Lesson#23

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Leviticus

September 21, 2015

Introduction

May 13, 2010

Leviticus Lesson #02

May 13, 2010

RETURN TO THE LIST OF LESSONS

LEVITICUS 23:1-22
Lesson #23
GOD’S PROHETIC CALENDAR

• Memory verse: Mat 13:16

 

• Review:

 

• Through the book of Leviticus we have seen that God chose Israel to be an example of spiritual truth.
  • Read Jam 5:10
  • Read 1Cor 10:11
• We have seen that the Israelites physically acted out spiritual truth that was not explained until the New Testament and the first coming of Jesus Christ.
• Leviticus 23 is the highlight of the book simply because we are all interested in what is going to happen next. We all like a mystery. This is God’s little mystery for the ages. It is as relevant to us today as it was to the Israelites of the Old Testament, and to the Jews in the Gospels.

 

• Background:

 

• Read Mat 13:15-17
• There is one very important point we need to understand. God is a sovereign God of perfect order.

• He exists outside of time and space.
• He knows the beginning from the end.
• He has a plan that He is fulfilling age by age, century by century.
• Read Gal 4:4
  • Notice the phrase, “fullness of the time”.
  • This tells us that God has a calendar of events that fulfill His plan.
• At times through His word, God pulls back the curtain and gives us the exciting privilege of seeing what normally we cannot see or understand. That is what happens in chapter 23. Only those who have spiritual eyes and ears open will spiritually understand what God is doing.
• Israel’s two calendars:

• Israel had two calendars that functioned simultaneously.
  • The civil calendar began in our month of October.
  • The sacred calendar began in our month of April.
    • We find the sacred calendar in Lev 23 as this is the book of worship.
    • Attached to the sacred calendar were the Feast Days which were times of celebration and worship and one day of Fasting.
• The months of Israel’s two calendars do not align perfectly with our months.
  • The Jewish calendars functioned with 354 days of 12 months to the year.
  • This was a lunar calendar so about every 6 years an extra month was added. It was a second month of Adar called Adar Sheni.
  • The Jewish months alternated between 29 days and 30 days each.
• God’s Sacred Agricultural Calendar

• Israel in the Promised Land was an agricultural society. As we have seen in this book, God was concerned and involved in every aspect of their daily lives: their food, their clothing, their hygiene, their sexual life, their family life, their religious life, and so forth. The same is true with their agriculture.
  • God gives them a calendar for planting and harvesting their crops.
  • God gives them a sacred calendar for festivals of celebration and worship.
• Like everything that involved the Israelites, they eventually polluted the feast days and did not keep them because of their lack of love for God.
  • Read Isa 1:14 tells us what God thought of their attitude.
  • Therefore in the book of John the feast is called “the feast of the Jews” instead of “the feast of the Lord”. (Joh 5:1 Joh 6:4)
• The Feast Days on the Sacred Calendar

• There are seven Biblical feasts specifically directed by God in Lev 23. Notice that there are seven which indicates that this is God’s fulfillment of time. (Number 7 is God’s complete number).
  • =1= The Feast of Passover (Pesach)
  • =2= The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Hag Hamatzot)
  • =3= The Feast of First Fruits (Yom HaBikkurim)
  • =4= The Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost (Shavnot)
  • =5= The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana)
  • =6= The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)
  • =7= The Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Succoth)
• The Israelites added to this calendar two more feast days not directed by God at different points in their history:
  • =1= The Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah)
  • =2= The Feast of Lots (Purim) (from the book of Esther).
• God’s purpose for the Civil and Sacred Agricultural Calendar:
  • The 7 feast days of Lev 23 had the purpose of bringing the people together in unity under God’s rule. Every adult male must present himself at the temple in Jerusalem on three of the 7 feast days:
    • The Passover
    • The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost
    • The Feast of Tabernacles or Booths
  • The agricultural aspect of the calendar had its economic and commercial purposes.
  • The calendar united the people’s agricultural work with their worship.
  • The calendar has its prophetic aspects.
• Today the first three feasts of Lev 23 are celebrated as one feast and called Passover. Passover is an 8 day celebration today.
• Read Lev 23:1-5

 

• “…the feasts of the Lord which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.”

