When Israel were settled in the land, they were to celebrate the feasts that are described in this chapter, Exodus 12:1-20 / Exodus 16:14-17 / Exodus 34:13-23 / Leviticus 23:1-44 / Numbers 28:16-29:40.
The Passover is only mentioned briefly here since it had been fully described in Exodus 12:1-30.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘A re-enforcement of this ordinance was the more necessary because its observance had clearly been intermitted for thirty-nine years, Joshua 6:10.’
The deliverance from Egypt is such a significant act that God tells the children of Israel to remake their calendar, the new year will now start with the month of their redemption from Egypt, Exodus 12:1. On the tenth of this first month, the month of Abib, Deuteronomy 16:1 / Exodus 13:4, the Jews followed a lunar calendar, their month would begin with the New Moon.
This means that the 14th day of the month would be the time of the Full Moon. Some have wondered if the darkness of the sun at the death of Christ could have been caused by a solar eclipse, Mark 15:33, but this could not be the case, for it took place in the season of Passover, the time of the Full Moon.
Each family, or household, is to take a lamb, Deuteronomy 16:2 / Exodus 12:2-3. If a household was too small for a whole lamb, then they are share it with their nearest neighbour, taking in to account the number of people staying in the house, Exodus 12:4.
They are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat, Exodus 12:4. The lamb was to be year-old males and without blemish, Exodus 12:5, this sacrifice unto the Lord had to be as perfect as a lamb could be, John 1:29 / 1 Corinthians 5:7 / 1 Peter 1:19 / Revelation 12:13.
A lamb from the sheep or the goats, Exodus 12:5, may sound confusing, but the Hebrew word for lamb can refer to either a young sheep or a young goat. The lamb is to live with the family for the four days until twilight, which would be Passover, Exodus 12:6 / 2 Samuel 12:1-3.
In this way, the lamb was to be part of the family, when it was sacrificed on the fourteenth it would be cherished and mourned. God wanted the sacrifice of something precious. The rabbis later determined that there should be at least ten people for each Passover lamb, and not more than twenty.
Remember the Israelites couldn’t sacrifice and worship in Egypt because the sacrifice involved the killing of sheep, Exodus 8:26 / Genesis 46:34 and because the Egyptians also worshipped lambs, we can only imagine what the Egyptians were thinking when they saw the Israelites taking a lamb into their homes for four days, with the intention of slaughtering and eating it.
Before the Passover lamb could be eaten, its blood had to be applied to the doorway of the home, and the top, and upon each side the blood was applied, Exodus 12:7 / Hebrews 10:22. The only part of this sacrifice given to God was the blood, the rest was eaten by each family or discarded.
Then, the lamb could be eaten but only if it had been roasted, with the lamb itself coming into contact with the fire, and with bitter herbs accompanying the meal, Exodus 12:8. As our Passover sacrifice, Jesus had to come into direct contact with the ‘fire’ of the Father’s judgment on our behalf, and the bitterness of the cross is reflected in the bitter herbs.
They were to eat bread made without yeast for seven days, Deuteronomy 16:3 / Exodus 12:8. They weren’t permitted to eat the meat raw or boiled in water but roast it over a fire, with the head, legs and internal organs, Deuteronomy 16:4 / Exodus 12:9.
The Passover lamb had to be eaten completely; a family had to totally consume the sacrifice and if anything was left it must be burned first thing in the morning, Exodus 12:10. Notice they are to eat it with their cloak tucked into their belt, sandals on their feet and staff in their hand, Exodus 12:11.
The Passover lamb had to be eaten in faith, trusting that the deliverance promised to Israel was present and that they would walk in that deliverance immediately, Exodus 12:11. Faith was essential to the keeping of Passover, Hebrews 11:28. The LORD says that He Himself will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and He will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt, Exodus 12:12.
The blood will be a sign for them on the houses where they live, and when He sees the blood, He will pass over them, hence no destructive plague will touch them when He strikes Egypt, Exodus 12:13. For Israel to be spared the judgment on the firstborn, they had to apply to blood just as God said they should, Exodus 12:7, the blood of the lamb was essential to what God required.
