Gold for the heart - Leviticus 23-25

Leviticus 23

1 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which you will proclaim to be holy gatherings, these are my feasts. 3 Six days work is to be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy gathering; you will do no work in it: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. 4 These are the feasts of the LORD, holy gatherings that you are to proclaim in their seasons.

God’s feasts throughout the year also told of God’s timetable for history.
God gave us feasts to celebrate Him.
The substance of things to come was Christ, the shadow of those things were the rituals and feasts.
The Sabbath was the first day of the week to be observed as different from the rest of the days.
The Lord is our rest.

Colossians 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

_Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all you that labor and are loaded with heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Isaiah 26:12 LORD, you will ordain peace for us: for you also have worked all our works in us.

God passes over our sins because He paid for them all

5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is the LORD's Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD: seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 In the first day you will have a holy gathering: you will do no laborious work in it. 8 But you will offer an offering made by fire to the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is a holy gathering: you will do no laborious work in it.

The Passover feast was April 14. April was the first month for the Israelites.
It looked forward to the Savior of the world promised in Genesis 3:15. April 14, 30 AD Christ died for our sins.
He made us sinless in Himself.
April 15-21 was the feast of unleavened bread that celebrated fellowship with God through faith in Christ.
The absence of leaven foretold of the absence of sin we will enjoy. _

1 Corinthians 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:

John 6:35 And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me will never hunger; and he that believes on me will never thirst.

9 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 10 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you be come into the land that I give you, and reap its harvest, then bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest: 11 And he will wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the next day after the Sabbath the priest will wave it. 12 And the day you offer the wave sheaf you will also offer a male lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering to the LORD. 13 Its grain offering will be two tenth (of an ephah) of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD for a sweet fragrance: and its drink offering will be wine, a quart. 14 And you will eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God: it will be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

Right worship is sweet to God.
These ceremonies enabled the invisible God to be a very real part of the people’s everyday lives.
Wine in the offerings represented the Father’s love for us poured out in Jesus Christ.
This meant the same thing as our communion service.
This was how it was celebrated before the Christ’s work for us was finished.
God is first because He is the Source of all our life and blessings.

15 And you will count to yourselves from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths are to be completed: 16 you will count fifty days, Even to the next day after the seventh Sabbath and you will offer a new grain offering to the LORD. 17 You will bring out of your house two wave loaves of two tenth (of an ephah): they will be of fine flour; they will be baked with leaven; they are the first fruits to the LORD. 18 And you will offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bull, and two rams: they will be for a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire, a sweet fragrance to the LORD.

Pentecost was the first week of June, fifty days after the crucifixion.
It was a picture of the church age.
It looked forward to or celebrated the second coming of Jesus Christ. _

1 Peter 1:18, 19 you were not redeemed with corruptible things from you vain way of life received by tradition from your fathers 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot:

19 Then sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 And the priest will wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they will be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21 And proclaim on that same day, that it may be a holy gathering to you: you will do no laborious work in it: it will be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. 22 And when you reap the harvest of your land, do not completely reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor gather any gleaning from your harvest: leave them for the poor, and to the foreigner: I am the LORD your God.

Christ made peace in the heart between our holy God and sinful man.
Each sacrifice was God saying, This is how much I love you—enough to die for you.
God provided for the poor in a way that met man’s need to be humbled through work.
God sent man from paradise to till the ground because man’s heart had become proud and needed work to be humbled (Psalm 107:11-13).
When we see those words, I am the Lord your God’ we are to remember that He is the One we are to listen to.

23 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 24 Speak to the children of Israel saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you are to have a Sabbath, a memorial with the blowing of trumpets, a holy gathering. 25 You are to do no laborious work in it: but you will offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. 26 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there will be a day of atonement: it will be a holy gathering to you; and you are to humble your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. 28 You are to do no work that day because it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. 29 For whatever soul will not be humbled that day, he will be cut off from among his people.

