As we approach a new year in God’s calendar (Ex 12:2), I am looking forward to celebrating with my King as He invites me to His table again … to seven glorious, heavenly feasts of the Lord.
When Jehovah calls them “my feasts” (Le 23:2), He seems to be saying that these eternal appointed times are for Himself as well as for us; each one an invitation to dine in person with the Almighty.
As He Himself rested on the very first Sabbath day (Ge 2:2-3), and as He promises to celebrate Passover again with us in His kingdom (Lk 22:15-16), and as all activity in the Jerusalem temple during each biblical feast mirrors that of God’s heavenly temple (He 8:4-5, 9:23), it is evident that God Himself participates in His own feasts, along with the hosts of Heaven — and that He invites us to join Him.
We can see Jehovah’s heart here in His insistence that we come to His house to participate in His feasts (Ex 34:22-24); and as it has been from the earliest days so shall it always be. (Zec 14:16) As He invited the Apostles of old (Jn 21:12), what an awesome privilege to be invited by God to come and dine with Him! (Mt 22:8-10)
Further, in characteristic fashion, these appointed times with God are not just for satisfying our fleshly appetites, but each feast is rich in spiritual food, simply chock full of spiritual and prophetic symbolism to engage our minds and hearts in His ways. (Col 2:16-17)
The message could not be any clearer: in His feasts God is inviting us into an awesome fellowship with Himself; He enjoys sharing Himself with us and engaging us in what He is doing. In this coming season of God’s calendar, let’s take every opportunity to enjoy and delight in God as He has so graciously invited us.
Celebrating in Jerusalem with God is certainly ideal, and when His temple is rebuilt it will make sense for all believers to gather there around His earthly presence, even before He comes again. For now though, it seems we must celebrate where we can as well as we can, anticipating the Day when we can celebrate in person with Him.
Each of the biblical feasts are punctuated with sabbaths; those that are isolated from the two week-long feasts are sabbaths, forbidding work, and the week-long feasts start and end with sabbaths. It seems evident from the sabbath principle that these feasts are to be set apart, holy times, where we break from our normal routines and engage with the saints in enjoying God together. Even in the midst of the week-long feasts of Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles, it’s clear from the fact that they required travel away from home that the entire time of celebration was set apart to God.
As we keep these two longer feasts today, unless we actually do travel away from home to meet with other saints and celebrate in a way that imitates the intent of these longer feasts, it’s easy to forget mid-week and get back to normal, working and busy about life, and not setting the time apart.
I think it’s good to try to get into a vacation-like mentality during these times, even if we’re at home, and get out of the busy-ness and grind of life to enjoy these feasts as God evidently intended, setting them apart as holy unto Him, even if He doesn’t require us to cease from work in the midst of them.
Jos 5:11 (“And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.”) is offered as evidence that Firstfruits is always the day after Passover, and not on a Sunday. Perhaps there is an assumption made here (perhaps from De 26:1-11?) that Israel celebrated Firstfruits on that day. I don’t see any reasonable inference here.
The idea that Firstfruits is always on a Sunday may be derived from Le 23:16: “Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.”