The Joy of Obedience and
The Feasts of Yahweh

Introduction

This week, my study will have two equally applicable names: The Joy of Obedience, and The Feasts of Yahweh. I will explain why this is. I had originally decided to write the study entitled “The Joy of Obedience.” It is a topic we have seen in previous studies, but I felt certain that a reminder of the principles of true obedience would be of benefit to the children of Yah. Earlier this week, however, I received a letter in the mail.

To give you a little background on this, the CSDA Church has a number of members whose families, whether it be parents, spouses, in some cases children, are not in harmony with the truth. A few have gone out of the way to oppose our teachings, because it is different from what they believe regarding the Sabbath, the New Moons, the continuing spirit of prophecy, and especially the concept of Victory over sin. These are all practices and beliefs that we have drawn from a plain reading of the Bible, trusting with child-like innocence the very simple concept that what God has said He can do, and what God has said He WILL do, He will surely accomplish. We read, for example,

Heb 10:22, 23

This is the key to the Christian life, and yet so many people have never experienced the fullness of true trust. They have never thrown themselves off the spiritual cliff, and trusted that God would keep them from falling. The Scripture says, “He is able to keep you from falling,” and more than that, His desire and His purpose is to perform just that. But those who are nominal followers, rather than being crucified with Christ, will go through the motions – and yes, many with sincere hearts, thinking they are doing the right thing – and yet they try to accomplish the things of Christianity through an effort of their own will. It is true that the “will” has place in the work of sanctification, but its place is to decide, not to carry out.

We read of that in

Phil 2:13

Many oppose us, because they will not accept this simple truth. But about this letter I mentioned, one of our members has a husband who is not “with us” in spirit. He has had difficulties with the Victory message teaching. He has had a great deal of difficulty with our view of prophecy, and he has had trouble with our keeping of the New Moons and our gathering-together on the holy days.

So the letter that he wrote, well, I am making that available, as well as my reply, to the members of the CSDA Church and those studying with us, since it is already a public matter. But what I would like to focus on is a very common misconception that comes up over and over again about the things that we teach. The objections itself, with more quotes from Ellen White’s writings than the Bible, was exactly as I expected it to be. I knew what this individual’s objections had been, and in truth I could have written the letter myself and signed his name to it – we have heard the same arguments time and time again about the holy days of the Bible, and so replying to them has not been difficult.

But the misconception ties in to what it means to be an “Old Testament” practice and what it means to be an “appointed” practice. And this, in turn, ties in to the Joy of True Obedience, my original topic. It seemed good, then, that I should combine the two ideas and make a unified study.

What Are The Feasts?

One of the objections in the letter was that “there is no record of Christ or His disciples ever keeping a New Moon or a holy day.” First of all this is not true. We may read of several incidents in the book of Acts and Paul’s letters where this is done, and I will reference them later in this study. But let us assume that this is so, that there is no record of it. Does this mean that we have the authority to ignore an instruction that was given before, and never repealed?

The problem is that many people think feast-keeping is related to the Old Covenant that Christ replaced, and the reason why this IS such a problem is because they are partly right! The things that were associated with the feasts are very much a part of the Old Covenant that has passed away. The rituals, the ceremonies, the temple routines, all these things pointed forward to the death of Christ, and after His crucifixion maintained no virtue. The issue only arises when people cannot separate the ritual from the day. It’s actually a very simple concept. Every April 17^th, it is my birthday. Now, I generally don’t do anything special for it. I don’t throw a party... my parents and brother may call me, but that is about it. Some people may do lavish ceremonies to celebrate their surviving another year, but the fact of the matter is that on that date it IS my birthday, whether or not there are any events associated with it.

It is exactly the same with the Feast Days. Whether or not… in fact, let me point out something that is completely unknown to the average Christian, the average Adventist, and some of which may be new light even to us… Let’s go to the Bible and read a bit about the holy days.

Gen 1:14-19

Notice verse 14 in particular: the sun, moon and stars are not to be worshipped, but they are to be “observed” because God said that they were given as “signs.” They indicate certain periods of time. And what are those? Days, obviously, for the sun tells us when day and night occur. Years, certainly, and the moon and sun both tell us of the passing of the months that make up a year. But then what about “seasons?” Some will say, “Spring, summer, fall, winter, these are the seasons indicated there.”

But from what we know about the early earth, before the flood, the environment was a lot different. The first mention of cold weather, of springtime and harvest – in other words, the “seasons” as we know them today, is found in this passage:

Gen 8:17-22

Furthermore, let’s go back for a moment to

Gen 3:17-19

Notice, the “Seasons” were appointed in Genesis 1. The first mention of agriculture is after the curse – before that finding food was much easier, we are told – and the first mention of the classical seasons, specifically the process of sowing and reaping, is mentioned after the cataclysmic changes that were brought about by the Flood of Noah’s day. This is not an argument from silence; this is all written down.

