Deuteronomy 16:1–17

Israel, no less than the Egyptians, were a sinful race. How could God make light of their sins? So He instituted the Passover. He made it all the more striking, because a new reckoning started from that event as a foundation for Israel. Abib was the seventh month of the civil year; "for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night" (v. 1). It now began the holy year. The LORD was acting as Judge beyond anything that had gone before; and the lamb's blood alone could shelter guilty Israel.

The month in question was Abib, otherwise Nisan (Ex. 13:4), and matched our March–April. Redemption gave the people a new start with God. It is the same now. A man admits he is a sinner in God's sight, exposed to eternal wrath. In simple faith he takes refuge under the blood of the Lamb. That is when he begins life anew.

This month received the name Abib — "the month of the ears of grain." It was for Israel the month of life out of death, the fruitful month — a name most fitting for the people at their birth into national life. You can see this important principle about their year throughout the books of Moses, Joshua and Judges. There Abib alone has a name. Every other month is counted from it by number — the "second," the "third," and so on.

What could show so clearly that it was for the LORD's eye, not for man's senses or mind? It was put on the two side-posts and on the lintel for his faith, and all the more for the deepest feelings of his heart. Had it been inside, it would have suggested that they were to gaze at the lamb's blood, to which they owed their safety. But there was nothing of the kind... What makes this even clearer is that it was "night." There was no natural light to let the blood be seen by men. Only the divine eye could see the blood on the doorposts. He might work through a destroyer, but it was the LORD who struck Egypt, and the LORD who saw the blood and passed over Israel sheltered by it. "When I see the blood, I will pass over you."

A man is first awakened. He receives the good news of redemption in Christ Jesus through the shedding of His blood. At that point the nearness of the wrath to come speaks to his soul. But after he has bowed to the truth, he is no longer filled with alarm, at least not in the same degree or way. Is it that Christ's work is valued less? A great deal more.

Note that it is only in Deuteronomy that the place of celebration is insisted on. We have nothing about it in Exodus, because there it was kept in Egypt. We have nothing about it in Numbers, because there it was kept in the wilderness. But in Deuteronomy it is settled with authority, because there we have the instructions for the land. God would gather His beloved people around Himself, to feast together in His presence, that He might rejoice in them, and they in Him and in one another.

These feasts made an appeal to a male Israelite that no others could make. Others might be optional; these feasts were binding. It is a call to obedience... It is not the tabernacle, nor the priest, nor the wilderness, but obeying God as His people in the land.

It may be worth noticing that the Passover sacrifice proper was a lamb from the flock only. But Numbers 28 shows that the feast had daily offerings too: bulls as burnt offerings, along with a ram and lambs, a grain offering, a goat for a sin offering, and a drink offering. This explains the "herd" here.

Only notice that in Deuteronomy 16 it is simply the Passover sacrificed. Nothing is said here about the blood put on the doorposts.

Here the Passover is no longer that shelter from threatening judgment; it is the memorial of salvation accomplished... It is the soul's communion; it is the sweet spiritual recollection of a work entirely His own, of His death as a lamb without blemish. We feed on it, as His redeemed people, enjoying this position in the land of promise and of God — a land that belongs to us because of this redemption, and because we have been raised up with Christ.

We have to notice the remarkable emphasis laid on "the place" where the feast was to be kept. The people were not to choose for themselves. To human thinking, it might seem a very small matter how or where they kept the feast, as long as they kept it. But human thinking had nothing to do with it at all. This was God's thinking and God's authority from start to finish. God had the right to decide, once for all, where He would meet His people.

And note that only Deuteronomy insists on the place of celebration. We have nothing about it in Exodus, because there it was kept in Egypt. We have nothing about it in Numbers, because there it was kept in the wilderness. But Deuteronomy settles it with full authority, because here we have the instructions for the land.

God would gather His beloved people around Himself, so that they might feast together in His presence. He would rejoice in them, and they in Him and in one another. All this could only be in the one special place of divine appointment... Self-will might say, "Can we not keep the feast at home with our families? What need is there of a long journey? Surely if the heart is right, the place cannot matter very much." Our answer is this: the clearest and best proof of a right heart is a simple, earnest desire to do the will of God.

There was to be only one place from then on; many were allowed before... He would take His blessing, and Israel's enjoyment of it, completely out of their hands. He tied it to His own presence, and so blessed them all the more. He chose one place and one only for the Passover: it was where He Himself dwelt.

God had chosen a place, which was then a geographical location (the temple in Jerusalem) and had forbidden any other. No one among the people had the authority to say, "I would like to celebrate the Passover, but in a different place." God had appointed the place, and He had described it: it was where His name lived. The parallel to the New Testament is obvious. We cannot break bread just where we want to, but where God wants it — in the local assembly, where the Lord is among those gathered to His name.

