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The Great Day
(Numbers 29.7-11)
26 The Lord God said to Moses:
27The tenth day of the seventh month is the Great Day of Forgiveness. It is a solemn day of worship; everyone must go without eating to show sorrow for their sins, and sacrifices must be burned. 28No one is to work on that day—it is the Great Day of Forgiveness, when sacrifices will be offered to me, so that I will forgive your sins. 29I will destroy anyone who refuses to go without eating. 30-31None of my people are ever to do any work on that day—not now or in the future. And I will wipe out those who do! 32This is a time of complete rest just like the Sabbath, and everyone must go without eating from the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth.
The Festival of Shelters
(Numbers 29.12-40)
33 The Lord told Moses 34to say to the community of Israel:
Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and continuing for seven days, everyone must celebrate the Festival of Shelters in honor of me. 35No one is to do any work on the first day of the festival—it is a time when everyone must come together for worship. 36For seven days, sacrifices must be offered on the altar. The eighth day is also to be a day of complete rest, as well as a time of offering sacrifices on the altar and of coming together for worship.
37I have chosen these festivals as times when my people must come together for worship and when animals, grain, and wine are to be offered on the proper days. 38These festivals must be celebrated in addition to the Sabbaths and the times when you offer special gifts or sacrifices to keep a promise or as a voluntary offering.
39Remember to begin the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the seventh month after you have harvested your crops. Celebrate this festival for seven days in honor of me and don't do any work on the first day or on the day following the festival. 40Pick the best fruit from your trees and cut leafy branches to use during the time of this joyous celebration in my honor. 41I command you and all of your descendants to celebrate this festival during the seventh month of each year. 42For seven days every Israelite must live in a shelter, 43so future generations will know that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
44This is how Moses instructed the people of Israel to celebrate the Lord's festivals.
Reflect
While some of the Bible festivals are somber occasions many are full of joy. God is not only a God who delights in the praises of his people but who delights in giving his people something to praise him about. He likes a good festival where people can celebrate his goodness and the goodness of the life he offers them. One of the most cheerful is the Feast of Tabernacles.
On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees – from palms, willows and other leafy trees – and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. Celebrate this is as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year (vv 40 and 41 NIV).Seven days! Who has parties or festivals or celebrations that last a week? With all the waving of palm fronds and willow branches and singing songs to God and dancing the holy dances of the children of Israel, some slow, some fast, some faster, and faster, and faster yet. All the time living in huts to remind them how people lived in temporary shelters when God brought Israel out of Egypt.
We have lost something vital to the heart of God if all our worship is only of the somber kind. We have also lost something if all our worship only lasts a convenient sixty minutes once a week. What if we held worship celebrations once every year that lasted a full week? No lectures, no sermons, no long teaching sessions, just worship. Some of it slow, some of it fast, some of it loud, some of it soft, some of it with piano, some with acoustic guitars, some with worship bands, some with orchestras, some with organ, some with mixed choirs, some with only the human voice.
Does your God ever wear a cheerful face? Like he does so often in the festivals and celebrations of the children of Israel?
Respond
It may be, Lord, that sometimes life weighs me down. It may be that sometimes the way I worship also weighs me down and never lifts me up like you intended it should. I would like to cut the branch of a leafy tree sometimes and wave it in joy for who you are and what you have done for me. Help me to find the way to the celebration of your love that not only lasts seven days, but lasts forever. In the name of Jesus. Before whom they waved the branches of the palm tree in pure happiness at his coming. Amen.
Murray Pura
Murray Pura, a native of Manitoba, is an ordained minister with Masters degrees from Acadia University and Regent College in Vancouver BC. At Regent he studied under JI Packer and also produced a thesis on William Wilberforce which was subsequently published under the title "Vital Christianity". Murray has served churches in Canada and the US. A writer in Christian theology and Christian fiction both, he currently writes full time and is represented by Steve Laube Agency in Phoenix, AZ. Murray has published with HarperCollins, Zondervan, HarperOne San Francisco, Baker, Barbour and Harvest House, to name a few. He has won the Word Guild Award for Best Historical Novel and has also been shortlisted for the Kobzar Literary Award of Toronto. His devotional writings include the books "Rooted" (Zondervan), "Streams" (Zondervan), and "Majestic & Wild" (Baker). He also wrote the study notes for Exodus and Luke in The Life With God Bible (Harper Collins).