Seize the Moment – Day 605
Holy days!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, November 12.
Everyone loves a good holiday!
While some see holidays as a chance to sleep in or eat extra, what we find in Numbers 28 and 29 is that there is more to the story, much more! The sacred rhythms of ordinary time are anchored by the observance of holy days, or what we call holidays.
Numbers 28 and 29 commanded the Israelites to keep the sacred rhythms of time to include the daily sacrifices, the weekly Sabbaths, and the major festivals.
Numbers 28 legislated the observance of Passover, also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread (16-25), and the Day of Firstfruits, which begins the Feast of Weeks or Harvest, also called Pentecost (26-31).
Numbers 29 legislated the observance of the Feast of Trumpets (1-6), the Day of Atonement (7-11), and the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles (12-38).
What was the common variable to all these holy days in the Jewish calendar?
Numbers 28:18 & 26 and Numbers 29:1 & 12 prescribe that “you shall do no laborious work.”
It is the same for all the festivals, except for the Day of Atonement where further details are given. Numbers 29:7 explains, “you shall humble yourselves; you shall not do any work.”
There it is! For a holiday to be a holy day, according to the testimony of God’s ancient practices, God’s people must humble themselves from their activity and abstain from work!
And not because work is evil. Please pay attention to the biblical motive for work found in Genesis 1:28—work is God’s idea to partner with Him in bringing His rule to the earth! But, and here’s the point, we, too, as God’s people, who were created to partner in God’s work, must cease from striving and know that He is the One and only God (Psalm 46:10)!
Seize the moment and find rest for your soul by living in the unforced rhythms of God’s grace!