Israel’s Calendar Was a Classroom: What Their Festivals Teach About God

ABSTRACT: God appointed a series of annual festivals to order Israel’s year around celebrations of his works of deliverance and provision. The celebrations were meant not only to remind but also to instruct the people about who God was and how he had worked in their midst. Understanding the nature and purpose of these festivals, outlined in Leviticus 23, provides Christians the necessary tools to read them well and apply them in the life of the church today.

When I was growing up, there were certain rituals that my family engaged in. These rituals did two things: They reminded me of important truths and taught me important lessons.

To take just one example: On birthdays, we always took time out of our regular activities to celebrate. Doing so reminded me of the importance of this person in my life and taught me the importance of showing them my love in tangible ways.

Simply put, rituals serve as important reminders and as wonderful teaching tools. It is no wonder, then, that the Lord wove ritual celebrations into the life of the Israelites. He wanted them to have regular reminders of who he was and what he had done for them, and he wanted them to teach these important truths to the generations to come.

Some of the most powerful rituals were Israel’s annual holy times. While Christians, as members of the new covenant, are no longer required to celebrate these old-covenant festivals today, they have much to teach us about God’s character and deeds, especially as they relate to the redemption he has brought about in and through Jesus.

The annual holy times are described most fully in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28–29. We’ll focus on Leviticus 23 in what follows. For each one, I’ll briefly identify the holy time’s purpose and its time of celebration; then I’ll follow with a fuller description of what it was meant to teach Israel — and what it can teach us.

Spring Holy Days (March Through June)

The following holy times were observed in the first half of the year: Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Offering of the Firstfruits, and the Festival of Weeks/Harvest/Pentecost.

Passover and Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:5–8)

Purpose: For the Israelites to celebrate how the Lord rescued them from his judgment on Egypt and delivered them from slavery.

Time of year: Month 1, day 14 (Passover), and month 1, days 15–21 (Festival of Unleavened Bread). In today’s calendar: sometime in March or April.

God commanded the Israelites to slaughter a lamb on the evening of the last plague and place its blood on the doorposts of their homes. Later that night, when God went through the land and slew all the firstborn, he passed over every home that had the blood, and any firstborn within that home was safe (Exodus 12:23, 29–30). The next day, the Egyptians urged the Israelites to leave so quickly that they did not have time to add yeast to their dough and so ate unleavened bread as they began their journey of freedom (Exodus 12:34, 39). The feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread — observed back-to-back — remembered and celebrated these events.

The importance of this rescue and deliverance in Israelite history cannot be overstated. In fact, the Lord commanded that their calendar now begin with this month (Exodus 12:2), the month of his liberation, meaning the Israelites would begin each year with the reminder that their God was above all a redeeming God. To put it differently: This was their Easter, the moment when the Lord saved them from judgment and slavery and freed them into his glorious service.

Not surprisingly, the New Testament connects this celebration of deliverance with the far greater deliverance that happens in Jesus. As I have noted elsewhere:

The New Testament writers use the Passover to explain the death of Jesus, who was crucified at the same general time as the Passover (Matthew 26:17; 27:15–26), and is described as “our Passover lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7). It is a fitting metaphor, since Jesus’s sacrifice also delivers us from the Lord’s judgment (1 Thessalonians 1:10) and leads us out of sin’s slavery into adoption as the Lord’s children (John 1:12; Ephesians 1:5; cf. Exodus 4:22). It is during the communion meal, instituted by Jesus at the Passover feast (Luke 22:1–23), that Christians remember and proclaim, “Jesus, you are the mighty Savior, the sacrificial lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (cf. Isaiah 53:5–12; John 1:29)¹

Offering of the Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:9–14)

Purpose: For the Israelites to honor the Lord as their provider by giving back to him the firstfruits of their harvest. These firstfruits would in turn support the priests.

Time of year: The day after the first Sabbath of the harvest. In today’s calendar: sometime in April.

The barley harvest came first in Israel, happening in the early spring. Bringing these firstfruits was a way to acknowledge God’s provision, both of the harvest and of the bountiful land he had provided. Deuteronomy 26:1–10 gives a script for the Israelites to repeat when they presented their gifts. The script rehearses the Lord’s deliverance of Israel, his leading them to the land of milk and honey, and his provision of the harvest. It could not be clearer that the Lord is a God who graciously redeems and bountifully provides.

To present the firstfruits was therefore especially appropriate because the firstfruits were considered the harvest’s very best (Numbers 18:12). Lavish provision from God called for lavish praise to God, a tangible proclamation that he was the King worthy of their very best. Moreover, by requiring the Israelites to present these firstfruits before they themselves ate from the harvest (Leviticus 23:14), the law protected them from taking the Lord’s provision for granted. “Thankfulness is one of the first emotions to evaporate; this requirement made sure the Israelites gave proper thanksgiving and honor to their bountiful King before enjoying his generous provision (cf. Deuteronomy 26:10–11; Proverbs 3:9–10).”² As they say in fundraising circles, “Thank before you bank.”

