The Calendar of His Work

The last chapter ended with the weakness of the flesh. The Torah is holy, and the few who walked in it were blessed, but the people as a whole broke the covenant, and the curse came as it was written.

The final and complete blessing, therefore, comes through the One who conquered sin and death.

The One Who Conquered Death

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 "O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" The sting of death is sin, and the dynamis δύναμις doo'-nam-is(power) of sin is the nomos νόμος nom'-os(law); but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua Messiah.

To the taunt “O death, where is your sting?” comes the answer: “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua Messiah.”

Hebrews 2:14-15 Since therefore the children koinoneo κοινωνέω koy-no-neh'-o(share, partake) in sarx σάρξ sarx(flesh) and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same, so that through death He might nullify the one having the kratos κράτος krat'-os(dominion) of death — that is, the diabolos διάβολος dee-ab'-ol-os(devil, accuser, slanderer) — and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

He took on flesh and blood “so that through death He might nullify the one having the kratos(dominion) of death.”

By Water, by Blood, by the Spirit

John tells us how He came:

1 John 5:6-8 This is He who came by water and blood — Yeshua Messiah; not by the water only but by the water and the blood; and the pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit) is the one who testifies, because the pneuma(spirit) is the aletheia ἀλήθεια al-ay'-thi-a(truth). For there are three that testify: the pneuma(spirit) and the water and the blood; and these three are in agreement.

Of the three that agree, the water and the blood appeared at the cross:

John 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

And at the Feast of Weeks the Spirit came:

Acts 2:1-4 And when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, they were all together with one mind in the same place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a rushing violent pnoe πνοή pno-ay'(breath), and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and one sat on each one of them. And they were all filled with hagio(holy) pneuma(spirit) and began to speak in other tongues as the pneuma(spirit) was giving them to declare.

The blood and the water flowed from His side on the cross, and the Spirit was poured out at the feast. Through these three witnesses, the completion of the blessing began on this earth.

Those who receive it by faith are justified by grace. That is the beginning, and it is a gift. Then they grow:

Philippians 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Messiah Yeshua.

2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the charis χάρις khar'-ece(grace) and gnosis γνῶσις gno'-sis(knowledge) of our Lord and Savior Yeshua Messiah; to Him be the doxa δόξα dox'-ah(glory) both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

“He who began a good work in you will perfect it.” Justification is the starting line, and sanctification, growing in holiness, is the road that follows. We already know what that growth looks like: the Torah written on the heart (Jeremiah 31:33), “fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the sarx(flesh) but according to the pneuma(spirit)” (Romans 8:4).

A Calendar That Tells the Order

How does the completion unfold? God did not leave it to guesswork. He had already written the order into His calendar, the seven appointed times of Leviticus 23. Book 1 showed that these are His feasts, not Israel’s holidays only. Here we read them as an order of events.

Think of a wedding invitation with the program printed on the back: first the ceremony, then the dinner, then the dancing. A guest who holds the card knows what comes next before it happens. Leviticus 23 is that card, held in Israel’s hands for more than a thousand years before the events it lists.

The spring feasts are the first coming.

Leviticus 23:5-6 In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings, is a Passover to the LORD. And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast (chag חַג khag) of unleavened bread to the LORD; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

1 Corinthians 5:7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are unleavened; for Messiah our Passover has been sacrificed for us.

These are Passover and Unleavened Bread. “Messiah our Passover has been sacrificed for us,” the sinless One, without leaven.

Leviticus 23:10-11 Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land which I am giving to you, and you reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for your acceptance; on the morrow after the Shabbat the priest shall wave it.

1 Corinthians 15:20 But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

The sheaf of the firstfruits was waved before the LORD “on the morrow after the Shabbat,” and Paul writes, “Messiah has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.”

The calendar kept its own days. Messiah our Passover died on Nisan 13, the day of preparation. He rose very early on Nisan 16, the day of the firstfruits sheaf, “on the morrow after the Shabbat.” That is three days and three nights, the sign of Jonah that Yeshua Himself named (Matthew 12:40). Book 4, The Only Sign, lays this out step by step.

Leviticus 23:15-16 And you shall count for yourselves from the morrow after the Shabbat, from the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven complete Shabbats they shall be. Until the morrow after the seventh Shabbat you shall count fifty days; and you shall bring near a new grain offering to the LORD.

