More reasons to rejoice at the Feast!
MORE REASONS TO REJOICE AT THE FEAST!
The two most exciting, joyful and important holidays that Christians of this world anticipate every year are Easter Sunday, or the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christmas or the birth of Jesus Christ. These two holidays are reasons that fuel the ardor of most so called Christian religion.
To true Christians however, these holidays are not commanded by the Creator of the universe therefore, they are simply called holidays, not Holy Days. These holidays are attractive to most people for they cater to their spiritual desire, want and hunger.
Members of the splintered and scattered Churches of God however, look forward to a different Festival season with much joy just as the ancient Israelites were commanded by God to do. “And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and the Levites, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice” (Deuteronomy16:14-15). Yet there are some differences between our observance of these days and the way the children of Israel prepared for and kept them.
The Israelites lived and functioned within their own national borders having their own government. Today, we in God's Church, are few and scattered in many countries possessing their own different governments. We are in the position of Israelites scattered abroad outside their own land. We must do our best to obey God's laws, but at the same time apply wisdom. Sometimes those governments make obedience to God's laws difficult and stressful. Sometimes some of us experience serious trials as a result.
When we come together to keep the Feast, it is an added joy and source of rejoicing to meet our fellow brethren who have responded to God's truth in His calling. We should remember those who may be less fortunate and who face difficult circumstances in their efforts to observe the Feast. The brethren through the Church are not remiss to this regard, they all know the apostle Paul's instruction in 2 Corinthians 8:14-15, “But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply to their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality: As it is written, HE THAT HAD GATHERED MUCH HAD NOTHING OVER; AND HE THAT HAD GATHERED LITTLE HAD NO LACK.” When this is practiced in the Church, we can see the Spirit of Truth present and active.
If we were living at the time of ancient Israel, we would experience each Holy Day season in association with the cycle of nature around us. Although some of our brethren still have a strong connection with the land, many of us do not. We are essentially an urbanized people. To this respect we are “dislocated people” the implication of which we have to reflect on from time to time.
The law of God was given first in the book of Exodus but God does not want His instruction to be missed so He repeated and expanded it in Deuteronomy which literally means “second law.” The book was designed to speak to many aspects of life as the new generation prepared to enter the Promised Land after wandering in the wilderness for some forty years. They were to become an established theocratic and agrarian society. When we read Deuteronomy chapter 16, we can see that three seasons in the year were prescribed for special assemblies before God: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles (verse 16). Each season was also associated with the events in the cycle of nature in what was to become the territory of Israel. Note that each season that God requires the Israelites to appear before Him are harvest times [see, God's Three Appointed Harvests, May/June 2006 issue of “Prove All Things” magazine].
God's plan for the salvation of the human race was written in the Bible but the people of this world do not want God to intervene in their lives. They reject God's plan as old and obsolete and something Jewish and Mosaic, and only good for the museum.
But to God's true believers, this plan is alive, active and must be obeyed and observed. This plan is the source of their hope and aspiration, their future, their life. They eagerly await the coming of these Feasts, for their understanding of them is “More Reasons to Rejoice” at the Feasts as they keep them.
The Passover was observed in the month of Abib, which in Hebrew means “fresh young ears” [Strong's#24]. Understanding when Abib 1 is for the month to begin will point us to the right day when to observe Passover. An error of only one day in the calculation of the true new moon will give the wrong day to observe the Passover which will deprive one of the protection of Christ's shed blood. Remember, Jesus Christ is our Passover, slain so that His shed blood will protect us from death [both physical and spiritual], we can't afford to miss this by having a wrong day for our Passover observance. This is one reason why we rejoice at the Feast.
The Feast of Weeks followed after the counting of seven weeks “from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain” (Deuteronomy 16:9). Once again the connection to the land and its produce was made clear and gave the Israelites an obvious reminder of where they were in the Holy Day cycle, and of their relationship to their Creator. We should note at this point that this is the second harvest of the year. God had made us understand that there are three resurrections in His plan to redeem mankind. The second harvest or resurrection is not understood and expected by the world or by most Christians, even by other Churches of God. Never did they realize that Christ said, “He would come as a thief” (Revelation 3:3), and that only the faithful and the WISE are to enter (Matthew 24:45), I am speaking referring to the five wise virgins in the parable in Matthew chapter 25. Only those virgins who came prepared with the oil of truth were taken as exemplified by verses 40-41 of Matthew 24. This understanding that other Churches of God do not comprehend because they have no oil of truth is another “Reason to Rejoice” at the Feast. Most Churches of God teach that OIL in the parable of the ten virgins refer to the Holy Spirit.
