There are many believers who do not realize that ancient Israel had three annual feasts, annual sabbath celebrations that every male thirteen years of age and older were required to observe each and every year in Jerusalem – and only in Jerusalem. Yet many Israelites lived a hundred miles or more from Jerusalem! Have you ever walked a hundred miles? And, remember, they had to make this journey THREE TIMES EACH AND EVERY YEAR. And then, of course, they had to walk the same distance back home a week later!. Few Israelites had donkeys or carts that could make such a trek. And, remember every male member of the family thirteen years of age and above had to make this trip. Some families had several sons, a grandfather and possibly others, who made this journey. Even if they had a donkey and a cart, who could expect such a small animal to pull a cart loaded down with several adults and children, including extra changes of clothing and food and water for the journey!!! These arduous trips were most certainly included in the works of the law as they required much effort and energy to perform. What is the furthest you have ever walked – ten miles? twenty miles? fifty miles? Wouldn’t you call walking a hundred miles a laborious work? Of course, there were many families that lived either in Jerusalem or its’ environs, but there were multitudes who did not. Many lived fifty, eighty or a hundred miles from Jerusalem.
After giving Moses the Ten Commandments written on two stone tablets, we read “AND HE ADDED NO MORE!” (See Deuteronomy 5:22). All other laws were the laws of Moses. In the 7th chapter of Jeremiah God is speaking to Israel, and He says, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this one thing commanded I them, saying obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people, and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward” (Jeremiah 7:21-24). So what did God do? “Wherefore I gave them statutes THAT WERE NOT GOOD, AND JUDGMENTS WHEREBY THEY SHOULD NOT LIVE!” (See Ezekiel 20:25). And what was the one sin that angered God to such a frightening degree? “My sabbaths they greatly polluted” (See Ezekiel 20:13). It was God’s weekly sabbath, four of them a month, fifty-two of them each year that they consistently polluted. So God said, as it were, I will give them sabbaths that they will find impossible for them to observe without sweat of the brow labor for they will need to walk dozens and dozens of miles again and again to get to the only place where I will permit them to observe these days of rest. This will be a great part of the schoolmaster I will use to teach them the habit of obedience. (See Galatians 3:23-25).
Those Christians in this modern day, who place themselves under the works of the law, crow “Why, these annual festivals are a delight to observe. We get to meet together with like-minded believers for a full week at a time, enjoying good food and beautiful resort accommodations, arriving in our comfortable air-conditioned automobiles, etc.” They are utterly oblivious to the fact that the ancient Israelite did not view these festivals in the same light. How many modern-day annual sabbath observers would continue attending such festivals if they and their families had to walk to the site that was situated eighty, ninety or a hundred miles from their home??? What if at the Feast of Tabernacles they could not enjoy the peasant accommodations of a nice motel or hotel but had to break off leafy tree branches for a hut and stay in such huts for a week at a time????? Friend, you had better forget what you have been spoon fed by others and allow the Spirit of the Living God to enlighten your mind as to what His word actually says and teaches. God help you to understand.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley