“Beginning With Moses, Part 9” by Romans
Youtube Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUnDKD1NMH4
We are continuing our Series "Beginning With Moses." On the Road to Emmaus, Jesus caught up with and spoke with two disciples who were sad and perplexed about the arrest, crucifixion and resurrection reports about Jesus, the One Whom they "trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel” (Luke 24:21). In response to their sadness and confusion, Jesus opened the Scriptures to them. We read, “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27).
Last week, we reviewed and examined how the Spring Holy Days that ancient Israel observed were a prophetic forecast of God's Plan of Salvation. Sacrifices, elements, timed events and practices commanded in the Holy Days all pointed to the events of the Life and Death of Christ as our Passover.
Tonight, we will review and examine the remaining Holy Days God appointed. There were no Festivals appointed to be kept during the Summer months. Following Pentecost, and in the Seventh Month of the Hebrew calendar, corresponding to our September/October, the remaining Four Holy Days are observed:
On the 1st Day of the Seventh Month, The Feast of Trumpets (plural) is observed: In the Bible, the blowing of trumpets is often associated with war being waged. Jesus Christ returns, and the Resurrection takes place at the blowing of the Seventh Trump. Here we see a progression of at six preceding trumpets (plural) being blown signifying these End Time Events.
Regarding Christ's return to rule as King from Jerusalem, we read in Revelation 11:15: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”
Of this, Albert Barnes writes, “And the seventh angel sounded - This is the last of the trumpets, implying, of course, that under this the series of visions was to end, and that this was to introduce the state of things under which the affairs of the world were to be wound up.
The place which this occupies in the order of time, is when the events pertaining to the colossal … fourth kingdom of Daniel Dan. 2–7 - should have been completed, and when the reign of the saints Daniel 7:9-14, and 27-28 should have been introduced.
In both Daniel and John the termination of that persecuting power is the commencement of the reign of the saints; the downfall of the papacy, the introduction of the kingdom of God, and its establishment on the earth.
And there were great voices in heaven - As of exultation and praise. The grand consummation had come, the period so long anticipated and desired when God should reign on the earth had arrived, and this lays the foundation for joy and thanksgiving in heaven.
The kingdoms of this world - The modern editions of the New Testament (see Tittmann and Hahn) read this in the singular number - “The kingdom of this world has become,” etc. According to this reading, the meaning would be, either that the sole reign over this world had become that of the Lord Jesus; or, more probably, that the dominion over the earth had been regarded as one in the sense that Satan had reigned over it, but had now become the kingdom of God;
that is, that “the kingdoms of this world are many considered in themselves; but in reference to the sway of Satan, there is only one kingdom ruled over by the ‘god of this world’” (Prof. Stuart). The sense is not materially different whichever reading is adopted; though the authority is in favor of the latter (Wetstein).
According to the common reading, the sense is, that all the kingdoms of the earth, being many in themselves, had been now brought under the one scepter of Christ; according to the other, the whole world was regarded as in fact one kingdom - that of Satan - and the scepter had now passed from his hands into those of the Saviour.
The kingdoms of our Lord - Or, the kingdom of our Lord, according to the reading adopted in the previous part of the verse. The word “Lord” here evidently has reference to God as such - represented as the original source of authority, and as giving the kingdom to his Son. The word “Lord” - Κυριος Kurios - implies the notion of possessor, owner, sovereign, supreme ruler - and is thus properly given to God. See Matthew 1:22; Matthew 5:33; Mark 5:19; Luke1:6, Luke 1:28; Acts 7:33; Hebrews 8:2, Hebrews 8:10; James 4:15.
And of his Christ - Of his anointed; of him who is set apart as the Messiah, and consecrated to this high office. See the notes on Matthew 1:1. He is called “his Christ,” because he is set apart by him, or appointed by him to perform the work appropriate to that office on earth.
Such language as what occurs here is often employed, in which God and Christ are spoken of as, in some respects, distinct - as sustaining different offices, and performing different works. The essential meaning here is, that the kingdom of this world had now become the kingdom of God under Christ; that is, that that kingdom is administered by the Son of God.
And he shall reign forever and ever - A kingdom is commenced which shall never terminate. It is not said that this would be on the earth; but the essential idea is, that the scepter of the world had now, after so long a time, come into his hands never more to pass away. The fuller characteristics of this reign are stated in a subsequent part of this book Revelation 20–22.
