Spoken Gospel podcast with a photo of David and Seth

Leviticus 23 and 25: Sabbath, Festivals, and Jubilee

About This Episode

What is the point of Sabbath rest? Moreover, why did Israel have feasts all year round that they celebrated? What was the year of Jubilee and how was it ultimately fulfilled in Jesus?

Listen Now Read Show Notes

Listen On

Apple Podcasts Youtube Spotify

Sabbath, Festivals, and Jubilee: How Leviticus 23 and 25 Point Us to the Rest Jesus Brings

Show Notes

David and Seth, hosts of the Spoken Gospel podcast, open this episode with some honest encouragement for anyone trudging through the book of Leviticus. The book is a list of laws, and it is not easy to get through. But the approach they have been taking throughout the series is to engage Leviticus at a broad level, pulling out the big ideas and themes that find their fulfillment in Jesus, so that when you sit down to actually read the text, you have a framework that helps you see the beauty in the details. With that in mind, this episode dives into the rhythms of rest laid out in Leviticus 23 and 25, exploring the Sabbath, the seven annual festivals, and the climactic Year of Jubilee.

The Land Needs Rest, and So Do You

The conversation begins, somewhat out of order, with the Year of Jubilee described in Leviticus 25. Every seventh year, the Israelites were told not to actively farm their land but to let it sit, trusting God to provide from what grew on its own. This was not just an agricultural principle but a theological one. The land was designed by God to regenerate when given rest, a truth confirmed by modern science and illustrated vividly by the practice of regenerative land management. When the Israelites eventually refused to let their land rest, God told them in Leviticus 26:43 that he would exile them so the land could finally enjoy its Sabbaths without them.

The command to let the land rest was also a command to trust. Leviticus 25:18-22 addresses the obvious objection: "What will we eat if we don't sow or harvest?" God's answer was direct. He would command his blessing on the sixth year so that the land would produce enough for three years. The grain would last, even without refrigeration, because God himself would sustain it. This entire cycle was meant to teach Israel that the Lord, not their labor, was the true source of their provision. The wisdom embedded in this command reflects the wisdom embedded in creation itself. The world functions best when things work the way God designed them.

Sabbath as the Pattern of Creation

Stepping back to the beginning of Leviticus 23, the episode grounds the entire festival calendar in the Sabbath command. Leviticus 23:3 establishes the pattern: six days of work, then a seventh day of solemn rest, a holy convocation where no work is to be done. Every festival that follows is an extrapolation of this weekly rhythm, and the number seven pervades the entire calendar. The Israelite world was structured around sevens because God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.

But what does it mean that God rested? He was not tired. His rest after creation signaled that his work was finished, complete. More than that, it established the paradigm humans were supposed to live by. God created Adam and Eve to rest with him in Eden. They were to tend the garden, not toil over it. But the fall interrupted that rest. Adam and Eve never entered the seventh day the way God intended. So the Sabbath became the way for Israel to practice, in part, the completed rest that Adam and Eve missed. As Hebrews 4:10 puts it, "Anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his." When Jesus said "It is finished" on the cross, he was finishing the sixth day of creation, opening the door for us to enter a rest that is not inactivity but the cessation of our attempts to earn what has already been given.

A Holy Calling to Rest Together

One of the most striking details in this section is the phrase "holy convocation," which appears repeatedly throughout Leviticus 23. A better translation might be "holy calling" or "holy gathering," the idea of being called together into God's presence. These festivals were never meant to be privately observed. They were communal events centered on the tent of meeting, on being with God and with each other. The image is something like a pilgrimage, a sojourn to the tabernacle to be in God's presence together.

This communal dimension of rest reshapes how we think about gathering for worship. The episode raises a provocative question: does the average person experience Sunday morning as restful? For many, the answer is no. Sunday can become a place of religious performance, the locus of all our anxieties about whether we are good enough. But the festivals of Leviticus 23 suggest that gathering for worship is supposed to be a holy calling to rest, a time to remember what God has done and to enjoy his presence alongside others who are also resting. This stands in contrast to the way our culture tends to approach rest, either as pure inactivity or as an idol in itself. The American calendar is filled with holidays, but they are not designed to remember what God has done. They memorialize national events or simply celebrate the idea that not working is the ultimate good. Leviticus reframes rest entirely. Rest is not the good. The Lord is the good, and he wishes to be celebrated through our rest.

The Seven Feasts and How Jesus Fulfills Them

The episode walks through all seven festivals listed in Leviticus 23 and traces how each one finds its surprising fulfillment in Jesus. Passover remembers the night God passed over the homes of the Israelites in Egypt and corresponds to Good Friday, the night Jesus became our Passover lamb. The Feast of Unleavened Bread recalls the haste of Israel's flight from Egypt and aligns with Easter. The Feast of First Fruits, where the first sheaf of grain was brought to the altar, finds its fulfillment in the resurrection. Paul calls Jesus the "first fruits from the dead" in 1 Corinthians 15, meaning that just as the first grain offered to God was a sign that the rest of the harvest was coming, Jesus' resurrection is the guarantee that all who trust in him will be raised as well.

Fifty days after First Fruits came the Feast of Weeks, a week-long celebration of God's generosity after the harvest was gathered. This feast corresponds to Pentecost in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit fell on the believers. The greatest gift that the harvest of Jesus' resurrection produced was the gift of God's own Spirit dwelling within his people. The Feast of Trumpets opened the seventh month, the most holy month, with a blast of the shofar calling the people to the tabernacle. This points forward to the final trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15, when Jesus will return, the dead will be raised, and we will be called to him in the air for the ultimate holy convocation. The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, sits at the center of the liturgical year and points to the Gospel itself, when Jesus as our great high priest made the final atonement for all people. In total, the Israelites enjoyed at least 19 mandatory days off for these festivals, not counting weekly Sabbaths. God is a generous employer.

The Feast of Booths and the Living Water

The Feast of Booths receives special attention because of how dramatically Jesus fulfills it in the Gospel of John. This seven-day festival remembered the time Israel spent in tents at the foot of Mount Sinai, celebrating God's provision of food and water in the wilderness. By the time of Jesus, the feast had developed into an elaborate ceremony. The high priest would walk down to the Pool of Siloam, fill a golden vessel with water, carry it through the streets of Jerusalem while the people sang Psalms 113 through 118, and then pour the water and wine into two bowls at the temple as an offering representing God's sustenance in the desert.

It was at the climax of this ceremony, on the last and greatest day of the feast, that Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38). The psalm the people had just been singing, Psalm 118, speaks of the gate of the Lord, the stone the builders rejected becoming the cornerstone, salvation, light, and binding the sacrifice to the horns of the altar. Jesus was claiming to be every one of those things. He is the gate (John 10). He is the light of the world (John 8). He is the living water. The Jewish worshipers who had celebrated this feast for decades would have had their entire conceptual world turned inside out in that moment.

The Year of Jubilee and the Freedom Jesus Brings

The episode closes with the Year of Jubilee from Leviticus 25, which arrived every 49 years. It was the reset button for all of Israel. Any land that had been sold was returned to its original family. Anyone who had sold themselves into servitude to pay off a debt was set free, no remaining balance owed. The theological foundation was simple: "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine" (Leviticus 25:23). Everything Israel possessed belonged to God, and the Jubilee made that truth tangible. There is no record that this year was ever actually practiced, but the hope it represented shaped the prophetic imagination of Israel for centuries.

When Jesus walked into the synagogue in Luke 4, he read from Isaiah 61: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." That phrase, "the year of the Lord's favor," was shorthand for the Year of Jubilee. Jesus was announcing that he was bringing the Jubilee that had never come, and he was going even further than the law imagined. The Jubilee could not give sight to the blind, but Jesus could. We were slaves to sin, following the course of this world, with no release date and no inheritance to return to. Jesus, our kinsman redeemer, paid the full price of an eternal debt on the cross and set the captives free. And he did not just cancel the debt and return us to our land. He gave us himself as our inheritance, the riches of his goodness and grace forever. As the episode puts it, it is one thing to have your debt paid. It is another to be given a kingdom.

Transcript

Intro: [gentle music] Welcome to the Spoken Gospel podcast. This is our attempt to speak the gospel out of every corner of scripture. We believe every part of the Bible, Old Testament and New, is about Jesus, and this podcast is our experiment to publicly test that belief. Let's jump in. [upbeat music]

David: All right. Well, welcome everyone to the Spoken Gospel podcast. We are so glad you're joining us.

Seth: Week, what, eight?

David: I have no idea.

Seth: Of the best book of the Bible, Leviticus.

David: Best book of the Bible.

Seth: One thing I keep thinking about as we've been, like, going through these, like, Leviticus is really hard to read.

David: Mm-hmm.

Seth: And like, so if you're walking through Leviticus with us and you're like, "How are they enjoying this so much?"

David: [laughs]

Seth: Like, [laughs] I want- I just wanted to encourage you. Like, Leviticus is hard to read.

David: Is hard to read.

Seth: It is a list of laws.

David: Yep.

Seth: And it's not easy to get through.

David: Right.

Seth: And so what we're doing here is kind of the, the best way to do it. This... Like, we're ma- taking the easy path out, and say, "Let's just talk about Leviticus at a broad level."

David: Right.

Seth: And then assume by talking about broad level, it makes sense when you read, read Leviticus 17 and 18.

David: It's... Exactly.

Seth: And so we recognize-

David: That's helpful

Seth: ... this might, might not be your current experience. [laughs]

David: [laughs] Yeah, I think that's really helpful. It's like, the... Leviticus brings out ideas that are beautiful, fun to talk about, find their fulfillment in Jesus, but then when you actually sit down to read it, it, it, it's like you gotta work-

Seth: To... Right

David: ... to see those little cracks.

Seth: 'Cause we suggested a couple of weeks ago, just take one verse.

David: Oh, right.

Seth: Like, and then, like-

David: Yeah, yeah

Seth: ... think about the character of God.

David: Pull out the character of God, yeah.

Seth: Fa- like, fast-forward it, rewind it-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... do all this stuff to it. And it's like, well, you could do that for eight years and get through the Book of Leviticus.

David: [laughs]

Seth: Or you could try to... Like, there's no easy way-

David: Right

Seth: ... to get through the Book of Leviticus.

David: It's true. And, uh-

Seth: So-

David: But it, but it is a narrative.

