July-September
To hold communion with His people was to God an important aim. The means by which He intended to keep it alive were different, with various social groups being implied:
• Personal devotion (when you're alone with God in the cool of the day, at dawn or at dusk).
• Family devotion—the morning and evening worship program when the family would come around the altar and implore God’s protection and His guidance for all their members.
• The community devotion—when, on Sabbath, several families would come together as a local community to meet the Lord in the synagogue.
• Last, but not least—the national devotion events when, at annual feasts, the entire people of Israel in various tribes would come together to the tabernacle in Shiloh or to Jerusalem to meet the Lord as a nation. By means of these programs, spiritual influences were spread from the narrow circle over to the broader circle and back, by the varied minds associated together in the understanding and sharing of His word.
God gave specific directions for His worship at each one of these social units involved. From among the various devotional programs, the most influential forms of worship—judging by the number of people involved—were the annual feasts. The annual feasts were ordained by God for His people, Israel. These were opportunities for increasing one’s insight into the understanding of God and for special communion with Him. God specified a number of meetings, and the date when they were to be held. The meetings were not to be held according to the individual opinions of the people, but they were to be feasts of unity, meeting the mind of God at the specified, definite, times, lest some may drag out the meetings through indolence, or others crowd too many, too frequent, meetings, in a short time, out of an excess of zeal.
The meetings were set for different periods of the year, however, at the same dates every year, taking into consideration both the weather and the activities of the people. They were set for spring and autumn, respectively the months of March, May, September/October, according to our present computation—not in the middle of the summer, because farmers and people living in the country had to see after their country business, but also not in winter, because traveling would have been uncomfortable (short days).
God considers such meetings as being necessary. He has not given people superfluous commands. If people could have done without these feasts, He would have spared them the effort of preparing for them and traveling to the place of meeting. But no, He did see fit to ask His people to come together in larger groups for religious purposes. The meetings were meant for “all that are Israelites born” (Leviticus 23:42)—not only the generation that was delivered out of Egypt. This was to be “a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings” (verse 31).
The specific injunction of God was that “thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel” (Exodus 34:23), namely in the first month, on the 14th day, for Passover and the following Feast of Unleavened Bread, then, 40 days after Passover for the Feast of Weeks/Firstfruits (Greek: Pentecost; Hebrew: Shavuot) and on the seventh month, at the end of the religious year, for the Feast of Harvest (Hebrew: Sukkoth), starting on the 15th day of the seventh month, and lasting for a week.
Every male person above 12 years of age had to attend the feasts, men being the priests of the house and the ones to give spiritual nourishment to their families. Women were not prohibited to attend the meetings, and we know that Hannah and Peninnah, the wives of Elkanah, attended yearly a feast at Shiloh, in the company of Elkanah and Peninnah’s children (see 1 Samuel 1:1–4). Also, Luke says it was a habit of Jesus’ parents to yearly attend the feast of Passover in Jerusalem as a family: “Now his parents [Mary and Joseph] went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover” (Luke 2:41). So, when Christ turned 12 years of age, Mary was among the crowd undertaking the pilgrimage. The command to attend the meetings thrice a year did not include women expressly, yet some women undertook the pilgrimage with the family as a whole once each year, the other two feasts being probably attended only by the men.
As priests of the families, men were to receive themselves the necessary religious instruction, which they were to impart to their household on returning home. The necessity of having someone tend the flocks and the cattle and care for the sick or the children who were not able to attend the meetings was met by the women who remained home. Lest some fear of foreign attacks against their households and families might prevent men to attend the feasts, God promised expressly: “For I will cast out the nations before thee and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year” (Exodus 34:24).
The participants came from all the tribes, from all the trades of life. Landowners and craftsmen, priests and shepherds, kings, tradesmen and scribes were all to come together before God. No manner of servile work was to be done on these days, fact which made slave and master equal, having equal privileges and opportunities to receiving God’s blessing on those solemn occasions. (Leviticus 23:7, 21, 36.)
If people could not keep the Passover at the specified time due to uncleanness through deaths or travels, they were to keep it one month later, but still they had to keep it. No other excuses were admitted. If people were not hindered by such circumstances, yet did not comply with God’s command, their non-compliance was regarded as sin and had serious consequences. In order to impress people with its importance, God attached life-or-death consequences to this feast: “But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin” (Numbers 9:13).
