Ritual Offerings: A Picture of the Cross!

Offering is the “Old Testament” (OT) were commanded as a way to seek forgiveness and a way to praise God for the things he had done. Offerings were ceremonial, given in a cleansed body with cleansed utensils, on an acadia or natural stone altar, were given by the priests and were to be with utmost reverence. Any violation or offering made which differed from God's instructions were presumptuous and blasphemous. Some died because they failed to follow directions!
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There are two types of movements in making offerings in the OT, heave offerings and wave offerings:

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Leviticus 7:32 “And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings.”

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Leviticus 8:26 “and from the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord he took one unleavened cake, a cake of bread anointed with oil, and one wafer, and put them on the fat and on the right thigh; 27 and he put all these in Aaron’s hands and in his sons’ hands, and waved them as a wave offering before the Lord. 28 Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar, on the burnt offering. They were consecration offerings for a sweet aroma. That was an offering made by fire to the Lord.”

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Heave offerings were made by the priests in and up/down motion. Heave offerings were a present to the Lord, obviously to please and revere Him. A heave offering is to God, ruler of Heaven. The heave offerings were the first-fruits, the right shoulder, offered in harvest time.

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Wave offerings were made by the priests in a a swinging horizontal direction back and forth. A wave offering was to God, the ruler of the earth. Wave offerings were peace offerings and consisted of the grain first-fruits Wave offerings became the property of the priest and could be eaten by them.

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If one examines the offerings taken together there is much to learn! The up/down motion (heave offering) paired with the horizontal motion (wave offering) together provide a picture of the cross of Jesus crucifixion with its vertical member crossed by the horizontal. God knew what he was doing when he delegated early man in the worship of the Savior to come! But there's more!

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The right shoulder of the animal was heaved in praise of the Lord. It was of the first-fruits (first born) and was without blemish! Jesus was the first-born of God and was without blemish. He was sin free and made the sacrifice in our place! Jesus was the present (grace) provided by God that offered the ultimate sacrifice for us. Whereas the priests made the sacrifice at harvest time, God made His sacrifice once and for all! We aren't expected to continually ask for His sacrifice over and over. Today Jesus rules in Heaven at the right hand of His Father. The heave offering celebrates his majestic position reflected by the right shoulder of the firstborn form the flock!

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Grain made into bread with pure ingredients was the wave offering. The bread represents the body of Christ and we do that in remembrance of Him even before the cross and forever thereafter! Like us, the priest was allowed to partake of the bread. Wave offerings, celebrating the ruler of the earth, was a picture of Christ incarnate! Wave offerings represented the “Son of man” nature of Christ and the heave offering the “Son of God” nature of Christ. Wave offerings were a peace offering. All mankind has sinned against God and the wave offering was to make peace with a gracious God, not unlike the death of Christ on the cross which made peace between man and God to get for us a place in Heaven. It's a thank you for His grace!

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Isn't God wise? Wasn't His plan merciful? Our forebears had a gracious God who promised them a Messiah through their ritual sacrifices by the priests in a rudimentary tabernacle. Modern man was a recipient of that promise through the dispensation of grace: Christ's death on the rudimentary cross! We no longer need the priests to make our repeated sacrifices for us. We offer our self one time and are rewarded by becoming of the royal priesthood ourselves, and Jesus mediates our thanks and requests to God. Aint God great?

Unintentional Sin

What have we always been taught? Sin is a willful transgression of God's law! The definition we use is accountable for only one of the three types of sin. The three are 1) Pesha (deliberate) – when we intentionally violate the will of God in rebellion to his authority, 2) Avon – (iniquity) – when we sin because of our emotions: lust, anger, jealousy, etc, done willfully, but not out of rebellion to God, and 4) Cheit – (unintentional) sin. When we simply miss the mark... the standard set by God. Today we'll discuss how we sin unintentionally.
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Leviticus (NKJV) 4:1 “Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them, 3 if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer to the Lord for his sin which he has sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin offering.”