Seth: Yeah. And so I say that-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... to encourage you.

David: Yeah.

Seth: Like, keep going.

David: Keep going. It's worth it.

Seth: It's the-

David: Definitely worth it

Seth: ... it's the wisdom of the Lord.

David: It is. Yeah. We were just talking about before we came on the air that every bit of truth that we're able to see is grace from God, that if it wasn't for Go- for, for God, everything we knew about the world would be a lie.

Seth: Right.

David: And this is part of the truth that is broken through our lie, and so it's worth reading, and-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... it's gonna be good.

Seth: There's wis- the, the, the world is accorded to wisdom.

David: Yeah.

Seth: I was thinking about this. This has nothing to do with our podcast-

David: Great

Seth: ... at all, but, uh, or this particular episode, but it's like, "The, the heavens declare the glory of God."

David: Yeah.

Seth: "The skies proclaim his handiwork." And I was thi- and I was watching a TV show about regener- regenerative land management.

David: Of course you were.

Seth: Of c- of course [laughs] I was because... Anyway, they talked about, and they had this huge piece of Texas wilderness that had just been industrially farmed-

David: Mm

Seth: ... for decades.

David: Right.

Seth: And essentially, there was no nutrients left in the soil-

David: Totally

Seth: ... because it was just f- monoculturally farmed-

David: Right

Seth: ... industrially farmed for so long. And so what they did was they came out with a big portable chicken coop that would, like, sit on a space, like, 20 feet by 20 feet, in this big square, and they'd let a bunch of chickens out, and a bunch of animals roam in that section. They'd leave it there for a week, and they'd move it.

David: Uh-huh.

Seth: And you would see this huge plain of, um, just gr- dead grass, and wherever the chickens were, there would be green grass-

David: Wow

Seth: ... in a perfect square. And they talked about the reason this happens is because the land regenerates itself. When the land is allowed to be f- like, farmed by the animals-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... be grazed slowly, to be fertilized by poop and everything else, like, it actually comes back to life.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And so I just thought-

David: That has everything to do with our text

Seth: ... and I was like, "The wisdom of God-"

David: Yeah

Seth: ... "is actually in the way the ecosystem is designed." Like, the world functions best when-

David: Right

Seth: ... things just, when things work the way that God designed them.

David: Well, but that actually, our text talks about that.

Seth: Oh, it does talk about that.

David: Yeah.

Seth: I forgot. [laughs]

David: [laughs] That's, that's ex- that's, like, a perfect example-

Seth: Perfect segue

David: ... for this text.

Seth: I meant that-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... totally.

David: We'll talk about, we'll talk about these festivals that, um, Israel's supposed to have on a yearly basis, and one of them every seven years was to leave the land, like, to, to rest.

Seth: To rest.

David: And then, a- and, and, and they, v- eventually Israel won't, and they don't, and so God says i- later in chapter 26 that he's gonna kick them out of the land. And when he finally kicks them out of the land, after they have disobeyed how he told them to take care of their farms, it says in 26:43, "But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbath while it, while it lies desolate without them. And they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and they have abhorred my statutes." And so once Israel's kicked out of the land, then the farmland-

Seth: Right

David: ... actually gets to rest and gets to regrow, and the chickens get to come and do-

Seth: Right

David: ... what Israel wouldn't. [laughs]

Seth: So if you c- if you, like-

David: It's really interesting

Seth: ... if you complete the circle on, let's just, let's land on the... Let's just start out of order with the Year of Jubilee.

David: Sure.

Seth: Why not? [laughs]

David: Why not?

Seth: So, like, so the Year of Jubilee was-

David: Yep

Seth: ... supposed to be, uh, this entire year-

David: Yep

Seth: ... where you didn't actively farm the land-

David: Yep

Seth: ... but you just let it-

David: Sit

Seth: ... sit.

David: Yep.

Seth: And there would obviously be seeds in it from the year before, so it would grow grain, and fruit would still be producing, but you weren't gonna harvest it like you normally would.

David: Right.

Seth: You'd walk out of your house, like, harvest maybe... Like, you know, you'd, like, scythe off.

David: Yeah, grab something.

Seth: Grab something, pick some fruit off the trees, but that's all you did.

David: Right.

Seth: And the idea was that the land, well, one, the land needs to rest.

David: Yes.

Seth: We know that from modern science.

David: Mm-hmm.

Seth: Like, the land needs to rest, but also, it talked about this theological point that the Lord has designed the world in periods of rest.

David: Yes.

Seth: And this is a, an example of your trust in him.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And it even says, like, "Well, how will I eat if this, uh, if, if in this one year that I'm not supposed to, um, gather grapes-

David: Mm

Seth: ... or do whatever else?"

David: Mm-hmm.

Seth: And it says, "Therefore," and this is chapter 25:18, "Therefore, you shall keep my statutes and my rules and perform them, and you'll d- dwell in the land securely."Uh, and if you say, "What shall we eat in the seventh year if we may not sow or gather in our crops?" And do- and the Lord says, "I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you'll be eating some of the old crop, and you shall eat the old until the ninth year when the crop arrives."

David: Mm.

Seth: So he says, "I..." Like, the point is, trust me.

David: Right. Oh, that's interesting, too, 'cause then in the blessing section, verse 26, chapter 26, I was like, that's a weird blessing to give, but it says that you'll eat really old grain, basically.

Seth: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David: And it's like you'll eat stuff that's been stored away for a long time that should have spoiled, but it won't, and I was like, weird. Okay, cool. Like, I guess they didn't have fridges and that's what they needed. But it's like, oh, because this is part of the cycles that they're going through.

Seth: Right.

David: Is, like, part of the blessing is that God-

Seth: Oh

David: ... will keep this grain.

Seth: And I don't wanna go all Al Gore, like, on this podcast, but, like, industrial farming-

David: Right

Seth: ... breaks-

David: Oh, yes

Seth: ... some of the commands of scripture.

David: And-

Seth: Breaks the principles of scripture-

David: Yes

Seth: ... behind the Jubilee year.

David: Absolutely.

Seth: And so when you see it seeded back to the wilderness and just allow animals to graze on it, the fact that it, like, comes back to life so quickly is proof that the Lord has designed the world with wisdom.

David: Yes.

Seth: And it's intended to rest from your labor-

David: Right

Seth: ... so the Lord can provide the growth.

David: That's so good, and I think that's actually... And actually, I'm glad we s- we went forward.

Seth: Good.

David: 'Cause now I think we can go back a little more healthily and a little more helpfully and go rhythms of rest. That's what this is. That's what, that's what-

Seth: That's exactly right.

David: So what we're gonna read is this series of seven festivals that are supposed to take place every year.

Seth: Note, seven.

David: Note, note, seven.

Seth: [laughs]

David: It's all we're gonna talk about this episode is the number seven. [laughs]

Seth: The Lord-

David: 'Cause it's all Leviticus talks about from here forward.

Seth: The Lord created the world in six days and-

David: Right

Seth: ... rested on the seventh.

David: Yep.

Seth: Ordered the week, the, the world into a pattern of a seven-day week, and all throughout, the entire Israelite calendar is based around sevens.

David: Yes. And so, um, eh- eh- I don't know, we should probably talk a little bit about Sabbath, because it is the headed, the heading command here. So, uh, chapter 23, verse three, "Six days' work shall be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places."

Seth: Okay.

David: And then it unpacks what to do with all these other days of rest and weeks of rest, um, which are basically extrapolations-

Seth: What-

David: ... of this one day of the Sabbath. So, like, we should probably talk about the Sabbath.

Seth: Right. So, so what is the Sabbath for?

David: Yeah. Rest.

Seth: Rest.

David: And yeah, the, it's, and in, and in, and in trust.

Seth: Did God need to rest?

David: No.

Seth: Like, so, like, what's God's rest? What's, why is God-

David: Right

Seth: ... resting-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... then?

David: Yes.

Seth: And why does that inform our rest? Because we need to r- it's hard for us to l- separate us getting tired-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... from resting. God doesn't get tired, yet he rested.

David: Right.

Seth: So, like, why does him resting when he doesn't get tired mean we must rest when we eventually will get tired?

David: Right. Well, a- and I think, so, so one, why did God rest after creation was over? I think it was to show its finality first.

Seth: It's like it's done.

David: It's done.

Seth: It's completed.

David: Uh, but, but ultimately it was to example the paradigm that humans are supposed to live, is that the whole idea is that God created us to rest with him. But what we see, we see like, you know, days one through six of creation, and then God rests, and then chapter two of Genesis comes and we get it repeated, and we see kind of in more of a narratived form.

Seth: Yeah, yeah.

David: We see, we see the grass comes, and then the animals come, and then-

Seth: Adam's naming things

David: ... yeah, Adam's naming-

Seth: Woman, woman shows up

David: ... and then, and then woman shows up, but then the, then it's the fall. They don't enter their rest, right?

Seth: Mm. Right. R- right.

David: And so they don't finish the cycle that God created-

Seth: Right

David: ... was work and then rest, and God's was meant to be a perpetual rest forever-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... in Eden for man.

Seth: Working but also resting.

David: Yes.

Seth: Right, yeah, 'cause to your-

David: Yes, but it, but it was a, it was a tending.

Seth: Right.

David: Tend the gard- it wasn't till they were kicked out that it said, "Work the ground."

Seth: Yeah.

David: Then the, then it's work the ground.

Seth: Right.

David: Which is what Leviticus will talk about a lot is working the ground and all this stuff.

Seth: So Sabbath then-

David: Sa- yeah

Seth: ... becomes the way for Israel to complete the days of creation-

David: Yes

Seth: ... that Adam and Eve never were able to.

David: That's right, and in part.

Seth: In part.

David: In part. They could... It wasn't totally, because they still had six days of work, right? But Sabbath is what we were made for. We were made to rest with God. And so, like, when Hebrews comes and talks about that a Sabbath rest remains and God is begging us to enter our rest, he's saying, "Trust that when Jesus said, 'It is finished,' on the cross, he was finishing the sixth day of creation and putting an end to everything, and now you can enter his rest every day, and rest and, uh, know that it's done." But ultimately, Sabbath also points us forward to a, a day of perpetual rest where we will enter that seventh eternal day that will never end.

Seth: Right.

David: The sun will never set on it.

Seth: Where we're not, no longer toiling.

