Note: the following is the manuscript for the message and will not match exactly the recorded message above.
Review and Introduction
Think of a time when you have been interrupted. Perhaps in a conversation. Or during the night when your two-year-old banged on your door. Maybe a vacation was interrupted by some uncontrollable event. Or your career, education, or retirement plans due to sickness. We all experience interruptions. We get into a comfortable spot, and then something happens. I was interrupted very recently. I had a plan for this message but was interrupted by an insight that occurred to me as I was camping a week ago. I was sitting there thinking, why do we do this? Why go camping? Our beds and homes are more comfortable, more familiar. Everything we need is in our homes. Why willingly subject ourselves to a more primitive way of living?
It dawned on me that it is good and healthy to be interrupted. It shakes off the dust. It reorients us to see life from a different angle. It makes us grateful for the common things we have at home. However, not all of us want to subject ourselves to the inconveniences of camping. Earlier this spring, Lynn and I bought a camper. Perhaps you’ve seen it. It’s the first camper we’ve ever owned. We always tented with our kids, which is my preference. We thought, perhaps camping would be more enjoyable with a camper. In our own ways, Lynn and I both discovered that it isn’t. I still prefer a tent, and Lynn still prefers her own bed in our house. So, the camper is gone and we have come to an agreement. I’ll subject myself willingly to the interruption and inconveniences of tenting. Lynn will subject herself to being home without me from time to time as I go camping. Win-win. Or lose-lose? In any case, the message today is all about interruptions. Will we embrace them or fight them?
After a three-week interruption in this sermon series, we are continuing our study in the Pentateuch, which is the collection of the first five books of the Bible. We have examined the story of how God called Abraham, made a covenant with him, and blessed him. The calling and blessing were passed down to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. His family moved to Egypt during a time of famine and eventually grew very large in number and were enslaved by Pharaoh. After hundreds of years of slavery, the nation of Israel was rescued by God and brought to Mount Sinai, where God met with Moses and gave him instructions such as the Ten Commandments, a blueprint for the Tabernacle, the sacrificial system, and as we will look at today, instructions for annual festivals.
We are in the book of Leviticus, which is all about an embodied and enacted spirituality. The rituals and practices described in this book guard against a faith that is disconnected from physical, material, social, and economic life. The Israelites are now free and on their way to the Promised Land, with Yahweh as their God. But Yahweh is holy and pure, and the Israelites are impure and sinful. Their very presence will pollute the Tabernacle, the dwelling place of God.
In the last message I preached in July, I talked about how the centre of the sacrificial system was the Day of Atonement, which is one of the festivals included in our passage today. This is the day on which the High Priest enters the Most Holy Place, where God dwells among the Israelites, and offers a sacrifice to cleanse it so that God can continue to live among them.
Atonement is all about reconciliation between God and people. And Jesus is the final sacrifice of atonement, meaning we are forever reconciled with God if we want it. The trouble with a one-and-done solution such as the sacrifice of Christ, is that we forget. We forget that we’ve been rescued. We carry on with life, go through the motions, and get distracted. This is why it is necessary to practice things like communion, as we did last week, as well as celebrations and festivals. For the Israelites, the festivals interrupted life and served as a reminder of their dependence on God and provided an opportunity to offer a special time of devotion to him.
We have times like this in our lives as well. We have weekends or holidays, which should interrupt our work. We have church services, which should be an experience unlike anything else in our lives. We have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, which interrupt our rhythm by way of family gatherings and various cultural experiences. We have birthdays and anniversaries. All of these things come whether we want to be interrupted or not. Some people reject them because they like to keep things consistent. But, there is a more profound sort of interruption that we will look at today. The sort of interruption that should not only disrupt your daily lives but bring increasing renewal and transformation to your heart and mind, your relationships, and your faith in God.
The Interruption of Sabbath
Before we get into the festivals, it is important that we briefly review the sabbath because, in a sense, all of the festivals were extensions of the Sabbath. Leviticus 23, the chapter that outlines the annual festivals, begins with the Sabbath:
The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. “ ‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the LORD.”
The Sabbath is possibly the most important, but definitely the most foundational of sacred times in the Old Testament.1 It is the only ritualistic command of the Ten Commandments. It was initiated at the beginning of time, built into the very fabric of creation. It is referred to as a day that is blessed by God. It is a part of the covenant between God and his people. To fail in keeping the Sabbath was to rebel against God.
