[EXO:23:14-17]; [LEV:23:10-22]; [DEU:16:9-12].

Lesson 87 - Senior

Memory Verse

"In every thing give thanks:  for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (I Thessalonians 5:18).

Cross References

I Three Annual Feasts of the Levitical Law

1. Three annual major feasts were instituted which Israel was enjoined to keep, [EXO:23:14]; [DEU:16:16].

2. The first was the feast of unleavened bread, or the Passover, [EXO:23:15]; [EZE:45:21]; [MAT:26:17]; [MAK:14:12].

3. The second was the feast of harvest, that is, the feast of weeks, or Pentecost, Exo[EXO:23:16]; [DEU:16:10]; [ACT:2:1].

4. The third was the feast of ingathering, or the feast of tabernacles, [EXO:23:16]; [LEV:23:34]; [ZEC:14:16].

II The Feast of Unleavened Bread, or the Passover

1. In the week immediately following the Passover no leaven was allowed, [EXO:23:15]; [EXO:12:15]; [1CO:5:7-8].

2. On the day after the Sabbath an offering of the firstfruits was made, [LEV:23:10-11]; [1CO:15:20].

3. No partaking of the fruits was permitted until the firstfruits were presented unto the LORD, [LEV:23:14].

4. A burnt offering, a meat offering, and a drink offering were made unto the LORD, [LEV:23:12-13].

III The Feast of Harvest, or the Feast of Weeks

1. From the Passover seven Sabbaths and a day, fifty days, were numbered for the feast of weeks, [LEV:23:15-16].

2. Two loaves of leavened bread, firstfruits of the wheat harvest, were offered into the LORD, [LEV:23:17].

3. Ten beasts as a burnt offering, a meat offering, a drink offering, as a sweet savour, were presented unto the LORD, [LEV:23:18]; [DEU:16:10].

4. A goat as a sin offering, and two lambs as a peace offering were presented as holy unto the LORD, [LEV:23:19-20].

5. This day, foreshadowing Pentecost, was proclaimed a holy convocation unto Israel, [LEV:23:21]; [DEU:16:11-12].

Notes

The Seasons of the Promised Land

When the Children of Israel were about to enter into the Promised Land, the LORD reminded them through Moses of its due seasons, its appointed rainfalls, its abundant fruits, and its successive harvests; and how these should never fail as long as they continued to keep His commandments: "And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full" (Deuteronomy 11:13-15).

Thus Israel's material welfare was dependent upon their spiritual and moral status in the sight of the LORD, as is the case today with other nations whether they recognise it or not. Wherefore the LORD appointed that these seasons should occupy an important place in Israel's worship, constantly reminding them that their God was the Giver of every good and perfect gift. These three annual feasts, as well as other important events of the year, were interwoven with the successive harvests of the land; and the LORD commanded, "Thrice in the year shall all your men-children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel" (Exodus 34:23). And He promised that in their absence no enemies should invade their lands: "For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year" (Exodus 34:24). Thus Israel was to learn, through the worship, which God instituted, His goodness toward them, His abundant provision for all their needs, and His protecting hand against all their enemies -" on condition that they faithfully kept all his commandments, and never forgot the God of their fathers. But more than all this, these harvests of the Promised Land were chosen of the LORD as types of His great plan of redemption, not only for His people Israel, but for the whole world -" and what a beautiful thought! Just as wheat is garnered in the barn, so, some day the redeemed of the LORD shall be gathered into His heavenly Kingdom.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

This feast was so closely related to the Passover that the latter was often called "the feast of unleavened bread." The Passover, as we learned in our lesson from [EXO:12:1-51], was observed on the 15th day of Abib which was immediately followed by the week of unleavened bread. The Children of Israel, in their preparation for the Passover, diligently swept and cleansed their houses of all leaven; and no Israelite, or stranger among them, was permitted to eat leavened bread in the week following, typifying the putting away of all sin. The Passover, as we have learned, was wonderfully fulfilled to the letter when Jesus went forth "bearing his cross" and was crucified on Mount Calvary: "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" (I Corinthians 5:7, 8).

