Having been writing about how church should be practiced I wanted to show from the Jewish feasts that what we do as Christians was hinted at in the Old Testament. God always seems to have us remember things with feasts. On a macro scale we have Passover for the Old Testament which will be practices again in the Millennial reign of Christ. Of course this will not be anticipating Messiah then, but remembering what has been and how the Lord is the great rescuer.
Looking at the feasts of Israel can be a complex issue. It involves the Jewish calendar and is interesting for those who want to exhaust the subject. Here I want to simply show that the feasts sit with our model of Biblical history. We are in and around Leviticus 23:1-44 to show these feasts.
In spring Israel had the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, first fruits and Pentecost otherwise known as the feast of weeks. The first three are seen as the first coming of Jesus or as the Jews say 'Yeshua.' As we know Jesus was crucified on Passover. He was the sinless one who was broken and made sin in our place. This is the feast of unleavened bread. Then we have first fruits which is the resurrection. Jesus is first fruits as Paul confirms in 1 Cor 15:23. I will park 'Pentecost' or the feast of weeks aside for now.
The autumn feasts are Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles. This is known to represent the second coming. We have the trumpet which speaks of the rapture and 1 Thess 4:16 speaks of the trumpet call, something revelation chapter 4 starts to explain for John who was seeing all this in order to write it down for us. Atonement is next and this speaks of the completeness of Jesus work when he comes again. Sin was covered (Kaporah) but its actual and complete fulfillment will be when we are transformed by his appearing and all the faithful from old and New Testament are raised. This will occur at the beginning of the Millennial reign when the Lord will return to reign on earth with his bride and the Old Testament saints are raised. The last of the autumn feasts is Tabernacles where God celebrates His people being in the promised land. the Macro-view of this is the fact that we will be eternally secured in the direct presence of then Lord forever... I'll drink to that!
Many scholars have commented that the feast of weeks is awkward when trying to say it represents the church age, Firstly it is the feast of Pentecost and any christian would have to be asleep to see the significance of this. It is also celebrated with loaves that have leaven! This speaks of the inclusion of the gentile church into the new covenant God made with Israel. That it is also called 'weeks' is compelling about the weekly gathering of the church. There are some great teachings that go deeper than the purpose of this blog and I would urge all people to explore this rich topic.
Deep into Jewish history we find the church (ekklesia) implicated by a feast, not a corner of bread and a sip of wine. For more information on how to access the rich and plentiful biblical feasting in the church drop me a line!
Gary Ward
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