Deuteronomy 15:1-8

Keep the Passover.

The yearly festivals

The darker side of the Jewish religion was more than relieved by its outlets for joy. It identified in a marvelous manner the holy day and the holiday (see the, two words translated “feast” in Leviticus 23:1, meaning, the one “holy convocation,” the other “festival”), showing that the people with deepest religious feelings are, after all, the happiest people. The three great yearly feasts were--

1. The Passover, in the middle of Abib (nearly our April);

2. Seven weeks after, Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks; and

3. The Feast of Tabernacles, or of Ingathering, in the end of autumn (October). Notice of all three--

I. Their origin. They have their root in the weekly Sabbath. The Sabbath itself is the first of the feasts (Leviticus 23:2), in which respect it also is a joyful day (Psalms 18:24; Isaiah 56:7; Isaiah 58:14). And the great feasts are framed upon its model. They are ruled by the sabbatical number, seven. They begin and generally end on the seventh day. Two of them last for seven days each, and there are seven days of “holy convocation” in the year. Pentecost takes place seven weeks--a sabbath of weeks--after the Passover. The seventh month is specially distinguished (verses 23-36). Moreover, every seventh year is of the nature of a Sabbath, and seven times seven years bring the Jubilee. Smaller festivals formed connecting links between the Sabbath and the yearly feasts. There was the Feast of Months, distinguishing the first Sabbath of each month with special sacrifices (Numbers 28:11), and with blowing of trumpets (Numbers 10:10), which trumpets were used again on the first day of the seventh month--the “Feast of Trumpets” (Leviticus 23:24). Our Sabbaths, like those of the Jews, form the backbone and safeguard of our own national festivities.

II. Their purpose. They accomplished on a larger scale what was already aimed at by the weekly Sabbath.

1. They called away from the round of yearly duty to the public recognition of God. In spring and summer and autumn they presented anew to the people’s consciousness, through the most impressive vehicle of national festivals, their covenant relation to Jehovah.

2. They had a most important educational function. They were a compendium in dramatic form of early Israelitish history, “What mean ye by this service?” (Exodus 12:26.) Moreover, they gave opportunity for special religious instruction. (Josiah’s Passover, 2 Chronicles 34:29 ff.; and Ezra’s Feast of Tabernacles, Nehemiah 8:1.)

3. They subserved important ends not directly religious. They promoted the national unity of the Israelites, stimulating their patriotism. (See the action of Jeroboam, 1 Kings 12:26.)

III. Their regulations.

1. The males from all parts of the country must assemble to the three feasts (Deuteronomy 16:16); for which purpose all ordinary labour ceases.

2. The worshippers are to bring contributions (Deuteronomy 16:16), both for the necessary sacrifices of themselves and others, and for hospitality (Nehemiah 8:10).

3. The people are to rejoice in their feasts. So Leviticus 23:40 commands for the Feast of Tabernacles, and Deuteronomy 16:11; Deuteronomy 16:15 for the Feasts of Pentecost and Tabernacles. Ezra tells of the joy at the Feast of the Passover (Ezra 6:22); and Nehemiah of the “very great gladness” at the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:17). But where is happiness to be found if not in the recognition of God’s relation to us? Special protection was promised during the celebration of the feasts. There are frequent promises that the fruits of the earth will not suffer, as Deuteronomy 16:15. And it was specially promised that the absence of its defenders would not expose the country to invasion (Exodus 34:24). In short, Israel’s compliance with God’s will here as everywhere was to be to the advantage even of his worldly prosperity. A truth for all times and all peoples (Psalms 1:3; Psalms 92:13). (W. Roberts, M. A.)

The yearly festivals

Looking to these festivals separately, we find that a three-fold meaning attaches to each of them--

1. A present meaning in nature;

2. A retrospective meaning in history; and

3. A prospective meaning in grace.

Moreover, in each of these three respects the three feasts stand in progressive order: the Passover, the first at once in nature, history, and grace; the Pentecost, in all three respects the second or intermediate; and the Tabernacles, in all three respects the consummation of what has gone before.

I. The feast of the passover, occurring about the beginning of April.

1. Its natural meaning was necessarily an afterthought or addition of the wilderness legislation. Looking forward to the settlement in Canaan, and placed at early harvest, it marked the beginning of a people’s enrichment in the fruits of the earth, and recognised in that the gift of a covenant God. Its place was “when thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn” (Deuteronomy 16:9). And hence the special provisions of Leviticus 23:10.

