The festivals of the Lord found in Leviticus 23 were given to us by God so His people could understand the coming of the Messiah and the role that the Messiah would play in redeeming and restoring both man and earth back to God following the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

 The apostle Paul wrote to the Gentile believers in Colossae that the feasts of the Lord, the new moon, and the Sabbath days were a shadow of things to come to teach us about the Messiah (Col. 2:16-17).  The first four feasts or festivals, which are Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost, primarily teach about the significant events in the first coming of the Messiah and why these events were an important part of God’s redemption of man.  The last three feasts which are the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh HaShanah), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles (Sukkot), give fascinating insight concerning important events that surround the second coming of the Messiah.

The festivals are God’s feasts and His appointed times that we are to observe (Lev. 23:1,2,4).  God gave the festivals to teach about the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah; the empowering of the believers by the Holy Spirit; the resurrection of the dead; the coronation of the Messiah; the wedding of the Messiah; the tribulation; the second coming of the Messiah; the millennium, and much more.
 

THE MEANING OF THE WORD FEAST IN THE BIBLE

In Lev. 23:2, the word for feast is the Hebrew word mo’ed.  The word mo’ed means “an appointment, a fixed time or season, a cycle or year, an assembly, an appointed time, a set time or exact time.”  By understanding the Hebrew meaning of the English word feast, we can see that God is telling us that He is ordaining a “set time or exact time or an appointed time” when He has an appointment with humanity to fulfill certain events in the redemption.  In fact, Jesus came to earth at the exact time ordained by God (Gal. 4:2,4), and God has an exact time or set appointment when, in the future, He will judge the world (Acts 17:31).

In verse 6 is another Hebrew word translated as feast.  The Hebrew word Chag, which means a “festival,” is derived from the Hebrew root word Chagag, which means “to move in a circle, to march in a sacred procession, to celebrate, dance, to hold a solemn feast or holiday.”  By this we can see that God gave the festivals as cycles to be observed yearly so that, by doing them, we can understand God’s redemptive plan for the world; the role that the Messiah would play in that redemption; and our personal relationship to God concerning how we grow from a baby Bible believer to a mature Bible believer.  Although God gave us the festivals to observe, God never gave the festivals so we would obtain salvation from Him by observing them because salvation only comes by faith; however, God did give the festivals for the purpose of teaching and instructing His people concerning His plan of redemption and our personal relationship to Him.

In order to fully understand and appreciate the feasts being appointed times given by God, it is important to understand the biblical calendar that God gave us.  There are two primary calendars in the Bible.  The first is called the civil calendar and is used from Genesis 1:1 to Exodus 12.  The first month in the civil calendar is Tishri.  Rosh HaShanah (the Jewish New Year), the first day in the civil calendar, is the beginning of the new year. The second calendar in the Bible is the religious calendar.  The religious calendar is used from Exodus 12 to Rev. 22.  In Ex. 12:2, the month that God was referring to was the month of Aviv, which is now called the month of Nisan.  Prior to God’s establishing the month of Nisan as the first month in the religious calendar, it was the seventh month in the civil calendar.  God gave the religious calendar so we could understand that these feasts, which He gave and which are His appointed times and foreshadow important events in the redemption, would happen on the days He ordain on the religious calendar.  These important days on the religious calendar are the same days that He gave as festivals in Lev. 23.

There is a parallel for God giving a civil calendar and a religious calendar. Everyone who accepts the Messiah into his heart by faith experiences two birthdays.  Just like Tishri 1 is the first day on the civil calendar and Nisan 1 is the first day on the religious calendar, everyone who accepts the Messiah into his life has a physical (civil) birthday when he was born into the world and a spiritual (religious) birthday the day he accepts the Messiah into his life.

 In Hosea 6:3 it is written, “.....His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”  The “latter and former rain” in this passage is commonly interpreted and understood to be the coming of the Holy Spirit.  However, the former and latter rain also refers to the first and second coming of the Messiah.

God set up the festivals in an agricultural context.  God gave the natural for us to understand the spiritual (1 Cor. 15:46-47).  During the course of the year, the rains come in Israel at two primary times  -  the spring and the fall.

