Old Testament

Leviticus 25:1-7
The Sabbath of the Land

The verses we will look at today are verses which require trust in the people of the land. They are being asked, even before entering into Canaan, to set aside one out of every seven years and not plant or reap anything at all. It sounds impossible to even consider.

It would be like the Lord telling any one of us that we were going to work six days and take off the seventh every single week. And then, we are expected to take off the entire seventh year as well. In essence, that comes out to almost two sevenths of one’s productive life not being dedicated to any work at all. Throw in the three mandatory pilgrim feasts, and more productive time is removed from the ability to earn. This would require real trust. It fits well with something a friend emailed me a while ago, and which he said I could use to open a sermon. He said –

“A long time ago (no, not in a galaxy far far away) I decided to go for a walk to the store and thought I’d take my sweet little niece along. 7-11 was only about a quarter mile away, so not too far for a 3 year old. She put her little hand in mine and off we went. We began walking and got about a house or two from home and she points to the neighbor’s house saying, “Is that the store?” I say “No, no honey. The store’s way over that way,” pointing to where the store was. We get a few more houses along our way and again she points to the house we’re passing by and says again, “Is that the store?” Again I tell her that the store’s way over that way, pointing in the direction of the store. Instantly this VERY clear thought comes into my mind – It doesn’t matter at all that she doesn’t know where the store is. I do know where the store is. And due to love for her and a sense of responsibility I’m going to make sure she gets there. Also what occurred to me was that my grip on her hand is so much stronger and more committed to getting us there, that I could have dragged her there if need be. What came to me next was that God knows where I am, and His love for me is going to get me where He wants me. … He knows where “the store” is. I’ve felt so terribly lost in life and couldn’t understand why. With my best efforts I kept ending up with ashes. Frequently, a whole lot. I’ve simply prayed “God, please get me to the store.” It wasn’t like some sort of magic wand that suddenly made the sun come up but it was a bit of comfort IN the storm. I hope this will bring hope and comfort to someone feeling as lost as I have. Lastly, always remember that you can get a real good root beer Slurpee at 7-11 for about a buck.”

Text Verse: “My righteousness is near,
My salvation has gone forth,
And My arms will judge the peoples;
The coastlands will wait upon Me,
And on My arm they will trust.” Isaiah 51:4

Israel was being asked to trust the Lord. As you will see, they failed at this, but had they simply trusted, all would have gone well with them. The Lord doesn’t make idle promises, nor does He impose impossible standards. He is ever-faithful, and He will do right to those who trust Him as they should.

But more than just a set of odd laws which hardly seem relevant to anything that would concern us today, the laws of Leviticus 25 point to the Person and work of Jesus, and to His future kingdom. Because they do, we can look at these verses and see that the purpose of Israel was more than just following the rules of a now obsolete law. They were being used to show us that even better things lay ahead.

Like the Feasts of the Lord, and like so many other things which have been detailed thus far in the Bible, there is a greater meaning in the words and verses which we so often too quickly skim over. Rather, as always, wonderful things are to be found in His superior word. And so let’s turn to that precious word once again and… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

The Sabbath of the Seventh Year

And the Lord spoke to Moses

The words, “And the Lord spoke to Moses,” indicate a new train of thought will now be introduced. It is a separate set of instructions entirely than that which has been previously presented. That whole section included the care of the Menorah and the Bread of the Presence, and it was followed up with the incident of blasphemy resulting in stoning to death the one who cursed.

Now, the Lord begins directions on the Sabbath of the seventh year, the Year of Jubilee, the redemption of property, and so on. Some scholars have commented on the error of placing this chapter here instead of placing it after the Feasts of the Lord. This is because the Sabbath of the seventh year, and the year of Jubilee are closely connected with the laws concerning the feast days.

But that is an illogical argument when considering how many things in the law correspond to other passages within the law, and which are not placed side by side. To attempt to align the law in this manner would completely destroy the harmonious flow which is revealed in a slow and methodical trip through it. We saw how well-placed chapter 24 actually was as we went through it.

Leviticus 25:1 begins a new Parashah, or reading of the law. In the synagogue, the Parashah is a weekly portion of Scripture which is read and commented on. Each Parashah has a corresponding passage from the prophets, known as a Haftarah. This Parashah’s corresponding passage is from Jeremiah 32:6-37. It is a passage which deals with the redemption of property, something which is described in this chapter of Leviticus.

^{1 (con’t)} on Mount Sinai, saying,

The Hebrew is b’har sinai, literally “in mount Sinai,” but meaning, “in the region of Sinai.” The tabernacle has already been raised, and it is from the Most Holy Place, not from on Mount Sinai, that the Lord speaks to Moses. This was explained in Leviticus 1:1 with the words, “Now the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying…” Moses would receive instruction from the mouth of the Lord who dwelt between the cherubim.

Mount Sinai is the same place as Mount Horeb, but the name Sinai is used because it is given in anticipation of the cross of Christ. Sinai means, “Bush of the Thorn.” The name of the location is given in connection with the redemptive workings of God in Christ which look forward to the cross. As the things which will now be relayed to the people look forward to His sacrifice, the name Sinai is specifically given. Christ is the anticipation of everything we will see in the laws to follow.

² “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them:

The instructions are not given only to Aaron, which would indicate words of priestly law. Nor are they given to the congregation in general, as if they were to be conveyed only to the elders who would then act upon them on behalf of the people. Instead, as is often seen, Moses is to speak to bene Yisrael, or “the children of Israel.” They are words of law, and they are words intended for all of the people to know and carry with them.

In America, the laws for the transfer of property are maintained by the government, but they are generally known to all of the people. If the details need to be looked into, they are ready, available, and awaiting anyone who desires to view them. This is the idea of saying, “Speak to the children of Israel.” Further, as they are under the Law of Moses, the term “children” is appropriate. With the coming of Christ, the law is fulfilled and annulled. Those in Christ are termed not children, but sons. We have the full rights and inheritances that Israel did not possess. It is for this reason that the instructions of this chapter are so carefully recorded.

Children need direction in the matters contained here. Sons, because of the reception of their inheritance, have no such need for these earthly instructions which only anticipated Christ’s completion of what they picture. This begins to be seen with the next words…

^2 (con’t) ‘When you come into the land which I give you,

The words here do not yet apply to the people. It is the fourth and last instance in the book of Leviticus where a law anticipates entry into the land. It will come into effect only at that time. However, they are words of guarantee. The Lord does not make this a conditional statement, “If I bring you into the land which I am thinking about giving you…” Instead, the Lord will bring them in, and He has given it to them.

And yet, of the adults who are alive at this time, only two of them will actually come into the land. All of the others will die in the wilderness. The actual intent is that they will continue to receive the law until the Lord has finished speaking, and then they will immediately journey towards the land. Their arrival should be marked in weeks, not years.

However, such will not be the case. Therefore, the words, “the land which I give to you,” speak of the nation of Israel, not merely the people whose ears happen to hear the promise. The land has been granted to Israel as a people unconditionally, but actually dwelling in it is conditional.

^2 (con’t) then the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord.

v’shabetah ha’arets shabbath l’Yehovah – “and shall Sabbath the land, Sabbath to Yehovah.” The Sabbath, or “rest,” every seven years is for the land, just as the weekly Sabbath is for the people. The weekly Sabbath reminded Israel that they were the Lord’s people, and were to rest in honor of Him, trusting in His provision from the week’s productivity. The seventh year Sabbath of the land was to remind the people that the Lord is the owner of the land, and they were to trust in His provision from the land. This Sabbath rest of the land was first mentioned to the people in Exodus 23 –

“Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, ¹¹ but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.” Exodus 23:10, 11

There are no special sacrifices or convocations designated for these Sabbath years, but it could actually be considered that the entire year would be a sacrifice. To not cultivate the land for an entire year would be an incredible leap of faith in the provision of God. The entire system to be announced is theocratic in nature. God is God, and the people were to trust Him as their Sovereign.

Because of this, He has directed each seventh year as a Sabbath to the Lord. As far as entry into the land, it is recorded in Joshua that the nation engaged in war for seven years before they were at peace. Therefore, this law now probably did not include those seven years. Further, it was another seven years before the land was wholly divided among the tribes. It is believed those seven years were also excluded. Therefore, if Jewish tradition is right, it was not until the 21^st year after their arrival that this law would have been fully enacted, if it ever was actually enacted.

One of the reasons for exile of the people, is that they failed to honor their Sabbaths, including this Sabbath of the land. Jeremiah 25:11 & 12 said that the people would be exiled for seventy years to Babylon. This is then repeated in Jeremiah 29:10, and then Daniel refers to it in Daniel 9. This reason for these seventy years of exile is explicitly stated in 2 Chronicles 36 –

“And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, ²¹ to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.” 2 Chronicles 36:20

Seventy years of Sabbaths comprises 490 years. Whether this is to be taken as literally that many missed Sabbath years, or whether it is cumulative for any and all that were missed, the one thing we do know is that no Sabbath-year observance is actually recorded in the Old Testament except in Nehemiah 10:31, a time after the return from Babylon. And that verse only promises that the Sabbath year would be observed henceforward. Nothing in Scripture after that is recorded as to whether it actually was observed or not. However, there are some extra-biblical references to this being conducted after the time of the return of the people from Babylon.

³ Six years you shall sow your field,

There was to be planting of crops for six years. The word “sow” here is zara, literally it is the sowing of seed. It is used when speaking of conceiving children as well, and so the sowing is in anticipation of a crop. A crop is in anticipation of a harvest. And a harvest is in anticipation of one’s daily bread. This cycle of sowing in order to have grain for bread was to be practiced for six years.

^{3 (con’t)} and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit;

Here is a new word, zamar, or “prune.” It will be seen just twice in verses 3 and 4 and only once more in Isaiah 5:6. It is identical in form to the word zamar which is used many times in Scripture, especially in the psalms, to indicate singing praises. The words probably meet in the thought of how it is used in Psalm 33 –

“Praise the Lord with the harp;
Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.” Psalm 33:2

There the words, “make melody,” are translated from zamar. The idea then is that as one plays, striking the instrument with his hands, so the hand also strikes at the vine with a sort of clipping motion. It can be assumed then, that when the psalms speak elsewhere of singing praises to the Lord, it is normally inclusive of the playing of instruments.

In the words of this verse, there is the prescription that work is to be done – “You shall sow your field; you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit.” This is to be accomplished for six years. It is a positive mandate to actively work the land, sowing and reaping, as it produces. The word “fruit” here is intended to include anything which the land produces, whether it is grains, fruits, or vegetables. The people were to work towards their rest.

It is, like the week leading to the Sabbath, a picture of man working six thousand years towards his rest during the millennium. It was to be a time of productivity and diligence while waiting for a time of change in what is to be done. The land was given to them and it was to be used as they pleased, and with the intent of producing wealth and prosperity.

⁴ but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land,

This is the sixth and last time that the term shabath shabathon, or Sabbath of solemn rest is used in the Bible. Four times it speaks of the weekly Sabbath, once for the Day of Atonement, and now here concerning the seventh year of Sabbath rest.

The land was to be left completely at rest every seventh year, just as the people were to be completely at rest every seventh day. According to Exodus 23:11, the reason given says, “but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.”

No work of any kind was to be conducted in an agricultural sense for the entire year. Instead it was…

^4 (con’t) a sabbath to the Lord.

shabath l’Yehovah – “Sabbath to Yehovah.” Although it goes unstated here exactly when this year of Sabbath rest commenced, it would have been during the seventh month around the same time as the year of Jubilee would commence each 50^th year. That will be seen in verse 9. Some traditions say the Sabbath year began on the first day of the month. Remembering that there are two calendars – the Creation and the Redemption calendar, this would mean it is aligned with the first day of the first month of the civil, or creation, calendar.

No matter what, the entire year was dedicated as a Sabbath to Yehovah. At then ending of this special year, the law was to be read to all of the people during the Feast of Tabernacles. This is noted in Deuteronomy –

“And Moses commanded them, saying: ‘At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. ¹² Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, ¹³ and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.’” Deuteronomy 31:10-13

What we are seeing here is a marvelous reflection of the history of man’s time on earth as he works towards the millennium. Each of the redeemed of the Lord has his own responsibility of sharing Christ – sowing and reaping. The care of the person and the field they minister in will reap according to their efforts. But, in the millennium – meaning the last thousand-year period where Christ reigns, there will be no need to labor in this fashion as in the past.

Rather, like the people of Israel ceasing their labors, the world will rest in the Lord and what He provides for the people throughout that final dispensation. And instead of hearing the words of the law, the people will have the law issue forth to them, directly from the throne of Christ from Jerusalem. Isaiah describes it –

“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
³ Many people shall come and say,
‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴ He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore.” Isaiah 2:2-4

In type, this “Sabbath to the Lord” is an anticipatory look ahead to the rest which is coming after the first six thousand years of man’s history on earth. In the final thousand years, often called the millennium, there will be a different order of things. Again, Isaiah prophesies concerning this millennial reign of Christ –

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
² The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

³ His delight is in the fear of the Lord,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
⁴ But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
⁵ Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.

⁶ “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
⁹ They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰ “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.” Isaiah 11:1-10

This millennial reign of Christ is also mentioned six times in Revelation 20. It will be a time when Satan is bound and the people of God will reign with Christ for a thousand years.

^{4  (con’t)} You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.

The words here, as explained already, include all cultivation of any kind, including fruit trees, vineyards, crops, and etc. No such work was to be done during this entire seventh-year period. And in the millennium, there will be rest on earth as Christ provides all that is spiritually necessary for His people.

⁵ What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap,

A new word, saphiyakh, is found here. It will be seen just five times. It comes from the word saphakh, which gives the sense of attachment, or cleaving to. Here is signifies that which fell out by itself, and then roots and grows of itself. Any such plant was not to be reaped by the owner of the land. In essence, the very soil of the earth was not really considered his own property, but it is the Lord’s, and its produce was left for any and all to benefit from.

The same word is used in the memorable passage when the Lord spoke to Hezekiah. Jerusalem was hemmed in by Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and in order to reassure Hezekiah that he would be delivered, a portion of the Lord’s words said –

“This shall be a sign to you:

You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,
And the second year what springs from the same;
Also in the third year sow and reap,
Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
³¹ And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.
³² For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
And those who escape from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Isaiah 37:30-32

The idea there is one of Hezekiah trusting the Lord’s word and accepting that His provision would be sufficient for the people. It is the same idea found here in Leviticus. The people were expected to trust the Lord and to not violate the precepts being laid down now.

^5 (con’t) nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, 

v’eth inebe nezirekha – literally it says, “and (the) grapes of your Nazirite,” and thus, “the grapes of your consecration.” It is the same word used to describe the Nazirite in Numbers 6. Just as the Nazirite was set apart, or consecrated to God with the sign of his consecration being hair which was uncut, so the vines were consecrated to the Lord, and remained uncut throughout the seventh year. Instead of being cut, all of the productive power of the hair, or the vine, was consecrated solely to the Lord.

^5 (con’t) for it is a year of rest for the land.

Rest means “cessation from labor.” This is the intent of the passage. The land was to be at rest, and no works were to be employed to bring about the produce of the land. Rather, the land would yield naturally apart from man’s efforts.