David: That's right. We're just tending.

Seth: But tending.

David: Yes, and it's good.

Seth: There's a difference b- 'cause I have a little garden.

David: Yep.

Seth: And it's nice.

David: Yeah. It l- it produces a lot of mint. [laughs]

Seth: A lot of mint. [laughs]

David: So much mint at your house.

Seth: So much mint. But I've got tomatoes coming, and basil-

David: Yep

Seth: ... and cucumbers are growing, which is awesome. But there's a real big difference between the, like, the first days where I have to, like, hoe the entire little patch of land.

David: Oh, sure.

Seth: And it's, it's literally backbreaking.

David: Yeah.

Seth: But there is, like... 'Cause now I've got a sprinkler system, and it's just, like, a small plot of land. Like, I don't really have to take, work it.

David: Oh, yeah.

Seth: It's like I go out there, I pick up a couple weeds, and my sprinkler system takes care of the rest.

David: Sure.

Seth: There's a side to my... I'm just tending the-

David: Tending it

Seth: ... I'm tending the garden.

David: Just doing some toiling and tending.

Seth: And, like, I really enjoy that part of it. Like-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... and then I get to eat it.

David: Right.

Seth: The fruit. It's like, this is really fun. My kids enjoy it.

David: Which almost like this year of Jubilee you talked about is almost like the tending.

Seth: Right. Yeah.

David: You're just going out in the farm, grabbing some fruit, whatever, but you're not doing the toilsome work.

Seth: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David: That's interesting.

Seth: That is interesting.

David: Okay.

Seth: Okay.

David: So all of this is meant then to point us to the rest that God wants for us, and, and that's, I think it's in-

Seth: Rest in his presence with him.

David: That, yeah, I was about to say, yeah.

Seth: Like with him, right?

David: It's twofold. It's, it's not only rest from our work, it is rest in him, that he wants us to be in his presence, which is why all of these fest- festivals, um, are centered on the tent of meeting. In fact-

Seth: Like at, at the, uh, yeah

David: ... at, at the presence of God. In fact, and, and we'll have the word sojourn here, which is kind of like the, um-Oh, what, what's it called when, when Muslims go to Mecca?

Seth: Hajj?

David: A Hajj.

Seth: The Hajj.

David: The Hajj, yeah. Um, and it, it's like s- you know, sojourn, take a trip to the tent and be with God. In fact, this word that you see over and over and over again, um, holy convocation, um... A, a probably better translation might be, like, a convention, 'cause it literally means-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... a calling. Like a-

Seth: A holy calling

David: ... a holy, like come together, a holy gathering. Like a c- you know, you, we, we go to conventions, you know.

Seth: Yeah, this day is a day of solemn rest, a holy calling.

David: Yeah.

Seth: Like a holy calling.

David: Gathering, yeah.

Seth: A holy gathering-

David: Come to my presence

Seth: ... of rest, of resting people.

David: Right. And so the, the, all of these pictures, you're not supposed to see people, like, in their houses, privately observing, you know, like, like we might on Easter.

Seth: Right.

David: You know?

Seth: I, I think about, like, just going to a resort. This is a weird-

David: Oh, [laughs] right

Seth: ... but, but, like, when you, like, it's not a holy calling.

David: [laughs]

Seth: You, you know what I mean? But, like, there's this sense, like, when y- when I go to a resort, people are friendly.

David: Yeah.

Seth: It's like there's this sense that they've come here to rest.

David: Right.

Seth: And because everyone's laid back, like, the way that I interact with them kind of fundamentally changes.

David: Yeah.

Seth: Like, and since I know that I'm about to leave, like, I'm normally not super impressed with impressing them or making sure that, like, I'm really, like, the funniest version of me that I am.

David: Right.

Seth: It's like, "They're just some friends I met on the cruise." Like, I've never been on a cruise, but still-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... like, the idea-

David: A hypothetical cruise

Seth: ... hypothetical cruise. Like, the idea is, like, when you gather together to rest, you're not j- it's like when you're around other people that are also resting, I think it actually changes the way-

David: Mm

Seth: ... that you relate to people around you, too, which I, that's gotta be part of it, right? Like, you're-

David: Oh, definitely

Seth: ... it's not just rest from your labor, but it's resting with others, and then-

David: It's a, yep, it's a social rest. Yeah, it's a social rest that, and it's also, like, social worship, that we are worshiping communally and together. And so it's like, why do we gather for worship on Sunday as Christians? It's like, because we were never, this was never meant to be a private religion.

Seth: Right.

David: This is a corporate religion, that we come together and we sing together. And, like, the New Testament-

Seth: We rest together

David: ... picks up on a lot of this stuff, that it's like we exhort one another, we encourage one another.

Seth: Do you think the average Christian experiences Sunday morning as restful?

David: Probably not. I don't know if I always do. No, uh, always, definitely not. But, like, there are those times when I come in and I just leave, like, refreshed.

Seth: Yeah.

David: And I just feel like I just took a 12-hour nap and I woke up way happier.

Seth: 'Cause I don't think I've ever walked in on a Sunday morning and said, "I have been called to this building-"

David: Right

Seth: ... "for today to rest here."

David: Right.

Seth: I'm like, I don't think of, I mean, I work at a church.

David: Yeah, it's probably-

Seth: It's just a little bit of different for me

David: ... a little different, yeah. It's your workplace.

Seth: But I don't, also don't know if, like, that's how I've ever taught about the Sunday mornings.

David: No, I don't think I've ever taught about it like that. It's like I, o- 'cause, okay, what are the metaphors people normally use for a Sunday morning? It's like I've heard it like the refueling station.

Seth: Yeah.

David: What's Sunday morning for? It's like you, you know, you, you, you-

Seth: Sp-

David: ... your gas tank gets empty throughout the week, and you get here and you fill it up. Of course, I, I have an electric car now, so that-

Seth: Ooh

David: ... it's completely-

Seth: It's a charging station. [laughs]

David: Charging station. Your EV charging station. Speaking of Al Gore. [laughs]

Seth: Speaking of, [laughs] let's see how many more Al Gore references we can get on the podcast today.

David: Well, I'll, I'll upload it on the internet that he created later.

Seth: Okay. [laughs]

David: There we go. That's three.

Seth: Three. We gotta get to seven. [laughs]

David: Seven, we have to do seven. Anyway, uh, but it's like, yeah, I don't think I've ever viewed it as or especially taught it as come and rest. Even though, like, people often, without thinking about it, equate the Christian Sunday service to-

Seth: The Sabbath day

David: ... the Sabbath day.

Seth: Right, yeah.

David: Uh, but we don't ever, but it's like w- if anything, the rest we do is when we sit on the couch and watch TV.

Seth: Yeah.

David: That's like I'm resting for my work. But it's like-

Seth: I also think it's like a young kid, and especially this young religious legalistic kid, like, Sunday was where I got to prove-

David: Mm

Seth: ... that I was, like, a good kid.

David: Oh, it's the opposite of Sabbath rest.

Seth: Right. [laughs] It's like, it's the, it's the locus of all my religious anxieties was on-

David: Mm

Seth: ... Sunday morning.

David: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Seth: And so it's like, am I raising my hands enough? Am I singing loud enough? Like-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... am I-

David: You know, my dad told me a story

Seth: ... do I know all the memory verses in front of the youth group kids?

David: My dad told me a story recently about how he would, he, he, at one point he was embarrassed, uh, from his kids, like, from us as, like, babies-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... that we would cry in church because it was like-

Seth: Right

David: ... you, you couldn't make a noise, and it's like-

Seth: S-

David: ... it, it's just, like, so heavy on that moment.

Seth: Yeah, it's, like, it's a lot of work to keep a child quiet.

David: Yeah. [laughs] That's a, that's not restful at all.

Seth: I'm not, I'm not an eight-week-old right now.

David: [laughs]

Seth: That is a lot of work to keep that baby quiet.

David: Yeah. Man, it's interesting. Okay, so-

Seth: So a holy calling to rest-

David: A holy calling to rest are these festivals-

Seth: ... with the Lord

David: ... with the Lord. And so the first one we see, other than the weekly Sabbath, is Passover. It's the one that's-

Seth: So, so, so-

David: ... mentioned first. Yeah, sure

Seth: ... so, so we have s- the first feast is the Sabbath feast.

David: Right.

Seth: There's six more feasts, totaling up to seven, and a lot of these other ones all happen in multiples of seven, too, right?

David: There are actually, even without counting the Sabbath, there are seven listed here.

Seth: Okay, okay, okay.

David: Right, yeah, uh, even without counting the Sabbath. And so, uh, I'll, I'll, I'll list them off. One, Passover. Two, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Three, the Feast of Weeks, or, like, the f- the First Fruits, like what we know as Pentecost. Four, the Day of Solemn Rest. Five, the Day of Atonement. Six, the Day of Booths. And seven, the Day of Rest after Booths. So there's-

Seth: Oh, okay

David: ... there's seven

Seth: ... if you, if you take that eighth day-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... after-

David: Because it has its own private sector off-

Seth: Right, right, right, right, right

David: ... command to rest, which none of the other ones have.

Seth: Yeah.

David: It's like this own little thing.

Seth: Okay.

David: So anyway, or, or if you don't wanna count that one and you wanna count Day of Rest or, or the Booths-

Seth: As the Sabbath

David: ... altogether-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... then you can count the Sabbath as the seventh-

Seth: Got it

David: ... which works also.

Seth: Either way, there-

David: Either way, there's seven

Seth: ... you're supposed to see seven.

David: That's very, very clear. There's supposed to be seven.

Seth: And the Passover takes place 14 days-

David: Yep

Seth: ... two sevens after the first month.

David: Yep.

Seth: The Feast of First Fruits, that one's a different one. There's no timestamp on that one bec-

David: Oh, right

Seth: ... because-

David: Because it's based on the harvest

Seth: ... when the harvest comes due. 'Cause so it could've been-

David: Uh

Seth: ... could've been colder or hotter, so, like, the harvest comes later.

David: Oh, right, right, right. Oh, 'cause the Feast of Weeks is after-

Seth: Is sev-

David: ... is different than the First Fruits.

Seth: Right.

David: I said that wrong.

Seth: Seven full weeks-

David: Right

Seth: ... from the Sabbath, uh, that you offer the First Fruits.

David: That's right.

