The Bloodstained Path to God

Transcription

1 The Bloodstained Path to God Sacred Silhouettes An Adult Bible Study by Daniel J. Habben Leader s Guide Lesson One The Day of Atonement Lesson Two Cleanliness Laws and Lepers Lesson Three The Tabernacle Lesson Four The Priesthood Lesson Five Sacrifices Lesson Six The Sabbath, The Spring Festivals Lesson Seven The Fall Festivals This Bible study is a companion to the book The Bloodstained Path to God, by Daniel and Sarah Habben, in the Bible Discovery series published by Northwestern Publishing House.

2 The Bloodstained Path to God Leader s Guide Page 2 Leader s Notes This Bible study complements the book The Bloodstained Path to God, in the Bible Discovery series. This series deals with basic background knowledge that s helpful for reading the Bible in the way the Lord intended it to be read. The seven lessons cover the same material as the book but they do not correspond to the chapters. The book may still be a helpful resource to the teacher and participants. An order form for the book is included on the CD. Lesson Three is rather long and could be divided into two parts. The second part could begin at The Tent of Meeting. All rights reserved. The material on this disk may be adapted, printed, and copied by the purchaser of this kit. However, the following notice must appear at the bottom of each page of the student lessons: 2014 Northwestern Publishing House. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. Ownership of this material belongs to either a congregation or an individual, but not both. Purchase by a congregation: Purchase of this material by a congregation gives Bible study leaders of that congregation permission to adapt and copy this material for use in one or more groups within that congregation. (Dual parishes may purchase one copy for use in both congregations.) Purchase by a pastor or other Bible study leader: Purchase of this material by an individual gives the buyer permission to adapt and copy this material for Bible classes he or she teaches or supervises. Buyer has permission to use this material only in the congregation he or she is currently serving or attending. Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. Northwestern Publishing House 1250 N. 113th St., Milwaukee, WI Northwestern Publishing House Published 2014 ISBN

3 The Bloodstained Path to God Leader s Guide Page 32 Lesson 6 The Sabbath The Spring Festivals Worship Read responsively these selected verses from Psalm 92. (This psalm is titled For the Sabbath day. ) Leader: It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, Group: to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night. L: For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; G: I sing for joy at the works of your hands. L: How great are your works, O LORD, G: how profound your thoughts! L: The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,... planted in the house of the LORD, G: they will flourish in the courts of our God. L: They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, G: The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him. Prayer: Dear Lord, may we stay rooted in your Word so that we too flourish like a palm tree, staying ever fresh and green. Accept our praise for your truths, which we are about to review. Amen. Introduction Our congregation follows a schedule for worship that helps us focus on the life of Christ (during the festival half of the year) and on Christian living (during the nonfestival half of the year). The Israelites too followed a calendar that helped them relive God s mighty acts of salvation and consider their calling as his holy people. Let s find out what silhouettes the sacred seasons of the Old Testament provide.

4 The Bloodstained Path to God Leader s Guide Page 33 Studying God s Word The Sabbath Day Read Leviticus 23:3. 1. What was the Sabbath Day? The Sabbath Day was the seventh day of the week, the day when God wanted his people to desist from work and gather for sacred assembly (worship). Notes: It is interesting that the heavenly bodies dictate all intervals of time (seasons, day and night) except for our seven-day week. The seven-day week follows the lead of God at creation. In six full days, from the workshop of his Word, he fashioned planet Earth and the solar system in which it spins. On the seventh day, he rested from his work of creation (although not, of course, from his work of sustaining and preserving what he had made). 2. For laypeople, the seventh day was primarily a day of rest. Outside of the sanctuary, no work was done at all. What example of Sabbath rest is described in Exodus 16:11-30? God gave the Israelites enough manna for two days so that they could rest from gathering food on the Sabbath. Days of general rest were placed throughout the Jewish worship year in connection with annual festivals. On these days, work related to one s secular occupation was forbidden. The Sabbath rest, however, was a more complete rest than the festival rest days, since all work was forbidden. There was to be no commerce, no menial household tasks such as kindling a fire, and no travel. In the temple on the Sabbath, two extra lambs were sacrificed along with the regular morning and evening sacrifice (Numbers 28:9,10), and a dozen fresh, warm loaves of bread were presented to God in the Holy Place. 3. In Numbers 15:32-36 God showed how serious he was about this ordinance. What happened? We are told that a man was stoned to death for gathering wood. (By Jesus day, the Pharisees forbade 39 distinct acts on the Sabbath!) 4. According to the following two passages, what specifically did God want his people to call to mind on the Sabbath? Exodus 20:8,11 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. God wanted his people to remember (zachor) the Sabbath because this was the day on which God rested from his work of creation. In other words, God was saying, Remember the Sabbath because I am your Creator. Deuteronomy 5:12,15 Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty

5 The Bloodstained Path to God Leader s Guide Page 34 hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. God wanted his people to observe (shamor) the Sabbath as a reminder that he had brought them out of Egypt. In other words, God was saying, Observe the Sabbath because I am your Savior. God used the Sabbath as a weekly object lesson to teach his people that his relationship with them was not based on anything they could do for him. Rather, it was based on what God had done and would do for them as their Creator and Savior. Do nothing, God was announcing, I made you and I will save you, in time (as in Egypt) and in eternity (through my Son). 5. What sacred silhouettes did the Sabbath Day provide? (See also Matthew 11:28,29 and Hebrews 4:9-11.) The Sabbath Day pointed ahead to the rest Christ would bring from our sins, and it pointed to our eternal rest in heaven. 6. Agree or disagree. We should observe the Sabbath Day because it is part of the Ten Commandments. (Hint: See Colossians 2:16,17 and Hebrews 10:25.) Although the command concerning the Sabbath Day is part of the Ten Commandments, it is a ceremonial law, not part of the timeless moral law, and therefore does not apply to New Testament believers. Still, God does want us to keep joining together for worship, and so it is helpful for us to study the Third Commandment. God wants us to understand that it is his will that we receive frequent rest from him through Word and sacrament. Sabbath Years and Jubilee Years When we hear the word Sabbath, the weekly day of rest is what usually comes to mind. However, there were three kinds of sabbaths that God wanted his people to observe: the regular weekly Sabbath, the seven major festival days of rest, and the years during which the land rested, sabbath years. In this section we will look at the sabbath years and the final sabbath year, the Year of Jubilee. Read Leviticus 25:1-5. Just as God had rested from creating on the seventh day, just as God s people had their weekly Sabbath rest, so too their farmland was to have a sabbath-year rest. 7. What was to happen during the sabbath year (the seventh year of every sevenyear cycle)? The land was left fallow no sowing, reaping, pruning, or harvesting. God wasn t just recommending a productive farming practice. He was teaching the Israelites that the land belonged to him and the Israelites were to return it to him every seven years. Debts were cancelled and indentured servants were freed. God s people were to spend time studying his Word. God was particularly concerned that Israelite children would hear his Word and learn to fear and trust in him. Read Leviticus 25:8-17, What was to happen during the Year of Jubilee (every 50th year)?

6 The Bloodstained Path to God Leader s Guide Page 35 The land was left fallow. Creditors were to release debtors from their debts. All land was returned to the family to whom it had been apportioned when Israel entered the Promised Land. Notes: Jubilee seems to come from the Hebrew word yobel, which means ram s horn. A ram s horn was sounded to mark the beginning of the Year of Jubilee. After seven sabbath years had passed, God instituted a further celebration called the Year of Jubilee. Remember, year 49 was a sabbath year, so the land had already rested a full year. It is possible that the Year of Jubilee occurred in year 50, which meant that the land was to lie fallow for a second year! However, it is also possible that the Year of Jubilee ran concurrently with the seventh sabbath year, in year 49. Either way, during the Jubilee, creditors were to release debtors from their debts and return their land to them and their families. These were acts that should have prevented serious poverty and class distinctions. Just as God had redeemed his people from slavery and cancelled their debt of sin so they were to redeem their kinsfolk and cancel the debts of their fellow Israelites. There is no evidence in Scripture that either the sabbath year or the Year of Jubilee was ever practiced. Ezekiel chapter 20 is a litany of God s laments over the sabbaths that his people profaned. And 2 Chronicles 36:21 seems to suggest that the land only rested when God s people in Judah had been deported: The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah. 9. What sacred silhouette did the sabbath years and Year of Jubilee provide? (See Luke 4:16-21.) These rest years pointed ahead to the rest Jesus would bring. Can you imagine following through on these sabbath year and Year of Jubilee directives? Abandoning your office and your income, possibly even your property, not just for a two-week vacation but for a year or two? However, God did not just give an order, he also gave an assurance. To quell the worries of those who wondered what they would eat during the fallow period, God promised such a bumper crop prior to the sabbatical year that they could eat from it for three years (Leviticus 25:21)! This was no crooked salesman at the door, pocketing their money in exchange for a cutrate vacuum cleaner. This was their Creator, who longed to be tested in his promises so that he could make good on them. In the same way, our sinful nature prompts us to work out the details of our lives here on earth, and especially the details of how we can find peace with God. God is teaching us to rest even when our paths in life seem to put us at poverty s door and when he wants us to put our hope of salvation in the foolishness of the cross. The Spring Festivals: Passover Read Exodus 12: What was the first festival of the Jewish religious year? The Passover, or Pesach, was the first pilgrimage festival of the Israelite church year. It took place on the 14th of Abib (our March/April). See for a concise description of the lunar year on which the Hebrew calendar was based.

