The Feasts of the LORD's Covenant

By Stewart Whittemore

"Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.” Deuteronomy 16:16

It is interesting to me that out of the seven covenant Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Weeks, Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Tabernacles (see Leviticus 23), Israel was only commanded to keep three of them, as we see from the above verse.

Why just the three Feasts of Unleavened Bread, Weeks and The Feast of Tabernacles? One reason is that we can see the importance of these feasts when reading about them in the Gospels and the Book of Acts. They represent, I believe, the key events that have and will take place in God's plan of redemption through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

We can see from the first four feasts (“Spring Feasts”) that Jesus became our “Passover” Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7) and our “Firstfruits” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). The “Feast of Unleavened Bread” seems to represent our Dear Jesus as our “manna” from heaven, our “bread of life” (John 6:48-51) sustaining us. Then on the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), the Holy Spirit descended upon those gathered in the upper room (Acts 2:1-4), thus becoming our “Helper” (John 14:16).

The “Fall Feasts” are The Feasts of “Trumpets,” “Day of Atonement “and “The Feast of Tabernacles.” Since Jesus has atoned for all our sins at The Passover, the “Day of Atonement” (Yom Kippur) has been fulfilled. That just leaves “The Feast of Trumpets” (Rosh Hashanah – September 18 ^th this year) and “The Feast of Tabernacles” (October 2 ^nd-10 ^th, this year) as unfulfilled in the New Covenant (New Testament).

We can see by 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that “…the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” Could we see on “Rosh Hashanah” (Feast of Trumpets) the Lord descending sometime soon? Only our Father in heaven knows the "day or the hour" of course. But I believe we will know the season (Mark 13:28-29). And with the signs of "wars and rumors of wars" and the other signals now all around us, we must be close to our Messiah's return.

The last of the seven feasts in the Bible is the Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth in Hebrew, meaning Booths). Could this be when we will gather to worship and celebrate spending eternity with Jesus in the "mansions" (booths) He has prepared for us? (see John 14:2-4)

“And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts , and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. ”   Zechariah 14:16

Stewart Whittemore writes from Grants Pass, Oregon.