God's Prophetic Calendar: Part 2 - The Spring Feasts

Let’s recap. 

Last week we answered several questions.

What?  We began in Leviticus 23 and covered all of God’s Holy Days written there.  Beginning first with Sabbath and briefly discussing the all of the moediem (seasons).

Who?  We studied who were the commandments given to.  We look at Mt Sinai and they were given a mixed multitude.  The Hebrews (descendants of Jacob) and Egyptians who left with them.  We discussed how silly it would have been for the Levites to say, “This is only for the Jews.”  And we read scriptures that addressed there is one law for all, the same law for Hebrews, sojourners and strangers.

How long?  We read scriptures that addressed that God’s law were forever, everlasting, throughout all generations, and a perpetual covenant.  We saw them in the Old Testament, New Testament and in the Millennial Reign.

Why?  First and foremost we agreed it was a good idea to keep these, just because God said so.  But we looked at the deeper purposes of why there are holidays, such as fellowship, to remember something like anniversaries, to celebrate something like birthdays, but these are also for preparation. 

In regards to preparation, we discussed how the sun, moon & stars are for signs/marks and for the seasons.  We read scriptures that told us that God’s mark upon our forehand and hand are from keeping Sabbath and Passover.  And we also looked at the antithesis of that, the mark of the beast.

Today we are going to look further at how these point us to Yeshua and prepare us for Yeshua.

If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. John 5:46

"And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.“ Luke 24:44, KJV

So where was Jesus in the Old Testament?  Let’s take a look.

BERESHITH = Bet, Resh, Aleph, Shin, Yod, Tav = In the beginning

Enlarged Bet = bet is a tent, house  = Yahweh's plan was to build a house to dwell with man

Bet Resh = son

Aleph = God, Leader, Head, First

Shin, Yod, Tav = Thorn

Shin, Yod = Gift

Tav = covenent

If you put the first sentence in the bible over the menorah.....

Erets et shamayim et bara Elohim Bereshith

7            6            5            4       3          2                    1

The Aleph & The Tav are the first and last letter of the Hebrew AlephBet.

                              The Alpha & Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet.

Revelation 1:8 New King James Version 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, [a]the Beginning and the End,” says the [b]Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 21:6-7 New King James Version 6 And He said to me, “It[a] is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes [b]shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

Revelation 22:13 New King James Version 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the [a]Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”

Isaiah 46:10 New King James Version 10 Declaring the end from the beginning,And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,And I will do all My pleasure,’

Hosea 6:2 New King James Version 2 After two days He will revive us;On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.

2 Peter 3:8 New King James Version 8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Yeshua, Salvation is your name!

Genesis 49:18 New King James Version 18 I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!

Exodus 14:13 New King James Version13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation[a] of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

Exodus 15:2 New King James Version 2 The Lord is my strength and song,And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him;My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

2 Chronicles 20:17 New King James Version 17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”

The Salvation Story is Told in the Spring Feasts

Without the blood of the lamb applied to the door posts of your heart, you cannot leave Egypt and will die in your sins. In order to be saved, you must leave Egypt and join the congregation of Israel /Household of God.

1. Accept the blood.

2. Leave Egypt.

FAITH & WORKS = Pattern for end of days. (Spirit & Truth)

 By studying the front of the book, the back of the book makes so much more sense.

•        Slaves to sin; Bondage in Egypt

•        Cry out to God

•        He hears our cry and provides a means to salvation.

•        The blood of the Lamb covers us from the curse of sin & death, and the angel of death passes over.

•        We run away from the bondage & follow after God.

•        The enemy pursues but God makes a way to escape.

•        We enter the water, leaving behind the old way of life, and break through the waters in route to the promised land.

•        We make a covenant with God & vow our life to live in service of Him, and receive the instruction on our way

Life Begins at Passover

Nisan 14 (March / April) Lev 23:5

Leviticus 23:5 New King James Version 5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.

·       In remembrance of leaving Egypt

·       Always a full moon

·       Passover Lamb slain & eaten

Why is it always a full moon?  You have to remember a couple of things.  We are now at the timeline where we have a large group of people wandering around in the wilderness thousands of years ago.  They couldn’t google what day it is, or look at their apple watch, or research the anything scientific that some calendars have to do.  They did what they were told in Genesis. 

