According to the Bible, the Book of Leviticus summarizes the seven Biblical Holy Days in Chapter 23. These are appointments with God that Messiah Yeshua observed during His ministry and Jewish people still celebrate today. The Seedtime, or Spring, Feasts are Pesach & Matzot, Bikkurim, and Shavuot. In English, they’re called Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of First Fruits, and the Feast of Weeks. For hundreds and thousands of years, the Jewish people have marked their days by the celebration of these Feasts. However, it might surprise many non-Jewish Believers to hear that they too have been celebrating these Feasts for hundreds of years!
In our society today, these holy days are known as Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday, and Pentecost because they correspond directly to when Messiah Yeshua died, rose from the dead, and gave us the Holy Spirit – our Comforter. And Halleluyah for that! But their correspondence is not a mistake or a coincidence. God ordained these days so that we would pay attention to His rhythm, His plan, and His timing. Yeshua’s sacrifice on Passover, His Resurrection on Bikkurim, and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Shavuot each have deep and meaningful symbolism and impact that we could talk about for days on end.
However, I’d like to take a moment and reflect on the wonderous pace of life that God has ordained for us.
An easy way to think about God’s timing is to think like a musician. Musicians know that the rhythm section is the timekeeper for all the instruments to play together smoothly. A time signature, much like a signature on the bottom of a letter, is the mark of the creator. Just like a friend writes a letter and signs his name to it, God has created time and signed it with His Name. He created a rest period on the seventh beat. The way to practice is to clap for six beats and rest, clap for six beats and rest, clap for six beats and rest. It sounds childish, but if you do that every morning for a month, it will become a rhythm you ache for.
More importantly, when a composer wants the band to stop playing and rest to make room for the next note, the band must all do it together for the music score to be played correctly and the listener to enjoy it. Resting in music is submission to the authority of the composer. When you learn to rest regularly, it doesn’t matter where you are physically, because you’re “in the pocket!” That means you are snug, resting in the rhythm of God’s creation. Thankfully, we live in a society today that allows a seven day week. Where do you think they got that from? It came from the Bible, of course. But resting and “shabbating” need some practice and flexibility to enjoy stress-free for a lifetime.
Starting with six days of work and one day of rest is the easiest. But this rhythm applies to months and years as well! As I’ve learned recently, it can take a long time of weekly shabbating to be ready for seasonal shabbating. And I expect that I will have to do seasonal shabbating for a while before I can do shabbating with years – meaning six years of work and the seventh year of freedom and rest. But we will get there eventually!
This year is the first year that my family has taken the week of Passover off of work – enjoying the first and eighth day as Shabbats, with some time off in between as an offering to God. Since the Temple is no longer standing, and Yeshua is the final atonement, we like to offer our time to God instead. Money comes and goes. But time you cannot get back. And trusting Him to sustain us while we DON’T work is a huge deal for my family of overachievers and workaholics. It took six months of planning and preparing to be able to do it! And now that it’s done, it will take another six months of planning and preparing to get to the week of Sukkot, when we’re commanded to rest for the first and last day, with some time off in between. Once again, its that “six on, one off” system.
1,2,3 – 1,2,3 – Rest. 1,2,3 – 1,2,3 – Rest. It’s an elegant rhythm, but it takes time to get it ingrained into every fiber of your being. Additionally, God gives us all a special little twirl in His arms during the monthly celebration of the New Moon. If we can learn to let Him lead, we can find ourselves soaring through the air – clothed in beauty and strength by our Father who loves us.
Please join us live on Facebook, this Saturday May 4th, for our monthly Rosh Chodesh celebration as we explore the 2019 Seedtime Planner! We’re going to have a blast decorating, organizing, and using our planners as we head towards Harvest season. Rest assured – we’re in no hurry! But know that the Harvest season Feasts: Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot will surely come! Until then, Baruch HaBa B’Shem ADONAI!
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