For the purposes of continuity, we had left off in part 2 by describing those Christian believers who will be in the first resurrection.
As the prototypical individual Barley, Christ Jesus was the first to mature. Likewise, the Christians in the Barley Company will come to maturity first. They will be harvested (i.e., resurrected or translated) before the Wheat Christians. The Barley Company are the Overcomers of all ages who will be raised in the first resurrection.
The Wheat Christians will be resurrected later, at the end of the millennium, and the olives and grapes companies even later. Desiring to grow rapidly, the Barley Company Christians leave (or get “disfellowshipped” from) churches that only preach the milk of the word, churches where virtually every sermon ends in an altar call to “get saved.” The Barley Christians strive to “go on to perfection; not laying again” the foundational doctrines of repentance, getting saved, baptisms, etc. (Hebrews 6: 1).
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
They cannot find sufficient “meat” in those types of churches and so they move on. As Barley, they do not stick around to get contaminated with the molds, fungi and mildew which attacks Wheat Christianity.
As a result of their desire to grow rapidly and move out of denominational doctrinal strictures and structures, the Barley Christians are often “not highly esteemed” (just as we learned earlier in discussing the physical qualities of barley). They are deemed by the Wheat Christians as “troublemakers” at the least or as “wolves” or “heretics” at the worst.
Space prohibits us from delving into this historically at this time, but the reader is reminded of the various groups of Christians throughout the ages (e.g., the Waldensians, the Hussites, and the Huguenots among others) who fell under the condemnation of the Roman Catholic church system for daring to follow the Bible on their own to the best of their ability.
Like barley in the natural, these Barley Christians demonstrated that they could grow successfully in “the heat and drought” of the persecutions of the Dark Ages.
Just as the natural barley does not need as much moisture to grow, so the Barley Christians do not require as much moisture as the Wheat. Water (moisture) represents the Word of God. In the Dark Ages, there was a terrible drought of the Word as the Romish church chained the Bible to the pulpit and forbade any non-clergyman from reading it under pain of death.
Additionally, the Bible was in the Latin language, which further prevented the common people from imbibing of its precious Waters. Yet, the Barley Christians of those centuries—though small in numbers—not only survived, but grew strong on the meager drops of Water they received. They were able to come to maturity thereby.
Today in America, although Christianity is apparently on the wane and if the Lord tarries, or unless the Christian body politic retakes dominion, then widespread physical persecution seems possible in the decades to come. Presently then, today’s Barley Christians in America, while not facing the exact circumstances as their predecessors did in the Dark Ages of Romanism, nonetheless still fulfill the characteristics of barley.
Today’s Barley group does not need to be watered with the “get saved” message week after week. In fact, they would drown in it. They got enough the first time, because they applied it in their lives quickly.
Likewise with other spiritual truths, they are “quick to be quickened” by new spiritual truth. Thus, Barley Christians don’t need multiple doses of new spiritual truths. So they move on to other fountains to get greater truths.
Please note that a Barley Christian’s rapid spiritual growth has nothing to do with a person’s mental ability, aptitude, or higher education. Head knowledge profiteth little, unless it is applied. Those in the Barley Company are part of it only because of God’s sovereignty and predestination. He chooses whom He will to mature earlier.
As we learned under the nutritional profile of natural barley, the Barley Christians may not have megadoses of particular vitamins and minerals, but they do have a balance of nutrients.
Many Wheat churches today are excellent examples of megadose vitamins or minerals without a proper balance and ratio. Witness any denomination or quasi-denomination or movement. One specializes in spiritual “vitamin C:” If you attend their church, all you hear week after week is the altar call to “get saved.”
Another specializes in vitamin B. Practically, all you hear from them is “missions, missions, missions.” Another specializes in vitamin D. They teach the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues to the exclusion of most other milk, let alone meat.
Then there are those who specialize in trace minerals. Their main hobby horse is women’s hair length and skirt length. Or another “trace mineral church” is great at teaching on the evils of gambling and drinking, but doesn’t have the foggiest idea what vitamin D is about. The reader can easily see that we could pursue this analogy for many paragraphs, the situation is so common and so fitting.
The Progression of the Harvests
1 Corinthians 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
We have seen from the above that Christ is identified as the first fruits, but he is not the only “firstfruits.” For we also see that Christ is the first among many brothers of firstfruits. There is a singular “firstfruits,” followed by a company of “firstfruits.” The apostle James makes this clear.
James 1:16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures [lit., creation].
Thus the Barley Company becomes the firstfruits of the entire Creation Harvest. The progression occurs as the Father takes a look at the Son at the wave sheaf offering and accepts him as a Firstfruit—an accomplished historical fact. By the acceptance of the Son, the entire Barley Company is sanctified
Romans 11:16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
They are later inspected by the Father and accepted as the firstfruits company of creation, which acceptance in turn sanctifies the Wheat Company. Later, the Wheat Company is found acceptable and that in turn sanctifies the rest of Creation. All this will probably take millennia to occur, perhaps 49 millennia, as in a “Creation Jubilee,” a jubilee for all mankind.
