Christ’s Yoke becomes EASY and His Burden becomes LIGHT for us to carry when we wholeheartedly accept that men AND women are the Lord’s co-laborers in the Kingdom of God, as well as when we volunteer to help fellow workers of both genders minister to others. Our acceptance and assistance not only are reflective of the love we have for one another but also are reflective of the love we have for our Savior and our Father.
The uncomfortable truth is that it was Palm Sunday to First Fruits that created a holy week—holy because of the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread (of which the first and seventh days of this second feast are high-day Sabbaths; the first 2 of 7 annual HIGH HOLY DAYS/annual High Sabbaths), and First Fruits (Resurrection Sunday). Most important is the fact that the Feast of First Fruits came after this true holy week’s regular weekly Sabbath ended! These holidays/feasts and Holy Days are God established, as commanded in Leviticus 23!
The secular world teaches people about why they neither should put their cherished possessions in blackened, greasy, brown paper bags, nor put them in beaten beyond recognition, bloodstained wrappings. For sure, worldly riches’ very “attractive” wrappings are why too many people are deceived about wealth’s value, and why too many people become more covetous (greedy) as they pursue money and possessions, all while believing that anything that is free, shabbily wrapped, and/or badly beaten neither can be profitable nor valuable.
The fact that this idolatrous worship of the moon-god Sin still permeates the Middle East, and the truth that this last fact is verified today by countless Islamic images of the crescent moon and star, undoubtedly point to the future masses of people who will continue to reject Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior all the way up until the second He returns!
Under the Law, the Old Testament’s Sabbath rest was only a shadow of the Original who was to replace it, and this Original is Christ Jesus (cf. Hebrews 10:1). As a shadow of the Sabbath rest that is in Christ Jesus, the Old Testament’s Sabbath rest, which the Mosaic Law established as a weekly mandated Sabbath day, was a Sabbath rest that, no matter how faithfully and religiously it was kept, never could have brought mankind back into right standing with Father God.
Christ Jesus not only is the object of our hope but also He is the Rock upon which we can anchor our hope. In Christ Jesus, we have the assurance that our hope in our High Priest, who has made it possible for us to go beyond the veil and enter into the presence of God, will never fail us. Because of Christ Jesus’ sacrifice and His intercession, God has made it possible for our hope to be fastened solidly, steadfastly, and irrevocably to our Savior and Lord.
