Summary: The Jew practiced a number of yearly feasts, which served as reminders of God’s goodness to His people. The feasts also represent important events in the plan of salvation and ministry of Christ.
The Jewish law contained a number of feasts that God’s people were to participate in every year. These feasts represented important events in the plan of salvation and ministry of Christ.
The Feast of Weeks
The Feast of Weeks commemorated the day God gave His people the Ten Commandments, which was 50 days after the Passover.
Fifty days after Christ’s death—the true Passover—His disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They were empowered to go and preach Christ Jesus, who is the embodiment of the law, to the world. So, the Feast of Weeks represented Pentecost (“the fiftieth day”), which occurred after Christ’s ascension.
Feasts that Pointed to Christ’s First Coming
The first three feasts of the Jewish year served as an enactment of the events during Christ’s First Coming. These included the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Firstfruits. Every Jewish feast represented an aspect of Christ’s ministry.
The Passover
The Passover represented the crucifixion of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul says, “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
The Passover first occurred while the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. God sent plagues to punish Egypt, including an angel of death that killed every firstborn in Egypt. In order for God’s people to escape this plague, God told each family to kill a lamb that had no blemish. They were to smear the blood of that sacrificial lamb on their doorposts, so that the angel of death would pass over their houses, and their firstborn would be safe from the plague (Exodus 12).
To remember this event, Jews celebrated the Passover, which not only looked back to their deliverance from Egypt and the lamb’s blood on their doorposts, but also looked ahead to the perfect Lamb that was to be slain to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29).
Christ’s sacrifice fulfilled the Passover feast. He was the Passover Lamb. Exodus 12:5; 46 says, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats…neither shall ye break a bone thereof.” Although Jesus was killed at the time of Passover, many Christians celebrate His death at Easter, which is a completely separate—and pagan—festival.
Christ fulfilled these prophecies in the New Testament:
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God (Hebrews 9:14).
But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs…For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken (John 19:33,36).
Feast of Unleavened Bread
This feast represented the body of Christ. It was a symbol of Christ as He lay in the grave. Jesus attributed the symbol of bread to himself. “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33 NKJV).
This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world (John 6:50-51).
The Pharisees, the religious leaders of the time, knew very well what Jesus was talking about. They understood the typology of the Messiah as the Bread of heaven. They knew when He referred to Himself as the Bread of heaven, He was claiming to be the promised Messiah, the Holy One of Israel. That is why they tried to stone Him.
In the sanctuary’s table of shewbread, the bread, symbolizing Christ as the Bread of Life, was always unleavened bread.
Unleavened bread is bread that has no leaven (yeast). In the Bible, leaven symbolizes sin or error. It causes fermentation. The Lord said to His disciples “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees” (Matthew 16:6; Mark 8:15). In addition, the apostle Paul warned the Church at Corinth that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). He was saying that just a small amount of sin could destroy us.
Jesus is likened to the Unleavened Bread because He was the Sinless One with no leaven whatsoever, and thus fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread (See Luke 1:35; John 8:46; 14:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 7:26; 1 Peter 1:19; 1 John 3:5).
Feast of Firstfruits
This feast represented Jesus’ resurrection. The resurrected Jesus was the firstfruits from the dead:
But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming (1 Corinthians 15:20-23 NKJV).
On the day of the feast of firstfruits, the priest waved a sheaf of the first harvest before the Lord. None of the harvest could be eaten before the firstfruits were offered to God.
When Jesus rose, He appeared to Mary Magdalene. When she realized it was Jesus and drew near to Him, he said “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and to your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17).
A while later, however, He permitted Thomas to touch Him, and in fact told Him to “Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side” (John 20:27).
In between these two events, Jesus would have done exactly what He said He was going to do—ascend to heaven to present Himself to the Father as the firstfruits of those that will be redeemed from the earth. Then He returned to the earth to comfort and visit His friends for another 40 days until He was taken up into heaven (Luke 24:51).
These three feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits) were celebrated on consecutive days, representing the days of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Feasts that Point to Christ’s Second Coming
The last three feasts in the Jewish calendar pointed to the Second Coming of Christ. These included the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Atonement (Day of Atonement), and the Feast of Tabernacles.
Feast of Trumpets
During the Feast of Trumpets, God’s people gathered in a sacred assembly, commemorated by blasts of the trumpet. This feast points to the announcement of the pre-advent judgement. This judgment was represented by the Feast of Atonement, and was set to take place at the end of the 2,300-day prophecy. The symbols in this feast were fulfilled in the events just prior to 1844.
Comment added: Click on the link for a presentation on the Pre-advent Judgment by Harold White (presentation starts at 9:00): https://www.amazingfacts.org/media-library/media/e/7235/t/the-pre-advent-judgment
Feast of Atonement (Day of Atonement, added)
Click on these links to read articles related to the Day of Atonement, links added.
Christ’s Day of Atonement – The Antitypical Day of Atonement (OT Prophecy)
Feast of Tabernacles
This feast was a joyous celebration of the harvest. The Jews built booths, or tabernacles, of olive, palm, pine, and myrtle branches, and lived in those booths for seven days (Nehemiah 8:15). This was to remind the Israelites of the time they spent living in booths when God brought them out of Egypt. This feast reminded God’s people of His goodness to them.
The harvest the Jews celebrated on that day represented the final harvest of the redeemed. The feasting represented the joy that the redeemed will experience when Christ returns.
The Veil (heading added)
When Christ died, the curtain in the temple that hid the Holy of Holies was ripped in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:50-51). In this way, God demonstrated that the Jewish sacrificial system with its rites and ceremonies had ended. Atonement for sins was only available through Christ, and the symbolic practices had been fulfilled through Christ. Do we still need to keep the feast days? No, it is an insult to God.
Some people think that because Christ fulfilled the sacrificial system in the ceremonial law, we can now ignore all laws given in the Old Testament—including the Ten Commandments and the health laws. Read about the relevance of the moral law and the health laws in today’s world.
The Gospel in Type and the Gospel in Truth
The Old Testament sanctuary service, with its rituals and feasts, is symbolic of the Gospel. The New Testament is the Gospel that fulfills the Old Testament’s symbols. Studying the sanctuary leads us to a greater understanding of Christ’s ministry, which is important to understanding the plan of salvation.
Understanding the ministry of Christ is also important because the Bible warns that deceivers will try to lead us astray:
For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist (2 John 1:7).
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed (Galatians 1:8-9).
Anyone who changes the Gospel or tries to introduce a new way of salvation is a deceiver, and denies that it is Jesus who fulfills these Old Testament symbols. The Bible warns that the Antichrist will come to replace the ministry of Jesus with another system. We must be alert to this deep deception that is sweeping across the world.
Let us follow the words of Peter as we seek to live in purity and righteousness:
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts (2 Peter 1:19).
Author: Professor Walter J. Veith, PhD. Amazing Discoveries. Multiple articles have been combined, from the links provided in the article titled: The Ceremonial Feasts Pointed to Christ.
Comments added: The Plain Word will post articles regarding the Antichrist and much more about End Time Events when we get the prophetic books of the bible such as Daniel and Revelation, and others books of the bible that have end time relevance.
Disclaimer: THE PLAIN WORD may quote an outside article(s) or provide references to outside materials, which indicate that we stand behind the content of that particular article or reference; but it is not an endorsement by The Plain Word of the author’s opinion, lifestyle or work published elsewhere.
2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” AND 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”