Feasts and Festivals

I'm glad you decided to stop by today. I hope God is blessing you as you continue to read through the Bible--even while you're reading Leviticus. Just a few more days!

Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Mon, Feb. 23- What did the voice tell Peter to do?
Acts 11:7, “Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’”

And here's the question of the day:
Tues, Feb. 24- What are the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you to proclaim as sacred assemblies?


And here's the reflection of the day:
Though I am tempted to write about the man being stones in Leviticus (Lev 24:10-23), I have already addressed the principle of this issue in an earlier post. No need to be redundant. Instead, I thought it might be helpful to explain what all these festivals are about!

1. The Sabbath: Hopefully you know plenty about this festival. The seventh day is declared a day of holy rest because on the seventh day of Creation, God himself rested. This day is meant not just to be a day of rest, but to be a day dedicated to God. To translated this festival into our contemporary society is difficult, however. Many jobs require folks to work on Sundays or to work six days a week so that Sunday is the only day left for chores. (Not to mention that Sundays are work days for pastors!) If you have a schedule that is not conducive to Sabbath on Sundays, I encourage you to find another day for Sabbath rest.

2. The Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread: This is a ritual observance to celebrate God delivering the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. The Passover originally was celebrated by slaughtering a lamb for a meal with the whole family, to remember when God's Spirit "passed over" the houses of Israelites who put the lambs blood on their doors. It later blended together with the "Feast of Unleavened Bread," which, in its latter days, was a celebration of the first harvest of the season. (Think of the similarities of these two feasts with the whole Exodus story.)

3. First Fruits: This is a celebration of the first crop of seasonal produce--grain, new wine, new olive oil, syrup, leavened food, bread dough, and even wool. The Israelites acknowledge that the earth is the Lord's and therefore its crops are intrinsically holy. And since it was the Lord who led the Israelites to the land, the first part of the crop was to be given to God before the rest could be produced.

4. Festival of Weeks: This festival is a celebration of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. It involved a freewill offering that functions as a ritual response of gratitude to God. As they celebrated, they were also to remember the time when they were enslaved. In the latter years of this festival, it became associated with the Sinai covenant.

5. Festival of Trumpets: This is a feast normally celebrated in September/October, which begins Israel's most sacred month, including the Feast of Booths (Tabernacle) and Day of Atonement. When the trumpets would blast, all work was to cease and the people gathered to hear a reading of God's Law. There were sacrifices, burnt offerings, and a sin offering to make atonement for the people. It was probably an anticipation of the Day of Atonement, which happened 9 days later. Scholars are uncertain what this festival was intended to mark, though is its latter years it became associated with a New Year's celebration.

6. Day of Atonement: This is the annual day of purification. At this time, the high priest enters the holy of holies in the tabernacle; this is the ONLY day of the year in which a person enters this most sacred place. The high priest "places the sins of the community on the head of a goat (the scapegoat) which is sent out to the wilderness. The ritual functions to cleanse the camp of impurities and to remove the sins of the people from the camp" (Eerdman's Bible Dictionary, p 459).

7. The Festival of Booths/Tabernacles: This is a seven day autumn festival associated with gathering produce used in making oil and wine. It is a celebration which is a response to as well as an anticipation of God's blessings. Scholars think this is named for the"booths" which were temporary field shelters constructed by the people during the time of the harvest.

Christianity has developed its own sets of "feasts and festivals" throughout the year. All of our celebrations of seasons have their roots in our Judeo-Christian heritage. Sometimes I wish we made a bigger deal out of the "festivals" that we have. Christmas and Easter get all the glory, but lesser holy-days don't get much attention.

There is something to having rhythm, a cycle of celebrations, that helps us to examine the different aspects of God's story. To focus on new celebrations would be to get us out of our liturgical ruts.

Maybe that's something to think about for next year. . . .

Hope this was helpful!
Allison