BibleProject - The Seven Festivals - 7th Day Rest E6

Episode Date: November 18, 2019

QUOTE“The Holy One, blessed be He, created seven ages, and of them all He chose the seventh age only, the six ages are for the going in and coming out (of God’s creatures) for war and peace. The seventh age is entirely Sabbath and rest in the life everlasting.” – Rabbi EliezerKEY TAKEAWAYSThe seven festivals or feasts in the Jewish sacred calendar are integral to understanding the theme of the seventh-day rest in the Bible.These feasts have symbolic meaning connecting back to the creation account in Genesis and the story of the Exodus. They are meant to act as a way to remember and teach.SHOW NOTESIn part 1 (0-16:10), Tim and Jon recap the conversation so far, including the story of God giving Moses the Ten Commandments and instructions for the tabernacle. Interestingly, Tim notes that he isn’t pointing out all the layers of seven in the Bible, just highlighting some of the significant ones. For example, Moses goes up and down the mountain to commune with God seven times in the whole story of the TaNaK.Tim moves into the next part of the story. God is now dwelling in the tabernacle, also known as the tent of meeting. Unfortunately, God’s presence is so intense that no one can go in.In part 2 (16:10-25:00), Tim expands on the theme of Sabbath in Exodus.Exodus 23:9-12 Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt. For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.Tim observes that Sabbath rest isn’t just for the Jews. It’s also rest for the servants, the land, and the animals. All of creation is called to participate in seventh-day rest.In part 3 (25:00-35:00), Tim looks at a passage from Deuteronomy 15. Deuteronomy 15:1-6At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you. However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.Cancelling debts would sometimes happen in the ancient world when a new ruler came into power as an act of political and social favor. What’s unique about the Jewish idea in Deuteronomy, Tim notes, is that this release from debts is meant to be observed independently of any kingship or political system.In part 4 (35:00-44:00), Tim goes back to Leviticus to trace out the appointed feasts.Leviticus 23:2-4The 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. There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord.These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times.’”Here’s a simple way to lay out the sabbath and the appointed festivals.1. SabbathThe seventh day of each week.Duration: one dayRestrictions: no work2. Passover & Unleavened BreadThe first feast of the year.Duration: one day plus seven daysRestrictions: no work on the first and seventh days3. FirstfruitsHeld the day after the seventh day of PassoverDuration: one day4. The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)Seven times seven and one days after PassoverDuration: one dayRestrictions: no work5. TrumpetsFirst day of the seventh monthDuration: one dayRestrictions: no work6. Day of AtonementTenth day of the seventh monthDuration: one dayRestrictions: no work7. TabernaclesMiddle of the seventh month (7/15-7/21)Duration: seven daysRestrictions: no work on the first and seventh days(Numbers 5-7 are commonly known as "The Days of Awe")The Sabbath represented a burst of Eden rest into ordinary time. These seven feasts all participate and develop aspects of the meaning of the original Sabbath.Passover and Unleavened Bread: redemption from death (new creation) and commitment to simplicity and trust in God’s power to provide food in the wildernessFirstfruits and Weeks: celebrating the gift of produce from the landTrumpets: announcing the sabbatical (seventh) monthDay of Atonement: God’s renewing the holiness of his Eden presence among his compromised peopleTabernacles: provision for God’s people on their way to the Promised Land. They are to act like they are living in God’s tent for a Sabbath cycle. “And you will take the fruit of the beautiful tree, the branches of a palm, and branches of a tree of leaf and of poplar trees by a river, and you shall rejoice before Yahweh for seven days” (Leviticus 23:40). Israel is called to rest in a mini-Eden tent made of the fruit of a beautiful tree for a Sabbath cycle!The dates of these feasts float independently of the perpetual seventh-day cycle. Occasionally, when a feast falls on the Sabbath, it becomes extra special. For example, passover falls on the Sabbath during Jesus’ week of passion when he is crucified.In part 5 (44:00-47:45), Tim moves on and discusses the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Weeks / Pentecost.In part 6 (47:45-end), Tim covers the last three festivals: the Festival of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.Tim notes that there are lots of overlapping calendars in the Hebrew Bible, and it can be difficult to keep them all straight. In modern times we have calendars like “the school year,” “the financial year,” “the sports year,” etc. All of these years and calendars overlay on our actual year in a different way. This is true of feasts in the Bible as well.These last few feasts are commonly regarded as “the days of awe and wonder” in modern Jewish life. The Festival of Trumpets is now known as Rosh Hashanah. This is would have been considered the Jewish New Year. The Day of Atonement is the next holiday where a symbolic goat takes Israel’s sins out of the camp. The Feast of Tabernacles is last. This feast is meant to reenact the Israelite wandering and journey in the wilderness. Israelites are expected to not work for seven days and camp out.Tim quotes from Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer.“The Holy One, blessed be He, created seven ages, and of them all He chose the seventh age only, the six ages are for the going in and coming out (of God’s creatures) for war and peace. The seventh age is entirely Sabbath and rest in the life everlasting.”Thank you to all our supporters! Have a question for us? Send it to [e-mail] love reading your reviews of our show!Show Music:Defender Instrumental by TentsLost Love by Too NorthFor When It’s Warmer by Sleepy FishAmbedo by Too NorthShot in the Back of the Head by MobyShine by MobyShow Resources:Michael Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord, A biblical theology of the book of Leviticus.Quote from Rabbi Eliezer can be found in Samuel Bacchiochi, “Matthew 11:28-30: Jesus’ Rest and the Sabbath,” pp. 297-99. Show Produced by: Dan Gummel Powered and Distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey, this is John at the Bible Project. Today on the podcast, we continue a series on the theme of seventh day rest. God created the cosmos in six days and on the seventh day he stopped and he settled in to his creation to rest and rule with his human partners in a day that has no end. The seventh day rest is what we all long for and it's what God promises to recreate. And to start this recreation project, he chooses one family, the family of Abraham, and he wants to give them the rest that was lost and let them bring that rest to the whole world. So today, on this episode, we're going to look at Israel's sacred days,

their feasts and festivals, and surprise, there's seven of them. What we're going to see is the Israel's ritual calendar on a yearly basis, and then on a seven-year cycle, and then on a seven-time-seven-year cycle. These are all ways that Israel is to re-enact and symbolize this same basic storyline. That is the story of God's desire to partner with humans, to bring creation to a state of rest. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. We're talking about the Sabbath. Or are we talking about the Sabbath?

Yeah, the Sabbath is one of the things we're talking about. One of the ways. It's the way we got into the conversation. The ideal of the seventh day is talked about in the Bible, but there are many other stories and themes and whatever time periods of seven that point to the same idea. Yeah. The seventh day, the day of completeness.

Dave completeness when creation is filled with God's presence and power when creation responds by generating abundance and humanity can rest and rule in God's presence and trust that everything's going to be okay. It's the genesis one and two ideal. That was never fully realized. Yeah, lost. There was a taste of it. Yes, a lost opportunity.

