Shavuot and Pentecost 2019 edition

Good Sunday morning, and wishing you a blessed Pentecost Sunday!  I published this content under a similar heading here at the blog last year.  Because it received over 375 views, I decided to reprise it this morning.

In this post, I am going to share some of the parallels between the Jewish feast called Shavuot and the Christian Sunday of Pentecost, because they are beautiful and meaningful, historically and theologically linked.  To help make these easier to read and comprehend, I'll use a compare-and-contrast format, with bullet points and different-colored fonts.

1.  When?

• Shavuot falls 50 days to the day after the Passover Feast of Firstfruits, the Sunday Jesus arose from the dead.  The Hebrew word Shavuot means "weeks", and this celebration is often called Feast of Weeks.  (See Exodus 19:18-20, Leviticus 23:15-16 and Exodus 24:3-11.)  In 2018, Shavuot begins at dusk on May 19 and ends at dusk on May 21. 
• Pentecost is a Greek word (pentekostos) which means "fiftieth day".  Christians celebrate Pentecost on the 7th Sunday after Easter.  Pentecost occurred when the disciples were together, celebrating Shavuot. (See Acts 2:1-4.) . 

2.  Where?

• Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses, which occurred on Mt. Sinai.  
• Pentecost also features a gift, the greater gift of the Holy Spirit.  This occurred on Mt. Zion (Jerusalem).

3.  Significance

• The giving of Torah marks what many consider to be the day on which Judaism was born.  The word Torah means "teaching".  (The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament.)
• The giving of the Holy Spirit ratified the New Covenant of Jesus Christ, and marked the beginning of the worldwide Church, redeemed "from every tribe and tongue"(Revelation 5:9).  In John 14:26, the Holy Spirit is called "the teacher".

4.  Similar Signs and Wonders

• At Sinai, there were wind, fire and smoke.  The presence of God was powerfully evident, and the people were afraid to approach the presence of God they visibly saw displayed on the mountain.
• At Zion, there was wind and fire, but in a different, more personal way.  God manifested Himself in awesome power at Pentecost in a manner reminiscent of Sinai, except that this time, the fire of God fell upon each person present.

5.  Marked by God

• One of the marks of the Jews was the circumcision of males, a cutting which distinguished them as belonging to Yahweh.  Also, at Sinai, the finger of God wrote on tablets of stone.
• At Pentecost, the Spirit of God wrote on the tablets of each heart (2 Corinthians 3:3 and Hebrews 8:10).  This act of God confirmed His promise made to the prophet Jeremiah (31:31-34) and which Jesus promised to the disciples (Acts 1:4).  When a person receives Jesus as his or her personal Lord and Savior, there is figuratively a "cutting of the heart", a circurmcision of the heart, to allow the Holy Spirit to enter.  The Holy Spirit is a mark, a "cut" if you will, on each person's heart to indicate both His everlasting presence as well as the believer's eternal belonging to Jesus Christ.  This was not the case in the Old Testament.  The Holy Spirit did not dwell with each Jewish person, whether circumcised in the flesh or not. Before Jesus ascended, the Spirit of God descended on those He chose for His specific purposes.  At and after Pentecost, the ever-present Holy Spirit in the heart of every follower of Jesus Christ represents Jesus' mark of ownership.  

6.  Agriculture (Firstfruits)

• On an additional level, the Israelites celebrated at Shavuot the gathering in of the grain harvests, by bringing crops to the Temple.  Shavuot marked the endpoint of the Firstfruits celebration, which began with the wave offering of the first grain of the harvest during Passover week.  (See http://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2018/03/first-fruits.html ) At Shavuot, a more plentiful, bountiful offering was made, representative of such a bountiful harvest.
• Jesus was raised from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits, that Sunday which ended Passion Week. Paul referred to Him as "the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20). The 3000 souls converted to belief in Jesus Christ as Savior on Shavuot/Pentecost (Acts 2:41) represented a huge Firstfruits/Feast of Weeks offering to God.  If each Christian will allow the Spirit to do His transformative work, what is produced in each person reflects Deuteronomy 30:6.  This yielding by each person produces an all-consuming love for the Savior, down deep in the soul.  The Spirit produces, as Paul said in Gal. 6:14, a willing, daily crucifixion of one's will to the Cross of Jesus Christ, a daily dying to Self.  Further, this love for Christ produces the "fruits of the Spirit", listed in Galatians 5:22-23.  I do not believe Paul's terminology "fruits" was an accidental use of the word.  The giving of the Holy Spirit marks the completion of our Triune God's salvation plan for mankind, as well as the end of the Easter season.

