When it is said here that we should not try to keep the Jewish feasts now, that is a reference to the ceremonial observance of them.  We should indeed keep them in the sense of receiving the lessons which they represent and acting in accordance with those lessons.  When Paul told the Corinthians to keep the feast (in relation to Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread), he was referring to putting away sin which leaven represents in relation to these.  He was not rebuking the Corinthians for failing to keep the ceremonial observance of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened bread.  This understanding is important for this message and is necessary to explain upfront.

The Lord clearly released gentile Christians from keeping the Jewish ceremonies altogether in Acts chapter 15 through the Apostolic conference recorded there.  However, both in the 1st century and up until today, many do not accept this God-ordained verdict regarding Judaizing.   

In addition to this, no one can faithfully keep the Jewish ceremonies now without the Levitical Priesthood in place and the Temple in Jerusalem in place.  The Jewish Feasts had to be kept in Canaan in the place God would choose to cause His name to dwell.  It can be seen in Acts 18:21 that the Apostle Paul knew he needed to go to Jerusalem to keep the feast which he intended to keep at that particular time.  

It is impossible to properly keep the Jewish feasts now as they were prescribed in the Bible.  

Attempting to keep them now is an unscriptural offering of strange fire before God in principle.  God testified His wrath against such by killing Nadab and Abihu for doing this in Leviticus chapter ten.

Biblical Judaism centered around the Temple in Jerusalem.  In AD 70 this Temple was destroyed by the Romans.  The Jewish Christians had already escaped Jerusalem altogether at that point.  The destruction of the Temple obviously made the practice of Biblical Judaism as a whole impossible for anyone, as the vast majority of the Jewish ceremonies require the Tabernacle, which had become incorporated into the Temple, as well as a functioning Levitical Priesthood, to faithfully perform.  The Temple has never been rebuilt to this day, in spite of many plans to do so over the last 1,950 years.   

That is how the Jewish Christians were also practically released from keeping the Mosaic ceremonies.  To this day then, God’s rejection of the practice of Judaism and the validity of (Biblical) Christianity are testified to by the fact that Scriptural Judaism is impossible to practice anymore while Biblical Christianity is possible to faithfully practice anywhere on earth.  

Nevertheless the Jewish ceremonies (which include the Jewish feasts) teach spiritual lessons which in themselves are still valid- especially lessons about man’s need for redemption, the Messiah’s mission of redemption, and the principles by which that mission is to be actualized in our lives.  We ought to understand, honor, and be aligned with the significance of the Jewish Feasts.  The things they teach about being redeemed from sin and being reconciled to God ought to be a reality in us.  This is surely not so with lawless professing Christians and Jews who reject Jesus as the Messiah.  

These lessons should also cause Muslims and others to see that the redemption program which God has worked since man fell into sin in Genesis chapter 3 points the way to Jesus Christ’s blood atonement through His death on the cross and His preeminence in all things as proven by His resurrection (His resurrection validates the claims He made about Himself being the Son of God).  There is no place in this redemption program for a newer and/or greater revelation of God’s prescription for righteousness which He offers to mankind.

Israel’s Messiah has now come, the very substance which these feasts pointed to.  It is right then to honor the significance of the Jewish feasts while it is also great presumption and strange fire to try to actually keep them.

With these things considered, here is a very brief summary of the Jewish Feasts (according to the outline set forth in Leviticus chapter 23) and their significance.

God ordained the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar.  This was also the first day of a seven day feast which is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  The Jews now have separated their religious calendar from their civil calendar, so that they actually celebrate their civil New Year on the first day of the seventh month of their religious calendar (the same day that the Feast of Trumpets was instituted).  The Law of Moses surely never appointed nor allowed that the Jews have a civil calendar which is separate from their religious calendar.   It rather clearly says in Exodus 12:2 that  the month of Abib or Nisan in the Spring wherein Passover is celebrated should be the head month which marks the beginning of a new year (it even uses the Hebrew Rosh to describe this month- the first of Abib is the true Rosh Hashanah).

