Deeper Commentary
Deu 16:1 Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to Yahweh
your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you forth out
of Egypt by night-
Israel both kept Passover and went through the Red Sea at
night. Indeed, it is stressed six times in Ex. 12 that it was
“night", and hence Dt. 16:1 reminds
them to carefully keep the Passover (i.e. at night), “for... your God
brought you forth out of Egypt by night". Other latter day prophecies
speak of the events of the second coming being at "night": Lot left
Sodom in the very early hours of the morning; and it was "at midnight
(that) there was a cry made" informing the virgins of their Lord's return
(Mt. 25:6).
Deu 16:2 You must sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God from the flock
and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose to cause His name to
dwell there-
This seems to imply that now, in the ‘second law’ Moses was giving in
Deuteronomy, the Passover sacrifice didn’t necessarily have to be a lamb,
and it could be boiled not just roasted (:7). See on Dt. 20:14. So eager
is God for our fellowship that He is prepared to make concessions to our
human situations; and we should have that spirit in dealing with others.
The softness of Moses, the earnestness of his desire for their
obedience, his eagerness to work with them in their humanity, is shown by
the concessions to human weakness which he makes in Deuteronomy (with
God's confirmation, of course). When they attacked a foreign city, OK,
Moses says, you can take the women for yourselves- even though this is
contrary to the spirit of earlier commands (Dt. 20:14; 21:11). Likewise
with the provisions for having a human king (Dt. 17:17) and divorce (Dt.
24:1-4). He knew the hardness of Israel's hearts, their likelihood to give
way to temptation, and so he made concessions contrary to the principles
behind other parts of the Law (Mt. 19:8). And Dt. 16:2 seems to imply that
now, the Passover sacrifice didn’t necessarily have to be a lamb, it could
be any animal from the flock or herd, and it could be boiled not just
roasted (see on :7).
Deu 16:3 You must eat no leavened bread with it. You must eat unleavened
bread with it seven days, the bread of affliction, for you came forth out
of the land of Egypt in haste, that you may remember the day when you came
forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life-
"Therefore let us keep the feast (the breaking of bread, the new
Passover), not with old leaven... of malice and wickedness; but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 5:8).
Deu 16:4 No yeast shall be seen with you in all your borders seven
days, neither shall any of the flesh, which you sacrifice the first day at
evening, remain all night until the morning-
Our open approach to table fellowship doesn’t mean we can’t tell
right from wrong. Light has no fellowship with darkness. However, our
responsibility for working this out in practice is very personal. Each
individual Israelite had to ensure that there was no leaven in his or her
immediate area on Passover night. "Your borders" is 'you' singular. The
Israelite could only be responsible for their local area / home. We must
not slip into a mindset which is endlessly concerned with the supposed
weaknesses of others next door.
Deu 16:5 You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which
Yahweh your God gives you-
The first Passover was kept in their homes; but the commandments
given about the first Passover were not applicable to the Passover
generally. For now it is solemnly stressed that the Passover is not to be
kept in homes as it was the first time it was kept, but only at the
sanctuary (:6). Likewise the command to not eat the first Passover with
Gentiles is often misused by "closed table" advocates; but they overlook
the clear difference with the later Passover regulations, where Gentiles
were welcome to eat it.
Deu 16:6 but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause His
name to dwell in, there you must sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the
going down of the sun, at the time that you came forth out of Egypt-
Although the first Passover differed in some ways from the later
feast (see on :5), it was to be slain in the evening, as the first
Passover lamb was (Ex. 12:6). But Israel left Egypt some hours later, at
night. But here the slaying of the sacrifice and Israel's 'going forth'
from Egypt are equated. And this looks ahead to the effect of the death of
the Lord Jesus as the Passover lamb. We thereby were freed from Egypt, and
should in response to His sacrifice move on out of this world, which is
represented by Egypt .
