Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
The verse forbids enchantment and the superstitious observing of times as idolatrous practices God's people must not use. To observe times is to keep days and months and seasons and years dedicated to the feasts and worship of heathen gods that by nature are no gods. Those forbidden observances were rooted in nature-worship with sun-worship as its chief, with its weekly and monthly and yearly feasts and revels and degrading idolatry. They include the idolatrous festivals and holy days of heathen nations such as Sunday to the sun, Easter and the Saturnalia, and not the seventh-day Sabbath or any appointment of God, for God gave His worship day to be kept while this prohibition was in force. The days and months and times and years condemned in Galatians 4:10 are these same heathen observances, so to return to them is to return to bondage and former idolatry, and to observe such other days stands opposed to keeping God's Sabbaths.
Setting and Wording
Leviticus 19 was spoken less than a year after Israel left Egypt and before the people left Sinai, so it is not a law first given forty years later in Deuteronomy. It belongs to the moral and ethical laws that governed Israel, distinguished from special rules permitted for a limited time to accommodate corrupted customs, and it is ethical rather than ceremonial in character. It stands among warnings against those who have familiar spirits and reproves heathen practices such as cutting the flesh for the dead, showing a clear comparison between what God gave Israel and the customs of the nations around them.
Those nations had given themselves up to pagan abominations, with Satan ruling through the flesh, yet God gave them four hundred years of mercy, sending His servants to live among them to win them to the right way, but they filled up their cup of iniquity, so casting them out of the Holy Land before Israel was a blessing to future generations. The prohibition of enchantment uses the Hebrew word nachash for practicing divination or augury, describing close scrutiny or searching out rather than the serpent's shape or movement.
Forbidden Heathen Practices
The verse forbids enchantment, placing it among practices God's people must not use, alongside observing times. Observing times is a heathen religious practice, that is, keeping days, months, seasons and years dedicated to the feasts and worship of heathen gods that by nature are no gods, as part of idolatrous religious practice. It forbids observing times regarded as sacred in heathen worship.
The prohibition was meant to keep Israel from adopting the idolatrous customs of neighboring nations and to set them apart as worshipers of the true God. The forbidden observances were rooted in nature-worship with sun-worship as its chief, with weekly, monthly and yearly feasts. Those feasts involved feastings and revels, licentiousness and degrading idolatry, rich unwholesome viands, exciting condiments and sauces, and stimulating intoxicating wine.
The forbidden times include the idolatrous festivals and holy days of heathen nations, such as keeping Sunday to the sun, Monday to the moon, and January to Janus. They include keeping the first day in honor of the sun, Easter, the Saturnalia, and many other solar holidays, including the special day devoted to sun-worship. They do not include the seventh-day Sabbath or any appointment of God.
The ban is against superstitious observance of times and does not forbid all observance of time. God Himself gave one time to be kept, His worship day, the seventh-day Sabbath, which Israel was required to keep while this prohibition was in force.
Scripture Links and Application
The days and months and times and years reproved in Galatians 4:10 are the heathen observances forbidden by the command not to observe times, not observances of the Mosaic law, since God prohibited those very customs while He was giving Israel that law. To observe times is to keep days and months and seasons and years dedicated to the feasts and worship of heathen gods which by nature are no gods, as part of idolatrous religious practice. The Galatians' return to such observances was a return to bondage and to former idolatry after having been idolaters, for turning from Christ to self-justification leads back into this forbidden bondage in hope of salvation in those days. The days to which backsliding Christians returned naturally include Sunday, the day devoted to sun worship, with Sunday to the sun, Monday to the moon, and January to Janus given as examples of days dedicated to gods that are no gods. The ban is against superstitious observance of times and does not forbid all observance of time, because God Himself gave one time to be kept, His worship day, the seventh-day Sabbath.
The forbidden times are the idolatrous festivals and holy days of the heathen nations, such as keeping the first day in honor of the sun, Easter, the Saturnalia, and many others, and not the seventh-day Sabbath or any appointment of God. Manasseh's observing of times is named among the practices he followed in honor of the sun-god when he forsook God, and Aaron's feast-day to the calf represented a feast-day to the sun-god of Egypt. Turning away from salvation only in Christ to false gods that by nature are no gods brings bondage to weak and beggarly elements expressed in keeping pagan religious days. Chief among those forbidden days is Sunday, the wild solar holiday of all pagan times rooted in old heathen sun-worship, the same worship shown when Israel used the sun's day as a day of special worship and called the golden calf feast a feast to Jehovah.
The command not to observe heathen times or festivals, including those associated with the sun god and other deities, is joined with the command to keep God's Sabbaths, so that observing such other days breaks the seventh-day Sabbath and stands opposed to keeping God's Sabbaths. The forbidden observances were rooted in nature-worship with sun-worship as its chief, with weekly, monthly and yearly feasts, feastings and revels, licentiousness and degrading idolatry, rich unwholesome viands, exciting condiments and sauces, and stimulating intoxicating wine. This law required Daniel and his companions and the other Judean youths to refuse the king's meat and the wine he drank and to reject Babylon's religious feasts and revels, because Babylonian eating and drinking was tied to idolatrous worship and joining it would have tied them closely to idolatry. It forbids observing pagan times and seasons, including the heathen solar holidays that half-converted people brought into the Christian church and that backslidden Christians later resumed.
