THE FEASTS OF THE LORD
As a Christian, you may think that the Jewish traditions do not apply to us anymore. You may say: “we are saved by grace, not by works”, to which I totally agree. Yet, this does not mean that no “work” will follow our salvation. We need grace to be able to execute the work that God has commanded us to do. We need grace so we can fulfill what God says in His Word that we should do.
Being saved by grace and not by works does not mean that we are exempted from doing the works that God has instituted in His Torah, which includes observing the Feasts of the Lord (Leviticus 23). However, I do understand how you as a Christian may have a difficult time understanding this, let alone accepting it. This is the reason why I am sharing with you what I am learning. I am not an expert on this matter. I am simply imparting to you what I am discovering in this journey.
Before I go any further, let me ask you one question. If Christians can celebrate Christmas, Easter, and other holidays that are considered pagan in origin, why can’t we celebrate the real feasts established by God in His Word? Think about this.
Allow me to proceed now to an explanation of the Seven Feasts of Israel.
Before I go any further, let me ask you one question. If Christians can celebrate Christmas, Easter, and other holidays that are considered pagan in origin, why can’t we celebrate the real feasts established by God in His Word? Think about this.
Allow me to proceed now to an explanation of the Seven Feasts of Israel.
Leviticus 23:1-44 lays down God’s command to observe the feasts, which are actually "His feasts". It starts out with God speaking to Moses and saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.
Let me enumerate to you the feasts without going into the details on the instructions for each feast. I suggest that you do your own Bible reading on this one.
1. Passover
2. Unleavened Bread
3. Feast of Firstfruits
4. Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)
5. Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana)
6. Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)
7. Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)
The Seven Feasts of the Lord does not only give us a picture of holy history but also gives us a glimpse of what is going to happen in the future. It is actually a connection between the past, present, and future. While they tell the story of the main covenant events between God and His chosen people as they happened, it also tells us of future events.
Let me enumerate to you the feasts without going into the details on the instructions for each feast. I suggest that you do your own Bible reading on this one.
1. Passover
2. Unleavened Bread
3. Feast of Firstfruits
4. Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)
5. Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana)
6. Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)
7. Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)
The Seven Feasts of the Lord does not only give us a picture of holy history but also gives us a glimpse of what is going to happen in the future. It is actually a connection between the past, present, and future. While they tell the story of the main covenant events between God and His chosen people as they happened, it also tells us of future events.
The story begins with God’s chosen people, as they were called back in the Old Testament, and extends right through to the Apocalyptic events that John saw in his vision and which he wrote about in the Book of Revelation.
The Seven Feasts will take us beyond the Apocalypse. The seventh feast, the joyous Feast of Tabernacles, will actually come into its ultimate fulfillment as the true new age dawns. This will bring in the Millennium of Messiah, that glorious age to come. The deserts will bloom and streams of waters will break forth upon the dry ground. God will camp out with mankind for 1,000 years as Emmanuel, "God with us". And as a shepherd feeds and tends his sheep He will draw His people to Himself.
The first four of the Seven Feasts of Israel have already been fulfilled in spectacular fashion. They were fulfilled accurately on the Hebrew calendar dates on which they have been celebrated in times past, the same dates that will be celebrated forever more. The three Spring Feasts were fulfilled by Jesus our Messiah. The Summer Feast of Pentecost was fulfilled as well, by the Holy Spirit 2,000 years ago. Here is a more detailed explanation.
FULFILLED FEASTS: Spring Feasts
Passover
Parallelism: God had to kill all the firstborn of the Egyptians so He can redeem His people. Centuries later, God offered salvation and redemption to all who would receive Him through His Son, Yeshua, by giving the life of His firstborn Son.
Feast of Unleavened Bread
Parallelism: Yeshua is the unleavened bread, who has not been infected and contaminated with the "rottenness" of the world and the rest of humankind. His body was buried but did not experience decay. He was sanctified and set-apart by God the Father.
Feast of Firstfruits
Parallelism: Yeshua's resurrection gives us hope of our eternal life -- a life with no more death and suffering.
"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; thjen, when he comes, those who belong to Him" (1 Cor. 15:2-23).
Feast of Pentecost
Parallelism: Just as the divine presence on Mt. Sinai was spectacularly marked with fire, God's presence at Pentecost was dramatically marked with tongues of fire. However, instead of carving his law on tablets of stone, he was inscribing it in human hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit.
FULFILLED FEASTS: Spring Feasts
Passover
- Commemorates the exodus of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt.
