The Liturgy of Creation: Understanding Calendars in Old Testament Context
Overview
Calendars today are typically printed on paper or installed on smart phones. These calendars include holidays observed on dates often assigned by governmental legislation. But how were holidays scheduled and taught in biblical Israel? And what might these holidays have to do with the creation narrative?
In this book, Michael LeFebvre considers the calendars of the Pentateuch with their basis in the heavenly lights and the land's agricultural cadences. He argues that dates were added to Old Testament narratives not as journalistic details but to teach sacred rhythms of labor and worship. LeFebvre then applies this insight to the creation week, finding that the days of creation also serve a liturgical purpose and not a scientific one.
The Liturgy of Creation restores emphasis on the religious function of the creation week as a guide for Sabbath worship. Scholars, students, and church members alike will appreciate LeFebvre’s careful scholarship and pastoral sensibilities.
Key Features
- Exmaines role of the calendars of the Pentateuch
- Emphasizes the religious function of the creation week as a guide for Sabbath worship
- Considers the life and theology of the Old Testament people of God
Contents
Part I: Israel’s Calendars
- Calendars in the Sky
- Cycles of Sevens
- The Festivals of Israel
Part II: Festivals and Their Stories
- The Festival Stories of Israel
- Chart: Dates in the Pentateuch
- Dates for Remembering
- Dates Assigned by Law
Part III: The Creation Week
- The Creation Week as Calendar Narrative
- The Plot of the Creation Week
- Ordered for Fruitfulness (Days 1–3)
- Populated for Blessing (Days 4–6)
- Crowned with Communion (Day 7)
- A Calendar for Sabbath, Not Science
Top Highlights
“This pattern makes plain that the Passover narrative is more than a historical record. It is a historical narrative written for the liturgical instruction of later generations.” (Page 66)
“One of the most compelling reasons to view the Pentateuch’s dates as ‘observance dates’ and not original ‘occurrence dates,’ is because they work as observance dates but do not work as occurrence dates.” (Page 82)
“These divergent timelines give a harmonious witness that Jesus is our Passover Lamb, but they do so by differently aligning the crucifixion events with their shadows in the Jewish Passover rituals.” (Page 3)
“The festivals (especially through the lens of the exodus narrative mapped over them; see chapter four) taught the people to view themselves as stewards of a land that God had given to them. They were being taught to maximize the fruitfulness of the land with gratefulness and with God’s love for the poor on their hearts. These calendars provided not only agricultural guidance to maximize harvests but also the backbone for a national welfare system. The pilgrimage required at this midpoint between the two grain harvests was an opportunity to identify those who were suffering lack, so that those with abundance could share with those in need.” (Page 45)
“It is also noteworthy that both dated stories—the flood narrative and the exodus journey—are sanctuary stories. It has often been noted that the dimensions and features of Noah’s ark identify it as a floating ‘temple.’28 If this is correct, both of these stories feature the construction of a mobile sanctuary that carries God’s people through a barren wilderness to a new land of bounty, where a mountaintop altar is (to be) constructed for worship.” (Page 76)
Praise for the Print Edition
If as modern Bible readers, we want to understand Israel of the Old Testament, we must step out of our own perceptions of time and history and enter their world of thinking. This book will enable us to do that with insights that can revolutionize our interpretation of the Sabbath and its corollary, the creation week. Open these pages and let Dr. LeFebvre become your tour guide to an Israelite view of time and calendar. He did not always persuade me, and he may not always persuade you, but we can all benefit from his insights, and the suggestions that he makes are worth pondering.
—John H. Walton, Old Testament professor at Wheaton College and Graduate School, author of The Lost World of Genesis One
The Liturgy of Creation is an important book for many reasons. LeFebvre helps us understand the Israelite calendar in relationship to the significant annual festivals that were so central to the life and theology of the Old Testament people of God. His work on the calendar itself is worth reading, but he goes further and draws crucial conclusions concerning creation in a way that affects the present debate over the relationship between science and faith. This book is essential reading for all serious students of the Old Testament.
—Tremper Longman III, distinguished scholar and professor emeritus of biblical studies, Westmont College
Dr. LeFebvre has accomplished something remarkable: he has written something that is academically responsible and creative and is at the same time readable and clear for the intelligent layperson.
—From the foreword by C. John Collins, professor of Old Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary
Product Details
- Title: The Liturgy of Creation: Understanding Calendars in Old Testament Context
- Author: Michael LeFebvre
- Publisher: IVP
- Publication Date: 2019
- Pages: 240
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Pentateuch