Leviticus Lesson 6: Festivals Part 1
Review
Leviticus is a guidebook for holy living for the people of God. Hopefully you have discovered there are spiritual principles behind the obscure commands to offer sacrifices, to distinguish between the clean and unclean and to pursue purity through purification rituals. These sacrifices, dietary laws and purification rituals also point to the person and work of Christ. Today and next week we will study the Jewish festivals and see how they point to Christ and how He fulfilled them.
(Pass out Handout: Israel’s Pilgrimage Feasts)
Study Question: What is the purpose of religious and national holidays? (to commemorate people or events; celebrate, gather together with family and eat!)
God instituted several festivals for Israel for the purpose of remembering, honoring. Like our holidays, they often (but not always) centered around feasting and celebrating. They were also associated with the 3 main harvests: the barley harvest in the spring, the wheat harvest early summer, and the first fruits of Israel’s main harvest: grapes, olives, figs and almonds. Therefore, these festivals were celebrated within the context of Thanksgiving.
Study Question: As Americans, what specific holidays do we think of when we talk about the busyness of “the holidays”? (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years)
Even though Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years are three distinctive holidays, they are clumped together as part of “the holiday season”. (Refer to Handout) In the same way Israel’s feasts were combined into “holiday seasons”. These three feasts were pilgrimage feasts, the three times of the year God required His people to attend the temple with their tithes and offerings.(slide- cycle on page 25)
- Passover, followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated at the barley harvest. This was a spring festival that commemorated the exodus from Egypt.
- The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) was celebrated 50 days later around the wheat harvest. It celebrated the Mosaic Covenant and the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai.
- The Festival of Tabernacles included the Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Feast of Booths/Tabernacles. It was celebrated in the fall to give thanks to God for the harvest of Israel’s main staples: grapes, olives, figs and nuts. It also celebrated God’s provision for His people as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
Application Question: The Jewish calendar was very much connected to the history of their relationship with God: His redemption and provision. How have we lost the sacredness of our story with God in our religious holidays, letting them become secularized? How may we unintentionally be taking the focus off God and teaching our kids the holidays are about them? (Christmas overwhelmed by Santa and consumerism, Resurrection Sunday mixed with pagan fertility practices/Easter bunny and goody baskets, Good Friday a regular workday and contemplation of our sin limited to an hour service in the evening, Thanksgiving focused on football and food and God gets a token prayer, etc.)
God did not require His people to come to the temple and make sacrifices, except these 3 times a year. When Israel settled in the promise land and built a temple in Jerusalem, it was a long distance for many tribes. (slide) Dan, the most northern city of Israel was 100 miles away from the temple, a 10-day trip by foot. Yet the trip was not mundane- it was a community event as whole families, clans and towns walked to Jerusalem together in a spirit of celebration. Corporate worship was not a weekly thing for many people, but a tri-annual opportunity.
Question: What does your family do during the long drive to Grandma’s house during the holidays?
In the old days before phones and i-pads and DVD players, families entertained themselves while traveling by singing. Likewise, the Israelites would sing Psalms of Ascents (slide)as they walked from Jericho to Jerusalem which rested on a small mountain. It was a 3,300 foot ascent to go up Mount Zion, thus Luke 2:42 says (slide) when Jesus was 12 years old he and his family “went up” to the festival, according to custom-even though they were traveling south from Galilee.
Jesus told a parable (slide) about two men who “went up” to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. (Luke 18:10) The Gospel of John tells us that (slide) “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus “went up” to Jerusalem (John 2:13) and (slide) that “Sometime later, Jesus “went up” to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals (John 5:1). The Jews must have been in really good shape- especially if they could sing while they walked up the accent! (Perhaps this why many of the Psalms of Ascent are short. )
Read Psalm 121 and 122(songs of ascent) together as a class. Read as a pilgrim traveling to Jerusalem from a distance to celebrate a harvest festival. (slide)
Study Question: What new meaning do you gain from reading these psalms from the perspective of climbing a mountain to celebrate a festival?
