The Fulfillment of Pentecost – Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

May 22, 2010

Today I want to launch on into the sermon here: this, of course, being the weekend of Pentecost, with Pentecost being tomorrow.  Since this is the seventh Sabbath today from the time after the Sabbath when the wave-sheaf would have been offered, we’re going to begin at the beginning of this new sermon series where we find the instruction that God gave concerning the wave-sheaf that leads to Pentecost.  So we’re going to talk about things that have to do with Passover that lead all the way into Pentecost and especially about the wave-sheaf and focus on some of those things this year.  A lot of what God has been giving us this year is about the Passover, is about our wave-sheaf and there is a powerful connection, if you will, between Passover and Pentecost that God gives throughout scripture and it becomes very exciting when you look at it from that viewpoint, from that context of what God gives through the commandments of keeping the Holy Days in Leviticus 23 all the way into the book of Joshua and so forth.  Very inspiring, very exciting!

And this year God is giving us an extra focus and greater ability to see and understand and zero in on those things having to do with the Messiah, having to do with Jesus Christ and that is especially exciting due to where we are in time because only two years from now we understand He’s going to be back on this earth.  This is a momentous time above all times and it’s difficult for us sometimes to grasp that – how exciting, how inspiring this is to God Almighty.  He’s waited a long, long time, just as He did for Passover to come.  That was a difficult time, because His own Son had to die and He had to watch that and observe those things and how His Son was treated and knowing how mankind is toward Him and then toward His Son and to go through that period of time.  But that was exciting as well because of what follows, just like for us, what we’re going to go through at some point (and the longer the better) but at some point whatever we have to go through – we understand on the other side of this, we are going to have the ability for this kind of fellowship where people see each other in the streets and have special greeting and special care and concern for each other – unlike what we see in today’s world, in today’s society. There’s only going to be one government, there’s only going to be one Church on the earth.  And that is awesome to understand.  And so God Almighty is awesomely excited and He’s giving us a taste of more and more of that excitement; and we’re able to drink in more and more of that excitement and so that’s very moving to us if we will drink in of what God is offering us.  And God wants to share that!  That’s what life is about.  It’s about sharing!  And that’s God’s desire throughout eternity – to share life with His Family, in His Family.  And so much of that right now has to do with the Church and what God desires to share with us now; and certainly this is a very exciting time in understanding that excitement that we have and understating what’s getting ready to take place in two short years from now (from tomorrow) and all that this means for the world, for this earth.

Again, God has waited a long, long time.  One came into the Family after planning it (we have no comprehension of time), before the angelic realm was ever created, before anything in the physical universe was ever created God determined a Family and the first in that Family was His Son.  The first of the first fruits which we’ll be talking about in this sermon series.  Today will be Part 1 of The Fulfillment of Pentecost.  Tomorrow we’ll have Part 2 and finish it there.

So let’s go back to Leviticus 23 and begin there; the instruction that God gives concerning all His Sabbaths that He has given to mankind of course are found here in Leviticus 23.  Let’s begin with instruction about the beginning of the Holy Day season at Passover.

Leviticus 23:5 - In the fourteenth day of the first month at even; and this becomes important in time, to us especially, and to others in time who come to understand what is written here, because it isn’t just the word for ‘even’ in Hebrew, it is a specific word that means ‘between the evenings’, or ‘between the two evenings’ if you will.  There has to be two evenings involved here that it’s speaking of; and so it’s a unique word, it’s not just the word that’s sometimes used as ‘even’.  And there are quite a few words, if you’ve read things about Passover on the website you’ll understand that.  But this is the Hebrew ‘bane ha erebyim’, which means between the evenings.  The New King James says, ‘twilight’.  That’s wrong.  That’s from Jewish tradition and in the Church of God for many, many years we took it as the word for, similar to that, twilight; and because of that we didn’t fully understand.  And there were questions that people had about, “If we keep Passover after sundown, after the sun has gone down while it’s still a little bit of light in the sky, which was the concept here before it gets really, really dark (whatever that darkness is) and the time the sun has gone down, that still a little bit light sky; and we keep Passover at that time and if Jesus Christ then gave us the Passover to observe at that time, what about the rest of the day?  What does it mean?  What is the greater fulfillment...?  Why... even ministers have given false reasons of why Jesus Christ had to die later on.  He had to give us the Passover first so that He could die later on because He couldn’t do it after He was dead later in the day.  Totally false!  And yet when God gave us understanding then of how all this fit together, it’s awesomely inspiring; it’s awesomely exciting!  And yet we didn’t understand that during Philadelphia.  God gave that to us later on; and that’s exciting to understand as well, as we’ll also talk about that in this sermon series.

So again here, it doesn’t mean twilight, it doesn’t mean at the very beginning of an evening.  It’s between the two evenings when it starts and when it ends.  Just like the Sabbath – it’s between two evenings.  Every High Day, every Holy Day, every day on God’s calendar exists between two evenings.  We understand that – between two sunsets.  That’s how you keep the time.  So God was very specific in showing that there’s much to be done on Passover, ‘between two evenings’, that had to take place that we’re to remember, that we’re to understand.

So again, In the fourteenth day of the first month between the two evenings is the Eternal’s Passover.  Awesome here; and it’s awesome because of how Jewish tradition has recorded some of these things and some of these events and it’s caused great confusion in the world because a lot of the world, especially... not the Protestant world, because they could care less about Passover.  They’re totally zeroed into Easter; and when they hear the word Passover, they’re not sure what that’s about at all because they don’t read the Old Testament as a whole. They don’t care about the Old Testament because in their minds that was done away with!  You don’t need it, just cut it out.  Some people just have a New Testament.  They don’t even have an Old Testament! What’s the purpose of it?  So at least they’re being a little bit honest about some of what they believe.

So when people have desired to have a little bit more understanding... and even within the Church of God, a big mistake that a lot of ministers and different ones have made is to go back to the Jews to try to understand – because surely the Jewish people understand the Old Testament and Hebrew and they would be able to, by reading what they had to say about it, we can learn from them, because surely they understand because they have been given the charge of time and keeping track of when these various things take place; like Passover being on the 14th of Nisan.  And so surely they’re the ones we can receive understanding from.  Big mistake!  Big mistake!  Because even in the time of Jesus Christ He condemned the Jewish religion.  He condemned Judaism!  Every facet of it He said was wrong; was filled with hypocrisy and lies.  How much worse 2,000 years later?  I’ll tell you, it got a whole lot worse.  They were way off track then and it wasn’t too long after that they went off track a whole lot more.  And so to go back to them, to think that somehow we can read things they’ve written and try to receive understanding is a giant mistake.  It’s as foolish and dumb and ignorant as going to any kind of commentary written by a Protestant and trying to receive understanding of what the Bible says; Old or New Testament!  ...because they don’t understand God’s plan.  Incredible!

So before we go any farther at this point I think it’s good that we spend a little time here because, again, many religious groups do not understand this very simple instruction given by God.  And as I mentioned, even the very Church of God during the era of Philadelphia did not understand the true meaning of this.  That’s an awesome thing to understand.  We kept Passover at the right time, but we understood it in a very limited fashion, in a very limited way.  And those of Judaism, again, don’t even understand this very clear verse and so it’s expedient that all of you are well grounded in this great truth.  Those of you who’ve been around a long time, and those of you who are new; you need to be well grounded.  There are a lot of people and a lot of sharp minds, a lot of ministers who went through four years of Ambassador College, who had their entire focus on the Bible and instruction in the Bible year after year after year who went out and didn’t receive the most simplest of instruction that was given by Mr. Armstrong about Passover; and they went off course, they went off base, they were not well grounded even in what Mr. Armstrong gave.  Because basically he always just gave three scriptures and if you just receive those three scriptures you’ll understand Passover perfectly.  You wouldn’t have to go into the kind of research and study and so forth that we’ve had to do later on that God gave to us thankfully, mercifully.  And so an incredible thing we’ve gone through in the Church.

So sometimes we have to be careful and not make the mistake that was made in Laodicea that we’re rich and increased with goods; and by that process and that pattern begin to become weak and begin to think we have it all or that we have so much and we’re rich in scripture and understanding that we don’t hunger anymore!  That was a big mistake of Laodicea, that’s why the Church was spewed out of God’s mouth!  Because we got to a point where we didn’t grasp we need to ALWAYS HUNGER for God’s word and ALWAYS DESIRE to receive more.  And even what I give in this series sermons, we’re not ALL going to be able to understand it to the same level and to the same degree.  You can go back a month or two months from now and listen to it again and you’ll pick up some things you didn’t pick up before – have a  stronger understanding.  This is not something you just receive quickly overnight all at one fell swoop.  There are things you will grow in in understanding.  It’s always been that way.  Every year that I go from Holy Day to Holy Day to Holy Day God adds more.  It’s always exciting.  You can begin to go into any Holy Day and discuss it and every year God gives just a little bit more if we’ll receive it.

