The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 3 – 22
There are three Biblical seasons of holy days (Deuteronomy 16:16); the Feast of UnLeavened Bread (ULB), Pentecost, and the Feast Of Tabernacles (FOT). For the purposes of this concept, the surrounding days (Trumpets, Atonement, Last Great Day) are lumped together into one feast season.
God thinks His metaphors and symbols through before He uses them. I’ve yet to pursue one far enough to break the metaphor. And these holy days center around the symbolism of the harvests in Israel. There are three main harvest seasons, the barley, the wheat, and everything else.
Barley is the earliest grain to ripen, having been planted the fall before, and it ripens near Passover time. At that time, the wheat is still green and tender (Exodus 9:32). The wheat ripens around Pentecost, roughly two months later.
It was also planted the fall before, but it grows slower than barley – but when it’s finished, they are nearly indistinguishable – although man esteems wheat above barley. Then the third harvest season is in the fall, a bit before Tabernacles. These crops are either perennial (grapes, fruits, etc.), or were planted around Pentecost (late May) – things like melons, corn, squash, and so on.
Knowing the plan of God as you’ve studied it in these lessons, if you take the time to think those two paragraphs through, you’ll understand a lot about the plan of God without reading any more. At the end of the lesson I will wrap up that metaphor and show you what it means, but take the time now to think about it yourself before you read more – remember, this is not just about studying. It’s about learning to learn, understanding how to understand.
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SHOUTING FOR JOY
The first of the fall feasts is the Feast of Shouting. This is erroneously called the Feast of Trumpets in most Bibles, but God never inspired the use of that word. It was added by translators because that is what the Jews call it; but it is not at all what God said.
It is mentioned directly in only two places in the Bible, first in Leviticus 23:24 where YLT calls it “a Sabbath, a memorial of shouting”, and then in Numbers 29:1, where YLT says on that day “ye do no servile work; a day of shouting it is to you”.
The word translated “shouting” is the Hebrew teruwah. Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (which will be called simply “Strong’s” in future references) says the word means a “clamor, i.e. acclamation of joy or a battle-cry”. 2
So which is it – a day of shouting for joy, or shouting in anger or in battle? We can’t just guess. So we go to the one place in the Bible where we have a record of how this day was observed. After the captivity of the Jews in 585 B.C., they returned to Palestine from Babylon and rebuilt the temple.
There they rediscovered the true religion which they had lost or corrupted in captivity in Babylon. In addition to this being the only record of this feast being kept, it is also the only detailed record of a “holy convocation” anywhere in the Bible. Now read Nehemiah 8:1-3. Several useful facts are contained there.
Everyone attended who “could hear with understanding” – i.e., everyone except perhaps the very young or the very old or the mentally incompetent. The service lasted from morning until midday – so perhaps from 9 to 12.
And this service was on the first day of the seventh month – which is the day of the Feast of Shouting. The law was read and explained and made clear (verse 8), as part of the “holy convocation” (OC church service) commanded on that day.
It’s important to understand the mood of these people; they knew they had sinned horribly and had brought untold grief upon themselves. They were bitterly ashamed of themselves, and rightly so. They were poor, oppressed, had just been brought back to their once-glorious home which was in ruins. Now read verse 9.
So when they heard the law, and realized their sins, they wept; but Nehemiah and Ezra stopped them! Why? Verses 10-11. So what did the people do? Verse 12. This was a day of feasting, of joy, of mirth. So the shouting was shouting for joy, not shouting as in battle! See Ezra 3:12-13 for two more examples of teruwah (shouting) used in this way, albeit on different days.
But now let’s focus on the other word used; Leviticus calls this day a MEMORIAL of (joyous) shouting. But this is the first time this Hebrew word teruwah is used in the Bible! So how can it be a “memorial of teruwah” when it’s the first time it is mentioned?
Well… it IS the first time it is mentioned in the Bible, in terms of chapter and verse. It is not however, the first chronological reference to shouting for joy in the Bible! That is in Job 38:4-7. There God describes the time when He made the Earth; and what happened when He finished? The angels SHOUTED FOR JOY!
God’s days commemorate important events, just as most of man’s holidays do. The creation of the universe was significant. It was a time of joy, of beauty, of optimistic looking forward to the plan of God now set in motion. There was no sin, nothing to mourn, nothing but wonder and happiness and looking forward to new members of the family of God – you and me.
And remembering that feeling of celebration is why we are specifically forbidden from being depressed on this FEAST day. It’s a time to eat, drink, and be merry. To put it bluntly, the Feast of Shouting commemorates the universe’s birthday.
ATONEMENT
Atonement is the exact opposite of the Feast of Shouting. It is a day to be afflicted, to mourn, to deprive yourself of food and water and entertainment. Because Atonement commemorates a day when something terrible happened. It is the only day of its kind in the year. 3
The word translated as atonement is kaphar. It literally means “to cover”. Figuratively, it means to cover up sins, to hide them. Now remembering why God makes a day holy – on that day, something important happened – what would you guess off the top of your head that Atonement represents?
