The Feasts of the Lord

… ...for trying to interpret. Historically speaking, the seven feasts were occasions where faithful Jews would be before God on a certain basis or because of a certain occasion. Some of them were remembrance feasts, like the Passover, remembering their deliverance from Egypt. Others were feasts that had to do with the harvest, either the beginning of the harvest or the time when all the produce of the fields and vineyards had been brought in. And some were feasts of special occasions, either solemn affliction or just a time of joy. That's, I think, about as far as it went for a Jew at the time. But having said this, they were, of course, even at the time then, feasts of the Lord. They were not just a bank holiday or a time of work. They were feasts that had to do with God. And it tells us something already about God's heart, that he wants to have such feasts in which his people would participate and would be involved. He wants them to share something of his thoughts, either being afflicted because atonement was necessary for sins or taking part in the joy of God, which he wanted them to share. Most people would say that of these feasts there were seven, but not everybody counts in the same way. Some people count the Sabbath, and they then count the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread as one feast, and they get seven. Others don't count the Sabbath, and they count the next two feasts separately, and they get seven as well. Now, if you look at chapter 23, you find that in verse 4, which is actually after speaking about the Sabbath, it says, these are the feasts of the Lord. So taking this as a heading, I would agree with those who do not count the Sabbath as part of the seven, even more so because the passage then closes in verse 37 by saying, these are the feasts of the Lord. So it seems that whatever is in between those two verses, these are the feasts. The Passover, sorry, the Sabbath was a regular occurring weekly feast, of course, and you might say it was God's overriding thought. From the beginning, after creation, God rested, and the overriding thought is that God wants to share his rest with his people, and so whatever feast was happening, the Sabbath was observed nonetheless. Now, just so much by way of a little background. The next question, of course, is, well, if this is what the Jews did at the time, and what God wanted them to do, is there anything beyond this in terms of meaning in these feasts, and if so, what authorizes us to say this? Some of you will be used to the idea that the seven feasts give you a prophetic picture. Well, by what authority? I believe there's a great deal of authority to interpret the feasts in this way. If you just take the first four, and now we don't put ourselves into the shoes of Jews anymore, but now we bear in mind that we have the New Testament, and we will find that the New Testament sheds, really, a flood of light onto these feasts. Take the first four. 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7, I think, says, Christ our Passover has been slain. Now, that's the Passover explained, isn't it? It has been, it was a type, and it has been fulfilled. In the same verse, Paul says, let us celebrate the feast of unleavened breads. Speaking of the life of the believer, the feast lasted seven days, a complete period. The whole life of the believer should be without leaven. Take the third feast, the first fruit, and 1 Corinthians 15 tells us twice, in verse 20 and in verse 23, that Christ, the first fruit, has risen, no longer dead, but risen from the dead. And the first fruit, of course, means that there are others to follow. Feast number four, and that's the one we read about, speaks about this, or it's called the Feast of Weeks. It happened 50 days later, and Acts 2 tells us, in verse 1, and when the feast of Pentecost, 50, was fulfilled. So, for the first four feasts, we have already a verse each, with divine authority inspired, that tell us exactly what these feasts are, what their significance is, and by implication, they tell us that four of them have been fulfilled. Now, the last three, they're quite different, and I don't want to talk about them now, perhaps briefly, after we finish with this passage. Just going through these verses quickly, we start in verse 15, and it says, And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. Even by just reading that first sentence, what strikes us is that this feast does not stand alone. There are a lot of parallels between feast four, if I can call it that way briefly, the Feast of Weeks, and feast number three, the first fruit. Just think about this. The second, Feast of Weeks, is fixed in terms of time, relative to the first, 50 days later. Both of them happened on a Sunday, the day after the Sabbath. Both of them involved a meat offering. Both of them involved a first fruit. And I think there's a reason why these two feasts are connected so closely. Basically, having established from Acts 2 that the Feast of Weeks speaks about the church, what would the church be if Christ wasn't there, and if Christ wasn't risen? The Feast of Weeks is defined relative to the Feast of First Fruits. And what is more is that the church seems to take character from Christ. Christ rose on the day after the Sabbath, first day of the week, a new creation. The church was formed on the first day after the Sabbath, the Lord's Day, and it is part of this new creation which God