God’s Commandments and the Sacred Feasts

God’s Commandments Are God’s Holy Laws Given to Us for Our Own Good

God’s commandments are essential for our salvation.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

God gave His people His holy laws for their own good.

Isaiah 33:20-22 Look on Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.  There the LORD will be our Mighty One. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams. No galley with oars will ride them, no mighty ship will sail them. For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us. 

Then who does “our” refer to?  Here the word “our” in our festivals, our judge, our lawgiver, our king, all refer to God’s people who keep God’s feasts.  Zion is the place where God’s people go to receive salvation by keeping the precious feasts of God.

Psalm 102:12-16 But you, LORD, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations. You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come. For her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity.  The nations will fear the name of the LORD, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory.  For the LORD will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.

God planned to give salvation to His people in Zion. And Zion is the place of God’s appointed feasts.

The Feasts of God Are God’s Commandments

Leviticus 23:1-3 The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

The Sabbath

“‘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.”

The Sabbath Day is the weekly Feast that God gave as His command for our own good.

Leviticus 23:4-8 The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread

“‘These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. For seven days present a food offering to the Lord. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’”

The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are annual feasts kept at their appointed times.

Leviticus 23:9-11 Offering the Firstfruits

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.

God said that only when we keep the Feast can we then understand the truth that lies in them.

Leviticus 23:15-16 The Feast of Weeks

“‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.

Leviticus 23:23-25 The Feast of Trumpets

 The Lord said to Moses,  “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.

Leviticus 23:26-28 The Day of Atonement 

 The Lord said to Moses,  “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, ^d and present a food offering to the Lord.  Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God.

Leviticus 23:33-34 The Feast of Tabernacles

 The Lord said to Moses,  “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days.  The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work.

The 7 yearly Feasts are given to us by God as His commandment for our own good.  The place where we can keep the Feasts of God is in Zion where God clothes us with salvation.  The Sabbath Day and the 7 annual Feasts are the precious commands of God.  Only the Church of God keeps the Feasts of God. God gave us the precious Feasts for our own good.

The Church that Keeps the Rules of Men is Not Zion

Jeremiah 4:1-2 “If you, Israel, will return, then return to me,” declares the LORD. “If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ then the nations will invoke blessings by him and in him they will boast.”

Jeremiah 4:5-6 “Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say: ‘Sound the trumpet throughout the land!’ Cry aloud and say: ‘Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities!’  Raise the signal to go to Zion! Flee for safety without delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, even terrible destruction.”

Zion is where God commanded us to go so that we can return to Him.  Zion is where God’s commandments are kept. The Sabbath Day, the Passover, the Day of First Fruits, The Feast of Weeks, and The Feast of Tabernacles are the commands of God kept in Zion.  But does any church keep all these Feasts today? Investigate it and you will find that only the Church of God keeps God’s Feasts in Zion according to God’s command.

Then, why don’t all the churches keep the Feasts of God? It is because they keep the teachings of men instead of the Feasts. So their church can never be Zion.  That is why God says: “Come out of her my people.” Because the truth of God is not there.

Matthew 15:7-9 “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:  “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’”

Their spiritual world is controlled by man-made rules.

Matthew 7:6-9 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’  You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”

They worship God “in vain.” That means that their worship cannot lead to salvation. God said that they let go of God’s commandments and started keeping the rules of men.

Keeping the Rules of Men in Church is Spiritual Darkness

Isaiah 29:11-12 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

The Bible says it is sealed to them because they keep the rules of men instead of the commands of God.

Isaiah 29:13-14 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.  Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

When they keep the rules of men in their church then they cannot understand the Bible!  So they keep man-made teachings in their church like Christmas and Sunday worship. Therefore, God said that their intelligence will vanish and that their wisdom will perish.

Isaiah 60:1-2 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.

The thick darkness over their eyes reveals their spiritual status. When the churches keep the rules of men instead of God’s command, then their church cannot be Zion.

God’s People Listen to God’s Commandments

John 10:26-27 “but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

God’s commands are given to us for our own good. God’s sheep listen to His voice.  We can receive Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother when God opens our eyes and allows us to keep God’s commands in Zion.

John 8:45-47 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

In this verse, to hear means to accept.  Those who don’t accept means those who do not belong to God.  Just like sheep eat grass and wolves eat meat, God’s people hear and accept the commands of God and those who follow the rules of men are not God’s people.  And just like wolves will not eat grass, those who continue to follow the rules of men cannot hear God’s voice and do not accept God’s commands.

John 10:35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—

We cannot just say “let’s remove this” when considering God’s commands.  Instead, we must follow the voice of God and accept His commands.  God has commanded His people to keep the Sacred Feasts for our own good and God has commanded His people to enter Zion.  Then let us make every effort to follow God’s commandments in Zion for our salvation without fail. Amen.