The First Count for Pentecost, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

June 9, 2019

Today is Part 2 of the sermon entitled, The First Count for Pentecost.

I want to read a few of the things that were stated in Part 1 yesterday. For some listening to this you’re listening to it a little bit later. But again, it was stated in the introduction of Part 1 that we’re going to focus on an area within the meaning of Pentecost that’s truly never been fully understood by God’s own Church. It is something that God has been revealing more deeply here in this final phase of the end-time during this period of His remnant Church that’s been preparing for the actual coming of His Kingdom.

We began Part 1, again, by reading specific instruction that God gave the Israelites concerning the very time that they would be coming into the promised land. I marvel at how plain, how simple these are, but they’re plain and simple, as I mentioned yesterday, because of God’s spirit. Without that you can’t see, people don’t see what is obvious and clear to us by the power of God’s holy spirit. That’s a unique experience and you can’t explain it to anyone. It’s just something that’s there. Just like in your calling when God reveals truth to you, you hear it. Most people actually through time that’s how they were able to do what they did, to believe God, it’s through the hearing. They didn’t have bibles. They didn’t have things that they could go and read easily themselves as we’ve been blessed to have, and so for centuries and centuries, candidly, people never had access to such things, and so when someone would preach and teach God’s way of life it was in what they heard and they were able to believe it. It’s an incredible thing.

So I’m going to read Leviticus 23 again here. Leviticus 23:9 it says, And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you have come into the land... Now, again, that would seem simple, but it isn’t always, because, candidly, the Church through time hadn’t understood the simplicity of some of this and it was easy to see how that Passover had a beginning, the first Passover that was ever observed, that was easy to see. To understand that the days of Unleavened Bread were able to begin to be seen and grasped and understood because of what they did and they learned the meaning of that which was unleavened. To what degree? Very small.

But again, they were told certain things they were to do, to have unleavened bread for a period of time, to eat that, and so we can understand some of that, that they observed those times, but we never grasped and understood that they never had a wave sheaf offering. They never experienced a wave sheaf offering ever until this was fulfilled, and because of that they couldn’t follow the instruction that God gave to know when to have the wave loaf offering on Pentecost, to know when to keep, to observe the Feast of Pentecost.

There were certain things just taken for granted for a long, long time, and that’s understandable, feeling that, well, they understood all of those because God gave them very early on, the law. He gave them then the Levitical priesthood. He gave them then Leviticus 23 and the holy days that are listed there, so surely they kept them all that time. No, they didn’t.

Sometimes it’s hard for us to grasp that when you go all the way back then to the time of Abel, if you will, the very first righteous speaker, speaker of righteousness, a preacher of righteousness, as it says there, and you go on down through time, you come to the time of Noah, you come on down to a time then of Abraham, as we talked about, and you come on down all the way to the time of the Israelites, that all the way through there up until the time that God actually gave those things they were not instructed on how to keep holy days.

Now, there are some things they understood about sacrifice. There are some things they understood about sacrificing a lamb, an animal, a goat or whatever, but to what degree, it doesn’t really explain it in scripture. But to couple that together with holy days, they just didn’t have it. It wasn’t God’s purpose yet to reveal those things because He wasn’t working with a large group of people. He was working with individuals for a long period of time during that first 4,000 years. That’s why there aren’t that many during the time of the Old Testament, if you will, with whom God worked. That wasn’t the major time of calling those who are going to be a part of the firstfruits of what we are picturing here today in this holy day. That’s incredible to understand, that that clarity is now there that we really haven’t always had.

It’s just been kind of taken for granted, well, yes, they all understood, all the prophets, all the people through time, Noah, they all kept the holy days. No, they did not! God has progressively revealed His plan through time. That’s an awesome thing to understand. That’s why the more we grasp that the more in awe we should be of where we are now and how much we’re able to see, how much we’re able to grasp. It’s incredible! It’s powerful! We are exceedingly blessed far more than what we grasp only because we come to a point where we’re able to compare what is able to be seen now with what wasn’t seen back then. They were judged, people are judged by what they’re given to any point in time. That’s how God works. By whatever He has revealed to an individual, by that they’re judged. They aren’t judged by things they don’t know and don’t understand. To me that’s a beautiful thing to understand as well. And candidly, it really comes down to, most of it does then, in how we live life, whether we live it God’s way or our own way. And just like the law that was given, it’s really about relationships. It’s about family. It’s about whether it be a physical family or a community family or a larger national family, as tribes were back then very large and then became nations.

Again, it’s how people treat each other and how our relationships are with them. More importantly, what our relationship is like toward God, whether we honor God, whether we respect God, whether we love God, whether we recognize Him and acknowledge Him as being our Creator. The fact that everything we have in the world in life comes from God. He sustains life, He gives us life. He gives us everything we’re able to have. People don’t acknowledge that and respect that and honor that. And if they did, and grasped that in their living, in their thinking, then they would react differently, they would respond differently to what God says in scripture. Even on a physical plane that would be the case. But people read into it what they want and that’s the way life has been generation after generation after generation.

So to grasp that the first 4,000 years there wasn’t all that much known. It wasn’t until Christ came along that finally so much more of God’s plan began to be revealed, the intent and the purpose of things that God was doing, to reveal what Passover was all about. They never grasped what Passover was about. They never grasped. The disciples who were with him for that period of time when he began to work with them and that ministry that went on for three years, they didn’t grasp the things he was saying on a spiritual plane and they didn’t grasp much of it even on a physical plane. They heard him speak, they heard him teach, and not until the day of Pentecost in 31 AD after he had been resurrected did they come to understand. Then all of a sudden it was like the light bulb went on. Everything he had said now made sense because of God’s spirit.

I marvel at those things and we should marvel at those things because this day is very much about that very thing, God pouring out His holy spirit, giving His holy spirit, the begettal of His holy spirit, the power by which we’re able to see and grasp things on a spiritual plane, and to be ever so grateful for that. That gives us an ability to see, to understand, to have a hope that is incredibly awesome in itself, to understand life and death, to understand the cycle of life, to understand God’s plan and purpose in a resurrection. Not after you die, or at the moment you die, but later on in time.

People think they’re wafted off to heaven or go down to this burning place where these little creatures are running around, pitchforks in their hand, you know, stabbing you in the rear end, these different ideas that people have had about this really hot place. I’m sorry, but I can’t help but think what kind of a God would that be to want to see people tortured for all eternity for not obeying? God’s answer is the penalty for sin is death, eternal death. That’s what it is. It’s a judgment. The judgment is eternal death. But again, so simple when you see it. So thank God when you can see it.

So going on here. He says, Speak to the children of Israel and tell them, When you come into the land which I give to you and shall reap the harvest of it, then you shall bring a sheaf of it or from the firstfruits (or of the firstfruits or from the firstfruits), the beginning (as the word really means here). It’s not the word for “firstfruits,” but still has some of those meanings in there depending on the context. ...the beginning of your harvest unto the priest. So they couldn’t do that yet and they couldn’t do it while they had manna.

