One of the reasons given that the Feasts of the LORD were only for the Jews and were not meant for Christians after Jesus was crucified is that they were given at Mt. Sinai and prior to that there were no appointed times. Is this true? Many Christians and Jews believe this. We even see this statement in the Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary:
“The Sabbath is different from all the other feasts and holy convocations (see vs. 37, 38) in that it originated at creation (Gen. 2:1–3), whereas the annual feasts and “sabbaths” had their origin with the Jewish nation. The seventh-day Sabbath “was made for man” (Mark 2:27), and hence is of obligation for all men forever; the annual feasts were made for the Jews and ceased to be of obligation when type met Antitype at the death of Christ (Col. 2:16, 17). The seventh-day Sabbath is incorporated in the law of God, the Ten Commandments, His constitution for this world. Because it was made before sin entered, it will remain after sin is no more (Isa. 66:22, 23). On the other hand, the annual Jewish feasts were of only temporal, local, ceremonial application, fitted to conditions in Palestine, and could not be made of worldwide application.”[1]
This statement would be true if the Feasts of the LORD were nothing more than harvest festivals tied to the agricultural season in Israel. The problem with this statement is that what it called “annual Jewish feasts” God called the “Feasts of the LORD.”
We know that the Feasts of the LORD are more than just an agricultural festival. We are told in the Bible that they are also a memorial of God’s deliverance of the Children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. One of many examples of this is the statement found in Leviticus 23 regarding the Feast of Tabernacles:
41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto Jehovah seven days in the year: it is a statute for ever throughout your generations; ye shall keep it in the seventh month. 42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are home-born in Israel shall dwell in booths; 43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God.
Leviticus 23: 41 – 43 (American Standard Version)
This clearly shows that the Feasts of the LORD were more than just harvest festivals. While the slavery of the Children of Israel in Egypt was a real event, it was also a metaphor for our slavery to sin. Just as the Children of Israel were to remember that God delivered them from their slavery to the Egyptians, we are to remember that He has delivered us from our slavery to sin.
There was even one more aspect to the Feasts of the LORD. They were also prophetic of the plan of salvation. We see this in the 2300-day prophecy in Daniel 8: 14 (KJV): “14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” When the Hebrew writers of the Septuagint translated this verse from Hebrew into Greek, the word they chose for “cleansed” was καθαρίζω (katharizō, Strong’s G2511). This same word was used in Leviticus 16 which describes the cleansing of the sanctuary that took place on the Day of Atonement. At the time that Daniel 8: 14 was written there was no Temple in existence. This verse that has been linked by Jewish writers to Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) must have been prophetic.
This understanding of the prophetic aspect of the Feasts of the LORD was not fully appreciated until after the death and resurrection of Jesus. We see this in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:” 1 Corinthians 5: 7 (KJV). Paul even goes a step further in the very next verse where he writes, “Therefore let us keep the feast.” Paul is telling a Gentile church that the Feasts of the LORD were prophetic of the plan of salvation by pointing to Christ and that these Gentiles were supposed to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
But what about the Feasts of the LORD before the Exodus. Why didn’t Adam, Eve, Noah, and Abraham observe any times appointed by God? The Feasts of the LORD may not be specifically mentioned in the book of Genesis but that does not mean that God did not have any appointed times for them to observe. We do have clues that there may have been appointed times from the creation of the earth. Our first evidence for this comes from the fourth day of Creation:
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Genesis 1: 14 – 19 (KJV)
The Hebrew word for “seasons” in verse 14 is מוֹעֵד (môʿēḏ, Strong’s H4150). This Hebrew word is translated in Leviticus 23 as “Feasts.” So, the “Feasts of the LORD” in Leviticus 23 could also have been translated as the “Seasons of the Lord.” This same Hebrew word is found in Psalm 104: 19 (KJV): “19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.” This verse is very clear that the purpose of the moon, in addition to providing light at night, was to determine the times of the Feasts of the LORD.
This raises an important question: Did God create the moon for the purpose of determining His appointed times and then not have any appointed times for 2500 years? Again, just because we do not have any specific accounts of God’s Appointed Times in the book of Genesis that does not mean that there weren’t any. We must remember that there are no accounts of Sabbath-keeping after its initial mention on the seventh day of creation in Genesis 2: 2, 3 (KJV):
2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.
So, we have the Feasts of the LORD mentioned on the Genesis account of the fourth day of creation and the Sabbath mentioned on the seventh day of creation. Then we have no more mention of them in the rest of the book of Genesis. The evidence that the Feasts of the LORD were observed in Genesis is just as strong as the evidence that the Sabbath was observed in Genesis.
