biblical calendar – The Core of the Bible

Biblical Calendar: Unleavened Bread and Its Symbolism

The festival of Unleavened Bread symbolizes separation, sincerity, and provides a reminder of God’s deliverance.

Core of the Bible podcast #131 – The Biblical Calendar and Unleavened Bread

We have been reviewing the biblical calendar, and how it is filled with symbolism of the Kingdom and God’s relationship with his people. I believe it is as we maintain recognition of these days that we can be reminded of God’s, and our, purpose. These days become practical object lessons that point to the totality of God’s work among his people, and his presence in this world.

Last time we reviewed Passover; today we will be going over the second of the annual memorials: the week of Unleavened Bread. The narrative explaining this memorial is found in Exodus 12. Here we find the command to Israel to de-leaven their houses and eat unleavened bread for seven days during the year—the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Exodus 12:14-15, 17-20 – “This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute. You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off from Israel. … You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute. You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day. Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”

Yahweh says that this memorial is a remembrance of how “on this very day I brought your hosts out of Egypt.” Besides the narrative here in Exodus, Unleavened Bread is also mentioned in Leviticus 23:4-8, Numbers 28:16-25 and Deuteronomy 16:1-8. Each of these mentions seems to have a slight difference in emphasis. Here in Exodus, the focus is on creating an annual memorial of how Yahweh delivered their hosts from Egypt. In Leviticus, the emphasis is on the first and last day being holy days of rest with offerings of fire made each day during the week. The Numbers narrative goes into further detail on the daily offerings to include bulls, goats, and grain offerings throughout the week. In Deuteronomy, the focus returns to the week being a remembrance of how Yahweh brought them out of Egypt “in haste.”

In general Hebraic practice, the eating of unleavened bread would begin with the Passover memorial on the evening of the 14th of Nisan, the 15th was a sabbath rest, and unleavened bread would be required through the evening of the 21st, which was also a sabbath rest. These commands were enjoined with the severity of being cut off from Israel if they were not practiced.

Exodus 12:19 – “Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel.”

This demonstrates how the memorial of this time was to be universally recognized throughout the land, not just within each household, to where even resident aliens, those who were not Israelites, were to also be abstaining from leaven during this time. This universal observance would help to ensure the maintenance of the observance to future generations. Here we are, almost 3,500 years later, still discussing the significance of this observance!

IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

For believers in Messiah today, the recognition of this weeklong tradition stems from the mention of it within the apostolic writings of the New Testament. Not only is the practice mentioned within the gospels, it was brought out in a specific application by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthian congregation:

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 – Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Messiah our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

In this passage, Paul’s thoughts have been explained as enjoining believers to observe the week of Unleavened Bread. In reality, I believe he is using the traditional annual practice of Unleavened Bread that they would all have been familiar with to make a point about their pride in tolerance of sin. In the overall context of the passage, Paul is actually mocking their self-righteous pride by confronting their skewed perspective of sexuality (most likely influenced by the Hellenistic social scene) as “leaven which leavens the whole batch of dough.” Here is some of the wider context:

1 Corinthians 5:1, 9-11 – It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles — a man is sleeping with his father’s wife. … I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.

Paul seems to be making the point that even the smallest expression of “tolerance” of sexual perversion (according to God’s Torah) is like leaven that would begin to expand its way through the whole congregation. This is a great and useful analogy in which its wisdom is readily apparent. If leaven is likened to sin, then “unleavened-ness” is akin to holiness and righteousness. Paul seems to be analogizing how the sincere practice of God’s Torah and truth had the ability to overcome the “leaven” of unrighteous practices which were evident within the congregation.

Paul builds on a principle which was taught by Messiah, as well.

Matt 16:5-12 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Yeshua said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to perceive that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Mark 8:14-15 Now they had forgotten to bring bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

In these passages, Yeshua taught that the religious hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the political duplicity of Herod could be likened to leaven stealthily working its way through the pure dough of the righteous remnant, the lost sheep that he had been sent to call out from among the people of Israel. This is the same sense that Paul is using the analogy of leaven: as an insidious microbe that eventually encompasses the whole with its unrighteous influence.

Leaven in the Bible is simply a “spreading agent,” and while typically represented in the negative sense as we have just seen, it can also be a representation of positive influence. Yeshua was shown to have used the concept of leaven in a positive manner as an analogy of the Kingdom of God, illustrating how the spreading of the good news of the kingdom of God would be fulfilled throughout the world.

Matthew 13:33 – He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Luke 13:20-21 – Again he said, “What can I compare the kingdom of God to? It’s like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened.”

In this example shared by both Matthew and Luke, Yeshua appears to be sharing the inevitability of the Kingdom of God to become fully established.

Comparing both of these analogies, he seems to be illustrating how doctrines, both good and bad, have a way of working through the whole. A little bad doctrine, like that promoted by Herod and the Pharisees, can leaven all of the dough; likewise, the smallest spark of the gospel of the Kingdom of God can also work its way through the dough.

Once again, the Bible here presents another example of the duality of this life: hot and cold, light and dark, righteous and wicked, good doctrine and bad doctrine. Either one, like leaven, can continue to grow until it consumes the whole.

In Paul’s example, to refuse the perverted social tolerance of the day was to remain “unleavened” in the purity of sincerity and truth. In Yeshua’s example, to explore the Messiah’s expression of the Kingdom of God is to become leavened with positive doctrine. It’s not that these are contradictory teachings, just different emphases for the specific teaching at hand; both have merit from which we can learn.

“Bad” leaven has a way of unexpectedly influencing the whole; left to its own devices, a batch of dough will become leavened on its own, through its association with the air all around it. But in the Kingdom example, the woman specifically chose to add “good” leaven of the Kingdom to the dough, and it likewise consumed the whole. The key difference is that the woman intentionally added “good” leaven to the dough, while the “bad” leaven was simply absorbed from the atmosphere around it.

In a moment, we will see how these principles come together in the ongoing memorials of the biblical calendar.

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Closely attached to this week of Unleavened Bread is another annual occurrence known as Firstfruits.

Leviticus 23:10-11 – “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you and reap its harvest, you are to bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest. He will present the sheaf before Yahweh so that you may be accepted; the priest is to present it on the day after the Sabbath.”

While not another festival in and of itself, the day has significance in that the Israelites’ agrarian economy was at a standstill until the offering of the first sheaf of the barley harvest at the temple. In fact, the timing of the first ripe barley was one of the drivers of the start of the biblical calendar.

Exodus 12:2 – “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.

Exodus 13:3-4 – Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day when you came out of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, for the LORD brought you out of here by the strength of his hand. Nothing leavened may be eaten. Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out.”

The word abib means “green in the ears” as it relates to grain and crops. As each new year approached, it was customary in Israel to have trusted men go throughout Israel to check the condition of the barley (as the first of the spring crops) to see if it would be ripe within two weeks of the next new moon. If it was, that new moon was declared to be the first of the month Abib (which later came to be known as the month Nisan), the beginning month of the year, the month when the grain became green in the ears.

Only after the first sheaf was offered during the week of Unleavened Bread could full harvest proceed with the remainder of the barley crop. So the timing of this event was critical to the success of the overall harvest that year.

While being an important driver of the economy, the barley firstfruits is a minor notation within the biblical calendar, and not an official chag or feast in and of itself. The holiday that most Hebrews associate with Firstfruits is Shavuot: Weeks, or Pentecost. That is when the summer wheat harvest begins in full swing.

The principle of firstfruits in general has to do with honoring God with a primary offering, often considered the best, the freshest, or the strongest. It is closely tied to the principle of the firstborn:

Genesis 49:3 – “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength and the firstfruits of my virility, excelling in prominence, excelling in power.”

As for the offerings presented to Yahweh by the Israelites, the priest was to be the receiver of Yahweh’s firstfruits as his representative; this was also commanded for them since the priests did not have a land inheritance within Israel.

Deuteronomy 18:4-5 – “You are to give him [that is, the priest] the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and fresh oil, and the first sheared wool of your flock. For Yahweh your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and minister in his name from now on.”

However, within Christendom, the barley firstfruits during the week of Unleavened Bread has significance because of its association with the resurrection of Messiah. This comes primarily from the writing of Paul to the Corinthian congregation:

1 Corinthians 15:20-23 – But as it is, Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Messiah, the firstfruits; afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Messiah.

Here, Messiah is specifically listed as the firstfruits, using this firstfruits language to describe how the new resurrection life of all believers (those who belong to Messiah) will be as the fuller harvest that comes after the firstfruits have been presented to Yahweh.

The reason this resurrection firstfruits language is associated with the barley firstfruits is because that event takes place during the week of Unleavened Bread, “on the day after the Sabbath,” (Lev. 23:11). Since Messiah was seen alive on the day after the Sabbath of that week, this connection is typically drawn together.

APPLICATION FOR TODAY

Unleavened bread symbolizes separation, haste, vulnerability, and sincerity. It represents separation, as unleavened bread (while still bread) is distinct from other, regular bread. It also represents haste because it must be formed and cooked quickly to prevent the leavening process from starting. While full, natural leavening can take days, the leavening process can begin in as little as 20-30 minutes. This is how how temporary and vulnerable the condition of the dough is in its uncooked state. It is representative of how quickly the Hebrews had to leave Egypt when their deliverance was provided, and how vulnerable they were until they could be formed by God into the Kingdom people he desired them to be. In this sense, it can also be representative of believers who are separating from the worldliness around them, and how vulnerable they are to becoming consumed again by the things they just left, just as many of the Hebrews wanted to return to Egypt.

It is also representative of sincerity and holiness. According to both Yeshua and Paul, believers were to avoid the natural leavening of both corrupt doctrine and the natural social mores around them. Tolerance of false doctrine and unrighteous social practice have a way of ultimately consuming the whole.

But one cannot remain in an unleavened state permanently. In the annual calendar, Unleavened Bread is a week long observance that ultimately ends. The next seven weeks move toward the memorial of Pentecost or Weeks, an observance where the first harvest of the new wheat crops are brought to Yahweh in the form of two purposely-leavened bread loaves. It is believed that the Hebrews during the first Exodus received the Ten Commandments at that time. This suggests that the “good” leaven of the two loaves or tables of Commandments sets a baseline for Kingdom living.

Deuteronomy 8:3 …man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

In his parable of the Kingdom regarding the woman adding yeast to the dough, Yeshua encourages believers to not remain in an unleavened state, but to intentionally add the “good” leaven of the “right” doctrine (that which proceeds out of the mouth of God, the Commandments) so that the dough can be consumed with the right kind of leaven. In this way, the purity and sincerity of the unleavened batch can rise to become the Kingdom people God desires.

Firstfruits is representative of the freshest, strongest, and best being offered to Yahweh. Messiah certainly qualifies in all of those respects. But those attributes should also apply to our own offerings we bring before Yahweh. Are we truly offering the best of our time and resources (that is, our firstfruits) to Yahweh, or are we focused more on our own plans and desires and only providing him with what is left over?

Observing this weeklong memorial of these events with these principles in mind can revitalize our faith through reflection on our practice of these qualities in our lives. Is there a sense of urgency in our ongoing separation from the world, or have we become vulnerably complacent? Is the practice of our faith leavened with hypocrisy and duplicity or is it sincere and from the heart? Are we committed to only leaven our loaves with the “good” leaven of that which comes out of the mouth of God?

If we observe this week by avoiding leaven and eating only unleavened bread, that which sustains us (the unleavened bread) is a reminder to us that that which ultimately sustains us as believers is based on sincerity and truth. Additionally, reflecting on the firstfruits pattern of Messiah’s resurrection should provide us the confirming hope that he has truly overcome death for all of us, and at the appropriate time of our “harvest” we will be bearing fruit for him.

In my opinion, an annual memorial which causes us to contemplate sincerity and truth in our daily practice while providing us hope for a future eternal life cannot be overrated.

The Significance of Passover for Modern Believers

As the Lamb of God, Yeshua demonstrated he was not only the one who reconciled Jacob’s people, but who would also become the light to the nations.

Core of the Bible podcast #130: The Biblical Calendar and Passover

At the time this essay is issued, we are in the season of Passover. Why is this significant, and why should believers today understand the biblical calendar and the feast days?

Most Christians today do not recognize or observe the biblical feast days. This is due primarily to the fact that Christianity teaches that the sacrificial aspect of the rites conveyed in the Torah have been fulfilled in Messiah Yeshua. I do not disagree. But “fulfilled” does not mean “done away with.” I believe the Bible teaches that in Messiah, that which was a physical requirement for ancient Israel has become a spiritual principle for all time; more on that later.

But what I want to focus on first is how the biblical calendar is filled with symbolism of the Kingdom and God’s relationship with his people. I believe it is as we maintain recognition of these days that we can be reminded of God’s, and our, purpose. These days become practical object lessons that point to the totality of God’s work among his people, and his presence in this world.

The annual biblical calendar contains seven appointed times known in Hebrew as moedim, meaning seasons or appointed times. I believe the annual biblical holidays are the true appointments with God, the seasonal moedim that he has established for all eternity. These moedim focus on seven appointed times which are described as memorials or re-enactments to be used to keep God’s people focused on his will and purpose.

I also find it fascinating that God has placed these appointed memorials on the annual calendar in a way that can still be recognized today, even though worldly calendars and methods of timekeeping have come and gone in the millennia since they have been established. I believe this is why they are described the way they are in the Bible, and why we are still able to observe these appointed memorials with him.

How are we to observe them? Certainly we are not to sacrifice animals; as mentioned earlier all sacrifice has been fulfilled in Messiah. However, on these special days we can still gather together as his people to review the symbolism of those sacrifices to bring greater awareness to our understanding of our relationship with God. Just as a memorial service causes us to reflect fondly on the life of an individual who is no longer physically present, a biblical memorial should also serve a similar purpose of reminding us of its purpose which is now fulfilled in Messiah. After all, it is the symbol and memorial of supreme sacrifice which undergirds the gospel message of Messiah to the nations.

