Feasts, Offerings and Jubilee

The book of Leviticus can also be called as the Book of Laws. This book insists on keeping the body holy as well as the soul. It teaches that the redeemed ones must be holy because their redeemer is holy. It shows lessons in hygiene, and sanitation for the care of the body. It also talks about the five offerings and the eight feasts to be observed by the Jewish people.

From the beginning of this book we see how Israel needs to approach God through sacrifice and walk with God by separation. Pagans bring their sacrifice to the altar of their gods, for they realize that they cannot do anything about their sin themselves. But all the sacrifices in this book point to “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). There can no fellowship between God and the sinner until sin has been dealt with’ the only way is sacrifice. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrew 9:22). Five offerings are described in Leviticus. Gods wants us to understand the awful reality of sin, so he asks for a sacrifice each day.

1.       Burnt Offering: “Surrender” of Christ for the world (Leviticus 1).

2.       Grain Offering: “Service” of Christ in life (Leviticus 2).

3.       Fellowship Offering: “Serenity” of Christ in life (Leviticus 3).

4.       Sin Offering: “Substitute” of Christ for sin (Leviticus 4 – 5:13).

5.       Guilt Offering: “Satisfaction” by Christ for demands of God (Leviticus 5:14 – 6:7).

As New Testament believers, what we bring is our sin; what Christ brings is the offering and the atonement for sin.

From Leviticus 8 to 10, we see the duties of the Priests. No one could bring his or her own sacrifice to God. Each one had to bring it to the priest and he in turn would offer it to God. God chose one tribe out of the twelve to care for the Tabernacle. This was the tribe of Levi. One family of Levites, Aaron’s, should be the priests. The priests had the charge of the sacrifices and were supported by the tithes of the people. The priest offered the prayers and praises and sacrifices of the people to God in their behalf. He stood for them and pleaded their cause. In Leviticus 10, we see the failure of priesthood by Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who in turn were consumed by fire from the Lord.

Animal sacrifices are no longer necessary because all sacrifices were fulfilled in Christ. Therefore priests are no longer necessary. Christ himself is the great high priest for humanity (Hebrews 2:17; 4:15). He is the only mediator between God and humanity. No one else can come between God and humanity. We approach God through Christ Jesus and him alone (Hebrews 10:12; 7:25; John 14:6).

The sacrifices spoke of the blood that saved and the feasts spoke of the food that sustains. Five great festivals are mentioned in Leviticus 23

The feast of the Sabbath (Leviticus 23:1-3): Day of worship and rest, celebrating the finished work of God in creation (Genesis 2:2-3). Christians celebrate the first day of the week, the day our Lord arose from the grave (Luke 24:1; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2). Thus we celebrate the finished work of redemption.

The Feasts of the Passover (Leviticus 23:4-5) and Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6): Passover spoke of redemption and was celebrated every spring time. It lasted for 1 day, but the Feast of Unleavened Bread that immediately followed lasted 7 days. Christians celebrate Easter these days.

The feasts of First Fruits (Leviticus 23:1-14) and Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15-22): Israel observer first fruits during the feast of unleavened bread. In the current calendar it comes on April – May months. This fruits typified Christ’s resurrection and ours (1 Corinthians 15:20). 50 days later Passover was observed. 50 days after Christ’s resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples and the Church was born. Pentecost was the birthday of the Church. Since April 1, 2018 is Easter, Christians celebrate Pentecost on May 20, 2018.

The feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23: 23-25): this is the New Year’s Day (Rosh Hashanah) of Jewish people. They celebrate it in the fall, in September 2018. This feast points forward to the future gathering of the dispersed people of Israel (Zechariah 14:16).

Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32): This followed the feast of trumpets by 10 days. This was the most solemn day of the year of God’s chosen people. On this day the sins of the nation were confessed. Jehovah’s relationship to his people was established. This was the only day in the year when the high priest was permitted to enter the holy of holies. Jewish people it this year on September 19-20. For Christians, we can run into God’s presence at any time for Christ has made the way possible for us (Ephesians 3:12).

Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33-36): This was the last required feast of the year. It is also called feast of Booths or ingathering. Celebrated in the fall and lasts for a week, it commemorated the time when children of Israel lived in tents during their wilderness journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, Israel. This feast recalled them that in spite of their unbelief God was faithful in caring for them and brought them to their inheritance. It comes on September 24 to October 1, 2018.

The Sabbatical Year (Leviticus 25:1-7): this was the year of meditation and devotion. It was a year of Sabbath. Every day was like the Sabbath, and the minds of the people were kept on the things of the Lord. Last Sabbatical year was on 2014 and the next one is on 2021.

The year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-55): This was celebrated every 50^th year. It was inaugurated on the day of Atonement with the blowing of trumpets. As in the Sabbatical year, the land was not cultivated and all slaves were freed. 2017 was an year of Jubilee.

Seven is a significant number in Leviticus.

