We are studying the Feasts of the Lord.
There are seven of them and they are listed in chronological
sequence in Leviticus 23.
Leviticus 23:4 (NKJV) 'These
are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall
proclaim at their appointed times.
The word "feasts" means: "appointed
times." The word "holy convocation" means: "rehearsal." In other
words, the feasts of the Lords were appointed times of worship
for Israel that would serve as "dress rehearsals" in God's
prophetic calendar. Things that happen to Israel in the natural
usually parallel things that happen spiritually in the church.
Fundamentally, these seven feasts
represent and typify the sequence, timing, and significance of
the major events of the Lord's redemptive career. They commence
at Calvary, where Jesus voluntarily gave Himself for the sins of
the world (Passover); and climax at the consummation of the
messianic Kingdom at the Lord's second coming. These seven
feasts depict the entire redemptive career of the Messiah.
The study of the feasts is a study in
typology. Typology is the interpretation of Old Testament
events, persons, and ceremonies as signs which prefigured
Christ's fulfillment in the New Covenant with the church.
Typology involves identification both of a type or
figura; a figure; concept; ceremony, or event as an Old
Testament precursor; and an anti-type, a New Testament
historical figure or event that follows and fulfills the promise
of the type.
Hebrews 10:1 (NKJV) 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.
The law was a shadow. The coming of
Christ cast its shadow in the Old Testament. The purpose of the
law of Moses is to give us a foreshadowing, a pre-figurement of
the person and work of Christ. The old sacrifices were a shadow,
never substance. Shadows aren't enough. You can't live in the
shadow of a house; you need a house.
Notice what he says, the law is a
"shadow of the good things to come" -
the word "come" is from the Greek word mello, which
means: (in the infinitive) "to be about to",
and "be on the point of". The "good
things", which refers to the full consummation of the New
Covenant, were "about to" come. They were "about to come" at
A.D. 70, but at the point of this writing, they had not yet
come.
"....and not the very image
of the things..." The word "image" is the Greek
word eikon, which means: "an exact replica". The law
was only a shadow, not an exact replica.
According to Emory Eliott's "New
England Puritan Literature," "Typological hermeneutics
involved explicating signs in the Old Testament as foreshadowing
events and people in the New. This produced interesting
consequences; for example, Jonah's three days in the whale
typologically parallels Christ's three days in the tomb."
Thomas Hartwell Horne explains in An
Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures, the text that was standard reading for British
divinity students: "A type, in its primary and literal meaning,
simply denotes a rough draught, or less accurate model, from
which a more perfect image is made; but in the sacred or
theological sense of the term, a type may be defined to be a
symbol of something future and distant, or an example prepared
and evidently designed by God to prefigure that future thing.
What is thus prefigured is called the antitype."
Paul declared the fundamental principle
of this means of study, by saying:
1 Corinthians 15:46 (NKJV)
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and
afterward the spiritual.
God revealed the mysteries of the
eternal plan of redemption through the usage of temporal
shadows. We are told that "Abraham had two sons," and
thereby are given a glimpse into the significance of Scriptural
allegory and typology:
Galatians 4:22 (NKJV) For it
is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman,
the other by a freewoman.
Who were those two sons? Ishmael and
Isaac. Ishmael was born of Hagar in the ordinary way. Isaac was
born of Sarah in a miraculous way:
Galatians 4:23-26 (NKJV) But
he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh,
and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things
are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the
one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is
Hagar; 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and
corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in
bondage with her children; 26 but the Jerusalem above is free,
which is the mother of us all.
Galatians 4:28-29 (NKJV) Now
we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 29 But,
as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him
who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.
It is through this relationship between
the two sons of Abraham that we are shown the eternal purposes
of God, in regards to the two covenants, revealed from its
previously shrouded mystery.
The feasts of the Lord actually
convey two forty year exodus periods. The first exodus
period is one familiar to all of us. Israel, after the flesh,
was removed from bondage to Egypt at Passover, and they were put
in the wilderness on a physical journey to a physical promised
land. Now, the more important, the anti-type, is the spiritual
exodus. This exodus runs from the Cross to A.D. 70. In this
exodus, Israel, after the Spirit, left its bondage to the law of
sin and death (Ro. 8:2) and begins a forty year spiritual
journey to a spiritual inheritance; the Kingdom of God or the
New Heavens and New Earth.
