The prophetic fulfillment of the Fall Feasts – Dana Free

We are coming up on God’s season of time called “The Appointed Times,” or in Hebrew, the “Moadim.” In Genesis 1:14 God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years…” The Hebrew word there for seasons is moadim, and it means appointment.  Seven times a year God had specific appointments to meet with His people, and accomplish certain things in that season.  He called these seasons Feasts. These are not just Jewish feasts, they are His feasts, because they are all about Jesus. Leviticus 23:2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.” They are God’s reminders to us of His great plan involving His Son and mankind, the very framework of His salvation plan.  Each year they were celebrated as dress rehearsals for the final fulfillment of each.  All of life would revolve around these Feast times. Planting, harvest, life, death, judgment and mercy, repentance and rejoicing were all part of these times.

The year starts in the spring with Passover in the first month (in Hebrew called Nisan), followed by Unleavened Bread, then First Fruits.

Exodus 12:2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” 

Then, 7 Sabbaths later on the 50th day, is Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks. The three fall festivals are the Feast of Trumpets (later called by the Jewish Rabbis Rosh Hashanah–which means the head of the year), followed ten days later by The Day of Atonement (or Yom Kippur), then concluding with the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles.

This year, the Feast of Trumpets starts at sundown Oct. 2 and ends at sundown Oct. 4^th. Atonement begins sundown Friday Oct 11^th, and ends sundown the 12^th.  Tabernacles begins sundown Oct 16^th and ends sundown the 23^rd.

Believers in Christ are not obligated to keep the Feasts in the way God outlined in the Law, but as there has been a resurgence of understanding the Jewish roots of our faith, we have come to see the beautiful representation of Christ in these Feasts, and that God still holds them as holding eternal significance. Therefore, we should know about them and honor what they mean.

In Exodus chapter 12 when the Lord was giving Moses instructions about Passover, He said that this would be in everlasting remembrance.  Exod. 12:14-16 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. ¹⁵ Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you.’  He included Passover and Unleavened Bread together to be observed. In fact, in verse 19 He explains that whether you were a Jew or not, if you were a part of honoring Him then you were to honor the feast. Exodus 12:19 ‘For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.’  This reiterated the fact that these were not just for Isreal, they were His Feasts, and if you were to have any part in faith in Him, this was part of that.

Most Christians do not realize that we will be celebrating Tabernacles in the millennial reign of Christ when Jesus returns.

Zechariah 14:16-18 ‘And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁷ And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. ¹⁸ If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.’

Isaiah 66:23 And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord.

Jesus Himself promised to keep the Passover in the future Kingdom with His disciples, (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18, 30). Everyone, including Jesus, will be keeping the Feasts when the Kingdom comes to earth. So why would we not be keeping them right now?  We owe that largely to the Roman Catholic Church, who rooted out as much Jewish culture and tradition from the scriptures that they could. They paganized our times of celebration to the Lord throughout the year, and no doubt by the hand of Satan, the Feasts were one of the things of God lost in the Church.

The change in the Law that the New Covenant in Christ brought came about in the ceremonial-ritual law, not in the spiritual law. We still keep the spiritual laws of God, the moral laws and the ten commandments.  The Book of Hebrews speaks of the temporary nature of animal sacrifices and other rituals.  Hebrews 9:7-10 But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; ⁸ the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. ⁹ It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— ¹⁰ concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.  The ritualistic ordinances were added to the Law obligation because of Israel’s continued transgression.  Galatians 3:19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 

Jesus now intercedes for us as High Priest. His Blood is the only effective remedy for sin. The blood of animals was only a temporary cover until Jesus would come to make the final sacrifice.  His sacrifice made all things clean. His sacrifice ushered in grace, and freedom from eternal death.  Nothing in the Bible affects or alters our responsibility to keep the spiritual law.  We still must love one another, forgive one another, keep moral law, help the poor, give, serve, and all the other Godly ways of living that the Lord laid out.

