The Sanctuary Study

The New Moon was Israel's most frequent festival, and the one most deeply embedded in their religious consciousness. It was not to be celebrated by a required attendance of the populace at the Sanctuary, although special sacrifices were offered there. It was to be observed at home and in places of local assembly (Gen 1:16, one function of the moon was to regulate the seasons; Ps 104:19). Included among Paul's "shadows of things to come" (Col 2:16, 17), the feast of the New Moon pointed to realities in Christ's ministry. The associations connected with New Moons in Old Testament history, and the rites carried out during them, were the vehicles for this revelation.

Since Scripture often represents the first part of anything as standing for the whole, the ceremonies dedicating the day of the new moon were to be considered as consecrating the entire month. The priest's proclamation announcing the feast, "It is sanctified!" alerted Israel to this fact. Then the menstral banquet provided opportunity for each family to adore the Controller of the annual seasonal cycle. The Hebrew name for the celebration, suggesting renewal and freshness, is also translated month.

God Wishes to Regulate Man's Time
The Lord chose various ways to call attention to His mastery of time. The sabbath points to Him as the Creator, and provides leisure for worship and the study of His wonderful works. At the beginning of each month the never-failing crescent illustrates the Sustainer's predictability and faithfulness. Dependent on the sun for its orbit and light, it cautions the worshiper that "apart from Christ, we are like a unkindled taper, like the moon when her face is turned away from the sun; we have not a single ray of brightness to shed into the darkness of the world. But when we turn toward the Sun of righteousness, when we come in touch with Christ, the whole soul is aglow with the brightness of the divine presence" (MB 64).

But while the full moon lights the traveler for only a few nights each month, the "Light of the world" promises never to withdraw His radiant presence from His faithful pilgrims. Modest, precise, regular and predictable, its movements illustrate Heaven's unchanging law, and "to the heart softened by the grace of God . . . the moon . . . utter[s its] words of counsel and advice" (CT 189). As they contemplate "the solemn glories of the moon" (4T 581) thoughtful Christians join the ancient Israelites in sensing this principle: The interdependent purposes of Providence precisely progress toward their designed goals for the blessing of mankind and the glory of Heaven.

The Creator did not plan that astronomical calculations should take the place of the living, expectant observation of His people. The Hebrew sages record that eye-witnesses were to fix the time of every new moon. In similar vein Jesus warned His disciples against trying to figure out the day and hour of His coming, but urged instead that they continually be on the "watch." The subjects of His kingdom must personally read the signs, and testify to what they have seen. Each month the first observers hastened to the Sanctuary to report when and where they had seen the "silver bow new-bent in heaven," and a banquet was provided to encourage witnesses (Rosh Hashanah 2:5; herein after designated Rosh).

The New Moon Must be Observed in Honor of the Creator
Following the return from captivity, the Sanhedrim were accustomed to meet at the Temple in the "Hall of Polished Stones" on the eve of the 29th of each month, to await the observers (Rosh 2:5-7). Charts and pictures of the appearance of the crescent hanging in the evening sky had been developed through the years. These were used to check the evidence (Rosh 2:8). Once two sighters had agreed, and the interlocutors were satisfied, the festival was announced. But should no credible evidence be forthcoming, the day was reckoned to the previous month, which was then described as "full," i.e. of thirty days (Rosh 3:1). On the following evening the silver sickle was easily seen, and the chief of the court announced the new month with the formula, "It is sanctified!" to which the people present responded, "It is sanctified! It is sanctified!" Then the ram's horn or shophar proclaimed that the month had commenced (Rosh 2:7).

The new moon of Tishri, the seventh month of the religious calendar, was New Year's Day for the Hebrew civil almanac, and was regarded as the most important of the New Moon festivals. It was called the Feast of Trumpets because two silver bugles were sounded in addition to the shophars (Num 10:10). The priests who played them were flanked by others with goat's horns. "The shophar blew a long note and the trumpets a short one" (Rosh 3:3). The rabbis believed that the call of these silver trumpets commemorated creation, when they played an obbligato to the song of the "the morning stars" and "the shout of the sons of God" (Job 38:7). The word "shouted" means to exult (Jud 15:14), rejoice (Ps 65:13), blow a festive trumpet (Joel 2:1; Num 10:7), or celebrate (Isa 16:10).

Priests Proclaimed the Feast
The Lord stipulated that only priests should sound the shophar. Made of a large ram's horn with a silver mouthpiece, and used for the eleven ordinary New Moon feasts, it produced a dull and heavy sound which carried long distances. For the Feast of Trumpets, however, the shophar was the horn of a wild goat with a mouthpiece of gold. The manner of blowing was a sustained blast, followed by a quavering one, and then a sustained sound held three times as long as the quavering note. These three phrases were sounded thrice (Rosh 4:9).

The trumpets were made of a "whole" piece of silver (Num 10:1-10), perhaps to emphasize completeness and freedom from fracture. Used in Scripture for the redemptive half shekel presented for the first-born (Ex 30:11-16), silver is a symbol of "obedience" (PK 410), and as such symbolized the foundation of the Tabernacle (Ex 26:19, 21, 32). The silver used for the trumpets sounded Heaven's call for full submission, and reminded the perceptive Israelites of the summons to Sinai to learn God's law, and the need for strict obedience to His precepts.

The priests were required to sound well defined calls (cf. 1 Cor 14:8), by setting the instruments to their lips (Hos 8:1), and blowing (Isa 27:13), acts which necessitated personal involvement. Silver trumpets had several other purposes in Israel's economy, all demanding the people's compliance with the summons of Jehovah in specific ways. They were employed to (1) signal the resumption of the march to Canaan, (2) accompany priestly intercession for sin (Num 10:9; 1 Kings 8:31, 32), (3) warn of danger (Amos 3:6; Ezek 7:14; Jer 4:5; Zeph 1:16), (4) order advance into war (2 Chron 20:21, 22), and (5) proclaim victory (Zech 9:12-14; 1 Thess 4:16). Jewish sages have noted that the special New Year trumpet calls were designed to awaken the people from spiritual lethargy, and appeal for repentance (Tamid 7:3; Rosh 1:2) in face of the approaching Day of Atonement, with the reminder of Sinai's law used as the basis of the judgment then conducted. In a different vein trumpets also heralded the Feast of Tabernacles which anticipated the celebration of the "rest" of the redeemed in the "mansions" of the Father's house. Twice each century, the year of Jubilee was announced by them.

The Feast of Trumpets--a Special New Moon
Since this new moon of the seventh month was called Yom Teru'ah, or "A day of the blowing of the horn," the Hebrews understood that the trumpets were to be sounded from morning until evening, and to do this priests were organized into relays. All the people who were able, obeyed the Psalmist command, "Blow the trumpet at New Moons" (Ps 81:3), adding the personal witness of their horns to the sacerdotal call.

The Feast of Trumpets had overtones of eschatology. The Old Testament prophets looked to a time when "the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem" (Isa 27:13). Under these types of confusion (Babel) and atheism (Egypt), all mankind lost in sin is represented. The obedient will heed the gospel trumpet and come to spiritual Zion (Rev 14:1-5), and join the remnant church as it prepares for the coming of the Lord. Christ promises to send His messengers to gather His elect from the four winds (Matt 24:31). This trumpet call will culminate with the resurrection of the "dead in Christ" and the resurrection of those who await His coming in peace (1 Cor 15:51, 52; 1 Thess 4:16, 17).

In preparing Israel for the Day of Atonement the New Year's trumpets first pealed the knell of the departed year. They inquired with "tongues of choicest silver" (Prov 10:20), "What has been its record? Repent!" They then heralded a new epoch: "Life was, but life is, and life shall be! Stay alert!"

All Feasts Contingent upon New Moons
The accurate timing of the new moon of the first month, Nisan or Abib, was vital for the start of the entire religious calendar, for on it hinged the dates of the three spring festivals, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread with its Wave-offering of First Fruits on the 16th, and Pentecost, fifty days later.

The timing of the three autumnal, or "end festivals," the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles, was contingent on the new moon of the seventh month, Tishri or Ethanim, which itself was dependent on the new moon of Nisan. At the conclusion of Israel's religious cycles the Sabbatic Year and the Jubilee were both reckoned from the new moon. "In the beginning," the Creator had designed the moon to "rule," and its kingdom was time.

At each new moon "the sound of the trumpet was heard summoning the people to meet with God" (PP 304), in order to consecrate the month with its hopes and possibilities. The Lord promised to listen and take the case of each one of His children "in remembrance." "Remember" always means to hear with a view toward doing something (Ex 28:12, 29; 30:16). The expressions "memorial blowing" (Lev 23:24), and "day of blowing" (Num 29:1), were understood to signify that the Lord was being reminded of the needs of His people. With this thought in mind, Isaiah described the faithful as "the Lord's remembrancers" (Isa 62:6, margin). The angel explained to Cornelius that his prayers and alms had reached heaven as "memorials" or reminders of His character (Acts 10:4). The thief on the cross clearly understood this concept in his petition, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom" (Luke 23:42). This response is vividly illustrated by Christ's invitation to His disciples, "This do, in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19).

But the call of the horn shophars and silver trumpets were heard only by those living close to the house of God. To ensure that the proclamation reached every Israelite, a great torch was lighted on the summit of Olivet (Rosh 2:2-4). This signaled the news to watchers on other strategic hills, who, in turn, kindled their beacons. In a few moments the country was flooded with light from end to end, "like a sea of fire" (Rosh 2:4). The Lord designed this so that His people should unite in adoration of their Creator, and deepen their fellowship with each other.

Celebration Through Worship
Pagan new year celebrations were characterized by ribald mirth and drunken revelry, but the priestly trumpet summoned Israel to celebrate the Creator's providences during the year just past with solemn joy. They were to anticipate further blessings in the opening year with rededication based on sacrifice. While all New Moon Feasts were to be "holy convocations" (Lev 23:24), requiring attendance at local places of worship, only the Feast of Trumpets was to be observed sabbaticaly.

At the Sanctuary special sacrifices were presented during the festivities, in addition to the daily offerings. These consisted of a bull, a ram and seven lambs for burnt-offerings of consecration, with their appropriate meal-and drink-offerings, and a kid for a sin-offering. All this blood stressed that true joy can rest only upon the Substitute's death. While priests were pouring the libation of wine on the altar during the morning service, Levite choirs sang Psalm 81; then at the evening service they chanted Psalm 29.

Festival for Women
The rabbis considered the feast of the new moon was a special occasion for women. In the beginning God designed that Eve "should possess neither inferiority nor superiority to the man, but that in all things she should be his equal. The holy pair were to have no interest independent of each other; and yet each had an individuality in thinking and acting. But after Eve's sin, as she was first in transgression, the Lord told her that Adam should rule over her. She was to be in subjection to her husband, and this was a part of the curse. In many cases the curse has made the lot of woman very grievous and her life a burden. Infinite wisdom devised the plan of redemption, which places the race on a second probation by giving them another trial." (3T 484).

Because of sin the gate of Paradise was barred by flaming light, and the tree of life placed beyond the reach of "divorced" Adam and Eve, and their posterity ("drove out," Gen 3:24; cf. 21:10, 14). But the Gardener has worked out His grand design to restore an even more lovely Eden to His ransomed and reinstated "bride" in a land where there will be "no more curse."

The ladies of Israel were released from their duties during the New Moon Festival, and might spend the day as they wished, perhaps by offering a sacrifice, if they lived near enough to the Sanctuary (a perversion of this is seen in Jer 44:15-19), or by visiting a prophet (2 Kings 4:23). The rabbis aver that an additional reason for this privilege was the faithfulness of the women of Israel in refusing to give their gold for Sinai's idol calf (The Jewish Encyclopedia, XII, New Moon).

