Battle for the minds of men

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Christ our The Passover Lamb

Out of all the sacrificial services, the Passover is so well known and remembered as the sacrifice of Yeshua our Passover Lamb. The Passover Lamb was the first sacrifice that Israel, as a nation, was commanded to make. Against the drama unfolding in Exodus, the Passover sacrifice strikes an indelible impression on the mind of the reader as significant as it was in Egypt it was more significant in Jerusalem.

We are Yeshua’s servants He has purchased us with His blood. Through His Sacrifice our hearts are to be circumcised so we can receive His Commandments. “ What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

In that story of the night in Egypt, the stakes were very high. Death is coming to the land of Egypt. Even the Israelites will not be spared as the LORD comes to strike the firstborn of man and beast. It is a judgment from heaven, a terror in the night. No merits for innocence and guilt. Faith and creed were irrelevant. The righteous will perish with the wicked. Previous plagues had shown favoritism, sparing the Jews in the midst of Egypt. The tenth plague, however, was completely impartial. Just as in life itself, death knows no boundaries, the tenth plague will strike Egyptian and Jewish homes alike.

Only those who are within homes marked by the blood of a lamb will be spared. Had the Egyptians imitated the ritual slaughter of the Passover lamb, marking their homes with the blood in like manner, they too would have been spared. The only criteria for salvation is the blood on the doorway. The Passover and the blood are a type of Christ's redeeming work. What does God see? He sees the blood of the lamb symbolic of His only begotten Son: as it is said, 'God will see for himself the lamb .' The blood of the Passover lamb symbolizes God's only begotten Son. The blood of Yeshua serves in the atoning work of covering our sins. God remembers the sacrifice when he sees the lamb's blood, and in merit of Yeshua's willing sacrifice, he then spares that house from wrath. Yeshua was to completely fulfilled the Passover events with exact timing. John saw Yeshua coming toward him and recognized right away this was promised sacrifice and said, “Behold There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

At Yeshua’s Appointed Time, the feast of Passover was met with the fulfillment. It was not on any other time, date, month, year, just the appointed time found in the feast of the Passover. Why this Passover? Many speculate it may have to do with the Jubilee cycle.

Moed is the Hebrew word for rehearsal or memorial or appointed time, and often translated as festival. Passover and The Feast of Unleavened Bread are moedim or appointed times. They are the LORD's appointed times for doing business with man. The idea of Passover as an appointed time is expressed by the words of Yeshua as he prepares to meet his own appointed time in Jerusalem. In Matthew 26:17-18, Yeshua calls this particular Passover my appointed time. Yeshua has identified the appointed time of the not only the Passover but also the Festival of Unleavened Bread as his appointed time for fulfillment. Thirty three years Yeshua lived and walked on the earth. But that year, he says that the Passover is His appointed time.

In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul gives the festivals, new moons and Sabbaths prophetic value by saying they were shadows of things to come. The appointed times in the ceremonial feasts are shadows of things to come. This particular verse in Col 2:16-17 has not been clearly studied and understood today as it must have been commonly understood in Paul’s day. Paul saw no need to explain the messianic and prophetic interpretations to be found in the festivals. He was raised on these festivals and probably thought they were commonly understood and they probably were for their point and time.

 

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Jewish traditions have always taught that redemption from Egypt foreshadowed the great and final redemption brought about through the Messiah. Jewish commentators regarded Moses as a type of the Messiah coming. The Passover meal is full of Messianic allusions and prophetic expectations.

There is even a Jewish tradition of setting a chair at the table for Elijah, the heralder of the Christ. Paul never explained and probably never felt the need to explain or defend his words, because his interpretation of Christ as Passover Lamb was from years of keeping the feasts. In the first century, believers regarded the Passover sacrifice of a lamb as finding a type of Messianic satisfaction in the death of Yeshua. We today have no problem with Yeshua as the Passover lamb but we have lost the prophetic value of what it truly means in the light of prophetic fulfillment.