Genesis 1: 14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.

Passover / ULB = Full Moon

Count to Pentecost = 50 days

Trumpets = New Moon

Count ten days to Atonement

Tabernacles = Full Moon

Where did Passover go?  Why did Christians stop celebrating it?

The First Council of Nicea -325 AD- Its main accomplishments were settlement of the Christological issue of the divine nature of God the Son and his relationship to God the Father,[2] the construction of the first part of the Nicene Creed, mandating uniform observance of the date of Easter,[6] . The First Council of Nicaea (325) established only two rules, namely independence from the Hebrew calendar away from Passover and commanded worldwide uniformity to Easter.

Constantine also changed the Sabbath. On March 7, A.D. 321, Constantine the Great issued the first civil Sunday law, compelling all the people in the Roman Empire, except farmers, to rest on Sunday. This, with five other civil laws decreed by Constantine concerning Sunday, set the legal precedent for all civil Sunday legislation from that time to the present, and forbid the observance of the 7th day Saturday Sabbath.

In the 4th century, the Council of Laodicea urged Christians to honor Sunday by abstaining from work on that day if at all possible and prohibited them from abstaining from work on the Sabbath.

God Himself pledges not to alter His commands: “My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips” (Psalm 89:34).

The Passover and Unleavened Bread Leviticus 23 New King James Version

4 ‘These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. 5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no [a]customary work on it.

Exodus 12:1-28 New King James Version The Passover Instituted

12 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without[a] blemish, a male [b]of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. 10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall eat it: [c]with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.

12 ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that [d]person shall be [e]cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. 17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your [f]armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the [g]lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. 24 And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. 25 It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. 26 And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped. 28 Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Exodus 12:40-42 New King James Version 40 Now the [a]sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in [b]Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It is a [c]night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

Deuteronomy 6:20-25 New King James Version 20 “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22 and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. 23 Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He [a]swore to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to [b]observe all these [c]statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is [d]this day. 25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

Not all traditions are bad.  Here are some Passover traditions observed by both Jews and Christians.  Little do our brothers and sister know it, but let’s take a look at how they are honoring Yeshua every Pesach.

Haggadah – meal with order. Yahweh is a God of order.  1 Cor 14:33 NIV

Matzah – unleavened bread; no leaven (representing sin) 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 John 3:5, Hebrews 4:15, 1Peter 2:22

               Striped & pierced:  Isaiah 53:5, Psalm 22:16, Luke 22:19

               Bread of Life: John 6:35, Matthew 26:26, John 6:47-50

Born in Bethlehem, which is the house of bread – Matthew 2:1

Lamb – slaughtered & eaten at twilight – 1 Cor 5:7, Mark 15:34

               The ninth hour corresponds to 3 PM in Jewish timekeeping, which was the time of the evening sacrifice in the temple (Exodus 29:39). 

Yeshua is the sinless Lamb without blemish; blood on doorposts of our hearts;

John 19:33 New King James Version 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

Exodus 12:46 New King James Version 46 In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.

Bitter Herbs: hyssop to apply to doors in Egypt; John 19:29 when he was thirsty, they gave him wine vinegar by hyssop branch

Salt water- representative of tears; crying out to God from slavery; always part of a covenant

Afikomen - 3 pieces of matzah (F,S,H) (A,I,J) Middle piece. Break it. (1Cor 11:24)  smaller piece left on table to eat last (dessert). Larger piece is wrapped in linen, hidden away then found by children and rewarded.

4 Cups of Wine - Exactly the same cups as in the Wedding. Luke 22:18-20

Unleavened Bread

Exodus 23:15 New King James Version 15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty);

Leviticus 23:4-8 New King James Version The Passover and Unleavened Bread

4 ‘These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. 5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no [a]customary work on it. 8 But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.’ ”

Numbers 9:13-14 New King James Version 13 But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the Lord at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. 14 ‘And if a stranger [a]dwells among you, and would keep the Lord’s Passover, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony; you shall have one [b]ordinance, both for the stranger and the native of the land.’ ”

•1st & 7th days are High Sabbaths = no work

•As Yeshua was in the belly of the earth the Jews were riding their home of leaven (representative of sin), Yeshua rid his Father’s house of sin.

