Believe it or not, God’s Word, and the lives of those living in the various cultures described in our biblical text are filled with holidays and public celebrations like our Thanksgiving and Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, etc. A cursory glance at the word “holiday” gives one a clear hint of its etymology … a compound word created from the words for holy (halig) and day (daeg) from the 14th century. The English pronunciation converges from the 16th century with original uses related directly to religious feasts, festivals, and fasts. However, eventually by the mid 18th century, the meaning evolved to include days of recreation and general celebrations like our 4th of July.
The Hebrews of the Old Testament had an abundance of holidays. Some were based upon their traditions, others were focused on agriculture, and some depicted natural changes of times and seasons. However, historical events connected with the national/religious life of the Jewish people are positioned above others as significant memorials, demanding individual as well as group participation. Therefore these holidays, consisting of fasts, feasts, and festivals were often accompanied by cleansing rituals, offerings (some general – others very specific – as an example see Numbers 10:10), and sacrifices (usually specific – see examples in Numbers 28-29).
The reading of Numbers chapters 28-29 seemingly reveals a complex, as well as somewhat complicated need for specific adherence to each specific instruction or demand. Wow! Before long all this could get really burdensome, old, boring, dreary, mind-deadening, and eventually completely uninspiring. Perhaps many of our holidays are similarly bogged down with expectations, traditions, rituals and routines, ultimately losing the meaning and value for which they were originally established. Where’s the memorial in Memorial Day, the mass (gathering of God’s people for worship) of Christmas, or the giving of thanks at Thanksgiving? Unabashedly, the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk reminded everyone, “the righteous (just) live by/in/through their faith” (2:4), and individuals like Isaiah and Amos, along with many others, moved beyond the rituals of their holidays (fasts, feast, and festivals), leaping right into the heart of the matter.
Isaiah 1:13-14 — Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies — I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.
Amos 5:21-23 — I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.
Hosea 2:11 — I will also put an end to all her gaiety, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths and all her festal assemblies.
Certainly these statements were specifically directed toward the spiritual condition of those religiously being religious … practicing their holidays (fasts, feasts, and festivals) — perhaps even flawlessly — to the letter of the law, yet heartlessly without consideration of their true meaning, worth or purpose. So much attention to detail, yet so little contemplation. Have you ever asked the Lord what He is asking of, or what He desires for you and yours this holiday season? Does one just continue walking in what’s always been, just because its always been, or does one earnestly seek to know Him more fully through the feasting and festivities that so anxiously lurk on the horizon?
It’s unmistakably and observably evident that spiritually-minded individuals like Samuel, King David, and Hosea comprehended and appreciated the distinguishing matters of the heart over the process of ritualistic religious activities — holidays (fasts, feasts, and festivals).
I Samuel 15:22 — Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.
Psalms 51:16-17 — David declares, “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; you are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
Hosea 6:6-7 — For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; there they have dealt treacherously against Me.
For this year’s Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, I’m sincerely, almost in desperation, beseeching the Lord on behalf of our church and every family touched by this ministry … May the Lord delight in our obedience and loyalty to Him, as well as our ever-increasing knowledge of Him, His ways, and His character, which can only come through the humility of a broken human spirit when accompanied by a broken (of natural pride and self-sufficiency — having been completely humbled) and contrite (genuinely repentant) heart.
Can we do it? Let’s make our Holidays … Holy Days!
— Pastor Frank