Chapter 23, and I'll begin reading in verse
4.
Leviticus chapter 23, verse 4.
These are the feasts of the Lord, holy
convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed
times.
On the fourteenth day of the first month
of twilight is the Lord's Passover, and on
the fifteenth day of the same month is
the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord.
Seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
On the first day you shall have a
holy convocation.
You shall do no customary work on it,
but you shall offer an offering made by
fire to the Lord for seven days.
The seventh day shall be a holy convocation.
You shall do no customary work on it.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to
the children of Israel, and say to them,
When you come into the land which I
give to you and reap its harvest, then
you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits
of your harvest to the priest.
He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord
to be accepted on your behalf, and the
day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave
it.
You shall offer on that day when you
wave the sheaf a male lamb of the
first year without blemish, as of a burnt
offering to the Lord.
Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of
an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil,
an offering made by fire to the Lord
for a sweet aroma, and its drink offering
shall be of wine, one-fourth of an
hen.
You shall eat neither bread, nor parched grain,
nor fresh grain until the same day that
you have brought an offering to your God.
It shall be a statute forever throughout your
generations in all your dwellings.
Now, just by way of review of the
material that we went over last week, we
mentioned that the Feast of Jehovah gives a
panoramic view of God's dealings with the nation
of Israel, beginning over there with the Sabbath,
the creation rest God rested on the seventh
day after creating the heavens and the earth,
then the Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast
of Firstfruits, Feast of Weeks of Pentecost, and
that's Israel's task.
Then the present age is indicated by this
section in the middle of the chart here,
with no feasts at all.
At Israel at the present time, tasks were
cast off by God, but still to be
restored.
Then it resumes again with the Feast of
Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of
Tabernacles, the new heavens and the new earth,
the eternal rest.
These white lines are Saturdays.
They're Sabbaths, and you'll notice that all of
the feasts take place in seven months of
the calendar.
It begins over there at the left, the
first month, comes right down here to the
seventh month.
Actually, the first month here is the religious
calendar.
We mentioned last week that the first month
of the religious calendar was the seventh month
of the civil calendar.
It's very important, I think, to remember that.
Six months had expired before the Passover was
instituted.
Six months of the civil calendar had expired,
and we mentioned that that speaks of the
time from creation to Calvary.
We said, you know, why didn't God set
up Calvary right at the time sin entered
the Garden of Eden?
But he didn't, did he?
He allowed dispensation to pass.
He tested man with regard to sin and
responsibility under different dispensations.
Dispensation of innocence, dispensation of conscience, dispensation of
promise and law, and all of the others.
So, that was during six months, let's say,
of the civil calendar.
Then God said, this month shall be the
beginning of months to you, beginning the religious
calendar of the nation of Israel.
And, you'll notice that even ten days of
the religious calendar passed by before the land
is chosen out from the flock.
And, we suggest that those ten days might
refer to the pious years in Nazareth, the
pious years of the Lord Jesus in Nazareth.
And then, the land was chosen out, and
then four days elapsed before the Passover, and
this speaks to us of the public ministry
of the Lord Jesus.
The public three and a half years, but
a half year stands for a whole year
in Jewish reckoning, and so that's a very
well ministry of the Lord Jesus.
And then the Passover was instituted, the land
was claimed, the blood was applied, applied to
the doorposts and the window of the house.
Actually, that application of the blood only took
place in subsequent commemorations of the Sabbath.
There wasn't any application of the blood to
the house, to the door, only that first
time.
Now, we come tonight to the Feast of
Unleavened Bread.
On the day after the Passover started a
seven day period known as the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, and that's what we read about
in Leviticus chapter 23 tonight.
This was on the fifteenth day of the
month, and at that time the head of
the house made a diligent search of his
house to make sure that there wasn't an
iota of leaven of any kind in his
house, and they were only to eat unleavened
bread during this time.
It was called the bread of affliction because
it commemorated the years of affliction in Egypt,
and the affliction of the flight from Egypt.
