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God's
appointed holidays, described in Leviticus chapter
23, accomplish many purposes. Year by year they
pace our lives according to the cycle God has
designed into creation. They remind us of the
great things God has done in Israel's history.
We should never forget that Messiah Yeshua, the
apostles, and the early Messianic Jewish movement
celebrated these festivals. In addition, each
holiday is a prophecy which looks forward to what
God is going to do in human history. If understood
properly, the festivals in Leviticus 23 reveal
God's master plan to restore humanity. Learning
about these holidays will build up our faith and
help us to better understand the entire Word of
God.
THE
SABBATH: CREATION, SALVATION, CONSUMMATION
The first
holiday mentioned in Leviticus 23 is the Sabbath.
Perhaps it heads the list because it is the most
important holiday of them all. It is observed
every week while the other holidays take place
only once each year. The word "sabbath" means
"rest." Every seventh day, beginning Friday night
at sunset and continuing through Saturday night
at sunset, is set aside for rest. Why do we consider
the day to begin at sunset? The answer is found
in the very first chapter of Genesis, where it
is written: "There was evening, and there was
morning, the first day." All of God's days,
from the time of creation, begin at sunset, and
the Jewish people have always followed this example.
The Sabbath is designed to remind us that God
created the universe in six days, and on the seventh
day He rested. The Sabbath also reminds us of
salvation. It wasn't until the Jewish people were
delivered out of Egypt that we began observing
the Sabbath. The Sabbath also reminds us of the
redemption of the Messiah, who called Himself
the "Lord of the Sabbath." As the Lord of the
Sabbath, He is able to give us His Sabbath rest,
as He promised when He said, "Come to Me, all
who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give
you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from
Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you
shall find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29).
In fact, the key to victorious living is resting
in Him while He works through us. The Sabbath
also reminds us of the consummation of all things.
One day in the future Messiah Yeshua will return
to planet Earth and bring rest to this weary world.
THE
SABBATH AND THE NUMBER SEVEN
God's
calendar is designed around the number seven which,
throughout the Bible, is the number representing
completion. Just as seven days make up a complete
week, and we rest on the seventh day, so too the
seventh month is the sabbatical month, and completes
the yearly holidays. Every seventh year was a
sabbatical year, in which the land of Israel was
to enjoy a rest. Furthermore, at the completion
of every forty-ninth year (seven times seven),
as the fiftieth year commenced, God decreed it
was to be "Shanat Yovel," the "Year of Jubilee."
Property was to be restored to its original owners,
those sold into slavery were to be released, the
land of Israel was to have an extra year of rest,
and the entire nation of Israel returned to a
state of equilibrium. But “Shanat Yovel” does
not exhaust the number seven’s relationship to
God’s calendar. There is a tradition among the
sages of Israel that the seven days of creation
are symbolic of seven thousand years of human
history. As is typical for a normal week, the
first six thousand years would be full of work
and weariness. But the Sabbath represents a future
time when the Messiah will rule over the entire
world, which will enjoy one thousand years of
rest.
PASSOVER:
THE FIRST OF THE SEVEN ANNUAL HOLIDAYS
The first
of the seven annual holidays is Passover, which
begins God's yearly calendar. "This month shall
be the beginning of months for you; it is to be
the first month of the year to you" (Exodus
12:2). Passover occurs in the month of Nisan,
which usually falls in March or April. Passover
takes place during the spring, when the earth
is full of new life, after the cold “death-like”
state of winter. It makes sense that God's calendar
would start in the Spring - certainly more sense
than beginning the new year in the dead of winter,
as we do in the Western world.
Just as
Passover begins God's calendar, it also marks
the beginning of Israel's history as a free nation.
The story of Passover begins with the Jewish people
going down to Egypt in the time of Joseph. Joseph
became the savior of Egypt as well as his own
people. Years later, a new pharaoh came to power
who did not remember Joseph. Instead of showing
gratitude towards the Jewish people, he enslaved
us. God raised up Moses, who went to Pharaoh and
demanded that Israel be released. But Pharaoh
hardened his heart and refused to let Israel go,
so God sent ten plagues upon the land of Egypt.
