Skip to main content

Numbers 29:39 - Renewal of feast day requirements - Day 140

Good morning friends,

I think we can all agree that priorities can be identified by the amount of time and effort spent on our activities.  As Israel is nearing the entry to the Promised Land, God sets the priorities for His people.  God told them the time and effort needed to show obedience.  Now that I am mostly retired, the use of time helps me to see where my priorities are.  Spending time preparing these devotions is a blessing to me.  I have had the habit of daily quiet time and mediation, but this is at a new level.  I pray that these daily devotions encourage you to grow in your relationship with the Lord.

Blessings,

Jeff

The appointed feasts established in Leviticus 23 before leaving Sinai are now repeated 40 years later prior to the 2nd chance to enter the Promised Land.  The specific sacrifices were not established at Sinai.

Feast of first fruits and subsequent feast of weeks are for the Promised Land only.  So they had not yet  been celebrated.

Feast of Booth was to be a reminder that they lived in booths.  If they had been obedient and entered the land 40 years earlier, it would have reminded them of obedience.  Since they were disobedient, it is a week long reminder of 40 years of wandering.  In either case, while they were actually living in booths, they may not have celebrated this feast.  

The big picture seems to be that life in the Promised Land was to revolve around religious observance of Sabbath, new moon, new year and annual feasts.  Marking the passing of time seems to be a common practice among many cultures.  When to plant, when to harvest, etc.  But God has specific requirements for the way His people were to observe these times.  By stating the requirements, the practices of the cultures in the Promised Land were excluded.  This is the background for the "regulative principle of worship".  God's people are to celebrate the passing of time in the way that He appoints in His word.  Likewise the New Testament church is to follow the principles of Scripture.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leviticus 18:21 - Partial restoration of creation order

Dear Friends, Some times we forget that Moses wrote Genesis.  Obviously, he did not have first hand knowledge of the events of creation.  But God did and revealed them to Moses.  The "story arc" is clear to Moses despite the millenia of history between Genesis and Leviticus.  The plan for ultimate restoration is hazy, but God is at work repairing some of the damage. Blessings, Jeff What is the prohibition on child sacrifice doing in the list of prohibited sexual relations? Be fruitful and multiply - First commandment in Genesis.  God made the world to be inhabited.   Having children is how this  was to happen.  So child sacrifice was a direct violation of this first command to Adam and Eve. Marriage is one man and one woman is the creation order. Seems simple enough.  I can imagine men thinking, Yeah but God didn't say which woman.  I will do the one woman thing if she is my sister, or aunt or …..  So God gives all these examples of unlawful unions.  To this day, man stil
Post a Comment
Read more

1 Chronicles 24:1-6 How about those Levites! Day 332

Good morning friends, Good foundations are important.  Our author turns to the religious life of the returning exiles. Blessings, Jeff We have seen the emphasis on the Davidic line in the  political life of Israel.  The other area of emphasis is the Aaronic priesthood and Levitical workers. In this passage we have a quick review of the somewhat sanitized picture of the start of Aaron's line.  The returning exiles would have known that Nadab and Abihu did not just "die before their father without children".  They rebelled against God by offering unauthorized fire and were themselves consumed by fire from the Lord. Leviticus 10.  The case of Abiathar  son of Ahitub son of Ahimelech, who was faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah is also not mentioned. But the passage points to the importance of the Aaronic line to the rebuilding of the temple by the exiles.  The history of the northern kingdom which was without the Levites from the beginning could not be repeat
Post a Comment
Read more

Matthew 22:23 - the danger of not knowing Scripture - Day 193

Yesterday's passage was not very theological.  Today's is very theological.  I have only scratched the surface, but hope this encourages us to question ourselves about "knowledge of Scripture and the power of God". Blessings  Jeff This is a fascinating dialogue between Sadducees and Jesus.  So let's interrogate the passage. What distinguishes the Sadducees from other Jewish doctrinal positions?  They deny that there is a resurrection.  They are absolutely committed to this doctrine. How does their commitment shape their thought and questions? Even though they don't believe in the resurrection, they formulate a question focused on showing the absurdity of the resurrection.  They are not pointing to a passage of scripture that supports them, but asking a hypothetical question to make resurrection look silly. What is the purpose of the "Levirate marriage"? Deuteronomy 5:5-8.  First this is not a violation of the 7th commandment (adultery).  Brothers wer
Post a Comment
Read more