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Modern man can't even quit deliberate sinning! How can we expect to even contemplate restitution for sins we do unintentionally? Unintentional is without deliberation... without aforethought. We know from our legal system, which is based on “natural law”, that there are less severe penalties for crimes “without malice aforethought”. “Involuntary Manslaughter” comes to our minds first when we think of unintentional crimes. “Settled Insanity” is state where we're no longer responsible for our actions. Whereas drunkenness is not valid for an insanity defense, long-term substance abuse is. To make that more clear, we can't intentionally  get high, then murder and be found innocent; but a state of perpetual addictive use of a drug may get one off in some states!

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Deliberate sin is the willful violation of God's laws summarized in the ten commandments. If we look carefully at Leviticus 4:1 we see that “unintentional” sin is a violation of any of the same commandments. Consequently, the difference between intentional and unintentional sins are not one of magnitude, but are based solely on our own state of mind... whether we are sinning in rebellion or because we are human.

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Why do humans sin? We sin as a result of man's collective guilt because of Adam's disobedience. It is our nature to do evil, to do what God opposes. Did Adam (and Eve) sin because they were deliberately in rebellion to God? Eve ate because fruit of the tree looked good, she thought it would be good for food and that it might make her wise (Genesis 3:6). Her purpose in sinning was for pleasure! Her primary goal wasn't to rebel against God. She was tricked by Satan (Genesis 6:4). “Original Sin” seems to fall more along the lines of the definition of “iniquity”. Therefore, we are held accountable by God for all sins, not just ones we do out of rebellion. If Eve had meely eaten of the fruit to satisfy the hunger need, she would still be sinning, but without aforethought.

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Since there is no delinealization between sins done deliberately and sins as a result of our heritage, we must make it a difference in our attitudes. The “First Commandment” introduces the term “in vain”, meaning without reverence to God. Unintentional sin is certainly because of lack of reverence for God's authority. We may not want to disobey him... he's just not part of the equation: (temptation + action) = sin. If we listen to God we have (temptation + reverence) = inaction = no sin! We can now see that “reverence” for God is the key whether we sin or not. Consequently, we must be keen to what it means to be reverent.

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Revering God is to know His precepts, His love and wanting to please (obey) Him. When we blatantly (consciously) sin we are in effect saying “I love this pleasure more than I respect God, hence I'll just put God's will aside while I self-indulge”. This is self-worship and in violation of the “First Commandment”. Unintentional sin is when I am tempted and react to temptation without weighing in on God's will for us. We need an example of each of these to clarify.

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Let's use anger in both examples forthcoming. Anger is an emotion. It's cause by an action//reaction pairing. Someone or something violates us or our space. As a result of the stress created by the action, we may become angry. There are three ways to respond to the anger created by stress: 1) We can consider God's will and control our anger, 2) We can consider God's will, ignore Him and seek revenge, or 3) We can react to the stress without thought of God and respond as a reaction. Anger is a human emotion and we all get angry, sometimes rightfully so (Jesus had righteous anger when he threw the merchants out of the temple. However, we must remember, that we're to let God heap the coals, not us).

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In the first instance, we are tempted, we consider the authority and will of God, then practice self-control. We've been tempted, felt anger and unintionally sinned because we still had some anger although it was controlled as far as our human nature will allow Cheit). In the second instance, we're tempted, consider God's Word and rebel against God's will for us. The satisfaction of revenge has outweighed reverence for God. We haven't exercised self-control and, hence, have sinned intentionally (Pesha). In the third case we just failed to consider God's law, or anything for that matter, when we reacted vengefully to the stress we felt. We didn't rebel against God... we just didn't have enough reverence for Him to establish a pattern of Christlike behavior. We sinned, but not out of rebellion (Avon).

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Only God is without sin in with anger because His is righteous anger. If we have anger it is with some degree of self-interest. If we work on our love and respect of God, we will certainly have fewer unintentional sins and as a consequence, even fewer intentional ones! We become more Christlike because we've made Christ ruler of our lives.