The tenth plague was the most severe of all -death
of all first-born sons living in the land of Egypt,
both the first-born of man and of animals. If
you were a first-born son there was only one way
you would have survived that first Passover. The
Lord God instructed everyone to take an unblemished,
year-old lamb. You were to kill the lamb and pour
its blood into a bowl. Then you applied the blood
to the two doorposts and the top of the door of
the house where the Passover lamb was to be eaten.
God promised that He would go through the land
that night, striking all the houses of Egypt.
But God would pass over any house where He saw
the blood of a spotless lamb applied by faith
to the door. The first-born son would be spared
from death, and the next day all of Israel would
be redeemed out of Egypt. Then God took us, as
it were, by the hand, and led us through the wilderness
to the promised Land of Israel.
We can
see that Passover was a prophecy of a greater
redemption, a more profound Exodus, and a more
excellent Lamb which was to come. John the Immerser
understood this when he said, “Behold the Lamb
of God, who takes away the sin of the world."
Passover was a prediction that God would one day
send His Son into the world to be the ultimate
sacrifice, to shed His blood on a cross, so that
God may "pass over" the sins of those who believe
in Messiah. As a result, He will bring us out
of our Egypt, our bondage to the world, our slavery
to sin, our captivity to the flesh and our slavery
to the adversary. The Lord will take us by the
hand, lead us through the wilderness of this world,
to the New Jerusalem. It’s no coincidence that
Messiah Yeshua died on Passover. His last supper
was a Passover Seder and He died the next day,
the first day of Passover - in fulfillment of
Passover. We will see a similar pattern throughout
the rest of the holidays. Each one looks forward
to something that the Messiah would accomplish,
and each one finds fulfillment on its own day.
FEAST
OF MATZAH
The Feast
of Matzah (Unleavened Bread) begins with Passover
and continues for seven days. Nothing with yeast
is to be eaten during that period. One reason
why we eat matzah is to remind ourselves of our
hasty departure from Egypt. By eating matzah we
remember that when God did redeem us, He redeemed
us quickly, so quickly that there wasn't even
time for our bread to rise. There is, however,
another reason why we eat matzah. Throughout the
Scriptures, leaven is often used as a symbol for
sin. Just as a little bit of leaven will quickly
spread and infect an entire batch of dough, so
a little sin will quickly spread and infect an
individual or an entire community. Prior to Passover,
Jewish families will spend days and even weeks
systematically ridding their homes of leaven.
Rabbi Paul was familiar with this ceremony of
cleansing our homes of leaven. He wrote to the
Community of messianic believers at Corinth: "Your
boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little
leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean
out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump,
just as you are unleavened, for Messiah our Passover
Lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate
the Feast, not with the old leaven, the leaven
of malice and wickedness, but with the matzah
of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
Rabbi Paul used the ceremony of cleansing the
house of leaven to teach us to cleanse our lives
of sin if we expect to enjoy the blessings of
Messiah, our Passover Lamb.
At His
Last Supper (which was a Passover Seder), Messiah
Yeshua took the unleavened bread, broke it, and
gave it to His disciples, and He gave this matzah
new meaning when He said, "This is My body
which is given for you. Do this in remembrance
of Me." In essence, Yeshua was declaring,
“I am the fulfillment of this unleavened bread;
I am the first man who has lived in this world
and who never sinned.” He did resist every temptation,
and finally, on the Feast of Matzah, His body
was broken, and His sinless life was put to death
on the cross, destroying the power of sin. The
Feast of Matzah teaches us that when we are joined
to Messiah by means of our faith in Him, He empowers
us to have more and more victory over sin in our
lives. When we are joined to the Sinless One,
His victory over sin becomes our victory. One
glorious day when He appears, we will be like
Him, and in that day we will have complete victory
over sin.
THE
FEAST OF FIRST FRUITS
The Feast
of First Fruits is the third yearly holiday, and
also takes place during the week of Passover.
