The Day Of Atonement

If you’re a fan of SyFy or horror or fantasy, you’ve probably heard the name Azazel.

The X-Men comics and movies feature a mutant named Azazel.
In the Denzel Washington film Fallen, Azazel is a fallen angel that is able to possess people.
In the CW TV series Supernatural, Azazel, a demon, is the main antagonist in seasons one and two.
In the mini-series Fallen, Azazel appears in the second part.

What you might not know is that Azazel is in the Bible; these films and shows are knock-offs of the Word of God. They get the name from the Bible.

I thought we were studying the feasts of the Lord? We are. I’m talking about Azazel because he is especially associated with the Day of Atonement – the sixth calendar feast, and the second of the three fall feasts.

Let me give you a quick review of that feast, then return to Azazel.

Lev 23:26  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
Lev 23:27  “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.
Lev 23:28  And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God.
Lev 23:29  For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people.
Lev 23:30  And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.
Lev 23:31  You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
Lev 23:32  It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”

The precise rituals for the Day of Atonement are described in chapter sixteen of Leviticus. I’ll summarize them in a moment.

You might know the Day of Atonement by its other name, Yom Kippur. The term Yom Kippur is actually written in the plural in the Bible, Yom Ha-Kippurim. The rituals performed by the high priest on that day cleansed from a multitude of transgressions, iniquities, and sins.

Yom Kippur fell on the tenth day of the month Tishri. You might recall from our last study that the so-called Feast of Trumpets was the day that two witnesses determined the full moon had begun, and it was therefore the first day of Tishri. Once that announcement was made, the Jews had ten days to repent of their sins, leading up to Yom Kippur.

One commentator noted the following regarding the timing of Yom Kippur:

According to the Jewish sages, on the 6th of Sivan, seven weeks after the Exodus (i.e., exactly 49 days), Moses first ascended Sinai to receive the Law. Just forty days later, on the 17th of Tammuz, the tablets were broken. Moses then interceded for Israel for another forty days until he was called back up to Sinai on Elul 1 and was given the Second Tablets and returned to the camp on Tishri 10, which later was called Yom Kippur.
The root for the word “Kippur” is kafar, which probably derives from the word kofer, meaning “ransom.” This word is parallel to the word “redeem” (Psalm 49:7) and means “to atone by offering a substitute.”

Thus The “Day of Atonement” was Israel’s annual cleansing from sin by the offering of substitutes.

Specifically, The Day of Atonement ritual required a ram, a bull and two goats (Leviticus 16:3-5).

The ram was for a burnt offering, a general offering aimed at pleasing God.
The bull, taken from “the herd,” served as a sin offering for Aaron, the high priest, and his family. The purpose of the sin offering was purification – restoring an individual to ritual purity to allow that person to occupy sacred space, to be near God’s presence.
Two goats taken “from the congregation” were needed for a single sin offering (v5) for the people.

Yom Kippur was the only time when the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies and call upon the Name of YHWH to offer blood sacrifice for the sins of the people. This life-for-a-life principle is the foundation of the sacrificial system and marked the great day of intercession made by the High Priest on behalf of Israel.

One Yom Kippur ritual stands out, because it was so odd. Remember I said that there were two goats. The high priest would cast lots over the two goats, resulting in one being chosen for sacrifice “for the Lord.” The blood of that goat would purify the people.

The second goat was not sacrificed and was not “for the Lord.” It was for someone else.

Lev 16:8  Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.

This goat symbolically carried the sins away from the camp of Israel into the wilderness.

Lev 16:20  “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat.
Lev 16:21  Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.
Lev 16:22  The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

I read this in a Jewish encyclopedia:

The second goat had to be led away by a designated man to the designated location called “wilderness” (there was a distance of five sabbath’s days’ journey to that place). Different precautions were taken to make sure that the goat was led there and would never return. At equal intervals along the road, from the Mount of Olives, to the designated location, ten stations were set up. After the man and the goat reached the tenth station, the man would push the goat over a cliff, so that it would fell to its death.

This second goat is typically called the “scapegoat.” But here is where we can return to Azazel.

I’m going to quote Dr. Michael Heiser:

The word “Azazel” in the Hebrew text can be translated the goat that goes away. This is the justification for the common “scapegoat” translation (NIV, NASB, KJV). The scapegoat, so the translator has it, symbolically carries the sins of the people away from the camp of Israel into the wilderness.

However, “Azazel” could also be a proper name. In Leviticus 16:8 one goat is “for Yahweh” while the other goat is “for Azazel.” Since Yahweh is a proper name and the goats are described in the same way, Hebrew parallelism suggests Azazel is also a proper name, which is why more recent translations, sensitive to the literary character of the Hebrew text, read “Azazel” and not “scapegoat” (ESV, NRSV, NJPS).

