The Feasts of the Lord: An Introduction (Leviticus 23)

(This series of sermons is based on the work of Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal in Feasts of the Lord, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, TN. 1997)

There is not a country, nation, or people that do not celebrate holidays. Of course, the word “holiday” is a conjunction of the words “holy day.” What we often call holidays are not really holy days. Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, etc. are national observances, not holidays. What about Christmas and Easter? Surely these would be holidays. Yes, to the Christian they are important and holy days. But, they are holidays that were established by the church many years after Christ’s birth and resurrection.

There are very few “holy days” established by God in the Bible:

God established the Sabbath (Saturday for the Jews) as a weekly holy day. Leviticus 23:1-3:

1 The Lord spoke again to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these:
3 ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.

The New Testament church began practicing the Sabbath on Sunday as a memorial to the resurrection of Jesus.

The first day of every month, known as Rosh Hodesh, was a holy day (Numbers 10:10, 28:11-15; Amos 8:5).

There are three other holidays on the Jewish calendar which are not commanded by God in the Scriptures. The Ninth day of the fifth month Av, known as Tisha B’Av, was a day of fasting, mourning, and repentance for the nation.

Two common Hebrew holidays, Hanukkah and Purim, have spiritual significance for Christians, but they are not commanded by God.

We will deal with the Sabbath, Rosh Hodesh, Tisha B’Av, Hanukkah, and Purim after we have spent a few Sundays learning what God has to say to Christians through the major holy days in the Bible.

God only instituted seven holidays. And while it is not inappropriate for men to establish days of special celebration, their significance cannot be compared with the importance of the seven holidays instituted by God. These seven holidays are discussed throughout the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. However, only in Leviticus 23 are all seven holidays listed in chronological order.

The Seven Feasts of the Lord listed in Leviticus 23 are:

-Passover (vv. 4-5)

-Unleavened Bread (vv. 6-8)

-First Fruits (vv. 9-14)

-Weeks (Pentecost) (vv. 15-22)

-Trumpets (vv. 23-25)

-The Day of Atonement (vv. 26-32)

-Booths (Tabernacles) (vv. 33-44)

These seven holidays are called “the feasts of the Lord.” That expression indicated that these holidays are God’s holidays—they belong to Him—in contrast to man’s holidays. Only on His terms and at His invitation can men participate in them and enter into their benefits.

The Hebrew word translated “feasts” means "appointed times". The idea is that the sequence and timing of each of these feasts have been carefully orchestrated by God Himself. Each is part of a comprehensive whole. Collectively, they tell a story. These feasts are also called “holy convocations”; that is, they are intended to be the times of meeting between God and man for “holy purposes.” Since these seven feasts of the Lord are “appointed times” for “holy purposes,” they carry with them great sacredness and solemnity.

I wish to make six points regarding these feasts before we look at them individually in the weeks ahead.

1.    These seven feasts of the Lord were given to the Hebrew nation. The Jewish people are God’s covenant people.

2.    These seven feasts relate to Israel’s spring and fall agricultural seasons. When the feasts were instituted, Israel was largely an agricultural nation. That agricultural characteristic of the feasts remains to this day.

3.    The timing of these seven feasts is based on the Jewish lunar (moon) calendar of approximately 354-day years. Periodically (seven times every nineteen years), the modern Jewish calendar literally has a thirteenth month to make up for its shorter year. If such were not the case, it wouldn’t take long for winter to occur in the summer months, fall in the spring months, etc. It is for this reason that these holidays do not fall on the same day on the Gregorian calendar (the calendar most commonly used today) each year. So that’s why Easter (corresponding to Passover) changes each year.

4.    These seven feasts typify the sequence, timing, and significance of major events of the Lord’s redemptive career. They commence at Calvary where Jesus voluntarily gave Himself for the sins of the world (Passover), and climax at the establishment of the messianic Kingdom at the Messiah’s second coming (Tabernacles). No box has to be manufactured, no text twisted, and no truth manipulated to make these appointed feasts conform to specific events in the Messiah’s life.

5.    Because the spiritual realities to which the feasts clearly point are fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah; all men everywhere have been placed in an opportune position. All of humanity has been extended an invitation to “meet” with God and receive the blessings toward which these seven feasts unerringly point. To turn down this unprecedented and gracious invitation is the height of folly.