But also, as you and I know, leaven
is a type of sin in the scripture,
and it represented separation from the leaven of
Egypt.
That's very interesting to think of that head
of the household going through the house and
searching every nook and cranny, and when he
got all through he made a prayer to
God, something like this.
He says, all leaven that is in my
position that I may have seen or may
not have seen, that I have destroyed or
not destroyed, let it be nullified, and let
it be ownerless as the dust of the
earth.
I've heard different forms of that prayer, but
what it really means is that the head
of the house was absolutely denying leaven.
To the best of my ability, I have
removed leaven from this house.
Now, all of these things have a practical
application to us.
That's what this bottom row is.
This has to do with the application to
Israel.
This line here offers an application to us,
and don't we read in Paul's letter to
the Corinthians, his first letter to the Passover,
Christ, our Passover, his sacrifice for us.
So, there's no question that this refers to
the child of God, to the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross of
Calvary, but what about these unfeasant, unleavened prayers?
Well, it goes on to explain it in
that same passage.
It says, therefore let us keep the peace,
not with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread, sincerity, and truth.
And when it says, let us keep the
peace, it doesn't mean that we actually have
the peace.
The peace there means the whole Christian life.
Remember that the peace of unleavened bread is
seven days.
Seven is the number of fulfillment.
Seven is the number of completion.
Seven is the number of perfection.
It means the whole Christian life.
Let us keep the whole Christian life and
truth, and that's the application today.
I said that leaven is always a type
of sin.
In the scripture, we believe that that is
true.
The leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy.
He spoke of the leaven of the Sadducees.
The Sadducees denied the resurrection, they denied the
existence of angels, they were rationalists.
The leaven of the Sadducees is rationalism.
He spoke of the leaven of Herod.
The leaven of Herod was materialism, and then
in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, he speaks of
leaven as immorality.
The context there is immorality, and then in
Galatians chapter 5, verse 9, it's the leaven
of legalism.
He says a little leaven leaveneth the whole
lot.
So, you have these various forms of leaven
in the scripture.
In fact, the kingdom of heaven is likened
unto leaven in the meal of God's people.
The meal is the food of God's people,
and leaven is God's doctrine introduced to the
meal of God's people.
I think it's very interesting to notice that
there's no interval between the Passover and the
Feast of Unleavened Bread.
There is an interval between the Passover and
the Feast of First Fruits, and between the
Passover and the Feast of Pentecost, but there's
no interval between the Passover and the seven
days of Unleavened Bread.
Why is that?
What is the practical application of that?
Well, of course, the Passover speaks about our
salvation to us.
It speaks about our conversion, and there's no
interval between our conversion and the beginning of
a life of holiness, is there?
No interval between that.
God doesn't say, well, take a holiday now
after your stay for a couple of weeks,
and then come back and eat the Feast
of Unleavened Bread.
It's no such a thing.
Holiness is demanded of us right away.
How can we remove leaven from our houses?
I think that's a practical question, isn't it?
Remember the Jew going through his house, scouring
it.
Talk about using grill, haystack, all that.
He really scoured it.
How can we do that with regard to
leaven?
Well, one way would be cutting out some
of the suggestive TV programs with their double
entendres and with their sexual innuendos.
It's leaven, isn't it?
Books off-color, magazines that are off-color,
movies, any kind of malice and wickedness, hypocrisy,
rationalism, or material.
In fact, everything that's evil or defiling in
the Christian life is to be put away.
Now, notice what happens.
Here's the Passover.
The next day is the day of Unleavened
Bread, the last of seven days, and then,
although there is a little bit of disagreement
among Bibles, on the day following the Sabbath,
after the Passover, was the Feast of Fresh
Fruits.
That would be Sunday, wouldn't it?
The first day of the week.
This is Saturday.
This wide line is Saturday.
The next day is Sunday, the first day
of the week, the Feast of Fresh Fruits.
