“The Holidays.” In America saying that is usually interpreted to mean the period from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. Of course, there are other holidays such as President’s Day and Independence Day. If you are in another country, you will probably have different or additional holidays such as Canada’s Boxing Day. What is a holiday? The word holiday comes from the phrase Holy Day. The meaning of day is obvious but, what about the word holy? Holy is the English translation of the Hebrew word Qodesh (קֹדֶשׁ). This is Strongs #6944. Simplistically, this means “set-apartness,” or “separateness.” In fact, the ISR translation of the Bible called The Scriptures, translates it consistently as “set-apartness,” or “set-apart,” as opposed to “holy,” which, makes me think differently when I read it. Set apart means “different from the others.” So, holidays (holy days) are days that are treated differently than the others. On many holidays we take the day off from work, some businesses close, and we often have celebrations commemorating the occasion, we treat it differently than the “normal” days. In America, we try to take a vacation or two each year; we say that we are going on vacation. In other countries, many people say that they are “going on holiday.”
Where does this idea come from? Let’s go back to creation, the book of Genesis. In Genesis 2:2, “God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” He made it holy; He made it set-apart. He treated it differently than the other days, the common days; He rested instead of worked. So, He made the seventh day a Holy Day, a holiday.
So, who made the holy days? Yehovah (God), of course. We saw above how He revealed one in the very beginning of the story, the Book of Genesis. Are there more? There certainly are! They are outlined in Leviticus 23, Numbers 28 & 29, and again in Deuteronomy 16. Three times He lists out what the Holy Days are to be; I think there might be something important here, three is the number of completeness. In those chapters we find the spring feasts of Pesach (Passover), Matzah (Feast of Unleavened Bread), Bikkurim (First Fruits), Shavuot (Pentecost); and the fall feasts, Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). These are the Feast days, or, in Hebrew, the moedim, meaning appointed times, scheduled days that are to be set-apart, made holy. These are the Biblical Holy Days, Holidays.
Malachi 3:6a says, “I the LORD (Yehovah) do not change.” And just to be clear, that doesn’t change in the New Testament; Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” In John 1:1 we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jumping down to verse 14 we confirm that Yeshua is that Word when John writes, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling (or tabernacled) among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Yeshua confirms in John 10:30 that He is the same God from Malachi that does not change when He says, “I and the Father are one.” This verse points back to Deuteronomy 6:4 (The Shema) that says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” All of this confirms that those Holy Days, holidays, from the Old Testament are still relevant in the New Testament era. Yeshua kept every one of these holidays.
In the modern Christian era, how many of those holidays are kept? Christianity claims to follow Jesus but we don’t tend to do what he did, He kept all of those Holy Days. Christianity claims that the necessity to keep these holidays had been done away with at the cross. If that is true, why was Paul, in Acts 20:16, hurrying to get to Jerusalem in time for Shavuot (Pentacost)? Didn’t Paul know that we don’t have to do that anymore? Paul knew what he was doing; we tend to misunderstand Paul. Peter confirms that in 2 Peter 3:16 where he writes of Paul, “He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
The Holy Days listed above are commanded holidays. There are a couple of other feasts in the Bible but they are not commanded by Yehovah, they are Purim and Chanukah. These two holidays are days that the Jews decided to keep to remember things that God had done for them. Remembrance is what all of the feasts are about. We know that Jesus didn’t rebuke the Jews for adding these holidays as we see that He was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication (Chanukah) in John 10. To learn about Chanukah, please study the books of Maccabees in the Apocrypha.
At a deeper level, Qodesh (קֹדֶשׁ) can mean “sacredness,” meaning “set-apart to God.” Since God set-apart all of those days listed above, they are sacred to Him, set-apart to Him. In Deuteronomy 12:29-32 we are given a warning, “The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.” Yehovah God tells us how to worship him and tells us to not “make stuff up.” It might be a good idea to start to “do all that He commands,” not taking any away and considering what things we are doing that would be “adding to.” (Remember, He does NOT change!).