has made. Christ is a first fruit, and in a sense the church is a first fruit as well. And as we come back to that, these are actually two different words in the original Hebrew, but both carry the thought that these are first fruits. And I think that's the first point to take away, as this chapter gives us a picture, a prophetic picture of God's dealings with the world, and the church finds a fairly central part in that, God's thought is that the church takes character from the Lord Jesus. Now it says here that they had to count from this Sunday morning, let's say, when the first fruit sheaf was brought, they had to count seven weeks or 50 days. And it's remarkable that God is never late. God is always on time. In Acts 2, we quoted already, when the Feast of Pentecost was fulfilled. You know, it wasn't only with Feast 4 that God was on time. Remember, even with the first one, the Passover, the Jewish leaders had said Christ should not be taken on the feast. It wouldn't be politically clever, because there would be too many people, and there might be an uproar. And what happened? Christ was crucified exactly on the Passover, and the tithe was fulfilled. Now take the Feast of First Fruits, and that's interesting to me in a twofold way. Not only did Christ rise from the dead on the first, say, Lord's Day, Sunday, after the Passover, but he did it exactly in a year when the interval between those two was three days, so that two prophecies were fulfilled at the same time. The Passover, of course, was fixed always on the 14th. So the interval between the 14th and the next Sunday could be anything from 1 to 7, but in that year it was 3. And you know, God's plan works out, it's on time. And so with Pentecost, when the feast was fulfilled, the Holy Spirit descended, there was the noise, the wind, the cloven tongues of fire, the accompanying signs, and so on. And perhaps, just as a little practical footnote, it might be something for us to take away at the beginning of a new year, and in a time when things are very uncertain, when there are wars, when laws are being passed which are perhaps more anti-Christian than laws that have ever been passed in our country before, it's good to take away the thought that behind the scenes there is God, and he has a prophetic plan that spans everything, and his plan will come to pass. And it has already happened with the first four steps of his seven-step prophetic plan that is pictured in this chapter, and I think we can take confidence from that. Now let's try to look at some of the details here which are very interesting. In verse 16 it says, and you shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. New to me has a twofold meaning. First of all, the church was completely new. It didn't exist in Old Testament times, and it wasn't revealed in Old Testament times. Nobody knew anything about the church. Secondly, the meat offering here was new in the sense that it was different from other normal meat offerings. For those who are not used so much to 17th century English, meat offering doesn't mean that there was meat involved. It was the only one where there wasn't any meat involved, but it was a meal offering. It was basically a bread. But it was different, as we will find out, in the sense that it included an ingredient that normally was strictly forbidden. Verse 17, you shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves. Interesting. That's one of the differences with the preceding feast. Here you've got something that doesn't come straight from the field. You've got something that comes out of the houses. You've got something that has been processed. It's not just the sheaf, but it is a bread. And you see, it's two breads actually, and you see that it really pictures something of what God has done. With Christ, he just raised him. But with the church, he has taken you and me and many others, and he has worked on us. And we have been processed, so to speak, and we have made into a new body. As Ephesians 2 says, a new man has been formed. You may say, well, but here actually, I don't read anything of one body. I read something of two loaves, and that's quite true. The truth of the one body was not revealed in the Old Testament. Now, some have said, well, it's easy. The two loaves then, they can only be Jews and Gentiles. They must be the Jews and the Greeks. Now, I'm not quite sure I can see that, because this is exactly what God wanted to avoid. He didn't want a Jewish church and a Greek church. And whenever in the Book of Acts, for example, and in Galatians, the impression was given that the Jewish believers were something different from the Gentile believers, you find that great care is taken to avoid that impression and to correct it. But the number two in itself seems significant, and it's actually a recurring number in this passage here. You find it's two breads, and also they are made of two tenths deals. And later on, you find the number two again. Now, two speaks of witness. If you're alone, you're not a witness. But two speaks of witness. And isn't that a way for us to look at what the church is meant to be in this world? God has left us here for a reason. God's intention is that the church should be a witness. And a witness to what exactly? Well, you find a little later on that the two breads were made of fine flour. Now, fine flour was something that was used also on the preceding feast. It was something that was used in every meat offering, and