T H E   T H R E E   H A R V E S T   F E A S T S
of
Exodus 23:14-19; Lev. 23

BL-20-3

Introduction:

By prayer, supplication, and a careful study of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, through the unction of His Spirit, we see that Inspiration plainly teaches that God's true people should keep His statutes and judgments and do them, as well as the commandments. Since the grain harvests are symbols of the soul harvests (3 Tr. 75:3; Matt. 13:38-43), then, in order to have a first fruit harvest of the living, –in harmony with the law of the grain harvest– there must first be a wave-sheaf of living souls. If we are consistent in one phase of the harvest law, it is logical that we should be consistent in all points, or else forget the whole thing. A part truth will not land us on Mt. Zion with the Lamb. (Rev. 14:1; A.A. 591; P.K. 591)

If we contend that those who arose from the dead with Christ as the wave-sheaf of the dead and ascended with Him and were offered before the Father in heaven; if we contend they are the living wave-sheaf for the 144,000 first fruits, and not a Living TYPE, giving no place for an antitype; then, we must conclude that the harvest began for the 144,000 immediately after they (wave-sheaf) were offered before the Father in heaven: for, according to type, the first fruit harvest begins as soon as the first of the first fruits are offered. Therefore, there must be a living wave-sheaf offered before the harvest of the 144,000 living first fruits begins.

"…The slumbering faculties of the Jewish people are to be aroused. The Old Testament scriptures, blending with the New, will be to them as the dawning of a new creation or as the resurrection of the soul. Memory will be awakened as Christ is seen portrayed in the pages of the Old Testament. Souls will be saved from the Jewish nation, as the DOORS of the New Testament are UNLOCKED with the KEY of the OLD TESTAMENT....The predictions of prophecy WILL be fulfilled." Evangelism, 578-9.

Consequently:

If there are no living first of the first fruits offered, there can be no harvest of the 144,000 first fruits and, likewise, no second fruit harvest. Since Inspiration teaches there is to be a

first and a second fruit harvest for the living, we must, henceforth, keep the three harvest feasts in harmony with Inspiration. In this way we show our faith – by our works.

Let us think, and use our own mind a little, rather than listen to those who are trying to confuse us by saying there is no living wave-sheaf on earth. The Lord's servant says we will have to put our minds to the utmost stretch to grasp the truth. But if God's sheep –His little ones– think just a very little on the subject of the living wave-sheaf, they will be able to see that if there are no first of the first fruits (wave-sheaf), then who will awaken the virgins, (Matt. 25) 144,000, first fruits? Yes, someone must give the "Cry" at midnight, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh" and that someone is not the 144,000 dozing virgins. Now you see how simple the whole subject becomes when you quit listening to man and start following the Spirit that guides into all Truth.

Now as to the little "ones": Rachael, Jacob's second wife died at the birth of Benjamin. Therefore, she is a type of the second prophetic Seventh-day Adventist movement since 1844, which, of course, is the D.S.D.A. movement. But at the birth of the Branch (Eze. 24:18), Rachael died. Therefore, the Lord, after His shepherd (V.T.H.) was smitten, turned His "hand upon the little ones" Zech. 13:6, 7. Inspiration says of Benjamin: "And we said unto my lord, (Joseph) We have a father, (Jacob) an old man, and a child of his old age, a 'little one'; (Benjamin) and his brother is dead, (they thought) and he (Benjamin) alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him." Gen. 44:20.

Evidently, the "little ones" are the born again, "butter and honey" eating Immanuels – Branches. (Isa. 7:14, 15) But remember there are little goats also. Those who are listening to the "hireling shepherd" (John 10:12) are not God's little ones but are those who are feeding on hay and stubble and not on the green Branches. (Branch Food–Truth 2 T.G. 45:3) In the stubble there is death, but in Branch-food there is life. Therefore choose the life-giving food and live. Since we are what we eat, if those who have been following the false shepherds will now, at once, change their diet from the hay and stubble and start feeding on the leaves of the Branch tree, which are for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2), they will be able to survive the cutting off the names of the tares at the atonement for destruction. Why be a goat for destruction? Be a sheep for the Branch Kingdom. So you see, friends, "Lord, Lord" is not the pass word to the Kingdom, but rather, it is BRANCH. (G.C. 415; G.C. 485; P.K. 585, 592, 599, 695; A.A. 595; 5T. 475; 1 T.G.r. 8-24:3; 8 Tr. 45-47)

The light is crystal clear that the Branch, wave-sheaf, has the key to the first fruit harvest of the 144,000 virgins and, hence, the key to the second fruit harvest and the FEAST of TABERNACLES.

"Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments." Mal. 4:4.

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Mal. 4:5, 6.

"Assuredly, Brethren, not a one need be in uncertainty. All may for a surety know both 'the day' and the Elijah as he proclaims it, because to our surprise he will point out that all the prophets describe the day and also tell what the Lord would have us do while it is approaching and subsequently while we are going through it, and because NO one but Elijah can proclaim the DAY." G.C.S. 11-12.

"The sinners, we know, have always been and are still among God's people. That the fulfillment of this Scripture (Isa. 52:1), therefore, is in the very near future, is shown from the fact that the truth of this chapter is now unsealed and carried to the church, endeavoring to awaken the people of God and to impress them with the fact that soon the HARVEST will commence first separating the first fruits, 144,000 from 'the house of God' then to be followed by the second fruits from all nations (Rev. 7:9);..." (parenthesis theirs) 1 T.G.r. 38:22-3.