These are just some of the amazing parallels between these two holy days.  For more details, feel free to read at the links I've provided below.

When we study about the history and meaning of the divinely consecrated feast of Shavuot, our understanding and appreciation of the Day of Pentecost are deepened.  Isn't it exciting to see how God's revelation of Himself 1200 hundred years earlier was mirrored and enhanced at Pentecost?  What an amazing God!

After those days, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 31:33 (King James 2000 Bible)

Sources:

https://forward.com/news/373541/why-do-some-christians-observe-shavuot/

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Shavuot/Zion/zion.html

http://acts242study.com/they-many-parallels-of-sinai-and-pentecost/

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/firstfruits-and-pentecost/

A Thriller, A Filler and a Spiller

Admittedly, I know nothing of gardening.  I blame my mother, who gardened little when I was young.  She worked about 50 hours a week, between her outside-the-home job, teaching 15 hours of music lessons a week and then add to that her church work on Sundays...good reasons why there was little time for gardening.  At any rate, I am not a gardener, by any stretch, regardless of who's to "blame".

But, I decided we needed a planter of lovely flowers outside the back door to the deck.  So, I bought a matchy-matchy pot at Wally World, and then went looking for some on-sale foliage with potting soil at the local mom-and-pop nursery. 
Unfortunately, I was lost as a goat.  The young man "manning the store" had no idea how to direct me, other than to send me to the correct greenhouse.
Fortunately, a stranger saw my bewilderment and stepped in, out of mercy, no doubt.  Her advice to me was to:
1) Pick a color scheme:  pinks/purples, reds or oranges.  (I chose the pinks.)
2) Get a "thriller', some "fillers" and some "spillers".  Some of you will know what that means.  For the rest of you who, like me, are "ignernt" (solid, country word meaning "ignorant", i.e. "lack of knowledge"), here's the explanation.

The thriller is the tall, lovely plant in the center of the arrangement.  It anchors the piece, and without it, you just have a mishmash of this and that.  You plant the thriller first.
The fillers are those plants that, along with the spillers, fill in between the base of the thriller and the rim of the container.
The spillers are trailing vine-like plants, inserted near the rim.  They then proceed to spill out over the edge of the planter, again, giving more dimension.

Three-in-one.

Remind you of anything?

The thriller reminds me of the salvation act/decision at the center of the Christian life.  Without it, you have nothing, or chaos, or both.  This anchors everything else, and is indispensable.
The fillers remind me of discipleship, which is the next step, along with the spillers, which make me think of evangelism.  Discipleship is necessary to surround and beautify the salvation decision.  Faith grows through acts of discipleship - - studying the Bible, learning to pray, fellowshipping with other believers.  Cultivating these habits deepen the relationship which began with the salvation decision; they are the "working out" of the initial act (Philippians 2:12).
The spillers represent the abundant Christian life spilling over to an unbelieving world as, by our example and through our words and deeds, we share the gospel with others.

A trifecta of beauty, representing the Christian's resplendent walk with THE Three-In-One, the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

6Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, 7rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7 (Berean Study Bible)

Happy growing!

My Name is Lazarus

I was riding down the road yesterday morning, listening to one of the few radio stations that still plays Southern gospel music on Sunday mornings, WCON radio "My Country", in Cornelia, GA. 

A song began, one that I had never heard.  The title was "My Name is Lazarus".  It was a catchy song, about the biblical character, Lazarus - - brother of Mary and Martha of Bethany, all close friends of Jesus.  If you want to listen to it, the link is in the Sources below.1

Loyal readers to this blog may remember that I visited the site purported to be Lazarus' tomb when I visited Israel for the first time, back in January, 2018.  A picture from that day in Bethany is above.  The area is in the town of Bethany (surprise!), which is now part of the West Bank.  It is controlled by the Palestinians, and we had to pay a "keeper" at the site, in order to be allowed entrance into the tomb.

Down, down, down into the ground we went, via these musty, damp steps.  It felt like we descended hundreds of feet, although it surely was not.  In the photo, Chris and I were standing in "the tomb".

Driving down the road, I thought about all this and also about how my name is Lazarus too.  (What?!)

