The Appointed Times of I AM

A word of explanation: The Hebrew name of God is יהוה) YHWH). The English translation of this word is I AM. I have decided to use I AM as the name of God in my writings.

Lev. 23.1-2 says that I AM spoke to Moses, telling him that there were to be seven appointed times which he should proclaim to be holy convocations. These seven are Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Weeks, Trumpets, Yom Kippur (Day of Covering), and Tabernacles or Booths. Some of them were also called feasts or festivals, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Tabernacles. Each of the seven has historical meaning for the Jewish people, but they also form a pattern that begins with their ancient history and goes into what is still future at this time. That is, they are prophetic. They begin with God’s plan of redemption, but go on to his ultimate goal for his people, Jews and Christians. Most importantly for us as Christians, they all are types of the Lord Jesus in some way. These times have great meaning for Christians, but we will begin with their meaning for the Jews. We will deal with each appointed time separately and then deal with their prophetic meaning. Let me add that there have been numerous changes to these appointed times made by the Jews over the centuries. I am limiting myself to what the Bible prescribes and not dealing with later additions. The chapter mentioned above, Lev. 23, lists all seven of the appointed times and gives some details about each one.

Pesach, the Feast of Passover

In Ex. 12.1-13 I AM gives the command to observe an appointed time called Passover. V. 1 notes that the people of Israel were still in Egypt when the command was given. Egypt was the place of their bondage. They had been made slaves by the Pharaohs of Egypt, and they were suffering greatly under cruel taskmasters. God heard their cries and sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them, but also to judge the Egyptians in the process.

Then God tells Moses and Aaron in vs. 2-3 that the month in which Passover is to be celebrated is the Jewish month Nisan (our March-April) and that this month is to be the first month of their year from this point on. Formerly the first month of the year came in our September-October, the Jewish Tishri. The fact that God changes the beginning of the year tells us that this day was a new beginning spiritually, a new beginning as a redeemed people.

On the tenth day of this month of Nisan each family was to take a lamb or a kid and keep it till the fourteenth day. The lamb or kid must be a male one year old and it must be unblemished. The age of the offering indicates that it should be in the strength of its youth. And it would not be acceptable to offer God something that is blemished, as set forth in Mal. 1.8. Probably the keeping of the lambs or kids for four days was to provide a time of testing to examine the sacrifices and make sure they were unblemished and fit for offering to God.

On the fourteenth day every family was to kill the lamb or kid in the evening, at sunset, as Dt. 16.6 says. Every Israelite had a hand in the killing. Then they were to take some of the blood and put it on the lintel and doorposts of their houses. It was not enough for the lamb just to be killed. That would not save the people. They had to be under the blood, identifying themselves with the slain animal. In effect, Israel died that night. Ex. 4.22 says that Israel is God’s firstborn. Just as he literally killed all the firstborn of Egypt, so he killed Israel symbolically and spiritually. A lamb died in their place. They came out a new people, a redeemed people.

Then they were to eat the flesh that night roasted with fire, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The roasting of the lambs and kids in fire paints a picture. Fire in the Bible symbolizes judgment. Just as God judged Egypt that night, so he judged Israel symbolically. They were identified with the lambs and in them went through the fire, but they were not killed literally because they were under the blood.

The unleavened bread indicates that they were to be ready to leave Egypt in haste when the death angel went through Egypt striking the firstborn of every man and beast. God knew that Pharaoh would change his mind about letting Israel go, so he told his people to be ready to leave in haste. There would be no time to put yeast into their dough and allow it to rise. The bitter herbs would remind the people of their bitter suffering in Egypt, and perhaps also that the lambs had to suffer for them.

V. 9 tells us that the entire animal was to be roasted in fire. Later on God would give Israel a sacrificial system. One of the sacrifices would be the whole burnt offering in which the entire animal was to be burned. It is interesting that the Greek word for whole burnt offering in the Greek translation of the Old Testament is holocaust. That holocaust, that whole burnt offering, is a symbol that the Israelite making the sacrifice was giving his whole self to God. He was a whole burnt offering symbolically.

V. 10 says that the Israelites were not to leave any of the meat until morning, but to burn any leftovers with fire. This pictures the holy nature of this sacrifice. It was to be eaten as a feast to God only and not as common, everyday food.

V. 11 says that they were to eat the Passover with their loins girded, their sandals on, and their staff in hand, and to eat it in haste. This again shows the need to be ready to go on a moment’s notice. Having the loins girded comes from the clothing they wore in those days. They did not wear pants as we do, but robes. When it came time to work, or to go out in haste, they would tie their robes up around their waist and loin area to make it easier to work.

All this leads up to v. 12. God would go through the land of Egypt that night and strike dead all the firstborn of man and beast, including the Israelites if any were not under the blood. Furthermore, he would judge all the gods of Egypt. As a side note, might this judging of the gods of Egypt have something to do with 2 Pt. 2.4 and Jude 6?

V. 13 emphasizes the importance of the blood and tells us where the name Passover comes from – “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” Passover. It was all about the blood.

Ex. 12.43-49 sets forth the ordinance of Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it; a Jew’s slave purchased with money, after he has been circumcised, may eat of it; a sojourner or a hired laborer may not eat of it; it is to be eaten in a house and not taken out of it; no bone of it is to be broken; all Israelites are to partake; a sojourner who has all his males circumcised will be as a native of the land and may partake; this one law applies to native and sojourner.

V. 46 says that Passover must be eaten in a house and none may be taken outside, and that not a bone of it is to be broken. This points to the unity and exclusivity of God’s people. They are one people and are in God’s house. There were many houses and families, but one people. Men may fall out with each other and create divisions, but in God’s sight all his people are one body. They are not to be broken. No one who is not of God’s people may enter the house of God, and remember that the house of God is not a building, but the people of God. He dwells in his people (Is. 66.1, Eph. 2.22).

We do not hear of circumcision in discussions of Passover, but Ex. 12.43-49, just referred to, indicates that all the males must be circumcised to partake of Passover. The matter of circumcision is very important in this context. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham given by God to Abraham in Gen. 17, but it was not just a physical requirement. The physical was a symbol of the more important matter of the heart. We see the heart matter in several passages in the Old Testament. Lev. 26.27-45 deals with the blessings of Israel’s obedience to God and the penalties of disobedience. In the course of these thoughts we have v. 41 which speaks of “their uncircumcised heart.” This is the first verse that says that circumcision is really a matter of the heart. Dt. 10.16 says, “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff necked any longer.” Dt. 30.6: “I AM your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your seed so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul and live.” Is. 29.13, quoted by the Lord Jesus in Mt. 15.8: “This people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” All of these men were circumcised. Jer. 4.4 is a word from the great prophet when Judah had wandered far from God: “Circumcise yourselves to I AM. Take away the foreskins of your hearts, you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire because of the evil you have done, burn with no one to quench it.” Jeremiah continues in 9.25-26: “’Look, the days are coming,’ says I AM, ‘that I will punish all them that are circumcised in uncircumcision, Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.’” Passover is for the people of God. No one else can feed on the Passover lamb. But this ultimately means that true Jews are circumcised in heart, and not just in their flesh.

What does Passover mean to the Jews? Deliverance from slavery in Egypt and from the killing of the firstborn, but in God’s sight, deliverance in a state of heart circumcision.

Now let us turn to the meaning of this appointed time for Christians.

We noted that God told the Israelites that the month of Passover was to be the first month of the Jewish year instead of the previous first month, and that this fact indicates that this month was the beginning of a new life for them, really the beginning of their spiritual history. It is the same for us as Christians. In a sense our lives do not begin until we trust in the Lord Jesus as our Savior and receive his eternal life. That is when our spiritual life begins. Eph. 2.1 says that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Our spirits were dead toward God and we had no spiritual life. We were dead. When we trust Christ the Holy Spirit comes into our dead spirits and makes them alive toward God. We have the life of God within us. That is the new birth. Born from above. Born of the Spirit. Born again.

God spoke to Moses and Aaron in Egypt. Egypt typifies the world, the world organized by Satan in opposition to God. Egypt is the lost condition. All who are of the world and not in Christ are lost. What we needed was deliverance from this lost condition, and Passover tells the story of how this deliverance came about, not just for the Jews in the Old Testament, but for Christians in this age. Out of the world spiritually, into Christ. We are in the world, but not of it.