This is a very great principle, dear friends, as true now as in Israel's day. The name of the Lord Jesus is the only gathering centre today. The believer who does not gather simply in that name will lack the deep enjoyment of Christ that our God wants our souls to taste.

Leaven is a picture of evil. Evil spreads, and it makes whatever it spreads through take on its own character. "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." So eating unleavened bread means separation from evil — practical holiness. Notice too that the feast was to last seven days, that is, a complete period of time. The lesson, then, is this. God requires holiness from everyone sheltered by the blood of the Passover Lamb, and He requires it for the whole of their life on earth. Our poor hearts might reason like this: if we are saved by the grace of God through the sprinkled blood of Christ, we may as well indulge in sin so that grace increases. "No!" says the Spirit of God. "As soon as you are under the value of the death of Christ, you are responsible to be separate from evil."

The lamb was killed on the fourteenth day at sunset. The feast of unleavened bread began right after the fifteenth day began, which was just after sunset. So no gap remained between the feast of the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. There was no interval of time between the death of the lamb, the sprinkling of the blood, and the keeping of the feast.

Now, why is this? What great moral lesson does the bread of affliction convey to our hearts? We believe it sets before us those deep exercises of heart which the Holy Spirit produces. He brings home to us what it cost our adorable Lord and Saviour to deliver us from our sins, and from the judgment those sins deserved. Those exercises are also pictured by the "bitter herbs" of Exodus 12.

When an Israelite ate the bread of affliction with the roasted flesh of the Passover, did it express a doubt or a fear about his full deliverance? Impossible! How could it? He was in the land; he was gathered to God's own centre, His own very presence.

"You came out of the land of Egypt in haste." Pharaoh — that is, the devil — was behind them. They were only just escaping from the judgment. It is simply deliverance. You get out of Egypt in haste. You have to put the dough on your shoulder as fast as you can, so that the judgment does not catch you. And so you have the seven days of unleavened bread. It is deliverance. But it keeps you occupied with the state you were in when God delivered you. So it is "the bread of affliction." There must be holiness, or we cannot have anything to say to God. But we do not find fullness of communion and blessing in it.

We do not forget what we were; we do not forget that it was our sin that brought the Lord Jesus to the cross. And if we did not have a purged conscience, the Lord's supper would be the right time to afflict our souls. It was in connection with the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread that God told Israel to eat the bread of affliction. There is nothing in the Lord's supper that answers to the bread of affliction… There is no "bread of affliction" for the new creation.

How is it that we can commit sin so lightly, in thought, word and deed? How is it that there is so much levity, so much that is unsubdued, so much self-indulgence, so much carnal ease, so much that is merely frothy and shallow? Is it not because that ingredient pictured by "the bread of affliction" is missing from our feast? We cannot doubt it.

The Israelites were given a solemn charge: both then and afterwards, they were to take the greatest care to free themselves and their houses from every trace of leaven during this feast. Each household was to search thoroughly and systematically, and anything found had to go out of the house at once, so that not a particle might be seen anywhere within their borders.

The leaven was not to be found in any of the houses of the Israelites. This tells us that anyone who would keep the feast must hold all their surroundings and associations to the truth and will of God. This principle is deeply important. It searches us, and it reaches far.

Leaven is not simply evil, but evil allowed — the working of wills that are not subject to God. If a man allows such leaven in his own life and ways, it is bound to mark the whole of him. He cannot be subject to God up to a certain limit. The moment we urge a limit to obedience, we urge what is in fact disobedience. With God there is no such thing as allowing a line like this.

Note too that the feast was to last seven days — that is, a complete period of time. The lesson, then, is that holiness is the duty of everyone sheltered by the blood of the Passover Lamb, for the whole of their lives on earth. If we are saved by the grace of God through the sprinkled blood of Christ, our wretched hearts might reason: then we may indulge in sin, so that grace may abound. "No!" says the Spirit of God. "As soon as you are under the value of the death of Christ, you are under the responsibility to be separate from evil."

Unleavened bread was to be eaten for seven days. The Spirit of God tells us that this part of the picture means "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." To put away leaven is one side of this truth; to eat unleavened bread is the other side of this truth.

Leavened bread was completely shut out, and the lamb's flesh must not become ordinary food. It had to be treated as holy.

Exodus 12:10 had commanded that anything left over was to be burned — that is, it went up in fire to the Lord. For God can appreciate everything about Christ, even if we cannot.

It is exactly because the grace of the Lord bringing Israel into the land is in view that no lack of care can be tolerated, and that the deepest call is made on their spiritual affections. When Israel come to know who He is that was sacrificed for them, and on whose blood their whole shelter hung, what far deeper thoughts and affections will rise toward God! It will be no wonder then that "no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days."

