Thrice in the year thou shalt celebrate a feast to me.
Three times a year Israel had to leave home and gather, and each feast belonged to God Himself. Who had to come, and what did these three seasons point to?
God calls it a feast "to me." So the gathering is His, and so is the joy in it.
The obedience spoken of here called every male of Israel to go up and remember Jehovah at these three feasts. It gathered them to the place which Jehovah their God would choose... It is Jehovah gathering the people round Himself. In the delight of His people He delights. He would have them happy in Himself, and enjoying all He had given them to enjoy. So we have these three feasts, which show especially Jehovah providing to fill the heart of His people with peace and joy to overflowing.
The verses that follow name the three. Writers see meaning in the order itself.
Leviticus 23 gives the feasts in full, and there, as here, the sabbath comes first. But this chapter names only three besides the sabbath: the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of harvest, and the feast of ingathering. These are the passover, Pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles... Unleavened bread is the first. Next comes the feast of firstfruits, a symbol of Christ in resurrection, as Leviticus shows more fully. Then comes the feast of ingathering, a picture of the harvest of souls. The resurrection of Christ was the pledge of that harvest, and Pentecost was its blessed beginning.
The last of the three falls at the close of the farming year. Writers take that timing as a pointer far ahead.
With this feast we come to "the end" of the year, after the crops are gathered in from the field. It carries our thoughts on, not only to the Millennium (the thousand years when Christ shall reign), but "The Eighth Day" (Lev. 23:36) takes us on to the eternal state.
The feast was not optional, and it was not kept at home.
It was imperative that Israel keep a feast to the Lord three times in the year. God ordered more feasts (or set times) for Israel than these (Lev. 23). But at three of them all the males in Israel had to appear before God (vv. 14-17): the feast of unleavened bread (or the Passover) in the spring, the feast of firstfruits in the summer, and the feast of ingathering in the autumn... Israel kept these feasts at Jerusalem, where God chose to place His name (Deut. 16:5-16).
The rule for the first feast forbids coming with empty hands.
"And none shall appear before me empty." Is that not striking? How am I to appear? With my hands full of Christ, the detail of which, I believe, we shall find given to us in Numbers 28, 29.
One writer draws a direct line from that rule to how Christians treat gathering together.
Nor were they to appear before the Lord empty-handed, but to bring what they were able to offer before Him. Exodus 23:14-19 gave this order before. It tells us that believers today should really care about attending Bible conferences whenever they can, with a desire to give the Lord what is fitting and right.
Going up three times a year meant leaving their land unguarded.
When Israel was in Canaan, Jehovah told them to keep three special feasts. Three times in the year they were to go up to Jerusalem for that purpose. That meant leaving their own portion and area, and it seemed to expose their land to danger while they were away. Then Jehovah assures His obedient people, saying, "Neither shall any man desire your land, when you go up to appear before Jehovah your God three times in the year."
The same writer traces what became of these appointed times.
As always happens with man under responsibility, they failed badly. They used their feasts to serve themselves, forgetting and despising Him Who appointed them. In the end they rejected the One to Whom everything pointed — Jesus, their promised King and willing Saviour. When He was presented to them, they refused Him. At last they crucified Him at the time of the very feast which should have taught them their deepest need of Him.
- Whose feast — God's own. He gathers His people around Himself and delights in their joy.
- Which three — unleavened bread, harvest, and ingathering: the passover, Pentecost, and tabernacles. The order runs from redemption, to Christ risen, to the final harvest.
- Who comes — every male, three times a year, at the place God chose. God commanded it; He did not suggest it.
- What they bring — no one appears empty; hands are to be full of what God has given.
- What it costs — obedience left the land unguarded, and God promised to guard it. When Israel used the feast to serve themselves, they ended by rejecting the One it pointed to.
Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread, (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I have commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt; and none shall appear in my presence empty;)
Exodus 23:15 belongs to the laws God gave Israel after the ten commandments. Here He sets three yearly meeting-times with His redeemed people and names the first: a feast tied to the month of their rescue, which no one may attend empty-handed.
This verse opens a short list of feasts. The order of that list carries meaning.
The fuller list of feasts comes in Leviticus 23, and there, as here, the sabbath comes first. This chapter names only three besides the sabbath: the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of harvest, and the feast of ingathering — that is, the passover, Pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles… The sabbath takes first place, because the end and outcome of all God's ways with them (as also with believers today) is to bring them into the enjoyment of His rest.
The date is not random. The exodus happened in this month, and it reset Israel's calendar.
Israel began their journey as a redeemed, blood-bought people. They had to take that character right at the start. Abib had been the seventh month, and it was the month when the passover blood sheltered them. So of that month we read, "This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you."