Here is where it gets interesting. Azazel is the well-known name of a demon in the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient Jewish books. In fact, in one scroll Azazel is the leader of the angels that sinned in Genesis 6:1-4. The same description of him as that lead fallen angel appears in the book of First Enoch.

One source noted, “Azazel enjoys the distinction of being the most mysterious extrahuman character in sacred literature.”

Azazel is obviously the better translation, and was understood by the original Jewish audience to be a powerful demon. We try to downplay Azazel, because, quite frankly, we shy away from the supernatural. And we think these ancient people were superstitious, whereas we are scientific.

The goat for Azazel wasn’t a payment for ransom or redemption. It was to banish the sins of Israel outside the camp, to the wilderness.
The wilderness can be understood a type of the world ruled by Satan and his fallen angels. For example: It was in the wilderness that Satan exerted his authority by tempting Jesus.

We therefore see Israel, declared holy by the substitutionary sacrifice of the goat, while Israel’s sins are sent away from them, acknowledging a realm of evil ruled by a demon, and then into a pit.

It is our belief that the three fall feasts communicate the Second Coming of Jesus. We saw last week how Jesus, in Matthew 24, used a Jewish idiom that indicated He’d be returning on Tishri 1 as the Great Tribulation ended.

The Second Coming will be the Day of Atonement for the Jewish remnant when they “look upon Him whom they have pierced,” repent of their sins, and receive Him as their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10 and Romans 11:1-6, 25-36).

But there is something else, something we normally overlook because we think of the scapegoat rather than Azazel.

One of the first things that Jesus does upon His return to earth is bind the devil and incarcerate him in the bottomless pit for one thousand years. We see in this the fulfillment of the second goat ritual. Just as that goat is sent away, banished, so Satan is sent away, banished, for the duration of the Millennial Kingdom.

Something else weird, but that points to Azazel. Listen to this; it’s Leviticus 17:7. (In fact, navigate there).

Lev 17:7  They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.”
It seems that the Israelites, while in Egypt, had acquired the practice of offering sacrifices to demons. The particular words used indicate a “demon living in the desert” – like Azazel.

Now let me read that verse as it is translated in the Amplified Version:

Lev 17:7  So they shall no more offer their sacrifices to goatlike gods or demons or field spirits after which they have played the harlot. This shall be a statute forever to them throughout their generations.

It’s another confirmation that the Jews at the time of the Exodus, who came out of Egypt, were familiar with wilderness demons.

One final thought. I said that the wilderness can typify the world – the rule of Satan. In our age, Satan is called “the god of this world.”

In the New Testament, there is an episode in the church at Corinth in which the apostle Paul suggests a discipline for a believer living in sin. The man is fornicating with his father’s wife. Paul wanted the man removed from the fellowship. He said,

1Co 5:5  deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Inside the church, the man was enjoying spiritual protection. Outside, in the wilderness of the world, it was Satan’s territory.

We sometimes miss things the Bible is telling us because of what might be called our ‘modern sensibilities.’ If the Bible mentions a demon, but we can find some other way to translate his name – we go for that every time. Let’s instead read it as written, understanding the original audience and what they would have received from it.

Trumpets

We’ve been taking a look at the seven feasts of the Lord – the appointments He has made with mankind on His calendar. We’ve come to the first of the fall feasts, the Feast of Trumpets.

Trumpets might not be its best name… Hold that thought for a moment while I give a brief introduction and overview.

We are introduced to the Feast of Trumpets in Leviticus chapter twenty-three.

Lev 23:23  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:24  “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.
Lev 23:25  You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.’ ”

Beginning with this, the three fall feasts cover a 21-day period during the Jewish month of Tishri:

Tishri 1 is the Feast of Trumpets.
Tishri 10 is the Day of Atonement (v27).
Tishri 15 is the Feast of Tabernacles (v34).

Tishri came to be called Rosh Hashanah, which we often say is the Jewish New Year. That wasn’t the case in biblical times. Here is an overview by a Jewish commentator:

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, the day the Hebrew calendar begins. But that wasn’t always the case.
In fact, the ancient Hebrews probably had no concept of when the year started at all. Nor did they give the months names: the Torah merely enumerating them – “the first month,” “the seventh month.”

Nowadays we celebrate Rosh Hashanah on the first day of the fall month of Tishri. But in biblical times, that period was explicitly called “the seventh month.” During the First Temple period (8th to mid-6th century BC), the year began in the spring, on the first day of Nisan.

Also, when listing the holidays, the Bible always starts with the spring holiday of Passover, in the seventh month – Nisan.

