Seven Yearly Feasts of the Lord – Part 1B

In case you have not read the PART-1A of this Series, please go HERE .


In the previous newsletter, we concluded that part of our ongoing discussion by stating that the Three Sabbaths and the Seven Feasts portray the entire program of salvation.

In today’s post, the Second part of this series on the Seven Yearly Feasts of the LORD, we shall focus on the annual feasts, and from a broad perspective answer the following Questions: What was God working to accomplish when He instituted these seven feasts? What was He speaking forth? And what was He pointing at? Let us begin.

I had earlier mentioned I shall be relying heavily on the work of Ralph Mahoney in The Shepherd Staff, which I see to be a theological masterpiece.

THREE MAJOR ASPECTS OF THE FESTIVALS

The Seven Old Testament Festivals are like a calendar covering 3,500 years of spiritual history- from the time of Moses until the Second Coming of Christ. They show us THREE things:

1. How God dealt with His people in the past.


2. What He wanted them to do in the present; and


3. How He would work with them in the future.

In other words, they are a divinely prepared Timetable of God’s Dealings with His people and in general, the whole of mankind. As we proceed, we shall not only see how God has already proved the importance of these Festivals, but also see how God will use the Festivals as a Timetable in the future.

Now, we shall examine the THREE major aspects of the Festivals: Past, Prophetic, and Personal; one after the other.

PAST (HISTORIC) ASPECT

You may have heard it stressed that the practice of putting in remembrance that which God has done for you in the past, deepens and strengthens your faith, and in turn enable you to possess that which God is yet to do for you especially that which you are asking of Him.

Why must we adhere to this practice? Because, God Himself leaves memorials to His miraculous deeds. An example is the instruction that the LORD gave to Joshua at the crossing of Israel over Jordan (see Josh.4:6-7, 19-24) into their Gilgal experience. For more on the Gilgal Experience, go HERE

The memorials established by God are not only important, but are to be respected and not destroyed. Thus, we can say the Feasts are observed in memory of something that God has done.

1. Passover points backward and reminds us of the events related to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. “And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.” Exo.12:24-27


2. Pentecost memorializes the events at Sinai – when God appeared to give Moses the Ten Commandments, the bedrock of the Law. “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.19:16


3. Tabernacles was to remind the children of Israel of the years they dwelt in temporary shelters in the wilderness – that in a spiritual sense “…they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Heb.11:13

PROPHETIC (FUTURE) ASPECT

Our LORD never works in the present without factoring the future into His grand-designs. Indeed Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. Existing outside of time and yet, holding time in His hands; thus He sees what we humans call the past, the present, and the future. See my write-up on Jesus Christ: The Preferred Standard.

So we can say that the Feasts pointed to something God was going to do.

For example, Jesus was crucified on Passover; raised from the dead at the Festival of the First Fruits Sheaf Offering, and with a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, He poured out His Spirit on the waiting disciples fifty days later at Pentecost.

These were not accidents. They were divinely appointed times and seasons, fulfilling the prophetic aspects of the Festivals. The prophetic aspects of Tabernacles will come in the near future at the consummation of the Church age.

PERSONAL ASPECT

The meaning of these Festivals is to find fulfillment in our lives. For example, to obtain deliverance from sin and eternal death, we must receive Christ as our Passover Lamb. “…For even Christ our Passover [Lamb] is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor.5:7).

We all need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and experience our own personal Pentecost. “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.” (Act.1:4).

We will learn more about the meaning of Tabernacles later on.

WHY WERE THE FESTIVALS OBSERVED?

Each of the Festivals brings understanding to particular spiritual realities fulfilled in the New Testament and the Church Age. In the Old Testament, these realities are described symbolically, in religious acts and rituals.

The rituals were basically “shadows”, “types”, or “illustrations” that spoke prophetically about something God was going to do in the future.

So to answer the question posed by the heading of this sub-section, we shall examine TWO things: Relationship and Need.

1. A Relationship Is Honoured. The Festivals were not just jovial parties. They were serious and important occasions in which Israel honoured the LORD for His relationship with them. The Israelites formed a unique nation with a special relationship to God, so the Festivals were a way of reminding them of this. As stated above, Passover was an eternal reminder of how God protected them and delivered them from Egypt. Pentecost was a reminder of the giving of the Law as well as the events at Mount Sinai. Tabernacles recalled the years they lived in temporary dwelling places in the wilderness.

2. A Need Is Acknowledged. The Festivals were related to the agricultural seasons, the harvests and the rains, as we shall see later on in this series. At Festival times, Israel acknowledged their need for God to bless the work and labour of their hands – crops, flocks and herds. The children of Israel were instructed to make certain offerings of their harvests as a statement of faith, or a faith declaration, that God was the Provider of their every need.

In bid to make this PART-1B no longer than necessary, I think we should stop here for now. We shall continue the discussion in PART-1C which I shall post immediately.



Apologies if you are feeling that this broad consideration of the subject matter is too long. I think it is necessary we set the right tone and lay the solid foundation for the discussion ahead.


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Shalom!!!