So again, those in Judaism don’t even understand this, but we need to be well grounded in that great truth because many in the Church of God have not understood it, have never seen it.  So you can’t have the fulfillment of Pentecost without a true Passover, and that means in understanding as well.  It’s an awesome thing that God has given to us.  We understand the meaning of Pentecost; just a brief capsule here.  We understand that from Passover that we have the wave-sheaf offering that was given on a Sunday – always, always, always – and then God told us how to count and we’re going to go through that.  And we have this count then that leads us up to Pentecost.  And so there is a bridge that goes past Unleavened Bread, or during Unleavened Bread that’s a process of what it reveals to us, that after we receive our Passover we can enter into God’s plan.  Those of you who are called and drawn into the Church...you have to start with the Passover in order to have your sins forgiven you, because you can’t start the process of growth and overcoming and coming out of sin, coming out of Egypt until you receive your Passover.  And so it’s an awesome thing when you see the meticulous, intricate, beautiful way that God has given the Holy Days in understanding His plan and His purpose...and to start with Passover.  Not a High Day!  Because you can’t enter into the High Days, you can’t enter into the plan until you receive His Passover; and then after that is the Feast of Unleavened Bread that pictures our coming out of sin, that pictures that process of our beginning to make a journey out of Egypt, out of spiritual sin.  And so we start that process.  And then as a result of our wave-sheaf we’re able to continue on; because it’s through our wave-sheaf that Pentecost was given to us; because He was received of the Father for us...that He’s been doing a work for 2,000 years by sending the promise that God gave to us, that He started on Pentecost 31 AD:  the granting of the holy spirit to dwell in human beings.  Awesome!  With the impregnation of God’s spirit in a very powerful way in the Church, in the environment of the Church.  Before that, in the previous 4,000 years, God worked with a few people through time – just a few – different generations; worked with them individually with that same process.  But then something else started, like what we’re going through in the sermon series talking about the Body of Christ and what that means in a deeper, more meaningful way.

So again, Pentecost, having to do with the first fruits of God’s plan; Jesus Christ (as I mentioned) being the first one to enter into the Family.  That’s why God is so excited, He has waited so long.  Now there are 144,000 that are getting ready to enter into that Family.  We can’t begin to grasp the excitement God has for that.  Those of you who are parents... you know what the excitement is like when a baby’s born, when you have a child.  That excitement, the anticipation; then, of course, a little bit of a rough time till it’s actually born.   And then after it’s born the relief, the excitement, the beauty of that which  God has given to human beings to experience is an awesome thing...one at a time, as a whole.  Sometimes there are two and sometimes more.  But as a whole, one at a time; sometimes two, twins, sometimes triplets...and sadly in today’s world, sometimes more...the way that mankind has messed with things.

Can you imagine God’s excitement after waiting so long?  144,000... those He lived with, those in whom He lived... He lived in them!  ...in their minds, in their being to help them to see and understand things, to change and grow and overcome.  Those He spent all that time with; Noah, and the building of an ark.  And then all the several hundred years after that with Noah, until finally 10 generations up the road Abraham came along (Abram) and God began to work with him.  And then finally when Abram was about 54, He let Noah die and He began to work more directly then with Abram – finally calling Him Abraham.  All those years, all that time... and then Sarah – a family, an awesome thing that God did and began to reveal something about a plan that would lead into that which was fully spiritual, but always about His Family.  But it started with something very physical; Isaac, Jacob, Israel... Awesome!  ...the plan of God!  And all those individuals He worked with for the first 4,000 years, and then all those who came into the Church who were worked with, moulded and fashioned to be a part of that Family... 144,000 that are getting close to being born.  So what is the excitement level that God has to finally see that come to pass?  That many at one time!  We can’t even begin to grasp it.  We can appreciate it to a point, of our own human experience with our children, and that is only a small portion.  It’s an incredible and awesomely exciting thing for God Almighty!  And for us to be able to share in that?  Whatever portion you grasp of that you are awesomely blessed...awesomely blessed above all people on this earth.  It’s incredible!

I would like to share with you a bit of an email communication I recently had with someone who has a  Jewish background because this helps to illustrate the great void in understanding that the world has about Passover.  And it’s a little quippy in places on my part and on his part because sometimes I push people a little bit to see what their reactions are going to be and how they’re going to respond back.  And that will reveal whether or not they’re responding to God’s spirit if God is giving them an opportunity to see and understand, or it will help them to exit stage left without any further ado.

So, I thought I’d share this with you today and I’m not going to read everything word for word.  I’m going to go through parts of this to show you some of the thinking here.  This is an intelligent man.  This is a very sharp individual when it comes to Judaism, but it shows the problems with Judaism and their thinking.  And he’s having a difficult time right now dealing with some matters concerning Passover as so many of us had in dealing with different things in times past when God came along and revealed something that was a little different than what we thought it was.  And we don’t have to go too far back to understand sometimes when we’ve had some difficulties when God has revealed something and He wants to give to us that we’ve struggled with – because when you believe with all of your being something is a certain way, in a very strong way...and then all of a sudden God comes along and tweaks your understanding...if you’ll receive it.  We go through some things sometimes up here in our mind – some battles as to whether or not we’re going to receive what God gives to us, and it tries us sometimes, it tries our nature as to what we’re going to do and how we’re going to respond to that.

And he’s having a little bit of a battle here; he’s entered into a battle.  To me this is awesomely exciting because I think of all the people who are getting ready to be called and all the experiences that people are going to go through in a massive way across this world.  So this is the first email he sent to the Church.  He said:

I came across your website by chance and was surprised at the ignorance which you display with respect to Jewish custom and observance and our knowledge...

See, it’s the problem here of our knowledge...

...of the true meaning of the words of the Bible which are often mistranslated.

And he’s right!  I understand his indignation!  I understand his being upset, because this world is horribly ignorant about things that are translated in the Bible – especially into English or other languages out of Hebrew.  It’s atrocious!  And he gives some examples at different times and he’s totally right in so many of the things that he has to say.  And so he’s a little indignant by that, by what people do in the world.  He just doesn’t understand, in this case here, that everything he’s reading is absolutely true and from God.  But it’s starting to prick his conscience a little bit and he’s starting to think as you’ll see as we get toward the end.

So dropping on down... he says:

Whenever the word ‘Pesach’ is used in the Bible...

Which is Passover...

...it refers exclusively to the sacrifice that is called the ‘Pascal Lamb’...

Now, I hope you picked up something right there – the sacrifice... because in their mind it’s a sacrifice.  You have to understand whose sacrifice it was.  It wasn’t the Jews to give to God, it was God to give to all mankind; it was God’s sacrifice given to mankind.  Big difference there when it comes to understanding the Passover and the timing of things in the Passover and the events of the Passover.

He said, again:

...the Bible it refers exclusively to the sacrifice that is called the ‘Pascal Lamb’ in English and not to the festival itself.  This sacrifice was always brought on the eve of Passover so that it could be roasted and eaten on the first night of the festival.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong... see?  But this is so deep in his mind because of his understanding of what the Rabbi’s have taught over the centuries about what this word ‘bane ha erebyim’ means, ‘between the evenings’; in the eve, evening.  [Exodus 12... we’ll look at this later, this defines this ‘eve’ as we’ll look, after we read the rest of what he wrote here.]

Furthermore, the Hebrew term ‘Erev’...

Which is the word for ‘evening’;

...which generally means evening...

No, it always means evening.

...which generally means evening, comes from a root word meaning ‘mixed’ which, with respect to day and night, refers to the time when it is really neither one nor the other...

They get a little caught up in some things sometimes; people get twisted up when they start making things a little more complicated because they’ve got to make it fit into their ideas and beliefs of what they’ve been taught.  And so what God gave to us – yes, it has to come from the word that has to do with ‘mixed’ but it fully means when the sun has gone down and for the time it’s dark until the sun comes back up again, until the rays of the light are there and God has given a mixture of that.  You can see that at different times.  We see it when we see the moon, we see it when we see the stars.  There’s a mixture of what God has given.  It’s not totally black, but it’s....  So anyway... they just don’t understand...

Therefore the Bible phrase ‘bane ha erebyim’ ‘between the twilights’ in this case refers to the time between dawn and dusk.

Well, it doesn’t; it means between two sunsets; between the two evenings.  Every High Day, every Sabbath we observe between the two evenings.  So going on here:

...in this case to the time between dawn and dusk, which is the time that the Bible adjures us to sacrifice the Pascal Lamb.  Our Rabbi’s decided that we should be more zealous in carrying out God’s commandments and bring this sacrifice before midday in the 14th of the month of Nissan.

He admits it; he acknowledges that... when the Rabbi said it should be done.  But the Rabbi’s are wrong!  That’s the problem!

As with many of our Biblical commandments, this only applies when there is a Temple in Jerusalem.

