Feast Days of Israel

Roadmap for God’s People

 

 

 

Would you say that you are well versed on the feast days of Israel? Would you say that you are fairly ignorant of the feast days: their names, the days they are celebrated, what they stood for, or how they may be important to us today? Or do you stand somewhere in between.

 

If we, as Restoration people, are ignorant of them - why? Has it seemed unimportant, or of little value to us and our purpose? Is it just something Jewish?

 

Have you ever had a Patriarchal Blessing?

If you have, did you receive information on what tribe you are?

The revealing of tribal inheritance in a Patriarchal Blessing is a spiritual tradition that is a part of our Restoration heritage. The majority of the people in the Restoration are found to be in the tribe of Ephraim. There is a reason for this. It is part of a mystery of what God is doing here in this promise land, regarding the gathering of the House of Israel.

 

Now, if we are discounting the Feast Days of Israel as something Jewish that we need not concern ourselves with, then I think we may have an identity crisis on our hands. They aren’t called the “Feast Days of Jews” nor were they given only to the Jews, but all the tribes of Israel – hence the name: “Feast Days of Israel.”  And the last time I checked Ephraim is one of the twelve tribes of Israel, are they not?

 

Being a part of the House of Israel then, you may want to know that God says that Israel shall keep the feasts forever, {Exodus 12:14} and that it will be 'perpetual' and 'from generation to generation,'

 

Up to this point, if you have been ignorant of the feast days, then today I am going to try to correct some of that ignorance and give us at least an elementary knowledge of them. And if you had previously thought those feast days were of no significance to us, or that they have been done away with, I will attempt to correct that as well.

 

In [Zec 14:16-19] the prophet Zechariah prophecies of the last days when Zion is established and Christ is King of all the Earth, saying: “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.”

 

I’m going to sketch for us, as briefly as possible, the feasts in their order and give their significance, because the Feast Days are really a high level outline of God’s plan of salvation and a time line of the most important events to take place. The prophets break this outline down into greater detail, but the Feasts are the basic structure on which all of the other prophecies hang. We need this because without it we grope in the darkness. God says, “My people perish for a lack of vision. What is a vision? In this case, it is referring to a clear view or understanding of where you are headed and how. The Feasts are a type and shadow of God’s timeline, including the end times: covering both the first and second coming of Christ. It covers both things which have already come to pass, which testify of Christ, and it reveals the future.

 

If you do not have a vision of where you are headed, you aren’t going to know to go there. If you go out to your vehicle, but you do not know your destination, you probably aren’t going to reach it. We need to know our destination, and sometimes, especially if we have never been there before, we need a roadmap. The feast days, along with the rest of the prophetic scriptures are that roadmap, and the Holy Spirit is a guide that travels along side with us, helping us when we hit bumps along the way, or when we encounter little detours and things not shown on the map.

 

The Former and the Latter Rain (Jer 5:24, Hosea 6:3, Joel 2:23)

 

The Feasts of Israel are broken into two parts, the former and the latter rain, or the Spring and the Fall Harvest. The Spring Harvest was a type of what Christ fulfilled when he came in the flesh the first time. The Fall Harvest represents what God is doing in the last days, and how he will prepare us for the Second Coming.

[Jer 5:24] Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season; he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

[Hosea 6:3] Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord; his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth;

[Joel 2:23] Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

 

Spring Festivals (the Former Rain)

 

#1 Nisan (Aviv) 14 – Passover

 

In Egypt, (a type and shadow of Babylon the Great, which shall fall) God’s method of redemption or freedom for his people was the sacrifice of a lamb. It had to be unblemished and its blood was to be applied to the lintel and the two door posts. This blood of the lamb protected the inhabitants of the houses from the Lord's judgment which came upon Egypt.

