The God of Celebration and Rest (Walk Thru the Bible Week 8)

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Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12-month journey through the most exciting

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book on the planet.

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It will transform your life one page at a time.

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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible

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to life.

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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.

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Well, hey there, and welcome back to Walk Through the Bible.

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This is week 8.

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We are really progressing, and I hope that you are enjoying the read through your Bible

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this year along with me.

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Today we're going to talk about what is in the Daily Bible, pages 219 to 256, or it's

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the dates of February 19 through the 25th in the Daily Bible.

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First of all, let me say that if you're not using the Daily Bible and you're using our

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downloadable reading guide, that's great.

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I hope it's working for you.

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You're going to be a little frustrated this week and next week because of the way that

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the Daily Bible has put together all the laws, and so it's pulling from here and there.

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You're having to go back and forth to do your reading.

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If at all possible, I really encourage you to get the Daily Bible.

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It has these wonderful daily summaries that really help lead and guide you through your

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reading each day.

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It's so helpful.

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Of course, if you can't afford it, if you really want to use your own Bible, that's

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fine.

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I'm here for you, and so each week I'm giving a really quick recap of what we're reading

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and pulling out some key lessons for you.

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I also want to mention that we have started another series to complement Walk Through

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the Bible, and it's called Going Deeper.

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We have already aired our first two Going Deeper series, which were on the evidences

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of the Israelites in Egypt and evidences of the Exodus, and we have one coming up next

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week.

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I want to make sure that you're taking advantage of the Going Deeper series.

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They're not required, but just some added interest for those of you that want to go a

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little deeper in some of the subjects.

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Last is that when we finish our 12th week, we're going to do a little quick review for

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the quarter.

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So I really encourage you to send me your comments and send me your questions.

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You can do that on the outofzionshow.com page.

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There's an area there where you can leave your comments and questions.

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I really encourage you to do that.

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I want to hear from you.

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And when we do our first quarter review, I'm going to answer some of those questions.

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And it'll really help me to know where you are, how you're following, what your questions

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are, how we might do this better for you next quarter.

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So please let me hear from you.

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Okay, let's review what we've been studying.

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We've been studying the Israelites have come out of Egypt.

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They are in the wilderness and they lost the opportunity to enter the Promised Land because

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of their lack of faith.

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So they have been wandering in the desert for 40 years, that time's coming to an end.

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And they are about ready to enter the land.

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And we hit the pause button.

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We put the story on pause while that now we're going to review all the laws that God gave

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the Israelites in the Sinai and in the wilderness wanderings.

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This way, all the laws are put together in one section neatly organized, explained, and

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it's much, much easier to follow.

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So this week and next week, we are in the law before we pick up our story again.

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Now, the law sounds boring, doesn't it?

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But what we learned this week is that our God is a feast loving God and he gave them

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some really great ways to remember what he's done for them and to teach their young people

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what he's done for them and to honor him and to celebrate him.

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And that's what we're going to talk about today.

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Before we get there, I just want to talk about a couple of things that we read this week.

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We read, first of all, all the laws against idolatry and against paganism, against witchcraft

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and against divination.

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And so we see now that God has made it very clear to his people that he is against the

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pagan religions that they're going to be surrounded by.

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He is absolutely against them.

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And there's three reasons for that.

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First is he's a jealous God and he doesn't want his children, the Israelites, or you

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and I to be following after other gods.

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So that's number one.

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Secondly is he wants his people to be different.

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He doesn't want them to mix in with the pagans.

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Why?

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Because once you cease to be different, you cease to be.

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They would be just swallowed up by the pagan peoples around them.

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They would intermarry and before you know it, they're gone.

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So he wants them to be separate and to be different.

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But also the pagan worship, he says, is detestable to him.

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Those things are just abhorrent to God and he doesn't want his people to have anything

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to do with them.

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Then we went and we read a section about the ceremonial laws and we began about the first

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fruits, the offering of first fruits.

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And we also read about the importance of tithing.

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And so I just want to bring out two quick observations here in this section.

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And one is that the whole offering of the first fruits is to remind us that in the end,

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everything belongs to God.