Leaven stands for what has to go. Commentators name several kinds of it.
The feast of unleavened bread must follow next. It speaks of putting aside all that belongs to the flesh, in which God can find no pleasure. It may be the leaven of the Pharisees, which is religious pretence. It may be the leaven of the Sadducees, which is intellectualism and unbelief. It may be the old leaven that belongs to man after the flesh, whose end came in the cross. Or it may be the leaven of malice and wickedness, which is the fruit of the old nature (1 Cor. 5:6-8).
The seven days picture a whole lifetime. Redemption comes first, and God's claim follows.
The moment we are redeemed God claims us, and He desires us to respond to His claims by holy lives — separation from evil, and separation to Himself. The feast lasted seven days; that is, a perfect period — typically, the period of our lives. So in the Old Testament as in the New, all God's claims on His people rest on redemption. "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price."
The clause about appearing empty raises an obvious question: full of what?
"None shall appear before me empty-handed." Is that not striking? How am I to appear? With my hands full of Christ. I believe we find the detail of that in Numbers 28 and 29. You will do well to study these chapters.
The gathering had a purpose, and it stood on ground God Himself laid.
Three times in the year they were to keep a feast to the Lord, and on those occasions all their males were to appear before the Lord God. This was the central thought of the feast: the gathering of the people around Himself on the foundation which He Himself had established — the foundation, in fact, of redemption.
The demand had a sharper edge. It stood over every worshipper, and the law that made it could not meet it.
No one could appear in God's presence without something to present to God. Law always required man to present something to God. But law never provided the one sacrifice God can accept on man's behalf. The law proves man empty, without the righteousness the law required.
Full hands have two sides: what rises to God, and what reaches other people.
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, to gladden the hearts of the Lord's workmen and the Lord's poor… God 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.
Worship runs in that order: pour out the heart first, and receive afterwards.
The Lord does not want us to appear before Him like Joseph's brothers, to fill our empty sacks. He wants us to empty our full hearts in worship before Him, and before the One who is His Father and our Father, His God and our God, while we feed on His death. Then He fills our hearts in return to the very brim — yes, overflowing with peace, joy, and praise.
- Redeemed — God brought them out in this month, so it became the first month of their year. Everything else rests on that rescue.
- Cleansed — the bread carries no leaven for seven days. Redemption brings God's claim on the whole of life.
- Exposed — the law demanded full hands and gave no sacrifice to fill them. Man had nothing of his own to bring.
- Filled — hands full of Christ, and a full heart poured out in worship, not carried in to be topped up.
- Overflowing — God gathers His people, fills them with joy and praise, and makes them channels of blessing to others.
and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labours which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of in-gathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field.
This verse names two farming feasts. Israel kept one when the grain harvest began, and one after the last crop came in from the field. Both belong to the soil, yet commentators read them as a map of God's whole plan — from the resurrection of Christ to the final gathering of His people.
Leviticus 23 gives Israel's full list of set times. This verse names two of the three great feasts, and one writer gives the names Israel later used:
The feast of the first fruits, also called the feast of weeks, because it came seven weeks after the feast of unleavened bread (Lev. 23:15-16; Deut. 16:9), and still another name is "the feast of the first fruits of the wheat harvest." It was now known by the name of Shavuoth. The third feast came on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (Lev. 23:34), and is the feast of ingathering, known as Succoth, the feast of tabernacles.
The same writer explains why these feasts follow a warning about other gods: "The feasts were designed to keep Jehovah, His power and His grace, as a living reality before the nation."
The first feast brought God "the firstfruits of your labor." One writer traces that first sheaf of grain to a Person:
Leviticus 23 describes these feasts in more detail. There the "sheaf of firstfruits," waved before the Lord, is a picture of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He is the beginning of the true harvest. He is the "Firstborn from among the dead" — the beginning, in resurrection, of a new order of things. That new order has sprung up from the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died.
The second feast falls at the close of the farming year, when the fields stand empty. That timing carries the reader forward:
With this feast we come to "the end" of the year. This feast carries our thoughts on to the Millennium, the thousand years when Christ will reign. And "The Eighth Day" (Lev. 23:36) takes us further still, on to the Eternal State.
One writer names the three feasts, then explains why this one comes last:
There were three great feasts of the Jews. Every grown man had to go to Jerusalem to keep them: the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The Passover finds its fulfilment in the cross, and Pentecost in the coming of the Holy Spirit. But the fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles is still missing: no event answers to it... This feast was held after the harvest and after the grape harvest. Scripture uses both events everywhere as figures of judgment. The harvest stands for the judgment that separates the good and the bad on earth. The grape harvest stands for the full extent of vengeance on enemies, when Christ will tread the winepress.
