The Feasts we are to Celebrate according to the Bible Part 2 by Rafael Batista

Chapter 5:  The Feasts we are to Celebrate according to the Bible….. Continued

by Rafael Batista

In Chapter 4 we went into detail about how we should be keeping the feasts, how Jesus kept them, the Apostles and early christians observed them, and what they were. I also went into detail on the first 3 feasts Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits. In this chapter i want to go over the last 4 feasts. Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles.

It is important to note that the feasts are usually divided into two categories. Spring feasts and Fall feasts. This is because the feasts are back to back. Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost are the Spring Feasts. They happen March/ April time frame and are each dependent on the other. Passover is the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Unleavened bread is a 7 day feast that starts with Passover. The feast of First Fruits is always the Sunday following the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And Pentecost is always 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits. So these are grouped together.

Now the fall Feasts fall around September timeframe. Starting with the Feast of Trumpets. 9 days later the Day of Atonement is celebrated. Then 5 days later the 7 day Feast of Tabernacles begins. So the feasts are thus grouped into two categories. The spring feasts and the fall feasts.

The Feast of Pentecost

This Feast is known as the Feast of Weeks in the bible. It is also known as the feast of Pentecost. This name is derived from the Greek which means 50. Because you count 50 days from the Feast of First Fruits to celebrate this day.

Leviticus 23:15-22

“From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off 50 days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord. Present with with this bread seven male lambs each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burn offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings – an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. Then sacrifice on male goat for a sin offering and two lambs each a year old, for a fellowship offering. The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the first fruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest. On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. “

Now again our offerings equivalent in today’s day would be of monetary means. So some sort of money offering would be the replacement today since we do not use crops and animals as money. So the commandment is to gather into a sacred assembly (a service), do not work on this day (work you normally do for money or to support yourself), and to give an offering to God.

Biblical scholars believe this to be the day God came to his people after taking them from Egypt and gave his commandments. This takes place in Exodus 19 and 20. The reason for this is because Passover takes place in the middle of the first month of the Calendar God originally instituted. And the Feast of Unleavened Bread proceeds for 7 days. The feast of firstfruits landing on the first Sunday after the feast of Unleavened Bread.

Leviticus 23:5,6 The Lord’s Passover begins at the twilight of the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast.

Leviticus 23:11 He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the sabbath.

(This was in context of the feast of firstfruits outlined between Leviticus 23:9-14.)

This would put us near the end of the first month. Then we count 50 days. 40 days will easily put us past the second month and into the beginning of the third month. Which is why scholars believe this to be the day that God gave his commandments to the people. So essentially as a christian you are celebrating 2 things on the Feast of Pentecost. 1 The commandments given by God to his people and 2 The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. This is outlined in Acts chapter 2 when the followers of Jesus were gathered together on this day and the Holy Spirit filled all of them and they began to speak in tongues. People gathered around them and were amazed because all sorts of people from different nations could each distinguish on of the people speaking in tongues speaking in their language. So the miracle was of Jewish people speaking a variety of languages that many who witnessed could attest that they were in fact speaking in an actual language they recognized. Many of these Jews speaking in these languages were not educated men. As we can attest about Peter and John.

Acts 4:13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus.

So in conclucion the day of Pentecost is the day to Set apart for God. 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits. It is the day to not work, keep holy, gather with fellow brethren, give a special offering unto God, and celebrate that God gave to us his commandments showing us how to be holy and that he also gave us his Holy Spirit to help us to be holy.

The Feast of Trumpets

The Feast of Trumpets is today celebrated by Jews as Rosh Hoshana or “New Year”. They obtained this tradition of calling it the New Year when they were exiled living in babylon after Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah. So today you will usually hear of it as Rosh Hoshanah, but it is still celebrated as the bible instructs with the blowing of the Shofar (Trumpets made of Rams horn).

Leviticus 23:23 The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire”

Numbers 29:1 On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets.

This feast is the most mysterious of all. There is not much said about this feast or why it is celebrated. This leads to much speculation some of whom say this is the day when we will hear the final trumpet blast and Jesus will return.

Day of Atonement

Leviticus 23:26

The LORD said to Moses, The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day. You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. It is a sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.

