THE SET FEASTS OF THE
LORD
Lev 23:1-44
IT is ever an instinct of natural religion to observe certain set
times for special public and united worship. As we should therefore
anticipate, such observances are in this chapter enjoined as a part
of the requirement of the law of holiness for Israel.
It is of consequence to observe that the Revisers have corrected the
error of the Authorised Version, which renders two perfectly
distinct words alike as "feasts"; and have distinguished the one by
the translation. "set feasts," the other by the one word, "feasts."
The precise sense of the former word is given in the margin
"appointed seasons." and it is naturally applied to all the set
times of special religious solemnity which are ordained in this
chapter. But the other word translated "feast,"-derived from a root
meaning "to dance," whence "feast" or "festival,"-is applied to only
three of the former six "appointed seasons," namely, the feasts of
Unleavened Bread, of Pentecost, and of Tabernacles; as intended to
be, in a special degree, seasons of gladness and festivity.
The indication of this distinction is of importance, as completely
meeting the allegation that there is in this chapter evidence of a
later development than in the account of the feasts given in Exodus
34, where the number of the "feasts," besides the weekly Sabbath, is
given as three, while here, as it is asserted, their number has been
increased to six. In reality, however, there is nothing here which
suggests a later period. For the object of the former law in Exodus
was only to name the "feasts" (haggim); while that of the chapter
before us is to indicate not only these, -which here, as there, are
three, -but, in addition to these, all "appointed seasons" for "holy
convocations," which, although all mo’adim, were not all haggim.
The observance of public religious festivals has been common to all
the chief religions of the world, both ancient and modern. Very
often, though not in all cases, these have been determined by the
phases of the moon; or by the apparent motion of the sun in the
heavens, as in many instances of religious celebrations connected
with the period of the spring and autumnal equinoxes; and thus, very
naturally, also with the times of harvest and ingathering. It is at
once evident that of these appointed seasons of holy convocation,
the three feasts (haggim) of the Hebrews also fell at certain points
in the harvest season; and with each of these, ceremonies were
observed connected with harvest and ingathering; while two, the
feast of weeks and that of tabernacles, take alternate names,
directly referring to this their connection with the harvest;
namely, the feast of firstfruits and that of ingathering. Thus we
have, first, the feast of unleavened bread, following passover,
which was distinguished by the presentation of a sheaf of the
firstfruits of the barley harvest, in the latter part of March, or
early in April; then, the feast of weeks, or firstfruits, seven
weeks later, marking the completion of the grain harvest with the
ingathering of the wheat; and, finally, the feast of tabernacles or
ingathering, in the seventh month, marking the harvesting of the
fruits, especially the oil and the wine, and therewith the completed
ingathering of the whole product of the year.
From these facts it is argued that in these Hebrew feasts we have
simply a natural development, with modifications, of the ancient and
widespread system of harvest feasts among the heathen; to which the
historical element which appears in some of them was only added as
an afterthought, in a later period of history. From this point of
view, the idea that these feasts were a matter of supernatural
revelation disappears; what religious character they have belongs
originally to the universal religion of nature.
But it is to be remarked, first, that even if we admit that in their
original character these were simply and only harvest feasts, it
would not follow that therefore their observance, with certain
prescribed ceremonies, could not have been matter of Divine
revelation. There is a religion of nature; God has not left Himself
without a witness, in that He has given men "rains and fruitful
seasons," filling their hearts with food and gladness. And, as
already remarked in regard to sacrifice, it is no part of the method
of God in revelation to ignore or reject what in this religion of
nature may be true and right; but rather to use it, and build on
this foundation.
But, again, the mere fact that the feast of unleavened bread fell at
the beginning of barley harvest, and that one-though only
one-ceremony appointed for that festive week had explicit reference
to the then beginning harvest, is not sufficient to disprove the
uniform declaration of Scripture that, as observed in Israel, its
original ground was not natural, but historical; namely, in the
circumstances attending the birth of the nation in their exodus from
Egypt.
But we may say more than this. If the contrary were true, and the
introduction of the historical element was an afterthought, as
insisted by some, then we should expect to find that in accounts
belonging to successive periods, the reference to the harvest would
certainly be more prominent in the earlier, and the reference of the
feast to a historical origin more prominent in the later, accounts
of the feasts. Most singular it is then, upon this hypothesis, to
find that even accepting the analysis, e.g., of Wellhausen, the
facts are the exact reverse. For the only brief reference to the
harvest in connection with this feast of unleavened bread is found
in this chapter 23, of Leviticus, composed, it is alleged, about the
time of Ezekiel; while, on the other hand, the narrative in Exodus
12, regarded by all the critics of this school as the earliest
account of the origin of the feast of unleavened bread, refers only
to the historical event of the exodus, as the occasion of its
institution. If we grant the asserted difference in age of these two
parts of the Pentateuch, one would thus more naturally conclude that
the historical events were the original occasion of the institution
of the festival, and that the reference to the harvest, in the
presentation of the sheaf of firstfruits, was the later introduction
into the ceremonies of the week.
