ReNEWed COVENANT Ministry

SABBATH BIBLE STUDY

1-29

(2019)

IF we have sown unto you spiritual things,
Is it a great thing if we shall reap from you carnal things? 1Corinthians 9:11

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Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com

In connection to the series that I had offered “why do we keep the feasts?”, this next series is offered, to help further support and encourage the Israel of God in her return to YHWH’s ordained worship according to the Scriptures.
I’d like to add that last year around this time I had offered as series on

THE LORD’S SUPPER
Christian Pascha
Sacrament of the Faith of Jesus Christ

As well as, just a few months back, I had more so established a systematic reason for keeping the feast as Christians under the New Covenant in the series:

“Why Do we Keep the Feasts?”.

How Do We Keep the Feasts?
Part. 11

By Observing the Feast of Weeks,

the Firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest

2Pe_1:2-8 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesu(s) our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, for they make neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesu(s) Christ.

Template:
Lev 23:15 And 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:
Lev_23:16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
Lev 23:17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.

So very much in this message concerning how our observance of Pentecost and the feast of weeks is practiced, in our day and age it is a discussion mostly of the timing, and an explanation of how this time is arrived to.
This Feast is called by more names in the Bible than any other of the feasts mentioned in the command of Exo_23:14-16 “Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.” And much of the reason for the misunderstandings and inability to celebrate this feast, or even have a meaningful understanding of why we should keep these feasts is due to the hyper-spiritual or abstract gnostic approach many have taken concerning this festival and the others.
Years ago, I had a conversation with a brother wherein he said to me concerning the feast of weeks and Pentecost ‘All of the other feasts, Passover we kill and roast the lamb and…, Trumpets we blow trumpets…, Atonement day we fast…. And on Tabernacles we put up our tents or booths… but what in the world do we do on Pentecost, the feast of weeks…? We discussed the giving of the Holy Spirit from Acts 2 and so forth, but what does YHWH want from his people at this time of worship?’
And that was the first time I realized that many of our people focused on ‘our side’ of the feasts by synergistic worship, and I stated to look rather and turn my head towards what YHWH did, does and will do at the times of these services, to see what this feast and all the rest, are truly about.
Much of this incomprehension is due to the ignorance of the agricultural names of the feasts calling our respective nations back to YHWH the giver of all life which is simply seen in just reading all the names of this feast:
Exo_23:16 in connection to the month of Abib (Barley) “And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field”

In connection to the system of Sabbath in Exo_34:21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest:
The Agricultural aspect of this feast continues… “in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
Exo_34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest…”
and in Deu_16:9-10 we are told that “Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. And 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, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:

In the Template of Lev_23:16 we are following this feast is simply called
the numbering or counting of 50 days, in the Greek LXX Pentekostes / πεντηκοντα G4004 as it is similarly called in the New Testament of Acts 2 as well.
Just consider the way YHWH chose to speak about this feast in all of these examples:
1. And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field
2. the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest…”
3. seven sabbaths shall be complete beside
4. numbering of fifty days
Just mixing all of this content together and rather than unpacking simple meanings, packing it into one meaning it limits the options available for interpretation and how this feast is celebrated.
This is a Harvest feast, meaning it must happen AFTER Wheat harvest, it is of a first fruit of labors sown in the field celibrated according to the weekly or sabbatic cycle of Holy convocations which will happen when 50 days are complete.
The primary focus of this feast is Wheat harvest plain and simple, wheat the ancient Israelite and modern European staple crop should be celebrated. Be thankful!
YHWH commands us to be thankful at this time of harvest in conjunction with the time the first sickle of grain is cut and brought before YHWH of the Abib first fruits of Barley.
This is a law that is only complicated if you suppress the agricultural aspect of worship, YHWH speaks to for our inculcation of worship with the most primitive construction of Adam’s existence Gen 2:5 “to till the ground”, to bring forth bread, we can distain such a truth of reality to our death or we can see the blessed life which come by it, Adam was made to till and tend, and in his curse tilling and tending was not added thorns and thistles were.
As a nation, specifically YHWH nation of Covenant, regardless of our agricultural reason, if we divorce the numbering of the 7 weeks or of the 50 days from the wheat harvest and the month of Abib we will first create an abstract nonsensical worship as Pentecost sunday is celebrated today as founded by the catholic sunday worshipers who have mocked the heavenly system that keeps all of YHWH’s feasts happening on Sabbath’s according to the moon’s appointed seasons, by placing paschal-easter and pentecost as all sharing ‘sunday’ in a humanistic calendar, unrelated to agriculture and the Lord of the harvest, and rather to the Lord-church, and after that abstract calculation is excepted and the reality of the heavens and the harvest and those working together for our good forgotten about. The numbering become the primary factor, the 7 weeks becomes the primary factor, but the Exegetical fact of reality and the Scripture is that Agricultural worship is primary beside the heavenly monthly and weekly Sabbath system, calibrated to the numbering of 7 weeks or 50 days.