If an Israelite home didn’t believe in the power of the blood of the lamb, they could sacrifice the lamb and eat it, but they would still be visited by judgment. If an Egyptian home did believe in the power of the blood of the lamb, and they made a proper Passover sacrifice, they would be spared the judgment.
Additionally, an intellectual agreement with what God had said about the blood was not enough, they actually had to do what God said should be done with the blood. The judgment on the firstborn was a powerful act of God because the firstborn was always thought to be favoured and privileged before God, if God judges the firstborn, then what of the rest of us?
For Christians today, this feast is really important because Jesus is our Passover Lamb, John 1:29 / 1 Corinthians 5:7. Just as Israel was redeemed from Egyptian slavery, so too has the Christian been redeemed from the slavery of sin, Galatians 3:16 / Titus 2:14.
Israel mustn’t sacrifice the Passover in any town except in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name, Deuteronomy 16:5 / Deuteronomy 12:5 / Deuteronomy 12:11 / Deuteronomy 12:14 / Deuteronomy 12:18 / Deuteronomy 12:21 / Deuteronomy 12:26 / John 4:24.
Wherever God choses as the place Israel must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of their departure from Egypt, Deuteronomy 16:6. As the location was different each year, they would assemble where the tabernacle was placed in order to celebrate as a nation their deliverance from Egyptian captivity. They are to roast it and eat it at the place God will choose and in the morning return to their tents, Deuteronomy 16:7.
The day following the Passover was to begin a week of feasting, Leviticus 23:6. For this entire week, God’s people were to eat unleavened bread, Deuteronomy 16:8 / Leviticus 23:6. On the Sabbath Day they weren’t permitted to do any work, Deuteronomy 16:8 / Leviticus 23:3, but here they are allowed to work but they weren’t permitted to do any regular work, Leviticus 23:7-8 / Leviticus 23:21 / Leviticus 23:25 / Leviticus 23:35-36, and on each day an offering was to be presented to the Lord, Leviticus 23:8 / Numbers 28:19-24.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following, concerning the meaning of not to work, Leviticus 23:7-8.
‘Literally, no work of labour, no work that belongs to one’s worldly calling, such as labour in agriculture or handicraft. The preparation of food was permitted, Exodus 12:16, a licence not granted on the weekly Sabbath, or on the day of atonement, Leviticus 23:28 / Leviticus 23:30 / Exodus 20:10 / Exodus 35:3.’
The Festival of Unleavened Bread was to be celebrated because it would be the day that God brought them out of Egypt, Exodus 12:17. This was to be lasting ordinance for the generations to come, Exodus 12:17. In the first month they are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, Exodus 12:18.
There is to be no yeast in their homes for seven days and anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it needs to be cut off from the community of Israel, Exodus 12:19. They are to eat nothing made with yeast and wherever they live, they must eat unleavened bread, Exodus 12:20.
For the first Passover, the unleavened bread was a practical necessity, they left Egypt in such a hurry there was no time to allow for the dough to rise. Leaven was also a picture of sin and corruption because of the way a little leaven would influence a whole lump of dough, and also because of the way leaven would ‘puff up’, the lump, even as pride and sin make us ‘puffed up.’ Significantly, God called them to walk ‘unleavened’ after their initial deliverance from Egypt, symbolically, they were being called to a pure walk with the Lord.
Some suggest there was also a health aspect in getting rid of all the leaven, that since they used a piece of dough from the previous batch to make the bread for that day, and did so repeatedly, harmful bacteria could take hold in the dough, so it was good to remove all leaven and start all over at least once a year.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Bread signifies communion or fellowship with Christ, and the leaven, which was purged out signifies sin, or evil. Christians are commanded to ‘purge out the old leaven’, 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 / 2 Corinthians 7:1 / Galatians 5:7 / Galatians 5:9.’
Israel are to count off seven weeks from the time they begin to put the sickle to the standing grain, Deuteronomy 16:9. The next observance was to take place fifty days after the first Sabbath of the week of unleavened bread, that is Pentecost, Deuteronomy 16:10 / Leviticus 23:15.
