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Wedding Covenants By Veronica Ligteringen  (presented at Feast of Tabernacles, 2011 in Wellington NZ)

This paper will draw a thread of commonality through Old Covenant history and New Covenant developments, looking ahead to ultimate celebrations in the Kingdom of God. It will show that the Old Covenant is in fact a marriage, God with Israel. It will discuss symbolism and prophetic gestures in Old Covenant worship schedules and suggest an interpretation which may not be recognized by many people. It will show the Church in Heaven, celebrating a Festival with the Lord Jesus, the saints and our Father in Heaven to which all the angelic realm is invited. It will show that Jesus is the first of many to enter Heaven; the church will follow as the Firstborn of God’s children.

Chapter One.

The First Wedding Covenant

Sinai

God had rescued Israel from slavery. They had been oppressed and brutalized under the harsh and heavy hand of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. God brought the fledgling nation out of Egypt and led them through the wilderness and across the sea until they camped at Sinai in Arabia (Galatians 4:25) many days later. In Exodus 19:1-8 we read of a proposal God made to Israel.

The Proposal

He said, “If you obey my voice, hold fast to my covenant you of all nations shall be my very own. I will count you a Kingdom of Priests, a consecrated nation” God made Israel a once only offer. He invited them to enter a unique relationship with him and they would be his Holy People.  

The elders of Israel answered “as one” and Moses took their answer back to God. “Yes.”, they said. Thereafter God made a date with Israel, to come and visit 3 days hence.

God Came to Visit

Exodus 19:9-15, 16-25. Israel prepared for God’s visit. They washed and got ready. They congregated at the bottom of the Holy Mountain. They made sure neither man nor beast breached the barriers as no one was allowed to come up the mountain.

Jewish tradition maintains this covenant was agreed at Pentecost. So God’s visit was likely to be the day before. Israel had left Egypt on the 15th of the first month (after Passover), and they were now into the 3rd month. We shall consider the counting toward Pentecost later in the paper. God’s Festivals had not yet been revealed in their entirety.

God had put forth a proposal and Israel had agreed. Two willing parties were about to discuss the terms of their agreement. They would make vows based on this dialogue.

 Israel’s Role: Worship God and Love Each Other

Exodus 20:1-21. God visited and spoke with Israel amongst awesome signs. The mountain, Sinai, was covered in smoke and fire and it shook with the mighty rumblings of God’s voice, booming out his requirements should Israel follow through with their agreement. “Obey my voice.” He delivered to them the Ten Commandments. We know from  Jesus that he was saying in essence, “Love me with all your heart” and “Love you neighbor”. These two principles underscore what God expected. (Matthew 22:37-39).

Exodus 20:22-23:9 God gave instructions to his beloved about how their relationship would work and he gave them some rulings on managing and administering both the worship aspect of the agreement and the maintenance of a safe community with one another. Love God. Love each other.

The Worship Schedule

God invited Israel to meet with him regularly on a weekly basis on the Sabbath. He also scheduled in special events at certain other times of the year. Exodus 23:10-13, 14-19. Verse 16 in particular includes the required annual gathering to commemorate the meeting held at the exact time they were at Sinai forging of this covenant agreement with God.

This annual schedule was based on annual harvest seasons. However, Israel were in a wilderness, and had just been released from Egypt. There was no harvest – yet. This was the inception phase of their worship of the one true God. The agreement was not yet ratified, but God’s timing was perfect. You will see greater significance regarding harvest offerings in later chapters of this work.

God’s Role and His Part of the Agreement

Israel was to obey and love God, but what was God’s promise to them?

Israel and God had obligations both one to the other. He would do this, she would do that.

The Agreement Confirmed and Ratified.

Exodus 24. The people said with one voice “We will do what God has said.” (Verse 3, 7). Moses wrote everything God told him on a scroll and he read it out to Israel who in turn confirmed her participation in this covenant, and for the 3rd time, she said “Yes” (Exodus 19:8, 24:3,7).

Blood of beasts was sprinkled on the people and on the altar. On behalf of both parties this covenant was sealed.

