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 entering into God’s presence.
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High Sabbath Readings
For Yom Kipporim, October 10, 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 Leviticus chapter 23, verses 26 through 32; followed by Leviticus chapter 16 and Acts chapter 27, verse 9.
Commentary: The Fast which Luke references was Yom Kippur or Yom Kipporim [day of coverings], and if the Greek “Theophilus” [lover of God] (Acts 1:1) to whom the book of Acts is addressed was not familiar with the high Sabbath day, the reference would make no sense. A Greek living as a Greek would not be interested in a day so obviously “Jewish” as Yom Kipporim unless this Greek was living as a Jew or as a Judaizer—and would, most likely, not know when the day occurred. Thus, the assumption must be that this Greek lover of God (who might represent all disciples) was not only familiar with the Fast, but was also familiar with Unleavened Bread (Acts 20:6). And this is a reasonable assumption since Paul taught Gentile converts to keep the precepts of the law and thus have their uncircumcision counted as circumcision (Rom 2:26–29). Theophilus would, then, have been observing the Fast as he would have been keeping the Passover on the night that Jesus was betrayed (1 Cor 11:23–26), and he would have also kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread as Paul kept this feast.
Why would “Christians” observe Sabbaths that are so obviously Jewish … the answer is in the Greek original of Colossians 2:16 & 17 —
oun Mē tis krinetō hymas en brōsei kai en posei ē en merei heortēs ē neomēnias ē sabbatōn
A direct translation does not read how English translations traditionally read:
Not therefore anyone you judge in eating and drinking or in respect of a feast or of a new moon or of Sabbaths which is a shadow of things coming the but body (of) the Christ.
“Let not anyone judge you” or “you judge not anyone” concerning eating or drinking or in respect to the observance of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath … if Paul’s instructions to the converts at Colossae are not to judge a brother weak or strong in faith in regards to what the brother eats and drinks, what Paul writes in verse 16 would compare favorably with what Paul has written in Romans chapter 14 about not passing judgment on the servant of another concerning eating and drinking and the observation of days. Paul writes, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom 14:7–9).
It is the Father who raises the dead (John 5:21), and Jesus said that the one who hears His words and believes the one who sent Him has eternal life, that this one does not come under judgment but passes from death to life. So who are the disciples who die to the Lord? Who are those who live to the Lord? Who are those who have been made alive by the Father but who have died to the Lord rather than who have been made alive and live to the Lord dead? Does Paul in Romans chapter 14 introduce the same point that the Apostle Paul records when Jesus said, “‘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” (5:28–29).
If the one who hears Jesus’ words and believes the Father (whose words Jesus spoke) passes from death to life without coming into judgment, then this one lives to the Lord and does not die to the Lord regardless of whether the flesh perishes before putting on immortality. This one is not the tent of flesh, but the new creature born of spirit as a son of God. This one dwells in a tent of flesh until judgments are revealed, not made, for this one does not come under judgment if Jesus is to be believed.
So was Paul speaking about those disciples whose fleshly tabernacles have died when he writes about Christ being the Lord of both dead disciples and living ones? Or was Paul addressing the situation Jesus addressed when He said that among disciples there were those who would be resurrected to life and those who would come under condemnation, with those who would be resurrected to life passing from death to life without coming into judgment because these ones heard and believed Jesus? And returning to pick up an important point from Colossians 2:17 that a feast, new moon, or Sabbath is a shadow of the Body [ha estin skia tōn mellontōn, - these are a shadow od the things to come, — 1 Cor 12:27)]. Disciples are the reality of the feasts of God, of the new moon observances, of the Sabbaths of God; and if disciples are the reality of the feasts, of Yom Kipporim, then disciples (the new creatures that dwell in tents of flesh; the new creatures that are born of spirit as sons of God) will cause the flesh to afflict itself on the Fast. For if a particular new creature will not cause the flesh to afflict itself, this new creature has separated itself from the Body of Christ even though it still belongs to Christ—and because this new creature separated itself from Christ, it will die if it has not already died. It will be dead to Christ; yet because Jesus died at Calvary and lived again, Jesus is the Lord of both the dead and the living, giving life to whom He will (John 5:21) by causing the mortal flesh to put on immortality when judgments are revealed (1 Cor 4:5), and denying whom He will because He never knew them (Matt 7:21–23).
