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PENTECOST – 2000
Day 49
Fred R. Coulter – June 10, 2000
Greetings brethren. This is day 49 the day before Pentecost, the year
2000. And as you know every year we go through the holy days.
And every year we learn a little bit more, and every year we try and
understand some other aspects of the holy days, other aspects of God’s word
in relationship to it so that we can grow in grace and knowledge and
understand. And so likewise with Pentecost we’re going to do the same
thing today, and then tomorrow.
And it seems like the time has really flown since the Passover and Feast of
Unleavened Bread. As with us here, we’ve really been busy just trying
to get everything done and get all the mailings and everything out so we can
get them out to you to cover everything in a timely manner. And I hope
that you’ve gone over the tapes that we sent out for the Seven Church
Harvest, because that goes through all of the churches and shows the
spiritual harvest of God, which we’ll cover a little bit more tomorrow.
But all of that is in preparation so that when we are preaching in season
and out of season we’re always relating everything to the way of God
pointing to the holy days. And I’m going to have some very good
information for you concerning the holy days in the near future, which is
really going to be I think very, very helpful in understanding so that we
will be able to have greater confidence in the holy days of God, greater
confidence in God’s way, greater confidence in what God is doing. And
that all adds to faith. That adds to love. That adds to hope,
and then gives us a greater understanding, and that’s what God wants us to
have.
So as we always do for the holy days, let’s begin in Leviticus 23 and
continue the story and the flow of the holy days through the year as we are
coming up to Pentecost. Now we know that this began with the wave
sheaf offering day, and I hope you went over that tape that we did for the
wave sheaf offering day because that is very significant. As a matter
of fact that is the whole key for everything coming down to Pentecost.
Now let’s begin here in Leviticus 23:9. “And the LORD spake unto
Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye
be come into the land…” So now Pentecost with the grain harvest and
everything, was not to happen until they came into the land because as long
as they were in the wilderness they didn’t have any grain they had manna,
and that was their food. And I’m sure that Pentecost was kept because
as we’ll see, the Ten Commandments were given on Pentecost, and so Pentecost
was kept even though they did not have the grain. But when they got
into the land we’ll see what happened, what they did according to God’s
instruction here. “…When ye be come into the land which I give unto
you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the
firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf
before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the
priest shall wave it” (Lev. 23:9-12). Now this was the very first of
the firstfruits, and that’s what Christ is called. He is called the
first of the firstfruits.
Now let me read to you out of the Schocken Bible because he gives a little
bit different description of it, which I think points more toward the
resurrection than just the wave sheaf offering as we have it translated in
the King James Version.
Verse 10, “Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: When you enter
the land that I am giving you, and you harvest its harvest, you are to bring
the premier sheaf…” Now the premier means the most important.
“…The premier sheaf of your harvest to the priest. He is to elevate
the sheaf before the presence of [The LORD] YHWH, for acceptance for you”
(Lev. 23:10-12, Schocken).
Now since Christ was the firstfruit, Christ was the firstborn, the premier
one is this. Hold your place there in Leviticus 23 and let’s go to
Romans 8 and let’s see where we have a fulfillment of this in describing
Christ. And also it includes us because you see, Christ had to be
first because as Paul said if Christ be not raised then you are dead in your
sins, and your faith is empty and vain. So here in Romans 8 we have
the fulfillment now of the firstfruits and also the firstborn. So
remember the firstfruits and the firstborn are very connected in the plan of
God.
Now we have it right here. Let’s pick it up in Romans 8:28.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose.” And
brethren I’ve seen that through the years over and over and over again.
Everything works to good but we have to let it exercise us so we can
understand how it is good for us, and the trials and difficulties that we go
through. But when you take a long perspective of it and you take and
look back through the years you see how that everything works for good.
God designed it that way. God is involved in our lives. God has
called us. God has given us of His Spirit. God is leading us and
guiding us and bringing us to His Kingdom. So when we understand that
everything Christ went through, and that all worked for good.
Now let’s come here to verse 29. “For whom He did foreknow [and He’s
foreknown us] He also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He [that is His Son] might be the firstborn among many
brethren.”
