Back to Basics
The Feasts of the Lord 24/02/2021
Derrick Harrison 24/02/2021
The Feasts of the Lord An Outline of Leviticus 1. The five offerings of Israel, 1-7; and instructions for priests, 8-10 1. Burnt offering (Christ our substitute), Lev 1 2. Meal offering (loveliness of Christ), Lev 2 3. Peace offering (Christ our peace), Lev 3 4. Sin offering (sin as a nature), Lev 4 5. Trespass offering (sin as an act), Lev 5 Instructions to priests about the Law of the offerings, Lev 6-7 2. Aaron and the priests: sacrifices begin, 8-10 Consecration of priests, Lev 8 Ministry of priests, Lev 9 Restrictions on priests (death of Nadab and Abihu), Lev 10 3. The Laws of Israel, holiness in daily life (God concerned with His children’s conduct), 11-22 Food laws God’s people, Lev 11 Children of God’s children, Lev 12 Cleansing of leprosy, Lev 13, 14 Cleansing of running issues, Lev 15 4. The Great Day of Atonement, 16 Place of sacrifice; value of the blood, Lev 17 New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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5. The Laws of Israel, the application of commandments to daily life, 11-15; 18-20; 24-26 Immorality condemned (amplification of 7th commandment), Lev 18 Social sins (application of commandments), Lev 19 Penalty for breaking commandments, Lev 20 Laws of personal purity for priests, Lev 21, 22 6. The Feasts/festivals of Israel, 23 7. The Laws and prophecies for the promised land, 24-27 Lampstand, showbread, and death penalty for the blasphemer, Lev 24 Sabbatical year, year of Jubilee and law of kinsman redeemer, Lev 25 Conditions of blessing in the land (a prophetic history), Lev 26 Dedication and devotion — concerning vows, Lev 27
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The Laws of Israel Israel was constituted a THEOCRACY, the Lord spoke continually about His relationship with them, - “I am the LORD your God.” Israel was a nation with a comprehensive system of worship which embraced every part of their lives, based on the tabernacle and later the temple. Leviticus shows to us this comprehensive system of sacrifices, feasts and the recurring weekly sabbath day. Their personal lives were prescribed/governed by the Laws of God and the sacrifices were in place to deal with their sin. One immediately asks the question – did it work? Were lives lived according to God’s holy laws? However, we have to ask the primary question which profoundly affects everything else – did they believe in the LORD and did they honour him as their God. This is spirituality which determines their morality and their ethical living. The biggest obstacle to believing God was their strong rebellion and their refusal to believe God, which I believe resulted from their awful years of slavery. However, sin is endemic in the human race as we know from Scripture, the old Puritans called it “inbred sin” and roots in the sin of our first parents. The whole issue of their rebellion, their anger, their refusal of Moses’ authority comes to a head in the book of Numbers, but it continually erupts throughout their history – from Egypt onwards throughout the Old Testament. Repentance means that I acknowledge/confess my sinfulness and come to God, acknowledging that I have sinned against my God – as an Israelite the LORD is my God due to my birth and my ethnicity! As a non-Jew I really cannot get my head inside that of an Israelite. I don’t know how to think, to act, or to live under the laws of God. I have a book entitled, “Thinking Black” by Dan Crawford a Brethren missionary to Africa, the subtitle is “22 Years in the African bush without a break” New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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– Dan had lived exclusively with his African brothers so long and so intimately that he believed that he could think their thoughts with them – he had got inside their thinking by living among them. Imagine, yourself as a Gentile convert from paganism and meeting your Jewish brother for the first time in your new house church. You would have been so different in your thinking, your values, and your lifestyle. The only real picture we gain of a practising Jew in the context of the New Testament is from the apostle Paul, who described his former thinking, his values and his lifestyle in Philippians and there he describes that when he became a Christian, he counted everything to do with his past life in Judaism as dung that he might know Christ! What I am saying is that the entire system of law, sacrifice, feasts, history, and teaching all combined to produce a certain