Numerous New Testament examples show where people were intending to keep the Feasts, were keeping them, and would keep them again in the coming Kingdom. You can read through these in Luke 2:42, John 5:1 and 7:2-14, John 12:20, Matthew 26:2, 17, and 29, and I Cor. 5:8.  In Acts 18:21 the apostle Paul said, “I must by all means keep this coming Feast in Jerusalem…”

We acknowledge the Lord’s birth, His death, and His resurrection at certain times of year, but the Feast times have been long overlooked by Christians. In fact, like everything else the devil copies and perverts, Satan has taken the focus off of these Feasts and twisted them to his own interests, fooling culture into following his ideas instead of God’s original.  Instead of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits, Christians celebrate Easter as His death and resurrection, but Easter comes from the name of a pagan goddess who was celebrated in the spring. Many of the traditions of Easter are idolatry, and have pagan roots. The Islamic faith even honors Ramadan at that time.  What a coincidence its at the same time of year.  Instead of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles, the world, and many Christians, celebrate Halloween. Over the centuries, various ancient beliefs had spring, fall, and winter festivals to honor their gods.  The Feast days were called Holy days, and that is where we get the word we now use holiday. Unfortunately, not all holidays are holy.

The Lord naturally kept every one of the feasts for His thirty-three years walking this earth, including the Passover the night before His death.  After all they are His feasts. He prophetically fulfilled each one of the spring feasts precisely on their days at His first coming, and will fulfill all the fall feasts precisely on their days at His second coming.

I do just want to briefly touch on the spring feasts because they all tie together in the redemption plan. Seven is God’s number of perfection and completion, so they all go together.

Passover is the first, since Jesus’s sacrifice is first before any of the rest can be fulfilled.  It is remembering when God delivered His people from the bondage of Egypt, and when the blood of the lamb on their doorways caused the death angel to pass over them and not kill the firstborn. In both Testaments, the blood of the Lamb delivers from slavery— the Jew from Egypt and its Pharoah, the Christian from sin and the devil. Back in Egypt the Jew marked his house with the blood of the lamb. Today the Christian marks his house—his body, “the house of the Holy Spirit”—with the Blood of Christ. Death passes over us because we are then sealed by the Holy Spirit for eternal life with God after our physical body dies on the earth. So, Passover is about salvation in Christ. It all begins with salvation.

Jesus is the Lamb of God, slain before the foundations of the world. At the Passover meal He said, “This is My blood of the New Testament shed for many for remission of sin” (Matthew 26:27). John the Baptist clearly marked out Jesus Christ as a blood sacrifice when he stated, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The Christian celebrates Passover when we take communion to remember His broken body, His shed Blood, and His life given to redeem us. The Jews eat the Passover meal, remembering the manna God fed them in the wilderness, and how He cared for them. Jesus became our Bread of Life. His Word sustains us and gives us life. The Lord Himself instructed us when we take communion to “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

We read in Exodus chapter 12, God instructed the people to choose a lamb for a household on the tenth day of the month. The lamb was kept 4 days in each house before it was brought to the temple for sacrifice. It had to be a male, one year old, without any blemish. Jesus came into Jerusalem 4 days before He was to be crucified. The people chose Him as they chanted “Hosanna!” and laid their coats and palm branches down before Him while He rode in on the donkey. He stayed in Jerusalem 4 days before He was sacrificed. He was the perfect, sinless Lamb of God slain to cover our sins. As the lambs were slaughtered on the altar on Passover at 3 pm, His bleeding body hung on the cross at the same time, and He gave up his spirit and died.

The second feast begins on the next night after Passover, starting right at twilight.  Leviticus 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days you must eat unleavened bread. God told the Jews to eat only the pure unleavened bread during the week following Passover. Leaven in the Bible symbolized sin and evil. Unleavened bread, eaten over a period of time (seven days), symbolized a holy walk with the Lord. The apostle Paul wrote in I Cor. 5:7-8 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The unleavened bread in the New Testament is, of course, the body of our Lord. He is described as “the Bread of Life”. He was born in Bethlehem, in Hebrew “House of Bread”. He utilized bread as an image of Himself (“If a kernel of wheat falls to the ground …” John 12:24). God fed the Israelites in the wilderness with manna from heaven, and He feeds the Christians in the world with Himself, the living Word of God, the Bread of Life. We live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  The very piece of bread used by the Jews during this week of Unleavened Bread is a good picture of our Lord. Anyone who has seen the Jewish matzoh sees that it is striped (“By His stripes are we healed”), pierced (“They shall look upon me whom they’ve pierced”), and, of course, pure, without any leaven, as His body was without any sin. It is flat, without yeast, so not puffed up. Our Savior came as a humble servant who obeyed the will of the Father.  There was no pride in Him.

