Leviticus 23 --- The seven feasts of Israel

- V3, The command to keep a weekly Sabbath. Does this also imply that we are to work on the other days?

- Can you imagine the long-term impact on your life if we treated every day as a workday? How would it affect our society if there were no ‘rest’ days or time set aside for worship?

- V4-8, the feast of Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. They remind the Jews each year of their identity, history, and the provision of God, but some might suggest that the Passover itself (and the meal which remembers it) also foreshadowed the death of Jesus. What do you think? How significant was the timing of Jesus’ death? Why does the New Testament so often refer to Jesus as the ‘Lamb of God’?

- How might we see a similarity between the feast of unleavened bread, and our desire for holiness after we have been saved? (see also 1 Corinthians 5:6-8)

- V9-14, in what way might the feast of Firstfruits foreshadow the resurrection of Jesus? It was to occur the day after the first Sabbath following Passover – is this the day Jesus was resurrected? If Christ is the Firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:23) then who is the ‘harvest’ foreshadowed within this feast day?

- V16, this is where we get the word ‘Pentecost from’.

- This feast commemorates the anniversary of the giving of the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai. In what way did the original Pentecost foreshadow the day when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples?

- V23-25, If the previous 4 feasts foreshadowed future events, what might the feast of trumpets foreshadow?