The Festivals of Israel

The Festivals of Israel and their Spiritual Meaning

Introduction

Feasts and festivals are a feature of all major religions. Most people who call themselves Christians observe Christmas and Easter. Some keep various other holy days as well. Hindus have large numbers of festivals, and Buddhists and Muslims certainly have a few.

When we turn to the Bible we find plenty of material on the subject of Jewish festivals and absolutely nothing on the so called Christian ones. This is because Christmas and Easter are not really Christian festivals at all, but pagan festivals in disguise. For a discussion of this subject read <a href="http://www.growthingod.org.uk/churchfe.htm">Church Festivals</a>.

I have decided to use the word festival rather than the word feast. Most Bible translations use the word feast for the Jewish celebrations. However in modern English usage the word feast implies a few people getting together for a big meal, whereas festival means a large gathering of people often from all over the country, not particularly for eating. The word festival is therefore a much better description of what happened at the various Jewish celebration times. They were not primarily times of eating, but were times of national assembly to celebrate great events in their history and times in the agricultural year.

Before we consider individual festivals, we must ask why we need to study the festivals at all. The same question can be asked about many other passages of Scripture. Why study the tabernacle? Or the Levitical offerings? Or why study the long history of the people of Israel? The apostle Paul gives us a direct answer: 'these things happened as pictures for us' (1 Cor 10:6). The festivals and ceremonies of the old covenant, as well as the history of the Jewish people, are all pictures for us of spiritual truth. The whole scripture points firstly to Jesus himself, and secondly to our own lives and experiences as we seek to follow and become like him.

The seven festivals of the Jewish law are as follows: