The Feasts of the Lord and our Priorities
Where is God's Dwelling Place Part 1 (TLDC 27)
My Torah studies this morning brought me to the last section of Parashah 47 which consists of Deuteronomy 15:19-16:17. This section was a familiar refrain on the theme that we were to appear before Father at the appointed place “of His habitation”—that is, the place that Yahovah chose to dwell and place His name. And this was to take place 3-times a year: (1) during the Festival of Matzah or Feast of Unleavened Bread; (2) on the Festival of Shavu’ot or Pentecost; and (3) during the Festival of Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles. These are three of the seven annual Feasts—moedim—appointed times of Yahovah our Elohim that are called by some, the pilgrimage feasts or festivals. Now, it’s very important to note that Father provided us strict instructions that He repeated several times throughout His Torah as it related to our coming—our gathering—our journeying to the place that He would choose to dwell and place His name, and do so at specific times of the year that He, in His infinite wisdom and purpose, established as far back as the creation: “And Yahovah said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years…” (Genesis 1:14) Apart from lighting our world and sparing us from perpetual darkness, the sun and moon were to serve as markers—specifically seasonal markers-for us throughout each year. Yet somehow, mankind has forgotten and all but rejected this simple fact—that He has placed in the heavens his system for reckoning time. Instead of us turning to Father’s reckoning of time, we have given our lives over to man’s reckoning of time that I believe has resulted in us losing yet another vital connection to our Creator. Unfortunately, we have been under man’s reckoning of time for so many centuries and countless generations that it has become extremely challenging and in some sense, impossible, to re-establish and adhere to Father’s reckoning of time. However, some of us in the Hebrew Roots community, despite criticism by many in even our own community, have turned to Yahovah’s ancient reckoning of time, that assists us in forming yet another fine connection with Abba Father. If you’d like more information on how you can connect to Father through His calendar, please contact me at [email protected].
Now, my attention was drawn, in this portion of Torah, more to what Father meant when He stated several times throughout, “in the place Yahovah shall choose, you and your household” (15:20); “in the place which Yahovah shall choose to cause His name to dwell there” (16:2); “but at the place which Yahovah your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell in” (16:6); “And you shall shall rejoice before Yahovah your God, you and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite that is within your gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in your midst, in the place which Yahovah your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there” (16:11); “Seven days shall you keep a feast unto Yahovah your God in the place which Yahovah shall choose” (16:15). I counted five-times throughout this portion where Father stipulates that we were to celebrate His festivals and keep His appointed times at the place where He determines to be His dwelling place; the place where He chooses to place His name. This spoke something very profound to me: that Yahovah yearned so much for us, His chosen people—His possession (although we were failing miserably to measure up to His expect ions as a chosen people at every turn), to come and gather together at one place at set times during the sacred year, and to celebrate Father—the Creator of the universe—in our midst. Father, despite the ramblings of certain pagan thinkers who believed that the Creator of all wanted nothing to do with His creation and chose to remain distant and unreachable to His creation, Father wanted, and has always wanted such a relationship with His creation-with man-the jewel of the whole of His creation-that He established from the foundation of creation, a calendar and then instructions to us on where and when we would meet Him and celebrate and worship and honor Him. I see in this nothing short of Hilary and I, now that all our children have grown into adults and are out on their own, independent in the world, setting certain times throughout the year that we have them come to our home and be with us, their parents, and we celebrate and love and be with each other. These times are precious to us as we only get this opportunity to hang with them, if you will, ever-so-often. And so it was with us back in the day: when we were about to enter the land of promise, that Father re-established His calendar and instructed us to fashion our lives around the times of the year, where we would pack our bags and gather our sacrifices and offerings and head to the dwelling place of Yahovah and worship, honor and celebrate before our One true King. Obviously Yahovah took this whole coming together at His appointed times at His appointed place very seriously. So much so that He repeated in this portion alone, five times, that we were to go to His dwelling place to worship.
