The Feasts of Israel are the appointed times the Lord set for His people in the Law of Moses.
Leviticus 23 names the Sabbath and then the yearly feasts: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Weeks, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Booths.
They marked Israel’s calendar with blood, bread, harvest, trumpet, affliction, and joy.
The New Testament reads several of them as fulfilled in Christ and still uses their language for what remains.
The Lord said these were His appointed times, holy convocations. They were not Israel’s idea of a holiday.
- Passover remembered the night the destroyer passed over the houses under the blood.
- Unleavened Bread marked the haste of the Exodus and a week without the old mixture.
- Firstfruits brought the first sheaf of the harvest to the Lord.
- Weeks, later called Pentecost, came fifty days later with new grain.
- In the seventh month the trumpet sounded, the nation afflicted itself on the Day of Atonement, and then Israel dwelt in booths to remember the wilderness and to rejoice before the Lord.
- Three times a year the males appeared before Him.
Jesus kept these feasts.
- He was crucified at Passover.
- He was raised as firstfruits.
- The Spirit was poured out at Pentecost.
- Paul called Christ our Passover lamb and told the church to keep the feast with sincerity and truth.
The feasts therefore train a people in memory, holiness, and hope.
They also sketch the work of the Messiah:
blood, new life, harvest of the Spirit,
and a day still ahead when the trumpet sounds and God dwells with man.
- The feasts are the Lord’s appointments, not merely national customs.
- Spring feasts cluster around redemption and first harvest; fall feasts around gathering, atonement, and dwelling.
- Jesus died at Passover, rose as firstfruits, and sent the Spirit at Pentecost.
- The church does not return to Sinai’s shadows as a second law, yet she is allowed to see Christ in them.
- Trumpets, Atonement, and Booths still speak to appearing, cleansing, and God with His people.
- Forgetting the story was the danger the feasts were built to fight.
- Rejoicing before the Lord is commanded, not optional, in the feast of Booths.
- Appointed Times – Moedim: dates God fixed and called holy.
- Passover – Lamb, blood on the door, the Lord passing over.
- Unleavened Bread – Seven days without leaven; bread of haste and affliction.
- Firstfruits – The first sheaf waved; harvest belongs to the Lord.
- Weeks / Pentecost – Fifty days; new grain; later, the Spirit poured out.
- Trumpets – A memorial blast in the seventh month.
- Day of Atonement – Affliction of soul, blood behind the veil, a people cleansed.
- Booths / Tabernacles – Living in booths, water and light, God dwelling with His people.
- Leviticus 23:1-2 – “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 23:4-8 – Passover on the fourteenth day at twilight; Unleavened Bread seven days from the fifteenth.
- Leviticus 23:9-14 – Firstfruits: the sheaf waved before the Lord; none of the new harvest eaten until that offering.
- Leviticus 23:15-21 – Fifty days to the Feast of Weeks; a new grain offering.
- Leviticus 23:23-25 – “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.”
- Leviticus 23:26-32 – The Day of Atonement: afflict yourselves; “it is a statute forever.”
- Leviticus 23:33-43 – Feast of Booths seven days; “You shall dwell in booths for seven days… that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
- Deuteronomy 16:16 – “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths.”
- Exodus 12:14 – “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”
- 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 – “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:20 – “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
- Acts 2:1-4 – “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place… And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”
- John 7:37-38 – On the last day of the feast, Jesus cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”
- John 1:14 – “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”
- Colossians 2:16-17 – “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. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
- Hebrews 10:1, 4 – The law has a shadow of the good things to come; it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
- Numbers 29:1 – The day of trumpet blasts in the seventh month.
- Zechariah 14:16 – “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.”
- 1 Thessalonians 4:16 – “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.”
- Revelation 21:3 – “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.”
These are My appointed feasts.
Passover blood. Unleavened haste. Firstfruits of the harvest. Weeks and the Spirit. A trumpet. A day of atonement. Booths in which a people remember that God dwelt with them in the wilderness.
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. He is the firstfruits of those who sleep. The Spirit was poured out when the day of Pentecost arrived.
The substance belongs to Christ. Do not let shadows become a second yoke, and do not throw the calendar of God in the fire as if it taught nothing.
The trumpet will sound. God will dwell with man.
Keep the meaning. Rend the heart. Rejoice before the Lord.
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