Deu 16:7 You must roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God
shall choose; and you shall turn in the morning and go to your tents-
See on :2. Israel were told specifically that the Passover lamb must
be roasted and not boiled (Ex. 12:9 uses two distinct words for 'boiled'
and 'roasted'.). But the word used in Ex. 12:9 for "boiled" is that used
in Dt. 16:7 of how the Passover could be boiled, although many Bible
versions misleadingly translate the word there as "roast". The translators
need not have feared such contradiction. For it is the contradiction of
grace. Moses in Dt. 16:2,7 was allowing a less strict observation of the
Passover than originally intended, typical of the way Deuteronomy, 'the
second law', seems to make concessions to Israel's weaknesses. Or it could
be that here we have another example of where the Passover regulations
given in Exodus were specific only to that time at the exodus. Thus a
foreigner was not allowed to eat of that sacrifice, but foreigners were
welcome to eat of the Passover later.
At the first Passover, which they were re-living,
they left Egypt at night and in the morning went into the promised land.
They were to imagine their homes as in a sense the promised land; there
the principles of the Kingdom were to be upheld so that the home became a
small imitation of the Kingdom. That principle applies to us too.
Deu 16:8 For six days you must eat unleavened bread. On the
seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God; you shall do no
work-
The leaven or yeast in our context is to be understood as the leaven
of malice and wickedness (1 Cor. 5:8). The search for leaven at the time
of the Passover would therefore look ahead to our self examination at the
breaking of bread. The equivalent legislation in Ex. 12:15,16; 13:7,8
stresses that they were to have no leaven in their homes. But now in the
maturity of Deuteronomy, Moses stresses "you shall do no work". To be
technically obedient to regulations about yeast was easier than to learn
the lesson of salvation by grace rather than works.
"Solemn assembly" is LXX ekklesia. This is the word rendered
"church" in the New Testament. We could reason from this therefore that
"church" specifically refers to a gathering of God's people. At that time
and during those moments, they are a church. When the entire community of
believers is referred to as "church", this is how God views them- as if
they are all gathered together at a gathering or convocation before Him.
The word in its Biblical usage therefore doesn't refer to what we might
call a denomination or fellowship.
Deu 16:9 You must count for yourselves seven weeks: from the time you
begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to number
seven weeks-
These are the 50 days of Lev. 23:16, which led to the Greek term
"Pentecost". The putting of the sickle to the barley harvest was
therefore at Passover (Ex. 9:31). The wheat harvest was seven weeks after
this. The Lord's death at Passover was as the barley harvest, and we
recall that barley was the food of the poor. He died on 13 / 14 Nissan,
and resurrected on 16/17 Nissan, which was when the 50 days to Pentecost
began to be counted from; for that was the time when the sickle was put to
the grain and the firstfruits harvested (Lev. 23:15). But at the feast of
Pentecost 50 days later, there were the baptisms of 3000 people. This was
as it were the wheat harvest, of which the Lord's resurrection was a
foretaste and firstfruit (1 Cor. 15:20,23). That great multitude
represented all who would afterwards believe, and be finally harvested at
the last day.
Deu 16:10 You must keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a
tribute of a freewill offering, which you shall give according as Yahweh
your God blesses you-
Deu 16:11 You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, your son, your
daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is
within your gates and the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, who are
among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause His
name to dwell there-
The idea was that every family in Israel came up at least once per
year to the sanctuary. The firstborn animals were to be kept and then
brought up to the sanctuary. The sanctuary was intended to be a point of
national focus, and this reflects God's great interest in unity amongst
His people. But God never stated that He had chosen a place in Israel, at
least not [arguably] until the time of David. Israel were simply not
responsive enough to enable all His intended plans to come about, and
therefore so much of the law was not possible of complete fulfilment as
intended.
Deu 16:12 You must remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt, and you
shall observe and do these statutes-
Moses' frequent references in Deuteronomy to the way in which the
Exodus had separated Israel from Egypt shows his concern that they were
slipping back to Egypt / the world in their hearts (Dt. 13:5; 15:15;
16:12); as our Lord in his time of dying was so strongly aware of the way
in which he was redeeming us from this present evil world. We too are
to ever remember our status before baptism, which was our equivalent to
the Red Sea crossing.
Deu 16:13 You must keep the feast of tents seven days after you have
gathered in from your threshing floor and from your winepress-
There are connections between the various sections of Revelation and
the Jewish feasts. Here's a summary:
Revelation 5 Passover Rev. 5:6,9 = Ex. 12:13
Revelation 7 Tabernacles Rev. 7:9,15,16 RV = Ex. 23:16; 34:22; Zech.