None of the biblical texts about it say anything about Tishri beginning the new year. If anything, the fall feasts end the year, since they come at the end of the harvest cycles.

The Bible does not list any special practices for the holiday beyond making noise and sacrificing some animals. No specific reason is given for the practices, nor are we told what we are supposed to remember.

Trying to draw a conclusion from the lack of information, one commentator said,

It is possible that a deeper significance of the first of Tishri has been lost in time. Alternatively, it is possible that the day was marked by blowing trumpets and messengers going out to the countryside just to remind the Israelites that [Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles] would be coming… and they had that much time to come to Jerusalem with their tithes and sacrifices.

We can accurately say this: What we think we know about the Feast of Trumpets comes mostly from later Jewish practices – not from the Bible.

I really like the comment, “the day was marked by blowing trumpets and messengers going out to the countryside just to remind the Israelites that [Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles] would be coming.” I like it because of a very unique feature of Tishri. It was the only feast that began on the first day of the month.

One Jewish scholar said this:

The Hebrew calendar is based upon the lunar cycle and consists of twelve 30-day months; with the month officially beginning with the sighting of the first sliver of the new moon.

All Jewish holidays always fall on the full moon of the month – except one.  Tishri, also known as the Feast of Trumpets, is the only holiday that occurs on the first of the month.

Before science understood the cycles of the planets and the solar system, the Jews knew that there was a two-day window for the sighting of the new moon. The new month could not officially begin until two witnesses reported to the High Priest that they had seen the sliver of the new moon. 

Once the first two sightings were confirmed, the priests would sound the shofar to declare the start of Tishri.

At the beginning of our time together I suggested that the Feast of Trumpets might not be the best name for Tishri. Marvin Rosenthal writes,

This designation [i.e. feast of trumpets] was not applied to this feast until at least the second century AD., more than 1,500 years after the institution of the holiday. Additionally, this first feast of Tishri is never called “the Feast of Trumpets” in the Bible. The title Rosh Hashanah, which the Jews now call the first feast of Tishri, does not occur in Scripture in connection with this feast either.

It’s interesting to note that there are no examples in the Bible of the Jews keeping this feast. They undoubtedly did; but we have no information what they actually did.

It is here that we would ordinarily quote the Jewish historian, Josephus – but he said nothing about Tishri.

The first record of it is in Jewish writings from the second century AD.

At the beginning I suggested “Trumpets” might not be its best name. In some of the places in modern Bibles where you read the word “trumpets,” it is italicized – meaning it isn’t in the original text, but was added by the translators for clarity. But it’s really more of an interpretation than a translation.

Young’s Literal Translation, as well as footnotes in other translations, makes clear that the Hebrew term has something to do with a “shouting noise,” made with the mouth – not a trumpet.

Another commentator said,

[It is given] the traditional name “Feast of Trumpets” even though that designation does not occur in the Bible.
In fact, there is some question whether teruah means “trumpet blast” in this context, since it can also mean a “war-cry” (Joshua 6:5) or a “shout of joy” ( First Samuel 4:5).

There’s a lot of other scholarly language talk, but the gist of it is that trumpets are not the critical element; so to call Tishri the Feast of Trumpets is likely a misnomer that emphasizes the wrong aspect of it.

People needed to get ready for the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. By “get ready,” I mean they had to set out for the Temple. But they couldn’t know when those days would occur until the first day of the month of Tishri was announced – by shouting, and (maybe) with trumpets.

The Hebrew sources further claim that, since they were unsure when Tishri began, there was an idiomatic phrase that people would use around the time of the full moon. If they asked the priest, “When is Tishri,” he would respond, “No man knows the day or the hour.”

Sound familiar? Jesus quoted it. Asked about His coming, He said, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36).

That single statement has become synonymous with refuting folks who try to set a date for the rapture of the church.

I totally agree that we cannot set a date for the rapture. Jesus’ statement in Matthew, however, is not about the rapture.

In that verse, and in that chapter, Jesus is not talking about the rapture. He’s not even talking about the church.

He’s talking about the future Tribulation, the nation of Israel, and His Second Coming at its end, to establish His one-thousand year kingdom on the earth.

That’s one reason I believe that Jesus will return in His Second Coming on Tishri of whatever year it is at the time. I believe His use of the phrase, “No one knows the day or the hour,” would have been understood to be synonymous with Tishri.

I have another reason why I think this feast has nothing to do with the rapture, but everything to do with the Second Coming.

