THE FEASTS OF ISRAEL: PART THREE

The Feast of Pentecost is unique in so many ways from the three Spring feasts and the three Fall feasts. It is nearly two months (fifty days) after the Feast of First Fruits, and unlike the other six feasts, it does not picture Jesus Christ as being physically present upon the earth. What it does represent is what occurs in between Christ's First and Second Advents. The Word says that Jesus spent forty days following His Resurrection teaching the disciples before His Ascension (Acts 1:2-9). He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the "...promise of the Father...the Holy Spirit..." (Acts 1:4-5).

Ten days passed between the Ascension and Pentecost, the day Christians celebrate as the birth of the Church. Ironically, Jewish theologians view the day of Pentecost as the day God gave the Law to Moses, thus beginning the Dispensation of the Law. On that day, three thousand Israelites died (Ex. 32.28). On the Day of Pentecost following the Ascension, the Bible tells us that three thousand Israelites were born again (Acts 2:41). The Apostle Paul described the difference between the Dispensation of the Law and the Dispensation of Grace when he wrote: "Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter (Law), but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. 3:6). The Gospel of John says, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1:17).

As I mentioned in Part One, this feast does not represent Jesus because the two loaves waved by the priest were leavened (Lev. 23:17). Leaven always represents sin and corruption in the Word of God (Matt. 16:11-12; 1 Cor. 5:7-8). Since Jesus was without sin (Heb. 4:15), and the Father would not allow His body to "see corruption" (Ps. 16:10; 49:9; Acts 2:27, 31; 13:35, 37), the loaves must represent something else.

In order to leaven bread, one must either use a "starter" (leavened dough saved for the purpose of leavening another loaf), which represents a connection to the past, or add yeast, knead it, and wait for the dough to rise. Bread is leavened using yeast, a kind of fungus having only a single cell. The yeast used to leaven bread is called Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is the same species used to brew alcoholic beverages (one more reason I believe the wine Jesus made was grape juice). The yeast will ferment carbohydrates in the flour and any sugar, thereby leading to carbon dioxide.

The final product, being filled with small pockets of gas, appears a great deal larger than it would without it being "corrupted." In His parables describing the Church Age (Matt. 13), Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened" (Matt. 13:33). From this short parable, I gather that the actual bread (the true Body of Christ) would be much smaller if it wasn't permeated by gas (professing believers). To be continued, Lord willing.