No, I've not yet physically died, nor was I physically resurrected.  However, until I was about 9 years old, I was dead in every way that mattered.  I was spiritually dead.

Oh, I had (and still have) a soul and spirit.  The difference is: prior to August of 1967 they were dead.  (Even more dead than Lazarus.)  Now, they are spiritually alive.  I surely do praise God for that!

The apostle Paul said this on the subject, speaking to a church in Ephesus, people who had become Christ-followers:

1As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins...

Ephesians 2:1a

"Were" is such a wonderful word, in this context!  Lazarus was dead, completely incapable of generating life on his own as he lay there moldering in the grave.2  

Before we came to salvation in Jesus Christ, we were a worse kind of dead, and similarly incapable of "raising ourselves", of saving ourselves.   Somebody pointed out that if something is dead, it can't do anything on its own, not even respond.  Jesus said,

 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him."  

John 6:44.

Because He has loved us with an everlasting love, He pursues us, in order to initiate that love relationship with us, in order to make the dead come alive, to bring the dead to life.  I am so deeply grateful for that.  Paul goes on to say....

4But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

Ephesians 2:4-5

To be honest, there are times when I still feel dead.

• When I sin
• When I am disappointed
• When I am sad
• When I am focusing on what isn't, instead of what is

Those times.  

Fortunately, though, the truth, the gospel, the good news - - - they are not changed by my feelings.  Hallelujah for that!  And, God gave me a whole, whopping book of reminders, a heaping volume of truth to counteract that pity party junk.  When I go there and spend time with Him, worship Him, listen for Him, He tenderly reminds me of His love, which transcends all earthly sorrows.

"When I in the chains of death was bound,

this Man named Jesus pulled me out."

- - - Rodney Griffin, "My Name is Lazarus"

Sources:

1     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNsLT1BxUto

2     "Moldering" is an old English word, not much used these days.  It means "rotting". 

Lord, Not Tyrant

As Noah and his family emerged from the Ark and after Noah had offered a burnt offering on the altar to God, He blessed this family, which would go on to re-populate the Earth.  God's gracious blessing has several key elements, which we will examine today.  They are found in Genesis 9:1-4 (BSB).

1And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand. 3Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.4But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it. 5

The first component is a grant of the land to the family, and it coupled with (sorry, could not resist the pun) the command to procreate and to re-populate the Earth.  No longer was the Earth "Paradise", but it was a far cry from Hell which, due to our sinful nature, is all we deserve.  Today, large families are sometimes criticized by modern American society.  However, this is a worldly attitude that has no basis in Scripture.  It is plain from this verse and others that God commends large families.  See also Psalm 127:4-5.

The second component of the blessing is a grant of rule over all the other living creatures of the Earth.  You may recall God made a similar grant to Adam (see Genesis 1:28), but with this one difference.  In his sinless state, Adam ruled in love, whereas fallen man (Noah et al) ruled by fear.  (This is why the mama bird in her nest this morning took one look at me behind the window and skedaddled.)

The third element concerns mankind's diet.  In Genesis 1:29, mankind was directed to eat only the plant life of the Earth.  However, the Great Flood changed the Earth in ways we will never know this side of Heaven, and maybe not even then.  It is possible that these changes provoked God to allow Noah and his descendants to eat the flesh of living things.

The one restriction God put on the eating of animal flesh was that it was to be cooked (vs. 4).  Due to the Fall of Man we see animals attack other animals and eat the meal immediately after, savagely consuming raw flesh.  Mankind was directed by God to not be so. An example of this being defied can be found in 1 Samuel 14:32.

31That day, after the Israelites had struck down the Philistines from Michmash to Aijalon, the people were very faint. 32So they rushed greedily to the plunder, taking sheep, cattle, and calves.They slaughtered them on the ground and ate meat with the blood still in it. 33Then someone reported to Saul: “Look, the troops are sinning against the LORD by eating meat with the blood still in it.” “You have broken faith,” said Saul.

1 Samuel 14:31-33 (BSB)

Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat.

Proverbs 23:20 (BSB)

We are to be lords over the animals of the Earth, but not tyrants.  We are given lordship to use animals for our benefit, but not to abuse them for our luxury.  There are also negative health repercussions for eating raw animal flesh.  Our "constitutions" are not designed for this type of food.