Whether it is through deeper fellowship and community among his people, as well as renewing our total devotion to him and consummation in his service, we can become serious about our faith by living it out as object lessons that others can see and learn from, as well. After all, as you may know from previous episodes, I believe that God’s Torah or Word is eternal, and therefore has lasting influence on those who approach the God of the Bible as his people. These should be as much a part of our doctrinal understanding as any other major proposition such as the study of who God is or the Kingdom of God.

With these foundational statements as an underpinning to our discussion today, let’s review the biblical appointed memorial of Passover.

THE HISTORY

The night of the Passover is one of the pivotal events in the entire Bible. The story is told in the book of Exodus. God had been pronouncing judgment on the nation of ancient Egypt by manifesting various plagues related to their false gods. The final judgment was designed as a response to the horrific practice of the Egyptians killing Israel’s male infants as a way of keeping their slavery in check so they would not overrun the regular population of Egypt. As a result, the final plague from God was a sentence upon the firstborn throughout the land. However, he instructed his people, Israel, to protect their firstborn by remaining in their homes with friends and family and sharing a meal of lamb or goat, placing its blood on their doorway. In this way, any firstborn within the camp of Israel would be protected by the blood of the substitute animal. After the destruction, Pharaoh would be compelled to let the Israelites leave. On that night, God would conclude judgment upon the idolatry of ancient Egypt and at the very same time create a nation of his own people, bringing them out from slavery to become his representative people on the earth into the land he had promised their forefathers.

The story of the Exodus from Egypt has been re-told annually through the Jewish Seder, a story-telling meal on Passover evening as a remembrance of this event. This had been commanded by Moses:

Exodus 12:24-27 – “Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that Yahweh will give you as he promised, you are to observe this ceremony [that is, a re-enactment of the offering of the Passover lamb]. When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?'” Then you will say, ‘This is the offering of Yahweh’s Passover; for he went over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he sent death on the Egyptians, and kept our families safe.'”

This was to later become one of the annual memorials that Israel was instructed to keep throughout the year.

Leviticus 23:4-5 – “‘These are Yahweh’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: Yahweh’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month…”

The term itself, pesach, means “to skip over, to leap over, to exempt”, and is used only of this offering in the Bible. It describes how God’s judgment upon the land “skipped over” the Israelites who conducted this ceremony. The word Passover in English seemed to be the closest translation of the Hebrew pesach, and has become the English name of this annual memorial.

The Passover also begins the week of Unleavened Bread, which was to be a reminder of the Israelites’ hurried departure from Egypt, as their dough would not have time to rise before they left on their desert journey. We will focus on that feature of the biblical calendar next time.

In Christendom today, Passover has significance mostly as the background story leading to the death and resurrection of Messiah, and has been superseded by the holiday now known as Easter. Saving the ancient origins of Easter for another essay, the reason this biblical holiday of Passover has significance for us today has to do with the representation of Yeshua as the Lamb of God. This Lamb of God concept forms doctrines relating to atonement, a subject which I covered over several episodes several months ago. If you haven’t listened to those, you may want to catch up on the details presented there. However, because of its extreme relevance to the Passover narrative, I will be revisiting some of those aspects that I discussed regarding the atonement at that time.

YESHUA AS THE LAMB OF GOD

John 1:29 – The next day John saw Yeshua coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Christians today typically read this verse out of its prophetic context, as they have been taught to view this as John the baptizer proclaiming that Yeshua was destined to die as a literal human sacrifice for everyone who would ever live in the entire world, satisfying God’s bloodthirsty justice and wrath against the sin of all of mankind since the rebellion of Adam. What is implied in this type of interpretation of this verse is theology that wouldn’t even exist until hundreds of years after Messiah. That is a lot of medieval theology packed into a single verse!

We should always do our best to keep things in their contextual and cultural habitat where they belong and to seek to understand Scripture in the way that the original audience would most likely have understood it. From this perspective, we find that John was more likely to have been referencing an aspect of Yeshua’s role that had been conveyed through a prophecy of Isaiah which, at that time, had already been taught to Israel for hundreds of years. As the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” John appears to have been referring not to the fall of Adam, but to a prophecy from Isaiah; specifically, that very famous passage in Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:5, 7-8, 11-12 – But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds…He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. … For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion. … After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities. Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

This whole passage is an allegory, not of a lamb per se, but of someone named the Servant. Isaiah began this allegory back in chapter 41. By the time the allegory reaches its apex, Isaiah is describing the Servant who submits to the will of God as being “like a lamb”. This allegorical “lamb” of God, the Servant of Israel, willingly carries the iniquity and bears the sin of Israel (i.e., “our” iniquities; “my people’s rebellion”) and those “many” who would be given to him as “a portion” (i.e., the “remnant”). By referencing this passage directly, John the baptizer squarely assigns the role of the Servant in this Isaiah passage to Yeshua as the Servant of Yahweh to the very Israelite people who have rejected him.

All of this tells us that the Lamb of God imagery here is not literal, but symbolic, representative, and allegorical. Isaiah says the Servant is silent “like” a lamb being led to slaughter or “as” a sheep to the shearer. Yeshua accepted the complicated role of fulfilling these prophetic passages by being the symbolic or representative, voluntarily submissive, lamb-like Servant on behalf of Yahweh’s new covenant with Judah and Israel, and all those from among the nations who would ultimately be joined to God’s people.

Jeremiah 31:31, 33 – “Look, the days are coming” — this is Yahweh’s declaration — “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…

Luke 22:20 – In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Romans 15:8-12 – For I say that Messiah became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers, and so that nations may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the nations, and I will sing praise to your name. Again it says, Rejoice, you nations, with his people! And again, Praise the Lord, all you nations; let all the peoples praise him! And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will appear, the one who rises to rule the nations; the nations will hope in him.

Isaiah 49:5-6 – And now, says Yahweh, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be gathered to him; for I am honored in the sight of Yahweh, and my God is my strength — he says, “It is not enough for you to be my servant raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel. I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

The Servant “Lamb of God” spoken of by Isaiah was indeed the Messiah, as proclaimed by John the baptizer. This willing “Lamb” would regain not only his own people, but would also become a light to all nations.

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PASCHAL LAMB

Since most of us are so familiar with the Lamb of God imagery conveyed by Isaiah, it is understandable how some of those same principles get pulled into our modern understanding of the Passover lamb. This is evident most notably because the Bible tells us that Yeshua was crucified at the exact same moment the Passover lambs would have been killed in preparation for the Passover memorial in Israel that year. Because our minds are primed to see these lamb sacrifices as being made for sin, we assume that Yeshua, as the symbolic Passover lamb, was sacrificed for sin.

However, we would do better to separate the Servant Lamb of God carrying the sin of his people that Isaiah spoke of as being distinct from the Passover lamb offering. The Bible teaches us that the real reason for the pesach or Passover lamb was not to be a sacrifice for sin, but to redeem the firstborn son in each family and protect them from judgment about to be poured out on the whole land.

Exodus 12:12-13 – “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

By killing the pesach, the ransom-lamb, and applying its blood to the doorway, the families gathered in each home were essentially protecting the firstborn male of each family; no one else was in danger of dying.

Remember what Yeshua said about himself:

Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

A ransom is not a “sin-payment,” but an exchange or substitution of one thing for another. In this case, the life of the lamb (symbolized by the blood) had been exchanged for the life of the firstborn. The rest of the family was not at risk of death; however, through being identified by the blood on the doorposts and sharing in the lamb-meal that was meant for the redemption of the firstborn, the entire community participated in the Passover deliverance and was set free from captivity.

In past episodes I have defined a ransom as “a price to be paid, a value to be given, for the changing of a foregone outcome.” In the case of the Passover lamb, the lamb was a ransom for the life of the firstborn male in each family. If the lamb’s blood (the evidence of its life, for the life is in the blood) was on the doorway, the household would be spared the tragedy of losing their firstborn son, the “foregone outcome” that the rest of Egypt suffered.

And here is the critical thing for us to understand: the Passover lamb has nothing to do with forgiveness of sin; it is all and only about ransoming the firstborn from death. The lamb served as a substitute, a “proxy-death” for the firstborn among the houses of Israel. The lambs were the price paid to save the firstborns’ lives. Hence, the life of each firstborn was ransomed from death by the price of the life of the lamb. It could be said that the firstborn of each family gained “life from the dead” by giving up the life of the lamb.

Exodus 4:22-23 – “And you will say to Pharaoh: This is what Yahweh says: Israel is my firstborn son. I told you: Let my son go so that he may worship me, but you refused to let him go. Look, I am about to kill your firstborn son! “

In the New Testament writings, Yeshua was identified with the paschal lamb, not only in the perfect timing of his crucifixion, but even in his followers’ teaching as explained by Paul:

1 Corinthians 5:7 – …For Messiah our Passover lamb has been slaughtered.

In this passage, Paul is using the Passover imagery here as he carries over the statement that Messiah was the ultimate Passover lamb for his people. Since the pesach, the Passover lamb, was known to have redeemed the firstborn from death, and Israel is clearly referenced in the Bible as God’s firstborn, then Paul is communicating here how Messiah ransomed or redeemed his people, just as he had said he would.

Matthew 15:24 – Yeshua replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Redemption has to do with being set free from a captive situation: an individual’s fate has been altered from one path (death/ongoing captivity) to another (life/freedom) through the redemption process. Through redemption, one can claim to have been rescued or saved from a particular fate.

During the original Exodus Passover, the redemption lamb had saved the lives of the firstborn who were protected within their homes by the token (sign) of the lamb’s life-blood on the doorways. As a result, all of the participants in the meal gained freedom from slavery in Egypt to become the nation of God, and representatives of his Kingdom on the earth.

SUMMARY

So we can see how the imagery of the Lamb of God language has multiple layers of meaning. In one sense, Messiah was the submissively lamb-like Servant who (representatively) took on (carried, bore) the iniquities of Israel and the remnant, and was therefore “cut off from the land of the living” on their behalf. That’s the Lamb of God aspect that John refers to in his gospel, harking back to the prophecy of Isaiah.

In another sense, Yeshua represented a different lamb, the Passover Lamb, which was to give its life, through its identifying blood, to ransom the firstborn (Israel) from judgment upon the land and to provide them freedom from slavery to sin.

These are two separate lamb analogies that tend to get run together in our theology of biblical concepts. The sin-bearing Servant of Isaiah who willingly dies “like a lamb” gets conflated with the Passover ransom-lamb. They are both lamb analogies, but they are different; they are both true symbolic representations of the work of Messiah, but with different emphases. The Servant was willing to die as a representative of sinful Israel before God. The Passover Lamb was a representative substitution, ransoming the firstborn (i.e., Israel) from judgment upon the land. These analogies are so closely aligned that it seems natural to blend them together.

Yeshua himself seems to identify directly with both analogies. As the Servant-lamb, he explained how he was giving his life to representatively bear their sin before God:

Matthew 26:28 – “For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

But Yeshua also identified his mission as the Passover-lamb, as we have just seen:

Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Additionally, the apostles can be seen using both allegories throughout their writings. In fact, Paul pulls both of these together in his epistles to the Romans and the Ephesians:

Romans 5:8-9 – But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Messiah died for us [as the Servant-lamb]. How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath [the Passover lamb].

Ephesians 1:7 – In him we have redemption through his blood [i.e., the ransom-lamb of Passover], the forgiveness of our trespasses [the Servant-lamb], according to the riches of his grace.

Both serve to illustrate deliverance from God’s judgment: one from judgment upon their own sinful disobedience and the other from God’s righteous judgment upon the land as a whole. They both point to Messiah’s specific ministry to Israel, showing how he was delivering them not only from direct sins committed under the first covenant and their ongoing slavery to sin, but he was also ransoming them from the destruction about to come upon the whole land.

And this is where Yeshua and his disciples got into political hot water with their detractors among the leadership of Israel. By speaking about a coming judgment of God, just like the one that had come upon Egypt long ago, they were using those examples of judgment and applying them to the nation of Israel in that day. They were essentially preaching that Israel in that generation had become as corrupt as ancient Egypt, and was about to be judged in a similar destructive way.

That’s what all of these warnings from John the baptizer, Yeshua and his disciples were about!

Matthew 3:7 – When he [John the baptizer] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Matthew 24:1-2, 34 – As Yeshua left and was going out of the temple, his disciples came up and called his attention to its buildings. He replied to them, “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down.” … “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place.

Acts 2:40 – With many other words he [Peter] testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation! “

So we see how the Messiah had come not only to offer deliverance to Israel from their sinful state before God, but also from the wrath of God over the whole land which was only decades away. Through Messiah, God was focused on teaching Israel that he was redeeming them, his firstborn son, as it were, and providing a way out from death and the coming wrath on their nation. Just like the Hebrew people of old in Egypt, by placing their faith in the true pesach, Yeshua Messiah, they (the firstborn) would be spared the wrath of God to be poured out on Jerusalem and their nation in their day. That was the message to them of Passover and the fulfillment of Yeshua as the paschal lamb.

But at the same time God was also teaching them that Messiah was the fulfillment of that faithful Servant prophesied in Isaiah, and that he would represent them in their sinfulness and willingly die on their behalf. Both of these lamb analogies came to pass, were fulfilled, in the person and work of Messiah.

And because this had become a matter of faith in the Messiah as the sent one of God, the way was opened to anyone who placed their faith in Messiah, and the redemption of Israel became the door through which God’s Kingdom could then spread throughout the world.

