The Jewish Feasts of the Lord and the
Gen 1:14 [Hebrew
Stone’s Edition Tanach, (O.T.) “Then God said, "Let there be lights in
the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be
for signs and for festivals
and for days and years”
Act 3:19-21
(NASB) "Therefore repent and
return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing
may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ
appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which
God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
If one can grasp the meaning of the Feasts of the Lord and the
Every feast points to and symbolizes Jesus the Christ – past, present and
future. The 7 holy feasts occur in the 2
rain seasons – the Spring [former rain] and the fall [latter rain]. Hosea 6:3, “…and he shall come unto us as the
rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”
The Jewish Calendars
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Solar [Babylonian] Year Calendar Translation |
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Nisan
(Aviv) |
March
– April |
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Lyar
(Zif) |
April
– May |
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Sivan |
May
– June |
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Tammuz |
June
– July |
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Av |
July
– August |
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Elul |
August
– September |
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Tishri
(Ethanim) |
September
– October |
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Chesvan
(Bul) |
October
– November |
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Kislev |
November
– December |
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Tevet |
December
– January |
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Sh’vat |
January
– February |
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Adar |
February
- March |
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To maintain the relation of the
lunar [moon] based calendar to the solar [sun or Babylonian] based calendar,
it was periodically necessary to add a 13th month, which was
called Second Adar. The additional
month was later introduced automatically seven times in a lunar cycle of
nineteen years; in the years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 of the cycle. The Jewish lunar calendar determined the
new moon as the beginning of the month and a full moon as the middle of the
month. Jewish months are generally
identified by number instead of name in Scripture. The names of the twelve months are of
Babylonian origin. It is very interesting that the
number of days between Nisan and Tishri is always the same. Because of this,
the time from the first major festival Passover in Nisan to the last major
festival Feast of Tabernacles in Tishri is always the same. |
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THE FEASTS OF THE LORD – Leviticus 23
(1) The LORD
spoke again to Moses, saying, (2)
"Speak to the sons of
SABBATH
(3) 'For six
days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete
rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the
LORD in all your dwellings. (4) 'These are the appointed times of the LORD,
holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them.
The
Spring Festivals – The Former Rain - PASSOVER
(5) 'In the
first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD'S
Passover.
UNLEAVENED
BREAD
(6) 'Then on the fifteenth day of the same month
there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall
eat unleavened bread. (7) 'On the first day you shall have a holy
convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. (8)
'But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD.
On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious
work.'"
FIRSTFRUITS
(9) Then the
LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (10) "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to
them, 'When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its
harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest
to the priest. (11) 'He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for
you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. (12)
'Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one
year old without defect for a burnt offering to the LORD. (13)
'Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to
the LORD for a soothing aroma,
with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. (14)
'Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your
God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be
a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
SHAVOUT
OR PENTECOST
(15) 'You
shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day
when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven
complete sabbaths. (16) 'You shall count fifty days to the day after
the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD. (17)
'You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering,
made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour,
baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD.
(18) 'Along with the bread you
shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the
herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their
grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing
aroma to the LORD. (19) 'You shall also offer one male goat for a sin
offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. (20)
'The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for
a wave offering with two lambs before the LORD; they are to be holy to the LORD
for the priest. (21) 'On this same day you shall make a
proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no
laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places
throughout your generations. (22) 'When you reap the harvest of your land,
moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the
gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I
am the LORD your God.'"
The
Fall Festivals – The Latter Rain - TRUMPETS
(23) Again the
LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (24)
"Speak to the sons of
ATONEMENT
(26) The LORD
spoke to Moses, saying, (27) "On exactly the tenth day of this
seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you,
and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the LORD. (28)
"You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of
atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the LORD your God. (29)
"If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same
day, he shall be cut off from his people.
(30) "As for any person who
does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his
people. (31) "You shall do no work at all. It is to
be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. (32)
"It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall
humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening
you shall keep your sabbath."
TABERNACLES
(33) Again the
LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (34) "Speak to the sons of
The
Spring Festivals – The Former Rain
Pesach or Passover
·
Related Scriptures:
Exodus 12:1-16 NASB: (1) Now the LORD said to Moses
and Aaron in the
Exodus 12:21-51 NASB:
(21) Then Moses called for all the elders of
.I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of
“Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it
feels to be alien, because you were alien in
1Co 5:6 – 8 (NASB) Your boasting is not good. Do you
not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a
new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 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”.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth: he is brought as a LAMB to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:3-7)
Rom 3:25 (NASB) “…because in the
forbearance of God He passed over
the sins previously committed…”
Luke 22:15, 16 (NASB) And He said to them, "I
have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say
to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the
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Passover begins
on the 14th day of the first month of the Jewish religious calendar which is
Nisan or Aviv.