In the picture at the head of this post, you see my husband, an avid fisherman.  He caught that gorgeous 16-inch Rainbow trout this past weekend at one of his favorite "fishing holes".  However, we did not need or desire that fish for food.  So, after the photo op, that big boy was gently returned to the creek, to grow and flourish. 

Those who abuse animals demonstrate a marked lack of godliness, and often go on to abuse people in the worst sorts of ways.  There are also those who practically worship animals, going to great lengths to prevent even the God-sanctioned uses described in Genesis 9.  Both these extremes are ungodly; neither is in keeping with what God ordained.

One more point about diet - -
Many Jews today still practice dietary laws that prohibit the eating of some types of animal flesh.  These restrictions were put into place as part of the Mosaic law.  Continuing to adhere to these practices is a matter of personal conviction for the Christian.  In Acts 10:9-16, God gave permission for Peter to eat both clean and unclean animals.  Paul echoes this point when criticizing false teachers who sought to divide the faithful with false doctrines about abstaining from marriage and from certain foods:

1Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, 2influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.

3They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected, 5because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

1 Timothy 4:1-5 (BSB)

Within these parameters, let's follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, each individual operating according to how the Spirit leads.  Let's seek to honor God by what we feed both our souls and our bodies, the Word of God for the former and a wide variety of healthy foods for the latter. 

Brave New World Burnt Offering

Image by Greg Montani, from Pixabay.com

At Genesis 8:20-22, we have now come to the end of the account of the Great Flood, historical science which conveys to us both the mercy and the judgment of God.  A number of extra-biblical sources could be cited in substantiation to this world-altering event.  Even the very constitution of the Earth bears witness to the upheaval experienced 5000 years ago.  What Intelligent Being, after all, would have created a world with such imperfection?  None.  The once-perfect creation now bears the marks of the most severe of judgments, fallen...and continuing to fall.

As his first act upon exiting the Ark, the great patriarch, Noah, builds an altar and offers a burnt offering on it from those he worked so hard to save.  Why?

20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. Taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

22As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night

shall never cease.”

Genesis 8:20-22 (Berean Study Bible)

When I was a kid, I was diagnosed with severe allergies, one of which was to "animal dander".  Now, we never had a pet in the house, growing up.  Mother would not allow it.  But, we had a stray dog that had given birth to several puppies, which I adored.  Upon getting the verdict of my allergy to dog "dander", the parental units decided it would be best to rid the family of pets altogether.  So, Daddy boxed them up and took them "somewhere".  Let's not dig too deeply into that, shall we?  The point is, I had to say a very tearful goodbye to my furry, little friends.  I still remember the pain, over 50 years later.

The concept of animal sacrifice is so very foreign to us today, because it simply "is not done".  In fact, the idea of harming animals (except for food) is deeply frowned upon in our modern "1st World" society.

It was different in the Old Testament.  Animal sacrifice was instituted by God Himself, was central to Old Testament worship and was a multi-dimensional act.  It was right and appropriate that Noah acted as he did, upon leaving the Ark.

The Ark itself symbolizes Jesus Christ, in Whom we find rescue and shelter from God's judgment.  In the Old Testament, though, Messiah Jesus had not yet appeared.  His all-encompassing sacrifice had not been made.  His blood had not atoned for all the sins of those who believe in Him.  So, the sacrificial system was in play.

It began with Abel, who pleased God by bringing the second animal sacrifice.  "Wait," you exclaim, "what was the first?"  The first was made by God, in the Garden of Eden, when He sacrificed the life of an animal to make animal skin coverings for the nakedness of Adam and Eve.  While those skins covered their nakedness, they could not cover their sin.

Offering food to "gods" has happened since the days of the ancients, and still persists to this day.  Walk into some Buddhist businesses (nail salons come to mind) and you will frequently see fresh fruit offerings at a shrine, for example.  In India, where via Hinduism literally hundreds of gods are worshipped, shrines and altars are more plentiful than Starbucks and McDonalds outlets in America.
(The photo at the head of this post is one example.)
There were a couple of differences between pagan animal sacrifices and those made by the Israelites, the people of Yahweh God.1

First, the animal sacrifice was to be burnt (Exodus 29:18), as opposed to being offered as "food for the gods" in other religions.  Jewish tabernacles or temples contained no man-made idol to which food was given.  Burning the animal's flesh was entirely unique to the Jewish faith.