It is obvious to us that the lamb is the Lord Jesus. When John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The lamb must be a male one year old. The Lord Jesus was born a male. The age of the Passover lamb indicates that he would be in the strength of his life. Lk. 3.23 tells us that the Lord was about thirty years of age when he began his ministry, a strong young man. The lamb must be unblemished, foreshadowing the sinlessness of Jesus. The lamb was to be held for four days before Passover. This pictures the temptation of Jesus by Satan for forty days and nights and all through his life. Perhaps the greatest temptation was, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” He could have done so easily, but that would have been a sin of disobedience to the will of his Father, so he laid down his life rather than disobey. He was tested and found unblemished. Heb. 9.14 tells us that Jesus offered himself without blemish to God, and 1 Pt. 1.19, that he was an unblemished lamb. It is of great interest to me that this same word, “unblemished,” is what the Lord will make of us, as we see in Eph. 1.4, 5.27, Phil. 2.15, Col. 1.22, Jude 24, and Rev. 14.5. Remarkable – what he can do with sinners who trust in him!

The lambs were to be slain by every family, showing that every Jew had a hand in the killing. We tend to think that the Jewish rulers and the Romans killed Jesus. That is true as far as it goes, but if you want to know who killed Jesus, look into the mirror. Every one of us caused his death. He died because of our sins.

Next comes the application of the blood to the lintels and doorposts. It is not enough that the Lord Jesus died for our sins. We must trust in him and come under his blood. His blood is of no use to us if it is not applied.

I think it is very important to see that when God killed all the firstborn of Egypt, he also killed the Israelites. The Egyptians were killed physically. The Jews were killed symbolically. They were identified with the lambs, and when the lambs died they died. The apostle Paul stresses, especially in Rom. 6, that when the Lord Jesus died we died. Gal. 2.19 says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” We are dead to the old life, the old man, to walk in newness of life, the life of the Lamb of God in us. Put off the old man and put on the new.

Just as the lambs and the Israelites passed through the fire of the judgment of God, so did the Lord Jesus. He took the judgment that was due us. And so do we pass through that fire in him. God has judged our old man and put it to death. We are free from the old man to walk with God. But just as the lambs died and Israel went free, so did the Lord Jesus die and we go free. We went through the judgment in him, but he is the one who suffered the judgment. He paid the penalty that we would pay if not for him. He is our substitute. Lev. 17.11 tells us that “the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make a covering for your lives, for it is the blood that makes a covering by reason of the life.” That is, sin must be died for, the shedding of blood, and God has provided his Lamb, the Lord Jesus, to die in our place. He substituted his life for ours on the cross. We went through the fire of judgment in Christ and came out a redeemed people.

Let me just add here that as Egypt was judged at Passover, and the Israelites and we were judged, so will Satan be judged. First he will be cast into the abyss for a thousand years, and then into the lake of fire forever.

The unleavened bread meant to the Jews to be ready to move at a moment’s notice, and so it does to us. We are always to be available to any call of God on our lives. Instant obedience. But leaven has another meaning also. Leaven in the New Testament speaks of sin and the flesh. Gal. 5.7-9 says, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump,” meaning that any sin allowed into a life or the church will spoil the whole lump, and that is exactly what has happened to many a Christian and to much of the church. Leaven may refer to teaching (Mt. 16.11-12, Mk. 8.15) or to conduct (1 Cor. 5.6-7, Lk. 12.1). What is called the church today is full of false teaching and wrongful conduct, including hypocrisy. We are to maintain the purity of teaching in the church, and to keep sin out of our conduct. There is further meaning in the unleavened bread, but we will deal with that when we consider the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Another aspect of leaven is the leaven of Herod. The Lord in Mk. 8.15 says, “Look! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” What is the leaven of Herod? There were several Herods. The one referred to here is the one who reigned in Galilee as Herod Antipas during the ministry of the Lord Jesus from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39.

Alfred Edersheim, a Jewish Christian of the 19^thcentury who wrote extensive histories of the Old Testament times and of the times of the Lord Jesus, wrote that Herod Antipas “possessed in an even aggravated form most of the vices…. He was covetous, avaricious, luxurious, and utterly dissipated, suspicious, and with a good deal of that fox-cunning which, especially in the East, often forms the sum total of state-craft.” The Lord Jesus called him a fox (Lk. 13.32). And Edersheim adds that he had “a nature so mean and jealous.” It was he who had John the Baptist executed, and before whom Jesus appeared in Lk. 23.6-12. And it is of interest that his name “Antipas” is Greek for “against everyone.” I don’t know if this has any application to the man. The leaven of Herod is the nature and actions of a man who was totally devoid of principle and would do anything to forward his own interests.

The bitter herbs reminded the Jews of their bitter suffering under slavery in Egypt. Just so they remind us of our own suffering under slavery to sin, but I would add that for Christians it also speaks of the bitter suffering of the Lord Jesus for us that we might not experience such suffering. We do not eat bitter herbs at our Passover, the Lord’s Supper. We feast on the Lord.

The roasting of the whole animal in fire shows us the whole burnt offering of Lev. 1, the holocaust. The Lord Jesus made such an offering. His entire life was given wholly to his Father and he did his will fully in every instance, up to and including being a literal whole burnt offering on the cross. He is the whole burnt offering. In addition, in Rom. 12.1 Paul writes, “I urge you therefore, brothers, through the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God….” We as Christians are to give our whole selves to God as a living sacrifice. And indeed, some have been and are and will be whole burnt offerings as they die for the Lord in martyrdom.

The people were to eat the Passover meal on the night they put the blood on the lintels and doorposts. Jn. 6.4-6 tells us that Passover was near. This was not the final Passover of the Lord’s life on earth, but an earlier one that he used as an occasion to make a prophetic statement. Seeing the large crowd coming to him, he asked Philip, “’Where may we buy loaves that these may eat?’ He said this testing him, for he himself knew what he was about to do.” Then he proceeded with the feeding of the five thousand. Later in this chapter, enlarging on the feeding, he gave the teaching on the fact that he was the Bread of life and that we are to eat his flesh and drink his blood (vs. 35, 53). There can be little doubt that the Lord was referring to the Last Supper, for we read in Jn. 13.1 that it was again Passover and the Lord Jesus had that last Passover meal with his disciples, the elements symbolizing his flesh and blood. He is our bread. He is our wine. We feast spiritually on our Lord. He is our Passover.

None of the meat of the roasted lambs was to be carried over to the next day, indicating that this meal was a holy meal and was not to be treated as ordinary, everyday food. Heb. 10.29 reads, ”How much worse punishment do you think he will deserve, having trampled underfoot the Son of God and having considered common the blood of the covenant, by which he was sanctified, and having insulted the Spirit of grace?” We are

to love the Lord and desire to be intimate with him, but he is most holy. His blood is not just any blood, but precious blood.

The Israelites were to have their loins girded, their sandals on, and their staffs in hand, and to be eating in haste to be ready to go at once. This reminds us of Eph. 6.14, quoting Is. 11.5, “Stand therefore having girded your loins with truth,” and 1 Pt. 1.13, “Therefore having girded up the loins of your mind.” We are to be ready as Christians to obey the Lord instantly. Never forget that the Lord Jesus had his loins girded for work and his mind constantly in tune with his Father, and we are called to walk in his steps.

On that dreadful Passover night God went through the land of Egypt and struck dead every firstborn of Egypt, and his own firstborn, Israel, and about 1500 years later, he struck dead his only begotten Son for our sins, and for our deliverance from sin and the flesh and their consequences. His holy blood was shed that we might go free.

We saw in Ex. 12.8 and just now that the Israelites were to leave Egypt, the lost world, at night. I think this fact shows that God brings us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pt. 2.9).

The Passover of the Jews was to be eaten in one house per family, and not a bone of the lamb was to be broken. Just as this shows the unity and exclusivity of God’s ancient people, so it shows the unity and exclusivity of the church. Paul wrote in Eph. 4.4 that there is one body. In 1 Cor. 12.12-13 and 27, and in Eph. 4.12, Col. 1.18 and 24 he says that we are the body of Christ. Man may have caused divisions in the visible church, but there is only one church. There is perfect unity. A part of this unity is the commandment that not a bone of the lamb was to be broken (Ex. 12.46, Num. 9.12). Jn. 19.36 says, concerning the fact that the Roman soldiers did not break Jesus’ legs, “For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled, ‘Not a bone of him will be broken.’” There is not brokenness in the body of Christ, the people of God. There are many local churches, but only one church, and no one can come into the church except by the blood of Jesus.