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In all of our abundance, all of our harvesting, our crops, our fruits are all because God

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was good and he brought rain and he brought sunshine.

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And it all comes from him.

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And so we need to give back to him and honor him for that.

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Also in the tithing, God set up a system whereby tithing was the provision for the priest,

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for the Levites.

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They didn't have an inheritance in the land.

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They were provided for by the people through a system of tithing.

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So it was very important.

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Then we read about all of the laws about offerings and about purifications.

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Now I bet you dinner that you skimmed, huh?

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You skimmed right through a lot of those laws.

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I know.

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I did too.

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How can we learn from them?

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Or first of all, all of the laws about offerings show that we are to approach God with something

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in our hands.

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We are not to come to him empty-handed.

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We're not to hold back.

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We are to recognize how generous God is with us, how much he's given us, and we are to

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then approach him with something back.

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It's a recognition that everything came from him just like the first fruits.

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But it's also a recognition that we owe everything to him.

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And so we make these offerings to him.

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But there's also something about the offerings of making restitution.

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And there is a lot of ceremonial purification.

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And that is to teach us that our God is a very holy and righteous and pure God.

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And he cannot have fellowship with sin.

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He can't have fellowship with us if we don't come before him in purity and in righteousness.

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And so because of God's great love for his people, he provided a way for them to make

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restitution and to purify themselves so that they could come in and have fellowship with

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God.

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That's how much he loves us.

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That's the lessons that we have from all those laws about the ceremonies, the offerings,

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the ties, and the purification.

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So now I want to focus on one of two major things that we're going to talk about today.

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And the first is about the Sabbath.

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Very, very interesting concept here.

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The Sabbath goes all the way back to the very beginning and the creation story.

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It doesn't begin here with the Mosaic Law.

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It begins in creation.

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God created the world in six days.

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And on the seventh day, he ceased from creating and he rested.

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So Sabbath, the rest on the seventh day, is actually an integral part of who God is.

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We serve the God that created the world and that God rests on the seventh day.

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So it's a part of who he is.

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And therefore, it was a part of the Ten Commandments.

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It's a basic principle that we are to honor the Sabbath.

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Why?

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Because we serve the God that honors the Sabbath.

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Secondly, it's to give us time to spend with him on that day of rest.

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He was very clear in the law that we were to spend that day with him.

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So he loves us and he wants to have fellowship with us.

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And that's how he wants us to spend that seventh day of rest.

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But in the Mosaic Law now, the Sabbath takes on a third significance.

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It's not just because of who God is as the Creator God.

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And it's not just so that we would have time with him.

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But it becomes a sign of the Mosaic Covenant.

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It becomes a sign of their obedience to the Mosaic Covenant.

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You know, I once had a Jewish person explain it to me in this way.

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The Sabbath was to the Jewish people like a wedding ring is to a married couple.

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It's a sign of this covenant of marriage between God and his people.

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So let's talk about a wedding ring.

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What does a wedding ring do?

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Well, first of all, it's a reminder.

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Every day I put on my wedding ring and it's a reminder of the wonderful marriage that

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I have, the wonderful spouse of his love for me and of my love for him.

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And it's just a reminder.

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It's like I take him with me during the day.

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But secondly, this wedding ring also marks me as married.

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So to those around me, they know I'm married because of my wedding ring.

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So the same thing with the Sabbath.

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The Sabbath is a reminder to the Jewish people that they are in covenant with the God that

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created the universe.

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And because he's a Sabbath observing God, they are to observe the Sabbath and they are

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to do it as a sign of this marriage that they have with him.

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That obeying the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath would also set them apart from all the other

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peoples.

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And throughout history, you could look at a Jewish person and see they were observing

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Sabbath and it was a sign, oh, you're Jewish.

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You're a part of that covenant.

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So that's the role that Sabbath took on with the people.

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Now how did they observe it?

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Well, in the law we read this week that they were not to kindle a fire on the Sabbath and

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they were not to work.

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They were to cease from their labors.

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So this is where the rabbis come in and they decide, well, what is labor?

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Is this labor?

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Is that labor?

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Well, how much of that is labor or not labor?

