Deuteronomy 16: 1 – 22
Don’t Forget
16 “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to put His name. 3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. 4 And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning. 5 “You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you; 6 but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. 7 And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. 8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it. 9 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. 10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you. 11 You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide. 12 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes. 13 “You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. 14 And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. 15 Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice. 16 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you. 18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. 19 You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. 20 You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God is giving you. 21 “You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the LORD your God. 22 You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.
Have you ever tried to remember a password, but it just slips your mind. Or have you ever forgotten the name of a new acquaintance the next day, despite being able to remember their face?
We’ve all been the victims of faulty memory, left grasping for information we know is there to no avail. Why is it that sometimes, when we need it most, we can’t recall something?
One problem with memory involves knowing something is stored but being unable to retrieve the information. The theory why this occurs is called memory decay or failure, which suggests that each new memory creates a ‘trace’ that, can fade away if not accessed regularly.
Have you ever in a conversation just lost what you were thinking? When that happens to someone who is talking to me I calm them down with the advice that it will be okay and that as we continue to talk the thought that they just lost will come back to them. Try this approach, it works.
There are two types of interference in our thinking process, proactive and retroactive. Proactive interference means an old memory is getting in the way of forming a new one or that the information from the old and the new memories are getting confused. Retroactive interference means that new information has interfered with recalling older information. This kind of interference can affect our ability to recall lists after even a short span of time, or remember the name of someone we just met.
Some people say to me, ‘I think I have short time memory lapses.’ My response is, ‘Oh sure, next you will probably tell me you forgot the $100 I lent you.’
Sometimes, we just don’t store the information we take in, or just fail to store it to long-term memory. Scientists say that our short-term memory can only recall about seven things in the span of about 30 seconds, and after that, it becomes more difficult. Distractions can also be a big factor in being unable to store information, whether we cause them ourselves or whether they come from outside.
I read about a theory called ‘Motivated Forgetting’ which involves voluntary suppression or unconscious repressions of memories that make us feel uncomfortable, or are too traumatic to deal with.
Multitasking can play a huge part in memory failure. Switching back and forth between tasks, whether it is by choice or because of interruptions, can severely impair our ability to focus. Although you might think switching between several tasks is more productive, the sad truth is that it forces your brain to ‘reset’ each time you switch tasks. That can actually increase the time needed to complete each task.
Our Precious Holy Savior and Lord Jesus Christ has informed us as we learn in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 that about this fact when He said, “5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they will be heard for their many words.”
So how can we fight against our own forgetfulness? Perhaps the most helpful thing, whether it be in a journal, on your tablet, or on your phone, is writing important things down. Each day go over what you recorded and deal with the ones that you think are the most important.
Stop Multitasking! Take the time to concentrate on one task at a time, and you’ll be able to do better work faster.
Repeat what someone says back to them or to yourself. I was just watching one of my favorite movies called, Groundhog Day. The main character Phil Conner played by Bill Murray is trying to impress Rita Hanson played by Andie MacDowell. They are in a candy store and he offers her some white chocolate which she replies, ‘White chocolate, yuck!’ After hearing this he says out loud to himself, ‘no white chocolate’ This is an example of retaining an important fact for future use. This not only helps you confirm what they said, but it also lets the other person know you are listening.
In what I have just listed do you notice anything relative to what we read about in today’s scripture. Some people might have thought, ‘Come on now, we are reading about things that have already been told to us.’ The answer is yes we are because our Great and Wonderful Holy God wants us to remember and not forget things that He considers important.
Moses now reminded them that every year Israel were to gather at the three great feasts, Passover, Sevens (Weeks or Harvest) and Tabernacles (or Ingathering/Booths). With these three feasts all males were to appear in the place of Yahweh’s choosing three times a year.
No mention is made of the great Day of Atonement, or of lesser feasts. This is not a general giving of the Law. It is a speech given to the people to encourage them and prepare them for their direct responsibilities in connection with entering the land and possessing it.
