Daily Devotion | Leviticus 23:1–14 | 2026 March 16

Title: Daily Devotion | Leviticus 23:1–14 | 2026 March 16

Scripture: Leviticus 23:1–14 (ESV, reference only)

Date: 2026 March 16

Speaker: Rev. John Chen

Transcribed, translated & edited by: Joseph Wang (Yufan)

Alright, let us continue our exposition of Leviticus. In Leviticus we have been seeing that it speaks about the ordinances of holiness. It talks about the holiness of food, the distinction between clean and unclean; it talks about the holiness of the priests; it talks about the holiness of the sacrifices. Today we come to this section that speaks about the holiness of the appointed times—the holiness of the festivals.

Now when you read Leviticus by yourself, it is very possible that when you come to the section about the festivals, you may simply pass over it quickly without paying much attention. But in fact, festivals have a very great influence on people. This is something we often do not notice.

For example, in any country there are fixed festivals. Every country has them. Take China for example. Chinese people have the traditional Spring Festival. There are also the large national holidays like May Day and the National Day in October. Then there are festivals such as Qingming, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival. These are what Chinese people commonly refer to as seasonal festivals.

Within each of these festivals there are certain expressions and meanings. Some of them are traditional Chinese festivals, such as Qingming and the Dragon Boat Festival. Others are holidays established by the government, like May Day and National Day. But all of these festivals actually shape your sense of identification with your country. This is something we often do not pay attention to.

For instance, if you go to the United States, then you will speak about American holidays. There is Independence Day, the Fourth of July. I think that is their national founding day—I am not completely certain—but it is something like that. These kinds of holidays exist wherever you go. If you go to another place, that place will also have its own festivals.

So every nation, every ethnic group, every region has its own festivals. These festivals express the identity of that people. When people celebrate a festival, it signals that this is a time of celebration. For ordinary people like us, we may be more sensitive to the specialness of certain objects or actions. For example, we understand that some things cannot be touched, or some things cannot be done. That kind of idea we more or less understand.

But when it comes to the holiness of time—when a certain day is set apart and on that day certain things cannot be done while other things must be done—we often do not have that instinctive awareness. Yet in reality we are already doing this. We simply do not consciously recognize it.

Let me give you an example. Think about the first day of the Lunar New Year in China. No matter how much a person loves money, generally speaking shops are closed and people stay at home to celebrate the holiday. According to traditional Chinese customs, businesses usually close on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Of course today some places remain open, and you could say the old rule has been somewhat broken.

But traditionally, the closing of shops on the first day of the year expresses a kind of national or cultural identity: “Today I will rest; today I will celebrate the festival.” That is a shared recognition among the people. The reason I give this example is to show you that every nation is shaped by its festivals.

There are certain appointed times. Perhaps you do not pay much attention to them, but these festivals are in fact shaping you. That is the point I want to make.

Since festivals shape people, and since particular times that are set apart shape people, then we should ask: in Leviticus, which festivals does God set apart? Which times are to be separated out?

The first one that must be set apart appears in verses 3 and 4, which speak about the Sabbath. Verses 1 and 2 say that these are the appointed feasts in which the people are to proclaim holy convocations. Then immediately in verses 3 and 4 the Sabbath is mentioned.

In the life of Israel the Sabbath was an extremely important festival. It is not merely a day of rest—it is a feast day. Six days you shall labor, and the seventh day you shall rest. But on that day there must be a holy assembly. That means on that day no work is to be done at all. In all your dwelling places it is a Sabbath to the LORD.

What are the people supposed to do on the Sabbath? They are not merely staying at home resting. They gather together for a meeting. And what is that meeting for? It is to learn the statutes and ordinances of God.

The command concerning the Sabbath is written in the Ten Commandments. Therefore keeping the Sabbath is part of the moral law.

Brothers and sisters, do not think that setting apart a certain time is something insignificant. You might think, “I will just go and take care of my own affairs.” But you must be careful. You must truly keep the Sabbath well.

On that day you should not do any ordinary work. Do not engage in secular business. Instead you should do things related to God. For example, in our seminary examinations are generally not scheduled on the Lord’s Day. On the Lord’s Day you are not asked to submit homework. Why? Because we want to encourage people to keep the Sabbath.

As I have said before, externally speaking it can be difficult to impose strict limits on this, because every day looks similar. How do you actually set one day apart? But in fact, keeping the Sabbath is a very important matter.

Today many Chinese Christians neglect this. Many people neglect the keeping of the Sabbath. They think it is merely an Old Testament regulation. But that is not the case. The Sabbath command is part of the moral law, and everyone should keep it.

God sets apart this day so that people may follow Him, understand Him, and learn His statutes and ordinances.

Seven days already form a very intense cycle. If you go seven days without remembering God, you will forget Him very quickly. That is why churches often have midweek gatherings. That is also why we have daily devotions. The purpose is to bring you back again and again to the Word of God.

Do not underestimate the Sabbath. If you stop for a period of time, try it and see—you will quickly drift further and further away from God. Eventually you may think, “I do not need to keep the Sabbath. I do not need to go to church.”

