Amen, so Deuteronomy chapter 16. There's a lot here in this chapter, more than I could
even get to in one sermon. We could talk about every one of these feasts. There's so much
symbology and so many things we could just unpack from each one of these feasts that
are mentioned there. But if you look there, verse 16, it says,
3 times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God at a place which he
shall choose.
There are three times that all the males shall appear before the Lord thy God, but
that's not to say that there were only three feasts. What we're going to cover tonight
are seven feasts of the Lord. Because in several of those feasts, you had more than one feast
taking place. There was a lot of overlap. For example, the first one they mentioned
there in the month Abib is the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and then of
course elsewhere you would see the Wave offering. There's actually three feasts in that one
time that they would appear, and then in the middle of the week they had the Feast of Weeks.
They were to count 50 weeks from the Passover, and then they would come again and they would
present themselves for another feast. At the end there was another feast, of course,
which was the Feast of Tabernacles. There were several more components that were involved
in that too. There were three different feasts in those. So it's true that they were only
supposed to show up three times in the year, but we have to remember that doesn't mean
there was only three feasts. There was three in the beginning and three at the end and
the one in the middle, so they had actually had seven feasts between those three times.
The first one they mentioned there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So if you look
there in verse one it says,
Observe the month Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord thy God. For in the month Abib
the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice
the Passover and the Lord thy God of the flock and the herd, in the place which the Lord
shall choose to put his name there. There shall no unleavened bread be with it. Seven
days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction.
So they had the Passover, they would eat that, and then of course they had the seven days
of unleavened bread. So there was two feasts there. He said there in verse three,
Going on, for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, that thou mayest remember
the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. There
shall no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coasts seven days. Neither shall there
any thing of flesh, which thou sacrifices the first day at even, remain all night until
the morning. Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates, which the
Lord thy God giveth thee, but at the place where the Lord thy God shall choose to place
his name in. There shalt thou sacrifice the Passover even, and that the going down of
the sun at the season when thou camest forth out of Egypt, thou shalt roast it and eat
it in a place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and thou shalt turn in the morning
and go to thy tents. Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall
be a solemn assembly, till the Lord thy God thou shalt do no work therein.
Now of course this began with the observance of the Passover, which was on the tenth day
of the month. Now what's interesting about these feasts is that Jesus Christ and these
first feasts have been fulfilled. The feast of Passover, the unleavened bread, and the
wave offering, these have all been taken care of. These are fulfilled in Christ. That's
what the Passover was a picture of, was of Jesus Christ. He was the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. If you recall, when they ate that, he told them specifically
that they shall eat it with the putrients thereof. They weren't to gut it, they were
supposed to not even remove the head, they weren't supposed to cut it up or not supposed
to break a bone of it, that they were to roast the entire thing whole on the fire and
then they were to eat of it, and then whatever was left over was to remain and be consumed
upon the altar. They weren't to have leftovers the next day. That's because that's a picture
of Christ's sacrifice for us, that he suffered in hell. How else do you explain this symbology
there? He's the lamb that's being roasted on a fire. That's him taking our place for
our sins. Of course, the leavened bread is a perfect picture of the fact that Christ
has purged us from our sins. Not only was he sinless, and again, there's multiple layers
here that we could talk about each one of these feasts, and we can't really cram it
all in one sermon, but the unleavened bread, he was without sin. He was the perfect lamb
of God without sin, so there was no leaven, which is a picture of sin, to be found in
any of their homes. They weren't to eat any unleavened bread, they weren't to have it
even in their house. You could say that's a picture of Christ. That's also a picture
of what I believe Christ has done for us. He has purged us from our old sins. He's purged
us from the leaven of sin in our life. That starts with the Passover. They consume the
lamb, and then it's the unleavened bread that one doesn't come before the other. They have
to have the Passover first, just like we have to be saved first. We don't purge ourselves
from our sins, and then Jesus dies for us. We can't do that. He has to die for us that
we can be purged from our sin to be unleavened.
Now, if you would, turn over to Exodus 12. I'm going to have you turn in quite a few
places tonight, so try to keep up with me. I know it's midweek, but let's perk up a little
bit. There's some really good stuff in this passage. These feasts are fascinating. I would
like to preach entire sermons on each one of these, hopefully sometime in the future,
but we're just going to touch on them tonight, but there's still a lot we can learn from
them.