Let’s take some time here and just notice Exodus 12 first and see some things that are stated here because if people will be honest in how certain words are used here, as an example, ba erev, in this case.  It becomes very clear what the period of time is and in verse 18 it says, In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, you shall eat unleavened bread, all of us understand what that means; speaking of a specific time...In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, when does ‘even’ happen on the Sabbath? When do you have an ‘even’ that can, by definition if you understand the word as it’s being used here in Hebrew, what can mean ‘at even’?  There’s only one ‘even’ that can happen on any day and that’s when the sun goes down.  ‘Eve’ and the way God uses it is a very specific term.  And so when it’s used in this way, ‘ba erev’ it means a very specific time here, on any particular day.  If the sun is down, it’s already evening. In other words, on Friday when the sun is down, the sun went down on the day before, on the 6th day of the week and you’re already in a day that starts with what?  God starts the day with night.  That’s what it’s called; night.  We start observing everything, as far as God’s calendar, at night time, after the sun...after it’s already gone down, ‘at even’.  And so we go through the night and then we have sunrise and we start going through the day and this word here is very specific by God in Hebrew – ‘ba erev’.  It can only happen at the end of a daylight period, when evening comes, when the sun goes down.  And so that’s what it’s telling us here.  We understand when we start the Days of Unleavened Bread.  At the end of the 14th!  We understand when we begin the Sabbath.  At the end of the 6th Day at sundown, at ‘even’, at ‘ba erev’ on the sixth day of the week; and we start observing the Sabbath.  And as soon as it’s ‘ba erev’ again, the Sabbath is over.  ‘Between the evenings’ – incredible!

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, you shall eat unleavened bread; notice this...until the twenty first day of the month at even.  Now if you took it the way they’re saying it, in their understanding...do you know what this is saying?  If you reverse this in understanding here, as to what it’s talking about as far as a period of time, they’d have a bit of a conflict because they wouldn’t be doing this then on the High Day.  And so on the seventh day... that’s what it’s talking, when we come to the seventh day, ‘at even’, in other words, you have to do it to the end of it, not to the beginning of it.  I hope you understand what I’m saying.

And so it’s talking about the period of time you keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  At sundown on the fourteenth and when it talks because there is a twenty first day.  On that particular day, at the end of that day, we understand that is a particular seventh day of the Days of Unleavened Bread; but if you read it at the beginning of it then you wouldn’t be observing that last day.  So we understand that it’s a full seven days.

Going back up to verse 6 - you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day, so again, talking about ‘this lamb without blemish, a male of the first year’ – referring to the Passover, you shall take it from the sheep or the goats, and you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.  Again, that same word ‘bane ha erebyim’ – ‘between the two evenings.  Even the Jews, if they would be honest with this, (well, they can’t be because of how they count time and how they count where the sun goes down... but again here, God is very clear about this one year, so we understand that up until the fourteenth day.  We know it can’t be killed after the fourteenth day if you’re talking about ‘between the two evenings’ and at the very beginning of the fourteenth day at sundown, between that period and the following period of time.

Verse 7 - And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, where they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night,  so we understand when the Passover was supposed to be eaten; on the fourteenth after sundown because they’re to keep it up until the fourteenth and as soon as that’s over, the beginning of an evening to another evening, (and we understand it had to be in the night time), the beginning of the day they killed the Passover and they roasted it with fire, and unleavened bread; as it says, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat it not raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; so God was very specific about how they were to prepare this; not like some of the sacrifices that are given later on.  He was very specific in making a distinction of how some of the sacrifices later on would be offered up to Him, or things that people could participate in to them offering sacrifices to God, of how they normally would eat those.  He said, this one here is to be roasted...everything, on fire...and then you’re to eat of it that night.  So He said, don’t eat it by raw, nor, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the pertinence thereof. And you shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; so again, God is very specific about the Passover and the eating of it and He said it’s to be eaten that night and nothing is to be left by morning... and that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. And thus shall you eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is the Eternal’s Passover. There’s a big distinction when people understand that, again, it’s from God to us.  It’s not from man to God in the sense of sacrifices.  It’s a sacrifice of God given to man. So again here, very powerful scriptures when you understand what God is saying.

Deuteronomy 16; and I don’t want to go back here to this one in verse 18... if you go back and look at this and look at what God says about the Days of Unleavened Bread – there has to be a full seven days of unleavened bread, eating unleavened bread and it gives the definition there then, this ‘ba erev’ in this particular verse there as I mentioned.  You start at the beginning of the fourteenth and it doesn’t end until after the twenty-first is over.  So it’s a beautiful scripture if you understand how it’s stating it, making it a very specific period of time here of seven days.  Deuteronomy 16:1 - Observe the month of Abib, Nisan; it’s the first month and keep the Passover unto the Eternal your God: for in the month of Abib the Eternal your God brought you forth out of the land of Egypt by night. People get really tripped up on some of these sometimes, when it’s going through here and talking about some of this, when it talks about how to observe something and keep the Passover unto the Eternal in a specific time period here, and when it goes on to say here... because things are sometimes written that you accept what God says so you understand what He’s saying when He says something and adds a little bit of a twist or something different to it to magnify understanding later on.  We accept the simple scriptures and the harder ones sometimes for people become a whole lot easier.

So again here... for in the month of Abib the Eternal your God brought you forth out of the land of Egypt by night. We just read the verses where God said that you’re to eat the Passover lamb and eat it in the night, and certain things about keeping it and if there’s anything remaining in the morning what they were to do with it.  We understand if you go back to the story and you read what happened on that particular night; that they had to stay.  They had the staff in their hand, the shoes on their feet ready to leave Egypt; but they were not to leave their homes in that night.  Unlike the movie where it shows Moses and different ones that could come before Pharaoh... they didn’t leave their homes.  Moses didn’t leave his home that night and neither did Aaron leave his home that night – unlike...I think it’s in the movie ‘The 10 Commandments’ when they show some of that.  They didn’t leave their home at night on the 14th; and they didn’t leave until the next morning when God said they could come out of their homes.  They were sent a message from Pharaoh to “Get out of Egypt!”  But they didn’t go and meet Pharaoh personally.  Pharaoh sent messengers, emissaries out to tell them that they were to leave Egypt.  And so they began to leave Egypt. First of all they had to start a process here of plundering or receiving things from the Egyptians and the Egyptians were anxious for them to get out because they were telling Pharaoh, “Let them go!  Get them out of here or we’re all going to be dead!”  They were upset and justifiably so – they had lost their firstborn.  All of the firstborn of Egypt had died and so they were anxious to get the Israelites out and so they were giving them gold and silver and animals and whatever they needed in order to have a journey to get out of Egypt.  They were anxious to see them go; but they didn’t leave until the daylight portion when they started gathering some of these things together and they met in a specific region of Egypt, and they left the night after the fourteenth was over; they left in the night in the Days of Unleavened Bread, on the night we call ‘The Night To Be Much Observed’.  It’s awesome; very simple, very basic.  Why the Jews cannot understand that simple explanation of the Passover that God gave to Moses?  Sad.

Verse 2 - You shall therefore sacrifice the Passover, common sense; easy logic should show what this is talking about.  They’re now sacrificing something to God – the Passover lamb was never sacrificed to God.  They roasted it on the fire and they ate of it that night.  God was very specific how they were to keep the Passover.  They didn’t offer it upon the altar; and they were to keep it in their homes.  A sacrifice to God was never done at home, it was never allowed!  You had to bring it to the Temple; you had to bring it to the Priests for the altar, things to be offered upon the altar and so forth.  You couldn’t have a sacrifice in your own home!  That, candidly, would be punishable by death; in scripture, in the Old Testament.  So when it says; You shall therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Eternal your God, of the flock and the herd, even that should say, “What do you mean of the herd?  God said you could only use a goat or a lamb – he didn’t say anything about cattle!”  so this ought to be simple to understand this is talking about sacrifices offered up to God on the 1st High Day of the year; and they’re called Passover sacrifices because they had to be killed on the Passover afternoon and ready for offering as soon as the sun was down.  Certain things began to happen as soon as the sun was down..  But they couldn’t do those things.  But the preparation of those things – there are stories in the book of Chronicles and Kings, especially the book of Chronicles of some incredibly huge feasts where kings gave thousands of animals to be killed and offered for the rejoicing and the keeping of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  And thousands were brought in.  They couldn’t start that at the beginning of the night – they did this during the daytime; and this is where the Jews become confused because they understand that every time you prepared for a High Day, whether it be the Feast of Trumpets... you didn’t start killing the animals as soon as it was sundown – you started killing animals and doing some of the butchering and some of the other things well in advance and preparing them for the altar as soon as the sun was down...to offer up the sacrifices on the High Day; and then the people were able to feast of those things – they  were able to partake of the offerings and so they had massive feasts then.  But they were able to partake of it.  So anything that’s sacrificed to God is done as soon as the sun is down for a High Day, for the sacrifice for the feast.

Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover, it’s on the Passover, it’s during the Passover daytime and that’s the beginning of the sacrifice.  You don’t, obviously, place it on the altar then; you don’t begin some of the cooking of some of those things in advance, or partaking of it until a specific moment in time.  God’s very specific about that as well.  You shall therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Eternal your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the Eternal shall choose to place His name there.  Always, always, always this was always the temple.  You couldn’t do it in your homes, but the Passover He said to do in your homes, and He said to have enough people to make sure that you can consume a lamb; not too many and not too few, to try to invite your neighbour or whatever if you have a smaller family so you can partake of that lamb and eat it thoroughly without waste.

Verse 3 - You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread... it’s very clear what it’s talking about.  It’s talking about the Days of Unleavened Bread; but what precedes it is the Passover and there’s preparation that has to be done; it is a preparation day.  It’s an awesome thing – the Passover is like a Friday to the Sabbath; it’s the preparation day, as a whole most times.  There are a few times it lands on a Sabbath.  You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread therein, it’s the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when the Eternal your God brought you forth from the land of Egypt.

Numbers 33 - let’s look at this one as well. Numbers 33:1 – these are the journeys of the children of Israel who went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron.  And Moses wrote their going out according to their journeying by the commandment of the Eternal.  It says, And these are their journeys according to their going out and they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the first month, on the morrow after the Passover, the day after the Passover; the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians.

And so again here, we just read Deuteronomy 16:1 where they went out at night.  We know they went out at night; but we know it was the beginning, on the High Day, on an annual Sabbath, the first one, the first Day of Unleavened Bread they began to leave Egypt from Rameses as it talks about here.

So again, very simple scriptures, very basic scriptures; but it’s awesome how people get tied up in these things.  You may think this is really clear to you; and there are thousands who have gone before you who at one time in their life thought it was clear to them until a minister came along, or someone else in the Church came along and threw certain scriptures at them out of context of the whole story; and got them off course.  And a lot of people sinned very early on in the Church of God – going back into the 70’s and the 80’s and they turned away from the understanding that God gave about when the Passover is.  And that’s just as hideous as what the Protestant world does when they don’t acknowledge that Jesus Christ was in the tomb for three days and three nights.  If we don’t acknowledge in our minds that Jesus Christ fulfilled Passover in the fourteenth day, at the beginning of it all the way to the end of it, then we can’t grow and we won’t prosper and we won’t come out of sin; because God takes the Passover quite seriously; Jesus Christ, the Messiah and all He did.  And so if we don’t have the most basic of things right about the Passover, we can’t go on into Pentecost which means the receiving of God’s spirit.  Because we talked about those first fruits.

I find it awesomely inspiring to understand that the Israelites were given the law on the Day of Pentecost.  Awesome to understand that; and then God gave the holy spirit on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. to show, to reveal that mankind, the Jewish people, Israelites, couldn’t keep the law on their own ability, by their own power.  Something was missing!  They didn’t have God’s spirit!  It’s only by the receiving of God’s spirit that you can come out of sin, that you can come out of Egypt, that you can come out of sin.  And so there’s an incredible bridge, an incredible connection – STRONG between Passover and Pentecost that God wants us to understand.  It’s awesome! It’s powerful! It’s mighty – it truly is...!  It’s incredible.

Anyway, going back to the story here; three basic scriptures there that are so clear if people will just accept them for what they say, but they don’t.

I’m not reading all that he wrote in this particular case here but next is my reply to him knowing full well, again, that he is Jewish and as I said, I often state replies like this in such a manner as this to test the genuineness of what the individual is writing.  Of course when they start off by saying that, “I was surprised at the ignorance with which you display with respect to Jewish custom.”  Then I understand where he’s coming from because there’s so much ignorance in the world.  But you know in the Church we have an understanding of people who battle with things.  The Protestant world doesn’t battle with things like this as a whole because they’re not that steeped in scripture with what is true, in the sense of understanding the Greek language really well.  If they did, they would understand that there are all kinds of flaws.  If they were honest with what is written in the Greek language, if Protestants and Catholics were really honest (Catholics don’t even open the Bible too much)... if the Protestants opened their Bible and they were honest with the Greek language – if they tried to understand what the Greek language is saying they would realize there are a lot of mistakes in the Bible.  The first big one is that Easter is not even in the Bible, because there are some who actually think that it’s there until they go back and see the Greek word is the word for Passover, it’s not Easter in the book of Acts.  And on and on it goes.  If they would go back and try to understand, strive to understand things like we read recently about the Sabbaths and the counting of three days and three nights and that there were actually two Sabbaths within a few days apart from each other...if they were just honest.

This individual is striving to be honest with what he understands out of Hebrew, as you’ll see as we go along.  It’s just that he is steeped in something because of those things and because of their teaching and because of how they’ve been trained and doesn’t understand he’s just wrong.

So I said...

Hello (his name) ….Your rabbis have taught you well, as you have well explained the "custom" of the Jews regarding their distortion of the scriptures. I cannot give to you…

And that’s pretty strong language if you understand as you go along here; he’s not a …oh what are some of the words here used by the Jewish people?  There are all kinds of… just like in Traditional Christianity…there are all kinds of… to those who are more zealous, to those who are just kind of there – Catholics as an example, when it comes to scripture; but this individual is more to the right, he’s more zealous about what he believes and there are those who are very liberal in Judaism and so forth.  This individual here is not liberal at all – he’s zealous about what he believes.  So telling this about… Your rabbi’s have taught you well… and talking about distortions – that’s kind of a tough pill to swallow.

I cannot give to you that which you refuse to consider, for you do not have the slightest inkling of how misinformed you truly are. One day you will be granted the ability to "see" what is true from my Rabbi, who is the prophesied Messiah who is now going to come to this earth on Pentecost of 2012. You can scoff, as your leaders have done for the past 2,000 years, but that scoffing is very soon going to be snuffed out.

Hopefully, as you go through the times of physical tribulation, that is now just in front of us, you will be able to come to repentance and accept the true teaching of Yahweh Elohim in the pages of Hebrew scripture. The time for the prophecies of Joel, Moses…

Threw that in there because he knows there are prophesies in Joel and prophesies of Moses and on and on…

…David, Ezekiel and all the prophets is now at hand.

Because he knows what I’m talking about – it’s about the Messiah.

It is my genuine hope that you will be able to see these things come to pass, turn to the Messiah, and live into the new age of God's reign on earth for all Israel and the world.        …….Most sincerely,

Then I received a reply that was well thought out on his part, yet in error, and in great error concerning what he had read in regards to what I wrote on the subject.  He didn’t... He’s trying to understand some of what I wrote but he’s having a battle; just like sometimes people have had battles in the Church when they felt something is true for so long.  Like Pentecost; when Mr Armstrong brought that forward some had become weak, because it’s a matter of the spirit in the Church whether or not we receive truth and to how we repent and change and accept finally what God gives to us.  We may have a struggle, but we’ll work through it with Gods’ spirit.  But some were very weak in spirit and there were a lot of ministers and a lot of members in the Church... that was one of the beginnings of a falling away in the Church of God that we experienced – when masses of people left.  I think of Hawaii, all those islands there – all the people left.  Washington, D.C. area – well over a thousand in that particular area alone left... and different areas where different ministers had such a sway in congregations that people followed them and left the Church over things like Pentecost.

So again here, this is his response and this helps to reveal some of the problems, again, here in communication on this matter, but here is a small portion of his reply...

Dear Ronald,    …..I have taken my time to ponder a reply to your diatribe.

He’s smarting a little bit and I understand that, I appreciate that.  He doesn’t realize he can say anything he wants to and it’s going to be like water off a duck's back on me because I’ve been called everything, done everything you can think of.  We don’t take those things personally.  I hope none of you take it  personally when a relative or someone else attacks you for what you believe.  You understand they can’t help it!!  THEY can’t help it, so you don’t get caught up in arguing back with them and getting on their level!  That’s why Jesus Christ, because of WHO He was and because of the mind He had – He didn’t revile back, He didn’t strike back at people.  When they threatened Him, He didn’t’ threaten them back.  He COULD have... but that’s not God’s way!  It’s not His way!  And we don’t do that because we understand they don’t understand. Instead, what Christ did – He mourned for, He wept for those around Him because of their misunderstanding and because of what He knew they were going to have to suffer through in time as we read recently in the sermon series that we went through and discussed.  And we learn as we go along, in the beginning sometimes we try to defend and we get upset sometimes.  I’ve known of people, not too long past here, even some who’ve been around for a time that sometimes get upset with some who attack them, who come at them.  Why bother?!  Why take it personally?!  It’s NOT ABOUT YOU; it’s not about me – it’s about God and His Son Jesus Christ and what we’re blessed to share in.  It’s about His plan and His purpose.  If they get upset, they’re getting upset at God, not at you.  And so if you can deal with that accordingly in understanding it’s not going to bother you.  You’re not going to take offence at it, you’re not going to show it by your expressions that you’re upset at them or that you’re mad at them – that’s just sin.  If we respond that way – who are we?  It’s an awesome thing to understand.  You don’t have to carry that; and we’re not supposed to carry that.

