We bring our volume to a close with some remarks on the divine stamp upon the course of Time. Egypt, which once worshipped One Sole God, as we have seen, evolved gods many while the centuries passed by, and, at length, its cultured and refined people fell down before the beasts which perish; while as if to stamp on time itself the extent of its downfall, Egypt connected its system of worship with the round of the year. Jehovah led back His people, whom He had brought out of Egypt’s darkness into His light, to those truths respecting Himself which, at the first, He had communicated to man; and more, He taught Israel to expect the fulfillment of His promises to their fathers. Light, truth, and hope were their portion in the oracles of God. And in order that Israel should keep His ways and His promises in remembrance, He stamped upon the passing weeks, months, and years, the memory of that which He had done, and the promise of that which He would do, for Israel. He sanctified the voices of Time’s flowing river, and caused them to utter His Name repeatedly in Israel’s ears, whether by the song of rest on the weekly sabbath, the blowing of trumpets at the new moons, or their “joyful noise” at the end of the year.
The course of time had possessed a sacred import from the earliest ages. The nations of the earth had their solemn festivals, and it is not improbable that in the remotest antiquity they read in the constellations divine principles relating to the earth’s future. But they departed from the truth they once knew; they magnified the celestial bodies above the Creator; and their knowledge of the recurrence of the seasons of seedtime and harvest being acquired from the celestial orbs, they rendered to those orbs sacrifices and religious ceremonies. The earth, in their eyes, was under the spiritual influence of these orbs, as well as being naturally influenced by them. In our own times the science of astronomy has taught us how it is that the earth is influenced by the celestial bodies, and also how that, in its turn, the earth influences them, and that with them it forms part of one great system. God tells us that this system, like the earth itself, has a destiny (2 Peter 3:1313Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13)).
It cannot be positively affirmed that this earth speaks to other worlds in the manner in which they speak to it – by light given and by light withheld, and by paths covered by periodic courses. But when God said of this earth, “Let there be light, and light was,” we may surely imagine responding light beaming forth from it to the surrounding orbs of heaven, and when this earth “shall be burned up” (2 Peter 2:1010But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. (2 Peter 2:10)) we may suppose that its light shall temporarily cease; and we may well conceive that, when it is once more made new (Rev. 21:11And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. (Revelation 21:1)), its light shall burst forth again.
Certain it is that intelligent beings, who are not human, even the Sons of God, expressed their joyful interest in the laying of the earth’s foundations (Job 38:77When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:7)), and a deeper joy when the multitude of their heavenly host visited it on the birth of its King (Luke 2:1313And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, (Luke 2:13)). Also, certain it is that on an assigned day yet to come, the armies of heaven shall accompany earth’s now rejected King from His heavenly position on the throne of God (Rev. 19:11-1611And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:11‑16)), as He descends to His seat upon the earth’s throne to establish His kingdom (Matt. 24:30; 25:3130And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:30)
31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: (Matthew 25:31)). Further, these beings of heaven “desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:1212Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. (1 Peter 1:12)) the mysteries of the earth’s future; but from them, as from man, that day is hidden (Mark 13:3232But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. (Mark 13:32)), the dawn of which shall herald the glory of the King.
The measures of time upon this earth are part of a great plan of God. For though the whole of the period filled by man’s tenancy of earth, when compared with the time occupied by various distant stars in fulfilling their courses, is but as a hand’s breadth, still this little hand’s breadth is portioned out with the minutest accuracy in particles of moments. This fact is full of suggestion; the time tables of the sky are fulfilled with absolute precision.
In order that we may better enter into the significance of the yearly feasts of Jehovah, instituted when Israel was in Horeb, we glance at the religious feasts of Egypt. It will be seen by the manner in which the holy days were appointed in Israel, that reference was made to the actual condition of religious thought and ways which existed in Egypt regarding time when Israel was there.
There was a vague and a fixed year in Egypt, one slightly differing in duration from the other. One was due to the course of the moon, by which the twelve months were measured, the other was due to the course of the sun, while by the stars the seasons were adjusted.
