(LEV 23)
God would reveal the first and second coming of Christ through the seven feast days that marked the Jewish year (Lev. 23) the yearly feast-days were like a blue-print of god's program of redemption. God is still using his calendar of time revealed in the giving of the seven feast days of Israel. The major prophetic fulfillments of God on the earth have always occurred on one of these festival days.
".......and he shall come unto us the rain: as the latter and former rain unto the earth" Hosea 6:3
The spring festivals known by the Hebrews as "the former rain"
PASSOVER:
A lamb would deliver Israel from God's judgment of Egypt (the world). The blood of the slain lamb provided protection from the sentence of death as God passed in judgement over Egypt. Jesus delivers us today from sin and God's judgement of the world (Egypt). Jesus was slain on this very feast-day as the Lamb of God. He is the Passover fulfillment. His sacrifice in our place, as the Lamb, provides the assurance of everlasting life to his believers; restored peace and fellowship with God.
UNLEAVENED BREAD:
Bread spoke of a type of mankind (Showbread in Tabernacle representing the 12 tribes of Israel)
- leaven spoke of sin, and Jewish homes were cleansed of all leaven
- during this week / symbolic of removing sin from our lives
- unleavened bread also spoke of the Messiah to come, "A man without sin". Jesus was the only "Man without sin" (the second Adam), and
- because of His death in our place, sin is removed from our lives
- Jesus is the fulfillment of this feast-day
- He was buried on this day to remove sin from our lives
- Jesus was the Bread sent from heaven to give life to the world John 6:31-33
FIRST FRUITS:
The very choicest early produce of a new grain harvest just coming in were removed ahead of the main harvest and taken into God’s presence in the Tabernacle; there the High Priest offered the first-fruits as a peace offering of restored fellowship with God, and a dedication of the harvest to come.
- It was a type of THE "righteous harvest to come"
- Jesus was the First Fruit of saved mankind: man restored to physical perfection and to renewed peace and fellowship with God
- Jesus was resurrected on this very feast-day as Jesus was the first man to be resurrected after death to physical perfection and everlasting life in the presence of God (1 Cor. 15:20)
- He rose to heaven as the "first" of a great harvest to come - Matt. 13
- He was the "First Fruit of resurrected mankind", restored to full peace and fellowship with God
- The true church ("called out ones") is also a First Fruit to be taken out ahead of the Great Harvest at the end of this Age
- LEV. 23:15-17
PENTECOST:
God poured out His Spirit at Sinai and gave His Torah and His plan of redemption through the nation of Israel. Fourteen hundred years later, on this very same feast-day, God poured out His Spirit upon the apostles to empower the burgeoning body of believers to evangelize the world during the "Times of the Gentiles" - ROMANS 11
Each year, Pentecost was a promise of "the wheat harvest to come" and a type of Church Age under grace. When Pentecost was fulfilled in Acts 2, the promised "wheat" was fulfilled in the apostles and their many disciples. Jesus prophesied this event in Matthew 13.
THE FALL FEASTS: KNOWN BY THE HEBREWS AS "THE LATTER RAIN"
TRUMPETS:
The arrival of the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) was announced by two days of blowing the shofar or rams’s horn (also called "Awakening Blast")
- A long blast of the shofar trumpet calls all to repentance and also warns
- that God's grace has ended and judgment is imminent .
- This trumpet blast proclaimed: repent now or remorse later!
- After this trumpet warning, only 7 days remained to repent and return to God. God called this period of personal self-examination, "soul affliction": all Israel was called to this severe personal introspection or soul affliction that would lead to sincere repentance and humility before God. The prayers were for cleansing and for seeking restored fellowship (peace) with God.
- Ps 51 & Ps 27
- To refuse participation in this is to "be cut off from your people" - Lev 23
This was a shadow of the 7-yr tribulation period to cleanse the earth at the end of this age (last week-of-years of Daniel). This seven years of "soul affliction" will precede the second advent of Christ upon the earth, and is centered around the current strategic strife of Israel and in particular, the volatile dispute over the city of Jerusalem. Dan 9:24
YOM KIPPUR:
Also called "the Day of God's Ultimate Judgment" and the "Day of the Lord".
On this day every year Israel was borne symbolically upon the shoulders and upon the heart of the High Priest into the very presence of God (the Holy of Holies) to receive atonement for sin or God's eternal condemnation.
This was a shadow of the final day of judgment of this present age.
On this day, Jesus will return with His saints to administer the final judgment, and usher in the long-awaited Kingdom Age of peace Dan 9:24.
TABERNACLES:
This was also called "the Season of our Joy".
God's periods of cleansing and judgment (the yearly cycles of the Fall Feasts of Israel) were always followed by this season of joyful fellowship and celebration between God and His people.
All "Feasts of Tabernacles" preceding the return of Christ are "Rehearsals" or shadows of the Kingdom Age to come.
On the final Feast of Tabernacles at the end of this age, the Messianic Kingdom Age will begin, and the Wedding Supper and Coronation of Jesus will take place. Dan 7:9-10 Dan 9:24.
There will be great joy and celebration both in Heaven and on the earth.
The fulfillment of this Feast-day at the end of this present age will complete "The Basar", or the message of the Good News of the Kingdom of God.