Shadows of Things to Come
(8 June 2024) Greg Wilson
Let us consider the Two-Loaf Wave
Offering at Shavuot (Pentecost). (Lev. 23:17).
Leviticus 23 summarizes the Seven Feasts of the
Lord.
“17 Ye
shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves
of two tenth deals; they shall be of fine flour; they
shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto
the Lord.” ………and Colossians 2: 16-17
Colossians 1 tells us
that we should consider the Lord’s feasts as “shadows of
things to come”.
16 Let no man therefore
judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday,
or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days [Fesitvals and
Feast Days]:
17 Which are a shadow of
things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Yeshua/Jesus fulfilled the three Spring
feasts exactly on their days in 30 A.D. He was the
Passover Lamb of God who atoned for all sin on
Passover. He was buried during the Feast of Unleavened
Bread and He was resurrected on the Festival of First
Fruits. The “shadows” in these three events
foreshadowed Him as Messiah.
Think about Shavuot or
Pentecost. Yeshua sent the Holy Spirit to
indwell believers in Christ on that day. This
particular pilgrimage feast was only half fulfilled by
Christ in A.D. 30 with the deposit of the Holy Spirit.
What?
Paul instructs us to consider Pentecost
as a two-part feast. Part I the deposit of the
Holy Spirit in Christ. Part II the redemption of the body in
Christ.
Ephesians 1:13-14---We were sealed
with the Holy Spirit (Part I) awaiting redemption
of the body (Part II):
13 In whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were
sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14 Which is the earnest
(Note 1) of our inheritance until the redemption of
the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Now what is the shadow in the Feast of
Shavuot? It is the two-loaves of bread lifted up
to God as a thanksgiving for the harvest, the wheat harvest.
What did Yeshua say: John 4:35, 35 Say
not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?
behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the
fields; for they are white already to harvest.
And how was Yeshua’s resurrection
portrayed in His shadow event? He was resurrected on
First Fruits when the “sheaf of grain” was being waved up to
the Lord. He said He was the grain seed that must die
to produce much fruit. He tells us that He was the
shadow in John 12:24- “24 Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit.”
Christ, the bread of
life symbolized in the grain seed, has shared the bread of
His life with His own. One loaf represents the (1)
resurrection of the dead in Christ, and (2) the other the
translation and catching out of the true Church.
See the symbolism in
the shadows? Christ fulfills the Feast of Shavuot by
(1) first indwelling the believers on Pentecost (an age
long event) and (2) redeems our bodies in Himself at the
conclusion of the Feast age.
Now, I have a
question: When is Shavuot or Pentecost in
2024? If we go with a strict Levitical
accounting, it falls on June 15/16, 2024. What
biblical month is June 15/16? It is biblical month
four (4) or Tammuz 8/9. Was John 12:24 a
prophecy? It was said in the context of the two (2)
days He spent in Samaria after speaking with the women at
Jacob’s well. Two days may represent 2,000
years and the fourth month Tammuz. An interesting
thing to consider.
1 Peter 1:
10-11. I, too search the Scriptures of Truth for the "manner
of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify
when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow".
Blessings with Great Expectation……..next
weekend?
Greg Wilson
Note 1. The word used here
“earnest” speaks about a two-part transaction. This
word originates in Hebrew H6162. In Greek it is
“arrabon” meaning “money given as a pledge or
downpayment that the full amount will be subsequently
paid.” Deposit=Holy Spirit of Promise. Full
amount=redemption of the body in Christ, at His coming. 1
Cor. 15:23, 52.