As a final note, the Lord took the Israelites’ firstfruits and gave them to support the priests (Numbers 18:12–13), who were without land and therefore dependent on the Israelites’ offerings. In this way, the Israelites were taught the importance of caring for their spiritual leaders’ physical needs.

The themes named above remain important for believers today. When we give of our treasure, time, or talent to the Lord, we are acknowledging that he is the one who has generously provided these things to us in the first place. We are returning to him what is already his. And when we give the best of these things, we are saying that he is worthy of the best we have — because he is the one most worthy of praise. Finally, the New Testament also teaches that those who devote themselves to serving the church should have their physical needs met by it (1 Corinthians 9:13–14; Galatians 6:6). Providing for pastors is important for the sake of the gospel and the church. “Hungry shepherds cannot care well for their sheep.”³

Festival of Weeks (Leviticus 23:15–22)

Purpose: For the Israelites to honor the Lord as their provider by giving back to him the firstfruits of their harvest. These firstfruits would in turn support the priests.

Time of year: The fiftieth day after offering the firstfruits. In today’s calendar: sometime in May or June.

Wheat ripens later than barley, so there was a second harvest festival seven weeks after the first. Though not named here, other passages give this festival one of three names, each highlighting a different aspect of it: “the Festival of Weeks (occurs seven ‘weeks’ after firstfruits presentation), the Festival of the Harvest of Firstfruits (corresponds to the wheat harvest ‘firstfruits’), and, in postexilic times, Pentecost,” since it occurs on the fiftieth day after firstfruits (“fiftieth” is pentekostos in Greek).⁴

As a harvest festival, its purpose mirrors the previous one: giving thanks and honor to the Lord as well as providing for his priests. But the laws for this festival add another element by ending with this command: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 23:22). This verse repeats a law given earlier in Leviticus 19:9–10. By repeating it, the Lord taught the Israelites the value that he puts on compassion and care for others. Maximizing personal profit is not the highest priority for Yahweh followers. Caring for fellow image-bearers is.

The New Testament applications will be the same as those named for the Offerings of the Firstfruits, with the added emphasis here on the importance of showing compassion and care for the less fortunate, which was taught by Jesus (Matthew 5:42; Luke 14:13) and by his apostles after him (James 1:27). Because God has been so generous in his provision to us, we should consider it a privilege to embody his generosity to others.

Fall Holy Days (September/October)

The following holy times were observed in the second half of the year, all in the seventh month: the Day of Trumpet Blasts, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and the Festival of Booths/Succoth/Ingathering (and its Closing Assembly).

Day of Trumpet Blasts (Leviticus 23:23–25)

Purpose: For the Israelites to acknowledge that Yahweh was their God and to ask for his favor.

Time of year: Month 7, day 1. In today’s calendar: sometime in September or October.

The Day of Trumpet Blasts is celebrated today in Judaism as Rosh Hashanah, marking the start of the New Year. (Whether it functioned that way in ancient Israel is debated.)⁵ The law for this day opens by saying, “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:24). The word memorial here could also be translated reminder and leads to an important question: Who was this reminder of trumpet blasts for?

Numbers 10:10 helps answer this question. There, God makes clear that trumpets could be used as a reminder of the Israelites before the Lord. Of course, the Lord had not forgotten his people. Rather, the biblical

language of remembrance describes the Lord showing his people they are in the forefront of his thoughts. He does this by granting them favor (Genesis 8:1; 19:29; 30:22; Numbers 10:9) and, in particular, by demonstrating faithfulness to his covenant promises (Genesis 9:15, 16; Exodus 2:24; 6:5; 32:13; Leviticus 26:42, 45). The “reminder” is thus a request from the Israelites, “O Lord, show us your favor and be faithful to your covenant promises to us.”⁶

That the Lord commanded Israel to seek his favor in this way was his encouragement that he loved to give it! And this glorious truth applies just as much to us today. Jesus teaches us to come to our heavenly Father with our needs, knowing that he is not stingy with his care and provision but lavish (Matthew 7:7–10). Jesus puts a point on this by concluding, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).

Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26–32)

Purpose: For the Israelites to make atonement for their sins and impurities.

Time of year: Month 7, day 10. In today’s calendar: sometime in September or October.

In Hebrew, “day of atonement” is yom kippur, which gives this holy time its name in modern Judaism. While Leviticus 23 emphasizes that the Israelites must be sure to celebrate this day — especially by “humbling themselves” through prayer and fasting and avoiding all work — Leviticus 16 describes the tabernacle ritual to be performed by the high priest. From that chapter, we learn that the high priest makes atonement in three distinct phases.

In the first phase, the Israelites’ sins and impurities are pictured as a defiling substance clinging to the tabernacle and needing to be cleansed away (Leviticus 16:11–19). (Compare how we might think of improper actions on the part of a family member bringing shame on the entire household and how that shame needs to be cleansed away from the household.) The cleansing happens by means of the sin offerings (often now translated by commentators as “purification offerings”),⁷ especially by placing their blood on the objects to be cleansed. Sacrificial blood has the power to cleanse sin and impurity — a point New Testament writers emphasize when speaking of the sacrificial blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:14; 1 John 1:7).

