Sermonette: By Every Word of God

The Pentecost Question Put In Order
#888s
John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 21-Jun-08; 22 minutes

The title of this sermonette is "By Every Word of God," and I am going to proceed through the critical points of the Pentecost issue one more time in order to give you a clear step-by-step view without any extraneous illustrations that might actually be getting in the way and obscuring your understanding of God's Scriptures. We are going to begin in Matthew the fourth chapter, verse 4. Jesus is speaking to Satan.

Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'"

The question here for us is, does God mean what He says and say what He means? Are we free to change what God says for something more convenient in terms of a theory or an assumption? The answer may surprise you because the answer is yes, we are free to do that. But is that living by every word of God? Freedom to do something does not mean that it is right. The apostle Paul said that he had the liberty to do things, to do all things, but not everything is expedient, that is, right.

Now, turn with me to Leviticus the 23rd chapter, verses 11 through 13.

Leviticus 23:11-13 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall [it should really say meal offering] be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth part of a hin.

The wave sheaf was waved on the day after the Sabbath and it was not offered alone. The wave sheaf offering was accompanied by a burnt offering, a meal offering, and a drink offering.

Now we are going to go to Exodus the 23rd chapter, verse 16, which says,

Exodus 23:16 And the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field.

It clearly says that the offering must be from that which you, the Israelites, have sown. Sown means planted. This is a straightforward, unambiguous command. Now, does God mean what He said here any less than when He told Cain and Abel, I want you to bring such and such an offering before Me at the appointed time? Is God more tolerant now than He was to Cain and Abel?

Now, what does the Bible tell us about those men and their offerings? The one man, Abel, believes God and brought the correct offering God commanded. He and his offering were accepted. The other, Cain, brought an offering different from what God commanded. He and his offering were rejected. Is that not clear? Did God mean what He said then? Does God mean what He said in Exodus 23:16?

Let us go back to Leviticus chapter 22, verse 25. Here is another principle regarding offerings. Again, notice how clearly this is stated.

Leviticus 22:25 'Nor from a foreigner's hand shall you offer any of these as the bread [or the food] of your God, because their corruption is in them, and defects are in them. They shall not be accepted on your behalf.'

Does God mean any less here than He did before? Or does He mean exactly what He said as He did in Exodus 23:16? The answer is absolutely not. He is clearly saying that He will not accept any offerings tainted by contact with foreigners. A foreigner is a person who has not entered into the covenant with Him. That word foreigner infers an uncircumcised one not part of the family group, the family being those who made the covenant with God.

From here, I want you to go to the book of Haggai, chapter 2.

Haggai 2:10-14 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying [something straight from God to the prophet], "Thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Now, ask the priest concerning the law, saying [What law? You are going to see that it pertains to the law concerning things that are acceptable to Him as an offering.], "If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?" Then the priests answered, "No." [They were correct in their answer because that corrupted the offering even though it was holy to begin with.] And Haggai said, "If one that is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?" So the priests answered and said, "It shall be unclean." [They answered correctly again. If an unholy person touches something that is clean, he automatically contaminates it.] Then Haggai answered and said, "'So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,' says the Lord, 'and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.'"

Now let us consider this so that you fully understand what God is teaching here. He is saying that even an offering that would ordinarily be considered clean and acceptable by Him is rendered unclean and unacceptable once it comes into contact with something unclean. This instruction intensifies the verse we just read in Leviticus 22:25 because the illustration here in Haggai 2 includes offerings made even by those who have made the covenant with God; and we are seeing that God is very particular about what is offered to Him. He will not accept just any old thing. It has to be exactly what He commanded.

In Haggai, God is saying that the offerings of those who would normally be considered clean, in this case the Israelites, because they have made the covenant with God, became contaminated, became unclean, because the offerings came in contact with immorally-living Israelites. And because the Israelites were corrupt, so were their offerings, and they therefore become unacceptable. God wants only the exact, clean offerings from clean-living people who have made the covenant with Him.

There is a wonderful spiritual reality pictured in God's insistence that the offering be made only from Israelite plantings. This typifies, symbolizes, an aspect of the reality of God's grace. It is showing that He is totally involved in the entire process of salvation, from planting to harvest, of His people. The Pentecost offering, which portrays the harvest of the firstfruits, beginning with Jesus Christ, and then the spiritual harvest of the rest of the firstfruits—us—shown by the loaves in Leviticus 23:17, containing leaven. God is not working with a foreigner at all. Zilch, nada, nothing.