What did it mean to keep the Sabbath? The word literally means to stop what you’re doing and to rest. Whatever it was that they did throughout the week was interrupted every seventh day by a day on which they were to stop doing their normal work. Resting from work on the Sabbath was a way to enjoy the redemption that God had won for them and a way of giving up control and the idea that we gain in life only by working hard.2
The idea of Sabbath extended beyond one day a week. In Leviticus 25, we read instructions for a Sabbath year. Every seventh year was a Sabbath. No field was to be planted, pruned, or harvested. Farmers were not even permitted to store any crop that was produced naturally during the Sabbath year. Everyone could eat this food, but it could not be stored. Israel’s observance of this regulation was totally a matter of trusting God. To give up a year of work and expect to eat the following year was to believe that God could and would take care of his people.
In addition to the sabbatical year, Leviticus 25 also informs us that the seventh seven-year period came with special significance. This “Jubilee” year saw not only the fields lying fallow but also a time when property was redeemed and slaves were released. The intention was to return the land to those who originally received it from God. This practice would have prohibited great inequalities between the “haves” and the “have-nots” among God’s people. And, any Israelites who had to sell themselves into slavery in order to pay debts would, at the time of Jubilee, have their freedom again.3
To keep these Sabbath practices meant to submit themselves to interruption. It meant letting go of grasping onto wealth and independence. This is God’s ideal. If the Israelites wanted to enjoy all the benefits of his favour, to be truly and completely blessed, they needed to practice not only the weekly Sabbaths, but also the Sabbath years and the Year of Jubilee.
Unfortunately, they did not do this very well. At the end of Chronicles, we read an explanation of why the Babylonian exile lasted 70 years: “The land finally enjoyed its Sabbath rest, lying desolate for seventy years, just as the prophet had said” (2 Chron. 36:21). I didn’t do the math, but it would seem that the seventy years of exile made up for all the years Israel failed to keep the Sabbath year. The message is clear: one way or another, the Sabbath will interrupt. The question is, will it be a welcome or an unwelcome interruption?
The Interruption of Festivals
The festivals were another interruption in the lives of the Israelites. Let’s look at three of the festivals in particular, known as the pilgrimage festivals. The pilgrimage festivals were held three times each year, and every Israelite male was to travel to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices.
The first is the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. These are tied directly to the rescue of Israel from Egypt. I talked about the first Passover in my message on June 2, so you can review that if you like. On the tenth day of the first month of their year (which in our calendar is in the spring), faithful Israelite households were to select a lamb for sacrifice. The animal was to be only one year old and without defect. On the 14th day of the month, the animal was sacrificed, roasted and served at the Passover meal, just as they did the night of the first Passover in Egypt. The day after that, the Festival of Unleavened Bread began.
Deuteronomy 16:5-8 provides a succinct description:
You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. Roast it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the LORD your God and do no work.
The Festival of Weeks is the second pilgrimage festival. It is also known as Pentecost or the Festival of Harvest. The date of the festival corresponded to the appearance of the first grain harvested in the year. When someone began to harvest their grain, the very first thing they were instructed to do was bring the first bit of grain to be waved before the Lord on the day after the Sabbath on which it was brought. This symbolically acknowledged that the harvest comes from God. Then, seven weeks later, the Festival of Weeks begins. This was a high point in the year, being a massive celebration of the harvest, full of joyous offerings being brought to God’s presence out of gratitude for his provision.
The last of the pilgrimage festivals is the Festival of Tabernacles or Booths. It occurred in the seventh month of the year, five days after the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was the tenth day of the seventh month and was the central feature of the sacrificial system, which we went through in more detail in my message on July 14. In the midst of celebration, the Day of Atonement is a day on which they are to deny themselves by fasting and avoid doing any work. It is the day the High Priest enters the Most Holy Place in order to make Atonement or make amends in order to bring reconciliation between God and the people.
Five days later, the Festival of Tabernacles begins. As is implied in the name, it is during this festival that the Israelites commemorate their time wandering in the wilderness by living in tents for a week. This is once again an act of self-denial, an interruption meant to bring perspective to people about how good they have it in the Promised Land. Only when we are deprived of our daily blessings, health, food, clothes, or housing do we realize just how much we have to be thankful for. In the midst of all of these festivals, the call is to be joyful, even in sombre times of self-denial.
Deuteronomy 16:14-17 says this at the end of the instructions for the Festival of Tabernacles – Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the festival to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.