Now you're there in Exodus chapter 12, where we see the beginning or the roots here of
the Passover. It says,
And the Lord spake in verse one unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt. This shall
be unto you the beginning of months and the first month of the year to you, which is the
month Abib. So that's the beginning of their calendar.
Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, and the tenth day of this month thou shalt
take them, every man a lamb, according to the house of a lamb for in house.
So on the tenth day, they were supposed to go get the lamb. Now, on the tenth day was
not when they were to kill or slay the lamb. They were all to come together, slay the lamb,
and then roast it in their homes and eat it in their homes. So they were to observe the
lamb. So they went and got for that tenth day, they would go get a lamb, every man a
lamb for his house, and then they would actually observe that lamb for three days. Right? Because
if you look there in verse five, he says,
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it out from
the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day. So the tenth
day they went out and they got the lamb, and then they kept it on the fourteenth day.
So they kept it for those three days, right? On the same month, and the whole assembly
of the congregation shall kill it in the evening. And you shall take the blood and strike it
on the two side posts and upon the upper door post of the house wherein they shall eat it.
So they were supposed to get this lamb on the tenth day, keep it for three days, and
then slay it on the fourteenth day. And not only, you know, when they slayed it, you know,
they were to take the blood of it, and they were to put it on the side post and the lentil
of their door. If we recall, you know, that meaning on the sides and on above, and, you
know, it's been said, and this is probably true, that if you think about it, if you had
the blood here and the blood here and the blood here, you know, it makes a cross. So
Christ, you know, the Bible says that to him give all the prophets witness. You know, if
we read our Old Testament Bibles, our Old Testament, you know, we'll see Christ everywhere
we look, if we have a mind to look for it. And we let, you know, if we're found reading
the Word of God, you know, he's going to start to show up. I mean, that's what the whole
book is about. You know, they all everything is pointing to Christ. So that's a great picture
of him there, not only in the blood on the doorpost, his crucifixion, his death, but
also in the lamb itself. Now, why were they to observe it for three days? Because it was
they wanted to make sure it was a lamb without blemish and without spot, meaning they wanted
to watch and see it, make sure it didn't have a limp, you know, or whatever, you know, make
sure it didn't, you know, make funny sound. I don't know what exactly they're supposed
to looking out for, you know, doesn't wag its tail at the right interval. I don't know
how meticulous they got, but they wanted to make sure, you know, this animal wasn't lame
in some way, that it was a good representation of that animal, that it was perfect, that
it was without blemish. Because again, that they were to understand that that was, you
know, a symbol that was symbolic, you know, we're going to use that word a lot tonight,
symbolic, there's a lot of symbology here. And that would that lamb was to be symbolic
of Jesus Christ, and who also was without blemish. You know, we were we are saved by
the as the precious blood of a lamb without spot that the Bible says, so he was supposed
to be that lamb was supposed to be a perfect representation of Christ. And then of course,
they took it on the 14th day, they slayed it as a congregation, they split they put
the blood on their own doorpost and went inside and ate it. And then, you know, this also,
they were told to do this because why why God's reminding them, you know, this was an
observance of the fact that they were delivered from Egypt, right. And he said, you shall
remember that that was the day that he brought you out of the house of bondage. And that's
symbolic of our own deliverance to you know, we could, we could read this and think about
the fact that Christ was slain for us. And by his blood, you know, we're made free in
Christ that we've been delivered from the bondage of sin in our life that we're not
going to pay the penalty for sin. When we die that Christ has delivered us from Egypt
as a type of the world, you know, it's bondage, it's iniquity, it's sin. Now, if you would
go over to Exodus chapter 13, Exodus chapter 13, I'll begin reading in verse one, Exodus
13, one, it says, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, sanctify unto me all the firstborn
whatsoever open at the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast as mine.
