The Importance of God's Holy Days

Good morning, everyone. I have a question as I begin this morning. Where would God's church be without the annual Holy Days? May I add another question? What if we did not understand the importance of keeping these days? Where would you be as an individual without the knowledge and the understanding that is given by observance of God's Holy Days? We are approaching the four fall Holy Days coming up. As I mentioned in the announcements, this coming Thursday is the Feast of Trumpets, a holy day. Two weeks from today is the Day of Atonement, another holy day in itself. It happens to fall on a weekly Sabbath this year, and then five days after that we will be gathered to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And then at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles falls another day called the Last Great Day. These are Holy Days. This is holy time. Along with the weekly Sabbath are days that really take and spring from the fourth commandment of God to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy, because we read in the book of Genesis where God created something called the Sabbath, or holy time, by His presence. In Genesis 2, we can read where the first reference and the beginning of all this took place. At the end of the physical creation when the heavens and the earth and all the hosts were finished on verse 1. And it says, On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all of His work which God had created and made. And so we read where the Sabbath came into existence, along with the physical creation at that point in the story of everything. God created holy time by His presence. And the Sabbath is a memorial of that creation. By keeping it holy, we're worshiping God as the Creator of all. And it's tied in with the physical creation in the sense that it comes at the end of that creation week. But it is the seventh day and it is a adds a spiritual dimension to this world, this planet, this life that the other days don't.

And positioned next to, if you will, six days of creative work that God did, we also are told something by this day as we keep the Sabbath weekly, keep the holy days along with it, we are worshiping really God. When we keep the Sabbath, we are worshiping God as the Creator of everything that went before during that period of the six days. We worship God. We don't worship the creation. We don't worship physical things. We don't worship trees, the moon, the sun.

Anything that is physical, we don't worship that. We worship God, the Creator. And in the other commandments, as putting God and having no other gods and no graven images and all the other teachings we get from the commandments, those re-emphasize that very important feature that we are looking at God as the Creator of life. And we understand what He is doing with this life and how He is bringing about salvation. God created holy time by His holy presence. And this is where we understand that. The Sabbath is a memorial of that creation. And when we keep it holy, in the sense that we, as we stop our work, we don't make it holy, but we keep a holy day, a holy time by worshiping God and by stopping our work on this particular period of time, and turning our attention and our focus to God, we are placing the worship of the Creator and saying that that worship is more important than the physical. And that is a lesson we have to be reminded of on a continual basis. Every time we keep the Sabbath, that's why it's done every week.

If we just did the Sabbath once a month, we would very quickly forget. If we just did the Sabbath seven days a year, we would not remember that important point. God knew the cycle of life, the frequency with which this needed to be taught. That's why He placed the Sabbath every seventh day. And when we do that and make that conscious commitment, we are worshiping God more than we are worshiping any part of the creation, anything that is physical. Our jobs, money, and anything dealing with this physical life. Get that point straight in your heart and in your mind before God. You can answer any question about what you need to be doing on this day, whether you should do this or whether you should do that. Get these fundamental principles in mind and you can answer those questions. You'll get your priorities right. You should. You should worship God on this day.

Worship God in spirit and in truth and worship Him as the Creator and keep this day in a spiritual sense as He always intended it to be and show that it would be and always has been a major test of whether or not a person will obey God. It always comes down to that. In Exodus chapter 31, we see where this was re-emphasized in this part of the story of God's relationship with mankind.

In chapter 31 of Exodus, beginning in verse 13, at this point God specifically zeroed in on the Sabbath part of the law, the fourth commandment. And He said in verse 13, speak to the children of Israel saying, Surely, my Sabbath, you shall keep for it as a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. By keeping the Sabbath, we know the true God. We don't know the God of this world.

We don't know the God of the physical mammon. We know that come to know the true God, and there is a difference. People can think they know God and have a semblance of God and a form of worship. But when we keep the Sabbath, when we keep God's word, and we come to know the true God, just as He says here, you shall keep the Sabbath in verse 14, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it will be put to death. Whoever does not does any work, that person will be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. We don't have that administration today, but God holds that accountable, holds us accountable. And God looks at it from that perspective, and we certainly want to please God. And we know that if we would turn, if we turn our back on God and His law, that without repentance and the grace of Christ, ultimately we could face death, eternal death in this case, because of willfully denying God. Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.

