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Awesome Hands – part 85

“The judgments” Part P

August 26th, 2015

In the previous study we saw the Lord instituted periods of rest for His people. In this study, we are going to skim the surface of the times of feasts the Lord has given His people and what they mean in our lives today as Christians.

Three times a year

Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15  Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
Exo 23:17  Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
Exo 23:18  Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.
Exo 23:19  The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

There are seasons for all sorts of things in our lives. Though it is true that the study today will be covering feast times, even these times have hidden meanings which help us gain a better understanding of the Lord workings His will for us into our lives.

“There is a time for …. _________” and you can fill in the blank. There is a time “under the sun” for everything.

Ecc 3:17  I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

As beasts and sons of men, we should be concentrating more on what makes us sons of God. When we evaluate the verses at the focus of this study today, let us concentrate on how we should be applying them to our daily lives and not only for specific times of the year.

Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15  Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

In the feasts that are mentioned here, we see three time periods which are obviously separated by varying degrees of time passing. In a “black letters on white paper” sense, we see that during the year the Israelites has to keep three particular feasts.

The first was to recognize their rescue from Egyptian slavery. All males must appear “before the Lord” to keep the feast of unleavened bread.

The feast of unleavened bread

This first feast symbolized a much deeper spiritual meaning for Jews which are inward and of the heart.

Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

We yearn for the praise of God, and to gain that praise we must spiritual partake of the feast of unleavened bread. In this feast, we fully recognize that Jesus Christ was the sacrifice made for all of mankind so that we could be freed of the spiritual bondage and death.

This is the feast which represents our savior coming into our lives and there is NO leaven permitted to taint this sacrifice and offering. This also represented the purist form, the purest form of not having any false doctrine in our lives because Truth – Jesus Christ – cannot be mixed with lies.

1Co 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
1Co 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
1Co 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Gal 5:7  Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Gal 5:8  This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
Gal 5:9  A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Yes, leavening represents untruth, lies and false doctrine. As we live out this feast in our lives, we must always be worshipping the Lord in Spirit and in Truth. We do this by always keeping in mind who Jesus Christ is to us.

We have been freed and we are now His workmanship. Selah.

The feast of harvest/firstfruits

The second feast we are studying today is one which continues to build upon who Jesus Christ is.

Jesus Christ is a Head and Body. He is a Father and Son. He is a Husband with a Bride.

Exo 23:16  And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field:

There are a few foundational things to remember about who it is we are in Christ Jesus. We are His body. We are his church.

The church is added to Jesus Christ at Pentecost. I am going to cover a few easily missed, but very important points, if one if just quickly reading through these verses.

Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

Yes, everyone that is fully brought to the “day of Pentecost” is brought to have the same mind and be in the same place spiritually. We must all be at the point Peter described as witnessing during this day of Pentecost.

Act 2:19  And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
Act 2:20  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
Act 2:21  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

One must call on the name of the Lord. Only we, as His body, know that “His name” is not simply the English words, “Jesus Christ”. His name is so much more than that.

However, calling on the name is not the only requirement that is made.

Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

One must also “receive His Word” and be baptized by the “washing of water BY the Word” (Eph 5:26). Receiving His Word is believing His Word.

Rom 10:6  But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
Rom 10:7  Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
Rom 10:8  But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
Rom 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The “day of Pentecost” comes to those who have a deceitful heart and to “the generation” which must shortly have these things come to pass in their lives.

Acts 2:40 tells us to “save yourselves” from this untoward generation much in the same way we are told to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”.

See, we are both taken from the field and left in the field. That is to say, the old man is taken, and the new man is left IN THE FIELD.

Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Mat 24:39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:40  Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

What is the field?

Gen 24:65  For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.

The “servant of the Master”, whether it be Christ presenting God the Father to His people, or His angels presenting Jesus to His bride, presents the Master to the future up and coming bride “in the field”.

Here is the field:

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
Mat 13:39  The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

Why is it important to recognize what the field is in context of these feasts the Lord is instituting in Exodus 23?

Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

These feasts are feasts which are to be kept daily while it is “to day”. The key to understanding the linking of the field to Exodus 23 and the feasts is that the field is the world.

We, as the children of God, are in the world but are not OF the world. We are in the field laboring, but are not OF the field.

It is true that we have been Of the field BEFORE Pentecost, but part of confessing and believing is being baptized into newness of life and being BORN AGAIN into something different.

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Joh 15:18  If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
Joh 15:19  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

“The ends of the world” are come upon us. What that means for us is that our LABORS are “in the world” but are not “of” the world, and this is CONTINUOUS.

Exo 23:16  And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

In Acts we just read that they continued daily breaking bread house to house. When we connect that Christ is the Passover and the unleavened bread is sincerity and Truth, when do we stop worshipping God in Spirit and Truth? The answer is we never stop.

If we see that the field is the world, then what we are SOWING in the world are the labors the Lord has given us, and those labors are not something that we need to guess about.

Mat 13:39  The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the REAPERS are the angels.

In “spiritual speak”, for those with eyes to see and ears that hear, Jesus could not have been any more clear. His messengers are the reapers who are told to sow to the field. The reason why is that “the kind of firstfruits” are just first in the process and the feast of INGATHERING of all of mankind will be coming upon everyone!

The feast of ingathering

Exo 23:16  And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
Exo 23:17  Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
Exo 23:18  Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.
Exo 23:19  The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

The three parts of this “year” we are reading about in this study is the process in which God is saving all of mankind. Therefore, we see that “all males” shall appear before God tells us spiritually that all “sons of God” must go through this process.

We cannot offer Truth and untruths during this process. That is to say, that God will not be mocked and anything that is leaven will be cast out of us.

As sons of God, we will be put through the fire but ONLY in our appointed time during this “year long” process of salvation of the Lord.

To bring home this point, Exodus 23:19 ends with “thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk”. Mike wrote a great article about this “seething”, but the word means to boil.

Boiling is a process to mature something whether for eating or purification. However, there is another connection that “seething” has to this conversation.

H1310
bâshal
Total KJV Occurrences: 30
seethe, 9
Exo_16:23 (2), Exo_23:19, Exo_29:31, Exo_34:26, Deu_14:21, 2Ki_4:38, Eze_24:5, Zec_14:21
sodden, 5
Exo_12:9, Lev_6:28 (2), 1Sa_2:15, Lam_4:10
boil, 4
Lev_8:31, Eze_46:20, Eze_46:24 (2)
boiled, 2
1Ki_19:21, 2Ki_6:29
ripe, 2
Gen_40:10, Joe_3:13
bake, 1
2Sa_13:8
baked, 1
Num_11:8 (2)
brought, 1
Gen_40:10
forth, 1
Gen_40:10 (2)
roast, 1
Deu_16:7
roasted, 1
2Ch_35:13
seething, 1
1Sa_2:13
sod, 1
2Ch_35:13

I am going to read the two verses that really bring out a spiritual concept for us on when we are to spiritually “seethe/boil” and when we are not to “seethe/boil”.

Gen 40:9  And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;
Gen 40:10  And in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe(H1310) grapes:

Joe 3:9  Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
Joe 3:10  Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
Joe 3:11  Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.
Joe 3:12  Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
Joe 3:13  Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe(H1310): come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

This is a process we are to keep in mind daily as hard as that is to do sometimes. When the time is RIPE, we have been told we are the reapers of the harvest.

However, when someone in our lives is NOT YET being worked with my the Lord, we are told not to try to bring the fire of the Word of God to that person because they have not yet even went through TRUE baptism.

They are still on milk of the Word.

Num 31:23  Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.

In order for us to live out these commandments of the Lord in Exodus, we must never despise those around us who do not know what we know or who could be being worked with but are still getting nourishment from the milk of the word.

The latter group must be placed into the “washing of the water by the Word”, the baptism of the “water of separation” of the old and new man before they can have the fire of the world start to burn up the wood, hay and stubble.

I hope this has helped expound upon the ways we keep these feasts in our Christian lives today and every day “unto the end”.