THE FESTIVALS OF GOD – 09 JULY 2016
May the Sabbath day be acceptable to the holy multitude. Today's title is," The Festivals of God."
Exodus 23:14-17:
"Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me. Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the first-fruit of the crops you saw in your field. Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field. Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord."
UbuNazaretha is a faith with a clear basic principle or theology. This principle is found in verses 3-4 of the Sabbath Liturgy which reads as follows:
Fear Jehovah you generations after generations and keep His commandments which He wrote through His Servant Moses, so that your worship may be acceptable to the God of hosts. For if you do not worship Him by keeping His commandments, He will not accept your prayers; He will not shower blessings to you if you do not keep His commandments."
Because these verses are the cornerstone of this faith, it is important that we extensively clarify them, for, though they are regularly read every Sabbath, but to many church attendants they are nothing more than just a recitation.
The Prophet says that generations after generations of people must fear God whose name is Jehovah. They must manifest that by keeping the commandments which Jehovah wrote for us through His Servant Moses. Shembe emphasizes that the God we must worship is Jehovah. Shembe separates God Jehovah from other gods who are also worshipped.
The Prophet says that God is worshipped by keeping His commandments, if not so, all our prayers are not acceptable in heaven. Even if we can pray, that prayer we do without keeping the commandments of God, is non-existent, we shall not receive any blessings from the Lord.
In verse 16 of the Evening Prayer, the Prophet says: "In all days of your life, before you sleep you must worship Jehovah your God." To worship God before we sleep means to pray before we sleep; likewise, we pray immediately after working up.
In verse 10 of the Morning Prayer Shembe says," Do not forget to worship God during this day God enabled you to wake up. Worship Him with all your heart and also with all your soul, which belongs to Jehovah. Worship Him by loving Him; even in your journey worship Him, for you are carried by Him in your journey. Even in your house where you live, worship Him." Worshiping Jehovah does not mean only to pray, but also to worship Him by keeping His commandments.
During this month we are attending the holy Festival called the July Festival. As we earlier explained that ubuNazaretha is a faith with basic principles derived from the God's commandments, July Festival is the same Festival God is speaking about in Exodus 23:14-17.
In Ibandla lamaNazaretha holy Festivals can be divided into four categories: The first category is sacred dance which starts when the dance starts and end when the sacred dance is officially announced that it is ending. The second category is the Sabbath day which starts at sunset on Friday and ends at sunset on Saturday.
The third category is the category of the three monthly holy Festivals which are 14, 23 and 25. Each Festival or Meeting starts at sunset on 13, 22 and 24 and ends at sunrise of 15, 24 and 26 of each month. These Festivals are called the Festivals of Jehovah, for; during these Meetings we meet Jehovah and the heavenly multitude.
These Festivals are intended to worship Jehovah only. In hymn 106 the Prophet says," The big Gatherings of angels and of the heavenly multitude have come to worship Jehovah at eKuPhakameni."
The Sabbath day is one day Festival or Meeting whilst Meetings like 14, 23 and 25 are the Meetings which each is two nights per month. That means we haven 7 to 8 holy Meetings every month. Big Festivals occur three times a year. In Exodus 23:14 God says," Three times a year you are to celebrate a Festival of Unleavened bread for me."
During these three Festivals, which are in January, July and October, bread is not eaten, for it is unleavened. That means that it is made of the yeast. It is not only bread, but anything made of yeast must not be eaten during the Big Festival. The Big Festival begins on the 1st of the month and end on the 30th of that month; but because iBandla lamaNazaretha is no longer one church, practices may differ from one church to another.
But in the Nazarites Church of God (NCG) the Big Meeting starts on 1st of the month and end on the 30th of the month even if the month ends during the week, unless we have been differently directed.
We are warned that we must never announce that the Big Festival ends on Saturday if on Sunday there will still be the Sacred Dance; this is to avoid people going for the holy dance after they had visited their wives, which is sacrilegious.
In all Festivals we must abstain from sex. AmaNazaretha treat this commandment lightly, but it is not like that in heaven. To be involved in sexual relations during the holy Meetings like Sabbath, 14 or 23 or during the Big Meetings like this July Meeting, is sacrilegious. All amaNazaretha keep the Festival commandments even if they did not attend the Big Festival. The reason for abstaining from sex is because any sexual relations are divinely unclean. After having involved yourself in any sexual relations, you cannot again involve yourself in any divine activity.
