Addressing Celebration of Deliverance
Exodus 23: 14 “Three times you shall
keep a feast to Me in the year: 15 You shall keep
the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I
commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came
out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); 16 and
the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the
field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have
gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.
17 “Three times in the year all your
males shall appear before the Lord God.
18 “You shall not offer the blood of
My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor shall the fat of My [d]sacrifice remain until morning. 19 The
first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of
the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its
mother’s milk.
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GOD continued speaking to Moses. This time HE addressed
celebrations.
My Observations:
- GOD
knew people would forget how HE delivered them out of Egypt so HE
instituted celebrating unleavened bread.
- GOD
foreshadowed the Pentecost, where JESUS appeared to many people after HIS
resurrection, by instituting a feast to remember spring, or new life.
- GOD
desired to end the year with a celebration of the best of the harvest.
Remembering GOD seems to be very important to HIM. HE knows
our sin nature will make us forget what HE does and our relationship with HIM
will be viewed as secondary. Unleavened bread is symbolic for no sin. A sinless
human could open the scroll. No sin, or no yeast was to be celebrated.
The next celebration was symbolic of the resurrection of
JESUS. Spring shows new life and GOD made it easy for us to remember HIS SON’s
resurrection and appearance to people afterwards.
The final celebration was a harvest feast that required the
best of the harvest to be brought into the places of worship and sacrificed to
GOD and given to people. These harvests were all about food and togetherness
while remembering GOD.
Stopping work to intentionally remember GOD is a sign of
surrender that the people needed to learn. Pharaoh had the people working seven
days a week and had created a mindset that rest would cause problems with
productivity. This mindset still lingers today as people try to overwork and
under trust GOD. Food is needed to sustain life. GOD wanted to show HE is in
control of sustaining life.
Challenge
- Why
does GOD remind Moses about the celebrations HE instituted?
- How
do you intentionally remember GOD?
- Is
there an annual celebration that you can follow or institute to remember
GOD’s greatness in your life?
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