The Fall Feasts of the LORD

This is a teaching on the Fall Feasts of the LORD, which foreshadow the second coming of Jesus. This teaching includes what the Feasts are, what Jesus had to say about the end times to be prepared for His coming, and where the Feasts are indicated in the book of Revelation.

“Feasts” = appointed time, place, or meeting

“Days” start at sunset the evening before

         

They are described in Leviticus 23. (I am using NKJV.)

The first one is the Sabbath, which is weekly, year-round. It is from sunset on Friday evening until sunset on Saturday evening.

Jesus fulfilled the Spring Feasts at His first coming:

Passover/Pesach: 1^st month, 14^th Day

           - Reminder of when God spared the lives of those in Egypt who had put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts

           - When Jesus died as the sacrificed Lamb for our sins

Feast of Unleavened Bread/Chag HaMatzot: 1^st month/Days 15-21

          - Reminder that the people left Egypt in a hurry and ate unleavened bread because there was no time to let the dough rise

          - Because Jesus died for our sins, we are new creations (2 Cor 5:17). Our sin (symbolized by the leaven) has been paid for by the death of Christ. We now live our lives for him.

Feast of Firstfruits/Bikkurim: The Sunday during Unleavened Bread

          - The people were to bring the firstfruits of their spring harvest to the LORD (barley)

          - Jesus was the firstfruits when He rose from the dead. We will rise from the dead at His second coming (1 Cor 15:20-23)

Feast of Weeks/Shavuot: 50 days after Firstfruits (Pentecost)

          - The people were to bring the firstfruits of the harvest to the LORD (wheat)

          - Jesus’ disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4)  

Jesus will fulfill the Fall Feasts at His second coming:

They occur in the 7^th month (the “Sabbath” month).

Day of Trumpets/Yom Teruah: 7^th month, Day 1

          - A memorial of blowing (of trumpets)/shout

          - The Hebrew word for blast (of a trumpet) and shout is Teruah

          - Refers to the Day of the LORD, which is the day of judgment

          - Interestingly, Teruah sounds similar to Teshuva, which means to return or turn back (repent/return to the LORD)

          - The first day of the month starts when the people could see the first sliver of the new moon. Since the moon cycle is 29.5 days, the people would have to watch to see if the new moon appeared on Day 29 or Day 30.

          - The trumpet used is a ram’s horn, which in Hebrew is shofar

          Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal in The FEASTS of the LORD (1997), pp. 106-107, note the following:

          - Sounding the trumpet (silver trumpet or shofar) was used to

               1) Gather an assembly before the LORD (Num 10:2-4)

               2) Sound the battle alarm (Num 10:9, Neh 4:18-22; Ezek 33:3-6)

               3) Announce the coronation of a new king (1 Ki 1:34, 39)

Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur: 7^th month, Day 10

          - The people were to afflict their souls (including fasting) and give an       offering to the LORD to atone (cover/purge) their sins

          - This is the one day out of the year when the High Priest would enter behind the veil into the Holy of Holies (Leviticus 16)

          - The 10 days between the Day of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement are called by the Jews the “Days of Awe”

Feast of Tabernacles (Booths)/Sukkot: 7^th month, Days 15–21, plus Day 22

          - A 7 day feast after the harvest, with Sabbaths on the 1^st and 8^th days

          - The people were to rejoice before the LORD with the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook

          - The people were to dwell in booths to remember that God made them dwell in booths when He brought them out of Egypt

Jesus’ Words About the End Times

Matthew 23:37-39; Matthew 24

Jesus: “…you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’” and the temple will be destroyed

Disciples ask: “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

          1) many will come in the name of Christ and deceive many

          2) wars & natural disasters – beginning of sorrows

          3) tribulation – you will be killed and hated for the name of Christ

          4) many will be offended, will betray and hate one another

          5) many false prophets will deceive many

          6) the love of many will grow cold because lawlessness will abound

          7) he who endures to the end will be saved

          8) the gospel will be preached in all the world

          9) the end will come

Beginning at Matthew 24:15, Jesus gives more detail about the above points:

         

There will be great tribulation…for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. There will be false christs and false prophets.