In Lev. 23:2 it is written, “.....the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations.........”  The Hebrew term translated as convocation in Lev. 23:2,4 is miqra, which means “a rehearsal.”  From this we can see that God gave the festivals to be yearly “rehearsals” of the future events in the redemption.  Because God gave the “rehearsals” to teach us about the major events in the redemption, if we want to understand the major events in the redemption, we need to understand what God was teaching us by these rehearsals.

 In Deut. 16:16, God instructed the people to come to Jerusalem three times a year to observe the feasts.  As they came, they observed ceremonies given by God that were performed in both the temple and the home.  These ceremonies were twofold in nature. They looked forward and the looked backward.
 

OVERVIEW OF THE SPRING FESTIVALS

The four spring festivals are Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Feast of
Weeks, or Pentecost.

1.  Passover occurs in the first month of the religious calendar (Aviv, also called Nisan), on the fourteenth day, (Lev. 23:5).

2.  Unleavened Bread immediately follows the first day of Passover.  It is observed in the first month (Aviv/Nisan) from the fifteenth day to the twenty-first day (Lev. 23:6-8).

3.  The Feast of First Fruits of the barley harvest is observed during the week of Unleavened Bread.  It will always be the day following the weekly sabbath, the first day of the week, which we call Sunday (Lev. 23:9-11).  Anciently, on this day, sheaves of barley were waved before the Lord in a prescribed ceremony.  Today, this festival is not observed in traditional Judaism.

4.  The Feast of Weeks is also known as Pentecost.  Beginning on the Feast of First Fruits, we begin to count 50 days.  This is called the counting of the omer.  On the fiftieth day following the Feast of First Fruits is the Feat of Weeks or Pentecost (Lev. 23:15-21). Pentecost is a Greek word that literally means “fiftieth.”

 These four spring festivals are joined together as an interrelated unit.  The Feast of Weeks is considered the conclusion to Passover.  The season of Passover is not considered totally over until Pentecost is completed.
 

THE EXODUS STORY:  FROM PASSOVER TO PENTECOST
 

Passover begins in Egypt (a type of the world), where the children of Israel had become slaves.  God called forth a deliverer named Moses and God told Moses that He was going to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land (Ex. 3:8). When God sent Moses to Pharaoh, He did not tell Moses to ask Pharaoh to allow the children of Israel to leave Egypt and go to the Promised Land.  Instead, God only instructed Moses to ask Pharaoh to allow the children of Israel to take a three-day journey into the wilderness to make a sacrifice to God (Ex. 3:18).  Moses obeyed God’s instructions exactly as can be seen in Ex. 5:1-3).  Pharaoh defied God and refused.

After a series of plagues inflicted onEgypt because of Pharaoh’s continued stubbornness, the children of Israel were finally released to leave Egypt carrying with them the spoils of the Egyptians.  The children of Israel came to the banks of the Red Sea on the seventeenth day of Aviv/Nisan, which is three days after the day of Passover in the first month of the religious calendar.  The Passover Lamb was slain on the fourteenth of Nisan and the people left Egypt before midnight in the evening of the fifteenth after the death angel struck the firstborn of Egypt.  When Pharaoh saw that the children of Israel were trapped against the sea, he foolishly decided to pursue them with his army (Ex.14:1-9).  The children of Israel became afraid, but Moses rose up and said, “Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation (Yeshooah in Hebrew), of the Lord...” (Ex. 14:13).  Jesus(Yeshua) in Hebrew means salvation or Savior (Matt. 1:21)

At this point, the sea divided and the children of Israel crossed the floor of the Red Sea on dry ground while the Egyptian army, along with Pharaoh, pursued the Hebrews into the Red Sea and were drowned (Ex. 14:26-28; 15:4,19).  The Bible says that the Lord’s right hand destroyed the Egyptians (Ex. 15:6,12).  The right hand is a term for the Messiah, Yeshua (Psa. 44:3;48:10; 63:8; 74:10-11; 89:13; 98:1; 110:1; 118:16; 138:7; Isa. 41:10; 53:1-5; 62:8; Acts 2:32-36; 5:31-32; Heb. 1:3).

