Deuteronomy
16:1-17
INTRODUCTION
Remember, Moses preached Deuteronomy to call God’s people
back to faithful service. He preached the sermons before their entrance into
the Promised Land to remind the Israelites of God’s guidance in the past, His
covenant with them, and the outcome of their obedience or disobedience. The
laws spoken of were not new laws, but the restating of God’s original laws to
His people. Moses reapplied them to the people as they faced new circumstances,
the inhabiting of Canaan. Deuteronomy is a book of revival. When we consider
this and the promises of God to prosper them for their faithfulness to their
covenant with Him, we understand more about why debtors, the poor, and slaves arose
among the Israelites. These three classes of people arose because of the Israelites’
unfaithfulness to their covenant with God. We understand why God commanded they
help their brothers and the foreigners among them who were in need. God planned
to make them prosperous. Even when the Israelites failed in their faithfulness
to Him, God had mercy on them and provided a way by which they could keep their
inheritance and have what they needed (see chapter 14:22-15:23). Given that God
promised to water the land from His heavens and make them prosperous, would the
Israelites automatically praise and thank God for His blessing of the work
their hands? Since the Israelites were human, a possibility existed in which
they would not praise and thank God. Because of that, God commanded three
festival pilgrimages be made each year by the males to the temple. God mandated
these three festivals/feasts along with regular temple visits to give thanks
and praise God with their sacrifices and offerings as noted in chapter 12. Let
us now read and learn about these three pilgrimages.
PILGRIMAGES
Feast
of Passover
The first pilgrimage mentioned in
Deuteronomy 16 was the Feast of Passover. Originally, the Israelites celebrated
this feast/festival in remembrance of the Spirit of God passing over their
homes in Egypt. Those in Egypt, pre-exodus, who did not put lamb’s blood on
their doorposts and lintels, woke to find their firstborn dead. Exodus 12
teaches the institution of the Feast of Passover. Leviticus 23:4-8 and Numbers
28:16-25 teach about the Passover feast, too. Because the Israelites knew of
the Passover feast from Moses’ earlier teachings, at the time of Deuteronomy, Moses
just reminded them of the main points of the feast. He told them to observe the
whole month of Abib, now Nissan in the Jewish calendar, late March or early
April on today’s calendar. “Observe” in verse one comes from the Hebrew word shamar, which means to hear, listen, and
obey. The whole month of Abib was a time to remember God’s greatness in
choosing and protecting them from the Spirit of death that fateful night in
Egypt when firstborns of the unfaithful died.
Though Moses commanded them to remember the
Passover the whole month, he told them to celebrate it just one week of the
month. Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers explain the celebration began on the
fourteenth day of the first month of the year. On the tenth day of the month, the
Israelites were to set aside for slaughter an unblemished, year-old lamb or
goat. Moses told them to slaughter the Passover animal on the fourteenth day of
the month (Exodus 12:3-6). The Hebrew word for “Passover” is Pesach. Pesach means Passover, sacrifice
of Passover, or the animal sacrifice of the Passover. We must note in
Deuteronomy 16:2, the people were to offer the sacrifice at the “place where
the LORD establishes His name.” For the pre-temple Israelites, the place was
their territorial tabernacle/sanctuary. After Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem
by order of God, the place for these sacrifices was the temple.
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy
each mandate eating unleavened bread from days fifteen to twenty of Abib.
Leviticus and Numbers call this the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This part of the
Passover celebration reminded the people they left Egypt in a hurry and did not
have time for dough rise. Instead, the Israelites ate flat bread made of flour
and oil (Exodus 13:3 & 34:18). Moses called this bread the bread of
affliction because they had to leave Egypt in haste (Deut. 16:3).
In addition to slaughtering an animal on the
fourteenth day to enable the Israelites to spread the blood on their doorposts
and lintels, the Israelites were to slaughter animals for the feast for each of
the seven days of the festival. Yet none of the flesh sacrificed to God each
night was to remain from one night to the next morning (16:4). “Morning” in
Hebrew is boqer and means break of
day or dawn. Exodus teaches this, too. Next Moses reminded the Israelites the
sacrifice was to occur at the place the LORD chose - in the local tabernacle (before
Solomon built the temple) or at the temple (after Solomon built it). They were not
to offer the sacrifice in the towns where the people lived once Solomon built the
temple, the place where God chose His name to abide. The people were to
slaughter, cook, and eat the sacrifice at the place God chose, and then return
to their tents at sunrise, boqer.