For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. And so this is very clearly shown to be a sign and a major test, a sign between God and His people.

All the other arguments can be brought forth. And in my study, in my experience, and in my conclusion, and I trust in yours as well, those arguments are found to be false. And they don't stand the test of Scripture. They don't stand the test of God's Word. Again, that's why we are here, and that's why we do what we do. This sermon is not about the Sabbath. Really, it's to focus our minds and our hearts upon the holy days, because the holy days are also convocations of God.

They are holy time, just as the Sabbath. As I said, four of these days are coming up shortly, and they picture yet unfulfilled events in the plan of God. In Leviticus chapter 23, if you would please turn there, we'll base ourselves out of this section of the Bible for a little bit, and just rehearse again what is told about these days.

This is basic. Sometimes we just need to go back over something basic and to remember and to understand and to find something that we missed before, to be reminded. And even for some, it may be the first time to go through it and make impressions on our heart that will be lasting. But in Leviticus 23, beginning in verse 2, we have where this is said to be given to the children of Israel. Speak to them say, the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. And so God lays these out as holy days, holy periods of time.

The Sabbath is mentioned in verse 3, just as we read it, it is a day of solemn rest, a holy convocation. We don't work on that day, and it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all of your dwellings.

And then it begins to go through all the holy days. And down in verse 23, I just want to jump to that because that's where we are in the sequence of events here. We find where it is the feast of trumpets is mentioned. Verse 23, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

You shall do no customary work on it, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And so here is the first day of the seventh month. That's referring to the holy or to the Hebrew calendar, as we would call it today, God's calendar, if you will. But it is a different reckoning of time than what we're used to with our Roman calendar.

There are very easy calculations you can make to understand the how the we know that next coming Thursday is the first day of the seventh month on God's calendar. Rosh Hashanah, if you look on your some of your calendars will show that it's as it is called by the Jews. It's the beginning of the days, beginning of the year. And as I said, there are calculations that you can go through to know that indeed this particular day, this coming Thursday, what is it, September 13th, we mentioned, is the first day of the seventh month on God's calendar.

A word about the Hebrew calendar or God's calendar, the Jewish calendar, whatever you want to call it, it is it's not rocket science. It truly isn't. But it can be made to be a difficult subject. I have noticed over the last, let's say, 10, 12 years in this area here, this area of Indiana, that this has not been a big hot button issue for us to cause division or to question some parts of the Church of God that has over the recent years.

And people will have differing interpretations and think we're not specifically when it comes to Pentecost. There are some that feel that Pentecost should be kept a week later than what we do in terms of the calculation and all and various other things. And it can be a contentious issue.

It is one that over the years has been. Mr. Armstrong had to deal with it in his period of time, questions and issues. And he settled it in his mind and placed it within the Church. When I was a student, we studied it for several weeks during one of our classes.

And as I've said, you know, it was one that you walk through, you go through it in a setting, you learn it, you learn all the vagaries and the intricacies of it, the challenges, the questions and all of it. And then you come to a point where you settle it. And in my case, I took a test on it and I passed it. And then I put it on the shelf. I put it on the shelf.

And the book that I have, they had a very nice workbook that took us through all the various ways. And really, the Feast of Trumpets is the one day that you've got to figure as your benchmark, your cornerstone of all the holy days. It's called the technical term is the Molad of Tishri. Okay, that really sounds something like Rosicrucians or mystical or whatever it is. But the Molad of Tishri, Tishri is the month, and you figure that day and from there you figure it, you know when all the other holy days fall. And on any given year, you figure out the Molad of Tishri, the first day of the seventh month. Well, I studied that, passed the test. By the grace of God, I passed the test. Put it on a shelf, and I just use my little pocket calendar that they give us. And I don't worry about it. When we come to the holy day, I'm pretty, I'm convinced in my heart and mind that we're on the right day, and I don't go into all those arguments. And I don't think you should as well, because it's not profitable. And we can be sure and we can understand, but you don't have to argue about it and it doesn't have to be a bone of contention. Enough said about the Hebrew calendar. So, rest assured, we are on the right day, as we have been led to understand that. I'm confident when it comes to the, all of the holy days of God, Sabbath questions, you know, some of those that can come up as well.

The Feast of Trumpets. It pictures the return of Jesus Christ. It's a memorial of the blowing of trumpets. This is the time that we look to and we picture two significant events, the return of Christ, as we find outlined in Revelation, in many ways, Revelation chapter 19. We can turn to, to at least show and picture, hold your place in Leviticus 23, put your little ribbon back there if you want, or a thumb or whatever you choose to mark, and turn over quickly to Revelation 19. This is where we find the opening of the heavens in verse 11.

And so this is the time of the final judgment when Christ returns. He strikes the nations in verse 15, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. And this is a culminating event of many other things described in Revelation, and I'm thinking that my sermon, this Feast of Trumpets, may take us through some of those events in detail just to review a little bit. But it is accompanied by all of these various trumpets and trumpet plagues and the sounding of seven trumpets and a sequence that takes us through the time of the end and culminates in the return of Jesus Christ. Now, there's one other event that takes place on this day, and we find that referenced back in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, just for one scripture, because it is also the time of the resurrection. In verse 50, Revelation 1 Corinthians chapter 15, in verse 50, where Paul writes, This I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, and so on that time when the last of the trumpets are sounded, and Christ appears, a trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

From such a verse as this, we get a reference to when Gabriel blows his horn. My mother used to talk about how things would be or whatever until Gabriel blows his horn, the idea that it's Gabriel that will blow that horn, and I don't know that it will be Gabriel necessarily, but that's kind of a tradition or a custom. My mother used to talk about that, but when that horn blows, the dead will be raised, and the resurrection of the dead in Christ will take place. And so it pictures a time of judgment upon the nations. It pictures a time of final judgment, even upon the house of God and the people of God, not only those living at the time of the appearance of Christ, but all the people of God down through the generations will be resurrected, those who died in the faith, the first fruits. And all of that will take place, and that marvelous unfolding of the plan and the people of God symbolized and encapsulated in this day and this event that begins to intervene in the affairs of this world. It's a marvelous time. It is heralded by all of the panoply of trumpeting and what accompanies those trumpets, as we are told in the scriptures. And the Feast of Trumpets is really a time that really kicks off not just the fall holy days, but it kind of brings to a finishing point. All the other events that have been transpiring in God's plan up to that point, as told through the other holy days that we've kept, Pentecost, Days of Unleavened Bread Passover. Passover being part of the Days of Unleavened Bread in a sense it's not a holy day, but that event with the death of Christ and the Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Pentecost, the first fruits, trumpets then is really kind of a time that is right in the center of these days. Again, that's why, as I said earlier, you figure when you go to calculate the holy days and know when they fall, you calculate the Feast of Trumpets on the calendar and then you measure everything else from that day. So it is really a significant day in that sense. It's kind of right in the middle of all of the holy days, but it kicks off what is to occur. Now, back in Leviticus 23, we've read about the Day of Atonement beginning in verse 27.

On the tenth day of the seventh month will be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you. You shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement to make Atonement for you before the Lord your God.

The affliction of soul that verse 29, verse 27 talks of, is referring to fasting, a physical affliction that we all know we do and does indeed afflict us on that day as we don't do any work and we don't even do the work of preparing food that day. It is a very solemn day as we rehearse when we come to the Day of Atonement and observe that day as a day of fasting for the church and a day that pictures a time of reconciliation for the world.

It's different from the Passover. We focus upon the work of Christ and the Day of Atonement from a different perspective than we do when we have the Passover service. It's a very personal time of reflection on the reconciliation with God, but it also pictures the time when we truly understand how the world will be reconciled to God, how the rest of the world, because we understand the binding of Satan and his influence removed from human affairs. When we read back in Revelation 20, verses 1 to 3 of an angel with a key to the bottomless pit coming down and laying hold upon the serpent upon Satan and binding him with a chains for a thousand years, we know that that day or that event is what is pictured by what takes place on the day of Atonement, by what we read in other passages which we will refer to or talk about on that day in more detail, and observe that day with a day of affliction as we fast.

And if I could say just a word about fasting on the day of Atonement, especially, because invariably questions come up each year about nursing mothers or pregnant mothers or those that are ill and having to need to take a regular medication, and can they do that or should they just forego all of that?

This just, again, was an issue that we've understood for a number of years and settled, and that has come up privately, but I'll just mention it publicly, that if a person, if you are taking a medication that you really should not miss a day on, you take that medication, and nursing mothers are in situations where they have to keep their nourishment up during that period of time.

