Leviticus 23: 1 – 44
Signposts to Paradise
23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts. 3 ‘Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. 4 ‘These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. 5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. 8 But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.’” 9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. 14 You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 15 ‘and you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. 17 You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits to the Lord. 18 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. 19 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. 20 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. 21 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 forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. 22 ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the Lord your God.’” 23 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘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. 25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’” 26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 27 “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. 28 And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29 For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. 30 And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31 You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath.” 33 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “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. 35 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. 36 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. 37 ‘These are the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day— 38 besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the Lord. 39 ‘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. 40 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. 41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’” 44 So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.
Our Holy God began His work in the nation of Israel about 3500 years ago. The exodus from Egypt took place in approximately 1500 B.C. Soon afterwards, at Mount Sinai, God, through His servant Moses, brought the nation of Israel the Law. Right there at Sinai Moses instituted the Seven Feasts of Israel. They are recorded in today’s study of the Old Testament book of Leviticus chapter 23. Each one of these seven holy convocations are laid out on the Hebrew calendar. God calls upon His covenant people to join Him in celebrating them every year. The feasts will continue to be celebrated in the Millennium to come.
So today we will see, the seven Feasts of Israel are not just quaint Jewish religious festivals of a bygone era. They are rehearsals of things to come and from a later perspective they will become memorials of things that have happened in times past. They are, (and will be in times to come), occasions when God's people pause to remember seven epic days in their history. These seven noteworthy events will be memorials of events that will have occurred on those very same special Hebrew calendar dates set out by Moses 3500 years ago. Each feast will be a holiday and also a waypoint in our understanding of the character of our God. Each feast will illustrate a certain essential truth relating to the Everlasting Covenant and how it unfolded into the history of this earth. Step by step the God of Israel Is establishing and explaining certain truths. He Is helping His people to come to know Him. The feasts are signposts guiding God's covenant people in their personal and national pilgrimage. They are waypoints into the Kingdom of God.
The Hebrew term: ‘mo’edim’ means “set or appointed times”. Although called feasts, or holy-days, they are not all feasts (Day of Atonement for example is a fast), and not all are single days (Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles for example are observed for a week).
These Seven Feasts of Israel are past and future history, a history that is in the hands of the Sovereign God Who Is Lord over all His creation. They are waypoints on a roadmap that tracks from the passion of our Holy Lord Jesus to the final glorification at the end of the Millennium. The Feasts of Israel can track the progress of believers as they go forward into their own personal walk with God. He takes them from salvation, to infilling of the Holy Spirit, to sanctification and ultimately into glorification.
The first four feasts that have been fulfilled in the past show God's Judeo-Christian people where they and their God have been. The three feasts whose fulfillment is yet future show us where we are going. We are on the road to Paradise.
In these seven sacred convocations God's people learn God's plan of the ages. His agenda for the redemption of man and the restoration of the heavens and the earth has already been set. It was decreed in heaven from before time began. Things on this planet may be in a mess right now, and getting worse by the day. But that will not be always the case. God will step into history again. He will surprise us again just as He has done in the past. He has an ongoing program. God's agenda is in full operation and right on schedule.
23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.
Moses is to declare to the children of Israel what are Yahweh God’s set feasts. He is to proclaim them as ‘holy convocations’, holy ‘calling-together’. They are the times when His people must come together for the purposes of joint worship and renewal of the covenant which bound them all together as His people.
3 ‘Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.
The first celebration mentioned is of the seventh day feast. This was the Sabbath, the seventh day, the day laid down in the covenant beginning at sunset after each period of six working days when all work was to cease in the camp, and later throughout the land. Wherever they were they would on that day cease from labor, both they, and all their servants, and all their bond-men and women. No manner of work could be done. It was a Sabbath of solemn rest, in every dwelling. The whole of Israel was to stop work as one. And as work ceased they would remember, ‘we were once in bondage in the land of Egypt, we had to work without ceasing, and by His mighty power Yahweh delivered us’ (Deuteronomy 5.15).
