“We accept the responsibility for…
…offerings for appointed feasts…”
Nehemiah 10:33c
Last time we looked into some specifics about the offerings for Sabbaths and New Moon celebrations for which the group vowed to take responsibility. Today we will look at two more feasts in detail.
The phrase in today’s verse is “appointed feasts.” The Hebrew for appointed is moed – appointed time, place, or meeting; appointment, definite time, fixed festival, set time, appointed sign, solemn feast, an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose, season).
These were the feasts God’s people had been commanded to observe at the same time each year. Leviticus 23 spells out each of these set festivals. We’ll start with the second one first.
The Festival of Unleavened Bread is intertwined with Passover in our Leviticus 23 verse. So we’ll first look at a more detailed description in Exodus 12:
“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
Exodus 12:17-20
The preparation for Passover includes removing this leaven. “To this very day, this regulation is observed with rigor. Before the day of Passover, the observant family spends weeks cleaning house…Breadcrumbs under the refrigerator are sought out and eliminated. Coat pockets are emptied out. Couch cushions overturned and vacuumed. Cupboards are emptied and cleaned. Anything defined as leaven is removed from the house…” (Source)
Then the festival itself begins the day after Passover, though over time this is thought to have evolved:
“Most scholars believe the two holidays [Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread] were eventually combined in 622 B.C.E. — when, on the orders of Josiah, the king of Judah, a national celebration emerged, which had at its heart a pilgrimage to the Temple and the killing of a Paschal lamb.” (Source)
But now we’re just getting ahead of ourselves.
While this removal of yeast was originally symbolic of how the Israelites left Egypt in a hurry, giving the bread no time to rise, it is also a representation of staying pure to God’s Law.
“Bread is ‘puffed up’ by the process of leavening…It is also a metaphor for our own feelings of being ‘puffed up.’
“What is the process of leavening? It is the process of fermentation. Fermentation takes place as grain or fruits spoil…Thus, leavening is spoiling. We are removing from our homes anything that is, or could be spoiled, from the previous year and replacing it with unspoiled (unleavened) produce…”
“…[These appointed times are] opportunities to examine ourselves for anything that is spoiled in our behavior, our attitudes, our relationships with others and with the world around us and to take it far from our homes, from our workplaces and from our communities.” (Source)
Interesting, huh? Just as followers of Jesus sacrifice in Lent and examine ourselves before partaking in Holy Communion, this appointed time is set aside to observe and repent.
Next up is the Passover:
The Lord’s Passover (pesach) begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.
Leviticus 23:4
Passover originates in the exodus of God’s people from slavery in Egypt. Perhaps you remember the story of the Hebrews being under the thumb of Pharaoh for 400 years. After Moses killed a man in his anger, fled to Midian, and hid out for awhile, God called him back to Egypt through a bush ablaze.
After some bartering with I AM, and being allowed his brother, Aaron, to join him, Moses stood before the mighty Pharaoh with the request, “Let my people go.” If you know the story, it doesn’t work out so well at first. Especially for Pharaoh.
The God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob sends plagues, the final one being the angel of death, taking the firstborn of every household. Except those who killed a lamb and put its blood on their doorposts. The angel of death passed over those homes, thus the name Passover.
And this movement of Yahweh was to be remembered at a set time each year:
“While the Israelites were still in the land of Egypt, the Lord gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron: ‘From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you. Announce to the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice, one animal for each household...
‘Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight. They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the animal. That same night they must roast the meat over a fire and eat it along with bitter salad greens and bread made without yeast...
‘On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you…’
Exodus 12:1-3,6-8,12-13a (NLT)
As noted in Leviticus, the Israelites were to celebrate Passover (Pesach) at sunset on the 14th day of Nisan. This year, it lines up with Wednesday, April 8. “Pesach is observed by avoiding leaven, and highlighted by the Seder meals that include four cups of wine, eating matzah and bitter herbs, and retelling the story of the Exodus.” (Source)
Of course, the timing of this verse and our Holy Week is beautiful. What Christians celebrate as the Lord’s Supper is a Passover Seder Jesus looked forward to eating with his closest friends.
“When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
Luke 22:14-15
And do you not love this application of moed – appointed time? Indeed, our Rabboni had an appointment to fulfill as He was praised all the way into the City of God. Just not the appointment the crowd had in mind.
“…In First Century Judaism, Messianic expectations were running at an all time high. This expectation was only heightened at Passover. In the celebration of Passover, the Festival of Redemption, the people had an eschatological hope. It was believed that the Ultimate Redemption, which was to be brought about through the Messiah, would take place at Passover. Messiah is to be a second Moses who will lead Israel out from under the bondage of the nations…” (Source)
The crowd watched as He turned over tables and made claims to be God. He was not standing up to Rome as expected and in fact seemed bent on upsetting the powers that be in religious life.
Not only does the crowd turn on Jesus, but one of His closest friends turns Him over to be killed. His other friends scatter and Jesus’ blood flows from whippings and thorny crowns, from a heavy cross of torture and nails in His wrists. On the same day, the passover lambs – chosen for being without blemish or defect – were being killed.
“While the slaughter was being performed, the Levites in the Temple chanted the Psalms 113-118, the same Hallel which Yeshua and his disciples would have sung the night before (Pesachim 5:1-7)…” Source
Can you picture the passover lambs being brought to temple as the people chanted the following?
The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
The Lord has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad.
Lord, save us!
Lord, grant us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…
Psalm 118:22-26a
Yes, the Stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone. The Messiah came in a renounced but necessary Way, His Kingdom not of this world, but His heart bleeding for it.
This Holy Week, may we praise our Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Because up from the grave He arose.