CELEBRATIONS
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Opening Prayer
Father, thank you for the work of your Spirit in me, for the truth he continues to show me that deepens my faith in you.
Read DEUTERONOMY 15:19–16:17
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Firstborn Animals
19 Set apart for the Lord your God every firstborn male of your herds and flocks. Do not put the firstborn of your cows to work, and do not shear the firstborn of your sheep. 20 Each year you and your family are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose. 21 If an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. 22 You are to eat it in your own towns. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it, as if it were gazelle or deer. 23 But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
The Passover
16 Observe the month of Aviv and celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God, because in the month of Aviv he brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 Sacrifice as the Passover to the Lord your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his Name. 3 Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. 4 Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.
5 You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the Lord your God gives you 6 except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary[a] of your departure from Egypt. 7 Roast it and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. 8 For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the Lord your God and do no work.
The Festival of Weeks
9 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. 10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. 11 And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. 12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.
The Festival of Tabernacles
13 Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. 15 For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For 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.
16 Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed: 17 Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 16:6 Or down, at the time of day
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
In what ways do you celebrate your favorite Christian holiday?
This series of readings that we started in March ends with an explosion of joy today in the three great annual Jewish festivals— Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot. Notice the characteristic themes that have been sounding all through these chapters: the place that God will choose, the inclusiveness, no mixing kinds, the generosity, the rejoicing, the sense of history. Passover is celebrated in memory of the greatest event in the Old Testament—the exodus. Unleavened bread, the ‘bread of affliction’ (16:3), is a reminder of the trials and troubles surrounding that event. There is no daubing of the doorposts with blood, however, for there is now no threat to the firstborn. The Passover was eaten in haste, standing, but the Last Supper was eaten in the upper room, reclining, with long, meditative teaching.
Israel in Bible times was on the edge of a vast desert. Without the rains, nothing would grow. Every harvest was a miracle to be celebrated with abundant offerings; eight particular guests are specifically mentioned—a representation for everyone. The rain from heaven fell upon the just and the unjust—and all should give thanks. Is your church known for its generous hospitality in your community?
Tabernacles are also for everyone. There are special celebrations in the synagogue, like the dancing of Simchat Torah. The joy of these festivals is not a private, guarded joy: it is social, communal, national. Somehow or other, the Jewish community has retained its capacity to celebrate and we hear an echo of Jesus’ words in verse 15!1 The words ‘law’ and ‘joy’, not always associated together, are intimately interwoven, each resulting in and providing motivation for the other. If you live in a law-abiding society, thank God.
Apply
‘I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.’2
Closing prayer
I thank you, Lord, for the celebrations, feasts, and fasts of the Christian year, which are staging posts for our earthly pilgrimage.
1 John 16:24 2 Ps 119:11
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