Lev 23:1-5 | KingComments | STEP | In the previous chapters we read about holy persons, holy garments, holy gifts and holy places. In this chapter we read about seven holy times or feast times. The feasts are presented in this chapter in their context, through which the feasts give a prophetic description. Three feasts are called a feast: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths ( ; ). The seven feasts – seven is the number of perfection or of a full period – describe the way through which God will bring His people from the cross, to the peace of the great sabbath that will dawn for creation: the millennial kingdom of peace. This is the time when everything that God has planned for the earth has come to fulfillment. The chapter begins and ends with the sabbath ( ). If we want to study the prophecy in Scripture, we find many indications in the so-called “three great sevens”: the seven feasts here, the seven parables about the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13, and the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. An overview of the feasts and their prophetic meaning: 1. The Passover ( ) – The death of the Lord Jesus. 2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread ( ) – The sanctified life of the redeemed. 3. The sheaf of the first fruits ( ) – The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.4. The Feast of Weeks ( ) – The coming of the Holy Spirit on earth, through which the church came into existence. Interim ( ) – The time that the church is on earth is the time that Israel is scattered among the nations. When the time of the church on earth is over, a remnant of Israel will be saved, that will be new Israel ( ). They will receive the promised blessing, in which the Gentiles will also have a share through them. 5. The Feast of the trumpet ( ) – There is a spiritual awakening of a remnant in Israel. The scattered Israelites return to their country. 6. The day of atonement ( ) – Repentance and conversion and acceptance of the remnant by the LORD. 7. The Feast of Booths ( ) – The remnant, which is the whole of the new Israel of God, enjoys the promised blessing of the millennial kingdom of peace. God has His appointed times, He destined them for Himself. God has determined them in this way and in that order because in those feasts He shows His ways with His people. Numbers 28 and 29 also mention these feasts, but there the emphasis is more on the offerings that have to be brought. Here the emphasis is on the holy convocations that must take place on those days. This indicates that these feasts are not experienced individually, but as a people. The application for us does not lie in keeping Christian holidays, but in the one meeting that the church knows: “our own assembling together” ( ), the meeting of the church, which we will not forsake. In the meeting of the church, the aspects of all appointed times are dealt with in a spiritual sense. The appointed times or feasts are those of the LORD. He calls them here “ My appointed times” because they are determined or purposed by Him. On those days the people must come together and it is especially important what the LORD gets. For that purpose, these feasts must be ‘proclaimed’ and on those days God’s people are called together. It goes out from the LORD and He is the center of it. What Jeroboam does, who organizes a feast for Israel “in the month which he had devised in his own heart” ( ), is therefore rebellion against God.

‏ Leviticus 23:1-5

Introduction

In the previous chapters we read about holy persons, holy garments, holy gifts and holy places. In this chapter we read about seven holy times or feast times. The feasts are presented in this chapter in their context, through which the feasts give a prophetic description. Three feasts are called a feast: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths (Exo 23:14-16; Deu 16:16).

The seven feasts – seven is the number of perfection or of a full period – describe the way through which God will bring His people from the cross, to the peace of the great sabbath that will dawn for creation: the millennial kingdom of peace. This is the time when everything that God has planned for the earth has come to fulfillment. The chapter begins and ends with the sabbath (Lev 23:3 ; 39).

If we want to study the prophecy in Scripture, we find many indications in the so-called “three great sevens”: the seven feasts here, the seven parables about the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13, and the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3.

An overview of the feasts and their prophetic meaning:

1. The Passover (Lev 23:5) – The death of the Lord Jesus.

2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:6-8) – The sanctified life of the redeemed.

3. The sheaf of the first fruits (Lev 23:9-14) – The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.4. The Feast of Weeks (Lev 23:15-21) – The coming of the Holy Spirit on earth, through which the church came into existence.

Interim (Lev 23:22) – The time that the church is on earth is the time that Israel is scattered among the nations. When the time of the church on earth is over, a remnant of Israel will be saved, that will be new Israel (Rom 11:25-26). They will receive the promised blessing, in which the Gentiles will also have a share through them.

5. The Feast of the trumpet (Lev 23:23-25) – There is a spiritual awakening of a remnant in Israel. The scattered Israelites return to their country.

6. The day of atonement (Lev 23:26-32) – Repentance and conversion and acceptance of the remnant by the LORD.

7. The Feast of Booths (Lev 23:33-43) – The remnant, which is the whole of the new Israel of God, enjoys the promised blessing of the millennial kingdom of peace.

The Appointed Times Are the LORD’s

God has His appointed times, He destined them for Himself. God has determined them in this way and in that order because in those feasts He shows His ways with His people.

Numbers 28 and 29 also mention these feasts, but there the emphasis is more on the offerings that have to be brought. Here the emphasis is on the holy convocations that must take place on those days. This indicates that these feasts are not experienced individually, but as a people. The application for us does not lie in keeping Christian holidays, but in the one meeting that the church knows: “our own assembling together” (Heb 10:25), the meeting of the church, which we will not forsake. In the meeting of the church, the aspects of all appointed times are dealt with in a spiritual sense.