So when I read something like this I get a charge out of it because I understand where he’s coming from.  He’s calling it a ‘diatribe’.  If I were in his shoes, I’d probably call it a whole lot more.  I’d probably say, “You ignoramus!” ...if I were trying to get back at him.  But I’m not; and we shouldn’t.  If we come back with anything, if it’s appropriate it’s with the truth and hopefully someday they’ll be able to accept it and receive it.

...I have taken time to ponder a reply to your diatribe.  How is it that Christianity changed the Sabbath to Sunday and yet you scoff at them and keep our Sabbath?

I like the way he’s saying this.

It is nigh on impossible for us Jews to keep the Written Law without the Oral Law which were both given to Moses simultaneously.

Oh... I don’t want to go into that one...

Hence without the Oral tradition...

Oral.  Passed down generation after generation after generation – not the scriptures, not the first five books of the Bible... and which have been so totally distorted through time.  But he doesn’t believe that, he doesn’t understand that.

...Hence without the Oral tradition (which was eventually written down as the Mishnah just over 2000 years ago) we would not know what Phylacteries were or how to make the fringes on our garments and many more besides.

So they’re saying here... that embarrasses me a little bit here, I have to be a lot more careful what I say.  What he’s saying here is that we wouldn’t understand; like the tassels and different garments and so forth.  He said, “If it wasn’t for these things we wouldn’t know what all these things mean.”  Well, they’d be better off if they didn’t.  And I’m just poking a little bit of fun here because we know, we understand how ignorant the world is about certain things and I feel sorry for them, I feel for them, I feel badly for them.  If we can’t see somebody in Egypt, slavery, and oppressed like they are and not feel for them; something is really, really wrong with us.  And so as we look at people in the world... I say a lot of things about the Catholic church and sometimes people get really upset at me because they think I’m attacking Catholics.  I’m not attacking the people, I’m attacking the belief and the stupidity of it and the religion that’s there and the hideousness and the sickness of it; but not the people.  They’re just in bondage; they’re in Egypt.  And I look forward to the day that they’re freed.  To the Jews; I look forward to the day that they’re freed.  To Buddhists; I look forward to the day they’re freed.  Muslims; I look forward to the day Islam is freed from their ignorance... and on and on it goes.

He went on to say...

Nevertheless, the Rabbinic discussions over the centuries, commencing with the huge twenty volume tomes of the Babylonian Talmud, are full of arguments to and fro as to how to interpret both the Oral and Written tradition in the light of differing circumstances and opinions.  However, NOWHERE in all these 2000 plus years of discussion do we find ANY discussion regarding the meaning of Pesach [pay – sakh] (the Passover) when used in the Bible other than the universally accepted one amongst us since the time of Moses, that it refers to the Passover Sacrifice and not the Festival of Passover, as you erroneously translate it.

I am writing to you at this point in time because two weeks ago part of the weekly portion of the Bible which was read in the Synagogue on that particular week included Leviticus Chapter 23.  Verse 5 reads: In the first month (of our monthly cycle), on the 14th day of the month between the ‘evens’ is brought the Pascal Offering to God [is the LORD’S Passover].

He didn’t understand.  It’s God’s Passover; it’s the Eternal's Passover.  They didn’t bring the Pascal offering to God.  It’s not something offered up in sacrifice to God.  This is a mistranslation and he ought to know that if he’s being honest with his Hebrew.  It doesn’t say that in the Hebrew language, but that’s how he’s translating verse 5.

In the first month (of our monthly cycle), on the 14th day of the month between the ‘evens’ is brought the Pascal Offering to God ...

It isn’t what it says there at all.  Your King James is a whole lot more accurate than his translation of Hebrew.  He goes on to say...

Verse 6 continues: And on the 15th day of this same month is the Festival of Matzot (unleavened bread) for God – seven days shall you eat Matzot.  How do you explain this verse?

Well, if he read much he’d know I was explaining...

Are you saying that the Bible is wrong!!!

The word ‘Pesach’ [pay – sakh] is mentioned 22 times in the Bible and only once can it be construed as referring to the Festival.  However, the other verses are quite explicit.  See, for example: Numbers Chapter 23 Verse 3 and Deuteronomy Chapter 16 Verse 2 amongst many others.

Well, you can go through all those things and it’s just what they see with their eye.  It’s like when people read the word ‘heaven’ in the Protestant world, and they talk about various things having to do with heaven.  That’s where they think they’re going. They don’t accept what Jesus Christ said and what it says in the book of Acts about going to heaven; that it just doesn’t happen to people.  Dropping on down he says...

We pray daily that the Messiah will come speedily, but we are also patient and await his arrival on any day that he may come, however we also have a traditional blessing “May you live for 120 years”.  I hope that you will experience both of these and that after Pentecost in two years and one week from now, you will come and visit me and we can have a face to face theological discussion and you will not be too traumatized if your ‘prophecy’ does not materialize right then when you expected it to.

Hoping that you will find it in your heart to be less critical and condemning of the traditions and wisdom of others and especially of the Holy Bible itself.  With best wishes.

I’m not, of the Bible at all; see, he’s talking about his oral traditions, those things are written down.  That’s not the Bible.  Then I replied one last time.  I said...

It doesn't seem that you have read what I wrote in a very close manner. The Passover that is held between the evenings on the 14th is quite simple to understand concerning what God instructed. You understand that the weekly Sabbath is held between the evenings -- the evening of the 6th day of the week and the evening of the 7th day of the week. The weekly Sabbath is one complete day. When the evening begins (at the moment of sundown) on Friday the weekly Sabbath begins, and it ends when the evening begins on the 7th day (at the moment of sundown on the Sabbath), which also begins the cycle of a new week with the 1st day of the week.

Why is it so difficult for you to understand when the Passover begins and when it ends -- between the two evenings of the 14th? At sundown on the 14th, the 15th begins which is an annual Holy Day, the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread. If we cannot agree on this then there is no purpose of further communication since God's word is so very clear on the matter.

In addition, as you have taken time to ponder my diatribe you state that Christianity changed the Sabbath to Sunday. I have always stated that the Catholic Church (which is not after Christ -- the Messiah, and never has been) is the organization that changed from  the observance of the Sabbath from the 7th day of the week to Sunday. And I have also stated that "traditional Christianity" has followed the path of the Catholic Church, with such beliefs as Sunday worship, Easter, Christmas, the trinity and many other such false beliefs. Only one true Church has continued through time, before the Catholic Church came into existence. It is the same Church that Christ (the Messiah) started on Pentecost of 31 AD.

You also stated that as I scoff at the world of traditional Christianity that I keep "your" Sabbath. I do not keep your Sabbath and I do not observe it as you do. I keep God's Sabbath that he gave to mankind at creation, which is the same Sabbath day He gave to Adam and Eve and the same Sabbath day He gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob long before Judah was born. The Sabbath does not belong to the Jews, but to all mankind if they would only obey God.

Incredible!

If you are close to the Mt of Olives...

Because he said we could talk about this later...  I said...

If you are close to the Mt of Olives on May 27, 2012, you may have the opportunity to see me (perhaps at a distance) when I return (along with 143,999 others) with the Messiah in the Kingdom of God.

As far as living 120 years, I thank God that I don't have to remain in this physical body for that long, but only have a couple of years left before God grants me eternal life in a new body.      …Most sincerely,

He wrote back.  And I respect this man highly; he’s one of the most genuine individuals to be open and honest through time and going through this process that I’ve come across with his kind of intellect and background.  Because I’ve read everything he wrote and he is sharp in understanding, it’s just that he’s so steeped in the traditions of their fathers and the Jewish rabbi’s; that it’s very difficult for him to get past this.  He said...

Your reply gives me much food for thought and I think that I need to apologize for maybe misunderstanding your original reply.  Give me a little time to mull it over and I shall reply more fully.

By the way, he went on to say that he knows of someone quite well who was buried on the Mount of Olives a few years ago.  Interesting.

So this individual’s proven to be a far more sincere and honest man than most who would have responded with his level of religious understanding and teaching because he has a great deal of understanding and teaching – truly.  I look forward to hearing what he has to say.  He reminds me, for whatever reasons, of Nicodemus.  You know how he came to Christ and yet Nicodemus was there at the end to help with Christ in burying Him and so forth; and it’s going to be interesting to see different ones as they come along, as God draws them.

I feel for people.  People are so steeped in different ideas and beliefs and Judaism is deeply steeped in some things here that they had to come up with this...  of all these sacrifices that were offered later on. They lost sight of when God said it started at a certain time; and they began to see the sacrifices and the system that were offered later on on the Passover afternoon; and they began to mix the two together and they went off course.  And then after Christ came they really went off course and I truly believe there were those who went off course on purpose even more so to make a greater distinction between them and this new Christianity thing that was staring to pop up all over the place.  And so they had to make a greater separation of belief there.  I think they felt it a threat just as the Jews did at the time of Christ – they felt it was a threat and that threat didn’t go away right away.  It’s going to be interesting in time as God clarifies all these things and people come to repentance and understand what they did.

