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What are Feasts?
The Hebrew word "Feasts" used in Leviticus 23 is "mowed`" (mo-ade');
or "moed`" (mo-ade');it means properly, an appointment, i.e.
a fixed time or season; specifically,
a festival; conventionally a year; by implication,
an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); technically the congregation; by extension,
the place of meeting; also a signal (as appointed beforehand):
In the King James Version, it is translated variously as; appointed
(sign, time), (place of, solemn) assembly, congregation, (set, solemn)
feast, (appointed, due) season, solemn (-ity), synogogue, (set) time
(appointed).
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers
and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c)
1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
We discover Gods Feasts are PLACES, they are places in time, APPOINTED
and FIXED. They are like dinner dates of a young couple in love, or
special anniversary traditions of married couples, they are similar to
national holidays like the Fourth of July in America where we remember
and celebrate significant events in our history, but they are also more
than the sum of these together. They are, as the definition says,
assemblies convened for definite and specific purposes. We must
remember that these are "the Lord's" appointed times, they are his idea
and his purposes and goals are built into them.
These assemblies are important to God, it is the LORD, the supreme
commander, YAWEH, I AM that is telling Moses to tell the people about
these days. If these days are not important to us we must ask ourselves
"why" if they are important to God.
Let's put this event in its historical context...
God has only recently displayed His power and favor towards His people
in Egypt, and He has delivered them out of slavery, provided them with
wealth, cattle, sheep, food and water. He has brought them out into a
solitary quiet place away from all the rest of the world to ask them if
they would like to enter into an exclusive covenant of marriage with
Him as a special people.
All of Israel has agreed to this arrangement and He is beginning to
tell them the specifics of how this relationship is to operate because
being betrothed to the Living God is a completely different way of life
from slavery.
This is exactly the situation with every new believer who enters
into the Kingdom of God and we can learn a lot about ourselves, and the
Lord by studying these feasts, and even more by responding to God's
invitation to show up at these places in time that He has reserved and
made special. These "appointed times" are located in the same seasons
every year, and they paint us a picture of His kingdom, they point to
the method and operation of our redemption as individuals, and
collectively of mankind.
These are assemblies that are "convened for a definite purpose".
They are all different and help us understand many important
operations of life within His covenant. The more we come to them, and
the more we yield over when we seek to find Him in these times, the
more we receive. These times are intimate gifts for His own special
people. Those who are not believers are invited only to the Feast of
Tabernacles, and there are some reasons for this that we will discover
later.
For now let's begin our walk through Leviticus 23 and see how much
life we can find in the book that many peole see as just a list of
confusing "rules"...
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