 

(2)
• The word “proclaim” means = to keep an appointment.
• The word “convocations” means = the calling of an assembling together by specific summons.
• In other words, these are divine appointments commanded by God.
• In verse 3 God repeats the law of keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day.
  • The Sabbath is a specific part of the law given specifically and only to the Jews in the Old Testament. The reason it is mentioned here with the feast days is because all of the parts of Israel’s calendar were part of the Jewish Sabbatic System of cycles based on patterns of the number seven. The Sabbath every seventh day is the basic measurement of time.
  • For example: There was the Sabbath day every seven days. The feast of Pentecost occurs on the Sabbath week. There was a Sabbath month (the seventh month of the sacred calendar) that contains the last three feast days of Lev 23. There was the Sabbath year (every seventh year they were not to plant the land.) Then there was the seventh Sabbatic Year which is the 49th year called the year of Jubilee.

 

• The Passover (Pesach) (5)

 

(the 14th day of the first month of Nisan)
• This passage in Leviticus 23 does not give us much information about this feast day other than its date on the calendar. However, we have a wealth of information from Exodus when they celebrated the first Passover. (Exo 12:1-51 Exo 13:3-10)
  • The Passover lamb was chosen on the 10th day of the month and examined carefully in the temple for defects until it was killed on the 14th for Passover. In the same way Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the 10th of Nisan. He remained in the temple for four days under the examination of the scribes and Pharisees where the Passover Lamb was tied. Then Jesus, the Passover Lamb for us was killed on Thursday, the 14th day of Nisan.
  • In the original Passover, the blood of a lamb was put over the door and at the sides of the door to protect the first born from death when the death angel passed over the land that night. In the same way, the believer in Jesus Christ must apply the blood of Jesus to his heart spiritually by receiving Christ as his Passover Lamb.
  • All those under the blood were saved from the death angel. All believers under the blood of Christ are saved from the second death (eternal separation from God).
• Significance:
  • Every year when the Jews celebrate this feast day, they look back on the day God miraculously brought them from slavery in Egypt by means of the blood of a lamb.
  • Today we look back at the crucifixion that brought us out from slavery to sin in the world by means of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
    • Read 1Co 5:7-8
    • The New Testament believer is to keep the Passover through Communion and by walking in newness of life after receiving Christ so that he lives an exemplary life style free from sin.
• Other historical events that occurred on this same day:
  • The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, shed for the sins of the world.
    • Jesus was crucified on Thursday, 14th day of Nisan.
    • He was hastily buried before the “special Passover Sabbath” began on Thursday night.
  • 72 AD the conquest of Masada when the Romans finally defeated and dispersed the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem and Herod’s Temple.
• Read Lev 23:6-8

 

• The Feast of Unleavened Bread

 

(

Hag Hamatzot

)

(6-8)

(the 15th day of the first month of Nisan)
• On the very next day the second feast day was continued from the Passover and lasted 7 days.
• During this week they were not to eat any leaven or yeast.
• They must do a burnt offering, a meal offering, and a sin offering twice a day for the whole week with a total of 14 lambs (7 in the morning and 7 in the evening).
• The significance:
  • In celebrating this feast, the Jews look back to their march across the Red Sea having taken unleavened bread to eat on their journey.
  • We have already learned that leaven represents sin. Therefore, this feast day speaks of Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice in the tomb and without sin being acceptable to God for the payment of sin and making reconciliation for us with God. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” (Joh 6:35) The New Testament believer now has new life without sin through the righteousness of Christ. He must get rid of the old life of leaven:
    • Put away the leaven of malice and wickedness. (1Cor 5:8 Eph 4:31-32)
    • Get rid of the leaven of hypocrisy. (Luk 12:1)
    • Avoid the leaven of false doctrine. (Gal 5:7-9)
    • Put off the leaven of Herod (pride and worldliness). (Mar 8:15)
    • Refuse the leaven of the Pharisees (unbelief). (Mat 16:6)
• Other historical events on this day:
  • The manna that fed the Israelites in the wilderness stopped on this day. (Jos 5:10-12)
  • Queen Esther risked her life to save her people on this day. (Est 3:12-5:7)
  • Jesus Christ in the tomb from Thursday night, the 15th of Nisan to Sunday morning, the 17th of Nisan. (Luk 24:44-47)
• Read Lev 23:9-14

 

• The Feast of First Fruits

 

(

Yom HaBikkurim

)

(9-14)

(There is no specified day for this feast)

 

• “…on the morrow after the Sabbath.” (11)

 

