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LEVITICUS
Lesson 34 – Chapter 23 Continued
As we continue our examination of Leviticus chapter 23 it is all about the Biblical Feasts also known as the appointed (or designated) times. We’ve looked at Passover and the Feast of Matza so far, and we’ll continue the order of the Feasts as they are on the Hebrew Religious Event calendar.
Let’s re-read some of Leviticus 23.
RE-READ LEV. 23:1-22
OK. Verse 9 serves as a break between the instructions for the combined feasts of Pesach and Matza, and what is about to follow them; and what is about to come is instruction for the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Weeks; the Feast of Firstfruits is, in Hebrew, Bikkurim and the Feast of Weeks is, in Hebrew, called Shavuot. What is key about verse 9 and 10 is that it says Israel will not be celebrating the Feast of Firstfruits UNTIL they enter the Promised Land. The reason is logical: until Israel conquered Canaan they had no firstfruits of harvest to offer because they didn’t till land and raise crops during their Wilderness journey.
Bikkurim and Shavuot, which are being discussed in these verses, are agriculturally based feasts…..a Spring and then a Summer feast. So it was going to be more than 40 years after leaving Egypt, and more than 40 years from when this law was being received on Mt. Sinai, before they would be first celebrated. After all these Israelites were wandering around in a mostly desert wilderness. They bartered and purchased grain and dried fruits from traders who must have come to them in enormous droves. I don’t want to get off subject, here but we must be practical if we are to understand what went on in the daily life of this wandering horde of 3 million souls. Where did they get their food supply? While in the wilderness they ONLY ate meat from their flocks and herds WHEN that animal was part of a sacrificial offering in the Wilderness Tabernacle. For now Manna was their main food supply; but we’ll also see mention that they ate bread in the Wilderness. Since they couldn’t grow grain where did they get it? From traders. Listen: you don’t move 3 million people around without everybody and their brother knowing about it. Israel’s movements were not done in secret and they could not have been hidden. The plume of dust that rose into the air from 3 million people, loaded carts and untold millions of animals moving along those trails could not have been concealed. And when they camped there were probably scores of thousand of campfires burning simultaneously sending their smoke billowing skyward like a volcano; it would have been visible for scores of miles in every direction. Traders and merchants would have descended upon them like fleas on a camel, and stayed just outside the camp boundaries for their entire 40-year journey to sell their goods. What was the medium of exchange? What did the
Israelites have to purchase grain and dried fruit and cloth and so on with? NAS Exodus 12:35 Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; 36 and the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. Many of the Israelites were loaded; they had lots of silver and gold and precious jewels to buy what they needed from foreign traders. They got their wealth from the Egyptians! Yet it is not hard to imagine that it was an uneven wealth; some had much and some had little. Some made good use of it and some squandered it (like on the collection for the making of the Golden Calf). So not everyone enjoyed a supplement of grain and fruit to their daily diet of manna. And we hear in the passages of Exodus and Numbers the grumblings of those who didn’t get enough of those supplemental foods to satisfy them.
The Feasts of Bikkurim and Shavuot can get mixed up (especially among English speakers) because they are BOTH feasts of firstfruits, and sometimes we’ll find them both NAMED the Feast of Firstfruits. Even worse Bikkurim MEANS Firstfruits in Hebrew so BOTH the spring and Summer Biblical Feasts of Firstfruits are technically Bikkurim. Typically, though, Bikkurim is the designated name for the Spring Feast of Firstfruits and Shavuot as the name for the Summer Firstfruits Festival, which has become more commonly know as the Feast of Weeks.
Now the Spring Feast of Firstfruits (Bikkurim) was a one-day event just as Passover was a one- day feast. And verse 11 says that the day this Feast is to be celebrated is on “the day after the Sabbath”. In other words Scripture doesn’t assign it a fixed date like it does for Passover, Nissan 14. Rather the determination for the timing of the Feast of Firstfruits is based on what days of the week Passover and Unleavened Bread fall.
