34:18 ¶ The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou
keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the
time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
19 All that openeth the matrix is
mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that
is male. 20 But the firstling of an
ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then
shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And
none shall appear before me empty. 21
Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in
earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. 22
And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat
harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. 23 Thrice in the year shall all your men
children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and
enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go
up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year. 25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice
with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left
unto the morning. 26 The first of the
firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God.
Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk. 27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou
these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with
thee and with Israel.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread with the Passover was explained
earlier.
Exodus 12:1 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in
the land of Egypt, saying, 2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of
months: it shall be the first
month of the year to you. 3 Speak ye
unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to
them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4 And if the household be too little for the
lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the
souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a
male of the first year: ye shall take it
out from the sheep, or from the goats: 6
And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and
the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
7 And they shall take of the blood, and
strike it on the two side posts
and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. 8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night,
roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and
with bitter herbs they shall
eat it. 9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden
at all with water, but roast with
fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. 10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until
the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn
with fire. 11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in
your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’S passover. 12
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the
gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am
the LORD. 13 And the blood shall be to
you for a token upon the houses where ye are:
and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be
upon you to destroy you, when I
smite the land of Egypt. 14 And this day
shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD
throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened
bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for
whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that
soul shall be cut off from Israel. 16
And in the first day there
shall be an holy convocation, and in the
seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall
be done in them, save that
which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. 17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I
brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this
day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat
unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. 19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in
your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall
be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born
in the land. 20 Ye shall eat nothing
leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
Luke 22:1 Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which
is called the Passover.
The firstborn male of every animal and of people born of the
Hebrews that came out of a womb, the
matrix, belonged to God for this reason;
Numbers 3:13 Because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of
Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine
shall they be: I am the LORD.
The domesticated ass, or donkey, was a vitally important method of
transport in ancient times. An ass is likened to a man and can be redeemed by a
lamb, as Christ, the Lamb of God, redeemed mankind.
Job 11:12 For vain man would be wise, though man be
born like a wild ass’s colt.
The donkey must have a master to control it for it to be of any
use. This animal plays its part in Christ’s first advent.
Matthew 21:1 ¶ And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and
were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two
disciples, 2 Saying unto them, Go into
the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt
with her: loose them, and bring
them unto me. 3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of
them; and straightway he will send them. 4
All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
prophet, saying, 5 Tell ye the daughter
of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and
a colt the foal of an ass. (referring to
Zechariah 9:9)
Again, the seventh day as a day of rest is spoken of. I think it
is worth repeating what I’ve said previously on this subject as it was
mentioned before this back in chapter 23’s comments.
The Hebrews were also to have a sabbath
for the land, not harvesting in the seventh year and permitting the poor and
animals eat freely. This also applied to grapes and olives.
Leviticus
25:1 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses in
mount Sinai, saying, 2 Speak unto the
children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give
you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. 3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six
years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; 4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of
rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field,
nor prune thy vineyard. 5 That which
groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather
the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
6 And the sabbath of the land shall be
meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy
hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, 7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that
are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
The sabbath of rest for the seventh day
of the week is a day of rest also for animals, servants, and foreigners who
worked for the Hebrews, as well.
There were three important feasts they
were to keep in a year; the feast of unleavened bread that ended in Passover,
the feasts of weeks, of firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and of ingathering at
year’s end. These three times in the year all males were to appear before God
in a place appointed and to keep a feast.
The feast
of weeks is also called the feast of harvest.
Exodus 23:16 And the feast of harvest,
the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the
feast of ingathering, which is
in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the
field.
The feast
of ingathering, when everything is brought in, is also called the feast of tabernacles.
Deuteronomy
16:13 Thou shalt observe the feast of
tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:
Deuteronomy
16:16 Three times in a year shall all
thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in
the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of
tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
There are specific instructions given
for these feasts. It is interesting to note the three feasts, the three times
they were to come before the Lord. Three times in the Bible the phrase come up hither, meaning ‘come up here,’
is used in different contexts.
Proverbs
25:7 For better it is that it be said
unto thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the
presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen.
Revelation
4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a
door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of
a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee
things which must be hereafter.
Revelation
11:12 And they heard a great voice from
heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a
cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Three times in one verse the pre-Flood
patriarch, Enoch’s, translation from earth to God’s presence is mentioned.
Hebrews
11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see
death; and was not found, because God had translated
him: for before his translation he
had this testimony, that he pleased God.
It is interesting to imagine that the translation of the church, popularly
called ‘the rapture’, a word not found in the Bible, takes place in three steps
with Christ and those who were resurrected at His resurrection being first.
Matthew
27:52 And the graves were opened; and
many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
And then two more times mentioned in
Revelation of the pre-Tribulation saints and then of those who come to Christ
during the Great Tribulation. Three resurrections of believers, three raptures,
two in Revelation itself.
Several early church “fathers” like Hermas, Cyprian,
Victorinus, and Ephraim the Syrian spoke of the church being removed before
God’s wrath is poured out at the end of time.
