See Jesus in the Feasts of the Jews this Easter

Years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma I ministered to a group of people who taught me a great deal about love for Christ. On the podium where I taught every Sunday was a plaque with these words enscribed on it: "Sir, we would see Jesus."

Few western evangelicals realize that time is measured differently in the Bible than the way we measure time today. When the One who transcends time established a calendar for man's sake, He did so according to the moon, not the sun. The biblical calendar is a lunar calendar, whereas our calendar today is a solar calendar. The Jews measured months by the moon's revolution around the earth. Today, we measure time by the earth's revolution around the sun. Until you have a basic understanding of the biblical lunar calendar, it will be easy to miss some wonderful truths regarding the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. This post fulfills the injuction: "Sir, we would see Jesus."

The Biblical Calendar and the Moon

A calendar is a system of organizing units of time for the purpose of measuring time over extended periods. The word "calendar" is from the Latin and means, “to call attention to the new moon.” The Biblical calendar was based on the people of God eyeballing the moon as it revolved around the earth and keeping track of the four seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter). We know that the seasons are the result of the effects of the sun upon the earth--hot, cold and mild--but the Jews only measured "days" by the sun (from sunset to sunset). Their months and seasons, prescribed by God, were counted off by eyeballing the moon.

The biblical month began with the new moon. The new moon is when the moon is dark, having no reflection from the sun from our viewpoint. The Jews would celebrate "new moon festivals" as a way to commemorate the beginning of a new month. "Whenever burnt offerings are presented to the Lord at the new moon.... the people are to serve the Lord in the proper way prescribed for them" (I Chronicles 23:31). This new moon worship of God was prescribed for the Jews by God because everything they did on their calendar pointed to Jesus Christ, as we shall see.

Since it takes 29 ½ days for the moon to complete her cycle around the earth the Biblical calendar consisted of 12 or 13 lunar months in a year, with the odd number months consisting of 30 days and the even number months consisting of 29 days. The years that had an additional month, the thirteenth month, are the years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 in a nineteen-year cycle. The reason a thirteenth month had to be added to the biblical calendar seven times during a nineteen year span is because the lunar year is shorter than the solar year by 11 days. If the Hebrews had not added a thirteenth month every few years, the winter season would eventually move on the calendar and occur in the summer months, and vice versa! Though this all may sound complicated, to the Jewish priests, it was as simple as waching the sky for a "new moon," knowing the agricultural seasons, and blowing their trumpets to mark the beginning of a new month.

God told Moses to Alter the Lunar Calendar

When God delivered His people Israel from Egyptian bondage, He told Moses to make the month in which the Passover occurred (the Abib) "the beginning of months" (Exodus 12:2). This one verse alone should indicate to you that God has a purpose for "the lunar calendar." Every act of worship in the Old Covenant was a type or shadow of the reality to be fulfilled in the coming Anointed One. "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin" (Hebrews 10:4), but the One to whom the bulls and goats point does precisely this--He takes away our sin. The feasts of Israel, the animal sacrifices of the Jews, and the ritualistic worship of God's people all point to what Jesus did on our behalf.

There were seven major feasts prescribed by God in the Old Testament. Each of these Seven Feasts of Israel (sometimes called Festivals) were celebrated at God-prescribed times according to the lunar calendar. When God incarnated Himself and walked among us in the God-Man Jesus Christ, His birth, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His gift of the Holy Spirit all occurred precisely the same time as the Feasts that foreshadowed Jesus Christ. The type (a particular Feast) was fulfilled in the anti-type (Jesus Christ).

The God who transcends time created time for us, so that when we think of time, we'll see Jesus Christ coming for us "in the fulness of time." In other words, history is His Story. Let me show you Jesus in the feasts of the Jews, God's Old Covenant chosen people.

The feasts of Israel can be broken down into three major groupings.

The Three Spring Feasts
The Feast of Passover, The Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Feast of the Waving of the Sheaf of Firstfruits.

These three Feasts took place all within a few days of each other and occurred in the first month of the Biblical lunar (Nissan, also called "The Abib"), a month which corresponds to our March/April. These three feasts were often viewed together and collectively called either  “Passover” or “The Feast of Unleavened Bread," though there were three separate and meaningful feasts.