In studying the spring feasts, we noted that Jesus, in His first coming, fulfilled them all, to the very calendar day:

He died on Nisan 14, just as the Passover lambs were being slain in the Temple – fulfilling the Feast of Passover.
Jesus lay in the tomb, but His body did not decay – fulfilling the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Jesus rose on Nisan 17, a Sunday – fulfilling the Feast of First Fruits.
Fifty days later was the Feast of Pentecost – fulfilled by Jesus when the promise of the Father, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, was given.

Since Jesus fulfilled the four spring feasts in immediate calendar order, it’s most likely He will do the same regarding the three fall feasts. It’s called a Temporal Parallel.

The temporal parallel with the fall feasts is this (and I’m quoting):

Since the three fall feasts (the first feast of Tishri, Atonement, and Tabernacles) occur during the month of Tishri, we are better able to argue our case that, just as the four spring feasts follow the traditional Jewish temporal sequence, the three fall feasts will do the same… expect the three fall feasts to occur on Tishri 1, 10, and 15, just as God determined in Leviticus 23. The three fall feasts cover a 21-day period during the month of Tishri.

It doesn’t make sense that Tishri would be fulfilled by the rapture, then wait seven years for the Tribulation to end for the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles to be fulfilled.

A third reason why we can say that the rapture has nothing to do with Tishri is that it is presented in the Bible as being imminent. An imminent event can’t simultaneously be scheduled to happen on a particular date, only once each year.

We noted that there is an interval between the spring feasts and the fall feasts of four months during which the harvest was gathered in.

This long interval typifies the present dispensation in which the Gospel is going out into all the world, and Jesus is building His church, and during which Israel is scattered among the nations.

When the present dispensation has run its course, and the “fulness of the Gentiles” has been gathered in (Romans 11:25) along with the “remnant according to the election of grace” of Israel (Romans 11:5), Israel will be gathered back from the four quarters of the earth at the end of the Great Tribulation, at the Second Coming of Jesus – probably on Tishri, followed by the Day of Atonement, then Jesus tabernacling with mankind for one thousand years in the kingdom on earth.

Pentecost

We’re taking a quick look at each of the seven feasts on God’s prophetic calendar. The last of the spring feasts is Pentecost.

Lev 23:15  ‘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.
Lev 23:16  Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.
Lev 23:17  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. They are the firstfruits to the LORD.
Lev 23:18  And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the LORD.
Lev 23:19  Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering.
Lev 23:20  The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
Lev 23:21  And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
Lev 23:22  ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.’ ”

The English word “Pentecost” is a transliteration of the Greek word pentekostos, which means “fifty.” Fifty days after the Feast of First-Fruits, the Feast of Pentecost was observed. The space between the two Feasts, which included seven sabbaths, was called the Feast of Weeks. It began with the offering of the First-Fruits of the barley harvest, and ended with the ingathering of the wheat harvest. The first day was the Feast of the First-Fruits, the last day was the Feast of Pentecost. Only the first and last day were celebrated.

At the Feast of First-Fruits stalks of grain were to be offered and waved, but at the Feast of Pentecost the grain was to be ground and made into flour, from which two loaves were to be baked with leaven. The loaves were to be waved before the Lord.

A burnt offering of seven lambs without blemish of the first year, one young bullock, and two rams, was to be offered with the wave loaves, as was also meat and drink offerings for a sweet savor unto the Lord. These were to be followed by a sin offering of a kid of the goats, and two lambs of the first year for a peace offering.

The requirements for individual worship were recorded in Deuteronomy 16:9-12.

Deu 16:9  “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.
Deu 16:10  Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.
Deu 16:11  You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide.
Deu 16:12  And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

In the same way Jesus fulfilled the first three feasts, in His death, burial and resurrection (Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits), the Feast of Weeks is fulfilled in the empowering of the church to bring the harvest of the Gospel:

Jesus was our Passover Lamb for the redemption of humanity. His blood allowed death to pass-over our sins, since he took our sins upon Himself.
Jesus was in the grave, but he did not decay, fulfilling the picture of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Then Jesus rose on the Feast of Firstfruits, Himself being the Firstfruit of the resurrection.
Jesus instructed His followers to remain in Jerusalem until they receive the promise of the Father, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which occurred on the fiftieth day, Pentecost. With His empowering, the harvest proceeds.

The two loaves made from the same sheaves of wheat appear to symbolize believing Jews and believing Gentiles who have been incorporated into the same spiritual body, that is, the church. The fact that both loaves are leavened likely symbolizes the presence of sin from which believers will be progressively sanctified by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is “fulfilled” by Jesus in the sense that the church age is a harvest of wheat – the ingathering of believers – until the Lord returns for us.

I came across some things about the Day of Pentecost that I trust you will find as interesting as I did. One is its location. Where were the disciples when the Holy Spirit came upon them?