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God, not Moses,
is the Redeemer; Moses is the heroic messenger.
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The MALE, unblemished lamb at the peak of its life was
brought in on the 10th day of Nisan.
The lamb represents Christ and the number ten is the number of law. Prior to the temple the Israelites lived with
and inspected the lamb for 4 days. 4 is
the number of all creation which Christ is to redeem. After the temple a lamb was chosen by the
high priest outside of
- Before the Jewish temple, in the doorway on the 14th of
Nisan at the appointed time, the Father would lay his hands on the head of
the lamb using his weight. This
would indicate full substitution and identification with and consecration
of the lamb and attest to the appropriateness and fitness of the
sacrifice. The lamb’s throat would
be cut and the blood applied to the top and side posts of the door. The mother would roast the lamb over an
open fire using [according to some Jewish scholars] a pomegranate stick. The pomegranate represented fruitfulness
and life due to its many seeds and ability to reproduce itself and was a
frequent ornament in Jewish societies, particularly on temple garments. The firstborn of every house whose door
was “covered with the blood” would be spared; all houses not covered by
the blood would have the firstborn killed.
Exodus 4:22, 23 (NASB)
"Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD, "
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After the temple
the Passover lamb could only be slain in
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Many teach that
originally, prior to the temple, each father acting as priest and killing the
lamb for their own house symbolized
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There was only
one real Passover – the first one. All
others were a celebration of the first.
Because conditions changed after both the deliverance from Pharaoh’s
hand and the temple, the rules for subsequent Passovers changed. Blood was no longer applied to the side and
top door posts; it was handled according to temple rules. Although certainly remembered, the rules
regarding shoes on the feet, staff in hand, loins girded, eating in haste and
not leaving the house were also relaxed.
·
Scriptures
related to the Passover not only clearly typify the plan of salvation and sacrifice
of the Christ, they also show the nature and character of God and Christ via commanding
Israel to humbly remember the conditions that led to the exodus and by
demanding kindness to strangers, orphans, widows, and the downtrodden. Also, gentiles were able to partake of the
protections of the Passover through faith demonstrated by obedience.
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In the 6-week
period preceding Pesach, there are 5 special Sabbaths. Four are entitled after
the special Torah reading of that Sabbath. The fifth takes on luster because of
it's proximity to the holiday itself.
See Appendix.
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Passover
represents the crucifixion of Jesus. He died on Preparation Day, the day before
the special Sabbath (Mark 15:24). He
became our Paschal Lamb and was sacrificed on Passover. The Christian communion service commonly
called the Lord’s Supper is, in fact, a Passover celebration meal [Seder]
celebrated with its full revelation and meaning revealed.
- During the Passover time, a sign hung on each
lamb’s neck, bearing the name of the owner of the lamb. Jesus was
crucified with a sign hung over His head with the name of His Father.
Studies have shown the Tetragrammaton [the Hebrew unpronounceable name of
God] probably appeared over Jesus when He hung on the cross. During Bible
times, messages were commonly written with the first letter of each word.
An example in English: UPS, stands for United Parcel Service. The phrase
"Jesus of Nazareth and King of the Jews" was written in three
languages on a sign above Jesus as He hung on the cross (John 19:19). The
Hebrew initials for "Jesus of Nazareth and King of the Jews" was
YHWH. That is why the priest asked Pilate to change the writing.
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Jesus died at
3PM. They hurried to place Him in the
tomb by sunset at which time [Nisan 15] the next festival – Unleavened Bread
begins. John 19:31-42 Nisan 15 is the day
HAG HAMATZOH, MATZOT OR UNLEAVENED
BREAD
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Matzo – unleavened bread |
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- Related Scriptures:
Exodus 12:15-20 NASB: (15) 'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread,
but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats
anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall
be cut off from Israel. (16) 'On the first day you shall have a holy
assembly, and another holy
assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what
must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you. (17)
'You shall also observe the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of
the
Jesus said to them, "I am the
Bread (Matzo) of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry..."' (John
6:35)
Luke 24:30-32 states this after the
resurrection: 'Now while He was with them at table, He took the matzo and said
the blessing; then He broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were
opened and they recognized Him; but He had vanished from their sight. Then they
said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us as He talked to us
on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?"'
Luke 24:35 They began to relate their
experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.
