Deuteronomy 16. Festivals and Justice

Passover

“Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ² And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there.

• This is interesting because Exodus 12:5 specifies a lamb or young goat for the Passover sacrifice, while Deuteronomy mentions animals from both the flock and the herd.

³ You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. ⁴ No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. ⁵ You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, ⁶ but at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt. ⁷ And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. ⁸ For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.

• See Exodus 12, Leviticus 23, Numbers 9 for Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread
• Passover
  • 14th day of the 1st month at twilight.
• Feast of Unleavened Bread
  • Begins the day after Passover
  • Lasts 7 days
  • Unleavened bread only
  • Sacred assembly on day 1 and 7.

The Feast of Weeks

⁹ “You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. ¹⁰ Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. ¹¹ And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. ¹² You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

• See Leviticus 23 and Exodus 23
• The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) “Weeks”
  • Also known as Pentecost πεντηκοστή ‘fiftieth’ because you count 50 days from Firstfruits.
  • Offer new grain (two loaves) and other sacrifices.
    • Unlike many grain offerings, the two loaves presented at the Feast of Weeks were baked with leaven.
  • Emphasis on generosity to the poor and foreigner

The Feast of Booths

¹³ “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress. ¹⁴ You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. ¹⁵ For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

• See Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29
• Feast of Booths (Sukkot)
  • Starts 15th day of the 7th month.
  • 7 days of offerings
  • 8th-day sacred assembly.
  • Live in booths /temporary shelters to remember Israel’s time in the wilderness.
  • Rejoice before the LORD with palm branches, etc.

¹⁶ “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. ¹⁷ Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.

• God warns Israel to be prepared!

Festival	When	Main Practices	Purpose/Focus
Passover & Feast of Unleavened Bread	Month of Abib	– Sacrifice the Passover lamb at the place God chooses – Eat unleavened bread for seven days – Rest on the seventh day	Remember God’s deliverance from Egypt and His mighty acts.
Feast of Weeks (Shavuot / Pentecost)	Seven weeks after the grain harvest begins	– Offer freewill offerings – Celebrate with joy	Give thanks for the harvest and remember God’s blessings and deliverance.
Feast of Tabernacles (Booths)	Fifteenth day of the seventh month (Tishri), following the harvest.	– Celebrate for seven days at the place God chooses	Celebrate God’s provision and remember His care during Israel’s wilderness journey.

Justice

¹⁸ “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹ You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. ²⁰ Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

• Appoint judges and officials in each town to judge fairly and without partiality or bribery.
• The phrase “show partiality” literally translates from the Hebrew as “recognize faces” (lo takir panim לֹא תַכִּיר פָּנִים).

Forbidden Forms of Worship

²¹ “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God that you shall make. ²² And you shall not set up a pillar, which the Lord your God hates.

• Do not plant an Asherah pole or set up a pillar beside the altar of the Lord (idols/pagan practices)