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PAGENTS THAT PROPHESY by Dr. Lawrence Duff Forbes
Thesis 1.
ISRAEL 'S BIBLICAL CONVOCATIONS WERE SYMBOLICAL AND TYPICAL OF SPIRITUAL VERITIES.
2.
THESE CONVOCATIONS MIGHT BE DIVINELY MODIFIED; BE DIVINELY SUSPENDED; BE HUMANLY DISTORTED.
3.
HOWEVER, THE SPIRITUAL VERITIES THEY PORTRAY REMAIN ETERNAL, UNCHANGED, INVALUABLE; AND EVEN HUMAN DISTORTIONS ARE DIVINELY OVERRULED TO REFLECT THOSE VERITIES.
Content 1. 2.
THE MEDIATED APPROACH THE MANIFEST ASCENSION
3. 4.
THE MINHAH ADMONISHES THE MARRIAGE OF THE ATTRIBUTES
5. 6.
THE MANDATORY AMNESTY MUTINEER AVOIDED
7. 8.
THE MINISTERING ACCESSORY THE MEDIUM OF ACCESS
9. 10.
MISUSES ABSOLVED THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEVEN
11. 12.
FEASTS THAT FORETELL THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE FESTIVALS
13. 14.
PASSOVER – THE DIFFERENT NIGHT THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD
15. 16.
EIGHT STEPS TO FULFILMENT SHAVUOT: THE FEAST OF WEEKS
17. 18.
THE ELOQUENT INTERVALS THE DAY OF BLOWING
19. 20.
THE DAY OF ATONEMENTS THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
21.
CONVERSATION AND CONFIDENCES
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The Mediated Approach DEAR FRIENDS, now let us spend some time together unearthing treasures from the Book of
Leviticus before we pass on to the next volume in the Torah of Moses. One of the great contemporary Jewish thinkers of the day, Dr. Abraham Heschel, has declared that "Biblical revelation took place not for the benefit of the prophets but for the sake of Israel and all men." I believe Dr. Heschel is absolutely right in his assessment. One other point. If God's revealed illumination is universal then it is also timeless in the basic principles it deposits. Leviticus is one of those Divine revelations characterized by such timelessness, for it came from heaven to reveal to Israel how to live as a national entity in holy fellowship with God. Not that Israel was to be a vessel self-containing God's disclosures, but rather that Israel was to be a channel equipped for the priceless service of mediating God's promised redemption to all the nations of the world. The nation of Israel was to be the national mediator between God and the nations even as Moses himself was the personal mediator between God and Israel. For reasons of which, I can assure you, I have full knowledge, this Divine principle of mediation is sometimes avoided or denied in modern circles, yet it is a principle well recognized and acknowledged in our ancient Jewish tradition. Indeed, our early writings quaintly declare that when Moses died God Himself wept, saying, "Who will rise up for Me against the evil doers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? I weep not for Moses' sake, but for the loss Israel suffered through his death. How often had they angered Me, but Moses prayed for them and appeased my wrath." (25:51 ) That is the end of this interesting and significant quotation. Another ancient sentiment declared that by the death of Moses the Israelites lost the intermediary between them and God (ps-Philo 19:3;19A) yet this did not imply a permanent loss because in Messianic times God will grant a new Torah which He will reveal through the Messiah (Alphabet R. Akiba, 27-28).
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Now, I have given you a peep into our ancient Jewish tradition and legendry that, passing beyond their vagaries, you may the better equipped to see and recognize the real and authoritative source from which they had their origin. When we return to the Holy Scriptures we discern that this principle and function of mediation expressed in national and individual terms was not, in itself, the terminus, but rather, that which pointed to the terminus – namely, the supreme mediation of the promised Messiah Himself of which person and ministry the entire economy of Moses was symbolic. With this appreciation in mind let us again plunge our spades into the rich soil of that portion of Leviticus dealing with the offerings and I am sure we will unearth treasure well worth the effort. The laws of the offerings are to be found in the first seven chapters of Leviticus. First, however, let us X-ray that English word "offering" and see what's inside it. In the first chapter of Leviticus God commands Moses in the following words:
2 Speak to the children of Israel and say unto them: when any man of you bring an offering unto the Eternal . . . (verse 2) Now the two basic words in this illuminating phrase are the Hebrew words and . Shall I let you into a secret? These words are brothers! They both have the same parent! You might not realize it because they are dressed differently. You see moves actively before our vision in the flowing verbal garments of the hiphil, future, 3rd person, singular, masculine. On the other hand, sits passively before us arrayed in the nounal vestments of masculine singularity. But ignore their garments and look right into their faces and immediately you see their likeness. Undoubtedly, they are brothers, for the parent of both is the Hebrew root draw near," "to approach."
which means "to
Now, we can step right out of what may have been obscurity, into the real blaze of illumination. The English phrase "bring an offering" really means "approach with an approacher." God is the "approachee," the One Who is the object of man's approach. Man is the "approachor," the one who performs the approaching, and the , the offering, is the "approacher," that which brings the "approachor," and the approachee" together and without which no approach would be
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possible. The
, the offering, is thus the "mediator" between God and man, that which brings
them together. Yet a further precious treasure is embedded in the parent from which these word-brothers come. The approach implicit in the root is an approach of the most intimate character – it isn't an interview, I assure you, it's an intimacy. (e.g. Numbers 16:9; Psalm 65:5, English tr. 65:4; Jeremiah 30:21) Even in Modern Hebrew today the word is employed to describe the innermost and most intimate part of the human body; likewise, we retain the same idea of intimate closeness in the Hebrew word which means a near relative or kinsman. With this invaluable background (and it is invaluable, isn't it?) supplied by the Hebrew words themselves, we can approach into a deeper understanding of the revelations of God, and we can expect to find in the offerings a symbolic picturization of that Mediator-Messiah Who brings in a New Torah of which our ancient Jewish tradition so imperfectly speaks. To begin with, I attach significance to the fact that these offerings fall into five major categories. I feel I have discovered that in Scripture that the number five is the number symbolic of Divine grace. These five categories are worth noting. They are: The (or , Deuteronomy 33:10) or Burnt-Offering; The or Meal-Offering; The or Peace-Offering; The or Sin-Offering;
The or Trespass or Guilt-Offering. Of great spiritual significance is the fact that the first three of these (offerings) were VOLUNTARY in character, whilst the last two were COMPULSORY. The Burnt-Offering, the Meal-Offering and the Peace-Offering were not required unless they flowed from the offeror's own voluntary inclinations and motives. Not so the Sin-Offering and the Guilt-Offering – these were obligatory. The offeror had no choice in the matter if he wished to escape Divine retribution. Is it any wonder, then, that the voluntary offerings are described as to God – "a sweet savour" unto the Eternal, whereas the compulsory ones bear no such description. How well we human beings understand this attitude, don't we? How many times have we ourselves expressed it in such words as – "Well, if you don't want to do it, I'm sure I don't want you to." Or,
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again, have we not we heard and appreciated the truth of the dictum that one volunteer is worth ten conscripts. The soul's voluntary approach to God is a sweet savour to Him but to be dragged before Him in the chains of compulsion gives Him no pleasure. Well, now, what treasures have we unearthed in our sweeping survey of the offerings? 1. That the principle of MEDIATION between God and man is a fact and a necessity declared by Scripture and acknowledged likewise by our ancient Jewish tradition. 2. That the five classes of offerings disclose an area where human choice finds voluntary expression, but also an area where compulsion dominates. 3. The offerings were a Divinely-provided method of intimate approach to God which at the same time revealed Divine principles which can be summed up by the words – substitution, imputation, death. But not the death of the sinner; rather the death of the substitute. My friends, the entire testimony of Tenach points to a promised Messiah as that substitute.
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The Manifest Ascension MY DEAR FRIENDS, the Palestinian Amora, Isaac Nappaha, has declared that "a handful of flour
brought by a poor man voluntarily is more precious than two handfuls of incense brought by the High Priest" (Ecclesiastes R. to 4:6), by which sentiment he extols the fragrance, the preciousness, the sweet savour of a voluntary offering, a presentation flowing from the uncoerced inclinations of the offeror. This attitude of spontaneous presentation is appreciated, too, by the Eternal God of Israel, for He designates as a sweet savour to Him the three voluntary offerings known respectively as the BurntOffering, the Meal-Offering and the Peace-Offering. The first actual mention of a burnt-offering in Scri pture is found in the eighth chapter of Bereshit (Genesis) where the patriarch Noah, after the Great Deluge, voluntarily erects an altar and offers burnt offerings to the Eternal, of Whom it is then said that He "smelled the sweet savour." Truly, as Joanna Baillie would say, "A willing heart adds feathers to the heel" (De Montfort), and this spirit of willingness has been quaintly embodied in an imaginary conversation between Abraham and Isaac which Jewish legend has created in connection with the Divine command for Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt-offering, as recorded in the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. Jewish legend puts these words into Isaac's mouth: As the Eternal liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is nothing in my heart to cause me to deviate either to the right or to the left from the word that the Eternal hath spoken to me. . . . But I am joyful and cheerful of heart in this matter, and I say, 'Blessed is the Lord Who has this day chosen me to be a burnt offering before Him.' Elsewhere in legend God is imagined as saying to Isaac, "Thou art a perfect sacrifice, without a blemish, and as a burnt offering is made unfit if it is taken outside of the sanctuary, so thou wouldst be profaned if thou shouldest happen outside of the Holy Land." Feeling convinced of your interest in these ancient Jewish traditions, let me advance a third quotation, this time, in praise of the willingness of Messiah. Here it is: Said Messiah: 'Lord of the universe, I accept cheerfully all trials, if only all souls be saved, not only those living in my days, but also . . . those who have passed away from the days of Adam to the present time!" (Pesikta Rabbati, ch. 36, ed. Friedmann, 161 b)
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That last quotation is from the Pesikta Rabbati on Isaiah, chapter 61, verse 2, in which section of Scripture we read the very familiar words: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; Because the Eternal has anointed me To bring good tidings to the humble; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And opening of the eyes to them that are bound; To proclaim the year of the Lord's good pleasure, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all that mourn . . ." As you can see, our Jewish tradition has given – as I think, correctly – a Messianic connotation to the prophet's utterance. In Scripture, the Hebrew word generally rendered "burnt-offering" is , and I think you will be rather fascinated with its basic meaning. In the active voice it means "to ascend," "to go up." The sacrifice was consumed by fire and since flames, vapours and sparks fly upwards to the heavens, ascending visibly in the sight of the offeror, the offering is aptly named the offering."
, the "ascending-
You will read these word in the fourth verse of the first chapter of Leviticus:
4 "And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the
[the burnt or ascending offering] and it
shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him." Here, indeed, blaze forth those divine principles to which I have referred to in past messages. Let us note them anew; they are treasures too precious to overlook. Here is the doctrine of IDENTIFICATION. The offeror identifies himself with the sinless sacrifice by laying his hand upon it's head. Remember, this was one of the voluntary offerings, therefore the offeror was motivated, actuated, by FAITH in thus bring his to God and identifying himself with it.
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Here, too, is the doctrine of SUBSTITUTION. The sinless animal was substitute for the person identifying himself with it. This idea of substitution is firmly embedded in Tenach and also in our Jewish tradition. Again, here is the doctrine of IMPUTATION. The Divinely acceptable quality of sacrifice is Divinely imputed to the offeror who by faith identifies himself with it. There is also here the doctrine of DEATH. But, as I remarked in my last message, not the death of the offeror but the death of the substitute. So far as the people of Israel as a nation entity is concerned we find the word
first used at
Exodus, chapter 24, verse 4, where Moses built an altar under Mount Sinai and also twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. There Moses, and here I quote the Scripture: ". . . sent the young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the Eternal. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he dashed against the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the hearing of the people; and they said: 'all that the Eternal hath spoken will we do, and obey.' And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said: 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Eternal hath made with you in agreement with all these words.' (Exodus 24:5-8) This national transaction was, of course, prior to the institution of the Aaronic priesthood. Already we have seen what we may call the general outline of redemption in the Torah, particularly Genesis 3:15 where the Person Whom we have called the Seed of the Woman is seen suffering, yet victorious. Our Jewish tradition recognizes this Pro-Evangel as applying to the Messiah. In the other two sections of Tenach this revelation is carried still further forward and we see Messiah, not only as Sufferer and Conqueror, but also as our substitute. Our ancient Jewish fathers widely and clearly teach that the Substitute typified by Israel's sacrificial system was none other than the Messiah. The culminating prophecy of the suffering of the Messiah is, of course, found in that section of Tenach beginning at Isaiah, chapter 52, verse 13 and running through chapter 53. It is exceedingly impressive to observe that, as the whole twelve tribes of Israel were represented in the twelve pillars which Moses erected beneath Mount Sinai, so, in this rich section of Isaiah's
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prophecy, it has been recognized that there are no less than twelve references to Messiah's vicarious suffering as the Substitute Supreme for Israel. It seems that if the Eternal God of Israel wishes to assure His people that Redemption's loving arms are wide enough to enfold all twelve tribes of Israel in their fond and reconciling embrace, and to draw us all to the bosom of a pardoning loving God in righteous restoration of blessed fellowship once forfeited. One final feature regarding – the burnt-offering. The animal to be offered was always to be a male and it was to be totally be consumed by fire, a feature portraying perfect presentation of the offeror of himself – body, soul and spirit – as a triune entity of submission to the accepted and acceptable Will of God. We have already seen this spirit of glad, submissive, willingness attributed by our Jewish tradition to the Messiah Who yields Himself as our Substitute to God. May we who learn these Divine principles be equally willing to embrace them. So shall we experience in our souls the bliss of the knowledge of IDENTIFICATION with Messiah by which He, in SUBSTITUTION, qualifies us to receive by Divine IMPUTATION His acceptable righteousness wrought out for us by His atoning DEATH which He executed voluntarily; catching up into Himself all the eloquent types and shadows of the Levitical economy and giving them precious substance in time, in history, in eternity, and – best of all – in the secure soul-assurance of all of Israel's precious sons whose faith reaches out in grateful appropriation of God's greatest gift – eternal life through the Messiah of Israel!
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The Minhah Admonishes MY DEAR FRIENDS, apart from a professional chef or, perhaps, an unfortunate male who has to do
his own cooking, have you ever know a really deep, intensive, and general masculine interest in cookery recipes? For instance – to make myself clear – have you ever entered the homes of your male friends and found their personal library shelves just loaded with cookery books, the contents of which they avidly devour at every leisure moment? Could you imagine a literary society, for instance, calling its members together to spend an entertaining and enlightening evening in discussion of the recipes of Gertrude Gourmet or that knight of the captivating cuisine, Sir Loin O'Boeuf? Why, of course not! As literary products there is no interest whatever either in such books or in their subject matter. Not the printed contents, but the prepared concoction, stirs the interest and stimulates the appetite, and innumerable waistlines press forward their abundant testimony to this obvious conclusion. For that matter, I am persuaded that feminine interest in the culinary art flows, not from regarding recipes as literary gems, but, as with the male, association with such volumes is purely utilitarian. Indeed, mischievously misapplying the poet Byron's line, we could give an affirmative answer to his query: Is the spot marked by no colossal bust? But, my friends – and listen carefully – suppose there existed a type of cookery-book in which the ingredients of each recipe possessed a fascinating esoteric or symbolical connotation which gave to each finished product, each completed recipe, the dual function of being a message to the mind as well as a boon to the body. Imagine for a moment, the possibility of such a volume! Recipes robed in romance. Love lurking in ladles. Ecstasy encased in eclairs. Melody in mushrooms. Rhapsody in rhubarb. Poetry in peanuts. Raillery romping in rump steak. See what I mean? Under such circumstances our recipes would acquire a new dimension. They would be impregnated with a new interest. Never again could we view with nonchalance a recommended recipe. Mixtures would now magnetize!
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Imagine the interest of the entire family when the wife exclaims – "Look at the new recipe for pumpkin pie Mrs. Suavesmear has sent me." Hitherto, the family interest would vest in the pie, not the prescription. Now, however, the prescription outpoints the pie. Surely, the introduction of the esoteric would revolutionize recipes, wouldn't it? Ingredients would no be no longer innocuous; even measurements might become machinations. Of course, the idea is not new. In America, for instance, the word "honey" does possess this dual facility of normal literalness plus the added symbolism of natural human sweetness of disposition and consequent desirability. Now, my friends, it is time to assure you that I have invited your entry into this flight of fancy in order that I may use it as an elevator to lift us from the ground floor of the admittedly ridiculous to the upper levels of the sublime, for "honey" is mentioned in Vayikra, Leviticus, chapter 2, where recipes will also be found; and, when I remind you that these Biblical recipes really do contain an esoteric, a symbolical connotation of intense interest and immense spiritual value, I hope these sections of Scripture, otherwise neglected because of the valid considerations I have already noted, will now be elevated into the orbit of interest they certainly deserve. Let us explore this interesting feature for a moment. You will find that the second chapter in Leviticus in Torah begins with these interesting words: . . . 1 "And when a soul brings a to the Eternal . . ." That little Hebrew word
is translated into English by the words "meal-offering."
