The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is Israel never was an unblemished lamb.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of February 2, 2013
The person conducting the Sabbath service should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.
This Sabbath Reading is a continuation of the Reading for January 26th, 2013.
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Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, "That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged." (Rom 3:1–4 emphasis added)
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In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly." And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord." Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. (2 Kings 22:3–11 emphasis added)
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And the king commanded all the people, "Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant." For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. (2 Kings 23:21–23 emphasis added)
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In last Sabbath’s Reading, discussion of the importance of keeping the Passover didn’t arrive at its destination and had to be continued in this week’s Reading.
Until disciples—Christians—are truly under the New Covenant, which will have every person filled-with and empowered by the breath of God, with the Law of God written on hearts and placed in minds so that all Know the Lord (see Jer 31:31–34; Heb 8:8–12), the Passover Covenant mediated by Moses and made with the fathers of Israel on the day that the Lord took Israel by the hand to lead the nation out from Egypt remains in effect and remains how Israel annually covers its transgressions of the Law: Christians cover their transgressions by drinking from the blessed Passover cup “‘poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Matt 26:28). The transgressions of Christians are “covered” by the blood of Christ, but covered by drinking from the cup on Passover; for again, until the New Covenant (a second Passover covenant) is implemented, there remains a remembrance of sins. If there were not a remembrance of sins, then there would be no basis for judgment. Consider what Jesus in John’s Gospel says,
For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:26–29)
The basis for executing judgment is the remembrance of sin: the identity of “‘those who have done evil’” would not be known if there were not a remembrance of transgressions.
Under the New Covenant, Israel will be filled-with and empowered by the spirit/breath [pneuma] of God. Human nature as well as animal natures will be forcibly changed, not voluntarily changed; for human persons will then no longer be serfs of the Adversary, humanly born consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32) as sons of disobedience (Eph 2:2–3), but will be born as the people of God (e.g., Rev 18:4). And transgressions of the Law will not be permitted; so there will be no basis for judging the living—all will be without sin and without indwelling death. There will statistically be no dead. All will live until Satan is released from the Abyss at the end of the Thousand Years, but live without being immortal. Antediluvian life expectancies will return.
But in this present era, disciples are not humanly born with the Law written on their hearts and placed in their minds. Human persons are not born knowing the Lord. And there remains a remembrance of transgressions—unless these transgressions are covered with the blood of Christ Jesus, covered annually by the blood of Christ being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins, with this “pouring out” (covering) occurring at the Passover. However, with Christ Jesus’ Resurrection, the mediator of the Passover covenant went from being Moses to being Jesus, the Lamb of God and the Head of the Body of Christ. Same covenant. Different mediator. And with the change in mediators, there was a change in the Passover symbols: under Moses, the only acceptable Passover sacrifice was a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, selected and penned on the 10th day of the first month. But with the change in mediators, the only acceptable Passover sacrifice is the Lamb of God, perfect through being without sin (blemish) and of the first year. And here is where the mystery of God requires spiritual understanding.
Rabbinical Judaism’s Seder services are without meaning. They are unscriptural, and actually do harm to the outwardly circumcised nation of Israel; for they cause the people to believe a lie. They permit Jews to believe that they are satisfying the demands of Moses when they are not: they are to the circumcised-of-heart nation of Israel as Egyptians were to Israel in Egypt.
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, there was no temple of God except for His earthly body. Certainly, Herod’s temple stood as a magnificent edifice of gleaming white stone, but once the glory of God entered Solomon’s temple (2 Chron 7:1) then left Solomon’s temple (Ezek 10:18–19), the glory [the indwelling bright fire of life] of God didn’t return to the temple when the remnant returned to Jerusalem to build for Cyrus, king of Persia and of Babylon, a temple for the God of heaven that )according to Cyrus) lived at Jerusalem (Ezra 1:2–3). The glory of the Lord was not present in Herod’s temple until the man Jesus, with the glory of God in Him since the breath of the Father [pneuma Theou] descended in the bodily form of a dove and entered into Him, entered the temple to teach …
Let it be repeated for emphasis: The only time the glory of God was in Herod’s temple was when Jesus entered; for He was in His body the temple of God (John 2:19, 21). In the 1st-Century CE, there was no other temple that mattered, what the author of Luke’s Gospel never understood and part of what discloses that he was uninspired (he was a scribbler, a person who wrote for hire, who consulted other writings, synthesized these other writings to produce a new text justifying whatever it was that his employer wanted him to justify).
