Salvation History Chapter 21. The Final Outworking of Redemption.
BACKGROUND IDEA - THE JEWISH RELIGIOUS CALENDAR.
Leviticus 23.
The Jewish religious calendar was an important regulator of Jewish Worship. This chapter lists the major Holy Days and Festivals the Israel was to Celebrate. Greater Detail for some of the Celebrations are given elsewhere, but this chapter gives the overview.
(1) Each of these Festivals had FOUR major meanings:
(a) They were a harvest festival.
(b) They were a memorial to events that happened to the nation of Israel during their exodus from Egypt.
(c) They were seen to be a prophetic message of the future deliverance that God would bring to his people through the Messiah, hence they speak of the work of Christ.
(d) Hence they have a personal application to each of us as Christians, in terms of our experience and spiritual growth. There is a spiritual experience that corresponds to each of the festivals, and as we grow in God we will experience the true meaning of the festival.
(2) There were FOUR main groups of festivals:
(i) The Sabbath (v1-3) - the weekly day of Rest.
Every Friday from 6.00p.m. to Saturday 6.00p.m.
(ii) Passover - On the 14th Day of the first month.
Three events around Passover at the beginning of the summer harvest. These were:
# The Festival of Unleavened Bread,
# Passover itself and
# The Ceremony of the First Fruits.
This whole complex of ceremonies with time became known simply as Passover or Unleavened Bread.
They were a remembrance to God's act of Deliverance through Moses (Exod 12-15).
As such it became a prophetic type of the first coming of Christ, and his death on the Cross.
(iii) Pentecost - 50 days after Passover.
At the end of the grain harvest. It came seven weeks after Passover, or 50 days, hence the name Pentecost, Pente meaning fifty. Two loaves, one of Wheat, one of Barley, were offered.
Pentecost became the Remembrance of the Giving of the Law at Sinai, in the third month after leaving Egypt (Exod 19:1).
It is a prophetic type of the Coming of the Holy Spirit on the Early Church on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2).
(iv) Secular New Year. - in the seventh month.
The last group of festivals were at the end of the harvest, just prior to the beginning of winter, and associated with the Jewish Secular New Year, being the seventh month of the Religious calendar.
Again there were three main festivals over this time: -
* The festival of Trumpets, beginning on New Year's Day proper, the first day of the seventh month, and extending to the 14th day of the month, which was the Day of Atonement.
The surrounding Nations had great celebrations on New Year's Day, in which they traditionally recrowned their kings and engaged in other significant cultic celebrations.
Israel simply had a trumpet blast, the major celebration of New Year waiting until Atonement.
The trumpet blast was a remembrance of the fact that whenever they broke camp in the wilderness they blew trumpets as the alarm (Num 10).
The journey from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea is about 10 days in length. It looks as if the 10 days between New Year and Atonement are meant to recall the walk from Sinai to the land. It seems that the Trumpet call went out, in fact, SEVEN times over these ten days, suggesting that the trip was done in stages, as we read in Numbers.
The significance of all this we shall see shortly.
* The Jews reserved their New Year celebrations for the day of Atonement (v 26-32). This was on the tenth day of the seventh month.
This was the end of the harvest, the fruit and grapes (vintage) having been collected.
We read in Numbers 13,14 how when Israel arrived at Kadesh Barnea they send spies into the land. These spies went out "at the beginning of the season of first ripe grapes, and took 40 days to carry out their task. If Israel had entered the land the next day, as God intended, than they would have entered the land on the day of Atonement, but they did not and the type was broken.
As with all of the surrounding nations, this New Year celebration was the major annual Religious convocation. The day was spent in cultic ceremonies and dramas, re-enacting creation, the reaffirmation of God as Israel's king (through a re-crowning ceremony of the king), the ritual of atonement (Lev 16) and also a dramatic presentation looking forward to the coming of God as King in his Messiah.
Isa 40-66 and Pss 90-105 are built around this drama, the Psalms being the songs used on the day.
* Following this a week after Atonement was a seven-day festival, on the 15th - 22nd of the seventh month. the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths, or Shelters (v33-36). It was a major celebration for the completed harvest of grain, fruit, and wine.
