Week One | The Cure for Spiritual Amnesia

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7 Feasts Online Biblical Study
Reading Assignment – Week One (Pg. 15-49)
Listen to the Audio version | Reading Time: 4 minutes

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Skipped over reading the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament before?  Snoozefest, right?

What if you could read one chapter of Scripture like you were talking with your best friend about the flashbacks that were shared in your favorite Netflix series that helped you better understand the main character?  Better, right??  

Leviticus 23 is that chapter.  

In this one chapter, we learn the backstory to some of the most perplexing words of Jesus from the New Testament. Also in this one chapter, we learn Jesus was always at the heart of God’s plan, even as He laid out the instructions of 7 feasts for the Jewish people to celebrate, to remember God’s creation, protection, and provision, and to observe.

But before we dive into this one chapter to find Jesus in the sacred celebrations of the Old Testament, we’ve gotta get one thing straight.

“The Bible is not a book about you.  The Bible is a book about Jesus. This shift is important.  We will not open the Bible together in these weeks searching for a clearer view of ourselves.  We will open the Bible searching for a clearer, bigger, more awe-inspiring view of God.  As we do, we will be changed.”

erin davis, Pg. 21 of “7 feasts”

Rhythm of Remembrance

Growing up in church, the stories that I heard from the Bible seemed so disjointed.  How did the stories of God’s people, wandering through the wilderness relate to Jesus and the disciples?  And to be honest, instead of investigating, I just avoided the Old Testament.

But what I didn’t realize was that I was missing out on the greatest gift in knowing the Gospel:

God was using the time in the wilderness to establish His people and help them to remember who He is so that when Jesus came on the scene, they’d recognize and know Him.

And that cannot be more clear than what we read about the Seven Feasts in Leviticus 23.

“One of the greatest gifts the Seven Feasts can give us is attention to the rhythms of our lives.  God was writing in the planners of His people to help them remember who He is.  He was establishing rhythms of work, rest, and worship to keep them tethered to Him, even as they wandered.”

erin davis, Pg. 41 of “7 feasts”

Through Moses, God gave His people the cure for spiritual amnesia (the tendency that human nature has for wandering from the heart of God)  in regular practices of remembrance.

Shabbat

“When God handed down the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, Sabbath became a new rhythm for the free people of God.“

erin davis, Pg. 42, “7 feasts”

So it makes sense that the sabbath or Shabbat would be the first celebration that God draws His people’s attention to.

The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly.  You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:1-3, NIV

But what does observing the sabbath really mean?

“Since God did not rest on the seventh day because He was tired, there must be more value to a day of rest than a chance to catch up on some Z’s.  The Sabbath is not about what we do with our hands, it’s about what we do with our hearts.“

erin davis, Pg. 45, “7 feasts”

I love how Martha Zimmerman addresses Shabbat in her book, Celebrating Biblical Feasts in Your Home or Church,

“… two words, remember and observe, help us understand how we are to approach and live out this day.  ‘Remember’ suggests inward thoughts of love and devotion.  ‘Observe’ becomes the expression of our feelings.  Sabbath combines love and law, devotion and obedience, feelings and observances.“

martha zimmerman, Pg. 22, “celebrating the biblical feasts in your home or church”

Shabbat plays a part in the normal rhythm of Jewish lives in the times of the Old Testament and even today.  Jesus would have grown up watching his mother, Mary light the candles at the beginning of Shabbat, ushering in light.

And we, as believers in Christ, are welcome to participate in this sacred celebration as well, welcoming God’s rhythm of remembrance, of who He is and what He has done in our lives,  giving thanks and worshipping Him, while resting from the things of the world that tend to draw our attention away.

“The Seven Feasts and the Sabbath are examples of ways God invites His people to change the pattern – to look up from our work and rest in His work; to stop gazing at ourselves and to gaze at Him instead; to unclench our fists and open our hands for the gifts He has for His children.“

erin davis, Pg. 46, “7 feasts”

TODAY WE LEARNED:
1. The Bible is not a book about you.  The Bible is a book about Jesus.
2. The Old Testament Scriptures help point us to Jesus.
3. The sabbath or Shabbat is the celebration that God invites us to remember and observe – remembering who He is and observing through our worship and praise.
4. The Seven Feasts and the Sabbath are examples of ways God invites His people to change the pattern of their lives.

ANSWER THIS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW:
Does your week include a regular rhythm of Sabbath?  Why or why not?  Are you willing to change the pattern of your life by remembering and observing the sabbath?