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Many theologians believe that “unintentional sins” are those such as uncleanness due to touching the dead, nocturnal eruptions, a woman's unclean period, and such. This idea delineates and sets degrees of sins and I take issue with that approach. I base that on the the phrase “sins unintentionally against any of the commandments”. How in the world would we control our uncleanness? We are unclean because we have systems conducive to defilement. We can't quit being unclean. We can only cleanse ourselves. Conversely, we do have an obligation to know and discern God's Word so we control sins which we commit without consideration. We can place God in a position of importance in our lives and his Spirit guides us! God's grace is sufficient for all sins and His Spirit will aid us if we seek Him!

With Christian perfection the human reaction of anger ceases operation.  We'll never get there, but with patience and love we can do better!

What's Wrong with America?

Look to the Bible for an answer!
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Exodus 23:27 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. 28And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. 29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. 30By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. 31And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. 32Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”

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God was surely with the Israelites as he gave them all the land from Egypt to all the way up the Mediterranean Sea over to the desert of Saudi Arabia to the Euphrates River; much more than they have yet to occupy! The land was taken from the Hivites (son of Canaan son of Ham), Canaanites, Hittites (Heth, son of Canaan). Here you see that the land was taken from the descendents of Canaan (Canaanites). The land never ever belonged to the Palestinians since that group of people only became a separate identity in the Levant (Lebanon) in the 18^th Century and became a political peoples with the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Palestinians are an amorphous people (without form). They are mixed race of people formed from Christians, Jews and indigenous peoples who became Arab-speaking with the spread of Mohammedism.
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The word “Palestine” comes from the Arab word “Filistine” (Philistine) who were a sea people possibly from Crete. The Philistines defeated by David were not Palestinian (Filistines), but members of the Philistines may have resided in Canaan and are a portion of the mixed race of people called Palestinians. The Palestinians have no claim to Israel, but Israel has a divine right to even more territory than they now have.

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Should the Israelites negotiate with the Palestinians? Emphatically no! God told the Israelites not to make a treaty (covenant/agreement) with the inhabitants of the land, nor accept their gods. Palestinians are Islamic. Islam traces their Allah to the God of the Old Testament, but their Allah is a heretical god. Palestinians worship that god. The gods of the Canaanites were a disease in the land of milk and honey and their cancer has spread over the entire Mideast. The religion of Mohammed is a violent religion whose goal is to establish a world-wide caliphate using socialism as a means to an end. Sharia Law is to be be the world-wide government.

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Today, as always, Israel accepts God's warning about the inhabitants of Canaan land. Israel knows that they must not sign peace agreements with Hamas, but do so against God's will to appease the world. What's wrong with America? We've lost our way. We've abandoned our belief in God's Word. We not only make covenants with ungodly people, but we welcome those foul religions to our shores, thus corrupting our land whose soil is sanctified by our immigrant father's belief in Christ. We are getting more diseased with each day. Cancer is spreading fast. Unless we turn off the immigration of Ungodly peoples to our nation there will cease to be enough bonifide Christians to convert the immigrants.

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What can we do now? We can work hard to tell the people about Jesus. Only through the propagation of the Word can America stop the spread of cancer. Politicians will try to stop the proslytization as “politically incorrect” and intolerant. God cares little for “tolerance”. He loves truth because He is Truth! Tell a pagan about Jesus and what he's done for you! That's what Jesus commissioned you to do.