What is here stated is in accordance with all the predictions in the Bible. A time is to come when, in the proper sense of the term, God is to reign on the earth; when his kingdom is to be universal; when his laws shall be everywhere recognized as binding; when all idolatry shall come to an end; and when the understandings and the hearts of people everywhere shall bow to his authority.”
Regarding the Resurrection in specific reference to trumpets being blown, we read in 1 Corinthians 15:52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” In other related prophecies, a total of seven trumpets are blown, making this last trump being blown where the resurrection takes place, is also the same Seventh Trump that announces Jesus' Return to the earth.
As we saw in a previous Installment, in the same way that God's Plan of Salvation is understood to be prophetically forecast in the Seven-Day week that God established, with man doing all of his "work" ruling himself during the first 6,000 years, and then Christ ruling in His Kingdom on earth for the last 1,000 years pictured by the Seventh-Day Sabbath, all the Fall Holy Days take place in the seventh month. This is the time of the Fall Harvest, or, "Ingathering," which, itself, had profound Spiritual symbolism.
On the 10th Day of the Seventh month, God appointed the observance of The Day of Atonement, or At-One-Ment. This day celebrates an event for which God has long awaited, namely the time when God and mankind would be At-one. There is a very unusual and very significant offering on The Day of Atonement: involving two identical goats. But they had to be identified as to which part each goat would play.
Two lots were placed inside a golden vessel and shaken. One lot was labeled for Jehovah. The other “for azazel.” (This English meaning of this Hebrew term is not fully understood.) The High Priest shook the vessel and drew the lots, one for each goat. The goat which drew the lot marked for Jehovah would be sacrificed as a sin offering. This sin offering was fulfilled by Jesus on the cross.
Scripture tells us the fate of the azazel or scapegoat in Leviticus 16:21, “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.”
I have heard some say that the scapegoat or azazel was also fulfilled by Jesus, but I am not sure I can agree. Yes, it had all the sins placed on his head, and took them away out into the wilderness, but the first goat accomplished taking away our sins by paying the death penalty for sin. We know that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan early in His ministry.
Over three years later, Jesus died, and was raised to Life, but not to be led into any wilderness. No... the scapegoat goat is led, alive, and out into the wilderness. I agree with those who say that this goat represents Satan. Another clue that this goat represents Satan can be found where Jesus includes information about angels, at the end of an answer on another subject.
We read in Luke 20:35-36: “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels.” Satan is an angel, and cannot die.
This live goat, then, is lead into the wilderness alive. This is the Atonement: Jesus dying that we might live. And Satan bearing, not the penalty, but bearing the responsibility for our sins, as temptor and enemy of our souls. This is the Atonement: God and man, at Jesus' return are atoned, or, set at one.
I will now share with you, Matthew Henry's insights so that you can make a more informed decision as to how to view the events of the Day of Atonement and their prophetic application.
He writes, “The high priest having presented unto the Lord the expiatory sacrifices, by the sprinkling of their blood, the remainder of which, it is probable, he poured out at the foot of the brazen altar, 1. He is next to confess the sins of Israel, with both his hands upon the head of the scape-goat (Leviticus 16:20-21); and whenever hands were imposed upon the head of any sacrifice it was always done with confession, according as the nature of the sacrifice was;
and, this being a sin-offering, it must be a confession of sin. In the latter and more degenerate ages of the Jewish church they had a set form of confession prepared for the high priest, but God here prescribed none; for it might be supposed that the high priest was so well acquainted with the state of the people, and had such a tender concern for them, that he needed not any form.
The confession must be as particular as he could make it, not only of all the iniquities of the children of Israel, but all their transgressions in all their sins. In one sin there may be many transgressions, from the several aggravating circumstances of it; and in our confessions we should take notice of them, and not only say, I have sinned, but, with Achan, “Thus and thus have I done.”
By this confession he must put the sins of Israel upon the head of the goat; that is, exercising faith upon the divine appointment which constituted such a translation, he must transfer the punishment incurred from the sinners to the sacrifice, which would have been but a jest, nay, an affront to God, if he himself had not ordained it.
