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(Day 49—Count to Pentecost)
Fred R. Coulter—June 4, 2022
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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Day 49! This, as you know is the day before Pentecost, which means count 50. Let's see where we start the count.
There is confusion with Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost between the Jews, whatever the Catholics observe and whatever Protestants observe. The reason being is that they don't follow the Word of God. That's quite amazing!
God gets very specific on how to count. What we have done to make it easy for you, we have a full-fledged chart that covers from Passover through Unleavened Bread, through all the weeks of counting—of which there are seven—until Pentecost. {Booklet: Count to Pentecost with chart}
Leviticus 23:9: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, "When you have come into the land…"'" (vs 9-10).
Now, let's understand another thing that's important, too. They ate manna for 40 years. They didn't have any bread. The only bread they had was manna from God! That's why He says:
"…When you have come into the land, which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest of it…" (v 10).
There are some people who say that they couldn't do this until the year after they were in the land, because the Gentiles planted the seed of the harvest that they inherited when they took the land east of the Jordan.
How can a human hand contaminate a grain planted in the ground and the grain breaks down as a new stock and a new head of grain is created? Can't do it! That's even in the teaching in one of the Churches of God.
If He gives you the land and you are there, and shall reap the harvest of it—which they did—it's their land and their harvest! Not the Gentiles.
"…then you shall bring the premier sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest" (v 10). This has significance with the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
Verse 11: "And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath…"
This is the first day of the week during Unleavened Bread, which is after the Sabbath. When the Passover is on a Sabbath, that is the Sabbath from which you go to the next day, the first day of the count!
Some get that all confused, too, and say that the Sabbath has to be during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Well, in many cases that is true, but in some cases is it is not. This is why it's important that everyone understand that not only are there seven days of unleavened bread for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but as we saw in the Scriptures, the Passover Day is the first day of the unleavens!
So, the Passover Day is an unleavened bread day! Did they eat leaven on the Passover Day? No!
- the children of Israel in Egypt didn't
- the disciples didn't
- Jesus didn't
So, in the case of this miscount, it's a misinterpretation.
Verse 11: "And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it." That's the first day of the week!
Verse 12: "And you shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering to the LORD. And its grain offering shall be two tenth parts of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD for a sweet savor. And the drink offering of it shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin…. [not the fourth part of a chicken (hen)] …And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched grain, nor green ears until the same day, until you have brought an offering to your God. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings" (vs 12-14).
That's amazing! They were not to eat any bread at all until after they were in the land and they did this!
Verse 15: "And you shall count to you beginning with the next day after the Sabbath… [day one, first day of the week] …beginning with the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths… [seven complete weeks, each week ending in a Sabbath] …shall be complete."
Years ago when the Church kept Pentecost on a Monday, they had the 50th day on Monday. They did not count the first day, which is symbolism of the ascension of Christ to be accepted of God the Father. So, if you don't count the first day, the day that you wave it on, what are you overlooking? The resurrection of Christ and His ascension!
Jesus had to die on the Passover Day, be put in the tomb and be there for three days and three nights and then He was resurrected right at the end of three days and three nights while still in the tomb. He did not come out of the tomb until after the sun had set.
Where He was all that night, we don't know! But He ascended to the Father at about 9 o'clock in the morning, and we find that account in John 20. That was the first day of the account! The first day of the First of the firstfruits was Christ.
The Jews say that the Sabbath to from count from is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That means that only in one year out of seven do they have it correct, and they miss it!
I find it very interesting, and I think that on this occasionally, that the Jews have the Passover wrong, they have Pentecost wrong and that means they have Unleavened Bread wrong. All of those refer to Christ, the Church and the first resurrection!
They don't have Trumpets wrong, they don't have Atonement wrong, they don't have Tabernacles or the Last Great Day wrong. Why? Because those apply at a later time after the Church is formed!