Passover begins on the evening of the fourteenth
of Nisan. First Fruits takes place on the sixteenth
day of Nisan, which is the third day of Passover.
In ancient times, when the Temple still stood
in Jerusalem, on this day Israel's High Priest
took the first sheaves of the barley harvest,
and waved the first fruits of barley as a wave
offering. This ceremony was like a prayer; by
waving the first fruits of the harvest, the
High Priest was, in essence, praying: "Lord God
of Israel, thank You for the beginning of this
year's harvest. We offer to You the first fruits
of this year's harvest. Lord, accept the first
fruits, the beginning and best of the harvest.
O Lord, accept us, Your people, and please bring
in the rest of the harvest." If God would accept
the offering of the first fruits, it was a guarantee
that He would bless us with the remainder of the
harvest during the year. The Feast of First
Fruits was also a prophecy that the Messiah, who
died on Passover, would come back to life.
Death would not be able to hold the Sinless One.
God would raise Him from the dead. He would be
offered up as the "first fruits of those who
have fallen asleep" (see 1 Corinthians 15:20).
That means that Messiah is the beginning of God's
harvest of humanity, the first to be raised from
the dead. As the first fruits, He is the beginning
and the best, the prototype and model for all
those joined to Him. Because God found Him acceptable,
raising Him from the dead as the first fruits,
it is a guarantee that those who believe in Him,
the rest of the harvest of humanity, will likewise
be raised and be given eternal life.
It
seems likely that Messiah Yeshua was raised from
the dead on the Feast of First Fruits. It
was "on the third day" that Messiah Yeshua rose
from the dead. Passover starts the evening of
the fourteenth day of Nisan. First Fruits take
place on the sixteenth day of Nisan. So you have
part of the fourteenth day, the whole of the fifteenth
day, and the third day, the sixteenth day of Nisan,
on which falls First Fruits. It is likely that
the very same day the High Priest was offering
the first fruits of the barley harvest, God was
raising the Messiah from the dead as the first
fruits of redeemed humanity. The Feast of First
Fruits is the true Biblical Resurrection day.
I wish the Christian Church would have embraced
this holiday, with its Goddesigned symbolism
of the resurrection, rather than replacing it
with Easter eggs, bunnies and ham roasts.
SHAVUOT
The next
holiday on God's calendar is Shavuot which means
"weeks." It takes place seven weeks and one day
after the Feast of First Fruits. "Pentecost,"
the Greek name for this holiday, means "fiftieth"
because this holiday takes place on the fiftieth
day after First Fruits. At Shavuot, Jewish men
were required to make a second pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Once there, we would offer to God the first
fruits of the wheat harvest. This time the High
Priest waved two loaves of wheat bread that
had been made with leaven. This is unusual,
since it may be the only offering anywhere in
the Scriptures that includes leaven. In general,
the Biblical principle is that anything offered
to God had to be without leaven, since leaven
was usually symbolic of sin (see Leviticus 2:11-12).
This offering up of the two loaves was another
visual prayer. Through this ceremony the High
Priest was in essence praying: "Lord, thank You
for extending the harvest to the wheat. We offer
up to You the first fruits, the beginning, the
best of this crop. Lord of the harvest, we ask
you to bring in the rest of the harvest throughout
the year." Shavuot was also a prophecy that
Messiah's resurrection, which took place fifty
days earlier, would be expanded to include more
of humanity. The second chapter of Acts records
the fulfillment of this holiday: fifty days after
Yeshua rose from death His first followers were
gathered together in Jerusalem for this holiday.
The same Spirit that raised Yeshua from the dead
was poured out on those first Jewish disciples.
The new Messianic Community was given His Spirit,
and His resurrection life and power. This happened
on Shavuot, and in fulfillment of Shavuot.
Since
the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the
Jewish people can no longer wave two loaves of
bread as a wave offering. As a result, the emphasis
of this holiday has shifted. According to Jewish
tradition, Shavuot is the day that Israel received
the Law on Mount Sinai. We should remember, however,
that the giving of the Law was not without problems.
