New Year: Lev 23-24 for Feb 5

Only some of the "appointed times of the Lord" are yearly times in our passage. They are talked about also in Lev 16, in the case of the day of atonement. The Sabbath, though weekly, is also mentioned with these feasts because of the necessity for not doing any work (23:3) then, which it has in common with some of the days in the feasts.

We shouldn't miss one of the most interesting of the obligations of the Law here. In the description of the first fruits, 1) this law is anticipatory, i.e., it is not even applicable until the future, when they are producing agriculturally in the land (23:10); 2) it is not to be done on a set calendar day, but is to be done based on the harvest itself: the first fruits of the harvest are not available until the crop is harvestable, and that is God's business, as to exactly when ("in the fullness of time") 3) the first fruits of the harvest are described as a unitary offering, a "sheaf," (23:10), then, seven sabbaths and a day later, some bread -- fully baked with leaven, in quantity! (23:17). Does this sound vaguely familiar? Hope so (1 Cor 15:20-23).