Leviticus 23: Times of Refreshing

The festivals of Leviticus 23 provide their observers with many benefits. One benefit is mentioned by prolific writer and blogger Pam Dewey in her site "Times of Refreshing." God has provided us with a great series of vacations! If you are looking for more information on these festivals greater than the brief overview I plan here, I recommend a road trip to http://youall.com/refresh/.  

Dr Bacchiocchi's book on the Fall festivals of Leviticus 23

These festivals include: the Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. 

What is interesting is that Most Christians already observe two of these festivals, Passover and Pentecost. I can hear some of you saying, "What!? I have never observed Passover, that's Jewish." You have observed it under a different name—you call it Easter. Only in English and German is it called Easter. (The name is derived from the Teutonic Goddess of the Dawn Eostre.) In the Romance Languages, and for that matter in Russian, it is called Passover.  

Many Christians are uncomfortable with the name Easter, and the pagan customs associated with modern Easter like Easter Eggs, the Easter Bunny, and the Easter Basket. So some have adopted the name "Resurrection Sunday." Although I would quibble and say the resurrection was on Saturday night, I do not want to be critical as this is a big step in the right direction. 

Historically this was a big, big issue in the early Church. At first Christians observed Passover at the same time as the Jews. For various reasons this was transferred to Sunday. This process took centuries. There was a lot of animosity toward the Jews, and the main reason for the change was to avoid having anything to do with them. I have always felt that this was an inadequate reason and eventually joined with those that keep the Passover in the same general time that the Jews do. (We do it as a three day celebration centered around the traditional date of the Passover. We begin by reenacting the Last Supper by doing what was done on that night; the following night on the traditional Passover night we have a meal; the next day we celebrate the beginning of the days of unleavened bread, which we celebrate for 7 days.)

Pentecost comes 50 days later. I remember keeping it even when I was a Baptist. Over the years I have been bemused by the criticism I have received for observing these days from those who observed these days themselves without realizing it! 

There are three Fall Festivals that are not generally observed by Christians. Although as you can see by the photo, some prominent TV evangelists do. These three feasts are: Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek Scriptures that make up our modern Bible provide interesting meanings and thoughts to ponder on these days. For a chart on Pam Dewey's site where these days are summarized, click here. 

I remember my first exposure to these days. I was in the 6th grade in Palm Springs and I noticed that about 20% of my class was missing. It was one of the Fall festivals, probably Atonement.

So for the next couple of weeks I will be blogging about these days, and in particular the Feast of Tabernacles, and the details of modern festival observance using the principles I mentioned yesterday. Hopefully many of you will find it of interest. 

Leviticus 23?

Many people like me desire to observe the Holy Days of Leviticus 23. However, while the laws contain eternal truths, they are couched in the technology and culture of when they were first revealed. It is difficult, if not impossible, to woodenly port these over into a modern observance; instead they need to be morphed to modern times while always being aware of the various principles expounded in the Law.

(Note that the links are to the parts of the series that I finished last year. I hope to finish the series this festival season.)

These principles include: The Principle of Worship (a Holy Convocation in the KJV Bible); The Principle of Pilgrimage (you need a critical mass of people); The Principle of the Placement of God's Name; The Principle of Temporary Shelters (booths); The Principle of Sacrifice; the Principle of Tithing (There was a separate tithe for these observances);The Principle of Community (There are aspects of community sharing); The Seasonal Principle (3 times in the year); The Principle of Decoration; The Principle of Beer Drinking (rejoicing by means of physical food consumption); and finally the principle of Education (the Torah was to be read every 7 years). To a degree these principles are in tension with each other. For example: it is difficult to construct, transport, and live in a temporary structure and travel a few hundred miles to a pilgrimage festival site; and it is difficult to listen to the Torah being read and explained and do anything else that year. 

We will discuss these principles over the next few weeks in future blog posts leading up to and including the Feast of Tabernacles, and hopefully come to some conclusions about modern festival observance. I will begin tomorrow with an overview of the various festivals discussed in Leviticus 23. 

The End Is Near!

Pam Dewey has been writing a series of blog posts about the current mania in some circles about 2012. This subject is always topical, even as 2012 comes to an end, because the same pattern repeats over and over again. People get scared and think the current situation is somehow unusual. There is a phrase that you probably know—Snafu. It is derived from the military so I will clean it up, Situation Normal All Fouled Up. Things not going well is really not that unusual. 

