Leviticus 23:1-44 NKJV
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2. "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them:
'The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations,
these are My feasts.
3. 'Six days shall work be done, but the
seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation.
You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in
all your dwellings.
4. 'These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall
proclaim at their appointed times.
1. PASSOVER
5 On the fourteenth day of the
first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover.
2. FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD
6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the
Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat
unleavened bread.
7. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation;
you shall do no customary work on it.
8 But you shall offer an offering
made by fire to the Lord for seven days.
The seventh day shall be a holy convocation;
you shall do no customary work on it.' "
9. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
3. FEAST OF FIRSTFRUITS
10. "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them:
'When you come into the land which I give to you,
and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits
of your harvest to the priest.
11. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord,
to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest
shall wave it.
12. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf,
a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering
to the Lord.
13 Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah
of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord,
for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine,
one-fourth of a hin.
14 You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until
the same day that you have brought an offering to your God;
it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations
in all your dwellings.
4. FEAST OF PENTECOST (WEEKS)
15. 'And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath,
from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering:
seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 Count fifty days to the
day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain
offering to the Lord.
17. You shall bring from your dwellings two
wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah.
They shall be of fine flour;
they shall be baked with leaven.
They are the firstfruits to the Lord.
18. And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year,
without blemish, one young bull, and two rams.
They shall be as a burnt offering to the Lord,
with their grain offering and their drink offerings,
an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord.
19. Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering,
and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering.
20. The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave
offering before the Lord, with the two lambs.
They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest.
21. And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy
convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it.
It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout
your generations.
22 'When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly
reap the corners of your field when you reap,
nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest.
You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger:
I am the Lord your God.' "
5. FEAST OF TRUMPETS
23. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
24. "Speak to the children of Israel, saying:
'In the seventh month, on the first day of the month,
you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets,
a holy convocation.
25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an
offering made by fire to the Lord.' "
6. DAY OF ATONEMENT
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
27 "Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement.
It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls,
and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.
28 And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the
Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.
29 For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall
be cut off from his people. 30 And any person who does any work on
that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.
31 You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever
throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
32 It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall
afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening,
from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath."
7. FEAST OF TABERNACLES
33. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
34. "Speak to the children of Israel, saying:
'The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the
Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.
35 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation.
You shall do no customary work on it.
36 For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.
On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation,
and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.
It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.
37 These are the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be
holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord,
a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings,
everything on its day--
38 besides the Sabbaths of the Lord,
besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your
freewill offerings which you give to the Lord.
39 'Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month,
when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the
feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a
sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest.
40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit
of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees,
and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the
Lord your God for seven days.
41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year.
It shall be a statute forever in your generations.
You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days.
All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths,
43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel
dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt:
I am the Lord your God.' "
44 So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
SEVEN FEASTS OF THE LORD
The Seven Feasts of Israel are also referred to Holy Scripture as the 'Feasts of the Lord'.
For an excellent introduction to the 7 Feasts and the Hebrew Calendar see
the YouTube video by CarrieAnn from a Messianic fellowship.
Here is our first major point.
In the Hebrew scripture the word
for 'Lord' in these passages is 'YHVH', the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
These feasts are key waypoints on a roadmap in holy history.
They tell the story of the main Covenant events
between God and His Elect people as they occur
here on the earth and down through time.
It is a long and epic saga, with a beginning and a conclusion.
The story begins back with the people God called out to Himself
in Old Testament times. And it extends right through to the
Apocalyptic events John saw in vision and wrote about in the Book of
Revelation. Indeed the very next feast, the
Feast of Trumpets
is coming up in some dark future night.
Something momentous will happen on the new moon of Tishrei that year.
And the upcoming feast that awaits fulfillment will
express itself in its New Covenant fulfillment. It will be a blockbuster day in holy history.
As we shall see, the Feast of Trumpets will almost certainly be the one
that will usher us into the
70th week of Daniel and the final seven years of this present age.
At the end of those seven years the final
Day of Atonement
will come into its ultimate fulfillment as well. This will be the very
last day of this age.
The Seven Feasts of the Lord will take us into the Apocalypse and beyond.
The seventh feast, the joyous Feast of Tabernacles,
will come into its ultimate fulfillment
as the true new age dawns.
This will bring in the
Millennium of Messiah, that glorious age to come.
The deserts will bloom and streams of waters will
break forth upon the dry ground.
God will camp out with mankind for 1,000 years as Emmanuel, "God with us".