When rabbis say it is wrong to attribute Christian significance to the Jewish feasts, remind them that they fail to even get the appointed first month of the Hebrew calendar right- even though that month was set forth in the Law of Moses as plain as anything can be.  It is no wonder then that they reject Jesus Christ and don’t acknowledge how the Hebrew Scriptures point to Him (the Hebrew Scriptures by the way are equivalent to the Old Testament and are also called the Tanakh).

The Passover represents Jesus’ death on the cross wherein He shed His blood to provide redemption for man.  By the instructions regarding the Passover in Exodus 12, we are taught how we are to believe in Him in order to partake of His redemption so that we might be delivered from God’s judgment on sinful mankind.  

Contrary to modern evangelical theology, simply applying the blood of the Passover Lamb was not enough for the Israelites.  The Passover had to be eaten in haste and in its entirety roast with fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  Jesus must be received for everything that He is- both Lord and Savior.  Sin (represented by leaven) must be put away.  The evil values of the world must be renounced and the bitterness of Christ’s reproach must be embraced (signified by the bitter herbs).  And we must be ready to act and face change in making right decisions in relation to these things (signified by how the Israelites had to keep the Passover with their loins girded, shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand ready to flee Egypt).  

In writing 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul made it clear that the Corinthians had put away the leaven of sin in coming to faith in Jesus Christ; and they had to keep the leaven out in order to remain justified in Christ and not rather be condemned with the world.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (Paul is rebuking the Corinthian church for the sin which they were allowing among themselves; and that sin was in danger of corrupting everyone in the church): “Your glorying is not good.  Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.  For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

We must put away sin to have a saving interest in the blood of the Lamb of God.

Next is the offering of the Firstfruits (which is categorized among the Jewish feasts in Leviticus 23).  Concerning this we read in Leviticus 23:9-11: “And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: 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.”

This offering was made on the day after the Sabbath which occurred during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (remember that it was a seven day feast).  The waving of the firstfruits would have coincided with the day that Jesus was raised from the dead.  He was killed on the day of Passover and was raised on the third day (the day after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread).  

1 Corinthians 15:20: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept (those that have died).”  Jesus is called the firstfruits in terms of resurrection again in 1 Corinthians 15:23.

The next feast is Pentecost (also called the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot).  The Feast of Pentecost was observed after seven weeks had passed from the waving of the firstfruits on the day after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened bread (Pentecost means fiftieth).  

The timing between Passover and Pentecost corresponds to the time between the very first Passover and Israel’s encampment at Mount Sinai where God gave the Israelites His Law written in stone.  

The Feast of Pentecost represents Christ’s Holy Spirit being sent to His disciples on the Day of Pentecost.  This inaugurated the New Covenant with the House of Israel and birthed the Christian church (hence believers in Jesus Christ are the true Israel of God who are the spiritual descendants of Abraham- while natural Jews who reject Christ are not in covenant with God and are not partakers of God’s covenant with Abraham).  

As Passover’s ultimate fulfillment in the death of Israel’s Messiah happened on the day of the Passover, Pentecost’s ultimate significance was also fulfilled when the Holy Spirit was sent to dwell in the hearts of those who received the Messiah on the Day of Pentecost.  

The Holy Spirit writes God’s Law into the depth of the being of those whom He dwells within; those justified by the Messiah whose death and resurrection were represented respectively by the Passover and the waving of the firstfruits.

Acts 5:30-32 (Peter is testifying to the Jewish leaders): “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.  Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.” 

-See also especially Romans chapter 8 in relation to the Holy Spirit being sent to dwell within those who obey Jesus.  The righteousness of God’s law is fulfilled in them as they choose to suffer with Christ in His death to sin in order to live to God with Him by His resurrection life.  This life is given through His Holy Spirit.  They are thus saved from their sins (see Matthew 1:21).