Occasionally it is translated "meat-offering" but the word "meat," where so employed in the English Bible, is used in the old style of speaking, meaning "food," not "flesh." The meal-offering, or
, the recipe for which is found in Vayikra, Leviticus, chapter two, and
again in Leviticus, chapter six, was composed of fine flour, seasoned with salt, and mixed with oil and frankincense, but without leaven. A portion of it, including all the frankincense, was to be burnt upon the altar as a "memorial"; but the remainder was for the High Priest and his sons; but where such meat or meal-offerings were offered by the priests themselves they were to be wholly burnt. Such is the recipe itself. Now let us glance at some of the fascinating symbolism of the recipe.
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First, we have FINE FLOUR, the Hebrew word for which is
,
which comes from a root
meaning "to peel," "to scale off," hence "fine flour." It is significant that we first encounter the word in Scripture at Bereshit, Genesis, chapter 18, where our father Abraham entertains Deity by the terebinths of Mamre. The fine flour is symbolic of that which has died but has risen to life again in a refined, multiplied, and useful texture; for the single whole grain abides alone until it is buried in the earth, when it grows, multiplies and, when treated at the mill, provides sustenance for those who partake of it. OIL – in Hebrew, – denotes richness; when applied to the soil as in Bereshit, Genesis, chapter 27, it denotes fertility. However, the sense in which we see the word is best conveyed by its first use in nounal form in Genesis 28:18 where we read that our father "Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone which he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it." Jacob had been visited by the Eternal God and the oil was used as a sacred anointing in memorial of this awe-inspiring incident in the patriarch's life. Oil, thus becomes a symbol of the Divine Presence, the , the Holy Spirit in all His richness. The FRANKINCENSE – in Hebrew, to God born of devotion and worship. No wonder the
– symbolizes he fragrance of a voluntary presentation
offering is described as a sweet savour unto the Eternal; and no wonder that
leaven and honey are prohibited, whilst salt is enjoined. LEAVEN – in Hebrew, or – is consistently throughout the Scriptures of both Tenach and our Jewish New Covenant, popularly known as New Testament, a symbol of corruption and is therefore the opposite of SALT which, as you know, is a symbol of preservation. And HONEY, ? This is the symbol of natural sweetness as contrasted with true spiritual quality. The root is supposed to signify that which is made soft by kneading and is applied not only to honey of bees but honey of grapes. Its first Scripture use is also enlightening. You will find it in Genesis 43:11 where Jacob includes it in his to Joseph in Egypt. In this instance it is less an "offering" – I am afraid – but rather bears the characteristics of a bribe! We may be able to bribe men, but we cannot buy God off. We cannot bribe God into accepting us, even with our natural sweetness. Like our father Abraham our righteousness must be that righteousness which is Divinely imputed to us by God through our faith apart from human works and merit. This important aspect is strongly suggested by the fact that the , the meal-offering, appears always to have been a subsidiary offering, needing the prior introduction of the sin-offering, and forming an appendage to the , the burnt-offering.
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Thus we must regard the meal-offering not as isolated but as an integral part of the three sweet savour offerings and in inevitable association with the remaining two – the sin and trespassofferings. What, then, is the sublime culmination and confluence of the symbolism of the ? I suggest that the fine flour points to a life utterly and completely dead to self but fruitfully alive unto God alone; the frankincense sets forth the devoted and loving willingness behind and actuating this life, this life completely devoid of every particle of leaven of corruption and evil, and free from the honey of divided or ulterior motive, but, rather, salted with the permanence of eternity. The eloquent evidence that such a the sign of God's anointing.
receives the Divine acceptance is the inclusion of the oil,
But who of us can make such an offering to God? Ah! my friends, that's the point. I believe that all these precious features gathered together find their intended – their Biblically intended – symbolic expression and climax in the sweet attitude of King Messiah and His saving act of redemption of Israel and all mankind; moreover, they point to the consequent efficacy of His eternal High Priestly intercessory and mediatorial ministry. Oh! my friends, what a recipe!
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The Marriage of the Attributes MY FRIENDS, surely Samuel Johnson 1709-1784, (English author) recognized the heavenly origin of
true friendship when he wrote of it in these far-horizoned words: Friendship, peculiar boon of heaven, The noble mind's delight and pride, To men and angels only given, To all the lower world denied. Friendship is the boon of heaven because it is the bairn of heaven; it romps free and joyous in the fenceless fields of trust; its food is truth, and the very air it breathes is peace. Serenity is its garment, and the – the daughter of a laugh – is dancing in its eyes. But if friendship on the human plane requires the warm and eager adjective to describe its peculiar preciousness, in what terms are we to describe human friendship with God? Deep and deathless, there is only one word big enough to hold its bounties, a word which, like the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, may have no outward form of beauty to commend it until – again like the Tabernacle in the Wilderness – we pass within its portals and explore the wealth and wonder of its interior. The word I choose thus to describe is the English word "perfect." To express this all-enfolding concept in the Hebrew tongue I should have to use the Hebrew root . Does that sound familiar to your ears? Do you not say – "Why, that's the Hebrew word for
'peace' "? Yes, is the Hebrew word for peace, but it is also employed to denote friendship, for the expression means "my friend." Didn't I say that peace is the very air that friendship breathes? But the basic idea of the word is "perfection." How beautifully Isaiah has described this blessed condition:
3 "The mind stayed on Thee Thou keepest in perfect peace; Because it trusteth in Thee." (Isaiah 26:3) Notice the repetition of the same word in the Hebrew – – translated into English by the two words "perfect peace." Surely these two are one; there is no real perfection without peace and no real peace without perfection.
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When I was in the Far East many years ago, I enjoyed the acquisition of a somewhat unusual novelty. It consisted of a small pellet of compressed paper which, when dropped into a bowl of water, gently opened out into the form of a gaily-coloured flower, beauteous to behold. I think of this now, for I have before me a pellet of paper on which these Hebrew words are written:
10 "Mercy and truth are met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other." (Psalm 85:11; English tr. 85:10) Will you watch, for a moment, as I drop this precious pellet of revelation from Psalm 85 into the welcoming waters of our cordial understanding? I assure it will unfold before our delighted eyes into a heaven-tinted flower of spiritual charm and fragrance. I call it the "Marriage of the Attributes." Whilst we now pour personality into the noble moulds of these sweet virtues that we may behold their marriage, may I guide the English-speaking mind into possession of a delightful phenomenon of Hebrew poetry known as "parallelism"? To those unacquainted with this feature it might be thought that Mercy, Truth, Righteousness, and Peace were four attributes claiming personification. Yet, no! Hebrew "parallelism" reveals but two, and endows them with a duel appelation; for the other name of Mercy is Righteousness and the poetic synonym of Truth is Peace. Not a duel wedding, but a duel nomenclature. Behold their marriage! They meet; they kiss; they are united. The is peace: gentle, feminine bride, who now rests her tranquil and contented head upon the strong and manly breast of her (Bridegroom) and the (Marriage) is perfect.
But grasp the fact that this sweet kiss of union can only be if mercy flows through Righteousness and Peace is pervaded by Truth. Unrighteous mercy is a false peace and such can never kiss in constancy. How well this spiritual verity is disclosed in the Divinely-inspired regulations for the , or Peace-Offering, recorded in chapter 3 and chapter 7 of Vayikra, better known in English as Leviticus.
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The
, Peace-Offering, was numbered among the VOLUNTARY sacrifices. After all,
there can be no compulsion in friendship and perfect peace can only be enjoyed in perfect freedom. Peace-Offerings were both public and private; the two lambs offered each year at (Pentecost) is an example of the public (Leviticus 23:19). Private peace-offerings were of a three-fold nature. Firstly, , sacrifices of thanksgiving (Leviticus 7:12), Secondly, , votive, in respect of a vow (Leviticus 7:16),
Thirdly, , having the nature of a willing donation (Leviticus 7:16). It is such a mistake to connect the idea of sacrifice with that of a priest. The in Scripture is not the exclusive prerogative of a priest as such; there at least thirty-seven passages of Scripture where this verb is used and which reveal that the offeror himself, priest or non-priest, could exercise the privilege of sacrifice. Usually it was the head of the family who both slew and presented the animal before the Sanctuary of the Eternal. Let me expose to you the bliss-bathed symbolism in this ancient Israelitish ceremony. The verb basically means "to slaughter" and again basically, to slaughter for food. The fat was burned upon the altar, the breast was waved before the Eternal as being His portion in the feast, yet it was returned, as from the Lord, to His priests to be eaten by them. The right shoulder (or, perhaps more correctly, the right leg) regarded as a heave-offering () in Rabbinical understanding was a gift from Israel to the priests. Thus the priests, in the capacity of mediators, had a portion from the Eternal and a portion from the people. Then the rest of the flesh was eaten before the Eternal by those bringing the offering. It is now obvious that the whole ritual is alight and alive with its basic spiritual character. It is a feast! It is a feast of friendship; a feast of perfect peace between God and man. But, my friends, let us be careful to note that it is the right kind of peace, a peace flowing through God's revealed truth and displaying His mercy through righteousness. We see this in the following symbolism. First, it was a sacrifice, needing the imposition of hands, the confession of sin, and the sprinkling of sacrificial blood. The offeror pressed his hands upon the head of the offering and then slew it. Here is the ancient Hebrew dual doctrine of the offeror's identification with the sacrifice, and the substitution of the sacrifice for the offeror.
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The sin question having been settled between God and man by the blood of vicarious atonement we now behold a scene of unsurpassable satisfaction. The gracious God of Israel, Himself the Eternal Host of all mankind, displays His love and friendship by becoming, in the Peace-Offering, Himself the Guest of His people at this sacrificial feast. Observe, too, how the feast is share by God, Man, and Mediator. Peace! Redemption's priceless purchase! One closing thought of exquisite tenderness. The sacrifices normally demanded perfect animals. But here, in the Peace-Offering, where God is our Guest, not our Host, He grants a sweet exception. In the case of a , a voluntary Peace-Offering, a bullock or a lamb being or and thus defective would, nevertheless, be acceptable to the Eternal. It is in ways as beautiful as this that our Divinely-inspired Jewish Scriptures reveal the glorious character of God, the quality of His love to us, and the manner of His spiritual redemption of us. The Divine love recognizes our human frailty and imperfection and the Divine mercy, flowing in righteousness through the Divine Messiah's redemption, makes the kiss of righteousness and peace between the Holy God and sinful man gloriously possible.
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The Mandatory Amnesty MY DEAR FRIENDS, superficial thinking might lead one to the conclusion that Science and Poetry
would be the most unlikely teammates. Does Science ever burst into Poetry? Does Poetry ever expound the intricacies of Science? Yet it has been said that "Science sees signs; Poetry the thing signified." Let me repeat that observation for you in case it slipped by too quickly – "Science sees signs; Poetry the thing signified." (J.C. & A.W., Hare, Guesses at Truth) Now, I am personally persuaded that the individuals responsible for the comment I have just quoted to you do not wish to imply that that Science is totally blind to the thing signified; nor, indeed, that Poetry is completely oblivious to the symbol itself; but, rather, that the prime business of Science is the phenomenon; the rich privilege of Poetry, the interpretation of the phenomenon. Nevertheless, there is a peril to both Science and to Poetry if either ignores totally the realm of the other. It is hard to say which error possesses the greater detriment; but, at least, the peril of allowing the symbol to become substitute for the thing symbolized has been noted by the great scientist, Einstein, when he warns – and here I quote him: Most mistakes in philosophy and logic occur because the human mind is apt to take the symbol for the reality. (Cosmic Religion, 1931, p. 101) In our previous consideration of the VOLUNTARY offerings set forth in the opening chapters of Vayikra, that is, Leviticus, I feel we have avoided this peril. Indeed, we have not rejected either symbol or signification but have enjoyed the aptness of the former and I think we have revelled in the richness of the latter. We will find both symbol and signification equally impressive as we now turn from the three VOLUNTARY offerings to the two COMPULSORY ones. These latter – the compulsory offerings – are known respectively as the or Sin-Offering, and the , the Trespass or GuiltOffering. In my previous messages on these Levitical offerings of Israel – and please let me speak frankly here! – I have hesitated to bring before you very much detail lest it should be regarded as unnecessary by any of my gracious listeners who may not have yet become specialists in the collection of the rarer gems to be found within our Jewish Holy Scriptures; however, I have been quite mistaken on this point. I have been really delighted and also greatly encouraged by your keen interest in these very details. Therefore, as far as this particular message is concerned anyway, here
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is a spiritual diet of detail for the specialist; and I would not be a bit surprised if, when we are through with this message, ALL my listeners will lay claim to the qualification! And now for the delicate detail for the discerning! I imagine you will be interested to know that, whereas the other sacrifices can be traced back to the dawn of revelation in the Garden of Eden, the Sin-Offering and the Trespass-Offering were not introduced until the Levitical economy under Moses thousands of years later, and were thus intimately connected with the Revelation of the Torah (Law) on Mount Sinai. As we would expect, there were Sin-Offerings for individuals. If, for instance,
, the
anointed priest sinned, he brought a young bullock; if, the prince or ruler sinned, he brought a male goat. The gentile thoughtfulness of God is disclosed when we turn to individuals of the common people.
Where such were concerned, a choice was given them according to their circumstances: a female goat, a female lamb, two turtledoves or two young pigeons (one for a burnt-offering), or in extreme poverty, a quantity of fine flour. It is interesting to observe that our ancient Jewish Scriptures of the New Covenant reveal the humble circumstances of the Jewish virgin Miriam, for she constrained to offer the turtledoves or pigeons when she fulfilled the Law of Moses at the birth of the Messiah Yeshua (Luke 2:24). Now, a word regarding the animals employed in the Levitical offerings. Where an animal was concerned, the person offering the sacrifice brought it to the altar of sacrifice, the where he became symbolically identified with the animal by the laying of hands upon its head, the animal thus being accepted in substitution for the sacrificer. Being slain, the officiating priest took over. In certain cases this priest sprinkled the blood successively on each of the four horns of the , the altar of Burnt-Offering. In other cases he entered the Holy Place and, standing between the (the Candle-stick) and the (the Altar of Incense), he sprinkled the blood seven times towards , (the
Veil before the Most Holy Place). Seven, by the way, as we have I think previously discovered, was regarded as the symbolic number of the covenant. The rest of the blood of the animal was poured out downwards at the base of the
(the Altar of Burnt-Offering, which stood at the door of the tent of meeting).
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The fat, as symbolically representing that which was the choice and Divinely satisfying element in the sacrifice, was consumed on the Altar of Burnt-Offering and – at least where the common people were concerned – the vapour is described as a sweet savour unto the Eternal. With regard to the rest of the animal, if its blood had been taken into the Holy Place as I have already described, its residue was not to be eaten, but rather taken "outside the camp" to a "clean place" and there burnt with fire upon wood laid upon the ground. If the blood had not been taken into the Holy Place, the flesh was to be eaten by the officiating priests , in the court of the tent of meeting. My dear friends, admittedly there is minute detail here, but there is also magnificent symbolic instruction, and this seems to me to be the place to invite your attention to a most interesting and very eloquent piece of symbolism. In the VOLUNTARY Burnt-Offering, which was essentially an offering expressive of the devotion and adoration of the offeror, the entire sacrifice was wholly consumed upon the altar into a vapour that ascended heavenwards, and the whole sacrifice is described as a sweet savour unto the Eternal. But where the Sin-Offering is concerned, the blood was not dashed against the altar as with the Burnt-Offering, but poured downwards at the base of the altar. Moreover, oil and frankincense were omitted and only the fat of the Sin-Offering ascended as a sweet savour to God. My friends, there is some rich symbolism right here. Let me give it to you: One further point. Both the Sin-Offering and the Trespass-Offering were only applicable for sins and trespasses committed "through error" or "ignorance." For sins committed rebelliously or presumptuously no atonement was provided, only judgement remained.
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The disclosure that there was a Sin-Offering for , the whole congregation of Israel as such, brings to our notice the interesting feature that, in the eyes of the Eternal, there is such a thing as a national sin, a sin Divinely attributed to the entire aggregate of individuals as a collective entity making up the nation. The collective character of this kind of Sin-Offering was manifested by its being required that the elders of the congregation, in their official capacity as such, should identify the whole people with the sacrifice by each elder laying his hand upon the head of the offering, in this instance, by the way, a young bullock. Surely, this is detail with Divine design! Notice this national-congregational aspect just once again in the amazing words of our prophet
(Zechariah). I quote them – listen carefully: 10 "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me Whom they have pierced . . . " (Zechariah 12:10) Who is this Being possessed of such power that He is destined to move to repentance not only the multitudes of Israel but also the nation's leadership? For are not those spheres of nationality implicit in the terms "the house of David" and "the inhabitants of Jerusalem"? At least this powerfully persuasive Being can be identified by having , at some time, suffered the painful experience of having been "pierced"! Does our Jewish tradition express any opinion as to the identity of the Pierced One? Yes, it does; for the Talmud declares that the martyr thus thrust through is none other than the Messiah. The same Talmud also affirms in another connection – and here I quote – "The death of the righteous is an atonement." (Ammi. Eleazar. Moed Katan, 28a) My friends, methinks the Talmud is nearer the truth than it itself perhaps realizes, for I am personally convinced that the rich symbolism of our Levitical offerings forms part of a sublime total pointing Israel nationally and all Israelites individually to the Righteous One, Who is also the Pierced One, the Messiah of Israel, Whose vicarious substitutionary atonement absorb all symbols so scientifically set forth in our Holy Scriptures and Who in Himself so poetically satisfies all their significance.
