God tells us to preach and teach “Meat in due season.” Ancient Israel came through the Red Sea today - out of Egypt! Out of Sin.
Luke 12:
42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
That means that we are to speak about the meaning of the Holy Days. Jesus is reiterating the words he inspired King David to write:
Psalm 145:
15 The eyes of all wait upon thee; and you Lord give them their meat in due season.
There is so much that God has given us to understand—and there is so little that the Church of God understands! Today is a Holy Day – a “High Day” in God’s Plan of salvation for mankind. Today is Monday the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. Yesterday was the day of the Wave Sheaf offering. Leviticus 23 shows us that there was a ceremony in Israel where the Priest will wave it for acceptance.
Leviticus 23:
10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf [two quart omer] of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
The spring harvest in the fields could not begin to be harvested by the Israelites until this religious ceremony, “reap the harvest, the wave sheaf” had taken place.
Leviticus 23:
11 And [the Priest] shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you:
The Wave Sheaf must be accepted by God the Father on our behalf, and for our behalf. Jesus Christ, the Wave Sheaf Offering ascended to the Father on Sunday morning and Jesus’ life’s work of salvation was accepted by the Father. Jesus descended and returned to His apostles later in the day.
Leviticus 23:
11 …on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
We are not commanded to observe the Wave Sheaf. But it is very important to understand its significance. Even when Passover falls on the weekly Sabbath day, the Wave Sheaf is the next day - on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath. There are seven full weeks from the Wave Sheaf up to the beginning of Pentecost – which is the fiftieth day. The morrow after the Sabbath was yesterday – always a Sunday – the first day of the week.
Leviticus 23:
13 And the [meal, grain or food] offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil [representing God’s Holy Spirit], an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savor: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. [Perhaps six quarts total.]
That was unleavened bread made with oil for an offering – with wine just like the New Testament symbol of Passover. The Wave Sheaf Offering, always takes place during the Days of Unleavened Bread – because it both pictures and represents Jesus Christ, the Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth (1 Corinthians 5:8).
Genesis 14:
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
And notice the counting that must be done from Day One. That was yesterday, Sunday, the morrow after the weekly Sabbath - so today is Day Two counting to Pentecost. Next Sabbath will be day Seven, then 14, 21...49. Seven X seven = 49 picturing completeness and perfection. The time period prior to Pentecost pictures our going on to perfection.
Leviticus 23:
15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete:
And then, the instant the seventh Sabbath is complete – Pentecost begins – the 50th day.
Leviticus 23:
16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
Brethren, you know that we are firstfruits – same as Jesus.
James 1:
18 Of [God’s own will] own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.
Leviticus 23:
17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.
Two wave loaves represent us, all the saints of God throughout the ages of history. Contrast verse 17 with verse 13. Leaven instead of oil. Sin instead of God’s Holy Spirit. Puffy bread instead of unleavened bread.
Leviticus 23:
20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD,
This pictures our being presented to God the Father on Pentecost – just as Jesus was on the day of the Wave Sheaf – to be accepted – on the Day of Pentecost.
God the Father and Jesus Christ worked out their Plan and purified it to perfection before they ever began to implement it.
Each step of the way is not only important – it is vital.
Proverbs 8:
22 The LORD possessed me [All wisdom] in the beginning of His way, before His works of old.
Psalm 12:
6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. [Before creation began.]
Psalm 18:
30 As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried:
Isaiah 40:
14 With whom took He counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding? [No one.]
We are supposed to be more than Saturday Christians. Going to church services on the Sabbath does not make us righteous in God’s sight. There is so much to learn and to put into effect in our lives. Sometimes, I do think that too many of the brethren think that going to church services on the Sabbath makes us righteous.
What does this Last Day of Unleavened Bread mean?
It means not only the absolute requirement of coming out of sin completely – it has an even higher spiritual significance of putting on Jesus Christ – – taking on His character, values and attributes. That is why we have been eating Unleavened Bread this week – it pictures putting on Jesus Christ. That is why we have been eating Unleavened Bread this week – It pictures putting on Christ.
To do that we must look to Jesus Christ as our Savior – the only way to life eternal. That faith and belief in Jesus Christ is what this Holy Day is all about. We can learn a lot about what it is that God intends – by looking at His promises to us and the Covenants that He has made with man.
God keeps covenant. He keeps his word—always. Most of man’s problems and difficulties come when they break covenant. The good news is that everything is going to work out in the long run – because God is faithful to His covenants.
We know that Jesus established a New Covenant – everybody knows that – even the Protestants base their religious beliefs on what they believe the New Covenant to be. Why has God formed covenants with man? We know about contracts and deals, but what are covenants?
