Original Meaning

LEVITICUS 23:23–36 PROVIDES INSTRUCTIONS for three autumn festivals in the seventh month: a memorial of trumpet blasts on the first day, the Day of Purgation on the tenth day, and the Festival of Booths on the fifteenth to twenty-first days, with its closing sacred occasion on the twenty-second day. The fact that the festival calendar culminates in the seventh month, at the end of the harvest season, provides an important additional connection to the Sabbath principle as acknowledgment of God’s ongoing creatorship.

Directions for the first day of the seventh month are brief (vv. 23–25). The only unique element is a reminder (zikkaron; cf. Ex. 12:14; 13:9) accomplished by “trumpet blasts” (teruʿah; Lev. 23:24). This passage does not specify the nature of the sound, the one(s) to whom the reminder is directed, or its purpose. However, in Numbers 10:9 the same kind of sound is a signal for battle: “When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast [Hiphil of rwʿ ] on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the LORD your God and rescued from your enemies.” Here the signal to fight a just war simultaneously serves as a reminder to God in the sense of a prayer for deliverance (cf. 2 Chron. 13:12–16). While Numbers 10:10 tells us that another kind of trumpet blast is to be sounded over sacrifices at times of rejoicing, at festivals, and at the beginnings of months as a reminder for the Israelites before the Lord, the short blasts at commencement of the seventh month convey special urgency.

Why would a war signal be blown every year on the first day of the seventh month? Numbers 23:21 supplies a clue. Balaam gazed on Israel’s war camp and uttered a blessing: “The LORD their God is with them; the shout [teruʿah] of the King is among them.” Here the word teruʿah is a battle cry having the same function as blasts on a trumpet (cf. 2 Chron. 13:12–16). It is the war signal of a royal army, led by a king, and in this case the monarch is none other than God himself, so Israel’s victory is guaranteed.1

On the first day of the seventh month (23:24), Israelites will hear the trumpet signal, reminding them that their Commander-in-Chief, King, and Deliverer is with them. This is ten days before the Day of Purgation (Atonement), when the Lord affirms his relationship with those who show loyalty by humbling themselves through self-denial and keeping Sabbath, but he rejects those who neglect to do this (16:29–31; 23:26–32; see further below). Only the loyal will benefit from divine deliverance. So the short blasts on the first day of the month also imply the solemn responsibility of repentance and reformation.

Long after the destruction of the temple, blowing a ram’s horn (šopar) still ushers in the Jewish “days of awe,” the high holy days of the seventh month when it is believed that all humankind must seek repentance in order to be saved.2 Because the first day of this month heralds renewal of life with God, it has become Rosh Ha-Shanah (“New Year”) in postbiblical Jewish tradition.

Following reinforced reiteration of the commands to practice self-denial and abstain from work on the Day of Purgation (23:26–32; see below), verses 33–36 concern the Festival of Booths (“Tabernacles”). This major pilgrim festival celebrates God’s goodness at the end of the harvest (i.e., the end of the agricultural year), which is why Exodus 23:16; 34:22 call it the Festival of Ingathering. Its purpose is similar to that of the American Thanksgiving holiday, which was started at Plymouth Bay when the early Pilgrim settlers completed their first successful harvest.

The Festival of Booths runs for seven days from the fifteenth to twenty-first days of the seventh month (Lev. 23:34), plus a connected but distinct solemn assembly (ʿaṣarah; cf. Joel 1:14; 2:15–16; 2 Kings 10:20–21) on the eighth day (Lev. 23:36). This seven-plus-one day sequence of contiguous festival days balances the one-plus-seven day sequence of Passover plus Unleavened Bread in the spring, creating a symmetrical pattern:

Spring

Passover (1 day)

Unleavened Bread (7 days)

Elevated Sheaf (1 day)

Weeks (1 day)

Autumn

Trumpets (1 day)

Day of Purgation (1 day)

Booths (7 days)

Solemn Assembly (1 day)

Following a conclusion in verses 37–38, which emphasizes that the public offerings specified in chapter 23 are in addition to any other sacrifices brought by the Israelites, verses 39–43 append important supplementary instructions regarding the Festival of Booths. These directions stand outside the scope of the conclusion because they do not concern sacred offerings at the sanctuary.