 

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There is an appointed place for all this to occur. Yeshua knew this particular Feast of Unleaven Bread was his appointed time. Yeshua had been keeping all the feasts through out His entire life, studying it since He was old enough to understand and yet this particular year, this particular Passover, Feast of Unleaven Bread, First Fruit or Feast of Weeks and Penecost were in His mind as the appointed time. What was it about this particular spring time feasts that Yeshua knew were going to be prophetic reality?

What did Yeshua know about these feasts and their timing, that He knew it was His appointed time? What did Yeshua see in the Spring Feasts that lead Him to fulfill them the way that He did and not the way that the people of that time had hoped? It was necessary, if he was to meet this particular appointment, that he go up to the appointed place, Jerusalem, the city of God's Temple. Preparations for the appointed time of

Passover and Unleavened

Bread began well in advance of the actual festival. This was especially so in Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem needed to prepare for a massive influx of pilgrims. Back in those days, there were probably a lot of behind the scenes work that needed to be done, just like it is done today when everyone at home and on the main streets of town dresses up for the coming Christmas season. Prior to the festivals the different types of things that needed to be made ready from the individuals homes, to the church activities in preparations, to the city itself from the market place to the chambers of the rulers, major increase in activities were all for the coming event. Special ovens were probably built for roasting of the thousands and thousands of Passover lambs.

Arrangements would have to be made for the accommodations and lodgings of all pilgrims arriving for this event. The Passover was one of three festivals that God commanded everyone was to attend, so this cause even great gatherings that at other festivals held throughout the year.

As the pilgrims approached the city from all over the world to keep the feasts, their multitudes would end up converging until their throngs filled the roads into Jerusalem. Amid the multitude of conversations, there were probably voices singing psalms by those that were caught up in the moment and spirit of this festival. It brought joy to their hearts as they went up to Jerusalem to keep the appointed time in the appointed place. You can almost picture Yeshua and his disciples approaching Jerusalem, just as one group among a multitude of many groups. Yeshua knew that He was Appointed Sacrifice, the Lamb.

During the first century, Judaism with all its various off shoots were expecting the Redeemer, tired of the Roman yoke, studying the scriptures and coming to the conclusion that prophetic fulfillment was close at hand, this festival was of more interest than in other years. The Messianic expectations were probably running at an all time high. In the celebration of Passover, also known as the Festival of Redemption, the people had hope in it’s soon fulfillment. It was probably a common belief at that time that redemption brought about by the Messiah, would take place at Passover.

This Messiah, they believed would be like another Moses who would lead them out from under the bondage of the Rome. Word about Yeshua had spread throughout the land. The people were wondering if he might not be The One after all. So they were seeking for Yeshua, and were saying to one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think; that He will not come to the feast at all?"

 

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As Yeshua and his disciples came down the Mount of Olives in their approach to Jerusalem, the crowd of pilgrims realized who it was traveling in their midst. The throngs of pilgrims streaming into Jerusalem became a multitude throwing down their coats and branches to spread a path for Yeshua as he entered the city.

In Exodus chapter 12, are the instructions for the celebration of Passover. The children of Israel were to choose a lamb for the Passover sacrifice on the 10th day of the 1st month, 4 days before the actual slaughtering was to be done.

In the chronology of the time calculations that Yeshua made His made His famous entry back into Jerusalem on the donkey, it was the time for Israel to choose their Lamb of God.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

 

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They were claiming him to be the long awaited Christ with their shouting. God instructed the people to purchase an unblemished lamb. The people chose Yeshua as their Messiah. Unwittingly, they chose Yeshua as their Passover lamb on the day the lambs were to be chosen.

 

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Blemish check was an important aspect in the Passover lamb choosing. Levitical instructions are that the lamb must be checked for blemishes as only a perfect, spotless and unblemished lamb would suffice for the Passover Lamb. At this time, Yeshua goes to the Temple to teach. While there, he is approached by the Pharisees, the Saducees, and various other groups, each with different and difficult questions, all were trying to trap him in his words. When they found no fault with this “Lamb of God” they didn’t even realize they had “chosen” Him because he was without blemish.