The seasons were fixed, the months were movable; and thus during a definite cycle of years each month passed through the seasons. The twelve months were dedicated to twelve gods; the three seasons were periodic festivals. Thus by an ingenious process each of the twelve gods in rotation came in for the honors of the festivals, and hence no jealousy was caused amongst them; or, shall we say, that the various temples and the colleges of priests received in turn the glory of the festivals, and the profits accruing from them. By the system regulating the round of Egypt’s religious year, the progress of time was devoted to the honor of demons, and the true meaning of time, its divisions and its issues, was lost. Isis-Sothis – that is, Isis and the Dog Star – was “The great lady of the commencement of the year.” Egypt, we have said, had a deity ruling over each month; but more – every day also boasted of its peculiar god, and every hour had its presiding genius. Each child, when born, came into the world under some celestial authority, who for good or evil pursued him through life, and after this life, in the under world. We can imagine the great amount of business this brought to the priests, who foretold men’s future according to the stars under which they were born. To be born under “a lucky star” meant a great deal to these old pagans; it meant more to their priests, who, while having access to the gods in the interests of their clients, ever kept an eye upon the profitable utilization of the “saints’ days” of their calendar and the prosperity of their temple revenues. The deities of the sky sun gods and star gods had their temples, priests, and revenues; their feast days and fast days; their greater and lesser holy days; so that we may truly say Satan at the beginning laid hold of the calendar. And for thousands of years he has had his strongholds in it, and by it he maintains to this day his sway over millions of men. “The Egyptians boasted of being the first who had consecrated each month and day to a particular deity – a method of forming the calendar which has been imitated and preserved to the present day; the Egyptian gods having yielded their places to those of another Pantheon, which have in turn been supplanted by the saints of a Christian era.”
Bearing all this in mind, it is apparent that not only in Israel’s calendar, but in the manner of its introduction, matters of importance will be found. Jehovah at the inauguration of Israel’s New Year’s Day had said: “This month shall be the beginning of months; it shall be the first month” – or the head of the months – “of the year to you.” To this month was given the name Abib – “the month of the ears of corn.” It was for Israel the month of life out of death, the fruitful month – a name most appropriate for the people at their birth into national life. This important principle in connection with their year is observable throughout the books of Moses, Joshua, and Judges, where Abib alone has a name, all the other months being spoken of in their relation to it by numbers, as the “second,” the “third,” and so on.
It was impossible to refer to time in Egypt without uttering the name of a demon, and Israel was bidden, “Be circumspect, and make no mention of the name of other gods”; but in the calendar given to Moses, time was ever associated with Jehovah. Possibly when God gave Israel their New Year’s Day He enabled them to read aright the clock of time, for Egypt, like more modern nations, had found considerable difficulty in arriving at the length and starting point of the true year.
Broadly speaking, Jehovah stamped upon His calendar three principles – the first, the remembrance of His way of delivering Israel from Egypt – the second, His goodness in preserving them in their land of promise – the third, His purpose in bringing them, and mankind with them, into a future rest. The last principle is in striking contrast with that of heathen calendars, which offer in their festivals no implied prospect of joy. Jehovah’s accomplished deliverances were guarantees of the fulfillment of His promises; and the harvests Israel enjoyed in Canaan were evidences of greater harvests yet to come.
A seven of months formed the cycle of Jehovah’s annual feasts, even as a seven of days culminated in the weekly feast of the sabbath. The sabbath is introduced at the commencement of the complete circle of the feasts (see Lev. 23); it is the seed plot of the whole series. The first year of deliverance from Egypt began with a week ending with a sabbath, and the second week ended with the Passover sabbath. On the fifteenth day – the day after the second Sabbath – Egypt was left, that is, at the full moon, the symbol of the full strength of the month. The year’s feasts were of the number which is so frequently used by God in His measurements of prophetic time. The last of the seven of months, like the last of the seven of days, was a season of rest, and more, of joy. The seven of days proclaimed that rest should come, as well as that the rest of God from creation had taken place; the seven of months proclaimed how the rest should come, as well as that Israel had been delivered from Egyptian bondage. When the rest should come was left for the lips of the prophets to tell. But, week by week, God used the sun as the divider of time into days to announce the corning sabbath; and, month by month, He used the moon as the divider of time into months to announce the same news; while lie used the seasons and their fruits, the corn harvest and the harvest of oil and wine, to teach how this end should be realized.
Let us look briefly at these seven feasts: The Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles. They are divided into two groups of four and three. We shall consider the groups separately.