This reality has led to competing Traditions developing over just exactly when to observe Bikkurim, and this is at least partly because this Leviticus Scripture passage is unclear as to WHICH kind of Sabbath is being talked about here (that is, Bikkurim is to happen that day after WHICH Sabbath?). Is it the standard 7th day weekly Shabbat, or is it one of the other kinds often associated with the feasts? There was much argument among the sages and scribes as to how they should go about this determination. In the end (without our going into all the reasoning behind the decision) it has become the most accepted tradition that Firstfruits is to occur every year on the fixed day of Nissan 16. That is because the decision was made that the Sabbath of verse 11 is NOT the 7th day Shabbat but rather is referring to the Sabbath that is the first day of Unleavened Bread (recall the earlier verses that made the 1st and last days of the Feast of Matza Sabbaths). So, Passover is on Nissan 14, the first day of Unleavened Bread is on Nissan 15 and it is ALSO a Sabbath day set aside for preparation. Since the Feast of Firstfruits is to occur on the day AFTER the Sabbath then Firstfruits is deemed to be Nissan 16. So here we have the consecutive Biblical Feasts of Passover, Matza, and Firstfruits all connected and intertwined and being celebrated almost simultaneously. Let me say that another way: we have the start of 3 Biblical Feasts occur on 3 consecutive days: Nissan 14, Passover; Nissan 15 Unleavened Bread; Nissan 16, Firstfruits (Bikkurim).
On Firstfruits the first ‘omer from the Spring Barley harvest is to be brought to the priest for
sacrifice to Yehoveh. In the context of Firstfruits, the ‘omer is a sheaf of new barley. This day of bringing the first ‘omer is very significant in religious Judaism and so greatly anticipated. We’ll often hear the religious Jewish community speak of the “counting of the first omer”; this day of Bikkurim, Firstfruits, is the day of that first ‘omer. Because of the Levitical Laws the produce from the spring crops could NOT be eaten until it had been FIRST dedicated to Yehoveh because essentially that’s what Firstfruits was all about. Once each Israelite had offered the first of his harvest (which is the meaning of firstfruits) THEN he could begin to eat the fresh produce of his fields. Understand the expectant nature of this Feast; for some months since the end of the fall harvest the Israelites had been eating dried and roasted grains that had been preserved. While acceptable and nutritious it was not the same as fresh. So the Israelites were thrilled when Firstfruits rolled around and then they could begin to enjoy the new fruits of their labors.
This day of Firstfruits was also important because it was the beginning of the countdown clock to Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, later called Pentecost in the Greek. Beginning on Nissan 16, 2 days after Passover, 50 days were to be counted. And on that 50th day was Shavuot, Pentecost. On each of those 50 days an ‘omer of Barley was brought to the Temple; thus a total of 50 ‘omer would be presented, with the 50th occurring on Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks.
The Firstfruits grain was presented to the priest who then presented it to the Lord by means of tenufah ; tenufah is what we call a “wave offering”. The priest would hold the sheaf of grain shoulder high then move it side-to-side and then up and down. The idea was that he was presenting it to Yehoveh and asking for His acceptance. On the same day as the sheaf was offered as a wave offering, an ‘Olah, a burnt offering was to be offered, and the chosen animal was to be a yearling MALE lamb…..that is, a young Ram. And, as we learned several months ago in the earlier portions of Leviticus, whenever an ‘Olah was offered, a Minchah was to accompany it. A Minchah was a grain offering consisting either of moist raw dough, cooked cake-like dough, or a grilled flatbread. In addition, the firstfruits were to include a libation offering; libation means a liquid, and so is sometimes called a “drink offering”. Depending on the occasion, the libation can be water but here it is wine.
One note: when the Bible says wine, it MEANS wine; fermented grapes. It is NOT grape juice as we think of it. The ONLY grape juice in use in those days had to be drunk almost immediately after squeezing the grapes or it spoiled. The fermentation process of making grapes into wine served a twofold purpose: 1) it created a healthful drink that could be stored for long periods of time, and 2) it provided an alcoholic drink which made for relaxation at joyous events. Now, the usual word for wine in the OT is yayin ; and it means wine that has been fermented for a modest amount of time. Its alcohol content was mild as is a typical modern table wine. Some wine was allowed to ferment a loooong time and of course it resulted in something akin to hard liquor. The GOAL of this long fermentation period was to create an alcoholic drink that was potent…. in Hebrew this drink was called shekar . Yayin , regular wine, is almost always spoken of as a good thing throughout the Bible; it is shekar, strong drink, which is spoken against. And it is not so much that shekar is highly alcoholic that is the problem, it is that the PURPOSE for shekar was not for holy consecrations or health, it was simply to get drunk in the fastest possible way.