"True enough, the Spirit of God causes people to become one thing, and the spirit of Satan causes them to become another thing, but the difference is discernible only as the HARVEST

time approaches – when the Truth of the harvest is revealed." 1 T.G. 21-12:4.

"…Now, when the great work of judging the living is about to begin, shall we allow unsanctified ambition to take possession of the heart, and lead us to neglect the education required to meet the needs in this day of peril? In every case the great decision is to be made whether we shall receive the mark of the beast or his image, or the seal of the living God." 6T. 130.

Conclusively, Brethren, the FEASTS are to be "STATUTES FOREVER throughout your generations." Lev. 23:14, 21 "Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall DWELL in the LAND in SAFETY." Lev. 25:18.

"...Keeping the COMMANDMENTS and the STATUTES in the Lord, then, is the LIGHT and SHIELD of your LIFE...This SYSTEM of WORSHIP, therefore, is truly the Righteousness by faith that brings the righteousness of Christ in the people of God." 2 T.G. 37:24.

Yes, as the doors of the New Testament are unlocked with the KEY of these feasts which is found in the Old Testament "the slumbering faculties of the Jewish people are to be aroused." Accepting this type of worship is the Righteousness by faith and doing them (Eze. 36:27) is the Righteousness of Christ.

This is the "addition" that joins the third angel's message in a message to be given to the world (T.M. 300). "The work of this angel (message Rev. 18:1) comes in at the right time to join in the LAST great work of the third angel's message as it swells to a loud cry. And the people of God are thus prepared to stand in the hour of temptation, which they are soon to meet. I saw a great light resting upon them, and they united to fearlessly proclaim the third angel's message." E.W. 277.

Therefore: "Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year." Ex. 23:14.

THE ATONEMENT

(Lev. 23:23-32)

After reading about the atonement you will find that in the first place the atonement is a day in which God's people were commanded to afflict their souls. This is the time when His people are really to be "at one" with Him. The day in which the sacrificial blood was offered before the Mercy seat to atone for the sins of His people (verse 28), the cleansing of the sanctuary, removing the sins of the people, (where confession had been made) which are committed during the year.

"Once a year, on the great Day of Atonement, the priest entered the most holy place for the cleansing of the sanctuary. The work there performed completed the yearly round of ministration.

"The whole ceremony was designed to impress the Israelites with the holiness of God and His abhorrence of sin; and, further, to show them that they could not come in contact with sin without becoming polluted. Every man was required to afflict his soul while this work of atonement was going forward. All business was to be laid aside, and the whole congregation of Israel were to spend the day in solemn humiliation before God, with prayer, fasting and deep searching of heart.

"Important truths concerning the atonement are taught by the typical service. A substitute was accepted in the sinner's stead; but sin was not canceled by the blood of the victim. A means was thus provided by which it was transferred to the sanctuary. By the offering of blood the sinner acknowledged the authority of the law, confessed his guilt in transgression, and expressed his desire for pardon through faith in a Redeemer to come; but he was not yet entirely released from the condemnation of the law. On the Day of Atonement the high priest, having taken an offering from the congregation, went into the most holy place with the blood of this offering, and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat, directly over the law, to make satisfaction for its claims. Then, in his character of mediator, he took the sins upon himself and bore them from the sanctuary.

"Such was the service performed 'unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.' And what was done in type in the ministration of the earthly sanctuary is done in reality in the ministration of the heavenly sanctuary. After His ascension our Saviour began His work as our high priest.

"…So did Christ plead His blood before the Father in behalf of sinners, and present before Him also, with the precious fragrance of His own righteousness, the prayers of penitent believers.

"…As in the typical service there was a work of atonement at the CLOSE of the YEAR, so before Christ's work for the redemption of men is completed there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary. This is the service which began when the 2300 days ended. At that time, as foretold by Daniel the prophet, our High Priest entered the most holy, to perform the LAST division of His solemn work – to cleanse the sanctuary.

"...so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred, in fact to the heavenly sanctuary. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded. But before this can be accomplished, there must be an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary therefore involves a work of investigation – a work of judgment. This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem His people; for when He comes, His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his works. Revelation 22:12." G.C. 419-422.

The atonement is a counterpart of the Passover. On the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Passover. The first day of the first month is at the first new moon on or after the vernal equinox – March 20-21. Since the moon marks the months (according to the Hebrew calendar), and the atonement falls on the tenth day of the seventh month, the first day of the seventh month would be on the seventh new moon after the vernal equinox. This year, October 3 was the first day of the seventh month. The Bible says the first day of the seventh month is a "holy convocation", no work is to be done. It is a day of blowing the trumpet, and for ten days the people of God are to make preparation for the Atonement. This year the Atonement is October 12. "Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings." Lev. 23:31.

The BRANCH (G.C. 415) will mediate the blood of Christ in our behalf and make atonement for our sins.

Yours to be "at one" with the BRANCH lest we be cut off from among God's people,

Benjamin L. Roden

NOTE: Emphases and Parentheses in quotations ours unless otherwise indicated.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: The "DOOR" is now open to those who expect to enter the kingdom – "They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage: and the door was shut." "THEY WERE NOT TO BE PRESENT IN PERSON AT THE MARRIAGE; FOR IT TAKES PLACE IN HEAVEN, WHILE THEY ARE UPON THE EARTH....But they are to understand His work, and to follow Him by faith as He goes in before God. It is in this sense that they are said to go in to the marriage." G.C. 427.

SOON THE DOOR WILL BE SHUT!! – 1 T.G. 12-28:1.

Continue to send in questionnaires and make your reservations now for the trip to Palestine.

Direct all correspondence to Box 3088, Odessa, Texas, until further notice, please.