And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, about the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons.
Leviticus 23: 1-4 (KJV)
The great Feasts of Israel occurred during seven months from the first feast on Passover to the last feast on Tabernacles.
Through the Feast System, God symbolically provided a prophetic picture of His plan of salvation in history.
The feasts also specify the work of His indestructible High Priest as the only intercessor for mankind.
The Messiah, the Anointed One is the anointed High Priest.
All the feasts specify the appointed time that God will personally come to be with us.
When we look on the ancient festival system, and understand it and the symbolism behind it as a prophecy,
we can gain additional insight and appreciation for the magnificence of God's plan for mankind, and for the significance of His Holy Word to us today.
For whatsoever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15: 4)
- The Sabbath.
In giving these sacred festivals, the first thing the LORD mentions is The Sabbath.
In doing this He links the Ten Commandments to the ceremonial laws.
It is through the fulfillment of the ceremonial laws that God would bring back the laws into our hearts and give us rest from sin.
Therefore, these festivals were a time of celebration.
- The Seasons. The feasts were built around the idea of seasons and harvests as signs for His people.
So, the Sabbaths and the new moons are critical markers in time. They will to be celebrated in the new earth.
'And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.
(Genesis 1: 14)
The spring festivals pointed to events connected to the First Coming of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The autumn festivals and the Sabbaths of the seventh month pointed to events connected to the Second Coming of Christ and the Father.
Three Great Harvests |
The three great feasts centered around the three great harvests of Israel.
They also correspond to three great actions of the members of the Trinity for the church.
» Passover. The Barley Harvest. Jesus Christ, the Messiah is sacrificed.
» Pentecost. The Wheat Harvest. The Holy Spirit comes to be with the church while they are on earth and He writes the law in our hearts.
» Tabernacles. The Fruit Harvest. We dwell with the Father in heaven. He gives us new bodies and a new home.
This is also the fruit harvest. It is the work of the Holy Spirit who comes at Pentecost to produce the fruits of the Spirit in every believer. This fruit is harvested at this time.
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Three Great Pilgrimage Feasts Of Israel
Three times each year the people were required to go to Jerusalem. It represented the three times that the members of the Godhead go to earth with Jesus to fulfill a portion of the Plan of Salvation and gather the harvest.
Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me.
Three times a year all your males should appear before the Lord.
(Exodus 23: 14, 17)
- Passover (Pesach) - The Journey of Jesus the Messiah.
Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God: for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you from out of Egypt by night.
(Deuteronomy 16: 1)
Passover occurred on the fourteenth day, first month. This is the month of Abib (Nissan) which was the beginning of their sacred year.
It celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, the land of slavery.
It also celebrates the deliverance of the world from sin when Jesus died during Passover.
This month shall be for you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
(Exodus 12: 2-3, 6)
- Pentecost (Feast of Weeks) (Shavuot or Shavu'ot) - The Journey of the Holy Spirit.
And you shall count to you from the morning after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete:
Even to the morning after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days; and you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.
(Leviticus 23: 15-16)
According to Jewish tradition Shavout, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost marks the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai on tables of stone.
It began fifty days after the wave sheaf.
It also marked the giving of the Holy Spirit to the church on the day of Pentecost to write the law on flesh (in our hearts).
Pentecost is the fulfillment of the promise to give us the fruit of the Spirit.
- Tabernacles (Succos) - The Journey of God, The Father.
It occurred for seven days during the autumn harvest on the seventh month of the year (Tishri) starting on the fifteenth day.
It celebrated the time when Israel lived with God.
Each of the other two feasts ends with a promise of Tabernacles.
The fourth cup of Passover, which is God's promise to take us, is a prayer for the "fruit of the vine" when we will be taken at the Second Coming harvest.
Fulfillment Of The Spring Festivals
The spring feasts show how God acted to remove sin from the land and fulfill His covenant to us.
He removes the penalty of sin by providing a permanent offering.
He removes the consequence by defeating death and proving the resurrection.
He removes the desire to sin by writing His laws into our hearts with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Our Intercessor |
Passover | Crucifixion |
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Lamb | Jesus Christ |
Jesus dies for our sins |
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Passover (Crucifixion and Exodus)
In the Passover ceremony God removes sin and the penalty of sin from the land.
Passover.
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD'S Passover.
Unleavened Bread. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.
But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work."
(Leviticus 23: 5-8)
The death of Jesus Christ during Passover, fulfilled the events that this festival symbolized for hundreds of years.
- Passover (Nisan 14). In the original Passover, the death angel avoided the homes of the people who had the blood of a lamb on their doors.
But the firstborn and the rest of Egypt were killed. The death of Christ ended the sentence of death on the children of Adam.
The Lamb of God. The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world". (John 1: 29)
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end. (John 13: 1)
- Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15-21). In this period they ate unleavened bread. Bread represents the body and leaven is a symbol of sin because Satan was "puffed up" with pride just as leaven causes bread to rise. So during Passover, sin would be removed from the land.
The first day of the feast was a Sabbath of rest. This represents Jesus in the grave. The Bread of Life was broken and dead.
There was a holy convocation on two days, when the people gathered before the Lord. These are the dates of all the holy convocations which are Sabbaths to celebrate the triumphs of God.
- Lamb (Nisan 15). He had just been crucified as the Lamb of God on earth, now He was in the grave.
- High Priest (Nisan 21). He was in heaven and this was probably His coronation as High Priest.
- Holy Spirit (Pentecost). He sent the Holy Spirit as a gift from the High Priest, forty five days later.
- King (Tishri 15). 135 days after Pentecost they celebrated living with God.
- (Tishri 22). 142 days after Pentecost they celebrated the new beginning,
- Sabbath. Every Sabbath is a special meeting with the LORD.
- Barley Harvest. This harvest was gathered at this time. It is the first fruits from the dead earth. It is the resurrection of Jesus with others.
Passover was the beginning of the exodus for the Jews to the Promised Land and it was also the exodus of Jesus from earth.
The Transfiguration. And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his clothes was white and glistening. And, look, there two men talked with him, which were Moses and Elias: Who appeared in glory, and spoke of His departure [exodus] which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.
(Luke 9: 28-31)
There are two points to note in this story.
- The word "departure" is "EXODOS" in the Greek. So Jesus began an exodus journey when He officially became the Passover Lamb. The exodus would bring Him to Heaven, the ultimate Promised Land. The lesson on the twelve tribes describes this exodus.
- Moses symbolized the resurrected dead, while Elijah symbolized the translated living. The exodus would begin an exodus of the righteous living and the dead to heaven with the message of these two men.
Wave Sheaf - Feast Of First Fruits (Resurrection)
Month | S | M | T | W | Th | F | Sabbath |
Nisan | - | - | - | - | - | - |  |
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
 |  | 11 | 12 | 13 |  |  |
 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |  | 22 |
Jesus is inaugurated as High Priest |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
Iyar | 30 |  | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |  | 19 |  |
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |  | 26 | 27 |
Sivan | 28 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Disciples inaugurated as priests |
 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Tamuz | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 1 | 2 |
Ab | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Elul | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
Tishri | 29 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
7 | 8 | 9 |  | 11 | 12 | 13 |
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
28 | 29 | 30 | - | - | - | - |
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
"Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.
He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for you to be accepted; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the LORD.
Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the LORD for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine.
Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
(Leviticus 23: 9-14)
The wavesheaf is the harvest that was gathered in bundles and presented as an offering of the firstfruits from the new harvest.
In the wavesheaf God proved that He could defeat death and give eternal life.
The First Fruits of the barley harvest from the ground were to be dedicated to God.
The barley harvest that was gathered at Passover represents the first fruits from the dead earth.
At His resurrection, other people were resurrected with Him. They all became the first fruits.
Jesus was not the first person to be resurrected. But it was the best and the first significant resurrection.
That the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.
(Acts 26: 23)
Three Days And Nights.
Christ had to fulfill many laws in three days to become an acceptable offering.
The laws were prophecies that were designed to reflect what would happen to Him.
They may even be instructions from the past to guide His decisions.
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Wavesheaf. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. (Leviticus 23: 11).
The wavesheaf must be offered the day after the Sabbath.
Since Nisan 15, the day after the Passover lamb was killed, was also a Sabbath that could occur any day of the week, two Jewish traditions have developed about this feast.
Is this Sabbath, the first weekly seventh day Sabbath after Passover or is it Nissan 15, the day after the Passover lamb was killed.
Jesus resolved this issue by dying on a Friday. Both Nissan 15 and the weekly Sabbath occurred on the same day. It was a high Sabbath.
So the wave sheaf was the resurrection on Sunday.
- Age of the Peace Offering (Three Days). But what is left over from the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned with fire. So if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings shall ever be eaten on the third day, he who offers it will not be accepted, and it will not be reckoned to his benefit. It shall be an offensive thing, and the person who eats it will bear his own iniquity.
(Leviticus 7: 17-18)
» Peace Offerings.
Any offering kept longer than three days was unacceptable. Free will offerings must be eaten in three days. Thanksgiving offerings are eaten the first day.
» Passover (Buried First Day).
You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, Nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of Passover to be left over until morning.
(Exodus 34: 25)
Since Jesus became all these offerings He had to meet all requirements.
After being killed as the Passover Lamb He was buried the same day, before the next morning.
He was not hung on the cross for days.
He must wait for one Sabbath to be a wavesheaf offering.
And He presented Himself as the wave offering within three days.
» Ordination Ram (One Day).
You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place.
If any of the flesh of ordination or any of the bread remains until morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire; it shall not be eaten because it is holy.
(Exodus 29: 31,34)
Jesus was also the ram of ordination. He had to be buried before the morning. His body could not remain on the cross overnight. At His resurrection He would present Himself as the offering in His own ordination ceremony.
Three Days |
Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
Night 1 | Day 1 | Night 2 | Day 2 | Night 3 | Day 3 |
Nissan 14 | Nissan 15 | Nissan 16 |
Passover Lamb Killed | Sabbath | Wavesheaf  |
Ordination | Thanksgiving | Free Will |
Suffering | Dead, Buried | Resurrected |
Roast, Boil, Eat | Swallow | Vomit |
Jesus in the Bowels |
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A high Sabbath is the merging of two Sabbaths. The Sabbath of a feast day occurs on the weekly Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday).
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In the Bowels. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
(Matthew 12: 40)
He prophesied that He would be "in the bowels or the heart of the earth" for only three days. We have always assumed that this phrase means physically buried. But we do not know.
Jesus began to be tortured and beaten on that Thursday night. His time in the bowels must include this time from the moment of His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane when His blood first started to pour out.
From that moment, He began the suffering that Jonah experienced.
When He became the offering, He suffered for three days. And within that time, when He became the sin offering, He suffered for three hours.
In the bowels also means in the body. This includes the mouth. Therefore, this is how Jesus was represented by the animal who chews the cud.
- Boiled and Chewed. Jesus was the offering that was boiled, roasted and chewed up by the mouth as they spit on Him and hurled insults at Him.
- Swallowed. He was eaten or swallowed on His burial into the bowels of the earth.
- Vomit. He was vomited or regurgitated at His resurrection. This included His ascension to Heaven, not just His resurrection from the grave.
He would escape not only from the grave but from the planet earth.
Counting The Omer
You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths.
You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD.
(Leviticus 23: 15-16)
You shall count for yourselves seven weeks, from when the sickle is first put to the standing crop shall you begin counting seven weeks. Then you will observe the Feast of Weeks [Shavu'ot] for the LORD, your God.
(Deuteronomy 16: 9-10)
This is the forty nine days between Passover and Shavu'ot. The Jews called it "counting the omer".
An omer is a measure of barley and the word means "sheaves of harvested crop".
The counting begins on the day after the Sabbath after the Passover or on the second day of Passover according to some traditions.
When Jesus was crucified, the first weekly Sabbath, the Passover Sabbath and the second day of Passover all occurred on the same day.
They brought barley the size of an omer to the Temple in Jerusalem as an offering.
Then fifty days later they brought the first offering of the new wheat harvest.
The counting reminds them of the link between Passover and Shavout.
When they were freed from slavery to when they were given the law on Sinai.
In the Christian era, this marks the period from the crucifixion of the lamb of God and our freedom from slavery to sin,
to when we would be given the Holy Spirit who would write the law of God in our hearts.
Since Christ played both the role of the Lamb and the Priest, He would be inaugurated as the new High Priest with His own blood as the sacrifice under the new covenant during this period.
Thursday Night | Friday Nissan 14 | Saturday Nissan 15 | Sunday Nissan 16 | 49 days | Sunday Sivan 6 (Day 50) |
Day 1 | 7 | 8 | Day 33 | 40 | 49 |
Passover (Pesach) | Sabbath | Wave sheaf | Counting the Omer (49 days) | Shavuot |
Meal | Crucified | Rest in the grave |
Resurrected |
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Inauguration |
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Lag B'Omer |
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Holy Spirit |
(7 Days) | (33 Days) | (10 days) |
Lag B'Omer ("Day 33 of Counting the Omer").
Lag B'Omer is celebrated on day 33 as a minor holiday during this period.
It probably celebrates the giving of manna when they gathered about an omer per person beginning around Iyar 16 (Exodus 16).
Normally the 49 days are a time of partial mourning, but they are required to take this day as a day of joy and cease mourning.
It is celebrated as an outdoor festival with a picnic and a bonfire and other traditions added after Christ.
The Jews have lost the reason why they do this, and they have added other traditions to commemorate an important event during the Bar Kochba revolution in 132 AD when a plague that killed 24,000 students ended on this day.
- ("Day 1"). Nisan 16: Jesus Appears to Mary: ("Resurrection"). The resurrected ones were the barley harvest.
Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.
... When she said this she turned and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.
(John 20: 1, 14)
- ("Day 1"). Nisan 16: Jesus Appears to the Disciples: ("Before His Inauguration"). Then Jesus went to heaven.
So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you".
(John 20: 19)
- ("Day 8"). Nisan 23: Jesus Appears to the Disciples: ("After His Inauguration"). Jesus was not seen for seven days and then appeared on the eighth day.
He was being inaugurated as the permanent High Priest at the temple in heaven. The service requires the priest to stay at the temple for seven days, then the Lord will appear on the eighth day.
The LORD Jesus appeared to His disciples on the eighth day after His own inauguration began.
After eight days His disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said "Peace be with you".
(John 20: 26)
- ("Day 33"). Iyar 18: Jesus Appears to the Disciples: ("At the Sea of Tiberias"). He had an outdoor picnic with a fire with the disciples. These are the traditions of the Lag B'Omer as celebrated by the Jews.