Now, as we get to verse 15 the topic switches from the Spring Feast of Firstfruits, Bikkurim to the summer celebration of Shavuot, Pentecost. 2 loaves of bread are to be brought and given to the priest who will also offer them as a tenufah , a wave offering. As a side note: the 2 loaves of bread used here were called chamets, meaning it had leavening in it. Since it was a rule that NOTHING with leavening could ascend and approach the Altar of Burnt Offering this means that this bread, chamets , had to be presented at the foot of the stairway that led up to the Altar. Ascension to the Altar occurred when the priest stood on the first step so he would have stood somewhat back from the stairway, looked up at the elevated altar, and waved the 2 loaves in that direction; to carry those 2 leavened loaves of bread up to the Altar would have been a horrible defilement.
Along with the 2 loaves, 7 young male rams are to be offered plus one young bull and 2 mature Rams. While our Bibles leave out the words young and mature, the original Hebrew words tell us that is the case; the 7 lambs are in Hebrew kebes ….meaning “young male rams”. The word use to indicate the age of the bull is par , and it means a yearling bull as opposed to a mature bull; where it says 2 Rams, the word is ayil ……and it means a fully mature Ram.
These offerings are all of the ‘Olah class, and so we see the use of the grain offerings, the Minchah offerings, that traditionally accompany an ‘Olah.
But in verse 19 another class of offering is called for: the Hatta’at using a male goat. Then a Shelamim offering using 2 more kebes ……male lambs…..is ordained. And the 2 lambs of the Shelamim are to be a tenufah , a wave offering.
I want you to notice something that is not coincidental: every one of the sacrifices up to now is a male. And every one of the 4 Bible Feasts that overlap and run concurrently here…..Passover, Matza, Firstfruits and Shavuot…… have something profound to say about Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. The animal offerings presented to the Lord during each of the required sacrifices for each of these Feasts had to be males. Jesus, the RAM of our Salvation, was of course a male.
Also notice that the 50th day, Pentecost, Shavuot, was also designated as a Sabbath day; again not a 7th day Sabbath…not THE Shabbat…..but another of the feast days during which time normal labors were to cease so that celebration and a gathering together could occur.
Let’s back up to the Spring Feasts again, to the time of Bikkurim, Firstfruits. What is the significance of the Feast of Firstfruits for the Believer? Paul says this: NAS 1 Corinthians 15:20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. Yeshua is the first to be bodily resurrected as a result of His own finished work; and as we see from the observance of Bikkurim, after the firstfruits of the harvest have been presented at the Temple then the people may partake of their harvest. Yeshua rose FIRST and with His second coming we will rise from our graves just as He did. Firstfruits is indicative of the resurrection; it has a physical earthly component and a spiritual component as do all the Biblical Feasts. The Firstfruits of Leviticus 23 were observed by the Hebrews for many centuries…..for as long as
the Temple existed. Today it is still celebrated but differently of course as there is no Temple to bring the ‘omer of grain and the animals and the chamets bread and so on to. Jesus brought the meaning of Firstfruits to the spiritual level it was always intended to be brought to at the perfect moment. In our day Firstfruits looks back as a commemoration of that time when Christ arose from his rocky tomb. It is now for His followers a celebration of remembrance. It is a finished work.
Let me add this little mystery which I hope to uncover for you: just as after the first ‘omer, the firstfruits of the Barley, were presented to God the people were then able to partake of the grain, now that the firstfruits of the resurrection, Yeshua, has been presented to Yehoveh when can we, His followers partake of the resurrection? Is there a Feast that embodies that day? Yes there is. And we’ll discuss that observance pretty soon.
The section on the Spring and Summer Feasts ends with the instruction, a reminder, that field owners are NOT to harvest all their fields; there are to leave a sufficient quantity untouched for the poor to come and glean.
RE-READ LEV. 23: 23- 32
We now leap from the spring and Summer Feasts to the fall. The 7th month of the year, after Babylon it was called Tishri, is when the fall series of Feasts begins. But keep in mind that while Tishri is the 7th month of the Religious event calendar for the Hebrews it is the FIRST month of the civil calendar year. Thus the 1st day of Tishri is the Jewish New Year, called Rosh Hashanah, meaning head of the year. This Feast also eventually became known as the Feast of Trumpets due to the mitzvah of verse 24 which says that the celebration on the first day of the 7th month shall be accompanied with loud blasts…meaning trumpet blasts.