The Supper in God’s Presence

Exodus 24:9-11. Immediately following the ceremony, Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders had been invited by God to come up the mountain. The cloud remained, showing God was still present with them. These elders, with Moses, saw God, The God of Israel, standing on what appeared to be pavement made of sapphires, described as a “sea of glass”. They saw God, and they ate and drank. You will see later in this paper that this “sea of glass” paves the way to God’s very throne. They enacted a later reality which was yet to be seen. They had been invited, as Israel’s representative group to attend what is to all intents and purposes, a marriage supper!

The Gift to the People

Verse 12-18. God then invited Moses to come further up the mountain and he would give to him two stone tablets on which was written the “law and commandments” which God himself had written. Moses and Joshua went up and Moses stayed for 40 days while God gave him specific instructions for the Ark of the Covenant (Chapter 25:10-16) in which these two tablets of stone were to be stored and protected. He detailed the Mercy Seat/Throne with its two cherubic sentinels guarding it. This Mercy Seat was to cover the gold plated Holy Ark of the Covenant. God would visit Moses in the Tabernacle (tent-like meeting house) in this Most Holy Place from the Holy Throne under which the two stone tablets were kept. It was from here that God would communicate with Israel via Moses. (Verse 22). While he was on the mountain, God gave Moses this gift for Israel (Exodus 31:18).

Worship

It’s Tabernacle, its Holy items for service are outlined in Exodus 25:23-27:21. The priests and their duties are detailed in Chapter 28:1-31:11.

The Sabbath Rest

To this point we have seen a Proposal accepted and confirmed by vows. We saw the Exodus 31:12-17.  The Sabbath signified this relationship, this covenant between a nation and their one true God. The Sabbath was sacred, not to be profaned. Genesis 2:1-4). The Sabbath of the 7th day declared this one God to be the very God of all creation and it was to be a lasting observance between God and Israel. God promised to care for Israel. It was like a perpetual “date” within the cyclic 7 day based calendar which highlighted to everyone that Israel was God’s chosen people, and in this context we realize she was his “bride”.

Israel promised to have God as their God, to love only him, to obey him. This 7th day Sabbath acknowledged him as Creator and as the God of the people and it was the identifying sign of this covenant between them (V 17). As a married woman wears a ring as a sign of her marriage, so Israel too “wore” a sign.

Chapter Two

Ritual and Pageantry in the Harvest Festival Celebrations

The Feast of First-fruits.

God gave Israel an annual worship schedule which was based on and coincided with the harvesting of crops. Exodus 23:16. “The Feast of Harvest, too, you must celebrate, the Feast of the First-fruits of the produce of your sown fields;”

In Egypt, God had saved Israel, rescued her from slavery. He had spared her firstborn children and had guided her as a nation, shielding her from Pharaoh, as she fled. He parted the great sea for her to cross safely. He gave her bread from heaven and water from a rock (Exodus chapters 16 and 17) and brought her finally to this moment when he made this proposal and she said, “Yes”.  She would love him only. She would obey him. He would care for her, protect her and provide for her. The Covenant was sealed (with blood) and the people rejoiced. The elders with Moses and Aaron went up the mountain and were invited to sup with God up on the mountain, standing on a pavement of glass, paved with what appeared to be sapphires. All the while the people below saw the cloud of fire and smoke showing them that their glorious God remained with them.

Israel Were Not Faithful to Their Vows

What started so well ultimately ended very badly as Israel proved unfaithful. (Chapter 32:1-33:6, Hosea 1:1 – 3:3, 9:17, Isaiah 1:1 – 31, 5:1-24). Israel quickly turned to idolatry and departed from the purity of the love which the Law (the 10 Commandments) was founded on. 

God showed mercy after their first lapse, but they nevertheless, still slid into idolatry and depravity over time. God persevered, for many generations but did eventually divorce her (Isaiah 50:1, Hosea 2:2).

Close Encounters – of the God Kind

What is important to this account however, is the semblance to marriage; two parties agreeing to mutual devotion and fidelity. This was the first of this type of covenant between God and a “holy Nation” on his great earth. It occurred on the second of the seasons of the Annual Holy Festival schedule. It was Israel’s 2nd “close encounter” with God. The first was Passover, when God saved them as the Death Angel “passed over” their homes. God had led them out of Egypt, across the wilderness, and cared for them up to this moment. God saved them and now entered a covenant with them akin to marriage.

