As we prepare for the Fall Festival season, we should give some thought to the offerings we are commanded to give on the annual Holy Days. We refer to these as Holy Day offerings. Most often, the person introducing the offertory will ask us to turn to Deuteronomy 16:16 where these offerings are commanded. Although the term “offering” is not used in that verse, it is an appropriate word for what we are doing.
Yet the term offering is perhaps one of the least understood concepts in the Bible. Most professing Christian commentators assume that the whole sacrificial system, of which offerings were a part, was nullified in the death of Jesus Christ. They read scriptures such as Isaiah 1:11 or Micah 6:6 and wrongly assume that the sacrificial system was even ungodly.
The sacrificial system that was put in place in the tabernacle and temple involved multiple offerings. While in English we attach the word “offering” to all the multiple forms of temple offerings—such as “burnt offering,” “peace offering,” “grain offering,” “sin offering,” “trespass offering”—in Hebrew each of these was expressed in a single word. Our English-language translations affix the word “offering” to provide added clarity of understanding for us. Yet there is a Hebrew term that by itself is translated appropriately as “offering,”—and it is used to represent an offering given outside the categories listed above.
That word is “Corban”—or, more correctly transliterated, qarban. We find it used by Jesus Christ on one occasion when correcting the hypocrisy of the people. Mark records Jesus stating:
He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban—(that is, a gift to God)” (Mark 7:9–11).
Mark’s text in fact gave his readers a translation of the Hebrew “Corban”—“a gift to God.” But we may wonder, “Why does God need gifts from us? All the earth and the heavens are His.” What, then, is the purpose of such a gift? Can it teach us about our relationship with Him?
The term qarban is used some 80 times in Scripture, largely in the books of Leviticus and Numbers. It is usually translated as “offering” but occasionally as “sacrifice.” In this context it is used as a general term for a gift as part of the sacrificial system. It comes from a Hebrew word meaning “to draw close”—by implication, to a deity. We find the Psalmist expressing this desire when he wrote:
But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Your works (Psalm 73:28).
Isaiah also highlighted the hypocrisy of the people, just as we have seen Jesus Christ do in Mark’s Gospel. He records:
Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God (Isaiah 58:2).
When Moses was instructed not to “draw near” to the burning bush at Mount Sinai, a form of this same term “Corban” was used (Exodus 3:5).
In commanding offerings, the Eternal wanted His people to draw close to Him—to invest themselves in Him and make Him part of their lives. So, the purpose of an offering—whether of an animal or of another kind—was to serve as a token of the person’s intent to draw close to the God of Israel.
Do we see our offerings on the Holy Days in the same light?
The New Testament reinforces the importance of drawing near to our Father and His Son. Speaking of the better role of Jesus Christ as a High Priest, Paul explained that through the Son we can draw near to our Father (Hebrews 7:19). Later, locating true Christians within the Tabernacle of God, of which Jesus Christ is the High Priest, Paul again writes of us “drawing near” to God:
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:19–22).
In this last instance, the Greek for “draw near” conveys the purpose of drawing near in the sense of seeking an association with our Father. This ultimately is the foundational reason for our keeping the Holy Days. We long to become associated as part of the very Family of God by being born again.
But how does this understanding relate to Deuteronomy 16:16, when the term for offerings is not used there?
Note that in Deuteronomy 16:16 we are instructed not to appear “empty-handed” before the Eternal. The term used indicates more than the way we might use that expression in the English language. We might invite someone to a meal and tell them that all they need to bring is themselves. They need to make no contribution. Some may feel uncomfortable arriving for a meal in such “empty-handed” manner. But its use in Deuteronomy conveys more than that. It “pertains to being without what is expected in a situation.” In other words, Moses is instructing us that when we appear before the Eternal, we need to have something in hand—something is expected, the purpose of which is to help us to draw close. When we attend a Feast, something is expected of us—an offering whereby we draw near to our Father and His Son. We should appear with an offering, a qarban.
The whole purpose of keeping the Feasts is to draw close—spatially and spiritually. Festival attendance was firstly a spatial experience, both for Israel, and for us as we experience today when we drive or fly to a Feast site. For them, it was a journey, mainly on foot from their homes to the Tabernacle or the Temple. They had to remove themselves from their home environment and travel to Shiloh or Jerusalem. But being in the physical proximity of the structure where the Eternal dwelt was not sufficient. An offering was needed to show the intent of being in the presence of the God of Israel.
Understanding the spatial aspect helps us understand the instructions in Deuteronomy as well. Moses instructed Israel that they were to appear before the Eternal “three times” in a year. Those traveling to Jerusalem would have come for the entire Holy Day period over each of those three times. Staying over was especially needed for the Passover with the following seven days of Unleavened Bread, and then again during the period in the Fall encompassing Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles and the Last Great Day. It was not possible to travel to Jerusalem and back home again after each holy day as many of us can do today. Unless one lived close to Jerusalem—in a place like Bethany to the south, or Emmaus to the north—then walking to Jerusalem would have involved at least an overnight stay. Traveling from somewhere like Galilee would have been a three-day journey. Hence, people stayed in Jerusalem or its environs throughout the three feast periods.
In those three periods, there were then seven times in which they were summoned to assemble (a convocation) and hence appear before the Eternal (Leviticus 23:4). They needed to have an offering prepared in advance for each of those occasions. Those offerings had to be based on one’s circumstances in life—you were not asked to give what you did not have. Even more so, they were to be an expression of how the God of Israel had blessed their lives.
As we prepare for the Feasts ahead of us, perhaps we ought to take a moment to consider how much we wish to draw near to our Father and His Son in keeping these days. Preparing ahead of time allows us to do that more effectively.
Have a wonderfully enriching Feast!