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Leviticus 23:9-17; Leviticus 24:5-7.
Two tenth deals and the feast of weeks
Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals:
they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.
Leviticus 23:17
Two tenth deals and Israel in the world to come
And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof:
two tenth deals shall be in one cake.
Leviticus 24:5
Last month we looked at the two tenth deals in relation to the feast of firstfruits. This month we will consider how the two tenth deals relate to the feast of weeks and as well as Israel in the world to come.
That links on with the next feast, "a new meat offering." We know that the fifty days mentioned here are the "Pentecost" at the beginning of Acts 2. There we have the record of the descent of the Holy Spirit from Christ in glory. What I want you to notice is, the Spirit came down from that Man Who is typified by the meat offering of "two tenth deals," to form a "new meat offering" in this world. Could we ever think that the Spirit would effect anything in the saints which was not already established in that Man at the right hand of God? If then we know this "new meat offering" has in view the formation of the Christian company, it is interesting to note that the loaves were also to be of "two tenth deals," for the Spirit has come down to form a company in this world having the moral features of Christ. I am assured it was there originally on the day of Pentecost, and today, through the ministry of the word, the Spirit is continuing to form Christ in the saints. Our new spiritual history began with this, as Paul intimates in Gal. 4:19, and all the subsequent ministry of the Spirit to our souls is to reproduce the features of the Second Man so that God may now find His pleasure in us, as He ever found it in His well-beloved Son. The marvel is, leaven is found in this "new meat offering," because it speaks of us; yet we can come together and, in spite of the evil within us, be occupied altogether with Christ and His interests. May it not only be teaching to us, but may it transform us so that His features may be seen more and more in each one of us.
Turning now to chapter 24, we have Israel in their ordering under the eye of God for His pleasure, and without doubt the place they will fill in the world to come. So we read of these cakes once again, "two tenth deals shall be in one cake." I believe this looks on to the day when Israel will be gathered and brought into relationship with God on the basis of the new covenant. In some way they too will take on the features of Christ as suggested in this same measure of "two tenth deals." Just how and how much that will be I do not profess to know, but that it will come about in some way I believe from this picture. We have to remember that what we have in Ephesians in relation to the purpose of God goes beyond the assembly and Israel, for it is to "gather together in one ALL THINGS IN CHRIST." We may have fallen short of this in our apprehension and our expressions, as though the assembly were the only vessel of the purpose of God. The greatest vessel, it does appear to be; but let us not forget that Christ is so great that His greatness will be stamped upon all in the world to come. "All things" in chapter 1 and "every family in the heavens and on earth," (Eph. 3:15. N. T.) have a place in that purpose and will be set in relation to Christ in glory. "The fulness of Him that filleth all in all" assures us of this.
We have attempted to show from these typical passages that those blessed features seen in Christ while in this world are being formed in the assembly today and will yet be formed in Israel in the world to come. What a scene it will be when He will be seen characteristically in every company brought into blessing, and God will look down in complacency upon a scene where Christ is manifested as filling all in all. It is our privilege as the answer to the new meat offering to manifest those features today.
G. Davison.