Well, what was that all about?
Well, it had to do with the with
the barley harvest, and a Jew went into
his field, and he gathered together a sheaf
of the barley, and took it to the
priest, and it was weighed before going to
the Jew.
It was kind of a thanksgiving for the
harvest, a thanksgiving for the harvest, and here's
your sheaf that was to be weighed before
the Lord.
Does that have an application to us today?
Well, it certainly doesn't.
It has to do with the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Fresh Fruit from the dead, and
we might turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15
for that.
1 Corinthians chapter 15, and verse
12.
Well, I thought it was verse 12.
Oh yes, verse 20.
Verse 20, but now Christ is risen from
the dead, and has become the firstfruits of
those who have fallen asleep.
Verse 23, but each one in his own
order, Christ the Fresh Fruits, afterward those who
are Christ at his coming.
And, I think I've explained before, I don't
know if I said this last week, but
there is a sense in which the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ is looked upon
in Scripture as the first resurrection.
The first time you say, well, I think
I got three people in the New Testament
who were raised from the dead, the daughter
of Cyrus, the son of the widow of
Nain, Lazarus, even the Old Testament was such
a state of resurrection that it's true.
But, the Bible doesn't look upon those as
true resurrections.
Say, well, they rose from the dead.
No, they rose from the dead, but they
died again, and the Lord Jesus Christ was
the first one ever to rise from the
dead in his glorified body.
He was the first one ever to rise
from the dead, and never to die again.
He was the first one ever to rise
from the dead, and live in the power
of an endless life.
So, really, as far as the Bible is
concerned, it doesn't look at those others as
resurrections in the true sense.
Christ the Fresh Fruits, afterwards those that are
Christ at his coming.
And so, this is the order of the
resurrection.
When the Bible speaks about the first resurrection,
it begins with the Lord Jesus.
That's the first part.
The first resurrection takes place in stages.
Christ the Fresh Fruits, then the rapture, those
who died in Christ will be raised, we
were alive, will be changed, brought up with
him.
That's the second stage of the resurrection.
Then, at the end of the circulation, the
tribulation stage will be raised, we'll say.
Some Jews, some Gentiles, some more martyrs of
the Lord Jesus during that time, have all
considered part of the first resurrection, and you
have that here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
It says, but each one in his own
order.
Christ the Fresh Fruits, afterwards those who are
Christ at his coming, then comes the end.
What's the end?
The end of resurrection.
That's going to be at the end of
the millennium, when we get dead are raised.
That will be the last instance of resurrection
in the Bible.
Now, I should mention here, too, isn't it
interesting that it takes place on the first
day of the week.
He was back there in the Old Testament.
Jesus the Fresh Fruits wasn't on the Sabbath.
It was on the first day, the first
day of the week of the Lord Jesus,
on the first day of the week, on
Sunday, as we would say, the Lord's Day.
The next day is set apart in the
New Testament in a very significant way, I
think.
The Lord Jesus rose from the dead on
the first day of the week.
On the next two Sundays, he appeared to
his disciples.
The Jesus had to talk to them on
the first day of the week.
Holy Spirit was given on the first day
of the week.
The disciples gathered together on the first day
of the week to remember the Lord.
Christians were told to lay by and store
1 Corinthians 16.1 on the first day
of the week, for the Lord to cross
with them.
And then John was given his vision on
the Isle of Patmos 17 on the first
day of the week.
I think this first day of the week,
the Lord's Day, Sunday, is set apart in
a very special way in the New Testament.
Now, why is grain connected with Jesus?
Why is there grain connected with the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus?
Well, it makes us think of what he
said when the Greeks came to Philip and
said, Sir, we would see Jesus.
And the Lord Jesus' answer was, Except it
raineth he falleth to the ground and dieth,
divideth alone.
With his dieth it bringeth forth much fruit.
When we're on that, I also want to
mention that there is a difference in the
Bible between the resurrection of the dead and
the resurrection from the dead.