14:16-20
Revelation 8,9 Day Of Atonement Lev. 16:31; more detailed links in Harry
Whittaker, Revelation: A Biblical Approach pp. 104,105.
Revelation 11 Dedication & Purim The Torah readings for these feasts were
Num. 7 and Zech. 2- 4 about the dedication of the temple; Rev. 11:10 =
Esther 9:19,22. The period from Tabernacles to Purim is exactly 5 months-
as mentioned in Rev. 9:5
Revelation 12 Pentecost & Passover The Jews traditionally ask: "On this
Sabbath, shall I reap?"
Revelation 14 Tabernacles
Revelation 15 + 16 Atonement & Passover Lev. 16; Ps. 118 the Hallel Psalm
Revelation 19 Passover Ps. 113,114 Passover Psalms
Revelation 21,22 Tabernacles
Laying out the material chronologically, we have:
Chapter 5: Passover
6 months
Chapter 7: Tabernacles
Chapters 8 & 9: Atonement and Tabernacles
1 year
Chapter 11: Dedication 5 months (Rev 9:5)
Chapter 11: Purim
Chapter 12: Passover and Pentecost
Chapter 14: Tabernacles
1 year
Chapter 15: Atonement
Chapter 16 & 19: Passover
Chapter 21 & 22: Tabernacles
1 year
The conclusion would therefore be that we have in the book of Revelation a
literal account of the three and a half years tribulation, with the Jewish
feasts being the key marker points. And it would appear there will be an
especial period of five months tribulation as described between Revelation
chapters 9 and 11.
Deu 16:14 and you shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son and your
daughter, your male servant, your female servant and the Levite, the
foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates-
The feasts were intended as a time of fellowship between male and
female, bond and free, and Jew and Gentile (Gal. 3:27-29). They looked
ahead to the spirit of the breaking of bread meeting. We note that the
feasts were open to children and to the foreigner; there was an open table
policy.
Deu 16:15 You must keep a feast to Yahweh your God seven days in the place
which Yahweh shall choose. Because Yahweh your God will bless you in all
your increase and in all the work of your hands, you shall be altogether
joyful-
See on Ps. 90:3. Moses was this confident
of them, that God would give them the blessings for obedience, just as Paul was confident of the obedience of the Corinthians despite
it seeming humanly unlikely (2 Cor. 10:6). It’s far easier to have
a negative attitude about people than a positive one; but God’s grace and
imputing of righteousness to us personally should help us be positive
about others.
Having stated that the Canaanite tribes would only be cast out if Israel were obedient, Moses goes on to enthuse that those tribes would indeed be cast out- so positive was he about Israel’s obedience (Dt. 6:18,19; 7:1). And yet on the other hand he realistically was aware of their future failures. He said those positive words genuinely, because he simply loved Israel, and had the hope for them which love carries with it. Throughout his speech, Moses is constantly thinking of Israel in the land; he keeps on telling them how to behave when they are there, encouraging them to be strong so that they will go into the land. I estimate that about 25% of the verses in Moses' speech speak about this. Israel's future inheritance of the Kingdom absolutely filled Moses' mind as he faced up to his own death. And remember that his speech was the outpouring of 40 years meditation. Their salvation, them in the Kingdom, totally filled his heart. And likewise with the Lord Jesus. Psalms 22 and 69 shows how his thoughts on the cross, especially as he approached the point of death, were centred around our salvation. And Moses was so positive about them. “The Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands”, even though these blessings were conditional upon their obedience. Moses was this confident of them (Dt. 16:15 cp. 28:1,4,12).
