Feasts (מועד)

What are the Festivals of God? The original Hebrew word was “mowed” (מוֹעֵד) which means “Appointed Time”. Why haven’t I heard of these feasts? Most likely you have heard of God’s feasts, but probably did not know it!

 

Have you heard of Christ, the Pascal Lamb, or the Passover Lamb? Christ’s death and sacrifice occurred on the precise day of Passover. There is no coincidence that the Exodus Passover and the sacrifice of Christ happened at the same time.

 

Why was the birthday of the church on Pentecost? Why were Christian believers gathered on Pentecost? Why did they receive the Holy Spirit on that special day?

 

Why are the Feasts tied to harvest times in the bible lands?

 

You will find all of God’s Feasts, or His Holy Days have a very deep purpose and are full of symbolism which focuses on one reason: Christ and God’s plan of salvation for all mankind.

 

I hope that you enjoy your study, deepen your knowledge of God, and see how He plans to redeem man from his sins and gather man back to His Eternal glorious Kingdom.

1.1 Introduction

God’s command to ancient Israel through Moses 3500 years ago, set the stage for all mankind to celebrate a series of appointed times or feasts:

^{Exodus 23:14} “Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

^{Leviticus 23:4} ” ‘These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times:

The feasts occur during three periods during the year which are associated with three yearly harvests: spring, summer and fall. Here is a list of all the feasts and some of their Christian meaning:

1.2 History

Jesus and the prophets attended the feasts. Even the early church kept the feasts of God. Here is a little history of the early church and brief description on what happened to the observance of the Feasts of God.

1.2.1 The Feast in Jesus’ Day

^{John 7:1}After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. ²But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, ³Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. ⁴No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

^{John 7:37}On the last and greatest day of the Feast [Tabernacles], Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, as[c] the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” ³⁹By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

^{John 11:54}Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. ⁵⁵When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. ⁵⁶They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple area they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the Feast at all?” ⁵⁷But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone found out where Jesus was, he should report it so that they might arrest him.

^{John 13:1}It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

1.2.2 The Feast for the Early Church

^{Acts 2:1}When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ²Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

^{Acts 20:16}Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.

^{Acts 27:9}Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Fast [Day of Atonement]. So Paul warned them, ¹⁰“Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.”

^{1 Corinthians 5:7}Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸Therefore let us keep the Festival [Matzot], not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

^{1 Corinthians 16:8}But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.

1.2.3 The Feast in Church History

Since Jesus kept the feast and the early church kept the feast, and Jesus commanded us to obey everything He commanded, why don’t Christians keep the Feasts of God today?

^{Matthew 4:4}Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.‘[a]”

^{Matthew 28:20}and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

^{Luke 6:46}“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

^{Hebrews 5:9}and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him

^{1 John 2:3}We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.

Here is a summary from The Heart of Wisdom website which summarizes this history: [http://biblicalholidays.com/Excerpts/What%20happened.htm]

First Century Church
In the first century there were literally hundreds of thousands of believing Jews (Acts 2:41, 47, 4:4, 6:7, 9:31, 21:20). Scripture tells us the apostles and the early church continued to celebrate the holidays with the new realization of the symbolism of Christ.

Very few Gentiles converted before Peter and Paul were sent out. When God miraculously showed the believing Jews that Jesus was the Messiah for both Jew and Gentile alike, then Gentiles from every nation began to pour into this Jewish faith. The followers of Christ, whether Jewish or Gentile, were seen as one family. Both considered themselves part of Israel. The Gentiles saw themselves as grafted into Israel (Romans 11), not replacing Israel. The word Christian was not used until 2 in Antioch (Acts 11:26). Later it was adopted to set apart Jews believing in Jesus and unbelieving Jews. Ultimately it became an identity for the entire Church.

Paul makes it clear that Gentiles who trust in Jesus become children of God, are equal partners with believing Jews in the Body of the Messiah, and are declared righteous by God without their having to adopt any further Jewish distinctives (Rom. 3:22-23, 29-30; 4:9-12; 10:12; 11:32; 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 2:11-22; 3:6; Col. 3:11) (Stern, 1992).

