Psalm 119:164-165 says, “Seven
times a day I praise You for Your righteous judgments. Abundant peace belongs
to those who love Your instruction; nothing can make them stumble.”
Seven represents completion
or perfection in the bible. When Jesus said
to forgive 70x7 times, he was saying that we should forgive as long as it was needed
– a complete number of times. Here in
these verses the Psalmist proclaims that they had instilled a practice of
regularly praising the Lord for His commands.
Out of this practice of celebrating the law regularly, a love for the
law was developed and fruit was born from it—abundant peace and stability.
In the same way, love is usually
a prompting towards action, verb, well before it becomes a fruit (feeling) that
compels us to further action. When we
act upon it, we grow in desire which builds momentum. We grow in love by first acting on promptings
towards love and build this up more and more as it grows. All that to say that consistent practices over
time bear fruit in our lives.
We all know this from
sports. We know when we watch
professional athletes that are on television, whether competing for the Olympics
or a professional competition like football, that what we see in performance is
only a small part (highlights) of what was built underneath. We know that they have practiced and lived
their sport all year long to get where they are with it.
In 1 Corinthians 9:27 Paul
says, “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should.
Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be
disqualified.”
In Numbers, we see many
practices being established. Here is a
group of people who struggle, complain and grumble at every turn. But they start to put these practices in
their lives. The practices are designed
to separate them out for God and live for Him.
These practices hold them in
place as a people and center them on God until He comes in the flesh and dwells
among them. When Jesus comes, He
fulfills the law and establishes the New Covenant that is through His
blood. The practices are no longer
needed as the fruit of them has come to full fruition in Jesus.
Starting all the way back in
Numbers 18:26, there was a practice put into place for Pentecost. There was a special, solemn assembly of all
the people to celebrate the new harvest.
On that day, there was an offering of new grain to the Lord. There was also a special burnt offering
accompanied by a grain offering. There
was also one to make atonement for oneself.
These special offerings are in addition to the regular offerings. Pentecost was the last of a group of spring
feasts that started with Passover. It was the crescendo. The offerings were made with a hopeful heart
of the new harvest to come.
Jesus speaks of new wine (the
Holy Spirit empowerment) coming in a new wine skin (those who are saved through
Jesus). This answer came from a question
about why John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting and the disciples of
Jesus were not. His response was that
they would fast when the bridegroom was taken from them and then spoke of a new
wine and wineskin.
All the way back, beneath
this incredible outpouring of the Spirit that happened at Pentecost when a
group of disciples gathered in unity and fasting for a solemn assembly was all
these years over years of generous offerings, fasting, praying and lifting up the “new harvest” with
expectation as they were beginning to see with the first fruits. It was a time of great hopefulness for the
new and also a time of prayer and sacrifice.
Just as with Passover which
started the set of feasts, the people celebrated this festival by sacrifices, a
holy and solemn assembly at the end and by putting aside all work. In fulfillment of these feasts, we know that Jesus enters Jerusalem for the Passover
on the day that the lamb was brought into the house and He dies during the hour
that the lamb was to be slain. Then comes the full fruition of Pentecost
right after with the outpouring of the new wine into the new wine skins.
While these designated feasts in Numbers and Leviticus show the shadow
of Passover to the crucifixion, and the shadow of the Holy Spirit coming with
new wine, what people sometimes miss is the years of form that were spent
fasting, sacrificing and longing with hope and expectation before the full
fruition came about.
My favorite feast falls at
the end of a series of fall feasts. It
is called the Feast of Tabernacles. It
is my favorite because it is about meeting with the Lord face to face. It is a seven-day festival before the Lord
after the Day of Atonement. It starts
and ends on a day of special Sabbath rest, ending with the people coming
together for a solemn assembly. They are days of rest (no hard work to be
done) and also days of great sacrifice.
Sacrifice after sacrifice are given to the Lord during this feast most
likely resulting in an open heaven atmosphere to meet with God.
The Feast of Tabernacles has
been significant throughout history and is associated with Kingdom rule and
outpouring. It was during this feast
that Solomon’s Temple was dedicated to the Lord and the people saw God come and
dwell among them along with a tremendous outpouring of the Spirit. (1 Kings 8:2).
It has also been a time of
restoration of Kingdom order and establishing vows to the Lord. It was when Ezra preached the Word to the
people after having returned to rebuild the temple in Nehemiah 8, resulting in
revival. One source notes, “Ezra’s
preaching resulted in a great revival as the Israelites confessed their sins
and repented of them.” [1]
It was also on the last day
of this feast, after telling the people that in a little while He must go where
they could not follow, that Jesus stood up and said, ‘If anyone thirsts, let
him come to me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out
of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ (John 7:37–39).” [1]
Another source notes, “The
Feast of Tabernacles during the time of Jesus was full of pageantry fueled with
great expectation. It was the ‘season of our rejoicing’ because Jewish people
believed the promise of the Messianic Kingdom actually could be fulfilled during
this time.”[2]
The first feast in this fall
series is the Festival of Trumpets. It
is a solemn time of remembrance and is announced by the loud blowing of trumpets. Then nine days later is the Day of
Atonement. The days from the Trumpets
to Atonement are called, “the 10 days of awe” when the Israelites fast, repent,
examine their lives and forgive. No work
is done on the special day spent in sorrow and repentance. One
article notes about the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur, “It is a very somber
day for Jews, as many wail in repentance, attempting to ensure their names are
written in the Book of Life.”[3]
As the first three feasts are
seen in the fulfillment of Jesus coming to earth and dying on the cross for our
salvation and then the infilling of the Holy Spirit, empowering the church and
filling them with hope for the full harvest, these last three feasts are seen
as a promise of fulfillment of the return of Jesus coming to take His bride and
establish His Kingdom.
