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The following suggested or possible grouping of Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and limited commentary are, hopefully, obviously thematically related. And the concept behind this High Sabbath’s selection is the nature of the Holy Spirit…it is suggested that fellowships have morning and afternoon services on the High Days; thus, readings for two services are grouped together. Clickable hymns on this page require RealPlayer to be installed on your computer. The download is free. Possible songs include the following hymns: Readings for First High SabbathOf
Unleavened Bread 2006 April 12, 2006 Morning Services
The person conducting services 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
first passage read should be Leviticus chapter 23, verses 1 and 2, then verses
4 through 8, followed by Deuteronomy chapter 16, verses 1 through 8, and 16 and
17, then Exodus chapter 23, verses 14 through 17. Commentary: The three seasons or times a year when Israel is to
appear before the Lord is Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, the
three seasons when there is a harvest of the Lord. Christ Jesus as the first of
the firstfruits, as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering, appeared before God
and was accepted during Unleavened Bread. He was without sin, leavening
representing sin. The Philadelphia Church and the Churches of God
traditionally take up an offering on the three seasons when all Israel was to
appear before God, and not appear empty, but giving as blessed and as able.
This offering is primarily the inner self-aware, self-conscience new man or
creature, born of Spirit, presenting the body of the old man, or old self
before God. Disciples in those fellowships that do not observe the holy days will,
in the heavenly realm, appear before God in their prayers on these days. But
they appear empty-handed. They appear with nothing, while all who are here
today have brought an offering: themselves. Nevertheless, at this time those who are able are
asked to give of their physical blessings, not reluctantly, but cheerfully. The
person who gives of necessity might as well keep the offering--no treasure will
be laid up in heaven for a reluctant offering, which includes presenting
oneself before God. The person conducting services
should, at this time, pass a plate or basket as would be appropriate for the
size of the gathering. In larger gatherings, the person conducting the services
would appoint others to take up the collection. During the taking up of the offering, special music
can be performed. Then following the offering should be a prayer of thanks,
followed by a hymn. Commentary: Without controversy, the circumcised nation of
Israel is commanded by Moses to year-by-year keep the spring feast called Unleavened
Bread for seven days. These seven days are not identified as a feast of the
Jews, as is too often taught within the greater Christian Church, but as a
feast of the Lord [YHWH]. These seven
days follow Passover, and are of tremendous importance to righteous disciples
of Christ Jesus; for leavening, as obtained through the action of yeast, forms
the visible representation of sin or lawlessness, an invisible mindset until
manifest through the actions the flesh. Yeast is invisible, or nearly so, to the
naked eye. Wild yeast is caught by exposing a starter batch of dough to air. No
other action is necessary—and no action will prevent wild yeast from leavening
a lump of dough except the rapid baking of the lump shortly after oil and
moisture have been added to finely ground flour. Thus, leavening by yeast of
dough forms the reasonably accurate shadow of lawlessness contaminating human
beings “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power
of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph
2:3). Satan reigns over the mental typography of humanity, just as
Nebuchadnezzar reigned over the inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent, as well as
over Judea, when Babylon was in its glory. As king of Babylon (Isa 14:4-21),
Satan is the spiritual reality foreshadowed by Nebuchadnezzar, just as the
flesh of human beings is analogous to the finely ground wheat or barley flour
upon which the yeast organism operates. The correspondence is absolute: leavening by yeast
:: sin in human beings. How sin or lawlessness (1 John 3:4) invisibly operates
within the mind of a person is revealed or made visible through the mechanisms
of yeast entering a lump of dough, growing through feeding on the sugars in the
dough, then completely taking over the lump, causing what was heavy and hard to
become light and fluffy—and seemingly more desirable. The Lord through Moses gave the nation of Israel
statutes which caused that nation to separate itself from humanity at large—and
the first of these statutes, given to the patriarch Abraham, was physical
circumcision, whereby the physically concealed [from public view] foreskin of
the penis was cut away. Circumcision causes a male descendant of the patriarch
to appear naked before the Lord. The only covering this circumcised male has in
his obedience to the Lord, for the skin covering that was given to Adam in the
Garden (Gen 3:21) is represented by the foreskin, which covers the nakedness of
the head of the penis…Eve was also covered by skin clothing, but her physical