This second “close encounter” was in the 3rd month and is declared to have been the Feast of Firstfruits, what we now call Pentecost. Pentecost means literally “count 50”. The church today only knows this festival by this name, Pentecost, and the concept of First Harvest is lost to them.

Israel had departed from Egypt on the 15th of the first month, now they were in the 3rd month and waited a further 3 days for God’s visit. Most likely this 3rd day was day 49 of the counting. The ratification of the Covenant was to be the next day. It is clearly timed to be. Pentecost, in those days was known as the “Feast of Weeks” and also called the “Feast of Firstfruits”.

Let’s look a the ritual God required of the people and priests for this Festival – remember we have just outlined a ceremony between God and Israel, the resemblance of which, to a wedding with wedding vows, a wedding supper and devotion cannot be ignored. God vowed to be their husband. They vowed to obey and be faithful to him only.   

Counting to Pentecost

Leviticus 23:15. Israel was to count the days to this Festival. This counting hinges on the Sabbath. Counting begins from the weekly Sabbath, which occurs during the Days of Unleavened Bread, in the Passover Season. This Sabbath was Day zero. Day One is the following day. In our contemporary Roman calendar this would be a Sunday. From Day One, seven Sabbaths or “weeks” were to be monitored, or counted. The seventh Sabbath is Day 49, and the 50th Day is the Festival of Firstfruits.

Somewhat can be said about the timing of Passover for it depended entirely on when the first grains of barley were ripe. If they were not ripe, it could not be the Passover, the people were to wait for the next month, then that new moon was declared the “first of the first month”, and Passover falls in the middle of that first month of their sacred year.

Peace, Freedom and Restoration

Reading further on in Exodus (Exodus 31:12-17, 35:1-3), we come to realize the Sabbath is a day of complete rest and freedom from the daily grind. One is freed to relax, to join in communion with God, to worship him.

This theme of freedom and restoration is borne out further in another type of counting of “Sabbaths”. Every seven years the actual land they lived in, the soil and every living being in the household were rested for a whole year (Leviticus 25:1-7). Now there was to be even yet, another counting. This counting was to be of “weeks of years”. Seven years was one “week”. The Seven Weeks of Years (7x7) is 49 years. Each 7th year, the Sabbath of the Land was observed. Seven of these land Sabbaths passed. The very next year, year 50 was a “Jubilee” year.

The Jubilee is a year heralded in with great celebration. Trumpets were blown on the 49th year on what we now call Yom Kippur in modern Israel; in our English Bibles it is called the Day of Atonement. The trumpets brought in a year of complete rest for land, animals and people (Leviticus 25:8-12). It is a sacred year “holy to you”.  

The theme of absolute freedom, liberation and restoration is borne out completely for Israel. This occurred every 50 years, so for most people it would be a “once in a lifetime event”. Freedom, rest, restoration, redemption is extremely important to God’s plan for mankind. Every Jubilee year, several things happened beside this complete rest.  

Exchange of property in this country was valued according to how many years one could “own” it until the Jubilee, if a few short years, then it became of lesser value, and if many years it was highly valued. This is because on the 50th year, each and every soul who was born Israelite was restored to their family and heritage. Israelite slaves were released; land was given back to its original family. Everything was returned to its place, including displaced people. It was a time of joyous celebration. It gave everyone a “new beginning” (Leviticus 25).

The counting to the Feast of Weeks, i.e. to Pentecost, is a forerunner, pre-emptive of this later and greater liberation and restoration seen in the Jubilee and is embedded in Salvation in Christ.  

Ritual and Pageantry of Firstfruits (Feast of Weeks – Pentecost)

To perfectly capture the Firstfruits pageantry, and the symbolism of that which these activities signified, one must go back to Passover/Unleavened Bread Festival. Recall that the Counting to 50 began the Day after the Sabbath which fell in the Passover week.

Day One had a specific harvest and harvest ritual acted out. Note, this occurred after the Passover sacrifice had been observed and occurred only after ripe barley was identified; it was 14 days after the new moon at the first of the months. On this First day of the Counting of the weeks (Leviticus 23:5-8) a special “wave offering” was given. This is a “harvest festival”. The people were each to take a sheaf (a handful) of their very first ripened crop and bring it to the priest (Leviticus 23:9-12). This was their “First of the Firstfruits”. This first sheaf of grain was to be lifted up as an offering to God. The action of lifting is for it to be accepted of God. (Some papers describe how this sheaf was to be prepared, into the finest of flour, sifted many times and mixed with incense, an “omer” of flour, but others describe it as a small tied bundle, a sheaf.)  

