Sermon: The Appointed Weeks of Pentecost

#1767
David C. Grabbe
Given 15-Jun-24; 67 minutes 2024-06-15

There is a saying that is making the rounds within popular Christianity. There are several variations, but it goes like this: “I believe in me because God believes in me.” That sentiment can be comforting if we are feeling down or feeling like we don’t matter. Most people would like to have someone believe in them. However, that saying gets things completely backwards. It distorts our focus and twists our concept of God.

Certainly, we should not doubt God’s love for us. But God’s belief, His confidence, is in His own ability to bring us to where we need to be, not in any inherent specialness within us. We are special because of what He has done and is doing. He deliberately chose the foolish, the weak, the base and the despised of this world for the precise purpose that nobody will be able to glory in His presence when His work is complete. I realize this is not a very flattering picture, but it is necessary to maintain a poverty of spirit if we are to progress toward becoming one with Him.

Yogi Berra, in his infinite wisdom, said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” We must remember what life, and our lives especially, are moving toward. Please turn with me to our destination, described in I Corinthians 15:

I Corinthians 15:24-28 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

Verse 28 tells us what God is moving all of His creation toward, which is that the Father will be all in all. Everything will be focused on Him, subject to Him, and ultimately in alignment and agreement with Him. And if the whole creation is in agreement with the Father, there will be harmony because everyone will also be in agreement with everyone else. That is almost impossible to imagine these days.

This view of the overarching work of God teaches us that God’s plan, including His creation of mankind, was and is about God, not man. Even the church, with as significant as it is, was instituted for God’s satisfaction and pleasure, not for it’s own sake.

The Scriptures are filled with various challenges and obstacles to God’s long-term purpose. They are not challenges to God, but rather challenges to those with whom God is working. A major challenge for the first century church was Gnosticism, which badly degraded the faith back then. And a major challenge for this last-century church is humanism. The philosophy of humanism puts the focus on people, such as that saying we began with. Humanism has overtaken the West, including nominal Christianity, and it has wormed its way into the true church as well. We might call it Protestantism, or Laodiceanism, or Progressivism, or wokeism, or affirming, but underneath all the labels is that mankind—including ourselves—is more of a focus than God and His will.

Of course, no follower of Christ in his right mind will say, “I think humans are more important than God.” We know the right things to say. And yet our thoughts, and then our actions, are typically geared more toward the things of men than the things of God. This worldview and tendency is one that we must always be aware of, lest we fall into it.

Now, tomorrow is one of the appointed times that God commands that we set aside our normal activities in order to glorify Him.

Exodus 23:14-16 “Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.

God commands His people to keep feasts to Him at various seasons of the year because keeping Him at the forefront of our minds is critical to our well-being. These seasons center around agriculture. Up until the Industrial Revolution, which really was not that long, national and community life revolved around agriculture. We’ve all grown up since the Industrial Revolution, so even though we understand the concepts, nearly all of us are largely removed from the reality of living from the land and depending on God for a good harvest. But with each festival season, God brings the focus back to Himself—back to His works and to His providence. It is for the good of His people that He is repeatedly brought to mind. One of the worst calamities is for a man to forget his Creator, Deliverer, and Provider.

So, the pre-incarnate Christ commands keeping the feasts to Him. That’s what verse 14 says. Two of the festival seasons are directly named in agricultural terms: the Feast of Harvest and the Feast of Ingathering. And even though Unleavened Bread is mentioned here in terms of the deliverance from Egypt, that feast also has a connection to agriculture because the wavesheaf offering was made on the day after the Sabbath within Unleavened Bread. That offering to God was required before any harvesting could take place. God had to be acknowledged before the work could move forward.

This passage contains the first mention of the feast we typically call Pentecost. Here it is named “the Feast of Harvest.” That has an obvious literal meaning, but there is a metaphorical one as well. Biblically, the time of harvest can imply receiving the consequences of one’s behavior, whether good or bad. A harvest can be a symbol for a time of evaluation of one’s labors.

That’s what verse 16 says about both the Feast of Harvest and the Feast of Ingathering. In type, those are appointed times when the fruit of our labors are brought before God. Israel did that physically, but we understand that, for the Israel of God, God is most interested in our spiritual labors and the spiritual fruit that comes as a result.

