Biblical Logos Blog

Summary:

Studying the “Feasts” in the Bible can be a great blessing. They not only give us context to the Jewish celebrations that happen every year, but they also foreshadow God’s plan for all of humanity. This post is not specifically a teaching on the Feasts in the Bible, but on a potential insight prophetically to what is yet to come in God’s plan.

The “Feasts” of the Lord

In the Bible, Leviticus 23 lists celebrations that God gave the children of Israel to follow

• The weekly Sabbath (Lev 23:3)
• The Passover (Lev 23:4-5)
• Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:6-8)
• First Fruits (Lev 23:9-14)
• Feast of Weeks / Shavuot (Lev 23:15-22)
• Feast of Trumpets / Rosh Hashanah (Lev 23:23-25)
• Day of Atonement / Yom Kippur (Lev 23:26-32)
• Booths / Tabernacles / Sukkot (Lev 23:33-44)

Other than the weekly Sabbath celebration, there are seven annual Feasts defined by the Lord. If you would like to further study them in the Bible, in Numbers 28-29 the Feasts and the offerings required by the Lord are given and in Deuteronomy 16 the required pilgrimages to the Temple are discussed. In Exodus 12-13, three of the Feasts are given by God as ordinances for when they enter the land promised by God. These Feasts were an essential part of the Jewish life and Temple worship of God.

The word translated “Feasts” in the chapters mentioned above, is the Hebrew word “moed” pronounced “mo-ade” and plural “moedim” which means an appointed time, a meeting and convocation as well a rehearsal. The Feasts then, are a time when the children of Israel come together and celebrate what God has done for them. God timed the Feasts to the harvest cycle in Israel and uses the harvests to remind the children of Israel of God’s provision. Lastly, the notion of the Feasts being a rehearsal plays out in the special events “appointed times” when God changes the course of history on these Feast dates.

An Appointed Time Where God Changes Everything

Let’s take a look at the Feasts representing an appointed time and a rehearsal for God changing the course of history. Leviticus 23:4-5 describes the Passover celebration. Deuteronomy 16: 1-8 further describes how it is to be celebrated and God gives it as a reminder of when he changed the course of history on this appointed time: 

“Deu 16:1  Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.”

At Passover then, God says this is a remembrance of when I brought you out of Egypt. Most people familiar with the Bible, know the Passover story as told in Exodus 12. Moses had the children of Israel take a lamb without spot or blemish and then sacrifice it putting the blood of the lamb on the door posts. This is an example of the Feast representing a time when God changed the known world at a very specific moment in time. Christians also know this Feast as the very day on the calendar when Jesus was sacrificed on the cross for the sins of the world. Jesus is the final fulfillment of this Feast being the Passover lamb. In the Gospel of John chapter 1:29. John The Baptist, upon seeing Jesus said: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”. Passover has an actual fulfillment both looking backward at the Exodus as well as looking forward to the cross of Christ. When we look at all of the Feasts, it seems this is why God had Israel celebrate the appointed times every year, for a remembrance and foreshadowing the future. Lets see what has happened so far:

Passover, looking backward: The Exodus 12-13 story about God taking the Israelites out of bondage to Pharoah and the Angel of Death passing over those with the blood covering on their door posts. Passover looking forward: Jesus death on the cross on Passover day.

Unleavened Bread looking backward: In the Exodus 12-13 story, Moses also established Unleavened Bread: “Exo 12:15  Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.”. Leaven in the Bible is a symbol of sin. God, through Moses, by establishing this requirement at the Exodus was saying remove the sin from your house by taking the leaven out of your house at the time of the blood being put on the doorposts. So at Passover time, the Jews are celebrating both Passover and Unleavened Bread. Unleavened Bread looking forward: As quoted above in John 1:29, Jesus is the one who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus death on the cross took away the sins of the world. We can see the actual fulfilment to the day, of both Passover and Unleavened Bread, looking backward and forward. 

First Fruits celebration looking backward is also seen in the Exodus story:

Exo 13:13-15  And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage: And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.

First Fruits looking forward: Jesus resurrection after spending three days and nights in Sheol was the future fulfilment of this Feast. In 1 Corinthians 15:20-21 “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.” Showing that Christ, being God’s “firstborn” was the redeemer by his resurrection just as Moses commanded the Firstborn of man be redeemed at the time of the Exodus. Notice also in Exodus 13:13, 15 above that if a Firstborn is not redeemed, it is killed (neck broken). We must be redeemed by a spotless lamb or we will perish.  

