The Appointed Festivals
Leviticus 23 : 1-2
The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
The Sabbath
Leviticus 23 : 3
3 “‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord.
The Seventh Day—Rest
Genesis 2:1-3
So the sky, the earth and all that filled them were finished. 2 By the seventh day God finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it a holy day. He made it holy because on that day he rested. He rested from all the work he had done in creating the world.
God provided Manna for the Children of Israel
Exodus 16:15-23
And Moses said, “Each evening the Lord will give you meat to eat. And every morning he will give you all the bread you want.
“This is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 The Lord has commanded, ‘Each one of you must gather what he needs. Gather about two quarts for every person in your family.’
19 Moses said to them, “Don’t keep any of it to eat the next day.” 20 But some of the people did not listen to Moses. They kept part of it to eat the next morning. But it became full of worms and began to stink. So Moses was angry with these people.
22 On the sixth day the people gathered twice as much food. They gathered four quarts for every person. So all the leaders of the community came and told this to Moses. 23 Moses said to them, “This is what the Lord commanded. Tomorrow is the Sabbath, the Lord’s holy day of rest. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil today. But save the rest of the food until tomorrow morning.”
Sabbath, a day to honour the Lord
Isaiah 58:13-14
“You must obey God’s law about the Sabbath.
You must not do what pleases yourselves on that holy day.
You should call the Sabbath a joyful day.
You should honour the Lord’s holy day.
You should honour it by not doing whatever you please on that day.
You should not say whatever you please on that day.
14 Then you will find joy in the Lord.
And I, the Lord, will carry you to the high places above the earth.
I will let you eat the crops of the land your ancestor Jacob had.”
The Lord has said these things.
The Lord of the Sabbath
Matthew 12:10-12
10 In the synagogue, there was a man with a crippled hand. Some Jews there were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus of doing wrong. So they asked him, “Is it right to heal on the Sabbath day?”
11 Jesus answered, “If any of you has a sheep, and it falls into a ditch on the Sabbath day, then you will take the sheep and help it out of the ditch. 12 Surely a man is more important than a sheep. So the law of Moses allows people to do good things on the Sabbath day.
Mark 2:24-28
24 The Pharisees saw this and said to Jesus, “Why are your followers doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 Jesus answered, “You have read what David did when he and those with him were hungry and needed food. 26 It was during the time of Abiathar the high priest. David went into God’s house and ate the bread that was made holy for God. The law of Moses says that only priests may eat that bread. But David also gave some of the bread to those who were with him.”
27 Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The Sabbath day was made to help people. They were not made to be ruled by the Sabbath day. 28 The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread
Leviticus 23: 4-8
4 “‘These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: 5 The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. 6 On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. 7 On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. 8 For seven days present a food offering to the Lord. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’”
Exodus 12 :1-30
12 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 “This month will be the first month of the year for you. 3 Both of you are to tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth day of this month each man must get one lamb. It is for the people in his house. 4 There may not be enough people in his house to eat a whole lamb. Then he must share it with his closest neighbour. There must be enough lamb for everyone to eat. 5 The lamb must be a one-year-old male. It must have nothing wrong with it. This animal can be either a young sheep or a young goat. 6 Keep the animal with you to take care of it until the fourteenth day of the month. On that day all the people of the community of Israel will kill these animals. They will do this as soon as the sun goes down. 7 The people must take some of the blood. They must put it on the sides and tops of the door-frames. These are the door-frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 On this night they must roast the lamb over a fire. Then they must eat it with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the lamb raw or boiled in water. Roast the whole lamb over a fire—with its head, legs and inner organs. 10 You must not leave any of it until morning. But if any of it is left over until morning, you must burn it with fire.
11 “This is the way you must eat it: You must be fully dressed as if you were going on a trip. You must have your sandals on, and you must have your walking stick in your hand. You must eat it in a hurry. This is the Lord’s Passover.