2. What was first in nature was also first in history. The Passover night marked the beginning of Israel’s national life. The month in which it occurred was henceforth to be the first of the year (Exodus 12:2), and to be permanently observed (Exodus 12:14; Deuteronomy 16:1). Some modifications necessarily arose in the permanent observance of the Passover; the blood was now to be sprinkled on the altar; and the lamb was to be slain in the one place of sacrifice (Deuteronomy 16:5; 2 Chronicles 30:15). The eating with unleavened bread and bitter herbs remained, as pointing to--

3. The prospective and spiritual reference of the Passover. The observance of the Passover touched closely the spiritual welfare of the Israelites. It distinguished the reigns of Josiah and Hezekiah and the return of the Jews from captivity. And here we have the third and greatest beginning, the beginning of the kingdom of God, in the world’s deliverance from sin. And we must deal with Christ as the Jews with the Paschal Lamb, taking Him--“eating” Him, as He Himself puts it--in His entireness as a Saviour, with the bitter herbs of contrition and the unleavened bread of a sincere obedience.

II. The feast of pentecost--called also the Feast of Weeks, inasmuch as seven weeks were to be reckoned between Passover and Pentecost. And this distance of a Sabbath of weeks rules in all three meanings of this feast.

1. Its natural reference was to the completion of the harvest. It was the “Feast of harvest.” Now, two loaves baked of the first-fruits are to be waved before the Lord, with accompanying offerings (Leviticus 23:17). In addition to which, a free-will offering, in recognition of God’s blessing, is to be brought, and the people are called on specially to rejoice (Deuteronomy 16:10).

2. Its historical reference is a matter of inference. The seven weeks between Passover and Pentecost are paralleled by the seven weeks actually occurring between the deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the law from Sinai; and as the Passover commemorates the first, it is reasonable to infer that Pentecost commemorates the second. Moreover, the fulfilment which in nature Pentecost gives to the promise of the Passover is paralleled by the fulfilment which the Sinaitic law actually gave to the promise of the Exodus. For God’s first object and promise was to meet His people and reveal Himself to them in the wilderness. And this connection becomes greatly more remarkable when we notice--

3. The prospective meaning of this feast in the realm of grace. Under the Christian dispensation Pentecost has become even more illustrious than the Passover. Again God numbered to Himself seven weeks, and signalised Pentecost by the gift of the Spirit. And what the Pentecost was to the Passover, that the gilt of the Spirit is to the atonement of Christ. Look at the natural meaning of the two feasts. In the sheaf of corn the Passover furnished the material for food; in the wave loaves Pentecost presented God’s gift in the shape in which it could be used for food. So the Passover atonement furnishes a material for salvation which becomes available only through the gift of the Spirit. Or look at the historical meaning of the feasts: the Passover atonement came to effect spiritually and for the world what the Paschal Lamb effected for the Jewish nation. And the Holy Spirit came to do for the dead law what Christ in His atonement did for the Paschal Lamb. He came to write universally on men’s hearts what of old had been written for the Israelites on stone (Hebrews 8:8; Hebrews 8:10; 2 Corinthians 3:3). As the end of harvest was the fruition of its beginning, and the law the fruition of the exodus, so the pentecostal Spirit was the fruition of the atonement. Should not we who live under the dispensation of the Spirit maintain our pentecostal joy?

III. The feast of tabernacles, in the seventh month, or our October--called also the Feast of Ingathering.

1. Its natural meaning. It came after the harvest of the vineyards and olive yards. It marked the close of the year’s labours and their cumulative results, and was therefore the most joyous of the feasts (Leviticus 23:40; Deuteronomy 16:14); but--

2. The historical meaning of the feast gives us deeper insight into its joy. There is a special provision made in view of the coming settlement in Canaan, and made in order that the hardships of the wilderness may be kept fresh in the people’s memory (Leviticus 23:40; Leviticus 23:42). That memorial was to emphasise God’s goodness in the protection of the fathers and in the settlement of their posterity. The Feast of Tabernacles therefore marked the consummation of God’s covenant, and called for highest gratitude and joy. Specially interesting is the celebration of this feast by the Jews on their return from Babylon, where God’s goodness in bringing their forefathers through the wilderness had been a second time, and no less wondrously, manifested to them (Nehemiah 8:13; Psalms 126:1.) But--

3. The fullest meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles is in the kingdom of grace. The wonder of God’s goodness finds last and highest manifestation in the final home-bringing of His universal Church. The anti-type is the ingathering of God’s good grain into the heavenly garner. Canaan after the wilderness, Jerusalem after Babylon, are paralleled and fulfilled in the multitude that have come out of great tribulation. (Walter Roberts, M. A.)

Jewish commemorative feasts

The Scriptures record two chief outbursts of miraculous power: one at the foundation of the Hebrew commonwealth at the exodus from Egypt, and one at the time of Christ’s appearing and the foundation of Christianity. It is a matter of infinite importance to every man to ascertain whether these great miracles of the exodus and of Christ’s first advent were really wrought.

I. The facts of the case are these:

(1) The Hebrew people and the ancient Hebrew books now exist, and they throw light on one another.

(2) Wherever the Jewish people exist they celebrate in the spring the festival of the Passover, which they universally regard as a historical memorial of the deliverance of their forefathers from Egypt, about fourteen hundred years before Christ, by the supernatural intervention of God the Almighty.