Nevertheless, the ritual is what remains for consideration. The Hebraic Roots Version is quoted here to describe this oblation. “… bring the sheaf of the firstfruits … unto the cohen (priest). And he shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh (God) to be accepted for you; on the morrow after the Sabbath, the cohen shall wave it….and you shall count …. from that day… seven weeks shall there be complete; even to the morrow after the Sabbath shall you number 50 days….” (Leviticus 23:10-16).

After the counting of the weeks to the 50th day, the people were to bring two loaves of bread. This marked the end of the barley harvest. At this point people were to “bring out of their dwellings two wave loaves… baked with leaven, for the firstfruits unto Yahweh (God).” (Verse 17).  

Passover to Pentecost; the wave sheaf, to the wave loaves are not separate observances but one intimately tied series of events connected in the participants’ schedule by counting days. These days could be likened to a betrothal period, when we understand that the fiftieth day was the day the contract between God and Israel as Sinai was sealed.  

Connections: Wave Sheaf/Wave Loaves

Aside from these wave offerings there were other sacrificial and assorted offerings, but for this account the wave offerings are most relevant. On the first day of the counting the wave sheaf ceremony was conducted, and on the 50th day the wave loaves (2) ceremony was observed.  

Let’s look at the similarities between these two Holy Seasons and see what binds them together into one.  

To re-cap, Israel was saved and released. After 50 days they entered a sacred covenant with their God. The Passover lamb was thereafter slaughtered annually on this same day, as it had in Egypt. For the First week following Passover, they ate unleavened bread – the Bread of Affliction. During this week of the Passover Festival, counting would begin toward the “Feast of Weeks”.

Seven Sabbaths passed from the “wave sheaf” offering on Day one. Then, on the day after the 7th Sabbath, on the 50th Day of the counting 2 “wave loaves” were presented to the Lord, as offering of the Harvest of the Firstfruits. Symbolically these wave offerings are extremely significant to New Covenant believers. Although it is hard to look back and see these ancient ceremonies in all their splendor, pomp and reverence alongside and as part of the early and later grain harvest festivals, these terms “first of the firstfruits” and Festival of the “Firstfruits” are significant to the Church of Christ.

In that there is a First Harvest, such terminology demands a following harvest or even harvests. A much smaller and single sheaf (an “omer” – a small measure indeed) preceded the later offerings of the Feast of Firstfruits, 2 wave loaves.  It was an early harvest in the agricultural year. (A later harvest was the Latter Harvest or the Feast of Ingathering – this was to be the 3rd encounter in the annual congregation for worship – Exodus 23:14-17) Our focus is on the very small initial First of the Firstfruits and then the Firstfruits harvest across those seven weeks, culminating in another ceremony, not a single sheaf this time but two loaves of bread. Both, the initial sheaf and later the two loaves were “lifted up” in offering to God.

Chapter Three

Old Covenant – a Shadow of Things to Come

New Covenant Moments Explain Old Covenant Ritual

The New Testament writers clearly link Jesus to the Wave Sheaf offering. He is the “first of the firstfruits” (1Corinthians 15:20-23, Hebrews 10:19). Surely Jesus is the wave sheaf. Further, the Church is identified as the “Firstfruits” (James 1:18, Revelations 14:4-5). Jesus is technically not a “harvest” to the Lord. He did not sin, so he did not need to be saved from sin, but he did die and needed to be resurrected and restored from the grave, and to ascend to glory. He did enter heaven before us. He is God’s “Firstborn among many brethren”. Jesus, the first born of flesh and blood, is the first of us to be resurrected and lifted up into heaven. The fact that there is a “Firstfruits”, and even a very “First” of the Firstfruits, demonstrates that the harvests are people. These are people who are resurrected and enter heaven.

I Corinthians 15, the “Resurrection Chapter” demonstrates how we die and are “planted” (buried) like a seed and rise up with a different, more glorious form. Jesus has preceded us into glory.

