Day 1: Introduction

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. Leviticus 23:1-2

So the feast days. Today a lot of Christian churches place heavy emphases on Passover-having a ‘seder’ meal, talking about how Jesus did it with His disciples, etc. etc. Oddly enough, these same churches don’t even mention the OTHER 6 major feast days-days that Jesus also celebrated with His disciples. So does that become a problem? God commanded the Israelites in Leviticus to always remember these days, and had strict guidelines on how to observe them. If we as Christians start to follow these laws, then we need to fully commit ourselves TO the law, and give up our grace through faith. We cannot do both. 

In Romans 6:14 Paul writes: ‘For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace’. So if WE were to try and follow them, in essence we are spitting on the redemptive work of the cross.

“But…but…Christ did it, and we want to be more Christ like!” 

Yes. Christ also healed the lame, whipped people in the temple, DIED a horrible death and spoke the world into existence. Good luck trying to catch up with Him. Plus, He was JEWISH and following Jewish law that was still in effect for a good 24 more hours after He finished this meal. So…

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider these feasts. Especially since God pointedly told them to ALWAYS do them. Because they serve a two-fold purpose, like all things in the Old Testament do. They point backwards-as a reminder of something that happened that God did not want forgotten, and they point forward-the the work of Christ. And for us that makes it important-not to practice the rules and sacrifices of the festivals, but to see and understand Jesus, His comings and goings and work throughout history, present, future.

So for the next 9 days let us take a bit of time and look at these festivals and see what we can learn. Not to become more ‘Jewish’, but to become more intimate with His holy word, and grow closer to him.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unit all good works.