The final instruction about the Passover
Moses gave the Israelites was they were to have a solemn assembly on days
fourteen and twenty-one of the first month. An assembling of people for the
first slaughter and the final day of celebration was to occur. They were to do no
work on those two days.
As
the Israelites continued to live in Canaan, the time of the Feast of Passover celebration
became the beginning of planting season for them. The planting season came after
the winter rains. This meant the Feast of Passover celebrated God’s hand in
saving them from the Spirit of death and Egypt and it celebrated the beginning
of the growing season. Celebrating the Feast of the Passover as a historical and
agricultural event is a festival of giving thanks to Yahweh for His provision for
His children.
Feast
of Weeks
This feast was to occur seven full weeks
after the second day of Passover. The counting of weeks provided the name Feast
of Weeks to the festival. Moses gave the command for this festival as a way to
celebrate the first fruits of the harvest from what the Israelites sowed near
Passover time. Because shabuwa and shavu’ot are Hebrew for “weeks,” the
Israelites named the festival the Feast of Shavu’ot. The counting of the days
and weeks showed the anticipation of the first fruits of the Israelites’ labor.
Moses taught everything about this feast in Leviticus 23:15-21 and Numbers 28:26-31.
Deuteronomy 16:9-12 is a synopsis of the earlier two teachings.
Deuteronomy 16:9-12 teaches what
Moses commanded of the Israelites. Moses reiterated the timing of this feast in
verse nine. He explained what the offering was to be - a freewill, nedebah, offering to the LORD (vs. 10).
This offering represented God’s sufficiency to the Israelites and His blessing
of their work, which was sufficient for their celebration. The peoples’
freewill offerings were a gift back to God for His blessings of them. As the
people came together to give their offerings to God, they were to rejoice with
their household, the Levite of their town/city, the orphan, widow, and stranger
in their town/city.
Just as the Israelites celebrated the Feast of Passover to
remember of God’s aid to them, the Feast of Weeks celebration occurred because of
the Israelites’ remembrance of God’s help. The Feast of Weeks was a day set
apart for the Israelites to remember they were slaves in Egypt. God chose them
to be His people and to make a nation from them. He redeemed them from slavery and
blessed them with a fruitful land. Because of this, they must celebrate the
first fruits of the harvest and rejoice with their neighbors at what God did
for them. Later, the Israelites added a spiritual element to this celebration.
They celebrated this feast as the day God gave them their Torah from Mount
Sinai. The Israelites felt the Torah redeemed them from spiritual bondage to
idolatry and immorality. For these reasons, Moses repeated his command of shamar from verse one when he said in
verse 16, “carefully observe these statutes.” The Israelites were to hear,
listen, and obey this command from the LORD. Moses commanded they carefully observe
this feast to celebrate God’s blessings and give thanks.
Feast
of Booths
Moses taught the Israelites to
celebrate the harvest in verses thirteen through fifteen. He taught this
earlier in Leviticus 23:33-43 and Numbers 29:12-38. Moses told them, “You shall
celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your
threshing floor and your wine vat” (Deut. 16:13). The Leviticus and Numbers
passages command this feast begin on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for
seven days. Tishri is the seventh lunisolar month in the Jewish calendar and
occurs during September or October of today’s calendar.
The word “booths” is cukkah and sukkot in
Hebrew. Its definition is thicket, booth, or temporary shelter made of brush.
Booths are what the Israelites lived in when God brought them out of Egypt. The
Feast of Booths celebrated God’s food and protection for the Israelites as they
wandered in the wilderness for forty years. This feast had a spiritual and
agricultural part to it, like the other two feasts. As stated before in this
paragraph, the spiritual part was that God chose, provided for, and protected
the Israelites in their wandering years. The agricultural part attached to this
feast was that the Israelites reaped their last harvest seven days before the Feast
of Booths. They celebrated their harvest at this feast.