This festival was to remind Israel how they lived in Tabernacles, i.e. Tents, during their wilderness wanderings. If they had entered the Land when God intended then this festival would have been a symbol of the blessing of the promised land.
Immediately after Tabernacles the first rains of the winter fell – the early rains, or autumn rains.
It is these last three festivals that interest us here in the context of the fulfillment of Redemption.
As you can see they were intended by God to be a remembrance to historic events, but Israel's rebellion meant that the pattern was broken. Israel saw this also and saw that the land was not all it was intended to be - so the festivals came to have a greater meaning - pointing forward to the Blessed age coming at the Revelation of the Messiah. The seven months of the summer harvest speak of the Church age in a symbolic prophecy.
The Church inherited these prophecies from Israel, but the Christ Event radically transformed their meaning. The Church saw that the first three groups of festivals had already been fulfilled in Christ. The last group speak of his second coming.
The seven blasts of the trumpets over the ten days period are clearly intended to speak of the seven trumpets of Revelation (Rev 8:2) which blow over a ten "day" period. The last blows on the Day of Atonement.
The Day of Atonement:- also known as the day of Redemption, is clearly a prophecy of the second Coming (Eph 4:30). The Day of Atonement was also known by the Jews as “the Day of the Lord.” In the NT the “day of the Lord” is the time when Christ returns in power and glory to set up his kingdom on earth.
Tabernacles - speaks of the blessedness of the Millenium.
THE FINAL OUTWORKING OF REDEMPTION.
The Book of Revelation is where we see the details of how Redemption is consummated. Redemption is the key to understanding Revelation.
Ch 5 - Christ is portrayed as the one who is the Redeemer. Here we see him taking the title deed of Earth from God, the judge of the Earth, and the process of Redemption enters a new stage. We are told he has the (legal) right to take the scroll and open it, because he alone could pay the price. The price was the death of a sinless man. We are told that he has “redeemed men and made them kings and priests.”
From here on in Christ is seen as the executor of redemption.
Ch 6-8 - The Seven Seals. The scroll is opened. It is sealed with seven seals. Apparently it is a seven paged scroll, each page sealed with a seal. Each page can be opened separately. As each seal is opened we can read part of the document. As each page is opened we see the price of sale - death to mankind.
Finally the seventh seal ushers in the day of the Lord, the Day of Redemption.
Ch 8-11 - The Seven Trumpets.
We go back in time again and see the price of Redemption - death at every hand.
Again the seventh Trumpet, which clearly is the same event as the seventh seal, ushers in the day of the Lord.
Rev 10:1-4.
The angel is probably acting on behalf of Christ. He is holding the scroll – the same scroll as ch 5, 6. He puts his feet on the land and the sea – an OT symbolism speaking of taking ownership. This angel is making the claim of the Redeemer – kinsman. The price has been paid, the scroll has been opened and now the inheritance can be claimed. It won’t be long now and it will be handed back to the rightful owners.
THE DAY OF REDEMPTION.
Lev 25:9,10.
(1) Old Testament Practice.
The day of Redemption was the day of Atonement, the day Israel celebrated the New Year, the 10th day of the seventh month. It spoke of new beginnings so was laden with symbolic meaning. As it was just prior to the planting of seed it was a good time to allow the redemption of land.
In the religious calendar, Atonement falls in the seventh month, at the end of the festive summer harvest season, and so it speaks of the end of the harvest. This lead it to be seen as a prophecy of the end of time, i.e. the day of the Lord.
(2) New Testament Application.
In the NT we find the day of Redemption identified with the Day of the Lord, when Christ appears in power and glory to establish his kingdom.
This indicates that the events of the Day of Atonement / Redemption are a prophetic type of the events of the Day of the Lord.
There are four aspects important to us.
(1) Restoration of Man's Freedom.
2 Cor 5:1-5.
Rom 8:23.
Because of sin our bodies are in bondage to a power of DEATH. This is a personal power, a demon, which is responsible for sickness, degeneration and death.
Redemption will result in the full liberation of men from DEATH.