John, a Jew who walked with Jesus recalls Jesus declaring: '...If you do
not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood you will not have Life
in you. Anyone who does eat My Flesh and
drink My Blood has Eternal Life, and I shall raise him up on the Last Day'
(John 6:53-54). At the Passover before
His Death, Jesus told His followers that the matzo represented His Body.
Matthew 26:26 records this: 'Now as they were eating, Jesus took some matzo,
and when He had said the blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples.
"Take it and eat," He said, "this is My Body."
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The day after
Passover, the 15th of the month of Nissan, starts the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The purging of all leaven had taken place on
Preparation Day and unleavened bread must be eaten for the length of the feast
- 7 days. Jesus was buried on Preparation
Day and is depicted as both the Passover lamb and the matzo. This day is when
At the Seder we say: "In every generation they
rise against us to annihilate us." The Egyptians broke our backs and our
spirits. The Romans destroyed the
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Leaven is
symbolic of sin. It is that which gets
inside and alters what it enters by puffing up.
The Hebrew for leaven is “chametz” which means decay, corruption and
sour” and in the Bible leaven is used symbolically of sin, slavery and
corrupted doctrine. Eating unleavened
bread symbolized a life of holiness.
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The brown spots
in matzo are called bruises. 'The LORD
God of
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The Pesach Seder
[Passover meal] involved 4 cups of wine which symbolized the 4 promises given
to Moses from God in Exodus 6:6-7. This
was a rabbinical decree from Mishna Pesachim 10:1. The rules of leavening apply to food prepared
out of any of the five kinds of grain; barley, wheat, rye, oats, and spelt. Although wine is fermented, it doesn't enter
into the category of leaven because it’s not made from one of these five types.
Some reports indicated that possibly unfermented "raisin-wine" was
the only acceptable beverage for Passover. Today only kosher wine is used for
Passover. During the Seder, each
participant drinks four cups of wine to recall the four expressions of
redemption mentioned in the Bible (Ex. 6:6-7). God tells Moses to tell the
people of Israel, "I will bring you out from under the burdens of the
Egyptians, and I will rid you from under their bondage and I will redeem you
with a stretched out arm and with great judgments: and I will take you to Me
for a people and I will be to you a God." The four cups at the Seder
represent the four expressions of redemption--bring, deliver, redeem and take.
The first cup is called the cup of sanctification; the second, the cup of
judgment; the third, the cup of redemption; and the fourth, the cup of the
kingdom. When Jesus said, “This is my
blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins” in
Matthew 26:28, he had picked up the third cup – the cup of redemption.
A
fifth cup was later added by rabbis, called the cup of Elijah. The custom of
filling a fifth cup of wine for Elijah the Prophet at the seder table is
relatively recent. Some families set a place at the table for Elijah and pour
into a goblet called "Elijah's cup" to symbolize Elijah would be a
welcome guest at the seder. Another
custom is to open the door during the seder for Elijah, symbolizing bringing
the Messianic age into their lives.
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At regular
holidays and Sabbath meals two loaves of unleavened bread are placed on the
table as reminders of the shewbreads displayed in two rows by the priest in the
temple. On this particular feast a third
matzo is added for the ceremony of the Three Matzot, the three pieces of
unleavened bread. They are either placed under a napkin or in a Matzo Pouch, a
single pouch with 3 compartments called the Unity Bag. The middle piece of matzo
will be taken out and broken in half in a ceremony called “yachatz” meaning “to
break.”. One half will be placed back
inside the pouch’s middle compartment between the other two pieces of matzo,
and the other half will be wrapped inside a napkin and buried in a part of the
house. The buried broken matzo in Greek
is called “afikomen” meaning ‘that which comes last’ or possibly, “he will come
again.” It is also called the bread of
affliction or the bread of redemption. The
Hebrew for the matzo returned to the middle pouch is called Lechem Oni [the
Bread of Poverty]. After the meal, the
children will be released to try and find the buried matzo. Nothing can continue till the buried matzo is
found. The one who finds it brings it to
the father and is rewarded a silver piece or something of that nature. The host will then raise the matzo and
declare, 'All who are hungry and afflicted, come to this table and eat.' He then lifts the matzo up, blesses God for
redeeming
·
The matzo of
Passover is a graphic picture of the crucified body of the Messiah - the
piercing, the crushing and the bruises in addition to the matzo having no
leaven symbolizing no sin. This is why
the LORD commanded that matzo be the bread of Passover - so that Jesus could
inject Himself into the meaning of the matzo 1450 years after the Exodus out of
Egyptian slavery. And Jesus is the Matza
that has come down from Heaven that gives us Life and True Freedom.