Everything about this seventh year is emblematic of the coming millennial reign of Christ. The, saphiyakh, or grain which falls and grows of its own accord is the natural growth of humanity who are spiritually nourished by the Lord, directly and without the need of man’s intervention.

The Nazirite, or consecrated vine, is one which has been left to produce on its own. It is set apart to God, and what it bears is solely the produce of the Lord. Again, man’s efforts are excluded. So it will be in the millennium. It is the Lord who alone will plant, water, and give the increase in that wondrous age to come.

⁶ And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you:

What this means is that whatever is produced of itself during the seventh, Sabbath, year was to be food for all the people. This seems contradictory to verse 5 which said, “What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap.” However, what that was saying is that no owner was to go out and actively harvest his land, reaping as they would on any regular year, as if the land was especially his own.

Instead, anyone – owner or stranger – could use the land without consideration of ownership. All had rights to the produce which grew of itself, rich or poor, native or stranger. The owner had done nothing to cause the produce to grow, and therefore, the owner did not have the sole right to reap it as a harvest.

In what is one of several anomalies found in the grammar of this chapter, not all of which I will highlight, the verses have been consistently speaking in the second person, singular. Suddenly, and for just one word, it switches to the second person, plural. That now immediately changes back to the second person, singular…

^6 (con’t) for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you,

Taken with the previous clause, they together would read, “And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you (all): for you (singular), your (singular) hired man, and your stranger (singular) who dwells with you (singular).”

This could be dismissed as simply going from the general to the specific. In other words, first it is speaking of the general populace, and then the words are directed to the individual who is in a specific relation to what is being spoken of. But if we back up to verse 2, it is speaks to the people in the plural. From verse 3 until now, it is in the singular. And then suddenly it goes to the plural for one word, and then back to the singular.

This isn’t unique in the chapter, and there are several such anomalies. In the next verse, it will say b’artsekha, “in your (singular) land.” But in verse 9, it will say b’kal artsekem, “in all your (plural) land.” As I said, I won’t go through every such instance, but rather than dismiss this, I would personally find that it is referring to a prophetic look to the Lord’s millennial reign, and His authority, rights, and responsibilities during that time.

If you look at the words in this light, it does appear to show that distinction as one would think of what will occur during the millennium. Until the work of Christ was (or even now is) understood, the grammatical changes require a lot of guesswork as to why they are made. But in understanding the dispensational model, and what Christ will mean to the world in the future, the changes seem to take on their proper sense.

Whether this is correct or not, the words are not well followed through with in most translations. Because of this, unless you study the Hebrew, there is no way to see that this is occurring, and a lot is missed that would otherwise excite the mind which longs for the secrets of this marvelous gift, given to us by God.

*⁷ for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food.

The livestock are animals that are generally those tamed by man, and which are kept by man. The beasts are more specifically referring to the wild animals of the land. Not only was the produce to be the property of any person, it was also to be left for any animal. No person or beast was to be restricted from gathering or foraging from the Sabbath produce. What the Lord provided was to be for all alike.

That was already seen in the prophecy by Isaiah where he mentioned the wild and the tame beasts dwelling together and eating together. It will be a time of peace on the earth where there will be abundance, and none will be afraid of what was once a source of fear.

Verse 7 ends our verses for today, but before we close, one point that should be considered is that the things we have been looking at, and the words used to detail this special Sabbath year, have been given to show us hints of what lie ahead in Christ’s future reign on earth. However, Israel was actually asked to live this out year by year. As I said earlier, there is no record in Scripture that this was even done one time, but it appears to be implicitly stated in Joshua 24. There it says –

“Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which He had done for Israel.” Joshua 24:31

There is no rebuke of Joshua for not meeting the law’s requirements, and so it is likely that he was faithful to ensure the Sabbath years were observed. At other times words similar to this are stated, and so it is likely that, even if temporarily, Israel would have observed this special Sabbath year, but due to the words given as the reason for Israel’s exile, it is certain that adherence to this would have been the exception rather than the rule.

Maybe the people simply distrusted the word of the Lord and couldn’t imagine that things would be as He said. Maybe at times they simply forgot or neglected the word of the Lord. But for whatever reason, they failed to obey this marvelous precept which He had given them.

And the funny thing is that on any year that they did obey, the Lord certainly would have kept his end of the bargain. They would have had plenty as promised, and they could have done other things at the same time. There are no restrictions on any other activities. If they wanted to take up basket weaving or learning to build houses, they could do so. In the Sabbath year, there could have been an explosion of technology as people were freed from the labors of the field and given the chance to invent, develop, and produce.

What I am saying is that it is the Lord who created us, and it is He who knows what is best for us. In taking one thing away, He will always provide something else. There will never be a gap when we trust in His provision. Rather, there will be something even better. It may not seem so at first, but through faithful obedience, each step will show us this, even to our final step. He will someday even take away our life itself. But in that, He will provide a life which is truly life. There are no lacks in God, except the lacks which we make when we fail to trust Him.

Faith in the Lord, means faith in His word. The two cannot be separated. We cannot say, “I have faith in Jesus,” and then logically say, “I don’t agree with that part of the Bible.” It is the Bible, and no other source, that reveals the Lord to us. If we refuse to acknowledge His word, we have a complete disconnect from who He is. That is why the word of the Lord is so very important. And that is why, in order to know that we are saved, we absolutely must accept what the word of the Lord says concerning salvation. It’s not difficult, but it is precise. And it is time for that message to be brought to your ears. Listen now, and we’ll be done in a sec…

Closing Verse: “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.” Amos 9:13

Next Week: Leviticus 25:8-22 Great stuff, I’m sure you will agree, my favored one… (The Year of Jubilee, Part I) (46^th Leviticus Sermon)

The Lord has you exactly where He wants you. He has a good plan and purpose for you. Even if you have a lifetime of sin heaped up behind you, He can wash it away and purify you completely and wholly. So follow Him and trust Him and He will do marvelous things for you and through you.

The Sabbath of the Land

And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying
There on Sinai, these words He was then relaying

“Speak to the children of Israel
And say to them: Yes, according to this word
‘When you come into the land which I give you
Then the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord

Six years you shall sow your field
And six years you shall prune
Your vineyard and gather its fruit
You can do this while whistling out a tune

But in the seventh year there shall be
A sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord
You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard
You shall do according to this word

What grows of its own accord
Of your harvest you shall not reap, please understand
Nor gather the grapes of your untended vine
For it is a year of rest for the land 

And the sabbath produce of the land
Shall be food for you:
For you, your male and female servants
Your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you too

For your livestock and the beasts that are in your land
All its produce shall be for food, so tasty and grand

O God, it is so good to come to Your word
To search it out for what You would of us expect
And in so searching we find our precious Lord
And in Him, only grace and mercy can we detect

For those who have trusted in Jesus
We have the surest hope of all
Magnificent, wondrous things He has done for us
Because upon His precious name, we did call

How can such love be, O God?
Surely it is exceeds heaven’s highest height
And so for sending Jesus we joyously applaud
Because through Him, all things are new –
———-Once again all things are right
Hallelujah and Amen…

Leviticus 24:10-23
Recompense for an Offense

Today we come to a story which seems to abruptly appear out of nowhere, and for no logical reason. The Lord has identified a host of things, the last three of which were the Feasts of the Lord, then the care of the lamps, and then the bread in the tabernacle. Now, suddenly, it introduces this passage. This is not unlike a similar account in Numbers 15. There, a person who violates the Sabbath will be introduced, and eventually executed. That appears right in the middle of laws and instructions as well. The placement of these is not arbitrary, but rather intentional.

In this case, feasts being followed by the care for the lamps and the bread, are detailed in order to show attentiveness to the Lord, day in and day out, week in and week out, and even throughout the year. But the name of the Lord is what identifies who He is. To defile the name of the Lord is to bring dishonor to Him. To allow this to be done and not punished on the first recorded offense would make any future punishment arbitrary and vindictive.

Therefore, either His name will now be sanctified among the people, or it would always be open to defilement upon their lips and in their lives. After this will come more calendar events, but this account must precede it in order for those events to be considered in their proper light. The Lord is God, and He is to be regarded as holy – daily, weekly, yearly, and throughout the years to come. Always and forever, the name of the Lord is to be held in the highest sanctity.

Text Verse: “Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. ² He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. ³ Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek. ⁴ And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. ⁵ So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.” Acts 16:1-5

Was the Lord’s name only to be kept in honor and esteem by Israel, among those who were Israelites? Or was the honor of the Lord’s name to be sacred among all who dwelt among Israel as well, even if strangers? The answer is today’s lesson. In Acts, Paul saw something new in his young protege Timothy. He saw a person who was in the same category as the person in our sermon verses today, and yet he was to now be a representative to his own people, Israel. How could they ever be expected to respond to an uncircumcised half-breed when they were the possessors of the law, and the defenders of the Name?

And so as an expediency, Paul circumcised Timothy. In this, it would make their ministry for Jesus, the Name above every name, more likely to succeed among the Jews. Such ironic twists flow like rivers of gold through the pages of Scripture, and they together form a marvelous tapestry of God’s unfolding redemption of the people of the world. Jew, Gentile… we are all accountable to the Lord for who we are, for what we do, and for how we conduct our lives in His presence. This is a truth which is to be found in His superior word. And so let’s turn to that precious word once again and… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Out of Egypt, but Not of Israel (verses 10-12)

¹⁰ Now the son of an Israelite woman,

Verses 10 & 11 of this account are the only time that the feminine adjective Yisreelith or “Israelite” is used in the Bible. The patronymic adjective Yisreeli, or Israeli, is also used here, and one more time in 1 Samuel. Thus, there is a stress on this connection which is being highlighted. The term is being used in opposition to “Egyptian.” It has been noted that the name of the mother is given, but that of the father is not, demonstrating that the son left Egypt with the mother, but that the father remained in Egypt. There is nothing to substantiate this. The name of the mother is given, as always, because it is relevant to the story. The name of the father isn’t. Further, it is that she is the Israelite, which is being stressed.

Whether the father is back in Egypt, or with the camp now, alive or dead, young or old, or whatever else – those things are irrelevant and are left unstated. Jewish tradition says that the father was the Egyptian slain by Moses in Exodus 2:11. Again, even if that was true, it is irrelevant to the story. The Bible is providing specifics to focus on, and so they are where our thoughts are to be focused.

^{10 (con’t)} whose father was an Egyptian,

v’hu ben ish mitsri – “and who son (of) man Egypt.” The contrast here is made. There is Israel, and there is Egypt. He was of mixed race, but it is through the father that one’s line is reckoned. He was not a circumcised Hebrew, just as Timothy was not circumcised, despite having a Jewish mother. His father was a Greek. Only when he traveled with Paul among the Jews as an adult was he then circumcised. Having said this, what can be inferred is that this person chose to remain identified with Egypt even after the Exodus. How can we know this? Because in Exodus 12, it said –

“And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. ⁴⁹ One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you.” Exodus 12:48, 49

Because of this, it is without a doubt, that the son did not get circumcised, and he did not observe the Passover. He was simply one of the mixed multitude who joined Israel as they departed. Otherwise, he would have here been reckoned as one native of the land. This is further seen with the next words…

^{10 (con’t)} went out among the children of Israel;

b’tok bene Yisrael – “among (the) children of Israel.” There are two different ideas of what is being said here. One is that it means he “went out of Egypt with the children of Israel.” The other is that he “went into the midst of the children of Israel,” meaning as a non-native, he came into an area of the camp where he was not allowed.

Those who were circumcised and accepted as a part of the congregation dwelt separately from the others. The latter seems the more likely. It is obvious that he went out of Egypt with Israel, but the opposition of the use of the terms Israeli and Egyptian seems to show that they were now identified as separate groups.

^{10 (con’t)} and this Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp.

The word for “fought” is natsah. It is generally used to indicate contention or strife. When Korah rebels against Moses in Numbers 26, this is the word used. We could think of a loud shouting match with fingers pointed and faces flushed. Again, there are several Jewish traditions about why they came to this point. It is not worth repeating them, because the Lord hasn’t told us.

To insert something extra to the account would only muddy what we have been given. There are times when extra-biblical additions can be helpful, and there are times when they are not. There is nothing from those accounts which helps us to understand the overall intent of the passage. It is simply the case that the two fought. One is only the son of a Yisreelith, and one is a Yisreeli.

There is a contrast between the two, just as there was a contrast between Timothy and those he would have to eventually dispute with. This account perfectly explains why Paul circumcised Timothy even though he argues against such a thing vehemently in Galatians for Gentile believers. The Jews could no more accuse Timothy of being a foreigner after being circumcised, than they could say that the words of Exodus 12 were untrue. If asked if he kept the Passover, he could truthfully say, “Yes,” even if he had never sat down to a Passover meal. He had observed the true Passover found in Christ.

¹¹ And the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed;

The word translated as “blasphemed” is naqav. It means to bore or pierce. It is used elsewhere to “designate or express by name” – either honorably or by reproach. The word “cursed” is qalal. It signifies to make light, trifling, curse, and so on. The words “of the Lord” are inserted by the translators, but are not in the Hebrew.

All it says is “ha’shem, the name,” not ha’shem Yehovah. The only time that the term ha’shem is seen when speaking of the Lord is in Deuteronomy 25:58 when it is used in conjunction with the Divine name, Yehovah. In verse 16, it will say, shem Yehovah, or “name Yehovah,” not ha’shem Yehovah, or “the name, Yehovah.” And finally, the reason for his stoning, as given in verses 14 & 23 is not blaspheme, but because he had cursed.

And so, there is debate as to whether he blasphemed the name of the Lord, or if he exalted the name of an Egyptian god. Even if the latter, which is actually probably correct, he is fighting with a man of Israel, for whatever reason, and he has sworn by the name of an Egyptian god, and then cursed. It would be a high crime to come into the camp and challenge the Lord by invoking an Egyptian god who had done nothing but suffer disgrace at the hand of the Lord when judgment fell upon Egypt.

^{11 (con’t)} and so they brought him to Moses.

The plural indicates that the people understood that a major infraction had taken place. There may have been a discussion among the elders, or the people as a whole may have simply been so upset at what happened, that they manhandled him off to Moses. Moses’ name means, “He who draws out.” He will be the one to draw out from the Lord that which must be done through judgment.

^{11 (con’t)} (His mother’s name was Shelomith

Names are always given for a reason, when given. Three more names are given now, asking us to translate them into meaning. We can know this, because the corresponding account for the Sabbath breaker in Numbers 15 doesn’t give anyone’s name except Moses and Aaron. Here, along with Moses, these are specified.

The name of the offender isn’t given. The name of the man he strived with isn’t given, only the name of the mother, Shelomith, is. The name finds its source in the word shalom. But one cannot get to shalom, or a state of peace, without correcting for any offenses. And an offense has been made. Shelem, a corresponding masculine noun, indicates a peace offering or a sacrifice for alliance or friendship. The name Shelomith looks to be the result of a feminine plural form of this. In this case, it would indicate intensity rather than a plural number. The only such feminine derivative found in the Bible is in Psalm 91 –

“A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
⁸ Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.” Psalm 91:7, 8

In this then, Shelomith indicates a requital, recompense, or retribution. A close synonym would be, “To avenge.” At times in the Bible, the Lord is said to avenge while giving recompense. The name of the Lord has been challenged, and therefore, the name of the Lord will be avenged, while recompensing the offender. Only in this, can there be shalom, or peace, once again.

