Exodus 23:10-19

The Holy Periods and Feasts

v. 10. And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof, whatever it yields under careful cultivation;

v. 11. but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still, let it remain unused, make no attempt to cultivate it, that the poor of thy people may eat, namely, that produced by the land without cultivation, the so-called volunteer grain; and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. This fallowing of the land would give it an opportunity to recuperate. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard and with thy oliveyard. There also the fruits were not to be gathered, but left for the poor and needy, for the beasts of the field, and for the fowls of the air. This was the so-called Sabbath of Years, analogous to the Sabbath of the Week.

v. 12. Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest, mainly by desisting from work, that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed. So the slaves and the strangers, as well as the domestic animals, were to be given a breathing spell once a week, the Sabbath thus serving not only religious, but also humanitarian ends.

v. 13. And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect, be on your guard, watch most carefully; and make no mention of the name of other gods, the very reference to them being prohibited, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. Jehovah was to be adored exclusively in the midst of Israel.

v. 14. Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto Me in the year. This is the enumeration of the great Jewish festivals, as it is repeatedly found in the ordinances given through Moses in the wilderness.

v. 15. Thou shalt keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in connection with the Passover; (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, Exodus 12, in the time appointed of the month Abib, from the fourteenth to the twenty-first; for in it thou camest out from Egypt, it was the festival in commemoration of the deliverance from the bondage of Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty, that is, with empty hands, everyone being expected to bring sacrificial gifts to the Lord;)

v. 16. and the Feast of Harvest, afterwards known as the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field, the festival of the grain harvest; and the Feast of Ingathering, afterwards known as the Feast of Tabernacles, which is in the end of the year, in the fall of the year, in October, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field, not only the grain, but also the fruits, the three great products being usually mentioned as corn, wine, and oil.

v. 17. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God. So it was specifically ordered that on the above-mentioned feasts the men of the congregation were obliged to appear before the Lord, a fact which excludes neither women, 1 Samuel 1:3, nor children, Luke 2:41 ff.

v. 18. Thou shalt not offer the blood of My sacrifice, that of the Passover, which, in a most particular sense, belonged to the Lord, with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of My sacrifice (or feast) remain until the morning. This is a reference to the institution of the Passover and of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for the Lord had decreed that leaven and leavened bread should not be found in the houses of the Israelites when this great sacrifice was made, and also that no part of the Passover lamb was to remain till the morning.

v. 19. The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord, thy God. This refers to the festivals in general, for not only were the firstlings of the barley sheaves offered at Passover and two pentecostal loaves during the Feast of Weeks, but the people were expected in general to bring gifts of first-fruits to the Lord. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk, this practice being prohibited as unnatural and tending to make the feasting the central feature, especially in connection with the great festivals. The Old Testament Sabbath and festivals with their ordinances are no longer binding upon the Christians of the New Testament; yet God expects also us to thank and to praise, to serve and obey Him in true faith and love.