LEVITICUS. Windows into the Heart of God

LEVITICUS Windows into the Heart of God

Igloo / Tabernacle / Booth

Jewish Holy Calendar Hanukkah khanuká],ח נ כ ה] 2nd Adar 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, and 19th years sukkōt],ס כ ות] Tabernacles Day of Atonement Trumpets Pesakh], פ ס ח] Passover Unleavened Bread Firstfruits, רא ש ה ש נ ה] Rosh Hashanah] Pentecost Shavuot],ש ב וע ות]

A Kiss Between Lovers A sabbath or a festival was like a kiss between lovers. It gathered into a special moment what was always true. Walt Kaiser

Jewish Holy Calendar: Leviticus 23 Spring Barley Harvest Summer Wheat Harvest Fall Fruit Harvest March/April May/June Sept/Oct Unleavened Bread Nisan 15-22 Pentecost Sivan 7 Trumpets Tishri 1 Booths Tishri 15-22 Passover Nisan 14 First Fruits Nisan 17 Atonement Tishri 10 Pesakh Shavout Sukkot Death of Christ 1 Cor. 5:7 Resurrection of Christ 1 Cor. 15:20-23 Birth of Church Acts 2 Rapture of Church 1 Thes. 4:16 Removal of Sin 1 Thes. 4:16 Living with God 1 Thes. 4:16

The Day of Atonement The essence of the day, Yom Kippur as it is called, was that the blood of the sacrificial animal was sprinkled on the so-called mercy seat in the holy of holies by the high priest to make atonement for himself and for the people, and the sins of the people were placed on the scapegoat that was taken out into the wilderness to die, signifying the complete removal of sin and defilement from the people. Allen Ross

The Ritual of Blood Entering God s presence requires purification by blood. Atonement

The Ritual of Riddance Entering God s presence requires removal of sin. Forgiveness

Fulfillment: Day of Atonement It is interesting that the New Testament does not point to a particular time when the Day of Atonement was fulfilled, as it does with Passover or Pentecost. This is perhaps because the full benefits of the death of Christ have not yet been fully realized. Allen Ross

The Festival of Booths The final celebration of the year was a seven-day festival that concluded the agricultural cycle. The regulations clearly have in view the time when the Israelites had settled into the promised land and lived in scattered communities. This feast was another of the three occasions a year When Israelite men were required to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Derek Tidball

Pilgrimage Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me. 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. Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD. Exodus 23:14-17

Booths, Huts, Tabernacles, Sukkah (ס כ ה) The rendering booths (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV) is probably better than the traditional tabernacles in light of the meaning of the term.ס כ ה The nature of the celebration during this feast as a commemoration of the wanderings of the Israelites after they left Egypt suggests that a translation like temporary shelters is more appropriate. (NET Bible)

Booths, Huts, Tabernacles, Sukkah For the entire week, the people lived in booths or shelters covered on the top and partially closed on the sides. The same word was also use for the pens that Jacob made for his cattle at Succouth (Gen. 33:16-17). And so the explanation of the name is that the ancestors lived in temporary dwellings (i.e., tents) during the wilderness wanderings. But a double entendre may be involved, for according to Ex. 12:37 the first place they came to after they left Ramses was Succoth. Allen Ross

Booths, Huts, Tabernacles, Sukkah Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, Who does that young woman belong to? The overseer replied, She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters. She came into the field and has remained here from morning till.(ס כ ה) now, except for a short rest in the shelter Ruth 2:5-7

Booths: Looking Back and Looking Ahead It was also referred to as Asip, the ingathering of the summer crops and fruits at the end of the agricultural year (Ex. 34:22). The people brought an offering of their crops and vintage in thanksgiving to the Lord. By doing this they express their faith in sufficient rainfall for the next year. The Feast of Booths also commemorated the wilderness wanderings when the Israelites had to live in temporary dwellings. Allen Ross

Thanksgiving Faithful worshippers show their gratitude to the Lord by presenting offerings for the bounty He provides. Leviticus 23:33-38

Thanksgiving The LORD said to Moses, Say to the Israelites: On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD S Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present food offerings to the LORD, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work. Leviticus 23:33-38