The Feast of Tabernacles was to be observed,, “when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress” (Deuteronomy 16:13). The agricultural abundance of the end of the summer harvest was the signal for rejoicing before God in a way that was not possible earlier in the year. “And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the strangers and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice” (Deuteronomy 16:14-15).
Since we are mostly disconnected from the agrarian cycle and the lessons it teaches, we need to stop and actively reflect on the fact that God set many patterns in nature, some of them designed to provide for our food and well - being, our prosperity and our health. His generosity and care in providing for us encourages us to be thankful to Him and to acknowledge our dependence as each season of holy time comes around. God intended that the natural cycle of food production engender in us thankfulness and reverence for Him.
Our greater understanding is reason enough that separate us from those who need to buy the truth now and the Israel of old. Not only are we urbanized people, we are also different from the children of Israel in another important way. As members of the spiritual congregation of Israel, we are the people who are living at the end of days (1 Corinthian 10:11). We have been called and live between the first and the second coming of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:28). The children of Israel lived in a different age. As a result, their understanding of the Holy Days was far less complete. The first coming of Christ changed many things. As the apostle John said: “...the Word become flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out saying, “This was He of whom I said, “He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:14-17).
Jesus brought something new that ancient Israel in general have not known. Unfortunately, this concept of bringing something new has been misunderstood by many in the world of traditional Christianity. They have assumed falsely that Jesus came to end the law that God gave to Moses, some even supposed that the Ten Commandments are Jewish and have no application to us. But law is not opposed to grace and truth. Today we have all these three available to us. Also, many assumed that the weekly Sabbath and the annual Sabbaths hold no claim on us. The fact that both kinds of Sabbath are mentioned within the law as God's own Feasts (Leviticus 23), and are designed for our benefit in relationship with Him. People that don't practice the observance of the Holy Days don't realize is that the Sabbath teaches us about God's great plan for humanity. >From the seventh day Sabbath, picturing the Creation to the eventual millennial rest of the kingdom of God, to the annual Sabbaths with their progressive outline of salvation, we can come to see God's purpose for mankind.
Understanding of God's plan expanded with the first coming of Jesus Christ. He said that He came to magnify or expand the meaning and intent of the law of His Father, and not to destroy it (Matthew 5:17). As a result, we should expect that we would understand the intent of the Holy Days in a new light. Other groups of the splintered Churches of God could have benefit from this magnification of the intent or meaning of the law had they not followed the Hebrew/Jewish calendar. The true way for finding the true new moon has already been shown in God's word [Gen. 1:1-5], but they are not buying the truth as the Scriptures tell them in Proverbs 23:23, "Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, instruction, and understanding."
For this reason, God is not revealing to them the greater understanding that He is showing the future bride of Jesus Christ or the wise virgins. There is a price for not obeying God's word as revealed to Moses. They kept the annual Sabbaths but on the wrong day, and this is wrong and hated by God if you read Isaiah 1:14, "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them." Appointed feasts are annual Sabbaths in God's calendar as He told Moses in Leviticus 23, worth reviewing if you have time.
What did the ancient Israelites understand about observing the Holy Day seasons? The Passover was celebrated with a meaning that the Israelites were to teach their children. They were told: "It will come to pass when you come to the land whicch the Lord will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your children say to you, "What do you mean by this service? that you shall say, "It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households....." (Exodus 12:25-27). Similarly, the subsequent Days of Unleavened Bread were a teaching opportunity. "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord.....And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, "This is one because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt" (Exodus 13:6, 8).
But notice that in this teaching nothing is said about the coming sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, nor about coming out of sin and leaven as a type of sin. This understanding came later, and Jesus' first coming was instrumental in introducing these concepts as building blocks in God' plan.
When ancient Israel observed the Feast of Weeks, the priest waved two loaves as firstfruits before God and presented offerings and sacrifices on behalf of the people (Leviticus 23:15-21). But apparently the Israelites had no knowledge or understanding of the future coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. This understanding could only come after Christ's first coming. As Jesus said to His disciples: “ ....it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him [it] to you” (John 16:7).
