The Feast of Trumpets (Numbers 29:1-6)
“The LORD also said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts. You must not do any ordinary work, but you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD.’”
The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-34; Numbers 29:7-11)
Again the LORD said to Moses, “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You shall hold a sacred assembly and humble yourselves, (or afflict your souls) and present an offering made by fire to the LORD. On this day you are not to do any work, for it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. If anyone does not humble himself on this day, he must be cut off from his people. I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on this day.
You are not to do any work at all. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live. It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble your souls. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to keep your Sabbath.”
The Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:13-18; Zechariah 14:16-21)
And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernacles to the LORD begins, and it continues for seven days. On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly. (That is, Sukkot, the autumn feast of pilgrimage to Jerusalem; also translated as the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Shelters and originally called the Feast of Ingathering (see Exodus 23:16 and Exodus 34:22)
You are not to do any regular work. For seven days you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a solemn assembly; you are not to do any regular work.
These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting offerings by fire to the LORD—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day. These offerings are in addition to the offerings for the LORD’s Sabbaths, and in addition to your gifts, to all your vow offerings, and to all the freewill offerings you give to the LORD.
On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the produce of the land, you are to celebrate a feast to the LORD for seven days. There shall be complete rest on the first day and also on the eighth day.
On the first day you are to gather the fruit of majestic trees, the branches of palm trees, and the boughs of leafy trees and of willows of the brook, and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.
You are to celebrate this as a feast to the LORD for seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come; you are to celebrate it in the seventh month.
You are to live in booths for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in booths, so that your descendants may know that I made the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’” So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed feasts of the LORD.”
The seventh month is a month of celebration. The first day of the seventh month is the Feast of Trumpets, marked by the blowing of trumpets, offerings, feasts, and rest from work. The tenth day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement, also known as Yom Kippur. “On this day you are not to do any work, for it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. If anyone does not humble himself on this day, he must be cut off from his people. I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on this day. You are not to do any work at all. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live. It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble your souls. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to keep your Sabbath.” The Day of Atonement is a day for people to confess their sins but also to reconcile with anyone with whom they have had disagreements. The idea is to achieve a spiritual cleansing before moving into the rest of the year.
Finally, there is the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot. Sukkot is a delightful festival during which families are supposed to make booths from leafy branches and live in them for a week in honor of the fashion in which the Israelites had to live when they first came out of Egypt.
Each of these feasts is accompanied by special offerings and by times of rest. God wants His people to rest but also to rejoice.
APPLICATION: Joy is health-giving. Recently we have had a series of unfortunate patients with typhoid perforations, some of whom have developed intestinal fistulas. Using aggressive nutritional treatments, we are slowly succeeding in seeing these patients improving. We have realized that patients are definitely getting better when they begin smiling and laughing. Their very joy is helping them to heal.
In an earlier era, doctors used to describe the “positive lipstick syndrome.” At a time when many women routinely wore cosmetics, doctors knew their female patients were improving when they began applying lipstick and wearing bed jackets over their ugly hospital gowns.
The Lord God of the universe is a God of celebrations! God loves us and wants us to enjoy His creation. Let us praise and thank Him!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, thank You for times of celebration and joy! Help us to celebrate You as much as we do other things such as birthdays and anniversaries. In the might and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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