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Mutineer Avoided MY FRIENDS, there are three letter of the Hebrew alphabet buried deep down beneath the rich soil of
signification from whose roots there sprouts, above the surface of meaning and into the light of our understanding, a tree of import the fruit of which is somewhat bitter to our taste. The three consonants are ,
, , and together they constitute the skin, the flesh, and the seed of
that very nasty word – GUILTY! Between the twin ejaculations "GUILTY" and "NOT GUILTY" the stretch a vast ocean of opposite emotions. Like the dark, purpling clouds of wreckful storm, the descending anguishes of fear and alarm eclipse the sunny landscape when the dread word, "GUILTY," sounds its soul-reverberating doom. But, like silver-wanded fairies dancing in the sun-soaked glade, "NOT GUILTY" straps wings upon our heels and bids us join the dance! Strange too, is it not, that the word "GUILTY" acts like a psychological push-button which, if pressed, immediately releases a defense-mechanism within us which instantly produces the familiar response – "Who? Me?" Of course, in some cases – indeed, possibly in many cases – the disavowal of guilt is understandable. The "Who? Me?" mechanism may be touched off by the astonished voice of an innocence sincerely felt. Oh! yes, it is possible to incur guilt without intending it., or knowing it, or even feeling it. For instance, by way of illustration, you might park your car in a prohibited area quite naturally you would feel no sense of guilt about it – well, until the law came on the scene and enlightened you! Then there would be marked change both in outlook and in hip-pocket! The fact of the mistake doesn't alter the fact of the offense. "Guilty" must be the legal decision, and the penalty usually follows in courts of human jurisprudence. Why am I telling you all this? In order that you may know, my friends, that with God there is a difference. He graciously allows weight to circumstances. His justice demands a forfeit and, in the case of the Trespass-Offering in our Levitical offerings, a restitution; but, these having been willingly performed, His grace bestows forgiveness. This welcome Divine attitude is revealed in the two offerings described in the early chapters of Vayikra, Leviticus, known respectively as the SinOffering and the Guilt-Offering, the former of which, I hope you will remember, I described in my last message to you. Whilst the Sin-Offering and the Trespass-Offering are closely related, nevertheless, there is a distinction between the two which it is not always possible to formulate with precision. Both were expiatory sacrifices for sin. The ideas of PROPITIATION and ATONEMENT were indelibly
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stamped upon each, yet the Sin-Offering seemed more especially to symbolize the acknowledgement of sinfulness as something inherent in mankind generally; whereas the TrespassOffering, being always presented for individual failure, seemed more to point to the specific personal expressions of that ghastly malady we call sin. EXPIATION through the sacrifice of a sinless life seems to be the dominant connotation of the SinOffering. (You will remember, won't you, that animals are sinless? I pointed this out to you in my previous messages.) The Trespass-Offering, on the other hand, seemed more to connote the idea of SATISFACTION for a wrong for which a special ransom was to be given. For an easy grasp of the distinction could we put it this way – that the Sin-Offering is in respect of sin, and the Trespass-Offering in respect of sins? I feel sure that some of you will ask me the difference between the terms "EXPIATION" and "PROPITIATION" so here let me anticipate your query by saying that in the Scripture itself I can detect no difference whatever. Theology, however, is obliged to separate the terms, and by the expression "expiation" to denote the relationship of the sacrifice to the SINNER, and by the expression "propitiation" to denote the effect of the sacrifice allaying the displeasure of the Godhead. I think that's rather well put, too. Now, can we step back into that prohibited parking area just for a moment? The Scripture word which would describe what happens is the Hebrew word and you'll find it, among other places of course, at Vayikra, that is Leviticus, chapter four, beginning at verse twenty-seven. Let me quote it – "And if any of the common people sin through ignorance, offering . . . and it shall be forgiven him."
. . .
then he shall bring his
So far so good. But don't let us leave that parking area for a moment. I want to show you something else about the Divine attitude under the Levitical Law. Suppose, instead of through error, that automobile had been deliberately and defiantly parked in that prohibited area in full knowledge of the legal prohibition, but in contemptuous regard of it. What then?
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Well, where law on the purely human plane is concerned, there would appear to be little or no difference whether our offence had been committed in ignorance or in insubordination. But where Law on the Divine plane is concerned, what is God's attitude to Insubordination? The Scripture uses one of those graphic expressions to describe the rebellious attitude. In Hebrew it is called , "with a high hand." Interesting, isn't it? We use this same figure of speech in English. Highhandedness. But the English meaning seems more to indicate an overbearing attitude, whereas the Hebrew connotation introduces more the performance of a rebellious action. How, then, does God view deliberate rebelliousness? We have seen that, where ignorance is concerned, there is Divine provision for it; but, where insubordination is concerned, it will come as a surprise to many to discover that there is neither Sin-Offering nor Guilt-Offering for it in the Mosaic Law. In my opinion this deepens our interest in the petition of the Psalmist recorded in Psalm 19. Let me give you the Hebrew words followed by a very close English translation.
12 13 "Who shall discern errors? From secrets cleanse me. Also from insolence restrain Thy servant that they may not rule me; and I shall be clean from the great rebellion." (Psalm 19:13,14; English tr. 19:12,13) Do you notice that the Psalmist indicates that a knowledge for offenses of inadvertence and offenses of which he is yet unaware there is a Divine provision; but, as Rabbi Dr. A. Cohen, M.A., Ph.D., D.H.L, so very aptly puts it – When the baser side of his nature prompts him to do what he knows is wrong, he begs God to restrain him. Yes, my friends, from inadvertence the Psalmist sought cleansing; but from presumptuous sins he sought only restraint. A word of caution and, on doubt, I think a word of comfort is necessary here. As I have already indicated, there were five classes of offerings, and it is the total symbolism of all five marshalled together that gives us the complete view of the Divine outlook, attitude and provision.
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Indeed, I will go a step further I believe there exists a Jewish writing which throws a flood of light upon the Levitical economy. I also believe this Jewish writing to be as much a product of Divine inspiration as the book of Vayikra, Leviticus, itself; indeed I regard it as integral part of our Godgiven Jewish Scriptures. I would like to introduce it to you, but before I do so, may we call to mind the words of Cicero – "The rabble estimate a few things according to their real value, most things according to their prejudices." (Oratio Pro Quinto Roscio Comoedo, X.29) Beloved friends, don't let us joint the rabble! If blinding prejudice springs up within us like some released jack-in-the-box, let the unbiased hand of willingness slam the lid on him. So shall our eyes be opened to behold wondrous things out of God's Law. (Psalm 119:18) The Jewish writing to which I refer is known in Hebrew as , and in English as the Epistle to the Hebrews. The great composer Schubert wrote a magnificent piece of grand and glorious music which, because uncompleted, is now known as "The Unfinished Symphony." My friends, I am fully persuaded that our magnificent and glorious Tenach – Old Testament – is an unfinished symphony of the Divine redemptive purpose and can have no intelligible completion until linked with and reunited with that equally God-given body of Jewish Scripture known popularly as the New testament, but to which I prefer to apply the title "New Covenant" because our Jewish prophet Jeremiah so refers to it in his 30th chapter. Within the pages of
,
the Epistle to the Hebrews, you will find this very
beautiful teaching which throws a flood of light upon the Levitical offerings. In my next message I shall quote from , so you will keep listening, won't you?
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The Ministering Accessory MY DEAR FRIENDS, there is a little stanza that I would like to repeat for your edification. Here it is:
Little puffs of powder; Little dabs of paint; Make my lady's features Look what they ain't. I regret that I am unable, for the moment, to disclose to you to which of the immortals we are indebted for this gem; however, it is not my present purpose to pay personal tribute to personal genius but, rather, to draw your attention to the poet's display of two admirable qualities, and their well-deserved reward. In this sweet mating of rhyme and rhapsody we behold, in the lyrical offspring I have just quoted, an amazing quality of insight which, although very penetrating, is combined with a spirit very kind and gentle. These are the qualities I present for your admiration and their due reward is an incontrovertible conclusion leaving the rhapsodist in firm possession of the fact, stripped of fantasy. That philologically unfrocked word "ain't" is the residual verity now revealed to us and it stands representative of blemish in more than grammar and points to facial discrepancies worthy the effort to conceal. But – and here's the point! – suppose the paint and powder had covered not blemish but beauty! What a sad loss that would be, and how worthy the effort to reveal, and not conceal, the charm beneath the covering. My dear friends, allow me now to make application of these alluring verities by quoting another immortal poet whose lines read as follows: Puffs of false tradition; Dabs of concepts quaint; Make our Jewish Scriptures Look what they ain't.
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Adopting both the kindly spirit and the penetrating insight of these renowned lyricists, let us discern the puffs and dabs of uninspired, unauthorized human traditions - where such exists – and break through to behold the Divinely-created beauty outshining from that little word – "PRIEST." Now "priest" is an English word, the accumulated "puffs" and "dabs" of which constitute the "ain't"; and we must remove its ideological accretions if we are to uncover the beauty embedded in our Divinely-inspired Hebrew Scriptures. The Hebrew word is
, a word so ancient that the contributory aid of the Arabic is required to
confirm its root-meaning as referring to "one who stands up for another to mediate his cause." Behind the whole idea of a priesthood – whether that priesthood be God-bestowed as in Scripture or man-invented as in mere religion – there lies the innate human consciousness of sin and its separating effect. Man is painfully conscious of the moral discrepancy between himself and God; he fears the Divine displeasure and craves for the intervention on his behalf of someone acceptable to God and in and through whom man, too, may find Divine acceptance. Here, then, we uncover the Biblical fundamental ideas of RECONCILIATION and MEDIATION man's need of which is lovingly recognized by God Himself Who made His own gracious provision from the very dawn of the ages; and nowhere is this provision more beautifully portrayed than in the symbolism and typology of the Levitical priesthood, where Reconciliation was graphically expressed by the typically atoning sacrifices, and Mediation was sweetly delineated by the typically intervening priesthood. This whole eloquent symbolical economy was bestowed, gift-wise, upon the nation of Israel by the God of the Universe and recorded for us in these superlative words of the Hebrew Bible; and here I quote them to you:
5 6 "Now therefore, if you will hearken unto my voice indeed, and keep My Covenant, then ye shall be Mine own treasure from among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine; and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." (Exodus 19:5-6a)
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Thus the whole nation of Israel was Divinely invited to be the nation mediator between God and the nations. Now let me invite your attention to an arresting phenomenon of Revealed Truth which I call "The Phenomenon of Intensified Focus." Let me describe it to you. In the outworking of the Divine redemptive purposes we behold the wide searchlight circle of God's love embracing all the peoples of the earth in its warm and illuminating beams. But, as we move from the circumference towards the centre of the beam, we see an intensified focus upon one nation, Israel, who becomes a Divinely-appointed priestly nation permitting even its young men – fact.
– to offer sacrifices (Exodus 24:5) as indicative of this glorious
Moving yet inwards, the focus still further intensifies, highlighting the whole tribe of Levi singled out for special attachment to God's service. Then, even within the Levitical tribe itself from the general "sons of Levi," there is a definite intensification of focus upon the "sons of Aaron" who become specifically the , "the priests"; and this Divine bestowal of the honoured privilege of priesthood upon the family of Aaron comes, as with all God's good things, as a gift from Him. (Numbers 18:7) Now, reaching the centre of the beam, there is a still more intensified focus upon the person of the High Priest, in whom all the symbolical and typical features are displayed in dazzling and magnificent brilliancy, and who stands as mediator between the Godhead and humanity. Is this the final intensification of the focus? Of course not. The Aaronic High Priest is himself the Divinely-spotlighted type of the promised Messiah of Israel, the supreme and final Mediator of Whom the God-inspired Jewish writer of this to say:
(The Epistle to the Hebrews) has
"But Messiah having appeared upon the scene, a High Priest of good things realized, through the instrumentality of the greater and more complete tabernacle not made by hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor even through the intermediate instrumentality of the blood of goats or calves, but through that blood of His own, He entered once for all into the Holies (the Holy of Holies), having found and procured eternal redemption. For, if as is the case, the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling those who are in a state of uncleanness, set that person apart with reference to the purity of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Messiah, who by virtue of [His] eternal Spirit offered Himself spotless to God, purge your conscience from
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dead works to the serving of the living God. And because of this, of a new testament He is a mediator . . ." And what of Israel nationally? The Jewish writer, I. Abrahams, observes "Israel is the world's high priest . . . If Israel has the light of God's face, the world cannot remain in darkness." Well, my friends, the world is in darkness, but that God foresaw Israel's national failure and recognized sin as the barrier to the invited glorious consummation is evident from the fact that, from the very inception, when the children of Israel were numbered each eligible individual of Israel had to give a half-shekel to make atonement for his soul. (Exodus 30:12,13) What then? Is Israel nationally set aside from the fruit and privilege of the Divine call? Let our prophet (Malachi) answer the question. Referring to a time recognized by Kimchi, among others, as pertaining to Messiah's advent in power, the Prophet Malachi declares: "And He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver . . ." (Malachi 3:3) How well the Psalmist saw the day of Israel's re-assumption of his national priesthood when he cried: "God be gracious unto us, and bless us; May He cause His face to shine toward us; Selah That Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy salvation among all nations." (Psalm 67:2, 3) May that day speedily dawn.
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The Medium of Access MY FRIENDS,
both Heinrich Heine and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow appreciate the eloquent
silence of the symbol, for the former writes – and here I quote: The symbol – the outward expression of the inward signification – should above all charm the senses by and for itself. (The Salon, 1831) Whilst Longfellow declares: All things are symbols: the external shows Of Nature have their image in the mind, As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves. (The Harvest Moon) What chaste language pours from the throat of the snow-white lily! What persuasion of plenty proceeds from the seed-packed pomegranate! How does the falling leaf, in its brief journey to the ground, suggest the closing curtain to the whole drama of life's "fitful fever"! Yes, indeed, flower, fruit and foliage are silver-tongued orators to those acquainted with their language. These are scattered symbols, each the author of themes not necessarily related; yet, if in them we find such eloquence what must our expectation be when, from isolated emblems, we turn to survey the arresting figure of Israel's High Priest! It is recognized that everything pertaining to Israel's priesthood was symbolical and typical, and surely the summit of the Levitical system and of its lavish symbolism was the , the High Priest. Here we have a colorful individual the totality of whose being, office, functions, activities – yea! – and even garments, was deliberately and Divinely displayed for the spiritual enlightenment and edification of the people. The High Priest of Israel was a concentrated confluence of continually concordant connotations. An animated symbol, exquisitely eloquent to those whose awakened spiritual hunger initiates their understanding to the Divine language. May we not fall within the reproach of the prophet Jeremiah when he cried:
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". . . O foolish people. And without understanding, That have eyes and see not. . . " (Jeremiah 5:21)
If Jeremiah had not distinctly said "people" one might have thought he was referring to potatoes, for surely potatoes have eyes yet see not. Shall we see potatoes where such rich symbolism is offered us? On the contrary, may the eyes of our understanding be opened to behold its splendour and its beauty. And, incidentally, those very words "splendour" and "beauty" are the ones Divinely chosen to describe the special garments of the Priests of Israel. Here are the words in Exodus:
2 "And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, for splendour and beauty." (Exodus 28:2) The same words "splendour" and "beauty" are used again in reference to certain garments to be worn by Aaron's sons in the ordinary priesthood (Exodus 28:40-42). Conforming to the order of mention in Exodus, chapter 28, we have the following priestly vestments: 1. The , a beautiful breastplate of finely woven linen displaying the striking colors of blue and purple and scarlet and gold. It would be about 17 inches long and 8½ inches wide and, according to Rashbam (Rabbi Shemuel ben Meirs, 1085-1174), it was folded over to form a small sack or bag about 8½ inches by 8½ inches. Not only was its coloring magnificent but upon it there blazed forth the splendour of twelve precious stones each of which bore the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Within this handsome article was placed the mysterious and , Lights and Perfectors. 2. The , a two-piece short garment of similar color and texture to the breastplate, the two sections being clasped together on the shoulder with two large onyx stones, each having engraved upon it six of the names of the twelve tribes.
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3. The
, a robe of blue woven work descending to the knees and worn beneath the ephod. It
was adorned at the hem alternately by pomegranate blossoms and golden bells. It was seamless and had not sleeves, only slits for the arms, and it had an aperture for the head. 4. The
was a long tunic or coat, worn next to the skin. It was made of a material
which in English is called linen, but actually it was the white shining cotton-like stuff called "byssus," a product of Egypt, and it possessed a tessellated or quilted pattern like the housing for precious stones. 5. The , an upper turban or mitre worn as a headdress. 6. The
, a byssus girdle wound the body several times from the breast downwards, the ends
hanging down to the ankles 7. The was a plate of pure gold worn upon the mitre over the brow and extending from ear to ear. On this plate were engraved the words , "HOLINESS TO THE ETERNAL."
