Traditions

Exodus 23:10-12 English Standard Version

Laws About the Sabbath and Festivals

10 “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, 11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.

12 “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

“The Holy One, blessed be He, created seven ages, and of them all He chose the seventh age only, the six ages are for the going in and coming out (of God’s creatures) for war and peace. The seventh age is entirely Sabbath and rest in the life everlasting.” – Rabbi Eliezer

The seven festivals or feasts in the Jewish sacred calendar are integral to understanding the theme of the seventh-day rest in the Bible. These feasts have symbolic meaning connecting back to the creation account in Genesis and the story of the Exodus. They are meant to act as a way to remember and teach. (The Bible Project)

In the Jewish tradition there appears the creation of traditions by God for all mankind or otherwise God would not have included slaves and aliens in the tradition of Shabbat.

As we noted yesterday man creates their own traditions for reasons long forgotten as to the source and reasons. Today in America we hold certain traditions and create new ones in the same way for the same reason. We need not list them to know them.

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Some are godly, some are not. Some are God centered and over time reduced to secular celebrations that seek to forget those origins. I need not name those either.

This is not said to condemn anyone for how and why they keep traditions, only that we are clear on why we celebrate them. What we teach our children may last or not. Each generation has a responsibility to examine their own heart as to why.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Tradition!

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