And Moses said unto the people, remember this day in which you came out from Egypt out of
the house of bondage, for by strength, by strength of hand, the Lord brought you out
from this place, there shall no leavened bread be eaten. This came ye out in the month
Abib. So again, he's reminding them, they're doing this at this time, observing all of
this, not just for the symbology of the death of Christ, but also their own deliverance
from Egypt, you know, which is a picture that we have. Now it says here that we notice also
that it lasted seven days. So we're talking about that first feast, you know, the Passover
and the unleavened bread, it lasted seven days. If you would go over, just go back to
Exodus chapter 12, if you would, I'll read you from Exodus 23, it says thou shalt keep
the feast of unleavened bread, thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days as I commanded
the time appointed of the month Abib, for in thou camest out from Egypt, and none shall
appear before me empty. Now, what's this, you know, there's probably a lot more, we
could even talk about the fact that it was seven days long. But one thing is to remember,
you know, to think about is the fact that they were delivered from Egypt, right. And
if you recall the story, after they're gone out into the wilderness, you know, they're
they're thrust out, you know, they're they're giving them jewels, and they're giving them
everything they needed for their journey, because they had just, you know, gone through
all those terrible plagues, the Egyptians had suffered, you know, of course, the last
one was the death of the first born of every man and beast. So all the and all of Egypt,
you know, so they're now they're ready to thrust out the children of Israel, they want
them gone far from them. And if you recall the story, you know, they they they thrust
them out in haste. And it says they didn't even have they brought they took their bread
with them unleavened in their kneading troughs, they didn't even have not that they were going
to leaven it, they weren't supposed to. But it's a you know, this unleavened bread is
supposed to remind them also the fact that they were to, they were thrust out with haste
from Egypt, and not only God deliver them with a mighty hand, but they had they went
so quickly, that they had to go with that bread unleavened that they went out very quickly
from them. And of course, it lasted seven days, because if you remember, after they'd
gone into the wilderness, Pharaoh, you know, gets this idea that he wants them back. And
he go and he pursues them in the wilderness, you know, and I don't know that it says anywhere
explicitly that was seven days later. But you have to imagine they traveled a great
distance to get to the Red Sea crossing, and then Pharaoh catches up to them. I believe
that that was several days journey that it was probably seven days before Pharaoh had
caught up to them that they made that journey. That's, you know, some speculation on my part,
but that's what I believe. Now, he says there in Exodus, chapter 12, that there was no,
you know, no leaven that was supposed to be found in their homes. You can you can read
that there in verse 15. It says seven days you should eat unleavened bread, even at the
first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses. And again, that's symbolic of
the fact that we are sinless in Christ. Now I have to say that we you know, we are sinless
in our life that you know, we are now because we're saved, we're without sin. We know that
we have sin. You know, if we say that we have no sin, we make him a liar, the truth
is not in us, we understand that. But in Christ, you know, in God's eyes, it is this as if
we have not sinned, you know, we're justified in Christ. You know, if we do sin, you know,
he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So it's a picture, I believe also the fact that we are sinless in Christ. That's why
there was no leaven found in their house because they were without sin. You know, the Bible
says in First Corinthians five, it says, put purge out there for the old leaven that
you may be what a new lump, as ye are unleavened. So in Christ, we are unleavened, you know,
we are without sin in Christ, for even our Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Therefore, let us keep the feast now with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So the Bible, you
know, this is a great picture of the fact that because Christ has been slain for us,
because we are in Christ, that we are in a sense, you know, spiritually speaking, in
God's eyes, unleavened, that we are without sin, we are a new lump, we are a new creature.
So let's move along here because there's, there's more to get into here with these other
feasts, but he says there, going back to Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse nine, seven weeks shall
thou number unto thee. So they were to have the Passover, they were to observe the seven
days, and then they were to number seven weeks, right? They were, he said, seven weeks shall
thou number unto thee, begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest
to put thy sickle to the corn, and thou shall keep the feast of weeks on the Lord thy God
with the tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which the Lord thy God, which
thou shalt give to the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. And
thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy
manservant and the maidservant and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger
and the fatherless and the widow that are among you, and the place which the Lord thy
God hath chosen to place his name there, and thou shalt remember that thou was a bondman
in Egypt, and thou shalt observe to do these statutes. So again, they were to number these
seven, these seven weeks, that's why it's called the feast of weeks, right? And if you,
and what this translates, and you see this in Acts two, they do this in what? The day
of Pentecost. You know, penti is, you know, I believe is the Greek word for 50, but that's,
that's the correlation there. And it's a, you know, it's a great picture. Now remember
this first feast, these have been fulfilled, right? The Passover we know was fulfilled.
The unleavened bread is fulfilled. All these other feasts are fulfilled. And this one was
also fulfilled too, we believe, and that's fulfilled in the day of Pentecost. And it
was the, you know, it was the, they were to bring in the, the, the first fruits, you know,
it's the feast of weeks or the feast of the ingathering of the first fruits. And if you
think about it, you know, we know, understand that Christ was the first fruits, right? But
then there was also this other great harvest that took place in Pentecost when a great
multitude was added unto them. So that's kind of the picture that, that, that, that he's
giving here. You know, there's going to be, you're going to put the sickle to the corn,
you're going to, and then you're going to bring, you're in gathering, you're going to
bring what you gather at this harvest 70 days later. And when were they going to bring that?