Moses, in Deuteronomy, expressly stated the feast
begin seven days after the harvest. In Leviticus and Numbers, Moses stated a
specific date for its beginning - the fifteenth day of the seventh month,
Tishri. The feast lasted seven days. On the first and eighth days, a holy assemblage
of men occurred to present an offering of fire to the LORD. The Israelites did not
work on these two days (Lev. 23:35, 36, & 39). Both Leviticus and Numbers specify
the exact number of each animal, and the amount of grain, oil, and drink
offering Moses told the people to offer to God on each day of the festival.
Deuteronomy states God would choose the place at which the feast was to occur. Moses
commanded the people make booths in which to live during the festival at the beginning
of the festival (Lev. 23:40-42).
The
overarching reasons Moses gave the Israelites for celebrating this festival
were to rejoice with other people over what God blessed them with and so the
LORD would “continue to bless them in all the work of their hands” (Deut. 16:
14-15). As stated earlier, this festival had a spiritual and agricultural basis
to it. Moses commanded them to rejoice at God’s blessing of a bountiful harvest.
Recap
Moses recapped God’s commands regarding
the three mandated feasts or pilgrimages each year in verses sixteen and
seventeen. The three main points of God’s commands about the feasts included:
1.
“All males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place He chooses at the
Feast of the Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths.”
2.
“They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.”
3.
“Each man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the LORD your
God which He has given you.”
Notice the feasts are
mandatory, not optional. Notice, too, every man must give according to the gifts
God gave him, as a token of dependence and gratitude to God. These feasts were
the only mandated pilgrimages for Israelite men. In case the Israelites forgot
from where their blessings came, God provided three established feasts to help
them stop, recall, rejoice, and praise Him, the fount of their blessings.
CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE
God expected His people, the
Israelites to be faithful to their covenant with Him. The laws, commands, and
statutes He declared presumed their covenant faithfulness. Because God knows
the sinful nature of humankind, He provided in His covenant for both blessing
on the faithful and a curse on the unfaithful. Added to this and because God
knows the hearts of humankind (we often become arrogant, self-centered, and
keep the glory for prosperity for ourselves), God provided and commanded the
people pilgrimage three times a year to the place where His name and glory resided.
The Israelites were to rejoice at what God did for them in Egypt, during the exodus,
and what He did for them that year when He provided the produce from their land
and animals.
The festivals provided an additional
benefit. It allowed them to strengthen their national identification as a
religious community. Before this, they were a people too small to be a nation. The
descendents of Abraham lived through drought, famine, and enslavement. God
gathered them out of another nation and made them a people/nation for Himself. At
that point, He called them His people, blessed them, and gave them another
commonality, celebrations of His blessings and their prosperity. They no longer
had a history of misery. They had a present experience of blessings and hope
for more with the God they learned to trust, serve, and love.
Today, we can look back and see the
hard times we experienced, just as the Israelites did. We can look back to see
the blessings of God, too. God wants to bless us. He wants us to share His
blessings and rejoice with our families and neighbors about His blessings. We must
recognize that the joy and blessings we receive come from God’s hand, not our
own. God blesses the work of our hands. You may say, “I have received no
blessings. Does God not love me?” The answer is that He does love you. God
created you and chose you for a purpose, to be in a relationship with Him. He
does not force Himself upon any of us. God gives us freewill to do what we want
in our lives. He lets us choose Him or ourselves to lead our lives. When you choose
to give your life to God, He receives you with open arms, forgives your sins,
and promises you life. According to our studies in Deuteronomy, life has two
elements – physical and spiritual. Our earthly life includes what we need for
physical existence. Added to this, our spiritual life is that part of ourselves
that continues to exist after our physical death – our souls/spirits. When we
give our lives to God, He gives us hope. We have hope because we know we will
live with Him in heaven when our time on earth is finished. We can live with
God for eternity. God re-forms our hearts and renews us in His image, the way
He intended, not as the sinful, willful person we were before we gave our
hearts to Him.
God leaves the decision up to us.
What do you choose?
To whom will you give praise and glory?