8. The were linen turbans or bonnets partially covering the head, but not in the form of a cone like that of the High Priest. 9. Finally, we have the , the linen breaches covering the loins and thighs. Our Mishnah declares that "the High Priest ministers in eight pieces of raiment, and a common priest in four . . ." (Yoma 7:5) The articles of dress exclusive to the High Priest were the breastplate (), the ephod (), the robe (). The golden plate (), and the mitre (). Ah! you say, but that is five, not four! I know it. But there is no certainty as to whether the bonnet () was identical with the mitre (). The historian Josephus applies the latter term to the common priests as well. The common priests certainly had the linen breeches (), the girdle (), the quilted tunic () and the bonnet ().
However, my present objective is to focus your attention upon the High Priest and particularly the articles exclusive to him. The symbolism here is magnificent and, fortunately, we are not left to speculation but have the express statement of the Scripture itself to enlighten us. Of the ephod we read:
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. . .12 ". . . and Aaron shall bear their names before the Eternal upon his two shoulders for a memorial." (Exodus 28:12) Of the breastplate it is written:
29 "And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgement upon his heart . . . before the Lord continually. " (Exodus 28:29) But of the gold plate on which is inscribed, not the names of Israel, but the fiat "Holiness to the Lord," we read:
38 "And it shall be upon Aaron's brow, and Aaron shall bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow . . . that they may be accepted before the Eternal." (Exodus 28:38) First, note the three parts of the body mentioned – the shoulder, the symbol of power; the heart, the symbol of passion; the brow, the symbol of purpose. The High Priest was himself an animated symbol of Israel's Messiah-Redeemer-Mediator. In relation to Israel as a collective entity we see His power to bear them nationally before the very Throne of God; in relation to Israel as single individuals we see His great passion for their personal and individual salvation. His heart and His shoulder is available to bear them nationally and individually before the Godhead. But does sin separate from God? Then we see His power and passion combined in His great purpose to bear their iniquity and make them "Holiness to the Lord." As Rashi says on this very passage of Scripture – and here I quote him – "The verb to bear also denotes forgiveness of sins"; whilst Rashbam declares – and again I quote – "The plate in addition to the offerings was instrumental in obtaining atonement for Israel." My friends, there is always hope for Israel as a nation, and for Israelites as individuals, and for all peoples of the world, so long as Israelites Messiah lives. And He does, for He rose from His atoning
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death 2000 year ago, leaving His seamless robe behind Him, and now ever lives to bear us in power, passion and purpose before the Throne of Grace.
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Misuses Absolved MY DEAR FRIENDS, from the lips of our great Teacher Moses there issued words which, if soaked
for a little time in the subtle solvent of rumination, will yield a precipitation at once enigmatical and phenomenal. Here are the words to which I allude:
29 "Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee?" (Deuteronomy 33:29a) The twin substances of that sentence precipitated by our rumination are arresting indeed – HAPPY! UNIQUE! Israel happy and unique! As these words strike our ears how manifold, how varied, in what poles of contrast, will be the reactions they produce! History, draped in his multi-colored garments woven with the threads of millenia, rises from the seat of scrutiny and testifies abundantly to the latter feature , "Who is like unto thee, O Israel?" Truly, uniqueness is embossed indelibly upon Israel with the Divine ink of revelation and the pressure of God's hand in history. That Israel is unique is indubitable; but the secret of this lineament is to be discovered in the uniqueness of Israel's God, of Whom, happily enough, the same expression is recorded in at Exodus 9:14 where the Eternal again through the lips of His servant Moses, declares to the presumptuous Pharoah of Egypt that the judgements being brought upon him were:
. . . 14 ". . . that thou mayest know that there is none like Me in all the earth." (Exodus 9:14b) My friends, the uniqueness that inheres in the God of Israel is a refreshing uniqueness, a satisfying uniqueness, a consoling uniqueness. How can I best share with you my own feelings which caused me to express the quality of God's uniqueness in the terms I have just employed? Let me make the effort by an unusual, if not unique, process. It is notorious that many avoid the reading of Leviticus, advancing a variety of excuses for the neglect. Some allege it is tedious or – as they say – "heavy going," some that it is uninteresting, others that it is not easy to grasp.
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May I invite you to undertake an experiment which, I suggest, will transform these viewpoints and reset the legal enactments of Leviticus upon a sublime throne of enchantment and rich enlightenment? Just read chapters 11 through 20 as being a God-granted reflection of Deity. With reverent fingers, lift each precious jewel of legal enactment up to the face of God and behold the splendid facets of Deity sparkling in colorful purity from each gem. Consider, too – and don't miss this point – the age and circumstances in which these and other laws were granted by the Unique God to the Unique People. Out of an age of pagan darkness, defilement, disease and degradation the Levitical laws rise like a pure-crested Matterhorn of shimmering dignity. Two Hebrew words dominate the theme and designate its Divine Author.
and are like
two lightning flashes from the heavens stabbing the darkness of human depravity and lighting up the landscape to guide mankind to the ultimate haven of soul-rest.
, "impure," and , "pure," are these twin flashes. In chapter 11 they flash forth to illumine Israel's food selections. It is ironical that modern man thoughtlessly points to modern progress by referring to the many Pure Food Acts which adorn the jurisprudence of modern civilization. But here is a Pure Foods Act nearly four thousand years old! (Wellhausen to boot! And the harder the boot, the better!) Chapters 12, 13 and 14 flash their cleansing beams upon our bodies, our garments, and our domiciles, granting the invaluable health preservatives of quarantine, sanitation, and hygiene to sweeten man and his environment with their wholesome enactments. But- you say- quarantine, sanitation and hygiene are modern terms. I know it. But the Unique People got them in substance from our Unique God thousands of years ago and enjoyed their bounteous beneficences. Chapter 15 deals with defilements of a more intimate character and again anticipates modern prophylactic provisions by millenia. Now with this kind key in your possession read on through chapters 18 and 20 and, behold, the illuminating flashes expose the destroying practices of the pagan nations revealing the perils of spiritualism and similar dangerous devices.
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In this section of Scripture we hear the Unique Being saying to the Unique People:
. . . 24 "I am the Eternal your God(s), Who have set you apart from the peoples. "(Leviticus 20:24) Surely, dear friends, we have already hint enough to discern the possibilities of the Hebrew Scripture with which I began this message. Israel is undoubtedly unique; but – happy? The Scripture says – and note that the Hebrew word is in the plural – "happinesses." Has happiness been the hallmark of the Jewish people as a national characteristic down the ages? Would God that it were so! Of course, I must add, has happiness been the characteristic of any nation down the ages? Yet, surely, Israel's bitter draught has been a deep one. Israel's uniqueness is not only in his relationship to the Unique Being but also lies embedded firmly in human history in settings of sorrow. That Israel is unique is indubitable. That he will yet be happy is prophetical. This latter feature, jewelled and shining, blazes the light of hope from its golden settings of God-given promise. O Israel, take courage! Look to the rapidly approaching horizons of Tenach prophecy and see them aglow with the prospects of Divine-granted happinesses! Strengthen your hearts to advance through the immediate gloom for, surely, Destination Happiness is ahead! Israel is unique; Israel will yet be happy. And the clue is found in the same verse:
29 "Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee? A People saved by the Eternal . . . " (Deuteronomy 33:29) As Rabbi Sforno well says – and here I quote him on this Scripture: Israel's salvation will not be secured by might of arms but by Divine aid. So, too, says the Tanna, Joseph ben Hanania, and again I quote:
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The Jews will be redeemed by Divine grace, not by merit. (T: Sanhedrin, 97b) Do you inquire "How?" and "When?" or do those of you who follow me the more carefully propound a prior question – why, in my earlier enunciation of chapters, did I omit reference to chapters 16 and 17? Or have you not observed the omission? It was intentional. Chapter 16 is so portentous that it demands and shall have a separate message, for it deals with – the Day of Atonements. Chapter 17 is also of consequence for it deals with the Altar. And if the "How?" and "When?" of Israel's redemption is still echoing in our minds, these two chapters will supply a clue and the human author of them, again our teacher Moses, provides an additional prophetic pointer using, interestingly enough, yet another , "like unto me," for in Deuteronomy, chapter 18, he refers to a Promised Prophet raised up by Israel's God and says he will be – "like unto me." Who is like unto God? None! He is unique in purity, and Leviticus teaches that He can only be approached by means of His appointed sacrifice. Who is like unto Israel? None! He is unique in becoming God's channel to show the world that man in his activities as full of pollution which must be cleansed. Who is like unto Moses? One! And Moses himself says so. And this One is unique for His atoning work is symbolically set forth by the enactments of chapter 16 and the special place of His sacrifice is five times symbolically indicated by the altar of chapter 17, granting us the third revelation that man's acts of sin issue from a sinful disposition for which supreme atonement must be made. And it has been made! The One like Moses is the Messiah-Redeemer of Israel Whose death, burial and resurrection are the crowning fact of history. Let me quote Franz Werfel in conclusion: Believe not thy foes when they say they art forsaken like a useless slave, an old outworn servant who is summarily driven out of the house. Do not believe it, Israel! Between thy God and thee there is an unsettled reckoning that will one day be settled in thy favour, when grace will have struck the balance. (Between Heaven and Earth, 1944, p. 211f)
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The Significance of Seven MY FRIENDS, Solomon Schechter, in his Seminary Addresses, quotes a Jewish proverb of great
brevity. It simply reads: Precious is the seventh. "Ah!" some might say, "that's easy to understand. Israel's Sabbath was precious to him." To such a remark I would inquire which Sabbath for I know of at least 10 different Sabbaths in Scripture. No. I think we must look deeper into Israel's structure to gain any real clue into the preciousness of the seventh. In Hebrew sacred literature the number seven could safely be termed the key to numerical symbolism – a fascinating subject, more of which I can promise you for later messages. The number seven is so associated with Israel in a physical and historical manner as to justify fully the nation's reverence and regard for that particular number. Of course, the influence of the number seven has been noted amongst the Persians (Esther 1:10,14), Greeks and Romans and wherever a seven-day week obtained; but where the Hebrews are concerned it possessed the paramount value of being a Divine arrangement. It seemed as if the Master Divine Weaver had taken seven threads from the raw material of which time is made and, turning to His loom of human history, with these seven strands He wove a national fabric which He called – ISRAEL. Beyond doubt, the sacred measurement of time so far as Israel nationally is concerned is marked by that number, seven. And yet I ask you to observe that the special dignity attaches, not simply to the number "seven," but rather to that sequential incident denoted by the word "seventh." The Sabbath is the seventh of days and was specially denoted in a manner that is so familiar to us all that I need not expound it to you. The seventh new moon marked the importance of the inauguration of the seventh month by a blast of horns and a holy convocation unto the God of Israel.
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The seventh year was a Sabbatical year when the land had rest; sowing and reaping were permitted for six years but the seventh year land-rest was ordered so that the poor of the people might eat and what they left the beasts of the field were to have. Moreover, it was a year of release to all debtors. A hint at the practicability of this humane institution will be gathered when I remind you that in none of the six sowing years was the owner permitted to reap the whole harvest (Leviticus 19:9;23:22), so spontaneous production would be abundant. But we haven't finished with the "sevenths" yet. The seventh seventh year – that is seven multiplied by seven – was again a very special occasion for it introduced the fiftieth year – that is, the year after the succession of seven Sabbatical years – as the Year of Jubilee. The year was inaugurated on
with the blast of horns throughout the land and by a
proclamation of universal liberty, thus vindicating the right of each individual person to his part in the Divine covenant respecting the God-granted land of promise. From what I have said it will now be seen that seven is a cyclical number marking out cycles of religious periodicity, Divinely prescribed and eloquent to those who desire to see. The seventh day, the seventh month of the year – which began the civil year – the seventh year, and the seven times seventh year; all these described complete cycles obviously impressed with a peculiar sanctity because it was the Hand of God which, with the compass of His will and wisdom, completed each cycle. Is it any wonder, then, that from the most ancient times the number seven acquired to itself the subordinate notions of perfection or completeness. Have we not frequently heard seven described as "the perfect number"? Beyond doubt, there is full justification for this esoteric significance. Scripture abounds with instances where the number seven is used in the sense of perfection or completeness; indeed, its very first use in the Bible bears this same characteristic for here, at Genesis 4:15, we hear the declaration of the Eternal God: "Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." At least twice in the very book we are currently examining, Leviticus, we find this same feature displayed in a prophetic setting, both occurrences being found in the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus. Let me quote them:
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"And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto Me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. . ." (verse 18) And again, at verse 28: "I will then walk contrary unto you in fury; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins." Israel's national history, particularly during the Common Era, is far too heavily embossed with this aspect of the number seven to need any comment. But think not that the violence and hatred of man are the hand of God upon Israel. I do not believe it for a moment. Israel's failure forfeited much of God's blessings and protection and thus inevitably exposed him in quite a major measure to man's ugly passions. But God doesn't produce antiSemitism; He punishes it. It is sheer folly to view history only partially in this connection. History certainly shows Israel's suffering and loss but history also shows the smiting Hand of God upon every nation that has presumptuously thought to aid God in Israel's chastisement. National anti-Semitism is national suicide, and the poppied fields of history are studded with the weed-grown tombs of nations who have, by anti-Semitism, committed national self-murder. This is neither hocus nor histrionics; it is history. This was a disgression, I admit, but a necessary one. In these days of Israel's promised emergence back again into God's plan and purpose His Divine Hand will be heavier yet in retribution upon anti-Semitism for those that reproach Israel will be reproaching God – as the ancient Psalmist noted, when he urged God to vindicate Himself by returning the reproach of Israel's haters: ". . . sevenfold unto their bosom . . . "(Psalm 79:12), the use of which figure returns me, gracefully and without bump or jar, back into my subject. The Book of Proverbs also provides instances where this sense of finality, perfection, completeness or thoroughness is conveyed by the numeral seven, and, for those of my listeners who love the fascinations of minutiae, let me refer to Proverbs 6:31. According to Mosaic Law (Exodus 21:37; 22:3) the thief is obliged to make restoration double, fourfold or fivefold; yet of him the writer of Proverbs says: "But if he be found, he must restore sevenfold. . . ."
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Here is a clear use of the symbolic employment of the number seven and another will be found at Proverbs 26:16. It is quite captivating to examine the three consonants which denote the numerical seven in the Hebrew language (). They are the same as are found in the word meaning an oath (), such as an oath of allegiance or a covenant. They also, of course, are found in the Hebrew word for "week" (). But it is most alluring to discover that these same consonants – with a slight shift of sound on the first of them – are used to denote satisfaction () fullness or satiation (). Adding all these thoughts together we are now able to grasp the exquisite spiritual significance embedded in the fact that in Israel's Divinely bestowed sacrificial system exactly seven objects were selected by God as permissible for sacrifice. These were oxen, sheep, goats, pigeons, wheat, oil and wine. The cyclical aspect of seven reminds us that although we are all estranged from God by sin yet He yearns for us to return to Him. The symbolic seven embossed on the sacrifices indicated that the offeror thus approaching God through vicarious sacrifice will find the full Divine satisfaction as being based upon a perfect pledge or oath of Covenant – the completed Jubilee Year aspect of which indicates the Divine cancellation of sin and the release of the sinner into the joyous liberty of Divine forgiveness. My friends, Israel's Passover inaugurated this cycle symbolical of spiritual redemption and, since seven is the symbol of completeness and perfection, do you not thrill to learn that the Bible records exactly seven celebrations of the Passover? But, will you not attach any significance to the fact that the seventh, and last, is recorded in the New Testament where the Messiah of Israel brake the bread and gave it to His Disciples?
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Feasts That Foretell MY FRIENDS in that superb Palace of Divine Revelation called "The Bible," there are innumerable
reception halls where , the Divine Spirit, willingly receives, instructs, and enthralls all who are eager for His enlightenment. Over one of these great theatres of Divine intelligence we read the title: LEVITICUS, CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.
Even as we stand together outside its portals they swing wide open before us in cordial invitation. We enter, and remain transfixed at the colossal and colorful scene being enacted before us in a veritable Theatre of Pageantry, where both time and terrain blend and form a stage whereon the timeless tread of Israel's multitudes beat out the soundful symphony of man's deep need and God's sweet supply. But more than this. These are pageants that prophesy; these are festivals that foretell. How can I best describe the spectacle? Doubtless you have seen a proficient needlewoman take a basic fabric of some uniform mesh-like material, in appearance resembling a fine fly-proof wire screen. Through its fine mesh squares her consummate skill weaves and interweaves multi-colored threads until there appears a clear pattern of positive and purposive design. So it is with what our wandering eyes behold in this amazing chapter of prophecy pageanted. God, out of His inexhaustible workbasket of Time and Space, took in His mighty hands the seasons of the year and He stretched them out taut and tight over the Promised Land of Israel to make a colorful basic mesh-material tinted with all the tender tones of Spring, the strong hues of Summer and the flamboyant complexion of the Fall. Then, summoning His chosen people Israel together – equally colorful in all their varieties of temperament and disposition – He interwove their national religious movements through the meshes of Spring, Summer, and Fall in a colorful symbolic and prophetic pageantry as eloquent and significant in its INTERVALS as in its ACTIVITY. Sounds captivating, doesn't it? Well, it is captivating. But, more than that, it is very important.