But the truth is that this naturalistic identification of these
Hebrew feasts with the harvest feasts of other nations is a mistake.
In order to make it out, it is necessary to ignore or pervert most
patent facts. These so-called harvest feasts in fact form part of an
elaborate system of sacred times, -a system which is based upon the
Sabbath, and into which the sacred number seven, the number of the
covenant, enters throughout as a formative element. The weekly
Sabbath, first of all, was the seventh day; the length of the great
festivals of unleavened bread and of tabernacles was also, in each
case, seven days. Not only so, but the entire series of sacred times
mentioned in this chapter and in chapter 25 constitutes an ascending
series of sacred septenaries, in which the ruling thought is this:
that the seventh is holy unto the Lord, as the number symbolic of
rest and redemption; and that the eighth, as the first of a new
week, is symbolic of the new creation. Thus we have the seventh day,
the weekly Sabbath, constantly recurring, the type of each of the
series; then, counting from the feast of unleavened bread, -the
first of the sacred year, -the fiftieth day, at the end of the
seventh week, is signalised as sacred by the feast of firstfruits or
of "weeks"; the seventh month, again, is the sabbatic month, of
special sanctity, containing as it does three of the annual seasons
of holy convocation, -the feast of trumpets on its first day, the
great day of atonement on the tenth, and the last of the three great
annual feasts, that of tabernacles or ingathering, for seven days
from the fifteenth day of the month. Beyond this series of sacred
festivals recurring annually, in chapter 25, the seventh year is
appointed to be a sabbatic year of rest to the land, and the series
at last culminates at the expiration of seven sevens of years, in
the fiftieth year, -the eighth following the seventh seven, -the
great year of jubilee, the supreme year of rest, restoration, and
release. All these sacred times, differing in the details of their
observance, are alike distinguished by their connection with the
sacred number seven, by the informing presence of the idea of the
Sabbath, and therewith always a new and fuller revelation of God as
in covenant with Israel for their redemption.
Now, like to this series of sacred times, in heathenism there is
absolutely nothing. It evidently belongs to another realm of
thought, ethics, and religion. And so, while it is quite true that
in the three great feasts there was a reference to the harvest, and
so to fruitful nature, yet the fundamental, unifying idea of the
system of sacred times was not the recognition of the fruitful life
of nature, as in the heathen festivals, but of Jehovah, as the
Author and Sustainer of the life of His covenant people Israel, as
also of every individual in the nation. This, we repeat, is the one
central thought in all these sacred seasons; not the life of nature,
but the life of the holy nation, as created and sustained by a
covenant God. The annual processes of nature have indeed a place and
a necessary recognition in the system, simply because the personal
God is active in all nature; but the place of these is not primary,
but secondary and subordinate. They have a recognition because, in
the first place, it is through the bounty of God in nature that the
life of man is sustained; and, secondly, also because nature in her
order is a type and shadow of things spiritual. For in the spiritual
world, whether we think of it as made up of nations or individuals,
even as in the natural, there is a seedtime and a harvest, a time of
firstfruits and a time of the joy and rest of the full ingathering
of fruit, and oil, and wine. Hence it was most fitting that this
inspired rubric, as primarily intended for the celebration of
spiritual things, should be so arranged and timed, in all its parts,
as that in each returning sacred season, visible nature should
present itself to Israel as a manifest parable and eloquent
suggestion of those spiritual verities; the more so that thus the
Israelite would be reminded that the God of the Exodus and the God
of Sinai was also the supreme Lord of nature, the God of the seed
time and harvest, the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens and the
earth, and of all that in them is.
THE WEEKLY SABBATH
Lev 23:1-3
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children
of Israel, and say unto them, The set feasts of the Lord, which ye
shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My set
feasts. Six days shall work be done: but on the seventh day is a
sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of
work: it is a sabbath unto the Lord in all your dwellings."
The first verse of this chapter announces the purpose of the section
as not to give a complete calendar of sacred times or of seasons of
worship, -for the new moons and the sabbatic year and the jubilee
are not mentioned, - but to enumerate such sacred times as are to be
kept as "holyconvocations." The reference in this phrase cannot be
to an assembling of the people at the central sanctuary which is
elsewhere ordered {Exo 34:23} only for the three feasts of passover,
weeks, and atonement; but rather, doubtless, to local gatherings for
purposes of worship, such as, at a later day, took form in the
institution of the synagogues.