Christians today who do not believe in the translation of the church, popularly
called ‘the rapture,’ will say that
preacher of the early 1800’s, John Nelson Darby, invented the doctrine. He did
popularize it in opposition to a world that regarded evolutionary progress as
truth and that mankind and Christians in particular were headed toward a ‘golden
age’ of righteousness and peace.(24)
But, he obviously did not invent the doctrine, merely gave
it his own twist. As John Reeve wrote
two centuries before Darby’s, in the 1600’s, “Then shall the Elect, by
the Decree or Voice of Jesus Christ, the Archangel,
first appear out of the Graves, and, in the twinkling of an Eye, with all
the Elect that are then living, as one Man, with a glorious Shout, shall, with
distinct immortal Bodies, like unto their God, ascend to meet the Lord in the
Air, and with him and his mighty angels, as swift as Thought, enter into that
vast new Heaven and new Earth above the Stars….(25)
My intent here is not to approve of any preacher’s
particular doctrines or idiosyncrasies or even personal opinions or heresies
but simply to show that the doctrine was not invented by Darby, as some would
say. Only the timing of when it would happen, before the Great Tribulation
mentioned in Matthew and Revelation, during, or at the end of it were in
contention among those that believed in it. Although I have not read his work
there is supposedly another pretribulation rapture commentator named Morgan
Edwards from the century prior to Darby.
Other references to the idea of the church being physically
removed are from such diverse preachers and commentators as Jesuit priest,
Francisco Ribera, in 1590, Puritan Cotton Mather in the 1600s, and John Gill in
the 1700s.(26) In the first decade of
the 1700s Matthew Henry even uses the phrase, “rapture in the clouds,” in his
commentary on 1Thessalonians 4:17 which is so commonly free on the internet I
don’t need to give you directions here.
Darby’s view was that what he called “the rapture” must take
place before the return of Christ. The Bible says that then there is the thousand-year
reign of Christ and the general judgment follows.
My point in bringing all of this up is to only say that a
doctrine can exist in the Bible and either be misunderstood, not be known by
most believers, or that those against it or for it may misrepresent it to
justify their own beliefs. The Jews believed that Israel would be restored to
its past greatness, not seeing the Cross or the Resurrection of their Messiah.
Many Christians of the 1800s, the age of the so-called great revivals, were
Postmillennialists and believed they would turn the world over to Christian
principles and values without Christ present so, no rapture and Christ’s rule
coming after we had perfected the world. We must always remember that our understanding
is incomplete until we stand before our Saviour.
God promised protection and supernatural at that when the
males went up to appear before Him. No one would want their land while they
were gone. There is an important promise to note in the Bible regarding such
things.
Proverbs 16:7 When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh
even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Leaven
is once again forbidden. Leaven here represents God’s insistence not to mix
pagan elements that He has forbidden in with His worship. It is interesting to
consider the use of the word leaven
by Christ. Leavened
bread was a symbol for Christ of the pollution of the Pharisees, the religious
elite of His day on earth, of God’s commandments in Luke 12:1.
Leaven is something added to dough,
typically yeast, to make it ferment and rise. It would be something added to
Biblical doctrine, for instance, missing the point of God’s commandments and
making being slavishly ritualistic.
Matthew
23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have
omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
It renders faith meaningless to God.
For instance, in prescribing long prayers to feel spiritual.
Matthew
6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain
repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for
their much speaking.
It includes things that may have their
uses but makes them a sign of your faithfulness to God when they are not
something He required.
Mark
7:1 ¶ Then came together unto him the
Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. 2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat
bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews,
except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 And when they come from the market,
except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have
received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of
tables.
For instance, wearing a business suit
to church may satisfy a man’s conviction to dress his best when he comes to
church but when he makes it a doctrine for proof that another Christian who
does not share that belief is not genuinely committed to worshipping God he,
like a Pharisee, mingles leaven with God’s words.
There are many other things that can be
included in this comparison like certain rituals, church words, ceremonial
observances, and demands on time and money that would have been impossible for
early Christians. The most striking leaven, though, would be to add something
to the simplicity of Biblical Salvation in order to distinguish your doctrine from
other people’s worship. You are probably about to add leaven after you say or
think something like, “If they were real Christians they would…..”
Early eighteenth century Bible commentator, Matthew Henry,
reported, apparently from older Jewish authorities, that it was common for the
Gentiles to boil (see Ezekiel 24:5 for seethe as to boil) a kid (goat) in its
mother’s milk and sprinkle that over fields to ensure a good harvest in the
future. God forbade such magical nonsense. What is important here is that God
has set up three feasts for the Hebrews to remember events by, to commemorate
what has happened.
(24)
J.N. Darby, “The Rapture of the Saints,” in The
Heavenly Hope, or, What is the Hope of the Christian? What is the Hope of the
Church? (Dublin: Dublin Tract Repository, 1844).
(25)
John Reeve, “An Epistle to a Kinsman,” in Joyful
News from Heaven (London: Francis Cosinet, 1658), 60.
(26) Mal Couch, ed., Dictionary of Premillennial Theology (Grand
Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1996).
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