There was but one Passover, whilst there were numerous commemorations of it, or Feasts of the Passover. In Egypt the Passover was eaten standing, with loins girded, and in haste; in Canaan, on the contrary, the feast was partaken of reclining, with every attendant idea of the inheritance being gained. In its fullness this feast could only be kept in the land of promise. There the people were in the enjoyment of the favors into which Jehovah had brought them, and they used attitudes and symbols to emphasize this fact. The “cup of blessing” was partaken of, and they blessed Jehovah in the feast as in their families they drank of it. The selected youth of the party recounted before the seniors, what Jehovah had done for their fathers in Egypt, relating the story minutely, and thus its wonders were, handed down from generation to generation.
The second feast commenced immediately after that of the Passover; it grew out of it, as, indeed, did the whole series of the first four feasts. Israel had left Egypt in haste, and had not had time properly to prepare their bread, and Jehovah ordained in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a memorial of that night, and by the feast the spirit which should always characterize those who rejoice in His Passover. Jehovah had freed Israel from judgment and from corruption also! The Feast of Unleavened Bread was kept and rejoiced in for seven days – the perfect week of time. This feast of the Lord signified the soul’s delight in holiness. Leaven, besides being in itself corruption, is a type of corruption, yet, strange to say, our ordinary bread is insipid without it. That which to our natural taste is insipid was a festal period of Jehovah.
The last two feasts of the first four, were bound up with the harvest, and necessarily they could only be kept in the promised land. The Feast of the Firstfruits took place at the early barley harvest, on the morrow after that of the Passover. A sufficiency of early ears was selected to form a sheaf, and this was the sheaf of the firstfruits. It was brought before Jehovah, presented to Him, and waved before Him. The sample of the harvest in the land He had given to Israel was offered to Him, then by the act of waving it was taken back from Him as a returned gift. By virtue of the wave sheaf, the harvest could be ingathered; without it, the harvest could not be touched (Lev. 23:1414And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. (Leviticus 23:14)). The firstfruits were holy, and thus the whole was holy.
The offerings connected with the wave sheaf were those of sweet savor and joy; they consisted of a burnt offering and its meat offering, and a drink offering. It was a hallowed festival, indicating the acceptability of the harvest before Jehovah, who received its firstfruits accompanied with offerings of sweet savor and joy.
Emanating from this feast was that of Pentecost, or Weeks (Deut. 16:1010And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: (Deuteronomy 16:10)). It was linked with the Firstfruits, though in some respects it. contrasted with it. It dated from the wave sheaf: “Ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath. from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days.” These loaves were brought out of Israel’s “habitations,” and they were “of fine flour... baken with leaven.” They presented a very different symbol from that of the wave sheaf, which arose out of the earth and was pure in itself. Issuing from human dwellings the loaves spoke of humanity, and the leaven in them figured sin in man. Nevertheless, they also were “first fruits.” The sheaf is the result of life out of death, the loaves are the result of that life obtained from the sheaf! Bread is the perfected outcome of the harvest. The two loaves were presented to Jehovah, in a somewhat similar way to that of the wave sheaf, except that they were waved together with sin as well as sweet savor offerings. Man’s need as a sinful being was therefore provided for in connection with them. While the wave sheaf and the wave loaves were linked together, they each had distinctive features; both were part of the harvest, but one was figuratively of sinless import, the other was impressed by the stamp of sin. The one was accompanied with offerings of sweet savor to God; the other with sin offerings also. The wave sheaf is a figure of Christ risen from the dead, the wave loaves are a figure of Christ’s people in association with Him.
These four feasts comprehended a period of seven weeks, and their consummation was the fiftieth day – i.e., Pentecost. From the Passover to Pentecost was therefore a complete period in itself. And this it was both as regarded the actual course of the seasons of the year, and the hidden signification covered by its festivals.
These feasts had a prophetic intention beyond their annual instruction, and this intention has been realized. Of the first two Scripture says, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast.... with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:7-87Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:7‑8)). All through time the true, spiritual feast which is attached to the commemoration of Christ’s Paschal sacrifice, is holiness the joy of holiness to the Lord. The prophetic significance of the waving of the barley sheaf on the day following the Passover – that is, the fifteenth day – and also of the waving of the two loaves fifty days afterward, has received its fulfillment. Christ kept the Passover sabbath in the grave. On the morn of the new week, He, the Firstfruits out of death, arose, and fifty days afterward – that is, at Pentecost – the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, and the firstfruits of the harvest of Jew and Gentile were presented to God. The stamp upon the calendar, made when Israel was in Horeb, is now discerned in the history of the death and resurrection of Christ, and in the descent of the Holy Spirit to earth. The dates of that calendar are written indelibly in the heart of His Church, and are recounted continually in every section of Christendom.