In Exodus 19: 14-15 it is written:
"After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people, “Prepare yourselves for the third day, ABSTAIN FROM SEXUAL RELATIONS."
They had to abstain from sexual relations for they were going to meet God on Mount Sinai after they had been consecrated and their clothes washed. God would not meet with people who had sexual relations. Where there is God there is no sexual relations; there are no sexual relations in heaven.
In Mathews 22:29-30 Jesus says that after resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. That is why in God's faith there is nothing like wedding or marriage of the dead. It is because in God's heaven there is no marriage; we however have no knowledge of the heaven of other gods.
Nothing is more abominable to Jehovah than to change the holy Festival or holy place into a place of sexual nature. If you do such a thing, God immediately forsakes you.
The sons of Eli were highly respected, for they were the sons of the high priest of the Levites. However, they themselves did not behave well. In 1Samual 2:22-25 it says:
"Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? .......No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear spreading amongst the Lord's people.
If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him, but if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?" His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke." This place where the sons of Eli were sleeping with women was a holy place, the temple of Jehovah. Their father failed to control them and God was then very angry with them and took away their blessing.
In verse 30 it is written:
Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel declares," I promised that your house and your father's house would minister before me forever. But now the Lord declares: Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me, will be disdained." This behavior which made these sons not to respect the Lord made them loose the status of heirship.
History repeats itself, for similar incidence many a time occur amongst us. Lord Galilee Shembe used to preach about a young man who was going to be the chief and who was staying at eKuPhakameni mission. This young man used to sleep with women at eKuPhakameni during the Festival and even on the Sabbath day.
On a certain day Shembe summonsed this young man to him. When this young man was with the Lord, Shembe repeated the words which were said by the high priest, Eli, to his sons. He said: “This eKuPhakameni home belongs to God. If you sin against another man God may mediate for you, but if you sin against God who will intercede for you?
Lord Galilee then said,” If you do such things, do not do here at eKuPhakameni, do them at your own place, but even if you do them at your place, one day they will torment you; may be you think that you are troubling me. No, you are troubling yourself; one day this insolence will turn against you."
Eventually this young man ended up drinking liquor in spite of the fact that he was umNazaretha. He was openly disobedient in the church. When he was a chief, he came to Shembe being drunk, and when Shembe asked why he had taken liquor, his reply was," I was thirsty." Then the Lord said, "You have liquor to quench thirst of your flesh, but do you have water to quench the thirst of your soul? However, the drunkard simply laughed at Shembe.
After that this young man drank excessively till liquor killed him. After a year of his death he came to his wife during the day, being a ghost, but taking the form of a living being. He appeared in the afternoon being nude, thin and full of mud from the head to the toes.
For fear of this apparition his wife ran away and locked herself in the room. This person called her, and when she heard that it was the voice of her husband, she returned to him and said: “But when we buried my husband, he was clean and his body was not that filthy, why are you now like this? This apparition replied,"
“The grave defeated me, I have never seen the heavenly eKuPhakameni we always talked about; I have never seen heaven. All I see is darkness. In the grave it is dark, even when I come out of the grave I see nothing but darkness. You clothed my body with material clothes but I was never given any clothes for my soul; I am feeling cold, I am in the valley of agony."
The wife then asked," Where did you get this mud which is all over your body? He replied," I never respected the bodies of the children of men. I got this mud from women I slept with during the Festivals of Jehovah. Even during the Sabbath day I never attended the Sabbath service, instead I used to take maidens and young married women away and slept with them.
But our Father told me that this practice will one day make me suffer, I must not deceive myself to think that I am distressing him; I am distressing myself. Today I am a wonderer, I do not eat, I am feeling cold for I have no clothes, even when I am thirsty, I cannot get water.
This mud is stinking and I am unable to remove it from my body. When I go to big rivers like uThukela or uMhlathuze or uMfolozi, trying to remove this mud, as I bend down to wash, the whole water simply disappear. I am in great pain.
