The Feasts of the Lord
by Paul Wilson
God has prophetically unfolded His dispensational ways in the symbolic “Feasts of the LORD.” These have a bearing on the present dispensation in which the first day of the week, and not the Sabbath, is preeminent; they also have great importance concerning Israel’s coming repentance and national resuscitation. With these thoughts in mind we give herewith a concise review of Leviticus 23.
In this chapter the Lord gave directions through Moses to the children of Israel concerning certain yearly feasts which they were to keep unto Him. But before outlining them, He told them to keep one weekly celebration — the Sabbath. This Sabbath was not a part of the yearly feasts that follow, but it is important that it should be given first. The first mention of the Sabbath is in Gensis 2:1-3 when the Lord rested on the seventh day after His work in making the earth ready for man, but His rest in creation was soon broken by the sin of Adam and Eve. God again began to work and prepared coats of skin for the guilty pair; even so the Son of God could not take His rest in this sin-spoiled creation when He came. He could not rest from His work even on the Sabbath day, for all around Him He found the effects of sin and the works of the devil; but He came to undo the works of the devil. So on one occasion, when He was chided for healing a man on the Sabbath day, He said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:13), thus referring to God’s rest having been broken by sin.
But a chief reason for the introduction of the Sabbath at the beginning of Leviticus 23 is that God still purposes that there should be a period of rest for this creation. It was ever before Him, but inasmuch as it could not come in at first by reason of sin, God, in this chapter, shows how it will be brought in as we shall see later.
These seven yearly occasions when the people would hold religious observances were not equally divided throughout the year. Normally, three were held in the first month, one in the third month, and three in the seventh month.* It was not God’s plan to divide the year into three equal parts, but to teach us lessons about His dispensational ways.