The Appointed Feast

The Appointed Feast

  By:  Dan Fraley

       The festivals described in Leviticus 23 are a blueprint of heaven. In Leviticus 23:1-2 these festivals are described as the "Festivals of the Lord", not the festivals of Israel or the Jews. Who is Lord? ......Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2:11, 1 Cor. 12:3). Since Jesus/Yeshua is the Lord, the festivals of the Lord, are festivals of Jesus/Yeshua. If these festivals are festivals of Jesus/Yeshua, every Christian should understand them and celebrate them. God gave these everlasting convocations/festivals to us to celebrate, and if they are a blueprint of Heaven, we will celebrate them for ALL ETERNITY!

       Jesus has and will fulfill all the Biblical festivals in Lev. 23. Four of them He has fulfilled and three He has not, but soon. We must be prepared for this. As Hosea 3:4-5 says, " For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return, seek the Lord their God and David/Messiah their king". In the latter days there will be a revival or restoration among the Jewish people. This is the set time to favor Zion/Israel (Psalm 102:13). Only true repentance and a change in behavior of the church will release this Jewish revival. Favor Israel, show them love, and honor your God's festivals and they will be provoked into jealousy and serve Yeshua our Lord.  

       Why are the "feasts" or festivals so important to us as Christians, you ask. In Hebrew the word for the festivals or feasts, is mo'ed, which means, "appointed times." In other words, these are God's appointed times to meet with us. Do you miss your set time to meet with your doctor?  We miss a great honor and blessing when we miss His appointed time. Will it cost us our salvation? No, but we will miss out on the joy of His set visitation. God also calls these feasts "convocations," which in Hebrew means "rehearsals". God says we should observe these rehearsals at His appointed times forever (Lev. 23:14,21,31,41,).

       The seven feasts are; 1. Pesach, or Passover, 2. Unleavened Bread, 3. First Fruits of the barley harvest, 4. Shavuot, Pentecost or feast of Weeks, 5. Rosh Ha-Shanah or The Feast of Trumpets, 6. Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement, and 7. Sukkot or The Feast of Tabernacles. As I said before, four of the festivals have been completed by Jesus/Yeshua, but what they represent is the first coming of our Messiah. Jesus came into Jerusalem and presented Himself as the spotless Lamb of God on the days before Passover. He dined with His disciples on the eve of Passover, just as everyone else was doing. He died on on Passover (Blood of the lamb on the door frame), was in the ground,dead, on the Feast of Unleavened Bread (sin/leaven out). He was resurrected three days later on the day of First Fruits (First Fruit of the resurrection). Fifty days later while gathered in the House/Temple for The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), the Holy Spirit was outpoured upon the believers (Acts 2). See article on Pentecost/shabuoth.

       The fall festivals, that Jesus has not fulfilled yet, teach us of His second coming. The fall festivals are about to start. Rosh Ha-Shanah starts on the eve of September 22 (Tishri 1). Rosh Ha-Shanah in Hebrew means "head of the year". The Jewish calendar has two beginnings or births of the year which is a lesson for another time on the former and latter rains, birth and re-birth.

       These fall feasts, teach us about the second coming of Jesus the Messiah. Just as He fulfilled the spring feasts, down to the hour, in His redemptive plan, He will fulfill the fall feasts with His judgments of those who rejected Him. Rosh Ha-Shanah, (trumpet/shofar blast) will usher in the resurrection of the "dead in Christ", Yom Kippur, seven days later (just as in the days of Noah, door shut on ark, seven days later the floods came) will be judgment day! Yeshua/Jesus will place His feet on the Mount of Olives and atonement begins. The last feast is Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles, to usher in the 1,000 year rain of the Messiah. Each one of these fall feasts has a lesson that I will get into at another time.

       When times are hard, the world is getting worse and we are really DOWN, remember God is UP to something. If we have to suffer any of the tribulation on this Earth, just remember we have a special seat at the coronation of Yeshua Ha- Moshiach/Jesus the Messiah as King over the Earth. We will be wedded to Him as His bride and we will live with Him in the new city of Jerusalem (in My house there are many bridal chambers) He brings with Him. In Zechariah 14, after we are raptured, we come back with Him to teach the world of His love and His ways (Torah) and reign as Kings. By being faithful in the wilderness of life and being sustained through the revelation of His word during these trying and difficult times, God will take us to our promised land. A thousand years we will live on earth as if it were the garden of Eden. I have often wondered if it will take us a thousand years to get prepared for what God/Yeshua has for us in Heaven. 

       Paganism is immersed in our religious ceremonies and we need to ponder this. Should the foundation of our belief be based on the first century church that honored the Lord's feasts, or should we place our faith in a Roman Caesar who changed the foundation in 325AD by removing all Jewishness from it? We serve a Jewish/Hebraic Messiah, and His ways never change. He came to fulfill the Law, not abolish it (another study soon to come).

       If the Bible truly says in the "last days" Law and Grace will be one and Christianiy and the House of Judah will come together, the only way for this to happen is for us to embrace the early first century church's ways. One of the ways to do this is to observe the feasts of the Lord. If we accept our roots of faith, the ways of Torah, the Jewish people will open their eyes to their Savior Yeshua Ha-Moshiach, our Lord Jesus the Christ. There are ways that seem right to man, but in the end only death (Prov. 14:12).        scriptures to read; Ex. 12:24, 2 Thes. 2:7