The core Scriptures on the Feasts of Israel are Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16. Beyond this, the holidays are mentioned and alluded to throughout the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments. I have included here the references from my teaching on Y'shua in the Feasts of Israel, but there are many others. |
Leviticus, chapter 23
Numbers 10:10 -- "Also in the day of your gladness and in your appointed feasts . . . you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be as a reminder of you before your God. I am the Lord your God." "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread . . . When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it" (Lev. 23:4-11). "Observe the month of Aviv and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Aviv the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. And you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and from the herd, in the place where the Lord chose to establish His name. You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), in order that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and none of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning. You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your towns which the Lord your God is giving you; but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt. And you shall cook and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses. And in the morning you are to return to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God: you shall do no work on it" (Deut. 16:1-8). 2 Chron. 30 and 35, and 2 Kings 23. Ex. 6:6-7, "I am the Lord, and (1) I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and (2) I will deliver you from their bondage. (3) I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then (4) I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." Ex. 12:8, "And they shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs." Luke 2:41-49, when He was twelve years old and left His family to go to the synagogue and talk with the rabbis; in John 2:13-25, when He threw the moneychangers out of the Temple; and in Matt. 6:4-14, where He fed the five thousand. Y'shua's last Passover on earth was, of course, the Last Supper, described in Matt. 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 13 Mal. 4:5, "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." "And I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the Lord" (Ex. 6:8). Is. 53:7 describes His death, "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth"; 1 Pet. 1:18-19 further describes this sacrifice, "knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Messiah"; Paul says "Messiah, our Passover, also has been sacrificed" (1 Cor. 5:7); and John the Baptist characterized Him concisely in John 1:29, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Luke 22:19, "And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.'" "I am the Bread of Life . . . I am the living Bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh" (John 6:48,51) 1 Cor. 5:6-8, "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Messiah our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice or wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 1 Cor. 15:20 states, "But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep." 1 Thess. 4: 14-17, "For if we believe that Y'shua died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Y'shua. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." Lev. 23:15-17, "You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord." "To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,' He said, ‘you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now'" (Acts 1:3-5). "And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance" (Acts 2:1-4). "And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles . . . and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved" (Acts 2:42-43, 47). "‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declares the Lord. ‘I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people'" (Jer. 31:33). Lev. 23:24-25: "In the seventh month on the first of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord." Nehemiah tells the people not to mourn but to rejoice: "go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and give portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength" (8:10). "God will provide Himself the lamb for the burnt offering" (22:8). "I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me" (22:12) 1 Thess. 4:16 we read: "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Messiah shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." 1 Cor. 15:51-52: "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed." the Time of Jacob's Trouble (Jer. 30:7, Dan. 12:1) Lev. 23:27-32 -- "On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord. Neither shall you do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God." Leviticus, Chapter 16 "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement" (Lev. 17:11). "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Matthew 24:29-31 — "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other." In the Book of Revelation, we read that at the blast of the seventh and final trumpet, the Millennial reign of Y'shua is announced in heaven: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Messiah; and He will reign forever and ever" (11:15). Zechariah 12:10 and 13:1 — "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son . . . In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity." "as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.' And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins" (Rom. 11:26-27). According to Zechariah, after God has tested the Jewish people with the fires of the Tribulation and refined them as a nation, He will on that day say, "they will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people.' And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God'" (13:9). Lev. 23:34-43: "‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days . . . You shall live in booths for seven days, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.'" Deut. 16:13-15: "You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat . . . because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you shall be altogether joyful." Joel 2:28, "I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind." "O Lord do save, we beseech Thee; O Lord, we beseech Thee, do send prosperity" (Psalm 118:25) John 7:37-39 — "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Y'shua stood and cried out, saying, ‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, "From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water"'. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive." "If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37) Isaiah, "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters" (55:1). John 8:12, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt (or tabernacled) among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Zechariah, "it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the feast of booths." (14:16-17). Rev. 21:3-4, "I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain."
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glasspainting from Queen's Park Synagogue, by John K. Clark, This image is copyright and may not be reproduced without permission of the artist |