The last three “Feasts” of Israel occurred in the seventh month (very significant, numerologically) and were named (variously) “Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles.”

They of course primarily speak to Israel as a Nation, this being her God given “Calendar,” sequentially outlined in Leviticus chapter 23.

For example, Trumpets is briefly discussed in a single (short) Paragraph: “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of TRUMPETS, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.” Leviticus 23:23-25, the Focus of tomorrow’s Lesson, Lord willing.

But today I’d just like to preview these last three Convocations. “Holidays” for Israel, if you will allow me that word, “Holy Holidays.”

Israel needed a day of “Trumpets” because she was a scattered people. (God used the sounding of such a trumpet to gather His people together. Among other things.)

Israel needed the “Day of Atonement” because she was a sinful people. (This Feast definitely involved the forgiveness of sin! Bloodshed!)

And Israel needed the “Feast of Tabernacles” because she was a suffering people. And those days of Tabernacles restored a time of sweet rejoicing and victory to a saddened little nation.

Wow!

God knows what He is doing!

Join us in the morning.

By the way, Trumpets has not only a direct Message to Israel, but an indirect Message to us Gentiles who are born again as well.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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There is a noticeable “gap” between the middle (the middle of seven) Feast (called Pentecost) … and the Fall (Autumn) Feast (called Trumpets). Trumpets also being the first of three in that time of year!

The extended weeks between the third month and the seventh month of the Jewish Calendar.

With the Feast of Trumpets (logically) having to do with some element of prophecy, the “future!”

Meaning that the first four Feasts represent what are now “past” events in God’s great Plan for the ages.

Passover – Jesus Death! (History, He will never die again!)

Unleavened Bread – Jesus’ sinless Life, and by means of His mighty Power … our ability (as Christians) to live holy (unleavened) lives as well.

Firstfruits – Jesus Resurrection from the grave! A two thousand old Fact!

All past tense!

But the last three Feasts (Trumpets and the Day of Atonement and Tabernacles) all propose (promise) future Happenings in God’s grand Chronology.

So … we are currently living (dispensationally) between the “past” and the “future!” What a simplistic sentence!

But, and here’s my point today … what are we to be doing in this Interval? Spiritually and physically speaking?

Better yet, what were the Jews of old doing during that time period?

Answer: they were enjoying the harvest, the grain (Pentecost) that was being gathered! God’s blessings/bounty in the fields!

Back to us … we too are to be “bringing in the harvest!”

Winning souls to Jesus!

“Bringing in the Sheaves,” the old song reminds us!

Yes, there are some “tares” in the wheat fields, problems galore … but the harvest is still the issue!

Have you produced this kind of fruit (souls) for your Lord?

Have I?

We had best be diligent … one of these days the “trumpet” will sound!

Tell someone about Jesus soon!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Remember Luke 19:13 … “Occupy till I come,” quoted from one of Jesus’ lovely Parables.

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In reading Leviticus 23:15-22 (yesterday’s Text) we never found the word “spirit” (or “Spirit”) in its whole scope. Yet in the New Testament (Acts 2) the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is clearly present! In fact, the Day of Pentecost WAS the very Day the Holy Spirit was poured out upon (and filled) those 120 believers in that Jerusalem upper room!

“And when the DAY OF PENTECOST was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all FILLED with the HOLY GHOST …” Acts 2:1-4a

What’s the linkage here?

Well, the Old Testament Pentecost involved bringing in part of the “harvest,” the wheat harvest. With the “poor” and “strangers/foreigners” in mind! “Leave some for them, some grain” … Israel was commanded. Is this not a harbinger of what happened at the New Testament Pentecost? Souls (what a harvest, three thousand) were “brought into” the Kingdom of God! From all over the world! (“Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” Acts 2:9-11)

That’s one “link,” for sure!

Then there’s this.

At Pentecost the “new meat (meal) offering” given to God was to consist of “two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven.” With leaven, Leviticus 23:17?

Yes, and unlike the initial Meat Offering back in Leviticus chapter 2 (see that Lesson, which is archived here for you) … no “oil” or “frankincense” were required, or at least not mentioned!

But why leaven? Clearly a type or symbol of sin?

Because the newly constituted Church (born at Pentecost we have been taught) consists of men and women saved by God’s Grace, yet not yet sinless! Loaves offered to God, now belonging to God … that are still (in practicality) tainted with leaven, with sin. (And no oil or frankincense … because we do not please God fully, not in that leavened sense!) The specific Meat Offering in Leviticus 2 is a symbol of Jesus, totally pleasing His Father! This Leviticus 23 Pentecostal “new meat offering” is a picture of you and me who are saved, God’s harvest indeed, but not yet sinless! JESUS WAS SINLESS, ANOINTED WITH THE OIL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE SWEET FRAGRANCE OF INCENSE, TO HIS FATHER’S DELIGHT!

