THESE ARE MY FEASTS. . . Lev. 23:2
Would God command you to do something and then make it impossible for you to accomplish it? Since the penalty for disobedience (sin) is death, the answer is "No!". We know this is true because he says we have a choice between life and death and he encourages us to choose life.
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life that both you and your seed may live:" (Deu. 30:20).Since the choice is ours, God must provide the means for our obedience to all his commands. Regardless of the situation, he does promise to provide the means for obedience.
"There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able: but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it." (1 Cor. 10:13).God commands the observance of his feasts on specific days of specific months. His instructions are recorded by Moses in Ex. 12:1-57, Lev. 16:1-34, Lev. 23:1-44, Num. 9:1-14, and Deu. 16:1-17.
How important is it to God to observe a specific day? The High Priest was commanded to enter the Holy of Holies (literally coming before God who was on the mercy seat ) on a specific day, to offer the annual atonement sacrifice for all Israel. God declared that should the Priest attempt to enter on any other day, He would kill him (Lev. 16:2). According to the Jewish Talmud, during the period of the Second Temple, so many High Priests were killed upon entering the Holy of Holies, that it became a custom to tie a rope onto the leg of the High Priest, so that if he were killed, others could retrieve his body from outside the vail, without being killed themselves (Source: Talmud: Zohar, Emor, according to Rabbi Baruch Weiner). It would appear that the Jews were often observing the wrong day for Atonement.Life or Death ? How important is it for everyone else to observe the correct day? On the original Passover in Egypt, it was a matter of life or death for all the firstborn (Ex. 12:21-24). And later, anyone who failed to observe Atonement on the correct day would be cut off and destroyed (Lev. 23:27-32). This promise of death for disobedience is "a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings." (Verse 31).
In spite of this, some ministers still insist that "being off a day or so" in observing God's feasts, doesn't really matter. No scriptural basis is offered for this any-day-will-do attitude which is strange considering their determined faithfulness to the weekly, seventh-day Sabbath, which God also calls "my feasts" (Lev. 23:1-44). Some have proposed that unity in observance is more important than accuracy in the schedule, but again there is no scripture to support this opinion.An Appointment with God What does God command regarding the observance of his feasts? In Num. 9:2-14, he commands that Passover (and Unleavened Bread) be observed "in his appointed season". In Gen. 1:14, God explained that the sun and the moon are "for signs, and for seasons, and for years:". And in Lev. 23:2, 14, all the feasts (4150) of the Lord are scheduled by God as "appointments". (The word feasts < Hebrew mow'ed, "an appointment", Strong's 4150).
Whose Feasts Do You Observe?
If you observe feasts, are they the feasts of the Lord (Lev.23:2), or are they "your appointed feasts [which] my soul hates" (Isa. 1:14). In both of these scriptures, the words feast and appointed feasts are translated from the Heb. mow'ed, meaning an appointment, or appointed time. How can God command something on the one hand, and then condemn it on the other? Since God is righteous, the condemnation can only be caused by some commission or omission on our part? (Consider the example of Cain and Abel, Gen. 4:3-7).
God's Schedule of Feast Days
Ex. 12:2, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
3, . . .In the tenth day of this month . . . (they were to take a lamb)
6, . . .until the fourteenth day of the same month . . . (they were to kill the lamb for Passover)
15, Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread: . . . from the first day until the seventh day . . .
18, In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month . . .until the (21st) day . .
Lev. 23:2, . . .Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
3, Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.
4, These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons.5, In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's Passover.
6, And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord, seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
7, In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.
8, . . .in the seventh day is an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.
15, And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, . . . seven sabbaths shall be complete:
16, Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall you number (count) fifty days; . . .
21, . . .that it may be a holy convocation (Pentecost) unto you: you shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
24, . . . In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
25, You shall do no servile work therein: . . .
27, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation . . .
28, And you shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, . . .
34, . . . The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord.
35, On the first day shall be an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.
36, . . .on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you . . . and you shall do no servile work therein.
37, These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, . . .
39, . . .in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, . . .you shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.
(See also Num. 9:1-14, Deu. 16:1-17).God commanded that Passover would be in the first month of the year , Abib (also called Nisan), which corresponds to our Roman calendar dates (in 1999) of Mar.19 to Apr.16 based on astronomical data and not on the "mean" Jewish calculations.(See Ex. 12:1-28; 13:3-4; 23:15; 34:18; Deu. 16:1.)
Simple as 1, 2, 3, ...15 How difficult is this? It requires only that one can count up to 15.
1. Count one for the first month and count to 14/15 for Passover and the beginning of Unleavened Bread.
2. Count from one to seven for the seven days of Unleavened Bread.
3. Count seven Sabbaths or weeks to find Pentecost (Deu. 16:9), [or count fifty days (Lev. 23:15-16)].
4. Count seven to arrive at the seventh month, and count one for the first day of this month which is the feast of Trumpets .
5. Count ten to arrive at Atonement.
6. Count fifteen to arrive at the feast of Tabernacles , and count seven to observe the seven days.
7. Count eight to arrive at the eighth day, the Last Great Day of the feast (Jn. 7:37).Simple, isn't it? Just count. So simple that even a child could do it. Speaking of children, Christ said, "Verily I say unto you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Mat. 18:3). His comment was a response to the disciples' question about who would be greatest in the kingdom and was made in the context of humility or the lack of it. Paul was also inspired to comment about the lack of humility when he wrote, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools," (Rom. 1:22). He was speaking of the foolishness of idolaters (verse 23) who accept the false gods of this world instead of worshipping the true God. So foolishness is linked to a boasting of wisdom, in other words, a lack of humility, while true wisdom is linked to the humility of being child-like as Christ instructed.
This connection between vanity and foolishness, and between humility and wisdom is also seen in 1Cor.1.
"For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty:
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence." (1Cor. 1:19-21, 25, 27-29).
The wisdom of God, which appears as foolishness to the world of human reason, is not the product of man's mind, but comes from the Holy Spirit working in those who have received it.
"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing spiritual thing with spiritual.
But the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:12-14)."Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. . . ." (1 Cor. 3:18-19).
When wisdom equals foolishness. It's not that the world's wisdom is entirely foolishness of itself. The Jewish calendar has been modified until it is accurate to within about a month in 600 years. Its development is an amazing accomplishment considering the primitive state of mathematics and the lack of computers at the time it originated. But man's wisdom seems rather puny considering it took hundreds of years just to figure out the cycles of one star and two planets of one small galaxy among millions of galaxies of the known universe. Man has yet to even find the edge of the created universe. Within the part we know about, our entire planet is considered a speck of dust .
God, in his great wisdom, created and sustains all the universe with its billions of stars in billions of galaxies, while man, after nearly 6,000 years, still cannot even mathematically harmonize the cycles of two rocks and a ball of gas.
"He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion." (Jer. 10:12).
God didn't spend millennia planning and designing the Creation to perfectly fit man's existence just so he could, at the end, say, "Fooled ya, Ha!", and squash him like a bug.
Since the choice between life and death is ours to make, then the understanding, to escape death, must be available (1 Cor. 10:13)."I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life that both you and your seed may live:" (Deu. 30:20).
Choose life. Observe God's feasts on their appointed days.
To understand more about God's appointed feasts, see related article, "The Calendar in the Bible".
Copyright M.H. and G.H. 1999. All rights reserved.