And I've always told people, you know, don't put yourself, that God's intent of this commandment and of observance here is not to afflict us to the point where we are physically impaired or in danger. We don't want to do that, and that's not what God requires.

And if a person needs to take a bit of nourishment to because of the medication or a nursing situation with a woman and a mother, then that is fine. Do what you need to do. Do what you have to do, and you weigh that out in your own scales of judgment and make the decision yourself. If you need some counsel on it, that's fine too. But those that are normally in good health, we should fast and obey the command in that way. Children are, you know, that's something that you have to deal with with children as they grow up, and when they're ready to embark upon that odyssey of fasting, you'll know that. The child will know that, and you make those decisions yourself and judgments within your own family and move on.

So that's a general comment. I can get more specific and private if anybody has any questions, but understand that in regard to fasting on the day of atonement. Now, back here in Leviticus 23, we move on to the Feast of Tabernacles in verse 34. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day, there shall be a holy, no, there shall be a holy convocation. So the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles is a holy day. No customary work is done. For seven days, you'll make an offering made by fire to the Lord.

And on the eighth day, you'll have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly. You shall do no customary work. And so we have here really mentioned, two days mentioned, here, in three verses because verse 34 tells us that we keep the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days.

First day is a holy day. And then in verse 36, we have an eighth-day mention that it's a holy day as well. And we go, we walk through all of that as we, when we get to that, to understand what that day is and how we, how we keep it and understand it.

And it's tied right there at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles. But the Feast of Tabernacles is a time that pictures the millennial reign of Christ ruling from Jerusalem upon this earth, his time when God intervenes in the affairs of this world and His way and His word and His law becomes the backbone of society. There will be truly at that point one world government, but it won't be a human government.

There will be a government of God. And all the other human efforts toward government, toward societal organization will have been proved to have come to a tragic failure. And this one will be set up. And then will all the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Micah and Malachi and others that have foretold a time of peace when the lion lays down with the lamb and the children little child leads them. And all of those pictures of the millennium come true. I was reading recently in a book about the prophets of Israel, and an author had made a comment in this that has stuck with me over the years that deals with the reality of these prophecies all being fulfilled.

And we know and understand them to be during this time of the millennium, pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles, that if you truly believe all of the prophecies and all of the scriptures that point to the time of the Messiah's rule, of Christ's rule upon the earth and of a perfect system that the scriptures talk about and what the prophets point to, then the only way you can understand that they will happen is by the intervention of God. That they will not come to pass, a utopia will not be brought about, world peace will not come at the hands of man, at the hands of human government.

And this author came to that conclusion in his study that he made for the book that he wrote on the prophets, and I thought it was an astute observation, very true. And he said that they will not be brought to pass by man, you can only conclude that they will come to pass by the hand of God. And what we read about in Revelation chapter 20 of a time of Christ's rule pictures that.

Revelation 20 and verse 6.

This verse will be true during this time of the millennium where John writes, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection, what we just read about in 1 Corinthians 15. Over such the second death has no power. There is a second death. That's another subject for another time. But they shall be priests, those who are part of the first resurrection, as it refers to, will be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.

That's where we get the term millennium, Latin for thousand. The Latin word mille, which means a thousand. The millennium, the time of this time of peace and Christ's ruling and the saints ruling with him. A wonderful time, a glorious time, a time that we all look forward to and is why we go to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. It's what we focus on during that time. And then back in, hold your place in Revelation 20. Let's go back to Leviticus 23. And we've already read it once, but in verse 36 we are told that there is an eighth day and a holy convocation and another offering and a sacred assembly. Verse 36. And again, a time when you do no customary work on that day. And so this eighth day is talking about another time, another part of the plan of God. And back in Revelation 20, we find this referenced here, this separate time from the millennium. First reference in verse 5, where it says, The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. A time when the rest of the dead will live. We call it the last great day. That time that is pictured by verse 5 here, when the rest of the dead come back to life. When all who have lived and never known the truth come back to life. The time that is also described down in verse 11 here, in a time of judgment, where it says, I saw a great white throne. From this we take this term of calling this period the time of the great white throne judgment.