Second Century Church

By the second century the Gentiles had taken control of the church, and there started the process of removing Jewish influences referred to as de-Judaizing. There was a growing spirit of resentment of the non-believing Jews and all Jewish customs. The first seeds of anti-Semitism were sown. As the church grew, it became increasingly Hellenized (Greek) and Latinized (Roman). The Gentile-dominated Church celebrated the Lord’s resurrection, but to distance Christianity from Judaism they changed the resurrection date from the Jewish calendar from the third day of Passover, to Sunday this is how Easter became separated from Passover.

Fourth Century

By the time of the Council of Nicea (325 a.d.), Constantine, Emperor of Rome, claimed conversion to Christianity and considered himself the leader in the Christian church. Things changed drastically for the Gentile believers. Gentile believers were no longer persecuted. It became an economic advantage to be a Christian. Constantine also supported paganism with Christianity. In 314 he placed the symbol of the cross on his coins with the marks of Sol Invictus and Mars Conservator. Constantine retained the title of chief priest of the state cult until he died.

Under Constantine things got better for the believing gentiles; however, now the Christians persecuted the Jews. The Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah were forced to give up all ties with Judaism, Jewish practices, Jewish friends and anything Jewish. Constantine issued laws forbidding Jewish believers to keep Saturday as Sabbath, circumcise their children, celebrate Passover, etc. The punishments included imprisonment and even death. Constantine replaced the Biblical Holidays with alternative forms of celebrations adopted from other religions.

The Jewish New Testament Commentary reports that the Jewish believers were told to ignore the way commanded by Moses or they could not be saved! “You Messianic Jews should not separate yourselves from us Gentile Christians by having Messianic synagogues! Don’t you know that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek? So be like us, give up your Jewish distinctives, stop observing the Torah and the Jewish holidays, put all that behind you; and worship with us in our Gentile-oriented congregations, living our Gentile lifestyle. The misuse is in concluding that because there is no distinction in God’s sight between the forensic righteousness of believing Gentiles and of believing Jews, therefore Jews are prohibited from observing God-given commandments. Such a conclusion defies both logic and the practice of the early believers.

The anti-Semitic attitude toward the Jews flourished. During the Middle Ages, bands of Crusaders destroyed many Jewish communities. The raiders demanded the Jews convert but the majority preferred to die for their faith. In the late thirteenth century half of the world’s Jewish population were living in Western Europe, over five hundred thousand. By 1500 there were no more than 150,000 Jews in this region due to riots, plagues and expulsions.

1.3 Time

To understand God’s timeTable, we must forget ours! The method of reckoning time has changed by worldly politics since the time of Christ. As such, we can not understand times and months in the bible if we retain the concepts of our current system.

1.3.1 A Day

Our modern world starts each new day in the middle of the dark of night known as “midnight”. At this time, our clocks indicate 12:00 AM or 00:00 on a 24 hour clock.

 

However, God’s design for the start of a new day starts at sunset!

^{Genesis 1:5}God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

 

God repeats this cycle for a total of seven days. If you notice the consistency, you will see: And there was evening, and there was morning—the “_____” day. Fill in the blank with the day of the week.

 

In each case, the beginning of darkness preceded the end of daylight to complete one day. So a day in the bible is reckoned from sunset to sunset!

 

This same type of reckoning is used by Jewish [Hebrew] households. They hold true to this method of time keeping since God gave it to Moses.

1.3.1.1 Man names the day

In the bible, each day of the week does not have a name! It is only known by is numerical sequence also as indicated by the first chapter of Genesis.

 

Today, the names for days of the week originate from Greek, Roman or Germanic gods.

 

The Greeks named the days week after the sun, the moon and the five known planets, which were in turn named after the gods Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronus. The Greeks called the days of the week the Theon hemerai “days of the Gods”.