The Passover ceremony of breaking and burying and then resurrecting a piece of this bread (the middle piece, as the Son in the Trinity) very obviously presents the Gospel in the midst of the modern Jewish Passover celebration. God performed this exact ceremony with the burial of Jesus, our precious piece of unleavened bread, and more importantly, He performed it on the exact day of the feast. Jesus was buried at twilight on the 15^th day, after Passover. In Hebrew reckoning, the day begins at sundown, or moonrise. This was God’s intention at the very beginning (“And the evening and the morning were the first day,” Gen. 1:5).  Jesus was buried at the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread since His body was buried at sundown of Passover Day, the beginning of the fifteenth of Nisan.

Our “kernel of wheat” was indeed placed into the ground, and at the appropriate moment, it was to rise again in accordance with the schedule of the feasts. Just as Jesus could not stay in the grave, one cannot permanently bury a Christian. We will rise again when the Lord returns.

Crucifixion normally took three days. That was the point of it. The Romans utilized this slow and terrible way of death to terrify the population of Israel so they would think again before defying Rome. We see in the Gospel that the centurion was not ready to believe that the young, strong carpenter of Galilee was dead in just six hours. Our Lord died in time to be buried at sundown that day. He was placed on the cross at 9:00 a.m. (“The third hour”) and taken down shortly after 3:00 p.m. There was then time enough to wrap the body and bury it at sundown. He gave up His spirit at the precise time. No one took His life.  He laid it down.  “I lay it down and I take it up again.”

So as unleavened bread points to the time Jesus was placed in the tomb, in a waiting period before the resurrection, this also points to our time of sanctification in the Word and by the Holy Spirit after we are saved. After we experience our Passover at salvation, then we enter the season of ‘eating unleavened bread’ and cleansing our house of leaven (sin) for seven days.  Seven meaning the complete time before we die, or before He comes again, whichever comes first. Our walk with God is a time of sanctification, learning to submit to His Word and His Spirit.

The third feast is held on the Sunday following Unleavened Bread. Lev. 23:10-11 ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, when you come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest: and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.  God wanted a special feast during which the Israelites would acknowledge the fertility of the fine land He gave them. They were to bring the early crops of their spring planting (“First Fruits”) to the priest at the Temple to be waved before the Lord on their behalf. This was to be done on Sunday. We have unfortunately come to call this feast time Easter, after the Babylonian goddess, Ishtar, the pagan goddess of fertility, but the celebration was supposed to be over God’s replanting of the earth in the spring and the new life that springs forth.

“First” implies a second, a third, and so on, and that is the real meaning of the Feast of First Fruits. We do not merely celebrate the resurrection of the Lord on First Fruits, on which it indeed occurred, but even more so, the resurrection of the entire Church! We will all be resurrected and go to heaven, just as the Lord did.

I Cor. 15:23 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.

I Thess. 4:16-18 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Rev. 20:4-6 …I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. ⁵ But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

Jesus celebrated the Sunday of the week of His crucifixion by rising from the dead. It was not some other day He chose but the very day of First Fruits, just as He had performed on Passover and Unleavened Bread, each with the appropriate action. Jesus even presented His proper First Fruits offering to the Father. Graves were opened and dead people rose and were seen after His resurrection in Jerusalem (Matthew 27:53). The Lord, not unlike a Jewish planter, gratefully showed the Father the early crops of what will be a magnificent harvest later on.

The fourth feast is 50 days from First Fruits, Pentecost (pente meaning 5). God gave very specific directions for counting the proper number of days until the Feast of Harvest, also called the Feast of Weeks. It marked the summer harvest, the second harvest of the year, in which many more crops were available than at First Fruits (but still not as many as would be forthcoming in the great fall harvest): Lev. 23:15-16 And you shall count to you from the morrow after sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: even to the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall you number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. Pentecost, then, occurs on a Sunday, again “The morrow after the sabbath,” exactly fifty days after First Fruits. Lev. 23:1 You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals; they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the firstfruits to the Lord.  These two “wave loaves” are of equal weight and they are baked with leaven. They are called “firstfruits.” Since they are baked with leaven, they represent sinful man, and since they are “firstfruits” they are redeemed or resurrected men. Obviously, God was predicting here that the Church would be comprised of two parts, Jew and Gentile.