type of person, but without God the whole system was a catastrophe. Loving God, living a righteous life as the people of God in the context of home, community and temple would have prepared the nations of the world for the coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. Instead, He came to an occupied nation which was confined and exclusive in their religion, Christ’s own Jewish people disbelieved in Him, scorned Him, rejected Him, crucified Him, and blasphemed Him by crying His blood upon them as a curse. The same deep-seated rebellion against God characterises all the races of men. The Laws given and instituted by God came with the covenant at Sinai. They are unquestionably the Laws of God spoken by Him from the Holy of Holies from behind the vail. The immediate question we ask ourselves is whether we have any obligation to keep the Law? This was the burning issue the early church faced in Acts ch.15 at the Jerusalem Council,
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“Now therefore why do you tempt God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they” (vv10-11). “Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: but that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood” (vv1920). The verdict of the elders and apostles (and the Holy Spirit) is spelled out clearly, but the matter rumbled on until the destruction of Jerusalem in A D 70 when the cruel power of Rome broke the back of the Jewish nation. The issue appears in several of Paul’s letters due to the Judaizers who teach that Gentile believers must adopt Jewish laws and customs which are found in the Law of Moses. Neither Jew nor Gentile were able to keep the Law, unless his name was Paul the devout and zealous Pharisee, - listen to the apostle, “Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Phil.3:4-6). We have referred to Moses as the Lawgiver, the Law teacher and the man who applied the Law to people’s lives (judge) but there was one Man who came to completely fulfil the Law and His Name was Jesus, by fulfilling the Law, Jesus qualified as the perfect sacrifice for sin. He New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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was not indebted to the Law, nor was He guilty of breaking one of its precepts – nor did He need to die under its curse, yet, by taking upon Himself our sin, He became a curse for us, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, “Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree” (Gal.3:13). Hear the words of Jesus, spoken at the commencement of His teaching ministry, “Think
not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Until, heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle1 shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mat.5:17-20). The Sermon on the Mount represents Jesus’ first teaching and He strongly affirms His intension to fulfil the Law entirely, that is according to its true meaning, which He expounds authoritatively (Mat.5-7). He deviates from the current understanding of the Law and speaks repeatedly against the interpretations of his religious antagonists, 1
It is the Anglicized version of the Greek iota - the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, which corresponds to the Roman 'i'. This, in turn, was derived from the Hebrew word jod, or yodr, which is the smallest letter of the square Hebrew alphabet.
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“but I say to you.” The original laws were not all addressed to outward behaviour, one commandment says, “You shall not covet …,” to covet is an inward lust of the heart. Paul may have been accounted perfect according to the outward precepts of the Law, but from his autobiographical account of his sinful heart, he was far from being blameless inwardly (Rom.7). Jesus expounded the law from the inner disposition of the heart in the Sermon on the Mount and thus, He was going to fulfil the law of God as it was written on His heart and written on the tablets of stone, there is no incompatibility between the two. Adam’s failure as a man is compared by Paul to our second Adam’s success as a man, “For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom.5:17-20). One further subject of primary importance for us, addressed by the LORD in Leviticus, relates to the holy feasts/festivals, - a further area which is carefully prescribed by God (ch.23). Hear the words of Paul,
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“Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom.3:20). “Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Rom.3:28).