Brothers and sisters, I think many people neglect the Sabbath. Why? Because they think about many practical matters. Children have homework. Customers need to be met. Business deals must be done. They say, “The Lord’s Day comes every week anyway. It does not matter. I will come next time.”

Right now this matter must be handled first. I am not saying that you can never take leave on the Sabbath. But I think you must carefully examine why you are taking leave. This is a very serious matter.

Brothers and sisters, we are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. We must continually pursue growth in spiritual life. This is God’s mercy toward us.

Spiritual life is like rowing upstream: if you do not move forward, you will drift backward. Therefore you must run diligently. Do not slide backward easily. Sometimes something small comes up and you say, “Alright, I will just skip this week.”

You say, “I will first go take care of my own affairs on Sunday afternoon.” But here you must ask yourself: when it comes to keeping the Sabbath, do you believe that God’s Word is true, or do you believe that your own feelings are true?

In other words, if you say, “I will not keep the Sabbath because I feel tired,” that is your own feeling and judgment. The question is: will you listen to God’s judgment, or to your own?

We thank the Lord that in our church things are relatively good. The vast majority of brothers and sisters keep the Sabbath. This is a very important part of the Christian life. When you keep it regularly, it becomes a habit. Once it becomes a habit, you receive spiritual nourishment.

Do not retreat. Do not allow secular matters to replace this. Because of worldly concerns you simply stop coming. That is not a good thing. God sees, and God records these things.

Therefore I encourage everyone to keep running the race and to keep the Sabbath well.

Next comes the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We already explained their meaning in the book of Exodus, so we will not repeat all the details here. The text simply tells us the appointed times.

The Passover takes place on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month. On the first day there must be a holy convocation and no ordinary work may be done. On the seventh day there is also a holy convocation and a fire offering is presented, and again no ordinary work may be done.

Here you must pay attention to how time works in these festivals. The Sabbath is kept every week. But the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread may fall on other days of the week. For example, perhaps this year the Passover happens to fall on a Wednesday. Then on Wednesday you would also have a holy assembly.

Then seven days later, perhaps the next Wednesday again marks the conclusion of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and there is another assembly. I am just giving an example.

The point is that the cycle of festivals is layered on top of the Sabbath cycle. It is not that if you keep the Sabbath you no longer keep the Passover or the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Rather, these festivals are added into the calendar.

Why are they added? They are added in order to remind you again and again to follow God and to understand His law more deeply.

So besides the Sabbath, the first major festival is the Passover together with the Feast of Unleavened Bread. These point forward to the blood of Jesus Christ that covers us, redeems us, and calls us to live a holy life. Since we already explained this in Exodus in detail, we will not repeat it here.

After that comes a festival called the Feast of Firstfruits. This is a festival that appears less frequently in other parts of Scripture, and therefore it is easy for us to overlook it.

When we commonly speak of the three great pilgrimage feasts, we usually mention Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Booths. Those are the three that are most often discussed. But in Israel there were also other appointed times that were regulated by God, even though we may not pay much attention to them. The Feast of Firstfruits is one of them.

What does the Feast of Firstfruits say? When you enter the land that God gives you and you begin to harvest its crops, you are to bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. The priest shall wave the sheaf before the LORD.

But this waving must not be done on the Sabbath, because the Sabbath is a day when labor ceases, and harvesting grain requires work. Therefore the sheaf is waved on the day after the Sabbath so that it may be accepted.

At the same time an offering is made: a male lamb without blemish as a burnt offering, along with a grain offering and a drink offering. A lamb is offered, grain is offered, and wine is poured out.

The grain offering amounts to about two kilograms of flour, and the drink offering is about one kilogram of wine—about two jin of wine. These are the regulations concerning the Feast of Firstfruits.

There is also a special rule in verse 14: you shall not eat bread or grain or fresh ears until the very day you bring the offering to God. Before that time what do you eat? You eat the old stored grain. This does not mean you go hungry. It simply means you eat what was harvested previously.

When can you eat the newly harvested crops? Only after you have first offered them to God. This is to be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

Let us pause here today and talk carefully about the Feast of Firstfruits. What is the meaning that this feast is meant to express?

The Feast of Firstfruits teaches the Israelites that the produce of the land is God’s provision. When you arrive in the land that God gives you and begin to harvest, you must bring the first sheaf to the priest. The firstfruits must be offered first.

This shows that you acknowledge that the produce of the land comes from the blessing of the LORD. That is the first meaning.

Therefore you cannot eat it first yourself. You must first offer it to God. Only after offering it to God may you eat it. This expresses your acknowledgment that God is the one who provides.

At the same time, you are also asking God to protect the rest of the harvest. After the firstfruits appear, will the rest of the crops ripen? Will there be enough rain? Will there be disasters or problems? I have not been a farmer myself, so I do not fully understand these things. But my general sense is that after the first crops appear, there still needs to be continued protection in order for the rest of the harvest to mature.

