To continue on with God's calendar, let's look at the holy days He gave us. These are also known as "mo'edim" which means "appointed times" - they're our appointments with the Father.
We will be discussing Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits/Pentecost (Feast of Weeks), Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles - all of these are COMMANDED observations, in addition to the Sabbath on a weekly basis. There are two minor festivals that are observed as a tradition, but are not commanded. These are Hanukkah and Purim. We will discuss these at the end.
Let me explain one aspect of these holy days - some of them, or days within them, are often referred to as "high Sabbaths" - which means that even if they do not fall on the weekly Sabbath day (7th day), they are to be observed as if they did, so Sabbath rest is in effect.
1. Passover, also known as Pesach, is not a holy day by itself, it is simply a meal, where a lamb of certain requirements was chosen on the 10th day of the 1st month, kept until the 14th of the month, where it was then slaughtered, cooked and eaten on the 14th. The blood from the lamb was also used to mark the doorposts of the home. Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23 describe the details. We commemorate this today to not only remember how God delivered us from slavery in Egypt (He didn't just deliver the Jews, they were only one of the 12 tribes), but also to remember Jesus' sacrifice on on the cross, which occurred EXACTLY ON Passover. Passover is not considered a "high Sabbath," therefore work may be done.
2. Immediately following Passover, from the 15th - 21st of the 1st month, we are commanded to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is 7 days long, with the 1st and the 7th days being "high Sabbaths" on which Sabbath rest is in effect. To observe this festival, we are to remove all leaven from our homes (leaven is anything that causes bread to rise - I personally remove yeast, baking soda and baking powder), including any baked goods that contain these items. We also prepare (or purchase) bread that is unleavened, and as scripture tells us, we eat some every day during this festival. This festival commemorates the hastiness with which the Israelites had to leave Egypt (they had no time to let the bread rise), and leaven is often used to represent sin in the scriptures. So when we partake of the unleavened bread, and remove the leaven from our homes, we are symbolically removing sin from our lives as well. The fact that Unleavened Bread falls directly after Passover (Jesus' sacrifice), reminds us that He was without sin. We are told to keep this festival without restriction. The details of this feast are also found in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23. Paul also describes how the church was still keeping it in NT times in 1 Corinthians 5:8:
"Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."and another example is found in Luke 22:1:
"Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching."3. Firstfruits/Pentecost - this is also known as the Feast of Weeks. It almost appears as two different celebrations, because it spans 50 days, but it's really one commanded observation. Firstfruits falls one day AFTER the (weekly) Sabbath that falls within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So, it's always on a Sunday. This is NOT a high Sabbath. It involved taking the first of the spring barley harvest as an offering to the temple in Jerusalem. Since the temple does not currently exist, technically we can't celebrate it, but many (including us) still honor it as best we can by resting on it and talking about it. This feast commemorates the rise of the Firstfruits (Jesus) from the grave after his crucifixion, which occurred EXACTLY ON Firstfruits. This would be what most Christians would refer to as "Resurrection Sunday" - but it has nothing to do with rabbits or eggs, or the sun goddess Ishtar.
The second portion of this feast is Pentecost (or "Shavuot"), which occurs 50 days after Firstfruits, and it was another grain and bread offering. See Leviticus 23:15-21:
"From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord. Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest. On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live."With Pentecost, we most often associate this day with the descent of the Holy Spirit, which occurred EXACTLY ON Pentecost. Only Pentecost/Shavuot is a "high Sabbath."
As you can see, Jesus came and fulfilled ALL of the Spring feasts EXACTLY ON their appointed times. Let's fast forward to the Fall feasts, which still await fulfillment.
4. On the 1st day of the 7th month (Tishrei, this falls in Sept or Oct each year), we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets. See Leviticus 23:23-25:
"The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord."This is a "high Sabbath." This feast involves the blowing of trumpets (or shofars) and is a reminder that one day our Savior will return with a triumphant entry. As we saw in the Spring Feasts, I expect these to be fulfilled in the future on the exact day, by our Messiah.
