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The Offering of Thanksgiving
(Dt. 16:16~17)

There are three main Israel pilgrimage feasts including Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Passover is honoring the exodus out of Egypt. Pentecost is related to thanksgiving of the harvest of the grains. The feast of the Tabernacles is the celebration of the last harvest at the end of the year.

1.Passover
Passover is the most important festival to remember the exodus. Passover means crossing over. When the first-borns in the Egypt were dead but the death came over on the doors of Israel people as they placed the blood of lamb above their doorposts as a sign that the angel of judgment passed over them when they were in Egypt, sparing their lives. The blood of a lamb represents of the blood of Jesus, which forgives the sins. All people are sinners who cannot avoid the judgment of God. However, once we believe in Jesus, we are forgiven and become the children of God. (Jn. 3:16) The life of God can be given to us while the outcome of sins, the death passes over us.

2.The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)
The Israel people harvested the grains and crops after the feast of Unleavened Bread, which marks the fiftieth day after Passover. They made loaves of soft bread, giving thanks and presenting offerings. It represented their hard labors were ended and God gave them peace. In addition, the celebration is also tied to God's giving the Ten Commandments Jews believe that it was precisely at this time that God gave His word to the people through Moses on Mount Sinai. This celebration is called the Feast of Pentecost in the New Testament periods. In the same way, the Holy Spirit was sent upon the Church at Pentecost in Acts 2. (Ac. 2:1, 4) God allowed His people first harvest of grains, giving the commandments to realize the ways of living in God and pouring the Holy Spirit so that His people can have enough power and wisdom to live well in the world.

3. The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth)
The festival is to give thanks to God to finish their annual cultivation and farming. All of Israel would camp out in tents for the entire week in the honor of the guidance of God when they were in the deserts. (Lev. 23:43)
The people of Israel give thanks to God during their most plentiful time, the feast of Tabernacles, by confessing that everything is grace that God has given them, remembering the time of desert. God who led the Israelites, who made tabernacles in the desert, into the land of Canaan is the same living God now. Let us give thanks offerings always to God who leads and protects our lives that are like humble tents in the desert and who eventually completes our lives beautifully.