“Holiday Season”

Sunday, December 03, 2023

When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written…

(Ezra 3.1-4)

The returning exiles were excited to rebuild the temple.  This was no small task, and they had to start somewhere.  Before the temple itself, and even before its foundation, they undertook to construct the altar in its proper place.  This allowed them to begin properly keeping laws that had fallen into disuse. 

It’s fitting that they built the altar first, and that it took place in the seventh month.  Counterintuitively, this was the start of the Jews’ calendar year—although the religious year began in the first month.  Thus, while the Law established the first day of the seventh month as “a day for you to blow the trumpets” (Nu 29.1), over the centuries it came to be named Rosh Hashanah, or “head of the year.”  Nine days later came the Day of Atonement (or Yom Kippur), which was the annual observance of a ritual of purification for the priesthood, the populace, and their place of worship.  But that’s not all!  “On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord” (Le 23.34).  Coinciding with the end of the year’s harvest season, this festival was a time to remember God’s blessings given over the previous year, as well as to camp out in temporary dwellings—booths—in memory of their forefathers’ wilderness wandering.

This means the Israelites had three major holidays in the space of 21 days, culminating in a weeklong celebration during which each Israelite male was supposed to “appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose” (De 16.16).  This is fairly similar to our own culture’s holiday season, beginning with Thanksgiving, and followed a month or so later by Christmas and New Year’s Day.  There are major differences, of course—the primary one being that God didn’t ordain any of our holidays.  But we can all imagine the Jews’ rush to complete the preparations for their altar, not to mention the numerous gifts they brought to God, to match the occasion!  We can sympathize with them, as they surely ran into unexpected delays, shortages, and other roadblocks, which threatened to ruin their plans, and distracted their focus away from their reasons for celebrating.  We can imagine how much this mattered to them, even though they fully expected another holiday season to arrive in just a year’s time.

For the Israelites, this particular holiday season represented a return to a way of life their parents and grandparents had related to them, but one which most of them had themselves never known.  They grew up in foreign lands, but learned of their nation’s history, God, temple, and rituals; of their sin and punishment; and of God’s promise to restore them to their homeland and the society he’d designed for them.  In exile, they’d celebrated their feasts, as best they could.  But now, although the restoration was incomplete, they had the opportunity to observe them properly, in the place God had chosen, to make his name dwell there.  This served as a symbol of things to come.  They were excited to obey God’s commandments, and to draw nearer to the ideal God had envisioned for them, a thousand years prior.

This episode in Israel’s history is uplifting for Christians today, because we sympathize with Israel throughout the Old Testament.  In part, it is also because we see in Israel’s restoration a shadow of God’s plans for humanity, and more specifically, for us! 

Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.

(Zechariah 14.16-18)

God always wanted to redeem all the nations, not just Israel, from sin and slavery.  He did this through his Son, whom he crowned King in Jerusalem—both the earthly and heavenly cities!  Now, we observe a lifelong Feast of Booths, in which we give thanks daily for the physical and spiritual harvest God provides, and patiently endure our own period of living in temporary dwellings in the desert while we await the promised rest, in God’s presence.

In the meantime we also have holidays instituted by men, and sometimes struggle to discern how we ought to approach these.

One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.

(Romans 14.5-6)

Whatever your choice regarding our own holiday season, do it in honor of the Lord—first, be sure to observe the feast God has prescribed, on the first day of each week!  Then, if you wish to keep the traditions of men, do your best to redeem them for Christ, and observe them in a way that honors him and foreshadows the blessings he has promised.

Jeremy Nettles

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