Seth: So you're supposed to count f- 50 days, and then offer seven lambs during that time. And then the Feast of Trumpets-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... is in the seventh month. The Day of Atonement is in the seventh month.

David: Uh-huh.

Seth: The f-

David: Most of them are in the seventh month.

Seth: Yeah. [laughs] The Feast of... This is a great, it's just a day off. It's a month off.

David: It's seriously. [laughs]

Seth: We, we totaled it up. It's 18 day, vacation days. [laughs]

David: Yeah, at least.

Seth: At least. May- or 19.

David: 19.

Seth: 19 vacation days.

David: Not including your weekly Sabbaths. [laughs]

Seth: 19 day, almost a full month off. Right, it's like that's-That's, that's more generous than a lot of compensation packages-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... now, especially if you work in retail or, like, the food service industry.

David: Yeah, seriously.

Seth: You don't- there's no guaranteed days off except Memorial Day.

David: Right.

Seth: No, you don't even get those off. Like, Starbucks is open every day. The-

David: That's true

Seth: ... McDonald's.

David: Yeah.

Seth: You know, like, there's nowhere that's... Anyway.

David: Yep. God's like, "I'm gonna give you almost a month off." I mean, if you count all the Sabbaths, this, it's over a month off.

Seth: Right, right, right.

David: Anyway, that's pretty cool. Okay. Uh, and so basically we have, we have the Passover, which was a, a remembering, um-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... the Passover that happened in, in Exodus. We have a whole episode on that back in our Exodus series, so we don't need to-

Seth: It's all about how it points to Jesus, too, which is great. [laughs]

David: Yes. [laughs] Um, and then there's the, uh, inside the Passover, there's also the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is pointing to the time when they were fleeing Egypt and they didn't have time for their bread to be leavened. So here, for seven days, they're supposed to eat unleavened bread. And then you have the First Fruits, where they bring in the first fruits of their harvest. So whenever-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... the harvest comes, you gather a sheaf of grain, and you bring it to the temple, and you say, "God gets the first-"

Seth: Right

David: ... "of my harvest." And the point of that is, is twofold, at, at least.

Seth: Yeah.

David: One, to say, uh, "God, what, you gave me this, so it, it belongs to you. I gave you the very first of it. It belongs to you, 'cause you gave it to me." But then it's also an expectation offering-

Seth: Of what will come-

David: ... where you're saying-

Seth: ... in the future

David: ... "I, I can give you this first because I know you're about to bring the rest of the harvest."

Seth: The rest of the harvest, right.

David: Exactly.

Seth: And so this one's a really easy one to see Jesus in.

David: Oh, definitely.

Seth: Because the, the New Testament will frequently pick up on this theme of First Fruits-

David: That's right

Seth: ... and call Jesus the firstborn, the first fruits from the dead.

David: Right.

Seth: Which is a crazy phrasing, but what it means is that Jesus is being offered to the Lord as the first one of the dead, one, as a... What was the first thing you just said?

David: Sorry, what?

Seth: What was the first thing you just said? Like, the, the two reasons why.

David: Oh, right. Uh, the first one was that, that God gave me this.

Seth: Right. [laughs] The, it's like, right, and it's like the Lord has given us Jesus Christ, and that he is giving him new life.

David: Right.

Seth: And it's a hope that the expect, of an expectation that all of us who place our trust in him will be resurrected as well.

David: That's right. It's also really interesting that, uh, so we, we, we basically, not, I guess not we equate it, but Jesus was raised, Easter-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and during that time, uh, probably on Easter Sunday, would be the time when the very first sheaf for the, for the Feast of Unleavened Bread would've been sacrificed on the altar.

Seth: Oh.

David: And so it's, we're supposed to see, when, when he's saying that Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection, like, uh, I think Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, he talks about that, um, or 15:7-8. Um, it's just really interesting that talks about, [laughs] like, the fact that the, the, the Jewish mind would've been replaying not only the Passover that they celebrated every year to celebrate Exodus, but also this other ritual where they would take a first grain offering and put it on the, um, the, the, the altar. Like-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... they would have that in their head.

Seth: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David: And they, and so to say that Jesus was the first fruit offering-

Seth: Right

David: ... that, I mean, just the, the historical mind would just be able to populate all of these images that we have to work to conceive.

Seth: Yeah.

David: It's just cool.

Seth: Is it, is it 1 Corinthians, uh, 15, where Paul also talks about the seed dying in the ground-

David: Yes, it is

Seth: ... and coming back to life? So it's like he, his whole conceptual universe is grounded-

David: Is grain-based [laughs]

Seth: ... is in twen- [laughs] his salvific universe is agricultural. It's, it's about bread. [laughs]

David: Yeah.

Seth: Yeah.

David: It's all here in Leviticus-

Seth: Yeah, that's great

David: ... 23 to 27. Absolutely, yeah. Uh, and so after, after that, we already talked about the Feast of Weeks.

Seth: We have, well, not really.

David: Not really.

Seth: So you said it was an analog to Pentecost.

David: Right. Yep.

Seth: So t- so you count-

David: So it, it's 50 days

Seth: ... you count 50 days, and P-

David: Penta-

Seth: Which means 50

David: ... 50. Yeah, so-

Seth: So-

David: ... 50 days after the-

Seth: After the First Fruits

David: ... after, after the First Fruits, right.

Seth: And so Jesus being the first fruits of the dead-

David: Mm-hmm, we count from him

Seth: ... we count from him [laughs] being the first fruits of the dead, 50 days.

David: Yep.

Seth: And that's when the s- Holy Spirit falls on everybody in Acts 2.

David: That's right.

Seth: So do we see the Holy Spirit falling or an analog to that here? Is it-

David: Well, uh, so what, what the Feast of Weeks was supposed to do was to be thanking God for his gifts. So if you think about it, right, the first fruits of the harvest come. You give God the first. What happens the next 50 days? The rest of the crop grows.

Seth: Right, right, right, right.

David: So what do you do for the Feast of Weeks? You bring a bunch of offerings, and you sacrifice them, and you party and eat for a week.

Seth: Right, you, all, like, you have all this to-

David: All you do is eat.

Seth: Right.

David: Because why? Because God's been generous to you.

Seth: Right.

David: And he's given you animals and grain, and so you-

Seth: You've been pickling, and you've been-

David: Yeah, exactly

Seth: ... cooking, and you've been-

David: So you just eat for a week. And so what do we see at Pentecost? We see the greatest gift God has ever given us, him as very self living in us, and so we celebrate the fact that God has given us everything we need f- like, to live out the life that he's called us to live. He gives us his very presence.

Seth: Gives us spiritual gifts, like-

David: He gives us spiritual gifts.

Seth: So-

David: And so, um, and, and one, one commentator I read even said, like, Pentecost is also a great time to remember that we, we definitely wanna remember the gift of the Spirit, but, like, we can also remember that God gives us every good thing, right?

Seth: Right, yeah, yeah.

David: Like food and, yeah. And so we can remember all that. And so, yeah, I definitely think we're meant to reflect on the Feast of Weeks whenever we think about the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit came, because the greatest gift that the harvest of Jesus' resurrection has ever earned was the fact that he now dwells with us. [gentle music]

Seth: So let's pause for, for a second. Why is the time itself important?

David: Oh, sure.

Seth: So, because, like, I think we've said multiple different times, like, Sabbath is, like, kind of a posture of the heart. You're always resting.

David: Right.

Seth: But, like, the, it's going through pretty intricate detail to say, okay, ev- w- every seventh day.

David: Yep.

Seth: The 14th day of the first month.

David: Mark your calendars.

Seth: The first time you-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... get any kind of first fruits, like, the first fruit of the harvest, seven, 50, exactly 50 days later, seventh, the seventh month of the year, the 16th day of the seventh month. Why specify such rigid times? Like, why is that necessary? Why is it important? Like-

David: Yeah, I think the text, i- if we're just gonna look at Leviticus, I think the answer it gives us is that we are prone to forget, is that we, y- like, the whole reason-

Seth: Right

David: ... each of these are given at the end, almost at the end of every single festival, it's, it's to remember what God had done.Remember that he brought you out of Egypt. Remember that you fled so quickly and without any preparation that you didn't have time to leaven your bread, right? Remember in the Feast of Booths, y- what you're gonna do in the Feast of Booths is you're gonna set up little palm branch tents and dwell around the tabernacle to remember the time that you were around Mount Sinai, and you were getting the law.

Seth: Right.

David: Like, you're supposed to remember all of these things, and even some of the laws that we find in this section, um, about, like, when it talks about harvesting, it's like, "Don't harvest up to the edge of your field. Leave some for the poor." Why? Well, 'cause you were poor and a slave in Egypt.

Seth: Right.

David: And so everything this section is doing is hearkening us back to what God had done. And so what we need to remember is, why would God give us these things, is to make it, make us not forget.

Seth: Right.

David: We are prone to forget, and, like, and especially if you're gonna read the Torah as a whole, what does Deuteronomy lean, double down on? It, that-

Seth: Right

David: ... you will forget. Or, "If you remember me, you'll obey."

Seth: It's-

David: Forget, disobey, remember, obey. Those things get linked.

Seth: Yeah, it's funny, like, the, the, it's like we are supposed to remember what God has done for us.

David: Right.

Seth: That's what these, these holidays are for-

David: Yes

Seth: ... these feasts are for. So we have some holidays in our calendar-

David: Uh-huh

Seth: ... that do that. So we have basically-

David: Christmas and Easter

Seth: ... Christmas and Easter. [laughs]

David: Yep.

Seth: And that's kinda, I mean, well, there's a liturgical calendar.

David: There is-

Seth: W-

David: ... that some of our listeners might be very familiar with.

Seth: So-

David: Others, if you're in more, you know-

Seth: No-

David: ... mainline Protestant denominations

Seth: ... non-nominationals. And essentially, the liturgical calendar kinda follows a version of this, right?

David: Yes.

Seth: Where it's like, Jesus died on this day, rose on this day, awaited this, like, we waited for this long.

David: Yep.

Seth: It, I don't know the liturgical calendar super well.

David: Right.

Seth: But, like, there's Ash Wednesday, Lenten, like, I know-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... some of these things.

David: Yeah, it's, it's, it's trying to do the same thing.

Seth: Right.

David: Is to hook us into the controlling narrative of the universe, which is the gospel of Jesus-

Seth: Right

David: ... and the works of God throughout all time.