One result of the fall was woman's menstrual "curse" (Gen 3:16). But the Lord cryptically promised that when the mystic "woman" should be "married," her sorrows would turn to joy at the birth of the "Child" (1 Tim 2:13-15). Was John shown her triumphantly standing with feet dominating the "moon" (Rev 12:1)? In God's sign language "foot" suggests possession or victory (Acts 7:5; Ps 8:6; 1 Cor 15:25, 26; Heb 2:6-8). Is the "woman" thus displayed as mistress of all "the moon" might suggest?
The Revelator's prediction of the monthly pilgrimage of "the Lamb's wife" to the celestial city and her tryst with her "Bridegroom" is draped in precious promises. God's throne is there, an emblem of His beneficent government. From it flows the stream whose waters bestow unending life, and He calls to her, "Come and drink!" On the banks of the river grows the tree whose monthly fruit, in a dozen varieties, supply eternal vigor, and, as it did in Eden, His voice invites her, "Freely eat!" In response the "virgin" saints stream through the pearly gates into the light of the presence of the Bridegroom-Lamb each month (Isa 66:22. 23), to rest and feast, to worship and love, and to rejoice in the assurance, "There shall be no more curse" (Rev 22:3). The Edenic sentence will then be forever reversed, and the Garden returned to Adam and Eve. Israel's Feast of the New Moon was typical of this healing event.

Festivals Recalled Memories of Joy
Around these family festivals clustered cherished memories filled with "mirth" (Hos 2:11), marking special events in the lives of the celebrants. On a new moon, David's father Jesse, presented a peace-offering of thanksgiving, urging every member of his family to be present (1 Sam 20:5, 6, 29). On a new moon king Saul arranged a sacrificial banquet for his kinfolk and favored guests, at which David his son-in-law would be "missed" because "his seat was empty" (1 Sam 20:5, 18, 24). And on a new moon the pious Shunemite visited her friend, the prophet Elisha, for counsel (2 Kings 4:23). New Moon Feasts were occasions for reunion, and times for sharing spiritual and social blessings with family and friends.
Around these national festivals clustered rich, historical memories. On a new moon the Tabernacle was erected under the shadow of Horeb as Israel's trysting place with God, and the twelve tribes pledged their allegiance to Him, and joyously enumerated their pedigrees (Num 1:1, 18; 2:34), and discovered that the family of Jacob was intact! On a new moon Levi responded to the Lord's call to Sanctuary service and priestly mediation as an example of what He designed each citizen of His kingdom should one day be (Num 3:6, 12, 13). On a new moon Aaron trudged up the heights of Hor to die, testifying to his trust and displaying his resignation (Num 33:38, 39; 20:23-29). On a new moon Moses addressed his four-part valedictory to the Hebrew septs arranged in serried tribal ranks, reviewing divine providences and reiterating God's promises (Deut 1:3). On a new moon Hezekiah reconsecrated Yahweh's defiled Temple (2 Chron 29:17), presaging One greater Who some day would dedicate His celestial Temple. And on a new moon the Lord gave Haggai a vision of what this Temple might become (Hag 1:1). On a new moon the sweet singer of Israel composed a psalm to be sung on these happy occasions (Ps 81:3ff). The feasts of the joyous moon stand as silver mile-posts shimmering down the path of salvation's story.

New Moons Mark Historic Occasions
On a new moon the pioneer Ezra, with the returning captives, set out from Babylon to restore the heritage of Israel, and on a later new moon reached Jerusalem in weary triumph (Ezra 7:9). On a new moon Ezra the priest began to encourage his people to a domestic reformation consummated on a new moon two months later (Ezra 10:16, 17). On his return to the Holy City Nehemiah the governor led God's people in a celebration of the Feast of Trumpets (Neh 8:1-12), while Joshua the high priest (Ezra 2:1,2; Zech 3:1-3), and Ezra "the ready scribe" studied details of God's law (Neh 8:2-8), set up His altar with its services (Ezra 3:2, 3), and reinstated His Temple worship. Nehemiah later exhorted the still disheartened ones to repent of their sins, with the words, "This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep . . . neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Neh 8:9-12). As they entered into the celebration of the feast of Trumpets, their loving hearts, filled with "great mirth" (Neh 8:12), reached out with generous "portions" to those even poorer and more needy.
The celebration of these happy times is in marked contrast with the emphasis of later Judaism which declared that New Year's Day should be observed with foreboding because of the proximity of the Day of Atonement. The Great Assize, however, holds no dread for the worshiper who has sent his confessed and forever-forgiven sins "before unto judgment" (1 Tim 5:24), there to be validated as pardoned, their records "cleansed" (1 John 1:9), and their memory banished forever.

On the Feast of Trumpets Ezra brought out the "book of the law" and read it aloud before the people and gave its sense during a three week revival (Neh 8:1-9, 18). On a new moon the Lord granted Ezekiel a vision of the temporary triumph of Nebuchadnezzar (Ezek 29:17-20), and on a new moon assured him of the final victory over Egypt. On a new moon Haggai commenced his ministry which culminated in the building of the second Temple (Hag 1:1).

Feasts Looked to the End-time
Ezekiel invested New Moon Feasts with overtones of eschatology. On a new moon the Spirit granted Ezekiel a vision of the ultimate destruction of Satan under the likeness of the king of Tyre (Ezek 26:1-28:19). On a new moon he was shown the eastern portal of God's idealized temple welcomingly flung wide open as the Prince led His priests in an eucharistic service (Ezek 45:1-3), urging thereafter that "the people . . . worship . . . the Lord in the sabbath and in the new moons" (Ezek 46:1-3). The prophet then enumerated the sabbatic and new moon sacrifices which typify Christ's death as the foundation of all true worship. On a new moon Ezekiel was assured that one day this Sacrifice without blemish would "cleanse the sanctuary" (Ezek 45:18-20).

This eschatological emphasis of the trumpet's call to judgment was corroborated by other prophets (Joel 2:1, 11-17; 1:14, 15; Zech 9:14; Isa 27:13). When the predicted time approached the gospel trumpet (Rev 14:1-5) alerted the earth to what was about to take place in the celestial Sanctuary on the final Day of Atonement (Matt 24:31; 1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:6), and pointed God's people to the judgment they faced (Rev 8:2; 10:7; 11:15; cf. Ex 19:14-19).

Feasts Prepared for the Judgment
From their understanding of certain psalms (Ps 69:28; Ex 32:32) the rabbis concluded that on the Feast of Trumpets three books were opened by the Judge in preparation for the Day of Atonement. These consisted of the "book of life" which contained the names of those whose deeds God approved, the "book of death" recording the names of evil-doers, and a third book listing the persons whose cases were yet to be decided on "the day." The Hebrew scribes believed that the Scriptural text, "He that fashioneth the hearts of them all, that considereth all their works" (Ps 33:15) focused on the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh 1:2).

Following this trumpet alert on New Year's Day the people were granted "ten days of penitence." Were these typical of the final "ten years" of the 2300 during which William Miller and his cohorts appealed to the world to prepare for the judgment which was to be consummated on the antitypical Day of Atonement, October 22, l844? Some Adventist pioneers thought so.

Christ's trumpet-like voice had summoned His newly freed people to commune with Him in the glory of Mt. Sinai. Egyptian darkness encased their minds until heaven's light, garbed in law, both moral and ceremonial, exposed their need and displayed heaven's remedy. The trumpet called in effect, "Obey and live; dawn brightens! Disobey, and darkness drowns. The covenant of works is a broken scaffold by which to erect the temple of salvation. Gather under the banner inscribed, `I am Jehovah your God."' But because too many of God's ancient people had refused Christ's voice speaking at Sinai, Paul warned his Hebrew Christian friends, "See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh" now (Heb 12:19-126). "Blessed is the people that know the trumpet sound, they walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance" (Ps 89:15, RV).

At Patmos Christ's voice like a trumpet bade John record his prophetic messages reaching to the end of time. And at His second advent (Eph 1:10) Christ's voice, again like a trumpet, "will not keep silence" (Ps 50:5), but will pierce the ears of the dead (1 Thess 4:16; 1 Cor 15:52), and transform the living for their meeting in the air.

New Moons Celebrated Hereafter
The New Moon will be the communal festival of the redeemed in the earth made new. On new moons the hosts of the saved will gather to reminisce on the precious chapters of their lives. On a new moon the celestial "Tabernacle of God will [once more] be with men, and He will dwell with them, and be their God" (Rev 21:3). On new moons the ransomed tribes will enumerate their lineage (Rev 7:4-15), and Christ's royal priests perform their ceaseless eucharistic ministry. On new moons jubilant Aaron will scale the heights of Zion to sing the song with Moses; and the heavenly Temple, "cleansed" and "restored to its rightful state" by a greater than Hezekiah, will display the wonders of the Lamb as the focus of the universe. On new moons the translated Bride, "face to face" with Jesus her Husband, will view the past, the present and the future irradiated with the light of His glorious love.

The New Moon will be the family festival of the redeemed. On new moons each household will wend its happy path to the golden city (Isa 66:22, 23) to hear Jesus extend His invitation to eat the fruit of the tree of life and drink of the waters of the river of peace. What stories of victory they will then have to tell! What memories of the ministry of transforming grace will then flood their minds and sing on their tongues! With what thankful jubilation will they greet those whom they have invited there!

Regarding the passage in Ezekiel 28

14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

Fire in old english is pyre, in the midst of fire is pyramid.

If you dig up some pyramid diagram, I have one here I'll probably post tomorrow, there are steps that lead up to the king's chamber. If you walk these steps (walking up and down in the midst the stones of fire), you can observe a star in the sky through an air shaft.

This star is called Alpha Draconia. It is the alpha star of the Constellation of Dragon which the Egyptians delieved to be the gateway to immortality.

Google it and you will find some interesting information.

The Egyptian pyraminds were the devil's counterfeit of God's sanctuary on earth.

The Israelite slaves were forbidden to practice their religion under threat of the Egyptian lash. But as the time predicted for their deliverance neared (Gen 15:13; Ex 12:40, 41), Moses requested Pharaoh for permission to offer a national sacrifice to the LORD, and was peremptorily refused. God then instructed him to demand that the king free the Hebrews, or face the consequences. This ultimatum, too, the monarch disdained. Even the nine persuasive plagues against Egyptian deities which reduced the country to economic ruin, and plunged its people into perplexity, failed to move the stubborn ruler.

These evidences of Heaven's power over the idols of the Nile had the opposite effect on the Israelites, they were alerted; something portentous was about to take place.

God Ordered the Paschal Lamb to be Slain
At this juncture God instructed Moses to direct the head of each family to sacrifice a lamb on a certain day, and, with a bunch of hyssop, splash its blood on the door posts and lintel of his home, promising, "When I see the blood I will pass over you" (Ex 12:13). This crimson sign of faith and obedience ensured that, during the night of judgment, the angel of death would spare the first born of each family who remained within the safety of his blood-marked home.

The word Passover is a translation of the Hebrew pesah, derived from the root pasah, to leap over, and by extension means to spare or show mercy. In the Old Testament the Greek pascha is applied exclusively to the Passover day, the 14th Nisan. Josephus, Philo, and the writers of the New Testament, however, reflecting the usage in the first Christian century, occasionally use the term Passover to designate the entire eight-day festival, which included the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread (cf. John 18:39; Luke 22:1; 2 Chron 35:17; Ezra 6:19. 22; see Grace Amadon, "Important Passover Texts in Josephus and Philo," Anglican Theological Review, vol. XXVII, No. 2, April l945; and "Significance of the Word Passover," I and II, Ministry, September and October, 1943).