We saw the importance of heart circumcision with the Jews. Physical circumcision is the removal of a bit of flesh, but “flesh” has two meanings in the New Testament. It can refer to the physical flesh of our bodies, but also to our fallen, sinful nature. The Lord Jesus himself said, “The flesh profits nothing” (Jn. 6.63). Paul writes in Rom 7.18, “For I know that no good thing dwells in me, that is, in my flesh,” and Rom. 8.5-13 expands on this theme. Gal. 5.24 reads, “But those of Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Rom. 2.28-29 says, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor

is circumcision the one outward in flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.” It is imperative that we as Christians be not only under the blood, but that we be circumcised in heart, having crucified the flesh, so as to walk in holiness and purity with our God.

We see that Passover in the Old Testament is a prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God who shed his blood that we might go free.

“Look! The Lamb of God.” Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Hamatzot, the Feast of Unleavened Bread

The Feast of Unleavened Bread was to begin on the day after Passover, the 15^thof Nisan on the Jewish calendar. Because of this proximity the two came to be observed almost as one feast lasting eight days. They are separate feasts, but one carries into the other. What we have to say at this point will be something of a review of part of our discussion of Passover, but we will make further application also.

The eating of unleavened bread on Passover night was to continue for seven more days as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Ex. 12.14-20 sets forth this feast. It is to be a perpetual observance, as is Passover. The people were to eat unleavened bread for seven days, removing all leaven from their houses, and on the first and seventh days they were to have a holy convocation, doing no work at all except what was necessary to prepare the feast. The seriousness of this observance is underlined by the fact that anyone who ate what was leavened would be cut off from the congregation of Israel, what we would call excommunication or dismissing from the church.

Ex. 13.8 reads, “You shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of that which I AM did for me when I came forth out of Egypt.’” One purpose of the feast was that it was to be used as a teaching tool for the children of the family about what God had done for Israel in delivering them from slavery in Egypt (see also Ex. 13.14 and Dt. 6.20-21).

Lev. 23.8 says that there was to be an offering by fire for the seven days, and Num. 28.17-24 gives details. Each day they were to present an offering by fire of two bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs one year old, with no defect, along with a grain offering, and a male goat for a sin offering, and a drink offering. This would be a soothing aroma to I AM (v. 24). The burnt offering was a whole burnt offering as set forth in Lev. 1, and represents the giving of one’s all to God. The grain and drink offerings picture the giving of the fruits of one’s work to God. I would say that this is comparable to the tithe (Gen. 14.20, Num. 18.21-28). The grain offering consisted of fine flour mixed with oil. This would be a soothing aroma to God. The sin offering was made to secure forgiveness for sins. It has its own laws, as seen in Lev. 4.1-12. These offerings are not mentioned in Ex. 12, which tells us of the first Feast of Unleavened Bread, so it is not clear to me whether these offerings were made at the first feast or added later, but they are biblical.

Dt. 16.3 calls the unleavened bread the bread of affliction, to remind the Israelites of their affliction in Egypt, emphasizing what God had done for them.

The purpose of the unleavened bread in Passover was to have the people ready to go on a moment’s notice, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, to commemorate this instant following of I AM every year, to remind them of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and to give an occasion to make offerings to God in thanksgiving for what he had done.

What does this appointed time mean to us as Christians?

In the first place, remember that all of the appointed times of I AM are types of the Lord Jesus. Just as Passover is a type of him as the Lamb of God, so is Unleavened Bread a type of his being ready to obey his Father instantly, in haste.

All that this feast meant to the Israelites applies to us also, the readiness to go at all times and the thanksgiving to God for our deliverance from our lost condition in this world. In our case the deliverance is spiritual. We do not physically leave the world as the Jews left Egypt, but, as Paul puts it in Col. 1.13-14, God “delivered us from the authority of the darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of the sins.” Num. 28.24 says that the offerings made at Unleavened Bread were a soothing aroma to I AM. We read of this soothing aroma in 2 Cor. 2.14: “But thanks be to God, the one always leading us in triumph in Christ, and making manifest through us the soothing aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.” And Eph. 5.2: “… and walk in love just as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a soothing aroma of a sweet fragrance.” And Phil. 4.18: “¹⁸But I have all things and abound. I have been filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things from you, a soothing aroma of a sweet fragrance, an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God.” The soothing aroma represents all about the Lord Jesus that is pleasing to his Father. We see this also in the Tabernacle with its altar of incense. Some say that this incense in the Tabernacle is the prayers of the saints, from Rev. 5.8, but the Tabernacle is entirely a type of the Lord Jesus and its incense is this soothing aroma to I AM, that about his beloved Son that is pleasing to him, and God was pleased with him in every way: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” he says in Mt. 3.17, a statement repeated in Mt. 12.18 and 17.5 and 2 Pt. 1.17. God was very well pleased with his son. And we see in the verses just cited that we are to be a soothing aroma of a sweet fragrance to God also by the way we live our lives. Is my life a soothing aroma to God and to the people around me? Is yours?

We spoke in detail in our discussion of Passover about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, which could be false teaching or wrong conduct, including hypocrisy, so I will not go over all that again. Just remember that in the New Testament leaven represents our fallen, sinful flesh nature. It is vital that besides coming under the blood of Christ for salvation we also crucify the flesh, the cause of sin. And remember that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. We must guard against false teaching and conduct and we must deal with our flesh problem.

So there are two basic messages from the unleavened bread, being ready to obey God instantly and purging our lives of sin and the flesh. These two go together. We cannot be ready to obey God instantly without dealing with our flesh which is by nature opposed to God.

These passages show us that leaven in the New Testament speaks of sin and the flesh and

evil. In the Old Testament this concept is not applied to the paschal Lamb, but simply to the need to be ready to go out in haste, but we noted earlier that the fact that the lamb had to be unblemished speaks of the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus. We apply that to the Feast of Unleavened Bread and we see that the whole of the feast pictures the unblemished, sinless nature of the Lord. The New Testament passages just quoted show that the feast as it applies to us says that we, too, are to shun sin and evil and to crucify the flesh. We are called on to clean the leaven out of our lives that we may be a new, unleavened lump. In this connection I stressed circumcision when dealing with Passover. Circumcision to the Jews was in the flesh, but more importantly we saw that it is a matter of the heart. Paul underlines this thought in Col. 2.11-12: “in whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands in the putting off of the body of the flesh, with the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in the baptism, in which also you were raised up with him through the faith of the working of God, the one having raised him from the dead.” Heart circumcision is the crucifixion of our sinful flesh nature.

All of what we have said is true and applicable to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but there is one more aspect that is the major one. Remember that the Old Testament appointed times are types of the Lord Jesus. The ultimate meaning of the unleavened bread is the Lord Jesus himself. What does that mean? It means that he is devoid of a fallen sin nature because he was virgin-born, not a son of Adam, but the Son of God. He is the unleavened bread. And he is the Bread of Life, the bread that we feed on spiritually. When we partake of the Bread of life, either symbolically in taking the Lord’s Supper or spiritually as we study his word (he is the Word, too) and commune with him, we are partaking of the unleavened bread of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Lord Jesus himself.

To sum up, we see that the Feast of Unleavened Bread reminds us to be ever ready to obey God as the Lord Jesus was and to crucify the flesh and purge the evil and sin out of our lives and walk with the Lord in sincerity and truth, but most importantly, to feed on him as our spiritual food. He is our unleavened bread.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a prophecy of the coming of a sinless Savior. Firstfruits

Passover and Unleavened Bread were given to Israel as set forth in Ex. 12 at the time of the deliverance from Egypt. Next came the appointed time of Firstfruits, a harvest observance. This appointed time was not be to be observed until the people of Israel entered the Promised Land (Lev. 23.10). There is not a name given to this appointed time in Lev. 23.10, but I AM simply told Moses that the people were to bring a sheaf of the firstfruits and wave it before I AM. Barley was the first crop planted in the winter, and by the time of Passover it was beginning to ripen. On the second day of Unleavened Bread the firstfruits of the barley crop were to be presented to God. The Israelites were to take a sheaf of the firstfruits of the barley crop to the priest and he was to wave it before I AM to be accepted by him. That is, if the people did not give their crop symbolically to God by this sheaf, they would not be accepted by him. This was to be done on the second day of Unleavened Bread, the 16^thof Nisan. Along with this sheaf the people were to bring a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to I AM. Its grain offering was to be flour mixed with oil as an offering by fire to I AM as a soothing aroma, and there was a drink offering of wine. The people were not to eat anything of this new crop until this offering had been made. This was to be a perpetual offering.

In Dt. 26.1-10 we are given the details of the Firstfruits ceremony. I think it would be good just to quote the passage.

