Venom Removal Series Leviticus 6

Before we begin with Venom Removal Series Leviticus 6, I want my readers to go through the following scriptures. Observe and keep in mind the highlighted phrase.

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

Lev 23:2

He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times, and half a time.

Daniel 7:25

Now, having observed that God appointed certain days and anti-Christ spirit will try to copy God in appointing days and feasts, we will study feast and festivals and see the difference between them. In Leviticus 23, we read of certain days and festivals like Sabbath, Passover, Feast of Pentecost, etc. New Testament makes it clear that mature Christians must not observe feasts in that same literal way as the Jews observed. We are expected to understand the milestones in human redemption and the clicking of the divine timeline to the Edenic Restoration.

TPM Feasts

TPM being a cult, an offshoot of Christianity, added its own doctrines, teachings, and festivals. They have conventions, which by nature of festivals sounds similar when compared to the feasts of the Israelites. Many TPM ministers call these TPM conventions as festivals – you may have heard it. These ‘TPM festivals,’ are fixed and appointed annually by their chief pastors just like God-appointed feasts in the Jewish year. TPM ministers gather and follow all their activities in the prescribed fashion.

TPM Leaders get merry by coming together in their private rooms, enjoying different varieties of foods served to them from separate kitchens, laughing, and chit-chatting. They package all this as a TPM Festival. They gift wrap this in a garb of spirituality. They proclaim that they are preaching the gospel on these four appointed days – appointed by their chief pastors for the gospel to be preached only on these days in these fixed cities.

God Appointed	TPM Chief Appointed
Sabbath, Feast of unleavened bread, Passover, Pentecost, etc	Conventions fixed for public gathering in the appointed time of year
Days of public gathering	public gathering
Enjoying food together	Enjoying food together
Each day has its own reason behind it, as per God's timelines.	Reason – preach TPM gospel on these days. No minister can organize a convention or in other words gather a public crowd like a convention without the permission of the chief pastor. Four days in a year and the venue fixed by the chief pastor. Above all, its a huge revenue earning avenue.

God’s Appointment vs Human Appointments

The difference between God-appointed days and human appointed days is that God’s days were prophecies of events that were to take place in the future (Col 2:16-17).  Paul says that they were a shadow of things to come which ultimately pointed to events in the life of Jesus (Col 2:16-17). “Let no man judge in respect of Holydays or of the new moon, or Sabbath Day because these days were a shadow of things to come which all ultimately pointing to Christ (Colossians 2:16-17 paraphrased).”

Without pointing to Christ, these days were meaningless. When in ‘New Testament’ the meaning – the substance and the reality of these God-appointed days are revealed, then we are no longer needed to observe them. On the other hand, when humans fix or appoint certain days, times, and seasons (c.f. Dan 7:25), they try to paint it outwardly with spiritual paint of their own reasoning, but unlike God, their festivals are not the prophecy of things to come (Isa 41:21-22).

²² Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.

Isa 41:22

Humans cannot declare the end from the beginning. This is an exclusive attribute of God. All that God needed to foretell concerning Christ, he has written in his word (Isa 46:10, Psa. 119:160, Eccl. 3:11, Dan 2:25, Lev 23:2)! Humans cannot add or subtract or change God’s declared events related to Messiah.

God Appointed Days	Man-Made Festivals
Shadow of things to come pointing to Christ	Copy of God’s appointed festival in a public gathering, eating and painting religious angle to it are end in themselves. It cannot predict the future as a pointer to Christ and events related to him!

Biblical Feasts as a Pointer to Christ

Biblical feasts are described in detail in Leviticus 23, Num 28-29, Ex 23, and Deuteronomy 16. Here is the list.

1. Sabbath Day
2. Passover    
3. Feast of Unleavened bread
4. Feast of the Firstfruits
5. Feast of the Pentecost
6. Feasts of Trumpet
7. The Day of Atonement
8. Feast of the Tabernacle 

You know how they all point to events related to Christ. We won’t go into great detail on each of them but would consider the first one. For the rest of others, you are already aware of what it points to.

