edenic garden. Palestine fruit such as oranges are considered superior to any in the world, nearly 18,000 tons of olives were gathered in 1974. Over 1,000 olive oil mills are operating manufacturing numerous products. Seemingly God’s blessings are resting heavily upon the land as never before. The thrashing floors filled with grain, the vats overflow with wine and oil, Joel 2:23-24.
Each fall of the year they are now able to blow trumpets ceremoniously in Israel and remember they blow trumpets in the natural to fulfill what God told them to do on the first day of the seventh month. No, they could never stand on a gentile hillside and blow trumpets. Why? Because the Jew was not in his own field. He did not have any fruit to bring in out of his field. All he had in gentile territory was his stocks and bonds but in Israel he has the fruit of the land to bring!
ISRAEL’S TWO PROPHETS
Now let us observe the setting around their true national day of atonement once their true shadow has replaced the substitute, and the true shadow is there able to point to the hour something spiritual is going to happen in Israel. Two prophets are going to appear on the scene in Israel who will open the blinded eye of the Jew with the message as declared to us by the gentile prophet to the Laodicean age. These two Jewish prophets (not gentile) will have upon them the anointing of the spirit of Moses and Elijah. Through the mouths of these two prophets Israel will receive a revelation of who Jesus Christ their Messiah is and it will be then as that true shadow of a ceremonial feast is in the earth, according to Zechariah’s prophecy, every Jew will separate himself and sorrowfully repent!
REDEMPTION NOT BY BLOOD SACRIFICE
Beloved, I want it clearly understood, I am not saying Israel is going to be redeemed with a true revelation simply because there is a bloody animal sacrifice in that hour laying on the Jewish altar which, remember, is only there to serve as the correct shadow to be in the earth to fulfill scripturally the ceremonial day of atonement. No, Israel is saved strictly by the message of these two prophets which is apart or does not come about through any blood sacrifice on the altar on the temple grounds. However, that does not annul the fact that a blood sacrifice will be laying upon the Jewish altar in that day of those two prophets.
TRUE SHADOW DISPLAYED
Just as there were two classes of Jews present on the day of pentecost one group was present to observe the natural ceremonial day of pentecost while in the upper room there were 120 Jews receiving the spiritual benefits of the natural feast day of pentecost. so will it be in that hour! ! I say that only to show there must be the true shadow portrayed on the day of atonement wherein one group of orthodox Jews will be reaping only the natural benefits of the ceremonial side of the day while the spiritual Jews (144,000) will be receiving the true revelation of the Messiah but remember before Christ came the first time it was those true ceremonial shadows that were pointing directly to his first coming, not some substitute such as an unscriptural fowl! Even though there are 3 million Jews present in the land today they still cannot fulfill the ceremonial scriptural shadow which must be in the earth (with a chicken) before the coming of Christ to begin the millennium!
REBUILDING SECOND TEMPLE
To you who may think that day is too far off, that it can never be, that Israel must continue on with a substitute, let me remind you from the scriptures how that in only a few short months you could see a great big shadow cast upon the earth pointing directly toward the real thing. Remember how it is stated in Zechariah, Haggai and Nehemiah as well as other writings concerning that period of time surrounding the second temple when no sooner had that first wave of Jews left Babylon after Cyrus made a decree they might return and rebuild the house of God. Recall after 70 years the first thing they did during their first few months back in the land–was to build an altar and the day of atonement was on! That beloved is what that orthodox Jew wants to do more than anything in the world, he wants that sacred spot which holds that sacred rock now covered by a Moslem shrine to somehow fall into his hands. His heart yearns for this though he is denied the necessary spot to conduct his sacrifice. Therefore being denied this spot lets me know there is still a cloud hiding the real object which will be used to cast forth the ture shadow in the earth. However let God remove that cloud of hin-derance, (namely let that ground fall into their hands) which hinders the true light of the sun from being able to cast its shadow upon the earth. Just behind that cloud–is the real object. The object of the soon coming of Christ wherein one day a true national repentance of Israel will be observed as God opens the eyes of that nation, it will produce such a time of national repen-tance and sorrow, weeping and wailing the likes you have never heard. Therefore beloved, if Christ came to earth the first time, preceded by , his true, shadow already here in the earth, it is only to be expected that he will fulfill the last three Jewish ceremonial feasts in every detail. In other words, he will follow only his true God given shadow, not a substitute of the shadow as is seen today!
SHADOW REPLACES SUBSTITUTE
When the Lord comes in the rapture for his bride church, over there in the land of Israel they are going to be on the verge of the fulfillment of this very thing (having by then the true shadow in the earth) once the gentile bride church reaches her hour of per-fection and departs–WATCH OUT! God is going to be mightily involved in that nation’s activities. Over-night he is going to awaken that nation; overnight they are going to have a true spiritual national revival and I repeat, when that happens the very ceremony of the shadow pointing to this great hour is going to be fulfilled in every detail just a’s the ceremonial feasts were in his first coining! In Israel two Jewish prophets will come on the scene who will be God’s very instruments to bring about this revival of the Jew spiritually, while on the altar of sacrifice will be the lamb, the true shadow pointing to the reality or fulfillment of that great event that is just around the corner! Therefore if you can understand the true setting of the Jewish day of atonement in all its natural observation and natural fulfillment which is only the shadow pointing to the real hour or spiritual event of national repentance then you will know as this multitude of Jews receive the revelation of Jesus Christ could you possibly imagine them being in the process of still using a mere substitute of a fowl (rooster or hen)! Remember the first four feasts were in perfect shadow form, not substitutes, at Christ’s first coming, instead they were fulfilled in every detail. No beloved, I am not trying to push this thing off 10 years, I am not even indicating such a thing however as long as you are here you live each day by the grace of God and please don’t be so foolish to discredit this book.