7 The Bloodstained Path to God Leader s Guide Page What event did the Passover commemorate? (See Exodus 12:11-14.) The Passover commemorated God s rescue of Israel from Egypt. Note: The Passover was so important that those who missed it for legitimate reasons were to celebrate it a month later. Anyone who failed to celebrate the Passover was to be cut off from his people (Numbers 9:9-13). 12. List the main features of the first Passover. An unblemished lamb (or goat) was selected, slaughtered, and roasted whole. This was eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The blood of the lamb was smeared on the doorposts of the Israelites homes. When the people celebrated it, they were to be ready to leave Israel in haste. Read 1 Corinthians 5:7, What sacred silhouettes did the Passover provide? God was about ready to destroy all the firstborn in Egypt. How would he carry out his judgment on the Egyptians and save his people? Enter the roasted lamb, which was the main course on God s Passover menu. This was the lamb whose blood dripped from the doorframes of the Israelite homes. That scarlet strip of blood was a firebreak beyond which God s anger would not burn. The blood of the lamb kept the destroying angel from crossing the threshold of the Israelite homes and striking dead their firstborn sons. The Passover lamb was a male, unblemished, set apart for slaughter. Its blood was saved and smeared on the doorposts as God s way of identifying believers and saving them. Its bones were not broken. The lamb was a picture of Jesus and the sacrifice he offered to save us from eternal death. The bitter herbs reminded the Israelites of the bitter slavery in Egypt from which God delivered them, and they remind us of the bitter slavery of sin from which God has delivered us. The Passover meal foreshadowed the Lord s Supper, in which Jesus gives us his body and blood for our salvation. The bread the Israelites ate that night was made without yeast, which is often used in Scripture as a symbol of sin. Each time the Israelites ate the unleavened bread at the Passover meal, they were reminded of God s desire for them to be pure. And they were also reminded of God s plan to save them from their impurity through the blood of a substitute. We will explore the significance of bread without yeast in the next section. The Spring Festivals: The Feast of Unleavened Bread Read Leviticus 23:4-8, and reread 1 Corinthians 5:7, The Feast of Unleavened Bread followed immediately after the Passover. What was the purpose of this feast? (Hint: Consider again the fact that in Scripture leaven [yeast] symbolizes sin and how sin can easily spread unless it is completely removed.) The Feast of Unleavened Bread highlighted the truth that, as redeemed people, the Israelites were to be undefiled by the leaven of sin.

8 The Bloodstained Path to God Leader s Guide Page 37 Notes: The Passover was intertwined with two other festivals, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Firstfruits Festival, so that some pilgrims remained in Jerusalem for the entire week following the Passover. Here is the complete picture of how the three festivals intertwined. The names of the days as we would label them are added for reference: Abib 14: Passover began at sundown. Homes were yeast-free. Each family shared a meal of a sacrificial lamb and unleavened bread, while recounting their deliverance from Egypt (Friday evening at sundown). Abib 15: Passover ended at sundown and the weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread began (Saturday evening at sundown). Homes remained yeast-free for the next seven days. Representatives of the family had to be present at the sanctuary only on the first day of the feast (Abib 16, Sunday). Abib 17: The Firstfruits Festival took place, and the Israelites waved or presented the first sheaf of their spring barley harvest to God in thanksgiving and publicly acknowledged that their daily bread came from him. This day was pivotal to the Israelites, since they were not allowed to eat any new grain before they had dedicated their first ripe produce to God (Monday). Abib 21: The Feast of Unleavened Bread concluded, and pilgrims returned home (Saturday evening at sundown). 15. What sacred silhouette did the Feast of Unleavened Bread provide? The bread without yeast was both practical and symbolic. Since the Israelites left Egypt in haste, they didn t have time to wait for yeasted dough to rise before baking it. God used the unleavened bread to impress on his people that just as no yeast contaminated their bread that night, so no sin was to contaminate their lips, hands, or hearts. The fact that the Feast of Unleavened Bread follows the Passover illustrates how sanctification follows justification. Just as God commanded the Israelites to keep yeast out of their homes during the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, so he has commanded us to strive throughout our lives to get rid of sin. Of course that was impossible. Yeast is virtually impossible to get rid of completely. It can hide in cracks and corners of a home. It was one thing to bake bread without yeast, but quite another to go a whole evening, much less a lifetime, without, say, snubbing a sibling or provoking a parent. So that flat piece of unleavened bread may as well have been a miniature stone tablet of the Ten Commandments. It symbolized a standard that the Israelites could only fail to meet. In the same way, we can t completely rid our lives of sin no matter how hard we try. Thank God that the Passover Lamb, Jesus, cleanses us from our sins! The Spring Festivals: Firstfruits Firstfruits took place during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, two days after the Passover.