^{11 (con’t)} the daughter of Dibri,

Another name is given, and thus it is expected to be explained. The name Divri, is used just this once in the Bible. It is derived from the verb davar, or speak. The “i” at the end is either possessive, and so it would mean, “My word,” or it is a reference to Yehovah, and so it would mean, “Word of the Lord.” Either way, in picture the result is the same. The word of the Lord will lead to recompense for the offender.

^{11 (con’t)} of the tribe of Dan.)

The tribe of the individual is named, Dan. Dan means, “Judge.” The given names anticipate the sentence which will follow. The Lord will judge, the man’s life will be forfeit for his misdeed, according to the word of the Lord, and the Lord will recompense the man for his wickedness. However, Israel will be the agent of this action. Should they fail to follow through in making his life an offering of appeasement, there can be no peace. All of this is tied up in what is presented here.

¹² Then they put him in custody, that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them.

The verse literally says, “And they rested him in custody – to explain to them by (the) mouth (of) Yehovah.” The mouth is what speaks, and thus the spoken word will be the basis for judgment.

What shall be done to the offender of the Name?
What will Moses tell us to do?
Is the judgment for us and for an outsider the same?
Will he be allowed to live, or will we to him bid adieu?

Surely the Name is to be held as sacred
And in sanctity will the Lord hold His name
If not, then any who wishes, on His name they will tread
Ignominy will be the result, ignominy and not fame

We shall wait upon His word to reveal what to do
And what He decides will surely be just and correct
For the Lord is God, holy and true
In Him no unrighteousness will we ever detect

II. The Stone of Israel (verses 13-23)

¹³ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

It goes unstated how the Lord spoke to Moses, so we can only assume that it was in the regular manner where he went into the Most Holy place, and there he spoke directly to the Lord, and the Lord spoke directly in return. The word of the Lord, from the seat of the Lord, is now given…

¹⁴ “Take outside the camp him who has cursed;

The same word, qalal, as in verse 11 is given as the basis for the judgment. The one who made a trifling, and thus brought the name of the Lord into contempt, is to be taken outside the camp. The sanctity of the camp meant that no such punishment as will be rendered could take place within it. Just as a leper or any other unclean person was sent outside the camp, so was this man to be taken out of it. He had no part in Israel, and he was to be removed from their sight. Things do not look good for this guy…

^{14 (con’t)} then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head,

The laying of the hands on the head is specified. In the case of the Sabbath breaker of Numbers 15, there is no such instruction given. But here, there is. Those who heard were to place their hands on the man’s head. This seems to be another indication that the person invoked the name of another god. They are witnesses of this and are avowing the name of the Lord as the rightful Judge, and denying the name of the false god at the same time.

The Lord has rendered the judgment through His spoken word, and now recompense upon the individual must be made. Should this not occur, there could be no peace. Another god has been placed as a challenge to the name of the Lord, and this could not stand.

^{14 (con’t)} and let all the congregation stone him.

The word “let” doesn’t do these words justice. It says, “And stone them him all the congregation.” It doesn’t say they could opt out if they wanted to. It simply says that all the people were to stone him. If this was literally carried out by all the people, the pile over him would be massive by the time they were done with the job. It would stand there as a testimony to the severity of the crime.

¹⁵ “Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.

The Lord has given the punishment for the offender, but now He gives a general law to ensure that there is no question in the people’s minds concerning future violations of this type. There is again a dispute as to what is being referred to here. Some see this as not speaking about the true God at all, and this is probably correct. If someone were to curse the name of his god, he would bear the sin of an idolater.

Death is not mandated for such a thing, but sin is born by those who are, by default, not followers of the Lord. No death penalty is mandated for such a person because he is accountable to the Lord on a completely different level than those who are either followers of the Lord, or who would blaspheme the name of the Lord, even if not His follower.

¹⁶ And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land.

On the other hand, any person who blasphemes the name of the Lord, whether a follower or not, was to be put to death. The words are emphatic – “stoning, he shall be stoned.”

There is one God, and His name was not to be violated, ever. The words here also seem to confirm what was proposed earlier concerning the Egyptian. First, it says, “the stranger as well as the native.” The stranger could be any person following any religion. If he were to curse the name of his god, who would care? Only the Lord would, who is not considered his God.

And so the Lord would deal with him in due time. But if a stranger among the people blasphemed His name, then it would be an offense worthy of immediate consequences, lest His name be defiled among the people, and degraded in their eyes. Secondly, it says v’noqev shem Yehovah – “and he who blasphemes name Yehovah.” Unlike verse 11, there is no article, no “the,” in front of “name.” And this follows through to the next words…

^{16  (con’t)} When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.

b’naqevow shem yumat – “When he blasphemes Name, put to death.” Again, the words “of the Lord” are inserted, and unlike verse 11 there is no article in front of Name. It simply says, shem. Thus, there is a stress on the very idea of His name. It is completely other, completely distinct, and without match or rival. The contrast between verse 11 & here clues us in to what was being referred to there.

¹⁷ ‘Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death.

It seems curious at first that this, and the following commands, are suddenly placed here, especially as some are repeats of previous commands. But what is being done is including anyone who would commit such crimes within the company of the Lord. The commands previously given pertained solely to Israel. However, it is now understood that anyone within the jurisdiction of Israel was bound to these same laws as well.

The words here say, “And he who strikes all the soul (of a) man.” The implication is murder. There are times when killing was prescribed by the Lord, such as in war, or in capital punishment, like the sentence which was just pronounced. That is not what this is speaking of. Rather, it is the intentional, unjustifiable murder of another. Nobody had the right to kill another without there first being a legal tribunal, even for a blasphemer.

¹⁸ Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, animal for animal.

Some laws concerning animals were given in Exodus 21. Those dealt with different matters than this. This is a provision of lex talionis or retaliation in kind (like for like), whereby a punishment resembles the offense committed in kind and degree. If someone purposefully killed another animal he was to replace it, in kind.

The obvious reason for this inclusion is to show that an animal is not in the same category as man. There can be no justification for anyone to find guilt beyond replacement for the killing of an animal. It is a precept which has become fashionably ignored in modern society where animals are placed in an unhealthy level of supposed dignity, at times bordering on that of humans.

The same punishment for blaspheming the name of the Lord was given to one who murders another, and rightfully so as the man is made in the image of God. But such was not, and is not, to be the case with an animal.

¹⁹ ‘If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, as he has done, so shall it be done to him—

The word mum, or defect, is used here. Should someone do something to another to cause a defect in him, then the law of lex talionis was to be enacted. Though seemingly harsh, this law is actually as much a curb on retribution as it is a means of punishment. No greater punishment was to be meted out than that which had been inflicted. Thus the punishee was not to be unduly or overly punished.

²⁰ fracture for fracture,

If Vic McGregg broke Sam’s leg
Then Sam could do the same in turn…but he could do no more.

If he were to instead, crack him on the head
Vic McGregg’s punishment would have been overly sore.

And so to break Vic’s leg is what the law says should be
And when that was over, Vic and Sam could make up
And they could together hobble home clumsily

^{20 (con’t)} eye for eye,

If Jim poked out Tom’s eye… out of spite
We know that wouldn’t be right
And so the law says that Tom could do the same to Jim in turn
And so, from this loss of his own sight
Jim would his lessen learn

^{20 (con’t)} tooth for tooth;

If Jay punched Alex and knocked out his tooth
Alex could not in turn break Jay’s arm
Instead he got to knock out Jay’s tooth too
But maybe Alex still suffered the greater harm

Because Jay’s whistle became pronounced
And it incessantly announced
What Alex in retaliation to Jay did do

^{20 (con’t)} as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him.

Any disfigurement, of any type, was to be paid in kind, but the punishment was to go no further. The Lord’s decision in this was intended as a curb against any initial offense, and it was intended as a curb against excessive retaliation, either by the individual, or by an unjust court.

²¹ And whoever kills an animal shall restore it; but whoever kills a man shall be put to death.

Here we have a shortened repeat of verses 17 & 18. They are reversed as well. Here, the Hebrew simply says, “He who strikes a beast,” and “…he who strikes a man.” If one were to read this verse only, they might come to the conclusion that merely striking another man, whether death occurred or not, was worthy of death. Therefore, the words must be considered in connection with the passage, and not alone. The intent is to strike and kill.

But the reason for the repetition is to again stress the difference between animals and humans. It cannot be considered murder to kill an animal, and it must be considered murder to kill a man. Further, the word for “man” here is adam, not ish. It is not speaking of a man, as in an adult male, but rather as a member of the human race – one of mankind.

Although the perverse would say there is a difference between a human in the womb, and a human born from the womb, the Bible does not make this distinction. Biblically, the life of the human is one which begins at conception. The logical, moral, and correct evaluation of this then is that to kill a human in the womb is murder, and it is worthy of death. What our society, and the world at large finds acceptable, will be judged by the all-righteous, always moral, and perfectly just God.

²² You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for I am the Lord your God.’”

Again, the words here hearken back to verse 16, and that in turn takes us back to the account of the son of the Egyptian and the Israelite woman. There were two groups of people at the camp that were to be held to the same standard. Upon arrival in Canaan, the same would be true with any foreigner to the people of Israel.

If they received the benefits of residing in the jurisdiction of the people Israel, they were to be bound to these same laws as the people of Israel. What they did with and towards their own gods was not to be of concern to the Israelites as long as it was not otherwise forbidden by the Lord. But what they did, to and towards both the Lord, and the Lord’s people was. This was because…

^{22 (con’t)} for I am the Lord your God.’”

ki ani Yehovah elohekem – “for I am Yehovah your God.” They are the Lord’s people; He is their God; and so anything which affected either them in this capacity, or Him as being in this position, was to be considered equal for all people who dwelt within His boundaries. The emphasis stands because the offender of verse 11 was not a member of the covenant people, but he was within the jurisdiction of the Lord nonetheless. Because of this, Moses now has words for the people to hear…

²³ Then Moses spoke to the children of Israel;

Moses has drawn out from the Lord that which was needed to resolve the dilemma of the congregation. And with that, he speaks forth the word. Here, it doesn’t say, “Then Moses spoke to all the people.” Instead, it says that he spoke to bene Yisrael – the “children of Israel.” Although it is a standard form of address, it is they who have been given the full authority, from this point forward, to deal with all cases of blasphemy. Such was the desire of the people towards Jesus as is recorded in John 8:54-59 –

Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God. ⁵⁵ Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷ Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”

⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

⁵⁹ Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

The same type of attempt against the Lord was made again in John 10. Thus we have another one of the ironies of the Bible before us. The Lord who gave the commandment of stoning for blaspheme against His name, was treated as a blasphemer. And the people, who bore the authority of His name, attempted to stone Him. Such was not to be the case however. Christ would die in fulfillment of Scripture, but it would not be by stoning at the hands of Israel. It would be by crucifixion on a tree.

^{23 (con’t)} and they took outside the camp him who had cursed, and stoned him with stones.

The Hebrew reads, “and stoned him stone.” It is singular. In Numbers 15, the corresponding account of the Sabbath breaker says, ba’abanmin, or with stones, but here it simply says, aben, or stone. The man has blasphemed the name of the Lord, and though the congregation is instructed to destroy the man, it is the Lord who is the Judge and who made the decision, and therefore it is by the Stone of Israel, the Lord Yehovah, that the man was destroyed.

He the Judge (Dan), spoke the word (Divri), and recompense (Shelomith) was made upon the man for his transgression. Surely the Bible is true when it says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). And surely we can see why the names of the people were specifically included in the account of this passage.

*^23 (fin) So the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

The offering of the violator’s life, if it can be so termed, has been made. The name of the Lord has been sanctified, and the obedience of the people has been proven. Though this is a remarkable example of such obedience, an abundance of examples of failure lie ahead. It is a chronic problem with Israel, and it is a chronic problem with us.

It is easy to find fault in others, and it is an easy thing indeed to execute judgment when a reward for doing so can be expected. But it is a much harder thing to find fault in our own actions, and it is a terribly hard thing to ferret out those who are offenders when there is no perceived benefit, and maybe even loss to do so.

How many churches turn a blind eye to sin because they would rather have the donations coming in! How many of us would turn a blind eye to sin because it involves a loved one, and thus the consequences for taking a stand against what they are doing will cause a disruption in our own lives?

Are we willing to put the word of God and His commands for our lives first? And even more, are we willing to defend the honor and sanctity of the Lord’s name above all else? He cherishes His name, and He safeguards it as the most precious thing – because it is. His name reveals who He is, and His name defines everything about Him. Is our relationship with Him in understanding of this? Is our reverence of Him in accord with this?

Let us endeavor to live with the thought in our mind that the Lord is indeed holy; He is indeed good; and He is indeed righteous and just. In keeping this understanding of who He is in our minds, we will then be in a better position to honor Him, to bring Him glory, and to be attentive to our lowly state in His magnificent presence.

Closing Verse: “For I proclaim the name of the Lord:
Ascribe greatness to our God.
⁴ He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.” Deuteronomy 32:3, 4

Next Week: Leviticus 25:1-7 A provision marvelous and grand… (The Sabbath of the Land) (45^th Leviticus Sermon)

The Lord has you exactly where He wants you. He has a good plan and purpose for you. Even if you have a lifetime of sin heaped up behind you, He can wash it away and purify you completely and wholly. So follow Him and trust Him and He will do marvelous things for you and through you.

Recompense for an Offense

Now the son of an Israelite woman
Whose father was an Egyptian
Went out among the children of Israel
According to the account’s description

And this Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel
Fought each other in the camp, so the word does tell

And the Israelite woman’s son
Blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed
And so they brought him to Moses
Because of his irreverent outburst

His mother’s name was Shelomith the daughter of Dibri
Of the tribe of Dan was her family tree

Then they put him in custody, probably holed up alone
That the mind of the Lord to them might be shown

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying
“Take outside the camp him who has cursed
Then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head
And let all the congregation stone him
———- for his unholy outburst

“Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying:
‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin, so I am to you relaying

And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord
Shall surely be put to death, be sure to understand
All the congregation shall certainly stone him
The stranger as well as him who is born in the land

When he blasphemes the name of the Lord
He shall be put to death, according to this word

‘Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death
So you shall extinguish his life, ending his breath

Whoever kills an animal shall make it good
Animal for animal; ensure this is understood

‘If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor
As he has done, so shall it be done to him, most certainly
Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth
As he has caused disfigurement of a man
———-so it shall be done to him, so shall it be 

And whoever kills an animal shall restore it
But whoever kills a man shall be put to death, so to you I submit

You shall have the same law for the stranger
And for one from your own country as well
For I am the Lord your God
You shall do these things as to you I tell

Then Moses spoke to the children of Israel
And they took outside the camp him who had cursed
And stoned him with stones
So the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses
———-for the man’s unholy outburst

Thank You, O God, for this hope You have given to us
As sons of Adam we are dead in sin
But through Your Son we are made alive, yes, through Jesus
A new and eternal life we have been granted to live in

And so may we reverence Your name always, O Lord
And cling fast to the truths of Your superior word
Praise You! Praise You O God. Yes, hear our praise
That which our hearts will sing to You for eternal days

Hallelujah and Amen…

Leviticus 24:1-9
The Holy Oil and the Holy Bread

One thing you can say about the Bible, is that it is always consistent. It uses things from nature consistently. It uses numbers consistently. It uses moral issues consistently. You can, for example, do a study on trees in the Bible, and you will find consistent patterns in the use of trees. Or, you can pick certain trees, and find consistent patterns in the use of those trees.