And as a shepherd feeds and tends his sheep He will
draw His people to Himself.
Is there an 8th feast? Might the Feast of Hanukkah, the festive winter season of the Eternal Light
celebrate the glorification of all the saints from both this age and
the 1,000 year Millennial age to come? Our Apostle Paul
gives us a glimpse of that. - 1Cor. 15:24-28
But that will be a study for another time.
The first four of the Seven Feasts of the Lord have already been fulfilled.
They were fulfilled in spectacular
fashion. They were fulfilled right on the auspicious Hebrew calendar dates
on which they have been celebrated in times past, the same dates that
will be celebrated forever more.
The three spring feasts were
fulfilled by Jesus our Savior.
And the summer Feast of Pentecost was fulfilled as well.
It was fulfilled by the Holy Spirit 2,000 years ago.
Here is the situation so far.
1.
Passover Fulfilled!
(By Jesus/Yeshua at His crucifixion on Nisan 14 in the spring of 32 A.D.)
2.
Feast of Unleavened Bread Fulfilled!
(By Jesus/Yeshua at His burial in the tomb on Nisan 15 in the spring of 32 A.D.)
3.
Feast of Firstfruits Fulfilled!
(By Jesus/Yeshua at His Resurrection on Nisan 17 in the spring of 32 A.D.)
4.
Feast of Pentecost Fulfilled!
(By the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost on Sivan 7 in the summer of 32 A.D.)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
.
.
.
.
(A gap of 2000 years or so has allowed the Light of Israel to
.
go forth into the nations for the Gentiles to be evangelized).
.
.
. - - - - - - - - - - - -
WE ARE HERE - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Now here come the Fall Feasts.
They are probably just up ahead.
.
5. The Feast of Trumpets Unfulfilled ....(as of yet).
An epic event will unfold on the new moon of Tishrei on a future Jewish New Year.
6. The
Day of AtonementUnfulfilled ....(as of yet).
Tishrei 10 seven years beyond that epic future Feast of Trumpets.
This will be the final Day of Reckoning, for that year, for the Jubilee, and for the age.
The Jewish nation and "all Israel" will be saved! - Zech.12:8-13:1, Rom. 11
And then comes the Day of the Lord. It is Doomsday for the wicked. (Mat.13:30)
The sign of the Son of Man will be seen in the heavens. (Mat.24:29-31)
He will deliver His people at Jerusalem by His action at Armageddon. (Joel 2:28-32)
And He will deliver His people
in exile in the magnificent
Bozrah Deliverance.
He will glorify all His Elect at the
Resurrection-Rapture . (1Thes.4:15-17)
They will be drawn out from Israel, from the Church, and from the gentile nations.
7. The Feast of TabernaclesUnfulfilled ....(as of yet).
Tishrei 15 will come five days after that final epic Day of Atonement.
This will mark the coming of Messiah to tabernacle with His covenant people.
Thus begins the long awaited 1000 year
Millennium of Messiah.
All these above are the Seven Feasts of Israel.
As we can see, the next three events on God's agenda
will bring in the fulfillment of
each of the three
Fall Feasts of Israel.
So will the Hebrew calendar dates
of those Fall Feasts of the Lord deliver up earthshaking future events?
Look at the first four feasts.
Weren't the first four feasts
fulfilled in spectacular fashion?
And did we not see epic events unfolding right on those very
auspicious dates on the Hebrew calendar?
Dear saints. All seven of these feasts have been celebrated
since the day Moses gave them to us at Mt. Sinai 3500 years ago.
Every one of them must be extremely important.
So, will every one of those Seven Feasts of the Lord,
including the
Fall Feasts, (Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles), be fulfilled as well?
Most assuredly they will!
As we have seen, the first three of the feasts, the spring feasts,
have already had their New Covenant fulfillment. They were fulfilled by Jesus Himself
in his death, burial, and resurrection.
Jesus fulfilled them right on the set calendar dates of the feasts.
He entered Jerusalem 2,000 years ago right on
the day appointed in His
first coming as Messiah. He came as the
Suffering Servant, riding on a donkey.
Four days later, just as the Passover lambs were being killed,
He gave His life blood for us
on the cross of Calvary.
Surely He was Israel's promised Sacrifice Lamb.
Because He was crucified on
Passover.
He was buried that night and laid in the tomb just in time for the Feast of
Unleavened Bread.
On the third day he rose from the grave. On
the Feast of
Firstfruits He was resurrected as the firstfruits from the dead.