The disciple is not the tent of flesh that will die or will be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump; the disciple is the new creature born of spirit that has come down from heaven in the form of the divine breath of the Father, invisible to human eyes, a breath or life that is not of the four unfurled dimensions. It is this second breath or second life that will die or live for Christ; for this second breath or life forms the Body of Christ, with the glorified Jesus as its Head. And if the Head, living among men as an observant Jew, kept the Fast, then the Body, living among men as judaizers (a label detested by Evangelicals and used by the Adversary to kill infant sons of God), will also keep the Fast; for the Body will walk as the Head does (cf. 1 Cor 11:1; Phil 3:17) or the Body will die because it is not of its Head.
What Romans chapter 14 and what Colossians 2:16–17 tell disciples is that they, disciples, are not to judge other disciples concerning food or drink or days observed for all judgment has been given to the Son who is over both disciples who die to the Lord and over disciples who live to the Lord. Whereas the tendency has been to read die to the Lord as referencing the physical death of the “Christian,” that tendency does not account for Paul calling disciples the Body of Christ and the reality of the feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths of the Lord. If the Body, then disciples are one with the Head and are not free to live differently in this world than how the Head lived.
Gentile converts under both Paul and Peter were taught to be Judaizers; i.e., to live as Judeans sans physical circumcision. Therefore, the person who argues that endtime disciples are not to observe the Fast, or to observe the other high Sabbaths of God are either without knowledge or are intellectually dishonest. To make the comparison of the high Sabbaths to pictures of Christ does Christ injustice; for if the glorified Jesus is the substance or reality or body [de to sōma tou Christou] of the festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths (Col 2:16–17), and if disciples are the Body of Christ, then disciples are also the reality of body of a festival, new moon, or Sabbath. And how can a disciple be the Body of Christ and be the body of a festival, new moon, or Sabbath and not keep that festival, new moon, or Sabbath?
Consider for a moment: you, in your person as a disciple of Christ Jesus and as His Body, walk around as the reality of the Fast, but do you walk around as this reality 365 days a year? If you do, when do you afflict the body—or even eat the bread of affliction? Do you dispense with a Sabbath because you are the reality or body of that Sabbath? Such reasoning would lead to what Paul condemned: “Let us do evil so that good may come—” (Rom 3:8). Doing bad never produces good, and those who teach this falsity are justly condemned.
So a person is the reality or body of the Fast when this person fasts, not when this person feasts. Again, he or she is not the body or substance of the Fast when the person feasts on whatever his or her heart desires, a self-evident redundancy that is here repeated because so few “Christians,” even of Sabbatarian Christendom, participate in the Fast by fasting.
A person who teaches disciples not to fast as the reality or substance of the Fast is a false teacher who should be marked and avoided by disciples earnestly contending for the faith delivered by the first disciples. The teacher who compares keeping the Fast to worshiping a picture of Jesus when Jesus is at the door knocking has no spiritual understanding … are disciples truly the Body of Christ if Jesus is at the door knocking? Think about this before answering. If Jesus is the uncovered Head of the Christ, and if disciples are the covered or clothed (in grace, or Jesus’ righteousness) Body of Christ, how can the Head be at the door knocking when the Body is in the house? Is Christ a headless horseman? Or can Jesus only be at the door knocking after disciples are separated from the Head when the Son of Man is revealed or unrobed (Luke 17:30) and disciples are filled with or empowered by the Holy Spirit? Remember, a man does not marry his body, but marries his bride. Jesus will not marry His Body which is already one with Him through the indwelling of the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christos] (Rom 8:9) in each disciple. Only following the separation of disciples through the last Eve giving birth to two sons, a spiritual Abel and a spiritual Cain, in a day (Isa 66:7–8) will disciples no longer be one with Jesus as Eve was one with Adam (Gen 2:23–24).
·Disciples do not today perceive themselves as the Body of Christ, with Jesus being the uncovered Head of this Christ even though they identify themselves as the Body.
·Most disciples will claim what Paul wrote about disciples being the Body of Christ without ever considering what this claim represents.
·Most disciples would consider it blasphemous for a disciple to claim to be Christ; yet these same disciples will find it acceptable to claim to be the Body of Christ.
·Is not the Body one with the Head, making the Body as much “Christ” as the head is Christ? Is this not what the claim that disciples are the Body of Christ entails, that disciples are of the same reality and of the same substance as the gloried Jesus?
·How are disciples to differ from the glorified Jesus if both are one in Christ, Head and Body?
·But a disciple does not look like Jesus and could not be recognized as the reality of Jesus if the disciple does not walk as Jesus walked.
·Jesus as an observant Jew kept the Fast.
·Paul argues before Festus, “‘Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense’” (Acts 25:8). So Paul, too, would have kept the Fast.
·Paul tells the saints at Corinth, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1).
·Paul tells the saints at Philippi, “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us” (3:17).
