Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 22-23.

There are seven festivals which the people of Israel were to observe.  Six of the seven festivals were celebrations, but the Day of Atonement is a more solemn assembly.  That was why I wrote that they were to “observe” the festivals, rather than that they were to “celebrate” them.  In the same way, I probably should have written that these were “assemblies” rather than that they were “festivals”.  Both celebrate and festival have connotations about joy, happiness, and fun which are inappropriate for the Day of Atonement.  Having said that I think it important that six of the seven have that sense of communal joy and fun associated with them.  It really tells us something about how we should worship God.  Most of the time (6 out of 7) it should be joyous and fun, but every now and then it needs to be sober and solemn.  We need to know and remember which approach to take on each occasion.  I want to circle back to the fact that these were assemblies.  The people were to gather together to observe these reminders about God.  We should gather with our fellow Believers on a regular basis, often in celebration, but occasionally in a more solemn fashion.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.