Concerning Cyrus’ command to build for him a temple to the God of heaven in Jerusalem, the Ark of the Covenant did not return from Babylon: the Holy of holies would have been empty, what soldiers of Antiochus Epiphanes IV discovered and “corrected” by placing a statue of Zeus in this Most Holy place. And there are a host of problems in identifying the bowls of the temple that were allegedly returned when Cyrus “brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away” (Ezra 1:7) … what vessels were these? Note,
Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonite. And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house. He took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made, and King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house. And as often as the king went into the house of the Lord, the guard carried them and brought them back to the guardroom. (1 Kings 14:21–28 emphasis added)
Solomon’s temple was routinely looted until Hezekiah stripped the gold overlay from the doors of the temple:
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear." And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house. At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. (2 Kings 18:13–16 emphasis added)
So how many gold vessels were in the temple for Nebuchadnezzar to carry away? Most likely, nowhere near the vessels declared in Ezra; for the following is recorded:
And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen. And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon. And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service, the fire pans also and the bowls. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver. As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight. The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and on it was a capital of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits. A latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with the latticework. (2 Kings 25:11–17 emphasis added)
The gold vessels that were in the temple were carried to Babylon as gold, not as vessels. Same for silver vessels. Same for the bronze pillars. So, it is logical that the gold on the Ark of the Covenant—the gold cherubim—were melted down and carried to Babylon as “gold.” Certainly, the Ark of the Covenant was not returned to Israel when a remnant went by order of King Cyrus to build for him a temple for the God of heaven in Jerusalem. Therefore, year by year, the high priest of Israel enacted a charade every Yom Kipporim when he was supposed to offer sacrifice for himself, for Israel, and for the temple. The sins of Israel simply were not covered.
What Ezra wrote is accurate symbolically, but sadly, probably not literally true.
When the glory left Solomon’s temple in the days of King Nebuchadnezzar, the glory didn’t return—nor did the Ark of the Covenant or the Urim and Thummim, despite what Josephus claims about the Urim and Thummim first failing in the Maccabean era; for Ezra records,
These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but they were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food, until there should be a priest to consult Urim and Thummim. (Ezra 2:62–63)
There was neither priest nor hoshen to consult.
After Israel rebelled against the Lord in asking for a king to rule over the nation, Israel no longer could figuratively talk to the Lord face-to-face through the Lord giving to Israel rain in due season, or through the Lord protecting Israel from foreign enemies. Instead, note,
Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land. The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her." And his servants said to him, "Behold, there is a medium at En-dor." (1 Sam 28:3–7 double emphasis added)
After the Lord no longer spoke to Israel face-to-face, there were still three means by which the Lord communicated with Israel: dreams, Urim (as a shortened expression for the Urim and Thummim), and prophets. But all of this was before the spirit was given, with the Parakletos as the spirit of truth giving to disciples answers that formerly came through the Urim and Thummim that were absent from the second temple until disciples became that second temple through being the Body of Christ.
While dreams still occur in this modern era and while there is still a prophet in Israel, neither pertain to how God communicates with His sons, the Elect, although dreams are still used by the glorified Christ to communicate with human persons, particularly with those not yet born of spirit as a son of God.
The tabernacle in the wilderness, Solomon’s temple, Zerubbabel’s temple (and even Herod’s temple) can be likened to the fleshly body of a human person born of God, with the living inner self that is the son of God being the reality of the Levitical priesthood that served in the tabernacle or temple—that constructed and carried the tabernacle.
But there was neither tabernacle nor temple in Israel’s first year … during His earthly ministry, Jesus was as Moses was during the first year Israel was in the wilderness—
Without there being a tent of meeting, a tabernacle, during Israel’s first year in the wilderness, the Lord met face-to-face with Moses atop Mount Sinai, analogous to Jesus going off by Himself to talk with the Father in prayer during His earthly ministry. And without here making an irrefutable case that Jesus’ earthly ministry is analogous to Israel’s first year in the wilderness (such a case can be made), it is enough to say that the reason why the Lord commanded and Moses did “according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did: In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected” (Ex 40:16–17) is the reason why disciples, individually and collectively, are today the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16–17; 2 Cor 6:16).
