Overview of the Seven Jewish Feasts

In Leviticus 23, the Lord appointed seven feasts as yearly rehearsals, prophecies teaching the whole plan of God concerning the coming of the Messiah and the redemption of man.

The chart above is from our church, which has a set of DVDs by Pastor Jerry Rueb to go with it.* Until I heard this series, I had no idea Jesus is depicted not just in Passover but in all the feasts. Now I see that the internet is full of rich details about these facts.

Four of the seven feasts are in the spring, three in the fall. As Pastor Rueb (“Reeb”) says, if you were asked to choose dates for seven national celebrations, would you bunch them into three months of the year, three of them within three days of each other? But there are reasons for this seemingly odd timing. God designed them to mark the most important events in what would become history.

Passover pictures the Death of Jesus Christ
Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures the Burial of Jesus Christ
Feast of First Fruits pictures the Resurrection of Christ
Pentecost pictures the Descent of the Holy Spirit & the Birth of the Church

These Spring Feasts are considered to be an interrelated whole with Pentecost as the completion of the process begun at Passover. Each fulfilled its Messianic symbolism on the very day of the feast in 33 AD.

Rosh HaShanah (Feast of the Trumpets) pictures the Rapture of the Church
Yom Kippur (Feast of Atonement) pictures the Second Coming of Jesus Christ
Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) pictures the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ

These Fall feasts symbolize events still ahead. We live between the already and the not yet, between Messiah’s first coming as servant and His second coming as Lord of all.

*Pastor Jerry Rueb’s series of 4 DVDs are on May 27, June 10 and 23, July 7, 2012 at http://www.cclb.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=126127&id1=592&id1t=c&id2=5421&id2t=i