The appointed times or feasts are those of the LORD. He calls them here “My appointed times” because they are determined or purposed by Him. On those days the people must come together and it is especially important what the LORD gets. For that purpose, these feasts must be ‘proclaimed’ and on those days God’s people are called together. It goes out from the LORD and He is the center of it. What Jeroboam does, who organizes a feast for Israel “in the month which he had devised in his own heart” (1Kgs 12:33), is therefore rebellion against God.

The Sabbath Command

The sabbath is separate from the feasts (Lev 23:37-38). The chapter begins with it and ends with it. World history also begins and ends with it: at creation God rests on the seventh day; this world closes its history with the sabbath of the millennial kingdom of peace, the sabbath rest that remains for the people of God (Heb 4:9). Sin soon disturbed the peace of the beginning. This is why the situation that the Lord Jesus speaks of now still applies when He says: “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working” (Jn 5:17). The seven feasts indicate the way God goes to come to the rest of the end.

In a spiritual sense, the life of the believer begins with rest. Only when he has found rest in the work of the Lord Jesus he has rest for his conscience. Then, with that rest in his heart, he can go his way and work for the Lord Jesus in a world where that rest is not present. In that respect, he may look forward to the coming rest of the kingdom of peace. When the believer dies, he may enter into the rest of God in heaven and rest from all his works of faith he has done on earth (Heb 4:10).

The sabbath is the day on which God has rested. It is the rest of God. He wants His people to share in it. The people are obliged to keep that day, as laid down in the law: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exo 20:8). The sabbath is also a day of remembrance in relation with the redemption of the people from the power of Egypt (Deu 5:14-15). Egypt is a picture of the world and sin.

The kingdom of peace shows both aspects: God rests, and the curse is removed and sin restricted. Another meaning of the sabbath is that of a covenant between God and His people (Eze 20:12; Exo 31:12-17). It is a special feature in the distinction between Jew and Gentile.

The sabbath rest that will soon be on earth is already characteristic of the believer. The believers can enjoy this rest together when they come together and have a “holy convocation”. It is the rest of conscience through the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus (Mt 11:28). God wants to come together with His people especially because He enjoys the peace that the Lord Jesus has brought. God rests in Him and in His work. It is a sabbath for all our dwellings, not only during the meetings. This peace may characterize our whole life.

Order to Proclaim the Appointed Times

Now come the feasts that will lead to the peace of the kingdom of peace. They have already been mentioned once in the introduction in connection with the prophetic meaning. Now it is a matter of “the times appointed for them”:

1. The Passover must be held on the 14th of the first month.

2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread immediately follows the Passover and is held from the 15th to the 22nd of the first month.

3. The sheaf of the first fruits is offered on a sabbath after the beginning of the harvest.

4. The Feast of Weeks, the middle one, is celebrated in the third month, fifty days after the offering of the first fruits; this feast is called the Feast of Weeks because it takes place seven weeks after the previous one.

The fifth feast is the start of the second group of three feasts that take place exactly half a year later:

5. The Feast of new moon is on the 1st of the seventh month.

6. The day of atonement is on the 10th of the seventh month.

7. The Feast of Booths is from the 15th to the 22nd of the seventh month.

There is a link between the first group of feasts and the second group of feasts:

1. On 10-1 the Passover lamb must be taken into the house; on 10-7 is the day of atonement.

2. On 15-1 the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; on 15-7 the Feast of Booths begins.

Another division of the feasts can be made according to the words “the LORD spoke to Moses”: Lev 23:1 ; 9 ; 23 ; 26 ; 33.

The harvest feasts can only be celebrated in the land. There are three harvest feasts:

1. The feast of the sheaf of the first fruits is celebrated when the very first grain comes from the land. That is the barley harvest.

2. Fifty days later the wheat harvest follows (Exo 9:31-32; Rth 1:22 ; Rth 2:23) and the wave breads are brought.

3. In the seventh month the last harvest feast, the Feast of Booths, takes place on the occasion of the harvest of grapes and olives.

The Passover

The feasts start with the Passover. The salvation on earth, represented in the sabbath as a picture of the kingdom of peace, begins with what the Passover represents: Christ and His work on the cross (1Cor 5:7b). Similarly, the rest that a sinner has for his conscience is to be found in Christ and His work on the cross. In Exodus 12 God declares the Passover to be a new beginning, “the beginning of months … the first month of the year” (Exo 12:2). There, the seventh month of the year becomes the first month of the year. A sinner who comes to conversion gets and starts a new life.

The first celebration, in Egypt, is in view of the redemption from Egypt. The blood frees them from the judgment of God. It is a unique celebration. It is a picture of the conversion of a sinner. Each subsequent celebration is a remembrance of that event (Num 9:1-5). This is reflected in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, which we celebrate every first day of the week. Here in Leviticus the Passover is a feast for the LORD. It is important that we learn what the Passover Lamb means to God as the foundation upon which He will have a new heaven and a new earth, where sin is no longer thought of.