It is within this symbol of the harvest that we find the well-known principle of sowing and reaping, which we will spend some time on. In Galatians 6:7, we are told that “. . . God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Job 4:8 says that “…those who … sow trouble reap the same.” Proverbs 22:8 says, “He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow. . ..” And Hosea 8:7 refers to “sow[ing] the wind and reap[ing] the whirlwind.

Thus, the laws of agriculture extend to the laws of human behavior as well. The principle of cause and effect, of action and reaction, is always at work. If we plant a seed of something harmful, what comes to fruition can only be bad as well. Or, on the positive side, if we begin with something good, more good will be produced in time—perhaps a great deal of time.

One of the effects of the Industrial Revolution is that much of the nation and the culture has moved away from constant reminders of natural law and constraints. As the wonders and inventions of mankind fill our minds, we enter a humanistic fantasy where it appears we have advanced beyond consequences. To varying degrees, we believe that mankind can always find ways to override natural law—that somehow what we do won’t catch up with us.

The late comedian, Fred Allen, quipped that “Most of us spend the first six days of the week sowing wild oats, then we go to church and pray for a crop failure.” That is a pretty accurate description of human nature, except that all too often it doesn’t stop after just six days. Human nature tends to sow the wrong things for as long as it looks like it can get away with it, and then it starts urgently hoping that somehow what is harvested will be completely different from what was sown. Human nature gambles that eternal principles and laws do not apply to itself, as though God could be mocked with enough cleverness.

So, if we look at our circumstances and we see corruption or trouble or sorrow, wisdom suggests that we consider if we have sown something in days gone by that has contributed to what we are reaping. Of course, as with weather conditions and pest problems in agriculture, there will always be elements that are outside our control, such as the economy or the government or what other people do or don’t do. If a neighbor has a field full of weeds that go to seed, that will affect our field—our life—as well. Also, there are times when God hedges us in on a difficult road, not because of sin, but because of His perfecting of us. But maturity begins with owning up to what we have sown, regardless of what others have or have not done. This must happen before there can be improvement.

The reality is that we rarely understand the magnitude of what each seed will produce, not only in the first growing season, but throughout time as well. Something that starts off so small can become enormous in time, and then keep multiplying.

James 1:15 tells us that when sin is full grown, it brings forth death. If you think about it, though, we rarely see this play out literally. God’s instant judgment, such as on Uzzah, on Nadab and Abihu, on Annanias and Saphira, does not seem to happen very often.

But God is not mocked. Sin still brings forth death. This is because we can be in a state of spiritual death even while we are physically alive. Spiritual death was in view when Jesus told the disciple to “let the dead bury the dead,” meaning to let those who have no spiritual life attend to it. Spiritual death is also readily seen in the letter to Sardis, the church of the living dead. The members are still breathing, but there is hardly any spiritual pulse. Thus, death can signify an inferior quality of life, a life where there is separation from the Creator, the Life-giver and Sustainer. Eternal life is defined as knowing Him, and death is moving in the opposite direction.

Such death began in the Garden of Eden. God told Adam that in the day he ate of the fruit, he would surely die. And God was not mocked. When Adam ate of the fruit, death entered the world, even though Adam kept breathing for almost a thousand years. He was separated from His Creator, which was a grievous calamity. The ground was cursed, and his quality of life was drastically degraded. Not only that, but the effects of that choice have affected every person throughout time, now some 6,000 years later.

We rarely grasp the incredible potential of each seed. So, when bad fruit starts to show up from something we have done, it is common to try to find someone else to help shoulder the blame and the burden because of how large it can be. So, we may reason that it’s only partly our fault—it’s mainly someone else’s fault. Adam and Eve tried that, and God did not accept it. Or we might try to categorize a sin as not really THAT bad, maybe not even bad at all—certainly not as bad as something else. Part of the humanism that influences us is never feeling guilty. And thus, the trouble and sorrow we experience can be written off as just coincidence and unrelated to the tiny infraction that surely is no big deal. We delude ourselves into thinking that what we say and do doesn’t matter. We assume that what we sow will always remain minuscule, and that it won’t increase many times its original size.