First, is the Feast of Passover. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13). The Hebrew phrase “Passover” is in the Greek “pascha” thus the Passover lamb is the Paschal lamb, and all that pertains to the appointed lamb (a lamb without blemish, in the prime of its life, its blood shed for the family, etc...) pertains to the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Paschal Lamb of God. We know this to be true because of several events prophesied by the prophets regarding the Messiah’s death:

(1). Genesis 49:10 describes the precise age in which the Messiah would come.
(2). Daniel 9:26 describes the precise year in which the Messiah would die.
(3). Amos 8:9-10 describes the exact day on which the Messiah would die.

These three prophecies point us directly to the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners as our Paschal Lamb. Jesus died precisely at the time the Jews were slaying their lambs for the celebration of The Feast of Passover. Jesus died on the 14th day of the Abib  (also called by its Babylonian name Nissan).  The Abib (notice the definitive article 'the') means "the act of parching by burning." Is it any wonder that when Jesus Christ died on the cross on the 14th day of the Abib, the fires of God's holiness and righteous judgment parched the life of His Son, the very One who became sin for us? The Passover was established and prescribed by God for Israel 1400 years before the death of Christ. In the fulness of time, Jesus fulfilled what the Passover represented. The Lamb was slain that the righteous judgment of God might pass over those who trust Him. Jesus could not have died at any other time, during any other day, for His death was prescribed by God and pictured in the Feast of Passover. When people sought to kill Jesus earlier in His ministry, He simply walked through them saying, "My time has not yet come" (John 7:30). A person may think he escapes God's judgment apart from the cross, but that kind of thinking is foolish and contrary to the explicit teaching of Scripture.

In love for sinners, God swept away the sin of His people through the death of His Son. This sweeping away of sin is pictured in the second feast of the Jews called The Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was seven days in length and included the Passover Day and the Feast of First Fruits (this is why sometimes all three feasts are lumped under the name Passover or the Feast of Unleavened Bread). During this feast, the Jews were to sweep out all leaven in their homes. Leaven is a picture of sin in the Bible. The sweeping away of leaven pictures all our sins being carried away from us by the Lamb of God. In the fulfillment of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, God does the sweeping. He removes our sins from us "as far as the east is from the west." It is an act of grace, a work of God, and it is accomplished by removing our sins from us, placing them on Christ, and pouring out His righteous judgment on His beloved Son for us.

The wages of sin is death. Every person, even believers in Christ, will one day die! Every person, even believers in Christ, will struggle with personal sins until we die. What is our assurance that God has removed judgment and condemnation from us?  What assurance do we have that we are truly the recipients of His unconditional love, favor and acceptance? The answer is found in The Feast of the Waving of the Sheaf of Firstfruits. Jesus Christ rose from the grave on the very day the Jews were celebrating this feast. This feast was prescribed by God to be celebrated "on the morrow after the Sabbath" during the week of Passover (Lev. 23:9-14). The Jews were told by God to go to the Temple on the "morning after the Sabbath" (Sunday morning) and wave a "sheaf" of the first fruits of their grain harvest before the Lord. As they waved their first fruits of grain before God and then gave it to the priests, they were told that God would prosper and bless "their entire harvest" because of the firstfruit offering accepted by Him!

When Paul writes of the resurrection in I Corinthians 15:20 he calls Jesus Christ "the firstfruits" of the resurrection--pointing out that God accepts and blesses all those whom Christ represents in His death and resurrection. In other words, your life--your eternal life--of God's blessing, favor, and prosperity is based on the offering of the firstfruits--Jesus Christ. You are guaranteed God's favor because by faith you wave Christ's life, Christ's death, and Christ's resurrection before God as the basis of your acceptance! You acknowledge that any blessings to be received from God are due to Jesus Christ! God raised “His cursed son” (Galatians 3:13) from the dead as proof of His pleasure in His Son’s sacrifice (Eph. 1:15-23). Those sinful and cursed people (like me and you) who trust in the firstfruits offering of Jesus Christ are accepted and blessed by God because of the first fruits (the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus the Anointed One)! The significance of Easter is that the resurrected Christ is THE GUARANTEE of God's blessings on those who trust Him, just as the later harvest of the Jews was blessed because the first fruit offering was acceptable to God.

