5. The fifth identifying sign of the true church is that the church is careful to offer to the Lord His
offering at His appointed time
Now there is absolutely no ambiguity as to when the
appointed times are, since in conjunction with the command, the Lord gave
specific instructions as to when these appointed times are to be observed in a
chronological order, starting with the regular daily offering on mornings and
evenings as declared by King David who wrote; “it is good to give thanks to the
LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your loving-kindness
in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night” (Numbers 28.3; Psalms 92:1-2).
The next appointed time is on every weekly Sabbath and
this is in addition to the regular daily offering. As a matter of fact, the
main reason for having a holy convocation is to offer the Lord the food for His
offerings: For thus says the Lord; “These
are the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made
by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and
drink offerings, everything on its day.” This offering is, “Besides the
Sabbaths of the Lord, besides our gifts, besides all our vows, and besides all
our freewill offerings which we give to the Lord” (Numbers 28: 9-10; Leviticus 23:37-38).
The next appointed time in chronological order is every
month throughout the months of the year and the rationale is to commemorate the
beginning of a new month which is herald by the New Moon, followed by the other
yearly festivals namely, Passover/Days of Unleavened Bread/First Fruits,
Pentecost, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles/Eighth Day.
These Festivals commemorate what the Lord did for
humanity and according to King David and King Hezekiah, this is a perpetual covenant because King David wrote; “Behold, I am building a temple for the name
of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to Him, to burn before Him sweet incense,
for the continual show bread, for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on
the Sabbaths, on the New Moons, and on the set feasts of the LORD our God. This
is an ordinance forever to Israel” (2 Chronicles 2:4).
And when King Hezekiah reformed and rededicated true worship to
Israel, “the king also appointed a portion of his possessions for the burnt
offerings: for the morning and evening burnt offerings, the burnt offerings for
the Sabbaths and the New Moons and the set feasts, as it is written in the Law
of the LORD” (2 Chronicles
31:3).
Now, to endorse and confirm the perpetuity of the
appointed times for offering the Lord the food for His offerings the prophet Isaiah
wrote; “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain
before Me," says the LORD, " So shall your descendants and your name
remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from
one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me," says
the LORD” (Isaiah
66:22-23).
The question I would like to pose is, if originally these
appointed times to offer the Lord the food for His offerings were ordained as a
perpetual covenant, they will be observed in the Millennium when the kingdom of
God will be established on earth, why are they not being observed today?
To be continued, stay tuned
With brotherly love
Lucius Joseph
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