To put it a different way, if atonement means “to hide sin”, when is the FIRST time God would have to put away sin? Why, on the FIRST day it was committed! Thus, a commemoration of cleansing sin would also be a commemoration of the first sin!
No, not the sin of Adam –the REAL first sin. Who is the father of lying (a sin)? John 8:44. Who committed the first sin? 1 John 3:8. But to prove that idea, and to understand it more fully, we need to study how Atonement was observed and what took place on that day. Start by reading Leviticus 16:29-34.
Every year on the tenth day of the seventh month, the high priest entered into the innermost room of the temple. He was allowed to enter there only once a year, on Atonement. The ritual he performed on that day is described in the first part of Leviticus 16.
The priest does several sacrifices on this day, all of which are significant, but you’ll understand those another day. Today we focus on the two goats described in verses 5-10. Notice these two goats are for a sin offering – to take away the sins of Israel.
In verse 8 the priest casts lots – something like flipping a coin, a way for God to show Israel His choice in matters – to divide the goats. One will be for the Lord, and one will be a “scapegoat”. The goat which God chooses is sacrificed to pay for the sins of the people, and the other goat is led off alive into the wilderness (verses 9-10).
Verses 15-17 pick up the story of the Lord’s goat, which is sacrificed to PAY for the sins of the people. Who pays for our sins? Colossians 1:14, 1 Corinthians 6:20, etc. So this sacrificed goat can only represent Jesus, making atonement for our sins – covering them – with His blood.
Leviticus 16:20 picks up the story of the scapegoat, after the sacrifices have all been made, and the payment of Jesus’ blood is symbolically made. Now read carefully what the high priest does to this other goat in verses 21-22. Notice that the sins are PLACED ON the goat. CONFESSED ON HIM. PUT ON HIS HEAD.
The Lord’s goat paid the PRICE for your sins, as your savior. But this second goat bears part of the RESPONSIBILITY for your sins, as the one ultimately to BLAME for your sins BECAUSE HE WAS THE FIRST SINNER and helped mankind learn how to sin! (Genesis 3).
THE REBELLION
In Ezekiel 28:15-16 we are told that in the beginning Satan was PERFECT in all his ways. He wasn’t made evil. He was made righteous. But then iniquity (lawlessness) was found in him. He sinned. And so he was cast out of heaven.
Was the Being who became Jesus present for this event? Luke 10:18. Is there a record of this event in the Bible? Revelation 12:7-9. When Satan led that rebellion into heaven, from that day forward Jesus and Satan, who had up until then worked together closely, had to part ways. 4
Jesus stayed in heaven with His Father, and Satan was cast to Earth – a wilderness that was, at that time, uninhabited (Leviticus 16:22). There was a DAY that iniquity was found in the angel we now call the devil. Not a gradual change, but a SPECIFIC DAY that God recalls (Ezekiel 28:15).
It was on that DAY that sin entered the universe for the first time, and for the first time there was a need for an atonement – a covering – for that sin. This is why Atonement is the saddest day of the year. Because all the unhappiness, sadness, suffering, and death in history happened because of the chain of events started on that day by the sin of Satan.
You may be wondering why it was necessary to cast lots over the goats, to choose which one is the Lord’s goat and which represents the Devil. Simply because there are two Jesuses in the world today. One is the true Jesus, and one – by far the most popular one – is the false Jesus.
God has to decide between these goats because we can’t tell the difference! (2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 13-15). If it were left up to popular vote to pick the true Jesus from the false, man would choose the false Jesus every time! And that’s exactly what man has done, in nearly every church on Earth!
Satan is the master deceiver, and he will tell you whatever it takes for you to choose him. It is only by using the BIBLE that you can pick out the true Jesus from the false! GOD can show you the difference between them, and that is why GOD chose for Israel by having them cast lots each year!
Even the most wicked among us have been deceived by the devil, thanks to the events of that day (Revelation 12:9). On some level, we all have the same excuse Eve used when God asked her to give account for her sins in Genesis 3:13. And so God can forgive us – and punish the devil instead (Genesis 3:14) – for his part in our sins. That is what the scapegoat in Leviticus 16 represents.
But on the other hand, not even the most foolish among us are completely deceived. We all bear some portion of the blame for our actions. The more truth we understand, the more blame we bear when we rebel against it. The law requires you die for those sins (Romans 6:23).
But Jesus voluntarily came and died in your place, so when you stopped sinning and repented, His blood could make an atonement for you. And it is these two parts of the atonement that are necessary for your forgiveness, and both are pictured in Leviticus 16.
When people lose their loved ones they often lose their appetite for days or weeks. If we truly understood the depth and scope of the results of sin that has taken place since this day, we would as well. It was a dark day for the universe. A day to fast, and mourn, the birthday of sin.
TABERNACLES
But with Tabernacles the mood lifts, for now we speak of the harvest and all the good food and feasting God has blessed us with over the summer. Read Deuteronomy 16:13-15. This is a week-long celebration! The year’s work is done (agriculturally speaking). The harvest is in, and this is where you and your family get together with other people of like mind to share your harvest with each other. At least, that was the physical meaning of it.