After the Passover, after they, you know, they'd been made, you know, the unleavened,
the feast of unleavened bread. So get the symbology, you know, we get saved, we're unleavened
in Christ, we do the works of God, and then, you know, we have a great, you know, there's,
there's, we, we, we, you know, we, we have a harvest, we win souls. And that's what happened
back then too. You know, they, they got saved, they were unleavened in Christ, right? And
then, and there wasn't a lot of soul winning that took place really when we read the scriptures
between the time Christ ascended into heaven and the day of Pentecost, right? It wasn't
a very long time, but what happened was that, that great end gathering on the day of Pentecost,
they were to, you know, they, they got together and 3000 souls were added unto the church
and the Lord added unto the church daily, such as should be saved. So there was this
great harvest, right? And that's the symbology there, but I really want to focus in and move
on because those are as interesting as those are really the most interesting one is the
last feast, right? And these are the feasts that have not yet been fulfilled. These are
the feasts that Christ is going to fulfill when he returns. So, and really the fall feasts,
as they're called, are symbolic of the end of the world, you know, and, and, and this
is proven by the fact in Matthew chapter 13, I'll just read for you, but if you would go
to Leviticus 23, the Bible says in Matthew 13, Jesus was giving the parable of the reapers,
you know, the parables of the end of the world, right? And he said, the field is the world
and the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of
the wicked one, the enemy that sowed them is the devil. And then he says this, the harvest
is the end of the world. So that's, you know, when we, when we're going to start talking
about these fall feasts, which were the, were, were, you know, the, took place in the fall.
Obviously they took place at the end when they were bringing in the harvest and things
like that. You know, when we, when we understand that statement, that's very true. You know,
the parable here about the end of the world being likened unto a harvest. Okay. And and
that's what we're going to see here is that all the, this last set of feasts here, these
fall feasts are symbolic of Christ's return. These are feasts that are, have yet to be
fulfilled in, you know, symbolically in Christ, but they one day will be. And, you know, to
be perfectly honest, I'm just going to scratch the surface here. You know, there, there's
been great studies done where people have taken the time to look at all the math. There's
a, you know, you start to study their calendar, you know, the way they would observe it, you
start counting the days, you start, you know, comparing, you know, Daniel's 70th week, you
could really make a lot of tie-ins with this and it go pretty deep. I'm not going to do
that tonight for the sake of time. It's something I still want to make sure it's study out for
myself, make sure that it's a hundred percent accurate. I don't have any reasons to doubt
it, but I'm not just going to, you know, regurgitate everything, you know, without
checking it out, but it's, it's very deep and it's very interesting. And, and I want
to just touch on it tonight because I think there's a lot we can learn from it. One mainly
is how deep the word of God is. I mean, the Bible is a very deep book and, you know, we,
we would do well to study it and we'd probably be amazed if we would actually take the time
to really look into some things and dig into them. God has some great treasures for those
that were willing to go and seek for it in his word. But the fall feasts here, they were
to begin in the seventh month. Now you're in Leviticus 23. I want you to keep something
there. Keep a bookmark in Leviticus 23. He said in Leviticus 23 verse 24, speak unto
the children of Israel saying in the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall
ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. Now again, remember
these feasts had, you know, they were, they were feast within the feasts. So there's really
three feasts going on here. There's three elements to this feast or this, this time
that they were coming together. The first thing that we see there, the first element
is the blowing of the trumpets, right? That was to happen on the first day of the month.
He said the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets.
Now I'll probably, now I know when I've read that and I heard somebody else start to begin
to preach about that. I thought, I got it. That's talking about the rapture, right? Wrong.
That's not right. It's not talking about the rapture. You know, I could, you know,
we might think that very quickly. A lot of people preach that and teach that because
we understand, you know, Hey, we're talking about Christ's return. We also associate that
with the trumpet of when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and Christ comes back at
the last trump. But that's not what this is referring to. It's, it's actually referring
to another point in the prophetic timeline. He says here that the blowing of the trumpets
on the first day, right? Now, one of the first things to notice there is that's trumpets,
right? Not just one trump. You know, when Christ comes at the last trump shall sound,
right? That's, that's one trump that's going to resound. But this is a blowing of trumpets.