If you say, “In the Upper Room,” you may be right. But consider the following. Immediately after His ascension into Heaven, we read in Acts 1:12-13,

Act 1:12  Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey.
Act 1:13  And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James.

Note the upper room is “where they were staying.” It was likely the same Upper Room they had secured for their last Passover with Jesus.

The next verse says,

Act 1:14  These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

In the Gospel of Luke we read,

Luk 24:52  And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
Luk 24:53  and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God…

Luke omits the detail about where they were staying while pilgrims in Jerusalem, but he lets us know that they were daily in the Temple.

Unless they were staying in some upper room in the Temple, it might be that the Upper Room was where they were living, but they came to the Temple daily to praise God.

According to Acts 5:12, they met in a part of the Temple called Solomon’s Porch. Josephus describes Solomon’s Porch this way: “There was a porch without the temple, overlooking a deep valley, supported by walls of four hundred cubits, made of four square stone, very white; the length of each stone was twenty cubits, and the breadth six; the work of king Solomon, who first founded the whole temple” (Antiquities l. 20. c. 8. sect. 7).

It’s likely, then, that the pouring-out of the Spirit upon the believers happened in Solomon’s Porch. This explains how the Jewish pilgrims gathered in the Temple heard the disciples praising God in their native tongues, thinking they were intoxicated.

While we are on the subject, we normally say there were 120 gathered in the Upper Room. We get that exact number from the description of Peter standing up in the Upper Room to call for a vote about replacing Judas with Matthias. We are nowhere told that the 120 in that meeting were the ones later baptized with the Holy Spirit.

It may have been a smaller group… Or it may have been a larger group. We know, for example, that after His ascension Jesus appeared to 500 believers at one time. The apostle Paul said,

1Co 15:6  After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.

It’s therefore wrong to assume there were only 120 believers left on earth after Jesus ascended. And since we are not given a definite number on the Day of Pentecost, we just can’t say for sure it was 120 who were baptized with the Spirit.

I want to clear up one more misconception about what happened on the Day of Pentecost. Here is the description of the moment of impact (as it were):

Act 2:1  When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3  Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Act 2:5  And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.
Act 2:6  And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
Act 2:7  Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?
Act 2:8  And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?
Act 2:9  Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
Act 2:10  Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11  Cretans and Arabs – we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God!”

We are told “everyone heard them speak in their own language,” and then a partial list of those languages is given.

Now listen to the apostle Paul as he describes the supernatural gift of speaking in tongues:

1Co 14:2  For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.

A little later he adds,

1Co 14:13  Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.
1Co 14:14  For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

If you go back and read First Corinthians fourteen, you’ll see that throughout the point Paul makes is that the gift of tongues is unintelligible without a supernatural interpretation.

The supernatural gift of speaking in tongues is not a known foreign language. It is a “mystery” which requires another supernatural gift, interpretation, in order to be understood.

Interpretation is not translation. When you interpret speaking in tongues, it’s not a word-for-word translation. You are simply told or shown by the Holy Spirit what was said.

On the Day of Pentecost, the disciples did not receive the gift of tongues. They experienced a miracle of speaking known foreign languages.

Thus speaking in tongues is not the evidence that you have received the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues is indeed a gift for today; but it’s not a gift given to every believer.

The sending of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was a one-time event. It doesn’t get repeated.

Read the New Testament and you’ll see that the Spirit-filled, Spirit-led life is the norm for all believers. We receive the Spirit at conversion, and are to go on continually receiving Him. He’s compared to a torrent of water constantly coming into us to go through us to touch others.

We’re told to ask, seek, and knock for Him – believing by faith we’ve received Him. We are to go on being filled.

A recurring problem in the church is that having begun in the Spirit, we try to go forward in the flesh. We ignore, then lose His empowering.

When a Christian realizes he or she has quenched the Holy Spirit, and they seek Him, He may come upon them in great power. Thus it seems as though His empowering is a second experience after salvation.

But that isn’t the New Testament norm. He isn’t a second blessing unless you’ve quenched Him.

Go on asking, seeking, and knocking, and believe your Father is good, and will continually grant the Holy Spirit.

Fantastic Feasts: Unleavened Bread

Foods have festivals to celebrate them. Gilroy has its Garlic Festival. The Central Valley Pizza Festival is held in Lemoore.

There are some weird ones:

Bug Fest – This entomophagy event at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences hosts over 35,000 visitors each year where they can partake in Café Insecta, a pop-up restaurant where local chefs prepare insect delicacies like Quivering Wax Worm Quiche… and amazingly sell out. This year’s theme is stinkbugs.

