What annual reminders of important events did God teach Israel? Are we free to observe annual reminders of Christ? Are modified forms of the ancient festivals still observed by many Christians? Let’s look at Deuteronomy 16.
Was Passover originally a remembrance of the Exodus from Egyptian slavery? How was unleavened bread associated with Passover?
Wait for the month of Abib, at which time you must perform the Passover for the Lord your God, because the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt at nighttime during the month of Abib. Offer a Passover sacrifice from the flock or herd to the Lord your God at the location the Lord selects for his name to reside. You must not eat anything containing yeast along with it. Instead, for seven days you must eat unleavened bread, bread symbolizing misery, along with it because you fled Egypt in a great hurry. Do this so you remember the day you fled Egypt for as long as you live. No dough with yeast should appear in any of your territory for seven days. Furthermore, none of the meat that you sacrificed on the first night should remain until morning. (Deuteronomy 16:1-4 CEB)
Could they eat the Passover at home like the original Passover?
Don't offer the Passover sacrifice in just any town where you happen to live. It must be offered at the place where the Lord chooses to be worshiped. Kill the sacrifice at sunset, the time of day when you left Egypt. Then cook it and eat it there at the place of worship, returning to your tents the next morning. Eat thin bread for the next six days. Then on the seventh day, don't do any work. Instead, come together and worship the Lord. (Deuteronomy 16:5-8 CEV)
How many weeks from the Sunday during the days of Unleavened Bread, was the day of Pentecost or Feast of Weeks celebrated?
You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes. (Deuteronomy 16:9-12 ESV)
Was the autumn harvest feast a time of rejoicing for the whole family and others?
You are to celebrate the Festival of Booths for seven days when you have gathered in everything from your threshing floor and winepress. Rejoice during your festival—you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, as well as the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates. You are to hold a seven-day festival for the Lord your God in the place He chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, and you will have abundant joy. (Deuteronomy 16:13-15 HCSB)
If various duties kept some of the family from the sacred assemblies, who must appear?
Every male must appear in the presence of the Lord your God three times a year at the place where he will choose: for the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Seven Weeks, and the Festival of Tents. He must not appear in the Lord’s presence empty-handed, but each one must appear with his own gift, proportional to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you. (Deuteronomy 16:16-17 ISV)
How should they approach the issue of justice within their society?
Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Deuteronomy 16:18-20 KJV)
Were they allowed to set up sacred totem poles as did the pagans before them?
You shall not plant for yourself an Asherah [pole] of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make for yourself. And you shall not set up for yourself a sacred pillar which Yahweh your God hates. (Deuteronomy 16:21-22 LSB)
Do Christians have freedom to keep a day of remembrance or not?
One person values one day over another, another values every day the same. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it for the Lord (Romans 14:5-6a NASB)
Were celebrations under the law like a tutor, that may be used to teach us how to celebrate great events of Christ’s ministry?
Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. (Galatians 3:24-25 NIV)
What annual reminders of important events did God teach Israel? Are we free to observe annual reminders of Christ? Are modified forms of the ancient festivals still observed by many Christians? You decide!