Another unique aspect of this whole thing for me is that Father was designating and choosing the places that He would have us meet Him and establish as His dwelling place. We, His creation, had no say in the location and times of meeting. What a most profound concept that is all but lost in man’s thinking; and that has to do with man-us-always determining what, where and when, as it relates to our relationship and worship of Father. We have lost perspective. We have lost priority. We have become disobedient and dumb and numb to this simple concept of: I am your God, you are my people-come before me at the times that I have appointed and worship and celebrate before me. Instead, we’ve developed our own system of righteousness whereby we now dictate to Father the when, where and what of our worship and relationship with Father. Granted, those dwelling places that Father established, are no longer accessible nor do they exist; so we are extremely limited as to where—although we will get into the where in succeeding episodes of Torah Living Daily Challenge, as there still exists a where that so many of us overlook or are ignorant to.
But for now, we still have the when and what. Father, in His infinite grace, mercy and purpose, has provided us the wherewithal that we may known when we are to come together and celebrate and worship Him throughout the sacred calendar year. The Challenge today my friends is: do we make the proper preparations to meet and keep those times?
Each year, January 1st, we set resolutions and plan out our year. In those plans, we consider vacations that we want to take. Some of us establish dates for those vacations and we begin making travel and lodging plans for those vacation dates. How many of us, however, instead of pulling up the Gregorian calendar and mapping out vacations for family visits or other pleasurable destinations, look at the Creator’s Calendar in conjunction with our western calendars, and map out time to observe those ancient moedim-Yahovah’s feast days, first? How many of us put Yahovah first in our lives? Is this simple exercise, plotting out and planning for time away, to celebrate Yahovah’s feast days, before we map out and plan any other vacations and days off from work, a good start? Most of us have already taken the step of insisting that our lives come to a halt each week on the 7th day of the week—the Sabbath. How about those Feasts of Yahovah? Are we willing to exercise the same commitment that we give to the weekly Sabbath?
I certainly get that with the Temple being gone and all and the emphasis being moved away from the material edifices that were once the Temple in Jerusalem and Tabernacle in the Wilderness and in Shiloh over to our bodies being the dwelling place of Yahovah (1 Corinthians 6:19). However, our observance of these sacred annual moedim has not changed—it’s just that we don’t go to the Temple with our sacrifices and offerings and party accouterments as we once did when the Temple stood and Yah dwelt there in the Holy of Hollies. But most of these appointed times require us to not do any work on those sacred days and if we follow the spirit of these feasts, we might even consider getting out of our silos and going to meet with like-minded brothers and sisters in the Faith in celebration and honor of these holy days of Yahovah. It just frustrates me to meet brothers and sisters in the Faith who have absolutely no interest in coming together and convocating on these sacred holidays. Most of us don’t. Even during the most popular of the feasts days: Sukkot/Tabernacles, many of us will simply put our feet up in our homes and could give a hoot about anyone else but ourselves. Oh, we’ll just set up a Sukkah in our back yard and go out and hang out in the Sukkah each day of the week-long feast. We just don’t want to be bothered with packing up and going to where the action is. Yeah, we can’t congregate at the temple anymore, but we can certainly meet up together where the Spirit of Yahovah directs us to be. Master instructed: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) Some of us are just too full of ourselves to want to fellowship with others of like mind in the Faith. Others of us are too introverted (as I tend to be but am working on defeating that spiritual condition) to fellowship with others of like mind in the Faith at a feast celebration. But the Apostle Paul, assuming him to be the author of the book of Hebrews, wrote: “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:23-25) Clearly, the writing is admonishing us to think not just about ourselves when it comes to fellowship, but think of those with whom we may bless with our presence and admonishments and exhortations during these special times of gathering each year. And as we approach the end times, these opportunities may very well come to an abrupt halt at some point in the future. Thus it behooves us from a spiritual, emotional and psychological standpoint to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some. For when we come together to celebrate before Yahovah and honor our Father, we grow and we bless one another with the spiritual gifts we bring to the forum. A wise person wrote: “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” (Proverbs 27:15)
So I ask you in this Torah Living Daily Challenge: what are your priorities when it comes to the appointed times—the feasts of Yahovah? Do we put Yah first? Or do we put ourselves first? It’s not always easy to do. But when we overcome those hang-ups that prevent us from setting out and putting everything on the line for Yahovah and His perfect purpose for each of our lives: beautiful and amazing things happen; not just to and for us; but also for those who Father places in our lives during those appointed times.
Until next time, may you be most blessed fellow saints in training: Shalom.
