The Feasts of Jehovah
Again the Lord speaks, and to the mediator, commanding him to communicate the revelations, concerning the festivals which follow, to the children of Israel. Times and seasons have to do with earth, and with them the earthly people are concerned. Days and months, and times, and years it behooved them to observe, but with such days and times Christians, as we learn from Gal. 4:9 110, have nothing to do. Paul was afraid of the Galatian saints because they kept them. The Israelites would have been disobedient to God, lawbreakers, if they had not observed them. For the word of Jehovah was, " Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, The feasts of Jehovah, which ye shall call holy convocations, these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation, ye shall do no work therein, a sabbath it is to Jehovah in all your dwellings."
This revelation then begins with the sabbath, which is here classed with the set feasts moadim (lit. appointed times) though generally it is viewed as distinct from them (1 Chron. 23:31; 2 Chron. 2:4;31. 3; Neh. 10:33; Lam. 2:6; Hos. 2:11). But in common with the set feasts it is called a holy convocation (v. 2), and in common withthe day of atonement it is called a sabbath of rest, shabbath shabbathon, for throughout it complete rest from all work was enjoined; first, because on it, as stated in Ex. 20, Jehovah rested; and also in remembrance, as stated in Deut. 5, of Israel's time and condition of servitude in Egypt. On the chief days of their appointed feasts rest from all servile work only was enjoined; and, though the first day of the seventh month, and the first and last days of the feast of tabernacles were called days of rest, shabbathon, to no day was the term Sabbath applied except to the seventh day of the week, and to the tenth day of the seventh month. Classed then as the seventh day was with the moadim (lit. appointed times), it also differed materially from them, and that appears from verses 4 and 37, 38 of this chapter of Leviticus. In verses 37, 38, it is mentioned as distinct from them. In verse 4 we recommence the subject, as it were, of which the lawgiver was to treat, viz., the directions concerning the set feasts, moadim, of Jehovah. But its introduction at the outset of this chapter was surely calculated to impress on the minds of the people, that no stated time of rejoicing, nor of any holy convocation, was to override the perpetual ordinance concerning the sabbath day, and its proper observance. For it was a sign between Jehovah and Israel (Ex. 31:13, 17; Ezek. 20:12, 20).
The set feasts moadim, varied with the year, since the Jewish year had an intercalary month, i.e., an additional month inserted next to Adar, called Veadar, as often as was required, for their months had to correspond with the seasons.
In Nisan or Abib, the first month, the barley harvest began to be ripe; by the middle of Tisri, the seventh month, all harvest and vintage operations had ceased. Hence the term med would especially apply to these times, whereas the sabbath came round regularly each week. Further, it may be observed, that the feasts of the new moons are not included in the appointed times treated of in this chapter.
In all the four last books of the Pentateuch, the chief festivals are specially mentioned. First spoken of in the covenant made between the Lord and Israel at Sinai (Ex. 23:14-16), again mentioned in that unconditional covenant made by the Lord in favor of Israel after they had broken the first covenant (Ex. 34:18-22), we have them treated of somewhat at length in Lev. 23; Num. 28; 29, and Deut. 16 In Num. 28: 29., the lawgiver lays down regulations regarding the number, variety, and character of the offerings at each of the feasts. In
Deut. 16 we learn the conditions of soul in which Israel were to keep the three great festivals of the year. Here in Lev. 23 we have what may be called a kind of ecclesiastical calendar, which is really the history of God's ways in grace with the nation from the day that He took them up to bring them out of Egypt, till the day that He will bring them into full and abiding earthly rest under the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ; just as the blessings, wherewith Jacob blessed his sons, describe in prophetic outline the eventful history of the people in connection with their responsibility, till they finally overcome their enemies.
The appointed feasts began with the passover, to be observed in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, “between the two evenings;" a term which Deut. 16:6 helps us to understand, and Ex. 29:39 will confirm. The passover was to be sacrificed in the evening, at the going down of the sun, and the daily evening sacrifice was offered up " between the evenings." Clearly, then, this phrase cannot mean, as it has been sometimes stated, the period of time between the evening of one day and the evening of the next, speaking after the manner of our computation of time. “Between the two evenings" was a certain time on the fourteenth day of Nisan, and Deut. 16:6 defines it as the going down of the sun.
With this brief notice of the passover on this occasion the lawgiver passed on to the feast of unleavened bread, for the people had been fully instructed how to keep it in the wilderness in Ex. 12; though the condition of soul in which they were annually to commemorate it, when in the land, is not set forth till we come to Deut. 16 So here in the wilderness it is but briefly noticed as the opening festival of their ecclesiastical year. After that, the feast of unleavened bread, which commenced on the following day, is brought prominently before Israel, and in this there is a significance to which Christians as well as Israel should take heed. For if shelter from divine judgment by the blood of the Lamb is known by the soul, leaven, here the type of evil, should be put away, the old leaven to be purged out, and the leaven of malice and wickedness kept out, according to 1 Cor. 5:7,8, and the feast kept with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Hence, on the fifteenth day of Nisan, this feast began, and lasted a whole week, i.e., a complete period of time. During its continuance they were to eat unleavened bread, and on each day of the feast special offerings were prescribed, of which -we read in Num. 28 But though the same offerings were appointed for each day that the feast lasted, the first day and the seventh day were to be observed as days of holy convocation, on which na servile work was to be done. In this manner their ecclesiastical year began. A. people sheltered by blood from divine vengeance, proclaiming by the paschal supper what they owed to the sovereign power of their God, redeemed by the arm of His power from Egypt, they were keeping a festival unto Him, and eating of unleavened bread, betokening by that what becomes those who are in truth the people of God.
After this comes a new revelation, not that the feast of unleavened bread was regarded as ended, for ere it closed a special service was enjoined, viz., the waving of the sheaf, the first fruits of their reaping. This new revelation, which here commences, embraces also the directions about the offering of the first fruits at Pentecost (9-22), the time for the observance of which was reckoned from the day that they waved this sheaf. And here for the first time do we meet with any notice about this sheaf. In Ex. 13, which treats of the institution of the feast of unleavened bread, there is not a word about it. In the wilderness this ceremony was not to be performed. It was only to be observed after that they entered the land, and in no other part of the sacred volume have we any direction about it, but Luke 6:1, as has been pointed out, most probably refers to it. For the " second first deuteroproton sabbath " as the word really is, implies the sabbath next succeeding that one which fell in the week of the feast of unleavened bread; the first sabbath therefore after the waving of the sheaf, by which the people were allowed to partake of the harvest. This interpretation is confirmed by the fact that, whereas the Pharisees found fault with the disciples for eating of the ears of corns on the sabbath, they did not charge them with the offense, which it would have been, had they plucked and eaten of them before the sheaf had been waved. Hence Luke marked the time exactly of that occurrence which he relates. The ripe grain was still uncut, but the wave sheaf had been offered, which left the people free as regards the prohibition of Lev. 23:14, to partake of the fruits of the new harvest.