Here is where we move from complete fulfilment looking back and forward to a future set of events yet to be fulfilled. The remaining Feasts (at least in their entirity) are fulfilled at Christ’s second coming.

The Feast of Weeks looking backward also brings us to the Exodus story. The tablets of the 10 commandments were given to Moses on the Feast of Weeks (Sivan 6 on the Hebrew calendar). Weeks looking forward: The Holy Spirit (Law written on our hearts) was given on the Day Christians’ know as Pentecost. Pentecost might be just half way fulfilled as the original promise to the the children of Israel in Jeremiah 31 was that Israel corporately would receive the Law on their hearts. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down on a small gathering of Jewish people, but spread to the Gentiles predominantly. This process began with the Jewish people at Pentecost (Acts 2), but has yet to find final fulfillment for the Jewish people, as the Bible said it would, before the end of the age (Ezekiel 39:25-29). I cover some insights to the final fulfillment of this Feast in my previous article here.

Trumpets looking backward: Celebrates the creation of the world according to ancient Jewish commentary. Little is described in the Bible about this Feast (Lev 23:23-25, Numbers 29:1-6). It is given by God as a “remembrance”. In the Exodus 19 Mt. Sinai story, at the time of Shavuot / Pentecost, God descended on the mountain with a long loud trumpet blast that shook the whole mountain and made everyone afraid. It is to this trumpet blast many believe this Feast calls into remembrance.

Exo 19:16  And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. 

Exo 19:19  And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. 
Exo 19:20  And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. 

This Mt. Sinai event was God coming down to the mountain top to meet with his people. Trumpets looking forward is what I want to address separately below, as I believe the explanation ties together additional pieces of God’s plan for the future.

The Last Trump

Let’s look at what the New Testament says about an upcoming trumpet of God:

1Th 4:16-17 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 

1Co 15:52-54  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 

Mat 24:29-31  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 

Many scholars see these verses in 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians as referring to the “Rapture” of the Church. The passage in Matthew 24 however stirs debate. In Matthew’s account, verse 29 starts with “Immediately after the tribulation of those days…” Although this post will not go into a defense of the timing of the Rapture on God’s prophetic calendar, we need to see the distinction between the epistles Paul wrote and the Gospel that Matthew wrote. In short, scholars like Dr. Andy Woods and Dr. Thomas Ice point out that Matthew’s gospel was written for the Jewish people to see Jesus as their Messiah who was promised from the Old Testament. As Dr. Andy Woods says often, “the Church is not in view in Matthew’s Gospel in Chapters 24+25”. Those passages are written for the Israelites. How do we make sense of two sets of passages speaking of God’s voice as a loud trumpet at the end of the age?

As I mentioned about the Mt. Sinai event, The loud trumpet of God’s voice appears to be a warning that God is about to meet his people. For the Church, this meeting is prophesied to be the Rapture and it is followed by the judgement seat of the Lord (the Bema Seat Judgement):

2Co 5:10  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Rom 14:10  But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 

1Co 3:13-15  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 

Jas 3:1  My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

Rev 22:12  And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 

2Ti 4:6-8  For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 

So the Church has an appointed time that we will be called to account when we meet the Lord. For the Church it is a meeting of receiving rewards or not. Our sin has been forgiven. Rev 22:12 “… my reward is with me…”. This explains why Paul told the Church in 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians that we will hear a loud trumpet, the voice of God. It is the “Last Trump” for the Church before our judgment. What about Matthew’s Gospel account (Mat 24:29-31) of a Great Trumpet after the “Tribulation in those days..”?

If the Church has a final trumpet warning and judgement, then the Jewish people (who had not accepted Christ before the Church was Raptured), must also have a final trumpet. They too will have an appointed time to meet God. Their judgement commences with a loud trumpet, then in fulfilment of the remaining Feasts described in Leviticus 23, proceeds with meeting their Lord, Jesus the Messiah, and finally ends with the Israelites living with their Messiah, Jesus, in the land of Israel where Jesus will rule over the whole world for 1,000 years.

Let’s take a look at the sequence as the Bible describes it:

Trumpets / Rosh Hashanah (Head of the Year, Celebrates Creation of the world, begins 10 days of repentance)

Mat 24:29-31  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 

Day of Atonement / Yom Kippur (Atonement for sins)

Eze 20:33-39  As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:  And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:  And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.  As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.

Zec 13:6-9  And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. 
The Shepherd Struck Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.  And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. 

Booths / Feast of Tabernacles (Tabernacling / Living with God)

 Eze 20:40-44 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD. 

Zec 14:9-11  And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses.  And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. 