What about the number five? If you go through the Bible, a theme will develop based on the number five that is remarkable. It is the number of grace. If I didn’t tell you that, and if you just did your own thorough study, you would figure it out all by yourself eventually.

What is more amazing is that these themes weren’t all decided upon, written down, and then built upon by one person. Rather, unless you knew that God was directing these things, you would assume exactly the opposite was true. You would say, “These books were written eons apart, they were written in different countries, by various people, and yet coincidentally the patterns match. How can that be? This can’t be coincidence at all!”

You would have to come to this conclusion, because for the most part, the patterns weren’t discovered until long after they were written down. In fact, many of the patterns have only been discovered in recent years. It’s a marvel and it is amazing. But it is one of those remarkable proofs that the Bible is what it claims to be – the word of God. No random chance could have come up with these patterns, time and time again.

Text Verse: For the Lord has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His dwelling place:
¹⁴ “This is My resting place forever;
Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
¹⁵ I will abundantly bless her provision;
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
¹⁶ I will also clothe her priests with salvation,
And her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
¹⁷ There I will make the horn of David grow;
I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed.
¹⁸ His enemies I will clothe with shame,
But upon Himself His crown shall flourish.” Psalm 132:13-18

Today we will look at several things which form patterns in Scripture that are seen right in these six verses from the psalm. We will look at the dwelling place, rest, bread, the lamp, and quite a few others not in the psalm. All of them are found in just nine verses. And yet, if you were to do a study on any of them, you would find the same consistency running throughout Scripture.

Once something is introduced, it generally remains tied into the same concept all the way through to the end. I’m sure I’m like any one of you, in that at times I have doubts about things. Can it all be true? Can the Bible be relied upon? Am I sure about what I’ve read and what it means to my eternal future?

When I have doubts like this flicker through my mind, all I need to do is think about what I already have learned. The marvel of this book is that once you’ve really looked into it, and once you’ve really thought about all that it teaches, reveals, and details, you can once again feel confident that the doubts are all for naught. The Lord is a safe place because His word says He is.

As the psalmist said, “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word.” The word reveals, and that is all I need. Thank God for this marvelous treasure. Great things are to be found in His superior word. And so let’s turn to that precious word once again and… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Care of the Menorah (verses 1-4)

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

Words of law, and words of instruction lie ahead. Therefore, the Lord speaks only to Moses. From there, Moses will relay the commands he receives to the people. The Lord has just given the instructions for the weekly Sabbath Feast of the Lord, and the seven annual Feasts of the Lord. With that accomplished, He will now give instructions for the daily and weekly services required for the Menorah and the Table of Showbread.

The importance of this placement cannot be understated, because the Lord has just said in verse 23:3 that the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, and it is a holy convocation. Because of this, the Lord directed, explicitly to the people, “You shall do no work on it, it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.” And yet, in the next three verses, no exemption is given for performing the daily rituals on the Sabbath, and in verse 8, Aaron and his sons, meaning the priests, are explicitly told to violate the Sabbath in order to honor the Lord.

In other words, in the temple, there is in essence no earthly Sabbath, but there is rest. There is work done, but it is work which is in the presence of the Lord who is at His place of rest. God rested on the seventh day, a day on which the Genesis account recorded no evening or morning. It is an eternal day. The priests, in type, enter that place of rest. And so whatever they do there may profane the Sabbath, but it does not profane God’s rest, which the Sabbath only anticipates.

At the temple, the priests worshiped and served the Creator in a place of rest, which is exactly what man was originally created to do, and which is exactly what the final page of Scripture says man will do in heaven. In this, we can now see that the words of Jesus in Matthew 12 are referring directly to what is stated in Leviticus. There we read –

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. ² And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”

³ But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: ⁴ how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? ⁵ Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? ⁶ Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:5-8).

What Jesus was saying with the words, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath,” is that He is the anticipated Messiah. Because of this, His authority as the Messiah is superior to the law of the Sabbath, and so no guilt can be imputed to either Him, or to His disciples who have acted under His authority, just as the priests here in Leviticus are going to be directed to profane the Sabbath under the authority of the Lord.

The adjective used in the words “One greater than the temple” is neuter. The neuter is used to give a solemn, impressive sense of what He is referring to, which is Himself, His body, it is the temple which is greater than the temple in Jerusalem. If Yehovah of the temple directed the priests to profane the Sabbath in order to conduct their duties, then such was allowed for One greater than the temple.

The temple is the sanctuary where Yehovah dwelt. In saying that He is greater than the temple, He is making an absolute claim to Deity. If the temple is God’s dwelling place, and profanation of the Sabbath is conducted there to honor the Lord, it is because the Lord, meaning Yehovah, is greater than the temple. In His claim is an implicit, but absolute, claim to being Yehovah incarnate.

The corresponding account in Mark adds in the words, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Man was created first, and only then was he given his rest. The rest was intended for man’s good, and his happiness. The laws of the Sabbath were intended to promote that state in man, not feelings of misery or unhappiness.

But more, the Sabbath was intended to honor the Lord while in that happy state. As the Lord was among them, and He was pleased with their happiness at being filled, then no wrong could be imputed. The disciples were hungry, and so out of necessity, in order to actually meet the intent of the Sabbath, they plucked grain and ate. As they were with Jesus, who is the One greater than the temple, they were fulfilling His will in the process. The One who gave the Sabbath laws could dispense with those laws because He is the place of rest which the law pointed to.

There is nothing arbitrary in Jesus’ words or actions. Rather, He is making a theological point concerning Himself, His nature, His Being, and His disciples’ relationship to Him. As the priests of Leviticus could profane the Sabbath before the Lord and yet be blameless, so could His disciples likewise be blameless in His presence when doing the same.

With this understanding, we can see why the Lord placed these verses here in Leviticus. Serving the Lord in His place of rest is more important than the Sabbath laws which He had just given to Israel. This would be true even on the Day of Atonement, the most holy day of the annual calendar, and a Sabbath day all its own as is seen in the next verse…

² “Command the children of Israel

These words go back to Exodus 27:20 & 21. Moses is instructed to “command” the children of Israel. This is one of only two times in Leviticus that the Lord tells Moses to “command” in this way. It is more direct and forceful than the normal words, “Speak to the children of Israel.” The change is certainly given because of the obvious conflict with the Sabbath laws just presented in the Feasts of the Lord.

If the Lord gave those directives, and now He gives these commands, then there can be no contradiction between the two. His Sabbath laws are to be dispensed with according to His directives, just as any laws can be dispensed with when given by the proper authority. The US constitution may be amended according to the authority of the US constitution. Each initiator may amend or dispense with the laws which he has set forth.

^2 (con’t) that they bring to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light,

The words, which have been given as a command to the people, are that they are expected to bring shemen zayit zak kalith la’maor, or “pure oil of pressed olives for the light.” Everything about this anticipates Christ. First is the shemen, or oil. That comes from shamen, a verb meaning “to grow fat.” That in turn comes from a root meaning, “to shine.”

The oil of the zayit, or “olive,” is designated. Oil can be derived from a multitude of sources, but in order to picture Christ, the olive is named. The olive is a symbol of religious privilege. It is the Spirit working through those who are included in this privilege. The olives receive their fatness from the roots. Those branches which are a part of the tree receive this fatness and produce olives which are then used to put forth light before the Lord.

The word “pure” is the adjective zak. This indicates “clean,” “clear,” or “pure.” It has only been used twice so far, in Exodus to describe this same oil, and also the frankincense used in the incense to be burned on the altar of incense. This would be the finest oil possible.

The word “pressed” is not a good translation. Rather, it should say “beaten.” It is the adjective kathith that comes from a root meaning to be crushed by beating. Rather than being pressed under heavy stones, it would probably be gently beaten in a pounding mortar, just enough to break the skin. The oil would usually come from unripe fruit. It would come out clear and without color and it would give a pure, bright light. It would have very little smoke.

After the gentle beating to break the skin, the full olives would be placed in a strainer of some sort, like a wicker basket in order to allow their juice to drip through by gravity alone. The liquid would simply run through that and into a bowl. From there, the purest oil would float to the top and be skimmed off. Out of this, the anticipated result would be oil with no impurities at all, and thus the very finest possible.

As I said, everything about this looks forward to Christ. First, He is the Source of the shemen or oil, and He is the one who makes the tree flourish through its increasing fatness. Paul speaks of this in Romans 11, using the olive tree as a metaphor for God’s religious privileges being bestowed first upon the Jews of Israel, then upon the Gentiles, and which will again return to the Jews. The Lord promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that from them would spring the messianic promises. Paul explains this in Romans 11:16-18 –

“For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷ And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, ¹⁸ do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.”

The religious privilege which comes forth from the roots went from Jew to Gentile, but it is Christ from whom the promises spring and to Him that they belong. His body is the tree, and His life is the fatness. That is why the word zak, or pure, is used. Christ’s purity is revealed in the olives which grow from the branches. Whether Jew or Gentile, the pure produce of the olives is what is used to cause the light to shine. For Jew, Jesus told them to, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

For Gentile, Paul writes, saying, “that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). The beating of the olives is reflective of the treatment of first Christ and then those who are in Christ. Peter explains this –

For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. ²¹ For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
“Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth” 1 Peter 2:20-22

This pure oil, from the fatness of the olive, all pointing to Christ, and those in Christ who bring forth their offering, was to be used…

^2 (con’t) to make the lamps burn continually.

l’haalot ner tamid – “to cause to ascend the lamp perpetually.” In other words, to have the light of the lamp rise continually. It doesn’t mean to burn as if to consume. Instead it is a word which is normally used to express an action such as the burning of a sacrifice which is offered to the Lord. It could thus be paraphrased to say, “…to cause the lamp to ascend to the Lord continually.”

There is debate as to whether the lamp was to burn continually, day and night, or if it was to burn every night continually. It appears from the Exodus 27:21, Exodus 30:8, and from the next verse that the lamp, meaning the menorah, only burnt throughout the night. The idea of a light is to illuminate, and that is only needed where there is darkness. Ultimately then, the light is reflective of the eternal nature of Christ which shines and dispels all darkness for all eternity. That is seen in Revelation 22 –

“There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light.” Revelation 22:5

This light was to shine and never go out. It is the eternal light of Christ which always shines before the Lord. But as we have seen, the olives are reflective of the produce of the people. Thus, we see the result of Christ in one’s life. In Daniel 12, for example, it says this of the faithful Jews –

“Those who are wise shall shine
Like the brightness of the firmament,
And those who turn many to righteousness
Like the stars forever and ever.” Daniel 12:3

Paul uses a similar theme when speaking to Gentiles in Ephesus –

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), ¹⁰ finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. ¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. ¹³ But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.” Ephesians 5:8-14

It is Christ who is the Light, and which He imparts to and through His people. It is the same idea as the incense reflecting Christ in every detail, and yet, the burning of the incense is the prayers of the people, sanctified to God by Christ.

³ Outside the veil of the Testimony, in the tabernacle of meeting,

These words are given after mentioning the bringing of oil. It is for the lamp which is in the tabernacle of meeting. In other words, the Lord is specifying the particular lamp. Because of the abrupt change in the subject – from the feasts of the Lord to the bringing of oil – this is being made clear to Moses. It is the lamp which was previously described and which is in the tabernacle, outside the veil, and before the Testimony.

In the use of the words, “Outside the veil of the Testimony,” we can see a truth which should not be missed. The Lord could have simply said, “In the tent of meeting,” or “In the Holy Place.” But He specifically mentions the veil of the Testimony. The veil, or paroketh, signifies a fracture exists in which on one side there is rest, and on the other there is labor and rigor. The Testimony, meaning the law contained in the Ark, is where rest is found. However, man is fallen, and is kept apart from God because of violations of the law.

However, Christ is the fulfillment of the law, and in Him is rest. The deeds of the people, and their light which shines, is only acceptable because of Christ. Again, we must think of the symbolism of the olive tree, the branches, and the fruit which the branches bear. Our deeds are only acceptable because of being in Christ. Our prayers, symbolized by the incense which burns in this same room, are only acceptable because of Him. In the end, only because of Christ is there anything in us acceptable to God.

^3 (con’t) Aaron shall be in charge of it from evening until morning

“Aaron” here means, “Aaron and his sons” as was explicitly stated in Exodus 27. The lamp was to be tended to throughout the night. This suggests that it was not left burning during the day, but some commentaries disagree. No matter what, the symbolism of perpetual light is not diminished by having natural sunlight because Christ is called “the Sun of Righteousness” in Malachi 4:2.

^3 (con’t) before the Lord continually; 

The burning of the lamp is of particular interest to the Lord. The first thing that must be brought into a house for its inhabitants to function properly is light. And for light to shine, there must be something to produce that light. In this case, it is the oil, signifying the Spirit in action, and thus life itself. It is reflective of the first command given after the creation of the universe –

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” Genesis 1:3

Here, after the calendar-driven Feasts of the Lord, and then more calendar-driven instructions to come in the next chapter, we have this chapter which commences with the care of the lamps and the table of showbread. In this, we can see that the light here is that which burns throughout the duration of the calendar. It is a reflection of the work of Christ from beginning to end, and throughout the ages. About 1500 years after this, we will see what this light pictures as it flows from John’s pen concerning Jesus –

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:4, 5

And He is that same Light which we see shining on the last page of the Bible. It is Christ now, at all times, and throughout the ages. There is design, intent, and wisdom seen in this seemingly misplaced passage of Scripture.

^3 (con’t) it shall be a statute forever in your generations.

As always, these words must be taken in their proper context. As these things only picture Christ and His work, the statute forever means “until the time when they are revealed and fulfilled in Christ.” Now, that which was once physically given, is spiritually realized in Him and in His people.

⁴ He shall be in charge of the lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually.

The verse is literally translated as, “Upon the menorah, the pure, he shall array the lamps before Yehovah continually.” The reason for using the definite article before “pure” is that it was made of pure gold, thus it symbolizes Christ in His Divine nature. What may also be inferred from this definite article, is that the menorah was kept pure by being cleaned from any ashes which might fall on it. It was always pure internally and externally. Thus it is reflective of Christ’s perfect purity in all ways – physical, moral, etc.

The use of the word arak, or array, is to signify that the lamps were always to be arranged as the Lord previously described in Exodus. To understand all of the symbolism of this most important article, you should go back and watch the sermon from Exodus 25. It is an astonishing lesson. As far as the arraying of the seven lamps on it, it is reflective of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation, called “the seven lampstands.” The arranging of the lamps here is reflective of Christ’s arranging of the lampstands of the church.

The purest of gold, fit for a King
Was used to make a seven-branch lampstand
Seeing its beauty makes my heart sing
The workmanship marvelous; stunning and grand

Every detail is so beautiful, each knob and flower
The glistening of the branches as they catch the light
It shines in the dark for hour after hour
Illuminating the holy place throughout the night

The glory of God is seen in each detail
Every branch speaks out a marvelous story
And in what it pictures, nothing will fail
As the Lord reveals to us His unending glory

II. The Holy Bread (verses 5-9)

⁵ “And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it.