 

The Fulfillment

Luke 22:15 reveals that Jesus earnestly desired to eat the Passover Feast with His disciples before He suffered. Jesus connected his final Passover with a change of covenants. "This cup [is] the new Covenant in my blood, which is shed for you." (Luke 22:20). The Passover sacrifice of Jesus on the cross fulfilled the SHADOW image projected by the original Passover. Exodus 6:6-7 reveals the results of that first Passover: "I will bring you out -- I will rid you of bondage -- I will redeem you -- I will take you to me for a people."

 

Jesus’ death on the cross provided the blood on the door for his people to escape from the bondage in which their sin had ensnared them.

 

#2 Nisan (Aviv) 15 – Unleavened Bread


Unleavened Bread was to be observed for seven days, commencing on the 15th of Nisan/Aviv. In Deut. 16:3, the unleavened bread is called the "Bread of Affliction."

When celebrated as a memorial, the Jews ate the lamb with matzah (unleavened bread) and bitter herbs. It seems that God did not want any of the leaven of Egypt to infiltrate the bread of his people as they began their journey. Jesus said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh.” John 6:51

 

During the meal, a ceremony was rehearsed. A piece of matzah (unleavened bread) is removed from a special bag and broken. This bag contains three portions of matzah (possibly representing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and is known as the “unity bag.” The ceremony of breaking the middle matzah is called “yachatz” which means to break. Half of the broken matzah is placed back in the bag, while the other half is wrapped in linen and buried. The Seder cannot continue until the Father retrieves this matzah again.

 

The Fulfillment

Like the matzah, Jesus’ body was broken, wrapped in linen cloths, and placed in the grave and was retrieved again, or resurrected. Jesus connected the unleavened bread at the Last Supper with his sacrificed body: “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19).  Paul sums up an occurrence of the feast in 1 Cor. 5:7-8: "Cleanse 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."

 #3 Nisan (Aviv) 17 – FIRST FRUITS

In the midst of the week of Unleavened Bread, we are introduced to the Day of First Fruits. The children of Israel traveled three days into the wilderness. It had been three days since Passover, and all hope was lost as the Egyptians cornered them at the Red Sea. Death was imminent, but God opened a way of salvation through the midst of the sea. Israel went down into the sea, like a grave or a baptism, and climbed up the banks on the other side a people redeemed from death.

The Fulfillment

Christ also arose from the tomb three days later. He became the first fruits of those who would overcome death through Him, in the resurrection.


#4 SHAVUOT - Pentecost

 

Fifty days after First Fruits, the people, having been instructed to sanctify themselves to meet God at Mt. Sinai, hear the voice of God as the voice of thunderings. According to some Jewish tradition, when God spoke, His voice was heard throughout the world, in every known language at the time - 70 different languages - and the inhabitants of the earth feared. This feast is a reminder, a guarantee of God’s power to produce spiritual fruit in the field of human salvation.

 

The Fulfillment

The breathtaking experience of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples and every man heard them speaking in his own language, was but the early harvest, (the Former Rain) a kind of "firstfruits" of an even greater out-pouring of divine power scheduled to fall upon the church in the near future (the Latter Rain, or Fall Harvest) when the main harvest of human beings will be gathered in. The Feast of Pentecost, in short, prefigures, guarantees and commemorates the early harvest, the first fruits of human souls; and those who celebrate it declare their willingness to be part of that spiritual multitude which will one day be gathered in and presented to the Almighty by His Son - the Church of the Firstborn!


RECAP

The seven feasts of Israel in the Old Covenant were the shadow image, which become fulfilled in Christ in the New Covenant, introducing Jesus as the mediator of a better covenant (Heb. 7:22). Once the New Covenant was introduced the Old became obsolete and was ready to disappear (Heb. 8:13). These first four feasts took place in the spring. The next three were celebrated in the fall, representing the final great harvest to take place in the last days. And this is another reason why we can know that the Feast Days are not done away with, for they have not all yet been fulfilled.

