Sabbath 23/12/43/120
Dear Friends,
On the New Moon of the Third Month after the Exodus in Egypt where Israel kept the Passover indoors in Egypt and then left Egypt after the Passover, they arrived at Sinai (Ex. 19:1). At Sinai, Moses was on the Mount Six times to receive instruction from the Lord. The sequence is detailed in the text Ascents of Moses (No. 070).
Ex.24: 18, And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. The sequence on the mount was contemporaneous with preparation for the Tabernacle. The relevant chapters are:
| Ex. 25- 27 | Instructions on the Mount |
| Ex. 28 | Clothing, |
| Ex. 29 | Consecration of priests and relevant sacrifices |
| Ex. 30-31 | Further instructions |
| Ex. 32 | Down from Mount |
| Ex. 34 | Up Mount again, further instructions given |
| Ex. 35-39 | Preparations for the Tabernacle |
| Ex. 40 | 1. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2. On the first day of the first month shalt thou rear up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. |
From the time that Israel kept the Passover in its lands Israel was then commanded to keep the Passover out of its gates (Deut. 16:5-8). This we have done from year to year. In 2020 the Church of God was faced with the prohibition of moving outside of its gates, and, for the first time since Egypt, we kept the Passover in our gates. This year then was effectively a revisiting of the First Passover for us all and we were faced with the situation in the Exodus and at Sinai. As Moses had finished the Law with Christ at end Elul, so also we began the explanation of the Bible texts from Tabernacles. We began the reduction of the Bible text to Commentary and we were then also faced with reaching many more people that we have been used to doing. As we had laid out the Tabernacle at Sinai from the New Year of the Second Year of the Exodus, we began to grow the Spiritual edifice of the Church of God from November to Adar. The growth of the access to the publications has proven to be quite dramatic and exceeded previous statistics by many millions.
On the New Moon we commence the Sanctification of the Temple of God (No. 241) sequence and on 7 Abib we also conduct the fast for the Sanctification of the Simple and Erroneous (No. 291) as we see (291 appendix) Christ and the Apostles did also. This process also accompanies the Sanctification of the Nations (No. 077) which is also our responsibility.
In preparing the Spiritual Temple of God, which Temple we are, we will go from the New Year to the Feast of Pentecost when we would expect to see the Church of God experience new growth. Let us pray for that experience.
We also hope to have the Commentary on Romans (F045) issued for the Passover and also the Commentary on Revelation (F066).
Look forward to the New Year and prepare for the Passover ahead of us.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General.