So who is gathered in? One writer reads the harvest of the field as a harvest of people:
Then comes the feast of ingathering. It is a picture of the harvest of souls. The resurrection of Christ was the pledge of that harvest, and Pentecost was its blessed start. So we read, "Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ" (1 Cor. 15:23). This scripture applies first of all to Israel. But in its wider sense, the ingathering spoken of here will include the saints of this age as well as of the millennial age.
Two of the three feasts had a different tone. Nobody came empty-handed, and nobody celebrated alone:
But in the other two feasts they were to go with an offering in their hands, and to rejoice before the Lord with their sons and their daughters, their male and female servants, the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless, and the widows. They were to rejoice in their feast, and everyone else with them.
These feasts were meant to hold God before the nation. Israel's history went the other way:
As always happens with man under responsibility, they failed completely. They used their feasts to serve themselves, and they forgot and despised Him Who appointed them. In the end they rejected the One to Whom everything pointed — Jesus, their promised King and willing Saviour. When He was presented to them, they refused Him. At last they crucified Him at the very feast that should have taught them their deepest need of Him.
- Firstfruits — The first feast gave God the first of the crop. It points to Christ risen, the beginning of the true harvest.
- Ingathering — The second feast came at the year's end, when the fields stood bare. Israel called it Succoth, the feast of tabernacles.
- After judgment — It came after both harvest and grape harvest. Scripture uses one as a picture of separation, the other of vengeance on enemies.
- The whole crop — The ingathering takes in Israel first, then the saints of this age and of the millennium, all following Christ the firstfruits.
- Joy for all — Israel kept these feasts with joy, sharing them with servants, foreigners, the fatherless and widows. Later they used them to serve themselves.
Three times in the year all thy males shall appear in the presence of the Lord Jehovah.
Three times a year Israel's calendar stopped for a journey. Every man had to leave his fields and stand before God, in one place of God's choosing, with his home and land left behind.
The surrounding verses name the three feasts and tie them to the farming year.
It was essential that Israel keep a feast to the Lord three times in the year. God ordered more feasts (or set times) for Israel than these (Lev. 23). But three of them were the times when all the males in Israel had to appear before God (vv. 14-17): the feast of unleavened bread (or the Passover) in the spring, the feast of firstfruits in the summer, and the feast of ingathering in the autumn. Israel kept these feasts at Jerusalem, where God chose to place His name (Deut. 16:5-16).
The verse names the One they came to meet. That title appears here for the first time.
This name, used for God, appears first in Exodus 23:17. It is the singular of Adonai, and it means lord, master. It appears 300 times in the Old Testament, as Lord or Master. Far more often it refers to human masters, kings, rulers and great men than to God Himself. You can tell from the context whether the name refers to God or to a human master.
Each of the three carries meaning beyond the harvest it marked.
Though this chapter gives only three, they are very significant. The first is unleavened bread. Next comes the feast of firstfruits, which pictures Christ risen from the dead, as Leviticus shows more fully. Then comes the feast of ingathering, a picture of the harvest of souls. Christ's resurrection was the pledge of that harvest, and Pentecost was its blessed beginning. So we read, "Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ" (1 Cor. 15:23). This scripture applies first of all to Israel. But taken more widely, the ingathering spoken of here will include the saints of this age as well as those of the millennial age.
One writer sees the third feast as still waiting for what it pictures.
The feast of tabernacles has not yet had its fulfilment. The Passover and Pentecost found 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 has spoken of through all His holy prophets since the world began.
The command sent every man to one appointed place. Why not keep the feast at home instead?
God would gather His beloved people around Himself, that they might feast together in His presence; that He might 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? If the heart is right, the place cannot matter much." Our answer is this: the clearest and best proof that the heart is right is a simple, earnest desire to do the will of God.
Coming was only half of it. The same passage forbids arriving with nothing.
"None shall appear before me empty-handed." Is that not striking? How should I appear? With my hands full of Christ.
Every man leaving home three times a year left the land exposed. God met that fear with a promise.
When Israel was in Canaan, the Lord commanded them to keep three special feasts. Three times a year they had to go up to Jerusalem for that purpose. That meant leaving their own portion and place, and it seemed to leave their land open to danger while they were away. It is then that the Lord assures His obedient people: "No one shall desire your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year."
- Appear — three fixed times a year, every male left his own ground to stand before God in the place God chose.
- Before whom — the title used here appears first in this verse and means lord or master. They travelled to meet an Owner, not to attend an event.
- Not empty — God did not accept presence alone; each man came with something in his hands.
- Pointing forward — the three feasts picture Christ's death and His resurrection. The ingathering of souls began at Pentecost, and the restoration of all things is still to come.
- Guarded — obedience left their land exposed. God promised that no one would even desire it while they were away.