Yeah, that's right. And this blessing of the seventh day was then offered Abraham, who then... It was in a seven-line poem. A seven-line poem. Yep. And he, Abraham's family, ends up slaves in Egypt. Yes.

Yeah. Not seventh-day rest. No. No. Slavery and oppression. That's right. And death and disorder. And death.

Back to darkness and disorder. Mm-hmm. Yes. In this case, it's the powers, the gods of Egypt and Pharaoh, together bringing death and darkness onto the family of Abraham. And so, just like in Genesis 1, God brought life and order out of darkness, out of the dead darkness, in 10 words, 10 acts of speaking. So in the Exodus, God speaks ten acts of judgment onto Egypt and Pharaoh and its gods. And he brings them out of darkness?

Yes, and the tenth all begins at night. It's as if the ten words uncreat or de-create Egypt back to the dark night of death, and then God provides light. He starts redoing Genesis 1, but just for the family of Israel. Yeah. And so then Israel now is in the wilderness. Yeah. It brings them, gives them light and takes them through the waters. That's true, yeah.

To the dry land. Yeah, we're supposed to be seeing all this Genesis 1 replay. You're like, oh, this family is on the way to a dry land. Yeah, we're supposed to be seeing all this Genesis 1 replay. Correct. Like, oh, this family is on the way to a new Sabbath rest. A new Sabbath rest. A new Eden. A new seventh day. Correct.

And God says, I've got a land for you. Yeah. And it's going to be abundant. That's right. And so we're like, yes, seventh day rest. Yeah. We're going to get back. Yeah.

Abraham's family is going to be there. He's going to show the world what it's like to rest and reign with God. Yep. Yep. And to get there, they have to go through the wilderness. Yes. And on the way, they're provided with, hmm, mana. It bred from heaven. Bread from heaven. Bread from the skies.

Skybread. Sky. Desert flakes. Yep. Remind me how that was connected to the Sabbath. Well, they're grumbling because we don't have any meat or bread. And you brought us out here to kill us in the wilderness, the realm of death. And God instructs them to take this abundant sky bread and pick it up every day.

They want it two to three to four to five and six. In the morning it appears. In the morning it appears. And on day 6 to take twice as much. And so that on day 7 they don't have to. Yeah. Yeah. They don't have to. They can just rely on the overabundance of the half. Yeah. The seventh day becomes the day where they imitate God's rest, but the imitation is itself a test of loyalty and trust. Where they trust that God has packed creation with enough abundance for them, that they can just rest and enjoy it. Even while they're in the wilderness, there's a band of escaped immigrant slaves.

Just chill out in your tents for a day instead of getting another 10 miles, right? Oh, their name is supposed to be a darkish. Their name is supposed to be a journey. Oh, that's a good point. The point is not gathered. It doesn't say don't travel. But yeah, don't gather food.

But they're not gathering food. They're not gathering food. And this is before there's any sort of Sabbath laws. Correct. Yeah, that's correct. This pattern is before there's any sort of Sabbath laws. Correct. So this pattern is already present. Yeah, that's right. Resting on the seventh day as a way to imitate what God did, but they call it a test. Most calls it a test.

God calls it a test. Or God calls it a test. Yep. Because they've actually already had two collusions before this story where they're grumbling. Yep. Because they've actually already had two collusions before the story, where they're grumbling. Yep. In Exodus 15, yeah. Three days after the Exodus event, the parting of the seas. Three days afterwards, they didn't find any water, and then they did find some, and it was bitter. And so they grumbled against Moses. What are we supposed to drink? So they're already there, you know, little three days. Yeah.

Well, you can get thirsty in three days. Well, you do. Yeah, that's right. That's right. But the point is, as readers were supposed to view this as kind of like, oh, this doesn't vote well. These people just saw the 10 plagues and the waters parted and now they think gods brought them out here to kill them.

That's crazy. Dehydrate them to death. So can you trust that there will be enough? Correct. And that you can rest and trust God's privilege. The seventh day is a day to trust in God's abundant provision, even when my circumstances tell the opposite story. Okay, and then it gets really fascinating because Moses is called up Mount Sinai, and he goes up there, and he's up there for...

Well, he goes up, he's told to go up and he waits six days, and then on the seventh day, God comes, and rests. The glory cloud rests. And Moses sees something. He sees up into the heavenly day, God comes and rests. The glory cloud rests. And Moses sees something. He sees up into the heavenly throne. He sees what it's like for God's presence and reign to be in it. Yeah.

And God gives him instructions. Yeah, a pattern. He calls it a pattern. He's shown a pattern based on what he has seen up in the heaven. And what that is is blue prints for the tabernacle. And so Moses comes down and the 10 commandments. That's the same time, right? No, he's already. He's already got the 10 commandments. Come down with those. Oh, this is a separate journey. Correct. And then they had this covenant ceremony and they said, yes, we're going to do all this.

Yeah. And then God says after they get married, basically that's the marriage ceremony, it's covenant. After God and His Ro get married, then again, God says, come up here, I want to move in. We just got married. I'm going to move in to my people. Okay. So there's two trips up the mountain. There's actually seven.

There's seven trips up the mountain. Between Exodus there's actually seven. Seven trips up the mountain. Between Exodus 19 and Exodus 24, Moses goes up and down the mountain seven. Of course, seven times. He does, that's awesome. Well, on the second, he gets the blueprints. Or is it the second? On the seventh, he gets the blueprints.

Oh, so we're skipping a lot of territory. Oh yeah, I'm not pointing out all the sevens as we go. I'm just, it would be too much. Yeah. It's like the Matrix. There's just... He's been up and down seven times at this point? If you count it.

Really? Yeah. It's actually fairly complicated, but it's the thing going on. That's crazy. He gets a lot of exercise. So the sky was... Moses was fit. It's got some quads.

Yeah, that's right. And so... He gets a pattern. Yeah. Comes down. And the pattern is delivered. And he says, okay, here's how you're going to build the tabernacle. Yep. And it's in a series of seven words.

Seven speeches. Seven speeches of God. Yeah. That's right. It's the instructions. And the last one isn't about how to build the tabernacle. It's about resting on the tab. Yeah, yeah. That's right. It is the instructions. And the last one, isn't about how to build Tabernacle. It's about resting on Sabbath. Yeah, that's right.

Then what happens right after that? Then the golden calf story. So even think how it's following the arc of Genesis 1, 2, 3, where you get the blueprints of heaven on earth in a series of seven speeches. The seventh one is about resting on the seventh day to imitate God. That's the seventh thing Moses hears.

Then the camera zooms down to the, or pans down to the camp where the people are. And they're worshiping another God. Yeah, and they say, where's this Moses and make God for us? And so Aaron sees, and then he takes the gold, that he makes a golden calf. Yep.

