Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-08-17
A HOLY FESTIVAL.
LESSON VIII, THIRD QUARTER, IN
TERNATlONAL SERIES, AUG. 10.


Stearns.
CONDENSED from Lesson Helper Quarterly, by
permission OF II. S. Hoffman, Philadelphia,
publisher.l
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 verses4, 81, while the latter
is found no less than eleven time. in this
chapter.
Our lesson today gives an account of but
one of the eight different c~onvocations re-
corded in this chapter; or seven if we do not
count the Sabbath, which was an institution
as old as Eden.
SO. IAN the Lord spake." 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 way 1.-THE word of our God
shall stand forever"
"a. .Speak unto the children Of Israel"
Moses was simply the Lords mouthpiece to
the people and had only to say what the Lord
told him
THE fifteenth day of the seventh month"
1t is for God to appoint the 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
fftieth year or year of jubilee was ushered
in by the blowing of trumpets on the atone
ment xxv, ., l0.
The feast of tabernacles seven Gays unto
the Lord" In Elk. xiii, l. xxxiv, %, it is
called the feast of ingathering because they
had gathered in all their fruits out of the
field also v. 80 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 III tents and God
fed them.
81. AN noiy convocation," 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 servile work" Nine times in this
chapter are we told Of no work, or no man
ner of work, or no servile work Tvs. 8, Z, s.,
81, 25, 2s, 81, IS. Sc in connection with thest
holy days. All true service ought TO be joyful
service, a glad thank offering to Him who
speaks from 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 a Redeemer, 'whose service is perfect
freedom"
V. SO. IAN offering made by fire into the
Lord" Twice III this verse, and five times
elsewhere in the chapter dc we find this ex.
preston Tvs. :, ID, IS, 25, 20. 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 ITO write the words of the
law very plainly"
IS. Beside the Sabbaths, gifts,
VOWS. and free will offer
ings. which ye give unto the Lord" IsraeI
was required to give unto the Lord for his
special worship and for their own great good
every seventh day in the whole year, beside,
these three annual seasons of from one &c
seven or more days. when everything ordi-
nary had to be laid aside. they had also to
/ give vi W. taCll llNltdSt DcSlIt>
their special gifts and VOWS and free will
offerings,
a. Having now glanced at all the verse:
in the lesson verses 1913 were touched
upon in connection with verse 81 let US look
at the feasts of the Lord in their reference tc
Christ and to us, and may the spirit thai
was in Moses declare them unto us. The
same spirit III Paul declares that holy day:
r. V feast days.. new moons and Sabbath
days are IA shadow of things to come" Col
il. 10. H.. That Christ our Passover ha,
been sacrificed for us. and that we are L
keep the feast with the unleavened bread Of
sincerity and truth, purging out all the Ole
leaven of malice ard wickedness. Il Cor V, Z
s., He also tells US that Christ risen from
the dead Is the first fruits of them that
sleep. i Cor XIV. 20, 23.l Here then is I'll,
substance of the first three OF the sevel
feasts, Christ the true passover. Christ thu
true unleavened bread, and Christ risen from
the dead the true first fruits. Now th'
fourth of the seven feasts. in the thirc
month, called the feast of weeks because i
was Just seven weeks or fifty days after thu
last feast. called also the feast OF harves
or first fruits of wheat harvest, clearly
points us TO that which occurred fit,
days after the resurrection of Christ
viz, the conversion of thousands o
Jews when the spirit was poured out a
Pentecost But all the first fruits are not il
yet. and the reaping at Pentecost was only
beginning. In James /, IS, writing to tn
twelve tribes of the dispersion, he speaks o
the believers as "a kind of first fruits" an
in Rev. IA, 4, the IA. 600 of the sealed one
of the seventh chapter are called "a frs
fruits unto God and to the Lamb" then, il
Rev. xiv, Is. We have the great harvest o
reaping time. after the fall of Babylon
which is opened up more fully in Rev. xvii
xviii: then in Rev xix, Xxx, the marriage o
the Lamb, the judgment of the nations, tn
binding of Satan, after which comes til
thousand years when Israel, in their owl
land. shall, from the least TO the greatest
know the Lord. for they shall as a natio
have been converted by the appearing of tn
Son OF Man in power and glory, accompa
MED by His saints tZech. xii, xiii; and the
shall the true feast of tabernacles be kept
when 1.-The Lord shall be King over all th
earth" and those hat are left c
the nations shall go up from year t
year To Jerusalem to worship the King
the Lord of Hosts. and to keep the feast c