It’s important to note that Pharaoh, along with his army, drowned in the sea.  In the days of Joseph, there was a famine in Israel and children of Israel went down to Egypt and gave themselves to rulership under Pharaoh.  Because of this, Pharaoh had legal ownership over the people.  This ownership could be broken only by the death of Pharaoh, thus freeing the children of Israel to go to the Promised Land.  Because of this fact, God did not violate His word to Pharaoh through Moses when he asked Pharaoh to let the people go on a three-day journey into the wilderness, but later continued to go to the Promised Land.  When Pharaoh died, his rulership over the children of Israel was legally broken and the people were free to go to the Promised Land.  For this reason, the season of Passover is called “The Feast of Our Freedom.”
 

 FIFTY DAYS FROM THE RED SEA:  PENTECOST

From the crossing of the Red Sea (Nisan 17) to the day Moses met God on Mt. Sinai were 47 days.  For 47 days the children of Israel traveled through the wilderness before they came to Mt. Sinai in the third day of the third month (Sivan) (Ex. 19:1).  God instructed the people through Moses to sanctify themselves before He visited them three days later on Mt. Sinai, which would be the sixth day of the third month of Sivan (Ex. 19:10-11).  This day, being the fiftieth day following the crossing of the Red Sea on Nisan 17, would be the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost.

Therefore, from the Exodus story, we can see that the Lamb was slain on the fourteenth of Nisan, the day of Unleavened Bread, the people left Egypt; on the seventeenth of Nisan the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea; and 59 days later on the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, God gave the Torah (instruction) on Mt. Sinai.  Jesus died on Passover (Nisan 14), was in the sepulcher on the day of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15), and was resurrected on the day of First Fruits (Nisan 17), and the Holy Spirit empowered the believers 50 days following Jesus’ resurrection on the day of Pentecost.
 

FALL FESTIVAL OVERVIEW

The fall festival season begins with a 40-day period called, in Hebrew, Teshuvah, which means “to repent or return.”  This 40-day period begins in the sixth month of the religious calendar, the month of Elul, and concludes on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  Each morning in the synagogue following the morning prayer, a shofar is blown (except on sabbaths and the day preceding Rosh HaShanah, the Feast of Trumpets).  Psalm 27 is read every day.  Rosh HaShanah is the thirtieth day into this 40-day period of Teshuvah or repentance.  the biblical name for Rosh HaShanah is Yom Teruah, which means “the day of the awakening blast.” Non Jews call this the Feast of Trumpets.  It is observed on the seventh month (Tishri) and the first day of the month (Lev. 23:23-24).  God gave us this day to teach us about the resurrection of the dead, the coronation of the Messiah, the wedding of the Messiah, and much more.  This day is both the Jewish New Year and the beginning of a period of soul-searching known as the High Holy Days, culminating on Yom Kippur.

The first and second days of the 10 High Holy Days (Tishri 1-10) are collectively known as one day (Neh. 7:73; 8:1-2,13).  The seven-day period from Tishri 3 through Tishri 9 is called the Days of Awe or the Awesome Days.  God gave these special days on His calendar to teach us about the future tribulation period on earth.  The seven days will correspond to the seven years of the tribulation known in Hebrew as the “birthpangs of the Messiah.”

Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) is observed on the tenth day of the seventh month (Lev. 23:26-32).  Since Rosh HaShanah teaches us about the resurrection of the dead, the coronation of the Messiah and the wedding of the Messiah, and the Days of Awe teach us about the tribulation, Yom Kippur teaches us about the literal second coming of the Messiah Jesus when He will set His foot down on the Mount of Olives (Zech 14:4).

The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) is observed the fifteenth day of the seventh month of Tishri to the twenty-first day.  This festival teaches us the joy of the Messianic Kingdom known as the Millennium (Lev. 23:33-44).

Passover and Tabernacles are the only two Feasts mentioned in Jewish millennial worship (Eze. 45:21-25; Zech. 14:16).  They represent the beginning and the end of God’s redemption.