Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Deuteronomy-Chapter 16

Deut 16.1-23 will give us Choice # 5, “Are we going to worship like the nations?”; the three pilgrim festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot called the “Shelosh Regalim”; the appointment of judges; and a warning against idolatrous practices.

v 1…”Observe the month of Aviv (or Nisan) and celebrate Passover to the Lord your God, for the month of Aviv the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night (the deliverance took place after midnight, but they did not come out till morning).

v 2…And you shall sacrifice the Passover (lamb was called the Passover) to the Lord your God from the flock (the Passover sacrifice) and the herd (called the Chagigah; the lamb was roasted and the oxen were boiled; you could not boil the Passover lamb-2 Chr 35.7, 13) in the place where the Lord chooses to establish his name (Jerusalem, Temple).

v 3…You shall not eat leavened bread (chametz) with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread (matzah), the bread of affliction for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste (and hardship) in order that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.

v 4…For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory (borders in the land), and none of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day (Nisan 14 between the evenings) shall remain overnight until morning (of the 15th).

v 5…You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your towns which the Lord your God is giving you;

v 6…but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish his name, you shall sacrifice the Passover (lamb) in the evening at sunset at the time you came out of Egypt (about 3 pm before the sun was set).

v 7…And you shall cook and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses. And in the morning you are to return to your tents (after the seven days of Unleavened Bread were over).

v 8…Six days you shall eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly (atzeret or concluding assembly) to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it (business, occupational).

v 9…You shall count seven weeks (shevah shavuot) for yourself; you are to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain (on the morrow after the sabbath of Passover week).

v 10…Then you shall celebrate the Feast of weeks (Shavuot-Exo 23.16; Num 28.26) to the Lord your God with a tribute of a freewill offering (what the giver proposed to give) of your hand, which you are to give as the Lord your God blesses you;

v 11…and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite who is in your town, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish his name.

v 12…And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes (shavuot was the “atzeret” or conclusion of the Passover season).

v 13…You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths (Sukkot) of the feast of the ingathering) seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat;

v 14…and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your towns.

v 15…Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you shall be altogether joyful.

v 16…Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which he chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) and at the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) and at the Feast of Booths; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty handed (without offerings-Paul did this in Acts 24.17).

v 17…Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you (If you want to understand the lamb, the redemption, the first coming of the Messiah, the blood and the covenant, the resurrection, study Passover, Unleavened Bread, Bikkurim. If you want to understand Sinai, the giving of the Torah, tongues and the coming of the Holy Spirit as it relates to Acts 2, study Shavuot. If you want to know about the end times, prophecy, the birth of Yeshua and the Messianic Kingdom, study Sukkot. Many have no concept of these things. They have no idea how the worship of the Lord teaches eschatology. Most are ignorant and blind because they do not keep the commandments of the Lord. The average replacement theology Christian who goes to church, Sunday school, reads the Bible and prays does not understand the concepts involved with Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Shavuot, Rosh Ha Shannah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. As a result they do not understand prophecy).

v 18…You shall appoint for yourselves judges (shoftim) and officers (shoterim who were seen as “staff” of the judges and courts. They would help maintain proper legal procedure and must know the Torah. They were a keeper of order and were often scribes or teachers and a learned person. He was a servant of the courts and an enforcer of an order; in Chapter 17 we will have three more positions, the king, the priest and the prophet) in all your towns which the Lord your God is giving you (these were appointed by the people, not the king or a prophet), according to your tribes (tribe by tribe, in every city of each tribe), and they shall judge the people with righteous judgement (According to the Torah. Some have suggested the the Sanhedrin goes back to the time of Moses, but this verse shows that there was no central Sanhedrin in existence. Why select judge? The first historical record of a body known as the Sanhedrin was during the administration of Aulus Gabinius, a Roman statesman, general and supporter of Pompey. He was a consul of the Roman Republic in 58 BC. According to Josephus he organized five “Synedra” in 57 BC as Roman administration was concerned with religious affairs unless sedition is suspected. Only after the destruction of the Second Temple was the Sanhedrin made up of only sages-see “Sanhedrin”, Wikipedia. Its origin can be traced back to about 200 BC and the Hasmonean period. There is no mention of this body in the Tanak. However, there are some who believe this body was established in certain portions of Scripture like this one, but that is Rabbinical interpretation The rabbis considered themselves “shoftim” since the destruction of the Temple. They made the rulings in the Oral Law and this was seen as their main responsibility. In modern times, some Messianic leaders have raised themselves up following the rabbinic model. This is a mistake).

v 19…You shall not distort justice (pervert it), you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the word of the righteous.

v 20…Justice, justice you shall pursue (follow; you don’t pursue laws, but justice and equitable solutions, and hearing all sides before rendering judgment based on God’s word the Torah), that you may live and possess the land (and continue possessing it) which the Lord your God is giving you.

v 21…You shall not plant for yourself an Asherah (idolatrous tree, wooden post symbolizing the goddess) of any kind of tree beside the altar of the Lord your God (that’s why there were not trees in the Temple), which you shall make for yourselves.

v 22…Neither shall you set up for yourself a sacred pillar (mazavah; usually of stone and a phallic symbol of a god) which the Lord your God hates.”

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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