From now on there was to be only one place; before, many were allowed. Israel had kept the Passover in Egypt, house by house, and in the wilderness only at first. But now in the land it might have seemed that any place would do, since the whole land was holy. Yet Jehovah chose one place only. He would take His blessing, and Israel's enjoyment of it, completely out of their hands. He would bless them all the more by tying it to His own presence.

And note that only Deuteronomy insists on the place of celebration. We have nothing about it in Exodus, because there Israel kept the feast in Egypt. We have nothing about it in Numbers, because there they kept it in the wilderness. But in Deuteronomy God settles it with full authority, because there we have the instructions for the land.

The people were not to choose for themselves. To human thinking it might seem a very small matter where or how they kept the feast, as long as they kept it at all. But note this carefully, reader, and think it over: human thinking had nothing whatever to do with the matter. It was divine thinking and divine authority altogether. God had a right to lay down and settle where He would meet His people. He does this in the clearest and strongest way in this passage. Three times over He inserts the weighty clause, "at the place that the LORD your God will choose."

God would gather His beloved people around Himself, so that they might feast together in His presence. He would rejoice in them, and they in Him and in one another. All this could happen only in the one special place He had appointed. Self-will might say, "Can we not keep the feast at home with our families? What need is there of a long journey? If the heart is right, surely the place cannot matter very much." We reply that the clearest and best proof of a right heart is a simple, earnest desire to do the will of God. God had appointed a place where He would meet His people. That was quite enough for everyone who loved and feared Him. There they would be found, and nowhere else. His presence alone could give joy, comfort, strength and blessing to all their great national gatherings.

The Passover, held in the first month of the year, was to celebrate Israel's deliverance from Egypt, but more importantly, to look forward to the death of the Lord Jesus — "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). Israel did not understand that spiritual meaning, but God did. But the Lord commanded that once they were settled in the land, they were to keep the Passover only at the place where the LORD chooses to make His name dwell. That centre is Jerusalem.

God had chosen one place — at that time a real location, the temple in Jerusalem — and He had forbidden every other. No one among the people had the authority to say, "I would like to celebrate the Passover, but in a different place." God had appointed the place, and He had described it. It was the place where His Name dwelt. The parallel to the New Testament is obvious. We cannot break bread just where we want to, but we do so where God desires it.

But note it carefully and think it over: human thinking had nothing to do with the matter. It was divine thinking and divine authority from first to last. God had the right to lay down and settle where He would meet His people. He does so here in the clearest and strongest way, inserting the weighty clause three times over: "at the place that the LORD your God will choose."

There was to be but one place from then on; many were allowed before. It had been taken in Egypt, house by house, and in the wilderness only at first. But now in the land, where it might have seemed any place would do because it was the holy land, the LORD chose one sole place. He would take His blessing, and Israel's enjoyment of it, right out of their hands. He tied it to His own presence, and so blessed them all the more. The LORD chose one place, and one place only, for keeping the Passover: it was where He Himself dwelt.

Here is the all-important point about "the place," pressed so strongly in all three great occasions in our chapter. God would gather His beloved people around Himself, so that they might feast together in His presence. He would rejoice in them, and they in Him and in one another. Self-will might say, "Can we not keep the feast in the bosom of our families? What need is there of a long journey? Surely if the heart is right, the place cannot matter very much." We answer that the clearest and best proof of a right heart is a simple, earnest desire to do the will of God.

So this phrase cannot mean what some have said it means. It does not cover the period from the evening of one day to the evening of the next, counting time our way. "Between the two evenings" was a certain time on the fourteenth day of Nisan, and Deuteronomy 16:6 defines it as the going down of the sun.

So Jesus was at the place God had chosen for the sacrifice of the Passover. The month, the day, and the hour had come: the going down of the sun. As for the chief priests and scribes, they were looking for a way to kill Him. They did not know that He was the true Passover Lamb. They did not understand that the time had come for the Passover to be killed.

The slaying of the lamb answers to Christ dying and shedding His blood, so that God should pass over. But the Passover was to be kept every year as a remembrance, at a time when there was no passing over. They were in the land, as we are in heavenly places in Christ, and they celebrated a deliverance and redemption finished long ago.

But the feast that went with the Passover brings out above all the ground of our deliverance and of all blessing: the infinite sorrow and death of the Son of God. So joy is not what suits us here, but "the unleavened bread, the bread of affliction," in the solemn judgment of ourselves.

God had chosen a place, which was then a geographical location (the temple in Jerusalem), and had forbidden any other. No one among the people had the authority to say, "I would like to celebrate the Passover, but in a different place." God had appointed the place, and He had described it: it was where His Name dwelt. We cannot break bread just where we want. We do it where God desires it, in the local assembly, where the Lord is among those gathered to His Name.