Verse 15: "And you shall count to you beginning with the next day after the Sabbath, beginning with the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the day after the seventh Sabbath…" (vs 15-16).
Is Monday the day after a Sabbath? No! that's why it's very important to do it right, the way the God wants, because if we don't then we get things all mixed up.
"…you shall number fifty days. And you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD" (v 16). Tomorrow (Pentecost) we will pick it up in v 17!
Let's understand something really important; let's just review another thing important to understand. I don't know why people get things so mixed up that they cannot understand the plain simple language of God and just simply do what God says. Same thing applies with the Sabbath and Sunday. If they're so fervent about keeping Sunday, which is not the right day, why don't they just keep the Sabbath like God says? Isn't that simple enough?
God made sure that the seven-day cycle remained intact so we would know today. Men want to change it. In Europe they have changed the calendars to read that Sunday is the seventh day of the week. That's where they get 'weekend.' The weekend actually is not two days, Saturday and Sunday, the weekend is the Sabbath—the seventh day—and Sunday is the beginning of a new week, day one.
That's how everything gets all confused. The major corporations go by that calendar accounting Monday as day one instead of Sunday. This chart that we have will also show another place where there is confusion in counting and so forth. That is in Exo. 16. When there was the great controversy concerning the Passover, whether it was on:
- the 14th or 15th
- the afternoon of the 14th
- the night of the 14th
- the day portion of the 14th
- when Christ died lambs the temple
- when did God command the lambs to be offered at the temple—which He never did
So, they have that all confused! The reason being is that the Jews misinterpret evening and morning. When that first came up, all of us who knew the Truth, we had to find a place in the Bible where God used the two terms:
- 'ba erev'—sunset
- 'ben ha arbayim'—between the two evenings
In Exo. 12 God told the children of Israel to take the lamb and keep it up until the 14th at 'ba erev,' which ends the 13th and then 'ben ha arbayim' they were to kill it.
How do we know for sure that 'ben ha arbayim' comes after sunset and not before sunset. Remember Exo. 16 is the place!
Exodus 16:11: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel….'" (vs 11-12).
Remember what God said? The murmurings weren't against Moses and Aaron, they were against God! A lot of people don't realize it, but when they start arguing about things in the Bible, they may end up murmuring, complain and arguing against God!
That's exactly what the children of Israel did! So, God made it plain. When God was speaking here, this was the 15th day of the 2nd month, which was a weekly Sabbath. The children of Israel were hungry and they wanted flesh to eat.
Listen very carefully here and in the Faithful Version of the Bible it is translated correctly! If you don't think that the Faithful Version is correct then you get The Schocken Bible Vol. 1: The Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox, one of the foremost Hebrew experts in America. He translates this exactly as we have it here. As I pointed out, I had it correctly translated two years before I was able to receive a copy of Fox's book.
"…Speak to them, saying, 'Between the two evenings… [Hebrew: 'ben ha arbayim'] …you shall eat flesh, and in the morning… ['boquer'] …you shall be filled with bread…."' (v 12)—because God sent manna!
The warning would be: When does the Sabbath end? At sunset! Keep in mind "…Between the two evenings…" and we will find out how that relates to sunset.
"'…And you shall know that I am the LORD your God.' And it came to pass, at sunset…" (vs 12-13).
If it's the Sabbath Day and the sun sets, what does that do? That ends the Sabbath!
"…that the quails came up and covered the camp…." (v 13)—at sunset!
You eat them after they arrive, after you have skinned them and cooked them! So He says:
Verse 12: "…Speak to them, saying, 'Between the two evenings you shall eat flesh…'"
This establishes by the Word of God—first person by God Himself—that 'ben ha arbayim,' between the two evenings, occurs after sunset. God sent the quail at sunset and they couldn't eat them at sunset because they just came! They have to skin them, clean them and cook them, which means that between sunset and dark—'ben ha arbayim'—is when they ate the quail. Keep that in mind, and if anybody brings up anything about when between the two evenings comes, this shows God's interpretation of it! Any other interpretation of the Jews or any other man is null and void!