The ancient Harvest Festivals given by God to Ancient Israel, looked far into the future to Jesus and to the Church. The harvests used agricultural terms and typology for God’s plan of salvation. God is the husbandman, and people are the harvest. We who are declared to be the children of God are what this harvest festival pictures. Also just as we are “Firstfruits” and the Ancient Israelite Festivals annual schedule included a later greater ingathering, thus God’s plan does not cease with the Church, we are the beginning, the early harvest and are gathered as one harvest.

Linking the ceremony of Old Covenant rites with the reality of Christ, the lifting of the sheaf (or omer of flour) as an offering coincided with the scene in the garden at the site of Jesus tomb after he was resurrected (John 20:10-18). Recall that early in the morning on the “First of the Weeks” (John 20:1 - this is usually mistranslated to be the First of the Week), early that morning, Mary spoke with the resurrected Jesus; she was overwhelmed with relief and joy, to see him. Jesus was careful to tell her, “Do not cling to me” he said, “for I have not yet ascended to my Father”.

On this First Day of the Counting of the weeks, the wave offering of the first sheaf of the barley harvest was about to occur. It always occurred in the morning. People in the agricultural industry were not permitted to harvest their grain until this ceremony was completed. They were not to begin until after midday. This was because the ceremony was always completed, done and dusted earlier in the day. So even though farmers may not have been present in Jerusalem, they could carry on with their harvest, without directly seeing the ritual occur.

So on this day, the First Day of the Counting, when the priests were preparing for the wave sheaf offering, Jesus was telling Mary, do not cling to me (John 20:10-18 – particularly v 17). Jesus was the exact meaning this wave sheaf ritual referred to. Jesus was to be lifted up and to be accepted by the Father in heaven. Spiritual matters are beyond our comprehension, we do not understand how a being can be beyond time and space, but God is. Jesus was no longer bound by physical laws acting on a physical body. Nor is the Father.

Later that day and for the ensuing 40 days, clinging to Jesus was not an issue, he was with them constantly, instructing them from the Bible. Thomas was encouraged to touch Jesus. ‘See my hands where the nails were. Thrust your hand into my side where they pierced me’ (John 20:26-27.).

However, when Jesus was in the Garden, already risen and had met Mary, the Wave Sheaf ceremony was imminent and Jesus was to be lifted up to be offered to the Father as the First of the Firstfruits, acceptable in heaven. He told Mary he was ascending to His Father. The connection of the Ceremony to this exact time cannot be misunderstood. Jesus is the first of those who enter heaven. He is the first to be accepted in the heavenly realm. To say, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father…” implies that Mary and all the disciples of Christ, would follow him at a later date.

Christ goes in before us. His role as High Priest is about to begin at this point. He is no longer the slain lamb, but takes the precious blood (symbolically) he himself shed and now applies it to our sin, so we can be cleansed. We need a high priest in the heavenly realm to act on our behalf in the temple, heaven. There is much said of this in the Letter to the Hebrews, but that is beyond the scope of this article. Heaven is our ultimate “country of citizenship”.

Before moving on, the counting of the Weeks continued. On day 40 Jesus returned to the Father and remains there until even now. He returned to the Father, because the disciples were ready for their mission and Jesus was to return to the Father in order to send the comforter, the Holy Spirit, his own Spirit, to the disciples. The disciples were instructed to remain in Jerusalem until Jesus sent the comforter, and the counting continued.

Pentecost and the Holy Spirit

“Now when the Day of Pentecost was fully come” (Acts 2:1). Recall that the wave offering of the two loaves was conducted on this day. Early in the morning the disciples were all in one place. There were 120 faithful who congregated on this day at the temple in Jerusalem. Many Jewish people returned to Jerusalem for this Festival from many countries far afield. It is no coincidence that the Holy Spirit was sent on this day. The significance will be clear later in the paper. Recall also that on this day at Sinai.

Moses went higher up on the mountain to collect the gift God had for Israel. The gift God gave was the Two Sacred Tablets of Stone, on which were inscribed the 10 Commandments (written by God’s own hand). Has any nation on earth ever received such a holy item as this?

Weddings ….