The Lord commanded Israel to commence the reckoning of the Hebrew sacred year from the month Nisan in which the Passover fell (Neh 2:1; Est 3:7). It is also called Abib (Ex 12:2). First-fruits were also called abib (Lev 2:14), or "the first," and because of this the LXX and Vulgate call it "the month of new fruit". As we have noted, Josephus has left us this comment: "Moses appointed that Nisan . . . should be the first month for their festivals, because he brought them out of Egypt in that month; so that this month began the year, as to all the Solemnities they observed to the honor of God,--although he preserved the original order for the months, as to selling, and buying, and other ordinary affairs" (Antiquities I:3:3).

The Historic Setting of the First Passover is Instructive
The detailed settings of the initial "Pass-over" are instructive. "Egypt" (cf. Rev 11:8) was in ferment, with its atheistic and defiant king bent on Israel's destruction. The Hebrews, on the other hand, were prepared to grasp their freedom when the opportunity presented itself. Following the carmine signal and the midnight meal, they were told to be off on their long journey to the Promised Land. God enjoined that the annual Passover should be a symbolic and typical reenactment of this thrilling event in Israel's history (Ex 12:2). This festival eventually became the best attended of the nation's three religious pilgrimages (DA 75).

After the people had settled in Palestine, the timing of the Paschal month hinged on the ripeness of barley! God stipulated that the lamb should be slaughtered on the evening of the 14th of Abib, the earing month (Ex 12:2, 6). Since each month commenced with the new moon, the Passover would fall on the full of the moon. This sacrifice was to be followed on the 16th, or "the third day," by the waving of a sheaf of ripe grain (Lev 23:10-14) before the brazen altar in the Tabernacle. As the season approached, priests examined the fields near the Sanctuary to ascertain whether the barley would be ready. If they deemed this possible, the new moon prior to this "wave offering" marked the beginning of Nisan. But should they decide that the grain would not be ripe in time, a thirteenth month was added to the previous year, and at the next full moon the barley would be ready. Experience taught that an additional, or intercalary, month was necessary seven times during each nineteen year cycle.

This method for timing the Paschal festival, based on the ripening of the barley "harvest," had overtones of both mercy and judgment, as did the Divine "passing over" to investigate the obedience of His people. The Passover thus not only commemorated the Exodus, it also anticipated "the last days" and the final harvest of "sealed" souls purchased by the blood of the true Paschal Lamb.

Passover Might be Celebrated in Successive Months
The Lord permitted any one who had become "defiled" to celebrate the Passover a month later (Num 9:9-12). This was called the Second, or Little Passover, and although this rule extended to Israel's posterity, the only record of any group taking advantage of it comes from the reign of good king Hezekiah, and even then several "ate the Passover otherwise than it was written" (2 Chron 30:18). But the king interceded on their behalf, and the priests continued to educate the worshipers. This flexibility in the ordering of events connected with the celebration of the Passover displayed "the harvest principle" (Matt 13:28-30; John 12:12-15) in action, and underlined God's readiness to accommodate human weakness and lack of preparation, and His patience with their growth until they "ripened" for the Divine sickle.

Paschal Lamb Selected on the 10th Day of Nisan
For fifteen centuries each pious Israelite householder selected a perfect yearling male lamb or kid on the 10th of Nisan, in obedience to the Lord's command: "In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb" (Ex 12:3). This was tethered in a public place so that it might be observed by all, ready for its killing on the 14th (Ex 12:3-6). By this type the Lord predicted the moment of Christ's selection as the Passover Lamb by the nation of Israel.

The rabbis remember that these four days of public display were designed to stimulate conversation concerning the role of the lamb in providing blood for the deliverance of Israel. They understood that the male animal represented the "first born" who was spared.
In the last year of Christ's ministry the 14th of Nisan fell on "good" Friday which began at Thursday evening. On the previous sabbath, "six days before the Passover" (John 12:l-9), Jesus enjoyed a quiet meal in the home of Simon and his nephew and nieces, Lazarus, Martha and Mary. The next day, Palm Sunday, the 9th of Nisan, He rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey, pausing on the brow of Olivet to weep over the city and its doomed people (Luke 19:41-44). What a magnificent sight the city and its Temple presented! And what glorious possibilities might still lie ahead for the Hebrew nation! "But the Jews had rejected their Saviour; they were about to crucify their King. And when the sun should set that night, the doom of Jerusalem would be forever sealed" (SJ 91). In fact, "when the fast westering sun should pass from sight in the heavens, Jerusalem's day of grace would be ended" (DA 578).

Christ Condemned on the 10th Day
That night, "the evening" of Monday the 10th of Nisan, A. D. 31., the illegally summoned Sanhedrim, in plenary session, voted to condemn Heaven's Paschal Lamb to death, and by their decision settled their own fate. Jesus was thus appointed to die at the very instant when thousands of Paschal lambs were being selected by the people, and precisely on the day on which this sacrifice had been set apart for centuries. The prophetic type thus met its Antitype with awe-inspiring precision.
"It was the purpose of Jesus to draw attention to the crowning sacrifice that was to end His mission to a fallen world. They were assembling at Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, while He, the antitypical Lamb, by a voluntary act set Himself apart as an oblation. Jesus understood that it was needful in all future ages that the church should make His death for the sins of the world a subject of deep thought and study. Every fact connected with it should be verified beyond a doubt. It was necessary, then, that the eyes of all people should be directed to Him, that the demonstrations which preceded His great sacrifice should be such as to call the attention of all to the sacrifice itself. After such an exhibition as that attending His entry into Jerusalem, all eyes would follow His rapid progress to the find end" (Redemption: or The Teachings of Christ the Anointed One 118).

During the four days following His condemnation, the name of Jesus was on every lip. During this time the Jewish rulers plotted with the betrayer to ensure the carrying out of the high priest's proviso that His killing should not take place "on the feast day," the Passover, "lest there be an uproar among the people" (Matt 26:5; Mark 14:2). But Caiaphas failed, and with him Satan's clever scheme to frustrate a further prophetic type miscarried badly. Once embarked on a course of sin, man is no longer in control, a blundering tyrant has taken charge.

The Condemnation of Jesus Doomed Israel
On the morning after this decision by the highest court of Israel, and still during Monday the 10th of Nisan, Jesus "cursed" the fruitless fig tree, and by this acted parable signaled that His chosen nation had made the decision to reject its Saviour (Matt 21:19). The withered "fig tree showed what the Jewish people would be when the grace of God would be removed from them," and by this withholding of divine power and mercy the Lord revealed the scriptural meaning of "curse" (DA 582-584).
The divine rubric required that the Paschal lamb, doomed on the 10th of Nisan, should be put on exhibition "until the fourteenth of the same month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening" (Ex 12:6). When that day arrived the most powerful representative body of the Hebrew nation, which included priests, rulers, scribes and lawyers, joined by the common people, together with Herod, the tetrach of Galilee, and supported by Pilate, the Roman governor, and his soldiers, united in crucifying the Saviour (Acts 4:27, 28). This deed was done on Friday, the 14th of Nisan (Luke 22:7, 15)! Type exactly met Antitype as "Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us" (1 Cor 5:7). The precision with which the details of this typological prediction were fulfilled is amazing. It establishes Christ as the Messianic Paschal Lamb beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Slain "Between the Evenings"
The Passover lamb was to be slaughtered "in the evening," a Hebrew idiomatic expression literally meaning "between the evenings" (Ex 12:6, margin; Pesahim 5:1, 3; Zebahim 1:3; Josephus, Wars, VI:9:3). It is not possible to be dogmatic on the exact significance of this phrase, and many suggestions have been made through the centuries. But in Gesenius' discussion of the wide range of possible meanings is one which states that the lamb might be slaughtered any time after noon on the 13th, when the "evening" of the 14th began, through sunset on the 14th, when the other sunset of the "evenings" marked the commencement of the next day. If this thirty-hour period is accepted as the drift of the inspired expression, it would accommodate both the time of Christ's participation in the Upper Room during our Thursday evening (Matt 26:17-29), and that of the Pharisees later on Friday (John 18:28). The Mishnah seems to corroborate this idea when it warns that the lamb is valid if slain by mid-day of the 13th (Pesahim 5:3, 1; see Zebahim 1:3, n. 11). This thirty-hour period also provides time for the slaughtering of 240,000 lambs which Josephus remembered were slain at Passovers during the days of Christ.

Whatever conclusion we may tentatively draw, it is true that some time during the afternoon of Thursday, the 13th of Nisan, Jesus requested two of His disciples to sacrifice the lamb at the Temple, and prepare the Paschal meal for their little company. Then about sunset on Thursday, the hour when Friday, the 14th of Nisan, commenced, He joined His followers in carrying out the age-old customs (Matt 26:17-29) He had initiated more than fourteen centuries before. Our Lord thus placed the stamp of His approval on these ceremonies, and by His life and example fulfilled their intent.

DL,

It looks like Mrs White did in fact explicitly endorse the inauguration of the MHP - I've come across this quote from the study:

"Still bearing humanity, He ascended to heaven, triumphant and victorious. He has taken the blood of the atonement into the holiest of all, sprinkled it upon the mercy-seat and His own garments, and blessed the people. Soon He will appear the second time to declare that there is no more sacrifice for sin." ST April 19 1905 par 4


Jon

Jon0388g said:

DL,

It looks like Mrs White did in fact explicitly endorse the inauguration of the MHP - I've come across this quote from the study:

"Still bearing humanity, He ascended to heaven, triumphant and victorious. He has taken the blood of the atonement into the holiest of all, sprinkled it upon the mercy-seat and His own garments, and blessed the people. Soon He will appear the second time to declare that there is no more sacrifice for sin." ST April 19 1905 par 4


Jon

Click to expand...

Hello Jon,

This sounds more like Atonement than inauguration. Can you post a link to this article or post the whole article? This way we can see the whole context of what she is saying.

DD

digdeep said:

Hello Jon,

This sounds more like Atonement than inauguration. Can you post a link to this article or post the whole article? This way we can see the whole context of what she is saying.

DD

Click to expand...

Hi!

This was a quote from the sanctuary study itself that I just went and looked up in the EGW database, to actually read the context aswel.

It's under post number 127 "Inauguration of the Heavenly Sanctuary through Blood" - and I found the original passage at http://egwdatabase.whiteestate.org/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates$fn=default.htm$vid=default paragraph 4.


She is describing the ascension of Christ into the Sanctuary, in order to present His blood to the father, and inaugurate the whole tabernacle, including the MHP. I just brought it up again in light of the recent accusations that EGW never did support the inauguration view - which (as usual) turns out to be a false charge.


God Bless,

Jon

Jon0388g said:

Hi!

This was a quote from the sanctuary study itself that I just went and looked up in the EGW database, to actually read the context aswel.

It's under post number 127 "Inauguration of the Heavenly Sanctuary through Blood" - and I found the original passage at http://egwdatabase.whiteestate.org/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates$fn=default.htm$vid=default paragraph 4.


She is describing the ascension of Christ into the Sanctuary, in order to present His blood to the father, and inaugurate the whole tabernacle, including the MHP. I just brought it up again in light of the recent accusations that EGW never did support the inauguration view - which (as usual) turns out to be a false charge.