While there may not be specific references to the observance of the Sabbath or the Feasts of the LORD in the book of Genesis there is evidence the suggests that they were observed. The first evidence is found in the story of Noah. Genesis 8: 14 (KJV) tells us that Noah came out of the ark “in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month.” This means that Noah came out of the ark a few days prior to the Feast of Pentecost. The first thing that Genesis says about Noah after he came out of the ark is that he built an altar and sacrificed to God and God made His covenant with Noah promising never to destroy the earth with a flood again. Pentecost is also known as the Feast of Oaths and is the time when we are to renew our covenant with God. This idea that God made his covenant with Noah on the day of Pentecost dates back to before the time of Christ. It is mentioned in the Pseudepigrapha in the Book of Jubilees chapter 6:
15 And He gave to Noah and his sons a sign that there should not again be a flood on the earth. 16 He set His bow in the cloud for a sign of the eternal covenant that there should not again be a flood on the earth to destroy it all the days of the earth. 17 For this reason it is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets, that they should celebrate the feast of weeks in this month once a year, to renew the covenant every year.[2]
Genesis does not specifically state that God made His covenant with Noah on the day of Pentecost but when we understand the meaning of Pentecost and the timing of when Noah came out of the ark it does seem possible, plausible, and probable that this happened on the day of Pentecost.
There is another place in the book of Genesis that I believe suggests that both the Sabbath and God’s Appointed Times were observed. This occurs in the story of Isaac in Genesis 26. There was a famine, and Isaac was considering going to Egypt like his father, Abraham, had done many years earlier. God told Isaac not to go to Egypt and renewed with Isaac the covenant He had originally made with Abraham.
2 And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; 4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Genesis 26: 2 – 5 (KJV)
God lists five things that Abraham did:
- Obeyed My Voice
- Kept My Charge
- Kept My Commandments
- Kept My Statutes
- Kept My Laws
It is clear from this statement that, while we are not given any details of it, Abraham had an organized religion. He was not just sacrificing a lamb whenever he was in the mood. It says that Abraham kept God’s laws and commandments and, therefore, it is reasonable to think that this included the Sabbath that God made on the seventh day of creation.
It is also just as reasonable to think that Abraham also observed times appointed by God. Abraham observed Feasts of the LORD. This text says that Abraham kept, “my statutes.” The Hebrew word for “statutes” is חֻקָּה (ḥuqqâ, Strong’s H2708). It appears 104 times in the Bible and at least nineteen times appears in the context of the Feasts of the LORD. So, from Genesis 26 we have evidence that suggests that Abraham may have kept the Sabbath and also kept times appointed by God.
It should not surprise us that Abraham would have had an organized system of worship with the Sabbath and observance of appointed times. One thing that is very clear from Mt. Sinai is that God is a God of order, and He is very particular about how we worship Him. Why wouldn’t He have been the same way in the time of Abraham? Furthermore, we need to understand Abraham’s situation when he was in the land of Canaan. Ellen G. White speaks of this in her book, Patriarchs and Prophets:
“Abraham’s household comprised more than a thousand souls. Those who were led by his teachings to worship the one God, found a home in his encampment; and here, as in a school, they received such instruction as would prepare them to be representatives of the true faith. Thus a great responsibility rested upon him. He was training heads of families, and his methods of government would be carried out in the households over which they should preside.”[3]
If Abraham had a household with more than one thousand people, it would have been necessary to have an organized system of worshipping God. Some people might question how Ellen White knew that Abraham’s household had this many people. It is not hard to see that this would have been the case when we read in Genesis 14 that when Lot was taken captive, Abraham took 318 of his armed servants to rescue Lot. Abraham would have needed to leave some of his servants at home to take care of his flocks while he was gone. If some or all of these men had wives and children, it would be easy to see how there were more than one thousand people in Abraham’s household.
It makes no sense that God would have created the moon for the purpose of determining His appointed times and then not have any appointed times for 2500 years. It also makes no sense that the same moon would no longer but used in our times for the purpose that God created it for. God’s name is יְהֹוָה (Yᵊhōvâ, Strong’s H3068) which means, I am what I was and will continue to be in the future. God does not change. It is a very human idea that God would repeatedly change the way He wants us to worship Him in the past 6000 years. This makes it easier for us to rationalize not doing something He has commanded us to do by saying that it was for another time. 6000 years is a blink of an eye to God who has existed for eternity. It is ridiculous for us to think that in that blink of an eye God would repeatedly change how He wants us to worship Him.
