The week of unleavened bread is often referred to
as the Passover Week. The first and last days of this week (15th and
21st Abib) are Sabbath days, on which all believers
are commanded to rest from their labors and to assemble to worship the
Almighty. (Leviticus 23:5-8)
Leaven (yeast) is
a symbol of sin, hypocrisy and false doctrine, a week represents
eternity and a house represents the
I repeat, there is coming a time when the Almighty will
purge hypocrisy, false doctrine & sin (leaven) from the minds of His
people; and only when that time arrives will the Week of Unleavened Bread have
found its fulfillment, not before.
Scripture tells us that this Feast of Unleavened Bread is
a Sacred Sign on the believer's hand and mind that the Almighty's law is
inscribed therein. This Feast is, in fact, the appointed sign of
faithful obedience, as opposed to the
Mark of the
Antichrist,
which is the brand
mark of disobedience.
Exodus 13:6: |
Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the
seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD. |
The Feast of Pentecost also called the Feast of
First Fruits, falls on the 50th day after the Passover Sabbath. This
feast is a reminder, a guarantee of Yahweh's power to produce spiritual fruit
in the field of human salvation. The literal first fruits of the
soil are merely the physical types or expressions of the real first fruits
of the Holy Spirit.
The first fruits of the Holy Spirit are the true
believers won to God by His Son the firstborn. (1 Cor. 15:20&23,
James 1:18, Rev. 14:4)
The ancient ceremony of presenting the Almighty with the firstfruits of the earth (Deut. 26:1-11) with two
oven-baked loaves, in which the leaven had been de-activated (Lev. 23:15-17),
was a figure, a type, a shadow of the spiritual harvest of human souls
in whom the yeast of sin will one day cease to exist. There is coming a
day when the power of sin will be de-activated in us believers just as the
power of leaven is neutralized in an oven baked loaf.
The breathtaking experience recorded in Acts 2 was but
the early harvest, a kind of "firstfruits"
of an even greater out-pouring of divine power scheduled to fall
upon the church in the near future when the main harvest of human beings will
be gathered in.
The Feast of Pentecost, in short, prefigures guarantees
and commemorates the early harvest, the first fruits of human souls:
and those who celebrate it declare their willingness to be part of that
spiritual multitude which will one day be gathered in and presented to the
Almighty by His Son - the Firstborn!
The Feast of Trumpets is celebrated on the first day of Ethanim (Tishri) the seventh month in the sacred calendar.
(Lev. 23:24)
Trumpets were used by Yahweh's command in ancient
The Feast of Trumpets is a memorial Sabbath, a day of
special significance, designed to bring the faithful into remembrance before
the Almighty. The two silver trumpets mentioned in Numbers 10 were types of the
great originals in the heavens - the Trumpets of Yahweh & His Son.
Those divine originals are mentioned several times in the Scriptures and at
their sounding events of awesome importance have and still will take
place. We read about the trumpets past and future used in:
A study of the texts listed above will show how Yahweh
Himself has planned to use His heavenly trumpets again. He and His Son will
blow them to gather His people as in days gone by; gather them for the
climatic events scheduled to take place at the Messiah's return. Did he not say:
Isaiah 18:3
|
"All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on
the earth, see ye, when He lifteth up an ensign on
the mountains; and when He bloweth a trumpet,
HEAR YE." |
Zechariah 9:14
|
"And the LORD shall be seen over them, and His
arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the
trumpet, and shall go with the whirlwinds of the south." |
The prophecy of the Revelation tells of the sounding of heavenly trumpets -
possibly starting at a Feast of Trumpets - which will probably coincide with the
gathering of Yahweh's people in the last days and the final war in heaven
between the forces of good and evil. (Rev 12) See
Understand the Revelation,
in which the Seven Trumpets are explained.
No one will doubt but that the Feast to Trumpets has
still to find even partial fulfillment; and it is because of this fact and the
many texts which tell of the use of the Trumpets of God in the future
that believers should beware of ignoring this important feast day.
On some future Feast of Trumpets the mighty Trumpet of
the LORD will sound. It will be heard throughout the world!
and will reverberate with tones as awesome as the rushing sound which filled
Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost some 2000 years ago (Acts 2:2). All of
mankind will hear the Trumpet, for the Bible says:
Zechariah 9:14
|
"And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his
arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the
trumpet, and shall go with the whirlwinds of the south." |
Isaiah 18:3
|
"All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on
the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on
the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet,
hear ye." |
Only when that event happens can we justifiably say that the Feast of Trumpets
has found fulfilment. For further information see the
Shofar; herald of the coming kingdom.
The Day of Atonement is observed on the 10th day of the
seventh month of Ethanim (tishri) by abstinence from daily labor, by a holy
convocation and by fasting. It is the only commanded fast in the
year and is, doubtless, the most solemn day in the sacred calendar. (Lev. 16 also Lev.
Our salvation, in other words, will only by complete when
we are actually brought into the very presence of the Almighty.