The Sabbath was a holy ‘calling-together’ in an act of obedience and tribute to Yahweh, and recognition of His Lordship. This more than anything else would bind them together, distinguishing them from all others, and forming a bond of unity between them.
So the Sabbath was to be seen as primary. It would distinguish Yahweh’s people from all others, and ensured that on one day in seven they turned from the demands and trials of daily life to a day of contemplation and worship. Every seven days they would observe a feast. It was to be Yahweh’s day, a day of ceasing work and a day of remembering. It reminded them of creation, and of the Creator (Exodus 20.11). It reminded them that their lives continually followed His creation pattern. It reminded them that they had been delivered from bondage in the land of Egypt, that they had not been able to cease work then, and that Yahweh had mightily delivered them. Indeed the latter is why He commanded them to keep the Sabbath day
4 ‘These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times.
Moses now goes on to outline the recurring feasts, ‘the set feasts’ other than the Sabbath, which were to occur throughout the year, ‘in their appointed season’.
These indicated that not only was the passage of time from Sabbath to Sabbath in His hands, but also the times and seasons. While the earth remained, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night would not cease (Genesis 8.22), and they were to recognize the fact and be grateful for it.
5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.
The first feast was the Passover which occurred on the fourteenth of Abib/Nisan (March/April), fourteen days after the new moon which marked the beginning of the New Year as established in Egypt (Exodus 12.2). This was in remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt when Yahweh ‘passed over’ their houses when he smote the firstborn of Egypt (Exodus 12.2-14, 21-36). Whatever happened in their future Israel never forgot how God had delivered them from Egypt.
On Passover (Erev Pesach): A perfect spotless lamb is sacrificed and its blood is wiped on the doorpost. This day is seen as a shadow or type of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, at the cross (1 Corinthians 5:7).
6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
Passover was immediately followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread which began when the moon was full. For seven days unleavened bread was to be eaten as a reminder of the speed with which they had had to leave Egypt. But the unleavened bread may also have previously celebrated a newly arrived harvest when the old leavened grain would no longer be required.
The unleavened bread (matzah) eaten during this meal, is a type of the sinless Son of God our Lord Jesus He Is the unleavened bread of life, who releases repentant believers from the bondage of sin. (John 6:32, 48-51) The Gospel Message symbolized in this meal is practiced today by most as the Lord's Supper or Communion.
7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.
The first day of that week was to be a Sabbath, no matter which day it fell on (Exodus 12.16), a day when no work was done.
8 But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.’”
The seventh day was also ‘a holy convocation’, a further Sabbath (and the regular Sabbath would fall somewhere during the seven day period).
This feast is a reminder to us of the need to remove from our lives all the leaven of wickedness and malice and to partake of the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5.7-8). We are to purge out the old leaven so that we might be like a new lump, totally unleavened. We are also to beware of the leaven of false teaching, the ‘leaven of the Pharisees’ (Matthew 16.6, 12), and of worldly constraint, ‘the leaven of Herod’ (Mark 8.15).
9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
First Fruits (Omer) was the day they were to wave the sheaf from a barley plant from the first / spring harvest. Our Holy King Lord Jesus Was the first fruits of the resurrection, (1 Corinthians 15:20). All repentant believers will also be resurrected physically.
12 And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin.
On the same day a whole burnt offering of a year old lamb would be offered together with a grain offering mingled with oil and a drink offering of wine. These would be offerings made by fire to Yahweh, and their offering would give Him pleasure, arising as a pleasing odor. Each of these represented an expression of gratitude to God for the gift of lambs, barley harvest and wine.
14 You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
Until this oblation and first fruit was offered to God they were not to partake of anything to do with the harvest. They must eat neither bread, nor parched grain nor fresh ears. God’s goodness must be acknowledged first.
