Morning Light – Deuteronomy 16

[Deuteronomy 16] We Don’t Have it All Yet! In this chapter, we are reminded of the feasts of God. They represent three distinct experiences available to believers beginning with the new birth, i.e., being born again. There are three feasts in Israel, just as the bible speaks of three baptisms. God wants us to experience His fullness in our spirit, soul, and body. This is a challenge to believers because we don’t like to think there is something we don’t have yet in God. The Father wants us to know His fullness in our spirit, soul, and body – which the three feasts of Israel attest to and foreshadow. In this chapter, Moses reviews the feasts that are prescribed in the law. Beginning in the month of Abib, they were to keep Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. These are connected with the barley harvest, the wheat harvest, and the fruit harvest. Each of these feasts represents one aspect of spiritual experience available to the believer (new birth, baptism of the Holy Ghost, putting on immortality, i.e., the baptism of fire). They are a reminder of the full salvation promised to us, and the invitation from the Father to keep the feasts by receiving all God has for us.

[Deu 16:1-22 KJV] 1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. 2 Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there. 3 Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, [even] the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. 4 And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there [any thing] of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning. 5 Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee: 6 But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. 7 And thou shalt roast and eat [it] in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents. 8 Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day [shall be] a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work [therein]. 9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from [such time as] thou beginnest [to put] the sickle to the corn. 10 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give [unto the LORD thy God], according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: 11 And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that [is] within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that [are] among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there. 12 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. 13 Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: 14 And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that [are] within thy gates. 15 Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. 16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty: 17 Every man [shall give] as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee. 18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. 19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. 20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee. 22 Neither shalt thou set thee up [any] image; which the LORD thy God hateth.

The Passover was to be observed in the month of Abib, which is the first month of the religious calendar and the seventh month of the civil calendar. Is speaks of Jesus as our first fruits and as the perfection of God or the perfect sacrifice of God. The name Abib means “fresh barley” and points to Jesus as the early harvest, the first fruits from the dead. The bible speaks of early harvest and fall harvest, which correspond to the former rain and the latter rain of God’s spirit on the earth.

Jesus is our Passover whereby He brings us out of the Egypt of the world into the rule of God just as the people came out from under Pharaoh’s rule under the rule of God in the wilderness. The Passover required unleavened bread because leaven works its effect on the dough by the death of the organism that comprises leaven. There is no death in Jesus – which is why He is referred to as the “Living Bread.” We are not partakers of the bread of death but the bread of life.

The Passover was not to be eaten in the place of the worshipper’s choosing but in the place that the Lord would designate, which would be, of course, in the temple. This temple is a foreshadow of the temple of God, which we are. God does not choose to be worshipped or for His worship to be centered in buildings made with hands but in our own hearts. When we worship toward His holy temple, we are focusing inwardly according to the words of Jesus in Luke 17:20,21, “the kingdom of God is within you …”

The Passover lamb was sacrificed in the evening at the same time that the priest was sacrificing the evening lamb in the temple. The new day for a Hebrew began at nightfall. The offering of the Lamb speaks of God, bringing us into a new day.

[2Co 5:17 KJV] 17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new.

They were to eat the Passover and “turn into their tents.” In other words, this is an inward focus, not an outward dependence. The glory that God has for us is an inward glory that Paul taught on in Col. 1:26,27, “Christ in you the hope of glory …”

The feast of weeks or Shavuot was named so because from Passover, seven weeks were numbered, and then the feast of Pentecost was celebrated. From the Jewish standpoint, Shavuot signifies the waiting period when Moses was on the mountain and then came down with the law. Pentecost celebrates the giving of the Law of God. For Christians, this is fulfilled in the giving of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. This is a direct reference to God writing His laws upon our hearts. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost, from God’s view, is intended to be a character transformation in our lives. This is de-emphasized in the church when we say there is a difference between “gifts” and “character.” This actually facilitates an emphasis on gifts without accountability. God intends that the indwelling of His Spirit and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit find its impact in our lives through personal transformation. The writer of Hebrews tells us the following:

[Heb 8:10-11 KJV] 10 For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

God’s goal is not an external dependency but inward transformation through the resource of the indwelling Spirit of God:

[1Jo 2:27 KJV] 27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

Pentecost is associated with the wheat harvest and by extrapolation evangelism and seeing souls won into the kingdom. Three thousand came to Christ on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost is about the power to become a witness for Christ and subsequently lead souls to Jesus.

In vs. 16-21, we see that the observance of the feasts was not an option. The people were commanded (no choice) to appear before God three times a year to celebrate Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. This speaks of the New Birth, Baptism of the Holy Spirit and eventual putting on of Immortality, or the Baptism of Fire. This corresponds to Water Baptism, Spirit Baptism, and the Baptism of Fire demonstrated by Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.

[Mat 17:2 KJV] 2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

At the turn of the last century, a group of believers in Topeka, Kansas, concluded they didn’t have everything God had promised in terms of spiritual experience. As a result, these born-again people opened themselves up to receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. The world changed as a result. Christianity became redefined. Likewise, we cannot conclude that we have it all. There is a baptism of fire yet to be poured out. Just as our spirits are saved in Passover and our souls immersed in the Spirit by the Holy Ghost, even so, our bodies must receive the baptism of fire, which will ultimately result in putting on of immortality. There is more in God than we know or that even theologians have comprehended, and we must acknowledge our deficit and press into all that God has for us.