Deuteronomy 16

Deuteronomy 16:1

K. Three Apointed Feasts (Chap. 16)16:1-8 Chapter 16 reviews the three feasts for which the men in Israel were to go to the central sanctuary each year. As to their purpose, Moody writes, The holy feasts were (in general) appointed for these ends and uses:1. To distinguish the people of God from other nations. 2. To keep afoot the remembrance of the benefits already received. 3. To be a type and figure of benefits yet further to be conferred upon them by Christ. 4. To unite God’s people in holy worship. 5. To preserve purity in holy worship prescribed by God. The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread were closely connected. The Passover is described in verses 1, 2, 5-7; the Feast of Unleavened Bread in verses 3, 4, and 8. These feasts were to remind God’s people of His redemptive work on their behalf. The Lord’s Supper is a weekly remembrance feast for the NT believer, a memorial of Christ our Passover sacrificed for us. The Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures the kind of lives the redeemed should livefull of praise “according to the blessing of the Lord your God” (v. 17) and free from malice and wickedness (1Co_5:8). The details given concerning the Passover here are different in several respects from the details given in Exodus 12 and 13. For example, what could be offered and where it could be offered are different in each passage. 16:9-12 The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) began with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and is a symbol of the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is not to be confused with the Feast of Firstfruits (barley), which was held on the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The freewill offering, as in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, was to be proportionate to the Lord’s blessing on the individual’s endeavors, in this case his crops. 16:13-15 The Feast of Tabernacles was at the end of the harvest season and looks forward to the time when Israel will be regathered in the land under the rule of Christ. 16:16, 17 Three times a year all the Israelite males were to appear before the LORD with a gift according to each one’s ability. Moody indicates the spiritual meaning of the three feasts they had to attend: The Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles typify a completed redemption:

1. By the passion of the cross: Suffering.
2. By the coming of the Holy Spirit: Grace.
3. By the final triumph of the coming King: Glory. 16:18-20 Judges must be honest, righteous, and impartial. They should not accept a bribe because a bribe makes a man incapable of judging fairly. 16:21, 22 The wooden image (Heb. ashre3h) was a pole made from a tree, and represented a pagan goddess. Eventually the altar of the Lord would rest in the temple in Jerusalem, where no trees could easily be planted but where an idolatrous symbol could be, and ultimately was, set up (2Ki_23:6).