And it shall be, when you have come into the land which I AM your God gives you for an inheritance and possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you shall bring in from your land that I AM your God gives you, and you shall put it into a basket and go to the place which I AM your God will choose, to cause his name to dwell there. And you shall come to the priest who will be there in those days and say to him, “I profess this day to I AM your God, that I have come into the land which I AM swore to our fathers to give us.” And the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of I AM your God. And you shall answer and say before I AM your God, “An Aramean about to die was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number. And he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us and laid hard labor on us. And we cried to I AM, the God of our fathers, and I AM heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression. And I AM brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders. And he has brought us into this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, look, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground which you, I AM, have given me.” And you shall set it down before I AM your God and worship before I AM your God.

What a lovely expression of thanks and worship to God.

The sheaf of firstfruits waved before God was a recognition of his promise that he would give the full crop. Remember that virtually all societies in that day were agricultural and dependent on crops and farm animals. A good crop was essential to life, even as it is today. Famine is a disaster. The presentation of the firstfruits was an assurance to the people that the crop would come in.

What did this appointed time mean to the Israelites? What we have just said, that God would provide for his people if they were faithful to him.

What does it mean to us as Christians?

It would mean the same to us as it did to the ancient Jews. We are still dependent on good crops. We have famines even in our day and in our own country. Many Christians give thanks to God for their food as they are about to eat, a recognition that he is the one who provides for us. It is true in more ways than one that we are utterly dependent on God.

But there is a spiritual dimension added to this. In the Jewish appointed time the sheaf of barley was waved before God to be accepted by him. Rom. 1.4 tells us that the Lord Jesus was approved “as the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of Holiness by resurrection from the dead.” Resurrection was the proof that God approved of his Son. Then in 1 Cor. 15.20 and 23 we read, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, firstfruits of those having fallen asleep…. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then those of Christ at his coming.” The firstfruits of the ancient Israelites were the first of the new crop. The firstfruits of Christians is Christ himself. The new crop in the spring has from time immemorial been a symbol of resurrection from the dead, the new life after the death of the old plants killed by winter. To the Jews this was the firstfruits of a crop of barley. To us as Christians it is our Lord, who died for us that we might be forgiven and was raised from the dead. He is the firstfruits from the dead. And just as the barley crop was the promise of a full harvest, so is the resurrection of Christ the promise of a full resurrection. All of the dead in Christ at his coming will be resurrected as he was, the full crop promised by the Firstfruits. Col. 1.18 tells us that the Lord Jesus is “firstborn from the dead,” and Rev. 1.5, that he is the firstborn of the dead.

There is another very notable fact that relates the Jewish appointed time of Firstfruits to the Lord Jesus being the firstfruits. Passover took place on Nisan 14. Unleavened Bread began on Nisan 15. The sheaf of firstfruits was waved on Nisan 16. Jesus was crucified on Nisan 14, the Passover Lamb of God. He was in the grave on Nisan 15. He was raised from the dead on Nisan 16, the day of Firstfruits. He is the perfect fulfillment for these ancient Jewish appointed times.

One other fact needs to be brought out. We just saw that when the Lord Jesus returns, he will resurrect the dead in Christ. He will rapture them and the Christians living at that time to meet him in the air (1 Cor. 15.52, 1 Thess. 4.16-17). This will apply to the Jews also. In Dan. 12.13 we read, “But go your way till the end, for you will rest and will

rise to your lot at the end of the days.” This is one of the few hints at resurrection in the Old Testament. Is. 26.19 says, “Your dead will live. Their dead bodies will arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is as the dew of light, and the earth will cast forth the dead.” And there is also the very well-known story of Ezk. 37, the valley of dry bones. There will be a resurrection of faithful Jews, just as there will be of the dead in Christ!

In addition to the resurrection of Jews who have died, we see a bit more of this in Rev. 7.1-8. There we see that there will be 144,000 Jews sealed on their foreheads, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes, before the Great Tribulation, referred to in the Old Testament as the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer. 30.7). This number 144,000 is probably a symbolic number. Twelve is a number of perfection in the Bible. Twelve thousand times twelve tribes shows that there will be a full complement of the remnant of the Jews who will be saved. These will be Jews who are faithful to God even in the Great Tribulation, and they will be purified by it, made ready to recognize their Messiah when he appears visibly at the end of that terrible time. Even now there are Jews who are faithful to God as Jews, though not according to knowledge, as Paul puts it in Rom. 10.2. I believe the 144,000 who are here sealed are faithful Jews who will go through the Great Tribulation, and will be kept by God through it, some of them perhaps being martyred, but all of them remaining faithful to God. When the Lord Jesus, their Messiah, appears, they will realize who he is and what they have done in rejecting him. Then, as Zech. 12.10 tells us, the Spirit of grace and supplication will come on them and they will mourn and repent and receive him as their Savior. Zech. 13.1 adds that a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Ezk. 36.24-27 explains this fountain:

For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my ordinances and do them. (See also Eph. 5.26.)

This passage itself does not refer to resurrection, but it goes with the verses above that do, and it shows that what was a promise of a full barley crop in the Old Testament will end up being a full harvest of Jews who receive their Messiah. Glory to God! Remember that all these appointed times were Jewish first.

Firstfruits is a prophecy of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and of all those who are his, Jews and Christians.

Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks

The Feast of Weeks is related to Firstfruits. These are both harvest festivals. Firstfruits is the appointed time of the barley harvest and Weeks, of the wheat harvest. In fact, Weeks is also called the Feast of Harvest. The one follows on the other, and Weeks has its own firstfruits offering.

Ex. 23.16 has the first mention of this feast and calls it the Feast of Harvest and names it as one of the three feasts at which all the males are to appear in Jerusalem. Ex. 34.22 and 2 Chron. 8.13 call it the Feast of Weeks and the latter verse also names it as one of the three feasts at which all the males are to appear in Jerusalem.

Lev. 23.15-21 gives more detail. Its states that from the day after Firstfruits the Israelites were to count off seven weeks, from which the feast gets its name. Then the day after that, the fiftieth day from Firstfruits, the Israelites were to present a new grain offering to I AM. There is a major difference. In Firstfruits the offering was a sheaf of barley waved before the Lord. In Weeks it was two loaves of wheat bread baked with leaven and waved before the Lord. Along with this there were seven one year old male lambs without blemish, a bull, and two rams. These would be a burnt offering, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, as a soothing aroma to I AM. A male goat was to be offered for a sin offering, and two male lambs one year old for a peace offering. We have seen the meanings of all these offerings except for the peace offering. You can get the details in Lev. 3. The peace offering was a joyous offering expressing thanksgiving to God for his blessings by a people at peace with him. It was a meal shared among God, the priests, and the people making the offering, God’s portion being by burning certain parts of the sacrifice on the altar. It is easy to see why this kind of offering was a part of the Feast of Weeks, a time of thanksgiving for the wheat harvest. The priest would then wave the two lambs and the two loaves before I AM. These were not burned, first because no leaven could be offered to I AM by fire, and second, because they were for the priest. The sin offering had its own laws, as we saw in dealing with the Feast of Unleavened Bread and set forth in Lev. 4.1-12. Then there was a holy convocation before I AM. There was to be no laborious work, and this feast was to be perpetual.

Dt. 16.5-12 adds that there were to be freewill offerings. These were offerings freely given by people and not required by law. Details are given in Lev. 22.17-25. The people were to rejoice and to remember that they had been slaves in Egypt, and to be careful to keep these statutes.

What is the meaning of these ceremonies to the Old Testament Jews? The obvious meaning is that they were celebrating the harvest, thanking God for his provision of food for them for another year. But what about the two loaves? Why were they to be loaves baked with leaven and not just sheaves or flour or unleavened bread? What about the two loaves? As far as I know there is nothing in the Old Testament that would answer this question. It simply says that God said to do it, so they did it. But think about the number two. If one is the number of unity, two is the number of division, and division may be good or bad. The Lord Jesus said that a house divided cannot stand, a bad division, but there are many good divisions, such as male and female. In the Old

Testament there are two kinds of people, Jew and Gentile. It was God’s intention that the Jews be a light to the Gentiles (Is. 42.6, 49.6). I believe that the two loaves represent Jew and Gentile, but they were still two – division. The Jews did not carry out their mission to be a light to the Gentiles. We will see more of this when we come to the New Testament, Christian meaning. Why did the loaves have leaven? Because both Jew and Gentile, though set apart for God, were both still sinful. These celebrants of the wheat harvest were nonetheless sinners.

What then does the Feast of Weeks mean to Christians? It is also a celebration of the harvest, but another kind of harvest. God commanded the Jews of the Old Testament to count off seven weeks, forty-nine days. Then the fiftieth day was to be the day of the Feast of Weeks. The Greek word for fiftieth is “pentecost.” This brings us to Acts 2.1: “And the day of Pentecost [fiftieth] having come they were all together in the same place.”

The Feast of Weeks, the celebration of the harvest, took place on the fiftieth day after Firstfruits. On this same day, Pentecost, the fiftieth day after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the firstfruits from the dead, when the Jews were celebrating their Feast of Harvest, there was another harvest. The Holy Spirit filled the house where these followers of the Lord Jesus were gathered and filled all of them. They spoke in tongues, so that people from fifteen locations, who evidently did not speak Aramaic, heard these disciples in their own languages. We are not told what they were saying, but we are told that Peter, the leader of the twelve disciples, responded to the commotion this made by giving his famous sermon. We will not go into the details of that, but just notice that the result of Peter’s sermon was that three thousand souls were added to the church that day. This was the harvest, a harvest of people saved by receiving the Lord Jesus. Peter goes on to explain in Acts 2.32-33, “This Jesus God raised up, of which we all are witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he poured out this which you both see and hear.” The Lord Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Joel 2.28-29: “And it will come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions, and also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.” The Lord Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit.

And we saw that the Feast of Weeks had its own firstfruits, the two loaves of bread, and that these two loaves represented Jews and Gentiles. Those saved at Pentecost were the firstfruits of the great harvest that has been going on since that day and continues now. Rom. 16.5 tells us that Epaenetus was the firstfruits of Asia, that is, the first one saved in Asia Minor. 1 Cor. 16.15 says that the household of Stephanus were the firstfruits of Achaia. Ja. 1.18 adds that the early Christians were the firstfruits of God’s creatures. We are parts of the continuing harvest.

Those saved at Pentecost were probably all Jews. Recall that God intended for the Jews to be a light to the Gentiles, but they failed in that calling, even hating Gentiles and

considering them enemies. In Eph. 2.11-22 we have a wonderful passage which I want to quote in full:

¹¹Therefore remember that once you Gentiles in the flesh, those called uncircumcision by what is called circumcision, made with hands in the flesh, ¹²that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the people of Israel and strangers of the covenants of promise, not having hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For he himself is our peace, the one making both one and destroying the dividing wall of the fence, the enmity, in his flesh, ¹⁵nullifying the law of commandments in regulations that he might create the two in himself into one new man, making peace, ¹⁶and he reconciled both in one body to God through the cross, putting to death the enmity in himself. [Remember the peace offering?] ¹⁷And having come he preached the good news of peace to you who were far off and peace to those near [Is. 57.19], ¹⁸for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you [Gentiles] are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹in whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, ²²in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Rom. 3.22 and 10.12-13 and 1 Cor. 12.13 reinforce this teaching that Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ. Once there were two kinds of people in the world, Jews and Gentiles. Now there are three, as 1 Cor. 10.32 tells us, Jews, Gentiles, and the church of God. The church consists of both Jews and Gentiles who have become one in Christ. In the Jewish feast there were two loaves. Now there is only one loaf, the body of Christ. Remember that the two loaves were leavened, and that we as Christians are still sinners. Recall that there was no sin offering in the appointed time of Firstfruits because there the Lord Jesus is the harvest, the firstfruits, and there is no sin in him, but there is a sin offering in the Feast of Weeks because we are the harvest and we are still sinful. Our heart is to be delivered from not only the penalty and the power of sin, but from its very presence, and one day that will be the case, when we are “a new lump, as you are unleavened” (1 Cor. 5.7). We are now unleavened positionally in Christ. When he returns and we are fully redeemed, we will be unleavened in our actual experience.

And this becoming one of Jews and Gentiles in the church reminds us of my statement that one is the number of unity and two is the number of division, and that division is not always bad, as in the case of men and women. But – Gen 2.24 says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” And Eph. 5.31-32 quotes this verse and adds, “This mystery is great, but I am speaking concerning Christ and the church.” The division of man and woman is a wonderful thing, but their unity is greater still and unity is God’s ultimate goal for

all his people, one in Christ. There are no longer two loaves, but one, the body of Christ, as we see in the Lord’s Table.

The Feast of Weeks is prophetic of the harvest of souls and the Holy Spirit being poured out and the unity he brings, the Lord Jesus being the one who pours out the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8.9, 1 Pt. 1.11). Praise him!

The Interval

The prophetic elements of the previous four appointed times have already been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. They are history to us. The prophetic elements of the other three have not come about and we do not know when they will have their fulfillment. They are still prophecy to us. We are now living in what some call the church age or the age of grace, the time in which God is calling out from the Gentiles a people for his name (Acts 15.14). There is much we could say about this age, but since we are dealing with the Jewish appointed times we will leave that for now. Let us turn to the first of the appointed times that are yet to be fulfilled.

The Sabbath Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets

Lev 23.23-25 reads,

And I AM spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a Sabbath Memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to I AM.’”

It is of interest that the word “trumpets” is not in the Hebrew text. It is a memorial of blowing. The trumpets are understood or assumed.

The blowing of trumpets was an important aspect of the life of the Israelites. In Num. 10 I AM told Moses to make two trumpets of silver. These were to be used for calling the people together, to have the tribes set out from their camps, for alerting the people of danger such as an enemy attack, and for blowing at the burnt offerings made at various times. V. 10 of this passage says that these trumpets are to be blown on the days of the appointed times. There was another trumpet called a shofar which was actually a ram’s horn. Shofar is the Hebrew word for ram’s horn. The shofar was to be blown on Yom Kippur, as specified in Lev. 25.9.

As with Firstfruits there is not a Hebrew name given to this appointed time, but it is called a Sabbath Memorial of blowing, of trumpets, that is. This is all we are told at this point. The seventh month, Tishri, is the first month of the Jewish civil calendar. Recall that God made Nisan the first month of their year when he instituted Passover, but the civil calendar is also maintained. This occurs in our September-October. Since Tishri is the first month of the civil calendar, the first day of Tishri is the first day of the civil new

year. The Hebrew name for the first day of the civil new year is Rosh Hashanah, literally, Head of the Year. This term does not occur in the Old Testament at all except in Ezk. 40.1, where it has nothing to do with the new year. It was not applied to this Sabbath Memorial until at least the second century A.D. The idea of the first of the year as a part of this memorial was developed after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. Without a temple the Jews could not offer sacrifices and there was the danger of losing their traditions, so they joined the civil new year with the memorial of blowing of trumpets, which did occur on that day. For our purpose we will not deal with the new year since it is not in the Bible, but follow what the Bible says.

In addition to what Lev. 23.23-25 tells us, Num. 29.1-6 expands on the offering by fire. It prescribes a burnt offering as a soothing aroma to I AM consisting of a bull, a ram, and seven male lambs a year old and without blemish, and their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil. Also there was to be a male goat for a sin offering.

The Scriptures are not very clear about the purpose or meaning of this observance. The Leviticus passage calls it a Sabbath, which is simply a day of rest and could fall on any day of the week, not just the weekly Friday evening to Saturday evening Sabbath, and it calls it a holy convocation. The Numbers passage also calls it a holy convocation. This is a coming together of the people before the Lord. The Leviticus passage says that this Sabbath is a memorial of blowing, that is, a blowing of trumpets.

It appears to me that this Sabbath was simply a time when the people of God remembered all that God had done for them. It is called a Sabbath Memorial. It may well have been connected to the new year as a good time for such an observance, but this is not stated.

Back to the silver trumpets. Silver in the Bible has to do with redemption. This goes back to the Lord’s command in Ex. 13.13 and 34.20 that all the firstborn in Israel of men and animals are the Lord’s and must be redeemed. The firstborn of animals were sacrificed to God. Num. 18.16 tells us that the price of redemption of a man was five shekels of silver. The blowing of the silver trumpets in the Old Testament at the appointed times would be a reminder that God had redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt.

So – what is the meaning of this Sabbath Memorial to the Jews? It seems to me to be the remembering of all God had done for his people and rejoicing in it, and especially that they had been redeemed from slavery in Egypt. It was in part at least a celebration of redemption.

What does it mean for Christians?

There are only a few references to trumpets in the New Testament. Four of them seem to me to be relevant to our topic. Because of its prophetic position as after the age in

which we now live, it would appear that the blowing of trumpets would have to do with the end of this age and the second coming of the Lord. Mt. 24.29-31 says,

But immediately after the tribulation of those days, “the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the skies will be shaken.” And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky” with power and much glory. And he will send his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the skies to the other.