·John says that “whoever says he [Jesus] abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he [Jesus] walked” (1 John 2:6).
·If a disciple is to imitate Jesus and to imitate Paul, the disciple will (as the reality or substance of Jesus) keep the Fast. To not keep the Fast causes the person to be cut off from Jesus before the person is liberated from indwelling sin and death.
And there is the key concept: to not drink from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed leaves a person without a covering for sin (Matt 26:27–28), and to not fast on Yom Kipporim, the day of coverings, causes the person to be cut off from Israel and the Body of Christ. As much as a “Christian” will want to believe that he or she is in a love relationship with the glorified Jesus, if this Christian does not take the sacraments on the dark portion of the 14th of Abib and if this Christian doesn’t fast on the 10th of the seventh month, the Christian has no covering for sin but is under the law and is condemned by the law, the reason why this person and most every other Christian will be delivered into the hand of the man of perdition 220 days into the Tribulation for the destruction of the flesh so that the spirit might be saved when judgments are revealed. Only the processed “fruits” of the Promised Land [the oil and the wine — Rev 6:5–6] will not be delivered to Sin for the destruction of the flesh.
The human being is soma and psuche or body and shallow breath (Matt 10:28) before being born of spirit [pneuma] (1 Thess 5:23); so a disciple differs from the non-disciple by possessing a second breath or second life that has come from heaven via receipt of the divine breath of the Father [pneuma Theou] (Matt 3:16). A person has no indwelling spiritual life (no immortal soul) until born of spirit. And this second life is not sustained by physical food and drink so to go without food and drink is without meaning to this second life except as fasting pertains to keeping the Fast—and as long as Jesus is present with His disciples, and He is so present and will be so present until the second Passover liberation of Israel, Jesus’ disciples are not commanded to fast except on the Fast.
The above passes by too quickly when hungry: the new creature that is born of spirit as a son of God is not sustained by physically eating and drinking, but by the bread that has come down from heaven and by drink that quenches thirst forever. This new creature is like the wind, coming and going undetected by human eyes, and this new creature remains one with Christ Jesus, the Bridegroom, so this new creature does not fast. It is the tent of flesh that fasts, not the new creature. But even this tent of flesh, with the indwelling of Jesus, will not fast when the Bridegroom is present. This new creature will, however, fast when separated from Jesus following its liberation from indwelling sin and death … once the Tribulation begins, the need to fast will exist for Jesus will no longer be present in His disciples.
A fast is not a means to extort from the Father those things that the disciple perceives as needs although that is how fasting has been used by Israel, ancient and modern. Rather, to fast is to afflict the flesh, with the usual connotation being to abstain from all food and drink for the day. To drink fluids during a fast makes a mockery of fasting; so unless there are health issues that prevent a person from going without food and drink (such issues can exist and are certainly legitimate reasons for not fasting), a disciple will not eat or drink or do any work during the Fast.
When fasting in the Tribulation (fasting is about letting the oppressed go free) disciples will be empowered by the Holy Spirit, unlike today when the flesh of every disciple is oppressed by sin and death. The Fast is about covering the sins of Israel so that the tent of flesh is set free from death, and fasting in the Tribulation will be about keeping the flesh free from sin and death; fasting will be about staying free once liberated from indwelling sin and death.
Because of the importance of the Fast with its prohibition of doing any work on the day, calendar issues come into play as they do with when to observe the Passover … the rabbinical calculated calendar adopts set-asides so that a high Sabbath will never be in the position of a preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. These set-asides are not scriptural. Nor is the natural or physically circumcised nation of Israel the holy nation of God. So the rabbinical calendar has no authority within Sabbatarian Christendom even though some fellowships have adopted this calculated calendar to establish their high Sabbath observances. Plus, present day Jerusalem is without importance for those whose citizenship is in heavenly Jerusalem. Therefore, since disciples are not of present day Jerusalem; and since disciples count physical circumcision as nothing; and since disciples are today the royal priesthood and the holy nation of God (1 Pet 2:9), disciples have the authority to establish both the beginning of the sacred year and to set the date for when the Passover sacraments are to be taken and when the Fast is to be observed.
The principle for Philadelphia’s establishing of the New Year is summed up in the following declarative statement: the first locally observable new moon crescent following the spring equinox begins the year. The calendar is then always local and is figuratively reset each month, for each month begins with the locally observable new moon crescent—the new moon must be approximately 12 hours or more old and must set at least a few minutes after the sun sets before the new crescent is observable. The dark of the moon is not the new moon crescent, and a crescent that sets before sunset even if observable because of atmospheric conditions is not the new moon that begins the month. The new crescent will always set in the west near sunset in the first and seventh months. So the person who is unable to actually observe the crescent due to cloudy skies can, by using astronomical tables, determine when the new moon would have been observable; thus, calendars can be set in advance and checked by local observation.