For the purpose of this paper the covenant agreement and the 2 loaves are of great consequence. Notice, a wedding is a ceremony which brings two people (and their guests and witnesses) together to ratify an agreement which they had previously made. It allows opportunity for the two, to verbalize in public, a commitment they had made to each other in a bond of love. They are ready to make mutual vows toward one another. The Wedding at Sinai in no less a wedding, than any we would recognize today. The significant difference is that the parties were a “holy nation of priests” and their God. It is not easy to embrace this concept, but all human weddings are modeled after this wonderful relationship between God and his consecrated people.

The other difference is that weddings remain in place for the lifetime of one human. This covenant was for Israel “in all her generations” (Exodus 31:12-17). Remember the Sabbath signified the relationship Israel had with God, the Creator. That Covenant was governed by the Law, of which the Sabbath was part, guiding worship. The Sabbath focused the company’s attention on God, their Savior and Husband. The Sabbath was perpetually a sign of the relationship they shared with God.

…. and Anniversaries

Every year, at Passover, Israel remembered God’s wonderful feats of great power unleashed, in Egypt in order to save them. Israel saw God as their Savior and told their children about him, year after year. They declared how he protected them and guided them and performed wonderful miracles to bring them to Sinai safely. At Pentecost they annually celebrated the anniversary of the sealing of the Covenant. Aside from the sacrificial offerings, the prominent ceremony at this Festival is the ceremony of the “wave loaves”, which, as has been pointed out, are lifted up for God’s to accept as their harvest gift. They were remembering the Marriage and celebrating their anniversary with God. By doing this, they remembered their vows at Sinai, and they reminded God of his vows. The two loaves would seem to represent the two parties coming together to this ceremony. It was like a re-commitment, as they recalled their vows and renewed their commitment to one another.  

Unfaithful Israel

As mentioned earlier, eventually Israel’s unfaithfulness caused two things to happen. Firstly God took his protective arm from around her and she was overrun and ceased to exist as a nation. Secondly, he divorced her. Israel and Judah (both nations coming from a split in the children of Jacob), were consecutively invaded and all inhabitants of the land were taken captive, out of the land. The covenant existed only while the nation lived in the Land God had given them, the Promised Land.

The reason God cast her off, was because of idolatry, which spiritually, in this type of marriage covenant, is infidelity. She was as unfaithful, as a wife committing adultery would be to her man. (This sets the stage for what will come in the New Testament). The fault was not with God, the fault was not with the covenant itself, the fault was with the people and their unfaithful and faithless heart.

Later, some Jews, and only some, did return to Israel. They rebuilt the temple. It was from this stock, this remnant, that the Messiah was born. He is both Son of Man and Son of the Living God.

Looking Backward to See Forward

All the festivals of Israel have layers of meaning. New Testament history highlights that Old Covenant observances have New Covenant significance. They project forward prophetically to their intended reality in Christ. All Old Covenant ritual and ceremony was given to Moses at Sinai, so we benefit from looking back in order to look forward, with understanding, to a much later fulfillment in the New Covenant relationship between Christ and the Church of believers.

Passover Lamb

It is clear to most New Covenant believers that Jesus is the “Lamb of God”, “slain from the foundation of the world”, who “takes away our sins” (John 1:29, 1 Peter 1:19). That Jesus was crucified at the time of the sacrifice of the lambs, (as Jews looked back to Egypt, refusing to see Christ as their true Savior), our Savior’s death occurred at the appointed time. By this he is established as the true “Lamb of God”.

The Third Day

Jesus died and was buried. He rose the third day. Many accounts clarify that Jesus was in the tomb 3 nights and 3 days as he himself prophesied would be the sign of his Messiahship (Jonah 2:1, Matthew 12:38-40). He was in the grave from the evening (Matthew 27:57) after the lambs were slaughtered at the Jewish Passover. He was in the grave the High Holy Day (Matthew 27:62), the First Day of the Days of Unleavened Bread following on the heels of the Passover. He was in the grave that night and still in the grave on the Preparation Day (Friday - Matthew 27:62) while people were getting ready for the weekly Sabbath. He remained in the grave that night and through the weekly Sabbath (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1-2). This was three days and three nights, which had passed while he was in the grave. After this he was raised. By the following morning, after the weekly Sabbath, even when it was still dark, his grave was empty, he was “risen” (Luke 24:1-12, Matthew 28:1-10, Mark 16:1-14). He later began to show himself to his disciples. Mary saw him first and this is when he told her not to cling to him for he had not yet ascended to his Father (John 20:10-18). He asked her not to deter him. He told her to go and tell the other disciples this very thing. He was busy. He had to ascend to the Father, but he would see them all later (Matthew 28:10).