The captives returning from Babylon were in a similar situation to yours. They had thought they were serving God all these years but then they found God was quite different from what they’d been told. So they had to start from the ground up and learn what the Book really said for themselves. Read Nehemiah 8:14-15. So what did the people do? Verses 16-17. 5
If you’re using an older translation, the word “booths” and “tabernacles” are both old English words meaning simply “tents”, or by extension, temporary dwellings. The command God gave was to dwell in tents for seven days; and since work was forbidden on the 8th day, that meant they automatically had to stay in tents that day as well.
FOT begins the 15th day of the seventh month, and ends the 21st day. Then the 22nd is the Last Great Day (LGD), a holy day, which we will discuss in a moment. So the first day and the 8th day, were holy and no work was to be done.
On the days in between physical labor was allowed, but since they were not at home, it would have been confined to things you do on vacation. And when did Israel go home from Tabernacles? 2 Chronicles 7:8-10.
Now read Leviticus 23:39-43. This feast is also a memorial of Egypt, and as such can never be fulfilled. And we know for a fact this feast will be kept after the return of Christ; read Zechariah 14:16-19. Notice that observance of this feast will not be optional, not even for Gentiles. Not even for Gentiles who are opposed to God’s ways; they will all keep Tabernacles, or they will be cursed.
In Leviticus God specifically gives us the meaning for this day; and so each year we leave our homes behind and remember how Israel also had no home when they came out of Egypt. And that helps to remind us that a home, a “certain dwelling-place” (1 Corinthians 4:11), is not something we can count on in this life, and frankly not something we need (Hebrews 11:13-16, Matthew 8:20). And if we are blessed enough to have a home and a stable life to go with it, Tabernacles will make us appreciate it more when we return to it.
But while ULB commemorates the Exodus and the time up to the crossing of the Red Sea, FOT commemorates the time they spent wandering in the wilderness afterwards. Notice how God phrases it: “That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths”; God MADE the Israelites dwell in booths. When did God do this? Numbers 9:18-23. So for 40 years after the Exodus, God made Israel live in tents.
The Promised Land was only a few hundred miles from Egypt. They could have been there in a few months, even on foot. Then they could have been living in houses, and left behind their tents. But God didn’t let them. Why? Deuteronomy 1:21-40.
That passage tells us how Israel spied out the Promised Land and liked it, but were afraid of the giants who lived in the land so they refused to enter it. They didn’t trust God, and lacked the faith to inherit the promises. How did God feel about those people? Psalms 95:7-11.
Tabernacles pictures the wandering in the wilderness of the faithless Israelites. It’s about the time when, instead of entering the Promised Land, Israel was locked out because of their unbelief. But why, then, is it a time of celebration? Because Tabernacles tells us about the future of those faithless, lost, homeless Israelites! Their story isn’t finished yet!
In Lesson 1-11 you read in Ezekiel 37 about the valley of dry bones, which represented the “whole house of Israel”, who died unsaved (verse 11). You saw there will come a time when those who are lost in this life will be resurrected to a new life, in a better time, and taught the evils of sin by the spirits of just men made perfect – the members of the first resurrection, working directly under God Himself! 6
Unleavened Bread is about the first-fruits, the firstborn, the first harvest – the first resurrection. Those of us who are, even now, being led out of the Egypt of the world and fleeing from the Pharoah who rules over it even today.
But Tabernacles is about the second-fruits, the second harvest, the second resurrection! And it’s a joyous time to celebrate because it’s about the salvation of THE REST OF MANKIND! The vastly greater portion of humanity, those who died unsaved in this life!
THE DUALITY
But we’ll come back to that later, because Tabernacles has a dual meaning. The Bible tells us it pictures the time of the wandering in Egypt; I just said it represented the faithless who end up in the second resurrection, but that isn’t quite true… because not all of the Israelites who wandered were faithless!
Read Numbers 32:11-13. There were 600,000 men able to go to war (in addition to their wives, and their children, and the elderly) who left Egypt with Moses (Exodus 12:37). Probably a total of about two million people.
And of those two million people who left Egypt… only TWO men entered the Promised Land. Everyone else who was of responsible age (over twenty) died in the wilderness. Only Caleb and Joshua were faithful. They trusted God, and they alone qualified to enter the Promised Land out of all those millions of people.
In theory, they could have entered it right then! But they STILL wandered in the wilderness for another 40 years before the rest of the faithless died off, and entered the Promised Land with the new generation. And the Feast of Tabernacles celebrates BOTH groups; not only the hopeful future of the faithless, but the sometimes tedious present of the faithful!
Was John the Baptist in the wilderness? John 1:23. Are God’s flock in a wilderness today? Luke 15:4. Is the true church pictured as being in the wilderness? Revelation 12:6, 14. We, the faithful today, are in a wilderness. We are surrounded on all sides by a desert, a land devoid of truth; a famine of the hearing of the word of the Lord (Amos 8:11).
Everywhere you look are lies, deceptions, evil of every form. The world has turned its back on God at every level. It has rejected every sort of faith in Him, preferring instead to worship a false Jesus and observe false feast days and false commandments. And they, like faithless Israel, will not enter into God’s rest – the first resurrection.