God Bless,

Jon

Click to expand...

thanks.

digdeep said:

Hello Jon,

This sounds more like Atonement than inauguration. Can you post a link to this article or post the whole article? This way we can see the whole context of what she is saying.

DD

Click to expand...

Jon was referring to this post.
http://christianforums.com/showpost.php?p=37647209&postcount=127

Thanks Jon. Our critics don't actually read what we are saying.

All Leaven to be Removed From the Homes of Israel
The law stipulated that all leaven should be removed from every Hebrew home in preparation for this feast. The Jews remember that the head of each family deliberately planted pieces of leaven in strategic places in his house, and later, accompanied by his children, carried out this ceremony before the 14th of Nisan (Pesahim 1:1-3:6). With lighted candle, he searched every nook and cranny while explaining what he was doing. He thus fulfilled the prediction, "I will search Jerusalem with candles" (Zeph 1:12). This prohibition against leaven lasted for the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread which followed the Passover (Ex 12:18-20; 13:7; Num 28:17; Lev 23:5-14), and called attention to the need to search out all harmful principles with the help of the "candle" of Scripture (Ps 119:105, margin), and remove them from the hearts of the worshipers.

The leaven used in Bible times consisted of fermented dough which has power to propagate itself. When added to fresh meal, it works from particle to particle until it pervades its substance and causes it to swell. In Scriptural imagery leaven is used as a symbol of any moral principle, which, when once allowed to penetrate the human will, continuously works from within, thoroughly diffusing itself, and silently influencing the nature of the person. The context indicates whether leaven is used by Inspiration to represent good or evil ideas (Matt 13:33; 1 Cor 5:8). Using leaven as an illustration, the Saviour painted against philosophies which preempted the sovereignty of God within human thinking and molded the characters of many whom He observed in the society of His day.

The Leaven of the Pharisees
"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," Jesus once warned, meaning, of course, their "doctrine" (Matt 16:6-12; Mark 8:14-21). He went on to explain that this was "hypocrisy" (Luke 12:1), a way of life compounded of formalism and religion, the "product of self-seeking. The glorification of themselves as the object of their lives. . . . Among the followers of our Lord today, as of old, how widespread is this subtle, deceptive sin" (DA 409).

Pharisees were sticklers for the observance of the letter of the law as a method of salvation, and to ensure this, these formalists sought to build hedges around the written decalogue given at Sinai with innumerable oral rules and traditional regulations, sometimes trivial and often complicated. Their piety and meticulousness caused them to separate from all whom they considered sinners. However, they did believe in the Old Testament, the bodily resurrection and an after life. Among them were found Nichodemus and Saul of Tarsus, men of the highest ideals.


The Leaven of the Sadducees
Christ also warned His listeners against the "leaven of the Sadducees" (Matt 16:12). This was materialism in all its crass forms. Sadducees were followers of Zadok who had sided with Solomon, when the other branch of priests under Abiathar declared for Adonijah. Through the centuries they had grown into a rich and influential aristocracy, and from them had emerged many powerful high priests, judges and governors. These liberals stressed independence of thought and claimed freedom of the will, choosing not to believe in the supernatural, or in angels or spirits (Acts 23:8), and were virtually atheists. "Their favorite doctrine," (SR 250) denied the resurrection. They displayed their true colors by arresting and scourging some of the disciples for proclaiming that Christ had risen (Acts 4:1-3), and were even more disturbed to discover irrefutable proof that the apostles had resurrected persons from the dead. They were also annoyed at the healing of men possessed of demons (Acts 5:16-18), the existence of which they denied.

They ignored prayer, and refused to accept the Divine authority of the Old Testament, except for the books of Moses. They even questioned the validity of parts of these (Matt 22:23-33). Opposing the traditional regulations of the Pharisees, they rejected the oral law and denied the idea of future punishments or rewards. They were 'existentialists' with "it is expedient" (John 11:47-50) as their motto. Because of this they united with the Pharisees to procure Christ's crucifixion. The Saviour was, however, more scathing against the conservative and religious Pharisee than He was against the liberal and secular Sadducee.

The Leaven of Herod
"The leaven of Herod" (Mark 8:15) was another of our Lord's targets. Herod means "hero" or "he-man." While several Herods are mentioned in the New Testament, each had a similar attitude toward Christ and His teachings and person, and so we shall consider the "Herodian" character as a composite. "Herod" was a foreign ruler of Edomite extraction, with leanings toward Rome, who sought to govern the Jews by force. He displayed his heartlessness by his ruthless slaughter of the babes of Bethlehem and callous murder of John the Baptist (Mark 6:14-22). Self- willed and sensual, proud and cruel, he finally yielded his integrity. "Herod will kill Thee" (Luke 13:31) describes his attitude toward the Saviour, and, when finally confronted by Him, he was "amused!" (Luke 23:8, "glad" in KJV). The Herodians were a Jewish political party favorable to Greek and Roman customs and culture, and supportive of Herod as the last hope of Hebrew nationalism.

Pharisaic religion, Sadducaic liberalism and Herodian brutality were alike denounced by Jesus. "These false principles, when once accepted, worked like leaven in the meal, permeating and transforming the character" (DA 408). Only after the removal of the leaven of the old life can the wonder of the Paschal sacrifice be understood, and the "flesh" and "blood" of the Son of God appropriately "eaten" and "drunk." And to teach these lessons leaven was symbolically sought out and removed from each home in preparation for the Passover (see 1 Cor 5:6-8). The message of this rite was, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2 Tim 2:19).

Four Days of Public Display of the Paschal Lamb
Following His condemnation by the Sanhedrim on Monday, the 10th of Nisan, Christ exposed Himself publicly in the temple for the four days of His "showing forth" as the true Paschal Lamb. Then on Friday the 14th of Nisan, "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, . . . He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. . . . He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people was He stricken" (Isa 53:7, 8). The apostle Peter clearly explained that the Paschal blood was a type of "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet 1:19).

The law required that the Paschal lamb be flawless so as to represent the sinless Saviour, Who is "holy, harmless, undefiled, [and] separate from sinners" (Heb 7:26). Defenseless and unresisting (Isa 53:7, 8), patient and loving (Isa 53:5), harmless and submissive (Acts 8:32, 33), the Lamb was easily slaughtered.

In the Egyptian Passover, the blood had been sprinkled on the door jambs and lintel of each home by the father of the family (Ex 12:4, 7, 21-23). But in the Palestinian rite, the victim was sacrificed at the Sanctuary by the house-holder or a Levite (2 Chron 30:17), and its blood splashed on the altar of burnt-offering by a priest (Pesahim 5:5, 6). "Door" suggests a gateway for going out or coming in, and illustrates the decision-making faculty of the heart, for "out of it are the issues of life" (Prov 4:23). And "so the merits of Christ must be applied to the soul" (Bible Training SchoolApril, l904). Calling our attention to the intent of this ritual of sprinkling Ellen White penned, "Lift up Jesus before the people. Strike the door-posts with the blood of Calvary's Lamb, and you are safe" (RH 3 Sept 1889).

Only Unleavened Bread Might be Eaten
Throughout the week following the death of the Passover lamb only unleavened bread might be eaten with the regular meals (Lev 23:6-8). These "seven" days suggest the completeness of man's earthly pilgrimage, and their message still is: "Serve [the Lord] in sincerity and truth" all your days (Josh 24:14). In this context Paul warned, "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. . . . For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor 5:7, 8). A new dynamic principle must enter the life. Only then will the leaven of Christ's grace progressively work to transform the heart (2SP 247), Ellen White noted, adding. "the use of unleavened bread also was significant. . . . the leaven of sin must be put away from all who would receive life and nourishment from Christ" (PP 278). These unleavened Paschal cakes were called "the bread of affliction" to remind the participants that they had been forced to leave "Egypt in haste" (Ex 12:11), driven out in hostility, and had then wandered for years in hardship (Deut 32:10).

The Sprinkling of the Blood
In Egypt a bunch of hyssop had been used to sprinkle blood on the door posts. The common hyssop is a Biblical illustration of humility as well as cleansing, and was used in the ceremonies of the red heifer and the two sparrows (Num 19:6; Lev 14:4; PP 277). God employed it in these rites to keep before His people the truth that the simplest and humblest of means may apply His Son's redeeming blood to needy hearts. But it was not enough for the neighbor's home to be marked, every father must provide the blood-ransom for his own family (Ex 12:21-23). The lesson is clear for us today, the Sacrifice of Calvary must be accepted personally. Then the Lord will fulfill His promise, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Ex 12:13)

But in Jerusalem the Paschal blood was splashed on the altar in the court of the Sanctuary, and certain portions of the animal burnt thereon (Pesahim 5:5, 6, 10). After this had been carried out the lamb was to be roasted whole to represent "the completeness of Christ's sacrifice" (PP 277). After being skinned and cleaned, a shaft of pomegranate wood was pushed through its body from throat to vent, long enough to protrude at each end. Then a shorter stick was used laterally to force its rib cage open so that the flame might penetrate within (Pesahim 7:1; Ex 12:6-8; 2 Chron 35:13). "Y" shaped branches were driven into the ground at each end of the fire pit, and the long shaft cradled in them. Upon this cross-shaped spit the carcass was slowly rotated directly over the burning logs until roasted (Ex 12:8, 9). For fifteen centuries this tableau pictured the immolation of the Lamb of God upon the "cross." Jesus was seared by calumny and malice, scorched by the hatred of men and demons, as well as the fires of Divine wrath, until He became "meat" for His people's sustenance.

No Bone to be Broken
The Divine rule forbade the breaking of any of the lamb's bones (Ex 12:46), and John noted the fulfillment of this type (John 19:31-37). This fact recorded that the skeletal frame-work of Christ's suffering humanity, the laws by which He lived, and His covenant with His Father, all survived His terrible ordeal intact (John 14:30; 15:10).

Every member of Israel's households was to eat of the roasted lamb (Ex 12:8, 9). The Passover is called a "sacrifice" (zebach, Ex 12:27; 34:25), the technical term used to describe the peace-offering. Like it, the Paschal victim must be eaten the same day it was killed to seal the covenant with the LORD. "Eating" illustrates the truth, for both Israelites and Christians, that each worshiper must individually feed on the Savior's "flesh" to make His substance part of himself, and to identify with His principles. Jesus explained this act as accepting His words and imitating His life (DA 389). He desired that all His followers should thus become partakers of His experience (PP 278) through this covenant meal.

Because unleavened bread was eaten for the entire Paschal octave, this period was called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Israelites were not only to eat it, but also to observe this mazzoth carefully (Ex 12:15-17). "Jesus used bread as a figure to illustrate the vitalizing power of His Spirit. The one sustains physical life, while the other satisfies the heart, and strengthens the moral powers" (2SP 276-277). Since "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us," Paul reasoned, "let us keep the feast . . ." (1 Cor 5:7, 8). The apostle based salvation on the redeeming blood of Jesus, and explained that the resulting spiritual life can be sustained only by feeding on His flesh and blood. The Christian communal meal is possible only after the death of the Lamb of God, Who, of course, could not provide Himself to be "eaten" until He had been slain and "roasted" whole upon the cross.

Unfermented Wine was Required
With every meal-offering, and the Paschal bread must be considered as one, a drink-offering of unfermented wine must be presented. During the morning and evening burnt-offering, as well as personal burnt-and peace- offerings, the drink-offering was poured over the sacrifice burning on the altar. During the Passover Supper the wine was drunk. Unleavened or unfermented grape juice was therefore a part of this meal, and completed the mincah.