At the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, there is a transition to a spiritual or heavenly ministry just as there was a physical transition with the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness in how Israel interacted with the Lord; for the tabernacle served as a barrier that prevented Israel from approaching the Lord, who after the golden calf incident was determined to kill Israel.
Yes, the tabernacle as the Holy Place with its inner Most Holy Place prevented Israel from entering into the Lord’s presence:
These preparations [the tabernacle and its furnishings] having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the holy spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. (Heb 9:6–12 emphasis added)
Disciples in this era—the Elect, not all of Christendom—are the reality that the tabernacle in the wilderness foreshadowed, with Moses [the Son] leaving the camp of Israel to go outside of the camp to the tent of meeting, and with Israel functioning as the body of Moses, doing what Moses did, only at the door of their own tents (Ex 33:7–11 — this passage in chronologically misplaced; for the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, was not yet constructed: see Ex 40:16, 22, 24, 26, 29–35)
In one year, Israel went from being slaves in Egypt to erecting the tabernacle in the wilderness of Sinai, while camped at the base of Mount Sinai. But in this year, the first Sinai covenant had been given, ratified with blood as a copy of a heavenly thing (Heb 9:22–23), broken by Israel and ended by the shedding of blood by both Israel and the Lord (Ex 32:28, 35), and a second Sinai covenant made (Ex chap 34) that was ratified by Moses entering into the presence of the Lord, with the Lord’s glory shining from Moses’ face the remainder of his days.
In type, Moses entering into the presence of the Lord atop Mount Sinai forms the chiral image of the glorified Christ Jesus ascending to heaven and being accepted as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering: the shining of Moses’ face was the non-symmetrical chiral image of Christ Jesus being glorified, which will now have the second Sinai covenant forming the chiral image of the New Covenant, implemented at the Second Passover liberation of Israel. … The construction of the Tabernacle at the base of Mount Sinai is analogous to the construction of the heavenly temple from living stone during the Affliction, with the Elect in this present era, through the indwelling of Christ, being analogous to Moses before the Passover liberation of Israel.
The Second Passover overlays the first Passover as its non-symmetrical chiral image. Greater Christendom is today spiritually as Israel was physically in Egypt: greater Christendom has long been enslaved by the Adversary, doing the will of the Adversary while sincerely believing that its serves God. Well, it does serve the god of this world, the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the Adversary. And in anger, greater Christendom will when filled with spirit rebel against God and martyr His genuine sons, “genuine” because they believe the Lord, keeping His commandments, having love for neighbor and brother. And there is absolutely no love in murder, in transgressing any of the commandments.
Throughout the first year when Israel was in the wilderness of Sinai, there was no tabernacle [certainly no temple], no census, no sacrifices. And Israel was under a form of condemnation that did not permit Israel to adorn itself; i.e., to wear jewelry, notably earrings. For in a symbolic way, Israel’s earrings had prevented Israel from hearing the words of the Lord, suggesting that gold chains would prevent the words of the Lord from entering the hearts of Israel, that “gold” stood between the Lord and the inner selves of Israel, with in later visions (of Nebuchadnezzar and of Daniel) gold forming a representation of the spiritual king of Babylon, the Adversary.
Pertaining to the Passover as the 10th plague, the Lord tells Moses, “‘This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you’” (Ex 12:2), which would seem to have the beginning of months and the first month of the year for you having the same linguistic referent, the two expressions being doubled for emphasis. But in the first Sinai covenant being ratified by blood as a copy of a heavenly covenant, and with the second Sinai covenant being ratified by a better sacrifice as a heavenly [eternal] covenant, the basis for Hebrew poetic thought-couplets that form the key of David is already in place, with the physical forming a shadow and copy of the spiritual. Thus, careful readers should not think that the beginning of months means the same thing as the first month of the year for you although that would seem to be that case if someone other than the Lord were speaking to Moses, especially so if the first Passover were the second Passover, and if the people of Israel were the children of Israel.