Seth: Right.

David: Yeah. And so, like, yeah, I think-

Seth: It kind of redeems for me a little bit, too, I kn- I know I have a lot of friends who practice the, the-

David: The calendar

Seth: ... the, not the calen-

David: Oh

Seth: ... well, yes, the liturgical calendar, but also, um, Passover and Booths and Tabernacles.

David: Oh, right, yep.

Seth: I think, and I've always like, "Well, you're not obligated to do that," and there always seems to be this energy, like, you should be doing this if you wanna be truly Christian. But I think the way that we're talking about it now, it makes me feel a lot more open-handed about it. It's like, well, it's actually a way to remember what the Lord-

David: Right

Seth: ... has done.

David: Yep.

Seth: And it's a l-

David: Yep, it's a personal conscious decision. Paul talks about this.

Seth: Right.

David: So it, it, which is funny. If w- remember we talked about the should we obey Old Testament law?

Seth: Right.

David: Here's a great example. Um, a few episodes, we talked about should we or should we not obey Old Testament laws and why, and here we see more than anywhere else in the law, we see the phrase, "This is a perpetual statute. This, you have to observe this feast forever." And so it's like, oh, well, are they right then?

Seth: Right. Or, or, or-

David: To say, like-

Seth: ... right

David: ... you, you must do, but then we see in, in, like, Colossians, uh, and even in Acts, we see the New Testament believers saying, "Don't let anybody judge you for not keeping one of these festivals."

Seth: Right.

David: It's like, oh, wait, what? Why, why don't we, why don't we celebrate these anymore? And, uh, and the, the answer is probably because you are now in a perpetual rest. He's ratcheted up-

Seth: Right

David: ... the command, and now the command is every single day, find your rest in Jesus.

Seth: And I would say that now that we live in a season of perpetual rest, I would say that the American calendar-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... has actually tapped into that.

David: Hmm.

Seth: But it's bastardized it.

David: Why?

Seth: So, because what's your ra-rest based on? The fact that it's summer, the fact that it's our Independence Day.

David: Oh, right.

Seth: Like, I feel like we are given days to mem-

David: Oh, I see what you mean

Seth: ... to memorialize things.

David: But it's all-

Seth: It's-

David: ... ethnocentric.

Seth: Well, it's all ethnocentric, or it's the, the purpose is rest.

David: Oh, it's-

Seth: It-

David: ... actually just-

Seth: It is-

David: ... don't do anything and-

Seth: Just don't do anything, and, like, the idea is, like, we're, we're not resting the rest of the time, so here's some extra days to rest.

David: Oh, I understand. We, we're-

Seth: It's-

David: ... overworked.

Seth: We're overworked.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And so, or, so I think, so either we're overworked, and we need these ways to rest, and the idea is to remember that it's good to rest.

David: Right.

Seth: Not remember what God has done, or we idolize rest in such a way that we put it in our calendar to say, "Celebrate rest-

David: Right

Seth: ... on all these days because you'll forget, if you're not careful-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... that rest is the best thing that you can do, and being on holiday is the ultimate good for life."

David: Right.

Seth: Does that make sense?

David: Oh, definitely.

Seth: 'Cause I feel like our weekend, we live for the weekend, TGI Friday.

David: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Seth: Because rest in and of itself is-

David: Is the good

Seth: ... is the good.

David: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Seth: And I think what this is saying is, like, rest isn't the good.

David: Mm, no.

Seth: The Lord is the good.

David: Right.

Seth: And the way that he wishes to be celebrated is through your rest.

David: Right.

Seth: So there's a way to rest and take summer vacations and to retire-

David: Yep

Seth: ... in a way that forgets the rest that's already been provided-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... and the work that's yet to be done.

David: Right.

Seth: So anyway, I was just, like-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... processing through, like, the way that we, like, misuse rest-

David: Totally

Seth: ... in our calendar as well.

David: Yeah, it's really interesting. Yeah, and God wants to redeem that rest for us in Jesus, that w- we, like, w- we, I mean, think about it when it comes to our own salvation, right?

Seth: Right.

David: We love to work for our own salvation. I mean, we even talked about with Sunday service.

Seth: Right, yeah.

David: It's-

Seth: That's where I get to prove all my religious cards.

David: Exactly.

Seth: Right, yeah.

David: Exactly. And it's like-

Seth: Prove my religious cards. [laughs]

David: Prove my religious cards.

Seth: Show my religious cards.

David: Yes.

Seth: Pr- yeah.

David: Uh, and, uh, and what Jesus is saying is, "It's finished." Like, the work is done. You know? Like, uh, I've gotta find that verse in, in Hebrew. If you have observations, go ahead while I look this up.

Seth: I was, no, I think I was just trying to process, like, how do I repent of uncritically resting? Like-

David: Mm

Seth: ... and to what extent should I? And then to what extent do I need to also be actively engaging in more memorials of what the Lord has done? I mean-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... Sunday morning-

David: Right

Seth: ... great. The Hebrews did every Saturday. But Christmas and Easter are great, resurrection and death, or birth and resurrection of Jesus. But how else can I be involving myself in what the Lord has done? How can I reminding my family, celebrating what God has done?

David: Yeah, I mean, does it come down to, like, is it, is it as simple as, like, maybe we should adopt the liturgical calendar? [laughs]

Seth: Right. [laughs] It's like a part of me feels like that, like, it's not a, I think there's been a resurgence within Protestantism-... of the liturgical calendar, which is originally Catholic, I'm pretty sure, right? Like, that was, like, a Catholic-

David: Yeah, I think so. And then, I mean, Anglicans kept it.

Seth: Right.

David: Um, yep.

Seth: So-

David: And, uh, and there's other denominations that, that hold it. And then I even know some Baptist churches and n- non-denominational churches observe it just because they see value in it.

Seth: Right.

David: Yeah.

Seth: So there's, there's this whole resurgence of, like, liturgy and order, and even, like, the people who celebrate the Passover and the Feast of Booth, they're doing the same thing-

David: Right

Seth: ... just using, uh, the Old Testament-

David: Like, like, yeah

Seth: ... feasts to do so.

David: Right, right. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Seth: Which is what Paul says.

David: Right.

Seth: There's nothing wrong with that.

David: There's nothing... It's a matter of conscience. And it's like, but it's like you don't... Your conscience is not cleared from not remembering. Like, you can't-

Seth: Right

David: ... you can't not recall.

Seth: So the question for us as modern believers who are prone to idolize rest and not see rest as a way to point us to, to the Lord is to say, is, is what?

David: I think it's to redefine what we mean by rest, that rest is not inactivity, right? That rest is not doing nothing. I think that's what we understand. When we, when we say-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... rest, it means doing nothing.

Seth: Right.

David: But, like-

Seth: Rest is remembering.

David: Right. Rest is remembering. Yeah, absolutely. And I love... I, I found that verse in Hebrews I was looking for. Uh, for, this is Hebrews 4:10, "For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his." So I was making that point earlier about-

Seth: Right

David: ... like, how we wanna earn our salvation through our works, and Go- and Jesus is like, "Jesus earned it for you. Enter God's rest."

Seth: Remem- remember that. [laughs]

David: Remember that rest, and rest from your meritorious works-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... not from doing anything.

Seth: Right.

David: That's not... We don't see Pau... If that was true, [laughs] like, if it, if, if, if Christian rest, daily Christian s- sabbatical rest meant doing nothing, we would not have the missionary journeys of Paul. [laughs] Like-

Seth: Right

David: ... he broke every Sabbath law. [laughs]

Seth: Right.

David: Like, and so-

Seth: And-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... we'll have a anemic view of heaven-

David: Oh, my goodness, yes

Seth: ... or the new he- the new heavens and the new earth.

David: Yes.

Seth: When the Lord comes back and remakes the world, we will work-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... for eternity, but it won't be-

David: Toilsome

Seth: ... toilsome.

David: Yes, it'll be tending.

Seth: It'll be, it'll be tending.

David: Yeah.

Seth: It'll be enjoyable.

David: Yes.

Seth: 'Cause like, I, the longer I've worked, like, n- not, like, you know, at Marble Slab-

David: Yeah. [laughs]

Seth: ... I was like, the more I-

David: Dippin' Dots for me.

Seth: Re- Dippin' Dots.

David: Yep.

Seth: Did you really work at Dippin' Dots?

David: I did. Yeah, I did. [laughs]

Seth: Oh my gosh. [laughs] It wa- like, the more I actually enjoy it. Like, I enjoy-

David: Oh, yeah

Seth: ... the rigor-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... the thinking, the processing. Not all, not all parts of it I enjoy, but there are aspects I love doing. Sometimes, like, I wanna work more than I wanna go home some days. You know what I mean? Like, and I have to, like... I have obviously-

David: Check your heart, yeah

Seth: ... check my heart.

David: Yeah.

Seth: But, like, one day, we will work again, and it'll be lovely.

David: It'll be perfect, yeah.

Seth: Right.

David: And, like, people talk about that all the time, where it's just like, um, I don't wanna retire. I never wanna stop working.

Seth: Right. Yeah.

David: You know? And, uh, and that's a good thing, like, to want to... I mean, it could be a bad thing.

Seth: Right, right, right.

David: You know? But there's a perfect-

Seth: In the same way that wanting to retire and sit on a beach can be a bad thing.

David: Can also be a bad thing.

Seth: Right.

David: But there is a perfect, unsinful, unburdensome kind of work that we'll engage in forever, and it will be suited to who we are, who God has made us to be in the economy of heaven.

Seth: Right.

David: Uh, we'll live in the new w- uh, like, we're not all gonna be farmers.

Seth: We- people get onto millennials all the time for like, "I just wanna follow my passions and do what I really love."

David: [laughs] Right, right, right.

Seth: And everyone's res- response is normally like, "Well, you don't get to do what you want, kid."

David: Yeah, just get, just get the job in the steel mill-

Seth: But look-

David: ... and get over it.

Seth: Like, there, but there is, like, that's a real legitimate spiritual hunger-

David: Right

Seth: ... to find satisfaction in your work.

David: In your work.

Seth: And the fact that you're not experiencing it right now is part of the fall.

David: Right.

Seth: And there is coming a day when your work will be satisfying, and you will have the job that you love forever.

David: Right.

