Please read in it's entirety. Thanks.
[...]
I said all of that to say/ask this...
Seeing how all of the SPRINGTIME FEASTS pointed to or foreshadowed events which would be fulfilled in/by Christ AT HIS FIRST COMING, doesn't it make sense that God would have also foreshadowed HIS BIRTH which most certainly occurred AT HIS FIRST COMING in a SPRINGTIME EVENT OR FEAST, too?
Everything you posted above your question is pretty accurate. But your question itself makes a leap in assumption.
You assume because the Spring feasts were fulfilled at Christ's first coming that even his birth was *also* fulfilled during spring feasts as an intermediary fulfillment of sorts. Such reasoning (that a feast has multiple fulfillments) is actually quite valid.
However, that doesn't lend itself to the reason why Christ would be born during the Spring feasts. In fact, the idea of multiple fulfillments equally lends credibility to the possibility that Christ was born during a fall feasts as an intermediary fulfillment (through not the final fulfillment). If multiple fulfillment is true for one feast it's true for them all.
"Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:" (Deuteronomy 16:16)
Did you catch that?
There were three different feasts, Passover/Unleavened Bread (they dovetailed together), Pentecost (or the Feast of Weeks or the aforementioned "fifty days") AND THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES which all Israeli males were commanded to keep IN JERUSALEM or "in the place where He (the LORD thy God) shall choose". With such being the case, do you believe that God would go against His Own commandment and have Joseph, an Israeli male, be found IN BETHLEHEM during THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES if Jesus was truly born during this feast? What about some of the other "males" that we read about in the gospel accounts of Christ's birth? Were any of them Israelis (the inn keeper who was possibly/probably a male, the shepherds who were possibly/probably males, etc.)? If so, then why weren't they IN JERUSALEM as opposed to being found IN BETHLEHEM if Christ was truly born on the Feast of Tabernacles?
Truly, the commandment was for all males to appear at the temple during feasts...but let's reason this out:
Would all male babies be required to be at the temple during these times? No..
Would any sick & infirm males be required to be at the temple during these times? No..
God is not a Pharisee, and when I say that I mean God has always provided mercy over his law superseding its letter. In fact, that's what the ark typifies as the tablets of the law are "covered over" by (what's called) the mercy seat. The same God who's son said "
if your animal falls in a well on the Sabbath would you not lift it out?" So would a man be counted as a law breaker if he still obeyed the law of God while attending to his wife who's in labor...who has no reasonable place to birth their child? Would Joseph be able to travel to the feast in this situation? No..
The law specifically required that all able-bodied men build a sukkah as a "temporary dwelling" and live in it for 7 days as a prophetic foretelling of "something". Now your first section accurately shows that each feast/holy day is a "thematic rehearsal" of what was supposed to happen when it was actually fulfilled.
- Passover = a lamb is sacrificed
- Unleavened bread = Leaven is purged; the pure bread is eaten
- First fruits = The 1st of God's harvest is pure bread "offered up", ascending to heaven (in the smoke of the altar)
- Shavuot/Pentecost = The 2nd of God's harvest is *leavened* bread "recognized" (i.e. waved), but not offered up
- Day of Trumpets = Announcement & reminder of the Law that was given to the people
- Day of Atonement = Judgment day, when the soul is afflicted
- Tabernacles = To remember temporarily housing in the wilderness
- Last Great Day = When the water is poured out
And as you show (at least for the Spring feasts), the theme perfectly plays out for each feast/holy day because these were God's rehearsals that he commanded his people to remember. So out of all of these "themes", there's only one time when God reminded us of the "temporary house" (which is what Christ's flesh was), at Tabernacles. Christ spoke of his body as the temple of God. Christ was God's temporary dwelling place He descended into to be with men (on earth). The theme must match. That temporary house was created on tabernacles.