So, how can we respond to learning about these festivals? They seem to be so disconnected from us today, as they should be. They are highly cultural experiences, and we cannot possibly replicate them today. Yet, the function of the Sabbath and the Festivals is fulfilled in Christ, as is the interruption that comes with them.
The Interruption of Christ?
When attempting to connect the festivals described in Leviticus 23 with the New Testament or our lives today, it would be tempting to stop at the establishment of Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost as replacements for them. We might think that the Israelite festival practices are fulfilled through the observances of these holidays. However, while observing special holidays is not a bad thing, the fulfilment of the festivals and Sabbath and the blessings associated with them are not found in continuing to observe them, but in Christ himself and his vision of the good life. Let’s look at a few passages. I’ll read them all and then provide some concluding thoughts.
Col 2:16-17 – do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Galatians 4:8-10 – Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!
1 Cor. 5:7-8 – Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Romans 14:5-6 – One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
1 Cor. 15:20 – But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Acts 2:1-4 – When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
John 7:37-38 – On the last and greatest day of the festival of Tabernacles, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
Just as is the case with all of the Old Testament laws and instructions, Christians continue to ask, “What are we to do?” What is still applicable? Just the Ten Commandments? Should we still observe one day a week as the Sabbath? As I have said before, if you are asking these questions, you are misunderstanding what the Old Testament is for. It is the testimony of God’s redemptive plan, how he called a people from out of a dark world in order to bring salvation and hope for all creation. The festivals and the Sabbath are part of that testimony.
The Sabbath and the festivals interrupted the routine of the people. They served as a reminder and as a glimpse into who God is and how he desires to live with his people. Imagine a day when we are free to enter God’s presence in celebration at any time and in any place without the need for a pilgrimage or special sacrifices. That day has come through Christ, yet we experience it only if we allow it to interrupt us. Jesus is our Passover lamb, our sacrifice of Atonement, he is our wave offering, the firstfruits of the harvest, he is our Sabbath rest, and the one who has once and for all redeemed us all from slavery.
These are promises we can depend on, not only for the future but also for today. But we must allow Christ to interrupt us, to enter into the ordinary and transform it. How does this happen? It begins with what it means to live a good life. We all hear messages about what a good life looks like. What does Jesus say? What did he model? A life of sacrifice, humility, and generosity. He sought out the oppressed, the sick, and the poor and blessed them. The other day, Lynn and I were sitting in a coffee shop when I noticed a lady sitting behind us got up with her coffee and sandwich and walked out the door. I saw through the window that she brought it to a homeless man in the parking lot. I’m not sure what prompted her to do that, but I consider it an example of allowing Christ to interrupt us, to step outside of what is comfortable to behave in the spirit of the festivals. The spirit of sacrifice and offering, of celebration and generosity, in sharing in God’s blessings.
Only when we let Christ into the ordinary parts of our lives and interrupt us will we begin to experience the benefits of God’s presence living in and among us. Then we will live in the way God intends for us to live, not as slaves to the law or to sin, but as free and blessed people, and as the letter to the Hebrews ends – through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
1 Tremper Longman III, Immanuel in Our Place: Seeing Christ in Israel’s Worship, ed. Tremper Longman III and J. Alan Groves, The Gospel according to the Old Testament (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2001), 162-163.
2 Tremper Longman III, Immanuel in Our Place: Seeing Christ in Israel’s Worship, ed. Tremper Longman III and J. Alan Groves, The Gospel according to the Old Testament (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2001), 170.
3 Tremper Longman III, Immanuel in Our Place: Seeing Christ in Israel’s Worship, ed. Tremper Longman III and J. Alan Groves, The Gospel according to the Old Testament (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2001), 171.
Pentateuch Series Bibliography
Alexander, T. Desmond. From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch. Fourth Edition. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2022.
Alter, Robert. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004.
Averbeck, Richard E. The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church: Reading the Torah in the Light of Christ. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2022.
Brueggemann, Walter. Preaching from the Old Testament. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019.
Glanville, Mark. Freed to Be God’s Family: The Book of Exodus. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2021.
Longman III, Tremper. Genesis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016.
Lynch, Matthew J. Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023.
Provan, Iain, V. Philips Long, and Tremper Longman III. A Biblical History of Israel. Second Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.
Smith, James E. The Torah. 2nd ed. Old Testament Survey Series. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co., 1993.
Walton, John H and J. Harvey Walton. The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019.