Wow!

And now for today, one more question, why two loaves?

And here I may speculate a bit. It’s this Preacher’s thought that the two loaves picture both Israel and the (Gentile) Church being saved! Both entities being part of the “harvest!”

Jesus is, after all, the “Saviour of the world,” John 4:42.

Folks, we are now living, in fact, in the long interval between Pentecost and Trumpets (tomorrow’ Lesson) … with souls (those leavened loaves) being given to God (being saved) day after day, both Jews and Gentiles!

Hallelujah!

And henceforth … for a little over two thousand years now … the dear Holy Spirit of God has been “at work” in our midst. Indwelling, filling every Believer in Jesus. Convicting sinners of their iniquity and wooing them to Jesus, to the Cross, to the shed Blood! And empowering God’s people for service! And much more …!

Thank God for Pentecost!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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There is no problem determining the “meaning” of the Pentecost Festival. It’s “typology” or “symbolism,” one might say. The New Testament’s “Day of Pentecost” surely supplies that information!

But Leviticus 23 gives us the specifics … “15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: 16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD. 17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD. 18 And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD. 19 Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. 22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.” (Verses 15 through 22)

“Pentecost” is primarily called by another name in the Old Testament. For example, in Deuteronomy 16:10 it is “the Feast of Weeks.” (In the King James Version: “And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.”)

And as you can tell from the lengthy Bible Paragraph above, it involved bringing “bread” (two loaves) unto the Lord, but here it is baked bread! So it happens (during the year) at the coming in of the wheat harvest. (Seven weeks earlier at the “Feast of Firstfruits” the barley harvest was involved. In Israel barley ripened sooner than wheat.)

One can tell how important “Pentecost” was to the Lord because of all the attending Offerings that were to accompany those two loaves!

A new “meat offering,” verse 16.

Then seven lambs, one young ox (bullock), and two rams … as a “burnt offering,” verse 18.

Then “drink offerings,” still verse 18.

Then one little goat for a “sin offering,” verse 19.

Then two more lambs for a “peace offering,” verse 19.

Wow, this is impressive!

No manual work that day either, it is a day of rest and worship unto the Lord, verse 21!

And in harvesting that grain, to give unto the Lord … remember the poor! (This is actually part of the Pentecost legislation.) “When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger,” verse 22. (“Others” as in “whosoever will,” I think.)

This Day’s significance with the coming of the Holy Spirit will be discussed tomorrow morning, the Lord willing. In its Acts chapter 2 context, the Lord willing.

I have learned something this morning though … I had no idea how involved this Feast Day was! It is the only “middle of the year” Holy Day God gave Israel.

With three Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits) now in the past and three remaining (Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Tabernacles) … Pentecost was central!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

The Bible, what a Book!

The Psalmist was right … “Lord, Thy Commandment (Word) is exceeding broad.”

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We last saw “Firstfruits” as a picture of Jesus’ Resurrection. Thus a symbol of our resurrection as well! (John 14:19 … Jesus teaching about His coming Death and Resurrection: “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: BECAUSE I LIVE, YE SHALL LIVE ALSO.”)

Maybe the following verse here is even better at revealing this truth: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” 1 Corinthians 15:20

Now today … I’d like to share another Facet of Christian life portrayed in Firsfruits. And that would be the Ministry of the Holy Spirit!

In Romans 8:23 Paul clearly calls the Holy Spirit “the Firstfruits.” Here it is, King James Version: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the FIRSTFRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

Wow!

And this sweet Holy Spirit, Who is the “Firstfruits” of (good) things to come in our hearts … is the Guarantor of the “redemption of our bodies!” He is the very Forerunner of the glory we shall enjoy in Heaven forever!

This is even further assurance that Jesus is coming again … “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” Philippians 3:21 … where it is promised that my “vile” body will become a “glorious” body!

In my country way of describing this Blessing … the “joy” of the Holy Spirit you are experiencing right now is a foretaste (a pledge) of the coming joy of Heaven! (Paul in 1 Thessalonians 1:6 speaks directly of “the joy of the Holy Ghost!”)

And his divinely inspired “Holy Spirit as Firstfruits” list is even longer in Romans 14:17 … “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but RIGHTEOUSNESS, and PEACE, and JOY in the HOLY GHOST.”

Wow!

Spend the day, dear readers, communing with the Holy Spirit. He is the very Essence of God, anyway. In fact, He is God!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Paul used the idea of “Firstfruits” in one other New Testament way. “I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of STEPHANAS, that it is the FIRSTFRUITS of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) that ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth.” 1 Corinthians 16:15-16

Here Paul the “soul winner” believes Stephanas to be merely the “first” of many people (in Corinth) who would become Christians (or maybe by then had already become Christian) through his preaching of the Word of God, of the Gospel!

Tell others about Jesus!

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