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And they came up with tons of restrictions and clarifications to this law because the

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people didn't want to violate the Sabbath and they had lots of questions.

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Well, can I do this?

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Can I do that?

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And the rabbis would make these rulings.

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Well, no, you shouldn't, you can walk this far, but you shouldn't walk any further than

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that.

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That will be considered labor.

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And so then there became disagreements between different rabbis over what was accepted on

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the Sabbath and what wasn't.

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And it was different rabbinic interpretations or different rabbinic rulings.

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And we see this in the time of Jesus.

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So actually in the New Testament, Jesus never disagreed with the observance of the Sabbath.

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All he did was sometimes disagree with a rabbinic ruling about what was allowed on the Sabbath

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and what wasn't allowed on the Sabbath.

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So that's important to know.

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Now today, a Jewish family observes the Sabbath.

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They usually go to synagogue to pray.

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And another common traditional observance is the Friday night Sabbath meal.

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Now if you and I were Gentiles, if you didn't grow up in a Jewish family, you may have never

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experienced a Sabbath meal.

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It's really a very lovely, special time.

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And if you ever watched Fiddler on the Roof, you would have seen it in Fiddler on the Roof.

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So we see the Friday night dinner with the white tablecloth and you have two candles

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and the woman does a blessing over the two candles.

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And there's a blessing over the beautiful braided bread that's called khala bread.

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And there's giving thanks over the wine.

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And there's a special blessing over the wife from Proverbs 31, over the Proverbs 31 woman

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there and a special blessing over her.

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And then the father blesses each of the children.

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It's a really lovely tradition and it's beautiful to watch.

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And the sons are blessed that may they be like Ephraim and Manasseh.

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You might say, well, why Ephraim and Manasseh?

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And there's different theories.

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One is that they didn't fight with each other.

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The other is that they did well and excelled outside of the land of Israel.

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And then the daughters are blessed that may they be like Rachel and like Leah or like

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Sarah and Rebecca.

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And there's also the Aaronic or what we would call the priestly blessing.

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So that's like a traditional Friday night meal in a Jewish home.

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Really very, very special.

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But basically the Sabbath is the sign of the Mosaic covenant because it's a reflection

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of who God is.

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But it's also a sign of the special marriage covenant between the Jewish people and the

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God of the Sabbath, the God, the Creator of the universe.

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I will say that for you and I, we serve the same God and it's important to know that this

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is just an integral part of his character.

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And so when we observe Sabbath somehow in our lives, because it's part of the Ten Commandments,

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it's part of who God is.

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And without getting legalistic about it, rest is a good thing.

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And when we rest, our rest identifies us with God, the Creator, who created Sabbath.

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Our rest gives us time with him each week.

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And our rest demonstrates our trust in God.

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You know, it's easy.

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We have so much work to do.

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And I'll be honest, this is a real weakness for me.

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There's so much to do and it's like I just have to keep working.

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I've got to get this done today.

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But taking that time apart to rest demonstrates that it's not up to me.

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It's up to God.

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And so I give him that time.

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I tithe of that time and I give it to him in faith and in trust that all that needs to

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get done will get done.

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But you know, the Sabbath rest, it's like an eternal principle.

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It's much, much more than a part of the Mosaic law.

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It's much, much more than that it's a part of the Ten Commandments.

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It's a part of eternity.

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I think that the Sabbath rest is a picture.

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It's a hint of the beautiful peace and rest that we're all going to experience in eternity.

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And through Jesus, we can have a glimpse of that peace in our lives on earth.

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You know, Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28, He said, Come to me, all you who labor and are

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heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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And the writer of Hebrews 4 says that there's a rest for all the people of God, not just

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the Jewish people, but for all of us that are part of the family of God through Christ

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Jesus.

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There's rest for us and that we need to make sure that we enter that rest and that we don't

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fall into disobedience and miss it like the Israelites did.

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Wow.

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Now how did the Israelites miss the rest?

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This verse, if you read all of Hebrews 3 and 4, you're going to see what comes before

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it, is it's talking about the Israelites in the wilderness and that their disobedience

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caused them to miss and to not enter the land.

