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The first four spring feasts (Passover
through Shavuot) begin the biblical year and typify our salvation in
Messiah Yeshua (1 Corinthians 5:7, etc.). As the number seven indicates,
the seventh month of fall feasts is a time of completion. Leviticus 23
describes prophetically the Lord's final work of redemption in the three
final feasts.
Rosh
Hashanah: The Feast of Trumpets
The Feast of Trumpets/Yom Teruah (Lev.
23:23-25) is commonly called Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year (Sept
29, 2000). When the Jewish people came out of Babylonian captivity, they
adopted the Babylonian civil New Year as their own (the month Tishrai is
actually a Babylonian word meaning “beginning”). Jewish tradition
purports that the blowing of trumpets is a reminder of the shofars Joshua
and the Israelites used at Jericho, and of the ram that Abraham sacrificed
in place of Isaac (the shofar is made from a ram's horn). This feast
points forward to a time when Israel is gathered back to the land (Isa.
27:13). Also, Biblically, the Feast of Trumpets signifies the sounding of
the 'shofar', or trump, of God, which prophetically speaking, is the time
when the Body of Messiah will be gathered with Messiah in the Rapture (1
Cor. 15:51-52; 1 Thes. 4:16-18). Because none of us knows the exact time
of this future "blowing of the trumpet," the Feast of Trumpets
should motivate us to readiness and service.
Yom
Kippur: The Day of Atonement
The next feast is Yom Kippur/Day of
Atonement, (Oct 8) which traditionally is a time for Jewish people to
individually “get right” with God. Biblically (Lev. 16 and 23:26-32)
it is a day for Israel to be restored to God as a nation when they trust
in the Messiah. This will come about through the tribulation period, which
is called in Jeremiah 30:7 “the time of Jacob's trouble” (or distress,
which is the same word in the Hebrew).
Anti-Semitism will reach an all-time high as all the nations of the
world will come against Israel in an attempt to once and for all destroy
the Jews. It is this time
that will prepare Israel for the coming King, Messiah,
and His kingdom. At the end of the Tribulation period, the Jewish
people will “look on Me [Messiah], the One they have pierced, and mourn
for Him as one mourns for a
firstborn son” (Zech. 12:10). In that day: Israel will receive
“cleansing from sin and impurity” (Zech. 13:1); “the stone which the
builders rejected shall become the chief cornerstone” (Ps. 118:22); the
great confession of Israel will be lamented, “All we like sheep have
gone astray, each one has turned to his own way, but the LORD has laid on
Him (Messiah) the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).
And in that day, a nation shall be born in a day, and "thus
all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26)! Thus Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement, reminds us that the gathering of Israel is coming.
Sukkot:
The Feast of Booths
Finally (on Oct 14) comes the final
Jewish feast, the Feast of Sukkot/Feast of Booths or Tabernacles in
Leviticus 23:33-43. For the week of Sukkot, people build and live in
“booths”. These purposely
frail structures picture our frailty when leaving Egypt, and our total
dependence on the Lord for provision and protection.
So today as well we are to be ‘living pictures’ that our
Messiah is our Booth, and in Him we have our full provision and protection
forever (John 7:37-39, Romans 8:1).
The feast is also
called the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:16).
Today it is celebrated as a final harvest festival, and it is
accompanied with great joy in the provision of God for His people.
Zechariah prophesied that the nations will one day be
“ingathered” to Messiah. All
surviving nations, which attacked Israel during the Tribulation
(Zech. 14: 2, 12-15), will honor the King of kings, the Messiah of
Israel, by celebrating “the Feast of Booths” in Jerusalem (v. 16-19)
each year.
In the Fall Feasts season, we see the seventh
month as a time when God completes His redemption plan:
1) The gathering of the Body (Feast of
Trumpets)
2) The gathering of the nation Israel
(Day of Atonement)
3) The gathering of the nations (Feast
of Booths).
In
light of the prophetic picture of His plan, shouldn't we share His Word
with all who have ears to hear and certainly to “the Jew first”?
'Word'
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