So what we have in the harvest of the firstfruits, let’s go back to
Leviticus 23 now, you have this: you have the premier sheaf, which is cut
first. No other grain was to be harvested. No other things were
to be eaten until that was cut. Now when that was cut, that is
signifying being cut from the earth, meaning that it is no longer earthly
bound, if we could put it that way. And let’s transfer that to Christ
in a figure. Then the priest elevates it. And elevating is just
like a resurrection. And remember there in John 20 when Jesus spoke to
Mary Magdalene. She came to hug Him, to hold Him, and He said, “Don’t touch
Me for I have not yet ascended to My Father. But go tell My brethren
and your brethren that I ascend to My God and to your God.” And so she
did. So Jesus immediately, right after that, ascended into heaven, was
accepted of God the Father as the sacrifice, as the first of the firstborn,
the first of the firstfruit, and that perfect sacrifice to redeem all
mankind. So that was the start. So the wave sheaf offering day
is a very important and key thing.
Now let’s continue on here. “He is to elevate…” Now verse 11, I’m
still reading from the Schocken Bible. “He is to elevate the sheaf
before the presence of [the LORD] YHWH, for acceptance for you; on the
morrow of the Sabbath…” Now that means on the morrow after the
Sabbath. “…The priest is to elevate it.” This is the regular
weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Now when Passover falls on a Friday night and then Sabbath day is the
Passover day, then that day become the Sabbath of the Unleavened Bread
because the Passover is also an unleavened bread day. So therefore the
first day right after that becomes the wave sheaf offering day. Now
this year we didn’t have that. This year we had the Passover in the
middle of the week. We had the three days and three nights in the
tomb, we had the resurrection at the end of the Sabbath. Then we have
then Christ ascending now on the wave sheaf offering day on the morrow after
the Sabbath to be accepted for us, when He was accepted.
Now then, let’s continue on, I’ll read out of the King James. And it
says, “And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without
blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.” This
was also a type of Christ. “And a [meal] meat offering thereof
shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering
made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering
thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. And
ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the
selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God…” So here’s what
we have. After they entered into the land, and after they had the very
first wave sheaf offering, from that time on then they could eat the old
corn and the new corn. Of course then every year coming up to that
time then they could always eat the old corn coming up to the time of the
wave sheaf offering day but they couldn’t eat any of the new corn, or that
is the new grain. They couldn’t take it and dry it and parch it like
it says here. “…Parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye
have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute forever
throughout your generations in all you dwellings” (Lev. 23:12-14, KJV).
Now hold your place here and let’s go to Joshua 5, and let’s see how it was
fulfilled when they came into the land. Now this becomes very
important and this is one of those weeks where the weekly Sabbath was the
Passover day. So therefore the first day of the Feast of Unleavened
Bread being the first day of the week after the Passover Sabbath, became the
wave sheaf offering day. Now let’s read it here.
Joshua 5:10, “And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the
Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of
Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow
after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the
selfsame day” (Josh. 5:10-11). So the morrow after the Passover was
the 15th. And that was the wave sheaf offering in that day, that year
rather, when they entered into the promised land, so therefore they could
eat of the old corn, which was the harvest that they got from conquering on
the east side of the Jordan. So they had stores of grain, they had the
new harvest already planted and grown ready to harvest. So what they did,
they took a premier sheaf right from the harvest that had been planted.
The priest waved it before God, elevated it, and it was accepted on the
morrow after the Sabbath, and the Sabbath being the Passover day, and that’s
why this took place. Now notice they also ate unleavened bread with
it.
Now let’s read verse 12. “And the manna ceased on the morrow after
they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of
Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan
that year.” So there it was fulfilled. There was the command that God
gave, and we saw it fulfilled.
Now let’s come back to Leviticus 23 and again I’m going to read from the
Schocken version of the Bible. And this tells us then how we are to
count because counting is very important and there’s still some people who
believe in a Monday Pentecost. Well, unfortunately there’s no such
thing as a Monday Pentecost. Has never been and can’t be, especially
when you understand the counting.
