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How Did Jesus Fulfill the Biblical Feasts? Understanding Prophecies in Christianity
How did Jesus fulfill the biblical feasts in Leviticus 23? The seven feasts are divided into two groups. This post examines the four spring feasts that look to Jesus's first coming. Here are the three fall feasts that look to Jesus's Second Coming. Each feast was fulfilled when celebrated: Jesus was crucified on Passover (Pesach), Jesus's sinless (unleavened body) was buried during Unleavened Bread (Hag Hamatzot), Jesus was resurrected on Firstfruits (Hag HaBikkurim), and the church was born on Pentecost or Weeks (Shavuot).
https://youtu.be/RNeIGbVYcIA
How did Jesus fulfill the biblical feasts? The fall feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost look to the First Coming.
Table of contentsLooking to Jesus's First ComingThe First Biblical Feast, Passover (Pesach), Looked Forward to Jesus’s CrucifixionThe Second Biblical Feast, Unleavened Bread (Hag Hamatzot), Looked Forward to Jesus’s Unleavened Body in the GraveJesus's Unleavened Body Couldn't Remain in the GraveThe Third Biblical Feast, Firstfruits (Hag HaBikkurim), Looked Forward to Jesus’s ResurrectionWhat Are Firstfruits?The Fourth Biblical Feast, Pentecost or Weeks (Shavuot), Looked Forward to the Church's “Harvest”The Seven Weeks Between the Third and Fourth FeastsThe Sabbath Looked Forward to the Rest Christ OffersChrist's True and Greater RestWhat Did the Hebrews Understand?
The seven biblical feasts are divided into two groups. The four spring feasts look to Jesus’s First Coming, and all were fulfilled when they were celebrated:
Jesus was crucified on Passover
Jesus’s sinless, or unleavened body, was buried during the Feast of Unleavened Bread
Jesus was resurrected on Firstfruits
The church began on Pentecost
The three fall feasts, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles, look to Jesus's Second Coming, and because the spring feasts were fulfilled when the feasts were celebrated, it is reasonable to expect the fall feasts to be fulfilled when they are celebrated.
The first feast, Passover, began the first month of the Hebrew calendar, Nissan 14, our March 30.1
The feast of firstfruits is below the feast of unleavened bread, because firstfruits took place during unleavened bread.
Seven weeks passed between the third and fourth feasts looking forward to the seven weeks between Jesus’s resurrection and ascension when He revealed himself to over 500 witnesses.
There is a six-month gap between Nisan, when the spring feasts begin, and Tishri, the seventh month when the fall feasts begin. This six-month gap represents the church age or gap between Jesus’s two comings.
Looking to Jesus's First Coming
Leviticus 23:4 “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them.
The Hebrew word for feasts is môʿēḏ, which means “appointed times,” which is why many Bibles refer to the feasts as appointed feasts instead of only feasts. This is the first of four times in verses two through four that the word appointed is used. God wants us to know these feasts are appointed. Why the repetition? God carefully planned their timing and sequence to point toward Christ and the work He would accomplish in His First and Second Comings.
The First Biblical Feast, Passover (Pesach), Looked Forward to Jesus’s Crucifixion
Leviticus 23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord's Passover.
1 Corinthians 5:7b Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Every Passover looked forward to Christ, our Passover lamb, who was crucified on Passover:
Matthew 26:2 the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
John 19:13 Pilate…brought Jesus out, and…14 it was the day of preparation of the Passover.
At the same time the lambs were being prepared to be slaughtered for the Passover meal, Jesus was being prepared to be slaughtered for our sins.
Exodus 12:13b [God said], “When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”
When the Jews were in Egypt, they took the blood of the Passover Lamb and covered their doorposts so the wrath of God would pass over them. The typology is that when the blood of Christ covers us, the wrath of God passes over us, too:
Passover celebrated Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt.
With Christ as our Passover, we can celebrate the true and greater deliverance from slavery to sin and death.
The Second Biblical Feast, Unleavened Bread (Hag Hamatzot), Looked Forward to Jesus’s Unleavened Body in the Grave
Leviticus 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month (so again, Nisan) is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 8 But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”
Passover took place on Nisan 14th or March 30th. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began the next day, Nisan 15th, and lasted one week until Nisan 22nd, or March 31st to April 7th.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread took place right after Passover because it celebrated Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, and Israel was delivered right after Passover. The Israelites were delivered so quickly they didn’t have time for the leaven to make their bread rise:
Exodus 12:11 In this manner you shall eat [the unleavened bread]: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.
When the Feast of Unleavened Bread is discussed, Exodus 12:15 and Exodus 12:19 both read whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person SHALL BE CUT OFF FROM ISRAEL. That’s pretty serious! Eat leaven and get killed! Leaven and yeast are the same, so you read this and say, What’s the problem with leaven? What does God have against fluffy bread?