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For here is a clear, graphic, picturesque, panoramic presentation and prophecy of God's redemptive purpose and provision for all mankind individually and, for Israel nationally, a corporate personation of redemption quite breathtaking in its meaningfulness, its magnitude and its magnificence. The Hebrew employs two words in outlining this purposive national expression. The first is or "appointed meeting" and seems to embrace all seasonal observations including Sabbaths and New Moons, many of which are called also or "holy convocations." The second Hebrew word is which comes from a root meaning "to dance," that is, with joy, to be joyous. This word applies exclusively to Israel's three feasts, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost and Tabernacles which, however, are included in the annual cycle of chapter 23.
itemized in Leviticus
At the three feasts all the males were to appear before the Lord in His sanctuary. Only a genius like Cecil B. deMille could attempt to reproduce for you the spectacle of a whole nation coming to a particular spot to tryst with God! Have you heard anything like this before? Do please try to capture the wonder of it. Do you have appointment diary on your table? Good! Well, can you imagine receiving a message from God Himself calling you to meet Him at a certain time and place? Can you anticipate your feelings as you turn to the appropriate date page on your diary and, opposite the exact time fixed, you write the one word "God!" Three times a year, at times evidently ordained in Divine wisdom to interfere as little as possible with the work of the people, God called the whole nation to feast. Obtaining his data from the Talmud, the historian Josephus recounts that some of these assemblies held in Jerusalem numbered up to two million souls! (Exodus 23:14-16; Deuteronomy 16:16) Think of it! Two million souls, each a living thread to be Divinely woven and interwoven within the basic checker-pattern of seasonal time and space to produce ultimately a prophetic picture, the ends of which reach into and beyond the days in which we ourselves are now living. That you may catch the prophetic panorama which I hope to unfold to you in succeeding messages let me itemize these three Feasts and the other two included in this five featured annual religious cycle. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Feast of Unleavened Bread Feast of Pentecost Memorial Blast of the Horn Day of Atonements
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5.
Feast of Tabernacles
You will notice of these five annual appointments only three are feasts (). Five is a numeral signifying "grace"; three is a numeral associated with the Deity. To those of you who are expecting the introduction of the "precious seventh," I am happy to gratify your expectations by saying that to the five annual we turn to the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus and add the , or seventh-year Sabbath, and the punctuated each seven-multiplied-by-seven of years.
, or Jubilee Year, that
(Passover); and (Tabernacles) each have a seven day duration; in each year the (Holy Convocations) are seven in number; (Tabernacles) and (Day of Atonements) each occur in the seventh month of the religious year; and thus the whole cycle of annual ("appointments") extend over the So Pentecost occurred seven weeks after
seven months from Nisan to Tishri. Such is the remarkable seven-patterned structure of these seasonal appointments. But there is more. In this total cycle of there are INTERVALS. You will remember that I said the intervals were eloquent, too. They are. They divide three feasts and group the other round them.
(Feast of Unleavened Bread) with its eloquent enactments associated with (Passover)_ and (First Sheaf). This feast is followed by the first and shorter of the First,
two eloquent intervals. The second pilgrim festival,
(Pentecost),
with its
(Two Wave-
loaves) comes next and is separated from the third feast by the second and longer eloquent interval. The third pilgrim festival, (Feast of Tabernacles), is preceded by (Memorial Horn Blast) and (Day of Atonements).
My friends, as our thoughts revolve around these three Festivals that foretell, these Pageants that Prophesy, you will be amazed to discover that they supply a symbolical and chronologically progressive picturization like a three-act drama, with this distinction: that they are not related to histrionics, but to life. Real life. Vital life. I want to impress you with the nexus between these three feasts and the thought of life.
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Agriculture was the very basis of the Mosaic economy. The Jewish people are born agriculturists. If commerce or industry has claimed their qualities, it is because they have been forced, by Gentile pressures, into these avenues. The three great festivals fixed the Jewish calendar, revolving it around the seasons of green, ripe, and fully gathered produce. In short, life and fruitfulness. Such was the basic concept upon which the feasts were built; but they were not mere outward observances, mere ceremonies; they all had a deeper spiritual meaning, a soul, a symbolism; and this soul, this symbolism, was again life and fruitfulness. For the three-act drama of life and fruitfulness could be described as follows: FEAST ONE. LIFE:
Messiah's Redemptive Bestowal
Messiah's Redeemed Peoples FEAST THREE. NATIONAL FRUIT: Messiah's Redeemed Nation FEAST TWO. INDIVIDUAL FRUIT:
Be sure to be with all our listeners as we unfold, act by act, the multiplying wonders of this superlative drama of love, life, freedom and fruitfulness.
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The Foundations of the Festivals MY DEAR FRIENDS, whilst, of course, your main interest is centered upon what I may call the "meat"
of the message itself, nevertheless, one of the gratifying incidentals produced is your awakened curiosity regarding our so beautiful Hebrew language. So many of my friends have remarked how they enjoy what I call my surgical operations on some of our Hebrew words; they say it adds such fascination to the study. Incidentally, let us operate now on that word "study." A seldom used Hebrew word for "study" or "meditation" is . In the Arabic it means to be "eager" or "intent." Alongside this word I want to put another that differs from it in only one radical consonant, and means "flame." This second word is . Now, standing upright before the eyes of your mind you have and , "study" and "flame."
"But," you say, "is there any connection?" There certainly is. As we study, and particularly as we study the Scriptures, we become fired with eagerness to know more of their wonders, particularly in the original Hebrew language. Is it not appropriate that the verbal form of , a "flame," is , "to inflame or excite oneself," and so the Hebrew word for "enthusiasm" is . And it is with , the flame of enthusiasm, that I invite your study, your meditation, upon one of the most amazing chapters of the Bible – the 23rd chapter of Vayikra, that is, Leviticus. In my last message I indicated that Israel's three feasts described in that chapter were festival that foretell, the pageants that prophesy. They are remarkable, symbolic and chronologically-sequential picturizations which, at the time they were Divinely granted to Israel, were entirely prophetical, pointing on a gigantic scale to events of paramount importance, the first of which was, then, at least a thousand years ahead. For us, however, viewing from the vantage point of today they possess an additional fascination due to the fact that much of their prophetic content now lies embedded in recorded human history. This factor can be, and has been, checked and thus gives us confidence and hope as we survey that large section of these foretelling feasts which pertain to time yet future even to our own day. These three feasts arc the ages and their subject matter is worthy of their grandeur.
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We begin, then, by observing that these festivals did not follow each other at regular intervals over the seven months of the year in which they were observed. On the contrary they were grouped into three prophetic pageants separated by irregular intervals and these two irregular intervals will be found to be as eloquent as the feasts they separate. Let us begin with the first feast known as , Feast of Unleavened Bread, and also referred
to as , Passover, although to be exact there is a distinction which will be immediately apparent.
The appointment known as , Passover, although it inaugurates the annual cycle of Levitical or "set seasons" is nevertheless, what I would call supra-Levitical for it had its origin, not in the Levitical economy, but before it. It originated from the time of the Exodus from Egypt and I ask you to note very carefully that it was Divinely prescribed BEFORE the Revelation at Mount Sinai. That is, it was bestowed by God BEFORE the Law of Moses and even before the Covenant with Israel had been ratified by blood (Exodus 24:8). Thus, the Passover sacrifice, the Scriptural ceremony associated with it, and the symbolism necessary flowing from it, all belong in the same category, sphere, or domain as the promises God made to our father Abraham as recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Bereshit, that is Genesis. I have already called your attention, in previous messages, to the fact that God bestowed His promises upon Abraham BEFORE Abraham's circumcision; moreover, to make quite sure that the unconditional character of the Divine promises would be clearly understood, God deliberately excluded Abraham from participation in the ceremonial ratification of His pledge. Our rabbis haven't missed this point. Rashi, Sforno and Nachmanides are among those to call attention to it. As another of our rabbis summarizes it – and here I quote: ". . . Abraham now believed that the prophecy would certainly be fulfilled, and that he need not fear that he might forfeit it through sin. . . ." The character of the whole content of the relationship and bestowal recorded in that fifteenth chapter of Genesis as touching our father Abraham has been correctly described by our rabbis as follows – and again I quote: ". . . an act of grace, that no matter what happens to Abraham personally, God's promise as regards his descendants would stand."
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My friends, the words I have just quoted constitute an admirable estimation – "an act of grace" – that inherent quality of God's disposition from which flows to man favors or boons bestowed unconditionally and without any relation whatever to the recipient's power or provision either to merit or to earn such Divine bestowals. Grace, not Law, was and still is the bedrock foundation of God's dealings with, and relationship to, Israel. A covenant of Law was undoubtedly superimposed upon that bedrock foundation some five hundred years later; but this Law Covenant having been broken by Israel nationally, as our prophet Jeremiah unflinchingly announces in his thirtieth chapter, Grace remains the bedrock foundation of Israel's sure hope today. I say sure hope, because God's promises to Abraham will stand. Our time has been very well spent if I have succeeded in emphasizing the vital importance of grasping these fundamental principles if we are to assess accurately, and enjoy thoroughly, the exquisite symbolism of Israel's festivals to which subject we now return after our profitable digression.
or Passover as we know it in English – is, therefore, a pre-Levitical, pre-Law sacrifice, bestowed upon Israel in Egypt and flowing entirely from Divine GRACE. Since
formed the bedrock foundation upon which the latter Levitical sacrifices and festivals
were built, it could be said – if you will permit the expression – that Divine GRACE "triggered off" the whole Levitical legal economy. Since, in past messages, I have already expounded the Levitical offerings, you may now be aware of another feature that distinguishes the Paschal sacrifice. Although connected with – indeed, basic to – the Levitical offerings, it is yet distinct from them. It is not exactly a Sin-Offering nor is it exactly a Peace-Offering, yet it combines the significance of both. It bears the characteristic of being not foreign to the Levitical system but an order or degree other than earlier than the Levitical system. We have noted this similar characteristic, have we not, with regard to priesthood, where the Melchisedekan royal-priesthood was not foreign to the Israelitish economy but of an order or degree other and earlier than it.
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There is yet a third point to which I find it necessary to call your attention. When I speak of
(Passover) I speak of it, of course, as revealed in Tenach, the Old Testament, for it is indeed one of the richest of our "TREASURES FROM TENACH. " Therefore I do not refer to
,
Passover, into the form into which it evolved following the
destruction of the Temple by Titus in the year 70 of the Common Era. Such present day items as the salt water, the roasted egg, the , however eloquent as reminders of our history, nevertheless lack Scriptural authority and for that reason I must firmly, though I assure you quite affectionately, set them outside our " TREASURES FROM TENACH." The Paschal Lamb, then, as portrayed by the Scriptures and as flowing gift-wise from God's GRACE, is the bedrock foundation of man's redemption. Well may we turn our eyes of hope in the direction indicated by , as recorded in our Jewish New Covenant, when he saw coming and cried: "Look! He is the Lamb of God Who is to take away the world's sin." Yes, indeed! Redemption by the Blood of the Lamb. Israel's Messiah is certainly the foundation of Israel's God-bestowed festivals.
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Passover – The Different Night MY DEAR FRIENDS, there is a question entrusted to the lips of tender youth which should be familiar
in the ears of all Jewish people:
"Why is this night different from all other nights?" The very sounds of this sentence seems to take form and shape like some mythological genie of gargantuan power and proportions who, stretching out colossal arms over all barriers of time and space, yea, even death itself, sweeps an entire people into his wordless embrace and speeds them down the unforgettable avenues of their amazing history. We see the whole earth pockmarked with the indelible footprints of the long and, as we trace their labyrinthine pattern down the ages, each single impression seems as if mutely imploring an answer to the enigma of Israel's strange and myriad vicissitudes. The songs and sobs of Jewish centuries punctuate our procession back down the ages, and the fingers of three thousand years all point in the one direction, and mark a clear and unmistakable highway to the one locality in all the world which will supply the answer to the child's perennial question: Why is this night different from all other nights? Egypt is the answer! It cradled the birth of a nation, a nation which owed its birth to a lamb! A Paschal Lamb. A paschal lamb that made a limp people into nationhood. The Hebrew people who limped through the cruel servitude of an exacting Pharaoh were the favored recipients of a Divine intervention, the magnitude of which enabled them to leap from the bonds of Egypt into the blessing of God. It is singular, yet exquisitely appropriate, that the Hebrew root from which the term "paschal" is derived means not only "to limp" but also "to leap." It is equally appropriate that this Hebrew root appears for the first time in the very chapter of Scripture in which we read for the first time the dramatic record of the paschal lamb and Israel's leap to liberty.
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This same twelfth chapter of Exodus is further distinguished because embedded in it we have the very first commandment ever given by God to Israel as a collective people; here are the impressive words:
2 "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you." (Exodus 12:2) This, God's first command to Israel, left a permanent impression upon the reckoning of Jewish time for it instituted a new calendar and affected an existing one! As we know from Scripture itself (Exodus 13:4) the Exodus occurred in the month known as Abib (), a word which in Hebrew means "green corn in the ear." At the time of Israel's first command the month of Abib was not the beginning of the year, as Nachmanides points out. Henceforth, however this month which inaugurated the freedom of Israel was made the first month of the year and became known as Nisan (). Although the Paschal Lamb instituted a new beginning in the Hebrew year, yet the old reckoning lingered on, as I think somewhat prophetically, and resulted in the national acquisition of two separate year commencements or reckonings with an interval between them of exactly half a year. The SACRED reckoning was that instituted at the Exodus, denoting Abib as the first month of the year. On the other hand, the CIVIL reckoning denoted Tishri (), the seventh month, as the first month. There is an interesting point here. If we keep Biblical Messianism pure by retaining it within its pristine Scripture setting of both the Tenach and the New testament, and if, in addition, we keep our resultant Scriptural concepts free from adulteration and distortion by the spurious conjectures of Wellausenism, we discern that the Biblical Messianism of the New Testament, is as organically related to the Biblical Messianism of Tenach as the flower is to the stalk that bears it. This being so, is there any significance, typical or symbolical, in this subtle pristine relationship of the seventh and the first? Arising out of and, indeed, identical with Israel's seventh is Israel's first. Is it already an early pointer towards the rising of Messiah's believing Israelites who, in addition to their attachment to the Temple and its commemoration of the seventh day, yet advanced their gatherings for worship and fellowship to the first day of the week as recorded early in the New Testament?
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Those of us who by study of the subject have been obliged to respect the significance of Scripture numbers will not fail to see the relationship between the seventh and the first inaugurated by the advent of the Paschal Lamb. Seven and one are eight and it is, of course, no flight of fancy that eight is the number of a new beginning for science confirms gematria on this point. I build no doctrine on figures; I only indicate these features for your interest in the same manner in which I call you attention to the further fascinating fact that the Hebrew root , to which I have already referred, occurs in the paschal chapter exactly eight times. (Exodus 12:11,13,21,23,27-twice, 43,48) The "Egyptian Passover" certainly was a new beginning for the people of Israel. They had their Divine instructions. The tenth day of the month was the day appointed to select their blemishless sacrifice. See them as they subject the animal to the severest scrutiny. One defect would disqualify. Even after choice there remained yet a period of test, for the sacrifice was not to be slaughtered at once but exposed to the full examination over a period extending from its selection on the 10th to its offering on the 14th day "between the evenings," a period of five days in Jewish reckoning, and five is the number of Grace. The sacrifice having been offered, the blood was taken, according to Rashi, as a ritual reception and applied first , upon the two side posts of the door of the house and then upon the lintel; the actions required to perform this rite would thus take the form of a cross. Abraham ibn Ezra says "the mark of blood was designed as an atonement for those within the house . . . and was also a sign for the destroying angel to pass by the house." So positively is the blood of the sacrificial lamb the symbol of Divine Redemption that it became the zodiacal sign for Nisan, the first month of the year, as Nachmanides himself observes; and, even in literature published in the modern State of Israel to day, the lamb is used as the symbol of that month branded with the duel key-signature of the first and the seventh – (Nisan). Why is this night different from all other nights? Because this pre-Levitical, special sin-peace-offering, at once the herald and basis of deliverance from bondage, was, I am convinced, gloriously symbolic of that portion of Messiah's redemptive work which was prophesied to precede the setting up in power and acclamation of the , "the kingdom of heaven," on this earth.
