23:1–2 Israel’s festival calendar is the Lord’s invitation to meet together at regular times. Moses is to make known the times the Lord has ordained as holy, and in turn the people are to join in proclaiming them as holy. In this way Israel’s calendar sets seasonal appointments with the Lord as a continuing call to worship. Appointed meeting times (Hb. moʿed) echo the language of the tent of meeting (moʿed). As the tabernacle marks out sacred space, so the calendar marks out sacred time that the Lord will inhabit with his people as a “sanctuary in time.”256

23:3 The calendar of holy days begins with sacred time ordained at creation: “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy” (Gen. 2:3). The Lord sanctifies the Sabbath and commands his covenant people “to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). Israel is invited to enter into God’s rest by observing a total cessation from its labors. In doing so Israel images its Sovereign, who ceased from his work at the beginning of time. Israel celebrates “in all your dwelling places,” that is, in homes gathered with families. Holy time is lived out in every Israelite household as a weekly reorientation to the Lord’s sovereignty and as a reminder of the covenant that makes Israel his holy people (Ex. 31:13).

The Lord establishes sacred times and Israel responds to observe them so that both God and his people participate in setting apart those times as “holy.” The Sabbath models a meeting together in time that will serve as a pattern for the rest of the appointed feasts throughout the year. The Sabbath pattern leaves its imprint on all other holy days that are observed with either a complete (as here) or a partial day of rest (cf. comment on 23:6–8). As holy time celebrated on the seventh day, the Sabbath begins the cycle of seven appointed feasts. The number seven features prominently in each half of the calendar in celebrations of a seven-day festival (Unleavened Bread in the spring and Feast of Booths in the fall). Seven weeks are counted off from the elevation of the firstfruits to the celebration of the Feast of Weeks. This intentional patterning ties all Israel’s appointed feasts back to creation. Israel’s sacred calendar envisions created time as a dimension in which to meet with God.

23:4 An introduction to the appointed feasts the Sabbath has heralded opens the treatment of the calendar.

23:5 The Lord’s deliverance of his people inaugurates the cycle of Israel’s appointed feasts. This is the first month of the ritual calendar, signaling that Israel was given new life as a redeemed people (Ex. 12:2).257 The Passover and Unleavened Bread are two distinct feasts that nevertheless commemorate the same historic saving act. These festivals bring forward into the present Yahweh’s deliverance so that it continues to shape Israel’s covenant identity.

The Passover begins at “twilight,” the very time when on that momentous night in Egypt all Israel slaughtered its lambs as the prelude to freedom (Ex. 12:6). Israelites reenact the sacrifice that delivered them and through the ceremonial Passover meal pass down the story of their redemption to the next generation (Ex. 12:24–27). It is celebrated for one day and is the first of the three pilgrimage feasts, which also include the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) and the Feast of Booths.

23:6–8 The following day begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is observed for seven days, including holy convocations at its beginning and its conclusion, when all work is forbidden except for the preparation of food (cf. Ex. 12:16).258 During this time Israelites eat unleavened bread to commemorate their hasty passage out of Egypt, when they packed their dough before it had been leavened (Ex. 12:39). Memory of the exodus that is marked first by eating the Passover meal continues for seven days by eating bread with no leaven.

23:9–11 In this ceremony of “firsts” the first yield of the land is offered on the first day of the week, on the Sunday following the beginning of the barley harvest.259 The feast anticipates dwelling in the land promised to the patriarchs by commanding the offering of its yield to the Lord as an act of worship. The offerer brings a sheaf from his harvest to the sanctuary for the priest to lift heavenward in a gesture of presentation,260 while the worshiper makes the following declaration of the Lord’s faithfulness:

The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me. (Deut. 26:8–10)

The worshiper’s confession brings the Lord’s past saving acts into the present as he lives out the fulfillment of God’s promises to his forefathers.

23:12–13 The worshiping community brings a male yearling lamb together with grain and drink offerings to accompany the presentation of firstfruits. The offering closely resembles the daily offering at the sanctuary, with the addition of an extra portion of grain (two tenth measures of fine flour; cf. Ex. 29:40). The amount of grain is double that of the daily offering, likely in celebration of the harvest.

23:14 This is an important ceremony and joyous occasion for Israelites, who may eat of the land’s yield only after it has first been offered to the Lord. Before anyone may benefit from its sustenance the first portion of the new crop is offered to God in recognition that it is he who feeds his people from the fruit of the earth (cf. Gen. 1:29; Ps. 145:15–16). The first yield of the first harvest acknowledges symbolically all that the worshipers have and all that they are belong to the Lord. To honor him by giving him priority invites the blessing of abundance intended for humanity (cf. Gen. 1:28; Prov. 3:9–10). Only then may Israel eat “in all your dwellings”—worship in God’s presence affects life at home.

23:15–16a The Feast of Weeks follows “seven full weeks” after the beginning of the barley harvest to celebrate the firstfruits of the wheat harvest (which would occur in May or June). Although it remains unnamed here, the feast is known from other portions of Scripture as the Feast of the Harvest (Ex. 23:16) or the Feast of Weeks (Ex. 34:22; Deut. 16:10). The feast may be more familiar by its designation as Pentecost, deriving from the Greek pentēkostos, meaning “fifty” (Acts 2:1), because of counting off fifty days from when the first sheaf is presented to the Lord.261 It lasts for one day and always falls on a Sunday (“the day after the seventh Sabbath”), the first day of the week.