No person taking the Passover on the 14th day of the first month takes the Passover on the 14th day of the second month. It is the Israelite that is either ceremonially unclean or on a long journey on the 14th day of first month that takes the Passover the second month. Thus, a difference exists between Passover and the second Passover that is not a different ceremony, but a different participant: the Passover of the first month was for those Israelites who left Egypt under Moses, with no one leaving Egypt in the second month of the first year. But the Passover in the second month (when the tabernacle stood) is for those who had already left the representation of sin, Egypt, but who are defiled for one of two reasons: being far from God or having touched a dead body, the two reasons that pertain to every Christian when first truly coming to God, which isn’t to say that Christians ought to be taking the Passover sacraments on second Passover rather than on Passover in the first month. It is to say, however, that there will be a Second Passover liberation of Israel (the nation to be circumcised-of-heart) from indwelling sin and death.
The beginning of months is more inclusive than the first month of the year for you, and would seem to begin a count that is not limited to one year [twelve/thirteen months] but to the history of Israel … the expression, the beginning of months, suggests that Israel’s history prior to the tenth plague was of no consequence, that Israel’s history begins with the first day of the first month of the year of the first Passover and goes forward until at least the plains of Moab from where the children of Israel cross into the Promised Land on the 10th day of the first month, with the beginning of months for you referencing when each year began, two weeks before the Passover.
The preceding can be confusing; for what the patriarch Jacob did is of consequence … but the history of Israel prior to the baptism of Christ Jesus is of no spiritual consequence for the Body of Christ. Yes, what Israel did when under the cloud and passing through the sea was an example, a type of what Christians do, so that Christians “might not desire evil as [Israel] did” (1 Cor 10:6). But today’s Elect are of Moses—are the great nation the Lord said He would build from Moses—and as such, the Elect do not do what Israel did in the wilderness, with those things that Israel did preventing the nation of Israel numbered in the census of the second year from entering the Promised Land.
The census of Israel could have been conducted during the first year, but wasn’t conducted until the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was constructed and erected. Why? Why is the temple measured in heaven (Rev 11:1–2) at the beginning of the ministry of the two witnesses, who are to be like Moses and Aaron, his brother? Same reason. The period represented by Israel’s first year spiritually takes Christians from enslavement by the prince of this world, through liberation [at the Second Passover] and onto receiving the indwelling of Christ (as the true manna from heaven) to rebellion against Christ. And another Israel, represented by the children of Israel, and those who do not rebel will eventually enter into the Promised Land of heaven. But before doing so, those who are to be killed as the holy ones were killed in the 1st-Century (Rev 6:9–11) will be “redeemed.”
Let it here be said that two referents exist in verse two of Exodus chapter twelve, one pertaining to Israel and one pertaining to the calendar year. There will not be disagreement about the calendar year, even within rabbinical Judaism that DOES NOT begin its calculated calendar in the spring of the year, thereby knowingly transgressing Moses.
However, about the first clause of Exodus 12:2, there will be little understanding of Israel’s history beginning two weeks before the first Passover … the Passover lamb is a male of first year, a male without blemish, selected and penned on the tenth day of the first month, the day when the children of Israel entered the Promised Land behind Joshua [in Greek, ’Iesou — Jesus] (Josh 4:19), but the children of Israel were “blemished” by the unbelief of their fathers. Not until the birth and life of the man Jesus was anyone in Israel without blemish. But backing up, the nation of Israel as the firstborn son of the Lord (Ex 4:22) left Egypt as a nation without blemish, the Passover causing the Lord to “pass over” Israel’s unbelief and assign to Egyptians responsibility for the sins of Israel, an enslaved nation and not “free” to worship the Lord. However, at Sinai and in the gold calf incident, Israel severely blemished itself, blemished itself to the point where the Lord was ready to slaughter the entirety of the nation and make a new nation from Moses as He had made a nation from Abraham, an intention that He brought to life in the form of the man Jesus the Nazarene.