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As I see it, the Messianic ACT must precede the Messianic ACCLAMATION and between the ACT and the ACCLAMATION there is the Messianic ABSENCE. The Messianic act is symbolized by , "the Egyptian Passover," and the historical event is described in that portion of the Jewish Scriptures known popularly as the New testament in which we read that the One designated therein as the "Lamb of God" rode into Jerusalem on the 10th Nisan, was subjected to official scrutiny and declared without blemish by the representative of world power – Pilate. The sign of the cross which the enslaved Israelites made in Egypt when they applied the blood of the lamb on the door post and lintels became the permanent symbol of the redemptive sacrifice He made on the cross coincident with the celebration in Jerusalem. The Messianic absence is suggested, I believe, in the Tenach where Deity declares: "I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their guilt, and seek My face . . ." (Hosea 5:15) Rabbi Dr. S.M. Lehrman, M.A.,Ph.D., commenting on this verse, says – and here I quote: God will withdraw into the heavens. . . . A singular withdrawal into the heavens is sanely described in the New Testament where we read: "He was taken up while they were looking at Him, and a cloud swept under Him and carried Him out of their sight." (Acts 1:9) The Messianic acclamation is best summed up in the beautiful words of the Hallel: "That stone which then the builders threw away has now become the cornerstone." (Psalm 118:22) May all Israel and all the world soon cry: . . . 26 "Blessed be He that cometh in the Name of the Eternal . . ." (Psalm 118:26)
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The Feast of Unleavened Bread MY DEAR FRIENDS, in his scholarly essay entitled "Crises of Messianism," Zvi Werblowsky,
lecturer in theology at the Hebrew University, expresses a concept in words so admirable that I should like to quote them to you. He says: Messianism means belief in history and its meaning. The historical process is no blind sequence of events, nor is it an eternal cycle, constantly repeating itself. It is, in the terms of modern physics, 'directed.' It is not a cycle but a line, a tension between two poles, a kind of suspension bridge with one-way traffic. And the two ends are called creation and consummation. The Messianic age, however one regards it, means that consummation and fulfilment of history: Tikkun olam bemalchuth Shaddai, [] the world become the Kingdom of God. That is the end of the quotation, and it is a summation with which I find myself in substantial agreement however much I may disagree with the evolutionary Wellhausenism with which it is, unfortunately, shrouded. I sometimes wonder when we are going to recover from the intoxicating effects of that calamitous "cocktail" comprised basically of a blend of the unproven theories of the evolutionary hypotheses in the organic realm with the equally unproved – and now largely disputed – documentary hypotheses of the Gaf-Wellhausen school in the theological and philosophical realm. Now, if this last observation has been a rather large technical mouthful for all my listeners to digest, as excuse for its inclusion in our diet I must remark that I am privileged to number amongst my auditors many who tread with me the adventuresome paths of theology and philosophy. The hallucinations induced by the calamitous cocktail to which I have referred have resulted in the abandonment, by many, of the exceedingly ancient concept of a personal Messiah described now by some "as, first, a national and, later, a universalist myth." As substitute for this so-called "myth" of a personal Messiah our modern human nostrils are tickled with the artificially produced vapours arising from the modern humanistic hopes of "emancipation, liberalism, universal suffrage, socialism" and similar pensive panaceas to which is naively attached the appellation "the Messianic Age."
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But the very idea that makes possible such a word as "Messianic" is derived from the admittedly ancient and admittedly persisting concept of a Messiah – a person, a Divinely commissioned, equipped, empowered, and dispatched person. To allow one's mind to put its heel upon the banana-skin of a "Messianic" age without a "messiah" is merely to invite an intellectual somersault. A "messianic" age without a "messiah" is like writing the word "chicken" on a piece of paper and waving it a few times over a bowl of water and thereafter labeling the contents of that bowl "chicken soup." No, my friends, I adhere to the conviction that, to give liquid the qualities implicit in the title bestowed upon it, the personal presence of that chicken is a prerequisite. So, too, a messianic" age unrelated to a "messiah" is a conceit which I personally cannot entertain and which I am sure contravenes the Divine revelation vouchsafed us in our sacred Jewish Scriptures. Undoubtedly history is "directed." It certainly has a goal, a consummation, which includes not only a "messianic" age but also a "messiah," a Messiah Who makes possible the bestowal blessings of such an age. And both the Person and the Products He makes possible are to be found symbolically represented in the great national festivals of Israel to which we have been giving our attention in my recent messages. Those of you who are regularly following these "Treasures from Tenach" will be armed already with the knowledge of the cyclical religious periodicity of Israel's national life against which to view the wonders of the festivals I am now about to unfold to you. In my last message we spent some profitable moments together capturing the character of the "Egyptian Passover" – this pre-Levitical, special sin-peace-offering – which formed the very foundation upon which the later Levitical rested. That the foundational character of the "Egyptian Passover" was no afterthought is clearly evidenced by the fact that the Divine instructions issued for its initial observance in Egypt contain express (e.g. Exodus 12:2, 14, 17, 24-27, etc.) and implied (e.g. Exodus 12:16) provisions for "perpetual" commemoration.
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Thus, upon all that is implicit in the symbolism of the blood of the paschal lamb, was Divinely built Israel's three national festivals, themselves eloquently symbolic and which, for the refreshment of your memories, I again itemize for you as follows: 1. 2. 3.
Feast of Unleavened Bread Feast of Pentecost Feast of Tabernacles
I have already outlined for you what I believe to be the symbolical import of these Divinely instituted festivals. Let me repeat this summary for you: LIFE is the essence of the first feast; INDIVIDUAL FRUIT is the essence of the second; NATIONAL FRUIT the essence of the third.
"Life" and "Fruit" are pleasant words; their taste is sweet and their attainment for all of us is, I am convinced, set forth as a blessed possibility. The first festival, Messiah's act of redemptive bestowal.
,
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, portrays beautifully
On the anniversary of the liberation from Egyptian bondage, the 14th day of the month Nisan, all leaven was banished from the persons and precincts of the Israelites. As the sun was setting the paschal lambs were slain and the blood and fat received the Divinely prescribed attention of the priests (II Chronicles 35:5, 6). The lamb was then wholly roasted and wholly eaten in conjunction with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. On that identical night, that is, after the 15th Nisan had begun, the fat was burned by the priest and the blood sprinkled on the altar (II Chronicles 30:16; 35:11) On the same fifteenth day, when the night had passed, there was a , a holy convocation, and throughout that day all work had to cease apart from that required to prepare food (Exodus 12:16).
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Offerings additional to the daily sacrifice were made on this and the six ensuing days (Numbers 28:19-23) and on the seventh day, the 21st Nisan, another , holy convocation, was celebrated. Let me call your attention now to two more most interesting features. On the 16th of the month, , "on the morrow after the sabbath," that is, the first holy convocation, the , the first sheaf of the barley harvest was waved before the Lord by the priest accompanied by the offerings. According to Rashi and other notable Jewish commentators this sheaf was waved horizontally and vertically in the form of a cross. If these Divinely instituted enactments are symbolical expressions of the Divine intention of redemption through the act of the Anointed One – and I am persuaded that this is so – what do we learn from them? The application in Egypt of the blood of the lamb and the presentation of the wave sheaf in the Land of Promise were both, by virtue of the physical actions necessary to perform the Divine instruction, embossed with the insignia of a cross. The blood of the lamb forever bears significance of a life poured out on behalf of others. It is the symbol of death. The sheaf, on the other hand, is not only the symbol of life as the fruit of death, but the Levitical sheaf is representative of the vast harvest of Life from which it was chosen as forerunner. It appeared the morning after the Sabbath in circumstances and surroundings from which all leaven – the symbol of the corruption of sin – had been banished. My friends, I cannot escape the fact that One Who declared Himself to be the Anointed One, and Who was designated by the significant title "The Lamb of God" by those who had most right to employ such a designation, and Who at this very season of the year poured out His life on a cross, nevertheless, rose from the dead , "on the morrow after the sabbath," thus completing the Divine Bestowal of redemption in which the leaven of sin is banished in the eyes of Deity. No wonder Israel was conjoined to keep this blessed Feast of Unleavened Bread with cheerfulness.
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Eight Steps to Fulfilment MY FRIENDS, an esteemed newspaper columnist, confronted with what he conceived to be a glaring
incongruity, searched frantically among sounds and symbolism to express himself adequately, and exclaimed: What next? An American Hot Cross Bun with a Magen David, perhaps? These twelve words, like the twelve tribes of Israel, will yield some amazing and unexpected treasures if we care to dig into them. As I read them a certain verb sprang into my mind. I will not ask you to guess it; it might be a little difficult to do so, so I will tell you. It was the verb "to broaden." I could see faces broadening into a smile; I could see waistlines broadening through consumption of the buns. And perhaps both are understandable and even permissible if we allow our minds the same broadening process as may be manifested by both features and waistlines. Mount these twelve words upon imagination's glass slide and subject them to the microscope of our broadened minds. What – in essence – do we see suggested by them? We see two symbols placed in such juxtaposition as to infer their complete incompatibility. These two symbols are the Cross and the Magen David. Now, let me speak objectively. If we permit these two symbols to represent to our minds two systems of organized religion popularly designated "Christianity" and "Judaism," respectively, then, I am convinced, we will not capture the basically accurate perspective for both systems speak with many voices and we cannot hear them all at once. Let us break right through these terms – like an acrobat diving through two paper hoops – and think of them no more. Allow our broadened minds to penetrate behind these two nomenclatural barriers and explore the territory beyond. The reliable region beckoning our exploration is that alluring realm within the boundaries of our sacred Jewish Scriptures. My friends, will you allow these same Scriptures to convey you on a fascinating journey? And will you be prepared for an unexpected destination? Good! The Scripture pages now place in our hands some rather interesting stepping stones, on each of which – if we look with spiritual eyes – we discern some interesting symbols.
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Moreover, those same Scripture pages bid us place these stepping stones exactly where their record commands, then urges us to step from stone to stone on a journey that will traverse and transcend history. Before we place our feet upon these stepping stones and commence our journey, we observe that all the stones are homogeneous – they all, without exception, bear the imprint of recorded Passover celebrations. Lifting up our eyes to behold the first stone, we see it firmly embedded in Egyptian soil. It marks the beginning of our journey and the birth of the nation whose glorious and eloquent symbol is the Magen David.
And yet, strangely, we do not see that symbol on this first stone even though it bears the character of a foundation stone where Passover is concerned. In previous messages I have outlined the distinction between the "Egyptian Passover" and the "Permanent Passover"; the first was foundational, the other commemorative. The fact of a distinction between the foundational Passover and its commemorative observances is noted by the Mishnah in these words which I now quote from : The Egyptian Passover was selected on the 10th, and the blood was to be sprinkled with a sprig of hyssop on the lintel and the two door-posts, and it was to be eaten in haste in the first night; but the Permanent Passover is observed all the seven days . . . (Pesahim 9:5) What then, my friends, is the symbol embossed upon this foundational stepping stone? Well, obviously, the blood of the Paschal Lamb marked the birth and beginning of Israel, and if we follow the physical actions requisite to apply that blood, first to the lintel, then to the , the two door-posts, we shall be obliged to delineate the symbol of a cross. Now, don't let us baulk here! Remember, we have already dived through those paper hoops and are no longer hampered by them. Let us place our feet firmly on this foundation stepping stone embedded in the twelfth chapter of Exodus, and let us look ahead to where the next one rests.
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We see it two years and many miles away lying far off in the Wilderness of Sinai. It is the first commemorative celebration of Passover recorded, and you'll find it in the ninth chapter of Numbers. Let us remain, for a moment, standing on this wilderness stepping stone and let us survey the scene, the – Tabernacle – immediately claims our attention and we are struck by the fact that its seven furnishings, from the copper altar to the ark-cover, are arranged in the form of a cross. From where we stand we see the Anointing of Aaron as High Priest of Israel and, if our beloved Rashi is to be believed, this anointing with oil was done by the finger tracing the oil in the form of a cross. Turning now to the consecration of the priesthood in general we learn, again from Rashi, that the unleavened wafers used in the ceremony were anointed with oil in the form of a cross. It is the same Rashi who describes the physical actions of the priests when they presented the waveoffering () before the Eternal. The hands were first moved horizontally, then vertically upward and downward to form, again, the pattern of a cross. Similarly , the tent of meeting, the ark of testimony and wherever in Scripture anointing was commanded, our Jewish authorities declare that, with the exception of the coronation of a king, the anointing was always done in the form of a cross. In the case of a coronation it took the form of a circle round the head. It is none other than Nachmanides who admits that symbolism underlies all pertaining to the Tabernacle and its economy. But we must not stay too long in the Wilderness. We have other steps to take, and the next Scripture-recorded stepping stone of Passover celebration brings us right into the Promised Land with General Joshua in the plains of Jericho. (Joshua 5:10) From this stone we leap down the ages to the next, right into the reign of King Solomon, son of David (II Chronicles 8:13), and, at last, in this monarchal atmosphere we are surely justified in discovering the Magen David symbol; but it has not replaced the cross; it stands alongside it, for now, during the , the Feast of Unleavened Bread, occurred the waving of the , or wave-sheaf, on the second day of the Passover Feast, or the 16th Nisan. According to Rashi there was symbolism in the manner of its presentation, it being waved horizontally and vertically. Again we see the symbol of the cross.
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Now, carrying with the twin Jewish symbols of the Cross and Magen David, time demands that we spring rapidly across the next two Passover stepping stones in the reigns of Hezekiah (II Chronicles 30:15) and Josiah, respectively (II Kings 23:21), and stand upon the sixth and last in the Tenach, that of Ezra after the return from Babylon (Ezra 6:19). So, Tenach gives us record of seven Passover celebrations – one foundational and six commemorative and I feel we are again confronted with Divine design in this display of numerical pattern. Seven is the number of perfection or completion, but this first of Israel's Festivals is key-signatured with the number eight as well as the number seven, for Passover was on the 14th day and the Feast was for seven days afterwards, extending through the 21st thus making a total of eight days. Where, then, do we find the record of the seventh commemorative Passover which is also the eight celebration? Well, eight is the number of a new beginning in Scripture and, if we are now willing to advance where symbolism points our steps, we shall reach the unexpected destination to which I referred at the outset of our journey. The record of the eighth celebration or seventh commemorative observation of Passover is found in the New Testament where One, Who by virtue of His Davidic descent had good claim to the symbol of the Magen David, received a circular coronation with a crown of thorns and shed His atoning blood upon a cross, thus combining in Himself all that Tenach made eloquently implicit in the twin symbols. What shall we say then of the columnist's expostulation with which I began this message? Only that the juxtaposition of the two symbols finds nothing but harmony in Scripture, whatever else may be the case with the paper that covered the hoops.
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Shavuot: The Feast of Weeks MY DEAR FRIENDS, David Lloyd George, at his speech at the Queen's Hall in September, 1914,
uttered words which I would like you to hear because I feel he spoke a deeper truth than he himself imagined. This is what he said: God has chosen little nations as the vessels by which He carries His choicest wines to the lips of humanity to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to strengthen their faith. . . . I have no doubt that Lloyd George's words were true within the context in which he uttered them; but if we lift them into the higher context of spiritual values their truth is unimpeachable. Where spiritual values are concerned no nation on earth has ever contributed so much, nationally, as the people of Israel, of whose choice for this very purpose we read these words in Deuteronomy: "The Eternal did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people – for ye were the fewest of all peoples. . . ." (Deuteronomy 7:7) The little nation of Israel has indeed been the national vessel by which the Eternal has carried His choicest wines to the lips of humanity. Innumerable hearts have been rejoiced down the ages; the horizon of mankind's vision has been exalted to the heavens above; and faith – that elemental essential for the soul's sustenance – has been strengthened down the full stretch of the corridors of time and history. You will remember we are currently exploring the symbolic wonders of Israel's three great national festivals, the first of which – the Feast of Unleavened Bread – we have considered in past messages in relation to the "Egyptian" and "Commemorative" Passover celebrations respectively. The second festival, to which we now turn, is known by several names, indicative either of the eloquent interval which separates it from the first feast or else by the agricultural atmosphere which marked its celebration. In the former category we get such names as , Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:10,16; II Chronicles 8:13); Feast of the Fiftieth Day, or Pentecost (Josephus, Jewish Wars, ii.3,1; Acts 2:1; Acts20:16; I Corinthians 16:8). In the second category it is called , Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16) and , Day of the First Fruits (Numbers 28:26). It will present itself in both these aspects as we now draw from it its rich and instructive symbolism.