Another part of this natural law is that it doesn’t matter whether anybody ever becomes aware of the sin. Our parents, friends, spouse, children, co-workers, or minister may never find out. But that lack of awareness doesn’t stop the law of cause and effect. It only means there might be fewer social consequences. But we will still reap what we sow. Sowing a seed at night when nobody sees doesn’t keep the seed from growing. The seed will germinate because that’s what it does, even though it may lie dormant for some time.

Any seed of carnality will eventually germinate and grow, regardless of whether anybody else is aware of what was planted. Seeds of greed, of lust, of fear, of pride, of laziness, of impatience, of sexual immorality, of envy, of deception, of hatred, of selfish ambition, of jealousy, or any other sin will bring forth an inferior quality of life, both for us and others; a life where we are out of alignment with God; a life the Bible calls death.

God’s law is spiritual. It is a reflection of the spiritual reality. That reality is one we cannot advance beyond. We cannot outsmart it, or deceive it, or manipulate it, or charm it, or bribe it. Life operates according to principles that are upheld by the Almighty. Paul put it so simply: God is not mocked; what we sow is what we will reap. If we sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption. But if we sow to the Spirit, we will reap everlasting life.

Whatever seed is put into the ground will always produce more of the same kind, but we should understand that “the same kind” means “within two broad categories—that is, corruption or everlasting life. Sometimes the consequence will be very close to the sin. But other times, it may not be as simple as if we deceive someone then someone else is going to deceive us. Instead, the principle can be general. If we act carnally, we will reap corruption. It simply means a worse condition. It means sorrow and trouble, even if it does not resemble the exact sin we committed.

Paul says that God’s judgments are unsearchable. Without God’s intervention, we may not be able to connect the dots between some trouble or sorrow we have now and some transgression that we forgot about or thought we got away with.

Using a different metaphor, Solomon writes that what is crooked cannot be made straight. That is the reality of life under the sun. However, when God is brought into the picture, there is hope for recovering from poor choices. Several places in Isaiah speak of God making the crooked places straight (Isaiah 40:4; 42:16; 45:2). He is able to improve things. There is an example of this in Proverbs 16:7, which says that “When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” God can turn and soften hearts. He can work things out. But the determining factor is whether God is pleased with the man’s ways.

In His mercy, God often blunts the full consequences of sin when there is repentance. But we must remember that with some choices, the course becomes set, and repentance doesn’t alter it. Think of King David and his notorious sins, or Joshua judging by appearance instead of seeking God, and being deceived by the Gibeonites. Sorrow and trouble were set into motion, and God did not stop them.

When Abraham agreed to what Sarah proposed regarding Hagar, the bitter fruit was not confined to one harvest season. Rather, a course was set that has continued to this day. God doesn’t erase all the consequences of His servants’ choices.

God’s purpose is not to give us a life without pain and other effects of sin, but to create us in His image, which ultimately means a life without sin, a life based on His righteousness. When we transgress His righteousness, He may use what we reap to impress upon us why He says what He says, so His laws become permanently written on our hearts. He allows deviations from His will to play out so we can learn that His way is always the best. Those lessons would not be effective if we never had to face what we have done.

Now, that was a lot to get through, and maybe it felt pretty heavy, but these harvest principles we just explored underscore why the giving of the Law on Pentecost weekend was such a blessing. Moses recognized that the statutes and judgements and everything else that God gave to Israel would set it far above every other nation because God’s laws would help Israel to live within the principles that are at work, regardless of whether they are known. Therefore, it is a blessing to know them.

Psalm 119:105 declares that God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It helps us to see, so we can make the best choices about where and how to step. Going back to our agricultural metaphor, God’s revelation contains the principles and examples to teach us what will produce good fruit and what will bring forth death. With that knowledge, and with the assurance that we will reap what we sow, we are able to make far better choices than when we were “strangers from the covenants of promise.” This instruction manual from the Creator, along with the faith to live by it, and God’s Spirit to understand the intent—another Pentecost event—are incredible gifts. With them, we can understand what to sow and what to avoid altogether, so that as the fruit of our labors are brought before God, He will be glorified—not just at the end of our lives, but in each growing season within them.