Now let me read from the Schocken Bible beginning in verse 15. “Now
you are to number for yourselves, from the morrow [and that means beginning
with the morrow] of the Sabbath…” Now the reason that is is because
you have to count that first day because Christ was accepted on that
day. He ascended to the Father, and His ascension made Him accepted as
the sacrifice for our sins. So that day must be counted. “…From
the morrow of the Sabbath, from the day that you bring the elevated sheaf,
seven Sabbaths-of-days, whole (weeks) are they to be; until the morrow of
the seventh Sabbath you are to number—fifty days, then you are to bring-near
a grain-gift of new-crops to {the LORD] YHWH. From your settlements
you are to bring bread as an elevation-offering, two (loaves of) two
tenth-measures of flour are they to be, leavened you are to bake them, as
firstfruits to [the LORD] YHWH” (Lev. 23:15-17, Schocken).
Now let’s go back and analyze these two verses just a little bit more.
First thing, number 1. You are to number beginning with the morrow
after the Sabbath. From the day, that means including the day, that
you bring the wave sheaf offering day. So that’s number 2.
Number 3, you are to have seven Sabbaths of days. That means seven
Sabbaths. Number 4, whole weeks are they to be. Now this is very
easy to figure out once you understand. You start day one, which is
the wave sheaf offering day, which is on a Sunday. Seven days you come
to Sabbath. So then you count seven Sabbaths, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
That gives you 49 days. Then until the morrow of the seventh Sabbath
you are to number 50 days. Now if you went to Monday you would
actually be numbering 51 days. So this is 50 days.
Now, on the morrow of the seventh Sabbath you are to number 50 days, ok so
that’s number 5 to the morrow of the seventh Sabbath, number 50 days, number
6. Number 7 then you are to bring a grain offering of the new crop to
the LORD, that’s number 7. So you’ve got those seven steps that you
are to do.
Now then this offering which was to come, was the only meal offering, or
bread offering where God required that leaven be put in it. Leaven was
never in any of the other offerings. They were always unleavened.
Now there’s a reason for them being leavened and I’ll let you come back
tomorrow and find out what that reason is. I’ll sort of leave you in
suspended animation here. However, there’s a distinct purpose in it.
Now, just understand this: during the Feast of Unleavened Bread leaven is a
picture of sin. On Pentecost leaven here pictures something entirely
different. Now I used to say that it was God accepted us even though
we have the law of sin and death in us, which that is a true statement.
But I’ll cover a little bit more of that tomorrow so we’ll understand more
about that.
Now, let’s come on here and read some more, verse 18. “And you are to
bring-near along with the bread seven sheep, wholly-sound, a year old…”
Isn’t that interesting? What is the Church called? The Church is
called the flock of God. Sheep are of the flock. Is it
interesting that we have seven sheep. Are those a type of the seven
churches in Revelation that we’ve covered already? Could very well be.
“…And one bull, a young of the herd, and rams, two, they shall be an
offering-up for [the LORD] YHWH…” And so exactly what all of these
picture other than whole burnt offerings, complete dedication to God, that’s
what that shows. “…With their grain-gift and their poured-offerings, a
fire-offering of soothing savor to [the LORD] YHWH. And you are to
perform-as-sacrifice: one hairy goat for a [atonement] hattat, and
two sheep, a year old, for a slaughter-offering of [a peace offering]
shalom
[and that is so you can have peace with God, sit down and eat with Him, as it
were]. The priest is to eleveate them, together with the bread of the
firstfruits as an elevation-offering before the presence of [the LORD] YHWH,
together with the two sheep; they shall be a holy-portion for [the LORD]
YHWH, for the priest. And you are to make-proclamation on that same
day…” (vs. 18-20). Now you see you have the 50 days, you have the same
day. We don’t go to the 51st day.
Now tomorrow we will see, when we come to Acts 2, what it’s talking about
there, the very first verse talking about Pentecost means from the Greek,
and I have a written a booklet on it and we also have two other booklets on
counting Pentecost, so if you don’t have those be sure and write for them.
