Tues.’s Devo - God’s Feasts

Read: Deuteronomy 16:1-17:20; Luke 9:7-27; Psalm 72:1-20; Proverbs 12:8-9
The Israelites had two calendars. One was their civil calendar which began in Tishri. The other was their religious calendar which began in Abib or Nisan. Passover began in Abib and started their spiritual year. The first three feasts happened together: Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits. Seven weeks from that was Pentecost or Feast of Weeks. The sacrifice for Passover was mandatory but the sacrifice at Pentecost was voluntary. The last three feasts were on Tishri one, 10th, and 15th. These were Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Feast of Tabernacles. These feasts were dress rehearsals for the times in history that God would come to earth and manifest some great event. He has done great signs on these feast days but the fulfillment of them - what they all point to was this: Jesus died on Passover, was buried on Unleavened Bread, and rose on First Fruits. He sent his Holy Spirit on Pentecost in Acts 2 and he will rapture the final group on Feast of Trumpets, The Great Tribulation will start on the Day of Atonement and we will come back with him to set up his kingdom on earth on the Feast of Tabernacles.
The sacrifice on Passover was mandatory because without salvation, you cannot participate in the other feasts.
God was serious about justice and the fact that every decision had to be based on the testimony of two witnesses. Our two witnesses are the Old and New Testament. The Old Testament is the promise and the New is the fulfillment. Every doctrine will be found in both or it will not stand.
You can see how our government is crafted after the Bible. They had small courts for civil cases and Supreme courts for the big cases. The difference with them was that the judges in their Supreme Court were priests of God, not liberalists. We are slowly seeing things turn around, thank God.
God knew that one day they would want a king so he made provisions for him way before it happened. The king was to write the words of the law in the presence of a priest. Then he was to read the law every day so he wouldn’t forget who was really in charge.
In Luke, Herod is afraid that John the Baptist has risen from the dead. You would think Herod would be afraid of Jesus since he was the one who killed John the Baptist, but instead, he wanted to meet him. Either Herod was interested in knowing the truth or he was so arrogant he had no fear of God.
Jesus tried to quietly slip away from the crowd, but the crowd followed him. He ended up feeding 5,000 of them with 5 loaves and two fish. Jesus was showing us that he is the bread and he has enough for everyone.
Jesus gave the crowd the condition for being his follower. You must give up everything and take up your cross. That offer still stands.
Lord, to follow you is worth anything this world has to offer.