The most painful words by this young man is when he said," I am sending you to uBaba, please tell him that I beg him to forgive me, I did not know. He told me that all these things I was doing will one day turn against me. He further reminded me that as I drink liquor, one day I will need water to quench my soul, but I did not understand him. Today I am in deep misery. Please go to uBaba and beg him to forgive me."
There are many people who, when they are still on earth do whatever they want; who think that they are in control even of heaven; but it is not like that, it is God who controls heaven.
This young man, before his demise, was too arrogant, for he knew that he is a chief, and stubbornly sinned. How many people who have come to do many abominable things in this Festival of Jehovah?
You, who have come to commit these bad acts, how are you sure that during your last days you will overcome this misery? Even to you, cleverness will cease, this agony is still coming to you!
Shembe says," Come ye who are needy, come ye who are destitute. Who need that garment to cover the soul? The day will come when the soul will be needy." You must know what you have come to do in this Festival; do not think that the Festival is a picnic.
This is the place to worship Jehovah! In verse 16 of the Evening prayer Shembe writes," On the day of misery Jehovah will listen and come to help you if you always keep His commandments." God removes the misery of the person who always worships Him, whose heart is attached to Jehovah.
As we are in this Big Festival, we left our homes having different problems. Others left their homes to beseech God to give them children, others are here to beseech God to give them work. Others are sick, they have incurable diseases. Others are ill-treated by their husbands; others are ill-treated by their children who have become animals because of drugs.
But they have a hope that if I attend the Festival, God will remember me and take away this misery in which I am in. But in this sacred place where people fast and wait for God, you turn the holy place into a picnic where all material pleasures are enjoyed.
May God allow people who have come with the intention of worshipping Jehovah to increase; and not people who come to the Festival to engage themselves in the work of darkness. During the Festival umNazaretha respects the Festival even if he is not in attendance of that particular Festival, he behaves well.
In a Big Festival we do not make noise. During the Festival you do not go for any material festivals, you must remember that you are in the state of fasting.
May the Lord visit those who worship Him in truth, and shower them with blessings which come from Him.
May the Lord bless His words.
May the Sabbath day be acceptable to the holy multitude. Today's title is," The Festivals of God."
Exodus 23:14-17:
"Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me. Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the first-fruit of the crops you saw in your field. Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field. Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord."
UbuNazaretha is a faith with a clear basic principle or theology. This principle is found in verses 3-4 of the Sabbath Liturgy which reads as follows:
Fear Jehovah you generations after generations and keep His commandments which He wrote through His Servant Moses, so that your worship may be acceptable to the God of hosts. For if you do not worship Him by keeping His commandments, He will not accept your prayers; He will not shower blessings to you if you do not keep His commandments."
Because these verses are the cornerstone of this faith, it is important that we extensively clarify them, for, though they are regularly read every Sabbath, but to many church attendants they are nothing more than just a recitation.
The Prophet says that generations after generations of people must fear God whose name is Jehovah. They must manifest that by keeping the commandments which Jehovah wrote for us through His Servant Moses. Shembe emphasizes that the God we must worship is Jehovah. Shembe separates God Jehovah from other gods who are also worshipped.
The Prophet says that God is worshipped by keeping His commandments, if not so, all our prayers are not acceptable in heaven. Even if we can pray, that prayer we do without keeping the commandments of God, is non-existent, we shall not receive any blessings from the Lord.
In verse 16 of the Evening Prayer, the Prophet says: "In all days of your life, before you sleep you must worship Jehovah your God." To worship God before we sleep means to pray before we sleep; likewise, we pray immediately after working up.
In verse 10 of the Morning Prayer Shembe says," Do not forget to worship God during this day God enabled you to wake up. Worship Him with all your heart and also with all your soul, which belongs to Jehovah. Worship Him by loving Him; even in your journey worship Him, for you are carried by Him in your journey. Even in your house where you live, worship Him." Worshiping Jehovah does not mean only to pray, but also to worship Him by keeping His commandments.
During this month we are attending the holy Festival called the July Festival. As we earlier explained that ubuNazaretha is a faith with basic principles derived from the God's commandments, July Festival is the same Festival God is speaking about in Exodus 23:14-17.
