Festivals of Worship

Welcome to today's encouragement from the Our Daily Bread devotional. I'm Kirsten Holmberg, and I titled our reading Festivals of Worship. Attending a large event might change you in a surprising way. After interacting with more than 1200 people at multi-day gatherings in the UK and US, researcher Daniel Yudkin and his colleagues learned that large festivals can impact our moral compass and even affect our willingness to share resources with others.

Their research found that 63% of attendees had a transformative experience at the festival that also left them feeling more connected to humanity and more generous toward friends, family, and even complete strangers. When we gather with others to worship God, however, we can experience more than merely the social transformation of a secular festival. We commune with God himself. God's people undoubtedly experienced that connection to him when they gathered in Jerusalem in ancient times for their sacred festivals throughout the year.

They traveled without modern conveniences to be present at the temple three times a year for the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Tabernacles. These gatherings were times of solemn remembrance, worship, and rejoicing before the Lord with family, servants, foreigners, and others. Let's gather with others for worship to help one another to continue to enjoy him and trust in his faithfulness. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Deuteronomy chapter 16 verses 9 through 16.

Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a free will offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his name—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.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and follow carefully these decrees. Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless, and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days, celebrate the Festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.

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. Let's pray. Thank you, God, for inviting your people to worship you together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Kirsten Holmberg, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.