Finally, Revelation 13: 8 (KJV) speaks of Jesus as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This means that the Plan of Salvation existed even before the creation of the earth. It only makes sense then that God, who created the moon on the fourth day of creation for the purpose of determining His appointed times, would have had appointed times from the beginning of creations that were prophetic of His Plan of Salvation. Furthermore, there will be Feasts of the LORD in the New Earth. Isaiah 66: (KJV) states:“23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Remember, the purpose of the moon was for giving light at night and for determining God’s Appointed Times. In the New Earth, the moon will not be needed for light. Isaiah is telling us that God will continue to have Feasts of the LORD in the New Earth, just as He will continue to have Sabbaths. So, while it is impossible to prove beyond any doubt that the Feasts of the LORD were observed in the book of Genesis, there is evidence to support that they were. This paints a better picture of God, who never changes, and had a Plan of Salvation already in place at the creation of the earth.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
[1] Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 802). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
[2] Charles, R. H. (Ed.). (1913). Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (Vol. 2, p. 22). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[3] White, E. G. (1890). The Story of Patriarchs and Prophets as Illustrated in the Lives of Holy Men of Old (Vol. 1, p. 141). Pacific Press Publishing Association.
Posted: November 29, 2024 · Leave a Comment
Feasts of the LORD in Genesis?
One of the reasons given that the Feasts of the LORD were only for the Jews and were not meant for Christians after Jesus was crucified is that they were given at Mt. Sinai and prior to that there were no appointed times. Is this true? Many Christians and Jews believe this. We even see this statement in the Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary:
This statement would be true if the Feasts of the LORD were nothing more than harvest festivals tied to the agricultural season in Israel. The problem with this statement is that what it called “annual Jewish feasts” God called the “Feasts of the LORD.”
We know that the Feasts of the LORD are more than just an agricultural festival. We are told in the Bible that they are also a memorial of God’s deliverance of the Children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. One of many examples of this is the statement found in Leviticus 23 regarding the Feast of Tabernacles:
41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto Jehovah seven days in the year: it is a statute for ever throughout your generations; ye shall keep it in the seventh month. 42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are home-born in Israel shall dwell in booths; 43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God.
Leviticus 23: 41 – 43 (American Standard Version)
This clearly shows that the Feasts of the LORD were more than just harvest festivals. While the slavery of the Children of Israel in Egypt was a real event, it was also a metaphor for our slavery to sin. Just as the Children of Israel were to remember that God delivered them from their slavery to the Egyptians, we are to remember that He has delivered us from our slavery to sin.
There was even one more aspect to the Feasts of the LORD. They were also prophetic of the plan of salvation. We see this in the 2300-day prophecy in Daniel 8: 14 (KJV): “14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” When the Hebrew writers of the Septuagint translated this verse from Hebrew into Greek, the word they chose for “cleansed” was καθαρίζω (katharizō, Strong’s G2511). This same word was used in Leviticus 16 which describes the cleansing of the sanctuary that took place on the Day of Atonement. At the time that Daniel 8: 14 was written there was no Temple in existence. This verse that has been linked by Jewish writers to Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) must have been prophetic.
This understanding of the prophetic aspect of the Feasts of the LORD was not fully appreciated until after the death and resurrection of Jesus. We see this in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:” 1 Corinthians 5: 7 (KJV). Paul even goes a step further in the very next verse where he writes, “Therefore let us keep the feast.” Paul is telling a Gentile church that the Feasts of the LORD were prophetic of the plan of salvation by pointing to Christ and that these Gentiles were supposed to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
But what about the Feasts of the LORD before the Exodus. Why didn’t Adam, Eve, Noah, and Abraham observe any times appointed by God? The Feasts of the LORD may not be specifically mentioned in the book of Genesis but that does not mean that God did not have any appointed times for them to observe. We do have clues that there may have been appointed times from the creation of the earth. Our first evidence for this comes from the fourth day of Creation:
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Genesis 1: 14 – 19 (KJV)
The Hebrew word for “seasons” in verse 14 is מוֹעֵד (môʿēḏ, Strong’s H4150). This Hebrew word is translated in Leviticus 23 as “Feasts.” So, the “Feasts of the LORD” in Leviticus 23 could also have been translated as the “Seasons of the Lord.” This same Hebrew word is found in Psalm 104: 19 (KJV): “19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.” This verse is very clear that the purpose of the moon, in addition to providing light at night, was to determine the times of the Feasts of the LORD.
This raises an important question: Did God create the moon for the purpose of determining His appointed times and then not have any appointed times for 2500 years? Again, just because we do not have any specific accounts of God’s Appointed Times in the book of Genesis that does not mean that there weren’t any. We must remember that there are no accounts of Sabbath-keeping after its initial mention on the seventh day of creation in Genesis 2: 2, 3 (KJV):
2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.
So, we have the Feasts of the LORD mentioned on the Genesis account of the fourth day of creation and the Sabbath mentioned on the seventh day of creation. Then we have no more mention of them in the rest of the book of Genesis. The evidence that the Feasts of the LORD were observed in Genesis is just as strong as the evidence that the Sabbath was observed in Genesis.
While there may not be specific references to the observance of the Sabbath or the Feasts of the LORD in the book of Genesis there is evidence the suggests that they were observed. The first evidence is found in the story of Noah. Genesis 8: 14 (KJV) tells us that Noah came out of the ark “in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month.” This means that Noah came out of the ark a few days prior to the Feast of Pentecost. The first thing that Genesis says about Noah after he came out of the ark is that he built an altar and sacrificed to God and God made His covenant with Noah promising never to destroy the earth with a flood again. Pentecost is also known as the Feast of Oaths and is the time when we are to renew our covenant with God. This idea that God made his covenant with Noah on the day of Pentecost dates back to before the time of Christ. It is mentioned in the Pseudepigrapha in the Book of Jubilees chapter 6:
Genesis does not specifically state that God made His covenant with Noah on the day of Pentecost but when we understand the meaning of Pentecost and the timing of when Noah came out of the ark it does seem possible, plausible, and probable that this happened on the day of Pentecost.
There is another place in the book of Genesis that I believe suggests that both the Sabbath and God’s Appointed Times were observed. This occurs in the story of Isaac in Genesis 26. There was a famine, and Isaac was considering going to Egypt like his father, Abraham, had done many years earlier. God told Isaac not to go to Egypt and renewed with Isaac the covenant He had originally made with Abraham.
2 And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; 4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Genesis 26: 2 – 5 (KJV)
God lists five things that Abraham did:
It is clear from this statement that, while we are not given any details of it, Abraham had an organized religion. He was not just sacrificing a lamb whenever he was in the mood. It says that Abraham kept God’s laws and commandments and, therefore, it is reasonable to think that this included the Sabbath that God made on the seventh day of creation.
It is also just as reasonable to think that Abraham also observed times appointed by God. Abraham observed Feasts of the LORD. This text says that Abraham kept, “my statutes.” The Hebrew word for “statutes” is חֻקָּה (ḥuqqâ, Strong’s H2708). It appears 104 times in the Bible and at least nineteen times appears in the context of the Feasts of the LORD. So, from Genesis 26 we have evidence that suggests that Abraham may have kept the Sabbath and also kept times appointed by God.
It should not surprise us that Abraham would have had an organized system of worship with the Sabbath and observance of appointed times. One thing that is very clear from Mt. Sinai is that God is a God of order, and He is very particular about how we worship Him. Why wouldn’t He have been the same way in the time of Abraham? Furthermore, we need to understand Abraham’s situation when he was in the land of Canaan. Ellen G. White speaks of this in her book, Patriarchs and Prophets:
If Abraham had a household with more than one thousand people, it would have been necessary to have an organized system of worshipping God. Some people might question how Ellen White knew that Abraham’s household had this many people. It is not hard to see that this would have been the case when we read in Genesis 14 that when Lot was taken captive, Abraham took 318 of his armed servants to rescue Lot. Abraham would have needed to leave some of his servants at home to take care of his flocks while he was gone. If some or all of these men had wives and children, it would be easy to see how there were more than one thousand people in Abraham’s household.
It makes no sense that God would have created the moon for the purpose of determining His appointed times and then not have any appointed times for 2500 years. It also makes no sense that the same moon would no longer but used in our times for the purpose that God created it for. God’s name is יְהֹוָה (Yᵊhōvâ, Strong’s H3068) which means, I am what I was and will continue to be in the future. God does not change. It is a very human idea that God would repeatedly change the way He wants us to worship Him in the past 6000 years. This makes it easier for us to rationalize not doing something He has commanded us to do by saying that it was for another time. 6000 years is a blink of an eye to God who has existed for eternity. It is ridiculous for us to think that in that blink of an eye God would repeatedly change how He wants us to worship Him.
Finally, Revelation 13: 8 (KJV) speaks of Jesus as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This means that the Plan of Salvation existed even before the creation of the earth. It only makes sense then that God, who created the moon on the fourth day of creation for the purpose of determining His appointed times, would have had appointed times from the beginning of creations that were prophetic of His Plan of Salvation. Furthermore, there will be Feasts of the LORD in the New Earth. Isaiah 66: (KJV) states:“23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Remember, the purpose of the moon was for giving light at night and for determining God’s Appointed Times. In the New Earth, the moon will not be needed for light. Isaiah is telling us that God will continue to have Feasts of the LORD in the New Earth, just as He will continue to have Sabbaths. So, while it is impossible to prove beyond any doubt that the Feasts of the LORD were observed in the book of Genesis, there is evidence to support that they were. This paints a better picture of God, who never changes, and had a Plan of Salvation already in place at the creation of the earth.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
[1] Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 802). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
[2] Charles, R. H. (Ed.). (1913). Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (Vol. 2, p. 22). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[3] White, E. G. (1890). The Story of Patriarchs and Prophets as Illustrated in the Lives of Holy Men of Old (Vol. 1, p. 141). Pacific Press Publishing Association.
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