God’s Appointments

Feature 2 – March 2014 – Grace & Truth Magazine

THE FEASTS OF THE LORD
God’s Appointments

When God makes appointments He keeps them. The word “feasts” in Leviticus 23 is literally “appointments.” The seven appointments of the Lord with His earthly people are not arbitrary for they all have tremendous spiritual significance – conveying a wonderful message and assurance even to us in our present day. They are part of that sure word of prophecy mentioned in 2 Peter 1:19. Before we delve into the feasts themselves let’s investigate three of the underlying subjects that we should not miss in Leviticus 23.

A Week, A Month, A Year
Before the Lord outlined the annual feasts He reiterated the observance of a weekly Sabbath. The Sabbath was in no way to be replaced by another feast or be considered mundane. When a particular feast fell on the seventh day of the week then that Sabbath became an extra-special day as in John 19:31 where it is called an high day (“mega-day” in Greek). The weekly Sabbath shows God’s desire for us to keep a weekly appointment with the Lord Jesus Christ, not just honoring Him on special holidays.

The annual feasts began in the first month of the year – the month Abib. The name Abib means “in the ear.” Was God trying to impress upon them that the beginning of their year corresponded with the emerging barley ears? We could surmise that the whole Jewish calendar hinged upon this preparation for the wave offering of firstfruits, a picture of Christ who is the firstfruits of all who will rise from the dead. He is that grain that fell into the ground and died, but has now brought forth much fruit being the first begotten of the dead (Jn. 12:24). As believers our whole faith depends on His resurrection: “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17 KJV).

Throughout the year, as to the harvesting of crops, the Jews were admonished, “Thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 23:22). This little verse stands out between the fourth and fifth feasts as if misplaced from some other passage dealing with the poor or those who are often considered “undesirables.” But the point is that there are no undesirables, based on earthly wealth, in the sight of God. Do we pay close attention to every detail of godliness but deny its power to compel us to do good for those less fortunate than ourselves? Even the great apostle Paul said, “Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do” (Gal. 2:10). “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (Jas. 1:27). Unfortunately, the Feasts of the Lord became the feasts of the Jews because of impure religion – form rather than substance. Let it not be so with us!

The Appointments Kept
The feasts which have already had their fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ are: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Pentecost. Those feasts which have yet to be fulfilled in Christ are: Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Tabernacles. Let’s now consider those appointments already kept by God in Christ.

The Passover. The Passover was to be kept on the 14th day of the month Abib. Since this was such a significant feast why wasn’t it held on the first day of the month? Before God acts, He gives an opportunity for man to show whether he will obey Him. If Pharoah had obeyed God when Moses first came to him, none of the ten plagues would have occurred. But because of Pharoah’s hard heart, the life-sustaining barley was destroyed by hail in Egypt. Had Adam and Eve obeyed God’s first command, none of the sorrows of life and death would have been inflicted upon Creation. We may think, too, that if we had only obeyed God sooner, how much grief and regret we could have avoided!

Everyone has disobeyed God. But He in His grace provided the Passover lamb: “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7). Without that substitutionary death we would be subject to the wrath of God like those in Egypt who failed to apply the lamb’s blood as directed. That shed blood needed to be put on the upper lintel and door posts. So too, Christ was crucified for all the world to see, but until you accept that He was crucified for you He will not “pass over” you, or shelter you from judgment. You will meet Christ instead as judge at the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-15).

Feast Of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread started the day after the Passover and lasted for seven days. During this time, the Jews were to eat no yeast in their daily bread nor have any in their homes. In Scripture, leaven symbolizes evil and the removal of leaven speaks of purification. “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with [the blood of bulls and goats]; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these” (Heb. 9:23). So the Feast of Unleavened Bread speaks of this purification even of the heavens. We may also experience this purification in our own lives. Paul urges us to keep the spirit of this “feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:8). As we allow the Spirit of God to work in us, to give us new desires and manner of life, we will fulfill His exhortations to be like Him: “Be ye therefore perfect [mature], even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Mt. 5:48); “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Lk. 6:36); and “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16).

