And now we discover something really amazing.
Clearly the Lord wanted His people to have vacations. Anyone who feels vacations and days off aren’t a good idea needs only to read this passage to change his/her mind. God planned 7 different festivals into the Jewish year, and at least two of them are 7 days long.
The three that I want to blog about today are the Festivals of Passover, First Harvest and Harvest.
The festival of Passover commemorates the day the angel of death “passed over” the Hebrews as they lived in Egypt. Since this occurred on the very night that they left Egypt, it is also the beginning of their new year. Passover was celebrated by killing a perfect lamb, consuming it and using the blood to cover the entry of your home, again…all remembering how the Hebrews avoided death. When Jesus came, He gave new meaning to the festival. Now, He was the sacrificial lamb, and His blood was the key to avoiding death. Not death on earth, but eternal death in the lake of fire in the next life. Jesus was crucified (sacrificed for our sins) at the very same time that the Jews were celebrating Passover.
So we learn something about God here. When He took the Jews out of Egypt, He already had planned the day that Jesus would offer up His life. He knew the method by which He would die, and so this event was orchestrated to help the Jewish people recognize it when it happened.
The second festival celebrates the first harvest. Barley was harvested first, so the people brought in 4 quarts of barley ground and a male lamb. These offering were to be the very first part of the harvest, in fact you weren’t allowed to eat any of the grain you harvested until this offering was given to the priests. Let me say that again in a different way: the harvest wasn’t blessed until the first part had been given to the Lord. You might take a lesson from that concerning personal finances, and you would be right. But today I want to look at something different. It was the sacrifice that made the harvest acceptable to eat. Eating it without the sacrifice would have made you sick. In a way, this harvest celebrates the sacrifice of Christ’s life as well. It reminds me that until Jesus died for my sins, nothing I have is worth anything. It doesn’t matter what I collect in life…unless I accept the sacrifice that Christ made, it’s all worthless.
And then there is another festival! What possible need of another festival could there be? We have already celebrated the fact that God has rescued us from our sins (twice!). What’s the purpose of this festival?
The timing of it gives us a clue. This third festival was exactly 50 days after the festival of first harvest. That means it was 7 weeks, which later led to it being called the “feast of weeks” since a week has seven days.. (kind of like a month of sundays…only different).
Anyway, the festival celebrated the wheat harvest, so the people brought in the first fruits of the wheat harvest just like they did for the barley. But the timing of this festival (50 days) eventually led to it being called the festival of Pentecost, which comes from the Greek word for 50 “penetekostos”. It was 50 days from the time that Jesus was offered as our sacrifice until the time the Holy Spirit came. When God ordained these festivals He was adding layers of meaning and understanding. He was creating a three dimensional picture that would allow us to taste, experience, see, smell and know that Jesus was the genuine “once for always” sacrifice, and further, that the Holy Spirit was just as important to the overall plan of salvation as Jesus was. Today, the Jews sometimes call the festival of harvest the festival of weeks, or Shavout.
Think of that last statement. We celebrate the birth and death of Jesus, and of course his resurrection. We commemorate His ascension into heaven by memorizing his last words in Matthew 28 “go into all the world and make disciples”…but we somehow fail to add the appropriate amount of appreciation for the rest of the story! It’s not over at the empty tomb! Jesus alive, risen and ascended is not the end of the account, it is the middle. The MIDDLE, I tell you.
The final act is the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Christian life isn’t possible without Him. He provides the power and insight, courage and all other good things necessary for continual Christian living. Without the Holy Spirit, you cannot become a Christian, remain a Christian, or do anything that is pleasing to God. He is absolutely necessary to the whole experience. The Jewish people claim that the Law was given on Mount Sinai to Moses 50 days after the people left Egypt. That may be true..but even if it is, it’s simply another was to foreshadow the coming the Holy Spirit.
That’s why there is a festival celebrating His entrance, just as there is a festival celebrating what Christ did. Hey, did you notice that the sacrifices that the people bring are more than double for the Holy Spirit as they were for Christ? I think this might testify to the “greater things” that the Holy Spirit causes to happen. John 14:12-14 Or it could mean that we will have to offer more of ourselves up to God AFTER we have become Christians. This would be the “second work of grace” that the Methodist tradition talks about. The Holy Spirit is present around us before we are saved, within us when we are saved, and somehow in greater control of our entire life after we make this “second” confession.
Faithfully,
PR