Tues.’s Devo - God’s Feasts

Read: Exodus 23:14-25:40; Matthew 24:29-51; Psalm 30:1-12; Proverbs 7:24-27
God has seven feasts which occur three times a year. God required all the men to attend the feasts. Three feasts happen in the spring: Unleavened Bread, Passover and First Fruits. Pentecost, or the Feast of Harvest is 49 days later. It is also called the Feast of Weeks. The last three happen in the fall: Roshashanna, Yom Kippor and Feast of Tabernacles. They all occur in harvest time and the men are to bring the first fruits of that harvest to the Lord.
I have always wondered what the verse meant that says, “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” This was a heathen practice of idolatry. They would then use the broth to sprinkle their fields and trees of harvest in hopes of a good harvest. God wanted his people to know that He would bring them a good harvest. The goat is always the counterfeit of the lamb of God. God doesn’t want us to depend upon the world’s ways of doing things. God’s ways are many times counter to the world’s.
God’s promise of obedience was that he would bring them to the place He had prepared, he would give them a full life span and little by little he would drive out the enemy before them. He even let the elders see him and live.
God promises us the same thing. He will bring us to the place he has prepared specifically for us and our gifts. He will give us the number of days we are to live however long or short they are and he will drive out the enemy little by little before us if we keep pressing forward.
God showed Moses the tabernacle of heaven and told him that he was to make replicas of what he saw. He was to make an ark of the Covenant, a table of incense, a table of shewbread and a lamp stand with seven bowls. They would be made from the spoils of Egypt.
In Matthew, Jesus speaks of his second coming which is not the same as the rapture. God is going to gather his elect from heaven to go with him to earth because that is where the elect will be. The days on earth will be like the days of Noah. The days of Noah were very wicked - so wicked that Noah’s family was the only one righteous enough to save. Noah’s family stand for the people who will come to the Lord after the Rapture. God will carry them through the Tribulation just as God carried Noah and his family through the flood. To the world, Jesus comes as a thief. To his people, Jesus comes as the welcome and waited-for bridegroom.
Lord, I thank you that your anger lasts only for a moment, but your favor lasts a lifetime.