Three times in the year you must make a pilgrim feast to me. 15 You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before me empty-handed. 16 “You are also to observe the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year when you have gathered in your harvest out of the field. 17 At three times in the year all your males will appear before the Lord GOD. Exodus 23:14-17 (NET1)
God commanded Israel to keep three great feasts every year. All the males were required to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and appear before the Lord. In other words, it was not enough to agree that these feasts were important: Israelites had to participate. Today most Christians know these feasts as Passover (the Feast of Unleavened Bread), Pentecost (the Feast of Weeks), and the Feast of Booths (Feast of Ingathering). These main feasts can be broken down into sub-feasts, but the Lord includes the parts in the whole. Therefore, in this brief study we will not concern ourselves with the sub-feasts.
The Old Covenant scriptures were written for our benefit to reveal Jesus and to foreshadow and typify the great salvation brought to us in the New Covenant.
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures. Luke 24:27 (NET1)
Jesus translated, interpreted, and explained how the Old Covenant scriptures applied to him. Once our eyes are opened to Christ and how he came to fulfill what was written, it becomes easier for us to see Jesus in the Old Covenant.
Seeing how the feasts were fulfilled by Christ and experienced by us believers will enrich our understanding.
Passover
The event which inaugurated the first feast also was the first step in Israel’s exodus from Egypt. At the first Passover God showed mercy and favor to his people when the angel of destruction put to death all the firstborn of Egypt as the final installment of God’s judgment upon that nation and its obstinate leadership. On the evening of Passover, God commanded his people to gather in homes by families. Each family was ordered to sacrifice and eat a lamb and to smear its blood upon the doorposts and lintel of their home. Any Israelite who stayed inside the blood marked home on that dreadful night was spared the death of their firstborn. All the firstborn of Egypt not residing in a blood stained home were killed that night. As a result of this last plague, Pharaoh finally let God’s people leave Egypt to start their journey to the Promised Land. Israel was commanded by God to keep perpetually a feast commemorating this great deliverance.
We know from New Covenant scriptures that Jesus fulfilled what God always had in mind for this feast when he died on the cross as the Lamb of God.
…For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 1 Corinthians 5:7b (NET1)
His blood is spiritually applied to the lives of those who place their faith in Christ, through which he becomes our Passover Lamb, thus sparing or redeeming us from the judgment of God’s wrath against sin, which will fall on everyone who refuses to believe.
For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Colossians 1:13-14 (NLT)
Jesus died on the actual day of Passover, perfectly fulfilling this feast to the very day. When we place our faith in Christ, his blood is applied figuratively to the “doorposts and lintels of our hearts” so that God’s judgment will pass over us. Just as Christ bore our judgment on the cross on the New Covenant fulfillment of Passover some 2000 years ago, so we must personally receive that provision by believing the gospel.
Therefore, the Feast of Passover is fulfilled twice in the New Covenant for the believer – historically at Calvary and personally when we put our faith and allegiance in Christ.
Just as participation in the Old Covenant Feast of Passover was not optional, neither is it an option to have a personal fulfillment of that feast if you wish to be a child of God. If a person failed to keep the feast of Passover under the Law, he was cut off from the people of God; likewise, if someone is not born again and does not know Jesus as his or her Passover Lamb, he or she will be eternally cut off from God. So then, if Jesus had not fulfilled Passover by dying on the cross, we would all be cut off from God, and each person must also keep his or her own feast by believing in Christ and his atoning blood. A person cannot claim to be a Christian, if he or she does not experience the reality of Passover personally.
Pentecost
The second feast with a mandatory attendance requirement was the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. Literally it means fifty, because it was celebrated fifty days after Passover. God first instituted the feast of Pentecost as a shadow pointing to a greater reality that would be fulfilled in Christ. In the Old Covenant shadow, this was a feast of the first fruits of the harvest. The very first time the Israelites celebrated it was at Mount Sinai, fifty days after escaped from Egypt. Fire and thunder came from the mountain when God gave the law to Moses. The people were not allowed to draw near to the mountain because of their sin. Because of their subsequent transgression in worshiping an idol, three thousand died.