Leviticus 23:5 – it goes on to say then, the instructions, so clear - In the fourteenth day of the first month at even, between the evenings, is the Eternal’s, Yahweh’s, that’s the word that’s used.  It’s His Passover.  He gave it to us.  It’s His sacrifice to us.  It’s not the Jews, or ours to be given to God.  It’s a free gift from God to us, to save us.

Verse 6 - And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the Eternal: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.  It’s not a suggestion.  You must eat, God says, unleavened bread. All seven days!  We had some in the Church that came up with this brilliant idea at one time that if you’re eating bread, you must eat unleavened bread.  It doesn’t say that!  Some of those ministers and some of those people that got on that course there went off on a tangent.  So easy to twist and distort; and when you start to twist and distort... you know what happened to those individuals?  Their minds were shut; they cut off God’s spirit and the flow of God’s spirit.  That’s how dangerous it is to twist just a little bit.  That’s why God says don’t do it, “Don’t add to and don’t take from it!”  It is exactly as He gives it!  Incredible!

In the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile, customary, work therein; But you shall offer an offering made by fire, I love reading when it talks about this, an offering made by fire; that’s what we do when God calls us.  He said, “You’re to make an offering to me by fire!  You know what that means?  It means that you, when you are called, when you begin to come into God’s Church you understand this isn’t going to be easy and there’s going to be sacrifice and it’s going to require trial, HOT trial, burning, if you will.  That’s what trials are about – testing and trying of our lives; and it talks about the fiery trial that we go through.  We go through hard things because we couldn’t change without them.  If you don’t have trials and hardships in your life... what makes them hard?  You know what?  The world goes through all kinds of trials and hardships, but the truth isn’t in the picture.  God’s not in the picture.  With us it’s different; because we’re to change how we respond to things in the world, where the world lives life ignorantly so, according to their own selfish desires and motivations and so forth.

And when God calls us we begin to come out of that, we begin to change and we go through some hardships.  But we have to learn to address it God’s way, not to do it our way; but to look to God for His spirit to be within us and to address the problems and the situations we go through His way.  And that tries us; it puts us to the test.

Can be simple things.  It can be a dispute with someone else.  How are you going to deal with it?  Sometimes there are things that can happen, even within families, that get VERY HOT, friction, feelings, emotions, ANGER...and God wants to know: How are you going to deal with this?  Are you going to fight that fight and offer to Me a sacrifice in fire?  See, because that’s where you are.  How are you going to deal with it?  Are you indeed going to make sacrifice.  That’s why when we talk about love – that the greatest of love is when you sacrifice self in order to give to someone else.  If there’s no sacrifice in it, then it’s easy because you easily get along with someone else, or things are going well for you.  There’s no trial, there’s no hardship, there’s no difficulty, there’s no battle in that if you love those who love you... or maybe a better way of saying it; are loving toward you.  Because even those who love you and you love them – things can happen; you can have words, things can happen in tempers and anger and so forth and resentment and jealously and bitterness and whatever else enters into the picture sometimes.

But if we will sacrifice self and do the things that are hard for human beings to do – simple things like saying, “I’m sorry.  I’m wrong.  I shouldn’t speak like that, I shouldn’t have said such things, I shouldn’t have done this, I shouldn’t have done that.  My response... it wasn’t right!  I’m sorry.”  We use an expression once in a while, “Give me another chance.”  Because my wife’s father... that’s what he would come up with. Sometimes it was dealt with a little humorously, but he meant it. It’s like he couldn’t quite say, “I’m sorry.”  ...but rather “Give me another chance.”  ...that was his way of saying, “I’m sorry. Give me another chance.”  And you have to sacrifice yourself, what it is you want them to do, because generally we want them to say that; the other person to say that.  Don’t want to get off course there... but its powerful, isn’t it.  It’s what God says it means to us spiritually.  Sacrifice!  To offer up something that’s pleasing to God.  I love these verses, they’re beautiful, brethren!

Incredible verses that God has given throughout scripture.

Ephesians 5:1 – Be you therefore followers of God as dear children; And walk in agape, God’s love, as Christ has also loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God, that’s what it’s talking about here in Leviticus about these Holy Days and offering an offering by fire before God, that’s pleasing to God, that’s received by God.  And this is what Jesus Christ did and set that example for us – that we’re to do the same thing!  ...and gave Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.  Because that’s what’s pleasing to God!  When we will sacrifice our selfishness; because that’s what we’re sacrificing; and when it’s all said and done that’s not really a big sacrifice; but it is for us because our nature wants to be selfish.  We want others to change around us.  We want others to love us!  We want others to say nice things to us!  ...and on and on it goes.  And we have to live that ourselves towards others.

Going back here to Leviticus.  So again, the Holy Days, the High Days use these expressions; but you shall offer an offering, that means something spiritual to us, an offering to God made by fire, something that’s sweet smelling to God, received by God, that God is well pleased with.  He didn’t want these physical sacrifices.  That’s why it says it over and over, “sacrifice and offerings You didn’t want.”  That’s not what God wanted.  He wants what’s in us, a freewill offering, a desire to give freely to God, to God’s way of life, a desire to choose and want His way with all of our being; made by fire.  So it can’t be done automatically.  If it comes natural to you to (in some of these things) then it isn’t really by fire.  You have to be tried; to fight against self to offer this kind of an offering.  It’s when it’s hard and difficult, when you’re fighting against your nature that it becomes such an offering to God.

So, you shall do this unto the Eternal for seven days; and in the seventh day is a holy convocation, you shall do no servile, in other words customary, work therein.   And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, (verse 10) Speak to the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you have come into the land which I will give to you, and shall reap the harvest thereof...  Now, this is really a no brainer; but it’s amazing how the world has so messed this one up too and how much different ministers and such in the Church messed this one up and deny what’s being said here.  And yet this is so incredibly important, what God gave, because He doesn’t give everything in one place in the Bible.  He’s given a little here and a little there and the only way to put it all together is by God’s spirit, the truth that He gives to you and it all comes together and it’s a beautiful thing when God puts it together for us.  And this is a part of that process.  That’s why I mention there’s an incredible bridge between Passover; from the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Wave-sheaf, all the way to Pentecost that’s very powerful, that’s exciting and inspiring to understand.

So, when you’ve come into the land which I will give to you; we don’t have to think too much, we shouldn’t have to, but some people do...when that was.  When did they come into that land?  In the book of Joshua.  This was going to be fulfilled later on.  It’s not going to be fulfilled right away; so whenever that is; this is going to be accomplished.  Hmm...and when you understand the time of year and what took place at that time of year... God knew what the Israelites were going to do long before it ever happened; and how long they were going to be.  Do you think the 40 years was an accident?  Do you think the time it took for the spies to do what they did was all an accident?  ...or by design.  God is awesome and powerful and mighty and brings things to pass exactly for a purpose and a plan that these things can be written out – because they have great meaning in them.  They’re not by chance, they’re by design.  Man always having a choice in everything he does – free choice; God just knows exactly what you’ll choose.  He’ll mould and fashion circumstances.

Everything that’s happening today I am in awe of; as you see what’s happening in Europe; as you see what’s happening in Germany; as you see what’s happening with the euro; as you see the struggle the world is having; as you see what’s happening with the dollar and our printing presses are trying to go faster... faster....  so we can print more and more and more.  And all the things that are coming out right now – “Oh, it’s going to collapse, it’s going to fail, they’re going to go back to the franc, they’re going to go back to the mark, they’re going to do this, they’re going to do that...”  There’s a lot invested and there are people who do not understand the mind of some people who want and desire with all their being for there to be a united Europe.  And so people look at certain things and they start to panic and the world’s going to panic no matter what; but they don’t understand how deeply invested they already are and that there’s no way out of it!  But today we can see very powerfully so that there are going to be 10. We don’t know who they are, but we can see it coming together much faster and you can even have a pretty good idea... you might get really, really close, and you might even be spot on who all 10 are; if you’re watching and observing what God is bringing to pass.  God is bringing to pass... knowing what people will choose under all kinds of circumstances in this earth.  He knows the timing of how to influence various things to take place – with people having their choices, just as much as what He did to Pharaoh.

God knew when the first plague went out Pharaoh wasn’t going to let them go.  And God knew with the second plague... he wasn’t going to let them go.  And the third, and the fourth, and the fifth... God knew EXACTLY the mind of Pharaoh and when he would choose by free choice... He didn’t make him...it’s fully Pharaoh’s responsibility for every choice he made because he fought and resisted God, and so God gave him a big portion of what it’s like to harden your heart against God and to harden it worse and worse and worse.  If that’s your attitude and spirit and you will not break – you have only yourself to blame if you will not obey.  Awesome!  Anyway, I don’t want to get into that – it’s a future sermon.

