Leviticus 23:1-44
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
4 These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.
5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover.
6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
7 In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
8 But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
9 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheafa of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
13 And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.
14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
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.
17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.
18 And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.
19 Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.
23 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
25 Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
26 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
28 And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.
29 For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.
30 And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.
31 Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrateb your sabbath.
33 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
35 On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
36 Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein
37 These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day:
38 Beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD.
39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.
40 And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:
43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
44 And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.
Leviticus 23:3. Convocation. מקרא, mickra is rendered ecclesia, or church, seventy times, and synagogue thirty seven times. In the next phrase it is changed for the word dwellings, for the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellingplaces of Jacob. Though his throne was fixed in the temple, he was present also in every holy convocation, whether called synagogue or church. An apostle gives the name of synagogue to a christian assembly. James 2:2. The churches were all synagogues reformed to Christ.
Leviticus 23:10. The first-fruits of your harvest. The barley harvest was about Easter, or a little after. Exodus 9:31; Ruth 2:23. The harvest could not be touched till this offering was made to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:18. Their drink-offerings, accompanying the victims, were oil and wine. Salt, meal, flour, and frankincense were superadded.
Leviticus 23:44. The feasts; all the feasts, except the feast of the new moon.
REFLECTIONS.
The repetition of the festivals in this place is regarded as a privilege, and a mark of the divine care; for Israel had line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, that no man might be unacquainted with the laws of God. The institution of religious festivals was a most salutary display of the divine wisdom. Acquaintance with revelation, and the various acts of personal and national devotion, require time and opportunity. These holy festivals diverted the people from all the idleness and unbounded wickedness attendant on the gentile feasts.
In the arrangement of the Hebrew festivals, the sabbath holds the first place, as the highest and holiest of days for devotion. Let us learn to hallow and devote it to God. Being a type of heaven, it is of everlasting obligation, and a day of holy convocation. Let the giddy crowds, let the haunters of tea gardens, let the sordid venders and drudges of toil be confounded, as open profaners of a day honoured by a thousand marvels; and as tramplers on the divine precepts, who shall not go unpunished. Next is the passover, in memory of the deliverance from Egypt. Oh it is good to remember the mercies and lovingkindnesses of the Lord; by so doing, our covenant with him is renewed, and accompanied with an increase of blessings.
Before the paschal feast expired, fresh joy was added to Israel; the priest was seen swinging round a sheaf of barley, the earliest fruit of the year, as an acknowledgment that the whole harvest was the gift of heaven. The christian also has a double feast to celebrate at once; the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, and the gift of all temporal and eternal blessings in him. What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits? Let us never forget his mercies, but offer unto him the firstfruits of our youth, and the firstfruits of devotion every morning.
The feast of weeks, Deuteronomy 16:10; that is, of the seven weeks or pentecost, from the passover to the giving of the law, was next celebrated; and now they could present oblations of their wheat harvest, and rejoice over the added mercies of a fruitful year. How good is the Lord: his hands are never weary of scattering gifts on man. The christian Israel may here keep pace, and even triumph over Israel according to the flesh. Our pentecost is not merely the blessings of the year, but the descent of the Holy Spirit, with all his graces, to prove the glorification of Christ, and to give effect to the preaching of the gospel. God had reserved some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
The trees were scarcely relieved of their heavy load, and the tender vine of its purple clusters, before the month of Tisri ushered in a group of festivals. (See the table, Exodus 12.) The feast of trumpets was the first day of that month; for the earth was created about that time of the year, when the fruits were ripe and ready for man. It was about the same time of the year that our blessed Lord began his ministry, and sounded the gospel trumpet, or glad tidings of great joy through all the land of Israel.
The tenth day of the above month was the great day of national atonement, a day of recollection, seriousness and prayer. Oh my soul, never forget the day when Jesus by the direct witness of his Holy Spirit, or by some encouraging drawings of his love, first vouchsafed to assure thee of a pardon: no day of all thy life is more to be remembered than that.
This day of atonement was followed with a season of the greatest joy, for on the fifteenth day the feast of tabernacles commenced. The labours of the harvest and the vintage being closed, leisure was afforded for the people to rejoice seven days before the Lord. The fields around Jerusalem exhibited a nation encamped in tents and booths, to perpetuate the recollection of ten thousand mercies, which their fathers received while encamped and wandering in the desert. On the first day the altars of God smoked with two hundred and fifteen victims, according to the number of years which Israel had dwelt in Egypt, besides a multitude of oblations arising from vows and gifts. The worship of the temple was adapted to the day; and the young people, loaded with green boughs and fruits, paraded the streets, singing Hosannas to the Lord.