APPLICATION FOR TODAY

So, how does all of this lamb-imagery apply to non-Jewish believers today? Why should we have an annual memorial of something that seems to have applied only to ancient Israel? Since I believe God’s Torah or instruction is eternal, it follows that I believe these examples are still valid. I believe it is because of these ancient themes that we are able to grasp the significance of our faith in Messiah today. He came as a fulfillment of these things to demonstrate the reality of who he was to them. The historical fact that his predictions of the judgment of God upon Jerusalem came to pass within that generation legitimize his claims, and those of his followers, that he was also the Servant-lamb predicted by Isaiah hundreds of years earlier. He demonstrated he was not only the one who reconciled Jacob’s people, but who would also become the light to the nations. How could we disregard the very things which help us to understand his role within the history of God’s people, and his influence over all nations as God’s representative king?

As the Servant-lamb, Yeshua symbolically carried the sins of his people and willingly died on their behalf as their representative. As the representative Ransom-lamb, he voluntarily offered himself in order to give them life from the coming judgment and also set them free from their slavery to sin. Because this freedom and life was only available to them through faith in himself fulfilling these symbolic roles, this allowed anyone who placed their faith in Yeshua as the Messiah of God to likewise participate in the reconciliation story of Israel for all time. When he redeemed those who believed in him, they also became an eternal example of God’s faithfulness with his own people, the prophetic City of Zion within God’s Kingdom. Their light now shines upon each generation, inviting all who desire to partake of the river of life and the healing leaves of the tree of life to freely do so.

Revelation 22:1-2, 14, 17 – Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, … “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. … Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come! ” Let anyone who hears, say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life freely.

This is the good news of the Kingdom: anyone can come! All with circumcised (repentant) hearts can join in the annual memorial of the Passover meal and participate in the great liberation of God’s firstborn people! Because Messiah has redeemed Israel as an eternal symbol of God’s faithfulness with his people, we, too can have confidence in Messiah that we may, in like fashion, take the water of life freely and join with the redeemed in the Kingdom of God.

Well, as we wrap up for today, I hope there are at least a couple of concepts and ideas to encourage you to meditate on and to study out further on your own. Next time, we will investigate the week of Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits to see what we can learn from these calendar appointments within the Biblical year. I hope you will be able to come back and visit as we further review these concepts. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The Biblical Calendar and Yom haShemini, the Eighth Day

Eighth Day is just beyond the seven-day cycle of this Creation; it is new life in the day of eternity.

Core of the Bible podcast #120 – The Biblical Calendar and Yom haShemini, the Eighth Day

As you may know, in recent weeks we have been reviewing the fall festivals of the biblical calendar, as these podcasts are being recorded in that season of the year. Today is the final installment in this series, as we are about to review the last of the fall holidays known simply as the Eighth Day, or Yom haShemini.

Leviticus 23:39 “On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of Yahweh for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.
Numbers 29:35-38 ‘On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly; you shall do no laborious work. ‘But you shall present a burnt offering, an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to Yahweh: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs one year old without defect; their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bull, for the ram and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance; and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.
Nehemiah 8:18 He [Ezra] read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.

The Story

While the other annual appointed days on the biblical calendar have a historical story to go along with their background, such as the Passover event of the Israelites leaving Egypt, or living in Sukkot or Shelters for forty years as a reminder of the wanderings in the wilderness, the Eighth Day is related in the Bible only as a day of consecration, offerings, assembly, and rest. It has been viewed as joined to the seven-day festival of Sukkot, yet distinct from it as a separate appointment day. In Hebrew culture, it is known as Shemini Atzeret, a phrase literally meaning Eighth-Assembly, or gathering. Some relate the word atzeret to another root word for rest, or pause.

During the Second Temple period and the time of Yeshua, this appointment day became filled with traditions surrounding a water ceremony, asking for God’s blessing of rain for the coming year’s crops. Since it comes immediately on the heels of the great harvest festival of Sukkot, these new crops would begin getting planted after the conclusion of this celebration. However, if we look beyond these traditions and do a survey of Bible passages that mention the eighth day, we see that eighth days have thematic and symbolic significance.

In some instances, people, animals, and things are set apart or consecrated for God’s purposes on the eighth day.

Exodus 22:29-30 “…The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me. “You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. It shall be with its mother seven days; on the eighth day you shall give it to Me.
Leviticus 12:1-3 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: ‘When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, … ‘On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
Leviticus 22:26-27 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be accepted as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to Yahweh.
2 Chronicles 29:5, 17 Then he said to them, “Listen to me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place. … Now they began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered the porch of Yahweh. Then they consecrated the house of Yahweh in eight days, and finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.
Ezekiel 43:18, 27 And He said to me, “Son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh, ‘These are the statutes for the altar on the day it is built, to offer burnt offerings on it and to sprinkle blood on it. … ‘When they have completed the days, it shall be that on the eighth day and onward, the priests shall offer your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you,’ declares the Lord Yahweh.”

In other instances, the eighth day represents a day of cleansing from uncleanness.

Leviticus 14:1-2, 10, 23 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the priest, … “Now on the eighth day he is to take two male lambs without defect, and a yearling ewe lamb without defect, and three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and one log of oil; … “Then the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, at the doorway of the tent of meeting, before Yahweh.
Leviticus 15:13-14 ‘Now when the man with the discharge becomes cleansed from his discharge, then he shall count off for himself seven days for his cleansing; he shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in running water and will become clean. ‘Then on the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and come before Yahweh to the doorway of the tent of meeting and give them to the priest…
Leviticus 15:25, 28-29 ‘Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days, not at the period of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond that period, all the days of her impure discharge she shall continue as though in her menstrual impurity; she is unclean. … ‘When she becomes clean from her discharge, she shall count off for herself seven days; and afterward she will be clean. ‘Then on the eighth day she shall take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them in to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting.
Numbers 6:9-10 ‘But if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his dedicated head of hair, then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; he shall shave it on the seventh day. ‘Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting.

We can see from these passages that the eighth day has to do with the following themes and rites:

consecration or setting apart of the priests, firstborn and sacrificial animals, and circumcision of male infants (indicating a setting apart from the world)
ritual cleansing from impurities related to death and uncleanness
new beginnings at the completion of faithful obedience

In these aspects, the Eighth Day therefore becomes representative of cleansing and being set apart for God’s purposes. It is a day of new beginnings, where uncleanness involving blood and death is left behind.

Offerings

We also saw from the passage in Numbers that it is a day of offerings. In our previous review of Sukkot, we noted that there were sacrifices offered each day for the seven days of Sukkot, with the offering of a descending number of bulls each day until it reached seven bulls on the seventh day. This total number of seventy bulls sacrificed has been likened to each of the bulls representing each of the nations of the world besides Israel. However, when we reach the Eighth Day offerings, only one bull is offered for the remaining nation in the world, Israel. We have already viewed how the burnt offering or the offering by fire is representative of total consummation to the will and purpose of God, and this theme of national consecration ties in neatly with the themes of cleansing and being set apart, as already mentioned. It would have been an annual reminder of the unique purpose of Israel in being set apart as the light-bearers to the rest of the seventy nations of the world.

The Great Day In New Testament times

In the time of Yeshua, traditions had arisen in Jerusalem that every night during the week long festival of Sukkot, the priests would draw water from the pool of Siloam and pour it out at the Temple altar the following morning. The festivities each night grew to include lighting huge golden candlesticks seventy-five feet high that could be seen everywhere, along with singing and dancing, rejoicing with the fruit and branches as we saw in our last study. The final water ceremony on Shemini Atzeret was the culmination of the week, where the priests would, in a grand gesture, pour the water out in the sight of all the people while pronouncing a blessing for abundant rains and fruitful crops in the coming season.

Yeshua capitalized on both the thematic nature and the traditional nature of the day when he proclaimed that he was the source of living water, a water that consecrates the believer and leaves death and uncleanness behind.

John 7:2, 37-39 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. … Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Yeshua stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Yeshua was not yet glorified.

Belief in Messiah was to be the ultimate consecration and cleansing, a spiritual setting apart that would become the unlimited source of new beginnings and eternal life for every generation.

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The Last Day

We can also see how the Eighth Day is associated with another term: the last day, “the great day of the feast”, as it is the last day at the end of the festival Sukkot. Being the great day, it has great importance among all of the biblical holidays. More significantly, it is the last day of all of the annual appointed times for the year.

Nehemiah 8:18 He [Ezra] read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.

If we carry this last day term forward into the gospels, we find it illuminates yet other several aspects associated with this day: final judgment and new life in resurrection.

John 11:23-27 Yeshua said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Yeshua said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Messiah, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”

Mary expressed a belief in an end-of-time type of resurrection; yet Yeshua gently corrects her to say that there was a type of new life that was available already at that time, and was to continue even beyond physical death.

John 6:39-40, 44 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” … “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
John 12:48-50 “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

The words that the Father commanded Yeshua to speak were to result in eternal life for those who believed; those who did not believe would be judged by those same words.

While many believe these last day references in John’s gospel speak of a culmination of all history on some prophetic last day of all time, if we follow the patterns of the biblical calendar, these are more likely references to two other aspects of the last day: a foretelling of the final judgment upon the nation of Israel, and a spiritual Shemini Atzeret for each believer in life and death.

A national ending

We have to remember that the Bible is a book written by Hebrew people, for Hebrew people. In their culture, judgment had to do with God’s disfavor, while life had to do with his favor. Yeshua proclaimed that the word which he spoke would judge individuals on the last day. This did come to pass as the nation was judged within that generation, demonstrated by the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. Remember, Yeshua had prophesied that judgment would be passed upon that very generation, those who were alive at that time.

Matthew 12:41 “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
Matthew 23:36 “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Also at that time, life was offered to faithful believers as they were joined with the righteous individuals of the past, to be united in God’s presence in that final assembly of the New Jerusalem forever.

Hebrews 12:22-23 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect…
Revelation 7:9-10 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

A personal ending

As the last day of the annual appointed times, there are no more; it is the termination of God’s appointed times for the year. The root meaning of the solemn assembly implies a restraining, or a retaining aspect. Jewish thinkers throughout the ages have interpreted this day as a yearning to prolong the last appointed time of the year by one more day; a longing to remain in God’s presence and the presence of his people before departing the festival days until the following year.

In like respects, man is appointed only one life, the timing and length of which is in God’s hands. Though we may desire to linger just a bit longer with family and friends in our community of faith, there comes a time where the offerings are complete, and rest has come. As the holiday comes at the culmination of the agricultural cycle, it provides hope for a new beginning in God’s presence at the culmination of this life, just like the new crops were to begin being planted after the harvest cycle was completed.

Application for today

Eighth Day is the grand conclusion of the fall festivals, but one that is tempered by its depth of meaning for this life and for eternity.

Yom Teruah is remembering the voice of God from Sinai; the Ten Commandments.
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is when God provides forgiveness for not obeying his voice. It is the covering of sin and its removal from the community of faith.
Sukkot is the trials of discipline and the provision of God during this temporary existence of striving to live according to his commandments while we reside in our temporary shelters.
Yom haShemini, the Eighth Day, the last and greatest day of the festival, is the day of rest. It is the day of entering the Promised Land and new beginnings, the Eighth Day just beyond the seven-day cycle of this Creation. It is new life in the day of eternity.

Viewed from this perspective, the Eighth Day takes on many layers of meaning. During this life, the day alludes to the eternal Kingdom of God which can be experienced in this reality, but not fully realized until death. It is just like the Eighth Day which is connected to, but distinct from, the seven days of Sukkot, those seven days representing our temporary dwelling during our life in this Creation. But on the eighth day, at the end of the wilderness journeys of living in sukkot, we take down the sukkah and enter the permanent residence in the new land.

Because it has to do with concepts described in the eighth day passages, the biblical appointed time of Yom haShemini also represents the principles of consecration, cleansing and new beginnings, while the command to remember the day includes aspects of offerings, assembly, and rest.

It speaks of our consecration from all that is worldly, and our cleansing from uncleanness in God’s sight. We can experience a new beginning by placing our faith in Messiah.
Being set apart by faith in Messiah, the individual is freed to provide the offering of themselves in purity and faithfulness to God’s instruction (torah) during this life.
It relates the assembling aspect of God’s people: believers sharing with other believers during this life, and also our gathering with a great assembly of all of the faithful who have gone before.
It denotes a time of rest, when no more work can be done, and the final sacrifices of this life have been wholly consumed.

The day of Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth Gathering, intimates that believers are to be joined with the Spirit of God in the company of the faithful after the pure offering of a righteous life, providing hope for renewed life in God’s Kingdom and presence for eternity to come.

Well, it’s my sincere hope that these studies on the fall festivals of the biblical calendar have brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The Biblical Calendar and Sukkot, the Festival of Shelters

We are still invited to recognize and take to heart some of the great truths of these festival days.

Core of the Bible podcast #119 – The Biblical Calendar and Sukkot, the Festival of Shelters

Having looked at Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement in our last episode, we now come to the third of the fall holiday celebrations: the festival of Sukkot, or Shelters.

Leviticus 23:33-36, 39-43 – Yahweh spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites: The Festival of Shelters to Yahweh begins on the fifteenth day of this seventh month and continues for seven days. There is to be a sacred assembly on the first day; you are not to do any daily work. You are to present a food offering to Yahweh for seven days. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you are not to do any daily work. … You are to celebrate Yahweh’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day. On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees – palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook – and rejoice before Yahweh your God for seven days. You are to celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; celebrate it in the seventh month. You are to live in shelters for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in shelters, so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.”

The Story of the Wilderness

During the Exodus, after the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, they were brought out into the desert wilderness on their way to the land that God had promised Abraham. After receiving the covenant of the Ten Commandments, they were to trust God and take the land.

Deuteronomy 1:21 [Moses said,] ‘See, Yahweh your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’

However, due to their fear of those dwelling in the land, they chose instead to rebel and to try to revert course back to Egypt.

Numbers 14:2-4 All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! “Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

Moses recounts what he told them at that time.

Deuteronomy 1:26-27, 34-36, 38 “Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God; and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because Yahweh hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. … Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed Yahweh fully.’ … ‘Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it.'”