Now in Leviticus is introduced the actual bread of the Presence for the table of showbread which was first described in Exodus 25. The preparation for the bread was done by the priests as is recorded in 1 Chronicles 9, where it says –

“And some of their brethren of the sons of the Kohathites were in charge of preparing the showbread for every Sabbath.” 1 Chronicles 9:32

For the bread, solet, or “fine flour,” was to be used. This comes from an unused root meaning “to strip.” Thus it is fine flour, indicating purity. It is reflective of the purity of Christ. The word for “cake” is khallah. This comes from the word khalal, or “to pierce.” It is the word used to describe what happened to Christ when He was “pierced for our transgressions.”

From this, twelve cakes were to be made. The number twelve in Scripture denotes perfection of government, or of governmental perfection. Christ is the Bread of Life, but He has revealed Himself through His established government. First that of the twelve tribes of Israel who proclaimed His coming, and then through the twelve apostles who proclaimed His having come.

^5 (con’t) Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake.

The two-tenths of each cake reveals Him as well. The amount for each equals two omers, the amount that two men could eat in one day. But, instead of saying that, it says “two tenths.” Thus, there are 24 tenths total in the bread. Two is an indication of difference, that there is another. Ten is the perfection of Divine order. Thus we have a division of the divine order, reflected in the twelve tribes of Israel, and the twelve apostles. God’s Divine order in Christ is worked out through these divisions, and it is seen in this bread.

⁶ You shall set them in two rows, six in a row,

The translation is not correct. They were arranged in two piles. The table is not big enough to place them in two rows. The word used is a new one in Scripture which will be seen just nine times, always in connection to the bread. It signifies an arrangement, whatever that arrangement may be.

Each pile is of six loaves. Six is the number of man. We are seeing a picture develop of men, representing all men before the Lord. In each pile, there are twelve tenths. In other words, one pile signifies the twelve tribes of Israel, the other signifies the twelve apostles. Together, they form the perfection of Divine order in God’s perfection of government. It is this which led to, and which then revealed, Christ, the Bread of life. It is a picture of what is seen in Revelation 4:4 –

“Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads.” Revelation 4:4 

Nothing is said about whether the bread contained yeast or not. It could go either way as far as what is actually pictured. The Pentecost loaves had yeast because they reflected Jew and Gentile, acceptable to God despite their sin because of Christ’s covering. Such could be the case here. Or, it could be that they were unleavened, and thus reflect only Christ’s purity. Jewish writers, such as Josephus, state that they were unleavened. What matters is that it doesn’t matter. The Bible is silent on the matter.

^6 (con’t) on the pure gold table before the Lord.

The shulkhan, or table, is a word that indicates “stretch out,” or “spread out.” It is a place of expanse. Again, the wording is precise in the Hebrew, “on the table, the pure, before the Lord.” The table was overlaid with pure gold, and it was certainly kept pure through constant maintenance. And again, it would be reflective of Christ – pure and undefiled internally and externally.

The details for this table are recorded in Exodus 25. If you didn’t hear the sermon on its makeup, you missed a lot. You have your instructions for this afternoon. This table, like the menorah, is said to be “before the Lord.” Because of its location, it is elsewhere called, lekhem ha’pannim, or literally, “Bread (of) the Faces.” Translations will then call it “the Bread of the Presence.”

What we have is the idea of the Lord’s eyes always being on those who are in Christ. He is the Bread, His people are of the same lump. As Paul says in Romans 11, “For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy.”

⁷ And you shall put pure frankincense on each row,

levonah zakah, or “frankincense pure,” was to be placed either on, or by, each pile. The word can indicate either. As there would have been room for the incense on the table, it was probably alongside of the bread. This levonah, or frankincense, comes from the word lavan, meaning “brick.” The concept of a brick in the Bible is one of human work. At the tower of Babel, the people made bricks in order to work their way to heaven. In Egypt, the people were forced to make brick without straw and were unable to perform their duties. In both instances, pictures were being made of man’s futile attempt at pleasing God through works. Their brick-making was tainted and unacceptable. This incense, however, is zakah, or pure. It is reflective of the pure works of Christ, or of those in Christ, which are deemed acceptable to God. This is then more fully explained with the words…

^7 (con’t) that it may be on the bread for a memorial, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

As it is for the bread as a memorial, it is specifically speaking of the acceptable works of Christ. The bread is a bloodless offering from the children of Israel representative of the people of God who are diligent in sanctifying themselves to perform good works. It is the works of Christ, however, which makes them acceptable. Paul explains this in Romans –

“Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, ¹⁶ that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” Romans 1515, 16

As can be seen, the Gentiles, like Israel, have also become an offering to God because of the work of Christ, sanctified through what He has accomplished. It is through this great work that the Holy Spirit is available to do exactly that, the part of sanctification. This is the very heart of the work of Christ. That together, Jew and Gentile, are found acceptable through Him. It is, therefore, His work, which is offered up to God “as on offering made by fire to the Lord,” pictured by this pure frankincense.

⁸ Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually,

The bread was changed out every Sabbath as prescribed here. Because of the words “before the Lord continually,” tradition says the Jews made this an exceptionally solemn service. As the old bread was being removed, the new bread was put in its place at exactly the same moment, one priest’s hands removing the old, while the other priest’s hands inserted the new.

For us, the symbolism here in Leviticus is pretty remarkable. The new bread was rested, on the day of rest, in the Lord’s presence, at His place of rest, on this table. It must be, at least partially, what David was thinking of when he wrote the 23^rd Psalm –

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever. Psalm 23:5, 6

The people of God may be hemmed in by enemies, but there in the middle of it, right in the house of the Lord, a table is set where the people of God can stretch out in ease and rest. It is the promise of a return to Eden and the presence of the Lord – all because of the work of Christ which makes us acceptable to God once again.

^8 (con’t) being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.

God required it of them, and they had agreed to the covenant. Therefore, whether in substance, or in money to purchase the substance, the items for the menorah and the table of showbread were provided from the children of Israel. In other words, these things are reflective of the people, and it is Christ who establishes His people. If you are a follower of Christ, you are reflected in the very things that we are looking at here today.

⁹ And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place;

The bread of this passage is one of only a very limited number of things which were required to be eaten in a holy place by the priests. Despite this being for the priests, this is the same bread which was given to David when he was escaping from Saul. That is found in 1 Samuel 21 –

So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. ³ Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.”
⁴ And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.”
⁵ Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.”
⁶ So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. 1 Samuel 21:2-6

Only by a stretch of the law given here in Leviticus could this have come about. It says that the bread was only to be eaten by the priests, and only in a holy place, but the bread was given to David, and he took it with him. And yet Jesus cited this exact account in Matthew 12 indicating that the request of David, and the decision of the priests, was not unacceptable. The need of the man outweighed the precept of the law.

*^9 (fin) for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, by a perpetual statute.”

The bread offering was considered most holy, and therefore it was only to be eaten by males, and only in the sanctuary. Anything deemed most holy is, in itself, a picture of Christ. The bread reflects those in Christ, and thus those considered holy to the Lord. Therefore, it was restricted to the priests alone for consumption. The words, “offerings of the Lord made by fire” is speaking of the incense, not the bread.

The incense, being connected to the Lord, was burnt on the altar, while the bread was eaten by the priests. The symbolism is that of Christ being offered up to God, and the people being acceptable to God because of Christ’s mediation.

Each thing is logically presented to show us both the Person and work of Christ, and the acceptability of those in Christ to God. What is implied here, and what is stated explicitly elsewhere, is that only those who are in Christ are acceptable to God. Even the Jews, the people of God’s choosing, who do not receive Jesus, are as branches broken off. And those Gentiles who are not of the nation of Israel, are grafted into the people of God because of faith in Christ.

In the end, all matters between God and the people of the world come down to one issue alone, do you have faith in Christ Jesus, or do you not. The difference is eternal in scope. If you have never made a commitment to Christ, who has done all of the work necessary to restore us to a right relationship with God, today would be a good day for you to do so.

Closing Verse: But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.
⁹ I will praise You forever,
Because You have done it;
And in the presence of Your saints
I will wait on Your name, for it is good. Psalm 52:8, 9

Next Week: Leviticus 24:10-23 What will you pay with? Dollars and Cents? (Recompense for an Offense) (44^th Leviticus Sermon)

The Lord has you exactly where He wants you. He has a good plan and purpose for you. Even if you have a lifetime of sin heaped up behind you, He can wash it away and purify you completely and wholly. So follow Him and trust Him and He will do marvelous things for you and through you.

Oil and Bread

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
These are the words He was then relaying

“Command the children of Israel
That they bring to you pure oil, so shall it be
Of pressed olives for the light
To make the lamps burn continually

Outside the veil of the Testimony, in the tabernacle of meeting
Aaron shall be in charge of it – this endeavor
From evening until morning before the Lord continually
It shall be a statute in your generations forever

He shall be in charge of the lamps, so shall it be
On the pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually

“And you shall take fine flour
And bake twelve cakes with it
Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake
So you shall do, as to you I submit 

You shall set them in two rows, six in a row
On the pure gold table before the Lord is where they shall go

And you shall put pure frankincense on each row
That it may be for a memorial on the bread
An offering made by fire to the Lord
It shall be accomplished as I have said

Every Sabbath he shall set it in order
Continually before the Lord
Being taken from the children of Israel
By an everlasting covenant, according to My word

And it shall be for Aaron and his sons
And they shall eat it in a holy place
For it is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire
By a perpetual statute; such shall be the case

Wonderful pictures of Christ and His work for us
Are revealed in the holy oil and holy bread of Israel
Every word shows us more hints of Jesus
And of His marvelous works each does tell

Thank You, O God, for such a wonderful word
Thank You for the mysteries which are hidden there
Each that we pull out speaks of Jesus our Lord
Thank you that in His goodness we too can share

For all eternity we shall sing to You our praise
Yes, from this time forth and for eternal days

Hallelujah and Amen…

Leviticus 23:33-44
The Feasts of the Lord
Tabernacles

The most common thing for me on Sunday night, and then again as I rise on Monday morning, is to wonder if I will be able to complete a sermon that is worthy of the day I must put into it, of the ears that must eventually hear it, and of the God whose word I am trying to explain to others. I am always unsure if what I hope for will come about, and it is almost scary to open up the Bible, the 10 or so references I start with, and then put my hands on the keyboard to start typing.

I so desperately want there to be something interesting, edifying, and yes, new, to present. It is no joy at all to repeat something that someone else may have presented. And it is always a delight, when I type, to come across something, or some things, that I am pretty sure have never been presented the same way before – at least not that I know of.

The Feast of Tabernacles is one of the fall feasts. As I’ve said before, lots of people want to claim that there is a future fulfillment in these fall feasts for the nation of Israel. This is incorrect in as far as the feasts are fulfilled – completely and in their entirety – in Christ Jesus. The only future fulfillment is anytime someone realizes that He is who the Bible proclaims, and they receive Him for who He is. There are things that lie ahead for us that also may be a part of these feasts, but they are only so much so as they are guaranteed because of what has been done by Him already.

We are waiting to be glorified, but according to Paul, in God’s mind that is already done because of Jesus’ work. We will just catch up to what is already accomplished. Such is the case with these fall feasts. Understanding this already, I came at today’s verses expecting one thing, and yet I realized they mean something entirely different than what I had expected. That is why we are to always put our presuppositions aside when looking at Scripture. Otherwise, everything presented here would have been a repeat of what has already been said. Thank goodness the sheet is blank in my head when I get going.

Text Verse: “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, ¹⁷ which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” Colossians 2:16, 17

What a surprising word we have. While going through these verses, and studying them word by word, marvelous patterns of what is said here kept coming up from Paul’s hand in the New Testament. I doubt if it was intentional, but his training as a Pharisee meant that he was fully versed in the Old Testament. As he wrote, he probably just put down in ink what was already stored up in his mind.

At the same time, the Holy Spirit was influencing him to draw out those wonderful things, and to bring them out into an epistle to this group of people, and another to that group of people. Eventually, everything that needed to be said in order to reveal Christ Jesus had come out. And there it sits, waiting for people to sit down and study and make the necessary connections.

What a marvel! What a gift we have in the pages of the Bible. It is the mind of God, revealed in letters and words through the hand of chosen men. It’s a hard thing to grasp, but things that pop up from the most obscure of words suddenly form patterns and pictures which simply cannot be random. We’ll see some of those today. Great stuff lies ahead, and it is all to be found in His superior word. And so let’s turn to that precious word once again and… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Tabernacles (verses 33-44)

³³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

The words initiate a new sequence of thought, and thus what lies ahead is separate from what has thus far been presented. In other words, as a feast will be next named, we know that it is one which is separate from the others. It is not conjoined to another such as was the case with the Firstfruits and Weeks.

³⁴ “Speak to the children of Israel, saying:

The words are to be conveyed to all of the people. This final Feast of the Lord is to be observed by all to the Lord, and so Moses is directed to speak to the people concerning it. The Lord, as their Sovereign, is now mandating this final annual feast be on…

^{34 (con’t)} ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month 

This is the third designated feast in the seventh month of the year. Again, this is based on the redemption calendar. Thus, this is the same as the first month of the year in the creation calendar. But because the feasts signify the redemptive acts of the Lord, the calendar used is that which begins in the springtime, not the fall. The commencement date is set at the fifteenth of the month of Ethanim, later known as Tishri. This, like Unleavened Bread, commences at the time of the full moon and lasts a week.

^{34 (con’t)} shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.

Here the word khag, or “Feast” is used for only the second time in the chapter. The first was in verse 6 when naming the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now this particular word is used again for the second, seven day feast, Tabernacles. The word khag comes from khagag, which in turn, indicates “to move in a circle” or specifically “to march in a sacred procession.” From there you have the implication of being giddy; to celebrate, dance, and feast. It is to be a time of worship, celebration, and sacrifice. It is a pilgrim feast. Later in Scripture, the Feast of Weeks will also be noted as a part of a khag, or pilgrim feast, as well.

The term here is khag ha’sukkoth, or “Feast, the tabernacles.” The word sukkah, or tabernacle, signifies a shelter. It is variously translated as tent, tabernacle, cottage, lair, booth +etc. It comes from sok, which carries much the same meaning. Twice in the psalms, the word is used to speak of the tabernacle of the Lord. And finally, sok comes from sakak which signifies “to weave together.” That word hints to us what this feast is pointing to. It is used in Psalm 139 when speaking of the weaving together of the human form –

“For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.” Psalm 139:13, 14 (NASB)

As a point of reference for understanding the fulfillment of this feast, the Greek Old Testament uses the word skenon for “tabernacles.” It means “tent” or “tabernacle” as well. This feast is also detailed and reviewed in Numbers 29 and Deuteronomy 16. Deuteronomy 31 adds in a specific requirement to this feast which is well worth citing –

And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. ¹² Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, ¹³ and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.” Deuteronomy 31:10-13

It is hard to imagine that the people were read the law only once every seven years. If one were to ever consider a famine in the land, that would be it to me. Nehemiah 8:18 notes that this requirement was accomplished by the people after their return from exile to Babylon –

“Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner.”

