Out of Zion

Dr. Susan Michael: God has a calendar and it is full of appointed times to meet with Him and remember His mighty acts of the past and thank Him for the present and anticipate the fulfillment of all of His promises in the future. These appointed times, what we call feasts, are rich in meaning and are as valid today as they were the day He instructed the children of Israel to observe them.

Welcome to this week's Shabbat Shalom devotional when I seek to share just a little inspiration and bring a little peace to the close of your very busy week. This week's Torah portion is called Emor, which means "to speak." It's Leviticus 21 through 24 and we're going to concentrate on Leviticus 23 where it describes all the various feasts of the Lord.

In verse 1 of 23 says this: "The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts." That's very important. These are not Jewish feasts, these are not feasts of Israel, these are God's feasts. And this chapter introduces us to the fact that God has a whole calendar of appointed times.

We can ignore His calendar and miss the opportunities to meet with Him. We can deceive ourselves that the calendar no longer matters, it's no longer valid, because through Christ we can come to the Lord at any time and from anywhere. And while that is true, I just want to point out that according to the Hebrew prophets, in the messianic era, we will be observing Shabbats and new moons and celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles at the very least.

So I think we need to take a few minutes to talk about God's calendar. It starts with the Sabbath, which preexisted the children of Israel. We tend to think the Sabbath is for Israel, we're no longer under that rule, but the Sabbath was a part of creation. It's universal and it alludes to the universal goal of rest for the world.

Now we know that true rest only comes when the creation is ruled by God. He created the Sabbath rest for that creation and we lost it. And we entered into toil of the soul and in sin and rebellion. But one day, the creation, including mankind, will experience the kingdom of God, the rule of God on Earth, and will enter into its rest. That's what Sabbath is all about and it's pointing us to the creator God, His creation, and His goal of rest for mankind.

So now we enter into the other feasts in Leviticus 23 and there's spring feasts, summer feasts, and fall feasts. And most Christians are familiar with the first four feasts because they have a Christian fulfillment. So that's the Feast of Passover, unleavened bread, and firstfruits, which were all fulfilled in that last week and day of Jesus's life, His death and His resurrection on the Feast of Firstfruits.

Then we have the summer feast of Shavuot or in Greek it was called Pentecost. And it found its fulfillment in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the early believers. So the church celebrates Pentecost. They don't always know about the biblical feast of Shavuot that it would denote, but at least they are familiar with the word Pentecost.

But the fall feasts for a long time, the church was totally ignorant about. And that's because they did not have a Christian fulfillment. The feast of the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. Tabernacles is a celebration of the final harvest and coming of the kingdom of God on Earth. And it is a time, it's a feast that will be celebrated by all the nations according to the Hebrew prophet Zechariah.

So there's rich teaching on each of these feasts. I just want to point out that the word "feast" in English sort of gives us the wrong impression of these events. The word in Hebrew is Moed, which means an appointed time. So they are appointed times on God's calendar to meet with His people and to commemorate and be reminded of His mighty acts in past, but also there was a present-day fulfillment usually around the harvest, the rain, thanking God for these things, with an eye on the future.

This is why the ICEJ began celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles back some 40 years ago and why we continue to prepare the nations to come up to Jerusalem to celebrate in that messianic era because it will be a celebration of the final harvest and the coming of the kingdom of God on Earth and that latter rain where the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh and the glory of the Lord will fill the Earth.

That is what we celebrate in the Feast of Tabernacles. So there's so much more we could say, but for there we need to call it to an end and I'm going to close by wishing you Shabbat Shalom.