From now on there was to be only one place, though many had been allowed before. It had been taken in Egypt, house by house, and in the wilderness only at first. But now, in the land where it might have seemed that any place would do because it was the holy land, the LORD chose one single place. He would take the matter of His blessing, and of Israel's enjoyment of it, out of their hands. He would bless them all the more by binding it up with His presence.

Only Deuteronomy insists on the place of celebration. Exodus says nothing about it, because there Israel kept the feast in Egypt. Numbers says nothing about it, because there they kept it in the wilderness. Deuteronomy settles the matter with full authority, because there we have the instructions for the land.

Our chapter presses "the place" hard in all three great gatherings, and the all-important point is this. God would gather His beloved people around Himself. There they would feast together in His presence. There He would rejoice in them, and they in Him and in one another. All this could only happen in the one special place of divine appointment. Self-will might say, "Can we not keep the feast in our own families? Why the long journey? Surely if the heart is right, the place cannot matter much." To all this we reply that the clearest and best proof of a right heart would be a simple, earnest desire to do the will of God.

In Matthew 18:20 we read the words of our blessed Lord, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." Here we have the divine centre: "My Name." This answers to "the place which the LORD your God shall choose to put His name there." Deuteronomy names that place again and again, and insists on it with force. Israel had to gather at that one place. People could not choose for themselves. Human choice was shut out.

First, roast it with fire; do not boil it in water. Boiling applies the heat indirectly, through water. Roasting puts the body of the lamb in the direct fierceness of the flame, which always pictures the searching judgment of God. If we are sheltered from judgment by the precious blood of Christ, we are always to take that fierce judgment to heart as applying to ourselves. He endured it to win our deliverance.

Real self-judgment must go along with our resting on Christ's work, just as the Israelites then ate the bread of affliction. With Christ's death for us comes the sense of sin, and shame, and humiliation. Repentance goes along with faith. They are to "cook it and eat it at the place that the LORD your God will choose." Still, the text never mentions joy. Everything it says seems to assume a conscience at work rather than an outflow of heart, for it adds, "and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents." This is not so much fellowship bringing the people of God together. Each one retires, as it were, to his own home, to think both of what he was and of what God had done for his soul. In the Passover, only the individual is mentioned, taken up with mercy to himself or his own.

For Israel at least, there was a return to their own things. This was not the kind of peaceful communion with the LORD that detached them, in principle, from everything else to Himself. It was far from all that the LORD designed and gave in the feasts that would follow. More was needed to give full enjoyment of the LORD's blessing in His chosen place. These words belong only to the Passover. They are dropped for the Feast of Weeks and for the Feast of Tabernacles.

The leading feature here is "the unleavened bread." … We all understand that unleavened bread is the picture of that holiness of heart and life which is absolutely essential to the enjoyment of true communion with God. We are not saved by personal holiness but, thank God, we are saved to it. It is not the ground of our salvation; but it is an essential element in our communion. Allowed leaven is the death-blow to communion and worship.

Seven days covers the whole week. We are to be an unleavened company not on Sunday only but all the week. That is what 1 Corinthians 5 says.

In verse 3 the unleavened bread is called "bread of affliction," holiness in affliction, when you come to it by the sacrifice of Christ; in 1 Corinthians 5 it is called the "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." It takes the character of self-judgment, and sorrow before God.

We believe it sets before us those deep exercises of heart which the Holy Spirit produces by bringing powerfully before us what it cost our adorable Lord and Saviour to deliver us from our sins and from the judgement which those sins deserved.

Verse 8 repeats the obligation to eat unleavened bread six days. On the seventh there was a solemn assembly to Jehovah the God of Israel, and no work to be done. His work they celebrated and rested in. Only in this Feast is work here forbidden to be done.

No work and no leaven were God's rules for the Passover week (Lev. 23:6-8). No work, for the great work of Calvary was in view (in picture), and no human effort may stand alongside it. Christ is not a mere helper of sinners, making up for their deficiencies; He is Saviour, doing all that is necessary to save us from eternal ruin.

The feast of Tabernacles alone is called a solemn assembly, or day of restraint, as far as I am aware. The one other place is the feast of Passover in Deuteronomy 16:8, and I believe it has a similar purpose.

Sometimes, I do not say always, we are apt to remain in this feast of unleavened bread, and not get on far enough to the others. It is deliverance, but it is occupation with the state in which you were when you were delivered, so it is "the bread of affliction." There must be holiness, or we cannot have anything to say to God; but we do not get fullness of communion and blessing in it.

Seven weeks having passed, the people were again to gather around Jehovah. They counted seven weeks from the time they began to put the sickle to the standing grain, from the day they began to reap the fruit of the land of promise. They waited for the perfect time of the work of God.