Why local and not the new moon crescent observed at present day Jerusalem?
Paul writes,
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. (Gal 4:22–26)
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. (vv. 28–31)
The Jerusalem above is our mother: we are her sons, and as such we are not overly concerned about the carryings-on in present day Jerusalem, for we are of the free woman.
There are not two paths to salvation, one for natural Israel through the law and one for Christians through grace: dispensationism is wrong! There is only one path that goes from Moses to Joshua/Jesus [Iēsous] and into heaven. Moses led Israel as far as the plains of Moab where the eternal Moab covenant was made; he leads Israel to where Israel must choose life or death (Deut 30:15–20). But it is Joshua/Jesus [Iēsous] who actually leads the children of Israel into the Promised Land that is God’s rest. So the natural Israelite will never enter into God’s rest unless this “Jew” professes that Jesus is Lord and believes that the Father raised Jesus from the dead. This profession is the outward manifestation of faith necessary to circumcise the heart, for the time has come and is here about which the Lord [YHWH] said through the prophet Jeremiah,
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh—Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart. (9:25–26)
There is one path to salvation, with Moses setting before Israel life and death, and with every Gentile convert who would choose life necessarily choosing to keep the commandments and all that is written in Deuteronomy by faith. The natural Jew who by tradition keeps the commandments must by faith profess that Jesus is Lord, and the Gentile convert who believes that Jesus is Lord must by faith keep the precepts of the law. One path leads from the plains of Moab into the Promised Land and God’s rest—and this one path will be followed by every person who would be “one” with Christ Jesus.
The single path to salvation does not go through present day Jerusalem, but goes to the heavenly city of God. Therefore, since disciples are the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16–17; 2 Cor 6:16) and since Jesus promised to be wherever two or three are gathered in His name, the temple and heavenly Jerusalem is “local”; is wherever two are three are gathered together. Thus, the sacred calendar is set from whenever two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, and if this means that disciples in New Zealand will take the Passover in a few days, sobeit. In the Millennium, the sacrifices in the first month and in the seventh month will be the same:
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering. And on the seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to the Lord seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin offering. And he shall provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil to each ephah. In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, he shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, and for the oil. (Ezek 45:21–25 emphasis added)
So the setting of the calendar is a local responsibility, not a global responsibility. And if one fellowship keeps a high Sabbath on a day different from another fellowship halfway around the world, then that is the way it is on a round globe where an International Dateline is necessary so that those disciples who have journeyed east such as the Russian Orthodox Church and those who have journeyed west such as those of the Greek Orthodox Church will wrongly observe the same day on the same day and not one of them observing Sunday on Monday and the other observing Sunday on Sunday where they meet in the United States.
The above is at the heart of why Philadelphia observed the 10th as Yom Kipporim instead of the 9th as rabbinical Judaism observed Yom Kippur. When establishing the calendar, the principle of convenience does not override integrity: either the new moon crescent was or was not first visible as sunset on September 30th. If it was first visible at Port Austin, Michigan, shortly after sunset on the 30th, then the first day of the seventh month of the sacred years was October 1st on the common calendar, which would make October 10th on the common calendar Yom Kipporim, with this high Sabbath beginning at sunset on October 9th. And this was indeed the case. There is no authority in Scripture for moving the high Sabbath because it inconveniently fell on Friday. Such movement would be made by a people in bondage to the desires of the flesh, and rabbinical Judaism is today just such a people.
But rabbinical Judaism and the many splinters of the former Worldwide Church of God did at least observe the high Sabbath by fasting even if they did do so on a day chosen so that double Sabbaths would not occur … will God honor such a fast? The Lord [YHWH] commands Moses to declare, “‘For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people’” (Lev 23:29–30).
God looks at the heart, and the heart of most who fasted on the 9th were innocent of any malice concerning when they should fast. They were faithfully doing as they were told—and here is the problem that will be addressed in the Tribulation: the Russian Orthodox Christian and the Greek Orthodox Christian were also innocent in not fasting on any day. They honestly did not know that everyone who is of God will afflict him or herself on the high Sabbath. Likewise, most Seventh Day Adventists do not know that the weekly Sabbath is merely the first of the listed Sabbaths of God, that they transgress the Sabbath commandment when they fail to observe the remainder of the Sabbaths of God. So will God cut all of these “Christians” off as He has cut rabbinical Judaism off, and He has cut rabbinical Judaism off even though the people are still loved for the sake of their ancestors.