The feast of trumpets symbolized the regathering of Israel.
It was the first day of October.
All of God’s feasts were grand celebrations except the Day of Atonement.
That was the only day God allowed man to mourn his sin and the great price God had to pay. God cut off and destroyed those who refused His simple rules because it led themselves and others to eternal hell

30 And whatever soul does any work that day, I will destroy that soul from among his people. 31 You will do no kind of work: it will be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 It will be to you a Sabbath of rest, and you will humble your souls: in the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, will you rest your Sabbath. 33 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 34 Speak to the children of Israel saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month will be the feast of tabernacles for seven days to the LORD. 35 On the first day will be a holy gathering: you will do no laborious work in it. 36 Seven days you are to offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: on the eighth day will be a holy gathering to you; and you will offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: it is a festival; and you will do no laborious work in it.

God is our deliverance from slavery to sin and death.
That is great reason to celebrate.
The feast of tabernacles was the time they recalled that they dwelled in booths when God brought them out of Egypt.
Egypt was slavery, which represents our slavery to sin, and the death that God freed us from through Christ.
The feast of tabernacles foreshadowed the millennial rule of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 90:1 LORD, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

37 These are the feasts of the LORD that you will proclaim to be holy gatherings, to offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering, a grain offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing on its day: 38 Beside the Sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings that you give to the LORD. 39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you are to keep a feast to the LORD seven days: on the first day will be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day will be a Sabbath. 40 And on the first day you are to take the boughs of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you are to rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. 41 And you will keep it a feast to the LORD seven days in the year. It will be a statute forever in your generations: you will celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You will dwell in booths seven days; all that are born Israelites will dwell in booths: 43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. 44 And Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.

God wants us happy. The word blessed means a special divine happiness.

Isaiah 25:6 in this mountain will the LORD of hosts make to all people a feasts of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines …well refined.

Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life: in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Leviticus 24

1 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 2 Command the children of Israel to bring you pure beaten olive oil for the light to keep the lamps to burning continually. 3 Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, Aaron is to prepare it from evening until morning before the LORD continually: it is a statute forever in your generations. 4 He is to prepare the lamps on the pure lamp stand before the LORD continually.

God’s light always burns for us.
The tabernacle had one light, one bread, one door—which correspond to Christ’s statements, I am the light of the world-John 8:12, 9:5, I am the bread—John 6:35, I am the door—John 14:6
The people supplied oil and flour for the tabernacle with offerings.

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

John 8:12 Then spoke Jesus again to them saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

5 You are to take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it: two tenth (of an ephah) will be in one cake. 6 You are to set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure table before the LORD. 7 You are to put pure frankincense on each row that it may be on the bread for a memorial, an offering made by fire to the LORD. 8 Every Sabbath he will set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. 9 And it will be Aaron's and his sons'; they are to eat it in the holy place: it is most holy to him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.

Showbread means ‘the bread of the face of his presence.’
God is the food of our hearts.

John 6:35 And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me will never hunger; and he that believes on me will never thirst.

10 The son of an Israelite woman whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel struggled together in the camp; 11 And the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him to Moses: (his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:) 12 And they put him in custody so that the mind of the LORD might be shown to them.

The mind of the Lord isn’t some nebulous, indefinable thing that He mysteriously imparts to us at salvation.
He has showed us His mind in His word.
He has revealed Himself to us fully and clearly in His word: anything that disagrees with God’s word is not from God.

1 Corinthians 2:16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

13 And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 14 Bring the one that has cursed outside the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands on his head; then let all of the congregation stone him. 15 You are to speak to the children of Israel saying, Who ever curses his God will bear his sin. 16 And he that blasphemes the name of the LORD, he will surely be put to death. All the congregation will certainly stone him: the foreigner, as well as those born in the land, when he blasphemes the name/person of the LORD, he will be put to death.

Christ bore our sins on the cross.
But if you refuse that gift there is no hope for you.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.

Psalm 89:7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all that are around him.

God protects life by having those who destroy life killed

17 He that kills any man will surely be put to death. 18 And he that kills a beast will make it good, beast for beast. 19 And if a man causes a blemish in his neighbor, what he has done will be done to him. 20 Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he has caused a blemish in a man, so it is to be done back to him.