Then went the Phrisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that you art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest you for any man: for you regardest not the person of men. Tell us therefore, What thinkest you? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Yeshua perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt you me, you hypocrites? Show me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he said unto them, Whose is this image and eaterscription? They say unto him, Caesar's. Then said he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.

The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Yeshua answered and said unto them, You do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Yeshua said unto him, You shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, You shalt love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. While the Phrisees were gathered together, Yeshua asked them, saying, What think you of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He said unto them, How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit you on my right hand, till I make yours enemies your footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither did any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

They were looking for any blemish, theological, or otherwise, which might disqualify him as the Christ. They could not find fault. He meets each question soundly, and no one can find fault with him. He is without blemish. Since He was perfect they decided He should be killed or as the High Priest that year said, “die for the nation.”

 

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The disciples knew that the following afternoon the Passover lambs were to be slaughtered in the Temple and were thinking of the traditional Passover festivities. Yeshua eats with His disciples at the Last Supper knowing that He will be the Passover Lamb the next morning and fulfilling this event. He will be buried at the time that they will be eating the flesh of the Passover lamb. They will be thinking about the last supper as they partake of the Passover lamb. It will all come together for them, how tradition meets reality in Christ.

When the proper time for the Passover arrives the following evening, Yeshua will already be buried, and so with that in mind, He has tried to prepare His disciples for what is soon to come to pass. “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Appointed sacrifice time would be fulfilled with matching Passover lamb sacrifice in the temple and Yeshua dying on the cross. It is the third hour, 9:00 AM when he is on the cross crucified

 

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Pilgrims bringing up their lambs for the Passover slaughter, starting with the High Priest offering his lamb as the first Passover Lamb. While this slaughter is about to occur, it would not be surprising that God rents the curtain signifying that the Lamb of God has been offered and this service has now been fulfilled by the Son of God upon the cross. Yeshua had then been hanging on the cross for six hours when He died. That was the very hour the Passover lambs were to be slain in the temple. Yeshua, the lamb, died. The curtain is rent.

This probably caused consternation and turmoil for those that witnessed this phenomenon. For such a thing to happen, must have scared many of them who were wondering what the cause of this supernatural event was. And then afterwards wondering what it all meant. Those with hardened hearts, moved swiftly to stifle the truth and enquiring minds. After the Passover was over, during the next day in which they were to make preparation for the up coming weekly sabbath, the religious leaders when to the political leaders and asked for assistance in blocking any further events that would point to the one that they had just crucified for being chosen as the one.

The day following the Passover was not the Sabbath but the preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. Yeshua was in the grave from Passover til First Fruits or Sunday which would be three days. “Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests
and Phrisees came together unto Pilate, Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, You have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as you can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

Quick review of what was fulfilled. They were to examine the lamb for four days to make sure it was which blemish and Yeshua was examined for four days in the Temple. On the fourteenth, the lamb was to be slain at 3 p.m. and the blood spread on the lintel and Yeshua was crucified on Passover and died at 3 p.m. Yeshua became our Passover Lamb that day. Yeshua also fulfilled the Passover spring time feast. Since Nisan 10 was a Sunday that year and four days later was the Passover sacrificed, Yeshua was actually crucified on Thursday.

Centuries later as the church separated itself from its Jewish roots and began to develop it's own celebrations, the Church fathers looked at the Scriptures and read where Yeshua had to be taken down from the cross before sundown because the following day was a Sabbath. They thought that it meant the following day was Saturday, therefore, Yeshua had to have been crucified on Friday. That is where we get Good Friday.

 

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What they failed to realize is that the day after Passover which is the Feast on Unleavened Bread, was declared by God to be a Sabbath (the High Sabbath which John 19:31 talks about) regardless of which day of the week it actually fell on. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

It could also mean that this was a special Sabbath, not only a ceremonial Sabbath, but an overlapping sabbath (Jubilee). Yeshua had to have some prophetic indication that this particular year was of value prophetically. The idea that this might also have been a Jubilee comes from the text in which reads that the prisoners were set free. Jubilee is a time to set prisoners, slaves and people were freed from old debts.

