Israel's Feasts

Israel's Feasts
by
Robert Dean, Jr.

1. Israel's religious calendar is divided in two, spring feasts and fall feasts.

2. These feasts were each designed to communicate something different about God's plan in human history. Each feast revealed a different aspect of God's plan for Israel in “shadow” form (Heb. 10:1) as the Jews looked forward to the coming of the Messiah.

3. The Spring feasts foreshadowed events in the saving work of the Messiah at the First Advent and the founding of the Church. These prophesies or types were fulfilled literally on the exact day of the feast. It can only be that the Fall feasts will also be fulfilled literally.

4. The Spring feasts include: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost.

5. The Fall Feasts include: Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

6. Since the Spring feasts were all fulfilled literally, then the Fall feasts must also be expected to be fulfilled literally. If you don't have a literal interpretation of prophecy, and by this I mean a dispensational, pre-tribulational, premillennial view then nothing is fulfilled on those Fall feast days and they are typologically meaningless.

7. Passover was the first of these holy days and the first of three annual pilgrimage feasts requiring all Jewish males to celebrate the feast at the Temple in Jerusalem (Ex. 23:17; Lev. 23:4-8; Deut. 16:16). The Passover commemorated the historical deliverance from Egypt and was observed on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the first month in the Jewish ritual calendar. Christ was crucified on Passover eve as a substitute for the sins of the world (John 19:14). Passover foreshadowed redemption through the crucifixion of the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29; cf., 1 Cor. 5:7).

8. The day after Passover began the week long Feast of Unleavened Bread. During this week no work was done, on the first and last day sacrifices were offered (Num 28:16-25; Deut. 16:1-8). The Feast of Unleavened Bread portrayed the impeccability of the humanity of Jesus Christ in Hypostatic Union, for Jesus Christ is called “the Bread of Life” (John 6:35). The prohibition of work represents Faith Rest, which is to characterize the believer's life after salvation as he is nourished on the Bread of life, Bible doctrine which is the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).

9. On the third day of that week was the Feast of Firstfruits. At Firstfruits, which was dictated by first harvest, the first sheaf of barley was brought in and cut and waved before YHWH as a sign of divine blessing and a guarantee that the harvest would be bountiful (Lev. 23:9-14). The Feast of First Fruits portrayed the resurrection of Christ, “the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). The feast occurred on the day after the Passover Sabbath, on the first day of the week, even as Christ was raised on the first day of the week. Like the feast of first fruits, the resurrection of Christ anticipates the harvest which is to follow, the resurrection of the saints.

10. Fifty days after Passover came Pentecost, the “Feast of Weeks” (Ex. 34:22; Lev. 23:15-22), the third annual pilgrimage feast that celebrated the wheat harvest, the arrival of God's provision. Thus Pentecost represents the fulfillment of God's promise of the Spirit to Israel. Yet something had gone wrong, the nation rejected the Messiah. At the end of the Pentecost period the Holy Spirit was to come to create a unified nation. However, the people rejected the Messiah. So instead of the moon and sun turning dark and the other signs of Joel, none of those things happened the way it was supposed to happen, what happened was tongues. What was that all about? Of all the signs given in Joel, tongues was NOT a sign of the coming age. But it was a sign of coming divine judgment for the nation Israel (1 Cor. 14:21-22; cf., Isa. 28:11). Why? Because the nation had rejected her Messiah. The Holy Spirit came as scheduled, loyal to God's plan and promise, but had to manifest in a different way, instead of manifesting as blessing, there was this manifestation of divine judgment. The Holy Spirit came in a new way to build a new Body, the Body of Christ. If it had happened as originally prophesied, then the Holy Spirit would have taken the nation and made it useable unto God. Instead, a new plan and dispensation is inaugurated and in such a way as to signal judgment to Israel. The two loaves represent the Gentiles and Israel who are united into one body, the church (Eph 2:14).

11. Jesus will come back in the Fall of the year at the Feast of Trumpets (Num. 29:1; Lev. 23:23-25, this announces the second Advent, and the regathering of the nation Israel to the land at the end of the Tribulation.

12. The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur (Lev. 23:26-32) recognizes their national recognition of Jesus as Messiah and that He died as a sacrifice for their sins. This will be fulfilled at the end of the Tribulation.

13. The Feast of Tabernacles, Succoth, or the Feast of Booths or Ingathering, is when the harvest is finally in and the people rejoice that all is done, all is complete, and it is a time of tremendous parties and celebration (Ex. 23:16; 34:22; Lev. 23:33-44; Deut. 16:13). This feast lasted seven days, the first and last marked by sacrifices. Fruit was gathered in and the people dwelt in booths made of branches and tree limbs. A time that commemorated in prophecy the commencement of the Millennial, Messianic prophecy.

This involves a manufacture of small tents and huts, called booths. These were built first out of whatever God supplied, every Jew had to build one, the same style of Tabernacle. So everyone rich or poor starts off the same with the same assets, yet what they do with those assets is the result of their volition. As in the Christian life, we all begin with the same assets in Christ, some use their positive volition and mature and glorify God, others squander their assets in carnality and will suffer shame and the loss of rewards at the judgment seat of Christ.