Besides these feasts and the weekly Sabbath rest as well as the beginning of month celebration, there was the seventh year for
giving the land rest. Along with this,
every fiftieth year (after 7 x 7 years of giving the land rest), on the Day of Atonement, liberty is proclaimed over the
land and all debts are cancelled. This is
a time of tremendous joy as people are set free from slavery and they inherit
back all land that they had lost. The whole
year is holy to the Lord and people do not need to labor as they eat from that
which the Lord provides divinely.
Besides during the Feast of Tabernacles, it is anticipated by many
that Jesus will return on the Year of Jubilee as people are set free, divinely
provided for and His Kingdom order is established. One article notes, “The progression of
feasts will follow. The trumpet will
announce the coming of Jesus (Feast of Trumpets). Jews will “mourn for Him” and
“weep bitterly” (Zechariah 12:10), fulfilling the Day of Atonement (Yom
Kippur). Then, Jesus will tabernacle
with them (Feast of Tabernacles). By
God’s grace, all the nations of the world will be invited to go up to Jerusalem
to worship at the Feast of Tabernacles, making that the only feast not fully
Jewish! (Zechariah 14:16-18)” [3]
The practice of these feasts
year over year throughout history, like an athlete preparing for the big game, are
preparing the ground for the time to come.
They are a form and structure of generously giving, coming aside, fasting and prayer in hopeful
expectation that are preparing the way and hastening the day.
All that to say that we can
think that little steps in ordering our lives around Christ are insignificant
or don’t bear a great deal of fruit. But, putting the right practices in place and
ordering our lives around them builds on momentum over time. We do not become trained athletes in one
day, but in over and over and over pressing into how we order our lives.
I love that all of these practices in Leviticus and Numbers are feasts. They are not meant to be
drudgery and grit our teeth hard labor. Rather, they are
filled with joy and celebration. They are
joyful times of putting God first in everything. I think sometimes when we think of fasting and repenting, we can think of it as drudgery like digging a ditch in the heat of the day for some
water to fill. But it is meant to be a
time of community, coming together and rejoicing in God.
The result from these feasts
were more productivity. The land
produced more and the people expanded.
There was overflowing joy and a greater connection between the
people.
In ordering one’s life around
practices that achieve the results we desire in our lives, I am reminded of
some actions that help from a book, The Power of Execution, that I read some years ago [4]:
- High
positive energy fuels performance. A perception
of opportunity, adventure and challenge keeps us pressing forward where
negative energy, doubt, fears and self-protection or complaining and grumbling drains
our strength.[4]
- When
we can tie practices with what we find enjoyable, fulfilling and affirming, our
positive emotions will encourage momentum.
Like in these practices where fasting and repentance are tied with
community gathering, solidarity and hopeful expectation, rest and feasting, tying
together discipline with enjoyment helps us sustain it over the long run. [4]
- We want to push ourselves out of our comfort zone as this is how we gain
greater capacity. Like an athlete
training and like these feasts that are during a certain time frame, spirts of
pressing and pushing hard in intervals of intensive effort followed by recovery
and renewal optimizes performance over the long run.[4]
- The
richer and deeper the recovery, the more we grow and the greater our rest. Pressing in without periods of recovery
result in stress. Too much recovery
results in under performance and becoming distracted and discouraged as we lack
fruit from our efforts. It is in the
recovery that we are building strength and are encouraged for the next interval
of pressing in.[4]
For me, where I struggle is
falling into routine. I put the
practices that I desire to see fruit from in my life but I don’t couple it with
pressing myself to expand my capacity by some sprints and intervals. Having a set routine that I don’t have to
think too much about helps me to stay ordered but it also causes me to fall
into it as a habit rather than thoughtful engagement. Also, I struggle with the renewal piece. I order my life in such a way that I fulfill
practices as I feel like I am accomplishing something but don’t allow myself to
enjoy, spend time and revel in renewal as much as I probably need and would
help me to find more joy in my spiritual practices. Somehow my routines become more about performance and accomplishing than they do about celebrating and feasting.
Lord, I can see how these
orderly festivals have borne fruit in the lives of Your people. I am so grateful for those who have went
before in establishing and following these as a means to prepare the ground for
Your coming to die on the cross, sending Your Spirit and also Your eventual return. We look with hopeful expectation of the day
that is to come. Let our hearts, minds
and souls be fully engaged and pressing into all that You have for us.
“I will not stop singing my
song to You, oh Lord” sings.
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