The Lord was setting a lot of people free by the salvation offered that day upon the cross. The controversy over the Jubilees lies in the reading of scripture that Yeshua did at the start of His ministry when He read out of Isaiah stopping short of reading the complete verse and then telling everyone that today it is being fulfilled in their ears. This is a Jubilee prophecy. The full proclamation in Isaiah included one more line which Yeshua did not quote. That is because this prophecy will again have a fuller fulfillment in the last days.
It will be the day of vengeance of our God.

 

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Yeshua has freed the minds of men, the day that they come to the cross for salvation, truly repentant of their sins are granted the saving grace of God. There is a second fulfillment of the prophecy when it will become the day of vengeance of our God.

 

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The Feast of Unleaven Bread
Feast of Unleaven Bread is found in Leviticus 23.6 and the Jewish calendar date is Nisan 15-21. The somberness of this memorial dictates that only those who have committed themselves to Yeshua through baptism and the laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit should partake in this service. We find the restriction of those who are only allowed to participate in this occasion in Exodus: “And God said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: 44. But every man's servant that is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. 45. A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.” So “Is any man called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” As scripture says “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.”

Leaven is to be cast out. Levitical instructions are that before the Festival begins, all leaven must be cast out of the homes of the Israelites. Today, this regulation is still observed. Before the day of Passover, those that follow the Levitical teachings will spend a lot of time cleaning their home. They will be trying to remove every trace of leaven including any breadcrumbs from under the refrigerator, cabinets and shelves, in the sofa cushions and anywhere else they can think of that bread and its crumbs may be found from the home. Anything defined as leaven is removed before the Feast of Unleaven Bread starts.

It is during these days of casting out the leaven that Yeshua enters the Temple and casts out the moneychangers. In so doing Yeshua kept the command of cleansing the home by cleansing his Father's house. Are we like Christ, cleansing our own minds and hearts from those things that separate us from the Lord, those things that leaven the Word of God? For our Lord Yeshua is the Unleaven Bread in our lives.

 

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The Lord’s supper
The Biblical day begins at sunset. If we follow John's chronology, Yeshua and his disciples were settling into the upper room for his Last Eatper as the Jerusalem sunset marked the beginning of the 14th day of the first month. In Exodus 12, the Israelites are commanded to kill the Passover Lamb on the 14th day of the 1st month. Yeshua was breaking bread and drinking the wine and introducing the disciples to the Lord ’s Supper on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month which is a fulfillment of that appointed time. At the beginning of the meal, three pieces of matzoth, unleavened bread was placed in a bag with three compartments. Then, the piece of matzoth in the middle compartment, where you can see God the Son portrayed, is taken out and broken into two pieces, just like Yeshua is "broken" for us, and hidden.

At the Last supper, while Yeshua is preforming this pageantry He tells them that it is His body broken for them. Later before sundown and the start of another day Yeshua was buried. It was on the latter part of the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that all this takes place.

Passover is the first feast and on the Jewish calendar around March or April depending on the year in the month they call Nisan. Nisan is the first month of the Jewish religious calendar. Exodus 12-14 tells the story of the first Passover.

In the first century, a lamb was chosen by the high priest outside of Jerusalem on the tenth of Nisan. Then the priest would lead this lamb into the city while crowds of worshippers lined the streets waving palm branches and singing "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord."

Since Yeshua is the our unleaven bread and His blood our memorial of the Passover lamb we no longer have to kill a lamb for this memorial. He is our eternal sacrifice. Yeshua institute new meaning to the symbols for this most somber occasion. “And as they were eating, Yeshua took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is My body. 27. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink you all of it; 28. For this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

 

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You can see that the unleavened bread was given to represent Yeshua sinless body sacrificed in our place when we deserved to die for our sins. The wine represents His shed blood to cover our sins. The foot washing represents how as He has served us so we are to serve one another. Another interesting thing about the customs of the Jews on the Feast of Unleaven Bread/Passover is the giving of alms to the poor.