- During the Passover in Egypt, the Israelites were instructed by God to mark their doorframes with the blood of a lamb so that the Lord would pass over them when judgment came.
- Jesus/Yeshua was crucified on Passover.
Parallelism: God had to kill all the firstborn of the Egyptians so He can redeem His people. Centuries later, God offered salvation and redemption to all who would receive Him through His Son, Yeshua, by giving the life of His firstborn Son.
Feast of Unleavened Bread
- The Passover lamb was sacrificed on the afternoon of the fourteenth day of the month Nisan but is eaten after sunset, at the beginning of Nisan 15, when the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread began.
- You shall not eat leaven with it; for seven days you shall eat with it matzoth, the bread of affliction, for in haste you went out of the land of Egypt, so that you shall remember the day when you went out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life (Deuteronomy 16:3).
- Leaven represents contamination.
- Jesus/Yeshua was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Parallelism: Yeshua is the unleavened bread, who has not been infected and contaminated with the "rottenness" of the world and the rest of humankind. His body was buried but did not experience decay. He was sanctified and set-apart by God the Father.
Feast of Firstfruits
- Firstfruits celebrated the beginning of the barley harvest. On this feast, a sheaf of grain was cut from the field and then offered in thanksgiving to the Lord.
- This feast also represented the people's hope for the future, because the harvest had just begun.
- Yeshua resurrected on the Feast of Firstfruits.
Parallelism: Yeshua's resurrection gives us hope of our eternal life -- a life with no more death and suffering.
"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; thjen, when he comes, those who belong to Him" (1 Cor. 15:2-23).
Feast of Pentecost
- This feast is also known as Shavuot or Feasts of Weeks.
- Seven weeks after Firstfruits comes Pentecost, a feast that marked the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest.
- At least two hundred years prior to Christ's birth, the rabbis noted that the Israelites reached Mt. Sinai fifty days after they left Egypt (Exodus 19:1). This led them to conclude that Shavuot commemorates the covenant on Mt. Sinai.
- The day of Pentecost in the New Testament, commemorates the Holy Spirit's descent through tongues of fire, on the first century believers.
Parallelism: Just as the divine presence on Mt. Sinai was spectacularly marked with fire, God's presence at Pentecost was dramatically marked with tongues of fire. However, instead of carving his law on tablets of stone, he was inscribing it in human hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit.
While the Spring Feasts have already been fulfilled, we are still awaiting the fulfillment of the Fall Feasts. Just as each feast in the Spring Feasts coincides with the past prior to Yeshua, and what happened during Yeshua's time, the Fall Feasts coincide with future events that are to come.
UNFULFILLED FEASTS
Rosh Hashana
Parallelism: Many Christians observe this festival for its Christian prophetic application – the Rapture of the Church. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Cor. 15:51-53)
Rosh Hashana
- Rosh Hashana comes six months after Passover.
- It marks the anniversary of the world's creation.
- A shofar is sounded on that day to herald God as King of the world.
Parallelism: Many Christians observe this festival for its Christian prophetic application – the Rapture of the Church. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Cor. 15:51-53)
The ten days starting with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur are commonly known as the Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim) or the Days of Repentance. This is a time for serious introspection, a time to consider the sins of the previous year and repent before Yom Kippur.
Judaism 101 states: "One of the ongoing themes of the Days of Awe is the concept that G-d has "books" that he writes our names in, writing down who will live and who will die, who will have a good life and who will have a bad life, for the next year. These books are written in on Rosh Hashanah, but our actions during the Days of Awe can alter G-d's decree. The actions that change the decree are "teshuvah, tefilah and tzedakah," repentance, prayer, good deeds (usually, charity). These "books" are sealed on Yom Kippur. This concept of writing in books is the source of the common greeting during this time is "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year."
Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur
Parallelism: Prophetically, Yom Kippur is the long-awaited judgment, where Messiah will take the stick of Judah and the stick of Israel in His hand, will forgive their sins, and will make them one nation again forever. “The Jewish nation and "all Israel" will be saved”! The Bible makes it clear that at the second coming of Christ, the surviving Jews will look upon Christ and be saved in a day (Zech. 12:9, 10 & 13:1; Rom. 11:25-27; Rev. 1:7).
Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot
Parallelism: Even the Jews today recognize that the Feast of Tabernacles looks forward to the Kingdom of the Messiah. Zechariah 14:16-21 states clearly that after Christ sets up His Kingdom the people will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles as a yearly memorial. Also, Revelation 7:9-17 describes the saints who have come through the "great tribulation." This scene takes place at the inauguration of Christ's Kingdom. It depicts a grand celebration with the saints waving "palm branches."