Perfect Timing of the First Ascension

The timing once again was perfect. This was the “morrow after the Sabbath”. This was the “First of the (counting of) the Weeks” (John 20:1) – most mistranslate this as the “first day of the week”, but it is the first day of the counting to Pentecost. To us it is just Sunday, but to the Jews of the day and to Jesus, and the disciples it is Day One of Fifty. On this day and this hour, the imminent annual enactment of the wave offering of the sheaf (or omer) was about to occur. Now, just as Jesus crucifixion coincided with the Jewish ritual, so also Christ’s responsibility on this day also. This first little lifted up, raised or waved, offering shows us that only one sheaf entered heaven (ascended to the Father). Only one entered Heaven at that time. Only one was accepted into God’s realm. This first wave offering shows Jesus as the firstborn and the first to enter heaven, and he enters on our behalf (Hebrews 6:19-20). From this moment Jesus’ shed blood has covered the sins of the repentant who believe in him and from this moment he was freed to begin the next phase of his duties – as our High Priest.

The Counting of the Days

For 40 days Jesus spent time with his disciples. This period is of paramount importance because he was completing their education, showing how he perfectly fulfilled scripture as the promised Messiah, he fulfilled the requirements of the Law, he completed this phase of God’s plan for mankind, as the first of the harvests, and he was now placed to enter heaven on our behalf in the true tabernacle to be our High Priest. On day 40 of the Counting, our Savior was taken up into the clouds in view of everyone, but only after he had given them some strict orders. “Stay in Jerusalem until you receive the promise from on high” (Acts 1:1-9, Luke 24:45-49).

The Gift from God (Not the Law on Tablets of Stone, but the Holy Spirit)

So Jesus was going to send the comforter from heaven. He had told them how imperative it was for him to leave them, so he could in fact send this gift. WE now know that that comforter is the Holy Spirit, sent to them at about 9 o’clock in the morning on Pentecost. This once again coincides with the performance of oblation in the Temple the lifting up of the 2 loaves. The disciples, all 120 of them received this Power from on high. The Spirit empowers them to build the Church. That very day 3000 people were added to the church and many thousands in the following days (Acts 2:1-41). People who repented, and believed in Jesus as Savior were baptized, going down into a watery type of grave, to rise up renewed. At this point the disciples (now apostles) laid hands on the believers and they too received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

The wave offering ceremony (2 loaves) was being conducted at the time of this wonderful miracle, as Jews was looking back to Sinai. However, Pentecost, for Christians looks forward to a wonderful event far into the future. It looks forward to the resurrection of the saints. It looks forward to us entering heaven. The Spirit seals us as God’s children (Galatians 3:26, 4:4-7, Romans 8:14) and all who are of this New Covenant, having “died” to the old, as part of the Church are betrothed to him. Jesus’ Spirit seals us. His blood covers our sins and sanctifies us. At Sinai, the people entered a covenant by agreeing to do all that the Law said. In the New Covenant, we enter the agreement by believing that Jesus saves and our hearts obey the bidding of his Spirit. Blood of animals ratified that Old Covenant. Jesus’ own blood seals us in the New Covenant.

Is it possible that the 2 loaves are the two parties who enter the marriage, together? Two parties say vows before God at a wedding. Is it possible that these two loaves are Christ and His Bride, the Church?

Mt Zion, Not Sinai

Notice what Hebrews 12 is actually saying to New Covenant believers. You have not come to Mount Sinai (Verse 18-29). “What you have come to is nothing known to the senses; not a blazing fire, or a gloom turning to total darkness, or a storm, or trumpeting thunder or the great voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them. They were appalled at the order that was given: If even an animal touches the mountain it must be stoned. The whole scene was so terrible that Moses said: I am afraid and was trembling with fright.  But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the City of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the Festival (Pentecost – Sinai was at Pentecost), with the whole Church in which everyone is a “first-born son” and a citizen of Heaven. You have come to God, Himself, the supreme Judge, and have been placed with the spirit of saints who have been made perfect: and to Jesus, the mediator who brings a new covenant and a blood of purification which pleads more insistently than Abel’s. Make sure you never refuse to listen when he speaks” (not like Israel at Sinai)”. The author goes on to describe our unshakable Kingdom when created things will all disappear, but God’s Kingdom remains. So we must hold onto the grace we have been given and “worship God in the way that He finds acceptable, in reverence and fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29).