Now, this part most CSDAs have already studied. We know that in Genesis 1, the word for “Seasons” there is a particular Hebrew word, mo’edim. It means “sacred, appointed time.” Interestingly enough, it can also mean “appointed place,” and that will tie in also. We see, then, that the original mo’edim, the original seasons, were times that were appointed for sacred purposes, and nothing originally to do with the Temple rituals, and the harvest cycle, that Yahweh used later as symbols of the plan of salvation.

Now, what we have always taught is that God later added ceremonies to these things during the Mosaic Covenant, and this is true, let’s read of that:

Exo 12:1-3, 12

And then in Leviticus, we find Moses speaking to the Levites and priests, ordaining certain ceremonies that will be accomplished on the other holy days:

Lev 23:24-27, 34-36

The New Moon was used to commemorate Joseph’s passing out through the land of Egypt, as the letter I received correctly pointed out:

Psa 81:3-5

However, the phrase “first day of the month” is always a New Moon on the Hebrew calendar, and these days have had spiritual significance from the very beginning. And note, however, that it is the “statute” and the “law” associated with New Moons that were ordained in Jacob; the Moon has been going through its cycle since the fourth day of the first week, and has always been to us a “sign.” The question is, “A sign of what?”

We have seen that Yahweh, under the Mosaic Covenant, has added ceremonies to the pre-existing appointed times. Good, but what Yahweh has also done is add symbolism to the appointed times, and many of the symbols predate the rituals! I want this to be made clear, because this is potential new light. There were appointed times from Day 4. At various points in sacred history, God has added things to these days to commemorate particular events. This is even true of the Sabbath. Let’s read two different “reasons” for Sabbath keeping given in the Old Testament:

Exo 20:10-11

Now, when Moses repeated the 10 Commandments, he either read what was actually written on the stone (the first time it was the voice of Yahweh speaking) or he explained further. In either case, what was announced to the Israelites on that occasion was:

Deu 5:14-15

You notice, the first reason for keeping the Sabbath has to do with the creation of the physical universe. The second only is an Israel-specific reason, and yet most people in Sunday keeping churches will focus on this second, Mosaic, reason, and ignore the first. They will say, “The Sabbath was for the Jews.”

The same thing is done with the feasts. People will focus in the rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices of the feasts, and ignore the fact that the times and the events are two different things. As we saw, the events were added to commemorate something very specific for Israel: the coming of the Messiah. And after He arrived, fulfilled His mission and departed to become our High Priest, these rituals no longer had any purpose. Yes, we all agree about that... but what about the appointed times? What about the symbolism that was associated with them?

The symbols are still applicable.

1Cor 10:1-11

We see that the events that transpired upon the Israelites took place to be examples to us, foreshadowing things to come, even for us in the very last generation, as Paul wrote, “upon whom the ends of the world are come.” As I mentioned, Paul was a feast keeper, as evidenced from:

Acts 18:19-21

There are other examples as well:

Acts 20:5, 6

Acts 20:16

He also says plainly:

1Cor 5:4 – 8. This was a rebuke to people who were keeping the feasts improperly, not a rebuke to those who were keeping the feast, in this case that of Unleavened Bread. The “gathering together” is mentioned, as well as the concept, the symbolism of putting away leaven.

These verses are not often found in Christian sermons, yet they are there for the reading. The letter I received, said something to the effect of, and this is nearly word-for-word, and it’s actually a common way of thinking, “The New Testament does not command feast keeping, and we only have one example of Paul keeping a feast, (Acts 18:21) so we should go by the weight of evidence, and not keep them.” Brothers and sisters, never let an argument such as this be found in your mouths. The Scriptures ask of Christians their “reasonable service,” and we as the Bride of Christ, must be able to explain why we do things, and why we do NOT do things, with clear reasoning that will stand up to any scrutiny.

Now I want to be careful, I do not wish to lay out any individual person openly in public… I am far more interested in the argument than the individual, and so I ask then, what is the misunderstanding at the root of these words?

Why do people resist the feasts? Why do people resist the law, the Sabbath? Why does it sometimes seem a heavy load for some people to follow the good advice given in Scripture regarding the things we were intended to eat, or the things it is best we drink or not drink? The reasons are the same, and the arguments, interestingly enough, are almost identical. It is because they have not found the joy of true obedience.

