How the spring and fall feasts point to Jesus as Messiah

Over the last few months, my friend Jim and I have been diving in and discussing the significance of the Spring feasts of Israel, mentioned in the Bible in Leviticus 23. As followers of Jesus, you may not realize it, but we come from a rich tradition rooted in Hebrew soil.  One of our goals is to be a resource to others who are waking up to the fact that Jesus was Jewish and are wanting to know more about these practices.

A summary of the spring feasts

We talked about the Sabbath and how this day filled with intentional rest. Where we slow down, trust in God’s provision, and enjoy the beauty of his creation. With a lot of different opinions on the Sabbath, we share our experiences as we stumbled into this new, yet old way of living and how it’s been giving life to us.

We dove into the feast of Passover and how it was a foreshadowing of Jesus (Yeshua) becoming our Passover lamb. The lamb of God who delivers us by covering us. Who rescues us from the place of slavery and leads us into a life filled with His goodness and mercy. We walked through how the traditional Passover Seder and the four cups of wine amazingly point to Jesus as Messiah. We talked about the feast of first fruits and how this was a perfect picture of the risen Messiah Yeshua—the first fruits to the LORD. A day where God’s plan triumphed over the evil one and set in motion His kingdom that is here and advancing all throughout the world.

We unpacked the feast of Shavuot and how this is intimately tied to Pentecost—where God showed up in a powerful way and poured out His Spirit on the early Jewish believers in Yeshua. We connected the ancient prophecies from Jeremiah and Ezekiel to this monumental occasion, where God made good on his promise to make a renewed covenant with His people, where His instructions and ways would be engraved within our hearts. A day where we would be empowered to live life to fullest extent, no longer striving to do this work on our own, but out of the work He made possible through His Spirit! And we as gentile believers in this Jewish Messiah, like Ruth, are now welcomed into the family of God. We who were afar off, are brought near—grafted into the root of David. 

How absolutely incredible!

The upcoming fall feasts

And this brings us to a new season of the fall feasts that we’re SO excited about. We invite you to join us as we kick things off with the Feast of Trumpets (also known as Yom Teruah or Rosh Hashanah). We discuss the significance of blowing a shofar and how it became tradition for this to be a season of introspection and repentance leading into the Day of Atonement, along with some powerful traditions that you can practice with your family and friends.

We will dive into the Day of Atonement (also known as Yom Kippur), where once a year the high priest would enter into the holiest, most sacred part of the temple and make a sacrifice on behalf of the children of Israel to atone for and cover their sins. We’ll talk about how Messiah Yeshua became both the lamb and our high priest who covers us continually. How we can bring our lives now as living sacrifices in worship before the King.

And lastly, we’ll talk about Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles. A joyful time of celebration, where it’s traditional to spent a lot of time outside under the canopy of God’s sky, eating, remembering, and celebrating with joy all that God has done in our lives. We remember the time of the children of Israel camping out in booths (or tabernacles) in the desert. How the LORD kept them safe and provide for them. We remember how this ancient story of the Israelites is just as real for us today. We remember how God has redeemed us from difficult circumstances and a life filled with sorrow. We celebrate how he’s given us exactly what we need out of His lovingkindness, and we raise our glasses with anticipation for the King that will soon return to be with us!

We’re so excited to share this journey with you and we pray that you will be blessed with new insights as we follow the master together—but more importantly, we pray that you will have a new realization of the immense love our Father has poured out on us.

May you have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand that we may continually turn to God’s ways that are so much better than our own.