During the seven days of the festival, the Israelites are to rejoice before the Lord with various kinds of foliage and live in booths as a reminder of life in the desert, when the Lord brought them out of Egypt. Thus, not only do they rejoice in his creative power over agriculture; they also relive his historical redemption, accomplished by his creative power as demonstrated by the signs/miracles he performed for them in Egypt (e.g., the ten plagues), his parting of the Red Sea to save them from Pharaoh, and his provision for their physical needs in the desert (water from rock, manna, etc.). The tight link between the Lord’s creative and redemptive roles also appears in the fact that both of them are motives for keeping the Sabbath (Ex. 20:11; Deut. 5:15).

Just as the procedures in Joel 2:15 (“Blow the trumpet [here šopar] in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly”) address a crucial situation of corporate agricultural need (a locust plague), Milgrom concludes that the three seventh-month festivals, which embrace blowing of trumpets (day 1), fasting (day 10), and a solemn assembly (day 22), appear to function as a dynamic unit to petition God every year “for adequate and timely rain in the forthcoming agricultural year.”3

Joel 2 also speaks of rain, including literal autumn and spring rain (Joel 2:23) and a later outpouring of God’s Spirit (vv. 28–29). According to Peter, God poured out his Spirit on Christians at the spring Festival of Weeks/Pentecost as a fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (Acts 2:16–18). So just as it was appropriate for Israelites to pray for literal rain, it is fitting for Christians to ask God for the “rain” of his Spirit.

For the Israelites, religious rejoicing climaxed with the pilgrim Festival of Booths. There could also be some joy on the Day of Purgation, particularly when the Jubilee release began on this day (Lev. 25:9). Mishnab Taʿanit 4:8 describes the Day of Purgation as a joyful occasion, when the young women of Jerusalem sallied forth to dance in the vineyards and young men chose brides from among them (cf. Judg. 21:19–23).4 However, Mishnah Yoma 7:4 places the mood of rejoicing after that of solemnity: The high priest celebrated with his friends after he emerged safely from the temple. At the end of tractate Yoma (8:9), R. Aqiba found another reason for rejoicing: God purified Israel through the events of the great Day.5

The sequence of autumn festivals is logical. On the first day of the seventh month, there is a reminder that the Lord is Israel’s sovereign deliverer. On the tenth day (Day of Purgation), God as King judges between his loyal and disloyal subjects. From the fifteenth to twenty-first days of the same month (Festival of Booths), the Lord celebrates his kingship with his loyal subjects.6 This progression complements Milgrom’s idea that the seventh-month festivals had to do with petitioning God for rain (see above). For all blessings, including rain, the Israelites were dependent on their divine King, to whom they were accountable for loyalty.

Bridging Contexts

SELF-DENIAL TO EXPRESS continuing loyalty. Leviticus 23:26–32 recapitulates the commands of 16:29–31 to practice self-denial and abstain from work on the Day of Purgation, adding several elements: (1) It names this day “the Day of Expiation/Purgation,” commonly rendered as the “Day of Atonement” (23:27–28). (2) It condemns violators to divine “cutting off” and destruction (vv. 29–30). (3) The commands of self-denial and keeping total Sabbath apply from evening on the ninth day of the seventh month until the next evening (v. 32).

Leviticus and Numbers do not explain how to “deny [afflict] oneself,” that is, practice self-denial (Piel of ʿnh; 16:29, 31; 23:27, 29, 32; Num. 29:7), but the fact that husband-wife relations are involved in Numbers 30:13 suggests the possibility that sexual abstinence could be included (so m. Yoma 8:1).7 Outside the Pentateuch we find more information. When a friend is sick, the psalmist accompanies his prayer by voluntarily denying himself through fasting and wearing sackcloth (Ps. 35:13). In Isaiah 58:3, 5 fasting and practicing self-denial (probably on the Day of Purgation) are in parallel and associated with bowing one’s head and lying in sackcloth and ashes. Ezra and his returning exiles besought God for a safe journey while practicing self-denial through fasting (8:21). Daniel also accompanied a petition with self-denial (10:12). Verses 2–3 describe his behavior as mourning and provide the details that he abstained from luxurious food and drink and from putting oil (moisturizer) on himself.

