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Deuteronomy 16: 1-16 Essay

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In Deuteronomy 16:1-17 we see Israel being called together to show generosity and to celebrate, if we look at the first Passover, we see that all families in Israel sacrificed in their own homes in reembrace of the Passover, But in Deuteronomy 16 we see that Israel having entered into the promised land is now undergoing realignment of this sacrifice along with was to be made at the Tabernacle and in the future at the temple in Jerusalem this will bring about a centralization of these religious observances. Indeed they become “pilgrimage feasts” as Gordon Wenham calls them
Deuteronomy 16:1-2 Has several commands in it the first of these being “sacrifice the Passover to the LORD” Directs the Jews to keep the observance of the Passover in …show more content…

9-10 the next section is instructing on the feast of weeks, this appears to be a harvest celebration where in the time frame was set by the first day you put your sickle to the grain. Then you counted for the next seven weeks. It was at this point that you would take your freewill offering to the Lord. It is interesting to note that the feast of weeks had no fixed date, the reason for this as Jack Lundbom states is “because the harvests did not begin each year at the same time” we should also note that this was not an extended celebration as was the Passover and Unleavened bread but rather a one day feast. Having said that it is likely that the people who attended did most likely stay till the next …show more content…

13-15 this section concerns itself with the festival of tabernacles. This feast occurred on the 15th day of Tishri, it was a feast to commemorate and celebrate Yahweh’s provision and deliverance of the nation as they roamed the desert for forty years. It remembered the crossing into the Promised Land and the nation coming into its own inheritance. The feast began on the Sabbath and ended on the same eight days later. Block intimates part of its significance is that it is an agricultural festival and that “it affords the Israelites an opportunity for corporate thanksgiving” it is interesting to note that at this feast the people are given a charge and that is to “be overflowing with joy and prepared to express that joy for an entire week” .. In this feast we see the linking of the past that being the Exodus with the future the Promised

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