The enumeration of these "set times" begins with the Sabbath (Lev
23:3), as was natural; for, as we have seen, the whole series of
sacred times was sabbatic in character. The sanctity of the day is
emphasised in the strongest terms, as a shabbath shabbathon, a "sabbath
of sabbatism,"-a sabbath of solemn rest, as it is rendered by the
Revisers. While on some other sacred seasons the usual occupations
of the household were permitted, on the Sabbath "no manner of work"
was to be done; not even was it lawful to gather wood or to light a
fire.
For this sanctity of the Sabbath two reasons are elsewhere given.
The first of these, which is assigned in the fourth commandment,
makes it a memorial of the rest of God, when having created man in
Eden, He saw His work which He had finished, that it was very good,
and rested from all His work. As created, man was participant in
this rest of God. He was indeed to work in tilling the garden in
which he had been placed; but from such labour as involves
unremunerative toil and exhaustion he was exempt. But this sabbatic
rest of the creation was interrupted by sin; God’s work, which He
had declared "good," was marred; man fell into a condition of
wearying toil and unrest of body and soul, and with him the whole
creation also was "subjected to vanity". {Gen 3:17-18 Rom 8:20} But
in this state of things the God of love could not rest; it thus
involved for Him a work of new creation, which should have for its
object the complete restoration, both as regards man and nature, of
that sabbatic state of things on earth which had been broken up by
sin. And thus it came to pass that the weekly Sabbath looked not
only backward, but forward; and spoke not only of the rest that was,
but of the great sabbatism of the future, to be brought in through a
promised redemption. Hence, as a second reason for the observance of
the Sabbath, it is said {Exo 31:13} to be a sign between God and
Israel through all their generations, that they might know that He
was Jehovah which sanctified them, i.e., who had set them apart for
deliverance from the curse, that through them the world might be
saved.
These are thus the two sabbatic ideas; rest and redemption. They
everywhere appear, in one form or another, in all this sabbatic
series of sacred times. Some of them emphasise one phase of the rest
and redemption, and some another; the weekly Sabbath, as the unit of
the series, presents both. For in Deuteronomy {Deu 5:15} Israel was
commanded to keep the Sabbath in commemoration of the exodus, as the
time when God undertook to bring them into His rest; a rest of which
the beginning and the pledge was their deliverance from Egyptian
bondage; a rest brought in through a redemption.
THE FEAST OF PASSOVER AND
UNLEAVENED BREAD
Lev 23:4-14
"These are the set feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations,
which ye shall proclaim in their appointed season. In the first
month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, is the Lord’s
passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of
unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye shall eat unleavened
bread. In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall
do no servile work. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto
the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is a holy convocation; ye
shall do no servile work. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be
come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest
thereof, then ye shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your
harvest unto the priest: and he shall wave the sheaf before the
Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the
priest shall wave it. And in the day when ye wave the sheaf, ye
shall offer a he-lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt
offering unto the Lord. And the meal offering thereof shall be two
tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering
made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour: and the drink
offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. And ye
shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor fresh ears, until
this selfsame day, until ye have brought the oblation of your God:
it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your
dwellings."
Lev 23:5-8 give the law for the first of the annual feasts, the
passover and unleavened bread. The passover lamb was to be slain and
eaten on the evening of the fourteenth day; and thereafter, for
seven days, they were all to eat unleavened bread. The first and
seventh days of unleavened bread were to be kept as a "holy
convocation"; in both of which "servile work," i.e., the usual
occupations in the field or in one’s handicraft, were forbidden.
Further than this the restriction did not extend.
The utter impossibility of making this feast of passover also to
have been at first merely a harvest festival is best shown by the
signal failure of the many attempts to explain on this theory the
name "passover" as applied to the sacrificial victim, and the
exclusion of leaven for the whole period. Admit the statements of
the Pentateuch on this subject, and all is simple. The feast was a
most suitable commemoration by Israel of the solemn circumstances
under which they began their national life; their exemption from the
plague of the death of the firstborn, through the blood of a slain
victim; and their exodus thereafter in such haste that they stopped
not to leaven their bread.
And there was a deeper spiritual meaning than this. Whereas, secured
by the sprinkling of blood, they then fed in safety on the flesh of
the victim, by which they received strength for their flight from
Egypt, the same two thoughts were thereby naturally suggested which
we have seen represented in the peace offering; namely, friendship
and fellowship with God secured through sacrifice, and life
sustained by His bounty. And the unleavened bread, also, had more
than a historic reference; else it had sufficed to eat it only on
the anniversary night, and it had not been commanded also to put
away the leaven from their houses. For leaven is the established
symbol of moral corruption; and in that the passover lamb having
been slain, Israel must abstain for a full septenary period of a
week from every use of leaven, it was signified in symbol that the
redeemed nation must not live by means of what is evil, but be a
holy people, according to their calling. And the inseparable
connection of this with full consecration of person and service, and
with the expiation of sin, was daily symbolised (Lev 23:8) by the
"offerings made by fire," burnt offerings, meal offerings, and sin
offerings, "offerings made by fire unto the Lord."