Because they did not trust God but were stubborn in their hearts, God forced them to wander in the desert wilderness for 40 years until that rebellious generation all died off. However, he had promised to remain with them to guide and provide for them.

Exodus 25:8 – “They are to make a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them…”

While they were in the wilderness, God still provided food (manna) and water and whatever else was needed for them to survive. During this time, they lived in tent-like dwellings or shelters (sukkot). This was a long-lasting event that Moses encouraged them to recall with each generation.

Deuteronomy 8:2-5 “You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus you are to know in your heart that Yahweh your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”

The forty year wandering was a discipline process, readying the next generation to be faithful to inherit the land and everything that had been promised to Abraham and the patriarchs. Now, let’s take a look at some of the symbolism of these activities.

The Sukkot

To begin with, these events were to be remembered symbolically by living in sukkot for a week once a year to remind them of those desert wanderings and the provision of God. The sukkot or shelters served as a reminder, not only of the shelters they lived in during that time, but of the shelter and protection of God during the desert wanderings. For example, in Psalm 31, we are shown how God protects those who take refuge in him:

Psalm 31:19-20 – How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you. In the presence of everyone you have acted for those who take refuge in you. You hide them in the protection of your presence; you conceal them in a shelter [besukKah] from human schemes, from quarrelsome tongues.

The prophet Isaiah reveals a majestic vision of prophetic Zion or the Kingdom of God would have deep ties back to the provision and protection of Yahweh over his people during their desert journeys.

Isaiah 4:5-6 – Then Yahweh will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night over the entire site of Mount Zion and over its assemblies. For there will be a canopy [vesukKah] over all the glory, and there will be a shelter for shade from heat by day and a refuge and shelter from storm and rain.

Just as God demonstrated he could protect them for those forty years, he was revealing how he would provide that same shield and protection over his eternal Kingdom.

The harvest

Additional symbols of this week include the command to rejoice in that which God has provided. This is a harvest festival after all, sometimes called the Feast of Ingathering, as it is in the book of Exodus.

Exodus 23:16 – “Also … observe the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.”
Exodus 34:22 – “Observe … the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the agricultural year.”

The bounty of the fall harvest is brought in and shared among friends and family, kind of like an ancient Thanksgiving. Actually it is believed by some that the American Thanksgiving holiday was based on the festival of Sukkot by the biblically literate Pilgrims who were looking for a way to honor God with their survival in the New World.

Rest

Along with celebration in the provision of God is the theme of rest, with the first and last days being Sabbaths, or days of rest. The rest after a great harvest provides a deep sense of satisfaction and joy, as it is the completion of all of the hard work that has occurred throughout the spring and summer months. A seven-day festival indicates a complete cycle, just like the seven days of Creation. The fact that it takes place in the seventh month illustrates the sabbath-rest of the eternal kingdom of God, with God ever dwelling, tabernacle-like, in its midst.

Offerings

Each day was also to have an offering made by fire, which as we have seen in other studies as being representative of complete consummation in service to God. Even through the rejoicing in the hard physical work which has been completed, there was always to be a remembrance of who was ultimately responsible for their bounty, and their undivided devotion to his purposes.

On the subject of offerings, we find that the narrative in Numbers 29 regarding this holiday defines a very detailed and specific number of offerings that were to take place each day, inclusive of bulls, rams, lambs and goats, along with grain and drink offerings. Now this very specific numeration of sacrificial animals could be a whole study within itself. But what I find interesting is the sheer magnitude of trying to sacrifice, for example, thirteen bulls in one day, besides the 2 rams and 14 lambs and the goat. Additionally, the number of bulls diminishes each day, beginning at 13 on the first day, then the next day at 12, 11, and so on, until by the seventh day, they reach seven bulls in number. Therefore, when all the bull sacrifices are added up, you reach seventy bulls sacrificed over seven days, ending with seven bulls on the seventh day.

There are many extra-biblical references to the number seventy relating to the totality of the world. Even among ancient Hebrew oral traditions, seventy is considered the number of nations outside of the nation of Israel. At the Jewish site Chabad.org we can find the following explanatory quotes:

Rabbi Avraham Dov Auerbach of Avritch: “It is the task of the People of Israel to bring the glory of G‑d’s kingdom to all of creation, even to the nations of the world, and the offering of the seventy bulls on the festival of Sukkot is in order that the influx of G‑d’s kingdom flows to all of the seventy nations.”

Elana Mizrahi: “In the times of the Holy Temple, not only did everyone come to the Temple to celebrate and wave the lulav and etrog [the fruit and branches], but they also came to bring offerings to G‑d. Each day a number of animals were brought, including bulls. On the first day 13 bulls were brought, and each day one less bull was brought, totaling 70 bulls. These 70 bulls represent the 70 nations of the world.”

This is why, according to rabbinic sources, that only one bull is sacrificed on the Eighth Day of the festival, as it represents the sacrifice for the one remaining nation, Israel. We’ll talk more about the Eighth Day significance in our next episode.

From my perspective, considering there were seventy bulls over seven days, I was also reminded of Peter’s inquiry of Yeshua as to how many times we should forgive those who sin against us:

Matthew 18:21-22 – Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times? ” “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Yeshua replied, “but seventy times seven.”

Such an odd way of phrasing this famous response: “seventy times seven.” Now, I wouldn’t be dogmatic about this, but could it be that Yeshua was hinting at the responsibility of believers to mimic the totality of forgiveness that Yahweh annually offers the nations of the world in the seventy bulls over seven days? In this sense, seventy times seven would be indicative of complete forgiveness of everyone, something which also very closely aligned with the mission of Messiah in this world.

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The branches and fruit

Leviticus 23:40 – On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees – palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook – and rejoice before Yahweh your God for seven days.

Now this aspect of the holiday week has a certain meaning among modern Jews, as they believe that this verse relates to a specific group of “four species” of plants that they are commanded to worship with each day. These consist of the following:

Lulav: A ripe green, closed frond from a date palm tree.
Etrog: A citron fruit with a thick rind and a sweet fragrance.
Hadas: Three myrtle branches with leaves.
Arava: Two willow branches with long, narrow leaves

There is, in fact, ancient extra-biblical historical evidence that this rejoicing with the fruit and branches was a practice that, to outsiders, appeared to be a revelry similar to that of honoring Bacchus, the god of wine, or other pagan deities. The Greek philosopher Plutarch relates the following in his text Table Talk:

“First of all, he said, the time and character of the greatest, most sacred holiday of the Jews clearly befit Dionysus. For when they celebrate their so-called Fast, at the height of the vintage, they set out tables of all sorts of fruit under tents and huts plaited for the most part of vines and ivy. They call the first of the days Booth. A few days later they celebrate another festival, called openly, no longer through obscure hints, a festival of Bacchus. This festival of theirs is a sort of bearing of branches and of thyrsi [“rods”] in which they enter the temple carrying the thyrsi. What they do after entering we do not know, but it is probable that what they are doing is a Bacchic revelry, for in fact they use little trumpets to invoke their god as do the Argives at their Dionysia.”

Now while Plutarch may be interpreting the actions of the Jews in light of the pagan Greek gods, it is evident that there was a celebratory mood among the Jews during the time of Sukkot and the bearing of the branches into the Temple area. The waving of branches was an act of celebration, much like waving a team flag at a sporting event might be today. Today it is customary to wave these “four species” in a specific fashion each day of Sukkot, as this waving becomes be a representation of “rejoicing with the fruit and branches.” It is considered to be an exhibition of praise to Yahweh for his good provision in the land that he had promised them.

Waving branches as an act of celebration and acclaim should not be unfamiliar to believers in Messiah, as a similar practice was bestowed upon Yeshua as he entered Jerusalem on a donkey in fulfillment of prophetic texts:

John 12:12-13 – The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Yeshua was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him. They kept shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord – the King of Israel! “

Besides the celebratory aspect of the waving of the branches, this command in Leviticus comes on the heels of the previous verse which states to celebrate the holiday “for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land,” (Leviticus 23:39). This produce of the land would naturally include the fruit of the various fruit-producing trees of the land as well.

But the branches and fruit also have prophetic overtones for the future of Israel as God’s eternal kingdom, as well:

Hosea 14:1, 4-7 – Israel, return to Yahweh your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity. … I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for my anger will have turned from him. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon. His new branches will spread, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance, like the forest of Lebanon. The people will return and live beneath his shade. They will grow grain and blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

Messiah Yeshua captures some of this prophetic imagery in his parable of the mustard seed:

Mark 4:30-32 – And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to describe it? “It’s like a mustard seed that, when sown upon the soil, is the smallest of all the seeds on the ground. “And when sown, it comes up and grows taller than all the garden plants, and produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.“

Ultimately, he claims to be the very source of the true branches and fruit in which believers can rejoice for all time:

John 15:5 – “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

If this meaning is layered onto the celebration of Sukkot at this time of year, there is additional reason for rejoicing in the living and fruit-producing branches of the Kingdom of God, harvesting the nations of the world for Yahweh.

Living in the shelters

Leviticus 23:42 – “You are to live in shelters for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in shelters…”

It’s interesting how a distinction appears to be made between the native-born and those who are resident-aliens in the land. Only the native-born are required to live in shelters during the festival. By contrast, in the instructions for the Passover feast, it is stated that if the resident-alien desires to keep the Passover, they and their households have to be circumcised.

Exodus 12:48 – “If an alien resides among you and wants to observe Yahweh’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.

Here at Sukkot there is no such caveat. It’s almost as if this command is specifically for those descendants of the generation which wandered in the desert, as the resident alien would have no connection to that event, and no need for the discipline of heart that that generation struggled with. God was very clear when he told the Israelites the reason they should reenact this scenario of living in shelters for a week each year: “so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt…” (Leviticus 23:43).

It’s not that the resident-aliens could not learn from that event, just that they were not required to live in sukkot for that week, even though they were still invited to participate in the festivities. Moses had instructed them:

Deuteronomy 16:13-14 – “You are to celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days when you have gathered in everything from your threshing floor and winepress. Rejoice during your festival – you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, as well as the Levite, the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow within your city gates.

So this command to live in shelters appears to be more directed toward the physical descendants of that generation that was forced to wander in the wilderness, as an echo of their ancestral propensity toward stubbornness of heart. To live in shelters for a week would remind them to never again engage in that level of disobedience to the commands of God in establishing his Kingdom.

Probably the best applications of this biblical festival can be drawn from the Deuteronomy 8 passage we read earlier, a passage where Moses is recounting to the Israelites everything he has ministered to them over the past forty years in the wilderness before they enter the land of Canaan.

Deuteronomy 8:2-5

“You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years…”

They were to be reminded that even in their unfaithfulness and stubbornness of heart, God still chose to live among them, to lead them safely through the wilderness, and provide for all of their needs.

“…that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”

Through this process, God was determining what was really in their hearts, demonstrated by how faithfully they were to keep his commands. It is one thing to believe what is right; it is another thing to show how strong the belief is by what is done. The apostle James famously stated this truth:

James 2:18 – But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.

This disciplinary process of the desert experience was more for the Israelites to learn about their own hearts, and for them to demonstrate what it is they really wanted in their relationship with God.

“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh.”

The miraculous provision of food during their wilderness journeys was because God had promised he would take care of them. If he declared they would have food, they would have food, even if it was miraculous bread from heaven. But it was not the bread that they should focus on, but the faithfulness of God. The bread was a demonstration that they should honor his words because he is a faithful God. His words were the true source of their life.

“Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.”

There were no clothing stores and no medical facilities in that desert wasteland. Forty years is a long time to go wandering about in the same clothes, and to not have major physical problems due to all of that travel on foot. And yet, once again, God miraculously provided for them.

“Thus you are to know in your heart that Yahweh your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”

And here is where the rubber meets the road, where the real need for remembering those forty years would come into play. They were being disciplined because they had rejected God’s command early on to take the land. Because they feared the Amorites more than they trusted Yahweh, he caused them to wander in the desert until all of the stubborn generation died off. Only then could they enter the land of Canaan. Discipline is real, and hard to endure, but it bears fruit in the end.

Hebrews 12:9-11 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Proverbs 3:11-12 My son, do not reject the discipline of Yahweh or loathe His reproof, for whom Yahweh loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.

If the week of Sukkot was to be a reminder of those forty years in the wilderness, then these are the things that they were to be reminded of. It was to show them how stubbornness of heart has consequences, even though Yahweh was still willing to be faithful. Even in the most trying of circumstances, God was able to provide for them when they recognized they truly lived by every word that God had spoken. These were the lessons that were to be handed down to each generation at the annual week of Sukkot.

Second Exodus fulfillment and application for today

Just as the Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert wilderness, there was also a forty-year duration between Messiah and the destruction of the Temple and nation in 70 AD. This has been suggested to be a Second Exodus, a calling out of a faithful remnant from among the unfaithful of the corrupted religiosity of carnal Judaism which held its man-made traditions and rituals above the Word of God.

So if we are to carry the themes of the First Exodus with Moses into this Second Exodus beginning with the ministry of Messiah Yeshua, we can conclude the nation of Israel in the first century was being disciplined during this time for rejecting God’s promised kingdom which Yeshua announced during his ministry. Yeshua had taken them to the brink of the land so they could see the Kingdom of God for themselves, but they wavered in faith and rejected his message, just as Caleb and Joshua’s report was denied. They were choosing instead to hold tight to the principles of Egypt (the political world and their traditions) rather than recognize the presence of God among his people to lead them into the spiritual land of promise: Zion.

Yet, just as the protege of Moses, Joshua (whose Hebrew name is Yeshua), caused Israel to inherit the physical land, another Yeshua caused them to inherit the spiritual land. Those who were faithful, the disciples and those who believed in Messiah, were provided for with supernatural gifts of the Spirit of God, and with hope for the soon-coming consummation of the national promises. The faithful were brought into the kingdom, while that rebellious generation perished.