Please turn with me to Deuteronomy 16:

Deuteronomy 16:9-10 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.

Deuteronomy 16:12 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

Verse 10 reiterates what we saw in Exodus 23 that the Feast of Weeks is kept to the LORD. It wasn’t just a festive occasion, but a time He set apart for His people to remember Him. The feasts are about Him.

Verse 12 contains an aspect we tend to gloss over. It says to remember the former slavery. God’s deliverance is the primary lesson for Unleavened Bread, but God draws attention to it for this feast as well. In fact, the instructions for all three festival seasons command us to remember the slavery and God’s deliverance. For Tabernacles, God says to dwell in temporary dwellings because He made Israel do that when He brought them out of Egypt.

So, while each of God’s festivals teaches us something different, they also have some commonalities. Each festival season has an agricultural focus, which in turn points to God’s providence and natural law and dependence on Him. Each festival season also contains reminders of what God brought His people from. During all three seasons, He says to remember where we came from and what He has done in separating us from this world. He does not want that ever to get far from our minds lest we are tempted to return.

Part of Pentecost’s uniqueness is its emphasis on time. It is the only holy day arrived at by counting. In the Hebrew Scriptures, its primary name is the Feast of Weeks. It is called that five times (Exodus 34:22; Numbers 28:26; Deuteronomy 16:10, 16; II Chronicles 8:13), and the Feast of Harvest once. In the New Testament, Pentekostos is a Greek word that means “count fifty.” Thus, it is a feast that cannot take place until the designated number of weeks, or the number of days, has been fulfilled. The feast is a culmination of a distinctive span of time.

Please turn with me to Leviticus 23, where we will see this again:

Leviticus 23:15-17 ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD.

So, there is a specific sequence. First there is a weekly Sabbath, which we understand to be within Unleavened Bread. On the next day, there is an offering of a sheaf of barley that is waved before God for acceptance. That day marks the beginning of the harvest, as well as the beginning of a span of seven weeks. The day after the seven weeks are complete is a feast day when another wave offering is made, this time from the wheat harvest. So, the count begins with a wave offering, and then there is another wave offering after the appointed time is fulfilled. The seven weeks are basically bookended by wave offerings.

The waving of an offering involved holding it up and then passing it back and forth. It was as though God was examining every part of it. In addition to the wave offering acknowledging God, it also reminded the people of God’s examination of what was being held up to Him, as well as, hopefully, His acceptance.

The matter of God’s acceptance or (perhaps) rejection of an offering further underscores God’s place as the focus of the Feast of Weeks. There are several examples of God rejecting an offering, and it does not turn out well. Nadab and Abihu improvised in their service by using fire that had not come from God, and they died for their carelessness. Annanias and Sapphira gave a monetary offering that involved trying to appear more benevolent than they were, and they likewise were killed. Genesis 4 says that God disregarded and rejected not only Cain’s offering, but Cain himself. It could be translated that God wouldn’t look on Cain or his offering. Cain did not physically die, but to be disregarded and rejected by God is a type of spiritual death.

So, bringing an offering to God, and especially one that is symbolically held up to God for His close inspection, is a serious matter.

Now, we can start to tie together the various things we have seen so far about what the seven weeks can teach us.

We saw in Exodus 23 that the Feast of Harvest is when we bring before God the firstfruits of our labors that we have sown. Metaphorically, a harvest is a time of evaluation and judgment, a time when efforts bear fruit, whether those efforts are good or bad, serious or half-hearted. What we focus on and spend time on, and the way we conduct ourselves, will germinate and produce something. As we reap what we have sown, we bring it before God to be held up to Him for His examination and acceptance. His acceptance depends on what we have sown and the quality of what has been produced.

Thus, the count to Pentecost is not simply about arriving at Pentecost. It is about remembering that the appointed span of time encompasses our labors. Our activities will produce something that will be held up to God for inspection. Thus, each day and week in the count is a reminder to consider what we are sowing and what we are cultivating because it will assuredly come to fruition and then evaluation.

