Tag: Feasts of the Lord

Posted on

Come to the Feast!

This was God’s invitation to the people of Israel. When he gave them instructions as to how they were to live in fellowship with him in the Promised Land, he established festivals for them to observe throughout the year. These were important dates on their calendars for remembering, worshiping, and thanking God.

Leviticus 23 tells us there were seven feasts. These were holy events involving pilgrimages, sacrificial offerings, special sabbaths, and sacred assemblies. There were specific instructions as to how they were to be observed.

I have been writing about these Feasts of the Lord in this space for the last seven weeks. Why would these matters of ancient Hebrew history be of interest to us today? I believe it is because  these Feasts of the Lord are keys to our understanding of God’s plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. They symbolize Jesus and apply to God’s program for the church. We who believe in him are also invited to come to the feast.

Romans 15:4 says that “Everything that was written in the past (the Old Testament) was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.” I suspect that when our Lord Jesus explained to his disciples “what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27), he may have alluded to Leviticus 23.

The first of the feasts is Passover. It commemorated the Israelites’ national deliverance from slavery in Egypt. They were redeemed by the blood of sacrificial lambs. Passover testifies to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ as the ultimate Lamb of God, who shed his blood to redeem us (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). We must believe in him as savior to be able to enjoy redemption from sin and fellowship with God.

Beginning the next day after Passover, and continuing for a week, the Jews celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They ceremoniously removed all leaven (yeast) from their dwellings and feasted together as families. In the Bible, yeast is a picture of sin. Once a person has received Jesus Christ as savior, he or she should endeavor to resist sin and remove it from their lives (2 Corinthians 7:1).

After the week of unleavened bread, came the Feast of Firstfruits. It was always on the first day of the week, following the sabbath. The people were to bring to the priest a first sample of the spring harvest as a sacrifice to God. In the New Testament, Firstfruits pictures the resurrection of Jesus Christ and of all who believe in him (1 Corinthians 15:23). It is worth noting that the first day of the week, for Christians, is resurrection day.

Fifty days later came the Feast of Weeks (seven weeks), also called Pentecost, meaning “fifty.” The Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost, in accordance with the promise of Jesus (Acts 2:1-21). The church was born when the Holy Spirit came.

The Feast of Trumpets speaks of the Lord’s gathering his people together. Trumpets were blown to announce the moving of the camp of Israel, to declare war, or to assemble the people for a special occasion. This may illustrate the gathering together of God’s church when the trumpet sounds to raise the dead and living believers are “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, came next. It was a solemn day of fasting, stillness, sacrifice, mourning, and confession of sins. Devout Jews consider this day to be the holiest day of the year. Kippur means “covering.” It signified that the sins of the people were covered and forgiven by a merciful God. There will come a day when national Israel will repent. The features of the Day of Atonement are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 2:2).

The seventh feast is the Feast of Tabernacles, It was observed in the fall of the year in connection with the preceding two feasts. It followed the Day of Atonement with a week-long remembrance of Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, the forty years in the wilderness. During the week of this festival, Hebrew families camped in temporary shelters called sukkot. It was to be a joyful celebration of God’s past faithful provision, and anticipation of the future earthly kingdom of Messiah (Ezekiel 37:26-28).

These feasts tell us that God is interested in how we live our lives. The people of Israel were to keep the Lord first in all aspects of their days, months, and years. He had given them their seasonal rains and harvests, and they remembered to thank him. Our lives, likewise, should be regulated by his word.

These seven feasts are pointers to our Savior, Jesus Christ. They are pictures of the blessings of his great salvation. They tell us that fellowship with God is possible through him.

The first four feasts, in the spring of the year, picture Jesus’ first coming, his death and resurrection and the descent of the Spirit. The last three feasts, in the fall of the year, picture our Lord’s second coming. So we live in grateful remembrance of what God has done for us in the past. We also live in joyful anticipation of the fulfillment of his promises of a glorious future with him.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

 

Posted on

Christ, Our Passover

“Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed” ( 1 Corinthians 5:7).

Just a few weeks ago Christians worldwide remembered our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection. Every year this coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover. This is because Jesus’ death was during the Passover season. Even more important is the fact that he is the fulfillment of everything Passover symbolizes.

While there are many symbolic features in the Passover ceremony, I will point out just a few. Passover tells the story of Israel’s national redemption and rescue from slavery in Egypt. The ceremony was unique to the Israelites. No other ancient civilization had anything like it. The Bible tells us that Jesus is uniquely the only savior and redeemer.

The redemption pictured in Passover involved the sacrifice of a lamb. It was to be unblemished. The first Passover lamb was to be killed and its blood smeared on the lintels and doorposts of the houses of the Israelite people. The blood of the lamb was for the protection of the believing families as the angel of death “passed over” them when God’s judgment descended upon Egypt. Jesus, the New Testament tells us, is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He is “a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19).

Every year after that, a lamb was to be roasted and eaten in the Passover supper, in memory of the Exodus from Egypt. The meal also included bread baked without yeast, or leaven. Leaven, in the Bible, is a picture of sin. Unleavened bread is sold today as matzah. It looks like a large saltine cracker. It is baked in such a  way that it is pierced with tiny holes and it has brown spots like bruises. Jesus said he is “the bread of life” (John 6:35). When Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples, he held up the bread, broke it, and said, “This is my body given for you” (Luke 22:19). This reminds us of a prophecy: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

At the Passover supper the head of the household would lead the family in ceremoniously drinking four cups of wine, the cup of blessing, the cup of praise, the cup of redemption, and the cup of the kingdom. This would be accompanied by the reading of relevant scriptures and singing of psalms. At the last Passover with his friends, Jesus lifted the cup of redemption, and declared, “This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:28-29).

Clearly, the New Testament is teaching us that Christ is the center of attention, the object of worship. The Passover was observed by the Jews in the spring of every year. It was a pointer to the ultimate sacrificial lamb whose blood brings redemption and spiritual security. For Christians, the Lord’s Supper is a reminder of these truths.

Jesus is the perfect Lamb of God “chosen before the creation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20). The annual killing of the Jews’  Passover lambs represented the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus. “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

The Bible says that while Jesus lived a sinless life, it was not his perfect life that atones for our sins. It was not his good example, as wonderful as that was. It was not his love or compassion alone that secured our redemption. He had to die for sinners. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). “You were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God” (Revelation 5:6-9). “Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

There were seven annual festivals on the Jewish calendar. Passover was to be observed as the first one of the year (Exodus 12:2). Each one of those subsequent festivals was an important picture to us of our Lord Jesus Christ and the panorama of God’s salvation. We shall explore these feasts of the Lord (Leviticus 23) in the coming weeks in this blog. I invite you to read these articles and share them with others on your favorite internet platform.

Pastor Randy Faulkner