covering remained that of her husband, which is why sin didn’t enter the world
through Eve but through Adam. The patriarch Abraham covered his nakedness by
obedience to God. The
reader should now read Genesis chapter 26, verses 1 through 5; followed by
Genesis chapter 17; and by Hebrews chapter 11, verses 8 through 12. Commentary: Abraham is called the father of the faithful not
for him obediently keeping the commandments and statutes of the Lord, this
obedience being that which the Lord testifies when appearing to Isaac, but
because of his act of obedience when called to go to the place he would receive
as an inheritance: obedience is the
demonstration of faith! And from Abram’s demonstration of faith when still
with his father, who began the journey from Ur to the land Abram/Abraham would
receive as an inheritance, comes keeping the commandments and statutes of the
Lord. Consider the narrative elements of what occurs: Tereh took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran,
his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son’s Abram’s wife, and they
went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but
when they came to Haran, they settled there…and Terah died in Haran. (Gen
11:31-32). Father,
son and wife, and grandson leave Chaldea, the geography of Babylon. They
journey towards Canaan—their intent is to go to the Land Beyond the River. But the father dies before entering the land
of Canaan. However, after his father’s death, the son, told by the Lord to
continue the journey originally undertaken, does as commanded: he, along with
his wife and his nephew (his father’s grandson), resume the journey to Canaan,
and they entered the Promised Land. Four people representing three generations
begin the journey; three people representing two generations enter Judea, which
is identified by the Psalmist as God’s rest (Ps 95:10-11). Circumcised Israel, physically enslaved in Egypt,
yearned for liberation and to return to the land of Canaan. The nation cried
out to the Lord for relief, and the Lord, using Moses, began a process with
plagues of revealing Himself to both Israel and Egypt, and of making a
separation between Israel and Egypt. So at the first Passover, that separation
was visibly observable to the death angel that passed through the land:
Egyptian firstborns of man and beast—in fact all firstborns not covered by the
blood of a paschal lamb—are slain by the Lord. And before morning, the nation
leaves for Canaan. But the nation that left Egypt, like Terah,
Abraham’s father, didn’t enter into God’s rest, but died along the way because
of that nation’s unbelief (Num chap 14). The nation that left Egypt rebelled
against the Lord in the wilderness of Paran, where Abraham’s son Ishmael dwelt.
And the children of the nation the left Egypt, like Abram (Terah’s son) and Lot
(Tereh’s grandson), crossed the River Jordan. The
reader should now read Genesis chapter 12, verses 1o through 20. Commentary: There was a famine in the Promised Land—and Abram,
Sarai, and Lot went down to Egypt, where Pharaoh enriched Abram because of
Sarai, whom he took for a wife…as two become one through marriage (Gen 2:24),
Abram and Sarai were one, and function as one. Thus, Abram’s half-truth about
Sarai being his sister caused Pharaoh to enter into their marriage as yeast
enters into a lump of dough to take over the entire lump. Pharaoh and Egypt
becomes a visible representation of yeast, the representation of sin.
Therefore, the following correspondences are also absolute: Abram & Sarai entering Egypt :: Pharaoh taking
Sarai into his house Egypt :: Pharaoh’s house :: yeast entering dough ::
sin in human beings Egypt :: sin, while leaving Egypt :: leaving
Chaldea [or Babylon] Two generations of Terah’s descendants first leave
Chaldea, journey to Judea, then to Egypt, before being driven out of Egypt, but
Terah, himself, only leaves Chaldea. Likewise, the nation liberated by bondage
to Pharaoh only leaves Egypt…entering the Promised Land is tantamount to
entering God’s rest, which corresponds to entering the supra-dimensional
heavenly realm, with the Sabbaths of God serving as diminutive representations
of God’s ultimate rest. Although the fathers of the nation liberated from
bondage to Pharaoh left Egypt only to die in the wilderness, their children
entered the Promised Land, but didn’t leave behind the idols of Egypt. Not did
these children walk in the ways of the Lord (Ezek chap 20). So another set of
correspondences emerge: The idols of Egypt :: Egypt :: sin :: leavening ::
Babylon Babylon, now, represents sin or lawlessness. So the
Lord sending Israel into Babylonian exile [the nation of Israel shrank in
geographical size until it was no larger than the polis of Jerusalem in 586 BCE] directly corresponds to Abram,
Sarai, and Lot entering Egypt when famine struck Canaan. The grain harvest in
Canaan, by extension, represents Israelites that kept the commandments of the
Lord, and walked in His ways—famine in the Judea represents failure of the
early and latter rains, with rain in due
season linguistically corresponding to a teacher of righteousness. Therefore, Drought in Judea :: no teachers of righteousness ::
no harvest for God Drought occurs in the land of Canaan because
nations occupying that geographical landscape are out of covenant with the
Lord: He withholds His Spirit, represented by the early and the latter rains.