All these things that are coming to pass right under our nose.  People want me to write things on the website; they sometimes get a little upset that I’m not writing more on ronaldweinland.com.  I’m thankful I don’t have to because when I have to start writing more it’s not going to be as nice in the world...so if it’s just every once in a while – thank God.  If I have to write something here in another month, and not for another year - I’m tickled pink!  I truly am!  Totally at peace and at one with God in those things because He’s bringing it to pass exactly as He said and we will learn and we will go through it all and we will be there two years from tomorrow.

So again, verse 10 - Speak to the children of Israel... When you have come into the land which I will give to you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits; the first of the first fruits, that’s what it is.  Jesus Christ, He is the first of the first fruits.  He is this Wave-sheaf being spoken of here.  So they started a harvest...and again, it’s because of Jewish religion and belief and Judaism that this is so messed up in people’s minds, and even the Church because they went back and looked at... “Surely the Jews understand what this is all about...” and they didn’t!  It wasn’t until 1974 that Mr. Armstrong began to understand what the truth was in some of this area; because he had to address it, he had to look at it deeply so, because that was God’s time to reveal it and give it to the Church.  So Pentecost is never on a Monday, it’s on a Sunday; and if we will accept what God says here in Leviticus about what would happen when they come into the Promised Land, we will learn much, because the book of Joshua reveals the rest of the story.  Awesome!

So he says, When you have come into the land which I am going to give to you, and reap the harvest... so you’re going to start a harvest, you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the Eternal, to be accepted for you: Jesus Christ; to be accepted for us.  That’s what it’s about.  ...on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.  So God was very specific.  And when they came into the land in that particular year, Passover fell on a specific day of the week that’s highly important for knowing how to count a part of Passover that if you don’t know Joshua you wouldn’t know what exactly to do.  Incredible!  But if you accept what God says, and when they came into the land, and you read the book of Joshua and you understand then the timing because of what Joshua says, you know exactly what day of the week the Passover was, you know exactly what day of the week the Wave-sheaf was and you know exactly how to always count to Pentecost... to make it from Passover to Pentecost.  Awesome!

So again, to be accepted for us and I want to read a few things that I wrote down here – just make sure I have it all.  But again, as we’ll see later the wave-sheaf was central to the timing for counting Pentecost.  This sheaf was not waved before God every year on the day following the annual Sabbath of the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread.  There are people who believe that when it says a particular Sabbath here, to wave it, they think they’re talking about the High Day.  It’s not the High Day that it’s talking about.

So again here, I want to read that again: The wave-sheaf was central to the timing of Pentecost.  This wave sheaf was not waved before God every year on the day following the annual Sabbath of the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread.  If that were so, then the yearly observance of Pentecost would be the fixed day of Sivan 6, always, always, always... there would be no need to count, if it followed...because we’re talking about the fifteenth – the High Day of the first day of the month.  It’s easy on God’s Calendar to count 50 days ahead from there.  And it always comes out on Sivan 6.  And so there would be no need to count; but we have to count, we have to follow God’s way of instruction and what He gives to us in instruction.  And that’s a very powerful lesson to learn.  If we are going to come out of sin and we’re going to come into Pentecost, into a relationship with God to be impregnated with God’s spirit, we must do it meticulously so, more and more as we grow, God’s way.  Not adding to it and not taking from it; and then it’s beautiful and it’s exciting and awesomely fulfilling.

So the instruction becomes quite specific regarding a count that centers around the weekly Sabbath, not the annual Sabbath.  It centers around the weekly Sabbath and not that of the first yearly Sabbath.

The Wave-sheaf, included as part of this instruction in verse 11, was symbolic, again, of Jesus Christ being offered up before God for all of us.  The waving of the sheaf was to be carried out during the Days of Unleavened Bread.  Something else that’s so important to understand.  The Wave-sheaf had to be offered DURING the Days of Unleavened Bread symbolizing that our Saviour was unleavened.  There are some who count it outside because they pick a particular Sabbath that ends up at the end of the week and then they wave it on the first day of the week after the Days of Unleavened Bread.  And it has no meaning there.  The Wave-sheaf has to be offered in the Days of Unleavened Bread picturing that Jesus Christ was unleavened.  Powerful if we understand those things and what God teaches and what He gives to us.

So the first fruits of God’s plan, which follow Jesus Christ, are pictured in Pentecost by the two leavened loaves we’re going to come to a little bit later.  Two leavened loaves picturing what this (tomorrow) pictures, Pentecost pictures, two loaves.  There was the Wave-sheaf of the grain that was offered up before God, waved before God, that God accepted picturing Jesus Christ.  And then there are two loaves during Pentecost that are waved before God, picturing the first fruits.  And we’ll come to that a little bit later.  Beautiful picture when you see what God does and how He does it.

So again here, the waving of the sheaf was to be carried out during the Days of Unleavened Bread symbolizing that our Saviour was unleavened.  The first fruits of God’s plan, which followed Jesus Christ, are pictured in Pentecost by the two leavened loaves, because they were filled with leaven.  Beautiful picture!  We’re leavened!  The first fruits... we’re leavened and God’s bringing them out of leavening, helping them become unleavened; but it’s a process.  And so there are two leavened loaves that are waved before God in this case.  The two leavened loaves that are waved before God to be accepted by Him.  Again, beautiful picture when you understand it; both are going to be accepted by God – the wave sheaf first, which was right after Christ’s resurrection; and then the wave loaves to be accepted by God.  That happens when?  Pentecost.  The wave loaves were offered up before God on the Day of Pentecost!  Incredible!  Incredible we didn’t understand the meaning of that before, fully.  And this symbolizes our being received by God after our deliverance from leaven, from spiritual Egypt, the spiritual Egypt of sin.

So again, this was fulfilled after Jesus Christ was resurrected and if you remember the scripture I gave to you when we speak about the Wave-Sheaf in John 20:17 - Jesus said to her, Do not touch Me; for I have not ascended to My Father: when He talked to Mary.  He said, “Don’t touch Me because I have not ascended unto My Father... but go to My brethren, and say to them, I ascend to My Father, and your Father; to My God, and your God.  Beautiful!  So Mary couldn’t touch Him yet on the day after He had been resurrected on Sunday morning when He talked to her because He said, “I haven’t been waved before My Father yet.  I haven’t been accepted for you, for mankind by My Father yet, so don’t touch Me until I’m accepted by God, received by God.”  And so later in the day we have this picture of the story where He was then able to tell them, “Touch Me.  Thomas touch Me!  Feel!  Put your hand inside my stomach!  Put your fingers inside the holes in my hands.”  ...because He had ascended to the Father, because He pictured and fulfilled the Wave-sheaf.  I don’t know about you but when I read things like this – it’s awesomely inspiring and exciting!  Everything’s so meticulous; everything with such incredible, deep, beautiful meaning that God gives to us.

Leviticus 23:12 – Going on with the story... And you shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf a male lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Eternal. And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Eternal, beautiful what it pictures about Jesus Christ, ...made by fire unto the Eternal for a sweet smell/fragrance: sweet smell and a fragrance.  He’s the one that fulfilled this, received by God; a sacrifice, His sacrifice for all of us; and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin.  Measurements here; And you shall not eat bread, notice this... you shall not eat bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, in other words, of the new crops, until the selfsame day that you have brought an offering unto your God: the reason these things are brought out here, if you’ve gone through this story about Pentecost on our website is because Judaism and other groups that believe in some of these things don’t believe this.  They believe that when they came into the Promised Land that  they raided the old crops of the previous year and that they used that to eat with after the manna ceased.  And so it’s like they went and got the old grain.  So when you read in your scriptures there, you probably have it there in some of your Bibles where it talks about the old grain; it’s the grain from the year before – that’s what they’re talking about.  It’s not.  You know, you don’t have certain things that are green unless they're green.  It means what it says.  There are things about parched corn and so forth here that they were able to do.  It’s not the old dried out stuff that was from the previous harvest a year before this.

And so again here, the reason they do that is because of a timing of everything and a denial of God, a denial of what God fulfilled and accomplished.  So sometimes people can read some of this and say, “Why are you making such a big deal out of it.”  When I started speaking about, after the apostasy, about 14th/15th Passover, I had not a few, but a lot of people in God’s Church asking, “Why are you making such a big deal out of this 14th/15th Passover.  As long as we keep the Passover at the right time on the 14th, why make such a big deal out of it?  Because if you believe something that’s false, you’re hurting yourself.  If you hold onto something that’s untrue, you’re hurting yourself.  You become weaker and weaker and fall farther from God.  You’re cut off from God’s spirit – that’s the problem.