Not having read the law during this feast, if the feast was held at all, was certainly the standard. And it is for a lack of knowledge of the law that the people suffered the shame of punishment and exile. This is certain to be true, because In 2 Kings 22, the Book of the Law was “found” in the house of the Lord by the high priest Hilkiah. It had been completely forgotten, and thus its precepts were wholly unknown to king, priest, and commoner alike.

³⁵ On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it.

miqra qodesh – “convocation holy.” Like the other holy convocations, it signifies a day on which no regular, servile work was to be done. Meals could be prepared, and so it is not a Sabbath.

³⁶ For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

The required offerings are listed in Numbers 29:13-39.

^{36 (con’t)} On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

In the feast of Unleavened Bread, there were seven days, the first and the seventh were holy convocations. In this feast, there are seven days, the first being a holy convocation, and then an added eighth day is also a miqra qodesh, or holy convocation. However, because the Passover is tied to Unleavened Bread, they are both actually eight days in duration.

^{36 (con’t)} It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.

Here, a new word is brought into Scripture, atsereth, or sacred assembly. The word comes from atsar which signifies to shut, restrain, etc. Some scholars say that this eighth day doesn’t specifically belong to the feast, but it is rather the solemn close of the whole circle of yearly feasts, and so it is appended to the feast. This isn’t wholly correct. It is recorded as an ending portion of the feast in Nehemiah 8:18, 2 Chronicles 7:9, and John says the following about this eighth day of the feast –

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37, 38

It both belongs as an addendum to the feast, and it also closes out the festal year of Israel. From there, the people would have to wait for the Passover until this set cycle would begin again. Later however, the Feast of Purim would be added at the time of the exile recorded in Esther. This would occur in the twelfth month. And then after that the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah, was instituted for the ninth month of the year. That occurred during the intertestamental period, but it is recorded in John 10.

³⁷ ‘These are the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations,

This is a summary of the entire chapter. The feasts are all considered miqrae qodesh, or “convocations holy,” as was first stated in verses 2-4. These feasts then include the Sabbath, the Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Acclamation, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

^{37 (con’t)} to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day—

Exodus 29 details the daily offerings to be made, every day of the year. Along with those, the feasts had their own offerings added onto the daily offerings. These are recorded in Numbers 28 & 29. The “sacrifice” mentioned along with the burnt and grain offerings would be the sin-offerings noted there, but which are simply called here “a sacrifice.” The sin-offering being the principle sacrifice necessary to atone for the sins of the people.

³⁸ besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the Lord.

The term “besides the Sabbaths of the Lord” is a metonym which speaks of the sacrifices of the Sabbaths. In other words, the required offerings of the feasts did not set aside those required sacrifices. They were to be made in addition to them. The same is true with the people’s gifts, and vow and freewill offerings. Anything which is prescribed or promised for the Lord was to not be set aside just because the feasts had their own offerings.

³⁹ ‘Also

Like verse 27, the verse begins with the Hebrew word akh, translated here as, “also.” It is often used as a restrictive, or limiting word, translated as “only.” Only Yom Kippur and Tabernacles contain akh. Thus, like it, this is a peculiar feast. As it is a limiting word, one must contemplate what is being set apart.

As this is an addendum to the feast which has already been described, it will be that which sets it apart as unique. It would be that which is then recorded in verse 40. A particular rite is directed for the people which is being given for them to remember the past, but it is also for them to look ahead to the future.

^{39 (con’t)} on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land,

The words here look to the other name of this particular pilgrim feast, ha’asiph, or “The Ingathering.” That name was designated in Exodus 23:16, and it is repeated in Exodus 34:22. It is obvious that the feast is intended to be celebrated in the land of Israel, not during the time of the wilderness wanderings. The people were supposed to go straight into Canaan and take possession. However, their disobedience kept them out of that inheritance for 40 years. During this time, the feast could not be kept as intended.

^{39 (con’t)} you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days;

takhogu eth khag Yehovah shivat yamim – “feasting a feast (of) Yehovah seven days.” The idea here is one of great celebration.

^{39 (con’t)} on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest.

Both the first and eighth day were previously called “holy convocations,” and it was said of them that no regular work could be done on them. But the preparation of food is not forbidden. Thus, these are not Sabbaths. The word translated here is shabathon. It is used only 11 times in the Bible, all in Exodus and Leviticus, and all but three are conjoined to the word shabath, or “Sabbath.” That then indicates a sabbath of complete rest. Because this is not conjoined with the word Sabbath, it is not a Sabbath per se, but rather simply a rest. Make a note in your Bible.

The reason for using this word shabathon here is because the seventh month of the year, like the seventh day of the week, and the seventh year of the Sabbatical year cycle, is considered a month of resting. In other words the entire month is consecrated as a special month to the people. Everything about the seventh month has an elevated sense to it. However, unless this day fell on an actual Sabbath day, it was simply a day of rest, and not a Sabbath.

⁴⁰ And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees,

The word akh, or only, of verse 39 is now defined with the instructions of these words. At the feast’s commencement, the people were to take, as it says, “the fruit of beautiful trees.” The word peri, or fruit, is used, but it seems that the term is defined next, and in Nehemiah 8. Rather than speaking of fruit specifically, the idea is the product of the beautiful trees, and thus its branches, and even branches which may still have fruit on them. The word used to describe the trees is hadar. It is introduced here, and it gives the idea of beauty, majesty, glory, splendor, and so on. Thus, these would be ornamental.

^{40 (con’t)} branches of palm trees,

The word “branches” is literally kaph, or “hands.” It is what the appearance of temarim, or palms, looks like. The palm is a symbol of righteousness. Because it stands upright.

^{40 (con’t)} the boughs of leafy trees,

The word anaph, or branch, is introduced here. It will be seen just seven times. It comes from a root meaning “to cover,” just as a branch would cover the limbs beneath them. The word, aboth, or leafy, is also new, and it will be seen just four times. It comes from a root meaning to weave or wrap up, and so you get the idea of a branch filled with intertwining leaves.

^{40 (con’t)} and willows of the brook;

The arav, or willow is also new. It comes from the word arav, which means “pledge” or “surety.” That is connected to the word aravon, or pledge which is found 3 times in Genesis 38, and three times in the New Testament. Though Hebrew, it is transliterated directly into the Greek there in the NT. The word brook is nakhal. That comes from the verb nakhal which indicates to take possession, or inherit. And that in turn comes from nakhalah, or inheritance. These particular branches are specified here and not others. In Nehemiah 8:15, others are mentioned by name, but for now, the Lord is having us focus on these.

^{40 (con’t)} and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.

The feast is a seven-day feast of rejoicing, as it says, liphne Yehovah elohekem, or “in the face of Yehovah your God.”

⁴¹ You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. 

v’khagotem otow khag l’Yehovah shivat yamim ba’shanah – “and feasting it a feast to Yehovah seven days in the year.” The year is that which contains the cycle of redemption. Seven is the number of spiritual perfection.

^{41 (con’t)} It shall be a statute forever in your generations.

The words khuqat olam l’dorotekem, or “statute forever in your generations,” indicate to the vanishing point. Israel was to observe this feast forever, until it reached its fulfillment in Christ. What was mere shadow, is now substance in Him.

^{41 (con’t)} You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

The fifteenth of the seventh month is exactly six months after the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened bread. Thus, there is this marvelous pattern of the two feasts beginning on the day of the full moon, and lasting seven days – exactly one half a year apart from one another.

⁴² You shall dwell in booths for seven days.

The dwelling in booths was for only seven days. The eighth day was the conclusion of the feast, and the booths were no longer used. In other words, the rejoicing in the temporary booths was in anticipation of the day when they would be removed from them into their permanent dwellings. The number eight in the Bible always signifies “new beginnings.” It is this day which was anticipated by the people; awaiting their “new beginning.”

^{42 (con’t)} All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths,

The term ezrakh, or native, comes from the word zarakh, or rise, as in when the sun rises. The meaning is that of one who rises out of Israel. All who rose up from Israel were to dwell in booths. The term, however, is used in Exodus 12:48 when speaking of a stranger dwelling among Israel who participated in circumcision, and then kept the Passover – both of which point Christ’s work.

⁴³ that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt:

Every translation says basically the same thing here, and they are all certainly incorrect. It never says anywhere that they dwelt in sukkoth or “tabernacles” when they were brought out of the land of Egypt. Instead, it says in Exodus 12:37 that the Israelite’s were brought out of Egypt and, “Then the children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth…” This is what they were remembering.

It wasn’t because they dwelt in temporary booths after leaving Egypt. It was because they had left Egypt! Their first stop was Succoth. They were to make booths because they had left Egypt to stay in a place called “Booths,” The verse should read, “… that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in Sukkoth when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

Sukkoth, the name of the location means “Tabernacles.” That day corresponded to the first day of Unleavened Bread, and they passed through the Red Sea on the seventh day of Unleavened Bread. Corresponding to that, is this feast, looking back on that great redemption and deliverance.

^{43 (con’t)} I am the Lord your God.’”

ani Yehovah elohekem – “I am Yehovah your God.” The Lord proclaims His name and position. In essence, what we are being told with these words is, “I am the self-existent Creator. When you see these things fulfilled by Someone in the future, you will know that it is Me. I am Yehovah your God, come to dwell among you.”

*⁴⁴ So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.

The word here is moed, and it should be translated as “appointed times” rather than “feasts.” These are the appointed times of the Lord Jesus. Certain things were to occur at appointed times, because they would occur at set times each year, and they would again occur at set times in the future, when He came.

We are here in Your presence, dwelling in temporary tabernacles
And we are rejoicing in all that You have done for us
A fire is inside to warm us as each ember burns and crackles
We are safely secure as we await the Lord Jesus

Oh to dwell in our eternal home; for this we long
May that day be soon, but we will rejoice until then
Hear our praises; hear our joyous song
Coming forth from the lips of Your redeemed among men

Thank You for our great hope, and the peace it does provide
Thank You for the surety we have in Christ Jesus
In His hope we now patiently abide
Anticipating all that He has prepared for each of us

II. Fulfilled in Christ

This feast, like that of Unleavened Bread, points to Christ’s work as it is displayed in us. Unleavened Bread followed the Passover, and it signified our life in Christ; the process of sanctification. That went from the day after the Passover, and it lasted seven days until the passing through of the Red Sea. It pictured our redemption in Christ (Passover – His sacrificial death), and then our life of sanctification until we pass through death, and the rapture (Unleavened Bread), and are then brought into the Lord’s presence.

This feast is a parallel to that. It follows two other feasts in the seventh month. The first was the Day of Acclamation, picturing Christ’s birth where He came to dwell among us. Then came the Day of Atonement where He died among us, becoming our Sacrifice for sin. With our atonement behind us, we have a new life to live, pictured by Sukkoth, or Tabernacles.

The first thing to understand is that this feast is fulfilled for us in the work of Christ. This is made explicit in John 1:14 (YLT) –

“And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth.”

There John uses the word skénoó, or dwelling in a tent. It is from the same word as that of the Greek translation of the Old Testament for “booths,” or “tabernacles” here in Leviticus 23. In other words, Christ came, put on a tent of flesh, and became a Man. What allows us to participate in this Feast of Tabernacles is that Christ first did so.

The seven days of Unleavened Bread pictured us as unleavened before the Father, living out lives purged of sin. The seven days of Tabernacles pictures us, living in temporary booths, or tabernacles before the Father, awaiting our permanent dwelling. It is the same time frame in both feasts – our life after receiving Christ Jesus. The two feasts simply portray two different aspects of this.

Both occur on the fifteenth day of the month, the time of the full moon. Our true life begins as the brightest moment in our life, represented by the brightly lit night which starts the new day. As the moon begins to wane, so our lives in Christ as mortals do as well, but we are not to despair as we approach the darkness.

The first day is a holy convocation, as is the eighth day. The two holy convocations bracket the feast. They stand as representative of the entire period of the feast. Like Unleavened Bread which is tied to the Passover, the feasts both last seven days. But with an additional day added, thus making eight. The last day for both are a new beginning.

The significance of the sukkah, or tabernacle, is tied into our position in Christ. He came and tabernacled among us. Now for those who are in Him, we are positionally new beings in Christ. Paul explains this in 2 Corinthians 5 –

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Paul uses this same terminology 4 more times to show us that if we are in Christ, we will be like Christ, and we are thus to live as Christ lived. This is our time of dwelling in Sukkoth – redeemed from spiritual Egypt (Passover), sins atoned for (Day of Atonement), and awaiting our new beginning. The mentioning of the required offerings and sacrifices for each day of the feasts, along with the other sacrifices, offerings, and so on, is to show us that the work of Christ was accomplished for us, but it continues to be effectual for us throughout our life in Christ. There is no lack in our spiritual needs, and our salvation is on-going and eternal.

After that, it again returned to the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Ingathering. As it says, “when you have gathered in the fruit of your land.” This doesn’t necessarily mean that all of the harvest is gathered in, and such was not the case in Israel at this time of year, but is reflective of the gathering in of the harvest of the church from beginning to end. Keep thinking of the church age leading to the rapture.

In Deuteronomy 16:15, it specifically says that they were to observe this feast, “…because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.” It was a time of rejoicing because of the blessing of an abundant harvest.” Again, keep thinking of the church age.

The Jews use the term, “Ingathering,” to say that it is representative of the regathering of Israel to the land today. This is wholly incorrect, and it has nothing, zero, zip, nada to do with that. This is a Feast of the Lord, looking to His redemptive work in the church, be it for Jew or Gentile. It is a spiritual harvest, not a physical regathering of Israel. It is the abundance of life in Christ, terminating in our glorification, that is being anticipated here.

Next in verse 39, it said, “on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest.” As the first and final days stand as representative of the entire feast, this then teaches us that our rest is in Christ and His work. The entire time of our life in Christ, we are free from working for salvation, because we have been saved.

After noting that, came the directive, that on the first day the people were to take “the fruit of beautiful trees.” They were to select specific named trees which would reflect the hadar, or majesty, of what the Lord would do in, and for, us. The word peri, or fruit, is used to signify the product of these beautiful trees in our lives. Paul explains this several times, but Philippians 1 gives a beautiful example of it –

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, ¹⁰ that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, ¹¹ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11

Next were named the kapot temarim, or hands of palm trees. This reflects a state granted to us by the hand of God, Christ’s righteousness, all because of our faith in Christ. That is seen many times in the New Testament, but Romans 4 speaks of it in exacting detail. We are granted Christ’s righteousness; it was imputed to us.

