What are the Lord's appointed times (Leviticus 23)?

Strictly speaking, there are eight feasts in this chapter, beginning with the feast of the Sabbath and ending with the feast of Tabernacles. It will be noticed that the feast of the Sabbath is weekly, but the other seven recurred annually. It is evident that the Sabbath fills a place by itself, as it is the only feast spoken of in the first declaration "the set feasts of Jehovah." v. 2, N. Tr. A footnote by J.N.D. tells us that "set feasts" mean "fixed times (for drawing near to God)." Another thought underlying this word is appointment. This indeed gives us a clue as to the meaning of this sacred calendar outlined in this chapter. We have the statement "set feasts" repeated again in v. 4, thus severing the Sabbath from the rest of the feasts and putting it in a class by itself. The reason for this has often been noted, viz. we have presented in the first feast the great end in view of all these feasts. The Psalms are often like this, the subject being stated at the opening of the Psalm, and the rest of the Psalm taken up with the theme of how that objective was reached. The Sabbath is the great end in view of all the ways of God in time. In order to enlighten us as to how that end will be brought about, we have the detailed instruction of this interesting chapter. So we turn to it.

The feasts of Jehovah, as instituted under the law as given by Moses, partake more of the character of commemorations, or assemblies of the congregation to celebrate special dealings of the Lord, and consequently special seasons in the history of His people, being called 'holy convocations.' A list of the yearly feasts is given in Lev. 23. The first mentioned is the Sabbath, and if this is counted as one, by considering the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread as one there are seven in all — the perfect number. If the Sabbath is not included, as that was a weekly festival, being the rest of God, and on which the others were founded, then the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread may be counted as two, and still there are seven. There can be no doubt that these seven feasts were typical of the ways of blessing from the cross to the millennium. They stand thus:

These seven are called 'the set feasts.' Num. 29:39; 1 Chr. 23:31; 2 Chr. 31:3; Neh. 10:33. Also 'holy convocations,' when the people assembled together to offer the various offerings, and thus be reminded of their association with the living God, to whom they owed all their blessings. To ensure this at least thrice in the year, it was enjoined that all the males should appear before the Lord three times in the year, and they must not appear empty. These times were at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (no doubt including the Passover); the Feast of Weeks, or of Harvest; and the Feast of Tabernacles, or 'of Ingathering.' Ex. 23:14-17; Deut. 16:16. See PASSOVER, etc.

The Sabbath (23:1-3) 2. The feast of Passover and feast of unleavened bread (23:4-8) 3. The firstfruits (23:9-14) 4. The feast of weeks (23:15-22) 5. The blowing of trumpets (23:23-25) 6. The day of atonement (23:26-32) 7. The feast of tabernacles (23:33-44)

The Sabbath The Passover The Feast of Unleavened Bread The Wave Sheaf and the Wave Loaves The Wave Loaves, or Feast of Weeks The Feast of Trumpets The Day of Atonement The Feast of Tabernacles

" 1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, The set feasts of Jehovah, which ye shall proclaim [as] holy convocations, these [are] my set feasts. 3 Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day [is] a sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; no manner of work shall ye do. It [is] a sabbath to Jehovah in all your dwellings" (vers. 1-3). Thus the feasts open; but let us notice that the fourth verse begins again, "These are the feasts of Jehovah." Hence we see that in the beginning of the chapter, where the feasts are introduced generally, the sabbath is named in particular; next, in ver. 4, there is a fresh beginning which excludes the sabbath.

They are as "set times" annual, together the sum of the sacred year, (the cycle of the divine dealings in this way,) the Sabbath, however, having an exceptional place, as occurring with much greater frequency, and on this account also, as well as for much deeper reasons, being put by itself at the beginning of the series, and in some sense apart.

The first subdivision gives us Jehovah's "set times" — not "feasts," for they are not all this: God's ways conduct us through shadow as well as sunshine, and necessarily, not arbitrarily. They end in the perfect day, to which in His wisdom they have been ever leading on.

"Set times" are times of His appointment, to whom as the Eternal all times belong, and who is able to adjust them to His purpose. They speak of almighty power, and determinate counsel vindicating thus their place here. But they are "holy convocations" also, gathering times, when the voice of God arouses and assembles His people. His voice unites those who listen to it in obedience, and calls also to Himself.