50 days later the Holy Spirit fell
upon the 120 in the upper room. This happened right on the Feast of Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit outpouring seen that day was unprecedented
and glorious. The revival of Israel spread into the city of Jerusalem
and thence to Judea, Samaria, and eventually to the utmost parts of the earth.
Thus was fulfilled the summer
Feast of Pentecost.
This epic event happened right on the very day of the Hebrew calendar
that saw Moses bring the Law down from Mount Sinai to the children of Israel .
The Feast of Pentecost was Israel's birthday.
Israel's birthday is also turned out to be the birthday of the Church!
Is God trying to tell us something here? - Gal.3:29, Rom.11, Eph.2:12-13, 1Pet.2:9
The spring and summer feasts broke forth with four blockbuster events
in the covenant history of Israel.
From the precedent set by these earlier four feasts
we can know for a certainty that
the next three feasts, the
Fall Feasts will rock our world as well.
They will erupt into history
in just as spectacular a fashion
as those former four feasts.
The Seven Feasts of the Lord are very important for
Christian-Messianic believers to understand.
All seven of them are celebrations of epic events
in the holy history of God's covenant people.
That history involves the saints from both
Old Testament times and New Testament times.
The feasts mark out the significant events of the
first coming of Christ in His priestly role
as the Suffering Servant 2,000 years ago.
Then they run on into and through the end-time drama.
to when Christ/Messiah returns in His kingdom role.
Because He is surely returning as the Conquering King.
The next two feasts, (#5 and #6), mark out
the
70th week of Daniel, the final seven years of this age.
At some point during those next five days between that epic final Day of Atonement, (the last day of this age),
(which is on the 10th of Tishrei), and the Feast of Tabernacles, (which comes on the 15th of Tishrei),
Christ will return to this earth and glorify His saints.
After the final Day of Atonement the
Day of the Lord will open up in a dreadful way for those who have railed and shaken their fist at God.
Evil angels of wrath of will pluck up the wicked.
They will be pulled up first as reapers pluck up tares or weeds.
This is the grim harvest of the wicked. And the wicked will be pulled up first. (See
Mat. 13:30)
Then, after the grim reapers have finished their task, and just as Jesus Himself tells us very clearly in the parable of the wheat and the tares as outlined in in Matthew 13,
our returning Messiah will send His holy angels to gather His Elect.
This glorious event, coming at an hour and on a day unknown, will be the much longed for
Resurrection-Rapture.
So much for the first two of the yet to be fulfilled
Fall Feasts of Israel.
What about the seventh feast to follow? What will be the epic event that marks the fulfillment of that feast, the final one of those 7 feasts?
The 7th feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, will come into its ultimate fulfillment
on the opening day of the glorious Millennium to come when Messiah comes to camp out with His people on earth
and to tabernacle or tent with His people.
The next two feasts that are due to come up for fulfillment are the
Feast of Trumpets and the
Day of Atonement, (Day of Reckoning, or Judgement Day).
And here we note something very interesting.
The Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement will almost certainly mark out the
beginning day
and the
ending day of a highly significant span of time.
We are talking here about the 70th Week of Daniel, the
final seven years of this age.
Here is how it happens.
According to the positioning of a given seven years in the 19 year
metonic cycle a seven year timespan beginning and ending on the months of Tishrei
can span either 86 moons or 87 moons.
When that Tishrei to Tishrei span is 86 moons then we note something truly remarkable.
The number of days
spanning these two feasts, that is, Trumpets on Tishrei 1 and Atonement on Tishrei 10
seven years later is a timespan of
exactly 2550 days.
This just happens to equal the exact number of days, (1260 plus 1290),
that span the
70th week of Daniel along with its 30 day extension.
1260 +1260 + 30 = 2550 days. Or 1260 +1290 = 2550 days.
The 1260 days of the Tribulation Period receive these extra 30 days tacked on at the end
to make the 1290 days spoken of by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel! (See
Dan.12:11)
The diagram below shows how the 70th week of Daniel with those extra 30 days
is staked out perfectly
by the two upcoming
Fall Feasts of Israel.
It seems that the 2550 days encompassing the 70th week of Daniel, (1260 = 1260 = 2520 years), plus the extra 30 days matches perfectly
the 2550 days that bridge the next two fall feasts when they lay out a timeline across
7 years and embrace 86 moons, (and not 87 moons),
in the 19 year
metonic cycle upon which the Hebrew calendar is based.
This was something this author discovered in 2003.