Now, if you would, again, look there and we'll keep something there, but go over to Daniel
chapter nine, Daniel chapter nine. And again, I'm not probably going to do this, all the
justice that it deserves because there's a lot here to unpack and I don't want to rush.
You know, I'm already rushing already. I can feel it. And I, when I start to rush, I start
to lose people and I get a little lost myself. So I'm trying to slow down and make sure we
get what we can out of it. Okay. But this, there's a lot here and really without going
deep into, you know, Daniel, the book of Daniel and his seventieth week, you know, which is
a whole nother, you know, that there's a whole nother series of sermons right there to try
and expound and understand Daniel's seventieth week. But there's a lot of tie in here. Okay.
The Bible says in Daniel chapter nine, verse 27, and he shall confirm the covenant with
many for one week. And in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease. And the over, for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate
even on the consummation and that determined shall be poured out upon the desolate. So
what is this talking about? This is what's referred to as the abomination of desolation,
right? During Daniel's seventieth week, which is the last week that, you know, which is
the last week that has yet to be fulfilled, you know, with the tribulation, the rise of
the antichrist, Christ's return, God's pouring out his wrath and the beginning of the millennium,
you know, the, the time of Jacob's trouble, the Daniel's seventieth week here, right?
So that he, uh, what he's showing us here is that we wouldn't want to understand is
that when these trumpets that are at this feast, these are not symbolic of the rapture,
but these are actually telling us about the time when the antichrist is going to come
to power. And if you recall the antichrist, you know, when it gets to that right before
that midpoint, his, he receives a deadly wound in his heel, in his head, and he's healed
and he ascends out of the bottomless pit, right? And he goes in and into the temple
and he claims himself to be God and the false prophet sets up an image and he causes a both
small and great to worship the image and to receive a mark in their hand and their forehead
and whosoever not worship the beast, you know, was slain, right? And that's what kicks off
the great tribulation. We know leading up to that is the time of tribulation, right?
And then when the, but when all that takes place, when the, when the antichrist is killed,
revived, comes out of the bottomless pit, sets up the image, then begins what's called
that short frame timeframe right before God, before the rapture of the great tribulation.
When, when the, when the devil and the antichrist make war with the saints and overcome them
and accept those days would be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. And we know
those days are cut short when Christ returns. But what this is showing us, if you would,
go over to second Thessalonians chapter two, second Thessalonians chapter two, second Thessalonians
chapter two and verse one, it says, now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering unto him that you be not soon shaken in mind or
troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the diet of Christ
is at hand. We saying, look, don't be troubled about anybody who's telling you that the day
of Christ is at hand. Now isn't it ironic how many people try to do that even in Baptist
churches. I don't know how many Baptist camp meetings I've sat through and they've said,
the Lord could come tonight before the service is over, trying to trouble you that the day
of the Lord is at hand and saying, you know, he could come at any moment when this is saying,
look, don't let anybody trouble you saying it could come at any moment. It is at hand,
right? Let no man deceive you by any means. He says, meaning there's going to be a lot
of people are going to try to deceive you about the second coming of Christ, the timing
of it. And what did he say? For that day shall not come except the come of falling away first
and that man of sin be revealed. That's the antichrist, the son of perdition who opposes
and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. So we know that Christ coming
is not going to happen until the antichrist reveals himself and claims to be God, right?
So until we see that happen, then we can rest assured that Jesus Christ is not coming, that
has to happen first. And that, you know, I don't want to go off on that. And this isn't
a sermon necessarily about the, you know, the pre-tribulation rapture and how it's false.
But this is just tying in again with Daniel's 70th week, what we're reading here, that there's
going to come a time when the antichrist sets up himself as God and kicks off this
great tribulation. And what happens at that time is that he makes war with the saints.
Okay. The false prophet, you know, he sets up the image, they all worship him. And of
course, when this happens, this all occurs, this man of sin being revealed, this setting
up of the image, this abomination of desolation, that happens in the exact middle of that time.
And it is symbolic of the great tribulation or, and I'm sorry, the feast happens at the
exact middle, right? So think about it. If you have a 12 month year, the first day of
the seventh month would be right in the middle, right? So that's what happens there. That's
a hack happens the exact middle of the year. And it is symbolic of the great tribulation
that taking place, which take place when? In the middle of all that, when you have the
tribulation and God's wrath, you have right in the middle, the abomination of desolation.
