I know Sandy and her kids have all been sick, so I'm assuming that's why she hasn't posted today. So, I will jump in here with a late post....
Our OT passage describes the feasts and festivals that the Israelites were commanded to celebrate or observe. Nowadays, believers are responsible to keep these feasts, but knowing about them enhances our faith. I found a great Hebraic Christian site that described these feasts and their significance for us today.
The Passover, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread reminded the Israelites of their escape from the Eqyptians. The unleavened bread symbolized the Israelites uniqueness as a nation; since yeast was a symbol of sin it also represented Israel's moral purity; and the quick baking method (no yeast, so no waiting for the dough to rise, which allowed them to leave Eqypt quickly) was a reminder for them to obey quickly. This festival also reminded the people they were leaving the old life behind and entering a new way of life.
The festival of Firstfruits celebrated the first cops of the barley harvest and reminded the people how God provided for them.
The festival of Weeks celebrated the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest, and reminded the people to be joyful and thankful for their bountiful harvest.
The festival of Trumpets celebrated the beginning of the 7th month (civil new year) and again reminded the people to express their joy and thanks to the Lord.
The Day of Atonement celebrated the removal of sin from the people and the nation and restored their fellowship with God.
The Feast of Tabernacles (Booths) celebrated God's protection and guidance in the desert, renewing Israel's commitment to God and trust in His guidance and protection.
Here's a fairly long, but extremely interesting excerpt from Hebrew for Christians...
The Spring Feasts
1. Passover (Pesach). Leveticus 23:5 specifies that the festival year begins with Passover on "the fourteenth day of the first month" (Nisan 15). Passover is the Feast of Salvation. In both testaments, the blood of the Lamb delivers from slavery – the Jew from Egypt, the Christian from sin. Think about the tenth plague in Exodus 12:5 when Egypt's first born sons died while the angel of death "passed over" the Jewish homes with the blood of the lamb on their door posts. In the B'rit Chadashah, Jesus serves as the sacrificial lamb. It is no coincidence that our Lord Himself was sacrificed on Passover. In Egypt the Jew marked his house with the blood of the lamb. Today the Christian marks his house – his body, "the house of the spirit" with the blood of Christ. Passover, then, represents our salvation.
2. Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMotzi). Leviticus 23:6 puts the second feast on the next night: "On the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the Lord; seven days ye must eat unleavened bread." Leaven or yeast in the Bible symbolized sin and evil. Unleavened bread, eaten over a period of time, symbolized a holy walk, as with the Lord. Unleavened bread, in the B'rit Chadashah [New Testament] is, of course, the body of our Lord. He is described as "the Bread of Life" (Lechem haChayim). He was born in Bethlehem, which, in Hebrew, means, "House of Bread" (Bet Lechem).
Look at the matzah and see that it is striped: "By His stripes we are healed"; pierced: "They shall look upon me whom they've pierced," and pure, without any leaven, as His body was without any sin. And the Passover custom of burying, hiding and then resurrecting the second of three pieces of matzot (the middle piece), presents the Gospel (Afikomen).
3. First Fruits (Reshit Katzir). "On the morrow after the Sabbath" following Unleavened Bread, Leviticus 23:11 schedules First Fruits, the feast for acknowledging the fertility of the land He gave the Israelites. They were to bring the early crops of their spring planting and "wave the sheaf before the Lord." The modern church has come to call this feast "Easter," named after Ishtar, the pagan goddess of fertility. We continue to revere objects of fertility such as the rabbit and the egg, but the First Fruits celebration was to be over God's replanting of the earth in the spring. Today this feasts celebrates the resurrection of the Lord on First Fruits, which indeed occurred (plus, eventually, the resurrection of the entire Church!)
4. Pentecost (Shavu'ot). Leviticus 23:16 says, "Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shell ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord." In late May or early June, Shavu'ot marked the summer harvest. Leviticus 23:17 requires an offering of two loaves of bread, baked with leaven. These loaves symbolize the church being comprised of both Jew and Gentile.
A review of the first four spring feasts reveals that Yeshua was crucified on Pesach, buried on Unleavened Bread, raised on First Fruits and sent the Ruach Hakkodesh on Shavu'ot. Because we have not yet seen the fulfillment of feast number five - Trumpets - we remain under the orders of Shavu'ot.
The Fall Feasts
5. Trumpets (Yom Teru'ah). Ever since Isaac was spared by virtue of the ram being caught in the thicket by its horn, God seems to have enjoyed the trumpet. He used it when Joshua conquered Jericho. In Leviticus 25:8-10, he specified its use in having trumpets "proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" (that quotation appears today on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, assuring us that America was founded by Bible readers). Leviticus 23:24 requires that, "in the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets."