Even for believers today, just like the resident-aliens who were not required to live in Sukkot for that week, we are still invited to be involved in the memorial of this festival time of our spiritual ancestors and recognize and take to heart some of these great truths:

We can be reminded that if we are disobedient to God’s commands, God still provides for our needs while he may be disciplining us for our own good.
As a harvest festival, it teaches us to be thankful for all that God has provided for us each year, and to rejoice in God’s ongoing harvest of faithful believers everywhere.
As a time of rejoicing, we are to celebrate the establishment and growth of the vine-branches and fruit of the kingdom of God until it grows to fill the earth.

So as we view this seasonal moed or appointed time of Sukkot, we can catch a glimpse of its renewed nature and purpose in the symbolism of the core of the Bible parameters. Having received the Ten Commandments and the covenant of God, the Israelites were to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth in the Promised Land. Just as Yeshua taught, this was to be a Kingdom based on the structure of those Ten Commandments, as both a near and present reality. There were many dangers in the desert that the Israelites had to be aware of and avoid, so this was a life where vigilance would be required of those who sought to participate. The believers in Messiah would be set apart and holy, trusting God for all of their needs, just as their forefathers had to do in the desert wilderness, and they were to operate with God’s characteristics of forgiveness and compassion, demonstrating that they are the children of God.

Well, I hope these studies on the fall festivals of the biblical calendar are bringing you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The Biblical Calendar and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

Atonement is the method God chose to symbolize his forgiveness of past offenses; he no longer sees them once they are covered over.

Core of the Bible podcast #118 – The Biblical Calendar and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

Over the past several months we have been reviewing some of the bigger key doctrines in the Bible. However, as I mentioned last time, for the next several weeks we will be returning to the biblical calendar as we are, at the recording of these podcasts, entering the fall season of the biblical year.

Having looked at Yom Teruah or the Day of Trumpets in our last episode, we come to the second of the fall holidays in the biblical calendar: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. We read about this day in the narrative of Leviticus, and it is also touched on in Numbers, as well. The Leviticus passage explains the basic outline of the expectations God had for the people on this day:

Leviticus 23:26-32 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement [ha’kippurim]; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to Yahweh. You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before Yahweh your God. If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.”

Now, recently on this podcast we have looked at the concept of atonement from a theological perspective over two episodes, so if you haven’t listened to both of those yet, they may also be helpful in understanding the meaning of this day. In the discussion today, I would like to cover the different aspects of the actual biblical Day of Atonement activities and the significance of meaning as object lessons for believers today.

So let’s begin with understanding the emphasis of the passage as Yahweh relates the information to Moses and the Israelites. First of all, he says because it is the Day of Atonement, they should:

humble themselves
present an offering by fire to Yahweh
do no work

In the description of this appointed time, Yahweh emphasizes how seriously he wants the Israelites to view this day by saying, “If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all.” Clearly God wants them to ensure that they approach the day with humility and complete rest, or they would potentially forfeit their place in the community. With this kind of fierce emphasis on these specific things, I think we should review these concepts of humility, rest, and an offering of fire before we even discuss the ritual of atonement.

Humble Yourselves

Leviticus 23:29, 32 – “If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people…you shall humble your souls…”

The word here rendered as humbling of souls is actually a Hebrew word with several meanings. Teh’uneh comes from a root word anaw, which carries the idea of bowing down or stooping low; it is a representation of humility and affliction, here listed as humbling of soul, sometimes rendered as self-denial. Most of the time it is used in the context of describing the brutality of forced humiliation and mistreatment of others; however, in one famously referenced passage, we find it is used in the context of fasting.

Isaiah 58:5 – “Will the fast I choose be like this: A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to Yahweh?

While God in this passage is mocking the Israelites’ hypocritical attitude on their special fast days, when fasting is done for a sincere reason, it represents a denial of self, a self-humiliation of sorts, and is the primary method of demonstrating a true, inner repentance. This humility before God, when sincerely offered, demonstrates one who has recognized the errors of their ways against God’s revealed instruction.

Psalm 69:10 – When I wept in my soul with fasting, It became my reproach.
Daniel 9:3 – So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
Joel 2:12 – “Yet even now,” declares Yahweh, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning…”

By fasting on this day, God’s people were to symbolically demonstrate their true repentance from disobedience to God’s instruction, and recognition of the sacrifice that was to be provided for their forgiveness. It is also a rejection of worldly sustenance to demonstrate a complete yielding to the provision of God.

Yeshua also encouraged having the right heart attitude when fasting which also emphasizes the point of doing so:

Matthew 6:16-18 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Offering by fire

Each of the biblical holidays has its own set of specific sacrifices. In the episode on the biblical holiday of Shavuot or Weeks, we looked at what each of these different types of sacrifices means from a symbolic perspective, so I will review that briefly here.

A burnt offering represents total consummation in God’s service.
A sin offering represents that which is a substitute for us due to our disobedience to God’s torah.
The trespass offering was offered for unintentional or unknown sin.
A fellowship or peace offering represents thankfulness for God’s mercy and enjoyment of his relationship.
The grain and drink offerings represent our gratitude for God’s provision as firstfruits of all he has provided us.

While we may no longer be required to present physical sacrifices to Yahweh since Messiah fulfilled all of the Temple imagery, I believe we still honor Yahweh when we memorialize these sacrificial aspects in the spirit of these attributes.

Leviticus 23:27 – “…offer an offering made by fire unto Yahweh.”

Where the Day of Atonement is mentioned in the book of Numbers, it also mentions offerings of grain and oil:

Numbers 29:9 – “Their grain offering is to be of fine flour mixed with oil…”

Based on these aspects, we can see that the Day of Atonement encompasses an offering made by fire (or a burnt offering), an offering of grain and oil, and sin offerings within the atonement ritual itself. We learned that grain offerings represent gratitude for God’s provision. We will look at the sin offerings of this day when we review the ritual in a little bit, but for now let’s focus on the offering of fire.

The burnt offering represents a total consummation in God’s service. While other sacrifices provided food for the priests and sometimes participatory meals for the offerer (such as the peace offerings), by contrast the animal that was presented for the burnt offering was completely consumed until nothing was left. This imagery becomes self-evident as to its application for the believer: every part of those who come before Yahweh should be completely committed to him.

A Sabbath Rest

Leviticus 23:28, 30-32 – You shall not do any work on this same day… As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all…. It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you… on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.”

The command to rest on the Day of Atonement represents the ideal of cessation from worldly toil, an intermission, to focus on the importance of this day, much like the weekly Sabbath. Rest from work to observe the appointment days demonstrates placing God as a priority over worldly concerns.

Leviticus 19:1-3, 30 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I Yahweh your God am holy. ‘Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am Yahweh your God. … ‘You shall keep My sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am Yahweh.

When God speaks of keeping his Sabbaths, plural, I believe he is speaking not only about the weekly Sabbath but the annual ones, as well. Besides honoring Yahweh, I believe the annual Sabbaths contained within the biblical calendar all carry the same idea of being intermissions within the annual routine, especially the agricultural cycles, so that God’s people would remain focused on the object lessons within each season.

Here, especially on the Day of Atonement as a day of rest, a Sabbath rest additionally signifies that there is nothing for the individual to do on their own behalf; all of the work for atonement will be completed by the intermediary priest.

Yeshua also famously related that those who would come to him would find rest:

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

From these examples we can see how significantly God focuses on the heart of the believer in approaching this day. We should be sincerely humble, thanking God for his provision, delivering our whole selves to him, and understanding we are recognizing this day as an intermission, a hold or pause button in our busy schedules. If we lived in ancient Israel and we were to approach this day in this mindset and with these actions, we would be better prepared to understand the significance of what was about to take place in the courts of the Mishkan, or Tabernacle.

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Now that we have looked at the heart attitude that was expected on this day, we can now turn to the atonement ritual itself. As we have seen in our study on the Atonement, the root of the word atonement is the Hebrew word kaphar which means to cover over. Depending on the context, it could describe covering over an object with some type of coating, such as Noah’s ark:

Genesis 6:14 – “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover [kaphar] it inside and out with pitch.”

It can also have the meaning of looking past an offense, as something that is covered, similar to Jacob trying to amend for past behavior with his brother Esau:

Genesis 32:20 – and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.'” For he said, “I will appease [kaphar] him [Esau] with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”

Kaphar is used most regularly in the narrative surrounding the Mishkan or the Tabernacle, and has to do with offerings and sacrifices which provide a covering over of transgression and guilt in the people’s relationship to God:

Leviticus 6:7 “…and the priest shall make atonement [kaphar] for him before Yahweh, and he will be forgiven for any one of the things which he may have done to incur guilt.”
Leviticus 10:17 “Why did you not eat the sin offering at the holy place? For it is most holy, and He gave it to you to bear away the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement [kaphar] for them before Yahweh.”
Leviticus 16:16 “He shall make atonement [kaphar] for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities.”

Illustrated in this way, atonement is the method God chose to symbolize his forgiveness of past offenses. In a manner of speaking, he no longer sees them once they are covered over.

Psalm 32:1-2 – How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom Yahweh does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
Psalm 51:9-10 – Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

This concept of overlooking transgression is also a characteristic of God that he encourages us to practice with one another as we seek to conform to his image.

Proverbs 17:9 – He who conceals a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.
Proverbs 19:11 – A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, And it is his glory to overlook a transgression.

So, generally speaking, atonement has to do with a process of covering over offenses so that a vital relationship can be restored. An exchange takes place in which something of value (typically the life of an animal) has been provided as a substitute for the life of the one who offers it sincerely and with repentance. This demonstration of sincere repentance allows the opportunity for a change in the foregone outcome of disobedience to God’s torah or instruction. This act symbolically “covers over” the offense, and the relationship with Yahweh can be restored. The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, was that process for the whole nation of Israel at once.

In Leviticus 16, an elaborate ritual is outlined in which the High Priest is to offer sacrificial animals for various types of atonement for the temple, the priests, and the people. These offerings are all about entering into God’s presence in the Holy of Holies, the center-most compartment of the Mishkan or Tabernacle, where God chose to dwell among the camp of Israel in the wilderness. This is to illustrate to the Israelites that they could not just enter his presence carelessly, as Aaron’s sons had done and were killed for it. Through these offerings, God is allowing for substitutionary sacrifices for the sins of Aaron and for the people, their sins would be covered, and the national relationship with Yahweh would be restored.

At the center of this ritual is the double-goat offering: one of the goats was to be slaughtered and one was to be released into the wilderness. The goat that was killed was to have some of its blood poured out on the lid of the ark of the covenant which was in the holiest place of the Mishkan. By contrast, the live goat was not sacrificed; it was to have the High Priest lay his hands on its head, confessing the sins of the people. This goat was then led into the wilderness, never to return.

This day was considered the most sacred of all of the appointment days throughout the year, and, as we have seen, was to be marked as a day of rest from regular work, fasting in repentance and humility.

The Symbolism

This appointment day is rich with symbols, as it is central to the overall outworking of God’s will with his people. Let’s take some time to review these different aspects in detail.

The High Priest was the representative of the people to God. Since the people’s disobedience was keeping them separate from God, only he, as their sole representative, could bear their offering of the goat’s life-blood into God’s presence within the Mishkan. But he himself also had to be sinless, which is why he had to offer a bull for himself before representing the people.

The High Priest was also the representation of God to the people. It was his faithful actions which enacted the atonement and forgiveness which God was to provide for the nation.

The two goats represent a dichotomy illustrating the enduring nature of God’s forgiveness. One goat was killed; it had given itself in totality by giving up its life as a symbolic substitute for the people and its blood was poured out on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. The ark contained the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. So what this represented was that the pouring out of the life-blood of the sacrifice on the ark was symbolic of a renewal of life-commitment to follow the covenant made at Sinai. This life-blood of the goat was the substitution for all of the people of Israel.

The second live goat (the ez azal, or goat of departure) symbolically carried the sins of the nation that were confessed over it into the wilderness, away from the people, never to return.

This dual aspect of the ceremony is actually revealed in the Hebrew name for this annual ritual: ha’kippuRim, or “the atonements”, plural. This duality is critical for understanding the work of Messiah in relation to this day, as we shall see in just a little bit.

Since the live goat left the congregation alive, it was considered to remain a sin-bearer for the rest of its existence (or at least until the following year’s Day of Atonement), far from the assembly of the people. This live goat was to be led out to the eretz gezerah; the land of separation, never to return. This brings to mind the famous Psalm that is used of God’s grace in providing forgiveness for those repentant souls who have sinned against him.

Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

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Fulfillment in Messiah

Now let’s pull all of this rich symbolism into a representation of how Yeshua fulfilled these many symbolic aspects of this day simultaneously.

As the sinless High Priest representing the people, he was the only one authorized to provide the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of his people, Israel. He alone could enter the true holiest place in heaven based on the ultimate offering; his own life.

Hebrews 8:1-2 – Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, Messiah, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a servant in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle [Mishkan], which Yahweh pitched, not man.

As the High Priest also representing the interests of God toward men, he became the sole authorized intermediary between God and man.

1 Timothy 2:5 – For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Messiah Yeshua…

The goat that gave its life and the goat that bore the sin of Israel are both combined in the person of Yeshua. Messiah was crucified and died, just like the one goat that was killed. However, Messiah also rose to life and continues to live, just like the living goat that was sent into the wilderness to keep sin away from the congregation.

As the sacrificial goat that was killed, his blood, representing his life, can be likened in a symbolic way to the blood that was carried into the heavenly holiest place as the offering for the people.

Hebrews 9:11-12, 24 But when Messiah appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle [Mishkan], not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. … For Messiah did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us…

As the living ez azal, the departing goat sent off into the wilderness, through his resurrection he continues to live.

