The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.’”
Leviticus 23:1
After this verse, the rest of this chapter in Leviticus seems pretty dry. It's a list of required assemblies.... Doesn't that sound like grade school.
But if you look more closely, you see that God wants to celebrate with his people--not just recalling a historic event but claiming it in the present. The purpose was that God's people would know that he is still the God who was with them in the past. So in the festivals, God was giving them a multi-sensory experience of His goodness and provision, both past and present.
When I think of “the appointed festivals of the LORD,” I imagine traditional church services: you know the kind. But really, these festivals were blow-outs filled with food, drink, dancing, and laughter. They were loud, raucous, and sometimes lasted a week or more. They were times for some serious celebrating!
Ever thought that we serve a God who loves a good party? In Leviticus, he basically says, “Be sure to stop working and start partying...or you’ll be disobedient!” What if Christians were known more for our celebrations than stoicism? Epic, God-sized parties that celebrate life and beauty and goodness.
God tells us that there is a time for celebrating, He wants us to have rhythms and times of celebration where we reconnect ourselves with the larger story of God, one that is beyond our work or accomplishments and focuses on God’s goodness. This is a gift God who knows how we are wired, that we need times to be reminded of what is important, what is essential…and that life is more than work.
Maybe we (and me especially!) need a reminder sometimes that “This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.” (Leviticus 23:31)
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