And this hinges upon the unification of the national church settled into the agricultural regions land or country worshiping together as a people of covenant in the land of Cannan and in the Diaspora.
And so as we saw concerning the 2 aspects of the Count to pentecost/ feast of weeks there is a

Lev_23:10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
Lev 23:11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Lev 23:12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
Lev 23:13 And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.
Lev 23:14 And 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.
Lev 23:15 And 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:
Lev_23:16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
Lev 23:17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.

As back ground :
In the prior message concerning the waving of the firstfruits I had drawn attendion to what the Law says in LEV_23:10-11 “then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you…”
There are 2 elements of focus I had drawn out concerning this particular of the festival which is inseparable from the month of Agricultural Abib. That is in regards to the
1. the bringing of a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest
and
2. the waving of the the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you

This is important to have a handle on this as we move in to the 2nd great feast of YHWH revealed unto Israel, the numbering or counting of 50 days, Greek LXX πεντηκονταG4004 in the New Testament Pentekostes, it is the time of the offering of the New or renewed ‘cHoDeSh’ meat offering, the two wave loaves made with leaven…specificly commanded.
Because of how you can see (calendar) the numbering of this 50 days in combination with the completion of 7 weeks as speaking of the same event.
And it is for this reason that the morrow after the Sabbath in Lev_23:10 …When… shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest… is tied to the bringing of the sheaf of the wave offering of Lev_23:15 And 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:
And this looking at the Agricultural moonth of Abib and the first Sabbath of that agricultural month of first fruits.
And in the finality of the 50 days in ariving at the feast of weeks, the completion of 7 weeks. The Hebrew uses the word TaMIM-Th (תמימת) which is often translated ‘spotless’, ‘with out blemish’, that is in he idea of complete or full. What does this mean in regards to time, it means that the 50 days must be over, done, filled to the top of the cup if you will. Consider how TaMIM (תמים) is used in the context of a sacrificial animal as it is often used: No one would think that the burnt offering of Lev_1:3 “without blemish” would mean anything less than totally complete of fully developed in a healthy fashion; nor would any one think the term “coupled together” which is also translated from TaMIM in Exo_26:23-24 “Two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.”, is speaking of anything less than 2 things reckoned as one seamless or perfect whole.
And in this same way the 7 Sabbaths according to the moon are complete or full and so are the 50 days coupled to it. In the book of Acts_2:1 Pentecost is specifically spoken of in this way in the ABP is says “And in the filling upG4845 the days of Pentecost,G4005 they were all together…” What are the days (plural) of 50? Because we are speaking of the full, unblemished completion of 50 days to arive at a Sabbath and holy convocation prior described in
Lev_23:3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
This then brings us to the completion of the 50th day and directly after to the feast of 7 weeks.
Lev_23:18 And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.
Lev 23:19 Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
Lev 23:20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
Lev 23:21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

The Sabbath in conjunction with the New Moon will be our holy convocation if we count from the time the sickle is put to the corn, from the time the sheaf is first brought.
The Morrow after Passover is the wave upon the altar but the bringing happens prior upon the 1st Sabbath of the month of Abib, that is the 9th day. and from that count 50 days brings us right before the 3rd New Moon every year which after that 7th Sabbath or week occurs the New Moon, a natural Holy convocation an Appointed season of the lights and of the moon, and this New Moon by this system these are the ‘Days of Pentecost” also called the feast of weeks which lasts the duration of the New Moon feastival, making 7 sabbaths / 7 weeks complete or full by the New Moon reckoning. 

The Law says this special offering at this time has 2 wave loaves made of fine wheat flour:
Lev_23:17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.
This is undoubtedly the case because of the other places where this feast is called by other indicative naming, such as: the feast of weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest.

In our template of Lev 23 this feast is finished in
Lev_23:22, And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am YHWH your God.

In specific focus on the offerings we also have Num_28:26-31 Also in the day of the first fruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the LORD, after your weeks be out , ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work:
The phrase after you weeks is a subject of multiple translations, the KJV says after and adds the English ‘be out’ in italics to direct the thought; in the Hebrew stream of translation the Modern KJV says ‘in your Feast of Weeks’, the Coverdale and Tyndale says ‘in your weeks’; from the LXX stream: The Brenton says ‘at the feastival of weeks’, and the ABP says ‘of the period of sevens’. I have heard this phrase from the KJV used as argumentation to assert the claim that the day after 49 days are counted is the day of sacrifice on the very 50th day rather than when that day is past, yet not only is the KJV in need of non-Hebrew derived phraseology to support the word ‘after’, but it stands in the minority as to translation in preference to the concept of ‘in’ or ‘at’ .