·         Every 7^th day was the Sabbath

·         Every 7^th year was a sabbatical year

·         Every 7 times 7 years was followed by a year of Jubilee

·         Pentecost was 7 weeks after Passover

·         In the 7^th month were the feasts of trumpet, tabernacles and atonement

·         Pentecost lasted 7 days

·         Passover also lasted for 7 days

All these feasts and years are very important to the chosen people. The years which come along the Jubilee and sabbatical years mark a special importance not only to Israel but to the entire world. In BC 538 the Jews were allowed to return to the land of Israel from Babylonia to build their Temple. In BC 333 another Jubilee year, Persian rule ended and the land was conquered by Alexander the Great. In AD 70, a year followed the Jubilee, the destruction of Jerusalem and temple happened. In 1517, a catholic priest called Martin Luther was born who challenged the hypocrisy done by the church and protestant reformation was given birth. In 1867 when the Jews were facing much persecution from the world, they were freed from Austria and Hungary. In 1917, Great Britain gave support to Jews for getting back their native land. In 1967, the famous 6 days war were the Arab nations attacked Israel and Israel’s win happened in a Jubilee year, in which Jerusalem was recaptured by Israel. 2017 was the 120^th jubilee year for Israel and guess what, in 2018 the top countries are accepting Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

If God can keep his promise for a chosen nation who did not obey him, how much more he cares for the New Testament Israel, the people who follow Jesus Christ. We don’t need to follow any feast of offering as everything had been done and finished by Christ Jesus. Our only duty is to believe and live for Christ to inherit the blessings God gave to the chosen nation.

May God enable you to follow Christ, confess your sins and accept him as your saviour so that you, as a new Israel will inherit the promises and blessing of Jehovah.

The BOOK – Atonement Offerings

In the book of Exodus we see how God gave instruction to Moses to build the tabernacle. We can also see Moses walking with God and getting glory in God’s presence. In Leviticus God is continuing to give laws and commands to observe and obey. One of them is keeping the body holy as well as soul. We can find lessons of hygiene and sanitation for the care of the body. This book deals with the service of Levites and the Priests.

With respect to the second verse we can believe that God expects each person to listen to it and obey. This book tells us about five offerings such as Burnt offering, Grain offering, Fellowship offering, Sin offering and Guilt offering. It also tells us about eight feasts – Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, Sabbath Year and Jubilee. As this book is called the Book of Atonement, it reveals God’s picture pointing forward to the work of Jesus Christ.

When you check the book of Leviticus from Chapter 1 to 6, we see how an unholy person can approach a Holy God? It shows, the way to God is sacrifice and the walk with God is by separation. All people believe that sin separates them from their God. Unbelievers nowadays also do sacrifices to their Gods to come out of sins. But in this book all the sacrifices mentioned points to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29). Sin may be forgiven, but it must receive its penalty and the penalty of sin is death. (Romans 6:23). You cannot have fellowship with God until your sins are forgiven. (Hebrews 9:22). In this book, five offerings are mentioned here to sacrifice each day.

Burnt Offering: This is the first offering to be done. This can be termed as an offering of Dedication. This was the most common sacrifice in the ancient temple. We can see how the preparations are to be done and how the sacrifice needs to be done. This symbolizes Christ offering himself without spot to God. Dedication is our part and Consecration is God’s part. We dedicate ourselves to God and he consecrated us to his service.

Grain Offering: As the burnt offering typifies Christ in death, grain offering typifies Christ in life. Fine flour speaks about Christ’s perfection in thought, in word and in action. We must come with burnt offering and then grain offering. We must dedicate our self to God and have the same thought, word and action as of Christ in having a fellowship with God.

Fellowship Offering: This thanksgiving offering represents fellowship and communion with

God. While reading this, think about Christ who is our peace, who reconciled all things to himself by making peace through his blood. Because of Christ we have peace with God.

Sin Offering: In the other offerings the offerer comes as a worshipper, but here as a convicted sinner. In this offering we see an acknowledgement of sin. God has accepted the one offering of his son, which every lesser offering typified. In unbelievers, worshipers bring sacrifices to their god; Christians accept the sacrifice from the God.

Guilt Offering: The blood of guilt offering cleanses the conscience and the injurer is forgiven and the injured becomes a gainer. 

The bullocks, oxen, goats, sheep, turtle, doves and pigeons are mentioned for sacrifices. None of these sacrifices forgave sin. They only pointed forward to the true sacrifice of God’s very own sons.

Here what we bring is our sin and what Christ brings is the offering and the atonement for the sin. 

Some people may find it tough to understand these offerings. These are some theological meanings on how Jesus gave his life for us. We are sinners by birth and we do sins in our daily life. Not only had us, Israelites also done the same. Since we are humans, we sin. But God is holy and with the sin we cannot talk with God. In simple words, if you are a sinner, the prayers you pray will not be listened by God. So for taking out that separation between God and sinners, God gave these sacrifices and offerings to Israel. But all these are temporary way of salvation. So God himself came as man, lived a holy life, and died for not his sins, but for our sins so that we can be saved. 

Now since Christ became our sacrifice and offering, we no need to do any other sacrifice. Christ’s death was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. We need to accept Christ as our saviour, repent of our sins and directly come before God and our prayers will be listened by God.

I pray that you understand the real sacrifice of Christ Jesus for your sin, accept him, and repent of your sins and live a testimonial life.