In our last study, we looked at the
first three feasts, which were: Passover, Unleavened Bread, and
Firstfruits. We saw that Passover pictures the substitutionary
DEATH of Jesus as the Passover Lamb. The Feast of Unleavened
Bread pictures the BURIAL of Jesus. FIRSTFRUITS, pictures the
RESURRECTION of the Messiah. This feast took place on the second
day of firstfruits or the third day after Passover. Jesus rose
the third day.
Feast of Weeks
The fourth feast is known in Hebrew as
Shavuot (pronounced sha-voo-ote). It is called
the Feast of Weeks, because God specifically
told the sons of Jacob that they were to count seven weeks from
Firstfruits, and then the day after this fourth feast was to be
observed:
Leviticus 23:15-16 (NKJV) 'And
you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath,
from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering:
seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 'Count fifty days to the
day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new
grain offering to the LORD.
Seven weeks are 49 days. Add one day
("the day after"), and it brings the total to fifty days. This
fourth feast was to occur precisely fifty days after Firstfruits
(Jesus' resurrection).
Names are very important in the ancient
Jewish world. They usually reflected the significant character,
history, or meaning of that to which they were attached. Three
separate names were used by the Hebrew Scriptures for the feast
of Shavuot, which in the Hebrew means: "Weeks".
Each name emphasized a different facet of its
observance. The most common Hebrew designation was Hag
Hashavuot, meaning: "The Feast of Weeks."
Shavuot was called the Feast of Weeks, because seven weeks were
counted from the Feast of Firstfruits until the observing of
this feast.
The primary meaning of the feast was
reflected in the Hebrew name, Yom Habikkurim, or the
"Day of Firstfruits," since Shavuot
was the day on which the firstfruit offerings of the summer
wheat crop were brought to the Temple:
Exodus 34:22 (NKJV) "And you
shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat
harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end.
Thus, Shavuot marked the BEGINNING of
the SUMMER WHEAT HARVEST even as Israel's earlier Feast of
Firstfruits marked the beginning of the SPRING BARLEY HARVEST.
The third designation, Hag Hakatzir,
or "The Feast of Harvests," reflected the fact
that this festival was the official beginning of the summer
harvest season. In addition to the biblical designations, the
Talmud and Josephus referred to this festival as Atzeret,
meaning: "CONCLUSION." They viewed Shavuot as the conclusion of
the Passover season and of the seven-week spring harvest, since
there are no other major Jewish holy days until the autumn. In
the Greek language, Shavuot was known as Pentecost,
meaning: "fiftieth" since it was celebrated on the
50th day from the Feast of Firstfruits. Fifty days has the
fragrance of Jubilee. Jubilee is a fifty year concept that has
to do with releasing the captives. A.D. 70 is a jubilee year,
and on a jubilee year, you blow one trumpet on the day of
atonement.
Thus the Feast of Pentecost had four
main names: The Feast Of Weeks, The Feast of Harvest, Pentecost,
The Day of Firstfruits.
Leviticus 23:15 (NKJV) 'And
you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath,
from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering:
seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
The measure of barley, which was brought
to the Temple as a firstfruit offering on the Feast of
Firstfruits, was known as the omer (Heb. "measure,
sheaf"). Since this counting of days was to begin with the
offering of the omer, this 50 day period is also known as
THE OMER.
History of the Feast of Weeks
In the third month after the Jews left
Egypt, they arrived in the Sinai desert and camped opposite
Mount Sinai. Moses was then told by God to gather the Israelites
together to receive the Law:
Exodus 19:1-8 (NKJV) In the
third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the
land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of
Sinai. 2 For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the
Wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel
camped there before the mountain. 3 And Moses went up to God,
and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus
you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of
Israel: 4 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how
I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. 5 'Now
therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My
covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all
people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 'And you shall be to Me a
kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words
which you shall speak to the children of Israel." 7 So Moses
came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before
them all these words which the LORD commanded him. 8 Then all
the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has
spoken we will do." So Moses brought back the words of the
people to the LORD.
The Israelites answered, "All that
the Lord has spoken we will do!" In Hebrew, it is
Na'aseh V'Nishmah, which means: "We agree to do even before
we have listened."
Moses then gave the Jews two days to
cleanse themselves, wash their clothes, and prepare to receive
the Law on the third day. At the same time, Moses told them not
to come too near Mount Sinai. From early morning, dense clouds
covered the peak of the mountain. Thunder and lightning were
frequently seen and heard. The sound of the shofar (ram's horn)
came very strong, and the top of the mountain was enveloped in
fire and smoke. The Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai stood
in great awe:
Exodus 19:18-19 (NKJV) 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.
