Obliged To Keep The Feasts

WHAT’S SIGNIFICANT ABOUT THE NUMBER SEVEN?

If you’ve read my last published article, “What’s Perfect About the Number Seven” this article is a continuation. As I was studying and gathering facts pertaining to God’s pattern for designing creation, I discovered that the number “7” was unique.

God chose to use the number “7” as a key factor in establishing laws, decrees, and creation as well. I believe that it is impossible for man to comprehend the manifold wisdoms of God (*See Job 38-41).

The number seven represents is known as “God’s number”, and “7” represents completion.

7 ANNUAL JEWISH FEASTS

Passover (Ex. 12)
Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex. 12:8; 29:2; Num. 9:11)
Feast of First Fruits (Lev. 23:9; Deut. 26:1-11)
Feast of Weeks (Lev. 23)
Feast of Trumpets (Num. 29:1)
Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27-28)
Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:43)

The Hebrew word for feast is “Moadim”, literally it means “appointed time.” God has carefully planned and orchestrated the timing and sequence of the seven feasts. The seven annual feasts are spread over seven months of the Jewish calendar.

Spring Time Feasts

Passover
Unleavened Bread
First Fruits
Feast of Weeks

Fall Feasts

Trumpets
Day of Atonement
Tabernacles (Booths)

The Passover Feast

Points to the Messiah, Jesus, as our Passover Lamb, whose blood would be shed for the sins of the world. Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation for the Passover, at that same hour the lamb was being slaughtered for the Passover meal (1 Cor. 15; John 19:14).

The first Passover marked the Hebrews’ release from Egyptian slavery, so the death of Christ marks our release from the slavery of sin (Rom. 8:2). The first Passover was to be held in remembrance as an annual feast, so Christians are to memorialize the Lord’s death in communion until He returns (1 Cor. 11:26).

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt” (Ex. 34:18 NIV).

On the fifteenth day of Aviv, the Lord’s Feast of Unleavened Bread begins. The Israelites were to eat only unleavened bread every day during Passover as a commemoration of the Exodus from Egyptian bondage. For seven days the Israelites were to eat bread made without yeast. Unleavened bread is derived from the word “matzoh” which means “bread or cake without leaven or yeast.” The Lexicon states that matzoh is in term derived from a word that means “to drain out or suck.” Biblical references made pertaining to leaven are almost always symbolic of sin. Unleavened Bread is a foreshadow of the Messiah’s sinless life. He was the only acceptable sinless sacrifice.

(Further commands regarding eating unleavened bread are found in Leviticus 23:6-8.)

The Feast of First Fruits – Lev. 23:10

The Firstfruits was a Jewish feast held in the early spring at the beginning of the grain harvest. It was observed on Nissan 16, which was the 3rd day after Passover and the 2nd day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. First fruits was a time of thanksgiving for God’s provision. Leviticus 23:9-14 institutes the first fruits offering. The offering was made in remembrance of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt, the Lord’s deliverance from slavery, and their possession of the land of Canaan. First fruits symbolizes God’s harvest of souls. It illustrates giving to God from a grateful heart, and it sets a pattern of giving back to Him the first and best of what He has given us.

In the New Testament, the first fruit offering is fulfilled in Jesus. His body was in the grave The Messiah’s resurrection is the 1^st fruit of righteousness; the Apostle Paul refers to Jesus as the “1^st fruit from the dead” (1 Cor. 15:20).

The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) – Lev. 23:15-22

The Feast of Weeks gets its name from the fact that it starts seven full weeks, or exactly 50 days, after the Feast of First fruits. The Feast of Weeks is also known as Pentecost (Acts 2). The spiritual significance of the Feast of Weeks is the two loaves of leavened bread that were to be a wave offering as foreshadowing the time when the Messiah would make both Jews and Gentiles one in Him (Eph. 2:14-15). This is also the only feast where leavened bread is used.

On the Day of Pentecost, the “First Fruits” of the church were gathered by Christ as some 3,000 people heard Peter present the gospel after the Holy Spirit empowered and indwelt the disciples of the Holy Spirit, the first fruit of God’s spiritual harvest under the New Covenant began. Today the harvest continues as people continue to be saved. It points to the great harvest of souls, of both Jews and Gentiles who were ushered into the Kingdom by God’s outpouring of His Spirit, and 3,000 souls were saved that day (v.41).

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