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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Exodus 34:18 - 34:28
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The Second Festivals
v. 18. The Feast of Unleavened Bread shalt thou keep. Cf Exo_23:15. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib; for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. Because of the defection of the Israelites the Lord here repents the ordinances regarding the chief festival days and seasons.
v. 19. All that openeth the matrix is Mine, all the firstborn sons of the children of Israel; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male. This precept is here stated on account of its close connection with the Passover and its significance.
v. 20. But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, ransom by the payment of a lamb or a kid; and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the first-born of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty. Cf Exo_23:15.
v. 21. Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest, Cf Exo_20:9; Exo_23:12; in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest, these two seasons being mentioned since they were the busiest season for the farmer, when he would be inclined to use also the Sabbath for work.
v. 22. And thou shalt observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, namely, Pentecost, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end, the Feast of Tabernacles at the end of the season.
v. 23. Thrice in the year shall all your men-children, all the males, the men, appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. On these three great festivals the attendance of all Israelites was commanded; they were obliged to meet, first at the Sanctuary, and later in the Temple.
v. 24. For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders, Cf Exo_23:31; neither shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord, thy God, thrice in the year; the Lord promised to keep away all enemies at these times, so that they would not take advantage of the men's absence to invade the country.
v. 25. Thou shalt not offer the blood of My sacrifice, of the Passover lamb, with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left unto the morning; it should either be eaten to the last fragment, or the remainder burned with fire, Exo_12:10.
v. 26. The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord, thy God, this being the most prominent rite of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk. Cf Exo_23:19.
v. 27. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words, the ordinances were to be preserved in writing; for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. The first covenant had hereby been renewed or reinstituted.
v. 28. And he (Moses) was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights, as he had been the first time, Exo_24:18; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water, being miraculously sustained by the Lord. And He (God) wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, the Decalog. The true hallowing of God's name in the New Testament consists in this, that we gladly hear and learn the Word of God, and help to uphold the ministry in our midst and to spread the Gospel-news.