Is it a coincidence? As we look into the matter further
and consider the significance of the Feast of Trumpets as related to Daniel 9:27
and the significance of the Day of Atonement as the final Day of Reckoning at the end of this age
it becomes abundantly clear that this perfect bridging of the 2550 days across the final seven years of this age is not a coincidence at all.
God is showing us something very elegant and very wonderful here
concerning the next two, yet to be fulfilled,
Fall Feasts of Israel and the ultimate fulfillment of a certain coming
Feast of Trumpets on a new moon of Tishrei and the final wrap-up
Day of Atonement which comes on a certain tenth day of Tishrei seven years later.
THE SCOPE OF THE SEVEN FEASTS OF THE LORD AS THEY SET FORTH
GOD'S WONDERFUL PLAN OF THE AGES FOR THE COMPLETE REDEMPTION,
SANCTIFICATION, AND GLORIFICATION OF ALL HIS COVENANT PEOPLE
God began His work in the nation of Israel about 3500 years ago.
The exodus from Egypt took place in approximately
1500 B.C. Soon afterwards, at Mount Sinai, God, through his servant Moses,
brought the nation of Israel the Law.
Right there at Sinai Moses instituted the Seven Feasts of Israel.
They are recorded in the Old Testament
book of
Leviticus chapter 23.
Each one of these seven holy convocations were instituted by YHVH-God and they
are they are celebrated each year when those special holy days (holidays) come around on the Hebrew calendar.
God calls upon His covenant people to join Him in celebrating the Feasts of the Lord every year.
These very same feasts will continue to be celebrated in
the
1000 year Millennium to come.
All seven of these holy days,
(from which we get our word 'holiday'), are special occasions in which God
calls His people aside. As the Israelites would go up to Jerusalem to the feast
they would join with the whole Assembly of God in a grand family camp-meeting of sorts.
There at these feasts certain spiritual lessons would be demonstated
before their eyes. It would provide a wonderful opportunity to
teach their children the ways of their God.
As we see, the Seven Feasts of the Lord are not just quaint
religious festivals of a bygone era.
They are, (and will be in times to come), occasions when God's people
pause to remember
seven epic days in their history.
These seven noteworthy events will be memorials of
events that will have occurred on those very same
special Hebrew calendar dates set out by Moses 3500 years ago.
Each feast will be a waypoint in our understanding of
the character of our God.
Each feast will illustrate a certain essential truth
relating to the the Everlasting Covenant
as it unfolds into the history of this earth.
Step by step the God of Israel is establishing and explaining certain truths.
He is helping His people to come to know Him intimately.
The Feasts of the Lord are also signposts guiding
God's Elect and covenant people
in their personal life as well as their national pilgrimage.
They are waypoints into the Kingdom of God.
Each feast provides a wonderful occasion for parents
to teach these lessons and precepts to their children.
These are the Seven Feasts of the Lord. For those who ask
the big questions of life and wonder what God is doing
in this world a study here will give some definite answers.
Our God is not idle.
He is hard at work on a continuing seven part project.
He is redeeming, sanctifying and glorifying His covenant people out of their
dispersions among a lost mankind.
He is drawing out for Himself a chosen people,
even a royal priesthood and a holy nation. Moses spoke of this. (Exodus 19:6)
And so did our Apostle Peter. (1Pet.2:9)
In the same process YHVH/God is defeating Lucifer and the angelic powers
of darkness.
These Seven Feasts of the Lord are not just religious ritual or religious tradition.
They point to events of past and future history, a history that
is in the hands of the Sovereign God of the Cosmos.
They are waypoints on a roadmap that tracks from the passion of Yeshua/Jesus to the
final glorification of all the saints from this age and the age to come at the end of the Millennium.
The Feasts of the Lord can have a personal application
in a devotional sort of way as well.
They track the progress of believers
as they go forward into their own walk with God to make their discoveries in Him.
He takes them from salvation, to infilling of the Holy Spirit,
to sanctification
and ultimately into glorification.
The saints will be raised and glorified to take on new spiritual bodies
at the
Resurrection-Rapture at the last day.
The most important application of the Feasts of the Lord
comes as they relate to
the national history of Israel and God's people
around the world.
The first four feasts that have been fulfilled.
They show God's Judeo-Christian people where their God has taken them so far.
The three
Fall Feasts whose fulfilment is yet future show
us where we are going.
In these seven sacred convocations God's people learn God's
plan of the ages. He has already set His agenda for the redemption of man and the
restoration of the cosmos.
Indeed this was decreed in heaven from before the foundations of the world and before time began.
Things on this planet may be in a mess right now, and getting worse by the day.
But that will not be always the case.