In the second phase, the Israelites’ sins are treated as a lethal burden that needs to be borne away (Leviticus 16:20–22). This happens as the high priest confesses the Israelites’ sins and places them on the scapegoat’s head — meaning the scapegoat now bears responsibility for them. “To bear sin on one’s head means to be held responsible for it. ‘Judge between your servants, condemning the guilty and bringing down on their heads what they have done,’ prays Solomon, asking the Lord to hold the guilty responsible for their wrongs (2 Chronicles 6:23).”⁸ When the scapegoat is then sent into the wilderness, cut off from the people of God, it both removes the sin from their midst and bears the penalty that sin deserves: It is cut off so the people don’t have to be.

In the third phase, additional atoning sacrifices are made (16:24b). Since repeating an act three times in Israel was a way to emphasize it (see, for example, 1 Samuel 20:41), these final sacrifices made clear that the atonement of that day was full and complete. It’s also worth noting that the year of jubilee that took place every fifty years would start on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:9). How fitting that, having experienced the Lord’s extreme grace and generosity in forgiving their spiritual debts, the Israelites now had the opportunity to forgive one another’s material debts.

Biblical authors in both the Old Testament and the New Testament look back to the Day of Atonement as they explain God’s ways of working in the world. When Isaiah describes the suffering servant who would bear the penalty of others’ sins, he uses the language of the scapegoat (in what follows, words in italics are parallel to the language of Leviticus 16:21–22):

He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities. . . . He was cut off out of the land of the living. . . . He shall bear their iniquities. . . . He bore the sin of many. (Isaiah 53:5a, 8b, 11–12)

This is especially significant because New Testament writers see the suffering servant as a picture of Jesus, who “bore our sins in his body on the tree” and by whose “wounds [we] have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24; see also Acts 8:32–33; Hebrews 9:28). He is the servant who was also the scapegoat, removing the sin of others and suffering for it in their place.

Other authors pick up on other aspects of the Day of Atonement and apply them to Jesus. As noted above, his blood is the ultimate means of cleansing sin away (Hebrews 9:14; 1 John 1:7). The book of Hebrews leans into the “how much more” of Jesus, contrasting the work of Israel’s high priest, who had to repeat the same sacrifices year after year, with the work of Jesus as the great high priest, whose atoning sacrifice of himself dealt with sin once and for all (Hebrews 9:25–10:10). Indeed, the blood of Jesus cleanses so deeply that believers today have confidence to do what lay Israelites would never dream of doing: enter the Most Holy Place, fully clean and pure through the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19–22).

Festival of Booths (and Its Closing Assembly) (Leviticus 23:33–36, 39–43)

Purpose: For the Israelites to celebrate the Lord’s provision in the harvest and to rehearse the story of his deliverance for future generations.

Time of year: Month 7, days 15–22. In today’s calendar: sometime in September or October.

The Festival of Booths was significant for two reasons. First, because this festival took place at the end of the harvest (Leviticus 23:39), it was a time to celebrate God’s rich provision and to honor him as the great provider. Second, during the festival, the Israelites were to build temporary shelters to dwell in. These were known in Hebrew as sukkoth (leading to this festival’s name in modern Judaism) and they had a teaching purpose: “You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 23:42–43).

In short, this was a festival of praise and remembrance: praise for the Lord’s current provision and remembrance of his past deliverance. And what a festival it was! Over the course of the week, the nation presented burnt offerings of at least 70 bulls, 15 rams, and 105 male lambs, not to mention 8 sin offerings and the daily burnt offerings (Numbers 29:12–38).⁹ As a result, “the festival involved more sacrifices than any other and, as the final festival in the religious calendar, brought the year to a close with tremendous celebration of the Lord’s faithful redemption and provision.”¹⁰

The lavishness of this festival makes me wonder: What might such celebration look like for believers today? I wonder if sometimes, in an effort to be good stewards, we risk being more like those who rebuked Mary for pouring an expensive bottle of perfume on Jesus’s feet and less like Jesus himself, who praised her for her lavish love (Mark 14:3–9; John 12:1–8). How can thankfulness for the lavish provision of grace that God gives us in Christ translate into lavish love for him and others in practical ways?

The Calendar as a Classroom

In looking back over the holy times that the Lord had the Israelites celebrate, it becomes clear that he structured their calendar as a classroom. The holy times were not only regular reminders for them of who their Lord was and what he had done for them; they were also powerful teaching tools for passing on these wonderful truths to the next generation.

The Christian rituals of baptism and the Lord’s Supper serve Christians in a similar way, so we do well to think carefully about how to use such rites both to remind and to instruct. With the Lord’s Supper especially, it’s worth asking if the way we celebrate it comes across as a “tack-on” to the end of a service or as a powerful picture of the gospel in which we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). As we partake, do we remind ourselves to feast on and celebrate the wonders of his grace in the context of the covenant community — and teach our children to do the same?

That is the power of rituals. That is why the Lord gives them to us. May we use them well.