Waikiki SpamJam – Hawaii is known for sand, surf, and SPAM. And though it has a tiny population, its people consume more SPAM than any other state. To celebrate the Hawaiian bond to the meat, they host a festival each year where local chefs prepare dishes like SPAM musabi and SPAM wontons.

One of the Lord’s annual festivals involves a non-food: Yeast.

The first mention of yeast in the Old Testament is in Exodus chapter twelve, in conjunction with the second of Israel’s annual feasts – the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Exo 12:15  Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
Exo 12:16  On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat – that only may be prepared by you.
Exo 12:17  So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.
Exo 12:18  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
Exo 12:19  For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.
Exo 12:20  You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”

In the Bible, yeast goes by the name “leaven.” Leaven is mentioned 22 times in the Old Testament and 17 times in the New Testament.

Yeast is a micro-organism that is part of the fungi family. They digest sugar and excrete carbon dioxide and alcohol as by-products.  Yeast cells multiply rapidly as long as there is enough sugar and the conditions are right – temperature and moisture.

When yeast is put in warm dough it begins to digest the sugars and multiply, excreting carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide bubbles are trapped in the dough.  The bread is puffed up with air pockets created by the yeast after it is baked allowing the bread to be fluffy and substantial rather than flat.  

Although we love the benefits of yeast, it is an agent of decay. Because it has a decaying affect on life, the Bible uses it as a metaphor for sin.

Here’s a New Testament use of the word, in First Corinthians chapter five:

1Co 5:6  … Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
1Co 5:7  Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
1Co 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The apostle Paul used leaven to describe the spread and growth of sin.

If you were here for our last study, we looked at the Feast of Passover. It commemorated the night that the destroyer of the first-born passed over those households that had applied the blood of the sacrificed lamb to their doorposts.

Passover was on the 14th of the Jewish month Nisan. We just read that the Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the day after the Passover, and continued for seven days. The lamb was slain on the 14th day at sunset, which ended the day. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began immediately after sunset, which was the beginning of the 15th day.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted 7 days, from Nisan 15 until Nisan 21. We’ll see next time that the third feast, Firstfruits, also occurred during these dates.   

As a reminder, The Hebrew word for “feasts” – moadim – literally means “appointed times.”
God has carefully planned and orchestrated the timing and sequence of each of the seven annual feasts to demonstrate the work of redemption through Jesus.

We saw how Jesus fulfilled the Passover. He was the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. He was crucified as our Substitute and sacrifice on the 14th of Nisan – just as the Passover lambs were being offered in the Temple.

Jesus also fulfills the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Leaven symbolizes sin and decay, the power of death. Jesus, God’s Lamb was killed and placed in the tomb on the twilight of Passover. Two things to note about Him:

First, He had led a pure, spotless life, unblemished by sin. We could say His life was unleavened. Search though you may, you find nothing sinful in Him.
Second, although in the tomb for parts of three days and three nights, His body would not see decay.  It was unleavened.

On the Day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter quoted Psalm 16:10 and applied it to Jesus, saying, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption [decay].”

The Feast of Unleavened Bread thereby pictures the burial of the sinless Son of God, Israel’s Messiah.

The day before  Passover was known as the Preparation Day, the day one prepared for the feasts Passover and Unleavened Bread.  The lamb had to be prepared, but the houses were also cleaned as families searched for leaven. This included washing walls, boiling cooking items, and washing clothes.

In six specific places the prohibition on yeast is emphasized during this feast (Exodus 12:14-20; 13:6-8; 23:15 34:18; Leviticus 23:6; Deuteronomy 16:3,8).

There was no tolerance for disobedience in regards to this feast and keeping the house and area free from leaven:

Deut 16:4 And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.

Exo 13:7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.

Besides being prophetic of the sinless Son of God being placed in the tomb without being subject to decay, there are a few other lessons for us from the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The picture of searching your house for yeast is a great analogy for us to search our lives for any hidden sin.  Israel was to take the yeast and rid it from their midst, in the same way we should rid our lives of sin.  

The Feast Unleavened Bread was to remind Israel of the speed of their Egyptian deliverance.  When the Lord passed over the land of Egypt, all the first born died, except for the house of Israel.  Pharaoh was outraged and demanded Israel leave Egypt at once; Israel did not have time to wait for the bread to rise before they baked it.

In his second letter, the apostle Peter exhorts believers to live the kind of lives that will “hasten” the return of Jesus. He meant lives set apart in service to the Lord; lives that are overcoming sin and the flesh.

We need to be a hasty people when it comes to serving.