The two wave loaves that are baked with leaven fit into this. Verse 17 says they are the firstfruits to the LORD. That means they are a representative portion of the earliest and typically best part of the harvest. They are presented to God, but they are given to the priest for his use. The presence of leaven means they could not be put on His altar.

As we know, the word “firstfruits” is used in several ways. Jesus twice is called “the firstfruits” (I Corinthians 15:20-23). A second usage is that Christians have the firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:23). A third usage is that Christians themselves are firstfruits (James 1:18). A fourth usage is found in Romans 11:16, which says that “If the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy.” The context suggests that it is talking about Abraham. He was the early part of God’s work anciently. Along similar lines, a fifth usage is that the nation of Israel was also the firstfruits of what God was doing then (Jeremiah 2:3; Hosea 9:10).

Because there is a variety of uses, we must evaluate carefully before plugging one into the ritual here. In fact, when we look at all the instructions here, none of those symbolic uses of firstfruits provides a seamless fit. Most of them don’t fit at all. A major difficulty is the fact that the two loaves are baked with leavening, which is a consistent symbol for corruption throughout the Scriptures. That immediately rules out both Christ and the Spirit from being in view here.

But the leavening also poses a significant problem for identifying the church as the wave loaves. The New Testament teaches that when we are in Christ, we are unleavened. Paul says in I Corinthians 5:7, “You truly are unleavened.” He is very clear. We are unleavened because of Passover and the covenantal relationship it pictures. It is a state of imputed righteousness because we are in Christ, who is completely unleavened. So, it would introduce a contradiction to say that the two loaves represent the church in general.

However, there is a way out of the dilemma if we remember what God says these two loaves are. We need to further refine what is really in view here. Verse 16 says they are a grain offering. They consist of fine flour made from the first part of the wheat harvest, but they are specifically identified as a grain offering, which is a highly significant detail. In terms of symbolism of this ceremony, it changes everything.

As a review, the grain offering pictures the fruit of one's labors out of what God has given for the benefit of others. Back in Exodus 23, we read that God calls this Feast, “the firstfruits of your labors.” The grain offering typifies dedication to fellow man through making use of what God has given, and this service toward fellow man is then an offering to God. Unlike the burnt offering or the sin offering, the grain offering is not substitutionary. That means it does not represent an individual or a group. Instead, it pictures the individual's labors from God's bounty. It pictures devotion to others, including service and generosity.

This principle of taking care of one’s fellow man is found in the instructions for this same feast in verse 22. It says,

Leviticus 23:22 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

That might seem like a statute that is just tacked onto the end, but when we pull all the themes together, we can see how that verse fits perfectly. The Feast of Harvest represents a harvest of our labors, labors that God’s intends to benefit fellow man, as the grain offering pictures. And within that theme is this further instruction not to be exacting, even in harvesting what is our own, but to allow the poor and the stranger to also labor so they can have something. It shows supporting the well-being of our fellow man.

So, getting back to the wave loaves, because they are a grain offering, they do not picture an individual or a group that is held up, but rather the fruit of our labors. Yet our labors still have a measure of corruption within them. Legally, we are truly unleavened, but when it comes to what we do or what we fail to do on behalf of fellow man, there is still leavening.

Now, this begs the question of how a grain offering with leavening could possibly be held up to God for acceptance. Well, the rest of the ceremony shows that the two loaves were not offered by themselves. Instead, the presentation of the other offerings in the instructions paves the way for the leavened loaves. We won’t go through the symbolism of all the other offerings here, but it is Christ’s fulfillment of the burnt offering, the peace offering, and certainly the sin offering that allows the leavened grain offering to be held up before God.

Now, that was somewhat of a tangent, but just to bring it back around, that special offering was the result of what had been produced during the seven weeks, and God’s implied acceptance of it. As mentioned, the Feast of Weeks cannot take place until the designated number of weeks has been fulfilled. The feast is a culmination of a perfect span of time. In the Hebrew, it is literally, “seven sevens.” Seven is the number of divine perfection, and so seven weeks is basically saying “perfection squared” or even “perfect perfection.” It is a highly significant figure, and one which we will continue to look at.