The Old Testament prefigures the New Testament, and in the New Testament, leaven is a picture or type of sin:
Leaven is a fungus that grows in bread dough like sin grows in a person’s life.
You can never completely remove leaven from the dough, and we can never completely remove sin from our lives.
Leaven “puffs up” bread like sin puffs us up or leads to pride.
A small amount of leaven spreads through a batch of dough as a small amount of sin spreads through a person's life, a marriage, a family (think of Achan’s sin affecting his entire family), or a church. Paul condemned churches that let sin remain among them: 1 Corinthians 5:6 and Galatians 5:9 both read Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
The Feast of Unleavened Bread looked forward to Jesus’s burial, and Jesus was buried right after He was sacrificed as our Passover Lamb. The feast of unleavened bread refers to Jesus’s unleavened or sinless body being buried in the ground. So, is there a connection between Jesus’s body and bread? Absolutely! We celebrate that connection every Sunday during communion:
Matthew 26:26 Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; THIS IS MY BODY.”
Bread of Life is one of the most common titles Jesus used for Himself:
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread (referring to His body), he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world IS MY FLESH.”
Jesus’s body is the true and greater sinless or unleavened bread. Jesus described His body as a grain of wheat planted, or buried, in the earth, ready to burst forth as the Bread of Life:
John 12:23 Jesus [said], “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth (or is buried) and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
He’s referring to his death, and He said if He died and were buried, it would bear much fruit. And has there been much fruit from Jesus’s death and burial? Absolutely! The fruit of our salvation.
Just as every Passover lamb looked forward to Christ as our Passover lamb, every piece of unleavened bread looked forward to Jesus’s unleavened or sinless body being buried in the earth.
Jesus's Unleavened Body Couldn't Remain in the Grave
Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death
If you sin, you die. But the opposite is also true: if you never sin, you shouldn’t die. And because Jesus’s body was sinless or unleavened, when it was buried, the grave couldn’t hold Him:
Acts 2:24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE FOR HIM TO BE HELD BY IT.
The Third Biblical Feast, Firstfruits (Hag HaBikkurim), Looked Forward to Jesus’s Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:20 Christ has been raised from the dead, THE FIRSTFRUITS OF THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP…23 But each in his own order: CHRIST THE FIRSTFRUITS, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
The feast of firstfruits looked forward to Christ being the firstfruits of the resurrection:
Leviticus 23:9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma,
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By Scott LaPierre
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How did Jesus fulfill the biblical feasts in Leviticus 23? The seven feasts are divided into two groups. This post examines the four spring feasts that look to Jesus's first coming. Here are the three fall feasts that look to Jesus's Second Coming. Each feast was fulfilled when celebrated: Jesus was crucified on Passover (Pesach), Jesus's sinless (unleavened body) was buried during Unleavened Bread (Hag Hamatzot), Jesus was resurrected on Firstfruits (Hag HaBikkurim), and the church was born on Pentecost or Weeks (Shavuot).
https://youtu.be/RNeIGbVYcIA
How did Jesus fulfill the biblical feasts? The fall feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost look to the First Coming.
Table of contentsLooking to Jesus's First ComingThe First Biblical Feast, Passover (Pesach), Looked Forward to Jesus’s CrucifixionThe Second Biblical Feast, Unleavened Bread (Hag Hamatzot), Looked Forward to Jesus’s Unleavened Body in the GraveJesus's Unleavened Body Couldn't Remain in the GraveThe Third Biblical Feast, Firstfruits (Hag HaBikkurim), Looked Forward to Jesus’s ResurrectionWhat Are Firstfruits?The Fourth Biblical Feast, Pentecost or Weeks (Shavuot), Looked Forward to the Church's “Harvest”The Seven Weeks Between the Third and Fourth FeastsThe Sabbath Looked Forward to the Rest Christ OffersChrist's True and Greater RestWhat Did the Hebrews Understand?
The seven biblical feasts are divided into two groups. The four spring feasts look to Jesus’s First Coming, and all were fulfilled when they were celebrated:
Jesus was crucified on Passover
Jesus’s sinless, or unleavened body, was buried during the Feast of Unleavened Bread
Jesus was resurrected on Firstfruits
The church began on Pentecost
The three fall feasts, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles, look to Jesus's Second Coming, and because the spring feasts were fulfilled when the feasts were celebrated, it is reasonable to expect the fall feasts to be fulfilled when they are celebrated.
The first feast, Passover, began the first month of the Hebrew calendar, Nissan 14, our March 30.1
The feast of firstfruits is below the feast of unleavened bread, because firstfruits took place during unleavened bread.
Seven weeks passed between the third and fourth feasts looking forward to the seven weeks between Jesus’s resurrection and ascension when He revealed himself to over 500 witnesses.
