The Seven Feasts of Israel

In the Old Testament, God had asked Moses to tell the Israelites that they should celebrate seven feasts to God every year. They are: Turnover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Shavuot, Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles.

In the New Testament, in the books of Colossians and Hebrews, Paul mentioned that the Old Testament is the shadow of the New Testament. The festivals that the priests and the Israelites celebrated, no matter whether they are ceremonies, the works of the priests, the offerings, the time of occurrence, the harvests, the weathers, or even the signs on the heaven, they are all presenting all incidents in the New Testament.  

These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Hebrews 10:1
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

Therefore, when we know more about those festivals and the things the Israelites did at that time, we can understand more what Jesus and the church need to do.

For example, in Turnover, it celebrates that a night before the Israelites left Egypt, each family of Israel killed a lamb and used its blood to smear on the doorframe and crossbeam. Therefore, the angels knew that they were Israelites and wouldn’t kill them.

This killed lamb is Jesus. Because he was crucified and his blood can cleanse us, we can get rid of the judgments from God when we believe in God.

Therefore, when John, the Baptist met Jesus, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

And during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Israelites would grind the barley and the wheat into powder form and make the unleavened bread.

Exodus 12:15,
For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.

The procedure of these grain would be grinded into powder form represents Jesus would die and injure for us. This was a unleavened bread and represents Jesus died not because he is a sinner, he is sinless and even he was like the unleavened bread and was put into the baker. And Jesus also went to the hell that is full of fire.

During Shavuot, the Israelites would get the firstfruits of the crops and offered them to God. They are olives and grapes. Then Jesus was revived and together with God again, he was the firstfruit and it is represented by Shavuot.

1 Corinthians 15:23,
But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

And Pentecost is the season of spring rain, also it is the first time of harvest.

Therefore, when the church of New Testament was born during Pentecost, Holy Spirit is dropped like the spring water and to soften people’s heart. It was the big harvest of souls.

Acts 2:17-18; 41

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

And during the Feast of trumpets, two priests would watch the moon. They would blow the trumpets immediately when there was a new moon. They did so to remind the Israelites that it is the Day of Atonement 10 days after. Because it is impossible for the priests to know the exact time of occurrence of the new moon, they only knew it would appear today or tomorrow. Therefore, in the New Testament, Jesus described the time he will come again as “No one knows about that day or hour”. That’s the proper noun of the Feast of Trumpets.

Mark 13:32
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

And on the Day of Atonement, the priest would bring the blood of the live offerings to God in the Most Holy Place. And they would proclaim the name of Jesus that only the priests knew and to look for forgiveness.

Therefore in Acts, Peter said the following:

Acts 2:21

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

Therefore, when we are in the age of New Testament, when we know the name of Jesus Christ, we can look for forgiveness by this name.

When we understand more why the Israelites celebrate the festivals to God, we will know more about what Jesus had done for us.

The Male Goat on the Day of Atonement

Among the Seven Festivals in Israel, God chose July 10, right after the Festival of Trumpets, as the Day of Atonement every year.

Once a year, the high priest enters the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement and asks for atonement for all the Israelites before the atonement cover of the ark.

Leviticus 16 29:34:

"This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work--whether native-born or an alien living among you- because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance. The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest is to make atonement. He is to put on the sacred linen garments and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the people of the community. "This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites." And it was done, as the LORD commanded Moses.

The ordinance of offerings on the Day of Atonement is: the high priest to prepare a young bull for himself and his household as a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering; as well as to prepare two male goats for the whole country, Israel.

Leviticus 16 :1-10:

The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the LORD. The LORD said to Moses: "Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. "This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He is to put on the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. "Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats--one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.

According to the sacrifice rituals, these two male goats are used to make atonement for all the Israelites. One of the male goats has to be slaughtered and offered to the Lord as a sin offering. For the other male goat that is alive, the high priest will lay his hands on the head of the goat to put all the sins of the Israelites onto it. Then, the male goat will be sent to the desert where nobody lives, and will be given to Azazel, which means Devil in the Desert.

Leviticus 16 :20-22: "When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites--all their sins--and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.

The scapegoat that is sent to the desert prophesies that there will be a group of believers who are not qualified to have salvation during the time of rapture in the end times and in the end, they will be left behind in the “desert.”