The Holy Spirit did come exactly on the day of the feast (Acts 2:1) and gathered a harvest of three thousand souls. The fulfillment was exactly in keeping with the purpose of the feast. It was a greater harvest of souls than the Lord had presented at First Fruits, but of course, only a token of the great harvest to come in the Rapture of the Church. The three thousand was a significant number because exactly that number were killed on the day the Law came down from Mount Sinai, because of the golden calf (Exodus 32:28). “The letter kills, the Spirit gives life,” (II Cor. 3:6).

Four coincidences are hard to explain away, especially when each one is so completely appropriate to its purpose. We have not as yet seen the fulfillment to feast number five, but looking at God’s pattern we certainly will. We remain under the orders of Pentecost, continuing the summer crop cultivation as “workers in a field” until that day of the great harvest marked by the next feast. By the time I finish explaining all seven feasts, I hope that you will see how intentional and meticulous God is with His plan, and His Word. That no one could have made this up and woven it all together so purposefully. I pray that it shows you, as much as He precisely fulfilled each feast of His first coming, He will certainly do so with the rest of the feasts at His second coming.

This is where the CHURCH is now.

So, we await fulfillment of the fall feasts. Every year in the spring we remember His first coming, and every fall we are remembering His second coming, looking earnestly to that Day.

The season of Teshuvah, also called “The Days of Awe,” is the ten days between Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement.  It is known as the season of repentance, or turning, of remembering God’s mercy, and of reconciliation and forgiveness toward others.  It recalls when Moses ascended to the top of Mount Sinai, the second time, for 40 days, to receive the second set of Commandments from God. During this time, the people of God plan a special thanksgiving offering for what God has done, and what He will do the following year. If a Christian wanted to honor these feasts, they would use this time as one of reflection and repentance, prayer about the coming season, remembrance of God’s mercy, reconciliation and forgiveness toward others if it is needed, and giving an offering of thanksgiving to the Lord. Sow seeds of faith. The early rains come now to water those seeds for the coming harvest next year. Claim the harvest for what you have sown. Fall is all about the harvest.

Our worldly calendar follows the ancient Gregorian calendar, put in effect by Pope Gregory in 1582, rather than God’s calendar. It is based on a 365-day solar year.  In God’s calendar, the beginning of the year is Nisan 1 in the spring, fourteen days before Passover. It is based on cycles of the moon. Man has changed the calendar many times since the beginning. Even the Jews changed things around to reflect a civil new year and a sacred new year. The civil year begins on Rosh Hashana, but the sacred year begins in the spring.  If we stick with what God said, it is the seventh month for the fall feasts.

On God’s calendar, each month starts with a new moon, reaching a full moon in the midst of the twenty-eight day cycle. Passover always falls on a full moon—the first full moon of spring. The moon makes for a much better calendar than the sun since it changes every night. Those accustomed to a lunar calendar would estimate on any clear night what day of the month it was. The sun, of course, does not change daily. God may not have preferred the use of the sun for men’s calendars since sun worship was the leading form of paganism. God used the moon so that no one would have to miss Passover even if they did not have a calendar, and Passover set the time for all the rest of the feasts.

TRUMPETS

God loves the trumpet. Trumpets are all through the Bible.  They are used in announcing the coming or inauguration of a king, to gather soldiers together for battle, to proclaim the year of Jubilee, to announce coming judgment, and many other reasons.  When Isaac was spared by virtue of the ram being caught in the thicket by its horn, the Shofar horn (a ram’s horn), was made special to God. Without Isaac, we would not have had the Jews, the scriptures, or the Messiah Himself.

Lev. 23:24 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation…

This Feast represents the Rapture of the Church at the coming of the King to get His Bride. It is the announcing of the coming King, and also the announcing of coming judgment upon the world.

The trumpet was the signal for the field workers to come into the Temple. The high priest actually stood on the southwestern parapet of the Temple and blew the trumpet so that it could be heard in the surrounding fields. At that instant, the faithful would stop harvesting even if there were more crops to bring in, and leave immediately for the worship services. Jew and Arab worked side by side in the fields, as they do even today. When the trumpet would sound, the Jew would leave immediately, and the Arab, believing otherwise of course, would continue bringing in the crops. Thus the Lord stated, “Where there are two working in a field, one will be taken and the other left.” (Matt. 24:40). The last trumpet will sound, and the work will cease. A day of rest was called for on that day. No more work. The Church has been working from Pentecost until today, calling the world to repentance and faith in the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Rapture will be a reward to the faithful Church, a snatching away from the danger of the coming judgment and wrath of God. Rest.