Thanksgiving (These are the LORD S appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing food offerings to the LORD the burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day. These offerings are in addition to those for the LORD S Sabbaths and in addition to your gifts and whatever you have vowed and all the freewill offerings you give to the LORD.) Leviticus 23:33-38

The Feasts of Israel Words are dry and tenuous compared to vivid acts like clearing home of leaven and marching with palm branches. You can listen to one hundred lectures and read forty books on what Judaism is, and learn less than you can by carrying out in a single year the duties and the pleasures of the festivals. Herman Wouk This Is My God

Celebration Faithful worshippers celebrate joyfully as they are thankful. Leviticus 23:39-41

Celebration So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest. On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees from palms, willows and other leafy trees and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Leviticus 23:39-41

Booths: Rejoicing and Celebration This is the only festival where the people were commanded to rejoice. Allen Ross

Remembrance Faithful worshippers regularly reenact the foundations of faith. Leviticus 23:42-44

Remembrance Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed festivals of the Lord. Leviticus 23:42-44

The Festival of Booths After Israel had settled in their own land and enjoyed the comfort of permanent housing, it would be all too easy to forget that it was the Lord who led them out of Egypt and provided food and shelter for them during their wilderness journey. Derek Tidball

The Festival of Booths They were likely to think of themselves as self-sufficient and to assume that the food and security they enjoyed were the result of their own labour rather than of the Lord's generosity. But such arrogance would, at least annually, be deflated by the observance of this ceremony, which reminded them of their past. Derek Tidball

Fulfillment in Christ But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near. Therefore Jesus told them, My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come. John 7:2, 6-8

The Festival of Booths One of the main objectives of the day, as we learn from its later practice, was to pray that God would provide rain for the crops. So, too, was the water libation that became attached to the feast. By the time of Jesus Christ an essential element of the celebration was the bringing of water from the Pool of Siloam through the Water Gate to the temple, where it was poured out as a supplication to God. Derek Tidball

Fulfillment in Christ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:37-39

Fulfillment in Christ Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. Zechariah 14:16

Timing Christ will fulfill the Feast of Booths when He ushers us joyfully into His presence to worship Him. Zechariah 14:16

The Festival of Booths The purpose may have been to draw attention not so much to their hardship in the past as to the Lord's provision in the present. He has kept them and provided for them in the harsh wilderness; would he not now provide for them in the land of promise? Hartley argues for this interpretation, pointing out that the booths were built out of the glorious trees of the promised land, not the barren shrubs of the wilderness. Derek Tidball

The Festival of Booths Recalling the past is important. We are called to be pilgrim people. Enjoy God s blessing with thanksgiving. We must look forward with hope. Derek Tidball

The Festival of Booths Israel's true identity was as a pilgrim people who traveled light by the world standards. Christians too are reminded that their citizenship is above. Allen Ross

Principle Christ fulfills all the pictures of the Old Testament festivals in His first and second comings.

Booths: Fulfillment in Christ By its connection to history, this festival also had a prophetic sense. The reenactment enabled people to focus on the fulfillment of the covenant promise at the end of the age. Allen Ross

The Festival of Booths The Feast of Tabernacles was a harvest festival of great rejoicing that commemorated the abundant provision of God from the soil. It was also a reminder of the temporary sojourn on earth, that this life was temporary; and in this sense it became a picture of the great ingathering and rejoicing at the coming of the kingdom of God on earth, as a peaceful and prosperous reign at the end of the age. (Isa. 52:7-12; 2:2-4; Mic. 5:2-5; Zach. 12-14) Allen Ross

The Festivals Keeping the feasts was no hardship. It gave people space and led them to reconnect with God as well as with each other. It led them to reflect upon the goodness of their God, to refocus their lives and to renew their trust in him for the future. Rather than a chore, the feasts testified to the joy Israel experienced in knowing their God. Derek Tidball

Leviticus: Windows into the Heart of God God s people regularly show gratitude for His provision and joyfully celebrate as they anticipate the full realization of His promises.

LEVITICUS Windows into the Heart of God