• The usual Sabbath was from Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset, the 16th of Nisan. Therefore, this feast began on the 17th of Nisan the day after the usual Sabbath.
• First Fruits:
  • The first part of the harvest that began to ripen was to be brought and offered to God before the full harvest was completed.
    • The purpose was to demonstrate faith to the Israelites.
    • They were to bring the first fruits by faith in a more complete harvest that would follow later. In this way they would trust God for a final bountiful harvest.
• The drink offering (Lev 23:13, 18, 37)
  • The wine was poured over the burnt offering. This represents a life poured out in dedication to the service of God.
  • In the Feast of First Fruits, it is the life of Christ that was poured out in total dedication at the crucifixion. (Psa 22:14 Isa 53:12)
• Significance:
  • As the Jews celebrated this feast day, they looked back in remembrance to the day they crossed the Red Sea for a new life and a new beginning.
  • For the New Testament believer, Jesus Christ is the first fruits of the harvest.
    • Read 1 Cor 15:20-23
    • Jesus was the first to be raised from the dead never to die again.
    • Believers in Jesus Christ are the full harvest that will one day be raised from the dead as Jesus was.
• Other historical events on this day:
  • The Jews cross the Red Sea having left Egypt for a new beginning.
  • The Jews cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land and a new beginning.
  • The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on Sunday morning the 17th of Nisan.
    • Notice that this feast begins before the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread has ended.
      • Therefore these first three feasts flow into each other and overlap each other. Why?
      • As designed by God, these three feasts are God’s prophetic calendar for the first coming of Jesus Christ.
• Read Lev 23:15-22

 

• The Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost

 

(

Shavnot

)

(15-22)

(50 days after the Feast of First Fruits)
• This feast day is called the Feast of Weeks because they were to count seven weeks after the Feast of First Fruits, which is 49 days. Then the fiftieth day was to be the day of Pentecost.
• The word “Pentecost” simply means 50.
  • Usually New Testament believers think that the day of Pentecost was something new.
  • Instead we learn in Leviticus that this feast day was to be kept by the Jews through the Old Testament as marked by God.
• The celebration was to consist of a meal offering that reminds us of the fellowship we have with other believers.
• The celebration was to consist of 2 loaves of bread made with leaven, (17) and all the offerings covered in the first chapters of Leviticus, the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, and the sin offering, with the exception of the trespass offering. The trespass offering is not mentioned as part of this celebration.
  • Why must the loaves of bread contain leaven (17) when usually bread was to be without leaven which represents sin?
  • Bread with leaven represents man’s fellowship with other men. Where only people are involved, sin is present. At times our Christian fellowship is tainted by sin.
  • Why must there be two loaves?
    • The New Testament church is made from “new” ingredients (17). With the institution of the Church, God began to do something new in believers. This is the experience of the new birth.
    • The church is to contain Jews and Gentiles. (Eph 2:16-19 1Cor 12:13)
    • Notice the wine poured over all the offerings by means of a drink offering on this day. (18)
      • Remember that on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came on all the believers, onlookers said they were drunk with wine.
      • Wine is one of the symbols for the presence of the Holy Spirit. It also represents a life totally dedicated to God. The apostle Paul used this analogy to refer to his own life poured out in ministry. (Phi 2:17 2Tim 4:6)
• Other historical events on this day:
  • Moses received the Law from God on Mt Sinai on this day. The birth of Judaism and the birth of the church occurred on the same day.

The Agricultural Civil and Sacred Calendar (Part 1)

Feast	Jewish Month	Sacred Calen-dar	Civil Calen-dar	Nearly Our Calendar Month	Significance for Israel Under the Law	Harvest and Seasons	Significance for Us Today
1 Passover Pesach day 14 2 Feast of Unleavened Bread Hag Hamatzot day 15 3 Feast of First Fruits Yom HaBikkurim day 17	Abib or Nisan (30 days)	1	7	Mar -Apr	Israel’s redemption from slavery in EgyptJourney of new life begins     Crossing the Red Sea to new life	Latter Rains               Barley harvest begins	Salvation through RedemptionLife without sin is made possible in Christ     Resurrection possible for believers
	Ziv or Iyyar (29days)	2	8	Apr-May		Barley Harvest
4 Feast of Weeks or Pentecost Shavnot 50 days later	Sivan (30 days)	3	9	May-Jun	Celebration of harvest and giving of the Law	Wheat HarvestVine tending	Birth of the Church

HOMEWORK
Leviticus 23:23-44
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Lev 23:1-22
  • In what way has your attitude toward the Old Testament changed from studying the book of Leviticus?

 

• Preparation for Lev 23:23-44
• Read Lev 23:23-44
  • What interesting things do you see in the last three feast days?

 

• Memory Verse: Hos 6:3