Notice that Pentecost is directly connected with the unleavened bread, not with the Passover. It was then that they offered the first of the firstfruits, a type of Christ risen from the dead. From the time they put the sickle to the standing grain, they counted seven weeks — that is, in type, to the Church at Pentecost. On the day of the firstfruits they offered ears of grain without leaven. But seven weeks later, when they offered the firstfruits, they put leaven in the two cakes, because there the Church was, in type, offered to God.

The day of Pentecost clearly worked like this. Whatever day the first handful could be had, they offered it on the day after the Sabbath (Sunday). From then to the seventh Sabbath was forty-nine days, and on the fiftieth day (Sunday) they celebrated Pentecost. In itself it had no connection with the earlier feast of unleavened bread. Historically there was such a connection, but they were separate ordinances. See also Leviticus 23:15-16.

Here we have the well-known and beautiful type of the day of Pentecost. The Passover sets forth the death of Christ. The sheaf of firstfruits is the striking figure of a risen Christ. And in the feast of weeks we have pictured before us the descent of the Holy Spirit, fifty days after the resurrection.

But when you come to the day of Pentecost you get this: "You shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you." There is not a bit of that in the feast of unleavened bread. There they had to escape, and that was all; but here I get the heart satisfied with the Holy Spirit. They had the fruits of the land now; they had what they were brought into, and not only what they were brought out of.

Now, it is the Spirit who enables us to enter into the claims of God upon us — claims measured only by how much God has blessed us. He gives us to see and understand that all we are and all we have belong to God. He gives us to delight in consecrating ourselves, spirit, soul and body, to God. It is truly "a freewill offering." It is not of constraint, but willingly. There is not an atom of bondage, for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

It is not the death of Christ with all its solemn, though blessed, results. It is founded on the life of Christ in resurrection, when the Holy Spirit brings us into the power of enjoyment. It is Pentecost... And mark this: it is not only joy in the Lord, but calling others to joy. We are to keep the statutes and to do them. Once more obedience is above all the matter, and this too as delivered men — once slaves, but now free to obey.

Here we have the well-known and beautiful type of the day of Pentecost. The Passover sets forth the death of Christ. The sheaf of firstfruits is the striking figure of a risen Christ. And the Feast of Weeks pictures the coming of the Holy Spirit, fifty days after the resurrection.

There was nothing like this at the Passover, because that sets forth Christ offering Himself for us, as a sacrifice, and not our offering anything. We remember our deliverance from sin and Satan, and what that deliverance cost.

There they had to escape, and that was all; but here my heart is satisfied with the Holy Spirit. They had the fruits of the land now; they had what they had been brought into, and not only what they had been brought out of.

It is the Spirit who enables us to enter into the claims of God upon us. Only the extent of the divine blessing measures those claims. He gives us to see and understand that all we are and all we have belong to God. He gives us to delight in consecrating ourselves, spirit, soul and body, to God. It is truly "a freewill offering." It is not of constraint, but willingly. There is not an atom of bondage, for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

Here I have the Holy Spirit. I give freely and come with my gift, "as the LORD your God blesses you." I can bring this offering only in the measure of my spirituality.

In the Feast of Pentecost there was joy. The people brought God a voluntary offering, matching the blessing the Lord had granted. There was joy in communion. They raised up the downcast heart of the widow, of the orphan, of the Levite, and of the stranger. They rejoiced before the Lord their God in His presence where He had set His name. They remembered that they had once been slaves. But they remembered it while enjoying their freedom before God, who had poured out His blessing on the people He had set free. Here again we find the true spirit of worship.

Far be the thought that it is a matter of law now with us. Never in the New Testament, as far as we are aware, is there any suggestion that we must give one tenth of our income. No, it is a "voluntary offering," given entirely of our own free will. We give it while we remember how the Lord gave Himself, gave all, for us. My gift is the mark of how much I value His gift. It is the overflow of my heart in thanksgiving to Him... Our giving is in reality just as true worship as our hymns of praise or thanksgiving.

Sometimes we give as little as we can and still be respectable. Sometimes it is merely a matter of habit. We always give the same fixed amount. We never think about how God has prospered us, or how the Lord has blessed us... We pray for the Lord's blessing. But when He blesses us, we forget to give back to Him in recognition of that blessing, and in its measure.

As Deuteronomy 16:3-8 shows us, the character of the feast in the month of Abib was not one of joy. Scripture mentions no joy as belonging to any Jewish festival until the time came to keep the feast of weeks. Then, holding the fruits of resurrection in the land, they were to rejoice.

There they had to escape, and that was all. But here the Holy Spirit satisfies my heart. They had the fruits of the land now. They had what God brought them into, and not only what He brought them out of. Of course, we must not forget what He brought them out of; we shall not forget it in heaven. The Lamb slain is the foundation of everything. But I have more than that here: I have the freewill offering of thanksgiving and praise.