Feast of Trumpets and The New Heavens and New Earth

Now that the background of the Feasts and their fulfillment has been reviewed, we can take a look at how the Feast of Trumpets / Rosh Hashanah related to the promise of a New Heavens and New Earth. To start, little is known about this Feast and its celebration. We have from Jewish tradition a couple of the facts documented earlier, which are a hint. This feast 1) Is an appointed time for the Israelites to meet with their God 2) This feast celebrates creation of the world 3) This feast begins the judgement cycle for the Jewish people and commences the fulfillment of the Jewish people living in the land of Israel with their God. Now let’s take a look at how it relates to the New Heavens and New Earth that the Bible also speaks about.

Zec 14:6-10  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.  And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.  And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses.

In the proceeding passage from Zechariah, there are a couple of very interesting points.

In Zechariah 14:7 he is describing a “day which shall be known to the LORD..” This is an idiom the Jewish people know well as pointing to the Feast of Trumpets because this feast depends on the sighting of the New Moon to mark the beginning of the new year. So only God knows which day the new moon will be sighted and begin the new year. It is followed in Zechariah 14: with “And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.” So there appears that a flow of living water will proceed from Jerusalem. Then in verse 14:9, he says, “and the LORD shall be king over all the earth…”. Finally, in 14:10, it appears the land is reconfigured in Jerusalem to raise up the Temple Mount and surrounding areas. Let’s summarize these events:

• On the Feast of Trumpets
• Living waters flow from Jerusalem
• Jesus the LORD becomes king over all the earth
• The land is reconfigured

Let’s now look at some similar passages that seem to be describing the same thing:

Eze 43:5-7  So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places. 

Eze 47:1  Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. 

Eze 47:8-9  Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.  And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. Eze 47:12  And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine. 

Ezekiel also describes the living waters that flow. He also times this event to the coming of the LORD when the LORD is setting up his new Temple and Temple mount in Jerusalem (the beginning of the reign of Christ for 1,000 years in Jerusalem). It would be hard to quote all the verses in Ezekiel 40-48 relating to the new Temple, and the new Temple Mount but this is clearly the same set of events Zechariah saw. Let’s look now at one final passage that shows these same events:

Rev 21:1-3  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Rev 21:5  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 

Rev 22:1-2  And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 

In Revelation 21+22 we see the final pieces of the puzzle. The living waters are flowing forth and the Tree of life is now accessible. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations. It happens again at a time when we see the Lord returning to earth. In the following verses Jesus warns he is coming quickly, his reward is with him (for the Church). In verse 21:5 Jesus says how the New Heavens and New Earth are initiated. He will make “all things new”. The New Heavens and New Earth then appear to be a refresh of this earth with the nations being healed. We can confirm this same story from the Old Testament as well:

Isa 65:17-18  For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 

Here the story is repeated in Isaiah as well. Just like in Revelation 21, we see that the New Heavens and New Earth are tied to a New Jerusalem.

Concluding points.

Rosh Hashanah / Feast of Trumpets appears to be the Feast celebration at the coming of Jesus when he is about to set up his reign on Earth for 1,000 years. At his arrival, several things happen. 1) A loud trumpet is heard as he comes to Earth marking the fulfillment of Rosh Hashanah 2) Jesus comes into judgement with his people Israel for rejecting him. Fulfilling the Feast of Atonement / Yom Kippur 3) Jesus creates a New Heaven and New Earth. The New Jerusalem in Heaven descends to Earth as the home for all of the redeemed from history past, and the living waters flow from the heavenly Temple healing the seas and the fruit and leaves of the Tree of Life heal the nations. 4) Jesus then becomes King over the Earth on his throne from Jerusalem for 1,000 years. Jesus has his people, Israel, back in covenant with himself as their king and they dwell together fulfilling the Feast of Tabernacles.

Side Note:

In my prior post on Revelation 21 + 22 in the Millennium, I mention several of reasons why the New Heavens and New Earth are tied to the start of the Millennial Reign of Christ. Although I did not spend much time on defending this minority view of the timing of this event, hopefully, readers of both posts will see the connection in this article as well. Many scholars assert the New Heavens and New Earth, and Revelation 21 + 22 is picturing an Eternal State. These chapters fall on the heals of Revelation 20 which end with God describing the final judgement leading into the Eternal State and so they logically position Revelation 21 + 22 to be a description of that Eternal State for all mankind. However, as both of these posts hopefully show, Revelation 21 + 22 are actually part of the setup of Jesus’ return to be our King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Amen, come soon, Lord Jesus!!