(Lev. 23:1, 3.) The children of Israel were not left to decide when they should gather together in the presence of Jehovah; there were set feasts, fixed times which Jehovah appointed as holy convocations; gatherings that were consonant with the holy character of the God who had chosen Israel to be His people. Because of its recurrence each week, the sabbath constantly kept before Israel the thought of rest. Work was to be done on six days; "But on the seventh day is the sabbath of rest," when toil ceased and rest began. The word sabbath means cessation, and God was indicating in it that He had in His purpose a time when toil would for ever cease. Each sabbath brought this thought of rest before them, but the rest of each sabbath was broken, or brought to a close, by the labours of the other six days.

These seven feasts were naturally, as it is said in the Darby translation, set feasts or feast times, as John says, for drawing near to God. That was the idea, the thought of God, to have fixed times to draw His people toward Himself. But not only was this the idea, the thought of God, but He wanted to give instruction not to the Israelites, as Paul writes in his first epistle to the Corinthians when He gave the commandment that the threshing oxen should not be muzzled, he did not think of the oxen alone, He thought of us. And the same is true when we consider the feasts of Jehovah. If we have paid attention somebody might say but there were eight feasts mentioned, the first being in verse 3 which is the sabbath and indeed if we count all these occasions, these set occasions, there are these eight but the sabbath not being a yearly feast but a weekly recurring occasion. It is on the one hand counted among those feasts but on the other hand it is clearly detached from the seven feasts which only occurred once a year and this sabbath shows us perhaps the idea which we find already in this first chapter of the Bible and which we find in the last book of the Bible of which we have been speaking during our conference today, the eternal rest of Jehovah. The thought of God was, is and shall always be: rest for the soul. For Himself, when He had finished the creation, God rested on the seventh day, and He sanctified this day to detach it from all the other days in which He had accomplished the creatorial work. But then came sin. Many thousand years later when the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, was on this earth, walking over the scene, He said, and He worked on the sabbath, He healed on the sabbath, He was the Lord of the sabbath. And when the Pharisees reproached Him He said 'Man was not created for the sabbath but the sabbath for man' and then He added in another Gospel, He said until that time, even today, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." There was no real rest, sin had entered into this world, God could not find rest in this world, He cannot find it. So, what was to be done? He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus came to give us rest and He has brought rest to everybody. I don't know whether everybody tonight gathered with us here, has already found this rest for the soul but the Lord said in Matthew 11, the now very well-known words 'Come to Me, all ye burdened and heavy laden and I shall give you rest.' That is the idea of the sabbath, God wants man to have rest and wants to enjoy this rest together with His creatures but this can only be today after sin had entered into this world on the qround of the atoning work of Christ. So this idea of the rest is still there and therefore the author of the epistle to the Hebrews writes 'there remains yet a sabbath rest or a sabbatism for the people of God. But this rest can be looked at from two sides, it can be looked at from the inward rest which the Lord has in store for everybody who believes in His word now to find rest or peace for his conscience and for his soul but it has also the other respect that there shall be an outward scene of rest for all those who belong to Him. It will be fulfilled in a preliminary way in the millennium but it will be fulfilled in the most perfect way in all eternity. This sabbath rest for the people of God is yet remaining. We are waiting for it but we see that, can well understand that this thought of rest was the underlying thought of God in all His works and that is why every week we term the sabbath, the day of rest when the Israelite was not allowed to work. For us we will find this in the course of these feasts, this sabbath has given place to the first day of the week which also had its place already in the Old Testament without any Israelite being able to understand what was the real meaning of that first day, the new beginning which we find even in the first group of feasts.

Looking at the feasts separately, we have the Sabbath, the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the first-fruits, Pentecost, the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles. This would make eight, altogether; but it is very obvious that the Sabbath occupies quite a unique and independent place. It is first presented, and its proper characteristics and attendant circumstances fully set forth; and then, we read "These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons." (Ver. 4) so that, strictly speaking, as the attentive reader will observe, Israel's first great feast was the Passover, and their seventh was the feast of tabernacles. That is to say, divesting them of their typical dress, we have, full, redemption; and, last of all, we have the millennial glory. The paschal lamb typified the death of Christ; (1 Cor. 5:7;) and the feast of tabernacles typified "the times of the restitution of all things, of which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began." (Acts 3:21)