With all the back and forth between sacrifices and ritual purity and clean-vs-unclean laws happening in Leviticus, the idea of feast days—what we often associate with Israel—can get lost in the shuffle.
That’s why Leviticus 23 is such a convenient chapter. Here, Moses lays out seven different feast days for the Jews to celebrate every single year (eight if you include the weekly Sabbath, mentioned at the beginning of the chapter).
They are, in order: Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
That may sound like a lot, but think about how many bank holidays we have in our American calendar: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, July Fourth, Labor Day, to name a few. Those aren’t “holy” in the same sense as Passover, but they are a day for us to stop, rest, and reflect.
Even though the dates for these feasts are explicitly laid out in this chapter, the timing can sometimes get overlooked. But God schedules these feast days out in very specific ways. The first four feasts are at the front of the year, whereas the last three feasts are at the end.
What comes in between? The harvest.
In a way, the harvest is actually the linchpin of every one of these feasts. You could summarize all seven of the holy convocations by saying that their point was to remind Israel of God’s provisions; what more demonstrable evidence of God’s provisions do you need than the harvest?
Looking at all seven feasts as a whole, there does seem to be a mirror effect. The Passover and the feast of Tabernacles are the first and seventh feasts, respectively, and both of them have to do with God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt.
The feast of First Fruits (third feast) and Day of Atonement (sixth feast) both celebrate a renewed dependence on God—the first fruits for the new harvest, and the day of complete spiritual forgiveness for His people.
And, in the middle, is the climactic day of Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Weeks. Occurring on the first day after the seventh Sabbath, Pentecost, requires the most sacrifices of all. Thirteen animals are sacrificed this day, along with loaves, grain, and drink offerings. It makes sense that after the seventh Sabbath, when your heart is fully rested and dependent on God, you give Him a little bit of everything.
Each individual feast is unique in its own way. Though all of them share common traits, they are designed to tick all the boxes of the spiritual life throughout the year, while giving way to the agricultural calendar, as well.
The spacing of the feasts and the requirements of the days demonstrate a God that is both understanding of the needs of His people, while reminding them constantly of how He’s the One that supplies those needs.
