The Biblical Festivals
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There are 3 reasons God has given the Biblical festivals. While these are Jewish feast days, they are also Biblical feasts believers can read about and study in the Word.
Learning more about them and the rich meaning they hold can help Christians grow in their own faith and Messianic Jews to continue in their traditions. Yeshua never came to form a new religion. He was a Jewish Rabbi. He celebrated the Sabbath and these festivals.
God gave His people His festivals, which can also be seen as Messianic festivals (Messianic = of the Messiah) for three reasons:
Biblical Festivals – To Remember a Past Event
When God told the Israelites to keep the Biblical feast of Passover, it was to be a remembrance.
It was to recall how God led His people out of slavery and bondage and into freedom and the Promised Land.
Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is to recall how the Israelites lived in temporary dwellings for 40 years as they wandered through the wilderness, sustained by God Himself.
So these Biblical festivals help Jew and Gentile alike see and recall God’s saving power and miraculous provision in the lives of His people.
Biblical Festivals – To See Hashem Working in the Lives of His People Today
The Biblical festivals help us reflect on how the Lord is working in our lives today!
We can often see Him working today much like He did in the lives of the children of Israel. You can see His provision, His mercy, His justice. We see Him free us from our bonds.
We now see the work of Messiah in our lives and how He saved us from sin and death and brought us into our Promised Land.
Hashem is the same yesterday, today and forever. What He did for His people then as pictured in the Biblical feasts, He will do for us today!! He is always with us! He is unchanging!
God is the same yesterday, today and forever. What He did for His people then as pictured in the Biblical feasts, He will do for us today!! Click To TweetWe can see the power of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, guiding us and leading us in the way we should go much like the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night guided the Israelites in the wilderness.
God is always at work in the lives of His children and the Biblical festivals demonstrate that.
Biblical Festivals – To Paint a Picture of Future Events
Finally, the Biblical festivals are a foreshadowing of future events.
The Feast of Tabernacles is believed to be a sort of foreshadowing of Yeshua’s birth and how He tabernacled among men. We see Him coming again to call us to Himself and to celebrate the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
The Sukkah is a picture of the marriage chuppa where we will be wed to our Bridegroom Yeshua and live with Him in the place He prepared for us.
Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets, is the beginning of the Jewish new year and one of my favorite Biblical festivals! But it has much more meaning than just that!! The shofar, the trumpet, is sounded! The Bible tells us that when Yeshua returns the trumpet will sound and He will gather His elect.
Matthew 24:31:
“He will send out his angels with a great shofar; and they will gather together his chosen people from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
CJB
You can read more about Rosh Hashanah and how it is a picture of Jesus’s return at my blog post the Feast of Trumpets!
You can also read more at this guest blog post Imani Ackerman wrote for us on the topic of the Biblical Feast of Trumpets and the tradition of Taschlich!
A Remembrance
The Biblical festivals help the Jewish people, like myself, celebrate the past, present and future works of God in the world!
As a Messianic Jew, each time we celebrate one of the Biblical festivals, it gives us the opportunity to see how God, from the beginning of time, had a plan. Every festival not only has its place in the time when God commanded it to be observed, but they have just as much significance today!
Each time Messianic Jews sit at the Passover table we can see how God not only rescued the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, but how He rescued us today from slavery to sin and death.
Taken from the Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern. Copyright © 1998. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Messianic Jewish Publishers, 6120 Day Long Lane, Clarksville, MD 21029. www.messianicjewish.net.
One of my favorite things in studying the Gospels is when a knowledgeable teacher connects Jesus’s words and actions with an Old Testament feast or observance. He truly is the fulfillment of the Law, and his actions demonstrate his awareness of it. Thanks be to God for the Law written on our hearts.
Amen Michele!!
I’m quick to forget these aspects of God. I forget that He’s alive and moving and leading, and instead wait to call on Him until I need Him. But He’s always there. Thanks for the reminder!
Thank you Rebecca!!!
I love how we can use past events to see God in our present (and in our future!). Thanks for sharing about Biblical festivals, Diane.
Thank you Lisa!!!
You know just how much I love these posts! As a Christian, without any Jewish background, I love learning about our Hebrew heritage. Thank you for explaining the reasons behind the festivals. I’m a huge fan of you and your writing! <3
Thank you so much Susan!! I do so appreciate your support and I’m a fan of yours as well!!
I love this so much. I used to be in a community group with a messianic Jew and I really miss the lessons on the culture and God’s people and the meaning behind it.
Thank you Lauren!! It IS very interesting to learn the meaning behind these things!
There is so much Jesus in the Old Testament that we miss unless we really look for Him there. Thanks for sharing about the Bible feasts. Every Christmas we hear how it started as a pagan holiday, and we seem to overlook that while the chosen time to celebrate was during a pagan holiday, that is not the reason. We celebrate for a remembrance of all that God has done. Great Post, Many Thanks 8)
Thank you so much Debra!!
I always learn something new when I read your posts, Diane. Thank you for explaining Biblical festivals to us!
Thank you so much Laurie!!
Thanks Diane for this most interesting post. Pinned and tweeted. Thanks for hosting the linkup and for linking-up at InstaEncouragements! One of our sons worked in the IT department for a large Jewish high school for a couple years. It was so interesting to learn so much about their customs. He especially liked it because he was salary and got all the Jewish holidays off (there’s a lot as you probably know) AND he also got the American holidays off. It was awesome!
That’s awesome!! Yes, us Jewish folk love our holidays lol
Thank you for linking up!!!
I just love this post. I grew up living across the street from a Jewish family who included me/us in on some of the holidays during our 4 years there. I learned so much and have vivid memories of a different way and ways I really liked, even though I did not understand then. But I do now. With those childhood memories and today’s new understanding, I can see more clearly. And you have helped me further that understanding. So glad I came here today.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it and what a blessing those holidays must have been!! Thank you!!
I had never thought of bringing the importance of Biblical festivals into today’s terms although it makes complete sense. I enjoy looking at the festivals and the meanings behind them and how we can use them to celebrate Jesus today.
Yes the meaning behind them is amazing!! I’m glad you enjoyed it!!