The Jewish Feasts – Fulfilled by Jesus Christ

Our Lord God ordained seven Holy Convocations (feasts) in the Book of Leviticus.  They were given to His people (the Hebrews).

Leviticus 23:4  –  These are the set times of the LORD, the sacred occasions, which you shall celebrate each at its appointed time. 

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Passover –    Celebrates the freeing of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt; and the first-born of the Hebrews being protected from death by the blood of the “Passover Lamb”

Passover Lamb

Hebrews placing blood of Passover Lamb over their doorposts (so the Angel of Death would “pass over”).

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Feast of Unleavened Bread – A time of repentance and putting away of sin

Feast of First Fruits – Celebrates the first fruits of the harvest

Feast of Weeks   (Pentecost in Greek) –  Celebrating the giving of the Law (Moses at Sinai)

Feast of Trumpets – A time to repent and prepare themselves to stand before God

Feast of Atonement – The time of God’s judgment

Feast of Tabernacles – A time to live outside in booths (or tabernacles) and remember their complete dependence on God 

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Read the whole 23rd chapter of Leviticus to gain a fuller understanding!

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See below each feast and the fulfillment  (literally the same day and hour!):

Passover  –  The Death of Jesus Christ  (the Lamb of God whose blood keeps us from spiritual death)

Feast of Unleavened Bread  –  The Burial of Jesus Christ

I Corinthians 5:6-7  –   ⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ⁷ Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

 Feast of First Fruits  –  The Resurrection of Jesus Christ (first fruit of the sons of God)

Pentecost  –  The Gift of the Holy Spirit and the Birth of the Church

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These four feasts occur in the Spring.  Jesus Christ has already fulfilled each one of them.  The next three feasts don’t occur until the autumn months.  They will be fulfilled by Jesus Christ in the near future.  This time we now live in (while waiting for the next feasts to be fulfilled) is the Time of the Church OR the Time of Grace.

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Feast of Trumpets  –  Prophesies the Rapture of the Church

I Thessalonians 4:16-17 –  ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 

Feast of Atonement – Prophesies the Second Coming of Jesus Christ

Feast of Tabernacles – Prophesies the Millennium Reign of Jesus Christ

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Paul explains in the book of Colossians that the feasts are a “shadow” of things to come.  The early Christians had already witnessed the first four feasts being fulfilled by Jesus Christ.  Paul understood very well the meaning of the feasts.  He knew that the autumn feasts were foretelling future events about our Lord Jesus Christ!

 Colossians 2:16-17  –  ¹⁶ Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

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This is my prayer…………

Lord Jesus…….help your people to see and understand the prophetic nature of the Jewish feasts.  Open their eyes quickly to see and their hears to hear what the spirit of prophecy is saying! 

Amen