"The Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you." (vv.15-17)
In today’s reading, the people of Israel received instructions to joyfully celebrate God’s blessings to them in three sacred festivals: Passover (vv. 1-8), the Feast of Weeks (vv. 9-12), and the Feast of Tabernacles (vv. 13-17).
Passover commemorated the night that the angel of the Lord “passed over” the Israelite houses in Egypt. In the last of the ten plagues, he killed the firstborn son wherever there was no blood on the doorposts (see Ex 12:1-28). Passover was immediately followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, named for the bread without yeast that the people carried in their hasty departure from slavery (cf. 1Cor. 5:6, 7, 8). This festival took place in the month of Abib (March or April on our calendars), the first month of the Jewish year. Passover is “New Year’s Day,” a fresh start for God’s people.
The Feast of Weeks was a harvest festival. At the wheat harvest, the people celebrated it to show joy and thankfulness for God’s blessing. This event took place in May or June, and was also called “Pentecost.” In the history of the church, Pentecost is the day the Holy Spirit first descended on the believers. Jewish tradition also links this festival with the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai.
The Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, took place in September or October, and was also a harvest festival, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt to Canaan. The people lived in booths made of tree branches and foliage in order to remember the journey.
And every man shall give as he is able: These were also times for worship and offerings, not just pleasure or leisure (though those were included). No work was permitted to be done, as that would have been a distraction. Celebrating was intended to draw the community’s attention to their blessings and the Giver of all good things. Therefore, every man must appear with a gift as he is able, according to the blessing the LORD his God has given him.
These were only three (four, actually, counting the feast of unleavened bread as a separate feast) of the seven feasts of Israel. Not mentioned in this chapter are the feasts of trumpets, of firstfruits, and of the Day of Atonement. Yet, the feasts mentioned in this chapter were the most important feasts in Israel – and every Jewish man, to the best of His ability, was to go to the place of the tabernacle (or later, the temple) and celebrate this feast with the whole nation of Israel. Even Jesus was obedient to this command; He made the trip from Galilee to Jerusalem to be at these feasts (Luke 2:41, John 7:2, 10).
What an amazing testimony these feast represent in the Jewish culture handed down from generation to generation.