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Jesus is called
the “Bread of Life” and in Hebrew Bethlehem where he was born means “House of
Bread.” 1Corinthians 5:6-8 (NASB) Your
boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole
lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven
so that you may be a new lump, just as you
are in fact unleavened. For Christ our
Passover also has been sacrificed. 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.
In Jacobs time
BIKKURIM OR FIRSTFRUITS
OF THE BARLEY HARVEST
·
Related Scriptures:
Lev 23:9-14 NASB: (9) Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (10) "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to
them, 'When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its
harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest
to the priest. (11) 'He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for
you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. (12)
'Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one
year old without defect for a burnt offering to the LORD. (13)
'Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to
the LORD for a soothing aroma,
with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. (14)
'Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your
God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be
a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
1Co 15:21 For since by a man came death, by a
man also came the resurrection of the dead.
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The Feast of
Firstfruits occurs on Nisan 17 - the third day after the beginning of Passover.
It's a feast of thanksgiving - it
celebrates the barley harvest, the first grain of the season. It is a celebration of new life, a celebration
of the first harvest looking toward the larger harvest yet to come; a
celebration of the promise yet to be fulfilled.
When the Israelites entered the Promised Land they were to present an
offering of the first fruits of the land to the Lord God. Firstfruits also typify people and this feast coincides with the exact day of
the resurrection of Christ. Christ
is called, “the firstfruits of those that rise from the dead.” [1 Corinthians 15: 20-23]. As part of the
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There are
actually 2 firstfruits. This feast is
called the early firstfruits (barley).
50 days later there is the feast of Weeks or Pentecost where you have
the latter firstfruits (wheat). Jesus
being the early firstfruits and us the latter adds more meaning to what Jesus
said in John 12:24,25, "Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat
falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much
fruit. He who loves his life loses it,
and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” The 50 days in between is called the counting
of the Omer. An omer is a unit of
measure – one tenth of an ephah which is about 2.2 liters. This makes it a modest but important offering
since the new produce could not be eaten until this firstfruits offering was
brought to the
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The early
firstfruits are waved before the Lord in their natural state. The latter firstfruits were waved in a
prepared state. Both
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Science tells us
that the firstfruits, like sprouts, are the most biologically alive
plants. They have the fullest life
potential with the full chemical composition for the beginning and the end of
its life unlike any other time in the life cycle of the plant. Jesus described himself as being the fullest
life and being the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega! Jesus also said, “I am THE truth.” The Hebrew word for truth is Emeth. It is
composed of three letters: Aleph=Alpha, Mem=My, and Thaw=Theta. The Aleph and
the Thaw are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet as the Alpha and
Omega are of the Greek. Thus the term Emeth (truth) begins with the first
letter of the alphabet and ends with the last. This led the Jewish sages to find in this word
a mystical meaning. The Aleph or the first letter of Emeth(truth) denotes that
God is the first of all things. There was no one before Him of whom He could
have received the fullness of truth. The Thaw, or last letter, in like manner
signifies that God is the last of all things. There will be no one after Him –
he is the fullness of all things and all things dwell in truth.
·
Originally the
Jews were only given a 3 day leave by Pharaoh after the Passover. [Exo 8:27, 28
"We must go a three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the
LORD our God as He commands us."
Pharaoh said, "I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the
LORD your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Make
supplication for me." Exodus 12:31 Then he called for Moses and Aaron at
night and said, "Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the
sons of Israel; and go, worship the LORD, as you have said.]
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TIMELINE OF PASSOVER,
UNLEAVENED BREAD AND FIRSTFRUITS |
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Wednesday
- 13th Disciples ask where the Passover would be
eaten Two disciples prepare the room for the 1st
Passover The private, home based Passover lamb and
unleavened bread are eaten with Christ. |
Thursday
- 14th Preparation Day - leaven removed from
houses. Christ crucified and placed in tomb. Slaughter of firstborn animals while
Christ dies. Some women see tomb and return to prepare
spices. Jews observe the ceremonial temple based 'thanksgiving'
2nd Passover |
Friday
- 15th ANNUAL SABBATH First day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread Chief priests request the tomb to be
sealed. |
Saturday
- 16th WEEKLY SABBATH Sabbath observed |
Sunday
- 17th Wave sheaf offering day - Firstfruits Christ resurrected Some woman buy spices Christ appears to some women Christ appears to two disciples going to
Emmaus. |
SHAVUOT OR THE FEAST OF WEEKS OR
PENTECOST
·
Scriptures related to Pentecost:
Deuteronomy 16:9-12 (NASB) "You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as the LORD your God blesses you; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite who is in your town, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where the LORD