Please turn with me to Jeremiah 5. Jeremiah 5 is a long discourse on Judah’s rebellion. We won’t go through all of it, but verse 24 contains something that relates:

Jeremiah 5:24 They do not say in their heart, “Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”

It is the phrase, “the appointed weeks of the harvest,” that caught my attention. It does not say it directly, but the wording relates to the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of Weeks. The Hebrew word translated “appointed” here is typically translated as “statute” or “ordinance.” In other words, God is saying that the time of the harvest, meaning the number of weeks, is ordained by Him, appointed by Him, or by His decree.

We understand this on a physical level, especially if we have ever grown something. There are consistent spans of time between when something is planted and when it will be ready to be picked. If you plant barley in the late fall, as the Israelites did, it is always going to be harvested in the spring—not in the middle of winter or in the summer. There may be some variation, depending on local conditions, but the spans of time are well-known and dependable. Those weeks are by divine appointment.

But we need to think of this in terms of our own lives—not just in terms of the length of our lives, but also in terms of the weeks as a type of the time God allots for evaluation to see what we will do in a given circumstance. In this metaphor, when the appointed weeks are complete, God evaluates what has been produced. With agriculture, the weeks are known. But in our lives, only God knows how long the appointed weeks will last. We don’t know how long we will be in a circumstance before God fulfills His purpose for the situation.

God has reserved for us the appointed weeks of the harvest, which is a blessing because it means that there will be enough time. We just don’t know how much. In some cases, we wish it would be over already. But we should be willing to turn that impatience around to God’s perspective, and be thankful that He appoints enough time for fruit to be produced and evaluated. Thus, our part is simply to focus on what will bear godly fruit that will glorify God regardless of how long a particular spiritual growing season might last.

This pattern of seven sevens shows up again in the counting of the Jubilee:

Leviticus 25:8-12 ‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field.

These verses show that the Jubilee and the Feast of Weeks use the same procedure to arrive at their respective endpoints. With the Jubilee, there is a span of years that indicates perfect perfection, and then the next year is a blessing for the entire nation. It was a national reset of debts and land ownership, as well as a land sabbath—the second in a row when the nation would be able to eat from the land without having to sow. It was a year of liberty and providence that came after a perfect span of appointed years.

The Feast of Weeks, then, is like a mini-Jubilee. Both are dependent on seven sevens, whether literal Sabbaths or Sabbaths of years. And in both cases, the cycles of seven remain unbroken. Just as Pentecost is both the 50^th day and it is also the first day of the week, so the Jubilee is both the 50^th year and also the first year of the next Sabbatical cycle. Pentecost is a day that fits within and begins the weekly cycle, and the Jubilee is a year that fits within and begins the Sabbatical cycle. So, the cycle of seven, of divine perfection, is never interrupted.

There is a fascinating example of this that was just recently pointed out to me. Please turn to II Kings 19. I’ve read over this numerous times and never saw it. This event takes place within the reign of Hezekiah. He did what was right in God’s sight, including removing the high places, the sacred pillars, and other elements of idolatry. I will read to you God’s testimony of Hezekiah:

II Kings 18:5-7 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. The LORD was with him; he prospered wherever he went . . ..

That is high praise indeed. However, during Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, invaded Judah, took some cities, and demanded tribute, to which Hezekiah yielded. But Sennacherib was not content with this and came back for more, threatening to destroy the nation altogether. But the Assyrians were so confident that they blasphemed God. They said their gods were greater, and that it was vain to trust in Judah’s God. Hezekiah took the matter to God, inquiring through Isaiah. Isaiah came back with a response in which God promised to deliver Hezekiah and the nation, and to destroy Sennacherib.

We will pick up the story in II Kings 19:29, which is part of God’s response to Hezekiah:

II Kings 19:29-31 ‘This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from the same; also in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.’

