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This paper discusses the concept of the sacrifice offerings.

The concept here in verses 14 and 15 relates to the statement appear before Me. The concept in the Companion Bible is that this is the current Hebrew text, but the Sopherim only in the pointing altered it and ten other passages. The primitive text read (and ought to be) "see My face". In verse 20 it continues on:

Now that’s the face of God. He was the Being of the Presence, the Yahovah who appeared with Israel and developed Israel in the Law. The text effectively says that we are not allowed to go before the Face of God in these places, at these times, in these feasts, empty handed.

The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) is the second of those three offerings. We have an obligation to meet together for Pentecost and we are not to appear empty handed.

In Acts 2:1 we see that there is a mandatory assembly of the Church at Pentecost.

It is a Feast where we are required to go away and be assembled with one accord in one place. We are required by God to be at the Feast of Pentecost at the place where He shall choose, in the same manner as Passover and Tabernacles are kept and we shall not appear empty handed (Deut. 16:16).

From the Church’s first observance of Pentecost the Holy Spirit entered those assembled with great power. They were able to speak in tongues and perform in prophetic terms and to use or be used of the Holy Spirit. It might be said that an incorrect observance of Pentecost limits the capacity of the Church to be used of the Holy Spirit, stemming from obedience and desire.

When the Law was written, it was written for all time, because Jerusalem was not going to be the place on which the Lord placed His name solely and continually. For the last 2,000 years it has not been the place where the Lord placed His name solely and continually. Since 70 CE Jerusalem has been destroyed and the Church and the Temple has been in wilderness. Clearly the church is vested with responsibility to place the name of the Lord at specific points for Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread; for Pentecost; and for the Feast of Ingathering or Tabernacles, or Booths.

This is not an arbitrary or discretionary thing for the individual or the Church. The Passover is clearly and specifically, stated as not to be held or eaten within our gates. This instruction leads on then into other Feasts.

We are able to go back into our tents or accommodations on the first Holy Day, but we are not to be in our houses or dwellings for Passover (Deut. 16:8-10).

This is the first of the harvests, the barley harvest, where the first of the green ears of barley are collected, in order to be parched. They are not harvested for grinding; they are green ears. This occurs on the Sunday in the week of Unleavened Bread. The grain develops from this time. Then we number seven weeks. This is an important concept (Deut. 16:19).

There is an obligation on all of us to come before the Lord at the appointed time and place and we are not to come empty handed. There is a tribute offering, a freewill offering of our hand.

It is obvious that the concept of all your males going before the Lord is a mandatory commandment for males, but they are also accompanied by wives and families. Females on some occasions are prevented from travelling to a certain area, or they might be in child confinement. So the Law does not place any burden upon us that we cannot bear. The Law is quite simply on the males. If wives are unable to attend, then males go on their own, because that is the law.

In Leviticus 23 we will look at some of the orders now from the Wave Sheaf. We are dealing with this count to Pentecost, which is an omer count from nine o’clock in the morning on the Sunday. In the Temple period it was always at nine o’clock and one counted fifty days from nine o’clock to nine o’clock, from Sunday to Sunday. That is the way it was done in the Temple period for 1,500 years. That is the way the Samaritans and the Sadducees did it. It did not stop until the successors of the Pharisees started playing with the calendar in the second century CE (Lev. 23:9-11).

The morrow after the Sabbath was the first day of the week, which we call Sunday (Lev. 23:12-14).

This concept of the parched corn is what is at stake in the Wave Sheaf. We are not allowed to eat the parched corn of the new harvest until that Wave Sheaf. We eat of the old corn of the previous year up until the Wave Sheaf harvest. We see that in the occupation of Israel under Joshua (Lev. 23:15).

So there are fifty days with seven complete Sabbaths or weeks. This period commences from the day after the Sabbath and runs through seven complete Sabbaths. These Sabbaths or Sabbatons are seven days. There are six days of work leading up to the seventh day of the week, which is the Sabbath day of rest. Seven complete Sabbaths take us up to the seventh Sabbath and then the day after that (the morrow after the Sabbath) is the first day of the week, which we call Sunday. Pentecost has always been on a Sunday in the church for 2,000 years, except for a minor error in the twentieth century.

The concept takes us through to the Wave offerings here, being for the Priest, because it is the Priesthood that is called out and selected after the order of Melchisedek, at Pentecost, and through to Tabernacles. So the church in the 2,000 years, as a priesthood, and a kingdom, is taken out and selected and reserved and waved from this 9 a.m. wave offering at Pentecost. So there is the Wave Sheaf offering on the Sunday in the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the other Wave offering which occurs at Pentecost. The Pentecost offering is larger than the Wave Sheaf offering.

So it is obvious that we are dealing with an expansion of the concept of the Wave Sheaf. All of this is significant in understanding the church and our position. We have an obligation to meet together and travel to be with one another to celebrate this offering and this Feast of Pentecost in the proper spirit in which it was celebrated. It is to be at a place where the Lord our God shall choose. It is not to be in our dwelling.

The whole feast of Pentecost was taken as one day, but there is a Sabbath as well. The Sabbath and the day of Pentecost is a two-day feast and we have an obligation to travel to be at the two-day feast. If we don’t keep God’s law and go to the Feast we are cut off from the Kingdom of God. If the Lord is God then worship Him, as He commands.

There is no doubt that these are commandments of God and the whole duty of man to do those commandments (Eccl. 12:12-14). If we decide that the race is too hard and we give it up, that is our decision. We have to run the race as though we will win and we have to run it continually.

God set a calendar and gave us laws so we know what to do. We need to think about what we are doing. The church has an obligation to help us and we have an obligation to meet and we cannot meet empty handed at any one of the three feasts.

If we give our ways to God He will establish our thoughts. It is not the other way around. Keep the feast correctly and He will give us more understanding.