•No bread with yeast to be eaten, or within your home for 7 days. (flat bread / he lay flat) “For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread” (Ex 12:19-20)

•1 Corinthians 5:6-8, “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

•Reminder of quickly leaving Egypt to follow God.

•Sign of Jonah Matthew 12:40 New King James Version 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

First Fruits

First day after weekly Sabbath during Passover season.

Leviticus 23:9-14  New King James Version The Feast of Firstfruits

9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a [a]sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. 14 You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

Numbers 28:26-31New King James Version Offerings at the Feast of Weeks

26 ‘Also on the day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. 27 You shall present a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the Lord: two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year, 28 with their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two-tenths for the one ram, 29 and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs; 30 also one kid of the goats, to make [a]atonement for you. 31 Be sure they are without [b]blemish. You shall present them with their drink offerings, besides the regular burnt offering with its grain offering.

•Same day Israelites crossed the Red Sea. Commemorates leaving Egypt and being saved from the enemy.

 Echoes the symbolism of baptism and resurrection – breaking the waters; being born again; leaving the old man behind, arising as a new man to a new life. The waves of the water symbolizing the waves of the barley offering.

1 Corinthians 15:20 New King James Version

20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have [a]fallen asleep.

Acts 26:23 New King James Version 23 that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

Colossians 1:15-18 New King James Version 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or [a]principalities or [b]powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence

In my line of work, to really be able to explain the root cause and underlying reasons why something happens, we are instructed to ask “why” five times.

1.       Why?  Are you trying to be Jewish? No, but Jesus was Jewish.  (Heb 7:14, 1John2:6)

2.       Why? Shema. Hear & Do.  Deut 6:4-9

3.       Why? He said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”  Jhn 14:15

4.       Why? James 2:18 “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”

5.       He is worthy.  1 Sam 15:22 Obedience is better than sacrifice.

Works is not the root of our salvation but the fruit there of.

What is faith?  Emunah

•        Verb : Action word.  Derivitive from same word as exercise

•        Chabad.org describes faith this way. “It is not that the more we understand and believe, the more we will do; rather, the more we do, the more we come to understand and believe.

•        Judaism, therefore, asks of its adherents to take a leap of action, not just a leap of faith. In this light, the mitzvot are revealed not only as the fruits of faith, but as its nourishing roots as well.”

•        Compare:   James 2:19 New King James Version19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!

•        The best example of this that I recall hearing was from Jim Staley of Passion for Truth Ministries.  He can look at a chair and say, “I believe that chair is going to hold me up if I sit in it.”  You can say that all day long, but do you?  Do you really believe that chair will hold you up?  That’s belief.  Going over and sitting in that chair.  That’s faith.

Always & Forever

Repetitions, reminders, habits

•God is smarter than we are. He knows if we don’t create a habit, we will forget.

•        Do you remember all your algebra or foreign language from high school? If you don’t use it, you lose it.

•Practice / rehearse.

Preparation

Last week we covered so many verses about preparation, but I felt like we could cover a few more.

Mark 15:42 - And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,

We are in great preparation for the great seventh day, the 1000 year millennial reign with Christ.

Jeremiah 16:14 New King James Version God Will Restore Israel 14 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

Isaiah 11:11,12,16

Ezekiel 20:33-38

Ezekiel 11:17-21 New King James Version17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.” ’ 18 And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. 19 Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within [a]them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God.

Greater Exodus

Remember when the 2 houses split; Judah taken into captivity in Babylon (Daniel) But Judah already returned. House of Jacob (Israel) never came back after captivity by Assyrians. We were scattered into the Gentiles.

 “I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known.” (Jeremiah 9:16)

1 Corinthians 10:1-11

Coincidence is not a kosher word.

We Will Know The Season!

•        Seasons = Moed, Moediem = appointment with God; appointed time  Genesis 1:14-15 Set in place from creation; And the reason for the sun, moon and stars is to tell us when it is time to meet with our Creator

•        1 Thess 5:1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.

We are not in darkness!

Psalm 119:105 Thy Torah is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Proverbs 6:23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the Torah is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life