One Year Bible, Sunday, February 6th - The Three Annual Jewish Festivals
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Three Annual Festivals
God commanded the Israelites to remember three annual festivals commemorating the things he did for them.
1. Feast of the Unleavened Bread - This was a feast to remember when the Israelites left Egypt quickly to escape the Egyptians. They didn't have time to use leavened bread and wait for the bread to rise. Also, leaven was representative of sin, and God wanted to cleanse the Israelites.
2. Festival of the First Fruits - This was a celebration of thanksgiving to God during the harvest season. By giving their first fruits to God, they were demonstrating that God provided the harvest.
3. Festival of Ingathering - This was done at the end of the year celebrating the harvest of all of the crops. This is also called "sukkot".
"At such a time of material success, there is the danger of man "waxing fat and kicking; forsaking God, his Maker." Finding his work so successfully rewarded, he may think that "my power and the strength of my hand have made me all this wealth." There is also the danger of his thinking that to work and amass a fortune is the whole purpose of life, forgetting that there are greater and higher values in life-spiritual values." (chabad.org)
God's Angel to Prepare the Way
God tells the Israelites he will send an angel ahead of them to lead them into the promised land and destroy all their enemies in their path. Importantly this angel's name meant, "my name is in him". Many commentators think this was a divine manifestation of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus.
The Covenant Confirmed
After Moses had given the Israelites all of the commandments of the Lord, the people agreed to it.
When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do." Though they got off to a good start with their words, we will see how they do with their actions.
"Israel here was perhaps guilty of tremendous over-confidence. The way they seemed to easily say to God, “We will keep Your law” seemed to lack appreciation for how complete and deeply comprehensive God’s law is." (Guzik)
Meanwhile Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the 70 elders travel up the mountain to meet with the Lord. Though they needed to keep their distance from God. Moses alone was allowed to go up on the mountain and meet with the Lord in person.
Notice the confirmation of the covenant was done with the blood of bulls. Moses covered the altar and the people with this blood.
"There was nothing magical about blood, but because it represented the life of a being (For the life of the flesh is in the blood, Leviticus 17:11), blood represents the outpouring of life, of one life being given for another." (Guzik)
“Blood-ritual of some kind is common to most forms of covenant: witness the custom in many lands of making ‘blood-brothers’ by allowing the blood from two persons to mingle and flow together in one.” (Cole)
God appeared in a cloud at the top of Mount Sinai. Then, Moses ascended into the cloud and stayed there 40 days and 40 nighs. Wouldn't you have loved to know what Moses did during that time?
"In all of this God said to Moses, “You can draw near. I will keep you safe and reveal Myself to you.” Under the New Covenant, in light of the Word of God, and under the sacrifice of Jesus, God dares us to draw near to Him." (Guzik)
Offerings for the Tabernacle
In response to all God had done for them, Israel was invited to give an offering for the tabernacle where God would dwell during their wildnerness wanderings.
Importantly, he says, "Take an offering from anyone whose heart prompts them to give." The principle throughout the bible regarding giving anything to God is that it must come from a pure heart. Our giving should not be under compulsion, or to receive compliments from others, but because our heart is calling us to do so.
The Ark
The first item they were to build for the tabernacle was the ark. Later this was called the "Ark of the Covenant". Notice the care, precision to details, and the type of materials used to construct the ark. Moses was to put the into the Ark of the Testimony, the Law, which included the Ten Commandments.
There was also a place called the "mercy seat", which was actually the lid of the Ark. There were two angels hammered in gold and God dwelt between the two angels.
"It was as if God, looking down from His dwelling place between the cherubim, saw the law in the Ark – and knew we were guilty of breaking His law. But atoning blood of sacrifice was sprinkled on the mercy seat, so that God saw the blood covering the breaking of His law – and forgiveness could be offered." (Guzik)
The Table
The table was for the showbread. These were literally twelve loaves of showbread to be eaten with and before the face of God. You can see a foreshadowing of Holy Communion with both the bread and wine.
"The showbread was made of fine flour, and twelve cakes of showbread – one for each tribe of Israel – set on the table, sprinkled lightly with frankincense. Once a week, the bread was replaced, and normally only priests could eat the old bread." (Guzik)
The Lampstand
"The lampstand was hammered out of pure gold, with no specific dimensions given, but after the pattern of a modern-day menorah. It had one middle shaft with three branches coming out of each side, for a total of seven places for lamps."
Since the tabernacle was completely covered, the lampstand was the only part of it that emitted light. The light was the symbol of God's presence for His people.
Jesus gives more description of the end times when he will return. You can see all of the cosmic elements of the earth and sky are involved in this culmination of all time. We don't exactly know what Jesus means when he says the "sign of the Son of God from heaven." The bottom line is it will be announced in a dramatic way.
Then, Jesus will come back in "great and promised glory". Some believed that the abomination that causes desolation happened when the Romans conquered Israel in A.D. 70, and the temple was destroyed. But that doesn't seem to fit in with any of the other descriptions of the end times. Most people think this is true because Jesus says, "I swear this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened."
But the word "generation" can be translated in many ways, and doesn't not necessarily mean a generation of say 40 years. Generation could be the whole time period from Jesus' ascension to heaven to his return. We obviously know the world hasn't ended yet so this must be.
I think most importantly Jesus says, "However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows."
There are many people who have tried to predict the 2nd coming of Jesus throughout history. They all have one thing in common. They were all wrong. I don't think there is anything wrong with longing for and/or being excited for Jesus' return, but we simply shouldn't try to guess or predict it. After all, not even the angels or Jesus knew (at least from an earthly perspective)!
Here is the part of the passage we should focus the most on!
If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns!
Our focus should be less on when Jesus returns, but rather what are we doing when he returns!
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