And shortly, the people occupying the landscape are driven out through
famine—and the famine of His word will afflict the world at the end of the age. The grain harvest of Egypt wasn’t dependent upon
the early and latter rains, but upon the Nile River and flood irrigation, The
reader should now read Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses 1 through 17. Commentary: The grain harvests of Egypt and of Chaldea do not
represent the harvest of God, but belong to Pharaoh and to the king of Babylon.
So it is expected that the flour made from the grains of these harvests will be
leavened with yeast and baked into puffy loaves, for the inhabitants of lands
do not know the Lord, nor worship the Lord as God. With every few
exceptions—Daniel and his friends being the primary examples—even Israelites in
these lands worshiped the golden idol of the king of Babylon, thereby sharing
with sticks and stones their worship of the Lord. The nation that crossed the Jordan—the children of
the nation that left Egypt—went into Babylonian captivity just as Abram through
Sarai was taken captive by Pharaoh, when the patriarch journeyed from Canaan to
escape drought in that land. And as Pharaoh expelled Abram, and as a different
Pharaoh expelled Israel under Moses, the Persian king of Babylon sent a remnant
of Israel back to Jerusalem to there build a house for God. The
reader should now read Ezra chapter 1. Commentary: Like Abram in Egypt and the enslaved Israelites in
Egypt, the exiles in Babylon did not free themselves, but were sent from
Babylon by decree of the king, this decree directed by the Lord. So when these
exiles returned, they were still subjects of the king Babylon. They went to
Jerusalem to build the house that the Lord had charged Cyrus, the Persian king
of Babylon, to build for the Lord…this is important to remember: the remnant
that returned was not an autonomous people; this remnant remained a vassal
nation within the Babylonian empire. Israel did not win its liberation until
the Maccabean sons of light defeated the Greek Seleucid Empire. And as the nation that left Egypt did not enter the
physical Promised Land because of unbelief (Heb 3:19 & Num 14:11), the
remnant that returned from Babylon did not enter the spiritual promised land of
God’s rest because of its unbelief in Jesus (John 6:60-66). Rather, the
spiritual children of the remnant that left Cyrus’ Babylon will cross over a
spiritual Jordan and journey to where they will dwell in the Jerusalem above. The person conducting Festival
services should, at this time, adjourn services, with a hymn, a prayer, and a
blessing on the food (if appropriate). The person should also announce when
afternoon services are to commence. Afternoon Services
Possible songs include the following hymns: At the appropriate time, the person conducting services should resume
services with two or three hymns, and a prayer. The reader should begin afternoon services by
reading Ezekiel chapters 20, followed by Jeremiah chapters 16 & 17. Commentary: Israel’s lawlessness in the Promised Land was far
worse than was Abraham’s and Isaac’s telling of half-truths [that their wives
were their sisters], or even the deception of Jacob…although it is foolishness
to compare one human being with another, even the Apostle Paul engaged in a
little of such foolishness to make a point—and the point here is that the
movement from the patriarchs to the nation of Israel foregrounds increasing
lawlessness and rebellion against God, with the movement from physical
circumcision to spiritual circumcision disclosing similarly increasing
lawlessness and rebellion. Since Calvary, the separation of humanity through
circumcision doesn’t divide according to the flesh, but by receipt of the Holy
Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion]: circumcision
is now of the heart and the mind. The spiritually circumcised Israelite has
been born of water [of the womb] and of Spirit (John 3:5). Baptism becomes the
ritual of inclusion that equates to physical circumcision for the biological
sons of the patriarch Abraham; through baptism, a born of Spirit disciple is
made a member of the household of God, upon which judgment has come. Until
baptized, a born anew disciple is like a Hebrew infant of less than eight days
of age: yes, the infant is of Israel, but is not yet included among the tally
of Israelite males. And since physical
circumcision causes an Israelite to appear naked before the Lord, covered by
only his own obedience, baptism brings judgment upon the disciple, who is
covered by the garment of Grace until revealed (Luke 17:30) at the end of the
age. The recovery of Israel at the end of the age isn’t
recovery of a physical nation, but of the spiritual nation, a chosen people, a
royal priesthood that was not a nation prior to birth from above into tents of
flesh that are of every color, with indoor and outdoor plumbing, and of various
ancestries. It is with this nation that God reasons when He makes the nation