Second, the Jews were very deliberate in how they treated the blood of the animal, based on the instructions given to them by Yahweh God.  Leviticus 17:11-14 tells us (as the old hymn goes) "there is power in the blood".  The blood is the essence of physical and spiritual life.  Accordingly, long after Noah, when God set up the Levitical priesthood through Moses and Aaron, sacrificial blood took center stage.  It was considered the highest crime to eat or drink it, as well as to shed "innocent blood".

The design of animal sacrifice was two-fold:2

• The forfeiture of the life of the animal represents the forfeiture of the life of the sinful human to God's divine justice.  
• The fire of the burnt offering represents that the sinner is deserving of the fires of eternal death an damnation.

To study the meanings behind all of the O.T. sacrificial offerings, see Leviticus 7.

As the Ark was a "type", a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, so was the burnt offering.  Today, as Jesus has made the ultimate, final, eternal sacrifice for our sins, we no longer must offer animal sacrifices on altars of stone.  What God requires from us who walk in the faith that flows from His Holy Spirit is continual sacrifice on the altars of our hearts, the sacrifice of self-denial, humility and obedience.  With such a faith-based walk, our God and Savior is honored and glorified.

He was pleased with the burnt offering given by Noah, and in response promised to never again destroy the Earth by cataclysmic flood.  This promise is named by theologians as The Noahic Covenant.  The one-of-a-kind, sacrificial death, burial and resurrection of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords grieved His heart deeply, but it pleased Him even more than all the burnt offerings of history combined; it pleased Him forever.  Jesus, The Last Sacrifice, "sealed the deal".

It is no accident Jesus Christ is pictured as a slain Lamb in Revelation 5.

8When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9And they sang a new song:

“Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals,

because You were slain,

and by Your blood You purchased for God

those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

10You have made them into a kingdom,

priests to serve our God,

and they will reignb upon the earth.”

Revelation 5:8-10 (Berean Study Bible)

Sources:

1   https://reformjudaism.org/role-sacrifice

2   https://biblehub.com/commentaries/clarke/genesis/8.htm

When Passover and Good Friday Kiss Each Other

For the past three Passion Weeks (2016-2018) I have posted here in the blog my study about the "10 Days that Changed the World", a series of posts concerning the events of Jesus' last week before His crucifixion, burial and resurrection three days later.  I didn't re-post them again this year, or on Facebook because, with the hundreds of views they have received (mostly from Facebook users), I figured I had about worn that horse out.  On the off-chance though, dear reader, you have not read them, I would recommend you do so before delving into this post, one which will be to some highly controversial.  You can find the first post here:  https://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2018/03/10-days-that-changed-world-passion-week.html
And, then, just read the next one in the line-up, through the end of March, ending with the post called "First Fruits".

Okay, on to today's topic.
In the aforementioned posts, I essentially made a case for how Jesus Christ fulfilled the Passover Feast of the Jews in His last days on earth.  Likewise, He fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of First Fruits, all of which are slammed together adjacent to one another, forming what is commonly referred to as the first three of  "The Spring Feasts". (The fourth is Shavuot, what Christians celebrate as Pentecost.)  Jesus was a Jew, after all, and a perfectly devout One to boot.  It is important to remember that.

This year, 2019, today is Nisan 14 on the Jewish calendar, the day the Passover Lamb would have been slain by the High Priest in Jerusalem's Temple, the day the Lamb of God was crucified on the cross for our sins.  It happened around 3:00 in the afternoon in those days and, were there a Temple in Jerusalem today with priestly animal sacrifices ongoing, it would be happening right about now as I type this post, because beloved Israel is 6 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. 

Tonight, Jews around the world will eat the Passover Seder, celebrating their deliverance from Egyptian slavery, with many putting the twist on their reminiscences of the more recent Holocaust, when Jews were enslaved and many exterminated by the Nazis.  Many Messianic Christians, those who marry the Jewish feast celebrations with the finished work of Jesus Christ, will celebrate a Messianic Seder tonight, but in addition to how the more traditional Jews celebrate, their added emphasis will be on how Messiah Jesus fulfilled Passover by setting them free from the slavery of sin and eternal death.  Hallelujah to His name!

Today, Nisan 14 and what most Christians around the world call Good Friday happen to fall on the same day.  That is what I mean by the title of this post.

