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Keeping the Feasts of the Lord
What
and why are these days—the Feast days?
What is the practice of keeping these days in the New Testament
era? We need to start in
Leviticus 23
.
Lev. 23:1 God instructs
Moses to instruct the children of
Israel
and God says, “These are ‘My Feasts’.”
This is where we get the term you might hear people say, “the
Feasts”.
Lev.
23:3 The first is the weekly
Sabbath. It is associated or
shared with the feast days. The
Sabbath is grouped together with the feasts.
It has a shared meaning, teaching and future.
Lev.
23:4 God calls for a “holy
convocation” on His Feasts—a get-together, assembly, Greek “ekklesia”.
People come together to worship, eat, fellowship, rejoice.
God is worshipped in many ways, not just ritualistic acts.
There is prayer, study, singing, praising God’s name.
Malachi 3
speaks of those who talk often
and think on His name. The
timing for the Feasts are “at their appointed times”.
This is by the cycles of the moon.
The ancient calendar was based on lunar months.
Lev.
23:5 Passover—the first feast mentioned but no holy convocation is
mentioned. Elaborate
activities are spoken of in other parts of the Old Testament.
Many observe Easter now instead.
The origins of this change from Passover to Easter goes back to the
Roman Church in the 4th century.
Lev.
23:6 On the 15th
day of the same month, is the feast of unleavened bread.
The 1st and 7th days are holy convocations.
There is no work, but assembly, worship and sacrifices.
There were different worship activities then compared to what we do
today—some were laid out for them that we don’t have.
Lev.
23:9-14 The wave sheaf
offering parallels the time of Christ, and pictures the first fruit.
On this same day during the Days of Unleavened Bread Jesus told
Mary Magdalene not to touch Him as he had not ascended to the Father yet
as a presentation of the First Fruit of many brethren.
Lev.
23:15-21 The day of Pentecost
means count 50 and is calculated based on the days of unleavened bread.
Lev.
23:24
This speaks of the feast of
trumpets which is on the new moon.
Lev.
23:2 The day of atonement is a
day of afflicting your soul—we do not eat.
Lev.
23:33
This speaks of the feast of
tabernacles which is for 7 days. The
1st day is a holy convocation as is the 8th day and
no customary work is to be done. The
Feast of Tabernacles is also referred to as the Feast of Booths.
Lev.
23:39
Tree leaves?
What’s this all about?
Lev.
23:42
You shall dwell in
booths—this feast is frequently referred to as the feast of booths.
Leviticus
23
is
the best lay out of these days but they are reaffirmed though out
scripture.
What do the Feasts of the Lord mean to us today?
Col. 2:16-17 There is a
debate over this scripture but an important point it makes is the High
Days (another term for the Feasts) are a “shadow of things to come”.
The common thought is the shadow is to be thrown out.
We should note that the Colossians observing them, or Paul would
not have addressed them. We
should also note that Paul didn’t correct them for observing them, or
tell them to stop.
Plato’s
Republic the Allegory of the Cave shows how some men chained to a wall,
only able to view the shadows of life behind them projected onto a wall in
front of them learned about the life through these shadows.
This term “shadow” has been in literary work for
centuries—your own shadow can tell you something about you.
Heb.
8:3-5 Shadows were used in
scripture as literary work. God
showed them a heavenly pattern so
Israel
learned about what God wanted them to learn.
The tabernacle was a shadow of heavenly things.
Heb.
10:1 The high priest did
sacrifices for sin—then Christ came and fulfilled what this shadow was
teaching them. In Colossians
there is a shadow of things “to come”.
Not history, but there are things indicated, taught about, reality
to learn from the shadows God has given us.
Sacrifices were about the sacrifice of Messiah. My shadow
represents me. The shadow of
the law represents things to come, as do Sabbaths, new moons and the High
Days (or Feasts of the Lord).
What might we learn from the Feasts of the Lord?
There are teachings for man in the feast days.
We learn of things in God’s plan, and we learn about Jesus Christ
and salvation.
At Passover,
Israel
looked back to the killing of the 1st born—the foreshadow of
the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for salvation.
Jews have always recognized this, they just didn’t recognize Him
when he came.
1 Cor.
11:20-26
Here is instruction from Paul regarding Jesus and what we are to do
in remembrance of Him and his sacrifice.
This is why today we look back at this sacrifice.
1 Cor.
5:6-8
There was urgency to leave a bad situation.
He’s talking about these days.
Paul expands the lesson of the day of unleavened bread.
John
6:31,33,35
Christ is making an analogy about himself.
The unleavened bread is analogous to the Bread of life, and it is a
good reminder to eat it seven days. It
represents the unleavened bread of humility put into our bodies, our
lives.
Pentecost, some say the law was given on this day.
History seems to show this, but scripture doesn’t specifically
say so. The Holy Spirit was
given on this day after Christ’s death which is the earnest of the new
covenant. It represents first
fruits of the first harvest.
Trumpets
is a celebration of celebrations. It’s
a day of clamor, loudness and full of praise and thanks.
It also has a dual meaning of alarm.
Trumpets were used in many ways in the scriptures.
We look forward to the last trumpet—the return of Christ.
1
Cor.15:50-53 This scripture
shows a change of humans to godly, immortal, at the last trumpet.
Does the feast of Trumpets portray this?
Maybe, we don’t know. The
first harvest, the resurrection of the saints, is it at Pentecost or
Trumpets? We don’t know.
We don’t have the answers but it’s still looking forward to the
things to come.
Atonement is a time for sins to be dealt with.
The high priest went into the holy of holies to offer sacrifice.
It is the day of the sacrifices of two goats, and there are all
kinds of lessons in the goats which I don’t have time to cover now.
On atonement man is made right with God.
Does one goat represent the binding of Satan?
Possibly. Great events
have happened in God’s festival days so it makes sense that great events
will continue on the Feast Days.
Feast of Tabernacles—For
Israel
, an agrarian society, it was at the time of the great fall harvest.
It pictured the dwelling in tabernacles, temporary dwellings, when
they left
Egypt
. It represented the
deliverance by God and the transition to the promised land.
After the death of Jesus, we look at the temporary nature of life
and celebrate the final promised land, the city who’s maker is God.
Heb. 11:8-10 The feast
of tabernacles points to a lot of things, a promised time.
We are to inherit the
kingdom
of
God
. There is so much to be
studied and learned about these days.
We too look for this promised land—a city whose builder and maker
is God.
Acts 3
speaks of this, the restoration of all things.
Then there is the 8th day of the feast, which some call
the last great day.
John
7:37
God’s spirit is flowing out of the heart of man.
Living water of God flowing—perhaps a time of final judgment.
Rev.
20:11-15, Rev. 21:1-7 The last
great day and the words of Jesus seem to parallel with these words in
Revelation.
Some might say that God hasn’t placed his name anywhere so we
can’t keep these days.
Deut.
16:16
The last place God placed his
name was
Jerusalem
. They sacrificed animals, we
don’t do this. The New
Testament doesn’t give us any other instruction.
But in Colossians we see these High Days are a shadow.
They have great meaning and teaching of hope.
Christians observe them differently today.
What do we do today? We
have church meetings, we rest, we don’t work.
We see the Father and His Christ in these days.
We remember the past and look forward.
We celebrate Christ with a mix of traditions.
We don’t judge and condemn others according to what they do or
don’t do on these days.
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