And there's that timeframe of the, of the great tribulation. So that's some of the symbology
there. So that's what these trumpets are referring to. You say, well, how does that work? Now,
go over Numbers chapter 29, Numbers chapter 29, because what happens is, is war is declared
upon God's people. It's just all out. You know, he's trying to, and you know, and people,
people really fret about this time. You know, I remember people recently reading an email,
somebody said they were real concerned about, you know, what was going to, what was going
to happen during this time, what kind of physical suffering they were going to have to endure
during this time. Well, you might not even make it to that time. There's going to be
a lot leading up to that, but I believe in this time, like he's saying, well, maybe,
will it be like the inquisitions, you know, where they're doing all these terrible things
to people? I don't believe it is. I believe he knows that he has a little time. The devil's
going to come down with great fury because he know he had the little time and he's going
to try to wipe out Christians as quick as he can. He's not going to take his time and
trying to make people suffer. He's trying to overthrow the world. He's trying to overthrow
God. He's trying to take over everything. So he's going to start wiping people out as
fast as he can. So I don't believe he can take the time, you know, put you on the rack
and stretch you out and, you know, do all the terrible things that they did back then.
It's just going to, it's going to be beheadings, you know, it's going to be, and you know what,
that's quick. You know, beheading is not the worst way to go. You know, good news tonight,
folks. If you don't get anything out, you know, beheading is not as bad as it sounds.
Right. You know, in fact, you know, if we, if I make it that time, I've often joked,
you know, and maybe I shouldn't, but if there's a line for beheadings, you know, sign me up.
I'll, I'll, I'll cut line. Right. You know, forgive the pun, but you know, I'm, you know,
beheading and then it's bam in glory. Right. So anyway, I don't know why I went off on
that, but the point being here is that, you know, this, this feast, this blowing of the
trumpets, this, this feast of the trumpets, which kicks off this last feast, you know,
occurs here in the, towards the, in the middle of the year, which correlates with, with God's
wrath, you know, and the, and the abomination of desolation being set up in the middle of
the tribulation, you know, that, that those seven years, Daniel's 70th week. And what
happens is they declare war, right? God, war is declared to God's, God's people. And look
here at Numbers 29 verse one, that in the seventh month, on the first day of the month,
you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no servile work. It is a day of blowing
the trumpets unto you. So this isn't just one trumpet being blown. This is a multitude
of trumpets that are being blown. Okay. This isn't just, you know, the trumpet of the Lord
sounding and Christ coming back. This is multiple trumpets. Now what's, now what significance
does that have in scripture? Go over Numbers chapter 10, Numbers chapter 10. So again,
they're blowing multiple trumpets at this time. And it says here in Numbers chapter
10, verse nine, and if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you,
then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets, plural again, and shall be remembered before
the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. So that's a picture of
what's going on here. This blowing the trumpets is that to remind, you know, they didn't know
it back then, but we with, you know, looking back can look and understanding all, having
all the scripture and being able to understand all these things can look back and say, oh,
this is symbolic of the fact that when these terrible events do kick off, you know, they
blew the trumpets back then, you know, and what are those trumpets symbolic of? That
there's war, there's conflict, and that we are going to be remembered before our God,
that God is not just going to let it go on and on and on. Remember, except those days
should be cut short, there should no flesh remain, meaning they are going to be cut short,
that God is going to come and stop that. You know, of course, there's gonna be many people
that suffer, but God is, you know, and even those in heaven say, you know, oh Lord, how
just holy and true, how long does it sound? Avenge our blood upon the earth. And he tells
them that they should rest a little while until the rest of their brethren should suffer
as they had. But there's going to come a time when God says, okay, that's enough, now it's
time to come, right? And that happens after the abomination of desolation, that happens
after the false prophet and the beast make war with the saints, okay? So that's what's
symbolic there. This is not, this isn't symbolic of the rapture, it's symbolic of the great
tribulation kicking off, and that's what I believe. Now if you remember, the day of
atonement was to be on the tenth day of the month, so they had the blowing of the trumpets
and then the day of atonement was on the tenth day of the month, right? Now go over to Leviticus
chapter 23, Leviticus chapter 23, if you kept something there. Leviticus 23, it says in
verse 27, also on the tenth day of the seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement.