It would also take place on the first day of the week, Leviticus 23:16. The date of the Feast of Weeks varied from late May to early June of each year. The purpose of this feast was to commemorate the completion of the grain harvest.
The festival of weeks is the feast of harvest, whilst the feast of firstfruits begins at the start of the harvest, the feast of weeks begins at the end of the harvest, Exodus 34:22 / Leviticus 23:15-21 / Numbers 28:26-31. This feast was a time of freewill offerings and celebration as they thanked God for proving the harvest in the first place, Deuteronomy 16:11. Israel are to rejoice before God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name, Deuteronomy 16:11.
Notice again, that God always takes care of the poor and anyone travelling through the land, Deuteronomy 16:11. They were to leave the grain which stood in the corners of the fields for those people, Leviticus 23:22 / Leviticus 25:22 / Leviticus 19:9-10.
However, if anyone who was poor received any food, they had to do work in return for that food. This was to be a period of great rejoicing as they witnessed their harvest for the year and remembered the blessings of God. They were also to remember their bondage in Egypt from which they were delivered, Deuteronomy 16:12.
Several offerings were to be made on this day, a grain offering of two loaves of bread, but these loaves were to be baked with leaven Leviticus 23:16-17. A burnt offering of seven lambs of the first year, a bull, two rams, Leviticus 23:18 / Numbers 28:27-30. Note the drink offering also is to be made, Leviticus 23:18 / Leviticus 23:13 / Leviticus 23:37 / Exodus 29:40.
A sin-offering of a male goat, a peace offering of two male lambs, Leviticus 25:19. The priest is to wave the two lambs before the LORD as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits and they are a sacred offering to the LORD for the priest, Leviticus 23:20.
Israel were to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work, Leviticus 23:21 / Leviticus 23:7-8 / Leviticus 23:25 / Leviticus 23:35-36, and this was to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever they live, Leviticus 25:21.
The day of Pentecost is important for Christians as this is the day the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles, Acts 2:1-4. It was also the day the church was established when Peter preached the first Gospel message, Acts 2:14-41. The only other times the day is mentioned in the New Testament are in Acts 20:16, and 1 Corinthians 16:8.
At sundown, the Jewish festival of Sukkot will begin, the feast of tabernacles, Deuteronomy 16:13 / Leviticus 23:33-34. This was the last of the festivals, Purim and Hanukkah would be added much later. Once again Israel wasn’t permitted to do any regular work, Leviticus 23:35-36 / Leviticus 23:25 / Leviticus 23:21 / Leviticus 23:7-8, and for seven days they are to present food offerings, and on the eighth day they are to hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD, Leviticus 23:35-36.
By October, the harvest season came to an end when grapes, olives, pomegranates, figs, and dates were gathered in. The feast was officially scheduled for the fifteenth day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, five days after the Day of Atonement, and it lasted for seven days.
These are the LORD’s appointed festivals, which they are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing food offerings, which includes, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day, Leviticus 23:37 / Leviticus 23:18 / Leviticus 23:13 / Exodus 29:40. These offerings are in addition to those for the LORD’s Sabbaths and in addition to their gifts and whatever they have vowed and all the freewill offerings they give, Leviticus 23:38.
Beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after they had gathered the crops of the land, Deuteronomy 16:13 / Leviticus 23:39 / Revelation 14:15-16. It was to be a joyful festival to be enjoyed by everyone who lives in their towns, Deuteronomy 16:14.
They are to celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days at the place the God will choose, Deuteronomy 16:15, with the first day being a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also being a day of sabbath rest, Leviticus 23:39.
They are to celebrate this as a festival for seven days each year and this is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, celebrate it in the seventh month, Leviticus 23:41.
For an entire week, the people were to live in booths, Leviticus 23:42-43, in other words, they were to camp out. The reason for camping out was to remind them of their wilderness wanderings. Just like the Passover and feast of unleavened bread, this feast lasted for eight days, Leviticus 23:39 / Numbers 29:12-38 / Deuteronomy 16:13-15 / Deuteronomy 31:10-13 / Ezra 3:4 / Nehemiah 8:18.
