The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-08-16
A HOLY FESTIVAL.
LESSON VIII, THIRD QUARTER, IN
/ TERNATIONAL SERIES, AUG. 10.

Text of the Lesson. Lev. xiii, 1874.
Commit Verses 4i-43-GoIden Text, Ps.
cxviii. 15-Commentary by Rev. d. BL
Stearns
condensed from Lesson Helper Quarterly, by
permission of Il S. Hoffman. Philadelphia
publisherl
This chapter may well be called 1.-The Chap
ter Of the Feasts of the Lord" or "The Chap
ter of Holy Convocations," the former ex-
preston beginning and ending the chapter,
and found also in verses 4, 81 while the latter
is found no less than eleven times ii this
chapter
Our lesson today gives an account of but
one of the eight different convocations re-
corded il this chapter; or seven if we do not
count the Sabbath, which was an institution
as old as Eden
81. And the Lord spal,o" How little we
are apt to think Of this most weighty state
ment. 1t ought to cause us to give heed with
all our powers as we remember that while
other things pass away ''the word of our God
shall stand forever"
"a. ''Speak unto the children of Israel"
Moses simply the Lords mouthpiece to
the people and had only to say what the Lord
told him
''The fifteenth day of tke seventh month"
1t is for God to appoint Che day, and for US
to be obedient. 1t was on the first day of
this month that they blew with the trum-
pets, and on the tenth day was the great an
nual atonement of last weeks lesson. The
f4tiesh year OF year Of jubilee was ushered
ment txxv, Q, 1O.
rba pf fal,
the Lord" In Ex. xiii, l6; xxxiv, %, it is
called the feast of ingathering because they
had gathered in all their fruits out Of the
field talso v. so Of our lesson). Verses 40 to
43 tell us why it is called the feast of the
tabernacles; they all took boughs and
branches of trees and made booths in which
they dwelt seven days, rejoicing before the
Lord, as they remembered their forty days
in the wilderness when they had no crops to
gather in, but they dwelt in tents and God
fed them
35. "An noIy convocatfon," because 1t was
a gathering unto, and in the name of the
Holy One of Israel. He was their holiness,
even as He is ours, and apart from Him there
is no holiness
''No scrvile work" Nine times in this
chapter are we told of no work. OF no man
ner of work, or no servile work Tvs. 8, z, 8,
81, 25, 2S, 81, 35, so in connection with these
holy days. All true service ought to be joyful
service, glad thank offering to Him who
speaks frcm off the mercy seat, who Him
self is our mercy seat All slavish work, or
work done because we ought to do it, or must
do it, should have no place in the service of
such Redeemer, "whose service is perfect
freedom"
V. So can offering made by fire unto the
orI T-vir in,
elsewhere in the chapter do we find this ex-
preston Tvs. 8, l3, IS, 25, 81. 1t was be-
cause of this offering by fire that
there was to be no servile work
but only joy in the Lord, with deep
humility of soul
81. Everything upon His day" Sacrifices
and the number of them, feasts and the order
of them all appointed by God and everything
upon His day; the priests and the people had
only TO read Alright and be obedient, and the
command was: ''To write the words of the
law very plainly"
80 BESIDE tho Sabbaths, gifts.
VOWS and free will offer
ings, which ye give unto the Lord" Israel
was required to give unto the Lord for his
special worship and for their own great good,
every seventh day in the whole year, besides
these three annual seasons of from one to
seven or more days, when everything orii-
nary had to be laid aside; they had also to
give one-tenth of all their increase besides
their special gifts and VOWS and free will
offerings
"A. Having now glanced at all the verses
in the lesson verses 39-f3 we're touched
upon in connection with verse 80 let us look
at the feasts of the Lord in their reference tc
Christ and to us, and may the spirit that
was in Moses declare thcm unto u.s. The
same spirit in Paul declares that 'holy days
R- V. feast days, new moons and Sabbath
days are shadow of things to come" Col
H. IG, III That Christ our Passover ha
been sacrificed for us; and that we are t.
keep the feast with the unleavened bread o
sincerity and truth, purging out all the olt
leaven of malice and wickedness. q Cor v, z
81 He also tells us that Christ risen from
the dead is tho first fruits of them tha
sleep. q Cor. XIV, 20, 49, Here then is tn
substance of the first three of the sever
feasts; Christ the true passover, Christ tn
true unleavened bread, and Christ risen from
the dead the true first fruits. Now tn
fourth of the seven feasts, in the thir,
month"; called the feast of weeks because i
was lust seven weeks or fifty days after tn
last feast, called also the feast of harves
or first fruits of wheat harvest, clearl
points us to that which occurred fit
days after the resurrection of Christ
viz the conversion of thousands o
Jews when the spirit poured out a
Pentecost. But all the first fruits are not i
yet, and the rcaping at Pentecost was only
beginning. In James |, 1S, writing to th
twelve tribes of the dispersion, he speaks c
the believers as "a kind of first fruits" an
in Rev IA, 4, the IA 900 Of the sealed one
of the seventh chapter are called "a frs
fruits unto God and to the Lamb" then i
Rev. xiv, Is, we have the great harvest c
reaping time, after the fail of Babylon
which is opened up more fully in Rev. xvi
xviii; then in Rev. xix, Xxx, the marriage
the Lamb, the judgment of the nations, tt
binding of Satan, after which comes til
thousand years when Israel, in their ow
land, shall, from the least to the creates
know the Lord, for they shall as a natio
have been converted by the appearing of I'll
Son of Man in power and glory, accomp
MED by His saints (Zech. xii, xiiD; and the
shall the true feast of tabernacles be KEEP
when ''the Lord shall be King over all Il
GARTH" and 'thoSe that are left
the nations shall 60 up from year
year to Jerusalem to worship the Kim
the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast
tabernacles. Zech. xiv, 0, 16, II. These feas
of the Lord are Jewish feasts and carry
forward to the redemption of Israel as q N
ton, and the restoration of all things
O which the prophets have spoken. Wou
you see that day and be one of those who CT
truly say, even now; "When Christ, who
my life, shall appear, then shall appe
with Him in glory"7 Then see to it that "
are, by faith in Christ, one of the righteor
in whose body is seen, day by day, salvatit
and rejoicing.