Before
answering this, let us add here another one of the critical elements set forth
that has to exist in order to come to the truth regarding Yahshua’s death
and resurrection:
First, we
know that this “chief sabbath” referred to in Mark 16:9 was one of
the regular seventh-day sabbaths.
So is this term used anywhere else in the Scriptures? Yes indeed. In order to gain further much needed insight and very
revealing and confirming revelation, let us read Luke 6:1-2. We will be translating here from the
original Greek text in the King James Version.
Now it happened on the second chief Sabbath that He went through the grain fields. And His disciples plucked the heads of
grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands. And some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why are you
doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
First, the
word “sabbath” is once again singular –
“sabbatw.” The Greek
word used here for “second chief” is the word
“deuteroprotos.” Do
you recognize the same word that is used in Mark 16:9? As we have noted, the word for
“chief” is “protos.” This is the identical word used in Luke 6:1 in
“deuteroprotos,” or
“deutero” – second, “protos” – chief.
This word is
not in the Greek text used in the NAS, but its message here is nonetheless very
revealing, affording us insight into what is meant in Mark 16:9.
You will
notice in this account that Yahshua’s disciples were plucking the heads
of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating the grain. Obviously, the grain being eaten was
barley. Have you ever tried to eat
grains of wheat? Wheat is very
hard and takes forever to grind in your teeth so as to be able to swallow
it. On the other hand, barley is
softer and can be eaten much more readily. Therefore, the grain they were eating was undoubtedly
barley. What does this tell
us? It tells us that this was the
period of Unleavened Bread, which was the barley harvest, the seven days which
would follow Yahshua’s crucifixion on Passover. But there is more evidence to this as well.
Considering
that this is during Unleavened Bread, what then was meant by “the second
chief sabbath” within that feast?
There were three potential sabbaths during Unleavened Bread. In Leviticus 23:6-8 we read:
“Then
on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread
to Yahweh; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy
convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to
Yahweh. On the seventh day is a
holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.”
Therefore,
their first sabbath in this period would have been the first day of Unleavened
Bread. The last sabbath would have
been the seventh day. But,
generally falling within this in-between period would have been a seventh-day
sabbath as well. Also, as we saw
in Mark 16:9, this seventh-day sabbath during this feast is called a chief
sabbath. In Luke 6:1, we find that
Yahshua’s disciples were eating barley on the second chief sabbath, which
in the order of these Unleavened Bread sabbaths would have been the very
sabbath upon which Yahshua would later resurrect! The second chief sabbath was thus the second of these three
sabbaths at Unleavened Bread.
So we see
that the day of Yahshua’s resurrection, and the day they were eating the
barley, were both on second chief sabbaths! This fact is very confirming as to what was meant by the
chief sabbath in Mark 16:9. But
even moreso, we have to now ask the question: What does this mean
prophetically?
There is no
doubt that what is recorded in second Remnant Luke 6:1-16 is regarding Passover
and the unleavened Remnant barley work.
Furthermore, it is clearly prophetic of what will take place in the
seventh-day Millennial sabbath when Yahshua returns and labors on the
sabbath. While we are here
examining Luke 6, let us consider this prophetic testimony. We will seek to be brief.
In verses
1-5, we read that when the Pharisees questioned Yahshua as to the lawfulness of
what they were doing, He replied:
“Have
you not even read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with
him, how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread
which is not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his
companions?” And He was
saying to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
What does
this speak of? Today, when we have
indeed now entered into the seventh-day Millennial sabbath, we have left Saul
Christianity and are obtaining and feeding on the consecrated bread of truth
that, up to now, has been unlawful to eat. This is the same thing Paul spoke of when he was taken up to
the third heaven, the third part of the church, which is the kingdom of heaven,
the Millennial reign, and stated concerning what he heard – they were
“inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to speak” (2
Corinthians 12:4). (Read The Third
Heaven.) The things Paul saw there were unlawful
to speak in the 2,000 years of Christianity; and only now, in the Millennial
reign, is it lawful to speak these words.
In like
testimony, after the sons of Israel were led through “the great and
terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground
where there was no water” (Deuteronomy 8:15), the wilderness of the forty
Jubilee waiting periods of Christianity, they then entered into the promised
land and ate the produce of the land.
On the day after the Passover, on that very day,
they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The
manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land,
so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield
of the land of Canaan during that year [Joshua 5:11-12].
The day after
Passover was their First Fruits (more on this later), and the promised land
speaks of leaving the 2,000 year wilderness period of Christianity and entering
into the Millennial reign and eating Yahweh’s truth. “Manna” means “what
is it?,” and Christians have not known the truth of the kingdom. Only now, having entered into the
promised Millennial rest, are we able to eat the truth that had only been
briefly tasted by the first Remnant when they failed to enter into the promised
land at their Tabernacles. Having
entered in, we are now eating His otherwise unavailable truth –
“the produce of the land.”
Only now are we experiencing the promise of First Fruits.
And briefly,
but very importantly, this is the Millennial truth spoken of by Yahshua in John
14:16-17, when He stated (in a more literal translation):
I will ask the Father, and He will give you
another helper that will be with you in the [Millennial] age – the spirit of truth, which the world
cannot receive because it does not see it or know it [being unlawful]; but you
know it because he abides with you and will be among you.
Unlawful
words that are a part of the third heaven, the Millennial reign; unlawful
consecrated bread eaten after departing from the house of Saul; the unlawful
eating of barley on the second chief sabbath; and the unavailable
“produce of the land” eaten as first fruits in the promised land;
all speak of the same thing – the word of truth that is given by the
spirit of truth in the Millennial reign! This
is the Millennium where the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath, the Millennial
sabbath rest.
In Luke
6:6-11, yet another like testimony was given regarding the Millennial
sabbath. This time the issue was
whether it was lawful to do good on the sabbath. A man had a withered right hand, and when Yahshua asked him
to stretch it out, it was healed.
Here again we see a testimony of the Millennium, whereby the works of
our hand, even our right hand, will be made possible. Those works have not been possible for 2,000 years. But in the Millennium, the works of man
will be restored.
Then in
verses 12-16 we next find Yahshua going up on a mountain and praying all
night. When day came, He called
His disciples to Him and chose the twelve. In like manner, the church has been in darkness for 2,000
years, and Yahshua has prayed for the entire period while upon the mountain, in
heaven. At Passover, 2004, we
entered into the Millennial reign.
Then a year-and-a-half later, on the first-ever feast held on the
newly-revealed Millennial Calendar, Trumpets, on October 16, 2005, the latter
twelve apostles were called together and chosen for His purposes.
Thus we see
not only the meaning of the second chief sabbath, but associated with it by
virtue of it being the day of Yahshua’s resurrection, also the prophetic
testimony of that which takes place in the Millennial reign.
Continue to
page 7 of The New Millennial Calendar for DAVID AND JONATHAN