Significance of the Jewish Feasts

[jc49]

http://www.raptureready.us/feasts.htm

Significance of the Jewish Feasts

(John Hagee, Final Dawn Over Jerusalem, pp. 165-191)

Say to the people of Israel, The appointed feasts of the LORD which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed feasts, are these. Leviticus 23:2

Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked come against you, he is utterly cut off. Nahum 1:15

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. Isaiah 1:14

The clues we need to help us understand God's plan for humanity are found throughout Leviticus 23. The chapter begins with the directive to Moses to proclaim and keep holy the seven different feasts. The Lord established seven occasions of worship to guide Israel through the centuries until the Messiah comes. Christians often falsely assume these feasts are exclusively Jewish occasions. The Bible states that these days belong to the Lord which are established for divine purposes, and everyone has the right to draw near.

The number seven throughout the Bible represents completeness. Just as seven days finish a weekly cycle, seven festival occasions complete the work of God on Earth. Each holiday has a unique purpose. The Hebrew word for feast, mo'ed, means "a set or appointed time". Another Hebrew word similar to that is mikrah, which indicates a "dress rehearsal or recital". Each feast offers a piece to the puzzle of the divine blueprint for Jerusalem, Israel, and the rest of the world. Through these seven events, God revealed His 7,000 year plan. Peter reminds us that "a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day to the Lord". The final Feast of Sukkot will begin Jesus' reign on Earth for 1000 years of paradise.

1. The Feast of Passover: On the tenth day of A'bib (March or April on the English calendar), preparation for the annual Passover begins. The Lord states, "This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for the household.'" Exodus 12:2-3

For four days, a one-year-old male lamb without blemish was tied close to the house so the family would embrace the lamb as a pet. At 3:00 in the afternoon, the father of the house laid his hand on the lamb to cut its throat. Then he applied the blood of the innocence to the sides of the door and smeared it on the doorposts. The house was literally sealed with blood. The family was commemorating and reenacting the angel's journey through Egypt when the Jewish people were in bondage to the Pharaoh. At that time, an angel of death came to kill all of the Egyptian firstborn children. The angel "passed over" any house that had the blood of the lamb on its doorpost.

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9:22

In the Old Testament, sins were forgiven annually through this feast. It was God's way of foreshadowing his gift to humanity of forgiveness of sins through faith in his son Jesus. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming, he exclaimed, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!" John 1:29.

It is also significant that the lamb of the feast was slain at 3:00 in the afternoon--that is precisely the time that Jesus said, "It is finished!" and gave up his spirit. Redemption is now given to each person who has proclaimed Jesus to be his/her personal Lord and Savior.

2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread: This feast is observed the night after the week-long Passover festival begins. The Passover meal, called the Seder, is itself a picture of the death and resurrection of Christ. In the middle of the ritual, a piece of matzo (unleavened bread that is striped and pierced in the baking process) is broken into three pieces. The second piece, the Afikomen, is wrapped in white linen and hidden away for a little while, then found amid great rejoicing.

This is an incredible foreshadowing of how Jesus the Messiah, the Bread of Life, would be pierced with a spear, wounded with stripes, wrapped in linen, and hidden away in a borrowed tomb. On the night Jesus was betrayed, He ate the Last Supper (called that because it was the last meal in which leavened bread could be eaten before the festival) with His disciples and told them that the bread was His body that was to be broken for them. Just as the matzo at the Feast of Unleavened Bread is without leaven (yeast), Jesus was without sin. His body was hidden away for three days, but then He rose and reappeared to many on the Earth amid great rejoicing.

3. The Feast of Firstfruits: Immediately after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, this feast commemorates the day Israel went down into the depths of the Red Sea and came out the other side alive. The children of Israel marched into a watery grave and God raised them on the other bank a nation of free people. Little did they know they were also demonstrating how God would bring salvation to the entire world!