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Here are the Divine instructions: "And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the waving; seven weeks shall there be complete; even unto the morrow after the seventh week shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall present a new meal-offering unto the Eternal. Ye shall bring out of your dwellings two wave-loaves . . ." (Leviticus 23:15-17) Thus he first and second festivals are separated by an interval of seven sevens of days, but joined together by – bread! Yes, bread is both the distinctive common element that unites them and also the element that distinguishes them one from the other. The distinguishing feature between the two festivals is that whereas during the entire first festival – known as – all leaven was proscribed and banished, in the case of the second festival, , it was Divinely commanded that the two wave-loaves be baked with leaven. The Hebrew word describing the unleavened bread of the first festival is
which comes from
the root meaning "to drain out"; the Hebrew word describing the unleavened bread of the second festival is , which comes from a root meaning "to devour" and "to fight." Indeed, it is very interesting to note that the Hebrew word for war itself is , derived from this very root. There is eloquent symbolism here, for leaven is emblematic of the corruption of sin. The uniting symbolic feature suggested by bread is LIFE. In the first festival, following the shedding of blood of the Paschal Lamb on the 14th Nisan, a sheaf from the barley harvest was reaped just as the sun went down on the 15th Nisan and the ensuing was presented on the 16th Nisan from which day the complete specified interval was to be counted and exactly on the 50th day – again the morrow after the Sabbath – two wave-loaves prepared from the wheat harvest were waved before the Eternal. The most ancient Jewish tradition, dating back to the very dawn of the Common Era, affirms that the Day of Pentecost was the anniversary of God's descent in fire upon Mount Sinai when He bestowed the Law upon Israel. Moses Maimonides, in his Moreh Nevuchim ()describes the significance of
(Feast of Pentecost) in delightful language. He says: Just as one who is expecting the most faithful of his friends is wont to count the days and hours to his arrival, so we also count from the omer of the day of our Exodus
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from Egypt to that of the giving of the law, which was the object of our Exodus, as it is said: 'I bare you on eagle's wings, and brought you unto Myself.' But, my friends, let us not forget that if the First Passover brought joy to Israel, the First Pentecost brought sorrow, for Israel's disobedience of the golden calf immediately following brought death to 3,000 souls. There is in this total symbolism a most arresting tie-in with the New Testament which is not discernible on the surface and, unless we are willing to follow boldly where the Tenach patterns point us, we shall loose much that is beautiful and of paramount value to us. Let us trace some of these amazing parallels. Within the circle of the first festival we find atoning death as the symbolism of the Paschal Lamb; but this is immediately followed by the banishment of leaven and the reaping of , or wavesheaf, which was presented , the morning after the Sabbath, and which was waved before the Eternal in the form of a cross. Here we have symbolically presented a banishment of sin, and a representative resurrection – for it was only one sheaf that was reaped. The remainder of the barley harvest still awaited the reaper. The New Testament expressly declares the atoning death of the prophesied Messiah at this exact season and His resurrection , the morrow after the Sabbath. In Tenach we have the figures 40 plus 10 associated with Moses and God's descent in fire on Mount Sinai on the Day of Pentecost. In the New Testament we have the same figures 40 plus 10 associated with the One of Whom Moses spoke in the eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, and again on that fiftieth day, the Day of Pentecost, God descended in fire as recorded in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which I comment you to read. As we have seen, the outcome of Israel's First Pentecost was the death of 3,000 souls by the sword of judgement. Are we to gain no instruction from the fact that the outcome of Israel's New Testament Pentecost was the immediate bestowal of spiritual life and upon exactly 3,000 souls, as Peter the Jew wielded not the sword of judgement but the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And the 3,000 souls? Oh! yes, they were represented by the two loaves baked with leaven; leaven because, like Israel's Messiah born of the Holy Spirit, these were sinners born of the fallen Adam.
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And the two loaves? Why, of necessity, of course. Although the majority of the 3,000 were Jewish believers and receivers of Israel's Messiah yet there were among them a few Gentiles proselytes and later centuries saw the number of Gentiles Messiachites multiply, thus producing a loaf proportionately as large as the Jewish loaf. Both the barley wave-sheaf of the first festival and the wheaten loaves of the second festival were waved before the Lord in the form of a cross and both were stamped with the symbolic keysignature of a new beginning as indicated by being offered , the morrow after the Sabbath. We have traced the symbolism of this first feast and watched it arc the sky of man's need like a blessed rainbow of heavenly promise. Life is its essence. Life, Messiah's Redemptive Bestowal, the product of His ACT. Anyway, didn't our father Jacob prophetically declare: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, . . . 10 until Shiloh shall come and unto him shall be the obedience of the peoples." (Genesis 49:10) Surely the second great symbolic festival shows forth the Individual Fruit in Messiah's Redeemed Peoples, the product of His ABSENCE.
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The Eloquent Intervals MY DEAR FRIENDS, over the last twenty years the eyes and interest of people everywhere have been
drawn to the notable discoveries of archaeology, many of which can only be described as revolutionary. Such expressions as "Dead Sea Scrolls" are on the lips of multitudes, very many of whom, hitherto, would have had no interest whatever in areas of research described by such a long title as archaeology. Yet the art and activity are packed with fascination and any well-written book on the subject grips the reader like a fiction mystery story. Seated comfortably in imagination's speedy vehicle, we visit the scene and behold the alluring "tell" or mound of earth rising its challenge above the surface of the surrounding terrain and bidding defiance to our questing spades. I myself have stood atop Beth-shan's seventy feet high "tell" of debris and beneath my feet were sequences going back to the middle of the fourth millenium before the Common Era. Moreover, be it noted, archaeology's new-gained knowledge is not itself like the antique objects it unearths, to be stored on some shelf and admired with the eyes of curiosity. On the contrary, this knowledge is formative knowledge, corrective knowledge, galvanic knowledge, the kind of knowledge that must have effect on current faith and outlook. But there is another kind of archaeology equally valuable and equally fascinating. Shall I call it spiritual archaeology? The clash and counter-clash of human conflicts down the ages have stirred up the dust and debris of human opinions, prejudices and distortions to such an extent that the treasures of Biblical Divine revelation lie buried and lost beneath the rising "tell" of tradition. In order to conform to contemporary popular thought, man has devised ingenious adaptions which, even with the – I almost said, inevitable – passing of the thought, nevertheless, leaves the adaption which thus adds to the dust of obscurity that shrouds the Scripture treasure. In our recent messages we have been exploring the spiritual ground presented before us in the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus. We saw three challenging mounds beckoning us to excavate them and behold their buried treasures. These three spiritual treasure-cities were Israel's three great annual festivals: 1.
Feast of Unleavened Bread
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2. 3.
Feast of Pentecost Feast of Tabernacles
Our questing spades have already probed the spiritual and prophetical – O! yes! Prophetical – values of the first two. We found these to relate, so far as time was concerned, to Messiah's ACT and Messiah's ABSENCE, respectively; so far as issues were concerned these referred to Life as Messiah's Redemptive Bestowal , and to Individual Fruit as displayed in and by Messiah's Redeemed Peoples. We are now eager to turn to the third great mound of promise which we shall find is related to the National fruit as displayed in Messiah's Redeemed Nation – Israel. But before we sink our spades into the soil and unearth our treasures from the third mound, we must not fail to enjoy the interesting and instructive features presented by the Eloquent Intervals that separate our spiritual "tells" the one from the other. We may view these Eloquent Intervals (a) agriculturally, (b) chronologically, (c) typically and (d) prophetically. Agriculturally, the first feast commemorated the commencement of the harvest by the waveoffering of the , the first ripe sheaf of barley, , the morning after the Sabbath. The second feast marked the full accumulation of the corn by the waving of the , the two wave-loaves.
The third feast, distanced well away from the others, celebrated the approach of the new harvest beginning, for all the crops had been long in storage, the fruits collected, the vintage over and the land, having thus brought its fulness to the birth, now awaited the fresh impregnation of the "latter rain" to prompt its blessed fruitful cycle once again. Chronologically, Passover occurred on the 14th of the first month, the first feast immediately following and lasting for seven days, bringing together, therefore, the figures 1 and 7 with their resultant total 8 for our spiritual notice. Leaving a chronological gap of 7 times 7 days from the barley wave-sheaf, it was the fiftieth day that witnessed the waving of the two wave-loaves of the wheat harvest.
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Now comes the long interval. Right at the other end of the chronological period, on the 15th of the seventh month known as Tishri, came the Feast of Tabernacles. Typically, the first Eloquent Interval points to the interval elapsing between the resurrection of Messiah and the birth of His special or built up of redeemed individuals. Just as the single barley sheaf, representative of the rest of the crop, was separated from that crop and waved before the Eternal the morrow after the Sabbath, so the Messiah, as representative of that humanity with which He graciously identified Himself, rose from among the dead the morrow after the Sabbath. Just as the period "forty days" is associated with our great Teacher Moses so, too, the period "forty days" is associated with the One of Whom Moses spoke. Moses spent two periods of "forty days," at the end of each which he descended from the Mount of Awe with the successive editions of the Law. The first edition was written by the Finger of God, but due to man's sin, as demonstrated by Israel's action at the Golden Calf, the man Moses broke those initial tablets into pieces. This was a symbolic action, I am sure, indicative of the fact that all descendants of the First Man, the First Adam, through the inherited consequences of the Fall of Man, were unable to keep perfectly that Law of God. The second edition of the Law was written by the finger of Moses and presented to Israel at the end of the second forty days when Moses again descended from the Mount of Awe. This also was a symbolic action indicative of the fact that there would be a Second Man, a Last Adam, Who would write the second edition of God's Law with the finger of His Own Perfect Life. Thus as Moses, the Mount and the Law are associated with the figure 40 – the Scriptural number of testing – so, 40 days after His resurrection, the Messiah, the Second Man, the Last Adam, ascended from a Mount, the Mount of Olives, having kept perfectly the Law of the Eternal and having, during the prophesied 8th recorded Passover, previously shed His atoning blood as the true Paschal Lamb of the Eternal. Following His Ascension there remained the 10 days – the number of governmental perfection – and on the fiftieth day – Pentecost – began Messiah's special or , symbolically represented by the two wave-loaves, one loaf representing, in my judgement, the Jewish Believers and the other the Gentile Believers. For did not the Prophet Isaiah declare this ingathering of Gentile Believers when, referring to Messiah, he cried in the Name of the Eternal:
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". . . It is too light a thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the offspring of Israel; I will also give thee for a light of the nations, that my may be unto the end of the earth." (Isaiah 49:6) As the First Feast and its following Eloquent Interval typified the ACT of Messiah and its fruit in individuals, so the Second Feast and its following Eloquent Interval typified the ABSENCE of Messiah, and during that absence the continued ingathering of individuals, Jewish and Gentile individuals, into His . Prophetically, so far as Israel as a national entity is concerned, the long second Eloquent Interval indicated Israel's long national when, during Messiah's absence, Israel nationally was not fulfilling his national function of being the missionary nation of God. From the prophesied destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. and the ensuing dissolution of the Second Commonwealth of Israel, God's great missionary enterprises have not been carried out by Israel as a nation. It is the continued
, congregation of the Messiah, that has translated the Scriptures
into a thousand tongues and proclaimed their blessed message to the ends of the earth. This is a commendable achievement, even though, admittedly, that Kehillah is full of faults and blemishes as indicated by the leaven which was Divinely directed to be present in the two loaves. But, look, my friends, that third mount of Biblical revelation beckons our spades. We shall commence excavating it in my next message, so be sure and be with me when we start to dig.
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The Day of Blowing MY DEAR FRIENDS, the human body is a very obliging vehicle. Although governed by the mind it
nevertheless graciously undertakes to perform certain tasks automatically, granting the mind liberty to occupy itself with other matters. For instance, ambulation becomes automatic, and our legs can carry us from place to place whilst our minds visit entirely different localities en route. The mind can be in Mississippi while the legs are in Los Angeles. Of course, particularly in Los Angeles, the city on wheels, there is always the possibility of the twain being brought together with a jerk. The clamant blast of a motor-horn has the power to return the mind to the moment even from so remote a wandering as the South Pole. Slap comes the arresting hand of the horn on the shoulder of the mind, spinning it round to the urgent matters of the moment. My friends, it is for just this purpose that the horn is used in Scripture. To arrest and alert the mind to the momentous. The first arresting horn-blast ever to be heard in Biblical record was sounded in the third month after the Exodus from Egypt (Exodus 19:1) on that stupendous occasion when God Himself uttered its note as He descended in fire on the Mount of Revelation. The spectacle of the Mount of Awe was indescribably transfixing but, in addition, it was then that the people heard . . . . . . ". . . the voice of a horn exceeding loud . . ." (Exodus 19:16) It drew Moses to the Mount (Exodus 19:19,20) and made the people tremble and stand afar off (Exodus 20:18). Strange how Moses went one way and the people of Israel the other. Of course, we must remember that Moses was the mediator between God and the people. If the first recorded use of the Hebrew word is arresting, so is its second employment; for the actual word appears no more in Scripture until the 25th chapter of Leviticus where it blasts out another arresting proclamation.
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As we have seen, the first proclamation produced fear; but, as we shall see, the second proclamation produced joy. And what was this second occasion? None other than the blessed announcement of Israel's Jubilee Year and the proclamation of liberty it brought with it. At the end of each cycle of forty-nine years the Divine instruction commanded: "Then shalt thou make proclamation with the blast of the horn on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make proclamation with the horn throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty . . . unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you . . ." (Leviticus 25:9-10a) Blessed proclamation! What has turned fear into joy? What has intervened to bring about this happy transformation? Well, that's a question worth answering; let us see if the Scripture will yield more treasure to our questing minds. That Hebrew word (Shofar) comes from the root and, therefore, "pleasing."
, meaning "to be brilliant, beautiful"
It was a loud-sounding instrument mad out of the horn of an animal, sometimes the chamois or ox, but usually the ram. Indeed, the term horn."
is now almost synonymous with the expression "ram's
and it comes from a root meaning "to roll," hence "to be strong" and, appropriately, the first use of the word in Scripture is in Genesis, chapter 15, The Hebrew word for "ram" is
where the Eternal makes an unconditional covenant with our father Abraham following Abraham's justification by faith whilst still uncircumcised. (Genesis 15:6) The second appearance of the Hebrew word for "ram" is significantly connected with Abraham's offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah when, instead of Isaac, a thorn crowned substitutionary sacrifice was Divinely provided (Genesis 22:13). As Abraham Mayer Heller puts it – and here I quote him – The rams horn is also a reminder of the moral heroism of our forefather Isaac who was ready to offer his life as an expression of his loyalty to God, the ram being the
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substitute which God provided. The sounding of the Shofor serves as a reminder of the giving of the Law and of the eventual coming of the Messiah. The Tekias shofor [ ], therefore, is the trumpet call to the duty of sacrifice for God, Torah, Israel and humanity. (The Vocabulary of Jewish Life, p.83) That is the end of the quotation. Well now, with our spiritual spades, we dug beneath the layer of English language that formed those two words "ram's horn," and we have penetrated into the Hebrew layer of meaning beneath. We have found that the first word, "ram," is associated with the "Old" Testament demonstrations of justification by faith (Genesis 15:6) and the thorn-crowned substitutionary sacrifice (Genesis 22:13) and, happily enough, it is our blessed father Abraham who figures in each demonstration. The second word "horn" switched our thoughts from Law and its fear to Liberty and its joy and we are now to see, by the same interesting process, that it is the very truths outworked by Abraham that makes possible this happy transition from fright to freedom. Incidentally, here's another fascination little fact for you. That English word "Jubilee" which you heard me quote in connection with the freedom at the fiftieth year (Leviticus 25:10) appears also in the Hebrew for the first time in connection with the fear at the fiery Mount. (Exodus 19:13) The word in Hebrew is and it signifies a protracted, prolonged sound (Exodus 19:19) and yet another word, , indicates the strong, arresting character of that prolonged blast of the horn.
It would only want one blast of that motor-horn in Los Angeles to jerk our wandering minds back to our physical needs, but I guess we do need a prolonged blast of God's horn to pull us back to our spiritual needs. Anyway, God must have thought so for He set aside a whole day in the year for the blowing of horns. It was called , "day of blowing." (Numbers 29:1)
, means "to cry aloud," "to shout," and this "day of blowing" forms one of the regular or "appointments" of Israel and is Scripturally designated , This word,
Solemn Rest for the Memorial Blast of the Horns. Tradition – admittedly ancient – has called this holy convocation "Rosh HaShana" which means "The New Year," but, as Abraham ibn Ezra correctly observes – and here I quote him – "Nisan is reckoned as the first month, because in it Israel was delivered from Egypt and it is the spring of the year."
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Abraham ibn Ezra's words are not only confirmed by Exodus chapter 12, but the words of Leviticus, chapter 23, are themselves like the blast of the shofor in our spiritual ears:
24 "In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of horns, a holy convocation." (Leviticus 23:24) Truly, the Scriptures declare the first day of the month Nisan to be the New Year (Exodus 12) and the first day of the seventh month Tishri to be the "day of blowing" of horns, yet, over the years, tradition and custom have not only changed the Biblical system but, according to the Mishnah, have actually bestowed upon Israel's year no less than four commencements: 1st Nisan for the religious year; 1st Elul (the sixth month) for tithing flocks and herds; 1 st Tishri (the seventh month) for the civil, sabbatical and the jubilee year: and 1st Shebat (the eleventh month) for fruits of trees. However, returning from human tradition to Scripture truth, let us seek the answer to the question we asked earlier. What wrought the change from fright to freedom? Well, the first shofor-blast was associated with a Divine Law we couldn't keep, but the second shofor-blast was associated with a Divinely-provided atonement for sin (Leviticus 23:23-27). Truly, atonement makes all the difference between fright and freedom and the thorn-crowned ram is, equally truly, the symbol of that Divinely-provided substitutionary sacrifice which makes the transition possible to every human soul who reacts to God's horn-blast of revelation as did our blessed father Abraham.