In John 13:27-30, we read:
“As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. 'What you are about to do, do quickly,' Yeshua told him, but no one at the meal understood why Yeshua said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Yeshua was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night."

This would make no sense if it were not the Seder meal. One normally would not go out into the streets to give money to the poor on an ordinary night. However, on Passover night the doors of the Temple were opened at midnight and a crowd of poor people gathered to receive alms. Thus it was a custom to give alms to the poor at night on Passover, but night time alms were in no way customary at other times, meaning Yeshua's direction to Judas would not have been so understood by the apostles if it were given at any time other than Passover evening. The fact that the apostles had this in mind is reinforced by the fact that the other explanation they thought of that Judas was being sent out to buy something for the Feast. This was a special custom connected with the Passover/Unleavened Bread feast. The rich man's tomb was another prophecy that Yeshua fulfilled. The Prophet Isaiah spoke of the rich man coming and taking Yeshua’ body and burying it in his own tomb.

“When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Yeshua' disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Yeshua. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.”

Our Lord Yeshua is the unleaven bread, the flesh that died, that we might live. It was during the feast of the unleaven bread that Yeshua was in the tomb. It is interesting that in one Jewish custom they celebrate the first two days of the Feasts of Unleaven Bread as given to the stranger, the gentiles and the third day of celebration for themselves in celebration and observance. Sometimes customs have a way of speaking to the heart because of a broader meaning.

You shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt you eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for you camest forth out of the land of Egypt: that you may remember the day when you camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. Now these people were tremendously afflicted in the land of Egypt. The bread that they ate was called the bread of affliction. The bread that we eat as believers is also the bread of affliction but it is His being afflicted for us and in our place. That is found in Isaiah chapter fifty-three. “Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

It is clear no one can take part in the Passover memorial unless he or she has committed himself or herself to Yeshua. Have you ever heard the saying, "You are what you eat"? That is why it is unleavened bread and unleavened wine for there is no sin representation to be found in Christ, and there is to be no sin found in us. Partaking today of the bread and wine in sincerity and truth, with a consecrated heart to be more like Him, who is our example and our hope of salvation, is our memorial to Christ for what He has done for us.

 

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Another fulfillment requirement was that the bone not be broken. And this was also fulfilled while Yeshua was dead on the cross. “Then came the soldiers, and break the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Yeshua, and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs.”

 

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First Fruits
The feast of First Fruits or Wave Sheaf as it is also called, comes in the spring the day after the first weekly Sabbath after the Passover.

Leviticus 23:9 The day after the first weekly Sabbath following Passover is also known as the Wave Sheaf.

Yeshua was resurrected on the Feast of First Fruits. This particular year, the Passover was on Thursday and Yeshua was in the grave for the three days and three nights just as He said He would be. “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

This feast the Jews today do not observe the First Fruits or the Wave Sheaf even though commanded to by God because it deals with the resurrection. Until they are reconciled with the death and resurrection of Yeshua Christ as their Messiah and the fulfillment of this spring time feast, they probably won’t. It could easily be because of the death and resurrection of Yeshua and their position that He was not the Messiah they had waited for; they have chosen to not observe it.

It was a spring harvest festival for the people of the land. The deadness of winter is past and the earth is once again putting forth new leaves and blooming. Since this was the beginning of the barley season, the Jews were expected to bring some sheaves of the green barley to the Temple as an offering and in anticipation of a bountiful harvest that fall. Since Yeshua raises people instead of plants, His offering of first fruits to the Father was comprised of resurrected saints as seen in “The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Yeshua' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

This offering was the fulfillment of the festival, they were the first fruits of the bountiful harvest to come. “And from Yeshua Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth; unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”

We know that those that were resurrected the same time that Yeshua was, are the first fruits of the harvest, a fulfillment of the this ceremonial Sabbath.

 

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Pentecost
Feast of Pentecost is considered a summer harvest of the land celebration. Leviticus 23.15-22.
You can read about the first Pentecost in “Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, who is on the LORD's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus said the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. “

Isn’t it amazing that three thousand people died in the first Pentecost and when Peter got up and preached on the day of Pentecost, three thousand people were born again?

