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This page is going to look at the Feasts of the Jews and how they relate to the Christian church. If you are like most Christians you are probably unfamiliar with the Jewish Holy days. What this study aims to show is that the promises that God made to the Jews have been passed on to the "church." Remember that Paul was shown the "mystery" of the church; AND the understanding "directly from Jesus Christ! Amplified version Ephesians 3:3[And] that the mystery (secret) was made known to me and I was allowed to comprehend it by direct revelation, as I already briefly wrote you. 5 [This mystery] was never disclosed to human beings in past generations as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles (consecrated messengers) and prophets by the [Holy] Spirit. 6 [It is this:] that the Gentiles are now to be fellow heirs [with the Jews], members of the same body and joint partakers [sharing] in the same divine promise {covenant} in Christ through [their acceptance of] the glad tidings (the Gospel). That is why I feel that we should look into and understand the Jewish feasts. The feasts are broken up into 2 seasons, the spring and the fall. On Jesus' first visit He fulfilled the spring feasts and become the promises to the church. The church will become the shadow, the substance being Christ. Colossians 2 16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. You know, one only needs a basic understanding of how God uses the principle of "Substance and Shadow", to see how He reveals to us, that the Feasts of the Jews, fulfilled in Christ, become the Promises He makes to the Church. When one sees how clearly God set up His plan for us, this all becomes simple. The Jews kept holy, the weekly Sabbath, which was the last day of each week, Saturday, and seven other Feasts, during their calendar year. The word Feast means "Set Time". The feasts were the time that God set, on their calendar, for them to interact with Him, and He with them. Their feasts, or set times began in the Spring and finished in the fall. Their first & most important Feast, held in the first month of their spiritual year was:
Then the fall feasts:
These are the feasts of the Jews, of which only the first four were fulfilled for the Jews by the coming of Christ, and are the ones that become the promises that God makes to the Church. Remember, Paul preached to the Colossians that the Feasts of the Jews were . . "shadows of things to come . . . but the substance was of Christ" So, let's take a look through each one individually to get an understanding of how their basic meaning relates them as God's promises to the Church. THE WEEKLY SABBATH To the Jews, the Sabbath meant rest. The law required that no servile work be done on that day. It was celebrated to represent a number of rests. Gods rest of Genesis 2:3, the rest of redemption, and the deliverance of Israel from Egypt from Deut.5:15., and also pointing forward to the "better rest" of Hebrews 4:9, and ultimately to the eternal Sabbath of completed work, of completed redemption, and completed ‘hallowing' of Rev. 11. This was the meaning, to the Jews, of the weekly Sabbath. The shadow cast was Rest! As a promise of God to the Church, Fulfilled in Christ, the word Sabbath becomes a verb - Sabbath-ing - because Christians REST in the work of Christ. We're not under the Law, we're under Grace! Christians keep holy the Sabbath by resting in the sure and certain knowledge that Christ died so that we might be free. We accept His salvation through unmerited favor, and we know that we are saved by Faith through His grace! And, we as Christians believe Paul's teaching that: "tho I am yet a sinner, He died for me". That's the rest of the Sabbath for a Christian. The Feasts begin with: THE PASSOVER Now to the Jews, the Passover represented their salvation from bondage through the blood of the Lamb for their obedience. The shadow cast was salvation by blood for obedience, WORK. As a promise to the Church, Passover is fulfilled in Christ. He was the Lamb of God as His blood shed at his crucifixion provides salvation to the Church, by Faith through the Grace of God. That represents a totally different covenant! UNLEAVENED BREAD To the Jews, leaven represented corruption and evil. This comes from their remembrance of their affliction in Egypt and yet is celebrated with joy, as Israel is always to remember their bondage in connection with their deliverance. For it had been their ‘affliction', and a mark of their subjection to the Egyptians, to be driven forth in such haste, as not to even have time for leavening their bread. As part of the celebration of the feast, the bread is hidden for 3 days, and is brought fourth on Firstfruits. The shadow cast overcoming corruption & evil. As a promise of God to the Church, Unleavened bread is fulfilled in Christ. Promising us that He overcame corruption and evil, but not for himself, and was the deliverer God sent. And He lays hidden in the tomb for 3 days to appear again on Firstfruits. FIRSTFRUITS To the Jews, Firstfruits represented a promise of the full harvest yet to come. They took the first sheaf's of barley and ground them into a flour and offered it to God in the temple, symbolic of the full harvest yet to come. Shadow cast is the promise of the full harvest yet to come. As a promise of God to the Church, Firstfruits is fulfilled in Christ, as His resurrection on Firstfruits promises us the full harvest, or Rapture of the Church, yet to come. PENTECOST -The Pivotal Feast To the Jews, this was a time of completion and new offering made 50 days after Firstfruits. The offering made on Pentecost was not merely barley flour, but the completed product, a loaf of bread. The shadow cast was a new offering of completion made 50 days after Firstfruits. As a promise of God to the Church, Pentecost is fulfilled in Christ, as HE was the new offering, having been completed through His death on the cross, His resurrection as promised and His ascension back to His divinity, just ten days earlier. The True Messiah! These first four Feasts of the Jews, are the set times, that have been fulfilled by Jesus at His first coming that also fulfill the promises they become to the Church. The remaining set times, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles, not yet fulfilled, and have nothing to do with the church. They'll be fulfilled during the Great Tribulation and after Christ's second coming. Trumpets - which is the harvest of the Jews, is yet unfulfilled. But, God leaves His last 2 witnesses and 144,000, marked out of the tribes of Israel, as servants specifically to preach the "gospel of the Kingdom", and then to be caught away. In Revelation, John reports seeing, in Heaven, those who are singing the song of Moses. Those are the Jews. The ones who are caught away, the man child, the two witnesses, who are resurrected and called to heaven, and the martyred. The Raptured Jews, are caught away on the Feast of Trumpets, fulfilling the harvest, as He promised them! Meanwhile on earth, the woman, the people Israel, have been rescued and hidden in the desert, awaiting the return of Christ the King, to lead them in the millennium, during which the feast of Tabernacles will be fulfilled for them. And, the believers, who stayed in Jerusalem, are massacred by the Antichrist, martyred, offering their own blood to God as the token of their faith for salvation. But be sure of one thing, John sees them, after he sees the saints who are singing the song of the redeemed! The redeemed are the twenty four elders, those who are under the covenant of grace, and they are seen in heaven before those who sing the song of Moses! And because of that, we are required to search for another set time, other than the one reserved for the Jews, The Feast of Trumpets, for one reserved especially for the Church, because the twenty four elders are already in heaven when the Jews arrive! That's because they are under a separate covenant. So the time set for them to arrive in Heaven is not the same as the time set for the Jews to arrive in Heaven. 
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