In the early Church of Jesus Christ, all of the members were Jews, the first "Jews for Jesus", if you will.  The earliest Christians (they were not called Christians until late in the first century A.D., in the town of Antioch - - Acts 11:20-21) celebrated the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, beginning on Nisan 14, whenever that fell on the other world calendars in use at that time.  In other words, they began their "Easter" celebration, more appropriately called their resurrection celebration, on the day Jesus was crucified.  IN OTHER WORDS, the first resurrection "anniversaries" aligned with the Jewish feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits, because that is in line with how things went in the New Testament.

Unfortunately, as years went on, there began to be division about when to celebrate the Lord's resurrection.  Satan got to work and planted in the minds of influential church leaders that the "new Christian religion" should separate itself from those awful Jews . . . you know, the ones who killed the Lord Jesus?  That hellish attitude still persists in some circles today.  It was especially heretical in those early years, to drive a wedge between God's chosen people, the Jews, and the Jewish and Gentile Christians.  Once the wedge was in place, the rift just continued to widen.

None other luminary that the apostle John advocated for celebrating the resurrection, on Nisan 14.1  Others of that era chose to celebrate the resurrection on the Sunday following Passover, since it is incontrovertible that Jesus arose from the grave early on a Sunday morning.  However, here is the problem with that, (other than the obvious divergence of opinions.)  Passover does not always begin at the conclusion of Nisan 14, going into Nisan 15, a Thursday going into a Friday, as it did the year Jesus died.  What about those years Nisan 14-15 fell on a Monday-Tuesday, for example?  Well, three days later would be, what?  A Friday?  You can see the obvious problems.  If, in that fictitious year, the resurrection were celebrated "three days later", you would be celebrating on a Friday, not a Sunday.  AND, if you waited until the Sunday after Passover, Jesus would have been left in the tomb too long.
What to do?

By the time of the Council of Nicea, in 325 A.D., you had Christians celebrating the resurrection "all over the place", at various times, which the Council felt was unseemly.  It is sad that, instead of establishing the date in congruence with the lunar Jewish calendar, the way it originally occurred, the Council decided to establish it on the Roman calendar, a solar calendar, always during the Spring Equinox.  For some reason they felt that "the consistency", not to mention the distancing of Christianity from Jewry, was more important. So, the Council arbitrarily chose a date, decreeing all Christian churches would celebrate the resurrection of the Lord on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox. 

While this date certainly brought a unanimity to the resurrection celebration, which later began to be called "Easter", it certainly did not bring with it accuracy.  In my opinion, it is merely another example of theological "drift" or as I've heard it called "slippage in the system".  As the Church of Jesus Christ has moved on into history, getting ever farther, necessarily, from the faith's "point of origin" in 3 B.C. through 30 A.D., more and more dreck or "tradition" or outright error have crept in.

Where did the term "Easter" come from, anyway?  That's another blog post, and I'm not going to get into that here.  How did we get to Friday being the designated day of the week for the crucifixion? No way you can get "three days in the belly of the earth" (Jesus' words in Matthew 12:40) from Friday to Sunday.... Why are bunnies and eggs and so forth now part of the cultural celebration, although, thankfully, not yet the theological....?  Drift.  Dreck.  Etc.  Some would call it outright heresy....

This Sunday, two days from now, I will go to church with my husband, and we will both lift our hands in praise and celebration, to honor our Lord and King, and to celebrate His finished work for us.  We will do this in our Baptist church, which celebrates Jesus' resurrection on "Easter Sunday".  But, learning about the lost alignment between the Jewish feasts and the Lord's Passion has both enriched my joy during this holy season, while simultaneously making me wistfully sad.  The Passion season always speaks more deeply to me when Passover and the Christian resurrection celebration align.  Kiss-Kiss!

Today, for example, I am meditating on how, on Nisan 14, 3790 (today is Nisan 14, 5779), He died for me, in the Gregorian calendar year 30 A.D. 2  That year, Nisan 14 was a Thursday.  His body lay in the tomb three nights and 2 full days plus a partial day, while His spirit descended into Sheol and did His liberating work there.  Then, early on Sunday morning, Nisan 17, His body was resurrected into a glorious "heavenly" physical form and reunited with His Spirit, after which He walked the earth and did many miracles for 40 more days, until His Ascension into Heaven.