Outdoor Meeting. But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus
Bonfire. So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it and bread.
Picnic. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast". None of the disciples ventured to question Him, "Who are You?" knowing that it was the Lord.
This is now the third time that Jesus manifested to the disciples after He was raised from the dead.
(John 21: 4, 9, 12, 14)
The dates of His other appearances can be calculated, but we have to guess about this one.
So far, this is the only time that He met them outdoors. And He had a fire and picnic prepared.
This number 33 has several important connections.
- 33 Days On Earth. After spending 7 days in Heaven, He spent 33 days on earth after His ascension.
This was prophesied in a blessing to Asher. Jesus walks the earth freely for the number of days of His age.
And according to your days, so will your leisurely walk be.
(Deuteronomy 33: 24-25)
- 33 Days to Lag B'Omer. He appeared to the disciples 33 days after His resurrection for a picnic.
- 33 Days to Cleanse a Woman. After the birth of a Son, the woman (church) must wait an additional 33 days after waiting 7 days for His circumcision.
- Child Joins the Covenant (7 Days). Jesus became our official high priest.
- Woman Cleansed (33 Days). The disciples were given their final instructions.
- 33 Years Old. Jesus was 33 years old when He died. His death cleansed the world from sin.
So the holiday represents an oasis in time between Passover and Pentecost. It is the moment when we can stop our mourning and celebrate with the Lord the fact that we have been cleansed from sin and death.
- ("Day 40"). Iyar 25: Jesus Leaves the Disciples: ("Rapture"). He was seen for forty days after His resurrection.
until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.
To these He presented Himself alive after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.
(Acts 1: 2-3)
- ("Day 50"). Sivan 6: The Holy Spirit Comes: ("Shavu'ot or Pentecost "). The wheat harvest.
The sheaves of harvested crop were the 3000 Jews who were converted when the Holy Spirit came down in tongues of fire (Acts 2: 41).
The Cosmic Lag B'Omer
This follows a time pattern for the appearance of the Messiah in a 6000 year cycle.
The history of the world is the time of mourning between sin and salvation when the law of God is written in the heart by the Holy Spirit.
Lag B'Omer is day 33, the time two thirds of the way through the period of mourning and fasting when we rejoice because the Messiah is here.
Jesus came around the year 4000, two thirds of the way through 6000 years. He died at age 33 on the cosmic day 33 after 3 days of suffering.
Day 0 | 1 | 7 | 12 | 14 | 21 | 28 | 33 | 35 | 40 | 42 | 49 | Day 50 |
Year 1 | 840 | 1440 | 1680 | 2520 | 3360 | 4000 | 4200 | 4800 | 5040 | 5880 | Year 6000 |
| Fasting | Joy | Fasting |  | Shavuos |
Lamb Slain | - | Flood | Slavery | Divided | Messiah | - | Holy Spirit |
- Passover (1). Christ is the Lamb that was slain at the foundation of the world.
- Lag B'Omer (33). The Messiah appears two thirds of the way through the time of mourning.
During this joyous time the custom is to cease fasting and have weddings.
Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
And Jesus said to them, "The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast".
(Matthew 9: 14-15)
Jesus' first miracle was to make wine for a wedding. As the Bridegroom, He would give His blood for the bride.
- Omer Counted (49). This is the last day of fasting. We must prepare for the coming of the Bridegroom.
The counting of the omer is connected to the great harvests. It must be the census of the righteous 144,000.
- Shavuot (50). God comes. The Holy Spirit is poured out. The latter rain and Second Coming occurs on this day.
Pentecost - (The Feast Of Weeks Or Shavu'ot) (Holy Spirit)
Pentecost occurred fifty days after the day after the Sabbath following the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb.
Jesus Our Intercessor |
Pentecost | Baptism |
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Holy Spirit | Holy Spirit |
Jesus washes away our sins through the Holy Spirit |
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In the Old Testament Exodus, the Day of Pentecost corresponds to the Children of Israel coming to Mt. Sinai. (Exodus 19: 1-6).
There, God came down in fire and smoke and gave them the Ten Commandments.
Jews celebrate the giving of the Torah and the harvest of the first fruits.
This also corresponded to the time of the Wheat Harvest.
On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out as tongues of fire and the first fruits of the Gospel were reaped when three thousand were converted in one day.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared to them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added to them about three thousand souls.
(Acts 2: 1-4, 41)
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit. I indeed baptize you with water to repentance: but He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. (Matthew 3: 11).
At Pentecost, the New Testament church was formed when many ethnic people were won to Christ. It was a form of reversal of the Tower of Babel, because all men there heard the message in their own tongues. The Holy Spirit overcame the language and cultural barriers. The end time church will also be made up of every nation, tribe, tongue and people.
Easter
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The first Pentecost occurred on Shavout.
The crucifixion occurred on Passover which happened to occur on a Friday that year.
Unfortunately, when the church adopted pagan holidays, it substituted the crucifixion for Easter along with many pagan customs to create a pot luck mix of customs of human origin.
Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Easter which is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox (spring). None of this is biblical timing.
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Lent. 40 week days and Saturdays before holy week.
Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday"). Day before lent begins.
Ash Wednesday. Lent season begins.
Holy Week.
» Palm Sunday. Sixth Sunday after Ash Wednesday.
» Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday). Last supper.
» Good Friday. Crucifixion.
» Easter Sunday. Resurrection Sunday.
Pentecost Sunday. 50 days after Easter Sunday.
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Two Loaves : (Jesus, Holy Spirit).
You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD.
Along with the bread you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD.
You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the LORD; they are to be holy to the LORD for the priest.
(Leviticus 23: 17-20)
Every harvest had an offering of first fruits. At Shavout it was the whear harvest and this was given as baked bread.
Notice who is being offered in each of the three main harvests and in what form it is offered.
- Passover : ("Barley Grain"). Jesus Christ is the uncooked grain who is about to be roasted.
- Pentecost : ("Two Baked Loaves"). Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are the cooked grain as loaves of bread.
- Tabernacles : ("Three Baked Loaves").
We have to look at other laws to determine what is the wave offering at this time. The righteous are now priests that come before God as the wave offering and they are being consecrated.
Only priests can enter the sanctuary, so God consecrates us all and offers the entire world as a wave offering. A part of this ceremony is offering three loaves of bread (Exodus 29: 23).
Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Father are the three loaves. It was their combined efforts that have saved us.
The Proclamation Of The Gospel On The Day Of Pentecost
On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.
(Leviticus 23: 21)
On the day of Pentecost they are to make a proclamation at a gathering. When it was fulfilled, the Jews had gathered in Jerusalem from many different places because of the required pilgrimage at Pentecost.
Peter preached to them and the other disciples spoke in at least fifteen other languages and 3000 were converted that day.
Holy Spirit. And there appeared to them tongues of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
The Proclamation. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the spirit was giving them utterance.
Jews from all four corners. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.
The Wheat Harvest. So then those who had received his words were baptized, and that day there were added about 3000 souls.
(Acts 2: 3-5, 41)
At the resurrection of Jesus in the barley harvest, Jesus also made a proclamation of the gospel. (Acts 26: 23)
On the last Jubilee at Yom Kippur, a proclamation will also be made to announce our freedom. (Leviticus 25: 10)
Reaping the Harvest.
There are two main laws that govern the gathering of a harvest for God.
- When ("Timing of the Harvest"). The law says that God will not accept the fruit harvest until the fourth year after planting.
There is an optimal time for planting and an optimal time for reaping.
Plant Fruit. When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden.
Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten.
First Fruits. But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord.
Harvest Belongs to the People. In the fifth year you are to eat of its fruit, that its yield may increase for you, I am the Lord your God.
(Leviticus 19: 23-25)
This is why many time periods are based on forty or forty two periods of time. Both are within the fourth year.
- Forty Months for the Righteous. The righteous are judged first, after forty months.
- Forty Two Months for the Wicked. The wicked are judged next after forty two months.
Iniquity is also judged in the third and fourth generation.
You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
You shall not worship them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children,
and on the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me,
but showing loving kindness to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
(Deuteronomy 5: 8-10)
Judgment in the Fourth Generation (Between the Third and the Fourth).
- Rome. Jesus came during the fourth kingdom (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome).
- Millennium. Jesus came in the fourth millennium to be judged as a serpent and die for our sins.
- Levi and Judah (Third and Fourth Son). Jesus' fate was defined by these two sons, priest and king.
Fruit in the Fourth Year. Given to God.
- Fruit of Israel. Jesus died after three year of preaching and in the fourth decade of living.
- Fruit of the Womb. Mary probably visited the temple in her fourth month at the birth of John.
- Fruit of Abraham. The 12 sons were born in the fourth generation. (Abraham - Isaac - Jacob)
- Fruit for the Promised Land. Israel left Egypt in the fourth generation (Genesis 15: 16).
Reaping. The laws on the land Sabbath and jubilee give us the promises for reaping.
» Do not plan your harvest so that the fourth year occurs during the land Sabbath when reaping is not allowed.
» Do plan your harvest to take advantage of the blessings promised in the year before the land Sabbath.
- Where ("Strategy of the Reaping").
A part of the law on gathering the harvest was the instructions on where to work and what to do with the produce.
This law requires the workers to go to the Jews first.
When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the LORD your God.
(Leviticus 23: 22)
At Pentecost, there were Jews from "every nation" or all four corners of the earth (Acts 2: 5).
» Reaping The Four Corners of Jesus.
After the Sanhedrin was done interrogating, mocking and slapping Jesus, they handed Him over to the aliens.
The Romans took His four corners and nailed them to the cross. They became the four horns smeared with blood.
The Romans also took the gleanings when they took His outer covering and stripped Him naked.
Simon of Cyrene also took the gleanings when he took the cross that fell on the ground with Jesus.
Jesus Reaps the Harvest According to the Law.
Jesus fulfilled these laws with these instructions.
These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans;
but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
(Matthew 10: 5-7)
- Jews First. He give the Gospel to the Jews first and instructed the disciples to do the same.
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
(Romans 1: 16)
Jesus and the disciples ministered for seven years to fulfill the last portion of the 490 years remaining for the Jews in the prophecy of Daniel.
He used another one law to guide the timing of His ministry.
- Jesus Ministers 3½ Years. After He was planted He reaped only the twelve disciples and a few women.
No Fruit for Three Years.
"And he said to the vineyard keeper, 'Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?'
(Luke 13: 7)
But after three years, the harvest was a disappointment.
The parable from Luke goes on to suggest that God was willing to try for a little longer. He ministered for another half year.
Wait another Year.
And he answered and said to him, "let it alone, sir for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer and if it bears fruit next year fine; but if not, cut it down.
(Luke 13: 8)
- Disciples Minister 3½ Years.
He made the disciples dig around and cultivate the plants for another three years
after Jesus was planted and sprang to life. They reaped at least 3000 souls.
But that was also a disappointing harvest. So the tree was cut down. (Matthew 3: 10)
And God went to find fruit among the Gentiles (Matthew 21: 43).
- Four Corners. This is the entire land that will be reaped by two groups, the owners and strangers. While Christ was on earth the disciples were only supposed to reap the harvest in Israel but leave some for the alien.
- Poor and Strangers. The rest of the harvest of God will be gathered by the Gentiles. The field is the four corners of the world and whatever fell to the ground in Israel.
Claims And Lies About Jesus. Many traditions and books make up claims about what Jesus did before His public ministry and after His resurrection.
- The Missing Years. Those who speculate on what Jesus did before His public ministry point to claims that He traveled to India and Britain with Joseph of Aramathea where He built a church.
If He had done this before He preached to the Jews He would have broken the law. These events did not happen.
- Did Jesus Have Children?
Other rumors claim that He went to India and had children. Some claim that He married Mary Magdalene and had children.
These rumors also deny prophecies which state that He would not have any offspring or posterity and that He would die with nothing and have no one.
Then after the sixty two weeks the Messiah would be cut off and have nothing. (Daniel 9: 26)
He has no offspring or posterity among his people, nor any survivors where he sojourned. (Job 18: 19)
The Resurrection Of The First Fruits
Jesus and a group of other people were resurrected as the first fruits.
On that Sunday, He went into the Most Holy Place and presented Himself to God as the offering and proof of the atonement and resurrection.
The Resurrection. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
And, look, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared to many. (Matthew 27: 50-53)
The First Fruits From the Dead.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. (1 Corinthians 15: 20-23)
Agricultural Seasons (Rain, Harvests And First Fruits)
Here is a calendar of the annual seasons and harvests.
Month | Weather | Crop | Harvest | First Fruits | Feasts |
Spring
 (Grain harvest) |
1 | Nisan | March-April | Spring rain | Barley | Barley harvest begins | Barley | Passover |
2 | Zif | April-May | - | Lentils, peas | Barley harvest ends | - | - |
3 | Sivan | May-June | Dry season | Wheat | Wheat harvest begins | Wheat | Pentecost |
Summer
(Grape harvest) |
4 | Tamuz | June-July | - | Grapes, figs | Wheat harvest ends | New wine | - |
5 | Ab | July-August | Summer heat | Grapes, figs | Grape harvest | - | - |
6 | Elul | August-September | - | Summer Fruit: Grapes, figs, date, pomegranate, etrog | New olive oil | - |
Autumn
(Olive harvest) |
7 | Tishri | September-October | Early rain | Olives (September - November) | Ploughing | - | Tabernacles |
8 | Cheshvan | October-November | - | Ploughing. Plant grain. Fat sheep killed | Jesus was the Seed planted on the earth at His birth during Tabernacles |
9 | Kislev | November-December | - | Plant Grain (November - January) | Plant wheat, barley |
Winter |
10 | Tebeth | December-January | Main rain | - | - | No Harvest (Rest) |
11 | Sebat | January-February | - | - | Almond blooms (January) | Late Planting |
12 | Adar | February-March | - | Flax | Almond fruit (March) |
The Great Summer Drought
Between the spring and autumn months was the hot summer which lasted about three and a half months.
During this time, there were no harvests, and no rain.
This symbolizes the spiritual drought of the 1260 Years of Papal supremacy.
And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. (Revelation 11: 3, 6)
Tishrei 1 | Tishrei 10 | 4 days | Tishrei 15 | 6 days | Tishrei 21 | Tishrei 22 |
Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur | Latter Rain | Tabernacles | Succos (7 days) | Shemini Atzeret |
Feast of Trumpets |
Judgment |
|
Rapture |
Scapegoat in the wilderness |
World is Judged |
New Heavens and Earth |
Time Of The End | Sealing | Harvest | Second Coming | Millennium | Third Coming |
The Spring And Autumn Rain
The physical rainy season began in autumn and ended in spring.
