Leviticus 23:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is a general account of the holy times God appointed (Leviticus 23:2). Only God’s appointment can make a time holy, because he is Lord of time. As soon as he set time in motion, he was the one who set apart and blessed one day above the others (Genesis 2:3). People can make a day special by their own arrangement, as Esther 9:19 says about a good day, but only God has the right to make a day holy. Nothing is truly set apart unless he marks it by his own command.

All true holiness that lives within a person comes from God’s special grace, and all holiness that rests on something outside us comes from his special command. About these holy times, first notice that they are called feasts. The Day of Atonement was one of them, even though it was a fast day. But because most of them were given for joy and gladness, they are called feasts in a general way. Some read the phrase as, “These are my assemblies,” but that is much the same as convocations. I think it fits better to read it, “These are my solemn times,” which is how the same word is translated in Isaiah 33:20, where Zion is called the city of our solemn feasts. If we read it that way here, the Day of Atonement was as great a solemn time as any of the rest.

Second, they are called the feasts of the Lord, meaning they were kept for God’s honor and in obedience to his command. Third, they were proclaimed, because they were not meant only for the priests who served at the sanctuary, but for all the people. This proclamation was like a joyful announcement, about which we read, “Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound” (Psalm 89:15). Fourth, they were to be kept holy with sacred gatherings, so that the services would seem more honorable and solemn, and the people would join together more fully in keeping them. This also honored God and his institutions, which were not meant to be hidden away. Their purity would be best preserved by open public worship. It also helped the people grow in love, since the feasts were to be kept as holy gatherings.

The law of the Sabbath is repeated first, and with good reason. Even though the yearly feasts were made more noticeable by the people gathering at the sanctuary, they must not push the Sabbath into the background (Leviticus 23:3). On that day they had to turn away from the ordinary business of life. It is a Sabbath of rest, and it points to our spiritual rest from sin and rest in God. “You shall do no work” on that day. On other holy days they were forbidden to do any ordinary work (Leviticus 23:7), but on the Sabbath, and on the Day of Atonement, which is also called a Sabbath, they were to do no work at all, not even preparing food.

On that day they were also to spend themselves in God’s service. It is a holy gathering, which means that if they had the chance, they were to keep it in a religious assembly. As many as could were to come to the entrance of the tabernacle, and the others were to meet somewhere else for prayer, praise, and reading the law, as people later did in the schools of the prophets while prophecy continued, and afterward in the synagogues. Christ appointed the New Testament Sabbath to be a holy gathering when he met with his disciples more than once on the first day of the week. Whether or not they could meet in a public assembly, they were still to keep it as the Lord’s Sabbath in all their homes. They were to make a difference between that day and other days in their families. It is the Lord’s Sabbath, the day he rested from creation and the day he has told us to rest. It was to be kept in every home, even while they lived in tents.

God’s Sabbaths are to be kept with reverence in every private house, by each family on its own, as well as by many families together in holy gatherings. The Lord’s Sabbath in our homes will bring them beauty, strength, and safety. It will set them apart, help them, and bring glory to God.