Only the pure "blood of grapes," free from decay or fermentation, could typify the blood of the Saviour untouched by corruption. The unfermented wine, as did the unleavened bread, taught that "the leaven of sin must be put away from all who would receive the life and nourishment from Christ" (PP 278). These types of the Christian's "food" point to the keeping and preserving aspects of the Messiah's ministry, for "the Saviour had power to finally raise from the dead all those who, by faith, eat of His flesh and drink of His blood. This spiritual food gives to believers a well-founded hope of the resurrection to immortal life in the kingdom of God" (2SP 278). During the Feast of Tabernacles, Nehemiah had advised his people to "drink the sweet" wine (Neh 8:10), and his recommendation might well be applied to the Passover season also.

Bitter Herbs were Eaten
A salad of "bitter herbs," made up of wild endive, lettuce, chicory, pepperwort, snakeroot or dandelion (Ex 12:8; Pesahim 2:6), was eaten with the meal to flavor Israel's memory of their servitude. This "bitter" tang was deliberately added, not to be submerged in the flavors of the lamb and bread, but strong enough to remind the participants of the cruel "bitterness" of their Egyptian bondage (Ex 1:14; Pesahim 10:5), and the hardships of their wilderness wanderings (PP 278). These acrid leaves might also be made into a pungent sauce in which the bread might be dipped (Pesahim 10:3). "So when we feed on Christ it should be with contrition of heart because of our sins" (Bible Training School April 1904).

In the Egyptian Passover the celebrants had stood to eat in their homes, with their loins girded, sandals bound on their feet, and staves clutched in their hands, ready to march. All these symbolic preparations were calculated to arouse them to focus on what lay beyond their meal. As soon as they had dined they were delivered from their Egyptian oppressors, and were off (Ex 12:31-36). Nourished by this special food the people of God were strengthened to begin their arduous march across sea and desert to the Promised Land.

Passover Eaten "At Rest" in Palestine
But in Christ's day, the Passover was eaten at leisure in Jerusalem, to which the devotees had travelled. The picture of John reclining on the Saviour's breast portrays the idea that the Redeemer had provided "rest" for His weary pilgrims, and a haven for the tempest tossed (John 13:23, 25). When the Paschal meal had been completed, the unused elements were to be consumed by fire (Pesahim 7:10).
The Paschal meal was a peace-offering feast. It was to be a celebration. God had confirmed His promise with an oath that He would ransom His people. When He had done so, He marked the occasion with a meal. The lamb, the bread, the wine, the bitter herbs, all point to Jesus. He is their Fulfillment and their Reality. God provided Himself, in the person of His Son, as the "Meal" which all His people are invited to share. The bridge linking Israel's Passover and the Christian communion service is the cross.

This one day's event was followed by the week long Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first and last days of this week, the 15th and 21st of Nisan or Abib, were regarded with special solemnity. They were the first two (Lev 23:14; PP 539-540) of the seven annual ceremonial sabbaths (Lev 23:15-21; 23:23-25; 23:27-32; 23:33-42, two sabbaths), and were observed on whatever day of the week they might fall. The people were required to assemble at their local places of worship. The time provided opportunity to contemplate the significance of what was transpiring (Lev 23:6-8), and to display the covenant fellowship and hospitality into which God was inviting His saints. Did these two "sabbaths" also suggest, perhaps wistfully, that man's pilgrimage on earth is contained within and embraced by periods of eternal rest provided by God? During the intervening days of this week secular business might be conducted.

The Wave-Sheaf of Barley Offered
On the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, that is, the 16th of Nisan, a sheaf of ripe barley was harvested and presented to the Lord (Lev 23:10-14). This ritual took place yearly on the day which followed the first ceremonial sabbath, the 15th, on whatever day of the week it might occur. The 16th was thus always "the third day" after the Paschal lamb had been sacrificed. This technical phrase grew out of this ritual and pointed to the presentation to the Lord of the wave-sheaf of "first fruits."

In the days of Christ a field of barley near Jerusalem was cultivated specifically for this rite. At the appropriate time three men, provided with sickles and baskets, were directed to reap the sheaf. In the presence of witnesses three shocks of barley, which had already been tied as they stood growing, were cut and bound into one large sheaf (Menahoth 10:1-3). Carried solemnly to the temple by a priest it was handed to one of "Aaron's sons" who stood before the great altar. He then waved it before the Lord, up and down. This signified that it was being presented to God's throne, and that He, in turn, was then handing it down to His priest (Menahoth 10:4; 5:6). By these gestures this sheaf, representing the "first fruits" of Israel's national harvest, was consecrated to the Giver of all good gifts. After accepting it, God returned it to sustain and bless His worshipers. Today His people should find ways to acknowledged the many material benefits they enjoy at the hand of their Creator and Sustainer. Not until this ceremony had been carried out, were the farmers of Israel permitted to gather in their individual crops of grain.
The first time the Hebrew people were able to carry out this part of the ceremony, and dedicate a wave-sheaf of barley to the Lord, was after they had settled in Palestine, sown their grain and reaped their initial harvest. The Paschal lamb, slain in Egypt, had provided its blood to begin redemption's journey, and now the harvested "first fruits" demonstrated that the Lord had fulfilled His prophecies and given them the Promised Land as a possession, and added its bounties. The service thus had overtones of the gratitude which the redeemed will express as they present their gifts of thankfulness to God in the heavenly Paradise.

The Wave-Sheaf Presented "on the Third Day"
Over and over again Jesus warned His disciples that He would suffer in Jerusalem, be crucified, and rise "the third day" (DA 785, 786; Matt 16:21; 20:19). Since He was to be the Passover Lamb His phrase, borrowed from the Paschal ritual, should have alerted them to the fact that His resurrection would take place on the very day on which the "first fruits" were presented at the Temple. The sheaf of ripe barley, the earliest of Israel's field crops, typified both the risen Saviour, as well as "the first fruits of them that slept" (1 Cor 15:20, 23). This venerable symbol met its antitype on Sunday, the 16th of Nisan, when Jesus did indeed rise from the grave on the "the third day," the "morrow after the [the first ceremonial] sabbath" (Lev 23:10, 11).

In the year of Christ's death, the first annual ceremonial sabbaths fell on the 15th, Nisan, which happened to be a weekly sabbath. This made it "a high day." Jesus spent this day resting in the tomb. Following His resurrection on the 16th, with His creative and redemptive power He raised to life "many bodies of them that slept" (Matt 27:51-53). Then, as the great Antitypical Wave-Sheaf, the First Fruits to be garnered from the fields of the world, He offered Himself before His Father enthroned in the celestial Sanctuary. At His ascension forty days later, He "presents to God the wave-sheaf, those raised with Him as representatives of that great multitude who shall come forth from the grave at His second coming" (DA 834), and thus flooded this earth with hope for its final harvest.

Important Historical Passovers
Commencing with the Passover at the Exodus (Ex 12:28), the Old Testament describes seven important Paschal feasts: those held at Sinai (Num 9:5) and Gilgal (Josh 5:10), and the ones during the reigns of Solomon (2 Chron 8:13), Hezekiah (2 Chron 30:13-15, notice this was a second month or late Passover), Josiah (2 Kings 23:21-23; 2 Chron 35:1-19), and Ezra (Ezra 6:19). The New Testament records the Passovers which were attended by Jesus when He was twelve (Luke 2:41), during His first year of ministry in the spring of A. D. 28 (John 2:13, 23), during His second year in the spring of A. D. 29 (John 5:1; cf. 4:35), during the third year of His ministry in the spring of A. D. 30 (John 6:4; He did not attend this feast), and finally with the twelve just before His death in the spring of A. D. 31 (Matt 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16; John 11:55; 12:1; 13:1-4). These feasts span salvation history from Egypt to Calvary, the first inaugurated by Christ's emancipation of His people from Egyptian bondage (Ex 12:1, 2), and the last was consummated by His crucifixion for the redemption of the world.

The Lord's Supper Takes the Place of the Passover
During His final Passover Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper as the communal banquet of fellowship for His church, and the prelude to the marriage supper of the Lamb in the earth made new. "The observance of the Passover began with the birth of the Hebrew nation" (DA 76), and ended with the birth of the Christian church. As we celebrate our Communion Services we should remember the ancient types which focus on them, and rivet our attention on the victory they offer to us on our journey to the Promised Land.
Jesus concluded the first communion in the Upper Room by leading His disciples in praise to His Father. These Paschal Psalms had been chanted for centuries by Israel's faithful, and had sustained them in their various troubles. Now on the Saviour's lips they rang with triumph. His courage and confidence flowed out from that nameless chamber to enflame the hearts of His followers in every age with hope in the final triumph of His plan for their redemption (DA 672, 673).

The Passover is the feast of the sacrificial Son Whose blood marks each believing home for salvation. It calls attention to God's redemption of the first born who were the special targets of Satan's agents. Through the blood the race of Israel was saved, and with it every believer in every age.

The Feast of Pentecost was the second of Israel's three annual pilgrim festivals. All the men, as well as the women and children who might chose to attend, were invited to make this pilgrimage (Hebrew hag) to the Sanctuary (Ex 23:14-17; 34:22, 23). Some might need to make a journey of several days. Paul set out from far away Macedonia, and "hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost" (Acts 20:16), a trip demanding weeks of hard and dangerous travel. The Lord considered attendance important enough to require His people to leave their homes and make their way to His Tabernacle for just this one day to express their appreciation for all His bounties, both spiritual and physical.

Inspiration has given more names to this feast than to any other. The epithets "Feast of Weeks" (Ex 34:22; Deut 16:10, 16), "Feast of the Fiftieth Day," "the Fiftieth," or translated into Greek, "Pentecost" (Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor 16:8), remember the seven weeks and a day which elapsed between the presentations of the "wave sheaf" of barley on the 16th of Nisan, and the "wave loaves" of wheat on the 6th of Sivan (cf. Deut 16:19). "Feast of Harvest" (Ex 23:16), and "the Day of First Fruits" (Num 28:26) commemorate this annual ingathering. "Solemn assembly" (Deut 16:8; cf. Isa 1:13), however, is the usual title for this Festival.

The rabbis called it Shavout, "the Feast of the Conclusions," because it was the culmination of the grain harvests. They also called it "The Season of the Giving of our Law," or "Feast of the Revelation" (Midrash Rabbah on the Song of Songs 182, note 5; 234, note 3), because it marked the earliest national convocation held after the Exodus at which the LORD presented the decalogue to Israel on Mt. Sinai (Webster II, "Shavout;" Philo, De Decalogo 33; cf. R. A. Cole, Gift of Tongues, Merrill C. Tenny, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, vol. 5, 775-777)). It also marked the renewal of the covenant with Israel which God had been made with Abraham over four centuries earlier.

The Red Sea was a Baptismal Font
Coming out of the watery grave of the Red Sea Israel became a kind of "first fruits from the dead." This occurred on the 16th day of Nisan. It is possible to count 50 days from the crossing of the Red Sea, which was a type of the resurrection (1 Cor 10:2), to the giving of the law (Ex 19:1ff). "On that day the Lord came down on Mt. Sinai to give the Torah to Israel" (Midrash Rabbah on Song of Songs 182; and on Exodus, 86, The Soncino Press).

The returned Babylonian captives recorded in the Book of Jubilees that it was on the Day of Pentecost that Noah had built an altar to worship God, Who then made a covenant with him (Gen 8:20-22; 9:1-17; Jub 6:1). "For this reason it is ordained and written in the tablets of heaven that in this month they [Noah's children] shall keep the Feast of Weeks once a year and renew the covenant each year" (Jub 16:17). The Lord made a covenant with Abraham and renewed the feast (Jub 14:20). Although Israel had ignored them in Egypt, Jehovah reestablished both the feast and the covenant with His people at Sinai (Jub 6:19). The only reference to Pentecost in the Old Testament, outside the Pentateuch, was once during Solomon's reign (2 Chron 8:13).