The autumn rains or planting rains were called the early rain and the spring rain or harvest rain was called the latter rain.
The Rains of God.
He will give the rain for the land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your
grain and your new wine and your oil.
(Deuteronomy 11: 14)
The promise of God to send rain spanned the beginning and end of the rainy season.
This rainy season for agriculture began in autumn and ended in spring.
The early rain softened the earth and allowed the ground to be plowed and seed to be planted.
This rain allowed the seed to grow.
In addition, the early rain came at the fruit harvest and it watered the trees and gave the fruit water just before they were harvested.
However the season for salvation is slightly different.
The spiritual rainy season began in spring at Passover and ends in autumn at the feast of Tabernacles.
But the promise of God still applies. We get an early and late rain.
This difference confuses the meaning of the words "early rain (former)" and "late rain (latter)".
But the crops came in the same order.
- Early Spring Rain (First Rain). The coming of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
- Ploughing. When God resurrected Jesus and the first fruits, He literally ploughed the earth, or dug up the earth.
For three and a half years Jesus and the disciples ploughed the field in Israel to get them ready for the
planting of the seed (His death) and the coming of the Holy Spirit with power.
- Seed Planted. Jesus was the Seed planted in the earth at His death.
Ploughing and planting continued during the rainy season to increase the yield.
- Reaping The Grain Harvest. The 3000 souls saved at Pentecost and the dead who were raised at the resurrection.
- Drought. In the physical world the summer drought occurred in this time. But in the spiritual world it is still raining.
The Holy Spirit is here, but He is ignored. So, practically, there was a spiritual drought in the middle of rain from heaven.
- Late Autumn Rain (Last Rain). The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the end of time in the harvest rain.
There was a custom among the Jews that pointed to the moving of the Holy Spirit around the time of the feasts.
The Limited Moving of the Waters.
After these things there was a feast of the jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.
In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters.
for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.
(John 5: 1-4)
The practice seemed somehow cruel because all these desperate people were waiting to be healed and only the one who was healthy enough to be first would be cured.
However, we must see these as signs that God was trying to hint at the powerful events that would accompany the feasts only during specific seasons and only with one lucky generation.
- Reaping The Fruit Harvest. The billions of souls saved at the Second Coming.
- Ploughing. Notice that the spiritual and agricultural ploughing seasons merge at the great resurrection.
We will be ploughed up from this old earth and planted in Heaven.
- Winter Rest. We will grow during the winter months of the millennium.
Physical Rain | Spring | Summer | Autumn |
Late Rain | Dry Season | Early Rain | Ploughing |
Harvest |  | Barley |
 |  |
 | Wheat | 2000+ years |
 |
 |
 | Fruit |
 | Olive |  | Planting |
Spiritual Rain | Seed Planted |  |
Pentecost |
- | Yom Kippur | Tabernacles | 1000 Years |
Ploughing | Early Rain | Apostasy | Late Rain |
 | Resurrection |
Diet | Protein (Grain Harvest) | Carbohydrates (Fruit Harvest) | Fat (Olive Harvest) |
So rejoice, O sons of Zion, and be glad in the Lord your God;
for he had given you the early rain for your vindication.
And He has poured down for you the rain, the early and latter rain in the first month.
(Joel 2: 23)
This verse is ambiguous because the various translations make it so.
» Early Rain Vindication. The early rain is sent for our vindication. We technically have two early rains and two first months. One is civil and the other is religious (physical and spiritual).
The first month of the civil calendar is Tishri. The first month of the religious calendar is Nisan.
- Spring. We were vindicated in the first month of the religious cycle because Christ died for us during Passover so that the first death, the penalty for sin can pass over us.
- Autumn. We were vindicated in the first month of the civil cycle because Christ justifies us during the judgment of Yom Kippur so that the second death, can pass over us and we can receive the gift of God which is eternal life.
The First Fruits Harvests
The Harvests of God.
You shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place where He chooses to establish His name.
The tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to
fear [love] the Lord your God always.
(Deuteronomy 14: 23)
There was an important harvest every seven weeks.
Each 49 days represents the perfect passage of time from one harvest to the next.
The first fruits were the special part of the harvest that came in just before the rest of the harvest.
These are dedicated to God. The rest of the harvest is for the people.
So, spiritually, we will have a harvest of the first fruits and then a general harvest.
Practically, it is the first fruits that are the example that lead the rest of the harvest to God.
Seed Planted | Grain Harvest | Fruit Harvest |
No Harvest | Barley | 49 Days | Rain | Wheat | 49 Days | New Wine | Grape Harvest | 1798 | 49 Days |  Rain | New Olive Oil | Living |  First Born |
Jews |
Christ | Disciples | 3,000 | Jews | Martyrs | 144,000 | Martyrs |
30 Years | 3½ years | 2000 Years | Last Days | Dead |
The Seven Fruits of the Promised Land.
A land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey (dates).
(Deuteronomy 8: 8)
This honey was not from bees but was boiled from the date fruit.
Although there were other fruits and trees, God promised a land with certain fruits that would become key symbols in the Plan of Salvation.
Grain.
The grain harvest represents the seed that is planted. It is Christ, the disciples and the Jews who are the source of the information about God.
After the plant grows, fruit is expected. Therefore, in the end a fruit harvest should appear from this plant that is watered by the Holy Spirit.
Christ is the Seed that was planted, He can bear multiple types of fruit from one tree.
And with each type of harvest a crop of first fruit appears.
Barley Harvest. The first fruit from the dead earth were brought as the wavesheaf offering at Passover.
They proved that God had conquered death and could raise any righteous dead on the last day.
» Unknown Number. Jesus and the first fruits from the dead earth were resurrected and displayed before God.
Wheat Harvest. This harvest came fifty days after the barley harvest.
These first fruits proved that God had kept His promise in the covenant. He would send the Holy Spirit to write the law in our hearts.
» 3,000. They are the first fruit of the wheat harvest who were converted at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came.
As these Jews went back to about 16 countries, they spread the gospel and the rest of the wheat harvest came in.
Fig Harvest |
The figs ripened at the end of summer, but the fruit started to grow during the spring.
Poor people would eat the green figs at this time.
Jesus cursed the fig tree, because it did not start bearing fruit and He was hungry.
This was a condemnation of the Jews who should have grown fruit for the Gentiles.
(Mark 11)
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Like the fig harvest, the Jews would ripen at the end of time.
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Grape Harvest.
It came fifty days or seven weeks after Pentecost (Shavout).
The first fruits proved that a human filled with the Holy Spirit can obey God. They will not fail where Adam and Eve did.
These did not love their life even up to death, so they would not disobey God for pleasure or food.
» The New Wine Harvest.
Since Pentecost, the work of the Holy Spirit has been to produce fruit in the people who will occupy the kingdom.
It probably marks the beginning of the spread of the Gospel around the world with the 3000 who were converted at Pentecost and then went back to their own country.
From the prophecy of the third seal we know that the majority of the oil and wine harvest came after this seal.
The grape harvest are the martyrs who spilled their blood. The first fruits were the martyrs from the church of Smyrna killed by Diocletian.
More Martyrs. The grape harvest continues until the plagues. Under the fifth seal, the martyrs are told that their death will not be avenged at that time until the rest of the martyrs are killed.
Olive Oil Harvest.
The first fruits of the new olive oil festival comes fourteen weeks after Pentecost just before the feast of trumpets.
This harvest is greatest after the feast of tabernacles.
The righteous are olive trees standing at the throne of God.
This represents the permanent presence of the Holy Spirit in the righteous for eternity.
They proved that God can bring perfection through the Holy Spirit.
» 144,000 (New Olive Oil and Pomegranates). They are the first fruit of the olive harvest.
They are the first fruit of a harvest that goes out into the field to prepare and gather the greater harvest for the Second Coming.
These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins.
These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
These were redeemed from among men, being first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.
(Revelation 14: 4)
Pomegranate Harvest
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The borders of the garment of the High Priest alternated with 72 bells and 72 pomegranates.
The pomegranate harvest was in Elul (August/September). This was the time of the feast of trumpets and the festival of the new olive oil.
Around this time the ten days of awe began and Jesus went into the Most Holy place on Yom Kippur.
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According to the Middrash, the pomegranate has 613 seeds. This is equal to the number of laws (mitzvot) in the Torah.
The juice also makes a natural red dye.
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The Loud Cry Of The Third Angel.
The pomegranate harvest comes just before the feast of trumpets at the same time as the new olives.
The 144 noise makers, the 72 bells and 72 pomegranates, make a loud sound on the last day of judgment.
On the day of atonement, the noise of the bells and pomegranates on the hem of the robes of the priest signaled to the people waiting outside that the High Priest is still alive, ministering on their behalf before God.
They are the first group who are totally filled with the Holy Spirit.
First Born Harvest.
The new Israel, those born of the Holy Spirit in the feast of Tabernacles will receive the name of God.
They are the fruit from the grain harvest and the wheat harvest and the olive harvest.
They all become the first born of a new creation.
Then we will eat in the presence of the Lord in the New Jerusalem and He will drink the fourth cup of the Passover with us and officially end the Passover and begin the Tabernacles.
One Great Harvest
There is a link between the harvests of Passover and Tabernacles.
Until the future Passover when the Jews recognize the Messiah, we are still in Passover time.
At Passover they pray for the "fruit of the vine" and Jesus does not drink this fourth cup until after the Second Coming.
The Fruit from all harvests will be brought before God at this time.
This is the time when death has truly passed over all the children of Adam and Eve.
Then we can truly celebrate Tabernacles as one family.
Your shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, after you have gathered in your corn and your wine.
(Deuteronomy 16: 13)
The feast of Tabernacles is celebrated at the time of the autumn harvest of olives.
But it also celebrates produce from both the spring and summer harvest (corn and wine).
This "corn" is wheat and barley not maize. So the Jews, the rest of the wheat and barley harvest, will be part of the harvest in the end.
- Olive Harvest. The righteous living who are converted by the Holy Spirit.
- Grape Harvest. The martyrs are a special group among the dead.
- Wheat Harvest. The Jews who return. They are part of the olive harvest but they are set apart because God deliberately broke them off and He prophesies that He will deliberately bring them back.
- Barley Harvest. The rest of the righteous dead are raised.
Fulfillment Of The Autumn Festivals
Since Jesus was in human form and subject to physical laws, the spring feasts were fulfilled in real time.
The final generation will experience the fall feasts in real time when it is time for their exodus.
Rosh Hashannah: The Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23: 23-25)
Time No More
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Rosh Hashanah, is both the end of the Jewish festival calendar, AND the beginning of the Jewish civil calendar year. It is the New Year under the civil calendar. So, this marks both the end of the old and the beginning of the new.
Similarly, we see in Revelation 10: 6-7, the reference to the end "time shall be no more" occurring "in the days of the seventh Angel's Sounding". This is a correlation to the seventh trumpet and the beginning of the new year of Christ's eternal kingdom.
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Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) is on the first day of the seventh month.
It began the "Ten Days of Awe" and ended on Yom Kippur.
The Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) was a prelude to judgment.
On the seventh New Moon of the festival year, the trumpet sounded to call the people to prepare for the approaching day of judgment, on the great Day of Atonement when the books were still opened.
Symbolically, this represents the fall of the Papacy, the unsealing of the Book of Daniel at the time of the end, and the beginning of the Advent movement around 1798. (Daniel 12: 9, Revelation 10: 1-2, 7)
And he said, Go your way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. (Daniel 12: 9 )
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth," "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he has declared to his servants the prophets. (Revelation 10: 1-2, 7 )
Rosh Hashanah. The New Year (The first Of Tishri)
In the Torah, Rosh Hashanah (which means "the head of the year").
It is the start of the Ten Days of Penitence, and it is celebrated on the first and second days of the seventh Hebrew month, Tishri.
According to Jewish belief, God judges all human beings throughout the year, and He decides whether they deserve to be inscribed in "The Book of Life" or not by the time of Rosh Hashanah.
It marks the beginning of the judgment in which God seals them and writes their name in the Book of Life. After this, people have ten days to change the result.
It is also known as:
- Yom Teruah. The day of sounding the shofar, the traditional ram's horn. This is the only command for this day.
- Yom Ha'Din. The day of judgment when all living things are judged.
» The Accuser of the Brethren Comes. On Rosh Hashanah, Satan and his entourage of angels come before the Heavenly tribunal to prosecute the righteous. They list all the iniquities that they have committed.
- Yom Hazikaron. The day of remembering.
It is a reference to Abraham who offered his only son, Isaac, to God as proof of his obedience.
According to Jewish tradition, this sacrifice occurred the first of Tishri.
- Creation of Man. It is also celebrated as the anniversary of the sixth day of creation when man was created.
- Coronation of God. It is the coronation of God as King over us.
Yamim Nora'im ("The Ten Days of Awe").
For the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the world can change the decision made in the judgment.
Rosh Hashanah is the day the names are inscribed in the Book of Life. The decision is sealed on Yom Kippur. Those who are being judged have ten days to change God's mind by repentance.
The Month Elul and Forty Days of Repentance.
However, starting on the first day of the month "Elul", Jews get up every night and go to the synagogue during the morning watch.
There they pray for forgiveness until morning comes, and then go to work.
The custom becomes more and more intense, and reaches a peak on the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
During these days they ask God and each other for forgiveness, and greet each other with the blessing "May you be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life".
- The Animal Exodus. The first day of Elul is also the new year for animal tithes. Animals are brought to the sanctuary just as the animals started going into the ark before the flood came.
In the same way the people prepare for the judgment of the earth. This final exodus is the last great sign.
- The Shofar. It is sounded as a call to repentance every day except Sabbath and the last day.
- Psalm 27. This is added to the daily prayers. It is for protection during persecution.
- Selichot Prayers. Appeal to God's mercy for forgiveness based on Exodus 34: 6-7.
U'netaneh Tokef.
On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur they say a special prayer about the awesomeness of that day and the consequences it brings.
It is a recitation of the wrath of God. It is the same warning as the third angel's message.
The Land Sabbath (Shemitah) - 7 years
The laws about the land Sabbath are a pattern of what should happen on the earth.
Millennium. The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying,
"Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a Sabbath to the LORD.
Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop,
but during the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
(Leviticus 25: 1-4)
No Reaping.
Your harvest's aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year.
All of you shall have the Sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you.
Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.
(Leviticus 25: 5-7)
Great Harvest.
But if you say, "What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?"
then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years.
When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.
(Leviticus 25: 20-22)
See also Exodus 23: 10-11.
- Millennium ("Verse 1-3"). When we go to the Promised Land, the land will have rest for that first year.
We know that the earth will rest for one thousand years. This is the land Sabbath.
- Six Years ("Verse 4"). We get to work for six years. This means that the earth should last for six thousand years.
- No Reaping ("Verse 5-7"). No harvesting occurs in that year. This is because there is no more mercy. The wicked will no longer be asked to repent.
- The Sixth Year ("Verse 20-22"). This is a promise that God will increase the harvest in the sixth year.
It will be fulfilled by the outpouring of the latter rain.
Annual Planting - Harvesting | Great Harvest | Tabernacles Sabbath (No Planting or Harvesting) | Ploughing |
Planting | Year 46 | Year 47  | Year 48     | Year 49 (Shemitah) | Year 50 (Jubilee) | Year 51 |
 |  |  | 4 Years Yield | Land Sabbath | No Debt | No Slaves | Land Returned |
Evangelism | Latter Rain | 7 Last Plagues | Second Coming And Millennium | New Earth |
Babylon Falls | Counted, Counted | Weighed (Judged) | Divided (Sheep and Goats Separated) |
The Jubilee (Yovel) - 49+1 Years
To understand the end of time, you need to merge the events of a land Sabbath with the events of the Jubilee.
While the land sabbath is patterned after the weekly Sabbath, the Jubilee is patterned after the counting of the omer and Shavu'ot.
Jubilee is like the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years.
Shofar. You shall then sound a ram's horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land.
A Proclamation. You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.
No More Time. You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines.
For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.
(Leviticus 25: 8-12)
The Jews start the Jubilee and the sabbatical years at Tisheri 1, although the text seems to say Tisheri 10 (Yom Kippur).
The Jubilee represents the last year on earth when we will be freed and it begins on Yom Kippur.
This is what happens in the jubilee year.
- Property Returned. The earth was taken away from Satan and given back to the Son of Adam - Jesus Christ.
- Inheritance ("Verse 13"). Everyone receives property from God, because we will inherit the earth.
- Debt Forgiven ("Verse 14"). All debt is forgiven just as all our sins are forgiven by the free gift of God.
- Freedom ("Verse 39-43"). All slaves and their family were freed. Jews were freed. And A Jew who sold himself to a foreigner could buy back his freedom.
This is why God both has a plan to substitute and to buy us back from the penalty of sin.
» Freedom For The Poor ("Verse 47-55"). With no debts and property, they get a viable economic start.
» Freedom For Foreigners ("Verse 44-46"). They can become permanent slaves. However, the law provides a method for foreigners to become a part of the nation of Israel.
Therefore, if a foreigner joins the kingdom of God he will have the right to be freed at Jubilee.
Therefore, sinners who refuse to join the righteous will never be free.
- 2300 Days Prophecy. This prophecy about the First Coming of the Messiah is patterned after the Jubilee.
It is set in the context of the land Sabbath being violated, leading to the 70 year captivity in Babylon. It ends with the coming of the Messiah in the tenth Jubilee of their release to free the world from slavery to sin.
Slaves of Sin | 70 "Weeks" Of Land Sabbaths (490 Years) | Jubilee |
Exile | Babylon | Delays | Rebuild Jerusalem and Temple | 
 | 7 Weeks (49 Days) |  | Shavu'ot |
70 Years Captivity | - | - | Decree | 2nd Temple | Messiah | Slaves Redeemed | Freedom |
 | Temple Destroyed | 483 Years | 3.5 Years |  | 3.5 Years | 1810 Years  |
- | 2300 Years | Restored |
A legal decree or covenant started the counting of the process.
The Day of Atonement - The Judgment (Leviticus 23: 26-32; Leviticus 16)
Jesus Our Intercessor |
Yom Kippur | Satan |
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Lord's Goat | Scapegoat |
Jesus defends us in the judgement and places the blame on Satan |
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This occurs on the tenth day of the seventh month, Yom Kippur.
It is the holiest day of the year and God seals the fate of the people for the next year.
According to Jewish tradition, on Yom Kippur, the judgments entered into the books of God are sealed on this day.
Therefore, this is the last day that we have to change the decision of the judgment.
The Last Day Of The Judgment
And the nations were angry, and your wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward to your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth.
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11: 18-19)
And he said to me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. (Daniel 8: 14)
This corresponds to the beginning of the Judgment of the dead in Heaven in 1844. Then, Christ, as our Great High Priest, moved into the Holy of Holies to begin the final phase of His High Priestly ministry, the cleansing of the Sanctuary. The Most Holy Place was opened at this time. (Revelation 11: 18-19, Daniel 7: 9-10, 13-14, Daniel 8: 14).
Those who refuse to submit to judgment will be cut off.
Disobedient. If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people.
Sabbath Violation.
As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people
(Leviticus 23: 29-30)
Here are some rituals associated with the service.
- Mikvah ("Washing"). Our sins will be washed away after this service.
- Blessing The Children. They bless the children and symbolically mention the names of the two children who represent the two tribes that make up the final church.
Ephraim represents the Gentiles and Manasseh represents the Jews.
Son. May G-d make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.
Daughter. May G-d make you like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah.
- Kol Nidrei ("Annulment Of All Vows"). Yom Kippur services begin with the annulment of all vows after sunset.
Even our marriage vows will not be honored in heaven.
- Yizkor Service ("Remembering The Dead"). The dead will soon be resurrected.
- The Haftorah ("Jonah"). They read the entire book of Jonah. Just like Jesus we will be in the bowels of sinners.
- U'netaneh Tokef ("Warning About The Wrath"). This is a recitation of the curses of the covenant. These will be poured out as the wrath of God in the seven last plagues at the end of Yom Kippur.
- Neilah ("Locking"). This ritual is done only on Yom Kippur. This last service is a symbol of the locking of the gates of heaven. After this all is forgiven and no prayers are heard.
- Sounding the Shofar ("The Last Trumpet"). The trumpet could be a symbol of the last trumpet that will sound. It announces war on the enemies of God.
During this war, God will rescue the righteous dead and the living.
- Closing Prayers. The prayers end with the words "Next Year may we be in Jerusalem!" We will be in the New Jerusalem after a year of plagues.
The Sealing and Judgment |
The sealing occurred during the ten days of awe from Tishri 1 to 10.
During this time of judgment, the righteous are sealed and their names are kept in the Book of Life. The names of the wicked are blotted out or deleted.
The tenth day, or Yom Kippur is simply the last day when this opportunity is available.
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The Sealing.
The Jews also understand this time as the period in which they are sealed and their names are kept in the Book of Life.
This understanding is the exact same meaning that is taught by Adventists.
Note that according to Jewish belief, there is a judgment of the righteous that occurs before the feast of tabernacles when we live with God.
The judgment is occurring now. At the same time, the sealing of the people of God is occurring.
This is the symbol of the sealing and numbering of the 144,000 end time people of God. (Revelation 7: 4-10, Revelation 14: 1-4).
Azazel: The Scape Goat (Leviticus 16)
This was the day that the Temple was cleansed and the scape goat was banished at the end of the ceremony. He was taken to the wilderness by a strong man and thrown over the edge of a cliff.
Satan will be banished to the earth for one thousand years at the Second Coming. He was thrown off the mountain of God as profane (Ezekiel 28: 16) and a strong man will bind him to the earth for 1000 years (Revelation 20: 1-2).
The Feast Of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23: 33-43 and Deuteronomy 16: 13-15)
Jesus Our Intercessor |
Tabernacles | Palm Branches |
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Booth | The Lulav |
Jesus provides a home for us |
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This was a seven day feast, which began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month four days after Yom Kippur.
It was also called the festival of booths and sukkot or succos.
It corresponds to the final fruit harvest (Leviticus 23: 39).
This feast celebrates and commemorates:
- Living under the protection of God.
- The end of the wanderings in the desert of the Children of Israel.
- It was a celebration of their inheritance of and entry into the Promised Land.
Camping at Succos. The first feast of tabernacles actually occurred at Passover during the exodus.
After they ate the Passover meal the Jews left Egypt and the first place they camped was a place called Succoth.
Christ also experienced all the three great feasts during His exodus week.
After Jacob wrestled with God and met Esau he went to a place called Succoth to build booths (Genesis 33: 17).
Christ fulfilled the eight days of the feast of Booths during Passover as He ended His wanderings on earth so that He can enter the eternal Promised Land in heaven.
On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind.
For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work.
On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.
Day 1: Palm Branches. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.
You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths.
(Leviticus 23: 35-36, 39-42)
Jewish Tradition And The Judgment
It is interesting to note what Jewish tradition teaches about the judgment and its timing in the feast days.
Judgment is given on four occasions. All these are Sabbaths.
- Passover ("Grain"). The world is judged with respect to grain. Jesus resurrected the barley harvest.
- Shavuot ("Fruit"). The world is judged with respect to the fruit of trees. The 3000 conversions at Pentecost.
- Rosh Hashannah ("Man").
The judgment of man occurs during the fall feasts and there are three appointed times for judgment.
Man is judged on Rosh Hashannah but the sentence is confirmed on Yom Kippur and delivered on Hoshana Rabbah.
- All Living Things. Feast of Trumpets, Day 1 (Rosh Hashanah). Angels, principalities and powers.
- The People of God. Yom Kippur, Day 10. Judgment is in favor of the saints. In this process the people and the sanctuary are cleansed.
- World. Feast of Tabernacles, Day 7 (Hoshana Rabbah). Judgment is delivered. The righteous and the wicked receive their reward.
- Succoth ("Rain"). The world is judged with respect to rain. They do not pray for rain during the seven days of Succos, only on the eighth day.
On Shemini Atzeret they begin to pray for rain because rain during Succos is a sign of the Lord's anger.
There is a dual symbolism of good and evil for this rain.
- Righteous ("Latter Rain"). On the last year before the plagues the latter rain will probably begin on Shemini Atzeret so that God will have a great fruit harvest for the final year of evangelism.
- Wicked ("Hail"). After the harvest has been reaped, the persecuted righteous will pray for deliverance during succos. The rain that will occur during succos is the seventh plague which includes hail stones.
They pray for rain between Shemini Atzeret and Passover saying, "He causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall". Notice that the answer was given on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came in a rushing, mighty wind.
The Former Rain.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
The Holy Spirit Poured Out. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
(Acts 2: 1-3, 16-17)
The Schedule Of Tabernacles
The Seven Days Of The Feast |
Day | Date |
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Water | Light | Readings and Songs | Contents |
1 | 15 | First Day | 13 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | No | Light | Hallel. Psalm 113-118 | Psalm 105 | Exodus plagues |
2 | 16 | Chol Ha'Moed | 12 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | Water | Light | Psalm 29 | Creation by sound. Peace |
Ezekiel 38: 14 to Ezekiel 39: 16 | The battle on the Day Of The Lord. Land cleansed. Armageddon and millennium |
Zechariah 14 |
3 | 17 | 11 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | Water | Light | Psalm 50: 16-23 | Judgment of the wicked |
4 | 18 | 10 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | Water | Light | Psalm 94: 16-23 | The innocent condemned to death. God helps them |
5 | 19 | 9 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | Water | Light | Psalm 94: 8-23 | God helps them until a pit will be dug for the wicked |
6 | 20 | 8 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | Water | Light | Psalm 81: 6-16 | Rescued from burdens |
7 | 21 | Hoshana Rabbah | 7 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 7 | Beat Willows | Light | Psalm 82: 5-8 Numbers 29: 26-34 |
Darkness and Earthquake. The wicked angels and men in the 2nd Coming - millennium |
Total | 70 | 14 | 98 | 7 | - |
Total (Ezekiel) | 49+1 | 49 | - | 7 | - |
8 | 22 | Shemini Atzeret | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | Pray for rain | - | Deuteronomy 33-34 | Moses goes to heaven |
The rabbis circled the altar 7 times, struck the willow and asked for rain |
- | 22 | Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in the Torah) | - | Genesis 1-2 | The new creation |
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Every sabbatical year the Law was read in public on the first day of the feast (Deuteronomy 31:10-13).
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This list of traditional reading is from Dr. Alfred Edersheim. Today, Messianic Jews and others read different texts.
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Jesus began His exodus during that final week. From the readings on each day we can see that Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Tabernacles but we have not.
The irony of this feast is that God came to live among us as one of us and we treated Him badly and ran Him out of town.
- Plagues (Wrath of God). During the crucifixion Jesus suffered the seven last plagues for us.
Do not touch My anointed ones and do my prophets no harm.
He sent a man before them, Joseph who was sold as a slave.
And He called for a famine upon the land. He broke the whole staff of bread.
They afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself was laid in irons.
Until the time that his word came to pass. The word of the Lord tested him.
(Psalm 105: 15-19)
- New Creation ("It is Finished"). At His death, He uttered the same words at the end of creation.
The Lord will give strength to His people. The Lord will bless His people with peace.
(Psalm 29: 11)
» Peace. Jesus made peace between heaven and earth by reconciling us with God.
» War. He had just begun a battle with Satan.
» Cleansing. The land, people and temple were cleansed.
- The Wicked Judged.
This Psalm is a condemnation of the priests.
They conspired with a thief, Judas and an adulterer, Herod to slander Jesus.
But to the wicked God says, "What right have you to tell of My statutes and to take My covenant in your mouth?
you hate discipline, and you cast My words behind you.
When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, And you associate with adulterers.
You let your mouth loose in evil and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother's son.
These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes."
(Psalm 50: 16-21)
- Unjust Trial.
A conspiracy by the Sanhedrin condemned Jesus to death in a trial with false witnesses.
They band themselves together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.
(Psalm 94: 21)
- A Pit For The Wicked. Satan is confined to the earth. Jesus is now our representative.
Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O LORD, and whom You teach out of Your law;
That You may grant him relief from the days of adversity, until a pit is dug for the wicked.
For the LORD will not abandon His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance.
(Psalm 94: 12-14)
Future: Satan In The Abyss.
Satan will be bound by a strong man and thrown into the bottomless pit.
- Rescued (Burden Lifted). Simon of Cyrene took the cross from the shoulders of Jesus after He fell exhausted.
I relieved his shoulder of the burden, his hands were freed from the basket.
