The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The concept behind this Sabbath's selection is Passover.

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Break Thou the Bread of Life
God Himself is With Us
Oh, That Men Would Praise Their God
We Are God's People
Go You Therefore Into All the World

Weekly Readings

For the Sabbath of April 26, 2008

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.

The person conducting the service should read or assign to be read Exodus chapters 32 through 34.

Commentary: The tablets of stone that were the work of God—the tablets that Moses threw down and broke at the foot of the mountain—these tablets represented the testimony of God recorded in the Book of the Covenant (Ex 24:7) that was read in the hearing of all of the people … the people had broken covenant with God. The terms of the covenant ratified by blood (vv. 5-8) called for Israel to “‘obey [Yah’s] voice and to keep [His] covenant … and you [Israel] shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’” (Ex 19:5-6).

But when the people demanded of Aaron that he make for them elohim that should go before them, the people broke the covenant by which they were made the holy people of God. Nevertheless, this covenant extended forward until blood was again shed—a covenant is in visual representation the distance between when a cutting is made (when blood is shed) until a cutting is again made (until blood is again shed). And blood was again shed when Moses gathered the sons of Levi around him and said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor’” (Ex 32:27).

Whereas the marriage covenant made at Sinai was ratified by the shedding of the blood of bulls, the covenant was ended by the shedding of the blood of the sons of Levi, the blood of the family from which the high priest of Israel would come—blood that formed the shadow and type of Christ Jesus’ blood shed at Calvary.

A mirror produces the reversed image of the object: the person looking into a mirror reaches forward with his or her right hand to touch what would be the left hand of the image in the mirror reaching out to touch hands. And it is this reversed mirror image that has not been well understood by disciples.

In the natural world, a woman’s labor pains precede the birth of a child. They cannot do otherwise, nor would a reasonable person expect otherwise. But when the last Eve [Zion] gives birth to a nation in a day (Isa 66:7-8), her birth pains will follow delivery of two sons, a spiritual Cain and a spiritual Abel (these hard labor pains are the first 1260 days of the Tribulation). Likewise, her birth pains will follow, not precede, the delivery of her third son, a spiritual Seth, the last third part of humankind, with this third part to be born of spirit when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh (Zech 13:9).

Therefore as the first Eve’s labor pain preceded childbirth in the natural world and as these labor pains form the shadow and copy of the last Eve’s labor pains in the invisible spiritual world—and as a shadow is a darkened mirror image, the labor pains of the last Eve should and will follow childbirth. It can now be said that when moving from physical to spiritual realms, if the shadows were to receive illumination, the shadows would be staring back at the one making the shadow as a mirror image stares back at the one making the image. And all of this becomes important when Israel realizes the blood of oxen that ratified the marriage covenant made at Sinai (again Ex 24:5-8) and the blood of the sons of Israel that ended this marriage covenant forty days later forms the shadow and copy type of the ratification of the second covenant made at Sinai, the covenant made in chapter 34.

Before proceeding with the significance of the above statement, the second covenant made at Sinai needs examined: this second covenant was ratified by Moses entering into God’s presence even though Moses was only allowed to see the back of God (Ex 33:23) and seeing the back of the glorified God becomes equivalent to Eve’s labor pains preceding childbirth. So moving from the physical realm to the spiritual realm, the descendants of Moses will enter into God’s presence face to face as the last Eve’s labor pains follow childbirth.

The birth of physical Cain becomes the shadow and copy of the birth of a last or spiritual Cain. Likewise the birth of Abel becomes the shadow and copy of the birth of a last Abel. And the good news that must be proclaimed to all the world as a witness to all nations is the birth of a spiritual Seth: the birth of the first Seth forms the shadow and copy of the birth of an endtime Seth halfway through the seven years of tribulation, this birth coming when the Holy Spirit is poured onto all flesh. And this spiritual Seth will be accepted by God as the first Seth was accepted by God. All that this last Seth must do is endure in faith until the end; for all who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13).