The feasts which have been talked up until this point are the Spring feasts.  They illustrate the way of redemption to God and what we must do in order to walk therein.  The events which these feasts foreshadow have already occurred and the substance of the realities which these occurrences are intended to accomplish can be obtained by each of us now.   We must obtain these in this age and continue in them in order to be properly prepared to meet the Lord at the end (which the Fall Feasts are all related to).

Before we look at the Fall feasts, a required act of mercy is included right near the middle of Leviticus 23, the chapter regarding the feasts of the Lord.

Leviticus 23:22: “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God.”

We read in James 1:27: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Unlike the Spring feasts, the things which the Fall feasts typify and foreshadow have not been fulfilled yet.  Yet they will be fulfilled as surely as Jesus has already fulfilled the things related to Passover, Firstfruits, and Pentecost.  Though Jesus’ death, resurrection, and His sending of the Holy Spirit to indwell His people did not fulfill every ceremony in the Law of Moses, they surely commenced the fulfillment of the ceremonies in the Law of Moses and prove that the things in the ceremonial Law of Moses overall point to Him.

The Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar in the Fall signifies the Messiah returning to gather His faithful people and to execute judgment upon His enemies.  It is no wonder that the feast which in a way signifies Judgment Day would then come right on the heels of this.

That feast would be the Day of Atonement (also called Yom Kippur).  This was obviously not a feast in terms of eating, because it includes mandatory fasting- yet it is included on the feast calendar for Israel which God sent forth in Leviticus 23 as a day of special significance.  

It’s good to focus on being ready to meet God on Judgment Day and doing what it requires to be counted among His faithful people.  The Day of Atonement signifies the Ultimate Day of Judgment and it was given to Israel as a foreshadow of this.  Reflection on one’s priorities, confronting anywhere one is out of line with His Word in sin, and changing direction in relation to that should never, ever be neglected.  God gave Israel a specific day of the year to be set apart to drive home this point.  

In the context that it was given for Israel before the Messiah came, the Day of Atonement was also a reminder that the ultimate atonement for sin had not yet been offered and that the Jewish sacrificial system itself was not sufficient to take away sins.

Both the events of the Day of Atonement as it was ordained in Israel, and the salvation through the ultimate atonement of Christ’s blood being obtained by the faithful at the end of time, are referenced later in Hebrews 9:24-28: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others (my note- this was done on the Day of Atonement); For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (my note- this rebukes the concept of the Catholic Mass also).  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

The final feast of the Jewish year comes right on the heels of the Day of Atonement.  This is the Feast of Tabernacles.  It was given for Israel to observe in the promised land of Canaan while remembering how God redeemed Israel from Egypt and led Israel through the wilderness to enter there.  It is a picture of God’s redeemed people dwelling with Him in His eternal kingdom the New Jerusalem looking back upon the immense price Christ paid to redeem from their sins and the tribulation which they endured on earth in order to be faithful to the Risen King who died to obtain a redeemed, set apart people for Himself.

Revelation chapters 21 and 22 demonstrate how those who did not become, and did not endure as faithful subjects of the King during the testing period of this age, will not be redeemed by His blood and will not partake of His kingdom.  They will rather be placed outside its gates in the lake of fire. 

This is now the summertime of harvest wherein we have the opportunity to have the means of redemption which the Spring feasts illustrate actualized in us.  

There will never be another opportunity for those who do not get in line and stay in line with the Lord’s appointed way of redemption during this time of harvest which is occurring before the judgment and finality that are illustrated by the Fall feasts

In relation to this, consider the lament of those under God’s judgment seen in Jeremiah 8:20: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life.  There is no other way.  These feasts represent the way of redemption through Him as well as how His authority will be vindicated and prevail in the end- to the joy of those whom He counts as His faithful people and the shame of His enemies.

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR FRONT PAGE FOR ALL THE STUDIES

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR 3RD WORLD MISSION TO THE IMPOVERISHED