On "the morrow after the Sabbath" (Lev 23:15) of this sacred week,
it was ordered (Lev 23:10) that "the sheaf of the firstfruits of the
(barley) harvest" should be brought "unto the priest"; and (Lev
23:11) that he should consecrate it unto the Lord, by the ceremony
of waving it before Him. This wave offering of the sheaf of
firstfruits was to be accompanied (Lev 23:2-13) by a burnt offering,
a meal offering, and a drink offering of wine. Until all this was
done (Lev 23:14) they were to "eat neither bread, nor parched corn,
nor fresh ears" of the new harvest. By the consecration of the
firstfruits is ever signified the consecration of the whole, of
which it is the first part, unto the Lord. By this act, Israel, at
the very beginning of their harvest, solemnly consecrated the whole
harvest to the Lord; and are only permitted to use it, when they
receive it thus as a gift from Him. This ethical reference to the
harvest is here expressly taught; but still more was thereby taught
in symbol.
For Israel was declared {Exo 4:22} to be God’s firstborn; that is,
in the great redemptive plan of God, which looks forward to the
final salvation of all nations, Israel ever comes historically
first. "The Jew first, and also the Greek," is the New Testament
formula of this fundamental dispensational truth. The offering unto
God, therefore, of the sheaf of firstfruits, at the very beginning
of the harvest, -in fullest harmony with the historic reference of
this feast, which commemorated Israel’s deliverance from bondage and
separation from the nations, as a firstfruits of redemption,
-symbolically signified the consecration of Israel unto God as the
firstborn unto Him from the nations, the beginning of the world’s
great harvest.
But this is not all. For in these various ceremonies of this first
of the feasts, all who acknowledge the authority of the New
Testament will recognise a yet more profound, and prophetic,
spiritual meaning. Passover and unleavened bread not only looked
backward, but forward. For the Apostle Paul writes, addressing all
believers: {1 Corinthians 7, 8} "Purge out the old leaven, that ye
may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also
hath been sacrificed, even Christ: wherefore let us keep the feast,
not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth";-an exposition so plain that comment is scarcely needed. And
as following upon the passover, on the morrow after the Sabbath, the
first day of the week, the sheaf of firstfruits was presented
‘before Jehovah, so in type is brought before us that of which the
same Apostle tells us, {1Co 15:20} that Christ, in that He rose from
the dead on the first day after the Sabbath, became "the firstfruits
of them that are asleep"; thus, for the first time, finally and
exhaustively fulfilling this type, in full accord also with His own
representation of Himself {Joh 12:24} as "a grain of wheat;"which
should "fall into the earth and die, and then, living again, bear
much fruit."
THE FEAST OF PENTECOST
Lev 23:15-21
"And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath,
from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven
sabbaths shall there be complete: even unto the morrow after the
seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new
meal offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your habitations
two wave loaves of two tenth parts of an ephah: they shall be of
fine flour, they shall be baken with leaven, for firstfruits unto
the Lord. And ye shall present with the bread seven lambs without
blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they
shall be a burnt offering unto the Lord, with their meal offering,
and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of a sweet
savour unto the Lord. And ye shall offer one he-goat for a sin
offering, and two he-lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of
peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of
the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Lord, with the two
lambs: they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And ye shall
make proclamation on the selfsame day; there shall be a holy
convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work: it is a statute
forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations."
Next in order came the feast of firstfruits, or the feast of weeks,
which, because celebrated on the fiftieth day after the presentation
of the wave sheaf in passover week, has come to be known as
Pentecost, from the Greek numeral signifying fifty. It was ordered
that the fiftieth day after this presentation of the first sheaf of
the harvest should be kept as a day of "holy convocation," with
abstinence from all "servile work." The former festival had marked
the absolute beginning of the harvest with the first sheaf of
barley; this marked the completion of the grain harvest with the
reaping of the wheat. In the former, the sheaf was presented as it
came from the field; in this case, the offering was of the grain as
prepared for food. It was ordered (Lev 23:16) that on this day "a
new meal offering" should be offered. It should be brought out of
their habitations and be baken with leaven. In both particulars, it
was unlike the ordinary meal offerings, because the offering was to
represent the ordinary food of the people. Accompanied with a
sevenfold burnt offering, and a sin offering, and two lambs of peace
offerings, these were to be waved before the Lord for their
acceptance, after the manner of the wave sheaf (Lev 23:18-20). On
the altar they could not come, because they were baken with leaven.