In Noah’s day, the world was baptized by water unto death. Halfway through the Tribulation, the world will be baptized by Spirit, the divine breath of God, and baptized into life dwelling in tents of flesh. After the thousand years, the world will be baptized by fire, and mortal flesh will either perish or will have put on immortality, received from the Son. As the Father raises the dead and gives life to all, but spiritual life in tents of flesh, the Son to whom all judgment has been committed will give life to whom He will (John 5:21). So the Father places life into tents of flesh He draws from this world as firstfruits prior to when the world is baptized by Spirit, the Son will cause worthy but perishable tents of flesh to put on immortality when judgments are revealed. Both the Father and the Son must give life to an air-breathing human being before this person can enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Baptism by water into death corresponds to Moses seeing the back of God; whereas baptism by spirit corresponds to entering into God’s presence face to face. Baptism by spirit will cause the disciple to be clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49) in a manner analogous to Peter being clothed with power so that the infirmed were healed even when his shadow fell across them (Acts 5:15), and Paul being clothed with power so pieces of cloth that touched his body would heal the infirm (Acts 19:11-12). The person who claims to have been baptized in the Holy Spirit but who is obviously not clothed with power from on high is not to be trusted. For Israel’s baptism in spirit occurs at the second Passover liberation of Israel. It has not yet happened to any endtime Israelite, spiritual or physical.

As the Adversary drew down from heaven a third of the stars, sons of God fashioned from spirit, Christ Jesus will draw upward to heaven a third of humankind, sons of God fashioned from flesh. Although it is not God’s will that any person be lost, the reality of which all must be aware is that no son of disobedience will enter into heaven. Thus, when a son of God returns to disobedience, making himself a bondservant of sin, the son of God will not enter heaven—and two of every three sons of God (for all will eventually be born of spirit) will return to sin when sin has no dominion over them. They will return to sin because they love this world more than they love God … ask yourself, why will you not walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6) or imitate Paul as he imitated Christ (1 Cor 11:1; Phil 3:17)? Is it because you want the things of this world, including the respect of this world more than you want the things of God? If not, then what is of more importance than obedience? Surely not your opinion or not what you think is right or not the opinions of others. If your determination of what is right causes you to question God, have you not committed the same transgression as the first Eve? Of course you have.

In the song that ratifies the everlasting Moab covenant (Deut 29:1), Moses says that the Lord is just, faithful, and without iniquity (Deut 32:4), but Israel has dealt corruptly with Him; “they are no longer his children because they are blemished; / they are a crooked and twisted generation” (v. 5) … they are no longer his children because they are blemished—this may come as a surprise to rabbinical Judaism, but it shouldn’t after what happened in the 20^th-Century; for Israel ceased being His children when the sons of Levi slew brother, son, and neighbor, shedding the blood that ended the covenant made when the voice of YHWH, Israel’s Elohim, was heard from atop Mount Sinai.

Again, when Moses cast down the stone tablets God had shaped and on which He had written the testimony of the covenant, the covenant was broken. Israel was blemished by the sin Aaron permitted. And God hid his face from Israel (Deut 32:20); He hid His face from even Moses, who entered into His presence as a servant (Heb 3:5) to testify to the things that would be spoken by Jesus of Nazareth, for the person who will not believe what Moses wrote will not believe the words of Jesus (John 5:46-47).

But when Moses pleaded for Israel’s life, God relented of the destruction of which He had spoken—but the covenant by which Israel was the holy nation of God was no more. Another covenant was made at Sinai (Ex 34:10), an eternal covenant that was not ratified by blood but by the glory of Moses having entered into the presence of God. As the Moab covenant was ratified by a song, a better sacrifice than blood (Heb 9:23), the second covenant made at Sinai was ratified by a better sacrifice. And while it is convenient to speak of the covenant made when Israel heard the voice of God as “the Sinai Covenant,” to do so reveals a lack of knowledge by the speaker, for that covenant was from its inception a temporary covenant. That covenant was replaced by the covenant made in chapter 34, and this eternal covenant takes a turn against Israel when God delivered the nation into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar, for the Ark of the Covenant in which were the two tablets of stone Moses hewed smooth, the two tablets that were the testimony of this second Sinai covenant (Ex 34:29), were never returned to the second temple, nor should they have been returned for they were copies and shadows of the laws of God written on the hearts and minds of spiritually circumcised Israelites.

The terms of this second Sinai covenant are meticulously kept by Observant Jews now that it is too late—

The mixed circumcised and uncircumcised children of Israel entered into the Promised Land of the 10^th day of Abib: they were not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of Canaan; they were to tear down the inhabitants’ altars, break down their pillars, and cut down their Asherim (Ex 34:12-13). They were not to marry their sons or daughters to the sons and daughters of the inhabitants of Canaan. They were not to have any other God but the Lord, and they were not to make metal gods. They were to keep Unleavened Bread. They were to redeem all that opened the womb (these are the terms of the Passover covenant, the covenant made with Israel on the day when the Lord took the nation by the hand to lead it out of Egypt — Heb 8:8-9). They were to keep the Sabbath, observe the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Tabernacles. Three times a year they were to come before the Lord. And the Lord would cast out the nations before Israel and enlarge the nation’s borders, and no other nation would covet Israel’s lands when all the males were gathered before God. Israel was not to offer the blood of a sacrifice with anything leavened. The best of the firstfruits were to be brought to the house of the Lord. And Israel was not to boil a kid in its mother’s milk. And the precepts behind all of these terms were written in ten Words, the Decalogue.