 

The Final Three Feast Days – End Times

 

On the Jewish calendar there is a forty-day season in the fall called Teshuvah, meaning Return or Repentance. In prophecy, a day usually represents a year’s time. Most Biblical scholars agree that this time period refers to a forty year period to occur in the last days, which leads up to the Second Coming of Christ. It is the fall season, or the “Latter Rain” and it begins on Elul 1 and concludes on Tishri 10. The message of the first thirty days during the month of Elul, or the first thirty years, out of the final forty, is to repent before you have to, that you may be inscribed in the book of life before Rosh HaShanah. Those who repent by the time the Trump is heard are sealed unto God by His Holy Angels and are to have protection from the judgments of God. The purpose of the season is so that at the sounding of the Trump we would all be ready.

 

[Ezekiel 33:4-5] “Whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.”

 

During the thirty years God will be calling us to repentance. We are being asked to make a choice between Him and the world. To help us realize our situation, God causes both the church and the world to experience “false labor pains” in the birthing of the kingdom. These false labor pains are trials and tribulations, which will intensify over the years, but they are not the real tribulation period, which is still to come. These trials and signs of the times will increase in potency until we reach Rosh HaShanah - the Feast of Trumpets.


#5 Tisheri 1 - ROSH HASHANAH - THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS


The Feast of Trumpets is celebrated on the first day of Tishri, the seventh month in the sacred calendar. (Lev. 23:24)

Trumpets were used by God's command in ancient Israel:

 

We read about the blowing of trumpets in future events as a:

 

The Fulfillment

A study of the scriptures I just listed will show how God Himself has planned to use His heavenly trumpets again. He and His Son will blow them to gather His people, the twelve tribes of Israel, as in days gone by; gathering them for the climatic events scheduled to take place at the Christ’s return, announcing a great gathering of all those who have not yet gathered, of all the tribes of Israel, before the judgments come. During the first thirty year season of Return and Repentance, all mankind is being prepared for a judgment at Rosh HaShanah, and at the sound of the Trump, each man is judged with a preliminary judgment and their place is written in one of three books, or they are judged to be in one of three conditions:

 

The Righteous

Those who have returned to God are written in the Book of the Righteous. And any who have not yet gathered in, will be gathered. [Matthew 24:31] "And he will send his angles with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other." [Luke 17:34-37] “I tell you, in that night there shall be two in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left. And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord, shall they be taken. And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is gathered; or, in other words, whithersoever the saints are gathered, thither will the eagles be gathered together; or, thither will the remainder be gathered together.”

 

The Wicked

The Rashim, also known as the wholly wicked, have their names written into a book of the same name. Their fate is sealed on Rosh HaShanah, and they will suffer the judgments God.

 

The Intermediates

These are the common people, and they comprise the largest group. They have not yet been judged righteous, nor are they wholly wicked. They are given ten more days (years) to repent. If they repent by Yom Kippur, they are written into the Book of the Righteous – or the Book of Life; if not, they are listed with the wicked.

 

Because of the importance of Rosh HaShanah, as a judgment day, there is a frantic call from God, a pleading to those who would be His people, to repent and come unto Him. In the days preceding Rosh Hashanah, many prophets and messengers of power will be released in the world to call them to repentance and a place will be prepared, and a people will be gathered together and found preparing the way for others. Rosh Hashanah (also called a “Day of Remembrance” is suppose to call us unto a remembrance of God – to remember that He is indeed God, and that we should serve Him with all our heart, mind and strength.

