Yeshua has so far fulfilled the first four Biblical Feasts - there are three more to go!

Many Christians insist that God is no longer holding us to keep His seventh-day Sabbath and the Biblical feasts. That's because they don't realize that God set specific times for everything, including the fact that we are to celebrate Him through these various feasts. Scripture is replete with such passages as Psalm 95:6-7, which says, "Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." Yet, many feel that worshiping God is nothing more than running to church on Sunday...

Corporate worship is important to our Creator. This is evident throughout the Tanach ("Old Testament"), and specifically outlined in Leviticus 23 which describes the whole annual cycle of special convocations. God designed these appointed times, the mo'adim, for His people to come together to worship Him. "His people" includes anyone who has attached him/herself to Israel to worship the risen Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ). Let's examine these special convocations:

There are seven Jewish feasts commanded by God to be celebrated each year. The first three are in the Spring (April or May):

  • Passover (Pesach): Celebrates the deliverance of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt; a tale of redemption through the killing of the Passover Lamb whose blood was to be applied to the doorposts of their houses - an act which would spare their firstborn from the Tenth Curse against Pharoah. YHWH promised that the Angel of Death would "pass over" those houses with the blood on the doorposts, and spare the first born (Exodus 12:1-13). Foreshadowed Yeshua, YHWH's "Passover Lamb" who fulfilled Passover when he was crucified and willingly allowed His own blood to be shed on our behalf in order to become our redemption.

  • Unleavened Bread (Hag HaMatzot): Leavened Bread is forbidden during this Feast as leaven is a symbol of sin (I Cor. 5:6-8). Our sinless Messiah Yeshua fulfilled this Feast when he was buried and became our righteousness (Rom. 6:4, II Cor. 5:21).

  • Firstfruits (Yom HaBikkurim): Fulfilled when Yeshua, the Firstruits of Creation, rose from the dead (I Corinthians 15:-20-23).

  • Firstfruits is the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot): Fifty days after Passover. Torah directs the seven-week Counting of the Omer (which begins on the second day of Passover and culminates after seven weeks, the next day being Shavuot). The counting of the days and weeks conveys anticipation of and desire for the Giving of the Torah. In other words, at Passover, the Israelites were freed from their lives of slavery in Egypt; and 50 days later on Shavuot they accepted YHWH's Torah which made them a nation committed to serving God. This Feast was fulfilled by the coming of the promised Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) on the disciples of Yeshua in the Temple. It represents the beginning of the body of Messiah on Earth, in which ALL believers, redeemed through the blood of Messiah, are lifted up before ADONAI and set apart as holy (Acts 2, John 14:15-18, Ephesians 2:11-22).

There is a break until Fall (September or October) before the next three feasts:

  • Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah): God's New Year; the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve and their first actions toward the realization of man's role in the world; of the first sin that was committed and resulting repentance; a day when YHWH takes stock of all of His Creation, which includes all of humanity.

  • Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur): Celebrated ten days later; represents the need for the sacrifice/sin offering that must be made for the sins of the nation. Yeshua WAS that Sacrifice!

  • Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot): Celebrated five days later; Yeshua, our Savior was born during the Feast of Sukkot, not on the 25th of December! Serves as a reminder of the days in the wilderness when YHW's people were forced to reside in tents/huts or temporary dwellings - a reminder of our temporary lives on Earth. It will be fulfilled by the ingathering of the "Final Harvest" of souls just prior to the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah on Earth.

The first three major events for believers in Yeshua - His death, burial and resurrection - fell EXACTLY on the first three feasts, and the symbolism of the feasts appears to be beyond coincidence:

  • While Passover was being celebrated - which included the slaying of an unblemished Lamb - Yeshua was being slain on the cross (1 Cor 5:7).

  • The feast that followed, Unleavened Bread, is a picture of sanctification, as Yeshua was buried. Leaven is representative of sin, of which Yeshua had none.

  • And then the feast of Firstfruits, to be celebrated on the morning AFTER the first Sabbath following the feasts of Unleavened Bread (Sunday) (Lev 23:10-11) is symbolic of Yeshua being the first of the Firstfruits (1 Cor 15:23).

  • Even more interesting, the next big event for believers was the coming of the Holy Spirit. And it fell EXACTLY on the next feast 50 days later, on what Christians call Pentecost. The symbolism is again obvious as two loaves of bread are offered, which is a picture of the Old and New Testaments.

If the first four major events of the "New Testament Church" happened on the first four Jewish feasts, the next big event - the so-called "Rapture" - should fall on the next scheduled feast - the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah, when God calls his people together. Again the symbolism is seemingly beyond coincidence as this is to be a day of regathering and rejoicing.

The bottom line is: Judging from the importance that GOD placed on His Biblical feasts, why would anyone think "Jesus abolished them"?

For an indepth article about Yahweh's appointed Feasts/Times, check out Baruch ben Daniel's Moedim.