CHAPTER XXIX.

HOLY SEASONS.

THE DIVINE APPOINTMENT OF HOLY SEASONS.-THE INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH.-OBJECTS OF ITS INSTITUTION.-MODE OF ITS OBSERVANCE.-SABBATICAL MONTH.-SABBATICAL YEAR.-ITS OBJECT.-HISTORY OF ITS OBSERVANCE.- -YEAR OF JUBILEE.— ITS OBJECT AND TYPICAL SIGNIFICANCE. THE THREE GREAT ANNUAL FEASTS.-THEIR OBJECTS.-THE PASSOVER.-MODE OF OBSERVING IT. TYPICAL SIGNIFICANCE. THE CUP OF BLESSING. THE PASSOVER AS CELEBRATED BY THE MODERN JEWS. THE DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD.-FEAST OF WEEKS. -ITS SPECIAL ORDINANCES.-FEAST OF TABERNACLES. - ITS CHARACTER. ADDITIONAL OBSERVANCES ON THE EIGHTH DAY. -THE DAY OF ATONEMENT.-THE SCAPE-GOAT.-ITS TYPICAL SIGNIFICANCE.-FEAST OF PURIM.-FEAST OF THE DEDICATION.

THE appointment of special seasons for the performance of religious offices appears to be essential almost to the existence of religion, and certainly to its healthy development. Hence from the very creation of the world the principle was fixed by the acts of Jehovah Himself, when, after having spent six days in the formation of the world and all that therein is, He "rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had made and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it (Gen. ii. 2, 3). This act contains, we say, the principle of holy seasons in general for though it more particularly formed the basis of the institution of the Sabbath, it further led to the institution of other festivals at fixed recurring periods, whether those periods depended on the development of the sabbatical principle as instanced in the observance of the seventh month, the seventh year, the seven times seventh year,

INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH.

469

the seven days of unleavened bread, the seven times seven days between the Passover and the Pentecost, and the seven days of the feast of Tabernacles, or whether it depended on the seasons of the year, as in the case of the three great festivals-the Passover, Pentecost, and feast of Tabernacles.

We have no information in the Bible as to the observance of holy seasons in the patriarchal age. The institution of the Sabbath as a positive command dates from the period of the Exodus: yet it is not improbable that the resting of Jehovah on the seventh day had been commemorated before the express command to do so was delivered; and this probability is confirmed by the notice of weeks or recurring periods of seven days (Gen. viii. 10, 12; xxix. 27), by the injunction respecting the collection of a double amount of manna on the sixth day, implying that the seventh was to be a day of rest (Exod. xvi. 5), and lastly by the terms in which the institution is announced: : "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" (Exod. xx. 8), these terms implying a confirmation of a previously existing institution rather than the establishment of a new one. There can be no doubt, however, that the formal appointment contained in the fourth commandment made it obligatory in a more marked degree than before.

The observance of the Sabbath consisted essentially in rest from labour :- "In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates " (Deut. v. 14). The reason why they should rest was to commemorate the two-fold act of Divine goodness, in the creation of the world and in the delivery from the house of bondage, the latter being specially noticed in Deut. v. 15: "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence

through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." It should further be observed that the rest of the Sabbath involved the notion of spiritual exercises and spiritual privileges: for in the first place the rest of Jehovah on the seventh day was devoted to the contemplation of the whole work which He had accomplished, teaching us that the rest of man should similarly be devoted to religious contemplation; and in the second place man was reminded by the permission to rest that his doom as a fallen creature was to work, and that it was only by an act of Divine benevolence that his work was suspended even for a single day. Hence the Sabbath was designed to be “a perpetual covenant, a sign between Jehovah and the children of Israel for ever (Exod. xxxi. 17): for thereby He assured His people that He had not forsaken them wholly, and He implanted in their breasts the hope that the partial remission of the punishment of sin would in due course of time lead to the total abolition not only of the punishment but of the sin that entailed it.

The object which the Sabbath thus commemorated rendered it "a day of gladness" (Numb. x. 10). The special services performed in the sanctuary were, first, that the shewbread was changed on that day (Lev. xxiv. 8), and, secondly, that in addition to the daily sacrifice there should be offered "two lambs of the first year without spot and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil and the drink offering thereof" (Numb. xxviii. 9). The day was spent in religious exercises, hearing the word of God read, as we learn from Luke iv. 16, and from St. James's declaration, that "Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day" (Acts xv. 21), and receiving instruction from the prophets, as we learn from the remark addressed to the Shunammite woman :- "Wherefore wilt

SABBATICAL MONTH.

471

thou go to him (Elisha) to-day? It is neither new moon, nor Sabbath " (2 Kings iv. 23). The Pharisees in our Saviour's time had overlaid the beneficent institution of the Sabbath with numerous burdensome restrictions of their own devising, so that they found fault with the disciples for plucking the ears of corn as they passed through a field (Matt. xii. 2), and with our Lord Himself for healing the man with the withered hand (Matt. xii. 10), and him who lay by the pool of Bethesda (John v. 10). Our Lord sweeps away all these impositions by the simple assertion "That the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath " Mark ii. 27), thus re-establishing the observance of the day on its original, merciful, and beneficent basis.

The Sabbatical month held the same relation to the months that the Sabbath did to the days of the week. The commencement of every month was a festival, but the commencement of the seventh month was a high festival. Each indeed was ushered in with the sound of the silver trumpets: but in the ordinary month it was but a few sharp notes (Numb. x. 10); in the Sabbatical month a long, loud, sustained blast * (Lev. xxiii. 24), whence the day was named "the day of the blast of trumpets" (Numb. xxix. 1). Each had its sacrifice; but that of the ordinary month consisted of two young bullocks, and a ram, seven lambs of the first year, a kid of the goats, besides meat and drink offerings (Numb. xxviii. 11–15), while that of the Sabbatical month had in addition to these victims a special offering of a young bullock, a ram, and seven lambs of the first year, with a corresponding meat offering (Numb. xxix. 1—6). The object of this ordinance is clear every period of time carries with it a weight of sin to be forgiven proportioned to the length of the period itself. The month demanded a more significant sacrifice than the week: for the latter a burnt-offering

*This distinction is not observed in our English version, but is contained in the Hebrew.

472

SABBATICAL YEAR.

sufficed, the former must have a sin-offering. The Sabbath, as the representative of the week, had its double burnt-offering; the Sabbatical month, as the representative of the months, had its double sin-offering. The observance of these ordinances was no doubt rigidly adhered to. We have no special notice indeed of the Sabbatical month in the subsequent portions of the Bible; but we know that on the feast of the new moon all trade was suspended :- "When will the new moon be gone that we may sell corn?" (Amos viii. 5): feasts were held, and families met together to offer solemn sacrifices:- -"Behold, to-morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat. If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family" (1 Sam. xx. 5, 6). Lastly, people obtained instruction from prophets and teachers, as we learn from the passage already quoted from 2 Kings iv. 23.

:

The sabbatical year is the next stage in the development of the sabbatical principle. Its institution is recorded in the following terms:-"When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years shalt thou sow thy field... but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap. . . . And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you (i.e. the spontaneous productions of the land while at rest shall supply sustenance for you). . . and for thy cattle and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat" (Lev. xxv. 2-7). Thus during the sabbatical year there was to be a cessation of all labour not absolutely necessary: and in consequence of this all claims on debtors were to be held in abeyance during the year,

...