Moses sounds as if his prayer of Ps. 90:17 has been answered: "Let the grace of the Lord our God be upon us; establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands". God was willing to hearken to Moses as he prayed so, so earnestly, He was willing to change His expressed purpose in respect to destroying Israel (perhaps Ps. 90 is the transcript of this prayer- Ps. 90:3 in Hebrew asks God not to destroy the children of men, and to repent concerning His servants in:13-17). It should also be noted that Moses as a type of Christ was not the High Priest. He mediated for Israel on a voluntary basis; not because he was under any duty to offer up their prayers. Indeed, they didn't make any prayers for him to offer up. He pleaded with God for them on his own initiative, rather than being asked by them to do so. And this is the basis of Christ's mediation for us; he pleads for us even when we know not what to pray for, even when we don't realize the need to beseech the Father. Moses' mediation, not so much Aaron's offerings, are the prototype which the New Testament uses to explain the Lord's present work. In the Apocryphal Assumption of Moses (1:14), Moses is made to say of God: "He designed and devised me and he prepared me before the foundation of the world, that I should be the mediator". These words are alluded to in a number of NT passages. Clearly we are intended to see Moses' mediation as typical of the Lord's. His freewill mediation was the basis of Israel's salvation (Hos. 12:13). Likewise the intensity of his prayers and the supremacy of his willingness to sacrifice himself for them was tragically unknown to them at the time. It's almost sad that these things have to be typical of the Lord's preservation and redemption of us his thick-skinned and unknowing people.
Deu 16:16 Three times in a year must all your males appear before Yahweh
your God in the place which He shall choose: in the feast of unleavened
bread, in the feast of weeks and in the feast of tents-
They must not
appear before Yahweh empty-
Deu 16:17 every man shall give as he is able-
According to the blessing of
Yahweh your God which He has given you-
Notice the past tense. Moses often speaks of the "blessing" which God
would give them for obedience; but he here speaks of the future blessing
of obedience in the prophetic perfect, so confident was he that they would
receive it. The blessings of the Kingdom were already obtained for us on
the cross. It’s for us to as it were claim them.
Despite being fully aware of how weak Israel were, Moses often speaks of the "blessing" which God would give them for obedience; he even speaks of the future blessing of obedience in the prophetic perfect, so confident was he that they would receive it: "Every man shall give as he is able (once he is settled in the land), according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee" (Dt. 16:17). Moses speaks with confidence of how God would grant them the blessing of the land and victory over their enemies, even though these things were conditional upon their obedience (Dt. 19:1; 20:13), and even though Moses clearly knew that most of them would disobey. The conclusion from this is that Moses thought so much of that minority who would obey his covenant, who would grasp the spirit of his life and the speech he was now making. And our Lord likewise- in his feelings for us, we trust.
The Mosaic command to give, every man according to the blessing with
which God had blessed him (Dt. 16:17), is purposely similar in phrasing to
the command to eat of the Passover lamb, every man according to his need;
and to partake of the manna (cp. the Lord Jesus), every man according to
his need (Ex. 12:4; 16:6,16). According to the desperation of our need, so
we partake of Christ; and in response, according to our blessing, we give,
in response to the grace of His giving.
Deu 16:18 You shall make judges and officers in all your gates which
Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge
the people with righteous judgment-
This was specifically obeyed in 2 Chron. 19:7, because the previous
system had been open to "respect of persons" and bribes. This was in
distinction to how the judgment was done as in most primitive societies,
by the heads of families. But that was bound to be open to "respect of
persons" and bribes. Therefore nepotism was to e outlawed by the
appointment of a judiciary.
Deu 16:19 You must not twist justice, you must not respect persons,
neither must you take a bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and
perverts the words of the righteous-
The Hebrew mishpat, "ordinances", has a wide range of
meaning. The idea is of judgment, as if God and His Angels gave these laws
as their considered judgment after considering the human condition, and
Israel were to abide by them. But the word also the idea of a right or
privilege; and that is how we should see God's laws. They are only felt as
a burden because of human hardness of neck towards God's ways. His laws
are not of themselves burdensome, but rather a privilege and blessing. The
law was indeed "holy, just and good" (Rom. 7:12), designed to inculcate a
holy, just and good life (Tit. 1:8), a way in which a man should "walk" in
daily life (Lev. 18:4), a culture of kindness and grace to others which
reflected God's grace to man. If we dwell upon the idea of "rights"
carried within the word mishpat, we note that the law begins in
Ex. 21:1,2 (also Dt. 15:12-18) with the rights of a slave- those
considered to have no rights in the society of that day. The "rights" to
be afforded by us to others are the essence of God's rightness / justice.