1 Cor 15:48-57.
"we shall be changed" - this is the event commonly called the Rapture, or Resurrection of the Saints.
(a) It results in us getting a new body. 1 Cor 15:42-44.
It will be like Christ's resurrection body - not bound by time and space.
In fact glorification is MORE than a simple restoration of man's sinlessness. Adam was bound by time and space, our resurrection bodies are not.
It is incorruptible, powerful, glorious, immortal.
When this (the rapture) happens "death is overcome" (v54, 55).
When does this happen?
1 Cor 15:22-26.
At the "END". The last enemy to be destroyed is DEATH - after Antichrist, the False Prophet, etc.
It happens "at the last Trumpet" (v52).
To be the last trumpet it implies
(i) There must be some others before it, and the Christians Paul is writing to know something about them.
(ii) There are no more trumpets after it.
In Revelation we find SEVEN trumpets, the last of which, we are told, causes time to "cease.” Rev 10:6 Literally – “there shall be no more time.” Wherever the phrase “no more” is used in Revelation it always means “no more in quantity. The 7th trumpet is the end of this earthly age.
The Day of Atonement was the 10th day of the 7th month.
10 = completion.
7 = completion.
I.e. a double completion, two witnesses establishing its truth, and the subject is time.
The seventh trumpet finishes time as we know it.
There can therefore be no trumpets after this one, it must be the "last trump" of 1 Cor 15.
The Seventh Trumpet is blown on the day of the Lord, at the End of the Tribulation, which means the rapture and resurrection of the Saints occurs then also.
(b )We can have a foretaste of the Redemption of the Body now:
(i) In Healing.
(ii) Rom 8:11 - "life in our mortal bodies" c/f Isa 40:31 - "a change in strength" - e.g. Moses and Caleb.
(2) Restoration of Man's Inheritance.
Rom 8:19-23.
The earth is in bondage and is waiting for the release of mankind, so that it too can be set free. Presumably the groaning is that of the elemental spirits who were subjected to Satan because of man’s sin and not of their own will.
Paul tells us that they will be set free, along with the earth – but this happens when we “receive adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (8:23).” Paul specifically says here that we receive our resurrection bodies at the same time as the earth is redeemed.
Our eternal destiny is earth related, not heavenly. God's eternal purpose is to have a people who are reigning on Earth.
Rev 5:10, 20:6 – on earth, not in heaven.
Our kingship is to be restored - Christ our kinsman did not redeem earth for himself, but for his brethren.
Rev 11:15-19 - at the seventh trumpet the kingdom of this world becomes Christ’s – but he is acting as Kinsman redeemer – he claims the kingdom for us.
(3) Restoration of Relationship With God.
On the day of Atonement the High Priest, as Head of the people, entered into the Holy of Holies where God's presence dwelt.
Heb 9:1-7.
This Christ has already done, having gone as a forerunner for us.
Heb 9:11, 12.
However we are to join him there.
Rev 11:19 - God's temple is opened, the way is clear for us to go in.
Rev 15.
v2 - The Saints stand beside the sea - they have passed through into God's presence.
v5 - God's temple is opened.
v6 - Angels of Wrath come out.
v8 - No one can enter until the wrath is over, but the Saints are already in!.
Rev 7:9-17
v15 - "in his temple".
(4) A Day of Wrath.
The day of Atonement was when Israel repented before God and God judged their sin.
The day of the Lord is also a day of judgment.
(i) For the saints.
Rev 11:18 - rewards.
1 Cor 3:10-15.
2 Cor 5:9,10.
(ii) On the masses of unrepentant mankind it is a day of WRATH.
Rev 6:12-17.
Ezekiel 38:18 "on that day my wrath will be aroused" = the day Russia and her allies invade Palestine.
Zephaniah - tells us what it will be like.
1 Thess 5:9 - the saints are "not destined to wrath" - we are already in God's presence before the angels of wrath leave to dispense God's wrath.
The clear implication of the teaching of redemption and the day of the Lord as the day of redemption is that both mankind (the saints) and the earth itself are redeemed at the same time. There is no secret rapture for the church seven years prior to the day of the Lord.
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