God’s sign to Hezekiah was that the nation would live off what grows on its own for two consecutive years, and then they would sow and reap again in the following year. That is the same pattern as a year of release followed by a Jubilee year. Two years of letting the land lie fallow, and yet God would still provide enough food to feed the nation. God says these two years would be the sign. He also says a remnant would take root downward and bear fruit upward. In the following verses, God promises that not only will the king of Assyria not come into the city, but that he wouldn’t even shoot a single arrow. I will read to you God’s fulfillment, starting in verse 35:

II Kings 19:35-37 And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

So, God’s sign to Hezekiah involved two years of land Sabbaths, or what looks like a land Sabbath and a Jubilee. The translation of “a certain night” allows God’s sign to play out for a period of time during the Assyrian campaign in the wider area. On a certain night, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers died by the hand of the angel of the LORD. The people of Judah witnessed an incredible miracle, and Sennacherib returned to Ninevah, where he was assassinated. Thus, Sennacherib reaped what he had sown in the way of idolatry and blasphemy. This meant the nation of Judah was given liberty, which is the predominant theme of the Jubilee. They were freed from their oppressors and no longer under Assyrian tribute—no longer in economic slavery. Full ownership of the land was restored to Judah—all Jubilee themes.

Historians happen to have a great deal of information about the events of Sennacherib’s life, and they date his death to the winter of 681 BC. Now, if his death, and the liberty that came with it, happened in the Jubilee year, as it seems, it puts the land Sabbath the year before, in 682 BC.

I don’t expect that year to mean anything to you, but 682 BC as a land Sabbath is highly significant because it fits the same timeline of land Sabbaths that are referenced in the works of Josephus. That same timeline of every seven years extends all the way up to the year of release that the Jews keep today, with the previous one in 2021. God has upheld the Sabbatical cycle, just as the weekly Sabbath has not been lost to history. Those cycles of seven are like a regular heartbeat, and God has ensured their continuity AND left a record.

But getting back to our theme of an appointed span of time, it is instructive to consider the 49 years leading up to the miraculous liberty God gave Judah. 49 years includes the reigns of Hezekiah, Ahaz, Jotham, and Uzziah. God records that Jotham and Uzziah generally did what was right, but God also specifically notes that they allowed the high places to remain. Unlike Hezekiah, they did not want to go against public opinion and restore true worship. Their complacency later ensnared both of them in significant ways. Then Ahaz, who was Hezekiah’s father, came along. He went full bore into the idolatry that had been tolerated, and he even sacrificed a son. Perhaps Hezekiah’s knowing that his father had sacrificed Hezekiah’s brother helped put Hezekiah on a different course.

Though Hezekiah did his best to reform the nation and rid it of idolatry, he had inherited a field in which idolatry and other sins had been sown for generations. The invasion by the Assyrians was part of what Judah was reaping as the weeks of years wound down, just as God had promised in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. As the appointed time of the harvest drew to a close, Judah faced defeat by the same nation that had carried Israel away captive.

Even though righteous Hezekiah could not single-handedly turn around the deeply-rooted carnality of Judah, God responded favorably to Hezekiah’s seeking of Him, and God caused what amounted to a significant crop failure. Notice, though, that Hezekiah was already right with God. His ways already pleased God. Hezekiah didn’t have to repent and turn when tribulation came. He was already on the right path, and God intervened to save Hezekiah and Jerusalem with an overwhelming deliverance and liberation.

Even so, it wasn’t completely a “happily ever after” story. As we saw, God foretold of a remnant, not that the whole nation was going to prosper. Because of Hezekiah, the harvest of decades of idolatry was not as bad as it could have been, but the nation still reaped a large measure of what it had sown during a period of evaluation.

The next example we will look at is the journey from Egypt to Sinai, which consisted of 7 weeks. Mark Schindler talked about what we can learn from the journey in his sermon a few weeks ago, and what he said will fit into this. Please turn with me to Exodus 3:

Exodus 3:12 So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

This is the incident of Moses at the Burning Bush. God decrees at the outset that Moses and his people would serve God on this mountain, which was Mt. Horeb, also known as Sinai. That would be the culmination of the 7 weeks.

In the books of Exodus and Numbers, God left us a record of the journey to Mt. Sinai, including where Israel camped. Using the places that are mentioned, the distances involved and the time it would take to go those distances, as well as the fact that God wanted His people resting for the Sabbath, it is possible to outline a travel record of where Israel was on their journey, particularly for the Sabbaths.

