God’s Calendar

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God has a calendar and it is full of appointed times to meet with Him and

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remember His mighty acts of the past and thank Him for the present and anticipate

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the fulfillment of all of His promises in the future. These appointed times, what

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we call feast, are rich in meaning and are as valid today as they were the day

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He instructed the children of Israel to observe them. So welcome to this week's

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Shabbat Shalom devotional when I seek to share just a little inspiration and

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bring a little peace to the close of your very busy week. This week's Torah

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portion is called Im Mor, which means to speak. It's Leviticus 21 through 24 and

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we're going to concentrate on Leviticus 23 where it describes all the

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various feasts of the Lord. In verse 1 of 23 says this, the feast of the Lord

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which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feast. That's

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very important. These are not Jewish feast. These are not feast of Israel. These

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are God's feast and this chapter introduces us to the fact that God has a

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whole calendar of appointed times. We can ignore His calendar and miss the

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opportunities to meet with Him. We can deceive ourselves that the calendar is

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no longer matters. It's no longer valid because through Christ we can come to the

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Lord at any time and from anywhere and while that is true I just want to point

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out that according to the Hebrew prophets in the Messianic era we will be

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observing Shabbats and new moons and celebrating the Feasts of Tabernacles at

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the very least. So I think we need to take a few minutes to talk about God's

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calendar. It starts with the Sabbath which pre-existed the children of Israel.

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We tend to think the Sabbath is for Israel. We're no longer under that rule but

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the Sabbath was a part of creation. It's universal and it alludes to the universal

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gull of rest for the world. Now we know that true rest only comes when the

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creation is ruled by God. He created the Sabbath rest for that creation and we

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lost it and we entered into toil of the soul and in sin and rebellion but one

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day the creation including mankind will experience the kingdom of God, the rule

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of God on earth and will enter into its rest. That's what Sabbath is all about

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and it's pointing us to the Creator God, His creation and His goal of rest for

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mankind. So now we enter into the other Feasts in Leviticus 23 and their spring

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Feasts, summer Feasts and fall Feasts. Most Christians are familiar with the

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first four Feasts because they have a Christian fulfillment. So that's the

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Feasts of Passover, unleavened bread and first fruits which were all fulfilled in

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that last week and day of Jesus's life, His death and His resurrection on the

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Feasts of first fruits. Then we have the summer Feasts of Shavuot or in Greek it

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was called Pentecost and it found its fulfillment in the outpouring of the

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Holy Spirit upon the early believers. So the church celebrates Pentecost. They

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don't always know about the biblical Feasts of Shavuot that it would denote

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but at least they are familiar with the word Pentecost. But the fall Feasts for a

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long time the church was totally ignorant about and that's because they did not

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have a Christian fulfillment. The Feasts of the Day of Atonement and the Feasts of

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Tabernacles. Tabernacles is a celebration of the final harvest and coming of the

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Kingdom of God on earth and it is a time it's a Feast that will be celebrated by

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all the nations according to the Hebrew prophet Zechariah. So there's rich

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teaching on each of these Feasts. I just want to point out that the word Feast in

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English sort of gives us the wrong impression of these events. The word in

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Hebrew is Moed which means an appointed time. So they are appointed times on

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God's calendar to meet with His people and to commemorate and be reminded of

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His mighty acts in past but also there was a present-day fulfillment usually

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around the harvest the rain thanking God for these things with an eye on the

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future. This is why the ICEJ began celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles

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back some 40 years ago and why we continue to prepare the nations to come

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up to Jerusalem to celebrate in that Messianic era because it will be a

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celebration of the final harvest and the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth

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and that latter rain where the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh

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and the glory of the Lord will fill the earth. That is what we celebrate in the

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Feasts of Tabernacles. So there's so much more we could say but for there we

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need to call it to an end and I'm going to close by wishing you Shabbat Shalom.