Leviticus 23:1-2
This chapter lists the holy seasons and celebrations along with the required sacrifices. Versions of the calendar can also be found in:
- Exodus 23:12-19
- Exodus 34:18-26
- Deuteronomy 16:1-17
- Numbers 28-29
These feasts were linked to the lunar cycle and thereby the agricultural seasons. These were appointed by God, the one who controls all and created the moon and stars.
These were holy convocations; holy events in which God gives a divine invitation.
Leviticus 23:3
The Sabbath was not set by the lunar calendar or the seasons, but was a weekly event established by God from the beginning and the codified into the law in Exodus 20:8. Work was to cease and the people were to assemble. It was a time of worship. However, very little is known of what specifically took place at these gatherings. Later, we came to know they read the law and there was prayer.
Leviticus 23:4-8
The Passover was instituted in Exodus 12 as the annual commemoration of the events leading up to the Exodus. God often identifies Himself by these events. He used them to reveal Himself, His ways and who the people were in relation to Him. The Passover began at twilight on the 14th of Nissan (preparation had already gone on for several days – Exodus 12)
The fifteenth of Nissan was then the first day of the Feast of Unleavened bread. This would fall about March – April and mark the beginning of Barley harvest. This also commemorates leaving Egypt in haste so their bread was made without leaven. Leaven is also used as a picture of sin; it puffs up by a type of corruption. Israel was leaving Egypt, a type of the world; in doing so, they were leaving their sin and old life behind.
The Feast of Unleavened bread started and ended with holy convocation and days in which no work was to be done. All the days included burnt offerings.
Leviticus 23:9-14
The Feast of Firstfruits celebrated the first harvest. It coincided with Passover and the unleavened bread. In fact, they were restricted from eating the newly harvested grain until the day they presented a sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest to the priest. The sheaf was waved before the Lord. The presentation was representative of the entire harvest and recognition that it was all His.
This was an eventful week for the Jews. Passover, then the Feast of Unleavened bread began with a holy convocation. The Feast of Firstfruits would be toward the beginning of that week. Then the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened bread was a holy convocation. In addition, within that seven day period there would be a Sabbath day.
Verse 15 says that this feast was the day after the Sabbath. In Jesus time,, the day after the sabbath following His crucifixion was the day of resurrection. Jesus became the firstfruits of the grave of many who would follow.
Leviticus 23:15-21
Feast of Weeks
This was the second of the three major festivals. This was fifty days after the day after the Sabbath, which was the Feast of Firstfruits when the sheaf was a wave offering. This marks the beginning of the grain harvest. It also, by tradition, marks the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. In the new covenant, it marks the birth of the church and coming of the Holy Spirit.
It was a time of covenant renewal and pilgrimage. The celebration and worship included bringing the wave offering, animal sacrifices and a drink offering in thanksgiving. How fitting that the church would be born on the day the law was given. The law did its good work, showing men sinful. Jesus came as the perfect sacrifice for all men; died, buried and rose again. He was the firstfruits of many to follow him.
Fifty days was the journey from Egypt to the Mountain of God. It resembles the journey of every man, a journey of redemption from the world to the mountain of God. For the Christian, the law was fulfilled in Christ and Pentecost marks the day God came to a new tabernacle. He came to live in my heart (and yours if you are in Him).
Two loaves of bread, made with the new grain were to baked. This is the only case where the bread of offering was to be leavened. There are many theories about the meaning of the two loaves: For examples, some believer the represent:
- Spiritual Israel and the church
- The old and new Covenant.
- Law and Grace
Maybe, in a way, it's all these and more.
Why made with leaven? No one knows for sure. Leaven is often the picture of sin or corruption. When the Holy Spirit came to live in us, we are still sin-fallen, corrupt in our flesh. He is working in the presence, and in spite of, our sin.
In addition to the bread offering that won't actually be taken before the altar, were 7 lambs, one bull and two ramps. These would be burnt offerings offered with the grain and drink offering. In addition, a one kid of the goats was used for sin offering. Two of the lambs were a peace offering. The lamb would be waved with the bread.
No work was to be done. This was a holy convocation; a divine appointment for worship.
Leviticus 23:22
The celebration and feast were for all. Even those poor, with no harvest to celebrate were included. When reaping the harvest, the corners of the field were left. This and the other gleanings from your harvest were left for the poor and the stranger. This was God's provision for them.
Leviticus 23:23-25
The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah).
This feast was on the first day of the 7th month (Tishri). This was an additional Sabbath day to rest. There was a memorial blowing of the shofar (trumpet). No work was to be done on this day since it was a holy convocation; a divine appointment with the Lord. The blast of the shofar on this day served as advance notice for the Day of Atonement.
See the same at Numbers 29:1-6.