Here we have the well-known and beautiful type of the day of Pentecost. The Passover sets forth the death of Christ. The sheaf of firstfruits is the striking figure of a risen Christ. And in the feast of weeks we have pictured for us the descent of the Holy Spirit, fifty days after the resurrection.

God gave the Holy Spirit at this feast, exactly to the day. "When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place… And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." So the death of Christ fulfilled the Passover, and the gift of the Holy Spirit fulfilled the feast of weeks.

Here I have the Holy Spirit. I am a free giver and come up with my gift, "according as the LORD your God has blessed you." I can bring this offering only in the measure of my spiritual state… You must have grace going out to the poor and the needy. Then come with a freewill offering according as God has blessed you.

Mark the effect (verse 11): "you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter." But it does not end there: "your male servant and your female servant." Those who serve in the humblest position are to feel the blessing. Is it only for those in the houses? No — "the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you." These are samples of the various classes of sorrow and need in this poor world. There we have the opening of the heart to all.

The feast of Passover mentions only the individual, taken up with mercy to himself or his own. But here there is joy that spreads all around. It is not only being happy, but making happy. This is what ought above all to mark us.

Jerusalem was the one holy place on earth. Every true Israelite turned his heart there with thoughts of worship and praise… Because of the LORD's house, Jerusalem was the one place of blessing in the whole world. It was no small privilege to join the assembly that gathered there from time to time in obedience to the Word.

Here we have the well-known and beautiful type of the day of Pentecost. The Passover sets forth the death of Christ. The sheaf of firstfruits is the striking figure of a risen Christ. And in the feast of weeks, we have prefigured before us the descent of the Holy Spirit, fifty days after the resurrection.

"And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt" (v. 12). This is not a man tied and bound with the chain of his sins. No, he remembers that he was a slave. It is the denial of that… "You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes." That is, the sense of this complete deliverance and this blessed union with Christ strengthens the spirit of obedience in the soul to the highest degree.

The remembrance of having been slaves themselves was to touch the heart of Israel and shape their conduct. Understanding the grace which had delivered them when they were in that condition would lead them to act in grace towards those who were slaves to them.

"You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes." That is, the power of the Holy Spirit keeps before us what we were, and the mighty deliverance God has worked for us. It also reminds us of our responsibility to do nothing but the will of the Lord, now that His grace has dealt with us in this way. The grace of God teaches us to obey, not to relax. It is a law of liberty.

Notice another thing connected with Pentecost which struck me. As long as we are here, "you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes." At Tabernacles I do not remember that I was a slave in Egypt. But here I have to be watchful and obedient. I have to remember that I was a thorough slave of sin and of everything else.

We enjoy the down payment and the firstfruits before God; but it is still down here, where watchfulness and restraint are needed.

Possession without the sense of this deliverance — such are our poor hearts — only tends to ruin, and the richer the possession the greater the danger. We must keep alive in the soul the sense of how, and from what depths, we have been delivered. The light of the place we have been brought into shines back on what we have been brought out of. That increases for us the preciousness of the grace that has done it. It also deepens our knowledge of ourselves, which humbles us and keeps us humble before God.

This feast is not the freedom of grace, which the feast of pentecost is; it is rather a picture of the time when the freedom of glory will arrive. The gathering in of the corn and the wine (that is, the grain harvest and the grape harvest, or vintage) are the well known pictures of God's final dealings. The harvest is when He separates the wheat from the chaff, or at least from what is not wheat. The vintage is when He carries out unsparing judgment on the vine of the earth — on all religion that is empty and denies heaven. There is no mercy in the vintage. In the harvest there is the gathering in of the good and the wiping out of the evil. But the vintage knows nothing but vengeance from God. After this will come the full time of joy for the earth.

The Feast of Tabernacles came only when the harvest and the vintage were both gathered in. That is, God has gathered in His own and hidden them in His storehouse. He has trodden His enemies in the winepress. This is a feast whose reality, it is certain, we have not yet seen.

Everyone born an Israelite made booths out of tree branches and lived in them. It was a time of joy and rejoicing. They forgot the work and cares of this life. Their hearts went back to the time when the Lord led them through the wilderness as pilgrims and strangers, with no house or home and only booths to live in. The Lord would never have us forget our wilderness pathway.

Israel could not keep the feast of tabernacles in the wilderness. To keep it, the people had to hold the land, as is plain. Notice too that from Joshua until Nehemiah they never kept it as the law laid down. Israel had forgotten that they had been strangers in the wilderness. Joy without that memory tends to ruin; the very enjoyment of the blessing leads there.

"You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant." That takes in not only every soul belonging to us, but even those who do not: the desolate and sorrow-stricken, the poor and the stranger — "the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make His name dwell there." The grace of God goes out to bring in others to share the blessing.