The apostle John tells us in his vision of final things that the reality of Sukkot will be obvious to all: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Also I saw the holy city, New Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne say, "See! God's Sh'khinah is with mankind, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and he himself, God-with-them, will be their God" (Revelation 21:1-3).
The marriage supper will likely take place during this feast, [Isa. 25:6-8].
- Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year. It is marked with a 25 hour fast from food and water.
- The day is set aside to afflict the soul.
- While Passover clearly represents personal salvation, Yom Kippur represents the national salvation for Israel.
Parallelism: Prophetically, Yom Kippur is the long-awaited judgment, where Messiah will take the stick of Judah and the stick of Israel in His hand, will forgive their sins, and will make them one nation again forever. “The Jewish nation and "all Israel" will be saved”! The Bible makes it clear that at the second coming of Christ, the surviving Jews will look upon Christ and be saved in a day (Zech. 12:9, 10 & 13:1; Rom. 11:25-27; Rev. 1:7).
Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot
- Five days after the Day of Atonement is the Feast of Tabernacles. From the 15th to the 22nd of the seventh month was a time of the greatest rejoicing. It was the festival of all festivals.
- Israel was commanded to build tents [tabernacles] and live in them during the feast days. This commemorated how God brought them out of Egypt, cared for them in the desert, and how they finally reached the promised land.
- The Feast of Tabernacles is also celebrated by cutting off branches of palm trees, waving them, and rejoicing before the Lord.
Parallelism: Even the Jews today recognize that the Feast of Tabernacles looks forward to the Kingdom of the Messiah. Zechariah 14:16-21 states clearly that after Christ sets up His Kingdom the people will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles as a yearly memorial. Also, Revelation 7:9-17 describes the saints who have come through the "great tribulation." This scene takes place at the inauguration of Christ's Kingdom. It depicts a grand celebration with the saints waving "palm branches."
The apostle John tells us in his vision of final things that the reality of Sukkot will be obvious to all: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Also I saw the holy city, New Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne say, "See! God's Sh'khinah is with mankind, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and he himself, God-with-them, will be their God" (Revelation 21:1-3).
The marriage supper will likely take place during this feast, [Isa. 25:6-8].
All of these seven feasts have been celebrated since the day Moses gave them to God’s people at Mt. Sinai 3500 years ago, which shows its extreme importance.
As we have seen, the first three of the feasts, the spring feasts, have already had their New Covenant fulfillment. They were fulfilled by Jesus Himself in his death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus fulfilled them right on the set calendar dates of the feasts. He entered Jerusalem 2,000 years ago right on the day appointed in His first coming as Messiah. He came as the Suffering Servant, riding on a donkey. Four days later, just as the Passover lambs were being killed, He gave His life blood for us on the cross of Calvary. Truly, He was the promised Sacrifice Lamb. Then He was crucified on Passover, and was buried that night and laid in the tomb just in time for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On the third day he rose from the grave. And on the Feast of Firstfruits He was resurrected as the firstfruits from the dead. The Holy Spirit fell, 50 days later, upon the 120 in the upper room. This happened right on the Feast of Pentecost. Thus was the fulfillment of the summer Feast of Pentecost.
These four spectacular and mind-blowing events in the covenant history of Israel set the tone for what we can expect on the last three major events that are going to take place. They will erupt into history in the same astonishing way as the former four feasts.
On a final note, it is very important for us Christians to understand that all of these feasts are celebrations of epic events in the holy history of God's covenant people ... a history that involves the saints from both Old Testament and New Testament times. It is also important to know that these seven Feasts of Israel are not just old-fashioned religious festivals of a past era. They are memorials of events that will have occurred on those very same special Hebrew calendar dates set out by Moses 3500 years ago. Each feast will be a waypoint in our understanding of the character of our God as it illustrates a certain essential truth relating to the unfolding of the Everlasting Covenant into the history of this earth. The feasts are God’s way of revealing more of Himself to us ... signposts to guide us in our personal and corporate pilgrimage ... reference points into the Kingdom of God ... and a great opportunity to teach lessons and precepts to our family and those around us.
Lisa Maki is the founder/editor of God'z Gurlz, a Bible-based online magazine for women. She and her husband Jason are part of the growing movement of Christians who are discovering their Hebrew roots, and who are studying the Torah and its parallelisms to the New Testament. Lisa is likewise a Professional Writer with over 15 years of experience in the field. Jason and Lisa are part of El Shaddai Ministries, a First Century Believers Church headed by Pastor Mark Biltz.