I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was no place found for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And that is a symbol of the call to salvation and the opening to eternal life, which is given when our names are written in that book of life. Other verses talk about this. The dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. So the books that are opened and what they come to understand about what's written in those books refer to the scriptures, which are able to make us wise to salvation, Paul said through Timothy, back in 2 Timothy 3 16. And so they will then, these people who come up in this resurrection, who are part of this small and great group standing before God, will have an opportunity to understand the scriptures as they were intended to be understood to lead them to salvation for the first time in their life. And that is what is the time of salvation offered for the world. A day that I like to say answers all the questions.

So when that day comes to pass, all the questions will be answered that people have had.

All the questions about what happened to so-and-so. Where are they?

And all the questions of why. And all the injustices will be corrected. It is the most important single bit of knowledge in one sense. How do you label any one, I guess, is most important. But really to have that knowledge and that understanding makes everything that we do in God's church and everything we hold on to, every struggle we go through, it makes it all worthwhile. To have that understanding and to hold to that. And we keep that at the very end after the Feast of Tabernacles are concluded. Now, this is a thumbnail sketch, a very small thumbnail sketch. The holy days, the fall holy days in these festivals in this period of time. And we know our traditions and how we keep them and how we have come to them.

What we have done for I haven't even stopped to count up for myself which what number this will be. It's from 1963 to this year. Carl Rothenbacher could very quickly do that for me, probably, and run the numbers on it. But I've some of you, anybody kept the Feast here longer than since before 1963? Anybody? One? One or two? 62? Okay, so early 60s for us and every year.

And, of course, many of, you know, many of God's people were keeping it before that time. And all the other holy days. And we, as I said, we know our customs, we know our traditions, and we know what we do. Sometimes we need to reflect once again on why we do what we do, and the importance of these. These have been very important into the historical development of the church in our lifetime. They are focal points for us in the church. It's the time when we do gather in the various locations. But they go beyond that. When you look at the scriptures, when you look at the teaching, when you look at our own contemporary experience, I think it's safe to say that the holy days are barometers that indicate the strength of God's people at any given time. Whether it's the church today, the church of 50 years ago, whether it's the Old Testament nation of Israel or the New Testament church of God, the holy days are barometers that indicate the strength of God's people at any given point in time. When you look at the scriptures, when you look at the historical experience, when God's people turned from the holy days, they ultimately turned away from God. They, in some cases, wouldn't say they were turning away from God. In our own recent experience, many would say they were turning finally to God. But I would argue with that, not so much publicly, let people live their life. But God's people, when they've turned from the holy days, they ultimately turned away from God. We can see from scriptures when God's people had periods of revival and they turned back to God, it's generally in a connection with the holy days. There's one example that I wanted to take a minute with, and it's in 1 Kings 12. It's the story of where Israel as a people, given these days that we've just read in Leviticus 23, God gave these days to Israel.

And the significant event when they made a major rupture is told in 1 Kings 12. That is, they made a major rupture as a people and they made a rupture with the holy days, and specifically one holy day. It is the story of the time of the nation of Israel at the death of King Solomon, when the nation as a whole had been passed on to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. The story is told here in 1 Kings 12. Rehoboam, the nation of Israel, he becomes the king. It's a united nation. All 12 tribes are under one monarchy, had been from the time of David. David, then his son Solomon.

And then with Solomon's death, we have Rehoboam. But toward the end of Solomon's reign, as chapter 11 here tells, God was so fed up with what had happened during Solomon's reign that he had made a decision that he would in a sense allow the nation to be, he would divide the nation. And he made a promise to a general by the name of Jeroboam, that I will give you 10 tribes, but if you will follow me, then I will establish your line and a covenant with you.

Well, Jeroboam had to flee. To quickly move through the story, he had to go down into Egypt.

Rehoboam was crowned king, but there was still this unrest. And Rehoboam had to move very quickly. Verse 1 says that he went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. And it happened that Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, heard it, for he had been in Egypt when he fled from the presence of Solomon. And they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came, and they spoke to Rehoboam saying. I'm not going to go through all the story here, but basically Jeroboam, here you have a major confrontation. Rehoboam has been proclaimed king, but there is this, in a sense, a rebellion or a coup or a revolt. There's unrest.