All the Genesis three vocabulary. Yep. It's there taking of the tree of knowledge, good and evil moment. Correct. That's right. And then they build the tabernacle according to the book prints. Well, then the covenant's almost broken,

but then Moses intercedes. It is easy, yeah. God forgives the people and says, he'll forgive them and go with them. Yeah. Then Moses starts the building project. Yeah. Yep.

Again, seven times, God said, or seven times it repeats. Yeah, it's you get this long narrative that repeats verbatim the blueprints but just with verbs now of and they built the arc of this way and they built that this or actually and Betelot the artist and this crew designer then we get to Exodus 39 and 40 in this crew. The designer. Then we get to Exodus 39 and 40. There's this paragraph where Moses assembles everything.

And the paragraph is broken into seven beats and every beat ends with, and Moses did, just as the Lord commanded him. So he obeys seven times over the word of the Lord. Yeah. So then after the seventh, active obedience, the glory cloud shows up and Moses finished the work after the seventh active obedience, this is what it says, Exodus 40, verse 33,

and Moses finished the work just like Genesis 2, and God completed his work. And then at the right in the slot, parallel to Genesis 2 where God rested, here in Exodus, God's the cloud covers over the tent and the glory of the Lord appears over it in the pillar of fire and cloud. So here it is. It's God's seventh day. We're back to it. Rest.

Yep. It's come. Yep. But there's dwelling in a symbolic micro-edin in the middle of his people, which is the tent, which is the tabernacle. Yep, but there's a wrinkle. Wrinkle. Yes, that's right. Yeah, next to the last line of Exodus and the cloud covered the tent of Meeting and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle. Hooray, but Moses was not able to go into the tent of meeting. It's a tent for meeting with God. Just right there is stating it as a paradox.

Well, and this is representing the Eden ideal. And so of course you would go in. God placed the humans there. Now, it's going to be only Moses and then later after he gets ordained, Aaron, to go in. So that already is kind of a bummer. Like only now a representative can go in. It's a diminishment of the Eden ideal.

It's awesome. Eden ideal is all humanity would live there. Yeah, yeah, you'd be born there. Yeah, yeah, humanity, humanity in life, Adam and Eve. That's what they live. Now it's just motion, autoron, brothers, two brothers. So, and it says Moses is not able to go into the tent because the cloud and glory of Yahweh were dwelling over it.

And you're like, but that's exactly the point. Yeah, I wanna go in there because. Because it's there. Yeah, so. God's presence is created a problem. God's presence has created a problem for rebellious people who think that God is out to kill them and who make idolatrous golden calves. It's the same kind of motif then of like the Cherubim guarding Eden, like they can't

get back in. It's a sense of I Eden, like they can't get back in. It's a sense of I'm outside, I can't get in. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, for the Eden ideal to be realized, God's people have to be transformed, which is what the book of Leviticus is all about. You turn, that's the transition into the book of Leviticus. Yeah.

So what we're gonna do for this conversation is focus in on a couple more calendar seven themes in Leviticus that are hovering around the same ideas. But what we're going to see is the Israel's ritual calendar on a yearly basis and then on a seven-year cycle and then on a seven-time seven-year cycle. These are all ways that Israel is to reenact and symbolize the same basic storyline. They're to build it into every every part of their lives. So where the drama of Leviticus is amazing, I highly recommend a book by Hebrew Bible scholar Michael Morales.

We'll put it in the show notes. Called Who Shall I Send The Mountain of the Lord? A Biblical theology of Leviticus. Did. It's so awesome. Sounds riveting. Ha ha ha. It actually is.

Yeah. If you like the Bible. So that works through a lot of stuff in Le viticus that we won't talk about. But what I wanna talk about is the seventh year release of slaves and of debts in ancient Israel. Let's talk about that. Yeah, doesn't that sound riveting? So we already know about the seven day

just weekly cycle. Correct. And it's one of the 10 Commandments. Correct. There's two different times the 10 commandments are talked about. And one, it says, because God created Earth this way, rest on the seventh day. But also, in the other time, it's talked about,

it says, because you were slaves, and you were liberated. And because of that, rest. That's right. And trust God and let your slaves rest. Yeah, you got it. So, yeah, watch how this all folds together in the seventh year command. So the first time, seven year release gets expressed is actually back at Mount Sinai

during the covenant making ceremony. Were you remember there were the 10 commandments and then 42 more after that and those are the terms of the marriage covenant between God 42 6 times 7. That's right. So one of the commands. terms of the marriage covenant. Yeah, 42, 6 times 7. That's right. So one of the commands, one of the 42, is this law right here in Exodus 23 verse 9. You shall not oppress the immigrant, since you yourselves know the life of the immigrant. The Hebrew word is nefesh. You know the being, what it means to be,

an immigrant, for you were immigrants in the land of Egypt. Six years, you shall sow your land, sow seed in your land, and gather in its yield. It's a six agricultural cycles. But in the seventh year, release the land, leave it alone. Release the land. Yes. Release it. Like the land is under bondage. Yeah, under slavery. It is under you're working.

Remember the word for work and labor is the same Hebrew word slave. So when you're working the ground, you're making it serve you. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Ground's like, I just want to chill out and make garden flowers. Meadow flowers. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and you're like, no, you're going to make like cucumbers. Right.

That's doing the land. Nope, you're a pumpkin basket. You make it serve your will. Yep. Yeah. Okay, so once every seven years, the sound that seventh year, set the land free. Yeah. And think this follows just after the command of,

don't oppress the immigrant. Because you were immigrants in Egypt. You know what it's like to be slaves. That's a whole point. And then the next law is... Don't oppress the land. Yeah, you know what it's like to be a slave. You know what it's like to be a freed slave.

Every seventh year, free the land from being a slave to you. Interesting. Here's the reason, so that the needy of your people may eat. And whatever they leave, the beast of the field can eat. Because it's still going to grow stuff, even if you have thrown seeds in. That's right. Yep, that's right. So notice, for man and beast to eat. So you've got these farm fields and the poor can come, earn a living off of it,

can come, provide for themselves, but also the animals. Is this the seventh, like it is, it would have been everyone's on the same cycle, or is it the seventh year of any given ploy land? Okay, yes, this is totally. Yeah, welcome to the rabbit hole. Okay.

So one is, if this is everybody doing it on the same time, yeah, then that could pose some problems. Would pose some problems. Yep. So it could be that it's understood that when you acquire, you know, so this is kind of like, I think this is like a fellow, letting the land lie fallow.