This festival, as one of the sabbatic series, celebrated the rest
after the labours of the grain harvest, a symbol of the great
sabbatism to follow that harvest which is "the end of the age". {Mat
13:39} As a consecration, it dedicated unto God the daily food of
the nation for the coming year. As passover reminded them that God
was the Creator of Israel, so herein, receiving their daily bread
from Him, they were reminded that He was also the Sustainer of
Israel; while the full accompaniment of burnt offerings and peace
offerings expressed their full consecration and happy state of
friendship with Jehovah, secured through the expiation of the sin
offering.
Was this feast also, like passover, prophetic? The New Testament is
scarcely less clear than in the former case. For after that Christ,
first having been slain as "our Passover," had then risen from the
dead as the "Firstfruits," fulfilling the type of the wave sheaf on
the morning of the Sabbath, fifty days passed; "and when the day of
Pentecost was fully come," came that great outpouring of the Holy
Ghost, the conversion of three thousand out of many lands, {Acts 2}
and therewith the formation of that Church Of the New Testament
whose members the Apostle James declares {Jam 1:18} to be "a kind of
firstfruits of God’s creatures." Thus, as the sheaf had typified
Christ as "the Firstborn from the dead," the presentation on the day
of Pentecost of the two wave loaves, the product of the sheaf of
grain, no less evidently typified the presentation unto God of the
Church of the firstborn, the firstfruits of Christ’s death and
resurrection, as constituted on that sacred day. This then was the
complete fulfilment of the feast of weeks regarded as a redemptive
type, showing how, not only rest, but also redemption was
comprehended in the significance of the sabbatic idea. And yet, that
complete redemption was not therewith attained by that Church of the
firstborn on Pentecost was presignified in that the two wave loaves
were to be baken with leaven. The feast of unleavened bread had
exhibited the ideal of the Christian life; that of firstfruits, the
imperfection of the earthly attainment. On earth the leaven of sin
still abides.
THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS
Lev 23:23-25
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children
of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the
month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial of blowing of
trumpets, a holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work: and ye
shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord."
By a very natural association of thought, in Lev 23:22 the direction
to leave the gleaning of the harvest for the poor and the stranger
is repeated verbally from Lev 19:9-10. Thereupon we pass from the
feast of the seventh week to the solemnities of the seventh month,
in which the series of annual sabbatic seasons ended. It was thus,
by eminence the sabbatic season of the year. Of the "set times" of
this chapter, three fell in this month, and of these, two-the day of
atonement and tabernacles-were of supreme significance: the former
being distinguished by the most august religious solemnity of the
year, the entrance of the high priest into the Holy of Holies to
make atonement for the sins of the nation; the latter marking the
completion of the ingathering of the products of the year, with the
fruit, the oil, and the wine. Of this sabbatic month, it is directed
(Lev 23:25) that the first day be kept as a shabbathon, " a solemn
rest," marked by abstinence from all the ordinary business of life,
and a holy convocation. The special ceremony of the day, which gave
it its name, is described as a "memorial of blowing of trumpets."
This "blowing of trumpets" was a reminder, not from Israel to God,
as some have fancied, but from God to Israel. It was an announcement
from the King of Israel to His people that the glad sabbatic month
had begun, and that the great day of atonement, and the supreme
festivity of the feast of tabernacles; was now at hand.
That the first day of this sabbatic month should be thus sanctified
was but according to the Mosaic principle that the consecration of
anything signifies the consecration unto God of the whole. "If the
firstfruit is holy, so also the lump"; in like manner, if the first
day, so is the month. Trumpets - though not the same probably as
used on this occasion-were alsoblown on other occasions, and, in
particular, at the time of each new moon; but, according to
tradition, these only by the priests and at the central sanctuary;
while in this feast of trumpets everyone blew who would, and
throughout the whole land.
THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
Lev 23:26-32
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Howbeit on the tenth day
of this seventh month is the day of atonement: it shall be a holy
convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls: and ye shall
offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And ye shall do no
manner of work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to
make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul
it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut
off from his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any manner
of work in that same day, that soul will I destroy from among his
people. Ye shall do no manner of work: it is a statute forever
throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be unto
you a sabbath of solemn rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in
the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even shall ye
keep your sabbath."
After this festival of annunciation, followed, on the tenth day of
the month, the great annual day of atonement. This has already come
before us (chapter 13) in its relation to the sacrificial system, of
which the sin offering of this day was the culmination. But this
chapter brings it before us in another aspect, namely, in its
relation to the annual septenary series of sacred seasons, the final
festival of which it preceded and introduced.
