Deuteronomy 16 - Memorials and Feasts

Anniversaries, birthdays, holidays and festivals are events we look forward to each year because they are times of remembrance and commemoration of events past that impact our lives today. We celebrate each year that passes remembering those people, events and achievements that have made us who we are. Celebrations ground us and cause us to take a moment to consider our history. Even sad commemorations like Memorial Day when we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to secure our freedoms help us to value what we have, to recognize that it came at a cost and that we now have the charge to continue the legacy established by these men and women. 

In Dueteronomy 16, God sets up several feasts and remembrances because He wants his people to take time to reflect on the ways He has secured their freedoms and provided for their needs. Each year the people were to remember how God supernaturally delivered them from bondage to Egypt and paved the way to their promised land. He wanted the people to remember their time in subjection and oppression under the domination of Egypt so that they would never return to such a life. He wanted the people to see that their prosperity is directly a result of God's blessing in their lives. The Israelites had much to be thankful for. 

We too can take times out of our year to specifically remember God's hand in our lives. At Thanksgiving we consider the provision God gives us through the year and the abundance we share with food, family, health and friends. At Christmas we consider again the grandeur of God himself taking on human flesh and coming to live with us and experience life as a mere mortal. At Easter we consider the great price that was paid for our freedom from sin and the hope that opened up when our Savior took our place and allowed us to be reconciled to God. These feasts should not be taken lightly or allowed to be secularized. We have a God in Heaven that deserves and craves our remembrance. We should rember throughout the war but take special times to celebrate the greatness of God with our family and friends. Who knows but what these celebrations could be just the tool God uses to bring an unsaved lives one into the Kingdom.

May God richly bless you as you seek Him and as you serve Him.