Deuteronomy 16

The Old Testament calendar included three major clusters of festivals surrounding Passover, Pentecost (the feast of Weeks), and Tabernacles (the feast of Booths). As Moses prepared the people for life in the promised land, he called upon the congregation of Israel to gather together for these central feasts, and to call upon the Name of the Lord together.

Though these festivals are part of the Old Testament Law, they testified to the grace of God. They gave the community an annual rhythm that celebrated the deliverance of God, the fruitfulness of His continued provision, and the faithfulness of the Lord in moving His people toward a day when they would dwell with Him in peace forever. Passover was a new beginning of grace, Pentecost was a middle point of encouragement along that road of grace, and Tabernacles and beyond was an end or fulfillment of the Lord's promises of grace.

Passover was an early spring feast. The Lord's deliverance through sacrifice, through the blood of a lamb, and through His own powerful hand was all grace. A system of substitution where guilt was removed and righteousness was supplied by another had to be based on grace. This grace that saved us and purchased us also demanded a consecrated life for those who were delivered from bondage. We were freed from the bondage of sin through the Passover death of the Lamb of God not to be enslaved again by the leaven of lust and idolatry, but to live the unleavened life of sincerity and truth. See 1 Corinthians 5:8. The beginning of the life of grace for the children of God can only be in the Passover cross of Christ. That cross claimed us for a new life in the resurrection of Jesus, who is Himself the firstfruits of the resurrection.

Seven weeks after Passover, the middle of the annual journey began with the feast of Pentecost. The worship that the Israelites offered as they gathered together was an acknowledgment of the growth that the Lord was providing. Though the fields are white unto harvest, and the Lord uses our hands in the process of bringing in His bounty, and though one man plants and another waters, only God can bring the growth. The fruitfulness of the gospel is all of grace. To gather in worship on Pentecost was a communal recognition of the mercy of God. As the Spirit of God hovered over the waters in anticipation of the powerful Word of God in the first creation, any new creation must come by the Spirit and the Word. Throughout this Pentecost era, the grace of the Lord is gathering in the fruitfulness of the growth that God has supplied.

The Lord's servants were to gather a third time in covenant assembly for the feast of Tabernacles. This was a feast of the joy of the Lord. One day the gospel harvest period will be over. Our union and communion with the One who came to tabernacle with us will become the fulfillment of our holy longings. No longer will we be assaulted by enemies within and without. No longer will unclean lusts molest the sacred purity of the Lord's true congregation. We will dwell with Him forever.

The land that the Lord ultimately provides for His people, the renewed heavens and earth, will be the perfect environment of full peace and provision. Injustice and oppression will not have any foothold there. The worship of false gods will be far from every heart. That will be the life! Therefore we worship the Lord now in the Passover Lamb who is our life. We praise Him and live for Him by the power of the Spirit of Pentecost. Finally, we wait for the revealing of the fullness of God's promises in His coming again. This is the new rhythm of our lives, a pattern of the grace of God that was anticipated for centuries in the ancient Jewish festivals during the time of the Law.