The upper room experience was a fulfillment of the feast Pentecost. Remember the Lord’s Prayer. “If you love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. This Comforter is the Spirit of Truth or better known as the Holy Spirit.”

 

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The job of the Holy Spirit is to teach. The Holy Spirit that has come into your life has never been allowed to do His primary work. His primary work is to teach and to show you Yeshua in all things. “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” The Spirit of God tells about Yeshua! “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.”

There were things about Yeshua, that the disciples would not fully understand, there were things that hadn’t happened yet. They couldn’t understand what He was there to do while He stood before them.

They marveled more at what He did than what He said. He was saying, "What I am doing is not as important as what I’m going to say to you now". He said that the Son of Man should be delivered into the hands of men. They could not believe what He was telling them. This was not what they had hoped for. This was not the then current understanding of the Messiah, who would break the Roman yoke. They believed that He was to come claim His kingdom, and reign as King and free them from the terrible tribulation they were under.

 

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Fulfillment of the Spring time Feasts
Did you notice the detail that all the spring type feasts were fulfilled by the first coming of Yeshua? These feasts that had significant fulfillment with the first coming of Yeshua also point to the future fulfillment of the fall feasts for His Second Coming. We are to appear before the Lord they God in the place and appointed time that He chooses. You are not to appear empty. May this study full you up with the knowledge that the fall feasts are significant in the last days of earth’s history and our lives. Three times a year we are to appear before the Lord, and in Pentecost which was the time of the first time we are to be before God, the baptism of the Holy Spirit came upon the people that day. What is in store for us when He meets with us in the next two times?

 

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Lev. 23:1-4 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the Feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my Feasts. 3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. 4 These are the Feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons.

The ceremonial feasts are there for a reason; this is more than just an old testament and an old covenant. God always has deeper meaning to everything He does. The new covenant of Yeshua was a fulfillment of the spring time feasts. Since it was fulfilled in a reality in the life of Christ, let us take a closer look at the fall feasts that God has given us.

 

[visionary]

Feast of Trumpets
Feast of Trumpets is the First day of the seventh month and start of the civil year. Leviticus 23.23-25. Hebrew name is Rosh HaShanah which literally means head of the year on the Jewish Calendar it falls around September or October depending on the year. It is Tishri 1 of the Jewish month and first day of the year on the Jewish civil calendar. The Jews have two calendars, one which they call the sacred calendar and the other that they call the civil. They believe that since God never abrogated the old calendar when He gave them the new calendar they are to have two calendars.

This is why Joel says that Christ will come in the first month, both for the first coming and for the second, both in the spring and in the fall. Interesting that you find seven trumpets in Revelation and not many people have made any connection with the Feast of Trumpets. It would take understanding of the Feast of Trumpets throughout scripture and prophecy of Old and New Testament prophets to glean concepts and understand the significance of the Feast of Trumpets. The Feast of Trumpets is about remembrances, a memorial, but the Bible does not tell us what we are supposed to remember! Neither the name of the festival or the meaning of the festival is made explicitly clear in the Bible. The symbolism of this festival is something of a mystery, a sort of Bible riddle begging to be solved. The Bible grants us only two sparse verses to explain the festival:

Leviticus 23:23,24 In the seventh month, on first day of the month, it will be for you a sabbath, a trumpet blast memorial, a sacred assembly. 24 All regular work you shall not do, and you shall cause to be brought near to the LORD an offering made by fire.

This memorial is yet to have an event to memorialize it. We have yet to fulfill this event. By faith we are to keep it. By faith, we are to understand it. So let us begin with the offering made by fire. To be tried in the fires, the cleansing spoken of, is to have a purification effect which will be total and complete just as it is in Yeshua. We are the offering, the sacrificing of our sins in the flesh, that we may live the spiritual life with Yeshua. The sacred assembly will be those who are looking forward to the fulfillment of the Feasts of Trumpets.