I Thess. 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 who 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 Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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.

I Cor. 15:51-52 Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

When that great trumpet sounds, Jesus will come down, and living believers will rise from the earth to meet Him in the air. The graves will give up their dead. All the believers will be mysteriously changed and outfitted for immortality. Just as God came down on Mount Sinai and a great trumpet sounded, and Moses went up.

Exodus 19:16-20 Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. ¹⁷ And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. ¹⁹ And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

In Joshua chapter 6, we read of the conquest of the first city in the Promised land, Jericho.  This is also a picture of the Rapture of the Church. Jericho was a lush oasis in a very arid wilderness, and a welcome sight to the people of God who had been wandering in the desert for 40 years. Likewise, with the Christians, our glimpse of heaven at the Rapture will represent the end of a long journey for each of us through the wilderness in a fallen earth still filled with sin. The trumpet will sound as it did at Jericho, and we will go up. As Rahab the Gentile harlot was saved through faith, and tied the scarlet thread on her window, the Church under the Blood of Christ will be spared when the Lord returns and the enemy walls fall down. It will happen at the seventh trumpet sound, the loudest and longest one.

Joshua 6:1-5 Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. ² Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. ³ March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. ⁴ Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. ⁵ When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

First there was the blood of the lamb at Passover, which delivered us from death—salvation of the believer, then the trip through the Red Sea—baptism, then the wandering in the wilderness—this life on earth, and finally, Jericho— heaven, when the trumpet sounds. The name of the leader in both cases, is Joshua (Jesus’ name Yeshua, in Hebrew, Joshua, in English.)

It looks like when the seventh trumpet sounds described in Revelation, is when the Lord returns victorious and gets His Bride the Church. That is when the Kingdom is going to be established on the earth where He will reign.

Rev. 11:15-16 Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

From Revelation 14, it seems the Church is raptured just before the wrath of God is poured out on the rest of the world.

Rev. 14:14-19 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. ¹⁵ And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” ¹⁶ So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. ¹⁸ And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” ¹⁹ So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

Am I saying the rapture will occur on the feast of trumpets? It would certainly fit the pattern. But there are some things that have to happen first that have not yet happened before that can take place. I know He said no man will know the day or the hour, but that was actually a Jewish idiom.  When He said that, His Jewish listeners knew He was referring to the Feast of Trumpets because that was the only feast where no one would know the exact day until two witnesses, men of proven character and trustworthiness who stood watch, saw the new moon appear. They would then announce the Feast had begun, and the trumpets were to be blown.

The new moon is the time when the moon is invisible to the earth, totally black, and just slightly before when it appears as a small crescent. In the following two weeks more of the moon will be visible until it is full.  Because no man knew the day or the hour for the beginning of the Feast of Trumpets, this became its secondary name. Jesus never said that we will not know when He is coming, He told us that we won’t know the specific day or the hour. When we understand that the time of His arrival will be at different times of the day and even on different days, depending where we are located in the earth, we realize what He was saying. According to the cycle of the moon, it would be one of two days.  Remember the Lord gave a lot of signs to be looking for just before His return. Signs to help us identify the season.

Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” This is the day He was specifically talking about in the previous verses, the day He comes in the clouds and sends His angels to gather His people.

During the seven-year tribulation, God will send His two witnesses to Israel to proclaim to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. Revelation 11:3 “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” These two witnesses will most likely be Moses and Elijah: Moses representing the Law, and Elijah representing the prophets. Jesus said that all that God had spoken before John the Baptist arrived, rests upon the Law and the Prophets. Luke 16:16 “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.” After the Antichrist kills the witnesses, they will rise from the dead and be raptured up to heaven.  Rev. 11:11-12 Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. ¹² And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.  Now if this happens at the same time of the rapture of the Church, I am not sure.

So to celebrate Trumpets, we remember the coming of our Lord. We keep our hearts ready and prepared to meet Him. We keep oil in our lamps as the wise virgins of Matthew 25. We stay close to the Holy Spirit, stay filled with Him and His anointing, stay in fellowship with the Lord. We are staying in prayer, in the Word, and keeping our hearts right before Him.  We occupy until He comes, continuing in the work of the Kingdom fulfilling His mandate to speak His truth, lead others to Him, heal the sick, cast out demons, and help prepare the Bride.