Deu 16:20 You must follow that which is altogether just-
Heb. "justice, justice". In the days before underlining or italic
print, emphasis was achieved by repeating a word twice- e.g. "Justice,
justice" (Dt. 16:20); "Comfort, comfort" (Is. 40:1). It has been pointed
out that only one of the ten commandments is repeated twice: "You shall
not covet". This sober emphasis upon not coveting was surely a reflection
of how God perceived the huge danger of His people seeking to 'possess'
things as theirs.
That you may
live, and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you-
The Pharisees had the “key of knowledge” that enabled men to reach
the Kingdom (Lk. 11:52); but they took it away from men, and thus stopped
them entering (Mt. 23:13). Likewise if the elders / judges of Israel had
been wise, the entire people would have entered the land.
"Drive out" is s.w. "possess / inherit". We must note the difference between the
Canaanite peoples and their kings being "struck" and their land "taken" by
Joshua-Jesus; and the people of Israel permanently taking possession. This
is the difference between the Lord's victory on the cross, and our taking
possession of the Kingdom. Even though that possession has been "given" to
us. The word used for "possession" is literally 'an inheritance'. The
allusion is to the people, like us, being the seed of Abraham. The Kingdom
was and is our possession, our inheritance- if we walk in the steps of
Abraham. But it is one thing to be the seed of Abraham, another to take
possession of the inheritance; and Israel generally did not take
possession of all the land (Josh.
11:23 13:1; 16:10; 18:3; 23:4). The language of inheritance / possession
is applied to us in the New Testament (Eph. 1:11,14; Col. 3:24; Acts
20:32; 26:18; 1 Pet. 1:4 etc.). Israel were promised: "You shall possess
it" (Dt. 30:5; 33:23). This was more of a command than a prophecy, for
sadly they were "given" the land but did not "possess" it. They were
constantly encouraged in the wilderness that they were on the path to
possessing the land (Dt. 30:16,18; 31:3,13; 32:47), but when they got
there they didn't possess it fully.
Deu 16:21 You must not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree
beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make for yourselves-
Moses adds a whole series of apparently 'minor' commands which were
designed to make obedience easier to the others already given. Thus he
tells them in Deuteronomy not to plant a grove of trees near the altar of
God - because he knew this would provoke the possibility of mixing Yahweh
worship with that of the surrounding world (Dt. 16:21). There was to be no
possibility of worshipping idols in the name of Yahweh worship; there was
not even to be the possibility of some subliminal suggestion of it arising
from having a grove of trees near an altar. Likewise he
commands any future king not to send God's people to Egypt to buy horses
because he could see that this would tempt them to go back to Egypt
permanently (Dt. 17:16). There are many other example of this kind of
thing (Dt. 14:24; 15:18; 17:17-19; 18:9; 20:7,8). The point is that Moses
had thought long and hard about the ways in which Israel would be tempted
to sin, and his words and innermost desire were devoted to helping them
overcome. Glorious ditto for the Lord Jesus.
We note that Gideon's father had the Asherah grove by the altar (Jud. 16:25). This was studied disobedience to Dt. 16:21: "You must not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make for yourselves". His repentance, apparently overnight, is therefore the more remarkable. We also see how Yahweh worship had become mixed with paganic worship. "The altar" in view was that of Yahweh, but it had become the altar of Baal because of the mixing of truth and error, of Yahweh and paganic worship. This worship of the flesh in the appearance of Yahweh worship is in fact our abiding temptation, as it was for Israel. They never abrogated Yahweh worship, but worshipped idols in the name of Yahweh worship. We, e.g., may gossip in the name of "truth" or "love"; purchase luxury items or property in the name of worshipping God or serving Him.
Deu 16:22 Neither shall you set yourself up a pillar, which Yahweh your
God hates-
Again, there was not even to be the possibility of some subliminal
suggestion toward idol worship. The setting up of pillars as memorials was
done even by Jacob, but clearly there was a hint of idolatry in them, and
now they were forbidden. We likewise need to avoid all subliminal
suggestions toward sin from our lives.
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