  

If you want to start up on her series, click here for part 1.

  

Pam also gives seminars around the county. Here is one she gave on this same subject of prophecy panic. 

  

Prophecy: Are You Prepared--for the Unthinkable? from Oasis Ministries on Vimeo.

A Few Words in Defense of Our Country

As you can tell from last Thursday’s post, a Randy Newman song called Political Science, I am on a Randy Newman kick. This song, A Few Words in Defense of our Country, has many uncomfortable truths in it. 

It is always dicey to live in a period when an empire ends. That is the period we are living in. I may not see its end as I am 58, but I can see the cracks in the dam that are pouring out water. Soon, the dam will fail and the water will wash us away. 

Jesus said this in reference to the fall of Jerusalem, which happened about 40 years after his death. (Interesting how certain numbers repeat in the Bible, 40 is one of those interesting numbers.) Luke 19:

^41-44 When the city came into view, he wept over it. “If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you! But now it’s too late. In the days ahead your enemies are going to bring up their heavy artillery and surround you, pressing in from every side. They’ll smash you and your babies on the pavement. Not one stone will be left intact. All this because you didn’t recognize and welcome God’s personal visit.”

Yes, we in America should expect God’s personal visit, but, like first century Judea, we are blind to the coming visit of God. 

The irony is that we have to rely on contemporary musical composers to have any sort of warning at all. 

Blessed are the Poor

Sometimes the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), on a surface reading, seem to be in conflict. One example is the two different versions of the Sermon on the Mount, one in Luke 6 and another in Matthew 5. In particular Luke says, “Blessed are the poor,” while Matthew says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” As this relates to the theme of wealth, I thought this was a good time to talk about it. 

Normally I quote The Message as my usual translational choice. Let’s begin instead with the NIV from Luke 6:20-22

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹ Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
²² Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

The version in Matthew 5 is different. 

³ ”Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ ”Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

While I suppose these could be two different messages, they are so similar that I think they are the same message. It is possible they were given on different occasions. Was Matthew right in saying Jesus said “poor in spirit”? In one sense no. I think Jesus said what Luke recorded. Jesus said “blessed are the poor.” What Matthew has done is added the words “in spirit” to give us a better idea as to what Jesus meant. This fits in well with the Psalmist’s use of the word that means poor, as the hebrew word ’anaw עָנָו has a wide range of meanings including poor, humble, afflicted, and so on. 

Matthew is giving us a different nuance to what Jesus said. But if you look carefully that nuance is also in Luke’s version. Here is how The Message translates Luke 6:

You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all. 
   God’s kingdom is there for the finding. 
   You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry. 
   Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal. 

   You’re blessed when the tears flow freely. 
   Joy comes with the morning.

The reason I tend to use The Message is that the translator captures these nuances very well. Not always of course. But when this translation “nails it,” it really nails it. 

Here is an additional selection from Luke 6, again from the NIV.

²⁴ ”But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have already received your comfort.
²⁵ Woe to you who are well fed now,
    for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
    for you will mourn and weep.
²⁶ Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

Jesus must have had a considerable emphasis in his ministry on the poor. Luke makes that explicit. But Matthew adds enough for us to realize that humility is what Jesus is looking for. As a practical matter the rich are typically not very humble. 

Let’s look at this same passage from The Message:

²⁴But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it made. 
   What you have is all you’ll ever get.

 ²⁵And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself. 
   Your self will not satisfy you for long.

   And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games. 
   There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.

²⁶ There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.

I think that Jesus is talking about an attitude, often present in the rich, of personal self-satisfaction. This is the theme of the last two posts I did on wealth. Last thursday we looked at the Pharisee and the tax collector who had differing attitudes. But the tax collector was the one who was rich, the Pharisee was the one who was proud. On Friday we looked at Zacchaeus, who although wealthy, had the correct attitude. 

Jesus is talking about the rich in a general way. He understood that not all fit the pattern he was condemning but most did. In particular Jesus is talking about trouble ahead for the rich, the politically well-connected. They are headed for trouble and that trouble came in 70 AD when all the “rich” were washed away by the Roman flood. 

Let me summarize the point I am trying to raise today: God has no problem with wealth, or for that matter with sexuality, or with self-defense. But there is a problem when these natural things are turned into greed, adultery, and war mongering.