If what natural Israel has experienced over the past two millennia is not punishment from on high, then nothing short of extermination would be punishment, and though it is not politically correct to even suggest that what has befallen the Jewish people comes from God having turned His hand against this nation, compare what has happened to Israel with what happened in the days of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, when Scripture records that God brought upon Israel all that happened to Israel because of the nation’s lawlessness.
If the Assyrian captivity of the House of Israel was of God and if the Babylonian captivity of the House of Judah was of God, then when God sets about to punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh, both the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities will form shadows or copies of this latter punishment—and what Israel has experienced over the past two millennia is analogous to the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, with the Holocaust forming the type of another holocaust to occur during the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years of tribulation, this latter holocaust affecting not only Judaism but all Sabbath keepers, including those who fasted on the 9th because rabbinical Judaism fasted on this day.
Can a Sabbatarian Christian hear the problem: those who fasted on the 9th because rabbinical Judaism fasted on this day? Christians are not to imitate Judaism in its errors. Yes, Christians are to believe Moses’ writings. But they are also to hear Jesus’ words (John 5:46–47). And the Gospels record these words; plus, the Apostle Paul delivers these words to Israel, a nation now circumcised of heart because each disciple has taken a mental or spiritual journey of faith equivalent in length to the physical journey of faith of the patriarch Abraham.
The Christendom of this world makes no journey of faith equivalent to Abraham’s physical journey from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran then to Canaan. Such a journey would be marked by Sabbath observance when the disciple entered Canaan or Judea. Therefore, no “Christian” enters into God’s rest until he or she begins to keep the weekly Sabbath (Heb 3:16–4:11; Ps 95:10–11; Num chap 14), and no “Christian” who does not keep the high Sabbaths, including the Fast, journeys to heavenly Jerusalem.
Life or death is chosen on the plains of Moab, chosen before the person enters into God’s rest, chosen before the person is spiritually circumcised, chosen when the person is still part of this world. And once “life” is chosen, the person has life even if the person never arrives in heavenly Jerusalem before death overtakes the flesh. Thus, salvation includes all who have chosen life, not all who mentally or spiritually arrive in heavenly Jerusalem while still in the flesh. Salvation cannot ever be defined so narrowly as to include only those who have mentally arrived in heavenly Jerusalem while still alive in the flesh. But the one who arrives in heavenly Jerusalem while still domiciled in a tent of flesh has opportunity to earn greater rewards than the one who dies shortly after mentally crossing the Jordan River—and no Moabite will enter the kingdom. Ruth, a natural Moabite, was not counted in Christ’s lineage until after she crossed the Jordan and married into the tribe of Judah. The same will apply to spiritual Moabites; i.e., those who do not enter into Sabbath observance when liberated from indwelling sin and death.
The Fast is the high Sabbath that represents the compression of the entire Passover season into one day.
Three times a year, all of Israel—now a nation circumcised of heart and not a nation of circumcised foreskins and biological ancestry—is to appear before the Lord (Deut 16:16. There is no longer male or female in Israel, for the son of God born of spirit that dwells in a tent of flesh is not of this world. A son of God is as angels are: this son of God is sexless, for sexual gender pertains to the flesh and not to the spirit. Hence, every new creature born of spirit is a “son” in the sense that this new creature has only one parent, the Father. This new creature is a genuine son of God dwelling in perishable flesh. The Son, Christ Jesus, to whom all judgment has been given (John 5:21–22), will give “life” or immortality to the perishable flesh in which a son of God dwells as He, Christ, wills, thereby transforming what is mortal into what is immortal. So both the Father and the Son must give life to a human being before this human being can cross dimensions and in a spirit body enter heaven.
In this world, the first month and the seventh month are a season away from one another—they are as far apart as earth is from heaven, for one stands at the planting season when the earth returns to life, and the other stands at harvest season, when the second harvest (the wheat harvest) of the Promised Land is gathered into barns and the dead season of winter is upon the land. But this is only partially true, for the early barley harvest was planted during the winter months which were not as lifeless as these same months are in more northerly regions. Barley was figuratively planted out of season; i.e., before the planting season. The harvest of the firstfruits, beginning with the Wave Sheaf Offering, lasted throughout the planting season so that the one harvesting overtook the one planting. The one harvesting barley worked beside the one planting summer fruits.
It became traditional for former Worldwide Church of God ministers to talk about “food” during the Fast … disciples as the firstfruits of God, with Christ Jesus as the First of the firstfruits makes for an appropriate subject for the Fast.
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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."