Its significance, as thus coming in this final seventh and sabbatic
month of the ecclesiastical year. lay not merely in the strictness
of the rest which was commanded (Lev 23:28-30) from every manner of
work, but, still more, in that it expressed in a far higher degree
than any other festival the other sabbatic idea of complete
restoration brought in through expiation for sin. This was indeed
the central thought of the whole ceremonial of the day, -the
complete removal of all those sins of the nation which stood between
them and God, and hindered complete restoration to God’s favour. And
while this restoration was symbolised by the sacrifice of the sin
offering, and its presentation and acceptance before Jehovah in the
Holy of Holies; yet, that none might hence argue from the fact of
atonement to license to sin, it was ordained (Lev 23:27) that the
people should "afflict their souls," namely, by fasting, in token of
their penitence for the sins for which atonement was made; and the
absolute necessity of this condition of repentance in order to any
benefit from the high priestly sacrifice and intercession was
further emphasised by the solemn threat (Lev 23:29): "Whatsoever
soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be
cut off from his people."
These then were the lessons-lessons of transcendent moment for all
people and all ages-which were set forth in the great atonement of
the sabbatic month, -the complete removal of sin by an expiatory
offering, conditioned on the part of the worshipper by the obedience
of faith and sincere repentance for the sin, and issuing in rest and
full establishment in God’s loving favour.
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
Lev 23:33-43
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children
of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the
feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day
shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work. Seven days
ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth
day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an
offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; ye
shall do no servile work. These are the set feasts of the Lord,
which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an
offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meal
offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, each on its own day:
beside the sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and beside
all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give
unto the Lord. Howbeit on the fifteenth day of the seventh month,
when ye have gathered in the fruits of the land, ye shall keep the
feast of the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a solemn
rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And ye shall
take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of
palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and
ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. And ye shall
keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year: it is a
statute forever in your generations: ye shall keep it in the seventh
month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are homeborn in
Israel shall dwell in booths: that your generations may know that I
made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them
out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."
The sin of Israel having been thus removed, the last and the
greatest of all the feasts followed the feast of tabernacles or
ingathering. It occupied a full week (Lev 23:34), from the fifteenth
to the twenty-second of the month, the first day being signalised by
a holy convocation and abstinence from all servile work (Lev 23:35).
Two reasons are indicated, here and elsewhere, for the observance:
the one, natural (Lev 23:39), the completed ingathering of the
products of the year; the other, historical (Lev 23:42-43), -it was
to be a memorial of the days when Israel dwelt in booths in the
wilderness. Both ideas were represented in the direction (Lev 23:40)
that they should take on the first day "the fruit of goodly trees,
branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of
the brook," fitly symbolising the product of the vine and the fruit
trees which were harvested in this month; and, making booths of
these, all were to dwell in these tabernacles, and "rejoice before
the Lord their God seven days." And to this the historical reason is
added, "that your generations may know that I made the children of
Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of
Egypt."
No one need feel any difficulty in seeing in this a connection with
similar harvest and vintage customs among other peoples of that
time. That other nations had festivities of this kind at that time,
was surely no reason why God should not order these to be taken up
into the Mosaic law, elevated in their significance, and sanctified
to higher ends. Nothing could be more fitting than that the
completion of the ingathering of the products of the year should be
celebrated as a time of rejoicing and a thanksgiving day before
Jehovah. Indeed, so natural is such a festivity to religious minds,
that-as is well known-in the first instance, New England, and then,
afterward, the whole United States, and also the Dominion of Canada,
have established the observance of an annual "Thanksgiving Day" in
the latter part of the autumn, which is observed by public religious
services, by suspension of public business, and as a glad day of
reunion of kindred and friends. It is interesting to observe how
this last feature of the day is also mentioned in the case of this
Hebrew feast, in the later form of the law: {Deu 16:13-15} "After
that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing floor and from thy
winepress thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and
thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the
Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that
are within thy gates, and thou shalt be altogether joyful."
The chief sentiment of the feast was thus joy and thanksgiving to
God as the Giver of all good. Yet the joy was not to be merely
natural and earthly, but spiritual; they were to rejoice (Lev 23:40)
"before the Lord." And the thanksgiving was not to be expressed
merely in words, but in deeds. The week, we are elsewhere told, was
signalised by the largest burnt offerings of any of the feasts,
consisting of a total of seventy bullocks, beginning with thirteen
on the first day, and diminishing by one each day; while these again
were accompanied daily by burnt offerings of fourteen lambs and two
rams, the double of what was enjoined even for the week of
unleavened bread, with meal offerings and drink offerrings in
proportion. Nor was this outward ritual expression of thanksgiving
enough; for their gratitude was to be further attested by taking
into their glad festivities the Levite who had no portion, the
fatherless and the widow, and even. the stranger.