The first fruit holiday reminds us of many things. It reminds us that we must never be slow in expressing our gratitude to God for His provision. We have much to be grateful for and we must not be like the healed lepers of whom only one returned to our Master and King Jesus to give thanks (Luke 17.17). It reminds us that we must continually give thanks for Jesus Christ Who Is the first fruits of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15.20). And it reminds us that we who have been begotten again by Him are the first fruits of His creation (James 1.18)
15 ‘and you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.
From the second day of unleavened bread, the day after the initial Sabbath, the day of waving of the sheaf of the wave-offering, seven seven day periods ending with the Sabbath are to be measured, and then on the next day, the fiftieth, the feast of sevens is to be celebrated. This was a joyous feast which celebrated the gathering of the harvest and expressed gratitude to God for His provision of food.
Pentecost (Shavuot) is celebrated the first of the wheat harvest with the offering of two wave loaves of leavened bread.
This feast foreshadowed the first major outpouring of the Holy Spirit, resulting in three thousand souls being added to the Church in one day (Acts 2:41). This early outpouring of the Holy Spirit will also be followed by another greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit near the end of time (Joel 2:28-29) to empower the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom before the return of Jesus.
17 You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits to the Lord.
In recognition of this gratitude two wave-loaves made of milled grain baked with leaven (a rare use of leaven), were brought as first-fruits to Yahweh. Leaven could be offered as first fruits, but not as an offering made by fire (2.11). They were waved before Yahweh as an offering to Him, first fruits of the final harvest, although their final destination was the priests.
18 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.
With the bread was a multiplied offering. Seven lambs without blemish a year old, one young bull ox and two rams were to be offered as whole burnt offerings to Yahweh, each with its usual grain and drink offerings. These made up an offering made by fire, a pleasing odor to Yahweh. This multiplied offering was a demonstration of rededication and tribute, a joyous response to God’s love and goodness revealed in the harvest.
19 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.
On top of the whole burnt offerings a he-goat was to be offered as purification for sin offering. Even on such a joyous occasion there had to be recognition of the need for forgiveness, of a need to be made pure before God. And two one year old he-lambs were offered for a sacrifice of peace offerings, to indicate peace and wellbeing.
20 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.
The bread of the first fruits and the two lambs offered as a peace sacrifice were to be for the priests. They were waved before Yahweh to indicate that they were offerings to Him, before being passed on to the priests. They were ‘holy to Yahweh for the priest’.
21 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 forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
And that day was to be a Sabbath, a ‘holy gathering-together’ during which no servile work should be done. It was a statute which was to be permanent into the distant future in all their dwellings.
22 ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the Lord your God.’”
And in recognition of all that God had given them they were to ensure that they left in their fields’ sufficient food for the poor and needy. They were not to reap the corners of the fields, nor gather loose grain that had fallen to the ground. These ‘gleanings’ should be left for the poor and the resident alien who would have no land.
This feast too is a reminder to us of the gratitude that we should show to God, this time not only for first fruits but for the whole harvest. And it reminds us that of what God has given to us we should be ready and eager to give to others.
It is especially a reminder of the greatest gift of all which came at Pentecost, the giving of His Holy Spirit (Acts 2), Who came that He might produce a harvest in the bringing of men and women to Christ. We are that harvest. How full of praise we should be. And the offerings made on this day remind us of our Lord Jesus Christ Who was offered up for us as a purification for sin offering, and Who as a multiplied whole burnt offering was fully satisfactory to God to make atonement for us and bring us to God as His own.
23 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘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.
Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) is a day of blowing trumpets (shofar) calling all to repent. Traditionally this day is preceded by thirty days (and followed by ten days) of Teshuvah or repentance. At the conclusion of the day of Trumpets, one final powerful blast resounds on the shofar. This day prophetically speaks of the final call to repent before the return of the Messiah and the resurrection of righteous that occurs at the final trumpet blast.