Thus, practicing self-denial is an outward expression accompanying supplication to God at a time of inner distress.8 Temporary suspension of normal activities, including eating that sustains life, focuses on God without interruption9 and acknowledges dependence on his power.

The purpose of self-denial on the Day of Purgation appears to be basically the same as that of this practice at other times: to humbly acknowledge total dependence on God at a time of special need. Total Sabbath at the same time facilitates this focus while enacting holiness in harmony with that of the awesome transactions at the sanctuary. On this occasion the Israelites’ need is to receive moral cleansing through purgation of the sanctuary on their behalf from sins for which they have already been forgiven (Lev. 16:30). We can conclude that the Israelites who practice self-denial as an outward token of sincere inner repentance10 and who keep Sabbath on the Day of Purgation express their ongoing loyalty and humble submission to their holy Lord. By participating in the great Day, those who are faithful accept its efficacy as applying to them.

Vindicating the justice of mercy. How do you vindicate the justice and wisdom of mercy that has already been given? King Solomon knew the answer to this question. Although his brother Adonijah attempted to claim the throne while their father David was still alive (1 Kings 1), Solomon won the prize (1:39–40). As the new king, he became judge over Adonijah and granted him conditional pardon: “If he shows himself to be a worthy man, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground; but if evil is found in him, he will die” (1:52). Obviously Solomon defined this kind of worthiness versus evil in terms of loyalty or disloyalty to himself. For him loyalty was the bottom line.

Whether or not Adonijah kept his pardon depended on his own choice to continue showing that he accepted the terms of Solomon’s clemency as a loyal subject to the king. If he proved loyal, the pardon already given would be justified because it would have achieved its goal. But if Solomon judged Adonijah to have turned rebellious, the king would no longer justify the pardon and therefore would revoke it. The latter is what happened some time later. When Adonijah requested permission to marry Abishag, who had belonged to David (2:13–21), Solomon assumed that he was attempting to revive his claim to the throne because having a woman belonging to a previous ruler was a royal privilege (1:22; cf. 2 Sam. 16:21–22). So Solomon ordered Adonijah’s execution (1 Kings 2:23–25). Solomon grasped the fact that pardon does not always achieve its goal, which is permanent reformation and reconciliation. His father had learned this the hard way with Absalom.

In Matthew 18, Jesus taught that the kingdom of God works similarly. A king forgave one of his servants a monstrous debt of ten thousand talents (Matt. 18:23–27), but when the servant went out, he grabbed one of his colleagues by the throat to extract payment of a miserable hundred denarii. Refusing to grant small mercy after having received amazing grace, he had his fellow servant thrown in prison (vv. 28–30). The king heard about it and revoked his forgiveness of the first servant’s huge debt (vv. 31–35).

The point of the parable is that a person who receives forgiveness from God must pass it on if he or she does not want to lose it. Forgiveness that cannot reproduce is sterile, like a mule. Because divine forgiveness, like Solomon’s pardon of Adonijah, has the purpose of restoring an ongoing relationship, it is not simply a “one-shot deal.” It is something that the recipient must cherish and not throw away by disloyalty to God, which can be shown by the way we treat our fellow human beings.

When Jesus forgave people, he wanted them to cherish it. Having short-circuited the execution of a woman caught in adultery, Jesus said to her: “Then neither do I condemn you. . . . Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11). He freed her from condemnation so that she could have a new kind of life, not to give her another chance to hop in bed with someone else. He accepts us the way we are, but he doesn’t leave us the way we were (cf. Rom. 8:1–4)!

