Jesus and the Old Testament Feasts

Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy Feasts   

As I read through the giving of God's comprehensive body of laws in these three books, I am struck that all the feasts and festivals are laid out so precisely, and may be a picture of God's Plan of the Ages.

Leviticus 23:  

1. Passover & Feast of Unleavened Bread -- 1st Month, 14th Day (March/April) The Spring Feast.
2. First Fruits -- Early Harvest
3. Pentecost -- 50 days after First Fruits The Summer Feast.
4. Trumpets -- 7th Month, 1st Day (September/October)
5. Day of Atonement -- 7th Month, 10th Day (just 9 days later).
6. Tabernacles -- 7th Month, 15th Day (just 5 days after that) The Fall Feast.

Let's go over these again, in view of how they may relate to Jesus' earthly career, past and future:

• Passover -- Jesus Christ is our Passover, the Lamb is slain.
• First Fruits -- Jesus is our First Fruits of Resurrection (I Corinthians 15:20).
• Pentecost -- The Church began on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1).

(These are past; now let's look into the future:)

• Trumpets -- There was no sacrifice associated with this feast. But we read in I Corinthians 15:52 that "in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." So this may represent what Christians today refer to as "The Rapture" of the church.
• Day of Atonement -- Could this be the cleansing of the Earth that King Jesus will accomplish at the beginning of His 1000-year reign?
• Tabernacles -- (Possible scenario:) Rejoicing, we will celebrate our Divine King and His rule on this Earth while we live in temporary shelters as we build our homes and rebuild the cities in the land that is now scoured and cleansed.  

I don't know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future! These are the thoughts I had as I studied these chapters in the light of what God has given us in the New Testament. 

If anyone has any other (better?) ideas after doing their own study, I would like to hear them.   

Who Is God, Really?

When I consider who God is, what He must really be like, I get the image that God is all the oceans in the world. What He has chosen to reveal to us about Himself is a tiny little drop. And that itty-bitty drip of a drop is so deep, so infinite, that we can not comprehend it. It's like computer animation, getting closer to the drip until it appears huge, then entering into it and getting lost in the enormity and immenseness of it, and never finding the end, only continually going deeper and deeper.

And that's just one drop of all the oceans. And even this picture does not even come close to depicting who God is. He is bigger than all the universe; the whole universe exists inside Him.   

My Prayer for Compassion

Zechariah 7:9,10   

"...Show mercy and compassion to one another...In your hearts do not think evil of each other."

O my Father, give me Your ears to hear what You have said. Help me to understand Your ways, as they are not my ways. Give me Your eyes to see the bigger picture, beyond the confines of my own little world. Teach me the fuller knowledge of what You are doing in my life, the lives of those around me and in the world, that Your mercy and compassion would flow through me to others whose lives touch mine, and that my thoughts of them would not be evil or negative, but of hope and healing and a good future.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!   

Putting Myself In the Picture

Mark 5:21-43 

Jesus heals a sick girl and an older woman.  

When I put myself in the picture I see myself as one of the participants and imagine what I would feel, say and do in that situation.

As Jairus:  I was so afraid when they told me she had died! But Jesus immediately encouraged me, and when He healed her, I was overjoyed!

As the Woman:  My hopes had been dashed every time the doctors had something new to try, but none of them ever worked, for so long! Finally I heard about Jesus--I knew He would be able to heal me. But I didn't want to bother Him, or draw any attention to myself at all, so I thought if I could just get a quick hold on the hem of His robe . . . But He turned around and confronted me! I felt so ashamed when He called me out & I ended up confessing the whole story in front of the whole crowd! But He was so kind, and I felt completely healed and cleansed!

As the Girl:  I was so sick, I felt awful. My Dad was so upset, he left to find that Healer we'd heard about. I didn't have enough strength to hold on, no matter how hard I tried, and I slipped away!  But then when He took hold of my hand and called me, I came back, and I wasn't even sick any more!

As a Disciple:  Wow, what a day! Jesus just keeps on going, like the Energizer Rabbit! We're on our way to heal a sick little girl when He calls out some old woman who just touched His clothes, He knew she'd been healed quietly; then we find out that the sick little girl died, & I thought her Dad would freak out, but Jesus calmed him, and when we got to his house, it was weird, all these "mourners" started to laugh at Him! But then we went in, He took her hand, and she woke up! Wow, Jesus really does do everything well, and never loses patience, either.