The Church, composed of Jew and Gentile, was born at Pentecost; it has been presented, or waved, by our great High Priest in heaven before God, and it is accepted in the power of His sacrifice on earth. It is part of the harvest of which He is the Firstfruits. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone,” He said in reference to Himself; “but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)).
The three last feasts were separated from the first four by a considerable laps of time. The climax of both the three and the four was a harvest, and thus the three great seasons of the earth’s fruitfulness were commemorated. The first four occurred at the beginning of the year, the last three took place at its close; and as the first four were intimately connected with each other, so were the last three.
In the seventh month, “in the first day of the month,” a sabbath, a rest day, was held, and throughout the land trumpets were blown. The trumpet call is a familiar figure of the summons of God. Israel had heard it at Sinai, and had obeyed its irresistible note. The sleep of man in the dust of death will be awakened by the sound of the trumpet, and all will arise at its bidding. Israel slept, as it were, after the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Trumpets bade them awake and prepare for the Great Day of Atonement.
Ten days later the service of the Great Day of Atonement commenced. This was a fast issuing into a feast. Food could not be eaten nor could work be performed on that day under penalty of death. The commandment was, “Ye shall afflict your souls and shall rest your rest.” As its observances have been referred to in a previous chapter, they are not mentioned here. The effect of that great day was the cleansing away of Israel’s sins and the impurities of Israel’s worship, and at its close there was produced absolute reconciliation between God, the priests, and the people.
Close upon the purification and the reconciliation produced by the Great Day of Atonement came the crowning joy of Israel. With the fifteenth day of the seventh month that is, the full of the moon the time measurer being in her glory the Feast of Tabernacles commenced. It was the season of supreme joy, and the eighth day attached to it formed a crown of gladness for the cycle of the seven months. Israel rejoiced because Jehovah had blessed them with their final harvest (Deut. 16:13-1413Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: 14And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. (Deuteronomy 16:13‑14)), and to express their joy they dwelt in booths, made of branches of ornamental trees – “palm branches, boughs of trees with thick foliage, and willows of the brook.” The wheat harvest had given them bread in their habitations; but the harvest of oil and wine gave them joy in addition; so they sat in their arbors resting and rejoicing – literally under the shadow of the bounties of God.
While thus rejoicing they recalled their past. Their fathers had dwelt in booths in the wilderness. At Elim, where they had first rested on their exodus, they had woven themselves arbors of palm branches; upon the scorching mountain sides of Horeb, they had made them shelters from the boughs of the thick bushes, and of sweet-scented acacia. boughs, its yellow balls of bloom nodding amongst its thorns; while, when nearing their promised land, on Jordan’s banks, they had formed grateful retreats of luscious pink blossomed oleander. These were hallowed memories of peaceful incidents on the pilgrimage to now realized gladness. “The waste and howling wilderness” had had its seasons of rest and peace, and it had not been for the forty years a pathway of monotonous distress without Ebenezers! Far, far from it. And even in the “rest” of God, in heaven itself, the memories of His mercies shall never be forgotten. The Christian may obtain his spiritual “arbors” from the symbols of Israel’s feast. The palms of his well-watered Elims – as he rested his first rest on his morning way; his shelters – flower yielding even out of thorns – upon the rugged hillsides of his scorching noonday journey; and his hallowed evening bowers redolent with the very sweetness of his eternal home – shall never, never pass out of recollection.
Yet while thus rejoicing, Israel anticipated a greater gladness; even the fullness of the joy of Jehovah’s ingathering. Fired by this hope, psalmists sang, and prophets lifted up their voices. From the sound of the call of the trumpets and their “joyful noise” (Psa. 98:66With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. (Psalm 98:6)), from the sight of an assembled Israel worshipping Jehovah (Psa. 122:44Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. (Psalm 122:4)) – from the sight of some Gentile – coming up to the feast (John 12:20,2320And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: (John 12:20)
23And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. (John 12:23)) – the spirit of prophetic song rejoiced in Jew and Gentile praising God together, and the wide earth in her millennial gladness singing and clapping the hands (Psa. 67,96; Isa. 51:11; 52:8-9; 35; 19:18, 2511Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. (Isaiah 51:11)
8Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. 9Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. (Isaiah 52:8‑9)
18In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction. (Isaiah 19:18)
25Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. (Isaiah 19:25)). Yes, such expectations swelled the songs of prophets and tuned king David’s instruments of music. How little is their spirit realized in the Church! Yet who can sing aright the songs of Zion while lacking Zion’s hopes in her Feast of Tabernacles?