For forty years they only had manna. They didn’t know what a harvest was! There were those that grew up there in the wilderness during that forty years who had never seen fields of wheat, or whatever, rye, barley, whatever you want to talk about as far as grains are concerned. They never experienced that! All they experienced was going out six days of the week and picking up manna off of brush and stuff, whatever it clung to. That’s what they did every day except the Sabbath. They found out what it was like when you do, when you disobey God and you collected on the Sabbath. Awesome! That’s all they knew until they came into a land, into the edges of it, where they began to see crops, things that were growing.

It’s amazing to see what God did, where He led them. He led them through an area where they didn’t have those things. They didn’t have crops. It’s a desolate region of the world. That’s why there was a lot of murmuring among the Israelites. We sometimes murmur, don’t we? Temperatures get up a little higher; we’re used to being air conditioned. Right now the temperature is (down in many places like in Texas and different areas, and even Georgia has already had it) a hundred, over a hundred degrees already. You think, “What is it going to be like this year as far as the heat is concerned and the humidity that goes with that sometimes?” We’re not all that happy sometimes when we’re uncomfortable. Well, they carried it a lot farther because they began to blame God for certain things.

So again here, all this is in the context of “when you come into the land that I am going to give to you,” and as you read through other scriptures it’s the same context. That’s why I thought I’d take a little bit of time and read just a couple of places where you read about the Feast of Weeks (is what it’s called in the Old Testament, the Feast of Weeks), and just read you a couple scriptures because sometimes we can think about that; and especially if we have some of the older thinking it’s hard to shift gears and see what is really clear.

I’ll just read them to you. Exodus 34:22—And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits, as it’s translated here, they call it, of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of the Ingathering in the year’s end. Well, again here, this is all in context of when you do it, of when you can do it. You can’t do it if you don’t have grain. So again, it wasn’t until they came into the promised land that they could begin to observe this. The reason that these things are given is that there is going to come a time when you are to do these things.

Another one, Deuteronomy 16:8. This is, again, the giving of the law the second time. It’s repeating it toward the end of forty years. The Israelites were told that when you go into the land this is how you’re to live, this is what we’re to do. This is a part of it that was going to be new for them because it’s stated again here and it says, Six days shall you eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall have a solemn assembly (Deuteronomy 16:8) to the Eternal your God. You shall do no work therein. Seven weeks shall you number unto you; begin to number the seven weeks from such time as you begin to put the sickle to the corn. That’s not a good translation but I’m not going to go into that. But it’s about the grain, again, and it’s about the sheaf, the wave sheaf.

So we understand that because more of that’s explained then. They’re just reminded here. This isn’t going into it and explaining in detail because it’s already been explained in Leviticus 23. So some things are repeated just as a repetition of a reminder, in that sense that you need to focus upon this, but the detail is in Leviticus 23, and so that’s why we start there.

And you shall keep the Feast of the Weeks unto the Eternal, unto your God with the tribute of a freewill offering... So it goes on then talking about Pentecost and why it’s called Pentecost, “count fifty.” They couldn’t count fifty until they had the wave sheaf, until they had crops.

Going back here, Leviticus 23:11, it went on to say then because it goes on here about the sheaf and taking that, And he shall wave the sheaf before the Eternal, to be accepted for you. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. So we understand that was done on that first morning. We recognize that Christ was the Wave Sheaf offering. The reason he wouldn’t let them touch him, again, is because he was going to go to his Father. He hadn’t yet ascended, he said, “to my Father and your Father, my God and your God,” ever how it’s stated there exactly (but when he started talking to them there at the tomb and revealing that he had been resurrected), but he wouldn’t let them touch him because he hadn’t yet been received by God, the Wave Sheaf. Then just a little bit later we see where he had been. So this happened very quickly because then he let them touch him. Incredible! People don’t understand these things, what it’s all about, the importance of the wave sheaf, the importance of what Joshua the Christ fulfilled for us.

Then going on in verse 12—On that day, when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb, again, the meaning here, it’s about Christ, of the first year that is without blemish for a burnt offering. So again, all these things always have such meaning to them and we’re reminded over and over again, the focus over and over again about what God is doing. It’s about God’s plan. It’s not about a physical observance. It’s about what it pictures because they all picture things in God’s purpose and God’s plan for having put us on this earth in the first place. Awesome!

So again, stated in Part 1, “The truth and reality is that the children of Israel were not able to keep the Feast of God, this Feast of God until they came into the promised land. When they did come into the promised land that was the beginning for the first count for Pentecost that was ever observed, just as it was the first time the wave sheaf was ever observed.” So again, things that sometimes we just don’t see and don’t grasp nor grasp the importance of sometimes until it’s God’s time. Then when it’s God’s time it’s like, oh, yeah, and then we marvel more. I hope you marvel more because it gives a greater appreciation of what we have now to realize they didn’t have all these things. They weren’t observing before these times, Abraham, Noah, and so forth, king David... Well, that was later. But anyway, they didn’t observe these things. They didn’t have these things. They didn’t observe the holy days. King David did, obviously.

Let’s turn over to Joshua 1 now again (where we started to go at the end of the sermon), and continue on. Incredible here, as we were talking about this journey they were taking up from the region, really, of Petra where they were for a long period of time, Mount Horeb, down through there in some of the areas that they journeyed in. But they were pretty much in the same region all the time, hundreds of thousands of people. We can’t grasp. Incredible! They started moving northward then on the east side of the Jordan River. They were coming into a region where crops grew, where grapes grew, where, again, things that they had never seen, as a whole, before or didn’t have access to.

Joshua 1:1—Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Eternal, it came to pass that the Eternal spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise and pass over or go forward, this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them—to the children of Israel. This may not seem important even here but it is because as I mentioned yesterday, there are people in the past, ministers in the past who didn’t get the simplicity of this because they followed some of the tradition and beliefs of those in Judaism that don’t recognize this as the fulfilling of Leviticus 23. They don’t. They have other ideas about what this is. That’s why there are certain things translated (when you read this in the King James), it says they ate of the “old corn” that year. No, they ate of the fresh grains because they harvested it then, they had the wave sheaf then when they were coming into the promised land during the days of Unleavened Bread when they started doing some of these things as well, when they brought the sheaf then. They did wave the sheaf at this particular time because this was the beginning.

You maybe look at this and say, “How could people do that? How could they not recognize what it plainly says here?” Because it says, “This is the time. This is what I’m doing. You’re now coming into the land which I am giving to them—to the children of Israel.” Clearly a fulfillment of what He said back in Leviticus 23, the promises of being led into a promised land, and this was the time of the fulfilling of it. That’s the story of Joshua. He is the one that God chose, because his name is Joshua, to lead the children of Israel into the promised land, just as the next type, the real fulfillment of this being Joshua the Christ is the one to lead his people into the real promises, the greater promises, because that was just a physical fulfillment and God’s purpose is for a greater fulfillment on a spiritual plane. It has to do with His family.

