- Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur): "Yom Kippur" is the "Day of Atonement." It is a Shabbat/High Holy Day on which we fast, repent and bare our souls to YHWH, asking Him to forgive us anything we may have done throughout the year that was not pleasing to Him: This solemn day represents the need for the sacrifice/sin offering that must be made for the sins of the nation.
Yeshua, of course, WAS that "Sacrifice" (actually, "Offering" is a better word, because no one "sacrificed" him; he martyred himself), and he will be recognized for it at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb which may (judging by how close together the Fall Festivals are) take place immediately after Rosh Hashana/Trumpets/the "catching-up of YHWH's people" just BEFORE we all return with him, to fulfill the next Feast (Tabernacles), wherein Yeshua will "tabernacle" among us for the next thousand years!
Celebrated on Tishri 10, this mo'ed falls in the September/October time frame. Leviticus 16:29 tells us: "It is to be a permanent regulation for you that on the tenth day of the seventh month you are to deny yourselves and not to do any kind of work, both the citizen and the foreigner living with you. For on this day, atonement will be made for you to purify you; you will be clean before ADONAI from all your sins. It is a Shabbat of complete rest for you, and you are to deny yourselves. This is a permanent regulation."
- Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot): As seen in Leviticus 23: 33-37, Sukkot is celebrated five days after Yom Kippur. This Appointed Time not only reminds us of the hardships of Israel's 40 years in the wilderness but also with insight into the correct birth date of our awesome Messiah, Yeshua, who was born on the first day of Sukkot (not on the 25th of December, which is a Christian myth!), and circumcised on the eighth day. Both the first and last days are High Holy Days, where no ordinary work is to be done.
Because there was no room at the inn due to the census (Luke 2:7), Miriam and Yosef (Mary and Josef) ended up in a "sukkah" - a temporary dwelling in Bethlehem - approximately 5 miles from Jerusalem. The name Bethlehem means "House Of Bread". And as we all know, Y'shua is the Bread of Life" (see John 6:43-51).
YHWH commanded this yearly festival to be kept by His people. (Remember, "His people" refers not only to the Jews, but to ALL who accept Him as their God.) For further info on "how to celebrate" this awesome Appointed Time, check out our website's article.
Leviticus 23: 33 ADONAI said to Moshe, 34 "Tell the people of Isra'el, 'On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of Sukkot for seven days to ADONAI. 35 On the first day there is to be a holy convocation; do not do any kind of ordinary work. 36 For seven days you are to bring an offering made by fire to ADONAI; on the eighth day you are to have a holy convocation and bring an offering made by fire to ADONAI ; it is a day of public assembly; do not do any kind of ordinary work. 37 "'These are the designated times of ADONAI that you are to proclaim as holy convocations and bring an offering made by fire to ADONAI -a burnt offering, a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, each on its own day - 38 besides the Shabbats of ADONAI, your gifts, all your vows and all your voluntary offerings that you give to ADONAI.
In Deuteronomy 16:13 - 15, YHWH tells the Israelites: "You are to keep the festival of Sukkot for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing-floor and winepress. Rejoice at your festival - you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, the L'vi'im (Levites), and the foreigners, orphans and widows living among you. Seven days you are to keep the festival for ADONAI your God in the place ADONAI your God will choose, because ADONAI your God will bless you in all your crops and in all your work, so you are to be full of joy!
PLEASE NOTE that the first three major events for believers in Yeshua - His death, burial and resurrection -
exactly represent the first three feasts, and the symbolism of the feasts appears to be beyond coincidence:
- While Passover was being celebrated - which included the slaying of an unblemished Lamb - Yeshua was being slain on the cross (1 Cor 5:7).
- The feast that followed, Unleavened Bread, is a picture of sanctification, as Yeshua was buried. Leaven is representative of sin, of which Yeshua had none.
- And then the feast of Firstfruits, which is a presentation of the "firstfruits of the crop" following the feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:10-11). Yeshua, "presented" on our behalf, is our Firstfruits. See 1 Cor 15:20-23 "But now the Mashiyach has risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. And as by a man came death, so also by a man came the resurrection of the dead. For as it was by Adam that all men die, so also by the Mashiyach they all live: Everyone in his order; the Mashiyach was the first-fruits; afterwards, they that are the Mashiyach???s, at his coming."
- Even more interesting, the next big event for believers was the coming of the Holy Spirit. And it fell EXACTLY on the next feast 50 days later, upon completion of the counting of the Omer (Leviticus 23:15-16), on Shavuot (what Christians call Pentecost). On that day the Ruach haKodesh decended on the believers, see Acts 2:1. The symbolism is again obvious as two loaves of bread are offered - another "firstfruits" (Leviticus 23:17) - which become "holy" (Leviticus 23:20) and we become eligible to receive the Ruach haKodesh when we repent, see Acts 2:38.
Since Yeshua has fulfilled the first four Biblical feasts, we can probably assume that the next big event - the so-called "Rapture" - could fall on the next scheduled feast day,
Rosh Hashanah ("Jewish Civil New Year"/Feast of Trumpets), when YHWH calls his people together. Rosh Hashanah is the first day of the month of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew religious calendar as ordained in the Torah, in Leviticus 23:24. It is the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), or Asseret Yemei Teshuva (The Ten Days of Repentance) which are days specifically set aside to focus on repentance that conclude with the holiday of
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement - when we become "at-one" with YHWH).
Rosh Hashanah is the start of the civil year in the Hebrew calendar which was instituted by YHWH Himself in Exodus 12:2. Rosh Hashanah is observed as a day of rest (Leviticus 23:24) and is characterized by the blowing of the shofar, a trumpet made from a ram's horn, intended to awaken the listener from his or her "slumber" and alert them to the coming judgment.
The Final Feast to be fulfilled is Sukkot/Tabernacles, when Yeshua will once again come to "tabernacle" among His people!
There is, of course, much more to YHWH's feasts, but the bottom line is: Judging from the importance that
HE placed on His Biblical feasts, why would anyone think "Jesus abolished them"?
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