And there's a confrontation at Shechem. And it is between Jeroboam and some of the assembly of Israel who came before. And they basically said to Rehoboam, look, your father laid very heavy burdens upon us. His administration was not fair in just a lot of ways. Your father is Solomon.

If you will release those that onerous physical burdens, and they're not talking about compromising with the law of God, they were talking about taxation and other civil administrations that just were a burden. If you will loosen those, we can work together. Rehoboam said, well, let me think about it. And he dismissed them, and he conferred with some of his advisors, his very close cabinet, and they basically said, don't give in. Don't compromise.

He put more weight on them, in essence. And so Rehoboam calls Jeroboam and then back in, he says, look, you know, if you thought my dad was tough, I'm going to be even tougher.

And this was too much. And Jeroboam and his cabinet, his advisors, his party, they say, okay, to your tents, Israel. They let the house of David, Rehoboam, let them do their own thing. We're going to revolt. And what happened then were 10 of the nations, 10 of the tribes, separated and formed their own separate entity under Jeroboam as king.

And now you have this historical rupture. It was a civil war. And imagine had that happened in our own experience in 1865, instead of the North beating and winning that civil war, we had become two nations. Our whole history would have been completely different. But we settled that in a civil war. This was a civil war. And the result was two nations in a very, very small piece of land.

You had the nation of Israel to the north and Judah to the south. Now, what happened, Jeroboam started thinking. Jeroboam has his following and being able to set up his administration. But there's something in Jerusalem that he's got to deal with. Jerusalem had been the capital, and Solomon had built this magnificent temple at Jerusalem. And there was the house of God. And that was the focal point of the worship for all of the Israelites. That's where they went to keep the feast days. They went up, if they did it according to the scriptures, they went up on three major pilgrimage seasons in the spring, summer, and fall to keep the feast days there. And Jeroboam, being a politician that he was, knowing human nature, he says, I can't let him go there. I can't let him go to Washington, D.C. They're going to see the capital and the Lincoln Memorial and the White House, and they're going to begin to get old weepy and pining for the old days.

He said, I've got to do something to keep them from going there and to take their attention away. And so what he did, beginning in verse 25, he knew that, as he said in verse 24, he said, they will turn against me and return to the house of David. And so he began to turn away.

And so in verse 25, Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and he went there.

And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom may return to the house of David if they go to keep sacrifices in the house of Jerusalem, the heart of the people will turn back to their Lord. Reboam, king of Judah, and will kill me and go back to Reboam, king of Judah.

And so he said, it is too much for you to go to Jerusalem. In verse 28, Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt. And so he made two calves of gold. Went right back to the story of Aaron and the Israelites when they first came out of Egypt. And he did Aaron one better. Instead of one calf, he built two calves. And he put one up in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now, geographically, these were kind of the outposts of the nation. So Dan was the furthermost northern city of Israel, and he put one right up there. And Bethel was just a few miles, really, north of Jerusalem. So he said, you don't have to go all the way to Jerusalem. Swing off the interstate road here and come right into Bethel. We've got a place for you to worship right here. And you folks, way up there in Dan, you don't need to make that long trip down to Panama City or wherever to Jerusalem. Just we'll do it right here in your own backyard. And he sent brochures out, and they had big color posters, you know. Keep the Holy Days this year in Dan. Go to Bethel. Beaches are better in Bethel.

Imagine all the propaganda that went to go up.

Now, what happened, this became a sin for the people. It went to worship before the one as far as Dan. And he made shrines on the high places and made priests from every class of people who were not of the sons of Levi. So he even made ministers who weren't ministers, who didn't have the calling through the family lineage of Levi. And he made priests. And, you know, there's a lot of lessons to be learned even from there. What he did was, in verse 32, is most significant. Because here's where he tinkered with holy time. This is where he really made a change.

He ordained a feast on the 15th day of the eighth month. Like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing the calves. And at Bethel, he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. And he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the 15th day of the eighth month, and the month which he had devised in his own heart. Now, what he did was, he moved the feast of tabernacles, which we just read in Leviticus 23, was on the 15th day of the seventh month. He moved it later, one month. And again, you could just really do all kinds of wonders with the reasoning, justification. Hey, get all your work done. Get all the harvest in. You don't have to push anything. Everything's finally all done. We know by the eighth month that it's all going to be done, and it's more convenient here.