16 “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to put His name.
The Passover was observed on 14th of Abib but no mention of that is made here. The whole month was seen as important because it was the month of deliverance, and Moses wanted it to be well remembered.
The Passover night, with the lamb having been slain towards evening, was itself a feast of remembrance as through the night they partook of the lamb along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread and during it would go through the question and answer ritual connected with the Passover (Exodus 12.26-27). It was a reminder of how Yahweh had brought them out of Egypt ‘by night’, that is, in dark times.
3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
The unleavened bread was a symbol of the speed and anxiety with which they had left Egypt ‘in fearful haste’ without having time to leaven the bread, but was also to be seen as ‘the bread of affliction’, suggesting that in some way their bondage had meant that they regularly had to use unleavened bread. All this was to be repeated yearly so that they would remember that day when they came out of Egypt all their lives.
Besides the actual memorial there was symbolism beyond that which has been mentioned. Leaven was a symbol of corruption, which was why it was excluded from grain offerings, and the removal of all leaven from the whole country was therefore a symbol of the need for them to be free from corruption. Even those who could not come to the feast had to observe the prohibition of leaven.
4 And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.
Indeed all leaven was to be excluded from all dwellings within their borders for ‘seven days’, and no flesh of the Passover lamb, which was sacrificed in the ‘evening’ (mid-afternoon before twilight) of the first day and consumed during the night, must remain until the morning of the 15th. It must either all be eaten or burned with fire (Exodus 12.10). This last was because of its holiness, and because it must all be connected with ‘that day’. Burning with fire took it to Yahweh.
5 “You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you; 6 but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.
It is stressed again that they must not sacrifice the Passover in their own cities or towns ‘given to them by Yahweh’, but must sacrifice it at the place which Yahweh their God has chosen as the place where His name might dwell. It must be sacrificed before Him and enjoyed in His presence. The clear purpose here is that the feast would be a perpetual living again of that night of deliverance lived out in the very presence of Yahweh, their Holy Lord.
For us who are Christians it is a reminder that we look to a greater Passover lamb and a greater deliverance. We too must rid ourselves of all leaven, of all that corrupts and defiles. We too look to the Passover Lamb, the One Who died for us. We too celebrate it by gathering with Him through His blood at the Father’s home, although ours is in Heaven.
7 And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents
Please notice the repetition. We are still at the Passover. Again the emphasis is on the place which Yahweh would choose. This emphasizes His sovereignty in the arrangement. He Is Lord, they are His subjects. He has chosen this place for Him to dwell in and for them to come with their sacrifices
8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.
For six days unleavened bread must be eaten, and the final day of the seven was to be a solemn Sabbath, a day for public rites and festival, in which no work was to be done. Of course on that day also unleavened bread was to be eaten.
9 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.
This count of seven sevens was to commence the day after the Sabbath when the sheaf of the wave offering, the first result of the putting in of the sickle to the standing grain, was brought at the feast of unleavened bread (Leviticus 23.15). The seven sevens (forty nine days) hopefully gave time for the harvesting of first the barley, and then the wheat, to be completed. Then after the markedly divine period (seven sevens) the feast could be held on the fiftieth day (In Greek ‘Pente-cost’)..
10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.
No ritual detail is here given of the feast, but rather emphasis is laid on the bringing of tribute, a freewill offering which they were to bring according to how Yahweh had blessed them. He is concerned with the people’s part in it. The harvest having been mainly gathered they would know exactly how far they had been blessed, at least as far as the harvests were concerned. It was a gift of gratitude and an act of submission.
11 You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide.
It was anticipated that many in each household would come to this feast, and there before Yahweh they would rejoice together, along with the Levite, the resident alien who had chosen to dwell among them. These last were never to be forgotten in the celebrations. Levites were spread throughout the land for the purpose of their fulfilling of their responsibilities.
