The Fourth Cup

[visionary]

You mean the Cross was not "the real plan of redemption"? And you are basing this on the Gospel? Please explain.

In Christ,
Pilgrimer

The cross is the crux for without it the rest of the story could not be. We are in the rest of the story.. the story of redemption is not complete until He rids the earth of sin and sorrow... til He makes us one with Him,... until fully redeems us into His Image.. but that is a process.. and it is revealed in the fall feasts ...

 

[Pilgrimer]

The cross is the crux for without it the rest of the story could not be. We are in the rest of the story.. the story of redemption is not complete until He rids the earth of sin and sorrow... til He makes us one with Him,... until fully redeems us into His Image.. but that is a process.. and it is revealed in the fall feasts ...

Amen! I like that.

But let me ask you to take another look at something.

Can you not imagine that a trumpet could be symbolic of the call of the Gospel? When God gathered the Israelites in the wilderness and called them to come up to the mount and there to receive His Word, did his voice not sound like a trumpet?

Why do you suppose John was called “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”?

Is not the Gospel the call of God to come up to the Mount (Zion) and receive the Word (Jesus)?

And those who obey this call, are we not then sprinkled with the blood of Jesus that our sins might be atoned? And through that atoning blood we are reconciled with God?

And once we have our sins atoned and our fellowship with God is restored, then comes Tabernacles. What did they celebrate, and foreshadow? Tabernacles celebrated Israel being delivered from their bondage, and their wandering in the wilderness, living in temporary, perishable tabernacles. The Lord Himself even dwelling in a tabernacle and journeying through the wilderness with His people. Even the materials that the booths were constructed of symbolized the various stages of the journey through the wilderness.

And is this not a shadow of what we enjoy now? Have we not been delivered from bondage? And are we not even now dwelling in temporary tabernacles of flesh, and yet even while journeying through the wilderness of this old world the Lord is tabernacling with us, journeying with us?

And yet, even as we dwell in these temporary booths, journeying through the wilderness of this world, at the same time we dwell in and are citizens of the New Jerusalem, and we can come up the Temple and enter God’s courts and worship our Father.

Tabernacles is about the journey through the wilderness TO the promised land, and that’s where we are now.

Even the last and greatest event of Tabernacles, the water pouring ceremony, Jesus stood up on the Great Day when this ceremony was being conducted and he cried out, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

Jesus was talking about the Spirit, that would be poured out on the day of Pentecost. So this wasn’t something that is yet future, it has already been fulfilled, and these feasts teach us that even though we still live in temporary tabernacles our Lord is tabernacling with us. And even though we journey through a dry and thirsty land, we drink living water from that rock which was split, and we follow a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night until the day our journeying is over and we cross that chilly Jordan and go home.

But I agree that this is not the end of the story. There is that final redemption that we all look forward to. When the last trump sounds, and the dead in Christ rise first, the Lord will return with millions of saints who have gone on before us, and these old tabernacles we dwell in will be changed into glorious bodies like Jesus’. And this present heavens and earth will be burned up, and there will be a new heaven, and a new earth, where there will be no more sin, or sickness, or pain, or weeping. But the New Jerusalem, that heavenly city, will descend down out of heaven from God, and then we will dwell in mansions along the banks of the river of the water life, and will see our God and Savior face to face.

So I’m with you on how all this ends, but I think you are missing some beautiful and encouraging teachings from the fall feasts about what you presently enjoy in Christ.

In Christ,
Pilgrimer

 

[Clare73]

Amen! I like that.

But let me ask you to take another look at something.

Can you not imagine that a trumpet could be symbolic of the call of the Gospel? When God gathered the Israelites in the wilderness and called them to come up to the mount and there to receive His Word, did his voice not sound like a trumpet?

Why do you suppose John was called “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”?

Is not the Gospel the call of God to come up to the Mount (Zion) and receive the Word (Jesus)?

And those who obey this call, are we not then sprinkled with the blood of Jesus that our sins might be atoned? And through that atoning blood we are reconciled with God?

And once we have our sins atoned and our fellowship with God is restored, then comes Tabernacles. What did they celebrate, and foreshadow? Tabernacles celebrated Israel being delivered from their bondage, and their wandering in the wilderness, living in temporary, perishable tabernacles. The Lord Himself even dwelling in a tabernacle and journeying through the wilderness with His people. Even the materials that the booths were constructed of symbolized the various stages of the journey through the wilderness.

And is this not a shadow of what we enjoy now? Have we not been delivered from bondage? And are we not even now dwelling in temporary tabernacles of flesh, and yet even while journeying through the wilderness of this old world the Lord is tabernacling with us, journeying with us?

And yet, even as we dwell in these temporary booths, journeying through the wilderness of this world, at the same time we dwell in and are citizens of the New Jerusalem, and we can come up the Temple and enter God’s courts and worship our Father.

Tabernacles is about the journey through the wilderness TO the promised land, and that’s where we are now.

Even the last and greatest event of Tabernacles, the water pouring ceremony, Jesus stood up on the Great Day when this ceremony was being conducted and he cried out, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

Jesus was talking about the Spirit, that would be poured out on the day of Pentecost. So this wasn’t something that is yet future, it has already been fulfilled, and these feasts teach us that even though we still live in temporary tabernacles our Lord is tabernacling with us. And even though we journey through a dry and thirsty land, we drink living water from that rock which was split, and we follow a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night until the day our journeying is over and we cross that chilly Jordan and go home.

But I agree that this is not the end of the story. There is that final redemption that we all look forward to. When the last trump sounds, and the dead in Christ rise first, the Lord will return with millions of saints who have gone on before us, and these old tabernacles we dwell in will be changed into glorious bodies like Jesus’. And this present heavens and earth will be burned up, and there will be a new heaven, and a new earth, where there will be no more sin, or sickness, or pain, or weeping. But the New Jerusalem, that heavenly city, will descend down out of heaven from God, and then we will dwell in mansions along the banks of the river of the water life, and will see our God and Savior face to face.

So I’m with you on how all this ends, but I think you are missing some beautiful and encouraging teachings from the fall feasts about what you presently enjoy in Christ.

In Christ,
Pilgrimer

And no more death (Rev 20:1-4)--just eternity.