Our Bible passage today tells us about the three annual festivals all the Israelite men were commanded to observe each year.
We begin at verse 13 which spans the gap between yesterday's passage regarding the Sabbath and today's portion of Scripture regarding the holy festivals. "Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips." (Exodus 23:13) There is no God but the Lord, but the Israelites were headed for the promised land which was inhabited by pagan tribes who constantly had the names of false gods on their lips and who made sacrifices to non-existent deities and who engaged in various sinful festivals that included all sorts of debauchery. The names of pagan gods were never to be on an Israelite's lips---not on the Sabbath, not on a festival day, and not on any other day. These false deities were never to be accorded the privilege of having their names said out loud, for to say their names out loud was to grant them a solid realness they didn't actually possess, and to grant them any form of realness was the first step down the slippery slope of idolatry.
"Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to Me." (Exodus 23:14) There are other festivals people were welcome to observe to the Lord but these three are required. Later in the Bible it will be required for Jewish males celebrate these festivals at Jerusalem if at all possible. This is why, for instance, we find such a huge crowd in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified; the males (in a lot of cases accompanied by their whole families) had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to observe Passover. This is why Jesus' enemies, in their plot to seize Him and orchestrate His death, did not intend to lay hands on Him at Passover since they "were afraid of the crowd because the people held that He was a prophet". (Matthew 21:46, Mark 12:12) It was the Lord's plan to be arrested and to give His life as an offering at Passover, so they ended up arresting Him at that time in spite of their intention not to, but the crowd present at Jerusalem at that time was due to the passage we're studying today. Passover, otherwise known as the Festival of Unleavened Bread, is going to be one of the three required annual feasts.
"Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before Me empty handed." (Exodus 23:15) Earlier in Exodus we already studied the way the observance of Passover was to be carried out, so we won't go over all the details again here.
An offering must be brought when the men of Israel appear before the Lord, so He says, "No one is to appear before Me empty handed."
"Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your fields." (Exodus 23:16a) This holiday is also called Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks. It celebrates the spring harvest, also known as the early harvest or the firstfruits harvest. It was celebrated fifty days after Passover to commemorate the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. A period of fifty days passed between the first observance of Passover in Egypt til the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai and were given the law by the Lord through Moses. In a sense we could say the gathering of the people at Mount Sinai was a firsfruits or early harvest of all the good things the Lord had in store for them in the future. In the same way, we find a firsfruits or early harvest taking place on Pentecost in the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit falls upon and begins to indwell the believers of Christ. It was on that first Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ that the Apostle Peter preached his first sermon and three thousand people came to faith in the Lord Jesus and were baptized. Jerusalem was filled with a great crowd on that day due to Pentecost being a holiday upon which every Jewish male (and every male from other cultures who had converted to Judaism) was required to be at Jerusalem if at all possible. Though not every person who heard the gospel that day or who witnessed the signs and wonders of that day came to faith in Christ, they were all granted the grace and mercy of being able to hear the gospel message. And those who believed on the name of Christ on the day of Pentecost were the "firstfruits" or the "early harvest" of all those who have come to Christ during the centuries since.
"Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your crops from the field." (Exodus 23:16b) This is what we would consider the fall harvest. It was also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Shelters. It commemorates the Israelites' forty years in the wilderness during which time they dwelt in tents. This festival was to be observed for seven days, with the first day being a holy day in which no work could be performed. On the eighth day another holy day was performed and a burnt offering was to be made to the Lord.
I feel I am at a disadvantage, being a Gentile, when explaining these three major Jewish festivals. If you have the time you might want to do your own internet searches regarding these festivals, regarding how the Lord Jesus observed them in the gospel accounts, and how aspects of these festivals have been incorporated into Christian religious observances. There is far more material than we could ever include in our study today but this material is well worth your time if you'd like to do your own research.
Our passage concludes with instructions for how offerings are and are not to be made. "Three times a year the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord. Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to Me along with anything containing yeast. The fat of My festival offerings must not be kept until morning. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk." (Exodus 23:17-19)
Yeast (leaven) was considered a symbol of sin. We will find the words "yeast" or "leaven" used interchangeably at times for the word "sin" in the Bible. Also this instruction regarding leaven is closely related to the observance of Passover. On the night of the first Passover the bread had to be made without yeast because there was not enough time before the exodus from Egypt for the bread to rise. Since yeast is symbolic of sin we can see why the Lord would not want any items containing yeast to be included with sacrifices.
Why is the fat of a sacrifice not to be kept? For one thing, the fat was considered the most holy and desirable part because it burned up first and the smoke rose upwards toward heaven. For another thing, a burnt offering was an offering for atonement. Every portion of the sacrifice had to be given up to the Lord, unlike with other types of offerings in which certain portions were given to the Lord and the bringer of the offering and his family were allowed to keep other parts for themselves for consumption. Atonement was considered a whole and complete work, so none of the offering could be kept back. It represents a work that lacks nothing, on the Lord's part. To use the Lord Jesus Christ as an example, He held nothing back when accomplishing the work of atonement on the cross. He gave His life, which is the most He could give. He gave "his all", to use a modern expression. The giving of a whole sacrifice also symbolizes a surrender of the bringer's self to the Lord, a relinquishing of sin, and an acceptance that only the Lord can grant absolution and impute righteousness. Righteousness cannot be obtained by man's own works but by the Lord's work alone. The complete giving up of a sacrifice of atonement acknowledges this, so the Lord tells the people not to hold anything back---not to allow anything to be "kept until morning". This should be a reminder to us that "today is the day of salvation". (Isaiah 49:8, 2 Corinthians 6:2) Today is the day to make things right with God. The Bible warns us never to harden our hearts (Hebrews 3:15) when we know something needs to be repented of, for we are not promised tomorrow. In this same way no one was to keep back a portion of the atonement sacrifice. The seeking of forgiveness and the confession of one's sins and the giving of one's heart to the Lord is to be done fully and completely, holding nothing back from Him.
The law against cooking an offered animal in its mother's milk most likely has to do with a pagan fertility rite which was carried out by some of the other cultures in the region. They believed the milk would then have magical powers. The milk was sprinkled on the people and on the fields and vineyards in an attempt to make everyone and everything more fertile. Some scholars disagree and say this law was given for compassionate reasons so that the mother of the goat would not witness the slaughter and sacrifice of her offspring or so that an offspring that was still young enough to be nursing would not be taken from its mother. It's not really possible for us to know for certain since so many religious and historical records of other ancient cultures have been lost, but this verse is the origin of a kosher law where meat and dairy are not to be eaten at the same time. In order to keep a kosher kitchen you would also not be allowed to use the same plates or utensils for dairy foods that are used for foods containing meat. Having never had to observe these customs, I don't know enough about them to discuss them intelligently, but if you're interested you might want to do your own research about everything involved with keeping kosher.
Tomorrow's passage will contain some of the great and precious promises the Lord makes to Israel, but the receiving of these promises depends---in part---on the keeping of the instructions the people have been given in today's passage. In the Scriptures we find the Lord making a number of beautiful promises both to Israel and to the church. Some of these promises do not depend on man's performance; they are bestowed simply because God is loving and merciful. Other promises depend on man's faithfulness. We can't expect to receive them unless we fulfill our end of the bargain. There's some old hymn lyrics that talk about "standing on the promises of God" and it's important for us to keep in mind that some of the Bible's promises are "if/then" promises. These are promises where God says, "If you do this, then I will do that". Join us tomorrow as the Lord lays down further requirements for the people to follow so they can fully experience all the promises and blessings the Lord longs to pour out on them.
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