The rams’ horns were blown as a memorial before Yahweh. They were a call to God to consider them on this special month of the year.
It is no coincidence that the seventh month was so full of feasts. Seven was the number of divine perfection and completeness, and the seventh month must thus inevitably be full of awareness of and response to God. It was His month like no other was, a time for getting right with God, and rejoicing in what He had abundantly provided and looking to the future for what He would provide. No wonder it was welcomed with a special feast for the blowing of ram’s horns. It would then be followed by the Autumn/Winter rains, the hopefully abundant former rains, which would prepare the ground for sowing, would bring nature back to life again, and would improve the grazing grounds so that the flocks and herds could prosper, all no doubt, they would think, the result of their faithful repentance and worship in the seventh month. And then later still it was followed by the latter rains in the spring which finalized what the former rains had begun, commencing the new year of harvests as another round of reaping began. Together their coming was the basis of their physical happiness and prosperity.
25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’”
We should see the day of the blowing of the rams’ horns as a wake-up call. Now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation (our full final deliverance) nearer than when we first believed (Romans 13.11). Are we alert and ready for that day, or are we sleeping as do others? (1 Thessalonians 5.6).
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 27 “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.
Here the Day of Atonement (compare chapter 16) is looked at from the point of view of the people. Its solemnity is emphasized by the strict warnings concerning proper observance. On this important day all the failures and sins of Israel that had not previously been atoned for would be gathered up and atoned for.
28 And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is a complete fast. It is the holiest day of the Biblical calendar. It is a day of repentance. Through repentance, reconciliation with God takes place. This is also the day that the corporate sins of the Jewish nation were laid upon a scapegoat that was cast outside of the camp into the wilderness. Atonement prophetically speaks of the day when the Jews mourn and repent concerning their rejection of our Lord Jesus Who Is foreshadowed in the scapegoat. Thus, the Day of Atonement also points to the day when all Israel will be saved (Romans 11) as they return to the LORD forevermore.
30 And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.
And whoever does any manner of work, God Himself will destroy from among his people. For it will be evidence that he has no time for getting himself right with God.
31 You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath.”
No manner of work may be done on that day (thus going further than banning ‘servile work’). It was a day when all concentration must be on atonement.
Whoever fails to take the day seriously and to make a genuine effort to deal with their sinfulness must be cut off from his people.
What has been said is now repeated as a permanent statute into the distant future. No manner of work is to be done. It is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest, a day for self-humbling and self-chastisement, and it shall commence at the twilight of the ninth day, and continue until the twilight of the tenth day, by which time the High Priest will have satisfactorily made atonement for the sin of Israel.
This feast reminds us of our deep need continually for repentance from current sins. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ made atonement for us once for all, and we rejoice in that, but we are to constantly walk in God’s light, allowing Him to reveal to us our sins so that we might admit to them and have them removed (1 John 1.7-10).
33 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “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.
In the seventh month, when the moon was at its full, there would in fact be a few days of bright moonlight; the Feast of Tabernacles was to begin. If the Day of Atonement was a day of gloom, the feast of Tabernacles was the opposite. It was a time of joy and feasting, of making merry and enjoying the vintage harvest. It was a time for giving thanks for the harvests that had been, and for praying for the coming of the rains for the new series of harvests for the following year, the rain that would soften and prepare the ground, and which if it failed to appear would mean heartbreak for the days to come. It paralleled the other seven day feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, which came six months before, as a seven day period of worship and praise for both past and future blessings.
Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) is an eight-day celebratory feast coinciding with the final harvest of the year. For seven days the people moved out of their homes and lived in shelters called “Sukkah”. It was decorated with branches cut from palm, willow and other trees. This last feast prophetically speaks of the future celebration regarding the final harvest of mankind at the end of the age and the commencement of the Millennium. Today we eat in a Sukkah looking forward to the day when God will dwell on earth with us. But even during the Millennium, we will continue to keep this festival (Zechariah 14) to celebrate the fact that God dwells with man and is our covering (Sukkah) through Jesus The Messiah.