Natural Law

As human beings there exists “natural laws” from time immemorial credited to man as God-given laws. Later philosophers applied natural laws independent of God and even later natural law was distorted to merely include the need for self-preservation. The concept of God-given “natural law” is affirmed in our “Declaration of Independence” and our “U.S. Constitution”. The most famous example is from our “Declaration” is "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,-That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
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Natural Law gives us unalienable (not to be taken away) Rights (capitalized as is the Creator meaning that those rights are from the Creator). Some, but not all of those rights are the right to life, the right to freedom and the right to create our own life independent of the government. Although the “Declaration” as law is ambiguous, the Supreme Court has most often ruled that it is an “organic document” and used it to uphold rulings. Without the “Declaration” our “Constitution” would be non-existent. Therefore, all rational people understand that the rights proposed in the “Declaration” are legal and natural rights! Reasonable people understand that our Rights (Natural Law) were founded upon the precept that there is One True GOD, that of the Judeo-Christian religions. From whom is that law derived? GOD! The first five books of the Bible is called “The Law”. Exodus gives us many examples of natural law.

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God's Natural Law can be found mostly in Exodus 20-25. (Look for these rights as you read):

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• Recognize the GOD of the Jews as the basis for all law.
• Set aside a plan for work and rest so the people are not abused (fair work standards).
• Established the family as the ruling authority of individuals within it.
• Prohibits the confiscation of another's property.
• Protects the marriage institution.
• Prohibits false testimony.
• Commanded community and individual respect for each other.
• Sets up fair practices for service (work standards).
• Institutionalizes the marriage between a man and a woman.
• Sets up judgment standards between premeditated and emotional crimes.
• Standardizes fair punishments (no unusual punishments).
• Sets up responsibility for property owners liability for damages.
• Sets up standards for the treatment of animals.
• Sets up fair penalties for theft.
• Establish judgments for trespassing.
• Establishes programs of restitution.
• Prohibits infidelity and sets up obligations to meet the circumstances. (It would nice if modern man was held accountable for sexual transgressions such as marrying the woman and child support).
• Prohibits the introduction of foreign gods (Islam wasn't even considered as a rational belief in the west).
• Establishes fair treatment for strangers and aliens (first immigration policy).
• Prohibits the infliction of harm to the innocent and sets standards of punishment.
• Creates binding contracts.
• Establishes standards of morality in apparel (a dress code for civility).
• Punishes those who abuse woman.
• Dictates the punishment for abortion. (This supports the “Constitutional” inalienable Right to Life!)
• Establishes laws of inheritance.
• Establishes truthful testimony (“So help me God”).
• Prevents mob rule.
• Protects the rights of the poor.
• Provides a means of support for the poor.
• Allows freedom to celebrate hard work (freedom).
• Provides for military protection.
• Prohibits treaties with pagan nations.
• Sets boundaries for countries.
• Allows (dictates) worship.
• Sets up a method for taxation.
• Commands respect of authority and leaders. Prohibits the cursing of God.
• Establishes impartiality in judgments.
• Established a binding document for keeping the law.

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Yes, “Natural Law” supersedes “Constitutional Law” because our “Declaration” places it at a higher level. Just as slavery was wrong in Natural Law, it was legal in Constitutional Law. The “Declaration” establishes the right to abolish such governments which abuse Natural Law. With the advent of legalized abortion, euthanasia, cloning, same-sex marriage, loss of freedom and the like we are legally responsible to check our government. I would not call for revolution (although it's justified), but encourage true Christians to band together to support candidates who hold Natural Law in eminence. An immoral government will fall under it's own abuse. History shows that time and again! What caused the fall of great civilizations? Prostitution of Natural Law!

Manna: The Bread of Life

The “Old Testament” (OT) is just a book of history and fables of how the earth was created. The God of the OT is an unfair vengeful God. Jesus could not be the same as the Father because they have a different nature. “Au contrare!” I say because the God of the OT IS Jesus of the “New Testament” (NT). They are one and the same! When JHQH (GOD) was graceful in the OT it was of the same righteousness of Jesus of the NT. In fact, God was showing His people the Way.
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Looking at the Exodus (flight from Egypt) we can see that by God's grace he delivered the Israelites out of the hands of the Egyptians (sin). Not because they were “good” enough, but because their leaders were righteous, albeit imperfect. By grace God cares for those who call on Him. Here we find that the Israelites, even after seeing miracle after miracle, still didn't have faith in God enough to depend on Him for their continued existence. (We are to remember that God made a covenant with Abraham and passed it on to Isaac and Israel).