The New Covenant fulfillment came on the exact day of the Old Covenant feast, fifty days after the Passover crucifixion of Christ, another exactly-to-the-day fulfillment of a feast. In the fulfillment of Pentecost, instead of fire and thunder, there were tongues of fire and the sound of a mighty rushing wind in the upper room where the disciples had gathered to pray. Instead of being forbidden to come near God, believers in Christ’s finished work on the cross, who have now been reconciled to the Father through the Son, have bold and confident access to the presence of God. Instead of the law, which was written in stone and brought death, the life-giving Spirit, who writes God’s laws upon human hearts, was given to God’s children. Instead of 3000 dying because of a transgression of the Law, 3000 were saved in response to the gospel message preached by Peter.
The prophet Joel foretold this giving of the Spirit, and Peter quoted a portion of that prophecy in his sermon on that first New Covenant Pentecost. God always planned to pour out His Spirit as His incredible gift to the human race. Moses long before expressed God’s heart when he exclaimed:
… I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” Numbers 11:29 NET
This wonderful promise is not gender-specific either, nor is it limited by age, culture, or race. Jews and Gentiles, men and women, young and old alike are able to receive this wonderful gift. The gifts of the Spirit accompany this outpouring. Joel specifically mentions prophecies, dreams, and visions. Paul extends the list in First Corinthians, Chapter 12. This outpouring was God’s plan to bless and reach the entire human race with the gospel.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth. Acts 1:8 NET
The Law was unable to accomplish God’s will for mankind because humans are fatally flawed by sin. Our wonderful heavenly Father sent His own Son to accomplish for us and in us what he alone could do – to gain the benefits and blessings connected to living a perfect life of submission and obedience to God. For us to be right with God, we must have God’s righteousness and God’s life inside us. This righteousness comes by faith in the person and the finished work of Christ on the cross and through his resurrection. God’s life comes to God’s people via the indwelling Holy Spirit.
In addition, the Lord wants His power and ministry to flow through us. This comes by way of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The New Covenant ministry of the early apostles included miracles, healings, deliverances, and salvations. All of this was an extension of the ministry of the risen Christ through his disciples. The Holy Spirit was the power behind Christ’s ministry during his days here on earth, and He remains the power behind the church’s ongoing ministry. God’s heart is to pour out his Spirit on all people. That is why we have been given the Great Commission. God still has more people to bless, and he still plans to pour out His Spirit on all people.
The Old Covenant Feast of Weeks had to be fulfilled in the New Covenant on the exact day of the feast, and each believer is expected to have a personal fulfillment in his or her life by receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
The reason this needs to be emphasized is because some people regard the baptism in the Spirit as an option or think it is included automatically in the new birth. Using the logic of God, however, this cannot possibly be true. God foreshadowed these two important parts of our faith experience by representing them in separate feasts on different dates with separate fulfillments in the New Covenant. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that both the new birth and the baptism of the Spirit are required events or experiences in a believer’s life. Also, it is evident that one cannot contain the other because they are represented by two distinct feasts. In other words, a born again believer needs to be baptized in the Holy Spirit as well.
(If you would like to learn more about this amazing baptism in the Holy Spirit, consider reading Pete’s book entitled, Promise of the Father, which is available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions.)
The Feast of Ingathering
The third great feast with a mandatory attendance requirement was the triple feast of the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Trumpets, and the Feast of Booths, which are subsumed under the title of the Feast of Ingathering. This feast comes in the autumn months at the time of the harvest and is the one Old Covenant feast that as yet has neither a New Covenant fulfillment nor a personal fulfillment.
It is reasonable to assume that our Lord’s Second Coming will be the New Covenant fulfillment of this feast, at which time Jesus will raise the dead, catch up the living believers to be with him, judge all people, and install his Father’s kingdom, over which he will rule.
It is also quite clear that each believer will need to have a personal experience of this feast in his or her own life. If we are not gathered to the Lord at his Second Coming, we have no part with him.
Summary
In summary, the three major feasts of Israel signify three major events in church history and in the life of every believer. Just as it was mandatory for each Israelite male to participate in these feasts, it is required that Christ fulfill all these feasts and that the church participate in each of those fulfillments. Individually every believer must also have his or her Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of the Ingathering. We are to experience the new birth, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and the resurrection, or we have no part in Christ.
