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June 1931
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Structure in Scripture The Feasts of the Lord— C on tinued* j B y N orman B. H arrison ( Minneapolis, Minn.)' All Rights Reserved
ise of God, the death angel, passing through the land in judgment, passed over the people on whose doorposts was the blood that evidenced their faith and obedience. (1) Its principle was substitution. The innocent took the place of the guilty. Thus Christ, as the Lamb of God, could, and did, take upon Himself the sin of the world. (2) Its prescription was perfection. The victim must be “without blemish and without spot.” Thus, only the Sin less One could be our Passover. (3) Its condition was appropriation. The blood must be not only shed but ap plied—“a propitiation through faith in his blood.” (4) Its effect was, and is, protection. The blood stood be tween them and death-—behind it they were perfectly secure. Accompanying the passover was the feast of unleav ened bread. The Jew not only kept leaven out of his bread, but he rid every vestige of it out of his house. The value of the passover was in the sinlessness, the guile lessness, of the Substitute. 3. Firstfruits (Lev. 23:9-14). This feast fore shadowed the resurrection of Christ from the dead, sig nifying also His acceptance for us and our acceptance in Him. For this purpose, a sheaf of wheat was taken from the field, typifying the new life from the “grain of wheat” under necessity of falling into the ground and dying. It was the early grain, in the process of maturing—a prom ise of the harvest to be. So “now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep” . (1 Cor. 15:20, R. V.). (1) The time prescribed was “on the morrow after the sabbath.” So was the event, as recorded in all four accounts of the resurrection: “In the end of the.sabbath, „as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week” (Matt. 28:1); “when the sabbath was past . . . very early- in the morning of the first day of the week” (Mk. 16: 1, 2) ; “now upon the first day of the week” (Lk. 24:1) ; “the first day of the week” (John 20:1). Thus the change to the first day of the week, badge of the new covenant, was anticipated and foretold in the Old Testa ment, a day of utterly new significance—the Lord’s Day, triumphantly prophetic of the new creation of which His resurrection was the beginning. (2) The place was “be fore the Lord,” where indeed our risen Lord has gone. (3) The purpose was “to be accepted for you.” Here comes to light a beautiful teaching. The sheaf held an omer of wheat. The omerful was the portion pre scribed for a man, sufficing for his daily need. This was “laid up before the Lord” (Ex. 16:16, 33), in significant type. Thus our risen, glorified Christ is the daily portion of His pilgrim people, made of God sufficient for the daily recurring need of each and every one of His believers. 4. Pentecost (Lev, 23:15-22). It is thus that we term this feast, from the word “fifty” in verse 16. The Jews knew it as the “feast of weeks,” it being seven full weeks after firstfruits. Note: ( l ) t Prophetically observed at this stated tifne, its fulfillment in the coming of the Holy Spirit was exactly fifty days after our Lord’s resurrection. (2) Falling also on the first day of the week, it confirms
ITH this second study in the prophetic feasts of the Lord, whose importance for ah under standing of Scripture it is impossible to over estimate, we present a rearrangement where by the better to visualize to the student cer tain great, outstanding features. Of these
the following are most evident. (1) The progressive character of the feasts, proceed ing from that which marks the beginning of days, spirit ually speaking, on to a glorious, climactic goal. (2) The times and seasons involved in their prophetic enactment and fulfillment: a springtime for seeding, a summer for ripening, a fall for harvesting—all synchronized with these seasonal happenings in the physical world. (3) The three levels involved: earth, heaven above, hell beneath. (4) Certain significant correspondences between those now historically realized and those still awaiting enact ment. Note: Opposite Passover is Tabernacles. These two words gather into themselves the purposes of the first and sec ond comings respectively, as Saviour and King. Sep arated as they were to be by many centuries, they are the sum of the prophets’ message, through whom “the Spirit of Christ . . . testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow” (1 Pet. 1:11). Was this “the joy that was set before him,” that enabled Him to “endure the cross, despising shame” ? Opposite Firstfruits is Day . of Atonement. By its very position, we realize that the Day of Atonement does not refer to the atonement in which we trust for salva tion ; but rather to the final -issue of it in the tribulation. Firstfruits is the acceptance by God of our Sacrifice for sin, in that He raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. In the Day of Atonement, God will anew hold that Sacrifice before the eyes of His people—they shall look upon Him whom they pierced—and He shall take another sacrifice of those who reject the former. Opposite Pentecost is Trumpets. The one marks the beginning of the church’s life; the other marks the end of its earthly ministry. They are the boundaries of the church age. T h e F easts of th e P ast 1. Introductory to them all is the Sabbath (Lev. 23: 1-3). Its position lends to it the practical force of a title for the.chapter, denoting the nature and significance of the feasts that follow; namely, that they constitute God’s week of redemptive work, leading to the unbroken rest for God and man in eternity. (Note the correspondence between 1 and 8, shown in opposite positions.) The Sab bath, then, is more than introductory. What it says is th is: These feasts of the Lord are His one appointed means of entering into His rest: 2. The Passover (Lev. 23:4-8). This feast takes its origin and derives its significance from the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. According to the provision and prom- *Seventh in a series.
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