Thursday 9 October 2014

Torah-Feasts

Modern 'feast'-keeping isn't truly Feast-keeping as the Torah described it.

The Torah was very specific about how the Feasts should be kept, in every detail.

Furthermore the Torah condemned keeping the Feasts any other way.

But it's no longer possible to keep the Feasts the way the Torah demanded.

(For example some of the Feasts required a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and the offering of animal sacrifices on the altar in the Temple, with Levite priests officiating. Those weren't optional components of the Feasts - they were demanded - and alternatives were condemned.)

Therefore the Torah can't be construed to mean that modern 'feast'-keeping is truly Feast-keeping at all.

Modern customs popularly carried out around the globe might be throw-backs - they might replicate and re-enact some parts of the Torah-Feasts - but it isn't truly 'keeping' the Feasts in terms of the Torah.

Yes the Feasts were said to be ordinances forever in Israel, but so was the Levitical priesthood - yet we know that's ended;

so was the Levitical High Priestly garments and priestly garments - but those are no longer applicable;

so were the demands to offer sweet incense, the continual shewbread, and burnt offerings morning and evening - but each of those have been fulfilled;

so was the demand to offer a blood-sacrifice on the Day of Atonement on the seventh month every year - but that's been done away with.

All of those points of the Torah were also said to be an ordinance 'forever' in Israel, yet they have now been superseded by the New Covenant - a fact which even the Torah itself bears witness to.

Similarly, keeping the Feasts was also intended to be an ordinance in Israel only for as long as the Old Covenant still stood.

With the inauguration of the New Covenant, keeping the Feasts were superseded.

And a very short time after that, keeping the Feasts was also rendered impossible (when the Temple and Levitical priesthood were destroyed circa AD70). Even Orthodox Jews realised that 'keeping' the Feasts was rendered impossible, and therefore new customs had to be developed. But developing a custom which looks a little bit like a Torah-Feast, and labelling it a feast, doesn't make it a Torah-Feast. That's why Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism have been at odds with each other for centuries.

But even if a precedent could be found in the Torah which could somehow authorise the varying customs which are carried out in Israel and around the globe, still wouldn't you expect that the blood moon would be visible in Israel if the blood moon was intended as a sign about Israel and about its ancient calendar?

Certainly it can be enriching to learn about the ancient Torah-Feasts of Israel.

But the danger in thinking that Feast-Keeping is still valid today is two-fold:

One, it can make Christians feel bound by conscience to start 'keeping' the 'feasts';

Two, it can obscure the urgency that only the Gospel can save Jews.

No comments:

Post a Comment