The seven annual feasts of Israel (Passion Feasts) spread over seven months of the Jewish calendar. The first four of the seven feasts occur during the springtime (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Weeks). The final three holidays (Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles) occur during the fall, all within a short fifteen-day period.
Here is the significance of each of the seven feasts of Israel that I think is very interesting. As you will see, for each traditional feast is a very specific event that relates to Jesus and the events that took place during the week that we celebrate as Easter.
Background:
Nisan 10
Jewish Tradition:
Began the Jewish tradition of sacrificing lambs that were brought in through the sheep game. This would not be a gate that people would generally travel through as it would be reserved for the many lambs coming through.
Christian Belief:
This is Palm Sunday - when Jesus made a triumphant entrance through the sheep gate (Christians see Jesus as a lamb that was sacrificed for our sins)
- Passover (Nisan 14)
- Jewish tradition:
- Lamb killed at twilight and meal eaten in evening
- Celebrates passing over of the Angel of Death and passing of Jews from death in Egypt through Red Sea into new life
- Christian belief:
- Jesus asks disciples to partake in the Last Passover Supper in order to remember the meaning of His blood
- Unleavened Bread (leaven is a picture of sin in the Bible) (Nisan 15)
- Jewish Tradition:
- Search the house and remove all leaven
- Represented freedom from bondage of sinful pagan Egypt
- Prayer for the early crop that God would bring forth life out of the ground
- Christian Belief:
- Jesus is crucified and buried
- Jesus' body was in the grave during the first days of this feast, like a kernel of wheat planted and waiting to burst forth as the bread of life.
- Feast of First Fruits (Nisan 17)
- Jewish Tradition
- occurred on the first day after sabbath of Passover Week
- Wave the sheaf
- Celebrates the first part of the late harvest and prayer that God would bring forth the rest of the harvest in abundance
- Christian Belief
- Jesus rises from the dead on this very day, which is one of the reasons that Paul refers to him in 1 Corinthians 15:20 as the "first fruits from the dead."
- Weeks or Pentecost (Sivan)
- Jewish Tradition
- Celebrates the giving of the Law coming down from Mt. Sinai and the rest of the harvest
- Christian Belief
- Giving of the Holy Spirit come down from Heaven
- Occurred fifty days after the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and pointed to the great harvest of souls and the gift of the Holy Spirit for both Jew and Gentile, who would be brought into the kingdom of God during the Church Age (seeActs 2). The Church was actually established on this day when God poured out His Holy Spirit and 3,000 Jews responded to Peter's great sermon and his first proclamation of the gospel.
- Trumpets
- Jewish Tradition
- The first of the fall feasts.
- Christian Belief
- Many believe this day points to the Rapture of the Church when the Messiah Jesus will appear in the heavens as He comes for the Church. The Rapture is always associated in Scripture with the blowing of a loud trumpet.
- Day of Atonement
- Jewish Tradition
- a day of rest, a sabbath of solemn rest.
- Christian Belief
- Many believe this prophetically points to the day of the Second Coming of Jesus when He will return to earth.
- Tabernacles or Booths
- Jewish Tradition
- At time of feasting
- Christian Belief
- Many scholars believe that this feast day points to the Lord's promise that He will once again “tabernacle” with His people when He returns to reign over all the world.
http://endtimepilgrim.org/jewishfeasts.htm