There's one more person in this story that's not even mentioned:

The Girl's Mother:  I felt so stressed when my daughter got sick, I'd never seen anyone be so sick and get over it. My husband was so determined that this Jesus we'd heard about would be able to heal her, he took off to look for Him.  I tried to make her comfortable, but her fever was so high, she was burning up.  I turned my back for just a moment to dampen the cloth for her forehead, and she was gone! Since Jairus still hadn't come back, I had to go hire the mandatory mourners so we could have the funeral. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do.  

     Suddenly I heard laughter, instead of the wailing, and the mourners all left. Jairus came in, and he had Jesus with him, but I thought it was too late. Then Jesus took her hand, called to her, and . . . I was shocked! She sat up, alive! I don't know how He did it, but Jesus is not anything like what I would have thought He would be, He was so calm, gentle, and in control, I feel I can trust Him with anything!

As I apply this story to my own life, I want to walk with Jesus and watch what He is doing, there's never a dull moment with Him. I want to keep my eyes on Him all day, every day, and not wander off to the right or the left.   

Nourishing My Real Life

John 6

When Jesus insists that we have no life in us if we do not eat His flesh and drink His blood, then explains that the life is spirit, and His words are spirit; I think about eating food. I take a bite, chew it up, and swallow it, and that food is digested and becomes my body. That is the way I am to eat Jesus' flesh and drink His blood, spiritually. 

I will take a bite, a passage of scripture, and chew on it for a while--meditate on it, think about it, turn it over in my mind, research it, etc. Then when I am ready to accept that truth in its total entirety, with all its practicality and applicability to my life, my daily living and attitudes, then I'm ready to swallow it, and let it digest to become my life. That is what Jesus was talking about in that passage.

Some of His cuts of steak (the meat of the Word), even though they are very delicious and nourishing, seem to take a lot of chewing before I am able to swallow them.   

Fragrance or Stench?

II Corinthians 2:14-17

Thanks be to God,--A thankful heart & attitude.

Who always leads us--Continually guides our way.

In triumphal procession in Christ--As members of His body (His body parts) we have the victory over the enemy through His cross.

And through us spreads everywhere--Wherever we go, whoever we meet along the way.

The fragrance of the knowledge of Him.--We exude like a fragranced candle, the smell of Christ.

For we are to God the aroma of Christ--God smells the incense of Christ in us.

Among those who are being saved--Those who are turning toward God, being drawn to Him.

And those who are perishing.--Those who persist in turning away from God.

To the latter we are the smell of death;--The stench of rotting flesh, as they embrace death.

To the former, the fragrance of life.--The perfume of Heaven, attractive to those whose home is not of this world.

And who is equal to such a task?--Certainly not I! 

Unlike so many,--Some pastors and teachers, T.V. evangelists, etc.

We do not peddle the Word of God for profit.--We are not selling spiritual things for material gain or charging money for learning.

On the contrary,--Opposite to those who seek to earn financial gain for preaching.

In Christ we speak before God--Through the power of the Spirit of Christ, and fully accountable to God.

With sincerity,--Honesty, openness, truthfulness.

Like men sent from God.--As we are, sent out to you by God to bear His message; not out to promote ourselves.   

The Kingdom of God

Matthew 5-7  The Sermon on the Mount  

This sermon comes at the very beginning of Jesus' public ministry. He is presenting the rules and lifestyles of the Kingdom of God, and all the rest of His public ministry is based on this concept.

It begins with the Beatitudes, His Road to Recovery; then proceeds to outline what we perceive as very extreme righteousness: You've heard it said . . . but I say to you. It looks so extreme to us, because our culture has taught us that right is relative to how evil the wrong is around us.  He says to be angry with your brother is tantamount to murder, and to look lustfully at another is committing adultery in your heart. Why pay attention to the speck in another's eye when you have a two-by-four board in your own eye--it's all very extreme.  

But Jesus says we must strive to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect.  That's absolute. 

As human beings it is impossible to be that perfect, however hard we try. That's why Jesus came: to die. That's why He died: to pay our debt of sin. He had to be God to be the eternal Person who could pay our eternal debt in time. He also had to be human to qualify to pay our debt, to be able to take on Himself our sin-infested human nature, including every sin, from the least to the greatest, on the cross. 

When we admit that He paid our debt (my own debt I owe God for my sins) and let Him take our place on the cross, then God causes us to be born into His own family, with a new nature alongside our human one, powered by His own Holy Spirit. Then we have the power to say "NO!" to sin, and "YES!" to the right choice that we didn't see before.