23:1,2
We now come to the calendar of festivals that the Israelites were to observe. The instructions are given to “the Israelites”, through Moses. Unlike much of what has gone before there is no mention of Aaron or the priests. These instructions were for all the people, the role of the priests was to facilitate the festivals and offerings. The festivals were God’s appointed festivals, and were to be “sacred assemblies”, i.e. the focus is upon the Lord.
23:3
This deals specifically with the Sabbath, so there was a “sacred assembly” every week. This points back to the fifth of the ten commandments. It was to be a day of rest. The rule applied wherever they lived. Now we know that the Sabbath was a major point of contention between Jesus and the Pharisees, many of the recorded conflicts occuring on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was very important, yet we also see that the religious leaders had developed a very skewed idea of what it was all about.
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