Turn with me now to Joshua 5, verses 10 and 11.

Joshua 5:10-11 Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day.

I want you to notice from that this that even though there is a detailed description of keeping Passover on the 14th, there is absolutely no indication whatever of any offering, let alone the wave sheaf offering. On the 15th, there is no indication that the offering that God commanded accompany the wave sheaf offerings were made either.

Now, even though United, Living, Christian Biblical, and Philadelphia say the wave sheaf offering supposedly took place on the first Day of Unleavened Bread, the 15th, not even one assigned festival offering that are listed in Numbers 28 and 29 is even mentioned. No wave sheaf offering was made because no acceptable-to-God offering material was available to them. All they had was barley the unconverted, uncircumcised, contaminated foreigners had grown, and they had nothing the Israelites planted, as God required, because the Israelites just came in from their wilderness wanderings where no plants were grown at all. The Israelites could freely harvest that barley, that is, the Canaanites barley, and eat it. But it was still not acceptable to God as an offering. The barley did not magically become acceptable simply because the Israelites came into the land and harvested it.

There is another significant reason no offerings were made and the reason is given in Deuteronomy the 12th chapter. I want you to turn there. The subject here is sacrifice and worship once Israel was in the land, which they surely were in Joshua 5.

Deuteronomy 12:4-6 "You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things. But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God."

Once Israel was in the land, all sacrificing and offering had to be done where God chose and placed His name. So Deuteronomy 12 refuses Israel permission to make any offerings until God's qualifications were met. This means that until the Tabernacle and its brazen altar, where God symbolically lived, were permanently in place. And God meant this just as surely as He did Exodus 23:16. In addition to the Tabernacle location God required, in verses 10 and 11, let us take a look at that.

Deuteronomy 12:10-11 "But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God gives you to inherit, and when He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you shall dwell in safety, then [just insert the word "only then" because that is what it implies] there shall be a place which the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord."

That is very clear. You can write this verse down. This did not take place, it was not achieved until Joshua 18:1, where it says they erected the Tabernacle and they began, then, to worship God. Seven years from the time they went into the land, there was no sacrificing until God's Tabernacle was in place.

Now, the conclusion that gives United, Living, Philadelphia, and Christian Biblical the supposed authority to place wave sheaf day on the first Day of Unleavened Bread is a hollow assumption that has no biblical authority whatever, because Israel was absolutely forbidden to make offerings until that Tabernacle was in place. There is no biblical authority to change the counting rule given in Leviticus 23:15, which states that wave sheaf day occurs the day following the weekly Sabbath within the Days of Unleavened Bread. And what is incredible is that United, Living, Christian Biblical, and Philadelphia unanimously agree that rule is the biblical rule, same as we do. But they arbitrarily break that rule without biblical authority by creating an unauthorized exception; the exception being that because Jesus was waved before God within the Days of Unleavened Bread, all wave sheaf days must be within the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Now, here is a question; consider it deeply. Do we now always keep Passover on a Wednesday because Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday? Let us be consistent in the patterns that we choose to follow. That exception is an artificial creation because there is no biblical example to substantiate it, and they are doing this on their own authority, not God's. The weekly Sabbath is God's marker. And the Sabbath that establishes when wave sheaf day occurs is always the weekly Sabbath that falls within the Days of Unleavened Bread between the two festival Sabbaths. And on years when the Passover falls on a weekly Sabbath, one still follows the same counting rules that appears in Leviticus 23:15. But that weekly Sabbath will fall on the last Day of Unleavened Bread just beginning the count to Pentecost one day, and therefore, Pentecost is one week outside its normal position.

So thus, in those years, Pentecost will fall one week later than normal. Now, here is the rule in those years: one simply follows the normal rhythms of the calendar to find wave sheaf day's location, even as one uses the same calendar rhythms to locate Passover. No one has ever found a single—not even one—historical record of any Jewish group in all of history observing wave sheaf day on the first Day of Unleavened Bread. Wave sheaf day was always, by every Jewish group (five of them), scheduled for a common work day because harvesting began immediately after the ceremony was performed at the Temple or Tabernacle.

And you can check this whole sermonette out on Deuteronomy 16 because it confirms everything that I have said. Deuteronomy 16 is in perfect alignment with Deuteronomy 12. So brethren, we kept Pentecost on the correct date last Sunday.

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