No one was to be excluded from the celebrations. It was a time for rejoicing by all, including bondsmen and bondswomen. And the fatherless and widows must be given full consideration. It was to be a compassionate society, not regulated from the top except by these Laws, but from the heart.
12 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
They were not to forget that they had been bondsmen in Egypt but especially at their feasts and when dealing with their own bondsmen and with the poor. It would increase their rejoicing, and increase their consideration for their servants and for the needy.
13 “You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. 14 And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.
The Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated at the end of the agricultural year. By this time not only had the barley and wheat harvest been gathered, but also the grape harvest and the summer fruits.
15 Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.
Again this feast was to be kept for ‘seven days’ demonstrating the divine perfection of the feast, and was to be held in the place where Yahweh had been pleased to take up His dwelling. This feast at the end of the agricultural ‘year’ or season was to be held because Yahweh would have blessed their increase throughout the year, all their harvests would have been gathered in, and everything would have been more than satisfactory. Thus they would be altogether joyful, and they were to demonstrate the fact.
16 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you.
Again as a technique applied we are given the names used for the feasts, ‘unleavened bread’ because that side of it has been Moses’ emphasis in this speech as far as the people were concerned, ‘sevens’ because it indicated the divine content of the feasts, and ‘tabernacles’ because the people would be erecting and spending their time in tents.
The first and third were features of their direct participation, and the second emphasized an expectancy of divine participation. They baked the bread and ate it, they erected the tents and lived in them, and they waited the seven sevens in expectancy. It made them feel as though they were taking part even while they were listening.
Having established the principles of worship and religious response of the people, Moses now moved on to various aspects of governing the community.
Crucial to enjoying blessing in the land was the establishing of a satisfactory system of justice. There can be no question that a fair and effective justice system produces the maximum benefit for everyone, even though some prefer to be without it because they are greedy and in their hearts godless. To distort justice is to dishonor God, and He will eventually call to account all who do so.
18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment.
Once they were established in the cities and towns which Yahweh was about to give them they must appoint judges and officers to watch over legal affairs. Each city and town was to have its civil judiciary, usually selected from among the elders of the town because of their wide experience, their acknowledged ability and their knowledge of God’s Instruction (the Torah), who would meet at the gate of the city or town where there would be an open space. With them would be officials appointed to ensure that justice was carried out.
19 You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.
The command brings out three points;
. You shall not pervert justice
. You shall not respect persons
. You shall not take a bribe’.
This is a charter for the justices. They must neither distort nor pervert justice, nor take account of who the litigants were, whether influential nobles or relative nobodies, whether wealthy or impoverished, nor must they take a bribe nor must they allow such things to change their view of the evidence, nor use their skills to distort the honesty of righteous men.
Injustice and corruption are a shame on any country, and the unfortunate lot of all. ‘A bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the word of the righteous.’
Through the ages justice has been commonly distorted by all these methods described, and in general is as much so today. The use of influence to obtain decisions is commonplace in local authorities (in spite of the pretence that it is not), people with influence, or who have the right friends, get their own way, while others are relatively ignored; bribery and corruption of different kinds are influential at all levels of society, while political ends regularly sway decisions.
20 You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
Rather than perverting justice they were to follow it whole heartedly. It was vital that Yahweh’s people be absolutely just in all their dealings, aware that Yahweh knew their very thoughts and the genuineness of their actions. Thus by truly following justice they would inherit the land that Yahweh their God was giving them. The reverse implication is that if injustice prevailed they would lose their land.
These verses bring home to us all, that God looks for us to deal fairly and righteously in all circumstances. Anything else is displeasing to Him.
21 “You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the LORD your God. 22 You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.
Having established the altar of Yahweh their God at the place which Yahweh would choose, they must not in any way have any other gods. This is indicated by an Asherah image or pole, of any kind of wood whatsoever. Asherah, a Canaanite goddess, was represented at Canaanite sanctuaries either by a wooden image or a pole representing a tree (it is not certain which), probably as the wife of the Baal who was the main god there, the latter often represented by a stone pillar.