“For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (v.27). v. 29: “immediately after the tribulation”

v. 30-31: Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Beginning at Matthew 24:36, Jesus admonishes His disciples to be ready (He is speaking to His disciples only, not unbelievers):

Only the Father knows the day or hour. In the days of Noah, people were going about their lives and only Noah entered the ark to be saved. This is similar to what will happen when Jesus returns.

v. 42: “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”

v. 44: “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Beginning at Matthew 24:45, Jesus gives parables to explain what it means to be ready for His return:

v. 24:45-51: A faithful and wise servant gives food in due season to the household during the master’s absence and will be rewarded. An evil servant does not do what he is supposed to do and treats others cruelly. He will be considered a hypocrite and sent to where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

– Both were servants and associated with the master prior to his return. One was doing the will of the master and the other was not.

v. 25:1-13: 5 wise young women took oil with their lamps while they waited for the wedding procession. The bridegroom (and bride) were delayed, but the wise women had enough oil to light their lamps until they came. When the wedding procession passed by, they joined it and went to the wedding. 5 foolish young women did not take oil with their lamps. While the bridegroom and bride were delayed, their lamps were burning out. They were not ready when the bridegroom and wedding procession arrived and, therefore, did not go to the wedding at the same time as the others. When they were ready, it was too late. The door was already shut. When they asked to be let in, the bridegroom said, “I do not know you” (v 11). We do not know whether they were eventually let in or not since the story is not finished. In the Middle East, the bridegroom’s “no” response would have been considered as part of the negotiation process rather than the final answer.

(The cultural information for this parable was obtained from Kenneth E. Bailey’s Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels (2008), pp. 269-275.)

- All 10 were young women who planned to attend the wedding feast of the bridegroom. The 5 foolish young women are not in reference to unbelievers. Based on the context of Jesus’ speech, many will be deceived by false christs or false prophets and/or will have their love grow cold due to lawlessness (sin). It is those who endure to the end who will be saved. (Matt 24:11-13)

- Also, the anticipation of the bridegroom while not knowing the exact time of his arrival seems to relate to the Day of Trumpets, which looks forward to Jesus’ second coming and the rapture of His church. That the listener is left not knowing whether the bridegroom relents and eventually lets in the other young women seems to relate to the Day of Atonement, which is after the wrath of God is experienced but indicates a final opportunity for repentance and acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior.

v. 25:14-30: Two servants took money they received from their master/lord and worked to earn more. Their lord’s response was “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord” (v. 21 & 23). Another servant was “afraid” and hid the money in the ground. He had not lost the money, but he had not worked to earn more either. His lord’s response was to call him “wicked” and “lazy,” to take away the little money he did have, and to send the unprofitable servant into the darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

– All 3 were servants of the same lord and received something valuable from their lord. Only the servants who worked with what they received to please their lord were given rewards and invited to stay with him. The servant who was too afraid and too lazy to profit the lord had everything taken from him and was sent out of the lord’s presence.

At Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus explains what will happen when He judges the nations:

The Son of Man, the King, will sit on His throne and separate the nations. The “sheep” on His right hand are the ones who fed the hungry, took in strangers, clothed the naked, and visited those who were sick or in prison. They are described as “righteous” and “blessed” and are invited to inherit the kingdom and experience eternal life. The “goats” on His left hand are the ones who did not do the actions described above. They are called “cursed” and are sent into the same everlasting punishment that was prepared for the devil (not those made in the image of God). 

New Testament References to the Fall Feasts (not including the ones while Jesus was alive):

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Cor 15:51-52)

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thess 4:16-17)

“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night…But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day…Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.” (1 Thess 5:1-10)

“I will make a new covenant…I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteouness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 8:8-12, quoting Jer 31:31-34) …

“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” (Heb 9:14-15)…

“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Heb 10:19-25) …

“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment…But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” (Heb 10:26, 39)

  

“Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One 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 who sat on the cloud, ‘Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.’ So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then 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, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who 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.’ So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” (Rev 14:14-19)

-  Seems to refer to the Day of Teruah (Trumpet blast/Shout)….

“Then I saw another sign in heaven…seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.” (Rev 15:1)…

“Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot” (Rev 17:1)

- So the following verses are going to give more detail about the condition of the earth and the wrath of God previously described

“An angel cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons…for all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication…’ And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities…’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day-death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.” (Rev 18:1-8)

- Seems to refer to the Days of Awe and the Day of Atonement (except there is no “atonement” for those who do not accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, so they experience the wrath of God). God gives people another chance to repent and come out of their sin.

“And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’” (Rev 19: 6-9)

- Seems to refer to the Feast of Tabernacles

From The Mercy Prayer (2013) by Robert Gelinas: “Lord, have mercy is the most prayed prayer in the Bible. And get this: there is not one time in the Bible where God denies this request!” (p. 22).