1. The Passover (Exod. 12:1-14;
Lev. 23:5)
When God wanted to deliver the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, He told Moses that each family should select a perfect male lamb from their flock and pen it up for four days to make sure it was healthy. At the end of the four days, on the fourteenth day of the first month, they were to kill the lamb and put the blood on the two door posts and on the lintel (making an outline of the cross).
God told Moses that He would destroy the firstborn of every family in the land unless He saw the blood on the door posts and lintel; if the blood was there He would pass over that house and spare the firstborn.
We know that the spotless Passover lamb whose blood saved from judgment is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 5:17; 1 Pet. 1:19,20) who shed His blood “for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28) on a Passover Day many hundreds of years after the first one. It is the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, that cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Have you come to Jesus, counting upon His precious blood to wash your sins away?
2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
(Exod. 12:15-20; Lev. 23:6-8)
The seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread points to the whole course and character of the believer’s life on earth, from the day of his/her conversion onward. It speaks of communion with God based upon redemption, sustained by feeding on Christ, and maintained in holiness and separation from evil. The apostle Paul makes this connection:“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” (1 Cor. 5:8). This is followed by instructions to the Corinthians concerning purging the one from their midst who was living an unholy life. The purging is the negative aspect of the feast. Eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, examining ourselves according to God’s standards, would be the positive aspect of the feast and the basis for communion and fellowship with God and our fellow Christians (1 John 1:5-9).
3. The Feast of Firstfruits
(Lev. 23:9-14)
The Feast of Firstfruits marked the beginning of the spring grain harvest. (In the Mediterranean lands, such as Israel, with rainy, mild winters and hot, dry summers, wheat was planted in the late fall or early winter and harvested in the spring.) Although no specific day or month, such as is given for the Passover, is mentioned for this feast, it would probably have occurred close in time to the Passover. It was always on the first day of the week, “on the morrow after the Sabbath.” The sheaf of firstfruits is a type of Christ risen from the dead. The Lord Jesus hinted at the analogy between grain harvest and His resurrection in John 12:23-26. The apostle Paul stated the analogy clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23. Because Christ was raised, we can look forward to being raised at His coming. Even now we have been raised with Christ and seated “together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6).
4. The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost
(Lev. 23:15-21)
This feast is a type of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). The two loaves, waved before Jehovah as the sheaf of firstfruits, point to the fact that by the Holy Spirit Jews and Gentiles were formed into one body (1 Cor. 12:13), “one new man” (Eph. 2:15). These two loaves were baked with leaven (usually a type of sin), further indicating that they are a type of Christ’s people, not of Christ Himself. No sin offering was offered with the sheaf of firstfruits, but a sin offering was to be offered with the two wave loaves (Lev. 23:19). God’s people are “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6), but only in the Beloved.
5. The Feast of Trumpets
(Num. 29:1-6)
The first four feasts took place in the first two months of the Israelite year. After an interval of four months, the Feast of Trumpets began a series of three feasts, all taking place in the seventh month. The Feast of Trumpets took place on the first day of the seventh month. In Numbers 10:1-10, Jehovah gave Moses instruction for making two trumpets which were to be used to gather the people together. This feast, a holy “calling together” or assembly, looks forward to the raising of those who have died in Christ, the changing of those Christians still living, and the gathering of both groups of believers together to meet the Lord in the air at the time of the rapture (or Lord’s coming). “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment … at the last trump” (1 Cor. 15:51,52). “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout … with the trump of God; … so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:13-18).
6. The Day of Atonement
(Lev. 16:1-34; 23:26-32)
The characteristic aspects of the Day of Atonement are the blood taken within the veil and sprinkled on the mercy seat and the ceremony of the scapegoat. These ceremonies were performed once a year on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, and at no other time. We have boldness now “to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19). After the rapture we will be in the very presence of God and we will appreciate the value of the blood of Christ as we never did before. So also will we understand the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the marvelous grace of God, and the fullness of Christ’s redemption. Our songs in glory will express eternal praise for the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 1:5,6; 5:9,10).
7. The Feast of Tabernacles
(Lev. 23:33-36,39-43)
The Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated for eight days beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. The first day was a day of rest and the eighth day was a day of rest. It was a harvest festival after the grain and the wine had been gathered in and rejoicing was expected (Deut. 16:13-15). A unique aspect of this feast was the requirement to make tabernacles or booths out of tree branches and to live in these booths for seven days. This was a reminder of the temporary dwellings the people of Israel had lived in during the journey from Egypt to Canaan.
This feast is a picture of Christ’s millennial reign on the earth when the earth will be more fruitful than ever before and God’s people will rejoice that their beloved Lord and Saviour is at last being given the honor He deserves. Part of the joy of this time will be the remembrance of God’s care and grace during our own “wilderness journey.” The eighth day, the last “great day of the feast” (John 7:37), points to the dawn of the eternal day, the long Sabbath of Eternity, where, in a new heaven and a new earth, righteousness will dwell (2 Pet. 3:13) and God will be “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).