It is not hard to see the connection of all this with the historical
reference to the days of their wilderness journeyings. Lest they
might forget God in nature, they were to recall to mind, by their
dwelling in booths, the days when they had no houses, and no fields
nor crops, when, notwithstanding, none the less easily the Almighty
God of Israel fed them with manna which they knew not, that He might
make them to "know that man doth not live by bread only, but by
every thing that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Deu 8:3." There
is, indeed, no better illustration of the intention of this part of
the feast than those words with their context as they occur in
Deuteronomy.
The ceremonies of the feast of tabernacles having been completed
with the appointed seven days, there followed an eighth day, -an
holy convocation, a festival of solemn rest (Lev 23:36, Lev 23:39).
This last day of holy solemnity and joy, to which a special name is
given, is properly to be regarded, not as a part of the feast of
tabernacles merely, but as celebrating the termination of the whole
series of sabbatic times from the first to the seventh month. No
ceremonial is here enjoined except the holy convocation, and the
offering of "an offering made by fire unto the Lord," with
abstinence from all servile work.
TYPICAL MEANING OF THE
FEASTS OF THE SEVENTH MONTH
We have already seen that the earlier feasts of the year were
also prophetic; that Passover and Unleavened Bread pointed forward
to Christ, our Passover, slain for us; Pentecost, to the spiritual
ingathering of the firstfruits of the world’s harvest, fifty days
after the presentation of our Lord in resurrection, as the wave
sheaf of the firstfruits. We may therefore safely infer that these
remaining feasts of the seventh month must be typical also. But, if
so, typical of what? Two things may be safely said in this matter.
The significance of the three festivals of this seventh month must
be interpreted in harmony with what has already passed into
fulfilment; and, in the second place, inasmuch as the feast of
trumpets, the day of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles all
belong to the seventh and last month of the ecclesiastical year,
they must find their fulfilment in connection with what Scripture
calls "the last times."
Keeping the first point in view, we may then safely say that if
Pentecost typified the firstfruits of the world’s harvest in the
ingathering of an election from all nations, the feast of
tabernacles must then typify the completion of that harvest in a
spiritual ingathering, final and universal. Not only so, but,
inasmuch as in the antitypical fulfilment of the wave sheaf in the
resurrection of our Lord, we were reminded that the consummation of
the new creation is in resurrection from the dead, and that in
regeneration is therefore involved resurrection, hence the feast of
tabernacles, as celebrating the absolute completion of the year’s
harvest, must typify also the resurrection season, when all that are
Christ’s shall rise from the dead at His coming. And, finally,
whereas this means for the now burdened earth permanent deliverance
from the curse, and the beginning of a new age thus signalised by
glorious life in resurrection, in which are enjoyed the blessed
fruits of life’s labours and pains for Christ, this was shadowed
forth by the ordinance that immediately upon the seven days of
tabernacles should follow a feast of the eighth day, the first day
of a new week, in celebration of the beginning season of rest from
all the labours of the field.
Most beautifully, thus regarded, does all else connected with the
feast of tabernacles correspond, as type to antitype, to the
revelation of the last things, and therein reveal its truest and
deepest spiritual significance: the joy, the reunion, the rejoicing
with son and with daughter, the fulness of gladness also for the
widow and the fatherless; and this, not only for those in Israel,
but also for the stranger, not of Israel, -for Gentile as well as
Israelite was to have part in the festivity of that day; and, again,
the full attainment of the most complete consecration, signified in
the tenfold burnt offering-all finds its place here. And so now we
can see why it was that our Saviour declared {Mat 13:39} that the
end of this present age should be the time of harvest; and how Paul,
looking at the future spiritual ingathering, places the ingathering
of the Gentiles {Rom 11:25} as one of the last things. In full
accord with this interpretation of the typical significance of this
feast it is that in Zechariah 14 we find it written that in the
predicted day of the Lord, when (Zec 14:5) the Lord "shall come, and
all the holy ones" with Him, and (Zec 14:9) "the Lord shall be King
over all the earth; the Lord one, and His name one," then (Zec
14:16) "everyone that is left of all the nations shall go up from
year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the
feast of tabernacles"; and, moreover, that so completely shall
consecration be realised in that day that (Zec 14:20) even upon the
bells of the horses shall the words be inscribed, "HOLY UNTO THE
LORD!" But before the joyful feast of tabernacles could be
celebrated, the great, sorrowful day of atonement must be kept, -a
season marked, on the one hand, by affliction of soul throughout all
Israel; on the other, by the complete putting away of the sin of the
nation for the whole year, through the presentation of the blood of
the sin offering by the high priest, within the veil before the
mercy seat. Now, if the feast of tabernacles has been correctly
interpreted, as presignifying in symbol the completion of the great
world harvest in the end of the age, does the prophetic word reveal
anything in connection with the last things as preceding that great
harvest, and, in some sense, preparing for and ushering in that day,
which should be the antitype of the great day of atonement?
