“We accept the responsibility for…
…offerings for appointed feasts…”
Nehemiah 10:33c
Last time we dove into the Offering of First Fruits followed by the Feast of Weeks. We saw the way Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection beautifully fulfilled Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Offering of First Fruits. Then at the celebration of Feast of Weeks, 50 days (pente) after First Fruits, the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost. Glory.
Today we will examine the final three festivals listed in our Leviticus 23 passage.
First up is the Feast of Trumpets:
The Lord said to Moses,
“Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blast. Do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord.’”
Leviticus 23:23-25
We have moved from the month of Sivan (May-June) into the beginning of fall, the 7th month of the Hebrew calendar, Tishri. We have talked on here before about this month’s significance. The beginning of the month (which spans the Gregorian calendar months of September and October), the people of Israel were to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah. source
This Feast begins with a trumpet blast, signaling for the nation it was time for some introspection. Who had they sinned against? What wrongs needed to be made right as the priest was to enter the holy place soon and atone for the community’s sins?
I wrote before: “Seems to me most nations could use some individual and communal introspection these days as well. Spending time thinking through wrongs we can make right, ways individual and systemic sins are perpetuated, acknowledgement of how we are complicit, and recognition of how society treats the most vulnerable would do much to usher in Shalom to our broken world.”
Sure sounds like something we could be doing during a global pandemic, yes? In our desire to return to normal, are there areas in which we would rather not return to the status quo? If you cannot think of any, consider yourself privileged – those for whom the system was designed. It would be wise for all of us, in our desire to return to normal, to ask: who benefits from this norm? Are those the ones pushing for it? Upon whom is being trampled in it? And what do we owe each other as we find these answers?
What could be reimagined during this time? Education, healthcare, poverty, food deserts, minimum wage, housing, rentals and evictions, public transportation could all be up for restructure. As I told a friend, my problem is I don’t know what the answer is for all these issues, but I believe they need to be had. If there are areas where those in power are knowingly using that power to tread upon others, there is time to repent, but there will be a reckoning.
What would you change if you could reimagine sections of our public life together? What if we asked God for that and worked toward that end? May we not waste this worldwide opportunity to examine and change.
Ten days after the Feast of Trumpets is our next Feast, the Day of Atonement, also called Yom Kippur:
The Lord said to Moses,
“The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord. Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God..
…The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest is to make atonement. He is to put on the sacred linen garments and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the people of the community.”
Leviticus 23:26-28; 16:32-33
God’s people were to hold a sacred assembly, observe the day with Sabbath rest, and offer a food sacrifice to God as the priest makes atonement for the nation’s sins on which they had been contemplating.
Our small group was talking (virtually) last night about one of the reasons this virus and our situation is difficult is how acutely aware we are of our finiteness. I can get frustrated with how we will often communally listen to everyone but the actual experts who study epidemiology. Then my friend reminded me those experts disagree with one another, too.
So we don’t know to whom to turn, in what to place our decisions. It all feels so shaky, so human. It seems to me this would be a positive thing, and potentially one goal from the contemplation of wrongs done and the need for atonement.
We all know we’re guilty, don’t we? Need only to look at the mistakes of our past week, without allowing ourselves to blame shift or justify, to know we need someone to rescue us. And a similarly-faulty priest can not make absolute atonement on our behalf. Only our Great High Priest can once for all.
And, while not chronologically in sync with our current calendar month, I found myself delighted by rereading this thread from a while back during Yom Kippur. And the joy which can flow through us in our awareness of sins and their release. We can glory in being small, at our place in creation, and our need for a Rescuer. Obsession with our mistakes can be replaced with joy; focus on our sins can be drowned out by the light of His holiness and perfect love.
Rounding out the month of feasts, and our Leviticus 23 commands, is the Feast of Tabernacles. While all these feasts were commanded and significant, only three required pilgrimage each year to Temple in Jerusalem. Passover, The Feast of Weeks, and this one, The Feast of Tabernacles.
The Lord said to Moses,
“Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present food offerings to the Lord, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work…
“‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest.
On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month.
Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”
Leviticus 23:33-36; 39-43
If you remember, our exiles had already observed this festival since rebuilding Jerusalem. Here they were simply promising to keep it regularly.
As I wrote before, after national introspection, “on Tishri 15-21, an abrupt about-face was commanded, and the people of God were to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles – with joy. This Feast reminded the Israelites how the LORD had sustained them in the wilderness until they entered the Promised Land.
As they lived in tents in the wilderness, so His people were to remember each year by dwelling in temporary shelters or booths. In Hebrew this feast is called Sukkot, which means booths. These booths were to be made with two and a half walls and a ceiling made from “something that grew from the ground and was cut off.” So things like tree branches, corn stalks or sticks. These days, Orthodox Jews will use wooden two-by-fours. (See this informative site.)”
Not only that, but He commands joy:
“Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast – you, yours sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.”
Deuteronomy 16:13-15
Communal partying is again commanded by the God of the Universe. Pretty great, huh? Perhaps not right now if this virus situation has you unemployed, more likely to be exposed than others, or is disproportionately affecting your ethnicity. And, yet, it’s a communal feast. Meaning we don’t need to be coming to the table with everything, and those with more have the opportunity to share.
Yes, let’s. May we reimagine normal, brainstorm creatively, make self-sacrificial change, and honor the dignity of all. He will sustain us.