The Seven Jewish Feasts

The 23rd chapter of the book of Leviticus gives us an account of the "seven great feasts" of the Lord. They are a prophecy and foreshadowing of future events, part which have been fulfilled and part are yet to be fulfilled. These feasts are holy convocations of the people and they were instituted by God. God promised that if the males went up at the set time to Jerusalem to keep these feasts He would look after them and their families.

These feasts were to be celebrated annually. Four in the spring with the spring harvest and three in the fall during the fall harvest. The first four are:

the Feast of Passover
the Feasts of Unleaven Bread
the Feast of First Fruits
the Feast of Pentecost

The last three are:

the Feast of Trumpets
the Day of Atonement
the Feast of Tabernacles

Today I will discuss the first four feasts that have been fulfilled through Christ's death and ressurection.

The Feasts of Passover

Passover orginated in Egypt when Moses was told by God to lead His people out of Egypt. It is to the Jew as the "beginning of months" (see Exodus 12:1-2) or the beginning of the Jewish year. After God had stricken Egypt with 6 plagues, the 7th and last plague was to destroy the first born son of every family that do not obey God. They were commanded to kill a lamb and put the blood of the lamb on the doorway. Those who did not do this lost their first born son. The Jews obeyed and placed the blood of a lamb on the doorway and the angel of death passed over their household sparing their first born son.
The passover feast was to be celebrated each year to remember how God delivered them from the bondage of the Egyptians. Look at Exodus 12:3-10. "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying , On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers households, a lamb for each household. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male one year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. And they shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments, I am the Lord.

Why would they get the lamb on the 10th and keep it until the 14th before they killed it?

How hard would it be to kill the lamb that your family adopted and took care of? It is a reminder of what a sacrifice that God gave by sacrificing His son.

Why the blood on the doorposts and lintel(top of the door)?

This symbolized the blood on the cross that was to come.

Why at twilight?

This is the afternoon hours of the day as the sun is dropping in the sky. This said that Jesus would die on the cross in the afternoon hours. He died on the cross on the "nineth hour"(Matt 28:46). That is the nineth hour of the day from day light. This would be about 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Why was the Passover so important?

Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover with everyone else. He was crucified on Passover and became the ultimate Passover lamb.

It was done this way as a prophecy to foretell the role of Jesus in the future as the Messiah.

1 Corinthians 5:7, "Clean out the old leaven(if you don't know, leaven is yeast that they used to make bread rise and it represents sin), that you may be a new lump(represents without sin), just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover lamb also has been sacrificed,"
According to this verse, Jesus is our Passover Lamb.
That means that Jesus died and His blood was spilt to cover the sins of the world so that the death angel will not judge us and send us to our punishment. Just as the Jews and the Egyptians has a choice to kill the lamb and spread the blood or not, we have a choice to believe in the blood of Christ. If you believe in Him, He will save you from your sins and your sins are Passed Over, they are not looked at because of your obedience.
So you can see that the Passover is a celebration of God's deliverance from the Egyptians and is also a prophecy of how Christ delivered us from our past. The symbolism of the Feast of Passover has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ.

The Feast of Unleaven Bread

The Feast of Unleaven Bread begins on the day after the Passover, and continues for seven days.
(see Lev 23:6-8) You can see in 1 Cor 5:7, that the old yeast is to be cleaned out and thrown away.
What does that represent? Repentance! Ask for forgiveness of sin by the blood of Christ and your old sins are thrown away. You are not judged for those sins, they are never brought up again because of the Grace of Christ. Some believe that you have to stand before God on judgement days an account for all of your past sins, that is not true if you are a believer in Christ.
Your sins are washed away!! That is why Jesus can save anyone, no matter what they have done in the past. Satan's biggest lie and deception is, "you are not worthy of going to heaven". That is a true statement, however, because of the blood of Christ I can go no matter what I have done.
Why did the Feast of Unleaven Bread last for a week?
Jesus died on the cross, was placed in a tomb, was raised on the third day, and finally ascended to the Father. The destruction of sin of the world, took all of that to be fulfilled.

The Feast of Unleaven bread is symbolic of the beginning of the walk of a believer. Accept the blood of Christ is your profession of faith in Him and the repentance of sin and changing of your life to a new nature (represented by the new lump of leaven) represents your new walk with Christ. When we are baptized they say, "walk in the newness of Christ".

At this time we turn away from our physical bodies and we are born into our spiritual bodies.

The Feast of First Fruits

The Feast of First Fruits was observed by the Jews by taking the first part of the harvest of any crop, plant or animal and offering it up to God as a burnt offering. Guess what? The burnt offering of an animal was a one year old unblemished lamb. This was to give glory to God for the blessing of provision of food.

How does the harvest work? You plant a seed and out of the seed grows new life, the old seed rots away and the new plant is born. That new plant produces fruit.

The Feast of First Fruits represents Christ in the same way. Jesus was planted in the tomb. After three days He rose from the grave as a new creation. That new creation, Jesus in His glorified body, now could produce fruit. Look at Revelation 1:17, "And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man, And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, "Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last, and the living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades." Look at Revelation 2:8, "The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life". These are statements of Christ.

You can see this discussed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:42-47. "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living soul, the last Adam(Jesus) became a life giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, the second man is from Heaven."

Jesus was the First Fruit. He fulfilled the Feast of First Fruit by being the first to rise from the grave in a new spiritual body. After that, all who die are present with the Lord.

The Feast of Pentacost

Fifty days after the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Pentacost was observed. The space of time between the two feasts was 7 weeks or 49 days which are called the "feasts of weeks". On the 50th day the Feast of Pentacost begins. Penta means fifty. So the feast after fifty days. It actually was to celebrate the ingathering of the wheat harvest.

At the feast of pentacost, a new meat offering was to be offered before the lord. It was called new because it must be of grain from the new harvest. At the feast of firsts fruits stalks of grain were to be offered and waved, but at the feast of Pentecost the grain was to be ground and made into flour, from which two loaves were to be baked with leaven. The two loaves represent the two classes of people, Jews and Gentiles. A burnt offering of seven lambs without blemish of the the first year, one young bullock, and two rams were to be offered also. Then a "sin offering" of a kid of the goats, and two lambs of the first year for a peace offering. The loaves were to be waved before the Lord as a praise of provision unto the Lord. The loaves were symbolic of the unity of the two groups of people.

Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Pentacost when He sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples and they were filled with the Spirit of God. When this happened the Gentiles were included into the plan of salvation for the first time, combined together as the bread.

You can see this in Acts 2. "And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there cam from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting and there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
(6) And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered, because they were each one hearing them speak in his own language and they were amazed and marveled, saying "Why are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which were were born? (17) And it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth of my spirit upon all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams,"