it speaks of the pure and perfect life of the Lord Jesus. And I think that tells us already at least part of the answer. Feast number three tells us Christ is risen, and we know that he is ascended. Feast number four tells us there is a new witness, and the witness is to what Christ is. If you read the early chapters of the Acts, you find talks given by Peter, for example. Now, what exactly did he talk about? You know, the recurring theme in whatever the Apostles said in the early chapters of the Acts is Christ is risen, and he's at the right hand of God. And the testimony which they gave in the world was a testimony to him. Now, you may say, and I would agree with that, there's only one way of giving a testimony by preaching. There are other ways. And I think they came out with the early church in Acts 2 and 3 and 4, because this fine flour, the perfect life of Christ, was something that was reflected in the life of these believers. You know, they had all things in common, they had a lot of fellowship together, they were found there, they were of one mind, one heart and one soul, they were found praising God, and there were many moral features which really reflected what Christ had been like. And some have even gone so far as to say what the church really is, is a moral continuation of Christ on the earth. And perhaps we can bear that in mind just under this heading or this picture of the two loaves, a witness to Christ ascended. We're also meant to be a witness or a testimony in that we live according to that which God has said, also about the church. When you receive someone into fellowship, you don't do this because he is signed somewhere on the dotted line, or because he's become a member of something, but because he's become a member of the body of Christ, not some organisation. And that in itself is a witness, a testimony as well. But then it says, they shall be bacon with leaven. And for some it might be a little bit confusing that God suddenly says leaven should be included. You've heard many times perhaps that leaven is a picture of evil, leaven spreads, leaven works in a sort of corrupting sort of way. And now it says leaven should be included. How is that possible? Well it's not that difficult really because if these breads are meant to be a picture of what the church is, how could it be an accurate picture if the leaven wasn't there? Some have imagined that a believer who is born again, he has now got a new nature, which is true, but they have imagined that this means you haven't got the old nature anymore. I don't know quite how they can imagine this, in my life there's plenty of evidence of the contrary, but anyway some have taught this and are still teaching it. Even the type here illustrates what we learn in the New Testament. The believer has a new nature, fine flour, and he has an old nature, the flesh or leaven. But what it says is it should be bacon with leaven. And I don't know whether anybody has tried it out but we've all been told that when leaven is exposed to the fire then it stops working, it doesn't spread anymore. And that's again the teaching of the New Testament. Take Romans 6 verse 14, that sin shall no longer have dominion over you. It doesn't say that sin shall no longer be present with you but it says sin doesn't have dominion. In other words the leaven is bacon, it is stopped and that's how God wants it to be. Also plenty of verses in the New Testament that show that the sin is still there. John says if we say we are without sin we deceive ourselves, and other verses. And then it says these two loaves they are first fruits unto the Lord. Now these days if you want to do a word study you don't need to be a Hebrew scholar you can just type into Google Hebrew first fruits and it comes up with a list of the Hebrew words that are translated first fruits in the Bible and for each word you get a list of passages so it's it's very easy. If you want to use a book you can still do that. However the word that is used in feast number three for the Lord Jesus, it's a very interesting word, it's actually translated beginning in Genesis 1 verse 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Sometimes it means chief. It is used for the chief of the flock in 1 Samuel 15. Amos uses the word and he speaks about the best oils, the chief of the oils, and Job uses the word. Actually when he describes this giant creature, the behemoth, he says it is the chief of the creatures. And I think just taking all these different meanings and references together we get the idea that Christ as the first fruit he is really the first and the chief in an absolute sense. He is the new beginning. But then the church is called first fruit as well and that is in a slightly different sense, not in this absolute sense of the new beginning which was made with Christ, but in the sense that the first fruit of the harvest gives you an idea of what the rest of the harvest is going to be like. And there's a verse, we could just read this in James 1 verse 18, which tells us that we have become first fruits. James 1 18, of his own will beget he us with a word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So what has God done? God beget us, that means he gave us new life and having this new life we have become first fruits of his creatures and there will be others like this. We further learn in Romans that we have already received the first fruits of the Spirit. Now there will be others who will benefit