According to the law, all Jews were to live in booths or huts during the celebration. These were outdoor shelters made from wild branches of olive, myrtle, palm, and other leaf trees, Leviticus 23:42-43 / Leviticus 23:40 / Nehemiah 8:15. A booth or tabernacle was a temporary dwelling.
Three times a year all Israel’s men must appear before God at the place He will choose, Deuteronomy 16:16 / Exodus 23:14 / Leviticus 23:34. The feasts were times when fellowship meals were eaten, and so, everyone was to bring food, Deuteronomy 16:17, that is, offerings are to be eaten by everyone during the meeting. If one didn’t bring an offering, then they weren’t demonstrating fellowship toward others, 2 Corinthians 8:4.
The lulav is a palm branch, Leviticus 23:40, one of the four species used during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, along with the etrog, myrtle, and willow branches. When bound together, the lulav, myrtle, and willow branches are commonly referred to as ‘the lulav’, Leviticus 23:40. This was a feast of thanksgiving for everything God had provided for them.
Since this was the formal end of the harvest year, it was a time of celebration. The people joined parades of pilgrims at the temple, and as they marched holding the lulav they sang the Hallel Psalms, Psalms 113-118. Ceremonies around the temple were extensive, and celebrations were full. Sacrifice was another way they praised God during this feast.
But agriculture was not the only interest at Sukkoth or any of the other festivals. Passover tells the story tells of Israel fleeing Egypt. Pentecost reminds them of their coming to Mount Sinai to receive the covenant. Tabernacles reminded them of the forty years in the wilderness, when they lived in the desert, they worshipped God at His tabernacle and built shelters for themselves as well, Leviticus 23:42-43.
They were to remember that God will take care of their every need, just like He did in the wilderness wandering, Exodus 15:22-27 / Exodus 16:35 / Deuteronomy 8:4 / Deuteronomy 29:5. The weather in Palestine was suited to this at this time of the year. The heat of summer had passed and the early rains were still a month away. Moses now announces to the Israelites the appointed festivals of the LORD, Leviticus 23:44.
We can easily imagine Jesus as a young man travelling to Jerusalem every autumn with countless families from Galilee making a long caravan. And there in Jerusalem, He joined in the festivities, waving His lulav, and dancing and singing in the courtyards of the temple. He had the Hallel Psalms memorised and could sing them with ease. To have a fully Jewish life, Jesus certainly must have experienced these Jewish festivals as we have described.
Each day of the Feast of Tabernacles witnessed a water ceremony in which a procession of priests descended to the south border of the city to the Gihon Spring, which flowed into the Pool of Siloam. There a priest filled a golden pitcher as a choir chanted, Isaiah 12:3. When the procession arrived at the temple, the priest climbed the altar steps and poured the water onto the altar while the crowd circled him and continued singing.
People in the ancient world observed the length of days carefully, charting the solstices as well as the fall and spring equinox. The Mishnah tractate Sukkah provides lavish descriptions of the light ceremonies and explains that whoever has not seen these things has never seen a wonder in his or her life!
We possess only one record of Jesus visiting Jerusalem at Tabernacles, John 7-9. On His previous visit to Jerusalem, the leaders there threatened His life after He healed a paraplegic man on the Sabbath, John 5:18. Now the coming festival made those same leaders look for Him when they saw the other members of Jesus’ family, John 7:11-13 / John 7:25.
Sometime during the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, as Jesus was teaching in the Temple, He was interrogated by these same religious leaders. How could Jesus teach with authority when He did not have the appropriate schooling? John 7:15.
The authorities wanted to know where He came from, John 7:40-41. Jesus was clear that He would eventually depart Jerusalem and that where He was going, none of them would be able to follow, John 7:33-34 / John 7:37 / John 7:40.
Then on that same day or maybe was it at night, He said something else. Jesus stood up and said, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.’ John 8:12. Here in the great light ceremony of the year, Jesus makes the astounding claim to be the light of the world.
One of the most memorable events in the life of our Lord took place on the morning of Hoshana Rabbah, it is the story of the woman caught in adultery, John 8:2-11. Hoshana Rabbah was the final and most important day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Every day during the feast there was a water ceremony, Isaiah 12:3. The crowd would shake their lulavs and sing the Hallel Psalms, Psalms 113-118.
