The Feasts of the Lord – Overview

Bible Study

23

1The Lord spoke again to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these:

3‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.

4‘These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them. 5In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. 6Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. 8But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.’ ”

9Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and you gather its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. 14Until this very day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new produce. It is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

15‘You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. 16You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. 17You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread as a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord. 18Along with the bread you shall present seven one-year-old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. 19You shall also offer one male goat as a sin offering, and two male lambs one year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering with two lambs before the Lord; they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21On this very day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a permanent statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.

22‘When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the stranger. I am the Lord your God.’ ”

23Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24“Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’ ”

26Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 27“On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble yourselves and present an offering by fire to the Lord. 28You shall not do any work on this very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God. 29If there is any person who does not humble himself on this very day, he shall be cut off from his people. 30As for any person who does any work on this very day, that person I will eliminate from among his people. 31You shall not do any work. It is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. 32It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening, you shall keep your Sabbath.”

33Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34“Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord. 35On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. 36For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord; it is an assembly. You shall not do any laborious work.

37‘These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day’s matter on its own day— 38besides those of the Sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts and besides all your vowed and voluntary offerings, which you give to the Lord.

39‘On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. 40Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and branches of trees with thick branches and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41So you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, 43so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’ ” 44So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the Lord.

– Leviticus 23:1-44
(NASB® © 2020)
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Introduction

“This is one of the richest and most significant chapters of Scripture, and it is well for us to reflect on it prayerfully,” wrote C. H. Mackintosh on Exodus 23 in his well-known interpretation of the five books of Moses – and that is certainly true.

Exodus 23 shows us the feast calendar of the people of Israel. Seven feasts were to be celebrated each year. In addition, there was also the weekly Sabbath. Of course, Christians do not keep all these feasts literally (Gal. 4:10; Col. 2:16, 17), but we can understand the exemplary significance of the feasts and learn from them for our life of faith (cf. 1 Cor. 10:6).

So, what is the significance of Leviticus 23? This chapter uses the imagery of the Old Testament to show the work of God’s grace from the cross of the Lord Jesus to the millennial kingdom of peace.

Overview of the feasts

The following is an overview of the feasts in Israel and their significance [1]:

The Sabbath (every week): No work of any kind is to be done. This means the coming Sabbath rests for the people of God.

  • The Passover (on the 14th of the first month): The Passover lamb is slaughtered. Meaning: the death of Christ as the basis of blessing.
  • The Feast of Unleavened Bread (from the 15th to the 21st of the first month): Only unleavened bread may be eaten. Meaning: The whole life of the redeemed is characterized by purity and truth.
  • The Feast of the First Sheaf (on the Sunday after Passover): The first sheaf of the harvest is brought to God. Meaning: the resurrection of Christ.
  • The Feast of Weeks (on the 7th Sunday after the Feast of the Firstfruits): A new grain offering of leaven is offered to the LORD. Meaning: Descent of the Holy Spirit to form the congregation.
  • The Feast of Trumpets (on the 1st of the seventh month): Trumpets are blown in remembrance. Meaning: Return and revival of God’s earthly people at the end of days.
  • The Day of Atonement (on the 10th of the seventh month): Atonement sacrifices are made for the mortifying people. This means Israel’s repentance and acceptance of their Messiah, who brought about atonement on the cross.
  • The Feast of Tabernacles (from the 15th to the 22nd of the seventh month): The people dwell joyfully in Tabernacles. This means the joy of Israel in the kingdom of peace. The first four feasts are feasts in the spring. In typology, they are associated with the first coming of Christ. [2] These feasts are fulfilled.[3] The last three feasts are autumn feasts. They are associated with the second coming of Christ. These feasts have not yet been fulfilled [4].

Right at the beginning of this chapter, it is emphasized that these are the feasts of the LORD; God calls them “My feasts” (Lev. 23:1,2). But when the Lord Jesus was on earth, the Holy Spirit speaks of these feasts as feasts of the Jews (John 5:1; 6:4; 7:2). The “holy assemblies,” which were supposed to have God at their center, had obviously degenerated into a mere form.

The Sabbath

The Sabbath occupies a special position in Exodus 23. On the one hand, it is counted among the feasts (Lev. 23:2); on the other hand, it is not counted among the feasts (Lev. 23:4). It is a special feast, a special time: the weekly day of rest.

The Sabbath is a reminder of God’s creative rest (Ex. 20:11). However, it was only instituted when the people of Israel were redeemed from Egypt (Deut. 5:12-15). The Sabbath became the covenant sign of God’s earthly people (Ex. 31:13). The nations, on the other hand, were never commanded to keep the Sabbath.

The Sabbath speaks typologically of God’s great goal: God wants to rest with pleasure in view of His creation, and He wants people to share in this rest. The entire treatise in Exodus 23 on the feasts of Israel, therefore, begins with the end of God’s ways. It is not uncommon in God’s word that the goal of God is mentioned at the beginning and then the way to it is presented (for example, in Ps. 84; Isa. 52:13-53:12; John 14-16).

We Christians have found rest for our hearts and consciences in Christ, but we still live in a world full of unrest. How good it is to know that a Sabbath rest is still reserved for God’s people (Heb. 4:9)! We wait for it joyfully and with great certainty.

Footnotes:

[1] Two feasts mentioned in the Bible were only added later: They are the Feast of Purim (Est 9:23-32) and the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple (John 10:22), which is also called the Feast of Lights or Hanukkah (= “consecration”).

[2] Remarkably, the New Testament shows the figurative meaning of the first four feasts: see 1 Corinthians 5:7 (Passover), 1 Corinthians 5:7.8 (unleavened bread), 1 Corinthians 15:20.23 (firstfruits), Acts 2:1 (Pentecost / Feast of Weeks).

[3] The Feast of Unleavened Bread plays a special role among the annual feasts, as it has a practical rather than a salvific significance: It is about the holy, righteous life of the redeemed before God in all their days (cf. Lk. 1:75). In this respect, this feast is not yet completely fulfilled. – Apart from the Feast of Tabernacles, it is the only feast that lasts several days.

[4] We find a division of the series of seven into four and three parts several times in Scripture. We need only recall the parables in Matthew 13, the epistles (Rev. 2 and 3), the seven seal judgments, and the seven trumpet judgments (Rev. 6; 8; 11).

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