The verse forbids enchantment and the superstitious observing of times as idolatrous practices God's people must not use. To observe times is to keep days and months and seasons and years dedicated to the feasts and worship of heathen gods that by nature are no gods. Those forbidden observances were rooted in nature-worship with sun-worship as its chief, with its weekly and monthly and yearly feasts and revels and degrading idolatry. They include the idolatrous festivals and holy days of heathen nations such as Sunday to the sun, Easter and the Saturnalia, and not the seventh-day Sabbath or any appointment of God, for God gave His worship day to be kept while this prohibition was in force. The days and months and times and years condemned in Galatians 4:10 are these same heathen observances, so to return to them is to return to bondage and former idolatry, and to observe such other days stands opposed to keeping God's Sabbaths.
Setting and Wording
Leviticus 19 was spoken less than a year after Israel left Egypt and before the people left Sinai, so it is not a law first given forty years later in Deuteronomy. It belongs to the moral and ethical laws that governed Israel, distinguished from special rules permitted for a limited time to accommodate corrupted customs, and it is ethical rather than ceremonial in character. It stands among warnings against those who have familiar spirits and reproves heathen practices such as cutting the flesh for the dead, showing a clear comparison between what God gave Israel and the customs of the nations around them.
Those nations had given themselves up to pagan abominations, with Satan ruling through the flesh, yet God gave them four hundred years of mercy, sending His servants to live among them to win them to the right way, but they filled up their cup of iniquity, so casting them out of the Holy Land before Israel was a blessing to future generations. The prohibition of enchantment uses the Hebrew word nachash for practicing divination or augury, describing close scrutiny or searching out rather than the serpent's shape or movement.
Forbidden Heathen Practices
The verse forbids enchantment, placing it among practices God's people must not use, alongside observing times. Observing times is a heathen religious practice, that is, keeping days, months, seasons and years dedicated to the feasts and worship of heathen gods that by nature are no gods, as part of idolatrous religious practice. It forbids observing times regarded as sacred in heathen worship.
The prohibition was meant to keep Israel from adopting the idolatrous customs of neighboring nations and to set them apart as worshipers of the true God. The forbidden observances were rooted in nature-worship with sun-worship as its chief, with weekly, monthly and yearly feasts. Those feasts involved feastings and revels, licentiousness and degrading idolatry, rich unwholesome viands, exciting condiments and sauces, and stimulating intoxicating wine.
The forbidden times include the idolatrous festivals and holy days of heathen nations, such as keeping Sunday to the sun, Monday to the moon, and January to Janus. They include keeping the first day in honor of the sun, Easter, the Saturnalia, and many other solar holidays, including the special day devoted to sun-worship. They do not include the seventh-day Sabbath or any appointment of God.
The ban is against superstitious observance of times and does not forbid all observance of time. God Himself gave one time to be kept, His worship day, the seventh-day Sabbath, which Israel was required to keep while this prohibition was in force.
Scripture Links and Application
The days and months and times and years reproved in Galatians 4:10 are the heathen observances forbidden by the command not to observe times, not observances of the Mosaic law, since God prohibited those very customs while He was giving Israel that law. To observe times is to keep days and months and seasons and years dedicated to the feasts and worship of heathen gods which by nature are no gods, as part of idolatrous religious practice. The Galatians' return to such observances was a return to bondage and to former idolatry after having been idolaters, for turning from Christ to self-justification leads back into this forbidden bondage in hope of salvation in those days. The days to which backsliding Christians returned naturally include Sunday, the day devoted to sun worship, with Sunday to the sun, Monday to the moon, and January to Janus given as examples of days dedicated to gods that are no gods. The ban is against superstitious observance of times and does not forbid all observance of time, because God Himself gave one time to be kept, His worship day, the seventh-day Sabbath.
The forbidden times are the idolatrous festivals and holy days of the heathen nations, such as keeping the first day in honor of the sun, Easter, the Saturnalia, and many others, and not the seventh-day Sabbath or any appointment of God. Manasseh's observing of times is named among the practices he followed in honor of the sun-god when he forsook God, and Aaron's feast-day to the calf represented a feast-day to the sun-god of Egypt. Turning away from salvation only in Christ to false gods that by nature are no gods brings bondage to weak and beggarly elements expressed in keeping pagan religious days. Chief among those forbidden days is Sunday, the wild solar holiday of all pagan times rooted in old heathen sun-worship, the same worship shown when Israel used the sun's day as a day of special worship and called the golden calf feast a feast to Jehovah.
The command not to observe heathen times or festivals, including those associated with the sun god and other deities, is joined with the command to keep God's Sabbaths, so that observing such other days breaks the seventh-day Sabbath and stands opposed to keeping God's Sabbaths. The forbidden observances were rooted in nature-worship with sun-worship as its chief, with weekly, monthly and yearly feasts, feastings and revels, licentiousness and degrading idolatry, rich unwholesome viands, exciting condiments and sauces, and stimulating intoxicating wine. This law required Daniel and his companions and the other Judean youths to refuse the king's meat and the wine he drank and to reject Babylon's religious feasts and revels, because Babylonian eating and drinking was tied to idolatrous worship and joining it would have tied them closely to idolatry. It forbids observing pagan times and seasons, including the heathen solar holidays that half-converted people brought into the Christian church and that backslidden Christians later resumed.