Since observant Jews traveled to the temple these three times a year, you can imagine how crowded it would be! Once inns and homes of relatives were filled, people would stay in stables (as did Mary and Joseph at Jesus’ birth) or in tents. The Mount of Olives (slide) was directly across from the temple mount and was a popular “campground” for visitors. Jesus and His disciples camped there the week of Passover before His death according to the Gospels. God used these festivals to draw large crowds to witness the death and resurrection of His Son (Passover) and the giving of the Holy Spirit (Feast of Weeks/Pentecost). (Next week we will see how the third festival ties to Jesus’ second coming).
Read Leviticus 23:4-8 as you look at the handout.
Study Question: When was the Passover feast celebrated? (twilight of the 14th day of the first month remember twilight marked the beginning of the day for Jews while we view sunrise as new day)
Study Question: When was the Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrated? (very next day, the 15th) For how long? (7 days)And what should they eat? (unleavened bread)
Eventually these two feasts combined into a single festival. Out-of-towners would have spent the whole week in Jerusalem. The first and 7th day of this feast were “sabbath days” (shabbaton) where the people rested from regular labor and gathered together for worship. The regulations for rest for shabbaton were less stringent than those for regular 7th day Sabbath (Shabbat). In fact, the sabbath day (shabbaton) ofthe first day of the Unleavened Feast was called the “Preparation Day”, a rest from hard labor to do the work of preparing for the Feast.(Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:14, 31- remember “Passover”= “Feast of Unleavened Bread” in Jesus’ time)
Application Questions: In our culture of busy schedules and hyper-activity, what is God teaching us concerning the need for Shabbat and shabbaton observance? (We need regular weekly rest AND times where we take a week off for vacation/celebration of God.)
What hidden attitudes keep us from observing these Sabbaths? (lack of trust in God that if I take a day off of work my world will fall apart, self-sufficiency, pride, lack of self-control as the “to do” list clamors for our attention, etc.)
Who suffers when we refuse to observe Sabbath rests? (We do- exhausted, stressed, undisciplined and relationship with God suffers because we fail to honor/focus on Him by not observing; Our families- we take our stress out on them, fail to spend time with spouse/kids because we’re distracted by work, fail to model a healthy perspective of work, communicating we know better than God, etc.)
Read Leviticus 23:9-14 as you look at the handout.
Study Question: What were the people told to do the day after the Sabbath (Shabbat/Sunday)? (bring first fruits of barley harvest as a wave offering, offer up a Burnt Offering, a Grain Offering and a Drink Offering.)
When a farmer harvested his fields, the first sheath was set aside to be given to God at the upcoming Festival. It was considered “holy”, set apart for God. And even though he harvested the rest of the field, he could not eat any of it until he gave that first sheath to God.
Read Matthew 28:1-6 in the context of this festival, the day after the Sabbath.
On the day that Israel was to bring her first fruits of barley to the temple Jesus rose from the dead. Paul connects the idea of first fruits and resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23. (slide)
“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
For as in Adam, all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn:
Christ, the firstfruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to Him.”
Just as the firstfruits of barley were presented to God before the people could partake of the grain, so the firstfruits of the resurrection of Jesus had to be presented to God before we could partake of the resurrection! So we see a pattern in the festival:
Day 14: Our Passover Lamb dies for sins of the world
Day 15: Messiah takes a “Sabbath rest” from His work on the cross as He lays in the tomb
Day 16: Jesus resurrects as the First Fruits of the harvest of men
Application Question: This year Passover falls 5 days before Good Friday (April 10th). What could you do or teach your family to make that week spiritually meaningful for your family as it leads up to Easter? (do a Passover Seder, clean out all the yeast from your house and eat only flat, unleavened breads that week, talk about how Jesus fulfilled this festival, decide on a “firstfruit” to bring to church Easter Sunday to celebrate Christ’s resurrection and the promise of our resurrection, etc.)
The festival of Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) and Feast of Unleavened Bread commemorate Israel’s exodus from Egypt. They tell the story of how God’s people killed lambs and put the blood on the doorposts to protect themselves from the angel of death who would pass over their homes. But the angel killed every Egyptian firstborn son that wasn’t protected by blood. Israel had to leave in a hurry so they had to make dough without yeast because they didn’t have time to let it rise. The leaven, a symbol of sin and decay, was left behind. In Exodus 6:6, God told Moses, (slide)
“Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am theLord, and I will bring you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage.
