The Feasts of Israel
Lev.23:4-44; Num.28:16-31; Deut.16:1-17
"Blessed - happy, fortunate (to be envied) - are the people who know the joyful sound (who understand and appreciate the spiritual blessings symbolised by the feasts); they walk, O Lord, in the light and favour of your countenance" Psalm 89:15 (Amp).
Shadows and Types
1 Cor.10:11; Acts 3:19-21; Col.2:16-17
All Israel's worship revolved around three major feasts or festivals, which celebrated three special experiences in God's dealings with Israel. These celebrations were a pre-picture of the work of God in the Church and in our lives personally.
Passover
John 1:29; 1 Cor.5:2,6-8; Luke 22:1,15
The Feast of Passover contained three festivals:
The Feast of Passover (Lev.23:5-14; Deut.16:1-8; Num.9:1-14)
The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex.12:8,15-20,31-39; 13:3-10)
Sheaf of 1st Fruits (Lev.23:9-14; 1 Cor.15:20-23)
Passover celebrated God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and is a beautiful spiritual picture of our own experience of salvation. Jesus is described as the Passover Lamb. He was crucified on the Day of Passover, at the same time Jewish families were slaying their Passover lamb. Three days and three nights later, Jesus rose on a Sunday, the morning of the waving of the Sheaf of First Fruits before God. Christ, the fulfilment of the Sheaf of First Fruits, thus presented us before God in Himself.
Pentecost
Leviticus 23:15-22
The Feast of Pentecost is called the Feast of Weeks, because Israel was commanded by God to count off seven weeks plus one day from the Sheaf of First Fruits - 50 days altogether (Pentecost is a Greek word meaning "fifty"). Pentecost celebrated the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. The fulfilment of Pentecost came 50 days after the Resurrection when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the actual day of Pentecost, when the Law of God was written on the believers' hearts (2 Cor.3:3).
Tabernacles
The Feast of Tabernacles celebrated Israel's sojourn in the wilderness and the conquest of the Promised Land. Like Passover, Tabernacles also contained three minor festivals:
The Feast of Trumpets (Lev.23:23-25)
The Day of Atonement (Lev.23:26-32)
The Feast of Tabernacles (Lev.23:33-44)
The Feast of Tabernacles pre-pictures God's final work in the Church prior to the return of Christ. The Day of Atonement, the day of national cleansing, will be fulfilled in the Church God will have brought His Church to the unity and purity that He has desired from the beginning (read John 17; Eph.4:11-13). The Feast of Trumpets was to gather the people to the door of the Tabernacle to prepare for the Day of Atonement. The last two decades in particular have seen a great blowing of the trumpet message of God calling the Church to come together. Tabernacles celebrated the great ingathering of the harvest. The greatest harvest of souls in all of history is approaching, and our Tabernacles will culminate in the return of Christ.