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Exodus 16:8 “And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him:” … 13 And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host... 15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. “

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God feeding his children is a picture of Jesus! What's quail and manna got to do with Jesus?

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Luke 9:16 “Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets. 18And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am? … 29And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering... 35And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. “

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Quail is meat. Fish was also called meat in Scripture. Just as God provided quail to the hungry in the desert of the Wilderness of Sin, Jesus provided fish to feed the 5000 in the desert of the city of Bethsaida. God provided “Manna” (bread from heaven) for the sustenance of the Israelites on Egypt and he provided bread to the 5000 at Bethsaida. God revealed Himself to the OT fathers that He is the salvation of the people, and Jesus revealed Himself at Bethsaida that he is the Messiah, the son of God! It goes even further:

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John 6:57 “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.”

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Jesus is the “Bread of Life”! He that eateth (believes) in Him and lives by Him has eaten of the Bread of Life! Unlike the Israelites who were saved for a time and then died, those who eat the Manna (Jesus) shall live forever! Didn't God have a great plan? All (not just the Israelites) can eat the Manna announced at Bethsaida and glorified on Calvary. You don't have to be good first. Just as the Israelites were murmuring (doubtful) against Moses and Aaron, people today still murmur about Jesus. They don't trust Jesus, but he IS trustworthy! He'll do what he said he'll do. He'll save you in your sins. That's grace! God's grace. (The same yesterday today and forever)!

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Regulations: Passover vs. Communion

We have seen that the Passover is a picture of the salvation by the blood of Christ. Just as the firstborn of each home was saved by the blood sprinkled on the doorposts of wood, we are saved by God's firstborn's blood sprinkled on the cross of wood. The Passover Feast was done in remembrance of the saving grace of God by the shedding of sacrificial blood. Just as the Jews kept the Passover feast in remembrance we are old to take “Communion” in the same manner: 1 Corinthians 11:25”After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.” This applies for the bread as well.

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Just as we have regulations for the “Passover Meal” we have regulations for the “Last Supper” (Communion). Exodus spells out the regulations for the passover:

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Exodus 12:43And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: 44But every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. 45A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. 46In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. 47All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. 49One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.”

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1. Passover Feast to be done as a reminder.
2. No stranger to partake of the feast.
3. A man's household may eat at the feast.
4. A foreigner shall not eat of the feast.
5. The feast shall be eaten in one house (together).
6. The meat of the passover shall have no bone broken.
7. All Israelites shall keep the passover.
8. The feast is for the circumsized. The uncircumcised shall not take of it. The stranger in the hose must become circumcised.
9. There is one law for all.

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Now for commemoration of the last supper (numbered according to the Passover Regulations):

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1. 1 Cor 11:25 “After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. “ (To be done to remember Christ and his sacrifice).
2. 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” (Must not be a stranger to Christ).
3. Ephesians 2:19 “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God...” (A man and his household can be saved and become part of the household of God with salvation. Those who are of the household of God can take Communion).
4. (Same reasoning as 3).
5. 1 Corinthians 11:20 “ “When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. 21For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. 22What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God“ “ (Christians are to gather in one place to eat in remembrance and rightly so, but the caution here is to not come to fill oneself, but to honor God. Instead of being a feast where one eats until full, this was to be parteken as a memorial).
6. 1 Corinthians 11:24 “And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.” (Unlike the meat which could not be broken because Jesus had not yet died, the bread is to be broken signifying Christ's death).
7. 1 Corinthians 1:1 “(All men) Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 2Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.” (Communion is for ALL believer's, unlike the Passover which was specifically for the Israelites).
8. 1 Cor 11:27 “Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” (Unworthily are those with an uncircumcised heart; those who are not saved. Before a stranger [unsaved] takes communion he must become a friend [saved] and is no longer a stranger).
9. Romans 3:27 “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.” Ephesians 4:4 “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5One Lord, one faith, one baptism...” (There is a law, that law is faith and there is one faith. Communion is for all who have the faith and one must be faithful to observe Communion).

