Exodus 23:14-17 14 ‘Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.
15 ‘Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt. ‘No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
16 ‘Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.
‘Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.
17 ‘Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.
Noteworthy …
- DUB … grain festival
- FOH … also a grain
- FOT … fruit festival
Lev.23:3 … the weekly Sabbath
SPRING Festivals
- Lev.23:4-8,9-14 … P/O and DUB … 7-day feast (2 H D)
- Lev.23: 15-22 … Feast of Weeks … 1-day feast (1 HD)
FALL Festivals
- Lev.23:23-25 … Feast of Trumpets … 1-day feast (1 HD)
- Lev.23:26-32 … Day of Atonement … 1-day fast (1 HD)
- Lev.23:33-36, 39-43 … Feast of Tabernacles … 7-day feast (2 HD)
Leviticus 23:4-14 … The Feast of The Passover
- Leviticus 23:4-8 — The Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread
- ‘“These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: 5 the Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. 6 On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. 7 On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do not do any of your ordinary work. 8 For seven days present a food offering to the Lord. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do not do any of your ordinary work.”’
- Leviticus 23:9-14 … The Offering (Feast) of the Firstfruits
- The Lord said to Moses, 10 ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. 11 He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. 12 On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect, 13 together with its grain offering of one fifth of an ephah[a] of the finest flour mixed with olive oil – a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma – and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. 14 You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
Leviticus 23:15-22 … 15 ‘“From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count seven full weeks. 16 Count fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of one fifth of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord. 18 Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings – a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. 19 Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. 20 The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest. 21 On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and not do any ordinary work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
22 ‘“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.”’
The Wave Sheaf (Firstfruits): During this week-long festival, on the day after the Sabbath, the priest would present the “firstfruits” of the barley harvest to God. No new grain could be eaten from the harvest until this offering was made.