[Note: see our four lectures on CD which expound the Laws of Jubilee, part of a 6-CD album, #A-101. The other two lectures are The Doctrine of the Ages/Eons: How Long is “Forever?”. $26 + $7 s & h.]
Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature [or, creation] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20 For the creature [or, creation] was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21 Because the creature [or, creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Therefore, those who are of the firstfruits company after Christ, i.e., the Barley Company, can be likened to a sample of what God created to be approved and consecrated to Himself.
In the sales world, when a salesman comes in and he wants to show you a sample of his product, doesn’t he bring you the very best one that his company can produce in order to get you interested in his product? Who is that Sample? The pattern Son, of course. The firstfruits.
Christ was the perfect, unblemished sacrifice and if we as his brothers are to be part of the firstfruits company, then we strive to fulfill what we are taught in…
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
None of us is perfect yet, as the Redeemer was perfect. None of us have that ability while yet in these bodies of flesh. The admonition here is to purify our lives both physically and spiritually to the best of our ability.
Simultaneously, we recognize, of course, that whatever we do, it is but God working in us to will and to do.
Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Physically, we try to get ourselves into good shape and maintain health the best we are able with the knowledge that we have. Spiritually, there is only one way. We have Christ’s purity, His unblemished perfection imputed to us by faith in Him. So His righteousness and His perfection…if you will, His “barleyness” is imputed to us.
What did the Feast of Pentecost commemorate? Fifty days after the Israelites left Egypt, they were at Mt Sinai. There, God came down on the mount and He gave His laws, statutes and judgments to them with Moses serving as intermediary. So God ordained that feast of Pentecost at that time.
It was God coming down from heaven externally upon Israel. But they refused to hear his word.
Exodus 20:19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
Then, Israel utterly failed to keep the law. In the New Testament what do we find as the fulfillment of that Old Testament Pentecost type? What happened fifty days after the sacrifice of Jesus?
The disciples were gathered in the upper room and the Holy Spirit came upon them and in them. It was internal now, not just an external manifestation of God’s presence, but God dwelling within an individual (in down payment form).
It was the promised Comforter whom Jesus said would come and lead the disciples into the truth. And so the function of the Holy Spirit is not to glorify the Holy Spirit, but to glorify the truth. Christ Jesus had said, “I am the truth.”
What is the first level of the significance of the Feast of Tabernacles? It falls in the autumn of the year at the time of the gathering-in of the produce from the orchards and the vineyards.
Included in the fall harvest were various fruits, but the Bible focuses primarily on the grapes and the olives. Grapes produce wine and from the olives, oil is produced. Both figure prominently in Bible symbolism.
After the forty years of Wilderness wanderings, we find a very strange situation as Joshua leads the children of Israel across Jordan and into the Promised Land. [For detailed Bible studies of this period, hear our lectures on CDs, nos.: 219, 220, 223, 224, 229, 230, 231, & 232. See our Master Order From here for titles and pricing information.]
From the pattern established, we would have expected the Old Testament type of Tabernacles to be established by the entering of Canaan land at the time of the fall harvest. But instead we find they entered “out of season.”
Joshua 3:15 And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,)
Jordan only overflowed in the harvest time in the spring (at Passover), not in the autumn. That Israel went in “out of season” has tremendous importance, but is far beyond the scope of our study at this point.
Suffice it to say for now that because Israel did not hear God’s voice directly—God spoke his law to Moses, and Moses in turn delivered it to the people—therefore, the Israelites did not have sufficient faith (‘‘Faith comes by hearing the Word of God”) to believe they could overcome the giants in Canaan and possess the land.
As a result, they believed the ten spies with the evil (fear-inducing) report, and then found themselves playing in the sandbox of Sinai for another 38 years. Then, when they finally were told to go in, God caused them to be out-of-sync with the divine Jubilee calendar, and so they crossed and entered the land flowing with milk and honey at Passover instead of Tabernacles.
However, this was all in God’s long-range Plan. Perhaps due to being out-of-sync, Joshua and company found that instead of a “Cakewalk in Canaan land,” where they might have just waltzed in and sat down and said, “Well, we got it without a fight;” instead they had to fight for it. Joshua and company had work to do. So do we!
We have seen that Passover was fulfilled in Christ, and Pentecost was fulfilled in the coming of the Holy Spirit, but what about Tabernacles? Brothers and sisters, it has yet to be fulfilled!
I believe it is to be fulfilled in our day. It involves the second coming and the second work of Christ. The time of the fulfillment of Tabernacles will be when God dwells with man, and in man; but first, in the Overcomers, the Barley Company.
But this will not be merely in a down payment of the Holy Spirit, as in the age of Pentecost, but a permanent and complete indwelling by God in this temple of the glorified body.
We have now seen that the characteristics of the natural barley plant are types and shadows of a group of people; namely, those who will inherit the first resurrection. In the next part of our study, we will begin to examine specific events and stories in the history of Israel in which we find barley in one form or another. Many precious truths are there to be gleaned.
(To be continued.)
~END~