There is a six-month gap between Nisan, when the spring feasts begin, and Tishri, the seventh month when the fall feasts begin. This six-month gap represents the church age or gap between Jesus’s two comings.
Looking to Jesus's First Coming
Leviticus 23:4 “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them.
The Hebrew word for feasts is môʿēḏ, which means “appointed times,” which is why many Bibles refer to the feasts as appointed feasts instead of only feasts. This is the first of four times in verses two through four that the word appointed is used. God wants us to know these feasts are appointed. Why the repetition? God carefully planned their timing and sequence to point toward Christ and the work He would accomplish in His First and Second Comings.
The First Biblical Feast, Passover (Pesach), Looked Forward to Jesus’s Crucifixion
Leviticus 23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord's Passover.
1 Corinthians 5:7b Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Every Passover looked forward to Christ, our Passover lamb, who was crucified on Passover:
Matthew 26:2 the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
John 19:13 Pilate…brought Jesus out, and…14 it was the day of preparation of the Passover.
At the same time the lambs were being prepared to be slaughtered for the Passover meal, Jesus was being prepared to be slaughtered for our sins.
Exodus 12:13b [God said], “When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”
When the Jews were in Egypt, they took the blood of the Passover Lamb and covered their doorposts so the wrath of God would pass over them. The typology is that when the blood of Christ covers us, the wrath of God passes over us, too:
Passover celebrated Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt.
With Christ as our Passover, we can celebrate the true and greater deliverance from slavery to sin and death.
The Second Biblical Feast, Unleavened Bread (Hag Hamatzot), Looked Forward to Jesus’s Unleavened Body in the Grave
Leviticus 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month (so again, Nisan) is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 8 But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”
Passover took place on Nisan 14th or March 30th. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began the next day, Nisan 15th, and lasted one week until Nisan 22nd, or March 31st to April 7th.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread took place right after Passover because it celebrated Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, and Israel was delivered right after Passover. The Israelites were delivered so quickly they didn’t have time for the leaven to make their bread rise:
Exodus 12:11 In this manner you shall eat [the unleavened bread]: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.
When the Feast of Unleavened Bread is discussed, Exodus 12:15 and Exodus 12:19 both read whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person SHALL BE CUT OFF FROM ISRAEL. That’s pretty serious! Eat leaven and get killed! Leaven and yeast are the same, so you read this and say, What’s the problem with leaven? What does God have against fluffy bread?
The Old Testament prefigures the New Testament, and in the New Testament, leaven is a picture or type of sin:
Leaven is a fungus that grows in bread dough like sin grows in a person’s life.
You can never completely remove leaven from the dough, and we can never completely remove sin from our lives.
Leaven “puffs up” bread like sin puffs us up or leads to pride.
A small amount of leaven spreads through a batch of dough as a small amount of sin spreads through a person's life, a marriage, a family (think of Achan’s sin affecting his entire family), or a church. Paul condemned churches that let sin remain among them: 1 Corinthians 5:6 and Galatians 5:9 both read Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
The Feast of Unleavened Bread looked forward to Jesus’s burial, and Jesus was buried right after He was sacrificed as our Passover Lamb. The feast of unleavened bread refers to Jesus’s unleavened or sinless body being buried in the ground. So, is there a connection between Jesus’s body and bread? Absolutely! We celebrate that connection every Sunday during communion:
Matthew 26:26 Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; THIS IS MY BODY.”
Bread of Life is one of the most common titles Jesus used for Himself:
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread (referring to His body), he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world IS MY FLESH.”
Jesus’s body is the true and greater sinless or unleavened bread. Jesus described His body as a grain of wheat planted, or buried, in the earth, ready to burst forth as the Bread of Life:
John 12:23 Jesus [said], “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth (or is buried) and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
He’s referring to his death, and He said if He died and were buried, it would bear much fruit. And has there been much fruit from Jesus’s death and burial? Absolutely! The fruit of our salvation.
Just as every Passover lamb looked forward to Christ as our Passover lamb, every piece of unleavened bread looked forward to Jesus’s unleavened or sinless body being buried in the earth.
Jesus's Unleavened Body Couldn't Remain in the Grave
Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death
If you sin, you die. But the opposite is also true: if you never sin, you shouldn’t die. And because Jesus’s body was sinless or unleavened, when it was buried, the grave couldn’t hold Him:
Acts 2:24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE FOR HIM TO BE HELD BY IT.
The Third Biblical Feast, Firstfruits (Hag HaBikkurim), Looked Forward to Jesus’s Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:20 Christ has been raised from the dead, THE FIRSTFRUITS OF THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP…23 But each in his own order: CHRIST THE FIRSTFRUITS, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
The feast of firstfruits looked forward to Christ being the firstfruits of the resurrection:
Leviticus 23:9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma,