In Leviticus 23, the appointed feasts - holy convocations - of the Lord
are listed (also, see Numbers 28 and 29).
1. Weekly Sabbath
2. Passover
3. Unleavened Bread or First Fruits
4. Pentecost or Feast of Weeks
5. Feast of Trumpets
6. Day of Atonement
7. Feast of Tabernacles
There was to be also an offering at the beginning of each new month (Numbers 10:10; 28:11).
Three times a year, all males were to appear before the Lord at the Sanctuary or later the Temple at Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16:16; Exodus 23:14,17).
First was the Feast of Unleavened Bread/First Fruits, which began the day after Passover - Easter time of year.
Barley was planted in the Fall and by March/April was beginning to ripen. Sheaves of these first ripened grains were waved before the Lord. Christ is the first fruits (1 Corinthians 15:20).
The males returned home to harvest the grain as it continued to mature. Fifty days after Passover they returned. This ended the Feast of Weeks; seven weeks plus the Passover equals 50 days, which is the meaning of Pentecost.
The Passover commemorated the exodus from Egypt. Fifty days later, the Children of Israel received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Pentecost commemorated the receiving of the law.
The third and final feast, which required the attendance of all males, was the Feast of Tabernacles. It was the last of the yearly celebrations and took place at the end of the harvest or ingathering of olives, grapes, and other fruits. It commemorated the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness by the Hebrews dwelling in booths.
The three feasts in the Spring commemorated the deliverance from Egypt and the receiving of the Law on Mount Sinai.
1. Passover
2. First Fruits/Unleavened Bread
3. Feast of Weeks/Pentecost
While commemorating past events, these Spring Feasts also pointed forward to Jesus delivering humanity from sin at the cross and the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost for the sowing of the gospel seed.
The three feasts in the Fall of the year were symbolic of the closing events of earth's history.
1. The Blowing of
the Trumpets
2. The Day of Atonement
3. Feasts of Tabernacles
The trumpets sounded on the first day of the seventh month, announcing that the Day of Atonement, the day of judgment, was at hand. It took place on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the fifteenth day, the Feast of Tabernacles began after the final harvest of the fields.
Spring Feasts = Sowing
Seeds of the Gospel
Fall Feasts = Harvest of Fruits of the Gospel
The Blowing of the Trumpets will be the outpouring of the Spirit for the presentation of the final gospel message to a dying world.
BLOW THE TRUMPET IN ZION!
Although attendance at the Day of Atonement, the next to the last feast, was not required, the importance of this celebration is explained in the Book of Hebrews. It was symbolic of Christ entering into the Father's presence for His people at His ascension into Heaven.
"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24).
While all these feasts (yearly, monthly and weekly) were important, and there were certain sacrifices for each, there was one sacrifice which took PRECEDENCE over them all. It was the "continual burnt offering" or "daily sacrifice".
When an individual sinned, he was to bring an offering to the Sanctuary. However, every morning and every evening, there was a lamb offered "day by day for a continual burnt offering" (Exodus 29:38; Numbers 28:3).
Every morning and every evening, an Israelite could see the smoke of these burnt offerings ascending to heaven. He knew that a sacrifice had been made for him.
In this way, the gospel was preached unto them (Hebrews 4:2).
While on their way to Mount Moriah, Isaac asked his father Abraham, "… where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" The answer was "… God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering …" (Genesis 22:7,8).
Yes, God has provided His Son as a sacrifice for the people.
The main event in Hebrew history was their deliverance from Egypt. It was the reason given as to why they should obey God and keep His commandments.
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage (therefore) thou shalt have no other Gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, etc. (Exodus 20:2-17).
The first three feasts of the year (Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost), all commemorated their deliverance from Egypt and their receiving the Law at Mount Sinai.
As important as these were, before the observance of these events took place, there was to be a "continual burnt offering", "day by day continually", a DAILY SACRIFICE.
BEFORE every weekly observance, BEFORE every monthly observance, BEFORE every yearly observance, there was to be a continual burnt offering, a DAILY SACRIFICE.
All of the special observances were to be "beside the continual burnt offering" (Numbers 28:15,23,24,31; 29:6,11,16,19,22,25,28,31,34,38).
As important as the Day of Atonement was, first there was to be the continual burnt offering, day by day continually or DAILY SACRIFICE.
All of the rituals were figures and shadows of Christ. By an oath, He was made a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.
"By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to CONTINUE by reason of death: But this man, because he CONTINUETH ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him …".
Why is He able to save them to the uttermost?
"… seeing he ever liveth (continually, daily) to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:22-25).
Jesus, "day by day continually" has been the intercessor for mankind, even before the creation, He was "… the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8; 1 Peter 1:19,20).
He has been a continual burnt offering, a DAILY SACRIFICE.
The gospel is about "… how Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3,4).