Moses then went up alone on the
mountain, and as he neared the top, a mighty voice announced the
Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:20-25; 20:1-21). No date is actually
associated with it in the Bible. Yet, ask any observant Jewish
person concerning Shavuot, and he will answer that it is always
celebrated fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits.
So, a very notable historical event
happened on the first Shavuot, and that was the giving
of the Ten Commandments.
Israel came to Mount Sinai on the third
day of the third month (Exodus 19:1). The Lord visited the
people three days later (Exodus 19:10-17). Therefore, the Law
was given by God on the sixth day of the third month of the
biblical religious calendar, which is the month of Sivan. This
day is exactly 50 days from the crossing of the Red Sea.
Shavuot is called the season of the
giving of the Torah in Hebrew, because this is the literal day
that God revealed Himself to the people of Israel as they stood
at the base of Mount Sinai.
The New Covenant anti-type -
Pentecost
When you hear the word "Pentecost", what
do you think of? Acts 2? Tongues? Charasmatics? What should come
to your mind is, the birth of the Church; the beginning of the
New Covenant .
Jesus was resurrected on the Feast of
First Fruits. Fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, the
promised New Covenant arrived:
Acts 2:1-4 (NKJV) When the Day
of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in
one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as
of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where
they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided
tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Tacitus, the
Roman historian, recorded, "The Holy City, with a population
then of about six hundred thousand, exploded into between two
and three millions because of the pilgrims." The pilgrims slept
on the flat roofs of the houses, camped outside the walls of
Jerusalem, were given hospitality by relatives and friends, all
within a "Sabbath day's journey" to reach the House of God.
Their presence in the Holy City on the
three major festivals was in obedience to the Torah as God
commanded Moses:
Deuteronomy 16:16 (NKJV)
"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.
Shavuot was a particularly important
Jewish feast in Bible days. Of the seven divinely appointed
feasts that were given to Israel, THREE were decreed by the Lord
as "SOLEMN FEASTS". Shavuot was the SECOND in this exclusive
triad.
The people had gathered for the
festival, and it was all for maximum effect that the Lord chose
this time to fulfil prophecy, and this was indeed God's
prophecy. We read: "There was dwelling at Jerusalem Jews,
devout men out of every nation under Heaven." They may well
have come for the festival, but our Lord had something else,
something far more spectacular, for these people. This day they
were to become the first fruits; members of a new Church, God's
Church, the Church of Jesus the Messiah. There was a new message
for a new people, it would be heard in every language and by
every people. They were to speak it as the Holy Spirit gave them
utterance; the wonderful life saving, life changing words of
Jesus, His promises eternal given to all men, spoken to all men
in language they could understand. Christian scholars mark that
historic Pentecost in Jerusalem as the "spiritual birthday of
the church."
Type and anti-type -
Old Covenant, New Covenant.
Fifty days after the first Passover in
Egypt, the Law was given to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai,
written upon tables of stone. Fifty days after the final
Passover was sacrificed, the Law was given to the "Israel of
God", written upon their hearts by the Spirit of God (II Cor.
3:3):
Hebrews 8:10 (NKJV) "For this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their
mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people.
On the first Pentecost, the Law was
given; 3,000 people died for worshiping the golden calf,
signifying the covenant of the law that brought death (Ex.
32:28; cf. II Cor. 3:16-18). On the first New Covenant Pentecost
day, the Spirit was given; 3,000 people received life
and were added to the Church of Jesus Christ (Acts. 2:41),
signifying the covenant of the Spirit brought life.
On the first occasion, and 50 days after
the Feast of Firstfruits, God came down to Moses on Mt. Sinai to
bring the Law. In the giving of the Law, God established the
nation of Israel. As His covenant people, they were destined to
become a people manifesting the righteousness of God. They would
become a "royal priesthood and a holy nation". Both the giving
of the Law on Mt. Sinai and the giving of the New Covenant
through the Holy Spirit to the 120 in the upper room were events
that occurred on the very same day of the lunar calendar, the
Day of Pentecost.
Probably one of the most beautiful
images of Pentecost is that of the marriage
between God (the groom) and Israel (the bride). In the biblical
wedding service that God gave (Romans 9:4; Hebrews 9:1; 1
Chronicles 28:11-12), marriage consisted of two stages. The
first stage is betrothal, called erusin in Hebrew. You
enter this first stage of marriage as soon as a betrothal
contract (a shitre erusin) is made between the two parties. The
written contract is called a ketubah. During betrothal,
you are legally married, but do not physically dwell with your
mate. Betrothal is so legally binding that you cannot get out of
it without a divorce, called a "get" in Hebrew.
