Hurricane Sandy

We have had some wild times in the NY/Metropolitan area of the East Coast of the United States.  My mom had some surgery scheduled for Monday, the day of the storm, but it went well and we were able to get her back home hours before there was any trouble.  Thankfully, our family was spared a great deal of the devastation.  Our power remained on the whole time, and we did not get the rain we had been expecting, so there was no water damage.

We had several large tree limbs fall onto our property, but they fell in such a way that the worst damage was to our fence, and even that was nothing to speak of when we see on TV the way the storm hit the nearby New York City area.  That wind was the strongest which I have personally seen.  I watched tree trunks that I can't even reach around dancing in the wind like someone doing the twist.  Last night when the storm was over, I ventured out to get some more supplies from the supermarket.  The metal structure where they park the carts had been lifted by the winds and deposited in a heap about 30 feet away.  Ironically, another similar cart shelter stood ten feet away, untouched.  I also had to detour around a huge tree which had fallen across a road.  Near our home another large tree had been uprooted and lay against a factory wall, its roots and the surrounding earth still attached.  Needless to say, I didn't stay out too long.

The supermarket was pretty empty.  My daughter works in another supermarket, and we had been snickering earlier about how every white bread product had been cleared out, but that the more nutritious, wheat-type bread was still there.  Well, at this store, all the bread -- white, wheat, bagels, rolls -- was gone.  Most of the other shelves were empty except for a few scattered products, and it gave everything an eerie disaster-movie type of atmosphere.  Fortunately we had stocked up beforehand -- I mostly needed phone cards for our phones and some other things -- but it did make me wonder if most people even knew how to make their own bread anymore, because the flour/baking supplies aisle was still fairly full.

 Speaking of bread, I have to go make some so that it can be ready for my husband when he gets home.

Please continue to pray for those who have suffered the loss of relatives and friends, businesses and property during this storm.

Exodus 23:14-19 Three Feasts

"Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread;

for seven days eat bread made without yeast,

as I commanded you.

Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib,

for in that month you came out of Egypt.

No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

 

Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.

 

Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year,

when you gather in your crops from the field.

 

Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.

The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.

Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.

Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.

Exodus 23:14-19 (NIV)

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These are instruction regarding three annual festivals

which were to be celebrated by the Israelite community:

The Feast of Unleavened Bread,

The Feast of Harvest, and

The Feast of Ingathering.

There were other feasts and sacred days, but we will cover those later, as they come up in the text.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

During this feast, the Israelites were to eat unleavened bread (bread made without yeast) for seven days.  [When hastily departing from Egypt, the Israelites had no time to put leaven in their bread and let it rise.]  The time appointed for this feast was in the month of Abib, which Exodus 23:15 states was the month in which the Israelites had been delivered from Egypt.  Abib corresponds to mid-March to Mid-April, and was considered the first month of the year.  This feast began with the Passover meal and continued for seven days.  Exodus chapter 12 explains the Passover and this Feast of Unleavened Bread quite thoroughly.

Here is just one of the significant verses in that chapter:

"Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread,

because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.

Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come."

Exodus 12:17 (NIV)

  

This feast commemorated the deliverance which God had provided during the Exodus from Egypt.  There were sacred assemblies on the first and seventh day of this feast, and no regular work was to be done on those days.

Feast of Harvest 

The Feast of the Harvest [also known as the Feast of Weeks because it  was held seven weeks after the Feast of Unleavened Bread -- usually about mid-May to Mid-June] was to be celebrated by giving to the LORD the firstfruits of the barley crop.  The first sheaf is given to the LORD.  This was an act of faith as well as worship, for the Israelites were saying that they believed that God had provided these foodstuffs and would continue to provide more as this crop and others continued to mature.

This feast had Messianic implications.  In New Testament times a group called the Gnostics was promoting the idea that Jesus had not actually physically risen from the dead.  They rejected the idea of a future physical resurrection of the body and believed that only the soul was immortal.

The apostle Paul soon made short work of this theory.  If the dead were not raised, he reasoned, then Christ would not have been raised, and thus believers ought then "to be pitied more than all men." (I Corinthians 15:19)  For if Jesus had not risen, then Paul had lied to them, and their sins remained unforgiven.  Also, their loved ones who had died already would have perished without hope.  Not to mention that some believers had been persecuted and even martyred for their faith.  All this would be in vain if Christ was not risen.

What does all this have to do with the barley harvest and firstfruits?

I'm getting there, really.

Paul continues:

"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,

the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For since death came through a man,

the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

For as in Adam all die,

so in Christ all will be made alive.

But each in his own turn:

Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him." 

 

I Corinthians 15:20-23 (NIV) 



The Feast of Harvest and the Feast of Unleavened Bread points ahead to Jesus Christ, the One who would be the first to be resurrected, never to die again.  [Others had been raised from the dead, like Lazarus, and Jairus' daughter, but they eventually died again at the end of their lifespans.]  Just as God's acceptance of the firstfruits of the grain harvest of the Israelites was a promise that the rest of the harvest would occur, the fact that God had raised Jesus from the dead assured believers that God had accepted Jesus' death as payment for their sins and that they, too, would eventually be raised to eternal life.

