What Makes a Day Holy? God's Appointed Times
What Makes a Day Holy? God’s Appointed Times
In short
God makes a day holy. People can participate in holiness on His terms, but no person originates it. His appointed times begin at creation, not Sinai: Genesis 1:14 installs the sun and moon for mo’ed, appointed meetings, and Genesis 2:3 sets the seventh day apart. Leviticus 23:2 calls the feasts “my appointed times,” and Isaiah 66 and Zechariah 14 show them continuing into the future. Each one points to Christ. Nobody is saved by a calendar, and the days were never handed to us to reassign.
Ask a room full of people what makes something holy and you will get good answers fast. Jesus makes it holy. The presence of God makes it holy. Both are right.
Now ask the harder version. Can a person make something holy? That one is a bit loaded, and the answer is no. People can merely participate in holiness. Israel built the tabernacle to a pattern God gave. A person could take a Nazirite vow according to rules God laid out. Someone could dedicate a possession to the Lord in the way Scripture describes. In every case, God set the terms and God accepted or rejected the offering. Nobody else gets to originate holiness besides God.
Think about what happens if that is not true.
If each of us got to declare what is holy, we would each declare holy whatever we already value. That has a name in Scripture, and the name is idolatry.
Where do God’s appointed times actually begin?
Earlier than most people expect. Not at Sinai. At creation.
Genesis 1:14 says God set lights in the sky “for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.” The word behind seasons is mo’ed. It does not primarily mean summer and winter.
Mo’ed
An appointed time, a fixed meeting, or a set assembly. Genesis 1:14 renders it “seasons,” but the sense is an appointment God scheduled, not a season that simply arrives.
From the fourth day of creation, the sun and moon were installed as the timekeeping mechanism for appointments God intended to keep with people He loves.
Then Genesis 2:3 says He set apart the seventh day and made it holy. He took a piece of time and conferred holiness on it. That is worth sitting with, because time does not look different from the outside. One morning feels like every other morning. Without revelation you would never find which one is the holy one. You would need to be told.
Psalm 104:19 keeps the thread going: “He appointed the moon for seasons.” Same word. Then Leviticus 23:2 gives the full list, and the phrasing matters more than most readers notice. God does not call them Israel’s feasts.
“These are my appointed times, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations.”
Leviticus 23:2
They are His.
And they do not stop. Isaiah 66:23 describes a future in which all flesh comes to worship from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another. Zechariah 14:16-19 describes nations going up year after year to keep the Feast of Tabernacles after the return of the King. Past, present, and future: the same days.
Why does the why matter more than the how?
Because a conversation stuck on the how is the shortest road to legalism there is.
Ask how and you get arguments about nuts and bolts. Which method, which hour, which practice, who is doing it right. Sometimes those questions are worth having. But very often they turn into a scoreboard.
Here is an analogy that has helped me. Imagine a husband asking his wife to tell him the minimum required to keep the marriage functioning. Just tell me what to do and when, and I will do exactly that, and we will call it love. Nobody hears that and thinks it is a healthy marriage. But that is what the question “is this necessary for salvation” often does to a holy day. It is a request for the bare minimum.
Now ask why. Why do I love this person? Because of what they have done, and because they bear the image of God, and because Christ shed His blood for them. The why gives you a reason and a motive. It turns obligation into privilege. Now ask why about the appointed times and the same thing happens.
Scripture does license you to read them this way.
“Now these things happened to them as examples, but they were written down for our instruction.”
1 Corinthians 10:11
The word behind examples is types. Israel crossed the sea and thought they were crossing a sea, but Paul says they were also showing you baptism.
What does each appointed time point to?
This is not a reading only one congregation has noticed. Bible translation ministries have published on the feasts and their connection to Christ for years. Read Leviticus 23 next to the Gospels and the pattern is hard to miss.
| Appointed time | What it points to |
|---|---|
| Passover | A lamb without blemish, blood on wood, and death passing over the household |
| Unleavened Bread | Leaving the old life behind and taking in Christ as the bread of life |
| Firstfruits | Jesus raised as the firstfruits from the dead |
| Pentecost | The Spirit given, and two leavened loaves offered together, Jew and Gentile alike |
| Trumpets | The announcement of a returning King, a summons and an alarm |
| Atonement | A high priest who enters once for all, from a better priesthood than Levi’s |
| Tabernacles | God dwelling with people, first in flesh and finally forever |
Holy days are holidays. Same word. We do not keep the Fourth of July because hot dogs need eating. We keep it because we value what it commemorates. These days work the same way. They commemorate what God has done, is doing, and has promised to do.
For the Atonement row in full, read What Does Hebrews 9 Say About Atonement?.
What if you have never kept any of this?
Then start where I would start, and take your time.
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1
Read Leviticus 23 in one sitting. Do not study it. Just read it and notice how often God calls the days His.
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2
Ask what each one points to before you ask how to keep it. The why comes first. The how follows and gets simpler.
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3
Take the question to God in prayer rather than to an argument. If you are not convinced these days are for you, ask God what He thinks of them and what He would have you do with them.
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4
Do not turn it into a test of salvation, for yourself or anyone else. Nobody is saved by a calendar. Ephesians 2:8-9 settles that permanently.
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5
Come and sit with people who keep them. Reading about a table is not the same as being at one.
What I see in Scripture is a set of days that were God’s at creation, God’s when Israel walked them out, God’s when Paul was still keeping them, and God’s in the future the prophets describe. How we keep them now looks different: there is no pilgrimage to Jerusalem and no sacrificial system since Jesus has superseded that. But the days themselves were never handed over to us to reassign.
Step five is an invitation. Plan a visit and sit at the table with us.
One question worth sitting with
If God set apart a piece of time before there was a nation, a temple, or a law to argue about, what would it look like to simply ask Him what He wants done with it?
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Hebrew word mo’ed mean?
Mo’ed means an appointed time, a fixed meeting, or a set assembly. It appears in Genesis 1:14 where most translations render it “seasons,” and again in Leviticus 23 for the feasts. The sense is an appointment God scheduled rather than a season that simply arrives.
Whose feasts are the biblical feasts?
Leviticus 23:2 calls them “my appointed times,” spoken by God. The text does not assign them to Israel as national customs. Israel was told to proclaim them, but God calls them His own throughout the chapter.
Do Christians have to keep the biblical feasts?
Oak Stone Christian Church teaches that these days belong to God and still carry meaning, and keeps them for that reason. Scripture is equally clear that no observance saves anyone, since salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is less about having to and more about getting to.
What makes something holy in the Bible?
God does. The Hebrew idea behind holy is to be set apart, and Scripture consistently shows God assigning that status. People can dedicate and participate, following the terms God gives, but no person originates holiness.
How do you keep the feasts without a temple?
Differently than ancient Israel did, and deliberately so. There is no pilgrimage to Jerusalem and no sacrificial system, because Jesus fulfilled that. What remains is the meaning of the day and the practices Scripture describes symbolically, such as unleavened bread during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
What is the difference between a holy day and a holiday?
Linguistically, none. Holiday comes from holy day. The practical difference is who assigned the meaning. A national holiday commemorates something people decided to mark. An appointed time commemorates something God set apart and told people to proclaim.
Keep going
This post comes from an Oak Stone sermon.
Justin Glasgow works through more of this passage than there was room for here. Oak Stone Christian Church meets in Allen, Texas, and you do not need to have this figured out before you walk in. Nobody here does.