Firstfruits And Pentecost. The Feast of the Firstfruits was always kept on the first day of the week (Lev. 23:11), our Sunday, which represents a new beginning. They were not allowed to eat of the harvest of barley until the wave offering of the firstfruits was accomplished (Lev. 23:14). Christ fulfilled the Feast of the Firstfruits by rising from the dead on the first day of the week. Because He rose believers will be partakers of His resurrection (1 Cor. 15).

Until then we have been provided with the next feast, Pentecost. Fifty days were counted from the day of the firstfruits wave offering, so Pentecost fell on the first day of the week – again, a new beginning. A new testament (covenant) was confirmed on that day in Acts 2 when the Church was brought into existence with the giving of the Holy Spirit as Christ fulfilled His promise to send another Comforter (Jn. 14:15-17,26, 15:26, 16:7-15). We are not left alone! Notice how Luke specifies: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,” the appointment was kept. And as at this feast they were to wave two loaves made with leaven (Lev. 23:17), so also the church is made up of redeemed sinners, both Jews and the Gentiles. “Of His own will He begot us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (Jas. 1:18).

The Appointments That Will Yet Be Kept
When God keeps the remaining three feasts the nation of Israel will be brought into the place of blessing and service that God intended for them when He gave His unconditional promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3. Because of their disobedience they forfeited that place for a time, being now the center of contention. In the future they will be at the center of the world’s admiration. But first the nation must be gathered back to the land as signified by the Feast of Trumpets.

Feast Of Trumpets. In the seventh month a trumpet was sounded to call the nation together before God. After centuries of dispersion, the nation of Israel revived following Adolf Hitler’s attempt to eradicate the Jews during World War Two, culminating in the return of the severely persecuted Jews to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But the leaders of the nation clearly stated that they were there as an ethnic people, not as a religious people. The nation was coming together as dry bones with no life in them (Ezek. 37:8).

Today the total world population of Jews is about 13.8 million.1 During Passover in 2013, the population of Jews in Israel surpassed the symbolic 6 million mark, exceeding the 5.5 million that live in the United States. God is in the process of fulfilling the trumpet call, although it will be done more fully in a day to come. This feast of trumpets was always on the first day of the month: it will be a new beginning for that nation after its having been set-aside for so long a time.

The Day Of Atonement. Ten days after the Feast of Trumpets came the Day of Atonement when God’s people were to afflict their souls in an extreme national humbling. The appointment will be kept when they see Him whom they pierced and realize that He, the Messiah, died to atone for all their sin. “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem” (Zech. 12:10-11). In order for God to graft them in again to the olive tree as a testimony for Him (Rom. 11:23) they must first believe that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they crucified, is, in fact, their Messiah. What a day of atonement that will be when they see Him, mourn and repent for such a deed!

The results from this usher in the last feast, which represents the Lord’s people dwelling with Him in that pilgrim fashion which should characterize all His true children – being in the world, but not of it.

Feast Of Tabernacles. Five days after the Day of Atonement the Feast of Tabernacles began. All the people were to build booths or huts from tree branches and camp in them for seven days to commemorate their salvation from Egypt, which speaks so clearly of the world. This nation, after so long a time, will finally be in such a close relationship with God that they will not want, as their forefathers so often did, to go back to Egypt. It will be a time of blessing unlike any that Israel or the world has ever seen. In future days the Feast of Tabernacles will be the one feast that every nation will keep year by year: “And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles” (Zech. 14:16). It will be an open acknowledgment that God has saved this little nation and they are His, and that He will accept anyone willing to come to Him in faith.

Conclusion
God has kept and will keep all His appointments. What about you – are you keeping your appointments with Him? Are you trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

ENDNOTE
1. Israel Supplants U.S. as World’s Largest Jewish Population Center, Passing Symbolic 6 Million Figure.” P. Ghosh, International Business Times, March 28, 2013.

By Tom Steere