Read Deuteronomy 16, Jeremiah 8, and 1 Corinthians 12.
This devotional is about Deuteronomy 16.
Here in Deuteronomy 16, Moses explained three annual festivals that Israel was required to observe. All three of these festivals required the Israelites to travel to wherever the tabernacle was located (v. 16). From the time of David onward, that meant a trip to Jerusalem.
The first of these three required festivals was the Passover. The Passover sacrifice and feast happened on the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, according to verse 4, so Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were linked. The Passover was a one-night celebration, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread started at the same time but lasted for seven full days. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the people of Israel ate bread without leaven for six days. Verse 3 calls unleavened bread, “the bread of affliction” and so the point of this feast was to remind Israel of their affliction in Egypt. On the seventh day of the feast, they were to take a day off from work and gather for worship (vv. 7-8).
The second festival described in this chapter is described in verses 9-12. It is called Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks and it happened seven weeks after the people of Israel began to harvest their grain (vv. 9-12). This feast consisted of giving a “freewill offering” (v. 10) and that offering was to be in proportion to how much God had blessed them. They were to take the offering to the tabernacle/temple and “rejoice before the Lord” there (v. 11). The purpose of this feast was to celebrate a successful harvest. But according to verse 12, one aspect of this feast was to “remember that you were slaves in Egypt” (v. 12). They were to celebrate this festival because, now as freed people, they could profit from their work instead of working hard as slaves and watching their masters prosper instead.
Finally, the third feast they were commanded to observe was the Feast of Tabernacles. This festival reminded them of their wanderings in the desert so that they would be grateful for a land of their own. This festival happened “for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.” So this festival happened in the fall, whereas the previous two happened in the spring.
Being required to do something sometimes causes people to lose their desire to do that thing. But God did not require these festivals in order to impose a burden on people; he did it so that they could enjoy themselves. Look at the words of joy in these passages: “celebrate” (v. 1, 10, 13, 15), “rejoice” (v. 11), “be joyful” (v. 14), and “your joy will be complete” (v. 15). Instead of filling up everyday with back-breaking work, fearing that they were on the edge of starvation, God commanded his people to work hard for six days and enjoy a day off to worship him. Instead of working from daylight to dusk from spring through fall with only one day off a week, God mandated these festivals so that his people could rest, rejoice, and reflect on all that God had done for them.
The New Testament does not command believers to observe any kind of Sabbath nor does it require us to celebrate any festivals. But the weekly Sabbath and annual festivals like these teach us the importance of rest and rejoicing. If we do nothing but work all the time, we’ll look up someday and find ourselves old, our lives having passed us by, and our children having grown and gone out on their own.
Choosing to worship and rest on Sunday gives us time to worship the Lord, learn from his word, fellowship with other believers, enjoy time with our families, rest for the work week ahead, and rejoice in all that God has given us in Christ and through the faithful work of our hands. Nothing in the New Testament requires us to do this, but doesn’t it show the compassion of God for tired, beleaguered people? Wouldn’t we be wise to pause for rest and reflection regularly?