Another description God gives Himself is a jealous God. He loves His people. He puts all these things in place to keep them from false gods that will lead to their destruction. He calls for three feasts each year.
He’s not Chairman Mao putting up big pictures of himself wanting worship because He loves the attention. God loves His people.
God puts these things in place to help them remember. People forget, so quickly they forget. God’s heart is to bless His people. His heart is to see His children thriving. He’s a good parent.
God reminds them of the covenant, the promise He gave them that He will give them the land.
He reminds them of the Sabbath day of rest, good for them and honoring to God. It’s a weekly reminder to trust Him. It would all be okay if we would just trust Him.
He reminds them of the feasts. The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminds how God delivered them out of Egypt. It reminds us of Christ’s death and resurrection and how we are delivered out of the world and into God’s kingdom through the blood of the perfect Lamb.
The Feast of Weeks is a celebration of the first of the harvest. We celebrate it as Pentecost, the first harvest of the church, where the Holy Spirit was given and thousands came into the Body in one day.
The Feast of the Ingathering happens in the fall and is yet to be fulfilled. This is another harvest festival. We celebrate it as a reminder that Jesus is coming back and will gather His people to Himself.
Moses doesn’t eat or drink for forty days. He trusts God. He knows that man doesn’t live by bread alone. He’s learned that God offers the bread of life and the living water. God can sustain us. He can be everything to us. We just have to trust and let Him.
That doesn’t mean we stop eating, but could you trust Him with your life if there were no food? Can you trust Him with your life?
What reminders do you have built into your days and weeks and months to remind you to trust the one who made you, loves you, created you with a purpose, the one who is jealous for you and wants to protect you by keeping you for His own?