It is not only that there will be a complete period of glory on the earth then, as we are now going through a complete period of grace. In this one feature, as we can see, the Feast of Tabernacles stands apart from all the others: it has an eighth day. The other feasts never mention such a day. The seven days, as we said, were glory for the earth, but there is the "eighth day" too. This opens heavenly and eternal glory! So it is not "days" now, but this one "day," "the eighth day." It has a beginning, but it will never have an end.

Note carefully the time of this feast. It was to be "after you have gathered in your corn and your wine" — in other words, after the grain harvest and the grape harvest. There is a very marked distinction between these two things. The one speaks of grace, the other of judgement. At the end of the age, God will gather His wheat into His barn. Then will come the treading of the winepress, in awful judgement.

Here we have a striking and beautiful picture of Israel's future. The feast of tabernacles has not yet had its fulfilment. The Passover and Pentecost were fulfilled in the precious death of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. But the third great feast points forward. It looks to the time when God restores all things — the time He has spoken of through all His holy prophets since the world began.

The rejoicing includes not only every soul belonging to us, but even those who do not belong to us: the desolate and the grieving, the poor and the stranger, the Levite within your gates, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow among you. The grace of God goes out to bring in others to share the blessing.

The fruits of grace and of the Spirit show themselves in joy and in grace. Blessing shows itself in the spirit of blessing, in the joy and the good-will of grace. Blessed and precious results! Joy, and the desire for the joy of others, always flow from grace, known according to the power of the Spirit of God.

The worshipper and all those named were to rejoice together in the place where Jehovah had set His name. God surrounded Himself with joy, the fruit of grace and of His blessing.

The feast of Tabernacles goes farther: after "you have gathered in your corn and your wine, you shall rejoice in your feast." Son, daughter, manservant, maidservant, stranger, fatherless and widow keep a solemn feast to Jehovah their God for seven days, "because Jehovah your God shall bless you in all your increase … therefore you shall surely rejoice." It is not now, rejoice "according to" the measure. He will bless you in everything, and so you are to rejoice, and all with you. In the booths they were to say they had been strangers in the wilderness, but now they have all God's promises.

The feast of tabernacles could not be kept in the wilderness. To keep it, the people had to be in possession of the land. Notice too that Israel never kept it as the law directed, from Joshua until the days of Nehemiah (Neh. 8:17). Israel had forgotten that they had been strangers in the wilderness. Joy, without the remembrance of this, tends to ruin; the very enjoyment of the blessing leads to it.

The remembrance of having been themselves bondmen was to touch the heart and influence the conduct of Israel; and by understanding the grace which had delivered them when they were in that condition, they were to be led to act in grace towards those who were bondmen to them. At the same time they are told to keep the statutes of Jehovah. The presence of the Holy Spirit, while giving joy, leads to watchfulness and obedience.

Undoubtedly the gathering in of the grain and the wine (that is, the harvest and the vintage) are well known pictures of God's final dealings. The harvest is when He separates the wheat from the chaff, or at any rate from what is not wheat. The vintage is when He carries out unsparing judgment on the vine of the earth — on all religion that is empty and denies heaven. There is no mercy shown in the vintage. The harvest gathers in the good and wipes out the evil. The vintage knows nothing but vengeance from God. After this will come the full time of joy for the earth.

This feast was to be kept for seven days in a row. It is joy, full and complete joy. It is not measured by the size of the blessing, as at Pentecost. It is joy because God had blessed them in all the works of their hands, and so they certainly ought to rejoice. The spirit of that day belongs to us, although the fulfilment of it has not yet taken place.

That will mark the day of glory. It is not only personal blessing, which is truly the portion now of all who are Christ's. It is what will be then: God will "bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands." That is not the case now. There are many believers now for whom everything goes wrong, people are tried in every way... The time is coming to bless everything, not only persons separated from all the rest of the world.

God is careful to say that Israel could sacrifice only at the place the LORD their God would choose, to put His name there. This is a very great principle, dear friends, as true now as in Israel's day. The Name of the Lord Jesus is the only gathering centre today. The believer who does not gather simply in that Name will lack the deep enjoyment of Christ that our God wants our souls to taste.

They were not to stay under their own vine and fig tree, congratulating themselves on the rich and varied mercies around them... No; three times a year they had to get up and go to the meeting place God had appointed. There they raised their praises to the Lord their God. There too they gave generously, out of what He had given them, to every kind of human need. God would give His people the rich privilege of gladdening the heart of the Levite, the stranger, the widow and the fatherless. This is the work in which He Himself delights.

To Israel it spoke of the joy of a peaceful rest under the booths, in memory of their living in tents in the wilderness. For the people, this memory carried no sense of repentance or bitterness. The verse says: "The LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful." The times of judgment and humiliation will then have passed.