Verse 3—Every place where the sole of your foot shall tread upon I have given to you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness of the Lebanon as far as this great river, the great river Euphrates, to the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your (territory). All the way to the Mediterranean. They made it very clear from the Jordan to the Mediterranean and the other sides as well.

Verse 5, He said, No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. This is important for God’s people to understand on a spiritual plane. That’s part of the parallel here that we’re to learn from this, from that which is on a physical plane of how they were to live, and it’s how we’re to live, how we live our lives, and if we are right and faithful before God, if our heart is toward God and loving God and obeying God this is God’s promise, “I will never forsake you. I will never leave you.” Even beyond that, He will fight for us. He will make us to stand.

Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance, again, very clear this is it, you’re going to divide this as an inheritance, the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.

So in the midst of the flow of what we’re covering I think before we continue I want to go back over here to Deuteronomy now, backing up just a little bit just to be reminded of some of this because it’s pertinent to our time now in what is stated here.

Deuteronomy 31:23. Now, this is about what Moses was doing. We talked about yesterday, this transition, how Moses wanted to go into the promised land and God told him, “This isn’t for you. This is My plan.” He revealed to him more of His plan at that time. “It’s for Joshua to do.” So Moses died. He told him to go up on this mount, to look in all directions and He said, “This is what I’m giving. You can see it that way, but you’re not going there.” This is a part of the story here in Deuteronomy, of what Moses was doing and what he was to transition in doing here and giving this to Joshua.

It goes on here then in verse 23 and it says, And He gave Joshua, the son of Nun, a charge and said, Be strong and courageous. So again and again and again! It’s a theme that runs throughout scripture and it was told to various ones throughout time. It’s told to us at this time. We learn from that process. We’re to be encouraged by what God gives to us. We’re to focus and see, to learn what God’s giving to us, and receive strength because of what He’s given to us. That’s where our strength is. To be moved by that, to be encouraged by those things, and to move forward just as what he was told to do here.

...for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I promised unto them, and I will be with you. So it was when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, and it was completed, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bare the ark of the covenant of the Eternal, saying, Take this Book of the Law, and put it inside of the ark of the covenant of the Eternal your God, that it may be there for a witness.

Verse 27—I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. It’s interesting what’s stated now because this is getting into something else and he’s telling Israel what they’re like. He’s telling us what we’re like. He’s telling the world what it’s like and what Israel will be like through time, candidly. For us, we understand that on a spiritual plane, what that means, but this is very much about Israel, literally, the physical tribes of Israel. I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. In the days while living with you you have been rebellious against the Eternal... Moses saw a lot. Forty years with them in the wilderness and all the rebellions that were there, all the things that God did for them to sustain their lives and it was difficult. Moses had a job on his hands.

So he’s saying, I know this about you, so how much more after my death what are you going to do? In other words, your nature is your nature and you have to choose what you’re going to do. He was given by God to tell them that many times, just like in the example there “Today I set before you life and death. Choose life! Choose obedience because that’s where the life is.”

He said, Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, so all those peoples, all the different tribes of Israel that made up the nation of Israel, including Judah and all the rest. Gather unto me the elders of your tribe, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth as a witness toward, or as the word is in many translations of what it means, against them. So it’s really toward them, but it is against them in the sense of that if you disobey this is what’s going to happen. But it was what was told toward them so that’s really more a proper translation. Some say “against,” some have the other, but again, it is speaking toward them, to them, about them, about what they need to be on guard about.

And verse 29 it goes on to say, I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt... Powerful, because this is prophetic. It’s a word that means “to destroy” or “will become utterly corrupt.” It’s like some of those things that we’ve read in times past, the corruption of the mind, the corrupting of the mind, of what people will do and how far they will go in resisting God and fighting against God. The whole story of what happened then when they went into the promised land, what happened? Well, there was Saul who didn’t turn out well. Then came David and then Solomon his son, and then after that the kingdom split up into different nations. The tribes split up.

Judah was the primary one that stayed in the region of Jerusalem where they were, where God had given them that part of the world. Then all the other tribes that went out across the Jordan on the other side that God gave inheritance to and all the regions up north that later became known as Samaria, incredible history of things that took place at that particular time, those things that followed. Jeroboam was the first king then of Israel. They changed; they no longer had a combining like they did before. The other tribes, which are primarily known as the ten tribes that were in the north, northern regions, Jeroboam was their first king. Every king after that it states that they all chose to follow the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and it makes that comment because they all did the same thing. They all rebelled against God and they began to mix false religions, different religions of different places in with ideas about what God had given to them. That’s where thing started getting corrupted even back then, and so different ideas of Astarte, Easter, they started back then. They came from Astarte, from some of the different regions around about and some of the different ideas and beliefs, began to mix it in with scripture long before Christianity came along.

So in the Old Testament, in those times, Israel began to corrupt what God had given to them and they began to call things by other names and they even changed the holy days in time. They didn’t want anyone going down to Jerusalem observing the holy days anymore so they made places in Samaria, for places you can stay. “We’ll make it more convenient for you. We’ll have this city over here and that city over there and you can just travel to those and we’ll set up these places of worship,” and going directly against what God had told them to do. Incredible! That’s why in the next series we’re going to be talking about some of this when even after the captivity of Israel some were invited down to Jerusalem and some went to observe a holy day much, much later in time toward the end, toward the end of Israel.

So we know that history of those different tribes then and the migrations and what took place and we’ll talk about that in the next series. But again, God was telling them of what they were going to do. It didn’t take long, didn’t take long for the nation of Israel to become wholly corrupt. Because to take the truth of God, who had led them out of Egypt, who had given them the law, and then to corrupt those thing with other religions around about them, the exact opposite, of what God warned them about over and over again, so Moses told them what they were going to do. “This is what you’re going to do.”

...knowing that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, or become corrupt, and turn... This is how you become corrupt. This is how someone becomes corrupt, especially once they’ve had the truth of God, those who have left. It’s far worse when it happens in the environment of the Church and what happens to the mind and the corruption that takes place there to distort, to go back to what individuals have been called out of, to corrupt truth that God has given, to corrupt things about Passover, 14/15, to corrupt things about when Pentecost should be observed, to corrupt various things that God has clearly given and to not accept and continue to hold on to the clear truth that they received when their minds were opened up. That’s corrupt, evil and corrupt.

So it says, you will utterly corrupt and turn aside from... So this is basically how it’s saying: Know that after my death you will utterly corrupt and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. That’s how it’s stated. That’s how it’s done. “You’re going to corrupt because you’re going to turn aside from what has been given to you. This is the way you’ve been. This is in your nature.” So it was a warning but he said you’re going to do it, and sure enough, the way of human nature is predictable.