Like the Christ of the New Testament, the Lord of Leviticus sought longterm moral rehabilitation rather than a quick fix that would soon fall apart. This explains why he required the Israelites to demonstrate their ongoing repentance and loyalty to him on the Day of Purgation by observing self-denial and resting from all work (Lev. 16:29, 31; 23:26–32). Having already received forgiveness at stage 1 in the process of expiation throughout the year (e.g., 4:20, 31, 35), they showed on the Day of Purgation that they loyally cherished their restored relationship to God and thus received the vindicating benefit of stage 2: moral purification that resulted from the high priest’s purgation of the sanctuary (16:30, 34).11

The benefit of stage 2 was not automatic. The choice belonged to the people. Anyone who disloyally disregarded the Lord’s commands to practice self-denial and abstain from work on that great Day would suffer the terminal divine penalties of being “cut off” and destroyed (Lev. 23:29–30), thereby losing everything, including any forgiveness earlier received. Expiation had to be finished or it was invalidated, just as a baby must be born completely in order to survive, a criminal on parole who commits a crime goes back to jail, and in the Academic Records office of a university an unchanged “Incomplete” turns into an “F.”

As a yearly review of divine-human relationships, the Day of Purgation was not unique in the ancient Near East. For example, the Sumerian “Nanshe Hymn,” dating from about 2100–2000 B.C., describes a New Year celebration in which contracts of persons employed by or otherwise economically dependent on the temple of the goddess Nanshe were reviewed in terms of their ritual and ethical behavior during the previous year and their presence at the temple on the New Year.12 As in Israel, persons within the divinely benefited community were judged on a particular day according to the quality of their loyalty toward a deity and the standards established and enforced by that deity.13

On the fifth day of the Babylonian New Year (Akītu) Festival of Spring, ritual functionaries purged the Esagila temple of the god Marduk and the Ezida cella of his visiting son Nabû from demonic impurities. Cleansing the Ezida included wiping (Akkadian kuppuru, cognate of Hebrew kipper) its walls with the decapitated carcass of a ram, which was then thrown in the Euphrates River. Participants in this ritual became impure and had to remain outside the city for the remainder of the eleven- or twelve-day festival. This is analogous to treatment of human impurity contracted by Israelites who disposed of the purification offering carcasses after the high priest purged the sanctuary (Lev. 16:28).

Later on the same day of the Babylonian festival, the king approached (the image of) Marduk in the Esagila without his crown and royal insignia. Then the high priest humbled/afflicted the king before the god by striking his cheek, pulling him by the ears, and making him kneel down. Addressing Marduk, the king asserted his righteousness.14 After this un-confession (by contrast with the Israelite high priest’s confession; Lev. 16:21), the high priest affirmed Marduk’s goodwill toward the monarch, restored his crown and insignia, and struck him to make tears flow as a good omen of Marduk’s favor.15 While the Babylonian and Sumerian festival days paralleled the Israelite Day of Purgation in a number of ways, neither of them included review and reaffirmation of divine forgiveness that had been granted earlier in the year. This element was unique to the Day of Purgation (see comments on Lev. 16).

Judgment day. Because God separated disloyal Israelites from those who were loyal on the Day of Purgation (contrast Lev. 16:30 with 23:29–30), this was Israel’s yearly “judgment day.”16 All who had been provisionally or nominally loyal now had the choice to seal their commitment to God or throw it away. Their own decision fixed the Lord’s verdict. By the conclusion of the Day of Purgation ceremonies, the community whom God acknowledged as his consisted only of those whom he had morally purified.

Leviticus 16:30 (“For on this day shall purgation be effected on your behalf to purify you of all your sins; you shall become pure before the LORD”)17 provides the reason for the commands to practice self-denial and cease work (16:29, repeated in v. 31 in reverse order, creating a chiasm that frames v. 30). So Israelites who demonstrated their loyalty on the Day of Purgation received moral purification through purgation of the sanctuary. This connection makes sense if the events of that day have to do with vindicating God’s justice, including his justice in granting forgiveness to guilty people (see comments on Lev. 16). If a judge forgives a defendant and then the judge’s merciful decision with regard to that party is upheld, the defendant is cleared in the sense that forgiveness already received is confirmed.