Now, as an interesting linguistic note here, when Tyndale first translated the Bible into English, since there was no English equivalent for the goat of departure, he coined the term “scapegoat” which is short for the “goat which escapes”. In modern usage, the meaning of this term has become synonymous with the purpose of that goat on the Day of Atonement: “one who is blamed or punished for the mistakes or sins of others”. Now a person who is identified as a scapegoat is typically forced into that role unwillingly, as blame is assigned to them, usually unjustly, by others. However, Messiah willingly accepted the duty of bearing the sin of others when he submitted to the will of his Father.

There is hardly a better description of the work of Messiah than this. While his sacrifice was once for all time, whenever someone places their faith in him, their sin is borne away. In this sense, he is eternally capable of being the sin-bearer, one who voluntarily chose to be identified with the sins of an entire nation, and any others who place their faith in him.

1 Peter 2:24 and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by his wounds you were healed.
1 John 3:5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins; and in him there is no sin.
Galatians 4:4-5- But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Romans 5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Messiah died for the ungodly.

Because the ancient Day of Atonement was a national event, the disobedience of the nation was completely resolved through dual atonements of the goat of sacrifice and the goat of departure. In Yeshua’s day, this same result was effected through his simple and profound faithfulness in submitting to the will of the Father. As Israel’s representative king, he willingly took on the sins of the entire nation at once, allowing the covenant of Sinai to be fulfilled before Yahweh, and releasing those who placed their faith in him from the effects of sin and death. All that has been required for his people is faith in the substitutionary gift of himself, just as faith in the substitutionary goats was required in the original institution.

The Balance of the Spring and Fall Holiday Cycles

As mentioned in the previous discussion surrounding Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets), this period of the fall cycle of biblical holidays is the corroborating balance of the spring cycle. In the spring pattern, God raised up Moses as a deliverer for Israel from slavery and the worldliness of Egypt. In the fall pattern, God raised up Messiah to deliver his people from slavery to sin and the worldliness of corrupted religion. Just as the lamb at Passover provided physical deliverance from death for the firstborn of each family, the Yom Kippur ritual provided spiritual deliverance from sin for the firstborn nation of God: Israel. As Yom Kippur is six months removed from Passover, it is the counter-balance of the annual cycle, harking back to the same redemptive themes of that event. They are both about God redeeming and delivering his people from both sin and death; two witnesses to the faithful work of God.

As Israel was to be a light for the rest of the nations, the patterns established in their history still teach us in the nations about God’s faithfulness today. Since the spiritual Kingdom was established at the time of Yeshua, and it is eternally growing until it fills the earth, we can apply principles learned by their example. The principles set down in their narrative allow us to draw conclusions about how God desires to interact with all of humanity for all time.

Application for today

Yeshua’s death was primarily the culmination of Israel’s redemption under the first covenant in their narrative that was completed in the first century AD.

Hebrews 9:15 – For this reason He [Messiah] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

However, the truth is that Yeshua’s example of giving himself for others paved the way not only for Israel, but for our deliverance from our own disobedient actions when we place our faith in him, as well.

1 Peter 2:24 – He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

The apostle Paul carries the imagery of sacrifice forward into the personal life of every believer:

Romans 6:3-7, 11 – Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Messiah Yeshua were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. … So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Messiah Yeshua.

We no longer bring sacrifices of representative animals before Yahweh to demonstrate repentance before him. As believers in Messiah, we must now demonstrate our sincere and ongoing repentance through the sacrifice of our “old self” as Paul says, the self that has acted in disobedience to God’s torah, his instruction. Only then can we live the new life in Messiah that God expects of us.

The Day of Atonement captures all of this symbolism within its elaborate ritual. When we approach Yahweh on this day in a true spirit of humility, represented by fasting, and when we offer ourselves as burnt offerings (that is, wholly committed to him), and when we honor him by putting a pause on our busy lives and resting, we can then be in the right frame of mind to appreciate the forgiveness he has provided to his people. Because Yahweh forgave his people by covering over their offenses through the representative sacrifices offered on that day, we, too, can be forgiven of our sin when we place our faith in his representative Messiah, the King of his people. This High Priest is the eternal intermediary between God and man. Through faith in his symbolically sacrificial death, our sin is carried away “as far as the east is from the west.” And as we follow Yeshua’s selfless example, we can lay down the lives of our old selves before God as we are now freed to live for him in the new and everlasting covenant in Messiah Yeshua.

The Biblical Calendar and Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets

On this day of Yom Teruah, we are to remember the voice of God, and to not refuse him who spoke on that day.

Core of the Bible podcast #117 – The Biblical Calendar and Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets

Lately we have been reviewing some of the bigger key doctrines in the Bible. However, for today and the next several weeks, we will be returning to the biblical calendar as we are, at the recording of these podcasts, about to enter the fall season of the biblical year. But before we jump into the first of the fall holidays, Yom Teruah, I would like to quickly recap why I feel it is imperative for believers today to understand the biblical calendar and the feast days.

Most Christians today do not recognize or celebrate the biblical feast days. Yet, the biblical calendar is filled with symbolism of the Kingdom and God’s relationship with his people. I believe it is as we maintain recognition of these days that we can be reminded of God’s, and our, purpose. Just as the recurring physical seasons bring annual holidays and traditions to remembrance, these biblical days become recurring, practical, object lessons that point to the totality of God’s work among his people, and his presence in this world.

The annual biblical calendar contains seven special times known in Hebrew as moedim, meaning seasons or appointed times. I believe the annual biblical holidays are the true appointments with God, the seasonal moedim that he has established for all eternity. They are centered around three central “feasts” or “festival gatherings:” Unleavened Bread, Weeks/Shavuot, and Tabernacles/Sukkot. These occur in the first, third, and seventh months of the annual biblical calendar.

Deuteronomy 16:16 – “All your males are to appear three times a year before Yahweh your God in the place he chooses: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread (first month), the Festival of Weeks (third month), and the Festival of Tabernacles (seventh month).”

Interestingly, these festival-gatherings follow the agrarian timelines of the early barley harvest (first month), the early wheat harvest (third month) and the ingathering of all of the remaining crops (seventh month). All of these festivals surround God’s provision for his people. These three annual gathering seasons focus on seven appointed times which are described as memorials or re-enactments which I believe are to be used to keep God’s people focused on his will and purpose.

I also find it fascinating that God has placed these appointments on the annual calendar in a way that can still be recognized today, even though worldly calendars and methods of timekeeping have come and gone. I believe this is why they are described in the Bible the way they are, and why we are still able to keep those appointments with him.

How are we to keep these appointments? Certainly we are not to sacrifice animals as all sacrifice and temple service has been fulfilled in Messiah. However, on these special days we can still gather together as his people to review the symbolism of those days to bring greater awareness to our understanding of our relationship with God. Whether it is through deeper fellowship and community among his people, as well as renewing our total devotion to him and consummation in his service, we can become serious about our faith by living it out as object lessons that others can see and learn from, as well. After all, as you may know from previous episodes, I believe that God’s Torah or Word is eternal, and therefore has lasting influence on those who approach the God of the Bible as his people. These should be as much a part of our doctrinal understanding as any other major proposition such as the study of who God is or the Kingdom of God.

When viewed from this perspective, the biblical calendar becomes an annual reminder of God’s dealings with his people, Israel, from beginning to end. While the story isn’t necessarily about us directly, we find ourselves in that story when we come to know Yahweh and his son, Yeshua the Messiah.

So, with that basic understanding restated, we can now begin to take a look at our focus for the next several weeks: the fall festivals. In this time, the biblical calendar now starts its second “cycle”, the autumn cycle. By its very nature, the autumn cycle is the antithesis of the spring cycle. Spring themes are about new beginnings and ripening crops. Autumn themes are about endings and harvests. Just as the end of the harvest looks forward in hope to the beginning of the crop season in the next year, so the end of the autumn cycle looks forward in hope to the beginning of existence in the next reality.

YOM TERUAH – TRUMPETS

The first of the fall holidays is known as Yom Teruah, which literally means “day of horn-blasts/shouts”.

Numbers 29:1: “And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no regular work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you.” This is how the day has come to be known as the Feast or Festival of Trumpets.

But the phrase used here in the Hebrew is Yom Teruah, “the day of blasting noise”, not necessarily a word describing trumpets, per se. Teruah is a word that describes a severely loud noise which a trumpet or horn, or even someone shouting would make. Taking the word back to its root meaning, it means “to mar (especially by breaking)” or figuratively “to split the ears with sound”.

Now, this is a curious development. If we review the parallel description of this day in Leviticus 23, it is described there as “a sabbath-rest, a memorial of “blasting-noise’, a holy convocation.” The day is described in that place as zikronteruah, a memorial of an accompanying blast or horn-like noise.

Leviticus 23:23-25 Again Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ‘You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to Yahweh.'”

Interestingly, today this simple instruction from Yahweh has been changed from its Scriptural meaning into what the Jews traditionally call Rosh Hashanah or New Years Day. On this day, there are the mournful blasts of shofarim, that is, trumpet-like horns made of actual animal horns, which are blown throughout the land to signal the coming of the new civil year.

If this is different than what was originally intended by Yahweh, then how did this come about? Well it seems that Jewish tradition of this day is based on a different passage of scripture which also has significant meaning but it’s different than that which is expressed as we have just seen in Numbers 29.

Leviticus 25:8-10: ““‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month.On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.”

This instruction specifically concerns the announcing of the year of jubilee which was to be done once every 50 years. If you have listened to the podcast on Shavuot or the Festival of Weeks, you may recall we discussed the symbolism of the Jubilee that was also represented numerically in the 50th day after Passover. However, because of this scriptural declaration of the Jubilee being counted during the fall festival, Jewish sages adopted the tradition of counting the civil calendar year from the first day of the seventh month in the fall while also simultaneously counting the religious calendar year beginning on the first day of the first month in the spring. As if their calendar based on both lunar and solar cycles wasn’t complicated enough already!

As can be seen in the Leviticus 25 passage, the horns were not supposed to be blown on the first day of the seventh month (which is when Rosh Hashanah is recognized today) but they were to be blown on the 10th day of the seventh month, which is the Day of Atonement. We will be looking at the significance of the Day of Atonement in the next episode, so be sure to listen in there if you would like to find out more about this pivotal day in the biblical calendar. So if Jews were to be consistent with what Scripture says, they should be proclaiming new year not on the first day of the seventh month but on the Day of Atonement which is the 10th day. And, they shouldn’t be doing it every year, only once every fifty years.

So, all of this is to say that the current traditional practice of Jews celebrating the beginning of the new year on the first day of the seventh month is tradition only and is not biblically accurate, although it is based in the writings of the Talmud. It is a strong and a unyielding tradition and has been celebrated among Rabbinic Judaism since about the second century A.D.

So if Yom Teruah or the day of trumpets is not about the beginning of the new year, what does it signify and why is it important for us to know this today?

Yom Teruah represents the themes of REMINDER and PROCLAMATION with loud noise. It’s a call to action: a preparation of repentance and a reminder to be obedient to the ways of God. This is to be a day which memorializes a loud blasting noise that could have potentially “split the ears with sound”. Is there such a day recorded for us in Israel’s history? When surveying the experiences of the ancient Israelites for an instance where there was a loud blast or trumpet-like sound of alarm that they should be reminded of, one experience shared by the entire nation stands out above all others: the presence of God at Sinai.

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Exodus 19:16-19 So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud shofar sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because Yahweh descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the shofar grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.

In verse 16, the sound heard that day is described as chazaq, meaning “mighty, sharp, loud”. In verse 19 it is said to have grown louder and louder, literally meaning it “traversed” the entire assembly, growing even mightier and louder as Yahweh descended in fiery smoke upon Mount Sinai.

In fact, this event is so pivotal in the history of Israel that even to this day this event at Sinai is the cornerstone of contemporaneous Jewish belief and identity. It is known throughout the world through the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. This demonstrates how that sharp, blasting, penetrating sound like a mighty shofar from 3,500 years ago has changed all of history and continues to influence the majority of the world to this very day.

In the Exodus narrative, we learn that the presence of God on Sinai with this shofar-blast was the occasion in which he himself spoke the Ten Commandments (or Ten Words) to the entire nation at once. Because the force and sound of the words were so frightening (perhaps so loud as to have been considered “ear-splitting”), the Israelites begged Moses, as their representative, to go and speak with God himself, and then bring the information back to them so they could be spared having to listen to God speak directly to them. God then delivered to him the Ten Commandments, which became the cornerstone of the covenant that the people made with God in that day.

The Symbolism of Yom Teruah

The piercing, mighty shofar-like sound is the central symbol of this day. The sound at Sinai was not the sound of a man-made trumpet as we might think of the musical instrument today, but the plaintive cry of a type of sounding instrument made from the animal horn of a ram, known in Hebrew as a shofar.

Exodus 19:16 So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet [shofar] sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

This shofar-sound was so penetrating, it shook the people to their core. In fact, the writer of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament refers to it as an event that even Moses himself feared.

Hebrews 12:18-21 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a shofar and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. … And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”

On this annual appointment day, the shofar is sounded as a reminder, a memorial, of the importance of God’s instruction (torah) which was summarized in the Ten Commandments. The trumpet represents God appearing on Sinai and announcing his standards of conduct for his covenant people. They were to be his physical kingdom representatives on earth, and this was the outline of their constitution. This Kingdom of God was about to become a physical reality on the earth, and they were expected to be obedient to his ways and to abandon the ways of Egypt and the surrounding nations. This horn-blast was a symbol of awe to remind them of God’s power and majesty, which was to have brought them to self-reflection and repentance.

In the same way, this day should be for us a memorial of that same event, as if we were standing at the foot of that fiery, quaking mountain, a shofar-like blast piercing through our bodies amidst the deafening peals of thunder at the awesome sound of God’s voice. Remember the voice of God; this is what the day is for. On that day he spoke his torah, his instruction, in the declaration of those ten phrases we have come to know as the Ten Commandments.