So it's the same month, right? Same feast that we're talking about. The first day was
the blowing of the trumpets, then on the tenth day we have the day of atonement. And it shall
be in holy convocation unto you, and you shall afflict your souls in an offering made by
fire unto the Lord. You shall do no work in that same day, for it is a day of atonement
to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. And of course, that's going to be
symbolic of Christ's return when he does come back for his people. And again, I'm not even
there's so much more here that we could talk about when you actually get into the counting,
the days, and how this all ties in together. It's amazing. Maybe one day when I can spend
more time on this exact thing, we'll dig into that a little bit more. But this is symbolic
of Christ's return. Turn over to Leviticus chapter 25. Because if you recall, there is
a time in scripture when a trumpet is sounded, and it is a picture of Christ's return. And
he says here in Leviticus 25 verse 8, And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of year unto
thee, seven times seven years, and the space of the seven sabbaths of year shall be unto
thee forty and nine years. And thou shalt cause the trumpet of Jubilee to sound through
the tenth day of the seventh month. So of course, this wasn't every tenth day of every
seventh month, but this was every fifty years, basically, that they were to sound this trumpet
of Jubilee. But it was to take place on that day, that same day. So every fifty years they
blow this trumpet, and it was on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is ten days
after they had blown the memorial of trumpets, the blowing of the trumpets. So then they
had this other trump that sounded. Now this trumpet is a picture of Christ's return. It's
the trumpet of Jubilee. In the day of atonement, you shall make the trumpet sound through all
the land. And what is that? It's talking about this is the day of liberty when we are set
free, right? They recall the day of Jubilee when they blew that trump. Every man was forgiven.
All debts were forgiven. Bondmen and people who were in service to other people were allowed
to go back to their home. If you had sold your land, you were given back your inheritance.
It was like God just wiped the slate completely clean. Everyone just got a big reset. At least
once in a generation, people had a chance to start fresh. It's a day of liberty. It's
a day of deliverance. It's a day of being set free from bondage. Of course, we're talking
here about earthly things, but it's also a picture of the fact that we are going to be
set free one day in Christ when he comes and redeems us unto himself. So it's a day
of liberty. And that's referred to in Romans chapter 8. Go to Revelation chapter 2. It
says in Romans chapter 8, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. What's that referring
to? When Christ returns. That's what that's referring to. When we shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the children of God. That's the
liberty that we wait for. We wait for Christ to come and to set us free, not just spiritually,
but also physically, to take us back and to receive us unto himself. So that's what that's
referring to there. And when did that take place? It took place 10 days after the blowing
of the trumpets. Then you have this blowing of the trumpet of Jubilee. So you can see
how this is all symbolic of Christ's return. These are things that have not yet been fulfilled.
But these are things that we can look at in Scripture and say, wow, this is amazing. And
again, I'm not even beginning to do this justice tonight of how deep you can really go with
this one here. But look here in Revelation chapter 2 verse 10. He says, and for none
of those things, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer, behold, the devil
shall cast you into prison, that you may be tried, and you shall have tribulation, what?
Ten days. So there it is again. They're going to suffer all this tribulation. These 10 days,
they have the blowing of the trumpets at the beginning. The great tribulation is getting
kicked off symbolically. That's what that's representing. They have tribulation 10 days,
and then there's that blowing of the trumpets, you know, the day of Jubilee, and where they're
set free. He said, look, you're going to have tribulation 10 days, be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give thee a crown of life. So then you have the last part of it, of course,
was the tabernacle feast of tabernacles, which was five days later, on the 15th day of the
month. Now, what is that symbolic of? Well, that's symbolic of the millennium. You know,
that's a great picture of the millennium. And look here in Leviticus 23, I should keep
something there, so I apologize if you turned away, but go back to Leviticus 23. That was
the last part of, the last feast that they were to have of that year was, you know, the
feast of tabernacles. So again, they had the blowing of the trumpets, and then there's
that, you know, the day of atonement on the 10th day. Every 50 years, it was a year of
Jubilee, they would blow a trumpet, right? And then the feast of tabernacles was the
last part, which is on the 15th day, which is symbolic of the millennium, which, you
know, all falls in line, prophetically, exactly how things are going to play out in the end
times. You're going to have the great tribulation, Christ's return, the God pouring out his wrath
for a short time, and then him coming back and sending up his reign on earth, and we
will rule and reign with him. In the millennium, it says here in Leviticus chapter 23 verse
34, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, the 15th day of this seventh month shall be
the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day shall be a holy
convocation, you shall do no servile work. Jump down to verse 40. And you shall take
on the first day the bows of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the bows of thick
trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice with the Lord your God seven days,
and you shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute
for your forever and your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You
shall dwell in booths seven days, and all Israelites born shall dwell in booths, that
your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in blues when
they brought them out of the land of Egypt, I and the Lord your God. Now, if you would
go back to Deuteronomy chapter 16, and we'll read about this some more. Deuteronomy chapter
16 verse 13, it says, thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days after thou
hast gathered in thy corn and thine wine. So this is, of course, symbolic, I believe,
of the feast of tabernacles, right? And so, basically, you just tell them, look, when
you do this, you're going to take all these tree branches and palm trees, right, which
is, recall, that's what they used to, you know, celebrate Christ, you know, proclaim
Christ when he was coming in to Jerusalem three days before his crucifixion, when they
laid down palm trees in the way and cried Hosanna. But it's symbolic of that, but also
the fact that they were to dwell in these booths. So they're basically to make these
structures out of these willows and trees, the brook, all these things that they just
listed. They were to dwell in them during these during this time, you know, they weren't
to just, you know, set up their own tent that they had to go there and set up these booths
on site. And they're to dwell in them. And, you know, we never see them doing that, by
the way, that's, you know, God told them to do a lot of things. We never see them in Scripture.