The effect of the Holy Spirit was to guide the disciples "into all truth" (John 16:13). In the same way, the Feast of Trumpets was a day for an unusual ceremony whose meaning seems quite obscure in the Old Testament. It seems that the ancient Israelites knew little, if anything, of the events of the Book of Revelation and the trumpets to be blown by angelic messengers. The record simply says:” Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 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. You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord' " (Leviticus 23:23-25).
Our understanding comes, in part, from living after the first coming while waiting for the second. We read in the New Testament many references to the return of Jesus Christ with a much more complete grasp of the significance of the blowing of trumpets as a warning and as a signal of God's ultimate intervention in human affairs. Most Churches of God look forward to this day as their first and better resurrection and will be dressed in white linen for the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The truth is, Christ had already done the wedding in heaven with the 144,000 wise virgins. Christ and the saints with Him are coming after Satans wrath for those foolish virgins who were left behind because they had no oil of truth when Christ first came secretly for them. This is another “reason to rejoice” at the feast for having the oil of truth.
Day of Atonement was certainly a difficult day for the children of Israel. Once a year with fasting they acknowledged the serious failure of their sinful lives. The priests were key in presenting the meaningful activities of the day, especially the High Priest. But the elaborate ceremony of the two goats was not explained in terms of Satan and Christ to come. The fate of Satan was pictured but not explained. The Book of Revelation provided much of the essential meaning of the Day of Atonement in one short passage. We are told that God will bind Satan so that he might not deceive the nations for a thousand years (Revelation 20:1-3). Again, this meaning was only explicable after Christ's first coming.
Finally we come to the Feast of Tabernacles and the associated Festival of the Last Great Day. Certainly it was a time of great rejoicing. The children of Israel thanked God for His blessings as they reflected on the abundance of the harvest and the wealth it provides for observing the Festival with liberality. What did they understand of the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles to be? "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. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 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” (Leviticus 23:41-43).
Again the emphasis for them was on their exodus from Egypt, and the abundant blessing of God's deliverance. The revelation of the millennial kingdom of God became progressively clearer, particularly after Christ had come. When the apostles began to give witness to Christ's first coming, Peter took the opportunity to mention the inevitability of His second coming. He told a crowd in Solomon's Porch at the Temple that they should repent of their ways and begin the process of conversion. He said that God would: “ ....send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:20-21). In so doing he taught that there would be a restoration of the government and kingdom of God on the earth ruled by Jesus Christ. Many times certainly the prophets had this referenced but the clarity of the kingdom is much enhanced by Christ's first coming. An indication of this is found in the gospel of Luke where Jesus opened His followers' minds to the evidence about Him contained in the Law and the Prophets (Luke 24:44-45).
There is not much mention of the eighth day of the Feast in the Old Testament. It was a day clearly separated from the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles by being a final Sabbath. It's meaning is not clear until we come to the gospel of John in chapters 7 and 8. There Jesus makes reference to the Holy Spirit flowing from the innermost being of all who desire it in recognition of God's sovereignity in their lives, and shortly afterwards He refers to matters of judgment. “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)” (John 7:37-39). Together with the 20th chapter of Revelation and its depiction of the Great White Throne Judgment, we understand that there will be a just judging of all people by God. All will eventually have their opportunity to accept the sovereignty of God.
“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works” (Rev. 20:12-13).
As we review all that we have come to understand following the first coming of Christ and looking forward to His return, we see again that we have much to rejoice over as we celebrate the season immediately ahead. The children of Israel were blessed inasmuch as they were obedient to the commands of God relating to their particular place and time. Their knowledge was necessarily limited as they pre-figured in their Holy Day observance what was to be revealed as a result of Christ's first coming. We have come to understand the spiritual significance of their physical observance of each Holy Day. For that we should be grateful and rejoice. They rejoiced for the physical blessings flowing from God's presence in their lives. We should rejoice for the same physical blessings, but even more for the spiritual understanding He has made available to us, even though we are as weak as the former congregation of Israel.
Thank God for His mercy in making such wonderful truths available to a select few now. We have more reasons to rejoice at the Feast because we know that God will not let His Word go in vain. We have “more Reasons to Rejoice” this coming Feast.
Sotero Sonza