A covenant is a promise or agreement between two entities. The concept of covenants between God and His people is a recurring premise in the Bible. And, since God is involved, a covenant in the Bible implies much more than a contract or a simple agreement between two parties. Once a covenant is made, no one changes it; not even the covenant maker.
Galatians 3:
15 … Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulles [sets aside or rejects], or adds thereto.
You want to add something to a covenant – that requires an entirely new covenant. For instance, a contractor cannot decide to leave the roof off of the house he has contracted to build. And, for an additional room to be added to the contract—requires a new contract to be written.
God was angry at Israel because of their debauchery and immoral reveling that He thought to wipe the entire nation out, replacing it with a new nation from the offspring of Moses.
Exodus 32:
7 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people:
10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
Moses begged God to spare Israel, so that He might fulfill His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and thus God allowed the people to live.
Exodus 32:
11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swore by thine own self, and said unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.
14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
The first covenant we find is one in which God assures Noah that He will never again destroy mankind with a watery flood.
The men who lived before the flood were brilliant – very smart – but not wise. Their iniquity brought mankind to the brink of utter destruction. Title is in the next two verses:
Genesis 9:
15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 And the rain-bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
Sometimes you will hear that all covenants are ratified and sealed with blood—well, they are not! A few examples to establish this fact are this rain-bow covenant that we see here, and another would be God’s covenant to establish David’s Dynasty.
1 Kings 8:
25 Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.
Jeremiah 33:
17 For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
The world hates the old covenant of Moses because it cramps their style. They refuse to submit in obedience to God. Having to obey God gets in the way of doing their own thing.
The Old Covenant is where God gave man the Ten Words [as the text reads] or the Ten Commandments as we’ve come to know them. There is a Covenant, even more ancient than the “Mosaic” Old Covenant.
About 367 years after the flood of Noah, the Lord told Abram to come out of Babylon. Abraham's story began in Ur of the Chaldeans in southern Babylon.
Abraham had to come out of Babylon in the exact same way that Israel would later come completely out of Egypt – on this Last Day of Unleavened Bread – with God’s help. The Lord said to Abram:
Genesis 12:
2 And I will make of thee [Abraham] a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
That was not yet a formal covenant – but it was certainly a promise: The Covenant with Abraham was formally confirmed and ratified on what we have come to know as “the Night to be Much Observed”, the “Selfsame Day” (Exodus 12:41) though it was spoken on the previous evening!
This Genesis 15 Covenant, confirmed by an Oath remains applicable to those who are Christ’s, the true heirs of the Promise thru faith.
Galatians 3:
29 If you are Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s [descendents] and heirs according to the Promise.
We see revealed here -- God’s plan for extending His Covenant of Promise upon all people eventually. God Covenanted unconditionally with Abram.
This covenant was given in Genesis 15, where God said, Look at the stars of heaven and if you can number them so shall your children be. Which then was the promise of the spiritual, glorified sons of God.
Genesis 15:
5 And [the Lord God] brought [Abram] forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and [count] the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy [descendents] seed be.
The Faith and belief of Abraham were exceptional.
Genesis 15:
6 And [Abraham] believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
Romans 4:
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Righteousness is what it takes to be in the Kingdom of God.
Genesis 15:
12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
This horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham corresponds to the death of Christ just before the First Day of Unleavened Bread began. Jesus died at 3 pm and was placed in the grave just as the First Day of Unleavened Bread was beginning. God told Abraham about the coming captivity in Egypt.
Genesis 15:
13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed [your descendants] shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs [Egypt], and shall serve them [slavery]; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
Coming out of Egypt – as the Israelites did today on this Last Day of Unleavened Bread – they lacked faith... even though they had seen great miracles like the Red Sea parting and the death of Pharaoh’s army. That is a warning to us.
Hebrews 4:
1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Genesis 15:
17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
That smoking furnace and burning lamp was Jesus Christ establishing an eternal covenant with Abraham. Jesus was showing that He would die to insure that the eternal Sacrificial Covenant would be fulfilled.
Revelation 13:
8 … the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Genesis 15:
18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
This Genesis 15 covenant put the obligation and burden of the covenant’s fulfillment squarely on the shoulders of the Lord God – who initiated and fulfilled the covenant.
Do we really believe that God keeps covenant? Do we possess that faith as Abraham did?
When we come to the covenant of Genesis 17 we find something that was a little different. It is called the circumcision Covenant.
This second covenant given to Abraham, – is for the physical nation of Israel.
Genesis 17:
2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. [physical]
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
We see a spiritual promise here as Paul explains in Galatians 3:
Galatians 3:
16 Now to Abraham and his seed [singular] were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ..,
Paul is explaining that the Covenant with Abraham is sure – nothing can change it or disannul it.