9 The Bloodstained Path to God Leader s Guide Page 38 Read Leviticus 23: What happened at the Firstfruits Festival? The first sheaf of grain (barley) harvested that spring was brought to the tabernacle and the priest waved it before the Lord as an offering. Note: The way the offering was waved is interesting. In Jesus day, the priests waved the offerings up, down, back, and forth (like a pastor making the sign of the cross!). It has been suggested that the up-and-down movement was a plea for God to prevent harmful dews and the back-and-forth movement a plea to God to prevent dangerous winds. 17. What biblical truth did God want to reinforce on his people with the Firstfruits Festival? God wanted his people to acknowledge publicly that their daily bread came from him. 18. What sacred silhouette did the Firstfruits Festival provide? (See 1 Corin - thians 15:20-23.) God refers to the final judgment day as a time of harvest when God will gather his believers into heaven. Firstfruits pointed ahead to how Christ was to be the firstfruit of the resurrection harvest of believers. His resurrection promised that many others would rise. Note: In The People s Bible commentary Leviticus, Mark Lenz points out other New Testament firstfruits correlations: Paul describes Spirit-worked faith in believers as a firstfruit guaranteeing a future harvest... (Romans 8:23). Paul also spoke of the patriarchs as firstfruits of the Jewish believers in his day... (Romans 11:16)....James referred to believers in his day as firstfruits of those in the future... (James 1:18) (pages 201,202). Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) The Feast of Weeks was the second pilgrim festival in the Jewish church calendar. It took place 50 days after the Firstfruits Festival (which was 2 days after the Passover). Read Leviticus 23: What events did the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) commemorate? The Feast of Weeks commemorated the wheat harvest. Just as the firstfruits of the barley harvest were offered to God in the Firstfruits Festival associated with the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, now the firstfruits of the wheat harvest were offered to him. Note: The Feast of Weeks was held 50 days after the Firstfruits Festival. In Greek, the name of the festival was Pentecost, which means fifty. In later Judaism, this feast also commemorated the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, which happened 50 days after the first Passover. 20. Describe in general what happened during the Feast of Weeks. Also see Deuteronomy 16:10 for what the people were to do. Two loaves of leavened wheat bread were presented as wave offerings to the Lord, together with burnt, sin, and peace offerings. (The bread was leavened, unlike the grain offerings that were burnt on the altar.)

10 The Bloodstained Path to God Leader s Guide Page 39 The people were to bring a personal freewill offering. God s rules for gleaning were added immediately after the regulations for Pentecost (Leviticus 23:22). God s people participated in this day by leaving the edges of their fields unharvested and the fallen stalks of grain on the ground so that the poor could gather them. Just as God provided for the priests through the grain and fellowship offerings so he also cared for the poor and alien in Israel with the gleanings of the harvest. 21. What sacred silhouette did the Feast of Weeks provide? (See Acts 2:1,41 and Romans 1:13.) The sacred silhouette is not explicit in the festival itself, but it becomes clear from its association with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the beginning of the church s spread throughout the world. The Feast of Weeks pointed to the harvest of souls that God would gather in the New Testament. Summary An organized family member will mark special days on the calendar a year ahead of time in order to mentally note and prepare for those upcoming events. In a much grander fashion, this is what God did with the Jewish church calendar. God used the natural rhythms of the agricultural year to foreshadow certain New Testament truths. God used the festivals of Passover, Firstfruits, and Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) to point ahead to Christ s first coming. During the celebration of the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, Jesus instituted the Lord s Supper and died on the cross. On the day of the Firstfruits Festival, Jesus rose from the dead the firstfruit of all believers who will share in his resurrection by faith. Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, during the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. Thus fortified, they witnessed to the pilgrims and three thousand souls were harvested. Through his Word, God launched the spread of his kingdom and the growth of his church. During the Week Read The Bloodstained Path to God chapters 6, 13, and 14, and reflect on the following questions: 1. How do the unleavened bread and the roasted lamb of the Passover meal serve as a picture of law and gospel? 2. In the vignette for chapter 14, Shlomo shows his reluctance to attend the Feast of Pentecost. Why was he reluctant? Have you at times felt like Shlomo? What s the remedy to such an attitude? Research how Jews today celebrate Passover.