Honorable Feasts and Arbitrary Holidays

The children of Israel had a kind of living history class. Two generations prior, they had literally been slaves, working for a king whose enslavement of the children of Israel had come two generations after a literal child of Israel had ensured that Egypt would survive a famine. Which is an interesting way to thank the God.

So the children of Israel, finally free to take the new world, are given cause to remember the past, through the three feasts.

The first feast is Passover. Set in the month of Abib [as a side note, this has some interesting observations about the original Hebraic calendar and this site observes that there seems to have been a variable leap year, based entirely on crop - in this way they could ensure the year began with that state of ripeness called Abib ... which brings it all full circle], which may have been in April or November ... it will take more than a cursory overview on my part to know WHEN it was, but we know it was near the beginning of the Hebrew calendar. It is the observation of thanksgiving for God's grace in keeping His people safe during a plague, when the Egyptians (in particular the Pharaoh) were not allowing the children of Israel to leave. However, instead of observing the same efforts of survival (whereby the Hebraic slaves were called to wipe blood on their door frames), they share in a Passover feast, in commemoration of God's grace and redemption. In practice, Passover is associated with a seven day "fast" of sorts, where those faithful followers are called to allow no leavened bread to be eaten by said person for seven days (Deuteronomy 16:4) although I am not certain if it is to be before or after the Passover - although, I would say that most of these kinds of associativity in the Bible are predominantly before the feast, so the leavened bread loss is a kind of sacrifice of leavening?

The second feast is mentioned after the first, in Deuteronomy 16:8-12, called the "feast of weeks" - wherein the children of Israel are, again, to bring to mind exactly gracious God is, and how He saved the children of Israel out of Egypt. This is a solemn feast. There doesn't seem to be any particular meal or activity associated with the feast, however a little digging reveals that it was called the feast of weeks in honor of the harvest, which makes sense if the first week was to be set in Abib, which was relatively set based on the crop, and so this second feast was apparently (by God) chosen to coincide with when the crop (again, I believe it was barley) was to be harvested. Thus, this feast would coincide with an amazing abundance of foodstuffs, and everyone could be blessed by it.

The third feast mentioned, in Deuteronomy 16:13-15, called the feast of tabernacles, is again not well described in Deuteronomy, although one can find a few references online readily enough (like this, this, and this) and references the forty year period during which the children of Israel wandered in the desert, living in temporary shelters. The second feast is joyful, which provides a contrast to both the second feast, as well as how joyful the children of Israel were themselves, while traveling those forty years. There are a number of passages in scripture which indicate they were grumbling and generally not being very pleasant. Few (I don't know of any, but please inform me if you know of some) passages indicate that the children of Israel, as a whole, were every happy or appreciative of anything.

So these three feasts are to be observed yearly. And much like before Deuteronomy 16, when it was talking about individual sacrifices (and doesn't directly relate to the feasts, unless we see all three feasts as kinds of sacrifices, the verses following the feasts (Deuteronomy 16:18 - ) seem to drop the subject entirely.


I was interested to learn that the children of Israel mowed their grass (Psalm 72:6). Although I have read the Bible once through, but there is so much content that it is quite simply easy to miss the sheer volume of details. The fact that their gardens were maintained shouldn't be a surprise to me; the first profession of man was that of gardener - you could say it is the noblest profession for that reason. I imagine the mowing itself was done by goats or some other herbivore.


Interesting to me is the comparison between Psalm 72 1 and 2, where the king and prince are compared to the people and their poor. It implies there is a regality to being poor that others don't experience. Also, that Psalm 72 seems to be focused on three things - observation of God's greatness, judgment of everyone, and administration of righteousness. I also get the distinct impression, although I can't quite put my finger where it came about, that the poor will be, and are being judged, with how they address being poor. I have always had the impression that being poor itself is a kind of judgment, but it makes a great deal more sense how you respond to the state, than to suggest someone be judged on the state itself; it is wise to for judgment to follow a decision and not a description. I'm so blessed that God lets me notice when I make mistakes - He helps me learn that much more effectively.