And so different fields will be on different time cycles and so on. So all the way back. That's a farming thing to let your land chill. Correct. That's right. And so all the way back to the period of Jesus, Jewish rabbis have been debating these things, whether this is like a more of a utopian vision,

everyone at the same seventh year, or different farmers, it doesn't clarify here. But the point is you can see the Eden ideal coming out here Every every seventh year let the land is produce on the land Produce and just trust that right. It will produce for you by God's generosity and wisdom In fact, there'll be enough for the poor and for the wild animals It's the garden. It's the garden. It's the garden. Now, if you really cared about the poor and the wild animals,

why don't you just plant some seed in there? Because then you'll have more. That's a great point. Here, we're looking at the paragraph. So. Well, I mean, there's something about, yeah, I think there's something about the Eden ideal, which is you don't work for it,

and it'll still be abundant. Let's finish the paragraph. Sorry, we're only halfway through it. All right. So, we had, first statement was, don't oppress immigrants because you used to be enslaved as an immigrant. Six years, so seed, seventh year, release the land. So, the needy can eat and the wild animals. Six days you were to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall shabbat.

So that your ox and your donkey may nouach. There's two words there, shabbat and nouach. And so that, as you cease and rest on the seventh day, the son of your female slave, as well as the immigrants among you, may refresh themselves. And the word refresh is the verb nafash that comes from the noun nefash to be alive, to have life.

So this whole, it's actually a beautiful little symmetry this paragraph here, but you can see how the six years of sewing is parallel to the six days of working. The seventh year freeing the land is parallel to seventh day. You ceasing and resting, but also so that you're the poor, the immigrant, and the slave may also rest along with you. So the whole package deal, Sabbath, rest is a re, it's like a little Eden reset.

Every seven days and every seven years. Eden resets. It's like a resetting the land to the life of Eden Eat in reset every seven days and every seven years. Eat in reset. It's like resetting the land to the life of Eden for a day every seven days and then all. Because in the life of Eden, you're not working, you're letting the land is provide for you. Well, that's a great point. You're not supposed to sow and gather.

Oh, and this is also picking up the mana pattern as well. Right. Don't pick up the mana. Six days you go out and gather. Oh, and this is also picking up the mana pattern as well. Right. Don't pick up the mana. Six days you go out and gather. It's 11,000. This goes back to what we talked about, because when humans are placed in the garden, they're told to work and to work it and to keep the garden. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. But there is a side, but here it's like very clearly like don't don't so work. It just doesn't so and gather. Yeah yeah yeah that's it you release the land by not sewing and not gathering but that's that's the majority of the work that is a majority of the

land there's something about Eden in which you don't have to really work for it yeah just kind of yeah it just kind of happens it responds I guess yeah the land responds. The land isn't your slave in Eden. Yeah, interesting. I mean, to me that's what's fascinating is that the land is freed from serving you. But in its freedom, it does have a abundance for you. It's a different relationship with the land. This is a great example of how later cycles

of a design pattern give you new insight to go back to the beginning. To think about. And to think about the first instance of the pattern. This happens a lot. It's like a backwards kind of commentary or reflection. So this is interesting. Yeah. It's not bad that God's given us the land to serve our needs.

Yeah. But the land is also not ours. It doesn't belong to me. It's not my property. It's on loan. And so I free it. I set it free every set. So it's ideal where the land is free,

but it still provides for you. And not just for you, but for the poor and for the animals. Everyone's being provided for it. That's right. And in fact, you. That's right. And in fact, you do, that's analogous to the Sabbath rest where every seven days you let your animals and your household, and if you own slaves, as nation is, rely them. You let them rest too.

It says if they're not your property for a day either. Right. Is there something similar there too, which is like in your rest, there still will be enough in abundance? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you're all be provided for. Yeah, I mean, people have noticed, both an exodus will look at another one.

The seventh year principle is a really radical equalizer in the life of ancient Israel, which was a fairly, it was a patriarchal patriarchal traditional hierarchical society But the seventh day had a way of putting everybody on the same footing including the animals and including the land Yeah, yeah, everyone gets to rest. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, totally 1 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 個 Okay. Okay, this every seven years gets repeated and carried forward in Deuteronomy, and then we're going to come back to a little bit, because trust me, Deuteronomy chapter 15, verse 1. At the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release, it's just a principle.

Okay. So every seven year is a year of release. Okay. Okay, what does that involve? Well, it involves two things. One is, this is the manner of the release. Every lender shall release what he's loaned to his neighbor. He shall not take it back from his neighbor or his brother

because it's Yahweh's release being proclaimed. So if you owe someone money, it's not yours anymore. Yeah. Yeah. So a debt release from debt obligations. Don't sign a 30-year loan. It is real. Or no, sign 30-year loans.

Don't offer them. Yeah. Okay. So let's go down to verse 12. Is it a release from death? That's really radical. Dude. Dude. That's there were some analogies to this in the ancient Near East.

Huh. When a king would come to be inaugurated, he, like in Babylon, there's both Babylon and, believe it, Hittite culture, whatever. I mean, I've read this in like background dictionaries and kind of thing. It was the King's prerogative in his opening year

to proclaim a release, to free slaves or to cancel debts. Okay. So what's radical is not that such a thing should happen. Okay. It's what's happening in Asian Israel is being freed from human control. Like it's not up to just one king when it happens or if it happens.

It's not a political tool. Like I mean, it's pretty clear. Yeah, why you would do it. Yeah, you want to make everyone like you. Yeah, before you like. You want a long reign. Yeah, you want a long reign. You haven't had to break anybody's kneecaps yet.

Yeah, right. Yeah. But you get 20 years into a rain And you've had to like kill some competitors and make some hard decisions that made some enemies But you can always say remember what I did for you all right when I became king right I canceled the debts and so here It's completely detached and it's brought into this this seventh day Recall to Eden cycle right so it's brought into this seventh day recall to Eden cycle. Right. So it's detached from human manipulation.

So it's every seven years the debts are released and they go down to verse 12. Now if your Kinsman, Hebrew, man, or woman is sold to you, then the maximum he can serve is six years. And in the seventh year, you shall send him out. That verb send out, it's what, it's the key repeated motif in the Exodus story. Let my people go. Oh, means to send out. Yeah, let them be sent out. Let them go. And get this. When you set free your slave in the seventh year, don't send him away, him or her, away empty handed. Furnish Him liberally from your flock and threshing floor, from your wine vat, give to Him as Yahweh your God has blessed you.

You shall remember you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you, therefore I command you to do this day. So every seventh year, both the land gets released. Now you have these cycles of every seventh year. Dets are released. Dets were a common way that people became slaves. I can't pay the debt, so then I work it off.

