Sabbath and bible feasts

[Amanah]

God's calendar

Originally Posted by Esaias

I have attached a pdf of the Biblical Calendar.

The Divine Calendar consists of a weekly Sabbath, monthly "new moons" (marking the beginning of each month), 7 yearly or annual sabbaths and their associated days, a year long land sabbath every seven years, and a year long sabbath and "jubilee" every 50 years.

The new moons were a time keeping method, identifying when each month began in order to keep track of when each of the annual feasts began. Individuals were not required to do anything on the new moons, that was purely something for the priests to keep track of as printed calculated calendars did not exist. The new moons did however sometimes become a handy excuse for people to have a "mini feast" (see for example 1 Sam 20:5), but this was not required by God.

The yearly feasts were:

First month - Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
Third month - Firstfruits (Pentecost)
Seventh month - Day of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles and the Last Great Day

In the first month (Abib, occurring in the spring), the 14th day was the day of the Passover, when the Passover lambs were slain and cooked. The next day, the 15th day of the first month, was the First Day of the weeklong feast of Unleavened Bread. This day was a sabbath, as was the last day of Unleavened Bread (the seventh day of the feast, which was the 21st day of the month Abib). The intervening days between the First and the Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread were not sabbaths.

In the third month was the Feast of Firstfruits. It is called Pentecost (meaning 50th) because of the way in which its date was determined. On the morning after the sabbath of the first day of Unleavened Bread, an omer (a sheaf, a small sample) of the firstfruits were brought to the Temple and waved by the priest. From that day, one counted 50 days. That 50th day was the official feast of the Firstfruits, when the harvest was complete. This day was also a sabbath.

In the seventh month several things took place. The month was announced (as all months were) by the blowing of trumpets at the sighting of the first visible crescent of the new moon. In the seventh month, this announcement took on a special significance, as it heralded the seventh month in which occurred the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. This day was a sabbath, and was commemorated by loud noisemaking throughout the land.

The 10th day of the seventh month (ten days after Trumpets) was the Day of Atonement. This day was a sabbath, and was also a mandatory fast day. It is the only fast day God commanded for His people.

The 15th day of the seventh month was the first day of Tabernacles, and was a sabbath. The remaining six days of the week of Tabernacles were not sabbaths. The feast of Tabernacles was also the fall harvest festival.

The day after the last day of Tabernacles, known as "the Last Great Day", was a sabbath. This day was the 22nd day of the seventh month. Although it was not technically part of the Tabernacles festival, because it occurred the day after the last day of Tabernacles, it obviously is joined to it much as Passover is joined to the weeklong feast of unleavened Bread.

A sabbath is a rest day and set apart to God. No ordinary labor is to be performed (your regular daily work, whether your job or household chores, or business related work, or projects that would constitute "work"). For the weekly Sabbath, cooking and food preparing was supposed to take place the day before (the "Preparation"), so that cooking and meal making would not have to be done on the weekly Sabbath. However, the annual sabbaths have an allowance for food preparation (you can cook on those days). This is due to the fact that occasionally one of the annual sabbath days would occur either the day before or the day after the weekly Sabbath. In which case you would have two consecutive days which were both sabbaths. So rather than requiring people to either go hungry on one of those days, or else make three days worth of food on the day before the sabbaths began, God simply said we can make food on the annual sabbath days (except of course for Atonement, which as mentioned was the annual fast day, or on a weekly Sabbath if the annual sabbath and the weekly one fell on the same day). After all, these are feasts, meant to be celebrated not just by individuals but by families and groups of people. That means lots of food, and that requires food preparation.

These feasts are just that - feasts. They are festive occasions, meant to be celebrated with eating. Think traditional Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter celebrations. They are sabbaths, so they are days of rest. No mowing the yard, doing the laundry, reporting to the office, etc. Also no requiring others to do such (any employees one might have, one's work animals, or frequenting businesses for the purpose of transacting business, etc). They are holy convocations, meaning they are meant to be occasions for the faithful to gather, pray, and worship God.

Some notes about how each feast was kept:

Unleavened Bread - prior to the start of this feast, all the leaven was collected and removed from the house. Anything containing leaven was likewise removed from the house. Either eaten, burned, or thrown away. So that during the seven days from the 15th day of Abib to the 21st day of Abib no leaven was in the house and no leavened food was eaten.

Tabernacles - keeping this feast involved the construction of a sukka (plural "sukkoth"), a temporary dwelling place, a booth or tabernacle. Basically a tent. The instructions include the gathering of branches and limbs of "goodly trees" for the use in the construction of the booth or tabernacle, and essentially "living" in the booth for seven days. This can be as complete as actually moving in to the booth, or as simple as eating meals in the booth each day. The idea is to spend time in the tabernacle.

A note about rabbinical rules: The rabbinics made up tons of various rules and regulations for the weekly Sabbath, the annual sabbath feast days, etc. These rules included such inventions as the "sabbath day's journey", prohibition against handling musical instruments, prohibitions against handling money, two fast days per week (instead of the one annual fast commanded by God), specific prayers and various washings and pourings of water, specific regulations regarding the "correct" construction of a booth, etc etc. None of those rules were given by God, and are not binding on Christians.