35 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it.
The first day of the feast was a holy ‘gathering-together’. It was a Sabbath. During it no work. So that all concentration was to be on God and His call to worship and thanksgiving.
36 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.
Then for seven days the joyous feast would continue, with offerings being made every day by fire to Yahweh. The full count of these munificent offerings can be found in Numbers 29.13-34, including the whole burnt offerings over the week of seventy bull oxen, fourteen rams and ninety eight lambs of the first year (all multiples of seven) together with their accompanying grain offerings and each day the necessary he-goat for purification for sin offering. And this would be followed by another Sabbath on the eighth day, with special offerings (one bull ox, one ram and seven lambs, and the compulsory he-goat), no work performed, and all attention on Yahweh.
This feast is the climax of all the others. It is a reminder to us of all that God has given through the year in which we can rejoice and be glad, it reminds us that we are but strangers and pilgrims in the earth who should abstain from all worldly desires which war against our souls (1 Peter 2.11), living in tents and in temporary booths because here we have no continuing city but seek one to come (Hebrews 13.14), and it points us forward to seek the ‘rain’ of the Spirit from the new season that will produce a further harvest of men and women to the glory of God (John 4.35-36).
37 ‘These are the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day—
These then were the set feasts of Yahweh which were to be proclaimed as holy ‘getting-together’ for the offering of offerings made by fire to Yahweh, including whole burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices and drink-offerings each on its own day. The ‘sacrifices’ were presumably the purification for sin offerings of the he-goats.
38 besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the Lord.
And this time and these offerings were offered to Yahweh on top of the regular Sabbaths, and their own freewill gifts, and all their vows, and all their freewill offerings which would provide the basis of the feasting. All these too would be given to Yahweh.
39 ‘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.
Most important of all was the feast of Tabernacles, when the final fruits of the land have been gathered in and for seven days they can keep a feast to Yahweh, with a Sabbath on the first day, and a Sabbath on the eighth day as days of solemn rest.
40 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.
These days were to be days of great joy and excitement. They were all to live in booths constructed from natural materials such as branches of palm trees, boughs from thick trees and willows which flourished by the waters, to partake of the fruit of goodly trees and of the vintage, and to eat of the freewill offerings, and a good time was had by all. But also during this period, when the regular whole burnt offerings were made, the Law would no doubt be read, and necessary admonition given. Every seventh year the Law had to be read out in full.
41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’”
They were to keep this feast for seven days each year, in the seventh month. It was a statute to be observed into the distant future. And they would dwell in booths as a reminder of how they had dwelt in booths and tents when they were delivered from Egypt and brought to the land of His inheritance. All home-born Israelites would dwell in booths over the whole period for this purpose. And they will remember that He Is Yahweh their God, their great Deliverer, their covenant Lord, the One to Whom they owe everything. And they will rejoice, and they will worship, and they will remember. And they will renew the covenant.
44 So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.
So in conclusion we see that the seven Biblical Feasts contain and prophetically proclaim the complete Gospel of the Kingdom. This is the same message proclaimed by all of the prophets, the Messiah, our Lord Jesus, and the apostles.
The first three Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits prophetically speak of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
The fourth feast of Pentecost speaks of the first great outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the resultant ingathering of 3000 individuals into the Church in one day.
The message of the spring feasts without the prophetic message of the Fall Feast Days is incomplete. The complete Gospel Message must include the prophetic message of the Fall Feasts as well as the Spring Feasts.
The Fall Days speak of the return of the Messiah and the salvation of the Jewish people. This is an equally integral and essential element of the Gospel message. The message and timing of the Fall Feasts shed much light on the return of our Lord Jesus; His victorious procession and the ultimate triumphal entry that follows.
These events together make up the primary longing, hope and expectation of all believers.