The Sabbath Day

Sabbath day was the seventh day of the week. It was a day of rest. Unlike in our times, where we get the monthly salary for our work, people in ancient times used to get daily wages. Daily wages meant the daily arrangement of food. The day they did not work that day they had to get help or sleep hungry.

Therefore, “daily work and daily food” was like working daily to sustain one’s own life. They worked to eat and thus continued to live. With this basic understanding of how work and rest affect our sustenance to life, Israelites were supposed to understand the meaning of the Sabbath.

It was so simple. They were commanded “to do no servile work (Lev 23:8),” on the day of the Sabbath. This meant that they could depend on God’s arrangement for food and life on that day (c.f. Exodus 16:26). It was a token of God’s futuristic redemption via bread that he would give, for which we need not do any servile work, – a bread which would come down from heaven, which if we eat, we can live forever (John 6:51). Sabbath was not only a token of God’s coming redemption but it was also a reversal and undoing of the curse on humanity that came through Adam. Wherein it was said, “In the sweat of thy face thou shall eat thy bread (Gen 3:19).”  

Therefore, people who accept Jesus as eternal life need not labor any more to live. Their sins are forgiven. They would be cleansed and judgment of death would no longer remain on them. Concerning Sabbath, it was also said that it was a sign between God and his people that “God sanctifies (see Ex 31:13).” Like a bull has a yoke upon his neck while it is made to work in fields and farms, so the Jews had a yoke of rules, regulations, and laws upon their neck, and it was so heavy that neither they nor their fathers were able to bear it (Acts 15:10).

They could not achieve the righteousness required to gain entry into eternal life by works of the law (Rom 9:30-31).  To such Jews, Jesus said, “Come to me all that ye labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).” The rest that Jesus was promising, – ‘the bread of life that came from heavenly father’ was excluded the strive to attain righteousness by human efforts. It comes by faith in Jesus, not by working good works defined “GOOD” my the moral application of laws, rules, and regulations.   

Note: We have eternal life. We need not work to obtain it. However, we still need to make sure that we are standing in his grace. We should be cautious not to backslide from the grace through works promoted by false heretical teachings that lead us back into the slavery of the law (Heb 4:11, Gal 5:4).

The battle still rages on. False doctrines, heresies, and works of flesh still strive against the spirit-born child of God. Therefore, Paul exhorts us to strive to enter into that rest (Heb 4:11). His context is not that we strive to attain righteousness by our good works to attain life, but that we strive to fight against heresies and false teachings that make us disbelieve in Jesus and backslide (Heb 4:2, 4:11). 

Feasts of Israel

Feasts	Significance in Christ
Passover	Jesus became our Passover lamb. Since this day, we start eating unleavened bread. We do not return to the bread of sin of Egypt (I Cor 5:7).
Unleavened Bread	Leaven speaks of false teachings that lead to backsliding from our faith in the gospel of faith alone (Gal 5:9), false teaching and doctrines of righteousness by works of law of Pharisees (Matt 16:12), malice wickedness, and sin (I Cor 5:7, 8)
Feast of FirstFruits	Jesus resurrected from death is the first fruit of those who are promised resurrection from death and eternal life.(1 Cor 15:20)
Pentecost	With the advent of the Holy Ghost, now we are in fellowship with God and his Son through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.(Acts 2)
Trumpets	The days come, when the final trumpet will be blown by the archangel a day of the return of Jesus (I Cor 15:52, 1 Thess 4:16, Matt 24:31)
Atonement	Final Judgment: A day that will decide for whom the sacrifice of Jesus has atoned and covered up sins and who is to receive the punishment for not accepting his offering(Rom 2:16).
Tabernacle	We will dwell with the Lord forever(Rev 21:3).

Conclusion

God has declared the end from the beginning. Everything fulfills and points to Messiah. The events related to the Church and the Messiah are arranged for us to understand. Let us not complicate the simple message with special effects from the white clads of TPM. With this, we end our gospel-centric study on Leviticus. May God bless you all.

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End of “Venom Removal Series Leviticus 6” and also end of this Leviticus Series.