Can endtime disciples match words with terms? How about the Sabbath commandment?

Under the eternal Moab covenant, the reason for observing the Sabbath is, “‘You shall remember you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day’” (Deut 5:15).

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God …. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. (Deut 16:1–3)

In addition, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of the seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord. … On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. … All native Israelites shall dwell in booths that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. (Lev 23:33, 39–40, 43)

Unlike in the first Sinai covenant where the weekly Sabbath was a memorial to creation (Ex 20:11), the weekly Sabbath becomes a memorial to liberation; i.e., the liberation of Israel from Egypt, the shadow and type of the circumcised of heart nation’s liberation from bondage to sin and death. The Passover, now, is the spring seven-day-observance of the Sabbath, the representation of Israel’s liberation from bondage in Egypt (this is how the Apostle John references Passover — John 19:31). Plus, dwelling in booths [i.e., circumcised of heart disciples dwelling in tents of flesh where God places His name] is for remembrance that God brought Israel out from bondage … both Unleavened Bread and Sukkot can be linguistically described by the singular icon /Sabbath/, with the entire period when an ancient Israelite would have journeyed to Jerusalem and remained there (Deut 16:16) becoming Sabbath, thereby extending the Sabbath to the three times a year when all of Israel was to appear before the Lord.

Under the second and eternal Sinai covenant, the Sabbath commandments includes the weekly Sabbath and the three times a year when all of Israel is appear before God—and this is what is seen in Leviticus chapter 23. The “Christian” who does not observe the weekly as well as the annual Sabbaths breaks the Sabbath commandment, and is a transgressor. Today, the born of Spirit son of God who breaks the Sabbath commandments has his transgression covered by Christ’s righteousness [i.e., Grace], but the son of God as part of the Body of the Son of Man will be revealed (Luke 17:30) or unclothed when liberated from indwelling sin and death at the second Passover liberation of Israel. If this disciple then transgresses the Sabbath commandment as natural Israel rebelled against God, this disciple will have taken sin back within him or herself when no sacrifice remained for the person. This disciple will die physically and spiritually when judgments are revealed. Therefore, the Seventh Day Adventist who does not come before God on Passover, Feast of Weeks, and at Ingathering transgresses the Sabbath commandments as surely as does the Mennonite who refuses to keep the weekly Sabbath.

Observant Judaism’s transgression comes from its steadfast refusal to worship the Creator of all that has been made now that He [Yah or Theos] entered His creation as His only Son. But this refusal will, for some, come to an end after the second Passover liberation of Israel, and the clothing in power from above (Luke 24:49) of disciples who teach all of Israel, natural as well as the wild olive grafts, to believe all that Moses wrote.

Today, it is enough for disciples to realize that the covenant made when the Lord spoke from atop Mount Sinai ended forty days after Moses entered the cloud; it ended when Moses broke the tablets, then commanded the sons of Levi to slay neighbor, brother, and son, thereby shedding sacrificial blood. It is enough to disciples to learn to pay closer attention to what has been written by Moses, for if a person will not believe what Moses wrote, the person will not believe the words of Jesus.

The covenant made when the Lord spoke from atop Sinai was the shadow and mirror image of the covenant made with Moses when he entered into the presence of God, for God turning His face from a nation signifies the death of the nation. Israel lived physically but was dead spiritually, with this death formalized when the nation rebelled against God in the wilderness of Paran (Num chap 14). Likewise, the Christian Church rebelled against the Father and the Son in the 1^st-Century. The Church was then “dead,” even though it carried on as the nation of Israel carried on between Sinai and Paran. But God formalized the death of the Church at the Council of Nicea. And in the mirror of natural Israel’s journey through the Wilderness of Sin/Zin, disciples can see their journey as well as the Church’s journey through a wilderness of sin.

The blood shed by goats and calves to cleanse the high priest before he could enter into the presence of God becomes the shadow and type of the blood shed by Christ to enter into the presence of God as the high priest of spiritually circumcised Israel (Heb 9:12-14)—and when a disciple realizes that this is a reversed image, the disciple should fear becoming a spiritual goat or calf offered as a sacrifice when the spiritual temple is dedicated, for to be made into a vessel of wrath instead of a vessel for honored usage is a true tragedy and one that could have been avoided by simply believing Christ.

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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