THE FEASTS OF THE LORD (part 1)

THE
FEASTS OF THE LORD (part 1)

The
scriptures mention eight feasts, that were first given to the nation
of Israel, and are often referred to as the Jewish Feasts. They are
explained in the OT book of Leviticus (Lev 23:1-44), but are
called in verse 2 in the NLT "These are the Lord's appointed
festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days for holy
assembly". Since they are the Lord's feasts, they should be
observed by followers of Jesus as well as Jewish people. The first
one mentioned is a weekly feast day called "the Lord's sabbath
day" which is still celebrated faithfully by Jewish communities
as "Shavuot", a 24 hour period every week when all normal
activity stops. The other seven yearly feast days are divided into
four that are observed in the spring season, and three in the fall.
The spring feasts were fulfilled perfectly by Jesus Christ by His
first coming to planet earth as "the Lamb of God that takes away the
sin of the world", and we can expect that He will see that the
fall feasts will be fulfilled perfectly,as well!

The
Spring Feasts---The first three, Passover, Unleavened Bread, and
The First Fruits, are all clustered together in the first month on
the Jewish calendar, which always falls in March or April on our
calendar, and then the fourth is Pentecost, which comes fifty days
later. These first three are often referred to as the Passover
season, and commemorate the first passover in Jewish history, which
is recorded in (Exodus 12:1-30). These special days were to be
a picture of the spiritual deliverance that God would provide for His
people through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the true
"Passover Lamb". Then fifty days later the Festival of
Harvest, when the first of the barley crop was ready to harvest, was
a picture of the first believers in Jesus being filled with the Holy
Spirit and sent forth into the world to harvest souls for the Kingdom
of God. So we see that these four spring feasts were already
fulfilled when Jesus came the first time, and are a picture for us of
the first stages of spiritual growth in the life of a "born
again" believer. These stages are 1/ Receiving our deliverance
from sin, by asking for, and receiving forgiveness through accepting the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross which
allows us to pass over from death to life (John 3:16-18, 36), 2/ Laying aside our old sinful nature inherited from Adam, and being
baptized in water (Rom 6:1-4), 3/ Receiving the new life of
the Spirit in our spirit (Eph 2:1-10), 4/ Receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit as the source of power to
live a victorious Christian life, (Acts 1:8). The fulfilling
of these four feasts are now a historical fact, and in part 2 we will
discuss the three fall feasts that are yet future.

Sincerely submitted

Dave Jamer