I’m not going to post the videos from the third class. I hate them. I don’t think I presented the information very well, and I rambled too much. I’ll post my notes from it, and I’ll write a little bit out. You can leave a comment if you want something clarified or more information, etc. I’m happy to oblige.

Basically lesson three is a foundation for the Hebrew calendar and its feasts. If you remember anything remember this: The Feasts God commanded the Israelites to keep in Leviticus 23 were dress rehearsals they were to practice for generations to prepare for appointments God was going to keep. God set them up as dry runs for the real thing, basically. And because God keeps a seven thousand year calendar, and humans live but a mere dot of that time, they have been put in place so that each generation can know and participate in the appointments of God.

PART ONE:  The Spring Festivals

Building from the templates laid in the last lesson, we’re going to take a good look at the feasts in the Hebrew culture, given by God Himself.  Remember that the word for “feast” means “to keep an appointment” and that they are rehearsals.  Here are the seven feasts/festivals we’re going to look at:

14 Nisan – Pesach   {Passover}                                                                                                   (Mar/Apr)

15-21 Nisan – Hag HaMatzot   {Feast of Unleavened Bread}                                         (Mar/Apr)

16-17 Nisan – Yom HaBikkurim  {Feast of First Fruits)                                                       (Mar/Apr)

6 Sivan – Shavuot  {Pentecost or Feast of Weeks}                                                             (May/June)

1 Tishri – Rosh Hashanah  {Feast of Trumpets or New Year}                                         (Sept/Oct)

10 Tishri – Yom Kippur   {Day of Atonement}                                                                       (Sept/Oct)

15-21 Tishri – Sukkot   {Feast of Booths or Tabernacles}                                                 (Sept/Oct)

A good online resource for studying the feasts/festivals is the website by Alf and Julie Saunders, “Pray for Zion”, which can be found at http://www.pray4zion.org/index.html.

They have a number of charts and articles to help educate about Jewish matters.

Remember the two calendars:

Jewish Calendar Year^*                                                   Jewish Religious Year^**                                                                               

Tishri (Sept/Oct)                                                               Nisan (Mar/Apr)

Heshvan (Oct/Nov)                                                         Iyar (Apr/May)

Chislev (Nov/Dec)                                                           Sivan (May/June)

Tevet (Dec/Jan)                                                                   Tammuz (June/July)

Shevat (Jan/Feb)                                                             Av (July/Aug)

Adar (Feb/Mar)                                                                 Elul (Aug/Sept)

Nisan (Mar/Apr)                                                               Tishri (Sept/Oct)

Sivan (May/June)                                                            Heshvan (Oct/Nov)

Tammuz (June/July)                                                       Chislev (Nov/Dec)

Av (July/Aug)                                                                     Shevat (Jan/Feb)

Elul (Aug/Sept)                                                                 Adar (Feb/Mar)

^*Counting of years and chronology                          ^**counting of reigns of kings and kingship years in Israel

Nisan (also called the month of the Abib or Aviv) is their first month on their religious calendar, which is the calendar they keep for their “Holy Days” (holidays).  The first day of Nisan is considered their New Year’s Day.  It was instituted as such to Moses in Exodus 12:2:

Ex 12:2 NASU

This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.

God instituted the Passover in that same passage of Exodus 12.  It is to occur in 14 Nisan every year, [Exodus 12:6].  Known in its Hebrew as “Pesach”, “to pass over, to exempt or to spare”.   I’m assuming most of my readers are familiar with the Passover (from Exodus 12), and if not, will familiarize themselves with it.  It tells of God’s deliverance for Israel from the death angel and the tenth plague.

Immediately after the Passover is the Feast of Unleavened Bread 15-21 Nisan.  Originally the Israelites did not have time to let their bread rise as they had to leave Egypt at night, in a hurry, and made unleavened bread to eat.  For the Feast, the people were to remove all leaven (yeast) from their homes.  Yeast/leaven symbolized sin.    The unleavened bread was called “Matzah” (Matzo), and was pierced and striped by its preparation methods.  The first and last days of this feast (15 and 21 Nisan) are considered “high holy days” and are treated like Sabbaths where no work is done and the people rest.

During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the third feast, the Feast of Firstfruits begins. This feast is a celebration of the spring barley harvest.  (See Leviticus 23:9-14)  It is set off with a wave offering by the priest “on the day after the Sabbath”, according to Leviticus 23:11.  Only after the priest makes the wave offering for the first fruits of the spring harvest can the crop be used (see vs. 14). 