This is the second coming of Christ, his visible appearing. When he comes he will send his angels with a great trumpet to gather his elect.

1 Cor. 15.51-52 reads, “Look, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the dead will be raised incorruptible and we will be changed.“

1 Thess. 4.16 says,

“For the Lord himself will descend from Heaven with a shout of command, with an archangel’s voice, and with God’s trumpet, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we the living, those remaining, will be caught up together with them in clouds for a meeting of the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.

Finally we read in Rev. 11.15. “And the seventh angel sounded the trumpet and there came great voices in Heaven saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become our Lord’s and his Christ’s, and he will reign into the ages of the ages.’”

All of these trumpets are one and the same, the last trumpet, and they announce the coming of the Lord. This Sabbath Memorial in the Old Testament is a Sabbath Memorial of remembering what God has done for his people, redeeming them from slavery in Egypt. At the coming of the Lord we will remember his promise made more than once, “If I go and prepare a place for you I am coming again and will receive you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” Our redemption from slavery to sin will be complete. The New Testament teaches that our initial redemption is the making alive of our dead spirits (Eph. 2.1) by the new birth (Jn. 3.3 and 6), that we are being saved all through this

life (1 Cor. 1.18), and that our bodies will be redeemed at the coming of the Lord (Rom. 8.23). Listen for the sound of the trumpet. Keep your eyes on the eastern sky.

I believe this blowing of trumpets that is yet to be applies to the Jews as well as to Christians. After all, it began with the Jews. Remember that we said the trumpets were for calling the Jewish people together? This time it will be to see the coming of Messiah.

The blowing of the last trumpet is not just for us, but for them. We will see the details of this when we consider Yom Kippur.

The appointed time of blowing of trumpets is prophetic of the last trumpet and the second coming of the Lord Jesus. The appointed times are all about our Lord Jesus.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Covering

Now we come to the highest holy day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, commonly called the Day of Atonement. Yom is the Hebrew for “day,” but the Hebrew word kippur means “covering.” Yom Kippur is a day of covering, the covering of sins, in the case of this appointed time, the covering of the sins of the people for the past year. There is no Hebrew word for “atonement.” The word means “covering.” The Greek word translated once in the New Testament as “atonement” (KJV, Rom. 5.11) is translated “reconciliation” in that verse in modern translations and in Rom. 11.15 and 2 Cor. 5.18-19. More on this when we come to the Christian meaning of Yom Kippur. This Greek word at its root means “an exchange.” We will see the importance of this when we come to the Christian meaning of Yom Kippur.

Lev. 23.26-32 gives us the details on Yom Kippur, the Day of Covering. It is to occur on the tenth day of the seventh month, Tishri. It is a holy convocation and the people are to afflict themselves and present an offering by fire to I AM. “To afflict themselves” means to fast (Ezr. 8.21). Anyone who would not afflict himself would be cut off from his people. They were to do no work at all on penalty of death. And Yom Kippur was to be a perpetual statute.

Num. 29.7-11 repeats these requirements and adds the details for the burnt offering: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs one year old with no blemish, and their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil, and one male goat for a sin offering, and the sin offering of covering and the continual burnt offering with their grain offering and drink offerings (see Ex. 29.38-43).

Going back to Lev. 16 we see the Lord’s full instructions for the Day of Covering. It is very detailed and covers twenty-eight verses. I will try to describe it briefly. The High Priest took a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering to the Holy Place of the Tabernacle. Before the actual ceremonies began the High Priest went through a cleansing process which I won’t go into. The ceremonies began with the High Priest bathing and putting on linen undergarments, a holy linen tunic, a sash, and a turban, the white linen picturing purity, fitness to enter the Holy of Holies.

Then he took from the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one male ram for a burnt offering. Then he offered the bull for a sin offering for himself and his household.

Next he presented to two goats before I AM at the doorway of the Tabernacle, and cast lots for the two goats to select one for I AM and one to be the scapegoat. Then he offered the goat for the sin offering to I AM, and the scapegoat was presented alive to I AM. Then the High Priest offered and slaughtered the bull for the sin offering.

Then he took a firepan of coals of fire from the altar before I AM and two handfuls of fine, sweet incense and took these inside the veil to the Holy Place, where he put the incense on the fire before I AM so that there would be a cloud of incense covering the mercy seat that was on the ark of the covenant. Otherwise he would die. (The Old Testament does not give us the full meaning of incense, but we saw earlier that the New Testament sets forth incense as all about the Lord Jesus that is pleasing to God.) Then he would sprinkle some of the blood of the bull on the mercy seat on the east side, and sprinkle some of it seven times on the ground in front of the mercy seat. Then he would slaughter the goat of the sin offering and take its blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it on the mercy seat in the same way. Seven is a number of spiritual perfection, showing here that God is perfectly satisfied with the offering and the sprinkling of the blood. We saw in considering Passover that blood shed is not sufficient. It must be applied.

In this way he made a covering for the Holy Place because of the uncleanness of the sons of Israel and their transgressions. This indicates that the Holy Place itself was defiled by the sins of the people, calling to mind Heb. 9.23: “It is a necessity, therefore, for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified by these, but the heavenly things themselves, with better sacrifices than these.” These heavenly things are his angels, as Job 4.18 indicates, and the heavens are not pure (Job 15.15), that is, the levels of the heavens leading to Heaven, as in the third heaven and paradise of 2 Cor. 12.2 and 4. The Tabernacle was in the midst of the uncleanness of the people. There was to be no one in the Tabernacle when the High Priest was making a covering for himself and his household, because of the uncleanness of the sons of Israel.

Then the High Priest went out to the altar before I AM to make a covering for it, putting some of the blood of the bull and the goat on the horns of the altar and sprinkling some of the blood seven times on the altar.

The next step in the procedure was the offering of the scapegoat. The High Priest would lay his hands on the head of the goat and confess the sins of the sons of Israel, thus laying their sins on the goat, and send the goat into the wilderness, by the hands of a man in waiting, never to return. Thus the goat would bear their sins away.

Then the High Priest would go into the Holy Place, take off his linen garments, bathe at the laver between the altar and the veil of the Holy Place, put on his clothes, and offer his burnt offering and the offering of the people. Then he would offer up in smoke the fat of the sin offering.

Next, the one who took the scapegoat into the wilderness would wash his clothes, bathe, and return to the camp.

Then the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering were taken outside the camp and their hides, their flesh, and their refuse were burned. Then the one who burned them would wash his clothes, bathe, and come into the camp.

You see the elaborate ceremonies for Yom Kippur, the Day of Covering. This was and is the most holy day in the Jewish year. The ten days from the Sabbath Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets through Yom Kippur have been called the days of awe since 1846. This is not a biblical term, but it shows the reverence with which the Jews hold these days. Yom Kippur is a day of self-examination, confession, and repentance, a most solemn day.

What does this appointed time mean to us as Christians? Yom Kippur is all about the covering of sin for another year. Simply put, everything we have just said is summed up in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all these offerings. He is our sin offering. He is the source of our forgiveness and salvation. But there is this difference. He did not cover our sin. He did away with it. Col. 2.13-14 says,

And you being dead in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he raised you up with him, having forgiven us all the trespasses, having blotted out the certificate of debt in decrees against us which was opposed to us, and has taken it from the midst, having nailed it to the cross.

The Lord did not cover our sins. He forgave them. He blotted or wiped them out. He nailed them to the cross. Our sins are not covered. They no longer exist. The day of the crucifixion was not a yom kippur, day of covering, but a day of blotting out. Remember the scapegoat? Our sins are born away, never to be seen again.

We saw earlier that Lev. 17.11 tells us that “the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make a covering for your lives, for it is the blood that makes a covering by reason of the life.” Heb. 9.22 says that “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” That is, sin must be dealt with by death, the shedding of blood, and God has provided his Lamb, the Lord Jesus, to die in our place. He substituted his life for ours on the cross. See also Gen. 22.8 and 13.

Lev. 16.17 tells us that no one was in the Tabernacle while the High Priest was making a covering for himself and his household. This speaks to us as Christians of the fact that the Lord Jesus went through what he did at the cross entirely alone. Mt. 26.56 tells us that when he was arrested all his disciples fled and left him alone. His agonized cry of Mt. 26.47 shows us that he was utterly alone as he died for our sins: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Even his beloved Father turned away from him in that awful moment. We will never have even a glimpse of what he went through for us.