5. On the 10th day of the 7th month, is the Day of Atonement (also known as "Yom Kippur"). It is a solemn time where we, for the 9 days between Trumpets and Atonement, focus on what we really need to correct in our walk. The Day of Atonement is the day each year that the Levitical High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies to make a blood atonement on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant to atone for the Nation of Israel's sins. It was the one day a year where the Israelites were considered entirely pure. Today, since Jesus has become our penultimate sacrifice for sin, we commemorate this day to remind ourselves that His blood took away the curse of the sin in our lives and we should therefore honor that sacrifice by continuously working torwards living in a manner worthy of it. Christ became our High Priest, in the heavenly order of Melchizedek. When this occurred, there was a transfer of the high priestly duties from the Levites to the Melchizedek priesthood ("For the priesthood being translated, it is necessary that a translation also be made of the law. For he, of whom these things are spoken, is of another tribe, of which no one attended on the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprung out of Judah: in which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And it is yet far more evident: if according to the similitude of Melchizedek there ariseth another priest." Hebrews 7:12-15) This is appropriately a "high Sabbath". You can read about it in Leviticus 23:26-32:
"The Lord said to Moses, “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord. Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God. Those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut off from their people. I will destroy from among their people anyone who does any work on that day. You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. It is a day of sabbath rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath."6. On the 15th of the 7th month begins an 8 day long feast of jubilation called the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as "Sukkot." This will eventually be our "wedding feast" when Jesus returns for His bride, which is why we are commanded to keep it, so we're prepared to celebrate it! There are 2 "high Sabbaths" during Tabernacles - on the 1st and the 8th day. This was one of the pilgrimage festivals, requiring the Israelites to go to the temple in Jerusalem for the fall harvest offerings, so while the temple doesn't exist currently, we commemorate it as best we can. The original observance was in man-made tents or tabernacles, and today many celebrate it by camping out for the 8 days, or by traveling away from their homes to gather with like-minded people for a time of joy and celebration. Since only the 1st and 8th days are "high Sabbaths," work is permitted on the 2nd - 7th days. Read more about this wonderful celebration in Leviticus 23:39-43:
"So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest. On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."The prophet Zechariah even describes how ALL nations will go to Jerusalem each year in the millennial Kingdom to celebrate this festival in chapter 14, verses 16-21:
"Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The Lord will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.There are two "minor" festivals, which do not require observance, but that are completely in line with scripture and were celebrated by the early church - Hanukkah and Purim.
On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty."
1. Hanukkah, also known as the Feast of Dedication and the Festival of Lights is a winter festival that celebrated the temple's purification and rededication after the temple was defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes. It is mentioned in scripture in John 10:22:
"Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem..."and in extracanonical scripture in 2 Maccabees 10:1-8:
"Judas Maccabeus and his followers, under the leadership of the Lord, recaptured the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. They tore down the altars which foreigners had set up in the marketplace and destroyed the other places of worship that had been built. They purified the Temple and built a new altar. Then, with new fire started by striking flint, they offered sacrifice for the first time in two years, burned incense, lighted the lamps, and set out the sacred loaves. After they had done all this, they lay face down on the ground and prayed that the Lord would never again let such disasters strike them. They begged him to be merciful when he punished them for future sins and not hand them over any more to barbaric, pagan Gentiles. They rededicated the Temple on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, the same day of the same month on which the Temple had been desecrated by the Gentiles. The happy celebration lasted eight days, like the Festival of Shelters, and the people remembered how only a short time before, they had spent the Festival of Shelters wandering like wild animals in the mountains and living in caves. But now, carrying green palm branches and sticks decorated with ivy, they paraded around, singing grateful praises to him who had brought about the purification of his own Temple. Everyone agreed that the entire nation of Israel should celebrate this festival each year."It is 8 days long, and begins on the 25th day of the 9th month (Kislev), which usually falls in December. Hanukkah is often pegged as a substitute for Christmas, but the goal is not to substitute anything. If you're looking to remove paganism from your walk, transferring the gifts, etc. to another holiday doesn't remove it. Our family celebrates Hanukkah.
2. Purim is the wonderful celebration of Esther's triumph over the evil Haman. It is told throughout the book of Esther. On this holiday that falls on the 14th day of the 12th month (usually March or April) and people dress up in costume to commemorate it. Our family does not celebrate Purim.
My challenge for you today is to research these things out and figure out what works for your family. Is there anything you could change that would bring you into a closer fellowship with your Father? If you have questions, feel free to post them below or PM me. I am happy to help. <3
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