Fifty days after the Feast of the First Fruits is the Feast of Pentecost, or Shavuot.  Pentecost occurs fifty days after the first fruits feast.   The Israelites were to count out seven weeks (Shavuot means week) and one day from the wave offering.  While the Feast of the Firstfuits represents the spring harvest, Pentecost represents the summer harvest (traditionally the wheat harvest) and is a larger harvest than the spring harvest.  New grain offerings are made at Pentecost.  This day is also considered a Sabbath.

These four feasts [Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost/Shavuot] make up the spring feasts.  Keep in mind the feasts were “rehearsals” that the Israelites kept/practiced for generations, passed down from one family to another.  They were each symbolic of the coming Messiah.  The Passover Seder is full of symbolism of the coming Messiah. 

Christ fulfilled the spring feasts.  He partook of an early Passover Seder on 14 Nisan in the evening (a Wednesday night), in what we now call the Last Supper. 

It looks something like this:

14 Nisan Wed/Thurs:  the Lord’s Last Supper (early Seder)/Preparation Day (for Passover), Christ is flogged, sentenced and crucified, dying Thursday afternoon at the same time as the Passover Lamb.  He is placed in the tomb. This is the first night.

15 Nisan Thurs/Fri:  The first day of Unleavened Bread Feast, also a Sabbath.  Christ is in the tomb.  Passover has commenced. This is the first day and the second night.

16 Nisan Fri/Sat:  The weekly Sabbath begins (back to back Sabbaths).  Christ is in the tomb for the second day and third night.

17 Nisan Sat/Sun:  The “morrow of the Sabbath” marks the wave offering (waving of the omer), which begins the counting of the seven weeks and a day until Pentecost.  Christ is resurrected on this third day in the morning of the day, Sunday. 

So as you can see, Christ is the Passover Lamb, and the leaven/sins of the world were atoned for during the Feast of Unleavened Bread while He was in the tomb.  Christ is also the First Fruits offering to the Father, rising from the dead at the time of the wave offering for the Feast of the First Fruits.  He became the first fruit of the dead, the first that the grave could not hold, the first to conquer death and the grave.  And He produced first fruits at His resurrection,

Matt 27:52-54  NASU

The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;  and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.

Surely God was forthright when He told us to “remember the former things long past” (Is. 46:9).  Surely this was meant for us to gain understanding.  And when He says He “declare(s) the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done,” (vs. 10) could He be speaking of the ancient feasts and their future fulfillments?  Can He not easily declare, “My purpose will be established and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.”? (again vs. 10)

[There’s so much I have to leave out here for brevity, but I highly encourage you to delve into on your own!  Just the process of the calendars and how we’ve gotten them over the eons is a fascinating study that demonstrates the progression of how much the world has run its course apart from God.  The shortcomings and missing parts of days, months, years over time is indicative of how our current year isn’t aligned with Biblical time.  It’s worthwhile to pursue greater understanding.]

PART TWO:   The Fall Festivals

If the Spring Feasts were fulfilled by the first advent of the Messiah, then it’s not much of a logical stretch to predict the Fall Feasts will bring His second advent.  Let’s take a brief look at the remaining three feasts.

Remember that in the Jewish religious calendar, Tishri is the seventh month, but in the civil calendar it is the first month. 

The first fall feast/festival is the Feast of Trumpets, known as Rosh Hashanah, on 1 Tishri.  Rosh Hashanah means “head of the year” – hence first day of the other keeping of days.  It’s considered another New Year’s Day.  Rosh Hashanah is a holy day that is celebrated with trumpet blasts.  The Israelites celebrated the New Year with feasting and celebration.

The ten days that follow Rosh Hashanah are called the “days of awe”.  For ten days the Israelites were to repent, seek and give forgiveness and restitution.   Then on the tenth of Tishri comes the supreme Holy Day:  the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur.  The high priest enters the Holy of Holies to offer a complex set of sacrifices, which you can read about in Leviticus 23:27-32.  They take a goat outside the city walls to die/atone for the sins of the people.  The High Priest invokes the Aaronic blessing on the people, which is the only time in the year in which the holy name of YHWH (YHVH) is spoken.  The day is spent in the synagogue repenting, asking forgiveness and petitioning for another year to be written for one’s self in the Book of Life.

Five days later, 15 Tishri, is the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Booths, or Sukkoth.  It entails a seven day festival of rejoicing where the Israelites dwell in three-sided booths or tents.  The Feast of Tabernacles is considered a harvest feast, and in some ways, a celebration or party.  The appointment being kept in this, is that God will once again live with His people.   The people build tabernacles as symbols of this, and they rejoice that God has promised to live with His people once more.  This feast celebrates the provisions of God, and is full of thanksgiving and even offerings for the poor.

While the Spring Festivals were fulfilled with Christ’s first advent, the Fall Festivals will be fulfilled with Christ’s second advent, at His return.