Christ in the Biblical Holidays
Introduction
God instituted holidays or “feasts” for Israel
at the birth of “His people”, the Jews (found in
Leviticus 23). Every Jewish feast is on an
annual timeline that mirrors the story of The
Savior on this entire timeline of mankind.
I’m writing this article because I see a
dilemma: Most Jews don’t believe in Jesus, the
Christ, and most Christ-followers don’t even
know about the feasts that picture His story,
and therefore, our story. There was a beautiful
image created for us to understand this whole
existence, and we’re all distracted by
individual beliefs. I have this brief article to
return to, as the years roll on, and ingrain the
perspective that’s so real, but so rarely taken
and practiced.
Every year, a cycle of gatherings takes place in
the God-given culture that tells the story of
all of history through God’s eyes. Each of these
feasts were/are a prophecy that Jesus has either
fulfilled or will fulfill when the timing
matches the pictures. We have traded this
culture that has its roots in pictures to aid
our understanding of our existence. We’ve traded
it for our own culture that has its roots in
evolved pagan traditions that we put Jesus' name
and story on.
The feasts are separated into 3 sections
according to the harvest.
The first set of 3 feasts is at
the beginning of the harvest year (around March
or April), when harvesting has yet to take
place, when Jewish farmers plant their seeds and
begin to cultivate them. This is fulfilled at
the beginning of mankind, when The Lord began to
plant seeds through the prophets and leaders of
His first people (His “farmers”), as played out
in the Old Testament, the beginning of His
harvest season.
These seeds had yet to take form, but laws and
religion were set in place to keep the “farmers”
watering them, even without having any harvest
yet. God rose up judges, prophets and kings to
keep things going before the harvest could rise
to the top of the soil of our understanding.
The second set (one feast) is
when the harvest time started (around May or
June). The crop began to grow and farmers could
then begin to see and harvest the product of the
months the seed was watered. Similarly, The
Christ appeared in the world as the beginning of
the harvest of Heaven. Since then, we see the
some of the fruit that’s been growing as a
result of the seeds in the Old-Testament-days
being planted.
Sadly, the traditional Jewish religion has
ignored the fruit and started watering
elsewhere, waiting on seeds that aren't where
they're watering. Other religions have decided
to not accept the fruit and instead created
fruit to their own taste that had never been
planted by God.
Between this second set of feasts and the next
set, there’s a long gap, both in the harvest
year and in history. Currently, the world’s
timeline is set in this gap.
The third set of feasts is
when the harvest is all collected, between
September and October. This time of the year is
also the Jewish New Year. As one year ends, the
Jewish community would be judged and hope for
provision as they moved onto the next. In the
future, the story of history will come to a
point where our spiritual crop will be judged.
The whole system of this harvest is in hope that
we will be provided for after the harvest
system. As the "year" ends, this stage in life
will end and we’ll move onto what’s next.
Beauty of the Prophecy
There are a total of 10 celebrations
that fit somewhere around these 3 basic stages
in each year. In each feast, there was a
specific God-related motivation for the
observance. The old causes to observe a feast
fit pictures of The Christ’s prophecy as well.
In each of the ten there was not only one of 3
categories that had 2 sides, but also a
religious principle that also have both a
shadow-picture and a revelation based on that
picture. To explain, let's look at the beauty
behind each one.
The Passover
Celebrated on the Jewish 14th day of
the month Nisan, the Israelites were delivered
from slavery to Egypt through the miracles of
God. Ten plagues and the parting of the red sea
moved God’s first nation from entrapment to
freedom. As a result the Passover meal was
established and required the sacrifice of a
perfect lamb form everyone in order to wash away
the spiritual slavery of sin for the year.
Christ came in the second stage of history and
actually became the Passover lamb for everyone;
to wash away the spiritual slavery of sin for
the entire “heavenly year” of our existence (all
the sin we experiance on earth). We should
celebrate the Passover meal, or “The Lord’s
Supper” every year, in remembrance of Him, as He
told us to. As we do so, we celebrate His
sacrifice of death to cleanse us.
(the other feasts will be added soon)