The second stage of marriage is the
fullness, or consummation, of the marriage. This stage of
marriage is called nesu'in.
The Bible tells us in Jeremiah that at
Mount Sinai, God betrothed Himself to Israel, as it is written:
Jeremiah 2:2-3 (NKJV) "Go and
cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD:
"I remember you, The kindness of your youth, The love of your
betrothal, When you went after Me in the wilderness, In a land
not sown. 3 Israel was holiness to the LORD, The firstfruits
of His increase. All that devour him will offend; Disaster
will come upon them," says the LORD.'"
What does the wedding mean in terms of
Christ and the New Covenant? Jesus is the groom, and the first
century believers in Christ were betrothed to Him. When Jesus
came to the earth almost 2,000 years ago, He came so that
whosoever would put their trust and confidence in Him would be
wedded to Him forever. This would include both Jews and non-Jews
(John 3:16). In the Ascension, Christ went to Heaven to be with
God the Father. But before He left, He promised his first
century disciples that He would return to receive them to
Himself:
John 14:3 (NKJV) "And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you
to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Who was Jesus talking to here? The
eleven, Judas had left (Jn. 13:30-31). He was leaving them,
referring to His death, resurrection, and Ascension. But He
promises to come again to receive them to Himself; this is
referring to His second coming. During the transition period
(Pentecost - Holocaust), Christ did not dwell with His
disciples. It was the betrothal period. But He promised to come
again for His bride.
Therefore, the first century believers
in Christ were spiritually betrothed to Him. They were to enter
the full marriage, and dwell with Him when He returned for His
bride.
The giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai
involved the Aaronic priesthood, the sacrificial system, the
tabernacle, the Sabbath days, the festivals, the civil and
ceremonial laws, and the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:17,20;
20:1,21-22; 21:1-2,12; 22:1,16; 23:10-11,14; 24:1-8,12,18;
25:1,8-9,40; 28:1; 31:12-18; 32:1; 34:27-28; Hebrews 8:1-6;
9:1-12,15,18-24; 10:1,10; 13:20). These things were given by God
as a shadow of things to come (Hebrews 10:1) to teach us
(Galatians 3:24) about Jesus and the redemptive work of God
(Colossians 2:16-17). Shavuot was the birth of the congregation
in the wilderness (Acts 7:38). The things given at Mount Sinai
were divine and from God, but shown in a physical way (Hebrews
9:1) to enable us to understand the spiritual truths that God
wanted to communicate to us (1 Peter 2:5-9). So God gave Israel
the covenant; the Torah; the services; the oracles of God; and
the promises (Romans 9:4-5; 3:2), which were divine (Hebrews
9:1), at Mount Sinai to teach us about Jesus:
Psalms 40:7 (NKJV) Then I
said, "Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written
of me.
Pentecost and Leaven
At Passover, leaven was absolutely
forbidden (Exodus 12:15,19-20), and in the regular meal
offering, no leaven was permitted (Leviticus 2:1,4-5, 11). We
saw in our last study that leaven represents sin (1 Corinthians
5:6-8; Galatians 5:9). Passover and Unleavened Bread spoke of
the death and burial of Jesus, who was without sin. Yet on
Pentecost, God commanded just the opposite:
Leviticus 23:17 (NKJV) 'You
shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths
of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be
baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD.
The Temple services for Pentecost
followed much the same pattern as that of the Feast of
Firstfruits, since both holy days were celebrated with
first-fruit offerings. However, the offering for Pentecost was
unique. It consisted of two long, flat, LEAVENED loaves of wheat
bread as commanded by the Lord.
The loaves were not burned, because the
Lord had forbidden leaven on the altar: "You shall burn no
leaven nor any honey in any offering to the Lord made by fire."Instead,
these loaves and two lambs, as a peace offering, formed the WAVE
OFFERING for Pentecost. The priest waved them before the altar
forwards and backwards, then up and down. Afterward, they were
set aside for "the priest" (Lev. 23:20), and formed the festive
meal eaten by priests later that day in the Temple. Thus, the
term FEAST of Pentecost.
So on Pentecost, they were to wave
two loaves of leavened bread. These two loaves
may represent Jew and Gentile alike and thus the church. Why are
the loaves leavened?