The Israelites had a vested interest in the sanctuary because they were the source of evils that accumulated there, and its fate was their fate. If they excessively polluted it through an accumulation of unremedied offenses that damaged the reputation of their covenant deity, he would abandon his earthly residence and them along with it, giving them up to destruction (Ezek. 9:3; 10:4, 18–19; 11:22–23).18

On the Day of Purgation, God’s justice was also vindicated with regard to unforgiven faults. Purgation of inexpiable rebellious sins from the sanctuary (see comments on Lev. 16:16) sealed his rejection and condemnation of those who had cast off allegiance to him (e.g., 20:3; 19:13, 20), thereby forfeiting their eligibility to receive the benefit of moral purification. Such rebellious sins by people who were nominally connected to the Lord through the covenant had affected his sanctuary by seriously defaming his administration there, raising questions concerning his fairness and authority (cf. Ps. 73). But as the psalmist came to realize, their final destiny is made plain at the sanctuary (v. 17).

Anyone who watched the Iran-Contra hearings on TV during the administration of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s knows that unlawful activities of subordinates, such as Colonel Oliver North, can malign the reputation of a leader and impair his ability to govern. The only way for him to clear himself/herself is to repudiate such activities and those who carry them out. This is what the Lord does on the Day of Purgation: He clears himself from association with offenses that have gravely misrepresented him, the perpetrators of which are already condemned.

Using language saturated with allusions to Leviticus, Hebrews 10:19–22 appeals to Christians to enjoy access by faith into God’s heavenly temple, which Christ has made available by the sacrifice of himself. Verse 22 invites believers to approach God with hearts already having been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience (cf. 9:13–14). Thus, as on the Israelite Day of Purgation, this experience follows forgiveness. Hebrews 10:23–25 encourages God’s people to remain faithful to him in deeds of love and in worship. In this passage, there are two major aspects of loyalty: (1) having faith in Jesus and remaining faithful as he is faithful, and (2) acting in a loving way, which would be in accordance with God’s commandments.

Continuing loyalty to God is all the more urgent as “the Day” is approaching (Heb. 10:25). The following verses (vv. 26–30) connect the Day with the Lord’s judgment of his people. Perhaps it is more than coincidental that “the Day” coincides with the traditional Jewish abbreviation for the Day of Purgation—Yoma (Aramaic), “the Day”—that shows up as the title for the tractate concerning this day in the Mishnah, Jerusalem Talmud, and Babylonian Talmud.

Hebrews 10:26–30 warns Christians who have received sanctification through Christ’s blood of the (new) covenant against the deadly danger of apostasy (cf. Num. 15:30–31). As on the Israelite Day of Purgation, the Lord’s judgment concerns “his people.” The post-forgiveness experience of Christians, like that of the Israelites, involves accountability to God for choosing him rather than sin.

Contemporary Significance

SIGNAL OF A NEW beginning. One day in 1987 I was walking along “Tribes of Israel” street in Jerusalem on the way to class at the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus. Suddenly a siren began to wail. My first thought was an air raid warning—missiles from Syria? But instead of scrambling for cover, drivers stopped their cars and got out. Pedestrians also halted in their tracks. Everyone stood silently at attention for several minutes, facing the direction from which the siren was coming. It was the day to remember those who perished in the Holocaust. The people know that if they ever forget their past and who they are, they will cease to exist, as so many other groups have lost their identity. To remember is to live; to forget is to die.

The seventh new moon day of trumpet blasts was also a crucial time of remembrance (zikkaron) for the ancient Israelites (Lev. 23:24). While they would undoubtedly recall the past, the piercing sound also gave hope for the present and future because their divine King would remember and deliver them (cf. Num. 10:9; 23:21). In Revelation 11, a seventh trumpet signals God’s kingship (Rev. 11:15–17). In fact, it announces that the Lord has reestablished his sovereignty over the whole kingdom of this world. Then verses 18–19 speak of judgment and deliverance:

“The nations were angry;

and your wrath has come.

The time has come for judging the dead,

and for rewarding your servants the prophets

and your saints and those who reverence your name,

both small and great—

and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. . . .