The spring festivals of the biblical calendar cover the events of the Exodus from Egypt to Sinai. It was there at Sinai that they received the charter of the Kingdom, setting them free from the tyranny of worldly slavery. The fall festivals pick up at that same event, not as a declaration of freedom, but as a reminder of God’s awesome power and majesty and as a call to repentance and renewal. The fall feasts then continue the Exodus story through discussion of atonement, and the miraculous provision of God through their wilderness journeys while they lived in tents, or sukkot. It culminates on the feast of the Eighth Day, signifying the arrival into the Promised Land, an eternal inheritance.

Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-25, 28-29 – For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest andthe sound of a shofar and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. … But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Yeshua, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. … Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Application for today

On this day of Yom Teruah, we are to remember the voice of God, and to not refuse him who spoke on that day. We are to be mindful of those Ten Commandments, be repentant of our failings in those things, and remain in awe and reverence of the might and all-consuming power of God.

Just like the earthly Kingdom that was established that day on Sinai, the eternal kingdom that began with Yeshua is continuing to become an expanding reality within each generation. We are expected to be obedient to God’s ways and to abandon the ways of Egypt (i.e., the world) in order for the kingdom to grow. We are to be God’s kingdom representatives on earth, following the patterns and principles of his instruction (torah) as our constitution of faith and practice.

The whole biblical calendar is a testimony to the faithfulness of God in bringing his people to himself. It is a type and shadow of the work of Messiah in leading his faithful remnant out of worldly religion into the eternal Kingdom of God. This is a process which continues to this day, and is prophesied to continue until it fills the earth.

So, as we view this seasonal moed or appointed time of Yom Teruah, we can catch a glimpse of its renewed nature and purpose in the symbolism of its biblical parameters. That ear-splitting shofar-blast of the voice of God on Sinai declared the eternal nature of the Kingdom of God summarized in only ten phrases. Just as Yeshua taught, this was to be a Kingdom based on the structure of those Ten Commandments, as both a near and present reality, a realm where vigilance would be required of those who sought to participate. These believers would be set apart and holy, trusting God for all of their needs, just as Yeshua did, and they would operate with God’s characteristics of forgiveness and compassion, demonstrating that they are the children of God.

Well, I hope this introduction to the fall festivals of the biblical calendar brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The Biblical Calendar and Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost

I believe the annual biblical holidays are the true appointments with God that he has established for all eternity.

Core of the Bible podcast #109 – The Biblical Calendar and Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost

In today’s episode, we are continuing our doctrinal topics but taking a slight detour from our study of the nature of God to discuss the biblical holiday of Shavuot, also known as Weeks and sometimes Firstfruits. Why is this significant, and why should believers today understand the biblical calendar and the feast days?

Most Christians today do not recognize or celebrate the biblical feast days. This is due primarily to the fact that Christianity teaches that the sacrificial aspect of the rites conveyed in the Torah have been fulfilled in Messiah Yeshua. I agree one hundred percent. But “fulfilled” does not mean “done away with.” I believe the Bible teaches that in Messiah, that which was a physical requirement for ancient Israel has become a spiritual reality for all time; more on that later. But what I want to focus on first is how the biblical calendar is filled with symbolism of the Kingdom and God’s relationship with his people. I believe it is as we maintain recognition of these days that we can be reminded of God’s, and our, purpose. These days become practical object lessons that point to the totality of God’s work among his people, and his presence in this world.

The annual biblical calendar contains seven appointed times known in Hebrew as moedim, meaning seasons or appointed times. I believe the annual biblical holidays are the true appointments with God, the seasonal moedim that he has established for all eternity. They are centered around three central “feasts” or “festival gatherings:” Unleavened Bread, Weeks/Shavuot, and Tabernacles/Sukkot. These occur in the first, third, and seventh months of the annual biblical calendar.

Interestingly, these festival-gatherings follow the agrarian timelines of the early barley harvest (first month), the early wheat harvest (third month) and the ingathering of all of the remaining crops (seventh month). All of these festivals surround God’s provision for his people. These three annual gathering seasons focus on seven appointed times which are described as memorials or re-enactments to be used to keep God’s people focused on his will and purpose.

I also find it fascinating that God has placed these appointments on the annual calendar in a way that can still be recognized today, even though worldly calendars and methods of timekeeping have come and gone. I believe this is why they are described the way they are, and why we are still able to keep those appointments with him.

How are we to keep these appointments? Certainly we are not to sacrifice animals; as mentioned earlier all sacrifice has been fulfilled in Messiah. However, on these special days we can still gather together as his people to review the symbolism of those sacrifices to bring greater awareness to our understanding of our relationship with God. Whether it is through deeper fellowship and community among his people, as well as renewing our total devotion to him and consummation in his service, we can become serious about our faith by living it out as object lessons that others can see and learn from, as well. After all, as you may know from previous episodes, I believe that God’s Torah or Word is eternal, and therefore has lasting influence on those who approach the God of the Bible as his people. These should be as much a part of our doctrinal understanding as any other major proposition such as the study of who God is or the Kingdom of God.

I would like to discuss all of these biblical holidays throughout the course of the coming year, but as I record today’s podcast, we are in the season of Shavuot or Weeks, which was recently completed. It is the festival which follows Passover and Unleavened Bread by seven weeks, hence its immediate namesake in Hebrew. The day itself falls on the day following the conclusion of 49 days from the barley firstfruits. This was technically the 50th day and became known by its Greek title of Pentecost, meaning “fiftieth.”

Many Christians may recognize Pentecost as the day the holy Spirit came upon the disciples in a powerful way, allowing them to speak in different languages to the assembled Jews in Jerusalem, telling the Good News about the Kingdom of God. It is defined by many as “the birthday of the church,” but I believe that definition is not only a misnomer about its purpose, but a misunderstanding of the nature of the day itself.

To gain a better grasp of this holiday, we need to go back to its ancient Hebrew understanding as it is related in Torah.

Leviticus 23:16-21 – “You are to count fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath [that is, seven weeks after the barley firstfruits] and then present an offering of new grain to Yahweh. Bring two loaves of bread from your settlements as a presentation [wave] offering, each of them made from four quarts of fine flour, baked with yeast, as firstfruits to Yahweh. You are to present with the bread seven unblemished male lambs a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to Yahweh, with their grain offerings and drink offerings, a fire offering of a pleasing aroma to Yahweh. You are also to prepare one male goat as a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a fellowship sacrifice. The priest will present the lambs with the bread of firstfruits as a presentation offering before Yahweh; the bread and the two lambs will be holy to Yahweh for the priest. On that same day you are to make a proclamation and hold a sacred assembly. You are not to do any daily work. This is to be a permanent statute wherever you live throughout your generations.”

Okay, so in this detailed passage we can learn several things. Shavuot was to be a special appointed day where no customary work was done, in which the people of God would gather and sacrifices and offerings were brought to the Temple. The primary offering of this day involves two loaves of bread as a grain offering of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. Along with the loaves are included burnt offerings, drink offerings, sacrifices for sin and sacrifices for fellowship.

How do these ancient sacrifices and offerings apply to believers today? Even though we don’t bring actual sacrificial animals before Yahweh anymore, I believe these offerings were designed by Yahweh to represent real aspects of our spiritual lives, and I think it’s important that we continue to recognize these. So let’s take a look at what each of these different types of sacrifices means from a symbolic perspective:

A burnt offering represents total consummation in God’s service.
A sin offering represents that which is a substitute for us due to our disobedience to God’s torah.
The trespass offering was offered for unintentional or unknown sin.
A fellowship or peace offering represents thankfulness for God’s mercy and enjoyment of his relationship.
The grain and drink offerings represent our gratitude for God’s provision as firstfruits of all he has provided us.

I think it becomes readily apparent how these emblematic sacrifices apply in the life of the modern believer. If we are to honor these appointed times throughout the year, I believe they should be memorialized in the spirit of these attributes.

There are many facets to the symbolism of the biblical moedim or appointed times, but one of the most glaring attributes relates to their numerical significance. As rich and enlightening as this can be to review, unfortunately, many people over the centuries have taken to a kind of numerology or study of biblical numbers which has become quite complex and frankly, unhelpful. Even the contemporary expression of Judaism has devised a whole system of numerology and mysticism known as Kabbalah, which is not at all what I am proposing here. I simply look for patterns in the Bible to see how they relate to and bring meaning to one another.

For example, the Bible outlines seven days in a week. Shavuot pertains to seven “sevens” of weeks. On the day of Shavuot, all of the sacrificial symbolism falls on the fiftieth day that occurs after the week of Passover and Unleavened Bread, both of which represent the miraculous rescue from the worldliness and slavery of Egypt.

Now it’s important to understand something here from a Hebraic perspective. In this worldly existence, seven is a number that represents this Creation. Why? Well, the weekly Sabbath was given to God’s people as a reminder that God is the Creator of all.

Exodus 20:8, 11 – Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: … For Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

In Hebraic understanding, the weekly Sabbath is the Sabbath of Creation. Everything in this Creation is governed by the limit of a cycle of seven. For example, a week is a cycle of seven days; there are seven appointed times throughout the year occurring within a seven-month time period. Even in the broader calendrical cycle of the Bible, every seventh year was to be a sabbatical year, a year of rest for the land.

Leviticus 25:1-4 – Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you, the land will observe a Sabbath to Yahweh. “You may sow your field for six years, and you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce for six years. “But there will be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land in the seventh year, a Sabbath to Yahweh: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.

Additionally, after seven “sevens” of sabbath years, or forty-nine years, the Israelites were to set aside the fiftieth year as a “Jubilee,” a sort of re-set for all economic activity, freedom for all slaves, and a realignment of all of the tribes with their heritage.

Leviticus 25:8-10 – “You are to count seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the time period of the seven sabbatical years amounts to forty-nine. Then you are to sound a trumpet loudly in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; you will sound it throughout your land on the Day of Atonement. You are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all its inhabitants. It will be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and each of you to his clan.”

Through these we can see how the Bible relates sevens of days, sevens of weeks, sevens of months and sevens of years, but the fiftieth is something special, something that points to realities beyond these sevens of this world.

I found this editorial comment in the Voice version of the Bible, relating the nature of the Jubilee in Leviticus 25:

“The year of jubilee is a far-reaching idea in the ancient world. In the 50th year, land that has been sold to pay debts during the preceding 49 years returns to its original owners. Israelites who had to sell themselves into slavery to pay debts are set free. All debts are declared “paid in full.” The jubilee is a regular reminder to God’s covenant people that every acre of ground, every soul belongs to God, not to those rich enough to buy them.”

So, the timing of the annual festival of Shavuot also has great significance mirroring that of the sabbatical years and the year of Jubilee which focuses on the centrality of Yahweh as Creator and Owner of all that exists. Shavuot, also being based on this principle of fifty, is a fulfillment of seven weeks (seven “sevens” of days) and then takes place on “the day after the seventh sabbath,” the fiftieth day. The remembrance, this regular reminder every year of the Exodus events on this fiftieth day represents a re-set, a new beginning, freedom from captivity and a restoration of all things to the God of the universe. In a spiritual sense, it points to realities beyond this Creation, to eternal principles that exist outside of the sevens of this world. To my way of thinking, this is a perfect illustration of what occurred on that very famous Restoration Shavuot two thousand years ago.

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Let’s take a closer look at that famous Restoration Shavuot or Day of Pentecost in which the holy Spirit came upon the disciples in a powerful way, allowing them to speak in different languages to the assembled Jews in Jerusalem, telling the Good News about the Kingdom of God. I said a few moments ago that this event is defined by many as “the birthday of the church,” and that I believe that this definition is not only a misnomer about its purpose, but a misunderstanding of the nature of the day itself.

You see, to say that is the birthday of the church is to imply that the “church” never existed prior to that time. What many call the “church” today (universally speaking) is called the ekklesia in Greek terminology, and it simply means “a called out assembly.” But the ekklesia was not “born” on that day, it had existed since the times of Moses. This is revealed in the speech of Stephen in his defense before the Sanhedrin.

Acts 7:38 – “He [Moses] is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. He received living oracles to give to us.”

If you check your King James or American Standard Versions of the Bible, you may notice that this verse here says that it was the “church in the wilderness” who received the living oracles. The translators were simply using the Greek word in a consistent fashion. But this highlights the point: if there was an assembly, something which could be called the church which was present in the wilderness with Moses, how could it have been “born” on Pentecost in the early part of the first century? I believe it can be shown that the ekklesia, the called out assembly, was always present in those through whom God was working at any given time in the biblical narrative.

For us to approximate a Hebraic understanding of this, it can be said that there has always been a faithful remnant among God’s people, even when the nation as a whole was steeped in idolatry and wickedness. For example, when Jerusalem was being attacked by Sennacherib’s Syrian army, Isaiah the prophet revealed how God would protect them:

2 Kings 19:30-31 – “The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. “For a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors, from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will accomplish this.”

When returning from captivity in Babylon with only the few thousand faithful who desired to reestablish the Temple, Ezra prayed the following prayer:

Ezra 9:8 – But now, for a brief moment, grace has come from Yahweh our God to preserve a remnant for us and give us a stake in his holy place. Even in our slavery, God has given us a little relief and light to our eyes.

Even the apostle Paul, in teaching about the faithful among God’s people in that day, illustrates this idea of the remnant with the story of Elijah:

Romans 11:2-5 – God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah – how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life! But what was God’s answer to him? I have left seven thousand for myself who have not bowed down to Baal. In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace.

This “remnant” of God’s people was the assembly at each point in Israel’s history, sometimes even down to one person and their family, such as a Noah or an Abraham, or a Jacob. God’s purpose has always been based on the assembly of those who are faithful to him, so the ekklesia throughout the ages has been comprised of those who feared and served Yahweh.