The Feast of Trumpets occurs in September. This jump in time from the Feast of Pentecost in May or June seems to represent the Church Age in God's planning, since the trumpet unquestionably represents the Rapture of the Church. The trumpet was the signal for the field workers to come into the Temple. The high priest actually blew the trumpet so that the faithful would stop harvesting to worship. Now, when the trumpet sounds in accordance with 1 Corinthians 15:1-3, living believers will cease their harvest and rise from the earth. The Church will be taken out of the world.
6. Atonement (Yom Kippur). Leviticus 23:27 provides a day of confession, the highest of holy days. "Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a Day of Atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord." This is the one feast that is not fulfilled by the church, because the Church owes no atonement. The Church is not innocent, of course, but it is exonerated. The Day of Atonement will be fulfilled in a wonderful way when the Lord returns at His Second Coming.
7. Tabernacles (Sukkot). Leviticus 23:34 says, "The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord." God wanted to celebrate the fact that He provided shelter for the Israelites in the wilderness. Each year on Tabernacles, devout Jews build little shelters or "booths" (sukkot) outside their houses and worshipped in them. Tabernacles represents the Lord's shelter in the world to come (olam habah), His great Tabernacle to exist in Jerusalem during the Kingdom Age. The Lord will establish His Tabernacle in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 37:26), and the world will come every year to appear before the King and worship Him (Zechariah 14:16-17).
Chanukah, by the way, was not given by God on Mount Sinai, but was prophesied in Daniel 8:9-14, and took place in 165 BC when the Temple was rededicated. Now you probably agree that Christianity's Jewish roots offer an eye to the future as well as the past. The next time someone mentions "The Seven Feasts of Israel," you'll realize they're really talking about the Seven Feasts of all time!
A quick point about our NT passage. Dr. Don Page was a guest speaker at our church yesterday and he also did a Team Leadship seminar in the evening which was fantastic. During his sermon, he discussed Mark 10:41-45.
"You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles (Herod) lord it over them, and their high officials (Caiaphas) exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (emphasis mine, words in parenthesis from Don Page)
The type of rule exemplified by Herod and Caiaphas was what the disciples (and pretty much everyone else) thought was the right way to rule. You're in charge and you let everyone else know it. But Jesus said "Not so with you". That is not the way Jesus ruled and it's not the way He wants us to lead either. Servant leadership is not only the Biblical model for leadship, it's also the most successful in our society today. According to Don Page, the most successful companies in the world, use the biblical model of servant leadership (whether they realize it's biblical or not!).
And we are all leaders. We may not all be CEO's or pastors. But we are all leaders. Most of us are parents - which means we are leaders in our families. And we need to lead our families with servant leadership. And yes, the husband is the spiritual leader of the home, but he delegates part of this spiritual leadership role to his wife every time he steps out the door to go to work.
Tomorrow's passage: Leviticus 25, Mark 11:1-18
6 comments:
Here's a link to last year's post if anyone's interested....
http://bibleinayearandbeyond.blogspot.com/2010/02/february-24th.html
Great post, Tammy. A lot of good information there. I've never seen the feasts correlated to the "feasts of all time" before. Interesting!
Interesting thoughts! I never noticed that the feasts represented all of that. It is amazing how much the OT talks about the future! Thanks!
That is so cool!! I love the symbolism that applies to everyone, not just the Jews at that time. God is so incredibly intentional!!
If anyone wants to read more in depth about the Feast Of Passover and how it is celebrated (with what is called a seder), here is a good easy to understand blog about it...
http://www.chosenpeople.com/main/index.php/holidays-and-festivals/190-the-meaning-of-passover
I don't know if anyone else has caught this, so I wanted to repeat part of what was said about some of the feasts, and interject a few that were left out...
Jesus, the light of the world, was most likely conceived during the Feast of Lights (Chanukah). (I can give more details about how they figure that out, if anyone is interested...it isn't just a guess). He was born in a city called Bet Lehem (Bethlehem)....literally translated it means, place of bread, or a bakery. So the bread of life was born in a bakery. He was born during the time of the Feast Of Tabernacles (Sukkot). (Again, I can give some proof of this, if anyone is interested, it's not just supposition). Jesus was crucified and died on the day of Passover. He was buried before sunset and lay in the tomb on the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He was resurrected physically from death on the day of Firstfruits. And, fifty days from His resurrection (and ten days following His ascension into heaven), the Holy Spirit came upon many Jews who had gathered in Jerusalem on Shavuot, or the day of Pentecost.The Feast Of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah, is when many believe Jesus will come back (resurrection). Followed by the Day Of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Which brings us full circle back to where we began, the Feast Of Tabernacles. So far the only two not fulfilled are the last two...Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur
Interesting. One thing that stands out for me is the commandment to "rest". On the sabbath, during the festivals, etc. I have such a hard time with fully resting the way God intended. Does anyone else struggle with that?
Post a Comment