And yet, like those in the original wilderness who rejected God, God has not struck them down with lightning for their sins. The preacher still preaches lies on the corner without being eaten by worms, and the millions flock to church on Sunday to serve the mark of the beast. God has permitted most of the world to live their lives in this wilderness, and only after death to learn of the truth in the second resurrection.
But we who have accepted God, repented of the sins of our earlier life and have professed faith in Christ are still in this same wilderness with the rest of them even though we don’t really belong here! (Hebrews 11:38). The moment you repent of your sins, you aren’t whisked off to heaven nor made immortal because you still have to take your journey with the rest of Israel! 7
What does Paul call our present, physical body? 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. Did Peter say that when he “put off” his tabernacle, he would be dead? 2 Peter 1:13-15. Did John call Jesus’ human body a tabernacle (tent)? John 1:14 [Note: be sure to read this verse in the YLT, Murdoch, or Rotherham versions; most Bibles don’t translate it literally – it should say “He tabernacled among us”.]
Because we, today, dwell in a TABERNACLE! A temporary, physical TENT is all this flesh is, a place for your soul to live until God deems you worthy of a HOUSE, a permanent body that cannot die! (2 Corinthians 5:1).
And after we are resurrected, this holy day season will remind us, throughout eternity, of the time when we dwelt in these flimsy, physical shells of a body that are subject to decay and weakness. It will remind us of the time when, surrounded by a wilderness full of faithless people, we wandered the world poor and despised, when we… well, just read Hebrews 11:33-40.
That’s what Tabernacles is about. It’s about living in temporary dwellings, about the time both the first and second resurrection people spent in a world managed by the devil, which he has successfully turned into a wilderness.
It’s about the time before the Kingdom of God comes to this Earth, and it looks forward to the joy we will experience when it does arrive and when the fall harvest, the GREAT harvest of all mankind starts to come in.
LAST GREAT DAY
There is little said about the Last Great Day (LGD), which is ironic, since it pictures one of the primary purposes of the plan. Most of our understanding of this day comes from the sermon Jesus gave on this holy day in John 7:37-39.
Now here God specifically interprets this for us. You may have noticed God never leaves things to chance. If we need to understand a prophecy or a symbol, He ALWAYS leaves the clues we need to understand it. That’s not to say we don’t ever have to think a bit to put the pieces together, but the Bible ALWAYS interprets the Bible!
John tells us this sermon, given on the Last Great Day, the 8th day from the beginning of Tabernacles, was about the giving of the holy spirit. Now if you think about that, it’s pretty strange. The holy spirit was given on Pentecost, not on the LGD.
Why would Jesus get up on one holy day and give a promise that was to be fulfilled on a different holy day? He wouldn’t. The promise He made on this day was to be fulfilled on this day. To explain that, I have to digress a bit.
Can just anyone come to Christ? John 6:44, 65. Do ministers add people to the church? Acts 2:47. Can ordinary people understand anything about God without God’s help? 1 Corinthians 2:14. Could most of Israel understand the things Jesus said? Matthew 13:10-17.
People who are thirsty CANNOT COME TO CHRIST today, unless God SPECIFICALLY calls them to Him. That may be a shocking statement, but that’s what you just read in John 6. It is IMPOSSIBLE to find God unless He wants you to find Him. 8
Jesus’ promise in John 7, was “if ANY man thirst, let him come to me, and drink”, which John tells us referred to the spirit that He would give to man. So the promise Jesus made was that if ANY man wants the spirit of God, He can come to Jesus and get it… but that is not true today!
That promise has not yet been fulfilled! But is there is a time coming when ALL shall know God? Jeremiah 31:34. And how will that happen? Verse 33. And how will God do that? 2 Corinthians 3:3. You and I have been invited into the NEW covenant, and given a chance today to have the laws of God written on our hearts by His spirit.
But there is a time coming in the future when God will offer that covenant to ALL MANKIND! A time when ALL that are in the graves will HEAR His voice (John 5:28). A time when EVERYONE is given a chance at salvation!
Jesus gave us that message on the Last Great Day because that’s when this prophecy will come true! The Feast of Tabernacles gives us hope for the future of the unsaved, but the Last Great Day FULFILLS that hope, it is the RECEIVING of the promise that ALL who will, can come to Jesus and receive the rivers of living water, the spirit of God!
Each of the holy days pictures a vital part in God’s plan; without the universe, there would be no life at all; without sin, we’d never have known first-hand how horrible it was and could never have committed to avoid it with all our heart.
Without the Passover and Atonement, we couldn’t be forgiven for the sins we already committed; without Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles there could be no understanding of the plan of God, the journey away from sin or truly grasping why we wander in this wilderness today.
But without the Last Great Day, the whole thing would be pretty meaningless. Why? Is the way to salvation a narrow, slippery road? Matthew 7:13-14. Is God’s true church a “little flock”? Luke 12:32. Will the world respect and admire it? John 15:18-19.