The only reason that it isn’t always that way is because God has a plan. Even with the nations He worked with, even with Judah He let them go their way at times. They became corrupt in certain things they did. Then there were certain ones that God would raise up, that He would work with to bring them back out of that because God had a plan in those things, things that we learn from just like we’re going to in the next series. It’s because of God’s purpose and God’s will that they were able to be drawn away from that corruption and be drawn back to Him. Because He had a purpose in doing that at different times and then He would let them go and do their own thing, and then draw them back again, bring them to repentance. Awesome!

The only reason you’re here is because God brought you to repentance. Nothing was done because of your goodness. Nothing was done because of your righteousness. We are not. It’s because of God’s mercy, because of God’s plan. Only those that God is calling and working with are able to share in that. That’s what’s exciting to understand about what’s getting ready to happen in this world when God opens this up to the entirety of the world, to get rid of everything that’s not right.

...and turn aside from the way which I command you. And evil will fall on you in the latter day... When is that? It’s telling when finally it’s going to come to fruition, when finally the judgment is going to be given, and it’s first and foremost upon Israel, upon the scattered nations of Israel. That includes the United States. That includes New Zealand and Australia and Canada. That includes Western Europe. That includes those nations because that’s where they migrated to when they were taken captive. That evidence and those things are there, but people don’t want to see it. They don’t want to believe those things. They would far rather mock or make fun of it and yet even on a physical plane those things can be seen and understood if people really wanted to. But it’s not in man’s nature.

He says, and evil is going to fall upon you. This is prophetic about the times we live in now and that’s what we’re getting ready for. That’s what we’re preparing for, for a particular time when we recognize what is prophesied to come to pass. As was in the post, there will be a third world war. There will be a nuclear war. What man has developed as far as science is concerned in military use he will use. The rhetoric out there is just getting worse and worse. God has been blessing us to prepare here and spiritually, but mentally for those things that are coming. They’re not pleasant.

The rhetoric that’s taking place out there now with China and Russia is in high gear, some of the things they’re saying. And candidly, it shouldn’t be that hard to see how their minds are such that they’re not going to take much more of this. They’re not going to take much more of what’s being thrown their way. I wish I had brought with me today a quote from Putin this past week because it was powerful and it was one where he was upset, where he was disgusted, where he was at a point where he’s making it very clear that he is basically fed up with what the United States has been doing to control other nations by monetary means, by embargoes, by all kinds of things that we do. The world is tired of that.

Europe is tired of that right now. I never thought I would see the day when Europe would begin to turn that way and begin to make comments that the United States is an enemy to them just as much as Russia and China are. Now, that’s profound for them to say such a thing. Especially I think of this being the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and you think, “What an incredible thing that though that took place as a ceremony the sentiment amongst the leaders primarily is not good toward this nation, especially this nation, and especially toward the leadership.” Because now there is a leader who is exceedingly strong in what he says and they don’t like that. They feel like they’ve been bullied enough in the past and now they just see that as being, in their minds, being greater. “We’re not paying enough to NATO.” Well, they haven’t been. Well, what are you going to do about it? Well?

It just kind of meddles in everything else. “You shouldn’t have your own army!” The EU now has their own army, see? The last, one of the last things to be accomplished prophetically. Now they have their own military, and really, NATO’s become obsolete to them. It really is. It’s kind of on the side and it’s kind of a security blanket, but they really don’t want it anymore and they definitely don’t want Turkey to be a part of it. At least they can see that and understand how much of a threat they are being a part of NATO; Turkey that’s making deals with Russia, supposedly a part with NATO. I mean, how insane is such a thing?

Then the United States threatening Turkey for doing that, and the United States threatening India for wanting to buy missiles then from Russia, and all the things that are going on out there. There is a lot of sabre-rattling taking place. It’s just ramping up a lot right now. It’s been building up more and more.

Moses gave this and he said it’ll come to a head here “in the latter day.” ...because you will do evil in the sight of the Eternal, to provoke Him... Again, some of this language is kind of awkward but it’s written in terms that can be used as far as the understanding of carnal human beings. It’s just a matter of God’s judgment. God loves His creation and He has a matter of timing, but He’s still going to come to a time where He executes judgment. That’s a better phrase to be used if you understand what God is doing. He comes to a time because of how far things have gone, how evil things have become, that He finally comes to a point of doing that, executing judgment, and allows things to begin. He won’t allow these nations to do what is in their minds. It’s already in their minds. It’s already in the minds of Russia. It’s already in the minds of the Chinese. It’s already in the minds of India and Pakistan to war with each other. It’s already there and things are getting stirred up a lot more. It’s already in the minds of the Chinese and those in Taiwan and the battle that’s taking place there up here. It’s coming to a war. As soon as one starts it starts everywhere, it’s just it can’t help it. So we live in those times.

People don’t like that. Well, that’s life. We’re going to have a much greater life on the other side of this and the only way to get there is to go through this. Because mankind has to be humbled and mankind has to be shown that if God did not intervene and stop you from doing this you would destroy yourselves. We have the capacity with nuclear weapons to destroy ourselves many times over, many times—all living life on earth many times over because of what a small amount of what nuclear weapons can do. Nuclear winters where you can’t even see the sun.

You know what a volcano does sometimes? Every once in a while one spews up and you can’t even have air traffic in those regions. It cuts off all air traffic in those regions. There are times when it actually has an effect, like Mount St. Helen’s, had an effect on the weather in the United States for a period of time. That was a thin layer of stuff in the atmosphere. All the way down in Huston we had stuff on our car. Incredible what was taking place because of what’s thrown up in the atmosphere.

That’s nothing compared to a nuclear winter and the world shrugs their shoulders. “It’s so bad that it could never happen.” Well, you don’t have the mind of some of these people. Some of these people– leaders I’m talking about – when you’re dealing with hundreds of millions of people the solution is to cut down the population, even of your own people. We don’t think that way here. They do. They do. Human nature, when it comes down to it, can be quite evil. That’s why we’ve seen so many atrocities in the world, how mankind treats mankind.

That’s why there should be such outrage of what’s coming across the border down here. People in this country really don’t care, as a whole. There isn’t the outcry like there should be. Because to understand that there is trafficking taking place on a large scale with children and women and they know they’re being brought into this country for that purpose, how sick! How could any human mind set back to a second and allow something like that to exist? Would you use your military to stop that? In a split second! But they blink their eye at that part. It’s like, well, let’s focus on the children that are getting sick and the mothers that have this and that. That’s not the issue. To have people come in legally, and I don’t want to get into all this, but I’m just saying, when you know that there are large amounts of people, and more drugs than ever coming in, it boggles the mind. To think that’s not a great crisis? People argue over it. “It’s not a crisis.”

It has nothing to do with taking sides about anything; it’s just a reality of life of what’s taking place. It’s like this freeway right out here where we split, 75 and 71, but I think it’s primarily 75, it’s one of the main corridors for trafficking children and women, sometimes in semis. Human beings! They catch them out here. I saw a thing on TV the other day where a detective up in Toledo had been dealing with this most of his life. He’s expert in the field now because he’s had to deal with this trafficking because that’s one of the main corridors. They go through there up toward Canada and to other parts of the States here and all the way down then it’s coming up from the south. How can such a thing exist? But it does. You think, how sick is the human mind to allow things like that to go on?