God protects life by having those who destroy life killed because man was made in the image of God.
God put this responsibility on man in Genesis 9:6.
It has never been changed or revoked.
God is clear about his commands.
He is fair.
He allows and limits retribution.
When Cain killed Abel and God protected him so that he might repent and turn to God.
The result of God’s leniency was a civilization that became so violent the God had to destroy the whole human race except Noah and his family.

21 And he that kills a beast is to restore it: and he that kills a man is to be put to death. 22 You are to have the same law for the foreigner and for your own country: I am the LORD your God. 23 And Moses told the children of Israel to bring the one that had cursed outside the camp and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses.

He is the Lord our God.
He is life.
The only way to eternal life is through Him.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Leviticus 25

1 And LORD spoke to Moses in mount Sinai saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, then the land is to rest a sabbath to the LORD. 3 Six years you are to sow your field, and six years you will prune your vineyard and gather in its fruit; 4 But the seventh year will be a sabbath of rest to the land, a sabbath for the LORD: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You are not to reap what grows by itself from your harvest or gather the grapes from your undressed vine: for it is a year of rest to the land. 6 And the sabbath of the land will be food for you; for you, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, for your foreigner that stays with you, 7 for your cattle, and for the animals that are in your land, all its increase will be for food.

God gives the land rest.
God’s laws, statutes, and ordinances are the best way that things can be done in the light of all the facts and in the light of our eternal future.

Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all you that labor and are heavily loaded down, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest to your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

8 And you are to count seven sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; the days of seven sabbaths of years will be 49 years. 9 Then will you cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement you are to sound the trumpet throughout all your land.

God returns each person to his or her original inheritance

10 And you are to set apart the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants: it will be a jubilee to you; and you will return every man to his possession, and you will return every man to his family. 11 That fiftieth year will be a jubilee to you: you will not sow or reap what grows by itself in it, or gather the grapes from your undressed vine. 12 For it is the jubilee; it will be holy to you: you will eat its increase out of the field. 13 In the year of this jubilee you will return every man to his possession.

When God gave Israel the promised land, He gave everyone their own large amount of property.
No corporate moguls could swallow up all the property.
It was returned to the family God appointed to it.
It is their inheritance forever.

Ephesians 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will:

Revelation 21:7 He that overcomes will inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

14 If you sell some of it to your neighbor, or buy some from your neighbor's hand, you are not to oppress one another: 15 You are to buy from your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he will sell to you according to the number of years of the fruits: 16 According to the multitude of years you will increase its price, and according to the fewness of years you will diminish its price: for he sells to you according to the number of the years of the fruits. 17 You will not oppress one another; but you will fear your God: for I am the LORD your God.

Those who rule with the Lord (Revelation 3:21) need to know His policies.
He is the Lord. He made and controls all things.
He deserves our reverence, respect and obedience.
Oppression in this passage is overcharging for goods and services.
Overcharging does not produce financial security because God gives each man to reap what they each sow (Galatians 6:7).
Because of this, overcharging causes the one overcharging to be overcharged—producing inflation.

18 For this reason you will do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and you will live in the land in safety. 19 And the land will yield her fruit, and you will eat your fill, and live in it in safety. 20 And if you will say, What will we eat the seventh year? Behold, we will not sow, or gather in our increase: 21 Then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth fruit for three years. 22 And you will sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; you will eat from the old until her fruits come in.

Obeying God keeps us safe. He provides what is needed for obedience.

The land is His forever

23 The land is not to be sold forever: for the land is mine; for you are strangers and foreigners with me. 24 And in all the land of your possession you will grant a redemption for the land. 25 If your brother becomes so poor that he has sold away some of his possession, and if any of his relatives come to redeem it, then he will redeem what his brother sold. 26 And if the man has no one to redeem it, and himself is able to redeem it; 27 Then let him count the years from its sale, and restore the overage to the man to whom he sold it so that he may return to his possession. 28 But if he is not able to restore it to him, then what is sold will remain in the hand of him that bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it will go out, and he will return to his possession.

God provided a way that they could buy back their land.
God purchased us back to Himself from sin and evil.
He set us free by paying the price.