Num. 33 shows everywhere the children of Israel went on their journeys, and it took them not quite seven weeks to reach Mt. Sinai.
Exodus 19:1: "In the third month when the children of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, on the same day…"—the same day if the week! Since Passover was on a Wednesday, they left the next day at sunset, beginning the 15th!
"…on the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai" (v 1).
That means on Thursday they arrived! This was Thursday before Pentecost.
Verse 3: "And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, 'Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you unto Myself. Now, therefore…"'" (vs 3-5).
Here is the whole key of everything of our relationship with God, any person's relationship with God. This is what's important:
"…if…" (v 5).
You will see that every if is conditional for us in our relationship with God, we don't give conditions to God, we don't say, 'God, If You will bless me I will worship you.' NO, that's not true! We don't tell God what we're going to do for Him.
If we want God's blessing, we pray and ask for God's blessing IF you will do this one thing: obey My voice; that's what's required for everyone in relationship to God the Father and Jesus Christ.
There are people who say yea, and believe that there was no Law from Adam to Moses. That's an outright lie! As blatant as could be! If that were so, then God would have no judgment against those before and during the Flood, and after the Flood. There's another hint that there are Laws of God working even in Gen. 4, because Abel brought the firstling of the flocks, which shows that there were laws concerning the animal sacrifices.
Cain brought an offering of the ground of his own desire, not according to a command of God. God said—read Gen. 4—'If you do well, shall you not be accepted? But if not, sin lies at the door!' What is sin? The transgression of the Law! Sin is lawlessness! If you transgress the Law you're lawless! Yes, the commandments of God were from the beginning!
Gen. 26 has to do with Abraham, and this is why God passed the covenant blessing onto Isaac. Here's the reason:
Genesis 26:5: "Because Abraham obeyed My voice…"
- What did we just read in Exo. 19? IF you will obey My voice…
- Is that not the same thing that Abraham had to do? Yes, indeed!
"…and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws'" (v 5)—all there!
Is that not true? Yes! So, keep that in mind anytime someone says the Law was not given until Mt. Sinai.
Exodus 19:5: "Now, therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed… [in particularly, if you will listen, heed and do] …and keep My covenant…"
A covenant is different than a testimony. A covenant is more binding than a testimony, which is like a witness. A covenant is a blood covenant in which both parties pledge their death if they do not keep it. Once it is sealed with a sacrifice, it is binding and you cannot change it or add to it, or take away from it. So, God is telling them that they're going enter into 'a covenant relationship with Me and I with you!'
"…and keep My covenant…" and all the particulars of the covenant! Now, everybody likes this last part, but the fail to read the first part, which is IF… so, if you don't do the IFthen you won't receive the THEN!
"…then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine" (v 5).
The truth is, when you become the nation that is the best in the world, you better be on God's side! Because if you're not, you're going to cause a lot of trouble.
- Isn't that what's happening to America and the rest of the world today? Yes, indeed!
- How many in America obey the voice of God? Hardly any! Just a few that know God and are baptized and have His Spirit!
Most of the others have their 'Christian religion,' which is really not Christian, because it's not of Christ! They don't obey the voice of God!
Verse 6: "And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a Holy nation…."
That's what would have made America really, really great! They had the opportunity, but they didn't! All the theologians were anti-law and called the Law of God a curse, and still do.
- the Law is a blessing
- the Law is good, righteous, Holy and true
- the curse is when we sin
You could substitute curse with the word penalty! Keeping the Law keeps you from receiving the penalty for disobedience.
"…These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel" (v 6).
Since this is going to be a covenant relationship, this is like a marriage. As a matter of fact is called a marriage, because God says of Israel, 'I am your Husband!'
- When we come to the New Covenant, what are we in? We're in a New Covenant with God the Father and Jesus Christ!