2. The goat was then to be sent away immediately by the hand of a fit person pitched upon for the purpose, into a wilderness, a land not inhabited; and God allowed them to make this construction of it, that the sending away of the goat was the sending away of their sins, by a free and full remission: He shall bear upon him all their iniquities, Leviticus 16:22. The losing of the goat was a sign to them that the sins of Israel should be sought for, and not found, Jeremiah 50:20.
The later Jews had a custom to tie one shred of scarlet cloth to the horns of the goat and another to the gate of the temple, or to the top of the rock where the goat was lost, and they concluded that if it turned white, as they say it usually did, the sins of Israel were forgiven...
as it is written, Though your sins have been as scarlet, they shall be as wool: and they add that for forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans the scarlet cloth never changed colour at all, which is a fair confession that, having rejected the substance, the shadow stood them in no stead.
3. The high priest must then put off his linen garments in the tabernacle, and leave them there, the Jews say never to be worn again by himself or any other, for they made new ones every year; and he must bathe himself in water, put on his rich clothes, and then offer both his own and the people's burnt-offerings, Leviticus 16:23-24.
When we have the comfort of our pardon God must have the glory of it. If we have the benefit of the sacrifice of atonement, we must not grudge the sacrifices of acknowledgment. And, it should seem, the burning of the fat of the sin-offering was deferred till now (Leviticus 16:25), that it might be consumed with the burnt-offerings.
4. The flesh of both those sin-offerings whose blood was taken within the veil was to be all burnt, not upon the altar, but at a distance without the camp, to signify both our putting away sin by true repentance, and the spirit of burning, and God's putting it away by a full remission, so that it shall never rise up in judgment against us.
5. He that took the scape-goat into the wilderness, and those that burned the sin-offering, were to be looked upon as ceremonially unclean, and must not come into the camp till they had washed their clothes and bathed their flesh in water, which signified the defiling nature of sin; even the sacrifice which was but made sin was defiling: also the imperfection of the legal sacrifices; they were so far from taking away sin that even they left some stain upon those that touched them.
6. When all this was done, the high priest went again into the most holy place to fetch his censer, and so returned to his own house with joy, because he had done his duty, and died not.”
The Feast of Tabernacles was the great Fall Harvest. It was also called Ingathering. In His parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus said in Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest:” and in verse 39, “The enemy that sowed them (the tares) is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” On a Spiritual level we can see it as the gathering in of all of the godly dead and living at the End of the Age to be together at last for all Eternity.
The Last Great Day is seen by some as representing the White Throne Judgment, but I cannot be more specific than that. There are a variety of interpretations, each of which have their own partial, but valid, claims. But for me the jury is still out on that, and I won't present it until I can do so with a clearer understanding of it, that I can defend from the Word of God.
So there is a physical / spiritual flow of events taking place in which all of God's Holy Days, that He had the Jews observe for centuries, individually and as a whole had the same deep and profound spiritual significance as most people recognize in the Passover observance.
All the Holy Days as they transpired during the year were previews and forecasts of God's Great Plan of Salvation that He was working out. The Jews were as oblivious to it as they were when they had Christ nailed to a cross while Passover lambs were being killed for that night's meal. Here is a verse that proves that the Jews had not yet eaten the Passover.
Notice John 18:28: “Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover.” The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
So while Jesus endured the brutal scourging in silence, and then as He died on the cross, as a lamb to the slaughter, all of the rest of Judea was busy slaughtering the Passover lambs that had pre-envisioned Jesus' sacrifice for centuries. And they were all completely blind to the incredible significance of the events happening right in front of their eyes!
It can be argued that all of these Feast Days, including the lesser known and seemingly less significant Feast of Firstfruits, and see that God unveiled, chronologically, using agrarian parables, or farming symbolism, His Plan of Salvation. And, significantly, each of the Spiritual events in His Plan, that have already taken place, occurred on the actual days that God ordained them to be celebrated!!
Let me just say, so that there is no confusion as to what I am saying, or where I am going with this. We read in Leviticus 23:4: “These are the feasts of the LORD , even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.” As a direct command of the Old Covenant, the Children of Israel were required to observe these days.
They were celebrated in Israel as “annual Sabbath Days.” God said to Moses in Exodus 31:13: “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.”
When Gentiles became members of the Church, there were Jewish Christians who understood that these days should continue to be kept by them, and all Gentile converts. It seemed pretty open and shut: “These days were to be observed throughout your generations...” But other Jewish Christians disagreed.