The harvest does not automatically become complete the moment the first fruits appear. If you have farming experience, you probably understand this better than I do.

So the second meaning is that you are asking God to protect what remains. You pray, “Lord, please guard and preserve the rest of the harvest so that it may provide for my needs.”

Therefore the Feast of Firstfruits carries two meanings. First, it acknowledges that God is the one who supplies and protects. Second, it asks God to protect the future harvest that is still to come.

Why do we talk about the Feast of Firstfruits today? Because it relates to the principle behind the tithe.

Of course the tithe does not correspond one-to-one with this festival. Even the Feast of Pentecost later on carries a similar meaning. But I want to explain why the offering is placed within the worship service.

We rarely explain this clearly, so today I want to take the opportunity to do so. Why do we have an offering in the Lord’s Day service?

Because the offering expresses the same meaning as the Feast of Firstfruits. On the Lord’s Day you hear God’s Word. Because of God’s promises, His help, His mercy, and His provision, you have received your work and your income.

How then do you respond? You respond through the act of offering.

Through the offering you express two things. First, you acknowledge that everything you have—your finances, everything—comes from God. It is God’s blessing that has given it to you.

Second, you ask God to have mercy on you and to protect how the remaining nine-tenths of your resources will be used.

We often speak about the tithe as the “tithe that ought to be given.” But in reality there should also be additional offerings—such as helping brothers and sisters in need. Those belong to offerings beyond the tithe.

Because in fact every single dollar you have belongs to God. You must learn to use money faithfully before God.

So in the offering you both express your gratitude to God and acknowledge His provision. You say, “Lord, thank You. Everything I have comes from You.”

How do you express that acknowledgment? By returning one-tenth of what you have received. That one-tenth declares that everything truly comes from Him.

At the same time you ask God to protect how the remaining nine-tenths will be used, so that it may align with His will and receive His blessing.

Money itself is one of the protections and gifts God gives people in this present life.

Then the offering is given to the church, and the church uses it according to God’s will—whether for the support of the Levites, which today means supporting ministers, or for the work of ministry.

Of course the finances should be transparent and properly reported. That is roughly the process.

So brothers and sisters, today I hope this explanation makes the matter clear. Now you understand why the tithe is given.

If you refuse to give the tithe, it essentially means two things.

First, you do not acknowledge that your work comes from God. At its root, you believe that your financial income is something you obtained by your own strength.

Second, you are not asking God to protect your wealth. You simply think, “This is mine. I earned it through my own effort.”

In that case you simply use it on your own.

In fact, the offering is a special protection that God gives to Christians. God desires to bless your possessions. One of the ways He protects you is through the practice of the tithe.

Through this process your perspective shifts—from being centered on yourself and believing the money is something you earned, to recognizing that it is something God has given.

When that shift happens, God’s care, mercy, and protection accompany you in this life.

Therefore brothers and sisters, we should treat the tithe seriously and actively fulfill it, so that our finances may remain under God’s protection.

In reality, thank the Lord, our church is doing relatively well in this area. But in many churches the tithe is greatly neglected.

What does that neglect express? It expresses the belief that money is something I earned and therefore I can spend it however I want.

When that happens, it is not surprising that people experience more financial losses—being defrauded, suffering financial setbacks, and so on.

Why does that happen? Because they fall under God’s discipline. The money originally came from God, but through their actions they express rebellion toward Him.

Another situation arises with those who run businesses. I often teach this when I go out to speak or teach in other places, and also here in our own church.

Those who do business—especially large business—must be careful not to say, “I cannot tithe yet because the accounts are not settled. There are many outstanding receivables.”

That attitude is not pleasing to God. You must plan your finances wisely.

Each month your salary should be tithed. At the end of the year you should have a clear financial record. You cannot say, “My accounts are chaotic. I do not know how much I earned.” That is not a wise way to handle finances.

If you earned 200,000 yuan in a year, then faithfully give 20,000. If you earned 2,000,000 yuan, then faithfully give 200,000.

God does not need this money. God’s house never lacks money. The tithe is a protection for those who do business.

In connection with the eighth commandment, God desires that believers conduct business within His will. Ideally there can be reasonable profit—perhaps around twenty percent—but we do not need to fight destructive price wars.

Instead we rely on God’s protection. Whether a customer comes or not, whether a deal succeeds or not, in essence it is God who decides.

When someone truly fears God and faithfully gives the tithe, I have seen many Christians receive God’s blessing.

Some people might say, “Pastor Chen, this sounds very worldly. You are using the protection of money to attract people to give the tithe. It sounds like prosperity theology.”

If you think that about me, I cannot change your opinion. But I will tell you this: this is God’s Word and God’s will.

If you obey, you receive blessing. If you do not obey, you experience discipline. This is God’s real help to the church as we pursue a sanctified life.

May the Lord lead us to follow His Word within His grace. What we seek is a holy life—holiness in our finances, holiness in our morals.

That is our goal. And in His mercy, God will also grant the blessings He desires to give within that pursuit of holiness.

Alright, we will stop here for today’s sharing. Thank you everyone.