The Feasts of Israel Ex 23:14-17 & Lev 23:1-44 There were three main annual Jewish religious festivals – 1. Unleavened Bread (Passover / First fruits), 2. Weeks (Pentecost) and 3. Ingathering (Tabernacles) The dating of the festivals of the Jewish calendar were based on the lunar year and they all gravitate round the number seven. 1. The Jewish Sabbath, Shabbat “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings” (Lev.23:3). “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Gen.2:2-3). “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: But the seventh day is New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gate” (Ex.20:8-11). The seventh day is observed every week beginning at sunset on Friday evening and ending after dark on Saturday. Jesus completed creation in six days and rested on the seventh day and He completed salvation on the seventh day and rose again on the eighth day, which became the first day of the week for the church. It was the fact of His historical/physical resurrection on the eighth day which determined this exact day and not the sabbath day as the holy day of rest for the church, “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them” (Lk.24:1). John refers twice to this first day, as the day of resurrection (Jn.20:1, 19). The significance of the Lord’s Day is clearly shown to us in the context of the early church, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them” (Acts 20:7; see also 20:18). “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet” (Rev.1:10). Of course, Jesus purposely, provoked the religious authorities by “working on the sabbath day” and there are several accounts of His conversations with the Jews who questioned and opposed Him New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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because he did His miraculous “works,” not only on the Sabbath but also in the synagogue! To do the works of God may not appear restful but as long as they are not our works but His works, they are welcome. 2. The Feast of Passover “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's Passover and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days you must eat unleavened bread” (Lev.23:5-6). The origin of the Passover takes us back to the historical occasion of the Exodus from Egypt, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: you shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it” (Ex.12:5-8). “The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him, and saith, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Jn.1:29, 20). “And he said unto them, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God”. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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this, and divide it among yourselves” And he took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave unto them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you: do this in remembrance of me.” Likewise, also the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Lk.11:15-20 see also 1Cor.12). “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1Cor.5:7).” The Passover was held in the first month of the Jewish religious calendar and celebrated their release from Egypt. The formative background for understanding the feast is Exodus ch.12:1-20 and the focus there is on the slain LAMB and it’s shed blood. The week-long spring festival of Pesach commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people from bondage in ancient Egypt. The Passover Seder on the first two nights—an elaborate and ritualized meal—recounts the story of Exodus using ritual foods, prayers, stories, and songs. It was initiated to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt in 1447BC when God led his chosen people out of slavery. The Jews were to eat unleavened bread (bread made without yeast) to remember that the Israelites didn’t have time to let their bread rise before leaving Egypt. Only the first two and last two days of Passover are observed as full holy days, with restrictions on work and travel. However, many extended Jewish families gather for the holiday. The first day of the festival is often referred to as Passover or Pessah, because the Israelites smeared blood on their doorposts so the Angel of Death would pass over and not harm their first-born. In commemoration of the Passover, each family killed and roasted a sacrificial lamb whose blood saved them from death. The festival was celebrated between mid-March and midApril. New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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3. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was the final day of the Passover and the 2 feasts are part of one whole event – deliverance (pardon) and now fellowship with God. Eating the Passover sacrifice is a meal of celebration. This feast lasted 7 days (8 if Passover is counted) in which eating bread with yeast (the symbol of sin) is forbidden, the Israelites left in such haste they could not wait for the bread to rise. Remembering how the LORD redeemed Israel out of Egypt in haste and that they are called to be a "holy people.” On this day, the first sheaves of the barley harvest were presented to God, “And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day ye shall have a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein. But you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein” (v6-8). The Paschal Meal & the Lord’s Supper, “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Mat.26:26-28). 4. “The Sheaf of First-fruits,” Yom Habikkurim. The day after the first Sabbath after Passover. Presenting a sheaf of the first barley harvest (it is ripe at Passover) as a wave offering by the priest; also making a burnt offering of a lamb and a meat/grain offering with wine. New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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Recognizing the redemption of the first-born in Egypt and recognizing God's bounty in the Promised Land (Lev. 23:11), which took place on the eighth day (became the Lord’s Day – the day of Christ’s resurrection). This barley was ripe as they entered the Promised Land, it was ready to harvest and to bake bread. “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, “When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest: and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it and ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf a male lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord. And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the self-same day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings” (vv10-14). Jesus rose the third day after Passover; and this has become our sabbath, which we rightly call, “the Lord’s Day.” “But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward, they that are Christ's at his coming” (1Cor.15:23). Jesus rose again from the dead, and He is the first fruits of a great harvest of souls who likewise will rise again at His second coming to earth. Jesus is the sheath waved before the Lord, presented to Him, and accepted by Him and exalted to His right-hand. The sheaf was first waved when they entered the new land, presented on the morrow after the sabbath, the day of resurrection. This was the tangible fruit at last of their deliverance form Egypt. New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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5. The Feast of Weeks; Shavuot, or “the Feast of fifty days (πεντηκοστῆς-fifty, as in Acts 2:1), marks the giving of the Law (Torah) at Mt Sinai. The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost, Harvest or Shavuot) – the main harvest festival celebrating the end of the wheat harvest was held seven weeks after the first barley harvest (see Exodus 34:22). As it was fifty days after Passover, it became known as Pentecost (‘pentekonta’ means ‘fifty’ in Gk.). It usually occurred in late May or early June. A festival of joy; mandatory and voluntary offerings including the first fruits of the wheat harvest. Recalling the giving of the Law at Sinai 50 days after crossing the Red Sea. Jesus’s 120 disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in AD 30 which was 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection. “And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD” (Lev.23:15-16). This is quite amazing! – God’s timetable for the resurrection, followed by the 40 days before the ascension/exaltation and the 10 days of 24/7 prayer are incorporated into the calendar of the feasts. Fifty days exactly between the resurrection of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit. The journey from the Exodus to the giving of the Law on Sinai was exactly 50 days. The number 50 is incorporated over and over into the dimensions of the tabernacle (15 references). The number 50 derives its meaning from its relationship to the coming of God's Holy Spirit. Fifty can be found at least 154 times in the Bible. His ascension, as a type of first fruit from the dead (Revelation 1:5), occurred on the day God told the Israelites they were to wave a sheaf composed of the New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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first fruits of their harvest (Leviticus 23:9 - 11). It is on this day that the count of 50 days to the Feast of Pentecost begins. In the New Testament, the word Pentecost comes from the Greek word for fiftieth (Strong's Concordance #G4005). Also known as the Feast of Weeks or First fruits, it was on this special Holy Day that God first poured his Holy Spirit upon about 120 believers who had gathered to keep the day (Acts 1:15, 2). They became the first fruits of God's spiritual harvest of souls. We can say that this feast represents the present time which began with the ascension/exaltation of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the crowning act of completion of Christ’s salvation. At the end of the seven weeks, on the fiftieth day after the waving of the barley sheaf, the new meal offering was to be brought forward having been baked as 2 loaves of bread and waved before the Lord; that is, the first fruits of the new, or wheat harvest, “You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of twotenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits to the Lord. And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering. The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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forever in all your dwellings throughout your generation” (vv1721). The 2 loaves were for the priest to eat and they were baked with leaven and the finest wheat, representing their ordinary loaves for daily use. They were thanking God for their daily provision. These two loaves were made out of the wheat seed and Jesus spoke of Himself as the corn of wheat, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (Jn.12:24). The single grain of wheat is explained by Christ as a picture of Himself, failing into the ground, dying and as a result producing a vast harvest which is the church. The direct outcome of His death is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which followed His resurrection and the waving before Father of the meal offering – the completion of His great work of salvation. He offered the fruit of His life and death to Father, having risen from the dead and ascended to Him and now the Holy Spirit has been given. 6. The Feast of Trumpets; Rosh Hashanah “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord” (vv24-25). “Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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all the people who were in the camp trembled …And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice” (Ex.