God's Holy Days
The meaning and symbolism of God's Holy Days outlined in Leviticus 23 has been considered from different perspectives. We will consider the Holy Days here as commemorating a developing relationship with God as His Covenant People.
Initiating a Relationship with God
Passover
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INITIATING A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD: When God re-established His covenant with Israel, He instituted the Passover. Anciently, the front door of the home was where the father of the home entered into covenants with God. The sacrificed lamb represented Israel's Savior-God. As God's earthly sovereigns, the father of the home would initiate a covenant relationship with the deity that he recognized as God at the home threshold. Posting the name of God over the front door would be an acceptable practice.
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unleavened bread
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Leavening in bread gives bread a fullness of volume and flavor. Yeast, a leavening agent, is a living organism so literally bread without leavening is bread without life. It symbolizes an existence without God and His law that gives "life" to mortal man. It symbolizes that without the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus/Yeshua there is no life in eternity. Eating unleavened bread for seven days following Passover impresses upon the mind an absence of God and His blessings in our lives.
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first fruits
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Giving God the first of everything is a token of our honor and dedication to God who supplies us with all that we have including our life, His material abundance, His physical protection and freedom. A payment of “tribute” to God is an expression of gratitude, respect, admiration, an acknowledgment of submission, and as the price of protection or security (Deu. 16:10). We can offer a prayer of thanksgiving and administer a sacrament/communion of bread and wine in place of the sacrificial lamb.
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Entering into a Full Covenant Relationship with God
shavuot
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Shavuot commemorates Israel receiving the Torah and therefore entering into God's full covenant, which is directly connected to the Sinai Covenant. Shavuot celebrates Israel qualifying for God's full temporal and spiritual blessings. During Shavuot leavened bread is consumed and provisions are made for the poor - both these acts demonstrate God's abundance under His law and rule. Moreover, the Spirit was poured out on the seventy elders during Shavuot in the wilderness - Numbers chapter 11. Similar to the out pouring of the Spirit on Pentecost in Acts 2. Shavuot can be observed by offering a prayer of thanksgiving for God's temporal and spiritual blessings, consuming leavened bread, donating to the poor and administering communion of wine and bread.
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Preparing for and Living with the Messiah
Trumpets
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Typically, the blowing of trumpets announce the gathering of the people, the starting of a new month and a new year and the coronation of kings. This festival is characterized by the blowing of the shofar heralding the end of an age and the beginning of a new one - an indication of the coming millennium age. The blowing of the shofar here represents the heralding of a political figure as the Messiah comes as a conquering king to rule and reign over humanity and not as a suffering servant as He was at His first coming. The series of fall feasts provides a pattern for the final preparations that God’s covenant people need to make to meet their King.
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Yom kippur
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Yom Kippur represents a final reconciliation with God of one’s sins before being with the Messiah. So it is a day of penitence and purification. Yom Kippur is observed by abstaining from work and with fasting, the wearing of white clothing, a washing/mikveh the night before, an abstinence of intimate relations and anything that might make one unclean. Moreover, an administration of communion of the bread and wine is made.
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sukkot
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The Feast of Tabernacles was to be observed for seven days and commemorates the time Israel left Egypt and lived in temporary shelters under the rule of and complete trust in God. It was primarily a time for all Israel to come together as a community to rejoice and to celebrate a realization of God's full blessings - a complete fulfillment of God’s temporal blessings, and foreshadows the realization of these blessings during the Millennium when the Messiah will personal reign upon the earth. During Sukkot we build and live in temporary shelters, enjoy the bounty of God's blessings with food and wine, and rejoice exceedingly. Reading scriptures about the Millennium is appropriate such as those found in Revelations 20.
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the last great day
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The last day of tabernacles, the eighth day, the last great day, the day that never ends, a day when the spirit is poured out from each person as they have followed and applied the teachings of the Messiah, the source of living water, and all of God's law. This final day now shifts to a spiritual tenor when truth flows from each person. These are no longer receivers of the word but now givers of the word. The result of this is an existence that never ends – life eternal. This day represents the eternity that begins after the Millennium. “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37,38 This day can be commemorated by reading of scriptures of the post millennial period – Revelations 21 and 22.
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