Exodus 23: 14-17
Leviticus 23: 4-43
Deuteronomy 16: 1-17
God said, in essence, "Come to My House three times every year for a week-long party!"
There were six feasts God wanted His people to celebrate and commemorate, three of which He wanted all the people to gather together to His Tabernacle or Temple for a joyous party.
(1.) Passover is to remember the time God delivered Israel from Egypt, and the lamb's blood was smeared onto the doorposts and lintel of the houses so the Death Angel would "pass over" those dwellings and the people within.
Jesus is the Lamb of God, our Passover Lamb, whose Blood causes the wrath of God to "pass over" those who put their trust in Him to have paid their debt of sin on the Cross. This is the first week-long feast (party) God wanted us to celebrate.
(2.) First Fruits is the Spring Harvest feast. Jesus is the First Fruits of Resurrection.
(3.) Pentecost comes 50 days after the Spring Harvest (Pente means 50), and it was celebrated with bread that was leavened. This is the only feast that does not require unleavened bread. Leaven usually symbolizes sin.
Pentecost Sunday was the day the Holy Spirit fell on the first believers in Jesus as Messiah, so is the Birthday of the Church. The Church is comprised of members who are still living on this Earth, and we aren't perfect yet. This is the second week-long feast (party) God wanted us to celebrate together.
(4.) Trumpets was to be celebrated on the 1st day of the 7th month (Sept.-Oct.). This was basically a concert, with the trumpets to be played before the Lord and the people.
We are told that at the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed (I Corinthians 15:52), and the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever (I Thessalonians 3:16-17). I believe that this feast will be fulfilled at this time, the Rapture of the Church.
(5.) Day of Atonement is the time of the corporate sacrifice for the whole Nation of Israel, for the past year. This was to be a time of mourning for all the wrongs that had been done, and a time of fasting, rather than feasting. This comes only 9 days after the Trumpets, on the 10th day of the 7th month.
Zechariah 14:3-5 tells us that when the Lord returns to fight against those nations . . . This is when the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him.
John also wrote about this, in his book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. In Chapter 19 the Rider on the White Horse is Jesus, Who has come to wage war on the Nations of the Earth at the Battle of Armageddon. This Day of the Lord has included world-wide earthquakes, floods and tsunamis that even overflowed all the islands, humongous storms of 100-pound hail, lightening and fire, signs in the Sun, Moon and Stars, the sky rolled up like a scroll, every kind of "natural" disaster you can think of, all happening on this Day.
And Jesus returns to set up His Kingdom on the Earth. I think that this Day of the Lord is the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, when Jesus has atoned for, bought, purchased with His Blood on Calvary, this whole Earth and the World upon it. He is now the Owner of us all, our rightful Judge. Now He cleansing it of all that evil people have wrought on it, and all the cities and towns of the World are flattened. And all His "holy ones" came with Him: all the Heavenly Angels as well as all His Redeemed People.
(6.) Tabernacles is the last feast of the year, coming only 5 days after The Atonement, on the 15th day of the 7th month. The people were to gather together to construct and build temporary structures to live in for a week, celebrating with a great joyful feast to commemorate their living in tents after leaving Egypt. This is the third feast God wanted all His people to gather for.
I see the fulfillment of this Feast in our living in temporary housing after the Battle of Armageddon, while we rebuild the cities and towns that have been destroyed, rejoicing in being our Lord's emissaries in setting up His glorious Kingdom, sitting on His Throne with Him ruling this World in its Golden Age.
O my Father, I thank You and praise You for Your wondrous works. You have planned out Your whole Great Plan of the Ages, You have laid out Your whole program for us in the Feasts You told Your people to celebrate, and You are carrying out the fulfillment of Time before our very eyes as we live every day.
Thank You for rescuing me from myself and the twistedness of my own heart. You have delivered me from the bondage of deep sin, lifted me out of the quicksand of mire and placed my feet upon the Rock.
You take me by my hand and lead me in Your paths of righteousness, and You never let go. Your joy is my strength, and I will dwell in Your House (Family) in Your Kingdom, and magnify and glorify Your Name in Your courts forever!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