In Ibandla lamaNazaretha holy Festivals can be divided into four categories: The first category is sacred dance which starts when the dance starts and end when the sacred dance is officially announced that it is ending. The second category is the Sabbath day which starts at sunset on Friday and ends at sunset on Saturday.
The third category is the category of the three monthly holy Festivals which are 14, 23 and 25. Each Festival or Meeting starts at sunset on 13, 22 and 24 and ends at sunrise of 15, 24 and 26 of each month. These Festivals are called the Festivals of Jehovah, for; during these Meetings we meet Jehovah and the heavenly multitude.
These Festivals are intended to worship Jehovah only. In hymn 106 the Prophet says," The big Gatherings of angels and of the heavenly multitude have come to worship Jehovah at eKuPhakameni."
The Sabbath day is one day Festival or Meeting whilst Meetings like 14, 23 and 25 are the Meetings which each is two nights per month. That means we haven 7 to 8 holy Meetings every month. Big Festivals occur three times a year. In Exodus 23:14 God says," Three times a year you are to celebrate a Festival of Unleavened bread for me."
During these three Festivals, which are in January, July and October, bread is not eaten, for it is unleavened. That means that it is made of the yeast. It is not only bread, but anything made of yeast must not be eaten during the Big Festival. The Big Festival begins on the 1st of the month and end on the 30th of that month; but because iBandla lamaNazaretha is no longer one church, practices may differ from one church to another.
But in the Nazarites Church of God (NCG) the Big Meeting starts on 1st of the month and end on the 30th of the month even if the month ends during the week, unless we have been differently directed.
We are warned that we must never announce that the Big Festival ends on Saturday if on Sunday there will still be the Sacred Dance; this is to avoid people going for the holy dance after they had visited their wives, which is sacrilegious.
In all Festivals we must abstain from sex. AmaNazaretha treat this commandment lightly, but it is not like that in heaven. To be involved in sexual relations during the holy Meetings like Sabbath, 14 or 23 or during the Big Meetings like this July Meeting, is sacrilegious. All amaNazaretha keep the Festival commandments even if they did not attend the Big Festival. The reason for abstaining from sex is because any sexual relations are divinely unclean. After having involved yourself in any sexual relations, you cannot again involve yourself in any divine activity.
In Exodus 19: 14-15 it is written:
"After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people, “Prepare yourselves for the third day, ABSTAIN FROM SEXUAL RELATIONS."
They had to abstain from sexual relations for they were going to meet God on Mount Sinai after they had been consecrated and their clothes washed. God would not meet with people who had sexual relations. Where there is God there is no sexual relations; there are no sexual relations in heaven.
In Mathews 22:29-30 Jesus says that after resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. That is why in God's faith there is nothing like wedding or marriage of the dead. It is because in God's heaven there is no marriage; we however have no knowledge of the heaven of other gods.
Nothing is more abominable to Jehovah than to change the holy Festival or holy place into a place of sexual nature. If you do such a thing, God immediately forsakes you.
The sons of Eli were highly respected, for they were the sons of the high priest of the Levites. However, they themselves did not behave well. In 1Samual 2:22-25 it says:
"Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? .......No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear spreading amongst the Lord's people.
If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him, but if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?" His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke." This place where the sons of Eli were sleeping with women was a holy place, the temple of Jehovah. Their father failed to control them and God was then very angry with them and took away their blessing.
In verse 30 it is written:
Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel declares," I promised that your house and your father's house would minister before me forever. But now the Lord declares: Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me, will be disdained." This behavior which made these sons not to respect the Lord made them loose the status of heirship.
History repeats itself, for similar incidence many a time occur amongst us. Lord Galilee Shembe used to preach about a young man who was going to be the chief and who was staying at eKuPhakameni mission. This young man used to sleep with women at eKuPhakameni during the Festival and even on the Sabbath day.
On a certain day Shembe summonsed this young man to him. When this young man was with the Lord, Shembe repeated the words which were said by the high priest, Eli, to his sons. He said: “This eKuPhakameni home belongs to God. If you sin against another man God may mediate for you, but if you sin against God who will intercede for you?