 

 

ATONEMENT

On the fearsome Day of Atonement, the Jew literally either lived or died, according to God’s will. Two goats were presented to the high priest in the tabernacle where he could cast lots between them to determine which one should be sacrificed and which one should be freed. He would lay his hands on the scapegoat and transfer all the sins of Israel upon its head, then send it out in the wilderness outside of the camp to die.

Lev. 23:27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation to you; and you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

Lev. 16:8-10 ^“Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. ⁹ And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. ¹⁰ But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.”

The Day of Atonement was a day of confession, and it still is. Israel was to individually “afflict their souls” and be conscious of their national sin. This was the day on which the high priest of Israel entered the Holy of Holies, where God Himself came down (Lev. 16). The high priest would make a sacrifice on his own behalf, and then a sacrifice on behalf of all the sins of all the Israelites. It was a most solemn occasion, still treated as the highest of the holy days. There were strict instructions around this serious day, that carried grave consequences if not kept.

This is a picture of God’s Judgment. When God judges, only those who are in Christ can be freed. In its immediate prophetic sense, it speaks of Christ being judged as the Messiah of Israel and bearing the penalty for their sin. Jesus is the scapegoat.  When God came and brought the Old Covenant to an end in AD 70 with the destruction of the Temple, the Levitical priesthood and sacrificial system ceased because the Day of Atonement was fulfilled in Christ. Ultimately it will find its fulfilment on the Day of Judgment (referred to as the “Last Day” or the “Lord’s Day” or the “Day of the Lord” in Scripture).

Hebrews 10:1-10 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. ² For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. ³ But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. ⁴ For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.⁵ Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.
⁶ In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. ⁷ Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—In the volume of the book it is written of Me—To do Your will, O God.’ ” ⁸ Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), ⁹ then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. ¹⁰ By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

John 12:48 “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”

Acts 17:31 …because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.

Acts 10:42 And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.

John 5:22-23 “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father…”

Matthew 12:36-37 “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Romans 2:5-9 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, ⁶ who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek…

I Cor. 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.

II Cor. 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Hebrews 9:27-28 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

II Tim. 4:1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.

Psalm 62:12 Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy; for You render to each one according to his work.

Matthew 25:24-30 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ ²⁶ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. ²⁷ So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. ²⁸ So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. ²⁹ ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰ And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

I Cor. 3:10-15 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, ¹³ each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. ¹⁴ If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Rev. 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Atonement is the one Feast which is not fulfilled by the Church, because the Church owes no atonement. The Church is not innocent of course, but it is exonerated. Jesus paid off the sins of every one of us. On the Day of Judgment, our works will be judged like everyone else, but our salvation is secure in Christ. The Blood has paid our sin debt.

For the Jews alive at the time of the coming of the Lord Jesus, who had not yet received Him as Messiah, this Day will have great significance.

Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. How sorrowful Israel will feel indeed, in the presence of their King.

Zechariah 13:6 And one shall say to him, ‘What are these wounds in your hands?’ Then he shall answer, ‘those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’ But the atonement will be accepted. God will have at long last ended His separation from Israel, His original spiritual wife. The book of Hosea details the adultery of Israel, in type, and her final redemption and purification.

Paul wrote in Romans 11:25-32 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. ²⁷ And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” ²⁸ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, ²⁹ for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. ³⁰ Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, ³¹ so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. ³² For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Only surviving Israel will be saved when the Lord returns. A man who dies now before being saved, Jew or Gentile, cannot obtain salvation in the future, and we should note that it will be very difficult for little Israel to survive the tribulation in any great numbers. The prophets lament that two-thirds of that nation will die at the hands of the Antichrist. Zech 13:7-9 “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the Man who is My Companion,” says the Lord of hosts.
“Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; then I will turn My hand against the little ones. ⁸ And it shall come to pass in all the land,” says the Lord, “That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it: ⁹ I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; and each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”

To honor the Day of Atonement, we can remember the Lord’s sacrifice for us, as much as we remember it at Passover time. We must again search our hearts for unrepentant sin, receive forgiveness, and thank God for His mercy and grace. We can pray for the ones we know who are far from Him to repent and see the truth, and pray for Israel.