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That was where they were going to have rest was in the land.

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And you know how we've talked about how that the land for us is a type and a shadow of

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our salvation.

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It's a type and shadow that in Jesus we are to enter into a place in life of spiritual

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rest.

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And so Hebrews 4 is telling us, be careful, be sure that you enter into that rest because

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it's there for everyone.

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So I came across an interesting quote I'll end this section with.

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It said, the Sabbath was given before the Ten Commandments, but it was guarded by Israel

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for centuries and it was guaranteed in eternity to all who trust in the Lord.

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So that's Sabbath.

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Now we read this week that not only did God tell His people to observe the Sabbath every

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seventh day, but He wanted the land to observe the Sabbath every seventh year and that there

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would be no crops and that the land could rest.

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Why?

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Because in Leviticus tells us in Leviticus 25, because it's His land and He wanted it

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to rest like He does.

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And then He set into place the Jubilee year.

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So after every seven cycles of seven years, which is 49 years, the next year was to be

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the year of Jubilee.

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That's the 50th year.

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Now this was mainly about property ownership, that property rights, the property was to

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be released and go back to the original owner and Hebrew slaves were to be released.

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And this practice of the Jubilee actually fell out of practice once the Israelites were

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in exile because it pertains to property rights in the land and outside of the land they were

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unable to observe it.

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It's interesting that God put into play, this is a pretty radical observance when you think

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about it, that every 50 years debt is forgiven, slaves are released and property goes back

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to the original owner and it's as though God provided some way within society for there

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to be an intergenerational poverty alleviation that somebody that somehow fell into hard

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times and lost everything, that there was a second chance.

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And something that our young people are crying out for, some kind of what they call social

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justice.

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I don't like the term, but here God actually put into the law some type of economic justice

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for the people.

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And I wish our young people knew this because they think that the Bible is against what

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therefore, which this term about social justice.

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And at another point, Jesus, when he began his public ministry, announced that the year

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of Jubilee had come.

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So Jubilee, this cycle of every 50 years, it's key to God's economy and to God's times

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and seasons, he works in Jubilee cycles.

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And we saw it in the history and I just don't have time to go into that.

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We saw it.

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Now I want to keep moving though.

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Let's talk about the priestly blessing.

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I referred to that earlier that they repeat that on the Sabbath and we covered this scripture

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this week also.

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The Aaronic blessing, Aaron was the high priest, so it's named after him.

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The Aaronic or priestly blessing, which is very well known.

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It reads this way, the Lord bless you and keep you.

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The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

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The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

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And then after that's the blessing and then afterwards it says that so that they shall

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put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them.

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So the high priest, the priests were to repeat this blessing and in so doing they were putting

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the name of God on the people and he would then bless the people.

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Well when this blessing is done, the high priest would put their hands in a formation

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where their thumbs were together and then their four fingers were divided into two.

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And what this did is this would cause the sign of the Hebrew letter, a sheen, and sheen

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stands for Shaddai, which is God Almighty or one of the names of God, Shaddai.

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And the sheen is known as standing for the name of God.

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And so the priests would make this formation in their hand as though putting the name of

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God on the people when they pronounce this blessing.

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It's very, very special.

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I will say that if you are a Star Wars fan, it is the same sign of the Vulcan.

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So I think some Jewish writer of Star Wars stole it and used it, but I kind of laughed

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that in Star Wars they're putting the sign of the name of God.

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So now let's get back to our notes.

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When, okay, this verse, the priestly blessing is it was written out on little parchment

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and put into little called an amulet, which is like some kind of jewelry ornament, something

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that they would wear around their neck or hang on them in some way.

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And when they travel long distances, they like to have this amulet with this blessing

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in it.

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And one has been found that is from 850 years before Christ.

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So that makes this verse the oldest known parchment of Scripture that has been found

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thus far.

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It's the priestly blessing and it's because they produced probably many copies of it for

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people when they traveled to wear around them the priestly blessing.

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So isn't that neat?

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850 years before Christ.

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That's from the first temple period from the time of Solomon that they have found this

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parchment of this verse.

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Wow.

