Leviticus 23:4–6

This is how the feasts open. But notice that the fourth verse begins again: "These are the appointed feasts of the LORD." So at the start of the chapter, where the feasts are introduced in general, the Sabbath is named in particular. Then, in verse 4, there is a fresh beginning which leaves the Sabbath out... The Sabbath has a character all its own. Every other feast was kept once a year; the Sabbath came every week. There is a clear dividing line, and so the second beginning is justified. Yet the Sabbath still has the character of a feast. It alone came round at the end of every week, a standing witness both to creation as God's work and to the great rest of God which His people are to enter at the end.

His feasts are the worth and effectiveness of the Person and work of Christ. That is why they are called feasts of Jehovah, not feasts of Israel. They were for Israel, who had the privilege of feasting, if they could even faintly discern their meaning. To call them feasts of Israel would have lowered their character. In them God had His own joy. They all refer to Him in whom God delights.

They had degenerated into formal and selfish routines. Later we read of "the Jews' Passover" (John 2:13) and "the Jews' feast of Tabernacles" (John 7:2) — yet God had called these "the feasts of the Lord" when He set them up in Leviticus 23:4.

"Set times" are times God Himself appoints. All times belong to Him as the Eternal One, and He is able to fit them to His purpose. They speak of almighty power and settled counsel, and so they earn their place here. But they are "holy convocations" too — gathering times. The voice of God rouses His people and assembles them. His voice unites those who listen to it in obedience, and calls them also to Himself.

For the third time in the chapter our attention is drawn to the feasts as holy convocations (see also verses 2 and 4)... How important it is for the saints to notice the place their gatherings have in the thoughts of God. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews saw this. He wrote, "not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:25).

Notice a new phrase here: "In their seasons." Each feast has its proper time and proper order in the chapter, and we must take care to keep to this order. How could we know the blessing of the feast of Tabernacles if we did not begin with the cross of Christ? "In their seasons" shows a Divine order that God has worked out according to plan. The world is not like this: it would gladly take the Kingdom blessing, but ignore the great necessity of founding it all on the DEATH of Christ.

So, as the careful reader will notice, Israel's first great feast was the Passover, and their seventh was the feast of tabernacles. Strip away the picture language, and we have full redemption first; and, last of all, the millennial glory. The Passover lamb pictured the death of Christ (1 Cor. 5:7). The feast of tabernacles pictured "the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago" (Acts 3:21).

His feasts are the value and power of the Person and work of Christ. That is why they are called feasts of Jehovah, not feasts of Israel. They were for Israel, who had the privilege of feasting, even if they saw their meaning only faintly. To call them feasts of Israel would have lowered their character. In them God had His own joy.

Here, then, we have the first of the seven regular feasts — the offering of that Passover lamb. Its blood shielded the Israel of God from the sword of the destroying angel, on that terrible night when Egypt's firstborn died. This is the recognised type of the death of Christ, and God placed it in this chapter exactly where it belongs. It forms the foundation of all. We can know nothing of rest, nothing of holiness, nothing of fellowship, except on the ground of the death of Christ. It is striking that the moment God speaks of His rest, the next thing in the chapter is the blood of the Passover lamb. It is as much as to say, "There is the rest, but here is your title to it." No doubt work makes us fit for the rest, but it is the blood that gives us the right to enjoy it.

God stepped in to deliver His people from the house of slavery. It was not because of any good in them. At that time the children of Israel were worshipping false gods and were completely indifferent to the glory of the true God. Next, if God delivers them, He must deliver them righteously. Pay particular attention to this. It is not simply a matter of mercy forgiving wicked people. He will have them stand before Him on a basis of right. He is a just God and a Saviour… But one thing held back the hand of the destroying angel — the blood of the killed lamb. Where that blood was missing from the doorposts and the beam above the door, death ruled… By that blood Jehovah declared that only the death of a fitting substitute could hold back judgment.

The passover was to be killed in the evening, at sunset. The daily evening sacrifice was also offered "between the evenings." So this phrase cannot mean, as some have said, the time between the evening of one day and the evening of the next… "Between the two evenings" was a set time on the fourteenth day of Nisan. Deuteronomy 16:6 defines it as sunset.

Notice first that He does not rush it. Many think it would have been better if God had given His Son to die for sinners at the very beginning. Instead He waited more than 4,000 years… "at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6)… God set up the passover — the great standing type of Christ killed for sinners — not on the first day of the first month, but on the fourteenth.

Every year the Passover reminded Israel of the redemption and deliverance from Egypt. "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Cor. 5:7). The passover lamb was a type of Christ. Every time they killed it, it pointed forward to Him who was to come — the Lamb of God, "in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Col. 1:14).

They kept this ordinance as a remembrance in the wilderness (Num. 9). They kept it again as a remembrance when they got into the land (Josh. 5). But only once did they sprinkle the blood on the doorposts and lintels. This tells us again of the once-for-all application of the blood of Christ. It never needs to be repeated… The death of Christ has brought us to God and brought us out. It keeps us as pilgrims passing through this world. And it brings us in to the land, the divine inheritance.

The feast of unleavened bread followed the Passover at once. Not a single day was allowed to come between. As a general rule there was a space between these different feasts, but here is a plain exception to the rule... one being on the fourteenth, the other on the fifteenth of the same month. The New Testament treats the feast of unleavened bread as beginning with the killing of the Passover lamb. So the Christian's immediate response to Christ's blood is to walk in holiness. From then on God will not have him claim a single day for himself.

All holiness is grounded on redemption, and on knowing it in the soul. Christ's precious work comes first and stands alone for salvation, and holiness is the fruit of it in the saved soul.

Leaven, as explained before, is a type of evil. It spreads, and it makes the whole mass take on its own character... To eat unleavened bread therefore means separation from evil — practical holiness... We are saved by the grace of God through the sprinkled blood of Christ. Our wretched hearts might then reason that 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."... To press this truth home, God told the Israelites to keep this feast "as a statute forever." It first reminded them that on this very day He had brought their armies out of the land of Egypt. It then taught them the duty that came with their new position.

These seven days, one week, speak of a period of time. Seven is the divine number of perfection and completion... "Let us celebrate the feast" is not to be understood as celebrating the feast of the Supper, as is sometimes said. No. The feast here is the feast of unleavened bread, the whole week that follows the Passover — the whole week, and week after week after week. It is a type of our entire lives, a life marked by unleavened bread. Leaven, taken as a picture, is always a type of sin — sin that a person allows in his life and does not judge.

Leaven had to go from the house as well as from the individual. You often find people who rightly watch their personal walk, yet stay completely lax about impurity in the church. The Lord calls us to beware of allowing leaven anywhere. But corporate purity is a worthless pretension without proper regard to personal holiness... The feast of unleavened bread covers the whole journey, our whole course, public as well as private.

No one who grasps the death of Christ in relation to sin would want to see worldly things in the house. But all this, important as it is, is negative... These things will not feed our souls. There is not only a putting off in Christianity, there is also a putting on... If we are to produce a feast of unleavened bread to Jehovah, we must take Christ daily as food for the soul. What a feast it must be to God to see Christ reproduced in a saint who hates what is evil and feeds on what is good.

"You shall not do any ordinary work. But you shall present a food offering to the LORD." What a contrast! The servile work of man's hands set against the sweet savour of Christ's sacrifice! The practical holiness of God's people is not servile labour. It is the living unfolding of Christ through them by the power of the Holy Spirit. "For to me to live is Christ." That is the true idea.