from this. The Spirit will be poured out and others will be blessed in that way. But those who belong to the church, they have that already and therefore they give an idea of what the rest of the harvest is going to be like. You know, we shouldn't be selfish. When we consider what Christ has done and what the harvest is going to be from that work, we shouldn't always just think, well that's us. It's right, it's us, but we're only one family. And there are many other families. There are going to be Jews which are going to be saved, a faithful remnant. There are going to be Gentiles, there are going to be martyrs, there are going to be people who will enter into the Millennium and live on earth. And all of these are part of the great harvest that is a result of Christ's work. And the church is presented as first fruit and associated with Christ in that way. Now verse 18 is very interesting. It describes a series of offerings. It mentions seven lambs without blemish. And by the way, that's extremely comforting because we've just read that with these breads, there's kind of a blemish, isn't there? There's the leaven still there. But now an offering is brought and there's no blemish. Seven lambs without blemish of the first year, one young bullock and two rams, they shall be for a burnt offering. Now, there was a burnt offering as well with piece number three, but it was different. It was just one lamb. And here you find a burnt offering that is, you might say, much more comprehensive, a much fuller burnt offering. Seven already, the completeness. Then you have three different types of animals, each of them of course having a meaning. I think few of us sort of work as closely with animals and are as acquainted with them as people used to be. But a lamb, I think we can all recognize as standing for innocence, it would suffer silently. A ram, very often in scripture, is associated with consecration. When you take, for example, number six, the Nazirite, he had to present the shoulder and breast of the ram. That was the occasion of his consecration. And the bullock would speak to us of the strength with which the work was carried out. It comes out a lot in John's Gospel that the Lord went forth, that he went up bearing the cross. He wasn't led there. And in his strength he accomplished the work. And it seems to suggest that in the church there is perhaps the fullest display and appreciation of that side of Christ's offering, the burnt offering. That which was burnt offering, of course, means the ascending. So that which was burnt completely and which was for God and for his pleasure. And that is and should be appreciated in the church. And I think that the blessings that have been received by the church, they are of course based on the pleasure which God found in his offering. Now then it says there's also a meat offering. With their meat offering, verse 18, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, a sweet savour unto the Lord. Meat offering, we mentioned, speaking of the Lord's perfect life. And when it says their drink offerings, we could turn to Numbers 15, which tells us that with each offering that was brought in the land, there was a type of drink offering that had to be brought with it. And also the type of meat offering, the quantity of flour used, depended on the sacrifice that was brought. Normally the drink offering was made of wine. There are passages where it is mentioned and it is either of water or of human life. But that is more in a figurative sense. Normally it was of wine and wine, of course, according to Judges 9, verse 13, speaks of joy. Joy for man and joy for God. And that's an aspect of the death of Christ which we might perhaps remember a bit more. There was joy, joy for God, when he saw the full devotion of Christ, obedience unto death. And this joy is illustrated in the drink offering, which was, of course, poured out. And this wine poured out, speaks of the Lord's life poured out, and in that giving joy to the heart of God. Now, then you find two offerings which were complete. These first three we talked about, they were all there in the preceding feast. Perhaps in a slightly different form, but they were all there. The two offerings that come next, they are completely new. With the feast of the first fruit, the sheaf, feast number three, let's say, you don't find a sin offering and you don't find a peace offering. And I think we understand why. The sheaf of the first fruit speaks of Christ's risen. And as far as he is concerned personally, there wasn't a need for a sin offering. And there wasn't a need to bring him into fellowship with God through a peace offering. Now that's different with the church. With the church, of course, we heard that the leaven was there. And because of the leaven, a sin offering was needed. And I think knowing this really gives us peace. If we only knew about the burnt offering and the fact that God found pleasure in Christ and in his devotion, would that give peace to your heart? I think it wouldn't. Perhaps in a way it would make it worse, because we would see that God was completely pleased with Christ, even in his death. But here I am with my sins, so what am I going to do now? But that's what the sin offering is for. And you find that the sin of the Israelite had been confessed onto the sin offering. And now he knows my sin has been born. And that is what gives peace for his heart. And not only peace to his heart, but it is the basis for the peace offering. You see, the order is inverse. If you take the list of offerings in Leviticus 1 to 5, it is, of course, burnt offering, meat offering, peace offering, sin offering, trespass. But now you have the sin offering before the peace offering. And I think as far as our experience goes, that's how it is. First, the sin offering needs to be brought, and then we can enjoy fellowship with God. Now why do we say fellowship when it says peace? Well, the special thing about the peace offering was, of course, that it says in Leviticus 7 verse 19, everyone who is pure shall eat of the peace offering. It was different from the burnt offering, which was burnt completely, different from the sin offering where the priest could eat. It was something where everybody could share and basically have the same food, the bread of God. And that speaks, of course, of us having fellowship with God in considering Christ and his work. And the priest shall waive them with the bread of the firstfruits for a waive offering before the Lord, with the two lambs they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. I don't know what you think about a waive offering. There was also a heave offering. The waive offering, I suppose, was waived, moved, you might say moved around under God's eye, so that it could be seen, you might say, from every side. I would describe this as priestly or as worship activity. And a question that arises is, what is it that we move around when we come to God as worshippers? I think what we move around is exactly that which moves us, if you pardon the pun. Whatever moves your heart is what you will in turn move around before God. And the question is whether the things which we've just been speaking about, the perfection of Christ in his offering, in his life, the joy for God's heart from Christ's offering, whether these things move us. When we come to God and worship, what does our worship sound like? Does it sound like, thank you for saving us? Or does it sound like it reflects something of the dignity of Christ, the beauty of his person and the excellency of his sacrifice? And you shall proclaim, verse 21, on the same day that it may be a holy convocation unto you, and you shall do no servile work therein. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. No work. Isn't that something else that is characteristic for the church and for the time of grace? What can we add? We had a couple of verses about the sacrifice of Christ, all the different aspects that were needed and that are the basis of our blessing. And now it says, what about us? And the verse says, you shall do no servile work. You can't do anything. And I think that's really the good news. We can't add anything to what Christ has done. Ephesians 1, you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. What, if you walk faithfully? No, it's just God has given it. God has done it and we can't do any work to get more. Now, of course, a Christian should work and a Christian should serve, but not to add to what Christ has done, just in thankful response. And that work should still not be servile work, work which is done because of force and because you've got to do it. But the work which a Christian does is a work which he likes to do and he does with joy. I think most Christian work that is being done is done unpaid and is done often under difficult circumstances and for little visible reward and it's still a joy to do it. And especially with respect to worship, I think what God is looking for is not that we say, all right, I'll pray now because I've got to do it. Somebody's got to give thanks. It's not meant to be servile work. It's meant to be work that is driven by thankful hearts and by an appreciation of what the Lord Jesus has done. And when you reap the harvest of your land and thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest. And it says later on in the verse, it shall be for the poor and for the stranger I am the Lord your God. I think this last little phrase, I am the Lord your God, shows us that this is something that reflects God's heart. And it's interesting that God has a heart for the stranger and for the poor. God has a heart in which there is mercy and in which there is compassion. And even in the law, which you might say was a very tough document, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, it's legal ground. But even in the law, there are indications of God's mercy and God's goodness and that he wanted something to be left as a blessing for those who were in need. But I think prophetically it has a meaning as well. Verse 22 of course is harvest time and it's the end of the harvest. And there's still a little bit left in the corners of the field and that goes to someone different. It goes to the strangers. You know, the church is the first fruit. But after the church there are going to be others who are going to be blessed. And these other companies, the strangers, they will be able to get something from the edges of that field. I think we shouldn't think, shouldn't assume that verse 22 still talks about the church. There's a large and growing school of thought which basically suggests that the blessings of the church are that the church receives that which belonged to Israel all the time. And they see the church basically as gathering up these fragments in the corners of Israel's fields. But you know, things like the Father's house or blessed with every spiritual blessing, Ephesians 