“Holy Days and Holy Festivals” (Exodus 23:10–19)

“Holy Days and Holy Festivals” (Exodus 23:10–19)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday PM, September 23, 2018

Exodus 23:10–19 (NIV)

¹⁰ “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, ¹¹ but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹² “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.

¹³ “Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.

¹⁴ “Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

¹⁵ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

¹⁶ “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.

“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.

¹⁷ “Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

¹⁸ “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.

“The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.

¹⁹ “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

1. God gives his people the gift of rest, and all are free to enjoy it (10–12).

a. The land was to rest every 7th year (cf. Lev. 25:1–7; 18–22; Deut 15:1–10).

i. As an act of devotion – relinquishing the land to the real owner of the land, the LORD
ii. As an act of faith – trusting God to provide and relying on the bountiful harvest from the previous year
iii. For the sake of the Poor
iv. For the sake of Creation

⦁ The ground
⦁ The wild animals

b. Every 7th day of the week was a day of rest.

i. For your sake
ii. For the sake of the animals of burden
iii. For the sake of the slave – heaviest manual labor burdens
iv. For the sake of the foreigner – migrant workers

2. God gives his people the gift of festivals, and all may enjoy them in true worship and praise to God (13–19).

a. The worship of God is to be whole-hearted and exclusive (13).

i. Whole-hearted obedience.
ii. Exclusive – not even a mention of other gods.

b. The worship of God is scheduled by His Word (14, 17).

i. The Festival of Unleavened Bread was a memorial to celebrate God’s deliverance of his people from bondage in Egypt (15).

⦁ Application: Worship should be a remembrance and celebration of God’s redeeming grace.

ii. The Festival of Harvest was a time to honor God with the best (firstfruits) of what he has blessed his people with (16a).

⦁ Application: Worship is a time of giving God the best of what we have in order to honor him for his grace.

iii. The Festival of Ingathering was a time at the end of the year to honor God in celebration for his bountiful provision (16b).

⦁ Application: Worship is a time of thanksgiving in remembering what our God has done for us.

c. The worship of God is regulated by His Word (18–19).

i. Ancient Prescriptions
ii. Modern Implications

Main Idea: God has established regular times of rest so that his people may be refreshed, and God has regulated worship so that he may be fully honored by his redeemed people.