This feast foreshadows the work of both Good Friday and Easter, a type of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote, "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." 1 Corinthians 15:20

Jesus arose on the third day after his crucifixion and announced, "I AM the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." John 11:25-26

4. The Feast of Pentecost: On the second day of Si'van (May or June on the English calendar), exactly fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits, the commemoration of the giving of the Law begins. Following the Exodus and the Hebrews' miraculous escape from the Red Sea where Israel traveled until they arrived at Mount Sinai, God instructed Moses to have the people purify themselves. At the end of their 47 day journey, they purified themselves for three days, resulting in a total of fifty days, hence the word Pentecost. At Mount Sinai, Moses received the Ten Commandments directly from God.

At this point, the stage was set for God to reach the entire Gentile world. God was doing with the Jewish people at that time exactly what he was going to do fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

The feasts of the "former rain", consisting of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost, are acts 1-4 in God's preparations for the divine drama of the Second Coming. The prophetic counterparts to these feasts are behind us, their roles fulfilled.

5. The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah): The first day of the Jewish civil year begins on the first of the seventh month, Tis'ri (September or October on the English calendar). This is the date that God created Adam, the first man. This is also called the Day of Judgment, when God sits on His throne and determines the destiny of each individual in the upcoming year. The Jewish people celebrate by dressing up in their best white clothes to signify purity and they celebrate the day with joy.

This feast fulfills the Lord's commandment to Moses: "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation'" Leviticus 23:24. The "blowing of trumpets" refers to the shofar, the ram's horn that is blown exactly 100 times during the Rosh Hashanah service.

While the first four festivals occur in close proximity, an entire season passes before the fall commemoration of trumpets begins. This long period represents the dispensation of grace that we now live in. Of all the feasts, this is the only time span that cannot be exactly determined. This period is the one we are currently living in, the period of time where we wait for the angels to blow God's great trumpet that will call the Bride of Christ (The Body of True Believers) to her mansions on high. The Rapture of the Church is very near!

In this interim as we wait between Pentecost and Trumpets, Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom, returned to His father's house (as is Jewish custom) to prepare everything for our arrival.

And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. John 14:3

6. The Feast of Atonement: On the tenth day of Tis'ri (September or October), the day of Yom Kippur, Israel comes together in worship, self-examination, reflection, and repentance. This is the most sacred day of the Jewish year. In ancient times it was the only occasion when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies, and a scapegoat bearing the sins of Israel was sent off to Azazel in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:10)

Just as the crucifixion corresponded to the fulfillment of Passover down to the last detail, the Scripture points to the incredible promise of what will happen on this day, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Which Yom Kippur we are not sure of at this point. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ (not the rapture) will occur 2,520 days or seven prophetic years of 360 days after the day Israel signs a seven-year peace agreement with the Antichrist. This man will be worse than any other leader in history, and he is about to accept his role on the world stage. Fortunately, the Church will be "kept from the hour of trial which is to come upon the whole world".

7. The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot): This feast is held by divine decree on the fifteenth through the twenty-first days of Tis'ri (September or October). Sukkot begins after the ingathering of the harvest, and is the happiest of the biblical festivals. It celebrates God's bounty in nature and God's protection, symbolized by the fragile booths in which the Israelites dwelled in the wilderness. According to Jewish tradition, Sukkot is also a festival involving Gentiles, and seventy bullocks were offered up in the temple for the seventy nations of the world.

This feast is also called the Feast of Lights. How fitting that Jesus stood in the midst of the people and proclaimed, "I am the light of the world" John 9:5.

Light reveals, exposes, and conquers darkness. To those who know Jesus, this is truly a time we are longing for! The final thousand years of rest will begin with Jesus' Second Coming.

so.....M A R A N A T H A!!!! & Shalom while we watch and pray...eh eh

[jc49]

HALLLOOOOOOOOO''' CIAOOOOOOOOOO anybody there?

It seems that no many are interested in His Feasts..not even a bit,none,nicht,nada de nada.....boh?

[jc49]

I am sooooooooo excited seeing the interest in this topic so dear to God's heart but not so much to God's people.....wow

[nebula]

Sorry jc!

I read it, and thought it good - just didn't have anything brilliant to say with it.

[nebula]

Actually, jc -

Maybe you can hop over to this other thread.

A few of us got into a debate with someone over the Feast.

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Click here