May 20, 2018 Background Scripture: Leviticus 25 Lesson Passage: Leviticus 25:1 – 12 In today’s lesson, God presents a plan to Moses that involves a Sabbath rest for the land. We are familiar with the weekly Sabbath that every person of the nation of Israel was required to observe. As former slaves, they might not have understood the importance of giving their physical bodies a time to replenish, rebuild, and refresh itself from the daily toil. Slaves were expected to take care of their physical bodies only in as much as they could remain healthy enough to do their master’s bidding. Any leisure beyond the rest that was deemed absolutely necessary could be seen as idleness on the part of the slave. While in Egypt, the mere suggestion of the people taking time away from work to go and worship God was interpreted as them having too much idle time. The additional work of retrieving their own straw was added to their burden of brick making so that they could work at the maximum capacity humanly possible. Worshiping God was seen as a waste of the slaves’ time by their Egyptian taskmasters. When they were given time off from work, it was for rest and recuperation and not recreation and religion. After hundreds of years of slavery, there was much they would not have understood about nurturing their bodies and their souls. The Sabbath was mandatory for them to be able to learn by doing. On the other hand, the Sabbath rest for the land was for the land to be worked for six years but not worked during the seventh year. The land would have a complete year where crops would not be planted and vineyards would not be pruned. The land owners were not to harvest any crop that grew voluntarily during the Sabbath year or gather grapes from the unpruned vines during the year of rest. Rather than the owners harvesting the increase, the increase was to be available for everyone; the owners, strangers, and animals—domesticated and wild. After this cycle is repeated seven times, then the seventh Sabbath year, or the fiftieth year, was declared by God to be a year of jubilee—or jubilant celebration. It was a year of freedom for the land and all of its inhabitants. The concept of the Sabbath is that it should be a time of ceasing from work and enjoying the blessings that God gives as increase because of our trusting Him and willingness to labor. The fact that one can cease from their labor is indicative of increase that has occurred to the point of being over and above our daily needs. We can rejoice because we have more than we need. But even more so, we can rejoice because of our relationship with the true Source of our blessings. It’s good to know that even if God chooses not to bless us, He has the power to do so as He pleases. It is refreshing to recall a “happy moment” from our past. When the thought seems to randomly appear out of nowhere, it is even more wonderful. God calls His people to purposely recall and use the occasion as a time of celebration. In spite of blessings, sometimes one falls on hard times. This may come about because of bad decisions on our part and sometimes it may come about due to no fault of our own. The Year of Jubilee observance provides a safety valve in case hard times come. Finally, we can rejoice because the Year of Jubilee has inherent in it the option of redemption by a kinsman-redeemer. The “Son of man” is the kinsman redeemer for all humanity. Robert C. Hudson April 18, 2018

Bringing Firstfruits

May 13, 2018 Background Scripture: Leviticus 2:14; 23:9 – 22 Lesson Passage: Leviticus 2:14; 23:9 – 14, 22 Oftentimes, the Law foreshadows the events of the gospel narrative. In other words, there are steps prescribed by the Law that foretell of future events with little relevance to the ritual itself—other than symbolic. The religious ritual of “first fruits” is such an example. This ritual was designated by God to begin after Israel occupied Canaan and harvested their first crop in the land of promise. The first sheaf of grain was supposed to be brought to the priest who would wave it before the Lord as a wave offering. This was accompanied by a sin offering and a peace offering. Fifty days later (seven Sabbaths plus one day) the first fruits were to be celebrated. Prior to the wave offering, Israel was told to eat unleavened bread; however, the celebration of first fruits, fifty days later, would take place with leavened bread. This timeframe coincided with the Passover and the Day of Pentecost (fifty days after Passover). The first offering using unleavened bread foreshadowed the crucifixion of Jesus, the sinless (unleavened) Lamb of God. Fifty days after the crucifixion, on the Day of Pentecost, the spiritual conversion of a group of saints (leavened) took place. All total, over three thousand one hundred souls were saved on that day. These souls were not sinless (unleavened) like Jesus but were delivered out of eternal damnation as a “first fruits” offering to God. The first fruits ritual of the Law was prophetic in that it looked towards Calvary in the future as the true fulfillment of God’s divine plan for the salvation of mankind. This is all instructive for us, but one must wonder, “What did it really mean to Israel?” to celebrate this ritual. What was their understanding of what the ritual really meant? Today, we celebrate this first fruits concept with a Calvary slant to it. We revel in things which are “firsts”. We believe that God also revels in “first fruits”. The scriptures declare that Jesus is the first among many brethren. Jesus is preeminent in all things so that in everything he would be to God “first fruits”. We reflect on God’s great love for humanity when we meditate on the offering of first fruits because we have our own thoughts about it. “Firsts” for us are our keepsakes. It is a very unselfish act to offer our “firsts” as sacrifices. To give feels sacrificial but to give the “first fruit” is an act of ultimate worship in acknowledging God as the true source of everything. We have nothing to offer God but that which is already His. When we freely give the first that we receive, we declare through our actions that either the first blessing from God will not be the last blessing, or we rest assured that if God chooses not to bless us again, we are satisfied in knowing that He can. This is the reason we can joyously bring God the first of the blessings He bestows on us. We release the offering to God so that it does not attach itself to us. This is accomplished when we first offer ourselves to God. After offering ourselves, offering things is not as much of a challenge. Robert C. Hudson April 18, 2018