Deuteronomy 16 | Wayfarer

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 16:16-17 (NIV)

Last week we enjoyed our Christmas celebration with family. I enjoyed going to the Christmas Eve candlelight service and marking the climactic end of the Advent season and welcoming the Christ-child, God-with-us.

There is definitely a connection between the annual celebration of the Advent season and Christmas and today’s chapter. God through Moses reminds His people that when they settle in the Promised Land they are to have three great pilgrimage festivals. Everyone makes a pilgrimage to “the place God will choose” at three different times of year for three different purposes:

Passover / Feast of Unleavened Bread – a remembering of liberation.
Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) – a remembering of provision.
Feast of Booths (Sukkot) – a remembering of dependence.

These festivals provided structure, not only for the calendar, but also for the soul.

My meditation on today’s chapter led me to a Hebrew word: Z’manim.

In its simple definition z’manim means “times” or “appointed moments.” But God’s base language is metaphor, and metaphors are layered with meaning. I’ve learned that this is especially true with the Hebrew language.

Z’manim gives breath to time.

Appointment (something set, not random)

Readiness (a moment that has ripened)

Intended timing (not just when, but why now)

This is not clock time. This is meaningful time. It is time with purpose stitched into it. Time that has been noticed. Claimed. Set apart.

God does not dwell just in places. He inhabits moments.

Which brings me back to Christmas Eve and the end of the Advent Season. Why do this every year? Why did God prescribe three festivals every year? The intention was never a rote, prescribed, go-through-the-motions religious activity. That’s dead religion not a Living God. Annual seasons and festivals were moments in time in which I commune with the divine and together we embrace a moment new and afresh.

Freedom from chains that bind me.
Gratitude for the abundance of my blessings.
Reminder that security is always borrowed.
The birth of God who became flesh and pitched His tent among us.

Along my spiritual journey I have been largely naive and ignorant of the ways God has historically revealed Himself in fullness. I understand more than ever how easy it is for institutional religion to become rote and repeated motions that are Spiritually empty and void of meaning. But from ancient days through this current day, God has invited me to meet him in z’manim – moments of time filled with His presence and a banquet of meaning on which my soul can feast and be satisfied.

On Christmas Eve, bathed in candlelight and singing Silent Night with loved ones, we welcomed a newborn baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. It wasn’t just a commemoration. It was not dusting off history. It was, once again, the event relived – together with God and with loved ones.

It was z’manim.

And in the next few days the z’manim shifts. Old things pass away with 2025. New things come with 2026.

In the quiet I am reminded that I dare not ponder what that means for me apart from the reality of “God with us.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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You must not distort justice; you must not show partiality; and you must not accept bribes, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.
Deuteronomy 16:19 (NRSV)

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

I’m sure we all had that question when we were young. Like most people, I think the answer changed for me a time or two. Growing up with the Apollo lunar missions, I think astronaut was on my mind in my earliest years. There came a time later in my childhood when I became enamored with the idea of running for political office. Growing up in Iowa, we are inundated with the Presidential races every four years and that probably had an influence on my thinking.

As I got older, the idyllic visions I had of political office gave way to the harsh realities. At the highest levels the political game is about money. You generally can’t win the office without money, and to get money you have to put your hand out to big donors and special interests who will expect favors for their “donation.” By the way, corruption is an equal opportunity consequence. It is found in every political camp. That’s just the reality of it.

To stay in office, I watch lawmakers rig rules and pad their war chests. They shun term limits to extend their power and influence. They make sketchy deals and look out for each other and their own.

Somewhere along the way I realized that I didn’t think I could be a part of all that and keep my soul healthy. My political aspirations gave way to other things.

Today I am reminded that from the very beginning God has desired justice, honesty, and impartiality from His people. I didn’t pursue public office, but I still find myself in positions of leadership and authority. God’s call is the same for me in those positions as it was for the judges in Moses day. God desires that I make right and just decisions for the good of the whole. Even in my relatively minor spheres of influence, I continue to need wisdom and a generous measure of grace for that.