God told the house of Israel, “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies” (Amos 5:21). And He told the house of Judah (the Jews), “Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear” (Isaiah 1:14-15).

Why? For one thing, He said, “your hands are full of blood” (last part of Isaiah 1:15).

God had given His people beautiful, meaningful feasts. Obviously it was not His own feasts that He despised, but the way the people were keeping them. In one blatant example of human disregard for God’s feasts, Jeroboam, king of Israel, had actually changed the dates of God’s Holy Days when he feared that the 10 tribes of Israel would be drawn back to the nation of Judah and the temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:32-33).

Love and law

To understand God’s righteous anger at those who trampled on His commanded feasts, let’s step back for a moment. Remember that God is almighty. He is perfectly just, wise and all knowing. He is also all-caring. Because there is none greater, it should be obvious—even to the casual observer—when He says He despises something, we ought to take note. Thankfully, He is a very loving Father and wants us to all become His children.

There are many scriptures admonishing us to obey God. It would seem that once we have even a glimpse of His love and His might, obedience to His will would be automatic. However, many people are not truly concerned about the things God despises or hates. They think since He is a father and He is love, nothing could ever upset Him.

Yet God is holy by nature, and knows the terrible effects of disobedience, sin and evil. He thus cannot stand sin and evil. When we follow Satan’s deceptive ways, we in effect thumb our noses at God and what is right! Satan wants us to do anything except what God commands—what is good for us.

God’s feasts

The Bible teaches us all of the wonderful and holy feast days God commands us to keep. He calls them “My feasts” in Leviticus 23:2. Later in the Bible we learn that when God’s Kingdom is set up on earth, all nations will keep His feasts (Zechariah 14:16).

Ezekiel 44:6 states: “Now say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “O house of Israel, let Us have no more of all your abominations.”’” He says the priests will teach the difference between the holy and the unholy, the clean and unclean (Ezekiel 44:23). He also tells us that “they shall hallow My Sabbaths” (Ezekiel 44:24). God’s Sabbaths include the seven annual Holy Days and the weekly Sabbath—the seventh day of the week. He wants mankind to worship Him on these days.

The wrong way to worship

Why then would He speak so strongly against Israel for the feasts they observed?

They were appearing before God as hypocrites. The people were trying to appear obedient to God by outwardly keeping the biblical Holy Days, or the altered days set by Jeroboam, while they secretly had other gods before Him. God would have nothing to do with such hypocritical attempts at deception.

Amos described further transgressions in the way they kept the feasts. Their attitude was wrong. God expressed His anger with Israel because they complained they could not sell grain and other things until after the Sabbath—they were not appreciating the blessing of rest God gave us. God was also angry that they wanted to do business so they could cheat the poor (Amos 8:5-6). It was the way Israel worshipped Him and the changes they made to His holy feasts that upset God. It was an insult to Him and a transgression of His commands. Judah was no better. Though they didn’t change the days, they did change the way they worshipped.

They became so wicked God turned from them. There were always major problems in their worship. There were several reformations that took place (usually after a calamity), but the Bible shows that the temple was deserted at times and out of use. Worship was profaned by actions God condemned (Malachi 1:12-14).

Isaiah 58 reveals some of the major problems. God’s people felt quite smug in a self-congratulatory manner—thinking whatever they did was pleasing to God. They fasted, but then did whatever they pleased. They did not concern themselves with the oppressed and downtrodden. They were gossips and accusers of others. Malachi 1:13 encompasses God’s concern by telling Israel to stop breaking the Sabbath and dishonoring it by going their own way and by not using it as a day of joy and delight.

When God stated He despised their feast days (Amos 5:21), He was referring to the abominable conduct and attitude He was seeing. The attitudes reflected anything but the love and concern for one another God commanded, and the honor He deserved. He was referring to those who developed whole systems of behavior that were in violation of the spiritual intent of the Holy Days of God.

In Malachi, God speaks out against the priests who have not set their heart to honor Him (Malachi 2:2). In the book of Proverbs we read about seven things that God hates. All seven could be found within the attitudes about the Holy Days of God. Proverbs 6:16-20 lists pride, lying, hurting the innocent, having a wicked heart, running to evil, being a false witness and sowing discord among brethren.

Christ continues the theme

Matthew records Jesus Christ driving out those who bought and sold in the temple, turning over their money tables and accusing them of making the temple into a den of thieves (Luke 19:46). The whole intent of the temple had been altered by decisions based on greed and commerce. God was placed far away in the minds and hearts of many of those in positions of responsibility, because their attitudes were not suitable for worship or instruction.

Jesus continued His condemnation in Matthew 23. It was certainly not God’s laws that Jesus condemned; it was the way humans conducted themselves. It is not His feast days that God condemns; it is the human acts that pollute them. Recognition of the true greatness of God—His grandeur and worthiness of our complete attention and worship—is the path leading to lasting joy and peace. God wants to bless His people as a loving Father, but He is far too brilliant to spoil His children. He is too good of a Father to do that. Out of love, He gave His holy Sabbaths to mankind. Our mishandling of this gift is what God despises.

The day will come when God will dwell with men (Revelation 21). We will no longer be flesh and blood as we are now. God will give His faithful followers eternal life and blessings that cannot yet be imagined (Revelation 22:14). They will be the ones who have learned to love and keep His commandments.

Keeping His commandments very carefully does not remove our sin. Only the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us—but our sin caused His death, so it becomes painfully obvious that we should show our love by carefully following His instructions. Our love is reflected by our keeping God’s commandments (1 John 5:3). God has given mankind His feast days and an instruction book (the Bible) to follow. Let us despise what He despises and love what He loves as we endeavor to become like Him.