After this were anaph ets aboth, or boughs of trees leafy. The leaves being so abundant, they form a cover. The New Testament parallel is obvious. Paul explains it in Romans 4 –

“But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, ⁶ just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
⁸ Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.” Romans 4:6-8

And then next were noted arve nakhal, or willows of the brook. As I said, the arav, or willow, comes from the word arav, which means “pledge” or “surety.” That is connected to the word aravon, or pledge which is found transliterated three times in the New Testament. It means pledge or guarantee. All three times in the New Testament, it speaks of the pledge of the Holy Spirit, given to believers who put their faith in Christ. In one of the three times, Paul directly ties our being in a tent with the aravon, or guarantee. In fact, the words of Paul here show us the complete fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles… all because of the work of Christ –

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, ³ if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. ⁴ For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 5:4, 5

You talk about eternal salvation! Here it is in these Old Testament pictures! The second word used, nakhal, signifies an inheritance. That is used, in conjunction with aravon, in Ephesians 1:13, 14 –

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

It is more than amazing, but rather it is of divine perfection that the same Old Testament words that are joined together here in Leviticus are joined with their New Testament counterparts in 2 Corinthians and Ephesians. The trees specifically named here were chosen because of what the root words they come from signify. In turn, what they signify is then used in the New Testament to then point us specifically to the work of Christ. This is all the more evident, because other trees could be used, but they go unnamed here. In Nehemiah, we read this –

And they found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, ¹⁵ and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.” Nehemiah 8:14,15

In the law, explaining the feasts, the trees are named for a reason, unlocking the reason leads us directly to the fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Next in verse 40, the people are directed to rejoice. They are not asked to do so; it is an imperative – “you shall rejoice before the Lord your God,” and they are to do it for seven days, signifying the entire time of their dwelling in their temporary tent. That is literally fulfilled in the words of Paul in Philippians 4:4 –

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”

There, the words are present, imperative, active. You shall rejoice, you shall do it now, and you shall continue to rejoice. We are to rejoice in the Lord, meaning Jesus – the Fulfiller of the Feast. Paul repeats the sentiment in 1 Thessalonians 5:16, the shortest verse in the Bible – pantote chairete, “Rejoice always!” Let us ever do so!

The word then tells us that we are to be feasting a feast to Yehovah for seven days in the year. In other words, in the prophetic plan of redemption, there is a moment in time when we exist. When we come to Christ, we are to feast our feast to Jesus during that moment in time. Again, let us ever do so!

The Feast of Tabernacles is fulfilled by Christ for us, just as the Feast of Unleavened Bread is. Even though we have not seen the consummation of it yet, it is His completed work which allows it for us. Israel of old was told to observe the feast as a statute forever throughout their generations. In Christ is the fulfillment of the shadow. Now we have the substance to keep for all our lives.

Verse 42 again said that they were to dwell in booths for seven days. We are to dwell in these temporary, and yet beautiful bodies in Christ, throughout our earthly lives. We are to live in anticipation of that great eighth day when we receive our “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” This is speaking of our permanent, glorified bodies. It will be on the eighth day, the day of new beginnings.

Verse 43 then ended with the thought that “All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths.” I explained then that the term ezrakh, or native, comes from zarakh, or rise. The meaning is that it is one who rises out of Israel. For those who are grafted into Israel, as Paul explains in Romans 11, we are included in this admonition. We have been circumcised not of the flesh, but of the heart, because Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

The last verse of the feast instructions, verse 43 was given as a reminder that we are to dwell in booths because when the Lord brought us out of Egypt, meaning spiritual bondage, He first delivered us to Sukkoth. We were made new creatures in Christ at that moment, and so we are to live as new creatures in Christ until we are brought to our final state of glorification.

The verse ended with the words, “I am the Lord your God.” In proclaiming His name and position in conjunction with these feasts, we are to know that Christ Jesus, who fulfilled these feasts, is the Lord our God. So ends the Feast of Tabernacles, and indeed all of the feasts of the Lord.

In the waving of the palm branches, and in the cries of “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” Israel was proclaiming what this feast anticipates. But so few of them followed through with it. And so God turned His eyes to the Gentiles until the time when Israel would again be grafted into the olive tree. And in the millennial reign of Christ, the one feast which will be mandatory to be observed by all nations is this Feast of Tabernacles. That is recorded in Zechariah –

“And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁷ And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. ¹⁸ If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁹ This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.” Zechariah 14:16-19

It will be a thousand year long reminder that the Lord who came to tabernacle among us, is there with them, dwelling in their midst. But that is not the end of the story. In the book of Revelation, the final chapter of this marvelous story is written. Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible takes us to the glory which lies ahead for the redeemed of the Lord –

“…and I heard a great voice out of the heaven, saying, ‘Lo, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them — their God.” Revelation 21:3

Concerning the Feast of Sukkoth, or Tabernacles, in Christ we proclaim, “Feast fulfilled.” Concerning all of the Feasts of the Lord named in Leviticus 23, in Christ we proclaim, “Feasts fulfilled.” As I have said repeatedly through these Feast of the Lord sermons, they are fulfilled. They are done, and we are exhorted by Paul to not worry about observing them in a physical manner. In doing so, all that can do is put up a wall between us and our Creator.

Instead, we are to trust in Christ, rest in Christ, and be thankful to God for the finished work of Christ. And in fact, we are, if living properly as Christians, living out these feasts as they were fully intended to be by observing them in our spiritual walk. We are in a temporary booth, covered with the glory of Christ, and awaiting our final, eternal tabernacle.

If you have never taken the step of faith and received Jesus as Savior, you are not a part of what God is doing in this world, nor will you share in heaven’s riches when Christ comes for His people. I would ask you today to consider what you have heard and to do the wise thing by being reconciled to God through the work of Jesus Christ.

Closing Verse: Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home,
A tabernacle that will not be taken down;
Not one of its stakes will ever be removed,
Nor will any of its cords be broken.
²¹ But there the majestic Lord will be for us
A place of broad rivers and streams,
In which no galley with oars will sail,
Nor majestic ships pass by
²² (For the Lord is our Judge,
The Lord is our Lawgiver,
The Lord is our King;
He will save us); Isaiah 33:20-22

Next Week: Leviticus 24:1-9 Beautiful verses to fill your head...(The Holy Oil and the Holy Bread) (43^rd Leviticus Sermon)

The Lord has you exactly where He wants you. He has a good plan and purpose for you. Even if you have a lifetime of sin heaped up behind you, He can wash it away and purify you completely and wholly. So follow Him and trust Him and He will do marvelous things for you and through you.

Tabernacles

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying
These are the words He was then relaying 

“Speak to the children of Israel, saying:
‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month, hear now this word
Shall be the Feast of Tabernacles
For seven days to the Lord 

On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, so I submit
You shall do no customary work on it 

For seven days you shall offer an offering
Made by fire to the Lord, according to this word
On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation
And you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord

It is a sacred assembly, according to the sacred writ
And you shall do no customary work on it

‘These are the feasts of the Lord
To be holy convocations which you shall proclaim
To offer an offering made by fire to the Lord
A burnt offering and a grain offering, each by its name

A sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day—
Besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, so hear the word
Besides your gifts, besides all your vows
And besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the Lord

‘Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month
When you have gathered in the fruit of the land
You shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days
On the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, please understand

And on the eighth day a sabbath-rest
As to you I now attest

And you shall take for yourselves
On the first day the fruit of beautiful trees
Branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees
And willows of the brook; choose as many as you please

And you shall before the Lord your God rejoice
For seven days you shall raise a festive voice 

You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord
For seven days in the year
It shall be a statute forever in your generations
You shall celebrate it in the seventh month
——- when the seventh month does appear

You shall dwell in booths for seven days as to you I tell
All who are native Israelites shall in booths dwell

That your generations may know
That I made to dwell in booths the children of Israel
When I brought them out of the land of Egypt:
I am the Lord your God, and so to you these things I tell

So Moses declared to the children of Israel
The feasts of the Lord; so to them these things he did tell

Lord God, you came and did tabernacle among us
You put on garments of flesh, and with us You did dwell
Praises to You for our Lord, the Lord Jesus
What an incredible story the Bible does tell

Now we too dwell in a temporary tent
Living out our lives with an eternal guarantee
And when our lives are over; our last breath is spent
We shall be glorified forever; throughout eternity

Hallelujah to the Lamb of God
Hallelujah to our atonement covering
Hallelujah, to Christ our King we applaud
And to His majesty we shall forever sing

Hallelujah and Amen…

Leviticus 23:26-32
The Feasts of the Lord
The Day of Atonement

In 1967 Thomas A Harris wrote a self-help book which became a best seller. Does anyone remember the name of it? It was “I’m OK – You’re OK.” It sold over 15 million copies. The main theme and idea of the book is, “I feel good about myself and feel you’re pretty OK as well.”

The LA Times said, “Extraordinary. Harris has helped millions find the freedom to change, liberate their adult effectiveness, and achieve joyful intimacy with others.” Self-help books like this may make us feel good in a shallow way, just as a Joel Osteen sermon may do, but they certainly don’t do anything in helping us achieve joyful intimacy with God. In fact, they will inevitably leave us in a worse condition than when we began because the ever-nagging idea which is in all of us is that there is a God, and we can never know if we are OK with Him or not.

This is true with every religion on the planet as well. In the end, all of them but one attempt to resolve this problem in an upward way. We do things in order to appease God. In theological terminology, it is called “works-based salvation.” Works-based salvation is the defining element of every single religious expression known to man with but one exception – biblical Christianity.

It defines many sects within the greater umbrella of Christianity as well, but these cannot be considered “biblical Christianity,” meaning that which is based on what God has stated in His word. Although offensive to many to list these various subsects, it is actually inappropriate to not do so. Unless someone knows they are not acting in accord with God’s rules, they will never know how to act and respond accordingly.

A classic example of works-based salvation is Roman Catholicism. Their faith is defined in their own canons, and these canons of Roman Catholic law state explicitly that which is contrary to the Bible. An example of this is found in seven of the canons from their Counsel of Trent. Some of them are a bit wordy, but one will suffice to demonstrate this –

“Canon 12. If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be anathema.”

What they have declared anathema is the very heart of the gospel message. If you’re not sure if I’m telling the truth, take a moment to read Ephesians 2:8, 9, or Galatians 2:16, or a host of other verses which clearly teach this.

Canon 12, along with several other canons from Trent actually declares the Apostle Paul anathema, or consigned to damnation. One of the canons would do the same to Jesus. But as Jesus is the ultimate Author of Scripture, all of the same canons implicitly damn Him as well – not a good place to be in when one must stand before the One they have damned with their words, but who will do the actual damning of their eternal souls.

Text Verse: “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, ¹⁷ which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” Colossians 2:16, 17

My brother, Ethan, once drove by a billboard that had a picture of Christ on the cross on it. Along with that was the question, “If I’m OK and you’re OK, what am I doing up here?” Think it through. If we could work our way back to God, and I mean if even one person on this planet and in all ages of human history could work his way back to God, then what would be the point of sending Jesus? If one person could do it, then it would entirely negate the purpose of the cross. The God/Man would have wasted His time, spent His effort vainly, shed His blood without need, and given up His breath in futility. But God is wiser than that.

He saw the need, He understood man’s inability to meet that need, and He sent His only begotten and beloved Son to take care of the problem. The pain of the cross is the only way that God can say to us, “I’m Ok – You’re OK.” It is this, and no other way. God did the work, man must do the believing – so the Bible does say. Why is that so hard for people to understand?

Let us put aside our prideful deeds and trust in the finished, and all sufficient atoning work of the Lord Jesus. It is a moment in history which was prefigured by a particular Feast of the Lord, the record of which is found in His superior word. And so let’s turn to that precious word once again and… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement

²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

The words indicate that an entirely new feast is introduced. In other words, this is not a continuation of the Feast of Acclamation which was detailed in the previous three verses. Instead, it is a stand alone feast day which is to be heralded in as such.

²⁷ “Also

The verse begins with the Hebrew word akh, translated here as, “also.” It is often used as a restrictive, or limiting word, translated as “only.” Only this feast, and the next-to-be-described feast of Sukkoth, begin with akh. It thus signifies that this is a peculiar feast. As it is a limiting word, one must contemplate what part of the verse is being set apart. Is it “Only on the tenth day of the month;” is it “Only it shall be a holy convocation;” is it “Only you shall afflict your souls;” or is it, “Only there shall be an offering by fire to the Lord.”?

As a specific day is set apart for other feasts, it is surely not referring to the set day. On other feasts there are holy convocations, and on other feasts there are offerings by fire to the Lord. Therefore, it appears that the stress is laid upon the words, “you shall afflict your souls.”

This alone is unique to the feast days recorded here. And in fact, the term is used three times in these six verses. There is a stress upon it that is not to be overlooked or ignored. In fact, the word anah, or afflict, is used five times in the book of Leviticus, and all five are in either Chapter 16, or in these eight verses, all dealing with the Day of Atonement.

The word carries several meanings, but it gives the sense of looking down or browbeating. Thus, it here signifies to humble or abase oneself. There was to be no self-exaltation on this day, but rather the people were to avow their lowly state before the Lord.

^{27 (con’t)} the tenth day of this seventh month 

The specific day is selected, it was to commence at evening of the ninth day of the month of Ethanim (later known as Tishri), and continue until the evening of the tenth day. This is not because it has a future fulfillment in Christ, but because of what it signifies in Christ. As we have already gone through the Day of Atonement guidelines which were given in chapter 16, we know that this day was fulfilled in Christ’s crucifixion. That did not occur on the tenth day of the seventh month. Rather it occurred on the fourteenth day of the first month. However, atonement logically follows redemption. A person is redeemed, and then the sins are atoned for, even if these things happen simultaneously in God’s mind.

The Day of Atonement is logically prior to the Feast of Sukkoth, which commences on the fifteenth day of this same month. Sukkoth, as we will see, pictures Christ dwelling in a tabernacle of flesh, and His people dwelling with Him. This could not be realized, in its fullest, until after our sins are atoned for. Thus, this feast precedes that of Sukkoth.

This is an important point to remember because, as we have noted before, it is a common claim that the three fall feasts are not yet fulfilled in Christ, and they will only be fulfilled in His second advent. This is false, and it is heresy. To say that Christ has not fulfilled these feasts is to say that Christ did not fulfill the law. Thus, the law is still binding on us. But Christ is the end of the law for all who believe. There is no future fulfillment of these feasts, even if there are continuing applications of them. Christ died once for all sinners, but each sinner’s Day of Atonement comes on whatever day they come to Christ. It is gigantic error to say that these feasts are yet to be fulfilled.

^{27 (con’t)} shall be the Day of Atonement.

The Hebrew is only three words, yom ha’kippurim hu – “Day Atonements it.” Yom means “day.” Ha’kippurim means, “the expiations,” or “the atonements,” it being a plural word.

This word is identical with kopher, which has several interconnected meanings, all of which signify a covering. It can be a bribe (where a bribe covers the eyes of the one bribed); it can be pitch – as in bitumen; it can be henna – as in dyeing; or it can be a ransom, or a satisfaction. Each of these is connected to the word kaphar from which kopher comes. Kaphar indicates “to appease,” or “to atone.”

Considering all of this, we can see that this is a day in which sins are covered over, carried away, and a ransom is made in order to satisfy or appease the wrath of God. If one looks at Christ’s work in this light, he can see that before the covering, God saw flaw. Once the covering is made, God only sees that which made the covering.

This is why Paul uses the term “in Christ.” When God looks at us, He does not see us in the state we are – fallen and wayward. Rather, He sees Christ’s covering of us and nothing more. We have been ransomed, we are covered, we are deemed as flawless – all because of Another; all because of Christ.