No. 7 – – Feast of Tabernacles
Within that same seventh month something else transpires. The first day of the month trumpets were blown to call the attention of Israel to the events of all the seventh month. The tenth day was the atonement however in verses 33-34 we hear the Lord speaking to Moses saying, the 15th day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles conducted for seven days—first of those seven days shall tze a holy convocation wherein you will do no labor. Seven days, according to verse 36, you will offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. The 8th day, (or 1st day of the week ) shall be a holy convocation unto you and you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord—it is a solemn assembly, you will do no labor. Verse 39–also in the 15th day of the seventh month when you have (past tense) gathered in the fruit of the land which to the natural Jew in Israel meant simply gathered in the fruit or harvest.
CROPS ALL GATHERED
Spiritually it means God has gathered in all the fruit of his seven church ages wherein he sowed the seed among the gentiles that produced repentance, new birth, water baptism as well as the baptism of the Holy Ghost through the spiritual aspects of the first four feasts. The grace age had produced a crop in the summer season but within the seventh church age it comes now to a close and the fruit of God’s spiritual harvest has all been brought in. When that last gentile has heard his gospel call and is brought in, Israel as a nation will be at home, she will soon be brought into repentance and spiritual revelation of who Jesus is. Though seen from the ceremonial side of the natural feast means this, the natural Jew has brought in the fruit of the summer crop. For seven days they gather together and celebrate, why? The stun mer harvest is over! ! As a matter of fact the year’s harvest, both fall and spring, is over!
A LOOKING BACK
Are you aware that in the spiritual aspect represented in this feast of tabernacles, it is a time when everything is completed, a time of feasting while looking back through the grace age into the Low age. This feast brings all planting and harvesting to an end and we might add here it is the only feast still observed in the millennium recorded in Zechariah 14:16-18. This lets me know when that hour of Israel’s true national repentance has come and they have been restored into a full fellowship with God, the last gentile will already have been harvested, Israel back in her land resting from her labors and restored to God’s fellowship. Prophetically it shows the Lord has come and the millennium is set in motion. For recall it is the only feast observed in the millennium. None of the six other feasts are mentioned, only this feast of tabernacles. Why? Because all these other six feasts casting their true shadow in the earth were fulfilled and accomplished once Israel had been regathered in her spiritual day of repentance and atonement as a nation. That ended the sixth feast, however this day of the feast of tabernacles observed by Israel worshipping God looks back to a finished work wherein the Jews in the natural sense could say PRAISE GOD, all our crops, both fall and spring, are now gathered in. However as God looks upon the scene from the standpoint of redemption he is saying, my crop is all in. Some people have felt because Bro. Branham stated that God always sends his messengers at the closing of the age that we no longer are living in the seventh church age but instead are living in the bride age. Listen carefully–As long as there is a repentant gentile out in the religious world still hearing the gospel, still repenting and accepting Jesus Christ as his saviour and if God is placing that gentile in the body of Christ which is the spiritual church of the living God, then we are still living within the seventh church age! Beloved, when that seventh church age closes out there will never be another gentile enter into the spiritual church of the living God! When that last gentile has been born again and brought in to the fellowship and family of God, placed within the body of Christ–only then will that consummate and fulfill the bride of Christ. Because never forget, she is still a church as long as she is on this earth. Since she is still a called out people (church), the true church is somewhere in the scope of time within that seventh church age although I grant you the age itself is reaching very near that closing hour. Nevertheless when that last gentile is brought in God will have then received his summer crop.
BOTH SPIRITUAL CROPS PRESENT IN MILLENNIUM
Remember the last three feasts points to the regathering of Israel back into the land–trumpet blowing, national repentance followed by those seven days of the feast of tabernacles at which time the natural Jew would simply sit in the streets, eat, drink, dance, worship God and fellowship one another. In the natural sense under the shadow it pointed to the fact the Jews had been separated for that long summer season. However in what the shadow was pointing to declares this, God now has both his crops–fall and summer–in the storehouse (Old and New Testament saints alike) and he has brought to this earth with him that redeemed people or bride, to rule and reign on the earth. For as we note in Zech. 14:16-21 concerning that thousand year reign it shall come to pass in that day that the fleshly, mortal remnant of all nations which are left on earth will be commanded to come up to Jerusalem yearly to worship the Lord of host and keep this one feast. the least of tabor. flacks. As the millennium opens every fleshly soul who is living on earth will go to Jerusalem once each year. His primary object is to make his way to the temple ac-cording to Eze. 43 to worship the Lord and King and while there he will observe the feast of tabernacles. He will see the saints of both crops, the Old and New Testament alike. Therefore you have your two seasons of crops-characterized there in the thousand years reign. Since we are all together there in the millennium, both Old and New Testament saints alike, do we then see the fulfillment of the words of Christ spoken in ( Malt. 8:10-12) for many shall conic from the east, west, north and south and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the Lord!
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