(Psalm 81: 6)
Future: Perfection.
The burden of slavery to sin and quarantine by the universe are finally removed. It is time to reunite with the rest of the universe.
- The Wicked Men Punished. Jesus prayed for their forgiveness for they did not know what they were doing.
An Ignorant Mob.
But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.
(Luke 23: 34)
Three hours of darkness preceded His death. A great earthquake occurred at His death and resurrection.
Darkness and Earthquake.
They do not know nor do they understand, they walk about in darkness, all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
(Psalm 82: 5)
Judas committed suicide that night. Pilate killed himself years later. The house of Herod, the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas and the grand children of Annanias were executed at the fall of the temple in 70 AD.
Future: The Wicked Angels Punished. Satan and his angels and the living wicked are punished. They are now confined to earth as Jesus takes possession of the righteous and the wicked are killed.
- Moses Taken To Heaven (Rapture). Jesus walked around the earth before He returned to heaven that evening.
Future: The Second Coming.
The church will be resurrected, recreated, raptured and taken to heaven.
Event | Passover | Shavuot | Yom Kippur | Tabernacles | Covenant |
 | Preparation | Lamb Selected | Perfect | Selected by Lot | Build Sukkah (Church) | Jesus Came |
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Sacrifice |
Lamb Bleeding  |
Holy Spirit |
Lord's Goat Killed |
|
Circumcision |
 | Cup 1 | Freedom |
Rain Washing Away Sin
By Writing The Law On Our Heart |
Atonement | God makes peace |
High Priest Makes Atonement
Priests being Inaugurated |
 | Cup 2 | Deliverance | People cleansed | Land cleansed |
 | Bread | Broken Middle Bread | Righteous judged | Judgment |
 | Motzi Matzo | Death: Blood and Water | Saved from death | Unjustly Condemned |
 | Cup 3 | Redemption | Sin Removed | Burdens taken away |
 | Search for the Afikoman | Search for Me with all your heart (Sealing) | Strong Man | All Israel Saved | Children |
 | Elijah's Cup Wrath of God |  | 7 last plagues | Scapegoat taken away by a strong man | Pit dug for the wicked Satan put in the abyss (Hoshana Rabbah) | Wicked Die (Curses) |
 | Rescued | Children Find Afikoman | Wilderness | Home Prepared | Jesus Returns |
 | Raised From The Dead | Second Coming | God Saves Us |
|
 | Cup 4 | Release Rapture |  | Rapture | Perfection
Law written on the heart
Fruit Harvest | Scapegoat Banished | Rapture (To Heaven) Reap The Harvest | Covenant Kept
(Blessings) |
 | Next Year New Jerusalem | Adoption |  | Sons | Sanctuary and People Cleansed and Restored | The Righteous Live With God |
 | New Home | Heaven |
 | New Earth | Earth | Rain | Rain of Fire | Shemini Atzeret |
 | Inheritance | Earth | Sealed | Cleansed | Simchat Torah |
Fulfilled by Jesus and being fulfilled in us
| Fulfilled by Jesus but not yet fulfilled by us or for us
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One is tempted to think that the Feast of Tabernacles simply prophesies about a glorious time when we go to live with God forever.
However, this comparison of feasts allows us to understand that the Feast of Tabernacles more accurately describes the conditions under the ten plagues and the exodus from Egypt.
Under these battle conditions, Tabernacles reminds us that God is with us when it seems that the world is falling apart and that these living conditions are temporary.
These "Jewish feasts" have fallen out of favor with the Christian church for about 1700 years.
Yet they still prophesy about Christ and about our future.
So let us examine how we should view the feasts.
- Fulfilled.
People appeal to the idea that Jesus fulfilled these laws therefore we do not have to do them because they were "nailed to the cross".
Only the curses were nailed to the cross, while the feasts are still being fulfilled and will be kept in heaven!
- Fulfilled by Jesus. Jesus fulfilled all aspects of the feast in the week that He died.
- Passover. He suffered the wrath of God by going through all the phases of the seven last plagues for the righteous at the crucifixion.
He was resurrected on Sunday morning and then raptured to heaven where He received all the honor, titles and rewards as His inheritance.
- Shavuot. He became the firstfruits of the wavesheaf harvest after He submitted to the law of God, written on His heart. He was even obedient to death on the cross.
- Yom Kippur. He was treated as the scapegoat and led away by the Roman army to an unjust trial where he was banished to sheol for our sins.
- Tabernacles. He was raptured to heaven to live with God, the Father as our eternal High Priest.
» Yet Not Fulfilled. Even Jesus appears to postpone a global fulfillment by not drinking the fourth cup.
Bread And Wine.
for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.
But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom.
After singing a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives.
(Matthew 26: 28-30)
The remaining prophecies even point to future activities in which Jesus still has work to do, showing that on the personal, human level Jesus has completed all the feasts as the substitite for humans.
Yet, on the grand, global scale the feasts are still being fulfilled and will continue their fulfillment until after the millennium and after the final judgment.
The real scapegoat needs to suffer the judgment of Yom Kippur.
The children of God need perfection and then to be raised from the dead to tabernacle with Him.
So, until we also fulfill the feasts on our own personal level, Jesus will postpone the final cup until we can all complete it together.
- Fulfilled by Us ("Spiritual" Application). As we experience the Christian life and are being transformed into the new creation, we must also follow in the footsteps of Jesus and fulfill the feasts.
When we do this the law will be written in our hearts and our hearts will be circumcised.
This new heart will be equipped to search for God with all our heart and soul and strength and might.
» Our Obligations Under The Time Of Fulfillment.
The question is how closely should we follow the steps of the feasts as the Jews celebrated it or should we make up substitutes as we go?
What do we do about the unfulfilled portions?
The answer lies in Jesus' instructions. He never instructed us to observe another order of celebration.
He merely asks us to remember how it fulfilled His life.
- A Testimony Of Jesus. We should remember the feasts because they testify about Jesus. How can we do that fully if we ignore what the Jews do?
- Keep Celebrating Everything.
If our criteria for ignoring portions of the feast is that we should abandon what has been fulfilled by Jesus then we should never eat the bread and wine because His body was already broken and His blood has already been spilled.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
(1 Corinthians 11: 26)
Yet Jesus established the standard.
In eating bread and wine, He even asks us to celebrate what has already been fulfilled, showing us that His fulfillment does not mean that we abandon those steps.
Here is why all people throughout all time should keep the feasts.
- Past (Recognize Me). The people would recognize Jesus if they faithfully kept the feasts because the feasts prophesied in detail about His coming, the timeline, His treatment and His works.
- Future (Remember Me). Jesus said that we should do them to remember what He has done. This is why the feasts will be kept in heaven.
According to Isaiah 66: 23, the new moon and the Sabbaths will be kept in the new earth.
According to Zecariah 14: 16, even the Gentiles will be keeping the feast of tabernacles.
Jesus said that we will have Passover with Him after the Second Coming.
It is illogical for Jesus to stop the feasts only to restart them in the new earth, just as it is illogical for Him to change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday and change it back to Saturday in the new earth or to have one day of worship for the Jews and one for the Gentiles.
One Law For All People. Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.
(Leviticus 24: 22)
There is one law for Israel and for Gentiles because we all come under the umbrella of the legal status of "Children of Israel".
(Leviticus 24: 22. Numbers 15: 16, 29. Exodus 12: 49)
- Not Fulfilled. As we look at the future and at prophecy it is very clear that some aspects of the feast have not been either literally or spiritually fulfilled.
- Passover. We are still searching for Jesus. The seven last plagues have not fallen on the earth. The righteous have not been raised from the dead and we are not in heaven, nor have we inherited the new earth.
- Shavuot. Our hearts are not perfect.
- Yom Kippur. The scapegoat has not been banished to the abyss in the millennium.
- Tabernacles. We have not gone to live in paradise with God.
I am simply appalled that for no good reason we have abandoned the formal order of the feasts and have even substituted Pagan symbols in the feast.
We have abandoned the feasts without knowing much about them.
Since Jesus' example instructs us to keep even those parts that have been fulfilled, I would reexamine what we mean by "Spiritual fulfillment" and how we are obligated under this.
In a separate lesson on "Nailed To The Cross" I examine what Paul really instructs us to do.
Should We Keep The Feasts?
If you look at the concept of how the feasts are being fulfilled you will see that we are living during the fulfillment of the feasts.
For almost 2000 years we have been living during the Passover and the Day of Atonement when our High Priest is ministering on our behalf and putting away sin.
We are also living during Tabernacles because Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit have come to dwell with us.
So technically every day is now Tabernacles, Yom Kippur and Passover!
So every day we should be living according to the teachings of those feasts.
At a minimum we should understand them better and acknowledge them and it would not hurt to go through the motions on the appointed days because we will be celebrating the feasts on appointed days in heaven after God has made earth His permanent dwelling place.
However, the point is probably moot.
Whether we are keeping these feasts annually or not, we are living on the day of the feasts and are keeping them by default.
So if you are doing these things daily then you are keeping the feasts. Recognizing how these things relate to the faith helps us to better understand the things we are doing.
- Passover. Most Christians acknowledge that Jesus died as the Lamb of God and we periodically have communion. Daily, we should also meditate on the events of the cross and look at the sacrifice of Jesus.
I recognized how Jesus fulfilled the seder by going through the ritual by myself.
If there is one change I would make is to stop keeping Easter and to do our communion during Passover according to this wonderful meal that prophesies so eloquently about Jesus Christ.
- Shavuot. Pray daily for the Latter Rain.
- Yom Kippur. As Adventists we are way ahead of this because we recognize that we are being sealed and that this means our names are not being blotted out of the Book of Life.
We should also actively look for ways to banish the effect of the scapegoat on this earth and lead him and his theories outside to die.
Recognize that the scapegoat has been captured and be bold.
- Tabernacles. Invite the Holy Spirit to live in your heart and teach you God's ways, fulfilling the covenant to write the laws in our heart.
The Sukkah.
The Jews lived in a temporary building called a booth or sukkah for seven days.
It represented the time they lived in booths during the forty years of the exodus.
It was constructed in a certain way.
- Walls. It must have at least three walls covered in a material that will not blow away. This is a symbol of the three walls of the Most Holy Place where they take refuge from the wrath of the beast.
- Roof. The roof must be made of something that grew from the earth that was cut off.
They must be able to see the stars. It must let the rain in. It must not be tied down.
The roof represents Christ as our covering. He was the Promised Seed that grew up as a tender shoot from the ground.
He was cut off for our sins.
When He died, it washed away our sins and sent the Rain (the Holy Spirit).
His death allows us to go to the stars in Heaven.
The Ushpizin (Seven Exalted Guests).
When a person is seated in his succah, Abraham and six distinguished visitors partake of his company.
(Zohar 5: 103b)
Just as they invite Elijah in for the Passover, the Jews invite seven of their forefathers to stay in the sukkah during the feast.
An ornate chair is set for these honored guests and each night a different one leads the others into the sukkah
in this order: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David on the last night.
This tradition is written in the Zohar, the kabbalistic text on Jewish mysticism.
The custom originated among them and was adopted by the Hassidim and other orthodox groups.
If it has no foundation in what God ordered or passed down to Moses, the tradition is still worthy of notice because
this is another way in which the false Second Coming can appear to justify the appearance of all of these great men of God.
Several plausible explanations might be given for their appearance.
- This is similar the transfiguration of Jesus before His exodus, when Moses and Elijah appeared.
- They are the people who were raised with Jesus who went to preach to the people.
The problem with this is that David is among this group and after the resurrection of Christ, the gospels taught that David was still in his grave! (Acts 2: 29, 34)
But most people do not know the correct teaching about the state of the dead. So billions will be fooled.
The Four Species (Lulav and Etrog).
The Personalities of the Four Species |
Species | Name | Torah (Taste) | Deeds (Smell) | Body | Offerings |
1 | Etrog | Citrus | Torah | Deeds | Heart |  | Incense and Grain |
I am perfect |
2 | Hadas | 3 Myrtles | Torah | No | Eyes |  | Lamb. Rabbi, child in the temple |
I am devoted to the persuit of wisdom, to know and follow God |
3 | Lulav | 1 Palm | No | Deeds | Spine |  | Bull. Miracles, cleanses temple |
I must do good deeds. What is knowledge without action? |
4 | Aravah | 2 Willows | No | No | Mouth |  | Lord's Goat. Serpent |
I have nothing, I am nothing |
|
They take four plants and lift them up and rejoice before the Lord.
The lulav represents all those who were lifted up during the crucifixion.
- Etrog. A citrus fruit native to Israel.
- Hadas. Three myrtle branches on the right.
- Lulav. One unopened palm branch at the center.
- Aravah. Two willow branches on the left.
Six branches with their leaves are bound together in a bouquet and held in the right hand while the etrog is held upside down in the left hand and turned up during the ceremony.
They were waved in all six directions: east, south, west, north, up, and down.
The four species are brought together during the waving and the blessing.
The Jews have developed an understanding about the meaning of each of the four species.
Each item has either a taste or a smell. The taste represents knowledge of the Torah and the smell represents good deeds.
The four species represent the four personalities which make a complete person.
In our experience we drift between the knowledge of God and action based on knowing God.
Modern science also recognizes four dominant personalities. We tend to prefer to respond to life in one way.
The imperfection of man is caused by the fact that our personalities are broken and we cannot balance our responses to the challenges of life.
Jesus displayed all these personalities in His life and He was treated as all of them.
Each plant also represents people in different phases.
- Etrog ("Torah and Good Deeds"). Jesus was the perfect man. The etrog is the one nation He has on His heart.
I delight to do Your will, O my God, Your law is within my heart".
(Psalm 40: 8)
» Humans.
This Aramaic word means "that which shines" while the lulav meant "sprout".
This fruit represents the Gentiles, who come to faith during the time that God tabernacles with men.
At first they are upside down and then change directions during the ceremony.
They represent the perfect state of the converted one. They repent, turn around, accept the Torah and do good deeds, reflecting the perfect character of God.
- Hadas ("Torah Only").
There were three myrtle branches. The myrtle represents eyes because it leaves were small and oval. In addition they grew from a straight stem in nodes of three leaves.
In many ways, this is a symbol of God who was on the cross at the right hand of Jesus. The eyes represent the eyes of God like the wheels of His throne and the almond seed.
The three sets of leaves and three branches in the lulav are the Trinity.
This is the Lamb with seven eyes (Revelation 5: 6).
As a child He sought knowledge in the temple of God, even forgetting to go home with His parents at the end of the feast.