II. In the same manner, the feast of Pentecost, or the festival of the wheat harvest, fifty days after the Passover, came to be regarded as a memorial of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day after the Exodus. In like manner, the autumnal festival of Succoth, or Booths, called “The Feast of Tabernacles,” is now celebrated just as universally as the Passover in the spring, as a memorial of the children of Israel dwelling in huts or booths. These festivals and commemorations have been celebrated now for more than three thousand years.

III. The rule is that national celebrations and public monuments maintain the remembrance of real events in past ages. It may be objected that if Athens, with all its wisdom, could celebrate the fictitious history of Minerva why may we not believe that the Jews were capable of commemorating things that happened only in the imagination of later writers and poets? To this we answer:

(1) that even in the festivals of mythology there has been a strange interweaving of historical truth and a constant tendency to give this element prominence in the lapse of time;

(2) that the Jews were utterly destitute of the dramatic imagination of the Greeks: to them the origination of a myth like that of the Exodus, if it were a myth, would be an uncongenial exercise, its adoption as history an impossibility. (E. White.)

Conditions of worship

The time is specified, and the reason is given. Every month has a memory, every day has a story, every night has a star all its own. Selected instances help us to ascertain general principles. Acting upon these instances, we become familiar with their spirit and moral genius, so much so that we begin to ask, are there not other memorable events? Are there not other times of deliverance? Have we been brought out of Egypt only? Are not all the days storied with providential love? If God is so careful about time, has He any regard for place? (Verses 5, 6.) This is morally consistent with God’s claim for gracious recollection of definite times. May we not slay the Passover where we please? Certainly not. May we not insulate ourselves, and upon little church appointments of Our own creation carry out the ceremony of our worship? Certainly not. We should strive to move in the direction at least of unity, commonwealth, fellowship, solidarity. The sacrifice is the same, the man who offers it is the same; but because it is not offered at the place which God has chosen the sacrifice and the sacrificer go for nothing. That is in harmony with all the social arrangements which experience has approved. There are fit places for all things, as well as fit times. The time having been fixed and the place determined, what remains? (Verse 10.) Here is the beginning of another kind of liberty. A wonderful word occurs in this verse: “a free-will offering.” How wonderfully God educates the human race: He will insist upon definite claims and obligations being answered, and yet He will also give opportunity for freewill action, as if He had said,--Now we shall see what you will do when left to yourselves; the law no longer presses you: the great hand is lifted, and for the time being you shall do in this matter as it may please your own mind and heart. That is an element in the Divine education of the human race. God gives us opportunities of showing ourselves to ourselves. He only would count the gift: no one should know what had been done: the sweet transaction should lie between the one soul and the living Lord. Another singular word occurs in this tenth verse:--“a tribute.” The literal meaning is that the gift is to be proportional. It would have been easy to throw a dole to the Lord that had no reference whatever to what was left behind: that would be a broad, easily-opened gate to heaven; but such is not the condition stated in the bond. Even the freewill offering is to be tributary: it is to be based upon the original substance, the actual property, whatever is in the hand as momentary possession. Thus, sacrifice is to be calculated; worship is to be the result of forethought; nothing is to be done of mere constraint or as consultative of ease and indulgence. A word of taxation touches the very poetry and pathos of oblation. “And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God,” etc. (Deuteronomy 23:11). This gives us the joyous aspect of religion. An ancient Jewish annotator has made a beautiful remark upon this verse, to the effect that “thy four, O Israel, and My four shall rejoice together.” “Thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant”--let them rejoice, let them be glad in response to music, and let them call for more music to express their ever-increasing joy; but God’s four must be there also--the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; they represent the Divine name as authority for admission to the feast. The religious servant, the poor stranger, the orphan, and the widow--they sit down, in seats divinely claimed for them, at the festive board. So the company shall be representative:--son, daughter, manservant, maidservant; priest, stranger, orphan, widow;--this is the typical company sitting down at the symbolical feast. God will not have our small house parties, made up of people of one class, equally well-dressed and accosting one another in the language of equality; He will have a large feast. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Unleavened bread

What does this unleavened bread mean? Two things, I think.

1. First, Christ; for He is the believer’s food. The unleavened bread sets forth Christ in one aspect, as much as the lamb sets Him forth in another. In the Israelite feeding upon unleavened bread, we have presented to us the believer drawing his strength from Jesus, the spotless and Holy One--the unleavened bread. “I am the bread of life.”

2. But there is another meaning of the unleavened bread, and that is holiness, uprightness, singleness of eye. Just as the bread was not the main staple of the Passover feast, but the lamb, so holiness is the accompaniment rather than the principal portion of the Christian feast. In the case of every believer the unleavened bread must accompany feeding upon Christ as the lamb. God has joined these two things together, let us not put them asunder. If we are redeemed by the blood of the lamb, let us live upon the unleavened bread; let us show forth the sincerity and truth which God requires in our life. “For even Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7). (S. A. Blackwood.)