The Barley Harvest

The feast of unleavened bread was so timed that its observance shortly followed the latter rain. And this was not a mere coincident. God sent the latter rain to mature the crops for the harvest, and the barley crop was the first of the season to benefit by this provision. In conformity with God's plan, therefore, a wave offering of the firstfruits was to be presented to the LORD "on the morrow after the Sabbath." Signifying thanksgiving on the part of the Children of Israel, and also that the firstfruits belonged to the LORD, for none were permitted to partake of the fruits of the harvest until this offering was waved before the LORD ([LEV:23:14]).

But a far deeper significance is disclosed by this offering than the above. In the Apostle Paul's notable chapter on the resurrection we read, "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept" (I Corinthians 15:20). Here again we see how perfectly Christ fulfilled the Passover: While nailed to the cross He cried, "It is finished," and just at the hour of the evening sacrifice He cried again and yielded up the ghost. And "on the morrow after the Sabbath" He came forth from the grave "the firstfruits of them that slept," implying the glorious promise of the resurrection to them that sleep in Jesus. And again, the fact that He rose on the first day of the week gives us Scriptural warrant for observing that day as the Lord's Day. For it wonderfully commemorates His resurrection and the new creation He ushered in -" a better covenant, a better hope, better promises, better sacrifices, better possessions, a better priesthood, a better resurrection, a better country than was ever revealed in the types and shadows of the Old Testament. It also is to be noted that with this wave offering a burnt offering, a meat offering, and a drink offering were made for a sweet savour unto the LORD ([LEV:23:12-13]). But no sin offering was here presented. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (II Corinthians 5:21).

The Feast of Weeks

In determining the time of the feast of weeks, "from the morrow after the Sabbath" seven Sabbaths were numbered "even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath," totalling fifty days from the Passover ([LEV:23:15-16]). And this fiftieth day, known in the New Testament as Pentecost, was the beginning of the wheat harvest ([EXO:34:22]). Two loaves of leavened bread, firstfruits of the wheat harvest, were offered unto the LORD ([LEV:23:17]), which was an expression of thanksgiving unto God as the Giver, as in the feast of unleavened bread. And seven lambs, one bullock, and two rams, for a burnt offering, with a meat offering and a drink offering, were presented for a sweet savour unto the LORD. Also in this feast one kid of the goats was sacrificed for a sin offering, and two lambs for a peace offering, in addition to a freewill offering as a tribute unto the LORD on the part of the Children of Israel ([LEV:23:18]; [DEU:16:10]; [LEV:23:19-20]). This day was proclaimed a holy convocation unto the Children of Israel, to be observed as a Sabbath and a time of rejoicing by all Israel, as well as by strangers among them ([LEV:23:21]); [DEU:16:11-12]).

The significance of this day to Israel with its many offerings and the sacredness attached to it is obvious. It was to be a great day of thanksgiving and of rejoicing, because of the bountiful fruits bestowed upon them. And wheat was to them a staple item of their living, even as it is to us today, although the great majority in our land do not recognise God at al as the Giver. Certain Bible students also attribute another great significance to this day. On fair Scriptural grounds, they reckon the time of Israel's journeys from Egypt to Mount Sinai and the time of the LORD'S appearance upon the mount as just fifty days from the Passover in Egypt, which coincides perfectly with the feast of weeks, and marks the giving of the Law to Israel.

The Feast of Weeks a Type of Pentecost

That great day of the feast of weeks, which was proclaimed a holy convocation unto Israel, bears, we believe, a far deeper significance than just to teach that nation to render due thanks unto their God for a bountiful harvest. It is of great profit to know in what way the feast of weeks is a type of Pentecost, when the hundred and twenty in the upper room were baptised with the Holy Ghost and fire ([ACT:2:1-4]), which happened just fifty days to the hour from the crucifixion when Jesus became our Passover.

