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Sunday School
Festival Of Weeks (Leviticus 23:15–22)
would be ready. God wanted Is- rael to offer him some of the firstfruits to teach Israel to al- ways honor the Lord first, as well as to remind them that if they put the Lord first he would provide more for them in the days ahead.
Israel would not be allowed to merely waltz into his pres- ence with their firstfruits. Com- ing before the Lord to acknowledge his provision still demanded a pure heart. So God gave specific prescriptions about how that worship was to take place.
Offerings were part of Is- rael’s worship. From the early harvest Israel was to bring wave or grain offerings, drink and food offerings, plus burnt offerings, sin offer- ings, and fellowship (or peace) offerings. These grain offerings and animal sacrifices were combined as sacred offer- ings to the Lord in worship.
Sin must be atoned for be- fore worship is acceptable to God. Therefore for Israel, wor- ship consisted of bringing something to God. The list for the burnt offering and grain of- ferings was: two loaves of bread, seven perfect male
lambs, one young bull, and two rams. The list for the sin offering and the fellowship offering was: one male goat and two lambs.
Some of the offerings were burned up and some would serve as food for the priests. Both grain offerings and ani- mal sacrifices were waved be- fore the Lord to acknowledge that God was good and that God had provided (and would provide) yet again for his people.
Ceasing & Giving |
Leviticus 23:21, 22 Earlier, in Leviticus 23:3, God had reminded Israel about keeping the Sabbath. “There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of Sab- bath rest, a day of sacred as- sembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord.” That command is repeated in regard to a special Sabbath in con- junction with the Festival of Weeks.
Sabbath means “to cease.” Israel was to cease its work on this special day and proclaim a sacred assembly. The purpose was twofold: to thank God for the beginning of harvest and to
thank God in advance for the prospect of more harvest. This was to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
True worship always shows up in a tangible way. The cele- bration of the Festival of Weeks was to make a difference in the billfolds and purses of Israel. As commanded earlier in the Law (Leviticus 19:9, 10) Is- rael was to leave some of the harvest in the field. This was God’s means of providing for the poor and for the for- eigner. They were expected to do the gleaning, but the owners of the fields were to feel their responsibility toward the poor and outsiders. In fact, God’s identity shines through (I am the Lord your God) when this kind of giving takes place.
Some believe that the Festi- val of Weeks was the anniver- sary of the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai. For our purposes it is best to con- nect this festival to Pentecost, the birth of the church. In the same way that God provided for the Israelites, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit was just the beginning of God’s bless- ings on his people in the New Testament.
A milestone festival for Is- rael was the Festival of Weeks—an interesting name since it was just a one-day cel- ebration. Israel had many high holy days in their yearly calen- dar. Those were the weekly Sabbath, the Passover, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles (all de- scribed in Leviticus 23).
But the three most impor- tant were Passover, Pentecost (Festival of Weeks), and Taber- nacles. The first two were cele- brated in the spring, and the last one was celebrated in the fall. Passover celebrated Is- rael’s deliverance by God from Egypt. Pentecost celebrated Is- rael’s provision from God in
the new land. Tabernacles cel- ebrated God’s watch over Is- rael’s wilderness wanderings.
Counting & Worship- ping | Leviticus 23:15-20 The Festival of Weeks was ob- served following the fiftieth day of the Passover Sabbath (the Sabbath that followed Passover). It was called the Festival of Weeks because it had been weeks since that last holiday. Counting seven sets of seven days each plus one day meant that this festival always fell on Sunday, which is impor- tant when we come to the New Testament.
Since Passover was observed in the spring, 50 days after that would be the end of May or the first part of June. The early harvests (barley and wheat)
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