- Do we have IF clauses? Yes, indeed!
- What are they? If you love Me keep My commandments!
Do you see how God does everything the same way?
Only now, for us, it's eternal life, and the Feast of Pentecost—we will see tomorrow—pictures the first resurrection. So, to all the children of Israel Moses told them the words.
Verse 8: "And all the people answered together and said, 'All… [each and every word] …that the LORD has spoken we will do.' And Moses returned the words of the people to the LORD." Then they were to be ready the third day!
Friday, Sabbath, Sunday, which is the first day of the week. That's the three days. Then they were all gathered at the base of Mt. Sinai. God told them to fence it off and don't let any animal come through, and no man come up there, because 'I'm going to come down and talk to the people.'
This was a spectacular event. This occurred on the Day of Pentecost. Quite a momentous thing, indeed: God speaking to all the children of Israel, well over a million!Maybe 1.5 million gathered around the base of Mt. Sinai!
God came down on Mt. Sinai and it was altogether on fire, the trumpet was blowing. Trumpet blowing on Pentecost, keep that in mind for tomorrow.
There were dark clouds, thunders and lightning, and everything was there. God came down on Mt. Sinai and then He spoke these words. Let's understand something, and I'll just summarize them, and this is true: If you argue against the Ten Commandments, you're arguing with God!
Most people don't understand that! Everyone in their own mind thinks that they're right. That's why we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so we understand that human nature and man's way is not right, but rather filled with leaven and sin. The only way we can have a relationship with God is if we get sin out of our lives through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ by repentance and by yielding to God; by loving God and obeying Him!
First Commandment:
Exodus 20:2: "'I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt…"
Fast forward to Rev. 11. What is Jerusalem called? Sodom and Egypt! That's shows:
- Sodom is the sex morays emanating to the world from Jerusalem
- Egypt is the religions that are all pagan.
Judaism is not of God! I hope you go over the DVD that we did on Judaism. You will see that that is not of God—period!
They have been cutoff and been rejected from God because God sent Jesus to them and they rejected Him!
That's why their city was destroyed and scraped from the face of the earth! The Jews today think they're going to build a temple where the Mosque of Omar is. They gather by the Wailing Wall where all these stones are stacked one on top of another. Big, big stones! But since they reject the New Testament they wouldn't believe what Jesus said to His disciples when they told Jesus to look at these beautiful buildings; Jesus said, 'The day is coming that there won't be one stone left upon another,'and that happened exactly as Jesus said.
We just had another batch of the Temple Mount made—Jerusalem and the Lost Temple of the Jews by Ken Klein—so if you don't have this DVD, you need to get it; that will tell you where the next temple will be built. It's not where the Mosque of Omar is!
Exodus 20:2: "I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
Only God can relieve you of the bondage of sin! That's it! The true God!
Verse 3: "You shall have no other gods before Me."
Why is that the first one? Because everything else hinges on it!
Second Commandment:
Verse 4: "You shall not make for yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow yourself down to them… [worship them] …nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me" (vs 4-5).
Think about this for a minute: if you don't do the first two commandments, you hate God!
- What does that tell you about Catholicism?
- What does that tell you about Protestantism?
They claim they love God, but they don't, because they don't obey His voice! They don't keep His Laws! They don't keep His commandments!
What right do they have to take the name of God and put it on what their religion is? Furthermore, the Catholics in their Bible leave the second commandment in, but in their Catechisms they take it out and split the tenth commandment into two.
Verse 6: "But showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
- Do you want the mercy of God?
- Do you want the love of God?
Keep the commandments! That's what God says! I don't know why so many people—even some in the Church—are against keeping the commandments of God. That's like saying,
God, I don't want what You want to tell me to do, and I won't do it. But You better well bless me.
NONSENSE!
If you think that kind of attitude is rewarded today, go look at Pasadena. Where is the Church that was there on South Orange Grove Avenue? It's gone, because they didn't love God! The only ones from that organization who did love God, left them to keep the commandments of God.