The primary application of unleavened bread to us as believers in the church age is in the verses I quoted earlier, in First Corinthians:

1Co 5:6  … Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
1Co 5:7  Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
1Co 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I need to give you the context of this exhortation. Paul was dealing with sin in the church at Corinth. Specifically, there was a man, professing to be a believer, who was having sex with “his father’s wife.” The Corinthians were tolerating it – even celebrating it – as an example of how gracious they were.

Paul’s counsel was to put the man out of the church immediately – removing him from the spiritual protection of the church in hope that he would repent. He saw the situation as a potential danger to the whole church.

To show how dangerous their tolerance was, Paul said, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” He was warning the Corinthian believers that tolerating sin would work among them like leaven in dough. If left, it would spread through their ranks.

We see something similar as we track the tolerance of the church over the years. We sometimes call it being desensitized; we see or hear or are exposed to things in the world, and become desensitized to their sinfulness, ultimately accepting them.

We usually remain more moral than the world. But we, too, can find ourselves spiraling away from purity. We think if we’re better than the world, we’re OK.

Maybe an example will help. When I was growing up, it was a big deal for the Dick Van Dyke Show to portray Rob and Laura Petri, a happily married couple, in their bedroom – wearing full PJ’s and sleeping in separate beds, merely talking.

Today I read on social media that Christians can’t wait for Game of Thrones to start each new season. The Parent’s Guide on IMDB says of Game of Thrones,

Sex is a driving force of this series, and full nudity occurs quite frequently throughout each season, including extended instances of exposed breasts, buttocks, and genitals (both male and female). Viewers can expect to see and hear graphic sex scenes, many of which take place in a brothel, as well as several scenes and situations of incest, rape, and sexual violence (primarily towards females).

Are we desensitized? Or have we become leavened?

“Purge out the old leaven.” As was the custom of the Jews before the Passover to cleanse their homes from all leaven, so the church is to clean out immoral practices from its midst.

“That you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”

By virtue of being in Jesus Christ, we are seen by God as unleavened. Our practice may be to indulge leaven; but our position is that of being unleavened.

We need to bring our practice under the authority of our position and live as a “new lump.” We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us to give us power over sin – to purge it from our lives, keeping us unleavened.

“Let us therefore keep the feasts.” The feasts surrounding leaven were Passover, Unleavened Bread, and (we’ll see) Firstfruits.

Was Paul suggesting we celebrate them? No. There are a handful of exhortations in the New Testament that tells us we are under no obligation to observe the feasts. In the Book of Acts there is a church council to determine if Gentiles are under any obligation to keep the Law of Moses (which includes the feasts). The conclusion was, “No.”

Something else to consider. Once Israel was in the land, the feasts were to be observed in Jerusalem, at the Temple. That isn’t possible.

We “keep” the feasts not by celebrating them on the calendar annually, but by applying them to our walk daily.

We “keep” the feasts spiritually, by walking in their fulfillment.

Fantastic Feasts And Where We Find Them

Every day of the year has a designation. For example, today, Wednesday November 1st, is what?

All-Saints Day? Maybe; but since 1994, it is also World Vegan Day.

Some calendar days are a lot more significant than others, e.g., Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.

God gave Israel a calendar to follow. Their calendar is based on the phases of the moon; it is a lunar calendar. Each month in a lunar calendar begins with a new moon.

Certain days on the lunar calendar were designated as feast days. There are seven of them, starting with the first full moon of spring. The first three feasts fall in our March and April. The fourth one marked the summer harvest and occurs in our late May or early June. Even though it’s more towards summer, it is usually included with the spring feasts. The last three feasts happen in our September and October.

The four spring feasts are Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Weeks (called Pentecost).
The three fall feasts are Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles.

The seven Jewish feasts are found in Leviticus twenty-three.

Lev 23:1  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:2  “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.

The Hebrew word for “feast” is moedim. It means appointment. These appointments commemorate certain historic events in the nation of Israel. But there is something much deeper, too.

They communicated, and still communicate, future events:

Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits communicated and still communicate the first coming of Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior of the world, in His work of redeeming the human race.
Pentecost communicates the body of Jesus Christ being formed.
The three fall feasts communicate the future, especially the Second Coming of Jesus, and the Millennial Kingdom on the earth.

One commentator said, “the feasts which God gave to the nation of Israel are incredible in their truth about Jesus and for their prophetic revelation concerning God’s plan to redeem and retake this planet.”

We’ll see that Jesus, in His first coming, fulfilled exactly the first four spring feasts. We believe that in His Second Coming He will fulfill the remaining three fall feasts.

We’ll look briefly at all of the feasts; then, in subsequent weeks, at each one individually.

The first is Passover:

Leviticus 23:4 ‘These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times.
Leviticus 23:5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.