While Moses was on Sinai receiving the Law, the
rest of Israel was at the bottom of Sinai worshiping
the golden calf. Moses came down from the mountain,
saw what was happening and called out, "whoever
is for the Lord, come to me." The tribe of
the Levites came to Moses, went throughout the
camp of Israel, and put to death three thousand
men who were involved in that idolatrous worship.
Three thousand Jewish men were killed on Shavuot
when the Law was given. Consider that in contrast
with the fact that, when the Holy Spirit was given
on Shavuot, three thousand Jewish people were
made alive! What a powerful illustration of
the principle that the letter (of the Law)
kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6).
Why were
two loaves of bread waved, and not one? The two
loaves of bread can be understood as symbols of
the two groups of peoples that make up the Messianic
Community. In Romans 11, Rabbi Paul gives us the
analogy of an olive tree made up of the original
branches, the Jewish people. Later, wild olive
branches, the Gentiles, are grafted into the olive
tree of salvation and blessing. It could be that
the two loaves of bread waved by the High Priest
at Shavuot represent the original branches, the
Jewish people, and the wild branches, the Gentiles
grafted into the Olive Tree. Each loaf is incomplete
without the other. The Jewish loaf needs the Gentile
loaf to be complete, and the Gentile loaf needs
the Jewish loaf to be complete.
Why is
this offering made with leaven, a symbol for sin?
The bread represents the Messianic Community,
which is made up of sinful men and women. We struggle
with sin each day of our lives. We are not yet
like Messiah Yeshua, the pure unleavened bread.
One day when He appears, we will be like Him,
and will have complete victory over the presence
and power of sin. But until that day, each one
of us still wrestles with sin.
The first
four annual holidays are intrinsically connected.
They each take place in the spring. They are each
symbolic of events connected to the First Coming
of Yeshua. They were all fulfilled on their specific
day in the calendar. For example, Passover was
a prediction of the death of the Messiah, and
Yeshua actually died on Passover, in fulfillment
of Passover. We will see a similar pattern with
the three Fall holidays.
THE
SUMMER
After
the four spring holidays comes the summer, during
which time the crops are ripening. Each day brings
the crops closer and closer to the fall harvest.
The summer seems to be symbolic of the past two
thousand years of history. Messiah’s Holy Community
of Jews and Gentiles began in Israel among the
Jewish people, but since the first century it
has been spreading to all the nations of the world.
For two thousand years the Good News has been
taking root throughout the earth. The harvest
of humanity is getting ready to be reaped.
THE
FEAST OF TRUMPETS
Just as
the four spring holidays are connected, so are
the final three Fall holidays. They are connected
to Messiah's Second Coming. They all take place
in the seventh month - the month of completion.
If the pattern evidenced in the Spring holidays
holds true for the Fall holidays, they too will
be fulfilled on their own day. The Fall holidays
will bring to completion God's plan to rescue
humanity. The first Fall holiday is the Feast
of Trumpets. It takes place on the first day of
the seventh month, which is the month of Tishri.
Among the Jewish people, it is more commonly referred
to as "Rosh HaShana" - the Jewish "New Year."
It may be the traditional Jewish New Year, but
it is not the Biblical New Year, since this holiday
begins the seventh month. According to the Bible,
the true "Jewish New Year" takes place during
the spring at Passover time. The Lord clearly
stated this to Moses in Exodus 12:2 when He said,
"This month shall be the beginning of months
for you; it is to be the first month of the year
to you."
On the
first day of the seventh month we are told to
rest and blow the shofar, a special trumpet made
from a ram's horn. The shofar was blown in ancient
Israel for various reasons: If there was danger,
the shofar was blown. If important information
was being proclaimed, the shofar was blown. If
the king was coming to visit our town, the shofar
was blown. Messianic Jews blow the shofar on this
day because we are announcing the soon return
of King Messiah to planet Earth. Throughout the
New Testament Yeshua's return is promised to be
accompanied by the blowing of the shofar (see
1 Cor. 15:51-52 and 1 Thes. 4:16). In the book
of Revelation, with the sounding of the seventh
trumpet, Messiah Yeshua returns to Earth. The
shofar is designed to wake us up and get us ready
for the Second Coming of Messiah and the other
events connected with the seventh month.
