DON'T COME EMPTY-HANDED

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to ourchristianwalk@aol.com In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.

Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you. Deuteronomy 16:9-17

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Earlier in this chapter, Moses had reminded Israel about their responsibility to celebrate the Passover. As we continue through Chapter 16, we see where further guidance is provided for the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Going back to Exodus, Chapter 23 and again in today’s passage from Deuteronomy, we see where there were three designated festivals when “all the men (were) to appear before the Sovereign Lord”. The three feasts listed were the Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Feast of the Harvest and the Feast of the Ingathering.

The Feast of the Unleavened Bread began the day after the Passover and Israel was required to “eat bread made without yeast” for seven days (Leviticus 23:6).

The Feast of the Harvest would also be known as the Feast of Weeks and later in the New Testament, it would be called Pentecost which simply meant 50. Prior scripture from Leviticus, Chapter 23, told us the following about this feast:

“ 'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord. Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest. On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. " 'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.' "

So the way things preceded was like this:

Passover (the first feast), followed the next day by the Sabbath which marked the first of the seven days allotted for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Sabbath was followed the next day by the Feast of the Firstfruits, celebrating the first of the harvest and later would be the day that Jesus was resurrected. The day after the Sabbath…the day after the Firstfruits were celebrated…Israel was to start to count the 50 days “up to the day after the seventh Sabbath”. (Leviticus 23:16) These 50 days or seven-plus weeks covered the time when the grain, barley and wheat harvests would be accomplished, thus the name, “Feast of the Harvest” as these harvests were celebrated.

The final of the feasts was the Feast of the Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of the Ingathering or Feast of Booths. Whereas Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of the Firstfruits were held in the first month, the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) was to be held on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (our October) and last for one week. Along with the sacrifices and celebrations, the people were to live in booths for the week because this is what their descendants had done as they left Israel and journeyed to the Promised Land. Additionally, this feast was known as the Feast of the Ingathering because the Lord required the people to ingather the labor of the field (Exodus 23:16), ingather the threshing floor and winepress (Deuteronomy 16:13), and ingather the fruit of the earth (Leviticus 23:39).

So you’ve had an overview of the feasts that all men were required to attend. There’s one last important item in our passage that we need to look at. For when everyone attended the required feasts, scripture directs that “No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.” In other words, God had granted the people a great amount of providence and provision. This was a blessed people and God expected them to give back to Him in return. The same applies to us today.

Question: Do you go to God empty-handed? What do you give Him in return for all He has given you? And I’m not just talking about material offerings because there are some who are struggling financially but what about your time…your talents…using the gifts God has given you to His glory. Everything that we have comes from God who expects all of us to be good stewards of what He has provided. He should be able to see through our lives, a viable return from what He invested in us. He certainly gave us His all in Jesus. He only expects that we give Him our all in return. As you start a new day tomorrow, won’t you consider what you will bring to God? You do have something to bring. Don’t come to Him empty-handed.

In Christ,

Mark

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PS: There’s some additional matters to remember as we consider this passage today. Jesus was crucified on the Passover and resurrected on the day designated as the Feast of Firstfruits. He would make resurrection appearances for 40 days before sending His disciples to Jerusalem where they were to wait and receive the Holy Spirit. The disciples knew exactly how many days they would wait for it was only ten days before the Feast of Weeks, when everyone would be gathered in Jerusalem. That day as mentioned prior was also known from that point on as Pentecost.

I’ve said this before and will continue to say it. So many people want to write off the Old Testament and consider it irrelevant. Those who assert this haven’t studied the Old Testament and the relevance it has to what’s to come. This passage and the connections within is a prime example.