Seth: But it's only found by placing your trust in Jesus-

David: Right

Seth: ... the one who worked for us and is-

David: Yep

Seth: ... providing for us, like, the world in which to work in.

David: Yeah. And so how do you, how do you keep resting and find peace when you're at a job that you hate, when you're at work that's unfulfilling, right? As, like-

Seth: Right, that's-

David: I think one of the ways is understanding that there is a supernatural rest for you-

Seth: Right

David: ... that you can remember what Jesus has done for you on the cross, remember what he's done in the Exodus.

Seth: Yes.

David: Remember what he provided here in Leviticus. Like, reflect on his law, and the Psalmist says, "It's better than honey. It's better than wine."

Seth: Right.

David: "It's better than money. It's better than everything." And-

Seth: And then you can begin to create Eden-

David: Yes

Seth: ... where you are.

David: Where you are, even if it's in the steel mill.

Seth: Right.

David: Yeah.

Seth: In the, like, at, as the shift supervisor at wherever you are at-

David: Dippin' Dots

Seth: ... like [laughs] at Dippin' Dots. The shift supervisor at Dippin' Dots can create Eden-

David: Yes

Seth: ... around him. One, it's easy for the ice cream. Everyone's so happy.

David: That's right. My shift supervisor, she said that it was illegal to fill, to, like, for a, a, an employee to eat out of the Dippin' Dots containers, the branded ones.

Seth: Oh, really?

David: Uh, and that was the rule, and that was supposed to keep employees from eating the Dippin' Dots, right?

Seth: Right, right, right.

David: But she said the, the r- the, the rule book says nothing about bringing a Route 44 or, like-

Seth: [laughs]

David: ... a Big Gulp from 7-Eleven. So she would bring a Big Gulp from 7-Eleven and-

Seth: Oh my gosh

David: ... fill it with Dippin' Dots and eat the whole time. Anyway, that was my shift sup- she was not creating Eden. [laughs]

Seth: She was not creating Eden.

David: But it should-

Seth: It's the opposite

David: ... it should redeem for you what work looks like.

Seth: Yes. You can change corporate cultures-

David: Yep

Seth: ... to look more like-

David: The Kingdom of God

Seth: ... the Kingdom of God.

David: What heaven will look like.

Seth: Right.

David: Yeah. My, me, me, me and my friends, we used to have this saying, like, back in college when we were all utopian idealists, and now I'm the only one left.

Seth: Right. [laughs]

David: And, uh, uh, we would look at, like, big bank buildings, you know, or-

Seth: Yeah, yeah, yeah

David: ... or, like, a, or, like, a huge empty lot that a government project started and abandoned or something like that-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... like the pit, Lot 48 in Parks and Rec.

Seth: Mm, mm, mm.

David: Um, but we would look at these places, and we're like, "What is that gonna be in the Kingdom of Heaven? When the new heavens come, will the, what, what will this building be used for?"

Seth: Right.

David: It won't be used for, like, putting 12% a year debt on people for loans that they give.

Seth: Right.

David: Instead, what is it gonna be used for? I don't know, but, like, let's dream.

Seth: Right.

David: And, like, that, like, what would the, the Kingdom of Heaven look like if it came to this bank building? And, like, that's a fun question to ask.

Seth: Yeah. And if you're an employer right now-

David: Yep

Seth: ... uh, you can look at the vacation schedule of-

David: Yes

Seth: ... the Old Testament and see, how can I do... justice-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... for my employees and give them peace and rest. Like, that's a legitimate way to build a business-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... based on the principles of scripture. Like, these texts change the way that we work, not just the way that we rest. [gentle music]

David: Okay, so we took a little break to talk about what is rest and everything like that. Now we need to jump back in the text, and we, we, I think we got through the Feast of Weeks.

Seth: Right, so next is-

David: And looking at Pentecost, and then there was the Feast of the Trumpets.

Seth: Yeah, which I, has no context. [laughs]

David: I know. It's, "Speak to the people of Israel saying in the seventh month on the first day of the month." So I think we need to see here-

Seth: Oh

David: ... that this is the opening of the most holy month.

Seth: Right.

David: This is the opening of the seventh month. Blow a trumpet, and, uh, in Numbers we're gonna see that when those trumpets are blown-

Seth: Shofars

David: ... they, the shofars. When the tru-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... for the, for all our Pentecostal friends out there.

Seth: [laughs]

David: Um, who kn- [laughs] they're the only people who know that word.

Seth: [laughs]

David: Um, they, uh, the, the, they, they are supposed to be giving, like, signs to the people to move to different places, and one of the places that the people are supposed to move that we're supposed to see here is that this is a calling of the people to the tabernacle.

Seth: A holy calling.

David: A holy calling.

Seth: A holy calling.

David: This is a holy convocation.

Seth: A holy convocation.

David: Exactly. And so, uh, when that tru- uh, on the, on the first day-

Seth: I'm also thinking-

David: Oh, trumpet. Yeah

Seth: ... of the trumpet blast in Revelation.

David: You're supposed to.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Yes.

Seth: When y- when you hear the, when the Lord comes-

David: Yes

Seth: ... it's the beginning of the Sabbath-

David: That's right

Seth: ... month.

David: Yes.

Seth: The Sabbath lifetime. The Sabbath eternity.

David: The, oh, yeah, the Sabbath eternity. Yeah. And it's like, and, and you can even think, you can go back a little bit, too. When God came on Mount Sinai, what is the sound that was heard oth- other than thunder?

Seth: Trumpets.

David: Trumpets. The voice of the Lord was like a trumpet. And so it's like this is what happens. When God shows up, trumpets are sounded.

Seth: Mm-hmm.

David: And, like, they might not be actually made of brass trumpets.

Seth: Or ram's horns-

David: You know, or ram's horns

Seth: ... in case of the shof- shofar. [laughs]

David: Or the shofar, but they are, it's like the sound is that of a trumpet or a ram's horn.

Seth: Right, right, right.

David: It's like this loud clarion call that, and it just-

Seth: Oh, I was gonna make the noise for a second, but-

David: Don't do it

Seth: ... I'm not going to. [laughs]

David: [laughs] And so yeah, what you're supposed to see here in this feast as a Christian is the fact that one day will come, and the trumpet will sound. As 1 Corinthians 15, which we've already talked about-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... will, like, says, "The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised."

Seth: The Lord shall descend. It is well with my soul.

David: Yeah. And it's like this is the day we look for. We look forward to this, this final trumpet being blown and God coming to be with us. So that's the Feast of Trumpets. It was a calling to the people to begin the most holy month.

Seth: Right. And think, too, like, when the trumpets are blown, when Jesus returns for the final time, we join him in the air.

David: Yep.

Seth: We, we come to him in-

David: We come to him. He calls us to himself

Seth: ... in the air, yeah.

David: We have a holy convocation in the air.

Seth: That's cool.

David: And then we come back down to Earth.

Seth: Yeah.

David: N- a new created Earth.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Yeah. Okay, so then-

Seth: Wait 'til Revelation, guys. [laughs]

David: Right. Yeah. Oh, boy. Uh, yeah, it'll be a while.

Seth: It'll be a while. [laughs]

David: You hardcore fans, you'll be with us three, four years from now when we're in Revelation. [laughs] Um, okay, so the Day of Atonement is then after this.

Seth: How much better is Revelation gonna be than Leviticus?

David: Oh my gosh.

Seth: We're gonna be so much better.

David: We're gonna be so much better at this.

Seth: Yeah.

David: I hope.

Seth: I hope so. [laughs]

David: Either that or we'll just get sillier as we g- as we go on.

Seth: Uh, the Day of Atonement.

David: I, I would never have put a Dippin' Dots story in the middle of a exegesis, uh, in our first episode.

Seth: No. But now-

David: But now I'm comfortable with it. [laughs]

Seth: Just wait. We're gonna be talking about weird stuff. [laughs]

David: [laughs] Okay, Day of Atonement. We've, we've talked at length about Day of Atonement, so we're gonna unpack it.

Seth: Rewind. Go back to the other episode.

David: So if you don't, if you weren't, if you didn't listen to that, go back, listen to it. Um, but here it is being celebrated.

Seth: Right.

David: And-

Seth: On the s- in the seventh month-

David: Yep

Seth: ... as well.

David: And, you know, and again, this Day of Atonement, um, you know, Jesus ultimately brought. It, you know, like, you kind of have parallels to everything in these feasts with, with Jesus. You know, so, like, the, um, let me find it here. I have it written down so I didn't forget. So, like, the, uh, Passover is like Good Friday.

Seth: Okay.

David: Like communion.

Seth: Liturgical calendar.

David: Right.

Seth: Good Friday.

David: Unleavened bread is Easter. Weeks is Pentecost. And then the Day of Atonement is like the gospel when he actually makes-

Seth: Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah

David: ... the high priest makes the final atonement for all people. And so anyway, um, we have that happening here. This is the center of the liturgical year.

Seth: Yep.

David: Um, it's the high point, Yom C- Yom Kippur.

Seth: Yep.

David: Um, and it-

Seth: Yom Kipper.

David: It's, it's, it's-

Seth: Yom Kippers

David: ... it's the new year, too. That's New Year's day for them.

Seth: Right, right, right, right, right.

David: Right? This is-

Seth: That's the beginning of the new year.

David: Yeah, Happy New Year. I was just watching, uh, Modern Mizmael, and-

Seth: Oh, really?

David: Yeah, and they s- they're, it's a whole Jewish community kinda thing.

Seth: Oh, I haven't seen-

David: And they, uh, they-

Seth: ... the show

David: ... celebrate Yom Kippur, and they-

Seth: Oh

David: ... walked around going, "Happy New Year, Happy New Year," and I was like, "What? Oh yeah, the beginning of the calendar."

Seth: Oh, that's funny.

David: I had a moment, like, uh... Anyway, so then there's the Feast of Booths after that, since we haven't... We talked about-

Seth: Right

David: ... atonement a lot on, on our other episode.

Seth: I'm excited about this one because this is, this one gets a whole chapter in the Book of John.

David: Ooh, does it?

Seth: It does.

David: Okay, talk, talk me through it.

Seth: So, well, let's talk about the Feast of Booths first and what it does.

David: Okay.

Seth: So Feast of Booths, it was a time to remember the provision the Lord gave Israel in their wilderness wanderings.

David: Right.