In ancient Israel the only time when the ark of the covenant was accessible to anyone was on the Day of Purgation, Israel’s judgment day, when the high priest entered the Most Holy Place to begin purging the sanctuary. So Revelation 11:15–19 presents an eschatological parallel to the trumpet and Day of Purgation rituals on the first and tenth days of the seventh month. It is the beginning not just of a new year but of a new era: God’s eternal reign of peace. According to this passage, a “new world order” is coming. It won’t happen through presidential vision, central intelligence, economic solutions, or military might, but through the divine King, God. Ultimately, his will is to be done on earth, as it is in heaven (cf. Matt. 6:10).

Like a trumpet sound, the appeal of God’s sovereignty is urgent, cutting through the din and packed agendas of everyday life. On an airplane trip to southern California and back, I took my Mac PowerBook to continue some pressing work. But on each leg of the journey I barely managed to boot up the computer. Completely above the authority of United Airlines to make seating arrangements, the great Travel Agent in the Friendly Skies had set up a series of appointments to talk to precious people sitting next to me: a social worker, the wife of an emergency room physician, and an artist and musician. I didn’t make any special effort to initiate or guide these conversations, but they were not ordinary exchanges. In each case the person was at a special point of change and searching for meaning in life, reaching out and exploring the God option. There was urgency, and God apparently wanted me to be there for them to confirm that they were not alone in hearing his signal.

Ongoing commitment. It is important to say the right words at the right time with sincerity, but after such a commitment comes the opportunity and responsibility to follow through. This is the way it is with an engagement to be married. A young man asks a young woman if she will marry him. She accepts the proposal. They have made a commitment that is tested at the time of the wedding, which in a sense is a kind of “judgment day.”

The white and gold announcements may have gone to the ends of the earth. The church may be overflowing with flowers and candles. The multitiered cake and multi-teared mother of the bride may be as ready as they will ever be, and gifts may be piled high on several tables. Loved ones may be waiting expectantly in the pews, the organist starting to play, attendants in tuxedos and gorgeous frocks about to reenact the age of chivalry, and the minister already standing at the pulpit with his Bible and notes. But if either the bride or the groom gets “cold feet” and decides to pull out at the last minute, no marriage will begin at this time.

If a wedding successfully begins a marriage, the following years parse the big meaning of the little words “I do” as they are lived out in sickness and in health, in adversity and prosperity. Unless actions consistently back up the promise, words are cheap.

Similarly, Christians who accept salvation and receive forgiveness must continue in their faith (Col. 1:23), just as the ancient Israelites were to maintain their loyalty. Jesus said: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). It is not enough to have done God’s will in the past, even if that included prophesying and performing miracles (7:22–23).

Just as a couple sets a wedding date, God “has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). Believing in Christ does not exempt us from judgment. Speaking to Christians, Paul wrote: “For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat” (Rom. 14:10). However, there are two pieces of good news.

(1) All divine judgment is through Christ, who died to save us. Having paid the ultimate price, he doesn’t want anyone to be lost (2 Peter 3:9). Charles Spurgeon pointed out the benefit of Christ’s justice: “It may seem a stern attribute, but even that is yours, for He will by His justice see to it that all which is promised to you in the covenant of grace shall be most certainly secured to you.”19

(2) God’s judgment is not for the purpose of finding out who has sinned and who has not. Everyone has sinned (Rom. 3:23), so there is no need for a judgment to distinguish between people on this basis. For us, as for the adulterous woman brought to Jesus, the question is: Do we accept and hold on to the transforming gift of forgiveness that Christ has freely granted us (cf. John 8:11)?

For those who are forgiven and remain reconciled to God, judgment reaffirms assurance; it does not take it away. Compare the fact that on the Day of Purgation, the high priest did not purge the sanctuary and its sancta by wiping off bloodstains from earlier sacrifices. Rather, he applied more blood (Lev. 16:14–19) at several of the same places (cf. 4:6–7, 17–18, 25, 30, 34), reaffirming forgiveness already granted through blood.20 God’s faithful ones, who have made a covenant with him by sacrifice, have nothing to fear in the judgment (cf. Ps. 50:3–6), which God gives them for their benefit (cf. Dan. 7:22). It is Satan, not God, who is trying to take away our assurance (Zech. 3:1–5; Rev. 12:10).

