Prophetic Festivals
How the Old Testament Speaks of Jesus the Messiah
There are many passages in the Old Testament that speak of the New Testament Jesus. One of the most remarkable is found in Leviticus 23 that instructs the people of Israel about God’s appointed festivals.
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The Passover celebrates the day God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Pharaoh finally allowed them to leave Egypt after suffering the night when all first-borns, humans and animals, were killed by God. The Israelites were unaffected by this last plague because they followed God’s instructions. The command was that each household had to sacrifice a one-year-old male lamb or goat with no defects and with its blood mark the sides and top of the door frames of their houses. Those houses marked like this were spared or passed over by the angel of death (See Exodus 12:23).
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Having to sacrifice a perfect young lamb or goat surely creates in us sentiments of pain, sorrow, and guilt. Why kill such a cute and beautiful animal that the family has most probably grown fond of? This sacrifice paints a picture of what would happen 1,500 years later when Jesus, a man with no defects or sin, was mercilessly flogged and then nailed to a cross to die to pay for our sins. His blood allows those that acknowledge and accept Him as Lord and Savior to be passed over on what is demanded by the law. For those redeemed, their sins are not accounted for anymore. Thus, they are liberated from the ties of this world. So begins their exodus to the Promised Land, Heaven.
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The very next day after Passover the week-long Festival of Unleavened Bread begins. It celebrates Israel exodus from Egypt. In preparation for this feast, Jewish families remove all traces of leaven from their houses. Leaven is an image of sin. Even a little bit causes the flour to rise. Risen bread puffed up with leaven evokes sinful pride, and unleavened bread humility, simplicity, and purity. The flat bread, also called matzo, symbolizes affliction, slavery, and lack of luxury. Jesus equated Himself to being the bread of life (John 6:33, 35, 51). It is with no surprise that each wafer has many stripes and piercings, just as Jesus crucified.
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During Passover the Jewish tradition is to stack three pieces of matzo on the table. The top matzo is for the usual blessing over bread, the Hamotzi. The bottom matzo is for the Koresh sandwich. The middle matzo is broken in two to represent suffering. The larger of the broken pieces is wrapped with a napkin and hidden. This wrapped piece is called the "afikomen," literally “dessert” in Greek. After the Passover dinner, the guests have to hunt for the afikomen and trade it for a prize.
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It does not take too much imagination to see the wonderful parallels between the Jewish tradition surrounding the unleavened bread and what is described in the New Testament after the crucifixion of Jesus. The three pieces of matzo symbolize the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), the second piece, the Son, is wrapped in linen, placed in a tomb, and then found (resurrected) to reveal a wonderful prize, life eternal.
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On the day after the Sabbath, Sunday, begins the celebration of First Harvest or First Fruits. It consists of an offer of a one-year male lamb, four quarts of flour moistened with olive oil, and one quart of wine. In other words, we must offer a portion of our first harvest as a sign of thanks to God. This is an acknowledgement that everything we have and obtain comes from God. Therefore, giving Him thanks is just and necessary.
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Jesus was crucified on Passover and the Sunday after the Passover, He resurrected. Jesus is God’s First Fruit not only in fulfillment of prophecy, but also to liberate us from the shackles of sin.
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Counting seven full weeks from the Sabbath to the day after the celebration of First Harvest, or 50 days after the Sabbath, the end of the harvest or the Festival of Harvest is celebrated. In Exodus 32 when Moises first received the Ten Commandments and the people, weary of waiting for Moses to climb down Mount Sinai, created the gold calf to worship it. As a result, God punished the leaders of such act of idolatry and 3,000 were killed at the hands of the Levites. The receiving of the law is commemorated by the Jewish feast of Pentecost, also known as Shavuot. This is when the Jewish church was born. The harvest of the law of God is inevitably death.
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On the contrary, and following the story of the New Testament, the celebration of Pentecost is to commemorate the event when the Holy Spirit was poured out by the risen Christ to the crowd of believers congregated in a house. After this incredible experience, each left the house to announce the world the good news that Jesus lives, is the long-awaited Messiah, and that He is the way out of sin. That day 3,000 new converts were added to the newborn Christian church (See Acts 2:41). The harvest of the grace of God is life eternal! We all can receive the Holy Spirit if we ask Jesus into our lives.
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The next festival in God’s calendar is the Festival of Trumpets. On the first day of the seventh month in early autumn (September or October according to our calendar) Jews were ordered to observe a day of complete rest when the congregation would assemble at the call of the trumpets. Numbers 10 describes the way the two silver trumpets were built and when they were to be used. In the Old Testament, the trumpets were used for holy convocations, to order the moving of the camp to a new location, and to announce the people to be battle ready.
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In the New Testament the sound of the trumpet of God will announce the rapture of the church when believers will be snatched up into heaven (See Matthew 24:31 and 1 Corinthians 15:52). This event will then trigger what is known as the Great Tribulation here on Earth. This is the time when a new world order will be established which will bring a brief time of peace, which will be followed by persecutions as never seen before, as well as total world upheaval (See Matthew 24:21).
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On the tenth day of the same month as the Festival of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement is celebrated. It is a day the Jews deny themselves and present special gifts to God to make themselves right with God. In the New Testament calendar this day will mark the beginning of affliction of the Jews. The brief period of peace time mentioned above will end when, at the appointed time, the same charismatic person that will broker peace between Israel and Islam and who will build the new Jewish temple in Jerusalem, will then demand to be worshiped by the Jews (See Matthew 24:15 and Daniel 9:27, 11:31). Their absolute denial to this sacrilege request will trigger a terrible persecution and murder not only of Jews, but of whomever refuses to take up his mark.
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Five days after the Day of Atonement comes the week-long Festival of Shelters when Jews present special gifts to God to celebrate the end of the harvest. On the first day branches of leafy trees and palm fronds are to be gathered and with them build little simple shelters where the people are to live during that week. This is in remembrance of how the Jewish people lived during their exodus journey from Egypt.
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Many Jews will realize that they overlooked the fact that Jesus is their Messiah. Similarly, numerous non-Jews, upon witnessing the sudden disappearance of Christian friends and family, as a result of the rapture of the Church, will also become believers in the true Church. At that time, they will remember the mention by Christians witnessing to them about the antichrist and the mark of the beast, as well as the risk to fall in complete perdition if they would ever participate in his evil plan. All those who reject the antichrist will be put to death, but they will gain entry into heaven and have eternal life in association with God (See Revelation 7:9-10).