Israel’s Feasts

Introduction

In the Bible times, what was a feast?

A feast was a meal of some kind which brought great joy to the participants.  It was often used to remember some past event or to look forward in hope to some future event.

 

What was the first feast which God called the Israelites to celebrate?

The first feast was the Passover.

 

Passover

What was the Passover feast?

The Passover was a meal in which the Jewish people participated to celebrate their deliverance from Egypt as is clear in these verses:

And when your children say to you, “What does this rite mean to you?”  you shall say, “It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.” (Exodus 12:26-27)

 

When was the Passover celebrated?

The Passover was celebrated in the first month.  On the tenth day of this month, each Israelite family chose a lamb.

Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. (Exodus 12:3)

This lamb had to be:

1.  flawless and without any blemish;

2. either a sheep or a goat;

3. one year old.

Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb.  ‘Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. (Exodus 12:4-5)

This lamb was kept with the family until the fourteenth day of the month on which day it was killed.

You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. (Exodus 12:6)

Some of the blood from this lamb was smeared on the sides and top of the door frames of the house.

Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. (Exodus 12:7)

That same night, the lamb was roasted and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  The key factor here was haste.  The lamb was not to be savored and lingered over.  All the family was to be fully dressed, with their sandals on, and their walking stick in their hand.  They were to eat “on the run” as we say.  Any leftovers were burned.

They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  ‘Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails.  ‘And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.  ‘Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste–it is the LORD’S Passover. (Exodus 12:8-11)

 

What is the higher meaning of this lamb, the unleavened bread, the herbs, etc.?

The Bible does not explicitly identify these meanings, but neither is it difficult to discover.  Edersheim quotes Gamaliel saying,

Whoever does not explain three things in the Passover has not fulfilled the duty incumbent on him. These three things are: the Passover lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs. The Passover lamb means that God passed over the blood-sprinkled place on the houses of our fathers in Egypt; the unleavened bread means that our fathers were delivered out of Egypt (in haste); and the bitter herbs mean that the Egyptians made bitter the lives of our fathers in Egypt.   source

 

What are the four cups of the Passover celebration?

This was not something originally commanded by God when He first instituted the Passover.  The Jews added this detail later suggesting that these each of these cups corresponded to the promises given in Exodus 6:6-7:

1. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians,

2. I will deliver you from their bondage,

3. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments,

4. I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

Jesus celebrated the Passover with these four cups.   source

 

The Feast of Weeks

When was the feast of weeks?

This was

 

 

 

The Feast of Tabernacles

 

What was the feast of tabernacles?

This feast fell at the end of the harvest and was the most joyous event in the Jewish calendar.  Edersheim (p232):  “The most joyous of all festive seasons in Israel was that of the ‘Feast of Tabernacles.”

Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the LORD. (Leviticus 23:33-34)

 

When was this feast celebrated?

This feast was celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh month which would fall roughly in the fall of our own calendar.

 

What was the purpose of this feast?

The Bible does not explicitly say what the purpose was except that it was to be a time of rejoicing in God.

‘Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.  ‘You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. (Leviticus 23:40-41)

 

How was this feast to be celebrated?

For seven days, the Israelites were to live in booths which they constructed for themselves.  For this reason, Edersheim says (p234) this feast is better called Feast of Booths.  The purpose of this was to remember their rescue from the bondage of Egypt.

‘Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.  ‘You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.  ‘You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.'” (Leviticus 23:40-43)

 

Why did Israel use these branches to make booths or shelters?  This text does not say anything about using these branches to make shelters.

True.  In Nehemiah 8:14-18, however, Ezra instructs the people on the proper celebration of this feast.  This is significant because it had not been celebrated in such a long time due to the people of God being in exile.  Now, Ezra teaches them its proper observance:

Then on the second day the heads of fathers’ households of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of the law.  They found written in the law how the LORD had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month.  So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”  So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim.  The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing.  He read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance. (Nehemiah 8:13-18)

Clearly, Ezra understands that the branches are to be used in the construction of temporary shelters.  The Jewish Encyclopedia notes (see right side p657) that the question of what to do with the branches became a source of controversy in later Judaism.  The Sadducees and Karaites argued that the branches were meant for building the booths.  Their opponents contended that they were to be carried in the procession and waved about as an expression of joy and celebration.

 

Did the Jews, over time, add their own traditions to this celebration?

They did.  One of these traditions is the backdrop for Jesus’ invitation given in John 7:37.

 

What was this tradition?

On the last day of the feast (day 7), the priest with many people following would go to the pool of Siloam and fill a gold pitcher with water.  This he would take back to the temple and pour it over the altar.  Then the Hallel Psalms (Psalm 113-118) would be repeated.  Likely it was, at this point, that Jesus cried out:

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” (John 7:37-38)

See the whole scene explained in detail in Edersheim (p316).