The Joy of Service

This brings us smoothly to the second topic I want to cover today. Just to summarize, because this is a ready example: we have seen appointed times mentioned very early in the Scriptures, and they are clearly meant to be observed, for we are given reliable, visible “signs” of their approach. We have seen that after the curse, and the need for redemption, a number of symbols were added to these appointed times. I haven’t covered this in great detail during this sermon, most who hear this are aware of what the sowing, the reaping, the harvest, and the first-fruits mean in Christian symbolism. But you see, the reason we know these things is because we have studied them…. and we study them, we are told in the New Testament to study them, because they are still valid.

But then we have also seen that Yahweh has further, under Moses, added rituals, sacrifices, offerings and other instructions that pertained to the Temple Cult (and I use the word “Cult” in its proper, meaning, a system of beliefs and practices centered around a focal point); so they pertained to the Temple Cult and the coming Sacrifice of Christ. What we really have here are three separate layers:

1) The appointed times from the Creation

2) The symbols laid upon them when the Plan of Salvation was put into effect after the fall of man

3) The ordinances, rituals and sacrifices placed upon that under the administration of Moses.

Notice that only this third, most surface, layer is temporary. Only that layer points forward to something that was fulfilled in the past, from our point of view. The plan of salvation has not yet come to completion; the work has been done, and that is how these things all fit together and why the times, symbols and ordinances can all be associated with the same concepts, but there is more to come. We are still here on a sinful earth, after all.

But when Christ died, removing the virtues of the sacrifices, rituals and Temple services, what did this do to the symbols that were laid upon the appointed times? Not a thing! And what did it to do the appointed times themselves? Not a thing! We can demonstrate this from prophecy. We are all familiar with Isaiah 66, but I read it again, verses 22 and 23, for the record:

Isa 66:22, 23

As long as there has been a physical universe (except for the first three days) these appointed times have been important to our Father in Heaven. And they are important to Him, because they are important for us for gathering together, for unity, and for worship. And I should mention: the objections that come to us against the feasts are very often from those who do not seek to “gather together” with believers, and I don’t just mean with CSDAs, I mean any believers. This may explain some of the issue, for we read in the Bible:

Heb 10:24, 25

Like the Sabbath, these things are all tools for sanctification, which anyone who has come to a CSDA feast with an open mind, and an honest heart, has been eager to report.

But those who have found no joy in obedience have not had the same experience. The objections in the letter focused on words like “rituals, “ordinances” and then went on to describe, from other verses, “burdens,” “obligations,” those things “which were against us.” Now it’s true the sacrificing of lambs, the payment of sin offerings, the courses of the priests and so on, were rituals that took time, and expense, from the Israelites. It is not that these things were “bad,” they were important to point forward to the Messiah in a visible way. And a few of them, like the priest Simon in the Gospel of Luke, got it. Most missed it, very few got it... but it was for these very few that they were given. And that’s a topic we may examine in another study, how that Yahweh puts thousands of years, and infinite wisdom, into a series of rituals, practices and doctrines, and in the end they only benefit a handful of people. And yet, this does not prevent Him from doing it! He does it out of love for that handful, even though the multitudes may pass it by in either ignorance or deception.

But what shall we say to someone who considers the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the other holy days, “burdensome?” We read:

1John 5:3

How do we convince them that by rejecting the gifts, they reject the Gift Giver? It is a hard thing, especially if they have been studying these matters for years, or rather, studying them once over and over again for years. But I am curious, and I asked in the letter to this individual: “You say that the feasts were taken away, not just the rituals, but the times as well, because they are a burden to us from which Christ, by His death on the cross, has freed us. Very good, then. Which of the practices that take place during a Christian’s keeping of the appointed times is burdensome? Is it the Bible study sessions? Is it the campfire and testimony time? Is it the songs of praise and worship? Is it the healing we share with each other?” But no, the objection is to the gathering together, I believe. The actual physical act of going to where the camp meeting is scheduled, and spending a few days there. This, believe it or not, is what draws the fire. And if that is so, how is that a burden? Now, for those who may not be fully aware of how CSDAs consider feasts: except for New Moons, which are specifically mentioned as being an eternal ordinance, we do not hold feast keeping to be a test of fellowship.