How sick is the human  mind to allow any kind of drugs to come into this country that continue to come in that kill more, that kill double (easily) the number of people that are killed in automobile accidents every year. That’s around 40,000 a year. 80,000 and plus now? It seems to be an epidemic. It’s growing more. To see that kind of death? To see what happens when people become addicted? Then they become prisoner to something that they really can’t even quit. They can’t stop! They can’t! It’s a horrifying thing and yet we kind of wink an eye at it.

I’m sorry, but if you don’t think this world is evil and corrupt, if you don’t think that it’s time to shake things up? It’s getting shaken a little bit right now, but it’s not enough. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. People do not want to hear it. “Oh, it’s not that bad.” Oh, you don’t even know the half of it. Well, you know, smaller than that, but anyway.

So again, it will fall upon you in the latter days because you will do evil in the sight of the Eternal. The evil out there today because of technology is so much greater than it’s ever been, so much greater. Since the 1950’s, the 60’s, the 70’s things have gotten so much worse. It truly has.

So let’s return to the flow of the story back here in Joshua 1:10—Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, Prepare provisions for yourself, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Eternal your God is giving to you to possess. Over and over and over again it’s clearly the fulfilment of Leviticus 23, “When you come into the land which I am giving to you, which I promised to your fathers.” For anyone to say, for those in Judaism who should know better, to say that isn’t the year, “They ate of the old corn of the land that year; It was the following year that was the fulfillment of some of this.” Give me a break! I’m sorry, but it just is so disgusting.

Then chapter 2 goes on to tell the story of the spies who went into Jericho, if you remember the story of Rahab, and she protected them and helped them to escape. Then the children of Israel moved up to the Jordan and encamped there in preparation for passing on over. That’s what chapter 2 is about.

Then Joshua 3:1 it says, Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from the Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over. So it was that after three days the officers went through the camp and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Eternal your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place to follow after it.

Then verse 5 it says ...Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Eternal will do wonders among you. “Set yourselves apart before God.” There’s purpose in why some of these things are stated this way. ...for tomorrow, it says, the Eternal will do wonders among you.

Then verse 6, it says here, Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people. So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. And the Eternal said to Joshua, This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses I will be with you. So again, the Israelites are going to see something that it’s been forty years since they’ve seen. They have seen different things happen in the wilderness and then quickly forgot. But now God is going to show them something on a massive scale to reveal to them Moses has died, now I’m working through Joshua. That’s what this is about.

Verse 8—You shall command the priests who carry the ark of the covenant, saying, When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan. So Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come here, and hear the words of the Eternal your God. And Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. So all the different countries around there that they knew of He says, “I’m going to drive them out from before you.”

Behold, the ark of the covenant of the LORD of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now, therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe.  So again here, explicit instruction of things they were to follow.

And it shall come to pass as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Eternal, the LORD of all the earth, shall rest on the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap. In other words, piled up. In other words, like a dam. They’re just going to pile up.

Now, some witness this. It doesn’t talk about this, but there were those who witnessed this, people who lived along this region of this part of the world. Well, it goes on to tell that in the next few verses here. Let’s go on.

Verse 14—So it was... So they were just to walk up to the edge, just get into the edge of the water where the water was on the banks, step in the water and then God would do this. So it was that when the people set out from the camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as those who had carried the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who carry the ark dipped in the edge of the water... It says here (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest)...

Year after year after year after year. It’s telling you what time of year this was, during the Passover season in this area of the region of that area, because it varies throughout the area of Israel as well because of the topography. This is a very low area, and because of the climate, the sun, various things that happen, it’s one of the earliest for harvest. This was the time when the river was flooding. Year after year it would flood here and the banks would be overflowing. So to cross over it obviously was far more difficult. It’s the Jordan River. There were times, other times of the year when it goes way down, but this time of the year it’s flooding.

They came up to the edge and so this is the story. It says here, carried the ark and dipped their feet into the edge of the water that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, so they knew exactly where it was. It was witnessed. It was seen. So wherever Adam is along that particular area there (I don’t know where it is), but people speculate about different places. They’ve lost track of so many areas. But it records this. So it says here this is where they stood up as a heap. Just piled up. Just kept piling up. Different, a little bit, obviously than the Red Sea where God just separated both sides. Here it’s a river that’s flowing, it’s flooding, and God just stops one side of it and it becomes like a dam, a great wall, and it just builds up and builds up and builds up until this is accomplished here.

It says, very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Eternal stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.

So again, an awesome miracle again, similar to that of the Red Sea. God was revealing to them whom it was through whom He was working to lift up, to glorify Joshua so that they would truly grasp and comprehend this is with whom God is working. He performed this before their eyes. Even just to walk over on dry ground, because there is no river like this, especially when it’s on the banks, that’s not muddy as all get out, and here God says they went over on dry ground. So it wasn’t just a matter that the water was kept back, it was a matter that it was dry when they went across. It makes that statement to be understood.

Then Joshua 4, this continuing story of when they went into the promised land. Joshua 4:14—On that day the Eternal exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life. Then the Eternal spoke to Joshua, saying, Command the priests who carry the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan. Therefore, Joshua commanded the priests, saying, Come up from the Jordan. And it came to pass when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Eternal had come up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet touched on the dry ground (so it’s on the other side), that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as before. Again, some of these things are not translated that well.

Verse 19— Now the people came up from the Jordan on the—notice—they came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month... When is that? What happens on that day? Take the lamb; set aside a lamb. It’s when the Israelites were to pick out a lamb, set it aside, and we know that Passover is coming. Here is the period of time that they’re in. God makes it very clear the period of time that He brought them so that they’re going to be able to have a period of time here where they’re going to be able to go out and start harvesting and have a wave sheaf and be able to fulfill what God said, “When I bring you into the land that I promised to your fathers.” It’s so simple. I mean, it’s so simple as you’re listening to what I’m telling you.

To think that there are people, ministers as well, trained in God’s way of life, living God’s way of life, who in time went astray in these things and lost them and began to believe certain things of Judaism and some of their traditions rather than the truth that God gives and had given to them.

…now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.

Verse 20, so they’re in between the Jordan River. The Jordan River is here and then you go a little bit west and here you have Jericho, and so they’re camping out here before that in that particular region. It’s a little ways up there. It’s not right on the banks, obviously, there is quite a bit of region in there, a lot of farm land in through there, a lot of lush, rich farm land in through there because of, indeed, all the rain that they receive at that season of the year and so forth. So that’s why the Jordan is raging like it is.

Here the crops are growing on that side; it’s the time of harvest. Harvest is already in the process there. It goes on to tell some of the story here, verse 20—And those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. I didn’t read all the story here of what they had did with them and the like, but then they brought them, it says here, and set them up in Gilgal.

Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What are these stones?  then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land; for the Eternal your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Eternal your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Eternal that is mighty, that you may fear the Eternal your God forever. Well, sadly, people don’t. But for them they were to be reminded of this on a regular basis of what had taken place there because, again, God performed an incredible miracle just like He did when He led them out of Egypt.

Now Joshua 5. Now we come to a very important area of scripture that reveals when and how to always count Pentecost and it puts to rest arguments. I’m going through this because you don’t have to go through it. We had to at one point during our journey after the Apostasy, where some of these things had to be addressed because there were people who were becoming confused and deceived and kept away from what is true. Certain things had to be addressed and God brought them to light, what it was all about, and this is the story. So it puts to rest the arguments that so many have made regarding what God had clearly revealed in this account of the children of Israel coming into the promised land.

Joshua 5:10—Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even. So this is the period of time here; it’s looking back, past tense. I don’t want to get this confusing but using these words in past tense because it has a different meaning than if you’re looking forward because it’s showing here a clear pattern of time. So it’s saying here, Now, the children of Israel encamped...and kept the Passover on the fourteen day of the month at even on the plains of Jericho. So we know what that means and yet people have argued over this. “Well, see, it wasn’t until after the fourteenth. It wasn’t until at the end of the fourteenth and we go into the fifteenth because it says...” No, it makes it very clear here “at even on the plains of Jericho.”

So again, it had to be in the fourteenth day. It wasn’t in the fifteenth day because if you say that then you have to say, well, then it was in the fifteenth. Anyway. It shouldn’t be a difficult thing, but I marvel how people can twist and distort things and have arguments about things that are so stupid, so foolish, and yet they have. There have been a lot of people in God’s Church who were deceived by these things.

Verse 11—And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover... Now, this is really important. Now, some, the Old King James, I think, talks about the “old corn” of the land. It’s not even in Hebrew that way. It’s totally mistranslated because that’s a teaching of Judaism. Even the King James that was written so many centuries back here, when that was written, they took, because they didn’t know anything about the Old Testament, so they went to Judaism to find out what they knew, what was written there. What they were interested in was how to kind of rewrite the New Testament, or to write the New Testament. I’m just messing around there a little bit.

So anyway, this is what it’s saying: and they ate of the produce of the land on the day after he Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. Now, this makes it very clear that the first day of Unleavened Bread, that on the first day of Unleavened Bread they ate of the produce of the land. You say, “Well, how can you say that?” Well, again, confusion about this verse comes from Jewish tradition and the Old King James version when it says here, “and they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover,” in other words, the day after the Passover, “unleavened cakes and parched corn on the selfsame day.”

So again, this translation is grossly inaccurate, as I said, and it has everything to do with, and I’m not going to go through the whole thing, but it goes through it in quite a bit of detail in the article we have on the website Counting Pentecost. It’s entitled Counting Pentecost.

So again, and they did eat, that proper translation, the accurate translation, and they did eat the offering of the land on the day after the Passover, of unleavened cakes and roasted grain on the selfsame day.

Then the next verse reveals additional information here about the timing and the importance of all this because it’s all laid out, what was taking place here. So they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day (verse 10), and the fifteenth day, on the day after the Passover, they were able to eat of that which was of the land. They’d already started cutting some things out there, some of the harvest. As soon as they crossed over they started cutting some of these things. They already took the wave sheaf; they were waiting to wave it before God. This is a part of the process here because something else had been happening up to this moment in time. It’s important to understand the order of what God was doing.

Joshua 5:12—And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten... See, it says “the old corn of the land,” but it’s not, it’s of the grain of the land/of the produce of the land. That’s what the words are. ...neither had the children of Israel manna any more. It was all gone. They couldn’t go out and collect it anymore because now they could eat of the produce of the land. God had brought them in during a harvest season. We can’t imagine the excitement, especially those who had been in Egypt. Now, those who were born during that forty years, who are up to forty years of age, they had never eaten grain. They’d never eaten products made from grain. They’d never eaten real flour, real bread. They had manna and they baked it many different ways, but especially, because of all that they had heard, can you imagine, from their parents or grandparents and different ones who had lived through these things and they told them about the excitement they had of what it’s going to be like to have produce that we can eat of and things that grow, a land flowing with milk and honey? This was exciting to them as they went across. We really can’t grasp that. We really can’t grasp that after forty years no longer going out and picking the stuff off and the ability to have something along this scale where you can do it yourself and have things that you have long missed.

So it says here, and the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the grain, basically is what it’s talking about here. I’m going to read just the correct way because how it should be read and what the right translation of this is.

Verse 12—And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten of the produce of the land, or the offering of the land, because that’s what it is in Hebrew. The word has nothing to do with old grain or anything like that. So they purposely mistranslated the Hebrew words here, the Jews did first. The Jewish people mistranslated these on purpose because of their traditions and because of their ideas of what took place at this time. What a horrible thing! What I mean is how sick is that? And then Christianity basically copied those things of Judaism because they don’t understand the Old Testament and what God said throughout the Old Testament.

So anyway, there is a reason why this is so meticulously stated here about Passover and what they did the following day, the first day of Unleavened Bread, and then what happened later. And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten of the offering of the land. Well, what day was that? On the first day of the Feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Passover, the high day, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the next day then, it says, “and the manna ceased on this day.” They couldn’t go out and collect it anymore because, see, they couldn’t go out on the high day to collect it, so it’s obvious then they were eating already of the produce of the land. They couldn’t go out and collect it on a high day, on a Sabbath. God made that very clear to them, “You’re never to collect it,” and so it wasn’t there that day. They were already eating of it.

That’s why they were already eating of the produce of the land and that’s why it states it in this fashion. It doesn’t say it ceased on that particular day because God wouldn’t allow it to be out there on that day! He wouldn’t allow it to be in existence. The day that it had to cease was on the day that they would normally, in the order of things, go out to collect it. That next day was the day after the high day. That’s when it normally would have been there. It wasn’t. That’s why it says it this way. Beautiful. Accurate. Has great meaning to it when you see why God says what He did. He wants us to think about it, what that means, not twist and distort it and get it to say something else, but to accept the plain facts, the truth this is when they came in to receive the land that God had promised to them. Incredible!

You may not marvel at it, but I marvel that people who went through Ambassador College, people who were in the ministry for years and years and years, who know things in scripture far better than what I do as far as knowing things written in the book and where they are. That’s not what it’s all about. It’s knowing what it says in there, okay, being able to find it when you need it. Anyway, another story.

So again, this is also very important because it has to do with understanding then how to count on certain years when you really have no idea in scripture, except right here, how to count Pentecost on a specific year, when the Passover falls on a certain day and the first day of Unleavened Bread falls on a certain day. It’s important because it’s the only way to know how to count on specific years to Pentecost.