Seth: So they're in the desert at the foot of Mount Sinai receiving the law, and they had constructed these kind of, like, little tents.

David: Temporary structures.

Seth: Just, uh, as, before they went on. And, uh, presumably they were in tents the entire time until they got to the Promised Land-

David: Right

Seth: ... and built cities there.

David: Yep.

Seth: So it's-

David: Which was, like, over a year.

Seth: Yeah.

David: It's a long time.

Seth: So it was a long time. So it's remembering that time in the desert where they were sojourners-

David: Yep

Seth: ... wanderers.

David: At the foot of the tab- at the foot of, um, the mountain-

Seth: Yep

David: ... which is now being replaced with being at the foot of the tabernacle.

Seth: Yep.

David: God's dwelt, God dwelt on the mountain, now he's dwelling here in the tabernacle.

Seth: And you were supposed to celebrate for seven days, essentially, the Lord's provision.

David: Right.

Seth: And so you're just supposed to eat food in tents. And so the way that it was celebrated by the time you get to Jesus is people would build tents in the city and, like, sit on your rooftop, like, with your family in a bunch of different tents and just feasting and eating together-

David: Right

Seth: ... and enjoying the festivities.

David: That's intense.

Seth: Yeah. [laughs]

David: Uh, I had to.

Seth: You had to. [laughs]

David: I had to. I had to. Yeah, right, exactly.

Seth: And it would last seven days.

David: Yep.

Seth: And-

David: Yeah, in fact, look at, you guys can't see this. I'll show Seth. I underlined it every time it said the word seven in this passage.

Seth: I did see you do that. [laughs]

David: Did you?

Seth: I did see.

David: There's so many sevens in this passage about Feast of Booths. Anyway, that's really interesting.

Seth: Uh, and so they're all around the tabernacle. They're enjoying food with their family for a week. It's a party for a week.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And then, so Jesus, in John chapter 17, goes to Jerusalem for the same feast. Were you gonna say something else?

David: I was just trying to remember if this one was more solemn than the other one.

Seth: It's like, oh, oh-

David: 'Cause I remember reading that the spring festivals, the first ones we've talked about, before the seventh month, were more joyful, and the other ones were more solemn because you're in the fallow months, waiting-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... hoping that God would come, and-

Seth: In verse 39, it says, "In the first day shall be a day of solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a day of solemn rest. And you shall take on the first day the fruits of the splendid trees-"

David: Palm branches

Seth: ... palm trees, all that kind of stuff, "And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God-"

David: Yeah, yeah

Seth: ... "for seven days."

David: Okay, and celebrate. I see celebrate in there several times.

Seth: So it's, it's pro-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... I don't know what solemn means.

David: Yeah.

Seth: I don't know if it means somber.

David: Right.

Seth: It just means s- particularly set apart.

David: Sure.

Seth: So anyway.

David: Okay.

Seth: That's what this, remember what the Lord provided in the desert.

David: Right. Now-

Seth: Particularly food-

David: Oh, right. Yep

Seth: ... water, wine, quail, like-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... food. And you're eating.

David: Right.

Seth: Well, God provided. So fast-forward to Jesus.

David: Okay. John-

Seth: 17.

David: 17?

Seth: 17. Right?

David: I thought it was sev- seven.

Seth: Oh, it's seven. It's seven.

David: Yeah. [laughs]

Seth: [laughs] It's, uh, it's John 7.

David: The high priestly prayer. [laughs]

Seth: Yeah, sorry, I did the same thing earlier today as I was studying for this.

David: Oh, that's funny.

Seth: So I jumped to John 17.

David: John 7.

Seth: John 7.

David: Okay.

Seth: Jesus ends up going to the p- Feast of Booths-

David: Oh, right

Seth: ... in the Jer- in Jerusalem-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... on the last day. So on the seventh or eighth day.

David: Okay.

Seth: It is the climax of the ceremony.

David: Oh, right.

Seth: And he gets up, and what, what would happen, so s- by the time we get to Jesus, there's been all this historical additions to this feast-

David: Right. Yep

Seth: ... that have happened. And so what would happen is that there would be this golden vessel-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... and the high priest would walk down to the Pool of Siloam, and he would take up some water, and he would walk it through the streets of Jerusalem, carrying it above his head, and the people would be rejoicing and chanting.

David: And they'd be, like, singing, like, psalms, like 1-

Seth: 113 to 1-

David: 13 to 118

Seth: ... to 118.

David: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Seth: And so when he gets to the top of the hill by the temple, he pour, he pours water and wine into two separate bowls-

David: Mm

Seth: ... representing the water and the wine that j- was provided in the wilderness, like sustenance.

David: Sustenance.

Seth: S- sustenance.

David: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Seth: And they pour it out as an offering.

David: Okay.

Seth: And then it's at that moment, as the high priest is pouring out the water, that Jesus gets up and says, "I am the living water." So here at the climax of the feast, the high point on the highest day, the priest is pouring out the water. Jesus gets up and cries out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."

David: Mm.

Seth: "Whoever believes in me, as the scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

David: Mm.

Seth: So think about that. So Jesus, God had provided water in the wilderness for decade, or for years, uh, for a year-

David: Yeah, a year. Yeah, yeah, yeah

Seth: ... as they were wandering. Water is gushing out of rocks.

David: Yeah. [laughs]

Seth: All this crazy stuff's happening. They've come together for a full week to celebrate the provision of water, and as the priest pours the water out, he comes up and says, "I am the water that you're celebrating right now."

David: That's crazy.

Seth: Crazy. [laughs]

David: It's also really, it's just a really high view of Christ here in verse 38. "As the script- uh, whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said." It's like-

Seth: Yes

David: ... he's referencing the Old Testament, which only ever tells you to believe in Yahweh.

Seth: Right. But think about this.

David: Wait, wait, but it's just-

Seth: You know what scripture he's referencing?

David: Oh, no. What's it?

Seth: Psalm 118, which they would-

David: Oh, which they've been singing at the high point

Seth: ... lis- listen to what they would've just said.

David: No. [laughs]

Seth: They would've said, "This is the gate of the Lord," which is what he's called in John, uh-

David: 10

Seth: ... 10. "This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. Uh, I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders have rejected have become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in their eyes. This is the day that the Lord has m- made. Rejoice and be glad in it. Hosanna, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord forever. This, the Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the sacrifice with cords on the thor- the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you. You are my God. I will ex- extol you. O God, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever. I am the living water."

David: Goodness gracious.

Seth: Isn't that crazy?

David: That's insane.

Seth: So they would've been singing that, and Jesus says, "According to those scriptures-"

David: Yep

Seth: ... "I am-"

David: Believe in me.

Seth: Yes.

David: I am your salvation. I am the water. I am the light, right? I- is it the light and the salvation?

Seth: Yeah, yeah. I'm the light.

David: Which is like-

Seth: I'm the gate. [laughs]

David: Right. It's like in the next ch- in the next chapter, in John 8 is where he says, "I am the light of the world."

Seth: Yes.

David: And then two, three chapters later in John 10, he says, "I am the gate." Man, I didn't know he was pulling on John 1:18 so much.

Seth: Uh, Psalm 118.

David: Oh, Psalm 118.

Seth: Yeah. [laughs]

David: John 1:18. I mean, that's how long he wanted his, his book to be. You know, he says so at the end, but.

Seth: Isn't that crazy?

David: That's beautiful.

Seth: So-

David: That's amazing

Seth: ... Jesus is the point of the Feast of Booths. [laughs]

David: Definitely the point of the Feast of Booths. Man, could you imagine that scene, though? Like, you're like, "All right, this is my 20th Feast of Booths. I know how this, you know, I know how this goes." Uh, and like, and like, look, you're not, and I'm not saying that to be like, like-

Seth: Right

David: ... like, uh, you're in it. You love it.

Seth: Right.

David: But you're used to it.

Seth: Right, right.

David: And like, you know what comes next. And you're, you're singing your heart out, Psalm 118.

Seth: Right, right, right.

David: And you finish the song, yeah, and it's over, and then this-

Seth: I'll praise the Lord forever.

David: I'll praise the Lord forever, and then this dude gets up and says, "I am that water. Believe in me." And you're like, [laughs] "What?"

Seth: [laughs]

David: I mean, that's pretty bold move that Jesus- [laughs]

Seth: Super bold move.

David: Can you imagine, like, uh, like, as the fireworks are crescendoing on f- Fourth of July-

Seth: Fourth of July

David: ... you say, "I am America." [laughs]

Seth: [laughs]

David: You get up on, like, Washington Monument.

Seth: Yes.

David: Fireworks behind you.

Seth: Yes. [laughs] I am America.

David: The high priest is there. Donald Trump's behind you.

Seth: Yeah. [laughs]

David: He's like... [laughs]

Seth: It's funny. [laughs] Oh, my goodness. Okay. Anyway, that's amazing. Uh, and those are, those are-

David: "Whoever believes in me," as the scriptures have said.

Seth: Oh, it's so good.

David: So good

Seth: Anyway, just-

David: It's so good. Um, okay, so... Oh, we need to jump. We're gonna skip real quick. We're gonna skip chapter 24, which is this-

Seth: Come back to it next week.

David: We're gonna come back to it next week. It's a, it's a strange little excursus, like, and we'll talk about why it's there and everything like that, but we wanna finish the festivals.

Seth: Yeah.

David: And so the big mamma jamma is the Sabbath year, which every seventh year was a Sabbath year.

Seth: Yes.

David: Right?

Seth: So that's when you leave the, the ground.

David: Yep, we talked about this earlier. But what we didn't get to, uh-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... was how Jesus fulfills this.

Seth: Yeah.

David: So every seven seventh year, seven by, seven times seven year, you know-

Seth: You get the year of Jubilee.

David: You get the year of Jubilee, which we have no record of knowing that this was ever actually practiced. Um-

Seth: And so the year of Jubilee was...

David: It was, I mean, it was [laughs] it was, uh, the reset button for Israel.

Seth: Yeah.

David: And so, um, any land that was sold-

Seth: Because the Lord owned the land.

David: Right, yeah, yeah. He says-

Seth: So the idea is that the L- everything that you have is from the Lord's.

David: Yeah, yeah, it's 25:23, "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity. You should not sell the land forever, for the land is mine."

Seth: So that goes not just to property rights, but also the fact that it produced crops at all.

