“¹¹ To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? says the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

¹² When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to tread My courts?

¹³ Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed feasts My Soul hates: they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them.

¹⁵ And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide My eyes from you: yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.” Isaiah 1:11-15.

God’s feasts, the feasts that were once ordained by Him, had become an abomination to Him.  The calling of assemblies were full of iniquity.  The feasts had become a mere form of worship, emptied of all their significance. This pretense of religious activity reigned in the hearts and lives of the Israelites and had become their religious idols.

“This people draw near unto Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me.” Matthew 15:8

The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9-10) and will be far away from the precepts and statutes of God, no matter our sincerity.  We do not follow our heart nor our intellect, we follow Jesus Christ.  He has given us His Word and the Holy Spirit to guide us into all Truths.  Jesus did not leave us here to wonder aimlessly.

“²² You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for Salvation is of the Jews.

²³ But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him.

²⁴ God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:22-24

The feasts of the Old Testament were all types and shadows pointing the Israelites to their coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.  No where in the New Testament are we told to observe the Jewish feasts.  Every other commandment was mentioned by Jesus in New Testament except the 4th Commandment which dealt with sabbaths and feasts.  All of the other commandments were moral and are written on the hearts of every Believer who loves the Lord. New Testament Believers have the Messiah…Jesus Christ and we observe Him DAILY.  Every day is a day unto the Lord.  It is an insult to the Jewish people for the Christian to observe their feasts, wear the Jewish prayer shawls and run around in yamakas. We are gentiles and considered unclean according to the Orthodox Jewish beliefs.

The hour has come when the true worshippers will worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.  Jesus Christ came to die on Calvary’s Cross as the Sacrificial Lamb of God to pay the penalty of sin for the sinner and break the power of sin for the Believer. Worship Him for Who He is and what He has done…not with new moons, sabbaths and the calling together of assemblies to offer up vain oblations (offerings).  Worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.  He is worthy of our praise.

-Donna Clark Warren