Embedded in the instructions for the feasts of Jehovah is a prophetic picture of the three times the Lord Jesus would come to meet His people on earth. A central feature of these feasts was that all the men of Israel were to go up to Jerusalem three times a year to celebrate before Jehovah. These three feasts — unleavened bread (Passover), weeks (Pentecost) and tabernacles — occurred in the first, third and seventh months and are prophetic of the three times the Lord Jesus comes to earth. The first coming took place when He came in the character of the Passover lamb who gave His life for us. The second coming will take place when He returns to claim the firstfruits of resurrection life by raising all those who died in faith and changing those of us alive at the rapture into His likeness. The third time (sometimes referred to as part of the second coming), as pictured in the feast of tabernacles, will take place when the Lord comes to reign over this world with His earthly people Israel. These three celebrations, of which Christ is the central feature, reveal how God had all this planned from the beginning. They were occasions of rejoicing before the Lord, and none were to appear before Him empty; they were to give as they were able.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
The celebration of unleavened bread, which includes the Passover, is readily perceived as a picture of how the Lord Jesus came the first time. He did not come to reign but to give His life as a ransom. John the Baptist, while contemplating Jesus, announced, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)), and in the first miracle the Lord Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee, He said to His mother, “Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:44Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. (John 2:4)), indicating that His time of reigning with Israel had not come. The New Testament Scriptures make it very clear that the first coming of Christ was for Him to fulfill what was pictured in the first of the feasts. Although He was presented to be received as King, God knew it would not happen until later when He would reign as pictured in the last feast (tabernacles). In the remembrance of the Lord in His death, the verse, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7), is sometimes read while we worship Him. We look back in remembrance of the Lord. Beforehand, when Israel celebrated this feast, it was seen as representing their deliverance from Pharaoh and Egypt, but it also was a picture looking forward, in the full extent of its meaning, to Christ. Because of His death as the Lamb of God, we have fellowship with God in holiness. “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).
Two particular commandments were given in connection with these feasts. “Thou shalt not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until the morning” (Ex. 23:1818Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning. (Exodus 23:18)). The first command reminds us that every sacrifice that speaks of Christ’s death must not have any taint of sin, for He was sinless. The second, concerning the fat of the sacrifices, all of which was to be burnt as a sweet savor to God, is commanded because everything the Lord did for God had its proper reason and was properly appreciated by God. Christ never did anything unnecessarily or as a waste of time. There were no “leftovers”; all was perfectly completed.
The Feast of Weeks — Pentecost
The second time the men were to go up was in early summer, fifty days after the sheaf of firstfruits had been presented as a wave offering to Jehovah. As the presentation of the sheaf of firstfruits marked the beginning of the grain harvest (barley and wheat), so the feast of weeks was the end (except for some grain that was to be left in the corners of the field). These two feasts have to do with resurrection life. They rejoiced before Jehovah with tokens of grain they had harvested. Every family was to bake two loaves of bread from the grain and give them to the priest at Jerusalem, who waved them as an offering to Jehovah. With the two loaves, the priest offered burnt offerings, a sin offering and other offerings that speak of Christ (Lev. 23:17-2117Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord. 18And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savor unto the Lord. 19Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. (Leviticus 23:17‑21)). The loaves baked with leaven speak of the saints; they represent the heavenly fruit that will be presented to the Lord when He comes for His saints at His second coming. This includes the living saints and all those who have died in faith since Abel. All these will have a heavenly portion with Christ in glory. (The earthly portion follows for those alive on earth.) The presentation of all these saints in heaven is possible because the Lord Jesus has gained the victory over death. The Lord Jesus, who will accomplish this, is the firstfruits of them that sleep, “for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:20-23). “Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself” (Phil. 3:20-2120For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:20‑21)). “He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence” (Col. 1:1818And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (Colossians 1:18)).
This feast was seldom celebrated in Old Testament days, but for us today it is very significant; it reminds us of the second coming of Christ. We are living close to the time when the Lord will take His heavenly people to the Father’s house. We have good reason to rejoice in the expectancy of the Lord’s coming. We have reason to rejoice before the Lord, not just once a year as they did on this feast, but every day. The mutual joy of the Lord and His people is pictured in the drink offering that accompanied the sacrifices and offerings presented to Jehovah at the feast of weeks. Heaven will be full of rejoicing saints, and we may begin while yet on earth.
The Feast of Tabernacles
The last of the three feasts was often celebrated throughout Old Testament times, and its meaning to them seems to have been appreciated as representing the time when there would be peace and righteousness on earth. This feast took place in the seventh month when the fall harvest was gathered in. It speaks of the earthly blessing that the Lord will bring when He returns to reign over the earth with His people Israel. There will be great joy when the Lord comes to set up His kingdom — see Psalm 122. At His first coming, the Lord Jesus refrained from going up to fulfill the prophecy of this feast. He said to the Jews, “I go not up yet unto this feast; for My time is not yet full come” (John 7:88Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come. (John 7:8)). But later he went up secretly and proclaimed how He was the source of life and joy of this feast. “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (vss. 37-38). New birth through the operation of the Holy Spirit is necessary for the present time of heavenly blessing, as it will be for the earthly people in Christ’s kingdom. The Lord is the object of all prophecy. May we give Him that preeminent place.
D. C. Buchanan