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 51^st 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).