As an adult, he was called Rabbi, or teacher. He taught the people about God.
» Humans. This represents the Jews after Mount Sinai.
- Lulav ("Good Deeds Only").
There was one palm branch in the center that represented the spine.
The branch must be straight and unopened and the leaves cannot be split. This represents the divinity of Christ which cannot be torn like His inner tunic.
He submitted to the will of God in one mighty deed. He balanced His teaching with good deeds. He performed the good works of God through miracles.
In his first and final week of ministry, His actions led to violence in the temple as He drove out the money changers and stopped the trade in the temple that was dishonoring the name of God.
This was the raging bull with a spine who cleansed the house of prayer for all people.
» Humans. This represents the righteous before Mount Sinai.
- Aravah ("No Torah, No Good Deeds"). The wicked man, the fool or the penitent man who comes to God.
When the wicked man empties himself he is recognized as a fool. When the good man empties himself he is penitent
The Fool.
The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God". They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds.
The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.
(Psalm 14: 1-2)
There were two willow branches. On the cross two sinners were lifted up with Him.
He was treated as a wicked man, as the scapegoat and the serpent.
But He was the Lord's Goat Who emptied Himself and was counted among the sinners.
The Penitent or The Lonely and Abandoned.
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
(Philippians 2: 6-8)
» Humans. This represents the world lost in sin, without Torah or goodness.
The Water Libation Ceremony.
At all special services such as Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles there were preparations in the night.
- First Watch ("6 PM to 9 PM"). Altar of burnt offerings was cleansed.
Jesus was washing the feet of His disciples and having the Passover meal.
- Second Watch ("9 PM to Midnight").
Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane.
- Third Watch ("Midnight to 3 AM") Cockcrow. Temple gates opened at midnight to let the procession of people in.
All sacrifices and offerings to be used that day were examined until the time for the morning sacrifice.
Jesus was being led away by the mob of priests, people and Roman soldiers for His trial by the priest.
- Fourth Watch ("3 AM to 6 AM"). The priests led the processions to get the water and the willows.
Every day during the year, the wine offering was made, but during this feast a special water offering was given from the second to the seventh days.
During the fourth watch, while the morning sacrifice was being prepared the priests led two processions.
- Willows. One went to the Kidron valley to a place called Motza where the ashes from the altar were poured out.
They cut long willow branches and marched in rows to the temple. The swishing sound of the willows was like the wind.
- Water. The other, led by the high priest, went to the pool of Siloam to fetch water for the water sacrifice.
Their actions were perfectly timed so that the priest went to get the pieces of the sacrifice and returned at the same time the priest returned with the water through the Water Gate.
As he entered the Water Gate the trumpet blew three blasts and a flute player called "the pierced one" would stand up and play.
The flute player led the procession then he blew the signal for the water and wind (willow) to enter the temple.
Then the priests walked up the ramp of the altar and turned left to the corner of the altar where there was two silver basins with holes.
The water and wine were poured at the same time into these bowls.
- Water ("West"). The western basin had a narrower hole and it was for the water.
- Wine ("East"). The eastern basin was for pouring the wine.
As the water and wine are poured the priests lay the willows against the side of the altar to make the sukkah.
The temple music began and the Hallel (Psalm 118) was said as the wine and water was poured out.
The people shook their lulavs towards the altar at three points during the hallel (Psalm 118, verse 1, 25, 29)
The Beating Of The Willows.
The willow was a plant with long oval leaves that grew near the water. It was used in several ceremonies.
From the time of Moses, on each day of the feast a willow was taken into the temple.
Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi instituted the custom of beating the willows outside the temple.
The ceremonies that were done on the inside of the temple by Moses were now brought on the outside as they honored the feasts during the absence of a temple.
This probably occurred because these were the leaders while the Jews were rebuilding their temple after the Babylonian Captivity.
- Lulav. It was one of the four species used in the lulav which was held up and waved just like a wave offering. Christ was lifted up as the wave offering.
- Sukkah for the Altar. While they sounded the shofar, they bent these branches over the side of the altar to form a sukkah. Christ was broken and bent over the altar as the sacrifice. He was probably bent over a pillar and beaten by the Romans.
- Beating the Five Willows.
On the seventh day of the feast a procession of people went to the Kidron valley to gather willows.
It was used in a ceremony in which they found the most perfect specimens and bound five willows together and beat them on the ground five times until the leaves fell off.
Then they put away the branches in a safe place so that it is not stepped on.
Christ was severely beaten by the Romans on the earth and stripped. Then He was lifted up and put away on the cross where He could not be stepped on.
- Beaten by the Romans. No one knows how many times he was beaten. By law He could be beaten 40 times.
But the Jews usually give a maximum of 39 lashes, just in case they made an error in counting.
then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt.
He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not degraded in your eyes.
(Deuteronomy 25: 2-3)
According to this ritual of beating the willows, there could have been 25 single lashes or 5 lashes with a flagellum made of 5 strips.
» The Naked Branch ("Until the Leaves Fell Off").
They beat the willows until the leaves fell off. The leaves are the covering of the tree.
Jesus was also known as the Branch. The Branch was beaten until His leaves fell off.
They also stripped His clothes and tore His skin. Then He was crucified naked.
- The Cry of the Weeping Willow ("I have Nothing, I am Nothing!").
He was forsaken, disemboweled, mocked, ridiculed, beaten, naked, alone, spit on, abused, distressed, terrified and robbed of His possessions.
He became nothing! He was treated as nothing!
» The Cry of Simeon ("I Am Hated and Unloved!"). Add this to the weeping willow and you will find a picture of total grief.
The Coming of the Wind and the Water.
Christ is the pierced one Who called the Holy Spirit Who is symbolized by both wind and water.
He would come and stay on the earth when Christ died.
It is a promise of the Latter Rain and the promise that God would dwell with us.
Jesus said that He was the source of living waters. He gives the Holy Spirit to cleanse us and He gives eternal life.
He who believes in Me, as the scriptures said, "from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water."
(John 7: 38)
Illumination Of The Temple
After the water ceremony, the priests went to the court of women and lit four tall menorahs 50 cubits high that light up the whole area.
They had four golden bowl on top and four ladders rested against the candle sticks.
Four youths would carry pitchers with 120 logs of olive oil and pour them into the bowls. The priests used their old clothes as wicks.
The priests would dance and sing and play music all night.
At cockcrow two priests with trumpets walked from the upper gate (Nicanor) in the west through the court of Israel down 15 steps to the court of women to the Beautiful Gate in the east.
As they proceeded down the steps they blew three blasts on the trumpet at cockcrowing, at the tenth step, and when they reached the court of women.
When they reached the eastern gate they turned around to face the sanctuary and said:
Our fathers who were in this place, they turned their back upon the Sanctuary of Jehovah, and their faces toward the east, and they worshipped towards the rising sun; but as for us, our eyes are towards the Lord.
Jesus said that He was the Light of the world.
Then Jesus spoke to them saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life".
(John 8: 12)
Day 7: Hoshana Rabbah, The Day Of The Great Hosanna (Tishri 21)
This is the day when justice is delivered.
This was how the last day of the feast was celebrated.
- Prayer for Rain. It is essential for a fruitful year.
- Deuteronomy 33-34. This is the instructions to the tribes at the end of the exodus.
- Hakkafot (Processional Circuits). They walk around the altar seven times, holding the Torah scrolls.
- Shofar. The shofar is used as warning, call to arms, and in celebration.
- Beating the Willows (Aravah). This occurs after the Hakkafot.
- Water Libation Ceremony ("Water Offering"). The high priest and a procession of people went to the pool of Siloam and drew water and carried it to the outer court in a gold pitcher.
- Stay Up All Night. We will be wide awake as the earth is being destroyed.
The Latter Rain, The Persecution And The Second Coming
The fulfillment will be the end of the wanderings of God's end time peoples in the wilderness of sin, and of their entry into the inheritance of the new heavens and the new earth, to "tabernacle there with God" at the Second Coming of Christ.
Harvest of the Righteous. And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in your sickle, and reap: for the time is come for you to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
Harvest of the Wicked. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that 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. (Revelation 14: 14-18)
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, See, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21: 3-4)
He came to Jerusalem for the feast as required by law beginning with His triumphant ride in Jerusalem through the palm branches on the first day and it ended on the eighth day when He left earth to go to heaven after He met His disciples on the evening of His resurrection.
- Day 1. Jesus came to Jerusalem on a donkey as they waved palm branches and called Him king.
He tried to gather the crops, but found Himself to be the only one. So He cursed the fig tree because there was no fruit.
- Seven Days. He lived in a temporary shelter in Bethany for seven days. They probably camped there.
He became the bull offering because He was the king who submitted to a yoke when He carried the cross on His shoulders to Golgotha.
- Day 8. After He saw His disciples on Sunday Evening, He could ascend to heaven for complete rest and to present the wave offering.
On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly; you shall do no laborious work.
(Numbers 29: 35)
These ceremonies are full of the symbolism of the time before the Second Coming.
Living With God |
 |
Third Coming. This scenario is repeated at the end of the 1000 year tabernacle with God.
The city of glass will travel through the stars to land on earth.
At the end of the final judgment everyone will praise God as king of kings. And, as Satan surrounds the city and the fires of hell fall around us, God will save us.
The walls of this city will not fall.
Persecution.
Living outdoors in these temporary shelters might also be a prophecy of how the vast majority of the people of God will be living at the end of time.
As they are forced to run from the persecution, they will be wandering in the woods and caves and among the homeless.
They will be relying totally on the protection of God as they flee by faith to the Most Holy Place in His sanctuary.
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It teaches that the feast of tabernacles starts a short time before the king comes to save us.
This is what happens when the church flees from the persecuting beast to the throne of God where He hides them from the wrath of the dragon and from His wrath.
- Palm Branches (Lulav).
In Revelation 7: 9, God's people are waving palm branches to greet the Coming Christ. The waving of palm branches occurred on the Feast of Tabernacles. (Leviticus 23: 39-40)
After this I looked, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands (Revelation 7: 9)
And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. (Leviticus 23: 40)
Each day of succos a Hosahnnah is said as the people make a procession around the altar where the Torah is kept.
They wave the four species in six direction.
On the seventh day, they make seven processions. They shout, Hoshanah which means "Please save us!"
These are the actions of Israel as they marched around Jericho when they crossed over into the Promised Land.
As the walls of Jericho fell, so will the walls of Babylon fall.
- The Fruit Harvest (Etrog). The fruit harvest is ready. They wave it before God as an offering, just as the ordained priest comes before God as a wave offering.
- The Latter Rain. They prepare to live with God and build a structure through which they can receive the latter rain, see the stars of the Second Coming and will not be restricted by the roof as they are raptured through the air.
- The Persecution. The people symbolically march around the walls of Babylon just as Joshua marched around the walls of Jericho.
They are going to take back the city for God. They are going to evangelize the world.
At the same time, they shout "please save us". This is because they are being persecuted at this time.
On the seventh day, both groups marched seven times. Jericho collapses. Babylon collapses.
The seventh day is called Hoshana Rabbah, "The Great Hosannah".
This is fulfilled on two levels when we are protected at the throne of God.
During the last hours of the final persecution, we must tabernacle with God by faith.
Live with God.
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and He that sits on the throne shall dwell [tabernacle] among them. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them to living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
(Revelation 7: 15, 17)
Period | Beginning | Day 1-6 | Day 7 | Day 8 |
1 | Persecution | Latter Rain | Mark of the Beast | Seven Last Plagues | We go to heaven |
2 | Millennium | Rapture, hail | Satan in prison | Armageddon | New Heavens and Earth |
Tisheri 21: The Messiah Comes.
This was the day of the Messianic hope.
On the last great day of the feast the people pray for salvation through the Messiah.
They assembled with palm branches and recited Psalm 118.
On the last day of the feast the people assembled with palm branches
and walked around the altar seven times, saying "Halleluyah" after every line of Psalm 118.
On verses 25-29, they added the words "Hossana, make thy salvation now manifest, O Lord, O Lord send now prosperity".
Verse 26 applied to the Messiah.
- Persecution. During this period the church is being persecuted and they flee to the sanctuary for safety.
From my distress I called upon the Lord; The Lord answered me and set me in a large place.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.
(Psalm 118: 5, 8)
- Surrounded by the Nations. The people are surrounded by the nations.
They recognize the Messiah and God delivers them.
All nations surrounded me; In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
(Psalm 118: 10)
- Sabbath. They honor the Sabbath during their distress.
This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
(Psalm 118: 24)
- The Messiah Comes. In the days before the crucifixion, the people met Jesus with palm branches and recited Psalm 118. (Matthew 21: 9)
They greeted Him as the Messiah during Passover with the rituals from the feast of Tabernacles.
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
(Psalm 118: 26)
We now know that they rejected Him on that important Passover, but they will acknowledge Him by the last feast of Tabernacles on earth.
This is exactly what Jesus predicted when the Jews rejected Him. His coming will be after the Jews begin to look for Him.
Look, your house is being left to you desolate!
For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"
(Matthew 23: 38-39)
Again we have Passover tied to the feast of Tabernacles.
It is as if the Passover is unfinished. Death has not passed over until we have officially been given eternal life.
The Yom Kippur judgment is the occasion where the righteous are formally selected to receive eternal life.
- Rain. At the Second Coming, the rain of hail stones fulfills this. But in the final year of evangelism, it could represent the date of the Latter Rain.
- Shofar (The Last Trumpet). This sound represents the last trumpet that wakes the dead.
Yom Kippur seems to be blended with Hoshana Rabbah. Together they might represent the events during the last week on earth.
Jewish New Years.
Although the months begin with Nisan, Jews have several new years to begin various counts.
- Kings: Nisan 1. The new year for counting the reign of kings begins in the first month. Jesus became King in Nisan.
- Cattle: Elul 1. The new year for bringing in the tithe of cattle begins in the sixth month.
- Civil Years: Tishrei 1. The civil new year begins in the seventh month. This is the time to change the year count and to begin judgment.
- Trees: Shevat 15 ("Tu B'Shevat") or Shevat 1. This is the eleventh month.
According to one other source, the new year begins on the first.
The new year for counting trees for the purpose of calculating when to bring in the tithe of the first fruits.
Fruit is not to be eaten for the first three years. In the fourth year, all the fruit is given to God as first fruits and then they become available for public use in the fifth year.
The Last Year On Earth.
The Jubilee year begins on Rosh Hashanah and represents the last year on earth when we will be freed.