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Okay, let's get on.

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Our time is quickly moving by.

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Our title this week is a Feast Loving God.

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He's a Sabbath loving God and he's a feast loving God.

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And I love that in Leviticus this week we read where he tells the people of Israel the

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various feast days that they're to celebrate.

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And of course you can do a long teaching on each one of their feasts.

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They are so full of rich spiritual insight and principles and types and shadows and we

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don't have time to do that.

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But I do want to say just a few comments before we end our time together.

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The Feasts of the Lord, first of all, are the Lord's Feasts.

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These are not Israel Feasts.

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They're not Jewish Feasts.

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They are called in Leviticus 23.

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He says these are my Feasts.

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So once again the people of Israel need to celebrate and to observe these Feasts because

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they're of the God that they serve.

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And that's why they're so rich in meaning.

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So the first one is the Feast of Passover which is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread

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in the Scriptures.

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And of course we know the story because we've just covered it in our reading about the freedom

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of the slaves, the Israelite slaves from Egypt, the Exodus, the Red Sea Crossing.

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And God says, I want you to celebrate every year to remember how that I set you free as

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slaves from Egypt, what I did for you.

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And this is a way of remembering.

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It's a way of celebrating, but it's also a way of passing it on from generation to generation.

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And what is so exciting is to stop and think that, I mean, how many years now?

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3,500 years later, the Jewish people are still remembering and celebrating and observing this

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and remembering how that they were set free as slaves.

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So a part of the tradition which has developed over the years is a Passover meal.

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And it's called the Passover Seder.

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Now the word Seder in Hebrew means order.

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So it just means it's the order of the meal, the things that you're supposed to do during

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this meal for remembrance.

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And so there's always bitter herbs and salty water.

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And that's to remind them of the bitterness of the bondage and of the tears that they

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cried, the salty tears that they cried.

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But then there's the lamb and the shank bone of the lamb.

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And that's to remember the sacrifice lamb on their behalf and that the blood was put

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on their doorpost and that they were saved because of the blood of the lamb.

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And of course, there's matzah, unleavened bread that they eat to remember the unleavened

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bread because they had to leave so quickly they couldn't let their bread rise.

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And all these things, very tradition, it's a way of remembering every year.

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Well, this week we have a special episode of our Going Deeper series where we talk with

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an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, Shmuel Bowman, and we talk about the Passover, what it means

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to him and to his people and to his family.

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And so please join us back.

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We'll later this week, we'll talk more about the Passover.

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It just so happens this week as we are recording this series.

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Now, if you're listening to this series at some other time of the year, I apologize.

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But if you're listening on the first, as we release this episode, this week does begin

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Passover this weekend.

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So it's the perfect time to be talking about this and to have Rabbi Bowman on with us.

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So I hope you enjoy that.

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The second great Feast of Israel, there's three of them.

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The first one is Passover.

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The second one is the Feast of Weeks.

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And Hebrew, that is Shavuot, Shavuot meaning weeks.

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Unfortunately, we know this festival from its Greek name, which is Pentecost, Pentecost

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meaning 50.

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So the weeks, it's seven weeks.

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And then on the next day is the day of Pentecost, the 50th day.

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This Feast of Israel or Feast of the Lord is associated with the grain harvest.

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This is when they harvested the barley and the wheat.

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And so it's very much wrapped up with the agricultural year.

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But the rabbinic tradition is that it was on the 50th day after the Exodus that God gave

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the law the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.

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So it is a commemoration of the giving of the law.

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Now I'm going to talk about this again when we get to the book of Acts, but I just want

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to bring it up quickly here.

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That on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, it was a beginning

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of the first fruits of the church, of the harvest.

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And it was in the new covenant where the law is to be put in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

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So it's all wrapped up.

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You can't make this stuff up.

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But these are the types and the shadows.

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These are the rich spiritual meaning that we get from these Feasts of Israel.

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So I encourage you to study them in more depth.

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The last one are the Fall Feast.

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And most Christians that are, they're familiar with Passover because of Jesus' depth and

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resurrection on the cross as our Passover lamb.

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And we get that.

