Deuteronomy 16
English Standard Version, David Cochran Audio
Passover
The Feast of Weeks
9 “You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. 10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. 11 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. 12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
The Feast of Booths
13 “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. 15 For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
16 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.
18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
21 “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God that you shall make. 22 And you shall not set up a pillar, which the Lord your God hates.
Passover is Easter time. The Festival of Weeks is Shavuot, in late May or early June. The Feast of Booths is like Thanksgiving, Sukkot, in late September or October.
In all of these times, there is a celebration of a relationship with Father God! He draws us away from the every day. Each is a jubilation and a joy. We take weeks to prepare and celebrate for Christmas, but these festivals are a week long, or weeks. This is something we miss out on in our world. It's interesting advice in the closing - no partiality, bribes and a call for justice. Perhaps God is saying we tend to not get along even in the midst of celebration.
The Biblical Antiquities Center in Georgia, built a typical house in the time of Jesus choosing to live among us as Grace and Truth.
And Asherah was the image of the consort of God. It was something that competed with the worship of Father God. Mankind tends to love images. Jesus could have been born in Jerusalem, able to worship at the Temple continually. Instead, GOD chose the fields where David had quiet time to think upon what would be the Psalms. Jesus referred to the Temple practices as something worse than business as usual. Jesus is remembered as chasing out people for not allowing His House to be a House of Prayer.
Matthew Henry has excellent commentary on this chapter:
Never should a believer forget his low estate of guilt and misery, his deliverance, and the price it cost the Redeemer; that gratitude and joy in the Lord may be mingled with sorrow for sin, and patience under the tribulations in his way to the kingdom of heaven. They must rejoice in their receivings from God, and in their returns of service and sacrifice to him; our duty must be our delight, as well as our enjoyment. If those who were under the law must rejoice before God, much more we that are under the grace of the gospel (!); which makes it our duty to rejoice evermore, to rejoice in the Lord always! When we rejoice in God ourselves, we should do what we can to assist others also to rejoice in him, by comforting the mourners, and supplying those who are in want. All who make God their joy, may rejoice in hope, for He is faithful that has promised.
Hallelujah!!!!
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Never should a believer forget his low estate of guilt and misery, his deliverance, and the price it cost the Redeemer; that gratitude and joy in the Lord may be mingled with sorrow for sin, and patience under the tribulations in his way to the kingdom of heaven. They must rejoice in their receivings from God, and in their returns of service and sacrifice to him; our duty must be our delight, as well as our enjoyment. If those who were under the law must rejoice before God, much more we that are under the grace of the gospel (!); which makes it our duty to rejoice evermore, to rejoice in the Lord always! When we rejoice in God ourselves, we should do what we can to assist others also to rejoice in him, by comforting the mourners, and supplying those who are in want. All who make God their joy, may rejoice in hope, for He is faithful that has promised.
Hallelujah!!!!
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