Leviticus 23:26-32
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)
On the tenth day of the 7th month (Tishri) this Feast was held. It was a holy convocation. This was the holiest day of the year and the most important day on the calendar. This was the day the priest entered into the holy of holies. This prefigures our high priest going beyond the veil to make atonement for us with His blood. The people were to afflict their souls – this is thought to be fasting that started on the day before (9th of Tishri). No work was done, it was a solemn time. Atonement was made and the ritual purity fully restored. This was like a annual reset; a time when atoning was made for the impurity and accidental or partial defilement that occurred from the presence of fallen man. The Priests were to maintain the tabernacle and tabernacle worship. This was a day of restoration.
The penalty for not preparing for this day with fasting was severe. This tells us the seriousness of it. In similar fashion, working on that day brought God's judgment against you. It is similar to a sabbath. It was celebrated from sunset the 9th to sunset the 10th.
Leviticus 23:33-36
Feast of Tabernacles (Feast of Ingathering, sukkoth)
The Feast of Tabernacles was on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (Tishri), just 5 days after the Day of Atonement; which was the fall (late September, early October on our calendar), and headed toward the rainy season. It marked the end of the final harvest, as the final grain and fruits were gathered and stored. This even was 7 days long and marked by building booths decorated with greenery for the harvesters. It was symbolic of the wilderness wandering. This also marked the beginning of a new agricultural year
The solemnity of the Day of Atonement was fresh in their mind; this feast was a celebration and a reminder they were chosen and forgiven by God. The first day was a holy convocation, no work was done on this day, it was for a Sabbath rest. For seven days, offerings of fire were made to the Lord. Then on the 8th day there was another holy convocation where no work was done, it was also for Sabbath rest.
Leviticus 23:37-38, 44
These two verses seem to be an interruption of the Feast of Tabernacles discussion. It is a summary statement, a bookend to the beginning statement in verse 1. These were opportunities to worship together before the Lord as a community. These would stand apart from the weekly Sabbath and freewill offerings which were more personal.
Leviticus 23:39-43
It's interesting the bible gives us some of the specifics about the decorating of the booths. This was part of the atmosphere of celebration.
To represent the abundance and lushness of the land, Israelites were instructed to celebrate, decorating their booths with fruit (citron) as well as leaves and branches from willow and palm trees. The festal occasion probably included dancing and processions carrying bundles of the leafy branches. In this way, the people acknowledge the abundance provided by God and communally celebrate the visible fulfillment of the covenant. [Matthews, V. H., Chavalas, M. W., & Walton, J. H. (2000). The IVP Bible background commentary: Old Testament (electronic ed., Le 23:40). InterVarsity Press.]
This was a statute forever for the children of Israel. It is part of their heritage they were not to forget. Zechariah included it in Zechariah 14:16 as part of his 'day of the Lord' passage. In this passage all the nations would come to celebrate it. The booths commemorated their past but the booths also served as temporary shelter for those bringing in the harvest and protecting it until it was brought in.
Milgrom gives us a glimpse into 8th day from the Mishna:
At the close of the first holy day of the Festival of Booths they went down to the Court of the Women where they had made an important rearrangement. And golden candlesticks were there with four golden bowls at their tops and four ladders to each one, and four youths from the young priests with pitchers of oil, holding a hundred and twenty logs, in their hands, which they used to pour into every bowl. From the worn-out drawers and girdles of the priests they made wicks and with them they set alight; and there was no courtyard in Jerusalem that was not lit up with the light of the Libation Water-Well ceremony.
Pious men and men of good deeds used to dance before them with burning torches in their hands and sang before them songs and praises. And the Levites on harps, and on lyres, and on cymbals, and with trumpets and with other instruments of music without number upon the fifteen steps leading down from the court of the Israelites to the Women's Court, corresponding to the Fifteen Songs of Ascent in the Psalms; upon them the Levites used to stand with musical instruments and sing hymns. And two priests stood at the Upper Gate that led down from the Israelites' Court to the Court of the Women with two trumpets in their hands. At cockcrow they sounded a prolonged blast, a quavering note, and a prolonged blast. When they reached the Forecourt they blew a prolonged blast, a quavering note, and a prolonged blast. They kept up prolonged blasts and proceeded until they reached the gate that led out to the east; when they arrived at the gate that led forth to the east they turned their faces to the west and said, "Our ancestors when they were in this place turned 'with their backs unto the temple and their faces toward the east and they prostrated themselves eastwards toward the sun' [Ezek 8:16*], but as for us our eyes are turned to the Eternal." [Milgrom, J. (2004). A Continental Commentary: Leviticus: a book of ritual and ethics (p. 286). Fortress Press.]
The agricultural year was determined by the rains. While the feast was about thankfulness for the harvest and God's provision, it also looked forward. Some associate the waving of branches as symbolic of the plea for the rains over the coming year. Tradition says they poured out a drink offering of water to the Lord as a plea for rain. It was on the last day of the feast that Jesus spoke of the living water.
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
[The New King James Version (Jn 7:37–38). (1982). Thomas Nelson.]
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