“Three times a year
you shall celebrate a feast to Me. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread;
for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the
appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none
shall appear before Me empty-handed. Also you shall observe the Feast of the
Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also
the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the
fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year all your males shall
appear before the Lord God.”
I do not know about you, but I have often thought that we
have too many holidays. If you subscribe
to an on-line ‘holidays’ software package in conjunction with your computer
calendar, you will soon notice that just about every day of the year it seems
is a ‘holiday’ somewhere. In North America in January, we have New Year’s Day
and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In February there’s Groundhog Day; Lincoln’s
Birthday; Valentine’s Day; Family Day, Louis Riel Day, Islander Day (these last
three in Canada); President’s Day; and Washington’s Birthday. Do I need to go
on through the rest of the year? Yes, some are even religious holidays although
we have done our best to change even that.
There are many references to feasts in the Bible, but here
in this short passage, God is requiring that we celebrate three of them “unto
Him” annually. Without going into great detail about each of these feasts, let
us focus on what we believe to be God’s purpose in having us celebrate them
“unto Him”.
The first one, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was intended
for us to remember that it was God who brought them out of slavery from the
land of Egypt and how miraculously He did it. For us today, it would mean
celebrating and remembering how God brought us out of our sinful state and
saved us through the miracle of His Son Jesus Christ coming to earth and dying
in our place.
The second one, the Feast of the Harvest in which the
Israelites were to present God their “first fruits” from the annual yield of
their fields, was intended to keep reminding them that it is God that gives the
harvest and arranges for it, not they themselves. For us today, it would mean
celebrating “unto Him” and thanking Him for the fact that we can and are
totally dependent on Him for all of our earthly needs and the products of our
labor.
The third one, the Feast of the Ingathering (also known as
the Feast of Booths) takes place after the last harvest of the year is
gathered. It was for the purpose of
giving thanks to God for His provision of the right weather to allow the
Israelites to process their crops, especially grapes and grain, before the
yield would be useful for eating. In those days all the winepresses and
threshing floors were outdoors and the Israelites needed favorable weather to
carry these activities out. Again, for
us today, this would mean giving God thanks for how He is involved in our
day-to-day lives, taking care of the details if you like.
In asking them to celebrate these three feasts, God makes
two stipulations. First (provided at the
end of our passage) that “all the males” should gather together at these three
events and that they should eat together at them (after all, that is what one
does at feasts). And secondly, God tells the Israelites that no one (no male)
is to appear before Him at this celebration “empty-handed”. On this latter point, Matthew Henry writes,
“Some free-will offering or other they must bring, in token
of their respect and gratitude to their great benefactor; and, as they were not
allowed to come empty-handed, so we must not come to worship God empty-hearted;
our souls must be filled with grace, with pious and devout affections, holy
desires towards him, and dedications of ourselves to him, for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased.”
In our modern world, full of hustle and bustle, and never
a spare moment, we have developed the ability to do more in less time. We have fast-food, drive-thru bank services, stay
in your automobile carwashes, texting (vs. writing or calling or even emailing)
‘sounds’ or ‘short-forms’ rather than full words, and I am sure you can think
of many more shortcuts that you take. We seem to have done the same thing with
the Feasts that God wanted us to observe. We now have one annual Thanksgiving
Day (at which many do very little giving of thanks and some don’t even feast)
to replace all three feasts God had prescribed we celebrate. And you we claim
to love Him dearly.
I humbly suggest that as a minimum
at our next Thanksgiving Day Feast, we try to consider what God wanted us to
remember through the three feasts He describes in this Scripture passage. Let
us at least take time to thank Him for delivering us from sin, His provisions
for our daily needs, and His involvement in our lives. And if you are really up to it, try
establishing three different feasts for your family.
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