Now, tomorrow is one of the appointed times that God commands that we set aside our normal activities in order to glorify Him.
God commands His people to keep feasts to Him at various seasons of the year because keeping Him at the forefront of our minds is critical to our well-being. These seasons center around agriculture. Up until the Industrial Revolution, which really was not that long, national and community life revolved around agriculture. We’ve all grown up since the Industrial Revolution, so even though we understand the concepts, nearly all of us are largely removed from the reality of living from the land and depending on God for a good harvest. But with each festival season, God brings the focus back to Himself—back to His works and to His providence. It is for the good of His people that He is repeatedly brought to mind. One of the worst calamities is for a man to forget his Creator, Deliverer, and Provider.
So, the pre-incarnate Christ commands keeping the feasts to Him. That’s what verse 14 says. Two of the festival seasons are directly named in agricultural terms: the Feast of Harvest and the Feast of Ingathering. And even though Unleavened Bread is mentioned here in terms of the deliverance from Egypt, that feast also has a connection to agriculture because the wavesheaf offering was made on the day after the Sabbath within Unleavened Bread. That offering to God was required before any harvesting could take place. God had to be acknowledged before the work could move forward.
This passage contains the first mention of the feast we typically call Pentecost. Here it is named “the Feast of Harvest.” That has an obvious literal meaning, but there is a metaphorical one as well. Biblically, the time of harvest can imply receiving the consequences of one’s behavior, whether good or bad. A harvest can be a symbol for a time of evaluation of one’s labors.
That’s what verse 16 says about both the Feast of Harvest and the Feast of Ingathering. In type, those are appointed times when the fruit of our labors are brought before God. Israel did that physically, but we understand that, for the Israel of God, God is most interested in our spiritual labors and the spiritual fruit that comes as a result.
Verse 10 reiterates what we saw in Exodus 23 that the Feast of Weeks is kept to the LORD. It wasn’t just a festive occasion, but a time He set apart for His people to remember Him. The feasts are about Him.
So, while each of God’s festivals teaches us something different, they also have some commonalities. Each festival season has an agricultural focus, which in turn points to God’s providence and natural law and dependence on Him. Each festival season also contains reminders of what God brought His people from. During all three seasons, He says to remember where we came from and what He has done in separating us from this world. He does not want that ever to get far from our minds lest we are tempted to return.
Part of Pentecost’s uniqueness is its emphasis on time. It is the only holy day arrived at by counting. In the Hebrew Scriptures, its primary name is the Feast of Weeks. It is called that five times (Exodus 34:22; Numbers 28:26; Deuteronomy 16:10, 16; II Chronicles 8:13), and the Feast of Harvest once. In the New Testament, Pentekostos is a Greek word that means “count fifty.” Thus, it is a feast that cannot take place until the designated number of weeks, or the number of days, has been fulfilled. The feast is a culmination of a distinctive span of time.
We saw in Exodus 23 that the Feast of Harvest is when we bring before God the firstfruits of our labors that we have sown. Metaphorically, a harvest is a time of evaluation and judgment, a time when efforts bear fruit, whether those efforts are good or bad, serious or half-hearted. What we focus on and spend time on, and the way we conduct ourselves, will … . . .
Another commonality with these feasts is that they are both kept for seven days. That may sound obvious, and it is, but it is worth reviewing God's commands so we don't forget. Back in verse 6, it says, …seven days you must eat unleavened bread. You don't have to turn to these, but I will read to you the same command in other places:
Seven times, God says to eat unleavened bread for seven days. He is very clear.
It is commonly held that Unleavened Bread is about putting sin out of our lives. And while that is an aspect, if we were to go through all of God's instructions for Unleavened Bread, we would see that His reason and emphasis are different. What God overwhelmingly emphasizes is His deliverance, not our work of avoiding leavening and thus sin (Exodus 12:17; Exodus 13:3, 8-9; 23:15; 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:3).
The overarching reason for that feast, and the reason we eat unleavened bread for seven days, is to remember God's deliverance. When we get to the New Testament, Jesus identifies Himself as the bread of God - the bread of life. He was entirely unleavened.
Further, Paul tells us in I Corinthians 5:8, Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Christ is the embodiment of sincerity and truth. He is the One who delivered us from this present, evil age, from spiritual bondage, from the power of darkness. And it is through the strength that He supplies that we have the means to overcome sin. And that strength comes from ingesting His word and beseeching Him to live His life in us every day.
The unleavened bread that God says we must eat for seven days represents Christ Himself. To miss eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth is to miss out on the divine connection with our Savior. Our minds should rebel at the thought of skipping that.
It is similar with Passover. The bread and wine are the symbols of Passover. It wouldn't be Passover without them. These things may just be symbols, but these symbols signal to God our intent and our desire to fulfill all righteousness, even in the symbols.
In the same way, we keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days by eating unleavened bread each day and not merely avoiding leavening. Consider what neglecting to eat the unleavened bread of life every day would signal to God. The symbols matter.
Faithful and righteous Daniel chose to spend the night in a cave of lions rather than give up his bread of life for a single day. That's how important his connection with God, and being strengthened by God, was to Daniel. It is those who know their God who will be strong and carry out great exploits, but that strength and knowledge of God come from continually partaking of what, or of Whom the unleavened bread represents.
We can apply that to the lessons of Unleavened Bread. God says repeatedly that the reason we keep that feast and eat unleavened bread is because of what He did. He delivered Israel from Egypt and the power of the Pharaoh. Likewise, He delivered us from this present evil age and its adversarial ruler. He delivered us from spiritual Egypt and has given us a new home.
Again, God ties the command to observe this feast with His deliverance. This is the fifth reference. God keeps repeating for us why He wants us to observe this feast, and each time it has to do with His deliverance. How we keep it has to do with what is eaten and not eaten, but the reason we keep it is to remember God’s deliverance.