The One Summer Jewish Feast
Pentecost -- the Greek name for "The Feast of Weeks"

It is known by various other names including “The Feast of Harvest” and most commonly as “The Feast of Weeks "(or Pentecost) A week in Scripture represents the number seven (either days or years). In the case of this feast it represents days. Seven weeks (49 days) from the “Festival of the Sheaf of the Firstfruits” (on a Sunday) with Sunday being day one. When you get to the 49th day you arrive at a Saturday (The Jewish Sabbath). On the “morrow after the sabbath” (Lev. 23:15-21) you arrive at “The Fiftieth Day” (thus the Greek “Pente” meaning 5). Just like the day of Resurrection (The Festival of the Sheaf of Firstfuits) the fourth major Jewish festival occurs on a Sunday (the morrow after the Sabbath)

The number 50 is used throughout Scripture to represent liberty, freedom or deliverance. Every 50th year was the year of Jubilee for the nation of Israel. When Christ died in 30 A.D. the people of Israel were celebrating a year of Jubilee; 50 days after Christ died the disciples were in the upper room when the Spirit of God fell and empowered them. This day of Pentecost is the anti-type of the Old Testament Pentecost -- 50 days after Passover.

*Compare the differences between the Old Covenant Pentecost vs. New Covenant Pentecost. On the 50th day after the original Passover and the Hebrews leaving Egypt, God gave Israel the Old Covenant law written on stone. On the 50th after the Passover of Christ’s death (the New Covenant) God gave His people a law written on their hearts. On the day of the Old Covenant Pentecost (50 days after leaving Egypt), 3,000 people died at the giving of the Law, for the Law condemns. However, on the day of Pentecost in the New Testament--fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ--3,000 people were saved, for the Spirit gives life. The glory of God shone on the face of Moses in the Old Covenant, but the glory of God lives in the hearts of His people through the Spirit in the New Covenant. The Old is the letter of the law, but the New is life in the Spirit. It is a tragedy when God's people seek to live by the letter of the Law when Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law  and abolished it. The church that acts like it is a Temple, the pastor who acts like he is a priest, the people who act like they owe God a tithe and sacrifices, and the kind of Christianity that emphasis the Law more than the Spirit is more suited to the Old Covenant order. When the Spirit fills Christ followers with the power of God, then God's people begin to focus their lives on fulfilling the Royal Law of God - loving others as Christ has loved us--and pay scant attention to little else.

The Three Fall Feasts
The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, and The Feast of Tabernacles.

These three feasts took place within the seventh month of the lunar calendar (Ethanim or also called Tisri). This month corresponds to our September/October. It was this month in which the fruit harvest (mostly grapes) occurred.

These Fall feasts correspond to the two "comings" of Christ to earth--His first coming (to Bethlehem) and His Second Coming (to establish His eternal kingdom). His birth in Bethlehem is pictured in The Feast of Tabernacles, when God came to earth and tabernacled among men (see John 1:1). The intercession of Jesus as the High Priest for His people is pictured in The Feast Day of Atonement. His Second Coming is pictured in The Feast of Trumpets. Time does not permit to show the signficance of these three Jewish feasts, but needless to say, all three of them, like the other four feasts, all point to Jesus Christ and are fulfilled by Him precisely.

So, in summary, Jesus Christ came to earth during the Feast of Taberacles. He died on the Feast of Passover and was buried in the tomb during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Jesus rose on the day of the Waving of the Sheaf of First Fruits, and He sent His Spirit as a gift on the Feast of Pentecost. He now intercedes on our behalf as our Great High Priest in fulfillment of the Feast of Atonement, and He will one day come to establish His eternal kingdom and judge the world in fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets.

Next time you read the Bible, remember it is not written as a self-help manual. It is the metanarrative of God's plan of redemption and tells the story of the only Savior this world will ever see. This Easter 2013 take a little time to thank God for measuring time in terms of His Son.