Monday, June 9, 2014
Exodus 23:17
Monday, June 09, 2014 |
Three times in the year all thy males
shall appear before the LORD God.
This is a very interesting section in the book of
Exodus and it may give you insight into the reasons behind some Jewish
activities today. In this section of Exodus, especially chapter 23 but also chapter 21, 22 and 24, the
Lord is instructing Moses so that he can tell the Jewish people how the Lord
wants them to live.
In the Torah, in the book of Leviticus, the Lord
explains how not only the Jews are to observe the Sabbath, Saturday, the
seventh day of the work week, but the Lord wants the land that He has given to
the Jewish people to be rested every seventh year as well, Leviticus 25:8-24.
As Moses wrote in Exodus 23:10-11 we see a
preview of the Law that God gives Moses to pass along to the Jewish people. The
Lord tells the Jews that they can sow and reap a harvest from the land for six
years, and then the land must be rested. No crops, thus no harvest, the land
must be untouched.
This is the principle of the Sabbath that the Lord
set in motion during the week of creation. The Lord worked for six days to
create the heavens, the earth and all that in them is, and on the seventh day
the Lord rested, Genesis 2:1-3.
It was at that time the Lord introduced the
principle of "Sabbath rest". That is what Moses is discussing in this
second book of the Torah, the five books of Moses. In our devotional reading,
Moses writes to the Jews about the "Sabbath rest" for the land as
well.
Though we don't observe the Sabbath as Christians,
setting aside a day of rest makes good sense on our journey through life.
Someone has said, "come apart to rest, or you will come apart."
Notice at the end of our reading, in fact the last
verse, Moses records the Lord's directive that the “kid”, a baby goat, can not
be cooked in it's mother's milk.
This is the verse that the Orthodox Jews today use
to justify their "kosher eating habits". Religious Jews will not mix
"meat and dairy" items in their meals. The Orthodox, observant Jews,
don't mix the two, meat products with dairy products, at any meal.
Again, this practice of eating "kosher"
is not something we should do to conform to a Jewish life style, but it does
help our overall well being to follow the dietary laws of the Bible, especially
those in the Old Testament. God made our bodies and He surely knows how to take
care of them, so that we can better serve Him.
I skipped over several very interesting verses, verses 14-17, which
actually are the instructions from God, setting in place the three Jewish feast
days that the Jews are to appear before the Lord, early on at the Tabernacle,
and then at the Temple in Jerusalem.
These three days are called the "Pilgrim Feast
Days". The male Jews must make a pilgrimage to the Temple three times a
year to observe three of the Jewish Feasts, Passover and Unleavened Bread,
which is one, verse 15 and
Pentecost and Tabernacles, verse 16.
Even today, Jewish men from around the world, and
usually with their families, make their way to Jerusalem for these three Feast
Days. Two of these three Feast Days will require a pilgrimage by all the Jews,
during the Kingdom to come here on Earth.
These Feast Days, Passover, Ezekiel 45:21, and
Tabernacles, Ezekiel 45:25 will be
at least two of the Pilgrim Feast Days that the Jews must celebrate at the
Temple in Jerusalem during the time of the Kingdom and into eternity future.
The Jews do celebrate these Pilgrim Feast Days,
annually, a foretaste of what will happen in the future during the Kingdom
Period when the Lord Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning from the Temple on the
Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
PRAYER THOT: Thank You Lord for Your
Word that informs me of the activities in the future that will bring honor and
glory to You as we serve You throughout the millennial Kingdom and into
eternity future.