Hebrews 8:10-13 (NKJV) "For
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their
mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people. 11 "None of them shall teach his
neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for
all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of
them. 12 "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,
and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no
more." 13 In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made
the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing
old is ready to vanish away.
One of the features of this New Covenant
is found in verse 12: "I will remember their sins no more."
Now let's go back to:
Daniel 9:24 (NKJV) "Seventy
weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make
reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting
righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint
the Most Holy."
Daniel was told that 70 weeks had been
determined on his people Israel and city Jerusalem. By the end
of this prophetic time period, God promised that six things
would be accomplished. One of the things that Daniel was told
would happen by the end of that period was that God would
"make an end of sins".
Ezekiel prophesies of the time when an
end would be made of Israel's sins. A time when Israel would be
"clean":
Ezekiel 36:24-28 (NKJV) "For I
will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all
countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 "Then I will
sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I
will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your
idols. 26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh
and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "I will put My Spirit within
you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My
judgments and do them. 28 "Then you shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I
will be your God.
This prophecy is synchronous with the
seventieth week of Daniel. This is the promised New Covenant. So
why is the Church pictured as having leaven or sin in it? I
believe it is because the New Covenant was not totally
consummated at Pentecost. The Church is born at Pentecost, but
the Old Covenant is not done away with until A.D. 70. Hebrews
was written approximately A.D. 62-64, and in Hebrews 8:13, he
talks about the Old Covenant as still "decaying and waxing
old ready to vanish away". Between Pentecost and the Day of
Atonement (A.D. 70), sin has not yet been put away, because
Jesus has not yet returned.
I think that it is safe to say that most
believers think redemption was completed at the cross. But this
is not what the Bible teaches, redemption is tied to the second
coming:
Luke 21:27-28 (NKJV) "Then
they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and
great glory. 28 "Now when these things begin to happen, look
up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws
near."
When Christ returned, he brought
redemption. As long as the Old Covenant existed, the believers
were not perfect and did not have access to God:
Hebrews 9:8-10 (NKJV) 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.
Under the Old Covenant, they were never
made perfect. And because they were not perfect, they could not
enter God's presence. Once the Old Covenant is destroyed, the
believers are perfected and enter into the presence of God.
What the saints had in the transition
period was the down payment of the perfection that was to come:
Ephesians 1:13-14 (NKJV) In
Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you
were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 WHO IS THE
GUARANTEE OF OUR INHERITANCE UNTIL THE REDEMPTION OF THE
PURCHASED POSSESSION, to the praise of His glory.
The word "guarantee" is the Greek word
arrhabon, which means: "a pledge, i.e. part of the
purchase-money or property given in advance as security for the
rest:- earnest." We see this same idea in:
2 Corinthians 1:22 (NKJV) who
also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a
guarantee.
2 Corinthians 5:5 (NKJV) Now
He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also
has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
The transition saints had in pledge what
we now have. They had a guarantee of what was to come. We have
it all.
Pentecost speaks of the birth of Israel
as a nation, as well as the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ.
The two loaves speak of Jew and Gentile as one in the Church of
Jesus Christ. Even though both Israel and the Church are chosen
by God and are holy to Him, sin is still found in Israel and sin
still exists in the Church in the transition period. Passover
and Unleavened Bread speak primarily of Jesus, who is without
sin; but Pentecost speaks of Israel and the New Testament Church
where sin still existed.
To natural Israel, Passover was their
freedom from the bondage of Egypt (Exodus 12). Unleavened Bread
was the separation from the land of Egypt into the immersion
(baptism) in the Red Sea and the Cloud in the wilderness (1
Corinthians 10:1-2). Finally, God led the people to Mount Sinai
(Exodus 19:1), where they experienced Pentecost, and God
revealed Himself to the people in a deeper and greater way than
He ever did previously.
The spring festivals were fulfilled by
Jesus, who was our Passover Lamb; died on the day of Passover.
He was without sin and is the Bread of Life. Jesus was in the
sepulcher on the day of Unleavened Bread, and He was the kernel
of wheat that was buried in the earth. Jesus arose as First
Fruits of the barley harvest, He Himself being the first of
those to rise from the dead. Finally, the promised New Covenant
arrived during the feast of Pentecost to gather all believers in
Christ to be God's spring harvest in the earth. As these four
feasts describe in detail the significant events during the
first coming of Messiah, when He came to redeem man back to God
following the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, we will find
that the fall festivals give us tremendous insight and
understanding concerning the events of Jesus' second coining.
