The Feasts of the LORD are an essential testimony of our Hebrew heritage that begins in Exodus 12 before the death plague came into Egypt. In order for death to “pass-over” the killing of the firstborn, God instructed the children of Israel to put the blood of a lamb over the door posts of their dwelling. As they were obedient to do so, the Israelites were set free from the enslavement under Pharaoh’s leadership.
Moses then led the children of Israel out, through the parting of the Red Sea, to Mt. Sinai 50 days later. God then used Moses to ask the “Israelites” to marry Him so that they would become His “special treasure.”
“Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel” (Ex. 19:5,6).
After the children of Israel accepted God’s proposal, the “Groom” created a “certificate of marriage” for “His bride/nation” to abide with Him, known as the “Tablets of Testimony.” Signed by the finger of God Himself, these tablets were given to Moses as a sign of God’s love and His heart to be one with His people and a witness for the world to see the one true God.
“Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient” (Ex. 24:7).
The “Feasts” were also a part of that “marriage certificate” that provided a pattern God established to set aside life to honor those “wedding vows.” This pattern would prove to not only benefit and bless God’s people with proximity to His presence, but later in time, would serve as the sign and witness of Jesus, the restorer of this “marriage covenant.”
When Christians honor the Feasts today, we honor the Father who sacrificed His Son for us, and we step into our covenant heritage. The Spring Feasts provide the blueprint (screenplay) on how Jesus came to be our Savior and serve as our High Priest. Therefore, when we celebrate the Feasts, WE REMEMBER. The Fall Feasts reveal the blueprint (screenplay) when Jesus returns as a King to judge the nations, along with a wedding celebration for those who have said YES to Him. Therefore, when we celebrate the Feasts, WE PREPARE FOR HIS ARRIVAL!
“…and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood..”(Rev. 1:5)
Let’s review the Spring Feasts screenplay and how it became a “live performance” through the purpose of Jesus’s first coming. In Ex. 12:2, God declared His Hebrew Covenant Calendar to start on the 1st of Nisan when He spoke: “This month (Nisan) shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.”
Then the LORD instructed Moses to tell the children of Israel to select an unblemished male lamb on Nisan 10. In the New Testament, we read how God selected Jesus to be His unblemished male lamb when John the Baptist prophesied as Jesus approached: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Three and a half years later, on Nisan 10, Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and the people cried out, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest” (Matt. 21:9).
On the eve of the 14th of Nisan, Jesus was with His disciples at the last “LORD’s Supper.” It was here that Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and broke bread (His body), and drank wine (His Blood) so they had a blueprint of REMEMBRANCE of what He would suffer, yet become afterwards, as the unblemished Lamb who was slain for our sins (Matt. 26:16).
On the morning of the 14th of Nisan, Jesus was sentenced at 9am and crucified. This was the same time the unblemished sacrificial lamb was bound according to the law (Mark 15:25).
At noon, three hours of darkness fell on the land (Matt. 27:45). According to the law, no one was allowed to kill the sacrificial lamb in darkness. God prevented any lamb to be slain until Jesus cried out at 3:01, “It is finished.” After the light returned, the Passover lambs were then slain.
Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus down and placed him in a tomb nearby before sundown. According to Ex.12, the “Passover” followed when they ate the lamb that was roasted by the fire with “unleavened bread.” This they were to do as a memorial and an everlasting ordinance (Ex. 12:14).
The Feast of Unleavened Bread was to commence that evening and last seven days. (Lev. 23:6). Because the Israelites left so quickly out of Egypt after the plague of the death of the “firstborn,” they left without any leaven in their bread (Ex. 12:39). God made it easy for them to follow His instructions. Since leaven typically represents “sin” in the Bible, it foreshadowed how Jesus wiped out the penalty of “sin” through His sacrifice. He Himself had no leaven(sin) in Him because He was faithful to the Father, even while man rejected and killed Him, makes Him the most amazing Savior of the world.
The following day, the soldiers were ordered to camp out at the tomb to make sure no one stole Jesus’ body after they reported to Pontius Pilate:
“Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise. Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead.” So the last deception will be worse than the first (Matt. 27:63,64).'”
Jesus rose before daybreak on Sunday morning. When Mary arrived at the tomb, she found it open and empty, and the Roman Soldiers were also missing as they had already left to tell Pilate. When the sun arose, Mary encountered what she thought was a gardener. When she recognized it was Jesus, she wanted to touch him. But Jesus said to her, “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father.”
The ascension Jesus was referring to was not the event that happened 40 days later when he was seen ascending at the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:3-9). We know this because Jesus allowed the disciples to touch Him later on that evening and he was seen by many for 40 days (John 20:19,20). So Jesus must have ascended to the Father sometime AFTER He talked to Mary and then come back to be seen. Why is this detail important?
Lev. 23:20 says of the Feast of the First Fruits, “The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord…” In 1 Corinthians 15:20, the scripture says, “Now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the FIRSTFRUITS of those who have fallen asleep.”
In order for Jesus to fulfill the Feast of Firstfruits, Jesus had to present Himself to the Father at the same time the priest offered up the Firstfruits. Jesus was actually alive before the priest wave offering in the temple, but He could not present Himself “legally” alive in heaven until the third hour (9AM) when the firstfruits offering was presented. It was then Jesus also presented Himself as the “Firstfruits” offering before the Father on His throne!
Between The Feast of Firstfruits (Resurrection Day as the Church at large knows it) and the Feast of Pentecost is 50 days in which is called Counting of Omer. (Lev. 23:15-17) After these 50 days, the children of Israel were to offer a new grain (wheat) offering. On Pentecost, farmers would bring the firstfruits of their spring harvest to the Lord.
The Feast of Pentecost would be patterned in the same time frame as the 50 days it took for the children of Israel to “PASSOVER” from the death plague, leave Egypt, and brought to the base of Mt. Sinai. Recall that is when then God revealed Himself by thunder, lightning, the cloud of His presence and the sound of His voice heard by all after the acceptance of His proposal (Ex. 19).
In the New Testament, 50 days after Jesus was the Passover sacrifice, his disciples would hear the voice of God speaking in their own language out of the midst of the fire (Deut. 4:12). In Acts 2, we read that on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down like tongues of fire upon the heads of the disciples who were waiting in the Upper Room. They became the new grain offering, the “firstfruits” of the indwelling of His glory presented to the Father since they had “accepted Jesus as Savior and Covenant restorer.” Now the Law was written on their hearts and they were empowered with His truth and to hear His voice and to go forth and share the good news.
Passover was fulfilled by Jesus in the month of Nisan, according to the pattern described in Ex. 12 and Lev. 23. This is why 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, “Messiah has become our Passover.” Christians today generally don’t celebrate these Feasts of the LORD simply because they don’t understand their significance to Jesus. Some have not fully grasped they entered into this Hebrew heritage and Covenant when they accepted Jesus as their Lord. But God wants to open up our eyes to our birthright and our inheritance in His marriage Covenant. And as we abide in His blueprint (screenplay), we begin looking like the “Bride” set apart unto Him.
Mo'Manna 