Jewish Feasts - Pattern of Seven

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Introduction

Scripture tells us of seven Jewish feasts that the Jewish people still celebrate to this day.

These feasts have profound prophetic significance, as they picture the work of Jesus, and give us another pattern of seven.

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The instructions for these feasts were given to Moses to record.

Jesus said:

Joh 5:46-47  For if you believed [G4100 - pisteuo] Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.  But if you do not believe his [Moses] writings, how will you believe My [Jesus] words?

When you see "believe" in the verse above, you're seeing a translation from the Greek word pisteuo.

[G4100 - pisteuo]  From G4102; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), that is, credit; by implication to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well being to Christ): - believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.

Jesus told us that it was important to understand the writings of Moses... I think we should listen to Him!  The feasts of Yahweh are His prophetic road map and they are filled with great detail and precision.  

These feasts are a call to His people to annually remember, and to rehearse His plan of redemption for all mankind.

God has given us His plan so that we are able to recognize the timing of His plans:

Amo 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. 

The Jewish feasts are listed in Leviticus 23... these are God's appointed times:

Lev 23:2  Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD'S appointed times [H4150 - moed, set timeswhich you shall proclaim as holy convocations - My appointed times are these:

These appointed times are representative of the major events of Jesus.  The celebration of these feasts are symbolic of Jesus redemptive acts.  They are "set times" on God's calendar and should not be confused with holidays.

Collectively, the feasts foreshadow God's completed redemptive purpose for Israel as well as His blessings to the Gentiles.

Seven Feasts

These feasts are divided into four "spring" feasts and three "fall" feasts.

The four spring feasts have been fulfilled by Jesus during His first coming.  They depict the first coming of Jesus as the suffering Servant (Isa 53:10-11 below).

[1]  Passover - first of four feasts and pre-figured the death of Jesus on the Cross.  The blood of a sacrificial lamb was spread on the Jewish door frames in Egypt to protect them from the angel of death foreshadowing the blood of Jesus.

Jesus was the perfect, sinless, blood sacrifice and was the only blood acceptable to God.  Only His blood could pay the price that the blood of sacrificial lambs could not accomplish.

In God's eyes, our sin was transferred to Jesus, and God crushed that sin forever upon the ever-so willing Savior, God's Only-Begotten Son, Jesus:

Isa 53:10-11  But the LORD was pleased to crush Him [Jesus], putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.  As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.

Only the perfect blood of the perfect Lamb, Jesus, could satisfy God the Father and accomplish the forgiveness of our sin... Jesus willingly paid the price for us - He chose to become the object of God's wrath on sin... for God has not appointed us, as believers to wrath, but God poured out His wrath upon Jesus who carried our sin for us, in our place:

Rom 8:1  Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

1 Th 5:9-10  For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.

Rom 5:9  Much rather, then, being now justified in His blood, we shall be saved from indignation [wrath], through Him [Jesus].

1 Th 1:10  ... and to wait for His Son from heaven, Whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, Who rescues us from the wrath to come.

Joh 3:36  He who believes in the Son [Jesus] has eonian life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. 

[2]  Unleavened Bread - foretold the burial of Jesus.

[3]  Firstfruits - foretold the resurrection of Jesus

[4]  Shavuot (Pentecost) - foretold the coming of the Parakletos [Jesus] and the birth of His Church.
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The final three fall feasts are yet to be fulfilled through His second coming.  They depict Jesus second coming as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Rev 17:14  These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.

[5]  Yom Teruah (Blowing of Trumpets, Rosh HaShanah) - Pre-wrath harpazo of the Church.

[6]  Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) - When Jesus steps foot on Mount Zion and takes back what rightfully belongs to Him.

[7]  Sukkot (Tabernacles) - this will likely be celebrated at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

All three of these feasts occur in September and October on our Gregorian calendars.

They all occur in the seventh month of Tishri on the Jewish calendar.

The first four appointed times were exact in their reference to Jesus first advent, and it has been suggested that the final three appointed times will also be exact in His second advent.
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In Part 2, we'll dig into the spring feasts in much more detail.

Part 3 will bring us into the fall feasts.

I cannot stress enough how important a specific book is to this particular study... this is a "must-have" for your library:

The Last Shofar! by Joseph Lenard & Donald Zoller.


















Some of these excerpts are from my personal notes copied from 30+ years of studying... some of these notes are direct copies of various sources - I do not claim to have authored every word of this... it's just a mass collection I've tucked away over the years for my own personal studies... I didn't consider a bibliography at the time I directly copied small excerpts from various authors.  Also, any emphasis (underlines, bold text, all CAPS, etc.) noted above was only meant to capture my personal attention as I studied...



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