_These are My feasts._ THE HOLY FESTIVALS I. Commentators generally on this part of Hebrew law have remarked upon the social, political, and commercial benefits resulting to the Jewish people from these national festivals and convocations. They served to unite the nation, cemented them together as... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s passover._ THE PASSOVER The typical character of the Old Testament is a subject full of instruction, and one which opens a very extensive field of investigation before the mind of the Christian student. It presents itself to our view n... [ Continue Reading ]
_When ye be come into the land._ THE CONDITIONS OF THE SPIRITUAL LAND-TENURE I. Man’s true relation to the land of promise. 1. In his original estate man realised his dependence upon God, and his responsibility before God for the true and righteous use of all God’s gifts. As long as man used God’s... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wave the sheaf._ THE FIRST-FRUITS The design of these festivals was two-fold: they were eucharistic or commemorative, and they were also typical or prophetic. This ordinance is not a distinct festival, but a ceremony observed during the feast of unleavened bread, as the Paschal Feast is sometimes... [ Continue Reading ]
_And ye shall Count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath._ THE FEAST OF PENTECOST We are now to consider that which was properly the second annual festival of the Jewish nation--the Feast of Pentecost. The distinctive ceremony observed upon this clay was the presentation of a new meat-offerin... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not make clean riddance._ GLEANING The benevolent provision made in our text for the poor and stranger proclaims its author: even God, whose tender mercies are over all His works, who is the Friend of the friendless, and has enjoined that even fragments are to be gathered, that nothing may be los... [ Continue Reading ]
_A memorial of blowing of trumpets._ THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS The ordinance of the trumpets occupied a conspicuous part in the Jewish ceremonial; and when we consider the various particulars which were prescribed regarding them, and the purposes to which they were applied, we cannot but feel that the... [ Continue Reading ]
_For it is a day of atonement._ THE DAY OF ATONEMENT The seventh month was one peculiarly distinguished in the Jewish year, no less than three of the annual festivals being assigned to it. On the first day was the Feast of Trumpets, on the fifteenth the Feast of Tabernacles, and on the tenth was t... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Feast of Tabernacles._ THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES I. It was a protracted religious meeting. II. It was a thanksgiving for God’s bounty in a completed harvest. III. It was a commemoration of mercies attempering hardships and dangers. IV. It was an expression of the joyful side of religion, V... [ Continue Reading ]