the FEASTS of the LORD

*This is Part 4 in my 4 part series on the Feasts of the LORD.

It's almost October and the feasts are upon us! The excitement growing in our home is palpable. Tables set with our favorite foods, extended times of worship outside, Sabbath days of rest, blowing trumpets, and a week long party... are you kidding me? Yes, please!

As we've discussed in Part 2 & 3, our Divine design was intentionally created to respond to story as a vehicle of truth. The story YHWH has been writing since the dawn of time is a love story that reveals humanity as the apple of the Maker's eye. Each year, He commands His people to enter into the act of sacred remembrance of this epic story and it's central characters, Israel and their Bridegroom God.

From "In the beginning"... to "I am coming again"... and the tapestry God is weaving in each of our lives, the Maker is authoring a story and we are key players in it! One of the ways the Maker has given us to remain connected to the greater whole of our story is by honoring His appointed times of meeting and the stories they keep us anchored to. This is how we walk in His shadow, keeping our hearts focused on our Messiah through every season.

Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets

This is the most mysterious of all YHWH's feasts - which makes it all the more fascinating to study. Each of YHWH's appointments serve as a mile marker in His epic. In a previous post, I briefly explained how the spring and summer feasts were fulfilled in Jesus' first coming and the giving of the Holy Spirit. So spring is a time of celebrating what God has done. Fall (a term coined by Shakespeare by the way... ), represents the season of harvest. On God's calendar, it points to the time of the end - when God will harvest from the earth the wheat and the tares; the wheat to glory, and the tares to judgment (Matthew 13). So autumn is a time of celebrating what God will do.

We know from 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus will return with the blast of a Trumpet. In Biblical hermeneutics (the study of Scripture), there is something called the 'law of first mention'. It states that the first time a word or concept in introduced in Scripture, it establishes the framework to build upon the understanding of what that word or concept represents in the big-picture. So let's look at Numbers 10 and the significance of blowing trumpets.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make two trumpets of hammered silver to be used for calling the congregation and for having the camps set out. When both are sounded, the whole congregation is to assemble before you at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. But if only one is sounded, then the leaders, the heads of the clans of Israel, are to gather before you. When you sound short blasts, the camps that lie on the east side are to set out. When you sound the short blasts a second time, the camps that lie on the south side are to set out. The blasts are to signal them to set out. To convene the assembly, you are to sound long blasts, not short ones. The sons of Aaron, the priests, are to sound the trumpets. This shall be a permanent statute for you and the generations to come. When you enter into battle in your land against an adversary who attacks you, sound short blasts on the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God and saved from your enemies. And on your joyous occasions, your appointed feasts, and the beginning of each month, you are to blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to serve as a reminder for you before your God. I am the LORD your God.” Numbers 10:1-10

So we know that the sounding of trumpets is how YHWH wanted Israel to announce these 4 things: assembling the whole congregation together, setting out to a new destination, going into battle, and YHWH's appointed times of rejoicing. Interesting! What else does Scripture tells us about the blowing of trumpets?

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

Yeshua will return with a trumpet blast!

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

In Revelation, John describes 7 trumpets blown in heaven signaling 7 judgments. With the final trumpet the announcement rang out through Heaven that the Kingdoms of the earth have become the Kingdoms of our God (Revelation 11:15) There is so so much to study in regards to this feast. It is the one feast I can never read enough about! In Israel, it is associated with the Coronation of the King, the wedding supper of the Lamb, the rapture of the remnant, the Day of Remembrance, the Day of Judgment, and more. When we celebrate this feast, I believe we are entering into a dress rehearsal for the return of Messiah, the rapture of the remnant, the awakening of the dead in Christ, the Coronation of King Jesus, and the invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb.

The trumpet blast also signifies the call to REPENT (Isaiah 58:1), therefore the Feast of Trumpets begins the 10 Days of Awe - in which Israel soberly prepares themselves to meet with YHWH on Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

The Day of Atonement was the most important day of the year before Yeshua atoned for the sins of the world with His own blood. Before the cross, the Day of Atonement was a day on which the entire congregation fasted (afflicted themselves) while the High Priest presented the most sacred sacrifices to YHWH to atone for Israel's sins that year. Praise God for our Great High Priest who gave of Himself to save us from our sins! Although this feast has been partially fulfilled in the atoning act of Christ on the cross, the fullness of it will not come until the time of the end. I still believe it's appropriate to fast on this day, as it represents a dress rehearsal for the Judgment seat of Christ, when the books will be opened and humanity judged for the their deeds (Revelation 20:12).

Ten days before the Day of Atonement, on the Feast of Trumpets, Christ will return and the remnant of Israel will be called up to heaven for the marriage supper of the Lamb. These people caught up to Heaven with Jesus are those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of Life. Then, all those remaining on the earth will have 'ten days of awe' to repent and reconcile themselves to the King of Kings. Those who turn to the Lord will be saved, and their names written in His book of life. These ten days will be the worst time of tribulation the earth has ever seen. Then, ten days later on the Day of Atonement, Christ will return to the Mount of Olives, splitting it in half (Zechariah 14:4). He will defeat the armies of the Antichrist with the sword of the Lord (Revelation 19:15), and the remnant of national Israel will 'look upon Him whom they pierced and mourn for Him as an only child' (Zechariah 12:10). This is the great and terrible day of the Lord; the day His angels will separate the sheep from the goats - the sheep to glory and the goats to judgment. It is a day to be sober minded, to fast and pray, to repent and seek God, and to level up in our pursuit of Christ-likeness (holiness). "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31).

Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles (the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Ingathering)

Sukkot is an 8 day feast with a sacred assembly on the 1st and 8th day.

This week-long feast commemorates the time of the Exodus, when Israel lived in booths (tents) for 40 years in the wilderness. During this time, Israel was supernaturally protected and provided for with manna (the bread of angels) quail, and springs of water. This was not their only miraculous provision however. In addition to having their basic needs provided for - in a desert - for 40 years - with over a million people - their sandals and clothing did not wear out, nor did their feet swell.

Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him. Deuteronomy 8:2-6

So what are we to do for these eight festive days? Dwell outside, decorate with leafy boughs, feast, and long for the day when God's awesome presence will Tabernacle among us once again!

While I am not a native born Israelite, that does not diminish the power of this sacred assembly and the story it connects my heart to. The amazing quality of this feast is the enactment of God dwelling among men. The Israelites had the MANIFEST PRESENCE OF YHWH LIVING AMONG THEM IN THE TENT OF MEETING (Exodus 33:7-11)! This is a direct foreshadowing of God's desire to one day TABERNACLE AMONG HIS PEOPLE FOREVER IN THE NEW JERUSALEM.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:1-4

My desire to keep the Feasts of the LORD is the fruit of my obsession with Him. Because He lives, I live. Because He loves, I love. Because He asks me to, I will. I want to keep these feasts not because they're Jewish feasts and Jesus was/is a Jew, but because they're YHWH's appointed times of meeting with His people - and I am His people (Romans 11).

The Feasts of the LORD keep my heart and yours anchored to the epic story the Great Artist is writing. They are shadows cast by the body of Messiah. They are the narrow path of Christ imitation.

In closing, I'd like to leave you with this important warning from Paul.

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness. These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes. And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel. Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it. 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

The nation of Israel is meant to serve as an example to us in all things. Let us not act foolishly, as they tended to do, but let us press on to know what is the will of God and to do it (Ephesians 5:17).

If obedience is the fruit of love, may we all be rich with it. Blessings & shalom on your sacred assemblies.

Bo Yeshua!