Keeping What Can Be Kept

“There is no temple, so we can’t keep any of that.” You may have heard it said, or you may have said it yourself. It is half true, and the Torah itself tells us which half.

What Cannot Be Kept Now

Some commands were given to be done “at the place that the LORD your God will choose,” and they cannot be kept anywhere else. The Passover sacrifice is one of them:

Deuteronomy 16:5-6 You are not able to sacrifice the Passover within one of your gates that the LORD your God gives you; but at the place that the LORD your God will choose to make His name dwell there, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening, at the going of the sun, the appointed time (moed מוֹעֵד mo-ade') of your coming forth out of Egypt.

The three pilgrimages to appear before the LORD are another:

Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the face of the LORD your God, in the place that He will choose: at the feast (chag חַג khag) of unleavened bread, and at the feast (chag) of weeks, and at the feast (chag) of booths; and they shall not appear before the face of the LORD empty.

While there is no temple, these cannot be done. That is not because they were canceled, but because the house at that place is not standing. This is the pause, not a deletion.

What Can Be Kept Now

But the same Torah gave other commands to be kept “in all your dwellings,” and those do not depend on the place at all. The Shabbat is one:

Leviticus 23:3 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day is a Shabbat of Shabbaton, a holy convocation (miqra-qodesh מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ mik-raw'); any work you shall not do; it is a Shabbat to the LORD in all your dwellings.

The Feast of Weeks carries the same words:

Leviticus 23:21 And you shall proclaim on this very day; a holy convocation (miqra-qodesh) it shall be to you; any work of service (avodah עֲבֹדָה ab-o-daw') you shall not do; an everlasting statute (chuqqah חֻקָּה khook-kaw') in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

The Day of Atonement does too:

Leviticus 23:31 Any work you shall not do; an everlasting statute (chuqqah) throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

The Feast of Booths belongs here as well. Its holy convocations on the first and eighth days, its days of rest, the seven days of dwelling in booths, and the rejoicing before the LORD can all be kept with no temple standing:

Leviticus 23:40-43 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day fruit of a majestic tree, fronds of palms, and a branch of a leafy tree, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. And you shall keep it a feast (chag) to the LORD seven days in the year; an everlasting statute (chuqqah) throughout your generations; in the seventh month you shall keep it. In booths you shall dwell seven days; every native in Israel shall dwell in booths; that your generations may know that I made the sons of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 16:14 And you shall rejoice in your feast (chag), you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, and the sojourner, and the orphan, and the widow who are within your gates.

The next verse sets the seven days of that feast “in the place that the LORD will choose,” and that part, the going up to the place, waits with the other pilgrimages. The booths, the rest, and the rejoicing do not. So the Torah itself drew the line. Some things wait for the place, and others never needed it.

God Planned for This

A world without a temple did not take God by surprise. On the day of the dedication, Solomon asked God to hear His people even in captivity, when they turned back to Him with all their heart and prayed toward that house:

1 Kings 8:48-49 and they turn back to you with all their heart and with all their soul (nephesh נֶפֶשׁ neh'-fesh) in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and they pray to you toward their land which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name; then you hear in the heavens, the place of your dwelling, their prayer and their supplication, and you maintain their judgment (mishpat מִשׁפָּט mish-pawt'),

Daniel did exactly that in Babylon. And of the scattered exiles God said:

Ezekiel 11:16 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: Although I have removed them far off among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I have been to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they have come.

God Himself became to them “a little sanctuary.” When His people could not come to His house, He went to them.

So the Bible does not allow the conclusion that, because there is no temple, the feasts are over.

Taking Up the Cross

Keeping what can be kept is only part of the answer. The life of a believer in this season has a shape, and Yeshua gave it in one sentence:

Luke 9:23 And He was saying to all, "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his stauros σταυρός stow-ros'(cross) and follow Me.

Following Him in this season takes a definite shape.

First, we hold our lives up to the Torah, because the Torah is how we come to know sin. There we discover what sins Yeshua carried for us on the cross:

Romans 7:7 What then shall we say? Is the nomos νόμος nom'-os(law) sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through nomos(law); for I would not have known epithymia ἐπιθυμία ep-ee-thoo-mee'-ah(lust, desire, strong craving) if the nomos(law) had not said, "You shall not have epithymia(lust, desire, strong craving)."

Second, we nail our own sinful nature, the part of us that resists the Torah, to the cross:

Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be nullified, so that we should no longer serve sin as slaves.

Galatians 5:24 Now those who belong to Messiah have crucified sarx σάρξ sarx(flesh) with its pathema πάθημα path'-ay-mah(passions, sufferings) and epithymia(desires, cravings).

Third, we move forward in obedience, looking honestly at where we went wrong and at what we can keep now. This is the walk Paul describes:

Romans 8:3-4 For what was impossible for the nomos(law) — in that it was weak through the sarx(flesh) — God, by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful sarx(flesh) and concerning sin, katakrino κατακρίνω kat-ak-ree'-no(condemned) sin in the sarx(flesh), so that the dikaioma δικαίωμα dik-ah'-yo-mah(ordinance) of the nomos(law) might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the sarx(flesh) but according to the pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit).

Fourth, we look ahead to the day when everything we cannot keep now will be kept in full. Yeshua said that not the smallest letter of the Torah would pass away until all things are accomplished:

Matthew 5:17-18 Do not think that I came to abolish the nomos(law) or the prophets — I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota ἰῶτα ee-o'-tah(smallest Greek letter) or one keraia κεραία ker-ah'-yah(stroke of a letter) will pass away from the nomos(law) until all things are accomplished.

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, so that their exousia ἐξουσία ex-oo-see'-ah(authority) will be over the tree of zoe ζωή dzo-ay'(life) and they may enter through the gates into the city.

That is the hope that draws us forward. Yet before the true King takes His seat, the Scriptures warn of something dark. A false one will try to take God’s seat, and he will do it inside a temple.