THE
DAY OF ATONEMENT
Ten days
later, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, takes
place. This was the one day when the High Priest
was allowed to enter into the Most Holy Place
in the Temple, sprinkle blood on the ark of the
covenant, and atone for the sins of Israel. This
is a very solemn day, when Jewish people fast
and pray and ask for forgiveness. The rabbis teach
that we have ten days from the beginning of the
Feast of Trumpets to the close of Yom Kippur in
which to repent. According to this tradition,
if you do not repent during those ten days, God
will blot your name out of the Book of Life, and
sometime during the coming year you will die.
This is a day for judgment, atonement and cleansing.
Prophetically, it looks forward to a future day
of judgment and cleansing immediately following
Yeshua's return. That judgment is further described
in the twenty-fifth chapter of the book of Matthew.
Yeshua tells us that after He returns, He will
establish His throne and judge all the nations.
Those nations and individuals who turned to God
will be welcomed into His kingdom. Those nations
and individuals who have not repented will be
turned away from life in the Kingdom. It makes
sense that this judgment will occur on the very
day of some future Yom Kippur.
SUKKOT
Finally,
we come to the last of the seven yearly holidays,
Sukkot - the Feast of Tabernacles. It is the seventh
holiday and it falls in the seventh month. With
this holiday God will complete His plan to redeem
humanity. Sukkot takes place on the fifteenth
day of Tishri and lasts for eight days. For the
third and last time of the year, the Jewish people
went up to Jerusalem to celebrate this final harvest
festival. We built booths, decorated them with
branches and the fruits of the harvest, and lived
in them for the duration of the holiday. We also
took willow, palm and myrtle branches, waved them
in the air, prayed and rejoiced with them. These
temporary booths, which go up and come down one
week later, remind us of the Exodus from Egypt
and our forty years of wandering in the wilderness.
They also remind us that our brief sojourn in
this world is temporary. We are pilgrims while
on this earth, wanderers with no permanent dwelling
place.
Prophetically,
Sukkot looks forward to a greater Exodus to come.
It looks forward to the final harvest of humanity.
It anticipates the eternal dwelling places which
Messiah Yeshua has prepared for us. At the end
of this age, God will gather the fruit of redeemed
humanity into His kingdom. This is the goal of
God's efforts in human history, leading to the
eternal kingdom which awaits redeemed humanity.
CONCLUSION
God has
a master plan to save fallen humanity which is
revealed in the Jewish holidays. To reach the
goal to which the holidays point, you must start
at the beginning of God's calendar. You must cease
from your own works and enter into the Sabbath
rest that the Messiah alone provides. You must
believe that Yeshua is the Passover Lamb who died
for your sins, and that He is the unleavened bread
that was victorious over sin. You must believe
that He is the fulfillment of the Feast of First
Fruits, the One who was raised from the dead.
In fulfillment of Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks)
you must receive His Spirit and become part of
the Messianic Community. Then you can look forward
to His return, and so partake of the Feast of
Trumpets. As part of Yom Kippur, you need to remember
that when He returns to planet Earth, judgment
will take place. Those who believe in Him will
not be condemned, but have already passed out
of judgment and into life. Then at the very end,
you will be welcomed into that glorious and eternal
kingdom awaiting redeemed humanity. Then those
that have been reconciled to the God of Israel,
through the wonderful Messiah whom He sent, will
reign with Him forever and ever, which is the
fulfillment of the Feast of Sukkot. Yeshua
is the fulfillment of these holy days. He has
filled them full of meaning and significance,
for anyone who desires to celebrate them. Do you
know Him? I hope so! Your eternal destiny depends
on it!
Shalom!
Rabbi Loren
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