One can hardly miss of the answer. For precisely that which the
prophets and apostles both represent as the event which shall usher
in that great day of final ingathering and of blessed resurrection
rest and joy in consummated redemption, is the national repentance
of Israel, and the final cleansing of their age-long sin. In the
type, two things are conspicuous: the great sorrowing of the nation
and the great atonement putting away all Israel’s sin. And two
things, in like manner, are conspicuous in the prophetic pictures of
the antitype, namely, Israel’s heartbroken repentance, and the
removal thereupon of Israel’s sin; their cleansing in the "fountain
opened for sin and for uncleanness." As Zechariah puts it, {Zec
12:10; Zec 13:1} "I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication;
and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced: and they shall
mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son"; and "in that day
there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." And the
relation of this cleansing of Israel to the days of blessing which
follow is most explicitly set forth by the Apostle Paul, in these
words concerning Israel, {Rom 11:12; Rom 11:15} "If their fall is
the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles;
how much more their fulness? If the casting away of them is the
reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but
life from the dead?"
So far, then, all seems clear. But the feast of trumpets yet remains
to be explained. Has Holy Scripture predicted anything falling in
the period between Pentecost and the repentance of Israel, but
specially belonging to the last things, which might with reason be
regarded as the antitype of this joyful feast of trumpets? Here,
again, it is not easy to go far astray: For the essential idea of
the trumpet call is announcement, proclamation. From time to time
all through the year the trumpet call was heard in Israel; but on
this occasion it became the feature of the day, and was universal
throughout their land. And as we have seen, its special significance
for that time was to announce that the day of atonement and the
feast of ingathering, which typified the full consummation of the
kingdom of God, were now at hand. One can thus hardly fail to think
at once of that other event which, according to our Lord’s express
word, {Mat 24:14} is immediately to precede "the end," namely, the
universal proclamation of the Gospel: "This gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the
nations; and then shall the end come." As throughout the year, from
time to time, the trumpet call was heard in Israel, but only in
connection with the central sanctuary; but now in all the land, as
the chief thing in the celebration of the day which ushered in the
final sabbatic month, precisely so in the antitype. All through the
ages has the Gospel been sounded forth, but in a partial and limited
way; but at "the time of the end" the proclamation shall become
universal. And thus and then shall the feast of trumpets also, like
Passover and Pentecost, pass into complete fulfilment, and be
swiftly followed by Israel’s repentance and restoration, and the
consequent reappearing, as Peter predicts, {Act 3:19-21 R.V} of
Israel’s High Priest from within the veil, and thereupon the harvest
of the world, the resurrection of the just, and the consummation
upon earth of the glorified kingdom of God.
Of many thoughts of a practical kind which this chapter suggests, we
may perhaps well dwell especially on one. The ideal of religious
life, which these set times of the Lord kept before Israel, was a
religion of joy. Again and again is this spoken of in the accounts
of these feasts. This is true even of Passover, with which we
oftener, though mistakenly, connect thoughts of sadness and gloom.
Yet Passover was a feast of joy; it celebrated the birthday of the
nation, and a deliverance unparalleled in history. The only
exception to this joyful character in all these sacred times is
found in the day of atonement; but it is itself instructive on the
same point, teaching most clearly that in the Divine order, as in
the necessity of the case, the joy in the Lord, of which the feast
of ingathering was the supreme expression, must be preceded by and
grounded in an accepted expiation and true penitence for sin.
So it is still with the religion of the Bible: it is a religion of
joy. God does not wish us to be gloomy and sad. He desires that we
should ever be joyful before Him, and thus find by blessed
experience that "the joy of the Lord is our strength." Also, in
particular, we do well to observe further that, inasmuch as all
these set times were sabbatic seasons, joyfulness is inseparably
connected with the Biblical conception of the Sabbath. This has been
too often forgotten; and the weekly day of sabbatic rest has
sometimes been made a day of stern repression and forbidding gloom.
How utterly astray are such conceptions from the Divine ideal, we
shall perhaps the more clearly see when we call to mind the thought
which appears more or less distinctly in all these sabbatic seasons,
that every Sabbath points forward to the eternal joy of the
consummated kingdom, the sabbath rest which remaineth for the people
of God. {Heb 4:9}
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