This year our church committed to keeping the seven Levitical feasts of the Lord (Lev 23). Four times as He describes the feasts, God tells His people: "It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations". We don't believe the feasts need to be kept exactly as prescribed; we aren't killing any lambs. And we certainly don't believe the feasts to be salvific. But we did commit to keeping them in spirit if not letter because God constantly reminds His people to remember what He's done for them: "One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts." Ps 145:4

The final three Levitical feasts are in the fall. The Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles take up about a month. We crammed them into one stunningly glorious day in October.


We set up the day as a mini-retreat, with two teaching sessions in the morning for Trumpets and Yom Kippur and a "fast". Many (most?) of us ate breakfast that morning, but between 10 and about 2 we didn't have food available because Yom Kippur is a day of fasting. But afterward we enjoyed a long afternoon of fellowship, food, and football. We ended the year with teaching on Tabernacles at night.
It was a lovely laid-back day to visit with friends we haven't seen in a while and enjoy the incredible weather and the Slonecker's hospitality.

The second teaching session was particularly interesting, even if we were really hungry. Chris and Mark had measured out the Exodus tabernacle on the lawn with stand-ins for all the furniture. Aaron's staff was a light saber; the manna was graham crackers and the dog ate them all. But we were able to walk through the Day of Atonement process with the "high priest" (Mark) while Chris taught.

This definitely made an impression on Hamish. "It was like walking into the Bible!" she told us later.

After our tabernacle tour, we grilled burgers and hot dogs for a late lunch, and snacked for the rest of the day on chips and cookies and other treats. Some of us snoozed. A lot watched football. The kids rode bikes and 4-wheelers. Many of us just talked for a few hours.



We wrapped up the evening with one last teaching session as the sun set and then s’mores. (These are meant to be feasts!!) We were nowhere near town, so the stars were just stunning as we packed up to go home.



A year of feasts remembered!