Yehoveh also ordains the 1st day of the New Year as a Sabbath. As we have seen several times now, it is not the 7th day Sabbath that is being discussed but another kind. Be aware this is actually the THIRD kind of Sabbath we’ve been introduced to. The 7th day Sabbath, called Shabbat, is the every week celebration of the 7th day; the day God ceased His work of Creation. The Shabbat requires a complete cessation of any and all kinds of work. The other kinds of pseudo-Sabbaths we have been discussing (that are connected with some of these Biblical Feasts) are different than the Shabbat in that a) they do not fall on any particular day of the week, and b) they do NOT necessarily require that all work cease;(typically just your regular daily work). These pseudo-Sabbaths are NOT days of rest they are days of preparation. The kind of Sabbath called for on New Year’s Day, however, is just like the 7th day Sabbath, the Shabbat, in that EVERY kind of work is prohibited. It is a day of complete REST not a day of preparation. And although it is a day of complete rest still a special sacrifice must also be brought to the Altar
Exactly 9 days later, on the 10th day of the 7th month is perhaps the holiest day of the entire year: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Jewish New Year combined with Yom Kippur is often referred to among the Jews as the High Holy Days (a perfectly apt name, indeed).
Rosh Hashanna, Jewish New Year also called the Feast of Trumpets, should be very significant to us. In the Bible the blowing of trumpets generally was a call to the whole congregation to assemble before El Elyon, the Most High God……either for reason of a holy convocation, OR, as a call to war.
Today as we gather together in this place we stand at a point in history BETWEEN the spiritual fulfillment of Shavuot, Pentecost on one side…….and the spiritual fulfillment Feast of Trumpets on the other. If we look back to the past we can readily see that all 3 Spring Feasts (and the single Summer Feast,) have been fulfilled by Yeshua. As we turn and look ahead to the future it is the spiritual fulfillments of the Fall Feasts that we await. And the next one to come is the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah). Because when the Trumpet sounds it will indeed be a call to assemble for God’s holy ones……us. It will be a call to a holy convocation because we are about to be gathered so as to be presented to our Lord Yeshua as He comes in the clouds, our Mighty King. But it will also be a call to war. Finally after thousands of years of preparation, the war to end all wars will be fought and swiftly won by Yeshua, Messiah Ben David, our Mighty Warrior. And just as all the other seminal events of Jesus’ ministry occurred on their exact prophetic Feast days, I have full confidence that all the future ones will as well.
Let me repeat that even though I’ve made this point before: Yeshua was killed on Passover day, put into the Tomb on the first Day of Unleavened Bread, and arose on the Feast of Firstfruits (Bikkurim). Then, 50 days later on Shavuot, the Holy Spirit began to indwell men. This is not my speculation; the New Testament clearly states it. Therefore I look for that mighty trumpet blast from Heaven that signals the return of Our King to occur on Rosh Hashanna in the not too distant future. Now I readily admit I cannot be 100% sure that all of the final acts of Jesus will be on the Fall Feast days: but it certainly would be a drastic break in pattern if it were any different.
The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, is the next to last Biblical Feast. Yom Kippur is a very somber day. In fact while the Spring Feasts have a great and joyous tone to them the Fall Feasts are much more subdued. When one can finally grasp what all these feasts signify from a spiritual standpoint it’s not hard to understand why Yehoveh made each of these 7 Biblical Feasts not only with its own purpose but its own character. The Spring Feasts brought with them a release from the curses of the Law; they brought the condemnation of our sin upon sin to an end; they purchased our freedom and redemption from eternal spiritual death. Let me state for all to hear: it was not a release from the principles or the commands of the Law, rather just a release from the punishment due to us for our trespasses against the Law. New life arises from these spring and Summer Festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Shavuot.
But the Fall Festivals rightly have a much more bittersweet flavor to them; for while the coming of Yeshua will be good news to many it will also signal the final destruction for the majority of mankind. Death and misery will be unleashed upon this planet on a scale that is not imaginable to our human minds; and it will be purposely unleashed by Yehoveh; we’re told that if He does not stop it short of when it would stop of its own accord there would be nothing left…..no life at all. Our planet would become just another sterile rock among the countless Trillions of other sterile rocks that form our Universe. I’d say soberness of thought and tone is called for here,
wouldn’t you? Oh I suppose if we just thought about ourselves (our redeemed selves) and what eternal joy awaits us as a result of the Lord’s coming wrath upon this world I imagine we could be looking forward to this time with great cheer and happy expectation. But how about our unsaved parents? Or that rebellious teenage daughter of ours who loves the freedom of the secular humanism her public school teaches her to embrace? What are we to think about the dead end future of our spouses who reject our faith or the nice people in our lives who mean so much to us, and the warm fellowships that accompany those delicious meals at our special gatherings, but so many just don’t know Jesus and really don’t want to? What about our precious grandchildren whose lives are barely begun and they prefer video games to Sunday school, and for them Jesus is just some plastic doll in a Nativity set? It is no wonder that Yeshua’s coming is called the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.