And I'll explain this.
For instance, all the Jews have believed in
resurrection of the dead.
There's no problem with that.
When Lazarus died, Jesus said to Martha, your
brother, oh I've finished.
Oh, I'm sad.
I know he's going to lie to the
end of the world.
And Jesus then reveals something special to her.
That I'm the resurrection of the life.
He that believeth on me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth on me, liveth and believeth
on me, shall never die.
Now, just to see the difference, turn please
in your Bible to Mark chapter 9 verses
9 and 10.
Mark chapter 9 verses 9 and 10.
I find this very, very interesting, and incidentally
I'm going to try to stop just a
little early in case any of you brothers
have any questions you'd like to ask.
Mark chapter 9 verse 9.
Now as they came down from the mountain,
he commanded them that they should tell no
one the things they had seen till the
son of man had risen from the dead.
So, they kept this word to themselves, questioning
what the rising from the dead meant.
They asked him, saying, why do the scribes
say that Elijah must come first?
Now, it's not too clear in the King
James.
This is the New King James I read
from, but he commanded them, verse 9, that
they should tell no one the things they
had seen till the son of man...
What it really says is, till the son
of man had risen out from among the
dead ones.
That was something new.
Had risen out from among the dead.
What did it mean?
That Jesus would rise, and not everybody would
rise at that time.
See, the resurrection of the dead means everybody's
going to rise at one time or another,
but this is resurrection from among the dead.
Shall I say, a selective resurrection.
Now, these disciples would have understood the resurrection
of the dead.
They knew the dead were going to be
raised, but they said, verse 10, they kept
this word to themselves, questioning what the rising
from among the dead would mean.
What that meant different.
I'll say that again.
Jewish disciples would have no trouble with the
truth of rising from the dead.
The fact of resurrection was an old testament
of doctrine, but the idea of rising from
among the dead, that some would rise, and
not all would rise, that Jesus would rise,
but not all the graves would be in,
that was something new.
And that's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians
15, Behold, I show you a mystery.
Ye shall not all sleep, ye shall all
be changed.
At the moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpeting, he goes on
to describe that selective resurrection.
Of course, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ is a place in our resurrection, just
as surely as he rose from among the
dead, so surely will all who die believing
in him rise from the dead.
You recall, Paul's own death by way of
death?
How big a deal!
Uh, really, because, as surely as he rose
from the dead, he'll rise from the dead,
too.
So, I have to think about that.
I'm sure you do, too, if the loved
ones have gone before.
When we die, we pass out of time
into eternity.
I say, my mother died, let's see, 48
years ago, 47 years ago.
That's a long time, isn't it?
Well, it's another time.
Where's she at?
Maybe when she died, the next thing you
know, she's a rapture, huh?
It's another time.
We can't understand that, can we?
Our minds don't take it, but I mean,
the Lord should take me home, shouldn't I?
Our life is going to be the next
thing is a rapture, in my glorified body.
There's no interval between.
The interval down here on earth is a
reckoning of time, but God doesn't live in
a realm of time.
Time is, is manufactured by the relation of
the sun and the earth, isn't it?
That's what he terms time.
So, let's talk a little bit about that.
And so, our minds just kind of take
it in.
Our minds kind of bulge against the sides
of our heads, trying to take it in.
But, I really believe that.
I believe that when I die, I pass
out of a realm of time into a
realm of eternity, where there is no time.
When we speak about the ages of eternity
rolling, there are no ages in eternity.
We have to accommodate ourselves for that type
of thing.
I think that's very precious, that on the
first day of the week, following the Sabbath,
we have the Feast of Virtues, and it
points forward to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ, as that truth is expounded in
first Corinthians chapter 15.
Then, you come seventh week, and on the
day following the seventh Sabbath, seven weeks after
the Feast of Virtues, on the day following
the seventh Sabbath, the Jews were to celebrate
the Feast of Pentecost.
That's what Pentecost means, 50.