Third Commandment:
Verse 7: "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain…"
Every time they say that this is of God, and it's not of God, that's in vain because it's a lie!
Fourth Commandment:
Verse 8: "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy."
That's the one they hate! That's the one that really gets them down. That's the one that they think that they have got to shove Sunday down the throat of God to show God how great they are. That is absolutely an abomination to God! That's why this nation is in the trouble that it is in right now.
(break@41:19)
Then He gave the rest of the commandments of God after the Sabbath:
- honor your father and mother
- no murder
- no adultery
- no stealing
- no false witness
- no coveting
Take all of those laws and put them all together, and if you would run a small town that way today, it would be what I would call Perfectville! Everyone would love each other, watch out for each other. There would be:
- no crime
- no adultery
- no stealing
- no idolatry
and you would all worship the same God! Hey, that's a taste of the Millennium!
Here's how the people reacted and Moses reacted to them. Then we will see what happened after that, because God then makes a covenant with them.
Exodus 20:18: "And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw, they trembled and stood afar off. And they said to Moses, 'You speak with us, and we will hear. But let not God speak with us, lest we die.'" (vs 18-19).
What an accusation! Think about it! That's the way that people like it! A man between God and them! If something goes wrong you can accuse the man!
In Deut. 5 God said of them, in that account of the same thing, 'Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would love Me and keep My commandments!'
Verse 20: "And Moses said to the people, 'Do not fear, for God has come to prove you…'"
Think about that in relationship to the New Testament. We are being proved or approved for eternal life. That means forever! God wants to know what you're going to do forever! That's why we are to be faithful unto death, and then be resurrected.
"…and so that His fear may be before your faces, so that you may not sin" (v 20). Moses said:
Look, don't be afraid; God is doing this so that you will not sin. In other words, if you keep all the words that God said here you won't be sinning.
That's amazing!
Verse 21: "And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. And the LORD said to Moses, 'Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, "You have seen that I have talked with you from the heavens. You shall not make with Me gods of silver, nor shall you make gods of gold for yourselves. You shall make an altar of earth to Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In all places where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you"'" (vs 21-24).
He gave them all the instructions to build a tabernacle, and then we find… I want you to read all of Exo. 21-23 and ask yourself: If everyone followed what God said, wouldn't the world be a whole lot better place?
There's nothing here that people can't understand. There are no technical phrases, and it doesn't matter what languages it is in, it's the same.
If they kept all these Laws, wouldn't it be a better place? Yes!
Exodus 23:13: "And be watchful in all that I have said to you. And make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of your mouth. You shall keep a Feast unto Me three times in the year" (vs 13-14). This what people out in the world hate!
We love our Christmas, Halloween, Easter, we're so righteous and good.
NO! God says that's an abomination!
You are to keep His Holy Days three times in a year unto God. And they said: All the words that God has spoken we will do!
God wants this done publicly! Known! Understood!
Exo. 24 is slightly after Pentecost; how far after we don't know. A day or two; we're not told. Here's what God said what He wanted.
Exodus 24:1: "And He said to Moses, 'Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship afar off. And Moses alone shall come near the LORD, but they shall not come near. Neither shall the people go up with him'" (vs 1-2).
Verse 3: "And Moses came and told the people all the words… [we read it, Exo. 21-23] …of the LORD, and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words which the LORD has said, we will do.'"
Remember this: Whenever you tell God what you're going to do, you better do it! The New Testament Jesus said relating to this, 'Let your yes be yes, and your no be no!'
No vacillating back and forth, and changing a little here and little there so you can weasel out of it.
Verse 2: "'And Moses alone shall come near the LORD, but they shall not come near. Neither shall the people go up with him.' And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words which the LORD has said, we will do.'" (vs 2-3). He read every one of these things to them!
Verse 4: "And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar at the base of the mountain and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of bullocks to the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar" (vs 4-6). That's signifying God's part of it!