Will the true Christian be unwelcome in churches and killed by people who believe they worship God? John 16:2. Will many be saved in this time? Luke 13:23-24. The first resurrection is a small group. They are just the leadership for the world to come.
To use the harvest analogy, it is like picking a basket of the very best peaches from the tree; the prettiest, juiciest ones to take to the county fair. But suppose you stopped then, and just left the rest of the fruit on the tree to rot.
You’d have put all year into planting, pruning, fertilizing and watering this crop; all the work would still be invested. And granted, you would have a basket of the very best peaches around, but that would be a pretty small reward if that was all you ever got! Because by far the vast majority of your “cash crop” is still on the trees!
Those saved today will be the best of the best, the crème de la crème, but God does not want ANYONE to perish (2 Peter 3:9), and will make every effort to save all He can of the roughly 70 billion people who have been born since Adam… not to mention the offspring they will have in that world to come!
Today, God has picked the one-in-a-million, the Calebs and the Joshuas, Davids and Daniels, to be the incorruptible leaders of His Kingdom. But on the last, GREAT day of the feast those men and others like them will help Him to harvest BILLIONS of souls and make them ALL a part of the Family of God! 9
PILGRIMAGE
Up until this point, I have ignored one of the biggest aspects of observing these feasts. God said in Deuteronomy 16:16 that all males were required to appear before God three times a year (Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles), and they were all to appear together “in the place which He shall choose to place His name”.
This was not an optional observance. Every year all males in Israel HAD to travel to Jerusalem, which was where God had chosen to place His temple and His priests, and there they learned about the law and brought their offerings and tithes, following the command, “they shalt not appear before the Lord empty”.
Today, there is no temple; but there is still a priesthood of God. And the true church of God, wherever they are and however small their number, travels for all of the three seasons commanded by God. Jesus’ parents set us a perfect example in Luke 2:41-43.
Notice they didn’t just go up for the Passover, or for a weekend, but they “fulfilled the days”, and THEN they returned home; they kept ALL the Days of Unleavened Bread at the place God had placed His priesthood – Jerusalem.
In the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it is only the first and seventh days that are holy; that is, on them no work may be done. With Tabernacles, only the first and eighth days are holy – the first day of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day.
But while work is permitted on the days in between, God said in Deuteronomy 16:13-16 and elsewhere that you are to celebrate the feast “SEVEN days”, not just the first and last day, because all seven days are part of the feast of God.
The Biblical example is clearly to have gatherings every day of the feast. Read Nehemiah 8:18, which plainly says this. “Day by day” – every day – they listened to Ezra the priest read to them out of the law. The rest of the day was spent celebrating, feasting, enjoying the harvest, having fun, and talking about the Bible.
Another example is in 2 Chronicles 30:21. Again we see the clear example that ALL Israel gathered at one place and kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days “with great gladness”, and they had services “day by day”.
This isn’t some awful chore God demands for His own selfish benefit, this for OUR enjoyment! This is a time to get together with the few people on this Earth who believe like you do; the few people on Earth who have been called by God and understand we are not part of this world.
A time to learn things about God you simply don’t have any way to learn the rest of the year. A time to celebrate the blessings God has given you, both fiscal and spiritual!
Deuteronomy 16, starting in verse 1, tells us to sacrifice our Passover “in the PLACE [in a SINGLE place!] which the LORD shall choose to place his name there” (verse 2). It goes on to say following that, for “seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith” (verse 3). 10
So we eat our Passover AND unleavened bread after journeying to the place where God “placed His name”. Then God explains why He commanded us to make this journey each year: “that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life” (verse 3).
But now God makes it clear that you are forbidden to keep the Passover at home: “Thou mayest NOT sacrifice the passover within ANY of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee” (verse 5). Throughout the Bible it uses the term “your gates” to represent property or cities which belong to you, or which you control (Exodus 20:10 for instance).
So God said you MUST leave those gates to take the Passover, therefore not to do so is a SIN! So where should we keep the Passover? Verses 6-7. But did God mean this ONLY for the Passover, or for all the Days of Unleavened Bread?
Well, what was the rest of His command? “…and thou shalt turn in the morning, [the daylight portion of Passover, before the Night To Be Much Observed] and GO UNTO THY TENTS.” So you see, Israel WAS commanded to be dwelling in tents during Unleavened Bread!
They were not commanded to “leave the church building, and go back home to watch TV”! They were commanded to return to their tents BECAUSE THEY HAD TRAVELED TO GET TO THE PLACE GOD HAD PUT HIS NAME! Three times in a year!
God knows this is inconvenient. He knows with us gone, thieves could come and rob us, we might lose our jobs, and so obeying this commandment requires FAITH in God. Not merely that baby faith of “oh yes, I believe there’s a God”, but REAL faith that YES, God is REAL, and He will REALLY protect you and yours! Because HE PROMISED TO DO SO!
Read His explicit promise for this exact situation in Exodus 34:24. See, Israel was worried about their possessions because three times a year THEY WEREN’T WITH THEM because they had TRAVELED to be where God placed His name! Because keeping these feasts at home is IMPOSSIBLE. That’s right, I said impossible.