Back to, “The Holidays.” Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. How many of those are commanded feasts, holidays? Zero. How many of those bring glory to God in that we are worshiping the way he says to worship? In the United States, we might consider Thanksgiving to be similar to Purim, an added holiday to thank God for his provision which is in line with how we learn that the Pilgrims celebrated it. Consider George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation. Consider Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation. These were useful to remember what God had done for the nation and thank Him for that. In the modern day, is that our attitude? For some, maybe. For most, it is primarily about a big dinner, stuffing ourselves with stuffing, turkey and pumpkin pie. And, of course, football. In 2024 we might not be on the same page Washington and Lincoln were about Thanksgiving. Of course, Washington and Lincoln didn’t have a big screen television beaming three football games into our living rooms consuming nine hours of our day distracting us from the original intent of the holiday.
Here's where I get in trouble! What about Christmas? Is that a commanded feast? No, it has pagan roots. I would encourage you to explore this subject via this excellent YouTube video. This is tough for most to hear but this holiday violates Deuteronomy 12 where it says, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates.” Was Jesus born on December 25th? No. You would think that God, Yehovah, would want us to know something as big as the Messiah being born, after all, he says that He “declares the end from the beginning” (Isiah 46:10). In Amos 3:7, it says, “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” This is what the moedim, the holidays, are. These are days that God has done amazing things or days on which he will do amazing things. He told us which days to have remembrances and to be watching, be mindful. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. He was born the first day of Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles), a day most Christians do not celebrate; we make up our own date to celebrate Jesus’ birth, something we were told to not do. For a great run down of this story, please go to this YouTube playlist and watch episodes 7 & 8. This is a hard teaching; you get to decide if you will be a Berean (Acts 17:11) and search this out and see if it is true.
What about New Year’s Day? As far as God is concerned January 1st is not the beginning of the year. The calendar will be the subject of a future post but for now understand that the beginning of the year is in the spring as God commanded. Our Western/Gregorian calendar is a pagan calendar with months and days named after pagan gods, it has nothing to do with any of the dates declared in scripture. Because of its extensive pagan roots, it should not be celebrated.
You’re still here. Good for you. Yehovah gave us the holidays so we will be awake, remembering what he has done and watching for what is going to soon happen. Yeshua fulfilled the spring Feasts at His first coming and will fulfill the fall Feasts at His second coming. This is the point of the Feasts. I will be writing future posts detailing each of the Feasts.
Once your eyes are open and you have understanding, you will realize that the second coming of Messiah is near; the generation that will see it is already on the planet. Yeshua said in Matthew 24:36, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” There is more here than Yeshua just telling us we wouldn’t know exactly when, but He told us which day to be watching. Being western Christians and not knowing the Hebrew idioms we miss what is going on. He will return on a Feast day. There is only one Feast day in which we can’t know the exact day and that is Yom Teruah. He was telling his disciples He is returning on Yom Teruah in some future year. Now you know which day to be watching so you won’t be asleep when he returns. Some will argue that in 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul writes, “Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” See, no one knows when the thief will come so we can’t know. But, again, it was common knowledge, at that time, what that phrase, “come like a thief in the night,” really meant. The high priest would come late at night to check on the priest that was on duty to keep the fire on the alter stoked. If he found him asleep, neglecting his duties, he would put hot coals on his garment causing that sleeping priest to awake, strip off his burning garments and have to run home naked, in shame. Keep reading!! The next verse, “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.” Paul says that day will not surprise the believers; Paul says we will know. Paul cannot contradict Yeshua, who is the same yesterday, and today and tomorrow. If Paul says we will know, Yeshua could not have meant that we couldn’t or, wouldn’t know.
It's all about the Feasts. If we are neglecting the Feasts, The Holidays, we will be asleep when Messiah returns and will be naked as the priest neglecting his duties.
Happy Holidays!!
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