Verse 7: "And he took the Book of the Covenant, and read in the ears of the people. And they said, 'All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.' And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words'" (vs 7-8). On the people, on the book and on the altar!
Verse 9: "And Moses went up, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel…." (vs 9-10).
Not in His full glory, because no one can look upon God in His full glory and live!
"…And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone… [a Sea of Glass, which we will see in the book of Revelation tomorrow] …and as it were the heavens in clearness" (v 10) They all saw it! All 70 of the elders of Israel could say:
We know this was God! We saw this emerald-like pavement of stone that God was walking on it! We saw God!
They didn't go up to talk to Him, but they saw Him! They're witnesses of the Covenant. Think abut that in relationship to everything that happened with the children of Israel on their journey to the 'promised land.' That's why these 70 elders saw God!
- they heard God first
- they heard His words
- they heard what Moses read
All the way along they said, "All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient."
Now God confirms it with a sacrifice and then walking on the pavement of sapphire so they could look and see that this is God. What a magnificent thing! All 70 of them! That's something!
Verse 10: "And they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the heavens in clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay his hands. Also they saw God, and ate and drank" (vs 10-11). So, they had a feast right there!
Verse 12: "And the LORD said to Moses, 'Come up to Me in the mountain, and be there. And I will give you tablets of stone, and the law, and commandments which I have written, so that you may teach them.'"
Verse 13: "And Moses rose up, and his attendant Joshua. And Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, 'You wait here for us until we come again to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has a cause, let him come to them.' And Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. And the glory of the LORD abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And the seventh day He called to Moses… [had to wait 7 days; think about that] …out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain to the eyes of the children of Israel" (vs 13-17). They saw the mountain burning continually!
Verse 18: "And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mountain. And Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights."
So, we have Pentecost, however many days from Pentecost and the giving of the Ten Commandments to the confirming of the covenant. Then Moses waited seven days, so we're looking at about 14 days altogether.
What did God say the reason that all of this was done? They missed the whole point completely, which we will see!
Exo. 25:8—Everything else from here on through Exo. 31 pertains to the tabernacle, the altars and everything to do with the workings of the tabernacle that the priests would attend to. Why? What did God want?
Exodus 25:8: "And let them make Me a sanctuary so that I may dwell among them."
God wanted to put His presence with the children of Israel so that He would dwell among them with His presence in the tabernacle and to be their God. For them to know that, yes,
- IFyou love God
- IF you keep His commandments
- IF you obey His voice
you will have every blessing!
Compare that to what it was in Egypt. God called them out of Egypt where they had:
- paganism
- homosexuality
- incest
- bestiality
- satanism
- witchcraft
That's what the children of Israel were doing in Egypt. God called them out of it, and brought them through all of this so that they could come to Him and be His people. He would be with them as He had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Another thing to remember, when God gives a promise He keeps it! If the one to whom He gave the promise sins—like what happened with David and Bathsheba—after God promised that there would always be man to sit on the throne of David, God did not change His mind about the promise of a man sitting on the throne of David forever!
What did He do to David? Even after he repented, David suffered the penalty of sin that his whole family turned against him! There was rebellion to overthrow him to try and put Absalom in charge instead of David.
David repented and God finally caused the penalty and punishment to settle down, and then he came to the end of his life and the kingdom went to Solomon.
Remember that God always keeps His promises!
So, He gave the Ten Commandments and had it verified by everything that we covered. This started with leaving Egypt and then coming to Mt. Sinai on the Day of Pentecost hearing the Ten Commandments and then all the lesser commandments with it.
Then Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights getting all of the instructions of God.
- How do we live?
- What do we do?
- How do we make the tabernacle?
You can read all of that in Exo 25-30, everything in finite detail.
Remember that on top of Mt. Sinai it was burning with fire all that 40 days and 40 nights. Then what happened? The children of Israel got impatient! Isn't that what happens to us? We get impatient with God because He doesn't do for us what we think He should do for us when we think He should do it!