 

The Romans substituted their equivalent gods for the Greek gods, Mars, Mercury, Jove (Jupiter), Venus, and Saturn. (The two pantheons are very similar.)

 

The Germanic peoples generally substituted roughly similar gods for the Roman gods, Tiu (Twia), Woden, Thor, Freya (Fria), but did not substitute Saturn.

NOTE: The Romance languages, Old High German and German, and the Slavic languages have words for Saturday that are derived from the Hebrew Sabbath, via late Greek Sambaton.

 

1.3.2 Parts of a Day

To understand the reckoning of the “time of day” we need to consider how it was viewed back then. The time of day, known as an hour, is similar to our word, but the start with the “first hour of daylight” which is at 7AM.

 

 

Another designation of time was called a “watch” and it consisted of 3 hours.

 

1.3.3 Calendar

To reckon the time of the bible, you will need to know the difference between our modern calendar and that of the bible. Here is a discussion on the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars.

1.3.3.1 Gregorian Calendar

The calendar we use to day is known as the Gregorian calendar. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the subject [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar]:

The Gregorian calendar is the calendar that is used nearly everywhere in the world. A modification of the Julian calendar, it was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and was decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, for whom it was named, on 24 February 1582 via the papal bull Inter gravissimas. Its years are numbered per the perceived birth year of Jesus Christ, which is labeled the “anno Domini” era. This era was created in the 6th century by Roman monk Dionysius Exiguus.

Used with permission from Wikipedia

The Gregorian Calendar was devised both because the mean year in the Julian Calendar was slightly too long, causing the vernal equinox to slowly drift backwards in the calendar year, and because the lunar calendar used to compute the date of Easter had grown conspicuously in error as well.

The Gregorian solar calendar is an arithmetical calendar. It counts days as the basic unit of time, grouping them into years of 365 or 366 days. The calendar repeats completely every 146,097 days, the cycle consisting of 400 years, of which 303, the “common years”, have 365 days, and 97, the leap years, have 366 days. This gives an average year length of exactly 365.2425 days.

 

A Gregorian year is divided into twelve “months“. Despite the name these are not synchronised with the phases of the Moon; the terminology derives from the Roman calendar that preceded the Julian calendar. The twelve months are of irregular lengths:

 

1.3.3.2 Hebrew Calendar

The calendar of the bible is the Hebrew Calendar. It is based upon the lunar cycle. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the subject [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_calendar]:

The Hebrew calendar (Hebrew: הלוח העברי) or Jewish calendar is the annual calendar used in Judaism. It determines the dates of the Jewish holidays, the appropriate Torah portions for public reading, Yahrzeits (the date to commemorate the death of a relative), and the specific daily Psalms which some customarily read. Two major forms of the calendar have been used: an observational form used prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, and based on witnesses observing the phase of the moon, and a rule-based form first fully described by Maimonides in 1178 CE, which was adopted over a transition period between 70 and 1178.

The “modern” form is a rule-based lunisolar calendar, akin to the Chinese calendar, measuring months defined in lunar cycles as well as years measured in solar cycles, and distinct from the purely lunar Islamic calendar and the almost entirely solar Gregorian calendar. Because of the roughly 11 day difference between twelve lunar months and one solar year, the calendar repeats in a Metonic 19-year cycle of 235 lunar months, with an extra lunar month added once every two or three years, for a total of seven times every nineteen years. As the Hebrew calendar was developed in the region east of the Mediterranean Sea, references to seasons reflect the times and climate of the Northern Hemisphere.

 

Each of the Hebrew months starts with a “new moon”. Review the following Table and graphic help to illustrate this important relationship. Remember that this represents the view from the northern hemisphere.

 

Used with permission from Wikipedia

 

 

So, by viewing a full moon, you will know it is the middle of the month! This is the calendar that God designed.

 

See God’s Holy Days website for list of this years Feast dates and a Gregorian to Hebrew calendar converter: [http://www.godsholydays.com/calendar]