12 “That night I will go through the land of Egypt. I will kill all the firstborn of animals and people in the land of Egypt. I will punish all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 But the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Nothing terrible will hurt you when I punish the land of Egypt.
14 “You are always to remember this day. Celebrate it with a feast to the Lord. Your descendants are to honour the Lord with this feast from now on. 15 For this feast you must eat bread made without yeast for seven days. On the first day of this feast, you are to remove all the yeast from your houses. No one should eat any yeast for the full seven days of the feast. If anyone eats yeast, then that person will be separated from Israel. 16 You are to have holy meetings on the first and last days of the feast. You must not do any work on these days. The only work you may do on these days is to prepare your meals. 17 You must celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Do this because on this very day I brought your divisions of people out of Egypt. So all of your descendants must celebrate this day. This is a law that will last from now on. 18 You are to eat bread made without yeast. Start this on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month of your year. Eat this until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days there must not be any yeast in your houses. Anybody who eats yeast during this time must be separated from the community of Israel. This includes Israelites and non-Israelites. 20 During this feast you must not eat yeast. You must eat bread made without yeast wherever you live.”
21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel together. He told them, “Get the animals for your families. Kill the animals for the Passover. 22 Take a branch of the hyssop plant and dip it into the bowl filled with blood. Wipe the blood on the sides and tops of the door-frames. No one may leave his house until morning. 23 The Lord will go through Egypt to kill the Egyptians. He will see the blood on the sides and tops of the door-frames. Then the Lord will pass over that house. He will not let the one who brings death come into your houses and kill you.
24 “You must keep this command. This law is for you and your descendants from now on. 25 Do this when you go to the land the Lord has promised to give to you. 26 When your children ask you, ‘Why are we doing these things?’ 27 you will say, ‘This is the Passover sacrifice to honour the Lord. When we were in Egypt, the Lord passed over the houses of Israel. The Lord killed the Egyptians, but he saved our homes.’” So now the people bowed down and worshipped the Lord. 28 They did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight the Lord killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt. The firstborn of the king, who sat on the throne, died. Even the firstborn of the prisoner in jail died. Also all the firstborn farm animals died. 30 The king, his officers and all the Egyptians got up during the night. Someone had died in every house. So there was loud crying everywhere in Egypt.
Christ, our Passover lamb
1 Corinthians 5: 7
7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Hebrews 10 :1-4
The law is only an unclear picture of the good things coming in the future. It is not a perfect picture of the real things. The people under the law offered the same sacrifices every year. These sacrifices can never make perfect those who come near to worship God. 2 If the law could make them perfect, the sacrifices would have already stopped. The worshippers would be made clean, and they would no longer feel guilty for their sins. 3 These sacrifices remind them of their sins every year, 4 because it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The New Covenant
Luke 22: 7-20
7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
9 “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.
10 He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”
13 They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfilment in the kingdom of God.”
17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
John 3:16-21
16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. 18 He who believes in God’s Son is not judged guilty. He who does not believe has already been judged guilty, because he has not believed in God’s only Son. 19 People are judged by this fact: I am the Light from God that has come into the world. But men did not want light. They wanted darkness because they were doing evil things. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light. He will not come to the light because it will show all the evil things he has done. 21 But he who follows the true way comes to the light. Then the light will show that the things he has done were done through God.”
Romans 8:1-4
So now, those who are in Christ Jesus are not judged guilty. 2 I am not judged guilty because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made me free. It made me free from the law that brings sin and death. 3 The law was without power, because the law was made weak by our sinful selves. But God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son to earth with the same human life that others use for sin. He sent his Son to be an offering to pay for sin. So God used a human life to destroy sin. 4 He did this so that we could be right as the law said we must be. Now we do not live following our sinful selves, but we live following the Spirit.
John 12:1
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
1 Peter 1:18,19
18 You know that in the past you were living in a worthless way. You got that way of living from the people who lived before you. But you were saved from that useless life. You were bought, but not with something that ruins like gold or silver. 19 You were bought with the precious blood of the death of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb.