God will step into history once again.
He will surprise us once more, just as He has done in the past.
He has an ongoing program.
God's agenda is in full operation and right on schedule.
Four feasts are down. Three fall feasts are yet to go.
THE UNFOLDING SEVEN FEASTS OF THE LORD IN WESTERN JUDEO-CHRISTIANITY
A PURPOSEFUL LINEAR TELEOLOGICAL CLIMACTIC THESIS OF HISTORY
VERSUS THE CIRCULAR VIEW OF HISTORY ENGENDERED BY THE
MEANINGLESS CYCLES OF YING AND YANG, SUMMER AND WINTER,
BIRTH AND DEATH, ETC. IN PANTHEISTIC EASTERN MYSTICISM.
Another lesson we can learn from the Feasts of the Lord is simply this.
There is one God, He can be known personally, and He is sovereign and in control of history as it unfolds in this cosmos.
History is not just a series of endless meaningless
circles in the pattern given to us in the hypnotizing spell of eastern mysticism
and its drugs marijuana and opium.
The pantheism of the east
sees life as little more than the
ceaseless, repetitive, and meaningless cycles of summer and winter,
life and death, sex and death, marriage and funerals.
That is all the heathen know.
The Hindu God Kali deals with the problem of life on this earth in a very characteristic way.
She just doesn't care. She disembowels children.
And as Buddha contemplates his navel there is little more that he can add either.
The Buddhist monk walks past the sick or injured child in the street.
He is dead to all this evil around him. He has reached "nirvana".
He no longer hurts because he no longer cares.
He is a holy man of the east.
Holy history, as laid out by the Holy Scriptures of the God of Israel, is quite different.
God has come into the cosmos to save the lost and to defeat the forces of evil.
He is the Apha and an Omega, a beginning and an end.
History on this earth is His-story. It runs forward in linear teleological fashion.
The road takes the saints on a journey from the pit to the throne,
from Desolation Road to the Holy City.
What could possibly be more exciting?
God's covenant people are different from the people trapped in
pantheism and eastern mysticism. Instead of going round and round
in circles they have found the Way.
It is the only way to true glory.
It is the
Paradise Road.
And now with the seven Feasts of the Lord the people God calls have
a chart into the future.
As they move forward with the God of Israel they find themselves being drawn into a greater
and more wonderful reality than they have ever known before.
So
Holy history is not just a balancing act between the 'ying' and the 'yang',
the so called 'positive' and the 'negative' forces of the spirit realm and of nature.
History has been decreed by God.
He has a plan and a purpose.
Holy history has a beginning and an end.
The covenant people of God are moving onwards and upwards.
The times have been set by the Cosmic Christ our coming Jewish Messiah.
He is the Creator of the universe, and the incarnate Son of God.
He came to earth as a little baby who became the Suffering Servant, the promised Sacrifice Lamb.
And He will come again as the conquering King, the Judge of this world.
Then as Messiah of Israel He will establish His Millennial Kingdom
and be the Ruler of this earth for a literal thousand years.
This may come as a surprise to some.
But life on this earth does have a meaning after all.
History is going somewhere.
There is a plot and a counter plot.
There is a main character or protagonist, even the Lamb of God.
And as the story unfolds we also see
an antagonist, Satan, along with his man, the Antichrist and another religious pretender known as the False Prophet.
All these players along with a host of others are woven into in the matrix of the end-time story.
At the end of the saga this earth's history sees a final contest between Good and evil.
The great adventure, that divine romance of the ages will
come to a climactic and glorious conclusion.
This will be followed by a grand resolution at the end with some more big surprises thrown in
for good measure.
WORLD HISTORY IS ULTIMATELY GOD'S HOLY HISTORY.
THE CLIMAX OF THE BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL
WILL BE PLAYED OUT RIGHT HERE ON PLANET EARTH.
God is at work in history.
He is the sovereign author and the finisher of our faith.
He is the active agent in this unfolding story.
So we know that the conclusion of the saga
will be far more magnificent than we can presently imagine.
Furthermore, God is now operating in ever increasing ways
by His Holy Spirit and through the greatly expanding witness of His
covenant people around the world.
Earth is not the only place where God is going to make some changes.
Up in the heavenlies Lucifer is increasingly finding himself in a spot of bother.
He is being progressively cast down.
At some point in the remote past he was cast down from the
throne of God into the lower heavens. (Isa.14:12)
In the middle of the 70th week Lucifer will be cast down a step further
from the second heaven to earth. (Rev.12:6-10)
At the end of the 70th week, when the saints have finished their 5th seal witness,
he will be cast down even further.