You can have a lot of fun with thinking what they must have thought. But he he tinkered with holy time, and he altered the holy days, specifically the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, that is a significant story at a significant point in the story of Israel, because from this point on, nothing really worked right for Israel. The nation that Jeroboam founded within 200 years, they never had a good king. They had one bad king after another, and then finally after 200 years, they were taken captive. And they're the story that we hear throughout history called the Lost Ten Tribes. We know what happened to them. History doesn't acknowledge what happened to them. But they were scattered. They disappeared. Judah eventually, they lingered on. They had a few good kings, a lot of bad kings. Eventually, they went captive in Babylon. They sang this song that is really a dirge in our hymnal today, By the Waters of Babylon. I don't like that song. I don't know if it's going to make it into the new one or not. But it comes from a psalm, and you know, the our version of the psalm, the psalm's fine. Our version of the psalm is what I'm saying I don't like. But they lamented. They came back. They rebuilt. They had their problems. They suffered under the Greeks and then the Romans. And then eventually in 70 AD, the nation of Judah was taken captive. Again, that temple was destroyed. The Jews were scattered. And for 2,000 years, or roughly, the Jews have had one persecution, one pogrom, one holocaust after another, even down to our own time. And we talk about anti-Semitism, and we know the story of the Holocaust of World War II and the six million Jews that died at that time and the, you know, the whole story.

And you have to go back and realize that it all began right here in 1 Kings 12 with one man's decision to change the Holy Days, specifically the Feast of Tabernacles, in the historical experience of the people. Nothing has been the same for Israel for 2,800 years as a result of what Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did when he changed the Feast from the seventh month when God ordained it to a month later on the eighth month. It wasn't holy. It was a man-devised Feast, and nothing good came from it. He tinkered with holy time. And we have a 2,800-year experience of the nation of Israel to explain why God's Holy Days are important and what they mean to the people of God collectively and what they mean to the people of God individually.

Now, you think about your own life, what this means. I can go on and on in terms of stories and explanations of what it has meant for our own time in the church. But look at this example.

This is where the group of Israelites departed from God. And they departed from God hand in hand by tinkering with holy time and a holy day, the Feast of Tabernacles. I could turn to other stories that, especially with the nation of Judah, and showed like during the time of Hezekiah or Josiah, when they had periods of revival, it's always in connection with a holy day.

Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread. During the time of Nehemiah, we even have reference to the Feast of Tabernacles. Any time that they had any momentary time of revival and turning back to God, it was in connection with the Holy Days. But when they left God initially and the whole thing began right here, that we see an altering and a tampering with holy time. Ask yourself again at the time of the day, what I ask at the beginning, how important are these holy days to the people of God?

To the Church of God? Most importantly, the question perhaps for you to consider over the coming weeks as we observe all these days this fall, how important have they been to your life?

Maybe you should make a list of benefits. Maybe you should write a few paragraphs in in your letter to yourself, or if you keep a journal, you know, write down your thoughts, or think about that during the Feast of Tabernacles if the sermon grows a little long or a little boring or whatever. Answer this question to yourself. Write yourself a few notes. How important have the Feast of Tabernacles in all of the holy days? What's it meant to you? What have you learned?

How has it impacted your life? How would your life be different?

And do some thinking about that. And do it prayerfully. Do it in line with these examples that I've given here this morning or others that you can dig out yourself and understand and glean the lessons in your own life. But think about that. And come to a deeper appreciation as we reference and obey God's Sabbath, understanding that they are a very important part of a blessing that God puts upon us. One final scripture. Let's turn to Isaiah 58.

Isaiah 58.

And understand this blessing that begins in verse 13.

And it refers to specifically talking about the Sabbath, but as we've seen, it has application to all of the Sabbaths. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, all of these things have application to how we make the judgments that we should make about what do we do on the Sabbath day or on the holy day and how do we observe it. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. Verse 14 is a promise from God that marks a blessing from God and a promise from God because we obey Him, worship Him, honor Him, do His pleasure, find His ways, seek for His ways by the manner in which we observe, think, talk, study, pray, and keep holy time. Then God says, I will feed you, I will cause you to ride upon the high hills of the earth, which means we'll be blessed in our life and we can count the blessings. Spend some time during this season counting your blessings in connection with God's laws governing and concerning holy time. Come to a deeper appreciation and understanding of the importance of them and what they mean to us.