It is also poetically relevant, that the word cHoDeSh is the Hebrew word for ‘new’ in ‘new meat offering’, and as we lunar Sabbath keepers are well aware this is the word for ‘New Moon’ and ‘month’ in the lunar observation, as it is a time of renewal of the moon for the new month. This is only a Hebraic poetic connection, but after looking at the Appointment of the moon’s seasons and seeing that connection to the Sabbath’s system of seasons for the feast and seeing this timing of the 50th day bring us up to the 7th Sabbath from the count to arrive at the 3rd New moon of the year it makes all the more impact poetically. also it is worth comparing the offering of the new moon from Num_15:19-21 to that contained in Num_28:11-28, they are identical, helping our thoughts easily cradle the happening of this numbering or counting to a new moon.

The Law commands its annual observances not by any particular solar or stellar arraignment, but by yearly agricultural alignment alone. It commands monthly by the moon alone and weekly by the days of the week via the month alone. And while the stars are an important marker the Law is silent after Genesis 1:14 regarding their use, thus it is only evidential reality we can understand them as the back drop of the whole system when it is moving in conjunction together, the constellations dividing the heaven will give a place for the sun and moon to conjunct every month in a particular sign of that constellation, but this star sign will not be able to be used as an anchor throughout the earth for feast keeping due to the Laws high placement of Agricultural commands.
Though I do believe that the original pattern in the stars was a witness of the truths happening and celebrated for a few thousand year window, while history was in the making and YHWH’s eyes were upon the land of Canaan to become Israel’s land, the sun, moon and stars marked this time in perfect alignment with the Agriculture of the borders of the land of Israel. That is that in Israel at the time of the Exodus until the final destruction of the Temple in 70ad by the Roman’s as predicted and accomplished by Christ the new moon conjunction of Abib happened when the sun was in the constellation of the stars of Aries / the Ram which was aligned with the Nation of Israel’s agricultural festivals perfectly (Josephus references this very aspect in his days, which were the days of the temples last standing, Josephus witnessed it’s destruction.), and so by the system of calibrating the feasts agricultural demands yearly, it naturally overlapped with the sun in a particular stare constellation, and the new moon overlapping in conjunction with that sun in that stare group, proceeded to align the agriculture from Abib’s first fruits in Aries in the first moon, to the wheat harvests first fruits in Pentecost/ feast of weeks in Gemini / the twins in the 3rd moon to Tabernacles feast of Ingathering at the agricultural years end in Libra / the scales in the 7th moon.
Yet the eternality of the Law for Adam to use perpetually, is by celebrating his produce and harvest before the God who gives it, and aligning that system according to the New Moon/cHoDeSh every year for marking the feasts of YHWH in his location and region.
Deu_16:10 And 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:
Deu 16:11 And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.
Deu 16:12 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

In looking at various historic Christianities, such as the orthodox churches the feast was kept and it is said by some, in the more primitive regions it still is mocked to celebrate the harvest given from God.
Sokolof and Archpriest of Eastern orthodoxy said in a book “A Manual of the Orthodox Church’s Divine Services” (3rd ed.). The Eastern Orthodox Church the offering of first fruits takes the form of a thanksgiving and blessing. The produce is then consumed by the faithful rather than being given to the Church (though it may be donated as a free-will offering). The liturgical concept behind the blessing is the faithful offering back to God a token of that which he in his lovingkindness has provided, God blessing these firstfruits and returning them to the faithful for their benefit and blessing.
The blessing of first fruits traditionally begins on the Great Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6), with the blessing of grapes. In localities where grapes are not grown, other early-ripening fruits such as apples may be offered. There is a special ceremony at the end of the Divine Liturgy at which the priest blesses the first fruits, asking “…that the Lord may bless them, that they may be to us unto rejoicing, and that He may accept a gift of these fruits unto the cleansing of our sins…”[12]
As the harvest season progresses, the first fruits of each species can be brought to the church to be blessed, using a similar format, but a different prayer: “…that the Lord may receive our gift unto His eternal treasury and grant us an abundance of earthly goods…”[12] I chose to list these quotes, because you can easily find them on Wikipedia for further study if one would like.
While I find great error in the religion of so called ‘orthodoxy’, I also see the tattered and ghostly visage of Biblical culture as appointed by the Law of YHWH.