Through parables of wheat versus weeds and good fish versus undesirable fish, Jesus taught that God ultimately distinguishes between his true people and those who appear to be his but are not (Matt. 13:24–30, 36–43, 47–50). When Christ comes in glory, he will know who are really his. The deciding factor will not be words of commitment, but whether people have followed through by honoring him in the way they have treated others in what many would call “the little things of life” (25:31–46).

Ongoing loyalty to God is not simply an abstract attitude. Rather, it has practical effects that result from the divine-human relationship. Doing things for Christ by doing them for others does not buy salvation, which is exclusively God’s gift by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8–9). Rather, serving others is the inevitable outflow of true, living faith that expresses itself through love (Gal. 5:6). If there is a source, there will be a river. If there is no river, James says the source is dead (James 2:26).

Rest and self-denial. Does the Lord expect Christians to do anything analogous to the humbling through self-denial and resting from work that he required of the ancient Israelites on the Day of Purgation (Lev. 16:29, 31; 23:26–32)? In Revelation 14, for those who live at the time when God’s “judgment has come” (v. 7), verse 12 calls for the patient endurance of God’s holy ones, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. These are the same aspects of loyalty that we found in Hebrews 10:19–25 (see above).

There is remarkable correspondence between the two aspects of faithfulness in Leviticus and Revelation.21 (1) Humbling through self-denial (Lev. 16:29) is what Jesus did in the ultimate sense when “he humbled himself and became obedient to death” (Phil. 2:8). So keeping the faith of Jesus (Rev. 14:12) can refer to having the kind of humble faith that Jesus did. But it can simultaneously mean having “faith in Jesus” (NASB; NJB) and what he has accomplished for us through his faithful self-sacrifice.

(2) For the Israelites, to completely rest from work on the Day of Purgation was to keep Sabbath (Lev. 16:29, 31; 23:31–32). There was only one other Sabbath observance of total rest from all work: the weekly Sabbath (23:3). Why would God link the Day of Purgation to the weekly Sabbath in this way? The weekly Sabbath was not simply one of God’s commandments. In Exodus 31:13 he commanded the Israelites: “You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.” As a “lasting covenant” (31:16), Sabbath was a microcosm of the divine-human relationship, within which the Lord was bringing his people into harmony with himself, his holy character, and all of his commandments, just as God’s holy people in Revelation 14:12 are to keep the commandments of God. Similarly, the Israelites’ observance of Sabbath on the Day of Purgation was a pledge of allegiance to their covenant Lord, through whose priest they were morally cleansed from their sins (Lev. 16:30).

For Christians, the point of keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus is not to earn salvation, but simply to keep on loyally trusting God as he sanctifies us through our heavenly High Priest. In this way we participate with him, just as the Israelites were to show solidarity with their high priest when he disappeared from their sight and approached God in the Most Holy Place on their behalf to accomplish a transaction that was a matter of life and death.

What do you do when somebody does something for you that is a matter of life and death? Is it business as usual? Is it a time to go out to eat or throw a party? Queen Esther said “no.” When she agreed to go before the king to save her people, thereby risking her life, she wanted some serious support even though other Jews could not come with her. She sent a message to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish” (Est. 4:16).

If Esther’s people valued their lives, the least they could do was to fast with her. They were totally dependent on her mediation. Likewise, the Israelites completely relied on the ministration of their high priest to accomplish the purgation of the sanctuary through which they became morally “clean” (Lev. 16:30), and we are utterly dependent on Christ’s mediation to make us morally “blameless” (Rev. 14:5).

Humbling ourselves in preparation for or during God’s judgment does not mean that we should live our entire lives in an attitude of mourning. Repentance certainly involves sorrow for the grief that our wrongs have brought to God, to other human beings, and to ourselves. But the reason for such remembering is to enable us to let go and forget (cf. Phil. 3:13–14).22

By participating with God in forgetting, we can also learn to develop amnesia regarding the pain that others have caused us. An anonymous prayer begins:

Lord, please shorten my memory.

I remember some things way too long, Lord.

I remember words of criticism that were spoken so long ago

the critic can’t even remember having said them.

And, Lord, if someone has lied to me or about me,

I never seem to forget.23