The Holy Festivals — What the Law Actually Commanded

The annual festivals were not merely celebrations or cultural gatherings. They were holy convocations built around offerings, sacrifices, firstfruits, tithes, and purification requirements that God tied directly to the Temple He chose (Deuteronomy 12:5-6, 12:11; Deuteronomy 16:2, 16:5-6). Every major feast — Passover, Unleavened Bread, Weeks, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles — required the worshipper to appear before the Lord in the place He chose, not in any location the people preferred (Deuteronomy 16:16-17).

- Passover required a lamb offered at the sanctuary (Deuteronomy 16:5-6).
- The Festival of Weeks required offerings of firstfruits (Deuteronomy 26:1-2, 26:9-10).
- The Festival of Trumpets required sacrifices “made by fire” (Numbers 29:1-6).
- The Day of Atonement required priestly rituals in the Holy of Holies (Leviticus 16:2-34).
- The Festival of Tabernacles required daily sacrifices (Numbers 29:12-38).

God described these festivals with great precision and repeatedly stressed that they were His appointed times, to be observed exactly as He commanded (Leviticus 23:1-2, 23:37-38). No part of these observances was left to personal interpretation, local custom, or symbolic adaptation. The place, the sacrifices, the priests, and the offerings were all part of the command.

How Israel Obeyed These Commandments in the Past

When the Temple stood, Israel obeyed the festivals exactly as God instructed. The people traveled to Jerusalem for the appointed times (Deuteronomy 16:16-17; Luke 2:41-42). They brought their sacrifices to the priests, who offered them upon the altar. They rejoiced before the Lord in the place He sanctified (Deuteronomy 16:11; Nehemiah 8:14-18). Even Passover itself — the oldest of all national festivals — could not be observed in homes after God established a central sanctuary. It could be kept only in the place where the Lord set His Name (Deuteronomy 16:5-6).

Scripture also shows what happened when Israel attempted to keep the festivals improperly. When Jeroboam created alternative festival days and places, God condemned his entire system as sin (1 Kings 12:31-33). When the people neglected the Temple or allowed impurity, the festivals themselves became unacceptable (2 Chronicles 30:18-20; Isaiah 1:11-15). The pattern is consistent: obedience required the Temple, and without the Temple, there was no obedience.

Why These Festival Commandments Cannot Be Obeyed Today

After the destruction of the Temple, the commanded structure for the festivals ceased to exist. Not the festivals themselves — the Law does not change — but the required elements:

No Temple
No altar
No Levitical priesthood
No sacrificial system
No commanded place for offering firstfruits
No ability to present the Passover lamb
No Holy of Holies for the Day of Atonement
No daily sacrifices during Tabernacles

Because God required these elements for festival obedience, and because they cannot be replaced, adapted, or symbolized, true obedience is now impossible. As Moses warned, Israel was not permitted to offer Passover “in any town the Lord your God gives you,” but only “in the place the Lord will choose” (Deuteronomy 16:5-6). That place no longer stands.

The Law still exists. The festivals still exist. But the means of obedience are gone — removed by God Himself (Lamentations 2:6-7).

The Error of Symbolic or Invented Festival Observance

Many today attempt to “honor the festivals” through symbolic reenactments, congregation-based gatherings, or simplified versions of biblical commands:

Holding Passover seders without a lamb
Hosting “Feasts of Tabernacles” with no sacrifices
Celebrating “Shavuot” without firstfruits taken to a priest
Creating “New Moon services” never commanded in the Torah
Inventing “practice festivals” or “prophetic festivals” as substitutes

None of these practices appear anywhere in Scripture.
None were practiced by Moses, David, Ezra, Jesus, or the apostles.
None match the commandments God gave.

God does not accept symbolic offerings (Leviticus 10:1-3).
God does not accept worship performed “anywhere” (Deuteronomy 12:13-14).
God does not accept rituals created by human imagination (Deuteronomy 4:2).

A festival without sacrifices is not the biblical festival.
A Passover without a lamb offered in the Temple is not Passover.
A “Day of Atonement” without priestly service is not obedience.

To imitate these laws without the Temple is not faithfulness — it is presumption.

The Festivals Await the Temple Only God Can Restore

The Torah calls these festivals “lasting ordinances throughout your generations” (Leviticus 23:14, 23:21, 23:31, 23:41). Nothing in Scripture — Law, Prophets, or Gospels — ever cancels that description. Jesus Himself affirmed that not even the smallest letter of the Law would fall until heaven and earth pass away (Matthew 5:17-18). Heaven and earth remain; therefore the festivals remain.

But they cannot be obeyed today because God has removed:

the place
the altar
the priesthood
the sacrificial system that defined the festivals

Therefore, until God restores what He removed, we honor these commandments by acknowledging their perfection — not by inventing symbolic replacements. Faithfulness means respecting God’s design, not modifying it.

Deuteronomy 12:5-6	But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. There you are to go; there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give, and your freewill offerings.
Deuteronomy 12:11	Then to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the Lord.
Deuteronomy 16:2	Sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God—an animal from your flock or herd—in the place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his Name.
Deuteronomy 16:5-6	You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the Lord your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down.
Deuteronomy 16:11	Rejoice before the Lord your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you—at the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name.
Deuteronomy 16:16-17	Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed; each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.
Deuteronomy 26:1-2	When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name.
Deuteronomy 26:9-10	He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.
Leviticus 23:1-2	The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.”
Leviticus 23:37-38	These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing food offerings to the Lord… These offerings are in addition to the Lord’s Sabbaths and in addition to your gifts and whatever you have vowed.
Luke 2:41-42	Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom.
Numbers 29:1-6	On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly… It is a day for you to sound the trumpets. As an aroma pleasing to the Lord, offer a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect.
Numbers 29:12-38	On the fifteenth day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the Lord for seven days… Present as an aroma pleasing to the Lord a food offering consisting of burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings as specified for each day.
Leviticus 16:2-34	The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain… This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.”
Nehemiah 8:14-18	They found written in the Law that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month… And from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this.
1 Kings 12:31-33	Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people… He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar.
2 Chronicles 30:18-20	Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them… and the Lord healed the people.
Isaiah 1:11-15	“The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the Lord… “I cannot bear your worthless assemblies… Your hands are full of blood.”
Lamentations 2:6-7	He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden; he has destroyed his place of meeting. The Lord has made Zion forget her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths; in his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest.
Leviticus 10:1-3	Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them.
Deuteronomy 12:13-14	Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please. Offer them only in the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribes.
Deuteronomy 4:2	Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.
Matthew 5:17-18	Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law.
Leviticus 23:14	You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
Leviticus 23:21	On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
Leviticus 23:31	You shall do no kind of work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
Leviticus 23:41	Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month.