The aim of these feasts was manifold: before anything else, a religious feast was “a feast unto the Lord.” Those were days in which God was specifically to rejoice over His people, or on the other hand, to work in behalf of His people, by blotting out their sins (on the Day of Atonement) and blessing them. People were to be reminded of God’s providential work for them in their history (the Passover, the first of the feasts of the Jewish religious year), and of His claims upon them. The younger generation was to get acquainted to the God of their fathers; they were to “know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 23:43). Educational, intellectual as well as emotional aims were pursued. People were to grow united in the same religious beliefs by having the law repeatedly read before them in a holy convocation. Also, the emotional reactions of the participants had to mirror unity just the same. During the feasts that required a serious, solemn attitude all the people had to “prepare their heart” to have this attitude (the Day of Atonement), whereas if the occasion was a joyous one (Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Weeks) everyone had to be animated by the joyous spirit: “Ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days” (Leviticus 23:40; see also Deuteronomy 16:9–11, 13, 14). “It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls.” People who made a discordant note to the spirit of the feast were particularly displeasing to God: “Whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people” (Leviticus 23:32, 29).
The meeting brought also social blessings. The travelers united in groups for companionship and protection, shared their experiences on the lengthy journey, since all were traveling in the same direction, and at about the same time. Thus, one’s experience was shared and turned into an object lesson or encouragement or warning for others. “All along the way were spots memorable in the history of Israel, and fathers and mothers recounted to their children the wonders that God had wrought in ages past. They beguiled their journey with song and music, and when at last the towers of Jerusalem came into view, every voice joined in [a] triumphant strain" expressing a wish for the prosperity of that beloved city.—The Desire of Ages, p. 76.
By the constant reminding of the works of God and His claims, the Israelites’ attention was also to be diverted from the religion of the people around them, and they were to be kept from becoming familiar and following after their heathen rites and the temptations of their neighbors. Lest anyone should forget about their religious feasts, these were to be proclaimed so that everyone could make provisions for their observance. “These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons” (Leviticus 23:4).
When appearing before the Lord, the people was not to appear empty-handed: “They shall not appear before the Lord empty: Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee” (Deuteronomy 16:16, 17). The amount they were to bring was to be proportional to the blessing received, and an index for their gratitude.
Not only were such events to be observed in the land of Canaan, but, foreseeing future events, God instructed His people that these religious feasts were to be observed also by those scattered in other countries, “in all your dwellings.” The importance of the feasts was solemn. Centuries after God instructed His people regarding these feasts, Jews and proselytes alike, coming from Phrygia and Pamphilia, strangers of Rome, Cretes and Arabians, Medes, Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, “devout men, out of every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) were gathered together for the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), commemorating the giving of the Law on Sinai, according to God’s instruction. Paul the apostle, when on his missionary journeys, considered it important and was anxious to return to Jerusalem for the Passover (Acts 18:21). The privilege of being in the courts of the Temple—not granted to everybody, since Gentiles were admitted only in the outer courts—stirred thousands of hearts and urged them on their way towards the holy reunions.
In our time, although few believers may trace their ancestors back to Jewish origins, God’s people can richly enjoy the privileges of such special meetings as those of the ancient Jewish feasts. Nationality, in the current understanding, does not restrict one’s access today to full religious privileges and the corresponding opportunities of joy. God’s people of today is that which has “the patience of the saints, . . . they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12). Whether they live in Melbourne or in Curitiba, in Roanoke or in Moscow, in Kigali or Tokyo, whether they come from the crowded streets of Rome or from a remote spot in the mountains, a feast has been proclaimed for them all this year in Roanoke, September 10–13, with the purpose of reading the law, of contemplating Him who is “Christ, All and in All,” and of enjoying the blessings He has in store and is willing to pour out. It is a feast for young and old alike, for males and females, for members of the household and for guests. “Go ye . . . into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid” to the feast (Matthew 22:9). There’s room for all, and the feast will be furnished with guests. Someone will be there. “Shall you, shall I” be sharing that joy?