Lord Galilee then said,” If you do such things, do not do here at eKuPhakameni, do them at your own place, but even if you do them at your place, one day they will torment you; may be you think that you are troubling me. No, you are troubling yourself; one day this insolence will turn against you."
Eventually this young man ended up drinking liquor in spite of the fact that he was umNazaretha. He was openly disobedient in the church. When he was a chief, he came to Shembe being drunk, and when Shembe asked why he had taken liquor, his reply was," I was thirsty." Then the Lord said, "You have liquor to quench thirst of your flesh, but do you have water to quench the thirst of your soul? However, the drunkard simply laughed at Shembe.
After that this young man drank excessively till liquor killed him. After a year of his death he came to his wife during the day, being a ghost, but taking the form of a living being. He appeared in the afternoon being nude, thin and full of mud from the head to the toes.
For fear of this apparition his wife ran away and locked herself in the room. This person called her, and when she heard that it was the voice of her husband, she returned to him and said: “But when we buried my husband, he was clean and his body was not that filthy, why are you now like this? This apparition replied,"
“The grave defeated me, I have never seen the heavenly eKuPhakameni we always talked about; I have never seen heaven. All I see is darkness. In the grave it is dark, even when I come out of the grave I see nothing but darkness. You clothed my body with material clothes but I was never given any clothes for my soul; I am feeling cold, I am in the valley of agony."
The wife then asked," Where did you get this mud which is all over your body? He replied," I never respected the bodies of the children of men. I got this mud from women I slept with during the Festivals of Jehovah. Even during the Sabbath day I never attended the Sabbath service, instead I used to take maidens and young married women away and slept with them.
But our Father told me that this practice will one day make me suffer, I must not deceive myself to think that I am distressing him; I am distressing myself. Today I am a wonderer, I do not eat, I am feeling cold for I have no clothes, even when I am thirsty, I cannot get water.
This mud is stinking and I am unable to remove it from my body. When I go to big rivers like uThukela or uMhlathuze or uMfolozi, trying to remove this mud, as I bend down to wash, the whole water simply disappear. I am in great pain.
The most painful words by this young man is when he said," I am sending you to uBaba, please tell him that I beg him to forgive me, I did not know. He told me that all these things I was doing will one day turn against me. He further reminded me that as I drink liquor, one day I will need water to quench my soul, but I did not understand him. Today I am in deep misery. Please go to uBaba and beg him to forgive me."
There are many people who, when they are still on earth do whatever they want; who think that they are in control even of heaven; but it is not like that, it is God who controls heaven.
This young man, before his demise, was too arrogant, for he knew that he is a chief, and stubbornly sinned. How many people who have come to do many abominable things in this Festival of Jehovah?
You, who have come to commit these bad acts, how are you sure that during your last days you will overcome this misery? Even to you, cleverness will cease, this agony is still coming to you!
Shembe says," Come ye who are needy, come ye who are destitute. Who need that garment to cover the soul? The day will come when the soul will be needy." You must know what you have come to do in this Festival; do not think that the Festival is a picnic.
This is the place to worship Jehovah! In verse 16 of the Evening prayer Shembe writes," On the day of misery Jehovah will listen and come to help you if you always keep His commandments." God removes the misery of the person who always worships Him, whose heart is attached to Jehovah.
As we are in this Big Festival, we left our homes having different problems. Others left their homes to beseech God to give them children, others are here to beseech God to give them work. Others are sick, they have incurable diseases. Others are ill-treated by their husbands; others are ill-treated by their children who have become animals because of drugs.
But they have a hope that if I attend the Festival, God will remember me and take away this misery in which I am in. But in this sacred place where people fast and wait for God, you turn the holy place into a picnic where all material pleasures are enjoyed.
May God allow people who have come with the intention of worshipping Jehovah to increase; and not people who come to the Festival to engage themselves in the work of darkness. During the Festival umNazaretha respects the Festival even if he is not in attendance of that particular Festival, he behaves well.
In a Big Festival we do not make noise. During the Festival you do not go for any material festivals, you must remember that you are in the state of fasting.
May the Lord visit those who worship Him in truth, and shower them with blessings which come from Him.
May the Lord bless His words.