In order for this to happen though, Christ first had to cover us. It is in His cross that this atonement occurred. It is the most solemn day in all of human history. Therefore, in anticipation of that day, each year Israel would observe the Day of Atonement. They were informed that on this most holy and particular day…

^{27 (con’t)} It shall be a holy convocation for you;

miqra qodesh yihyeh – “convocation holy it shall be.” This repeats verse 2 of this chapter which said, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.” The Lord designated certain days to be holy convocations, and this particular day was to be one of them. However, unlike all of the others, this one has a very specific and important guideline…

^{27 (con’t)} you shall afflict your souls,

v’initem eth napshotekem – “and you shall afflict your souls.” These words are exactly repeated four times in Leviticus and Numbers, and all refer to the Day of Atonement. The mandate was first given in verse 16:29. It is generally accepted that “afflict your souls” means to fast. The people were to deny themselves food. However, it certainly also included refraining from any other pleasures, and also an active affliction of remembering the sins of the past year and mourning over them. In Acts 27:9, this day is referred to as tēn Nēsteian, or “the fast,” thus signifying the manner in which this day was conducted. But the word has a greater meaning in Christ where the word anah, or afflict, is used twice concerning this exact scene –

“Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
⁸ He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.” Isaiah 53:4-8

As Christ was so afflicted, the people were to anticipate that august life and atoning sacrifice with the afflicting of their own souls. They were not to do any work of any kind as well, acknowledging that they were in a state of affliction. Nothing regular was to be done, but rather this was to be a high Sabbath.

^{27 (con’t)} and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

v’hiqravtem isheh l’Yehovah – “and offer an offering by fire to Yehovah.” The offerings mentioned here are more than just those given in Leviticus 16. Others were required, in addition to the regular daily offerings. Numbers 29 gives the specific offerings which were to be presented to the Lord –

“You shall present a burnt offering to the Lord as a sweet aroma: one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year. Be sure they are without blemish. ⁹ Their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the one ram, ¹⁰ and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs; ¹¹ also one kid of the goats as a sin offering, besides the sin offering for atonement, the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings.” Numbers 29:8-11

These then are the total offerings which were presented to the Lord. In type and picture, every detail points to the Person and work of Christ.

²⁸ And you shall do no work on that same day,

v’kal melakah lo ta’asu b’etsem ha’yom ha’zeh – “and all work no shall you do the bone the day that.” It sounds odd when literally translated, but the word etsem, or bone, means “the same.” This goes back to Genesis 2:23 when Adam declared that Eve was “bone of my bones.” In other words, they were of the same substance. That then carries on in the Hebrew language to reflect that which is the same. And so, on this same day which has just been described, no work was to be done. This is more than regular work, but all work. Though not a Saturday Sabbath, it was to be a high Sabbath of resting unto the Lord.

^{28 (con’t)} for it is the Day of Atonement,

ki yom kippurim hu – “for Day Atonements it.” Again, the word kippurim is plural. It signifies “expiations.” On this day, all sins and transgressions for all the repentant souls were atoned for.

^{28 (con’t)} to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.

l’kapher alekem liphne Yehovah elohekem – “to cover you before the face Yehovah your God.” The words are not uncommon, but they should be explained. When the Lord’s face is turned towards someone, it can be a bad thing or a good thing. In Leviticus 20:6, it says –

“And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.” Leviticus 20:6

That is bad news. However, the Lord’s face can signify blessing as well. This is seen, for example, in the Aaronic Blessing found in Numbers 6 –

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
²⁵ The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
²⁶ The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”’ Numbers 6:24-26

That is good news. The difference in the two is how the person is viewed by the Lord. In the case of a sinner, one cannot stand before the face of the Lord and find blessing. But when one’s sins are covered, or atoned for, then what He sees is the covering, not the one covered. This is the purpose of atonement. It is to bring warring parties back together again, and hence it is an act and rite of at-one-ment in a very real sense.

It should be obvious, that the term “make atonement for you” is referring only to the people of Israel. They were the chosen nation, and they alone were covered by the Lord’s annual provision which occurred on this sacred day. However, this is the type, and then there is the Antitype. The atoning sacrifice of Christ, the fulfillment of what is seen here, is sufficient for all people and at all times who will come to Him by faith. John clearly and specifically states this in his first epistle –

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ² And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 John 2:1, 2

The Greek word translated there as “propitiation” means, “atoning sacrifice.” It is Christ who is the atoning sacrifice for the whole world; for any who will simply come. The word “propitiation” in English literally means “to appease.” Thus one can again see how God’s wrath is appeased in Christ’s covering of us, thus allowing us to be acceptable as we stand in the face of the Lord.

²⁹ For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people.

The Hebrew begins the verse with ki kal ha’nephesh asher lo t’unneh, or “For all the soul which no be afflicted.” The soul stands for the person, but it is the soul which shall be cut off from the people. The phrase is used six times in Leviticus to indicate excision from the people of Israel, and it is important that consistency of these words be maintained. What is important here is what this pictures. In the Antitype, Christ, there is the truth that any who will not come to Him will be cut off from the presence of God. It is the soul which is eternal, and that soul will be lost unless the afflictions of Christ are imputed to him. If not, then only the option of eternal separation from the presence of God is left.

All of this effort in presenting to the world these ancient types and pictures, and all of the centuries of Israel’s history, has been compiled to show us the immense importance of not missing what God would do in the Person of Jesus. When we hurriedly read through these often difficult passages, we miss the importance of what God is attempting to relay to us. But every word is calling out to us to consider and act. This then makes it so immensely sad when people reject Christ’s work, as if it is somehow insufficient to save, and they fall back on observing these mere shadows. What a dishonor to God to do so. What a rejection of the horrors of the cross! And so, what a horrifying place to find oneself.

³⁰ And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.

Again, instead of “person,” the word “soul” is used twice in this verse, and it is for the same reason as before. The soul is eternal. The doctrine of anthropological hylomorphism teaches that a person is a soul/body unity. The soul can be, and is, separated from the body when the body dies.

However, the soul lives on in an unnatural state. But though unnatural, it does live on. A soul which is destroyed then means “lost.” One can get a future taste of what Revelation speaks of with the words, limnen tou puros, or “Lake of Fire.” Everything that Israel faced in a physical manner is realized in a spiritual reality for the greater world. Scary stuff for those who should care, but as of yet still don’t, or for those who do care, but have been misled about the way to avoid that terrible fate.

The prohibition here is for any and all kinds of work. This day alone was set aside as a special Sabbath-type day. Not even meals could be made, which was something allowed on the other holy convocations. This was to be a unique and awesome day for the people to remember and keep. This is made explicit with…

³¹ You shall do no manner of work;

kal melakah lo taasu – “all work no shall you do.” The repetition is a Hebraic way of stressing the point. We might stress this by saying, “You are absolutely not to do any work on that day.” But in the Hebrew manner, repeating the same thing is such a stress.

Two points about this. First, by default, the priests were exempt from this absolute prohibition, because it is they who had to do the work for the people in conducting the rituals for atonement. Secondly, as the priests are representatives of the Lord, then the work that they do is all-sufficient for the accomplishment of the needed atonement.

In other words, right here in this prohibition is seen the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith – an all-sufficient salvation. The priest’s work is, in type, that of Christ Jesus, our true High Priest. That was exta-supercalifragilisticexpialidociously seen in our evaluation of Leviticus 16. Every detail of what the priest did was, point by point, fulfilled in the life and work of Christ.

Therefore, as the admonition to do no work, of any kind, at all, in any way, and without exception, is given to the people of Israel, then it is a clear, precise, and absolute picture of our not doing any work, of any kind, at all, in any way, and without exception, in order to be saved. There is no “I” in this equation. It is completely and absolutely the work of the High Priest, and His work alone, which brings about our atonement and the propitious, blessed relationship that we experience with God. Will somebody please say, “Amen.”

^{31 (con’t)} it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

khuqat olam l’dorotekem b’kol mo-she-vo-tekem – “statute forever to your generations in all your dwellings.” The phrase khuqat olam, or “statute forever,” has been explained quite a few times, but it must be explained again just in case its meaning has leaked out of your ear. The word olam gives the sense of “to the vanishing point.” “Throughout your generations” means that it was to be continuous and without interruption. “All your dwellings” means that it applies to all Israel without exception. As a Feast of the Lord, it was an annual anticipatory look to the time when Christ would come and fulfill it. At that time, the shadow would become substance. With the introduction of the New Covenant, this has come to its vanishing point; it is fulfilled and annulled in Christ.

However, what it pictures continues on in Christ. No person may work in order to receive the blessing of entering the presence of God. All people must rest in the finished work of Christ alone, and none can receive His mediation as our High Priest without receiving His all-sufficient atoning sacrifice by faith alone. The pattern is set, the word is written, the decision is final. All Christ, only Christ, and in Christ alone.

³² It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest,

shabbath shabbathon hu lakem – “Sabbath complete rest it to you.” This exact same phrase, with one minor difference, is given in Leviticus 16:31 as well. Here it says, shabbath shabbathon hu lakem; there it says shabbath shabbathon hi lakem. Why is it a hi and not a hu? What with this are we to do? If you’re not sure, then why am I asking you?

Not understanding the nuances of this, and as not one scholar that I know of has commented on this difference, I picked up the ipad and called Sergio in Israel. Fortunately, he was having a pastor’s conference at his house, and with a little back and forth, the explanation rose up to meet my ears. The word hi or hu in either form means “it.” However, hi in verse 16:31 is tied to the feminine word Sabbath. Here in 23:32 it is tied to the masculine word shabbaton, or “complete rest.” Why did the Lord change hi to hu? Again, if you don’t know, then why am I asking you?

The reason why is because in Leviticus 16:31 the focus is on the Sabbath; here it is on Rest. Christ is our Sabbath rest, that is made explicit in Hebrews 4:3 – “For we who have believed do enter that rest…” That was explained, in detail, in our Sabbath sermons, including the one from Leviticus 23:3.

However, the change from hi to hu here is obvious from the context. What has been the constant admonition during these instructions? No work! God has given us an amazing insight into Christ and His work. First, He is our Sabbath Rest – we rest in Him positionally. But Christ is also the end of the law for all who believe. He has done the work, we find our rest in Him actually. The focus goes from Christ our place of Rest, to Christ because of Whom we rest.

^{32 (con’t)} and you shall afflict your souls;

This is the third and final time that anah, or “afflict,” is mentioned in this passage. The repetition is given to demonstrate to the people that simply fasting is not enough to meet the demands of this holy day. Not only were they to not work, but they were to actively afflict their souls. Doing one, but not doing the other was insufficient. Not working anticipated our not working for salvation; afflicting their souls anticipated our acceptance of Christ’s afflictions for our atonement.

^{32 (con’t)} on the ninth day of the month at evening,

The words here explain the words of verse 27. The tenth day of the month means the ninth day of the month at evening. If this went unstated, then one might assume that it was meant to be commenced on the evening of the tenth. Such is not the case. Instead, a day goes…

^{32 (con’t)} from evening to evening,

m’erev ad erev – “from evening to evening.” The day starts in the evening of the ninth, and goes through until the evening of the tenth. The pattern was established at the creation. A day is from evening to evening according to the Hebrew reckoning of a day.

This is why, even from the first day of creation, and even before the sun and the moon were set in place to show us an evening or a morning, that the record says, “So the evening and the morning were the first day.” The pattern was set in God’s mind before creation, so that we would know that in the creation, a literal day is meant for each day of the creation. The logic is not to be missed, and yet often is. It is in this unchanging 24-hour period that the day is reckoned, and so it is with the evening of the ninth day of the seventh month at evening…

*^32 (fin) you shall celebrate your sabbath.”

tishbetu shabatekem – “resting in your day of rest.” These words explain exactly what was referred to earlier with the change of hi to hu when speaking of the Sabbath of complete rest. Christ is our Sabbath rest, and we are to rest – meaning not work – in Him. Instead, we are to live by faith in what He has done and not attempt to merit God’s favor through deeds of the law.

For the previous 11 months and 29 days, the Israelites had worked under the law to obtain God’s favor, and none of them succeeded. For them, only wrath and indignation could result from their inability to keep the law. But God gave them grace. On this momentous and august day which came each year, they were to do nothing but rest and afflict their souls.

And this was totally up to them. They would be scattered throughout the land of Israel, and for many, nobody but they alone would know if they had actually refrained from work and food, and if they had also actively afflicted their souls.

In other words, this Day of days was a day of faith. It would be between their hearts and God. Would they come by faith in their minds to Jerusalem and accept the atoning sacrifice which was being made for them? Or would they continue on in their own futile attempts at pleasing God and/or just living life without regard to Him, ignoring His word, and find only deserved condemnation lay ahead?

The choice was theirs, and the same choice is ours today. For you, what will it be? Will you rest in the complete rest which is found in Christ? Please, come to the cross of Christ and put away the vain struggle which separates you from Him. The Day of Atonement was only a picture of what was to come in the Person and work of Christ. Concerning the Day of Atonement, in Christ we proclaim, “Feast fulfilled.”

There is no future fulfillment of this feast in the nation of Israel. If you have been taught that, you have been misled. Christ is the end of the law, including this portion of it. Atonement has been secured, and each may now access that gift of God, but you must act. There is no blanket covering. God expects you to reach out by faith and receive the work of His Son. And then He expects you to rest in that completed work, once and for all. Come to the cross, give up the law which died there, and be reconciled once and forever to our heavenly Father.

Closing Verse: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:9-11

Next Week: Leviticus 23:33-44 Forever in the presence of God, free from the devil’s shackles… (The Feasts of the Lord, Tabernacles) (42^nd Leviticus Sermon)

The Lord has you exactly where He wants you. He has a good plan and purpose for you. Even if you have a lifetime of sin heaped up behind you, He can wash it away and purify you completely and wholly. So follow Him and trust Him and He will do marvelous things for you and through you.

This week’s lesson to remember: For those in Christ, God can say to us “I’m OK – You’re OK – All is AOK.” And as a point of commendation for God, Thomas Harris sold 15 million copies of a book that is now all but forgotten. The Bible has been printed over 5 billion times, probably much over, and it is still being sold, downloaded, internet searched, and printed billions of times a year. The most printed, read, studied, and loved book in all of human history is the Word of God! Go God!

The Day of Atonement

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
These are the words He was then relaying

“Also the tenth day of this seventh month
Shall be the Day of Atonement
It shall be a holy convocation for you
This is how it shall be spent

You shall afflict your souls, according to this word
And offer an offering made by fire to the Lord

And on that same day you shall do no work
For it is the Day of Atonement, such is this day
To make atonement for you
Before the Lord your God, as to you I now say

For any person who is not afflicted in soul in this way
On that same day shall be cut off from his people, so I say

And any person who does any work
On that same day, pay heed to my word
That person I will destroy from among his people
When my anger he has stirred

You shall do no manner of work
It shall be a statute forever
Throughout your generations in all your dwellings
From this statute, you shall deviate never

It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest
And you shall your souls afflict
On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening
You shall celebrate your sabbath, according to this edict

O God, through Christ we are restored to You again
Our sins are covered, we have atonement
The gift of the cross shouts out to all men
The enmity is ceased, and the wrath has been spent

Thank You for what our Lord has done
Thank You that we are no longer laden with guilt
Through Calvary’s cross, our victory is won
There when Christ’s precious blood was spilt

Praises to You, endless praises, even forevermore
Praise to You from here on earth, and even to heaven’s shore

Hallelujah and Amen…