6.    The participation of Gentiles in the blessing associated with the feasts of God appointed for Israel should come as no surprise. It is consistent with God’s unconditional covenant to the patriarch Abraham. The central provision of this covenant is found in Genesis 22:18 when God said, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” Jesus taught in John 4:22 that “Salvation is of the Jews.” Israel and the church are distinct entities with distinct promises. However, every blessing and hope we have now and anticipate in the future comes out of the Abrahamic, Davidic and New Covenants God made with Israel.

There is hardly a theme to which we could give our attention that is more important than these seven feasts of the Lord. Why? Because these seven feasts depict the entire redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

“Seven” is the biblical number for completion and perfection. After creating the world, God rested on the seventh day. He did not rest as a consequence of growing tired—omnipotence does not grow tired. Rather, God rested in the sense of completion and satisfaction.

Significant Sevens:
·    On the seventh day of the week, the children of Israel were to observe a Sabbath of rest, patterned after God’s creation rest. They were to rest from all their labors (Ex. 16:23, 30).
·    The seventh month of the Jewish year is especially holy. In that month, all three fall feasts are observed (Lev. 23:24, 27, 34).
·    The nation of Israel was commanded to refrain from farming the land every seventh year—to allow the soil to rest (Lev. 25:4).
·    Seven sevens of years were counted (forty-nine years), and then the next year (the fiftieth) was to be the Jubilee year in which all debts were forgiven and all slaves set free (Lev. 25:8-12).
·    Seventy sevens of years were “determined” upon the Jewish people during which time God would bring to perfection and completion His redemptive purposes (Daniel 9:24-27).
·    The Book of Revelation records the consummation of this age. It uses the number seven more than fifty times. The book revolves around seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls.
·    The seven feasts of the Lord are appointed times that, when completed, will bring this age to a triumphant end and usher in the “golden age” to follow. During that age, every man will sit under his own fig tree (Micah 4:4). That concept is not to suggest boredom or a lack of creativity and activity, but completion and satisfaction.


Four of the seven holidays occur in the spring. The fulfillment of these is a “done deal.” We can look back and examine them and see what Jesus has already done for each of us.

The final three holidays occur in the fall of the year within a brief period in the Hebrew month of Tishri (September/October). As the first four holidays depict events associated with Messiah’s first coming, these final three holidays depict specific events associated with His second coming.

Conclusion
  Many people make the mistake of confusing the keeping of holy days with righteousness before God. Some Jews slip into synagogue for Yom Kippur. Some Gentiles slip into church for Easter and Christmas. They think they are righteous in God’s eyes for doing their religious “duty.”

  God rebuked Israel for keeping the external requirements of the Law while disregarding a heart relationship with Him:

  “The new moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them” (Isaiah 1:13-14).

  But why would God hate the feast days when it was He who had instituted them? Obviously, He did not hate the feast days themselves but the hypocritical manner in which they were being kept. The people had misunderstood and distorted God’s Law. They had abandoned a personal relationship with God. Instead, they sought after self-righteousness through keeping the requirements of the Law.

  The outward requirements of the Law were meaningless without an inward relationship with the Living God. It was this reason that God commanded Israel in Deut. 6:4-6,

 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today, shall be in your heart.”

  So supreme in importance are these words that they begin the shema, the most holy prayer within Judaism. They are also written on the doorposts of all observant Jews and in the tefillin (Scripture boxes or phylacteries) worn on the forehead and forearm during prayer.

  Jesus repeated this truth in Matthew 22:37-28. First and foremost, God desires a heart relationship.

  Many in Isaiah’s day believed they were righteous before God because they were religious—they followed the mitzvot  (commandments), they prayed, and they kept the holy days. Today, the overwhelming majority of mankind, whether Jewish or Gentile, find themselves in an identical situation. They mistakenly believe that keeping a list of religious rites or holidays will gain them acceptance in God’s sight.

         The Bible likens the feast days to shadows which prophetically point to the person and work of history’s most stellar individual—the Messiah of Israel, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Colossians 2:16-17 says,
“Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”

          Jesus alone is the source and substance. The holy days are merely a shadow cast by His indelible mark on history.

          This can be illustrated by a husband who returns home after a long trip. His heart may beat faster in anticipation, seeing the outline of his wife’s shadow through the curtained window as she comes to the front door. He does not embrace the shadow. There would be no satisfaction in that. Instead, he steps through the doorway and embraces her in person.

          Jesus proclaimed, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Are you chasing shadows, or have you fully embraced the Messiah? Only He can save.