But the one is “The True Meaning of Acts 2:1”. And the Greek there has
a very special construction which is called an articular present tense
infinitive, meaning that when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, or
when the 50th day was being fulfilled, or accomplished, or being completed,
not yet finished. So that shows that you cannot move over to the 51st
day. They didn’t wait until the day there…till the day after the 50th
day, they did it on that day.
Now then let’s look at some other things concerning Pentecost and how those
fit in to the meaning of it. Now let’s come back here to Exodus 19:1.
Now we also have a tape that we put out with a chart, and it’s called “From
Egypt to Sinai”. And it took the children of Israel seven weeks to get
from Egypt to Sinai. Not quite. Seven weeks less three days.
Let’s pick it up here in verse 1, “In the third month, when the children of
Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day…” Now
this particular phrase means the same day of the week. Now the
Passover that Israel had in Egypt was in the middle of the week, on a
Wednesday. So Tuesday night is when they ate the passover.
Tuesday night is when the firstborn were killed, the death of the firstborn.
And then Wednesday morning, our time, then they got up and they gathered all
the spoil of the Egyptians and assembled at Rameses and then that Wednesday
night beginning the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the night
much to be remembered, 430 years after the promise given to Abraham, they
departed from Rameses. That is the same day of the week that they came
into the wilderness of Sinai.
Now let’s notice what happened, verse 3. “And Moses went up unto God,
and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou
say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen
what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings,
and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice
indeed…” And brethren I want to emphasize this again over and over and
over again. The whole key is to obey the voice of God. Now
remember in Deuteronomy 8:3 it says, “Man shall not live by bread alone but
by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” And here we have
all the words that God has for us that He spoke or inspired, one of the two,
and it’s out of the mouth of the LORD. It’s the key thing. Same
thing you find with Abraham. Same thing you find with all of those who
were the prophets of God. They obeyed the voice of God.
Now notice, “…and keep My covenant…” So not only do you have to obey
the voice but you have to keep the covenant. That’s for us today too
in the same way. “…Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above
all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto Me a
kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words
which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel” (Ex. 19:3-6).
“And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before
their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. And all the
people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will
do.” So they came and told the elders, the elders went and told the people.
The people said yes, we’ll do it. The elders came back and told Moses,
yes we’ll do it. “And Moses returned the words of the people unto the
LORD” (vs. 8).
Now how was Israel going to be a peculiar nation, a kingdom of priests?
Let’s go to Deuteronomy 4. We’ll come right back here again and we’ll
finish this. Let’s go to Deuteronomy 4 and see what they were supposed
to do. Let’s pick it up here in verse 1. Again we have the same
thing all the way through the Bible, obeying the voice of God.
“Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments,
which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and
possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Ye
shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish
ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God
which I command you.” Now just to make a point, and we covered this on
the “Seven Church Harvest” #3, concerning Baalim. “Your eyes have seen
what the LORD did because of Baal-peor…” That’s what the Moabites came
in and enticed the Israelites to come and do sacrifice to their gods.
And that was under the instruction of Baalim to Balac to do so. “…For
all the men that followed Baal-peor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them
from among you.” So He wants you to learn. Don’t go do what the
others did. Don’t go out and bring something from the world and bring
it in and try and make it a part of God’s way. The same thing applies
today. We’re not to do that. “But ye that did cleave unto the
LORD your God are alive every one of you this day. Behold I
have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded
me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it” (Deut.
4:1-5).
Now here’s how they were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
“Keep therefore and do them; [that is all the commandments, statutes,
and judgments of God] for this is your wisdom and your understanding
in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all theses statutes, and say,
Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh
unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call
upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that
hath statutes and judgments so
righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” (vs. 6-8).
Now brethren that’s why no one can improve upon God’s way.
Now if the word of God needs to be changed God will change it. And He
did so in the New Covenant when Christ made all the laws more spiritually
binding, raised them to a higher level of obedience than we’ve had in the
past. And we need to understand this concerning law-keeping and grace.
