THE APOSTLE OF THE RECONCILIATION

A Atonement by blood

a DAY OF ATONEMENT (27-33).

b TABERNACLES (34-44).

Seven days.

Four of these Feasts have received their fulfilment, either partially or fully. Without controversy:

`Christ our Passover is (hath been) sacrificed for us' (1 Cor. 5:7).

The same authority indicates that the Feast of Unleavened Bread likewise has received and is receiving its

fulfilment:

`Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with

the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth' (1 Cor. 5:8).

The Feast of the Firstfruits has received its great primary fulfilment:

`And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD ... on the morrow after the sabbath' (Lev. 23:11).

This was, of course, the first day of the week, the day of the Lord's resurrection. The same epistle which points

out the fulfilment of the first two Feasts, points out this also:

`But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept ... Christ the firstfruits'

(1 Cor. 15:20-23).

Pentecost comes next:

`And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the

wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye

number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat (meal) offering unto the LORD' (Lev. 23:15,16).

Passover was literally fulfilled, Firstfruits was literally fulfilled: shall not Pentecost be literally fulfilled also?

Look back at the order in which these Feasts come.

FIRSTFRUITS........Resurrection of the Lord.

PENTECOST .........The new meal offering - two leavened loaves.

HARVEST ............Resurrection of those that are Christ's at His coming; `not a clear riddance of the corners'.

TRUMPETS...........The seventh month, the time of the end, the period of the book of Revelation.

Strictly speaking, `Harvest' is not a Feast, but the verse is inserted in such a place as to guide us in our

interpretation of Pentecost. Pentecost is to Firstfruits what Trumpets is to Harvest. Pentecost is a remnant,

foreshadowing all Israel at the time of the end. We shall expect to find upon examination that Pentecost deals with a

partial fulfilment of the promises concerning Israel's restoration; the small `kind of firstfruits' coming first, the

ingathering of `the fruit of the land' (Lev. 23:39), coming later. Pentecost is seven weeks after Passover and

Firstfruits: Trumpets and Tabernacles, which round off the prophetic period, are seven months.

All God's dealings with Israel are in periods of sevens. The seventy years of the desolation of Jerusalem, spoken

of by Jeremiah, caused Daniel to pray, because the time was drawing to a conclusion. The heavenly messenger

made known to Daniel that a further period of 70 x 7 will include all the purpose of God concerning Israel. The

same is foreshadowed by the two periods - seven weeks to Pentecost, and seven months to Trumpets.

So far our own investigation: Peter may explode our theories: we may find him enunciating on the day of

Pentecost the truth of the One Body, where there is neither Jew nor Greek. The two Houses, Israel and Judah, may

not be intended by the two leavened loaves - they may represent Jew and Gentile. Before, therefore, we go any

further, it will be wise to find out really what Peter was inspired to say. If anywhere during his opening address he

should say, `This is that', we shall be faced with fact, to which all theories must agree, or disappear. Peter does say

`This is that', and the meaning of Pentecost is therefore lifted beyond the plane of conjecture or of spiritualizing into

that of faith in a written interpretation.