So if there is a period of time, the first day of the week, a Sabbath that falls in the midst of Unleavened Bread it’s not so hard to know when the wave sheaf is. When is that wave sheaf? During the days of Unleavened Bread. But if Passover is on a different day of the week and you have the Sabbath to say, well, now which Sabbath am I supposed to count from? The point is it comes down to the fact that the wave sheaf has to be in the days of Unleavened Bread, always.

So again, and the manna ceased on the day after. It was a Monday, the second day of Unleavened Bread. Okay? I think I’ve got this right. Let me follow through with this. Because they had eaten of the offering of the produce of the land which was on Sunday. So again, it ceased on a Monday because that would be the normal day because in this particular case here Sunday was the first day of Unleavened Bread. The Sabbath was Passover. The wave sheaf has to be in the days of Unleavened Bread. Okay? So it’s the matter of the wave sheaf. See, even repeating this is difficult.

It’s about the wave sheaf and when to offer the wave sheaf. It has to be in the days of Unleavened Bread or it has no meaning to it. So this is the account of the Sabbath being Passover, which it falls on different years on different days, but when it falls on a Sabbath the important time to know here that God has revealed here is the following day, which in this particular case here, again, is the Sunday. It’s on that Sunday, on that first day of the week that they had the wave sheaf offering. Then the following day on the Monday they no longer had manna in the land and this was when they were supposed to start their count. That’s what it talks about in Leviticus 23.

Whenever the wave sheaf was is actually when you begin the count to Pentecost. That’s why I made the comment here and gave the title The First Count for Pentecost. It’s a beautiful thing to understand that this is the example that God gives. Because you can’t go to any other scriptures to tell you what to do on that particular year; there’s nowhere except here. God gives by example of when He brought them into the promised land of what takes place on a year when Passover is on a weekly Sabbath. It’s beautiful.

Again, this does get a little complicated; you have to have a little chart sometimes just to write it all out just to get it there and even in reviewing it here I have to think about it. But it’s a beautiful thing when you see how God gives things and how meticulous He is about revealing things. The reality is unless someone accepts what He says, that this is when they came into the promised land, they’re not going to find the truth because they’re not going to be looking for it.

…neither did the children of Israel, again, have manna anymore, and they ate of the yield of the land of Canaan, and this is another amazing one. This is verse, right here in verse 12, the latter part of it, neither did the children of Israel have manna anymore but or instead, in other words, they ate the yield of the land of Canaan at/of (as the word is in Hebrew) that year. Think, how much plainer can you get? And yet Judaism and so many others in times here who have accepted what Judaism says accepts what is said, and they think, “Well, yeah, they ate of the old corn. It wasn’t of that year it was the old stuff.” I’m sorry, but the reason I’ve gone through all this is just to show you how foolish some things can be in people’s minds and people’s thinking sometimes and how much you have to be on guard.

Thankfully, you haven’t had to go through that. Thankfully, you haven’t had to address some of those kinds of things. Because there are many people who have gone before you, who have been in God’s Church thirty, forty, and fifty years plus who became confused by such things, by such teaching and went astray. That’s why you always have to be on guard, to be alert, to cry out to God for help, guidance, and direction, for help of His holy spirit to lead you because the only way you can ever see or know the truth, or even hold on to it is by God’s spirit. That’s why we have to cry out for it. This day of all days pictures that, a time when God poured out His holy spirit upon His people and the Church began in 31 AD. He wants us to grasp how important it is to ever draw closer to Him, to use the tool He’s made available to us.

I can’t help but think about the next series because everything boils down to the reality, either we seek God, desire His holy spirit, and recognize the need of it, because one can easily begin to drift, one can have things happen in their life, and when those things happen it’s the most dangerous time because then we can lose the simplicity, that which is plain and it become confusing to us and we begin to ask questions, “Well, I don’t understand that, and that seems confusing.” Why? If you obey God, you draw close to God and God gives you His holy spirit things are plain. When they are you know what you do? Say, “Oh yeah, sure. It’s clear. There is no other answer. This is clear. Beautiful.” Not just clear, but beautiful. That’s why I marvel sometimes of how things fit together so beautifully that God has given. Like hand in glove, it fits perfectly.

Leviticus 23:9. Let’s go back and just look at what it says there once again. We are so blessed to understand that this was the first wave sheaf offering during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It was the first time they could begin counting to a Pentecost observance because they had never kept Pentecost. No one in all the time, the centuries and centuries and centuries before them had ever kept a Pentecost until the children of Israel went into the promised land. Awesome! The first one ever observed because this was the first wave sheaf offering that we’ve been going through here in Joshua. Then they could begin to count.

That’s why I think it’s so beautiful, too, to recognize what it says here, that it’s about the wave sheaf, it’s about when the wave sheaf was offered up before God, that it always has to be on the first day of a week, Sunday. It always has to be at that period of time. When this happens, when Passover is on the Sabbath that has to be the period of time that is exactly like it happened here, that it’s waved up before God, and then you can begin counting those seven Sabbaths plus one that brings you to another Sunday. Count fifty. Pente-cost. Count fifty. So it’s beautiful here.

The only way you can know it is by obeying God and the only reason some are able to know what day it is, even in the world around us that some do, some who have been a part of our past, is because of the past, because though it wasn’t fully understood what these verses were about God blessed us to be able to know what the count was and how to do it—awesome—before we could see it, prove it, if you will.

Leviticus 23:9—And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest of it, then you shall bring a sheaf from the first fruit or the beginning of the harvest unto the priest. So we know that’s what they did. It doesn’t talk about all those things fully. Doesn’t have to. We know that’s what they did because that’s when they came into the land.

And he shall wave the sheaf before the Eternal, to be accepted for you. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. On a Sunday always, always, always. Pentecost always, always, always on a Sunday.

On that day when you wave the sheaf you shall offer a male lamb that’s of the first year, that’s without blemish, for a burnt offering to the Eternal. So again, clear instruction.

Verse 13 it goes on to talk about here about what they were to do and a grain offering that was to be given at a particular time. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Eternal for a sweet aroma. You read through things like this and these are all physical, but what are they for us? What’s pleasing to God? When you offer up a sacrifice through fire. That’s what it’s about. It’s about trial. It’s about hardship. Because that’s what we go through in life. That’s what God reveals throughout the New Testament. You’re going to go through trial. You’re going to have hardship. That’s a part of growth, that’s a part of a process whereby God can give you His spirit, work with His spirit to transform the way we think, the way we are. Those are the things that cause us to use our minds in a way that we don’t until we come to that point, because then you begin to ask questions that require answers and God can use that then to teach us, to mold and fashion things within us that otherwise we would never come to that point where we could grow from learning and understanding what He has molded and fashioned or prepared for us.