I will alsoredeemyou with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.”
To redeem means to pay a price to buy something or someone back. Israel’s freedom was bought with the cost of many deaths, both human and animals. Israel had to accept the atoning blood of the Passover lamb and only then were they separated from their sin (leaven). It is the same for us. God’s firstborn Son, Jesus died as our Passover lamb to redeem us. He died as our Bread of Life, but because He was Unleavened Bread, without sin, His body did not decay (leaven decays). He arose! And though we will die a physical death (because our bodies are born of leaven and will see decay), our spirits will NOT decay because sin/leaven has been removed. We will resurrect with Christ!
Application question: What “Egypt” has God redeemed you from? Share a specific area of sin God delivered you from so you could walk in freedom from its leaven.
The Passover meal prescribed by God in Leviticus was simple, but over time the Jews attached certain traditions to it. Jesus practiced these traditions and used them as symbols for His death and resurrection.
Application Question: What does this indicate about the value of traditions? When can traditions become a problem? (They can bring meaning to a holiday or religious celebration. Jesus was NOT opposed to traditions per se. They become a problem when they became dogma, replacing Scripture.)
Preparations for Passover and Unleavened Bread (which eventually melded into one big celebration) began days before the feast. The Passover lamb was selected and isolated5 days before the feast. (Exodus 12:3-6) and 3 days before every Jewish home took great pains to remove all traces of yeast from their homes. On the 14th day (the afternoon before sunset) thePassover lambs were slaughtered, roasted and eaten at twilight.
Paul used this festival to point to Christ’s work in us. (slide)
“Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast,
not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)
Teacher’s Note: to see how the selection of the Passover lamb connects with Palm Sunday go to:
The Passover meal centered around four cups of red wine, each one connected to God’s declaration in Exodus 6:6-7, (slide)
1) Sanctification: “I will bring you out from the burdens of the Egyptians”
2) Judgment: “I will deliver you from bondage”
3) Redemption: “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm”
4) Praise: “I will take you to be My people”.
Study Question: How does Jesus fulfill each of these cups? (He brought us out of slavery of sin, delivered us from its bondage, redeeming us with His outstretched arm [“outstretched arm” in OT means “with strength”, but here it could also mean He literally stretched out His arms on the cross], and He took both Jews and gentiles to be His people.)
The meal also centered around four foods:
1)(slide) Bitter herbs (like horseradish) which would make their eyes water, reminding them of their tears in Egypt
2)(slide) A dish called haroset (a mixture of apples, nuts, and wine) which recalled the mortar of bricks made by slaves
3)(slide) Unleavened bread which pointed to their hasty exodus from Egypt (no time for yeast to rise). Unleavened bread would be dipped in the haroset and eaten as part of the feast.
4)(slide) The Passover lamb (Pesach in Hebrew) which was sacrificed to save the Hebrews
Study Question: How do these elements point to our sin story and the work of Christ for us? (our sins are like bitter herbs, bring us many tears because of its consequences; we were slaves to sin; Jesus who is our Unleavened Bread (sinless) “dipped Himself” in our humanity to take our sin upon Himself; He is the sacrificed Passover Lamb that shed His blood to save us from death
The feast concluded with the singing of Hallel Psalms (Psalm 113-118).
Here are some excerpts from the Hallel Psalms. As we read them together, imagine Jesus singing these words with His disciples just before His crucifixion.
(slide)
Leader: The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
All: Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, save me!” (Psalm 116:3-4)
Leader: Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death…that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
All: I believed; therefore I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” (Psalm 116:7-10)
Leader: How can I repay the LORD for all His goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.
All: Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints. O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. (Ps 116:15-16)
Leader: The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
All: The LORD is with me; He is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies. (Ps. 118:6-7)
Leader: The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.
All: Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “The LORD’S right hand has done mighty things!” I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done. (118: 14-17)
Leader: I will praise you, for you have answered me and become my deliverance. The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone. The LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.