The Three Pilgrim Feasts were Harvest Festivals
Each of the three annual pilgrim gatherings was a "solemn assembly" (Deut 16:8; cf. Ex 12:16; 13:5, 6; Lev 23:15-21; Num 28:26), and a unique kind of harvest festival. The first fruits of barley were offered on the 16th of Nisan, "the third day" after the Paschal lamb had been slain on the 14th. Precisely fifty days from the 16th, "when the Day of Pentecost had fully come," the first fruits of wheat, in the form of two loaves of leavened bread, were "waved" as a gift to the Lord. The third was called the "Feast of Tabernacles," and celebrated the harvest of wine and oil, as well as the fruit of orchard and vineyard.
These three "harvests" typify life's periodic crises, or times of review or judgment, moving toward its climax. As parts of "the great controversy" they also represent larger earthly movements which reach their consummation at "the end of the world." These emphases on "the harvest principle" in the religious calendar of God's people, kept before them the need to set regular times to examine the progress of their spiritual pilgrimage.

The Pilgrim Feasts were Closely Tied Together
God stipulated that the Passover should fall on the fourteenth, or full moon, of the month Nisan. Its actual date, however, depended on the ripeness of barley. Should the grain fail to mature in time to be presented at the Tabernacle on the sixteenth, the Paschal season was delayed a month, When this occurred, Pentecost was also postponed. Its dating was thus contingent on the "harvest principle," for, as we have noticed, fifty days from the offering of first-fruits came the presentation of the two wheaten loaves at Pentecost (Lev 23:15-17; PP 540).

This link between the barley "wave sheaf" and the wheat "wave loaves" underlined that Pentecost was rooted in the Passover. One remembered Israel's emancipation from Egyptian bondage and the start of the their journey to the Promised Land, while the other celebrated the giving of the law at Sinai (Jub 1:1; 6:17). One looked forward to Calvary while the other anticipated the outpouring of the Spirit, (Pesahim 68b) and the organization of God's covenant people into a nation of "kings and priests" (Ex 19:5, 6). The rejoicing of God's people in their redemption lies at the foundation of the Passover as well as Pentecost.

Harvests Require Sowings
The "wheat harvest" of souls celebrated at the first Christian Pentecost (Acts 2;1-4; cf. Lev 23:15, 16; Ex 34:22), grew from Christ's toilsome sowing. From the gospel seed He sowed, watered by the "former rain" of His Spirit, and fertilized with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, the "first fruits" of Pentecost sprang up (AA 45). But had the disciples neglected their Saviour's call to prayer, they would have cut themselves off from the blessings of the Spirit. "Unless the members of God's church today have a living connection with the Source of all spiritual growth, they will not be ready for the time of reaping. Unless they keep their lamps trimmed and burning, they will fail of receiving added grace in time of special need" (AA 55).

Christ's Life Followed the Calendar of Redemption
Let us review how this calendar of redemption fitted into our Saviour's time-table. On Monday, the 10th Nisan, Christ, like the Paschal lambs set apart for the Temple service, was sentenced to die. On Friday, the 14th of Nisan, He was actually slain as the true Passover Lamb. Then, in accordance with the inspired rule, the Paschal barley sheaf was to be presented on the 16th, the day which followed the first ceremonial sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened bread, the 15th of Nisan, whatever day of the week it might occur.
As we saw in our study of the Passover, in the year of our Lord's death this first ceremonial sabbath fell on the weekly sabbath. On Sunday, the 16th day of Nisan, the Saviour fulfilled the Old Testament type by rising from the dead as God's Antitypical "Wave Sheaf" (James 1:18; cf. Israel as "first-fruits" after Red Sea "baptism," Jer 2:3), or "First Fruits of them that slept" (1 Cor 15:20). He thus became the Representative and Pledge of the great harvest of souls which one day will be gathered into God's garner. Those whom He raised from their graves immediately after His own resurrection, and took with Him to heaven at His ascension forty days later, were the sample and guarantee of the precious sheaves of earth's final reaping.

Earlier in His ministry Jesus had made a remarkable prediction concerning His own resurrection. "Except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24). By rising from the dead, the life-giving Grain of Wheat did in indeed bring forth a hundred-fold. And then, through cataracts of the "latter rain" of the Pentecostal Spirit, three thousand Jews and proselytes from the Gentile world were presented to God as the two loaves of Pentecostal bread leavened with gospel truth.

Pentecost Linked to the Resurrection
From the day of His resurrection the disciples had carefully counted fifty days to Pentecost (Acts 2:1, 2). During the first forty of these Jesus had remained on earth, appearing to individuals and groups, even addressing five hundred of His followers at one time (1 Cor 15:6). Then, in company with His eleven faithful ones and the group He had raised from their graves, He climbed the Mount of Olives. Pausing somewhere near Bethany to bid the disciples tarry in Jerusalem until endued with heavenly power, He ascended with His trophies to His Father.

During the next ten days one hundred and twenty united believers (Acts 1:15) prayed in the Upper Room for Christ's promised Gift. Then "on the day of Pentecost the Infinite One revealed Himself in power to the church. By His Holy Spirit He descended from the heights of heaven as a rushing, mighty wind, to the room in which the disciples were assembled. It was as if for ages this Influence had been held in restraint, and now heaven rejoiced in being able to pour upon the church the riches of the Spirit's power. They grasped the imparted Gift. And what followed?--Thousands were converted in a day. The sword of the Spirit, newly edged with power and bathed in the lightenings of heaven cut its way through unbelief. . . . They were filled with intense longing to add to the church such as should be saved. They called on the believers to arouse and do their part, that all nations might hear the truth, and the earth be filled with the glory of the Lord" (RH 13 Jan 1903).

Pentecost Dependent on Christ's Heavenly Ministry
Christ's "enthronement in His mediatorial kingdom was signalized by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost the Spirit was given" (COL120). His inauguration as Priest and High Priest in the celestial Sanctuary was the actual occasion for this predicted (Acts 1:8) flood of grace upon the earth. His sacrifice had been accepted by His Father on the morning of the resurrection fifty days earlier, and now, in response to His first mediatorial act as mankind's High Priest and Representative, Heaven lavished unstinted gifts of the Spirit to the waiting members of His church.

While Jesus was officially commencing His ministry as Priest and High Priest among supernal beings, the Spirit was fitting His followers as "a royal priesthood" to be His ambassadors among men. After Jesus had been chrismated as man's "Advocate with the Father" (1 John 2:1) in God's palace in heaven, the apostles were anointed as His evangelists to the highways and hedges on earth. Through His Spirit our Lord thus bound His followers to Himself in "heavenly places," and shared His ministry of reconciliation with them to the end of time. The Pentecostal outpouring was the seal of this union in service, and "heaven's communication that the Redeemer's inauguration was accomplished" (AA 39).

Old Testament Church Instructed on First Pentecost
The Old Testament church had been instructed and organized at the first Pentecost at Sinai, while the New Testament church was empowered and set in motion for its task at the last Pentecost at Jerusalem. The law had then been written on tablets of stone and given to Israel, now it was inscribed on the tablets of the hearts of God's true people every where. The covenant had been renewed with Israel at Sinai to bind them together as God's chosen people at the initial Pentecost, and now the Spirit bound Christ's disciples in the new covenant as His church on earth.

Through the centuries of Hebrew history each Pentecost had been a joyous acknowledgment of God's bountiful gift of the Torah and all the blessings it had brought them. The Feast climaxed the grain harvests of both barley and wheat, and provided an annual opportunity to celebrate what had been sown in tears and reaped in joy.

Pentecost is a Celebration
Unlike the presentation of the unleavened Paschal grain, two loaves of leavened bread were presented at Pentecost as a thank-offering (cf. Lev 7:11-21; Deut 16:9-12). Fifty days earlier a simple sheaf of barley had been consecrated in its natural state, touched by no human hands. But now at Pentecost wheat had been reaped, threshed, ground to flour, leavened, salted, kneaded into loaves with water, and baked in an oven (Lev 23:17). The living grains of Paschal barley might have been sown to produce a crop of one hundred fold, but the flour of the Pentecostal loaves, crushed by man's hands and cooked, had "died" to provide bread for hungry souls.

These two loaves (Menahoth 5:3), although constituting a meal- offering, "required neither oil nor frankincense," and represented man's best accomplishment in cooperation with God's gifts. "The leaven for them is set apart from their own dough [that is, it was taken from the dough itself], and with this they are leavened" (Menahoth 5:1). Leaven, as we have seen, is a type of the pervasive influence of external principles, either good or bad, which work silently from within to transform the substance into which they are incorporated. During the Paschal octave no leaven at all was acceptable to God, but on Pentecost these two leavened loaves of wheaten flour were specifically required by Him.

Could Christ have alluded to these leavened loaves in His story of a woman who took three measures of meal and put leaven into them (Matt 13:33)? Does she represent the church? "In the Saviour's parable, leaven is used to represent the kingdom of heaven. It illustrates the quickening, assimilating power of the grace of God" (COL 96). "In the twelve disciples the leaven of truth was hidden by the Great Teacher. These disciples were to be the instruments in God's hands for revealing truth to the world" (RH 10 June 1902). Was it possible that these two loaves represented Christ's Spirit-begotten, truth-filled church members made up of both Jews and Gentiles, in whom the hidden principles His life were now working? Saul, transformed into Paul, was commissioned to work for the Gentiles (Acts 9:15), and could thus challenge his diverse people: "For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us . . . that He might reconcile both unto God in one body on the cross" (Eph 2:14-19; 3:6; cf. Acts 15:14).

OntheDL said:

Pentecost​

​

The Feast of Pentecost was the second of Israel's three annual pilgrim festivals. All the men, as well as the women and children who might chose to attend, were invited to make this pilgrimage (Hebrew hag) to the Sanctuary (Ex 23:14-17; 34:22, 23). Some might need to make a journey of several days. Paul set out from far away Macedonia, and "hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost" (Acts 20:16), a trip demanding weeks of hard and dangerous travel. The Lord considered attendance important enough to require His people to leave their homes and make their way to His Tabernacle for just this one day to express their appreciation for all His bounties, both spiritual and physical.

Inspiration has given more names to this feast than to any other. The epithets "Feast of Weeks" (Ex 34:22; Deut 16:10, 16), "Feast of the Fiftieth Day," "the Fiftieth," or translated into Greek, "Pentecost" (Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor 16:8), remember the seven weeks and a day which elapsed between the presentations of the "wave sheaf" of barley on the 16th of Nisan, and the "wave loaves" of wheat on the 6th of Sivan (cf. Deut 16:19). "Feast of Harvest" (Ex 23:16), and "the Day of First Fruits" (Num 28:26) commemorate this annual ingathering. "Solemn assembly" (Deut 16:8; cf. Isa 1:13), however, is the usual title for this Festival.

The rabbis called it Shavout, "the Feast of the Conclusions," because it was the culmination of the grain harvests. They also called it "The Season of the Giving of our Law," or "Feast of the Revelation" (Midrash Rabbah on the Song of Songs 182, note 5; 234, note 3), because it marked the earliest national convocation held after the Exodus at which the LORD presented the decalogue to Israel on Mt. Sinai (Webster II, "Shavout;" Philo, De Decalogo 33; cf. R. A. Cole, Gift of Tongues, Merrill C. Tenny, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, vol. 5, 775-777)). It also marked the renewal of the covenant with Israel which God had been made with Abraham over four centuries earlier.

