I love how God keeps His promises to us. In Leviticus 23, God gave Moses seven days of feasts at specific times throughout the year.
Each of these feasts represents a promise and a meaning Jesus would later fulfill. Got Questions wrote, “From the Old Covenant to the New, Genesis to Revelation, God provides picture after picture of His entire plan for mankind and one of the most startling prophetic pictures is outlined for us in the Jewish feasts of Leviticus 23.”
The Hebrew word for “Feasts” is moadim which means “appointed times.” God uses these feasts to tell His great story. We see the Gospel and his redemption through these feasts.
There are spring feasts and fall feasts. We saw Jesus fulfill the spring feasts in scripture on the exact feast day during his first coming. “These three fall feasts, it is believed by many, will likewise be fulfilled literally in connection to the Lord’s second coming.”
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.’”
Leviticus 23:1
1. Passover
Passover was first celebrated when God delivered his people from Egypt and slavery. Now we celebrate the day Jesus died as the ultimate sacrificial lamb. Paul references this fulfillment in 1 Corinthians 5:7.
2. Unleavened Bread
In the Bible, leaven or yeast in a symbol of sin and evil. The feast of Unleavened Bread points to Jesus’ sinless life. During the first few days of this feast, Jesus’ body was in the grave.
3. First Fruits
First Fruits is the day Jesus was resurrected. Paul refers to this in 1 Corinthians 15:20 when he says Jesus is “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
4. Pentecost
Pentecost represents the “great harvest of souls and the gift of the Holy Spirit for both Jew and Gentile” as we see in Acts 2. This is the day the Church was established when “God poured out His Holy Spirit and 3,000 Jews responded to Peter’s great sermon and his first proclamation of the gospel.”
5. Trumpets
This is the “first of the fall feasts.
6. Atonement
The Day of Atonement will be fulfilled with the second coming of Jesus (Romans 11:25-26) when “The Deliverer will come from Zion.”
7. Tabernacles
This is the day devout Jews would build small shelters outside their homes and worship in them to celebrate how God provided shelter for His people in the wilderness. “Many scholars believe that this feast day points to the Lord’s promise that He will once again ‘tabernacle’ with His people).”
“Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.”
Zechariah 14:16-17
There is a theme of sacrifice in these feasts, and overwhelming proof of God fulfilling His promises to his people.