We also saw that the Hebrew word translated “atonement” does not mean “atonement,” but “covering,” and that the Greek word for “atonement” or

“reconciliation” actually means “an exchange.” The idea is that because of the Lord’s death for our sins we can exchange our sin for his righteousness and thus be reconciled to God, to be at one with him. Rom. 5.19 says, “For as by the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous.”

Yom Kippur had to be repeated every year because it covered sins for only one year. The Lord Jesus did away with the sins once for all. Heb. 10.4 says that it is “impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” But, Heb. 7.27 reads, “…who does not have the necessity, day by day, as the high priests, to offer sacrifices first for their own sins, then those of the people, for this he did once for all having offered himself.” Heb. 9.12 says, “… but through his own blood, he entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having found eternal redemption,” not covering for one year, but eternal redemption. Heb. 9.26: “But now once, at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested for the setting aside of sin through the sacrifice of himself.” And Heb. 10.11-12, “And every priest stood day by day ministering and offering the same sacrifices repeatedly, which can never take away sins, but this one having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God.” This is what is called the finished work of Christ. He could sit down because he had no more to do in this regard.

Hebrews also makes another statement that is of great importance. In. 9.6-7 we read, “These things having been thus prepared, into the first tent the priests enter continually, completing the worship, but into the second only the High Priest, once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people….” The first tent is the Holy Place in the Tabernacle. The priests descended from Aaron were continually going into it to maintain the menorah, the presentation of loaves, and the altar of incense. But into the second tent, the Holy of Holies, only the High Priest could go, and he could go only once a year with the blood, making two entries to sprinkle the blood. But we are told in Mt. 27.51 that “the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom….” That is, the way into the Holy of Holies has been opened by God himself reaching down from Heaven. Heb. 10.19-22 reads,

Having therefore, brothers, assurance for the entrance of the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus, which he inaugurated for us – a newly-slain and living way through the veil, that is, his flesh – and a great Priest over the house of God, let us come with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having the hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and the body having been washed with pure water.

We now have assurance that we can enter into the Holy of Holies, into the very presence of God. Indeed, I would say that we are always in the very presence of God. The Jews of the Old Testament, including the High Priest himself, with his one exception, could never enter into the very presence of God because of their sins. They were not righteous and they were shut out from the presence of God by a veil of righteousness (Ex. 26.31-33). But we have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus.

Notice that in quoting Heb. 10.20 I said that we have “a newly-slain and living way through the veil.” This word “newly slain” is very interesting. It is used only this once in the New Testament. It is made up of two words and its literal meaning is “newly slain,” but in usage it means “new.” I have given the literal meaning because it makes such a point in this context. The Lord Jesus made for us a newly slain and living way. How could someone be newly slain and living? By resurrection. The Lord Jesus was newly slain on the cross, but on the third day he was resurrected, and by doing so he made a way for us into the Holy of Holies, a living way. The Lord Jesus is the way, s newly slain yet living way. He is Passover and Firstfruits and Yom Kippur all rolled into one. May our praises never cease!

That is what Yom Kippur means to us: we are forgiven, saved, and made righteous, and we live in the very presence of God. He is here with us at this moment.

There is one more aspect that we need to look at. Just as the Lord Jesus will gather us as Christians to himself, so will he gather the faithful Jews. Remember, Yom Kippur is Jewish.

When the Lord Jesus returns and every eye sees him, all the tribes of the earth will mourn. This includes the Jews, as seen in Zech. 12.10:

I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a Spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

Then Zechariah continues in 13.1: “In that day there will be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.” When the faithful Jews see Christ as he returns they will realize who he is and what they have done in rejecting and crucifying him. They will mourn, deep, grief-stricken mourning. But our wonderful God of grace will open to them a fountain for sin and uncleanness. They will be cleansed of their sins and fitted for his kingdom. As we read in Jer. 50.20, “’In those days, and in that time,’ says I AM, ‘the iniquity of Israel will be sought for, and there will be none, and the sins of Judah, and they will not be found, for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.’” From sins covered to sins gone!

Ezekiel expands on this providing of a fountain for sin and uncleanness. In a wonderful passage he writes in 36.25-27,

^25”And I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols I will cleanse you. ²⁶A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my ordinances and do them.”

Beautiful, blessed words. Yom Kippur fulfilled.

Yes, the trumpets will sound for the Jews, calling them to their long awaited Messiah at last. And he is our Messiah, too.

Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles

The last of the seven annual appointed times is usually called the Feast of Tabernacles. The Hebrew word is Sukkot, which is sometimes translated “Booth,” so we also hear Feast of Booths. In addition, it is called the Feast of Ingathering in Ex. 23.16 and 34.22 since it was a harvest festival. The Feast of Firstfruits celebrated the barley harvest in the spring and the Feast of Weeks celebrated the early wheat harvest in May or June. Harvesting continued to the Jewish month Tishri in September and October.

Lev. 23.33-43 tells us that this feast was to begin on the fifteenth day of Tishri, five days after Yom Kippur. This day was to be a holy convocation with no laborious work to be done. For seven days there would be an offering by fire to the Lord. Then there was an eighth day with a holy convocation and an offering by fire to I AM. And no laborious work.

On the first day of this Feast when the people had concluded the harvest, they were to take leafy branches from trees and build booths to live in, and they were to rejoice before I AM. This was to be a perpetual statute. The reason for living in the booths for seven days was that their generations might know that I AM had the people to live in booths when he brought them out of Egypt.

Num. 29.12-39 gives more details. It tells us that there were seemingly innumerable sacrifices: on the first day of the seven-day feast, thirteen bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs, along with grain and oil, one male goat, plus the continual burnt offering (a lamb in the morning and a lamb in the evening), and a drink offering, usually of wine, were offered, and one male goat for a sin offering. This was repeated through the seventh day, with the exception that the number of bulls was reduced by one each day. Then on the eighth day, the day after the feast, one bull, one ram, and seven male lambs, plus grain and oil, drink offerings, and a male goat were offered. We have already seen the meanings of these offerings.

Dt. 16.13-15 says that the Israelites were to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles when they had gathered from their threshing floor and wine press, “and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your man-servant and your maid-servant and the Levite and the sojourner and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates.” The passage concludes with these words, “ Seven days shall you keep a feast to I AM your God in the place which I AM will choose because I AM your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful.” This passage emphasizes the harvest and adds the vintage, and lists in detail all the people who will participate, closing with a final note on rejoicing.

This Feast was a festive time for the Israelites. They were to remember how God had provided for them on their journeys and to rejoice in him. And it was a harvest festival in which they gave thanks to God and celebrated the harvest.

What does the Feast of Tabernacles mean to Christians? Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to begin with Jn. 7.37-39: “On the last, the great day, of the feast, Jesus stood and called out saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. The one putting faith in me, as the Scripture said, out of his inner being will flow rivers of living water.’” The Lord Jesus spoke these words on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. To gain an understanding of why he did this we need to look at what the feast had become in his day. Over the years and centuries the Jews made many additions to their feasts. I have tried to keep strictly to the Old Testament prescriptions in these studies and not bring in the manmade additions, but in this case it is necessary to consider them.

For the Israelites of the Lord Jesus’ day Sukkot or Tabernacles was (1) a commemoration of God’s provision for Israel in the wilderness; (2) a giving of thanks for the harvest and a prayer for rain for the next crop; (3) a prophecy of a golden age, what we call the millennium. We have seen the four feasts that are historic and two that are prophetic. Tabernacles is the third and final prophetic appointed time. The prophetic aspects of these three appointed times have not yet occurred. We have seen the prophetic meaning of Trumpets and Yom Kippur, which will take place at the end of this age at the return of Christ. Tabernacles is millennial.

At the celebration of Tabernacles Jerusalem was packed with Jews from all over the known world who had come for the feast. The city was filled with activity and religion. This feast commemorated God’s keeping of his people during their wilderness wandering after the exodus, when they lived in tents or booths. The residents of Jerusalem would build, on the roofs of their houses, booths of tree branches and move into those booths for the duration of the feast, living as their ancestors had done in the wilderness. The thousands of visitors would build these structures just about everywhere.