I become the property of the person who I owe something until I work it off. And so there's more laws and clarifications like if you see the seventh year coming, oh, we'll actually, sorry, we'll get to that later. Just the point here is every seven years, people's property isn't really a property in terms of debts and people's bodies, aren't your property. So is it kind of saying, I mean,

the assumption then is that owning slaves and owning debt obligations, these things are not the Eden ideal. Yes, that's right, yeah. The Eden ideal. Why else do you have to undo them? Yeah, that's right. So every seven years, it's this resetting to remember

and to kind of get back closer to that Eden ideal so we don't get too far away from it. Yeah, that's right. Even though it's not like we're creating eat-in on that seventh year. Mm-hmm. But we're trying to settle into it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, especially this is, Israel was a hill country, mostly rural,

town farming communities, arranged in extended households of two to three generations. So you can see how, in the course of a generation or two, a few people go bankrupt, few people become debt slaves. In not very long, one or two families could own a whole town. Right, the land and the wealth could become centralized. And so people have noticed this, and it's a way of getting Israel, really this is resetting the ideal of when Israel first entered the land.

Every tribe given their own land, and it's a way of recreating, resetting the clock back to that. So it is. It's a completely different socioeconomic situation than most modern economies today. So you can't, I don't think you can just drop these immediately into a modern context. I think you have to really understand the principles that work, but it's recovering an ideal. Yeah.

In the same way, there's something about the way that we work during six days of work. And the way that we treat land that isn't ideal either, that we need to break from. And the land needs to break from us. Yeah. Yes. We need to break from ourselves too. Yeah, break from us. Yeah. Yes. We need to break from ourselves, too. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. The daily grind inevitably produces non-ideal situations where a bad year of rain or something, a bad crop, can't pay off my applications for this year and all of a sudden, you know, through nobody's fault, I might have to sell some of my children, sell myself, or somebody wrongs another person. Somebody moves your neighbor's boundary marker. You know, they care a lot about the boundary markers, your little testament. Because that's like, how do you know?

Yeah, and well then your land is how you provide for your family. Old Testament. Right. Because that's like, Yeah. I know. Yeah. And well then your land is how you provide for your family. Right. So you steal like a 10 by 10 square. So my farming field. Kind of keeps shifting it over. Yeah, stuff like that. So people steal and all that, all that.

Yeah. And so every seven years you just reset to the Eden ideal. Life inevitably produces these inequities that need to be reset in the Eden ideal. Life inevitably produces these inequities that need to be reset in the seventh year. So in the Eden ideal, not only are you not only slaves, that makes sense, not owning debt, that makes sense. But you're not working and you're not planting anything. And that just kind of seems like, what are we gonna do?

There's gonna sit around and... Red Torah? Play a monopoly go. A monopoly deal. Read the Torah. That sounds bad. Yeah, that's right. Well, it's a good example of the Torah. It's funny that it shows monopoly.

Yeah. Because that's all about acquiring assets and enslaving people. Subconscious or something? So weird. Yeah. This is a great example of how Dittora isn't the same thing as Israel's ancient constitution.

An ancient constitution would require way more detail about how to implement all of this. So the author of Dittora, beginning with Moses and then the prophetic scribes that follow him, they have arranged certain laws in the larger narrative thematic development of the storyline. So I think, and for here, in this context, all these seven year things are pointing us back to the narrative of the Garden of Eden. And we just have to speculate on the actual, like, economic ramifications of what this meant for your average ancient is realized. We're just not given that information.

Yeah, well, what it meant for the ancient is realite, but I'm also thinking, what is it pointing to? What kind of Eden reality is pointing to? Because, and maybe we're just not supposed to try to obsess about that, but it's a new creation. It's still a physical creation. So, I imagine it's gonna be a lot like what we know. And so, I'm just like, okay, is there gonna be work to do? Yeah.

Is there gonna be projects? Or are we just gonna be like? Playing monopoly. I hate monopoly. We played monopoly deal though, that's pretty fun. It's a card game. That's what I bet the same. Yes.

Oh yes, yes, I did. Now I like that even worse. In less, even less. Here, I appreciate that you're asking that question. It'll come up again as we go further So back to Leviticus. Once God takes up residence in Tabernacle, Israel is now supposed to orient the whole of their lives around the reality of God's presence there. The sacrifice laws all come in.

Live it against one through seven. It's how you say thank you. It's how you say I'm sorry. It's how you celebrate with your neighbors that God lives among you. Then you get the purity and impurity guidelines and the kosher food laws. So these are ways of symbolically reinforcing the fact

that the creator of life has come into your midst and death and corruption can't be in his midst. And God wants to change us into people who are free of death and corruption. That's the purity of the laws. The last section of Leviticus in the 20s, you get the ritual calendar gets explored. And this is specifically Leviticus chapter 23, 24, 25, and 26. Okay. We're gonna just do an overview here. And you know, these aren't thrilling for most people to read,

but once you ponder what's going on here, it's this electric stuff. Man, this is cool. Leviticus 23, you ready? Mm-hmm. Okay. Ready. Yahweh spoke again to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them,

Yahweh's appointed times that you shall proclaim as holy meeting times, convocations, which is a funny word, we don't really use, holy convocations. Sacred assemblies in NIV. Oh, okay, that's a little better. Sacred assemblies, yeah.A. Oh, okay. That's a little better. Sacred assemblies. Yeah. These are my appointed times.

Ah, that word appointed times appears on page one of Genesis. Oh, day four? Day four, yes. God says I will give the sun moon and the stars for signs and for appointed times. These are the appointed times. And here's the list of the seven appointed times in Lomatic S23. Cool. Yep.

So, the first appointed time is... The Sabbath. Yep. For six days, work may be done. On the seventh day, there's a complete Shabbat. It actually repeats the word Sabbath twice. Sabbath, Sabbath? Yeah, it's Shabbat Shabbaton.

Huh. That's lost in translation. Well, what do you got here in the... Sabbath rest. Oh, a day of Sabbath rest. Well, there you go. Shabbat Shabbaton. Shabbat Shabbaton.

Yeah, it's a way of... A stopping Sabbath. Yep, a stopping stopping. Stopping stopping. Don't do any work. It is a Sabbath to Yahweh is the, it is the Sabbath. Yeah, same in the NIV. So a Sabbath to Yahweh, it's an interesting phrase.

Stopping to Yahweh. Yeah, it's a, the to is indicating possession or belonging. It's a Sabbath that belongs to Yahweh. This is not your day. This day doesn't belong to you. It's just like the debts and the slaves and the land. This day isn't yours to do what you want with.

This is my day. It's gonna be a key principle here. But you can see the analogy. Yep. Yep. Okay. So the verse four then says, these are the appointed times. You know, like, wait, I thought we just had the appointed times. It was me, this chapter opened by saying these are the appointed times. Then you get the Sabbath. And then verse four says these are the appointed times. Yeah. So something literally happening here. Correct, yeah. So the Sabbath, it's a little frame around the Sabbath. The Sabbath, think of the Sabbath as like

the most basic Lego block, like maybe the two by four. Yeah, that's the one or the one or the most basic. Isn't it? Or the two by two? The two by two, the two by two Lego block. Oh no, well, no, I would, the two by four. Two by four. That sort of eight little peg print it for you. The 2x4. That's what I'm talking about.