Psalm 24:1-2 The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness of it; the world, and those that dwell in it. 2 For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods.

1Peter 1:18 you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold, from your empty way of life received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot

29 And if a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it. 30 And if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city will be established forever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it will not go out in the jubilee. 31 But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them will be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they will go out in the jubilee.

Redeeming means to buy back.
We were sold under sin by Adam at the fall.

Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Isaiah 44:24 The Lord your Redeemer says this, and he that formed you from the womb, I am the LORD that makes all things; that stretches out the heavens alone; that spreads abroad the earth by myself.

32 However, the Levites may redeem the cities of the Levites and the houses of the cities of their possession at any time. 33 And if a man purchases from the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, will go out in the year of jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. 35 And if your brother becomes poor, and his hand fails with you; then you will relieve/strengthen him: yes, though he is a foreigner, or a visitor so that he may live with you. 36 Charge him no interest, or increase: but revere your God; that your brother may live with you. 37 You will not give him your money charging interest, or lend him your food for increase.

God explained how to help a brother—give or loan to him what is needed and don’t charge interest.
He taught us to reverence Him by listening and obeying Him.

38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. 39 And if your brother that dwells by you becomes poor and is sold to you, you are not to force him to serve as a slave: 40 But he is to be like an employee and as a visitor with you, and will serve you until the year of jubilee: 41 then he will depart from you, both he and his children with him, and will return to his own family; and he will return to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants that I brought out of the land of Egypt: they are not to be sold as slaves. 43 You will not rule over him with rigor; but will revere your God.

Socialism and welfare bypass God’s design to humble man’s heart.
The eternal purpose of God is not fulfilled by redistribution of wealth.
Today, people who fall on hard times often end up homeless and on the streets.
Under God’s plan, these people would be treated very well.
They would enjoy the abundance of God’s people and they would have a day to rest each week.
They would come to know the great and wonderful God.
This mandate from God was to the eternal good of the foreigners.
They heard the saving truth of the one true God and could become Israelites as well as eternal children of God.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

44 As for your male and female slaves that you will have, they are to be from the heathen that are around you; you may buy male and female slaves from them.

The ‘heathen’ are nations that turn their backs on God, their Maker.
When people fall on hard times, they are being tested or they are not walking uprightly before God, that is, walking by faith.
To provide for the physical need while ignoring the spiritual requirements robs of divine blessing in this life and in eternity.

Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from those that walk uprightly.

45 Moreover of the children of the foreigners that stay among you, from them you may buy, and from their families that are with you, who bear young in your land: they will be your possession. 46 And you will take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they will be your slaves forever: but over your brothers the children of Israel, you are not to rule over one another with severity. 47 And if a foreigner living among you gets rich, and your brother that dwells by him grows poor and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner by you, or to the descendants of the foreigners family: 48 After he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brothers may redeem him: 49 Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or anyone that is near relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he is able, he may redeem himself. 50 And he will calculate with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him to the year of jubilee: the price of his sale will be according to the number of years, it will be according to the time of a hired servant with him. 51 If many years remain, he will give the price of his redemption according to them out of the money that he was bought for. 52 And if just a few years remain to the year of jubilee, then he will count with him, and according to his years he will give him the price of his redemption. 53 He will be with him as a yearly hired servant: and the other will not rule with severity over him in your sight. 54 And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he will go out in the year of jubilee, both he and his children with him. 55 For the

hildren of Israel are servants to me; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

God’s ways bring His blessings for all.
In this evil world full of poverty and affliction, these are wonderful rules that God gave man to live by.
If they were followed, life would be good for everyone.
Anything that leaves out God is from the devil. Socialism and communism are godless copycat false fronts to enslave people to the devil. Their failure is obvious to all. They can only function on lies, greed, envy, class warfare, hatred and murder.

Psalm 144:15...yes, happy is the people, who’s God is the LORD.

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SUMMARY: Leviticus 23-25:34

He passes over our sins because He paid for them all
He has many feasts and much to celebrate
He was with, guided, and judged His people
He returns each person to their original inheritance
The land is His forever