To amplify the soberness of the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, verse 27 says “you shall practice self-denial…” or depending on your translation, “you shall afflict yourself”. Please understand that, this is NOT a call to do harm to yourself; to slash your body with knives or have nails driven through your hands, or have a crown of thorns smashed down on your head until your scalp bleeds. Rather the idea is to refrain from food, to fast. To deny yourself everyday comforts. And the person who refuses to bow to these demands placed on them by Yehoveh shall be cut-off from his people (so says the Word of God); the one who does any work (violating the Lord’s Sabbath) shall perish. Yikes!
It is interesting that the book of Exodus and other passages in the Bible explains that one of the primary purposes for the Day of Atonement is to “purify the sanctuary” (meaning the Tabernacle and later the Temple). The place where God dwelled among men would gradually become more and more polluted simply by its nearness to imperfect and sinful men; even to the physical contact by the priests who were also imperfect. So it was one purpose for the Day of Atonement rituals to cleanse it all so that God would retain His presence there.
From the day of Pentecost (Shavuot) almost 2000 years ago, disciples of Jesus have become the sanctuary of God……not symbolically but literally. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, dwells in every Believer just as He at one time dwelled in the Temple of Jerusalem. Our Spirits have been made clean; but were our bodies perfected? Of course not; our bodies still age and die. Our minds still accept (or even revel in) doing evil. The Bible tells us that at our resurrection when Yeshua returns our corrupted and ruined bodies will be exchanged for pure ones that are utterly incapable of defilement. That is our sanctuary, our body, where God dwells will be purified…….the Day of Atonement….the purification of the sanctuary. It just gives me goose bumps to see the all the pieces coming together in these Feasts.
RE-READ LEV.23: 33 – end
We arrive, now, at the final Biblical Feast: Sukkot. Also called the Feast of Tabernacles or just Tabernacles or even the Feast of Booths. It was also known as the Feast of Ingathering……the final harvest of the year.
Israel was an agricultural-based society so it should come as no surprise that all the Biblical
Feasts were based around the growing seasons. The Spring Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits centered on the first of the grain harvests (which was Barley). Shavuot focused on the 2nd of the grain harvests (which was Wheat). The 3 Fall Feasts centered around the last of the grain harvests…..the final ingathering of the field crops……before winter set in, the land went fallow, and the rains finally came to give moisture to the ground for the following years crops. All of these elements in one way or another were included in the ceremonies surrounding the Feast of Tabernacles.
And it should also come as no surprise that Yehoveh and Yeshua and His disciples, along Paul and other writers of the New Testament would use agricultural motifs that the Israelites were so familiar with to draw parallels to critical spiritual matters. Yet these parallels between the physical world of agriculture and the spiritual realm of God were not allegory at all; they were illustration. All of these various Biblical Feasts illustrated and foreshadowed prophetic events at the same time that they commemorated earthly history and served immediate purposes. There is perhaps no greater example throughout the Bible of the Reality of Duality at work than the 7 Biblical Feasts.
Recall that on the PHYSICAL side of the Reality of Duality the Passover commemorated that great and dreadful night of Israel’s release from captivity in Egypt when Yehoveh killed all the firstborn of Egypt who did not bow to His will by accepting His saving provision of painting the blood of a young Ram on the doorposts of their homes. But on the SPIRITUAL side of the Reality of Duality the Passover now commemorates that great and dreadful day that Yeshua, the Ram of God, was crucified and His blood made available to be painted on the doorposts of our lives so that all those who trust in Him are released from our captivity to sin and from our debt to God for our violation of His laws.
Next recall that on the PHYSICAL side of the Reality of Duality the Feast of Unleavened Bread commemorated that joyous day that Israel began it’s journey away from Egypt’s grip. On that day they made bread without leavening so that they could hurriedly leave the land of Goshen on their way to freedom; this was the beginning of the Exodus. But on the SPIRITUAL side of the Reality of Duality that same feast commemorates the entering of the tomb by a deceased Jesus. The family and friends of Jesus had to hurriedly put His body into the tomb because a Sabbath was coming. And, like the bread of the Exodus had no leavening to cause its decay, so Jesus’ body had no sin (which is always symbolized by leaven) to cause its decay.
Next recall that from the PHYSICAL aspect the Feast of Firstfruits celebrated the very first of the New Year’s field harvest. But from the SPIRITUAL aspect Yeshua arose from the tomb on Firstfruits, the first of the resurrection of the dead….the first of the harvest of all those who had been made righteous by Yeshua’s death and atoning blood.
The next Feast was Shavuot, Pentecost. It was timed to start 50 days after Firstfruits. From a PHYSICAL aspect Shavuot celebrated the Summer harvest….the 2nd harvest of the year. From a SPIRITUAL aspect it was the day that Yehoveh sent the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, to dwell within men. The first harvest, Firstfruits, gathered Jesus into the Kingdom of God. The second harvest, Pentecost, gathered men into the Kingdom of God.
As we come to Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles we of course have the same dynamic at work; it has a physical reality and a corresponding spiritual reality to it. Let’s study this feast and see what it was designed to commemorate.
The 1st day of this 7-day long Feast is to begin each year on the 15th day of the 7th month; that month is now called Tishri. It corresponds to a September-October timeframe. And the words that we typically see in our English translations say that the name of the feast is the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Booths. Actually in Hebrew it is the hag Sukkot. Remember from our previous lesson that hag means PILGRIMAGE; so this feast is one of the 3 that requires that every male Israelite come to the Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate it.
Two quick things: notice I said MALES. It was not necessary that the entire family make the journey. However once a boy reached the age of 13 then he had to come just as his father did. Second notice that the REASON for the pilgrimage was to make sacrificial offerings at the Temple. Coming to the city of Jerusalem was not the issue, coming to the Temple was the issue; it’s just that the Temple was in Jerusalem. We have some today…..Jews and gentiles…..who have come to the conclusion that males STILL have to come to Jerusalem for these feasts in order to be obedient to God. Not true. The point of coming in Bible times was to make one’s sacrifice on the Temple Altar. But since there is no altar or Temple there is no way to follow this law. Further since the point of the pilgrimage was to make a sacrifice, and Yeshua is the once and for all sacrifice, there is really no sacrificial element that can be fulfilled today. That said I cannot think of a better time to go to Israel and visit Jerusalem than on one of these 3 pilgrimage holy days. It is moving and I think worthwhile. But to think that one is fulfilling a Biblical Feast command by going to Jerusalem for these feasts……and believing that if you don’t you are being disobedient…… is misplaced zealousness and simply error.
The first day of the Feast of Tabernacles God declares to be A Sabbath. Not THE Sabbath, but A Sabbath. By calling these other non-7th day Sabbaths, Sabbaths, I am using the common way of speaking as among Jews and Christians. Actually, however, this is both sloppy scholarship and a poor use of the word Sabbath because the Torah does NOT designate these as Sabbath (Hebrew, Shabbat) days. Rather the words used to denote these special days are typically kodesh mikra ……a holy convocation. Because these designated days of kodesh mikra have a requirement to abstain from normal work (which is a similar, but not the same requirement as for the 7th day Shabbat) over the centuries the word Sabbath has been adopted to connote these special days. This is a sad error that has led to much confusion.
Further the day AFTER the end of the 7 days of the Feast of Tabernacles…..in the Torah it is referred to as the 8th day…….is also a kodesh mikra ……one of those “other” Sabbaths.
Now unlike the other Feasts, for Sukkot the sacrifices must be brought to the Temple on every single one of the 7 days of the Feast so this was costly. Yet Sukkot was considered to be the most joyous of all the Feasts. A whole variety of sacrifices are called for here in verse 37, and then later in the 29th chapter of Numbers. Here in Leviticus 3 kinds of sacrifices were called for: the ‘Olah, Minchah, and Zevah Shelamim. I’m not going to go over the characteristics of each of those as we’ve covered them extensively before. If you weren’t here for those lessons or need a refresher then either go to our website or purchase a CD of those lessons to review.
We’ll continue with the Feast of Tabernacles observation next week.