 

I personally believe, from my studies at this point, that at Rosh Hashanah the priesthood who are found to be truly righteous will be gathered together and be endowed from on High. And that it is by that endowment of power in Christ’s church and in His Servants that the judgments will go forth, from Zion, to the world and all its wickedness. This is testified to in the Doctrine and Covenants. (RLDS) Sec 102:3c-f, 102:5b, 34:4a-d, 23:6b, 66:2b, 75:3f, 96:1a-2a, etc. Also the Book of Mormon: I Nephi 3:230-232

 

The last ten days (from Rosh HaShanah to Yom Kippur) are known as the High Holy Days, the most sacred time of the Jewish year. Another name for this ten-day period of Yamim Nora’im (the Days of Awe), for at this time each person becomes accountable to God for his sins. All those who have not yet repented, must learn obedience by the things that they suffer. Contained within those 10 days, (or 10 years) are the 7 days (or 7 years) referred to as “Jacobs Troubles,” otherwise known as The Tribulation period. It is a time of cleansing. It is also known as the “Birth Pangs,” and what is being birthed is the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven, and the Millennial Reign of Christ. Those who hear the trump and gather in are spared having to go through many troubles. They begin a process of sanctification on a deeper level in Zion. While those who do not repent and are not gathered go through the 7 years of trouble in order to purify. This may be a picture of the ten virgins, those who had oil in their lamps went into the chambers with the bridegroom, and the door was shut, while the rest had to go out to buy their oil. They were shut out.

 
#6 Tisheri 10 - Yom Kippur - DAY OF ATONEMENT – Judgment Day

It is the only commanded fast in the year and is, doubtless, the most solemn day in the sacred calendar. On this day the high priest laid aside his official ornaments and dressed in a white linen garment entered the Most Holy place (which was the very presence of God) to make atonement for himself, the priesthood and the congregation of Israel. Our salvation, in other words, will only by complete when we are actually brought into the very presence of the Almighty.

The word "atonement" means to make amends for, to reconcile, to restore, to repair, to make at-one again. And that is exactly what the Day of Atonement prefigures. It points to a specific time in the future when the great High Priest of the Melchizedek Order (Jesus Christ) will literally bring the redeemed host of mankind right into the very presence of His Father, in order that we may be AT-ONE with God at last.

The Fulfillment

The appointment communicated by this festival is the literal, physical second coming of the Messiah to earth, when all His enemies are put beneath his feet, and the earth and all its inhabitants are brought under His rule.

#7 Sukkot - FEAST OF TABERNACLES - Divine presence and remembrance

This feast was celebrated after the harvest. All native born Israelites were to live in tents or temporary shelters as a remembrance that God had brought them out of Egypt and provided protection and sustenance for them: a pillar of fire by night, and a cloud of shadow by day, feeding them manna from Heaven.

Iniquity has been removed. Christ has returned. The marriage of the Lamb has occurred. The spirit and the Bride stand perpetually to invite future generations to partake of the glorious Feast of Tabernacles. Rev 7:15-17 “And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

The feast would include worship of the King by all the nations. Any nation, which will not worship him, is punished with no rain. (Zec 14:16-19) Holiness will reign in that day.

Throughout scriptures we see that God always wanted to dwell with His people. That is the Feast of Tabernacles - God dwelling with us. The physical Tabernacle finds fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah the only begotten Son of the Most High, who is, in reality, the true Tabernacle of God. Consequently, we may say that the Feast of Tabernacles is also a memorial of the Almighty's astonishing condescension to come down to earth to tabernacle or pitch His tent with humanity in the person of His Son. For Jesus Christ is Immanuel, GOD WITH US, God incarnate; that is the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel taking up his abode in the tabernacle of a human body, in order to redeem and enable mankind to obey His eternal law.

 

So, where are we on this roadmap? If you really want to know, ask God. But beware. He has a tendency to only answer those who are willing to put some effort in it and study it out. He expects us to do our part. That is why he caused the scriptures to be written in the first place, so that we would have some basis on which to have a relationship with Him. They are the common ground you and He can both walk, so that you can learn of Him, and know what to ask Him.

 

If you want a human opinion, I believe we are at the tail end of the 30 year period, prior to Rosh Hashanah - and that we are in some fairly heavy false labor pain designed to awaken those who have been slumbering; calling us to repent before it is too late. If we would desire to be sealed as His true servants, and be found with our lamps full of oil, so that we can enter into the chamber of the marriage supper, NOW is the time to get serious.