If the first four of these feasts have met their prophetic fulfillment, what shall b° said of the last three? Will their prophetic significance be realized? True, this can only be accomplished in the land of promise, by the hands of the people of Israel, even as was the case with the first four, but Israel’s God promises not in vain.
A few generations ago the idea of the return of the Jews to their own land was regarded as a notion of dreamers disturbed by overmuch prophetic study. In our own time, a remnant of the Jews has actually returned to Palestine; a Jewish society with worldwide ramifications encourages the movement; and the Jewish question assumes phases of varying acuteness, so that “Judea for the Jews” is a cry, the utterance of which is almost within measurable distance. Further, the great increase of the number of the Jewish people is worthy of attention. Perhaps no feature in reference to the fulfillment of prophecy is more suggestive than the manner in which events pave the way for a foretold end. One generation supposes that a catastrophe alone could produce the necessary circumstances, but instead of the convulsion, there is a gentle change, or a matter-of-fact development. That which in one century appeared impossible, comes about in the ordinary course of events, when the time preordained by God has arrived.
In order to follow the fulfillment of these feasts, we must suppose Israel as a people though not the whole of the people in their land. Israel has slept to its Messiah, and has been dead, as a nation, amongst the Gentiles, for centuries. Israel will be awakened by the summons of God. The trumpets will be sounded, and the summons will be heard throughout Palestine, calling them to prepare for their solemn fast. It will be a real fast before Jehovah, not such as now characterizes the people who have literally no atonement amongst them. The people, the priests, and the rulers will “mourn... apart” (Zech. 12:12-1412And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 13The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; 14All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. (Zechariah 12:12‑14)) for Him whom they pierced. There will be in every family true repentance for the sin of all sins rejecting Christ. No work will be done to save themselves, for their only hope will be in the great Worker, Christ their King. Then Israel will verily “rest their rest” on their Great Day of Atonement. And they shall await the forthcoming of the Priest-King from the sanctuary where He has been hidden from their eyes since the day His disciples saw Him, with uplifted hands, ascend to heaven. And as He ascended, so shall He in like manner descend – with His hands uplifted in blessing.*** His way will be from the throne of God through the heavens to the earth, and to man upon it, as was symbolically indicated on each Day of Atonement, when. the high priest came from within the vail after having sprinkled the blood of the sin offering. Will the reader turn back and examine the diagram on page 291, and observe the dotted line indicating the way of the high priest’s outcoming from the mercy seat to expectant Israel at the entrance of the sanctuary? He will come out from the sanctuary even as Moses and Aaron – His representative king and priest – did on the first great day of its hallowed service, with the blessing of Jehovah. Israel, with mingled contrition and exultation, shall own God’s glory in the altar of burnt offering of Calvary, as their fathers in the wilderness had owned Jehovah’s glory in the brazen altar. The circle of the beginning and ending of the story of the priesthood in Israel, shall be completed. by the heavenly King-Priest, whose shoulders have borne unweariedly the burden of Israel, and whose heart has never allowed the effacement of their names.***** Then, in all its melody, shall the music of the skirts of His garments be heard upon earth; then shall the true significance of the golden bells and the pomegranates, the ornament of His heavenly robe, be realized. And then shall the crown of His glory shine over the whole world, and men shall rest in the power of its great words – “Holiness to the Lord.”
The three great incidents of the harvests were: The wave sheaf – Christ in resurrection; the wave loaves – the Jew and Gentile in the power of His resurrection the firstfruits to God; the ingathering of oil and wine the nations of the earth ingathered into the kingdom of God. Christ, the “wave sheaf,” is in heaven accepted of God. The first harvest (the wheat harvest) commenced at Pentecost, when the, Holy Spirit descended to earth and formed Jew and Gentile in one body, the Church. The second harvest (the fruits of the earth, the oil and the wine) will commence at the Feast of Ingathering, when God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, and when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isa. 11:99They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)). Then shall indeed be realized the fullness of that season which Israel termed THE FEAST.
