Torah: Vayikra (Leviticus) 21:1 – 24:23; Haftarah: Ezekiel 44:15-31
The Eight God Given Holy Days - The Appointed Times
Some advocate that God’s commandments are antiquated regulations and, because Yeshua took all our sins upon Himself on the Roman execution stake - the cross - we are not obligated to observe any of them. Yeshua took our sins upon Himself indeed, but He did not annul God’s instructions for a holy life. By His sacrifice, He removed the condemnation and the punishment for not obeying them. But God’s commandments, God’s instructions for a holy life, are for all eternity not only because He is Holy and everything He has taught us through Torah is for our own good, but also because He never changes and, therefore, did not annul any of them. What we have to understand is that some of the commandments were given for a specific location - for Israel and the Temple, other ones for a specific group of people - the Jews, and other ones for all mankind, and yet, all commandments have within them a moral, or a teaching, because they represent the ethics of a Holy God.
Our holiness begins with understanding the fundamental principles of these commandments and we should pay attention to them and try to understand what they teach because of the simple fact that God cares for our well-being. By not trying our utmost to observe these commandments in their fundamental principle as representing the ethics of God, we would say to Him, we know better, we do not need Your instructions. Unfortunately, the present state of the world is a testimony of pushing God away from our lives. The Church without the Torah (the Law) has become a lawless Church.
As believers, obeying God's commandments should be a manifestation of our new nature in Messiah. We should live our lives as in His presence because He is Holy and His commandments are an expression of His holiness.
This week’s Parashah enumerates the Holy Days of the LORD and we should observe them not only because a Holy God told us to do so, but also because all these Holy Days speak of the redemptive work of Yeshua, past, present and future. Thus, what better way to come close to our Messiah but to celebrate these Holy Days unto Him, unto the Lord, with the full understanding of their meaning.
"The LORD spoke to Moshe, saying, Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, These are My Appointed Festivals, which you shall proclaim to be holy gatherings:" (Please note: these are not man-made holidays, but God’s Holy Days, if you believe in Him, you must believe and obey His words).
— 1) Shabbat - "Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is the Shabbat, a holy gathering; you shall do no work in it; it is the Shabbat of the LORD." - Symbolizing the eternal Shabbat of worship and rest.
— 2) Pesach - "In the 14th day of the first month at evening is the LORD’s Passover." - Symbolizing the atoning sacrifice of Yeshua on the cross.
— 3) Hag HaMatzot - "And on the 15th day of the same month (Aviv) is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. In the first day you shall have a holy gathering; you shall do no labor in it. In the seventh day is a holy gathering; you shall do no labor in it." - Symbolizing the sinless life that we are called to live as believers - bread without leaven represents life lived without sin.
— 4) Hag HaBikurim, The first “First Fruits” - "When you come to the land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring an Omer of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest; And he shall wave the Omer before the LORD; on the next day after the Shabbat the priest shall wave it." - Symbolizing Yeshua's resurrection, Him being the first "First Fruits" of a new life from the dead.
— 5) Shavuot - The second "First Fruits" - "And you shall count from the next day after the Shabbat, from the day that you brought the Omer of the wave offering; seven Shabbats shall be complete; To the next day after the seventh Shabbat shall you count Fifty Days; and you shall offer a new meal offering to the LORD, two loaves of bread of fine flower baked with leaven, as first fruits to the LORD." - Symbolizing the first outpouring of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, into the Body of Believers, Jews and Gentiles, the "First Fruits" of a new spiritual life.
— 6) Zikaron Teruah (Rosh HaShanah) - "In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a Shabbat, a Memorial of Blowing, a holy gathering. You shall do no labor in it." - Symbolizing the calling of the Jewish people as a nation to repentance which it will happen in the future, hopefully soon.
— 7) Yom Kippur - "Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy gathering to you; and you shall afflict your souls. And you shall do no work in that same day; for it is a Day of Atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. For whatever soul it is who shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatever soul it is who does any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a Shabbat, and you shall afflict your souls; in the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, shall you celebrate your Shabbat." - Symbolizing the realization by the Jewish people of who Messiah was and their acceptance of the atoning sacrifice of Yeshua - "and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB'" (Romans 11:26).
— 8) Sukkot - "The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Booths for seven days to the LORD. On the first day shall be a holy gathering; you shall do no labor in it. On the eighth day shall be a holy gathering to you; it is a solemn assembly, and you shall do no labor in it. You shall take on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. It shall be a statute forever in your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths seven days; all who are Israelites born shall dwell in booths; that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God." - Symbolizing the fulfilled deliverance of God's people, and the Kingdom of God.
Now that the salvation has come to the Gentiles, what a better way for the believing community to fulfill the apostle's Paul words "to make them (the Jewish people) jealous," but by observing the Biblical Holy Days in their true Messianic meaning.
Shabbat joy, peace, and blessings! Shabbat Shalom!