Then comes the Feast of Weeks, counted fifty days. Luke says the Spirit came “when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled,” and Pentecost means fiftieth. The count of Leviticus 23 reached its day, and the Spirit was poured out on the very feast that celebrates a new harvest.

The autumn feasts are the second coming.

Leviticus 23:24 Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first of the month, shall be to you a Shabbaton, a memorial of trumpet blast, a holy convocation (miqra-qodesh מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ mik-raw').

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah will rise first.

Matthew 24:31 And He will send forth His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Leviticus speaks of “a memorial of trumpet blast,” Paul of “the trumpet of God,” and Yeshua of “a great sound of a trumpet” and the gathering of His chosen ones from the four winds.

Leviticus 23:27 But on the tenth of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; a holy convocation (miqra-qodesh) it shall be to you, and you shall afflict your souls (nephesh נֶפֶשׁ neh'-fesh); and you shall bring near a fire-offering to the LORD.

Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitant of Jerusalem a spirit (ruach רוּחַ roo'-akh) of grace and of supplications; and they shall look to me, the one whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for the only son, and shall be bitter over him as one is bitter over the firstborn.

The Day of Atonement is the day when Israel afflicts its soul, and Zechariah sees the day when the house of David “shall look to me, the one whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for the only son.”

Leviticus 23:34 Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast (chag) of booths for seven days to the LORD.

Zechariah 14:16 And it shall come to pass, that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up year by year to bow down to the King, the LORD of hosts (tzevaot צָבָא tsaw-baw'), and to celebrate the feast (chag) of Booths.

At the Feast of Booths the nations “shall go up year by year to bow down to the King, the LORD of hosts (tzevaot), and to celebrate the feast (chag) of Booths.”

Then come the thousand years:

Revelation 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and krima κρίμα kree'-mah(verdict) was given to them, and the psychai(souls) of those who had been beheaded on account of the testimony of Yeshua and on account of the logos λόγος log'-os(word, message) of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand — they lived and reigned with the Messiah for a thousand years.

Revelation 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; the second death has no exousia ἐξουσία ex-oo-see'-ah(authority) over these, but they will be priests of God and of the Messiah and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

“Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection.” And at last comes the eternal kingdom, the final Feast of Booths:

Revelation 21:3 And I heard a great voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with people, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them."

“The tabernacle of God is with people, and He will tabernacle with them.” The Greek word is skenoo σκηνόω skay-no'-o, to pitch a tent, from skene σκηνή skay-nay', the word for a booth. The feast that Israel kept in booths every autumn ends with God Himself dwelling among His people.

In that age the Torah does not disappear.

Isaiah 2:3 And many peoples shall go and say: "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Isaiah 66:22-23 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I am making, stand before me, declares the LORD, so shall your seed and your name stand. And it shall come to pass, from new moon to new moon, and from Shabbat to Shabbat, all flesh (basar בָּשָׂר baw-sawr') shall come to worship before me, says the LORD.

“For out of Zion shall go forth Torah,” and “from Shabbat to Shabbat, all flesh (basar) shall come to worship before me.”

A Holy Place for a Holy People

That place is holy, and only what is holy enters it.

Revelation 21:27 And nothing koinos κοινός koy-nos'(common, worldly) will by no means enter into it, nor anyone practicing abomination and falsehood, except those written in the biblion βιβλίον bib-lee'-on(scroll) of zoe ζωή dzo-ay'(life) of the Lamb.

Koinos is the word met again and again in Part Three, the common set against the holy. The line God drew in Leviticus 10:10, between the holy and the common, still stands at the gate of the eternal city.

Isaiah 35:8 And there shall be there a highway and a way, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it is for them; he who walks the way, even fools, shall not err.

One might expect such a place to stand nearly empty. It does not.

Revelation 7:9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one was able to count, from every ethnos ἔθνος eth'-nos(nation, Gentile-people) and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and with palm branches in their hands,

Who are they, this great multitude from every nation? The verse read in Chapter 38 answers: “Blessed are those who do His commandments, so that their exousia(authority) will be over the tree of zoe(life) and they may enter through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14).

Here the whole story meets. The few who obeyed in each generation, Caleb and Josiah and Zacharias and Elizabeth, become at the end a great multitude from every nation, washed and made holy, doing His commandments, and entering through the gates. The goal of the Torah set before Israel on the plains of Moab, life and good forever, is reached. That is the way home.

One thing remains. Having followed the word Torah through the whole story, we have still to hear how the 214 verses describe the Torah in their own words, set beside the words we usually hear.