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  • Between Sabbaths – Convocations and Holiness

    Between Sabbaths – Convocations and Holiness

    Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.

    Leviticus 23:2 KJV

    Holy Holidays

    We’ve lost something of the holiness of the holidays in the translation. Worldliness seeps steadily into our daily lives and we don’t necessarily relate to what some versions of the Bible call, ‘sacred assemblies,’ or ‘holy feasts.’

    Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

    Leviticus 23:3 KJV

    Do we hear of or even know what “holy convocations” might be?

    Even though raised in the church, I didn’t until I looked it up during my college years. A convocation מִקְרָא is a sacred gathering, a called public meeting for the reading of God’s word.

    Perhaps you’ve noted our digression from holy worship  to a more culturally palatable feast of entertainment at church.

    Priests and religious officials would have taken all sorts of rules (and definitions of work) from Leviticus, which we recognize as the Sabbath Commandment. Yet what many contemporary gatherings may miss or dismiss from Exodus and Deuteronomy is holiness.

    Seasons and celebrations between the sabbaths may be designated as holy convocations; days for feasting — neither a time for fasting, nor ordinary work day.

    The sabbath of the LORD, which Christ points out it is ‘made for man,‘ is, never-the-less, set aside by the LORD for Holiness.

    So what are these convocations? And more importantly, how do their principles apply to us today?

    Note that these seven prescribed seasons of holy rest do not include certain notable minor holiday observances.


    Hanukkah חֲנֻכָּה and Christmas??

    Christmas and Hanukkah both focus on light and God’s faithfulness in helping men (and women) of faith to be restored to holiness.

    The minor celebration of Hanukkah began during the second temple period, about 200 years before Christ and was also known as the feast of dedication.

    The minor convocation of Christmas points to the holiness of God, humbly descending to us as the Son of Man; a baby like all others, yet without sin, like no other man. 

    Jews have recently celebrated eight days of Hanukkah.

    Christians have begun a preparatory season of Advent leading up to the festival of Christmas. 

    Do you feel rested? 

    Has God been a part of your celebrations of this season?

    I mention these holidays blown out of proportion by our sustained worldly emphasis on minor celebrations, because we fail to rest in the Lord.

    Return to the Lord’s rest

    “I hate all your show and pretense—
    the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.

    Amos 5:21 NLT

    This, too, is nothing new, as you can see from the rebuke of the Lord through the prophet Amos. His complaint sounds much like that of contemporary unbelievers, when Christians most of all ought to be questioning our own Christmas traditions. 

    God deserves worship שָׁחָה, not occasions of excess and entertainment.

    “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”

    Matthew 2:2

    Religious Convocations

    Without drilling down to the detail of ancient worship to the Lord called for in the Law, let’s briefly examine these other Sabbath rests. I invite you to research these scriptures and celebrations further, since I will only comment on each briefly.

    Most scriptures and quotes in this section from BlueLetterBible.org
    Below are festivals linked to this article from Easton's Bible Dictionary.

    1. The weekly Sabbath
    2. The Passover feast:
    3. Pentecost, or the feast of weeks.
    4. The Ingathering, or feast of Tabernacles 
    5. The seventh new moon or the feast of Trumpets (Num 28:11-15; Num 29:1-6)
    6. The Sabbatical year (Exd 23:10-11; Lev 25:2-7)
    7. The year of jubilee (Lev 25:8-16; Lev 27:16-25)

    “The Passover was kept just before the harvest commenced, Pentecost at the conclusion of the corn harvest and before the vintage, the feast of Tabernacles after all the fruits of the ground had been gathered in.

    As previously mentioned, Jews celebrated additional feasts after destruction of the first Temple.

    • The feast of Purim
    • The feast of Dedication (Hanukkah)

    The Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month (Lev 16:1; Lev 16:34; Lev 23:26-32; Num 29:7-11). 

    Christians cannot overemphasize God’s requirement of holiness, achieved by atonement for our sins.

    God presented Christ Jesus as an atoning sacrifice in his blood, received through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.

    Romans 3:25

    The Sacrifice and death of Christ, made possible by the incarnation of God in the flesh of Jesus, exceeds the importance of our holy celebrations.

    Traditions of Sabbath Rests

    Contemporary worshipers may not relate to cultures of the times of these designated rests from the Lord; however, hear the Lord’s purpose in these additional Sabbaths made for man.

    On each of these occasions every male Israelite was commanded “to appear before the Lord” (Deu 27:7; Neh 8:9-12).

    The attendance of women was voluntary. (Luk 2:41; 1Sa 1:7; 1Sa 2:19.)

    The promise that God would protect their homes (Exd 34:23-24) while all the males were absent in Jerusalem at these feasts was always fulfilled.

    “During the whole period between Moses and Christ we never read of an enemy invading the land at the time of the three festivals. The first instance on record is thirty-three years after they had withdrawn from themselves the divine protection by imbruing their hands in the Saviour’s blood, when Cestius, the Roman general, slew fifty of the people of Lydda (Joppa) while all the rest had gone up to the feast of Tabernacles, A.D. 66.

    A few details of worship

    Of the new moon festivals the Lord commands: “this is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year ‘And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work.’

    All men worship the Lord and all men have rest for this worship.

    Of the Sabbatical year the Lord commands rest for the field, the vineyard and orchard. 

    Celebration of the year of Jubilee each fiftieth year: “In the Year of Jubilee each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors…Be assured that I will send my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land will produce a crop large enough for three years… 

    ‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.

    Leviticus 25:23

    “You are to allow the redemption of any land you occupy.

    We walk with the Lord: our land, a temporary possession of sojourners in this temporary world where we work. The Lord grants redemption to us, the ability to repurchase what He has rightfully given to us from all that is His. Our worship returns but a portion of His abundance to our Lord.

