Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions:
One-sentence summary: The Lord gives Moses and Israel more detailed instructions for how priests are to conduct themselves, how to make acceptable sacrifices, and how to keep certain feasts to the Lord through all generations in order to remember Who He is and what He has done for them.
The Lord tells Moses to tell the priests to separate themselves from the holy things of Israel and not to profane the Lord's name in what they dedicate to Him. Whoever goes near the holy things which Israel dedicates to the Lord with uncleanness upon him will be cut off from the presence of the Lord. A leper or anyone with a discharge cannot eat the holy offerings until he is unclean. Anyone who touches any unclean person or thing unclean, admits to sin, or touches a creeping thing will be unclean until evening and cannot eat the holy offerings unless he washes his body with water. Once the sun goes down, he will be clean. He cannot eat anything that dies naturally or is killed by another animal. If anyone profanes God's ordinances, that person will die, for the Lord is the one who sanctifies Israel. No hired servant or outsider can eat the holy foods, but a slave that is bought may, and also one born in a man's house. If a man's daughter marries an outsider, she may not eat of it. If she is widowed and returns to her father's house, then she may. If a man eats the holy offering unintentionally, he must restore the holy offering and add 1/5 to it.
The Lord gives directions on how to offer acceptable offerings to him. The offerings should be without defect. (However, if an animal has one limb longer than the other, it may be offered as a freewill offering but not as a vow offering.) The Lord wants His name to be hallowed among the children of Israel and says that He is the Lord who sanctifies them and brought them out of the land of Egypt in order to be their God.
The Lord tells Moses to tell Israel to keep His holy feasts and the Sabbath. The 14th day of the 1st month at twilight is to be the Passover. The 15th day of that month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread (described in earlier posts.) The Lord tells them again to bring a first fruit of their harvests to the priests. Grain offerings should be offered at certain times to the Lord as first fruits and grain offerings along with lambs and drink offerings as wave and peace offerings. The Lord repeats His law of leaving some of their harvest for the poor and the stranger. The first day of the 7th month is to be a Sabbath rest during which they offer sacrifices, and the 10th day of that month will be the day of atonement where they will "afflict their souls" and make offerings to the Lord and do no work. Whoever does work will be destroyed. They are to keep these laws through all generations (starting at evening of the 9th day to evening of the 10th.) On the 15th day of that month will be the Feast of Tabernacles. The first day will be a Sabbath rest, and for for seven days, they will offer offerings. The 8th day will also be a Sabbath rest with offerings. These are "holy convocations" to the Lord. They will offer burnt, grain, sacrifice, and drink offerings to the Lord on these days besides vows and freewill offerings and other gifts. On the first day of this feast, they are to take "the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook and rejoice before the Lord... for seven days." For seven days, they will also dwell in booths, so that they remember how Israel dwelt in booths when the Lord brought them out of Egypt.
So Moses declares to Israel the feasts of the Lord.
Thoughts/Discussion Questions:
Here again we see how important it is to the Lord to remember. He knows that we need constant reminders not to forget. The Lord makes that clear both in commanding the feasts themselves and also in repeating His commands. To remember means to call something to mind. What do you need to remember that the Lord has done for you?