The Gnostics' rejection of an actual physical resurrection was an error.  Instead, Paul insisted that

"...Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born." (I Corinthians 15:3-8 NIV) 

Paul gives a list of people who had seen the risen Christ.  Most were still alive, so doubters could go check with them in person, if they wanted to do so.  Although we do not have that same privilege, it is worth noting for our own consideration of these matters that many of these witnesses -- and all of the apostles, except John -- later died for their faith, a fact which would seem unlikely if Jesus' resurrection had not occurred.

The Feast of Ingathering

The Feast of Ingathering was celebrated at the end of the agricultural year [about mid-September to mid-October] when crops were gathered from the fields.  It was also sometimes called the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths because the Israelites had lived in temporary shelters during their journey out of Egypt.  This Feast commemorated the desert wanderings after the exodus from Egypt.  As the Israelites gathered their crops, they would probably think back upon how God had provided for them during their wandering, and rejoice in His continued provision.

Three time a year all the men were to appear before the Lord.  If they offered a sacrifice, its blood was not to be offered with anything containing yeast.  Yeast was often used in the Bible as a symbol for sin.  These feasts often contained certain aspects which pointed ahead to the greatest sacrifice, when the Messiah Jesus Christ offered Himself as the propitiation for the sins of the world.  In order for him to be able to do so, He had to be sinless, and thus it would be necessary for any symbol of this sacrifice also to be free of any taint of sin.

The best of the Israelites' firstfruits were to be offered to the LORD.  For me, this recalls the sacrifices offered by Cain and Abel:  Abel offered the best from his flocks, while Cain offered "some" of the produce which he had grown (Genesis 4:1-5).  Abel's offering was accepted, while Cain's was rejected. 

A young goat was not to be cooked in its mother's milk.  This may have been forbidden because doing so was similar to some ritual among the nations surrounding Israel in their worship of other 'gods'.  Avoiding such a practice could guard against syncretism (combining elements from several belief systems into one). Or there may be an inherent repugnance regarding this because it seems to violate the idea of what the mother-child relationship should be -- one of safety, provision, comfort, and protection.           

 

I am sure that there is much more to be said regarding these feasts and their significance.  Future posts will include what I am continuing to learn.



Exodus 23:10-13 Remembering the Sabbath and Honoring God

"For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops,

but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused.

Then the poor among your people may get food from it,

and the wild animals may eat what they leave.

Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work,

so that your ox and your donkey may rest

and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.

Be careful to do everything I have said to you.

Do not invoke the names of other gods;

do not let them be heard on your lips."

Exodus 23:10-13 (NIV)

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First I thought that this section was about several different things:  farming practices, concern for the poor, keeping the Sabbath and honoring God alone as God.  However, it is actually more about one thing:  honoring God.  These diverse ideas all come together for the Israelites in this passage.

Farming practices  Although it may have seemed strange to the Israelites to have to let their fields lie fallow in the seventh year, God knew what He was doing.  Allowing the land to lie unplowed and unused would prevent the soil from being depleted of its nutrients.

Social Concerns  Leaving the fields unplowed allowed the poor to be provided with sustenance.  They could gather any food which grew in the fallow fields, while still retaining some dignity in the process.  Even wild animals could benefit from the leftovers.

Sabbath Rest  The Israelites were required to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath day.  This day was set aside to remind the Israelites that God was their Creator, and that He was the One who provided them with life and everything which they needed.  This was also a day of rest for man and beast alike.

Honor God Alone God was constantly reminding the Israelites that He was the only true God.  They were to carefully follow the laws which He had given them.  The names of other so-called 'gods' were not even to be spoken.  I suppose that this is because God has already told them that He is the only God, so the idea of other 'gods' was blasphemy.  He will not share His glory with them.  (Isaiah 42:8; 48:11)  Also, if the names of these other gods were to come up in everyday conversations, perhaps it would lead others astray, for they might want to know more about these other 'gods' which the people around them worshiped.

Taken as a whole, this passage reveals that every aspect in the life of a believer in God comes together around Him.  If the Israelites followed the ways which God commanded, their fields would be productive, their poor provided for with dignity, wild animals sustained, and everyone (except the wild animals) would remain conscious of the fact that it was only by God's provision that they obtained their food.  The Sabbath would allow for rest for man and beast alike, and people would have a weekly time to reflect upon their Creator as the only true God.  Other 'gods' would not be consulted or even spoken about, lest God be blasphemed or anyone led astray.

That is the amazing thing about our God.  He is all-powerful and all-knowing, and able to lead us through the delicately interconnected aspects of our world in a way that not only brings glory to Him, but also is the best way for us to live a full, productive life.  No wonder Paul cried out in the New Testament letter of  Romans:

"Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable his judgments,

and his paths beyond tracing out!

Who has known the mind of the LORD?

Or who has been his counselor?

Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?

For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever! Amen."

Romans 11:33-36 (NIV)