If one does not keep the Sabbath, we would say that they have not found unity with us in spirit either, and so we could not in good conscience baptize them as a member of the Bride of Christ. One may as well baptize an unrepentant adulterer or openly covetous person. But we have always said, the feasts are “blessings not to be missed.” As Paul wrote, “I must by all means keep the feast,” and we have seen that all our members have had that same drive in them to do so. There has been no compulsion, and there has been no need for compulsion. There is joy in obedience to this Biblical teaching, although it is not a commandment, and we have counseled our members at times, “Do not surrender your job if your employer has problems giving you away for a week.” “Do not put aside the important labor you are doing, to come to the feast.” Now, WE have often had to tell THEM that. The desire is there to spend time with their brethren, and to gather at Yahweh’s appointed time... and at His appointed “place;” you remember that the word mo’edim really means both these things.

We do not do any “Old Testament” rituals, ordinances, certainly no sacrifices, except for the sacrifices that the Bible declares to be right and proper for all ages:

Hebrews 13:15

Psa 51:17

I would hope that no one sees these things as burdensome…

There is joy in obedience, in obeying from the heart. We read, of the offerings that Paul collected on one occasion:

2Cor 9:6-9

And this is not limited to finances or material wealth. Someone can point a weapon at you and say, “Give me your wallet.” And sure, you obey, but you aren’t blessed by that. But it is amazing to me, it is appalling to me, that so many Christians, who believe they are dedicated servants of God, treat the Almighty as if He were some armed robber, holding up the threat of damnation in order to extract from them some time, some interest, some talents, or some resources. Christians that understand the importance of the Law are particularly susceptible to that mindset. And I said this to someone this past week: it is easy to be a legalist. That’s not hard to accomplish. It’s easy to see obedience to the law as a virtue of itself. It is also easy to be a liberal, and throw away even the important instructions with the Old Covenant. But it is a harder, yet it is a blessed, thing, to walk the middle of the road between those two dangerous ditches.

There is joy in true obedience. There are trials, yes, and we are told, and have certainly all experienced this for ourselves to one degree or another:

2Tim 3:12

Christ said we must “take up our cross” and follow Him, and we know that His path led to a crucifixion. We do not, in this last generation, expect to be literally martyred. We do not believe that the 144,000 will not see death but will be those who “are alive and remain” when Yahshua returns. Nevertheless, death is only the final attack Satan can employ against the faithful, and it is a sign of his own failure, that he must remove us from the field of spiritual battle foe he cannot corrupt us. For the converted Christian, death is a victory, not a defeat. He will certainly use other means in an attempt to convince us to stray from the path. And like all Satanic agencies, when eloquence fails, arguments begin. And when arguments fail, that is when the sword of force comes out.

These things ought not to surprise us. Peter said,

1Pet 4:12-16

This is a wonderful passage. Even in the punishment for obedience we should rejoice. How much more, then, should not the obeying cause us great joy? We know, with the authority of Heaven, that our “good works” are of benefit. Now, of course, we do not accept that we are justified by our good works. As the Scriptures teach, faith justifies us; these works “refine” us, strengthen our faith… this is the process we call sanctification, which is just as important. But far beyond that, we read:

James 2:18

Faith is revealed in the works we do. They do not save us, but they reveal us to be “among the saved.” And further still than this, it is a testimony unto others, that they may do likewise, and learn of the Savior who is motivating us to do the things we do. But if we do not take pleasure in these acts, what manner of testimony is this? It reveals a faith that is flawed at its very core, and it will not convince anyone to be as you are, unless they also plan to become legalists themselves. We do not want that by any means.

The holy days are one example of this principle in action. I have seen a lot of gloomy Sabbath keepers. I used to be one, in mainstream Adventism. Once the joy of spending time with my new friends wore off, there was little to sustain me there. It was a joy that was for a good reason, but it was not perfect, because it was not directed to the Father. But I have become a joyful Sabbath keeper. I have become a joyful observer of Yahweh’s appointed times, because I know by these things that He wishes to spend time with me, and wishes for me to spend time in fellowship with my true and spiritual family. He has not robbed me of my time, but rather has set a hedge of time around He and I, a safe place to be in one another’s presence, and to draw me closer, closer still, as I grow into the maturity and unity that Christ Yahshua demonstrated even within this cloak of sinful flesh.

Conclusion

There is joy in true obedience, or else it is not obedience at all, any more than it is true and sanctified obedience to give your wallet to a robber. This matter, like all others that relate to the Gospel, is very much based upon the picture of the Father and Son that we have. If we have a true and proper picture of Their character, we cannot help but rejoice in the directions They give us for our own good. If we have a flawed, deficient picture of Them, this is when the objections, the resistance, and the rebellion, begin to show through.

But as the Book of Hebrews says, so I would say to us all:

Heb 6:9-15

Let us go forward, in the joy of true obedience, and thus obtain the promise as did Abraham, for as we read in the first passage of this study, He is faithful, who has promised us these things.

David.