Israel as a nation was born at the Passover, but Israel’s career was such that the nation became separated from God by its sins; yet at the end, by virtue of the Great Day of Atonement, reconciliation shall be effected for Israel and the nation’s end shall be joy.
Let us not, however, forget that the sevens of years also foreshadowed this sabbatism, this keeping of rest; and that in the sevens of the seven years is found “the acceptable year of the Lord” (Isa. 61:22To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; (Isaiah 61:2)). That grand jubilee, heralded by trumpet blasts proclaiming freedom for persons and possessions – for enslaved men and fettered lands – that fiftieth of years (Lev. 25:1010And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. (Leviticus 25:10)), presents in a fuller measure than the fiftieth of days, the harvest of joy, which God has marked out for this world in the Course of Time.
The story of the Church, symbolized in the two loaves of the wheat harvest, is not unfolded in the symbols of these feasts, but the presentation of them to God in their association with the sheaf of the firstfruits, is rather the consideration. The true place for the book of the Church’s history is assigned to it – in the interval of time occurring between the presentation of the two loaves and the blowing of the trumpets. We have referred to the last pages of this history on earth in the spirit which is now found within it, grasping after combined spiritual and temporal power in Christendom. Surely, if we may read the signs of the tunes in the rising desires of Israel, we may also read them in the renewed longings in Christendom for union under one head! Israel is preparing to arise as a nation, and in unbelief as to their crucified King they will crown the ruler of their choice; Christendom is endeavoring to bind itself together in its unbelief as to the glorified Priest, and it will have its ruler-priest. When these rulers shall have filled up the measure of their blasphemy, and the cup of the apostate earth’s misery shall be brimful, the Spirit of God will arouse the faithful in Israel to the coming of Christ their Messiah, and He shall leave His seat on God’s right hand, accompanied by attendant angels and glorified men; and He shall destroy the usurper of earth’s throne “with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thess. 2:88And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: (2 Thessalonians 2:8)).
From the silence of the type respecting the disposal of the two loaves, we may derive a hint respecting the end of the Church of Christ. When the external Church shall have become apostate and idolatrous – a very Babylon in all its abominations – the one Body of Christ, the indivisible and true, will be where Christ is – even in heaven. The two loaves became the portion of the priest, who presented them to Jehovah. He waved them before God, who termed them His; and after the waving the priest, according to the ordinance, received them back from God as his own portion. The “two loaves” – the Jew and the Gentile, who form the one Body of Christ – are Christ’s in a peculiar manner, and they will be forever with Christ and His portion to all eternity. The Church is His in resurrection, and its members are risen with Him, and will be in heaven with Him.
By the consideration of the future, emphasis is lent to the prophetic element in the song of Israel at the Red Sea. It swells into the song of Moses and the Lamb – the song of judgment and salvation. As we hear Israel singing, we seem to hear the redeemed from earth’s idolatrous tyrants of the future singing in unison, and answering the triumphant strain with joy; for a greater than Pharaoh – that king who called himself a god and was worshipped, and who withstood Jehovah by magic and miracle – will be laid low, never to enslave and deceive man more.
Also, as the coming of the kingdom of God fills the mind, Israel’s encampment around the sanctuary, with the walls of men banner-bearing to earth’s four quarter, appears not as merely an old-world arrangement of tents, but as a picture of the Israel of the future, the savior of the nations. Yet the most gracious type is to be found in the position of the altar of burnt offering – facing east and west, north and south, with its four blood-stained horns looking outward in their pardoning power to the circle of the world. In the vision of the prophet, the altar of burnt offering is seen as the center of Jehovah’s sanctuary in Jerusalem; and towards that center all kindreds and tongues and nations shall look, and in Jesus glorified they shall “behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Thus the story of the Exodus and of the Sanctuary in Horeb utters its voice – recounting the ways of God in the past; witnessing to His ways during the present, and foretelling His ways in the future. In all its details, it bears upon it the stamp of the Divine Hand; and, in its climax of the festivals of the year, the song which first arose at the triumph of the Red Sea swells out into a fullness of joy which fills the whole world, when the longed – for Kingdom shall have come, and the will of the Father shall be done on earth even as it is in heaven.
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