Verses 18 through 35 of Exodus 34 cover three important matters: God’s charge to His people to feast and rest with Him, five conditions for enjoying the Lord, and God’s infusion into Moses. In this message we shall consider the charge related to feasting and resting with the Lord.
In verse 18 the Lord says, “You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread: seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.” Then in verses 21 and 22 He goes on to speak of keeping the Sabbath and observing the feast of weeks and the feast of ingathering. In these verses God commanded the people to feast with Him and rest with Him. If I had been Moses, I might have said, “Lord, when You called me to come to the mountaintop, You told me to bring two tablets. You promised to rewrite the Ten Commandments on these tablets. But now You wouldn’t say a word about these commandments. Instead, You are telling me that we should feast with You and rest with You.”
It was not God’s intention that His people would try to keep the Ten Commandments. God’s intention was to command His people to enjoy Him—to feast with Him and rest in Him. This is contrary to our natural desire to want always to do something for God.
Consider the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. When the prodigal son came back to his father, he said to the father, “Make me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:19). This indicates that the returned prodigal wanted to do something for his father. The father, however, did not have the heart to listen to that kind of talk. Immediately he said to the servants, “Bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry” (v. 23). The father’s desire was that they all would have a feast. In feasting together they would have enjoyment and rest.
Moses did not know that it was not God’s intention to charge His people to keep His commandments. The keeping of the commandments must be secondary; it must be the issue of feasting with the Lord and resting with Him. If the children of Israel would feast with the Lord properly and rest with Him continually, they would not have a problem in keeping the Ten Commandments.
This principle also applies to us today. If we feast with the Lord every day and rest with Him during the day, everything will be all right in our daily living. However, a brother may endeavor to be a good husband without feasting with the Lord and resting in Him. Likewise, a sister may try to be a good wife without this feasting and resting. But if we do not feast with the Lord and rest in Him, we shall be a poor husband or wife. Instead of trying to fulfill Ephesians 5, we should simply feast with the Lord a number of times during the day. In the morning we should enjoy the feast of unleavened bread; during the day, the feast of Pentecost; and in the evening, the feast of tabernacles. The children of Israel enjoyed these feasts yearly, but we should enjoy them daily. Furthermore, we should rest with the Lord many times throughout the day. The children of Israel had a Sabbath once a week, but we should have a Sabbath rest many times during the day. Actually, every hour, we should rest with the Lord. If we feast with the Lord and rest in Him in this way, we shall surely experience Ephesians 5.
According to the Old Testament, God had ordained that seven feasts be observed annually by the children of Israel: the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of firstfruit, the feast of weeks (Pentecost), the feast of trumpets, the feast of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles (also called the feast of ingathering or harvest). The feast of unleavened bread was held immediately after the feast of Passover in the month of Abib, at the beginning of the year. Abib, the first month of the year, indicates a new beginning. The word Abib means a tender sprout. In a very real sense, the feast of the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread were one feast. We may say that the first day was the feast of Passover and the following days were the feast of unleavened bread. This indicates that immediately after we enjoy the Passover, we need to cleanse ourselves of all leaven in order to keep the feast of unleavened bread. For us today to keep the feast of unleavened bread means that we live a clean life, a life without sin, without leaven.
The feast of firstfruit issues in the feast of Pentecost. Between the feasts of unleavened bread and of ingathering, there is some enjoyment of the produce of the good land during the feast of firstfruit. Toward the end of the year, at the feast of ingathering, God’s people had the full enjoyment of the produce of the good land.
The feasts in Exodus 34 are all for enjoyment. At the beginning we may say that we have sowing and farming, and then we start to enjoy the produce. But at the end we have the full harvest for our full enjoyment. The feasts that were observed in the intervals were not as crucial as far as the enjoyment of the good land was concerned. The important point here is that the record in Exodus 34 indicates that God wanted His people to have the full enjoyment of the good land.
In addition to the feasts, the children of Israel were to keep the Sabbath every week. No matter how busy they were, they had to take one day a week to stop work and rest with the Lord.