Seven Holy Feasts of Israel (Part I)

Recently I was prompted by the Lord to start celebrating. Essentially the message from Him was very clear - to start rejoicing, praising Him and celebrating before I see the manifestation of my pregnancy. I was really excited about this message because I know from experience, when God called me to celebrate, it was for a very good reason. But this requires faith because usually people celebrate after God brought His promise to pass in their life. Somehow, God wants me to take the step of faith to just celebrate first before He brings it to pass. Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:7 'We live by faith, not by sight.'

That's exactly what I am going to do. I am going to party, celebrate, sing, dance and rejoice for what the Lord is going to do for me. I was led to find out about the feasts of Israel because that would tell me why the Jews celebrate and how they celebrate it.  In the past, I would not even want to learn about such feasts because they are too complex and irrelevant to me. In fact, I even find them boring. But when I researched on these feasts and saw the relation to Jesus, I was in awe! When I shared with Heng, he told me: This is such a revelation and I must share on my blog. So I shall attempt to make this simple and easy to understand.

Feasts are regular religious celebrations remembering God's great acts of salvation in the history of His people.  As mentioned in the title, there are seven holy feasts of Israel. I will touch on two of them in this blog post as they are mainly feasts concerning the Passover. The source of my research is mainly from http://www.christcenteredmall.com/teachings/feasts/index.htm
 

Feasts of the Jews	In Relation to Jesus
1.       Feast of Passover (Lev 23:5) ·         First of the seven feasts ·         Start of Jewish New Year (religious) ·         Happens in Mar or Apr every year ·        As a memorial of how God brought the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt ·       The Jews eat 3 types of food during the Passover night: lamb (signifying the sacrifice), matzah (unleavened bread, signifying the purity of the sacrifice) and bitter herbs (signifying the suffering of the lamb).	·        Jesus was crucified on the day of Passover (this event coincides with our Good Friday) ·       He and His disciples ate a Passover meal together on the eve of His death. During this meal Jesus said, "This is my body," and "this cup is the new testament in my blood" ·        All of those lambs sacrificed down in Egypt (one per household) pointed to the one true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
2.       Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:6) ·        This Feast lasts seven days and occurs right after the Feast of Passover. ·        Happens in Mar or Apr every year ·        Only unleavened bread is eaten during this feast, reflecting the fact that the Israelites had no time to put leaven in their bread before their hasty departure from Egypt ·       The Jews sprinkle leavened (yeast) bread crumbs throughout the house and then subsequently sweep them all up and collectively burn them outside. ·        They do this because leaven symbolises sin and they are to rid their lives of sin.	·         After His crucifixion, Jesus was then buried in a newly hewn tomb donated by Joseph of Arimathea. However, unlike all other corpses, the body of Jesus (Yeshua) would not decay in the grave. God the Father would not "allow His Holy One (His Son Jesus) to see corruption (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27). ·         The Feast of Unleavened Bread proclaims that Christ's physical body would not experience the ravages of death while in the grave; for He was sanctified (set apart) by God the Father