Sure, you can take the day off of work and maybe do a bit of extra study, but that wasn’t the command God gave! God said you had to dwell in TENTS for Tabernacles and Unleavened Bread; and you can’t do that at home.
WHO MUST TRAVEL?
The command is specifically given to Israelite males: Deuteronomy 16:16. However, the example given is usually of the entire family traveling to Jerusalem together: Luke 2:41-43. There were large groups of relatives who all traveled together: verse 44.
On the other hand, pregnant women and young children sometimes did not go to the Feast: 1 Samuel 1:21-23. And someone had to stay home to take care of animals; probably those too old to travel, or uncircumcised servants.
But in the New Testament, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). So are women required to go or not? 11
The answer is simple. God said you cannot eat the Passover within your gates (Deuteronomy 16:5). Therefore you must travel to eat it. Jesus said anyone who didn’t eat His flesh and drink His blood could not receive eternal life (John 6:53-54). He later showed these symbols were the new Passover service (Matthew 26:26-28).
Therefore anyone, man or woman, who doesn’t eat the body and drink the blood of Christ at the Passover yearly is not a Christian. You cannot eat the Passover without traveling. Therefore, all baptized men and women must travel to the feasts.
But why were women exempted from travel in the Old Testament? The Old Covenant commands came with Old Testament promises. Those promises were made to, and inherited by, men. Therefore, there was no reason for women to travel to eat the Passover, because it pictured a covenant which excluded them.
Women were not circumcised; they had no physical sign of commitment to any covenant with God. Until marriage their access to the covenant was through their father, and after marriage their access was through their husband (see 1 Corinthians 14:35).
They had a physical sign of their covenant with their husband, similar to our wedding rings today, and that gave them access to the blessings of God through those who traveled to the feasts. However in the New Covenant there are new promises, made to both men and women.
Baptism has now replaced circumcision as the symbol of the covenant you make with God (that’s another lesson), and now men and women can both have access to God directly (2 Corinthians 6:18). Both can take the symbol of the Covenant (baptism), and therefore both have access to the blood and body of Christ (the Passover).
Because now men and women, husband and wife, are heirs TOGETHER of the grace of life (1 Peter 3:7). The word “heirs” there is important, because that is what we are. Heirs of life. And the Passover service is the last will and testament of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:15-17).
Online Bible Greek Lexicon says this Greek word translated as testament means “the last disposition which one makes of his earthly possessions after his death, a testament or will”. That is what the New Testament means; it is a new will, promising a new inheritance for us. An eternal inheritance.
The Passover service is in effect the reading of that will. And should not the heirs of Christ be present at the reading of His will – wherever it is read?
BUT HOW CAN I PAY FOR THIS?
If you truly trusted God, you wouldn’t care; you’d know He has provided a way for you to obey His commandments (1 Corinthians 10:13). And if you trust Him, a way will always be there for you to travel to the feasts as He commanded.
But God created a way for even faithless Israelites to pay for this, knowing they would never do it otherwise. You learned in Lesson 2-11 about first tithe; the first tenth of your income which goes to God. You should be practicing it by now, if not, why? Do you not think stealing from God is a big deal? Malachi 3:8-9. 12
If you don’t want to give it to me, fine, I don’t need it anyway; but you do need to be tithing to someone acting as a representative of the true priesthood, someone spreading the truth of God, otherwise… why are you pretending to obey God if you don’t want to obey Him where it costs you anything?
As I said though, that’s first tithe. There are also two other tithes mentioned, called for convenience second and third tithe. These are used for, respectively, the feasts and the poor. Second tithe is talked about primarily in Deuteronomy 14 starting in verse 22, so start reading there.
Remember the first tithe was all for the priests; no one but a Levite could eat it (Leviticus 27:30, 22:10). But here it speaks of a tithe saying YOU are to eat your tithe. This cannot be the same tenth, nor any portion of it, for that tenth has been spent already on the priesthood. It’s gone! It can’t be eaten twice!
But notice in verse 23 what God says this is for – eating in the place “where God shall place His name”, i.e., at the feasts. Verse 24 shows that to eat this tithe you must TRAVEL! Verses 25-26 gives specific instructions on what to do with this tithe; it is to be used to rejoice!
It is to be spent on whatever your heart lusts after, fine wine, meats, cheeses, whatever you can’t afford the rest of the year is to be eaten at the feasts in proportion with how God has blessed you since the last feast!
Now look at Deuteronomy 12:17-18 which has specific commands about when and how to eat this tithe; you cannot eat it at home. You must travel to eat it, which is yet another proof that you cannot keep the feasts at home.
These feasts are a time for rejoicing (Deuteronomy 16:10-17). No, you can’t afford to take off work and travel (literally) God-knows-where for 10+ days twice a year, and 5+ days once a year, just to be with other true Christians – but you could if you save a second tithe.
If you truly trust God, you can look on this as a paid vacation. God promises to make up for any lack, and this second ten percent you set aside provides you with about 3 weeks of time with other people of God from around the world who gather, like you, to celebrate the feasts.