Notice that the gospel (the DAILY SACRIFICE) is about Christ and his experience, his death, burial, and resurrection. It is not about man, man's experience, or what takes place in man.
In Daniel 8:11,12 we are told that the anti-Christ, the little horn power, would take away the DAILY SACRIFICE. In other words, the evil one would take away the gospel. "… and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away …" (verse 11).
Not only was the gospel to be taken away, but "… and (they) shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate" (Daniel 11:31).
"And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up …" (Daniel 12:11).
The true gospel is taken away. A false gospel is put in its place.
During the Dark Ages, the established church taught that man was made acceptable to God (justified) by God coming into man's heart and making man more kind, more loving, etc., and on this basis man was saved by God's work of grace on man's heart.
While searching his own heart for enough grace that would make him acceptable to God, Martin Luther discovered that the Apostle Paul taught that the believer's justification, redemption, and righteousness were in (emphasis on "in") Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24-26).
Man was saved by something that took place in Jesus rather than something taking place in man's heart. He became a sinner because of something that took place in Adam. He becomes righteous by something that has taken place in Jesus (Romans 5:12,18,19).
The little horn power of Daniel 8 "… cast down the truth to the ground …" (verse 12). The root word for Adam is "Adamah", which means earth, ground. Adam was made from dust. The evil one has taken our justification which we have in Jesus and has put it in man. He cast down the truth to the ground.
Of all the offerings made in the various services of the Sanctuary, the DAILY SACRIFICE was the most important because it typified or represented Jesus' intercessory work from the creation to the very end.
The Priest who "continueth ever" is able to save them to the uttermost … why … "seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them".
The great deceiver strikes at the heart of the gospel message. Christ is man's Savior because within Himself He has the righteousness that makes man acceptable to God. To take what the believer has in Christ and put it in man is to make man a substitute Christ, one in place of Christ. The word "anti" as in anti-Christ means "in place of". Anti-Christ is one in place of Christ.
The great truth of the Protestant Reformation, that the believer's righteousness was in Jesus and not in man, brought about the greatest Christian revival since Apostolic times. It changed the church and the course of history.
Unfortunately, somehow much of this great truth has slipped through the fingers of American Protestants, descendants of the European Reformers. Noted theologian Paul Tillich said that when he came to America from Germany in 1933, the theology of the Reformation was almost unknown at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
God is good, outgoing, concerned for others, willing to sacrifice for their benefit. Man was created in God's image but, when man sinned, he became self-centered, egocentric. Man's subjective nature causes him to focus on himself.
The great American revivals on the frontier in the early 1800's were focused on man's experience, feelings, and emotions. It was not so much the established churches leading out in these efforts but rather grass root Methodists and Baptists. Later, as these joined the ranks of mainline churches and became more respectable, Nazarene, Holiness, and Pentecostal Churches began appearing and growing under the umbrella of American Protestantism.
God knows that it is in fallen man's nature to seek the lowest common denominator: a subjective religion. As He winked at the ignorance of Pagan intellectuals at Athens (Acts 17:29,30), surely God has winked at the self-centeredness of the many good, sincere, honest, God loving people who are participating in, and leading out in preaching and practicing the man-centered gospel of American Revivalism. It is the false Roman gospel which came out of the Dark Ages.
When the true, objective, Pauline gospel of the Reformers is clearly proclaimed, professing believers must make a decision: accept the perfect righteousness found only in Jesus or have some "personal experience" as the focus of their religion.
Before the great judgment day, typified by the Day of Atonement in the Sanctuary services, there was the Blowing of the Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 29:1) which was on the first day of the seventh month, which was New Year's Day for the civil year. The trumpet was also to be sounded on the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Jubilee year.
Before the end of all things, the true believers will be in a great spiritual warfare.
Just as the gospel seed was sown by the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost, which was the former or early rain, the outpouring of the Spirit for the harvest in these last days is the latter rain (Joel 2:23; Jeremiah 5:24; Hosea 6:3; Deuteronomy 11:14; James 5:7,8; Acts 3:19,20).
In Acts 2:16, Peter tells us that the Pentecost experience was spoken of by the Prophet Joel. This was a preliminary and partial fulfillment of Joel, with the final and complete fulfillment coming in these last days.
Notice: "Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come" (Joel 1:15). This must apply to the Second Coming.
In Joel, God's people are called to arms!
BLOW THE TRUMPET IN ZION!
"Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all men of war draw near, let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say I am strong … Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe" (Joel 3:9,10,12).
Where are the mighty men? Asleep. Asleep in American Revivalism! Content with its self-serving message which focuses on man … man and his experience.
As you read these words … is God calling you to:
BLOW THE TRUMPET IN ZION!
Proclaim the true gospel of God's work of saving grace which is in Christ Jesus, which exposes salvation by a personal experience in man. Awake! Awake! Awake!