So to carry this mental understanding into the events of the first century day of Pentecost, we can see that same principle applying there: a faithful remnant, the disciples, faithful to the principles of the Kingdom which Messiah had taught them, were given miraculous abilities by the Spirit of God to testify to the truth of the gospel of the Kingdom to the rest of the Jews who had come from all over the world. This faithful remnant was not “born” on that day, but, in alignment with the Jubilee symbolism of the day of Shavuot, they were the ones proclaiming the eternal re-set, freedom from captivity to sin, and a restoration of all things through the Kingdom of God. In a sense, this was the ultimate Jubilee.

Just as the original ekklesia was comprised of those who were assembled at Sinai and heard Yahweh speak the Ten Commandments of his Kingdom which were written in stone, the renewed ekklesia on that famous Day of Pentecost proclaimed the principles of God’s Kingdom which were to be written on their hearts.

The connection between these events is further established when it can be shown that, at the receiving of the Ten Commandments, due to their rebelliousness and idolatry, three thousand people were killed.

Exodus 32:28 – The Levites did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand men fell dead that day among the people.

However, at the Restoration Pentecost, due to their obedience, three thousand people were added to the ekklesia.

Acts 2:41 – So those who accepted [Peter’s] message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them.

As another example, the big picture of the Bible story can be described in a similar type of parallelism. God established a physical Kingdom when he revealed his Ten Commandments to his assembled people at Mount Sinai. Those commandments were written in stone by his own finger. In the first century, God established an eternal, spiritual Kingdom when, through his Messiah, he revealed those principles to the to the assembled people listening to the Sermon on the Mount. These were spiritually based on the same commandments, but now they were to be written on the heart by God’s own finger, no longer in stone. These types of parallels and symbolisms are all through the Bible.

The apostle Paul, in the context of speaking about the comparison and contrast of Adam and Yeshua, states a principle that I believe carries over into a well-ordered understanding of the Bible.

1 Corinthians 15:46 – But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.

In the Bible, the natural things, people, and events were real things that happened to real people, just like those who heard the commandments at Mount Sinai, or those who heard Messiah preach his Sermon on the Mount. But I believe we are to look to those things as types, shadows, and examples of the spiritual realities that have become evident through the restoration of all things in Messiah Yeshua. The prophesied remnant was that first-century assembly, but with all things consummated by the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, believers from that point on up until today are simply members of God’s eternal, universal Kingdom. Since the age of natural Israel ended at that time, there is no longer a “remnant” ekklesia or assembly; it had been fulfilled in that generation in that time.

When Paul illustrated his teaching with stories from Israel’s wilderness journeys, he also emphasizes the purpose of learning and re-telling these stories.

1 Corinthians 10:11 – Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

That first century ekklesia or assembly of Messiah believers in the natural world was to become the touchstone for all future generations of believers as spiritual descendants. The ancient biblical ages, the ages of Abraham, Moses, and of natural Israel, were coming to a consummation in the soon destruction of the city in 70 AD. Beyond that event, the spiritual principles of the Bible would be cast forward into the future, lighting the way for all future generations of believers as the eternal Kingdom of God would continue to spread throughout the world.

So I believe that Shavuot has not been done away, nor have any of the other biblical holidays, but I believe they have been renewed and elevated in this great spiritual restoration accomplished by Messiah. Paul writes how even believers were to view themselves as having been completely renewed within their faith in Messiah.

2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

In Messiah, all things are new now, not just in the future!

So as we view this seasonal moed or appointed time of Shavuot, we can catch a glimpse of its renewed nature and purpose in the symbolism of its biblical parameters. That first-century restoration Pentecost was the fulfillment of the Jubilee symbolism, the fifty beyond the sevens and forty-nines of this world, declaring the eternal nature of the Kingdom of God. Just as Yeshua taught, this was to be a Kingdom based on the structure of the Ten Commandments, as both a near and present reality, a realm where vigilance would be required of those who sought to participate. These believers would be set apart and holy, trusting God for all of their needs, just as he did, and they would operate with God’s characteristics of forgiveness and compassion, demonstrating that they are the children of God.

Well, I hope this brief introduction to the biblical holidays and the restoration Shavuot or Pentecost brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, there is also a Core of the Bible virtual Bible study group that is hosted through the Marco Polo video chat app. It is designed to discuss the topics that we cover each week and to help people with responses to questions that may come up. If you are interested in joining the discussion, simply download the free Marco Polo app and email me a request to join the group at coreofthebible@gmail.com. I will be happy to send you a link to join the virtual Bible study group. You can also feel free to email me any of your thoughts or comments at that email, as well.

Trusting God for ransom and atonement

The ancient practice of Israel regarding the Day of Atonement is rooted in the depths of the Torah.

The ancient practice of Israel regarding the Day of Atonement (Yom haKippurim) is rooted in the depths of the Torah.

Leviticus 16:29-31 – “This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before Yahweh. It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute.”

Yom Kippur differs from Passover (Pesach) in that Pesach represents God redeeming his first born people from out of slavery, while Yom Kippur was meant to cleanse and purify sin from the nation. The redemption accomplished at Pesach set the people free from their forced obligation to unwillingly serve the harsh taskmasters of Egypt. God “paid the price” as it were so their indebtedness to slavery was removed and those who sought to drag them back to slavery were wiped out in the Red Sea. But at Yom Kippur, any collective sin that may have been unaccounted for throughout the year was removed from them through the symbolic act of a representative goat that was sacrificed and of a second live goat bearing their sin into the wilderness. As these acts were concluded, the people were to consider themselves cleansed and pure for service to God once again.

Both of these holidays on the biblical calendar balance each other out. One must be delivered from oppression in order to act freely. Yet, with that freedom comes the ability to act rebelliously, wherein a secondary cleansing process is provided to remove that potential sin from the community. In this way, there is no excuse before God as to why an individual might act in defiance to God’s word. He has provided the redemption price from unwilling servitude to sin (represented by Egypt/Pharaoh) and he has also provided the means of ongoing cleansing from inadvertent rebellious acts (due to freedom) through the dual goats at Yom Kippur. Both of these days represent the symbolic work of Messiah Yeshua for the nation of Israel and any who would also place their faith in him. Yeshua became the symbolic ransom of Pesach and also the ongoing cleansing of sin symbolized in the goat ceremony at Yom Kippur.

Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
1 Timothy 2:5-6 – For there is one God, [and] one mediator also between God and men, [the] man Messiah Yeshua, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony [given] at the proper time.
Hebrews 9:24-26 – For Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us. He did not do this to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Hebrews 7:25 – Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

On the day of atonement, one goat was sacrificed, while another had the sins of the nation pronounced upon it and was sent alive out into the wilderness to remove sin from the community. This duality was fulfilled in the imagery provided by not only the death of Messiah as the King of Israel, but also his resurrection to the right hand of the Father as the first-born son of God.

To the common believer in ancient Israel, it required trust in God to know that they were not only ransomed from involuntary solitude at Pesach, but also that their sins were removed from them at Yom Kippur. The work of God among his people has always been by faith.

Romans 1:16-17 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed–a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Messiah’s sacrificial obedience to the Father not only fulfilled these foreshadowing biblical types, but also demonstrated a life that was yielded 100% by faith to the purpose of God and his kingdom coming to this earth. Our faith in observing these days represents our commitment to God and our faith in him. Setting these days aside to reflect on the marvelous provision of God for his people is representative of our love for him.

Of course, there are no longer any actual animal sacrifices that can be (or should be performed). However, what remains is the potential for our own sacrificial obedience to his word. Observing biblical sabbaths revealed in God’s word is an act of faith, just as it was for the ancient Israelites. It should not be a matter of obligation or duty, but a desire from the heart to recount his faithfulness in these past events and to memorialize these events for our families and future generations within the ever-growing kingdom of God.

If you enjoy these daily articles, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

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Set apart remembrances

How the practices of God’s people continue to set them apart from the culture they live in.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of God’s people is in recognizing a calendar set in place by him. Most Christians today don’t think much about special religious holidays other than Christmas and Easter. Saving an evaluation of those holidays for another post, I would like instead to focus on the days that do set God’s people apart from all other nations.

Since my focus on this site is the message of the Bible reduced to its simplest form in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, it becomes clear that remembering the Sabbath, the fourth of those Ten Commandments, is one of those set apart times.

But beyond the weekly Sabbath, we find there are other Sabbaths mentioned which should also be remembered: specifically seven of them listed in Leviticus 23. They include the first and last days of Unleavened Bread, Shavuot (Pentecost), Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the first day of Sukkot (Tabernacles), and Yom HaShemini (Eighth Day). These are listed as Sabbaths, days of rest from regular work, and days of special offerings.

Now, let me be upfront and say that in a liturgical sense, it is impossible to “keep” these days in a Scriptural fashion due to the fact that they involve sacrifices to be presented at the temple, which no longer exists since all of the temple activities have been fulfilled in Messiah. However, I believe there is benefit in observing them and recognizing their meanings for the lessons they can provide to believers even today. I believe that is the primary point as to why God established them in the first place: to teach his people about their history and place within his overall plan for all people.

Many people believe that God’s calendar is one of a prophetic timeline that outlines his plan for the ages in a linear fashion, and that if we just know where we are in the timeline, we will know what to expect is coming next in God’s plan. However, my opinion is that the calendar is not unfulfilled, but has been completed. It now speaks to an everlasting memorial of how God has worked to deliver a people to himself and establish the kingdom of God almost two thousand years ago. By “observing” this calendar today, we honor God by recounting his faithfulness with his own people, and demonstrating the fulfillment of all things in his Messiah, Yeshua.

The calendar is broken up into two main times: the Spring moedim or appointed times (Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost) and the Fall moedim (Day of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Tabernacles). Each set of appointed times has a one-week festival exactly six months apart (Unleavened Bread in the Spring and Tabernacles in the Fall). The fact that they are spaced equidistantly throughout the year speaks not to a linear progression, but a cycle that is repeated but with a different emphasis. Just as Spring brings new beginnings, the Fall brings plentiful harvest.

For example, the week of Unleavened Bread recounts the miraculous departure from the slavery of Egypt. The week of Tabernacles recounts the wilderness journey where they lived in tents. The first is about deliverance, the second is about provision during their journeys. The first is about separation from worldliness (of Egypt), the second is about preparation for the Promised Land.

In like fashion, the holiday cycles memorialize not only the initiation of the nation of Israel, but its completion. How so? The Spring and Fall holidays also speak to the last days of the nation of ancient Israel.

In approximately AD 30, Yeshua was crucified at Passover, symbolically redeeming God’s “first born” nation. This began a “second Exodus” of the godly remnant coming out of unfaithful Israel in preparation for the Promised Land of God’s spiritual Kingdom. Forty years later, the temple was destroyed as Yeshua had predicted, ending the earthly priesthood once and for all, and ushering in the fullness of God’s Kingdom. The final celebration of Sukkot continues to this day, as more and more believers in each generation join the faithful remnant in the ongoing harvest for God’s Kingdom. The Yom Shemini (Eighth Day) marks the eternal dwelling of believers with God in his Kingdom.

Today I am focusing on one of those seven Sabbath days since the day I am writing this falls on its occurrence in 2022: today is Yom Teruah or the Day of Trumpets. This day memorializes the shouted announcement of the final judgment on that ancient nation.

Mark 1:14-15 – After John was arrested, Yeshua went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news! “
Luke 21:20, 22 – “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that its desolation has come near. … “because these are days of vengeance to fulfill all the things that are written.”

It simultaneously marks the joyous celebration of the faithful at the arrival of the Kingdom which Yeshua mentioned in parables:

Matthew 21:42-43 – Yeshua said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is what the Lord has done and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you [chief priests and Pharisees] and given to a people producing its fruit [the faithful remnant and all who would join them].”
Matthew 25:34 – “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

All of this was announced forty years ahead of its coming to pass. God prepared a people for himself to be his own who would inherit the blessing of Abraham through faith in his seed, Messiah Yeshua. The zera Yisra’el (the seed of Israel), the name of God’s Kingdom, continues to this day. Through observance and recognition of these memorial holidays we can teach and celebrate all that God has faithfully provided for his own people, and how he continues to prepare believers for arrival into his heavenly abode when we each reach the Eighth Day, the day of our eternity.

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The undeniable distinction of God’s people

As believers, we should check how much we blend into the background of this world.

Leviticus 20:26: “You shall be holy to me; for I, Yahweh, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine.”

This act of God setting his people apart from all other nations was decisive and clear cut. There was not any ambiguity about the requirements that he was establishing for his people. He provided them clarity on many of the main cultural characteristics which were prevalent in that day, as well as today. There was to be an avoidance of idolatry, which was an avoidance of essentially all of the mainstream religions of the day. They were to maintain distinctions based on the food they were to eat, their sexuality, and the types of clothing they would wear, and the calendar they would keep. All of these things played into how God was setting a standard that was in no uncertain terms to distinguish his people from all others.

To illustrate this, the word that is used to describe how they have been set apart is the same Hebrew word that was used in the act of Creation itself, and how God separated and distinguished some things from other things.

Genesis 1:4 – God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:6-7 – Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” God made the expanse, and separated the waters that were below the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so.
Genesis 1:14-15 – Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and they shall serve as signs and for seasons, and for days and years; and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
Genesis 1:16-18 – God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; [He made] the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

I don’t think anyone would have a problem telling the differences between the night and the day, or darkness and light. This is the level of distinction (i.e., holiness) that should be evident in God’s people of any generation, even unto this day.

God still calls us to be holy and set apart, not to walk in the compromised ways of the nations where we find ourselves. We should be attentive to the commands and rules that God has set in place since, as our Creator, he knows what’s best for us and what is also in his best interest and purpose.

1 Peter 1:14-16 – “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.'”

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