Nisan 17, the resurrection day, the day of the Feast of First Fruits, falls on a Monday this year.  🤷‍♀️

But, you know, the most important thing is that we don't let these types of Bible nerd explorations take away from our celebrating the Lord's Resurrection.  Becoming overly divisive does not bring glory to God, and it takes away from the central truth more worthy of celebration than any other.  And that is this:

1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, and in which you stand firm. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,5and that He appeared to Cephasa and then to the Twelve. 6After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one of untimely birth.

1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (Berean Study Bible)

Happy Passover!  Happy Resurrection Day!

Sources:

1   https://answersingenesis.org/holidays/easter/is-the-date-of-easter-of-pagan-origin/

2   http://www.truthmagazine.com/archives/volume28/GOT028159.html

The Worst Weather Ever

Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay 

Upon waking this morning, I nearly stepped on our 90-pound dog, Charlie.  He usually sleeps on his dog bed, across the bedroom.  But, when it rains (yes, just pure, old rain) or (God forbid) thunders, he gets as close to me as possible, shivering and shaking in fear.  Apparently, during the night, he came to my side of the bed...and when I found him his head was literally under it.  For a moment, I thought he was dead!

Throughout Scripture, we can find some awful geographic and atmospheric phenomena.  Examples:  the Earth opened up and swallowed an entire family (Numbers 26:10); fire and brimstone fell to the Earth and destroyed two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19); plagues of frogs in Egypt ( Exodus 7:25-8:15); the future hordes of "locusts" (Revelation 9, the Fifth Trumpet judgment).
But, the granddaddy of them all had to be the "weather" brought to bear upon the Ark, surely one of the best-built ships ever made: God-designed and God-protected.

The occupants were on the boat for just over a year.  Don't make the mistake of believing all they endured was "hard rain".  No, the Bible tells us that the very springs (fountains) of "the deep" were opened and then later restored.  In this process, there were cataclysmic earthquakes, violently tossing the Ark to and fro.  Historians tell us that, before the Great Flood, what we now know as the seven continents were more joined together into something called Pangaea (or Pangea, whichever spelling you'd prefer).  This was a "supercontinent", comprising most of the land of the whole earth.

Back in 2004, there was a tremendous earthquake in the Indian Ocean, near Indonesia, on Boxing Day, Dec. 26th.1  The resulting tsunami from this powerful quake killed over 100,000 people, in mere moments.  Now, imagine the worldwide earthquakes and tsunamis needed to break the supercontinent into seven, spreading them out around the globe.

Girls and boys, that must have been some boat ride.  It would have made the fiercest carnival attraction look tame.

But, then afterwards, what to do with all that water?  God sent strong, strong winds to dry up the Earth.  Honestly, I am convinced that, had not God supernaturally held them, the occupants of the Ark would have died from abject fear.

We read in Genesis 8:1 that "God remembered".  He remembered the humans and animals on His Ark.  This seems to indicate He had forgotten about them for some time which is, of course, ludicrous.  But, the tenor of this verse is that He cared for them, with lovingkindness, through it all, because He remembered His covenant promises to His people.2  What promise is relevant in this case?
At this time in human history, we have had the Adamic Covenant (Genesis 1:27-28) and the protevangelium, also called the first mention of Messiah.  We find it in Genesis 3:15.  Here, God promised to send a Messiah to redeem fallen man.  Obviously, by Noah's time, no Messiah had appeared.  Therefore, God preserved a remnant family through whose descendants Messiah would eventually come.  Even more relevant, God promised to keep Noah (Noahic Covenant) and his family safe through all the "bad weather" (Genesis 6:17-18).  And, He did, despite the awful ordeal.

There are times in our lives when we believe we are going through the very worst, living as a human can bring.  Our adverse circumstances can cause us to doubt the very existence of a Heavenly Father, much less whether or not He even sees our pain.  In the depths of despair we may give up hope that the Lord will remember His promises to us.  Yet, we must hold fast, because though it seems to us that he is slow to fulfill His Word, He always does and does so at exactly the right time.

9The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,^a not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)

So ... don't be like Charlie.  When the torrential rains come, look up and remember God's promises to you.  Don't hide your head under the bed or shake with fear.  Trust His promises.  They will never, ever be moved, like the tectonic plates that moved to split the Earth's land into the 7 continents.  Nor will His promises or His care ever be removed from His own beloved.

Sources:

1    https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/2004-indian-ocean-tsunami-facts

2    https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/god-remembered-noah/