23:16b–17 Israelites present to the Lord an elevation offering of two loaves of leavened bread baked of flour from the wheat harvest. While it is a single sheaf that is elevated at the beginning of the grain harvest, loaves of bread are elevated at its end. Israel’s worship is a concrete image that whatever the Lord provides to grow out of the ground the people offer back to him, joining their work to his in creation.

23:18–21 A burnt offering again accompanies the wave offering, this one of seven lambs (perhaps one for each week), two rams, and one bull. To this is added a sin offering to make atonement and a peace offering to celebrate restored fellowship.

23:22 Festivals around the grain harvest naturally give rise to the commandment to cultivate the land and harvest its crops in a manner that will sustain all who dwell in it, from the land owner to the poor among God’s people. A segment of one’s fields must remain unreaped and their harvested portions ungleaned in order to provide for the poor and sojourner. Gratitude for the harvest is lived out in imitation of the Lord, who provides for his people from the yield of the land.

23:23–25 This feast is commemorated with blasts of the trumpet to signal the beginning of the cycle of holy days in the seventh month (which would fall in September or October). During her wilderness sojourns trumpet blasts summoned Israel to assemble before the Lord or to break camp for setting out in her divisions to follow his lead (Num. 10:3–8). The Feast of Trumpets is both an announcement and a summons. It announces the arrival of the seventh month, the holiest month of the year, and summons Israel to prepare to meet with the Lord by participating in sacred time.

The feast is a memorial. According to Numbers 10:10 blasts of the ram’s horn serve as a reminder of Israel before her God on every feast day. Reminders are significant in the covenant relationship between the Lord and his people, and both covenant partners are given reminders of their obligations to the other. Festivals, holy convocations, and tassels on garments assure a remembrance that is not merely cognitive for Israel but leads to obedience: “Remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them” (Num. 15:39). When the Lord in turn remembers his covenant, he does so for blessing: “For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love” (Ps. 106:45; cf. Lev. 26:42–45; Ps. 105:8). Within the context of Israel’s worship remembrance is a sign of continued relationship: “God’s memory is not a re-creating of the past, but a continuation of the self-same purpose.”262

23:26–28 The Day of Atonement ceremonies are described in full in chapter 16. The interest of the festival calendar is to bring into focus the people’s responsibility to observe a time of fasting and ceasing from their work in the seventh month, on the tenth day. On this day, Israelites are to “afflict themselves,” that is, to fast and humble themselves in sorrow over their sin as they petition the Lord in complete dependence (cf. comment on 16:29–31).

23:29–30 The gravity of this day is reflected by the severity of punishment for not observing it as the Lord commands. Anyone who does not humble himself in fasting and repentance before the Lord will be cut off from his people, and anyone who does any work will be destroyed by the Lord.263 Stated otherwise, these commands teach that repentance is necessary for forgiveness and that atonement is the work not of man but of God. He who does not humble himself will not receive cleansing from sin and has in effect already cut himself off from the Lord.

23:31–32 The Day of Atonement is observed for only one day, yet this day is one of the most important in the calendar and designated a Sabbath of complete rest.

23:33–36 The Feast of Booths marks the high point of celebrations. It is inaugurated on the fifteenth day of the seventh month by a holy convocation around which no work is done. Sacrificial offerings are made on each of its seven days, and it concludes with another holy convocation on day eight. It is also called the Feast of Ingathering, as implied by verse 39, which refers to gathering the land’s produce (Ex. 23:16; 34:22).

23:37–38 For a moment the passage takes its eyes off the Feast of Booths to speak of the importance of bringing all the offerings of these festivals “each on its proper day” (Lev. 23:37) and to make clear that these are in addition to other regular offerings that are made (v. 38).

23:39–41 The passage now returns to the Feast of Booths. Native Israelites whose forefathers came out of Egypt are commanded to construct huts of leafy boughs as temporary dwellings to commemorate their time journeying to the Promised Land. Appointed feasts are an opportunity for each Israelite to relive in his or her own generation the historic saving acts of God. Remembering the past by enacting it in the present teaches Israel that she is a sojourning people, a worshiping community whose journey with Yahweh continues even after having received the land of its inheritance.

Rejoicing is commanded as part of the celebration in the same way that constructing booths is: “You shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.” It is remarkable that only five days after humbling herself in fasting and repentance Israel is commanded to rejoice. Can joy indeed be mandated? It seems so (cf. Neh. 8:9–12). In the Scriptures rejoicing is more than an emotional state or attitude of the heart. To rejoice is an embodied act of obedience expressed in approaching the Lord with offerings at the sanctuary (Deut. 12:12; 14:26; cf. 2 Cor. 9:6–7).264 The heart is trained to rejoice in the Lord through the offering of worship.

23:42–43 Israel’s calendar of appointed feasts concludes with exceedingly great joy. Celebration is catechism, given so that “your generations may know.” Living out the Lord’s commands leads to knowing him. All Israel is brought together in God’s appointed times to embed in his people the redemptive story that shapes their covenant identity. It is during the Feast of Booths that the Law is read every seven years (Deut. 31:10–13; cf. Neh. 8:1). In postexilic times the Feast of Ingathering acquires an eschatological flavor, undergirding the expectation that time, though cyclical, is also moving toward an ultimate end or goal that includes the ingathering of the nations in the spirit of joyful worship (Zech. 14:16–21).

23:44 Moses has faithfully relayed the festivals of Israel’s calendar as the Lord has commanded him.