The Festivals Of God
One of the most confusing aspects of understanding the Bible is the role of the Old Testament in relation to Christians who are obviously under a New Covenant (Heb 12:24). What this debate reveals however is more about how people relate to God rather than any doctrinal significance. Abraham is called the father of the faithful (Rom 4:16), and all those who love God are considered children of Abraham. Yet if we are to ignore the story of Abraham simply because it is in the Old Testament[i], then we are to negate the valuable lessons of how God dealt with a man he called his friend. Christians today are also called friends by God, and we are told to look to those in the past who set us examples.
And, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all were baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were scattered in the wilderness. And these things were our examples, that we should not be lusters after evil, as they also lusted. Nor should we be idolaters, even as some of them, as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Nor let us commit fornication, as some of them fornicated, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted Him and were destroyed by serpents. Nor murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer. And all these things happened to them as examples; and it is written for our warning on whom the ends of the world have come. So let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has taken you but what is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the temptation also will make a way to escape, so that you may be able to bear it. (1Cor 10:1-13)
I have highlighted the above words to draw your attention to the fact that Paul called these people brothers and said that “all our fathers” were with Moses. Yet Paul is writing to a Greek city where the church was full of Gentiles- yet he apparently admonishes them to consider the Israelites as their ancestors. He also calls the food they ate and the relationship they had with Christ as a spiritual food and spiritual relationship. He also notes that Christ himself was in the desert with Israel. Added to this he clearly tells us New Covenant Christians that what happened to these people, who were in the desert with Christ for 40 years, happened as examples and warnings for us. Why then would a New Covenant Christian be so foolish to ignore the Old Testament?
The problem seems to be in the relationship that many Christians think they have with God. They use the term “under the New Covenant with Christ”. This denotes a certain obligation and servitude toward Christ and God, where we must obey or we will get a punishment. Yet a covenant is not something that is inflicted upon anyone. Anyone that signs an agreement (which is all that a covenant is) to purchase a car or house knows that such an agreement must be undertaken without coercion and that both parties must be in full control of their faculties (not drugged or mentally unstable) at the time of signing, or it is invalid. Those that are under legal age are also restricted from signing such agreements as they are not considered responsible enough to appreciate the ramifications of what they are doing.
A covenant therefore is an agreement that is voluntarily entered into by mature individuals in full control of their minds and well aware of the responsibility they have taken on. Once we sign such an agreement we are obliged to conform to the restrictions of it in order to achieve the benefits that it provides. We pay the amounts due on the house at the time each month as agreed and eventually we own the house and the covenant with the bank is then finished. Similarly we are faithful to our spouse all our life and if he or she should die the covenant is void and we are free to marry another.
The relationship that God desired with both Abraham, who is called the father of the faithful, and New Covenant Christians, who are called to follow Abraham’s example, is not so much one of being “under a covenant” as much as being “in covenant”. While the terminology difference may be subtle it is significant. While we may not like our bank as we like our friends, we trust them enough to be in a long term relationship with them. If we didn’t trust them we would go to some other bank. We have not been coerced into this house loan (although we may feel that way sometimes when we see the amount of interest we pay!) We are free to leave this house loan covenant and find some other bank to finance our debt.
We are in covenant with Christ to do what he tells us to do and he will give us the gift of eternal life. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:12-15) We have a great and powerful friend whom we love and with whom have an agreement. As his friend he expects us to do whatever he commands us to do, and to follow his example- that you love one another as I have loved you.
Can you see the difference between being IN covenant with Christ as our friend as compared to being UNDER a covenant with obligations to a Lord and Master? While Christ is our Lord and Master, he wants us to be his friends as the ultimate relationship. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. Christ wants to share his life and his thoughts and ideas and develop a relationship beyond that of servant and master, he wants you to love him as he loves you.
And now I am in the world no longer, but these are in the world, and I come to You, Holy Father. Keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those that You have given Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world that they might have My joy fulfilled in them. I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray for You to take them out of the world, but for You to keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth. As You have sent Me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. And I sanctify Myself for their sakes, so that they also might be sanctified in truth. And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me, that they may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You have loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, indeed the world has not known You; but I have known You, and these have known that You have sent me. And I made known to them Your name, and will make it known, so that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:11-26)
The relationship Christians have with Christ and God the Father is far beyond servitude, it is more like the ideal sort of marriage where your partner is your best friend whom you love greater than anyone on earth. Yet our relationship with God is even above such an ideal marriage, for nothing can come between us and God. (Matt 19:29, Luke 14:26)
Those converted within the Old Covenant and within the New Covenant had then and have now the same relationship with God- one of friendship. We therefore need the example of the Old Testament to help us to understand how to be a friend with God.
The Festivals Of God
What does all this discussion about friendship and the Old and New Covenant have to do with the Festivals of God? These festivals, including the Sabbath, were formally instituted in the Old Covenant and were called the Festivals of God (Lev 23). Christ is recorded as having kept them in his life, and we are admonished to follow his example. They area also recorded as being kept by New Covenant Christians many years after Christ (Acts 18:21, 20:6, 27:9, 1 Cor 5:6-8 and 11:23-29), demonstrating that they did follow his example and kept the festivals. They were however kept in a new spirit and with new understanding.
When we, who aspire to be friends with God, approach the Festivals of God we don’t do so from an attitude of obligation to God to keep his festivals but from an appreciation that God our friend has allowed us to participate in his special days of celebration. These days were times when Israel was commanded to rejoice because they were times that commemorated significant events in history. Passover was when Israel was freed from slavery; Pentecost was when they were given the Ten Commandments of God. The Feast of Tabernacles was a time to celebrate the harvest of summer fruits. Each of the Festivals had significant meaning for Israel, along with many rituals that God required them to perform.
When we as Christians begin to keep these sacred Festivals of God we will learn not only the ancient Old Testament meanings but much more importantly will learn how these activities were “a shadow of things to come” (Col 2:16-17): examples for us to understand how God is working with mankind to make his plan clear to us. For example the Passover was seen as the time of Israel’s freedom from Egypt, for those of us in the New Covenant we see that the Passover is actually as a type of Christ who is our Passover and has freed us from Satan and from sin (1Cor 5:7). Similarly Pentecost, when the Law of God was given, is also the day when the Spirit of God was given to the New Testament church (Acts 2:1) to enable us to keep the Law of God in the spirit and intent not just in the letter of the Law.
The Festivals of God, or Gods Holy Days, are not some burden that we must obey. They are a great gift from our great friend to reveal to us His great plan for all mankind. In future articles we will explore the Festivals of God in greater depth- starting from the book of Genesis and finishing with the Book of Revelation. For the plan of God as revealed by his Festivals is intricately woven through the entire Bible. We can’t forget more than half the book, the Old Testament, if we are to understand the plan of God and our pivotal part in it.
Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or in respect of a feast, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths. For these are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.
(Col 2:16-17)
Footnote
[i] The terms Old and New Covenant and Old and New Testament are almost synonymous, however the way I have used the term Covenant generally refers to the specific agreement that is recorded between Israel or a Christian, whereas when using either the term Old Testament and New Testament I am generally referring to all of the historical and prophetic books as well as the Covenant agreements that make up the Old and New Testaments.