Like the first tithe, it is an act of faith. Like the first tithe, God will provide your needs. And like the first tithe, you have to trust Him to do so. And like tithing in general, the feasts themselves are an act of faith too, and some wonder “but what about my job? I’ll be fired!”
There again, ask yourself if God can replace your job? If not, maybe you need to find a better God. I know many people who left for the feast not knowing if they’d have a job when they got home, but they went because God commanded it, and that was all that mattered to them!
Sometimes they did lose their job, and found a better one. Sometimes they found their job still waiting for them. But they had to step out on faith for that to happen not knowing what they’d find when they got home (Hebrews 11:8-9).
This isn’t always easy; faith is always simple, you just do it. But it’s never easy to just do it. But God is only interested in those who can make a choice to follow God first and let Him pick up the pieces. Which are you? 13
THIRD TITHE
While we’re here, let’s quickly mention third tithe. This one doesn’t apply today, at least, not usually. Not because the command changed, but because God gave us a clear exception. The command is given in Deuteronomy 14:28-29, with a parallel command in Deuteronomy 26:12.
This isn’t the same as the second tithe because this is for the Levite, the stranger, the poor, etc. Not for you to use for “whatsoever your heart lusteth after”. Also, it is to be eaten “within your gates”, while eating second tithe is explicitly forbidden “within your gates”.
So this is a different tithe. Also, this isn’t a yearly tithe, but a tithe given every third year (or possibly on the third year in a seven-year cycle, it’s a bit unclear). Amos refers to this tithe indirectly in Amos 4:4. This command does not apply to us today simply because we don’t need it.
In Deuteronomy 15:4, immediately after describing third tithe and other poor-related commands, God makes an exception. First He says the third tithe is to care for the poor; then a bit later adds “except when there shall be no poor among you; for the LORD shall greatly bless thee”.
This country (the USA), along with the European nations and most of their ex-colonies, has been greatly blessed by God. There are few if any truly poor people in them. With the welfare programs of these nations, no one really needs to go hungry.
People can choose to be poor, choose to waste their money on alcohol and cigarettes and tattoos, choose to be lazy and do nothing rather than make something of themselves, and you have no obligation to feed and clothe such people, according to God’s own command “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10); see also 1 Timothy 5:3-4, 16.
The bums you see with signs along the roadside saying “will work for food, God bless” might be making more money than you do (and try offering them work when you see them, and you’ll see that they probably won’t work for food – but that sign brings in more money than “need money for booze” does).
In the USA we are taxed, quite heavily, to provide for welfare programs; they care for the poor adequately, if not properly. The Biblical third tithe was a national tax for Israel intended to provide for the sick, orphans, widows, and so on who truly were poor.
In our nation, those people are cared for by other means and saving a third tithe is not necessary today. It may be again one day, but it isn’t today. Now if you feel generous and want to save and distribute such a tithe, be my guest; God will surely make it good if your heart is right. I simply don’t think it’s required today.
IS THIS TOO MUCH?
God said three times a year, EVERY YEAR, you had to be gathered together in a PLACE – a certain, specific place – where God had placed His name. It’s pointless to do what God says on one thing, and disobey Him on another (James 2:10-11).
Why bother not stealing if you’re going to disobey God about keeping the holy days, or the manner in which He said to keep them? Some who study this will think traveling three times a year is too much for God to ask. Jeroboam said the same thing about the exact same thing! (1 Kings 12:28-33). 14
I have said before that there are some large churches who keep the Sabbath, there are a few smaller groups who even keep the holy days, and travel for Tabernacles only; but there is not a single one who keeps this commandment three times in a year.
But it’s foolish to travel once, and not three times, for the only verses which command you to travel also command you to do it three times. Their reasoning is that it’s simply too much to ask of the people; too expensive, it interferes too much with their lives, and the people can’t be expected to do that three times a year.
And that’s exactly what Jeroboam said, and why God took away his kingdom (1 Kings 15:29). I can’t stress enough that Jeroboam sinned specifically because it was “too much” for the people to travel to wherever God had placed His name.
So He made a way for them to keep it closer to home. Just like the few holy-day-observing groups do today. But it is not too much, and you’ll be amply rewarded if you trust God. If you don’t, you’ll fall by the wayside with others who just couldn’t quite do what God commanded. It’s that simple.
Since the destruction of the temple, we no longer have a single place where we must be. God’s name is no longer inscribed in a building, but in the souls of true Christians around the world. So this law, like all laws, is moved internally in the NC.
And instead of being commanded to gather in the temple, we gather where His authority is exercised, where His people teach the Truth, where you can focus your attention on learning more about Him from others like you.
Not at Jerusalem, because His name is with the people God used to teach you the truth (Acts 9:11-15). And it is there that you must travel. The feasts are not a burden, but a blessing; a time to stay up late with some of the only people in the world who know God in the way you want to know Him.
Three seasons a year to spend exploring the mysteries of God and understanding the meaning of life, while eating good food and enjoying good company. And so to those who happily, gladly accept this truth, I look forward to meeting you at some future Feast.