I don't I don't believe that they ever did. But they were supposed to do that. And that's
a picture of the fact that, you know, that's that's a picture of the millennial reign of
Christ, that we are going to dwell with Christ. We're going to go be where he is, and we're
going to be in his kingdom, in his presence. And if you would turn over to Revelation,
chapter seven, and we'll we'll look at one more thing in Revelation, chapter seven. And
you can kind of see how this ties in. It says in Revelation, chapter seven, after this I
beheld and lo a great multitude, verse nine, excuse me, verse nine, which no man can number
of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne before the
lamb, clothed with white robes and white in their hands, palms, right, which is one of
the things they were told to take down during the freeze of tabernacles and to use to build
the script the structure. So that's a great picture of the fact of the millennial here
where they're all dwelling with Christ. We'll look at verse 16, which is another great tie
in. They shall hunger no more, neither Thursday anymore. Neither shall the sun light on them
or any heat. You know, that reminded me of these booths. I mean, if they're getting in
these booths, you know, they're blocked from the sun, you know, they're they're blocked
from the heat, they're they're dwelling with God, you know, as it were, and we understand
that's because they're going to be in the New Jerusalem and Jesus is the light of it.
But there's all this symbology here through all these feasts. And, you know, I would like
to take the time hopefully in future sermons to really spend the time to dig into these
because they're fascinating. You know, and again, I'm just kind of I know we're going
chapter by chapter, verse by verse through the book here. We're just kind of touching
on these things tonight. And, you know, Deuteronomy just kind of touches on it here. Leviticus,
as you see there, verse 23 or chapter 23 is really in other passages where they really
start to dig into it, get more details, it gets more out of numbers. And there's a lot
we could do. But I believe, you know, hopefully I've shown you there is a lot of symbology
here that not only in the things that have already taken place, you know, we all understand
the Passover, we all understand the unleavened bread, you know, we understand the Feast of
Weeks, you know, but what about these future ones? You know, there's still a lot that has
yet to take place, you know, and that's remind us that, you know, God is not finished, you
know, God is still working today, that there's still a lot more to come, that has not yet
come to pass, that God is going to do great things in the future, you know, and, you know,
what a wonderful thing it would be for us to live through that time. You know, as trying
as it might be, as perhaps even scary as that might be, we would be able to, we understand
that we would be able to see great things. I mean, what if we were to make it through
that great tribulation? You know, that's one thing I've always thought about is the fact
that maybe, maybe instead of me taking, maybe I wouldn't cut in line at the beheading, you
know, maybe I would rather try and hang out and do some great works for Christ and preach
the gospel and keep my neck as long as, keep my head and my shoulders as long as I could.
And if I made it through all that, you know, unto the coming of Christ, I mean, not a lot
of people are going to get to see that. I mean, don't get me wrong, the view is probably
just as good from the other side coming back with Christ, you know, but I mean, what a
wonderful thing to stay here and to never, never see death. Think about that. There's
going to be a generation in this world that never even dies. When that, you know, that's
a very rare group of people, but they're going to have to, they're going to be, they're going
to have to pay the price for that. They're going to have to go through some, some, some,
some suffering, some tribulation. You know, it might be our generation, it might be the
generations to come. We don't know. But one thing we can learn from, from Deuteronomy
chapter 16 tonight is that God has done great things in the past and that God is going to
be doing great things in the future. Let's go ahead and pray.