Under the New Covenant, because we have the laws of God written in our heart
and in our mind through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, and we stand in the
grace of God when we keep the commandments today, we are doing so as an
operation of grace because we do it from the heart filled with the Holy
Spirit. Now that’s something you need to understand because a lot of
Protestants will tell you that what you do is to keep the law and the law is
against grace. No such thing. The law is there to show us, to
teach us, to lead us, to guide us. And if we sin the law is there to
convict us of sin. And when we repent through the operation of grace
then we’re restored to God.
Now for the children of Israel, they were to do this for the whole world,
and needless to say, they failed. But God said never the less, that’s
what He wanted. Now let’s come back here to Exodus 19 and continue on
with the rest of the account leading up to the day of Pentecost when the Ten
Commandments were given. And that’s something very important to really
understand.
Now verse 10, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and
sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be
ready against the third day…” (vs. 10-11). So you have Friday,
Sabbath, and Sunday. Sunday is the third day. So what did they
do? They washed their clothes on Friday and got all prepared.
They kept the Sabbath because that sanctified them. And then God came
down the third day and brought the Ten Commandments.
Now let’s see how that went, ok. Verse 14, “And Moses went down from
the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their
clothes. And he said unto the people Be ready against the third day:
come not at your wives. And it came to pass on the third day in
the morning…” (vs. 15-16). Now we’re going to see there are parallels
between this and Acts 2 when we come to Acts 2 tomorrow, because it was in
the morning that the events took place in Acts 2. Same way here.
Now how’s this to wake up? How’d you like to wake up to this?
“…There were thunders and lighnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and
the voice of the trumpet…” Now there’s something to understand.
The trumpet is always blown on every holy day. The Feast of Trumpets
is a memorial of blowing of trumpets all day long. That’s why it’s
called the Feast of Trumpets. “…Exceeding loud [here it is the
trumpet]; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God [what an
absolutely awesome thing that must have been]; and they stood at the nether
part of the mount [that is beneath the mountain]. And mount Sinai was
altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the
smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked
greatly” (vs. 16-18).
So here imagine this whole thing just all of the sound of the thunder and
the lightning, and it’s recorded back in Hebrews 12, and the wind that was
with it, and the earth quaking. And if there’s one thing that really
puts fear into people, that’s to have the ground beneath them shaking.
And that’s exactly what was happening here. Now we live in California,
we know what that’s like. Those of you back in the midwest and east
you have tornadoes. You know what that’s like, you can get afraid of
that. So it’s the same thing.
“And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and
louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the LORD
came down upon mount Sinai, and on the top of the mount: and the LORD called
Moses up
to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. And the LORD said unto
Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to
gaze, and many of them perish.” (vs. 19-21). Cause you see you can’t
look upon the glorified form of God as a physical human being and live.
That’s what God told Moses when he said, “Oh show me Your glory.”
He said, “No man can see My face and live.” Because God in His glory
living eternally in spiritually, you see, has that power just radiating from
His very body. And so this is what happened here. So He says,
“…Lest they perish.”
“And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify
themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them. And Moses said unto
the LORD, the people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for Thou chargedst us,
saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it. And the LORD said
unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with
thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto
the LORD, lest He break forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the
people, and spake unto them” (vs. 22-25).
Now then God gave the Ten Commandments. You know what they are, we’ve
gone over these many, many, many times. But let’s understand something
very important here in relationship to Pentecost and the Sabbath. God
gave the Ten Commandments on the day of Pentecost, which is a holy day.
God pronounced that the Sabbath was to be remembered and to be kept so there
is no excuse by any Sunday-keeper to claim because the New Testament church
began on Pentecost that therefore the first day of the week is the day that
God wanted to keep instead of the seventh day. Not so. If you
accept Pentecost, you accept the commandments of God, you accept the Sabbath
of God, you accept the words of God. Now God spoke all those words.
Now it was too much for the people to bear. Exodus 20:18, “And all
the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the
trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they
removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with
us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die: (Ex.