1, those aren't things which you can reap on the corners of the field of Israel. I think they are things that are of a much higher character and they are actually as new to Israel as they are to Gentiles. Now just very, very quickly, verse 23, which we haven't read, takes us to a completely different point in time. And it says, speaking to the children of Israel saying, in the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing the trumpets, a holy convocation. Month seven comes a long time afterwards. God had made a new beginning for the Passover and he says, this month shall be the first month unto you. God changes the whole timetable, the whole calendar, and the first four feasts follow quickly one upon the other, starting from this new beginning. Feast number five doesn't happen until month seven. And interestingly, the seventh month used to be the first one. In other words, we are now back in the old order of things. The first four, completely different, in a new order, based on the new beginning God had made, and they talk about the work of Christ, his resurrection, and the formation of the church. Then nothing happens until month seven, and we are basically back in the old Jewish order. And the feast that is celebrated then is the Feast of Trumpets, and it speaks about the fact that God will call Israel, and they've already got a country now, but they will all return to their country. And then two other feasts follow, and the first of those is the Day of Atonement, and on that day it will be a day of affliction. They will look upon Christ and they will realize he's the one whom we have pierced, and they will pray the confession prayer of Isaiah 53, and they will say, oh, we thought God had punished him, but actually he was bruised for our transgressions. And that is followed by the Feast of Tabernacles, a seven-day feast of joy and rest, speaking of the time when Israel will be blessed in the millennium. And having observed in the beginning that the first four feasts were all accomplished, and on the dot and on time, I think we don't need to be left in any doubt that the other three will be accomplished as well. And before that happens, the rapture, of course, will occur as per 1 Thessalonians 4. Now, I'd like to close with the verses we read in Deuteronomy, which speak about the same feast. And interestingly, Deuteronomy 16 picks out three of the seven feasts, and these were three occasions when the people of Israel had to gather in one place in Jerusalem. And the ones that God chose, where the whole people had to come together, are very significant. It's the Passover, it's the Feast of Weeks, and it's the Feast of Tabernacles. And these are the three feasts that are the basis for God gathering together. Now, why is that? Well, of course, the Passover, the work of Christ, is the basis for everything. God couldn't gather people together at all unless on the basis of the work of Christ. Feast of Weeks, of course, is also a gathering together, not only that they had physically to go to Israel, but in the meaning of it, people being gathered together into the church, baptized into one body. And then the Feast of Tabernacles, not yet fulfilled, but it is also a gathering together when God will gather his people together for blessing. Just one other point, and I'll close with that, about these three feasts that are picked out in Deuteronomy 16. One of them is a feast of affliction, and two of them are feasts of joy. The Passover is the feast where affliction is mentioned. The other two are the feasts where joy is mentioned. And I think that in itself is very telling, because all the affliction really was the Lord's. He died on the cross, and he bore the penalty. And all the joy is really for us, for those who are blessed. But in different ways. The joy on the Feast of Weeks is different from the joy at the Feast of Tabernacle. Just quickly, in verse 10 it speaks about Feast of Weeks, a freewill offering, and in verse 14 it speaks about the joy of the Feast of Tabernacles, and it says just before that, verse 13, after thou hast gathered in the corn and the wine. You see, one is a Christian company, and one is a Jewish company. The Christian company is characterized by a freewill offering, and the Jewish company is characterized by earthly blessing. The harvest, the fruit, all of that has been brought in. A different joy, but joy for both. And perhaps we can close with that note, that really joy is something that is characteristic for the Christian company. The very first occasion where the Lord risen appeared to a small company, who you might say prefigured the church, was the occasion when he showed his side. And now just think about these two events, one when the Lord showed his side to these disciples, and one when he will show his side to the Jews. When he will show it to the Jews, it says they will look at him whom they have pierced, and they will mourn, they will lament. Now when he showed his side, you might say to that little meeting in that room, it says that they had great joy when they had seen him. And you might take the epistles, you might find that the Christian should rejoice all the time. It is a joy that is not dependent on circumstances. It says even glory or rejoice in tribulations. And really, I think those who have been blessed so much and have become part of the church, that they are and should be characterized by that joy. Perhaps we can close with hymn number 296. …