Remember that it is all in God's hands whenever you ask Him. Ask Him in humility, belief, sincerity and love. Don't ask Him by saying:
God, I'm going to test You!' You do this and I'll believe You!
God doesn't work that way!
Let's see what happened to the children of Israel after everything that they went through.
Exo. 31—God told Moses that He had called certain ones to do certain things, to build the tabernacle and make it. God gave him all the instructions.
Exodus 31:12: "And the LORD spoke to Moses saying." I love the way that is all throughout the Bible:
- here to Moses
- then to Joshua
- later to Samuel and the Prophets
All the Word of God spoken to the ones whom God wanted to write it down! He chose the ones who were faithful to give it to the people the way that God wanted. He did that because the people said:
Oh, we can't hear the voice of God; we're going to die!
So, God still kept His promise and sent it by Moses, written down! And with two tablets of stone that God cut out, wrote out the Ten Commandments with His own finger! Direct from God to Moses to put into the temple to sanctify the Ark of the Covenant and for God to put His presence in the Holy of Holies and be their God!
That's what God wanted, but the children of Israel, we will see, got impatient! Let's see how God finalizes everything between Moses and God and instruction to the people.
Verse 13: "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, 'Truly… [meaning in Truth] …you shall keep My Sabbaths…'"
In the instructions He gave all the Holy Days—plural. Come to Lev. 23 and these are the Feasts or Sabbaths of the Lord, of times that God has appointed and we're on that one today on the weekly Sabbath, and tomorrow on Pentecost. God said to come on this day and I'll meet with you!
"…for it… [the keeping of] …is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations to know that I am the LORD Who sanctifies you."
Sanctify means He makes you Holy, blesses you! It is God Who does that!
- What is the condition for doing it? Keeping His Sabbaths! That's sanctifies us!
- What do we have in the New Testament?
- What did Jesus say about sanctifying us?
He said in His final prayer, 'Your Word is the Truth, sanctify them with Your Word.' In other words, make them Holy with Your Word!That's what sanctify means!
Verse 14: "You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is Holy to you. Everyone that defiles it shall surely be put to death, for whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people."
That means that if you're among the people of God and you don't keep the Sabbath, God is going to withdraw His blessing from you that He's giving to all the rest of the people.
Verse 15: "Six days may work be done, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, Holy to the LORD…. [if it's Holy to the Lord, it should be Holy to us] …Whoever does any work on the Sabbath Day, he shall surely be put to death."
What does the New Testament say? Sin is the transgression of the Law! The wages of sin is death! There's no difference! The Law always functions the same.
Verse 16: "Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant." That means there is no turning back!
Let's just do a little something here to understand what this means:
Perpetual means forever as long as there is God and the physical people of God!
- Is God still here? Yes!
- Are the people still here? Yes!
- What does God require? The Sabbath every week, every week, every week all the way down through time!
To show you the faithfulness of God, when they were 40 years in the wilderness, in spite of their sins, God gave them manna for 40 years! You would think after 40 years—that's why beyond what we're talking about here in Exo. 31—they would know which day was the Sabbath and know automatically what to do and how to keep it!
Don't you think that 40 years of receiving manna six days a week, the sixth day twice as much as the regular. And if you kept it over the first five days it bread worms and stunk, but on the sixth day it didn't do it, because you could eat it on the Sabbath. God kept performing the miracles to feed the children of Israel for 40 years. Think on that! In spite of their sins! That's an amazing thing to understand.
Verse 16: "Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed" (vs 16-17).
That's an amazing thing! This was the final message of God to close off all the teachings that Moses received during the 40 days and 40 nights that he was up on the mountain.
Verse 18: "And He gave to Moses, when He had made an end of speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God."That's quite amazing!