pass under the rod. And the Feast of Unleavened Bread becomes the seven
endtime years of tribulation when all of spiritual Israel is to live without
sin—or be permanently cut off from the holy nation. The
reader should now read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. Commentary: As the Israelite nation that left Egypt rebelled
against the Lord in the wilderness of Paran, the Church will rebel against God
220 days into the seven endtime years of tribulation: on a particular day, the
Church will demonstrate its unbelief by refusing to enter God’s rest when
commanded. It will, instead, attempt to enter God’s rest on the following day,
as is its present custom. But with the revealing of the Son of Man, the garment
of Christ Jesus’ righteousness will have been removed, and spiritually
circumcised Israel will then be as the physically circumcised nation has been
since the patriarch Abraham cut away the foreskins of all the males of his
household…Isaac, the firstborn son of promise, wasn’t yet conceived when
Ishmael was circumcised. Likewise, the spiritual descendants of the greater
Church will not have been born anew, or born a second time—their birth awaits
the divine Breath of God [Pneuma ’Agion]
being poured out upon all flesh (Joel 2:28)—when the Church is revealed, or
made spiritually naked before God, its only covering then being its obedience
to the laws of God. So another set of correspondences exist: Today’s Christian Church :: physically circumcised
Israel in Egypt. Physical bondage to Pharaoh :: bondage to sin and
death, to disobedience. Israel’s Passover lamb slain in Egypt :: Jesus’
death at Calvary. Israel’s liberation :: empowerment or being filled
by the Holy Spirit. The
Church entered Babylonian captivity when the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine
determined what sound doctrine would be at the Council of Nicea (ca 325 CE).
Thus, Israel’s exodus :: the Church leaving spiritual
Babylon. Whereas receipt of the Holy Spirit liberates the
mind from disobedience (Rom 8:2), the law of sin and death continues to dwell
in the members of disciples, what the Apostle Paul could not understand (Rom
7:25). So within every disciple today, the mind wars with the flesh—and the
flesh wins too many battles. But as Israel in Egypt was liberated from bondage
to Pharaoh, the representation of sin, the Church will also be liberated from
bondage to sin and death through empowerment by the Holy Spirit before the long
spiritual night of watching that began at Calvary ends. But the lives of men will again be given as
ransom for the Church’s liberation as the lives of Egyptians were given for the
ransom of natural Israel (Isa 43:3-4). Too many false prophets would have the plagues of
Egypt being repeated before lives are again given to ransom now
spiritually-circumcised Israel. These false teachers do not understand where
disciples stand in history: Christ Jesus as the Passover Lamb of God has been
slain—was slain two millennia ago. And one long night of watching began at
Calvary as what was physical becomes spiritual. The midnight hour has not yet arrived, for lives
have not again been given for the liberation of the Church from sin and death.
But that midnight hour is not now far in the future. Rather, it is close.
Humanity has entered the time of the end, a period that is a little longer than
the seven endtime years of tribulation. Roughly, the time of the end
corresponds to the practice of the remnant of Israel beginning to keep the days
of Unleavened Bread when the paschal lamb entered Jerusalem on the 10th
of the first month (this remnant started the seven day festival five days
early, making for a twelve day feast season). Because of the importance placed upon Israel’s
exodus from Egypt, a story that will not longer be remembered when the
spiritually circumcised nation is recovered from sin and death, the story
should be familiar to every disciple. The reader should now read Exodus
chapters 7 through chapter 13. Commentary: These plagues have already spiritually occurred to
Israel, and the Passover Lamb of God has been slaughtered. But these plagues
will be repeated in type during the Tribulation as God makes a separation
between rebelling disciples and the third part of humanity that will be born of
Spirit when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and
of His Christ (Rev 11:15). This third part (Zech 13:9) will form the great
endtime harvest, for today’s Christian Church, with few exceptions, will rebel
against God as Israel rebelled in the wilderness of Paran. Today’s greater
Church refuses to eat the Passover sacraments on the night Jesus was betrayed.
The sacraments of bread and wine are the fruit of the earth on every other
night but the 14th of the first month; they are Cain’s offering to
the Lord. * The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal. * * * * * "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
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