Verse 14 – you shall not eat bread nor parched corn, nor green ears, in other words of the new crop, until the self-same day that you have brought an offering unto your God.  It’s on the day of the wave-sheaf, after the offerings have been given to God. That’s when they were to do this.  ...it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.  So again, God is very specific; so when you go to the book of Joshua it’s inspiring!  ...because it’s the fulfillment of what God was telling them to do here, to teach some important things about how to count to Pentecost.  You might think, “Well, why go to all that trouble?  Why not just spell it out?”  Because it goes back to something so basic – Are we going to follow God exactly as he maps it out for us step by step, turn by turn, word by word?  Do we strive to be ‘at-one’ with God in unity and oneness with God in everything?  Things are meticulous for a reason; they’re specific for a reason.  And they try us to see what our spirit and our attitude is and whether we will follow God the way He says; because our nature is not to do so, and we have to fight against our nature, all human beings do so often.

So when the children of Israel came into the Promised Land they were to bring a sheaf from the beginning of their harvest and present it to the priests.  And this instruction can only be applied during the Days of Unleavened Bread, as we talked about earlier.  They were also to make a special offering to God after the Wave-sheaf had been offered.  We read that about the animal there and without blemish and so forth – a male lamb.  It’s also important that we do not read anything into these verses, as I’ve mentioned.  Many things that have been accepted by commentators and historians as factual are simply a matter of Jewish tradition.  A case in point is what these verses say concerning the produce of the land, as I mentioned here.  Again, I want to spell this out, meticulously so: they were not told that they could not begin harvest before the Wave-sheaf, rather that they were not to eat of the produce of the land until the Wave-sheaf had been offered; after they had made this special offering to God.

So again here, this is what I’m talking about when it comes to understanding what others believe.  Because sometimes to help others you have to know what they believe and why they’re tripped up and why Judaism is messed up and why so much of the Church of God has been messed up in this subject... is because of when the Wave-sheaf is offered; and God is very specific about when the Wave-sheaf is offered; and that’s why they have to believe then, because of what they believe about the Wave-sheaf is that it had to be the old produce of the land.  Because their custom is they accepted something the Jews said.  The Jews said you can’t begin the harvest until you’ve gone out into a field, cut a Wave-sheaf, brought it back to the priest and waved it before God.  That’s not how God intended any kind of produce of the land to be.  He just said, when it’s time to harvest something you’re to harvest it, you’re not to let it rot, you’re not to let it fall and so forth -  you’re to go out and harvest it.  God just gave a commandment, very specifically so, that’s simple; Don’t eat of it until the Wave-sheaf has been offered, and as soon as it’s been offered, you can go right to it.  Amazing how human beings are, amazing how Satan has tripped people up over the smallest of things – that end up not being small at all but awesomely important.

So again, they were not to eat of any produce of the land until they had made an offering to God.  The bread being spoken of was not that which could be made from manna, because they had been doing so for 40 years.  To this point... 40 years – manna.   That was a lot of manna for a long time.  But it ceased after this Pentecost when they came into the Promised Land.  It’s a beautiful picture when you put it all together and I know sometimes it can become a little complicated; but when you go through the story flow and you see what God is doing and what God is teaching and the beauty of it, it’s inspiring, it’s exciting – it truly is!  It’s not complicated.

So again, they couldn’t use the new grain of the land for their bread until that particular time, until the Wave-sheaf; and this instruction from God had to do with what the land was producing new in that particular year; ‘parched corn’ or ‘roasted grain’ is not made from old dried up grain of the previous year.  The grain used to make ‘roasted grain’ was new and not dried out.  ‘Green ears’ or garden produce also referred to that which the land was newly producing.  So that’s exactly what God is talking about here and telling them.  Again, these are not small things to God.  Nothing is small in God’s instruction and we have to be careful that we don’t make it so.  That’s why I am in awe of what God has been teaching us and showing us in a very powerful way since the Feast of Tabernacles in Colorado Springs, because that’s the year it began, when God, with greater power and inspiration, if you will, was showing us that we are to be at one with everything being newly given, revealed to the Church of God and there was much more that came after that Feast because God began to add very powerfully to our understanding, to things we hadn’t understood before; and that will come out in this series of sermons as well, part of the reason for that, why God functions the way He does at different times in a very powerful way.

So again, things with God are very exact and when you see them in the exacting way that they are they’re very beautiful; and that gives inspiration – truly does!  The more exacting, the more beautiful the picture.  It’s like... I can’t even give that as a description... I won’t even do it... thinking of a fine painting and you appreciate the art, or whatever someone’s done, but this is far more massive of what God has done and when you see it together like that it’s just a beautiful thing to behold, it truly is, to be a part of, to share in.

Let’s go on to Leviticus 23:15.  So again, God meticulously outlined the Passover and the observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  And within the period of Unleavened Bread there would be a Sunday – always a Sunday, always the first day of the week sometime within the period of the Days of Unleavened Bread...a first day of the week where it was revealed symbolically of how we can come out of leaven, out of sin.  And that’s by/through the Wave-sheaf; Jesus Christ who fulfilled that for us, receiving of Him into our lives.  That’s what it’s talking about.  And this leads to the fulfillment of the wave-loaves, because without the Wave-sheaf you can’t have Pentecost.

Leviticus 23:15- And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, which is always the first day of the week; from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: meticulous!  Beautiful counting!  Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days; because if you start numbering on the first day of the week and you number seven Sabbaths, the very next day makes 50; 7 X 7 =49 and one more... God’s very specific in how He outlines this.  All for a purpose, all for a reason!  Makes it more inspiring then when we see it, the beauty of what God maps out for us.  Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto the Eternal. So the Wave-sheaf brings us all the way up to the wave-loaves and the fulfillment of the wave-loaves.  You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; I love it!  We’re baked with leaven!  We’re filled with leaven! ...and the Wave-sheaf wasn’t to have any... no leavening with it, around it in the offering whatsoever; and it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread always, always, always – totally – everything was to be unleavened picturing Jesus Christ.  Not us.  Not the first fruits, and not all those called in time to become a part of the Family; because all have to go through the same thing as the first fruits in the sense of coming out of sin, in the sense of receiving the impregnation of God’s spirit, which is pictured by Pentecost, and God’s spirit continually coming into our lives – pictured by Pentecost.  That help, that strength, that power to live the law, God’s way of life that’s pictured in Pentecost.

So again, bake two loaves here, baked with leaven; they are the first fruits of the Eternal.  Some have wondered why two loaves?  We never really have gone into that.  We’ve never fully addressed some of those things.  Some have asked about various periods of time; it may well be, probably is: before Christ and after Christ – both periods of time were dealt with by God in a different way.  Those in the beginning over 4,000 years individually so, those after Christ in a group, in a larger fashion God began to work with far more numbers of people then, so it very well could be two periods of time and all picturing something very beautiful that God has received.  When it’s all said and done both are received by God; two great periods of time in history written in scripture in time that are received by God on the Day of Pentecost.  Incredible! So again here, baked with leaven.

Verse 19 – Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for sin offering and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice to the peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Eternal, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the Eternal for the priest. And you shall proclaim on the selfsame day, on Pentecost; that it is a holy convocation unto you: again, Pentecost; you shall do no customary work therein: it shall be a statute forever throughout all your dwellings throughout your generations.

What an awesome thing as we learn that the Wave-sheaf leads to a specific moment in time for the fulfillment when the wave-loaves are offered up to be accepted by God.  And now we know when that will be.  What other time could it have ever been.  We used to believe that Jesus Christ would return on Trumpets with the first fruits.  The wave-loaves cannot be offered up before God any more than the Wave-sheaf could be offered up before God at any other period of time than on the first, Sunday as we’ve talked about what God showed there, after the Sabbath there, the first Sabbath within that period of time there talking about Passover; which we’ll get to in a moment here, on that particular year.  But again, talking about that first Sunday.  The only Sunday within that period of time that had to be offered up, the Wave-sheaf, it couldn’t be any other time – that’s exactly when Jesus Christ fulfilled it – on a Sunday, on the first day of the week just as God said and gave the example of it there in Leviticus when the Passover had to be done and when the Wave-sheaf had to be there.  Same thing about the wave-loaves.  You can’t offer up the wave-loaves on Trumpets; you can’t offer them up on Atonement; you can’t offer them up during the Days of Unleavened Bread.  The wave-loaves that picture the first fruits have to be offered up before God on Pentecost!  What an awesome thing!  It’s beautiful!  We couldn’t see that before, until God finally brought us to that point in time.

We know the time now: on Pentecost 2012 the wave-loaves will be offered up before God, the 144,000 will be resurrected to be in the Family of God, the Kingdom of God for all eternity. Awesome!

So again, how is it that we could not grasp that the wave-loaves had to be offered up to be accepted by God on Pentecost and not on Trumpets?  Beautiful!  Just as Jesus Christ fulfilled the Wave-sheaf on the first day of the week after the Passover, the wave-loaves will be offered up by God to be accepted into His Family on Pentecost, specifically Pentecost of 2012.

I think I’d better stop here for today. We’ll come back to this tomorrow, picking it up here with Part 2.  We’ll just have the two parts for The Fulfillment of Pentecost, the meaning of it and everything; so we’ll go into that and go into the book of Joshua in some of those things that are revealed there and explain some of that tomorrow.

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