The last year also represents the year of the seven last plagues when there is no more mercy.
Yom Kippur represents the last day when we can change the mind of God.
The law represents a possible sequence of events.
- Rosh Hashannah: Judgment Begins (Tishri 1). Judgment is rendered.
- Yom Kippur: Judgment is Sealed (Tishri 10). This is the last day to repent. It is the last day of the last year to be sealed and written in the Book of Life.
- A Proclamation. We can probably preach that the year of our release is close and that we will be drinking the fourth cup of the Passover. This means that the last generation must suspect what is occurring. It is only the wicked that will be surprised.
- No Sowing or Reaping. This is the clue that it is the time when there is no more mercy.
We are to go home to our families. We should not be spreading the gospel anymore. There is no more harvest to reap or efforts to sow.
» Between Yom Kippur and Succos. This is the time for personal preparation for the coming of God.
We must build a tabernacle because God is coming to dwell with us while the tabernacle in heaven is closed during the plagues.
- Eat the Crops from the Field. This might be a prophecy about our status at this time. We may be eating off what God provides from the wild land because we are under persecution and the plagues are destroying the earth.
- Hoshana Rabbah: Judgment is Delivered (Tishri 21). The judgment that was sealed on Yom Kippur begins.
Delivered On The Feast Of Tabernacles
The Bible says that in the future we will remember Him because of the exodus from the land of the north, not because of the exodus from the land of the south (Egypt).
At the end of time we will leave Babylon in a great exodus.
Look, days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no longer be said
"As the Lord lives Who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt",
but, "as the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from the
countries where He has banished them".
For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.
(Jeremiah 16: 14-15)
Many of these great deliverances happened during Tabernacles.
- Noah's Ark (Tishri 17). The ark rested on Mount Ararat on the seventh month on day seventeen. Genesis 8: 4
Preach |
Wait |
 |
Tsunami |
Flood |
 |
Wind  |
Dry Earth |
Wait  |
120 Years |
7 Days |
- |
40 Days |
110 Days |
Ararat |
150 Days |
70 Days |
(Day 10) |
Month 2 Day 17  |
Month 7 Day 17 |
Month 12 Day 17 |
Month 1 Day 1 |
Month 2 Day 27 |
Gospel |
7 Last Plagues |
Second Coming |
Righteous in Heaven |
Possess the Earth |
- Ancient Babylon (Tishri 16, 539 BC). Babylon fell during Tabernacles.
- Second Coming. The symbols indicate that the Second Coming will be during the feast of Tabernacles.
Just as the first exodus from the land of sin was during the Passover, the global exodus from sin was the Passover when Jesus died.
Tabernacles represents the exodus from Babylon, the time when we go back to God to rest. Therefore it is the final exodus which brings us to God at the end of time because we have already experienced the Passover.
We are just wandering in the wilderness for over 2000 years waiting to enter the Promised Land.
- Shut up Many Days. We will be in heaven for 1000 years just as Noah was shut up in the ark for about seven months.
During that time the raging sea of the wicked are dried up. All water (people) are removed from the surface of the earth.
- Third Coming. The New Jerusalem rests on the Mount of Olives 5000 years after the exodus of Abraham just as the Ark rested on Mount Ararat five months after the flood began.
- Wait.
Even though the earth was dry, Noah had to wait 57 days to leave the ark and live on the earth.
Our ark is the New Jerusalem. We have to wait until the judgment is over and the wicked are destroyed before we can go out and possess the new earth.
Cheating Death (The New Passover)
Just as Passover is the day death passed over Israel before the first exodus,
Yom Kippur is the day the second death passes over the new Israel before the second exodus.
Christ Judges in favor of us on this final Day of Atonement.
So we will no longer talk about our deliverance from Egypt, we will celebrate our deliverance from Babylon.
We will once again experience a Passover, an exodus and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Passover | Exodus | Pentecost |
Passover | Exodus | Pentecost |
Passover | Exodus | Pentecost |
Passover | Egypt | Pillar of Fire |
Crucifixion | Sin and Death | Pentecost |
Yom Kippur | Babylon | Tabernacles |
Out of Egypt | Out of Sin and Death | Former Rain | Out of Babylon | Latter Rain |
The Connection Between The Feasts
Most Holy Place Closed | - | Sanctuary Open (Most Holy Place) (6 Days) | - | Sanctuary Closed |
Spring Events | Autumn Events |
Passover |  | Three Cups |  | Unleavened Bread |  | Cup 4 |
Resurrection |  | Changing Minds |  | Resurrection |
Pentecost | Former Rain |  | Fruit Grows |  | Latter Rain |
Yom Kippur | Lord's Goat |  | Day of Atonement |  | Scapegoat |
Tabernacles |  | Day 1 |  | Temporary Home |  | Day 8 |
Redemption | Sin Removed | Wrath (Plagues) |
Priests Consecrated and Called | Ordained | Lord Appears |
Jesus Slain From The Foundation | 6000 Years | Millennium |
Every feast that includes a sacrifice was offered at Passover, because Jesus was actually sacrificed one time during that feast for all feasts.
who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
(Hebrews 7: 27)
and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
(Hebrews 9: 12)
Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
(Hebrews 9: 26)
However, the other details of those feasts were not a part of the Passover sacrifice because they would end at another time period.
We also see from the fourth cup that even Passover extends into the feast of Tabernacles.
Therefore, all the feasts must prophecy about the Plan of Salvation from the beginning at the crucifixion to the end when we go to heaven.
The dates when they were celebrated are significant because that date would be an important day in that phase of the Plan of Salvation.
These phases are signified by the four cups.
In Between Days. The six days between both events represents the time when sin is removed from the people as they bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit and wait in temporary homes and bodies until God prepares a home for them.
Most Holy Place Closed | - | Sanctuary Open (Most Holy Place) | - | Sanctuary Closed |
Global Passover | Global Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) | Global Tabernacles |
Passover Sacrifice (3 Days) | Omer | Pentecost | Trumpets | Yom Kippur |
- | Tabernacles |
 
 |
 |
 |
 |  |
 |
49 Days |  |
113 Days |
 | 10 days of awe |  | 5 Days |  |
3 Cups | Bread | - | Lord's Goat | Bull | Lamb | Holy Spirit | Judgment | Scapegoat | Cup 4 | Wrath |
Passover Meal | Pray | Atonement | Tabernacles | Torn Veil | Scapegoat in the wilderness |
Drink | Grain | Aroma | Grain | Burnt | Peace | Reap | Harvest | Reap corner | Convocation |
The Exodus of Jesus | High Priest in the Sanctuary | Exodus of the Church |
First Coming | Church In Babylon (2000+ Years) | Second Coming |
Jesus Tabernacles With Us From Birth | The Holy Spirit Tabernacles With Us | Father Tabernacles |
God Tabernacles With Us Forever |
At the first exodus from Egypt Passover and Tabernacles occurred at the same time. When they left Egypt on Passover they immediately began living in booths.
And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.
(Exodus 12: 37)
For some reason God separated them into two feasts seven months apart.
That reason was the global fulfillment. Part of the feast was fulfilled during the spring feast at the Passover crucifixion and the other part will be fulfilled during the autumn feast at Tabernacles at the end of time as the glorious church fulfills their roles in the feasts.
This global fulfillment between the Crucifixion and the Third Coming is itself a sign of an eternal global fulfillment.
()
Passover ("Freedom"). Jesus began His exodus from the earth. The church was freed from the death penalty of sin with the death of Christ.
Spring Fulfillment ("Three Cups"). Jesus died. He presented all offerings and drank the first three cups.
- Incense ("Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane"). He prayed for us.
» Burnt Offering ("Trial"). The emotional suffering at His trial and public humiliation.
- Bull ("Walked to Golgotha"). He carried the cross like an ox with a yoke.
- Goat ("Despised and Rejected"). He became the Lord's Goat who was substituted for sin.
» Sin and Guilt Offering ("Goat"). The goat was the sin and guilt offering for the people.
- Lamb ("Death"). He died as the Passover Lamb.
» Peace Offering. He voluntarily gave up His life to reconcile us to God.
- Food Offering ("Bread"). His body was broken when they crucified Him.
- Drink Offering ("Wine"). He shed His blood.
- Wave Offering ("Breast and Thigh Lifted Up"). Jesus on display on the cross.
» First Fruits Offering. He rose from the dead with others.
» Consecration Offering. He presented Himself as the High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary.
Autumn Fulfillment ("Fourth Cup"). Jesus drinks the fourth cup of release at our resurrection and rapture.
The Eternal Universal Passover (Lamb Of God). Jesus will be our High priest and Lamb forever in the New Jerusalem with the wounds in His body forever.
And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
(Zechariah 13: 6)
Pentecost ("Deliverance"). The church is delivered from the power of sin when the Holy Spirit writes the Law in our hearts. The Holy Spirit was formally released at the moment He died.
Spring Fulfillment ("Former Rain"). Reap the harvest of the land. 3000 Jews were converted on Pentecost.
Autumn Fulfillment ("Latter Rain"). The needy and the alien reap the corners of the land at the end of time.
The Fruit that fell on the ground which was left for the strangers was the discarded Messiah who fell on the ground with our burden of sin and was cast out.
The Gentiles are those who will harvest the four corners of the earth.
And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.
(Leviticus 19: 9-10) and Leviticus 23: 22
The Eternal Universal Savu'ot or Pentecost (Holy Spirit).
The Holy Spirit always manifests Himself with flames when He is poured out. We will be living in the eternal burnings forever and flesh and blood cannot exist in the consuming fire.
The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
(Isaiah 33: 14-15)
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
(1 Corinthians 15: 50)
Yom Kippur ("Redemption"). The church is vindicated in the judgment.
We are living in the day of atonement when the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary is opened.
This open door was signified by the torn veil when Christ died.
The guilt phase of the offering is applied at this time when the real blame is placed on the scapegoat.
Spring Fulfillment ("Lord's Goat"). Jesus was presented alive before the congregation in Jerusalem.
» Casting Lots: Two Hands in the Bowl. He and Judas dipped their hands in the bowl at the same time.
One hand was the Lord's Goat and the other was the scapegoat who would betray Him.
Autumn Fulfillment ("Sanctuary Cleansed").
On 22 October 1844 (Yom Kippur), members of the Millerite movement waited for the Second Coming, believing that the earth was the sanctuary which was to be cleansed.
What was actually occurring was that Christ, as the High Priest, was entering the heavenly temple where He would begin the phase of the Yom Kippur ceremony where the sanctuary would be cleansed.
Autumn Fulfillment ("Scapegoat").
Satan will be presented alive before the world in a false Second Coming.
Then the sanctuary in the Most Holy Place in heaven will be closed for one year as the seven last plagues are sent.
» Satan Appears Before The World.
In Matthew 24: 24-27 Jesus predicted that many false Christs and prophets would come to deceive the world.
Generally, most Christians would apply this text only to deceptive Charismatic individuals with a Messianic complex.
However, Adventists go one step further and claim that Satan himself will impersonate Christ at the end of time to deceive the world.
The Yom Kippur services proves this claim.
"As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Savior's advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come.
In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. Revelation 1:13-15.
... This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion...
Great Controversy, page 624-625 (1911)
The world will be asked to make the Yom Kippur selection, choose the Lord or choose Satan.
Just as the Passover and Pentecost fulfillment occurred in real time, these events might also occur in real time so that the final movements will be rapid ones.
He might be restricted to making this appearance on Yom Kippur, but probably not on a high Sabbath.
The Eternal Universal Judgment (Yom Kippur).
We will be ambassadors of God forever, as the living stones which construct His temple because we have been sealed and vindicated by the judgment.
Tabernacles ("Release").
The church begins their exodus from the earth.
The church is now physically freed from sin and its effects by resurrection to eternal life.
Although Jesus postponed drinking this cup until the feast of Tabernacles, He did show the promise of the release from death in the resurrection when others were raised from death at His resurrection.
Spring Fulfillment ("First Coming"). Jesus made His exodus to heaven at the spring feast.
Tabernacles was fulfilled at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to dwell with us and Jesus went back to live with God.
» Waving the Lulav. The people greeted Him as their king with palm branches as they said Psalm 118.
» Water Libation Ceremony. A man carrying water led them to the room reserved for Passover where He poured water to wash their feet and wine for the seder.
» Water Sacrifice. Blood and water poured out of His side as they poured out of the altar.
Autumn Fulfillment ("Second Coming"). We will make our exodus to heaven at the fall feasts to live with God, probably during the feast of Tabernacles.
At that time we will be a portable church, fleeing persecution.
The Eternal Universal Tabernacle Of God (God The Father). When the throne of God is moved to the earth, we will be living with God forever because God permanently dwells with us.
This is even considered a partial fulfllment at the Second Coming. Although the people now live with God in the millennium, the future throne of God is still under the curse on earth until the earth is renewed.
The Plan Of Salvation In The Feasts Of Israel (Leviticus 23)
Feast | Hebrew | Date | Description | Fulfillment |
Spring Feasts - Events related to Christ's first coming |
Passover | Pesach
 | Month 1 Day 14 | Commemorates Israel's exodus from slavery in Egypt. | Christ delivers us from sin with his sacrifice. 1 Corinthians 5: 7 | Crucifixion altar of sacrifice |
Unleavened Bread | .: | Month 1 Day 15 | Day 15 and 21 are Sabbaths | The Sabbath was the day Christ was resting in the grave | Table of show bread |
Month 1 Day 15-21 | Eat unleavened bread and remove all leaven from the house | The Jews had 3.5 years to remove sin after the Passover |
Wave Sheaf Offering | .: | Day after Sabbath | The barley harvest, the first fruits from the dead earth are presented to God. | The Resurrection, Christ is the first fruits of the dead, and he presents himself to the Father as the perfect sacrifice. 1 Corinthians 15: 20-23 | Resurrection |
Pentecost Feast of Weeks | Shavuot
 | First 50 days after First fruits | This is a Sabbath. God's revelation of the Torah to the Jewish people. The giving of the law and the descent of God in fire | A recreation, a new creature, a new beginning by the giving of the Holy Spirit who will help us to keep the law. God dwells with men through the Spirit | Holy Spirit
Menorah |
The long summer months of drought. The church wanders in the wilderness |
Fall Feasts - Events related to Christ's Second Coming |
Feast of Trumpets | Rosh Hashanah | Month 7 Day 1 | Head of the Year - New Year. A Sabbath. The anniversary of the creation of the world. The day all living things are judged | Judgment Begins. New start, Christ begins to reign. God is crowned King | Judgment
Altar of Incense |
Day of the Atonements | Yom Hakippurim | Month 7 Day 10 | Day of Judgment for God's people. The holiest day in the year. | Judgment Sealed. Judgment set for God's people. He redeems us |
Feast of Booths Ingathering Day 15-21 |
Sukkot
 | Month 7 Day 15-21 | Commemorates the Israelites living in booths in the wilderness | God dwells with men. We have rest. Day 15 is a Sabbath | Plagues |
Hoshana Rabbah | Month 7 Day 21 | On the seventh day, Jewish tradition says the world is judged on this day | Judgment Delivered. Righteous and wicked separated | Second Coming |
Month 7 Day 22,23 | Shemini Atzeret | Day 22 | Finish reading the Torah. Pray for rain | The final judgment and rain of fire. This is a Sabbath | 3rd Coming |
Simchat Torah | Day 22-23 | New cycle begins. It is a Jewish tradition from the Middle Ages | A new beginning. No more sin. | New earth |
Since these feasts are still being fulfilled, we should still keep them.