The preceding is correct: the Apostle Paul in Galatians writes, “And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise”(Gal 3:29), thereby equating Christ with Abraham, with Christ Jesus being the spiritual reality of Abraham. He is also the spiritual reality of Moses, the Son — the name Moses is an Egyptian suffix that meant “the Son” as Dirck in German means “son of”; hence a historical name such as “Dirck Keyser” meant Son of Keyser, with his son also being “Dirck Keyser,” generation after generation as is found in the family lineage of Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer, President Clinton’s Undersecretary of Health for Veteran Affairs … Moses was the Son of Pharaoh through adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter, but since he wasn’t the son of any particular Pharaoh, he bore only the name “Moses”; thus permitting THE SON, Christ Jesus, to be the spiritual reality of the Son, Moses. And in old Norse culture, Nils Gunnarson would have been the son of “Gunnar,” with the second name of Nils Gunnarson’s son or sons being “Nilsson,” not Gunnarson, the second name of their father. So in the name “Moses” is the reality of Israel’s history, a subject to be addressed in a future Sabbath Reading.
When the Passover lamb is an unblemished male of the first year, with the children of Israel representing the selected and penned Passover lamb of God when this nation entered the Promised Land on the 10th day of the first month, then the year between when the Lord commands Israel to select and pen a male of either the sheep or the goats and when the tabernacle is erected and dedicated on the first day of the first month of the second year—this one year has spiritual significance; for during this one year, the nation of Israel that left Egypt and that did not enter the Promised Land because of its unbelief was the intended lamb of God through being the firstborn son of the Lord (Ex 4:22).
The Passover sacrifice is a sin offering as evidenced by instructions for the second Passover: “But if anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not bring the Lord's offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin” (Num 9:13 emphasis added). The sacrifice of the Passover lamb temporarily “covers” but does not pay the penalty for the person’s sin.
The Passover of the second year and the introduction of the second Passover for those Israelites who are spiritually unclean or on a long journey (today, that represents all of greater Christendom except for the Elect, who will have eaten the Passover on the 14th day of the first month) occurs after the tabernacle is erected … again, for the first year, there was no tabernacle. No sacrifices could take place other than the Passover sacrifice that began Israel’s trek to freedom. But manna had been given at the time of the second Passover during this first year, thereby making the daily presence or absence of manna the physical equivalent to the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
At the Second Passover liberation of Israel, the unbelief/sin of greater Christendom will be taken from Christians and assigned to the Adversary, the spiritual reality of Pharaoh and of the human king of Babylon. However, as Israel left Egypt without sin but returned to the ways of Egypt at Mount Sinai, the majority of Christians will return to unbelief and disobedience 220 days into the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years. The majority of today’s Christians, believing that they have been saved but having no evidence to support their belief, when actually liberated from indwelling sin and death will seek the ideological comfort of their present religious practices and will either remain in their lawless ways or return to their present lawless ways. Hence, they will rebel against the Lord as Israel did at Mount Sinai. They will become a blemished lamb of the first year, a rejected lamb, with again, Christ Jesus being the reality of the manna that sustained Israel in the wilderness. The indwelling of Christ in them will be spoiled manna; therefore, the third part of humankind (from Zech 13:9), none of whom are today “Christians,” will be filled with spirit and will be as the children of Israel were, entering into heaven or into the Millennium (also a Promised Land) in lieu of the nation liberated at the Passover/Second Passover.
After Israel at Sinai rebelled against the Lord, thereby ending the first Sinai covenant, Moses received instructions for constructing the tabernacle, that with its Holy Place prevented Israel from approaching the Lord, symbolizing that the way to the Lord was not available to any of Israel, except for the man Moses and his assistant, Joshua.