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The Day of Atonements MY DEAR FRIENDS, if of Israel's Passover we ask, "Why is this night different from all other nights,"
surely we might well ask of Israel's Day of Atonement – "Why is the Day different from all other days?" Yet, remarkably enough, if I ask such a question I will receive at least two distinctly different answers! On the one hand, the answer of Holy Scripture and, on the other hand, the answer of Human Speculation. Unfortunately, the Holy Scripture has been relegated, like the so-called "scapegoat," into "the wilderness" of forgetfulness, into "a land not inhabited" by interest or understanding, because the Human Speculation has been elevated to a throne of acceptance and invested with an authority to which, I am persuaded, it is not entitled. May I present to you what I believe to be the answer of the Holy Scriptures? I seek this privilege because I am convinced the Biblical answer will bring you the same satisfaction and soul-comfort that it has brought me. You will find the Divine ordinances relative to the Day of Atonement recorded in Torah, in Leviticus, chapter 29 (v.11) and, as a foretaste of the crystallization of human custom, may I say that I cannot trace anywhere in Scripture where the day is called , Day of Atonement. In the Hebrew it is always the plural – Day of Atonements (Leviticus 23:27,28). The differences that were embossed upon the Biblical
(Day of Atonements) were
many and far reaching. The Day itself was different; it was a , "a sabbath of sabbatism." For the people there was a difference for they had to fast and "afflict their souls" and it is worthy of note that this was the only fast appointed by command of the Law (Zechariah 7:1-7; 8:19 does not refer to Mosaic Law). There was a marked difference in the service, too, these consisting of a sweeping series of grand expiatory sacrifices, for of the High Priest on that day it is written: "He shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting, and for the altar; and he shall make atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the assembly." (Leviticus 16:33)
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There was a difference, too, for the priesthood because the ordinary priests were set aside and the High Priest alone was permitted to officiate. Nor was the High Priest himself free from this distinct mark of differentiation, for he had to discard his ordinary High Priestly dress and assume a garment of pure white unique to the day. Moreover, the occasion was different in that, on this one day only, the High Priest entered into the awe-inspiring Holy of Holies where dwelt the Shekinah Glory of the Eternal God. Even as to Biblical record the day is different for, in addition to its place in the general flow of Scripture, it has a special chapter in Leviticus, chapter sixteen, specially allotted to it. It would require a whole series of messages to do justice to the glorious symbolism of the ceremonial of this "different" day, therefore I can refer but to two fundamentally important facets. Let me introduce the first feature by inviting you to capture the meaning of the Hebrew word translated "atonement." The root is and its radicals are first used in Scripture in Genesis 6:14, in which verse it appears twice, where the patriarch Noah is told to prepare an ark:
. . . ". . . and . . . pitch it within and without with pitch." Here is the thought of a Divinely instituted and initiated protective covering against the flood waters of judgement, which is precisely the meaning attachable to the word itself. In the Levitical economy, that which provides the Divinely instituted and initiated protective covering against flood waters of Divine judgement is described by Moses in these words:
11
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life." (Leviticus 17:11)
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Here we discover another great difference. The difference between paganism and Revelation. The practices of heathenism disclose man, by sacrifices, seeking to pacify God; whereas the Scriptures teach that God Himself shelters man by the Divinely provided covering of atonement. The advent of the so-called "scapegoat" is another distinguishing feature of
. Let me
briefly outline the ceremony; you will find its symbolism quite startling. Two goats were placed facing westward towards the sanctuary and with their back to the people. The High Priest then cast lots:
. . . ". . . one lot for the Eternal, and one lot for Azazel." (Leviticus 16:8) The goat upon which the lot fell for the Eternal was set aside to be slain later. The other goat, the so-called "scapegoat," was then turned around to face the people whose sins were laid upon it. In the meantime, the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place with the blood of the bullock now slain, then the goat for the Eternal was slain and its blood conveyed within the Most Holy Place, after which the goat for received the High Priest's attention. Laying his hands upon its head, the High Priest confessed over it, and here I quote: ". . . all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of an appointed man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land which is cut off; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness." (Leviticus 16:21, 22) Here, indeed, is eloquent symbolism, for the two goats constitute one sacrifice: one being killed, the other "let go." Strikingly enough, there is only one other offering analagous to this, the case of the ceremonial purification of a leper where, using birds instead of animals, one bird was slain and the other, touched with the blood, was let go.
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The pair of birds is used to show forth the sinful disposition inherent in human nature, symbolized by leprosy; the pair of goats is used to show forth the contracted guilt inevitably issuing from such a disposition. The word
literally means "goat of departure" derived from a root meaning "wholly to go
away" or "wholly to be put aside"; and I ask you to note that it was not upon the goat slain that the sins were confessed, but upon the goat freed! This arresting feature has been strangely overlooked and I feel its understanding is important. What does it mean? My friend, one of our Jewish compilers has place two Biblical quotations together under the title "scapegoat." The first quotation is from Leviticus 16 and reads: "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, . . . and shall send him away . . . into the wilderness." The second quotation is from Isaiah 53 and reads: ". . . He was wounded because of our transgressions . . . and with his stripes we were healed." This Jewish editor has placed those two quotations together with an aptness only equalled by the placing together of the two goats. For both are needed to explain the Divine mystery of redemption from sin. The blood of the slain goat indicated that animal sacrifice, Divinely appointed, did make "atonement" or "covering" for sin. Yet the repetition of such sacrifices to a God-intended lack of finality which is further evidenced by the fact that the confessed guilt, though symbolically transferred from the people to the freed goat, was only removed "into the wilderness." And surely it was in the howling wilderness of man's spiritual need that Israel's Promised Messiah, the One Whom Isaiah prophesied, took up and brought to finality an atonement fulfilled and completed by the shedding of His own redeeming blood. I am very impressed by the record of tradition which enjoins that the "scapegoat" must be handed over to a non-Israelite, a stranger, to be led forth into the Wilderness. Was not Israel's Redeeming Messiah turned to face the people and then led by non-Israelites, the Romans, to the wilderness of Calvary's Cross?
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Surely, happy the individual, Jew or Gentile, who understands the question: Why is this day different from all other days?
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The Feast of Tabernacles MY FRIENDS, it was Benjamin Franklin who said:
Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them. (Poor Richard 1733) Be that as it may, the feasts we are considering were not the product of fools. Indeed, it was the Eternal God Himself Who prepared the feasts we are currently enjoying, for God's command had gone forth to Israel in these words:
14 "Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in a year." (Exodus 23:14) However, it is true that wise men partake of these feasts. We have become wiser by participation, for the very food itself is wisdom. We have found the three feasts of Israel to be packed with prophecy. The first feast, (the Feast of Unleavened Bread), with its associated appointments, (Passover), and (Wave Sheaf), highlighted Messiah's Redemptive Bestowal of Life.
The second Feast, (Feast of Pentecost) with its (Two Wave-Loaves) highlighted the Individual Fruit of Messiah's Redemptive Bestowal as seen in Messiah's Redeemed Peoples. The third Feast, (Feast of Tabernacles) is now before us for our spiritual banquet-fare, and what a hopeful, satisfying feast is awaiting us, for it testifies of the National Fruit of Messiah's Redemptive Bestowal as seen in Messiah's Redeemed Nation, Israel. To give you a quick and comprehensive grasp of this last and most highly significant of Israel's Divinely-appointed Festivals, let me draw your attention to some of its salients: First. Its keynote was JOY. Of this glad occasion our Mishnah declares: He that has never seen the joy of the Beth ha She'ubah has never in his life seen joy. (Sukkah 5:1)
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Second. For full seven days participants in the feast were to dwell in "booths" or
(Leviticus
23:42,43) from whence, of course, the feast gets its name; these were constructed of tree branches and, weather providing, they remained in these most picturesque structures to sleep, eat, pray and study. This was a regular, joyous coming aside unto the Eternal in gratitude and particularly in memory of Israel's great deliverance from Egypt. Third. The offerings associated with this feast were utterly peculiar to it. On all seven days the sinoffering of "one kid of the goats" was made together with burnt offerings of bullocks, rams and lambs, but – and here's the point- whereas the other offerings remained constant each day, the case of the bullocks was different. These began with thirteen on the first day and decreased by one each day until reduced to seven on the last day of the feast. Do please capture this point for it is most interesting and highly instructive. I have already referred, in previous messages, to the significance of numbers in Scriptures and the consistency of their employment and association throughout the entire Bible of both the "Old" and the New testaments; and the association is sound evidence of the One Divine Mind behind these Sacred Writings. Now, thirteen is the number of rebellion and seven the number of spiritual perfection or completion. Thus the bullock offerings point to the process from rebellion to perfection. That's interesting, isn't it? Moreover, this last of Israel's great prophetic feasts fell on the seventh month, preceded by the blowing of the Shofar on the first of the month and the Day of Atonements on the tenth day of the same month. Indeed, seven seems to saturate the whole Divine ordinance. A total of 70 bullocks were offered during the seven days. This is a remarkable coincidence with the 70 nations itemized in Genesis, chapter 10, and since 70 is 7 x 10 the figures point to ultimate spiritual completion or perfection even amongst the nations of the world. This is in line with the general trend of the prophetic Scriptures which teach that when Israel, as a nation, is brought back to his former true faith and mission, the Gentile nations will similarly be brought into Divine blessing. How clearly the prophet Zechariah indicates this when he declares of the latter days:
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"And it shall come to pass, that everyone that is left of the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Eternal of Hosts, and to keep The Feast of Tabernacles". (Zechariah 14:16)
Is it not very touching and in quite in harmony with this thought that, in Temple times, Israel offered sacrifices for, and interceded for, blessing upon all the Gentile nations of the world. Very few seem to know this. Sad that so many of those nations have responded only with hatred against Israel. Seven is seen in these sacrifices in yet other ways. For instance, the 14 rams (7 x 2), the 98 lambs (7 x 7 x 2), and the 70 bullocks (7 x 10) make a total of 182 offerings (13 x 7 x 2). To this we may add the 336 tenths of ephahs of flour employed in the meal-offerings (48 x 7) making a grand total of 518, again a saturation of seven! I strongly suspect that this remarkable figure seven is locked into Israel's prophetic destiny in a highly significant manner. You will recall that, in the amazing prophecies of Moses as disclosed in Leviticus, chapter 26, the Eternal God pronounces a chastisement upon Israel of a duration designated as "seven times," a protracted period during which our people Israel was to be overshadowed by the Gentile nations of the world and left to their meagre mercy. Now, here is something exceedingly interesting. I don't want to make too much of it, yet I think it arrests our attention. The Scriptures themselves employ occasionally an equation between a year and a day whereby the latter is made to stand for the former. Thus a year, by Hebrew Scripture reckoning regarded as containing 360 days, is symbolically set forth as 360 years. In addition, the Scriptures themselves call a year a "time." Now, purely from a point of interest, let us take this by no means imaginative scale and let us apply it to the "seven times" of Leviticus 26 and see where it land us. "Seven times" would be seven "year days" or 360 x 7, which totals 2,520 years. Let us assume, then, that God through the lips of His servant Moses indicates that Israel nationally shall cease to express himself as an independent nation for 2,520 years. How does that work out? In a most interesting fashion I can assure you, for it was in the year 586 B.C.E. that Nebuchadnezzar extinguished the flame of Israel's independent national entity and Israel has, ever
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since, remained subservient to and dominated by the Gentile nations until, on May 14, 1948, David ben Gurion rekindled that flame of independent national entity. From Nebuchadnezzar to Ben Gurion could well be a period of time equaling 2,520 years or "seven times." Whatever minor discrepancy exists could doubtless be accounted for by the well-known difference between Hebrew method of time-reckoning and that employed by Gentile nations. If there is any validity whatever to this speculation – and speculation I admit it is – then the newborn State of Israel will not suffer any permanent extinction but is here to stay and to be brought back into felicity and fellowship with the God of Covenant faithfulness. Is it not also interesting to observe that from the Biblical Passover to the Biblical Sukkot is seven months which on the same time-scale, also equals 2,520 years. What do you make of it? Whatever our views of these figures, Israel's feasts undoubtedly contain a prophetic content, and a hopeful note is disclosed when we observe that is also called "the feast of ingathering" (Exodus 23:16; 34:22) and "the feast of God" (Leviticus 23:39). Ingathered to God! What a joyful feast for Israel! May it come speedily!
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Conversation and Confidences MY DEAR FRIENDS, I am confident that you are all familiar with that culinary process known as
frying an egg. The uncooked egg is domiciled in the hot pan and we behold its erstwhile fluidity transformed into semi-rigidity. The albumen becomes coagulated, and that venerated, heartwarming, respectable, homey and comfortable-looking object, popularly known as a fried egg, duly appears. In this coagulated form, the egg retains both its popularity and its food value. All it has lost is a measure of fluidity, which is an advantage rather than the contrary. Probably I could enlarge on this somewhat fascinating theme except that the egg is really not my subject, merely my illustration; for, in this particular message, I want to reverse the process and unfry the egg. Revert from fixity to fluidity. Uncoagulate! I want to leave the field of fixed format of my messages – valuable though that format be – in order to address all my listeners in even more personal strain than usual. You know, editors of magazines and papers do this sort of thing. The valuable and happy routine of the magazine is occasionally and wisely interrupted by what we may call an editorial break-through. The prosaic form in which an editorial break-through appears is usually under such a caption as, say, "A Chat with our Readers." The editor, as it were, steps down from his official rostrum and engages in a printy perambulation among his readers engaging them in a more intimate converse and confidence. He uncoagulates. Now this is precisely what I want to do on this occasion. I want to converse with you more intimately and to share some confidences and this seems a good place to do so, for we have been together for over hundred separate messages exploring the wonders of our sacred Jewish Scriptures. Approximately the first quarter-century of these addresses was devoted to the careful examination of the wonderful prophecies of Ezekiel and a comparison of them with the amazing restoration of Israel to statehood among the nations of the contemporary world, coincident with the rise of a great anti-theocratic totalitarian power north of the Land of Israel. The interest these particular Ezekiel messages evoked pushed them into print in a little book entitled "PERIL FROM THE NORTH" which has already run through several editions.
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The hearty response to the Ezekiel messages, both here and overseas, confirmed a conviction I had felt for many years. In this unfortunate age of unrest and feverish rush, it is understandable that so many seek escape in entertainment, which entertainment must inevitably possess an ever-increasing crescendo of sensationalism or foolishness or extravagance in order to attest and retain the interest of our hurried and harried humanity. Now this is just where I want to share a confidence with you. Following the conclusion of the Ezekiel messages, and riding the surfboard of consequent public acceptance on the crest of the wave of interest they created, it would have been very easy for me, at that juncture, to have embarked on a program of superficial entertainment. To return for a moment to our illustrative egg, it would have been quite a simple matter for me to have whipped up the "white" of the oratorial egg and presented you with a mere meringue, attractive, no doubt, in initial appearance but lacking very sadly essential food value. However, my former conviction, now fortunately abundantly confirmed, led me to the assurance that in spite of the unrest of the age – or perhaps indeed because of it - there really existed a genuine hunger for deep spiritual verities rather than airy superficialities. This brought me to the decision to lead you carefully through the books of our precious Jewish Holy Scriptures, beginning right at
, G
, and thus unfold to you all some of the rare and precious "TREASURES FROM TENACH."
ENESIS
Of course, I realized at the outset that this banquet table of spiritual fare would be adorned with dishes, many of which would call for an acquired taste, particularly when our courses included the somewhat delicate intricacies involved in the Levitical feasts and offerings; however, I determined to present you with a full omelette, flavoured with the pristine Jewish herbs of Divine revelation and I knew full well that some of the extra ingredients of this Biblical omelette would take a little chewing. In short, I knew that enlightenment rather than entertainment would, perforce, be the menu of my messages. How glad I am that I made this decision to enlighten rather than to entertain. Now let me round off our study of Leviticus by giving you a parting epitome of its total contents. Its keynote is "HOLINESS" and its early chapters describe the way to God, and its later chapters, the walk with God. These sections are glued together, as it were, by the supreme basis of fellowship between God and man, namely, Atonement. For, as Rashi so well translates this passage of Scripture – ". . . it is the blood with the life that makes expiation." (Leviticus 17:11)
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In this wonderful book we see Divine principles outworked in symbolic presentation, unparalleled in beauty and fascinating in facet. Substitution, mediation, imputation and death all speak their eloquent message to lead us joyfully into separation, sanctification communion and life. The land of Israel is a very dominant theme in the last three chapters of Leviticus and no less than thirty references are made to it and, once again, I urge a careful reading of that tremendous twentysixth chapter relative to the Diaspora and the Return. In short, the dominating figure in Leviticus is Israel's High Priest; the highlighted chapter of symbolic wonder is chapter 16, on the Day of Atonements. The magnificent melody that permeates the whole book is fellowship with God through His Divinely provided means of sanctification; and the supreme injunction is "ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy." (Leviticus 19:2) The Book of Leviticus constitutes a Divine demand that we recognize sin and understand its nature and devastating effects; this same book of Leviticus embodies a further Divine demand that we recognize God's insistence upon a spiritual redemption from sin and that we also bow in obedience to God's revelation of the character of that redemption, namely, substitution. The offerings disclosed a Divinely provided METHOD by which estranged man could approach a holy God in sweet communion. The priesthood disclosed a Divine principle of MEDIATION, for no man was permitted to bring his own offering to God, the presentation had to be made by one who stood between God and man. The feasts disclosed a Divinely portrayed panorama of prophetic purpose whereby these principles could be symbolically outworked as MODELS pointing to Messiah, His Redemptive Bestowal, and His Resultant Reward in the redeemed peoples and the redeemed nation – Israel.