Contrarily, at first fruits the offering is "sent up" to God (in heaven)...God isn't "descending" to man (on earth) at first fruits. In fact, remember how Christ first told the woman not to touch him because he hadn't yet ascended to his father on that day? When Christ was born, God descended *down* to man (on earth)...and his mother even birthed him in a temporary housing, matching only one theme in the list.
Now as to the inn keeper, we have no idea who he was so we can't just assume he was a Jew. At the time of Christ the land was filled with at least Jews, Samaritans, and Romans...but what was important for Christ birth was that there were witnesses of it. Like Christ once said "
if even the rocks must cry out..." there will be witnesses. Now Gabriel told the shepherds that "
in the city of David the messiah is born", so it's a fact they weren't actually in Bethlehem when they were told this.
Who knows where they were. If they were Jews, they didn't have to be at the temple because it was now
night time (Luke 2:8), and the official *morning* of Tabernacles was when the sun rises several hours later (...remember first the evening then the morning makes the day). Or they could have been gentiles...just like the "wise men" (Chaldean Astronomers) were who traveled from the east and gave gifts to Christ a year later.
Furthermore, we read the following in relation to the timing of Christ's birth in Luke's gospel account:
Luke chapter 2
[1] And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
[2] (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
[3] And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
[4] And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David
[5] To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
[6] And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
[7] And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
[8] And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
Seeing how Caesar's decree required everyone to return "into his own city" and seeing how such a decree would have caused a lot more Israeli males than just Joseph to depart from Jerusalem, why don't we read of any sort of outburst or uprising amongst Israeli males in that such a decree would have forced them to disobey God's command that they all be in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles? We read or hear of no such outburst or uprising because Jesus wasn't born on the Feast of Tabernacles.
(Continued in next post due to length)
There wasn't a decree for all the world to be taxed, it was a vote...but aside from that, how long should one assume a census would take for a particular household? Were they required to stay in their respective lands indefinitely? One simply must register the name of himself and his family. We don't know when this happened, but it obviously didn't happen in Joseph and Mary's home because they had no home around this time just yet.
Note that the text says "
in those days"...and "
while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered". We have a tendency to read scripture and frame it in one instance of time but these were several (unknown) days - possibly several weeks - spanning the time from Joseph reaching his home town for the census, to Mary's time of birth. But one thing is clear (at least thematically up to this point), tabernacles at evening would've been Mary's delivery date.
----
As to your concluding post;
Your passage in Exodus 40 is actually noteworthy. Truly, in the 1st month God descended into his tabernacle for the first time, on the first day of the first month, after the tabernacle was "
erected" for the first time (per Ex 40:34-35).
But the tabernacle was not "constructed/created" on the 1st day of the 1st month. I think you'd be interesting to know that it was "constructed" at the end of the 6th month, and most likely well into the 7th month...
Exodus 12:1-2 - Beginning of Months...15th of
1st month they came out of Egypt
Exodus 16:1-5; 12; 26 - Manna week...(15th of
2nd month)
Exodus 19:1; 10; 16 & 24:9-11 - Feast of Shavuot/Pentecost (approx middle of
3rd month)
Exodus 24:18 - Moses called higher for 40 days/nights getting instructions
...(Israel sins with calf; so
end of 4th month)
...Moses judges people; tablets are broken
Exodus 34:28 - Moses returned to God for another 40 days (now
in the 6th month)
...Moses comes back down with his face glowing.
Moses then instructs Israel on building the Tabernacle; on what materials are needed.
Exodus 36:2 - "
morning after morning" the people began building all that was instructed; first the sanctuary.
Exodus 36:8 - And then the Tabernacle *began* in its construction after the sanctuary
Exodus 39:32 - The tabernacle was completed and inspected my Moses
...this is before God instructed that it was to be erected on the 1st day of the 1st month of the next year.
This entire OT accounts perfectly coincides with Christ's story in the NT as fulfillment. Christ was born in the 7th month (i.e. the living tabernacle of flesh "constructed/created") but it was after Christ was baptized, and God's spirit descended into him, that
the acceptable year of the lord began on the 1st day of the 1st month of year of his ministry.