The Red Sea was a Baptismal Font
Coming out of the watery grave of the Red Sea Israel became a kind of "first fruits from the dead." This occurred on the 16th day of Nisan. It is possible to count 50 days from the crossing of the Red Sea, which was a type of the resurrection (1 Cor 10:2), to the giving of the law (Ex 19:1ff). "On that day the Lord came down on Mt. Sinai to give the Torah to Israel" (Midrash Rabbah on Song of Songs 182; and on Exodus, 86, The Soncino Press).

The returned Babylonian captives recorded in the Book of Jubilees that it was on the Day of Pentecost that Noah had built an altar to worship God, Who then made a covenant with him (Gen 8:20-22; 9:1-17; Jub 6:1). "For this reason it is ordained and written in the tablets of heaven that in this month they [Noah's children] shall keep the Feast of Weeks once a year and renew the covenant each year" (Jub 16:17). The Lord made a covenant with Abraham and renewed the feast (Jub 14:20). Although Israel had ignored them in Egypt, Jehovah reestablished both the feast and the covenant with His people at Sinai (Jub 6:19). The only reference to Pentecost in the Old Testament, outside the Pentateuch, was once during Solomon's reign (2 Chron 8:13).

The Three Pilgrim Feasts were Harvest Festivals
Each of the three annual pilgrim gatherings was a "solemn assembly" (Deut 16:8; cf. Ex 12:16; 13:5, 6; Lev 23:15-21; Num 28:26), and a unique kind of harvest festival. The first fruits of barley were offered on the 16th of Nisan, "the third day" after the Paschal lamb had been slain on the 14th. Precisely fifty days from the 16th, "when the Day of Pentecost had fully come," the first fruits of wheat, in the form of two loaves of leavened bread, were "waved" as a gift to the Lord. The third was called the "Feast of Tabernacles," and celebrated the harvest of wine and oil, as well as the fruit of orchard and vineyard.
These three "harvests" typify life's periodic crises, or times of review or judgment, moving toward its climax. As parts of "the great controversy" they also represent larger earthly movements which reach their consummation at "the end of the world." These emphases on "the harvest principle" in the religious calendar of God's people, kept before them the need to set regular times to examine the progress of their spiritual pilgrimage.

The Pilgrim Feasts were Closely Tied Together
God stipulated that the Passover should fall on the fourteenth, or full moon, of the month Nisan. Its actual date, however, depended on the ripeness of barley. Should the grain fail to mature in time to be presented at the Tabernacle on the sixteenth, the Paschal season was delayed a month, When this occurred, Pentecost was also postponed. Its dating was thus contingent on the "harvest principle," for, as we have noticed, fifty days from the offering of first-fruits came the presentation of the two wheaten loaves at Pentecost (Lev 23:15-17; PP 540).

This link between the barley "wave sheaf" and the wheat "wave loaves" underlined that Pentecost was rooted in the Passover. One remembered Israel's emancipation from Egyptian bondage and the start of the their journey to the Promised Land, while the other celebrated the giving of the law at Sinai (Jub 1:1; 6:17). One looked forward to Calvary while the other anticipated the outpouring of the Spirit, (Pesahim 68b) and the organization of God's covenant people into a nation of "kings and priests" (Ex 19:5, 6). The rejoicing of God's people in their redemption lies at the foundation of the Passover as well as Pentecost.

Harvests Require Sowings
The "wheat harvest" of souls celebrated at the first Christian Pentecost (Acts 2;1-4; cf. Lev 23:15, 16; Ex 34:22), grew from Christ's toilsome sowing. From the gospel seed He sowed, watered by the "former rain" of His Spirit, and fertilized with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, the "first fruits" of Pentecost sprang up (AA 45). But had the disciples neglected their Saviour's call to prayer, they would have cut themselves off from the blessings of the Spirit. "Unless the members of God's church today have a living connection with the Source of all spiritual growth, they will not be ready for the time of reaping. Unless they keep their lamps trimmed and burning, they will fail of receiving added grace in time of special need" (AA 55).

Christ's Life Followed the Calendar of Redemption
Let us review how this calendar of redemption fitted into our Saviour's time-table. On Monday, the 10th Nisan, Christ, like the Paschal lambs set apart for the Temple service, was sentenced to die. On Friday, the 14th of Nisan, He was actually slain as the true Passover Lamb. Then, in accordance with the inspired rule, the Paschal barley sheaf was to be presented on the 16th, the day which followed the first ceremonial sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened bread, the 15th of Nisan, whatever day of the week it might occur.
As we saw in our study of the Passover, in the year of our Lord's death this first ceremonial sabbath fell on the weekly sabbath. On Sunday, the 16th day of Nisan, the Saviour fulfilled the Old Testament type by rising from the dead as God's Antitypical "Wave Sheaf" (James 1:18; cf. Israel as "first-fruits" after Red Sea "baptism," Jer 2:3), or "First Fruits of them that slept" (1 Cor 15:20). He thus became the Representative and Pledge of the great harvest of souls which one day will be gathered into God's garner. Those whom He raised from their graves immediately after His own resurrection, and took with Him to heaven at His ascension forty days later, were the sample and guarantee of the precious sheaves of earth's final reaping.

Earlier in His ministry Jesus had made a remarkable prediction concerning His own resurrection. "Except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24). By rising from the dead, the life-giving Grain of Wheat did in indeed bring forth a hundred-fold. And then, through cataracts of the "latter rain" of the Pentecostal Spirit, three thousand Jews and proselytes from the Gentile world were presented to God as the two loaves of Pentecostal bread leavened with gospel truth.

Pentecost Linked to the Resurrection
From the day of His resurrection the disciples had carefully counted fifty days to Pentecost (Acts 2:1, 2). During the first forty of these Jesus had remained on earth, appearing to individuals and groups, even addressing five hundred of His followers at one time (1 Cor 15:6). Then, in company with His eleven faithful ones and the group He had raised from their graves, He climbed the Mount of Olives. Pausing somewhere near Bethany to bid the disciples tarry in Jerusalem until endued with heavenly power, He ascended with His trophies to His Father.

During the next ten days one hundred and twenty united believers (Acts 1:15) prayed in the Upper Room for Christ's promised Gift. Then "on the day of Pentecost the Infinite One revealed Himself in power to the church. By His Holy Spirit He descended from the heights of heaven as a rushing, mighty wind, to the room in which the disciples were assembled. It was as if for ages this Influence had been held in restraint, and now heaven rejoiced in being able to pour upon the church the riches of the Spirit's power. They grasped the imparted Gift. And what followed?--Thousands were converted in a day. The sword of the Spirit, newly edged with power and bathed in the lightenings of heaven cut its way through unbelief. . . . They were filled with intense longing to add to the church such as should be saved. They called on the believers to arouse and do their part, that all nations might hear the truth, and the earth be filled with the glory of the Lord" (RH 13 Jan 1903).

Pentecost Dependent on Christ's Heavenly Ministry
Christ's "enthronement in His mediatorial kingdom was signalized by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost the Spirit was given" (COL120). His inauguration as Priest and High Priest in the celestial Sanctuary was the actual occasion for this predicted (Acts 1:8) flood of grace upon the earth. His sacrifice had been accepted by His Father on the morning of the resurrection fifty days earlier, and now, in response to His first mediatorial act as mankind's High Priest and Representative, Heaven lavished unstinted gifts of the Spirit to the waiting members of His church.

While Jesus was officially commencing His ministry as Priest and High Priest among supernal beings, the Spirit was fitting His followers as "a royal priesthood" to be His ambassadors among men. After Jesus had been chrismated as man's "Advocate with the Father" (1 John 2:1) in God's palace in heaven, the apostles were anointed as His evangelists to the highways and hedges on earth. Through His Spirit our Lord thus bound His followers to Himself in "heavenly places," and shared His ministry of reconciliation with them to the end of time. The Pentecostal outpouring was the seal of this union in service, and "heaven's communication that the Redeemer's inauguration was accomplished" (AA 39).

Old Testament Church Instructed on First Pentecost
The Old Testament church had been instructed and organized at the first Pentecost at Sinai, while the New Testament church was empowered and set in motion for its task at the last Pentecost at Jerusalem. The law had then been written on tablets of stone and given to Israel, now it was inscribed on the tablets of the hearts of God's true people every where. The covenant had been renewed with Israel at Sinai to bind them together as God's chosen people at the initial Pentecost, and now the Spirit bound Christ's disciples in the new covenant as His church on earth.

Through the centuries of Hebrew history each Pentecost had been a joyous acknowledgment of God's bountiful gift of the Torah and all the blessings it had brought them. The Feast climaxed the grain harvests of both barley and wheat, and provided an annual opportunity to celebrate what had been sown in tears and reaped in joy.

Pentecost is a Celebration
Unlike the presentation of the unleavened Paschal grain, two loaves of leavened bread were presented at Pentecost as a thank-offering (cf. Lev 7:11-21; Deut 16:9-12). Fifty days earlier a simple sheaf of barley had been consecrated in its natural state, touched by no human hands. But now at Pentecost wheat had been reaped, threshed, ground to flour, leavened, salted, kneaded into loaves with water, and baked in an oven (Lev 23:17). The living grains of Paschal barley might have been sown to produce a crop of one hundred fold, but the flour of the Pentecostal loaves, crushed by man's hands and cooked, had "died" to provide bread for hungry souls.

These two loaves (Menahoth 5:3), although constituting a meal- offering, "required neither oil nor frankincense," and represented man's best accomplishment in cooperation with God's gifts. "The leaven for them is set apart from their own dough [that is, it was taken from the dough itself], and with this they are leavened" (Menahoth 5:1). Leaven, as we have seen, is a type of the pervasive influence of external principles, either good or bad, which work silently from within to transform the substance into which they are incorporated. During the Paschal octave no leaven at all was acceptable to God, but on Pentecost these two leavened loaves of wheaten flour were specifically required by Him.

Could Christ have alluded to these leavened loaves in His story of a woman who took three measures of meal and put leaven into them (Matt 13:33)? Does she represent the church? . . . that He might reconcile both unto God in one body on the cross" (Eph 2:14-19; 3:6; cf. Acts 15:14).

Click to expand...

You have a real gift in being able to find and write a study such indepth, I am trying to get through it from the start but it looks like it will take me a while...

God Bless
Red

reddogs said:

You have a real gift in being able to find and write a study such indepth, I am trying to get through it from the start but it looks like it will take me a while...

God Bless
Red

Click to expand...

I don't know about the gift. Lets just say I'm very resourceful. I have a lot of material on hand.

Yeah, you have alot to go through. I did small group studies a few times and took roughly about 40 weeks/lessons.

I'll compile everything, including the images and animations into a single CD at the end. I'm also writing a simplified sanctuary bible study similar to the 28 foundies study.

I'm doing it slowly as I'm too spread-out. And I'm still not totally happy with the animations (need better software). So you have alot of time.

A Double Portion of Elijah's Spirit
The flour for these loaves was double the amount that was required at the Passover. The "double portion" is used in Scripture to suggest honor or heirship/first born male in the Patriarchical system, as illustrated by Elkanah's treatment of his favorite wife Hannah (1 Sam 1:5), and Elijah's legacy to his beloved acolyte Elisha (2 Kings 2:9). At Pentecost "the Heir of all things" accepted gifts from His Father which were bestowed to honor Him as the First-born of many brethren, and then shared them with His people by baptizing them with the Spirit to make them "joint heirs with" Himself.