David: Yeah.

Seth: Like, everything the Lord has given you is from him, and so the year of Jubilee kinda takes it one step further and says, "Okay, that extends to what you, not just what you gain from the land-"

David: Right

Seth: ... but what, the land itself.

David: Right. That's right.

Seth: Right.

David: And so if you have, so, like, in this society, it would not be odd or rare for someone who goes in debt to have to sell their land, right?

Seth: Right.

David: To, in order to get out of debt or pay a debt. Uh, nor would it be rare to have to sell yourself or your family into slavery, but there are rules here about how that should take place.

Seth: Right.

David: You're not supposed to be treated like a slave-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... but as a hired hand.

Seth: Yes, yes, yes.

David: And you, you would be given shelter, and you'd be cared for. You wouldn't be whipped or anything like that, you know.

Seth: Right.

David: Uh, you'd be treated almost like family. Uh, in fact, other parts of Leviticus talk about how to treat your hired workers.

Seth: Right.

David: And it's like family. Um, but in the year of Jubilee, um, if you are enslaved at all, if you have a debt to pay off that you're trying to pay off by being a hired hand, it is canceled, 100% done away with.

Seth: Right.

David: No payment to be made, and you get to go back to your original land.

Seth: It's given back to you.

David: It's given back to you, a- and you're free. Your family's free. I mean, imagine that. Imagine if you were born into a family that w- you know, had sold themselves into slavery.

Seth: You've got 20 years left on.

David: 20 years left, and you, you grow up working as a hired, a hired hand. You have no land. You have no home. You, you, you own nothing.

Seth: Right.

David: And then the year of Jubilee would come, and you all of a sudden have this huge farm. You have your own home. You're not beholden to anyone anymore.

Seth: Mm-hmm.

David: You're not enslaved. You're free, and it's like, imagine what that year would feel like.

Seth: It would, and then imagine if somebody came to you and said, "I need help. I'll sell you my land, or I'll sell myself to you."

David: Right.

Seth: "Can I come work for you?" It would totally change your relationship to them because you had been them.

David: Yes.

Seth: Like, you were once slave to the land of Egypt.

David: Right. Mm-hmm.

Seth: It's like I was once a slave to my-

David: Right

Seth: ... to my, uh, friend over here.

David: Yes.

Seth: You know?

David: And so when Jesus gets on the scene, he ends up saying that he is the one bringing this year of Jubilee. Uh, he quotes Isaiah 61:1. Uh, he does so, you might remember the scene in Luke 4, where he comes into the synagogue, and he gets the scroll of Isaiah out, and he starts reading it. And he's like, "I'm here. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And that was shorthand for the year of Jubilee. It was the year of the Lord's favor is this year, this year of Jubilee, and he's like, "To proclaim, uh, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty the captives." Like, he's gonna do all this stuff-

Seth: Right

David: ... and more, that the y- J- Jubilee could never do. The year of Jubilee couldn't bring back a blind man's sight, and Jesus is like, "I'm gonna even give-"

Seth: Mm

David: ... a one-up on the year of Jubilee."

Seth: Right.

David: And think about that. That was our situation. Like, we were slaves.

Seth: Right.

David: And, like, we didn't, like, sell, we didn't sell ourselves into slavery because we needed something. We did it out of joy. We're like, "Man, yeah."

Seth: We were slaves to sin, following the course of this world, following-

David: That's right

Seth: ... the prince of the power of the air, and, like, our willingness to sin-

David: Yep

Seth: ... our willingness to define, like, to-

David: Good and evil for ourselves

Seth: ... for ourselves-

David: Yep

Seth: ... is a form of, is slavery.

David: Yes.

Seth: The Bible always equates sin to slavery.

David: Right, Romans, Romans 6. Go read Romans 6. It talks all about this.

Seth: Right.

David: Yeah, and we were slaves to sin.

Seth: The freedom-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... to choose good and evil for ourselves is actually called slavery.

David: Yes.

Seth: What our world currently defines as the ultimate good, I mean, determine your truth-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... to name your truth, is what the Bible calls slavery.

David: That's right. That's right. And so we, this was our actual situation, that we had no, no property that would be ours forever. I mean, just think about that even from a worldly standpoint. Like, when you die-

Seth: I was thinking about that today [laughs] as we-

David: When you die, you'll have no property 'cause you're dead. [laughs]

Seth: Right. Right, right, right.

David: Like, but, like, let alone do you have no earthly property forever, like, you'll have no eternal inheritance or anything. Like, you have no land. You're enslaved to sin forever. There's no year of Jubilee coming. There's no release. You are a slave forever. And then Jesus comes, and he says, "I'm here to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. I'm gonna set the prisoners free." And he does so by being the day of atonement forever and by paying everyone's debt. So, like, there's, there's provisions here inside the year of Jubilee that, say, say you, you, you, you have 20 years left on your contract to be a slave.

Seth: Right, right, right.

David: If a kinsman that you have, like a, a brother, sister-

Seth: Right, right

David: ... uncle, uh, has all this money-

Seth: Right

David: ... and they can pay off the remainder of your 20 years. Basically, let's say that you're worth 100 bucks a year.

Seth: Right.

David: And there's 20 left. You know, you'd pay that off.

Seth: Right.

David: Right? And so, uh, Jesus says, "Okay, I can take everyone's debt that they have left to pay, and I can pay it on the cross."

Seth: Mm, right, right, right, right, right.

David: And that's what he did, and he set at liberty the captives. He, he redeemed us. He bought us back from our slave master of sin by paying the full price. That's how he brought the year of Jubilee.

Seth: Right.

David: Like, he just, he just closed the gap on the eternity remaining-

Seth: Mm-hmm

David: ... for our enslavement period. Like, it wasn't 20 years.

Seth: Right.

David: It was a forever, and he paid that so that he could bring the never-before brought year of Jubilee to the present-

Seth: Right

David: ... that would have never come, and will never come for those who don't believe in him.

Seth: Right, and then he becomes our inheritance.

David: Yeah.

Seth: It's not just that he cancels the debt.

Seth: That we get the riches of Christ.

David: Right.

Seth: We get him.

David: Yep.

Seth: So, like, it's not just, like, we get the debt canceled, and we get the land back.

David: That's right.

Seth: Right, like [laughs]

David: Yes.

Seth: Like, like-

David: Yeah, yeah

Seth: ... which is great news. [laughs] Like, if I was in debt to somebody, like, if I, like, ah, foreclose on my house because-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... like, I couldn't pay it.

David: Right.

Seth: And then somebody came and paid the debt, and then didn't own the house themself, but gave it back to me.

David: Right.

Seth: Oh my gosh.

David: Right.

Seth: Like, that's a huge burden lift. Like, I don't owe any money on my house anymore?

David: Yeah.

Seth: Like, I can just live here and work here and build my nice little garden in the back?

David: Right.

Seth: You know, like, that's a huge grace.

David: Right. It's one thing to have your-

Seth: It's good news. [laughs]

David: It's very g-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... it's one thing to have the debt paid for.

Seth: Right.

David: It's one thing to have your debt paid for, and then being, be given a huge parcel of land and a house.

Seth: Right.

David: Yeah.

Seth: Be given the inheritance.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And then the inheritance is the riches of the goodness and grace of the L- Lord Jesus Christ.

David: That's right.

Seth: Even more so. [laughs]

David: Yeah, it's amazing. It's like in, in here, in this text, we see that, uh, the land is God's, and that's the inheritance that you'll receive.

Seth: Right.

David: But in the, but in the eternal final inheritance, it's not the land. It's not, like, the land that's God's that's your reward.

Seth: Right.

David: It's God himself that is your reward.

Seth: Right.

David: And it's amazing that we'll-

Seth: We sit with him in authority

David: ... we sit with him. Oh, it's gonna be so good. Anyway, well, one more episode left in Leviticus. We'll do, we'll go back and do 24, and then we'll do the blessings and curses, and then the strange, really strange ending on vows.

Seth: Oh, about-

David: Yeah, in-

Seth: ... the covenant, like, if you obey, here's all the good things you can expect.

David: Yeah, it's the blessing and curses.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Yeah, and then it just ends on this, like, people make vows.

Seth: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.

David: And it's like, people have, like, scratched their heads on why it ended this way, and we'll speculate wildly as to why. [laughs]

Seth: I know. [laughs]

David: Uh, anyway, well, thank you guys for joining us. This has been so much fun. One more episode in Leviticus, and then we'll jump to Numbers. Uh, this has been so much fun. Um, we hope you guys have a great week.

Seth: Hang in there.

David: Yeah, hang in there.

Seth: Keep reading.

David: Keep reading, keep reflecting. We love ya. All right, bye. [outro music]

Outro: Thank you for listening to the Spoken Gospel podcast. Spoken Gospel is a nonprofit dedicated to creating free gospel-centered media that speaks the gospel out of every corner of scripture. So to join us in our mission and view our resources, we invite you to visit spokengospel.com. [outro music]

Related Resources

Listen to the Leviticus 24 and 26-27: The Death Penalty, Curses, and Vows podcast

Listen Now

Free videos sent straight to your inbox.

Sabbath, Festivals, and Jubilee: How Leviticus 23 and 25 Point Us to the Rest Jesus Brings

Show Notes

The Land Needs Rest, and So Do You

Sabbath as the Pattern of Creation

A Holy Calling to Rest Together

The Seven Feasts and How Jesus Fulfills Them

The Feast of Booths and the Living Water

The Year of Jubilee and the Freedom Jesus Brings

Related Resources

Introduction to Leviticus

View our devotional on Leviticus 1-3

Ready to study a different book?

Listen to the Leviticus Introduction podcast

Listen to the Should We Obey The Law Today? podcast

Listen to the Leviticus 1-5: Offerings podcast

Listen to the Leviticus 6-10: Priests podcast

Listen to the Leviticus 11-15: Unclean Foods, Diseases, and Emissions podcast

Listen to the Leviticus 16: Day of Atonement podcast

Listen to the Leviticus 17-20: Blood, Sex, and Loving Your Neighbor podcast

Listen to the Leviticus 21-22: A Different Standard For Priests podcast

Listen to the Leviticus 23 and 25: Sabbath, Festivals, and Jubilee podcast

Listen to the Leviticus 24 and 26-27: The Death Penalty, Curses, and Vows podcast