    The Lord’s laws are unlike our own unbalanced views of righteousness and justice. His ways are higher than our ways. Though the birth of our Redeemer is important, Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection challenge the sinners of this world with consequence for our worldly ways. 

    Are you caught up in the restless rush of the holidays?

    1 Peter 1:

    3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…

    Christmas defines the beginning of the life of God Incarnate, His gift to us: “new birth into a living hope…”

    14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance.

    15 But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.

    “Be holy, because I am holy. – 1 Peter 1:15b, Leviticus 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7

    Christ-mass: ‘because I am holy.’

    Be holy, because I am holy. – This is our promised rest, through a babe in a manger, a sinless Savior born for the Cross.


  • Sanctuary

    Sanctuary

    Some refer to the ‘place’ where the church shares in corporate worship as family of Christ Jesus as “the sanctuary.” (Of course, the “church” is the worshipers.) 

    Exodus 25:8 KJV And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

    The place may be worthy of the grandeur of the Living God or the place may be so humble as a servant’s living room; never-the less, where two or more are gathered in Jesus’ Name, we gather together in His sanctuary.

    Let the worshipers of Jesus our Lord come to the sanctuary of His Holy Presence.

     

    Sanctuary is a peaceful word for souls distracted by sin, hearts gathering safely into the worship of our Savior, Christ Jesus.

    Sometimes (like Jesus: in the wilderness… in a place away from the crowds… in a garden or olive grove… in Gethsemane…) we must get away from ALL of the DISTRACTION and noise of the world.

    Let the faithful enter into the sanctuary of our Father’s rest.

    It may be an empty sanctuary; perhaps a prayer closet; maybe a place in the woods where few feet tread. Maybe you just drive to a place where the lights and noise of the city fade from your rear view mirror into unending scene of mountain or seashore, stream or meadow.

    Peace. Sanctuary. A place and a time with God alone: we must find it. We much make a place for it. We must take time for it.

    Some crave the sanctuary and relationship of this time with God.

    It is more than just meditation. It is more than just talking to yourself. It is more than memories and more than planning ahead. It is much more than just asking what… or asking ‘WHY?’

    Sanctuary is our place of PRAYER.

    Sanctuary is that HOLY PLACE where God’s Presence hears and answers our prayers of faith. 

    Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome
    I was once one of many Christian tourists surprised to discover that many first century Christians in Rome worshiped in the sanctuary of the catacombs, burial places of the dead.

    catacomb tombs

    There they could not only meet safely out of sight of their persecutors, but there too (when corporate worship was no longer safe in their homes, as is the case in MANY places in 21st century China, most Arab countries and much of the continents of Africa and Asia), no doubt Christians found in this place to where our dust does return: a sanctuary.

    After having spent some hours of several days for many years praying to God in the ‘memorial gardens’ we call the ‘cemetery,’ I find sanctuary and peace in knowing that this is NOT the place where our soul will reside, but a time of rest for our wearied flesh.

    Will the dust of your wearied soul bow down to worship the Lord? Will your aching bones and soiled flesh be cleansed in His overflowing love?

    Will you invite His peace to dwell in your heart?

    Would you have sanctuary in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior?

    I pray for this: for you and for others of His dear loved ones.

    Turn from our distractions of the flesh and embrace the peace of Christ Jesus.

     

    “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

    John 11:25-26

     

  • Samekh

    Samekh

    Depart from me…

    Picture the stoic traditionalist teachers of the Bible venturing out from the mega-cathedral to a far from urban valley of the Jordan and encountering a crowd that should be in church.  They are listening to an unkempt man with uncut hair and rags of animal skins and leather. As they descend the dirty hillside toward the river in their custom-made finery, he acknowledges their addition to the crowds.

    “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance…  – Matthew 3:

    Pretty bold talk from a Nazarite to esteemed teachers of the Law from the Temple. Could John have had Psalm 119 in mind?

     Psalm 119 – English Standard Version (ESV)

    Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet

    Samekh

    113 I hate the double-minded,
    but I love your law.
    114 You are my hiding place and my shield;
    I hope in your word.
    115 Depart from me, you evildoers,
    that I may keep the commandments of my God.

    Although the EST statement ‘I hate the double-minded,’ brings hated hypocrites like the Pharisees, Sadducees, certain preachers and christians to mind, the KJV stated: ‘I hate vain thoughts.’

    Indeed, the Psalmist is not condemning (yet) those with double-minded thoughts.  John, as he baptized and cleansed into repentance those in the crowds with ears to hear was not hiding in the Jordan valley; rather his hiding place was in the Lord and in the hope of God’s word.

    All of us must take heed to vain thoughts and ideas of our own (not of God). Vain thoughts are ambivalent, divided and half-hearted. Of course we are to love the Lord our God with all our mind (not just some of it). Hypocrisy, like that frequently demonstrated by the Pharisees is the intentional action of a double-minded believer.

    John continues his warnings to his audience:

    10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

    This same double-minded, half-hearted faith comes to mind in Jesus parable in Matthew 7:

    17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

    Christ Jesus was also most critical of this half-attitude of belief. In these last days, the axe is at the root of the tree of the church.

    The Psalmist continues his plea to God:

    116 Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live,
    and let me not be put to shame in my hope!
    117 Hold me up, that I may be safe
    and have regard for your statutes continually!
    118 You spurn all who go astray from your statutes,
    for their cunning is in vain.

    119 All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross,
    therefore I love your testimonies.
    120 My flesh trembles for fear of you,
    and I am afraid of your judgments.

    Again, we did not receive the baptism of repentance and the cleansing of the Cross of Christ to appear as dross to a world that looks to the church and christians for every defect and impurity.

    “Be holy, as I am holy,” says the Lord.