 

TABERNACLES

The prophetic picture becomes much brighter with the happy occasion of the seventh feast. Lev. 23:34 ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, the fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord.’  God wanted to celebrate the fact that He provided shelter for the Israelites in the wilderness. Lev. 23:42-43 ‘You shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’  Each year on Tabernacles, the seventh full moon of the year, devout Jews would build little shelters outside their houses, and worship in them.

Tabernacles represents the Lord’s shelter in the world to come, His great Tabernacle to exist in Jerusalem during the Kingdom Age. This seventh feast, commemorated faithfully by Jesus (John 7), is the one feast that we are assured will be an important part of the Millenial Kingdom worship as we read in Zechariah 14:16-19. The Lord will establish His Tabernacle in Jerusalem, and all the world will come every year to appear before the King and worship Him. How fitting a conclusion to each festival year in the schedule of the feasts. Seven is God’s number of perfection, completion, and rest.

Ezekiel 37:26-27 ‘Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. ²⁷ My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’

Zech 14:9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be—
“The Lord is one,” and His name one.

When we are raptured and all the former dead in Christ rise, we will forever tabernacle with the Lord. He is in us and with us.

Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.”

 II Cor. 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Zech 8:3 “Thus says the Lord: ‘I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, The Mountain of the Lord of hosts, The Holy Mountain.’”

To celebrate Tabernacles, we can remember and look forward to the glorious reign of Christ that is coming, where we will be reigning with Him.  We can happily be grateful for the harvest He brings in our own life, and bring an offering of thanksgiving to Him.

Deut. 16:16 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.”

Now after looking over the feasts, it becomes very clear that God forecast the entire career of the Messiah, the Jews, the Church, and even the other nations. He laid out the feasts in the calendar year in a manner that reflects in proportion the history of the Church. The first three feasts, the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, occurred very close together. Then there was the pause before the coming of the Holy Spirit. And then the long pause before the big harvest, the Rapture of the Church and the resurrection of all the dead in Christ. Finally, we will rule and reign with Him in the millennial Kingdom.

The seven feasts reassure us about the Church being raptured before the full wrath of God is poured out on the earth. Surely the entire system would be wrecked if the Church were not to be rewarded and rescued at Trumpets by being taken out, and would have to put in an unwarranted Day of Atonement with unbelieving Israel in the tribulation period.

It is God’s clever design shown in the pattern of the Feasts, much like the creation week week— six feasts of work and the last one of rest—six days of work and the seventh of rest—6000 years of man working to reach God, of fighting the devil and enduring the curse of sin on mankind and on the earth, of trying and failing to rule and reign righteously and effectively until finally the real King of kings takes His place for a thousand year seventh day of rest for the whole earth.

Scriptures for review: Lev. 23, Lev. 25:9,  Numb, 29:7,  Lev. 16:2-3,  Joel 1:14-15,  Acts 27:9-10,  II Cor 5:20-23,  Romans 3:25,  I John 2:2,  I John 4:10, Hebrews 10:14, Phil. 4:3,  Rev. 3:5,  Rev. 13:8,  II Cor. 5:10,  I Cor. 3:13,  Matt. 7:21, Exod. 23:14-19,  Ezra 3:6, II Cor. 9:8-10, Mal. 3:7-12, Ecclesiastes 11:1, Luke 6:38,  Psalm 34:9-10,  Deut. 16:16, Exodus 23:16, Exodus 34:22-23, Numbers 29:1, 12.

 

• Passover—Salvation through the shed Blood of Jesus
• Unleavened Bread—sanctification, removing the leaven of sin from our life and learning to walk with God with the counsel and help of the Holy Spirit. Also, the time when Jesus was in the heart of the earth, taking back the keys to death, hell, and the grave, making an open shame of the devil and his demons
• First Fruits—resurrection of Jesus, looking forward to our
  • resurrection also
• Pentecost—the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the harvest of souls for the Kingdom of God.
• Trumpets—the return of Christ and His rapture of the Church, He will come with rewards. We are spared from the Wrath of God.
• Atonement—the Day of Judgment. All works are judged, all words, and those under the Blood of Jesus are pardoned.
• Tabernacles—the Kingdom reign of Christ Jesus on the earth from Jerusalem begins, and there is 1000 years of rest.