`9:16, 19). “Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance” (Ps.89:15). “With trumpets and the sound of a horn; Shout joyfully before the Lord, the King” (98:6). “Therefore’ by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Heb.13:15). And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mat.24:31). “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1Cor.15:52). The seventh month was in the Jewish religious calendar (see Numbers 10:10), a month full of feast and fast days, it was a sabbatical month. The Jewish New Year began with 10 days of repentance, pardon with joy – “a joyful sound” (Ps.89:15), culminating with Yom Kippur. Traditionally celebrated with sweet or round foods such as apples and honey, and the blowing of the shofar, during religious services. A customary greeting is "happy new year!" This festival, usually held in mid-September, celebrated the end of the agricultural year and the beginning of the New Year in the Jewish civil calendar. In an age with New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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no written calendars, trumpets (originally the ‘shofar’) were sounded on the first day of each new lunar month (see Psalm 81:3), and as a sign of the new agricultural season. The sound of the trumpet raises great and joyful expectations. They may herald a feast or they may call to battle (Num.10:7-10), the trumpet represents the voice of God, at Sinai, later to battle and finally in the Revelation, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet” (Rev.1:9; 4:1; 4:1; 8:1-2, 6-8; 8:10-13;9:1, 13-14; 11:15). There is no reference to the Feast of Trumpets in the New Testament. The trumpets anticipate and heralds the feast of Yom Kippur and the preaching of the gospel of Jesus’ death and our salvation. Passover represents Israel’s dispensation and Pentecost represents the Christian’s dispensation. 7. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Lev.16), (see the NOTES from my last talk which was devoted to this feast). This day was devoted to fasting, prayer, and repentance. Observant Jews do not eat, drink (including water), bathe, engage in sexual activity, or wear anything made of leather on this day of awe. This solemn festival, at the end of September, was a time for remembering past sins, seeking atonement and for making amends. It was the only day of fasting decreed in the Bible. (see Leviticus 16:5-10 & 20-22). Hebrews contrasts this annual ceremony of atonement performed by the High Priest with the once-for-all forgiveness of sins achieved by Jesus on the cross at Calvary (Heb.9:6-7, 23-28). The Year of Jubilee (Lev.ch.25) “Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement, you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land” ((Ex.25:19). New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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It began on the evening of Atonement and it occurred once in every 50 years]. 8. The Feast of Tabernacles; Sukkot “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it” (vv33-36) … “Also, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days (vv39-43). The week-long harvest festival was the most joyful of all the feasts, commemorating the dwelling of the Israelites in temporary booths (sukkot in Hebrew) during their 40-year sojourn in the Sinai desert. Many families build their own sukkah in which it is customary to eat meals and sleep. It is also called the Festival of Ingathering celebrating the gathering in of the grapes, figs and olives that had ripened during the dry summer months. It was the autumn harvest festival held in late September or New Life Radio – Talk No 20
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October. Jesus went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in October 29 AD (see John 7:1-14). Note the contrast between the great sorrow of the Day of Atonement in contrast to the great joy of the Feast of tabernacles. In the spiritual renewal which took place under Ezra and Nehemiah, the post-exilic Jews celebrate the feast of Tabernacles for the first time after 70 years of exile, “and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written. Then the people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God, and in the open square of the Water Gate and in the open square of the Gate of Ephraim” (Neh.8:15-16). The feast anticipates the paradise of Eden restored, – the new heaven and the new earth. “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev.21:3). The close of this season takes place on the eighth day. It was the closing festival of the whole year when Israel returned to their own homes.
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21 Derrick Harrison
24/02/2021
The following two feasts are not on the Bible and therefore are outside of our consideration. Hanukkah, the eight-day festival of Hanukkah or "Festival of Lights" commemorates the miraculous victory of the Maccabees and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem. Hanukkah is not the Jewish equivalent of Christmas!! In fact, it is a relatively minor Jewish holiday (in religious terms) which unlike most other Jewish holidays, has no restrictions whatsoever on work or travel—although many Jewish families and communities get together to celebrate this festive holiday. It is customary to eat fried foods such as potato latkes or jelly doughnuts. Lights (Dedication or Hanukkah) this festival was initiated to commemorate the re-dedication of the Second Temple by Judas Maccabaeus in 165BC after its defilement by King Antiochus Epiphanes. This re-dedication is recorded in the apocryphal First Book of the Maccabees. During the re-dedication, a single flask of olive oil miraculously kept the lamps in the Temple alight for the whole eight-day ceremony. Hanukkah takes place in mid-December. Jesus attended the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) in Jerusalem in the winter of 29AD (see John 10:22-24). Purim, this carnival-like holiday celebrates the defeat of a plot to destroy the Jews of Persia. It is customary to dress in costumes (similar to Halloween or Mardi Gras), and to give gifts of food to friends and the needy, particularly hamantashen, triangular pastries filled with fruit or poppy seeds. Purim – this festival commemorated the actions of Queen Esther whose quick thinking and decisive action saved the Jewish exiles in Babylon and Persia from being massacred in 473 BC (see Esther 3:16 & 9:23-32). It takes place in February or March. There is no reference to this festival in the New Testament].
New Life Radio – Talk No 20
22 Derrick Harrison
24/02/2021