In another lesson we discuss the meaning of the feasts after Christ.
At a minimum we should thoroughly understand them because they give us instructions about what to do and what to expect when they are fulfilled.
They are signposts in the Gospel timeline.
» Passover or Easter?
Christ told us to keep Passover to remember Him, not Easter. Easter cannot teach the lessons, time tables and symbols that Passover does.
» Under Judgment or "Once Saved Always Saved"?
We must recognize that we are living during the great day of atonement and make sure that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit.
Keeping this feast would remind us of the solemn times in which we live and that we have the power to keep or remove our names from the Book of Life by our choices.
» Secret Rapture or Living During the Plagues?
We will be living on earth during the time of trouble and the plagues, we will not be secretly raptured to escape it.
The feast of tabernacles are instructions for the last generation under persecution. It gives us hope.
We can celebrate while under persecution because we know that we are protected in the temple of God.
God responds to our prayer of distress by pouring out His wrath on the nations.
But, we must recognize that we are the generation who is caught between the third and the fourth cup and ask for this wrath to be poured out as the third cup predicts. This wrath fulfills the delayed request of the martyrs under the fifth seal and ends our distress.
It tells us that this is the time to run in the wilderness and wait as refugees exposed to the elements as we search the skies for the Second Coming.
The Covenant Fulfilled In The Feasts Of Israel
The order of the feasts shows how the blessings of the covenant are applied to the righteous nation and the curses are applied to the wicked.
Feast | Category | Blessings for the Righteous | Curses for the Wicked |
1 | Passover | Personal Safety | Life | No fear of death. Death passed over us | Fear | No peace |
2 | Pentecost | Land | Rain | Holy Spirit is the water from heaven | Drought | Famine, hunger |
3 | Trumpets | Country | Gathered | Nation gathered for judgment | Scattered | Wild beasts, occupied |
4 | Yom Kippur | Covenant | Peace | Approval of the righteous | Vengeance | War, siege, disease |
5 | Tabernacles | Sanctuary | Sabbath | Living at rest with God in the city of God | Desolation | Sanctuary destroyed |
Time Fulfilled In The Pattern Of The Feasts
Feast | Date | Event | Exodus | Jesus | World |
Sabbath | Saturday ♥ | Rest from Sin and Work | Rest from Slavery | Buried In The Grave | Millennium Rest |
5 Months Of Winter | Plan Of Salvation | Satan Rebels | Reproach | Abyss |
New Year | Nisan 1 | Sanctuary inaugurated | In the land of sin | Jesus and John the Baptist | Foundation of the world |
| Nisan 10 | Passover Lamb selected | Lamb Selected | Comes to Jerusalem on a donkey. Praised as King | Jesus selected |
Passover | Nisan 14 | Lamb Killed | Lamb Killed | Crucified 31 AD | Slain from the foundation |
Unleavened Bread | Nisan 15-21 | No leaven in the house | Exodus begins | Jesus is sinless and innocent | Sinless Adam and Eve communing with God |
Nisan 15 ♥ | Eating The Seder | Fleeing Pharoah | Buried |
Nisan 16 | Barley First Fruits (Wavesheaf) | Resurrected |
Nisan 17-21 | Jesus is in heaven being inaugurated as the High Priest |
Nisan 21 ♥ | No leaven in the house | Red Sea? |
Feast Of Weeks (7 Weeks) | Nisan 16-Sivan 6 | Counting the Omer. 49 days of solemn reflection | From Egypt to Sinai | Jesus tells the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit | Waiting 4000 years for the Promised Seed |
Attacked By Enemies | 7 nations | 7 Churches | 7 Headed Dragon |
Lag B'Omer | Pause for joy on day 33 | Manna | Jesus at the picnic in Galilee? | Jesus comes for 33 years |
Shavu'ot ♥ | Wheat First Fruits (Day 50) | Sinai 10 Commandments | Holy Spirit at Pentecost | The Holy Spirit comes to give us water |
3 Months Of Summer | In the wilderness | 40 years | 2000+ years waiting |
Rosh HaShana | Tishri 1 ♥ | Judgment begins for all creatures | Joshua makes plans to take Canaan | Jesus ministering as High Priest | Sealing the righteous Final evangelism |
Yom Kippur | Tishri 10 ♥ | Judgment Sealed | Jesus begins cleansing the temple (1844) | Satan is the scapegoat |
| Tishri 11-14 | Building the sukka | Homes in Canaan | Evangelism. Build the church | Persecution |
Succos | Tishri 15 ♥ | Living with God in booths | Exodus | Seven Last Plagues The righteous are protected | Millennium In Heaven Earth is an Abyss |
Tishri 15-21 | Jericho |
Hoshana Rabbah | Tishri 21 | Judgment delivered. Lord Save Us! | Walls of Jericho | Second Coming | Final Judgment Hell Fire |
5 Months Of Winter | Clearing The Land | - | Millennium | Judgment |
Shemini Atzeret | Tishri 22 ♥ | Pray for rain New Beginning | Possess the land | Hail! Lord save us! | New Earth |
Simchat Torah | Tishri 23 ♥ | Pray for rain New Beginning | Possess the land | Hail! | New Earth |
♥ Sabbath (Shabbaton) (No Servile Work) ♥ Sabbath (Shabbat) (No Work Of Any Kind) |
The parallel events are matched based on the type of event, not necessarily the date. The events of the spring and fall can merge with each other as they did at the crucifixion and exodus.
The spring feasts represent us leaving the land of slavery and sin.
The fall feasts represent our entry into the Promised Land and removing the sinners in the land.
The time in between represents the period of long waiting which is symbolized by the dreariness and solemn atmosphere of counting the omer during the feast of weeks.
Feast Sabbaths Versus The Weekly Sabbaths
There is a difference in the type of work allowed on these Sabbaths.
- No Work Of Any Kind. Only the weekly Sabbath and Yom Kippur have this complete restriction.
...the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.
(Exodus 20: 10)
Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein.
(Leviticus 23: 3)
on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a Day of Atonement...And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a Day of Atonement...And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work
(Leviticus 23: 27,28,30,31)
- No Servile Work. No "servile work" is allowed on all other feast Sabbaths.
When comparing the rules for the Feast of Unleavened bread we see that the exception is that food preparation is allowed.
In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein....in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
(Leviticus 23: 7,8)
Food Preparation.
in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
((Exodus 12: 16)
So no servile work is allowed on the two Sabbaths of the Feast of Unleavened bread (Leviticus 23: 7,8),
Pentecost (Leviticus 23:21),
Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23: 24,25),
or the two Sabbaths of the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23: 35,36).
Feast Days Not Anulled
But what was Nailed To The Cross.
Text | Text | Audience |
Romans 14: 1-8 |
1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
4 Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
| The dispute has never been about the feast days or eating unclean foods.
It was about eating clean foods sacrificed to idols.
|
5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
| The second was about meeting on other days to study the Bible. eg. Meeting on Wednesday to honor God makes no difference. Not meeting on Sabbath would |
Galatians 4: 8-11 |
8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
| The "weak and beggarly" "and the "Days, months and time and years" are the Gentile customs |
Ephesians 2: 14-18 |
14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
| "Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances" are the sacrifices. He reconciled us to the Father with His blood sacrifice |
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father
|
Colossians 2: 14-17, 20-21 |
14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
| Ordinances of Sacrifices and Oblations Nailed |
16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;)
| The holy things are no longer restricted to the priests. Touch, taste, handle |
1 Corinthians 11: 2 |
Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
| Some washings remain |
Hebrews 9: 7-11 |
10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
| Some sacrifices, oblations and washings are done away with |
Long Time Prophecies
Bible prophecy interpreters focus on finding a specific event in history that marks the beginning and end of a prophecy.
This is hard to do since humans have free will and any set of events within one to three years can be presented as being the most significant event in determining these starts and ends.
God said that when He plants something He does not expect any fruit until the third to fourth year.
So with this type of flexibility notice that the long time prophecies end near feast days and they probably began on one and may be God's official demarcation of these times.
- 70 Years. Jewish tradition says that the Babylonians destroyed the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles. The Persian army conquered them on Tishri 16, during the same feast. So the 70 year captivity must have officially started 70 years earlier during the same feast.
- 2300 Days. It ended on Yom Kippur and must have started around Yom Kippur.
» 483 + 3.5 Years. It ended with the Passover crucifixion, so the start of His 3.5 year ministry must have been on the Feast of Tabernacles.
» 490 Years. So the last 3.5 years that ended this prophecy must have ended with the feast of Tabernacles, 6 months after Passover.
- 1260 Years. Passover may have been the official end on 31 March 1798. The pope was imprisoned and exiled on February 20 and was transported to Valence France by 14 July 1799 where he died on the 28th.
During this trip he was housed at an Augustinian convent in Sienna where an earthquake occurred. So he was housed outside the city in a country home called Hell!
1260 years before Belisarius beseiged Rome (March 537-March 538) overthrew the Goths and eventully placed the pope in power. Passover was April 2.
Other Fast Days
These feasts were instituted at Sinai during the Exodus.
During the history of the nation of Israel, other feasts and fasts were instituted to commemorate other great victories and tragedies.
These fasts were approved by God and they seem to follow a mysterious time law. Some days seemed to be designed for tragedies.
This is what the LORD Almighty says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.”
(Zechariah 8: 19)
- Egypt: Fast Of The First Born (Siyyum B'horim) (Tishri 3). The tenth plague killed all the Egyptian firstborn on the night before the exodus. Exodus 12: 12-14.
- Babylon: Siege And Fall Of Jerusalem. There are four public fast days commemorating the destruction of the first Temple.
2 Kings 25 tells of the capture of Jerusalem. Also read Jeremiah 52:4, and Zechariah 7:3 and 8:19.
- Tenth Month: Asar b'Tevet (Tevet 10). King Nebuchadnezzar begins a three year siege of Jerusalem.
- Fourth Month: Fast of 17 Tammuz. The outer walls of Jerusalem were breached during the siege.
- Fifth Month: Fast Of Tisha B'av (Av 9). The first temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.
656 years later, the second temple was also destroyed by Titus in 70 AD.
The temple burning began on the ninth and most of it burned on the tenth.
- Seventh Month: Fast Of Gedaliah (Tishri 3).
2 Kings 25, Jeremiah 40-41.
It commemorates the assassination of Gedaliah ben Achikam.
Nebuchadnezzar had subdued the Kingdom of Judah, destroyed the capital city of Jerusalem, and the Holy Temple.
He permitted the poor to remain in Judah, and appointed Gedaliah as their governor.
He was assassinated by Ishmael who also killed those who came to mourn his death. The Jews lost autonomy since that day.
» Days Of Joy.
For centuries the Jews have mourned the temple for these days and for the period up to Yom Kippur.
Zechariah prophesies that these dates will become dates of triumph for Israel.
- Persia: Fast Of Esther. Esther (9: 31).
Esther fasted for three days (Nisan 14-16) before risking her life to see the king to plead for the life of the Jewish people. The soldiers fasted on Adar 13, the night before Purim.
- Greece: Hanukkah (Rededication Of The Temple).
This eight day celebration commemorates the miracle at the rededication of the temple after it was desecrated by the Greek ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes.
They found enough sacred oil to light the candle for one night.
However, the light kept burning until more oil could be made eight days later.
» Nikanor Day:
The first record of Nikanor Day is found in 1 Maccabee Ch. 7.
The account retells the defeat of Nikanor's large army and his death on the battlefield.
His threat to destroy the temple was causing the Jews a lot of stress.
When he died suddenly, the people rejoiced and decided to make that day a holiday that would be celebrated annually on the 13th of Adar.
» Extinguishing The Light Of The World:
It is significant to note that Jesus was thrown out of the temple on the feast of dedication and they tried to stone Him just before the crucifixion (John 10: 22-31).
Prophetically, their new temple was not dedicated and it would be torn down.
They had snuffed out the eternal flame.
» Amazing Proof Of God As Creator:
Beginning on Hannukah (21 December 2008) God started revealing the amazing proof of modern day science in the structural plans of the portable tabernacle (Mishkan).
Along with the cleansing of the temple which began on 22 October 1844, God is continuing His work of restoring the temple by restoring the light of the temple by revealing its hidden mysteries to the final generation.
- Babylon The Great: Fall Of Babylon.
Israel has had great miraculous victories over all its enemies except Babylon.
It is at the end of time when Babylon will be defeated in an event that makes the exodus from Egypt pale in significance to the awesome delivery that is prophecied.
Then the words of Zechariah will come through about joy at the four fasts.
This means that at the end of time, significant victories over Babylon the Great will occur on these dates.
Study to show yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2: 15
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Time: 170 minutes Print: 31 pages |
Copyright
Updated : December 2007
Credits:
Author: Laverna Patterson. Editor: Patterson (January 2008)
All images and page design created by Laverna Patterson and are the property of teachinghearts.
July 12-14, 2006. Holy Spirit reveals the symbols of the Passover Seder. July 10-11 reveals the Sh'ma and five symbols of Judaism.
September 2007 - The proclamation and reaping, the Judas kiss.
September 13-22, 2007. Thanks to the Holy Spirit for revealing the timetable during the ten days of awe.
Judaism 101. URL: http://www.jewfaq.org/toc.htm
The Temple: Its Ministry and Services. Alfred Edersheim. URL: http://philologos.org/__eb-ttms/temple14.htm
The Gezer Calendar has information about the planting seasons.
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