[loran adkins]

It has long been the discussion of how much of the Jewish law do Christians have to obey, and the bottom line is not any of them. First Jesus himself said he came to fulfill the law, many argue that this means that we must keep the ten commandments as they were given by Moses to the children of Israel at Mt Sinai. But more than 2/3 of Christianity do not accept this, why? Can they all be wrong? Even in the early church there were those that said we must continue in the way Moses gave the Law. But the early church in the book of Acts very clearly refuted this, I wonder why we cannot accept what was established 2000 years ago?

Act 15:5.. But some of those from the sect of the Pharisees, having believed, rose up, saying, It was necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the Law of Moses...
As we note it was from the group of Pharisees that this question first was raised. They wanted the Christians that were converted from the nations to follow circumcision, and to keep the law of Moses.
I might add that this was the very group that Jesus reprimanded for the very reason that they were always adding to the law but not following the very commands that they were placing on the people. Bottom line was that when all was said and done, these were to commands that the apostles laid on the people.
Act 15:29.. that you abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which, if you keep yourselves, you shall do well. Be prospered...
There is much more that can be said along this line, but to each his own, as in the end it is not going to matter one way of the other, if you want to keep the Jewish law of Moses or not, but what is the most important thing we should learn is what Paul said in .Romans 14.
Verses 1-12, Paul admonishes those early Christians that we are not to judge one another. And uses two different subjects to bring out this idea. The eating of meats, and keeping of days. Note ; Paul speaks of those that put limitation on their living for God, as in what they can or cannot do, as in only eating meats. As the weaker Christian. As in the weaker Christian must place fences in their life so they wont sin.

[Amanah]

So, all of the 10 commandments engraved in stone by the finger of God are necessary except the 4th? Doesn't make any sense. People are invalidating God's commandments to keep a tradition set forth by Catholicism.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by loran adkins

It has long been the discussion of how much of the Jewish law do Christians have to obey, and the bottom line is not any of them.

Right off the bat you get it wrong. It's not Jewish law, it's God's law.

Secondly, since Christians don't have to obey "any" of that law, then Christians can rape, murder, steal, whatever they want. That's called lawlessness ("iniquity"), and folks go to hell for that. Including those lawless ones who claim to be Christians.

[good samaritan]

Originally Posted by Esaias

Right off the bat you get it wrong. It's not Jewish law, it's God's law.

Secondly, since Christians don't have to obey "any" of that law, then Christians can rape, murder, steal, whatever they want. That's called lawlessness ("iniquity"), and folks go to hell for that. Including those lawless ones who claim to be Christians.

There is nothing lawless about having the law of God written in our heart.

Do you believe we are to keep the whole law of Moses or just the Ten Commandments?

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by good samaritan

There is nothing lawless about having the law of God written in our heart.

Do you believe we are to keep the whole law of Moses or just the Ten Commandments?

That's the point. You are confused about what the law of God is. You think it is some new law given in the NT scriptures. That you can have the law written in your heart while NOT doing the things commanded back in the dusty old testament scriptures. But you are wrong. The apostle made it crystal clear:

Romans 2:11-15 KJV
For there is no respect of persons with God. [12] For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; [13] (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. [14] For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: [15] Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

Not two different sets of laws, but one law, the law of God, formerly put on tables of stone and written in a book and enforced by civil authority, but now written in the heart and in the mind and enforced by the love of God through the Holy Ghost:

Hebrews 8:8-10 KJV
For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: [9] Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. [10] For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

The Christian submits willingly to the law of God. The person who just can't bring themself to do so is carnal and an enemy of God:

Romans 8:2-7 KJV
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. [3] For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: [4] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [5] For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. [6] For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. [7] Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

It is the carnal mind that cannot obey God. The righteousness of the law is not fulfilled in the carnal. As proven earlier from James, to fulfill the law means to do what it says. So the carnal mind is proven or demonstrated by the refusal to do what the law of God says to do. It is not the free Christian who who doesn't do the things God's law says to do, it is the one who is "after the flesh", the one who is NOT in the Spirit of truth but who, being not a DOER of the word, deceives himself.

So it is the carnal, fleshly, unspiritual person who refuses to be subject to the law of God, who for example refuses to remember the Sabbath DAY to keep IT holy, or whatever other commandment of God they just can't bear to obey. That is the APOSTOLIC BIBLE EVIDENCE of being a genuine Spirit filled child of God. It is not jumping, shouting, or speaking in tongues or prophesying or claiming to be "apostolic" or "Christian" or whatever. It is instead actually being a new creature that actually lives out the commandments of God:

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but obeying God's commandments is everything. - 1 Cor 7:19 (ISV).

That is what shows the work of "the law being written in the heart" which is the essence of genuine new testament apostolic Christianity'.

Matthew 7:21-23 KJV
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. [22] Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? [23] And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

[good samaritan]

You didn’t answer my question. Do you believe the law of God is just the Ten Commandments or all of Moses commands?

[Amanah]

Good preaching Bro Esaias!

[good samaritan]

“Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but obeying God's commandments is everything. - 1 Cor 7:19 (ISV).”

Leviticus 12:1-3
1......And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2......Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
3......And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

If you believe we must keep the whole law (Entire law given to Moses), then we have some major contradictions being taught by the apostles.

You believe circumcision is of the heart, and no longer must be literally applied?

Why is it so far fetched to apply that logic to the Sabbaths and feast days, when the apostles obviously say to.

[loran adkins]

Still waiting