The Feasts and Holy Days of Jehovah

 

The Feasts of the Lord

Leviticus 23:1-2  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts (lit. the appointed times) of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts

Seven God Given Feasts

There are seven holidays that God instituted, intended to be times to meet with and to draw closer to Him.

These seven holidays (holy days) are:

Passover - Pesach

The Feast of Unleavened Bread - Hag HaMatzot

The Feast of Firstfruits - Reishit

The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) - Shavuot The Feast of Trumpets - Rosh HaShanah

The Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur

The Feast of Tabernacles (Booths) - Sukkot

 

Three Pilgrimage Feasts

There are seven appointed times, not counting the weekly Sabbath (shab bat) of these seven, three were appointed by God as  pilgrimages. On these holy days all Jewish males were required to go to Jerusalem to "appear before the Lord"

Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:

Those three pilgrimage holy days were:

The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Hag HaMatzot) / Passover

The Feast of Weeks / Pentecost (Shavuot)

The Feast of Tabernacles / Booths (Sukkot)

The festivals were "holy convocations" a time for the nation to come together. Special sacrifices were offered on them in addition to the daily offerings. On all of them trumpets were blown while the burnt offerings and the peace-offerings were being sacrificed They were all, like the weekly Sabbath,  days of rest on which there must be complete suspension of all ordinary work.

Significance of the Festivals

The Feasts celebrated both God’s blessing to the12 tribes in the harvests and plantings as well as God’s protection and deliverance of the Israelite people.

The Passover festival was at the time of the barley harvest festival but recalled the Exodus from Egypt.

Pentecost was the celebration of the wheat harvest; it was also the day that marked the giving of the Law by God to Moses

The Feast of Tabernacles is festival of celebration of the fall harvest but is also the anniversary of the beginnings of the wanderings in the wilderness.

The New Year (Trumpets - Rosh Hashonnah) feasts and Day of Atonement marked the turning of the year for the nation and for each individual.

In addition, the Hebrews celebrated the Sabbath and the New Moon. Also, every seventh year was a Sabbath Year in which no work was to be done for a year, and every cycle of seven Sabbath years (7x7=49th year) was the year of Jubilee and no work was done on the 7th, 7th or on the 50th year.

The Feasts / Holy Day Foreshadow God's Plan of Redemption

Leviticus 23 is "God's calendar of redeeming grace." The chapter foreshadows God's redemptive plan for the mankind. The holidays and Sabbath days are a "shadow of things to come"

Colossians 2:16-17 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

The Passover is a picture of the death of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice for sin.

The feast of Unleavened Bread pictures the sinless sacrifice of Jesus, who would become "the bread of life" given to man from our Heavenly Father.

The Feast of Firstfruits foretells the resurrection of God’s perfect sacrifice.

And Pentecost foretells the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion:

The Feasts, for Old Testament Israel, were meant by God to remind His Old Covenant people of their relationship to Him as their provider and especially as their deliverer. The feasts brought the families of Israel together on each shabbat, and all the nation together on the pilgrimage holy days. As they celebrated and feasted, they would share a heritage, a history and a hope for the final deliverance by their coming Messiah and their joining for the greatest feast of all as God gathers His own to heaven for the final appointed time.

Though we are not called to celebrated Israel’s holy days, there is much to learn from the feasts as New Testament believers, things that will increase and enrich or own relationship with God, and give us a history, heritage and hope as His people of the New Covenant of Grace.