Galatians 3:
17 …the law, which was four hundred and thirty years afterward, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
But that is what the Protestants want to teach – that Jesus Christ did away with it all. He did not.
Galatians 3:
18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Genesis 17:
10-11 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. …It shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
But then God promises another covenant:
Genesis 17:
21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
Romans 2:
29 … and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Romans 4:
11 And [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
For us, righteousness is the state of being right with God as Jesus is. Righteousness is the state of being justified by having our guilty past wiped out. Unleavened Bread pictures our following after righteousness. Isaiah asks the rhetorical question: Who are you? What are your roots? What is your character?
Isaiah 51:
1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion:
We just saw in Romans about the righteousness of God; the imputed righteousness which is given, that God gives to us. This circumcision covenant was for the physical seed, physical people, for a physical covenant for the children of Israel as they would be through Isaac.
But, through Isaac comes both, the children of Israel, the physical seed; and through Isaac also comes the spiritual children of God.
Genesis 22:
1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did [put to the test] tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou love, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Genesis 22:
11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fear God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
We see the unchangeable Covenant fully ratified. God will not change it! Notice:
Genesis 22:
16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
Even when later Israel and Judah sinned grievously – God remembered His Covenant because He had promised - By myself have I sworn.
Genesis 22:
17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven [spiritual descendants], and as the sand which is upon the sea shore [physical descendants]; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed [Jesus Christ] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Covenant with Jacob…
Genesis 28:
13 And, behold, the LORD stood above [Jacob’s ladder], and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou lay, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
We see there too the spiritual component that has come down through Jacob’s dad – Isaac. Let’s skip ahead 400 years in our time line of Church history. Israel has found itself in Egyptian slavery as the Lord had foretold. Title from here:
Exodus 6:
5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.
The covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – that Israel was to become a great nation.
Exodus 6:
6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:
Exodus 6:
8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.
Bring you in unto the land is a picture of us being saved out of sin and coming to the Kingdom of God.
Today – this Last Day of Unleavened Bread - pictures us coming completely out of sin. Do we realize that this Holy Day we are observing today – this Holy Convocation, is sending us the message that we each must come out of our own Egypt.
Hebrews 12:
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
Brethren, we go into the Kingdom of God – because of the Covenants that Jesus Christ has made with us – beginning way back with the covenants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
It is so clear in the Scriptures – and yet the world denies it – and they cannot see it.
Our entire relationship with God is contingent on our faith in God our Savior – that He is able to deliver us – and will.
We see another Covenant – this covenant is with Israel. The Marriage Covenant of the Old Testament.
Exodus 19:
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
At this point, Israel does not yet know the terms of the covenant that God is proposing - and I use the word proposing advisedly – because God is proposing marriage.
Exodus 19:
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.
8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.
This covenant was affirmed by Israel – as in “I do.”
When the Old Covenant was established, the people of Israel agreed to obey all the laws of God.
Notice the picture of the Wedding Covenant that takes place at the time of Pentecost, less than two months after Israel was delivered from Egyptian bondage by Jesus Christ.
Israel replies, "I Do," in response to the terms of the Marriage Covenant.
Exodus 24:
3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.
But they did not – and subsequently went into captivity. We do not talk much about Mary in God’s Church – but she and her family knew all these things that we are trying to learn.
Luke 1:
46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
Luke 1:
67 And [John the Baptist’s] father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying,
68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
70 As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
The Exact Title comes from here also:
Luke 1:
72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to Remember His Holy Covenant;
73 The oath which he swore to our father Abraham,
74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
One thing we cannot forget as we see our nations – the USA and Great Britain disintegrating right before our eyes – is that God will Remember His Holy Covenant. God prophesied our demise as great fallen nations – but then added:
Title again – twice in this next verse:
Leviticus 26:
42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
Yes, our young people will be captives and slaves in foreign lands.
Leviticus 26:
44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.
Title again:
Leviticus 26:
45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.
46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
The covenant was reaffirmed by Israel. But there was a weakness in the covenant – in that Israel was unable to live up to the terms to which they had agreed. They lacked God’s Holy Spirit.
Another covenant was needed – a New Covenant.
Hebrews 8:
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8 For finding fault with them [not the covenant], he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
Let's read it in Ezekiel and then Jeremiah. This was God’s Plan from the foundation of the World. God makes it possible for us to come out of sin. Thus the Title:
Ezekiel 16:
60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Jeremiah 31:
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
This Last Day of Unleavened Bread pictures our coming out of sin. God the Father and Jesus Christ have made it possible.
They have forgiven our iniquity,
And they remember our sin no more,
For they have Remembered their Holy Covenant with us.