He will be bound in the abyss,
the bottomless pit, for a thousand years. (Rev.20:1-3)
At the end of the thousand year reign of Messiah,
Lucifer will have his final play in the Millennial Rebellion.
After that Lucifer/Satan will be cast down even further.
The Great White Throne Judgement will order Him cast into the Lake of Fire
for all eternity. (Rev.20:10)
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SEVEN FEASTS OF ISRAEL FOR CHRISTIANS TODAY
Why is this information on the Seven Feasts of Israel so important?
It is because the covenant people of God
have not just purchased a "ticket to heaven".
They are in a
blood covenant relationship with Jesus Christ/Yeshua Hamashiach.
At some point in the future the saints will
be going up onto the stage of history.
The next two feasts provide vital keys to what will happen.
We do not know which year the next feast will open up.
But in some future September-October time window the next feast, the
Feast of Trumpets,
will come into its epic and climactic fulfillment.
What is the big event that will have happened? Daniel tells us.
(Dan.9:27)
Our sovereign God is in control.
He, and He alone is writing the play of the ages.
And His epic saga is well underway.
Four chapters, even four Feasts of Israel are fulfilled.
Three feasts are left to go for this age.
And as we look at the final
Fall Feasts it becomes obvious
that we are not just passive theological observers in all this.
The lives of each one of us will be actively woven into the End Time story.
Every Christian believer is a living epistle read of men.
God only knows what adventures and wonders that lie ahead of each one of us.
As the feasts move forward our involvement as covenant partners
with YHVH/God is taking us onwards.
We are being drawn into the grand and splendid purposes of God,
towards the climax of this age and into glories we have not yet seen.
Earthshaking events in holy history are up ahead.
They will break into our future in spectacular fashion.
God will revive His people. There will be an epic
End-Time Revival. Joel saw this magnificent awakening
of the saints rising up in the end-time and coming to a peak
right at the end of the age amidst the
6th seal cosmic signs when the sun turns to darkness
and the moon to blood. - Joel 2:28-32
But for many in western Christendom this will not be a happy surprise.
Many, even Christian believers, are bound and determined to go there own way.
The woman of wisdom is crying out in the streets. (Prov.1)
But many remain willingly ignorant of the things of God.
So for them these events will be a rude awakening.
In a future pivotal year the
Feast of Trumpets will sound the alarm.
For us in the comfortable western
Church of Laodicea this future event will be a wake-up call.
It will, as the saying goes, "rock our world".
So. All that being understood, isn't it time that we began
to study the Feasts of the Lord with more diligence?
And isn't it time we began to take our relationship
with YHVH Jesus/Yeshua with the seriousness He deserves?
Now is the time to get to know our God both in Spirit and in Truth.
Now is the time to open our hearts and open our Bibles and get
to know Him personally.
We are His "called out Congregation", we are His ekklesia. We are His church,
even the Congregation of Israel.
He is calling us, even wooing us, to walk with Him in the gentle bonds of Agape love.
And why is this so important, you ask?
Because the western church is in a religious fog.
A thick smokescreen of religious missinformation is obscuring the way ahead.
We are in an
information war so sinister that we are scarcely aware that we are
being led astray.
The end-time information we as western evangelicals have been given is quite incorrect.
We are not passive in the covenant as we have been told. Far from it.
We are a responsible party in the heralding of our coming Messiah. We are His witnesses!
Awesome days lie ahead up there on the
Road to Paradise.
Oh yes. There is a race to be won.
Some group of saints will run on that final leg
of the relay race. Some company of committed saints will break the tape at the end.
It will be grand finale of this age.
The writer of the book of Hebrews brings us this exhortation.
Hebrews 12
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The race will call for our devotion and our commitment.
God is calling for us to participate.
Are we willing?
As the final curtain of the history of this age opens
each one of us will have a vital role to play.
God has given us this time for us to get to know Him.
He wants us to understand the necessity for our vital bridal role of witness to the Bridegroom.
Because the curtain of Israel's history will surely open up on some future Rosh Hashanah.
This not be a Hollywood melodrama for us to watch.
We will be on the stage of history!
These will be stupendous future events of great drama.
They will involve us!
And the
70th Week of Daniel will probably erupt suddenly, and in our lifetime!
These then are the Seven Feasts of the Lord.
They are the story of Israel.
And they are the story of the Church in the Wilderness.
Fulfilled! 
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WE ARE HERE - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Unfulfilled ....(as of yet). 