The word "atonement" means to make amends for,
to reconcile, to restore, to repair, to make at-one again. And that is
exactly what the Day of Atonement prefigures. It points to a specific time
in the future when the great High Priest of the Melchizedek Order (Yeshua the
Messiah) will literally bring the redeemed host of mankind right into the very
presence of His Father, in order that we may be AT-ONE with YAHWEH.
That indeed will by reconciliation beyond compare, when
the Almighty's estranged human family - alienated from Him by sin - will
actually be brought into His presence to be AT ONE with Him. Can you now
begin to see the plan of salvation prefigured in the feasts?
Yahweh's family of true believers:
Oh what a glorious day of reconciliation that will be!
Catch a glimpse of it in these words from that famous parable of the Prodigal
Son.
Luke 15:11-32
|
"Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him.
Give him a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet. Bring the fatted calf,
kill it and let us eat and be merry. For my son here was dead and he has
come to life. He was lost and he is found." |
The Feast of Tabernacles (Booths or Shelters) is
celebrated on the 15th day of Ethanim (Tishri) the
seventh month in the sacred calendar.
This feast begins a week during which all 'Israelites
born' are required to live in temporary dwellings or shelters. (Lev.
23:39-43). It is, at its basic level, a memorial of the time when Yahweh made
His people live in tents and temporary shelters in the
wilderness when He brought them out of the
At a higher level it is also a reminder or memorial of
the fact that the Almighty came down from heaven to live in a Tabernacle (a
tent) amidst His people
The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible has this to say
about the Tabernacle in the wilderness. "The movable sanctuary in the form
of a tent which God directed Moses at Sinai to make, that God might dwell as
king among His people." (Exodus 25:8-9) Hence it was called:
From these and other passages we can see that the literal
Tabernacle which Moses built according to the Almighty's design was merely a
type, a shadow, a physical expression of:
These three functions of the physical Tabernacle find
fulfillment in Yeshua the Messiah the only begotten Son of the Most
High, who is, in reality, the true Tabernacle of God.
Consequently, we may say that the Feast of Tabernacles is
also a memorial of the Almighty's astonishing condescension to come down to
earth to tabernacle or pitch His tent with humanity in the person of His Son.
For Yahshua Ha Mashiach (Jesus Christ) is Immanuel, GOD WITH US, God incarnate; that is the LORD
God of Abraham, Isaac and
Romans 8:3
|
"For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: |
Is it any wonder that the profound reality of this fact
(that God is going to tabernacle with mankind for eternity) drew from the lips
of an angel these amazing words:
Revelation 21:3
|
"Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men and
He will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be
with them and be their God."
|
I repeat, Yeshua the Messiah is the Tabernacle of God!;
and on the earth made new he will again dwell in the midst of His people just
as surely as He occupied the tabernacle built by Moses in the days of old. That
is what the Feast of Tabernacles is a reminder and foretaste of.
The feast, known as the Last Great Day, occurs
just after the week of Tabernacles. It is celebrated on the 22nd Ethanim. (Lev. 23:36)
The Last Great Day prefigures the endless cycles of
eternity when the life-giving power of the Almighty God will flow to and
through His people on the earth made new.
At the moment (1999) the reality of the Great Day of the Feast is an event to look
forward to; but in the hereafter, when the saints occupy the new universe,
the breathtaking bliss of the Great Day will begin to be appreciated as each
anniversary - through the endless ages of eternity - brings unspeakable joy to
the ransomed host. The Great Day will have begun - never to end!
A special invitation to this great spiritual banquet of
an endless life of bliss is given to you by the Master Himself in John 7:37-39.
John 7:37
|
"In the last day, the Great Day of the Feast,
Yeshua (Jesus) stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and
drink. |
Here is an invitation that tells of how the true believer will not only live
with the Almighty for all time, but will go on with the Creator to become the
channel and co-producer of life everlasting to others, just as a young wife is
the potential mother of many generations to come. Oh! the
astonishing wonder of that declaration in John 7:37-39. Can you afford to
ignore it?
These, then, are the appointed, memorial feasts in
the Almighty's Program of Salvation. As you can see each and every one of them
commemorates in a special way a unique accomplishment of the Holy One of
Israel.
This is the message of the Bible concerning the Feast
Days of Yahweh the Holy One of Israel. And it is concerning these sacred feasts
that He says:
Leviticus 23:2
|
"Speak unto the children of |
Who are the Children of
The true children of
Galatians 3:29
|
"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's
seed, and heirs according to the promise." |
Romans 2:28
|
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly;
neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: |
Gentiles who believe in the Messiah of Israel are,
according to the Holy Scriptures, grafted into the Olive of Israel.
They become part of the commonwealth of spiritual
Romans 11:17
|
"And if some of the branches be broken off, and
thou being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree... |
What do these facts mean? They mean exactly what they
say: that all true believers in the LORD God of
Leviticus 23:2
|
" Speak unto the children of |