Hey, Bible readers. I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. This is another day that unexpectedly brought me to tears, and I can't wait to tell you why. Today, we continue with God's laws for the people delivered to Moses. But remember that the point of what we're reading isn't the laws. It's what's underneath the laws. What do they point to? I always want to be encouraging us look for God when we read. Some days it'll be harder than others. Maybe today was one of those days. That's okay. The way you feel about the text doesn't decrease its value in your life. It's adding value to your life to fix your eyes on these pages, whether you feel it right now or not. So what do we see about God and the laws he's setting out? One of the things underneath much of what we read today was that God wants his people to be clean, and he keeps reminding them that he is the one who makes them clean. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. We get repeated good reminders of both God's Holiness and his rescue in these passages.

In chapter 23, we see a lot about feasts. Since I don't have time to go into this in-depth, we'll include a short article in the show notes that explains these seven feasts and their significance. As always, when we include a resource, we can't vouch for everything on that site. We're just including that one particular resource. Though in general, we do try to be careful about what we're sending you. So back to the feasts. First, God reminds them again about a weekly feast called the Sabbath. Then there are six annual feasts covered here, and you should recognize a few of them from our reading so far. It can get really confusing, though, since a lot of these feasts have multiple names. You probably recognize Passover, which is also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. You may also recognize the Feast of First Fruits, although when we read about it in Exodus 34, it was called the Feast of Harvest. And on that same day, we read about the Feast of End Gathering, which is called the Feast of Booths here. And then there's the one we read about most recently in Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement.

Aren't you glad there isn't a quiz on this? Me too. I'm just telling you all of this because I used to be under the impression that there were like 30 feasts based on the names I'd read. Turns out they're just the same six feasts with nicknames. One weird When you're thinking about the Day of Atonement, it's called the Feast, but they're fasting on this day. That's part of what it means when you see the phrase, They afflicted themselves. That refers to fasting. This is the only feast day where they're fasting because this is the holiest and most Solem Day of the Year. Instead of eating, they offer their food to God. On all the other feast days, they're not allowed to do any regular work, but they're allowed to do the work of offering sacrifices and preparing meals. The Day of Atonement, however, calls for no work. They eat no food, and the priest does all the sacrificing. This is still a celebration of provision, but it's a very different celebration and a very different provision. There are only two feasts in this section that we haven't talked about before, so let me touch on those briefly.

First, there's the Feast of Weeks, which you probably know of as Pentecost, although it didn't take on that name until much later. Here's some Bible trivia for you. The word Pentecost means 50th, and this feast occurs on the 50th day after Passover. So that's seven weeks and a day. The fact that it's a week of weeks, seven weeks after Passover, is why it's called the Feast of Weeks. At this feast, something unique happens. This is the only feast where leavened bread makes an appearance. God tells them to have two types of bread, unleavened and leavened. There's some rich symbolism here. The unleavened loaf represents the Israelites, and the leavened loaf is foreshadowing of the day when the Gentiles, non-Jews, will be brought into his family. We'll touch on this more when we get to the Book of Acts in the New Testament. But just know that if you're not of Jewish heritage, you still show up on these pages foreshadowing Christ's provision. The Feast of Trumpets is what's now known as Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, but at this time it signaled 10 days notice for the day of Atonement. The Israelis called that period of time 10 days of Repentance or the Days of Awe.

This points us back to what we learned not long ago. The fear of God, which is comprised primarily of delight and awe draws us nearer to him and serves to produce righteousness in us. Their days of repentance and awe led up to the day of Atonement, where they were purified. Speaking of which, can I tell you something about today's reading, specifically Chapter 22, that used to really bother me? It bothered me that God only accepted the best sacrifice. It felt unloving. Maybe because I've seen this idea used in God's name to treat people poorly. I've heard pastors tell people who aren't dressed nicely that they should be ashamed of what they wore to church because they needed to bring God their best. I've seen church members shamed for not volunteering more of their time when they're already over extended in serving because they should give God their best. I have to remind myself that, first of all, that's not on God. That's on fallen humanity, misappropriating his words. But if I dig a little deeper into my own heart, I think the real reason these passages bothered me is because I knew deep down that I'm not a good sacrifice.

I'm blemished and blind and scabbed and crushed, and it felt like God would reject me. God is establishing something here in his requirements for sacrifices. It's true, he does only accept a perfect sacrifice. And that's where my God's shot comes in. Since even the best version of me is still unacceptable to God, there's a temptation to fix my eyes on myself. If I do that, I'm too buried in my own failings to notice that he has provided the perfect sacrifice in my place because he still wants to be near me, even though I'm imperfect. All these requirements of perfection are supposed to be weighty. The law is supposed to remind us how impossible all this is. That's the point of the law, to show us God's perfection and how far we are from it. Romans 5:20 says, The law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. For every one of my sins, grace abounds. For every one of my imperfections, grace abounds. Romans 5:21, the very next verse continues saying, So that as sin reined in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Lord. Praise God for providing the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ, our Lord. He's where the joy is. Do you have a friend or family member who is deaf? Did you know that the Bible Recap is available in American Sign Language, we would love for your deaf friends or family members to join us. Our friends at Sunshine Interpreters helped us make our recap videos, all of which are in the ASL playlist on our YouTube channel, or click the link in the show notes. If you're praying for emotional, spiritual, or physical healing today, click the link in the show notes for some songs to add to your playlist. They're full of truth, and sometimes we can all use a few reminders of what God's word says about healing and wholeness.