20:18-19). And of course then what did that do? That gave them
one person removed from God, and so then they could say, “Well Moses said”
instead of “God said”. So remember this, everything Moses said was
what God said he was to say. So this was a carnal excuse showing that
the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be and
that it cannot hear the laws of God. That’s the whole lesson here with
this. And that’s why when you go to Deuteronomy 18, that’s why God
said he would send Jesus Christ to come in the flesh, to speak to them as a
man rather than speak to them as a God. To speak to them with words
that they could hear and understand rather than speaking with such great
power and force that you are so afraid that there was hardly anything you
could remember. And yet they rejected Christ. That’s the way
that the carnal mind is.
Now let’s continue on here. Let’s see some things which are important
concerning this. Now then, Moses went back up on the mount. God
gave him all the statutes and judgments. Let’s come over here to
Exodus 23. Let’s understand something that’s very important. On
the very day that God gave the Ten Commandments He also gave the holy days.
Do you realize that? Let’s read it.
Exodus 23:12, He reiterates the Sabbath. “Six days thou shalt do thy
work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass
may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.
And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make
no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy
mouth” (Ex. 23:12-13).
This precludes anything concerning Christmas and Easter and New Years, and
any of the pagan holidays that any of the nations had, and they go right
back to the very same thing that we see in the world today. God said
don’t even mention it. That is in the way that that is something that
you would do. And yet look what happened to the Worldwide Church of
God. Totally taken down, totally subverted, totally back into the
world. Have forgotten the words of God, have forgotten the
commandments of God. Have had every lying excuse under the sun to get
rid of the Sabbath, to get rid of the holy days, and to embrace Sunday, and
Christmas, and Easter, and all of that. So you see, now you understand
why God puts these warnings in here, over and over, and over, and over, and
over again. Perhaps taking up as much as one third of the whole Bible
to tell you to beware to don’t do the things that the pagans do. And
yet some people never get it. They never get it.
Now notice, verse 14. “Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto Me in
the year. Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt
eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed
of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall
appear before Me empty:) And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits
[which is Pentecost, which we will keep tomorrow] of thy labours, which thou
hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the
end of the year [now that means the end of the harvest season], when thou
hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. Three times in the year
all thy males shall appear before the LORD GOD” (vs. 14-17). So there
it is right there. On the same day that God gave the Ten Commandments
that He gave the Sabbath, He also gave the holy days.
Now then let’s understand something important. If you accept one then
you have to accept all because if you do not accept all, what are you doing?
You are diminishing from it. And when you diminish from it what is the
natural proclivity to do but to add to it. And that’s what the
children of Israel did. That’s their whole history.
Now let’s come back here, continue on, chapter 24. Now here is where
the covenant was made. Here is where the marriage covenant between the
LORD God Who became Jesus Christ for the New Testament. But this is
the marriage covenant between the LORD God and Israel took place.
Because the Old Covenant was a marriage covenant. Now let’s see that
beginning here in verse 1.
“And He said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and
Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.”
And we will see why all of them came up. “And Moses alone shall come
near the LORD: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up
with him. And Moses came and told the people all the words of the
LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and
said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do” (Ex. 24:1-3).
Now when there is a marriage you ask, “According to the covenant do you
accept? Do you promise to love and obey [for the wife] to submit to
your husband in all things unto the LORD whether in sickness or in health,
whether in want or in wealth?” Now it’s the same way with the man.
“Do you promise and covenant with God to faithfully love your wife, to
cleave to her, to cherish her, to honor her, to provide for her?” And
he says, “Yes I do.” That then is a marriage covenant. That’s
what this is. These words are the words which God said. “If you
do them you shall become mine.”
Now verse 4, “And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD…” God always has
His covenants written down. That is the record. That’s why we
have the new Covenant written down. That is the record. “…And
rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and
twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent
young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and
sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD” (vs. 4-5). Now the
reason he took young men, now these may have been Levites, but the Levitical
priesthood was not yet consecrated. So therefore he took the young
men, and I’m sure they were Levites.
Next notice what happens because there is no covenant that is made without
blood. And without the shedding of blood there is no covenant.
“And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of
the blood he sprinkled on the altar.” So he put it in basons. He
put two basons, half in one bason, half in another bason. He sprinkled
half of it on the altar. “And he took the book of the covenant, and
read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath
said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and
sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the
covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words” (vs.
6-8).
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