That's what I'm talking about. That's the workhorse Lego block. That's like, if you want to build a castle, you're collecting as many of those two by fours as you can. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you got it. That's right. So, this whole chapter is going to be about the annual, the once a year, appointed time.

But it begins with every seven days because it's like the most basic building block, the rest of the list, which is going to be six more, annual, appointed times, are all going to be riffing off of the meaning of the Sabbath and the number seven. And so it's going to take the Sabbath building block and then build all kinds of new Lego buildings out of them in different ways. Cool. So, it might help just to look at the list. There are six appointed times in the rest of the chapter divided into two groups of three. That sounds familiar.

That sounds like days one through six. Yeah, of Genesis. And there precisely the ones that come in the first six months, you get three. Okay. And then the one you get in the first six months, you get three. Okay. And then the one you get in the second six months of the year. So you're going to start with the first month. Yep. And then the second half of the year begins with the seventh month.

That's convenient. Oh, yeah. There's that number again. There it is. The first one is Passover and Unleavened Bread. And we talked a little bit about it. Yeah, that's right. So Passover begins on the 14th, two times seven,

on the but on the night of the 14th. Yeah, the 14th. Right. That's when the day starts. That's right. And you're replaying Genesis 1, verse two. You begin the night. Yeah.

And there was evening, and there was morning. Correct. That's right. Then after Passover, from the 15th to the 21st, you observe the feast of unleavened bread for seven days Okay, so Passover is the meal on the 14th. Yep, evening the 14th. Yep, and then for seven days after that That's right. So it's really an eight day feast Oh, yeah, total when you put the two together. Okay, correct, but they're two separate. No, no, yep, they're treated as they're always

But they're two separate, no, no. Yep, they're treated as always mentioned together. Okay. Passover is the night of the two times seven, 14th day of the first month, and then you get a seven day observance to follow. Next thing in the list here is simply called the first fruits. And in Leviticus 23, it's actually ambiguous. This begins in...

Before we get the first fruits, just the unleavened bread, the feast, you're just eating unleavened bread for seven days. And in Leviticus 23, it's actually ambiguous. This begins in... Before we get to first words, it's just the unleavened bread, the feast. You're just eating unleavened bread for seven days. That's what you're doing. You can eat other things. But you... You eat other things.

But yeah, no yeast in your bread. We actually have a whole thing of this in the notes and we didn't talk about it. Yeah. I'm sure there's a lot of other traditions packed in those seven days. Yes, and especially as the holiday develops throughout this really light Jewish history. But the main thing is you eat low quality bread.

You can crackers. On the first day, whole the sacred assembly to do no regular work. And for seven days, present a food offering to the Lord. Okay, so you're doing some offerings. On the seventh day, hold a cigarette assembly and do no work. That's right. That's framed by Sabbath. Yep, the first day and the seventh day are extra special days.

Yep, more stopping. Yeah, more stopping. And so, because the seventh day, you have to get calendars out to do this. This is always confusing to me. Because remember, all these sevens are tied to the moon cycle because it's all about the first of the month. And the month is about the moon cycle.

So these days float independently of a Sabbath cycle. Of the perpetual seven-day Sabbath cycle, which is not based on the sun or the sun. So the Passover meal itself might land on any random day. It might, yes, but every once in a while, it will land on the Sabbath like it does on Passion week for Jesus. Just why, which is why. That's a probably extra special Passover.

Correct. Yeah, that's right. A year when the Passover overlaps with the seven-day Sabbath, you'd see an extra special Passover. Yeah. And that's what the Gospel author's highlight. Oh, I didn't realize that. That's cool. So then the day after that,

there's a sacred assembly you don't do any work on that next. Mm-hmm. It would have been the Sunday. Correct. Yeah. Anyway, we'll talk about that when we get to the Gospels. Music I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful.

I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit of guess 23. First verse says, when you enter the land, which I'm going to give you, and you reap the harvest, bring in the sheath of the first fruits and show it to the priest. He's going to do the symbolic things with this and do this the day after this apath. Really unclear. Which day? Exactly. Yeah, which which that is. It's only. Yeah. Well, I guess it's whenever the harvest starts. Whenever the harvest starts, you go on your land and whenever the harvest starts. Whenever the harvest starts. You go on your land and whenever the harvest comes.

Yeah. That's right. So that, So basically, if the harvest starts on like a Wednesday, then that next Sabbath, Yeah. Because the day after you're doing this. Correct.

That's right. So that's a floating, but the point is, is after the, on the Sabbath of whatever the harvest is, Yeah. Bring in the first fruits. Yeah. Next one is pentacost, which is after Passover 9-11 bread, you count seven Sabbaths.

After Passover 9-11 bread, you count seven, okay. Seven Sabbaths. Okay. Seven-7 days. Seven-7 days, seven Sabbaths. We call those weeks. We call them the week. Seven weeks.

Uh-huh. Seven Sabbaths. Yep. So think, you're already going week. Seven weeks. Uh-huh. Seven Sabbaths. Yep. So think, you're already going to have a Sabbath. Seven times seven, the 49th day is going to be a Sabbath. Yeah. But then, on the 50th day, you have an extra holy day, where you do the same thing you did on the Sabbath, but you just carry it over for an extra day.

You just get a double heaping of Sabbath. Totally. Yeah, that's right. And you bring in... Sounds like a weekend. You bring in now a whole bunch more of your harvest and you offer it to God as a thank you, thank you, thank you. So that's the first half of the year. Cool.

And it's pretty stacked. So that's called the Festival of Weeks. Weeks, cause the word week's in Hebrew is seven. The word is... But it's really just a one day thing. Well, but it's named after the fact that you're counting weeks. You're counting seven sevens. The Greek name is Pentecoste,

which is the Greek word for 50. So it's named after the final day. Got it. The Hebrew name weeks is for the polteration. All right. So that's the first half. This is great. This is a festival crash course. It's totally. Yeah. I love it. All right. So that's the first half. Great. This is a festival crash course.

It's totally. Yeah. All right. Okay, first three. Pass over. Yep. And then after that, it's a week of eating crackers. Yeah.

11 bread. We can only read. Yep. Yep. Then it's the, oh, it's the harvest one. Yep. The harvest comes whenever the harvest happens, that next Sabbath, the day after that, and that one's called the first freeze.

And then you count 50 days after the Passover. Seven times seven weeks. And then you have the day of weeks, the day of the week. The day of the appendicitis. The appendicitis. Okay, those are the first, those happen all the first half of the year

Correct correct. So now we're up to four in terms of our lit our list of Yeah, the living is 23 The last three now happen in the second half of the year and they all happen in the seventh month. They're all packed into the seventh. They're all packed into the seventh month in Jewish tradition today. They're called the days of awe and wonder because they're all they all come within. They're all packed into about two to three weeks. So there's a lot of days off.