The wave offering of the firstfruits of the barley harvest, we found, typified Christ who became the Firstfruits when He rose from the grave. And even as the barley harvest preceded a great wheat harvest, so Christ the Firstfruits premised by His mighty resurrection another great harvest, to which the Apostle Paul points in his interpretation of the firstfruits: "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruit of them that slept.... But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming" (I Corinthians 15:20, 23). And the Apostle further sets forth in this chapter that the fact of the resurrection of Christ is the hope of the resurrection of all the faithful who believe in Him, a hope to which Jesus also refers: "This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the lat day" (John 6:40). Again in His parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus spoke of the wheat as a type of the children of the Kingdom: "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one" (Matthew 13:37, 38). He also said, "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn" (Matthew 13:30).

What a wonderful thought! How, with the approach of harvest, the wheat fields, and all nature, in fact, are proclaiming the great promise of the resurrection. At Easter time the trees, the flowers, the grass are all joining in the anthem of praise, "Christ is risen." In the above parable is a grand picture of world-wide scope from the time the "good seed" is sown up to the harvest, when the matured "wheat" is gathered into His barn. This is a panorama of the Gospel dispensation, when the "children of the kingdom" are being prepared for their heavenly abode. It is this great truth of which the wheat fields, waving with their golden grain in the days of Israel, were a type. Oh, that Israel could have seen it! Some did; Job could say, "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth" (Job 19:25).

The "holy convocation," proclaimed unto Israel, was a type of the Day of Pentecost. On that day the disciples were endued with power to proclaim the Gospel, and the door of grace was opened unto all nations ([ACT:1:8]). That selfsame day three thousand converts were added to the Church. Pentecost was a day of rejoicing to the Christians, as the feast of weeks ought to have been to the Children of Israel ([DEU:16:11]). And in a material way it was, but how their carnal minds might have been lifted to a higher plane, could they have seen to what the feast of weeks pointed.

The LORD'S Appearance upon Mount Sinai

This mighty event, to which we referred above, is recorded in the 19th chapter of Exodus, in the opening verse of which we read, "In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai" (Exodus 19:1). A reasonable interpretation of this Scripture is that the Children of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai on the first day of the third month. They departed out of Egypt on the night of the Passover, the 15th day of Abib, the first month. And in reckoning the number of days they spent in their journey to Sinai, there were 15 days in the first month, 30 days in the second month, and 1 day in the third month, making a total of 46 days. To this sum is to be added the day that Moses went up into the mount (probably the second day, [EXO:19:3]); the two days that Moses spent in sanctifying the people ([EXO:19:10]); and then " that memorable third day when the LORD came down "in the sight of all the people" (Exodus 19:11). And these four days added to the 46 above bring us to the fiftieth day from the Passover, the day the LORD descended upon the mount, which coincides perfectly with the feast of weeks and the Day of Pentecost.

This was an outstanding day in the history of Israel. In the morning there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, the voice of the trumpet exceeding long and loud. The mount was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in a fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. These were the signs of the judgments attending the giving of the Law, which this day marked: and all the people trembled and even Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake."

It was here that Israel entered into the Old Covenant with God, and became established as a nation. And Israel in the Old Testament was a type of the Church in the New Testament, which was founded under the New Covenant on the Day of Pentecost. On that day also the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, descended like a mighty rushing wind with fire upon the hundred and twenty in the upper room, enduing them with power for service. But this was not a day of judgment as in the giving of the Law. It was a day of grace extended to the nations. "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Under this glorious New Covenant much light has shone upon our pathway, and we are going to be held responsible for that light as to whether we walk in it or not.

Questions

1. What does the wave offering of the barley harvest typify?

2. On what day of the week was it offered? and how does that effect the Sabbath question?

3. What did the unleavened bread typify? and upon what Scripture do we base the answer?

4. In what season was the fest of weeks observed? What was the harvest at this time?

5. What did wheat typify in Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares?

6. What did Paul say about the "firstfruits"? What bearing has that upon those who believe in Christ?

7. How was the time reckoned for the day of the feast of weeks?

8. What may the "wheat" of this season be a type of?

9. In what way was the day of the feast of weeks like the Day of Pentecost?

10. What marks Pentecost as a great day in reference to the world?