There were seemingly innumerable sacrifices. I will repeat these: on the first day of the seven-day festival, thirteen bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs, along with grain and oil, one male goat, plus the continual burnt offering (a lamb in the morning and a lamb in the evening), and a drink offering, usually of wine, were offered. This was repeated through the seventh day, with the exception that the number of bulls was reduced by one each day. Then on the eighth day, the day after the feast, one bull, one ram, and seven male lambs, plus grain and oil, drink offerings, and a male goat were offered. (Num. 29.12-39)

In addition, the people at large would make their own offerings, votive (Dt. 12.5-6, 11), free will and peace offerings. This necessitated a large business in sacrificial animals. It was impractical for all these visitors to bring animals from as much as hundreds of

miles away, and the animals had to be without blemish. And there were the money changers who put foreign currency into local coins. We see examples of this in the cleansing of the temple grounds by Jesus.

This feast was a time of rejoicing and generosity. There were processions and temple services. There were sharing of meals with visitors and money offerings made to help the needy.

The Feast of Tabernacles was also a harvest festival, for it occurred at the end of the harvest year, in our September or October. It was a time of giving thanks for the harvest and prayer for rain for the next crop.

One of the processions that took place was one in which a priest led a crowd to the pool of Siloam (Sent), where he drew out water in a golden pitcher, then proceeded back to the temple, where he went to the altar of sacrifice and poured the water into a tube that took it to the base of the altar. This was done every day for the seven days of the feast. After this the Hallel was sung. Hallel means “Praise.” The Hallel consists Pss. 113-118. The people would repeat the first line of each psalm after the priest, and after that they would shout, “Hallelujah,” after each of the other lines. When Ps. 118.25, “I AM, save us; I AM, grant us prosperity,” was sung, the people waved their palm branches toward the altar. Palm branches were a symbol of victory, as seen in the waving of palm branches at the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The next verse of this psalm reads, “Blessed be the one coming in the name of I AM.” This statement can refer only to the Jews’ hope of the coming Son of David, their Messiah. The Talmud, a collection of ancient Jewish writings, says in reference to this procession, “Why is the name called, ‘The drawing out of water?’ Because of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, according to what is said in Is. 12.3: ‘With joy will you draw water out of the wells of salvation.’” Water in the Bible is often a symbol of the Holy Spirit. We see how the prayer for rain at the harvest festival led into a prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the golden age of Israel under the Messiah King. In Joel 2.28 God says that he will pour out his Spirit on all flesh. And Zech. 14.16-21 speaks of the keeping of the Feast of Tabernacles in this golden age, what we would call the millennium. Take notice that the millennium will be a time of harvest, of the ingathering of the Jews back to their land in faith in their Messiah and of the ingathering of the nations to the Messiah (Mt. 25.31-34), as well as the time when the Lord Jesus will gather all the living and dead of his people at his return (Mt. 13.30, Rev. 14.14-16).

At some point on the last, the great, day of the feast when all of this was going on, especially the procession to Siloam and the pouring out of the water as a symbol of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, Jesus stood and called out, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. The one putting faith in me, as the Scripture said, out of his inner being will flow rivers of living water.” This living water he referred to is the Holy Spirit. We saw that the Jewish people took this pouring out of the water as symbolic of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.

In the midst of all the activity, all the buying and selling, all the celebrating, all the religion, the din of noise, the Lord Jesus asked, “Is anyone thirsty?” Have celebrating and religion satisfied your thirst? Or do you thirst, not for religion, but for the living God? If these things have not satisfied and there is still thirst, “come to me and drink.” How does one drink? By trusting in Jesus. Like the Samaritan woman, the one who puts trust in Jesus will have a welling up of the water of life within. The Lord Jesus said that he was there to give what the feast only promised. He would fulfill the prophecy of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The law was being observed by the keeping of the feast, for the law commanded it, but that very law kept people away from God, first because they could not keep the law, and second, because the Jews had exalted the letter of the law above its purpose, bringing people to Jesus. It is a tutor unto Christ (Gal. 3.24). Jesus would not put between God and men a law that could not be kept. Instead he would put God himself within men by the outpoured Holy Spirit. We said that Siloam means “Sent.” Jesus was sent by God to pour out the Holy Spirit.

What was going on here? What was Jesus saying? He was saying that he was the fulfillment of this feast the Jews were celebrating. They were giving thanks for God’s provision for them in the wilderness. Jesus said, What about that manna God gave you to eat? I am the Bread of life. What about the water from the rock? I am that Rock and I pour out the Holy Spirit who is the water. What about the harvests you are giving thanks for and praying for? I am the Sower of the seed. I am everything this feast speaks of and more. If you are thirsty, come to me and drink.

I want to refer to one verse in Jn. 8, v. 12, because it follows the celebration of the pouring of the water. The ceremony of the pouring of the water took place in the morning. At night there was the celebration of the pouring of the water. It was called “The Rejoicing of the House of Drawing” (and pouring of the water). In the temple’s court of the women there were set up four towering lampstands, each with four branches of oil lamps. Wicks were made from the worn out garments of the priests. It was a celebration of lights. These giant lampstands would be lit. All night the elders and prominent men danced with flaming torches and sang praise to God, and Levites played musical instruments. There were fifteen steps leading from the court of Israel to the court of women. The Levites sang the fifteen Psalms of Degrees (Pss. 120-134) and descended one step with each Psalm. With all the lights, dancing, music, and singing this was a spectacular celebration. Some of the ancient rabbis said, “He that has not beheld the joy of the drawing of water has never seen joy in his life.”

It was against this background of lights that Jesus on the morning after the Feast of Tabernacles spoke and said, “I AM the Light of the world. The one following me does not walk in the dark, but will have the Light of life.” “I AM” – Jesus was the God of the Old Testament in the flesh in first century Jerusalem, and he was the Light of the world.

The Light of the world came with Jesus, is Jesus. He poured out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We who trust in Jesus have the Holy Spirit. We walk in the Light. There is coming a day when the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all flesh and the Sun of

righteousness will rise with healing in his wings to enlighten all in his millennial kingdom. May the Lord hasten that day. Amen.

Epilogue to The Appointed Times of I AM

Why don’t we observe the Jewish appointed times today? We do – in Christ. He is our Passover Lamb, our sinless unleavened Bread of life, our firstfruits from the dead guaranteeing our resurrection, our pourer out of the Holy Spirit, the one who will gather us to himself at the end of the age, the one who took away our sins and their penalty, our King of kings and Lord of lords for a thousand years and for eternity. We celebrate him every day of our lives, every moment, continuously.

Judaism was meant by God to lead to Christ. Gal. 3.24 says that the law is our pedagogue to Christ. The law was intended to show what kind of life God’s people should live, but also to show us that we could not live that kind of life in ourselves. We are sinners and are bound to fail. We need something beyond the law. We need a Savior and an indwelling Holy Spirit to enable us. No, we are not yet perfect in ourselves, though we are in Christ, but he is in the process of perfecting us. Phil. 1.6 says that he will be perfecting us until the day of Jesus Christ.

Judaism should have ended in Christ or morphed into Christianity and the Jewish people should have gone right on with their Messiah and should have been a light to the Gentiles. Instead they rejected him. The appointed times of I AM were prophecies of the Lord Jesus. They were types and symbols. They were copies of him. But now we have the real thing, the Lord Jesus himself, and we no longer need types and symbols. Col. 2.16-17 reads, “Don’t let anyone judge you with regard to food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath, which are shadows of the things to come, but the body is of Christ.” A shadow is an image cast by light shining on an object. All of these Jewish institutions had their place, but they are shadows. We now have the body that cast the shadows. We don’t need the images, festivals and new moons and Sabbaths, all shadows. We have the real thing himself.

Suppose you men have a picture of your wife. You spend all your time looking at the picture and thinking about her. You never speak to her or do anything with her. You just moon over that picture. Why would you do that when you have the real thing? Look at her. Hug her. Take her out to dinner. It is nice to have pictures of her, but you don’t really need them. You have her. We don’t need festivals and new moons and Sabbaths, pictures of Christ. We have Christ! Yes, we observe all of the Jewish institutions all the time as we walk with our Lord. He is the fulfillment of them all. The Jews are still looking at pictures. Pray for them. All praise to him.

I am indebted to

T. Austin-Sparks, The Church which is His Body

David Baron, Types, Psalms and Prophecies

Edward Dennett, Typical Teachings of Exodus

Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah and The Temple Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal, The Feasts of the Lord

https://www.jewfaq.org/qorbanot.htm

C. E. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, Volume I Watchman Nee, The King and the Kingdom of Heaven

Bruce Scott, The Feasts of Israel

G. C. Willis, The Seven Feasts of Jehovah (Leviticus 23)

Copyright © 2021 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any part of it.

Old Testament quotations are the author’s updates of the American Standard Version. Quotations from the New Testament are the author’s translations.

The Appointed Times of I AM

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