Kind of the way that in the Western religious calendar that Christmas and New Year's, you get a lot of time off. Create this big block. This is that big block in the Jewish calendar. It's usually an October. And I'd rather have a bunch of time off and the fall. Yeah. Yeah, it's usually like mid-late October, early November.

Yeah. Sounds great. Yeah. And one of these, you like hang out in the tent, right? That's the next one, right? Yeah, totally. Yep. So, the first thing you do is on the first day of the seventh month, you blow trumpets.

Okay. To mark the beginning of the seventh month. Yeah. Makes sense. It's an important month. Yep. This is what's now called Rosh Hashana, which is the Hebrew phrase that means

the head of the year. The head of the year. This is fascinating. The way the language for the year works, it seems like ancient Israelites conceived of their year as essentially, you know how we have like a financial year? Yeah, fiscal year. Then we have, there's like, yeah,

and then think daylight savings is some other weird way of accounting for a year. Okay. It is based on the old agricultural calendar when we set our clocks and do that kind of thing. Then we have our calendar year. Solar year. We have many overlapping different calendars in our minds.

Sure. And so in the same way, there's different school year, overlapping calendar, school year. Yeah, that's good. Yep. Okay. So in a way, there's different overlapping calendars in the Hebrew Bible.

Okay. Months are called different names, based on different calendars. It's very confusing. This is an additional wrinkle that the language of the seventh month is talked about as if it's the first day of the new year. Okay. It says, every six months, you're conceiving of the next six months as the next year. If you think of your year in six month blocks, then the seventh month is like a new beginning

within the year. Anyway, so Rosh Hashana, the head of the year, can- The New Years of Swords. Yeah. Yeah. But it's also the seventh month. They can see the other year in the-

They understand that it's also not a new year. And actually think about this. In pre-calender cultures where like, when you lived in blocks of weeks in your mind, like think the Sabbath is many people's way of accounting for time. Yeah, how many Sabbaths ago did this happen? Yeah, how many how many sundowns ago was the Sabbath three? Like these days were the anchor and then the rhythms of the harvest would be another way

to anchor time. And so the first month and the seventh month are two big anchors. And then when you're in those, you're just in those other cycles, mostly in thinking about Sabbath cycles. So same here. Anyway, so Rosh Hashanah is on the seventh month. That later became associated with the story of the giving of the Torah, on analogy with the sounds that the people heard when God's glory showed up on Mount Sinai. It says that they saw the sounds and heard them when the cloud showed up. And so today, it's associated with celebrating the giving of the Torah. Russia's on it.

Russia's on it. And that's the first day of the seventh month. That's right. The tenth day of the seventh month is the day of atonement. So that's the day with the purification offerings, the two goats. So if you think of the Sabbath as a weekly reset to the Eden ideal, the day of atonement happening on the tenth day, remember, ten is a key number in these symbols too. 10 words.

The 10th day of the 7th month, it's the day when Israel's sins are all focused in on one goat that's exiled from the camp. It's as if we go back to being in a pristine, sinless state before God, at least for a few minutes. So the way it's's clearing your browser history. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. So there it is. It's the day of atonement. Then on the 15th day of the 7th month begins a 7-day feast of tabernacles. And here you relive the wilderness wanderings

for seven, seven days. And do you remember how unleavened bread lasted seven days, too? Yeah. And on unleavened bread, the first day and the seventh day were the special meetings. Yeah, and there were like an extra Sabbath almost. Correct, yeah. Tabernacles, every one of those seven days.

Yeah, I don't do any more. This is the culmination of the year. It's the seventh, right? It's the seventh and the list of tabernacles. And so in... This one sounds the most fun to me, out of all of them. Tell me why. Well, you're not working for seven days,

it's awesome. Yeah. And then you're all hanging, you're like, you're camping out in front of your house. Yeah, it's awesome. Sounds great. It's totally awesome. But yeah, I agree. I agree.

So, every day is like a Sabbath. Every day, extra special offerings are being made. So, in the book of numbers, numbers, chapters 28 and 29, just focus in on the special offerings for these seven days. And you know, you're offering 77 bowls in the Tabernacle Center. It's all just, you know. And okay, going back to live in a tent, you have the sacred tent in the middle that's a little micro-edin.

In the desert, they were given the bread of Eden to eat, and of extra bit for every seventh day. So the journey in the wilderness is the exact opposite of the garden, but the manna and then the tent in the wilderness. The tabernacle are these symbols that even in the wilderness, God created Eden for them in the wilderness. Eden can be found. Eden can be found. Like the Psalm 107, we'll say he makes pools of water for the thirsty in the wilderness for our ancestors. He created Eden in the wilderness.

That's how they made it for 40 years. So for seven days a year, we party like we're in Eden. Yeah in our own little Sacred tent in our backyard Yeah, that's what the whole thing's about. It's totally cool. Yeah, have you camped in your backyard with kiddos? Oh No, well, we've we've camped in our friends backyard. Oh, we do it every year on Labor Day Uh-huh, and it's super fun. I've wanted to do it in my backyard, but when your bed's right there, you kind of just decide to sleep inside.

Yeah, totally. That's right. Yeah. Oh, yeah, look, oh, sorry, I forgot this. The description of the tent in Leviticus 23 is, and you will take, get this, you will take the fruit of a beautiful tree, the branches of a palm, the branches of a leafy tree.

And if he says the luxuriant tree. Yeah, the poplar is of a tree by a river. Yeah, get a river tree. Yes, make sure you get leaves from a beautiful tree by a river. That's very specific. And then party before Yahweh for 70. Yeah.

This all, that's like begging to be connected to the tree of life by the river of Eden. What else is that line doing there? This festival makes me wanna be Tor Obserment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, here we go.

I think this is the coolest thing. We've been asked to make videos about the fees. I think we should really consider putting it on the list. It would be fun to do. It would be fun to do. It's easy. Well, now that we've gone through them, I just spent the time to go through them.

I feel a lot more like, okay, cool. I got them downloaded before it was just this jumbled mess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll forget in another couple weeks. What's great is, Leviticus 23 is organized it with you, organized it for you in a Genesis 1 type of pattern. Yeah. Yeah.

