What is the context?
Israel’s year is to be shaped by worship and remembrance. The Feast of Unleavened Bread recalls the departure from Egypt. The Feast of Harvest brings the firstfruits of the crops, and the Feast of Ingathering comes as the year’s produce is gathered. The people are to acknowledge both the God who rescued them and the God who provides for them.
The later instructions in Exodus 34:18–26 identify the wheat-harvest celebration as the Feast of Weeks. John 7:2 uses the name Tabernacles for the festival associated with booths. The three annual appearances before the Lord are required of Israel’s males, and the worshiper must bring an offering.
The sacrifice must be handled as God directs: no leaven with its blood, no keeping the festival fat until morning, and the best firstfruits brought to the LORD’s house. The last instruction forbids cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk. The passage states that prohibition without explaining its origin.
How is this passage commonly understood?
The festivals are commonly understood as occasions for Israel to remember deliverance and acknowledge God’s provision. Wesley identifies the annual celebrations with Passover and Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Each belongs to Israel’s worship through the year, rather than being a choice of unrelated religious events.
The goat-and-milk instruction has been understood differently. Rashi’s Jewish commentary takes its repetition in the Torah as prohibiting cooking meat with milk, eating the mixture and benefiting from it; he does not restrict the rule to a goat. Calvin relates it to proper sacrifice and the wrongness of using a mother’s milk to cook her young. Wesley raises the concern about cruelty too. These readings should be described on their own terms; the text itself does not state which explanation accounts for the rule.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The New Testament explicitly uses these festival themes to explain Christ and the life of His people. 1 Corinthians 5:6–8 calls Christ the sacrificed Passover lamb and uses unleavened bread to speak of sincerity and truth in place of malice and wickedness. 1 Corinthians 15:20–28 calls the risen Christ the firstfruits of those who have died, with the resurrection of those who belong to Him still to follow. The harvest image points to the resurrection of the people who belong to Him.
Acts 2:1–4 places the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. At the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus calls the thirsty to come to Him, and John explains that He is speaking about the Spirit (John 7:37–39). Zechariah 14:16–19 also pictures people from the nations worshiping the LORD as King at that feast. Together these connections widen the view from Israel’s calendar to Christ, resurrection, the gift of the Spirit and worship among the nations.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.