Revelation 15:2 and 4:2-6 shows clearly that God’s elect, those who overcome and are faithful stand on the True Sea of Glass at the Throne of God in heaven. Revelation 19:6-9 describes much celebration. This is the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. Jesus will be wed in heaven to His beloved church. May we all remain faithful looking forward to this day. Stay in Jerusalem. Stay in New Jerusalem, waiting for the ultimate expression of the Pentecost Festival, waiting for the Marriage of ourselves to our Savior.

Christ and the Church

The duality here is unmistakable. Looking back to see what is ahead, we recognize Pentecost as the day on which God and Israel entered their marriage vows. We now look toward another wedding – Christ and his bride. We come to our place in God’s Kingdom, as the Bride, known in Heaven as New Jerusalem, with Christ’s very own blood sealing and purifying us. There is no mistaking that Pentecost is anything other that a celebration of our betrothal and wedding. So the logical realization is that the ritual – lifting of two loaves for acceptance by the Almighty Father is parallel to two people receiving God’s blessing of their marriage  and both – the new “couple” being accepted and welcomed into his home – heaven.

New Testament references to Christ and the Church now come alive. Jesus, in going to prepare a place for his bride so he can take her to himself (John 14:1-4), is fitting with the preparations a bride groom makes before the wedding, so he can lovingly take her to himself. Christ lovingly nurtures and cares for her during this betrothal period, the time she is preparing to present herself perfect and without wrinkle to him. Christ is intimately involved in this process as he perfects us, acting in his role as our High Priest in the meantime. This demonstrates his wonderful sacrificial love. Pentecost is looking ahead to this wonderful universally celebrated event - the wedding of Jesus to his bride. The bride in Revelation 21 descending from Heaven with Christ also makes complete sense.

Citizenship in Heaven

Jerusalem, New Jerusalem, the City of Peace will be wed to the King of Peace – Jesus, the Christ. New Jerusalem is not a city with streets, bridges, buildings and amenities. New Jerusalem is the People of God, called together to enter this everlasting covenant with our Savior. At our Pentecost, we did not receive the Law on Stones, but we did receive the Spirit of Jesus abiding in our hearts. Our hearts respond to his goodness and purity, led by his spirit and inspired by his love to do well.

We do not fear, but have confidence that that which the Lord has begun, he will complete in us. Is it possible that the two loaves are indeed representative of Jesus and his bride, before the Father, awaiting his eternal blessing, and the acceptance of the whole church to dwell with the Father in his house, with our husband forever more (Hebrews 2:6-10, 1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Our 50 days, a Time of Waiting and Preparation

Pentecost means, counting 50. We are counting and waiting. It is worth the wait, while Jesus helps us to get ready for this very day. When we come to him, we will be perfectly perfected and totally liberated from physical and spiritual bondage.

Analogies and Mixing Metaphors

Some may balk at the suggestion that one loaf represents Christ, because they see yeast and leaven as typifying sin referring to 1 Corinthians 5:5-8. Perhaps they could suspend this analogy and let it be replaced in this context with another analogy. Unleavened bread is the bread of affliction. At the marriage there will be no more suffering for God’s elect.

Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brethren, his brothers and sisters because “we are of the same stock” (Hebrews 2:10-13). Two loaves are similarly made from one lump of dough. So although we have been imperfect and afflicted, he makes us complete – we become like him – perfect (Hebrews 10:12-14).

Conclusion

Pentecost has been shown to be a Festival establishing a celebration of the anniversary of a great wedding. It has also been shown to parallel events in heaven – Christ and the Church united at the festival of God in Heaven. It makes complete sense that the two loaves used in this ritual of wave offerings represent the two parties who come before God, seeking his blessing, and to fulfill their vows and co-habit in eternity, in a bond of love.

Christ is the First of the Firstfruits. He is the first to enter Heaven. The Church, the harvest of the Firstfruits will follow. We are his bride, and he comes to take us be with him, “so we will forever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Amen.

End

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 Last modified: 10/29/11