The ritual for the day of Atonement is outlined in Leviticus 16.

In essence the High Priest prepared and consecreated himself. He took two goats. One which was sacrificed and the blood poured on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. Thus making atonement for the sins of Israel. The other was sent into the mountains taking the sins of the people into the mountains never to be seen again. The Israelites had a tradition of conducting a symbolic casting off of their sins on the second goat.

Leviticus 16:7-10 Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats- one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. Aaro shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.s taking the sins of the people into the mountains never to be seen again. The Israelites had a tradition of conducting a symbolic casting off of their sins on the second goat.

Leviticus 16:7-10 Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats- one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. Aaro shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.

Leviticus 16:15-16 He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been.

Leviticus 16:20-22 When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and revellion of the Israelites- all their sins- and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.

These two goats are both symbolic of the Messiah. One is sacrificed in the most holy place for all the sins of mankind and the blood was atonement for all of Israel. The other was despised and rejected. Sin was placed upon him and he took our iniquities.

So do you see? These were depictions of Jesus the Messiah all along! Isaiah prophesied about this very thing speaking of Jesus prophetically. This way the world would know whom they rejected and that they rejected him due to hard hearts and not anything else.

Isaiah 53 1-7

Who has believed our Message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering,. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own wayl and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth;  he was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Just as the one goat was pierced and was sacrificed for the sins of Israel his people so was Jesus pierced and sacrificed for the sins of those who are his people. So as the other goat took the iniquity and sin of all of Israel so did Jesus take upon himself the sins of his people. This is the very thing that the book of Hebrews spoke of in Chapter 9:11-14

Hebrews 9:11-14

When Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once and for all by his blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

So this day is now celebrated by most Jews not knowing this is about Jesus the Messiah. And Christians do not celebrate this very important feast neglecting one of the most important celebrations concerning the Messiah. This day was called Holy by God. It was to be set apart. No work was to be done on this day and no food was to be eaten. This was a holy day because it commemorates when his son died to cleanse the sins of mankind. And most christians today would rather celebrate holidays like Easter which was a fertility goddess, or Halloween which is accepted by everyone to be pagan, or Christmass which scholars accept to not have been the birth of Jesus. Furthermore pagan roots are evitdent in this holiday as it was the birthday of the Babylonian Sun God Tammuz. Incorporated by the Persians, and then passed onto the Greeks who conquered them, and then to the Romans who worshiped Mithra the God of the Sun and his birth on December 25th. So we choose to celebrate these days passed down to us. These days which the early settlers of the United States did not celebrate because they understood these holidays were of pagan origin and not of God. But at the same time we neglect the days God instructs us to set apart as holy.

We must turn from our ways and seek to live our lives as the bible teaches. As Jesus taught.

Feast of Tabernacles

Leviticus 23:39-43

“So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a dy of sabbath rest. On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees-from palms, willows and other leafy trees- and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in temporary shelters for seven days; All native born Israelites are to live in such shelters. So your descendants will know that i had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when i brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

For the feast of Tabernacles we are to take off work for the first and the eight day as prescribed. Also the special thing about this celebration is that for seven days we are to sleep, eat and try to spend most of our time in tents, or temporary dwellings, outside of the comfort of our homes. This is to remind us that God took us out of Egypt and provided us with everything we have. In today’s day Egypt represents the life of sin God rescued us from. Living in the temporary dwellings helps us appreciate the many things God has given us throughout the years and the many things we take for granted. It is also a time to remove the distractions of the world (TV, Movies, Video Games, Cell Phones, etc.) and spend quality time with God. It is an awesome experience, and there is nothing like it. Many messianic and torah observant congregations gather for atleast 1 or 2 of the 7 days as a congregation and set up tents in one location.

Many have gone as far as to say that Jesus was born on the feast of tabernacles. In such a way he poured his spirit into a temporary dwelling (his flesh) and was tabernacled with his people.

This feast is oddly enough the only feast in which we have evidence for its existence after the judgement and establishment of new Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14:16-19 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The LORD will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.

In verses 12 through 15 Zechariah outlines the plagues spoken of. I personally do not wish to be caught in any of those so I think i will play it safe and start celebrating now.