The wheat for these loaves was harvested from the best district in Palestine, threshed and ground at the Temple, and sieved through twelve sieves to become flour of the finest quality (Menahoth 6:6, 7, note 3; 8:1; 10;2; 11:1, 4). With this the dough was kneaded with lukewarm water, and baked during the evening prior to the feast.

Besides these two loaves of leavened wheaten bread, by which Israel fulfilled its national obligations, each family was enjoined to bring a basket of its own grain to the place of worship (Lev 23:16-19). The Levites went out from the Tabernacle to welcome the pilgrims, and to receive their "first fruits," and then to conduct them to the place of worship with singing. When they reached the sacred enclosure they sang an anthem of praise to the LORD based on Deut 26:1-19 (Menahoth 11:1, 2, 4, 9).

Pentecost Founded on Sacrifice
The Lord mandated that His church as a whole, as well as His people individually, should present offerings of gratitude for their harvests. Accompanying the loaves the law required Israel to sacrifice one young bull, two rams, and seven yearling lambs, with their appropriate meal-offerings and libations, as tokens of their heartfelt consecration (Num 28:26-31). One male kid as a sin-offering, and two lambs as peace-offerings (Lev 23:18-21) expressed national repentance as well as gratitude and dedication to God's covenant.
After "heaving" the two loaves before the altar of perpetual sacrifice, the high priest took one for himself, and gave the other to be divided among the priests (Menahoth 1:1, 5:6). In fulfillment of this type our great High Priest shared His heavenly rewards with His "royal priests." The church on earth was thus united with the church in heaven (6T 366), and Jew and Gentile became one in Christ (Gal 3:16, 27-29).

Pentecost Should be Anticipated in Joy
We have noticed that the rabbis believed that the law had been given to Israel on the first Pentecost celebrated at Sinai. Maimonedes long ago said: "Just as one who is expecting the most faithful of his friends, is wont to count the days and hours to his arrival, so we also count from the omer of the day of Exodus from Egypt [the 16th of Nisan] to that of the giving of the law, which was the object of our Exodus, as it is said: `I bear you on eagle's wings, and brought you to Myself.' And because this great manifestation did not last more than one day, therefore we annually commemorate it only one day" (quoted by A. Edersheim, The Temple 261). Ellen White explains: "God had commanded Moses to bring His people to this place of natural solitude and sublimity, that they might hear His voice, and receive the statute book of heaven. Fifty days previous to this the pillar of fire had lighted the path through the Red Sea that God had miraculously opened before the marching multitudes of people. They had since then made their way slowly onward through the desert; and God, by His miraculous power, had wrought for them in their necessity" (Signs 7 March 1878).

Baptism Precedes Pentecost
The people of God received the law from His hand on the original Pentecost fifty days from their passage through the Red Sea. Paul linked this experience to Israel's "baptism" (1 Cor 10:1, 2), a rite which typified their "resurrection" from the watery grave (cf. Rom 6:4) as God's holy nation. Thus they were prepared for the glories of Sinai on the first Pentecost. Those who gathered at Sinai fifty days later were of one accord, in one place, praying, and then the Shekinah came to rest on the mountain top, flooding the valley with its majestic radiance, and assuring God's people of His nearness. On the last Pentecost in Jerusalem tongues of the same Fire, which had illuminated Israel's path across the sea and on to the Mount of God, lighted the way of true Israel toward Mount Zion and the heavenly Canaan.

On the first Pentecost the ten commandments had been proclaimed to God's people, and the world, in order to make clear three ideas: (1) the nature of sin, "for sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4); (2) the qualities of "the law of righteousness" (Rom 9:31); and (3) the inescapability of the last judgment, for we are commanded to "so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty" (James 2:12). On the last Pentecost the Holy Spirit was granted to the church and the world, in response to Christ's promise, to reenforce what had transpired at Sinai, "to convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8).

Pentecost Needs a Mediator
At Sinai the Hebrew people had received the law "by the hand of a mediator." Moses had ascended the mount no fewer than seven times, perhaps to suggest a "perfect" or complete journey. At Jerusalem the church received the Spirit though their celestial Mediator, Who had perfected His sacrificial mission on earth, and had then scaled the heights of the heavenly Zion.

On his final return from Sinai the skin of Moses' face reflected God's glory as a mirror does the sun. He brought with him the revelation of God's will in the decalogue, as well as the plan of salvation displayed in the Sanctuary. The first showed the standard of conduct which God expected of mankind, and the second described the way of forgiveness and renewal whenever they failed. On the final Pentecost our great Mediator had ascended to His Father, and had been accepted as Sacrifice and Priest of the heavenly Sanctuary, a model of which Moses had seen. Jesus then requested for His family on earth God's choicest Gift, the Holy Spirit. By His power the members of His church today may make their own approach successfully to God.

At the first Pentecost Moses, who died, had been favored by God as Israel's temporary mediator, while at the last Pentecost, Christ, Who ever lives, was glorified before the universe as the eternal Mediator between God and man.

The partialNew Testament Outpouring of the Spirit was Partial
Luke recorded Peter's insightful announcement to the thousands who listened to him in Jerusalem that Christ had poured His Spirit upon His disciples in only a partial fulfillment of Joel's prophecy (Acts 2:16, 17; his expression "of My Spirit," means only in part). The ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy will take place "in the last days." The harvest celebration of Pentecost thus has rich eschatological implications (Joel 2:28, 29).

The gift of the Spirit had been granted because of the earnest petitions of His faithful followers (Acts 1:8. 14). This close relationship between prayer for help and Heaven's response is illustrated by several episodes recorded in Scripture. Although he believed that the captivity had been predicted to last precisely seventy years, Daniel besought the Lord for the release of his people on time (Dan 9:1ff). Anna, Simeon, Nathaniel and other Israelites entreated Heaven to grant this Boon speedily, even though they were convinced of the imminent approach of the Messiah (Luke 2:25-38). In spite of His assurance that He would send the Spirit upon them (John 14:16, 17), Jesus urged His disciples to pray for His bestowal (Acts 1:4-8, 14). He recommended that they remain in Jerusalem and focus on this thought until endued with His power.
This vertical link been petitions for help leading to God's response illustrates a vital principle of "the great controversy." God is able to do for His people who pray for help what He cannot do if they do not request it. This is part of His relationship with "the prince of this world" who claims every one as his subject. When Satan's captive subjects ask for power to break away, God intervenes and rescues them from the devil's hold.

Last-Day Outpouring of the Spirit Limitless
As we contemplate the cataracts of the "latter rain" which have been promised by the prophets for the last days, we should keep in mind Zechariah's advice to pray for the Spirit's ministry at the very time He is due (Zech 10:1). Then the presage of Pentecost will reach its consummation (AA p41; GC f3), and the work of the third angel be completed.

God designed that worshipers in the court of the Sanctuary should regularly unite their petitions at the very time that the smoke of the incense was ascending from the golden altar in the holy place (Luke 1:9, 10). This illustrates the truth that prayer blended with the "merits" of Christ intercession (GC 611-612; 7BC 970-971; Rev 8:3-5) will move the arm of Omnipotence.

Pentecostal Blessing Needs Unity
During the inauguration of the Tabernacle services and the priesthood, the glory of God filled the sacred shrine, only after Aaron had offered sacrifice, and the incense had risen in silent intercession (Ex 40:26, 27, 34), Following Solomon's sacrifice and prayer of dedication the light of the Shekinah pervaded the newly made temple (1 Kings 8:10. 11). Even though the Lord had promised, "I will put My Spirit within you" (Ezek 36:25-27), He encouraged His people to pray for it by this assurance: "I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them" (Ezek 36:37). In compliance with this principle, after Christ's ascension, all the disciples were together in the Upper Room, all were of one accord, all were eagerly praying, and all were filled with the Spirit (Acts 1:14; 2:1-4).

Paul contrasted this happening at Horeb with the experience of the disciples in the Upper Room. "If the ministration of death was glorious," he suggested, "how shall the ministration of the Spirit be not rather glorious" (2 Cor 3:7-12). When the church in the wilderness, bowing at the foot of Sinai, saw God's radiance, there were thunders and lightenings, blare of trumpets, crash of reeling rocks, and the Voice proclaiming His eternal law. Inscribed on stone tablets this was presented to Israel through their mortal mediator (2 Cor 3:13-18), together with details of the Sanctuary ritual. The apostle suggested that this was a ministration of death because it was founded on the slaughter of numberless victims.

But for the New Testament church kneeling in Jerusalem, the rushing wind and the "sound" from heaven, accompanied by an earthquake, marked the giving of the Spirit as luminous tongues of splendid eloquence (Acts 2:1-4). He came through the request of their ever-living heavenly Mediator. The Voice which had spoken at Sinai declaiming the law (Heb 12:18-26) which defined sin, was again heard on the fire-cleansed (Isa 6:1-9), fire-warmed lips of God's sons and daughters proclaiming the gospel which saves from sin. This work of the Spirit in revealing the risen Saviour is even more glorious than the ministry based on the typical sacrifices pointing to His death. And today the Pentecostal Spirit will make every believer a witness of the living Christ (Acts 1:8; AA 39).

OntheDL said:

Regarding the passage in Ezekiel 28

14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

Fire in old english is pyre, in the midst of fire is pyramid.

If you dig up some pyramid diagram, I have one here I'll probably post tomorrow, there are steps that lead up to the king's chamber. If you walk these steps (walking up and down in the midst the stones of fire), you can observe a star in the sky through an air shaft.

This star is called Alpha Draconia. It is the alpha star of the Constellation of Dragon which the Egyptians delieved to be the gateway to immortality.

Google it and you will find some interesting information.

The Egyptian pyraminds were the devil's counterfeit of God's sanctuary on earth.

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Ben Abraham goes into detail on his site:

Great Pyramid - Total Picture



OntheDL you should think of changing your avatar name to Ontheball one day!

RND said:

Ben Abraham goes into detail on his site:

Great Pyramid - Total Picture

OntheDL you should think of changing your avatar name to Ontheball one day!

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Yeah, I should change it. Someone told me it means gay blackman in southern term.


I read that article. But I cannot imagine God would encode the endtime prophecy in the Pyramid, a satanic/pagan structure. What do you think?

OntheDL said:

What do you think?

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Ummmm, not much! Thicking is an extracurricular exercise for me!

All kidding aside, I'm one of those that would consider myself to be part of the jury that's still out on the subject. I'm certainly not one of those goof-balls that believe the morphed offspring of demonic, fallen angels and women (Nephillim) made the pyramids.

I find it hard to believe in a way that both the Egyptian and Mayan pyramid structures and complexes could be so influenced by Satan considering the remarkable astronomical facts they both point too.

Honestly, OntheDL, I just don't have enough personal knowledge and information to make an informed decision one way or the other.

Thank goodness eternity lasts forever OntheDL. We'll have time to get all the answers!

OntheDL said:

We have gone over, in the Most Holy Place, the manna, the Aaron's rod, lets hold this thought for a moment...Since 1844, Jesus entered into the MHP, how do we (traditional SDAs) explain Jesus' mediatorial and judicial ministries after 1844? Does He go back to the Holy Place to intercede for us?

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We know the Ark contained a miniature Holy Place - the resurrected Rod a type of the lampstand, and the hidden manna, a type for the Bread of Presence. The High Priest also brought in a censer full of incense - a type of the golden altar. Thus the HP ministration continued in the MHP.

A quick question:

When the Levites brought the ark into Solomon's temple, 2 Chronicles says this:


"There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt." 2 Chronicles 5:10


Had the hidden manna and Aaron's rod been removed since?


Jon