Rabbah means ‘great’ and Hoshana, Hosanna, means ‘God save us please!’ This was also a prayer for salvation from sin, for Hoshana Rabbah was understood by the Jews to be the absolutely final chance to have one’s sins for the year forgiven. Though Hoshana Rabbah was not mentioned by name in the Old Testament, it is mentioned in the New Testament, John 7:37-38.
On Hoshana Rabbah, in the midst of this water pouring, trumpet blasting, palm waving, psalm chanting, and joy on the part of people seeking forgiveness-and in the presence of all twenty-four divisions of the priesthood, that Jesus cried out in the temple courts and spoke, John 7:37-38 / Jeremiah 2:13.
Numerous problems accompany the charge made at the temple by the scribes and Pharisees on Hoshana Rabbah. We must ask if the woman is married or betrothed to another man. A woman who is sexually unfaithful to her fiancé was to be stoned to death along with her lover, John 8:5 / Deuteronomy 22:23-24.
Unfaithful wives were likewise killed, Leviticus 20:10 / Deuteronomy 22:22. But the Law did not indicate the method of death. The Mishnah, which was oral law in Jesus’ day specified that unfaithful fiancés should be stoned, but wives strangled, Sanhedrin 7:2.
In John 8, it is the last day for these scribes and Pharisees to have their sins forgiven, and Jesus says, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first,’ John 8:7. What did Jesus write on the ground? It is impossible to know what Jesus wrote in the dust, John 8:6 / John 8:8.
Most believe that He began to write in Hebrew some verses from the Law that would shape His response to the dilemma. Two passages talk about God being the source of ‘living water.’ The first in the passage we have already read, Jeremiah 2:13. Please note the context of the second time Jeremiah uses the phrase ‘living waters’, Jeremiah 17:9-10 / Jeremiah 17:13.
Because Jesus must have been sitting and the woman standing, He now raises Himself up and speaks to her for the first time, John 8:10. His questions do not imply that the woman is innocent since, in John 8:11, He warns her to cease a sinful life that has been her habit. Jesus’ final words do not imply her innocence but reflect His power to forgive sin.
The portrait of the woman in this story is powerful. Our Lord’s implied judgment on her accusers and His mercy mixed with exhortation sets her free in a manner she never expected. And what Jesus did for this sinful woman, He can do for you as well.
The Feast of Tabernacles is a helpful reminder that thanksgiving is an important part of our daily lives. A thoughtful person knows that the capacities and opportunities we enjoy often should be credited less to ourselves and more to God. Tabernacles says, bring samples of what God has given you to the temple and with them in hand, wrapped in your personal lulav thank Him.
Israel are told to appoint judges and officials, Deuteronomy 16:18 / Deuteronomy 1:13-15, but we’re not told how this was carried out. The place of judgments was at the gates of the cities where the judges and officials met, Ruth 4:1. The people chosen were to judge the people fairly, not to pervert justice or show partiality, Deuteronomy 16:18-19.
These judges and officials were discouraged from taking bribes simply because bribes corrupt decisions, Deuteronomy 16:19. They are to follow justice and justice alone, so that they may live and possess the land the God is giving them, Deuteronomy 16:20. When bribes are taken, judgments are twisted and favouritism is shown. In other words, there is no justice in a system that is controlled by bribes.
Israel are again reminded that they shouldn’t set up any idolatrous images, that is, they were to make nothing that became a religious symbol, Deuteronomy 16:21-22. These were the practices of the Canaanites and Israel needed to hate them as much as God does, Deuteronomy 16:22 / Deuteronomy 7:5 / Deuteronomy 7:13 / Zephaniah 3:3.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘We have already seen that groves were planted about idol temples for the purpose of the obscene worship performed in them, Deuteronomy 12:3 / Deuteronomy 12:3. On this account God would have no groves or thickets about his altar, that there might be no room for suspicion that anything contrary to the strictest purity was transacted there. Every part of the Divine worship was publicly performed, for the purpose of general edification.’