Festivals & Feasts

Gathering Together is based on the types found in the Old Testament scriptures.

Old Testament Jewish Festivals - Spiritual Realities

(There are three main scripture references supporting the following essay: Exodus 34:24-26; Leviticus 23:1-44 and Deuteronomy 16:16. All of these references are included at the end of this page)

SEVEN FESTIVALS PER YEAR

In the Old Testament God ordained seven major, annual festivals for the children of Israel in Jerusalem, God's chosen place for worship. These festivals or feasts were joyous gatherings for God's people to come together to worship God with their offerings of animals and crops, which they had raised up through the year. The seven feasts were held in three different periods of time each year, requiring every male to travel three times annually to Jerusalem.

It is also significant to note that every festival included at least one Sabbath and was considered a holy convocation before the Lord. The Lord said in Leviticus 23:2-4, "Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim [to be] holy convocations, [even] these [are] my feasts. 3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; you shall do no work [therein]: it [is] the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. 4 These [are] the feasts of the LORD, [even] holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons." The Sabbath was a time to stop all labor, work, effort or anything other than resting in the Lord. In the New Testament we are brought into a Sabbath rest in Christ (Hebrews 4:9). When we experience Christ and abide in Christ, we are in the reality of the Sabbath: we have no labor or work from our self as the source, but we rest in Christ, receive everything we need from Christ and carry out His desires through Christ. This is the meaning of the Sabbath to believers. Therefore, every feast carries the reality of the Sabbath with it: we stop all our self-effort in order to take Christ as our life and life supply.

Four Feasts in the First Half of the Year

The first trip to Jerusalem included three of the seven festivals: Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits. Passover began in the first month of the Jewish year on the fourteenth day. The feast of Unleavened Bread began on the fifteenth of the same month. The feast of Firstfruits began less than three days after the feast of Passover. (We will discuss the meaning of each festival and the relationship of the order of the festivals to our experience of Christ later in this article.) This celebration lasted about ten days.

The second journey to Jerusalem was only to celebrate the feast of Pentecost or Weeks. It occurred exactly fifty days after the "sheaf of firstfruits" is offered, meaning fifty days after the start of the previous feast of Firstfruits. The celebration lasted only one day. All of the first four festivals, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Pentecost, were held in the first half of the Jewish year.

Three Feasts in the Second Half of the Year

The third and final trip to Jerusalem included the final three festivals: Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles. All of these feasts were held in the second half of the Jewish year, beginning in the seventh month and lasting twenty two days.

SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FESTIVALS

Although our Jewish friends would not agree with the following, we believe the New Testament reveals the fulfillment of all the festivals in Jesus Christ. Romans 10:4 says that Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness, meaning that He came to fulfill the entire law that He might terminate the outward forms and practices and replace it with Himself as spiritual reality for His believers to experience. Every festivals signifies some aspect of Christ's life, Person or work in His relationship to man to accomplish His judicial redemption and carry out His organic salvation for the producing of the New Testament church as the Body of Christ which will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the Kingdom age and into Eternity!

Thus, we should pay close attention to the spiritual significance of the festivals since they are Christ to us for our portion to enjoy and live by. Firstly, we experience Christ as our Passover feast. Paul spoke this in 1 Corinthians 5:7, "for our Passover, Christ, also has been sacrificed. 8 So then let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Christ, according to the apostle Paul is the Passover in reality. Why? Because the Passover represents the Lord's judicial redemption and the initiation of our salvation in Christ.

The first aspect of Passover is that it is held in the first month of the year. Exodus 12:2 says, "This month [shall be] unto you the beginning of months: it [shall be] the first month of the year to you." Passover signifies a new beginning for all God's children because through Christ death old things have passed away and all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17).

Exodus 12:3 continues with, "In the tenth [day] of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb." The lamb was taken on the tenth day of the month and then it would be sacrificed on the fourteenth day of the month. "And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening." (Exo. 12:6) This corresponds to the testing of the Lord Jesus the four days before His crucifixion. This lamb was also spotless, without blemish just as the Lord Jesus was perfect as a man, without any sin or imperfection in His living. "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take [it] out from the sheep, or from the goats" (Exo. 12:5)

However, the most crucial aspects of the Passover feast were the blood and the eating of the flesh of the lamb. Exodus 12:7 says, "And they shall take of the blood, and strike [it] on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it." Blood signifies the judicial redemption Christ accomplished for all creation. Hebrews 9:22 says, "And almost all things are purified by blood according to the law, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." Through Christ's redeeming death all His believers receive forgiveness of sins, washing of sins, justification before God, positional sanctification and reconciliation to God all through the blood of Christ. However, the Passover also includes the eating of the lamb, signifying our initial regeneration by receiving the life of Christ into us. "And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire" (Exodus 12:8)

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 (Deuteronomy 16:16)

For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shall go up to appear before the LORD thy God three times in the year. 25 Thou shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning. 26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shall bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. (Exodus 34:24-26)

And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, [Concerning] the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim [to be] holy convocations, [even] these [are] my feasts. 3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; you shall do no work [therein]: it [is] the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. 4 These [are] the feasts of the LORD, [even] holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons. 5 In the fourteenth [day] of the first month at even [is] the LORD'S Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month [is] the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein. 8 But you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day [is] an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work [therein]. 9 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, 10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: 11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And you shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD. 13 And the meat offering thereof [shall be] two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD [for] a sweet savor: and the drink offering thereof [shall be] of wine, the fourth [part] of an hin. 14 And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that you have brought an offering unto your God: [it shall be] a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 15 And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: 16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD. 17 You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; [they are] the firstfruits unto the LORD. 18 And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be [for] a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, [even] an offering made by fire, of sweet savor unto the LORD. 19 Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits [for] a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21 And you shall proclaim on the selfsame day, [that] it may be an holy convocation unto you: you shall do no servile work [therein: it shall be] a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. 22 And when you reap the harvest of your land, thou shall not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reap, neither shall thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shall leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I [am] the LORD your God. 23 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, 24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first [day] of the month, shall you have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. 25 You shall do no servile work [therein]: but you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. 26 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, 27 Also on the tenth [day] of this seventh month [there shall be] a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. 28 And you shall do no work in that same day: for it [is] a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. 29 For whatsoever soul [it be] that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. 30 And whatsoever soul [it be] that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. 31 You shall do no manner of work: [it shall be] a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 It [shall be] unto you a Sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls: in the ninth [day] of the month at even, from even unto even, shall you celebrate your Sabbath. 33 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, 34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month [shall be] the feast of tabernacles [for] seven days unto the LORD. 35 On the first day [shall be] an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work [therein]. 36 Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it [is] a solemn assembly; [and] you shall do no servile work [therein]. 37 These [are] the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim [to be] holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: 38 Beside the Sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which you give unto the LORD. 39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day [shall be] a Sabbath, and on the eighth day [shall be] a Sabbath. 40 And you shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. 41 And you shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. [It shall be] a statute forever in your generations: you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: 43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I [am] the LORD your God. 44 And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD. (Leviticus 23:1-44)