Today’s Christians within the greater Church are as Israel was in Egypt: they are an afflicted people, and they beg the Lord for liberation—and the cries of these Christians have been heard by the Lord as the cries of Israel were heard in the days of Moses, who was then living as a common shepherd, herding the sheep of his father-in-law on the backside of nowhere, a fugitive from Egypt after having been reared in Pharaoh’s household. But after nine plagues, the last six affecting only Egyptians (these plagues being punishment, not honest attempts to liberate Israel; for after each one the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart so he wouldn’t left Israel leave). So after nine plagues, the beginning of months finally arrives. Everything that has gone on before is not the shadow and copy of what will happen to Christians that live through a long and drawn out 14th day of the first month, a day that began at Calvary with its midnight hour not yet upon humanity—
Israel spent its first year first in Egypt (for two weeks) as an enslaved people, then for three days as a free people in Egypt, then for the remainder of this first year trekking to Sinai and making the furnishings for the tabernacle as well as the tabernacle itself. Thus, we find:
The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, "Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head. From twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war, you and Aaron shall list them, company by company. …” (Num 1:1–3 emphasis added)
Israel remained encamped at Sinai from the first day of the third month of the first year until the 20th day of second month of the second year (Num 10:11) … Israel spent the Passover and second Passover of the second year camped at Sinai, which gives to this encampment a certain sense of residency not previously addressed in Sabbath Readings: with Sinai representing the giving of the Ten Commandments as well as the Passover, the Feasts, the redemption of firstborns, tithing, and a command that Christians ignore and that Jews misunderstand, the command against boiling a kid in its mother’s milk, Christians are to ideologically dwell in a mental landscape represented visually by Israel encamped around the base of Mount Sinai. Christians are to keep the commandments; they are to live as outwardly uncircumcised but inwardly circumcised Israelites.
There was at Sinai separation between Moses and the remainder of Israel, with Moses talking face-to-face with the Lord and even with Moses entering into His rest [presence]. But at the end of the first year—before the Passover was sacrificed in the second year (Num 9:1–5)—everything changed but in subtle ways that seemed not to be a change …
Israel, collectively, represents the Passover lamb of God, the reason why Israel led by Joshua [Greek, ’Iesou — Jesus] was “penned” in the Promised Land on the 10th day of the first month: “The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho” (Josh 4:19). They were penned in God’s Rest, also represented by Sabbath observance (Heb 3:16–4:11; Ps 95:10–11), but they were not without blemish. Not until Jesus lived without sin was Israel the acceptable Passover Lamb of God, with Jesus individually representing all of Israel by taking upon Himself the sins of Israel.
When Israel left Egypt, Israel had little or no knowledge of the Lord: Israel worshipped the gods of Egypt in addition to the Lord. But Israel in Egypt would not cease worshiping as Egyptians worshipped, nor did Israel cease in the wilderness. Note what the prophet Ezekiel records the Lord saying:
Let them [the elders of Israel] know the abominations of their fathers, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: On the day when I chose Israel, I swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, making myself known to them in the land of Egypt; I swore to them, saying, I am the Lord your God. On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands. And I said to them, Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God. But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt. So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live. Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. (Ezek 20:4–13 emphasis added)
Israel in Egypt rebelled against the Lord; Israel in the wilderness rebelled against the Lord; the children of Israel in the Promised Land rebelled against the Lord; and the descendants of the children of Israel in Babylon were still in rebellion against the Lord. But in Babylon, Israel was again seeking the Lord’s intervention in their affairs as Israel in Egypt sought His intervention.
In type, the Lord intervened on Israel’s behalf in Egypt as He will, in reality, intervene in the affairs of Israel in spiritual Babylon, that equates for circumcised-of-heart Israel to Egypt for the circumcised-in-the-flesh nation. Thus, for Israel under Moses, two Passover observances are recorded. One the first year, with the beginning of months coming in the spring of the year, and with this Passover occurring in Egypt with the firstborn of Egyptians (of man and beasts) being slain. The second occurs in the wilderness, and occurs in the first month of the second year, with a second Passover given to cover those Israelites who are ceremonially unclean when the Passover of the first month was observed.
In the wilderness, the men of Israel who were unclean because of touching a dead body (Num 9:6) would have been as Egyptians were in Egypt; for all Egyptians were ceremonially unclean through not smearing the blood of a Passover lamb on doorposts and lintels—and these unclean men of Israel were concerned, taking their cause directly and immediately to Moses, who consults with the Lord and comes back with the second Passover; i.e., the Passover taken in the second month as the Passover is taken in the first month, but taken only by those who are either unclean or on a long journey the day of the Passover in the first month.
The preceding is enough for one Sabbath Reading; thus, this Reading and discussion of the Passover will be continued in next Sabbath’s Reading.
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The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.
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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."