Start saving your tithe.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
God has two harvests; the first resurrection and the second resurrection. The first resurrection is often referred to as the firstfruits or the firstborn. For example… What did God call Israel? Exodus 4:22-23. The first resurrection people saved when Jesus returns are called what? Revelation 14:4. What are we to become? James 1:18.
What is the true church called? Hebrews 12:23. What fruit is used to represent resurrected saints in the first resurrection? 1 Corinthians 15:35-38. What did Jesus use as a metaphor for the first resurrection? John 12:24. What did Jesus compare Simon Peter to? Luke 22:31. And the harvest at the end of this age (at the first resurrection) is compared to what sort of harvest? Matthew 13:30.
Over and over throughout the Bible God speaks of the saints saved in this time as the firstborn, the firstfruits, and regularly uses wheat to represent the first resurrection saints, and NEVER to represent the second resurrection. Now look at a few specific holy days and see to whom they apply: 15
Who would be killed if they didn’t observe the Passover? Exodus 12:12. Would the second-born be harmed at all? (Same verse). The next day, the first day of Unleavened Bread, what did God command? Exodus 13:2-3. Why did God command the Feast of Unleavened Bread to be observed? Verses 5-8. And why are the firstborn set apart? Verses 12-15.
Notice how intricately Passover and ULB are connected with the firstborn. Only the firstborn had anything to fear from the death angel in Egypt. The firstborn was set aside to commemorate the Exodus of the firstborn from Egypt; Israel was collectively considered God’s firstborn. Spiritual Israel (the church) is called the firstborn in the New Testament; James says we are each a type of firstfruits to God, and after the resurrection we will be the firstfruits to God.
When you add that to the fact these holy days are set in the time of the spring grain harvest, and that God repeatedly compares the saints to wheat or other grains, the conclusion is inescapable that the spring feasts are about the first resurrection.
Was the Wavesheaf Day (during ULB) about the firstfruits? Leviticus 23:9-10. And is Pentecost (remember, the OT name is “the feast of weeks”) about the firstfruits? Exodus 34:22. The spring feasts are about the first batch of saints; the tougher crop that survived the harsh winter, cold weather; the barley that fought its way up through the snow to produce the first of the firstfruits, the first successful crop in the harvest.
For who that is, simply read Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5, Romans 8:29. Jesus died on the daylight portion of Passover. He was buried at the very end of the day, just as the Feast of Unleavened Bread began.
He laid in the ground for three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40), and was resurrected just at sundown Saturday evening. Sunday morning Jesus ascended to His Father (add John 20:17 to Matthew 28:18).
The reason I mention this is that the Sunday morning during Unleavened Bread was the Wavesheaf Day (Leviticus 23:10-15). That day the barley, first of the year’s harvest, was offered before God to see if He accepted it. On that very day, Jesus, the firstborn from the dead, ascended up before God to receive “all power in heaven and in Earth”. So the barley represented the first of the firstborn, Jesus.
Next comes the wheat, the second hardy crop to survive the long winter. It represents the remainder of the firstfruits, which are offered to the Father at Pentecost, remember. This crop had a slightly easier time of it, ripening later than the barley, but it still had to survive the same cold, harsh winter. But wheat has been found in Pyramids that is 4,000 years old and still sprouts! And the firstborn sons of God will be raised “incorruptible” (1 Peter 1:23), incapable of sin! (1 John 3:9).
So that’s the spring Feasts; they all revolve around the firstfruits. But the other side of that metaphor is that the fall feasts correspond to the second resurrection. The spring crops are hardier, last longer, and are more nutritious per pound – but the fall crop has an infinitely greater variety of fruits. After all, Jesus said it… man cannot live on bread alone (and certainly wouldn’t want to!) (Matthew 4:4).
And the fall harvest produces a far greater abundance, and its fruits are much sweeter; which is because they grew in an easier time, with warm weather, gentler rains, more sunshine. But without special preparation, none of those fruits would survive the winter! They are not stable like grain, which can be dumped in a silo or thrown in a pail in the cellar and still be ready to eat in 10 years. 16
Tomatoes, apricots, grapes and the like can be preserved but only with direct intervention! They must be carefully dried in the sun, canned, salted, or fermented with the right yeasts or they won’t last a month off the vine! Wheat needs no special preparation, harvest it today and plant it next month or in ten thousand years, and it will still be alive… just keep it dry!
The second resurrection will be much larger; much greater variety; much more flavor and joy in their harvest. But unlike the first resurrection, they did not survive the winter; they will never have the resistance to sin that we have.
They will never be incorruptibly righteous on the level that we can be, if we survive our trip through this wilderness in which we live today; we, who have who lived in this spiritual winter caused by Satan’s deception.
These holy days spell out the plan of God, in considerably greater detail than I have shown here. As you keep them and study them, you will be amazed at the depth contained in these simple commands. They are, as I said in the beginning, one of the most pleasant commands God has given us; in effect, three paid vacations a year.
Without keeping these days, you will miss the greatest single opportunity you will have in this life to learn about God.
Without keeping these days, you cannot understand prophecy.
Without keeping these days, you are not a Christian.