Passover was when the death angel passed-over every home that had the blood of a lamb on its doorpost in Egypt. The innocent lamb died in place of the firstborn and the Jews were delivered.

The lamb prefigured Jesus Who shed His blood on the Cross to die in our place that we might be delivered from sin. Jesus died on the Cross just at the time the Passover Lambs were being sacrificed in the Temple. He was, truly, “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.”

Next is the Feast of Unleavened Bread:

Leviticus 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
Leviticus 23:7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.
Leviticus 23:8 But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.’ ”

For seven days after the Passover the Jews ate only unleavened bread and they cleansed all the yeast from their homes. Leaven depicts sin in the Bible.

Jesus lived a sinless life; an unleavened life. He is described as “the Bread of Life.”
He was born in Bethlehem, which, in Hebrew, means, “House of Bread.” His time in the tomb fulfilled the symbolism of the unleavened bread.

Next on the calendar is the Feast of Firstfruits:

Leviticus 23:9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 23:10 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.
Leviticus 23:11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Leviticus 23:12 And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:13 Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin.
Leviticus 23:14 You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

The day after the sabbath that followed Passover, which would be a Sunday, is when Firstfruits was celebrated. It was a harvest celebration. It was a token – the first – of the greater harvest to come.

Jesus rose from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits.

His resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week, on Sunday, was the token of the greater harvest of souls to be raised after Him. He is the firstfruits of all those who are to follow in resurrection.

Next – The Feast of Pentecost:

Leviticus 23:15 ‘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.
Leviticus 23:16 Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:17 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. They are the firstfruits to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:18 And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:19 Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering.
Leviticus 23:20 The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest.
Leviticus 23:21 And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

Pentecost was also called the Feast of Weeks because it was celebrated seven weeks after Firstfruits. The word “Pentecost” means fiftieth.
In Acts chapter two this feast had its fulfillment as the church was born. The two loaves represent Jews and Gentiles being brought into one body, the church. There is leaven in these loaves because there is sin until the Lord completes His work in us.

There is a long interval between the spring and the fall feasts. This communicates that the Holy Spirit is gathering out the Church, while Israel is scattered among the nations.

That brings us to the final three feasts. They were all celebrated in the seventh calendar month, roughly our September.

The Feast of Trumpets was the first of the September feasts:

Leviticus 23:23 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 23:24 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.
Leviticus 23:25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’ ”
It was the first day of the seventh month and ushered in the new civil year. It’s also called Rosh Hashanah, meaning the head of the year.

This was a spiritual time for prayer and the confession of sin.

The Feast of Trumpets is the only one that occurs on the first day of the month. It happens on the “new moon.” That means nobody knows for sure the exact date. It had to be announced by two witnesses.  “Of that day or hour no man knows” is an expression referring to this phenomena.

It’s one reason I think that it is associated with the Second Coming. Jesus said of His Second Coming that no man knew the day or the hour – hinting that it will be on the Feast of Trumpets as the Tribulation is ending.

The Day of Atonement is the next fall feast:

Lev 23:26  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
Lev 23:27  “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.
Lev 23:28  And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God.
Lev 23:29  For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people.
Lev 23:30  And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.
Lev 23:31  You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
Lev 23:32  It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”

Since Jesus fulfilled all of the spring feasts in His first coming, we can expect Him to fulfill all of the fall feasts in His Second Coming. If He comes on the Feast of Trumpets, then the Day of Atonement will relate to His judging of the nations insofar as who will populate the Millennial Kingdom.

Which brings us to the final feast – Tabernacles:

Lev 23:33  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:34  “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD.
Lev 23:35  On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it.
Lev 23:36  For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.
Lev 23:37  ‘These are the feasts of the LORD which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day –
Lev 23:38  besides the Sabbaths of the LORD, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the LORD.
Lev 23:39  ‘Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest.
Lev 23:40  And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.
Lev 23:41  You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
Lev 23:42  You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths,
Lev 23:43  that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.’ ”

God Tabernacling with men? Sounds like the Millennial Kingdom – the one thousand year reign of Jesus on the earth.

That seems to be the way the apostle Peter understood Tabernacles. When Jesus was transfigured, and Moses and Elijah met with Him, Peter wanted to do what? Build three booths. He thought the Kingdom had come, and that it meant it was time to celebrate Tabernacles.

Let me answer one question right now, briefly. Do we need to keep the feasts?

Lev 23:44  So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.

No. The feasts were given to the nation of Israel, as part of their law, to be celebrated each year. They were not given to any other nation nor were they given to the Church.

In Galatians chapter four we read, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”

Christians, whether Jewish or Gentile, are not responsible to keep these feasts, but knowledge of them encourages our faith.