Two sets of three. Two sets of three with the seventh day rest. Yeah. Headed by the seventh day rest, the seventh. Headed by the seventh day rest, it's the first half of the year, the second half, or all of the seventh month. Every one of them is connected to seven in some way. First day of the seventh month. All of these festivals, you've said this, they're all trying and helping us reconnect

with this ideal. The sevens' bestying and reigning with God in a complete and full and abundant way. Yeah. On all of these, the reason why you set them apart is because there are special days where you bring special offerings. You go to the temple and offer your offerings there. For three of them, Passover, weeks, and tabernacles, once Israel came into the land and had a centralized temple,

for those three, all the males were supposed to make pilgrimage every year. So these were moments where you go meet with God at the symbolic Eden, at the center of the land, where at the center of the camp. So what is all about? Did you experience all of these festivals when you were in Jerusalem for that year? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we were there for calendar year. Yeah, it was awesome. That's cool. Yeah, it was really, and often inconvenient. Yeah, that's a point. Yeah, like during on Levin Bread, there was whole sections of observant grocery stores. Anything that had basically gluten or yeast, they would take butcher paper and just wrap

whole aisles. You know, like when you're painting or something? Yeah, like when maybe like moving lead paint from a house, no wrap it and plastic. They would do that the whole aisles. Yeah, they didn't want any yeast to sneak out. Oh yeah, yeah. It's awesome. Yeah, and anyhow. And as you're doing that, you should be remembering

we're hoping for an ideal. That's right. The whole point is, yeah, you inconvenience yourself to symbolically remind you of your real hope, right? Of your hope that our work a day grinding it out isn't all there is. But God has purposed for all of history to culminate in the hope of the seventh day rest. And we are actually meant to get little foretaste of it and all of these ritual symbolic days

of rest, which isn't just every seven days. Now you look at this calendar and you're like, dude, it's a lot of it. You're working out this ideal most of the year. Yeah. Your whole year, you have to plan your whole year around it. Yeah, your whole, it's, yeah, totally. Okay, yeah, here's, so this is a later, we can land the plane with this. There's a later, there's a rabbinic work of a rabbi, called Rabbi Eleazar. It's from like the third century AD

though he lived a little bit earlier, but he has this famous saying about the Sabbath. He says, the holy one, Blessed Behe, created seven ages, and of all of them he chose the seventh age only. The six ages are for going in and coming out, therefore war and there for peace, but the seventh age is entirely Shabbat and rest in eternal life. So here's a rabbi whose life was shaped by this. And for him, this is all about celebrating

the life of the age to come, right here in the middle of the age of war and peace and going in and coming out. So he thinks of kind of reality before the seventh age is like, he calls it six ages. Yes, yeah, that's right. That's interesting. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah, this is a very, this is a well-worn motif in Jewish literature of this period, of thinking of the all of creation that's taking place in this 7,000 year structure. All of creation happening is 7 millennia this 7,000 year structure. All of creation, having a 7 millennia. 7,000 years structure. That's... And a lot of it spun out of, uh, Psalm 90, to you a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.

So when he says ages, he's meaning millennial. Well, actually, he doesn't say millennia here. That was a common related idea. It's a related idea. Yeah, but he thinks of six ages, six large units of time, and the seventh that God has planned is, I like that entirely Shabbat and rest in eternal life. That's what the Sabbath reminds him of every seven days.

Yeah, that's nice to think about if your days are grueling. I mean, like, if it's just like, man, when is, I hate my job. It's a back breaking. And it's just like, oh, everlasting rest. Yeah. So it's great. Yeah. But after you've been on vacation for like a couple of weeks, you're kind of like,

I'm going to do some work. Yeah, sure. I'm going to get something done. Yes of like, I'm gonna do some work. Yeah, sure. I'm gonna get something done. Yes, yeah, I know that feeling. Yeah, so for some reason, entirely Sabbath, rest in the life of everlasting, sounds a little boring to me. Well, sure, isn't it interesting how

you're our social location shapes, how we think about things? Yeah, because if I was, yeah. Yeah, if I were a farmer, you don't take vacations. No, you don't. Tabernacles is vacation. That's sure you don't. I mean, what you may. No, you rest every seventh day.

Man, if I was a farmer, and you get tabernacles and on 11 bread, the first in the seventh day, right? I mean, this is your holiday calendar. You just read it. It's not that many days off except every seven. Yeah, and you're being forced to take those days off. You'd want to make sure the field still... Yeah. Take care of it. Oh man. Man, when I lived in Wisconsin, I went to school at UW and I met a lot of farmers or people who grew up on farms.

Yeah. Because it's like most of the state did. Yeah, and just to hear them talk about, I'm from your earliest memories, daily chores in the dark of morning with animals and out in cold, muddy fields and every day, every day, never ends. I mean, yeah, I've met people who were like, my parents never took vacate, what's vacation? Oh, yeah, it's a different life.

Then everlasting rest. It's amazing. That's right, that's how we got started on this. Yeah, that's right. So in a way, if you have the privilege of taking vacation, it is like a foretaste of the ultimate Sabbath. But a kind of Sabbath where you don't get bored because there's like a whole new universe

to cultivate and create within. Yeah, I mean, it's back to this image of land that instead of being a farmer and just this like grueling day in and day out up before the sun making sure that it produces for you, it's land that is just producing. It's just happening. And you're gonna go out there and you're gonna pick yeah. Pick from it and you're gonna cook some food and you're gonna you know you're gonna be doing quote unquote work and you probably got projects and stuff, but it just, it won't feel like that grind of like, how do I make this land produce for me

and break in my back doing it? Yeah, that's right. I'm trying to think, this isn't biblical language, but it's taking the image of, in the seventh year, you free, you release the land from serving you. It's imagining the image of in the seventh year you free, you release the land from serving you. It's imagining a way of existing where you work with the land instead of working the land. Yeah, it's like this cooperation.

It's like, yeah. It's almost like this friendship. It doesn't have to serve you and you don't have to serve it. Remember, like you return to the dust by the sweat of your brow, you'll live, Genesis three. Yeah, it's not your slave. Yeah. You're not it's slave either.

And you're not it's slave. Yeah. What if, which is on analogy to humans working with each other? Yeah. Right? Which is why you release debts and slaves every seven years. It's the same thing. Your fellow is realite.

Shouldn't in the ideal be your slave and you shouldn't be his. You work together and live together. So put that on analogy to the land itself. You work with the land. Yeah, it's a Kayland. What are you up to today? What should we do? I got some avocados. Awesome. I'll make some avocado test. I'll make some avocado test. Oh man, my dream is to have an avocado tree in my backyard. We don't have the habitat in every building. We don't have the climate for it. Oh my goodness.

I mean, we pay for it, but I eat. Oh, it's so expensive. Avocado. It's so expensive. Like I have an avocado tree. Yeah. We consume a lot of avocados like I have an avocado tree. Yeah, we consume a lot of avocados. They're really healthy and satisfying. Yes.

Yeah, avocados. All right. Avocados are the fruit of Eden. Maybe that was the fruit of Eden. Who knows? That's the tree of life is probably avocado. Nothing in the Bible about that. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project Podcast.

We're continuing to collect questions for an ongoing question and response that will accompany this series. If you have any questions, send them our way. Record yourself asking the question. Keep it to around 20 seconds or so, and let us know your name and where you're from. You can send those questions to info at jointhebibletproject.com. Our theme music is by the band Tense. Today's show is produced by Dan Gummel, where nonprofit in Portland, Oregon, we make free resources to experience the Bible as a unified story

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