This is the 50th day after the Feast
of Virtues, Pentecost.
50.
I think you've already noticed how the number
seven figures prominently in the whole chart of
the Feast of Virtues.
Criticism, seven months.
The whole history of the nation of Israel
compressed into these seven months.
Israel's past, Israel's present, look blank as it
were, Israel's future, compass, atonement, paranormal.
What was the Feast of Pentecost?
What does that mean for the Jewish people?
Well, it also was a harvest festival in
a way.
The Feast of Virtues had to do with
the barley harvest.
The Feast of Pentecost had to do with
the sweet harvest, and it was a time
period for the wheat harvest, the beginning of
the wheat harvest, and also the fruit, I
might say, the fruit of the land.
And tradition says, and this is always tradition,
after I tell it to you, you forget
it, tradition says that this was the day
that God gave the law to Moses on
Mount Sinai.
Now, a very interesting thing happened here.
There were two wave offerings, baked with lemon,
and it's interesting because the general rule with
Israel was when you offer a meal offering
to the Lord, you never had any lemon.
On this particular occasion, there were two loaves
baked with lemon, and waved before the Lord,
and it's called a new meal offering.
Please turn back to Leviticus 23 again, Leviticus
chapter 23, and I'm going to begin reading
in verse 15.
And you shall count for yourselves from the
day after the Sabbath, from the day that
you brought the sheep of the wave offering,
seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
Count fifty days to the day after the
seventh Sabbath, then you shall offer a new
notice, a new grain offering.
Notice that word new.
I'm going to come to that.
Israel had been given instructions for grain offerings.
This is a new grain offering.
You shall bring from your habitation two wave
loaves of two-tenths of an ephah.
They shall be of fine flour.
They shall be baked with lemon.
They are the firstfruits to the Lord, firstfruits
of the wheat harvest.
You shall offer with the bread seven lambs
of the first year, and so forth.
Now, why?
Why two loaves with lemon in them?
Well, I think you have to turn over
to Ephesians chapter 2 and find the answer
to that, and to me the answer is
very, very clear, and very, very convincing.
Ephesians chapter 2.
I'm going to read from verse 11 down,
and just comment, and I think you can
see the two loaves here.
You can see the two loaves baked with
lemon, and watch for the word new.
Will you please watch for the word new?
Therefore remember that you, watch Gentiles in the
flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which
is called the circumcision made in the flesh
by hand, that at that time you were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope and without God in the world.
That is, Paul is speaking to the Gentile
Ephesians who had been living apart from God,
but now in Christ Jesus, you who once
were far off have been made near by
the blood of Christ, for he himself is
our peace who has made both one.
Both what?
Both Jew and Gentile.
Believing Jew and believing Gentile, who has made
both one, and has broken down the middle
wall of division between us.
What was that?
The law.
The middle wall of partition between us.
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity that
is the law of commandments contained in ordinances,
so as to create in himself one what?
New man.
One new man.
So, from the two, thus making peace, so
that he might reconcile them both to God
in one body through the cross, thereby putting
to death the enmity, that he came and
preached peace to you who were far off,
and to those who were near.
Through him we both have acted.
Both Jew, believing Jew, and believing Gentile, have
acted by one spirit to the father.
So, I would suggest to you that these
two laws, the leavened bread, speak of believing
Jew and believing Gentile, one new man.
It's a new meal offering.
One new man in Christ.
So, I thought we saw that leavened in
ourselves.
Even after we're changed, we don't have to
become believers.
The old nature is not to be gratifying,
and I think it's very appropriate that it
should be so.
Of course, the peace of Pentecost speaks to
us of the coming of the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost, and the keys here are just
Peter getting up on the day of Pentecost,
and using the keys to open the kingdom
at Pentecost to a handful of Jews, then
Acts chapter 8 to the Samaritans, and Acts
chapter 9 and 10 to the Gentiles.
There you have the two laws.