When we go through those things we’re not always excited. They can be very hard. They can be very discouraging if we’re not careful. But if you keep focused on God and cry out to God for help to teach you what it is that you can learn from it, what it is that can profit you because you know you’re in God’s hand He’ll reveal it to you in time – but not right away. I’ve known of times when I’ve gone through certain things and have prayed vehemently and I think about this area here at one time before I moved out, about certain conditions and certain things that were taking place. It wasn’t until, one time it was right at a year later, I looked back and thought, you know what? I lived through that and I didn’t realize God had answered that many times over.

Sometimes we are able to go through certain things, we look back and it dawns on us what we learn from it, what we gain from it that we otherwise wouldn’t have. It’s a beautiful thing, God molding and fashioning what’s in the mind, because what’s there is pretty stubborn. Takes a lot to get through. Candidly, only God can by the power of His holy spirit. That’s all that can change your mind. That’s all that can transform the mind and the way we think.

That’s why I love the word “repentance” in scripture because it means “to think differently.” Only God can help us to think differently.

It says here this is a sweet aroma to God; it’s pleasing to God. When He sees us go through these things and we want answers and we want to do it right and we’re crying out to Him for His holy spirit in order to deal with it properly, which this day pictures in large part, and we continue to use that day by day in our lives, that’s a very pleasing thing to God. Why? Because that’s why He’s designed everything the way He has – to mold and fashion us, to bring us into Elohim. It gets us closer to being what His purpose is for us anyway.

Think how excited people become about children before they’re born. It’s exciting, all stages of the development. The closer you get, the more exciting it becomes. Well, God many, many, many times over that as He works with His people, the love, the desire because our growth isn’t automatic like it is in the womb. Ours depends upon us and our choices and our relationship with God and our prayers. It depends on our choices. That’s why when these things happen it’s a sweet smelling aroma to God like incense being offered up, an offering made by fire.

...and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin, of a measurement. And you shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God – on the day of the wave sheaf. You see, that’s how you know what day that was as well, because it makes it very clear this is what takes place on that day that you can’t do until this wave sheaf has been offered. Then, and it says on that day they began to eat of the produce of the land so you know that there was a wave sheaf offering. Awesome!

And it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Plain, simple, beautiful picture. So now the Pentecost, now the count for Pentecost could begin.

Verse 15—And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Forty-nine days; seven complete Sabbaths. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. What a beautiful thing to always know it’s on a Sunday. Not only knowing how to count it, but when to count it. Because, you know, there were a slew of people who left. This hadn’t been revealed to Mr. Armstrong, and I can’t think of the year now, 1974, when the thing about Pentecost came out, that it was understood that it was on a Sunday and not a Monday, because there were still some things lingering there from Judaism. See, some things have been a matter of coming out of what is traditional in the world around us, some things have been a matter of still coming out of thing that are messed up in Judaism. Here was one of those things.

Mr. Armstrong, I think about that period of time, it was a year of study and different ones he had working on this because there had never been a time yet in God’s Church where something had to be addressed to this level, to this measure, that a change in what we’d believed before was going to be changed. This was the first. We’ve had a lot since later on. But it’s because of what happened then that we were able to do what we had to do later on, which we’ve done. Many of those truths since the 21 are because of that.

So you think what an incredible history, what an incredible story, to recognize what has taken place and what took place at that particular time there. Then he addressed it and it’s amazing the kind of people that were out there. There were those who became upset because he didn’t change it fast enough and they left. They didn’t want to wait a year. Well, they were tried and tested, “Do you know where God is working? Do you know how God is working? You make this decision, this choice, that you’re right and this is the way it’s going to be before I give it? Okay.” They went off believing other things. They became so confused, so distorted about other beliefs it isn’t even funny. I’m talking about a lot of people.

Then there was another group of people who weren’t going to change for anything. “We’ve always had a Monday. That’s the truth. That’s what I received when I came into the Church and I am not going to change.” There were two evangelists. Two that I can think of, I believe, went with that idea, and a massive number of people as far as the Church is concerned at that time went with them as well. But you know what, when everybody else in God’s Church heard it, it was like, “Oh yeah, it’s plain.” And you know what? It reveals those who had a relationship with God, who were striving to draw closer to God, who desired of His holy spirit, who wanted His holy spirit, who recognized there is a way that God is working, and they waited that year to hear what Mr. Armstrong would say in the Church. Then when it was given it was like, “Oh yeah, that’s so simple. That’s clear. It’s not hard at all. It’s always on a Sunday.”

So again, Seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Verse 16—Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Eternal. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. I love this verse here because we know what it means. We know the two wave loaves waved up before God. Just like the wave sheaf was waved back and forth as a ceremony when the high priest did it on a Sunday during the days of Unleavened Bread. They would wave that sheaf on a Sunday picturing Christ having been resurrected and received by God the Father for us, as it says very clearly in scripture. A part of a process that reveals something that happens then fifty days later.

Again, here Christ is referred to in scripture as the first of the firstfruits and then it talks about others, 144,000 specifically in Revelation, the book of Revelation who are called firstfruits. This day is about firstfruits. Those two wave loaves that are waved up before God – one loaf having to do with the period of time up before the Messiah came because they had faith and belief in the Messiah and what God said about a Messiah and they all believed what God said about His Kingdom, that He had a Kingdom. They didn’t understand what it was all about. They didn’t understand what the Messiah was fully about. They didn’t know that he had to come as a Lamb of God to die as our Passover, but they believed what God said about a Messiah and that God would establish His government on the earth. They believed those things.

Then finally when the Messiah did come and those who followed afterward, they lived by faith as well. Now they believed that a Messiah had come and that he was not just the Messiah that is going to come in the future but he was the Passover. Again, two periods of time—everything has such meaning to it—waved up before God. Then it talks about what’s going to happen in the end when you read about things in Revelation and so forth and it talks about the 144,000 and those who are going to come with Christ at his return. It makes it very clear in the last few chapters there of Revelation, the numbers that are going to come with him, the fact that he’s going to return.

He comes as the King of kings, as it says about in Revelation 19. That’s how he comes back. Not as a Lamb this time to be slaughtered, to be killed as our Passover, but this time as a King, as a Lion. That’s what it shows in scripture. He comes back as a Lion and there are reasons for that. So again, beautiful verses here.

It says, and it finishes verse 17 by simply saying about this particular day, You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour. They shall be baked with leaven. I love that verse, too, because we have leaven. What a beautiful thing to show that out of all, amongst all the harvest that was there, reserve a certain amount or take a certain amount of flour from amongst that harvest. It’s immaterial where it comes from, in that respect. Take it, bake these loaves, and then bring them to be offered up before God. Because there’s a lot of flour made out of any one harvest. You think of 6,000 years of humanity, how much has been there, and 144,000 isn’t very much. It truly isn’t.

That’s the example given there in two loaves of bread that are the government of God in God’s Kingdom that’s established when Christ returns. That’s why it ends the verse here by saying, They are the firstfruits to the Lord.

The Pentecost period, the ability to count to Pentecost, the ability to know what God is doing on the earth and that we are ever, ever so close to that being accomplished.

1. Chapter 1