Psalm 12:9 bears dwelling upon. It states its better to be despised and with a servant; than to honour yourself and lack bread. There is clearly some connection between this verse and the one indicating that He would that we were hold or cold rather than lukewarm, where it is implied that owning a servant, much like being despised, implies one is the equivalent of "hot", but honouring - what exactly is that? Is that the feeling one gets when one chooses to be self-righteous about doing the right thing or some other reason? A modern day Pharisee? One could also go another route, noting that of the two, the first has put more thought into what tools he needs to function, whereas the second has no bread. Which reminds me of the passage where we are called to action; it is better to offer food and beverage, than to tell the beggar "Be fed and of good cheer" and then walk away.


Lastly, I wonder about the end of Psalm 72 - where it says "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." This is nowhere near the end of Psalms. Are the Psalms in chronological order? Are we to conclude that the remainder of Psalms are NOT David's work?

~ Transition ~
In a few days, some calendars will celebrate the Passover feast. Millions of people, the world over, mostly Jewish, but some others, will observe this feast - some will have done it following a week of unleavened meals, some will observe only the day in question, and some will observe it, as well as prepare for the following two feasts.


Two parts to today's call to action
First: How do you determine spiritual relevance?
One of the most intense discussions you may ever have is one about spiritual relevance. It is a really interesting question, because it assumes that there is a spiritual aspect to things many of us might not associate with the spiritual realm. I certainly don't know myself, and I believe our perceptions are by election, while also believing that the reality is separate. You might believe that what friends you have won't affect you spiritually. This won't change the reality of them affecting you. In the same way other beliefs, about spiritual relevance or anything else, should be as established in reality and facts as possible. Which is why I start asking the question - how do you determine spiritual relevance?
So Part I: take time out to evaluate what guidelines you currently use to determine whether something is edifying, needs to be stopped, or is valid and useful. What tools, what mechanisms, what paradigms do you hold to that help you make decisions such as what is relevant and what is not? Do you respond intuitively? Do you confer with a multitude of counselors? Do you search the scriptures? Do pick at random, use a dartboard, or the like? Do you just agree with whichever group you're with?

Second: What rites, activities, and holidays you observe?
One of the hardest things we can do is to take an earnest look at who we are, and one area where this is intensely true is that of holidays. We, as a group, often celebrate things without considering their relevance to our material lives, or their appropriateness to our spiritual lives. And it may not seem like it, but the decisions you make do change (and thus can strengthen or weaken) your walk with Christ. So earnestly do this today.
Given the completed Part I above, you should now be well equipped to evaluate whether the holidays, rites, and activities you observe are aligned with your personal beliefs, and whether you should practice them at all.

Here are some examples, to help you get started.
Simple:
I believe holidays should be established to honor God. I therefore don't celebrate Halloween, as it not only has pagan roots (the basis of the holiday was to ward off dark spiritual entities, and in Christ we are given power and authority over devils - so why would I encourage them, or taunt them, by a ward?) but reinforces begging in children.
Hard:
I believe holidays should be established to honor God. I also think that honoring God is not an excuse to celebrate a holiday. I believe Christmas should be abolished. Christmas was originally established, as I understand it, to tie together two separate events, a pagan holiday, twelve days in length (which is where the carol comes from) honoring the new year and the other the birth of Christ. Given what we know, from scripture, about when the birth of Christ, it was likely NOT in the month of December. You want to honor the birth of Christ, why wait until December? You could probably argue for the event to have happened around September. Even the icons of Christmas are a bit fantastic. We have Santa Claus, a kind of demi-god who can travel the world in a day, who has elves for slaves/servants, and is a kind of spiritual father-figure to those who buy into Christmas as any kind of secular holiday. We also have the nativity scene, which is contrived, in particular the three wise men. I suppose the association might have come from the Christmas song (we three kings) but if you look at scripture, Jesus wasn't vested by three kings, or three wise men, during the time of his birth. He was visited by shepherds. (Luke) It was some time later that the wise men showed up (Matthew). So, if you're going to have a birth (nativity) scene, the visitors should be the shepherds, not the wise men. Plus, we don't know how many there were, although I've always been given the impression there were two.