The Children of Israel were told to keep three feasts each year - the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of first fruits, and the feast of ingathering. Should we still do that?

In Exodus 23:14-16, Moses receives the instructions about these feasts. Those three verses in Exodus comprise our brief story. Their inner meaning is explained in Arcana Coelestia 9286-9296.

There are three feasts. In the Word, the number three represents a completeness, a sense of things being covered from beginning to end. Our thankfulness to the Lord is supposed to keep going - to endure.

The first feast, of unleavened bread, stands for worship, for our thankfulness for the Lord's action in our minds to get rid of false ideas. That enables us to start to receive good loves.

The second feast, of first fruits, relates to the planting of true ideas in that "soil" of initial loves for doing good.

The third feast, of harvest, or ingathering, stands for the time when, by applying our true ideas, we receive real good - loves of the neighbor and of the Lord - that become the middle of our lives. This is the state of rebirth, where we have - by working through the year (our lives), and enduring in thankfulness, allowed the Lord to get rid of our false ideas, and push our evil loves to the periphery, so that good can work, and be fruitful.

These feasts, then, represent the progress of our spiritual lives. In some manner, we need to keep them.

113. These things saith the first and the last. That this signifies the Lord, who rules all things from the Divine Human, from primaries by means of ultimates, is evident from the signification of the first and the last, when said of the Lord, as being His ruling all things from primaries by means of ultimates (concerning which see above, n. 41). That it is the Lord as to the Divine Human, who, in this passage and those that follow, speaks to the angels of the churches, is evident from the preceding chapter, in which similar things are said concerning the Son of man; and the Son of man is the Lord as to the Divine Human (as may be seen above, n. 63). This becomes quite clear when the passages are compared; for in the preceding chapter the Son of man is described as being seen "in the midst of the golden lampstands, having in his right hand seven stars" (verses 13, 16). The same things are premised in what is written to the angel of the church of Ephesus, in these words,

"These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands" (verse 1, of this chapter).

[2] In the preceding chapter the Son of man is thus described:

"I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive unto the ages of the ages" (Verses 17, 18).

These things are here premised in what is written to the angel of the church of the Smyrnaeans, in these words:

"These things saith the first and the last, who was dead and is alive" (Verse 8).

In the preceding chapter, the Son of man is thus described:

"Out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword" (Verse 16),

which is also premised in what is written to the angel of the Church in Pergamos, in these words:

"These things saith he who hath the sharp two-edged sword" (Verse 12).

In the preceding chapter, the Son of man is described as having eyes like a flame of fire, and feet like to fine brass as if they burned in a furnace (Verses 14, 15). These things are premised in what is written to the angel of the church of Thyatira, in these words:

"These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet like fine brass" (Verse 18).

[3] Similar things are premised in what is written to the angels of the other three churches, of which we shall treat in the following chapter. From these considerations it is evident, that it is the Son of man who says the things which are written to the churches. And because by the Son of man is meant the Lord as to the Divine Human (as was shown above, n. 63), it follows that all the things written to the churches are from the Divine Human of the Lord; and hence it also follows, that the Divine Human is the All in all of the church, as it is the All in all of heaven. Here, also, by his being styled the First and the Last, is signified that the Lord from His Divine Human rules all things from primaries by means of ultimates. (That the Lord as to the Divine Human is the All in all of heaven, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 7-12, and n. 78-86, and other places. And because the Lord is the All in all of heaven, He is also the All in all of the church, for the church is the kingdom of the Lord on the earth.) This I can assert, that no one within the church who does not acknowledge the Divine of the Lord in His Human, can enter into heaven. To acknowledge the Divine of the Lord in His Human, is to think of His Divine when His Human is thought of. The reason why He should thus be thought of, is, because the whole heaven is from His Divine Human (as may be seen explained in the work, Heaven and Hell, from beginning to end. See also above, n. 10, 49, 52, 82).