For example, in his sermon, Mark pointed out from Exodus 16 that Israel was camped on the 15^th day of the second month. They had quail that evening, and the manna began the next day and continued for 6 days, and stopped on the seventh day, which was a Sabbath. That concretely identifies a Sabbath on 22^nd day the 2^nd month, and therefore, on the 15^th as well. From that, we can work forward and backward and plot the other Sabbaths and where Israel was camped for them. Now, please to Exodus 13:

Exodus 13:20-22 So they took their journey from Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.

Working backward from the Sabbaths in the 2^nd month, and using the travel record and Israel’s camping for the Sabbath, and that they were at Succoth just after the First Day of Unleavened Bread, this camp in Etham was almost certainly over a Sabbath. More specifically, this would have been the first Sabbath since the Passover, and thus, the Sabbath within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That should ring a bell.

Now, notice that it was at Etham, likely on the day after the Sabbath, that the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud. It seems likely that it was the next day because they were not travelling on the Sabbath, and thus, the cloud did not need to go before them and lead the way until they started moving again the next day. What this means is that God’s visible presence with them in the cloud seems to have started on Wavesheaf Day.

That was the day when, once they were in the land, the nation waited until God was acknowledged with an offering of firstfruits before they started harvesting the barley. Deference to God came first. In the New Testament, Jesus is identified as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Once He was raised and accepted by the Father, then the spiritual work could begin. But He had to go first. And here we find a parallel with God going first. He went before Israel so they could make this journey of seven weeks.

Please turn with me to Exodus 19:1:

Exodus 19:1-2 In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai.

So, the mention of the third month reinforces the time context of Pentecost.

Exodus 19:10-11 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Exodus 19:14-16 14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not come near your wives.” Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

So, there was a time of sanctification, and then God appeared on the third day and thundered the Ten Commandments.

Tradition suggests that Pentecost was when God gave the law. However, there is a difficulty to be aware of. As we just read, it was on the second day of sanctification that the whole nation washed their clothes. It was National Laundry Day. But if the third day was Pentecost, then Laundry Day would have been on the Sabbath, which is not something God would have commanded. Washing clothes is work for a preparation day.

However, if we move the starting point back one day and put Laundry Day on the preparation day, then the law would have been given on the Sabbath. But not just any Sabbath; the 7^th Sabbath, the final day of the perfect perfection of time.

If this is correct, then notice what took place on the next day—the feast day. The giving of the law comprises chapters 20—23. We will pick up the story in Exodus 24:

Exodus 24:3-11 So Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the LORD has said we will do.” And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.” And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.” Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.

Verse 4 gives us a time marker. The giving of the law was on one day, and then Moses “rose early in the morning,” it says, built an altar, and ratified the covenant. Thus, the Feast of Weeks may not have been when the law was given, but when the covenant was made. It was made after 7 weeks of following God in the cloud, and of evaluation, which they didn’t exactly pass with flying colors.

But those 7 weeks were a perfect span of time that portended something momentous and, all things considered, incredibly merciful: A covenant with their Creator and Deliverer. And true to His word, Moses and the people worshipped God on the same mountain on which He originally met with Moses.

To top it off, the 70 elders saw God. It says that twice. They ate and drank in His presence. They had a feast—it was a feast day—and they saw the God of Israel. It was an incredible conclusion of the perfectly appointed weeks that came before. This was basically a wedding feast when Israel was married to God by making the covenant.

As we have seen, God’s pattern of seven sevens contains great significance and gravity. It is a perfect time of labor, of cultivation, of evaluation. The seven sevens often culminate in seeing God or His work in some way. The annual counting reminds us of the ongoing harvest within our lives, and that what we produce is held up to God for His inspection and acceptance. We are reminded that our works are imperfect, and that they still contain leavening. Even so, Christ’s perfect work precedes us, such that our imperfect labors can still be graciously used by Him.

And we have seen that the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost pulls our thoughts away from ourselves and back to God in every way. It is a Feast to Him, a day to glorify Him with the spiritual fruit that we have produced through what He has given and will continue to give as God becomes all in all.

DCG/aws/dcg