Chapter 23 describes the numerous feasts that the Israelites were to celebrate. The Lord's Appointed Times discusses these in more detail. One interesting thing about understanding how the Israelite calendar operated is that provides important information....
Passover begins on the fourteenth day of the month of Abib. Since the months, in the Jewish Calendar, follow the phases of the moon, we know that this must be a full moon. The darkness that fell over the earth when Jesus was crucified could not, therefore, have been an eclipse of the sun. It had to be, therefore, of supernatural origin.
One verse that my new ESV Study Bible commented on and I thought was very true was regarding vs 22 which appears right after describing the Feast of Weeks - And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
The verse appeared previously (Lev 19:9) but was repeated here. The Feast of Weeks is also called The Feast of the Harvest and the day of the firstfruits (in the NT it's called Pentecost). This celebration gives glory to God for the provider of all crops and reminds the people that He deserves the firstfruits of all produce - generosity is expected of the people during this occasion and in v.22 God reminds the people not to forget about the poor during this time of celebration of abundance.
Chapters 23 - 25 are all about rituals. Chapter 24 is as well. The lamp was to be tended daily (constantly!) to ensure it would not go out and the bread was to be tended to weekly. The Lamp, The Loaves and the Loudmouth indicates that the punishment for blasphemy is included in this chapter as a reminder that justice is also supposed to be done ritually, routinely, fairly.
People often tend to focus on rituals being legalistic. And certainly they can become so, and we can become complacent in our ritual acts of worship. But do we through the baby out with the bath water? Not at all.
From the same commentary....
There are righteous rituals and unrighteous rituals. By “ritual” I mean that kind of activity which is habitual, which is consistent, which has a certain predictability... The Book of Proverbs is based upon the fact that people’s actions can be predicted on the basis of their character. The wise will act in a certain way, while the sluggard will act in another (predictable) way. Our character results in certain habits or rituals and these rituals reveal our character. Thus, the “way” of an individual is, to some degree, his ritual behavior...
we must seek to develop habits, consistent patterns of godly conduct which become a way of life. Righteous is not something which should happen but once in a while, a kind of “freak of our spiritual nature,” but rather should be striven for as a regular course of life. While this will not be an unbroken pattern, it should be one which reflects some degree of regularity.
I have observed those who are skilled at what they do and every such person has some kind of ritual associated with his skill. The finish carpenter has a certain way of doing his work which is consistent. The surgeon, likewise, follows certain procedures meticulously. Every skilled worker I know of employs rituals in the way he or she does their work. Why should we who name the name of Christ think that God’s work needs to be done thoughtlessly, spontaneously, and with no consistency?
The rituals which we should strive to develop should surely be in the area of Bible study, prayer, giving, and ministry. The exceptions to our rituals should be few and far between. This, I believe, is the evidence of the work of God’s Spirit, who produces discipline in our lives rather than disorder.
Chapter 25 begins with the Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee. I love these two rituals!The Sabbath Year was to give the land rest every 7th year. This obviously benefited the land but it also reminded the Israelites to trust in God for their provisions.
The Year of Jubilee was to occur every 50 years and was an equalizer, and the buying/selling of land was to be done fairly - there was to be no exploiting of each other.
What a great reminder for us today. We live in a society where wealth and power and status is the be all and end all and who cares who gets hurt along the way. This is one area (of many!) where there should be a huge difference between the secular worldview and the worldview of a professing Christian.
Tomorrow's readings: Leviticus 25:24-26:46.
1 comment:
I think the difference is that our rituals need to be things that bring us back over and over to God and not ourselves. Things that acknowledge our need for God and our delight to express joy of salvation through reading, ministering and giving. To delight in our need for Him, our sharing of Him, our display of Him, ritualistic manifestations that pour out from a source and for a purpose other than the big ME. The legalism comes when we do it to perform or perfect (ha, as if we could) our righteousness. I think so much of what God is doing here is setting up a system that acknowledges how we need to be reminded everymoment of who we are and who He is. It's all about Him, and not about us. When rituals take effect with these motivations they are truly of the Spirit and not of the pride of man. We defile them when we do them with an ounce, a smidget or a shadowing drift of pride. So impossible without Christ! Again, they point us to our need for him because we cannot even perform what God has commanded with a pure heart.
These passages have been making me ponder the hymn "I need thee every hour" and this is my favorite version of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w3y3iT3NlU
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