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So I repeat... “Look for Christ in the “Old Testament”. He's there. You just have to think a little! When God ordained the Passover Feast he was drawing a picture of Communion, the celebration of “The Last Supper”. Why do we have to be hit on the head by a rock to understand this after the fact when by faith our church father's understood before the fact? Isn't God all knowing!

Just What Is Sin?

Sin was with us (mankind) since Adam made the wrong choice. It wasn't called sin, but was disobedience to God. We see time after time that he despised murder, homosexuality, lies and idol worship as well as other transgressions of His will. However, there was no standard for man to follow. Man's heart was evil and he just followed the desires of his heart. Those desires, thanks to Adam, were not God's will for man.
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What is sin? Sin is man's defiance of God's commandments (“Britannica Concise Encyclopedia”). Before Moses there were no written commandments. Was there sin? Yes! Man was punished for disobedience to God's will. Hence, I will redefine “sin” as “man's defiance of God's will”. In Exodus Chapter 20 God sets forth the “Ten Commandments”. Hence, the commandments are written standards of God's will for mankind. (Sin was already with us, but God wrote them down so we will be without excuse). If we examine those commandments we see that they break down into two categories: Honoring God an no other and 2) dishonoring God by doing what the pagans do. Honoring God is righteous. Doing what the pagan do is “sin”.

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Sin is exponential! One sin compounds and becomes many. We all know that a “little white lie” can become “a big black lie” as we attempt to cover ourselves from discovery. Likewise, sexual experimentation becomes fornication and adultery when we dwell in it. This works the same way in all aspects of disobedience! In short, we become slaves to our self-interests; slaves to sin. We are in servitude to the pagan God! We can see in the next verses that Pharaoh (symbolically Satan) burdened (enslaved) the Israelites with worldly tasks. This servitude is symbolic of “sin”:

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Exodus 1:8 “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. 9And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: 10Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. 11Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.”

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As Pharaoh is a picture of Satan, Egypt is a picture of sin. Whenever God or others refer to “deliverance from Egypt” the picture is “deliverance from sin”. Ezekiel shows us that Egypt is sin:

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Ezekiel 30:15”And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.” (“No” is “No-A'mon” – Southern Egypt).

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The god of “No” was “Amon”. He was the sun god “Ra”. Likewise “Sin” (meaning muddy) was a city in Egypt (sin certainly muddies the cleansing water). “Sin” likely came from Ur with Abraham's line. Sin was the name of the moon god of the people. As you can see “sin” came from the worship of other gods and is in violation of God's will. The land of Sin was in Egypt and Egypt, thus, represents “sin”. We can look further in the “New Testament”:

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1 Corinthians 10:1 “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”

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The Israelites were in sin (Egypt) and by the grace of God they safely crossed the Red Sea. They were all “baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea”. "Baptized" is defined as submerged in water and is the sealing of our salvation. God is a represented as a “cloud” in “Old Testament” Scripture. Above we see that the Israelites were cleansed from their sin by water as God saved them from Satan (Pharaoh). Moses is a picture of Jesus (John 5:46 “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me”.) since the baptism of water was of Moses whose name means “drawn from (water)” in Hebrew or “Royal Son” in Egyptian. Both names certainly describe not only Moses, but Jesus since water represents the blood of Jesus!

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1 Corinthians went on with the significance of the Red Sea crossing! The Word was with Moses and the Israelites. The spiritual meat (rock/land) and drink (water/sea) represented the body and blood of Jesus. In being saved from sin (Egypt) they were getting a foretaste of communion with Jesus. They drank of the ”spiritual Rock” who Paul identified as Christ. The salvation experienced in the flight from Egypt is the same deliverance from sin which was provided by Christ's blood! Somehow, the prophet Moses by divine grace by faith recognized the salvation of God from Egypt as a picture of mankind's salvation centuries later.