There were other things God said His people would observe “throughout their generations” that we, as Christians no longer observe: For example, Exodus 29:42 This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations... Do we offer, or should we offer burnt offerings, today, as Christians. No. We don't.
Exodus 30:8 tells us, “And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.” Do we burn, or should we burn perpetual incense, today, as Christians? No. We don't light lamps and burn incense.
We read in Exodus 30:10, “And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.” Do we, or should we offer the blood of sin offerings, today, as Christians? No. Hebrews 10:4 instructs us, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”
In order to be preaching a unified Gospel, and in order to address the division that was taking place in the Church, a decision had to be made in the early days of the Church, as to whether or which Old Testament Laws such as circumcision or these Feast Days should be required to be kept, in order for Gentiles to become Christians.
And we read of that decision when it was made, beginning in Acts 15:14, “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood... (Acts 15:14-20).
Skipping to Verses 23 and 24, “And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia: Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment...”
Skipping to Verses 28 and 29: “For it seem good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.”
The Holy Days that ancient Israel observed have great spiritual significance. There is much that we can learn from them, and we would do well to study them and be blessed by what they impart to us. But there is no New Testament indication let alone Command, that we are required to observe them to be saved.
Yes... it is true that Leviticus 23:4: tells us, “These are the feasts of the LORD...” But they were Feasts observed as part of a Covenant that had been ratified between Israel and the Lord. Jesus, as the Jehovah God of the Old Testament, mediated that Covenant, as I conclusively proven in several past Discussions. When He died, the Old Covenant was terminated.
This is corroborated with these words recognizing the establishing of the New Covenant: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:10-13).
Albert Barnes writes, “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old - That is, the use of the word “new” implies that the one which it was to supersede was “old.” New and old stand in contradistinction from each other... The object of the apostle is to show that by the very fact of the arrangement for a new dispensation differing so much from the old, it was implied of necessity that that was to be superseded, and would vanish away.
Paul says it was with the dispensation that was represented had symptoms of decay. It had lost the vigour which it had when it was fresh and new; it had every mark of a declining system; and it had been expressly declared that a new and more perfect dispensation was to be given to the world. Paul concluded, therefore, that the Jewish system must soon disappear.”
We also read in Hebrews 9:15-16: “And for this cause he (Jesus) is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.”
In the same way that the terms of a will are not activated until the person who wrote the will dies, so the New Covenant was activated when Jesus died, and the terms and conditions and requirements of the Old Covenant were terminated.”
But the Jews who killed Jesus did not see Him as the Lord, or the Creator God, or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was just a blasphemer who claimed to be equal to God by calling Himself the Son of God. When He died, they did not see a cessation of the terms of the Old Covenant. They still regarded these Feast Days as the “Feasts of the Lord.”
But the Apostle John know the reality. The ratifier of the Old Covenant and the testator of the New Covenant was dead, disabling the Old, and Enacting the New. So in each of the occasions he refers to these Feast Days, John never calls them a Feast Day of the Lord. Their prophetic significance is intact, but our requirement to observe them, as I have already demonstrated, is not applied to Gentile believers.
On two occasions, one in John 5, and the second, here, he calls them a “feast of the Jews.” The phrase “feast of the Lord, or “Feast of the Lord” does not occur anywhere in the New Testament! As far as the Jews were concerned, the Old Covenant was still in force, and they were still keeping these days, even though they completely missed their spiritual significance, not to mention their literal fulfillment which happened right before their eyes!!!
As we looked tonight and last week at the Holy Days God commanded Israel to keep, they were clearly prophetic forecasts of God's Plan of Salvation. These Days were timed to coincide with the Spring and Fall Harvests. The ancient Israelites went through the motions of observing the timing and specific details of observing these Days with no clue as to what they foretold.
As New Testament Christians, we have the advantage of the Holy Spirit guiding us to apply the details of the Holy Days to the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ, and the establishment of His Kingdom on earth. Jesus well could have at least opened the understanding of the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus to realizing that He, Jesus, the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world, was sacrificed at the very hour that the Passover lambs were being sacrificed.
There are many more types and prophecies and spiritual forecasts that Jesus can have cited Beginning With Moses. God Willing, I plan to continue this Series at this same time and place, next week. For all of you hearing or reading my words, I invite you all to join me.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Beginning with Moses, Part 9.”
This Discussion was presented “live” on August September 20th, 2023
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