I think it's pretty remarkable that, first of
all, you have a very precise calendar of
God's meetings with the ancient people of Israel,
and then you have very precise applications to
us in the New Testament.
Although these things were written to us, we
can certainly get spiritual teachings from them in
the Word of God.
So, I just like that this is very
rapidly going over, very, very rapidly.
Maybe some of you have questions.
Any of you brothers, any of you, how
many comments that you would like to add
at this time?
Is it clear?
If it isn't clear, tell me what isn't
clear.
Question from audience member.
Question
from audience member.
We'll be seeing the whole panorama of history
just the way it happened.
Seeing the Garden of Eden just the way
it was, seeing the fall, seeing the bondage
in Egypt, and the crossing of the Red
Sea, and the journey through the wilderness, and
the occupation of the promised land.
The light waves of all of those events
are still in the universe, and if man
can handle light waves through the air onto
a television set, why would it be any
great thing for God to harness those light
waves, and show us the whole panorama of
Bible history?
And that needs to help.
That would be really marvelous to see.
We all imagine it in our minds, and
those two of us imagine it's just the
same, but would it mean something to you
to see Calvary just the way it happened?
To see the resurrection, the coming of the
Holy Spirit, Paul's missionary journey?
I believe we will.
Don't forget, we have all eternity.
We have all eternity to see it, and
of course we're going to be reunited with
loved ones, get to know all the saints
of the Old Testament, the New Testament, it's
going to be wonderful.
But I think that's part of the timelessness
of eternity.
I've often illustrated it by the parade is
passing by, and I stand here and the
parade passes by, there's a band going by,
and then there's a float going by, and
I see what's going by.
But you know, if I could get out
of the Empire State Building and look down,
I could see the whole parade at once,
couldn't I?
It's different.
I could see the whole thing at once.
I think we're going to be in heaven
looking down to the sea, whole panorama at
once, no problem at once, and I think
it'll be wonderful.
Any other questions or any other comments?
Yes, John?
I have a little trouble with that interpretation
you gave about the only example you read,
and I think the Lord Jesus explained, they
all believed that there would be a general
resurrection like our Amillineus friends believe today.
They believed at the end of the age
there was going to be a general resurrection.
The Lord Jesus says there's going to be
a selective resurrection.
That's what he's stating.
Do any of you have any other version?
I know nobody has Garvey with them, but
Garvey has that in his version.
Resurrection from among the dead ones, something like
that.
That was something completely new to them, and
that's the difference between resurrection of the dead
and resurrection out from among the dead.
Marker believes in the resurrection of the dead.
Hebrews chapter 6 speaks of the resurrection of
the dead as an Old Testament doctrine.
They believe that.
So, the Lord has something new for them.
Not all the dead are going to be
raised at the same time.
This is something new for them.
That's what he's trying to get across in
Mark chapter 9, but it doesn't come across
clearly in our translations.
But I didn't check the New American Standard
of the New International Version.
What do you do have in the New
American Standard of our New International Version?
St. Paul, so that's good.
What do you have there, John?
It doesn't make it clear.
It is unfortunate.
Mark 9, is it 9 and 10?
Yeah, Mark 9, 9 and 10.
But right, that's not, it really doesn't get
the thought there.
If any of you have Garvey when you
go home, you can look up Mark 9,
9, 10, you'll see the difference.
Yeah, that's what it says here too.
It doesn't really bring up the point.
Well, next week, Lord willing, we'll pick up
this gap here, Israel's present condition, and then
move on as time allows to the other
east of Jehovah.
Let's just look to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we just thank you for your word.
Thank you for the privilege, as it were,
standing beside you, and having you unveil the
panorama of history and prophecy to us.
Thank you that no word of God falls
to the ground.
Thank you for the precision of the word.
We thank you that in these feasts of
Jehovah, we can see so much concerning the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray that he might become more precious
to us as the days go by.
We ask it in his worthy name and
for his faith.
Amen.