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And then we're familiar with Pentecost because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the

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book of Acts.

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But when it came to the Fall Feast, very few churches ever even mentioned the Fall Feast.

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And that's why the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, the founders of that organization,

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understood the need to begin celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles and teaching the churches

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about the Fall Feast because they hadn't been fulfilled yet.

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So there was a lack of understanding of what they were about.

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They're prophetic.

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They're about a coming event.

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Now I will say 40 years later, not only are we still celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles

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in Jerusalem every year, but churches all around the world are celebrating the Feast

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of Tabernacles.

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And they understand the meaning behind this, but 40 years ago we didn't know the meaning.

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And we have the three feasts that are a part of the Fall Feast, the Feast of Trumpets,

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which is the Rosh Hashanah or the beginning of the New Year for the Jewish people.

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And then 10 days later was the day of Atonement.

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This was the day that the High Priest went in to the Holy of Holies and that the Atonement

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was secured and was accepted by the Lord and sins were forgiven and the scapegoat was

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put out into the wilderness.

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That's the day of Atonement.

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And then following that was a seven-week celebration, the Feast of Tabernacles.

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And the people of Israel were commanded to celebrate for seven days.

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So we don't have time to go farther into the meaning of the Feast, the Fall Feast, but I

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want to give you a resource in just a minute.

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If you'd like to understand more about the Feast of Tabernacles, I have the perfect little

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booklet for you.

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So just hold on with me a few more minutes and we're wrapping this up.

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I want to say that these are the Feasts of the Lord and they indicate something very

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deep in who God is and in his timing and his seasons.

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And so it has been said that all of history can be divided up according to these things.

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And I want to go back and just say quickly about the Sabbath.

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There are rabbinic traditions that say that after 6,000 years that there will be a 1,000

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year of rest.

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And that's what we in the Christian terminology call the millennium.

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And if that's true, I have to say that we are very close to that time where the 6,000

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years are up and we're going to enter into that 1,000 year Sabbath rest of the millennium.

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But we can also look at all of history according to these Feasts of the Lord, the three Feasts.

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And it can be said that the period of Passover was from creation up until Jesus' death

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on the cross as the Passover lamb.

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And then the season of Pentecost began with the day of Pentecost, the outpouring of the

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Holy Spirit and we're still in the season of Pentecost.

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But then when the Lord comes and that millennium reign begins, we will enter the time of tabernacles

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where we will tabernacle with the Lord and we will celebrate with Him.

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Is that not exciting?

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It's just really amazing, I think, when you look at these types and shadows and the rich

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spiritual significance of there's just layer upon layer upon layer of meaning that we can

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take away from what we read this week.

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So I hope you enjoyed this.

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One last point and I will wrap it up.

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I know I've gone a little long this week, but there's so much to talk about.

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Did you notice in your reading that 12, 13, maybe 14 times, the Lord said, and when you

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go to worship or when you go to present your offering or when you go to present your sacrifice

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in the place that the Lord will choose, you're to do it this way.

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Did you catch that?

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Well, where's the place that the Lord would choose?

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You know, they didn't know where that place really was for several hundreds of years until

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it was chosen, Jerusalem.

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And the temple was built and the Lord told David, actually this is when the tabernacle

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was put there and the Lord told David, this is the place that I have chosen.

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And then Solomon built the temple there and the Lord confirmed to him, this is the place

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that I have chosen.

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Well, I know we covered a lot.

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Our resources this week, join me in a few days.

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We're going to have the Going Deeper interview with Rabbi Shmuel Bowman talking about Passover.

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We also have a little booklet, Easy Read, that's going to tell you all about the fall

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feasts and the feasts of tabernacles and the meaning there for the church today.

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So please take advantage and get a copy of that little booklet.

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You'll be linked to all of this in today's show notes, which are right below.

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So I will see you back here next week.

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I'm sure you're going to skim through again next week, but it's okay.

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I'm going to tell you what the lessons are that we have to learn from all the various

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laws you're going to be reading through next week.

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Hey, did you ever think that law was exciting?

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I hope you enjoyed today.

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I hope you'll come back next week and until then, God bless.