11. Mirth. Sin and mirth cannot hold long together, for if Israel will not remove sin from her mirth, God will remove mirth from her sin. Worldly mirth is but a mimicry of real soul joy. The latter is a river, deep and clear, while the former is but a superficial sparkling bubble that lasts but a short time (see 1 John 2:15-17). One of the great purposes of Christ’s first advent was to give us genuine, satisfying joy (John 15:11; 16:24; 17:13).
Feast days. It was in vain that Israel observed some of the forms and ceremonies of the Lord’s worship while in spirit and apostasy she held on to idolatry (see on 1 Kings 12:32). Such an impossible compromise worship of God and the devil could end only in the disaster of captivity.
New moons. Feasts held on the first day of each month (see on Num. 28:11, 14).
Sabbaths. Some have seized upon this verse as proof that the weekly Sabbath was to be abolished. However, careful attention to the context of the passage proves the fallacy of such reasoning. The prophet here declares that all the various feasts and days of holy joy of the northern kingdom would cease, owing to the coming captivity of the nation. Not the abolition of the Sabbath, or of any religious service for that matter, is foretold by this text, but rather the abolition of a rebellious nation. All Christians agree that God did not desire that the Passover, or any other annual feast that He had instituted, be abolished at that particular time, which was several hundred years before the first advent of Christ. Then consistency calls for us to believe that the Bible writer is not here even hinting that the weekly Sabbath of the Lord was to be abolished, either then, or at any future date.
Solemn feasts. Literally, “the feasts of a set time.”