Let's see how the people were and how they responded. If things don't go the way people think they ought to go, and they take into their own hands to do something they shouldn't do, it's going to cause a lot of problems!
This is just one account, but in every account everywhere down through time. Didn't we see that in our day? Yes! They changed the Truth of God into a lie and accepted Sunday, the Lord's Supper, Christmas, Easter and New Year. And they rejected the Sabbath and Holy Days of God! The same thing that they did here in Exo. 32.
- because it didn't work out the way that they had thought
- because there were difficulties within, which could have been solved the right way
- they didn't want to solve them the right way
- they didn't want to have faithful men in charge to run it
They wanted to have men who would do the bidding of people! As it were, the subversives coming in from the Protestants to take down the Church of God. It's very similar to what we have here:
Exodus 32:1: "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, then the people gathered themselves to Aaron, and they said to him, 'Up! Make us gods, which shall go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'"
He had been up there more than 40 days and 40 nights, plus 7 days, and the fire is going. Maybe he fell into the fire, it's a volcano on top there. Maybe he's dead. Aaron, make us gods!
Here's what Aaron should have said:
Hold on, everybody:
- God is true
- God is righteous
- God is Holy
- God is a God of love
He's giving instructions and understanding to Moses so that we will wait patiently until he comes, even if it takes a whole lot longer! Calm down!
Don't come and demand something that you should not have, and that you should not do. Because that would be breaking the commandments of God and bringing upon you and all involved a curse!
No, Aaron didn't do that, did he? No! Let's see what he did:
Verse 2: "And Aaron said to them, 'Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.' And all the people broke off the golden earrings, which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he took them from their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf…." (vs 2-4).
The calf was one of the gods of Egypt. It had horns and between the horns was a whole sun disk—sun-worship! Sunday! Nothing has changed down through time!
It's interesting that when you read this, it makes you wonder:
- What was Aaron's occupation in Egypt?
- Was he an idol-maker?
- How did he know how to make a calf?
- How did he know how to fashion the gold?
We don't know for sure, but it sure sounds like it!
"…And they… [those helping Aaron] …said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.' And when Aaron saw the calf, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD'" (vs 4-5).
Idol-worship and call it a feast to the Lord Who says that you should not make any image of anything.
Verse 6: "And they rose up early on the next morning…"—all excited!
This is going to be good; 'we're going to have feast and a good feast like we had back in Egypt. We'll have music, dancing, orgies, the whole thing!
"…and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play" (v 6). Quite a thing!
Verse 7: "And the LORD said to Moses, 'Go! Get you down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way, which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who have brought you up out of the land of Egypt"'" (vs 7-8).
God was ready to destroy all the people, but what happened? Moses intervened! God spared them! God heard Moses and spared the people and Aaron, except those who were directly involved in it.
That's quite a lesson, because all of this flows from coming to Mt. Sinai and then the Sabbath before the giving of the Ten Commandments and all the time after that is all connected together.
It's a great lesson for us! Day 49 means that we must always remain faithful to God regardless of how long it is for Him to fulfill and carry out what He has promised!
Tomorrow we will see how it fills out in the New Testament!
Scriptural References:
- Leviticus 23:9-16
- Exodus 16:11-13, 12
- Exodus 19:1, 3-5
- Genesis 26:5
- Exodus 19:5-6, 8
- Exodus 20:2-6, 18-24
- Exodus 23:13
- Exodus 24:1-3, 2-18
- Exodus 25:8
- Exodus 31:12-18
- Exodus 32:1-8
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- John 20
- Numbers 33
- Genesis 4
- Revelation 11
- Deuteronomy 5
- Exodus 21-23; 25-30
Also referenced:
Booklet with chart: Count to Pentecost by Fred R. Coulter
Book The Schocken Bible Vol. 1: The Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox
DVDs:
- Judaism {also on churchathome.org}
- Jerusalem and the Lost Temple of the Jews by Ken Klein
FRC:bo
Transcribed: 5/16/22
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