The rules for the three great feasts of the year are given here in brief. Israel was to keep them, and at each one all the males were to appear before God. Deuteronomy 16:16 tells us they were to appear in the place that the Lord would choose. So God settled the place as well as the times, not the people.

It must be clear to the reader that God's revealed will is for His people to gather together in His presence... So in Matthew 18:20 we read the words of our blessed Lord: "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." Here we have the divine centre. "My Name." This answers to "the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make His name dwell there," which Deuteronomy names again and again and presses so strongly. It was essential that Israel gather at that one place. It was not a matter people could decide for themselves. Human choice was shut out completely.

God set up these three great feasts for one purpose: to fill the hearts of His people with the enjoyment of Himself, made known in distinct blessings. If that was true in the letter for Israel, how much more is taught and given to us, who have the reality behind these earthly shadows! All that God did or gave in past times is a small thing next to what the Son of God, come as man, brought to Him in His own person. It is small next to what He accomplished in His death, resurrection, and ascension, so that the Holy Spirit might tell the believer of a blessedness worthy of the Father and the Son.

They were not to come empty into the Lord's presence. They were to come with hearts full of praise, and hands full of the fruits of God's goodness, to gladden the hearts of the Lord's workmen and the Lord's poor... They were not to stay under their own vine and fig tree, congratulating themselves on the mercies around them. That might be right and good in its place, but it would not have fully met the mind and heart of God. No; three times a year they had to get up and go to the meeting place God appointed. There they were to raise their praises to the Lord their God, and there too give freely out of what He had given them.

On the other hand we know that worship is something we ought to bring. God deserves to be worshipped (see Deut. 26:10; 1 Chr. 16:29; Ps. 29:2; 45:11; 95:6; 96:9; 99:5, 9; 132:7). We should not 'appear before the Lord empty' (Ex. 23:15; 34:20; Deut. 16:16). New Testament encouragements to worship include 1 Peter 2:5 and Hebrews 13:15.

They were not to appear before the Lord empty-handed, but to bring what they were able to offer Him (v.17)... This tells us that believers today should really care about turning up at Bible conferences whenever they can, with a desire to give the Lord what is fitting and right.

The Feast of Booths has not yet had the reality it pictures. The Passover and Pentecost have had their fulfilment in the precious death of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. But the third great feast points forward to the time when God restores all things, which He spoke of through the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

They had the land, with each share handed out and enjoyed. Now they were to count on the Lord to protect both the land and their interests while they went up to appear before Him at the appointed feasts. While they were taken up with Him, Whose power had driven out the nations before them, He would not let anyone even desire their land. So everything was kept safe for them, not by any human plan or foresight, but by doing the will of the Lord.

It commands the three feasts of the year. They gathered all the males to the place Jehovah chose in the land. They were not to come empty-handed, but to bring according to the blessing He had given them... In our chapter we have, first redemption, then the liberty of grace, and last, after the harvest and the vintage, the "whole joyfulness" of glory.

Here I have the Holy Spirit, and I am a free offerer who comes up with my gift. It is "according as Jehovah your God has blessed you" — I can come with this offering in the measure of my spirituality... You must have grace going out to the poor and the needy. Then come with a freewill offering according as God has blessed you.

They were not to come empty into the Lord's presence. They were to come with the heart full of praise, and the hands full of the fruits of God's goodness. So they would gladden the hearts of the Lord's workmen and the Lord's poor... Jehovah would gather His people round Himself. He would fill them to overflowing with joy and praise, and make them His channels of blessing to others.

It was certainly a statute in Israel that there should be the free-will offering at every feast. That is because nothing draws the heart out towards need like the sense of what God in Christ has been to our own souls... To each feast they were not to come empty.

It is not a matter of law for us now — far from it. Never in the New Testament, as far as we are aware, is there any suggestion that we must give one tenth of our income. No, in its very nature it is a "voluntary offering", given entirely of our own free will. We give it as we remember how the Lord gave Himself, gave all, for us. My gift is the mark of how I value His gift. It is the overflow of my heart in thanksgiving to Him... Our giving is in reality just as true worship as our hymns of praise or thanksgiving.

Many of us claim to know the very highest truths of the Christian faith. It is much to be feared that we are not living up to that claim. We are not acting on the principle set out in verse 17... We seem to forget something. We have nothing to do and nothing to give for salvation. Yet we have much that we can do for the Saviour, and much that we can give to His workmen and to His poor. There is very great danger of pushing the do-nothing and give-nothing principle too far.

Do we give "according as Jehovah your God has blessed you"? We have to confess with shame that very often we do not. Sometimes we give as little as we can and still be respectable. Sometimes it is merely a matter of habit. We always give the same set amount. We never stop to think how God has prospered us, or how the Lord has blessed us.